Comments on: Now that Zack Greinke is in the fold, the Dodgers could try to lock up Clayton Kershaw

By: manchestermiracle

manchestermiracle — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 05:09:43 +0000

Depends on which Pope you happened to be referring to. Past Popes have collaborated with Nazis, for starters. The current Pope was a member of the Hitler youth.

By: stex52

stex52 — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:05:50 +0000

MLB certainly won’t stop them. They will be pumping out tons of luxury tax money to other teams. Another form of revenue sharing for the league from a big market.

By: webbza

webbza — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 18:39:32 +0000

I don’t think that the Braves are being run poorly. I just disagree with some of the moves they made this season. Frank Wren has done a great job in the last few years of turning over players and establishing the contending team that they have become, but I don’t think he has made the best choices so far this offseason. BJ Upton, especially, is not the guy that I would give $15 mill a year to play very average baseball.

By: webbza

webbza — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 18:33:47 +0000

Touché

By: kevinbnyc

kevinbnyc — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:30:10 +0000

Reasonably confident the Pope never bombed anyone.

By: kobeisking

kobeisking — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:24:19 +0000

“Kershaw will leave via free agency” Laughable…

By: coloradogolfcoupons

coloradogolfcoupons — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 15:46:52 +0000

Barring injury, Kershaw might bring more at the free agent auction than Arod’s original 10 year, 252 million deal. He will only be 26, and a 10 year deal will mean he is only 36 when it ends, and lots of great pitchers are still pitching at 36. $25 million/year is not only possible, but very probable if he pitches well this year, so don’t laugh when you hear $250 million for Kershaw’s next contract. His off the field work (Clemente award) will factor into the contract as well. Who would you rather invest a quarter billion in…Josh Hamilton or Clayton Kershaw? Dodger’s won’t be out-bid by this guy, and both Boston and the Yankees would love to have him, so it would be a three-way tug of war if the Dodgers let him reach FA. I’m betting they will extend him, maybe as early as this spring. It might save them 50 million or more.

By: sportsdrenched

sportsdrenched — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 15:06:18 +0000

You might want to read HBT more than you do.

By: manchestermiracle

manchestermiracle — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:39:47 +0000

Bzzzzzt. Nope, wrong answer, Gordo. Guggenheim just put a hundred large of their own money into improvements. You mad, dude?

By: manchestermiracle

manchestermiracle — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:38:29 +0000

Not if you’re the one being bombed or fondled.

By: SOBEIT

SOBEIT — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:25:11 +0000

As a Giants fan, I am really happy that Colletti is their GM…and no longer the Giants GM. And now his only goal is to shove it back in the Giants face and that will lead to even more bad decisions. Add to that an open checkbook…the mistakes will be legendary.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:51:31 +0000

Stan Kasten has run the business side of franchises, not the baseball side. Having Kasten may mean the Dodgers make good business decisions on non-baseball issues, but it doesn’t mean they will make good baseball decisions. Colletti is one of the worst GMs in baseball and they chose to extend his contract. They signed League to a laughable deal. They spent $60M on a guy that most think will end up in the pen. They bought a bunch of bad contracts from the Red Sox AND gave up good prospects to do it. So far, there haven’t been any good baseball decisions, just a lot of spending.

Look at that lineup. For $240M, that’s all they’ve got?

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:51:14 +0000

There is room for ambiguity in life.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:46:38 +0000

webbza, you might want to learn a little baseball history. Almost none of the Yankees WS titles were due to spending money on free agents, even most of their titles during the FA era were due to drafting and developing their own players….once they started spending big (i.e. after the Steinbrenners started becoming involved in baseball decisions again), they’ve only won one WS….made the playoffs almost every year, but that isn’t a guarantee of anything with the expanded playoff structure.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:42:32 +0000

Is that good or bad? Considering the history of things that Popes have approved of….I just can’t be sure.

By: richyballgame

richyballgame — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 05:05:45 +0000

I totally disagree with you saying they can have any team’s desired FA,when in reality,sentimentality is setting in,look at Cliff Lee,he went where he wanted to play instead of cashing in on the Yankees payday. What happens if the Dodgers don’t even make it to the playoffs?

By: richyballgame

richyballgame — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 05:00:09 +0000

Eh… I’ll be hated for saying this by Dodgers fans,but Kershaw will become the highest paid pitcher in the history of the MLB,and I think other teams that are bigger towns baseball wise,will spend the near $200 million necessary to sign him. Ultimately,he hits the market and leaves the Dodgers. If I were him,I would.

