The latest episode of Backstage Dodgers on SportsNet LA showed Dodgers manager Dave Roberts’ speech to the team at the beginning of spring training.
“This is the best organization in baseball, bar none,” Roberts said in the clubhouse at Camelback Ranch. “The foundation is having character people top to bottom, and having the best players and smartest players.”
These five minutes are worth watching, and add another layer to Roberts in a March interview guaranteeing a Dodgers championship in 2022, which he has reiterated multiple times since.
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Jorge Castillo at the Los Angeles Times talked to a number of players about MLB’s latest experiment with a humidor in all 30 ballparks, as an attempt to achieve some sort of uniformity with the baseball. The problem is that players are generally distrustful of the league, and with good reason.
Rockies shortstop José Iglesias lost his father Candelario during spring training, and Friday was the first major league game he placed without his dad watching. After an RBI single Iglesias broke down and cried, and he was consoled by Freddie Freeman at first base. Freeman shared the story of his exchange with Iglesias on Saturday, and Jack Harris at the Los Angeles Times has more.
Cody Bellinger is hitless in eight at-bats through two games, including a strikeout to end Saturday’s loss to the Rockies. Bill Plunkett at the Orange County Register has more on the slumping Dodgers centerfielder.
The 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers is Friday, but today is the anniversary of Robinson’s contract getting purchased by the Dodgers from the minor league Montreal Royals. Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post wrote about the statement made by Brooklyn.