We all knew that at some point the Dodgers would lose a game or two, but going into last night’s game the Dodgers were hitting against Ricky Nolasco, career journeyman who was 2-9 on the year with an ERA over 5.00. Ricky “Freakin” Nolasco! Nolasco pitched 6.1 strong innings and made the Dodgers look like chumps. OK, it’s baseball and on any given day… but Ricky Nolasco? OK, I’m over it. Nothing to see here’ folks… move along!
Seriously? Ricky Nolasco? I’m talking about Ricky Nolasco…
Well, the good news is that Rich Hill was really Rich Hill. He pitched 7 strong innings with 7 K’s and was close to dominant. He gave up one extra base hit and 3 singles to go with 2 BB and 7 K’s. He was just very unlucky but he wasn’t getting hit hard. OK, that’s one less thing for FAZ-BASHERS to bitch about. Move on to something else. “Olivera – yeah, that’s the ticket. That was a really bad signing!” Blah, Blah, Blah!
With Hill Wood and Kershaw at the top of the rotation and Brandon McCarthy pitching well… except for his last outing, this rotation is solid and Oaks and Barlow are ready at AAA. So, I am sure we do not know the extent of McCarthy’s knee problems. I am sure the Dodgers aren’t saying, but is it chronic or just a tweak or a lingering injury? We don’t know, but I do know that this is the second time we have heard about it. I am betting he could miss some time… especially if he has to get it scoped. That’s the blessing of depth.
What Andrew Friedman is doing with depth is the envy of other teams who invested heavily in inning-eating “studs” who, a year later, turned out to be duds (no names will be mentioned to protect the innocent). Friedman invested in depth and it has and is paying off. When you have depth, it doesn’t make much difference if a pitcher pitches 5, 6 or 7 innings – just fire up that OKC shuttle!
Sergio Romo reverted back to being Sergio Romo and gave up a bomb last night. Yawn! Yasiel Puig and Chris Taylor came to play last night, the rest of the guys (except Hill) were resting… I’m joking! Puig threw a 96 MPH laser to nail Calhoun last night… off flat ground. I’m thinking he could hit 102 off a mound! Hummmmm……
- Puig – 7th
- Baez -8th
- Jansen – 9th
All are converted position players. I’ll bet no hitter would feel safe with the Knucklehead on the mound! Maybe I’m onto something… no more likely, I’m on something!
Quick – who leads the Dodgers in Doubles? Corey Seager with 19. Who is second? Kike Hernandez with 18… in 100 less AB’s
Minor League Report
- Scott Barlow and 2B Jose Miguel Fernandez were both promoted to AAA OKC and promptly paid dividends. Barlow went 6.1 and allowed 0 ER while getting his 1st AAA win and Fernandez went 2-2 with a BB.
- That moved Willie Calhoun to LF… most likely forever (or not).
- Dickson hit his 17th HR
- At RC, Scott Kazmir went 3, allowed 4 hits and 1 ER wile walking and striking out ZERO. He allegedly touched 90 MPH once.
- Yadier Alvarez had his best outing of the season, going 6 innings while striking out 7 and walking one. He gave up 3 ER.
How About Some Tunes?
Discussion (46)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Since Seager is about ready to play I wonder if he will DH in Anaheim? I like how they are taking advantage of the 10-day DL to cycle pitchers in and out of the rotation. As long as he doesn’t have the yips or damage to his knee McCarthy will be back in 10 games and Ryu or Maeda will go on with something soreness.
Dino, I completely agree with you. On another site, most of the comments were about Mike Freeman. Bashing the front office for having him on the team, and Roberts for using him as a pinch hitter. Win 10 and lose one and the negativity comes out after the one loss.
SF come from behind to beat Colorado in 14
Is it turning into a 2 horse race?
I DONT UNDERSTAND HOW PEOPLE BASH OUR FO. DODGERS ARE THE CLASS OF MLB. I THINK THEY JUST HAVE ISSUES. MARK, DODGERTALK HAS NEVER BEEN BETTER. ALOT OF GREAT DODGER MINDS N HERE.
Maeda looking good which is a bonus.
Looks better with more rest.
Keep Morrow up.
Looking good defensively.
What a great start for Maeda! 7 excellent innings
Great swing by Joc! He stayed back on a curve ball, took a nice easy swing and it just cleared Young’s glove for a 3 run bomb to straightaway CF, and off a leftie!
Joc “Freakin” Pederson!
2 of the cheapest doubles you will ever see: Eric Young losing Taylor’s fly ball (good hustle to take 2B) and a hard ground ball eating up Utley, bouncing off his leg into short RF behind 1B (maybe a tricky hop?) In between a great play by Kike to snag a ball and throw out the runner from his knees (nice scoop by Bellinger) and Chavez pitching around Bellinger to get to Barnes for the 2nd time and striking him out for the 3rd out (horrible strike zone by the plate umpire) The extra rest seems to have helped Maeda, he looks sharp. Thompson misses a HR by a few feet. Who leads the majors this year with most at bats without a K? Kenta Maeda with 23.
Play of the Year by Kike Hernandez!
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… the bum who can’t play SS. I guarantee Chris Taylor would never make that play!
From Dodgers site:
Puig dealing with knee flareup
After being bothered by a tight hamstring in recent games, Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig now is having knee troubles, Roberts said. Puig hurt his knee during the Dodgers’ 4-0 loss to the Angels on Monday and Roberts decided to give him a day off on Tuesday, but he was available to pinch-hit.
Wow, I’d not heard f Jimenez until now. I’ll definitely watch out for him this year!
More on Jiminez:
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“Dodgers- Jimenez was most remarkable for his consistency in 2016. Despite most of his starts coming while he was still just 16, he never gave up more than 2 ER or 3 BB in any one outing. He also never posted fewer than 4 K. With a 66/18 K/BB ratio in 55 IP and a FIP of 1.97, Jimenez looks like another in that long line of good Dodger pitching prospects.
