It's About That Time…
Why can’t the Dodgers just win every game? Come on, at the rate they are going; they will only win 109 games! That is unacceptable! I had them winning 162. Man, was I off! A lot of us feel that way… even if we don’t admit it, but I am elated that the Dodgers have the record that…
Why can’t the Dodgers just win every game? Come on, at the rate they are going; they will only win 109 games! That is unacceptable! I had them winning 162. Man, was I off! A lot of us feel that way… even if we don’t admit it, but I am elated that the Dodgers have the record that they do when a lot has gone wrong. Let’s start with the fact that the Dodgers do not have a single hitter on the team hitting .300. They are one of the few teams that don’t have a single .300 hitter. They only have three hitters hitting over .260:
- Freddie Freeman – .297
- Mookie Betts – .290
- Trea Turner .289
Mookie wasn’t Mookie until the last 30 days, but he is now in Beast Mode! This is the best he has played as a Dodger… maybe ever! He is back in the MVP conversation. However, Max Muncy, Cody Bellinger, and Justin Turner are all hitting below .214, but JT is trending up. Muncy and Bellinger are pretty much flat-lined. Cody missed several grooved pitches yesterday that he should have hit out. I would assume that the Dodgers have checked his eyes, but have they checked his eyes? I do not know how he missed a couple of those pitches yesterday.
I have given Cody and Max a very long leash… but I think I have reached the end of that rope. Something has to change. Whether you use statistics or if you use the “eye test,” none of this makes sense and we have to go down another path.
At any rate, I have reached the point, right here, right now, here on May 26th where I think Cody Bellinger should go back to OKC (only with his buy-in, of course). The Dodgers still have Kevin Pillar, who is a general facsimile of a defensive fill-in for Cody and might just hit at a higher average than Cody. However, this needs to be planned and calculated. I think whatever SVS and Company are doing, it is not working! I believe that Cody needs another hitting coach. Who, that is… I have no idea, but there has to be someone.
The odds are (if his eyes are OK) that he only needs a tweak. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. He is only missing by “that much.”
This is a man of immense talent, but what they are doing is not working. Maybe it’s Freddie Freeman’s father… or someone else? Who knows? Bellinger has options. Max Muncy does not. I have no idea what to do with Max. Maybe it is Craig Wallenbrock. He’s the guy who was behind Robert Von Scoyoc’s success. This shouldn’t have gone on this long, but it has. Maybe Max falls down the stairs and has to go on the DL. I’ll volunteer to push him. Gently… of course!
I also have to ask why three players who were once in the TOP 50 (maybe Top 30), have fallen so far. How can that happen? Max and Cody may both have the same problem, but different causes. All I know is that two months is enough! At least in my opinion. Get Pillar up and maybe Miguel Vargas. Vargas will be up at some point this year – why not now.
Dodger Notes & News
- This team is too good to be shutout like yesterday, I don’t care if Mookie is sitting! Inexplicibly, they do this occasionally!
- Andrew Heaney is feeling good after bullpen sessions. Here’s the question: Do they send him to rehab a couple of starts, or do they just start him and let him go 3 or 4 innings?
- OK, here is something that I should add if you want me and many other readers here to take you seriously: DON’T JUST POST WHEN YOU HAVE SOMETHING NEGATIVE TO SAY. When you do that, you have pretty much summed up who you are.
- With the rumors flying around that the Nats could trade Juan Soto, what could the Dodgers trade for him? It would likely take a package of Miguel Vargas, Mike Busch, Bobby Miller, Landon Knack and a couple of other prospects. It’s a step price to have to pay, for someone who is going to demand a $400 to $500 Million Dollar Contract. How about this lineup?
- Betts RF
- Freeman 1B
- Turner SS
- Soto LF
- Smith C
- Bellinger CF
- Turner/Muncy 3B
- Lux 2B
- DH
Just Dreamin’…..
Dodger Minor League News
- Gavin Stone just might get a shot at the Dodgers rotation THIS year. In just his second AA start for Tulsa, last night Gavin went 5 innings, allowing 4 hits, 0 runs, 2 BB and struck out 7. For the year in A and AA, his line is: 35 IP/28 H/4 ER/8 BB/43 K/1.03 WHIP/1.03 ERA. He is just getting better and better. He’s small – about Buehler’s size, but his fastball plays at 94 to 95 with his max effort pitching.
- Eddys Leonard hit his 7th HR for GL last night as he went 2-4.
- Jesus Ramos (recently promoted) was also 2-4 for the Loons.
