Since I had COVID in October, my doctor advised me to wait until May to get it due to the fact it can have a deleterious effect if you get the shot when you still have a high amount of antibodies in your system. So, I waited until Tuesday to get my first shot (Moderna). It was almost 7 months and we felt that it should be fine. In fact, it was 7 months prior to October that I had COVID the first time. Well, evidently, I did not wait long enough. I felt a little “out of it” Wednesday Morning but we have our Leadership Meeting at 10:00 AM every Wednesday. My son, who is VP of Sales was sitting next to me and about 15 minutes in, I asked him to get me the thermometer that we use to scan the temperature of people.
When I took my temperature, it was 103.5! I waited about 30 seconds and took it again and it was 101.1, and over the next few hours it was bouncing around like a ping-pong ball. I got home with chills, sweats, body aches, and all of the flu-type symptoms. I went to bed at about 10:30 AM and slept until 5:30. By then, I did not have a fever, but I felt like I had been to a Giants-Dodgers game in SF and beaten up by 20 Giant fans. I went back to bed at 7:00 PM and slept until 7:30 AM. I went to work for about a half-hour at 3:00 PM and came home. As I write this (7:00 AM EDT) I am about back to normal, but it was a rough two days. Most people have the reaction after the second shot. I hope this was the bad reaction…not the second shot!
I now see that the CDC says you do not have to wear masks outside. Hummm…In the past, the scientific community has repeatedly “debunked” the theory that the COVID-19 virus started in a lab. Now, prominent scientists are calling for a deeper investigation into the origin of Covid-19, including the possibility that a laboratory accident released the new coronavirus that caused the pandemic.
In a letter published Thursday in the journal Science, an international group of 18 biologists, immunologists, and other scientists criticized the findings of a report released in March by a World Health Organization-led team into the pandemic’s origin and called for a more extensive evaluation of the two leading hypotheses: that the pandemic virus entered the human population and began spreading after escaping from a lab or after jumping to humans from infected animals. There is a whole lot more to learn about this, but now it’s about science. Then, it was only about politics!
Balls and Strikes
I think some of you misunderstood yesterday when I suggested each team gets 10 ball and strike challenges a game. Here’s how it would work. The electronic devices the TV networks utilize would be in tandem with MLB and MLBPA. It would have to be agreed upon, but the decision would not go back to NY to decide. Maybe it would involve an additional umpire (maybe retired) who sets in the press box and instantly sees the evidence. It does not have to go to New York if MLB and the MLBPA agree to the electronic results. Thus, there is no delay… may 5 seconds.
Honestly, you probably don’t need another umpire. The electronics are as such that every pitch could be called electronically and the umpire could instantly be overridden, but I say to limit it to a specific number so as not to take out the human element completely. It doesn’t need to go to New York to do so. We have the technology now. I can’t think of any reason not to, especially if there is no delay. This would make it easier to grade umpires too. What percentage of their balls and strikes did they get right?
Dodgers Minor League Report
- The OKC Dodgers are now 1-6 after losing 5-2 to the Sactown River Cats. They managed 5 hits, but only one for extra bases – a double by The Kaybear (.333). They struck out 14 times! Logan Salow pitched a clean inning and struck out two. Mike Kickham was kicked again. His ERA is 7.771.
- The Tulsa Drillers improved to 3-6 with a 9-3 win over the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. Mike Busch hit his 4th HR and both Feduccia and Mann hit their first. Donovan Casey was a perfect 3-3 with a double. John Rooney gave up 3 hits and 2 runs in 3 IP. Justin Bruihl pitched two scoreless innings and Nate Robertson finished it out with 3.1 scoreless innings. He has yet to be scored upon in his 3 games.
- Great Lakes improved to 3-6 with a 4-1 win over the West Michigan Whitecaps. Ryan Ward drove in two runs with their only extra-base hit (a double). Zac Ching stole 2 bases, as did James Outman, and Joe Vranesh. Alex Gamboa pitched 3 scoreless innings as did Austin Drury, who also struck out 6.
- Rancho dropped to 4-4 with a 9-8 loss to the Nuts. The Quakes had 11 hits, outhitting the Nuts who had 7. Both teams had 17 strikeouts! Jake Vogel had 2 hits as did Jonny Deluca. One of Deluca’s hits was a HR. Jorbit Vivas also had a HR. Jimmy Lewis gave up 5 runs in 2 IP while Aldry Acosta pitched 2 scoreless innings.
