Can the Dodgers Win The World Series?
Well, stranger things have happened but to me it seems highly unlikely. In fact, I think it’s close to impossible. So, do the Dodgers just play as hard as they can and go as far as they can? That sounds easy, but when your stated goal is World Series or Bust before the season, it might be pretty hard to really get yourself prepared to play at a high level every day… especially if you are human! If you are a machine, it should be no problem. That attitude may give us some insight into what is wrong with the Dodgers.
Justin Turner has not played this season and Corey Seager barely played and while he played, mostly he did not play well. I’m sure his teammates knew his TJ Surgery was a big possibility. People who criticize FAZ for not having the “depth” to replace their two best players are just delusional. What kind of depth can you replace either one with? As AC pointed out, losing your #2 and #3 hitter is a big blow, in and of itself… to say nothing of what that absence does to the guys in front and behind them. Do you think CT3 and Belly would see better pitches with JT and Corey around them? I’m sure of it.
I’ll go a step further: If Kershaw, Ryu and Hill had not spent time on the DL and the offense was functioning at a high level, the bullpen may not have been fully exposed. Here’s what I can say for a certainty: The Dodgers will not lose on Monday. I guarantee it! Barring any last-minute setbacks, it appears that Justin Turner and Logan Forsythe will be back. This is likely Forsythe’s last, best chance to get a decent deal as a free agent… if he plays like his hair is on fire.
Getting Forsythe and Turner back on Tuesday could not be a moment too soon for the floundering Dodgers. It could be “too little, too late” or it could be the charge of the cavalry! I think it’s important to get back to as normal as possible, so I would move CT3 back to leadoff and have JT hit in Corey’s old spot. Here’s how I see the rest of the lineup:
- Taylor SS
- Turner 3B
- Kemp LF
- Bellinger 1B
- Grandal C
- Pederson/Hernandez CF
- Forsythe/Utley 2B
- Puig RF
It may not be over. This could be the jolt this team needs! Adding Turner back to the lineup could be huge – he may not even hit in the beginning, but he will make everyone else better. He makes them better when he is in the dugout and especially when he is in the lineup. I’d say he is the team leader and when he is there, I think Matt Kemp will be one as well. BTW, Turner and Forsythe were a combined 0-6 on Sunday.
Dodger Notes
- The Cody Bellinger Bunting Debacle was over with Dave Roberts when Cody came into his office after the game, said he was wrong and apologized. That was the right move by Doc. Close the issue. Turn the page. He’s a kid, but a damn good one!
- Where would the Dodgers be without Yasmani Grandal? He is #1 or #2 on the team in BA, HR, 2B, 3B, RBI, OPS and Slugging… and he has only 2 PB’s. All the Yasmani Bashers: You got nothing! It’s time to zip it! I told you so!
- It appears that Kenley Jansen is now himself again. If he anchors the backend, it’s a little easier to fill in the middle. Alexander looks to be coming around but there’s still work to be done.
- I wonder if the Dodgers will dip into the Drillers and take Santana and/or Ferguson… if only for the pen.
- When do they try Ariel Hernandez?
- When do they convert Yadier Alvarez to a reliever?
I Have To Address This
It has been brought up repeatedly recently about the contracts FAZ signed with Brett Anderson, Brandon McCarthy, Scott Kazmir and Rich Hill as somwhow being an indictment of how bad FAZ is. I am going to submit to that if you think that, you may not be dumb, but you have difficulty when it come to thinking.
Between Anderson, B-Mac, Kaz and McCarthy, the Dodgers paid them a combined $172 million… and Hill has one more year to run on his deal. For that $172 million, the Dodgers got 48 wins. The D-Bag paid Zack Greinke $206 million and they have 3 more years to run, but so far, they have gotten 32 wins. I’ll bet the D-Bags would go back and trade Greinke for the four the Dodgers signed in a heartbeat as Greinke ain’t Greinke anymore. The Red Sox paid David Price $200 million and he has 26 win in 3 years and his arm is holding on by a string.
