Mark uses “Rants and Raves” so I will use “Bites and Bits” to avoid any copyright infringement with Mark or Bits and Bites Snack Mix. Actually I have little to rant and rave about but have some small pieces of somewhat innocuous “stuff” that I will post. Some things that just popped into my head during the past few days or that I stumbled upon. Some of it might be a little goofy.
What I Like:
I like the way the Loons players, at least most of them, wear their pant legs knee high. I really dislike the pants dragging on the ground like pajama bottoms. I have never gotten out of the stirrup era. For me, this is how a professional baseball uniform should look. I miss Duke.
I also like it when the Dodgers have “Dodgers” on their road jerseys. Everyone who knows baseball, and often those who don’t, know of the “Dodgers”.
What I Dislike:
I really dislike the so called “pitch framing”. It is simply a misnomer. Maybe there is something to be gained by it in a deceptive manner but let’s call it what it is. It is without question yanking the ball in or up. A framing would be holding the glove motionless, at least in my opinion. Any umpire that uses that pitch yanking as a reference should be yanked out as an umpire. It irritates me to see minor league catchers yanking the ball, especially in. It doesn’t help their passed ball rate. That is a bit of a rant, eh!
What I Miss:
I miss the stolen base as it declines in numbers each year. I understand there have been ups and down in the number of stolen bases over the decades, but the trend now definitely seems to be down.
YEAR STEALS
1987 3,585
1997 3,308
2007 2,918
2017 2,527
2018 2,474
Buster Onley wrote an article a year ago that at least helps explain why the stolen base is falling out of favor.
Gavin Lux:
In a MiLB.com article on Gavin Lux on April 19, 2019, Lux explains his transition to the prospect we hoped he would become.
He talked about how to hit left-handed pitching with Chase Utley. He talked defense with Justin Turner and Enrique Hernandez. He took instruction from organization coaches Robert Van Scoyoc, Brant Brown and Aaron Bates. The whole time, Lux straddled a line of seeking out as much information he could while letting the veterans get their work in, too.
“They’re super open to everything,” Lux said. “The more I can pick their brains, the more I can l learn. So, for me being around them every day was a learning experience for me.”
“I’m super left-eye dominant. I never knew that until this offseason,” he said. “So, I started opening up and, honestly, I’m just trying to stay inside and shoot it the other way, and if he stays inside, pull it. I just think the more you see them, the more you get off of them.”
“I was super mechanical,” he said. “I was thinking where my hands were, and I got super caught up with it. So, going into 2018, I just found a swing that worked, and I said I’m not going to toy with it too much.”
Lux is not putting the cart before the horse.
“I obviously want to be as good as I can,” he said. “I’m going to be where my feet are and take it a day at a time, and just have fun doing it.”
Stetson Allie:
He has had a difficult couple of outings with home plate seemingly moving around on him creating five walks in two appearances without getting an out. Yet on Friday, April 19 he had a special game although he gave up three runs without recording an out.
Benjamin Moore:
No, not the paint. Ben Moore was added the the OKC Dodgers roster in early April and is on the IL. The 26-year-old catcher was signed by the Dodgers as a free agent in February.
Moore was the primary backstop for the Southern Illinois Miners of the independent Frontier League for the last two seasons, and batted .251 with 11 doubles, three homers and 28 RBIs in 101 games for the black and gold. He hit .287 in 37 games with the club in 2018, ranking among the team leaders in batting average before a knee injury cut his season short. Also a strong defender, he committed just two errors behind the plate with Southern Illinois in over 750 chances.
The Trade:
A couple of days ago Bobby asked about the players the Dodgers sent to Baltimore in the Manny Machado trade.
“BlackMirror mentioned Yusniel Diaz; does anyone know how Diaz or any of the other guys we sent over for Machado are doing?” I did take a look before Monday’s games.
Four of the players are teammates with the AA Bowie Baysox – Diaz, Bannon, Kremer, Pop. Kremer is on the IL and has not played yet in 2019. Valera was traded by the Orioles to the Giants and is now with the AAA Sacramento River Cats.
G SLASH HR RBI
Yusniel Diaz 16 .224/.318/.362 1 7
Rylan Bannon 16 .288/.364/.492 2 12
Breyvic Valera 13 .262/.404/.381 1 4
Zach Pop has a 1.23 ERA in 7.1 innings pitched and a 0.82 WHIP. He has given up only two hits, struck out eight and walked four.
