The Dodgers have taken care of most of their needs heading into next season. They surprised the heck out of me when they resigned Rich Hill, Justin Turner, and Kenley Jansen. They still need to sort out the outfield mess, get a bullpen arm, maybe add a dominant starter, and fill an opening at second base. They could resign Joe Blanton and keep the outfield as is with Andrew Toles, Joc Pederson, Yasiel Puig, Scott Van Slyke, Andre Ethier, and Trayce Thompson. The Dodgers can try to go for Jason Hammel, formerly of the Cubs.
One move need they need to make is to add a right handed bat who can hit left handed pitching. Low and behold there is a 2nd basemen who fits the mold who plays in Minnesota and his name is Brian Dozier. He has been linked to the Dodgers for a while now. So this is the type of move they need to make to get over the hump. Now it would also be sweet if they could also add another arm as in Glen Perkins.
Now of course in order to make this deal happen the Dodgers will have to give up some prospects. The common names that have come up are Jose De Leon and Brock Stewart. In the in-house options are Kiki Hernandez, Micah Johnson, and Chris Taylor. Kiki Hernandez can also play the outfield. I like the fact that the Dodgers have pitching depth with De Leon and Stewart. I think they will need depth because we have Brandon McCarthy, Scott Kazmir, Hyun Jin Ryu, Rich Hill, and innings limits for Kenta Maeda and Julio Urias.
I do feel the Dodgers do need a right handed bat to combat their issues with left handed pitching. I don’t know how much I would give up just for one player who might not hit well in Dodger Stadium. Teams like the Giants will be attacking the Dodgers weakness throughout the year and also in the playoffs. This should be the season where just making the playoffs and winning the division can’t be the goal. The Dodgers need to at least make the World Series and hopefully win it.
I feel the Dodgers have enough depth in the minors and on the big league club to make a move for Dozier. All the other teams involved in Dozier don’t have better prospects then the Dodgers and the Dodgers have the biggest need. So the issue comes down to what the Dodgers would give up for Dozier. On the Twins side, Dozier is high on people’s radar now because he had a great season last year and the Twins are in the middle of a rebuild. This move has to get made and it makes sense for both sides.
James Moya
Hi I’m James Moya. I am an avid Dodgers fan. I graduated Cal State Fullerton with a Bachelors in Communications. I used to freelance at the San Bernardino Sun. I’m excited about this opportunity to write for LA Dodger Report to gain experience. I’m a straight shooter on my opinions and I hope to get some good conversations going. My dream has always been to report on the Dodgers because Baseball is the National Past-time. I hope you enjoy the ride with me.
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The comments from the end of the last string contained a new debate about the relative merits of the Friedman administration of the Dodgers.
Pluses:
1 – He has been willing to dump non-productive players (Wilson, Crawford, etc.)
2 – This allows the kids to play.
3 – He has been willing to let some of the kids play. Colletti never trusted the Dodgers’ young talent.
4 – He has improved several areas of the Dodgers’ organization:
a. Fitness and nutrition
b. Foreign player scouting
c. Analytics
Minuses:
1 – Overreliance on numbers to the exclusion of actual baseball people
a. GM who never played, coached or scouted professionally (same with Friedman, actually)
2. Overreliance on “market inefficiencies”, especially the old and infirm pitchers
3 – Generally poor outcomes in trades
4 – Failure to address weaknesses in roster
Too soon to tell:
1. Quality of drafts
2 – Quality of new management team
3 – Quality of new player development staff
4 – Quality of new medical staff/injury avoidance
There have been pluses and minuses. He was lauded in Tampa because he was able to be competitive with a small budget (like Billy Beane). Whether he is to be judged as being successful with a big budget with a big market team with higher expectations – it’s too soon to tell.
A plus I’m happy seeing coming about is them finally realizing a big market franchise doesn’t have to always play small – that it doesn’t take a whole lot of thinking to know letting Turner and Jansen depart could only be going backwards. It was out of their character but it was refreshing. Those two became ‘made’ and they did it in Dodger gear. Some of us aren’t ready for our heroes departing too soon and it’s good the seat sellers taking note.