I don’t consider Hill, Kaz, B-Mac or BA great signings, but they didn’t have to be. They were just “placeholders” and what you think is an indictment of FAZ really provesd how good they have been to avoid those bad deals. Remember, nearly 70% of Free Agent deals suck. Those may suck as well… but they suck less!
MINOR LEAGUE UPDATE by Always Compete
OKC – 4-3 Loss Colorado Springs Sky Sox (Brewers)
Guillermo Moscoso was the starting pitcher and completed 6 innings. He allowed 3 runs (2 earned) on 6 hits, 1 walk, and struck out 5. Yimi Garcia pitched the final two innings and allowed 1 run on a HR which proved to be the game winner. Offensively 8 individual hitters each had one hit. Rocky Gale (double), Alex Verdugo (double), and Travis Taijeron (triple) were the three XBH. Both Rocky Gale and Kyle Garlick had 2-out RBI’s. OKC was 1-7 with RISP.
OKC still leads the PCL American North Division by 1.5 games with a PCL best record of 24-11. Just in case anyone missed it, on Friday, Justin DeFratus pitched a 4 hit complete game shutout against the Memphis Redbirds. He issued 0 walks and had 3 strikeouts on 89 total pitches.
Tulsa – 11-8 Loss NW Arkansas Naturals (Royals)
Devin Smeltzer started and just got spanked. He went 3.1 innings allowing 10 runs on 12 hits, 0 walks, and totaled 3 strikeouts. He gave up 3 HR’s in those 12 hits, including 2 by former Dodger farm hand Erick Mejia. Michael Johnson and recently acquired 27 year old LHRP Chad Girodo restored order in their 4.2 innings of work.
Offensively, the Drillers got 12 hits, led by LF Zach Reks (3-4 with a double), and 2B Angelo Mora (3-4 with 2nd HR). 1B Peter O’Brien slugged his 4th HR for the Drillers. The Drillers (18-17) find themselves tied for 2nd place in the Texas League North 1.0 game behind the Springfield Cardinals.
RC – 3-2 Win over Visalia Rawhide (DBacks)
After surrendering a 1-0 lead in the 8th, Logan Landon hit a game winning walk off 2 run HR in the 9th for the Quakes win. Christian Santana led off the inning with a single before Landon’s dramatics. Andrew Sopko started and went 7.0 shutout IP (88 pitches). He allowed 5 hits, 2 walks, and registered 5 strikeouts. Logan Salow came out in the 8th and faced 4 batters, each getting a hit, with 2 of them scoring. Sven Schuller and Parker Curry finished for the Quakes with Parker Curry getting his 4th win.
The Quakes totaled 8 hits with Christian Santana (double), Logan Landon, and Cody Thomas (triple) each with 2. Gavin Lux and Connor Wong had the other two. Leadoff hitter Lux also had 2 walks getting on base 3 out of 4 PA. He is now hitting .344/.449/.451/.900. He is #3 in the Cal League in OBP and #8 in OPS. He also has 17 RBI’s from the leadoff spot. The Quakes now have 3 out of the top 10 RBI’s in the Cal League…#2 Christian Santana (28), #6 Rylan Bannon (25), and #10 Connor Wong (23). They also have 2 tied for 2nd in the Cal League HR with 9; Rylan Bannon and Connor Wong.
The sellout crowd came to see ML players Logan Forsythe and Justin Turner, who both went hitless.
In not so surprising news, Jordan Sheffield was placed on the 7 Day DL with right forearm tightness. It is never good when you hear forearm tightness for a pitcher.
Starting Pitchers
OKC – Manny Banuelos
Tulsa – TBD
RC – Dustin May
GL – TBD
Discussion (55)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Now they will know what it is like to play without their best player, let’s see how good a team they are ….
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/05/a-j-pollock-diagnosed-with-sprained-thumb.html
On a side note, watched some of the Drillers game this evening. Not a great outing for Santana at all, I am sure AC will have more details on his line, but man I agree he could be a 6th or 7th inning guy this year; a huge hole right now.
