Letters: What’s the deal with the Dodgers?

We’ve been watching this kid Julio Urias for a few months now, bobbing and weaving through starts, but somehow pulling it together, and now there are rumors that the Dodgers want to trade him? Good thing these guys were not in charge when Fernando Valenzuela was a 19-year-old. Pull it together, don’t trade this remarkable prospect . He could be the most exciting pitcher since Stephen Strasburg

Craig Schwarz

Camarillo

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Bill Plaschke is a real beauty, and I don’t think he will be getting any GM job offers in the near future.　He says do this or do that, but provides no plan to do this or that.　He tells us the Dodgers finally have a great cohesive unit that plays hard together and finds a way to win, but then tells us that changes need to be made.　　

　If Clayton Kershaw gets back this year, I will be surprised and, as far as I am concerned, Andre Ethier coming back and bringing his sullen attitude is not a positive. Each player has a role and there is not the dependence on one big-name player to carry the load.Some great young players and some seasoned veterans has made for a great opportunity.

In explaining how this has happened, Plaschke gives one cursory comment that one, Dave Roberts, may have had something to do with this. Only 2 1/2 back and nine left to play with the Giants, let’s give the “team” a chance to play.

Ed Freeman

Moorpark　　

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Isn’t it time someone started to give Andrew Friedman some credit? If you told a general manager in advance that his team would lead baseball in injuries, he would pursue a strategy of acquiring tremendous depth, especially with regard to starting pitching. Nobody told Mr. Friedman that in advance, but it happened, and he had pursued the perfect strategy to keep the team in contention despite debilitating injuries. What does the team have, nine starting pitchers? And it’s still barely enough. Add in the conversion of the bullpen from a liability to an asset, and he has done a spectacular job. Why aren’t your columnists giving him and his staff the credit they deserve?

Will Beall

Santa Barbara

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As we approach the final third of another disappointing season for the once-again injured Yasiel Puig, here’s my “breakdown”:

P--PREDICTABLE: Looks like another stint on the DL. Has he ever been healthy for an entire season?

U--UNDERACHIEVER: Please, don’t tell me he’s lived up to the superstar status and hype. His stats prove otherwise. He’s average, at best!

I--INCONSISTENT: Yes, he’ll tease us for a while with some occasional decent hitting, But I stopped counting the number of times he’s up with the bases loaded and/or key moments in games and does nothing.

G--GONE: If a team would even take him, I’d do the deal in a heartbeat! Andrew Toles “could” be that speedster/spark plug to easily take his place.

Rick Solomon

Lake Balboa

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The Dodgers have been on ESPN twice in the last month. I don’t miss watching them anymore so I didn’t even turn the channel once.

Gary Patterson

Brea

Angel update

Two notions suggested in Sunday’s assessment of the Angels by The Timesneed to be put to bed as poppycock.

　First, the club has zero chance of contending this season — a team with deep starting pitching would be highly unlikely to overcome 10-plus games in the standings to multiple teams, let alone a club with so many hurlers on the shelf. Secondly, both Yunel Escobar and Hector Santiago should definitely be traded if teams are willing to pony up value.

Santiago is a streaky hurler with no continuity in his delivery nor consistency in his performance. And Escobar is a decent contact hitter who does nothing else to help a team — he’s erratic defensively and not only has mental lapses but also inexcusably fails all too often to give full effort — yet appears to have appeal to contenders right now. 　

The Angels would be smart to sell high on each.

Bob Cunningham

Riverside

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The Angels are mired well below .500 and are fighting to stay out of last place in the West. The remedy according to Mike Scioscia is for the team to “tool up” but not to rebuild. The starting pitching is below mediocre and the bullpen is average. But the ever optimistic Scioscia says the team will contend this year and next year. What planet is he living on?

Ralph S. Brax

Lancaster

What to expect in Westwood

After studying a mind-numbing array of analytics, I offer the following scenario for the upcoming UCLA football season. First some background:

In the pre-Jim Mora coaching era beginning in the early-1970s, principally under Terry Donahue, the Bruins were notorious for starting slow and fighting their way back into contention once classes began in early October, and reaching the Rose Bowl or some other prestigious bowl.

In the Jim Mora era we have seen a reversal of such tendencies. The Bruins start strong, until the pressure of school kicks in and they crumble like stale Oreos in a microwave. Last season Mora was quoted in The Times: If only schoolwork had not gotten in the way we would not have lost focus and started losing. After four seasons under Mora, this is the biggest change that has come to the Bruin football program.

I therefore predict the Bruins will shock Texas A&M in College Station on Labor Day Weekend, climbing to 4-0 after beating lowly UNLV, age-challenged BYU in double-overtime, and mighty Stanford at home Sept 24, until the dreaded fall classes and the nationally ranked Bruins get upset by Arizona in October (and probably Arizona State in Tempe the following week), tumbling to mediocrity and an 8-4 or 9-3 record, eventually winding up in a minor bowl (can you say Silicon Valley Beef Bowl?).

Rich Rhea

Oceanside

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Grexit? Nope. Brexit? Probably. Paxit? Absolutely.

Rick Neuheisel suggested recently that UCLA should consider the Big 12. With Pac-12 slugs siphoning around $100 million a year from UCLA and USC, they should both go.

Jim Grier

Costa Mesa

Ringing it in

I have been enjoying and appreciating your series on the upcoming Rio Olympics. The best stories that come out of the Olympics every four years are the human stories. It’s stirring to read about the backgrounds and personal journeys these athletes have undertaken, and to hear what being an Olympian means to them. These stories are especially inspiring, given the horrific circumstances, conditions, and corruptions permeating the preparations in Brazil this year.

Jeffrey Johnson

Santa Monica

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If you were shocked to learn that the IOC (the same IOC that awarded the Winter Olympics to the seaside resort town of Sochi) decided not to ban Russian athletes from the upcoming Summer Olympics, you might not want to ask if there’s any gambling going on in the back room of Rick’s Cafe Americain.　

Brian Lipson

Beverly Hills

Bathroom break

The NBA has decided to pull the All-Star game out of Charlotte because of the climate created by the transgender bathroom law. If the NBA is genuinely concerned about human rights, it will be interesting to see which city’s “climate” they deem to be satisfactory. Is there a city with no racial discrimination, no violence, no poverty, where every citizen can access safe housing and quality education, where men and women are paid equal wages for equal work, where seniors and veterans enjoy affordable health care, and everyone has clean drinking water? Perhaps the real question is: Does the NBA really care enough about human rights to find it?

Joyce Stigter

Medicine Hat, Canada

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　 　By refusing to follow the lead of the NBA, the PGA has three-putted, shanked, and driven the ball out of bounds. As was seen in the state of Indiana, financial pressure can often cause states to reverse discriminatory practices.

　By refusing to act, other than to state “you can use the restroom you identify with” at the 2017 PGA Championship to be held in Charlotte, the PGA is being shockingly disingenuous.

Bob Lentz

Sylmar

What a cut-up

Hail Chris Sale! I’m sure that’s what Chet Lemon, Ralph Garr, Ken Brett, et al. are saying after Sale made a White Sox fashion statement for the ages. Instead of Sale, shouldn’t the marketing genius that wanted to relive the nightmare of those horrible uniforms be the one suspended?

Larry Herrera

Redondo Beach

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