Most believed that the Reds were going to be a very dangerous Wild Card team to face because of their starting pitching. Trevor Bauer, Luis Castillo, and Sonny Gray. The Braves never had to face Gray as they dispatched the Reds in two. But it wasn’t easy. The Braves needed to go 13 innings before Freddie Freeman had a walk off single to beat the Reds 1-0. The Reds outhit…
BRAVES AND THE PEN: Braves have now signed 3 pitchers who will serve as late inning high leverage relievers. On Monday they signed Chris Martin to a two year $14MM contract after signing Will Smith to a three year $40MM deal. Earlier this month, they signed Darren O’Day to a one year $2.25MM contract. They also have Mark Melancon in the final year of his four year $62MM contract. Thus…
Many loyal Dodger fans believe the Dodgers ownership group is cheap and not interested in winning, and only interested in counting profits. Never mind that the Dodgers have spent more on player personnel contracts over the last five years than any other team. They have also spent lavishly on player development and re-focusing on their MiLB programs. I think we can all agree that the contract costs were not all…
The Will Smith era has officially begun. In his first game as the primary catcher for the LAD, he caught Clayton Kershaw. There were no noticeable miscommunications between the two. Kersh got off to a rough start, but settled in nicely for still another QS. Offensively, you could not ask for a better game. 3-3 with 2 doubles, a HR, sac fly, and 6 RBIs. This new offensive threat for…
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…
A couple of weeks back I mentioned how good DJLM was playing for NYY and that all of the talk that he could not hit outside of Coors was…well just talk. He is proving that he is a hitter with tremendous bat to ball skills; a skill he can take anywhere. 59inarow challenged me with admonishing me into saying maybe you were right about DJLM but what about all of…
I have not been shy about stating how I feel about the bullpen. And I do understand that recognizing that there may be a problem and doing something about it can be and often is two different things. Maybe with the way the starting pitching is performing, this will become less of an issue, but I prefer to plan rather than to react. I have never disagreed with Mark about…
If the Dodgers had beat the Padres on Sunday, that would have likely crushed the Padres… maybe even ruined their season…and the win was within reach until Kenley Jansen snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. If you are a Padre fan, it was like Kirk Gibson hitting the home run in the 1988 World Series, but if you are a Dodger fan it was worse than death itself! That…
I know many of you out there in LADT land have been “calmly” discussing your varied opinions on AF. Some think he is the best President Baseball Operations/GM in the history of baseball, while others believe he is very much overrated. I do not know what is wrong with the latter group. Aren’t those of you who are in that group just glad to be the 2nd best team in…
PeterJ asked what I thought the OKC rotation might be. I have been playing with that for about a week, so I thought I might step out and draw some conclusions. Just like LA, OKC is still a work in progress. Whichever LHSP does not make LA rotation will probably go down to OKC. Both Wood and Ryu are pitching well, but only one is going to make the rotation. …