The Dodgers have announced that Don Sutton will be the fourth bobblehead during the 2013 season. This is the final player to be announced for the 2013 season, and is set to be distributed on June 6 at 7:10 pm vs. Atlanta. The first 50,000 fans with a ticket on June 6 will receive a Sutton bobblehead. This is the first Dodger Stadium bobblehead for Sutton.
Hope they get the hair right. Pictures as they come!
Steve Dilbeck of the LAT says Hanley Ramirez won't be long in the shortstop position, despite what the Dodgers say, because it's fundamentally a bad idea:
There is a reason the Marlins moved him from short to third last season beyond their acquiring Jose Reyes -- Ramirez just isn't a very good shortstop.
For a major-league shortstop he has a below average arm and glove. His one strength is supposed to be that his speed and quickness provide him superior range, though it seldom manifested itself last season.
The Dodgers ended last season with Ramirez at short and Luis Cruz at third, and that is their tentative plan as they head into spring. Cruz proved reasonably adept at third, much as he had earlier at short.
Now if the Dodgers are really planning to open camp with those two -- pitchers and catchers report Feb. 13 -- on the left side of the infield, and crossing their little fingers that Cruz was not just some belated three-month wonder, they would be better served reversing their positions.All signs are, it's true. That's what they're saying. And that is what they did last season even during the stretch drive, so I suppose we should believe them.
Yet it still seems a bad idea. Apparently the Dodgers think it's their best option from a selection of mediocre choices. Either that or they're just not up to ruffling his feathers, and you wouldn’t want to believe that, right?
There's Ramirez, and then Cruz...and then that Dee Gordon guy, remember? Yeesh, this is going to be an ugly bakeoff.
I know, I should give this one up, as the 2011 race is two years ago. I like Ryan Braun, and I'm over the fact that he won that race. But it's curious to me how much smoke emanates from Ryan Braun, even if there's no explicit fire:
Braun released a statement Tuesday in response to a report by Yahoo! Sports, which claimed the outfielder's name is listed in records obtained from Biogenesis of America LLC, the clinic that allegedly provided PEDs to several high profile baseball players.
Braun tested positive for elevated testosterone levels in 2011, the year he was named National League MVP.
But the five-time All-Star appealed the result of the test and avoided a suspension when an arbitration panel upheld the appeal, ruling there were questions with how Braun's sample had been handled. [...]
Braun's name is not listed next to any specific PEDs, according to Yahoo! Sports. He is on a list that includes Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, Francisco Cervelli, Danny Valencia and Cesar Carrillo, the website reported.
According to the Yahoo! Sports report, Braun's name also appeared directly above a line that reads, "RB 20-30K." Bosch listed amounts of money owed next to the names of other players, according to the report.
But Braun asserted in his statement the "moneys owed" to Bosch were merely compensation for his consultation during the appeal process.Milwaukee Brewers star Ryan Braun has acknowledged a business relationship with Anthony Bosch, claiming he only consulted with the founder of the Miami-based anti-aging clinic in order to strengthen his appeal of a 2011 positive test result for performance-enhancing drugs.
Nothing to see here, right? Just move along, move along....
UPDATE 11.54a: Wait, says ESPN.com's Buster Olney! Avoid the rush to judgment on Braun! (link insider only):
Any columnist who wants to write about how open Braun seems and how he might be the innocent victim, again -- or for that matter, how bad this all looks -- please, go play a round of Angry Birds or go pack for spring training. Because you don't know what you're talking about.
Hey, talking about things which we don't know is par for the course for sports media, Buster (see: Manti Te'o, Lance Armstrong, etc.).
He's made it to the exclusive Round of 52 and he's looking for your vote. Meet Thomas Roberts (@BertsBall), Dodger fan and 2013 MLB Fan Cave candidate:
Congratulations, San Francisco, by achieving your goal of winning free Jell-O thanks to your Sunday Superbowl performance:
The Kraft brand said it will send thousands of cups gratis to the city by the bay on Tuesday to help soothe distraught football fans.
Drop sites are posted on the Jell-O Pudding Drop’s website. The treats will be available around the city at locations such as Chinatown and Lombard Street at various times throughout the day.
“Nothing masks the bitter taste of defeat like the sweet taste of Jell-O,” a spokesman says in a YouTube video posted Sunday night. Jell-O has been jiggling around since 1897.No need for booze: Disappointed devotees of the losing San Francisco 49ers can drown their Super Bowl sorrows in free Jell-O Pudding.