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I think Puig tweaked his hammy a bit legging out an infield single last night. With both him and Seager gimpy the bench is a little short but both could probably PH or play in an emergency. It will be nice to see Thompson again, I hope he does well and he can play all the OF spots.
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I am not sure who has more trade value, Maeda or Ryu but Maeda has that great contract. Either might look good to a team like the Orioles or the Mariners. Not sure how those teams line up to give the Dodgers what they are looking for. Ryu has a nice contract too like 7M for next year then he is a free agent. Maeda’s has 6 more years to go. Depending on how Kazmir does and if he will go to the bullpen it will get even more crowded. Kazmir will be almost impossible to move this year.
Jimenez dominated DSL as a 16/17 year old. Good live fastball that seems to have some sink and produce a lot of ground balls. He is strike out pitcher. He seems to keep the ball out of the zone so the batter cannot extend. Zero HR in 55 innings at DSL.
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He is still a baby at 6’0″ 170lbs. so he is probably not done developing physically. He is fairly young to be in the US, but the Dodgers obviously feel that he can handle being away from his culture at this age. It appears that the Dodgers want to see him move quickly by playing in him the US so young. Brito and Heredia are 4 and 5 months older, and we know they are being pushed. There are a lot of Dominicans on the AZL roster, so he has plenty of country mates to help him adjust.
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He was used exclusively as a starter in the DSL. His first taste in the AZL was as a reliever (yesterday). 2 innings 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 walks, and 3 K. Good positive start.
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Dodgers have had some success in signing and developing young pitchers from the D.R. With John Shoemaker as his AZL manager, he will be monitored very well. John Shoemaker is the perfect manager to help mold all of the young talent in the AZL.
Utley
Logan
Taylor
Bellinger
Barnes
Joc
Kike
Thompson
Maeda
The Dodgers were due for a loss at some point, not surprised Hill was on the mound even though he pitched well enough to win. 2 key moments in the game were not just the Freeman/Utley K’s but also the 1st inning bases loaded 2 out AB by Pederson where he swung from the heels on breaking balls and quickly struck out. His fly ball to right later in the game that was caught at the wall was an easy swing. Bases loaded dictates make contact not try for a grand slam.
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McCarthy to the DL is a smart move, his arm has been fine and it lets Maeda back into the rotation for now. Let his knee calm down and get treatment and book a couple sessions with a sports pyschologist. The upcoming schedule in July has a lot of off days to mix and match and rest pitchers for the second half.
The Dodgers over celebrated after the Colorado sweep. They came out flat yesterday, you see it all the time in sports. They will bounce back tonight. I didn’t like Freeman hitting in a pressure situation however, I didn’t like the winning lineup for Sundays game. I’m not going to bash FAZ/Roberts for providing the games second best record in the majors in 2017. Go Blue……………………
The current FAZ-Basher agenda:
1) McCarthy’s hurt again/ FAZ never should have signed him.
2) Why did Robert’s play Freeman, he’s stupid.
3) FAZ ruined Urias.
I wasn’t surprised that they didn’t hit Ricky last night, because he is a junk throwing pitcher.
And most of our hitters, are better at hitting fastballs, then soft stuff.
I thought Turner and Puig would hit him, because Turner is one of the best off speed hitters, in baseball.
And Puig hits off speed pitches well, if they are around the plate, but not just off the plate..
And you have to factor in that Ricky probably wanted to win this game badly, with his roots with the Dodgers, and being a Southern California kid.
And that was there 14 straight game the team has played, so they may be a little tired too.
But I do expect them to hit Jesse Chavez tonight, much better.
I surfed some other blogs and of course, some Dodger fans are back to blasting Roberts and FAZ for calling up Freeman and playing Freeman and that L – R thing. They lose one out of the last 11 games and the moron gene takes over. YIKES!
Bleacher Report just ranked the TOP 30 MLB Catchers. Just one rated better than Yasmani Grandal – Buster Posey!
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http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2717996-mlb-midseason-position-power-rankings-brs-top-30-catchers?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=mlb
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They wrote:
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Yasmani Grandal leads all catchers in DEF (9.5) and ranks second only to Tyler Flowers in pitch-framing (10.4) and Tucker Barnhart in DRS (7), while also throwing out runners at a 39 percent clip.
Even if he was hitting .200 with no power production, he’d still be challenging for a spot inside the top 15 on the strength of his defense alone.
We’re talking about a guy who hit 27 home runs with an .816 OPS a year ago, though, and he’s made plenty of noise at the plate once again this season.
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Yasmani Grandal is an All-Star and still some fans don’t like him. I don’t get it!
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I really don’t!
Well Ricky always did pitch well at Dodger Stadium. He was able to land a four year $49M contract after his brief stint pitching for the Dodgers in 2013. Happily, Ned didn’t give him that contract.
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Mark: “Puig threw a 96 MPH laser to nail Calhoun last night… off flat ground. I’m thinking he could hit 102 off a mound! Hummmmm…… I’ll bet no hitter would feel safe with the Knucklehead on the mound!”
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First you criticize me for considering Puig in center because he could kill someone. Now you want to put him on the mound? I know what you’re thinking, at least he would kill someone on the other team if he was pitching. Homicide is homicide! Maybe you need a session at “Dodger Therapy”.
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All kidding aside, Puig is a stud. FAZ should extend him NOW at a “reasonable”amount!
Nolasco was good for us for half a season a few years ago, & don’t forget he is a lifetime Dodger fan.
Sergio Ohno needs to go.
We played ok last night, just didn’t get the breaks. Hopefully normal service will be resumed tonight.