I was curious about Zach Reks, our pick out of Kentucky. He has so far hit since his arrival in our organization. I was wondering was his ceiling is and does the bat play? I imagine it is too early too tell, but I was hoping to get AC,, DC or Mark take on him? And could Peters be in play for a September call up this year or is September 2019 more realistic?
It has been a strange and yes unfortunate year. That being said the NL is a bunch of average to slightly above average teams. All of them have weaknesses, more of crapshoot then ever.
Therefore we are not completely done but the climb must commence immediately. It begins 4:05 p.m. at the house Of the Fish.
I do hope FAZ will make a move as soon as they can, for nothing more then to provide a Jolt and show they the league we can do what we want to do. That we are not Tampa West but rather the big blue Machine; where prospects can come and go without much recourse. Go Blue!!
Aside from injuries, and those are not the whole story, this year to date is somewhat a mystery. Multiple failures have occurred.
Of course they weren’t good moves. I never said they were.
–
They were just “less bad” than Greinke, Price and others. They tried to not be saddled with long, bad deals… and they achieved that goal. However, the fact of the matter is that they spent less and got more.
–
Let’s not forget that all this happened while they were paying A-Gon and CC $43 million a year.
–
But that doesn’t have a lot to do with what is happening THIS year.
To try and picture those bad signings any other way is like putting lipstick on a pig. They have made good moves, just not those ones.
I’m the guy who’s been critical of FAZ and some of the FA signings and I appreciate your attempt to try to rationalize that the signings of Kazmir, McCarthy and Anderson weren’t so bad when you compare it to those of Grienke and David Price. That might be true, but FAZ did pay Anderson a QO of nearly $16 million for 11.1 innings pitched, Kazmir got $32 million (although the Dodgers didn’t have to pay all of it because of the Braves trade) for not even pitching for two years of that contract and McCarthy got $12 million a year and didn’t pitch for one full year and was ineffective for the vast majority of the rest of the contract.
Any way you look at it the signings were bad and did indeed “hamstring” the FO making moves this year and severely limit the flexibility they so sorely need now.
Dodgers on pace to lose 97 games per TrueBlueLA.
I’m surprised about the confidence shown in Forsythe by some here.
His numbers before the DL this year: .174/.224/.283/.503
2017: .224/.351/.327/.628
I don’t think his return fixes anything.
Odds and ends:
No announcement yet on roster moves but my guess is LoCastro and Farmer are sent down when JT and Logan are activated but it could be Muncy. When a LHP starts the JT and Logan should be in there that’s why I would keep Muncy up, he has started to hit and JT will need some days off.
–
Hill has a conundrum: he needs to throw a lot of curveballs to keep hitters from sitting on his fastball. When he throws a lot of curves he puts pressure on his middle finger and it’s prone to blisters. I would shut him down so it heals and put Stewart in the rotation and leave him there until Hill or Kershaw are ready. Indications are he will keep pitching which could lead to further irritation or short outings taxing an already overworked bullpen.
–
Terrible series with the Reds but a few good signs: Buehler, Stewart and Wood pitched ok, so did Jansen. Cody, Puig, Muncy and Grandal went deep, maybe they can start to break out a bit more. JT and Logan will be rusty but their veteran presence may calm down Taylor, Puig and Cody who have been pressing. Barnes needs to do better and play more or Grandal will wear down.
I like your lineup… but I’d make a few adjustments.
–
1. Taylor CF
2. Forsythe/Utley 2B
3. Turner 3B
4. Kemp LF
5. Grandal C
6. Bellinger 1B
7. Puig RF
8. Hernandez SS
–
I think Taylor is still our best option (at the moment) for the leadoff spot. He’s had a rough start to the season… but I think he’s slowly starting to get a better feel at the plate. It looks like he’s seeing pitches better and he’s been grinding out at bats the last few games like he did last year.
–
I also think it’s best to keep Taylor in CF until Toles is fully recovered and Verdugo is ready to come back up again. Once that happens, you’ll need more available spots in the outfield and you can move Chris to SS. It appears as though Kike is more locked in when he’s playing at shortstop (vs. the outfield) and I think that can bleed over to his at bats.
