DODGERS NEWS/RUMORS/INJURIES Thread

agreed, that's pretty generous

 

let the jealousy/hatred begin

Dodgers end Yankees' 15-year streak with top payroll​

$235MM payroll for 2014 season tops MLB
Associated Press -- 3 minutes ago

NEW YORK -- Zack Greinke and the Los Angeles Dodgers have knocked Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees off baseball's payroll perch, part of an offseason spending spree that has the average salary approaching $4 million for the first time.

The Dodgers are ending the Yankees' 15-year streak as baseball's biggest spenders and as of Tuesday had a projected payroll of $235 million, according to study of all major league contracts by The Associated Press.

New York, which last failed to top the payroll rankings in 1998, was a distant second at $204 million. After that, it was another huge gap to Philadelphia at $180 million, followed by Boston at $163 million and Detroit at $162 million.

Houston is last at $45 million, up from $27 million at the start of last year, and Miami at $48 million remains 29th.

Some large-market teams are among the smaller spenders, with the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs projected at $89 million, ranked 22nd and 23rd.

Rodriguez, who holds the record for the largest deal in baseball history at $275 million over 10 years, is suspended for the season for violations of baseball's drug agreement and labor contract. Because of the ban, he will earn only $3,868,852 of his $25 million salary -- 21 days pay for the 183-day season.

Greinke would have become the highest-paid player, even if Rodriguez was getting all his cash. The pitcher has a $24 million salary in the second season of his $147 million, six-year contract, and because he can opt out of the deal after the 2015 season, baseball's accounting rules call for his $12 million signing bonus to be prorated over the first three seasons.

"We've got great ownership and a great fan base, and we need to do what we can to win games," Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said last week in Sydney, where Los Angeles swept its opening, two-game series against Arizona.

"I don't think the guys worry about it. I know we don't worry about it," Colletti said. "We're expected to win, and that's how we go about it. Money doesn't mean you win. Money just means you have a chance to get the best players."

As of Tuesday, the average salary projected to be between $3.95 million and $4 million, with the final figure depending on how many players are put on the disabled list by the time opening-day rosters are finalized at 3 p.m. Sunday. That translates to a rise of 8 to 10 percent from last year's opening average of $3.65 million and would be the largest increase since 2006 or possibly even 2001.

"I'm not surprised. With the type of revenues clubs are enjoying these days, the average salaries are going to go up," New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said.

Illustrating the rate of escalation, the opening-day average was $1.07 million when Derek Jeter first reached the major leagues in 1995, broke the $2 million mark in 2001 and spurted past $3 million in 2008.

"I think it's great. I think it just shows the game is growing, fan interest is there," said Jeter, the Yankees captain who is retiring at the end of this season. "The business of baseball seems like it's booming pretty good right now."

The average U.S. wage in 2012 was $42,498, according to the Social Security Administration, the latest figure available and an annual increase of 3.12 percent.

Following Greinke on the highest-paid list are Philadelphia's Ryan Howard and Cliff Lee at $25 million, the Yankees' CC Sabathia at $24.3 million, and Seattle's Robinson Cano and Texas' Prince Fielder at $24 million each.

The AP's figures include salaries and prorated shares of signing bonuses and other guaranteed income for players on active rosters, disabled lists and the restricted list. For some players, parts of deferred money are discounted to reflect current values.

Payroll figures factor in adjustments for cash transactions in trades, signing bonuses that are the responsibility of the club agreeing to the contract, option buyouts, and termination pay for released players.

For instance, the Yankees are receiving $18.6 million from the Los Angeles Angels to cover most of the $21 million due to outfielder Vernon Wells, who has been released, and $13 million from the Chicago Cubs to pay most of the $18 million owed outfielder Alfonso Soriano. The Mets' payroll include buyouts to Johan Santana ($4.9 million present value) and Jason Bay ($2.7 million present value).

Copyright 2014 by The Associated Press​

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fwiw...

MLB Preview 2014​

Forecast: National League preview​

ESPN.com | March 25, 2014​

​

NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST​

1. Los Angeles Dodgers​

ESPN FORECAST -- 93-69 / .574 / +1 (win)​

​

PROJECTED LINEUP_________PITCHING​

Dee Gordon_______2B______Clayton Kershaw__SP​

Carl Crawford____LF______Zack Greinke_____SP​

Hanley Ramirez___SS______Hyun-Jin Ryu_____SP​

Adrian Gonzalez__1B______Dan Haren________SP​

Yasiel Puig______RF______Paul Maholm______SP​

Juan Uribe_______3B______Chris Perez______RP​

Andre Ethier_____CF______Brian Wilson_____RP​

A.J. Ellis________C______Kenley Jansen____CL​

​

Jim Bowden: The Dodgers have the highest payroll in the National League, and they'll have the largest attendance in baseball. Team minority owner Magic Johnson has made it clear the goal for this team is a world championship, period. The Dodgers have the most talented lineup in baseball, led by Hanley Ramirez, Adrian Gonzalez, Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Andre Ethier and Carl Crawford. The rotation is anchored by two former Cy Young winners, Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke. The bullpen is deep and strong, led by three closers: Kenley Jansen, Brian Wilson and Chris Perez. The Dodgers and the Cardinals were the two best teams in the National League last year. They are again this year, at least on paper.​

