Kuzul

Just over one year ago, the Los Angeles Dodgers were a team on the verge of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  On May 1, 2012, the team’s fortunes changed dramatically as the Guggenheim group, fronted by Magic Johnson, purchased the team for an astounding $2.15 billion.  Under this new ownership, the Dodgers have become big spenders in a hurry.

In just two months, the Dodgers have acquired a group of big-name stars, including Hanley Ramirez, Shane Victorino, Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford.  With the acquisition of those last three players alone, the Dodgers taken on a quarter of a billion dollars in contracts from the Boston Red Sox, a team intent on a salary purge.

However, these moves should come as no surprise, since the Dodgers are under new ownership that expects a cash windfall for local TV rights.  The current deal expires at the conclusion of the 2013 season.  Estimates are that a new deal with Fox could yield $4 billion.  Thus, the team has gone from frugality to big spending seemingly overnight.

Of course, investing large sums of money in top free agents is no guarantee of victory.  The Red Sox, perennial contenders during the first decade of the 2000s, have consistently ranked among the top three in MLB payroll for years.  Still, Boston has not won a playoff game since 2008 and won’t make the postseason this year.  The Yankees, who annually spend more than any other team, have won the World Series—the only measure of success in the Bronx—just one time in the past decade. 

Recently, the Yankees have talked about fiscal prudence, and say they aim to cut payroll in order to avoid the luxury tax imposed on clubs that exceed a salary of $178 million.  Both New York and Boston seem to be looking at the success models of AL East rivals Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays, who have fielded competitive teams despite having two of the lowest payrolls in the majors.

Meanwhile, on the West Coast, there is an arms race, albeit in different leagues.  The Angels inked a 20-year local TV contract with Fox Sports last December worth more than $3 billion.  The infusion of cash allowed the team to invest more than $300 million in Albert Pujols and CJ Wilson. 

Following the Frank McCourt era, in which the team was cash-strapped and the ownership unlikeable, the Dodgers began to lose some of their relevance in Southern California. Now the team is investing in All-Star players and will certainly have significant dollars available to retain 24-year-old NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw, whose contract expires in 2014.  Naturally, Kershaw—and his agent—anticipate that the Dodgers will be the frontrunners to retain his services.

Baseball’s eyes will be turned out west as the 2012 pennant races wind down.  The Dodgers have reloaded in their efforts to catch their longtime rival San Francisco Giants and beat out the St. Louis Cardinals for a wild-card spot.  If the Dodgers fail to win it all this year, I would not be surprised to see them pursue big-name free agents Josh Hamilton and 2009 AL Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke in the offseason.

The question moving forward will be whether the spending on player salaries—by the Dodgers as well as all the other teams—is sustainable in the long term. 

Jed Hughes is Vice Chair of Korn/Ferry and the leader of the executive search firm’s Global Sports Practice.  Among his high-profile placements are Mark Murphy, CEO of the Green Bay Packers; Larry Scott, Commissioner of the Pac-12 Conference; and Brady Hoke, head coach of the Michigan Wolverines.  Earlier in his career, Mr. Hughes coached for two decades in professional and intercollegiate football where he served under five Hall of Fame coaches: Bo Schembechler (Michigan), Chuck Noll (Pittsburgh Steelers), Bud Grant (Minnesota Vikings), John Ralston (Stanford) and Terry Donahue (UCLA).  Follow him on Facebook, Twitter @jedhughesKF.

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After watching him help the Angels sweep the Red Sox earlier this week, and based on his entire body of work this season, it’s clear that Mike Trout is one of the most exciting young players in the majors. He may even be the American League MVP when all is said and done, but there is one thing I don’t think the 21-year-old phenom should be:

Rookie of the Year.

Technically, Trout is a rookie. As the MLB rules state, “A player shall be considered a rookie unless, during a previous season or seasons, he has (a) exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the Major Leagues; or (b) accumulated more than 45 days on the active roster of a Major League club or clubs during the period of 25-player limit (excluding time in the military service and time on the disabled list).

Trout makes the cut…barely. He played in 40 games (32 starts) during 2011, in which he had 123 at-bats. This may qualify someone for rookie status the next year, but it seems like an awful big sample set for me.

