Editorials

Dodgers’ Offseason Completely Misjudged in Register Column

It’s late on a Friday night and I’m writing about quite possibly the single dumbest thing I’ve ever read, courtesy of Jeff Miller of the OC Register.

The headline: “Don Mattingly looks like smart one now, not Dodgers execs he left behind” should’ve stopped me from reading, but, whatever. My bad.




ICYMI: Dodgers Wealth of Prospects Grants Great Flexibility


Sure, the masses might be into this kind of thing, but spewing narrative like this with cheap shots as Miller does throughout the article is the kind of thing I’d expect from a write who just started at Rant Sports, not someone paid — rather well, mind you — to do this:

It’s fair to question the wisdom of taking a job with the Miami Marlins, who, somewhat incredibly, have been managed by seven men since the middle of 2011.

Yes, Jeff, taking a job in Miami where fans and writers openly question whether the owner is literally stealing from the city is easily the smartest move of the offseason.

Last we checked, rumors have been swirling around the Marlins about their trying to trade away Jose Fernandez. You know, quite possibly the best pitcher in baseball when healthy who also happens to be just 23 years old and is insanely relatable to his fan base due to his cultural background? Ring a bell?

Oh, sorry, probably shouldn’t ring the bell too loud in case you were concussed as you wrote this:

“Donnie, we’re going to ruin the Dodgers. You with us?”

Honestly, when a car is engulfed in flames and the only uncertainty is if it’s going to go over the cliff before or after it blows up, who wouldn’t bail out?

OK, I’m only joking. I’m sure Friedman and Zaidi had no intention of ruining the Dodgers, no matter how much evidence there is now to the contrary.

I’ll tie this back to my previous few paragraphs. You know how the front office could really devastate this franchise? By trading away the ace they have under control for the next couple seasons (that Clayton Kershaw guy, who is currently in Cuba trying to relate to Yasiel Puig in the latter’s hometown). Basically, what the Marlins are doing with Fernandez to these very Dodgers.

But sure, heading to Miami is an absolute stroke of genius.

As if all this wasn’t enough already, Miller resorts to an attack he’d block someone on Twitter or Facebook for.

On Day One of the offseason, this team still would have been ranked among the top World Series contenders for 2016. This week, the latest odds came out and, where “L.A. Dodgers” should have been written, instead was “LOL Dodgers.”

Actually, the Dodgers were placed in the top ten with the fourth-best odds to win the World Series, but why let facts get in the way of this level of stupidity?

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Miller then tries (and fails miserably) to tie Josh Hamilton to the Dodgers with the only connection being Greinke leaving the Angels and the move being to sign the right fielder. There was no mention of where Greinke went that very offseason or how he’s signing the largest contract ever given in MLB history given to a player at his age.

Again, those nagging facts, eh, Jeff?

The article continues with a few more stabs at the front office who would’ve made one of the most popular trades of the offseason if not for concerns over an alleged domestic violence incident on the part of Aroldis Chapman. Would you have preferred they went ahead with the trade so you could damn them for that, too, Jeff?

I would say passing on the trade because of the impending firestorm associated with this type of alleged crime would probably be the right move (just ask the Dallas Cowboys), but maybe that’s just me and my stupid morality. I guess I’ll have to apologize for that stance to my wife, mom and any daughters I might be lucky enough to have in my lifetime.

 Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Miller also blames the front office for the Hisashi Iwakuma deal falling through, even though the factor most to blame is the due diligence associated with running the tests. Had the deal gone through and Iwakuma got hurt, I’d imagine Miller would’ve taken that opportunity to curse those wretched nerds and their math again.

Look, the offseason thus far has obviously been frustrating. I’d imagine Friedman and Zaidi would be the first to admit as such. Would I prefer to watch next season as a healthy Iwakuma pitches a day after Kershaw and Greinke, giving way to a bullpen combination of Chapman and Kenley Jansen? Of course I would.

Is all lost for a franchise with the consensus deepest farm system in Major League Baseball and a front office in its second season that is directly responsible for said farm system’s depth? Of course it isn’t.

