Dodger Talk

I doubt Hamels happens at this point... It's almost like when we hear a deal with the Lakers is being discussed then it doesn't happen. We've been leading the train for years now and I expect the train to go elsewhere honestly.

I'd love Price, but I feel like Detroit will back out of trade talks on him. Cueto would have been great. Shields is a good fall back that I think SHOULD happen. Shields is pitching decently except for his high walk/homerun totals. He's got a sky high strikeout rate. It's similar to what Kershaw looked like earlier this year and what Greinke looked like last year.

We also need a little more bullpen help. I know Jansen isn't perfect, but I'm fine with him. Howell I'm okay with, but not necessarily confident... Anyone else? No confidence in them at all.

We need pitching desperately at this point. I'll take anything we can get.

 

Mat Latos and Michael Morse from Miami to LA PLUS comp pick #34 for what appears to be 3 minor league pitchers yet to be named.

Latos is 27 years old already in his 7th season. He pitched for the Padres for three years, the Reds for three years, and just signed with the Marlins last summer. Besides this season he has a career ERA of 3.48, but he's struggled this year with a 4.48 ERA. However in his last three starts he's got an ERA of only 1.80 with 21 strikeouts and only 3 walks over those three games. In fact if you take out a crazy disastrous start where he went only 2/3 innings and gave up 7 runs, his ERA is only 3.85 for the year. Solid 4th starter for us.

Michael Morse is of course of the hated Giants that @John3:16 loves to rep. He also played for Seattle, Washington, and Baltimore. The 33 year old has a .277 career batting average, but is struggling mightily this season with only a .215 BA. His OBP is only .277, his slugging is .314, and he's got only 4 HRs and 12 RBIs in 52 games this year. With the team chock full of outfielders and utility players, it's hard to see his fit on the roster. Likely his addition was just a salary dump so the Dodgers wouldn't have to give up too much to get Latos.

Solid move from the FO, but they're still expected to pursue Hamels and Price very seriously.

 

Latest news is we're funneling Morse off to some other team (doesn't have a place like I said earlier).

Oh yeah and also David Price is officially for sale.

 

I'd say decent. It all depends on what we're willing to part with I think. There's just so much to remember about these guys. Price and Hamels are obviously cream of the crop.

Price- He's still a rental, so how much are you really willing to give up in case he bolts?
Hamels- Phillies asking for 6 prospects if we don't give up Seager or Urias. Are we willing to gut the farm for a guy who is guaranteed under contract for a while?

Also remember from our side:
- Ryu is a LEGIT 3rd starter and if he's healthy, we're not so desperate for starting pitching if he's healthy.
- Are we also willing to sweeten the deal with Puig instead of farm system prospects?

I'd say we have a good shot at Price as a rental if we're willing to let go of probably 2-4 prospects and take his contract whole for the rest of the year. If you get him, you get a chance to wow him and hopefully he sticks around. A rotation of Kershaw/Greinke/Price is just WOW for the playoffs. Add in Ryu and Latos for a full season and you've got a legend in the making.

 

I think there's very, very little chance of Grienke leaving. That'd mean the Dodgers weren't willing to pay multiple years and I doubt that's the case. Grienke doesn't rely on velocity, he's a smart pitcher, and he compliments Kershaw so well. It's a great situation for both of them to take pressure off each other and yet thrive together as well.

Price would just add another fantastic wrinkle to that.

Meanwhile the Latos trade is being held up. The Dodgers are trying to find another team to take on Morse. I'm guessing if they can't find another taker on Morse, they'd have to include a decent prospect and they're not going to do that while pursuing Price.

So much happening! Also Kershaw with some hip tightness and Turner with an infected ingrown hair? Ew.

 

There is some crazy stuff going down with this Latos trade... No one knows who the Dodgers are sending out, but it's suddenly getting REALLY serious.

So far:

Dodgers in: Mat Latos/Alex Wood/Jim Johnson/Maybe prized minor leaguer Jose Paraza
Dodgers out: Minor Leaguers(???)

Dodgers could either keep Alex Wood, who is a really solid young pitcher, or he could be flipped for a Hamels or a Price...

Things are heating up!

 

It's looking like Wood/Barnes/Cash might do it for Price. We could head into the post-trade deadline looking like this:

Dodgers out: Olivera/Major League Reliever/Barnes/Low Prospect Pitchers

Dodgers in: Price/Latos/Jim Johnson/Jose Peraza

I mean just... Wow. We could go into the playoffs with a pitching rotation of Kershaw/Greinke/Price/Latos/Bolsinger. That's rock solid right there.