Forty games is nearly a quarter of the MLB schedule, and in Trout’s case, these were not just meaningless down-the-stretch contests. His first appearance came on July 8 against Seattle, and he wound up playing 14 games in July, eight in August, and 19 in September as the Angels battled for both an AL West title and a Wild Card spot. They got neither, but Trout (who hit .220 with five home runs and 16 RBI) got plenty of experience.

This year, of course, has been a different story. Trout has been with the Angels since late April and has torn up the league with an AL-best .336 average, 41 stolen bases, and 103 runs scored (along with 25 home runs) entering last night. Much hoopla was made when he became the first rookie to have both 25 homers and 40 steals during the Red Sox series, but he just doesn’t feel like a first-year guy to me.

He was an everyday player for Los Angeles during a good stretch of LAST season, and while he may seem like an entirely different performer this year, Trout is in fact the same guy who had already seen plenty of big-league pitching entering 2012.

To me, a true Rookie of the Year (ROY) winner is a guy who debuts the year he captures the award, or at most plays in 10 or 15 September games the previous season.

Baseball is the only one of the four major professional sports that has this type of shady rookie status. Football players, of course, go straight from college onto NFL rosters and have zero pro experience entering their first year. Ditto for hockey players, who enter the NHL from college or the minor league ranks. And while basketball players may have overseas professional experience, the first NBA games for every Rookie of the Year are played during his initial season in the league.

My 11-year-old son Jason had a very perceptive comment when I mentioned this discrepancy to him. “If Mike Trout is able to do this, what will keep managers from making sure young players don’t break the 130 at-bat limit so they can get better and older?”

I found no proof of this with Trout, who Angels manager Mike Scioscia played all game, every game down the stretch of 2011. It would have been interesting to see what might have happened had Trout gotten six more at-bats, of course.

Jason also had another funny premise: if a guy came up from the minors for 10 games a year for three years, would he still be considered a rookie going into his fourth season? According to the MLB rules above, he would. This seemed too funny to be plausible, but it happened…the 2008 NL ROY, Cubs catcher Geovany Soto, had played with Chicago for one game in 2005, 11 games in 2006, and 18 games in 2007. A fourth-year rookie!

I first started thinking about Trout’s freshman/sophomore status when Will Middlebrooks was shining for the Red Sox earlier this summer. A broken wrist derailed Middlebrooks in mid-August, and even if he had played out the string the chances are slim he would have put together stats like Trout.

But since Middlebrooks was a TRUE rookie whose 75 major games, 15 homers, and 54 RBI all came this season, one could argue (outside Los Angeles) that he is a more worthy Rookie of the Year winner than the guy who will get the award.

For some additional perspective, I looked back at AL and NL ROY winners from the past 10 seasons to see how they compare with Trout in pre-ROY experience. Soto was the only one I found with three MLB seasons under his belt, but one other player (Angel Berroa in 2003) had played shortstop for the Royals for a combined 35 games and 128 at-bats in 2001-2002. Talk about cutting it close to the 130 at-bat limit!

Most of the others fell into the more reasonable range of 15-20 pre-ROY games and 50-75 at-bats for position players and 5-15 games for pitchers. Six of the 20 awardees were “true” Rookies of the Year who saw their first MLB experience in their winning year: Chris Coughlin, Andrew Bailey, Evan Longoria, Ryan Braun, Dontrelle Willis and Eric Hinske. Honorable mentions go to 2006 winners Hanley Ramirez and Justin Verlander, who both played in just two MLB contests the previous season.

I think the system needs some revamping. Lower the pre-ROY maximum numbers to 20 games and/or 50 at-bats for position players, and 10 games and/or 30 innings for pitchers. This will ensure that September call-ups can still be considered rookies, but guys who played three months like Trout last year will be out of luck.

And what if Trout pulls off the double-win and captures both the Rookie of the Year and the MVP awards? He would be just the third man to achieve this feat, after Fred Lynn (in 1975) and Ichiro Suzuki (2001): two men who offer another contrast in rookies.

Lynn played in a reasonable 15 games in September of ’74, and while Suzuki was a “true” rookie in ’01 with regards to his MLB status, he did have nine seasons and more than 1,000 games in the Japanese professional leagues under his belt.

Now that’s another discussion altogether.  

