On Memorial Day, we all need to pause and be thankful for the United States Military Personnel who died while serving the United States. It’s also a time we can thank the living survivors of foreign wars. Freedom is not free, and we should never take it for granted. Thank You for your service!
I don’t usually do this, but I am going to put in a plug for Tunnel to Towers Foundation. It’s a non-profit I have supported for years and which bring a whopping 95.1% of all donations to the people it is intended for:
Since 9/11, we have been helping America’s heroes by providing mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children and by building specially-adapted smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. We are also committed to eradicating veteran homelessness and helping America to Never Forget September 11, 2001.
–T2T.org
Back to Dodger Baseball
In 1953, the New York Yankees lost nine consecutive games from June 21 to July 1. They eventually beat the Brooklyn Dodgers to win the World Series. They played just 151 games that season and won 99. We all saw the tortious path the Texas Rangers took to the World Series last year. The best players to ever play often have had bad stretches. Look at a few:
- Mike Trout – 0-19
- Ty Cobb – 0-17
- Babe Ruth – 0-21
- Lou Gehrig – 0-20
- Ted Williams – 0-17
- Barry Bonds – 0-23
- Tony Gwynn – 0-19
There are no reasons or rhyme to it and no excuses. It happens to every team, but many Dodger fans love to wallow in this swill.
Every single year since Andrew Friedman became President of Dodger baseball, I have heard this same thing over and over… and yet the Dodgers have never stumbled for a season. There may never be another back-to-back World Series Winner because of the new playoff format and the randomness of it and a 162 game season. Some of you cannot seem to wrap your head around that. Instead, you love to roll in the swill and make yourself miserable… in the hopes of having other miserable fans keep you company.
It ain’t me! This is a bump in the road. “Yamamoto is not an ace.” Really? Right, and Shota Imanaga will have a 0.85 ERA this season. If Yamamoto is not an ACE, he is close. He was not hit hard yesterday – it was just one of those games. They happen all the time. Teams go through this, and I guarantee that this too shall pass… I refuse to take leave of my senses and give up control to a fleeting, silly feeling. Dave Roberts is aware this interview sums it up:
Anthony Banda has already shown that he could be a big LH arm out of the pen and while Yohan Ramirez has struggled, what Dave Roberts did with him on the mound yesterday was possibly one of the most heart-warming things I have ever seen on a mound. I don’t know if it will work and the Dodgers can “fix him,” but it is does, that is a major moment.
Finally, Why is Miguel Vargas not Playing?
I have no inside information, and neither does a person I talked to about this, but he suggested that sometimes when certain players get called up, the Big Club’s Hitting Coach may see something that he wants to work with that player on for a few days. He said that he has seen similar things several times in his career. I have no clue, but maybe we can find out later.
It’s a new day against the Mets – Let’s Stone them!
BTW 1: The Athletic had a great “Mailbag” yesterday.
BTW 2: AF has got this!
Discussion (20)
Disagree, not disagreeable
I came up with this trade senerio. The Dodgers trade with the Bluejays since there going to be out of it the playoffs go to the Bluejays Lux Outman Vargas Knack and Cartaya and the Dodgers get a bench and some outfield help Varsho Lf, Killmier CF, J Turner he cones back to Dodgers to play some 1b some times and third base and dh and pinch hit in playoffs and Bichette to be the starting shortstop and Betts slides over to second base and they get a reliever. So now your bench looks like this in a playoff game hernandez Turner Heyward Barnes Rojas, they DFR Taylor and watch the Giants will pick him up.. Your outfield is Varsho in Lf Kevin Killmier in Cf and Teo Hernandez in Rf your infield Muncy 3b Bichette ss and Betts second base and Freeman 1b and Smith catcher with Ohtani and they get Turner back to be a clubhouse voice leader and spark this team.
Great call by Angel Hernandez! He’s quitting!!
From USA Today:
Ángel Hernández, the polarizing veteran umpire who has drawn the wrath and exasperation from players, managers and fans alike over three decades, is retiring Tuesday from Major League Baseball, a high-ranking baseball official told USA TODAY Sports.
The official spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity since he was not granted permission to speak publicly before MLB makes the announcement official Tuesday.
MLB and Hernández had spent the past two weeks negotiating a financial settlement before reaching a resolution over the weekend.
Hernández, 62, worked his last game May 9 as the home-plate umpire in the Chicago White Sox’s 3-2 victory over the Cleveland Guardians at Guaranteed Rate Field and never came back, replaced on the crew by Jacob Metz.
