DODGERS NEWS/RUMORS thread

They really like Lux?

 

I would not be shocked if there were at least 20 teams in the league willing to give him a 5+ year contract at $25M+ per. First ballot HOF'ers that will only be 31 and are left handed are hard to come by. Dodgers paid a premium to keep him from testing the open market and keeping him locked up still to what is considered a short term deal. That would not be a good example of a team bidding against themselves.

 

1 report of outside interest would be enough for me. And a name that big, it'd get out.
Bill James is leading this new era and while he doesn't give a rat's ass about the players, still had heads like Mattingly commenting on Kersh's declining stuff during the season. Yeah, I want to know what else was out there

 

Since he never truly opted out, you will never get confirmation of who exactly was kicking around on him as any team that did would get into trouble. It was heavily speculated that the Astros, Rangers, Yankees and Phillies were lining up to bid for him, but that is the most we will ever get.

 

Kelvin Herrera to the White Sox on a 2 year $18M contract with a 3rd year vesting option.

 

I don't even remember the speculation
Well, other than our own because of his hometown being Dallas

 

#1 prospect in baseball, a Top 5 Pitching prospect in baseball, a high upside 5 tool CF'er and a MiLB BP arm with triple digit velo. It was a MASSIVE return at the time from one of the top farms in the game and since the trade, hasn't looked particularly great(nor has much of the guys from that system in general). Still it is hard to gauge what a similar return from the Dodgers could look like since they are not stacked like that, not to mention that Sale was 5 years younger, cheaper and still in his prime while Kluber is exiting his prime years even with the identical years of control. Just doesn't seem like an ideal fit.

 

Maury Brown has an article about expansion and this is an excerpt from it.

"What Would The League Look Like With 32 Teams?

Commissioner Manfred has said to me that he envisions eight divisions of four teams. The regular season would likely be shortened, and the postseason expanded with additional teams. It also would set up regional realignment. Is it possible that MLB would then implement the designated hitter in both the American and National Leagues? Given that adding the DH in both leagues has become a matter of when, not if, expansion would be the opportune time to make that happen."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mauryb...on-and-expansion-would-play-out/#2d24cd4f634d

 

Afraid to see what those realignments would look like. If we play at Coors less, I'm in.

 

The Phillies top brass are headed to Las Vegas this weekend to meet with Bryce Harper according to Nightengale... so we are still probably at least another week+ out from this shit getting remotely settled. Strap in boys, MLB Winter Hot Stove it's fan-fucking-tastic. This will be his 3rd meeting of this kind with a club, the Dodgers were one of the other two.

 

Would guess right off the bat that it would consist of the Dodgers, Giants and Padres paired with the D'Backs more than likely being #4 with the regional ties unless a Las Vegas team were added. Colorado can really fit in with a number of other potential divisions since it's basically a similar flight time from here to LA, Chicago, Portland and Dallas(2-3 hours). Also, I would fucking love not having the two teams in the same division and better yet, not in the same league.

 

I hope they manage to keep Lux. Lux/Seager up the middle will keep this team set for the foreseeable future.

 

So it sounds like we would have a similar setup to the NFL. 8 divisions of 4 teams. And probably 4 division champs in each league plus 2 wild cards. It's not the same baseball I grew up with where the season meant so much, but I am actually starting to lean in favor of this. I don't know what it is, but for the first time in my life I am in favor of adding the DH too. I'm tired of the imbalance between the NL/AL, and the DH in both leagues will balance that out.

One key, to me, is shortening the regular season. I think this needs to happen even if playoffs don't expand.

Let's do this.

 

My guess is the imbalanced schedule will always be around because it helps with travel.

I've never liked the DH, but something is finally pushing me in favor. We can be more aggressive signing older players. Guys can get extra rest here and there and stay in the lineup. It just makes some smaller things easier for the team. I dunno...

 

They absolutely need to do the DH. So much of the lower levels now don't even let pitchers hit that it is just getting pointless to keep this charade going for the few pitchers that actually do work at it. It has also put the AL at such an advantage over the NL where fewer teams can tack on the extra couple years to a dudes contract to lure him away while an NL club gets a guy like Kemp and he's an albatross, not a genuine beneficial piece.

Depending on how the playoffs look, they probably would have to re-evaluate how they do the schedules as you are right, the imbalance is kinda bullshit. Especially in the event of 2 or even 4 more teams per league making the postseason. I can't really figure out something that really would make sense if they include Interleague play. The only thing that would really work with a 154 game schedule is if outside your division you play two two-game series against everybody, which is lame. Then you would play your division opponents 14 games each. The only way that would also work is seriously regionalized road trips. If they did away with interleague, you would have 8 games against outside division opponents and 19 against two teams within the division and another at 20. That seems fine to me at least.