It All Starts in September

Not to make excuses, but I really think the altitude affected Shohei tonight, he really seemed to be laboring.

conforto and kennedy need bus tickets.. don’t think we should give rockies pitchers too much credit with the dodgers sleep walking. this lineup is not good!

Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani Won’t Play in Thursday’s Game vs Rockies

“Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is planning on giving two-way player Shohei Ohtani the day off during Thursday’s series finale against the Colorado Rockies, manager Dave Roberts announced”.

8:40 PM ET

Dodgers (72-54)

Rockies (36-90)

SP Shohei Ohtani R

0-0 3.47 ERA

SPTanner Gordon R

3-5 7.98 ERA

Confirmed Lineup

DH S. Ohtani L

C Will Smith R

1B F. Freeman L

RF T. Hernandez R

CF Andy Pages R

LF M. Conforto L

2B A. Freeland S

SS Miguel Rojas R

3B B. Kennedy R

93° Wind 10 mph R-L

The Los Angeles Dodgers have made a roster move ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Colorado Rockies.

Right-handed pitcher Paul Gervase was called up. Right-handed pitcher Alexis Diaz was optioned.

wow! that’s a lot to swallow!

I agree Mark they probable wont move Betts to rightfield. but they should to make the defense better in the outfield. Bear and I have been arguing about this all year that they should to improve Betts hitting. If they do not move him the Kiki and Tommy Edman come back those two can play centerfield and them slide Pages to rightfield and Teoscar back to leftfield. That wat Betts stays at shortstop. So Kiki and Kim both started rehan in minors so those two should be back soon then Muncy I would say two more weeks. Probable by then we will know more about Tommy Edmans and when he will be back. Then when the offeason gets here they look for I say two outfielders an everyday centerfielder and Leftfielder that’s when they use Teoscar as trade bait. Here is and idea how about a trade with the Mariners. For Arozorena and the centerfielder Rodriguez. The Dodgers get the two outfield spots there missing. The Mariners get a good DH in Teoscar Hernandez and I am sure they would like some pitching in the minor leagues. That’s one suggestion that I would see which would help both teams. Or they trying to bring back Bellinger and he plays leftfield and Kendall George is the centerfielder with the Pages in Rightfield but you should use Teoscar in some kind of trade to get pitching shortstop or second baseman or outfielders. Then you have to worry about Muncy at third and wonder how many more seasons are we going to have where muncy get injured and is out for along time. That’s just some of the off season things we will have to figure out.

Up next: games scheduled for Wednesday, August 20t

Oklahoma City (Roki Sasaki) at Tacoma (Jhonathan Diaz), 7:05 PM PST

will Call ride the pine tonight after a 4 hit game? Will Buddy Kennedy remain the starter at third? Will Ohtani pitch 5 excellent innings tonight? Will Will start 2 consecutive games behind the plate? Will Freddie continue to rake? Will Teo continue to to catch the ball? Will Emmit ever watch that magnificent throw to first on replay? Will Dalton hit a home run in colorado? Will Freeland hit his first homer in colorado? Will Clayton win again tomorrow? tune in again today and tomorrow for another saga in “ how the west was won “

It was good to see Alex answer the Call last night!

At the Loons game tonight. George is a little ball of muscle.

8:40 PM ET

Dodgers (71-54)

Rockies (36-89)

SP Emmet Sheehan R

3-2 3.86 ERA

SP Austin Gomber L

0-6 6.75 ERA

Confirmed Lineup

DH S. Ohtani L

SS Mookie Betts R

C Will Smith R

1B F. Freeman L

RF T. Hernandez R

CF Andy Pages R

LF Alex Call R

2B Miguel Rojas R

3B B. Kennedy R

87° Wind 9 mph Out

Los Angeles Dodgers right-handed pitcher Paul Gervase is with the team in Colorado hinting at a potential roster move.

What the Dodgers do going forward depends a lot on what positions Edman can play going forward. If he plays CF, Pages in RF and Teo in LF looks good.

If he can’t play CF, then Pages stays in center and Betts has to move to RF. Alex Call could be an option but so far he’s not performing to well under the bright lights.

