AROUND the MLB Thread

I get the exposure/big name thing, but fans are fickle. If the pAAdres fail to win then the fans will migrate toward whoever is hot, and all the big deals will be forgotten, except when the writer hacks dredge them up at every opportunity to rub salt in the wound. Of course, if they are successful then it might go just the way you say.

how the Padres are using the great media exposure to set the tone of a city energized by a new young GM who is building a team. Contrast that with how the Dodgers are blowing up a 240 million failed dysfunctional effort and that is by their own admission.

Wow. You choose to paint a negative image. What you call "blowing up" is what others call "strengthening". I don't think you'll see the words "failed dysfunctional effort" in any direct quote from any Dodger spokesperson, so don't even try to spin a "by their own admission" out of it.

Friedman was quoted as saying "It all gets back to us doing everything we could to mold the roster into a highly functional team, instead of a collection of talent,". If you want to say that implies dysfunctional, then that is your prerogative, but it is far from an admission of anything.

 

East Coast guy here and I can only go by what I read in the sports pages of a national publication like the LA Times and their Dodger covering writers.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/dodgersnow/la-sp-dn-dysfunctional-dodgers-20141219-story.html

Seems like dysfunction is getting an odd amount of play with the Dodgers these days. A disproportionate amount.
There are stories all over the place bemoaning what a dysfunctional team the Dodgers were last season, which is curious if nothing else. Makes you wonder how they won 94 games.
Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers' president of baseball operations, indirectly fed this quasi-revisionist history during a conference call with reporters Friday, twice using the term “highly functional” to describe the results of his off-season trades
“This just gets back to us doing everything we could to mold our roster into the most highly functioning baseball team, as opposed to a collection of talent,” Friedman said.
Which implies they were highly dysfunctional last season. Now if he’s referring to clubhouse chemistry, certainly there were some issues. Every clubhouse in baseball has its issues. Somebody doesn’t like someone else because of personality or perceived work habits or locker room politics or something. Like any other workplace.
Now dysfunctional is something of an imprecise term. If Friedman is referring less to the clubhouse chemistry and more to the how well the roster can work as a focused, practical, interchangeable unit, that’s different. Which is what I think Friedman was really getting at.
The above is from the link of the Steve Dilbeck article.

http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/buster-olney/post/_/id/8889
After what happened here Wednesday, however, there is no chance that Andrew Friedman and his staff will able to exist in the shadowy fringes. Not since Whitey Herzog assumed control of the Cardinals and remade them into a track team with a flurry of moves have we seen a front office so decisively alter the composition of a roster and a team.
Based on the choices they have made, however, a more appropriate representation of Friedman’s gang could be as a cleanup crew dressed in hazmat suits, because they have quickly waded into the messiest parts of the organization, from the clubhouse culture to the club’s subpar defense, and taken care of business.
Which is what is needed. The Dodgers' level of dysfunction last season was extraordinary. Manager Don Mattingly is even-keeled and circumspect, and is not someone who overreacts, given his experience of playing in New York in George Steinbrenner’s worst years as owner. But he was so moved, so frustrated by what he saw in the Dodgers' players and their treatment of each other

The above is from the link

Dysfunctional is in the eyes of the beholder and as is the interpretation of what Dodger management is saying. As indicated by the about quoted articles there appears to be a level of team dysfunction being interpreted, reported and read nationally. I am just commenting on what I have read and read and heard and heard. At the same time it is being reported that our $257,000,000 payroll is an all time record as is the $27,600,000 luxury tax.

 

padres are dangling Wil Myers for Cole Hamels.

 

Another one of a number of articles on the functional nature of last years team.
http://linemakers.sportingnews.com/...s-2015-vegas-dodgers-red-sox-jon-lester-trade
The Dodgers made perhaps the most interesting sets of moves during these meetings, as new president Andrew Friedman went to work and reshaped the look of an underachieving squad.
They had already let Hanley Ramirez sign with Boston; on Wednesday they acquired shortstop Jimmy Rollins from the Phillies; and on Thursday they traded outfielder Matt Kemp to the Padres, and sent second baseman Dee Gordon to the Marlins for top pitching prospect Andrew Heaney. Then they immediately used Heaney in a trade with the Angels to get second baseman Howie Kendrick, a quality clubhouse guy with a steady bat.
“The Dodgers may have improved their chances by subtracting some of the elements that caused a dysfunctional locker room last season,” said William Hill’s top bookmaker, Nick Bogdanovich, who hasn‘t moved the Dodgers' World Series number as 5-to-1 favorites. “I mean, you look at that roster last season and you say, ‘How did this team not win it all?’ They still have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball with the best pitcher (Clayton Kershaw), and pitching is what wins.”

