MiLB Game Summary Report

Rushing also getting the start over Will Smith is notable.

Interesting that Kim is facing a lefty rather than Freeland. I wonder if the Dodgers are trying to get a further read in his capabilities? Of course it could just be Roberts giving Freeland a day off.

“ Maybe move those figures around or change finger pressure to get some movement”. You’re not the first person to suggest this. Any idea why this hasn’t been done? Is it possible this was tried but hasn’t been successful in bullpen sessions? What I find more confusing is that during the WBC in ‘23, Sasaki evidently threw his splitter at 90/91 mph. Yesterday was the first time he did so as a Dodger. Why wasn’t he doing it last year? Was it due to arm soreness? Or mechanics that were so out of wack? As for ABS, the players like the current system as do most fans (who watch for entertainment). So, don’t expect any changes anytime soon.

He might be, which is why I did not list him. He has not been healthy yet. Chronic? Maybe, maybe not.

4:10 PM ET Cubs (17-10) Dodgers (18-9) SP Shota Imanaga L 2-1 2.17 ERA SP Justin Wrobleski L 3-0 1.88 ERA Confirmed Lineup DH S. Ohtani L 1B F. Freeman L LF T. Hernandez R CF Andy Pages R RF Kyle Tucker L 2B Miguel Rojas R C D. Rushing L 3B S. Espinal R SS Hyeseong Kim L 67° Wind 14 mph Out

IMO, those players will continue to exist, but will be at the bottom of the lineup, rather than at the top. I miss the days of Wills, Lopes, and Butler at the top of the lineup. But it looks like those days are gone. Dodgers do not run like they used to, at least at the MLB level. Kendall George leads off for Tulsa, but he would bat 9th for LAD.

Smoltz and Hershiser from the same broadcast school I believe. I prefer someone else in the booth not named Karros. I really like Nomar when he rarely handles that job. Glad they do not use J-Hair. He would never shut up. Personally, I believe that part of Sasaki’s problem is that high leg kick when he is not in the stretch. To me it seems he loses the plate momentarily.

Root might be injured

Guys are always dissing on other teams. Imai, when he signed with Houston said he would get great pleasure out of beating the Dodgers and the guy has never pitched in the majors until this year. He was punished, he is now on the IL and most likely will be there when Houston plays LA in May.

Okay, Davis did not mention that on the telecast, he just referred to Kim’s original 3-year deal. I stand corrected as I often do.

Nestor Rios. He was/is a position player who looks to be transitioning to pitching. He just turned 21.

Maybe Cora could start up a Garage Band. He could be the drummer on the garbage can. POS is right.

After the three years, the Dodgers have two club options at $5MM each. Kim will be a Dodger through 2029.

Smolts never shut up starting in the first inning. He even speculated what the pitcher would have thrown had the previous pitch been a strike. “Sasaki has to stay with his inconsistencies until he becomes consistent” John, shut up! I spent the game paying close attention to Roki’s pitch shapes. I know, the Dodgers have state of the art toys to evaluate everything about every pitch, so for an old man with a remote like me to analyze Sasaki’s stuff is the lowest end of the spectrum. I used my eye balls. Roki’s pitch shapes are wildly inconsistent, one to the next. The good ones are crisp and effective, but far to often, they aren’t. Roki features 3 pitches. A 4-seamer at 97ish, a slider at 87ish and his reported out-pitch, his splitter (forkball). that apparently, he is trying to throw the harder. To me, he has all 3 pitches from 97 to 87; with no slow stuff to get a hitter out front. He “fools” the MLB pitch identifier, which lists his 4-seamer sometimes as a sinker but to me his 4-seamer is straight as an arrow. He lacks the hop to effective work the top of the zone. His high fastball, located up, is very hittable. Maybe move those figures around or change finger pressure to get some movement. Or go to a 2-seamer? His secondary stuff all goes the same way, right to left. The good spitter gets some arm-side depth but too often it breaks like his slider, lacking arm-side depth. His command and release of that splitter varies wildly. The good ones are great. The poor one’s are meat. He has an inconsistent feel and release on his slider, which I think is horseshit. About 1 out of 4 have teeth. The others back up or hang. No Yak. Hanging sliders go a long way. His 3 pitches can, when thrown right, be effective. But they don’t come out of his hand consistently. When all 3 don’t break as intended, he gets too much of the zone and gets hit. Inconsistent shape and command. He lacks a change up. Yesterday, Roki was okay. His line was typical with 3 dingers and 99 pitches through 5. The Dodgers scoring 12 didn’t hurt. And as many point out, right now the Dodgers down’t have much choice. I don’t really know how his stuff played in Japan. It must have been special. It isn’t now. Maybe it’s inexperience. He’s only 24. Maybe he is learning to pitch in MLB instead of perfecting his pitch shapes and repeatability and perhaps adding a pitch – in AAA. He’s being forced to pitch in the Bog Leagues when he isn’t ready? Is he better in the bullpen? Perhaps he’s suffering from arm issues. I don’t know, but I do know he’s not as advertised. Not yet anyway. The Dodgers were out of challenges in the 3rd and fortunately we didn’t need them. I thought the “take” on the Challenge System by Joe and Smoltz was interesting. Both like the system. Both care more about the strategy and entertainment created by the Challenge System than getting all the pitches correct. Smoltz stated that full-time ABS would “negatively effect batting averages” Huh? Calling all strikes and balls correctly would drop batting averages? I don’t get that one. Maybe someone can explain that one to me. Davis said that ABS takes away the “subtlety” of baseball. Huh again?

