A grim outlook

This is an extremely pessimistic look at the Dodgers’ prospects this season from SI’s Tom Verducci. It’s hard to argue with much of it.

No team stands to lose more from the loss or truncation of the 2020 Major League Baseball season due to the coronavirus than the Dodgers. They may have traded three prospects to Boston for few or no games from Mookie Betts and his $27 million salary. As the team that draws half a million more fans than any other franchise, they are losing the most gate revenue. As the deepest team in baseball, their depth may be less valuable in a shorter season. And as the clear favorites in the National League West, their road to the postseason is more difficult as more games come off the schedule.

If there is a season it’s going to be a short one. With the pitching depth they have they might be best served by going to a six-man rotation, considering the possibility of more doubleheaders (did the Dodgers play even one over the last few years? I don’t remember any). In fact, Verducci says, “The six-man rotation, including a plethora of openers, is likely to be standard procedure for teams in a shorter season with expanded rosters.”

Roberts thinks getting baseball back when the science allows could be therapeutic for hospital patients and health-care workers and for the nation as a whole:

“You know, my father would tell stories of the family being huddled around a radio to listen to a game or around the TV for the one game of the week the family could watch. Lord willing, we can get this season in, and we’re playing and it’s broadcast into our homes to get back that feeling from decades in the past of families huddled around the TV watching America’s pastime.

50 thoughts on “A grim outlook

    • Plus, Andre Dawson was the player about whom Vinnie said was day to day. “Aren’t we all.”

  1. Hey, I heard the Giants are trying to get Puig. Too bad, I hope there are not any Giant fans here because I really, really dislike the Giants!!

  2. This is a sad end to a sad story. Steve Dalkowski, the player upon whom Nuke LaLoosh was based, has passed away due to Covid-19. Unlike Nuke, he blew his elbow out in his last spring start before he was going to make the Orioles. He also lived in New Britain, CT which is where I teach. He was interviewed for a baseball documentary called “Fastball”, which if you haven’t seen it, is very much worth watching, as is it’s complement, “Knuckleball”.

  3. Today I finally got around to cancelling my MLBTV subscription for the 2020 season. I’m getting a refund but, if a miracle happens, I’ll buy back in.

    • The last thing you want to happen these days is to be taken to the hospital. Stay safe, Vin.

  4. The last time the season was shortened, the Dodgers won it all. I’m doubting there’ll be any 2020 season, though.