I Still Believe!
The Dodgers will win the NL West and go on the the World Series. Some of you have already judged this team as lacking and are ready to throw in the towel and the baby and the bathwater! NOT SO FAST! In case you haven t heard, the season is 162 games long that means there are 144 games left. You can think what you want and you will but
The Dodgers will win the NL West and go on the the World Series. Some of you have already judged this team as lacking and are ready to throw in the towel and the baby and the bathwater! NOT SO FAST! In case you haven’t heard, the season is 162 games long – that means there are 144 games left. You can think what you want… and you will… but this team has great depth which means they can cover injuries easier than most others or use the depth to trade for help.
This team will be fine. When Kershaw went down last year, many said there was “NO WAY” they could win without him! I told you that something special would happen… and it did. This is a temporary setback. For those who dislike FAZ, this is a special occasion to pile on and blame them. When the season ends they will be eating heaping helpings of crow. It’s a long season and while I hoped for a better start, sometimes hot ending are better!
The team will change. How much – I do not know.
Things to Ponder
- Ross Stripling has a higher ERA than Hatchett – do you want to cut him too? Just trying to give a little perspective.
- Chris Taylor and Austin Barnes are emerging and Kike Hernandez is re-emerging! A team with those three players on the bench is very versatile.
- Adrian Gonzalez can still get a hit, he is just hitting the ball very softly. It’s almost like comparing little league to big league. He has been in decline for 4 years and injuries are part of it. The Dodgers can’t trade him and he’s blocking a possible young star – Cody Bellinger who is at least his equal with the glove… probably better.
- The Dodger pitching has sucked during this series, but I give some credit to the D-Bags. They are a very potent lineup and they are very confident and red hot right about now. The Dodgers have ran into a buzzsaw. This hot streak shall also pass.
- I would not be surprised to see a couple of pitchers called up today.
- I think Maeda has one more start to fix his poor fastball location problems.
- Sergio Romo has never had a balk in his career. It’s that kind of week!
- The Dodgers need 7 from McCarthy today!
In the Minors
- Last Night, Trevor Oaks went 5 shutout innings and allowed 4 hits with 1 BB and 6 K’s. His ERA is at 1.89. He is certainly a string possibility for the rotation, especially if something is wrong with Maeda.
- Dickson hit another HR – I think he should get a look-see!
- Yasiel Sierra went 3 and allowed just 1 hit last night. He is also a possibility for the pen.
- Trayce Thompson is 0-24 with 13 K’s and 3 BB. Ouch!
- Yadier Alvarez was better in his second start, but still not good. It was a huge improvement, however.
- Gavin Lux and Brendan Davis are alternating at SS and 2B for GL.
- Jordan Sheffield went 4 shutout innings with 5 K’s and 3 hits allowed.
- Brandon Morrow was totally awful last night – 6 Runs, 0 Outs
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Discussion (58)
Disagree, not disagreeable
I like today’s lineup except put Puig in the 2 hole. McCarthy got taken deep by Goldschmidt like a lot of other pitchers. Good to see he walked him 2nd time up unlike what Ryu did with Arenado a few games back. 5 runs like the last 2 games might get it done today but the bats are quiet so far.
Good for A-Gon! He needed that. The Dodgers needed that!
We’re back!!!
Great 5th inning for the Dodgers: after McCarthy and Joc draw walks 4 straight hits with RISP-2B by Seager, 1B by Turner, 2B by AGon and HR by Grandal. Now let’s make those 6 runs stand up! McCarthy has settled down after a shaky 1st inning.
Well, there is 7 by McCarthy! I would have Urias take Maeda’s spot next time and move Maeda back to #5.
McCarthy was awesome today. Let’s hope to God he’s found his swag from his time as a Yankee. We need it.
It’s still very early. I”m not worried at all; just frustrated by bad play. The bullpen has been great minus the last 2 outings, which has totally screwed up their ERA. Who cares. We all know they’ve been great for us.
Oh, and that pathetic waste of a 2nd round pick Mitchell White, who we could’ve taken 20 rounds later, went 4.2ip, 3 hits, 1run, 2bb, 4k. Season ERA is 2.35
Heck, Romo needed that. Great movement on the frisbee slider, great change up.
Very nice comeback win today. McCarthy runs his record to 3 and 0 with a 2.25 ERA. Finally some hits with RISP and the pitching the team needs. Even better the Rockies beat up the Giants 8-0 and Samardzija gives up 7 ER in 5.1 IP. Let’s take some momentum into SF and take a series.
It looks like we have two starters. Ryu looks pretty good to me. He needs some more starts to see if his fast ball can get to 90. Urias needs to come up. Oaks and Jurrjens will be next if needed. Wood really is best suited for the pen. Maeda does not look good.
We need to take 3 of 4 from the Giants.
Boxout7: “Oh, sounds like he has the same complaint as YOU, “Less innings, with less starts”. Only difference is he doesn’t want to pay top dollar on LONG contracts for mediocrity.”
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Dodgerrick: “Sure – so is the best way to get innings out of starters to hire the old and infirm? Seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it? Why are Dodger starters throwing fewer innings since the Brainstrust has taken over? Maybe they don’t think that getting innings out of starters is too important?”
