After a productive NL Wild Card Series against the Reds (two homers, four RBIs), Shohei Ohtani has gone just 2-for-25 (.080) with two RBIs, five walks, and 12 strikeouts in six games since the beginning of the NLDS. So, yesterday Ohtani hit five rounds of batting practice on the field at Dodger Stadium in an effort to break out of his slump. Shohei rarely hits on the field, opting instead to…
In 2024, Blake Snell threw 114 pitches in a no-hitter versus the Reds — it was his first complete game, and the 114 pitches were just shy of his career high. Last night, he threw 103 pitches without walking anyone, but it was a tough call to take him out. It almost backfired, but didn’t. Blake Snell’s career-high 122 pitches came on July 24, 2019, when he was pitching for…
Lots of fans think that they know better than the baseball manager, and nowhere is this more apparent than with Dodger fans who claim every loss is on Dave Roberts and every win is in spite of him. When Doc took out Tyler Glasnow, message boards all over the blogosphere went batshit crazy. Now we know the rest of the story – Dave Roberts said he pulled Tyler Glasnow early…
Today, Tyler Glasnow has the opportunity to pitch the game of his life and send the Dodgers to the NLCS. This is why they traded Pepiot and DeLuca for the big fellow. If he can control his pitches, it will be a long day for the Phillies. If he can’t, it will be a long day for the Dodgers. I would imagine that Tanner Scott is going to have to…
To say that “Relief Pitchers are Volatile“… is an incredible understatement! In AA and NA culture, they often say: “From a hopeless dope fiend to a dopeless hope fiend.” Relief pitchers can be maddening. In 2022, Andrew Friedman said this in a SI interview: “Relievers, unlike starters, or position players, can be great one season, and a disaster the next. Which makes it all that more risky to shell out…
Rant & Rave Sunday The Athletic: Hitting coach Aaron Bates spent the hitters’ meeting earlier in the day reinforcing the danger that a Red October in this building could bring. At one point, Bates cautioned the players that the crowd of 45,777 would reach a frenzy. He told them it would be up to the Dodgers’ offense to drop the decibels.“There are certain places where it’s hard to play in…
I will not draw any conclusions from what I am about to post. All I will say is that Preller has a .490 winning percentage since he took over in San Diego. Here’s a best-effort, year-by-year rollup of Padres prospects/minor-leaguers A.J. Preller has traded away since he took over on August 6, 2014 (i.e., players who were prospects or very early-career depth at the time they were dealt). I grouped…
At the trade deadline, all of the sports media proclaimed that the Padres had “Won the Trade Deadline.” After all, they got O’Hean, Lauerano, Sears, and (OMG) Mason Miller, who throws 150 MPH as a closer. The Dodgers and every other MLB team were warned that the Padres were the best of the best. Yeah, Right! Many of the less astute Dodger fans bought into this, too, and they wondered…
