“Andrew Friedman should have signed….”
“What didn’t Dave Roberts pinch hit for…”
“Something is wrong with Walker Buehler…”
“May Muncy has lost all confidence…”
“They should have traded for…”
“Why did they not play Rios after his big night?
Yes, we are fans and we second-guess just about everything, even things we know nothing about. We may have some information, but not all the information and we simply don’t know what we don’t know. However, we never let that stop us from jumping to conclusions like that is an olympic sport. We just try for that Gold Medal! Years ago (and I mean about 25) my wife used to tell me she could always tell whether the Dodgers won or not by my demeanor in the morning. Now she can’t tell, because I do not let a “game” have that much control over me.
Baseball is a game. It is not life and death. It is a diversion. It is a part of my life, but it is not my life. It does not control me or my mood. Well, I may be slightly happier when they win, but few can tell. I disagree with things that Andrew Friedman and Dave Roberts do, but when I do, I realize that much of what I disagree about is subjective. Hindsight is 20/20 and we all think we are armchair experts. We think that knowing full well, or ignoring the fact (you pick) that we usually have very little of the information needed to make any baseball decision.
In the past, Dodger fans have accused Cody Bellinger of being stubborn and refusing to listen, when exactly the opposite was the truth. They say such things out of frustration, but guess what? Cody is also very frustrated. We know very little about our “baseball heros” – mostly what the team wants us to know and what the sportswriters are allowed to speak or write. The media plays a huge part in controlling any narrative propounded by the team. Twitter is the worst. It is rumored that up to 50% of what is dissiminated by Twitter may be from “fake accounts.”
Be very careful what you believe and even more careful what you make up. For example, many fans are chanting that Walker Buehler’s fastbal has lost velocity. This can be caused by the following:
- Any arm injury;;
- Mechanical problems with his delivery; or
- Making changes in the way he pitches.
Of course, may fans, who are Olympic Athletes skilled in Jumping to Conclusions are convinged that it is #1. They are convinced of that because… of course they are! Guess what? They could be right, but the evidence does not favor that. It is most likely #2 or #3. Guess what? Only time will tell. Many fans just jump to the conclusion of whatever the worst outcome might be: “He has a hangnail? It must be cancerous!”
Life ebbs and flows. Players have good days, great days, bad days, awful days. Life happens. A parent, grandparent, child, friend, relative has a life-changing challenge (which may last a day, weeks, or months)… but no one knows. Don’t ask! Don’t tell. The player’s performamce suffers, but we don’t know why – we just jump to conclusions! Players are human too. We think otherwise but that is the truth.
We may wonder why Doc did not have a certain player pinch hit at the end of a game, because there was no apparent reason… but maybe their was! We just don’t know, so we jump to conclusions… usually the wrong one.
Andrew Friedman should have signed a certain player… but we have no clue whether the player wanted to play in LA or any number of other variables… to say nothing of the fact that you have to pay dramatically more in taxes, more in housing, more in gas, more in groceries, etc. than most other places. You may dig it but not everyone does. We just don’t know what we don’t know. But we think we know it! That’s a pretty crazy place to be… because what you believe may be 180 degrees the other way.
But, we still persist in jumping to conclusions. We wish the Dodgers would be more forthcoming about injuries, but they won’t be… and we get why. We just don’t like being left in the dark, but in relity, that is how it is a with a high percentage of baseball inside knowledge. Sportswriters who travel with the team have a little more inside information than you or I… but not much and sometimes they can’t publish it. Remember back when no one knew what was going on with Andrew Toles? Well, sportswriters knew, but out of respect for his family and at the request of Andrew Friedman, it was kept quiet. That was the right thing to do, but it is just an example of how little we sometimes know.
Speaking of Andrew Toles, that is such a sad case and I hope and pray that he can somehow be free from his demons. That was an amazing summer when he came back to baseball and went from A ball to AA ball to AAA ball to MLB in one season! Godspeed Andrew!
Dodger Minor League Notes
Carson Fulmer continues to be the closer at OKC and even though he blew a save yesterday, he got the win and is 1-0 with a 1.56 ERA to go with 2 saves. He has now logged 17 innings with 18 K’s and 10 BB, but his BB have decline dramatically of recent as he is trusting his stuff. Give him a couple more months, but this could be another reclamation project success story. This is new ground for him, but I like what I see.