Tonight, Clayton takes the mound against Sandy Alcantara, who is pretty dang good!
Discussion (20)
Disagree, not disagreeable
97
DJ Peters has to further develop at the AAA level. He’s not ready for the big leagues and it’s become painful to watch.
CK leaves 113 K’d behind Sutton.
There’s the offense that I’m high on.
Belli will be going to rehab assignment later next week.
David Price threw a pen today, will get 2 days off and then be activated or throw another pen.
Zach McKinstry is going on rehab assignment Sunday or Monday.
Scott Alexander is 2-3 weeks away.
Bullpen Game on Sunday.
CT3 will start at 3B next time JT needs a day.
Rios played through the injury for some time, out until 2022.
Busy day for AF !
More help on the way !
Dodgers Sign Nate Jones
By Steve Adams | May 14, 2021 at 3:07pm CDT
The Dodgers have signed veteran right-hander Nate Jones to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Oklahoma City, per their Triple-A communications director Alex Freedman (Twitter link). Jones, a client of Sterling Sports Management, was designated for assignment and released by the Braves earlier in the week after a brief stint with Atlanta.
I was on my way yesterday moving from my place in Phoenix back to Washington so I missed responding to the Balls and Strikes conversations. But I do have some thoughts.
* If CK is correct about actually seeing problems with the technology, it would be nice to know that. But MLB again is spy versus spy. There is NO transparency in any of this. Starting with why umpires aren’t currently wired to explain replay decisions and the rule possibly involved to the fans, players and TV audience. It’s so simple. But fans are kept guessing. It’sindicative of how Manfred and his minions feel about baseball fans in general. The ABS system has been used. I’ve seen it live and never even noticed a change. So, what are the reviews where it’s been used? Is it accurate? Is it going to be a bargaining chip in the new CBA?
* It was suggested yesterday, in jest I hope, that home plate umps can be fitted with Fighter Pilot type helmet’s with heads up display and cool technology. Those bad boys, for F-35 pilots, go for a cool $400,000 each by the way. I guess we could just add that expense to your game ticket or TV Package.
* I played and coached for years understanding and accepting that human error was part of the game. That said, the game has changed due to technology and replay. I’m an old school baseball guy but am receptive to tech that makes the game better. The goal is to get it right. If the ABS system is trustworthy and available it needs to be used.
It doesn’t have to be that complicated or tricky. The home plate ump has the ear bud, gets an instant, accurate, ball or strike signal and makes the calls on what he heard. He can overrule a select few things like balls bounced through the strike zone and other things that trick the system. He can’t overrule a normal pitch call. Otherwise his job is the same as now.
I’m completely opposed to anything that overcomplicates or increases time for reviews. No set number of challenges or reviews for me. It’s unnecessary except for some concession to keep the human element in the game. That’s not a something I want to see. Actually, the last thing I want to see is if a Manager decides to challenge a pitch location. Get it right in real time.
The current poor umpiring make me wish for the ABS system more every day.
Sorry you had a bad shot experience. My second Pfizer shot kicked my ass. Same symptoms as you. Lasted about 36 hours. Felt like I was hit by a truck.
Still worth it. I was sitting at the bar at my friends place watching the Dodger game again the other day. At the bar! Imagine that.
Hopefully can help down the road –
Dodgers claimed INF Travis Blankenhorn off waivers from the Twins.
Blankenhorn, 24, can play all over the diamond and will head to an organization which will certainly value his
I think Braun is done. When Belli gets back the lineup will be much improved. Just like when the Asstericks got Alvarez back. Then McKinstry will help when he gets back too. Belli is a career .900 OPS guy. They impact a lineup immensely.
My wife and I got our 2nd shot (Pfizer) 2 weeks ago. She didn’t have much of a reaction. I developed a low fever and felt horrible the next day, similar to when I had the virus in Dec. The third day every thing was fine.
We’re still in Florida and not attempting to get back to Jersey until this gasoline situation is much better. It’s normally a 17.5 hour drive. I only have to stop for gas twice, but I’m not going to chance it now. we drive I-95 most of the way. That means going thru Ga., S.C., N.C., Va. etc. All of the hardest hit states. I sure wish the Vero Beach Dodgers were still around. 🙂
I’m looking for a good weekend for the Dodgers. They’ve got Kershaw, Bauer and Buehler pitching Against Miami And the Dodgers will be facing at least 2 RH’s. Padres are facing the Cards. It’s Very possible St. Louis could win that series. The Giants face the Pirates this weekend but I’m More worried about the Padres. Dodgers will be getting their shot against the Giants next weekend in L.A.
with our assorted injuries any chance we make run Ryan Braun . He’s still unsigned – probably come cheap and is local kid. I know we made run at him years ago for Puig could be big help.
