You can’t have a slow burn without an ignition
The Houston Astro cheating scandal probably cheated Dodger fans and their players of the 2017 World Championship which would be a big deal for any team but especially for the Dodger fans and organization. The fans haven’t celebrated a World Championship since 1988. Clayton Kershaw deserves better, his legacy deserves better. I get it. I understand the frustration. I’ve been here for the whole 32 years. Every game, every postseason heartbreak.
I had been hesitate to say anything when the news broke because I wasn’t sure the Dodgers hadn’t also been cheating. In the beginning, there was little Dodger comment and that felt weird for me until we learned that MLB had specifically asked the Dodgers not to comment on the scandal.
I will admit to being confused by my lack of caring about it. I talked with Dodger Twitter and they were quite upset and some couldn’t understand why I wasn’t. As I said before I simply felt it was premature to be angry when we might find out the Dodgers had tried to cheat as well. The Dodgers try to win on the margins, pushing all rules to the limits so it seemed they might have tried to push these rules to the limits.
As time has passed, many prominent Dodgers, ones who I trust have spoken out, and have made it clear they were not cheating. I expected to start a slow burn but there was simply no ignition.
Houston issued horrible apologies, basically saying they didn’t know they were cheating. Very annoying, but still no ignition.
When Dodgers President Andrew Friedman recently spoke about how dismayed he was that Houston never even apologized, it once again proved how small the Houston Astro organization was but still no ignition.
At this point, I don’t think I’ll ever have the emotional reaction that you’d expect from this situation. It isn’t like I don’t have a volatile temper. Or maybe I should say, it isn’t like I didn’t have a volatile temper. I used to get upset over the silliest things.
Houston players and fans have to live with the fact they needed to cheat to win a Championship. Dodger fans have to live with the fact they will never be recompensed for their emotional loss of 2017. Will I boo Houston players who were part of the scandal? you bet. But that is about all I can emotionally conjure up for this. I don’t need this to eat me up inside, not with everything else happening around us.
This is but a game we love, and it simply isn’t that important when our world is decaying faster than dead fish in the sun.
In a year, we may not have the world we took for granted. Our Democracy and way of life will be voted on in ten months, and there is no guarantee that we will even have fair voting, or that the votes will matter if the wannabe Dictator doesn’t want to leave. In a normal admin, if he loses the vote, he leaves, but nothing about the admin has been normal and since prison for him and his family is in the future if he leaves the presidency I can’t see him letting go without trying to turn our country against each other. We have already seen how far his enablers will go and that is where almost all of my thoughts are on right now.
I’m still going to be the Dodger fan, the Clipper fan, but with my eye on November, I know, it is just killing time until I find out which direction our republic tilts.
We can change the future, but we can’t change the past, and if this weekend taught us anything, it should be to live in the present and not dwell on the past.
8 & 24
For many in Los Angeles the feelings for Kobe Bryant held no complications, he was for them, the King of Los Angeles, the man who brought them numerous Laker titles and unleashed the Black Mamba mentality on the NBA. For some of us though, we were all about the eight and very little about the 24, we will always have mixed feelings toward the greatest Laker to ever wear the Purple and Gold.
Whatever feeling you had toward Kobe Bryant the news of his death via the helicopter crash yesterday was still a gut punch. The news took me back to the day I found out that Roberto Clemente had died in a plane crash way back in 1972. Kobe was 41, Clemente was 38 and was possibly the most recognized figure in baseball because of his one year removed MVP World Series explosion in 1971. Until yesterday, the death of Clemente was what I would think of when a sports figure died suddenly.
Upon learning the news from my wife just a few minutes after the crash, I pondered the irony that the Helicopter that cut his commute to Staples for all those years had now cut short his life. I also thought of the recent meme I had seen with him and his daughter at a Laker game. How at peace he looked while with his daughter. A few minutes later we all found out that his daughter Gianna had also perished with him. The gut-punch took on a completely different feeling. Twitter didn’t help, photo after photo was posted of Kobe and Gianna. We had watched her grow from an adorable baby to the basketball prodigy of the family.
It was too much.
As a season ticket fan since the day that Magic had retired, the Lakers had been fun to watch but there hadn’t been one season where they were real competitors for the championship. That all changed on draft day in 1996 when the Lakers against long odds were able to secure a draft day deal for the 17-year-old Kobe Bryant. Moving the salary of Divac for Kobe allowed Jerry West to sign Shaq a few days later and the rest is Laker history.
