Posted By Mark Timmons on September 13, 2017 September 13, 2017Mark Timmons
After losing 50 games in a row, Clayton Kershaw was called in to stop the bleeding and he did! He also got a walk, a hit and scored a run and made a great base-running play, with an aggressive slide, which you really don’t want him doing. The trainers immediately came out, but he seemed OK. I guess his warrior mentality won’t let him do anything less. Roberts took him out after 91 pitches – he still is saving him for the playoffs.
Cody Bellinger is back to taking what they give him. He had a nice bunt in his first AB. If other players did that, the other team would have to reconsider the shift. Cody also was walked 3 times, but the new #5 hitter drove in 2 runs. Hawkeye was right. Let Puig hit #5 and leave him there, the #1 through #5 spots in the lineup are very potent.
Grandal is currently struggling as is Granderson. I think Dave Roberts wants to get both untracked for the playoffs and the fact is: both could play a huge role in the playoffs, but at what cost? I think both players would be better served by sitting for 3 or 4 games, Let Barnes and Ethier play.
It appears that they are not going to give Alex Verdugo a shot this year. I guess that is fine – we will see him next year.
Austin Barnes has the highest batting average against RHP in all of baseball according to the Dodgers announcers. Come playoff time, he has to be in there every day. The verdict is in: Austin Barnes should be the everyday catcher! I like Grandal, but he has been outplayed. He is not playing horrible, but Barnes is playing great.
On the other hand, Granderson IS horrid. On paper, he looks like a fit. But, he has failed to deliver. That doesn’t mean he will continue, but what do you do? Look at Josh Reddick last year. He was horrid in August, hitting .161, but came back in September and hit .400. Of course, most of you only remember that .161, not the .400. He also hit .308 in the post-season. Dave wants Grandy for the playoffs. I get that…
It’s looking like A-Gon will not be on the playoff roster. He is still having major back issues.
Is Dave deliberately “babying” Andre Ethier just to make sure he is healthy or is Andre not capable of playing a lot right now? At times his bat looks slow. Maybe it’s just me….
Alex Wood needs to be dropped from the rotation. His fall off in velocity is very troubling. Maybe by pitching one or two innings at a time he can recover it. Otherwise, he looks like a surgery waiting to happen. The rotation is strong enough to allow that.
Has anyone seen Brock Stewart or Brandon McCarthy?
The play that Cody Bellinger made at 1B to leap about 38″ in the air and catch a high throw from Justin Turner and in the same motion (on the way down) was the best play by a 1B I can remember! That was astounding! Cody is simply the best 1B in baseball! If you didn’t see that play, you need to watch it on Dodgers.com.
OK, the monkey (more like a gorilla) is off their pack. Play ball!
This article has 71 Comments
Watford my man… Keep your head down and the pints close…
On a road trip up north… With Harvey, Irma and seeing what the fires are doing to my Pacific N.W., an 11 game or whatever losing streak not high on my list of concerns…
April I said 94W and a shoo in for NLW… After that it’s the crap shoot of all crap shoots!!!
That being said, I’m confident we play in the Fall Classic…
Brandon McCarthy may be found back on the roster September 19. He is currently on the 60 day DL because of blister issues. Now, whether he pitches or not…??
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Austin Barnes does deserve to play every day. His ability to hit RHP should serve him well thru the remainder of the season and into the playoffs. Of the potential playoff teams, only the Cubs have 2 LHSP as projected starters (Lester and Quintana). The Nats have 1 (Gonzalez, who will pitch Sunday), and the DBacks have 1 (Ray…Corbin is not a playoff starter). None of the four scheduled Rockies starters are left handed (Freeland is currently their #5). The Brewers and Cardinals have no left handed starters. Of course he is not bad against LHP, just not as good as against RHP.
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I was opposed to Puig batting #5, but agreed that he was the best choice of multiple bad choices. However, he is proving to be a good #5 right now. Now if he can begin to hit LHP (at least as good as Barnes). Hopefully that starts tonight against Matt Moore.
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With respect to Grandy, I do expect that he will continue to be included in the lineup to get untracked. Right or wrong, Doc likes Grandy. If he does turn it around, he has some very interesting batting lines against some of the Cubs/Nationals playoff pitchers he may expect to see. For those pitchers that he has at least 15 AB:
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Jake Arrieta .313/.351/.719/1.070
Jon Lester .294/.345/.549/.894
Max Scherzer .265/.390/.529/.920
Tanner Roark .333/.400/.593/.993
Edwin Jackson .313/.389/.750/1.139 (Friday’s pitcher)
And then…
Gio Gonzalez .122/.182/.220/.401
Stephen Strasburg .136/.345/.136/.481
Zach Greinke .190/.239/.397/.636 (Yes, I know he is a DBack, but he has more AB’s against Zach than the others.)
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Ethier should start Friday against Edwin Jackson. His batting line against Jackson is .294/.333/.647/.980 with 2 HRs. He should not face Gonzalez or Strasburg. He is 0-4 and 4 K’s against Gonzalez, and 1-10 with 5 K’s against Strasburg. It would have been interesting to see him against Scherzer, and should put him on the playoff roster if they play the Nats. Against Scherzer he is .333/.385/.542/.926 (24 AB’s). 2 HRs and only 3Ks. He might get some quality AB’s against the Phillies, as they are projected to throw 4 RHSP.
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Alex Wood deserves at least one more start. If he continues to wear down and his velocity continues to drop, then I agree that he should be removed from the rotation, not just for the team, but also for him. But he is 14-3, and was very instrumental in getting the Dodgers to where they are now. If Grandy/Pederson/Grandal/AGon/Forsythe get the benefit of the doubt, why shouldn’t Alex Wood? His injury still seems to stem from his SC joint. Surgery is a remote possibility. Rest is generally the antidote, that calms down the inflammation. It’s not dislocated, but it could be degenerative which could be a problem for him in the future. A degenerative condition leads to pain, stiffness, and reduced motion in the shoulder and arm. If it continues, he would probably need to be in the bullpen so he can go hard for 1-2 innings. He could become the logical bridge to Jansen. But for now, he deserves to start. Of course this is like chumming for sharks. His detractors are now going to come out and say “I told you he is too brittle, too injury prone, to be in the rotation.”
The problem with Granderson is that he is not only not producing on offense, he is also a liability on defense.