What kids? Seager? He was coming anyway. I see no other kids. This team feels like it just keeps getting older.
Fitness? Really? Didn’t we set an all time DL record this year? Felt like it.
Foreign player scouting? Where are they? Yeah, we’ve spent some serious coin in that area. Olivera comes to mind, but where are the guys they spent all that money on?
Too soon to tell I certainly agree with and your minuses add up. Our record isn’t getting better, but we did advance. I want to get behind this group but they just keep disappointing. Maybe that ends soon.
Urias, Toles, Stripling, Thompson, Segedin, Dayton, Stewart, etc.
Ned Colletti would have replaced injured pitchers with the likes of Kevin Correa. No more tired old veterans, has beens, never weres from other teams – use the kids to fill in the blanks instead.
What do you call Kazmir, McCarthy, Anderson and Norris? Fresh kids? Please, they have made as many bad moves as they have good ones.
To the premise of the thread – Dozier. Yeah, sure, maybe. Does he make the difference on this team? I don’t think so. His splits show he disappears at times. He could help, but at what cost? If it happens I’ll get behind it.
James, the Dodgers are going after Dozier. They’ve been in a 6 week game of chicken with the Twins. The question is at what expense? The Dodgers can win 90 games without Dozier, but he improves defense and LH hitting. The Twins can hold onto him at the trade deadline, but they risk another slow start out of Dozier, they would need another trade partner to show up besides the Dodgers, and hope a couple of other good 2nd baseman aren’t available at the deadline. So, who goes with JDL?
A lot of Twins fans are expecting at least JDL with either Alvarez or Buehler.
JDL and Stewart?
JDL, De Jong, Shefield, and Rios?
JDL, De Jong, and Rios?
Having spent the last couple of weeks chatting with Twins fans it is easy to see why this deal hasn’t been as easy to get done as one would think. Dozier is really the only piece they have to sell that’s worth anything and new ownership must try to maximize their return. It comes down to who blinks first this week. I think JDL gives them a #2 or #3 starter. De Jong a #4 or #5 potentially, and Rios is a wildcard with no position in LA. I don’t want to move both JDL and Stewart because I think they will need one of them this year. If the Twins are holding out for Alvarez or Buehler I don’t see it happening.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/01/resolution-on-dozier-trade-talks-expected-within-week.html?fv-home=true&post-id=81826
Should find out soon.
… and then we find out that Kershaw, Trout, Bumgarner, Posey and others might be able to opt out of their deals NEXT week!
Holy Mackerel!
??????????
Quick and easy way to improve against lefties: Change catchers from lefty (Grandal) to righty Matt Weiters…trade Grandal, sign Matt. Power not too far off. Plus you should get a good return for Grandal to help other areas.
That’s one way. Another could be sign Trumbo and trade Gonzo for something. A lot of things that could be done… Who’d want to be a GM?
Interesting ideas.
I’d take the GM job. I’d be fired mid year but I could use the fat paychecks. Lawyers got me pretty good the last three years.
I would prefer to not do anything that would block Bellinger from playing first base as soon as he is ready. Also, I don’t think the Dodgers want to add payroll at first base and that would happen even if Gonzales were traded if Trumbo were added.
Contrary to what many think, pitch framing and catcher defense is still a very relevant thing and vitally important to teams like the Dodgers and Giants because they have the two best in the business: Posey and Grandal.
If you trade Grandal and sign Weiters, you get older and much worse defensively. Check this out!
http://www.statcorner.com/CatcherReport.php
Weiters is absolutely Horrid on defense, which is why there is very little market for him. In a year or two, pitch framing will not be a “thing’ anymore, but it currently still is a BIG THING!
Grandal did not play much against LHP, but he had a .385 OB% when he did. Weiters OB% against LHP was .304. So we get worse offensively and defensively at C and expect to get better?
I don’t get the lack of respect for Grandal by Dodger fans. That’s not the opinion around baseball.