Saul Wisnia lives less than seven miles from Fenway Park and works 300 yards from Yawkey Way. His latest book, Fenway Park: The Centennial, is available at http://amzn.to/qWjQRS, and his Fenway Reflections can be found athttp://saulwisnia.blogspot.com. He can be reached at saulwizz@gmail.com and @saulwizz. 

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The Los Angeles Dodgers dropped a half game behind the crippled San Francisco Giants with a gut-wrenching home game loss yesterday. The loss came despite another brilliant performance by Clayton Kershaw in which he only allowed six hits over eight innings with two earned runs and 10 strikeouts. 

However, in spite of blowing a chance at putting some distance between themselves and San Fran—with a pitch outing that the Dodgers’ hitters should have taken advantage of—the boys in blue will still win the NL West and make a run through the postseason.

The new-look Dodgers have already excited fans in the L.A. area by acquiring several solid pieces before the trade deadline, all which have shown up in games. Hanley Ramirez has been particularly good and is showing he just needed a change of scenery, and Shane Victorino has made his veteran presence at the top felt. Randy Choate and Brandon League have been solid additions to the bullpen. The only player that has seemed to struggle is Joe Blanton in the No. 5 pitching slot.

In addition, with the loss of Melky Cabrera for 50 games (and maybe more after his attempt at trickery), the Giants have lost their best contact hitter and and their tone-setter. While he wasn’t hitting for a ton of power, the loss of a .346 batter that had already scored 84 runs will definitely sting for a team that, at times, struggles to produce offense. The impact hasn’t been realized yet, but the loss of Melky will hurt the Giants overall.

However, neither of these are the reason the Dodgers will triumph in the NL West and make noise in the playoffs. That true reason is the resurrection of Chad Billingsley.

By failing to obtain a legitimate No. 2 starter behind Kershaw at the trade deadline, the Dodgers looked to be a piece short in moving forward in October. Some groaned when they didn’t pull the trigger on a a deal for Ryan Dempsey, knowing that the price (Allen Webster) would be too steep for a 34-year-old rental, who may sign with them in the offseason anyway (That is IF they want him and IF his feelings aren’t hurt).

However, Billingsley has made those thoughts all but disappear. The former All-Star, who has struggled mightily over the past couple of seasons after showing such promise early in his career, has reemerged as an ace, showcasing his skills over the last six contests. Billingsley is 6-0 over that period, while posting a jaw-dropping 1.30 ERA.

We have seen Billingsley shine before and then regress, but this time it appears that he’s healthy and ready to be the second starter needed for a successful October run. With Clayton catching fire again, the Dodgers now have a fairly formidable lineup, with two excellent pitchers at the top of their staff. If they can reach the playoffs and win the NL West, then the rest of the NL should watch out for this dark horse in blue come October.

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Mike Trout is going to be the 2012 American League Rookie of the Year, but before anyone jumps the gun, keep in mind that Trout isn’t the first ROY, and won’t be the last. He still has a lot to work on before being mentioned in the same breath as Mickey Mantle or Ken Griffey Jr. 

Don’t get me wrong, Trout is a five-tooler. He runs like the wind (first in the bigs with 36 stolen bases), hits for power (21 homers), hits for average (tops in the A.L. with .345 avg.), wows us with his defensive skills (this explains it all) and has a cannon for an arm (I don’t have a video, but trust me on this one).

But regardless of those numbers, Mike Trout still hasn’t proven himself to be one of the best players ever. That’s not his fault, though. He hasn’t had the opportunity to play a fruitful 15-20 year career, yet.

Is he one of the best rookies of all time? Maybe. But it’s up for debate if he’s THE best rookie. If it were up to me, that honor would go to “Shoeless” Joe Jackson in his 1911 rookie campaign.

Jackson had a 9.9 WAR (via fangraphs), batted .408/.468./.590, finishing fourth in MVP voting, behind Hall of Famers Eddie Collins, “Big” Ed Walsh and Ty Cobb. And he did it at a respectable 24 years old. 

But alas, this isn’t a history lesson; just food for thought.

Mike Trout has been compared to the likes of Mickey Mantle, and being mentioned in the same sentence as the legend is remarkable on itself, but let me remind you of one thing: He has yet to complete a full season in the majors. 

In 90 games, Trout has proven to us that he can pad his stats in a very short amount of time, but at the end of the day, having one great season doesn’t mean you’ll have ten more just like it. 

