MLB 2021 NEWS AND RUMORS THREAD

If Lux looks ready to go again - perhaps he will go. To another team.

Proposals for Lux could be intriguing. Never hurt to listen. Taylor's somehow only 30 yrs old, so he may have two or three 3 win years left in him

 

Fergy to 60 day dl

 

Theres a story out there that an investment fund gave Tatis money and they would be a portion of any contracts he signs in MLB. The speculation is he would have to pay them close to 30 mil from this contract. He also owes his agent probably somewhere around 17mil.

 

Chris Taylor is a FA after the season. probably is last year as a Dodger for similar reasons as Kiké

 

Yeah I know he's a FA. Outside of that and being used at several positions I don't see the link between Taylor and Kike. Well other than both being better options than AJ Pollock in the fall that is. Love Kike but Taylor's a couple levels beyond. Don't think that's any sort of profound take. Was said that Kike left for the opportunity at a bigger role....he's never cracked more than 460 PAs in a season and has started about 300 games since 2017 completing only around 170 of those games. Over the same time frame, Taylor's started nearly 400 games having completed north of 300 of them. Actually Taylor may be the one of the reasons that Kike is gone. Taking pace into account for last season given the shortened slate Taylor's been a 550+ PA guy in 3 of the last 4 seasons. He's basically already a regular and considering that he's been doing it for a WS fave anything else would probably be a step down for him

Anyway the point is if the potential return for Lux looks generous enough it may make sense to just roll into the next few seasons with a Taylor that's proven his mettle and is in his prime years. Don't think anyone can doubt Friedman's creativity at this point..would be intriguing to see what he'd ask for in return for Lux and how it could say bolster the cheap/young pitching ranks coming behind an eventual retirement/decline of Kersh and a skyrocketing payroll

 

Yeah, they aren't going to pass on the upside of Lux for nearly nothing in favor of retaining Taylor when he is a FA a year from now and likely going to get north of $15M a year. The FO is going to look to go cheap where they can the next couple of seasons and 2B is exactly that opportunity when we have 3 guys already or near ready at the MiLB level to man the position and Lux still has the upside of an All-Star caliber MIF. They are especially not going to trade Lux until they know what is happening with Seager. I would assume that Lux is unmovable to the club for multiple reasons, beyond that his stock is down.

 

Reports out of camp have been minimal, but there’s a couple interesting bits.

• Brandon Morrow says he feels healthy for first time since 2018 when he got off to a fantastic start with the Cubs. He doesn’t think the 100 MPH velocity is there anymore, but his stuff should still play well even if it loses a couple ticks. Dodgers brass has also supposedly been impressed so far and said he looks “really healthy”.
• Corey Knebel is another guy that’s looked good in the early going and Robert’s is already saying that they plan to use him in high leverage situations. For all the whimpering about Jansen get the closing duties again, this team will likely have a number of viable replacements for him once he screws up.
• The LH relievers we got in trades this offseason, Garrett Cleavinger and Alex Vesia have been looking good. Robert’s said the team loves the spin rate they’re seeing on Vesia’s fastball.
  
• Ryan Pepiot and Bobby Miller have been the prospects that have stood out thus far.

 

Very firm there....don't remember seeing the same level of belief that they'd splurge this offseason or last. IIRC, it was said that they were looking to cut cost before Mookie..before Bauer and Turner. They literally just had the opportunity to go cheap @ 3B and also didn't need to sign Bauer. Didn't have to extend Mookie when they did either. Does all this activity mean someone like Taylor is on the way out? Potentially. Especially considering the senseless signing of AJ Pollock. But the rotation is also a place where they could field a talented/young group and pull back on payroll. They could also just decide not to pay Seager because, you know, he's not very good at playing SS. And if they don't strike a deal for Seager, and say Lux takes over @ SS..that'd open 2B for Taylor and mean that SS is now the cheap spot

All in all, this FO is too creative and showing too much aggression to say this is or that is going to happen for sure down the line. Lux has upside - but is also " unmovable "....so how is an unmovable player guaranteed a spot on a WS fave and team with dynasty aspirations? I don't believe he's unmovable..not when he has upside. Worse comes to worst, we've seen plenty of deals happen where teams stick their neck out - usually teams that lose out in FA, and there just so happens to be a solid SS market next offseason, so somebody is gonna lose out on the market and look for upside at the least. And the FO's also done too good a job of finding gems to say they'd get nearly nothing in return

 

Isn't Pepiot the guy who pitched in a couple intersquad games last year and looked really good?

 

Hope you protected yourself.

 

RIP Stan Williams. Like Big D, you didn't mess with Stan Williams. Unfortunately he's also known for blowing the save in the playoff series against the Giants in 1962. Dodgers and Giants tied for the NL title that year. Winner of the three game series went to the World Series.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
FEB. 21, 2021 5:26 PM PT


Stan Williams, the fearsome All-Star pitcher who helped the Dodgers win the 1959 World Series, has died. He was 84.

