I think many of you missed the point of yesterday’s post: It wasn’t about my credentials… it was about the fact that I have been doing this a long time and have in fact, seen a lot and yet, I am not out there begging for some player to be traded, released, or DFA’ed. I do not spend much time questioning decisions made by the Dodgers staff for two reasons:
- I don’t have access to nearly a fraction of the information that they have, and
- Over the last 10 years, they have demonstrated that, as an organization, they are the best in baseball!
I am enjoying the ride… and there will be some rough spots, but overall, this organization is head-and-shoulders better than any other one in baseball. I don’t need to feel like a big shot and criticize that which I know so little about! That was my point- sorry if you did not get it. Now I have spelled it out.
Moving along…
It was great to see Dustin May go six strong innings and Tanner Scott recover from his blown save. Lou Trivino might be a savior to the pen. He certainly has the experience. Jack Dreyer is 5th in IP on the Dodgers. Someone had to be the hero, and it was Teoscar’s time. They rest today and play the Mets of Friday… then on to Cleveland.
There were two significant things that happened in Indianapolis Sports yesterday:
- The Pacers made the biggest and most improbable comeback against the Knicks I have ever seen, and
- Colts owner Jim Irsay died.
The Indy Star’s Greg Doyle wrote this:
Colts owner Jim Irsay was gentle, generous and imperfect. He made public, painful mistakes. He did private, precious things.
— Greg Doyle, Indy Star
Jim Irsay died Wednesday afternoon at age 65, having “passed away peacefully in his sleep,” according to Pete Ward, the Colts’ chief operating officer and Irsay’s righthand man for decades in Indianapolis.
The heart breaks, because Jim Irsay is gone and everything is less than it was just one day ago. The Colts are less without an owner who loved his players like brothers or, in recent years, like the sons he never had. The city is less without a philanthropist who had occasional battles with inner demons, yes, but listened regularly to his better angels and contributed to causes big and small all over the city. Such is the legacy of Irsay’s generosity that it would be irresponsible to list the groups he supported – though we’d start with IPS schools and his $1 million challenge during the COVID school shutdown of 2020 – because Irsay was writing checks all over town, and nobody knew.
Words would come in from struggling parents and animal rescue groups and restaurant owners and … so many.
“Don’t write about this, but somehow Mr. Irsay heard about…”
Like that. For years. Those are the emails or private comments that would come in, starting along those lines: With Mr. Irsay hearing about something tragic, something dire, and writing a check.
Around the country, they didn’t know Jim Irsay. They knew the cartoon, the caricature, the man who made newsworthy soundbites every time he talked with the media and waged a very public war with addiction.
You wonder if people were paying attention to the rest of the man, the whole man, the one with the courage to talk about it – to turn the Colts into a crusade for mental health awareness. Kicking the Stigma, the Irsay family decided to call their initiative in 2020. That was the Jim Irsay we knew around here.
And some of us, if we were lucky, knew him just a little bit better.
… and then the Pacers staged one of the most improbable comebacks I have ever seen in any sport.
Next, I watched the Dodgers beat Corbin Burnes. What a day!
Dodger News & Notes
- Mike Sirota started in CF for Great Lakes. George was in LF!
- Nick Frasso was hitting 97-98 and getting crushed last night as he struggles with his release point at OKC. Frasso and Miller are of huge potential and have big problems.
Wednesday scores
Sacramento 8, Oklahoma City 1
Springfield 13, Tulsa 3
Stockton 11, Rancho Cucamonga 2
Thursday schedule
Great Lakes 1, West Michigan 1, 2:35 PM, PST completion of May 21 game
Great Lakes (Eriq Swan) at West Michigan (Max Alba) game 2
Springfield (Tekoah Roby) at Tulsa (Peter Heubeck), 5:00 PM, PST
Sacramento (Mason Black) at Oklahoma City (Justin Wrobleski), 5:05 PM, PST
Rancho Cucamonga (Aidan Foeller) at Stockton (Wei En-Lin), 7:05 PM, PST
For more detailed recaps,stats,schedules, standings and box scores for Dodger minor league teams go to the top of this page and cIick on MINOR LEAGUE AFFLIATES.
