No major player moves to report. The Dodgers signed RHP Tyler Cyr to a minor league contract. The Phillies had let him go this past season and the As picked him up.
Cyr was released by the A’s on January 13 to make roster room for new signee Shintaro Fujinami. After clearing waivers, Cyr was released on Tuesday.
The right-hander made his major league debut last August with the Phillies, but after one game was claimed off waivers by Oakland. Cyr, who was born in Freemont, pitched in 11 games for his hometown team. In all, he had a 2.70 ERA with 16 strikeouts and five walks in 13⅓ innings in his first year in the majors.
In 39 games in Triple-A for Lehigh Valley and Las Vegas in 2022, Cyr had a 2.85 ERA with 45 strikeouts and 23 walks in 41 innings.
The Dodgers also added Chris Woodward to their front office as a special assistant. He was their third-base coach from the 2016 through 2018 seasons before the Texas Rangers hired him as manager. They fired him midway through the 2023 season as the team was struggling to a 51-63 record.
World Baseball Classic news from The Athletic:
Mookie Betts finished 98th in a field of 108 at the Pro Bowling Association’s 2023 US Open. He averaged 185.83. For context, the winner averaged 217.53.
My best average was around 160 back when I was bowling 24 games a day (at $0.25 per game at the US Naval Hospital Guam lanes in 1969).
Dodgers are finally retire #34. Need to retire #55 next.
Plaschke finally wrote a good column. https://twitter.com/BillPlaschke/status/1621968651179155456?s=20&t=ouQW9h0ukYnsf2t52WODjg
From the column: “Valenzuela only lasted two years on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot before being dropped for lack of votes…”
That’s kind of startling. Baseball writers didn’t think a guy who (if my memory serves me) threw a no-hitter, won 20 games, won the first eight in his career and built a Hispanic fan base in Los Angeles was worthy of more than five percent of the votes by his third year of eligibility? That was short-sighted.
It isn’t called the Hall Of Fair.
I don’t think he is a HOFer, but not even 5% of the vote. He may get in as a broadcaster.
I just think he deserved a few more of his potential 15 years on the ballot.
More minor league deals signed: RHP reliever Matt Andriese, RHP starter Jordan Yamamoto, RHP Dylan Covey (from the Taiwan leagues), RHP reliever Wander Suero.
A death to report:
Lucky seven in the MLB Power rankings this morning. I’m okay with it. Time to lower expectations and be slight underdogs, I say!
Dodgers might only win 102 this season.
The Athletic looks at the offseason, coaching changes, and Gonsolin’s deal, among other things:
No arbitration for Gonsolin after all; the team and the player reached an agreement.
Need a shirt?
Today is Jackie Robinson’s birthday. Born this date in 1919 in Cairo, Georgia.
I’m not a Padres fan at all, obviously, but I look forward to seeing Fernando Tatis back in the game.
I typically only root against the Yankees. That’s a childhood holdover starting with the 55 and 56 WS.
I hope Tatis has a good year. I don’t think I was ever into old baseball etiquette as I have always enjoyed anybody having a good time. I am okay with tossing a bat after a homerun but after that, start running.
Of course, he IS just coming off a suspension for PED use.
https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_4287,h_2411,x_0,y_444/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images%2FGettyImages%2Fmmsport%2F75%2F01gqqhahtngakm7t4xr8.jpg
First game February 25th versus the Brewers. Less than a month to go. Game 2 is on Feb 26th against the Cubs and Bellinger.
Here’s a little more info about Stephen Nelson (he spells his first name properly, I’m glad to see), the guy the Dodgers just hired to essentially be Joe Davis’s primary TV backup when Joe’s off doing Fox things.
Well, he seems to have the credentials, but I not familiar with his voice and his on-air persona.
If you’ve got an Apple ID you can watch a replay of a bunch of games he did on Friday night this past season to get a sense of what he looks and sounds like.
Here’s one:
https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/friday-night-baseball-ari-vs-sd-71522/umc.cmc.52lavoxdf4b44tdvszj8qdex1
The Angels’ Arte Moreno has decided to keep the team, but boy has he got a laundry list of things he should do to improve it, according to Dylan Hernández at the LA Times.
1. Tell the public what’s going on. You last spoke publicly about the team two years ago.
2. Spend more money on players, including pitchers.
3. Let baseball operations run baseball operations. Stop meddling.
4. Find a qualified outsider to run the team.
5. Solve the stadium problem. Fans need a better experience and so do players. Some local HS weight rooms are better than those at Angels Stadium.
6. Fix facilities throughout the farm system. AA and AAA teams are moving into new facilities; do the same for the spring training complex and the two A teams.
7. Hire more farm system coaches and scouts.
8. Anaheim is roughly half Latino and neighboring Santa Ana is approximately three-quarters Latino, yet you don’t have a full-time Spanish-language broadcasting team. The Angels are the only one of the three Southern California teams without that.
9. Re-sign Ohtani.
Thanks, Steve.
In answer to a non-baseball inquiry regarding the recent heavy rainfall in Monterey County, California, specifically in Carmel Valley, where we live, although we live less than a quarter-mile from what was a raging and rising Carmel River, we are fine because we are high above it. There was some flooding and many evacuations, but we were spared. However, more rain is expected next week, so the situation may worsen for others. This is the largest amount of rain locally since 1995 and 1998. In the first of those two years a bridge over the troubled waters that we need to cross to get to our home was washed out; it was subsequently replaced by a larger bridge that is higher above the Carmel River. After talking today with my insurance agent, we agreed that we still don’t need flood insurance. I hope all of you are well.
Presumably the official flood maps agree with you and your agent as well. Stay dry!
I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain
I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I’d see you again