–
Plus I don’t care what the numbers say… I don’t want to see Joc in the lineup. His walks are up this year, but he continues to look over matched and uncomfortable at the plate.
–
Even though Turner will be just coming back from his injury… I think you still need to put your best (most professional) hitter in the number 3 spot.
–
I think Kemp in the 4 spot protects Turner and Grandal in the 5 spot protects Kemp.
–
And Bellinger needs to move down in the lineup until he can prove he can adjust. I don’t care if he closes his eyes and swings for the fences on one swing per at bat if it makes him happy. But if he doesn’t connect on that swing… he has to learn to protect the plate, choke up, cut down on his swing, go the other way, keep his shoulder in, eye on the ball, etc. etc. etc.
–
I know that Puig thrived in the 8 spot last year when Dave put him there… but his confidence is shaky right now and the opposing pitchers just seem to be throwing some of their best pitches during his at bats. (and the umps are also being a little too generous with the strike zone) Anyway, I think moving him up to the 7 spot gives him at least some protection vs. having the pitcher hitting behind him.
I think most of us could answer the question as to whether or not the Dodgers would consider going over $197 million this year. The answer is absolutely NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I agree. The whole idea of getting under the luxury tax is long term flexibility. They might well go after someone like Machado after this season, especially given that the farm system is maturing, and there is the expectation in the next few years of gradually filtering in our younger prospects.
–
As for Kershaw, I have no idea what the Dodgers will do. But I can certainly see this as being his last year in Dodger Blue, be it by trade or an opt out. And it might well be the best for everyone.
–
I’m not getting any younger, as is the case with others on this sight. However, while FAZ is getting older like the rest of us, they are relatively young at this time, and therefore much more likely to plan for a long term perennial winner.
Thx for posting the Friedman interview Rudy, wow that guy is a tremendous politician. The interview was at least honest and told us we will tow the line and hope our players stop regressing and they are better then what they have shown. I am sure there are hard mandates from Kasten and ownership that we will never know about. I just want some urgency from some where as we are still in this but the next month is very crucial. Roster should be evaluated daily and weekly.
Keep the faith Dionysis… I’m with you…
Watford, I’ve been watching a little soccer and all of a sudden I realize I’m watching the Blue!!! No damn scoring…
I’m looking for good dart channel to make me happy… A passion of mine years ago, but a little hard on the liver…
Friedman interview in LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/mlb/la-sp-dodgers-friedman-20180513-story.html
No one can predict what will happen this season. No one really knows whether this is the real Dodgers or if it’s just a bad start for quite a few players playing well under expectations.. Guess as the season plods on we shall become more able to make an informed prediction,or decision, on the true talent of the players now under performing. Zaidi expressing confidence that the Dodgers have 5 pitchers in the rotation who can give the Dodgers a chance to win seems at this point just bravura. And the BP is just as bad or worse. Hard to be lucky with bad pitching. Pitching should be addressed 1st in my opinion. But I’m a pitching guy. Through the years great teams have always had great or at least very very good pitching. Have things changed in baseball that much. Maybe. Last years WS was as poor a pitchers series as I can remember. Dominated by the hitters and no lead seemed enough to get the win. Has the game really changed so much. Guess we’ll have to wait a while to make that decision too.
whoever predicted that we would completely suck the first quarter of 2018, congrats on the amazing prediction.
*
roster construction, malaise, poor managing decisions, injuries, and regression have led us to this point.
*
when things are going well, every decision looks like a winner. when we are losing everything gets scrutinized.
*
there is no place to go but up. this season is not over by a longshot. the goal is be one of the last ten teams standing.
*
we are going to win one of these years. until we are eliminated I will support the team. rebuilding talk in May is premature, even if it feels therapeutic.
*
just think how interesting this trade deadline could be!
Darn Mark can’t you let the Yasmani angst go away??? Alot of people have mentioned him in trades but I haven’t read many bad mouthing him!??!
Steve Yeager is responsible for his improvement in blocking balls in the dirt. Like many catchers he must get a blow occasionally, especially in the upcoming dog-days..
