Having lived in other cities who have MLB teams, I know that sometimes the folks who live in those cities, or even states, feel you should be a fan of the team that plays there. I spent 12 years living in Phoenix and I have been here in Colorado for almost 13. When I was driving long haul and working out of Denver, I did that for almost 7. So, 32 years away from my home team, not counting the 9 I spent in the service, and never have I ever considered rooting for another team.
This of course applies mostly to baseball. I have always been a USC fan. Don’t know how that all started but, in my life, I have only been to two college football games, USC-UCLA about 1962, and a Sun Bowl game in El Paso while I was in the Army between LSU and Auburn. I was a Ram fan until they left. Never warmed to the invaders from up north, the Raiders. Not a huge hockey fan, and never really felt the Angels were an LA team.
Went to my first and only Lakers game in 1961. Loved Baylor and West from the first time I saw them play. Followed the Lakers on TV a lot and was a big fan of the Showtime teams. Loved Magic and Big Game James. Kareem was a trade piece, so I never really warmed up to him. I saw the Lakers lose so many times to the Celtics that I came to despise the color green. But they finally won, and it was great. The Kings won after I left, and the Rams did not win a championship until they were in St. Louis.
I did root for the Cardinals in Az while Warner was the QB, but that is the only team from another city I ever rooted for. I was a Dodger fan before they moved to LA. So, I have always followed my heart instead of the herd when it comes to baseball.
The only Rockies games I have ever been to at Coors have been games against the Dodgers. And my record is untarnished in those games. LA is 5-0. Including a come from behind 12-10 win in a game that Kazmir started.
I went to three games at Chase Field, it was the BOB then, and they went 2-0. The other game was against the Cubs. D-Backs lost that one too. The Dodgers have always been and will always be my favorite team. I may not agree with some, excuse me, many of their player moves, but usually when a player becomes a Dodger, I root for them. There have been two exceptions, Gary Sheffield, I never liked the guy, and Yasmani Grandal. Mark loved him. I could not stand him. I had my reasons, not the least of which was him being busted for using PED’s.
Although he had a lot of power and was the so-called best pitch framer in baseball, he was the least clutch player on the team and grounded into way too many rally-killing double-plays. I was totally happy when he left via free agency. With him gone, it opened the door for Will Smith.
We all have our reasons for being Dodger fans. I follow my heart. There are even a few fans here who were living in Brooklyn and got their love of the team from older relatives. Love to hear those stories.
Having Barnes in the lineup as the starting catcher, the Dodgers are 4 games under .500. Definitely a problem with his .094 BA, .301OPS, 0HR 3RBI. With those stats ,he doesn’t belong on the roster, being Kershaw’s personal catcher, a great teammate or not. He has been given ample time to get his act together.
As much as I love, Barnes, and what he’s been able to do in the past in clutch situation’s, I’m beginning to feel the same way
I’ve felt that way for about 3 years now
The facts many avoid dealing with.
Four games under .500 and he mostly plays when Kershaw pitches.
Totally agree about Barnes! Will smith had to pinch hit for him in the ninth. So if game goes to extra we have to go to an emergency catcher if Will gets hurt (muncy I think). So wouldn’t it make sense for (1) finally let Barnes go and call up hunter or (2) call up hunter and release Thompson and carry 3 catchers. I usually pause game if a bathroom break is needed or a cool drink is needed, but if Barnes is hitting I just let it play. Seriously, how much longer do you let his .098 average continue? Heyward and peralta had nice games last night. Mookie should have let the umpire have it after that horrible strike call . Hell roberts probably rests him today and plays Thompson so getting run for today’s game wouldn’t matter. Hell maybe Barnes should have hit for himself last night, he seems to be able to bunt every once and awhile. Suicide squeeze? Just too many .200 and below bats on this roster!
Barnes definitely needs to go, I care less if he has one year left on his deal. Not that big of a hit on the salary cap. I am more concerned with this decimated starting staff. Looks like they might have to force feed Stone and Miller. Sheehan looks pretty good too. Atlanta has a lot of success doing that, why not LA?
I was thinking about this, actually. Atlanta graduates their prospects pretty young. The Dodgers seem to baby theirs. Part of it is a service time considerations, I’m sure. Another factor I would imagine is the Dodgers org is just more methodical in their development process.