He is to slow to react to balls that are hit his way, and because of this, he has let singles turn into doubles, so Roberts needs to replace him on defense, like he did last night, buy a little sooner!
Let’s see what Granderson does against the Nats this weekend, and see if Granderson is just done, or he is just having trouble, because he is not as familiar with the pitchers, in the western division, but we will be playing one of the teams in our division in the post season too, so that is a problem with Granderson too!
As everyone knows, it isn’t surprising that Granderson has pretty good stats against the Nat’s pitching, because he has played in that same division with the Nats, for quite a while.
For that same reason, Chase should get more at bats, against the Nats too.
Scherzer hasn’t been with the Nats as long as some of their other pitchers, so Chase hasn’t probably seen Scherzer that much, but he probably has seen a lot, of the other Nat’s pitchers.
I think the fact that Grandal hears the foot steps of Barnes, has made Grandal almost fall apart, on both defense, and offense.
Although Grandal has been a little better on defense lately, and he did hit the ball better last night.
But when we have the type of hitters that Grandal is, and Granderson is, in our line up, they make it much harder for the team to score.
Both of these guys left to many runners on base last night, as well as the whole team, but both Grandal and Granderson strike out way to much, so they are not good at putting the ball in play, and because of that, they make it tougher for the team to score, when they are both in the line up!
When your team is on an all time losing streak, and your players are losing their confidence, you can’t continue to put both of these guys in the line up, especially together!
And who says the best thing to get Grandal and Granderson started, is by playing them everyday, and letting them to continue to fail?
Like both Jerry and Nomar said, it is better to give Grandal, and Granderson,, a few days off to reset, and it is best for the team to play your players, that are producing, so both of these players should be sit down, for a while.
And both Barnes and Ethier, should be given the same chance that both Grandal and Granderson, have been given.
After all, both of these players, have earned this chance to play!
Jerry has been talking about how good Ethier has looked in his at bats, and in batting practice, and why not give Ethier this chance, there has not been any real production in left, since Taylor filled in for Corey, and moved to play center!
And in back to back games, Ethier hit a ball out, and he had two hits, in the second game!
There is no reason for keeping Ethier out of the line up, unless he can’t play defense, in the outfield.
And shouldn’t Roberts have the same type of belief and loyality, in his other players, just like he has done, with Granderson?
And just because we won last night, that doesn’t mean that the team is ok now!
We beat one of the worse teams, in baseball last night, and we didn’t exactly win that game, to convincingly, either!
Mark
About Reddick, he was mainly a singles hitter, once he started hitting, and he hit in very very few runs, and when he did hit in a run, it was usually in a game that was out of hand, and we were wining, by a lot of runs.
And he made more errors in the outfield in the short time he was with the team, then any of our other outfielders made, all season long, not to mention, he got picked off base, about three times!
He was simply terrible!
Reddick is hitting in a bandbox surrounded by a bunch of big hitters. He couldn’t handle the pressure last year. He hit into some tough luck initially then let it snowball. My problem with him is that he also missed the cutoff man and made more base running blunders in his short time in LA than they guy he replaced last year.
Granderson and Grandal must sit for a while. I never thought Granderson made a lot of sense. Hitting at the bottom of the order and occasionally popping one out with his .225 batting avg. Okay fine I guess, but to me he’s a bench player. These low avg. good OPS guys don’t come up with clutch hits or move runners over when they need to do so. Granderson strikes outs, hits hard foul balls, or grounds out into the shift. Maybe Codylove should give him a bunting lesson. Now when you put him and Grandal back to back it exacerbates the issue. I’m not a Grandal hater. I think he does a good job with the pitchers(AJ was way overrated by Dodger fans), and he throws a lot better than Barnes. However, he looks just like he did at the end of 2015 when he was injured and Mattingly kept trotting him out there. Give him a timeout. He needs a few days off. Barnes needs to be in the lineup everyday right now. As for Wood, I tend to disagree. Especially with Darvish still trying to get it together. I’m not replacing him with Ryu or Maeda and especially not Brandon McCarthy. Although, it is interesting to put him in the pen because I don’t think the Dodgers have truly done anything to bridge the gap to Kenley this year other than Morrow.
Why must I keep choosing cars and road signs to post here the last few days?
I, too, long for the good, old days of showing off my addition skills.
Hawkeye
I am with you, this new way takes far to much time, because it is way to much busy work, just to post your comment!
And you have to do this busy work, two or three times, before you are allowed to post!
At least the math was only one simple math problem,, that doesn’t take you, away from your comment!
How about the throw Puig made from right field to 3rd base? If you haven’t seen it you need to watch a clip of it. Not many (any) others can make a throw like that.
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I want to join the “sit Grandal and Granderson” bandwagon. You can’t compete with major league teams when you are playing with 2 or 3 automatic outs in your lineup.
Oh lordy, those two soft ‘hits’ in the ninth had me ripping my hair out! How is it that this game can be so damn frustrating to a team like this? I swear it feels like a valid curse (and I don’t believe in those… at all)? This team is definitely a conundrum wrapped in a riddle!
KLD
Like I said, last night, I hated the Dodgers, and the baseball Gods, during the bottom, of the ninth.
It had to be the Giants, the bases had to be loaded, and it had to be Posey!
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing after the error on Kenley and the weak hit by Pence. Once Buster went down I knew Hundley wouldn’t touch him though.
Great win last night!! I don’t care how it happened it did happen. I agree with marks post for the most part. Barnes needs to play. He always seems to give a quality at bat. While grandal sees pitches you know when it is a 3-2 count he is going to strikeout if he doesn’t hit into a double play first. Grandal is a notorious streak hitter with very good power but right now he is in one of his horrendous slumps. Barnes is not a strikeout or double play candidate. He needs to play down the stretch to gain even more confidence whereas if anybody needs a rest it is grandal. You can rest grandal while playing an equal or better catcher. Forget woods he is just like Baez we have seen this before. Put him in the bullpen where he might help. Then maybe he can be our 4fh starter when needed. If Ryu is strong next time out I would pitch him in the playoffs. Maeda bullpen, fading just like last year. So kershaw, darvish, Ryu, and wood. He is babying Ethier maybe to keep healthy but against righties he could be an asset. I still haven’t given up on granderson because like grandal he can get as hot as he is cold. Plus, we just don’t have a solid better answer. Ethier is very risky considering his health. Where is toles when you need him? Maybe Ethier can turn the post season into a fairy tale story. We need a Bucky dent, a Murphy, gene tenace, somebody who just plays way over their head in the playoffs.
