Keeping Up with the Dodgers

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Sitting in the pre-dawn hours adjacent to a Jackie Robinson Brooklyn Dodgers treasure I scooped up for 50 cents as a kid, we find the hometown team on the precipice of its season blowing up. They're down 0-2 to the Atlanta Braves in a best of seven series that resumes this afternoon at Dodger Stadium at 2 pm, so there's no better time to dump these random musings before we find out which team advances to the World Series.

Trevor Bauer Might Extend Clayton Kershaw's L.A. Career

Alleged dirtbag girl beater and defending National League Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer was supposed to help bring a second consecutive World Series championship to L.A. Whether or not Major League Baseball suspends or permanently bans him in the off-season for allegedly beating the crap out of his date, consensual rough sex or not, his career is most likely over despite plenty of talent remaining in his mega-million-dollar arm.

With that, those who predicted that this would be the final season in a Dodger uniform for good guy, philanthropist and future Hall-of-Famer Clayton Kershaw might now think twice. The $31 million he was paid this season, which essentially compensated him for his underpaid Sandy Koufax-like earlier years between 2011 and 2017, is up for renewal.

Kershaw hasn't been that pitcher in quite a few seasons.  While just 33 years old (Koufax retired in 1966 at just 30), he isn't worth anywhere near that amount moving forward, at least not in L.A.   Note: Both southpaws won three Cy Young Awards and an MVP award.

While Koufax didn't become an all-time great until his final four seasons, Kershaw's best years are long gone. Still, the banishment of Bauer might keep Kershaw, a still-capable but not incredible player, in Dodger blue, but not at the same price tag.

Speaking of Kershaw, How About Matthew Stafford?

ABC-7 recently showed new L.A. Rams' quarterback Matthew Stafford at a Dodger home game that Kershaw started.

Big deal, right?

Except that the two are friends dating back to childhood, and the station also posted a great photo of them from way back.

Pretty awesome.

The Fresh Princes of L.A. and Atlanta

Your hearing is not off if you watch the Dodgers/Braves in Game 3 today and the announcers describe Will Smith batting against Will Smith.

Both teams have players by those names.

Whatever Happened To......

The Dodgers are well-represented in the playoffs, though those doing the best are former Dodgers.

Take, for example, our old friend from the 2020 championship team, Kiké Hernández, who now sports a Boston Red Sox uniform in the American League Championship Series.

Hernandez is batting 18 for 36, a .500 average, with five home runs over the playoffs against the Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, and Houston Astros, the Red Sox' current opponent. His batting average got progressively better with each series with no end in sight.

And his glove and arm are equally as impressive.

His Red Sox teammate, Alex Verdugo, who the Dodgers coughed up in the Mookie Betts trade, is also doing well in the playoffs after a solid regular season, going 12 for 34, a .353 average.

And lastly, there's former Dodger Joc Pederson, who went to the Atlanta Braves via the Chicago Cubs and returns to Dodger Stadium this afternoon (but not in our dugout). He crushed the longest playoff home run so far this season, estimated at 454 feet, as you might remember, to tie Game 2 against the Dodgers, which ultimately helped his team win. 

Ouchie.

The Dodgers may have the best team on paper, but the Red Sox are playing and looking better than everyone else, thanks especially to Kiké. They need to pull it together, like right now, because only one team in MLB playoff history ever came back from an 0-3 deficit, and it was the guys from Boston back in 2004.

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(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary and has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and the Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment sections and Sunday Magazine, among other publishers.)

 

Presently using mi amigo Scott's sign-in until our new Mayor Sam 2.0 tech matters are ironed out.