The AFL Rosters were just announced – here are the Dodgers prospects playing in the AFL:
- Kendall George, OF
- Josue DePaula, OF
- Logan Wagner, INF
- Jakob Wright, P
- Payton Martin, P
- Alex Makarewich, P
- Hyun-Seok Jamg, P
- Justin Chambers, P
Los Angeles righthander Hyun-Seok Jang is one of the most mercurial pitchers in the Fall League. In a vacuum, his stuff should allow him to dominate. In fits and starts, that’s the case. His command and control are shaky enough, however, that outings can quickly go off the rails. If the best version of Jang shows up, he could be one of the AFL’s breakout stars.
I have added a link to the AFL from the Minor League Affiliate Page.
This year’s campaign is set to kick off under the lights at Scottsdale Stadium on Monday, Oct. 6, when the Peoria Javelinas visit the Scottsdale Scorpions. A new postseason format will commence with the quarterfinal round taking place on Thursday, Nov. 13, at Scottsdale Stadium. The Championship Game will be played on Saturday, Nov. 15, at Salt River Fields and can be viewed live on MLB Network, MLB.com, and the MLB App.
Andrew Heaney struck out eight batters in 3 innings last night at OKC and allowed one hit in 3 scoreless innings. Casaprius got the win. Could Heaney be a prospect for the payoff roster?
I am recovering nicely from COVID. I’d say I am back to 63%.
Since we are talking about the AFL, here is the best scene from one of my favorite movies, Legends of the Fall:
speedy recovery mark. never had it! knock on wood! …. If Blake Snell could get his pitch count down, he would be incredible!!! … Yamamoto goes tomorrow! verlander for the gnats. he’s good, but the boys in blue need to pound him! I would imagine Clayton gets the ball saturday. or ohtani goes saturday and pushes kershaw to sunday. that would set glasnow and snell up for philly. extremely important stretch coming up. padres get the rockies and white sox next couple of series. if the dodgers hit, they will get to where they want to go!
During the game yesterday they said Ohtani wouldn’t pitch until the Phillies series.
hope they don’t start trying to manipulate the rotation to please network tv. If ohtani is scheduled to pitch against the giants then he should start against the giants! i may be crazy , but the giants are priority this weekend! oh well, i’m not in charge! if i were ben casparius would still be in LA and yates would be in miami!!!! .. interesting Mark , Could Heaney be a suprise starter , say on sunday?
Dalton Rushing is catching for OKC tonight!
where is everybody?
Hope Mark didn’t ban them all
You never know 😉
is baseball over and i missed it? did the dodgers win it all again? is mark feeling better? is old bear still kicking?
Nice dive from mlb.com on Mookie’s return to form.
https://www.mlb.com/news/mookie-betts-hot-streak-by-the-numbers
Remarkable how the pieces indeed seem to be falling in place with the playoffs approaching. The starters are suddenly studly, and Mookie is Mookie again…and soon the lineup should be Conforto-free!
Let’s all hope Mookie continues this hot streak into the playoffs.
Rushing is eligible to come off the IL next Wednesday September 17th. Then we will be at player position full strength. One interesting situation to watch going forward is what the Dodgers do with LHP Andrew Heaney who signed and is eligible for the postseason and we all know how AF prefers veterans over rookies.
Perhaps the best thing about signing Heaney is that it keeps him from joining another contender.
But of course an injury could change things. Perhaps he’ll move ahead of Wrobleski as a lefty option.
At the start of the season, the pitching depth just seemed absurd. But then injuries happened, as well as the decision to slow-play various pitchers.
Who expected that, come September, Sasaki and Heaney would emerge as candidates for the staff?
Sasaki’s last outing was impressive. After all that hype, it looked like he might be a bust. But now It seems that he really has his 100-mph velocity back and could bolster the pen.
There are a number of “known unknows” as the regular season begins its last chapter. Your query above reflects our desire to know. Will the injury bug bite catastrophically? If so will the next man up turn out to be an unexpected heroic figure or an out of luck AAAA pretender? Will the absence of a player or players cost the Dodgers in the end? Will Mookie continue his hot streak? Will the starting pitching continue its collective magic? Will Vesia, Treinen, Kopech, Scott, et al mow down the opposition or will they all be able to write off their center cut pitches on their income taxes as charitable donations? Dunno. Will Ohtani pitch out of the bullpen or be used as a starter and will his pitching have a negative effect on his hitting? Will past performance be a rock solid predictor of what’s to come? Ain’t this all part of being a fan of this sometimes great and vert interesting team? Questions all. I’ll be tuning in tonight for the next installment of the passion play that is Dodger baseball. GO DODGERS!!!
i’m not sure the lineup will ever be “conforto “ free. at least until the end of his contract! Read dave is hell bent on running him out there! probably starting in left field tonight, with kim at second base, or maybe edman, who knows?