Hernández, baseball’s most controversial umpire, filed a racial discrimination lawsuit in 2017 against MLB, alleging that he was passed over for a crew chief position and World Series assignments because of race. He last umpired a World Series game in 2005 and a League Championship Series in 2016.
Vargas, Pages and Outman are all young outfielders who might succeed if given the chance. But they have to be given the chance.
While Outman shows signs of progress in OKC, why not play Vargas full-time in LF and Pages full-time in CF so they can prove themselves? The Dodgers have a five-game lead in the West and, even while slumping, seem in no real danger of missing the playoffs.
If both Vargas and Pages falter, then AF could shop for a veteran OF in earnest. The injuries to Acuna and Jung-Ho Lee should have the OF market could heat up. One baseball YouTuber suggests Tommy Pham, Brent Rooker and Arozarena could all be dealt. Will Tyler O’Neill and Taylor Ward become available?
My cracked crystal ball says AF will be making some impact moves, but there’s still a chance that Vargas, Pages and Outman can prove the OF really isn’t a need.
And I’d urge Gavin Lux to raise his game too if he wants to convince the front office that Mookie really shouldn’t;t be moved back to 2B.
Best news all week, Angel Hernandez, long considered one of the absolute worst umpires in the majors, is going to be officially retired by MLB on Tuesday. He and the league have been in negotiations for several weeks over his retirement package. He last worked on May 9th in a game between the White Sox and Guardians. He was replaced on his crew by Jacob Metz. He sued the league in 2017 for discrimination on its post-season assignments. Hernandez, who is Cuban, claimed the league was not giving him assignments due to his race. The suit was thrown out in 2021. He then lost an appeal last year. He last worked a World Series in 2005, and a championship series in 2016. Hernandez was rated the worst umpire in the league by most metrics. Last season he missed all but 10 games due to a lingering back issue. When he did return, he umpired 10 games, and according to Umpire Auditor, he missed an unbelievable 161 calls in those 10 games. Goodbye and good riddance.
Bless our heroes! How generations have changed over the years. Can you imagine today’s youth LYING about their age in order to enlist in the military DURING a world war! Greatest generation indeed. Rest well you brave souls and thank you for allowing us to live in freedom where it’s even ok to burn our flag. Except of course on Rick Monday’s watch!!!! Vinnie always said it best before each game played on Memorial Day. Check out it out on YouTube.
It’s a marathon. The team you see today is not the team that takes the field in October. We have the greatest manager in the history of baseball, a revolutionary FO and seamlessly endless budget.
VIVA AZUL!!!!
At least we didn’t lose today. Two game winning streak tomorrow
The Dodgers have a couple of obstacles that they will have to overcome to get to the World Series. One is their weak lineup behind the top 5. If Muncy comes back soon, the lineup gets a little better, but the bottom three are still weak. The pitching is pretty good but has had a slight drop off lately. The situational hitting is non-existent. They still strand way too many runners. This can directly be attributed to the slumps that Ohtani, Freeman, and Smith are currently in. Mookie has been the steadiest bat in the lineup. I have no doubt in my mind that AF is looking for fixes. One quick fix is to totally cut loose Chris Taylor. Put Vargas out there and let us see what he can do playing every day against all types of pitching. They did that with Outman last year. The league has a book on Pages now. His success will depend solely on how he adjusts to the way he is being pitched. Heyward has had too few at bats to judge whether or not he will be the player he was last season. Lux is at 151 at bats. He is barely above the Mendoza line. But his fielding has been very good, and he looks like he is getting more confident in the box. They do need to find at least one hitter who makes good contact on a regular basis. A trade is probably the route they will have to take.
Happy Memorial Day to all of you. RIP to all my brothers lost in times of War. Every male in my family has served except for my grandson. My grandfather in the Navy in WWI, my dad in the Navy in WWII, where he survived the Pearl Harbor attack, myself in the Army, 65-74, and my son, who served in the Navy for four years during the Gulf War. I lost many friends during my time in the service in an unpopular war. And even though I never went to Nam, I was treated like a leper when I came home from overseas deployments. Now, all I have to do is wear a hat proclaiming I am a veteran, and people thank me for my service. I find that somewhat offensive, but I realize that the feelings of the public towards vets have changed. Yet problems persist for vets. Homelessness is one of the big ones, readjusting to civilian life after having seen combat is another. There are over 100,000 vets who are homeless. The VA has improved a lot the last couple of years with help for vets with medical conditions. I have benefitted from that improvement. It used to be it took a long time to get appointments for treatment. Now, especially for someone like me who lives over 100 miles from the main veteran’s hospital, they are farming out care to the local facilities. I hope my grandkids never have to face another war. Not much chance of that the way the world is right now.