- At RC, Damon Keith was 3-5 with 3 RBI and 2 runs scored. He is hitting .328/.992 OPS.
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Discussion (83)
Disagree, not disagreeable
You know it was going to he a long night when he asked for the whooper dooper analysis ( Does it has double O?) WTF!
* So after Doc decided that it was prudent to sit 3 regulars at the same time with those pesky D-Backs coming up, the Bat-Rack gremlins must have snuck around and put those “For Display Purposes Only” decals on our bats.
* WTF is the play-by-play guy with D-Train? He seemed flabbergasted with a runner on 2nd top 7 when Muncy decided to help his club by bunting the runner to 2nd. Mr. Whoever seemed stunned referring to the attempt as “a dangerous hitter who’s SEEKING”. What does that mean? He can’t hit so he’s desperate enough to bunt? Remember the phase in a dugout when the rally cry is “anyway you can?” That’s what Max was trying to do – help his team win. This dipshit announce is drinking the Kool Aid that the only way you win a game is out bash the other team. No moving runners in a close game. Muncy’s mistake was not bunting a strike. Then he scrapped the idea and struck out.
* The Nationals scored 1 run to win; on a walk and a bunt that went for a single and a seeing eye base hit. There’s a place for small ball.
* Alberto has been around long enough to understand a groundball needs to be behind you to advance to 3rd from 2nd. Boy I see alot of base running mistakes on all teams. These mistakes matter in close games.
* another opportunity to play better today!
The Dodgers are marching toward another Division Championship and then hope their playoff pitchers are healthy, rested, and at their best and also hope Muncy turns into Eddie Rosario–the 2021 WS model.
If the Dodgers wind up with a $400M Soto contract then they will need multiple prospects to take the place of high salaried players in the rotation and in the field. Hard to do that if they trade those prospects to get Soto. Might have to wait for him to be a free agent.
Bellinger won’t be going to OKC, and Muncy will continue to play.
That’s just how Roberts manages his players. They will be given every opportunity to get right.
Pillar probably would be marginally better than Bellinger right now, and Lamb/Rios is going to give better production than Muncy, but Roberts sticks by his players.
He plays the long game. For him it’s about peaking for the playoffs. Muncy isn’t going to get better by sitting. He’s going to get better by playing. Same scenario with Bellinger. Looking at AAA pitching is not going to fix him.
People see what they want to see. As bad as Belli has been, Max and JT are worse, much worse. JT is not trending up according the stats from the last 7 days. He was trending up before that, but in the last week he’s tripped over a toothpick and can’t get up. One of those three can run the bases and play defense and the other two have a replacement on the 26 man roster that is hitting much better than they are. All three are bad baseball players with the bat.
As a whole the Dodgers lead baseball in OPS and are 2nd in SLG. So, do you fire the hitting coach when the rest of the team is doing very well compared to the rest of the league? Do you really think Pillar, a career 700 OPS hitter, is going to all the sudden be the answer at age 33?
When you look at statcast data, you would be surprised to learn that Mookie Betts sits right between Muncy and Bellinger in barrels per plate appearance. Muncy slightly higher and Belli slightly lower with Trea Turner behind bringing up rear, lowest among the 7 players on the Dodgers who qualify with the minimum number of barrels to be listed. JT, Belli and Muncy are the three highest launch angles on the team.
In a year where MLB decided to nerf the baseball, it seems that launch angle is the culprit for our three worst batters. I’m wondering if some of those balls will start to carry once the weather gets warmer. Belli and Muncy are also always getting killed by the shift. I wonder what their overall stats would look like if MLB had the foresight to bad the shift when they nerfed the ball to at least get some offense on some hard hit ground balls.
Belli was out of the lineup the last couple of days due to an undisclosed sickness. Before that, he had a nifty little 5 game hitting streak with 2 multi hit games. By no means is that impressive, but it isn’t hollow either. Turner’s been a little worse recently and Muncy is absolutely lost with just one hit in his last 5 games, 19 ABs. If anyone needs to sit, it’s Muncy.
We got shutout yesterday, everyone looks bad when that happens especially when you choose to sit Belli, Smith and Betts on the same day. I’m okay with it. We had a chance to win the game, it didn’t happen. You lose some games and sometimes you get shut out. We scored 19 runs in the prior two games. Where still is a marathon stretch of consecutive games, you have to rest some guys. Arizona tonight, that much closer to home now.
Mitch White gets another start. Let’s see what he can do this time.
Soto is not going to get traded this year.
Serious or sarcasm?