The Dodgers’ sale is expected to close today, ending the Frank McCourt era in Los Angeles. Guggenheim Baseball Management, the group fronted by Magic Johnson and Stan Kasten, could officially take ownership of the team within hours. In the meantime, here are the latest links related to the 16-7 Dodgers…
- Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said McCourt’s ownership ended well in some respects, but remains incomplete in others. "Things obviously worked out financially, but it still can't be what you came for,” he said, according to Bill Shaikin of the LA Times (on Twitter). “You want to win a championship."
- In a piece that focuses on the Rangers' impressive depth, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports says the Dodgers would be a mediocre team without Matt Kemp.
i don’t think anybody, dodgers fans included, would disagree that they would be medicore without matt kemp.
granted, they have a cy young award winner, an all-star right fielder, an all-star #3, a rookie short stop who’s leading the league in stolen bases, and a 24 year old relief pitcher who already holds a pretty impressive record in best K/9 mark for any season ever.
then again, they also have Juan Uribe & James Loney in the middle of the order.
a few decent bats would do wonders for the depth of this team
Did you notice, Uribe is batting over .300 for the last two weeks? Did you notice, Loney got the clutch hit to win the game on Sunday? Uribe is a streaky hitter and Loney, well, he’s just an enigma. But neither are bad bats for the middle of the order. As for Kemp, he’d lift any team up a notch or two.
you’re a knowledgeable guy(or girl?) who always has a lot to add here, but this is ludicrous.
When Uribe keeps this up for three months, AND shows the pop that he showed in SF, then I’ll be a little more ok with him there.
Loney got a bloop single after Gonzalez walked three straight and HAD to through a strike.
A hits still a hit at the end of the day
fine, but don’t pretend like that one hit is enough to forget the guy’s .232/.312/.362 current line.
Did I say it was enough to forget it? I’ll admit he had one good hit but to be honest there are many worse options.
name another starting 1B in baseball who is worse than Loney.
you can hate his bat. but you cant replace what he does on defense
Dunn and Reynolds?
Dunn has played 7 games at 1B this year, and is essentially a DH. He has better offensive numbers than Loney and defensively has zero errors and 1.000 fielding percentage in the field. Mark Reynolds is a third baseman.
Reynolds has played first before. But the season is still young so making an assement on a player based on this small sample size dosn’t make much sense.
A clutch hit is a clutch hit. Gonzales had to throw a strike and Loney had to handle it. Give the man some credit.
I said it already, but again, Uribe is a streaky hitter. Always has been. Career, he’s about a .250 hitter with modest power. The last couple of weeks suggests that his bat is in a lot better shape now than last year, or the first two weeks of this one. If he can come back to his career numbers he will be a credible threat in the 6-7 position. If his power comes back I can see him in the 5 spot.
mattingly holds loony back
Gotta love that spelling of his name, accidental or otherwise.
Magic Johnson and his group need to approach Hamilton on the Rangers as he is to be a free agent following this season. He would be a perfect fit in left field or first base. Not only does he offer immense amounts of power, he is a lefty. Also, Jose Bautista of the Blue Jays at 3rd would only help the Dodgers. Gordon, ellis, kemp, hamilton, bautista, eithier, loney, ellis, pitcher….to me that looks like a championship. And now we have the flexibility in our budget to make it happen.
Bautista is locked up in Toronto for awhile.
How so?
I feel like there isn’t a better bet for any other team to regress from their hot start. Outside of Kemp, Ethier, Kershaw and Billingsley, the rest of that team is mediocre at best. Even Kemp, for as great as his April was, there is absolutely no way he keeps up this torrid pace. I will not be surprised when the Dodgers are at .500 by the end of June. A team that regularly runs out Juan Rivera, Juan Uribe, James Loney, Mark Ellis & Dee Gordon as 63% of your starting lineup without an elite starting rotation, in my opinion, has little chance to compete for a playoff spot. Obviously, I could be wrong and their hot start will only contribute to them being able to stay in the race longer, but I believe this is one cinderella that is bound to turn into a pumpkin by season’s end.
A better bet than, say, Washington, Baltimore, or Cleveland? I’d take that money.
You got me on Baltimore, but Washington and Cleveland look like they could contend for the better part of the season. The Indians certainly have some offensive potential and their rotation could easily be in the top third of the AL by season’s end. As for the Nationals, isn’t it pretty reasonable to suggest that a lot of their early season success appears to be somewhat sustainable?
The Dodgers, on the other hand, seem to think the stars and scrubs model will propel them to the playoffs this season. I tend to disagree with that, wholeheartedly. I’m trying to be as unbiased as possible, given where my allegiance lies…
Essentially you’d be betting on teams with young and mostly unproven talent not collapsing, over a more veteran team that needs to perform near career averages. To that bet, I have one response: Arizona. Heck, even San Diego looked like a Cinderella team just two seasons ago. You never know until you know, but one thing I would not bet against is the ability of the Dodgers to improve their roster midseason under the new ownership.
News flash: career averages, or at least the past few years, for Juan Rivera, Juan Uribe, James Loney and Mark Ellis ain’t pretty. And Dee Gordon appears to be overmatched at the plate. Any team would love to have Kemp and Ethier, but an offense cannot survive the marathon of a season on them alone. Yes, they could add something mid-season, but the cupboard is pretty bare on the farm, as it stands. As I’ve stated, it’s just my personal opinion…I don’t think this Dodgers team has the horses to compete all summer.
