Kenley Jansen has blown six saves and broken Dodger fans’ hearts more than that this year. We can analyze until we are paralyzed but in essence, his problem has been the overuse of his cutter, which is still good, but maybe not as good as it used to be. It’s also likely that the advanced hitting coaches are helping hitters “key in” on what he is throwing. Most Dodger fans…
It seems to me that just about every time a Dodger player has a bad play, bad game, bad inning, bad pitch, error, blunder or just a mistake, some fans have this automatic knee jerk reaction which often involves one of the following: Get rid of the bum Send him back to the minors Make him a reliever He has no business starting He can’t play that position He should…
Joe Kelly was a trainwreck early in the season, but when I last checked, he was pretty good. The Dodgers plan when they signed him was to change his grip and smooth out his mechanics. In case you have been hiding under a rock, it did not work very well… at least for a while. But, it’s how you end up that counts. They say that good things come to…
Playoffs? It’s been a long week and it’s only Thursday. Sunday Night my wife and I took my daughter and son-in-law out for their anniversary. They live 3 hours away but came to Indy because he had neck surgery scheduled the next morning. Monday Morning I got up at 4 AM to meet my daughter at the hospital and sat with her until my son-in-law got out of surgery at…
Since getting off dairy products after last season, Clayton Kershaw has seen no flareup of his back issues and every game he has started he puts up at least 6 innings… or more. Simply put, Clayton is still the Dodger’s Ace, even if Hyun-jin Ryu wins the Cy Young Award. He is now 11-2 and has a 2.77 ERA to go with a 1.04 WHIP. He’s the amazing part: His…
It seems to me that most Dodger fans believe that the only thing standing between a World Championship Trophy and the LA Dodgers are a couple of relief pitchers. Some say one, some say two, some say three. They often use the example of the 2016 Cubs who went out and got Aroldis Chapman from the Yankees as a two-month rental. The narrative is that Chapman was the missing piece…
I stole that from Jon Weisman (I steal most of my original material) – I hope he doesn’t sue me, but it seemed appropriate for today’s Rants and Raves: How many teams have an All-Star RF, who is also a Gold Glove 1B, end the game in CF for defensive reasons? That’s what makes him take the place of Mike Trout as the games best player (other than the fact…
Move On, There’s Nothing to See Here! Hyun-jin Ryu gave us 7 runs, EARNED RUNS! …in 4 innings pitched. That’s all you need to know. When the best pitcher in baseball gives up runs like Donald Trump gives up insults, you know that something is amiss. The thing that is amiss is that batter enhancing, pitcher killing Coors Field. That’s why I say to never sign a player who has…
Some fans thought the Puig, Kemp, Wood, and Farmer trade was just a”salary dump?” Some fans thought the Dodgers just had to sign Bryce Harper or Manny Machado to remain relevant? Some fans thought the Dodgers should gut the farm for Corey Kluber? Some fans thought the Dodgers should sign DJ LeMahieu because they needed a 2B? Some fans thought Chris Taylor was horrible? Some fans thought that Kike Hernandez…
Usually when change is involved, things get worse before they get better. That’s true in just about everything: life, business and sports. Since this is a Dodger Blog, you might be wondering what that has to do with the Dodgers. So, I am talking about three pitchers in general: Joe Kelly, Kenley Jansen and Clayton Kershaw. I think that before Spring Training, the Dodgers had a plan with each pitcher….