I have been a fan of PCA. Forgetting last night’s adventure in CF, he is an elite defensive CF with tremendous speed. He is not a 30 HR guy. He is an immature 24 year old who was trying to endear himself to his Chicago base. How do you think Giants fans feel about Rushing after his immature comments directed at Jung Hoo Lee. I liked the spark, but I am a Dodgers fan. Logan Webb has made some nasty comments about the Dodgers. People have been saying things about LAD fans since they moved to LA. How many times have we heard “show up late and leave early”. Remember the car lights leading out of Dodger Stadium when Gibby walked it off in ’88. PCA deserves to be booed. And it is great that he struck out 4 times last night, and looked lost in CF. Funny thing about the cameras, is that the other fan bases also have their cameras out when the Dodgers come to their town. IMO the only POS playing today is Manny Machado.

RHSP Patrick Copen, LHSP Luke Fox, RHSP Christian Zazueta are my top three…today. LHSP Adam Serwinowski had a fantastic start last week. Let’s see if he can be consistent. I still believe he will produce. At Great Lakes, LHSP Sterling Patick has a chance to develop. None of them look to be top rotation guys. But they could be solid mid to late rotation starters. Some are already labeling Serwinowski as a late inning high leverage reliever. Fox and Zazueta look to be best options to join rotation. If Copen can harness his control, he could climb very quickly. I am not quitting on Wyatt Crowell, but he will probably find a home in the pen. I am in the process of my April summary, so I can give a more detailed answer.

PCA is not a POS. Geez guys. Let’s save such remarks for our siblings that made a face at us.

Christian Zazueta is legit. He is 21 and pitching well at Great Lakes. I do not like making such labels before they produce at AA. At 21, Jackson Ferris started at AA last year. Struggled early, but caught on 2nd half. He is struggling again at AAA to start the season. I think he will find his way.

Actually the Pirates need a new owner. Nutting and his father lead a group that paid $92M for the team in 1996. Over the next ten years the Nuttings increased their ownership and eventually bought out the remaining owners in 2006 for $9M and assumed a pile of debt. The team was valued at $1.6B in 2026. Bob Nutting bases the teams’ payroll on ticket and concession sales. Anytime the payroll is less than those sales he keeps the difference. Nutting keeps all local and national TV revenue. He, also, pockets the subsidies paid by large market teams. Recently, those revenues came in at over $200M for the year. So, not only is the return on the value of the team skyrocketed over $1.5 billion, he has probably has pocketed over another couple of billion during his 20+ year ownership. The payroll for this season for the Pirates is projected to be $107M which is 23rd in MLB. This is the same MO for the Oakland/ Sacramento/ Las Vegas owner as well as Tampa Bay and Miami. MLB and the players’ union should get this issue resolved during next years negotiations. Owners shouldn’t be allowed to purchase a team in order to provide them with a personal cash flow. Allow the team value to increase by providing a winning team. This is, also, great for the fans being they are footing the bill for everything. The Dodgers are a perfect example of the two approaches with the McCourts who ran the team into bankruptcy and Guggenheim who reinvest more onto the team than any previous ownership group in history. Frank McCourt got his ass bailed out by Guggenheim who paid $2.2 billion, assumed $600M in debt, and still gave old Frank a % of the parking lot revenue. Frank’s ex wife, Jamie, is still walking bowlegged from her settlement with Parking Lot Frank. Sorry for the rant on another team. But, it pisses me off for the Pittsburgh baseball fans who have been supportive in the past. They have a beautiful stadium (paid for by the city, not Nutting) and one of the brightest stars in MLB to build around. It’s time MLB have a talk with Nutting and the other owners who are not using the monies baseball fans provide them to maximize the player development and talent their fans deserve. Their are plenty of billionaires out there who would be better owners than a few of the current billionaire “penny pinchers” that aren’t helping to improve their teams and, therefore, MLB. Carry on.

Great Ardaya article on Sasaki adding a higher velocity splitter (with horizontal break) to forkball/FB arsenal. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7230696/2026/04/26/dodgers-roki-sasaki-splitter-mlb/?source=user_shared_article&unlocked_article_code=1.d1A.EHAg.FsbvjsJyekAw

I have never been impressed with PCA. Everyone was singing his praises at the All-Star Break last year when he had 25 HR in 401 PAs. He was hitting .265, but his OB% was .302, and his OPS was .847. Not bad! However, he has hit 7 HR’s since that. He had a .262 BA in the second half of 2025 with a .634 OPS. He’s even worse this year with a .235 BA and .605 OPS. The Cubs signed him to a 6-year/$115 million deal in the offseason. Alex Freeland is a better hitter than PCA, and to top it all off, he’s a POS, as AVF articulated!

Jeff, Has any future Dodger starting pitcher been productive this year? And who are you most high on? Besides Bruns!

Open mouth, insert foot, close mouth. He is a kid, he will learn, but he is also a talented player. He was just overmatched last night. I actually just realized last night that Kim has just one more year after this one on his contract.

Nice to see a little offense. Sasaki was better, and he got through five. I thought it was a mistake to send him back out for the sixth. But Dreyer and then Klein, kept the Cubbies off of the board. Max was under the weather, that is why he was pulled after his third at bat. Pages looked relieved after getting two hits. Teo looked even more relieved after his 2-run single. Ohtani still does not look right. He is hitting under .200 at Dodger Stadium, so is Tucker. Not only is Cora out of a job, but so are four of his coaches. Jason Varitek, who was the game planning coach, was reassigned. The Sox interim manager is Chad Tracy, former Dodger manager Jim Tracy’s son. Andy Ibanez DFAd by the A’s to make room for Rooker. Rams drafted two players from Alabama, and one each from Miami, Ohio State and Missouri. The kid QB they drafted from Alabama will learn a lot from Stafford.

Zazueta’s fastball was comped to Brian Woo’s by someone at BA. Watch him.