Juan Uribe, for what it's worth, has been jiggling around the Dodgers since 2011.
Keith Law over at ESPN.com gives our farm system a mediocre 18th place ranking among MLB teams; the Cardinals are #1 (link insider only):
I've done these rankings for the past few years, and I was surprised at how few farm systems there were this year that had both impact and depth, fewer than in any of the previous years in which I've gone through this exercise. Some of that reflects all of the major promotions that took place in 2012, but we've also hit a slightly down period in the cycle of farm system quality. [...]
18. Los Angeles Dodgers. They are a little underrepresented in the top 100, but with a lot of guys who'd either be in the next 50 or who could jump into the top 50 next year. That group is led by Yasiel Puig, who barely played in 2013 before surgery to address a staph infection kept him out of the Arizona Fall League.To kick off my look at the best prospects in the minor leagues this week, I've ranked all 30 MLB farm systems from top to bottom, considering only the players who are currently in their systems and who have not yet exhausted their rookie of the year eligibility. (I use the same criterion for the individual player rankings that will be posted over the next three days.)
The Giants rank 26th. Leading the NL West is the Padres, at #6. And the Anaheim Angels are dead last.
The Super Bowl's over, which means...it's already time to start thinking about fantasy baseball? MLB.com thinks so, and has ranked 29 Dodgers from most valuable to least. Guess who came in last?
Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela will be inducted into the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday in Hermosillo, Mexico.
Valenzuela -- whose arrival from the Mexican League in 1980 led to "Fernandomania" and a National League Cy Young Award, Rookie of the Year Award, All-Star berth and World Series ring in 1981 -- is now a team broadcaster. Jaime Jarrin, now Valenzuela's broadcast partner and then his interpreter, will accompany Valenzuela to the induction, as will former manager Tommy Lasorda and Dodgers vice president Lon Rosen.
"I'm happy to accept this honor," Valenzuela said. "I started my career in Sonora, Mexico, playing for Navojoa, and also played in Hermosillo, where I am headed back tomorrow. It's nice to return to the place where I got started. I'm also very happy to be joined by Dodger colleagues and friends and my former manager this Sunday. Mexico has always been very important to the Dodgers and I thank them being there for me, for this continues to show that."
The Dodgers' unofficial policy of retiring only Cooperstown members (save Jim Gilliam) prevents Valenzuela's number from being retired at Dodger Stadium, so it's nice to see Fernando receive some long overdue accolades.
From a Dodgers press release:
In celebration of Jackie Robinson’s 94th Birthday, the Dodgers have unveiled a Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella Statue. The statue, which features Robinson and his teammates, Dodger legends Newcombe and Campanella, will be given away on Monday, April 15, 2013 at 7:10 pm vs. San Diego, the 66-year anniversary of Robinson breaking MLB’s color barrier. The giveaway item will be distributed to the first 40,000 fans with a ticket.
WOW this looks awesome. Last year it was the Vin bobblehead, this year it's this: the must-have SGA of the season. Good work, Dodgers.
Why can't the Dodgers create a rewards program like the Nationals did? asked BJ Killeen on Tuesday.
Well, they just did. From a Dodgers press release:
The Los Angeles Dodgers today announced the launch of a comprehensive engagement program that will reward fans for supporting the club online, via social media and at Dodger Stadium. The free Dodgers Rewards (DodgersRewards.com) program is the first-of-its-kind in Major League Baseball and offers fans the chance to win prizes by supporting the team through an array of digital activities including merchandise purchases online, checking in to games through MLB.com’s mobile application At The Ballpark and interacting online at dodgers.com and on the Dodgers’ official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
“We are creating an interactive rewards portal for all things Dodgers,” said Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Los Angeles Dodgers, Lon Rosen. “Being a sports fan is about passion and competition, and we believe through this platform we are entering the next phase of fan loyalty with the ultimate goal of rewarding our fans for their support.”
The Dodgers Rewards program will create unique experiences and promotions for fans as incentives for supporting the club. The program will feature its first three sweepstakes with its first starting today through Saturday, March 15, 2013 with prizes including two tickets to Opening Day 2013, a mention from @Dodgers and a Sandy Koufax signed baseball.
Which SoSG reader will gain the most points?
To commemorate what would have been Jackie Robinson's 94th birthday, Google has Dodger-ized their logo today. Very nice work, Googs.
