Cody Bellinger: Superstar!

The comments in The LA Times about Trevor Bauer:

Whatever becomes of this sad Trevor Bauer story, no one should be giving the Dodgers a free pass through all of this.

The Dodgers are paying $30+ million a year on a “key man” and they don’t do enough due diligence to find out that he had another similar suit pending from a few years back in top of everything he himself posted on the very public Internet?

Every administrative job I ever applied for and received ran a background check complete enough to know everything, including my favorite ice cream flavor. Either the Dodgers didn’t want to know about it or they need a new HR department.

WOW!

Bill Shaikin is now the second columnist to try and convict Trevor Bauer in the press; malign his attorney; and denounce the Dodgers as being insensitive to sex crimes.

I am not a Bauer apologist, but with the disclosure of evidence and the court ruling this week, the columnists have painted themselves into a corner: do we continue bashing Bauer, his attorney, and the Dodgers or, maybe, see what the facts are?

I think the second person has it right!

The Padres have 36 games remaining. 44% of the schedule is as follows: 16 games against SF and LA. 10 games against SF and 6 games against LA. Their last 3 games of the regular season are against SF and could determine them making the Wild Card or not and maybe helping us win the division,

It’s funny that the only two games we lost since we traded for Trea Turned, one against the Phils and yesterday against the Mets, Trea did not have a hit in either game. He provides the spark for the offense ,but the rest of the lineup yesterday looked Mort, or dead for all the non Italians on the site It was a the last day of a 13 game ,no day off stretch. Hopefully the bats wake up with a day off and we help put SD out of their misery, by helping the Reds challenge for the Wild Card. With all the praise for Preller passed around this past Winter for his moves, wouldn’t it be funny if the Padres don’t make the Playoffs? Right now they’re one game out of the Wild Card chase,

I think one of the hardest things to do is to undo a bad swing, break a bad habit and then create a new swing. I personally have a terrible slice in golf. I know what I’m doing wrong and I tell myself not to drop that back shoulder. Then in my back swing something subconscious takes over and I slice again! Drives me crazy.

Good explanation on Belli, Mark. But, as you know, you can offer reasonable explanations all day long, every day and you here the same old crap. Belli has gone through a lot this year as your video clearly states. He had an offseason where he couldn’t get into prime shape because he was dealing with shoulder recovery. He didn’t swing the bat all offseason, had a very short Spring, broke his leg early and then had to come back with weak legs and a weak shoulder. With all of that, he’s still hitting homers on pace for 25+ while playing great defense.

There’s just no reason to make a move. Plenty of players are banged up and CT3 gives all of them an opportunity to rest. CT3 is having a great year, but he’s also top 10 in all of baseball in striking out. You don’t need to consider replacing Belli, with CT3 until the playoffs at the earliest, but I still like having the better glove in CF and the better bench bat on the bench.

Shane Greene never threw the ball very hard. He relies on movement and command. The movement was there, the command wasn’t. It’s worth a few more tries before cutting bait. Maybe he needs to go on the IL and then on a rehab assignment to get some work.

Neftali Feliz looked pretty sharp. He’s not throwing triple digits, but I’ll take 95-96 with a great slider. He looks like another Bickford. Maybe there’s a little more in there. He sat for a week before getting into a game.

The double steal was busted because of miscommunication by Doc, the great communicator. He talks about it here at around the 30 second mark…

I think the Dodgers made a mistake by putting Kershaw and Duffy on the 60 day IL. Both mostly likely would be healthy enough to come off the IL earlier than respective eligibility dates. They’ll be able to carry 28 men on the roster when they’re eligible and with all the arms they have on the roster, I’m pretty certain that they’ll max out the number of pitchers on the 28 man. Duffy me a lefty long man out of the pen and Kershaw will jump back into the rotation.

Sorry guys, but Bellinger is a pro and a former MVP. His dad was a player and he is surrounded by Albert and other pro hitting coaches. You are not going to fix him with the same advice you’re giving to the kids you coach. Let it go.

