DODGERS NEWS/RUMORS thread

molly knight so ...

A requiem for the traumatized Los Angeles Dodger fan
by Molly Knight | The Athletic — 2 hours ago

PHOENIX — Last week, The Athletic posted a “Fan Misery Index” that rated the pain and suffering of each MLB fanbase. The Dodgers came in 24th, sandwiched between the Philadelphia Phillies (who won the World Series in 2008) and the New York Yankees (who have won the World Series 400 times since 1996). And while my good dude Cliff Corcoran knows his baseball, I am left to assume he did not see the rusty fork used to scrape out the hearts, spleens and kidneys of Dodger fans in back-to-back World Series.

When we last left our heroes in blue, they were getting pantsed on national television by the far superior Boston Red Sox while the President of the United States (accurately!) slammed their manager on Twitter for pulling a starting pitcher too early and failing to win their first world championship in 30 years. It was a nightmare!

But now the frost of another bitter winter is thawing. The days are stretching longer. And the spring training rosters in Florida and Arizona are getting pruned into tidy twenty-fives. Baseball is back, baby. God help us all.

I’ve been driving around Arizona for a week, and the buzz under the sun is that aside from the Dodgers, the National League West is a car crash. The Giants may have stolen the Dodgers’ general manager, but at press time it was unclear if he could hit. The Padres have perhaps the best farm system in baseball, but Dodger fans don’t need to freak out about that for at least another season. The Diamondbacks, bless them, lost their best pitcher (Patrick Corbin) to the Nationals, noted Dodger serial killer Paul Goldschmidt to St. Louis and sneaky-good-hitting outfielder A.J. Pollock to — wheeee! — Los Angeles. The Rockies — who took the Dodgers to Game 163 despite having way less talent — figure to be a tough team at their Coors House of Horrors, a middling club on the road and a strong contender in the wild-card hunt.

For the seventh straight year, the Dodgers are a bullet train cruising toward the playoffs on raw talent alone, while their NL West competitors chase them on foot with holes in the soles of their flip-flops.

If you are a Dodger fan, this information does not comfort you. You cannot fly an “NL West Champs” flag on your house. You cannot wear your BACK TO BACK WORLD SERIES *PARTICIPANT shirt to the gym without feeling sad. You recognize that complaining about a team that has been to the playoffs as a division winner six (!) years in a row makes you a bit of a snob, but you’re looking down at the fresh Xs that mark the spots where your heart and your kidneys and your spleen used to be, and you’re wondering, “Do I want to put myself through this again?”

The answer, of course, is yes. Yes, you do. Becoming emotionally attached to a sports team is one of the dumbest, entirely avoidable things you can put a human nervous system through. (Even my dog knows sports are awful and only exist to make people miserable.) But if you’re into the Dodgers this far, there’s no turning back, and you know that. Because the only thing dumber than loving them is abandoning them right before they maybe, finally, win the whole damn thing.

There are reasons to be optimistic about 2019. If the NL West is as bad as people on the ground and on their computers suspect, the Dodgers will have little trouble cruising into their seventh straight postseason. This means they won’t have to push young guys like Walker Buehler (who tossed 6 2/3 brilliant shutout innings in the aforementioned Game 163 to clinch the division last year) and flame-throwing Julio Urias to throw a single extra pitch.

It means they can build in extra rest days for their best hitter and team leader, Justin Turner, to keep his legs fresh for October. It means they can can withstand losing an ailing Clayton Kershaw for weeks at a time (I’m worried and I don’t want to talk about it), and they can baby shortstop Corey Seager from two surgeries and back into All-Star form.

Hey, remember Corey Seager? The unanimous 2016 Rookie of the Year had an “off” year in 2017 that still saw him post an .854 OPS, which is, uh, really good for a shortstop having an off year. A healthy Seager is a nightmare for opposing pitchers and an excellent replacement for his replacement last year, Manny “Don’t Call Me Johnny Hustle or Expect Me NOT to Spike Unsuspecting First Basemen As I Run By Them” Machado. (Seager costs 26 million less than Machado this season, in U.S. dollars and in tweets Dodger fans will send to defend his shitty behavior.)

I can’t tell you not to feel sad that Yasiel Puig is gone. While he endured a complicated marriage with other players and Dodgers personnel since the beginning of his time in Los Angeles six years ago, his relationship with fans was one of pure and simple joy that never wavered. It is OK to grieve a little now that he’s wearing red for a living and playing baseball in Ohio. It’s weird. But a fresh start is a good thing for both sides, and the men who fill out lineup cards in L.A. no longer have to worry about their right fielder showing up on time for games. Also, Pollock is a good outfield replacement. Like, really good. I can’t promise he will lick bats, but let’s be honest — that was gross.


At least A.J. Pollock won’t be licking his bats. (Joe Camporeale / USA TODAY Sports)
I was as bummed as you were that the Dodgers didn’t sign Bryce Harper at first, because I live in L.A. and I am bored and he is fun. But Harper was hella expensive and, well, a 13-year contract makes my eyeballs sweat. The Dodgers owners have spent a ton of money in the post-McCourt era, so I’m not sure you can smash eggs on their heads here. One of the first things they did was make Clayton Kershaw an offer for 15 years and $300 million dollars on the second day of the 2013 season. Kershaw later told me he turned it down because it made his eyeballs sweat, too. He felt it was way too long of a commitment for both sides — What if the team wasn’t winning? Or what if it was winning but he got hurt and let everyone down? — and he was absolutely right.

Bryce Harper = awesome. Fifteen years for any baseball player not named Mike Trout = terrifying.

There’s one more reason to be optimistic about the 2019 Dodgers. I never thought I’d finish this screed with a middle reliever in save-the-best-for-last position, but here we are. A few years ago, I wrote a book on the Dodgers. In my ultimate literary fantasy, they would have won the World Series during the season I chronicled, and I would have written victory haikus from the center of the clubhouse, with champagne searing into my eyeballs. But they lost and I lost when Joe Kelly wrecked it.

My book wound up doing fine (most people relate better to crushing disappointment than unfettered glory, it turns out), but the Dodgers are still searching for their first big gold trophy with 30 tiny flags since 1988. After beating the Dodgers again (!) as a member of the Red Sox last October, Kelly signed a three-year free-agent deal to work his devil magic in Los Angeles. I’m not saying he will be the dude to lead them to their first parade since Ronald Reagan was president, but I’m not NOT saying it. I think you will agree it’s much safer for the Dodgers to employ him in order to avoid having to face him.

Opening Day is just 10 days away. Which means you’ve got a little over a week to figure out how you can cover your face in such a way that you can sneak a peak at Rich Hill and Cody Bellinger and Seager and Turner and Pollock through your fingers. And if you’re lucky enough to go to Opening Day at Dodger Stadium, you can pinch yourself for getting to spend a work day in one of baseball’s most majestic cathedrals.

And then, when no one is looking, you might get down on your knees and pray for a better ending.

 

um...

 

Dick Mountain about to start opening day

 

STOP PULLING DICK!

 

Well that blows. But I guess we have to give him credit for his loyalty. We don't see it too often anymore. A superstar passing on playing the market to stay with one team for his career, like Kobe for example, but in this case, potentially never seeing a championship. It's his team through thick and thin. I can respect that.

 

MLB sucks at marketing anyway

 

And some, ya know, pitching.