IF Spring Training were an audition and IF the backup catcher spot were up for grabs, Chris Okey might have a leg up after his two-hit game yesterday, which featured a 3-run home run. However, Austin Barnes is the backup catcher and it will likely stay that way for the rest of this year… barring injury of course! Why is that? you might ask, and that is a very good question. There is a simple answer, although some may not like it, but here it is:
The Dodgers feel that any incremental improvement over Barnes offense would be more than offset by what effect he has on the pitching staff.
No player other than Clayton Kershaw has been with the Dodgers longer than Austin Barnes and here is what Clayton said about him:
“Obviously, his offensive numbers, when you look at it on paper aren’t great. But that’s not what he’s here to do. He’s here to help us win. And he does that behind the plate, the way he calls games, and the way he competes. He’s really good at it. It’s hard to describe.”
–Clayton Kershaw
Austin Barnes has long been one of the majors’ better catchers at framing pitches and stealing strikes. Clayton went on the say:
“One of his skills is, he can call people out, but people think it’s funny. When other people do that, they take offense. But Barnsey has a really good feel for making fun of guys, or giving people a hard time, and them taking it well. It’s a skill. It’s a personality trait.”
When Will Smith was injured last year, the Dodgers called up Austin Wynns to be Barnsies’ backup. In Wynns’ four starts, the Dodgers put up a 8.74 ERA. Will Smith is one of the best catchers in baseball – both offensively and defensively. No one is going to replace his bat, but Barnes replaces his glove so that the pitching remains consistent. Most pitchers LIKE to pitch to Will Smith. Most pitchers LOVE to pitch to Austin Barnes.
Last year was Barnes worst season at the plate when he hit .180 with a .256 OB%. His career average is a .219 BA and a .323 OB%. I think he will be closer to his career average this year than what he did last year. Austin has this year left on his contact and the Dodger hold a team option for 2025. He will be 35 then it is possible that the team may offer him a front office or coaching position. At any rate, he is not going away and the pitchers love it that he is not! Austin Barnes is beloved by his teammates. He is as close to a captain as the Dodger have. He is there to stabilize the pitching and act as another coach. Many fans wanted the Dodgers to sign gary Sanchez. Outside of the fact that he was not willing to be a backup to Will Smith, I would bet that the Dodgers would not win as many games as they would with Barnsie. All he is there to do, is Win, Baby!
Who is Chris Okey?
Chris is a 29 year-old RH catcher. He is 5-11 and weighs in at 200 pounds. He has a total of 14 career at bats in MLB. From 2014 through 2016, he was with Clemson where he put up a .301 BA/.392 OB% and a .896 OPS. He then logged seven seasons in the minors with a .218 BA/.291 OPS and a .632 OPS. Chris Okey spent 2016 through 2022 with the Cincinnati Reds farm system and spent time withy the Angels in 2023. He had a nice game yesterday, but he is headed for OKC. Austin Barnes will be back. AQccept and enjoy the things you can’t change.
Yesterday’s Game
Every blog is showing Ohtani’s Home Run. You can see it all over. The fact is, it would not have been a HR at Dodger Stadium. It was a HR, but I’ll save the video for the majestic ones.
There is not a lot to say at this juncture of Spring Training… we just need to see more reps, but I doubt that the Dodgers will ever lose a game this season.
Freddie is a good baserunner, but it makes more sense for Ohtani to bat second as he is much more fleet of foot. He also has a higher OB% than Freeman and as The LA Times says: “He has significantly better numbers as a No. 2 hitter in his career, with a .278 average and a 1.013 on-base-plus-slugging percentage while batting second compared to a .271 average and .856 OPS while batting third. Ohtani is also a bigger threat on the bases than Freeman — creating opportunities for Ohtani to potentially score from first on Freeman extra-base hits, or get into scoring position in front of him with a stolen base.” Of course, counter-arguments could also be made to hit Freeman 2nd. There is no “RIGHT” answer, but it’s not worth debating!
Walker Buehler First Live BP
So, most of you know that this blog was shut down for about 7 weeks. I find it amazing that when “FeedSpot” ranked the Top 30 Dodger Blogs, we came in at #7:
After his homer today I decided to look up Okey’s stats.