What will really make him a superstar is whether or not he can maintain consistency at the MLB level for years to come. The bar has been set very high for Trout, because no one is thinking about this season anymore, but instead, they’re thinking about the impact he’ll have on baseball in the future. 

There is a possibility that Trout steamrolls opposing pitchers in his rookie season, then falls off the truck and never lives up to it again; he wouldn’t be the first.

In 2008, Geovany Soto was the National League rookie of the year, batting .285/.364/.504 (not Mike Trout numbers, but bear with me). He has yet to come close to those numbers again, ultimately resulting in his trade in 2012.

This is a small example, but all I’m saying is don’t be surprised if pitchers figure out Trout’s tendencies in 2013, forcing him to make adjustments and testing his mental capacity. 

From a physical standpoint, he could be a 10-year all-star if he keeps this up, but in reality there is one major difference between major and minor leaguers. Major league ballplayers are consistent.

Minor leaguers might have the talent, more talent than their major league counterparts, but they can’t make adjustments and stay consistent enough, ultimately forcing them to ride buses for the remainder of their careers. 

A lot of people are asking, “is there anything Mike Trout hasn’t done?”. Well, it’s the one thing he has no control over: have an illustrious career.

There is no way to predict a home run king, or an all-time hits leader, or someone breaking the stolen base record, because although the talent might be there, it’s not all that’s required. To be a legend, you need to have mental grit, you need to stay healthy, you need to be smart and you have to, above all, stay consistent and let your playing do the talking. 

Joe Jackson batted .300 every season following his rookie year except for once (.272), going out with a .382/.444/.589 slash line in his final season of baseball in 1920, after being banned in the 1919 Black Sox World Series scandal (where he batted .375 with 12 hits, the best of the series’ and committed no errors).

If Mike Trout can play stellar baseball for years upon years to come, I’ll eat my words. But for now let’s enjoy the Mike Trout show, because just like everything else he does, this may never happen again.

For him, or anyone else. 

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After Bryce Harper feasted on the Boston Red Sox Friday at Fenway Park, LA Angels rookie outfielder Mike Trout went to work against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

Nine innings and one Angels 7-2 victory later, Trout found himself just a few at-bats short of qualifying for the American League batting title race.

With his 3-for-4 performance against the Rockies, Trout is batting .340 (50-for-147). He also has five home runs and 22 RBI to go with nine doubles, three triples and 11 stolen bases. Trout’s OBP/SLG/OPS is .398/.544/.942.

In the last 10 games, Trout is batting .439 (18-for-41). He has six multi-hit games to just three strikeouts. In June, Trout is hitting .500 (14-for-28) with a .531/.643/1.174  line.

Pretty impressive numbers for this 20-year-old, to say the least.

For the record, Trout’s teammate Mark Trumbo is batting .330 (60-for-182). This is good for third in the AL behind Paul Konerko (.361) and Josh Hamilton (.338). Trumbo’s numbers are also impressive. In 50 games, he has 12 homers with 31 RBI. He also has 14 doubles and a .379/.615/.994 line. Only Hamilton and Joey Votto can boast a higher slugging percentage.

Could baseball fans be watching the early stages of an AL East batting race between two teammates?

Surely, it is too early to tell.

But for Angels fans, watching Trout and Trumbo develop into stars has to be exciting.

As an MLB writer, it will be fun to watch these two ballplayers to see if they can shock the baseball world.  

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The city of Los Angeles can go back to spinning. After spending a couple weeks on the disabled list with a bad hamstring, Los Angeles Dodgers star centerfielder Matt Kemp will be making his return on Tuesday night against the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Dodgers did pretty well in Kemp’s absence, but he’ll be a sight for sore eyes anyway. At the time he went on the DL, Kemp was hitting .359 with 12 home runs. He was batting over .400 as late as May 8.

If Kemp picks up right where he left off, the good people of Southern California are going to get to see something that they haven’t gotten to see yet: Matt Kemp and Albert Pujols both playing well at the same time.

I won’t go so far as to say that the two of them are joined at the hip, but they’re without a doubt the two biggest baseball stars in Southern California. Kemp is arguably the best all-around player in baseball, and Pujols is one of baseball’s all-time great hitters.

We can debate which one of them is the biggest star for hours on end, but instead, let’s ask a different question: Which of them is the more important star in the greater Los Angeles area?

