Here we are a little over a month into the season. So, I thought I would check on some of our old friends and see how they are doing after leaving the blue. I guess one of the reasons is that I always felt that Cody Bellinger would, at some point, start to at least resemble the player he was a few seasons ago.
I have always believed that his shoulder injury had a whole lot to do with his swing problems. So far, he is hitting very well for the Cubs. .291-7-18. OPS of .937, which puts him in the top 20 of MLB. His replacement, James Outman, is at .290-7-21, OPS .980. So Cody’s production has been matched by his replacement.
Muncy has been hitting for power with 12 long balls and 27 driven in. His OPS is 3rd in the majors at 1.039. The man he replaced as the primary third baseman, JT, is hitting .273 with two homers and ten driven in. His OPS is .749. Muncy had his average up around .250, but a slide in the last couple of games brought it down to .239.
Trea Turner has yet to get untracked with the Phillies. He is at .259-3-8. He only has 4 stolen bases, but a more disturbing stat is his 35 K’s in 135 at-bats. Trea will no doubt get better as the season progresses, but that is a high K rate. We all know how Kimbrel is doing; he looks a lot like last year.
Tyler Anderson and his 3-year deal with the Angels do not look all that great right now. He is 1-0 with a 5.74 ERA. Andrew Heaney is 2-2 with a 5.52 ERA and has given up 7 bombs in six games. Edwin Rios, who I always thought just needed some playing time, is only hitting .100 in Chicago. Both Chris Martin and Kenley Jansen are doing well in Boston. Jansen had not blown a game until the other day and has seven saves. Martin’s ERA in 9 games is a solid 2.00.
Fan favorite Joe Kelly is not flourishing in Chicago, 0-1, 7.71 ERA. The Giants have three exe Dodgers on their pitching staff; of the three, only Scott Alexander, 2-0, has a winning record. Strip is 0-1 and Wood, who is on the IL has none but a sparkling 1.80 ERA. Joc Pederson is hitting .250-3-13 with an OPS over .800. Matt Beaty is back in the minors.
Alex Verdugo is having a stellar year, .315-5-18, with a .897 OPS. Kike .243-3-11. And Connor Wong, who most fans forget got his start in LA and went to Boston as part of the Betts trade, is hitting .284-3-10. Connor Joe, another former LA farmhand, is playing in Pittsburgh. .295-4-11. It seems former LA hitters are doing a lot better than the pitchers. Joe was originally drafted by the Pirates but was property of the Dodgers in 2017 and 2019.
Hyun Jin Ryu and Kenta Maeda have had injury issues this year. Ryu is yet to pitch, and Maeda has lost all four of his starts. I really do not feel that the Dodgers have missed any of these guys at this point. You could make a case that Bellinger would just be blocking Outman. But you could also make the case that had they retained Bellinger, neither Heyward nor Peralta would have been signed.
It seems Mookie is following the same script he has throughout his career. He has never been a strong hitter in April. But as it heats up, so does Betts. We can all hope the same will happen with Martinez once he is back in the lineup.
Keibert Ruiz is still trying to reach the potential the Dodgers saw in him. .248-2-8. Jeter Downs was sent to the minors by the Nats. Josiah Gray is 2-4, but his ERA is very good at 2.67. DC’s lack of offense is no doubt a factor in his W-L record.
Zack McKinstry is doing well as a utility guy in Detroit, and their old friend, Rich Hill, has a winning record as a starter for the Pirates. Now, do any of these guys ever have a chance to wear the blue again??? Doubtful, but it has happened. Over the years, several players have returned to LA after leaving. I will continue to monitor their progress or regress as the season marches on. Play Ball!!!
Bear, Luke Raly is with the Rays and has played 1st, LF and RF. In 22 games he’s hitting .227/.903.
* Really entertaining game yesterday. Nice to come back from a big deficit to win. We continued to battle. I’m sure that Doc critics were all ready to blast the decision to pinch hit with Barnes in the 8th. Damned if he didn’t come through with a big 2 RBI knock. Great to see him have some success. Also fortunate that Doc didn’t poll the audience prior to the move. Who was the skipper that said if you listen to the fans wishes long enough, pretty soon you’ll be sitting with them?”
