Well, the last game of the spring is just a few minutes away. The team will be traveling to Denver tomorrow for Thursday’s opener. Temps are supposed to be mild. The game is nationally televised on ESPN.
Good thing it is a day game. It is supposed to drop to 29 that night and Friday and Saturday a frigid 36, then 42. Sunday it is supposed to be 80. Welcome to Colorado.
Also today, there is a 50 percent chance of snow in Denver, so the grounds crew is going to have their work cut out for them getting Coors ready by the start time on Thursday.
Kersh takes the mound for his 9th opening day assignment. Frankly, I wish he wasn’t the guy. Although he has a winning record at Coors at 11-5. His ERA there is 4.44. He has allowed 19 HR’s in 23 games. 139 hits, and 36 walks in 140 innings. Not great numbers. His WHIP at Coors is 1.250. The Rocks only hit .203 against him there, but they get the most out of their hits.
That being said, the Rockies are nowhere near the team they were early last year and they really miss Arenado in that lineup. Roberts has said that Bellinger is going to hit cleanup despite having a shortened spring and working with a new stance.
Muncy has been hitting better as of late, and Seager has been a monster this spring. Betts cooled off some at the end of spring and dropped under .300, but he looks ready. Taylor is also locked in.
HR’s are down all across the cactus and grapefruit leagues. So the new ball is having some impact. The umpires are in midseason form. Missing a lot of calls.
Despite bad outings over the last several days by the core group of starters, Kersh, Bauer and Buehler, most pundits think LA’s rotation is the best in the majors simply because they are 8 deep right now on the roster.
Don’t sleep on Nelson. He seems to have found it again. Price has said he will do whatever the team asks. You have to love a guy who does that and he gained a ton of respect from me when he gave each minor leaguer in the system a 1000 dollars last year to help them.
Gonsolin can pitch in pretty much any situation. May cannot. He is much better suited as a starter. Knebel, Treinen, Jansen, Alexander, Gonzalez. The bullpen is loaded and has plenty of back-ups.
The starting 8 are as good as any teams in both leagues. The bench is the only real question mark, and that is simply because it is a little lefty heavy. But there is a lot of experience there except for McKinstry. But they believe in him and love his versatility.
None of the non-roster guys made the team except for Nelson. And frankly, I did not think any of them would. Neuse and DJ Peters will benefit from starting almost every day as will Ruiz. He is not on the roster mainly because he had such a short spring. Not that it hurt him any. He hit like he had been playing for months.
They have enough talent to stock a couple of teams, and there are guys who would probably be high on other teams depth charts. I was impressed by a couple of the kids, Outman was outstanding defensively. Neuse showed none of the power that was advertised, but he showed versatility.
Busch and Hoese did not get a lot of reps to show what they have, but both showed some serious tools. Guys like Davidson, Ravel, had no shot really to crack the roster. Had Davidson kept hitting like he did the first week or so, he might have stuck because his power is impressive.
Jackson and Robertson have impressive stuff. One bad inning skewed Robertson’s spring stats. But he has some serious movement on his pitches. They can send Cleavenger back to where he came from as far as I am concerned. 16 baserunners in 7.2 innings.
7 of their pitchers had ERA’s over 10 for the spring, including Kershaw. Bauer led the team in HR’s given up with 6. Hard to judge guys who only pitched a couple of innings.
If they happen to lose tonight, they will finish at .500 for the spring with 5 ties. They are 18th in hitting with a .248 average. They have hit 31 HR’s in 28 games. Kansas City leads with 48. The Giants have 38.
But come Thursday, none of that matters and the games finally mean something. Should be an interesting year. I am a terrible armchair GM. I have no clue which way AF will be leaning at the deadline. I do know that if there is an area that needs to be addressed, he will do it. ‘
So lets all enjoy what should be one hell of a ride. Go Dodgers !!!
Discussion (71)
Disagree, not disagreeable
I saw it reported that Roberts disclosed 4 of the 5 members of the initial road trip taxi squad.
Keibert Ruiz – C
Garrett Cleavinger – LHRP
Dennis Santana – RHRP
DJ Peters – OF
5th player is to be determined.
For discussion, who would you take as the 5th player?
I’ll choose Sheldon Neuse as he would be roughly an IF replacement.
Who cares who is the best SS? The right question should be: Who would you like to have on your team?
A. Seager
B. Tatis
C. Story
That’s all, no matter so much statistics, in the world series is when the true best SS is recognized!
MLB releases the list of the 20 most popular player jerseys, topped by Mookie Betts
Dodgers has 4 (5 counting Kike) in the top 20
01. Betts
02. Bellinger
03. Tatis
04. Harper
05. Kershaw
06. Judge
07. Acuña
08. Lindor
09. Kike
10. Trout
11. Arenado
12. Baez
13. Seager
14. Cole
15, Molina
16. Yelich
17. Freeman
B & D,
Just to clarify, some commenters complained to AC and me about a few people (not just you), by e-mail.
The post was not just directed to you… even if you felt it was. There were a couple of things that were more egregious than what you did. I was just trying to nip it in the bud!
