Hello and welcome to important updates on old news, something to watch for one of the Dodgers‘ key pitchers, gaudy win projections, and basking in the glory of the farm system.
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The Athletic: In case you’ve been living under a rock, Ippei Mizuhara was sentenced to 57 months in prison for defrauding Shohei Ohtani.
A federal judge sentenced Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter convicted of defrauding Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, to 57 months in prison at a sentencing hearing inside Orange County Superior Court on Thursday.Mizuhara sat silently, and had no visible reaction as Judge John W. Holcomb read the sentence, which included three years of supervised release and a restitution of more than $18 million to Ohtani and the Internal Revenue Service.The sentence was exactly what the government had requested in a pre-sentencing filing. Mizuhara had requested an 18-month sentence after pleading guilty in June to bank fraud and filing a false tax return.
A big reason Ippei got the maximum is that he continued to lie to the court about basically everything, including Ohtani compensating him well beyond his salary, and the judge wasn’t having any of it.
Amusingly, the conspiracy theorists effectively contributed to Ippei’s punishment. Good job, guys! Thanks for being morons.
Govt: “During the two seasons Mr. Mizuhara was stealing from Ohtani he took half what Ohtani made.”
Now talking about reputational damage to Ohtani
Because Mizuhara lied to ESPN and said Ohtani knew about his gambling people still refuse to believe Ohtani had nothing to do with his gambling.
— Molly Knight (@mollyknight.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Governmentt closing and focusing on how this has impacted the victim’s reputation. How people online are selling merch calling Ohtani a gambler. And disgraced former ballplayers and conspiracy theory writers are also piling on.
— Molly Knight (@mollyknight.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 12:07 PM
The shot at Pete Rose was a nice touch. Rest in piss.
Los Angeles Times: Hey, remember when Dustin May tore his esophagus last season? That was … such a sudden and weird thing to have happen to any player. Well, now we have the story on it, and thankfully he’s alive, much less pitching.
On the night of July 10, while he still was rehabbing at the Dodgers’ Camelback Ranch facility in Arizona, May went to dinner and ordered a salad. After one bite, he felt lettuce stuck in his throat. Trying to wash it down, he took a quick swig of water.Moments later he could tell something was wrong.
His wife may have actually ended up saving his life.
For 15 minutes, May said, he felt a “mega-painful” sensation in his throat and stomach; he later learned the lettuce lodged in his throat led to a highly uncommon food impaction that perforated his esophagus tube. When the pain wore off, however, May returned home from dinner thinking he would be OK.“I’m not a big panicker,” he said. “It kind of chilled out. So I was like, ‘I’m fine. I don’t need to do anything.’”His wife, Millie, wasn’t so sure.“No,” May recalled her saying. “We’re going to the ER to get it checked out.”
His condition ended up requiring major emergency surgery.
To repair the rupture, May required what he described as “basically a full abdominal surgery” — lifting his shirt in front of his locker Friday to reveal a long vertical scar from his lower chest to his stomach.
While this happened in July, he reportedly basically only got back to “normal” around the start of 2025 or so. So despite them saying that he feels healthy again, some patience with him could be in order considering the severity of the surgery.
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The Athletic: Tyler Glasnow not only says he’s healthy, but that he’s been healthy enough where he’s worked on changes to his delivery.
That, Glasnow said, has allowed him to work through some changes. The tweaks, encouraged at least in part by the Dodgers, center largely on how he leverages his massive 6-foot-8 frame down the mound and where he’s positioned when his front foot plants before he fires a pitch.“When I land I used to be very extended, spine angle and stuff,” Glasnow said. “So I’ve been working with some people, trying to make some small changes. It’s hard to explain but once I throw I’ll feel you can probably see it.”
Based on a singular clip, I thought it could be related to his arm slot, but we’ll see.
My body is ready for Tyler Glasnow’s return, hopefully his is as well. (Via @dodgers.com)
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— Chad Moriyama (@chadmoriyama.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Something to monitor as Spring Training gets underway.
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Baseball Prospectus: PECOTA projects the Dodgers to win 104 games, 11.7 more than the next highest team in the Braves, and 17.2 more than the next NL West team in the Diamondbacks. That gives the Dodgers a 99.6% chance of making the playoffs, a 95.1% chance of winning the division, and a 21.9% chance of winning the World Series.
FanGraphs: Speaking of projections, they’ve got the Dodgers winning 97.5 games, 4.1 more than the next highest team in the Braves, and 11.5 more than the next NL West team in the Diamondbacks. They gave the Dodgers a 98% chance of making the playoffs, an 85.9% chance of winning the division, and a 24.1% chance of winning the World Series.
Like I’ve been saying, the thing about baseball is you could make the best roster in history and still have like a 70% chance of not winning the World Series.
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The Athletic: Keith Law, who ranked the Dodgers’ system third in baseball, provides his Top 20 prospects for the team.
Baseball America: Speaking of farm system rankings, they also have the Dodgers third.
Trades have thinned the Dodgers somewhat, but the top of the crop is plenty strong and only got better after landing No. 1 overall prospect Roki Sasaki, even if we don’t expect him to remain a prospect for long. Dalton Rushing and Alex Freeland otherwise lead the way ahead of a trio of young, interesting outfielders in the lower levels. The organization is balanced from top to bottom but also is hurt by injuries that will keep big league-ready pitchers out for the year.
Baseball America: Additionally, they named the team’s #31 to #40 prospects as Hunter Feduccia, Jesus Tillero, Chris Newell, Patrick Copen, Logan Wagner, Christian Zazueta, Adrian Torres, Jared Karros, Wyatt Crowell, and Ronan Kopp.
Baseball Prospectus: Meanwhile, the Dodgers are up to second in their farm system rankings.
They can’t keep getting away with it, right? The World Series champs flipped Michael Busch to the Cubs before the season for two high-upside recent prep picks. Those players now rank eighth and 52nd on the Top 101. Alex Freeland bounced back in the upper minors, Josue de Paula keeps on keeping on (but does need to lift the ball more), and the Dodgers have a pipeline of recent IFA bats poised for 2025 breakouts. The pitching is still very strong—although very injured—but the system depth maybe isn’t quite as impressive as the last couple years. It probably won’t matter anywhere but in these rankings.
So basically, the consensus at the moment is not only is the big-league team ruining baseball for everybody by winning one (1) championship in a row and then actually trying in the off-season, but the farm system is one of the best in baseball. Fucking sweet.
FanGraphs: Regarding all these prospect rankings and what they mean, Ben Clemens looks at how the grades have translated into production for teams.
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Games are not far away now.