Prior to last year, he had six years in the minors and only broke .230 one time. He was a truly lousy hitter.
Then, last year, in his age 28 season he hit .281/.345/.414 at AAA. Maybe he’s just a late bloomer.
Hopefully he’s good defensively, especially at handling pitchers, because between him and Feduccia they’re going to be catching some good young pitchers at OKC this year.
Somebody suggested we should get used to seeing this…
Mookie 2B
Shohei DH
Freddie 1B
…for the next few years.
Works for me, even if I liked the idea of Shohei batting third. Should work for Shohei, with Freddie watching his back. I heard a second-hand quote that Roberts thought this alignment, with protecting Shohei, should ensure that Shohei gets more chances to do damage. Freddie did great in ’23 with Will behind him, of course, so maybe this order makes the most sense.
An extension for Will Smith makes sense too.
Looks like we have a good OF talent competition between Pages, Ramos and Vargas. Guys like Ryan Ward seem to be afterthoughts.
There’s no “book” on Pages or Ramos, but there is one on Vargas. So far, Vargas has looked lost.. like he is pressing. He got two hits in his first game, but I called them “lucky.” They were! Since then, he is 0-7. It is still early, but it is concerning. Other teams don’t know much about Pages and Ramos. Barring Catastrophic injury, Pages and Ramos will be back in the minors. Pages will likely start at OKC, while Ramos may go back to Tulsa.
I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “book,” but I do know that there has been heavy buzz about Pages these last few years, and medium buzz about Ramos.
Both are 23, and I think Vargas is 24. When he was at 2B or 3B, Vargas didn’t need to consider these guys competition. Now they are. And Pages and Ramos have an advantage in their ability and experience as outfielders, while Miguelito is adjusting and perhaps physically suited to play 1B.
Yes, all three are likely to start in the minors. But if any of the starting outfielders get hurt–Heyward, Teoscar or Outman–perhaps Pages will be summoned. Before Teoscar was signed, I was OK with giving Vargas that precious runway in LF, and I’d be OK with Pages getting an extended look. This lineup is loaded even if an proven rookie is added.
If Vargas falls on the OF depth chart, he might welcome a trade.
Was LADT ranked #7 while you were shut down or before? Congrats on the new house
Before and now.
Good to see LADT back up. It’s my “go to” blog to catch up on what other fans are saying about Dodger baseball. As for the Dodger blog rankings, I don’t know much about the other blogs, but the #1 (TrueBlueLA) is a weird “gaggle” of posters who largely talk about recipes, personal trials and tribulations, movies, vacations and once in awhile…… Dodger baseball (embellishment intended).
I’ll keep LADT and LADC in my bookmarks and visit daily for Dodger news. MT, thanks for opening the blog back up and I was looking at your aerial photo yesterday of the new home, the driveway looks eerily similar to the Indiana University logo. Coincidence?
I noticed that. I don’t know if it was intentional. I have not met the owners.
Gosh, I love TrueBlueLA and its comments.
But! To each their own.
BTW, Bluto brought up that out of 32 comments yesterday, I had 11 of them. Interesting, so I went to LADC and found that out of 120 comments over 2 days, four people were responsible for 71 comments.
Just a FYI Comparison. 😉
Why are you letting Bluto get to
You lol?
That’s his Modus Operandi (with some very good observations on Dodger Baseball and life in general thrown in ).
Just rise above it.
Safe to say LADT is back up
And running….
Anyway, I thought it wasn’t gonna be a “Pissing Contest”?
Hey Watford, hope you are well. Colder than hell here, 26 degrees. I post a lot on almost any subject that comes up. Probably more than Bluto on some. Always have.
It is 29 here today.
Yesterday it was 66, and on Monday it was 77.
We had severe thunderstorms and tornados last night as the new front came in.
The thing about Indiana is that if you do not like the weather… stick around. It will change!
I don’t care how many times you post. I never counted… until today. 😉
I’ll probably never do it again!
Whoops, That’s 7!
One of my posts is on LADC today, I have already posted on it twice.
Watford,
It’s not a pissing contest. I thought it was funny…
I never attribute malice to Bluto… sometimes it is what it is, and yes he has some great takes. I’ll leave it at that!