Jake Lamb now has 10 HR and is hitting .281 with .908 OPS. Someone is going to need him… soon. Eddy Alvarez is hitting .333 with a 1.033 OPS. Someone is watching. Ditto with Kevin Pillar. However, I am convinced that if Cody Bellinger can hit .220, he will stay in CF, but he’s not there… yet!
Clayton Beeter was Beeten like rented Beeter last night for Tulsa. He is 0-2 with a 5.73 ERA. In 22 IP he has allowed 16 Hits, Struck out 41, and walked 15. There is no arguing his stuff is electric. He just needs to command it!
Jacob Amaya continues to dazzle defensively while hitting an unconscious .343 with a 1.169 OPS. He hit his 9th HR last night. Can he make the jump to AAA? We should find out soon.
Andy Pages is heating up, hitting his 5th HR for Tulsa last night. His batting average is up to .232… and climbing. He is likely ready in 2024.
At Great Lakes, after a slow start, Eddys Leonard is hitting .295 /.915 OPS and if he keeps this up, will likely move to Tulsa later this season. Keep and eye on 6′ 5″ Emmet Sheehan, who has logged just 6 IP there and compiled 12 strike outs without an earned run, 6′ 4″ Braydon Fisher who now has 24 K’s in 18 IP, and 6′ 2″ Ryan Sublette who has 28 K’s in 17 IP. Great Lakes has a lot of young, live arms.
At Rancho, Damon Keith and Diego Cartaya continue to hone their skills and both should move to Great Lakes the season half of the season if they can keep up the growth. Cartaya has a .382 OB% and is not geeting many pitches to hit as they are aware of his prodigious power.
I will be at the Game in Rancho Cucamonga on Saturday, June 4th with my son, Jayne Cobb, and his son along with Bear and his family. Come join us if you are so inclined.
NOW HEAR THIS:
At this juncture, I am not going to single out any one person, and maybe I have been negligent as well, but all the bickering has to stop. Be civil and disagree without being disagreeable. The next time someone gets out of line, I am going to respond to them with this:
You swine. You vulgar little maggot. You worthless bag of filth. I wager you couldn't empty a boot of excrement were the instructions on the heel. You are a canker. A sore that won't go away. I would rather kiss a lawyer than be seen with you. Try to edit your responses of unnecessary material before attempting to impress us with your insight. The evidence that you are a nincompoop will still be available to readers, but they will be able to access it more rapidly. You snail-skulled little rabbit. Would that a hawk pick you up, drive its beak into your brain, and upon finding it rancid set you loose to fly briefly before spattering the ocean rocks with the frothy pink shame of your ignoble blood. May you choke on the queasy, convulsing nausea of your own trite, foolish beliefs. You are weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. You are grimy, squalid, nasty and profane. You are foul and disgusting. You're a fool, an ignoramus. And what meaning do you expect your delusional self-important statements of unknowing, inexperienced opinion to have to us who think and reason? What fantasy do you hold that you would believe that your tiny-fisted tantrums would have more weight than that of a leprous desert rat, spinning rabidly in a circle, waiting for the bite of the snake? You are a waste of flesh. You have no rhythm. You are ridiculous and obnoxious. You are the moral equivalent of a leech. You are a living emptiness, a meaningless void. You are sour and senile. You are a disease, you puerile one-handed slack-jawed , drooling meatslapper. You smarmy lagerlout git. You bloody woofter sod. Bugger off, pillock. You grotty wanking oik artless base-court apple-john. You clouted boggish foot-licking twit. You dankish clack-dish plonker. You gormless crook-pated tosser. You churlish boil-brained clotpole ponce. You cockered bum-bailey poofter. You gob-kissing gleeking flap-mouthed coxcomb. You dread-bolted fobbing beef-witted clapper-clawed flirt-gill. You are a fiend and a coward, and you have bad breath. You are degenerate, noxious and depraved. I feel debased just for knowing you exist. I despise everything about you, and I wish you would go away. I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. I mean rock-hard stupid. Dehydrated-rock-hard stupid. Stupid so stupid that it goes way beyond the stupid we know into a whole different dimension of stupid. You are trans-stupid stupid. Meta-stupid. Some pure essence of a stupid so uncontaminated by anything else as to be beyond the laws of physics that we know. I'm sorry. I can't go on. This is an epiphany of stupid for me. After this, you may not hear from me again for a while. I don't have enough strength left to deride your ignorant questions and half-baked comments about unimportant trivia, or any of the rest