The Dodgers have more RH hitters than LH hitters, but it is close – 7 righties to 5 lefties. Of course, the ratio of LH to RH is not nearly as great, so in that respect, the Dodgers are unique. The problem is that at least three of the LH hitters are the same guy… at least right about now (Bellinger, Muncy, and Rios). Those three players are all hitting below .230, with Max Muncy the low one at .151. They all have good eyes, and they all strike out a lot. Rios is simply a sub, but a lineup with Bellinger and Muncy in it (right about now) is very sketchy. Both players will likely hit in the .240 to .250 range, but the new baseball has sapped some of their productivity. Balls that used to be Home Runs are now caught on the warning track. Look at their strikeout rates:
- Rios – 45%
- Bellinger 35%
- Muncy 25%
The same thing is happening to some of the RH bats. Chris Taylor is striking out 39% of the time and has only 1 HR. Trea Turner is striking out 23% and leading the team in RBI while hitting .261, while Justin Turner is striking out 23% of the time while hitting .183. Mookie Bettes is springing out of his malaise, but right about now, this lineup is very unpredictable. It seems to me that they are not complementing and picking each other up. Look at the construction of the team:
LH Batters:
- Freeman
- Muncy
- Lux
- Bellinger
- Rios
RH Batters:
- Betts
- Taylor
- Smith
- J-Turner
- T-Turner
- Alberto
- Barnes
Cody Bellinger continues to show flashes but not consistency; however, he is an elite defender in CF, and not all of his value lies in his bat. Freddie Freeman leads the Dodgers with 1.0 WAR (there is nothing to worry about with him). Mookie is 2nd in WAR at 0.8, and Cody is 3rd at 0.5, so any thoughts of sending Belli back to OKC are simply delusional. He could struggle like this all year and still put up a 3.0+ WAR. Cody is valuable, and my personal belief is that he will get better offensively – how much remains to be seen.
Max Muncy and Trea Turner have a positive WAR but Justin Turner is a -0.6! Yikes! To me, he does not look like the same player as last season. It seems to me that he has to get his bat going a little sooner than in the past, and that is affecting his contact ability… plus the balls are dying.
Would you be surprised to learn that the Dodgers are 4th in the lowest strikeout rate? I was! Only St. Louis, the White Sox, and Royals strike out less. The Dodgers are simply flying out more than anyone (warning track power) or hitting into the teeth of the shift! The problem is, they can’t do much about it right about now. Max Muncy is struggling and JT is a “guess hitter.” He is smart and knows what to look for in certain situations, but his performance begs the question, “Is this the end of the line for him?” All good things must come to an end… is this the end of Justin Turner as a difference-maker? If you don’t at least have that thought, you aren’t being realistic.
The solution is likely in the minor leagues in the form of Miguel Vargas. He is hitting .284 with a .844 OPS, but he is the 3rd youngest player in AAA and is still learning. He is not ready today, but he might be later this year. He will have to work hard to stay at 3B, but I think he is up to that task. Kevin Pillar and Jake Lamb look like AAAA players and Pillar certainly is not better than Bellinger.
Mike Busch and Jacob Amaya may be part of the solution, but it’s not likely to happen THIS year. Amaya seems to have “flipped the switch,” but it will take time. It is possible that he could take over for Turner in 2023. Stay tuned.
With Mookie and Freddie at the top of the lineup hitting, all it takes is for another player to get hot, and with the Dodgers’ “lights out” pitching, it doesn’t take much. Also, if Gavin Lux is over the Yips (he could be or… not), I think he will continue to provide some excellent at-bats. His time could be NOW! I have been up and down with him, but lately, you can see immense progress from where he was!
Dodgers News & Notes
- Yadier Alvarez has now pitched in two games for OKC this year… we will see how that goes.
- Caleb Ferguson pitched another inning for OKC last night with 1 H, 1 BB, and 1 K – he allowed Zero Runs. That is progress!
- Cleavinger continues to be lights out at AAA.
- Varland and Varland are going to try it again today after consecutive rainouts at Tulsa.
- Gavin Stone went 6 innings and allowed 2 hits last night to lower his ERA to 1.35.
- A couple of days ago, Dylan Hernandez said that the “Dodgers don’t trust Julio Urias”, which is why they took him out of the game after 65 pitches. Of course, this could not be an overall “master plan” to keep the staff as fresh and untaxed as possible… could it? I am frequently shocked by how the LA Times Writers do their jobs: (1) Remove brain; and (2) Start writing! That’s why I don’t read it much… it makes me stupider… and God knows we can’t afford that!
- We got back from the Craft Beer Show last night at 2 AM. Time to get back to work!