MVP…MVP…MVP…
When the team gets into their juice cycle the home runs will come.
There’s a pattern to all this.
Players rather have their status quo numbers than rusk getting caught.
There is no reason to blame Roberts for not playing small ball because this team is built for power, and that means a lot of strikeouts and not much contact. It is not the fault of Roberts that the Dodgers have been hit with so many injuries or the poor performances of key players so far this season. That said I think Roberts for all of his strengths is a very poor game manager. He makes decisions and then stops in the middle of the decision and changes to something else. He will go forever with players who continue to give poor performances, his main responsibility is to have the Dodgers ready to play and give them the best chance to win, which he certainly does not do.
His teams lack fire, maybe because the manager shows none at all. The Dodgers get bullied by some teams because they know no response will come from Roberts. I want teams to know when they play the Dodgers, win or lose they are in for a fight. I don’t think any team sees the Dodgers playing that way, they see a team that you can pitch close with no fear of retaliation, a team you can bully and get away with it because that is how Roberts manages.
Win or lose I want the Dodgers to play with pride and commitment. Roberts did not put this team together and he is not responsible for the injuries but he most certainly is responsible for the way the Dodgers play without commitment, and he is responsible for the way he manages a game.
On Cody B: there were essentially two camps on his non-hustle benching: Dave was right, or Cody was
smart.
But Cody loses this one. The time to make the decision about goin’ for third is when you’re approaching second –
not when you’ve already decided to coast to first because of a bad step or two. You keep bustin’ it to the max
because you have no way to predict what the outfielder does with the ball near the wall, or how good his throw
to the relay man will be, or whether (and here you should have done some pre-game homework at the major
league level) the relay man has a rifle of an arm or a shotgun. Those calcs have to be made AFTER you’ve put yourself in the best possible position to have options. Cody killed options by doggin’ to first.
Not a big Dave fan, but he was on the money on this one.
Using the same line of thinking many of you use with CT3, why not send Paul Goldschmidt back to the minors? He’s hitting .210 with 4 HR and 12 RBI. What a bum and they keep hitting him #3. Why? He will figure it out. Baseball is a funny game.
Update above!
If Yasmani continues to play at current levels the whole season, especially if the team in August and September
finds itself realistically in a race, then you can crow – at least about his bats.
He still hasn’t answered yes to my two questions when he came here: can he play a full year healthy, and can
he produce with the pressure of a big-market pennant race.
And he’s still turning a fair number of pitches into wild ones – pitches that many other catchers would
handle routinely. The passed ball stats are deceptive.
According to ESPN.com, Dodgers’ bullpen has given up a league high 23 HR (tied with Minnesota).
Grandal is playing at a higher level than in previous seasons. Barnes will get it going sooner than later and when he does he will be able to keep Grandal fresh. Grandal plays best with rest.
.
Good lineup Mark but if Taylor can’t raise his OBP, he will need to be moved down in the lineup. Few players can play SS and CF as well as he does so hopefully he will get his bat going again. He is a great asset as is Kike’ who can also play both SS and CF.
.
Now add Machado to that lineup, move Taylor to second, and trade Forsythe to get the salary relief for Machado’s contract.
The next 6 games will tell me what may happen the rest of the year. Win both series and we may have some life. Lose both and 2018 may be history. They have to start taking one series at a time and win that series. It is disappointing because I expected so much this year.
–
I was not happy last year when we were winning in not being able to do the little things to win ball games. We could not move players over from second, steal bases, bunt, hit and run, and sac. fly. I believe every player can learn to do these things, but they must be taught. My question is, is this being taught at all anywhere? If not, then we will never be a complete team. This should be a philosophy that is taught throughout the minor league system. I just did not like the answer I heard from Doc and FAZ that this team was built on the long ball and walks. That is putting all of your eggs in one basket.
Blister Boy is back? Hill lifted because his blister has resurfaced. They are hopeful that he will be able to pitch against the Nats next week. With an ERA over 6, do we want him to pitch?
We need to stop playing farmer.