of this drivel. Duh. I mean, really, stringing together a bunch of insults among a load of babbling was hardly effective. True, these are rudimentary skills that many of us "normal" people take for granted that everyone has an easy time of mastering. But we sometimes forget that there are "challenged" persons in this world who find these things more difficult. If I had known, that this was your case then I would have never read your post. It just wouldn't have been "right". Sort of like parking in a handicap space. I wish you the best of luck in the emotional, and social struggles that seem to be placing such a demand on you. You're an idiot. A moron of the highest order. You're so stupid it's a wonder and a pity you can remember to breath. Intelligent ideas bounce off your head as if it were coated with teflon. Creative thoughts take alternate transportation in order to avoid even being in the same state as you. If you had an original thought it would die of loneliness before the hour was out. On an intelligence scale of 1 to 10 (10 corresponding to the highest attainable IQ) you're rating is so far into negative numbers that one would need to travel into another quantum reality in order to even catch a distant glimpse of it. Your personality is that of a rabid Chihuahua intent on destroying its own tail. Your powers of observation are akin to those of the bird that keeps slamming into the picture window trying to get that other bird it keeps seeing. You are walking, talking proof that you don't have to be sentient to survive, and that Barnum was thinking of you when he uttered his immortal phrase regarding the birth of a sucker. You are, at varying times, tedious, boring, and even occasionally earth shatteringly hilarious in your idiocy, routinely childish, moronic, pathetic, wretched, disgusting and pitiful. You are wholly without any redeeming social grace or value. If God ever decides to give the planet an enema you'd better run like the wind because anywhere you stand is a suitable place for The Insertion. There is no animal so disgusting, so vile that it deserves comparison to you, for even the lowest, dirtiest, most parasitic member of the animal kingdom fills an ecological niche. You fill no niche. To call you a parasite would be injurious and defamatory to the thousands of honest parasitic species. You are worse than vermin, for vermin do not pretend to be what it is not. You are truly human garbage. You are a fraudulent, lying, predatory charlatan. You are of less worth than a burnt-out light bulb. You will forever live in shame. You have nothing to say, and Godwin's Law does not apply when writing about you. You are the anti-Midas, for all that you touch becomes valueless and unusable. Mothers gather their children close when you appear. You are an aberration, a corruption, and a boil that needs to be lanced. You are a poison in need of being vomited. You are a tooth so rotten it infects the whole body. You are sperm that should have been captured in a condom and flushed down a toilet. I don't like you. I don't like anybody who has as little respect for others as you do. Go away, you swine. You're a putrescent mass, a walking vomit. You are a spineless little worm deserving nothing but the profoundest contempt. You are a jerk, a cad, and a weasel. Your life is a monument to stupidity. You are a stench, a revulsion, a big suck on a sour lemon. You are a curdled staggering mutant dwarf smeared richly with the effluvia and offal accompanying your alleged birth into this world. Meaningful to no one, abandoned by the puke-drooling, giggling beasts that sired you and then killed themselves in recognition of what they had done. I will never get over the embarrassment of belonging to the same species as you. You are a monster, an ogre, a malformity. I wretch at the very thought of you. You have all the appeal of a paper cut. Lepers avoid you. You are vile, worthless, less than nothing. You are a weed, a fungus, and the dregs of this earth. And did I mention you smell? Monkeys look down on you. Even sheep won't have sex with you. You are unreservedly pathetic, starved for attention, and lost in a land that reality forgot. You are a waste of flesh. On a good day you're a halfwit. You are deficient in all that lends character. You have the personality of wallpaper. You are dank and filthy. You are asinine and benighted. You are the source of all unpleasantness. You spread misery and sorrow wherever you go. You are a fiend and a coward, and you have bad breath. You are degenerate, noxious and depraved. I feel debased just for knowing you exist. I despise everything about you, and I wish you would go away. I cannot believe how incredibly stupid you are. The only thing worse than your logic is your manners. Maybe later