Dodger Talk

And... the dominoes start falling.

Honestly, though, we did fine when Kershaw was out a month. Other guys just need to step it up.

 

Well, the bargain bin probably won't find anyone legit. We have a couple of good strikeout guys with high K/BB ratios like Hatcher and Peralta. Although Peralta seems to give up a few too many home runs.

Howell might be used if last September doesn't mean he's gonna suck this year. And maaaaaaybe League if we have a runner on first and want a ground ball double play. Paco has been brilliant; maybe he'll get a chance now that he's healthy again.

Overall, we'll probably mostly work with matchups and hope Donny doesn't just use the same guy over and over who is flying with a 5.00 ERA.

 

Maybe. Baez, Coulombe, and Frias. Out of the three, I think Coulombe seems to have the most control. I'm still afraid of Baez giving up home runs, and Frias is like a Jekyll and Hyde to me.

Man this board is slow. Come on, peoples!! Pitchers and catchers report TODAY!!!!!!!!!!

 

LT downer here ..... what's the point if we can't effing see the games. The bleeps.


I'll pick it up as we get to the season but hard to even draw observations if I don't get to see the new guys perform out there regularly.

 

I gave cable the middle finger about 15 years ago. Just signed up for MLB.tv today and will use a VPN to avoid blackouts and watch all the games like last year. Feed drops out every now and then, but hey, it's better than nothing!

 

I can see why we didn't get Scherzer, and that's only because of his ridiculous 14 year deal from the Nationals. No player in history deserves a 14 year contract. I'm actually GLAD we didn't give him that. Imagine the dude gets hurt the first year, and you have to pay him all. those. 14. years. Omg, it'd feel like a curse! And even if he stays healthy, we'd still be paying him all 7 years after his contract is up. I'm not even sure how a contract like that is legal. Maybe we could have given him more money squished into just those 7 years? $30M+ per? Sign me up! But I guess no way he or anyone can turn down a 14 year deal. I know I wouldn't, so I can't blame him.

Also, Shields would have been nice, but he never proved he could pitch in the playoffs, plus his home is in San Diego, so why bother living 2 hours North when you might as well avoid traffic.

And yes, I absolutely love splashy moves as much as the next guy, but unfortunately, unless our payroll exceeds $400M, you can't really buy championships anymore. Yes, the Yankees did it for a long time in the 90's and 2000's, but only because their payroll usually tripled the league average. In 2008, it was around $200M vs $65M--so of course you're gonna win a lot of games by default. Nowadays, the gap has closed. 2/3rds of the league is spending over $100M. 7 teams are over $150M. Average salary is, what, $135M? Three times that is $405M if you want to wrangle yourself out of the pack.

At least we've shown that we're willing to push $300M or more for the right deals. Maybe next year when there are 6 or 7 front-line starting pitchers (David Price?!!) and 4 or 5 other mid-to-late rotation starters on the market, we'll start seeing some serious money thrown.

 

What is this VPN you speak of?

 

Well, there are a bunch out there, but last season I used privateinternetaccess.com. After you subscribe and install the software, you can select which country or region you want your IP address to come from. Sometimes some countries don't work, and sometimes they do. Other times I have to resort to a specific US State and hope the Dodgers aren't playing in that particular time zone.

MLB.tv + VPN = about $170 for the season; I'll take that in a heartbeat!

 

Jansen hurt, will miss up to a month.

Ryu back soreness, but will be okay.

Peralta shoulder soreness, will probably start season on DL. Strange since he's been very durable, and he decided to skip Winter Ball so he could be healthy for us. Perhaps he should have kept doing what he was doing. At 39, I'm not sure there's much hope for him, unfortunately.

 

Everyone seems to be looking good, except League and Frias, and some other no-namers. Anderson looked great; could be a dark horse here along with Alex Guerrero surprisingly doing ok at 3B.

Grandal can hit but still can't catch. Le sigh. At least he threw out a runner.

This might be Puig's year. I'm feeling it.

 

Well so much for Guerrero looking ok at 3B after that error yesterday. Le sigh. Hide his defense in Left, just like what the Red Sox are doing with Hanley!

 

EL DOYERS!!!

What do y'all think of Spring Training so far? Looks like Puig and Gonzo are sleepwalking, just waiting for the season to begin already.

Pederson has looked very impressive and will probably start most games at CF. Only challenge left is to be able to hit (or walk) against the better pitchers of the league come opening day. A lot of the younger guys have impressed, too, but eh, we'll see if anyone outside Seager and Urias can put up big numbers in AAA.

Impressed with the "hit parade" innings and the grind-it-out at-bats, much like what the Cardinals have been doing to to compete. We'll be fine offensively; just hope our pitchers are healthy and stay competitive. I'm a bit worried about McCarthy, though; could be a mistake signing if he doesn't fix his mechanics soon.

As far as the bullpen goes, if Paco and Liberatore are our best pieces outside of Jansen and Howell, then why not just keep them for the season? Doesn't matter if we have three lefties, as long as they all can pitch.

 

Kershaw got hit in the jaw with a comebacker yesterday and stayed in the game. Lucky thing is it wasn't a screamer...... off broken bat instead