No big news here, but ESPN says Carl Crawford and Matt Kemp's recoveries from injuries are obviously part of the key elements if the Dodgers are going to thrive in 2013 (in fact, it made their "five most important injury comebacks" list):
This is the first tag-team entry on our list. But it's hard to separate these two when assessing the state of the Dodgers' health. Don't you think?
What's their diagnosis? Crawford has been pretty much a physical train wreck over the past two years. First, he had wrist issues that led to surgery in January 2012. Then, he returned late in spring training, tore an elbow ligament and eventually needed Tommy John surgery on Aug. 23. In between, he squeezed in just 31 games and 125 plate appearances. Kemp, meanwhile, needed what was described as "significant" left shoulder surgery to repair a detached labrum on Oct. 5, about six weeks after he'd clanked into a fence in Colorado. But GM Ned Colletti says his center fielder had been dealing with "wear and tear" issues with that shoulder even before that.
What they're doing now: The Dodgers report that Crawford began easing into baseball activities about three weeks ago. He's swinging a bat and has been doing some light throwing. Colletti says they're "encouraged" (there's that word again) by his progress and overall condition. And Kemp began hitting off a tee this month while continuing to strengthen and rehab his shoulder. He isn't expected to be ready to rock at the beginning of spring training, but he told the Los Angeles Times last week, "I'm not trying to be 100 percent for the first game of spring training. I'm trying to be 100 percent for the first game of the season."
State of their team's optimism: If Colletti is worried that either of these guys won't be ready for Opening Day, he's doing an excellent job of hiding it. In the long haul, he says, he's actually more concerned about Crawford's persistent wrist issues than his recovery from Tommy John surgery. And the GM's upbeat assessment of Kemp's shoulder went like this: "A lot of players have this. It's really from a lot of swings. When he ran into the wall in Colorado, that pushed him over the edge. But it's a common injury. It's just wear and tear on the shoulder. But they say once you have it done, it should be good for a very long time. It's not like a labrum issue with a pitcher, where a guy comes back and he can't throw as hard as he did before. This isn't even his throwing shoulder."
Reason to worry: Ah, but in Kemp's case, it wasn't just his shoulder that was an issue last year. He hit 12 home runs in April -- and 11 in the other five months of the season combined. He pulled a hamstring muscle in mid-May, blew it out again in late May and didn't make it back from hamstring purgatory injury until after the All-Star break. Then, he hit just five homers in 184 trips between his return and the day he met up with that fence in Denver. So after April, he had pretty much a lost season. Then there's Crawford, whose .711 OPS the past two years ranks behind the likes of Ryan Roberts and Emilio Bonifacio (who make a lot less than 20 million bucks a year). "He's not just an X factor for me," one scout says of Crawford. "He's a capital X factor. Not many guys have had multiple health issues like he's had, with Tommy John and the wrist problem. And they're counting heavily on this guy. To me, he's a huge part of the puzzle, with all the money they've invested in him and this team."
Why they're on this list: Do we really have to explain this? Baseball-reference.com is projecting the Dodgers to have a $217 million payroll. That's $60 million higher than the next-closest team in their league. Kemp is arguably the face of their franchise. And the gamble they've taken on Crawford is the most unique roll of the dice we can ever remember a team taking on any player. He had Tommy John surgery on Aug. 23. The Dodgers traded for him -- and the more than $100 million in salary he still had coming -- the next day. True, it was part of a much bigger deal and a much bigger storyline. True, he's no longer in Boston, where he looked like the wrong player on the wrong team at the wrong time. But the Dodgers still need this to work if they're going to be the team they expect to be. Right?
"First of all," Colletti says, "Tommy John surgery is very successful in this day and age, especially for somebody who doesn't make a living as a pitcher. And we're talking about a player who, a year and a half before we traded for him, was one of the most sought after free agents in baseball, at a young age. Now he's still at a youngish age (31), and we think he has a chance to be the player Boston expected him to be when they signed him. He should still be in his prime. And he's coming to a different team and a different situation, which we believe should be a plus for him." All we can say is, it had better be.Carl Crawford/Matt Kemp, Los Angeles Dodgers
photo: Chris Humphreys / USA TODAY Sports
David Schoenfield did a quick assessment of how Zack Greinke will likely fare in Dodger Stadium this year, and things look to be pretty positive:
2010: 4.17 ERA, 3.34 FIP
2011: 3.83 ERA, 2.98 FIP
2012: 3.48 ERA, 3.10 FIP
Some of that was caused by poor defense in Milwaukee, some by bad luck, some by Greinke not pitching as well with runners on base.