Williams died Saturday at his home in Laughlin, Nev. He was hospitalized on Feb. 11 and had been in hospice care due to the effects of cardio-pulmonary illness, the Dodgers said Sunday and son Stan Jr. confirmed.

Williams also won a World Series title in 1990 as pitching coach with the Cincinnati Reds.

The two-time All-Star right-hander was part of a powerhouse Los Angeles rotation that included Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Johnny Podres from 1960-62.

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DODGERS

Column: Stan Williams says he’s gotten over blowing a pennant-clinching save in 1962, but he believes it made him an outcast with Dodgers

Aug. 25, 2018

Williams, known as the “Big Hurt” because of his penchant for pitching inside, had a record of 109-94 and a 3.48 ERA during his 14-year career in the majors.

“They always talked about my dad being a mean headhunter. He put the uniform on and he changed immediately,” Stan Jr. said by phone. “Henry Aaron always said my dad was the toughest guy he faced.”

The younger Williams, who traveled with his father every summer from age 5 to 14, recalled his father facing the future Hall of Fame slugger in one game.




“He was 3-1 on Aaron and just drilled him,” Williams Jr. said. “Aaron is on first base and he tried to pick him off and drilled him again.”

Williams was signed as a free agent by the Dodgers and made the big-league club when the team moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958. He was with them until 1962.

He pitched three scoreless innings in the second game of the National League tiebreaker series against the Milwaukee Braves to send the Dodgers into the 1959 World Series. Williams was the winning pitcher in the 6-5 victory in 12 innings. The Dodgers and Braves tied for the National League championship at the end of the regular season.



Williams was traded to the New York Yankees for Bill Skowron on Nov. 26, 1962. He played for the Yankees until 1964 and then for Cleveland (1965-69), Minnesota (1970-71), St. Louis (1971) and Boston (1972).

After retiring as a player, Williams continued in baseball as a pitching coach, scout and adviser to several teams. As pitching coach, he helped the Red Sox, Yankees and Reds win division, league and World Series titles.

For years he lived in Lakewood before moving to Nevada in December.

He was predeceased by his wife Elaine. Besides his son, he is survived by his daughter Shawn, brother Jim Williams and three grandchildren.

 

Yeah. He was a 2019 draft pick that most felt had the best changeup in the class. Issues were/are that his fastball velo was underwhelming(it has since ticked up about 3 MPH), had a very average slider and his control was absolute shit. The latter two items are still a question mark as most evaluators have not had a good look at him yet, but our hitters supposedly hate facing him. Let's hope that's not cause his control is still shit.

 

I'm not sure I see us moving much pitching at this point from the MLB ready part of our depth chart unless we are getting someone special(and cheap) this season. 3 of our top 5 pitchers in the rotation can be FA's within the next 2 years(2 after this season). They'll move guys if they think their upside isn't as high as the media is claiming it is or if someone is overvaluing them. Just crazy to look at our young pitching right now:

Buehler (4 years)- Ace stuff and upside, not there yet, but bulldog in the postseason.
Urias (3 years)- Copy and paste Buehler.
May (5+years)- Scouts have given him a front of the rotation grade, needs further development of an out pitch.
Gonsolin (6+ Years)- Scouts gave him mid-rotation grades. After seeing him in MLB many have opted to give him front of rotation upside now.
Gray (6+ Years)- Scouts have given him a #3 starter grade at present, but he has ceiling of more.
Miller (6+Years)- Same as Gray, but is already showing the present stuff to be at the front of a rotation.
Pepiot (6+ Years)- Getting mid-rotation grades all on the basis of two pitches. If his slider and control improve even a little, then the upside climbs. You can copy and paste Gonsolin's scouting reports for him.
White (6+ Years)- Reliever grades since he can't stay healthy. Thing is, he finally was healthy in 2020 and people are talking again about this kid who has received front of the rotation grades in the past.
Jackson (6+ Years)- Still a long way to go, but he is now following a Gray trajectory with some scouts thinking he could leap up prospect lists in 2020.

That's 9 guys that we will have at AA or higher that have received front of the rotation potential reports, which is absolutely staggering and we are not even getting into Grove, Lewis, Beeter, Knack, Ortiz or Williams that all have interesting trends going. I think the FO will manipulate clocks and stagger these dudes to just have a dominant revolving door of a cheap next man up rotation and then let them walk at the end of their service time. We are possibly heading to 6 man rotations, 27-28 man rosters and the universal DH, something that our system is overwhelmingly prepared for. That is why I think we are going to hang onto these kids through next offseason.

 

Today is the day that the rest of the players are to report with our first workout tomorrow. We may have some issues for players coming in from out of the country as we are already hearing about Ruiz getting locked out and then he needs to quarantine. Not awesome as this kid needed some reps this spring.

Also, the Dodgers players have relayed excitement about having Bauer on the roster, but the dude is doing himself no favors with the way he has been handling Syndergaard and Stroman trolling him to no end. The Mets-Dodgers series this year could be something else. We aren't seeing them til August, so this thing could be very annoying for a while.

 

Dude .... get a hold of yourself, man ....