This is a complicated question, and the answer is equally complicated. Before we can get to it, we have to sift through the different circumstances surrounding both players.

Matt Kemp’s Place in Los Angeles

You know what the key difference between Matt Kemp and Albert Pujols is?

It’s simple: Kemp actually plays in Los Angeles.

This is both a blessing and a curse.

It’s a curse because, despite the fact the Dodgers have been there for decades, LA is a basketball town at heart. Everything revolves around the Los Angeles Lakers and, to a lesser extent, the Los Angeles Clippers. Guys like Kobe Bryant, Blake Griffin and Chris Paul are the biggest sports stars Los Angeles has.

I wouldn’t say Kemp’s quest in life is to take the LA spotlight away from the basketball stars, but he can do wonders for the Dodgers organization by achieving the same level of fame as Kobe, Griffin, CP3, et al.

The good news for Kemp is that the stars are aligned for him to do just that, if he hasn’t already. He is now under the employ of Magic Johnson, one of the most beloved basketball players ever and a huge fan favorite in Los Angeles. Johnson wants to make Dodgers baseball great again. If he succeeds, he’ll force the people of Los Angeles into loving baseball just as much as they love basketball.

So far, so good. According to Baseball-Reference.com, Dodgers attendance is up from 36,052 people per game in 2011 to 38,663 people per game this season. Fans are coming out to the park to watch the Dodgers in greater numbers, and the attendance numbers could only get better and better now that the Lakers and Clippers are both done playing basketball this season.

Kemp is a classic example of an attendance-driver. He’s a superstar player who can do it all on the field, and he also happens to have an endearing personality (his high-profile dating history is very much a plus). He’d bring fans to the park in any city, but he just so happens to be playing in a city that loves its stars (no matter what they do for a living). It helps that Kemp has a kind of swagger perfectly suited for the city of Los Angeles.

And of course, it’s not all about bringing fans to the park. Kemp must put eyes on TV sets as well. It was, after all, television money that paid for his big contract (see Forbes), and people can see the face of the Dodgers franchise better on TV than they can at Dodger Stadium.

All Kemp has to do is what he’s been doing over the last year or so. He’ll keep hogging the spotlight as long as he keeps dazzling out on the diamond, and his legend is only going to grow bigger as the Dodgers win more and more ballgames.

In the meantime, business will keep booming for the under-new-management Dodgers, and baseball’s influence in the city of Los Angeles will get stronger and stronger.

Kemp is the right player in the right place at the right time.

Albert Pujols’ Place in Los Angeles

When the Angels signed Albert Pujols to a massive 10-year contract this offseason, the pay-off was immediate. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Angels sold over 5,000 season tickets immediately after the Pujols signing.

But here’s the rub: Despite those sales, attendance at Angels games is way down this season.

The Angels drew an average of just under 39,000 people last season. So far in 2012, they’re drawing an average of just over 34,000 fans. That’s roughly 5,000 fans a night that aren’t showing up this season, and that’s a discouraging sign for a team that committed over $300 million to free agents this offseason.

To put this in perspective, the Detroit Tigers signed Prince Fielder to a huge contract this offseason, and they’ve benefited from a very impressive attendance spike so far this season.

Pujols’ struggles early in the season didn’t help matters for the Angels. He didn’t hit a home run until May 6, and his bat didn’t really come alive until the Angels fired hitting coach Mickey Hatcher. Up until then, he wasn’t worth the price of admission.

Things are different now, but it may take some time for fans in Anaheim and Los Angeles to start trickling back to Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Perhaps the article Ellen Bell of The Orange County Register wrote urging Angels fans to come back will help.

It’s not entirely up to Pujols to draw fans to the park, but he can definitely help. He just needs to show people that he’s still one of the greatest players of his generation, and he needs to keep showing them that day after day.

And yes, just like with Kemp, Pujols needs to put eyes on TV sets. According to the Los Angeles Times, Pujols’ contract came largely thanks to a new $3 billion TV deal with Fox Sports. The Angels paid for a new franchise face, one that they could show off via their shiny new TV deal.

This is a somewhat of a new challenge for Pujols. He’s an excellent player and a great human being, but he’s never really had to worry about selling a ballclub. For lack of a better word, he was spoiled in St. Louis, as he got to play in front of baseball-crazy fans on a consistent basis. More often than not, he also had the luxury of playing on great Cardinals teams. He was the face of those teams, but he didn’t have to worry about converting anyone.