For me, as a fan, it was just the beginning. I fell quickly in love with the kid but like many fans, it was crazy to watch Kobe firing up airballs in the postseason that year while Nick Van Excel looked on. We all know championships didn’t flow to the Lakers just because they had Shaq. It took a few years before Kobe was able to uphold his side of the bargain and the Forum never got a Shaq/Kobe Championship before Shaq/Kobe took their game to Staples. Kobe would win a handful of World Championships at Staples but the first is always the sweetest and that was ever so true in 2000.
Since 2000 I’ve always had an easy answer to the question “what was the best moment in sports you ever saw”. The Lakers and Portland were tied at 3 games apiece in the NBA Western Finals in 2000. Back then as a Season Ticket holder, you had first priority to buy postseason tickets besides your own seats so I had brought two in the 300 section. The boonies if you well. I sold my good seats and took my niece to the game who had just come back from military service. This article describes this game and this moment is the moment I’ll never forget.
Kobe drives the lane as Shaq drifts towards the basket while signaling for a lob. The alley oop goes up. O’Neal stuffs it down one-handed, then races upcourt, mouth agape, two index fingers out in salute of everyone in his sight line.
The Lakers had been down by 16 heading into the 4th quarter. That play capped an incredible comeback and even from the boonies, you could see the emotion from Shaq after the ally oop dunk. Our section had been standing the whole game but was going absolutely nuts during the comeback. We no longer had seats, our whole section was just one big leaping/hugging/dancing party of 100’s. The Lakers weren’t champions when we left Staples but I’ve never left a sporting event feeling higher than I did that day. I figuratively floated the rest of the day.
That was the highlight of my Kobe fandoms. Incorrectly or not, I blamed Kobe for Shaq leaving, and the player who I had once idolized as a basketball player, was no longer the guy for me. As I became more and more of a Clipper fan, I became less and less of a Kobe fan. When Kobe wore eight it was fun to watch him grow into one of the Lakers greats, for some reason for me as he switched to 24 and became arguably the greatest Laker of all-time I simply wasn’t able to enjoy his style of game.
It has been easy to notice that among all the platitudes being heaved Kobe’s way almost everyone has ignored the Kobe Elephant in the room. The Rape allegations. That sealed the deal for my wife and she hasn’t been to a Laker game since 2003. That may not sound like a big deal but she went to 20 games a year from 1990 – 2003. It was a big deal that she felt Kobe was guilty enough that she stopped supporting the Lakers as long as he was on the team. This was the start of our journey from lifelong avid Laker fans to avid Clipper fans. I never hated on the Lakers, I simply didn’t root for them anymore when they played the Clippers. It was a strange journey and Kobe was the centerpiece for the change.
It was a testament to Kobe’s ownership of Los Angeles that he survived the rape allegations. There were a few like us, who stopped rooting for him, but for the most part, his reputation stayed intact and flourished as more World Championships came his way once Pau Gasol joined the team. You could easily say that by the time Kobe retired he was considered the greatest Laker ever and that is quite a statement when you have Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and Shaq to contend with for that honor. In retirement from all accounts, Kobe seemed at peace with being a father and making his family the centerpiece of his retirement.
Depending on how you define crying, I didn’t cry yesterday at the news, but my eyes were full of tears all day and night. So was my wife’s. This complexity of emotion is disturbing to me and I’ve never quite come to grips with how we deal with our heroes who are made of clay. I’m still not over Bill Cosby being a serial rapist while all the while making me laugh for 50 years. You can’t say Kobe got away with rape because of who he was, not when normal people get away with rape every day. The struggle continues to this day to make men accountable after they hear “No”. This was never more clear when you look at our Supreme Court and see not one but two men who decide our highest laws who didn’t take “no” for an answer.
In a few days, Los Angeles will hold one of the largest funerals in my lifetime. It will be for a man who owned this city, but while we celebrate everything he did for this city, it wouldn’t hurt to also continue or maybe even open up the dialogue about why that transgression didn’t alter his ascension into being the King of Los Angeles.
It is a sad irony that the Helicopter he used to cut his commute so he could expand his quality family time is the reason why his family time was eventually cut short forever.
The story behind why Kobe flew in a private helicopters in LA 💔 pic.twitter.com/0jeB9qCpHd
— Tequila Taze (@TazerBlack) January 27, 2020
I never thought I’d live to see this on Basketball-Reference. Kobe didn’t survive Jerry West or Elgin Baylor. Both in the eighties. Inconceivable.