As for the service time factor, Atlanta gets around the potential loss of controllable time by just signing their young players to long term deals rather than waiting till they hit free agency. They actually wind up getting their talent on a long term deal at a discount. Anthopoulos has a good approach here, the only caveat being if the young talent winds up being a bust.
With this team’s injury-depleted SP, bullpen and bottom order struggles now weighing heavy on them, Dodgers fans better get use to this team treading water for awhile. Just be happy if they play slightly above .500 ball for the next 2 to 3 months ’cause that’s probably the best we can do for now.
That’s okay as long as the Dodgers get healthy and the BrainTrust fixes those issues by late August so they can make a push into the playoffs and be a REAL championship contender.
They are going to have to fix them way before August. The trading deadline is at the end of July. I look for them to start making moves before the end of June. They just cannot carry that many inept bats. And they need starting pitching ASAP. Now they could bring someone up from AAA who has experience, but that does not mean it will improve the rotation. Best they can hope for in the short term is Stone making a couple of solid starts, Grove coming back, and Urias only spending 15 days. Right now it does not look good for the rest of this road trip.
Oh yeah Bear, I know the team will make several moves from now till the trade deadline. I’m just saying I hope these moves will end up fixing the Dodgers BY late August. Bring up some young arms and bats, ..make the necessary trades, so that the newcomers can work out the kinks and be rolling sometime in August. Btw, I’m done with the brass messing around with Barnes, Thompson, and Taylor. Worried about Outman, but keeping fingers crossed he can turn things around at the plate. Meanwhile, the team’s established stars must NOW play like stars to keep this team afloat till AF’s upcoming moves work themselves out.
Outman is always going to strike out a lot. His success will depend on how he adjusts to what the pitchers are doing.
I think you’re right.We jumped the gun and made Outman an all world player.I’m afraid the Boss may have been right ,4th outfielder.
Afloat?
Jumped the gun?
Bruce Springsteen is the Boss. Never heard his opinion of Outman. Nobody here claimed Outman to be “all world,” unless you did. He has clearly been one of the two most productive outfielders on this team–and the other one is earning more than $30 million per year.
Outman has also outplayed his fellow rookie Vargas–on both offense and defense–even though Vargas was pretty much guaranteed the 2B job before Spring training. There’s been a lot more hype here about Vargas–about how he’d hit .300, about allegedly “stellar” defense, about how he’d win the ROY. Outman, in contrast, had to prove himself in spring training to make the team. By some accounts, Lux’s injury helped Outman’s case him a boost because created the need for another lefty bat.
We Outman supporters argued that he had earned and deserved his shot. The biggest flaw in his game is his strikeouts, but he’s still been one the Dodgers’ best performers.
2:15 PM ET
Dodgers (29-18) 1st pace
Cardinals (20-27)5GB tied for 4th place
SP Clayton Kershaw L
6-3 2.52 ERA 53.2 IP 63K
SP Jack Flaherty R
3-4 5.24 ERA 46.1IP 49K
Confirmed Lineup
RF Mookie Betts R
1B F. Freeman L
C Will Smith R
3B Max Muncy L
DH J. Martinez R
CF James Outman L
2B M. Vargas R
LF D. Peralta L
SS Miguel Rojas R
Clear-day
0% rain
75° Wind 6 mph R-L
Change: Peralta in for Mookie leading off playing LF and Heyward batting 8th playing RF
Confirmed Lineup
LF D. Peralta L
1B F. Freeman L
C Will Smith R
3B Max Muncy L
DH J. Martinez R
CF James Outman L
2B M. Vargas R
RF J. Heyward L
SS Miguel Rojas R
At least Smith is in the lineup.
Saturday scores
Sugar Land 4, Oklahoma City 3 (11 innings)
Tulsa 4, Corpus Christi 3
West Michigan 6, Great Lakes 0
Rancho Cucamonga 5, Visalia 3
Sunday schedule
10:05 a.m. PT: Great Lakes (Justin Wrobleski) vs. West Michigan (Williander Moreno)
12:05 p.m.: Oklahoma City (TBD) vs. Sugar Land (Angel Macuare)
12:05 p.m.: Rancho Cucamonga (Luis Valdez) at Visalia (Brock Jones)
3:05 p.m.: Tulsa (River Ryan) at Corpus Christi (Colton Gordon)
3of the 4 Dodger Minor League teams are in 1st place in their respective divisions except Tulsa which is in second place 1 game behind.