That’s all! I always have liked most of your stuff… even with what I disagree with.
So, here goes on my two cents on Corey Seager:
1. Before he was even in the major leagues, many fans were “moving him to 3B” in their minds, and to justify their original position, they keep doing it.
2. Defensive metrics are highly subjective, so I look at them but do not worship them.
3. Of all the Top SS’s mentioned: Story, Seager, Baez, and Lindor, only Seager has won a Would Series (as a SS) and only one was the World Series MVP – Corey Seager
Career BA:
1. Seager – .295
2. Lindor – .285
3. Story – .277
4. Baez – .264
Career OB%
1. Seager – .362
2. Lindor – .346
3. Story – .343
4. Baez – .304 (Ouch)
Career OPS
1. Story – .877
2. Seager – .863
3. Lindor – .833
4. Baez – .777
Story is helped greatly by Coors. Watch and see what happens to Nolan Arenado this year. He hit .239 in ST.
Baez is a joke to even be in the running as a Top SS.
Last year Seager “broke out” and I think he will keep it up. After this season, he may be cemented as the best SS in baseball. He ain’t moving to 3B for about 6 or 7 years… and then it might be 1B!
Here’s how MLB ranks them right about now:
1. Trevor Story, COL (Last year: 1)
2. Fernando Tatis Jr., SD (6)
3. Xander Bogaerts, BOS (5)
4. Francisco Lindor, NYM (2)
5. Trea Turner, WSH (Not ranked)
6. Corey Seager, LAD (NR)
7. Carlos Correa, HOU (9)
8. Bo Bichette, TOR (NR)
9. Javier Báez, CHC (3)
10.Tim Anderson, CWS (NR)
I like “home-grown” because according to some I am a “Homer.”
I like Seager because he has the very real potential to hit 45+ homers this year and OPS 1.000. I think he’s a strong MVP candidate. Obviously if he doesn’t rake offensively than he can’t rank with some of these other SS’s because of his defense. But this is probably the greatest group of young SS’s in the history of the game.
Here’s an interesting take – The Athletic had the Harris polling people poll baseball fans and almost everyone disliked the impact of analytics on the game:
“Nearly nine in 10 very avid fans and four-fifths of all fans agreed that analytics, which is the use of data to make decisions, is taking over baseball games too much and dictating how players compete, according to a new Harris Poll conducted exclusively on behalf of The Athletic. In fact, the poll found only 19 percent of fans disagreed with the negative sentiment to analytics.”
As a fan, I like Seager. He’s home grown and was fantastic in the postseason last year. He has been injury prone which makes him a little bit of a risk compared to other free agent SS next season. And as some have observed, at his size he will likely move to 3B at some point in the next few seasons, which potentially reduces his value compared to some free agent SS on the market.
I haven’t seen as much of the other guys so it’s hard to rank them given the eyeball test. As for Trevor Story, it’s always hard to know how much of his mile high performance will translate to sea level. As for Lindor, I assume that the Mets will end up extending him at some point – they wouldn’t have traded for him otherwise. We leave out Javier Baez when we talk elite free agent SS.
Badger makes an important point. SS is arguably the most important defensive position on the field. According to Baseball Reference.com, in 2020 Javier Baez and Trevor Story were 1 & 2 in range factor at SS – Seager was 9th (among starters at SS) and Lindor was 11th. In defensive runs saved above average, Baez is 4th, Story is 5th, Lindor is 7th. Seager is 15th and he has a negative number. Seager is tied for 5th in most errors at SS – Story has most errors, Baez is tied with Seager and Lindor only made 1 error all season!
Going back to 2019, Story was 2nd in range factor, Baez is 5th, Lindor was 22nd and Seager was 25th. In DRS, Baez is 1st, Story is 3rd, Lindor is 6th and Seager again has a negative number.
I think we have to concede Badger’s point that Seager is not as good a defender as the other free agents to be. But maybe Lindor isn’t as good as he is reputed to be either and maybe Story and Baez are the more elite defenders.
How much extra is it worth to keep Seager because he’s home grown and an important part of the Dodgers’ success?
I like Peters but he just swings through so many center cut fastballs. If he hasn’t figured it out by now I don’t have much hope for him.
I like the Souza move. It’s a long play, like for mid-or-postseason.
You can’t take the Badger out of the Badger, plus he can’t stand Timmons, plus he is a cranky old contrarian. Besides that…
I don’t know why May didn’t really throw his four seamer much last night. It looked great in his last start, and really adds a vertical plane to the zone. I think I saw him use it a couple of times to get a low strike, but I really wish he’d use it more high in the zone. It’s a great way to mix it up between the arm side run and sinking action of his hard sinker, which he throws a lot and can get predictable.
I think maybe it was by design? It seemed he was working on expanding the zone horizontally with the two seamer rather than vertically with the four seamer, and he looked good using that natural movement of the sinker to get strikes on the inside part and the outside part of the plate. Not a lot of stuff left out in the middle, which was good. I think his curve got better as the game went on. It was a little high in the zone at first and didn’t have a sharp break, but a few times he broke a few off that started in the zone and dove out of the zone to get the batter to chase. Pujols looked bad on a couple of those.