* Grand salami time by Muncy after being 0 for 4 with 2 K’s. Way to keep grinding Max.
Thoughts on the game:
* Stone needs a pitch or 2 beside that highly advertised change up.
What is a change up? I have thought it’s a “change” of speed from what is typically a “normal”, expected pitch. Usually the fastball. I’ve never understood how a hitter who has never seen a pitcher can’t be started with 3 straight change ups.
Stone never established a fastball or had command with anything but the change. That pitch alone, behaving like an old screw-ball, could get a reliever through an inning. But it won’t cut it as a starter. I saw some good things and like his mechanics. He will be fine and will hopefully show up next time with more command and trust in his fastball and breaker.
* Vargas again showed nice feet with a great cross over double-play pivot from Muncy. Not to beat that to death but Lux never that turn in his bag.
* I really like Bryson Stott of the Phillies. When we decided to let Trea Turner go, I mentioned that I would explore looking into dealing for Stott who I think did a nice job at short. We opted to go with Lux instead. Stott moved nicely to 2nd. He is 25, a LHB and making the league minimum. I think he’s destined to a nice career. He caught my eye last year as an under the radar get.
* We get a steady diet of ex-pitchers in the booth. Nomar being the exception. They all are paid to scrutinize pitching and frequently criticize pitch selection and location when big league batters get a hit. It’s like there is always something wrong with the pitch if the best players in the world get a hit. “That pitch needed to be slightly more elevated”, kind of shit. Every hit isn’t off a BAD pitch. The hitters need more credit. They get paid too.
And a lot of mid mid mistakes get fouled off!
I totally forgot about Raley. Forgot about Zack Pop too.
Bear, Mark, anyone, I know it’s early but do you see the loss of any of these players as a mistake? Which one, and who would you release in their place?
I do not think any of these was a mistake at all. I think they took the right path to lower payroll some and give their own prospects a shot. They have replaced Bellinger’s 17.5-million-dollar deal with 2 players making under 2 million combined and those 2 guys are both playing well. As for Syndergaard, only time will tell if signing him was a mistake. No way they were giving Anderson a 3-year contract.
Bear, Rich Hill is playing for the Pirates this year. Last year was the Red Sox. I know it’s hard to keep track since he seems to put on a different uniform every year.
Fixed it. I knew that but 74 year olds are prone to brain farts.
Thanks for the update on all those guys. I root for them still… except when they play the Dodgers.
Another old friend is Willie Calhoun, who went to the Rangers in the Darvish deal. Now he’s with the Yankees with extra poundage that has him looking like a mini-Pablo Sandoval. He used to profile a bit like Busch: A good hitter with no good position (but Busch seems better). Fittingly, Calhoun is in a DH platoon, hitting .250 with 2 HRs.
And I think DJ Peters is in his second season in Korea. Not sure.
But speaking of the Yankees, Brian Cashman says he is looking to trade some of their infield prospect depth if the return is fair. The Dodgers seem thin on infield prospects, so…. we’ll see.
Also, former Dodger prospect Calvin Beeter–who AF traded to the Yanks for Gallo–is pitching well in the minors a considered a possible future closer, according to the mlb.com Yankees reporter.
Meanwhile, the Angels beat the suddenly hapless Cards again. St Louis fans are booing like Philadelphians. Every Angel win is a good news/bad news story for me: good that the Angels win, bad that Ohtani is less likely to be traded. He’d really look good in blue.
It’s Clayton Beeter, and the possibility of him becoming a closer has existed. He’s a starter without much control right about now.
DJ signed a minor league contract with Detroit. He was optioned in ST. He has yet to play this year in AAA.
Rockies claim Austin Wynns off waivers from Dodgers. Catcher was designated for assignment by LA on Monday
It should be rockin at Petco tonight. Can’t wait! Shut em down Kersh!
Darvish now pitching tonight instead of Musgrove. May vs Snell tomorrow night and Urias vs Musgrove Sunday night on ESPN.