By: paxnov

paxnov — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 04:39:22 +0000

First, we are talking about Stan Kasten here. I haven’t heard anybody accuse the Braves of being badly run by anybody whose opinion mattered; or by anybody who knew wat they were talking about. Second, apparently none of you thought to check the Dodgers’ income before making your doomsday predictions. As of today, Dodger’s payroll for 2013 (including luxury tax) doesn’t exceed their income stream from their projected local television deal. Their income from the national tv deal, ticket sales, concessions, merchandising, etc., remains untapped. Theoretically, the Dodgers could invest like this every year. I don’t think they will, but they could with negligible impact on their finances. Even with this winter spending spree, they remain profitable on paper. Even factoring in the Red Sox deal, the Dodgers look to recoup their half billion dollar investment by 2015. Quit worrying about the Dodgers. They have the money and they needed the investment. They will continue to improve top to bottom and are here to stay. Moreover, if hey decide they want one of your team’s free agents, they will probably get them. That is the new reality in baseball. Will they win next year, or every year, of course not. Do they have a shot at winning 4 of the next 15 like the Yankees did in the last 15 years, you bet.

By: djpostl

djpostl — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 04:18:50 +0000

“The Dodgers are bringing in a superstar with Greinke” just makes me chuckle every time.

Career ERA of 3.77. Career ERA+ of 114. Career xFIP of 3.62.

Those are the numbers of a “good” starter. Not a “superstar”.

Agon is way over-priced AND they had to take Beckett and Crawford (and their crappy deals) to get him. Eithier is grossly over-paid. Greinke is arguably not even a top 20 pitcher in MLB but is being paid like he’s the best. Kemp (as long as he stays healthy) is worth what he gets but other than him and Kershaw it’s a team that is being paid far more than it’s worth.

By: 01133377dodger

01133377dodger — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 03:28:22 +0000

It would not go into effect tell 2015, we would have a bunch of bad contracts and 2-3 starters that we do not need. Pay him 25M/yr for 8 years he’s worth it!!!! Our payroll would be less than it is today.

By: webbza

webbza — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 03:02:26 +0000

And what do you mean it rarely works?….the yanks have 27 world championships to show for it. I’d say it works pretty well.

By: webbza

webbza — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 03:00:49 +0000

I’m impressed that they’re bringing in quality players unlike the Marlins did last year, and that they’re not just conning an entire city. The Marlins brought in Ozzie Guillen to manage a group of players whose egos were already a little too big. Jose Reyes is a good player, but he’s also always hurt and is pretty inconsistent. If the fish thought that he, Heath Bell, Mark Buehrle, and some new jerseys would turn them into a 100 win team, then they’re crazy. Also, Loria is clearly not the guy that you want leading your organization. The Dodgers are bringing in a superstar with Greinke, not a bunch of washed up players and a bad manager like the Marlins.

By: manchestermiracle

manchestermiracle — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 02:22:10 +0000

Guggenheim ain’t no Loria.

By: manchestermiracle

manchestermiracle — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 02:21:31 +0000

Apparently Ladies Home Journal has yet to arrive in the mailbox. It’s their imitation of the nosy broad next door bitching because the neighbors have a new car.

By: biasedhomer

biasedhomer — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 02:20:09 +0000

What’s there to be impressed with? All they have done is thrown money around at big name players. This rarely works, see as recently as last years Marlins.

By: webbza

webbza — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 02:13:36 +0000

I’m just starting to blog about baseball and it would be greatly appreciated if anyone that’s interested would check out some of my posts. Also, I think it’s definitely safe to say that the Dodgers are the new Yankees. At this point, it seems like they’ll just buy their wins. I’m very impressed by their new front office though.

By: barroomhero80

barroomhero80 — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 01:57:07 +0000

Have you ladies nothing better to bitch about?

By: Gordon

Gordon — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 01:49:51 +0000

Just wait til they claim the stadium is uninhabitable an they need taxpayer money to build a new one.

By: echech88

echech88 — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 01:44:27 +0000

They won’t be hamstring by payroll. It’s more just a matter of how epic the failure will be if they don’t dominate with that much money being spent.

Eventually they’ll find out that if they actually do their homework and spend their money efficiently (and not on League and Crawford), they can be roughly as good at $180M as $250M…of course their front office just doesn’t get lazy and use it as a crutch.

By: echech88

echech88 — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 01:40:16 +0000

In all likelihood they will be bounced most years by cheaper teams. It’s what makes MLB postseason fun.