I have a news flash for you. Several. Rivera did fine after he came over to the Dodgers last year. His career numbers are also quite respectable. Uribe had the best season of his career (2010) followed by his worst (2011). Career-wise, we know what we are looking at with him. Not my kind of hitter, but not a slouch either. I go with Mattingly’s judgement on Gordon: cut him some slack. He’s hardly got his feet wet. Way too soon to judge either way. Yes, the farm system is shallow for position players but not for pitching, and I have yet to see a club be rescued midseason by their farm teams. Besides, no matter how good a team looks on paper they still need things to break their way over the course of a six month season. Need I remind you that this Dodger team was written off before the first pitch of the season.
Whether you want to admit it or not, Rivera is a 4th outfielder on a good ballclub. The Uribe contract was being panned before the ink on the contract dried, because it was generally accepted that his best days were behind him. We will see with Gordon…no one knows either way yet, but it is not looking good thus far. As for the farm, I was referring to what it could fetch in trade, mid-season, not necessarily how call-ups would improve the club. As for being written off, I wouldn’t go playing the “nobody believed in us” card, as everything I read had them at or near .500. By all means, have faith in your team and root them on. I am allowed to have an opinion and it will continue to be that this team does not have what it takes to sustain success in 2012.
Of course you are allowed to have an opinion, but I am always wary of opinions that begin, “it is generally accepted that…”
Were the Dodgers being praised for that signing? Or was it more of, “Oh, no, not again, Ned?” You tell me. If you want to make a blanket statement about my opinions based on the fact that I think Juan Uribe was overpaid after a career year at age 31, that’s fine. My point was simply that that is my opinion and I’m not exactly going out on a limb by saying that. If you check out my track record, I tend to form my opinions fairly and base them in fact. In no way am I taking shots at you…
Yeah, all of the choirs rose up in song. What do you want me to say? He got virtually the same offer from the Giants but signed with LA. The Dodgers had a big hole to fill and not a lot of options to fill it. I never get into “over paid” debates. They are totally pointless and without end.
Dodgers are in a pretty good place. They’ve had a team that should be competing for years, especially in a relatively weak division. Now that the boat anchor that is Frank McCourt is gone they should be able to fill any holes and make a serious push.
” Now that the boat anchor that is Frank McCourt is gone”
Let’s just hope that the anchor chain that was mcCourt is gone and the chain that is holding a mine moored on the sea bed (known as Ervin Johnson) isn’t nearly as dangerous.. sometimes those things explode you know.. A broken anchor chain can be fixed, but a ruptured hull, or worse from a mine explosion is another problem indeed.
Magic is one of four new owners, and simply the face of the franchise. He will not control the money, nor will he make any baseball decisions.
As far as we know. At some point Johnson will presumably be given some sort of job title with the organization, but as of now, we don’t really know what his role will be. I will be at the first home game of the new ownership and we have a great view of the owner’s seats. I’m sure I won’t be the only person looking for who’s sitting there with Tommy.
I can see him taking on a similar role to Tommy. My guess is he’s heavily involved in recruitment.
Vice-president in Charge of Smiling and Waving? He will have more than just a ceremonial role, I expect, but keep in mind he doesn’t have any baseball background so it remains to be seen how he will be used. For now it will be enough to see the big dude sitting with Tommy next to the dugout. That’s the symbol of the changing of the guard that all the fans are waiting for.
he doesn’t have baseball experience, but he has the experience of being a star athlete. he can relate to players in ways that guys like Kasten, Colleti etc. never would be able to.
Vice-president in Charge of Touchy Feelie Stuff?
Seems like a good use of his name. He’s an owner, not an employee. He doesn’t have to do anything. It would be great to have him as a recruiting tool.
Magic is good at the touchy feely stuff. He was giving old Wilt a run there in his younger days.
Johnson has little to no ownership stake then? It’s just his name use?
He’s apparently got some skin in the game but we don’t know how much. Monetarily he couldn’t be more than a small minority partner. He was clearly made a part of this bid to give the partnership some local cred and we can expect to hear and see him, but with what portfolio we don’t know.
Thanks for that. Mostly been little to nothing coming out as for facts coming out, just names and appreciate the info.
Not much better of a name from LA fan wise than Johnson to drum up support. Garvey maybe before the stories came out several years back, but Johnson would help most now.
McCourt was trying to keep the payroll under $100 million. We don’t know what the new budget was, but realistically you don’t pay $2 billion in cash to field a losing team.
Stan Kasten will actually be making the baseball decisions and that is a good thing. I lived in Atlanta when he was in charge of the Braves and he has a strong focus on the farm system (Gant, Glavine, Smoltz, Justice, Chipper, etc.) but he will also pull the trigger on a player that will fill holes or is a difference maker, like Maddux.
I wouldn’t be so quick to call this year’s iteration of the Dodgers anything more than mediocre considering they were so last year WITH Matt Kemp. Dude will level off.
The team suffered from key injuries last year leading to a void in least two positions. The potential of any team is typically rated with the caveat “if healthy.” Last year’s Dodgers were not healthy. I don’t think anyone seriously expects Kemp to bat .400 for an entire season, but it sure seems like he’s become one of the best players in the game.
this year will be nothing like last. we wont have to use 9 LF. our bullpen is way stronger then last year. plus other then the 5th pitcher. the pitching is fine
last year, the Dodgers had the 5th best record in baseball for the last 2.5 months of the season.