To really take his game to another level, May needs to master and incorporate that high four seamer, but he looked pretty good last night.
Are we having another chest beating ego contest over Seager again? Why? Seager’s awesome, he’s now just reaching his peak offensively – and I think his swing evolution with the backspin he’s able to get now just looks awesome, and a lot of the doubles he used to get at a prolific rate will now be homers. He’s just starting to click, and It’s hard to believe he’s still only 26. The Dodgers aren’t getting Lindor. I don’t know why we still are having this discussion.
Tatis is awesome and is maybe the next superstar. Lindor is perhaps the best defensive shortstop in the game outside of Andrelton Simmons, and he had an outstanding offensive year in 18, but I would take an offensively peaking Seager. Story is an outstanding defensive shortstop with good offensive numbers that are inflated by Coors. No one mentioned Carlos Correa, either. Trea Turner? Tim Anderson? The most highly touted prospect and perhaps the next superstar is Wander Franco. There are a lot of great shortstops out there, Seager has the highest career wRC+ of all of them in spite of his injuries, is finally healthy and is only getting better. Seager is elite, is homegrown talent, and one of the faces of the Dodgers. His defense is not elite, but it’s serviceable.
…and WAR is a cumulative stat, not a rate stat. Lindor is the beneficiary of having nearly 1000 more plate appearances.
I forgot to mention how impressive Mitch White was last night. If that kid is healthy, look out. Another great option over the course of the year.
Morning. Well they finished with a bang. And it never fails, as soon as I pump some guy up he has a stinker. I guess I jinxed poor Jackson. I was not watching by then, I had switched to watching the UCLA game. Exciting ending. What people forgot to mention was Michigan missed their last 10 shots from the field. But Gonzaga is a whole different animal. There is a video on Yahoo this morning showing the Dodgers top 3 HR’s according to stat cast since 2015. Joc Pederson has two of the three, and he hit them both on the same day in separate games of a double header in Colorado in 2015. The third longest was Pederson’s blast of 472 feet. Number 2 was Edwin Rios shot in San Diego that went 473 feet. The same day he hit the third longest shot, Pederson hit a ball into the left center field bleachers at Coors that was measured at 477 feet. I admit, statcast is fun to watch. The launch angle and exit velocity’s on all of those HR’s was impressive. Rios looked like he barely swung and that ball was crushed. Trevor Story hits 54 points lower on the road. ,304 to .250. He has 172 extra base hits at Coors and 120 on the road. He has played 304 games at Coors and 299 on the road. He murders left handed pitching at a .310 clip, and is respectable against RHP with a .266. He has 40 more HR’s vs RHP than left. Which makes sense since he see’s them more often. He is very good against the other 3 teams in the division, but is only a .239 hitter against the Dodgers. He is also very good in interleague games. Seager’s split’s are much more even. He is .300 at home and .291 on the road. He also hits RHP at a .307 clip and is very respectable against lefty’s at .272. He is much more consistent than Story. But he does not quite match his power. Both are very good in the second half, but Seager is close to a .300 hitter after the break. Only in the power department does Story beat Seager in offense. He is a better fielder. But I think away from Coors he is not the same player offensively. Same as Arenado. Tatis is poised to be one of the best. One thing to know about the Padres is that they have one LH hitter on their bench, and he is a rookie. They are going with Darvish, Snell, Paddock, Musgrove and Morejon. Lamet is still rehabbing in AZ> . They are starting their season without Nola. And Tatis Jr. is nursing a sore shoulder while still playing. It is time for the games to begin. SD starts against The Mad Bum. Oh yeah, on the road each team will have a 5 man taxi squad.
Unfortunately Gonzaga is waiting for them!
BRUINS!!!
Well, this has been fun. My ranking … Tatis, Seager, Story.
Tatis is a monster but Story barely has a better career OPS than Seager and Story plays in thin air. There’s no way I would rate Story higher than Seager.
Lindor had a bad year in 2020.
Was that an aberration or not?
I don’t know.
Story is a great SS on a very bad team.
Seager was the MVP of the team that won the World Championship.
Post all the stats you want.
I call “Scoreboard!”
Smith bomb.
Well so much for Mookie’s power outage!
This year I’m taking Seager over Story all day long! When he’s healthy he’s an MVP candidate. No way for Story. Homer that! Thank you
If Corey Seager is the 3rd Best SS in the NL West, the other guys must know how to fly!
Press Release
DODGERS SINGLE-GAME TICKETS FOR MONTH OF APRIL TO GO ON SALE FRIDAY
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers today announced that single-game tickets for the month of April (excluding Opening Day) will go on sale this Friday, April 2 at 10:00 a.m. PT at Dodgers.com/Tickets.
Fans are encouraged to visit the Dodgers’ Fan Safety Portal at Dodgers.com/FanSafety to learn more about the club’s policies and procedures for the start of the 2021 season.