Jesse Winker of the Cincinnati Reds will be 28 in August. This is his 5th year in MLB and while he has been up and down the first four years, this year it just clicked! As we speak, he is hitting .397 with a .443 OB% and a 1.183 OPS. That’s Mike Trout, Babe Ruth, Micky Mantle territory. However, he has not always hit like that and if you took any small sampling from any of his seasons, you would possibly conclude that he was Luke Raley, Matt Beaty, Edwin Rios, Zach McKinstry, Sheldon Neuse, or DJ Peters (OK… maybe not Peters).
Winker has 73 AB’s this year, so that means he is the next Mike Trout? Does that mean that Raley, Beaty, Rios, and others are chopped liver? Only a moron would think either case was a possibility, so most of this small sampling means nothing. However, if Jesse is still hitting like this in a couple of months, the NL may have a new MVP. On the other hand, he could do what his teammate, Nick Castellanos did last year: The first month of the season Casty hit .375 with a ..464 OB% and 1.214 OPS. However, he ended the season hitting .225! Casty is back to his old tricks again hitting .322/.366 OB% and 1.021 OPS. Which player is he?
Right now, Justin Turner is the only Dodger hitting with regularity. Even Mookie Betts is a shell of himself. The problem is that they have not hit! Oh, they can get on base. In fact, the Dodgers currently lead all of MLB in OB% with .344! That is really good, but sooner or later, you have to hit to get the runners across the plate and they are not getting that job done. This, in turn, puts pressure on the pitchers who may try and make the “perfect pitch” every time, which leads to never making the perfect pitch. This too will change – some hitter will breakout big time and then the team will follow… if we all live long enough!
If you all want to lose your minds… have at it! I will not participate in the insanity! This is simply a prolonged slump and everything the Dodgers do right about now is wrong! It has not happened for a couple of years, but it’s baseball where anything can (and will) happen. They somehow managed to score 5 runs on just 4 hits. Buehler struck out 10 and only walked one but gave up 5 runs. Go figure! They’re 2-7 in their last nine games and are 9-8 on the season against teams that aren’t the last-place Rockies.
Sean Doolittle got his first save last night after blowing his first opportunity. HIs ERA sits at 4.66. He would fit right in with this bunch! With Gonsolin, Price, and Knebel out for extended time, the bullpen is thin and while he may not inspire confidence, Joe Kelly will likely be back in the next couple of days. All we can do is hope! Victor Gonzalez and Mitch White are also on the IL – it was not disclosed if their injuries were real or imagined.
It sounds like Bellinger is getting closer. The pain in his leg has subsided and he is taking BP every day. It will be a big shot in the arm when he returns. Let’s hope it is soon. I think this losing streak could last a little longer. Sometimes when you are down, it’s hard to get up.
Discussion (49)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Love that photo of Ali (then Clay) standing over Liston.
Iconic.
What’s the most iconic Dodgers photo? Easy to point to video–Gibson’s HR, Jackie stealing home….Iconic audio from Vin and Tommy….
Oh dear.
Just remembered one: Marichal getting ready to club Roseboro.
It seems to me that the Dodgers are in love with the walk. By being ultra patient your obp looks good, but it hurts your batting average and your run production. Two and three run walks are very rare. Also, you wind up with a lot of two strike counts where one swing and miss puts you on the bench. I like Seager’s approach.
Stuff from around:
CW (Montana):
You are BA’s Mr Dodger. Outman or Vogel to have a better career?
Kyle Glaser: It’s closer than you might think. Both are really athletic outfielders with swing questions. This might seem like a cop-out, but I want to wait and see what Vogel’s swing adjustments look like this year before answering. He should be out in Rancho Cucamonga at some point this year. Let’s circle back on this in a few months.
Do the Dodgers still see Michael Grove as a SP or will he begin transitioning to becoming a reliever?