His defense may not improve behind him with the Dodgers. With Hanley Ramirez scheduled to play shortstop, he's one liability; Ramirez has minus-39 Defensive Runs Saved at shortstop over the past three seasons, in what amounts to about two full seasons of playing time. Matt Kemp, despite his two Gold Glove Awards, has never rated well defensively (by either DRS or Ultimate Zone Rating), his occasional spectacular play masked by misreads and bad jumps. Carl Crawford was a Gold Glove left fielder with the Rays, but hasn't rated well the past two seasons and he's coming off Tommy John surgery, making his arm a big question mark.
On the other hand, Greinke moves back to the National League after a couple months with the Angels and into a better pitcher's park than Milwaukee. He'll also get a few extra starts in San Francisco and San Diego, two other good pitcher's parks.
Most projections have Greinke's ERA around 3.25 to 3.50. He was at 3.44 with the Brewers last year before his trade to the Angels. I'm going to set the over/under at 3.30.What's in store for Greinke? Over the past three seasons, as you may know by now, Greinke's actual ERAs have failed to match the ERA suggested by his peripherals in the Fielding Independent Pitching statistic:
So Greinke's success comes down to how Hanley Ramirez and Carl Crawford can step up their collective defensive games next year. Let's do this, boys!
Would you pay $75 to pick Ned Colletti's brain? If you're a MasterCard holder, now you can. Thanks to old friend J. Steve for sharing this incredible offer:
Dodgers fans, get the chance to hear directly from the Dodgers’ GM Ned Colletti. During a special Q&A, he’ll give a first-hand recap of the 2012 season and the hopeful 2013 outlook—and you’ll get a chance to ask him any burning questions about players and trades.
Then you’ll enjoy a special dinner with other avid Dodger fans. To round out this incredible experience, you’ll get to take a photo with the Dodgers World Series trophy, get an exclusive stadium tour and take home a commemorative baseball.
This event takes place from 6:00pm - 8:00pm on Wednesday, February 6.
All for a measly $75! Not a bad deal, actually — the stadium tour alone costs $15. Wonder if SoSG can get a plant in there.
25 years ago [yesterday], one of the biggest and best examples of an immediate gratification free agency signing occurred. On Jan. 29, 1988, the Dodgers signed star Tigers outfielder Kirk Gibson. Yeah, this turned out to be a good move. Behind Gibson, the Dodgers would win the 1988 world title—still the last one in franchise history.
Gibson had become a free agent under unusual circumstances. By “unusual circumstances” I mean collusion. In the 1980s, owners conspired to keep salaries down by refusing to bid for free agents. Only if a team didn’t want their veteran player would other franchises make a play on him. Only under extreme circumstances did someone switch teams. Most notably, Andre Dawson was so desperate to leave Montreal’s turf field behind him to save what was left of his knees, that he offered the Cubs a blank check. Name their price, and he’d play for them in 1987.
Click here for the entire article!
Despite the fact that Miami is about 3000 miles away from San Francisco, it wasn't enough distance to stop San Francisco Giant Melky Cabrera from using a Florida firm's services to load up on illegal drugs in 2012:
The names were on records Miami New Times said were given to it by an employee who worked at Biogenesis of America before it closed last month. Miami New Times reported that the records show the firm sold performance-enhancing drugs, including human growth hormone, testosterone and anabolic steroids. [...]
Miami New Times reported that Cabrera, who signed a $16 million free-agent contract with the Toronto Blue Jays during the offseason, is mentioned 14 times in the report. He was suspended in August 2012 for violating baseball's performance-enhancing drugs policy while a member of the San Francisco Giants. The paper cited entries in April 2012 indicating Cabrera "has enough meds until May 4" and indicating what the paper terms a "cocktail of drugs including IGF-1."New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez has hired an attorney and is denying involvement after his name -- along with other baseball players like Melky Cabrera, Nelson Cruz and Gio Gonzalez -- appeared on lists obtained by the Miami New Times from an anti-aging clinic in Miami that allegedly dispensed performance-enhancing drugs.
But don't fret, baseball fans! Although he was suspended after being caught midway though last year's season, Cabrera received a full playoff share from the Giants. In fact, the Giants were quite thrilled to award Cabrera over $377K for his help.
Fresh off of the ebullience of striking it rich on a television deal, the Dodgers came into Monday getting hammered by critics on multiple fronts.
