Are the Dodgers Ruining Baseball? Short Answer, NO. Long Answer, See Below.

     First, a bit of History. I know that there is a large portion of the baseball community if it hasn't happened within a week ago, it does not matter. But bear with me, First, Ohtani announced He would opt out of his Angel's contract., the Dodgers sat on their wallets for 2 years in 2022 and 2023. Despite the fact they had needs. Dodgers got bounced from the first round both years in the playoffs because of this. 

     Dodgers were going to sign Ohtani no matter what. They had set up the roster with a load of expiring contracts in 2024 just so no matter how high the bidding went; the Dodgers would match and go beyond. Before you go all " Dodgers deferred all his salary" it was Ohtani who offered that. Why? Because Ohtani in a Unicorn. He was the only player who along with his ability to play baseball at a high level, Ohtani brought along a Market to expand to. Ohtani has off field endorsements that more than what the 70 million a year the Dodgers own. You combine Ohtani's New Balance contract with his Calvin Klein, those alone goes over the 70 million mark.

  

     The Dodgers did not invent the deferred contract. Check out the New York Mets and who gets deferred payments this year, I hope you all celebrate Bobby Bonilla Day. Mid-season the Mets will cut 62-year-old Bobby a 1 million dollar deferred check from his Mets playing days. And will continue to do so until 2035 when a final payment will be made to a 72-Year-old Bobby.  But there are two other player who get deferred payment in 2025. Adam Ottavino will get 500k this year until 2031, then Adam will get a final 1 million dollars. The last is the great Bret Saberhagen who get a cool 250k in 2025 until a final payment in 2028. I hope that 250k is not really needed by Brett, but if he had made a couple of bad financial decisions that 250k might come in handy, 

      The Dodgers are signing everyone one and it is not fair to the other teams seems to be the rallying cry on the internet. First to the idea there is not parity in baseball. Last year there was 3 team that were out of it mathematically in August. The Rockies, the White Sox and the A's. Everyone else was a hot win streak away from the last Wildcard slot. I remember in August the Reds got to within 3 games of the Brewers for the division led going into a home and away set of games. If the Reds had just gone 4-2 in the stretch the Reds would have been division leaders. But for some reason the Reds can't beat the Brewers when it matters most.  0-6 and dropped out of the division race and lost valuable ground in the Wildcard race. My point is that in August 3/4 of MLB teams had a chance to get into the playoffs in late August of 2024. 

    Don't blame the Dodgers for having a plan and executing it. The Padres were arguably the second-best team in the MLB last season and had the 4th best attendance record in 2024.  Do you think the Padres had a plan to build on that success in 2025?  I think the plan was for the Padres owners to pocket the profits from 2024, what do you think?  The Dodgers were the #1 team in attendance both at home and on the road. What better way to reward the fans who supported the Dodgers than by getting better and fixing the flaws in the 2024 team. Don't you wish you could see the plan your team has in place to become successful? 

     

 Because I can see the Dodger plans fairly clearly. First, the Dodger built redundancy into the roster, If August rolls around and the injury bug has not hit the Dodgers as hard as last year, they will have players to trade at the August deadline when teams are willing to give up prospects out of desperation. Second, the Dodgers have a lock down bullpen because every pitcher in the starter's rotation will have inning limits. The whole staff will be 6 innings at most, 5 2/3 innings will probably be the average, The Dodgers don't have one inning eater in the whole staff. 

   

     Well thank you for reading my rant. To all the fans of other teams I beg you to figure out what your team plans is to at least get that last wildcard slot. Because once you get in the post season anything can happen. I remember in 2023 Mookie Betts and Freddy Freeman combined for 1 hit in the series lost to the Padres which got them bounced out of the playoffs despite the Dodgers 107-win season. Nothing is written in stone yet. 

My Favorite Books of 2024. Part 2

     There are 5 books in continuing series that went beyond the trilogy model.  I was surprised when Michael J, Sullivan decided to return to his Literary Character Duo of Royce and Hadrian in Drumindor.  Released in November of 2024, and I really needed a return of old friends in light of November's events. Dennis E Taylor returned to the Bobiverse series with Not Til We Are Lost. Again, this installment had all the elements that makes this series so good, Humor, plot and thought-provoking dilemmas with Pop culture shout outs sprinkled throughout. If you are a fan of Douglas Adams and Andy Weir you will like Dennis E Taylor.

