Dodgers top prospect Cody Bellinger is now being represented by agent Scott Boras, reports Robert Murray of FanRag Sports (Twitter link). While the highly touted Bellinger has yet to make his big league debut, he checked in among the game’s top 30 overall prospects in the estimation of ESPN’s Keith Law (No. 6), Baseball America (No. 7), MLB.com (No. 12), Baseball Prospectus (No. 26). Bellinger joins Dodgers superstar Corey Seager and another high-ceiling talent, Julio Urias, among young Dodgers represented by the Boras Corporation — as can be seen in MLBTR’s Agency Database, which houses representation info on more than 2,500 Major League and minor league players.
A few more notes on the Dodgers and Halos…
- Former closer Eric Gagne turned some heads with the news that he’s attempting a surprise comeback. Though he hasn’t thrown in the bigs since way back in 2008, Gagne has already pitched in the presence of the Dodgers front office and is readying to showcase for other organizations, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). He’ll be repped by Scott Leventhal of All Bases Covered Sports Management, who tells Heyman that his client is willing to showcase for teams “on back-to-back days,” presumably to show his readiness to handle a reasonably significant workload at 41 years of age.
- While it seems that the Angels’ first base situation is ripe for a platoon, Maria Guardado of MLB.com writes, GM Billy Eppler is planning to watch the candidates closely this spring to see how the playing time should be divvied up. “It’s not something that we have to decide until the very end,” he said. “I’m very pragmatic with decisions. I like to wait until the 11th hour all the time, so we’ll just see how it goes. You’ll see plenty of Luis Valbuena, C.J. Cron and Jefry Marte, and a little sprinkle of Matt Thaiss early on. You’ll see all those guys, but ultimately we’ll save that decision for the last possible minute.” While there was some chatter at the time of Valbuena’s signing that Cron could be on the trade block, that never seemed terribly realistic given the relative lack of demand for limited sluggers and the Halos’ own roster needs with Albert Pujols working back from foot surgery.
- Angels righty Matt Shoemaker pitched off a mound for the first time since suffering a truly terrifying skull fracture last September, writes Pedro Moura of the L.A. Times. The 30-year-old underwent emergency surgery to halt bleeding in his skull after he was struck in the head by a 105-mph liner off the bat of Kyle Seager late last season. Shoemaker has been using a carbon-fiber headguard in an effort to protect him in the event of similar instances in the future, Moura notes, though he may experiment with other types of headgear during Spring Training games as well.
- Moura also notes in his column that potential closer Cam Bedrosian is a bit behind schedule as he battles a groin strain that he suffered on Tuesday. While not a significant cause for concern, Bedrosian’s general health is a key factor for the Halos this season after the righty’s season was cut short by a finger injury and then a blood clot in his right arm which required surgical repair. Prior to his injury, the 25-year-old was somewhat quietly one of baseball’s most dominant relievers in 2016, pitching to a 1.12 ERA with a 51-to-14 K/BB ratio in 40 1/3 innings. Bedrosian will compete with Huston Street and Andrew Bailey for the closer’s role with the Halos, as MLBTR’s Jason Martinez recently outlined when breaking down the Angels’ upcoming spring training battles.
Why not give it a chance. Gagne’s had 8 years to bulk up on PED’s to be ready for this year.
Porbably more of a ploy to get some benjamins before hes too old. He didnt even do great in indy ball as a starter. Lost talent in this bad apple
Boras representing Bellinger is very upsetting- it puts a very dark shadow on what appeared to be an opportunity for Bellinger to join Seager as “faces of the franchise”. If Bellinger experiences any of the success that his minor league numbers indicate, with Boras now calling the shots, you can almost hear him laughing at the Dodgers and yelling “show me the money” as they look for the mother of all free agent deals when the first opportunity arises.
Boras represents Seager, too, and that has worked out just fine. I see Bellinger replacing Gonzalez as the Dodgers 1B of the future.
Seager is a Boras client too. Same with Urias. We have both of those guys for at least 5 more years
Boras does frequently push his clients to hold out for free agency, but I don’t really see anything wrong with that. The Dodgers would probably like to pull a Longoria on Bellinger, wrap him up early, but they don’t seem like they’re hurting for cash either. Maybe down the road, I guess.
Cody and Corey are more high profile, up and coming young players. They’re very talented and their families have money, even if their personal earnings haven’t ramped up yet. It’s a long shot to think the Dodgers can lock them up with early deals anyway, no matter who their agents are. We’ll see how the organization negotiates with Boras in 5 or 6 years. Dodgers have money so there’s still a chance they stay Dodgers after arbitration.
I am seriously baffled by why anyone would care at all, let alone be very upset, at who represents him, if only because he’s 6-7 years away from free agency. His agent basically has no shots to call for a very long time.
I’d think he might help in arbitration, but I don’t think the Dodgers have gone that route for almost a decade, right? Nothing to see here.
Whatever you do, don’t read the rest of that paragraph or you’re really going to be upset since Boras represents Seager and Urias also.
I forgot when oc became la
But ok
Ditto. Still drives me nuts after all these years.
Heh — I actually hesitated on the title of the post for that reason… I never really refer to “Los Angeles” in connection to the Halos on the site. I typically always reference them as “Anaheim” when going by city.