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bean Bryant ▪ Twitter: kobebryant
(Black Mamba, KB24, Vino, Showboat, Little Flying Warrior)
Position: Small Forward and Shooting Guard ▪ Shoots: Right
6-6, 212lb (198cm, 96kg)
Born: August 23, 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania us
Died: January 26, 2020 (Aged 41-156d)
All the young dudes
The 2020 Zips projections are out and as suspected the Dodgers have a bevy of talent fighting for five rotation spots. With Ryu gone the rotation isn’t ideal but it is basically the same type of rotation that they have taken into every season since Friedman became President with the difference this year is that three of the four pitchers vying for the final two rotation spots are young starters instead of the usual one or none.
It took a long time for the one-time teenage phenom Urias to finally claim a full-time rotation piece, but his time his now, and it is very possible that by the end of the year, Urias will be the best lefthander in the Dodger rotation. The Dodgers have been tied to the Indians and Mike Clevinger, but they could have their own Mike Clevinger in Dustin May. I wouldn’t be averse to trading the future of May for the now of Clevinger, but I also wouldn’t mind simply seeing what Dustin May can do as a Dodger. Ross Stripling will pitch well when asked to start. He always does, I don’t expect that to change. I don’t know what to make of Tony Gonsolin.
Sure, the Dodgers could use another rotation piece, and I expect with almost 100% certainty that another name will get added to the group vying for the final two spots, but it probably won’t be a name that gets Dodger fans excited. It might simply be Rich Hill, or it might be Rich Hill and another reclamation project. Or, somehow Clevinger is wearing Dodger Blue but that will probably happen this summer instead of this winter.
If we take a look at the 2018 projections we can see the Dodger projected rotation was going to be Clayton Kershaw, Kenta Maeda, Alex Wood, Rich Hill with Trevor Oaks, Walker Buehler, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Wilmer Font, Ross Stripling, and Brock Stewart pulling in starts. You could understand the confusion over what Ryu would do after missing all of 2016. Ryu didn’t pitch a lot in 2018 but when he pitched, he was one of the best pitchers in baseball. Ross Stripling was an all-star in 2018, but according to Zips was going to be the worse possible option in 2018. Walker Buehler became the everyday ace of the Dodgers.
The 2018 Dodger team went to the World Series and lost game 7 against a team that cheated and the rotation on Dec, 29th, 2017 was supposed to be Kershaw / Hill / Maeda / Wood with eventual help from Buehler. Ross Stripling was an afterthought just as he seems to be in 2020. How different is that from the projected 2020 rotation right now?
Also, notice the big whiffs on Trevor Oaks and Wilmer Font. Both were traded away before making any starts for the Dodgers, and both didn’t come close to being effective in 2018.
| 2018 Zips Projections sorted by ERA- |
| Player | IP | ERA | FIP | ERA- | 2018 IP | 2018 ERA- |
| Clayton Kershaw | 179 | 2.46 | 2.55 | 59 | 161 | 71 |
| Rich Hill | 115.7 | 3.5 | 3.74 | 84 | 131 | 96 |
| Kenta Maeda | 150.7 | 3.52 | 3.52 | 85 | 107 | 100 |
| Alex Wood | 144.3 | 3.62 | 3.68 | 87 | 148 | 95 |
| Walker Buehler | 93.7 | 3.84 | 3.8 | 93 | 136 | 60 |
| Wilmer Font | 126.3 | 3.92 | 3.93 | 95 | No LAD Starts | No LAD Starts |
| Trevor Oaks | 141 | 4.09 | 4.16 | 99 | No LAD Starts | No LAD Starts |
| Hyun-Jin Ryu | 112.7 | 4.15 | 4.24 | 100 | 82 | 51 |
| Ross Stripling | 89.7 | 4.32 | 4.22 | 104 | 106 | 88 |
The Zips 2020 projections for the Dodger rotation are actually optimistic. Every pitcher expected to be part of the rotation is expected to be above average except for Tony Gonsolin.