Just don’t tell Jeff Miller. He might be allergic to facts.

NEXT: Dodgers Were Right To Pass on Cueto

Staff Writer

Staff Writer features content written by our site editors along with our staff of contributing writers. Thank you for your readership.

36 Comments

  1. Anthony first of all do you believe the Dodgers have the fourth best odds in the Major Leagues to win the WS? They aren’t the fourth best in the National League…  Cubs, Mets, Nats, Giants, Dbacks, I would say we are second tier grouped in with Cards, Pirates etc. Just in the NL .

    Yes it is April and our Genius Fantasy Baseball Nerd Boys haven’t completed one of their truly death defying convoluted loser trades yet but I am sure they are building up to it. We have no faith because they have not yet made a trade that they have clearly won the best of the deal yet. They do an amazing job of picking up broken players and waiver wire discards. How about that ex-Angel Reynolds Oh wait he is gone already…

    Quit trying to be a Dodger Front Office apologist and report it the way it is.
    The Team is much weaker now than at the end of the Season! Their prospects to get better are not as good. Yes it is not yet April but the dominant starters that would have only cost them what they have an abundance of Money they did not sign. So now it will cost us prospects.
    I would say from the articles I read everyday Dodger Nation has NO FAITH in these Bozo’s making a trade that turns out in the plus column for Dodger Nation.

  2. Dodgerblue58 Thanks May I guess that your first game was in 1958 also? My father took me to the Coliseum when I was a kid and I was hooked. Been a Dodger Fan since.. 
    But like many of us have studied the game. And these Front Office Nerd Boys are not as smart as they think they are!!

  3. Anthony, I read your column, then I went back and read what Miller wrote. You completely misrepresented his column. He may have gone over the top a bit, but his main point is that since the end of the season Friedman and Zaihi have done nothing to upgrade the rotation or the bullpen while other teams, in and out of the division, have improved. That is indisputably true.

    Why are you such a pathetic worshiper of Friedman and Co.? Do they pay you off with free tickets and access to the press buffet? 

    Yes it’s important to have a strong farm system to sustain the team going forward, but having good prospects is not the measure of success for a major league team. Winning the World Series is the yardstick of success. 

    So it’s fine that Friedman has stockpiled highly-regarded minor leaguers, except that he has done so while failing to improve the Dodgers. Fans pay $100 and up to watch the Dodgers, not the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. They are not interested in paying those prices to watch a team finish in third place, waste the prime pitching years of Clayton Kershaw and the prime hitting years of Adrien Gonzalez in the name of possibility getting better by 2020.

  4. Hey Anthony, You’re contributing to that “White Noise” coming out of Chavez Ravine !

  5. Anthony, I couldn’t agree more. I support this front office’s prudence moving forward. The fact of the matter is that this team is still burdened by Colletti’s reckless (brainless) moves and will be for several more years.

    When we look at the teams that have won in recent years, we don’t see the teams who made big splashes in December. The Royals, Giants, Cardinals, Pirates, etc. have built sustainable success based on smart development of talent. Anyone paying attention to baseball knows that spending big on players in their 30’s is incredibly unwise.

    There are too many “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” fans out there who are pissed that Freidman didn’t give Greinke 6 years/200+M, but would also be the first to curse the front office when the contract is dragging the teams down. These same fans criticize the GM for not trading farm talent, only to blame the team later for having a weak farm system. 

    The bottom line is I want smart people running the Dodgers. Calling them nerds is fine, but the fact remains: it’s easy to critique, but not so easy to smarten up and see the good moves they are making that will lead to many years of sustainable competitiveness. If these fans (who troll your articles, for example) want a big splash, here it is: not trading Seager, not trading Pederson, not trading Urias, not trading De Leon, all of whom will make significant contributions moving forward.

    Keep up the good work, Anthony.

  6. Stump town Blue, this is not an “either/or” choice. As the richest team in baseball, the Dodgers can both develop minor league talent and spend judiciously (I emphasize the latter) on free agents. This is not Kansas City (or Tampa Bay), where the team has no choice but to rely almost exclusively on minor league development.