Mike Sirota’s remarkable rise has been noted by mlb.com in a roundup of “Under-The-Radar No More” prospects:
Dodgers: Mike Sirota, OF (No. 19)
“Projected as a first-rounder entering his junior season at Northeastern last spring, Sirota slumped and fell to the Reds in the third round. Traded to the Dodgers in the Gavin Lux deal in January, he has recaptured his timing at the plate in his pro debut this year and is batting .382/.469/.745 with nine homers in 27 games between two Class A levels. The grand-nephew of Hall of Famer Whitey Ford has the upside of a center fielder with solid tools across the board.”
Just feels good to read stuff like that.
Machado…3 Errors yesterday…..
good morning everyone. the earth has finally come back to normal! Dustin May looked so much better yesterday! Teo! i’m so happy he’s a dodger! Corbin Burns is good! no need fretting over last night’s offensive performance. Defensively the dodgers are very solid every where but one position. And that position is concerning. …. On to NY where the suddenly turbulent mets await. What’s the deal with Soto? 760 million for this? AF was a genius letting that dude go elsewhere! ( no sarcasm intended). … Read this morning Taylor wants more playing time. well he better quit striking out so much! Hope he lands somewhere good for him! …. Is Freddie the best human being in baseball?? …. strange that conforto wasn’t in the lineup with a righty on the mound. …. i guess it’s possible Dalton might start playing some left field. …. Maybe Freeland will be playing in LA sooner rather than later! … Manny 3 errors last night! Yaaaay!
My personal opinion is that many fans expect the Dodgers to win multiple titles in a row. Sorry, not that easy and has not been for years. The last team to win even two in a row, the Yankees. With the playoffs structured the way they are, you have to win 11 games. Used to be it was just you and the other leagues champ. A lot different now. I believe fans expect too much.
Mark,
thanks for sharing the Indy Star article from Greg Doyle
all too often the only information we know about a person is whatever the media decides is important to put out there. It seems there was much more to Jim Irsay than his published battles with addiction.
It will be interesting to see what happens this year in the playoffs.
I believe it’s Andrew’s goal to have the best possible team he can put together for the postseason. I hope he can enter gauntlet with at least 4 healthy starting pitchers. We did very well last year but we came close to being eliminated by the Pods.
Any guesses as to what the rotation will look like?
How about
Yamamoto
Ohtani
Gonsolin
Glasnow or Snell
You don’t think Snell will be back?
What about Kersh?
or May
YY, Snell, Ohtani, Glasnow.
as Don Ohlmeyer opined, the answer to your unanswered questions is: MONEY
I’m with you Bear. It’s very tough to repeat. But Andrew and the Dodgers are trendsetters in the quest to unlock the keys of the so called Oct. crapshoot.
Hmmm. Oct. rotation
Yamamoto
Snell
Gonsolin
Skubal
Ohtani closing
As for Sirota……I luv the kid. He is a gamer. Can he do what Andrew Toles did? That would be awesome. But the 26 is stacked right now so let him gain precious experience on the farm.
Mark. Thank you.
Book em
Tigers aint trading Skubal…..
I could see a scenario where Buehler comes back at the deadline….
Andrew Toles?
I could see Buehler coming back… if the Dodgers’ team plane went down and killed the team.
Keep dreaming!!!!!!!
Shubal might be on the Dodgers if the Tigers’ team plane goes down and he is the only survivor.
Why on Earth would the Tigers trade Skubal?
Ohtani cannot close.
Why does this nonsense persevere.
We persevere with this nonsense because it makes a lot of strategic sense, and your reasons why it can’t be done are not true and silly.
https://x.com/i/grok/share/aHlYdYCrUxR8lmXrgMOVcT6qy
Funny. Japan managed to pull it off. Remember that? Ohtani vs. Trout to close out the WBC?
Sadly, Grok again is wrong. In the MLB with its rules:
The DH very specifically can not warm up in the bullpen. He would have to either warm up elsewhere or come in cold.
When he becomes the pitcher, the team loses the DH.
However, under the “Shohei Ohtani Rule,” a starting pitcher who begins the game as the designated hitter can continue to act as the DH even after being removed from the mound as a pitcher. This allows the team to keep their potent bat in the lineup without losing the DH spot.
That is most compelling!
The biggest issue, to me, is the inability (both practically and by league rule) to warm up.
lolknicks
Andrew Toles went from low single A to the bigs in the same year. Just saying. Thought you might enjoy Skubal. Ha ha! Nobody can predict the Oct. rotation.
Book em
So speaking of Andrew Toles, does anyone know his status this year? Are the Dodgers continuing to pay for his treatment?
Yes, but he is in bad shape.
Hope Pages gets over his Minnie slump before the two ny. Weekends.