By Jon Weisman
Yasiel Puig spent his Martin Luther King Day with kids at the Amigos For Kids Reading Enrichment Program in Miami, during Unite4:good Day of Unity, whose goal is to inspire charitable action globally.
Elsewhere …
- The Dodgers take a spin on the Baseball Prospectus preseason wheel today, with Craig Goldstein offering a fantasy team preview and Jason Parks a top-10 prospect list, headed by Julio Urias.
- Now that the Masahiro Tanaka saga has ended with his Yankee deal, perhaps MLB will emerge from its weird holding pattern, writes Mike Petriello for Fangraphs.
- Dodger president Stan Kasten told J.P. Hoornstra of the Daily News that security metal detectors are coming to Dodger Stadium by 2015.
… All major-league teams were recently presented with MLB’s plans for heightened stadium security, according to the Associated Press. The AP reported that league’s security director, John Skinner, recommended that all 30 stadiums install walk-through metal detectors. The Seattle Mariners announced earlier today that Safeco Field is getting a head start with the installation of permanent magnometers in time for Opening Day of this year.
Kasten said the Dodgers will use the 2014 season to experiment with different screening methods at each entrance point, ”and by ’15 we’re going to have all the [permanent] gates. We’re all expected to have that same kind of security in place. Everything will be some variation on Seattle.”Fans arriving at Dodger Stadium are already subject to bag searches and, in some cases, hand-held magnetic wand scans. Kasten said that no security devices are being installed as part of the ongoing stadium renovations.
In the opinion of fans at least, the current screening process has proven effective. MLB’s mandate had more impact on the decision to install permanent metal detectors than any fan feedback, Kasten said.“I can’t tell you that we had a lot of specific complaints about that,” he said. …
- Elsewhere, Hoornstra has a feature on Dodger pitching prospect Ross Stripling.
- The latest briefly-a-Dodger vet to plot a return to the game after a year out of the majors is Bobby Abreu, who signed a minor-league deal with the Philllies. Jeff Todd of MLB Trade Rumors rounds up the details.
- The 1969 Union Oil Dodgers Portraits Set is featured by Ernest Reyes at Blue Heaven.
- “After signing his new contract, Clayton Kershaw is approximately equal in value to the Gross Domestic Product of the Republic of Palau,” offers Mississippi Matt Smith at Notgraphs. “To avoid any confusion between the two entities, I’ve prepared this handy table of comparisons.”
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