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Jerry Crasnick: If you picked April 1 as the over/under on Yasiel Puig causing problems in Dodgerland, you were overly cautious. The Dodgers have the talent to win 100 games and make a deep run into October. But if Puig's antics aren't causing unnecessary drama, it's bound to be something else this summer. Can Matt Kemp find a way to stay on the field? If Kemp, Puig, Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier are all healthy at once, can manager Don Mattingly juggle their playing time enough to keep them all happy and productive? And will the "new and improved" Hanley Ramirez hold up for 140-plus games at shortstop while the specter of a big free-agent payday awaits? Clayton Kershaw leads a stacked rotation, and the bullpen ranks among the deepest in the game. But expectations are high, and we can look forward to a few spats and distractions between now and the postseason. All those millions helped buy the Dodgers a killer roster. That doesn't mean the road to October will be a smooth one.​

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fucken pisses me off
guerra, meh
but rosin will be this year's kevin gregg
i know league is still owed a big chunk of change but -- if (as magic said) we're trying to win a championship now and every year -- we should have cut this fucken hack instead of letting a guy like rosin guy

 

no more upset had we passed on a certain 62nd round draft pick a few years ago

fyi, clemente was a former rule 5 player
as were johan santana, jose bautista, werth and victorino

my argument isn't holding onto a rule 5er per se
it's holding onto a fucken hack like league instead of someone who turned heads this spring and could have potentially helped the team (see kevin gregg last year)

league is coming off a 5.30 ERA/1.55 WHIP 2013
and how did he atone this spring?... 16.87/3.00
rosin meanwhile was 1.64/1.09

 

Road-tested Steiner welcomes another Dodgers year
By Ken Gurnick | MLB.com



LOS ANGELES -- This isn't the first time Charley Steiner has been part of an international opener.

The four-time Emmy Award winner just entered his 10th season as a Dodgers play-by-play announcer, having joined the team he listened to growing up in Brooklyn after broadcasting Yankees games for three seasons.

The 2004 Yankees opened their season in Japan, and Steiner sees several parallels between that team and this year's Dodgers, who just opened their season with two wins over the D-backs in a groundbreaking series in Sydney.

"Ironically and coincidentally, this Dodgers team is very much like the 2004 Yankees," Steiner said as the club was about to leave Arizona for Australia.

"A: Star-studded. B: They are now becoming a worldwide phenomenon as the Yankees were when they played the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in Tokyo, and of course that necessitated a very long trip. But the Dodgers now have arrived at event status. And so, part of the price you pay for being event status, your schedule gets all bollixed up -- whether it's additional Sunday night games, where you get into the next town real late or in this case going to Sydney and get in really, really late."

Steiner returns to a revamped broadcasting crew assembled for the Dodgers' new television network, SportsNet LA. For games outside of California and Arizona, Steiner will team with former Dodgers star pitcher Orel Hershiser. He will also continue his duties as the radio play-by-play voice for all home and away games in California and Arizona with partner Rick Monday.

Australia marked the seventh location outside the continental United States from which Steiner has broadcast Major League Baseball. In 2008, he called the Dodgers-Padres games from Beijing. He also opened the MLB season in Mexico in 1999, and he handled the first MLB game in Puerto Rico in '01.

"But in 2004, when the Yankees went [to Japan], a couple of things [stood out]," he said. "One, it was the first year for a fellow named Alex Rodriguez in pinstripes. Two, and more importantly, it was the first year back for Hideki Matsui to go back to Tokyo. So when we got off the plane in Tokyo at 4 o'clock in the morning, two hours from downtown Tokyo, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of reporters. And all it was, was Hideki Matsui and a bunch of guys from New York.

"The Yankees played a couple of games against Tampa Bay, split the two if I recall correctly. The Yankees would then lose 11 of their first 19, then go on to win eight straight and finish the season 40 games over .500."

Steiner said the real test for the Dodgers will be how they rebound from the trip once the season resumes in the United States.

"The Dodgers, how that plays out after Sydney, a couple of things, I think, based on my time with the Yankees," he said. "Don Mattingly was with that team. The flight to and from is tough. It's going to take a few days, if not a week to 10 days, for their bodies to get reacclimated. But much like the Yankees of 2004, there's so much talent here. It might be a little bump in the road, but long term, it shouldn't be a big problem."

Steiner said this Dodgers team has the pitching staff to survive such a challenge.

"The starters and bullpen, their strength -- much can be said about [Yasiel] Puig and Hanley [Ramirez] and [Matt] Kemp and [Andre] Ethier -- but the Dodgers one through five, and especially Josh Beckett, if he resembles anything like he did in [his first two spring starts] -- whoa!" Steiner said.

"To have Dan Haren four and Beckett five, that's pretty impressive. And we haven't brought up [Clayton] Kershaw or [Zack] Greinke or [Hyun-Jin] Ryu. So the rotation is solid. And the bullpen, you've got four guys that have closed at one time or another. The pitching is probably the strength of this team, as of this day."

Based on last year, Steiner said the secret to the Dodgers' success really is no secret.

"You know, it's the old story," he said. "Health. Hanley Ramirez, what we saw for half a season, prorate those numbers if he can stay healthy. If second base can finally be rectified. You know what you're going to get with the corners with Adrian Gonzalez and Juan Uribe. I think the four outfielders into three is basically an overrated story, just because of the nature of the four fellows we're talking about. It also may present an opportunity for Joc Pederson. A.J. Ellis and [Tim] Federowicz behind the plate. I guess health is the predominant issue."

Ken Gurnick is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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