in life, after you have learned to read, write, study, spell, and count, you will have more success. True, these are rudimentary skills that many of us "normal" people take for granted that everyone has an easy time of mastering. It just wouldn't have been "right". Sort of like parking in a handicap space. I wish you the best of luck in the emotional, and social struggles that seem to be placing such a demand on you. You are hypocritical, greedy, violent, malevolent, vengeful, cowardly, deadly, mendacious, meretricious, loathsome, despicable, belligerent, opportunistic, barratrous, contemptible, criminal, fascistic, bigoted, racist, sexist, avaricious, tasteless, idiotic, brain-damaged, imbecilic, insane, arrogant, deceitful, demented, lame, self-righteous, byzantine, conspiratorial, satanic, fraudulent, libellous, bilious, splenetic, spastic, ignorant, clueless, illegitimate, harmful, destructive, dumb, evasive, double-talking, devious, revisionist, narrow, manipulative, paternalistic, fundamentalist, dogmatic, idolatrous, unethical, cultic, diseased, suppressive, controlling, restrictive, malignant, deceptive, dim, crazy, weird, dystrophic, stifling, uncaring, plantigrade, grim, unsympathetic, jargon-spouting, censorious, secretive, aggressive, mind-numbing, abrasive, poisonous, flagrant, self-destructive, abusive, and socially-retarded. Shut up and go away lest you achieve the physical retribution your behaviour merits.
Then I am going to ban you!
Of course, I really am not going to do all that… but I might ban you. Don’t make me do that. We have a great community here. So be nice to one another, or I will beat the hell out of you. I mean it! Well, I am just kidding and being sarcastic, but if you have any questions, just do what Tim McGraw advises here (listen to Tug’s kid!):
Sometimes the mere suggestion that there might be a problem sends people speeding over the edge. I don’t know there’s a problem with Buehler’s arm, but I do know there is a problem with the results of his fastball. The league was hitting .100 something against it and now, according to Orel, they are hitting 400 something against it. Last year Buehler started 33 games, and had 28 quality starts vs 5 non quality starts. That includes 25 of his first 27 starts being quality starts. This year in 8 starts, he has 2 quality starts and 6 non quality starts. The metrics are there to analyze. Ignore them if you choose.
Julio up. I just went over his metrics at fangraphs and I would comment on them here but I don’t want to be yelled at and called names, so I’ll just say I think he needs to do a better job of commanding the edges.
There’s plenty of time for both Julio and Walker to get back to doing what they do best. Maybe it can start on this road trip.
What you say about Julio is absolutely true.
No one is going to yell at you for speaking truth.
Buehler needs to do the same.
We just don’t know the cause.
I think the rule here, as it always has, still holds true. If you have a take, just don’t suck.
If you have a better argument, make it. If you have stats and the data, provide them.
Jeff made the better argument about Buehler’s fastball, but rather than engage, there is just whining that Mark is mean.
Thank you?
Silence, Commie!
That was a joke, btw.
I’m texting as quietly as I can!
I think what you meant to type was:
I’m texting, to control the means of production, as quietly as possible.
Would somebody assign me a general strike for that?
Well that’s strike one for you! Now your tied with me! Two more and you’ll be texting to LAangeltalk!
Commies are subversive like that.
Morning gang. Cloudy and overcast all day here yesterday. Reflects the mood of some. Found out Steve has been wearing the wrong braces for his legs. Bad medicine. We get the right ones today. Might explain the swelling in his knees. Oh well, game on at 4.
Hey, if you were home you might get some snow tonight.
Cheers
Not in Canon. Denver maybe
Currently 35 there w/rain. Forecast is 2-6 in overnight there bro. Enjoy Cali!
Off days, eh? There won’t be many over the next couple of weeks, so at least that’s good.
Baseball is a very weird game. It seems at times, that guys come out of nowhere and look like like instant HOF’ers. Since so many people are so concerned about the Dodgers’ pitching staff, I wanted to take a look at ERA leaders for Starting Pitchers. I typically don’t follow too closely so early in the year because things change so quickly and it isn’t until further into the season when statistics start to normalize and we start to get a clear picture of player performance.
I was surprise to see polar opposites in the top two spots and was also surprised to see household names like Pablo Lopez, Alek Manoah, Martin Perez, and Drew Rasmussen firmly planted in the top 10.