At any rate, he didn’t “get to me.” I just thought… “hey wait a minute…” 😉
Watford is 100% right, I shouldn’t have posted what I did. It was a stupid, and silly thing. Was kinda meant to be funny, but no matter.
Some people like to post, who gives a shit?
Does anyone else have an issue with anchoring? Once they post a comment, the blog keeps trying to revert the page to that comment’s location?
I do not take that kind of stuff personally.
I know, but I’m a critic (probably too often) of useless posts and it was useless.
Looking forward to seeing Yamamoto live today. Should be interesting. Ohtani stated in the interview in game that he did not think he hit the ball out. In truth, he really did not look that good in any of his three trips to the plate. Gauthier is opening some eyes as is Ramos.
3:05 PM ET
Dodgers(5-0-1)
Rangers(3-1)
SP Y. Yamamoto R
0-0 .00 ERA
SP Cody Bradford L
0-0 .00 ER
Confirmed Lineup
2B Chris Taylor R
SS Gavin Lux L
3B Max Muncy L
C A. Barnes R
DH James Outman L
LF M. Vargas R
1B Kevin Padlo R
CF Drew Avans L
RF Andy Pages R
Second stringers mostly. On this day in 1966, Koufax and Drysdale started their hold out. They were asking 1 million over three years to be divided equally between them. How much do you think they would get today???
1 Million a week between them
I think Koufax would get a stake in the team. He would easily surpass what they paid Yamamoto.
Gauthier is “baller.” That is a high compliment.
Ramos can be good if he can learn to hit off-speed and stuff with movement.
Love the gritty guys like Gauthier who exceed expectations. Also love guys who walk more than they strike out.
If either Taylor or Kike get hurt, would the Dodgers promote a UT guy?
Gauthier could force himself into the conversation.
He’s another guy that could sweeten an offer if AF decides to hunt for big game.
Luxie at SS today… maybe he will actually get some balls hit to him.
Does anyone know or has read when Paxton will start a Spring training game? Is he injured?
They keep saying he is close to ready…
I have no clue and I would not hold my breath.
I had hoped to see Walker Buehler pitch against live hitters yesterday at Camelback but they did not allow public access. I was lucky enough to run into Rick Honeycutt later and asked him how Buehler threw. He said he looked good, was able to throw all his pitches and his fastball was 94-96. Rick was very positive about Walker and the entire pitching staff. I am still confident that Buehler can be a great pitcher again. He has the competitive streak to excel in the postseason. I would not be surprised if he is the best pitcher on the team by the end of the year.
Camelback Ranch is a treat for Dodger fans. In addition to talking to Honeycutt, I was watching live at bats right next to Honeycutt, Andrew Friedman and Brandon Gomes. They were watching prospects including a young lefty named Justin Wrobleski. He looked great to me, but most players look impressive in person to me.
A great day of Dodger baseball, including Ohtani’s first game!
Wrobleski has a chanced to be very good! Of course, LHP is at a premium, but his stuff ticked up in 2023, which was his second season after TJ. He has decent control and could be a starter or a reliever. As a starter, he is at 94-95, but in short spurts, he hits 98. I think he will start at Tulsa and could see the Show THIS YEAR!
Mark –
I have been out of the country all of Feb and just found out that you are back on the air.
AWESOME!!
I wasn’t surprised when you shut down the site after 3-days of incredible attacks directed at you.
While I am not a frequent poster I did the read the site daily. I tried the other sites a couple of times but they were too much work for the content received.
You have a great group of people that do post relevant and thoughtful perspectives without the personal attacks.
I know that I, and others stated to ban the people who with making this site less enjoyable to access. While conceptually one could argue about censorship, etc., etc. in this case I do not want a few individuals to destroy a great thing for the majority of us.
Again while you have been posting daily since coming back on – DO NOT feel that is necessary for the whole season.
Again, it made my day, with this site back online – THANKS.
PS – Congrats on the new house!
Thanks Murph,
I also believe in Free Speech, but I will now cancel the morons in a heartbeat.
See you in Orlando next week!
Hard to believe that Yamamoto is younger than Gavin Stone, Landon Knack, and Ryan Pepiot.
Yamamoto was impressive. I do wonder if the Dodgers will address the issue Monday brought up on the broadcast about being able to see his grip from the centerfield camera. Also impressed with the homer Andy Pages hit off of Josh Sborz. Lux made an error on the throw with his first chance here in spring.