Wow, Mark. I’m sorry to hear you’re under the weather again with COVID related malfeasance. I hope you get better soon. Maybe a Dodger’s win tonight will help out.
I took a look at each of the Dodgers affiliates this morning mostly because of Busch’s 4th homer mentioned in this article. With that good news, I was surprised to see him batting his weight. I was hoping to see him batting my weight.
Sadly, it doesn’t get much better when you look around each roster. I highly recommend that no one checks stats on our minor leaguers anytime soon, unless you’re into masochism, self deprecation, or punching yourself in the face.
As always, or mostly recently, I’m looking for to the game tonight against our old friend Don Mattingly and his Marlins. Let’s see who wins the boneheaded move award after each game to see who empties their bench first, makes mid inning pitching changes and unnecessary double-switches.
Little baseball news yesterday. But I had a full day anyway. Had to get my tires rotated and get an estimate on getting some old dents repaired. Covid has not affected me personally, but it has affected things I love to do. My love for the game has never waned. but my enjoyment has been affected. The price of attending a game is way out of my league. This visit to California will be the first time I have not gone to a game when I have visited. We were going to try to see the Quakes this trip, but I have just been too busy. And in 2 weeks, I will be headed home. It will be nice to be in a town where the streets are not lined with homeless people. That aside, it has been a nice visit. No one here has had covid or it’s symptoms. So my family has been lucky. I have a couple of dear friends who live in Lancaster who have had it. My ex girlfriend got her second shot the other day, and it pretty much knocked her out of commission. Me? I am doing well. Dodgers seem to be coming around. Last two games played at a better level than the previous 20. Now if we can get Belli back, and Zack, and some length out of our starters and better BP performance, then we should be ok. I now more than ever trust AF which has not always been the case. I love Dodger baseball. I really enjoy being a part of this blog and I will resume writing when I get back to Colorado and have the time and a better computer to research with.
Back to baseball: has anyone watched our minor league games? Michael Busch already with 4hr???
How’s his swing look? How’s his defense? Is he a Daniel Murphy type at 2b?
Got my second shot a week and half ago on Sunday. About Monday afternoon I started to feel off. That evening I started taking the Tylenol to control the fever symptoms – body aches, fatigue, that out-of-it feeling. By the next day I was better.
I’m just sick of this whole thing – and sick of Fauci. I run a cycling team of about a hundred members. I lead group rides on weekends that average about 20-30 people. Early on in March of 2020 one of the docs on our club contacted me and voiced his concern about the pandemic, that he had been seeing the chatter in medical circles and that it was “very scary” and he suggested I shut down group rides. I contacted another doc on our team who is involved with Doctors Without Borders, and her opinion was, “if this was yesterday, I’d say it’s probably ok to ride, but I agree that the ride shut be shut down.” This was before we had lockdowns on a worldwide and national level, so I was a little ahead of the curve, and, at the time it was the right thing to do. So I shut everything down … for months.
In August, when the infection/death rate was close to its nadir, and after consulting with docs, doing my own research, sending out a survey and getting feedback from our members, I opened things up again. Of course there were a few of the vocal minority who sent me impassioned emails, which influenced and delayed my decision to start up again. Even so, the vocal minority weren’t satisfied and quit. It seems the primary argument was that riding bikes in a group was an act of privilege and, because COVID disproportionately effects people of color, it was a luxury and a frivolity we had an obligation to do without. There were other clubs that were political echo chambers who would derisively call us the “COVID Death Ride.”
But for the vast majority of our membership, they welcomed it. They missed the social contact and interaction with friends around an activity and a community we were all a part of. It seems humans need that kind of thing, which is why I tried to rely on the best available science at the time and open things up safely.
I shut it down again when the infection rate spiked, and when I heard from a fellow cycling coach that one of his riders contracted it from group rides. That was all I had to go on, so, to be safe, rides were off. In the meantime, I would stories of fellow riders getting screamed at by passersby for not wearing a mask as they ride by at 20 MPH. I would get glares when I would stop on my bike and wouldn’t immediately don a mask. I spoke with an organizer of a bike race yesterday who was basically pleading with me on the phone to make sure my team was hypervigilant in social distancing and wearing masks because there were be three LA County health inspectors there looking for any reason to shut him down.
