Yesterday, these were no wholesale changes on the Dodgers’ roster. Who the hell predicted that anyway? What a moron! No names will be mentioned to protect the guilty. Never speak of this again! The first game of the doubleheader allowed the Dodger bats to break out against the Giants with 15 runs, as the Dodgers won 15-6. The Giants came back and won game 2 by a 8-3 score, even…
I have talked about this before and I will keep talking until someone convinces Clayton Kershaw that change is good. Clayton is still an elite pitcher… maybe the best pitcher in baseball… especially if he would not be so predictable. Hitters know he wants that first pitch strike and they are ready – especially in the Playoffs. Washington was jumping on his first pitch in the first inning and most…
With all of the statistics discussion yesterday, and much of it directed to relief pitching, I thought that I would gather some Dodger relief pitching comparisons, keying on inherited runners and inherited runners scored. See table below. With the recall of Adam Liberatore, the Dodgers have now used 10 relief pitchers. 6 of those relief pitchers have entered into the games and have inherited runners. On 13 different occasions, 20…
This will be somewhat unusual for me, as generally I am an extremely unapologetic pro-FAZ supporter, and I still am. But to critically examine any operation, personal biases need to be thrown out, even when it comes to the Dodgers. Sports team owners do not get into the game for short term profits. The big profits come when the team is sold. For the Dodgers, the ownership group has…
I would not have re-signed Kenley Jansen and I said so at the time. It’s not that I don’t like him, but he is fully capable of blowing a game and he’s expensive. Let me remind you that the Astros won the World Series without a good dominant closer. It surprised me that FAZ re-signed Kenley, but they did. Maybe they HAD to re-sign him for the fans… who knows?…
April Fools Day is Upon Us although some morons wrote that a day earlier. Relax, it’s not happening! Braun would save the Dodgers $4 or $5 million a year over Kemp, but with an additional year added. I don’t see that as an upgrade and the fact of the matter is that a Happy Matt Kemp can be a real force on this team, and we have already seen that…
Yesterday, e-6 and Hawkeye were commenting on the relief pitching (or maybe lack thereof) that seems to be coming to LA this upcoming week. When I thought there were going to be only 7 relievers I listed Kenley, Alexander, Baez, Cingrani, Fields, Stripling, and Chargois as the 7. Now that it is back to 8 (at least for right now), I agree with Ken Gurnick that Font will be #8….
The Dodgers are now one week away from playing for real. Kershaw vs Bumgarner to kick off the season. While Kershaw has not been automatic in the playoffs, he is unbeatable in opening games. The Dodgers have been 7-0 in Kershaw’s opening games, including 2 games against the Giants. The Giants fans I know have been drooling especially since JT broke his wrist, and the Dodgers and Giants face off…
I’ll get right to the point: You always worry about pitching! So, there is that. However, I do not think we should be overly concerned about pitching on this 2018 version of the Dodgers. A number of Dodger Fans are questioning the Dodgers rotation as well as the Dodger bullpen. Some say that the Dodgers only have one pitcher who can start and go more than four or five innings. …
On November 2, 2017, still reeling from a World Series loss, I wrote this: Kike Hernandez is looked at as a “super utilityman” because he can play anywhere… especially SS, but a lot of people are dismissive of his offense. Me? I think there is a possibility that he could be a huge offensive force in the future. Quit laughing and listen to this: Through age 25, JD Martinez was…