December 25, 2023

Merry Christmas everyone! Christmas came early for the Dodgers last week, when they agreed to a deal with Japanese Ace , Yoshinobu Yamamoto. If there was one guy the team needed, it was Yamamoto, because they were desperate for front-line pitching. However, that wouldn’t have been possible without landing Shohei Ohtani earlier in December. Bravo Andrew Friedman. You clearly have a plan, and have executed it to perfection thus far, and you’re probably not done making moves either. It’s like he has a Black Card for Christmas Shopping with no credit limit. However, for those of you that think this is bad for baseball’s competitive balance, or somehow bad for the game, you have no idea what you’re talking about and you should go back to not watching baseball, because you probably weren’t in the first place. Just because you sign stars in baseball, doesn’t mean you win. It’s not the NBA. It can help you win, but certainly not the deciding factor. Plenty of teams without stars have been winning World Series titles in the last 20 years. Also, if you think having baseball’s biggest star in the 2nd biggest media market is bad for the game, you’re an idiot. The Dodgers will be hated this year, but more people will be watching them as a result, which is good for the game. It certainly helps that the Dodgers are in LA too, and have built a quality organization. Some of you are acting like other teams weren’t ready to spend over $300 million on Yamamoto, or $700 million on Ohtani, but the reality is they picked the Dodgers over a long list of other organizations.

Meanwhile, I’m still fascinated to see where the Angels go from here. I’m shocked Arte Moreno has not “raged spent” on any of the remaining free agents. The Halos may have actually stumbled into a couple of solid young players in Logan O’Hoppe and and Nolan Schanuel. However, their pitching remains an issue. Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery seem like they would fill a big need at the moment, but Arte hasn’t spent on pitching in a long time. If they don’t spend some of their cash though, which wouldn’t surprise me, it may actually signal that Arte may revisit selling the team. That would be the best news the Angel fans have received in a long time if it happened.

Remember when people thought the Rams were going to be bad and tank for Caleb Williams? Remember when Matt Stafford’s wife told everyone that her husband couldn’t relate to all the young players on the team? That was only a couple of months ago, but now it’s a much different conversation. Stafford threw for 328 yards on Thursday in the win over the Saints, and the Rams are on the verge of getting back to the playoffs. The Rams were 3-6 just six weeks ago, and since then they’ve won 5 of 6, while Stafford has managed to lead the team despite keeping his thumb attached with chicken, super glue, and duct tape. This is also a reminder of just how good of a coach Sean McVay is, in case you forgot that as well. The man should be up for Coach of The Year honors. I definitely think the Rams should handle business against the Giants next week, but facing the 49ers on the final week of the season will be a challenge. However, they might not need to win that game anyway, as 9 wins could get them into the postseason.

All it took was losing their quarterback, their coach, and their GM for the Chargers to start taking football games seriously again. They lost to the Bills on Saturday night, but they put a valiant effort forward. However, the real story is the coach and GM search. Of course Dean Spanos must have read Jock Talk LA last week, because he came out and essentially refuted my claim that the Bolts are unlikely to spend big on a coach. Spanos insisted that there won’t be financial limitations, but unless I see Bill Belichik or John Harbaugh coaching this team in 2024, I won’t believe him. The last three Charger coaches, Brandon Staley, Anthony Lynn, and Mike McCoy had no previous NFL Head Coaching experience. If I see another assistant with no head coaching experience get this job, you’ll know the reason why.

The Lakers looked fantastic in Saturday’s win against Oklahoma City on the road. I can appreciate the urgency that Lebron and AD showed against an elite team, but it’s also maddening. The ceiling on this team is high, which we saw from the In-Season Tournament victory, but since then they’ve been mailing it in. In the Western Conference, there are so many good teams, you cannot afford to mail it in consistently like they have been. The worst part about it is that now they are going into a much tougher part of their schedule, with the Celtics coming to town today for Christmas Day. I’m really tired of Lebron’s excuses though. Stop telling me it’s injuries or the in-season tournament. You and AD are healthy, the team is mostly healthy, but there’s just more nights where you and your guys don’t feel like playing. As the leader of the squad, you have to figure out how to get them up to play every night, or it will cost you in the standings.

As for the Clippers, their 9-game win streak was snapped with blowout losses to the Thunder and Celtics. They seem to insist that they aren’t bothered because the Celtics just got hot from 3, and they were tired in the Thunder game. However, the amount of points the Clippers gave up is alarming, even if they did play without Kawhi in both of those games. In fact, not having Kawhi is an even bigger blow for the team defensively, because outside of PG and Kawhi, this isn’t a great defensive team. It’s definitely something to keep an eye on, especially the health of Kawhi moving forward.

Just a few weeks ago, we thought UCLA Basketball was a young, dangerous, and talented team, that could make some noise come tournament time. Just a month later, we found out we were bamboozled. This team isn’t good. They are inexperienced, make a lot of stupid mistakes, especially turnovers. They have no offensive game plan, struggle to get the ball into the post, and are wildly inconsistent defensively. According to Mick Cronin, they’ve lost their confidence completely. When you lose 4 in a row, including to Cal State Northridge at home, it’s time to start looking toward next season. UCLA will be lucky just to look respectable in conference play, let alone make the NCAA Tournament.

I’m really not sure what to make of the Trojan Basketball team either. They are 6-5 and really not much better than the Bruins. On the bright side, Bronny James is back in the lineup, and has had some exciting plays in limited game action. USC has had their own problems like the Bruins, losing to good teams they’ve hung in with like Gonzaga, and also just losing to bad teams like Long Beach State. The difference is that USC has very low expectations as a basketball program, so when they do lose, it doesn’t catch people’s attention. With that being said, when you consider the likes of Bronny James, Evan Mobley, and Onyeka Okongwu, this program is becoming more of a breeding ground for individual NBA prospects to showcase their skills, but not necessarily a program synonymous with winning College Basketball games.

Finally, in the NHL, we are about 30 games into the season, and the Kings are firmly in the mix in the Western Conference Playoff race. There’s a lot to like about the Kings, given that Cam Talbot is older than the Dinosaurs, yet somehow he’s provided solid goaltending. The Kings also have the league’s best defense, best penalty killing, and the 4th best offense. You’re probably thinking two things: what am I about to complain about, and that the trade for Pierre Luc-Dubois was a success. That’s exactly my complaint. The trade for PLD has had limited impact on this early success the Kings have had. Despite his goal on Saturday, he has just 6 goals and is only on pace for 16 goals and 36 points. For a guy making $8.5 million a year, that’s unacceptable. Gabe Vilardi, one of the guys he was traded for, has missed half the season yet has one more goal than PLD, and is half the cost. I realize there is still time to turn around this narrative, but when you have a guy making that much money, he needs to produce if you are truly going to compete for a Stanley Cup.