Real10 – I agree it’s all your assessment.
Could have written that myself.
Pete – good to hear from you.
You forgot about Hill who has been the most consistent starter the last 2 months. Ryu has out pitched Maeda lately for sure. If Wood starts keeping the ball down and getting ground balls and K’s he’ll be fine. Darvish needs a quality start tonight for his confidence.
I live in the present, but think about the future:
(2018)
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1. Toles CF
2. Seager SS
3. Turner 3B
4. Bellinger 1B
5. Taylor 2B
6. Barnes C
7. Puig RF
8. Verdugo LF
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Ethier, Utley, Gonzalez, Forsythe, Granderson, Grandal = GONE!
I don’t think Grandal will be gone next year unless there is a trade. Barnes has a way to go throwing out runners. I see Barnes getting more and more PT next year though. 2019 will be Barnes year with Ruiz moving up. Forsythe still provides a good utility player. Despite his down year I’m not positive that he will be out. Let’s hope Toles makes a full recovery.
By the time this postseason is done, I think we’ll see Puig as the fixture behind Belly for the next few years (and maybe even our 3 hitter in 3-4 years after JT is done)
I was listening to Jerry Hairston and he is adamant that he would move Turner to the 5 hole to protect Cody. His says that he has a lot of friends around the league still and claims that they will attack the Dodgers in the playoffs by either giving him the Hanley treatment and drilling him in the playoffs because of how he is right on top of the plate or walking him like they did last night and testing Puig or whomever is in the 5hole. The Dodgers slugging pct is terrible largely due to Forsythe, Joc, and Grandal hitting 5th. So, lets just say for a moment that the Dodgers did this, who would you move up in the order and give more AB’s. Right now, Puig is giving quality AB’s there, but who would you consider. To me it’s Barnes if he gets in the lineup somehow or moving Puig up to 2nd. Puig has thrived hitting 2nd, but he will also potentially hit into more DP’s. I could see hitting Seager 3rd, but to me the solution is more about the guys 6th-8th stepping up and lengthening the lineup again.
Mark that is a great future lineup. A lot of power, speed, and youth in that lineup. In my last post I meant to substitute hill for wood. Wood to the bullpen. Verdugo could be the leadoff with his obp.
I like the players, don’t love the order 5-8, but it’s a start. Ethier scheduled to start on Friday vs Nats.
Doesn’t Roberts realize that Kike is hitting .059 against Moore in 17 AB’s?? Whereas Thompson is 2 for 3 with a home run and 4 RBI against him.
Rudy
That is about what Granderson is hitting, since he joined the team, so that shouldn’t surprise you!
But I looked up the match up on Kike’s stats against Moore, and it said Kike, is hitting 0!
Although I really did look up what Kike’s numbers was against Moore, and it really was zero, I am just playing with you!
He has his lefty killers and Puig at the end. No slowpokes and it does lengthen the lineup. Doc appears to be playing to win tonight and will not give Darvish a long leash. Expect some lineup changes once Moore leaves the game.
I know Forsythe hits lefties but seeing him 5th never looks right to me even if it is.
I believe Grandal will be traded in the off season because he has value. We just have lots of prospects close to ready to fill the catching void. Agon will announce his retirement. Either will not be resigned even tho he has some trade value.
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Puig has hit into 20 double plays but not one in (approx.) the last three weeks.
I have a hard time seeing Gonzalez officially retire and walk away from $21 million. They could release him and eat the money or trade to get 25 cents on the dollar in a trade. Smith and Ruiz are the top catching prospects after Barnes. Smith was injured and didn’t finish his season at AA. Ruiz completed A and High-A with a promotion for the AA Championship series. I don’t see either considered ready at the start of the season. Smith has a ways to go offensively, Ruiz has a ways to go throwing, but he’s a fast riser.
I think they may have him retire and sign a 10-year deal as an executive.
If that could be pulled off it would be genius.
They either sign Grandal for his final arb year (figure about $7.5M) and could trade him at the deadline if the other catchers are producing or buy out his final arb year and extend him for a couple more, say about $30M for 3 years. Barnes has 2 years team control and 3 years arb left, quite a bargain and he’s 27. It will be an interesting decision either way they decide.
Did everyone see that Calhoun played in his first major league game?
In his first swing, he hit a grounder to rightfield , to hit in a run, and he played in left, and it said he made some good plays in left, because the ball always finds the new guy.
The Dodgers play Texas next year. I’m sure we will get to see Tree Trunk Calhoun on the field. I hope he does well except against the Dodgers.
Hawkeye
That kid that came up and played left in that series against the Padres, now he has a odd shape for a guy
Dickson? He has a huge backside.
Hawkeye
Exactly, and I am not a darn giant like Mark is, so I don’t see people’s shapes, like he does, but that kid has a odd shape for a guy.
Good news to wake up to.
Our streak is at 2.
Back to a little normalcy!!! Good to see Calhoun producing and especially in the AL…
The thought of a healthy Toles leading off next year and a glut of young pitchers fighting for spots is exciting… Life is good at the Ravine…
No one mentions Kershaw and what will be done???
We win one tomorrow that’s called a winning streak.
I noticed watching the game last nite,that Darvish fast ball was sitting on 94mph.and his control was better than his last outing .he didn’t hit 97mph not once.
The biggest difference in Darvish was that he pitched ahead in the count more and the opponent hit the ball at fielders instead of every ground ball finding a hole. I think Darvish had better stuff against Colorado, but he was often pitching behind in the count and had a terrible case of bad luck in the 5th inning against the Rockies. I believe Clayton told him use your fastball more and get ahead. He was primarily fastball, cutter, and slider last night and hardly used the nasty slow curve he has in his bag of tricks.
I would keep pitching Beuhler. With a little more experience he could be a very useful piece in the play offs. He has good stuff. Morrow looks like he has nailed the 8th inning spot down.
I would too. He gave up a run because of catcher’s indifference and a jam shot against the shift. I’m sure we will see him at least once this weekend.
The team is obviously hoping Granderson gets back into a groove, he did so earlier in the year. Why not see if it can happen?
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Gotta hope Calhoun continues to perform.
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Wait. What happened to the silly math question? Why do we even need a captcha here? Is volume that high?
We have over 1,500 subscribers.