I read the studies. I knew that outdoor transmission was very unlikely. None of that mattered.
Finally, a couple of weeks ago, in an interview, Fauci mentions almost in passing that outdoor transmission is very unlikely. Now the CDC says no masks outside. We have gotten NO coherent guidance. But what we have a lot of are stories by people like Jayne Cobb (who I think is a great poster) here, who have petty authoritarians literally yelling at his kids because a mask slips below his nose, and people who just want to cling to their anxiety and virtue signaling and wear their masks in perpetuity. It’s infuriating.
Ok, rant over.
WRONG. with your “taking out the human element” bullspit. umps ARE NOT supposed to be part of the outcome of any game. a catcher moving his glove to catch an obvious strike SHOULD NOT affect the call. a pitcher throwing hot stuff that moves across the plate with more movement than the ump seems to be able to follow & is a strike needs to be called a strike ( seen that happen to treinen more than anyone this year ). and WHAT? so you run out of your 10 challenges & it is the 9th and a ball 4″ out of the zone gets called a strike & you have no recourse & lose the game thanks to a bad call from an ump?!? ’cause that is EXACTLY what happened with betts the other night, but we happened to win anyway. called 3rd strike on obvious ball with bases loaded. cost us a run, but luckily we won anyway. and stop being so touchy dude, maybe it is your altered dna or something. you said i offered no logical explanation as to why you were wrong, when i CLEARLY said >>t is ridiculous that player and teams have to CATCH umps making mistakes when they SHOULD NOT be part of the outcome of a game.<<
all due respect sir, but THAT is actually a "logical explanation" of why i am all for using any tech we can to ensure balls and strikes are called properly EVERY TIME & that the umps are reduced to being just that. the arbiters making sure the game is played exactly BY THE RULES.
cheers dude
You’re right Mark much of this has been about politics. Never wore a mask outside. Johns Hopkins experts said it was highly unlikely for anyone to catch it outdoors, as long as you avoided being in large crowds. Basically avoid large gatherings like outdoor barbecues and protest marches. Both drove the surge in California, according to both state and county health officials.
I never caught Covid. My 92 year old aunt in Knoxville did. She survived. They vaccinated her a month later. She had no problems. Probably has to do with the individual. I had the vaccine, Moderna, no real issues, other than a lump on my arm after the second shot. Went away after a week. No real side effects. Some people had issues after the second shot, some didn’t.
Interesting what Clayton Kershaw said about the new ball, bigger seams, but it hasn’t worked like MLB thought. The idea balls would fall for doubles and triples, but it would limit homeruns. More action. But strikeouts are slowing offense. The just over the wall homeruns of 2020 are now outs on the warning track.
Just seems like ending the shift would produce more offensive activity. Two fielders on the infield dirt between first and second, the other two between second and third. Pull hitters would make a comeback. Definitely lead to more hits. I have no idea what could be done about the high number of hitters striking out.
I thought Dodger TV announcer Joe Davis made an interesting point about the shift. If players were going to make adjustments they would have already done it. He believes MLB needs to end shifts for the good of the game. Seems like an easy fix. Moving the mound back seems like something to walk away from, dumb idea and pitchers are totally opposed to it.
I’ve always been opposed to an electronic strike zone, but then I see all the bad calls. The one pitch with the bases loaded on Mookie Betts was potentially game changing. Clearly inside, should have been ball four. Instead strike three. Fortunately Corey Seager singled in two and then Gavin Lux hit a game winning homer an inning later. Just seems the umps are consistently bad on balls and strikes.
But Kershaw did say that what you see on TV strike zones are not always accurate.
Interesting piece on why the Dodgers are having issues, written by Ken Rosenthal. Not all of it on the freak injury to Cody Bellinger, but it has caused a major problem, mostly because the players filling in have done pretty much nothing. Missing Kiki? Probably. The injury to McKinstry adding more salt to the wound.
Covid 19 is a hoax and everyone who still beliesve it is a killer virus is lost. And twice as lost if he or she or it (gender correct) believes in those vaccines which have never been tested in due time (shortes vaccine to hit the market was after 5 years prior to this Covid hystieria). Good to see more and more states coming to their senses and banning vacccine passports.
Sorry , but that is how I see it after putting hours and hours, days and days into this topic.
As for baseball: Dodgers will win the West despite going threw a cold spell. Too much talent .
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!
Sandy is the Greatest!