Finally, Christan Cameron came out with his 6th book in his Historical Fiction Chivalry series, Emperor's Sword. William Gold is the main character of this series, a person who gets 2 mentions in the Historical Records, once in a gaining his Knighthood on the battlefield and again decades later receiving some lands for rendered service, Cameron uses the empty spaces in the story to have Willian Gold turn up in all the struggles in Middle Age Italy, France and England. Nice to read and learn at the same time. There was 2 long running novella series that I was happy they got new installments. Penric & Desdemona series by Lois McMaster Bujold saw Penic and the Bandit added to the story of the Learned Penric. Anthony Ryan added Sword of Storms, the 6th novella in his Seven Sword series, if you are a fan of talking swords, you need to add this novella series. 

     I found four books starting new series that I found to be outstanding. Tide of the Black Steel by Anthony Ryan, and Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, both who are authors I am a big fan of, came out with solid entertaining starts to new series. There were two new authors I found that had excellent starts to a new series. Silverblood Promise by James Logan and Mai Corland's Five Broken Blades had starling different settings but what they had in common was a quest plot with the gathering of the misfit characters to accomplish the long-arc goal, it is a literary trope I absolutely love. Both books pull off their quest trope in fine style.

     Finally, a shout out to the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, which I found in 2024 thanks to the Buzz. I was resistant to the hype at first because I am not a gamer, and I had a feeling I would miss a lot. I could not be more wrong. Believe the hype, it is well deserved.  

My Favorite Books That Came Out in 2024, I am sure I missed some. Part 1

     As a reading year, 2024 was very, very good to me. 2024 saw the return of one of my favorite tandem authors. I was rewarded with a few trilogies that got their concluding chapters. Others had the second book in the series that held on to the promise of the first book. And I had a few First in the series that knock my socks off. 

  My absolute favorite book of 2024 is the return of James SA Corey with a new series, I been waiting patiently for Dan & Ty's new series as their previous Expanse Series became my favorite Science Fiction series of the 21st Century, at least so far. Mercy of Gods deliver the goods, great characters, plot and pacing, 

     There were 3 series that came to an end in 2024 that left me well satisfied. Shauna Lawless concluded her Gael Song series with Land of the Living & the Dead. reads like Ancient Ireland Historical Fiction with Fantasy elements, Lawless imagines an obscure Irish historical figure as one infused with M powers from Irish Mythologies. It all works to keep a reader like me who likes the blend of Historical Fiction and Fantasy genre. Claire North Finished her Songs of Penelope series with Last Song of Penelope, a brilliant retelling of the Odysseus story which focus in on the women and goddesses mentioned but not expanded upon. Claire North took these brief mentions of Penelope in the Odysseus and gave her a more meaningful role in saving Ithaca. from the machinations of the suitors. John Gwynne finished his Norse inspired series The Bloodswore with Fury of the Gods. John Gwynne is one of the finest Epic fantasy writers around. All these writers have become favorites of mine and I look forward to whatever comes next. 

    I also had 4 novels of 2024 that continued the promise shown in the first in the series. My favorite book of 2023 was Mark Lawrence's Book That Wouldn't Burn and the second book in the Library series was just as good. The Book that Broke the World had everything I wanted in a second book. fleshed out the world. moved the plot along with adding some delicious twists. David Wragg's Company of the Wolf was the second book in the Tales of the Plaines series. It was Wragg's book cover that first led me to this author, who, for the life of me, I don't know why he is not more popular. If you are a fan of Joe Abercrombie, you should put Davis Wragg on your to be read list in 2025. M.R. Carey came out with his second book in the Pandominion series. I thought I was done with Quantum timelines, but Mr. Carey dragged me back in. This is the 3rd time Mr. Carey has done this, written a series in a sub-genre I thought had run out of new ideas. Another book I really liked in 2021 was Jay Kristoff's Enpire of the Vampire and in 2024 the second book in the series came out., Empire of the Damned did what a good second book should do, make me want the next book as soon as possible.