Getting away from the great game of baseball. That movie Mark, ranks among my most favorite ever. I have a decent size farm in Michigan with so many similarities with this movie. My youngest son is a marine and seen action in Iraq, protecting the U.S. embassy . He’s out and wasn’t killed like in the movie though. My oldest son is in politics and it was the coolest scene ever that he came home to save his family. My middle son, much like Tristan, is on my farm with me. Has long hair and the same spirited personality as Tristan, and is very motivated in defending, along with helping the farm succeed. And spent 3 years away from home sewing his wild oats. Crazy in parallel characters to us. Back to baseball…. I couldn’t be happier watching our starting pitchers excell this past week. Go Dodgers !!!!
As bad as Conforto has been, a LH power bat on the bench is good to have in the post season. He has had so good bats the last few weeks.
Pages’ has had a solid year and should improve next year. I see him as a solid piece of a great team, similar to Miggy RO.
Speaking of Miggy, I hope the Dodgers hire him as a bench coach or a manager slot in the minors. He knows baseball and working with players and is a true leader who doesn’t back down.
Conforto is hitting .244 with a .340 OB% the past 15 games.
And Outman’s line for his last 7 games is
250 .286 .650 .936
Conforto last 5 games BA .277. Small sample size
This is good for Outman, but I struggle to see the relevance.
Outman has five hits in his last 20 ABs. This falls under the Category: Blind Squirrel-Nuts.
In his last 15 games, is batting .195 with a .267 OB%.
… and he strikes out 47% of the time.
Every week or so Conforto has a game where he gets 2 hits
And Conforto hit a homer last night as the dodgers wasted another Yamamoto gem. Thoughts on Kershaw and Sheehan to the pen for the playoffs?
BTW, mentioning ex-Dodgers, Miguel Vargas is finally showing flashes of what he might be on a very bad team:
.233 BA .316 OB% .717 OPS.
However, over the past 30 games, here are his stats:
.277 BA .369 OB% .455 Slg
Progress is not linear, and he is starting to become the player I always expected.
I said James Outman was a #4 or #5 outfielder: I lied – he’s much worse than that!
Still dissing Outman… even without Miguelito around to praise and defend!
Just can’t help yourself, can you?
l’ll say this: The Dodgers would have been much better off with Outman instead of Conforto.
For starters, they’d have saved about $16 million–and they’d have had a much better OF defense, with Outman in CF (perhaps platooning with Edman) and Pages in a corner.
Yes, Outman may have hit no better than Conforto. But who knows? He’s always been very streaky. But if he stunk up the joint, he could be easily sent to OKC. The Dodgers couldn’t do that with Conforto and his fat contract. Hey, if Outman failed, maybe Ryan Ward would have been called up to see whether the OKC masher could hit at the next level? Certainly he’d have earned the shot. Or Justin Dean could have been summoned for his defense and speed.
And if OF remained a problem, then what? The brass they could have fixed it with a trade.
My target would have been Harrison Bader, now starring for the Phillies. Ramon Laureano might have been nice too. (Great work by the Phils’ Dombroski. Bader +Jhoan Duran represent a big upgrade–much bigger than Alex Call+Brock Stewart.)
So now Roberts is still writing Conforto’s name into the lineup–and he homered recently! Yes, occasonally he produces–like that proverbial blind squirrel and the acorn. Except this one is getting paid $17 million.
Genius move. Sheer genius!
I think there is a better than 50% chance that Andrew Heaney is on the playoff Roster… out of the pen.
Starters:
Yamamoto
Snell
Kershaw
Glasnow
Pen:
Banda
Dreyer
Heaney
Vesia
Ohtani
Treinen
Scott
Sheehan
Stewart, Wrobleski, Casparius, Yates, Hurt, Sasaki, Henriquez – U Pick
I could see a 2.50 ERA in the playoffs.
Why must Roberts continue to use Scott in relief? How many games must we lose with Scott in relief?
Deja Vu, remember Roberts brilliance in the World Series against Houston? He let Darvish start twice and get pounded in both games. We lost the series because of Darvish. Are we going to let Scott knock us out of the playoffs?