I agree about Barnes. Remember AJ Ellis was Kershaws personal catcher and teammate from the minors. They both cried when Ellis was let go, but time marches on. So ok he is good at calling games, big deal. Besides no hit he can’t throw out base stealers.
As for Sheffield, he was one of my favorites. He was always popular with his teammates and worked hard. Put up big numbers for us. So ok he gave owners and press a hard time. I liked that for even for all those years he played, he ended up with many more walks than strikeouts. Not many sluggers can say that.
Sheffield also admitted he did not play hard all the time, and he was a jerk to fans. Not the nicest guy on the planet. Never fit the Dodger image. Same with Frank Robinson who clashed with Alston more than once. Maybe some of the animosity towards Shef came from the fact that he was what they received for Piazza.
Sheff was all-in between the lines. Fastest bat I ever saw and would hit big bombs. Fun guy to watch.
Wade Boggs, Clemens & Bird were a bit ‘off-key’ with press/ fans. They frankly didn’t give a sheit about ‘Red Sox/Celtic traditions’. They played to get paid
Dodgers to recall Bobby Miller before Wednesday for a start against the Braves. A move on the 40-man roster will be needed. Stone and Miller will both get starts against the Braves.
Like it!!!! Can anyone be moved to the 60 day IL?
May, if they really think he won’t be back before then.
I think one of the guys like Suero will get DFA’d
So smith is catching Kershaw again. So much for Barnes being is personal catcher. Please! Let him go! We’ve had a good run over last few weeks, but with all injuries and lack of offense from bottom half we could be in some trouble. Let’s make a splash now! We’ve got a chance to bury the padres now. Let’s get some starting pitching in here and a 300 hitter! Pads will likely fire Melvin if they don’t turn it around soon. So Friedman do something, not dumpster diving I hope. Hopefully Clayton has best stuff today
Not sure they will just release him, but that is what they should do. Change 2. Miller is going to pitch Tuesday.
“Let’s get some starting pitching in here and a 300 hitter!”
Who?
I didn’t get through the 1st inning with Syndergaard yesterday. I can’t watch the guy anymore. And it wasn’t so much his pitching that I’m disgusted with. Again after a single, a walk and another single, I look up to see him lingering around in the middle of the infield in the way, as usual, failing to back up home. It’s not asking a lot. He was also 1.7 to the plate. The previous game he failed to cover 1st, failed to back up a base and failed to hold a runner. It looks like he pitched better and got through 5 but I don’t care. I have some tolerance for a guy being shitty, but not for being a lazy dog. Not hustling and playing the game the right way, isn’t Dodger baseball and should be unacceptable. I’ll skip his starts from now on.
Barnes is another story. He too refuses to do the little things offensively to help the club. I know he can’t hit. So, sac bunt to turn over the lineup, move a runner. Anything. The safety squeeze has been available to him numerous times, but he’s up there bailing and wailing. Part of that is Doc / the wizard’s fault. It’s the same stubbornness that keeps Thompson platooning against LHP. It’s called management. Asking your players in certain situations to do what they are more capable of doing. And hold the players accountable for the results.
Get off my lawn.
I agree, 100% Phill. I was going to mention A few of those things in a post myself.
Means a lot more though coming from an ex- player and coach like you
Watching Syndergaard, it looks like he’s just going through the motions
Barnes unwatchable
Don’t have a lot of problems with Doc, but he is too loyal to certain players
One other thing that Syndergaard was doing. When they showed him with a runner on first, the runner was getting 3 steps towards second before he even started to throw his pitch. There’s no catcher living or dead that could throw the runner out with that kind of a jump.
What Phil said.
Phil said
3rd base umpire has it in for the dodgers Bad call today Bad call strike 3 yesterday Bad call Friday at 1st base Time for robot empires
Tough stretch coming for Dodgers with two starting pitchers on the DL and the Braves and Rays ahead.
