Dodgers Blue Heaven: Blog Kiosk: 2/14/2017 - Dodgers Links

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Blog Kiosk: 2/14/2017 - Dodgers Links - Some Odds and Ends

Above is a fantastic look at Tommy Lasorda's Dodger office, likely taken in the late 70's. Directly behind him is his Frank Sinatra wall, and directly to his right are a group of 1977 Topps Dodger cards on a plaque. Via Arash Markazi at ESPN in a story about Tommy's Dodger Stadium office:

"This is my life," Lasorda said as he stretched his arms out and looked around. "It's all right here in this room. It's all my friends and family. It's like a museum."

Photo above via @Cut4 on twitter. Below are more links to check out:

Happy Birthday, Candy LaChance, Tim Jordan, Abe Kruger, Len Gabrielson & Takashi Saito!
Podcast: JJ and Ben at Baseball America discuss the Dodgers farm system, which is positioned to keep L.A. in contention for years to come (link here). They are quite bullish on the teams future.
Joel Sherman at the NY Post shares the; "MLB’s 50 most fascinating begin with this year’s Theo Epstein." and it features Dodger President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman as no. 1.

There have been two NL West titles and the building of perhaps the majors’ best farm system. But the Dodgers also have had the majors’ highest payrolls each season, including the largest ever in 2015. They have talked financial restraint and the big picture, but the quest to win now led them to invest $192 million to retain Rich Hill, Kenley Jansen and Justin Turner.

This should come as no surprise; especially since I mentioned it last week. Per Ken Gurnick at MLB.com; "Hershiser to assume role as spring instructor."

"I still have my schedule doing the games and shows with Spectrum," Hershiser said. "But they asked me to be in uniform, and it will be a lot of fun. I'm just there to help. Rick and I are good friends, we were catch buddies when we played, and we're on the same page. We learned our pitching philosophy from Sandy and Dave Wallace."

Also, here is a video from the Dodgers featuring Orel talking about this new Spring role.

Another season, another year without Dodger Baseball on television for the masses. Per a tweet by LA Times reporter Bill Shaikin:

Just in from Charter: "We don’t expect any other distributors to carry SNLA by Opening Day." #dodgers
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) February 13, 2017

Bill along with LA Times report Meg James write more about the TV blackout; which will be in its fourth season. here.
Per Edvard Pettersson at Bloomberg; "DirecTV Fights U.S. Antitrust Suit Over L.A. Dodgers Channel."

DirecTV says it refused to pay top dollar for Time Warner Cable Inc.’s Los Angeles Dodgers channel because it had been “burned” earlier overpaying to air Lakers games, not because it was conspiring with others to get an edge on a competitor.

Blowout Buzz shares a bunch of preview pics from Topps 2017 Allen & Ginter set; including the Corey Seager card on the right. Go here to check out more pics. This set officially goes live on July 19th.
David Hood at True Blue LA talks a bit about; "Dodgers 2017 top prospects: No. 5, Alex Verdugo."

There’s little doubt in my mind that Verdugo will at least hit for average at the major league level. I’ve seen few players where contact comes as easy to them as Verdugo. He has a lightning quick bat with almost no load, allowing him to allow pitches to travel deeper than his peers. While he employs a slight uppercut at finish most of the time, his swing will level out occasionally and lead to too many ground balls.