Dodgers set for schedule gauntlet of 31 games in 31 days
Dodgers have one doubleheader and one off day from May 6 through June 5
This stretch includes 16 road games and 15 home games. It covers the entirety of the Dodgers’ season series against both the Pirates and Phillies.
Here’s the schedule:
May 6-8: at Cubs
May 9-11: at Pirates
May 12-15: vs. Phillies (4 games)
May 16-18: vs. D-backs (4 games, including doubleheader)
May 19: OFF DAY
May 20-22: at Phillies
May 23-25: at Nationals
May 26-29: at D-backs (4 games)
May 30-June 1: vs. Pirates
June 2-5: vs. Mets (4 games)
Amazingly, the Dodgers don’t face a team with a current winning record until that final series against the Mets. Then again, that didn’t seem to matter much when the Dodgers lost two of three games to the Diamondbacks in April. Arizona catapulted the end of that series against Los Angeles into seven wins in nine games, making it back to .500 (13-13) with Wednesday’s win.
With so many games bunched together, the pitching staff will surely be taxed. MLB teams can carry 14 pitchers on the active roster through May 29, covering LA’s first 24 games of this stretch. After that, the limit of 13 pitchers takes hold.
This is a good opportunity for the Dodgers to get out of the habit of playing up to their competition.
I predict they go 19-11
Today’s Dodgers Cubs game has been postponed and they will play a split doubleheader tomorrow
There will be no Dodgers baseball today either, so we’ll have to wait another day.
Fudgenuts. I was looking forward to a game. Bobby, get my email addy from Mark and send me the ticket info.
Tomorrow’s weather for Chicago: Sunny, temps in the 50’s,
It sounds like “a great day for a ball game. Let’s play two.” 🙂
I’ve been waiting and waiting, but Fangraphs has finally posted their review of the Dodger’s system.
“This is among the deepest systems in all of baseball and is arguably the best overall even though it lacks the star-level players it has tended to have near the top for the last handful of years.”
There are a few surprises here. They are not as high on Miguel Vargas as many other scouts, and question his defense. Rayne Doncon is someone who wasn’t really on a lot of other scout’s radar, but they give him a 45+ future value.
“As National League teams have feared they would, the Dodgers have begun to snowball prospects. The Dylan Floro trade is a great example of this, with Los Angeles getting two prospects to whom they apply their means of development in return for the sort of player they can reliably draft and develop. This is as close to a juggernaut franchise as there is in the game.”
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/los-angeles-dodgers-top-51-prospects-2022/
Jeff did a nice write up of Vargas on his Dodger Chronicles site. He also was lukewarm to his defense.
I’m afraid JT is done. My prediction is come playoff time he is a RH bat off the bench. His bat just looks slow to me and with the dead ball and his uppercut swing a lot of those HR’s and doubles in the past will be fly-outs. Thank goodness Friedman stuck to his guns and didn’t give him the extra year he wanted. I hope I’m wrong!
Well, I guess playing a double header tomorrow is better than playing on a soggy field for a Friday that should have been scheduled as a night game to begin with.
Hey Bear and Watford, can you get to MY PLACE SPORTS BAR & GRILL by start time at 10AM tomorrow?
I would say Dylan Hernandez is the worst if Bill Plaschke and David Vassegh didn’t exist. Low bar for broadcasters and media these days.
Offense is way down across the league. Great job commissioner Manfred screwing with the ball and screwing with the game. Is it more interesting now? Are the games noticeably shorter? It might have been more interesting if they would have banned the shift to coincide with the dead ball, but no, that would require some amount of foresight. Using a humidor was a good idea in Coors, but why apply it to every team in the league?
Patch’s favorite team have now lost 4 games in a row. The bullpen game yesterday was a disaster as they gave up 7 to the Cardinals and scoring just a single run, once again, for the third game in a row.
Why can’t the Giants just be good? Because o’fer Joc is their best hitter, they rely to heavily of matchups (platoons) and they keep having to have bullpen games. Not a great way to start a 7 game home stand against the Cardinals and Rockies.
Why can’t people just admit the Giants were lucky last year when half their lineup had career years? Conversely, the Dodger’s offense is underperforming, yet are still one of the best offenses in the league. That’s the difference between a great team and a pretender like the Giants.
Right now it looks like the NL West is the best division in baseball. All of the teams are 500 or better. Arizona would be in 2nd place in the East and 3rd place in the Central!
The Dodgers pitching staff leads the league in ERA, WHIP and Ave.
The Dodgers offense leads the league in runs per game, but are 8th in OPS. How is this possible?
Max Muncy is the unluckiest hitter in the league. His barrels and hard hit data suggest he’s much better than his traditional numbers indicate. His Barrels per Plate Appearance are 16th in the league right behind Freddie Freeman. Maybe he should go the other way from time to time like Freddie. Bellinger is 36th in the league and Manny Machado, who’s having a great year is 44th.
