It Must Be June…

This is how bad baseball is this year.?Joc is Jim Bowden’s pick right now for all star LF!

We are at the third of a season pole. This is how I see the players on the team so far. I am probably wrong about some of them, but that is simply my opinion. Freeman is as advertised. Everyday Freddie has been solid at the plate and in the field. He probably needs a day off since he has had a couple of mini slumps. The Dodgers struck out 9 times in yesterday’s game and Freddie had 3 of them. He might need a blow. Lux has been solid at second, but very underwhelming with the bat. He is hitting .272 with absolutely no power. 1 homer and 12 ribbies are not the kind of production you expect from a player with the kind of hype he has had. Not a total bust, but nothing special. Still takes way too many pitches right down Broadway and Is caught looking too much. Does not protect the plate well with two strikes. Trea, another player who is playing the way you expect him to play. Stellar defense, a tough out. Leads the team in RBI’s which is something you expect from the hitter in the 3 hole. JT is not the JT of a couple of years ago. Age is slowly catching up with him. He is not punishing pitches up in the zone like he used to. Average way down and power numbers not where one would expect them. Clearly on the downside of a stellar run as a Dodger. Chris Taylor is much better serv ed coming off of the bench. He leads the team in K;s by a wide margin striking out 71 times already. That is a percentage of more than 33% of his at bats, They need an everyday LF who can hit and defend as well as Taylor can and move him back to the super sub role he excels at. Bellinger will probably never be the player he was in 19 again. But he is the best defensive CF in the league. He tantalizes with his power capability. And then disappoints with his penchant for striking out so often. Chases pitches he has absolutely no chance of hitting, but capable of changing a game with one swing. Power numbers down simply because the ball is different. He hit several early in the season that would have left the yard last year. Mookie Betts is the best RF in the majors hands down. He is healthy and it shows. Also goes into mini slumps ala Freeman, but defense and offense have been Mookiest as of late. Alberto is Kike without the banana suit. Energetic and fun loving, he is the jester on the bench. Beloved so far by his teammates. Not an offensive force, he does have the ability to contribute a clutch hit now and then and he can pitch occasionally when there is a blow out. Will Smith has not really hit his stride yet. But he has had some big moments. The power is evident, the defense is solid if not spectacular, and his game calling skills and ability to gun down opposing runners has improved some. Solid # 1 catcher and one of the leagues best. Austin Barnes is so far a weak hitting great defense typs catching back up. But his power numbers this season are close to what he piled up all last season. Edwin Rios is a huge loss since his kind of power does not just show up all the time. Likely lost for a huge chunk of the rest of the year. Eddy Alvarez is a very good athlete. He can be an asset since he is very versatile and can play a lot of positions. Being a switch hitter is a huge plus.. Max Muncy is not healthy. If he was Maxwell’s Silver Hammer would be at the top of his game and punishing pitchers, We will obviously see him more in the coming weeks but I believe he would have been better served having surgery on his elbow last winter.

The starters are very good. Even with their struggles, Buehler and Urias have pitched well on occasion. Anderson and Gonsolin have been outstanding. You might not believe they can keep it going, but until they prove otherwise, they are All-Stars in any league. Kersh comes back Sunday. If he is the same pitcher he was when he went down, they are a lot better team. The bull pen for me has always been the Achilles heel of this team. Simply my opinion since I believe they are overworked. But so far, they have had only a couple of meltdowns. Bit series in Frisco this weekend. They will see where they stand with one of their biggest rivals. Going to see Top Gun Maverick today. Have a great day guys.

The day everyone, and especially Bellinger, understands and accepts that he is not a Superstar, then and only then will he be fine and we will stop criticizing him and expect an improvement. He is who he is, a gold glove, a fast runner, spectacular defensively, but he is still and will continue to be a mediocre hitter, not bad, not good, just average-mediocre. Stop waiting for him to return to his all-star level, he is not, he only had a spectacular half season, but the same was Puig, and where is he now?

2:10 PM ET

Dodgers (36-20)

White Sox (26-28)

SP Tyler Anderson L

7-0 2.59 ERA 55.2IP 53K

Confirmed Lineup

RF Mookie Betts R

1B F. Freeman L

SS Trea Turner R

2B Max Muncy L

DH Will Smith R

3B J. Turner R

CF C. Bellinger L

LF Gavin Lux L

C A. Barnes R

Partly-cloudy-day

0% Rain

74° Wind 8 mph Out

06/09/22 Los Angeles Dodgers activated 1B Max Muncy.

