It’s Too Early to Panic, But…

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1. If you can’t hit Anderson it is time to reevaluate everything!

   1. Just what I was thinking. I know Mark seems to have a bit of a chubby for Anderson but I just don’t get it. Even Orel described him yesterday as being uncoordinated. He’s the type of pitcher the Dodgers, and every other team in the league, should be licking their chops to hit against.

   2. Anderson wasn’t exactly fooling anyone. A lot of guys on base as well as hard hits outs. Seager had two caught at the wall. It’s April. Everyone needs to chill out.

2. Ugh, I so glad I couldn’t watch this game. As I’ve said before, I don’t want Braun as I simply don’t like him and would rather try to get Khris Davis or even make a play for Stanton(won’t happen). That being said I didn’t necessarily like Kobe but the Lakers won titles with him. If trading for Braun is what we need to win a title then go for it. Also, the Lakers will win another title as soon as Paul George is in the purple and gold. Isn’t that right Mark? 🙂

   1. You might be right Jimbo. I have mixed feelings about Paul George. I think he needs to be Scottie, not Michael! He’s trying to be the big dog and he just isn’t some days.
      –
      The Pacers did make the playoffs and they have Myles Turner who will be a stud next year, but the Pacers, like the Lakers need a lot of help.

3. If Joc is put in the cleanup spot he needs to be allowed the time there to relax into that spot. It would take a week in that spot before he mentally is ready for it.

   1. I wonder if Joc were in the cleanup spot Roberts would still pinch hit for his cleanup hitter? Stupid is as stupid does and Roberts keeps yanking Joc out of the lineup one way or another and has yet to be rewarded for it.

4. Good job of stirring the pot! The Braun debate has several parts as he would be an upgrade but has a bad contract. He is still productive now but may drop off in the latter years of his deal. Saying SVS, Kike, or Gutierrez are getting it done is a stretch. Thompson maybe but the jury is out on that one. Yes it’s early but Braun in left solves a lot of issues. The Brewers want prospects or cost controlled ML level players back, and the Dodgers want to offset salary. Faz will try to make the best deal possible or will pass altogether. I would not overpay but if the deal makes sense and the Brewers want to dump Braun why not?
   –
   I agree the early leaders in MLB will not hold up, and the Snakes get a real test in the next 4 games. Minny swept a bad Royals team and the O’s have no starting pitching. It’s a long season, and good teams will find their form and flawed teams will fall back to the pack.
   –
   The Dodger hitters are pressing and not doing the little things to score more. Hitting with RISP and with bases loaded are a problem. All of the platooning keeps some from finding a rhythm but LF has no front line options from the right side. I think Roberts will keep trotting out the same lineups for a couple more weeks with some minor tweaks here and there. If that is not working some moves will be made.
   –
   The bullpen is nails but the rotation is still being stretched out. Ryu had a tough task with road games at Coors and Wrigley, let’s see how he does at home. The offense only needs about 4 runs per game to win most of the time, that is doable with the guys they have now. The arms appear to all be healthy, even Hill just has delicate fingers.

5. Solid analysis Mark. You’re right it is to early to panic. Our pitching should be outstanding and that is what wins championships.
   .
   Hitting wise, I don’t know if Braun is the answer. I do know the price must be right for it to happen. Everyone in MLB knows the Dodgers are rich in money and prospects and they all want to charge “a rich man premium” in trade talks. In my opinion, that is why FAZ never pulled the trigger on those other trades.
   .
   The reason Braun’s name keeps coming up is because everyone knows he is for sale at the RIGHT price. I agree a good reason to get Braun would be to keep SF from getting him. Your trade proposal should be more than enough for Braun. What does SF have to beat that offer?? I have NO problem with Kazmir (think he HAS to be included), Stewart, Calhoun and something else being included in a potential Braun deal, but Verdugo is looking VERY special. I believe 20 yr old Verdugo is one of the youngest players in AAA and he is ripping it up. I am beginning to think the Dodgers will soon HAVE to find a place for him.
   .
   Yeah, Braun at the right price or stay the course FAZ, make internal moves around the edges. SVS, Kiki, Gutierrez even Utley can be jettisoned if they aren’t mashing. Do we have a 2017 version of 2016 Andrew Toles in the organization?