Back to the top two spots. We have a 27 year old, soft tossing lefty, Nestor Cortez in the top spot while pitching for the Yankees. Then we have 39 year old stud, Justin Verlander in the second spot. They are polar opposites of each other, but the results are similar. The 5’11” Nestor is having a good run. He used to be a reliever, then a swingman. Now he’s Greg Maddux, owner of a 1.35 ERA though 7 starts. He came up with the Orioles, then was with the Yankees, then the Mariners, back to the Yankees last year and now he’s the ERA leader in all of MLB. Not bad for a 36th round pick with a 90 MPH fastball.
What are the chances he’s going to be elite at the end of the year?
Back to Buehler. Unlike so many others, I’m not drinking the Kool-Aid until I’m certain that Jim Jones didn’t make it. People come up with the narrative that his velo is down. Is it? Last year his Ave Velo was 95.3, so far this year it’s 95.1. Not a big difference. However, the spin rate is down quite a bit, almost 200 RMPs from last year. In fact, he’s never had such a low spin rate, ever on that pitch. Does that indicate injury?
Since CK has had a bit of resurgence with a 1.80 ERA before he went down, I figured I would compare him with Buehler. Clayton’s fastball was hit for a 295 batting ave against last year. This year, just .189. Last year’s velo was 90.6 compared to 90.5 this year. And spin rate? Actually down this year 2418 compared to 2506 last year. WTF?
Go ahead and make your own conclusions. I think spin rate is hurting Walker’s fastball, but it’s most likely location. I think it will fix itself over the course of a season.
Last year the Braves won the World Series. Their Starting Pitching was solid, but not exactly what some would call “Playoff Quality” much less “World Series Quality”. Ground Chuck “Charlie Morton” was their workhorse. 33 Starts and 185.2 innings of 3.34 ERA. Fried was their ace with 3.04 ERA over 28 starts and 165 innings. Ian Anderson was “Their 3rd Ace” with a 9-5 record, a 3.58 ERA 24 starts and 128.1 innings, yet they won it all. Smyly, Ynoa, Toussaint, Muller got the bulk of the rest of the starts for team and all of them had an ERA of 4+.
We traded for one of the game’s best pitchers and he wasn’t able to go when called upon even though Doc limited his innings down the stretch, something that Scherzer criticized on his way out.
The really funny thing is that we had three guys that finished in the top 10 in Cy Young voting and the Braves finished with nobody, yet they won the World Series with a rotation that maybe wasn’t “Playoff Quality” much less “World Series Quality”.
People seem to come up with narratives that don’t make a whole lot of sense. Worries about Buehler’s velocity, even though it’s the same as it was last year when he finished 4th in Cy young voting. 12 Starting Pitchers isn’t enough and we need to trade for more. You need three aces. May can’t possibly be used as a starter the whole year. Bauer has to be cut even though, no charges, no case, even if he wins his arbitration.
Remember when the narrative was that the Dodger’s won’t go over the cap, spend on a reliever, sign a long term contract?
I read an article this morning from April 19th with Buehler saying he was “still searching for his fastball”. It’s a month later and I read this yesterday – “Buehler’s fastball velocity has decreased with each season, down more than a tick from 96.5 in 2019 to 95.1 mph entering his start Wednesday. He isn’t able to spin it as well, reducing his ability to generate late movement (which has also taken a hit). The pitch isn’t missing bats, going from one of the better heaters in baseball to one of the worst individual pitches in the league. While he’s generating more soft contact on average, he’s also getting pummeled (usually on fastballs) more than ever.”
Make of that what you will.
I think I’ll wait til later to comment on where Urias finds himself. Maybe he goes 8 and shuts them down completely.
J.Dominique: “Contrary to what was written, I do not believe that Walker Buehler is throwing less hard to become more effective.”
A month ago I said I was worried about his Buehler fastball slowing down and everyone said nahhhh.
Now there are more people talking about this topic, in two months this topic will be everywhere.
No, don’t compare the fastball’s speed drop to 2021, compare it to 2020, it was 2021 when his mileage loss began.
Buehler last year was wonderful until that game in SF where he allowed 6 runs, from then on he was no longer at the same level.