06/09/22 Los Angeles Dodgers optioned 2B Zach McKinstry to Oklahoma City Dodgers.

I have come to the conclusion that Cody Bellinger is going to have to go in a different direction to fix his swing, but it will have to be after the season is over and it should not involve current staff. I think he will be serviceable and improve somewhat this year, but he is going to have to change his swing to some degree. It may not be huge, but he has to do it.

Good morning gang. I just got finished submitting my All-Star votes. I used the Bear evaluation system which picks players combined stats. Top producer at each position is my pick. Dodger or no. When you look at the posted stats it is totally amazing that most players are way below their career numbers. Even the super players like Trout and Juan Soto, who is having a pretty bad season so far. I picked only three Dodgers for my squad, Trea, Freddie and Mookie. A lot of former All-Stars did not make the cut. Ohtani is not even on the AL team since Yordan Alvarez is having a better year and deserves the DH spot. He on the basis of his power numbers beats out JD Martinez. Some very big names are not producing the way one would think they should.

OPS by year from #1 OPS Team:

2022 – .755

2021 – .796

2020 – .832

2019 – .847

Notice the Decline. Manfred is an idiot!

To look at players OPS a third of the way through the season is not very revealing or interesting. And, then to predict “pull out of your ass” OPS numbers by the end of the season is comical. The list of OPS numbers for other MLB stars is interesting though. I agree that it’s something that can’t be explained right now. We know Mookie and Freddie are superstars and don’t need an OPS number to tell us that. All the Dodgers are above average MLB position players regardless of their stats.

From above:

“That’s right! I am picking Mad Max to get to a .800 OPS by year-end. I believe that the only reason he is coming back (allegedly tomorrow) is that he is not injured. I do not think I am closer to the situation than Andrew Friedman, Dave Roberts, and the Dodger coaches and trainers. I am pretty dang sure they have the inside scoop! So, if they are calling him back up, then it is for a reason.”

I hope you’re right about Mad Max having an .800 OPS by year end. I’m curious on how you came to this absurd conclusion. So, Max remarks that he won’t be fully healthy until 2023. Roberts claims Max is sent down to allow him to heal and work on some things. With all that you conclude he is returning in the next day or two is because he isn’t injured. Really? Yeah, the Dodger FO and coaching staff do have a reason to have Max return to the majors. The reason might be that he is embarrassing himself in the minors. In only four games he is hitting .143 with a 43% strikeout rate, a 53% no contact rate, and an OPS of .651. So, he is injured and doing poorly in the majors. He is sent to AAA and heals and does worse. And, now that things are all good with Max he is recalled to the Dodgers. And, is predicted to have a OPS of .800 by years end. OK. That all makes sense to me…..NOT! Right now it’s Sad Max, not Mad Max. Without having Bellinger’s GG defense and speed, Max isn’t going to play if things don’t improve on the offensive front. We can continue to hope he does return to form.

I’ve resigned my self to the fact that Roberts will forever be the Dodger manager. He is the perfect person to be the Dodger manager in the eyes of the FO. Roberts is the front office’s good soldier. He has and will continue to make head scratching decisions. But, I agree with Mark that the players have failed to produce at critical times more than Roberts has made dumb moves. How many times have we seen our “highly paid offensive stars” fail to even make contact with the runners in scoring position over the last several years? Or pitchers give up game changing HRs with two strikes on a batter? It takes an entire team to win championships. That includes players, manager, coaches, and front office.

Freddie Freeman is still awesome, but some of his awesomeness is waning right now. Maybe my favorite player, Will Smith, is awakening from his offensive slumber. JT’s average and OPS isn’t good right now, but he has 31 RBI (#3 on team) and has a strikeout rate of less than 20%. It shows that making contact helps to be productive in driving in runs or sets others to do so. It’s a team game.

Carry on.

Right here, right now Cody Bellinger is a top 10 center fielder. He’s tied for 7th in HR and 10th in OPS in MLB. You think you can do better, but in reality you can not. Unless you really think that Brandon Nimmo is going to be better than Belli next year.