    While it is true that Greinke may not be worth the money in the later years of his contract, he almost certainly will be for the next three years. By the time he tails off, if he tails off, the Dodgers would have had young, inexpensive pitchers like Urias in the rotation, offsetting the cost. As my earlier post showed, had Friedman signed Scherzer last winter, retained Haren and passed on Anderson, McCarthy, Latos, Wood and assorted other retreads, he would have saved money and had a better team, very possibly a World Series team.

    So, while I agree with you that it’s not smart to put all your chips on expensive free agents in their 30s, it’s equally unwise to depend entirely on prospects and marginal “value added” players. Yes, there is risk in signing long term agent contracts. There also are risks depending on development of young players. If Joc Pederson’s second half is indicative of his real talent, he’s a bust. Urias has pitched a total of 80 innings as a professional and in his first four starts in AAA, he had an ERA over 18.00. Seager hit well in September, when he was facing a number of pitchers just brought up to the majors, but did a pratfall against the Mets in the playoffs. 

    These guys all may develop into stars. I sure hope so. But they also may not. There’s a huge jump from AAA to the major leagues and most players never make it.

    Take a look at the Cubs. They have a core of young, home grown players. But they have augmented them with free agents like Lester, Lackey, Zobrist and Hayward. They may have overpaid for some of those players, especially Lester and Zobrist, but Epstein sees a window to a championship and he is going to try to go through it. I would like to see Friedman do the same.

  7. Stumptown Blue WOW I do not agree with you. Pass the bong buddy don’t Bogart the Happy Smoke…

    What good trades??? All you can judge is from is their one year here. What great signings? McCarthy? Latos? Johnson? Kendrick? Heisey? Heaney?
    So you would rather they sit on the Money and not have Greinke? REALLY?? What Iwakuma was a better idea… Really? Justify it! Please.. You think we are better than the Giants, Dbacks and Cubs REALLY…

    Many of us have been watching baseball for 50 years. We do have a clue. Yes building up your Farm Syem is prudent and a smart business move. But we have Holmes, Stripling, Cotton, Urias, Alvarez, DeLeon all coming in the next year or so. We have Ryu for two more years and Kershaw with an opt out in 2018. So at the most you have 3 rotation slots to fill. Oh Wait a sec you also have Anderson and Wood signed and supposedly McCarthy after June.

    So figure out who you keep and trade the rest to fill the holes, that is what very smart teams do. Buehler is coming back, they have several more International guys they have signed and more high draft picks this year I think it is back to 4 with the Iwakuma pick coming back to us. So they have smartly made the Farm System viable again. 
    The object PAL is to win the WS…..

    I refuse to throw rocks at Ned Colleti he kept the team in contention with one of the worst owners in baseball. The owners spent more money on Brentwood Homes than our Farm System.

  8. So the joy of not having to suffer through the horrific articles of TJ Simers for the past months is gone.  Miller has filled the ‘void’ quite capably I see.  Stupid is as stupid does,  but with hordes of shortsighted Dodger fans in a tissy about the difficult first COUPLE OF WEEKS of the offseason,  he is at least enough of a sensationalist Journalist to recognize a way to gain some following.  I do think he may be better off at TMZ trying to find fire where theres barely smoke – like the Puig nightclub adventure.

  9. Blue58 Well said. Much more coherent and specific than my rebuttal to Stump Town. 
    With the 8 plus Billion in TV money and the Sharp Rise in ticket prices they have money. You can never account for injury but Greinke will be effective for 3-4 years. The Dodgers should not waste Kershaw’s dominant years. Koufax had Drysdale. Now Mad Bum has Cueto and Greinke has Miller. 
    The Team needs to be competitive. They are not a small market Team without resources like KC. 

    I truly applaud Epstein he has seen that the Cubs have a window and is going for it.

