What had been the worst-kept secret in Major League Baseball has become good http://www.houstontexansteamonline.com/deshaun-watson-jersey , old-fashioned real news.Manny Machado is headed to the Los Angeles Dodgers.After months of speculation and rumors about where the Baltimore Orioles would send Machado when they were finally ready to trade the slugging shortstop, the Dodgers emerged as the team to beat shortly before the All-Star break. A few twists and turns later, the two sides finalized a trade Wednesday.Per Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, these are the terms:Jeff Passan JeffPassanThe return to the Orioles for Manny Machado: OF Yusniel Diaz, 3B Rylan Bannon, RHP Dean Kremer, RHP Zach Pop and 2B Breyvic Valera. Diaz is the only top-100 type. Kremer could be a dude. Bannon undersized 3B crushing in Cal League. Pop is a reliever, Valera 26-year-old in AAA.Jeff Passan JeffPassanSources: No cash going from Orioles to Dodgers in the Manny Machado deal. More surprising, no international bonus-pool money, either. Orioles use theirs as sweeteners in deals since their Latin American presence is near nonexistent.Although Yusniel Diaz only checks in as MLB.com's No. 84 prospect, he's been pushing his value northward with a .905 OPS for Double-A Tulsa.The fact that he's one of only five prospects leaving Los Angeles in a trade that's bringingzero dollars back from Baltimore speaks to how badly the Dodgers wanted Machado, even if he's only two-and-a-half months away from free agency.But while it's not a steal, this deal isn't without silver linings for the Dodgers.For one thing, the club's bestyoung assets鈥攊.e., right-hander Walker Buehler, outfielder Alex Verdugo and catcher Keibert Ruiz鈥攔emain in the organization. This trade thus fits the Dodgers' usual pattern of being willing to deal young players only as long as they're not the cream of their crop.For another thing, there's the kinda-sorta important detail that the Dodgers just added one of MLB's best players to their quest to snap a World Series championship drought that dates back to 1988.Patrick Semansky/Associated PressAlthough Machado, who has four All-Star nods and two Gold Gloves, should need no introduction at this point, the degree to which he's raised his game in 2018 can't be overlooked.Before this season, the 26-year-old's offensive peak involved an .876 OPS and 37 home runs in 2016. With a .963 OPS and 24 homers through his first 96 games of 2018 Deshaun Watson Jersey Elite , he's on track to blow that peak away.Even when the hitter friendly environment of Oriole Park at Camden Yards is factored into the equation via OPS+, Machado still checks in as the fifth-best hitter among batting title qualifiers at the halfway mark:1.Mookie Betts: 2002.Mike Trout: 1933.J.D. Martinez: 1724.Jose Ramirez: 1695.Manny Machado: 164For other teams in the National League, word of a hitter like this joining the Dodgers is the polar opposite of good news.After a slow start, the Dodgers have climbed to the top of the NL West largely because of their offense. It's averaged a .793 OPS and 5.1 runs per game in the team's 37-17 stretch since May 17. In general, there seems to be no going backward for the Dodgers offense:Getting to this point has been a group effort to which Max Muncy, Matt Kemp, Cody Bellinger, Chris Taylor, Joc Pederson, Yasmani Grandal, Enrique Hernandez and (when healthy) Yasiel Puig have all contributed.At worst, Machado's arrival means the Dodgers now have a great deal of protection against any regression their incumbent hitters might experience down the stretch. At best, his arrival will boost the Dodgers offense to a point where it's on par with any in MLB.One catch is that it might mean living with a downgraded defense."I'm a shortstop. I play shortstop," Machado insisted when he was asked if he would move back to third base if a new team asked him to, per Marc Carig of The Athletic.Assuming the Dodgers honor Machado's desire to remain at shortstop, they stand to bear the brunt of a defensive performance that has produced minus-19 defensive runs saved and a minus-7.7 ultimate zone rating. Machado simply hasn't been the lockdown defender at short that he was at the hot corner.However, it takes a stretch of the imagination to perceive this as the Dodgers' doom. Whereas Machado was playing on MLB'sleast efficient defense in Baltimore, his new defense is right in the middle of the pack (14th) in efficiency. The Dodgers should have an easier time downplaying any defensive struggles Machado might experience.Besides, the appeal for the Dodgers is all about the offense. Not because they need it to finish off their comeback and clinch a sixth straight NL West title, but more so because extra offense figures to be instrumental in getting them through the postseason.No thanks to Clayton Kershaw's ongoing decline, manager Dave Roberts has had to do even more mixing and matching with his pitchers than he did in 2017. It's mostly worked Youth Jalen Ramsey Jersey , but the Dodgers may not have the arms to walk the same path to the World Series that they did last year. That one involved an NL-best 3.38 ERA in the regular season (up to 3.49 this year) and a 2.28 ERA through the first two rounds of the playoffs.And even that path wasn't good enough to take them the distance. Although the Dodgers put up a good fight in the World Series, their arms were ultimately no match for the Houston Astros' bats.Assuming they can get there, an easier challenge isn't likely to be awaiting the Dodgers in the World Series this time around. The Astros still have a high-powered offense, and the ones belonging to the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are even better. As such, any NL team that plans on winning the World Series had better be able to win a slugfest.If the Dodgers weren't already equal to the task, they sure are now. All they need now is for Machado and the rest of their hitters to go to work. Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and Baseball Prospectus. CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — For 10 years, ever since they bonded over baseball at work, Franlet Bencomo and Elbert Albarran haven’t missed an opening day game together.This year, however, they left their kids behind and ate a big breakfast before heading out to watch their beloved Caracas Lions because a hot dog inside the stadium costs more than 10 percent of the roughly $30 each makes a month at their minimum-wage jobs.“Now we have to eat beforehand, watch the game and go straight home” said Bencomo, in line for tickets six hours before the start of Friday’s season opener. “There’s no other way.”Throughout Venezuela, as winter league play gets under way, fans are having to make similar sacrifices to feed their passion for “pelota,” — the word for ball that’s used to describe the national pastime.Hyperinflation has pulverized incomes while putting ticket prices out of reach for many. Others are avoiding the ballpark for fear of getting mugged or because they don’t know how they’ll get home amid a nationwide transportation crisis. In response, more daytime games are being played.Venezuela’s eight professional teams are struggling. For the second straight year, state-run oil company PDVSA had to step in with a $12 million lifeline to pay for everything from imported baseballs to the salaries of the seven foreign-born players — most of them minor league prospects from the U.S. — on each team’s roster.During the offseason, vandals picked through stadiums, stripping bathrooms of metal faucets. Groundskeepers have been battling water shortages in several cities. Meanwhile, ticket prices remain a mystery http://www.jaguarscheapstore.com/jalen-ramsey-jersey-cheap , with some clubs changing them by the week to keep pace with inflation forecast by the International Monetary Fund to soon reach 10 million percent.In Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second-largest city, the situation is so dire that the Aguilas (Eagles) team canceled its opener and five other home games this month after an inspector hired by Major League Baseball ruled their diamond didn’t meet minimal safety standards. The club said several of its light towers had the copper wiring stolen and the state government, which owns the facility, hasn’t come up with the relatively modest sum of $39,000 needed to repair the lighting. Still, the Eagles will be playing on the road.Venezuela’s once highly competitive winter league has been in decline for years.While many of the 70-plus Venezuelan players on big league rosters return home for a few games each season, most arriving this year, such as Los Angeles Angels pitcher Eduardo Paredes or Detroit infielder Harold Castro, are little known and don’t reflect the nation’s powerhouse talent. Meanwhile, major league organizations have shut down all their academies in the country.Venezuela is scheduled to host the Caribbean Series in February at Barquisimeto, one of the city’s hardest hit by power outages that have roiled much of the country. Last year’s tournament, which brings together the champions of five Caribbean winter leagues, was moved from Barquisimeto to Guadalajara, Mexico, following deadly protests against Venezuela’s socialist government.Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, a former Venezuela league president and prominent opposition leader, said he remembers going to the stadium with his father during the 1960s oil boom and watching future Hall of Famer Earl Weaver manage the Cardinals in Barquisimeto. Pete Rose, after winning rookie of the year honors, and Barry Bonds are among other major leaguers who played in Venezuela during its golden era.“Back then there wasn’t such a big difference between salaries in the major leagues and what Venezuelan teams could pay,” he said.In something of a departure from his normally fierce criticism of President Nicolas Maduro Youth Leonard Fournette Jersey , Aveledo applauds the government’s decision to spend part of its dwindling supply of dollars on baseball — even if he acknowledges that there are more pressing needs.From field crews to ticket scalpers to hot dog vendors, thousands of families depend on baseball to make a living, and Aveledo says the stadiums have long served as a sporting sanctuary where fans of all classes and political backgrounds can set aside their differences and mounting hardships.“It is one of the few things that unites us,” he said. “For the three months the season lasts, there’s a different vibe in the country.”Indeed, last year stadium attendance rose 5 percent amid the political and economic crisis, although it remains down by a third from a peak in the 2013-2014 season.It’s not just the fans who have to endure sacrifices.Former All-Star shortstop Ozzie Guillen said he was tempted to skip returning home to manage the La Guaira Tiburones (Sharks) for the third straight season.In addition to cross-country bus rides on dangerous roads, players coming from the U.S. run the risk of getting food poisoning at neglected restaurants. And they have to deal with frequent power blackouts, like the one that postponed Monday’s game between the Bravos (Braves) and Magallanes in Valencia.“But I’m not here to cry,” said Guillen, who for the first time since growing up in poverty near Caracas said he has been without running water at his home in a well-to-do district of the capital.Guillen, the first Latino to manage a World Series winner with the 2005 Chicago White Sox, said Venezuelans’ passion for the game shows no sign of fading despite the country’s problems. While ticket and beer prices are rising fast, he insists the ballpark is still the “cheapest bar in all of Venezuela.”“I know things are difficult for the fans,” said Guillen, whose reputation for speaking freely about politics has sometimes gotten him in trouble. “But the game still brings more happiness and joy than sadness.”