“When you let the bravado get into play, and try to bully guys with just fastballs, I think that it doesn’t go as well,” Roberts said Wednesday morning of what was once Buehler’s ultimate torture pitch.
So, the Dodgers are aware that WHEN YOU TRY AND BULLY GUYS WITH JUST FASTBALLS, IT DOESN’T GO AS WELL, but we are supposed to believe that Buehler is not throwing less hard because it doesn’t go as well?
Yeah, sure!!!???
If speed was everything, Bazooka would be our closer now.
To me, the spin rate drop off is much more important. When/if he fixes that, he regains his late movement and suddenly his fastball is a big weapon again.
So Philly scores 3 runs in the series against Pads. So how does our staff respond to that? We couldn’t get a starter to give up 3 runs in 5 innings in our series!
To me, it leads back to mechanical problems and/or deliberately changed fastball usage. Of course, no one is going to tell you which it is… or both.
Has anyone had the time to analyze if Buehler’s spin rates have gone down since the ban and emphasis on “the sticky”? Does he lose significant rpm’s without a grip aid?
Great point Phil. Worth looking into.
That is a stroke of genius, Phil.
At the beginning of last year, in May his for seamer averaged 2605 RMP. It’s been in a steady decline thereafter. 2329 in September and 2270 so far this year. So, yes.
News from Internet:
Baseball America looks at the stats for minors, and comments on them
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/minor-league-offensive-data-standouts-for-april/
Damon Keith, OF Dodgers
Low-A Rancho Cucamonga (California)
Key Metrics: .470 wOBA, 89 mph average exit velocity, 24.5% swing-and-miss rate, .245 isolated slugging percentage
Jacob Amaya, SS Dodgers
Double-A Tulsa (Texas)
Key Metrics: .514 wOBA, 90 mph average exit velocity, 20% swing-and-miss rate, .446 isolated slugging percentage
For Jorge, Fangraphs looks at the Padres’ farm system:
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/san-diego-padres-top-35-prospects-2022/
Jay Jaffe says Mookie Betts is fine:
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/mookie-betts-is-mostly-fine/
ERIC LONGENHAGEN had a chat
Rick
12:44 Do you see Baty or Vargas as the future starting 3b for Mets and Dodgers and if so, when?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:46 I became a little more apprehensive about Baty after seeing him in the Fall League (swing playability stuff) but yes, think he projects as an everyday third baseman. Vargas I have in as more of a good 1B/3B role player than a slam dunk every day, every inning guy. The Dodgers list went up at the site last week and there’s excruciating detail there.
Roger
1:09 Is Clayton Beeter the next Dodgers SP that comes out of no where to become a viable SP? They seem to be stretching him out for a starter’s workload like they did with Bobby Miller
Eric A Longenhagen
1:09 I’m pretty resolved that he’s a reliever. Doesn’t have typical starter’s athleticism at all. Still good, though. Nasty RP.
David (formerly Sonoma State)
1:37 In looking at the Dodgers top prospect list, they have 4 players with a FV of “Average Everyday Player” (50+) or better, and a lot of depth with “Low End Regulard/Platoon.” This sounds snarky, but I swear this is a genuine question, this suffices for a potential top MLB farm system? Am I thinking about this wrong? Love your content, thanks for all the hard work.
Eric A Longenhagen
1:38 More about the depth than the top end for me.
For Badger, on the spin of batted balls.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-lurking-influence-of-batted-ball-spin/
and here:
https://theathletic.com/3318648/2022/05/18/giants-extend-a-streak-vs-rockies-and-tommy-la-stella-hit-a-homer-464-feet/?source=emp_shared_article
Further on spin, Fabian Ardaya reports: “Chris Taylor and Trea Turner have talked quite a bit in recent days about the relevance/importance of getting backspin to get these new baseballs to carry. Not surprising the Giants are well aware of it too.”
JAY JAFFE had a chat:
Alex Wei asked: Hey Jay! Do you see any of the Dodgers’ up-and-coming minor league prospects (Bobby Miller, Miguel Vargas, Michael Busch, etc.) making a sizable impact with the big league club later on this season? (Ryan Pepiot and Michael Grove have already been called up to make spot starts, but they may not stick around too long if/when Kershaw and/or Heaney return.)