Alex Vesia had a rough outing at Oklahoma City last night. He came into the 8th inning with the 2-1 lead and here is his line: 0-1 .1IP 4H 5R 5ER 2HR 1BB 0K 135.0ERA, He won’t be seeing LA very soon.
Bear, you forgot sticky fingers Max Scherzer, 2-2 5.56ER 6HR in 22.2IP.
I know, but I never really consider rental players to be real Dodgers. I enjoy excluding dirt bags like Machado and Scherzer.
I like very much that our incoming rookies are line drive hitters. Vargas is coming along very well, looks like his thumb is healing. In a side note, I has been watching a lot of Marlins and Luis Arraez is something else!! Since Tony Wynn, I had not seen a pure hitter like him. A joy to see!!
Hi Bear. Did you mention Justin Turner? How is he doing? Thanks
Straight from his write up….”The man he replaced as the primary third baseman, JT, is hitting .273 with two homers and ten driven in. His OPS is .749. “
Thank you.
Right-hander Nick Frasso was named Texas League pitcher of the month for April on Thursday, the only Dodgers minor leaguer to win a monthly award.
Frasso allowed only three runs in his five starts, leading the league with a 1.23 ERA to go with 30 strikeouts and five walks in 22 innings. He struck out a season-high eight in five innings in a win at Arkansas on April 25, and also had scoreless starts at home against Wichita and at Arkansas.
The 24-year-old from Loyola Marymount, who was acquired by the Dodgers from Toronto in the Mitch White trade last August, is scheduled to start next for Tulsa on Sunday.
Corey Seager has only 49 PA’s this year, but he had a great start. His BA is .359 with an OBP of .469. I believe he is still on the IL. I hope he has a very good year.
I wonder if San Diego is trying to restrict ticket sales to Dodgers fans as they’ve done so at last season’s playoffs. Can be certain they’ll be summoning everything they have against us especially tonight. Can’t hardly wait to watch Kershaw spank their asses. Must see TV!
AJ pollock hitting .153 in 59 ABs for Seattle.
Been on the IL already.
Pollock did hit a homer and double in a Mariner win on Wednesday.
Frasso the # 9 prospect looks like will be promoted to AAA in the near future. I suspect he will be up with the big club before the end of the season. Nice return on White who I had been looking at for a few years but never quite made it with the Dodgers.
Worst stat of the week:
Team Stadium Beer price per ounce
Seattle Mariners T-Mobile Park $0.33
Atlanta Braves Truist Park $0.42
Minnesota Twins Target Field $0.42
Miami Marlins LoanDepot Park $0.42
Toronto Blue Jays Rogers Centre $0.47
New York Yankees Yankee Stadium $0.47
Colorado Rockies Coors Field $0.53
Kansas City Royals Kauffman Stadium $0.54
Los Angeles Angels Angel Stadium $0.58
Pittsburgh Pirates PNC Park $0.60
Arizona Diamondbacks Chase Field $0.60
St. Louis Cardinals Busch Stadium $0.61
Oakland Athletics Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum $0.62
Philadelphia Phillies Citizens Bank Park $0.62
Washington Nationals Nationals Park $0.62
New York Mets Citi Field $0.63
Cleveland Guardians Progressive Field $0.63
San Francisco Giants Oracle Park $0.64
Houston Astros Minute Maid Park $0.64
Texas Rangers Globe Life Field $0.66
Boston Red Sox Fenway Park $0.66
Baltimore Orioles Camden Yards $0.69
Chicago White Sox Guaranteed Rate Field $0.69
Cincinnati Reds Great American Ballpark $0.69
Detroit Tigers Comerica Park $0.69
Milwaukee Brewers American Family Field $0.69
San Diego Padres Petco Park $0.69
Los Angeles Dodgers Dodger Stadium $0.99
They are obviously helping us to drink responsibly!
And how many Costco dogs can you get for one Dodger dog?
Teams gotta sell Bud Light for pennies on the dollar now….
What?
I don’t drink much beer, but is light beer out of favor with the hard drinks now?
Oh its out of favor alright….
Ya missed Gutfeld? He has been ripping Bud Light for a couple of weeks now over their choice of spokes person…..uh, ok.
That was the stupidest marketing gaff in the history of the world.