First off came news that MLB will be negotiating with the Dodgers exactly how much gets put into revenue-sharing buckets:
Although terms were not disclosed, the SportsBusiness Journal calls it a 25-year deal worth $7 billion.
"We concluded last year that the best way to give our fans what they want -- more content and more Dodger baseball -- was to launch our own network," Dodgers chairman Mark Walter said in a statement. "The creation of AMP will provide substantial financial resources over the coming years for the Dodgers to build on their storied legacy and bring a world championship home to Los Angeles."
The deal is subject to approval by Major League Baseball, and one baseball source privy to the negotiations told ESPN.com the team and the league could very well butt heads regarding exactly how much of the deal will be shared with other teams.
TV rights are subject to revenue sharing, and high-revenue teams, including the Dodgers, have to share approximately one-third of their rights fees with low-revenue teams.
As part of the negotiations with the bankruptcy court, MLB agreed that the Dodgers' fair-market value would be set at $84 million a year with 4 percent increases each season.
The Dodgers could keep anything above that assuming the club took significant risk in starting its own network, as stated in the league's current revenue sharing rules.
But the team readily admits in its announcement that it is not taking the risk.
Time Warner Cable "has assumed most of the risk around the channel and promised to cover affiliate fees from distributors who refuse to carry it," the news release said.
Time Warner will also be responsible for other programming and will be the exclusive advertising and affiliate sales network of the channel.
In essence, the network will serve as a partner making guaranteed payments to the team.The new ownership group, which bought the team out of bankruptcy court in April 2012 for a record $2.1 billion, said it has created a company called American Media Productions that will start broadcasting Dodgers games in 2014 on a channel called SportsNet LA. Time Warner Cable, the largest carrier in the area, will be the network's first distributor.
Magic, time to lay on the charm and work us out of this one! But even if we get past the evil Minions of Selig, there's other issues: the "hangover" of all of our big-time contracts, says Dan Szymborski (link insider only):
A chunk of that money will head back to MLB in the form of revenue sharing -- the haggling with MLB on just how much hasn't yet been completed -- but even after MLB and the Dodgers agree on just how much of that revenue will be subject to the 34 percent cut that heads to the revenue-sharing pot, that's a lot of green raining in Chavez Ravine. On the trajectory that they're on, the Dodgers will need quite a bit of it.
For the 2013 season, depending on how you count things, they currently have between $210 million and $220 million committed to players on the roster. That figure doesn't include the 2013 bills the team owes to Hyun-Jin Ryu ($3.3 million), Yasiel Puig ($3.7 million), Andruw Jones ($3.2 million), Tony Gwynn Jr. ($1 million) and an additional million from various contract buyouts. Throw in an extra $20 million or so for luxury tax and a half-million or so for each of the pre-arbitration players who play the year on the roster, and we're talking one-quarter of a billion dollars in payroll this upcoming season.
Just how much do the Dodgers owe in guaranteed salary? Through the end of the decade, more than $900 million. In fact, $100 million is already on the books every season through 2018, when the Dodgers will owe Matt Kemp, Zack Greinke, Adrian Gonzalez, Andre Ethier (buyout), Ryu and Puig $105 million.
[...]
The Dodgers project to be the best team in the NL West, north of 91 wins. But given our error bars at predicting the future no matter the method, a playoff spot, let alone the divisional title or a trip to the World Series, is far from certain. ZiPS gives the Dodgers a 62 percent shot at a playoff spot, not a number high enough that you want to start ordering the Cristal in bulk quite yet. Guggenheim Partners didn't invest massive sums of money not to get a solid financial return on its investment. A disappointing year or two, and it wouldn't be shocking if the biggest member of the consortium started to find the guaranteed cash from the TV contract a lot more appealing than playing high-stakes fantasy baseball.
The Dodgers certainly have a good chance at playing games until the end of October this season. If they do win the World Series in 2013, which would be the franchise's first since 1988, there will be one sweet celebration party. But as most can attest, the best parties frequently lead to the worst hangovers.The Los Angeles Dodgers have finally signed their gigantic TV contract, landing a deal with Time Warner that would yield the Dodgers between $7 billion and $8 billion over the next 20 years.
So basically, right when Guggs and Co. are trying to make it rain, everyone else is raining on our parade.
Jerks.
With all the changes the Guggenheim group is making, maybe the question should actually be "When are they going to get around to it?" What do you think, SoSG readers? Would you go for a Dodger Stadium rewards card?
