It Must Be June…

It took all of two months, but the “Fire Dave Roberts” choir has started singing and the armchair GMs are ready to trade half the team for the Flavor of the Week. Maybe the “Fire Andrew Friedman” Trio will start playing as well when he calls Max Muncy back to the majors and fails to send Cody Bellinger down. Well, it actually makes sense that Muncy and Bellinger should be in the Major Leagues. Neither one is going to learn anything they don’t already know by playing at OKC. If Max is healthy, then he should play in the majors. Nuff said!

Now, I am not saying that this will last forever, but Bellinger is only about .050 points behind Will Smith in OPS and no one is calling for Smith to be deposed. Cody tantalizes us with a HR and a Walk and then takes two steps back. Nobody is calling for JT to be sent to OKC, but JT is OPS’ing about 40 points below Cody. Just in case you aren’t aware, here is how players are evaluated by OPS:

So, where do the Dodger hitters fall (right now)? Let’s take a look…

• Mookie Betts .955 – Great
• Trea Turner .819 – Above Average
• Freddie Freeman .808 – Above Average
• Chris Taylor .775 – Average MLB PLayer
• Will Smith .744 – Average MLB Player
• Gavin Lux .702 – Below Average MLB PLayer
• Cody Bellinger .699 – Below Average MLB Player
• Justin Turner .652 – Poor MLB Player
• Max Muncy .590 – Poor MLB Player

At the present time, the Dodgers have no Superstars. .. statistically speaking! They do have one Great Player (Mookie) and two Above Average Players (Trea and Freddie). They have two Average Players (Taylor and Smith), two Below Average Players (Lux and Bellinger), and two Poor Players (Muncy and JT). I happen to believe that those numbers may very well be much higher for 80% to 90% of these players at the end of the season. Of course, it is not possible to predict where they will end up, but I believe their OPS will look something like this by year-end:

Mookie Betts 1.000
Trea Turner .920
Freddie Freeman .960
Chris Taylor .800
Will Smith .840
Gavin Lux .780
Cody Bellinger .770
Justin Turner .790
Max Muncy .800

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.

This has been a weird season for many professional hitters. Look at some of these player’s OPS:

• Matt Beaty – .364
• Andrelton Simmons – .374
• Miguel Sano – .379
• Paul DeJong – .417
• Christian Pache – .439
• Lorenzo Cain – ..444
• David Fletcher – . .488
• Nick Madrigal – ..500
• Steven Duggar – .509
• Josh Harrison – .527
• CJ Abrams – .,543
• Yadier Molina – .553
• Jason Heyward – .573
• Andrew McCutchen – . 582
• Wil Myers – . 582
• Trent Grisham – .583
• Cavan Biggio – .589

I’ll stop there, but you get the picture. All of those players are worse than Max Muncy in OPS. If Max is healthy, he knows how to play. You may not like the way he does it, but his career OPS is .839. Max will return to form. I am not as convinced about Cody Bellinger, but I do believe he will get better. How much? I am not sure, but his defense and speed cancel some of the batting issues.

Just so that you see what is happening to other players, here are a few other prominent players’ OPS: Gleyber Torres – .753, Bo Bichette & Charlie Blackman – .750, Alex Bregman – .716, Nelson Cruz – .693 (about the same as Cody), Brandon Crawford – .669 (I’ll bet Farhan had that contract back), Marcel Ozuna – .673, Darin Ruf – .660, Jesse Winker – .611, Adam Duvall -.596, Whit Merrifield – .575, Javy Baez – .544. This is a problem that is all across baseball right about now. Is it the ball? The weather? Global warming? Who knows?

Give this some thought – with all of the Dodger’s hitters’ struggles, they are right with the Mets in total runs scored in all of MLB. Imagine what will happen when they pull out of this funk and return to near normal. Also, think about what will happen if Walker Buehler fixes his mechanics and Heaney and Kershaw return. This will help the bullpen as they will not be as stressed and especially since there are several other pitchers who will also be back. This team’s problem is not the Front Office or the Manger. It is player injuries, mechanical issues, and just not getting untracked. It’s not on Roberts or Friedman, it’s on the players. They simply need to execute better.

Patience Grasshoppers and it is silly to be making any trades right about now. They ain’t happening.

Dodger Minor League Notes

• Carson Fulmer with another win, but it was not without drama.
• The Loons and Drillers were rained out!
• Pete Heubeck started for RC and went 3 innings. He allowed 1 hit and 1 BB and struck out 5. He looked very solid… even good… especially for a 19-year-old!

Finally, Rob Manfred has some major problems… not the least of which is Trevor Bauer. Any similarity between Bauer and Johnny Depp? Stay tuned…