| Player | T | Age | K/9 | BB/9 | ERA+ | ERA- |
| Clayton Kershaw | L | 32 | 9.5 | 1.7 | 128 | 78 |
| Walker Buehler | R | 25 | 10.8 | 2.2 | 127 | 79 |
| Kenta Maeda | R | 32 | 10.1 | 2.9 | 106 | 94 |
| Dustin May | R | 22 | 8.2 | 2.3 | 102 | 98 |
| Rich Hill | L | 40 | 10.6 | 2.9 | 116 | 87 |
| Ross Stripling | R | 30 | 9 | 2.1 | 107 | 93 |
| Julio Urias | L | 23 | 10.2 | 3.5 | 106 | 94 |
| Mitchell White | R | 25 | 8.7 | 3.4 | 92 | 109 |
| Josiah Gray | R | 22 | 7.5 | 2.6 | 84 | 119 |
| Dennis Santana | R | 24 | 9.5 | 4.4 | 85 | 117 |
| Tony Gonsolin | R | 26 | 8.7 | 4 | 85 | 118 |
| Leo Crawford | L | 23 | 7.5 | 3.1 | 82 | 122 |
| Edwin Uceta | R | 22 | 8.6 | 4.2 | 78 | 127 |
For what it is worth this is what I think. The Dodgers have plenty of arms for 2020, they have plenty of arms to make a trade now, or during the summer but I’d much rather watch one of Urias/May turn into the next Dodger paragraph or at least a “Moment in the Sun” in the updated version of Jon Weisman’s Brother in Arms. If I’m a betting man, I’d be betting on Julio Urias to be that pitcher.
One final note. Josiah Gray is going to eat these projections.
Hard to beat what the Dodger rotation has done since 2016 but what of 2020?
Below is the list of pitchers since 2016 with at least 50 starts and an ERA+ greater than 130. Dodgers have almost a full rotation on this list even though only fifteen pitchers made the cut. Kershaw hasn’t won a CYA since 2014 but still has the highest ERA+ of anyone on the list. Ryu is the second Dodger on this list, but he just signed with Toronto, the first Dodger free agent I fully expected the Dodgers to re-sign. The cost was high, but he has been one of the best pitchers in baseball for the last two years. Those not familiar with the Dodgers might be surprised to find that on a per-game basis, Rich Hill has been better than Gerrit Cole at suppressing runs while on the mound. Walker Buehler barely made the cut but he did.
Player WAR GS ERA+ From To Age Clayton Kershaw 17.4 102 164 2016 2019 28-31 Max Scherzer 28.0 125 160 2016 2019 31-34 Corey Kluber 19.4 101 153 2016 2019 30-33 Justin Verlander 27.5 135 151 2016 2019 33-36 Jacob deGrom 24.4 119 151 2016 2019 28-31 Hyun-Jin Ryu 8.3 69 145 2016 2019 29-32 Kyle Hendricks 16.2 117 142 2016 2019 26-29 Mike Clevinger 12.7 84 141 2016 2019 25-28 Chris Sale 20.1 116 140 2016 2019 27-30 Stephen Strasburg 18.7 107 136 2016 2019 27-30 Mike Minor 14.4 60 136 2017 2019 29-31 Rich Hill 9.1 82 135 2016 2019 36-39 Zack Greinke 17.7 124 133 2016 2019 32-35 Gerrit Cole 16.3 119 130 2016 2019 25-28 Walker Buehler 5.3 53 130 2017 2019 22-24
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/27/2019.
Headed into 2020 the Dodgers have currently lost two of those four pitchers. Ryu is definitely gone. Rich Hill is still unsigned but even if he signs he won’t be pitching until the middle of summer.
Even with those two gone, the rotation still has plenty of names:
Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Kenta Maeda, Dustin May, Julio Urias, Ross Stripling, Tony Gonsolin are the names left in the hat. As I said, I expected the Dodgers to sign Ryu but with Ryu gone, the Dodgers could use more names in that hat.
I don’t want to trade May or Urias to get another name in that hat unless that name is Mike Clevinger. There are other free agents, pitchers who were injured in 2019 who had prior success.
Dustin Nosler thinks Jeff Nelson should be a target.
Wrote about Jimmy Nelson and why he might be a really good signing for the #Dodgers. https://t.co/9DjZTUmteo @DodgersDigest
— Dustin Nosler (@DustinNosler) December 27, 2019
Nelson has No. 2-type stuff and has the requisite spin rates on his fastball and curveball the Dodgers like. He’s going to be cheap and could help alleviate some of the concerns in the rotation.
I agree with Dustin on Jimmy Nelson. There are other free-agent targets like Nelson but none with his upside.
Aaron Sanchez, Taijuan Walker, and old friend Alex Wood are intriguing to me. I’ve also always liked Danny Salazar. Paul Sporer of Fangraphs took a look at three of these names.
Maybe Nick Dika of Fangraphs was a year too early on Aaron Sanchez when he predicted he would be a top 30 pitcher in 2019. He was dead on about Cody Bellinger being the 2019 MVP back in March.
Sanchez’ last two seasons have been completely derailed by finger injuries, managing to log only 141 underwhelming big league innings since 2016. Between blister issues and a freak finger injury in 2017, Sanchez’ right hand hasn’t been fully healthy in two seasons. The last time it was, Sanchez won the American League ERA title. Sanchez’ fastball, curveball and changeup all graded out favorably by Pitch Values in 2016 and with healthy fingers, he should be able to tweak his pitch mix and utilize them effectively once again in 2019.
