The world according to Jim:
• Spring training has begun, and with it the traditional outsized optimism. And with it should come this reminder, and maybe all of us baseball scribes should be required to add this phrase the same way they do with ads for financial services products: Past performance is not an indicator of future results. …
• This is a particular warning for those who are either giddy (or grumpy) over the Dodgers’ offseason spending spree, and are hopeful (or afraid) that they’ll smash the existing record of 116 victories in a full season, currently held by the 1906 Chicago Cubs and the 2001 Seattle Mariners.
(And for those who are giddy, a reminder: Neither of those teams won it all. The ’06 Cubs lost to their crosstown rivals, the White Sox, in the World Series. The 2001 Mariners – whose season, like everyone else’s, was halted for a week following 9/11 – were eliminated by Cleveland in an American League Division Series.) …
• We should also note: The 1906 Cubs still have the best winning percentage in major league history: 116-36, .763. The 2001 Mariners were 116-46 and .716. Ahead of them: The 1902 Pittsburgh Pirates (103-96, .741, and didn’t win the World Series because it wasn’t played, when the newly formed American League was still on a war footing with the National League), and the 1908 Pirates (110-42, .724, won the World Series over Detroit.) There’s a footnote to the story of those Pirates, it involves the ancestors of these Dodgers, and we’ll get to it. …
• The other team ahead of those 2001 Mariners: The 2020 Dodgers, 43-17 for a .717 winning percentage in the truncated COVID-19 schedule, and World Series champions over Tampa Bay. (Let’s not remind Blake Snell of that one just yet.)
And yes, it was only a 60-game season, but sorry, haters, it still counts. Everyone else in baseball played under the same restrictions that year, and to those who still claim it was an illegitimate championship: No other World Series winner has ever had to play its last three postseason series on neutral ground, in a pandemic bubble. So whatever your objections, I’m not listening. …
• Today’s history lesson, then: Why was Pittsburgh a dynasty in the early years of the 20th century? They finished first in the National League in 1901, ’02 and ’03, mainly because the new, upstart American League, at the urging of league president Ban Johnson, made a point of signing players from the New York Giants and then-Brooklyn Superbas, the latter of whom won pennants in 1899 and 1900 and lost four regulars to the new league before the 1901 season. …
(And yes, that was in a particular franchise history of the Dodgers – yes, that would be mine, “Dodgers! An Informal History from Flatbush to Chavez Ravine,” published in 2022 and still available through online booksellers. And if you happen to run across it in a brick and mortar bookstore, please let me know.) …
• A more recent history lesson: The Dodgers have won 100 or more games in four of the last six full seasons. Last year they won 98 – still the best record in the game in a year when nobody topped 100 – and went on to win it all. And remember the organizational philosophy: March through September is for taking care of business and making sure they’re around to do damage in October. …
• What of the Angels, meanwhile? It’s easy to dismiss them after a 99-loss season – we tend to forget that line about past performance and future results – and the news that Anthony Rendon will miss significant time this season after hip surgery opens the door for all kinds of one-liners about the folly of having given a seven-year, $245 million deal to someone who has played 257 of a possible 708 games as an Angel, with WAR totals of 0.0, 0.9, 0.1 and 0.6 the last four seasons. …
• Honestly, I’m looking for positives. Kenley Jansen, whom they just signed to a one-year deal, is a proven closer and can lessen the burden on young Ben Joyce (though I’m sure the words, “Oh, no, not Kenley” still echo in plenty of Dodger fan households). Jorge Soler, acquired from Atlanta the day after the World Series ended, is a proven bat. Catcher Travis d’Arnaud and infielders Yoán Moncada and Scott Kingery were other offseason pickups. …
• But can Mike Trout stay healthy? Can 31-year-old Tim Anderson, signed to a minor-league deal, recapture his mojo from his prime seasons with the White Sox? Can youngsters like Zach Neto, Logan O’Hoppe, Nolan Schanuel and Mickey Moniak continue to develop, newly acquired pitchers Yusei Kikuchi and Kyle Hendricks bolster the rotation and Reid Detmers get back to the form of his rookie season?
That’s a lot of ifs. Yes, Arte Moreno ordered GM Perry Minasian to assemble a 2025 team that could contend. But if you’re an Angel fan, you’re better off savoring the small victories, pondering the future and trying not to think about that Rendon contract. …
• Alex Bregman has signed a three-year deal with Boston, with opt-outs. And while I doubt that he consulted the schedule before he signed, he’ll avoid being booed in L.A. this year as not only a member of the 2017 Houston Astros but one who was particularly non-penitent when the sign-stealing scandal was exposed. The Dodgers play in Boston this year, in mid-June.
However, the Red Sox are in Anaheim from June 21-23 – right after a three-game series with the Astros. …
• Most underrated transaction in SoCal sports so far: The Sparks’ acquisition of Kelsey Plum, a three-time WNBA All-Star and two-time champion (and, for those who have forgotten, the player whose NCAA career scoring record Caitlin Clark broke).
It is a big move. It will make the Sparks better, probably quite a bit so. But it’s not enough. As colleague Mirjam Swanson has noted, this franchise is still a mom-and-pop store in what is becoming an increasingly professionalized league. Other franchises are building dedicated training centers and doing their utmost to become destinations for free agent talent. The last time we looked, the Sparks were still using a community college gym as their main practice site.
That’s got to change. It’s time for them to become truly big league.
jalexander@scng.com