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Spam is crazy. If I don’t do something, I have to manually delete 20-40 a day.
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Some days I don’t have time to post…
1,500. That’s pretty impressive. Must be a lot of non-posters who come over to read your site. I was that way for a long time.
Actually, I lied. It’s 1,111!
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We add about 15-20 new ones a week. Most don’t post.
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The Colts are pathetic!
I didn’t buy the Sunday ticket for the first time since 1995 and sold my season tickets before the season started.
What exactly is a groove for Granderson? Hitting .225 instead of .090. He’s a groove a bad groove right now and coming to a new team he’s probably pressing on top of it. Let him sit, work with Turner Ward on how to keep a ball fair. In the meantime let’s look at Andre and Verdugo in LF. The Dodgers don’t need a lineup full of all or nothing guys like Granderson and Grandal weighing down the bottom of the order.
Hawkeye
Exactly those type of hitters, are not an asset to a productive offense!
Our team has enough trouble hitting in runs, when runners are in scoring position, and because of that, they don’t need those type of hitters in the line up.
Those type of hitters clog the offense, more often then not, and because of that, they stop any rallies, the team might have!
And a productive offense is much more important, in post season, against good pitching, because HRs will be hard to come by, against good pitching!
Granderson rolls over and grounds right into the shift way too much. He drew some displeasure from Kershaw for his defense in LF the other night too. Andre seems like he is being frozen out but he could be a useful playoff bat. Kike made a nice play doubling up the runner at 1st last night but I cringe at his AB’s off RHP when he chases sliders. LHP only please with him. Barnes should be playing more per Doc and that is good news, maybe some at 2B against RHP and some more rest for Grandal? Cody and Turner seem to be hitting better now, with Cory, Taylor and Puig doing ok but a bit inconsistent. Put Barnes at 6th and that’s a long lineup with some serious speed. Logan, Grandy. Kike, Utley and Agon when playing should hit 7 and 8. Hit Grandal 6th when Barnes is out of the lineup.
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Let Ryu pitch and skip Maeda’s turn next time through. I was greatly encouraged by Darvish last night, and Hill has been consistent. If Wood can return to form it would be huge. Right now only Kersh, Yu and Hill are locks for the post season rotation.
Granderson went through a ridiculous slump in April. He had a .395 on-base plus slugging percentage for the Mets. From May until joining the Dodgers in August, his OPS jumped to .953.
That’s way above his career norms. It would be a lot to expect it again.
Bluto
Granderson also had a terrible July too!
And he has hit just over 100 in August and September, and when most major league players are struggling to hit, they are hitting at the Mendoza line, not 100 points lower then the Mendoza line!
And I know you don’t put much stock into a batting average, but his other numbers, are not good either!
I have no clue what that has to do with anything.
I’m saying the team hopes he gets into a groove, not turn into a player he is not.
Well I passed the street sign challange but couldn’t with the road challenge. I’d much rather do the math.
No math, no street signs, no road challenge, I just have to affirm that I am not a robot. I guess us simple minds get a pass.
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Granderson seems to want to pull everything right now. The other night he tried to pull an outside pitch and sure enough, a grounder to second. He is one who could profit from going with the pitch or putting down a bunt on occasion (assuming he can bunt). It was good to see Cody lay down a perfect bunt the other night, is there anything he does not do well? Of course the announcers criticised him for not hitting away.
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Since we can’t get the Dodgers network, I watched them on ESPN last night. The announcers were terrible (even if one of them is an X Dodger. They wouldn’t shut up and were telling story after story about things other that the game. I finally turned the sound off and watched in silence. ESPN has really gone down hill fast.
I actually enjoy watching baseball with the sound off. There is nothing an announcer is going to tell me that I can’t see with my own two eyes.
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More street sign and cars. Yikes.
Apparently some of you need a little help with were you are going!
Did you mean ‘where’?
I meant where you are headed, but it came out were you are going. But correcting my spelling…that’s it?
JD Martinez what a steal and what a fit for Arizona. They got exactly what they needed and he has flat out performed. I was thinking why don’t we ever get a trade deadline guy who actually helps. They usually not only don’t perform but are worse than usual. But then I thought of a name, Manny Ramirez, he was just too good to be true when the dodgers got him at the deadline. We just need someone to hit or pitch over their head in the playoffs. Could kershaw finally become a hot pitcher? Could Taylor get hot? Could grandal get into a hot streak? Who knows but maybe somebody can be that guy or more than one.
Manny was juicing.
There
I believe JD has hit 23 HRs, since joining the Dbacks!
On Wednesday, the Tulsa Drillers beat the Midland RockHounds (A’s) 5-4 to take a 2 games to none lead in the best 3 out of 5 Texas League Championship. Scott Barlow pitched a strong 7 innings allowing a single run on 8 hits, 0 walks, and 3 strikeouts. Three relievers finished the final two innings to complete the victory with Daniel Corcino getting his 2nd series save. Offensively, Matt Beaty, Kyle Garlick, and Blake Gailen all had three hits each. Drew Jackson had two. Game three will be played in Tulsa. The Drillers have not yet named their starting pitcher. The RockHounds will be sending 23 year old RHSP Heath Fillmyer to the mound. Fillmyer went 11-5 with a 3.49 ERA. He pitched 149.2 innings with 55 walks and 115 strikeouts.
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In Game 1 of the Pioneer League Championship, Ogden Raptors beat the Great Falls Voyagers (White Sox) 7-4. Rylan Bannon slugged 2 3-run HR’s to account for 6 RBI’s to pace the offense. Gersel Pitre also had 2 hits for the Raptors, and Luis Paz added a home run to account for the 7th run. The Raptors sent five pitchers to the mound with Devin Hemmerich getting the win (2.2 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 1 BB, and 3 K). Justin Hoyt picked up the save. Game 2 will be played in Great Falls on Saturday. 22 year old RHSP Osiris Ramirez will get the start for Ogden, while 22 year old RHSP Lincoln Henzman will start for the Voyagers.
AC, what’s your thoughts on Bannon, the Ogden 3b? Big time prospect, or a Matt Beaty/Okoya Dickson type?
AC, would know more than me, but he is 21 years old playing in a hitters league. I’m assuming he’s a bit older than the average age considering he came out of college. His big test will be playing in a cold, pitcher’s friendly Midwest league next spring. Can he move from A to High-A next year in the same season?
