MLB 2020-2021 OFF-SEASON NEWS AND RUMORS

He has played the position a bit in his career and most feelings from scouts are that he would be much better defensively at the 3B position than he is at SS. He is just good enough to stay at the position and his bat massively plays up at SS which is a reason to keep him there.

 

Head over heart. Only a matter of time. We know how much pitching means to winning in the postseason. And defense pretty much goes hand in hand with pitching, so how long do they press their luck with Seager @ SS?

And he could also find it easier to stay healthy over 162 games if he were at 3B. Obviously, SS is much more demanding. Need the LAD FO to go with their head on this one. Not their heart

 

This would absolutely suck.

 

The Rule 5 Draft is underway.

Selected from the Dodgers:

Major League Phase:

• RHP Brett de Geus to the Rangers
• RHP Jordan Sheffield to the Rockies

AAA Phase:

• RHP Shea Spitzbarth to the Pirates
• LHP Tyler Gilbert to the D-backs
• SS Errol Robinson to the Reds
• CF Chris Roller to the Indians
• 2B Drew Jackson to the Mets
• 2B Marcus Chiu to the Marlins

Selected by the Dodgers:

Major League Phase:

• Nobody

AAA Phase:

• C Ryan January from the D-Backs
• RHP Roimer Bolivar from the Rays

 

good to know not everyone here hates Davis and the Bulldog
no one is ever going to replace Vin but i think they work well together too
really enjoy Orels player insights

 

Joe Davis is as good as anyone out there, IMO. I really hope he stays, I would hate to lose him.

The only thing that's ever bugged me about Orel is his extreme homerism. I feel like he's toned it down though (or I got used to it), but his insight and knowledge of the game is second-to-none.

 

Damn, no idea why we did not protect de Geus. Reviews on him were great. I wonder if all the power arms coming up just left little space for him. Good luck to Sheffield. Dude could just never figure it out.

 

Coming after a lifetime of Vin a homer is difficult to tolerate. But like you say, he does a great job analyzing the game.

 

I don't know anybody that isn't a homer in this business anymore. Fuck, even the national broadcasts are partisan these days. The old guys in San Diego and StL are even awful and they're like 80 years old by the sounds of it. Btw, fuck that guy in San Diego, he is fucking ultra garbage.

 

Joe Davis is great. His enthusiasm even had Smoltz sounding better during the playoffs.

 

• More talk about the Blue Jays interest in Justin Turner. MLBTR did a funny thing of showing everyone that they have been linked to this offseason and the list is laughably long.

• Dave Dombrowski is close to taking over as the head of the Phillies baseball ops. This would be a bit of a shock as he has been working with a group from Nashville to bring a club there and he signed a pretty big deal to do it. Going to be interesting to see how many of the kids he immediately trades away.

• Liam Hendriks is said to be getting a lot of attention on the FA market. Presumed to be at the top of the Dodgers winter wish list, it's looking less likely that they will land him if he is getting as much attention as is being said.

• I have no idea what is happening in Tampa Bay, but their owner is sure doing a good job of taking everyone's mind off losing the WS. He the matter of days he has taken shots at the fanbase and his players.

• James McCann to the Mets may not be as close as it was said to be yesterday. New reports are saying that the Angels have jumped in and are now causing a stir. God... McCann just seems like the kind of guy who will get overpaid and never come close to delivering. So the Angels overpaying for a catcher when they DESPERATELY need pitching would be fucking fantastic.

• Speaking of the Angels, they are said to be determined to land a front line starter. That would likely mean that Trevor Bauer is atop their list, but they could also be looking at the trade market. Thing is, the Angels farm is fairly terrible and there is not much there to acquire a big name via trade unless they are considering moving Adell.

 

Understand that's the nature of the beast these. I'm spoiled by years of Vin, Chick and Bob Miller.

Ted Leitner (Padres) and Mike Shannon (Cards) are among the worst.

 

It would be the most Angels thing for them to win a bidding war for James McCann, and then we watch Realmuto have to settle for almost the same thing 2 months from now. I could also see them being the team that talks Bauer into signing a massive multi-year deal, only to have MLB start coming down on pitchers using pine tar. Bauer has really only had 2 elite seasons, and we all know why his 2020 was elite, but he's the hot name right now so the Angels will be interested.

In truth, the Angels need depth, not the top free agent arm that makes the best headlines. They should really focus on that unsexy middle tier of arms, and they should have been in on the couple guys who have already signed (Minor and Morton in particular). They need to talk Ohtani out of playing both ways so he can focus his physical training on pitching. As a pitcher he can be elite, but jeopardizing that so he can play some 2-way dream as an .850 OPS DH who can't play a position is dumb. There are going to be a ton of cheap bats at the end of this offseason, I'm actually starting to wonder if we will be in on Joc Pederson at the end of this because the market is looking ugly for those middle-of-the-road outfielders now. The Angels should just overload the OF with a Pederson-type hitter and then DH Pederson, Pujols, whoever needs a day off. As for their bullpen, the bullpen market is an absolute steal this offseason, NO ONE should go into the 2021 season without being at least optimistic about their pen.

 

so we lost 8 men to rule 5?
seems like there should be a limit
bit of a pilfering

 

I think Rule 5 is more for the players than the teams. From that standpoint I'm for it, because it would suck as a player to be buried in a good system while you watch scrubs in crappy systems getting a shot.

 

The Dodgers traded Leo Crawford to the Brewers to complete the Corey Knebel trade. Crawford is an interesting LH arm that projects for the back of the rotation or bullpen. Guessing the deal was completed today as there may have been some PTBNL that were up for the Rule 5. Crawford was way down the depth chart, so this should not be worth sweating about.

 

We only lost one arm, de Geus, that is really intriguing and it was super weird that he was not protected. Guess we just didn't really like him as much as rival scouts seem to. Sheffield will probably be returned to us in short order or he will bounce around. I don't see him staying on an MLB roster for a full season unless he finally figured something out in the year off. Another former Dodgers pick was also taken early in the draft and that was Zach Pop. He is actually pretty intriguing as well coming off of TJ. Throughout his MiLB career, he has been fairly dominant.

 

The Dodgers are finalizing an MiLB deal with utility player Carlos Asuaje. In parts of 3 seasons with the Padres, Asuaje had a combined line of .240/.312/.329 with 6 HR's in 586 plate appearances. He was once a respectable Red Sox prospect that was moved in the Craig Kimbrel trade. While he had a number of seasons in MiLB that would be considered to be fairly good, it never translated to the pros. It appears that he was out of baseball last year, so one can only assume that he has transformed his swing and we should expect no less than 3 all star seasons from the 29 year old journeyman.

 

The ol' Justin Turner/Max Muncy play?