The Dodgers have decided that they won’t be hiring a new general manager anytime soon. However they have hired a new assistant general manager. According to reports the Dodgers have hired Jeff Kingston as the new Vice President and assistant general manager. Kingston is a 41-year old executive that is coming from the Seattle Mariner’s organization.
During his time with the Mariners, Kingston served as an interim GM, and when Jerry Dipoto came aboard he returned to his full time position as VP-assistant GM. Kingston has roots in San Diego, which is where he worked as an intern and various other jobs until 2009 when he moved onto the Seattle organization.
Apparently Kingston will take over some of the duties previously held by Farhan Zaidi. The Dodgers lost Zaidi when he left to take over the Giants as president of their baseball operations earlier this winter. Hopefully the Dodgers will be active in the upcoming winter meetings. Knowing Andrew Friedman’s history, they’re likely to not do anything. We’ll see how prominent Kingston will be in the new Zaidi-less Dodgers front office.
I do not get excited when they hire front office guys, especially when I have never heard of them. I am sure Andy has given this hiring a lot of thought and the guy was an interim GM before Dipoto was hired. But he is after all just another cog in the FO machine. Nothing to get excited about unless he brings Haniger with him.
Last night, watching the Rams game, I thought I caught a glimpse of Dave Roberts in headphones on the sidelines. Although i didn’t see him again, after watching the game, I’m sure he had something to do with the coaching decisions in this game, it’s pretty damn obvious based on the results and the boredom I faced during the game.
Ho-hum. While other teams are adding talent, the Dodgers add “depth” to the front office. It’s a lot cheaper, after all.
Get used to it. You have to understand the mentality of the stat nerds, the most important position is not the player on the field, it’s the analyst doing the evaluating of talent. You get a formula, you plug in the appropriate player and or players to fit the formula, then you manipulate the roster, the starting line-up (and the fans) and that is ruled a suckcess. It’s a math thing, just like cyber-geekness, it’s not a sport, it’s an equation. Yeah, it’s wrong, it’s boring and we are stuck with it for now.
True Blue
I have given this subject much thought and I am changing some of my thought process. I have always blamed Friedman for the nuts and bolts of what players make up the team and I have blamed Dummy for the results of ingame play calling. Most of this stays the same in my mind and I believe a lot of what you say on geekness but give this some thought. I now believe that ownership is more accountable than Friedman for any really good players that the Dodgers do or do not obtain. Just thinking that I don’t believe that Friedman can make decisions on who to obtain or trade for or trade away Dodger players without the OK from owernship. Why? Because ownship does not want to be accountable. Think about it. Mark Walters, Magic and that Dummy from the Braves Stan Kasten do not want to dirty their reputations when they can blame Friedman and the other geeks and gophers. This team strangely looks like the old Braves who can do nothing but win divisions and never win the World series. Now I would not be surprised to see the Dodgers obtain Kluber because he is relatively cheap for a stud and he is under control for the next 3 years reminding me of the Braves of the 90s and early 2000s. The Braves had Maddox, Glavine and Smoltz. Sorry for being long winded but bottom line, BLAME OWNERSHIP!!!! for not getting good solid players and worrying about going over the self imposed cap. They have the money and we all know it. Meanwhile the players keep having to platoon and sit never getting a chance to hit both leftys and rightys and the pitchers never get to pitch a good solid 7innings with Dummy at the helm.
Having worked under some of the same guidelines I have spent millions of dollars on improvements for the company I worked for but I never pulled the trigger on huge purchases without the go ahead from ownership because they did not want to be blamed when they could blame me. Of course I did my utmost for that not to happen but my point is they are running the financial show because it is THEIR money same as the Dodgers. They need to shoulder more of the blame than they have in the past. The geekiness is all Friedman but the money is all OWNERSHIP.
Definitely agree.
Blame ownership for the back to back WS appearances.
Bluto
How about a World Series Win? Yeah, that’s right NO WIN!!
Definitely would like a win!
Package, what you say is true, in fact very true, but here is the crux of it all, the owners hire the people that will fall in line with the plan that has been agreed to and put together. So ownership bought into this BS and now all the subsequent pieces fall into line with this philosophy. Who is the genesis of this philosophy, who knows, but ownership is filling the bill according to this philosophy, personally I think Kasten is likely the genesis. Then Kasten went out and found the geek (Friedman) to goosestep this shit throughout the organization. It doesn’t really matter who originated this strategy, bottom line is coaches are being brought in to carry it out. Why do you think that Roberts was on NOBODIES radar screen and suddenly out of nowhere he is snapped up to be the manager? Because he was willing to not buck the system and would kiss ass and follow thru on this shitty brand of baseball.
True
Agree but my point is ownership needs to be blamed more aggressively than they have been. I agree they bought into the plan but if a plan does not work, it has to be changed. Ownership will never feel the need to add excellent players as long as they are never blamed. They should be blamed as it is their shoulders that failure falls on.