Oh, did I mention Homer Bailey? Probably not, but the funny side of me would love it if they signed Homer after releasing him and paying him $22 Million to not pitch for them in 2019 while watching him put him exactly league average work as a starter for the Royals and A’s. Homer was shockingly the 50th ranked FA by Fangraphs. The Dodgers still owe him $5 Million in 2020. Good thing they got Jeter Downs and Josiah Gray in that deal. That walk rate while with the A’s was 1.8, the best of his career.
None of these will be necessary if the Dodgers pull off a deal for an established starter. They are still being linked to Mike Clevinger which would be quite a coup to pull him from the Indians, and David Price which would be interesting only if Mookie Betts comes along with him. I haven’t seen any other rumors involving a trade for a starting pitcher from another team.
It would not surprise me if the Dodgers try a few low-cost free agents and head into the season to see how May/Urias/Gonsolin/Stripling handle the rotation along with the free agents. As usual, they can fill the hole in the rotation if there is one with a trade before the deadline.
Oh, and by August Josiah Gray will probably be ready to show us what he can do.
Saying good-bye to another old friend
I always expected Ryu to resign with the Dodgers so the news that Ryu signed with Toronto was a big surprise for me and it means that for the second year in a row one of my favorite Dodgers will not be wearing the Dodger blue as we head into the next season.
I don’t know if the Dodgers did the right thing or not, for all the words being written about the Dodgers being cheap we simply won’t know until time tells us the answer. Four years is a long time for a 33 to 36-year-old pitcher with his health history, but I do know that I’m going to miss Ryu.
TrueBlueLA used to do a thing called your favorite five Dodgers. It was always interesting to see the results of this informal poll because most of the time it wasn’t the five best Dodgers, for whatever reason, it was the personal connection that these players had made with the fans.
I expect that headed into the winter of 2018, Yasiel Puig would have been on many a Dodger fans list of Favorite Five, and that Ryu would have been on the same list headed into Oct 2019.
Both Puig and Ryu started their Dodger careers in 2013, and in baseball terms, they had a long run for the same team but I wasn’t really ready to say good-bye to either player. The Dodgers moved Puig and shed some salary while collecting some solid future assets in Jeter Downs and Josiah Gray. Ryu was simply allowed to leave after almost winning the CYA in 2019. He signed for 4/80 for a team that I would not have expected him to sign for. The BlueJays are probably the 3rd or 4th best team in the AL East but they do have the sons of two HOF, along with a Bichette so they will be a fun team to watch and root for.
We all know that Ryu had an up and down Dodger career with his health always defining how effective he was going to be but no one expected him to be one of the best pitchers in baseball in 2019 and do it while throwing 182 innings. When he wasn’t one of the best pitchers in baseball, Ryu was always fun to watch as a Dodger.
This will always be 1 of my favorite things https://t.co/7019WCKSAy
— Joe Davis (@Joe_Davis) December 23, 2019
As far as Ryu and his Dodger legacy go, for pitchers with at least 500 IP, Ryu put up the 6th best ERA+ in Los Angeles Dodger history. That is quite the accomplishment when you consider the number of great pitchers who have pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Player ERA+ IP From To Age GS FIP Clayton Kershaw 157 2274.2 2008 2019 20-31 344 2.74 Zack Greinke 156 602.2 2013 2015 29-31 92 2.97 Kevin Brown 147 872.2 1999 2003 34-38 129 3.16 Sandy Koufax 135 2119.2 1958 1966 22-30 286 2.57 Andy Messersmith 129 926.0 1973 1979 27-33 123 3.34 Hyun-Jin Ryu 129 740.1 2013 2019 26-32 125 3.32 Derek Lowe 120 850.1 2005 2008 32-35 135 3.77
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/23/2019.
Higher career LAD ERA+ than notable pitchers such as Don Drysdale, Orel Hershiser, Don Sutton, Bob Welch, Jerry Reuss, Burt Hooton, Bill Singer, Tommy John, Ismael Valdez, Hideo Nomo, and Hiroki Kuroda.
Pivoting to Betts is the right move
In the beginning, the clamoring crowds wanted Gerrit Cole, but he said no to the most expensive contract the Dodgers have ever offered a free agent and went to the NYY. Then, it was Rendon, but the Dodgers never even offered him a contract after he let the front office know that he and his family wanted no part of the “Hollywood Lifestyle” that permeates the Dodger culture. Instead, Rendon signed with the Angels who just last year lost a player who overdosed on drugs so you can understand why Dodger fans were a bit confused by his comment. Since the Rendon signing, the smooth fielding Franciso Lindor has been on the Dodger radar but the news today is that the Dodgers might be moving on from Lindor and pivoting toward Mookie Betts.
