“No news is good news” may be a mantra to some, but probably not to fans of the Dodgers. While the front office has indeed made some moves—most notably re-signing Clayton Kershaw and adding Joe Kelly to the bullpen—all the rest of the moves they’ve made are mostly underwhelming.
One school of thought is that this is by most accounts a team that has reached back-to-back World Series, and as such doesn’t need too much tinkering—just a piece or two that would finally get them over the hump.
But then there’s the other camp, rightly pointing out the flaws in the team. They traded their most dynamic player and fan favorite Yasiel Puig to Cincinnati. Besides Walker Buehler, the pitching staff is aging and often injury prone. Now at the catching position is a guy that hasn’t been the main catcher for a whole season in Austin Barnes, alongside another aging veteran in Russell Martin. No one knows who the starting second baseman will be, and as stated above, Puig’s arm is gone from the outfield.
Now, the team is still a very good team, above stated issues aside. But they are not good enough to repeat as World Series contenders. One look around the NL will show that. All of the other would-be contenders have gone out and made significant additions. One of them is most likely going to sign Bryce Harper, who, to me, would’ve made the only suitable replacement for Puig in right field.
There are rumors that there still is a ‘mystery team’ in on Harper, and I’m not foolish enough to think that it’s actually the Dodgers, although my heart would love to believe that it is. For most, aside from the front office, this seems like a slam dunk. Harper reportedly would love to play in Los Angeles as it’s relatively close to his home base of Las Vegas. Besides Kershaw, the Dodgers are lacking a superstar that a major market like L.A. deserves. And they have the money, even though they don’t want to spend it. Heck, the front office should easily be able to match the Chicago White Sox’s reported offer to Manny Machado of 8 years, $250 million if it really wanted Machado that badly.
We will just have to be patient and see how the first half of the season turns out. This team now is not what it will be on September 1st, and the front office will undoubtedly make additions between now and then. Will they be enough, is a perpetual wonderment now for Dodger fan.
A team never does what a fan base wants, for a myriad of reasons. Money constraints. Personnel issues. The economy. Who knows. But this front office owes it to Dodgers fans to get a team a world championship, especially after 2017 when they had the better team and still couldn’t get it done.
Beating a point to death does no good, especially when no one who could do anything about it is listening. We can all scream about the front office not doing more until we’re blue in the faces. I understand that the team’s goal is to make it as competitive as possible for as long as possible. And that has definitely been achieved. But as long as tickets prices keep going up, and local fans can’t see their team on their televisions, the front office should be pushed to field the very best team money can buy.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
You are preaching to the choir. We all want them to do more. Maybe not having a guy in the GM chair is hurting that. Who knows. Andy is doing all these negotiations by himself. There was a report this morning that the Dodgers are really trying to get the Indians to deal Kluber. That in and of itself could be the precursor to a bigger trade since most likely there would be one or two MLB ready players headed to the Tribe. At least 1 would be an outfielder. Most likely they would want Verdugo. Or it could lead to a free agent signing or two. We have no clue because of the mysterious way in which Ol Andy works.
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By the way, that picture makes Andy look like a dork. Or at the least, a total nerd.
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That’s the look you have on your face when you want to sign Bryce Harper and Stan Kasten whispers in your ear that you only have the money to sign Derek Dietrich.
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That’s why I chose it 😈
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Considering the annual price increases for seats at the stadium and considering the fact that an overwhelming number of local fans have no access to the games on TV even though the team has been paid a ridiculous amount of money to televise them, ownership had better not take their fans for granted. They have been very lucky over the past few years that the Lakers have been so putrid. If they had been the Lakers of old, this town would be firmly in the Laker camp right now and the Dodgers would be a weak number two in terms of fandom. The Rams are doing very well, but this has never been a football first town. At this point it seems as though the front office has removed some decent players and replaced them with less decent players. I very much hope I no longer feel that way on opening day.
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Yanks dfa old friend Tim Locastro. I assume they’ll be able to trade him, but if not, we need to try to get him back in our system.
