Three up, three down | Talk of Brad Hand as a Dodger; Giants are beyond help
A look at whatâs trending in Major League Baseball this week:
THREE UP
Window of truth: The Dodgersâ current management does not believe in the concept that a team has a window to win. By allocating resources to sign, develop and retain a constantly replenished supply of young players, the Dodgers believe their window can stay open indefinitely. But the Chicago Cubs have a young core, and yet the team has traded its top prospect two years running â" for Aroldis Chapman last July, for Jose Quintana this week â" to maximize what Cubs President Theo Epstein calls their âfour-plus year window.â The Cubs won the World Series last year, eliminating the Dodgers along the way.
Brad Hand: The Dodgers could use a left-handed reliever, and that could be Hand, if they can get him in a trade with the San Diego Padres. The Padres arenât concerned wi th winning next year; theyâre stocking up on the high-risk, high-ceiling teenagers the Dodgers have in abundance after spending millions in Latin America. Thereâs a natural match, and the âdonât trade within the divisionâ maxim is rendered inapplicable by the Matt Kemp-Yasmani Grandal trade. âIt would be awesome to go to a contender, but then again, I like what theyâre doing in San Diego,â Hand said. âI think, in a few years, theyâre going to have a good team.â He said he hasnât thought much about the Dodgers, but he has heard their fans, loudly. âThey have a good fan base,â he said. âThey always travel to San Diego.â
Derby heavyweight: Cody Bellinger represented the Dodgers well in the home run derby â" beating Charlie Blackmon of the Colorado Rockies in the first round before losing to eventual champion Aaron Judge â" but Bellinger isnât sure if he would participate again. âWeâll see,â he said. âI was tired. Maybe if I have bulked up some more.â All the players were entranced by Judge, the New York Yankeesâ 282-pound goliath, who drove four balls more than 500 feet each. Bellinger and Blackmon are listed at 210 pounds each, and Bellinger said he joked to Blackmon: âWeâre 100 pounds too light for this co mpetition.â
THREE DOWN
âTotal ineptitude:â The San Francisco Giants are on pace to lose 101 games, which would be a record for a franchise that dates back to 1883. And itâs not just this year: The Giants have lost 98 of their past 162 games, a sample the size of a season. They have been swept seven times this year, not just by contenders but by the Cincinnati Reds, Miami Marlins and New York Mets. Brian Sabean, the Giantsâ executive vice president of baseball operations, told the San Jose Mercury News he couldnât recall so many swe eps in his 25 years in San Francisco. âThat, to me,â he said, âis a sign of our total ineptitude.â Squad goals for the second half? âIâll take two weeks of sanity,â he said.
Hide your future: For all the challenges baseball has in marketing its young stars, a self-imposed challenge should not be one. The Futures Game is a smart showcase for up-and-coming stars, inexplicably hidden on a Sunday afternoon when every major league team is playing. These arenât new ideas, but weâll repeat them: Kill the Sunday night ESPN game preceding the All-Star game and play the Futures Game in that national window, or move the All-Star week back a day so the Futures Game is Monday, the home run de rby is Tuesday and the All-Star game is Wednesday. Would you rather have seen Alex Verdugo and Yoan Moncada, or the Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Indians?
Read all about it: ESPN and Fox have committed a total of $10 billion in rights fees to broadcast MLB games on the eight-year contracts currently in force. The networks clearly want to do anything in their power to persuade more fans to watch the games â" the greater the number of viewers, the more the networks make on advertising. So it has be troubling to the league that ESPN and Fox have told three of baseballâs best reporters â" Buster Olney, Ken Rosenthal and Jayson Stark â" to write less, or not at all. If the networks truly believe they cannot boost their audience with great writing about baseball, the sportâs demographic future might be perilous indeed.
SERIES OF THE WEEK
New York Yankees at Minnesota Twins
Monday through Wednesday
The Yankees arrived at the All-Star break tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for second place in the AL East â" a good thing for the Rays, but not so good for the Yankees. They had lost 17 of 24 games, flipping a four-game lead into a 3-1/2 game deficit. First base is essentially vacant â" Angels discard Ji-Man Choi had a recent audition; the Yankees just traded for the Milwaukee Brewersâ triple-A first baseman â" and Masahiro Tanaka leads the team in starts despite a 5.47 ERA. The Twins have hung in there admirably in the AL Central, but the Kansas City Royals are 22-13 since June 1, and the Indians have been in first place in the division every day but one since June 17. The Twins would like to trade for starting pitchers, little wonder when theirs have a 4.95 ERA. Theyâre sending out Kyle Gibson (6.31 ERA) every fifth day.
Follow Bill Shaikin on Twitter @BillShaikin
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