  10. daveinfv Dave after reading Anthony’s column and Blue58’s rebuttal I read Millers column. It was not nearly as negative as he characterized. I agree with DodgerBlue58.
    The Team structured as it is right now will fight with Colorado for 4th. We do not have a prayer of reaching the Playoffs let alone the WS. Too Many holes not addressed. Yes wait until April blah blah blah.
    Fix the problems. The truly great game changing pitchers are gone from the FA market.
    If Dominant pitchers are not important why sign Kershaw? Hell lets sign more McCarthy’s and Anderson;’s fill the rotation with them.  Anderson, Wood, McCarthy Oops they have…. What odds do you have a winning a series with the Giants facing MadBum and Cueto? The Dodgers won the West because the Dodgers had Kershaw and Greinke. when those two started the Dodgers won approximately 65% of the games. When anyone else started we won less than 50% Take those stats to heart sir. Cause the Dodgers are going to lose a lot more series than they win next year. Unless they get a great pitcher to back up Kershaw.

  11. daveinfv Could you be a little more specific? What exactly is wrong with Miller’s column? Do you think the Dodgers are an improved team at this point? Is the rotation better? How about the bullpen? Like the situation at second base? Who is the leadoff batter?

    Miller simply was pointing out, with a bit of hyperbole, that it’s been a pretty unproductive offseason so far and who can argue with that? Sure, they may have picked up two or three good minor leaguers, but we’re talking about the varsity here. There’s time to fix this and hope springs eternal.

  12. So its now mid December,  and you guys really think this team will start the season as currently constructed?  We didnt win with spending like a drunken lottery winner,  so we should continue that same path? Miller is preying on panic stricken jaded Dodgers fans that are upset we arent over spending on Free Agents and taking the Simpleton route.  I was not aware the Season Started January 1st.  Where did I miss that change?

  13. Well Dave I see why you like the new FO and Anthony here is a lot of verbiage there but you haven’t said anything. Friedbrains uses the exact same tactic. The point everyone is making and you seem to simple to understand is that the game in 2016 and beyond is about dominant pitching.  Hell it has almost always been about dominant pitching. 
    We lost in the best opportunity to arm up (forgive the pun) for next years battle. The Giants think it is important they have Mad Bum last year got Peavey and picked up Cueto. Would you say they are pretty smart? Before you answer than they have won 3 of the last 5 WS. 
    KC small market team armed up with Cueto for their stretch run and had dominant BP Pitching. 

    Theo Epstein who orchestrated the Bosox to wins is now in charge of the Cubs and has armed up. The TX Rangers likewise
    So you know better than these winning franchises? The Giants, BoSox, Cubs, Dbacks, Nats have all gone in for dominant pitching in their starting rotation. 
    The Dodger FO is smarter than they are? It takes dominant pitching to win and lots of luck. The ball bouncing the right way, lack of injury to stars, and just plain luck.
    But you have to get in the playoffs. 
    Everyone’s point is the Dodgers had their best chance to do it with Money buying a FA contract, . We aren’t asking or proposing Tons of deals they just needed one Greinke and a BP deal. And the idiots still need to fix the Outfield situation. 
    They have done none of it and yes the opportunities are slipping away as the good ones are gone. It is a very finite pool.

  14. Tmaxster So you think the only talent is in FA?  We have the prospects to either trade for a Front Line starter or even let 3 of Urias/De Leon or Montes develop into that guy we need.  The others can fill the pen.  Funny how the most dominant team now is KC and its almost exclusively been done from within.  Cueto did very little to help them after the trade.  This is only year 2 of the new Front Office so lets see how they do when the Season starts and with further moves coming. We tried the highest payroll route and just like the Yanks found it,  it didnt work.

  15. daveinfv Tmaxster Daveintv, you keep setting up straw men and swatting them down. No one here says the only talent is in FA. I’m certainly not. We just are saying it needs to be a part of the equation. I think none of the free agent pitchers left, except Maeda, are worth signing, but I would have liked to have had Greinke or Price, even at their high cost. It would have even been better to have signed Scherzer last year.