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Andy one line really struck me. The front office owes a championship because in 2017 we had the better team and didn’t win. How is that the front office’s fault? 2017’s failure falls squarely on the coaches and players not AF and company. Our best players just didn’t get it done!
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Fair enough
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I don’t know that the Dodgers were better. They really cooled off in September going 12-17. Houston was 20-8 in September. And they sure as hell were better in Game 7 on the road.
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Jansen blows one save all year then blows 2 in WS and we lose a game 5 Kershaw starts when we scored 12 runs! Not to mention Darvish! But we were in total control of that series and ready to go up 2-0 when Jansen gave up the Gonzales hr. It was shocking and the series turned right there!
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I’m with Rich on this one, we had that series, and let it slip away.
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True. But does the best team allow that to happen?
Seems to me the an argument could be made that the American League has the better players. They’ve won 4 of the last 6 Championships and for a couple of years have had the top 3 ranked teams. Not to mention the fact they’ve won 16 of 19 All Star games this century.
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I found this interesting:
https://dodgers.mlblogs.com/in-gimenez-dodgers-added-an-all-star-character-to-the-coaching-staff-26ee52756979
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Dodgers have signed a Taiwanese RHP. cannot remember his name but it was on Twitter this morning. Do not know a thing about this guy. Of bigger interest, the Padres, Reds and Indians are working on a 3 team trade that would send Kluber to the Reds. Padres are looking for a 3rd baseman since they are moving Myers back to the outfield.
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No matter what, wins and losses are on the players. Putting the best players available on the roster is on ownership and the manager. Obviously they have been good enough to go to the Series twice in a row and win 6 straight division titles. They struggled to get there last year for a lot of reasons. Injuries, bad mojo, whatever. I give them a pass on 2018 because the Red Sox were clearly the better team. But they blew 2 games in 2017 they should have won. We all know that. Bad breaks are a part of baseball. Lavagetto doesn’t hit his double, Bevens has a no hitter in the series. Owens catches the ball, the Yankees lose and the series is tied. Happens all the time. Someone else besides Branca pitches to Bobby and gets him out, Brooklyn goes to the 51 series. It is the players who win or lose the game. But finding the right mix? That’s on the FO.
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“A team never does what a fan base wants” Well the old fans are not as noticeable at games anymore, new fans want production. This is LA and people expect more. The old fan base didn’t really care if the Dodgers didn’t do so good, they like to sit around and talk about the good ol’ days.
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Well you are way off base there. Old fans have as much passion if not more than the younger fans because they have seen winners. You do not see them at games as much because the prices there are so high that most older retired people like myself cannot afford to go. The good old days? Yep, that’s true. Baseball was much more exciting than it is today. All these new rules and shifts and so on. Production? Dude, you have no frippen idea how much more productive this version of the Dodgers is compared to some of the teams from the 60’s. This team led the NL in Homers in 2018. They hit more than any Dodger team in history, including the great Brooklyn teams of the 50’s which had Snider, Campy and Hodges, all of whom hit more than 40 a few times. We do not just sit around all day and talk about the good old days. We wish they were still here because the game was better then.
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All the major sports have restructured the rules of the game to produce more offense. When I was a defensive back in college we could beat the crap out of a receiver until the ball was in the air. We could also lead with the head (actually taught to do it) and we could tackle the quarterback. In baseball the mound was higher, the fences were farther away and very few players had the size and strength players today do. Basketball? Traveling used to be called and….. the 3 point play. Everybody loves offense. Defense clearly isn’t emphasized in baseball as much as it usta was.
As for the cost and who buys tickets, I’m surprised at how many young people can afford the FCI of today’s game. Me? I can afford it, I’m just choosing not to.
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Ouch to us “old” fans!
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It’s like Nosler read my thoughts, organized them and typed them into coherence:
https://www.truebluela.com/2019/1/15/18183276/dodgers-luxury-tax-is-dictating-their-offseason-and-its-old
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Here here for Nosler.
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Nosler hit the nail right on the head. Former Dodger John Wetteland arrested and charged with continuous sex with a minor……..
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Yoiks.
I think we need something positive to happen. I know I would like to see something Dodger related to distract me from the craziness I see everywhere.
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