6. The reason Braun’s name keeps coming up is that the Brewers keep bringing it up. He’s going to be a declining, overpaid 5&10 player for a team that’s rebuilding. Why not try to create a market for him.
   –
   Let’s deconstruct together. If you are very bullish on this potential acquisition, then you probably have convinced yourself there was the “near miss” deal last August.
   –
   Fine. BUT there are no indications that the talks got real serious over this past winter and nothing really in Morosi’s report intimates that there is a deal that’s anywhere close to being completed now. Nothing. It’s all spin (as I said, probably from Milwakee.)
   –
   Despite the Dodgers LHP woes, why should the Dodgers want to give up anything of consequence? Braun controls where he goes. That said, if the Brewers weren’t backing off their asking price last season, why would they now?
   –
   Old declining players have remarkably little value in the league. I think Braun, like Ethier, Kazmire and Gonzalez, stays a Brewer, and they stay Dodgers, through 2017 at least. It’s a good thing the Dodgers are a larger market team.

7. As I stated yesterday, I am not convinced that Ryan Braun is the answer to the Dodger hitting woes. I would definitely be in the no column if it cost Alex Verdugo. I know he is still a prospect, but he is only 20 and playing at a very high level at AAA. As Mark so often states, we need to find the Alex Verdugo’s before they become the Alex Verdugo’s.
   .
   I cannot see FAZ standing still and letting the Giants get Braun. They have nothing to offer, unless they weaken their current 25 man, by including Panik, or Crawford, or Belt, and I cannot see that happening. They cannot include any pitching. Ty Blach will take over for Matt Cain soon enough, and there is no way they move Tyler Beede, their only true pitching prospect in their top prospects. Milwaukee does not need Christian Arroyo their one other minor leaguer that may be of some value to somebody. LF is a mess for the Giants, so Braun would absolutely help, but FAZ can outbid anything Evans and Sabean offer. Whether they will, might be another story. If something does happen I would expect it to happen in May because that is when Braun’s 10-5 rights vest. Braun says that he would not hold up a trade at the deadline because of how he feels about the Brewer’s executive team…yeah where have we heard that before, and how many trust what Braun says?
   .
   There is no need to get desperate and overpay for something that may not work (as what happens with most desperate trades). Puig cannot continue to go 0’fer for the year against LHP… can he? SVS, Grandal, Kike’, and Barnes are a combined 5 for 37 against LHp for a sterling .135 BA. They cannot continue to be that anemic…can they? I am not sure that Thompson is the answer, but just keep throwing him out there and hopefully he rediscovers his swing and timing. If not, next RH bat up (Segedin or Dickson).
   .
   Ethier will not get the Crawford treatment. He has been a very good Dodger for 11 years, and does not deserve to be DFA’d. It is entirely more likely that he will go on the 60 day DL opening up a 40 man spot. It will be interesting to see when Kazmir gets back, and how he does, because he is obviously another 60 day DL candidate.
   .
   Stay the course and try to enjoy the ride. Things could be worse. You could be Giants fans.

8. It is way to early to do anything like that, and even Mark, made that point in his spiel.

   Joc is not ready to hit clean up, he has hit fifth maybe once or twice,
   but his results were not good.

   And of course that is a very small sample size.

   Joc has mostly hit sixth and eighth, and he isn’t hitting that well right now at the back of the line up, let alone, hitting fourth.

   He is almost hitting defensively, to try to keep his average up.

   He has only one extra base hit, and that was his HR, on opening day.

   And to be fair about Joc, just like Mark made in his own argument, it is way to early to panic, and make any assumptions about Joc, or the team.

   But Mark and all of us, haven’t said much about what, Logan is doing.

   And he was suppose to be the bat, that got us over the mark, against leftie pitchers.

   Logan is striking out way to much, and he is not hitting well, in key situations.

   He has the most strike outs, on the entire team!

9. Have there been any comments about the GM saying that starting pitching is “overvalued”? He should know. He’s been overvaluing it for years. He may be the biggest reason that it has become that way. I guess he wants a Kershaw and 4 .450 pitchers behind him with a lights out bullpen. Not my idea of a winning pitching staff.

   1. Not here, Bobbie.

      But the context was that Friedman was amongst the choir of nearly every other MLB team in that starting pitching, outside of aces, is diminishing in value.

      It’s a Jim Bowden article on ESPN. I despise Bowden, but some of the stats and observations are inarguable.

   2. Let’s not read FAZ’s comment to say “aces” are over valued. That’s not what he said.

      If you are only going to get 5 innings out of a starter, you shouldn’t have to pay as much as the current market is paying.

      If we look what the Dodgers at doing we see cheaper back of the rotation starters. FAZ has left the door open to paying for “aces” but would expect them to perform as “aces” for most of the $200M contract.

   3. Bobbie 17

      Yes Friedman said that, but I think you mean he is over paying, for mediocre pitchers, not ace pitchers.