Mark
If I have to say I am a robot, to get the simplemath equations back, I am a robot, and I am proud to be a robot, please could you bring those simple math equations, back!
I think even the people who complained about those simple match equations, would regret that now!
A.C. – Really apprec your posts… Don’t know if you’ve already done it, but when you get a chance, could you give us a little rundown on what to expect/look for from the Arizona Fall Lg. Dodger group… I usually run over to Camelback a couple times to see the crew…
For those hoping to see Austin Barnes starting at 2B or C tonight, sorry.
Taylor
Seager
Turner
Belly
Puig
Utley
Grandal
Ethier
Pitcher
I would hit Grandal 8th out of this group. Seems like the correct place for the all or nothing hitter who draws walks. I don’t think they’re doing Ethier any favors batting him 8th. I guess this keeps the two lefties from being back to back.
Hawkeye
Isn’t that three lefties hitting in a row?
I don’t think Roberts did Ethier any favors, by sitting him out for the entire Giant’s series, after he hit in the two previous games, before the Giants series.
And it might do Grandal more good, by letting him sit out a few games.
Both he and Granderson are hitting a hundred points below the Mendoza line, and Grandal has been striking out 50 percent of the time!
Watford my man… Keep your head down and the pints close…
On a road trip up north… With Harvey, Irma and seeing what the fires are doing to my Pacific N.W., an 11 game or whatever losing streak not high on my list of concerns…
April I said 94W and a shoo in for NLW… After that it’s the crap shoot of all crap shoots!!!
That being said, I’m confident we play in the Fall Classic…
Brandon McCarthy may be found back on the roster September 19. He is currently on the 60 day DL because of blister issues. Now, whether he pitches or not…??
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Austin Barnes does deserve to play every day. His ability to hit RHP should serve him well thru the remainder of the season and into the playoffs. Of the potential playoff teams, only the Cubs have 2 LHSP as projected starters (Lester and Quintana). The Nats have 1 (Gonzalez, who will pitch Sunday), and the DBacks have 1 (Ray…Corbin is not a playoff starter). None of the four scheduled Rockies starters are left handed (Freeland is currently their #5). The Brewers and Cardinals have no left handed starters. Of course he is not bad against LHP, just not as good as against RHP.
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I was opposed to Puig batting #5, but agreed that he was the best choice of multiple bad choices. However, he is proving to be a good #5 right now. Now if he can begin to hit LHP (at least as good as Barnes). Hopefully that starts tonight against Matt Moore.
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With respect to Grandy, I do expect that he will continue to be included in the lineup to get untracked. Right or wrong, Doc likes Grandy. If he does turn it around, he has some very interesting batting lines against some of the Cubs/Nationals playoff pitchers he may expect to see. For those pitchers that he has at least 15 AB:
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Jake Arrieta .313/.351/.719/1.070
Jon Lester .294/.345/.549/.894
Max Scherzer .265/.390/.529/.920
Tanner Roark .333/.400/.593/.993
Edwin Jackson .313/.389/.750/1.139 (Friday’s pitcher)
And then…
Gio Gonzalez .122/.182/.220/.401
Stephen Strasburg .136/.345/.136/.481
Zach Greinke .190/.239/.397/.636 (Yes, I know he is a DBack, but he has more AB’s against Zach than the others.)
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Ethier should start Friday against Edwin Jackson. His batting line against Jackson is .294/.333/.647/.980 with 2 HRs. He should not face Gonzalez or Strasburg. He is 0-4 and 4 K’s against Gonzalez, and 1-10 with 5 K’s against Strasburg. It would have been interesting to see him against Scherzer, and should put him on the playoff roster if they play the Nats. Against Scherzer he is .333/.385/.542/.926 (24 AB’s). 2 HRs and only 3Ks. He might get some quality AB’s against the Phillies, as they are projected to throw 4 RHSP.
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Alex Wood deserves at least one more start. If he continues to wear down and his velocity continues to drop, then I agree that he should be removed from the rotation, not just for the team, but also for him. But he is 14-3, and was very instrumental in getting the Dodgers to where they are now. If Grandy/Pederson/Grandal/AGon/Forsythe get the benefit of the doubt, why shouldn’t Alex Wood? His injury still seems to stem from his SC joint. Surgery is a remote possibility. Rest is generally the antidote, that calms down the inflammation. It’s not dislocated, but it could be degenerative which could be a problem for him in the future. A degenerative condition leads to pain, stiffness, and reduced motion in the shoulder and arm. If it continues, he would probably need to be in the bullpen so he can go hard for 1-2 innings. He could become the logical bridge to Jansen. But for now, he deserves to start. Of course this is like chumming for sharks. His detractors are now going to come out and say “I told you he is too brittle, too injury prone, to be in the rotation.”
The problem with Granderson is that he is not only not producing on offense, he is also a liability on defense.
He is to slow to react to balls that are hit his way, and because of this, he has let singles turn into doubles, so Roberts needs to replace him on defense, like he did last night, buy a little sooner!
Let’s see what Granderson does against the Nats this weekend, and see if Granderson is just done, or he is just having trouble, because he is not as familiar with the pitchers, in the western division, but we will be playing one of the teams in our division in the post season too, so that is a problem with Granderson too!
As everyone knows, it isn’t surprising that Granderson has pretty good stats against the Nat’s pitching, because he has played in that same division with the Nats, for quite a while.
For that same reason, Chase should get more at bats, against the Nats too.
Scherzer hasn’t been with the Nats as long as some of their other pitchers, so Chase hasn’t probably seen Scherzer that much, but he probably has seen a lot, of the other Nat’s pitchers.
I think the fact that Grandal hears the foot steps of Barnes, has made Grandal almost fall apart, on both defense, and offense.
Although Grandal has been a little better on defense lately, and he did hit the ball better last night.
But when we have the type of hitters that Grandal is, and Granderson is, in our line up, they make it much harder for the team to score.
Both of these guys left to many runners on base last night, as well as the whole team, but both Grandal and Granderson strike out way to much, so they are not good at putting the ball in play, and because of that, they make it tougher for the team to score, when they are both in the line up!
When your team is on an all time losing streak, and your players are losing their confidence, you can’t continue to put both of these guys in the line up, especially together!
And who says the best thing to get Grandal and Granderson started, is by playing them everyday, and letting them to continue to fail?
