HawkeyeDodger

Kenta made $10,375,000 in 2016. If all goes well this year. He should make a little bit more than that. So recieving $2.5 million per year from the Dodgers obviously knocks that down a bit. Kenta also got $1 million for being traded and his signing bonus is spread out at $125,000 per year so he's already up to $4.125 for 2020. Camargo is interesting. I met him and chatted with him a bit when they played the Kernels in Cedar Rapids last year. He also played some 3rd base. Jair had a nice start to last season and faded down the stretch. Hunter Feduccia was the primary catcher for the Loons and bats LH so that also limited Camargo's starts. If he got 2 games in a series. One might be at 3rd and one behind the plate. His development is blocked in the Dodgers system. Smith, Ruiz, Cartaya, Feduccia, Wong plus a couple others at lower levels are rated higher. The Dodgers in a few years went from almost nothing at catcher to absolutely loaded. That's why Wong was thrown into the deal for Boston. Wong projects like Farmer with less swing and miss but more power. With Ruiz at AAA, Feduccia at AA and Cartaya coming to the states this season it was best for Camargo to go to another organization. Camargo opened some eyes the first half of last season so hopefully a new organization will allow him to develop.

This reeks of John Henry not Bloom. Henry brought in Bloom(a Freidman clone) to clean up the finances, re-build the minors, and get the team younger after Dombroski did what he always does. Now Henry has got in the middle of this deal and PO'd 3 teams, agents, the player's union and MLB too I'm sure. The Red Sox specifically asked for Graterol. The entire baseball world knows he projects as a closer. His last pitch was 101 mph. The East coast media goes to bed before Verdugo even plays and has no idea that he's as good as Benintendi but with a better arm. Henry hears the negative reactions and then sticks his nose in rather than letting Bloom do his job. The Twins do more than they should have and offered another top 20 prospect. The Red Sox were getting out of $43 million plus luxury tax penalties, gaining a kid who is going to hit .300 for the next 5 years plus a future closer for a rental.

Short version of my earlier post. When Kenta attacks he's pretty good. When he nibbles and is afraid to throw pitches, he's not. Good Kenta will give you 6-7 strong innings. Bad Kenta will get gassed in the 4th and 5th trying to get through high pitch innings. The team should also enjoy his interpreter named Will. He's a character. I recall him dressing up for a dead lift contest in the clubhouse. Kenta is often playing practical jokes on him too thought get caught on video. Oh yeah, Kenta has historically been better the first half of the season which has also led to his move to the pen.

It's terrible.

Hi Guys. I've always like your site. I thought I would give you the low down on Maeda. His contract is structured the way it is because there was an issue with his elbow in his medicals when he came over from Japan. Kenta wanted to be a Dodgers and bet on himself so he took $3 million a year for 8 years with a lot of incentives built in based on innings and starts. He's always taken the ball, never had a real injury issue and has made at least $8 million a year depending on when the Dodgers moved him to the pen. They moved him earlier last year than 2017. ~ The Dodgers would move him to the pen because he was their #5 starter and his slider is just filthy against RH hitters. He should help the Twins against the RH hitters the Yankees have. Kenta rarely has consecutive bad starts and at times looks like a #3 starter. However, he nibbles too much and often is out of gas around the 5th inning because of it. He doesn't trust his fastball and gets hit hard vs lefties. He does have a good change-up that is successful vs lefties. He's also got a good splitter. The inability to trust his fastball as a starter has been a problem that's frustrated management. You will often see him in 2-0 counts throw a get me over curveball to get back into the count. His fastball plays up tremendously from the pen and his slider was devastating to RH hitters when he could just let the fastball go and pair it with his slider. When that slider is on he will have great starts and make teams look silly. Usually lower level teams though. To me he's a 3 or 4 for most teams. ~ He didn't complain and moved to the pen the last two years but he did let it be known this off-season that he wasn't happy about it and wanted to start in the playoffs. He thinks of being moved to the pen as being dishonored. Andrew Freidman's response was pitch better then especially vs lefties. The Dodgers promised Wood a starting spot. They were already planning on putting Urias in the rotation finally. So Kenta would have been competing with May, Gonsolin, Stripling, and Nelson for the 5th spot even before adding Price. ~ The Dodgers always did the right thing by him financially, If he came up just short of an incentive they would pay him. They offered to re-structure his contract this past off-season to protect him if he got moved to the pen. He and his agent declined. Rather than having a unhappy camper it was time to move Kenta. I hope he helps you guys beat the Yankees. BTW, Rich Hill will be missed tremendously by the fans and his teammates. He was definitely one of the leaders in the clubhouse. If a rookie came up and wasn't handling his business as a professional he would let them have it. Verdugo got lit up by him two years ago and it made a big impact on Alex. Hill was beloved as a team Dad and is absolutely someone you can trust in a big game. Opponents rarely see guys like Hill take the mound. He's going to give up a dinger just about every game. You just have to hope he hasn't walked anyone leading up to it. Sorry, if this is in the wrong thread.

