Welp, looks like we're not getting either Chapman or Fernandez after all. Miami wanted Seager, Urias, Pederson, and two more prospects LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL. We're shifting focus to Johnny Cueto. Supposedly he's asking for a 6 year $160M-ish deal. Personally I thought he'd ask for way more. So what are we waiting for? DO IT!!!!!!!
Rumor has it teams were reluctant on Cueto cause of elbow issues. If its a nothing thing and he is on form that is a huge pickup of the Gnats.
The Dodgers just twiddling their thumbs as the division gets better. Awesome. Seriously f*** this team and f*** management. Can't even watch as Iwakuma fails to live up to Greinke and our bullpen continues blowing and our bats are inconsistent.
Remember when the Nationals were far and away the favorites to win the World Series after signing Max Scherzer? Yeah, that didn't happen. What I'm saying is it's better to have a competitively balanced roster than it is to nab the best free agents. This is not like the NBA where a single LeBron James can mean the difference between 60 wins and ping pong balls. Iwakuma is no Greinke, and it sucks to lose such an amazing pitcher. Koufax/Drysdale combos are rare, though, so I don't expect them to happen often. But breaking it down, if Iwakuma can give us a low 3 ERA, then that would be awesome. Ryu has an 80% chance of returning to form with the type of surgery he had, so he, too, can pitch us a low 3 ERA next year. That's about 400 innings of decent pitching vs 200 with Greinke and another 200 of whoever else last year. Wood and Anderson can give us mid to high 3 ERA, so that's not too bad for #4 and #5 starters. Bolsinger still has his great curveball if we need him, and Jose De Leon might get a shot, too. For middle relievers, I still think Baez, Garcia, Hatcher, Avilan, and Howell are all nice pieces. If we can throw in one great arm, that would be wonderful. The best part about this is that we don't really have to experiment anymore after the disaster pen that Ned Colletti handed down. As far as inconsistent bats, when you combine a high OBP with a low batting average, you're due to leave a lot of runners on base. Losing Kendrick will hurt, but remember our best hitter Puig was hurt all year. He's healthy again, so hopefully he will return to form and make up for losing Kendrick while also making sure Crawford doesn't play much. Kike and Peraza should bring much-needed energy and speed to our ballclub. And don't forget Corey Seager, #1 prospect in all of baseball. This guy will definitely be a major upgrade at shortstop.
You're incurably optimistic about this team man, I'll give you that. The problem is: we've gotten worse, our DIRECT rivals are getting better, and we weren't even Pennant worthy BEFORE this. I don't see any reason for optimism right now for the Dodgers. Your representation of our starting pitchers is last year's starters minus Greinke and plus Iwakuma. Last year's starters were underwhelming and I'm not expecting Ryu to be healthy. He's had health issues since we signed him. Hooray. We're going to lean on Kershaw/Iwakuma/Anderson again. The bullpen is super average at best. I have no confidence in Baez or Garcia. I like Hatcher, Avilan, and Howell but even they weren't infallible and without a significantly better starting rotation, they're going to burn out and be disappointing again this year. Our best hitters are Gonzalez and Turner by far, not Puig. Puig was great for a small stretch and then after that has failed to recapture his power stroke and been injured for months. I expect him to have a nice year, but he's no savior for our offense. Now you take out Kendrick and insert Utley full time? Really? That's going to help our offense? The Dodgers have gotten nothing but worse since the season ended and they're doing nothing to help the city watch the team. F*** them.
You point out all the bad but none of the good. I point out both good and bad. And you think I'm optimistic? Look, San Diego went and got Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, James Shields, and Craig Kimbrel all in one off-season. All-star studded squad... They were still bottom dwellers! Lol. Most Dodger fans wanted that lineup instead, but that didn't win anything. You can have all the big names you want, but if you don't have the right pieces, you're not gonna win anything. Even if we're not getting big names, we still know how to construct a winning team and they don't. Utley may be older and sucked last year, but only because he was injured. When healthy, he was pretty phenomenal and far better than Howie Kendrick. He wasn't an all-star in 2014 for nothing. Now, $7 mils is pretty steep for his age, I think. But still, there's more you can bring to the table like veteran leadership and teaching the young Kike and Peraza how to handle 2nd base.
