Given Walker Buehler’s injury history, it is understandable why the Dodgers did not extend him a qualifying offer, particularly in the $21-million range. However, the gamer should be celebrated for his Dodger career, notably Buehler’s regular-season winning percentage of .681, and his postseason performances — often on short rest — highlighted by being on the mound to save Game 5 of the 2024 World Series.

Ken Feldman
Tarzana

Dave Roberts states, “the biggest thing we’ve done so far is signing Blake Snell.” Before leaping onto the Snell bandwagon, Dodger fans need to be reminded that Snell is the guy who refused to pitch his last start for the Giants, and whose contractual pursuits resulted in a loss of spring training readiness that produced an injury riddled first half of the season. Roberts may be singing a different tune if the Dodgers find themselves out of contention and Snell once again refuses to pitch.

Bill Waxman
Simi Valley

The Dodgers gave Walker Buehler his day off by not offering him a new contract, and he walked with it all the way to Boston and a new one-year deal. In doing so, the Red Sox may have now added the number one Yankees killer to their roster. Smart move vs their hated rivals, but whatever Boston does, they’ll never get over giving Mookie away to the Dodgers!

Marty Zweben
Palos Verdes Estates

This is not to take away from Max Muncy because he has been a great Dodger player. But we have the opportunity to get a HOF third baseman who is a year younger than Max and a trade would shore up our infield tremendously. I’m sure he would also be an asset to Mookie at shortstop. Think about it.

Steve Trocino
Simi Valley

Don’t quit on Lakers

To be fair to the Lakers, their rebounding, defense and physicality have been seriously damaged by the injuries to Christian Wood and Jarred Vanderbilt, and exacerbated by injury to Jaxson Hayes. If that were not enough, the team used its 15th roster position on a short developmental guard instead of on another backup center or big forward. I’m not implying that they are of championship caliber, but at full strength they could have been challenging for playoff seeding. Let’s not panic, at least not until the trading deadline, by which time two or three of the injured players could return and we can see how the full team competes.

Richard Raffalow
Valley Glen

Excuses, excuse, excuses, the current Lakers roster is like taking a Model T to a NASCAR race. The team has a bunch of talented new players. I say, out with the old in with the new, let’s give the new talent a chance.

Patrick Kelley
Los Angeles

Maybe Chip wasn’t the problem

Ohio State leads the nation in scoring with Chip Kelly as offensive coordinator; OSU head coach, Ryan Day, states, “Kelly has a great understanding of offensive football.”  Kelly built Oregon into a dominant, explosive offensive team, but we ran him out of UCLA for various reasons.  Now we have a novice UCLA coach who just fired his offensive coordinator, but everybody loves him. All’s well that ends well!

David Waldowski
Laguna Woods

Change the format?

If the CFP will continue to include 12 schools, some rule and format changes may be needed after this inaugural season. Boise State and Arizona State received first-round byes, being two of the four highest-ranked conference champions. Penn State, the worst seed, will now play Boise State, but is a 10½-point favorite over the Mountain West Conference champion. Arizona State, the Big 12 champion is a 13½-point underdog to Texas. The Rose Bowl will feature a rematch of Oregon and Ohio State, who played in possibly the best game this college season with Oregon winning 32-31. Unfortunately, this will be a quarterfinal game as well.

Wayne Muramatsu
Cerritos

A team worth watching

UConn has been the gold standard in women’s basketball for more than two decades. USC’s thrilling win on the road is a signature win for the program and a passing of the torch from Paige Bueckers to JuJu Watkins. The best part is, unlike men’s basketball one-and-done culture, JuJu Watkins fans will be able to witness her greatness for the next three years. Fight On!

Mark S. Roth
Playa Vista

Christmas duds

As compared to the three great NFL games on Thanksgiving, the NFL gave us fans TWO lumps of coal instead on Christmas. The two games were so non-competitive that I think that neither team had a need to call a timeout in the second half in BOTH games!  Thanks for nothing.

Wayne Kamiya
El Segundo

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