Maybe the Dodgers should be targeting Perez for second base.
http://m.mlb.com/player/541650/hernan-perez?year=2016&stats=career-r-hitting-mlb
He has played every position except pitcher and catcher and is hitting .370 in Venezuela this winter. He doesn’t have a position with the Brewers and is a super utility guy there.
Or, if he can play SS full time versus occasionally, that might free up Villar for the right package. Perez is 25 and seems like he is just now ready to excel. He would require a smaller package to obtain than would Villar.
Good find. I had to look him up. Would be a great bench player for us, or second base if he beats out the other 3 second baseman on this team. He is arb eligible for a few more years.
I was surprised to read how stacked the Brewers system is. I wonder if they believe they can compete soon. Imagine that if they did.
Perez was briefly mentioned as a person of interest on MLB Network this morning but no mention of a connection to the Dodgers.
Two years ago people were raving about how good Kike looked in winter ball too.
Perez is going to fall apart – he swings at everything: 26 BB on 740 AB’s – Yikes! 😉
Contact hitters suffer from those kinds of ratios.
Which GM job? We seem to have 6.
The one that was most in favor of the Noris trade? or,
The one that was most in favor of the Gordon trade? or,
The one that was most in favor of the Peraza trade? or,
The one that was most in favor of the Lee trade?
Tampa is nice at this time of year.
Regarding the Duffy – Moore trade: I think that so far it favors the Rays because the Giants made that trade to get into the playoffs last year and they didn’t. I think Duffy would have helped the Giants going forward more than Moore will.
That said, the Giants did what they had to do to try to continue their run at 4 consecutive even year World Series championships.
The Giants not only made the playoffs, they were a 9th inning meltdown away from a game 5 in the NLDS after Moore shut down the Cubs.
Flying back home today…have a great day y’all!
Last year the outfield glut was resolved by Ethier, SVS, and Thompson getting injured. What will resolve the glut in 2017?
Toles, Thompson, SVS, Ethier, Puig, Pederson, Hernandez with Verdugo on the horizon.
I think Puig and Pederson are the two best outfielders. Toles has the best chance to make the biggest addition to those two.
Toles probably does not have a trade value that compares to his ability due to his off-field issues so I doubt he will be traded. Thompson might be as good as his first 150 PAs last year or as bad as his last 100 PAs and has health questions so I doubt he can be traded that gets fair value in return.
If Ethier can pass a physical he might be traded to the Angels or AZ along with cash. SVS is needed to help out at first base so I would not want to trade him.
Help me out here. What should the Dodgers do with their glut of outfielders?
“Help me out here”
I got nothin
Trade for a second baseman. Seems logical
We got Hernandez, Johnson, Taylor, Barnes, Culberson, and Calhoun at second, all but Willie brought in here by Friedman. Why, if not to use them? It’s an open competition, whoever wants it most gets it by winning the competition between now and Opening Day. I look forward to seeing this play out.
As for our glut, those with options have to go down, unless of course the seasoned vets do a faceplant in Spring Training or FAZ finds a creative way to trade them. When I look at the list, they all look good to me. If Ethier is healthy, he has to be in the lineup. Puig also has to play and Joc is in center. Toles and Thompson might have to go. But, who knows how any of them will look by April.
Okay Mark. I see your point about Weiters. Granadal does have little power against lefties however…he’s like a different guy. The position, however, does remain an opportunity to change it’s lefty/righty orientation–maybe though a trade.
Within 2 years pitch framing will be dead.
Amen. RIP
I would not be perplexed if Grandal were traded along with a couple of our outfielders for a stud righty bat for left field and let Barnes do the catching. I think Barnes would be better defensively than Grandal but with less power but better OBP.
Barnes is not a big strong catcher and would wear down if he has to catch more than 120 games but then Grandal is always hurt so what is the difference stamina wise.
Would being perplexed make you incoherent? Just curious…
I’ve always favored having two strong catchers going 80 to 100 games each, it’s a position that takes a lot out of the player. There are literally dozens of good trades that could be made, but they require the desire of our FO and the cooperation of the trade partner. Not an easy job…
Grandal is FAZ’s pet squirrel. He and his OPS aren’t leaving.
