Alex Wood didn’t have his best stuff last night, but he pitched well enough to win against anyone except maybe Jacob deGrom, but only two things went wrong: Certain players choking with RISP AGAIN; and Total game mismanagement by Doc Roberts. I like Meada in the pen… but only Doc thinks he’s a closer. I think Roberts used the bullpen backwards. Maeda should have pitched in the 6th and 7th. …
A lot of things just changed over the weekend. Big Time! The Dodgers are in sole possession of First Place… hopefully to never relinquish it! Matt Kemp got his mojo back. Kenley Jansen got his back too. Kike Hernandez just rises to any occasion: HR, defense, bunt! The Dodgers won 3 back-to-back-to back games by the same score, 3-2. When was the last time that happened? Like NEVER…. but I…
I was watching the Great Lakes Loons game on MiLB.com on Friday evening in anticipation of the Loons wrapping up home field advantage in the divisional play-off starting on Thursday. Initially it did not look encouraging as 19-year-old right-hander Gerardo Carrillo looked shaky giving up two runs in the first inning on two hits, two walks, a stolen base, a throwing error on a pick-off attempt and a sacrifice fly…
OK, you all likely know what happened last night: Joc Pederson drove in the first run against Zack Greinke. Hyun-Jin Ryu had pitched 7 strong innings when Roberts pinch-hit for him with Kike Hernandez. On a 2-2 pitch from Greinke, Kike jacked the ball out of the stadium to tie the game at 2-2. Next, Dylan Floro played the role of set-up man and shut down the D-Bags in the…
Right-hander Gerardo Carrillo was signed by the Dodgers as an international free agent on July 5, 2016. The native of Guadalajara, Mexico received a signing bonus of $75,000. He has already climbed into the Dodgers MLB Pipeline prospect list ranking No. 27. He played in the Dominican Summer League during the 2017 season recording a 2.79 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP in 14 appearances, 10 of them starts. He struck…
This is what MLB Players live for. This is where legends are made and failures are lamented. This is why they play the game. This, my friends, is called a Pennant Race. May the best horse win. No Snakes allowed! I have said for quite some time that this Dodger team is built for the Post-Season. I might add that it is also built for a pennant race… that is…
Monday Evening my VP of Engineering and I flew to Ft. Lauderdale for a quick meeting with some inventors of a new water treatment technology on Tuesday Morning and caught a flight back at 5:15 PM Tuesday. Long-story short, the layover in Charlotte stretched from one hour to two hours and in that time, my travel partner developed a severe case of pancreatitis and had to be rushed to a…
I want to address a few issues today. Yasmani Grandal The Front Office and Sabermetrics Calling players Choke Artists Yasmani Grandal When the Dodgers acquired Yasmani for Matt Kemp, I thought it was a great trade for the obvious reasons: (1) It was a salary dump that needed to be made; and (2) I thought Yasmani Grandal would be an All-Star Catcher who was capable of 30-35 HR a year. …
By now, everyone has read the article in Fangraphs by Jeff Sullivan, on how Non-Clutch the Dodgers are as team, and individually! In analyzing the information, I think there are a few facts we need to consider, facts like the Dodgers should be much better than they actually are. Sullivan says this: By almost every indicator, the Dodgers look like the super-team they were expected to be. They’re just not…
We all know the Dodgers are capable of scoring runs and scoring them in bunches… with or without the long ball. We also know that too frequently, they don’t. For a team that leads the National League in Home Runs and Runs Scored, it is very troubling that they sometimes forget how to score. To say that “This is the team FAZ built” is absurd.” They have repeatedly shown they…