This is a pivot I have been asking for all along.
If you have any belief in Zips, it seems to me the LAD should be targeting Betts/Price not Lindor. Using the Zips projections, the worst everyday player is Alex Verdugo and he happens to play the exact same position as Betts. You keep Lux and May, you land the 2020 NL MVP. Win
— Phil Gurnee (@meercatjohn) December 17, 2019
The backstory on why the 2018 AL MVP is available is that the Red Sox are in cost-cutting mode, and Mookie is headed into his final season before becoming a free agent. Normally the price for Mookie would be pretty high, but the kicker here is that if the Red Sox attach David Price to the deal, the cost in prospects will go down, while the Dodger payroll goes significantly up.
Price is still due $96 Million over the next three years and he’s a far cry from the guy who signed his 7/217 deal back in 2016 when he was 30 years old. Fangraphs posted an article talking about the value of David Price and as you can see he’s an albatross for the Red Sox right now.
If we assume Price’s value is around $30 million, it creates a $60 million gap between his value and his contract.
I’d expect the Red Sox to throw in some money in any deal, and the Dodgers to throw in some players and prospects to make it worthwhile. The Red Sox are in a tough spot. They were barely mediocre last year, the Yankee’s just signed Cole, and Tampa Bay is probably still a better team. The chances of them making the postseason aren’t good for 2020. In a perfect world, the Red Sox unload Price and sign Mookie to an extension but I don’t see that happening. Price is simply too pricey and to move that contract they have to attach a player so they might as well attach the guy who is going to be a free agent at the end of next year.
Before we look at how the Dodgers can acquire Betts and Price how about we look at the team. Dan Szymborski’s ZiPS projection is out and the first thing you might notice is that the lowest fWAR is in right field, a spot currently allocated to Alex Verdugo even though it sounds like his back injury was much more serious than we thought. Mookie Betts is arguably the best right fielder in baseball. In 2018 Yelich won the NL MVP and Mookie the AL MVP as right fielders. Cody Bellinger won his 2019 MVP playing most of the time as a RF where he won his gold glove. You don’t want the worst player on your team to be your right fielder.
So, how about a lineup of:
Mookie Betts
Justin Turner
Cody Bellinger
Max Muncy
Corey Seager
Joc Pederson / Chris Taylor
Gavin Lux
Will Smith
You don’t see AJ Pollock in this lineup for a reason. The rotation now features
Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, David Price, Kenta Maeda, Julio Urias or Dustin May
How can we make this happen?
Kevin Klein has his thoughts on it, including a nice history regarding Price and Andrew Friedman.
Who the Dodgers would send out is the question, but I think it starts with D.J. Peters, Josiah Gray, and Jeter Downs along with some major league talent like potentially A.J. Pollock and Ross Stripling.
My guess is that AJ Pollock has to be going back to help mitigate the contract of David Price. Ross Stripling to replace David Price in the rotation. Some prospects from a pool of DJ Peters, Edwin Rios, Mitch White, Dennis Santana, Leo Crawford, and Zach McKinstry. Not sure how much money would be coming back to the Dodgers if the Red Sox take Pollock. I’m flying blind.
Yeah, the payroll balloons in 2020 but you fill two needs in 2020, you now have two possible MVP candidates in Bellinger and Betts, one hits left-handed, one hits right-handed, and you didn’t have to deal any of Lux/May/Ruiz/Gonsolin/J Downs/Gray. It isn’t a big haul for Boston, but given the contract of Price, it shouldn’t be. This gives the Red Sox some major flexibility next offseason just as it did back in 2012 when the Dodgers loaded up on Red Sox bad contracts. That didn’t work out for the Dodgers as it was the Red Sox who ended up using that deal to springboard to a World Championship in 2013.
I just want Mookie Betts playing RF for the Dodgers in 2020. If things work out, they can take that money they were willing to play Cole, and give it to Betts after 2020.
I should probably mention that Mookie Betts is my favorite player in baseball. The last time my favorite player in baseball was traded to the Dodgers was back in 1974 when Jimmy Wynn helped lead the young 1974 team to the World Series. Mookie Betts is not Jimmy Wynn. He’s much younger, and much better. He’s what we thought Matt Kemp was going to be.
Rendon or bust?
