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Dodger Thoughts is moving

Hi everyone. I'm packing up gear.

January 31 marks the last day for Dodger Thoughts at ESPNLosAngeles.com. Please follow me to my new location, which will have the dodgerthoughts.com URL.

Please note that it could take a few hours before the process of redirecting the URL to the new site is completed. But everything should be ship-shape soon enough.

I would very much like to thank everyone at ESPNLosAngeles for giving me the opportunity to be part of their team for two years. It's been a great addition to the Los Angeles sports landscape, and I was proud to be part of it. (In fact, you might still see me over at ESPNLosAngeles on a freelance basis.)

And now, on to the next chapter ...

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Dodger Thoughts

Prospect pantheon

If you want to dive into some serious Dodger prospect details, you could do worse than Kevin Goldstein's new report at Baseball Prospectus or Brandon Lennox's ongoing countdown at True Blue L.A.

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Farm system

The future of Hong-Chih Kuo

Been meaning to wonder aloud about Hong-Chih Kuo, who remains unsigned with February just around the corner. The Dodgers declined to offer salary arbitration to Kuo for obvious reasons following his massive struggles in 2011, but the memory of his 2010 dominance makes him a good guy to have at Spring Training on a low- or no-guarantee contract. A small item in this Nick Cafardo notebook in the Boston Globe (via MLB Trade Rumors) indicates that a few teams feel the same, and Kuo could be signing somewhere soon. Los Angeles? I don't know ...

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Hong-Chih Kuo

Expanded playoffs could lower bar for Dodgers in 2012

Can the seventh-best team in the National League in 2011 become the fifth-best team in 2012?

• Nothing's official yet, but Bud Selig thinks the expansion of MLB's playoffs to 10 teams could come this year, reports The Associated Press. "Under the new format, whenever it begins, the non-division winners in each league with the two best records will be the wild cards, meaning a third-place team could for the first time win the World Series."
• Today in Jon SooHoo: A contemplative Vin Scully inside the Green Monster at Fenway, 2004. (And from a couple days ago, here's Scully interviewing Tommy Lasorda at Busch Stadium in the 1980s.)
• Hiroki Kuroda talked to Dylan Hernandez of the Times at some length about leaving the Dodgers for the Yankees.
• Paul DePodesta talked to MLB Clubhouse Confidential's Brian Kenny about "Moneyball," the Dodgers and his current team, the Mets.
• The Mets could have the largest single-season payroll cut in MLB history – more than $50 million, according to Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com.
• Speaking of money: Here's a yearly progression of the highest-paid player in baseball dating back to Nap Lajoie's $6,200 salary in 1902, provided by William Juliano at Bronx Banter.
• Juan Pierre, 34, has signed a minor-league deal with the Phillies, joining Scott Podsednik in the competition for a spot on their roster. Something tells me that a .279 hitter in 639 at-bats with 27 steals would have gotten a better contract if evaluation methods in baseball hadn't changed to de-emphasize batting average. His OPS+ was .657 and he was caught stealing 17 times.
• Another former Dodger, Brad Penny, might be headed for Japan, reports Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com. Penny, 34 in May, had a 5.30 ERA in 31 starts and 181 2/3 innings for Detroit in 2011.
• Noted by Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports: If Ryan Braun's 50-game suspension is upheld, his first 2012 game would be May 31 at Dodger Stadium. It's a weekday afternoon game.
• This year, Stanford may well have first pair of classmates picked first in both the NFL and MLB drafts: quarterback Andrew Luck and pitcher Mark Appel, writes Jack Blanchat of the Stanford Daily.
• Some of you might find this interesting: According to this MediaPost story by Mark Walsh, ESPN now feels that "instead of determining how to shoehorn its programming from traditional media to mobile platforms, the process is now reversed, with mobile becoming the starting point."
• Maybe the craziest collection of trick shots you'll ever see is in this video, which is kicked off by Don Mattingly and his son Preston.
• Even crazier ... this IHOP commercial from 1969 (via Emma Span).
• Farewell, Robert Hegyes. Hegyes wrote about his "Welcome Back, Kotter" experience at his website. Groucho Marx and Lucille Ball were fans.

* * *

The deadline is fast approaching, but there are still spots open to play in TheLFP.com Softball Tournament on February 11 at Big League Dreams in West Covina, where readers of Dodger blogs will play with and against each other. Sign up and be part of the fun.

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Vin Scully, Hiroki Kuroda, Jon SooHoo, Juan Pierre, Paul DePodesta, Preston Mattingly, Brad Penny, Ryan Braun, Nap Lajoie, Andrew Luck, Mark Appel, Robert Hegyes

Dodger ownership bidding moves forward

Potential ownership groups featuring Peter O'Malley, Magic Johnson, Joe Torre, Steve Cohen and Stanley Gold are among those whom Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com is reporting have gained first-round approval in the bidding for the Dodgers.

Bill Shaikin of the Times has reported that Mark Cuban and Dennis Gilbert did not advance, though The Associated Press initially had a conflicting report on Cuban. Matthew Futterman of the Wall Street Journal writes that a group led by cable investor Leo Hindery and New York financier Marc Utay did advance.