    Friedman seems to operate with two firm rules: never pay out a six-figure FA contract and never trade a well-regarded prospect. That might work in Tampa Bay, but not in L.A. I hope you are right that he trades some prospects (though not Seager) for a front line pitcher, but Friedman’s history suggests otherwise. Moreover, even if they do bring in a top starter they have other holes to fill, in the bullpen, at second and in finding someone to bat leadoff.

    As for spending money like a drunken lottery winner, consider this: last season at the trade deadline Friedman spent about $40 million dollars to bring in Latos, Johnson, Wood and Avilan. That includes the money paid those players plus the $28 million dollar bonus to Hector Olivera and the $8 million left on the contract of Michael Morse, who they immediately released. At season’s end, they were left with Wood, a back-end starter, and Avilan, a situational lefty. Are they worth $40 million?

    Earlier, Friedman sent Dan Haren and his $10 million salary to Miami and replaced him with Bret Anderson at a cost of about $12 million (including bonuses). Haren and Anderson put up nearly identical numbers, but the cost to the Dodgers was more than twice what they would have paid if they’d just kept Haren.

    All together, Friedman spent nearly $90 million last year on pitchers not named Kershaw, Greinke or Ryu. In games started by those pitchers, the team was one game over .500. So, tell me, was that a more efficient use of resources than just signing Scherzer to a contract just a little more than the one he got from Washington?

    Look, I acknowledge and appreciate the work Friedman has done rebuilding the farm system, expanding into the international market and restructuring the organization. But the top priority should be the major league team and getting it into the World Series, and soon.

    My problem with Anthony Irwin’s original column, and with much of his writing here, is that he never acknowledges the mistakes and misjudgments of Friedman and the front office. It’s fine to praise them when they do well, but he looks the other way or makes excuses when they screw up. If he aspires to be an independent analyst, rather than a shill, he needs to bring more insight and edge to his writing. I agree with you that it’s too early in Friedman’s tenure to render final judgement, but it’s already apparent that he’s far from flawless. Let’s get real.

  16. Get real Anthony. I agree with most of these comments. This front office has a lot to prove after screwing up their first year. You couldn’t possibly argue that this roster is better than one year ago. And what have they added to the deepest farm team in baseball that they inherited?

  17. Blue58 daveinfv Tmaxster As usual Blue58 you are dead on. All I was trying to say is they have money and spending it on Greinke, Price or one of the other recognized Ace Arms is not bad business. What has a lot of us cranked up is as you say they have not addressed any of the holes that we had coming out of last season. 
    I was hoping that Peraza would compete for the lead off roll as he, at least, has speed. And would fill the need at 2nd and oh by the way be a cost controlled asset.
    What terrifies me is these guys have not yet truly gotten the best in a trade. Really Scary

  18. daveinfv Tmaxster The highest payroll route did not work but that was under a different owner. By the way do not use the Yankees as they dominated the Major Leagues with their payroll for years. It did work for them. 
    I do not advocate spending money like crazy but it has to be a mix of Home Grown, Trade aquired and FA. 
    The Dodgers won series because of Kershaw and Greinke now it will be harder. By the way Greinke was UNDEFEATED against the Giants…

  19. Anthony i am sure you are a very nice young man. Emphasis on young. For your readers to have any confidence in your journalistic integrity you must report the good and the bad. This Pollyanna reporting gives you no credibility.

  20. Way too sanguine, Anthony. The Dodgers are, I think,just concerned about payroll. They already have about a $200 million payroll for next year (including bonuses and payments for people not even there any more), headlined on the negative side by Carl Crawford’s dawg of a contract. It could not be clear they don’t have a real desire to win this year. They’re going to hope for an 85-win season in that division and call it a day. There are some arguments for this — Crawford comes off the books after 2017, for example. Either largely does as well, and his is another not-so-great contract. But what I and a lot of other Dodger fans don’t like is the dishonest about it. We don’t expect a $300 million payroll every year. But don’t pretend you’re really keen to win, when you’re not. (And oh by the way, all reports are that before Arizona swooped in, Greinke was heading to SF, not back to the Dodgers.) 