Like both Jerry and Nomar said, it is better to give Grandal, and Granderson,, a few days off to reset, and it is best for the team to play your players, that are producing, so both of these players should be sit down, for a while.
And both Barnes and Ethier, should be given the same chance that both Grandal and Granderson, have been given.
After all, both of these players, have earned this chance to play!
Jerry has been talking about how good Ethier has looked in his at bats, and in batting practice, and why not give Ethier this chance, there has not been any real production in left, since Taylor filled in for Corey, and moved to play center!
And in back to back games, Ethier hit a ball out, and he had two hits, in the second game!
There is no reason for keeping Ethier out of the line up, unless he can’t play defense, in the outfield.
And shouldn’t Roberts have the same type of belief and loyality, in his other players, just like he has done, with Granderson?
And just because we won last night, that doesn’t mean that the team is ok now!
We beat one of the worse teams, in baseball last night, and we didn’t exactly win that game, to convincingly, either!
Mark
About Reddick, he was mainly a singles hitter, once he started hitting, and he hit in very very few runs, and when he did hit in a run, it was usually in a game that was out of hand, and we were wining, by a lot of runs.
And he made more errors in the outfield in the short time he was with the team, then any of our other outfielders made, all season long, not to mention, he got picked off base, about three times!
He was simply terrible!
Reddick is hitting in a bandbox surrounded by a bunch of big hitters. He couldn’t handle the pressure last year. He hit into some tough luck initially then let it snowball. My problem with him is that he also missed the cutoff man and made more base running blunders in his short time in LA than they guy he replaced last year.
Granderson and Grandal must sit for a while. I never thought Granderson made a lot of sense. Hitting at the bottom of the order and occasionally popping one out with his .225 batting avg. Okay fine I guess, but to me he’s a bench player. These low avg. good OPS guys don’t come up with clutch hits or move runners over when they need to do so. Granderson strikes outs, hits hard foul balls, or grounds out into the shift. Maybe Codylove should give him a bunting lesson. Now when you put him and Grandal back to back it exacerbates the issue. I’m not a Grandal hater. I think he does a good job with the pitchers(AJ was way overrated by Dodger fans), and he throws a lot better than Barnes. However, he looks just like he did at the end of 2015 when he was injured and Mattingly kept trotting him out there. Give him a timeout. He needs a few days off. Barnes needs to be in the lineup everyday right now. As for Wood, I tend to disagree. Especially with Darvish still trying to get it together. I’m not replacing him with Ryu or Maeda and especially not Brandon McCarthy. Although, it is interesting to put him in the pen because I don’t think the Dodgers have truly done anything to bridge the gap to Kenley this year other than Morrow.
Why must I keep choosing cars and road signs to post here the last few days?
I, too, long for the good, old days of showing off my addition skills.
Hawkeye
I am with you, this new way takes far to much time, because it is way to much busy work, just to post your comment!
And you have to do this busy work, two or three times, before you are allowed to post!
At least the math was only one simple math problem,, that doesn’t take you, away from your comment!
How about the throw Puig made from right field to 3rd base? If you haven’t seen it you need to watch a clip of it. Not many (any) others can make a throw like that.
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I want to join the “sit Grandal and Granderson” bandwagon. You can’t compete with major league teams when you are playing with 2 or 3 automatic outs in your lineup.
Oh lordy, those two soft ‘hits’ in the ninth had me ripping my hair out! How is it that this game can be so damn frustrating to a team like this? I swear it feels like a valid curse (and I don’t believe in those… at all)? This team is definitely a conundrum wrapped in a riddle!
KLD
Like I said, last night, I hated the Dodgers, and the baseball Gods, during the bottom, of the ninth.
It had to be the Giants, the bases had to be loaded, and it had to be Posey!
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing after the error on Kenley and the weak hit by Pence. Once Buster went down I knew Hundley wouldn’t touch him though.
interesting article about the “real Dodgers” – the reasons for the recent slide and what the future may hold.
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/page/pennant913/mlb-roundtable-wrong-los-angeles-dodgers
Great win last night!! I don’t care how it happened it did happen. I agree with marks post for the most part. Barnes needs to play. He always seems to give a quality at bat. While grandal sees pitches you know when it is a 3-2 count he is going to strikeout if he doesn’t hit into a double play first. Grandal is a notorious streak hitter with very good power but right now he is in one of his horrendous slumps. Barnes is not a strikeout or double play candidate. He needs to play down the stretch to gain even more confidence whereas if anybody needs a rest it is grandal. You can rest grandal while playing an equal or better catcher. Forget woods he is just like Baez we have seen this before. Put him in the bullpen where he might help. Then maybe he can be our 4fh starter when needed. If Ryu is strong next time out I would pitch him in the playoffs. Maeda bullpen, fading just like last year. So kershaw, darvish, Ryu, and wood. He is babying Ethier maybe to keep healthy but against righties he could be an asset. I still haven’t given up on granderson because like grandal he can get as hot as he is cold. Plus, we just don’t have a solid better answer. Ethier is very risky considering his health. Where is toles when you need him? Maybe Ethier can turn the post season into a fairy tale story. We need a Bucky dent, a Murphy, gene tenace, somebody who just plays way over their head in the playoffs.
Real10 – I agree it’s all your assessment.
Could have written that myself.
Pete – good to hear from you.
You forgot about Hill who has been the most consistent starter the last 2 months. Ryu has out pitched Maeda lately for sure. If Wood starts keeping the ball down and getting ground balls and K’s he’ll be fine. Darvish needs a quality start tonight for his confidence.
I live in the present, but think about the future:
(2018)
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1. Toles CF
2. Seager SS
3. Turner 3B
4. Bellinger 1B
5. Taylor 2B
6. Barnes C
7. Puig RF
8. Verdugo LF
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Ethier, Utley, Gonzalez, Forsythe, Granderson, Grandal = GONE!
I don’t think Grandal will be gone next year unless there is a trade. Barnes has a way to go throwing out runners. I see Barnes getting more and more PT next year though. 2019 will be Barnes year with Ruiz moving up. Forsythe still provides a good utility player. Despite his down year I’m not positive that he will be out. Let’s hope Toles makes a full recovery.
