If Fickler is not a word, then I just invented it! If you haven’t been paying attention, relief pitchers are a fickle group. If you say that something is fickle, you mean that it often changes and is unreliable, and that would be the correct definition of relief pitchers… especially left-handed relief pitchers. Many Dodger fans wanted to trade the farm (Vargas, Pages, Busch, Frasso, et al) for David Bednar of the Pirates. The Pirates are doing very well with a 9-3 record. David Bednar has had four save opportunities and has blown three of them this season. He has a 12.46 ERA, and the league is hitting .300 off of him. Be careful what you wish for!
The Dodgers traded Victor Gonzalez and Caleb Ferguson to the Yankees, and both were LH. I do not want either of them back, but they are doing JUST OK as Yankees! As of today, the Dodgers have Ryan Yarbrough, Nick Ramirez, and Alex Vesia as LH relief pitchers. I do not count Yarbrough because he is an “opener” spot starter and long man out of the pen. That leaves Alex Vesia as the only LH Option in the Dodger Bullpen because Nick Ramirez is at AAA. The fact is, Nick Ramirez holds some promise, but the Dodger pitching instructors are working with him and probably need a few more weeks (they wish they had more time with Conner Brogden, but he is out of options).
Alex Vesia is maddening. We have seen this movie before! Alex has been in 7 games for the Dodgers and has a 4.05 ERA. He has walked six batters in 6 IP and struck out 7. The league is hitting .143 against him! If he didn’t walk batters, he would be amazing! But he does! Last season, he had 6.75 ERA before the All-Star Break and a 2.54 ERA after the break. In all fairness, last year, the league hit .361 against him the first half, so .143 is pretty dang good. He just needs to dispense with the walks.
Fans are already calling for Andrew Friedman and Josh Brynes to get another LH Reliever. Is that the solution? Maybe, but probably not! JP Feyereisen was very effective against LHP when healthy in the past. He is still rehabbing at OKC and may or may not ever get back to what he was. Treinen and Graterol are both very effective against LHP, but neither is ready. Ronan Kopp is a guy who could move quickly, but he is still in Arizona, trying to conquer his control (of all things). He is that situational lefty everyone dreams about. Kopp will allegedly join the Tulsa Drillers soon.
The Dodgers could convert Justin Wrobleski to a situation reliever… but I doubt it. Maybe Maddux Bruns could be converted to a lockdown reliever. Maybe not! Ok, if you are not part of the solution – you are part of the problem. Tell me: Who should the Dodgers get to be that lockdown guy in the bullpen? I want to know.
It’s possible that by the end of the season, the backend of the rotation could include, Stone, Hurt, and Kopp. Then the pen could Stone you, Hurt you and call the Kopp! Right about now… the Dodgers will wait…
The Show
- Bobby Miller wasn’t horrible, but he wasn’t sharp. It was better than his last outing but not acceptable.
- Michael Grove was very good. That’s why the Dodgers have been keeping him around, and Joe Kelly did what he was supposed to do.
- When you only score two runs, you are not going to win a lot.
- It was a beautiful play involving five players to get Ohtani at the plate, which sealed the game.
Minor League Notes
- OKC played two… and lost two – 7-6 and 6-1. Landon Knack and Kevin Gowdy gave up all 6 runs in the second game.
- Vargas, Pages, and Lipcuis each went 1-3 in Game Two. Avans, Pagesm Sweeney, Vargas, and Lipcius are all hitting over .295. Actually, all are .300 and over except Pages (.295).
- Owings is as cold as he was hot in the Spring (.091).
- Game One was more competitive. Pages was 2-4 with a double and HR, and Vargas was 1-3 with a BB and 2 Runs scored.
- Kyle Hurt game up 3 hits and 2 ER in 2 IPs while striking out 3, and JF Feyereisen, who still is struggling, got the loss.
- Tulsa scored two touchdowns, winning 14-4. Beck, Rushing, and Young all homered.
- Brendon Davis was 2-5 with 2 RBI and is hitting .316.
- At Great Lakes, Thayron Liranzo is struggling after moving up to High-A – He is 0-12.
- Luis Rodriguez was 3-4.
- Great Lakes won 4-1 as Lucas Wepf pitched the final two shutout innings for the win. He struck out 4.
- Rancho won 4-0 as Swan, Emmett, and Gonzalez spun the shutout.