 

So the super new news is that our talk stalled until today. Paperwork needs to get shuffled around, physicals need to get passed, etc.

The recent, recent news is that we're trading for Alex Wood FOR Alex Wood. In other words we don't want to try to shuffle him for Price who seems to be on his way to Toronto where the Blue Jays are putting together a rock solid team. I think it's more likely the Dodgers couldn't get a deal they liked for Price so they're spinning this as wanting Alex, but hey he's still a good get. Good to keep him mind: Wood is locked up for a few years and Price is available this summer. We can make a run at him in FA still if we'd like to.

Alex Wood is a heck of a young starter. He's only 24 years old with three years of experience in the Majors. His ERA this year is pretty average at 3.54 and this season has been worse in basically every category for the young pitcher. He's not a fire ball fastball guy (his fast ball clocks at around 90 mph), but he showed tremendous control last season. He's got a nasty curve ball though and a good looking change-up that keeps batters on their toes. He's given up a crazy amount of hits this season already at 132, but he's also given up only 8 home runs on the year. He was considered a foundation piece to the Atlanta Braves, so getting him is a huge building block for the Dodgers. He and Latos will battle it out as the third pitcher in the rotation this season. Latos can walk this season and we can keep Alex Wood around for a long time as he isn't available for arbitration for two years and he's not eligible for FA until 2020.

 

So the fallout is this:

Dodgers in: Mat Latos, Michael Morse (DFA), Alex Wood, Bronson Arroyo, Luis Avilan, Jim Johnson, and Jose Peraza
Dodgers out: Hector Olivera, Paco Rodriguez, Zach Bird, Jeff Brigham, Victor Araujo, Kevin Guzman
Dodgers dead salary: > 80 million dollars
Other DFAs to make room: Brandon Beachy, Chris Heisley, and Chin-hui Tsao

It looks like we gave up a lot, but mostly just names. Zach Bird is our 15th best prospect, Jeff Brigham is our 28th. Araujo and Guzman aren't even in our Top 50 prospects. Olivera is out, but he's a 30 year old 3rd baseman and we replaced him with a 2nd baseman in Jose Peraza who was the Braves #1 prospect in their system. Paco was alright, but we replaced him with Avilan and Jim Johnson who are both better. Alex Wood is a stud and Latos is pretty good. Really the only thing that makes the deal look wonky is that dead salary number, but who cares? We're not paying all that salary with a bad team. Our team is still in great position to win the division AND we picked up two great assets for our future as well. Not to mention we dodged a great bullet by not giving up our top prospects for rentals (hello Blue Jays!)

The deadline isn't quite over. We're apparently trying to trade for Yovani Gallardo but I'm not sure why. We've got a hell of a lot of arms all of a sudden. We don't need another average starter.

 

Deadline predictably finishes with a whimper. The biggest move was Cespedes to the Mets. San Diego inexplicably stands pat. I'm going to speculate they held their assets in too high of a regard. The owner believes they still have a shot at the playoffs... Hm.

Dodgers make a minor move: Morse for Jose Tabata out of Pittsburgh.

Tabata was at one point a highly touted prospect, but that kind of just fell apart. He does one thing really well: get singles to get on base. He doesn't hit that hard, he doesn't hit very far, he doesn't steal many bases, he doesn't play very good defense... but he can single a ball and get on base for sure. I suspect he's just going to waste away in AAA for a little while.

He's most famous really for "leaning" into a pitch on Scherzer's perfect game bid. He was the last at-bat and Scherzer let a ball inside. Tabata didn't seem to move away from the pitch at all and he was hit, ruining Scherzer's bid. Other than that... nothing much going on with this kid.

 

I think he wants security more than a high number. He might be willing to sign for a little under market price if he gets a long-term deal.

I don't see why the Dodgers wouldn't pay him. His pitching is likely to age well. He's not a fire baller, he's a pick your spot kind of guy. If I'm Dodger management I pay no question.

 

That's why we got Greinke insurance in Alex Wood. I know he got roughed up late in his first start, but I blame that on Mattingly more than Wood.

I think we end up with AT LEAST ONE of Greinke and Price this summer. This ownership loves Price and they're certainly going to blitz him this summer. What I've heard is Greinke wants to stay, he just wants the long-term deal. If we offer him something like 7-8/170-180 million I think that's enough. A good deal for him taking him close to 40 years old and at a very high price tag. It'd be even better if we could front-load it.

Price gets something similar as well, maybe even more because he's younger. I doubt the Dodgers go nuts for BOTH, but I can hope...