By the time this postseason is done, I think we’ll see Puig as the fixture behind Belly for the next few years (and maybe even our 3 hitter in 3-4 years after JT is done)
I was listening to Jerry Hairston and he is adamant that he would move Turner to the 5 hole to protect Cody. His says that he has a lot of friends around the league still and claims that they will attack the Dodgers in the playoffs by either giving him the Hanley treatment and drilling him in the playoffs because of how he is right on top of the plate or walking him like they did last night and testing Puig or whomever is in the 5hole. The Dodgers slugging pct is terrible largely due to Forsythe, Joc, and Grandal hitting 5th. So, lets just say for a moment that the Dodgers did this, who would you move up in the order and give more AB’s. Right now, Puig is giving quality AB’s there, but who would you consider. To me it’s Barnes if he gets in the lineup somehow or moving Puig up to 2nd. Puig has thrived hitting 2nd, but he will also potentially hit into more DP’s. I could see hitting Seager 3rd, but to me the solution is more about the guys 6th-8th stepping up and lengthening the lineup again.
Mark that is a great future lineup. A lot of power, speed, and youth in that lineup. In my last post I meant to substitute hill for wood. Wood to the bullpen. Verdugo could be the leadoff with his obp.
Tonight’s lineup:
Taylor
Seager
Turner
Belly
Forsythe
Barnes
Kike
Puig
Darvish
I like the players, don’t love the order 5-8, but it’s a start. Ethier scheduled to start on Friday vs Nats.
Doesn’t Roberts realize that Kike is hitting .059 against Moore in 17 AB’s?? Whereas Thompson is 2 for 3 with a home run and 4 RBI against him.
Rudy
That is about what Granderson is hitting, since he joined the team, so that shouldn’t surprise you!
But I looked up the match up on Kike’s stats against Moore, and it said Kike, is hitting 0!
Although I really did look up what Kike’s numbers was against Moore, and it really was zero, I am just playing with you!
He has his lefty killers and Puig at the end. No slowpokes and it does lengthen the lineup. Doc appears to be playing to win tonight and will not give Darvish a long leash. Expect some lineup changes once Moore leaves the game.
I know Forsythe hits lefties but seeing him 5th never looks right to me even if it is.
I believe Grandal will be traded in the off season because he has value. We just have lots of prospects close to ready to fill the catching void. Agon will announce his retirement. Either will not be resigned even tho he has some trade value.
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Puig has hit into 20 double plays but not one in (approx.) the last three weeks.
I have a hard time seeing Gonzalez officially retire and walk away from $21 million. They could release him and eat the money or trade to get 25 cents on the dollar in a trade. Smith and Ruiz are the top catching prospects after Barnes. Smith was injured and didn’t finish his season at AA. Ruiz completed A and High-A with a promotion for the AA Championship series. I don’t see either considered ready at the start of the season. Smith has a ways to go offensively, Ruiz has a ways to go throwing, but he’s a fast riser.
I think they may have him retire and sign a 10-year deal as an executive.
If that could be pulled off it would be genius.
They either sign Grandal for his final arb year (figure about $7.5M) and could trade him at the deadline if the other catchers are producing or buy out his final arb year and extend him for a couple more, say about $30M for 3 years. Barnes has 2 years team control and 3 years arb left, quite a bargain and he’s 27. It will be an interesting decision either way they decide.
Did everyone see that Calhoun played in his first major league game?
In his first swing, he hit a grounder to rightfield , to hit in a run, and he played in left, and it said he made some good plays in left, because the ball always finds the new guy.
The Dodgers play Texas next year. I’m sure we will get to see Tree Trunk Calhoun on the field. I hope he does well except against the Dodgers.
Hawkeye
That kid that came up and played left in that series against the Padres, now he has a odd shape for a guy
Dickson? He has a huge backside.
Hawkeye
Exactly, and I am not a darn giant like Mark is, so I don’t see people’s shapes, like he does, but that kid has a odd shape for a guy.
Good news to wake up to.
Our streak is at 2.
Back to a little normalcy!!! Good to see Calhoun producing and especially in the AL…
The thought of a healthy Toles leading off next year and a glut of young pitchers fighting for spots is exciting… Life is good at the Ravine…
No one mentions Kershaw and what will be done???
We win one tomorrow that’s called a winning streak.
I noticed watching the game last nite,that Darvish fast ball was sitting on 94mph.and his control was better than his last outing .he didn’t hit 97mph not once.
The biggest difference in Darvish was that he pitched ahead in the count more and the opponent hit the ball at fielders instead of every ground ball finding a hole. I think Darvish had better stuff against Colorado, but he was often pitching behind in the count and had a terrible case of bad luck in the 5th inning against the Rockies. I believe Clayton told him use your fastball more and get ahead. He was primarily fastball, cutter, and slider last night and hardly used the nasty slow curve he has in his bag of tricks.
I would keep pitching Beuhler. With a little more experience he could be a very useful piece in the play offs. He has good stuff. Morrow looks like he has nailed the 8th inning spot down.
I would too. He gave up a run because of catcher’s indifference and a jam shot against the shift. I’m sure we will see him at least once this weekend.
The team is obviously hoping Granderson gets back into a groove, he did so earlier in the year. Why not see if it can happen?
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Gotta hope Calhoun continues to perform.
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Wait. What happened to the silly math question? Why do we even need a captcha here? Is volume that high?
We have over 1,500 subscribers.
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Spam is crazy. If I don’t do something, I have to manually delete 20-40 a day.
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Some days I don’t have time to post…
1,500. That’s pretty impressive. Must be a lot of non-posters who come over to read your site. I was that way for a long time.
Actually, I lied. It’s 1,111!
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We add about 15-20 new ones a week. Most don’t post.
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The Colts are pathetic!
I didn’t buy the Sunday ticket for the first time since 1995 and sold my season tickets before the season started.
What exactly is a groove for Granderson? Hitting .225 instead of .090. He’s a groove a bad groove right now and coming to a new team he’s probably pressing on top of it. Let him sit, work with Turner Ward on how to keep a ball fair. In the meantime let’s look at Andre and Verdugo in LF. The Dodgers don’t need a lineup full of all or nothing guys like Granderson and Grandal weighing down the bottom of the order.
Hawkeye
Exactly those type of hitters, are not an asset to a productive offense!
Our team has enough trouble hitting in runs, when runners are in scoring position, and because of that, they don’t need those type of hitters in the line up.
Those type of hitters clog the offense, more often then not, and because of that, they stop any rallies, the team might have!
And a productive offense is much more important, in post season, against good pitching, because HRs will be hard to come by, against good pitching!
