caulfield12

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/46826185/cubs-earn-major-league-high-3-gold-glove-awards Semien and Tatis win Gold Gloves again, as well as PCA Hoerner Happ.

https://global.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/46813024/world-series-2025-clinching-night-mlb-champions-clinching-night-yamamoto Jeff Passan article on Yamamoto and his pitching guru/mentor in Osaka... https://www.si.com/mlb/los-angeles-dodgers-baseball-modern-dynasty-2025-world-series-win-digital-cover

https://sports.yahoo.com/article/dodgers-bad-baseball-why-world-160635412.html “Small market owners would tell you the Dodgers should be cheaper. If the Dodgers didn’t try so hard at roster construction it would be easier to keep up. Is that how competition works? The Dodgers won the World Series because they’re the most expensive team. And because they are good at spending money – which, as the New York Mets demonstrated this season, is not always a given. Even the fans and defenders would have to agree. It’s impossible to separate the strength of the club – an All-Star squad of nine-figure free agents – from the success. It costs a lot to be the premier destination in the sport. To pay Mookie Betts what the Red Sox wouldn’t. To pay Freddie Freeman what the Braves wouldn’t. To pay for practically an entire ballot of Cy Young contenders, something that means it’s not too much of a problem if some of them have to spend the bulk of the regular season on the injured list. And then there’s Ohtani. For six seasons the second coming of Babe Ruth languished on LA’s other team. Even alongside the unassuming greatness of Mike Trout, Ohtani on the Angels never made it to the national stage of the postseason. That’s a problem with baseball; it takes more than one or two elite players to build a winning club. Baseball fans loved Ohtani when he was an Angel. But now they love him and they get to watch him start Game 7 of the World Series.”

Sasaki looked very seriously at SD and Toronto....

Very clear there's a defined bottom 6 and Minnesota by their actions in the last 12-24 months have surely joined as well. Angels 019 Pirates 024 Marlins 025 Rockies 025 White Sox 031 Athletics 039 Interesting thing is Bochy was the one everyone most wanted to play under yet, there's no "transference effect" from Venable being mentored by him in Texas.

Monangai and Loveland supporters were validated this weekend...now they have too many options in Moore Kmet Odunze Burden Swift etc. A lot like Detroit's problem right now. Defense wins playoff games, but offense more fun to watch.

Sure...that's why they can get him for only $175-225 million rather than $300+ million, which was the suggested price a year ago before he missed 2/3rds of the NPB season.

On any other team in baseball (other than the Dodgers), Hope and dePaula would be fighting it out for a starting outfield spot next year. See Cubs, Caissie over Kyle Tucker because of the cost savings/opportunity cost. Because the Dodgers are expected to win the WS every year...they might instead trade for a vet. It's just like if they replace Muncy with Murakami. They don't have to...Muncy has a club option at just $10 million, but they still might pull the trigger to upgrade before Max finally hits a cliff. Ohtani Yamamoto and Sasaki all wanted to play where they could win a WS. Period. Absolutely zero to do with JR. They probably don't even know that he exists, as far as they're concerned. Toronto Giants Yankees Mets Padres all offered equal (or more) money for all of those guys. https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/dodgers 7 outfield/SS prospects in their Top 10, including another Korean. White Sox have Braden and Carlson and maybe Bonemer.

See White Sox 1998-2000 and 2017-2019...two groups that both were ranked #1 in the entire sport.

They have plenty of outfielders in the minors that are highly regarded, including Hope (Cubs originally) and de Paula. They have a plethora of prospects drafted at SS that can be moved all around the field. You're making the argument that Betts, Freeman, Teoscar, Muncy (soon to be replaced by Murakami) and Ohtani should be blamed for wanting to play there. How many teams can produce prospects to displace three former/current MVPs including the greatest player in the history lol??? The White Sox minor league rankings have been used as one of the primary supports or foundations of the rebuild over the last 2-3 years. Now they're mostly irrelevant? Or Colson being knocked out of the Top 100 and then emerging as one of the most important players in the franchise nullifies the value of ranking players? If the Dodgers prospects always failed, nobody would trade for them. Like K.Ruiz and J.Gray for Scherzer and Turner didn't work out so well for either team (if your only measuring stick is winning the WS.) One or two prospect trades not working out isn't the end of the world, lol. Chaim Bloom was ordered to dump Betts because they didn't want to extend him. The return was far from ideal because the GM was ordered to move him.

If Sasaki Sheehan or Wrobleski were on the White Sox...they would all be 1-2-3 starters. Sasaki was out with injury for 4 1/2 months and contributed immense lying to the bullpen down the stretch. The Dodgers also have $1.3 billion invested into their starting rotation. Not like they have a plethora of rotation openings. We will see how they use Sasaki next year. Jose Abreu and Alexei Ramirez were defined as rookies. You can't change the way intl. players are defined just because you want to. And why is it LA's fault for creating an environment where the majority of Asian players want to go They have worked diligently since 2013 to make it happen. Whether you like it or not...they still have one of the next minor league systems in baseball...and as much quality depth as any team. You're still avoiding the discussion of the importance of W.Smith Wrobleski Sheehan Pages, etc. And why is it LA's fault the Red Sox took a terrible trade for Betts or the Braves (like JR with Machado) not wanting to give that one extra year in his late 30s? Finally, you're not giving any credit for the getting players like Muncy and Ki-ke off the left for dead scrap heap.