Well, the Dodgers didn’t get Cole. They now have to figure out a way to take a 106 win regular-season team, that took the eventual World Champions to extra innings in the deciding 5th game, and did so despite one of the worst postseason managing decisions in LAD history to win a few extra games in October.
Oh such a task
How do you take a team that has a projected infield of Max Muncy, Gavin Lux, Corey Seager, Justin Turner and make that infield better?
How do you take a team that has a projected outfield of Alex Verdugo / MVP Bellinger / Joc Pederson_AJ Pollock and make that outfield better?
How do you take a team that has a projected bench of Chris Taylor, Hernandez, Beaty, Barnes and make it better?
How do you take a rotation of Buehler / Kershaw / Kenta / Urias / May / Stripling / Gonsolin and make it better?
How do you take a bullpen of Jansen / Kelly / Baez / Ferguson / Kolarek and make it better?
Seems pretty clear to me that of the above options, the best deal the Dodgers have going right now is the infield. They could really use another starter to replace Ryu, at least two bullpen pieces and I don’t think anything else.
But
Anthony Rendon is a free agent, and Justin Turner has said he’d switch positions, so improving the infield is what Dodger Twitter wants us to do.
Yesterday I said the Dodgers needed to be “all-in” on Gerrit Cole.
Well, they weren’t.
Now, it’s time to shift the attention towards someone else, and really be “all-in” on Anthony Rendon.
— Blake Harris (@BlakeHarrisTBLA) December 11, 2019
Announce Rendon today, @Dodgers. Please.
— Dustin Nosler (@DustinNosler) December 11, 2019
The moving chess pieces are easy in the beginning. You simply insert Rendon at 3rd base, move Turner to 1st base. The next step isn’t so easy.
- Do you put the Minor League Player of the Year in Gavin Lux back in AAA and move Muncy to 2nd base for 2020? That doesn’t seem ideal. And while in AAA is he learning how to become an outfielder?
- Do you trade Corey Seager and move Lux to Shortstop? Maybe, but you’d be hard-pressed to convince me that an infield of Turner/Muncy/Lux/Rendon is better than an infield of Muncy/Lux/Seager/Rendon.
- Do you trade Joc Pederson and install Gavin Lux as your everyday Left-Fielder? I can live with that. Not every infielder can become an elite outfielder, but maybe Lux can, and he can go back to being a SS either in 2021 or 2022.
As you might realize by now I’m not really a fan of any of those options but when you look at the possible infield timeline:
2020 1st Muncy / 2nd Lux / SS Seager / 3rd Turner
2021 1st Muncy / ??? / SS Lux / 3rd Seager
2022 1st Muncy / ??? /SS Lux / ???
You can see why adding Rendon now makes perfect sense even if it causes all sorts of Dodger dominos to fall in the current season because when the timeline changes to this:
2020 1st Turner / 2nd Muncy / SS Seager / 3rd Rendon
2021 1st Muncy / 2nd Lux / SS Seager / 3rd Rendon
2022 1st Muncy / ??? / SS Lux / 3rd Rendon
You only have one hole to fill and that hole is only if you don’t resign Corey Seager.
So yeah, I’m all in on Anthony Rendon even though the bullpen and rotation still need some work.
Cole Whiners
Last night the Dodgers missed out on Gerrit Cole when the front office refused to give Cole the largest pitching contract in baseball history and Dodger Twitter exploded in indignation as they watched their perceived best chance at winning a World Championship go down the drain.
Not that Gerrit Cole won a World Championship with Houston. Even as his teammates tried their best to trash can themselves to the Championship, they came up short. I understand that Cole is “currently” the best pitcher in baseball, but baseball is about the future and the odds are good that Gerrit Cole just had his best season at exactly the right time.
Much like CC Sabathia had his best season at age 27 just before hitting free agency and being signed by the Yankees to his historic deal in the winter of 2008, Gerrit Cole has cashed in. Sabathia had some great seasons early on for the Yankees but just four years into the contract he became a below-average pitcher putting up a 95 ERA+ from 2013 – 2017. During that final four year run CC was paid $98 Million and hampered the Yankee’s ability to compete.
But
The Yankees did win a World Championship in the very first year of CC’s contract and maybe that is all it takes to justify the contract.
The World Championship.
That is after all the holy grail.
Clipper Staples is for everyone
Expectations were huge on Wednesday night as the Clippers finally had the dynamite duo of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard playing together for the first time. Even though both players would be playing limited minutes it would be the first time fans of the Clippers and basketball fans around the world would see what got the NBA world buzzing this past summer. Besides the unveiling of the dynamic duo, the Clippers were playing the Boston Celtics who came into the game with the best record in the Eastern Conference.