Granderson rolls over and grounds right into the shift way too much. He drew some displeasure from Kershaw for his defense in LF the other night too. Andre seems like he is being frozen out but he could be a useful playoff bat. Kike made a nice play doubling up the runner at 1st last night but I cringe at his AB’s off RHP when he chases sliders. LHP only please with him. Barnes should be playing more per Doc and that is good news, maybe some at 2B against RHP and some more rest for Grandal? Cody and Turner seem to be hitting better now, with Cory, Taylor and Puig doing ok but a bit inconsistent. Put Barnes at 6th and that’s a long lineup with some serious speed. Logan, Grandy. Kike, Utley and Agon when playing should hit 7 and 8. Hit Grandal 6th when Barnes is out of the lineup.
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Let Ryu pitch and skip Maeda’s turn next time through. I was greatly encouraged by Darvish last night, and Hill has been consistent. If Wood can return to form it would be huge. Right now only Kersh, Yu and Hill are locks for the post season rotation.
Granderson went through a ridiculous slump in April. He had a .395 on-base plus slugging percentage for the Mets. From May until joining the Dodgers in August, his OPS jumped to .953.
That’s way above his career norms. It would be a lot to expect it again.
Bluto
Granderson also had a terrible July too!
And he has hit just over 100 in August and September, and when most major league players are struggling to hit, they are hitting at the Mendoza line, not 100 points lower then the Mendoza line!
And I know you don’t put much stock into a batting average, but his other numbers, are not good either!
I have no clue what that has to do with anything.
I’m saying the team hopes he gets into a groove, not turn into a player he is not.
Well I passed the street sign challange but couldn’t with the road challenge. I’d much rather do the math.
No math, no street signs, no road challenge, I just have to affirm that I am not a robot. I guess us simple minds get a pass.
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Granderson seems to want to pull everything right now. The other night he tried to pull an outside pitch and sure enough, a grounder to second. He is one who could profit from going with the pitch or putting down a bunt on occasion (assuming he can bunt). It was good to see Cody lay down a perfect bunt the other night, is there anything he does not do well? Of course the announcers criticised him for not hitting away.
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Since we can’t get the Dodgers network, I watched them on ESPN last night. The announcers were terrible (even if one of them is an X Dodger. They wouldn’t shut up and were telling story after story about things other that the game. I finally turned the sound off and watched in silence. ESPN has really gone down hill fast.
I actually enjoy watching baseball with the sound off. There is nothing an announcer is going to tell me that I can’t see with my own two eyes.
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More street sign and cars. Yikes.
Apparently some of you need a little help with were you are going!
Did you mean ‘where’?
I meant where you are headed, but it came out were you are going. But correcting my spelling…that’s it?
JD Martinez what a steal and what a fit for Arizona. They got exactly what they needed and he has flat out performed. I was thinking why don’t we ever get a trade deadline guy who actually helps. They usually not only don’t perform but are worse than usual. But then I thought of a name, Manny Ramirez, he was just too good to be true when the dodgers got him at the deadline. We just need someone to hit or pitch over their head in the playoffs. Could kershaw finally become a hot pitcher? Could Taylor get hot? Could grandal get into a hot streak? Who knows but maybe somebody can be that guy or more than one.
Manny was juicing.
There
I believe JD has hit 23 HRs, since joining the Dbacks!
On Wednesday, the Tulsa Drillers beat the Midland RockHounds (A’s) 5-4 to take a 2 games to none lead in the best 3 out of 5 Texas League Championship. Scott Barlow pitched a strong 7 innings allowing a single run on 8 hits, 0 walks, and 3 strikeouts. Three relievers finished the final two innings to complete the victory with Daniel Corcino getting his 2nd series save. Offensively, Matt Beaty, Kyle Garlick, and Blake Gailen all had three hits each. Drew Jackson had two. Game three will be played in Tulsa. The Drillers have not yet named their starting pitcher. The RockHounds will be sending 23 year old RHSP Heath Fillmyer to the mound. Fillmyer went 11-5 with a 3.49 ERA. He pitched 149.2 innings with 55 walks and 115 strikeouts.
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In Game 1 of the Pioneer League Championship, Ogden Raptors beat the Great Falls Voyagers (White Sox) 7-4. Rylan Bannon slugged 2 3-run HR’s to account for 6 RBI’s to pace the offense. Gersel Pitre also had 2 hits for the Raptors, and Luis Paz added a home run to account for the 7th run. The Raptors sent five pitchers to the mound with Devin Hemmerich getting the win (2.2 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 1 BB, and 3 K). Justin Hoyt picked up the save. Game 2 will be played in Great Falls on Saturday. 22 year old RHSP Osiris Ramirez will get the start for Ogden, while 22 year old RHSP Lincoln Henzman will start for the Voyagers.
AC, what’s your thoughts on Bannon, the Ogden 3b? Big time prospect, or a Matt Beaty/Okoya Dickson type?
AC, would know more than me, but he is 21 years old playing in a hitters league. I’m assuming he’s a bit older than the average age considering he came out of college. His big test will be playing in a cold, pitcher’s friendly Midwest league next spring. Can he move from A to High-A next year in the same season?
Mark
If I have to say I am a robot, to get the simplemath equations back, I am a robot, and I am proud to be a robot, please could you bring those simple math equations, back!
I think even the people who complained about those simple match equations, would regret that now!
A.C. – Really apprec your posts… Don’t know if you’ve already done it, but when you get a chance, could you give us a little rundown on what to expect/look for from the Arizona Fall Lg. Dodger group… I usually run over to Camelback a couple times to see the crew…
For those hoping to see Austin Barnes starting at 2B or C tonight, sorry.
Taylor
Seager
Turner
Belly
Puig
Utley
Grandal
Ethier
Pitcher
I would hit Grandal 8th out of this group. Seems like the correct place for the all or nothing hitter who draws walks. I don’t think they’re doing Ethier any favors batting him 8th. I guess this keeps the two lefties from being back to back.
Hawkeye
Isn’t that three lefties hitting in a row?
I don’t think Roberts did Ethier any favors, by sitting him out for the entire Giant’s series, after he hit in the two previous games, before the Giants series.
And it might do Grandal more good, by letting him sit out a few games.
Both he and Granderson are hitting a hundred points below the Mendoza line, and Grandal has been striking out 50 percent of the time!