In case you don’t get out much, Bud Light and Bud are Redneck beers, so it seems perfectly acceptable to bring on a transgender model to be their spokesman? Who thought it would go south?
Yep and it cost them a ton of money.
Wait. What?
Just Read about this, sounds ridiculous and stupid.
SD’s world series tonight.
Think they will have a parade, hang a banner if they win tonight???
Hope we shove it up their…..A
I second that motion.
Padres sure put on a display after beating the Dodgers in the regular season.
If SD considers an in season series their world series, they need help
Thursday scores
El Paso 8, Oklahoma City 2
Tulsa vs. San Antonio, postponed
Great Lakes 4, Quad Cities 2
Rancho Cucamonga , Lake Elsinore, postponed
Friday schedule
3:05 p.m. PT: Tulsa (Emmet Sheehan, Landon Knack) vs. San Antonio (Nolan Watson, TBD), doubleheader
3:05 p.m.: Great Lakes (Orlando Ortiz-Mayr) vs. Quad Cities (Chandler Champlain)
5:35 p.m.: Oklahoma City (Bobby Miller) at El Paso (TBD)
7:15 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Luis Valdez) at Lake Elsinore (Fernando Sanchez)
Asked Chat/Gpt who wins this weekend:
“ That’s a good question. The Dodgers and the Padres are two of the best teams in the MLB and they have a heated rivalry that goes back to last season when the Padres eliminated the Dodgers in the NLDS1. The first series of 2023 between them is starting today at Petco Park and it’s expected to be a thrilling showdown23.
According to the sports data from Bing4, the Dodgers have a slight edge over the Padres in terms of win probability (51.9% vs 48.1%) and standings (19-13 vs 17-15). However, the Padres have been heating up lately with their offense led by Xander Bogaerts and Fernando Tatis Jr.5. The pitching matchups are also very exciting, with Clayton Kershaw facing Joe Musgrove today, Dustin May against Yu Darvish tomorrow, and Julio Urias versus Blake Snell on Sunday3.
So, based on these factors, I would say that the Dodgers have a better chance of winning the series, but it’s very close and anything can happen in baseball. What do you think?”
Good enough but, “…heated rivalry that goes back to last season…”?
No way. A bit of soft toss to keep Dago fans happy. Sheesh.
Between those three pitchers, the Padres have exactly 3 wins and 6 losses. Snell is 1-4 Darvish is 1-2 and Musgrove is 1-0. All have ERA’s north of 3. Musgrove’s is 10.80. Shut down their offense and they suck.
Guaranteed to happen: Snell goes Cy Young for 3 and we light him up in fourth.
Darvish looked nasty last I saw him. He’s a stud.
Who knows which Musgrove shows up. He ain’t all that.
Darvish is merely a very good pitcher, but he can be beaten.
Game I saw he had a filthy slider working.
13 k’s when I bailed.
Couple of Dodger tiktok dudes need to slow down on the Cody Sainthood.
Small sampling cherry pickers.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRws8HFN/
The Dodgers let Kike Hernandez go after 2020. Probably because they thought Taylor was the essentially the same player and they had confidence in McKinstry, who played IF and OF.
Mc Kinstry started off very well in 2021 before he was injured. He did not return to form and did not get playing time because Roberts was having a bromance with a string of outfielders hitting under .200. Eventually, McKinstry made a couple of errors and he got buried on the bench and I believe he was spending time in the minors too. Seemed like giving up on him too early. Especially, trading him for a one or two month rent a pitcher. I thought they should have traded some other guy in the minors.
Kiki’s the streakiest guy around. Still.
Agst Blue Jays , at SS, he made a crazy stop on a bullet, throws guy out from his knees.
Would later have 2 errors in one inning. One of his throws was a good 20 ‘ above firstbaseman.
That’s Kiki in a nutshell.
I always considered Kike a .211 hitter, which is what he was. Roberts gave him 2B to start one year. He played his way onto the bench in about a month. Iwas surprised that his batting average went up in Boston last year. I wonder if the Green Monster helped him.
He did sometimes come up big for the Dodgers when they needed.it
Kiki’s a good guy. Glad he got paid.