Bill Walton ex UCLA Bruin basketball player and ex Hall of Famer dies at age 71 after a long battle with cancer.
OK, I’ve just gotten the official Dodger explanation as to when Vargas will get into the lineup.
He sits against righty starters.
He sits against lefty starters.
He’s in the starting lineup for all rainouts.
Gamer postponed because of rain Makeup tomorrow from the Dodger’s Official Page.Doubleheader with the first game at 1:15PM ET Glasnow slated to pitch Game 1.
Dodger Minor League Standings
OKC BASEBALL CLUB 2nd place 5.0 GB
TULSA DRILLERS 4th place 5.0 GB
GREAT LAKES LOONS Tied for 1st place
RANCHO CUCAMONGA QUAKES 1st place 3.0 GA
ARIZONA COMPLEX LEAGUE DODGERS 2nd place 1.0 GB
Gamer postponed because of rain Makeup tomorrow from the Dodger’s Official Page.Doubleheader with the first game at 1:15PM ET
That is a powerful image but a necessary to remind us of the sacrifices many have had to endure for all us to retain our freedoms.
Thank for all who have served of country.
God bless you all!
I’m thinking that AF sees the same thing about the bottom of the lineup that we do and will make the appropriate fixes when the time comes
Sometimes we all need to be reminded that how a player starts his year or career means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING:
Adrián Beltré
Debut year: 1998
Beltré’s rookie season in 1998 was anything but Hall of Fame-worthy. In 77 games with the Dodgers as a 19-year-old, Beltré hit .215 and carried a wRC+ of just 75, well below the league average of 100. He hit just two home runs in his first 152 plate appearances and had an OPS during that time of just .591. He finished the year with an unremarkable .648 OPS, seven homers and 22 RBIs in 214 plate appearances.
He was much-improved in his second season, clubbing 15 homers and hitting .275 in 614 plate appearances, but still finished with a league-average wRC+ of 100. Despite a strong 2000 season (.835 OPS; 116 wRC+) and clear home run power, Beltre struggled to find consistency at the plate until 2004, when he hit an MLB-leading 48 homers and carried an OPS of 1.017, finishing second in NL MVP voting at age 25.
But even then, the case wasn’t settled on Beltré’s offensive game. It really wasn’t until 2010 that he began a stretch of year-in, year-out consistency that saw him average an .872 OPS through the end of his career in 2018. It was that stretch that allowed him to pass the 3,000-hit mark, as he averaged 189 hits per 162 games played during that time.
Combine that with Beltré’s outstanding defense at third base – five Gold Gloves and an average of 2.0 dWAR from 2003-2012 – and it made for a first-ballot path to Cooperstown.
Johnny Bench
Debut year: 1967
Nobody would’ve projected Bench as arguably the greatest catcher of all time based on his first 45 games in the Majors.
A 26-game debut stint as a 19-year-old late in the 1967 season in which Bench hit just .163 with a .462 OPS wasn’t immediately remedied when he began play as the Reds’ full-time catcher in 1968.
Through the first 19 games of his rookie year, Bench was still struggling at the plate, with a .171 average and .500 OPS. But with back-to-back three-hit games on May 6 and 7, he saw his average begin to steadily rise and land at .275 by season’s end. He found the beginnings of his power stroke, too, clubbing 15 homers for the season and finishing with a 115 wRC+ in his first of 14 All-Star campaigns.
The offense, combined with Bench’s already-strong defensive work behind the plate, was worth 5.0 bWAR as he captured the NL Rookie of the Year Award. Over the next four seasons, Bench would win two NL MVP Awards, establishing himself as the new standard for catchers.
George Brett
Debut year: 1973
Brett’s reputation as a pure hitter was slow to develop. It took him 42 career games and more than 130 plate appearances from 1973-74 before his lifetime average climbed above .200 for good. Things took a while to develop from there, too.
In 1974, his first full season in the bigs (133 games), Brett’s average was just .236 as late as Aug. 4, and his OPS was just .577. But then George Brett arrived.
From Aug. 5 through the end of the season, Brett hit .338 with 12 doubles and five triples to finish with a very modest but surging .676 OPS for the year – good enough to finish second in AL Rookie of the Year voting. Then in 1975 at age 22, Brett really emerged. He hit .308 and led the AL with 195 hits, including a league-leading 13 triples to go along with 35 doubles and 11 homers. The next year, he led the AL with a .333 average, led all of baseball with 215 hits and 14 triples, and made the All-Star team for the first of 13 straight years.
