DODGERS NEWS/RUMORS thread

this mostly
head case be gone

 

Kimbrell is still out there.........

I suspect that a platoon with Joc is going to be the case and whoever hits both LH and RH pitchers will get the lions share of starts this year.

 

I woke up this morning and I feel like I'm moving past this Bryce Harper thing pretty fast. I was doing the math, and if he really was offered 4/$180 by the Dodgers - if he goes out and posts an average of 7 WAR over those 4 seasons, then he likely gets the same deal again at age 30, meaning he could have made 8/$360 and crushed the Philly offer (even accounting for CA tax it crushes it) in 5 less years. Of course, that's a best-case scenario for him. But if he's not willing to bet on himself, then maybe we should be happy we aren't betting on him? Probably just me trying to justify the whole thing. In the end he wanted "security", which I put in quotes because it's all relative since a 4 year deal would have provided plenty of security as well.

 

Do you know what that means? There are more right handers in MLB than left handers. That means one of Joc or Verdugo is barely going to play. That does them no good or the org any good from the standpoint of keeping their value up. It's better to trade one of them so that they can go and be a starter elsewhere. Verdugo needs to play everyday and Joc needs to play just about everyday. And maybe there is a Joc trade coming? But even though he's more proven than Verdugo, there's a lack of team control with Joc, so there may be just as good a shot of Verdugo being dealt thanks to his team control.

If it were up to me, I'd deal Muncy and open up 1B for Belli/RF for Verdugo. CKWG says they wouldn't get much for Muncy, but personally, that wouldn't stop me from dealing him and mainly because I'd just be trying to build what I believe is the right mix for the big club because it's time to stop coming in 2nd place. Didn't really give up anything to get Muncy anyway. What I know is that Belli's offense has been significantly better at 1B for whatever reason. Obviously, he's really good defensively wherever he plays, but the offensive production in the OF is rather weak. If Belli mashes at 1B, what are we missing from Muncy? Nada. And of course Belli is better defensively.

 

Yes, it's you trying to justify the whole thing. Because the numbers we were discussing yesterday or day before yesterday..Harper's jersey number with LAD.

 

Arte Moreno- mode

 

Not sure if anyone saw Belli's homer yesterday, but it was sure pretty. The moving parts in his swing are toned down, his front step is not nearly as aggressive and the bat seemed to stay in the zone a tick longer. The ball he hit out yesterday was something he woulda swung under in 2018. It is only one HR, but he looks like a different hitter. Roberts talked about him after the game and mentioned that Cody took last season pretty tough and used the offseason to work really hard to get his swing right. He seems like an airhead, but it appears that Cody has a strong work ethic.

 

That was one of his strengths in the minors from what I remember. I think when the results started to tick down, fans assumed he wasn't working. He was in the weight room almost immediately after his rookie year, trying to get stronger

 

Matt Monagan‏@MattMono11
Let's check on Bartolo Colon

 

35 HR's, .391 OBP ??

Why would you trade those #'s??

 

i can't blame him at all for going after that money
how many people ever get the chance?
i like to bet on myself but leaving $150 million on the table?
not happening

 

From Bryce's perspective, no problemo.
But you see guys like Nosler bitching about collusion and evil billionare owners, "anti-labor" shit
and that gets real old, real fast
30 million dollars to play baseball for 6 months

 

The real question is, why wouldn't Muncy fetch much in a trade?

 

If no one is traded before opening day I'd expect Verdugo to head back to his minor league life. He has to play everyday..somewhere.
But like you said..with Pollock's injury history, who knows?

 

The trade return on Muncy (very little) is not worth the risk of him repeating his 2018 for another team.

 

Have to wonder. I mean, it's not like I don't know how much he produced, but I've been told that, even with those numbers he won't fetch much in return in a trade, so what's the story? Why is this? Is it as obvious as it seems, that he's only done this one season? Maybe it's because he pretty much needed a 2-3 week break in August where they cut back on his work load, him having never been a huge part of a team so late into a season? Maybe it's the struggles against left handed pitching in the 2nd half of the season? Maybe it's all of the above? Certainly, this is not a perfect player. Rooting for him, obviously, but one can be objective as well.

We're basically in a situation where we're looking towards the future now and banking on our young starting pitchers and young hitters to get us over the hump. Is Muncy an integral part of this? If so, he became an integral part of this mighty damn fast. I don't want to take him for granted, but it does seem as though Friedman finds these guys annually. And I have a feeling that LAD's defense would be better with Belli and Verdugo down the line on the right side. Would also be nice to have a contact oriented Verdugo in a lineup full of hackers. All in all, it's coming down to Muncy, Joc, or Verdugo. Somebody's out. If you're telling me Joc is out..OK, what are we getting? We're getting more for a Joc with less team control than we'd get for Muncy? Hmm. Guess we'll see what the decision makers do, but it does seem as though there's been more trade interest in Joc. This is all probably building towards Verdugo going back to AAA.