   4. Well, last year Friedman lost his ace and the “overvalued” stable of 14 other pitchers got the Dodgers to withing a game of the World Series and had their Ace actually pitched like an Ace, they would have made it it. I think may undervalue what Friedman has done by overvaluing expensive starters.

      1. Mark

         I was just trying say, what Bobbie meant.

         But you raised the question, should we resign Kershaw, if he doesn’t pitch well enough in the post season this year, if we go to the post season?

10. For the Mitch White fans: Dodgers Digest has a great story about him and the last game he pitched. 3 minutes of video from behind the plate. Pretty impressive. Pitches over the top with a downward angle. Slider to the back foot on left handed hitters. Curveball explodes. Lots of K’s and ground balls. Watch it.

    1. I watched the video. He looked like he had a good mix of pitches. I can’t judge the quality of the pitches but they seemed to be an effective mix of cutters/sliders/curves/fastballs and I think I saw some 2-seamers with arm side run. His curveballs seemed to show a good amount of late break. It was also encouraging to see his delivery (both from the windup and from the stretch) – with the edited sequence helping the observer, his delivery looked very consistent and repeatable. From the stretch, he seems like he can deliver the same mix of pitches while making it tough for baserunners to get much time to steal. I’m not sure how well I can judge his command other than the catcher seemed to move his glove a lot as a receiver – but that could mean a number of things. I’m not sure I can judge the effectiveness of his velo – but I get the impression the hitters were struggling more with the movement of his pitches than the speed.

11. If you have the same hitters and same coaches, why expect a different result?
    –
    After 10 games, Dodgers are 1-4 against lefty starters and 4-1 against righties.
    –
    After 10 games Dodgers splits are as follows:
    Lefties – .211/.293/.320/.612
    Righties – .260/.374/.463/.838
    Yeah, it’s early but this is just like last year (or worse)
    –
    After 10 games Dodgers are hitting .200/.356/.338/.694 with RISP (they are 23rd in BA with RISP. Last year they finished 23rd with RISP.)
    –
    In “late and close situations” (7th inning or later and within 1 run) Dodgers are hitting .132/.267/.132/.398.
    –
    The Dodgers have played one series against what is arguably the best team (Cubs), one against maybe the worst (Pads) and one that is average (Rox), so this is a pretty even sample.
    –
    Why would the Dodgers give up anything of consequence to improve against lefties? Because if they don’t, teams will continue to rearrange their rotations to insure that the Dodgers face lefties more often than league average and they will continue to stink against them.
    –
    The Dodgers signed free agents to over $190MM in contracts during the off-season with the assumption that they would be in line to compete for a shot at the Series. Why would they do that if they didn’t intend to improve in areas where improvement is needed in order to compete for a shot at the Series?
    –
    As to the starting pitching, again it’s early but the early returns show the Dodgers with a solid pen but iffy starting pitching. Hill and Kazmir already on DL; Ryu with already declining velocity, below average rotation and 2 starts of less than 5 innings, and 2 very good early starts from McCarthy. Ryu will have to come out of the rotation soon. Kazmir and Ethier may move to the 60 day DL soon as AC noted.

    1. Stay positive buddy!

    2. Barring additional injury, expect we may soon see Urias taking one of the slots in the rotation — Ryu’s most likely — unless Hill remains on DL

12. Logan has only two more hits, then Joc and Toles, but he also has had, ten more, at bats.

    Logan has also struck out 13 times, and that is the highest on the team.

    He is hitting in the high 300s against lefties, but almost half of his 13 strikes outs, are against lefties.

    And I believe he has had, only one extra base hit, which was a double.

    And he has only hit in one run.

    Is this a concern?

    1. But his overall batting average, is much lower.

    2. Not yet!

    3. Just ten games into a long season…too early to be concerned.

13. At this point, I’m not advocating going after Braun or not going after Braun, but I do believe a chunk of his money is deferred and I believe the Brewers were willing to eat the deferred portion. Urias is coming after someone’s spot and soon. Ryu or McCarthy will need to be moved.

14. I would not have even picked this as a topic today except for two reasons:
    –
    1. Most of the Giants outfielders suck; and
    2. Braun would immensely help them.
    –
    If I knew he would not go there, I would say forget it, but…

    1. Mark – the Giants farm system is considered thin compared to other clubs. Last year, they traded Matt Duffy away to get Matt Moore. They tried to cover 3b with Nunez (after trading Duffy) but it’s arguable that they wound up addressing an area of need by creating another area of need. The Giants certainly need better outfielders and Braun would help them. I’m curious how you see them putting together an offer that could appeal to Milwaukee. If the Brewers were interested in something the Giants have to offer, it would seem that the Dodgers could top that offer…or at least drive the price high enough that the Giants included someone cost controlled who was already contributing a lot on their current 25-man roster. This would be yet another example of addressing an area of need but creating another area of need.

