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The Dodgers Will Regret The Rich Hill Deal: Yet Another Injury Prone Chucker In The Rotation

The Dodgers have spent over $300 MIL in back to back years, and are the clubhouse leaders in Luxury Tax penalties paid. At a 50% penalty, the Los Angeles forked out $40 MIL in Luxury Taxes in 2016. With an estimated $193 MIL payroll - considering there are several roster holes now created by departing players, the team will need to spend around $235 MIL in 2017 total payroll. With a 50% penalty - and an additional 40$ hit for going $40 MIL over the new $195 MIL limit in 2017, I highly expect the organization will be less willing to spend 90 cents extra for every dollar spent beyond that.

The Dodgers have spent over $300 MIL in back to back years, and are the clubhouse leaders in Luxury Tax penalties paid. At a 50% penalty, the Los Angeles forked out $40 MIL in Luxury Taxes in 2016. With an estimated $204 MIL payroll – considering there are several roster holes now created by departing players, the team will need to spend around $235 MIL in 2017 total payroll. With a 50% penalty – and an additional 45%  hit for going $40 MIL over the new $195 MIL limit in 2017, I highly expect the organization will be less willing to spend 95 cents extra for every dollar spent beyond that.  Because of the Rich Hill signing, it will make it tough to get back Justin Turner and land a Closer – without paying the maximum surcharges for payroll.

Hunter Stokes (Chief Writer/Part Owner) 

I don’t hide the fact that I have been a Dodgers fan for some time.  I have continuously ripped the past and present management for signing players that are injury prone.  For the last 4 years the Injury/Dead money the club has doled out has rivaled what some of the lowest payroll clubs on an annual basis.

So what do the brass do?  They ink a guy, who is 37, and could barely toe the mound for a handful of starts due to a blister, to a 3 Year Deal worth $16 MIL per year.  Didn’t they learn their lesson with the Scott Kazmir contract?  How about Chad Billingsley, Josh Beckett, Brandon McCarthy, Hyun-jin Ryu, Brett Anderson or Bronson Arroyo?

This is not even taking into a factor all of the positional players and Relief Guys they have taken a powder on (hit the ground and dust flies up because of being knocked out).  The Franchise ate $41 MIL in 2013, $37 MIL in salary for 2014, $86 MIL in 2015, and $71 MIL in 2016.

For those scoring at home, that is a whopping $233 MIL in lost cash since the beginning of 2013, which was the Guggenheim Consortium’s first full year at the helm.

When you factor in some more penalties for exceeding the Luxury Tax Threshold, the organization is well over the $250 MIL mark in 4 seasons.  Now 2017 doesn’t look to be much different – with $47 MIL in dead money already on the board.

Carl Crawford ($21.9 MIL), Alex Guerrero ($7.5 MIL), Hector Olivera ($4.7 MIL), Matt Kemp ($3.7 MIL) and Jose Tabata (250K) are not even on the active roster anymore, yet they will see some serious coin paid out by the Dodger Blue.

The Dodgers are also paying guys $10 MIL to play in the Minor Leagues. Read the rest of this entry

The Dodgers Winning The Title Could Cure Baseball In The Future – Part 1

Magic Johnson said the new ownership group would put their money down on the players to stay or come to the franchise, and man he wasn't kidding.  The Los Angeles Dodgers now own 5 of the top 23 player contracts of ALL - Time in the MLB.  With a total team payroll likely to be north of $240 MIL for the next few year, he was right.

Magic Johnson said the new ownership group would put their money down on the players to stay or come to the franchise, and man he wasn’t kidding. The Los Angeles Dodgers now own 5 of the top 23 player contracts of ALL – Time in the MLB. With a total team payroll likely to be north of $240 MIL for the next few years, he was right.  The team is presently the highest salaried team, and they will pay about $16 MIL in Luxury Tax, based on 30% penalty for $51 over the $189 MIL mark in 2014.  Their cash infusion to the NL has spawned a rapid ascent for other teams in the Senior Circuit  – who are looking just to keep up, while some franchises have no chance at all with their revenue streams.

A couple of years ago I wrote an article on how the Dodgers were going to change the way the MLB operates.  I may be proven right this fall.

4 of the top 5 clubs were alive in the LDS round

1.  LA Dodgers $240.7 MIL

2.  NY Yankees $227 MIL

3.  SF Giants –  $172.4 MIL

4.  Detroit Tigers – $170.5 MIL

5.  LA Angels – $170.5 MIL Read the rest of this entry