Uh he wasn't hurt when they traded for him I don't believe. And yeah he's only 22 and it's a minor set back so yeah. I'll imagine this limits his productivity to the Dodgers this year to being a reliever with him missing spring training but that was probably the 2016 case all along. But hopefully he shows he's capable of starting in the minors though for future usage.
It's just because for the most part, they pitch 1 inning 70ish times a year if they stay healthy. Not saying they can't be valuable or important, but that's why starting pitchers are worth much more, because they affect more of the game.
The issue, for me, is the game situations relief pitchers are pitching in. If Kenley Jansen and Joe Blanton both pitch 70 innings this coming year, I suspect the 70 innings pitched by Kenley will have a lot more weight to them in actual win/loss results than Blanton's 70. Because there's so much control over when a relief pitcher plays, the real-life consequences of their performance can be a lot higher or lower than a starting pitcher whose situations will be closer to average.
agreed and the stat itself "wins" above replacement is funny since closers are mostly saving games as opposed to winning them well said which is why in this case war might not be the best stat to judge their success by that said, if blanton successfully gets us to kenley 70ish times, i'd say he'd be pretty valuable
Don't be jealous, you were a young cocksucker once too... .....not that there's anything wrong with that.
wow thread randomness.. just checking in to upgrade my Nerd rating from D- to C-. Not enough SP.. still a loss over '15. Not so much faith in Ryu's timing or Kazmir's focus or Meada's shoulder Grade is a slight loss as nothing yet comes close to the Greinke loss. He had the right to leave, the nerds have the right to get another ace. More BP .. better and deeper with lots of new UNPROVEN international talent. Grade is Big + IF.. at least we finally resigned Howie.. hope Utley either improves like 6 years ago (not happening) or gets the fkuck out of the way for the kids. Either way the new crop led by Seager's return Grade is a + OF.. we still have limp wrist Carl or lookout its a lefty Ethier and Joc needs to prove he can hit at least .260 to go with the great D and OBP. Oh and Puig... speaking of lack of focus, lets see what Mr. Roberts can achieve. Grade = same C.. let's hope Grandal heals fine cuz AJ just sucks too frequently. Hit .200 with bad D and I don't care how much CK loves you.
per yahoo mlb... LOS ANGELES DODGERS KEY ADDITIONS: Scott Kazmir, Kenta Maeda, Yasiel Sierra KEY LOSSES: Zack Greinke, Juan Nicasio It's easy to focus on the Dodgers failures this offseason. Greinke left, and the team missed out on all of the top flight arms. In the end, they supplemented the rotation with both Kazmir and Maeda. Both should be effective, but neither will adequately replace Greinke. Los Angeles didn't really need to make a ton of big additions anyway. The offense is mostly intact, and Hyun-Jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy will return to the rotation at some point during the year. People wanted them to do more, but they are still in good shape. GRADE: B- https://www.yahoo.com/sports/blogs/...ading-all-30-team-s-offseasons-185646416.html
fwiw... ESPN gives Dodgers B- offseason grade by Justin Russo | Dodgers Nation — 68 minutes ago All offseason long, various sites have been giving out their grades to how every single Major League Baseball team did during free agency and the trade market. In the case of the Los Angeles Dodgers, they’ve routinely found themselves in the B range of things. That hasn’t changed. Today, ESPN put out their final offseason grades for all 30 teams, and the Dodgers were on the list somewhere in the middle of the pack as far as the overall grading scale went. To be fair, no team graded out with worse than a C- tally, and that seems odd but it is what it is right now, I guess. From ESPN Senior Writer Jim Bowden: The highlight of their offseason is what they didn’t do: hoard all their top prospects instead of trading them. When the dusts settles, Los Angeles will still be a 90-win team that should contend all year for the division title or a wild-card berth. As Bowden goes on to note, the Dodgers had various deals lined up with teams or players but ultimately backed out of them. There was the Hisashi Iwakuma contract and then the Aroldis Chapman trade that never materialized. However, the team rebounded to have a solid offseason. Sure, there was the Zack Greinke situation that saw him head to a division rival, but Los Angeles still managed to scrape together a pretty solid haul of players. The team brought back second baseman Howie Kendrick, signed Kenta Maeda, and signed Scott Kazmir. Those moves will certainly help them. While they could have probably gotten Todd Frazier in the trade with Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago White Sox, getting a surplus of prospects out of them wasn’t exactly the worst thing in the world since they’re all pieces who should help in the near future. Bowden gave the team a B- grade, which is far below what he gave the San Francisco Giants (A) and Arizona Diamondbacks (A-). Don’t let that despair you, though. Few titles are won in the offseason. Remember last season when the Washington Nationals had won the World Series in January? They still have to play the games.
I still feel the same. If they had said that they were going to break the bank for top free agents, and trade top prospects for aging veterans, then I would give them an F...because they didn't do it.
Keeping your word is of utmost importance with your friends and family, and to some extent, your business associates...but in baseball, it's like tits on a fucking bull. Useless...in the aspect of putting together the best team possible. And if they had said what you said they didn't, they would be far from the geniuses their taint lickers declare...they'd be flat out total idiots. And breaking the bank is exactly what for the Dodgers? Not doing what AZ and SF did to get the top FAs out there? Or nailing Price? And then give, say...30 million to Sierra? Or another Cuban? And aging veterans...like Zack Greinke and Cueto ? Those kinda "aging" veterans?
Of course, don't know what's coming down the pike...but as you say, if they did have a terrible off season ( all subjective), if the "one and only" good move gets them to the Prize, then it'll be worth it, won't it? All the terrible shit won't mean , uh...shit.
I mean it comes down to 1 player isn't going to make that huge of a difference on a baseball team. Not to mention the other moves they made counteracted against the wins they gained by signing Greinke in the first place.
Greinke could, maybe win 20 games for them. I don't know exactly whose place he takes, but that could make the difference alone. All I'm saying is, if they put it together and win it all, then suffer for some time because of what they did, then it's worth it, imo. Damn, I 'd definitely be down with that if it were us. Most definitely. We just suffer. Nothing else. Watch SF sail into WS history so often. I just don't chub up over the great "future looks bright" bs which is crammed down everybody's throat now. That's for the "new" fan, the one who figures the "elite" status is as good as it gets...for me, that's loser shit. Just like it has been for nigh all these many years. Just a different spin on it all. All the superlatives and greatness that we've had in recent history has translated into the same 'ol pile of shit for us...no matter how many experts pick us, no matter where our minor league system rates...it means nothing. Maybe it finally will. Then I'll jump on board.
Just buying players doesn't always work. Like in 2012 when they traded for Hanley, Gonzalez, Crawford, and Beckett. AZ won't even make the playoffs.