So if we can take it for granted (or at least imagine) that there is some kind of friendly competition between Pujols and Kemp, Pujols is at a significant disadvantage.

Before he can worry about conquering Los Angeles, Pujols must first conquer Anaheim. And right now, indications are that the locals aren’t impressed.

The Grand Conclusion

Between Kemp and Pujols, there should be little doubt that Kemp is the bigger star in the LA area, but this isn’t a very fair comparison to make. Kemp has had a following in Los Angeles for several years, whereas Pujols is the new guy in town who who doesn’t even play in town. He plays for that other team that likes to act like it’s an LA team.

Kemp’s star status obviously makes him a pretty important figure in the LA sports landscape, but there’s far more at stake when it comes to Pujols and his current situation. It’s on him to sell Angels baseball to a fanbase that has been surprisingly indifferent towards the team so far this season.

If he manages to do that, then he can worry about selling Angels baseball in Dodgers territory, where basketball and Matt Kemp are king. 

The only way he’s going to do that is by letting his bat do the talking. He needs to convince everyone that he is the star baseball attraction in Southern California.

He can do it, but I, for one, wish him luck. He faces a long, uphill climb, and he’s already off to a slow start.

If you want to talk baseball and/or basketball, hit me up on Twitter.

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There is no way I can hide my excitement.

Watching the Angels and Nationals play today will be equal to my tearing open a retail pack of baseball cards as a 12-year-old.

Last night I wrote a piece on Bryce Harper. In that story, I said I would be glued to my television screen when Harper makes his Major League Debut versus the high flying Los Angeles Dodgers.

When I first heard Harper was coming to the show, I could not help but feel for Mike Trout, who still had not gotten the call.

I could see Trout sitting at his locker in Salt Lake and screaming to the heavens, “What more must I do to get the call?”

To this Trout is right. He is hitting .403 with 31 hits and an OPS of 1.091 through 20 games with the Bees.

Apparently, the baseball gods heard Trout’s question and were like, “yeah, what the heck are the Angels thinking?”

Divine intervention or not, now that Trout has gotten the call, he has a golden opportunity to become the 2012 version of Buster Posey from 2010.

Never will I forget how Posey electrified the Giants, not only in spirit but in offense. After getting called up in May, Posey hit .305 with 18 home runs and 67 RBI in just 108 games. Nor will I forget Posey’s poised play during the playoffs. It was like watching a seasoned veteran on the baseball diamond.

Giving Tim Lincecum utmost credit, I have to beg the following question. 

Would the Giants have won the World Series that year without Posey?

Not sure.

Back to Trout, he can provide the spark the Halos critically need at a point they cannot afford to fall any further behind the Texas Rangers in the American League West. At 6-14, the Angels are already nine games back.

Should Trout excel, he will give the Angels much needed potency at the top of the lineup. 

In time the Angels can place Trout in the two spot of the batting order, smack between Bourjos at the top and Albert Pujols in the three hole. The Angels can also take the training wheels off Mark Trumbo by placing him in the cleanup spot. Or they could put Bourjos in the nine spot and put Trout up top. Either way, you keep speed back to back.

This gives the Halos the ability to combine bunting and scrappy hitting. This puts speed on base for the middle of the lineup to feast on. This will not only create nightmares for opposing pitchers, but it will also take pressure off guys like Howie Kendrick, Torii Hunter and Vernon Wells.

This speed meets power kind of offense excites baseball fans, as Texas Rangers fans can surely attest to.

It makes me want to go get a blaster box of baseball cards and go buck wild like a 12-year-old!

James is a huge baseball fan who loves to write and make new friends. You can follow James on Twitter by clicking HITHA!  

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The Washington Nationals are already the feel-good story of the early 2012 Major League Baseball season. They are tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record in the National League at 14-6, plus they have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball.

They have been winning despite the early season injuries to their top hitter from last year Michael Morse and the closer Drew Storen who have yet to see action this season.  

This early-season showdown between the Nationals and the Los Angeles Dodgers in Los Angeles, the two best teams in the National League, is a marquee matchup. But early yesterday afternoon things became much more interesting and far more dramatic on a national scale.  