- Kendallk George is hitting just .111, but has a .529 OB% due to walking 8 times in 17 plate appearances. His strike zone is the size of a volleyball.
- Gelof was 2-4 and is hitting .316.
Discussion (17)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Vesia can be frustrating as hell, but I am not going to dump on the guy. The offense lost that game, not the pitching. They left 8 runners on base, had a man thrown out at the plate, were 1-7 with runners in scoring position, and once again, struck out in double digits. And yes, all the usual suspects struck out. Max and Teoscar twice. Not getting a run when you have a runner in scoring position with less than 2 outs is bad enough, but stranding a leadoff hitter who is in scoring position, well , that is worse. They had Paddock on the ropes in the first and scored once. Taylor looks totally lost.
Stick with CT3, he’s gonna be fine….
Guess I wasn’t clear with Will Smith. Smith is an all star catcher. His bat is as good as any catcher in MLB. The reason I suggested Smith getting reps at 3rd in spring training and possibly play third one game a week. This way he sits one day week and plays third one day a week. The stress on his legs and back would be reduced. As playing make believe front office, I’d see on our top ten prospects, three our catchers. Of course they are prospects. In our top 30 there isn’t any third basemen. Of course we could trade those prospects to go get a third baseman. Muncy has at most two years left in the tank. So in my being a front office, I’d be looking down the road three years. If one of our catching prospects turns out, we have a great hitting third baseman and a good young catcher. If none of the prospects turns out or Muncy continues to play well down the road, Smith continues to catch. I believe a good front office has depth charts for three or four years down the road. It is a loose depth chart and be willing to change if warranted. When I posted about this yesterday it wasn’t to sit Smith it was actually to get more quality years from Smith. Just looked we have a third baseman ranked 22 for the Quakes.
I see Jordon Montgomery fired Scott Borass!
Hummmm….
I would not be surprised if Borass turned down a Aaron Nola type deal for Montgomery early is Free Agency.
Every dog has his day and Borass may have had his.
I read the Ippei complaint. It goes into sufficient detail to end any speculation about Ohtani betting on anything.
But there are some interesting things that one can read between the lines.
1. Ippei is not very smart. The only reason this came to light was the fact that his contact in this bookmaking ring was raided by the FBI some time ago. Just as the FBI is not interested in prosecuting drug users over drug distributors, the FBI isn’t interested in going after degenerate gamblers. They want to take down the book making operation.
However, while reviewing tens of thousands of bank transactions associated with thousands of gamblers, you’ll take note of the name Ohtani. Had Ippei not sent money directly from Ohtani’s account to the bookmaker, it’s likely this wouldn’t have come to light. Af least not now.
2. This account was set up by Ippei and Ohtani in Arizona in 2018, per the complaint. I will make an assumption that this was done before spring training in Ohtani’s first year with the Angels. My guess would be that the angels needed an account for direct deposit of his payroll funds as he was going to begin being paid during spring training (the complaint states the only money that went into this account was payroll).
Ohtani got busy playing baseball and soon after he starting making big money from other sources. That money was handled by his agency’s financial advisors. In 2018 and 2019 Ohtani made a little more than $500k per year. Compared to his tens of millions of endorsements they was a pittance.
I was not until 2021 that Ohtani’s Angels salary went up. He made $3m in 2021, $5m in 2022. And $30m in 2023z When did Ippie start making big time bets? 2021. With the largest transfers being in 2023. When the account was getting fat.
In the complaint it states that at some point around 2021 his financial advisors contacted Ippei with regards to this account. Ippei told them that Ohtani wanted to keep that one account private. They apparently believed him.
So how? Again, based on the info in the indictment Ippei help Ohtani open this account. I’m assuming sitting with him and filling out the paperwork on his half. Ohtani spoke zero English in 2018. So this gave him all the info he needed. Account details, security questions, PIN number ect. In the complaint it states at some point around 2021 Ippei changed the phone number, email and address on that account to his own. Ohtani no longer was going to get any statements or emails for that account.
As Ohtani began making massive money in 2019 and beyond, I’m sure his financial assets and investments became more complicated. Lots of statements, investments going up and down in value, money going in and money going out. Total value being well over $100-$200m by 2021. And yet there was this little account that he opened in Arizona in 2018. Which for a few years only had a few hundred thousand dollars in it.
