Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and this year his name was Guggenheim Partners.
If you want to read the whole story behind Virginia’s letter to the New York Sun, I’ve posted it at my place in the past.
Update: Mark Saxon at ESPN LA has a good if brief timeline of the Dodgers’ 2012, from McCourt’s agreement to sell to the latest off-season move.
Update:Kuroda resigns with Yankees.
Update: R.A. Dickey wins NL Cy Young Award, Kershaw finishes second, 113 points back.
Let’s start a new thread for personnel speculation and anything else which gets our attention.
From the comments in the last thread we learn that the Dodgers have spoken to Torii Hunter about a two-year deal, or so says Mark Saxon at ESPN LA, citing an unnamed source.
Well, maybe. I can’t see a need for him. The Dodgers have Ethier in right, Kemp in center, and Crawford in left, with Hairston and possibly Tony Gwynn as backups. Why would they need a relatively expensive 37-year old, even one who just had an excellent year?
Saxon also reports that the Dodgers have paid $25.7M for the right to offer a contract to a 25-year-old Korean pitcher named Ryu Hyun-jin.
Who? Well . . .
Ryu was 98-52 with a 2.80 career ERA during seven seasons in South Korea. He pitched for his country on teams that won a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and reached the championship game of the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
The $25.7 million fee will be paid to the Eagles only if Ryu signs with the major league team.
The Dodgers have 30 days to get a deal done with the young man and his agent, who happens to be Scott Boras.
And here’s CBS Sports’ list of free agents-to-be among pitchers.
Again, top fifteen listed.
Rank Player Last Team Pos Age IP W-L S ERA K Status
1 Zack Greinke Angels SP 29 212.1 15-5 0 3.48 200 Unrestricted
2 R.A. Dickey Mets SP 38 233.2 20-6 0 2.73 230 $5M Club Option
3 Kyle Lohse Cardinals SP 34 211 16-3 S 2.86 143 Unrestricted
4 James Shields Rays SP 30 227.2 15-10 0 3.52 223 $9M Club Option
5 Jake Peavy White Sox SP 31 219 11-12 0 3.37 194 $22M Club Option
6 Edwin Jackson Nationals SP 29 189.2 10-11 0 4.03 168 Unrestricted
7 Hiroki Kuroda Yankees SP 37 219.2 16-11 0 3.32 167 Unrestricted
8 Brandon McCarthy Athletics SP 29 111 8-6 0 3.24 73 Unrestricted
9 Rafael Soriano Yankees RP 32 67.2 2-1 42 2.26 69 $1.5M Opt-out clause
10 Fernando Rodney Rays RP 35 74.2 2-2 48 0.60 76 Unrestricted
11 Anibal Sanchez Tigers SP 28 195.2 9-13 0 3.86 167 Unrestricted
12 Tim Hudson Braves SP 37 179 16-7 0 3.62 102 $9M Club Option
13 Gavin Floyd White Sox SP 29 168 12-11 0 4.29 144 $9.5M Club Option
14 Ryan Dempster Rangers SP 35 173 12-8 0 3.38 153 Unrestricted
15 Shaun Marcum Brewers SP 30 124 7-4 0 3.70 109 Unrestricted
Greinke, Lohse and Peavy might appeal to the Dodgers, I think. What say you?
There is no joy in Motown; the mighty Tigers have so far been pawing at the Giants’ pitches as though they were shot from cannon rather than thrown by mortal beings. They’re 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position for the Series, which is bad enough; what’s worse is that they’ve played three games and only had 11 runners in scoring position.
They face elimination today. It’s Max Scherzer v. Matt Cain in Comerica Park at 8:00PM Eastern on Fox.
Vogelsong v. Sanchez, Comerica Park, 8:00PM Eastern, Fox. Sanchez has pitched against the Giants before; his entire career until the trading deadline this year was spent in the NL. This will be Vogelsong’s first time seeing the Tigers.
The Tigers have to get their bats untracked. They only got two hits in Game Two, and unless you’ve got Koufax or Gibson pitching for you that’s probably not going to be enough offense to win.
Roberto at Vin Scully is My Homeboy has some news and photos of a press conference the Dodgers held today to introduce Carl Crawford as the team’s new left fielder.
New news items will be added here until the next WS travel day, if one’s necessary.
Update: Eric Stephen of True Blue LA updated his payroll worksheet to include all the trades which occurred in August of 2012.
After the Panda’s explosion in Game One, the Tigers hope to regroup and win one on the road tonight at 8:00PM Eastern on Fox. It’ll be Fister v. Bumgarner. Fister has two no-decisions in the postseason to show for 13 1/3 innings of two-run pitching, while Bumgarner gave up six runs to the Cardinals in Game One of the NLCS. On paper the Tigers should be favored to win this one, but paper means nuthin’ in baseball.
Game One, 8:07 PM Eastern, AT&T Park, Fox TV.
Verlander versus Zito. Tigers at Giants. The New York Times:
The Giants have reached the World Series 19 times, the Tigers 11 times. Yet this is their first date for the championship.
Eight teams have reached the World Series at least 10 times: the Yankees, the A’s, the Red Sox and the Tigers in the American League, and the Giants, the Cardinals, the Dodgers and the Cubs (really) in the National League. All the possible World Series matchups involving those teams have now taken place, except for one: the Tigers and the Dodgers have still never met in the World Series.
Here’s Roger Angell on teams from the original leagues making it to the Series, published on October 11. If you haven’t read Angell before, here’s his bio along with a list of his baseball essay collections. Read them.
If you want more World Series feature stories, check out the sidebar when you click the preview link (the first one in this post).
then the Giants really are a team of destiny this year. Watch as Hunter Pence’s bat shatters and hits the ball not once, not twice, but three times.
Congratulations to the Giants. As Bob Timmermann reminded me on Facebook earlier today, this means that there actually will be a Giants – Tigers World Series. There’s never been one. The closest was in 1908, but Fred Merkle committed his “bonehead play” which cost the Giants the pennant. The Cubs won and beat the Tigers for the World Championship; it was the last time they won one.
Who’d a thunk it, but there’s a Game Seven in the NLCS today. The Giants have fought back to tie the series after being down three games to one, so today’s game is for all the marbles and a trip to the World Series. The Giants send out Matt Cain to do battle with the Cardinals’ Kyle Lohse in a rematch of the starters for Game Three last week.