All I will say is this isn’t about Mookie, its a team problem and he’s a team player. Playing full time SS takes a lot of work and he went at it full bore and I think it affected his hitting. The way we keep leaving runners on we need defense. Mook did the right thing last year cause he knew he wasn’t ready and he’ll do again for the Dodgers!

Many moons have passed since my high school days when I majored in, shall we say, systems analysis. Bored in the extreme by the useless droning and/or punitive cruelty of overworked teachers I began to consider cutting school without suffering any negative consequences. As it turned out I had a good friend and fellow student who was in essence a double agent in service of his pals who wanted out of the kaka that was the LA Unified School District’s idea of top flight education without getting into trouble. I learned that if a student was absent two days consecutively the registrar’s office would call the student’s home to ask the parents for information as the their child’s non- attendance. As a result of gaining this “intelligence” I reasoned therefor that I could cut class every other day, then present an excuse note at the school office “signed” by moms or pops to go surfing (marine biology as a secondary major…?) or go for a drive and listen to the latest tunes (a music appreciation double major…?) on my four track stereo. And so my plan was put into action and I lived the life of a serial truant without getting caught. Damn, looking back I was a budding sociopath. Thankfully this irresponsible version of myself has mostly evaporated into the way back in the way back. I only share this confession now because without officially checking out the rules I reason I’m on the outside on the outside of the statute of limitations on such high crimes. Not that Andrew Friedman and the rest of the Dodger brain trust would have ever engaged in any such chicanery, or worse, but I think they are as fine a group of baseball systems analysts as have ever existed! The results of their collective efforts are the envy of their supposed peers in the industry. They are always accumulating data, inventing new tools, picking the pockets of other teams hidden gems or manufacturing trades that have netted them such baseball gods as Mookie Betts for crying out loud. They are past masters in the art of navigating the perpetually changing chessboard that is major league baseball. Changes in the construction of the team will be coming, fasten your seat belts! Loving the life of a Dodger fan in exile here in the North West. GO DODGERS!!!

A. Andy Pages sucks on the road. Of his 20 homers only 4 have been hit on the road. His OPS is .621 on the road and .933 at home. He hits .307 at Dodger Stadium. He is hitting .236 this month. B. These guys look at way too many pitches that are right over the middle of the plate. Rushing did it three times after he hit his sac-fly. Kennedy did it a couple of times. C. Ohtanis at bats can be maddening at times. He struck out on a ball so far inside it almost hit him. His other 3 at bats he hit the ball hard. D. Kike is hitting under the Mendoza line. How can anyone think he is going to be an improvement on offense at any position? Especially after being out this long. They need Muncy’s bat, not Kike’s. E. The same can be said of Edman and Kim. How effective are they going to be when they do return. Teo has not been the same player since he came off of the IL. Rojas is NOT an everyday SS anymore. 3 days a week maybe. I do think Roberts made the wrong relief choice in the 9th. All of the hitters due up for the Rockies were RH. He should have gone to a RH reliever. One final thing, the way they play defense now opens huge holes where players used to be stationed. Second basemen play too much up the middle most of the time now. Sure, it stops the occasional up the middle shot, but it also puts a huge gap between the second baseman and the first baseman when he is holding the runner. Two runs scored on what many years ago would have been a routine ground out to second. And walks will kill you. Karros scored after walking in the third. The home plate ump missed a lot of pitches against both sides. The offense was 2-11 with runners in scoring position, that is not going to cut it.

let’s say mookie does return to right field. how does that help the offense? sure that play (or non play) by teo was awful, but 3 runs against the rockies? with kennedy, rojas, call, and to a certain extent, Dalton, in that lineup, do we expect 6 runs a night?? oh, i forgot conforto! bottom line, if the dodgers score early, hold your breath! Cause they don’t score early and often! … And yes , Teo needs to be in left field. whether he wants to or not. And Doc needs to make that decision and quit saying he needs to be better out there in right! Teo probably is better suited to be. a DH, but they already have a pretty good one of those!

Story by LA Times

Mookie Betts meets with Dave Roberts, Andrew Friedman after Dodgers’ loss to Rockies

The half-empty Dodger clubhouse was so quiet you could hear a winning streak snap Monday. But amid the silence there was one conversation that spoke volumes.