“What did you think of Kingman’s homer, Tommy?”
“What did you think of Lux’s throw, Mark?”
It’s just one throw.
I do not want to see him fail. I know some think that, but I like the kid.
I just give you my opinions. Nothing has changed.
Not just an error – he got everything wrong that he could’ve got wrong with a routine play. There’s a lot of work to be done there. Keep Rojas around.
I’m good thank you Michael . Enjoyed watching Yamamoto. He’s the Real Deal.
I was impressed with his prep. You could see him practicing in the dugout. Got a laugh when he forgot how many outs there were at the end of the second inning. Ohtani was motioning to him to get off of the field.
Pages does look like his shoulder has healed much faster than we all believed!
I was at the game today and watched Yamamoto from behind home plate. I know many of you watched on TV but in person I just have to say he is something special. 19 pitches, 16 for strikes in 2 innings. He really works fast. Pages went over to the stands in right field on Semien’s 1st pitch foul ball. He was still on his way back to position when the next pitch was thrown. I’m going to go out on a limb and say Cy Young this year.
Thanks for coming back Mark.
What’s the MLB record for most errors by a SS in a season.? That was ugly!
The most errors in one season was accomplished by shortstop Billy Shindle of the 1890 Philadelphia Quakers. He bobbled the ball 119 times in one season.
I am willing to give him some time. What worries me is what has worried me all along: “It gets in his head!”
Baseball reference has Shindle and Herman Long both with 122. Long in 1889, Shindle in 1890. The most errors in a season since 1900 was 93 by John Gochnaur of the Indians in 1903. Bob Fisher, a SS on the 1913 Brooklyn team had 53 errors. In 1915, SS Ollie O’Mara of Brooklyn made 78 errors. Pee Wee Reese had 47 his second year as a Dodger. Wills had 40 his second year as a Dodger. Take those with a grain of salt, gloves were smaller, fields not as manicured as they are now. By contrast, the most Corey Seager ever made was 18. Lux has made 7 errors in 68 games as a SS, which over a 162-game season, comes to around 19. So he would be comparable to Seager.
Thanks, Old Mike (aka/Bear)!
Happened because that is on my bank account and I have to still fill this in everytime I post. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. LOL.
Stacy Wakefield, the wife of Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, died today, just 5 months after Tim. The couple first married in 2002 and had two children — Trevor, 19, and Brianna, 17. She was 53.
Cancer is a bitch! My ex-wife died of brain cancer at age 37. That was 30 years ago. My oldest son has never gotten over it.
Today:
RIP Stacy – Godspeed to the kids!
Cancer is relentless. I watched one of my best friends deteriorate over the three years we shared a house.
I just picked my son up at the airport. He flew in from Brooklyn to help his grandmother, who also has cancer (she is 89). I took him to my other son’s house, where he is staying until March 13th.
It is relentless, but I believe that in my kid’s lifetime, it will be eradicated.
14 different commenters today… Thanks Bluto… you have me counting.
I know it was just one play, but the mental part of the game is what I worry about with Lux. All this time sitting and waiting to play the field, the anticipation of that first play, seemed to
Take forever. And then it comes and the “yips” emerge. It’ll be something to watch closely. Had Freddie played 1st on that play, he would have dug it out.
I hope all is well with you, Evan. Thanks for commenting.
Don’t be a stranger!
Comedian Richard Lewis passed away today at age 76. Lewis was a huge Met fan and was at the playoff in 2007 cheering the Mets on against the Dodgers. I believe he was also in John Candy’s last movie, Wagon’s East. Yamamoto is expected to be the Dodgers starting pitcher when they open in Korea on the 20th of March against the Padres. Bellinger re-introduced to Cubs fans today. If he opts out next season, the Cubs cannot tag him with a QO.
Ohtani announced he is now married via Instagram on Thursday. Ohtani, who is famously private about his personal life, disclosed no details about his wedding or his new wife beyond that she is Japanese. The only picture included in his announcement post is his dog, Dekopin/Decoy.
Referencing the Dodger page, James Paxton will start against the Reds tonight at 8:05M ET .The game is being broadcast on the MLB network channel.