First off, it is easy to place blame. When it is not your money it is really easy to say you need to spend more. This team cost these guys 2.5 BILLION dollars. McCourt was a lousy owner, we all know that. But he had a pretty creative GM in Colletti. Colletti thought outside the box. Yeah, he made a few really bad free agent deals, Schmidt for one, and giving Manny all that money after his 2 month stint was so historic. But the fans wanted Manny back and they bowed to the pressure. Everyone bitched about Kemp’s contract when that was done, but he had just come off of a season where he should have won the MVP. In hindsight it is easy to say that the contract was a bad one, 8 years, 160 million, but Matt was 27 years old, entering his prime and no one could foresee him crashing into the wall at Coors and basically ruining the next 3 years. Those same people are screaming for the Dodgers to bestow an even bigger deal on Bryce Harper, who is only a year younger than Matt was at 26. They said Andre Ethier’s deal was a bad deal too. And the last couple of years he was not worth what they were paying him. So, new ownership changed the culture when they came on board. They spent and spent freely. But so many do not remember that. They brought on Greinke, and Gonzalez. Gonzalez in trade and Greinke as a free agent. The went over the CBT and have been over until last year. Now they want to stay under the tax, and everyone is mad again. Personally, I want to see the Dodgers win. I do not like Andy’s methods, or the way he builds a team. But you cannot argue that the team has been successful. They have not climbed the big mountain yet, but getting there is half the battle. Am I satisfied as a fan? Oh hell no. I want another series win before I head for the last round-up. My gripe, and biggest bugaboo, is the fact that when they really have needed it, they have fallen short. You can say that the Phillies wanted Seager for Hamels, but they settled for a package that was not that great. The last 2 seasons the deadline pickups were supposed to be the move that got them over the hump. Well, had Darvish not imploded, they should have beat the Astros and the streak would have been over. But this year, they had no shot against a FAR SUPERIOR Red Sox team. The offense failed, the starters were for crap, and the defense was abysmal, so they lost in 5. I think they can fill the holes they have by signing 1 or 2 free agents, a second baseman and a catcher, and then fix the pen via the trade route and still stay under the CBT. They do not need Harper. They have a pretty potent offense as it is. Seager will be back, and even if he is at 85 %, he is way better than what they started the season with. If they trade Puig and keep Verdugo, so be it. If it brings an established and really good pitcher, Kluber, I am down with that. I do not see Roberts changing the way he manages, nor do I see Andy not giving input. This is the way Dodger baseball is now. We all can gripe all we want, but nothing is going to change anytime soon unless the team is sold again. That’s the reality we have to live with.
Agree with everything Michael says here, except for the Colletti stuff.
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Personally, I saw nothing of merit or cleverness in the guy’s moves. Even though he was dealt the worst hand and was forced to play at the worst table.
It’s all in ones perception of the events. Colletti did a great job with the assets he was given. The team won and his think tank was responsible for drafting the likes of Seager, Bellinger, signing Turner and Puig. He had more success with his Cuban than Fried Brains has had with his. I understand how you feel about Colletti, but he kept the team competitive with a terrible owner.
Yup, two different opinions.
All good.
Friedman notes:
Alex Wood threw exclusively out of the stretch last season. His ERA jumped nearly a run, WHIP from 1.06 to 1.21, K rate dropped. Friedman said he got "out of whack mechanically" and expects Wood to return to using the windup in 2019.Kenley Jansen’s heart surgery went “as well as we could have hoped,” Friedman said. Expects him to have no limitations when spring training opens. “Saw him the other day. He looked great, is in a great frame of mind.”
Corey Seager (Tommy John and hip surgeries) is working out in LA, making “the switch from rehabbing to training.” Has started running and throwing program, is swinging a bat.
Andrew Friedman about likely big-league arrivals for Will Smith and Keibert Ruiz. Said he expects Smith to “help us win games at some point in 2019.” For Ruiz, 2020 is a good bet but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen sooner.
Andrew Friedman was asked if the Dodgers would start spring training with the current surplus of OF & starting pitchers.
“We would, but I just think they’re talented enough where things will lineup and make sense, where it works out well for our team and an acquiring team I’d be surprised if that were the case. If the return didn’t work for us, we wouldn’t [make a trade]. But I can’t see that happening.”
On if there’s pressure to make a splash this offseason: “I think the pressure we feel is to make a splash in October, much more so than in December.”
From HEYMAN:
As of this moment the teams with the best chance to land Realmuto are these 7 — dodgers, mets, padres, astros, phillies, yankees and braves. A couple notably deny being too involved but they are all apparently involved enough to be in the top 7.
From MOROSI:
The Dodgers are interested in Tigers OF Nick Castellanos via trade, but there’s no present momentum toward a deal. Dodgers active on numerous fronts and Castellanos is not their highest priority.
No movement so far, but as I said before, there is never too much the first day. A couple of free agents signed, some waiver pick ups, none by Andy which is refreshing. Lots of rumors, most involving the Dodgers and Indians. Yankees out on Harper, in on Machado. Fine with me. I believe the Dodgers have a 50% chance of landing Harper, which drops to 0% if they do not deal a couple of outfielders. I think they are engaged in getting a catcher, some bullpen help and Kluber, who would allow them to trade a starter. Wood and Maeda would be the prime candidates for that. Brock Stewart could be elsewhere too. Me, I trade Muncy while his value is high because I see no way he repeats last years numbers. As a matter of fact, I think they will drop drastically. Bellinger needs to be the full time 1st baseman except against real tough lefty’s and they have Freese to do that job, plus give JT a breather. There is a lot of chatter that they are in on DJ LeMahieu. Would not hurt my feelings one bit if they got him. I think Harper is a luxury they can live without. His defensive metrics over the last 3 years are not that great, and in reality, the guy has a tendency to have long slumps. Grandal anyone? For over 300 million I would like superstar numbers and Harper has done that once in his career. His MVP season. Other wise, he is just another over rated player. Yeah, he is 26, but you want to be paying that guy 30 million when he is 36? I doubt I will be alive when that happens, but my gut tells me the Dodgers will still win the division without him. If the pitching in the pen and the defense is bad, like it was in the series, they won’t win the big one even with him. Address the needs. Not the luxury items.