Movement on the Farm:
Outfielder Chris Roller, LHP Justin Bruihl and RHP Kevin Malisheski added to the Loons. Outfielder Drew Avans promoted to RC. Right-handed pitchers Justin Hagenman, Jose Chacin and Guillermo Zuniga all removed from the Loons roster and not added to the Quakes so returned to extended spring training as a paper move.
Minor League Report by DC
There were only two games on Tuesday as the Dodgers had a travel day and the Drillers got rained out in Midland. The game was not just rained out, but also hailed out. A strong thunderstorm struck the Midland-Odessa area just before the scheduled first pitch and forced the postponement.
The thunderstorm included golf ball-sized hail, leaving severe damage to many of the automobiles in the stadium parking lot.
Great Lakes Loons 3 – West Michigan Whitecaps 4 (Detroit)
Josiah Gray started his fourth game of the season and from the first pitch it seemed evident he did not come with his best stuff. He threw 67 pitches in 2.2 innings giving up five hits and two earned runs along with two walks and four strikeouts. Gray was relieved by left-hander Austin Drury who stranded the two bases runners he inherited and kept the loons close. He pitched 2.1 scoreless innings on one hit and three strikeouts. Joel Inoa followed Drury and gave up to runs in his 2.1 innings. He left with the bases loaded and one out. Jasiel Alvino shut down the Whitecaps on a strikeout and ground out leaving the bases loaded. He gave up only one hit and a walk in 2.2 innings while striking out four.
The Loons tied the game at two in the bottom of the fifth inning when a Dillon paulson double plated James outman and a Chris Roller single brought home Miguel Vargas. The Loons scored one more run in the bottom of the eighth inning with a Romar Cuadrado single that followed a Jacob Amaya double. Romar Cuadrado had two hits while Jacob Amaya hit his seventh double..
RC Quakes 3 – Inland Empire 66ers 0 (LAA)
For the third time in Rancho Cucamonga history the Quakes were no-hit through nine innings. However, in the top of the ninth they scored the only runs in the game. Starling Heredia began the inning at second base, Marcus Chui drew a walk and Drew Avans brought them both home with a long triple to center field. Avans then scored on a Brandon Montgomery sacrifice fly. The Quakes did draw seven walks during the game but struck out 18 times.
The Quakes pitching wasn’t too shabby either. Geraldo Carrillo started and pitched five innings of two-hit ball. He walked three and struck out two. Austin Hamilton and Max Gamboa both followed with two innings giving up one hit and striking out nine. Jordan Sheffield continued his stellar closer work with his fifth save in five opportunities and maintaining a 0.00 ERA. He struck out the side, all swinging, in the bottom of the tenth inning.
Discussion (50)
Disagree, not disagreeable
What am I missing that Doc is seeing that causes him not to bench Taylor. (Is he watching games we are watching)
It seems so logical that Verdugo should be replaceing Taylor. But, is there a reason
Taylor keeps getting the nod?
Please explain.
Left handers are hitting 346 against Quintana, righties 220. Just sayin’. Cubs are smart, stacking lefties against us with Hammels today and Lester coming off the DL tomorrow. The pre-game crew is blasting them for sitting Joc and Muncy. Doc interviewed and says Taylor is getting leeway, not soon enough to take him out of the platoon for Verdugo. Garciaparra’s response to that interview… Taylor shouldn’t get so much leeway after leading the league in Ks last year.
Cody batting 6th again, Taylor behind him. Both Garciaparra and J-Hair complaining about this.
Observations.
Ferguson needs to use his curve ball more. He is a one pitch pitcher. I would like to see him sent down to work on ,his pitches.
Taylor needs to be sent down. Same problem as last year. SO. It has been too long and he just cannot make contact.
Verdugo needs to play, but where.
I agree with Bum. Let Joc play some games against LH. If he cannot, then I would trade him. You just cannot have two players filling one position.
Maeda does not trust his pitches. He nibbles and gets behind.
Barnes needs rest.
Can Freese play First base ??? Why dont they use him at third base to spell Turner who has also been showing signs of declining defense at 3B this year. But Freese plays terrible 1B.
Early days, but old friend Frankie Montas is leading MLB in wins (jointly)
Oh and I miss the short shorts in the NBA too! How old r u guys?
For those of us who are Verdugo fans (and I’m guessing that’s most of us by now) here’s a link to a nice article on him:
https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-alex-verdugo-dodgers-rookie-personality-vicente-fernandez-volver-volver-20190422-story.html?utm
Enough already with Chris Taylor! He should never be starting. Since we have no good right handed bats in the organization to play left field against lefties give the job to Verdugo!
Maybe Maeda in the BP and Julio starting? Ferguson?