After a 4-3 walk-off loss to the last-place Colorado Rockies — a loss set up by two poor plays from right fielder Teoscar Hernández — Mookie Betts met with manager Dave Roberts and Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, in Roberts’ office.

Betts, the Dodgers’ shortstop, is a six-time Gold Glove winner in right field. Hernández is not. On Monday, Hernández threw to the wrong base in the third inning, allowing the Rockies to score their second run, and in the ninth he was unable to hold Ezequiel Tovar’s bloop double. Two pitches later, Warming Bernabel bounced a single up to middle, scoring Tovar to end the game.

The Betts conversation afterward was private. But the circumstances that led to it were not. Clearly the bullpen is not the Dodgers’ only problem.

“He’s got to get better out there. There’s just no [other] way to put it,” Roberts said of Hernández. “It’s not a lack of effort. But, you know, we’ve just got to kind of get better. We do.”

One way to do that is to move Betts back to right field, where he won six Gold Gloves in seven seasons, and use Alex Freeland or Miguel Rojas at shortstop. Freeland played nearly 300 games at shortstop in the minors while Rojas has played more than 940 games there in the majors.

“We should have won that game,” Roberts said. “This is a hard one.”

Hernández is second on the team with 74 RBIs and is tied for second with 20 home runs, so the Dodgers (71-54) need his offense in the lineup. But his defense — especially his range, which is at a premium in big parks such as Coors Field — has increasingly become a source of frustration for Roberts.

It was that and more Monday.

If this were to be true, the last two divisions would be the most mediocre and boring.

MIDWEST

Cubs

White Sox

Brewers

Twins

SOUTHWEST

Astros

Royals

Cardinals

Rangers

PACIFIC COAST

Rockies

Athletics

Mariners

Giants

WEST

Dodgers

Angels

Padres

Diamondbacks

EAST

Red Sox

Mets

Yankees

Phillies

NORTH

Reds

Guardians

Tigers

Blue Jays

MID-ATLANTIC

Orioles

Charlotte (Expansion)

Pirates

Nationals

SOUTHWEST

Braves

Marlins

Nashville (Expansion)

Rays

It is an idea proposed by Jim Bowden

Does anyone know about the new proposal for team alignment, or is it just an idea from journalists? Because it really does look interesting, although of course, any new development is interesting until it isn’t.

I just read that this would be with two expansion teams: Charlotte and Nashville.

Kike may be the best CF on the team, but he should not play against RHP.

I think the idea of moving Betts to RF is due to the lack of outfielders, in addition to the large number of injuries this season and Conforto’s terrible season. Once Edman, Kim, Muncy and Kike return, there will be more options.

Dean and Call are not the solution, at least not offensively, but they are much better defensively.

We’ve lost a lot of games out in right field this year and Tao needs to be moved to left where he’s not much better but less of a liability and maybe he might hit a little better like last year. The Dodgers have or will have at least 3 other players who can handle shortstop shortly. Mookie needs to go back to right ASAP and might help his hitting also. And Conforto,I thought was a good move last winter but after5 months he’s just not getting it done. Cut him and move! Doc backs his players and it normally works out, but not this time. Go Dodger

I don’t think there’s anyway the Dodgers pick Bobby Miller over Ben Casparius for the pennant push. Ben, although inconsistent lately, has earned the right to see the rest of the season in a Dodger’s uniform. What does Conforto have on AF or Doc ? He has one decent game every 2 weeks and sucks terribly the rest of the time. Continously coming up with runners in scoring position and failing. WTH ??

What if Edman can’t play CF? Call would be an option but he’s a platoon player at best. How about Kike’? Ideally Kim could play Cf but he’s a work in progress. Guess we’ll see how it plays out.

No way Trienen is not on the team. It’s between Miller and Henriquez and I’d take Henriquez. He just needs to learn how to throw a ball to first base. If Yates still gas issues Miller takes his place.

Reinforcements for the Dodger bullpen and posiotion players can not get here fast enough. It will be a struggle every game till then unless the offense wakes up and starting pitchers can go deeper in games to alleviates the wear and tear on the relievers.