Dodgers Sign Greinke

[BuckyBuckner]

The rotation right now is:

Kershaw
Greinke
Beckett
Billingsley
Ryu

...in no particular order.

Lilly just might be done done and Capuano and Harang are on the block.

Is Billingsley going to be ready to start the season? I thought he was dealing with an elbow injury? When healthy he's clearly better than Harang and probably Capuano.

[overkill94]

Billingsley is a big question mark with his partially torn elbow ligament, but an offseason of rest and (hopefully) extensive rehab should give him a good chance of at least starting the season healthy. I expect them to either start Ryu in the minors or keep Harang around as a swingman so they have a quality contingency plan should Billingsley end up needing TJ. Lilly will probably be traded if he shows that he's ready to go in ST - I doubt he makes another pitch in a regular season Dodger game.

[JudeBaldo]

I've been a Grienke fan since his debut and really pulled for him to overcome his mental issues a few years ago, so as a fan on the player, I really hope that trying to live up to this contract in the #2 media market doesn't wreck him. As a padre fan and dodger despiser, however...

It won't. This is a Laker town and always will be. And with the Clippers on the rise as well, baseball in LA is a low pressure situation.

[james33]

Dodgers may just be getting started. Their new TV deal alone will pay them $240-$280 mil per yr. I wouldnt be surprised if their payroll goes over $300 mil. The money that flows in MLB over the next few years could be unbelievable.

Pardon the ignorant question, but what changed in MLB tv landscape? I'd think with more channels available to people, and more internet access as substitute to television watching, that tv ratings wouldn't be up, and so tv revenue wouldn't be up. But I'm obviously wrong.

[joncarlos]

You really think they would drop $60 million on a guy only to put him in the minors? I really seriously doubt that.


Lilly has pretty much zero trade value. Both Capuano and Harang have a small amount of trade value. I'm sure the Dodgers would part with any and all of those guys if they could but Lilly's contract is a pretty terrible one. I could see them trading two out of Capuano/Harang/Lilly and keeping the third as a contingency plan, but none have much trade value. Maybe a C prospect or one of the innumerable high strikeout / no command guys that float around the relief corps of the minor leagues.....

I've seen a lot of Hanrahan/Capuano rumors floating around. If the Pirates really do want to trade Hammer, I'd hope they could get more, but I guess you never know. LAD can certainly afford to pay Hammer 6mil to pitch the 7th.

[JudeBaldo]

Pardon the ignorant question, but what changed in MLB tv landscape? I'd think with more channels available to people, and more internet access as substitute to television watching, that tv ratings wouldn't be up, and so tv revenue wouldn't be up. But I'm obviously wrong.

Just a guess but it probably has to do with regional segmentation, which results in monopoly pricing power.

[cavebird]

Pardon the ignorant question, but what changed in MLB tv landscape? I'd think with more channels available to people, and more internet access as substitute to television watching, that tv ratings wouldn't be up, and so tv revenue wouldn't be up. But I'm obviously wrong.

My guess would be that the sheer number of hours, combined with decent ratings due to increased access to ExtraInnings, led teams to realize that they probably weren't getting enough. Then somebody shoved and with the deal they got, they realized that this was far more of a cash cow than they ever imagined, and once one team did it, everybody is going to do it now.

[Big P]

Looks like they got Ryu.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/1...n-jin-ryu.html

Any guesses on what to expect from Ryu?

98-52 with a 2.80 ERA and 1238/383 K/BB ratio over seven seasons in Korea. Seems like a lot of work for a guy that is just 25, I guess Korea is similar in approach to Japan and this is the norm. Seems like a lot of K's as well.

[revo]

Pardon the ignorant question, but what changed in MLB tv landscape? I'd think with more channels available to people, and more internet access as substitute to television watching, that tv ratings wouldn't be up, and so tv revenue wouldn't be up. But I'm obviously wrong.

Live sports programming deals have skyrocketed over the last five or six years, and also in that time, two major networks (CBS and NBC) have started their own sports networks to compete with ESPN/ABC, yet have very little to air on them besides hunting and fishing. This coincides nicely with MLB's national deals expiring after the 2K13 season, and voila -- you have MLB possibly doubling their current take.

[overkill94]

You really think they would drop $60 million on a guy only to put him in the minors? I really seriously doubt that.


Lilly has pretty much zero trade value. Both Capuano and Harang have a small amount of trade value. I'm sure the Dodgers would part with any and all of those guys if they could but Lilly's contract is a pretty terrible one. I could see them trading two out of Capuano/Harang/Lilly and keeping the third as a contingency plan, but none have much trade value. Maybe a C prospect or one of the innumerable high strikeout / no command guys that float around the relief corps of the minor leagues.....

He's not exactly Dice-K material so I could see a scenario where they let him get his feet wet in AA or something, depends on how he looks in ST.

Lilly's in the last year of his deal so he's not quite an albatross at $12M. The Dodgers would have to eat at least half that to get anything decent in return, but I could see another team being interested.

I was surprised by the Hanrahan for Capuano rumors as well and would love it if they could pull that one off. I'd settle for a quality 4th outfielder if he's truly extraneous.

[Hornsby]

http://www.truebluela.com/2012/12/11...vember-meeting


It's like true love......sigh.

I'll let you have him in the RJEL...for a small price.