Like the idea of Stone and Miller getting starts this week. They will struggle like most young starters do when coming to majors but they are their best options. I think Landon Knack may well be next in line giving the comments Gomes made last week.
I agree with Bear on the moves coming sooner than later. I hope they get Urias back in two weeks and fill in with Stone and/or Miller. I am assuming Syndergaard continues to get starts because of circumstances but he does need to clean up some of the other aspects of pitching that Phil mentioned. You don’t have to throw 98 to cover first base, back up a base, or hold a guy on.
Thompson and Barnes have to be in the crosshairs right now. Replace Thompson with Feduccia and carry three catchers if they are that attached to Barnes. Let Smith or JD play left against lefties and DH the other. That is an in-house solution for the short term.
More I watch Rojas, he should be their shortstop on most days. He is an elite defender and I would much rather carry his bat in the 9 hole than running Barnes or Thompson out there. That line up shrinks a lot with Barnes Taylor Thompson or Rojas sitting in the 7,8,9 spots.
They sure are loaded with right hand pitching prospects at AA and AAA. Pepiot, Grove, Miller, Stone, Sheehan, Knack, Ryan, Frasso, Hurt, Nastrini. Friedman has a very good (and deserved) reputation for knowing who to keep from his system and who to give up. Will be interesting to see who he decides to keep from that group of right handed pitchers and who he is willing to part with. But there are definitely moves coming.
Back-to-back poor starts by CK after a week where the SP didn’t touch the 6th inning in any start.
Julio on the IL, two starts by rookies this week against the team with the best record in the NL does not bode well.
Sure would like to have seen Mookie show a little “Fire in the belly emotion” after being called
Out on strikes to end the game last night.
We might lose 7 out of the next 10 but San Diego will probably do the same.
No need to worry now…our smart people usually find a way to plug holes.
This is the way
Our smart people have Barnes and Thompson on this roster
Teams now just pitch around Smith – walk him because Muncy is in another slump. And with Taylor now next, forget it
They can’t pitch around Smith if he leads off because Freddie will hit second. Mookie could hit 3rd.
But then Mookie would receive Smith’s same (un)intentional walk-around until Muncy’s bat heats up again.
Grove pitching at Oklahoma City today.
I’ve noticed this year Urias has carried around a too-big paunch. During his 15/day hiatus, he needs to go on a diet.
Pitching in shambles with two rookies up against best team in NL.
Relief corps is getting it’s ass handed to it lately. Stop with the Wander Suero experiment already, the guy sucks big time.
It looks to me like we have 6-8 players (pitchers and non-pitchers) on this present day roster where you could say that (guy sux big time).
Suero, Bruihl, Almonte, Jackson, Syndergaard, Urias before he got hurt, and the last two games, Kershaw. Who woulda thunk. Reyes Montoya back in the bigs with the Angels. Wonder if they have a uni that large???????
Headline: UGLY UMPIRING , BODGY BULLPEN DERAIL DODGERS – Lose 3 of 4 to lowly Cards.
At least Max said something, Betts should have yelled to high heaven the night before. That last pitch was sooooooooooo far outside it wasn’t funny.
I guess he figured, what good will it do….besides, I’m hungry…..
What really burns me is that Mookies numbers are excellent in that situation yesterday, and the Ump just totally cheated him out if a big hit. Talking about Barnes, some of us have been for moving on from him since at least last season, but Mark would have none of it.
What does this mean? Mark didn’t allow conversation about Barnes?!?!
That is decidedly untrue.
What Bluto said!
I even suggested calling up Feduccia… who has cooled off…
Well then I stand corrected. I thought I remember you singing his praises whenever it was suggested to move on from him. I’ll take your word on it.
Obviously I didn’t mean the topic wasn’t addressed here. Actually we did many times. It’s just how I remembered it, Mark says no, I accept that. No biggie.
The Dodgers are a mess. I’m surprised their record is what it is.
1) 8 guys with a .233 or below BA.
2) 6 guys with a .753 or below OPS.
3) Some of those 8 and 6 guys above are doing horrible.
4) The bullpen is a mess. No need to show stats and no solution in sight.
5) Only Gonsolin, Kershaw (overall this season not just today) and May (on the IL) are the starting pitchers who are doing good.