The above is from the Sporting News which has a fairly wide readership base.
So it appears that now in the minds of some it wasn't a fourth starter or bull pen that cost us to lose to the Cardinals but our oh well you know what the D word is.

 

The man is on fire, discussion on MLB TV was fans elsewhere like NY etc wondering what about us. Other small market teams fans are really going whoa
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/
The Padres have had discussions about trading for Cole Hamels, a native of San Diego, with newly acquired Wil Myers part of the package, reports Ryan Lawrence of the Philadelphia Daily News. The Padres only finalized the trade for Myers on Friday.
With the trade last week of Jimmy Rollins and GM Ruben Amaro Jr. admitting the franchise would be better off without Ryan Howard, the Phillies find themselves torn in regards to Hamels, who is due $96MM through 2018 with a 2019 club option worth $20MM ($6MM buyout). Philadelphia could continue its rebuild by maximizing value through trading Hamels (reportedly for two or three premium prospects, per Lawrence) or build the next contending team around the left-hander.
“We can keep him and it would be great for us and if we feel he can move us forward by moving him, that’s something we can explore as well,” Amaro said. “We don’t have any rush to move him or mandate to move him. Hopefully, he’s one of those guys that will be in a Phillies uniform for a long time, but we have to explore all of our opportunities. We’re not doing our organization any justice if we don’t explore every opportunity to get better.”
The Padres are not on Hamels’ no-trade list and would be a match for the Phillies based on San Diego’s surplus of outfielders and Philadelphia’s lack of such throughout its system. Lawrence also noted a possibly insignificant but curious development: the Padres have Matt Kemp and Justin Upton jerseys in stock and for sale at the Petco Park team store, but jerseys for Myers are not available.

 

Unfortunately as I linked Buster Olney and Sporting News have a tad more credibility than the local LA media. The really bad part is the Dilbeck article has been linked and in many ways you could say gone viral.
http://www.bing.com/search?q=dodger...=-1&sk=&cvid=2652772c54c44004b64061cd461af64a

Not all of the articles in the search are current.

 

Who says you have to have a great clubhouse to win titles? A's of the early 70's and the Yankees of the late 70's didn't like each other. Besides it was last year so who really gives a rats ass now. Not worth having heated or perceived heated discussions about it.

 

Not a heated conversation on my part at all, just observations and comments on what is out there on our off season and what is being read and reacted to nationally or out of market you could say. I think Kemp going to San Diego was not expected by our management to be the beginning of what has followed on the part of San Diego. Now if they get Hamels? Wow oh wow! Joc may be gone to Philadelphia after all and that will bring up trade deadline not to trade decisions but that's another perspective of how history might now be different if we had made trades at the deadline for Hamels and a couple of bona fide relievers. I am wondering if that was a Ned or Kasten call. I suspect Kasten.

 

I get it, but if you notice I put perceived The Kemp trade imho was about supply and demand. There was demand for Kemp but not for CC or Dre.

 

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/phillies/Source-San-Diego-has-talked-about-Hamels-trade.html

The Padres have had discussions about trading for San Diego native Cole Hamels with new outfielder Wil Myers as potential bait, according to a baseball source.
The Padres have been baseball’s busiest team since the Winter Meetings ended in San Diego earlier this month, acquiring three starting outfielders (Myers, Matt Kemp, Justin Upton) a starting catcher (Derek Norris) and a potential starting third baseman, too (Will Middlebrooks) through a series of trades in the last week.
As a rule, the Phillies front office does not discuss possible trades or free agents signings through the media.
A week ago, the Boston Globe reported the Padres among the teams interested in Hamels, along with the Cubs, Red Sox, Dodgers and Rangers. A potential deal involving Hamels and Myers would seem to make some sense.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/...d-about-Hamels-trade.html#OqIgdYAU2lapxYX1.99

If nothing else this could prompt the Dodgers to make a move for Hamels sooner than later.

 

Lol what?

dude..the Padres are not pushing the Dodgers. this was just evidenced by the big " FUCK YOU " that Friedman gave to Preller when he tried to shake the Dodgers down for more money in the Kemp trade.

the Dodger FO is worried about Dodgers..and maybe the Giants to a degree. besides, the Dodgers need Papelbon more than they need Hamels.

 

Ok let me add the following this could make the Dodgers and other Possible suitors move quickly before the whirlwind in San Diego signs him off of the market.

 

17 games.

 

I wonder if we had gotten Montero for Eithier if Kemp would still be a Dodger.

 

Yup and Friedman is learning on the job the differences between the LA and Tampa markets. Kasten knows and avoids talking as does Walters.

 

Good question. May be we could have gotten a better haul.

 

Probably a different haul one not centered on a catcher.

 

Montero sucks. he was almost traded for Ethier. that says enough. Lol