Jay Jaffe answered: Given the strength of the big club’s roster, I think their contributions, if any, will be at the margins unless there are multiple major injuries. Pepiot’s two starts and AAA assignment already suggests that he’s ahead of the other starters in the pecking order. And I do think they believe they’ll be getting Heaney and Kershaw back sooner rather than later. As for the position players, this team has so much depth and flexibility. It’s built to have guys like Taylor and Lux who can slide into a spot in the case of an injury
Geoff Pontes has first hand observations of prospects ($$$$)
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/pontes-of-view-may-20/
Lael Lockhart, LHP High-A Great Lakes (Dodgers)
“…Overall, Lockhart is a fringe prospect, but his unusual background and the Dodgers track record of developing pitchers make him perhaps more than meets the eye….”
Antonio Knowles, RHP High-A Great Lakes (Dodgers)
“….His primary pitch is his slider as he throws it nearly twice as much as his four-seam. His slider sits 82-85 mph with heavy sweeper shape. Despite the heavy usage, it’s far and away his best bat-missing pitch…”
Ryan Sublette, RHP High-A Great Lakes (Dodgers)
“….Sublette showed true reliever-quality stuff, sitting 94-95 mph and touching 96 mph on his four-seamer with heavy bore and moderate ride. …”
Gavin Stone, RHP High-A Great Lakes (Dodgers)
“…Stone possesses a true three-pitch-mix with a starter’s command of his arsenal and the ability to live on the edges of the strike zone to all four quadrants. ..”
Cole Percival, RHP High-A Great Lakes (Dodgers)
“….It was a solid look from Percival, who may have enough velocity and feel for his secondaries to cut it in a bullpen role long term. As a starter, he lacked a true putaway pitch and it was easier for batters to make contact the second time through the order…”
BEN CLEMENS had a chat
Zach: Is Muncy going to turn things around? Seems like he might still be hurt?
2:34
Ben Clemens: I think he’s still hurt
Insert Witty Name Here: With the dead ball, is Trea Turner now a 10-15 HR guy?
2:56
Ben Clemens: I would assume so. He popped 19 homers in 2019, 19 in 2018, both in fairly full seasons with a livelier ball
2:56
Ben Clemens: He’s not really hitting the ball harder now than he did then, and not really elevating more consistently or anything
2:57
Ben Clemens: I don’t think he’ll continue with this year’s 3.2% HR/FB, but 10-15 sounds like a reasonable landing place to me. Maybe 15-20 at the high end
Two (2) recent Dodger promotions:
Michael Busch, to OKC
Jose Ramos, to Great Lakes
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/hot-sheet-baseballs-20-hottest-prospects-from-the-past-week-51722/
8. Michael Busch, 2B, Dodgers
Team: Double-A Tulsa (Texas)
Age: 24
6. Eddys Leonard, SS, Dodgers
Team: High-A Great Lakes (Midwest)
Age: 21
Ok, I read my assignment. A lot of words. I could condense it. Top spin sinks. Back spin rises. I learned about top spin from Tommy Davis. I rolled my top hand on contact. Basically a doubles hitter. In the gaps. Hit the ball and run to second. Of course, with a few exceptions the fences on the fields I played on were further away than the short porches these MLB behemoths are swinging at.
That’s a lot of work you put in Bluto. Thanks.
Thx Bluto. Good stuff
Game time 7:05 ET
Dodgers (25-12)
Phillies (18-20)
SP Julio Urias L
2-3 3.00 ERA 26K
Confirmed Lineup
RF Mookie Betts R
1B F. Freeman L
SS Trea Turner R
C Will Smith R
DH J. Turner R
LF Chris Taylor R
CF C. Bellinger L
3B H. Alberto R
2B Gavin Lux L
Partly-cloudy-day
3% Rain
78° Wind 9 mph R-L
I always had wonder why Ted Williams was not in the 3000 hit club and cross today with this tweet.
Ted Williams’ career stats:
– 2654 H
– 525 2B
– 521 HR
– 1798 R
– 1839 RBI
– 2021 BB
AND YET:
Lost ages 24, 25 & 26 years to WWII.
Lost almost all of ages 33 & 34 years to the Korean War.
If you think “Eh, he was 34 anyway”:
Hit .345, .356, .345, .388 his first four years after Korea.