10:15 PM ET
Dodgers (82-64)
Giants (74-72)
SP Y. Yamamoto R
11-8 2.72 ERA
SP Justin Verlander R
3-10 4.09 ERA
Confirmed Lineup
DH S. Ohtani L
SS Mookie Betts R
1B F. Freeman L
3B Max Muncy L
RF T. Hernandez R
LF M. Conforto L
CF Andy Pages R
2B Tommy Edman S
C Ben Rortvedt L
63° Wind 15 mph Out
NO Will Smith
I wish Robert’s would just leave Tommy in center. I don’t think it is good for his ankle to be bouncing back and forth between positions. The infield puts more stress on his ankle. We need him to be as healthy as possible for the playoffs. I’d rather have Kim or Miggy at second and Conforto on the bench.
I think CF is harder on his ankle.
There’s a lot more running.
Well let’s just hope his ankle is strong enough to hold up no matter where he plays.
I still favor having Kim and Tommy both in the lineup. We need the speed and contact.
David Vassegh
@THEREAL_DV
#Dodgers Starting Pitchers the last turn thru 6 man rotation:
38 IP
13 Hits (Only 3 extra base hits-1 HR)
5 Runs
54 strikeouts
9 Walks
1.18 ERA
0.58 WHIP
12.8 K/9
Well, I was preparing to rag on Conforto–and on Doc for putting him in the lineup. If Conforto had been benched and Edman (or Call or Kike or ??) started in CF, then Pages wouldn’t have been there to make the error that put the Giants up 1-0 with Yamamoto crafting another gem.
But then Conforto homers! For his… um, 30th RBI of the season. (How can a guy who has played so much in the loaded Dodgers lineup have only 30 RBI at this point in the season?)
But it the end, the big story is yet another Tanner Scott debacle.
Ugh.
How soon before Sasaki is ready?
Dave Roberts said Roki Sasaki’s next outing will again be in OKC. Sasaki had a “calf situation” in the third inning of his last outing that they want to make sure is OK. If that goes well, Roberts said Sasaki could be ready to return to the MLB roster after,” Harris wrote.
That blown 3rd strike call cost the Dodgers the game. But Patrick Bailey cannot hit – OPS below .600. There is no way that Scott should give up a HR to that guy.
Verlander throwing lollypop curves all night and no one swung. Teo absolutely cannot hit a low and away slider and keeps swinging at them. And Ohtani was walked in front of Mookie twice and he couldn’t come through.
This loss was a team effort. Beating the Rox doesn’t prove anything.
Tanner Scott is the new Don Stanhouse.
0 for 12 with runners in scoring position won’t win you many games. Yamamota is a true ace. Unfortunately he doesn’t get the run support he deserves. Tanner Scott does NOT deserve to on the playoff roster.
Every time Tanner Scott enters the game I cringe. I wonder how he can have any confidence after all the blown saves. A relief pitcher without confidence is not good. What will it take for Roberts to stop sending him in as a closer when he does not close?
I think Doc has to keep doing it… until he can’t anymore. They either have to fix him or leave him off the playoff roster.
Personally, I think he is tipping pitches.
IF the Dodgers don’t figure out the overall bullpen situation ,winning on the road and driving in and creating runs without the homerun, it will be a short postseason.
Per Craig Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus, talking about the Dodgers
““There’s nothing strictly wrong with prioritizing a World Series; it’s where the league and its culture have arrived, hand in hand,” Goldstein wrote. “But the impact of taking the longest view available at every possible turn undeniably results in a diluted on-field product—again, much as we’ve seen with the league as a whole.”
He’s right, you know.
If Roberts & AF navigate a home series win against NY/SF/CIN, a road series winagainst PHI, and an NLCS victory over MIL/CHC/SD, they will have stuck the landing.
We’re not losing the World Series. Might fucking sweep.
While the Dodgers starters have been rolling, old friend Walker Buehler just had a strong start for the Phils, allowing 1 earned run in 5 innings.
The Dodgers could wind up facing Buehler in the playoffs.
Perhaps he’ll enter the game in relief, with the game on the line.
Would be cool
Walker Buehler is still trying to be a power pitcher, but he is usually only 93-94 on his fastball. Sometimes he gets lucky, but his 5+ ERA tells the tale.
He needs to re-invent himself, al la Clayton Kershaw, but that is not his mentality!
I thought Roberts had said he was going to try Scott in some lower pressure spots. So what happened Friday? But anyway I still don’t see him leaving off Scott or Conforto from Playoff roster