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Happy Thanksgiving
Hacksaw’s Podcast moves to Friday-1pm-this week
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“THE DODGER WAY”
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They have a World Series ring coming
And now they have the hottest pitcher in free agency coming too.

You can pick any words you want to describe Dodgers baseball right now.
The best team that money can buy
Tradition lures talent
We all need insurance policies, and yes they are expensive.

And so 2X-Cy Young Award winning lefthander Blake Snell signs with the Dodgers.
Dominant, erratic, overpowering, enigma.
Any and all words describe the mercurial lefthander, now on his 4th team

But he brings with him credentials.  The awards, a dazzling no hitter, overwhelming velocity, limited innings per start, and up and down performances too.

A great acquisition, at a big price tag?  Probably so.
A big insurance policy acquisition too?  Definitely.
But only if there are more good Snell outings than bad ones.

A Scott Boras client who held out all spring, collected 30M from the Giants last year, and gave them half a season of good pitching.  They burned thru that money, failed to trade him, failed to win many games, and lost him for nothing in return.  The GM, who made all those decisions is gone.

Snell had a (9.20-ERA) the first third of the season, got hurt, came off the DL, and was dazzling.  But then Jekyl-turnned-Hyde and he compiled a (1.23-ERA) in his final 14-starts.  That is who he is, and has been for alot of his career.

The Dodgers need this insurance policy pitcher to last the entire season in 2025.

On paper, what a pitching staff.  Tyler Glasnow, Snell, Yosh Yamamoto at the front of the rotation.

The belief ex Angels ace-Shohei Ohtani will be ready to pitch by June 1st.
Young phenom Bobby Miller looks to rebound after a lost year.

Then there is Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin, both coming off surgeries, and who knows if they hold up or get hurt again.

Unsigned at this hour are Walker Buehler (47-22) in his career that includes two surgeries, a stud now also being pursued by the Yankees-Braves-Red Sox.

Also still out there is Jack Flaherty, who carried them thru the back end of the season and into the playoffs, still an unsigned free agent, but rock solid reliable.

Clayton Kershaw, coming off shoulder-back-toe woes, wants to pitch another year, his role still to be determined.

And the Dodgers figure to be in the middle of the Roki Sasaki bidding battle in January when he is posted by Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan.  Does the lure of pitching for the Dodgers, surrounded by their history of Japanese stars, and their tradition of winning, convince him to join the LA culture?

There’s the young minor league hard thrower Landon Knack, and yet to prove himself prospect Michael Grove.

Of course the Dodgers somehow earned-won a World Series despite having 9-pitchers have surgeries last season and won’t have Gavin Stone, River Ryan or Kyle Hurt this year.

This starting rotation sure looks superb compared to the 29-pitchers the Dodgers had to put on the mound last season, with the injury crisis being front and center from the Cactus League right up to the Fall Classic.

The rotation looks phenomenal on paper, but how many can stay off the disabled list becomes the next big storyline at Chavez Ravine.

And we have not even touched the collection of 8-relievers they trusted last year, who saved them late in the season, but some of whom have more injury issues.

Dave Roberts-Mark Prior, meet Blake Snell.  Electric stuff sometimes.  Eclectic personality other times.  Trustworthy as can be for 5-innings and 103 pitches, but not much beyond that.  Hope you can swallow and handle the long innings, hi pitch counts, and the splash of bases on balls too.  He is really unique.

A (182M) investment, over five years,  for the front of the rotation.  As I said, ‘insurance these days’ is expensive.  Adding back Flaherty-Buehler-Sasaki would give them the best pitching staff in baseball.

All this, and the Winter Meetings have not even started.

The ‘Dodger Way’..fun to follow right now

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