2018 AD wasn’t injured yet.

This sounds about right. It’s not a guaranteed chip but it leaves everyone wondering how you’re supposed to compete with this

So the 2019 Warriors?

Skubal is way way better than cousins lol 

Yeah, the Dodgers won Game 7 of the World Series by one run last year. They weren’t the ‘17 Warriors or the ‘01 Lakers.

since baseball is a massive luck sport.

people really need to understand this, by and large almost every team in baseball ultimately exists in a .400-.600 window. Over a 162 game season of course teams will prove their mettle but come the playoffs, there’s a lot of variance in the result - even the .600 1st seed team facing a .400 scrub team only wins a 7-game series 71% of the time. Compare that to a .750 team (61 wins, typical NBA 1st seed) winning 92% of series against .250 teams.

Yeah that’s basically what everyone is hoping for if they have to play the Dodgers. “Well, hopefully they’re in a slump/we’re on a hot streak!” But the best players in baseball still only get hits ~3 out of every 10 times so it’s all about timing

Yankees of old had just as much financial power as the Dodgers do. Competence in training and development still matters as that team proved. Buying your way only goes so far.

The Mets are pretty much the baseball version of the early 2000s Knicks 

The Dodgers will have a luxury tax payment equal to roughly double the Guards payroll. Lockout is the price we’ll have to pay, but we’ll have a fairer game soon. The central will have our day.

Also some of that is deferral math that would normally make that amount much higher

It actually is an indicator as 13 out of the last 14 World Series champions were in the top 10 in payroll the 2021 Braves (11th) the only exception.

New York Mets are a disaster this year

I am a time traveler and you are really not helping me get my bearings

Fair but Skubal was traded and the Milwaukee Brewers had a chance to get him, and probably could have beaten what the Dodgers offered since Sheehan wasn’t even included in the trade.

The problem isn’t the Dodgers spending 406MM. It’s your owner spending 85MM. It’s embarassing and inexcusable. Even more embarassing as a Yankees fan is listening to Steinbrenner junior crying poor and then charging $22 for a beer at the stadium

It’s been that historically but the payroll disparity has gotten out of control. I don’t blame the Dodgers for taking advantage but the system is breaking, the owners are cheap and we’re headed for a nasty lockout

It doesn’t. The sport has randomness built into it just because of all the wild physics involved.

But it’s still run by money.

• In the wild card era (1995-present), 28 of the 31 teams to win a World Series ranked in the top half of MLB in opening day payroll.

• In the same time frame, 22 of the 31 World Series champions ranked in the top 10 in opening day pay payroll.

• Only three World Series champions ranked in the bottom half of MLB in opening day payroll.

  • The 2017 Astros and 2015 Royals both made midseason trades that put them into the top half of payroll by the end of the season.
  • The 2003 Marlins are the only team to ever win a World Series finishing the year in bottom half of payroll.

• 26 of the last 32 LCS participants were top-10 in league payroll. 22 of 32 were top-7.

Usually yes, but the dodgers seem likely to three peat now this year. Never thought I’d say this but as a huge baseball fan, thank god for the upcoming lockout.

The sport has never been more popular?? Surely we should have arguably the potential worst lockout in pro sports history, right????

It absolutely is. The Dodgers got a sweet media put of bankruptcy meaning they dont have to share revenue like other teams.

Blud mentioned Kyle Tucker like he is an above replacement level player this year. Fuck it the Dodgers can sign all the guys that produce at that level for $45m or whatever.

Even the best starting pitchers can really only dominate 1, maybe 2 games in a 7 game series. And even within those games, that’s probably usually closer to 6-7 innings than 8-9.

Yamamoto just put up one of the most impressive World Series runs ever for a pitcher, and even he only pitched 17.2 innings out of a possible 74.

Still typically only plays 1 game every 5 days, or in the Dodgers’s case, 1 game every 6 days.

And a starting pitcher being good does not guarantee a win since they usually only play up until the 6th inning. Tigers just showed us a perfect example with Skubal starting, up 7-0 at the 7th and still losing.

math nerds (like commenters below) will say SPs only pitch ~7/45ths of every series but youre right.

its not like basketball where every position on the court has roughly equal potential value. a starting pitcher controls the entire defensive output of those 7/45ths of the game.

it would be comparable to if the best defender on an nba team could guarantee a lead heading into the 4th Q of 2 or 3 games in of 7 game series. and now the dodgers have combined multiple players capable of that level.

I think MLB needs to force a salary floor like the NBA and they need to curtail deferred payments. If you want to “spend” the money now, you have to spend the money now. Ohtani is deferring 68 of the 70 million he gets a year, that’s ludacris. Like set it so you can defer only 10-20% of the annual contract per player.

But deferred payments does give us Bobby Bonilla day every July 1st, so there’s that.

He’s one of the best pitchers in baseball. It’d be like current Giannis joining the Thunder

Tigers fan here he’s prob the best pitcher in baseball over the last three years but I wouldn’t call him prime lebron. He’s been a little injured this year and not as dominant as the last two years, and even the best years aren’t all time seasons. He’s still fucking incredible, I think it’s just a little overblown to act like it’s god getting traded

He’s one of four left handed pitchers in baseball history to win two straight Cy Young awards.

No. The only player comparable to Bron is Shohei Ohtani.

He’s not prime LeBron good (i.e. he isn’t in baseball goat convos) but the Dodgers are already so stacked that it’s dumb.

I’d say it’s more comparable to KD Warriors adding AD.

Though baseball has more randomness, so even if one team is super stacked it’s still not a guarantee (betting odds have them at 40% chance to win it).

Sucks cause we’ll lose another year of Shohei chasing greatness

Yeah. A healthy Shohei is the only baseball player I would look put near prime LeBron. 

And instead of trading AD we trade Talen Horton-Tucker