Fansmanship Podcast Episode 217 – Chris Sylvester and Brint Wahlberg
It’s another podcast episode! Cal Poly basketball teams are at the Big...
Zack Grienke is going to the Diamondbacks. On Friday night, Ken Rosenthal broke the news via Twitter. My Dodgers/baseball-related twitter feed responded.
Sources: Greinke in agreement with #DBacks, pending physical.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 5, 2015
Dave Stewart: pic.twitter.com/ZBW18XTmrp
— Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) December 5, 2015
#Dodgers home opener next year is against Diamondbacks. Should be fun.
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) December 5, 2015
Well the Dbacks certainly found a solution to me always forgetting that they exist.
— Stacey May Fowles (@MissStaceyMay) December 5, 2015
They took on $100 million for Carl Crawford and gave Ethier $85M… https://t.co/mz0W5FaHR9
— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) December 5, 2015
Again: Greinke deal is six years, $206M with deferrals, per sources. Deferrals will lower present-day value of contract.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 5, 2015
I'm still in disbelief about Greinke to Arizona, but losing him is a torpedo below the waterline for LA.
— Michael Baumann (@MJ_Baumann) December 5, 2015
I want to have a giant mutliplayer Halo team up, in which I piss everyone off by team killing while debating what the Dodgers next move is
— Doctor Eephusblue (@EephusBlue) December 5, 2015
Dear Diamondbacks: Ok, you're even for that pool thing.
— Sons of Steve Garvey (@sosgsosg) December 5, 2015
I'm told Dodgers never got comfortable with guaranteed 6th year to Greinke.
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) December 5, 2015
I'm online and I need a new avatar.
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) December 5, 2015
@Dodgers The Howard chimes in. #Dodgers #GreedIsNotGood. https://t.co/8TZAR4SBa3
— Howard Cole (@Howard_Cole) December 5, 2015
Sooooo the Giants are still out there w $ to spend too. Dodgers will still be bidding against them.
— fansmanship (@fansmanship) December 5, 2015
Just woke up from a nightmare that the Dodgers wasted Kershaw's prime.
— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) December 5, 2015
The thing about Grienke for me is that he was both reliable and fun. He pitched inside when he needed to. He stood-up for his teammates on the field. He was a pitcher who could hit, and who flipped his bat like nobody’s business. Aside from Clayton Kershaw, he was one of the easiest Dodgers for me to root for in the last decade. Part of it was that he didn’t fit the mold of someone trying to fit in with Los Angeles. He was different. He is the kind of guy fans of other teams are lucky to be able to root for.
It’s not that it wasn’t the right move for the Dodgers to let a pitcher in his 30’s walk to the tune of 6 years and $200-plus million. These are the kinds of moves other teams make and are happy about it in the end. Those teams are just not usually the Dodgers.
Teams like St. Louis let players like Albert Pujols go and get to the World Series despite that. The Dodgers haven’t made it to the World Series since 1988.
Now, they’ve let Grienke move on, to sign with a division rival. One of their most dependable guys is gone, and him not being in Dodger blue next season makes me (maybe more than) a little sad.
Howard Cole’s post in Forbes is probably worth reading if you’re trying to get perspective and calm the anxiety that comes with not having two of the best 5 pitchers in baseball on your roster. But having those guys wasn’t all it took to make it to the World Series. There’s more to it than that. I’m trying to calm myself about it.
Here’s the paragraph whose first two sentences need to become my calming mantra over the next month or two of Dodgers fansmanship:
You either trust the front office men or you don’t. I trust them. Arizona came calling with their cash and their cacti, and Greinke bit. Bully for him.
Farhan Zaidi, the Dodgers General Manager, isn’t feeling the kind of pressure that Dodger fans are right about now.
“We have enough alternatives in free agency and the trade market, that there’s no time pressure on our part to land a starting pitcher,” Zaidi said.
Everyone who is using their logical mind probably has good points. But Zack Grienke is a great pitcher. Whoever is the number-two for the Dodgers will not be as good. The Dodgers are always looking to make moves. Signing other pitchers is always on the table. There are players on 29 other teams to trade with, too. Like Howard said: you either trust the front office or you don’t. I still do. Yep, I’m going to just keep repeating that… .
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