24 posts
Well, here we go. The deadline has passed. Which teams improved their lot the most, and who fanned? The Dodgers, after their initial flurry of activity last week, were expected to be in on just about every good starting pitcher out there. What ended up happening was not what the…
it is … at least for a while! Remember what I have always said, “ Relief Pitchers are fickle? ” Well, it has never been more true than this year. Phil Bickford has been bad (and he was not good last year but was great the year before); Yency Almonte had a 1.02 ERA last year…
I have always wondered about the predictability of having a closer and why teams have simply gone in the direction of having a 9 th inning man, no matter what the situation was. If you really think about it, throwing that “stopper” out there for the final three outs night after…
Do you remember when (not that long ago) when Dodger Fans were questioning whether Farhan Zaidi was the “ Genius behind Andrew Friedman ?” I hear Farhan is awesome at Fantasy Football and Fantasy Baseball, but suddenly his star is getting tarnished in the real thing. He caught…
I had already started this blog post when Whistling Ranger (welcome to LADT) posted this: “I look for the Dodgers to concentrate on roster management in the offseason. There is extreme competition for the 40-man roster. Look for them to trade older players for younger, promising…
As the season passes the halfway point, Miguel Vargas is poised to make his debut in LA sometime in the next 30 days (that’s my opinion, not a fact). Miguel has made a lot of progress this year defensively. I think he can play an “above-average” Third-Base RIGHT ABOUT NOW, but…
When the Dodgers went 1-2 in Colorado, all of the morons like Bill Plaschke and a host of bloggers wrote about “What we have learned about the Dodgers ” and a lot of other drivel. We heard that they had pitching problems and that they were “overhyped.” The only thing they really…
Dodger fans have watched Cody Bellinger for the past couple of seasons now and many have concluded that “ he doesn’t listen to his coaches,” “he is not coachable,” “he is stubborn ,” and many other superlatives that may come to mind. After less than 30 at-bats, they have…
Squat, Zilch, Nada. For guys like Tomas Tellis, Andy Burns, Eddy Alvarez, Jason Martin, and Stefan Romero, this is like a playoff game. They know that they have no chance… but who knows – it feels like it might (this is their thinking), so they are all in. In reality, they are…
Well, let the bidding begin. A number of publications have put out their top 50 Free Agents list. MLBTR is one of my favorites to follow. They are no better with their prognostications than are any other publication. They run contests every year, and many of the readers have…
Who could script all this? This is a Crazy, Amazing, Iconic, Maddening, Awesome Game. The Giants are showing no sign of letting up or falling down in this Magical Season. Their starting staff is decimated and their relievers are a mess, but they just keep winning. Last night…
I know some of you are saying, “Please not another Dave Roberts post” I understand. But if you have ideas, write a post and get it to Mark and he will gladly post it. I was going to respond yesterday to Mark’s reference to Bill Shaiken’s article and some of the comments, but…
A couple of observations for the weekend series sweep of the Pads. The starting pitching was obscene. Urias 7.0 IP – 0 runs, Buehler 7.0 IP – 2 runs, Scherzer 8.0 IP – 0 runs. In 22.0 IP the Padres scraped together 10 hits and 3 walks against the three starters. Two shutouts for…
As I wrote that, I threw up in my mouth because it is true. The Dodgers shut out the Padres who have crashed and burned while the Giants won handily 6-1 in a bullpen game. What if on April 1st I told you the following: Dustin May would miss the seaon; Tony Gonsolin would miss…
That is not the law firm defending Trevor Bauer, but it is the four most scrutinized members of the LAD organization. I started to respond to Mark s post from yesterday, but I got called away for errands. It then got too long for a response, so I decided to make it my own post. I am writing this before Game 1 with NYM, so this could all go to H***
Very early in the season, I predicted that the Dodgers would have a TOP 5 BULLPEN. Well, they currently are now #5 in ERA in all of MLB. I have always used ERA as a metric, although I know there are many others. Some of you want to use other metrics to disprove that they are #5. I say Whatever! I have always thought about combining a number of metrics,
First, to Badger. I love trade scenarios. I do not care how outlandish they are or how realistic they may be. I enjoy reading Bums trade proposals. I am not sure that I ever read one that was realistic, but they are fun. Bluto sometimes gives us scenarios from the baseballtradevalues.com site. They are fun for me. That is what blogs are for. Throw out ideas. To the best of
Earlier in the week, there was a little difference in opinion with respect to the Billy McKinney acquisition. I continue to read how porous LAD’s defense is, and with a gimpy Mookie Betts who may need late-inning defensive help to get him off his hip, a slowing AJ Pollock, questionable defense of Matt Beaty, and the need for CT3 to spend more time in the infield, AF went out and
With Dustin May, Trevor Bauer, and Clayton Kershaw all out of the picture, at least for the time being, the Dodger starting rotation after the All-Star Break looks like this: Striker Buehler Julio Urias Tony Gonsolin David Price JoJo Gary Yes, I said JoJo Gray. He will get another start or maybe two at OKC, and hopefully, be built up to at least four innings by then (hey, it s better
Right-hander Phil Bickford was claimed off waivers from the Brewers by the Dodgers on May 3, 2021. I expect the move was questioned by more than a few Dodger faithful since the 25-year-old Bickford had previously pitched just two innings at the MLB level both with the Brewers resulting in four and two runs scored against him respectively and a Brewer ERA of 27.00. He debuted with the
Instant potatoes, instant coffee, instant whip, instant karma. Everything is instant and pitchers and all baseball players should also be instant. No waiting I tell you: INSTANT! David Price should instantly be a lockdown reliever Tony Gonsolin should instantly be an awesome #5 starter Trevor Bauer should instantly be an Ace and a 2.65 ERA is deplorable Cody Bellinger should have instantly hit several 8-run HRs Andrew Friedman should instantly
The minor league season is three weeks old and there have been some surprises. Admittedly, with the season so young it is not surprising that there are surprises. The pitchers started off with a bit of a head start that is not unusual. The hitters are now starting to hit their stride and put up some numbers. For example, Andy Pages (pronounced Paw-hayes) with the Loons has struck out 21
Ernie Banks was a National Treasure and that was one of his favorite sayings. I can dig that. I would love to see both games, so hopefully I can close my office door at 2:20 PM EDT and watch the games.. and I may have a stash of bourbon to sip on. Well, I won t make it until 3:30 as I have my second of three knee injections which is
Mark and I don’t always agree on everything Blue, although I think we are pretty consistent from a Macro view. But when it comes to the bullpen, Mark and I just do not see eye to eye. I have been a relief pitcher wonk since 1959 and Larry Sherry. Clem Labine would have been my favorite Dodger in the mid 50’s. I am not going to go through the history