W.Smith and A.Pages were mighty important, though...Rushing was on their postseason roster, but he struggled on offense quite a bit. Then you have E.Sheehan Wrobleski Sasaki Henriquez Dreyer and H.Kim will take Rojas' place. And can't we say the very same for the White Sox, with the exception of Colson Montgomery? As recently as 2023 they were ranked 4th in homegrown players with 19/40. "Julio Urías (rape), Clayton Kershaw (retirement), Dustin May (traded) and Tony Gonsolin (injured) is as impressive a collection of homegrown starting pitching talent as any in baseball, and that list will only grow once Bobby Miller (shifted to pen), Gavin Stone (right shoulder injury), Ryan Pepiot (TB traded), Michael Grove (surgery) and Landon Knack establish themselves at the MLB level. "The recent departures of Corey Seager, Joc Pederson and Cody Bellinger has left the team with less homegrown position-player talent, but Will Smith is one of baseball's best offensive catchers and Miguel Vargas (haha) is one of the NL Rookie of the Year front-runners." https://www.si.com/mlb/dodgers/onsi/news/dodgers-ranked-among-mlbs-best-teams-in-producing-homegrown-talent-nc2000#:~:text=The Dodgers' current 40-man roster has 19 homegrown,a part of what he had to say.

"The club’s deep-pocketed ways have already sparked debate and discord about the future of the sport. Those conversations will only intensify as the weather cools. Twenty-nine fan bases are understandably angry; something the triumphant Dodgers won’t lose any sleep over. “We got a bunch more to win,” one Dodger joked postgame. “At least one more until [the league] locks us out.” If these Dodgers have indeed become a full-fledged dynasty — and it certainly feels like it — this was an empire well-earned. The Blue Jays gave them everything they had and more. Besides, this is what an evil sports juggernaut is supposed to look like: impenetrable, inevitable. Tortured fan bases are just playthings, character foils for the Los Angeles steamroller." https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/article/world-series-2025-game-7-took-fans-everywhere-in-an-off-the-rails-thrill-ride-of-the-best-baseball-has-to-offer-085908006.html https://www.yahoo.com/sports/article/shaikin-why-magic-johnson-believes-110000576.html "So is the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, the closest baseball has ever had to its own Jordan. The Dodgers rescued him from purgatory in Anaheim and surrounded him with a star-studded roster, and now he makes more money from pitching products than pitching baseballs. To the Dodgers, he doubles as an All-Star and cash machine. The league — and all the owners complaining about the Dodgers and their spending — happily profited from this traveling road show. The Dodgers get the same share of international merchandise and (national/intl.) broadcast revenue every other team does. The Dodgers led the major leagues in road attendance, again. The league sent the Dodgers to Seoul last spring and Tokyo this spring, meaning that, for two years running, they were one of the first two teams to report to spring training and one of the last two playing at season’s end. The league’s television partners rushed to book the Dodgers, even for games at times inconvenient to the team."

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2025/nov/02/world-series-dodgers-global-reactions-japan-canada https://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/world-series-japan-ohtani-yamamoto-b24770 https://global.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/46796676/los-angeles-dodgers-miguel-rojas-smith-world-series-social-reaction Why did Omar Vizquel get a prominent tweet? Joba Chamberlain?

https://global.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/46714042/mlb-2026-way-too-early-power-rankings-dodgers-yankees-mets-blue-jays 10. Detroit 11. KC 16. Cleveland 27. Minnesota Mets 12th, Phillies 9th, Cubs 6th, Yankees 4th, Mariners 3rd 30. The Rockies set a dubious record with the worst run differential since 1901 at minus-424, 79 runs worse than the 1932 Red Sox (who previously had the worst mark in the modern era). That gives the Rockies a strong case as the worst team of all time, or at least the worst since the 1890s if early baseball is your thing. While the Rockies could no doubt dominate 1890s baseball, the going will be difficult in 2026. What do they even do in the offseason? They don't have a Garrett Crochet to trade like the White Sox did last offseason, so it's probably more scrounging around for players who are blocked elsewhere and maybe finding some free talent.

Toronto could join the 1991 Minnesota Twins and the 2013 Boston Red Sox to go from last place to champions, according to MLB Network...

most innings caught in the WS since 1924 is the craziest stat for Will Smith weren't those 9 games long? "Yet all through this rise in revenue and payroll alike, the Dodgers never slacked in scouting, development, analytics, research, medical science or any facet in running an organization. If it exists, the Dodgers are in pursuit of industry leadership in it. And doing so, they have become what some see as baseball's newest evil empire. "There's always critics," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "We're in a big market. We're expected to win. Our fans expect us to win. I can't speak to what revenue we're bringing in, but our ownership puts it back into players, a big chunk of it. That's the way it should be with all ownership groups." ..... The idea is that every organization needs to have a clearly defined set or traits, a style of play that serves as a guiding light for everything from scouting, drafting, development, free agency and the trade market." https://www.espn.co.uk/mlb/story/_/id/46808821/jays-join-dodgers-wearing-vesia-51-caps-world-series

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2025/11/02/baseball/mlb/world-series-dodgers-repeat/

Guerrero Jr. was the clear MVP of that series...but didn't come out with a win. Raw emotions. LA now 5/9 WS appearances (2017-25), have also won 3 of the last 6.

Season starts in Japan and then ends up with a Japanese MVP... the tv ratings in that country for G7 have to be though the roof, ofc same with Canada.

most innings caught in the WS since 1924 is the craziest stat for Will Smith weren't those 9 games long?

have to leave Yamamoto out there...

this is like something out of the Koshien Japanese national high school tourney...unreal Guerrero to lead off bottom 11

Two outs at home in back to back innings in this pressure...

Wow...crazy back to back bases loaded. Pages hasn't been able to hit the broad side of a barn door.