DODGERS NEWS/RUMORS Thread

Brian Kenny: "I'm not buying the hype of COVID-19 yet. Lets not get carried away here with this coronavirus and a couple hot months. Sure he seems to hit well in ballparks across the world, and it doesn't appear that handedness, race or age impact his ability to hit. I just need to see him show this kind of performance over a full year or two before we start putting him on this list."

 

"Recency bias"
"Cut of the jib index"

 

Kenny is a D-bag, but I like his show. This clip of Harold Reynolds trying to debate him is always good for a laugh.

 

Ken Rosenthal has said if they don't play nobody will accrue any service time. I don't if anybody knows what they will do if they play 80-100 games, but we know Mookie needs 102 days to complete his 6th year.

 

Wow Thor now getting TJ. Mets can't catch a break.

 

102 days of active roster time?

 

MLB DL time counts too

 

Brandon McCarthy and Scott Kazmir breathe a sign of relief.

 

Well now they have to play, don't care if the season ends in December.

 

think a lot of these guys are just electing to deal w the inevitable in down time
interesting that w all the demands on the health system the rich just line up surgery np
i know its totally different but still not a great look
same as every person w the means is getting their test

 

So Mookie could be a free agent without ever playing a game for the Dodgers.

 

Latest MLB proposal includes draft in 2020, likely later than current June dates, sources tell The Athletic. Also includes service time for players if season is canceled; players would get same service for ‘20 they earned in ‘19. Parties earlier had discussed tabling that issue.

 

ah man the toy cannon died today
never forget that towering home run in 74 WS
like the only highlight beside Fergusons throw

 

Saw him hit a late season grand slam vs the Reds in person. Back when the Dodgers and Reds battled it out every out for the pennant.

 

So someone asked the other day, "What is the biggest 'What If?' in baseball history?" and it has me thinking after a similar post on here the other day, what are some of the biggest "What if's in Dodgers history?". I have a couple and leading with what my response was, but I am curious what some of yours are?

• What if the Pirates don't poach Roberto Clemente from our organization? The 60's and early 70's Dodgers were a periodic NL contender where from 1959-1972 they took home 1st place 4 times, winning 3 World Series and losing one. But what if they had one of the most formidable players in the game still on their roster when they missed the playoffs with their 5 second place finishes? Multiple seasons were the difference of only a couple of games with the Giants pulling off multiple single game 1st place victories. There is likely only one out of three seasons that the Dodgers could overtake the Reds, but not only does it potentially put the Dodgers into a dynasty position of 5+ WS victories in a 13 year span, would this have been enough to shoot off the trajectory of the beginning of the Big Red Machine and most importantly does this change the date, time and place that Roberto Clemente gets on that airplane, giving us potentially 3+ more years of one of the greatest players of all time? This one was before my time, so it is harder for me to grasp the state of the game. Just seems like on the surface, that is a huge one since it was impacted by a HOF'er being taken from us when he was only 19.

• What if the Dodgers never sign Orlando Hudson? This one is a bit tougher and is hearsay for now, however there have been multiple reports that Mike Trout was atop the Dodgers draft board that year and had they not lost their pick to the D'Backs(who used it to pick A.J. Pollock), he would have gone to the team that actually plays in LA. The 2009 draft was also a catastrophic whiff by Logan White which last I checked resulted in 1 major leaguer that pitched in a grand total of 4 games for the Marlins. People seem to forget how great the O-Dawg was for the team when he played at an all star level for 4 of the first 5 months before fading in the last month. The Dodgers only pull off the division by 3 games, so more than likely they do not win the division, but the Rockies pulled the WC off by an additional 5, so do the Dodgers go toe to toe with the Phillies in the 1st round instead of the second? Does the Ronnie Belliard high overtake the Phil's in the NLDS? And where would life be without the Matt Holiday nut shot? All these are important questions, but MAYBE the most glaring thing to come of this is the Dodgers missing on the chance to draft arguably the greatest player to ever set foot on the field. What do the 2012 second place Dodgers do with a lineup consisting of Matt Kemp in RF, Andre Ethier in LF and a 20 year old rookie in CF that put up MVP numbers? Around those 3 are Hanley Ramirez at SS, Adrian Gonzalez at 1B and Shane Victorino's rotting carcass never see's the light of day. Starting the following year, the Dodgers begin their run of 7 straight NL West Crowns. How does that change the trajectory of the franchise? Does Matt Kemp never run into that wall at Coors? What happens to the rise of Puig? Is the addition of the best player in baseball enough to get the Dodgers over the WS hump?

• Speaking of Adrian Gonzalez... what about the trade with the Padres that was nixed at the last minute? In 2009 it was reported that the Dodgers and Padres got close to a deal at the deadline that would have sent Adrian Gonzalez and Heath Bell to the Dodgers for James Loney, Russell Martin, James McDonald, Blake DeWitt and Ivan DeJesus. It has been said that the Dodgers were the ones that pulled out at the last minute as at the time, it was viewed as a treasure trove with young stars Martin and Loney going, McDonald being viewed as the 3rd piece of a 3-headed monster rotation with Billingsley and Kershaw, Blake Dewitt was coming off of a solid yet unspectacular rookie campaign and Ivan Dejesus was the once rising stud prospect whose career was derailed after a leg injury. It turned out that all these players were very replaceable in the end the Dodgers could have had their desired star 1B 3 years sooner during his 3 best seasons and without the cost of taking on Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett at a time the franchise was becoming flush with cash. Would the .958 OPS of Gonzalez been a big enough addition to get the Dodgers past the Phillies that year? Or would the still dangerous arm of Heath Bell against Matt Stairs been enough to change some of our nightmares? What happens when Guggs takes over and doesn't need to take on the unnecessary contracts of Crawford and Beckett to build a contender?

What are some of yours? Or what do you think about the ones I posted?

 

well the obvious one is what if we don't trade pedro for delino
hard to really say as the entire dynamics would have been totally different on different clubs
like how good would our entire team be if we had an actual manager?

 

Truly great ones, Kid.
Mine is the year we got Mookie Betts.
And then The Big Nothing.
The Never Ending Story...