For those old enough to remember the days before aluminum bats, when we broke a wooden bat – whether it be during a Little League game, a friendly game of ‘Over the Line’ or ‘Three Flies Out’ at the local park, school, or even the middle of the street (“Car…Car…C-A-R”), it was devastating. In fact, we […]

Sometimes we Dodgers fans get caught up in the pursuit of high profile free agent players like Bryce Harper and Manny Machado in 2018. This Hot Stove season starting pitcher Gerrit Cole was the near-unanimous choice of fans and baseball analysts as the prized free agent to be pursued by any team wanting to guarantee […]

By now most baseball fans have heard the news that as many as 42 minor league teams may be stripped of their major league affiliations as part of the forthcoming MiLB restructuring. In the week or two since the news first crept out into the media, there has been an outpouring of sadness, disappointment, anger, […]

As we have become accustomed to, begrudgingly, changes to baseball handed down from commissioner Rob Manfred continue to mount this offseason with the newest, and seemingly most controversial, being the suggestion of the removal of 42 minor league teams from an affiliation with MLB starting in 2021. There are also other plans as far as […]

It was 230 years ago – in 1789 – that the great Benjamin Franklin wrote: “…but in this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” If Benjamin Franklin were around today, he would have added a third item to his short list of life’s certainties: “Dodgers top prospect DJ Peters […]

Since Bud Selig departed from office and was replaced by Rob Manfred as the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, there has been a tidal wave of changes suggested and implemented throughout all facets of professional baseball ranging from the majors to “unaffiliated” independent league teams.  Most of the suggested changes were made or tested to […]

Dodger fans who were paying close attention to the return that their team received from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for one-time fan-favorite Yasiel Puig and two-time fan-favorite Matt Kemp (along with left-hander Alex Wood and popular catcher/utility infielder Kyle Farmer), the efforts of their attention could very well be rewarded as early as February […]

Less than 24 hours after Washington Nationals closer Daniel Hudson struck out Houston Astros left fielder Michael Brantley to end the 2019 World Series on Wednesday night, the Dodgers struck their first match to light their 2020 Hot Stove when they announced on Thursday afternoon that they have added 23-year-old left-hander Victor Gonzalez to their […]

There are those who believe that the Dodgers bullpen in 2019 was not a significant problem, pointing to the group’s 3.85 earned run average (which ranked fifth in Major League Baseball) and 4.3 wins above replacement (ninth). But a deeper dive into advanced analytics (Baseball_Reference and Fangraphs) paints an entirely different picture of last season’s […]

On Thursday afternoon, MLB Trade Rumors reported (via Twitter) that a “Radical Restructuring” of MLB’s Minor League Baseball (MiLB) system appears to be on the (relatively) near horizon – up to and including the elimination of a great number of teams and the consolidation of several lower MiLB levels. Rather than even attempt to paraphrase […]