Last year I considered Diaz as a potential 2019 starting LF candidate. Looks like my timeline was off. Orioles are bad so maybe AA is a prudent placement since they’re in no rush.
Framing may only get a few strikes a game but there’s a definite benefit for the psyche of the pitchers. Making balls look like strikes is something good catchers just do instinctively, and it is a skill that can and should be taught to every young catcher as long as human umpires are calling balls and strikes. And if you think pitchers don’t appreciate it you are mistaken. Mike Mussina wouldn’t pitch his last couple season for the yankees if Jose Molina wasn’t catching. Why? Cause he was the best I’ve seen making balls look like strikes. Might of just been in Mussina’s head…but that’s enough of a reason to frame.
Bum, you know bunts are an endangered species…
Call me a dinosaur or a purist, but I really miss the stirrup look..Cooler than the other side of the pillow…
Eye black evolution… It wasn’t long ago that my HS coaches allowed their players to create their own design which was straight out of the Rocky Horror show.. just give em the peel and place strips and be done with it….
Have I said lately although he’s one of my favs, Verdugo’s (another pinch hit yesterday) hair cut has got to go..
Damn, I feel better now…
I am in Vegas and did not get to see the game last night. It’s all work, hardly any play… but I am a couple hundred dollars ahead on Blackjack.
Staying at the Venetian – This is the Sportsbook.
Anyway, it was a bad game I guess – I did want to touch on Howard Coles’ article in Forbes about Yelich. Yes, we all knew he was a breakout candidate, yes he would not put up monster numbers in LA and yes, Friedman did like Yelich a lot! What we don’t know is what the Jeters asked for him. I am sure Verdugo and Ruiz were part of the ask, so Howard is just inventing a “Strawman” – We have no idea who was involved and even if the Jeters had interest in anyone outside of Ruiz and Verdugo….
Baseball should show the socks but basketball doesn’t have to go back to the short shorts.
I always liked Furcal’s slap bunts and they should be more effective now with the shifts.
Maeda is such a head case sometimes. He always reverts back to nibbling too much and falling behind. That guy needs to trust his fastball and slider early to get one over and get ahead. He needs to mix it up and not fall in love with one pitch.
Another tough game against a lefty. Quintana is on a roll right now, so you have to tip your cap. But, our right handed subs that were put in for our lefty platoons did absolutely nothing. It’s absolutely criminal that Bellinger (the best player in baseball right now) hit 6th in the lineup yesterday.
There’s gonna be games like this sometimes, but we don’t need to help out our opponents by making sure they don’t see our best hitter in the top of the lineup. You have to give Freese and Taylor some playing time, I get that. But, you don’t have to push Belli down to the 6th spot.
Off topic but I left Loma Linda ortho yesterday with knee replacement as a near future option and I figured some that post here might offer some personal educated advice. I learned my lesson to not jump off retaining walls anytime in the future but Knee replacement sounds somewhat threatening. I don’t really even know what knee replacement is. As far as I know it could be done with cadaver parts or man made materials or even neither.
Note to Jeff–Please voice your thoughts on the Dodgers without using Mark as your foil.
Good Post DC.
I like a catcher’s ability to catch a ball just wide of the plate with the edge of the glove and keep as much of the glove in the strike zone as possible. That’s framing. Yanking the glove sometimes works but it looks funky.
Good story on Lux.
I think we are witnessing something in Jordan Sheffield that some of us have been touting…when you have a pitcher with a good arm but questionable length, convert him to a high leverage reliever. There was never any question as to how good Jordan Sheffield could be, but it was fairly evident he could not maintain the power/command over a sustained period. In 8 games (8.1 IP), he has surrendered 1 hit and zero runs. He still needs to work on his control as he has walked 7 in those 8.1 IP. He does have 14 K’s. Once he can spot his fastball more precisely, he is a potential ML closer. Congratulations to Jordan for recognizing what his strengths seemed to be, and enjoying a great start to the 2019 season. He will have a bad outing, but for now he is someone to really watch. At the end of last season when he started the transition and then went to the Fall AZL, I thought he might be a good bet to make it to AAA this year, and be on the short list for a 2020 reliever role.
Another former starter enjoying success as a reliever is former 18th round draft pick out of Pepperdine, Max Gamboa. In 6 games, Max has allowed 6 hits, 6 walks, and registered 20 strikeouts in 10.2 innings. He has allowed 3 runs in two of those games and went unscored on in the other 4. In his last three games he has pitched 4.1 innings and allowed 2 hits, 2 walks, to go with 10 strikeouts. He is quickly becoming a very reliable multi-inning reliever. I think Max has a legit shot at a ML career as a reliable middle inning reliever.