What is the plan for Barnes? Second base? Yeah, why not. At 27 he is in his prime. By the time he’s over the hill, age 29, Calhoun will be ready.
Framing has been dying a slow death since we first started talking about it. Algorithm’s can be slow to catch up.
Bum, been thinking about our outfield glut. Play with a rover.
Not too much of a stretch with all the shifts being used already.
https://thinkbluepc.com/2017/01/04/hyun-jin-ryu-starting-spring-training-early/
If Ryu or even one of Kazmir or McCarthy comes back strong then our rotation looks very strong.
Kershaw
Hill
Maeda
Urias
Ryu/Kazmir/McCarthy
Still have Wood, Stewart & Stripling, and of course Frias, as well as the younger guys like JDL & Beuhler plus others.
Obviously health plays a major part, but we can manage Maeda, Hill & any of the other starters with so much depth.
I’m optimistic about the upcoming season, and would certainly add Blanton, who I’m not judging on the Cubs series alone. He was very good.
However, the issue hitting LH pitching remains and a trade for a RH 2B makes sense.
I would also speak to Milwaukee about a straight up trade of Puig for Braun.
Braun plus a solid RH 2B would be a major upgrade on last years lineup.
Also, will the Cubs be as strong this time around? Losing Fowler is important as is losing Chapman.
Nats are sure to go well, but with a couple more additions, I see us being as competitive as we have been going into a season for a very long time.
If Kazmir and Ryu and McCarthy are healthy enough to start the season the woyld probably push Urias back to AAA to save his innings and showcase the three vets for a trade IMHO.
OK could have a rotation of Urias, De Leon, Stewart, Buhler, and Stripling/Oaks. Pretty strong.
LA could start out with 5 from Kershaw, Hill, Maeda, Kazmir, Wood, McCarthy, Ryu
Buehler isn’t starting at AAA. If the Urias thing did happen it could be Urias, Stewart, Deleon, De Jong, and Oaks with Sborz knocking at the door. Buehler will start at Rancho.
Our future staff is looking good. Hard to screw up
Dozier doesn’t make us much better than what we have. He will calm the troops, but that’s it. For that reason, holding firm on our apparent offer makes sense. For the Twins, he has another couple of years on his contract, so there is no urgency on their side either. I guess that’s why the deal has not been done. Both sides view the deal as so-so. Not a good place from which to negotiate. One of the sides will have to up the ante, and I doubt either will.
Braun and Villiers does a lot more for us and probably wouldn’t cost anymore, all things considered. We could probably work Kazmir into that deal.
Art, is this another of your crazy trade ideas? Lacks coherence and therefore perplexing or is that redundant? 😉
A suggestion:
Sorry Art. I can’t figure out what that is that you took a picture of. Give me a hint. Do you keep it in the kitchen?
I am in on that trade
That makes sense to me Bobbie. Dozier would likely be more productive right where he is. To me young starting pitching is a commodity you keep. As you know I’ve been a De Leon fan for a while now. I would trade him in a deal for more better pitching, but unless it’s straight up for Dozier, I keep him around. With the fragility of our starting staff, we may need some starts from him very soon. With his swing and miss stuff, he could be useful out of the bullpen too.
Cubs thinking six man rotation
http://nypost.com/2017/01/05/cubs-shopping-with-audacious-6-man-rotation-in-mind/
Audacious. The Dodgers are loaded with starters most of which have innings limits due to age or injury recovery. A 6 man rotation would allow the Dodgers to showcase pitchers they might like to trade as well.
Also, instead of a bullpen workout between starts Kershaw could pitch an inning in relief and still have time to recover for his next start. That would solve the 8th inning setup reliever for one game out of 6.
Thanks Art for putting the ball on a tee for me as far as I seem to annoy you with many of my comments/replies 😉
Don’t worry about it, be your own man…
Not worried but if you are not aware that you have been throwing left jabs my way, this is to let you know that you have been. What you do with that feedback is your choice.
Are the dodgers going to announce the Jansen signing at any point.