I’m will to get by 2021 Ohtani has complete forgotten that account existed and just assumed all his money was going to his advisors. So Ippei had control of an account that was now accumulating millions of dollars. By 2023 it was accumulating somewhere around $5m per month. And only he knew about what was going on in that account. The complaint states that he pretended to be Ohtani on phone calls to the bank. He knew everything they could have asked to verify his identity.
So how do you steal $16m from a pro athlete? That’s how.
I believe Ohtani’s financial advisors may bear some liability is this case. I can’t fathom why they didn’t hire somebody who speaks Japanese for a client the size of Ohtani. They apparently utilized Ippei as the only contact for Ohtani. They had no way to verify that Ippei was passing on correct information to Ohtani. And had nobody on staff who could speak with Ohtani. The complaint does not state that Ippei had power of attorney, and there would be no logical reason he would have been given that power. That is quite a breach of fiduciary responsibility by Ohtani’s financial managers. On a level I kind of find shocking.
Ippei was the total gate keeper. For seemingly everything. He needs to go to jail for a long time. And if I were Ohtani, I’d be looking into suing his advisors. Even if he encouraged people go through Ippei, they should have set things up where an independent, arms length member of their staff could communicate with Ohtani directly.
This complaint should put this all to rest. I’m sure there will be many of the more “unhinged” who will still blather on about Ippei being a patsy and the FBI covering for MLB. But those people are lead paint as children and/or were dropped on their head repeatedly as infants: so they have my sympathy.
… and to think this started out as a discussion on Vesia and CT3!
😉
This is staggering:
Per the Ippei Mizuhara complaint:
– He made approximately 19,000 wagers between Dec. 2021 and Jan. 2024, around 25 per day
– Bets ranged from $10 to $160,000, averaging $12,800
– He lost $182,935,206.68
– He won $142,256,769.74
– Net loss: $40,678,436.95
– No bets on baseball
Shame OJ didn’t live long enough to find the real killers.
Over $16 Million Wow!
Never forget:
https://twitter.com/TrungTPhan/status/1778446414034669957
For the Record: I predicted that OJ would be acquitted in his Murder Trial.
There wasn’t enough evidence, but in the Civil Suit it was a different story.
Does anyone have experience or knowledge about Federal investigations like this one?
Why is Ippei being prosecuted? Obviously he broke the state law, but I have read the thrust of the investigation is the bookie. Is this generally done to compel a state witness? The translator obviously has cultural issues, I’m sure he wasn’t fully versed in California or state wire laws. I know ignorance is no excuse, but I don’t understand why he’s being charged.
OJ Simpson died as a result of cancer. There is a special place in hell for that guy.
A broken record here but Vesia has never been a strike thrower. Every ab(Kelly) seemingly ends with a 3-2 count. That is who he is no matter the era. In a playoff game do u really want Vesia in with the game on the line? We will make it through the season with Vesia, Kelly, grove, but playoffs nah. If we have the current bullpen with Graterol and Treinen no trade is vital just don’t use those guys after the 5/6 inning.
How long do the Dodgers hang with CT3? His ABs look horrible now hitting .037, w/ 27 AB’s with 1 hit and 14 Ks, SLG .037, OPS .225 . I have to think a phantom injury is on the horizon and a long rehab at AAA to see if he can get it right.
He has no trade value right about now and still has a contract for this year and 2025. Don’t see a DFA but I also don’t see much value in his game right now.
(I was typing my comment at the same time Dodger Dad was posting his). It is indeed painful to watch him hit right now knowing it will almost always in a K.
how long is the leash on taylor?? we know it’s killing him! but joey gallo looks like ted williams compared to Chris!! even when heyward comes back hes left handed, not ragging on barnes but yesterday he looked more like himself. top 5 need bottom 4 to contribute something. yeah barnes was on and mookie was up., but even mookie isn’t going to come through every time. hopefully miller gets hhis mojo back. mark, heard anything on Walker? 2outof 3 in minnesota was ok. the cubs getting pounded in san diego last night ! Cease looks sharp. we couldn’t have beat their package? i still believe pitching will be fine, left field is a very big concern right now early or not. haven’t seen any roster moves, is trammel still there? wish andrew benetendi was right handed! he could be the answer in left. hell if heyward is down for awhile why not call the sox and have a conversation? guy can hit! trust chris taylor on defense any where, painful watching him at the plate!! hurry back Bear!
smorp