6) Doc uses Thompson against LHP and he is known for sucking against LHP. Where is LHP crusher DeLuca? And by the way when Taylor doesn’t start, why doesn’t Doc use him to pinch hit against LHP instead of Thompson? Taylor hits LHP better than Thompson.
7) Look at Barnes slashline. Where’s Feduccia?
8) I said in the offseason Vargas would struggle out of the gate and probably until mid season and the first part of that is right. Why not bring up Busch and try him at 2B and send Vargas back to AAA since he has options?
I hope Stone and Miller do good when they start pretty soon, because they are much needed. Especially with the team BA 23rd out of 30 teams, they are hitting home runs though. Team bullpen E.R.A 26th out of 30 teams.
Sounds like we’re in last place…….oh wait
No they are not, but they lost 3 games where they scored 5 runs or more. They had a winning record in games that they scored at least five until this series. The pitching has been bad.
DeLuca is not the answer, at least not yet. The kid has been at AAA less than a week. He his hitting .261. That translates to about .210 at the Major League level. Feduccia has cooled off considerably from his hot start. He and Mazeika are trading off starting almost every day. Why would you send Vargas down when he is just starting to hit? Makes no sense.
Deluca has crushed LHP all of his minor league career. Dodgers are desperate for an outfielder that hits LHP. He would be an excellent platoon guy.
Just starting to hit is a very very small sample (Vargas).
I don’t know different philosophy between us.
Eric, big difference between crushing minor league lefty’s and the major league version. Yes it is a small sample on Vargas, but he is just now the healthiest he has been, and he has been hitting well over .300 the last several games. You do not send a kid down when he is doing that. Has nothing to do with our philosophy’s. Dodgers not going to pull the plug on the kid when he is just starting to produce. Busch is hitting .291 at AAA in 30 games down there, but he has only 3 homers.
,,, and he had no hand injuries? Right?
Stay positive, Eric.
… and the last I checked, we were in 1st place.
If you want the glass to be half empty, it is.
Lead over D-Backs is down to 1.5 games. Yeah, they are in first hanging on by a thread.
Muncy’s latest slump started when he banged his knee
When Outman was scuffling, Will Smith told him to “find the good in the bad” to keep his spirits up.
Will Smith was the good in the bad today. Nothing spectacular, but he had 3 more walks against zero Ks. He now has 21 walks against 12 Ks for the season. His BA is .311, his OBP is .414 and OPS is .980. Due to his concussion, he doesn’t have enough ABs to qualify for the stat titles, but he would be among the leaders behind guys like Judge and Acuna… and Dodger-killer Nolan Gorman.
Also good: Outman didn’t strike out in 4 plate appearances and collected an RBI on a sacrifice. The offense was anemic, the Dodgers struck out 11 times–but not Outman this time.
These are interesting times. Looks like we’ll see a lot more of Gavin Stone and at least a little of Bobby Miller. If Miller has figured out how to harness the talent, maybe he’ll stick around a while.
I like your positivity. Someone suggested we get used to .500 baseball for a while. If that’s the worst this team can do, and I believe it is, we’ll get thru things fine.
I already said I’m surprised at the Dodgers record in my post above so I know they are in first place. I was just pointing out that their team stats are bad and when that is the case they can easily be caught. And if not caught then they could easily be beaten in the playoffs if things don’t change.
But anyways.
A lot of good questions raised in this thread…
–What is to be done about Barnes and the extra outfielder? Trayce is obviously vulnerable, but Peralta may have more trade value.
–What is the solution at SS? The brass seems unwilling to go with Mookie full-time. Tim Anderson isn’t playing well but he may be the best option available.
–Will the Dodgers need more pitching? The ChiSox should be sellers, so deal for Anderson and Giolito seems doable. Dodgers might prefer the experience of Lance Lynn. (Dylan Cease would be pricy and I doubt the Sox would deal him.)
–What about a righty bat or two? Anderson would be an upgrade over Rojas, but that’s not enough. The A’s Brent Rooker is hot and maybe Beane would want to deal him at peak value. (A couple of prospects plus Peralta or Trayce?)
Waiting for next shoe to drop—Kershaw to IL On bereavement list but—Two unusual games in a row–that’s the sign