    The Dodgers are going to to trade for some 2/3 starter at some point, and other than that they’re going to wing it and: 1) hope and pray that Joc gets it together after that second half; 2) hope and pray that Ryu can actually play; 3) hope and pray that Seager’s cup-of-coffee is indicative of what he can do in a full season; 4) hope and pray that one of the minor league pitching prospects can contribute (Urias tanked in his very short AAA time); 5) hope and pray that Puig gets his act together and begins to remotely resemble the player he seemed to be as a rookie; 6) hope and pray that Turner can rebound from his hip injury; and 7) hope and pray that the 37-year-old former star who they have decided to pay $7 million as a platoon second baseman can generate some value. That’s a lot of hoping and praying.

    Oh, and that Chapman trade? Genius. Great idea to set up a classic closer conflict between two guys both of whom are in their walk year in 2016 and looking to get paid! (And by the way, Jansen’s save percentage was higher last year.) Trade for a player who even before the Incident was known as a bit of a troublemaker. Genius.

    Dodgers want to trade for prospects and wait for bad money to come off the books, while waiting for the major 2018 free agent year, and in the meantime blowing Kershaw’s prime late-20s years? Ok. Just ADMIT IT.

  21. Tmaxster Look, the offseason thus far has obviously been frustrating. I’d imagine Friedman and Zaidi would be the first to admit as such. Would I prefer to watch next season as a healthy Iwakuma pitches a day after Kershaw and Greinke, giving way to a bullpen combination of Chapman and Kenley Jansen? Of course I would.
    Is all lost for a franchise with the consensus deepest farm system in Major League Baseball and a front office in its second season that is directly responsible for said farm system’s depth? Of course it isn’t.

    What isn’t credible about this?

  22. wfmartinez523 Tmaxster  Hang on I applaud Kasten, Freidman etc for building up the Farm System. But first lets give credit to Colletti and his people that have all been let go for: Pederson, Seager, Urias, etc. Second lets understand the Kasten PLAN. Same plan as when he was in Atlanta. Only he had TBS and EVERYONE could watch the Braves.
    They will rebuild the Farm Sytem and rely on Cost Controlled Talent to stay competitive.  They will trade some players to fill holes not filled by Farm System They will participate in the FA market only when absolutely necessary. This will let Guggenheim reap HUGE profits from the Team. 
    We Dodger Nation are OK with this. The issue here is most of us believe they have Locked Down on spending two years too soon and we will not be competitive and we will hit over 30 years before they are in the WS again. 
    The other issue is trust. We have not seen one trade or roster move where they clearly won the trade or made a great deal on the FA. Maybe Anderson the first year. Other than that from McCarthy to Latos they have been out traded and out maneuvered.

  23. Tmaxster wfmartinez523 The Kemp trade worked out in our favor. Grandal is a top 5 MLB catcher, both offensively and defensively. Kemp is Kemp. 

    The Atlanta-Mia-LAD deal seems to be a wash. Olivera is an adequate option at 3rd, Turner much better. LAD unloading the salary, so that is a plus. Wood is a decent cost controlled  MLB #4. Mat Latos proved to be a disaster.

  24. wfmartinez523 Tmaxster WFmartinez523 Agreed, the Grandal trade worked out, although Grandal has been injured three years running now and as a result he was terrible at the plate in the second half.
    But that’s the only trade that worked out.
    I can’t see how you regard the deadline deal as a wash. Olivera also plays second and was originally brought in to be Kendricks’ successor. The Dodgers could use him now. Also, the Dodgers blew $40 million on that deal, counting Olivera’s bonus and all the contracts they took on. That could have paid for Greinke’s fifth year. It’s about $50 million if you count what they will pay Utley for last year and next year. If they’d kept Olivera they would not have needed Utley. 
    Not a good trade.

  25. Tmaxster daveinfv When was the last time a team with 2 dominant Aces won the World Series? That is not the blueprint for a Championship.