It all started when Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo announced that star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman was going on the 15-day disabled list. He knew he needed a big bat to help the team’s struggling offense.

At around 5 p.m. ET yesterday, Rizzo announced that Bryce Harper would be called up to the Nationals from Triple-A Syracuse and the word spread as fast as you can say Twitter.

Considered one of the top prospects in baseball, Harper, the 2010 overall No. 1 pick in the MLB draft was selected at the young age of 17. Now at the age of 19, he is going to start in left field for the Nationals tonight. Oh, and by the way, Stephen Strasburg is pitching for Washington this evening to add yet another reason to watch.

The MLB Network announced that they would be airing the game nationally starting at 9 p.m. ET as part of their Saturday Night Baseball package. ESPN and FOX offices in Los Angeles are ready to report on all things Harper the moment he strides onto the green grass of Dodger Stadium about 6 p.m. ET.

Like the debut of his teammate Strasburg, young Harper will get the media crunch that is expected of a Sports Illustrated cover boy. You can bet that the MLB Network will be adding more Nationals games to their roster and ESPN had already scheduled May 6^th for Sunday Night Baseball as the Philadelphia Phillies are headed to town to face the Nationals in prime time.  

The Harper hype started yesterday on ESPN and the MLB Network and don’t look for it to die down anytime soon.

Locally, the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, the home of both the Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles are doing all they can to make sure that everyone in their four-state region from Harrisburg, Pa. to Charlotte, N.C. knows which channel on the cable system that MASN2 and MASN2-HD is on for tonight’s coming-out party.

Las Vegas, Harper’s hometown, is excited and there will be plenty of new Nationals fans making the trip over to Dodger Stadium. His debut in the majors was the top sports story on all the local television stations in Las Vegas, as well as on the front page of the Las Vegas Review-Journal sports section. The Vegas media will be making the trip to LA to cover the local hero. 

So, ready or not, Harper will be in the big leagues and you will be seeing plenty of him nationally and, of course, locally starting tonight.            

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Last year, among all the messes that the Dodgers organization was dealing with, one of them was their closer. 

The Dodgers opened the season with Broxton, who failed badly.  Then they tried several replacements like Kenley Jansen and others.  When Jansen hit the DL, they brought up Javy Guerra, and the rest is history. 

While I feel that Kenley Jansen is the future closer for the Dodgers, right now he is unreliable because of injury issues related to an irregular heart beat.  Jansen will be the setup man opening day.  In fact, the Dodgers bullpen is deep with veteran relief pitchers who should do well and keep Guerra in line for plenty of saves. 

Javy Guerra has limited experience as a closer. Last season, he notched 21 saves in 23 opportunities. He pitched in 47 games for the Dodgers in 2011, and that is the total for his career. 

Jumping on Javy Guerra from a fantasy perspective could be a bit dangerous, since he has yet to face normal closer adversary or close for an entire season.  That being said, the kid has good stuff. 

While Guerra did close in the minors, he has starter stuff.  He comes at hitters with a 95 MPH fastball, slider, changeup and curveball.  His out pitches are the changeup and curveball. 

While all of his pitches are average, he got enough to get three outs in the ninth.  His main problems will be control (3.47 BB/9) and being tested in stressful situations. 

Guerra walked 18 batters in less than 47 innings in 2011.  While that isn’t horrible, it’s not good either.  Also, he isn’t battle-tested, and 2012 will be another crazy year for the Dodgers, with the sale of the team yet to be completed.

The positives on Guerra are very good.  He did a great job closing in 2011 and has secured the job for 2012.  At 26, he is young and healthy and shouldn’t have any injury issues for the coming season.  He’s got a great track record through the minors and into the majors. 

If Guerra can stay focused and healthy, he will have a great season.  If not, Mattingly can put Jansen in at any time. 

Guerra will be a bargain no matter where he is drafted, so if you decide to draft him, make him a tier-three closer for your team and have two suitable closers already drafted.

The Closer Report 2012 Projections

35 Saves, 6 Wins, 2.78 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 62 Ks

2012 Fantasy Draft Analysis

Javy Guerra’s ADP is a staggering 283 (24th round).  He is a steal at that point. 

I would start targeting Guerra around Round 19 or 20.  If he is the best player available that meets your needs, draft him. 