Andre Jackson was optioned on August 17. He’ll be eligible to return the next time we need a 5th starter, right after the Padres series. Mitch White was optioned on the 19th and he’ll be eligible to return by the time we need another 5th starter following Jackson’s turn in the rotation. Either can come back to club by putting someone else on the IL.

Price had some tough luck in the first inning. A seeing eye ground ball that goes for a shift hit should have been the second out and the Mets should have only scored 1 run in the first. After that he settled in nicely, but Doc just won’t give him an opportunity to get stretched out ending his night at 75 pitches.

I agree somewhat with Mark that he doesn’t look quite right, but you can’t put your finger on it. That could be frustration with how he’s been used all year.

I can’t wait for the Padres series that begins tomorrow especially with the pitching lined up. The Mets are back home and their season is slipping away. They need to beat the Giants in order to have any chance at salvaging their season. I think the worst case scenario is we take two from the Pads and the Giants take two from the Mets. The Giants have Long Cueto and Wood lined up against MeGill, Walker and Carrasco.

Cody has performed at an elite level in MLB that very few players will ever attain. I loved that he got a key hit yesterday with 2 RBI’s. However the next at bat with a runner at second he swung and missed 3 pitches with none being near the strike zone. At least 3 times in the Mets series he swung at pitches a foot or more inside. Until he starts having consistently good at bats I’m afraid his struggles will continue. We all would like for Cody to return to being a consistent threat at the plate by play-offs. Getting Mookie healthy will do wonders for this team. GO DODGERS!

We all love Cody but the question some of us ask is not that he was a superstar but will he remain a superstar. The protracted abysmal BA, OPS, SLG has many a Dodger fan concerned that what we have seen for nearly two years is the player he will forever be. Is he just another ball player or is he the man? That is what has some fans perplexed.

Great speed, great defense, great arm an occasional HR and some opportune hits, but not the consistent offensive threat he was when he had his MVP season. We want it for him, for the Dodgers, for his teammates but we’re frustrated when we don’t see improvement.

Odd game. Lost the way this Dodger team loses. It’s going to happen on occasion.

Phil and I agree on a few things Cody could do with 2 strikes to help make contact. Apparently he’s not going to do them. He’s also chasing again, a sign he’s pressing. And he missed a sign on the bases. I assume it was him anyway. The way Pollock hugged third with the third baseman so far from the bag tells me he was surprised. Oh well. Rally killing play. I think Bellinger will get it back before the end of the year. Not if he continues to chase though. He’s got to punish mistakes, and he got a few yesterday.

There are things this team does well and there are things it doesn’t do well. Clearly we are not a good defensive club. I’ve known that for a while now. We have only 2 players that can steal an out, one of them isn’t on the field and the other one is recovering from shoulder surgery. We will win with pitching and slugging. We’ve added a speed asset and that will help on occasion. Our problem now is we are only playing with 6 offensive innings. We have 3 innings of easy outs just about every game. We’ve played around it well for the last few weeks, mostly with good pitching and solo home runs. Getting Mookie and Bellinger back will be huge additions.

I wonder if Kershaw will return. And, will Duffy add anything.

When will we see Mitch White and/or Andre Jackson again?

The Dodgers are planning on reinstating Mookie Betts from the injured list on Thursday, per Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times. The outfielder has been dealing with hip pain all year and is currently in the midst of his second IL placement this season because of it. Despite the nagging hip situation, Betts has still been tremendously valuable when on the field. In 87 games this year, he’s hitting .277/.378/.521, for a wRC+ of 143. Getting him healthy will be a huge boost to the Dodgers as they attempt to chase down the Giants and make up the 2 1/2 games that separate them in the race for the NL West crown.

The Dodgers could also welcome Joe Kelly back into the fold this week, per Castillo. Kelly was placed on the IL without explanation on August 10th, but a source of Castillo’s confirmed that it was because of a positive COVID test. The righty has seemingly recovered, given that he started a rehab assignment on Friday. He’s done some quality work this year, throwing 29 2/3 innings of 3.34 ERA ball. The bullpen could use his fresh arm, since it’s recently put Garrett Cleavinger and Evan Phillips on the 10-day IL, as well as Jimmy Nelson going under the knife for season-ending Tommy John surgery earlier this month.