  26. Tmaxster wfmartinez523 Good points all, Tmaxters. The front office has shown an alarming tendency to misjudge talent. They underestimated Gordon and Haren and overestimated McCarthy, Anderson, Latos, Johnson, Wood, etc. 
    And to your point of trust, Friedman is remote from the fans and the media and as a result comes across as secretive, arrogant and condescending. This may be an inaccurate representation of his personality, but if so he needs to fix it. 
    Part of the responsibility of running the Dodgers is to explain and empathize with the fan base. Friedman and Zaihi have shown no ability or inclination to do that. If the team wins 75 or 80 games next year, they may not survive the fan outrage because they’ve built up so little good will with the paying customers.
    They need to have a press conference in which they give honest, forthright answers instead of bobbing, weaving and obfuscating. They should do some web chats with fans in which they take all questions, including hostile ones. They should give interviews to reporters who aren’t in the employ of the team or can be counted on as sycophants.

  27. The_Dumb_Money I think you’ve nailed it. They see the 2016 season as a test of whether Seager, Pederson, Puig, Thompson, Hernandez and perhaps Montas and De Leon seem like real major leaguers. Then we get more of the same in 2017, when Urias debuts. Perhaps they hope they can complete for a title in 2018, but by then Gonzalez is gone and Grandal is the first baseman with Austin or someone else behind the plate.

    After the 2018 season, Kershaw opts out unless he’s injured and they have to pay him $40-$42 million a year for six years or watch him walk. I bet they let him walk. They build the rotation around Urias, DeLeon, Montas, etc. and plug holes with some of the many good free agents that year. By then their plan for a “sustainable”franchise going forward is in place, though it’s been 30 years since a WS appearance.

    Can this work? Maybe, but there is so much that can go wrong. If this plan doesn’t work–say the minor leaguers can’t make the jump to the bigs or the pitching prospects have arm trouble–the Dodgers are bereft, because there is no Plan B except to spend hundreds of millions on the 2018 free agent class, which seems unlikely.

    I agree with you that it would be better if Friedman just came clean on his plan, but he fears the fans would run him out of town on a rail.

    Finally, I would add more more “hope and pray” to your post: hope and pray that the rookie manager can weld a group of high-paid veterans and untested rookies or near rookies into a winning team. If so, he may be the next Bruce Bochy.

  28. wfmartinez523 Tmaxster daveinfv wfmartinez523 The Giants had dominant pitching in all three of their wins. So did the Phillies in 2008. It’s not THE blueprint for a championship, but it’s a blueprint. 
    The Dodgers could follow the Royals’ blueprint and go with okay starters, a dominant bullpen and an aggressive, put-the-ball in play offense, but the bullpen is far from dominant and their hitters strike out too often. I think our point is they don’t have any blueprint for winning a championship this year.

  29. wfmartinez523 Tmaxster daveinfv Since When Every Team that has won the WS since 2009 except the Cards in 2011 and the Royals this year has had dominant starting pitching. The Cards and Royals did it with an ace and great relievers the Yanks with Aces and Rivera in the BP. 
    Again if you have a strikeout team like the Dodgers and dominant pitching from the other team we have not fared well. The Dodgers record the last several years against over 500 clubs has been less than 50%. One of the reasons is the offense is the Dodgers are a swing and miss club. The Royals are put the ball in play and run. 
    So we would have to re-make our entire line up to change character to a contact type team. Not a bad idea as those win but not our make up at this time. You have to play what you have.

  30. Blue58 wfmartinez523 Tmaxster daveinfv As usual AMEN SIR. Don;t forget the Bosox with Lackey and Lester and the Yanks of 2009 they had both with great starters and a guy by the name of Rivera in the BP. Talk about shortening a game. He slammed the gate shut. 
    They had a thought about doing the Royals thing with attempting the Chapman trade. But we really do not have the team for it. 
    IF Dominant starters are not important why are clubs that we should all consider very smart signing starters? i.E the Giants, Bosox and Cubs. 
    And a new GM by the name of Stewart who was a pretty good Dodger pitcher and understands the game?
    Look we all are Dodger fans. But I turn 65 this next year I would really like to live to see another WS with the Dodgers actually in it. I am not confidant that will happen with these guys in charge.

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