And even if Puig is not our savior, he's technically replacing Carl Crawford's at-bats. That is a massive upgrade, even if by default. Again, you use the term "savior" as if one guy will make all the difference. A LeBron James will not catapult us to the World Series. That just doesn't happen. It takes a collective team to win. That and the season doesn't start until April, so we still have another four months to make upgrades. Also there are other ways to get better outside of free agency such as getting healthy again and using the farm (Seager, JDL, Peraza, etc.) It's not sexy, but it wins and gets the job done. Just ask the new-look Cubs and Astros.
Trade: Peraza, Dixon, Schebler are out. Micah Johnson, Trayce Thompson, and Frankie Montas are in. edit: Reds in: Peraza, Dixon, Schebler Sox in: Frazier Dodgers in: Thompson, Micah Johnson, and Montas.
Look I'm disappointed in their off-season because they are doing nothing to provide for hard working fans like you and me. They came here with a huge payroll that didn't work out. The excuse was always though that they'd pay for a winner and even if we couldn't watch them, at least we'd know the product was great. Now they're cutting back costs and STILL not providing coverage for us? That's b*******. That's not right. They don't DESERVE our support. Any who, let's see how this trade works out. Apparently we're getting back primo prospects but I honestly don't know much about Montas or Johnson.
I understand your frustration about coverage, but that's an argument for someone else. I know it sucks, but I can't comment on it since I don't know too much about it (mostly because I stream every game for free anyway, which should technically hurt TWC, lol). We still have four months to get a good starter, and now rumors are floating around that we are eyeing a #1 or #2 starter from either Cleveland or Tampa Bay. Gotta just play the waiting game. As for the trade, it seems like Frankie Montas is the real keeper, as he is a fireballer who is a fringe starter but could be huge out of the bullpen. He still walks more batters than we'd like, but that fastball is a real dandy. The other two pieces are more lateral moves (at least to us), except that the ones we got have more Major league experience, which can only be a good thing.
Going with that all lefty lineup this year. Maeda is pretty much a necessity now. I'm still unsatisfied though. This is an off-season where they could have had Greinke and they could have had Price and instead they got Kazmir and maybe Maeda. Rumor is we're going after Andrew Miller and will likely use Wood + pieces to go after him. Whether we get him those two or not though, we're still a net negative. Miller is good, but he's not Chapman. Maeda and Kazmir are not Greinke. Howie might come back, but so far all we have at 2nd is Utley who is often injured at this point in his career...
Wooooo! We got Scott Kazmir! If he's anything like his last 3 years, then this is an excellent signing. The opt-out is nifty, too, as it would feel like a contract year for him. If he opts out and declines his qualifying offer, it's a free draft pick for us. Great forward thinking! Kershaw, Ryu (if healthy), Kazmir, Wood, Anderson - That's a solid rotation right there. Kershaw is more than just a #1. And if healthy, I still consider Ryu as a bonafide #2 starter. At least he would be if he was on most other ballclubs. Everyone else is in the right place, though Anderson could be a #4. I know his win % hovers around 50%, but most other teams in the league still have losing pitchers in their starting rotation. So to have our weakest link as good as Anderson is a blessing. I just realized, outside of Kazmir, the rest of our starting rotation is entering their prime years. Hopefully this means good things will come. I still worry a little about Alex Wood, but if he can be a little more consistent, it would go a long way to solidifying our rotation.
Some random twitter guy broke that we signed Maeda. He claims it's an 8 year deal that's heavily incentive based. They apparently didn't love his physical, so they want assurances he'll be healthy. Another source says we're still in active trade talks with the Marlins and the Rays.
Might only be big enough to play point Bahahahaha wow major brain fart. Anywho, it's being reported everywhere now, and yes it's likely an 8 year deal but with the last three being conditional incentive years if he pitches a certain number of innings or something. Probably just a wild guess from the media though, lol. My only concern is that I read somewhere that mentioned that even though he has a great slider that gets batters out, it doesn't quite spin fast enough for mlb hitters, so that's something he'll need to work on this off-season. Anyway, I think we are pretty solid, and this gives us more flexibility to move pieces in the coming months.
He also doesn't throw faster than 90-92 so I'm not sure how his pitching is going to translate to the MLB. We've had great luck through international signing, but man... I'd feel a hell a lot more comfortable with Greinke at the helm than Maeda or Kazmir.
