DODGERS NEWS/RUMORS Thread

Id love Cole but I don't give it a chance. He comes off like a mercenary and as much as I'd love to have him pitch for the Dodgers I don't want him locked up for 8 years and 30+ a year.

I also don't want to buy high on Strass' arm. 31 years old with a 34 year old arm. Too many injuries to pay what Boras will demand.

Rendon is my ALL IN guy. Sure he has past injuries but at age 29 I'm ok with giving him 6 years. He is the kind of guy who puts a team over the top. Defense, bat, character. He also has the type of bat that helps him stay valuable in his 30's, even after his wheels get some wear on them.

 

It’s more like you looking at a Nissan Altima, which you can afford, but you opt for Cap’nTree’s used mini van and 2 Vespas.

 

Rich Hill is a cockroach. He'll be back.

 

It’d make no sense to not sign Rich Hill for one more year

 

You won't like my answer. I won't like it either but the answer is MadBum. I don't know if it's even an option but he's the guy that will put the team over the top.
Above average, battler, playoff guy. You know what you're getting with him. It allows the young arms to have less stressful starts.
He's also a guy that can be had for 3 years and 18 million per year.

 

There are people starting to speculate just how much cheating was going on with the Astros pitching staff. A number of pitchers saw career spikes in their numbers as soon as they joined the Astros, including Justin Verlander who didn't just get back on track with the Astros, but actually got better than he was in his prime years. Now we can make excuses for them, say they have good coaching blah blah blah... but our very own @blazer5 exposed them cheating in the playoffs, and the numbers just don't make sense, especially with guys getting considerably better on the wrong side of 30.

What this boils down to for me is, stay the fuck away from Gerrit Cole. The dude is going to get paid, and we don't know just how much he's been helped by the cheating culture in Houston. I want to say he is who we saw in Houston, but I'm not into making $250 million dollar bets. Fuck the Astros.

 

Things are rolling this morning and the Padres made one of the best signings this morning...

• The Rangers signed RHP Kyle Gibson. They have revived the careers of Mike Minor and Lance Lynn in the past year, so it will be interesting to see what they do here.

• The Padres sent former top prospect 2B/SS Luis Urias and Dodger Murderer LHP Eric Lauer to the Brewers for OF Trent Grisham(the man responsible for the Nats making it past the WC round) and RHP Zach Davies. This has the chance to be a steal for the Brewers as Urias has massive upside, but he has drastically underwhelmed. Grisham has solid upside and seems like a higher floor than Urias so he could be a safer pick. There was belief that the both players could be traded this offseason after the Pad's continued to not use Urias and keep him in AAA while Grisham made one of the biggest post season blunders in the modern era.

• The Padres also signed Drew Pomeranz this morning. Really wanted the Dodgers to nab this guy.

 

Their bullpen is going to be VERY good. Basically looks like they are going to build vets in around their young stud starting pitching prospects. Lineup is still very iffy outside of Tatis and Machado, but they could have a pitching staff that is tough to score a lot of runs off of.

 

I have been away for a week, so I have no idea what this is all about, but I don't think that their pitching staff is doing anything illegal. Morton left the org after improving under them, then took another leap forward. They have changed guys usage rates of certain pitches, which is something the Dodgers org has also done with a ton of success as well as a couple of other teams as well. I think we see an adjustment this year for starting pitchers that drives the home run rates down since more teams are really focusing on pitch usage now after seeing all the Astros success.

 

Was listening to MLB.com last night and an interesting convo took place between Duquette and Bowden. Both think that MLB stepped in around the midway point in the season and had the balls changed again. These balls generally come into use around the postseason and would explain why there was dip in travel distance for the playoffs. This could have major impacts throughout the league and could have massive impact on the Dodgers. Many of their top prospects have begun to drive balls out of the yard significantly more consistently over the last couple years and some scouts think that the Dodgers top prospects that have had extreme helium over the last couple years, could see massive dives in their stock. Both Lux and Will Smith have been mentioned as players that could go from star level players to league average guys if their HR's start turning into doubles and fly outs. Both are not extreme power guys and hit a large amount of their HR's just out of reach of the outfielders for home runs. This could also be a reason that the Dodgers may be reluctant to move on from players like Ruiz or Downs as their game do not heavily rely on above average power and could still be above average contributors if the ball does die a bit. I still want to see the team make some impact moves this year, but this is just something to keep in the back of your minds when things do happen.

 

Not against any ex-Giant, either.....just that one.

Like you, not sure what he has left. He's certainly past his prime.

 

Smith's potential game winner to right-center which died on the track immediately comes to mind. Smith thought it was out.

 

It's speculation on the part of fans, and it builds on the accusations Trevor Bauer made about the Astros last year (take that for what it's worth). Bigger picture, it's clear that the Astros had a culture that wasn't opposed to cheating, so it seems incredibly unlikely that cheating was limited to stealing signs at MMP. I'm not saying Cole is 100% a product of something bad, but I wouldn't bet against it either. At 7 years/$250 million I would hesitate to be the one jumping on that potential grenade.

All Astros are suspect in my mind.

 

Yup- im to lazy to look up his spin rate on his fastball and curve from Pirate to Astro but id bet cash money there is a dramatic change. Verlander too for that matter. Not a coincidence

Sticky shit on the hat and a guy going to it each pitch on live television. Its just blatant at that point