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I guess it could seem “counterintuitive”, but how about this:
1. You see the ridiculous prices teams are paying for that mythical 2017 seven inning starter that everyone is “overvaluing/overpaying for”. Example, Shelby Miller. Sure that 7 inning STUD would be wonderful and VERY valuable, but so often, that expensive acquisition gets hurt or proves to be a MIRAGE.
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2. You remember “The Plan”, compete now, compete later.
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3. You believe you got four potential big time starting pitching studs on the way, Urias, Buehler, White, Alvarez and you don’t want to block them with a long Samardzija/Cueto type contract.
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4. Contrary to what many think, you have a budget and your already stuck with Crawford, Ethier, Guerrero and Gonzalez (Total $70M) and others.
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5. You assess what you got in the organization, Kershaw, McCarthy, Anderson, Bollsinger, Kazmir, Oaks, Stripling, Wood, Stewart, Ryu and others.
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6. You wonder, if you have one ace and potentially eight to ten approximately equal starters, where all of them probably have trouble going through the opposition’s lineup a third time, if you might be better off getting five innings from a starter and two to three more from your long guys (picked from starters 6 – 10) in the bullpen. Oh by the way, your bullpen is very good and deep. How about 5 starters, 4 long guys, 3-4 eighth and ninth inning guys?
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7. You know pitcher injuries are as big of a crapshoot as the playoffs. You also know, someone is always coming out of nowhere to star. Could one or two of all these starters do even better than we hoped for, after all there is strength in numbers? Maybe, considering the cards we were dealt, this depth thing might be good. Is it even possible to have 16 different starters in the regular season and win the division?
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8. You think again about getting a true number #2 and remember #1 and #2 above and Urias!
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Shelby Miller has never had TJ.
Just back from a long weekend in LA. It was great to be back “home”, but only for a visit. But what I really liked (and missed) was being with other Dodgers fans. Even after the Friday and Saturday night massacres, almost every Dodger fan I came in contact with was still optimistic. I was in the Dodger Store in Universal City Walk and was watching the game. I watched Joc’s single and Corey’s HR and then headed out to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville restaurant. Wearing my Corey Seager #5 jersey, I got a few high fives. At the restaurant, I turned my phone and saw that the DBacks tied the game, then was happy the Dodgers took the lead back, then demoralized when the DBacks took the lead. I went back to the Dodger store and watched Grandal’s double and Peralta’s error. Peralta looked like the RF version of Andrew Toles in the corners (Sorry MJ; that is what it looked like to me. I am not too big on defensive metrics yet). But Andrew then came through with a single. Great piece of hitting going right back up the middle, not trying to do too much. We left after the Dodgers took the lead following Chris Taylor’s HR, and headed back to the hotel to meet some friends, full of confidence that the Dodgers were going to start the 3 game series with a win. I turn on my phone, saw the game tied up and the bases loaded with nobody out for the DBacks, and I felt sick. When we got back to our room, my wife asked “How did the Dodgers end up.” I turned on my phone, and I just shook my head, and her reply was, “That good, huh?”
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We had a formal dinner Saturday so I had no idea what happened in the Dodger game until after midnight. But when we got down to the lobby this AM, and I was wearing my Dodgers T-shirt and hat, there were at least 15-20 fans saying, “that’s two games, we will get them today, and go on to win the WS this year.” I had one guy come up to me at breakfast and tell me, “don’t worry, the Dodgers will be up after five today, allowing McCarthy to go 7.” But he wasn’t totally correct…he thought Liberatore was going to pitch the 8th and Jansen the 9th for a save.
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But then reality hit and we were back in Sacramento, and I was back to getting stares from those pesky Giant fans.
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I wanted to clarify comments I made about players being called up early June to clear arbitration dates. There are two service dates. One is 172 days which qualifies as one year service. This is important for FA. This is what happened to Kris Bryant. He was called up on April 17, which made 2015 impossible to make 172 days service time. Yes the Cubs timed his debut so that they could get one more year control and lose only two – three weeks of games. The second date is the Super Two arbitration clock. This is the day I was referring to. There is a good explanation of service dates at:
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Open on www.fangraphs.comhttp://www.fangraphs.com/library/the-beginners-guide-to-service-time/.
There were two paragraphs that should explain most if not all of the article:
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“First, they make sure that they don’t call a player up too early in their first season so that they do not accumulate 172 service days in year one. That’s why teams call up top prospects after two or three weeks at the beginning of the season. If you wait until mid-April, you have bought yourself an entire seventh year of service at the cost of two or three weeks of play in year one.
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Second, teams do their best to call up players after the “Super Two” date, which is usually about 60 days into a season. This means if you wait to call up a player until June of their first year, you’ve earned an extra year of team control and have minimized what a player can make in arbitration. It may not be the most labor friendly practice, but it’s the incentive structure the CBA supports.”
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The mid-April to May call up gets the one year of additional control, but it does start the arbitration clock. If the Cubs had waited until June, they would have kept Bryant to three years of arbitration instead of four. His FA would still come after the 2021 season regardless. What do you think Bryant is going to get his first year of arbitration (next year)? It will be considerably more than the $1.05M he is making this year, and will be 5 times more than the Cubs would have paid him pre-arbitration for 2018 had they waited until June to bring him up. Admittedly this is a business decision and not a baseball decision, but MLB is a business.