You all need to adjust your thinking when it comes to batting stats. It all changed. Offense is way down.

Trea Turner, Will Smith and Cody Bellinger are all tied for second on the team in HR.

Bellinger is also 5th in doubles.

Bellinger is also 5th in total bases.

He’s just not as bad as you all think he is especially when you consider that CF, C and SS are supposed to be the worst hitting positions on the team.

If CT3 is worth 15M, than Belli isn’t far off from the 17M that he’s making.

Andrew Heaney’s second start with AAA Oklahoma City is tonight. Soon there will be some tough decisions to make when MLB only allows 13 pitchers on the roster.

Wouldn’t Mark just love that! And I hope that AF would go fishing for a new center fielder to replace Belli this off season!

I agree I don’t think JT gets that 16M. As for Muncy and Beli. They will have to show what they can do this year if healthy

Your OPS predictions are wildly optimistic even for you Mark. The ENTIRE team is going off from here on out? I’ll take the under on JT, Muncy and Bellinger. And speaking of 23, that’s a negative on those three. Bellinger is a .200 hitter with maybe 20 home runs. Does anyone really want him back and if so what would you be willing to pay him? AF is looking for a new CF this off season

Gonsolin for Cy Young…..BELIEVE IT.

If RA Dickey can win one (and that was stolen from Kersh) then the CAT MAN can and WILL!!!

Freddie is about to go on a tear that is going to go thru the ATL Homecoming. Ill be there for that series….

Who will Not be part of the 2023 Dodger Roster?

The following players have Club Options and the Amount:

1. Justin Turner $16,000,000

2. Max Muncy $13,000,000

3. Dan Duffy $ 7,000,000

4. Dan Hudson $ 6,500,000

5. Hans. Alberto $ 2,000,000

6. Jim Nelson $ 1,000,000

Some tough decisions for BG and A F.

As for AJ, one hit against us doesn’t prove much. He’s batting about .220 this year

No, Mark, it took not “two months” before the fire Roberts choir began singing.

At least as far as I am concernded I have been singing this song for some time. I would not have extended Roberts If I was in charge for the Dodgers.

And I really don´t know why you are so itchy about this subject. Why do you in a really impertinent attempt have to drag Friedman, Muncy, Belli into this topic other than trying to discredit the critics of Roberts ?

If you think Roberts is the best the Dodgers can have as manager it is okay, but there is no need to ridicule Dodgers fans who are of a different opinion about it.

Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lots to think about there, but certainly good to get back to winning ways last night. Gonsolin has been a revelation along with Anderson, and Kershaw is back this weekend, so things are looking up, as well as the Bullpen being rested.

Read another excellent post by B&P yesterday about our need for another batter. We actually had him, and traded him for Craig Kimbrel, and we saw what he can do a couple of nights back.

I liked trading for Kimbrel, but as I suspected, we are missing AJs righty bat (hamstrings permitting) in our lineup, plus he was my favourite player.

I guess AF had to give to get, but we are missing him.

Can’t undo that deal now, so I really like the sound of JDM. Maybe that deal should be considered now, rather than down the road? We have a history of recent trades with Boston so not impossible.

With regards to Muncy and Bellinger, like in 2020, I don’t see us winning a ring without them contributing more than they are now, and therefore they both will be given every opportunity to improve their figures. Both are vital.

Now for Dave Roberts.

I have a long memory, and I recall a post calling for his head, penned by your good self, immediately after another head scratching evening in the Playoffs where the entire LADT readership had been watching through their fingers and screaming at the TVs across the globe as yet another winnable game was lost.

Let’s not pretend that he’s a great in game manager, because he isn’t. He doesn’t seem to have a “feel” for the moment or situations, just a playbook.

Look what happened when he threw away the analytics and allowed Julio to finish things off in game 7

Yes, I know it’s all about players executing, but its not second guessing when virtually everyone (and there’s a whole lot of baseball acumen and savvy here)!is posting before things have even played out.

Yes he’s perfect for AF and the owners, but i think you are being a little disingenuous when people like Dodgeram (Go Dodgers) and others point out Doc’s frailties. I’m in the more WS wins with a different leader camp.

Only a third of the way through a gruelling schedule and we are where we wanna be. A couple of shrewd pick ups at the Deadline and we will have a great chance.