As if losing Seager and Scherzer and possibly Kershaw aren’t enough, now comes word that the Dodgers tried to extend RHP Walker Buehler’s contract last spring and he turned the offer down. Now, he’s under club control for another three years, hard as that may be to believe, but he’s in line for big raises through arbitration in each of the next two years, and by the time he hits free agency he’ll be about to enter his age-30 season in 2025. What if Turner, Kershaw, Bellinger and Urias are gone by that point? All of them will have completed their current contracts by that season. Will the team want to spend millions on one pitcher if the entire roster has been depleted?
Or maybe their roster will have been reloaded by then, given their Baseball American farm system ranking of #8. But is that a good bet?
The future is occasionally scary to contemplate.
Adrian Gonzalez is named co-founder of Calidad beer.
¡Mejor que Corona!
Re minor leaguers, from SI’s daily mail, quoting ESPN’s Jeff Passan:
The owners are doing their utmost to subvert the sport.
December 1965 interview with Sandy Koufax from SI
Sandy pitched the first Dodger game I ever saw live in September of 1966, first game of a DH v. the Asterisks. He won that game, the Dodgers took the second game behind Joe Moeller and relievers, and moved into first place.
i saw him twice, once in DC in a Spring Training game against the new Senators and once in Shea from the nosebleed seats while we were at the World’s Fair.
I saw a spring training exhibition at RFK in 1990 – an all-avian matchup between the Orioles and Redbirds. The LF fence was a screen like the one at the LA Coliseum. I was living in DC at the time, and it snowed that morning.
Not looking good for getting a CBA done and spring training starting on time. Looks like we will have the DH when they finally do agree on a new deal. Sure wish they could find a way to fix the crappy umpiring.
Wish they could find a way to pay minor leaguers, who are the future of the sport.
Also from the Roberts article:
From The Athletic:
https://twitter.com/michaelbd/status/1491976625990389798?s=20&t=TPc72iubOZCdDTdjA5gvjw
Keith Law of The Athletic:
Law’s #1 prospect is catcher Diego Cartaya, #2 is RHP Bobby Miller. Here’s the one that intrigues me, since 2B has been a weak spot recently —
The rest of his list is here (sub. req.)
From The Athletic:
Manfred has zero credibility.
Former GM now pundit Jim Bowden says here’s what the Dodgers should do first when the lockout ends:
Rob Manfred speaks… https://twitter.com/StelliniTweets/status/1491814968668434432?s=20&t=sqlv3SKsiayKcH1FfL-edA
No charges to be filed against Bauer. Now I guess we wait to see what MLB decides to do. So how would you all feel about Bauer pitching for the Dodgers this season?
No thanks.
I doubt Bauer’ll ever throw another pitch in the majors.
What season? In reality, I doubt Bauer’ll ever throw another pitch in the majors.
https://twitter.com/DoyersDave/status/1490749561643540480?s=20&t=sxdiw2JP8HV9Op_mV6KbcA
Keith Law of The Athletic has ranked all farm systems, and the Dodgers are #1.
Meanwhile, the Gnats are due to plummet back down to Earth. https://www.sfgate.com/giants/article/Giants-will-be-a-500-team-in-2022-says-Fangraphs-16839060.php
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving team. Unless it was the cheating Stros.
The Gnats have a strong record at cheating as well.
Hey friends.
I just woke from a dream a few minutes ago. It was opening day, and the Dodgers were playing the Pirates in Pittsburgh! It was the bottom of the first and the Pirates had runners on apparently, because there was a play at the plate happening just when my dream was starting.
The Pirates thought they had scored the first run of the game when the player slide in without getting tagged, but there was no call by the ump. So there was this mad scramble on the 1st base side of home. The runner was trying to come back and touch the plate, with the catcher (Smith) trying to tag him. Smith did tag him, but then leaped up and jumped over to the 3rd base side of home, because a second Pirate runner was trying to score during the initial distraction.
Smith got across so quickly that he was standing there waiting and applied the tag, but there was a big collision. So, in my dream, there was 2 Pirate players and Will Smith sprawled out in the dirt. Meanwhile the ump was busy calling everyone out: both runners – but also Smith. He tossed Smith out of the game for some reason. Smith, who had appeared injured from the collision, jumped up and started arguing with the ump. Meanwhile the first Pirate runner and the Pirate manager were also trying to argue with the ump that he had blown the initial call.
Unfortunately, I never saw how everything turned out, because while the arguing was going on, an old fashion traveling salesman came to the door, came right into our house, took off his coat and boots, and started to roll out his merchandise. He was trying to sell us what looked like children’s bed sheets as covering to go over top our hardwood floors in our living room and office. We weren’t buying anything but invited him to stay for dinner, since he came just as it was ready.
Dreams!
I didn’t see who the Dodgers opening day pitcher was, but I’m guessing Buehler. I also don’t know WHEN opening day was, so have no breaking news in terms of the ongoing lockout.
It’s amazing how much detail there is in dreams. Mine are pretty vivid too, but they rarely if ever have been about baseball. That one’s fun.
https://twitter.com/fergieajenkins/status/1489684577572601856
twitter.com/Dodgers/status/1490025472872251393
https://twitter.com/usatodaysports/status/1489706943295934471
Adios, Cowboy.
From The Athletic’s daily email:
Not enough to please the Duke. https://twitter.com/kenarneson/status/1489768158453923840?s=20&t=hLPy1y8yVG_SLh3qdJoY4Q
https://twitter.com/Awood45/status/1489410369571508228
A lengthy, provocative analysis of the owners’ self-created predicament. https://twitter.com/truebluela/status/1489628645899620355?s=20&t=RhQ-2jPhjds3pujtAPmKGA
Hard to follow. Fellow seems very intelligent, though.
He has a sequel in the works.
Grant should be the mediator? https://twitter.com/GrantBrisbee/status/1489348639558287361?s=20&t=N3VA5W81arUuYaZv5zXELQ
One way to not worry about 2022, is to worry about 2025. If you look back to 2018, only one of the top six starters is currently under contract with the Dodgers and that would be Walker himself. Things change and if there is one thing the current FO seems good at, it is keeping the team competitive.
Tom Seaver was one of the first baseball players to start a vineyard, but he started a trend. Now Dusty Baker, Dave Roberts and Rich Aurillia, Greg Vaughn, Chris Iannetta and Vernon Wells, and Joe Blanton are all owners or part-owners of wineries. (NYT article)
Remembering the Duke and his avocado farm back in the sixties. Always on my mind when the family drove through Fallbrook back in the day.
The Duke of Fallbrook!
Reposting this (it appeared also in Link’s previous post) because I thought it was the most interesting development of an otherwise tedious off-season. https://twitter.com/truebluela/status/1488875974586507268?s=20&t=u0CIfkJNXsKj1FPXGcxuag