Brett’s final career tally: .305 lifetime average, 3,154 hits, three batting titles and an MVP.
Reggie Jackson
Debut year: 1967
Betting on Jackson to adopt the Mr. October persona would’ve seemed a laughable and losing proposition during his early months as a Major Leaguer. But, again, believe small samples at your own risk – even when they don’t seem that small.
It took Jackson, he of 563 career homers, 113 plate appearances to hit his first long ball. But it was the only dinger of his rookie year in 1967, a season in which he hit just .178 and had an OPS of .574 in 135 PAs for the A’s. Not to mention that Jackson struck out in 39 percent of his at-bats that season. Hardly the stuff of legends. But a turn was coming.
Cal Ripken Jr.
Debut year: 1981
Ripken’s late-season call-up to the Orioles in 1981 at age 20 came with a certain spotlight and hype, given that his father, Cal Ripken Sr., was a longtime coach for the team. The early weeks of Ripken’s career, however, were anything but special.
In his first 23 MLB games at the end of the ’81 season, Ripken hit just .128 with no extra-base hits and a .278 OPS in 40 plate appearances. And 1982 didn’t start much better. After going 3-for-5 with a home run on Opening Day as the Orioles’ starting shortstop, Ripken hit another cold spell that saw his average drop all the way to .117 on May 1. In fact, his average didn’t climb past .200 again until May 13.
In total, Ripken had just a .182 average and .520 OPS through his first 51 career games – giving absolutely no indication of what was to come. From there, though, things began to take shape.
From May 13 through the end of the season, Ripken hit .276 with 25 homers, 82 RBIs and an .823 OPS, good enough to win the AL Rookie of the Year Award. And the next year? AL MVP and World Series champion. And then? Yada, yada, yada, Hall of Fame.
Brooks Robinson
Debut year: 1955
It took Robinson parts of five seasons in the Majors before he began playing at a level associated with his Hall of Fame reputation.
Robinson debuted in 1955 at age 18 and struggled mightily in his three MLB stints through age 20. In his first 60 MLB games from 1955-1957, he hit .178 with a .487 OPS in 161 plate appearances. In fact, he averaged minus-0.3 bWAR during those first three seasons.
His 1959 season, at age 22, showed the first real signs of his potential. Robinson hit .284 and was worth 2.1 bWAR in 88 games, with his defense at third base emerging as a major part of his game. Starting in 1960, he was an All-Star in 15 straight seasons, establishing himself as an all-around threat on the diamond. He was named AL MVP in 1964, when he hit .317 with 28 homers and 118 RBIs, and carried a wRC+ of 144.
Robinson also became a stellar postseason performer, carrying a lifetime .303 postseason average across 39 games and winning the 1970 World Series MVP.
It was a career path nobody would’ve seen coming from that struggling teenager in 1955.
Let that sink in for a while
From https://www.mlb.com/news/these-hall-of-famers-hitters-had-slow-starts
T2T is excellent.
Happy Mem Day everyone.
Lets get a W and everyone calm down, this is a Marathon not a sprint….
Enjoy the ride.
That picture at the beginning sums it all up! Young men and women serve and protect us daily. We should never take for granted what they sacrifice for all of us! I never served as i graduated in 76., but i thank the good lord every day for the freedom we have because of those did serve! So never let anyone degrade or disrespect those who served. Soldiers don’t protect certain groups , certain races, certain political parties, the healthy , the disabled, they protect us all!! I pray my grandchildren never have to go to war. I pray for the safety of those serving now! Thank you all! …. Now a little baseball talk! Sorry braves fans! That’s a big blow!! But, the Braves will act quickly to replace him. Look for a good outfielder to be coming to Atlanta soon. Touching moment with Doc!! But seriously, the guy could end up killing somebody!! Don’t get him being up on the roster. As the Bible says, this 2 shall pass, but dang! The bottom 4 is horrendous!! And with the top 5 sporadic right now, it’s not so good right now!
If the Dodgers do not improve their bottom of the lineup and the bench chances are they will not go far in the postseason. We have seen this script before. And this has nothing to do with being patient.
This roster is flawed with too many weak bats. After 1/3 of the season IMHO this is pretty safe to say.
Team needs at least two more bats, preferably with high OBP, we have enough slugging already. Need guys to get on base for those bats.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Thank you to all the men and women here at LADT who have served to keep us free.