They still have L.A. in the name of their team though, so it didn’t feel like too much of a reach.
Los Angeles Notes of Anaheim
As an Angel’s fan I don’t like the “LA” moniker. Would much prefer reverting back to Anaheim or California
As a lifetime Angels fan who first followed the team that played in Chavez Ravine (because Mr Autry didn’t want to refer to it as Dodger Stadium), the ‘Los Angeles’ aspect is welcomed. This team did exist before Anaheim Stadium was ever planned.
Do we have to go through this every time? It means LA market. OC is part of the LA Market. The Dodgers and Angels compete for fans in the LA Market. Yes, most Dodger fans are in LA county and most Angels fan are in OC. As others have pointed out, there are several pro teams that don’t play in the city of their namesake but somewhere in the market.
To the rest of the country Disneyland is in LA next door to the Kardashian dullards.
upvoted for accuracy
This is such a red herring. I haven’t seen recent numbers, but the last I read, the majority of fans attending Angels games don’t live in OC. I first attended Angels games when they played in Chavez Ravine (aka Dodger stadium) and have regularly attended Angels games since 1980 while living in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties). They may play in a strum physically located in Anaheim, but the vast majority of their fans don’t live there.
I’m going by memory and I’m not going to recheck facts… because I’m not a writer.
Before 1957, the Los Angeles Angles of the Pacific Coast League were a minor league team for the Chicago Cubs. They played in Wrigley Field of Los Angeles, a smaller version of Wrigley Field in Chicago. In 1957, they became affiliated with the Dodgers, moved to Spokane, WA and changed their names to the Spokane Indians.
In 1961, the MLB expansion Los Angeles Angels played in previously abandoned Wrigley Field (now a Hollywood prop). From 1962 – 1965, they shared Chavez Ravine with the Dodgers. In 1966, the Angels moved to Anaheim and changed their name to the California Angels. I wish they had kept that name.
When they started calling the team the Los Angeles Angels.
When they were in la back in the early 60s
Ok cool
It’s 2017 and they play in oc
Get over its… it’s not la
It’s oc. You got the ducks, Disneyland, and overpriced everything else.
It’s 2017, and they still have Los Angeles in the name despite playing in OC. Get over it… They call themselves LA. Why should anyone else stop referring to them as such?
More again than still. Between uses of Los Angeles in the name they were the California Angels and the Anaheim Angels. That period only lasted about 40 years.
Has nothing to do with any of this… it has to do with the fact that Los Angeles is the number two market in the country, and by having Los Angeles in the team name, the revenue that is generated is much higher than Anaheim or California would create… this name is simultaneously a marketing strategy used by Mr. Moreno…
I seriously doubt it has made little difference
I have yet to meet an angels fan that says yes we are in la
So the logic here also dictates that the A’s start calling themselves the San Francisco A’s because San Francisco is the most convenient label for the Bay Area media market. The reality is the Angels are in the greater LA media market by definition of the market, not by what it is called. I never entirely understood what they thought they’d gain by throwing over Anaheim, which after all, helped them build their stadium.
LA demographic market includes Ventura, LA, OC, Riverside and SB counties. That doesn’t mean the Angels market themselves in Simi Valley seeking season ticket holders (not named Weaver), but an acknowledgment to advertisers that FSW is showing Angels games in Thousand Oaks, Lancaster, Redlands, etc. The name is to brand the team’s location on the consciousness of advertisers. Otherwise, nothing but ads for Howard’s and 714-TICKETS.
If memory serves me, report were that Arte got more money out of Fox Sports by changing the team name to LA. As a fan, I don’t like it.
As for the A’s calling themselves SF…well if the 49ers, who play further to the city of SF than the A’s do, then I guess anything goes.
You put your finger on it at the end. It’s all about the media market and the media market is the same no matter what label you give it. This is why I don’t understand why the Angels were so adamant about inserting LA into their name. Some marketing bubblehead probably did a study that told them they could increase their exposure by 0.01%.
The Atlanta braves don’t play in Atlanta.
The New York giants don’t play in New York.
The Tampa bay rays don’t play in Tampa (or in a bay).
Mets do play in New York State
Braves are right outside of Atlanta now… closer to Atlanta than the oc angles are to la
The Angles 1B situation….. Cron, Pujols, or Valbuena? Does it really matter?
Cron should get the lions share of playing time at 1B. IIRC he hits RHP just as good as LHP (if not better). Pujols @ DH with Escobar getting ABs there whenever possible . Valbuena roves between 1B/2B/3B/DH. Marte will likely start in the minors or earn a bench role as a corner INF/OF guy.
Doesn’t matter, some day a large hole will swallow Boras up and take him home
Sounds like Eppler is calling the playing-time shots. If so, can Mike Scioscia be happy with that?
Or was it just semantics on Eppler’s part, knowing that Mike ALWAYS gets along with his GM ? Hmmm….
GMs often have a large say in Spring Training playing time, which is as much about evaluating talent as conditioning. Besides, I’m sure Scioscia would want to see Thaiss taking hacks at better pitchers than he sees at A level, to get a sense of his skill level and weaknesses.
The only GM Scioscia didn’t get along with was Jerry Dipoto.