As a Clipper fan, one of the things I’ve taken for granted is that when the Clippers host a team with a large following such as the Lakers, Bulls, Knicks, and Celtics the game will be filled with at least 50% of the visiting team fans and Wednesday Night was no different as Staples was filled with Celtic Green.
This can be deflating for Clipper fans but it has a silver lining in going to a Clipper / Celtic game at Staples. It becomes an experience I wish all fans could enjoy because it is so different than the norm. When each play results in cheers a fan rivalry grows as each base wants to show who can be loudest. At an NBA game, the fans cheer throughout the first three quarters but those cheers are muted compared to what will happen in the 4th if the game is closely contested. Last night the game went into overtime and was eventually decided on the last play when Kawhi blocked what could have been the tying three-point shot from the corner. The final ten minutes of the game were played in front of a standing crowd with each team’s fans either cheering or groaning with each play.
At one point last night the Celtics were up by 10 points late in the 4th quarter. Their fans were going crazy with good reason, their team had made all the good plays while the Clippers couldn’t hit shots and were sloppy with the basketball. Kawhi didn’t look anything like an NBA Finals MVP but Jason Tatum sure did firing in threes from all over the court. And just like that, the game turned but it was the Clippers heart (Lou Williams) and soul (Pat Beverly) who led the comeback not the vaunted duo of Kawhi/George. The Celtics were 8 – 0 with at least a 10 point lead in the 4th quarter so far in 2019 but by the end of the game, they were 8 – 1 as Pat Beverly grabbed rebound after rebound and hit three key three-point shots in overtime. Sweet Lou was why they got to overtime, scoring 13 points in the 4th quarter.
Only three guards in 2019 had grabbed at least 15 rebounds in a game and Pat Beverly is one of them. He was also the only one of the three to win the game.
Player Pos Date MP ORB DRB TRB GmSc Russell Westbrook G 2019-10-24 L 33 4 12 16 23.1 Patrick Beverley G 2019-11-20 W 41 4 12 16 20.4 Josh Hart G 2019-11-02 L 30 3 12 15 14.0
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/22/2019.
The Celtic fans who had been loud and crazy for all 53 minutes left Staples with a loss but they got their money’s worth. Their team didn’t win but for these fans who are 3,111 miles away from their hometown they had plenty to cheer about, and as we all ambled out of Staples, all I heard from the Celtic Green fans was mad respect for Pat Beverly.
Staples is a strange environment for Clipper fans as they have to share it with the visiting team fans but it is an environment that I’m finally becoming at peace with, as I realized Wed Night how much I enjoy the back and forth cheering that happens at Clipper games.
There is room for everyone.
Clippers just might live up to the hype
- Possibly the most annoying player in the NBA on your team in Pat Beverly. The player you love to hate, unless he’s on your team, in which case he’s the player you love the most.
- Possibly the best postseason player in the NBA on your team in Kawhi who just might be in his prime.The best 6th man in Lou Williams who someday might see the 6th man award actually named after him. If you thought he might slow down you didn’t watch the first two games of the year.
- If there is one player who can wrest the 6th man award away from Lou Williams it might be his teammate Montrezl Harrell.
- The best 8th man in Mo Harkless.
- The best 9th man in JaMychal Green
- Are you getting the gist of this? The Clipper 2nd team will outscore the starting five of not only the Clippers but of most teams they play this season. When a game starts the Clippers starting five simply need to keep the game even because the 2nd unit will do the damage.
- The Best Laker center in Zubak. The gift that keeps on giving was on full display last night against the Warriors. They only thing keeping him from a more dominating performance was that you can only keep Montrezl Harrell on the bench for so long.
- The best player not yet playing in the NBA, Paul George. Every time the Clippers win, no one can use their own injured players as an excuse. The Lakers tried using the Kuzma line but were laughed out of the internet sphere. The Warriors didn’t even try using Klay being out because they knew Paul George was wearing a suit on the Clipper bench.
- We haven’t had to see what happens in a close 4th quarter. Last year it was Lou Williams who was one of the top scorers in the 4th quarter. This year the options could be anyone on the floor in the final two minutes. Lou Williams. Kawhi Leonard. Paul George. Montrezl Harrell if they over cover on any of those three will simply bull his way to the rim. I can’t wait to see a close game to see how it gets closed.
- Jerry West may not be making all the decisions in the Clipper front office, and he doesn’t need to because Ballmer has built the best front office in basketball where Jerry West simply needs to give his advice.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 