    2. Why not make it a topic.? Whether it is factual or not, it was thrown out there the other day and people are certainly talking about it. I’m sure FAZ would do anything they could to dump Kazmir on someone. If the Dodgers were to go down that route, I would happily move Thompson and Calhoun. Unfortunately, Kazmir has zero value to anyone. McCarthy and Wood have value. Ryu trying to get there.

       1. Hawkeye

          Did you hear Mad Dog try to Psych Greinke up, for the game tonight on High Heat?

          He will do that, because it will help his Giants.

          He never uses that reverse psychology, with any of the Dodger’s players, or the team, because he is afraid it will come back to haute him.

          This should be a good game tonight, because Kershaw hates to lose, and he lost last time he pitched.

          And we know that Greinke has something to prove tonight, too.

          Although he isn’t an emotional guy at all, so who knows.

          1. I caught part of it on the radio. When I had it on he was laying the foundation of what he thought was an acceptable outing which was match Kershaw. He’s tough on Greinke.

15. A batter must have 3.1 plate appearances per team game played to qualify for league leadership in AVG, OBP or SLG; a pitcher must have 1.0 innings pitched per team game (0.6 IP during spring training) to qualify for league leadership in ERA.
    .
    The Dodgers have 6 hitters that are qualifiers. Missing are their CF and LF positions.

16. Agree wholeheartedly with your post today Mark.

17. UPDATE ABOVE
    –
    Press Release
    –
    Baez back
    –
    Fields gone…

18. Interview with Andrew Friedman with Mason & Ireland:
    –
    http://www.espn.com/espnradio/losangeles/play?id=19159957
    –
    VERY INTERESTING!
    –
    This is must listening for any Dodger fan….

19. Another Update
    –
    STARTING LINEUP AND GAME NOTES!

20. Why don’t we offer the Halos the following deal?

    Peterson, Calhoun, Dickson, Sborz, Oaks, Kazmir, Ethier and Gonzalez
    for
    Trout and the worst contract in major league baseball
    I know it sounds crazy at first but wouldn’t it benefit both franchises.

    1. If you were the Angels GM, would you do this?
       –
       The Angels would have to take on $51MM in salary and what would they get for this?

    2. I get the short term obligation, but they won’t bite for that.
       –
       Here’s what it would take:
       Trout and Pujols to the Dodgers for:
       –
       Pederson, Verdugo, Calhoun, Alvarez, Oaks, Gonzalez and Buehler… and they might demand Bellinger.

       1. Toles, Puig, Stewart, Oaks, Gonzales, Grandal, Ethier, Calhoun, Wood, Kazmir

       2. Trout is quite possibly the greatest player ever.

          It would take more than Mark’s offer of prospects.

          It would take a bevy of players already at the ML level.

21. I’m ok with tonight’s line up. Wish they would run with this for the next couple weeks–rh or lh. If someone isn’t performing at that time then it’s time to sit

    Thompson back up OF for 3 days of the week — rest each starter once.

    Svs 1b twice/wk for Agon and pinch hits

    Barnes catcher back up with 1-2 starts per week based as needed

    Hernandez bu infield and ph — I don’t like to see him in CF.

    Utley bu infield, ph and team dad

    There are infielders and outfielders in OKC if current players aren’t cutting it.

    Outside of our starting infield most of current players could go to OKC to get their stroke back if needed

22. I can understand all the hand wringing over our slumbering bats, but over half of you guys always say ” Hey, it’s still early”, or “Too small of a sample size so far”. We were singing a different tune when they were taking the Pads to the woodshed on the opening series. Let’s just wait and see if a little home cooking against the D-Bags can get us going again. Also, we may be struggling, but nobody is running away with the division yet, or looks like they can. Everybody in our division has issues right now. I still believe in our young guys and the core of vets. Hate to see some of the nucleus get broken up just because we had a bad 3 weeks or so.

23. Forsythe hit a good pitch. Time to move Grandal to 8th in the order.

24. I see Wilson is hitting .125 at AAA.

25. $207 million doesn’t buy what it used to. Ask Dave Stewart!

26. Dennis Santana is an interesting prospect. Converted SS who was a Midwest League All-Star last year. He had a nice outing for Rancho.

27. It’s early if this season is your perspective, but the Dodgers not hitting LH pitching, nor hitting with RISP has been a problem for a number of seasons. It has gone on way toooooo lonnnnnng, it’s begs to be fixed.
    In addition Adrian G has been in decline, but still has value, value that is as long as he is not the #4 hitter.

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