Kyle Glaser: They’re starting to view him as a more of a potential long man, simply because he hasn’t shown he can maintain anything for more than 2-4 innings at a time. This year will be big for him to prove he can.
Who’s LAD’s second baseman in 2023, Gavin Lux or Michael Busch?
Kyle Glaser: Lux. I think Busch is either their DH (because I expect the DH to be universal beginning in 2022) or more likely they push Muncy to DH and Busch is their everyday 1B. He’s gotten better at 2B and, as one veteran evaluator put it “it’s not a no”, but Lux at 2B and Busch/Muncy at 1B/DH is going to be a much better defensive alignment for the Dodgers.
Old Friend Ross Stripling on pitching:
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/ross-stripling-talks-curveballs/
Fan Graphs on the Dodgers-Padres
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/decades-in-the-making-the-dodgers-padres-rivalry-has-arrived/
Jake Mailhot on Dustin May
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/dustin-may-has-finally-discovered-his-strikeouts/
Keith Law on an old friend:
ivy: Do you see Dean Kremer as having the potential to become, say, a #3 starter? He can look terrific for several innings, seems to have problems sustaining his performance for more than a few innings. How fixable is that sort of problem?
Keith Law: The delivery isn’t great, but I think he can be a back-end guy, a 4 or a 5 who eats innings but is worse than league-average at run prevention.
Baseball America
Mock Draft: https://t.co/WW30io8ozD?amp=1
BA’s newest mock gives the Dodgers prep righty Chase Petty, who would immediately rival guys like Bobby Miller, Clayton Beeter, and Gerardo Carrillo for the most pure arm talent in the Dodgers’ system.
MLB Pipieline
Mock Draft: https://www.mlb.com/news/mock-mlb-draft-2021?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage
First legit connection of the draft season: “The Dodgers have definitely been scouting [Peyton] Stovall.”
Transaction Wire
The Dodgers trade Jimmy Titus & Albert Suarez to the Mets for cash considerations last week.
Titus was a 23rd rounder from 2019, and had only played for Ogden in his pro debut. Suarez signed for $300k in the 2016-17 international signing period, and played his age 18-19 years in the AZL.
Interesting article on how the Padres are employing shifting:
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/no-team-is-shifting-like-the-padres/
Cleavinger could be interesting. I can see why Andrew wanted to roll the dice on him. There is definitely some promise there. Quite the play he made on that liner back to him. And he really didn’t want to come out of the game even after getting hit on his pitching arm. I am hereby forming the Garrett Cleavinger Fan Club……………….to be disbanded after his next poor performance. But in the meanwhile, there might be something there.
Offense wakes up for an inning. 6 runs wow.
We are in trouble now, we have gone to the BP.
Being a fan of the reds, starting in the 6th inning you are always on the edge of your seat waiting for the wheels to come off.
Why is Raley getting sooooooooo many at bats/starts? I’ve been thinking about that a lot.
Where would we be if Turner had signed elsewhere? Right now I can’t imagine what 3rd would look like without JT. AF must have known and he made a great move signing him.
With Barnes catching teams are going to run. The pitchers have to hold the runners close, but Barnes does not have a good arm. Smith has a much better arm. If this continues, Kershaw may want to pitch to Smith. I hate designated catchers anyway. I was a catcher and it would piss me off if a pitcher did not want to pitch to me.
Runner in scoring position, no outs, and no runs. Fly out, pop up, K. Don’t even move the runner up.
B & P was correct up above. The two best hitters last night, Smith and Beaty are both riding the bench today.
Seager rests and Lux starts at short. Raley in right instead of Beaty because……………………………………….who the hell knows why?
The bad news is that the Dodgers suck… like really suck! The good news is that it is happening at the beginning of the season and not at the end like it has been the last few years (sans 2020 when they essentially peaked in the first third of a normal season).
The two teams I follow and pull for are the dodgers and the reds. The difference being that I pull for the dodgers to win the world series, I pull for the reds make .500. We expect a lot of the dodgers don’t we?