From a Dodgers fan's perspective on what caused Forsythe's decline: -Always in a pitcher's count. Rarely does he swing at the first pitch. He looks as if he's sitting fastball middle-in until he has two strikes on him and then he's in defense mode. It's been very frustrating to watch. -No power at Chavez-Ravine. The ball doesn't carry there at night so unless he really pulled the ball it was dying at the track. -Injuries set him back to start both seasons -This season he choked under the bright lights. I watched Logan at Spring Training before the 2017 season. He could go the other way for a base knock at will. After getting injured, he was never right against RH pitching. He still hit well vs lefties and drew a lot of walks. After a nice post-season everyone thought he would return to closer what he had done in the past, but with less power and nice defense. It didn't happen. He defense regressed a bit too and then he was pressing. His AB's were just plain awful and it was apparent he was choking under the bright lights because fans/media were questioning why he was on the diamond so much if he wasn't even producing against left-handers this season.

The Dodgers would happily pay two-thirds of Kemp's salary to go away. If you want prospects then the Twins would have to start taking on more money. Probably half just to get a decent prospect. Buehler isn't going anywhere. Kemp is working out at Dodger Stadium and has lost a lot of weight. He tore it up the first two months of last season until he had hammy issues and then his season, weight, and attitude fell apart. Helping the Dodgers move Kemp puts them back in the Darvish sweepstakes though. As for Alvarez, his conditioning was questioned last year when he showed up to ST. I recently read that he's been in AZ at the Dodgers facility in shape and working on developing his changeup to go the plus plus fastball and plus slider. Stuff isn't the issue. Like most young pitchers it is command. He got a bit of a wake up call last year after performing better than expected the year before. He could be a #1 or he could wind up a bullpen piece. This season will go a long way in which direction he's headed. Teams that are starving for pitching should be looking at Ryu. The Dodgers babied him last year because they didn't know what he could provide. If you subtract his starts against the Rockies he was quite good. He knows how to pitch and he's working on adding a two-seam fastball to his arsenal. He can no longer hit 94-95 mph when needed but he knows how to work up and down in the strike zone and it makes his 91-92 mph fastball good enough with such a good changeup. He may not be a match for the Twins but he's a cheap trade option for teams who need multiple starters.

I don't see them moving a Santana. They would eat the money like they did Carl Crawford's last year before moving Santana.

The Padres were willing to pay Olivera's contract to get Kemp out of the clubhouse. Olivera a domestic abuser who is out of baseball. Atlanta's owner called him out for being fat and out of shape. He showed up last year supposedly with a new body and new attitude only to finish the season fat and once again a clubhouse cancer. Anthropolous' first priority was figuring out how to get him out of the clubhouse so much so that he was willing to add $25 million to the 2018 payroll for him to leave. The Dodgers would give away a couple prospects for someone to take just a portion of his money. If things don't go well, the old Kemp would resurface quickly.

The Dodgers would be thrilled to get anywhere between 25 cents to 33 cents on the dollar to move Kemp. He will never see the Dodgers locker room. He was a clubhouse cancer at the end of his run in LA and became one in SD and Atl too. His comment he made when traded to Atlanta won't sit well with a lot of Dodgers fans. He said that he was happy to finally get to play in a real baseball town. Matt Kemp has to decide if he just wants to remain fat and collect the last two years of his contract or get in shape, stay in shape, and adjust his attitude so he can add a couple of years to his career. The scene in Money Ball where Billy Beane reminds David Justice that the Yankees are paying him to play elsewhere is pertinent to Kemp except he has now had three teams ship him out of town and be willing to pay money for him to leave. I think the Dodgers would throw in a mid-level prospect or two if they could recoup some money in such a deal. As for the trade, McCarthy will contribute to Atlanta. He only makes $10 million in the final year of his deal, but there is also a team option of $5 million for 2019. Kazmir is toast. Culberson will be useful to Atlanta, but may have been stuck at AAA for the Dodgers. The deal allows the Dodgers to get re-set their luxury tax penalty, add some players at the deadline this year, and makes them players in next year's big free-agent class. Unless they flip Kemp elsewhere, I don't think it puts them back in play for Darvish. BTW, I was sorry to see you guys added Rodney to your staff and equally sad to see him leave the NL West. Having him at the end of games always reminded me that AZ wasn't really a contender to win it all.

Hey, I enjoyed chatting with you guys this past winter. I don't think too many of you saw the Twins here when we were discussing the Dozier-Deleon non-deal. I'm sure everyone who isn't a Yankee fan is rooting for the Twins tonight. Good luck!! A return to 1965 would be fun in October.

i did too. I thought it was a good article. It should alleviates some of the concerns about his shoulder and backed up what I said about him losing too much weight going into camp last year. I did find it strange that he said the Dodgers don't like Sborz considering he was a 2nd rd. draft pick and just got an invite to big league camp. I think it might be more accurate to say that he may be viewed as a bullpen piece rather than a starter, but to say they don't like him seemed off to me. For what it's worth there was an article today that said Ned Coletti viewed him as a number 3-5 starter. Then again Ned is fetching Stan Kasten's coffee and doing pre-game work on SportsNet LA because they didn't trust him with the prospects.