Beware that with the craziness of the Dodgers, he might not be the closer come season’s end—either he will get traded or lose the job outright.

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It remains to be seen whether Bobby Valentine will be the next manager of the Boston Red Sox, but one thing is certain: If Larry Lucchino and Boston’s ownership group are looking for a guy who knows how to bounce back from a tough year, this is their man.

Valentine was one of baseball’s top prospects in the late 1960s. The Connecticut native with sprinter’s speed headed west to USC and was the fifth pick (by the Dodgers) in the ’68 draft. Big things seemed in store when he was named Pacific Coast League MVP after batting .340 with 14 homers and 16 triples at Triple-A Spokane in 1970. A shortstop, he was the heir apparent to Maury Wills in Los Angeles.

Things didn’t go quite so smoothly. Valentine started out slow in the big leagues, partly due to torn knee cartilage sustained playing touch football, but seemed to be hitting his stride after being swapped up the freeway to the Angels.

A month into the ’73 campaign the 23-year-old had his average at .302 and was taking time off from shortstop to fill in for an injured teammate in the outfield when he ran back to the wall in pursuit of a Dick Green fly ball.

What happened next was a baseball equivalent of the Joe Theismann injury, with the vinyl fence at Anaheim Stadium playing the role of Lawrence Taylor.

As Sports Illustrated later described it: The ball missed Valentine’s glove by an inch, and his leg drove into the vinyl between the two support poles so that the tarp first yielded, then ensheathed his calf like a vise before flinging him back to the ground with a grotesque bend in the middle of the shin.

The incident fractured both of the bones in Valentine’s lower right leg, and he spent nearly six months in two different casts. When the second one was removed, doctors discovered that the bones had knit poorly—leaving an 18-degree bend between his knee and ankle.

Valentine had two choices: suck it up and learn to play in pain, or spend 13-16 more months undergoing surgery and leg reconstruction with screws and plates.

“In my mind,” he told SI, “to go with their plan meant not to be a ballplayer.” Doctors gave him a few months to decide, and by spring training he was jogging and ready to play. Valentine had a huge lump on his knee, a constant limp and his speed was gone. But he played 117 games anyway, batting .261 in his transition from superstar prospect to fringe performer.

Over the next five years he did whatever he could to stay on the roster—eventually playing every position but pitcher—and wound up getting into nearly 400 games on one good leg for four different teams. He knew adversity, but didn’t know how to quit.

In that regard he had a lot in common with his father-in-law, former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, another guy who wore No. 13 and had been dealt a tough blow by fate (in Branca’s case, it was giving up Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard Round the World” that clinched the ’51 pennant for the Giants over the Dodgers). Imagine the late-night discussions those two had.

Nobody would have blamed Valentine for limping away from the game, but he loved it too much and wanted to help others succeed at it.

As manager of the Rangers and Mets, and in two stints skippering teams in Japan, he was not always loved by his ballplayers, but he was respected for his intelligence.

Peter Gammons, who has worked with him at ESPN during Valentine’s recent stint as an analyst, calls him, “One of the most brilliant men I’ve ever met.”

Cocky and at times abrasive, he rubbed many people the wrong way. He also could explode with the best of them, and wasn’t afraid to sit down under-performing players. 

Clearly this is one guy who would not let pitchers get fat and happy on beer and wings. He fought too hard to stay in the Show to let others give less than their best.

Terry Francona had a sterling reputation as a nice guy and a “player’s manager” who preferred letting others get the bulk of the attention and credit.

Valentine enjoys being in front and saying what he feels, even if players won’t want to hear it. And with a roster full of stars that could use some shaking up, Bobby V. may be just what Larry Lucchino and Red Sox ownership feel they need.

SAUL WISNIA is a former sports and news correspondent for The Washington Post and feature writer for The Boston Herald who is now senior publications editor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He has authored, co-authored or contributed to numerous books on Boston baseball history, including his latest — Fenway Park: The Centennialhttp://amzn.to/qWjQRS. His essays and articles have appeared in Sports Illustrated, Red Sox Magazine, and The Boston Globe, and he shares Fenway reflections in cyberspace athttp://saulwisnia.blogspot.com/. Wisnia lives 6.78 miles from MLB‘s oldest ballpark in Newton, MA, and can be reached at saulwizz@gmail.com or @saulwizz.

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