Me too
9:40 PM ET
Dodgers (19-13) 1st Place
Padres (17-15) 2GB
SP Clayton Kershaw L
5-1 1.89 ERA 38IP 41K
SP Yu Darvish R
1-2 3.60 ERA 30IP 34K
Confirmed Lineup
RF Mookie Betts R
1B F. Freeman L
C Will Smith R
3B Max Muncy L
CF J. Heyward L
LF James Outman L
2B M. Vargas R
DH D. Peralta L
SS Miguel Rojas R
Partly-cloudy-day
11% Precipitation
61° Wind 11 mph L-R
Ex Dodger Edwin Rios was optioned to Cub’s Triple-A Iowa.
The padres are wearing their Friday nigh beer league costumes tonight. They look ridiculous in those costumes. I hope the Dodgers blow them out like they did Philly. They’re too ugly to be called uniforms.
Why isn’t Kersh throwing his slider with 2 strikes?!!! No where near the stuff he had last outing. This is going to be a struggle
Nice throw by Will Smith. Also, nice tag by Vargas letting that ball travel right into the runner and not catching it out front and bring it back
Vargas keeps improving looking like a natural at 2nd base
Anyone who thinks our main rivalry is with the Giants and not the Padres needs to think again.
Your main rival needs a villain or two. The Padres have a few.
The Giants roster has absolutely no personality.
Tonight feels like last year’s playoffs.
Just a matter of time, Kersh without his best getting tagged by a dangerous Padre top order.
Man, I can’t stand Tatis, but that sure is a lightning quick swing.
Seems to me that Dodger bats feast on bad and mediocre pitching but struggles against good and elite (playoff) pitching. I feel Freddie is only Dodger we count on to hit elite pitching
Elite pitching usually does shut down even the best hitters. when elite pitcher has his stuff, you’re most likely only gonna hit mistakes. and Darvish wasn’t making very many mistakes.
It’s just a shame that our elite pitcher didn’t have his best stuff tonight.
Yeah, those Padre uniforms look like one of those push-up ice creams’ with the multiflavored sherbet, ice cream inside
I want to say, the Padres uniforms look like something designed by Taco Bell.
“Let’s go Chelipas”
It looks Mexican, but it ain’t.
Dodgers will come back.
Muncy needs to swing at the first pitch more than once in a blue moon.
Miller got squeezed TWICE that inning!
I meant twice for walks.
I wonder why Doc started Rojas instead of Betts at shortstop.
I’d rather see Taylor or Thompson start instead of Rojas.
I guess Dave Roberts threw in the white towel by bringing in this pitcher suero.
Choosing Thompson against lefty Hader confirmed the white towel.
Did I see that right, Taylor pinch-hit for Muncy? And Doc still thinks Thompson can hit LHP. Might as well have kept Heyward in there. Speaking of that the Dodgers seriously need to add an outfielder that hits LHP and one of the trio that only hit RHP needs to go.
Let’s be real about things, this is who Clayton Kershaw is nowadays.
He is no longer an Ace, and hasn’t been for a couple of seasons, as the various injuries and innings pitched have taken their toll on him.
He is still a very good Pitcher, but no longer Elite. He is a #3.
It is not realistic to expect him to pitch like an Ace any more. He is still my favourite player but let’s get some perspective. The Dodgers will struggle in the Post Season unless they can pick up someone to pair with Julio in the shorter series.
I’m not being negative, I’m really enjoying the season so far, but we need another top end Starter.
Gonsolin isn’t good enough for you?
Kersh was NL pitcher of the month
Mark, heading to Scarsdale New York to watch the three grandkids participate in sports. Will be unable to post the lineup today but will be on it Sunday.
https://www.baseballpress.com/lineups
David Vassegh
@THEREAL_DV
Dave Roberts removed Max Muncy from tonight’s game because Muncy has been dealing with flu-like symptoms the last couple days. #Dodgers
Well, that sucked. No clutch hitting, again. And Kershaw wasn’t sharp. Oh well. Could be this way all year.
San Diego is a good club. They look a lot different with Tatis back in the lineup. Kinda like we did with Trea Turner.