I like to pull for the young players trying to find a spot, but that throw home by Raley as Farmer was rounding third was monumentally uninspiring minor league mediocrity . HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT.
So, are they gonna phone it in today with a day game after the night game lineup? Kershaw usually gets up to stop a losing a streak. He might have to go all the way today. I sure hope to see 93 on the gun early a dirty slider and an air bending curve.
Corey and Mookie are pressing a bit. 0-8 combined. I guess 1 K between them is a bright side?
Smith and Beaty looked hot last night, so they must be on the bench today.
Sonny Gray starts for the Reds today and has a 7.88 ERA which probably means he will throw a perfect game.
I was thinking how the Dodgers are just snakebite right now. I bring up this site and low and behold, Mark’s title and snake picture pops up.
Very little is working right now. Especially for Doc. He might want to rethink his propensity to pull starting pitchers mid-inning for a match up reliever. The pen is struggling and a starter, even at 95 pitches, is better than the replacement.
Whenever possible, don’t pitch to Winker right now.
Joey Votto looks like he shaves with a chainsaw.
2 ushers scramble to avoid a double down the left field line. Joe Davis says “it’s like a red shell on a Mario card” huh? All the talking about season wins, rosters and playoffs needs to end while we get on track and healthy.. Make it simple. Win one game at a time.
One other thing. Can someone teach the umpires the strike zone???? There have been some really awful calls over the last week or so….actually all year so far.
In the immortal words of the ol professor, can anyone here play this game??? Well the time to show they can is this afternoon with Bauer on the bump. Starting a road trip with a 4 game losing streak is not good karma or mojo…
Muncy walking is a good thing and a bad thing. His job is to drive in runs. Cannot drive in many runs with a walk. He is becoming less aggressive. Last night they threw one down the middle and he took it. Then he struck out on a pitch down the middle. He looks like he is not ready to swing because of all the balls he gets. Right now I would move him back to the number 6 hitter and move Smith and Taylor up.
I’m optimistic.
If we flip Seager and Kershaw for some prospects I have every confidence this team can be competitive in a couple of years. It could be worse. At least the Dodgers aren’t the Yankees.
Max Muncy with two more walks now has a 25% walk percentage. Looking back through 2010, no player has had a BB% higher than 20%, and the three who have pulled it off have been Trout, Votto and Bautista. The difference is those guys made contact and hit for power and average. Muncy goes up to the plate almost looking to draw a walk. He is the anti-Seager, who is goes up first ball swinging and looking for something to drive. If that’s the kind of player Muncy is going to start being put him in the leadoff spot, because when you’re batting cleanup, although getting on base is good, at some point a you have to be able to drive in runs and hit for power. At first, seeing him adapt to the pitcher’s strategy and lay off pitches was interesting to watch. Now just seeing him walk all the time is kind of boring.
NYM now with the best FIP at 2.71. The Dodgers are 3rd. They should be getting Syndergard back sometime midseason. Maybe the Mets will start to hit at some point. I think Chris Sale has started throwing and the Bosox should have him sometime this year.
Just for a little perspective, let’s remember the 2017 slump where they lost 16 of 18. Now that’s a world-class slump. This present slump is like fly s*** in a sea of pepper.
I have seen worse slumps from the team. But I look at it this way. They are not playing with the team they expected to have out there. They will be fine.
NL West has been an abomination , the past decade. LA walking away with the division , year after year, spoiling the fanbase.
Finally, some competition in ’21.
Nine in a row, is not ‘in the bank’.
Blue Wins Matter
White and Gonzalez are on the COVID IL afterwards getting their shots. Should be black in a couple of days.
I tried my part. I play beat the streak on mlb.com and rarely do I get above a 5 game streak. So today I picked Jesse Winker and Nick Castellanos hoping my usual picks do what they normally do and don’t get a hit.