FYI..The Cubs have only played a handful of games at home on a Friday night. For some reason they do not play Friday night games at Wrigley Field.
While I am not a Cubs fan they are one of my local teams as is the Cardinals, Brewers and White Sox so I watch a lot of these games. I get the MLB Extra innings package but have to buy a separate package to get these games, go figure. One of these days I will breakdown and get a VPN and then just watch them on mlb.tv.
I have to use Express VPM and log in from Germany to see the Cubs play the Dodgers
Wow, that’s crazy.
I’m sad . Don’t worry, though, my beloved Giants will soon have a return to greatness.
I don’t think Vassegh is particularly dumb in the blatantly political way Plaschke is. He’s just kind of dumb, and his radio voice is hard to listen to.
Vassegh just comes off as a condescending jerk. I hate listening to that guy. The Giants will finish in 3rd or 4th place this year. Hopefully for you and the rest of their fans they tank soon and can trade Rodon for prospects. They really made Farhan’s job a lot harder by being good last year.
This I agree with. I think Farhan really wanted to do a tear down and rebuild that franchise. Them being good messed up that plan.
Even if they’re playing way over their heads and they implode, I don’t think they’re far off from being serious long term competitors. Webb and Rodon are really good. They have money to spend.
They have money, but their farm sucks. No long term contracts at least.
Dodgers leaders in WAR by B-R:
1 Lux 1.1 WAR
2 Buehler 0.9
3 Betts 0.8
Freeman 0.8
4 Kershaw 0.7
Bellinger 0.7
Gonsolin 0.7
5 W.Smith 0.6
J.Urias 0.6
I think Vargas, will be a late-season call-up–unless Justin, Max or Rios goes down with injury. But even then, Dodger brass might prefer the experience of Lamb or Pillar. (Taylor could play 3B.)
Father Time may be catching up with JT….
Depending on how the season unfolds–there are always injuries–perhaps AF will go shopping for an experienced bat in mid-season. If the Indi– I mean Guardians are hurting, could Jose Ramirez be available?
Jose Ramirez just signed a long term extension. He will not be available.
Missed that. Oh well.
Arenado has another opt-out after this season. So if the Cards collapse….
If Manfred REALLY wants to punish Bauer, he should make him pitch for the Reds again. I predicted two weeks ago on a Reds YouTube channel that the Reds would be 3-20, and they have SURPASSED my dire prediction.
Carson Fulmer cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by the Los Angeles Dodgers, and is remaining with the organization as he was sent outright to Triple-A Oklahoma City. That he went unclaimed was a mild surprise.
The Dodgers used their second-round pick to take Fulmer during the Minor League phase of the 2021 Rule 5 Draft. L.A. became the sixth organization the right-hander was part of since being selected eighth overall by the Chicago White Sox in the 2015 MLB Draft.
Fulmer was confident the Dodgers would aid in reaching his full potential, and he viewed reuniting with Walker Buehler as an added pitching coach. The two have developed a close relationship since playing at Vanderbilt together.
The 28-year-old only appeared in two Cactus League games for the Dodgers, but he allowed just one hit and collected three strikeouts over three scoreless innings. Fulmer began the season with Oklahoma City before getting called up April 30 as the corresponding move to Mitch White being placed on the COVID-19 injured list.
Fulmer did not appear in either of the final two games against the Detroit Tigers, and because of not having Minor League options remaining, was DFA’d on Monday as the Dodgers needed to trim their active roster to 26 players. Zach McKinstry was optioned to OKC as the second required move.
Over parts of six seasons with the White Sox and Cincinnati Reds, Fulmer is a combined 6-9 with a 6.41 ERA and 1.52 WHIP across 74 games (15 starts).
Carson Fulmer stats
While the former top prospect has struggled to find much success in the Majors, Fulmer has fared well in OKC so far this year, pitching to a 2.31 ERA with 12 strikeouts across 11.2 innings over 12 appearances.
So who pitches Wednesday in Pittsburg??
I have a vested interest in that as Ill be there…
Gonsolin Tuesday….
Ryan Pepiot!
Now THAT would be great, or Bobby MiIller.
My guess its a bullpen game….
Of course, I made that up! 😉
Boys – new start time tomorrow
What time meet?
I down for meeting there at 10 so we get there before gametime.
I will get there as soon as I can. Sis, me and my brother are going out to breakfast and then he needs to hit his credit unon. As soon as I get him settled back in the house I am heading that way, Will be wearing my Kershaw road jersey.
I’ll see you there – is it open that early lol?
I’m at the Big A – Keibert is playing
$13 for a can of beer…..