Baseball s Next .400 Hitter?

The Giants are a really bad team, but their World Series now is playing the Dodgers. I have a sneaking feeling that the Dodgers are going to have problems with them all year. It’s just one of those things… It’s easy to blame this one on Doc for taking out Maeda after 5, but Alexander didn’t cough up a hairball. Stripling did… an inning later. Well, stripling set the table and Floro gave up the game-winning double. The runs were charged to Chicken Strip, but Floro gave up the hit. After the game, Ross said:

“The guys put 8½ innings of really good baseball together except when I was on the field.”

I could argue that after Maeda’s recent struggles he was trying to let Maeda be done after a successful start, so as to build on it. I also would have left Verdugo in to hit in the 9th instead of CT3, but again, Doc likes to show confidence in his players. It’s not what I would have done, but I won’t lose my mind over it.

The Great Bochy took out the Shark and brought in Watson who immediately gave up 4 hits and 2 runs! Bochy is an idiot, right? If that’s the logic you apply to Roberts, apply it both ways. Stripling could have done his job and so could Chris Taylor. You can disagree with the moves, but players have to execute too. Has anyone noticed that Joe Kelly has had two back-to-back outings without allowing a run? His ERA is down to a microscopic 8.31 (microscopic compared to what it once was).

I had hopes that Cody Bellinger could someday hit .300, but come on, .400? You have to be kidding me. After last night’s game, he is hitting .434 with one game left in May. I can’t wrap my mind around anyone hitting .400 again, but Cody Bellinger is doing all the things necessary to accomplish that. With two strikes, he just tries to make contact, almost a swinging bunt is how it looks.

He has cut down his strikeout rate from 27% to 15%, and increased his walk rate to 18% (from 12% last year). He is handling that low inside pitch and high inside pitch and not swinging at balls out of the zone. He is obviously taking RVS’s tutelage to heart, looking for pitches in certain parts of the zone. The odds are, he won’t hit .400, but right about now, he is showing all the signs that he can maintain it. Is it sustainable? I think not, but part of me is not quite sure.

The fact of the matter is: Cody Bellinger is morphing into a superstar at a much younger age than Yelich. I predicted stardom for him, but never anticipated anything like this. He has 14 HR to go with his .434 BA and set the All-time MLB record for RBI before May 1st with 37. By the way, he also gunned down Brandon Crawford at 3B and I doubt that even Puig would have made the play. Cody unleashed a throw that seems to be about 8 feet off the ground.

Cody is also OPS’ing 1.414 and before you say that is totally unsustainable, in 2004 Barry Bonds OPS’ed 1.422. He also OPS’ed over 1.300 three times as did Babe Ruth. He’s certainly in rare air. Will he hit a skid and come down to earth? History says that is likely… but you never know. It will be interesting to watch as he currently shows no signs of falling into bad habits.

Other Dodger News

• This could fall into “This might be really serious” category: AJ Pollock evidently has an elbow infection (possibly staph). This is the elbow where he has had a plate and screws inserted and has had two surgeries. This can potentially be horrible news. You don’t mess with stuff like this. Stay tuned.
• No word on Andrew Toles, except that he is in Glendale. I would imagine he is just working back into shape. If Pollock remains on the IL long term, we could see him in a month… maybe, or maybe not. We don’t know anything…
• Who takes Pollocks’ place? I would think Beaty or Rios, both LH hitters. If Pollock is going to miss much time, the Dodgers could sure us another RH bat… preferably one that could play CF as well. They could also use a “fixed” CT3, but that doesn’t appear close.
• It appears that DJLM is headed to the IL with knee inflammation. That brings the total number of Yankees on the IL to 163. 😉
• Let’s hope Striker Buehler gets his mojo back tonight. I think he has been “tinkering” too much. Just do the voodoo that you do, Striker.

(Photo Credit: Michael Urakami/MLB.com)

Minor League Report by AC

Both OKC and Great Lakes had a travel day and will resume play on Tuesday. The two remaining teams came away with one run victories.

Tulsa Drillers 5 – Corpus Christi Hooks 4 (Astros)

Down 4-1 in the 8th inning, the Drillers scored 4 thanks largely due to a DJ Peters 3 run HR, his third on the season. Gavin Lux got a sac fly for the 4th run. Four of the Drillers 7 hits on the night came in that 8th inning, along with 2 walks. That was enough for the win. No Driller had more than 1 hit, and Peters’ HR was the only XBH.

But tonight was the debut of 28-year-old RHP, Yordy Cabrera, in the Dodgers organization. Cabrera has had a very interesting career to this point, and if so inclined, you can read all about him in the linked article below. For now, the Dodgers are intrigued because he is another with a triple digit fastball. Cabrera went 3.1 innings allowing 3 runs (2 earned), 5 hits, 1 walk, and 2 strikeouts. Cabrera was relieved by Nathan Long who had 2.0 IP allowing 1 run on 1 hit, 1 walk, and 1 strikeout. Adam McCreery and Layne Somsen finished the final 3.2 shutout innings for the victory. McCreery got the win (2-1), while Somsen got his 2nd save on the season.

https://www.mlb.com/news/yordy-cabrera-surprises-in-dodgers-camp

RC Quakes 3 – Lake Elsinore Storm 2 (Padres)

It took 10 innings, but the Quakes came away with a 3-2 hard fought victory. Michael Grove started for the Quakes but finished his 34 pitches before he could get out of the 1st inning. In his 0.2 IP, Grove allowed 1 run (unearned) on 1 hit, 1 walk, and 2 strikeouts. Grove was relieved by Wills Montgomery who pitched a very good 5.2 innings before he ran into a little trouble in the 7th. After a walk, strikeout, and stolen base, Wills was replaced by the struggling Leo Crawford. In a save situation, Leo promptly gave up a run scoring and game tying single to knot the score at 2-2. Crawford continued and pitched an uneventful 2.2 innings after the single. Jordan Sheffield came in the top of the 10th, retired the side, but not without the great effort by Donovan Casey throwing out the go-ahead run at the plate. In the bottom of the 10th, Casey was again the impetus starting at 2nd base. Carlos Rincon walked, and Connor Wong flew out to CF with Casey and Rincon each moving up a base. Going on contact, Casey scored on a Devin Mann ground ball to 3B who made an errant throw to the plate giving Casey an easy score and a Quakes victory.

The Quakes hitters got a taste of the future Padres Ace, 20-year-old, LHSP, MacKenzie Gore. In his 4.1 IP, Gore struck out 11 Quakes’ batters. In the 5th, after striking out Starling Heredia, Gore issued his only walk to Brandon Montgomery and was replaced by Caleb Bouchley. Bouchley struck out Donovan Casey for out #2 in the fifth, but Carlos Rincon then slugged a 2 run HR to CF to give the Quakes the lead at 2-1. It was Carlos’ 3rd HR on the season. Besides Rincon’s HR, the Quakes offense was limited to 2 hits each from Nick Yarnall, Brandon Montgomery, and Devin Mann. Yarnall and Montgomery each hit their 3rd double.