Ted Williams was an alien! He did not have an easy job in the Military. He was a freakin Fighter Pilot!
Wow, and I thought he was a fisherman.
Yeah. A fly fisherman.
see what I did there?
https://youtu.be/_asNhzXq72w
Wow! 5 years! His career numbers would have been crazy. Somebody smarter than me please translate!
He fought with and against Commies!
Run Cassidy!
Me and Forrest!
Forrest was a commie?
No but he could run! Away from his bullies
521 career homers. Figure his average per year per Baseball reference, 37 per year times 5 equals 185 more homers for a total of 706. 130 RBI’s times 5 equals 650, 2489 Ribbies, and 188 hits times 5 equals 1440 hits plus 2654 is 4094 hits. And he does it years before Rose breaks Cobbs record. Those are his projected numbers. But we are talking about 5 years when he was still an elite hitter. Would have easily passed Ruth.
Thx Bear. Wow!
Roberts: Kershaw Likely A Couple Weeks From Throwing Bullpen Session
By Anthony Franco | May 20, 2022 at 2:21pm CDT
Clayton Kershaw landed on the 15-day injured list a week ago, and it doesn’t seem his return is imminent. Manager Dave Roberts told Dani Wexelman of MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM this afternoon that Kershaw was likely still a couple weeks from throwing a bullpen session (via Jon Morosi of MLB.com).
When Kershaw first went on the IL, there’d been optimism he could return after a minimal stint. The club wasn’t ruling out the three-time Cy Young winner from throwing a bullpen session this week, and there seemed a chance he’d avoid a minor league rehab appearance. Kershaw felt continued soreness while playing catch, however, meaning the progression will take longer than initially hoped.
It seems the earliest Kershaw will throw a bullpen session is now at the beginning of June. He’ll probably need multiple sessions before progressing to game action, and nearly a month will have passed since the time of his IL placement. That long a layoff probably necessitates a minor league appearance or two before Kershaw’s able to make it back to Dodger Stadium. With that in mind, mid-June would seem to be a rough target date for his possible return.
It still doesn’t seem the organization is too concerned, as Roberts said earlier this week that Kershaw would continue lightly throwing. His current injury is inflammation of the right SI joint in his hip, which is obviously less concerning than a possible arm issue would’ve been. Kershaw’s 2021 season was cut short by forearm/elbow concerns, but he avoided surgery and returned to the Dodgers on a one-year, $17MM deal over the winter.
Going to the Angels-A’s game tomorrow night. My exe girlfriend got tickets but I think she is more interested in the Josh Turner concert after the game.
Old friend Pedro Baez has signed a minor league contract with the Dodgers.
Print the tickets
so S L O W
If anyone needs a lesson from Freddie on going the other way with an outside pitch it’s CT3. He has absolutely the same swing wherever the ball is pitched.
Over the course of his career, Chris Taylor pulls the ball 35.8 % and goes oppo 27.7%. The last two years, this year and last, he’s pulled the ball significantly more. 47.9% this year and 42.2% last year, compared to going oppo at 16.9% this year and 22.4% the year before.
His best years 2017 – 2019, he went oppo more often than he does now. 27.3, 28.5, 32.2.
2017 was his best year. 33.2% pull, 39.4% middle, 27.3% oppo.
Agreed, he needs to start going the other way more often, Forrest.
Love it! Just glad that I didn’t have to run away from my observation!
5 innings. 80 pitches. 52 strikes. He had Philly chasing. Philly has been shut out 2 of the last 3.
Good outing. He got squeezed a few times, missed his spot, several times. 80 pitches isn’t that many.
CT3 with 8 runners LOB tonight. That sucks and I don’t need any stat or research to state that, my eyes saw it.
Well the arms answered the call tonight. Julio had the slurve and the change up working! And a jumbo jack!
To tell you the truth, I think PBickford is going to the IL. That 92 high fast ball is no where acceptable, at least in my book.
Something has to be wrong.
You are guessing. He got outs. But left one over the plate. Would have been no runs had there not been that shot down the line with 2 outs. Wait and see what the team says.
It seems the Price is Right for tomorrow.
Mitch White gets the start tomorrow 3:05ET is what Dave Roberts said.
11:15 PM · May 20, 2022
I see a bullpen game.