I do trust Chris Camello's tweets/sources. From what he has stated in the last few days Stewart may or may not have been added to the deal, but Alex Wood definitely was added and when the Twins balked at Wood the Dodgers had him going to Seatte for a prospect more to the Twins liking. I thought Wood would make a nice second piece, but I understand the Twins may have wanted someone with more than 3 years of control. It is also very likely this happened because the Dodgers are very lefty heavy on the mound right now too. Kershaw, Hill, Urias, Ryu, Kazmir,and Wood are all lefties. The bullpen has Dayton, Liberatore, Avilan, and Nuno who are all lefties too.

They felt Deleon was a good enough piece to not have to include other front line prospects. Like it was stated earlier if a player who is less MLB ready or a slightly lower rated prospect headlines the deal than you have to trade more prospects away. I think from most people prospective is that the Rays-Dodgers deal was win-win if Forsythe plays like he did the last two seasons. Dodgers fans aren't happy to see JDL go not only because of his talent, but from all accounts he is a great, great person.

Because they needed a 2nd Baseman.

FWIW, i had asked the guy who broke the Turner and Jansen signings what he had heard. His response was that he heard Stewart had been added. I'm not saying he's right or wrong anymore than I'm saying Dave was right or wrong. Just sharing information.

Yes, that's why he said eventually. He will enter the Rays rotation as a number 5. He's not a finished product. He pounds the zone. He has a plus fastball and changeup. A slider that looks good a times and a developing curve ball. To be a number two, he's got work to do on his breaking pitches. ,

This is in line with what I had posted when I first came on the board. The Dodgers had asked him to work on his body. He's dating a professional tennis player and when he showed up to spring training last year, they actually felt that he had lost too much weight.

I listened to Kevin Kennedy tonight on Sirius. Kennedy is someone who knows how to scout talent, as a former catcher he knows pitching. He also knows the Dodgers system inside out. I would trust his opinion over a lot of bloggers as well as the knucklehead that hosts Dodger Talk these days. The only reason anyone listened to that show in past years was for Kennedy's analysis. Anyways, he thinks the world of JDL. He projects him as a solid #2 eventually. Certainly no lower than a #3 as his floor. Re-signing Hill allowed them to deal from a position of strength for a position of need. Zaidi was also on and said if JDL wasn't dealt he was someone they planned on getting starts in 2017.

Here's what I heard from a couple different LA reporters over the last month. The Dodgers and Twins agreed upon Deleon as the top piece in the deal. The two teams exchanged lists of names that they wanted in the deal to finish the deal with second and 3rd pieces. The names didn't match up. I'm sure the Twins had guys like Alvarez and Buehler on the list and the Dodgers had other players. If you read Friedman's quotes today, he said they got clarity about a week ago what it would take to acquire any of the 2 or 3 players that they liked at second base which is about the time a stalemate was reported. The price for Forsythe was what they found the most palatable for a deal. I have no doubt that more than JDL was offered for Dozier. What the "junk" was, hopefully we find out some day. Or if Dave's source was correct, hopefully that leaks out as well.

I'm not sure how many more times that it can be explained. The Dodgers aren't dealing Kershaw, Hill, or Urias. Who has value to deal? Is it Kazmir, McCarthy, Ryu, Wood, Stewart, Stripling, Maeda? or Jose Deleon? What would dangling any of the other 6 guys get you? I think Wood has some value. Stewart also has some value but neither were going to get Kinsler, Dozier, or Forsythe. Maeda? Everyone knows that he signed a deal full of incentives because his elbow is a ticking time bomb.

Sounds like that is the case. Also, Friedman unlike Madden left on very good terms with ownership there.

Alvarez and Buehler are the scheduled replacements for McCarthy and Kazmir. Deleon is blocked unless they want to eat the contracts of McCarthy($20 million left) and Kazmir($32 million left). Considering they're eating Carl Crawford's remaining $20 million this year, I can't see them doing that. I think they would sell Kazmir at 50 cents on the dollar and McCarthy at 70 cents on the dollar. Stewart and Wood are insurance until Buehler and Alvarez are ready. It's not an indictment on JDL. My biggest concern with Deleon is that he's HR prone.

The Rays could give you De Leon.

Forsythe is an upgrade for the Dodgers. He's a borderline top 10 second baseman. Not as big of an upgrade as Kinsler or Dozier, but will help the Dodgers. Most reports had more than JDL in a package to the Twins. Info will leak out eventually who was included. It will be interesting to see how the names kicked around here perform in the future now. Dozier, JDL, Alvarez, etc. If Dave is correct and the Twins turned down JDL and Alvarez, they may regret that for a while. I think the Eaton deal may have given the Twins an unrealistic view of what Dozier would get them if Dave is correct. I still think De Leon and Stewart was probably the fair deal, but current roster configuration made it tough to deal both. I think it is a good deal for the Rays. They have a lot of cheap controllable pitchers to build around. Forsythe has to be thrilled to get out of that dump of a ball park and play at Chavez Ravine. Dave, if your source is correct, someone like May might have been that 3rd person. Whether it is this year or next year, if Dozier plays well, the Twins will cash him in for something. It will be interesting to compare if they were better off waiting to pull the trigger.