Dodgers' sneaky-good offseason We won't know if it worked until October, but L.A. has reshaped its roster Originally Published: December 13, 2014 By Dan Szymborski | ESPN Insider Everybody loves a good heist movie. In a typical one, a likable protagonist and his lovable, ragtag band of ne'er-do-well miscreants will form an intricate, detailed plan and eventually get the better of the antagonist who owns the thing that the group intends to steal. The plan may be to rob a bank. Or sometimes a casino or a museum with a diamond the size of Mike Trout's WAR. However, the current grand burglary I'm thinking of doesn't involve bags of money or famous jewels -- this mise-en-scène played out during the winter meetings at the San Diego Hilton this week. And the perpetrator is the Los Angeles Dodgers, who deviously retooled some of the weaknesses from their 94-win season using stuff from the other guy's wallet. The 2014 Dodgers were a solid team, but far from a perfect one. The outfield defense was a mess, they got nothing from behind the plate, they had two starting pitchers who were both healthy and good, and too much of the bullpen consisted of incompetent "name" relievers that you'd want in 2010, not 2014. The team's core was still talented, so blowing up the team and starting from scratch made little sense. A retool was in order. The front office in Dodgerland that attended the winter meetings this year was very different than the 2013 group. Andrew Friedman, the team's new president of baseball operations and still on the sunny side of 40, was lured from Tampa Bay, where he oversaw one of the most successful front-office operations in the past decade. To assist him in his dream team of thievery came other recruits for this operation, including general manager Farhan Zaidi from the Athletics; senior vice president Josh Byrnes, who was fired by the Padres last season; team farm director Gabe Kapler; and Jeff Pickler, special assistant in pro scouting and player development. I'll let them sort out who gets played by Brad Pitt and who gets George Clooney. What's even better than making a big score? Making it while people think you were the one who was robbed.
I do get the Dodger games and get all of the games except for some Nat games. I have the MLB package and on the Roku you can skip to any half inning on completed games or jump to a game in progress and rewind back to a highlight or online watch selected highlights while the game is in play same on Roku. During a commercial break you can jump to another game and rewind to a high light and jump back to the game you are watching live. Go down and chat with the wife and if you come back the Dodgers have scored three, rewind and go back. Blacklist on at 10 no problem, check out the game or any game during a commercial and if something good is happening watch the game live and go back to Blacklist and pick up where you are. By that time if the game is slow you can just fast forward through the commercials on Blacklist.
Matt Kemp, who’s headed to the Padres, rates as one of the worst defensive center fielders in baseball, and Hanley Ramirez, who signed with the Red Sox as a free agent, is a weak defensive player as well. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/12/nl-west-notes-diamondbacks-dodgers-padres.html
reality check kemp is not the player he once was he will never again be the player who stole 40 bases his defense has deteriorated and will continue to do so he is a selfish player had he stayed, the disharmony in the clubhouse would have only gotten worse san diego is a fresh start for all and (like i said) they will placate him and cater to his fragile ego
Along with about 160-170 runs batted in. The issue is playoffs as our weak defense won 94 games and the division by 6 games. Not sure it was defense that had the Cardinals handle us as much as it was our bull pen. Sorta amazing how the new regime has shifted the discussion from our weak bull pen to our defense. Now back to the pre general meetings discussion which was more bull pen and starter center and convince everyone those things have really improved. Kasten and company have done a masterful job of distracting folks from that discussion. Sure I know there were some questionable balls and strikes in the playoffs and Grandal might have gotten us a few more playoff strikes. However are we now able to work Wilson in to the scheme and which League will show up, Yup still work to be done.
Remember the end of the season and the Giants were planning to throw Madbum on Sunday to win home field advantage but the Pirates clinched it on Saturday so they were able to set up MadBum for the wild card game. Had he had to pitch on Sunday how would they have done with him not pitching the wild card and being in a different pitcher rotation for them? Wouldn't effect us losing to the Cards but MadBum might have had a different playoff history without pitching as many games.
So, if nothing else substantial takes place between now and opening day, what does our lineup look like? 1) Rollins 2) Joc 3) Puig 4) Gonzalez 5) Kendrick 6) Grandal 7) Uribe 8) Crawford Or perhaps 1) Rollins 2) Crawford 3) Puig 4) Gonzalez 5) Kendrick 6) Grandal 7) Uribe 8) Joc Don't really feel too comfortable putting Joc that low in the order. He's going to need protection. Does Arrubarrena get traded? I think we're currently over players roster so someone's gotta get moved. Still think either goes but perhaps Arrubarrena goes too?
I wouldn't assume Joc is ready to start right away but I do agree it's his job to lose. He'll probably be sent down at least once during the season so we could see Heisey there or even Dre.
The outfield needs to be set by opening day otherwise we still have the uncertainty we thought we had gotten away from by the end of this year.
Joc is a rookie not a an expensive veteran and still not a proven big leaguer so I don't think the outfield will be as cluttered as last year.
Mattingly pushed for Joc to get up there with the big club all last season and compares him to CarGo every chance he gets. i think it's safe to say that Joc is gonna start if he's on the 25 man/opening day roster. Joc's spring might have to be a disaster defensively for him not to make it. they're likely looking for his defense right out of the gate and will let him find himself offensively.
Crawford, Puig and Dre consider themselves starters and Dre and CC expect it to be over and one of them in left. Does Dre consider platooning to still be starting? If trading Kemp costs six million per what will the annual cost of trading Dre or CC be.
There are more right handed starters than left so I think he'll be happy with starting over a 100 games. CC hasn't expressed any ultimatums and he was platooned last year so I'm hopeful he won't be a problem. Winning cures all, assuming we win of course, lol.
So if Joc struggles for a month. Does Dum Dum leave him in there like he did Puig in September and quite possibly fuck him all up? The idea of Dum Dum handling these kids coming up scares the hell out of me. It's another area where he has no idea what to do. Especially with the pitcher's arms.
