DODGERS ANNOUNCE SELECTIONS FROM SECOND DAY OF 2018 DRAFT

I have never been more disappointed in a game/team than I was last night with the OKC Dodgers. It wasn’t that they lost, it was how they lost. It started out great. Locastro led off with a big double into CF, followed by a hard hit ball by Toles snagged by the pitcher. Farmer hit the ball hard on a fly to RF allowing Locastro to tag and go to third. Verdugo walked and Taijeron hit it hard right to the CF. Okay no runs, but they hit the ball hard.

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Moscoso got out of the 1st inning with a walk, and nothing hit out of the infield. But then something flipped. I do not know if it is entitlement, but the team, with a few exceptions, principally Tim Locastro, Angelo Mora, and Matt Beaty, just gave up (??). I have lost a ton of respect for Alex Verdugo. I have never seen a player who comes across as arrogant and entitled than Verdugo. If he were traded, I would not lose one minute of sleep even if he won three batting titles. He is absolutely not a team player (at least last night). He was generally the last one out of the dugout to play defense, and half walks and half jogs to CF. Taijeron (RF) gets a ball from the bullpen to throw to Verdugo so Verdugo can play catch with Toles (LF). By waiting for Verdugo, neither Taijeron nor Toles were able to warm up much. In one inning, Verdugo was last out again, but this time went out to the bullpen (in right-center) and started talking with one of the players. Toles is waiting to play catch just standing around. When Verdugo did move to play catch, Taijeron flips Verdugo the ball, and he absolutely launches a throw well over the head of Toles. This continued most of the night.

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But it did not end there. After Verdugo walked, the next time up, he hit the ball hard that the 1B made a good play, but was unable to make a good throw to 1st and Verdugo was safe. I honestly do not remember how hard he ran down the line. But I did get an eyeful his next three AB’s. His 3rd AB he hit a ground ball to 2B and barely jogged down the line. His 4th AB, with runners on 1st and 3rd, he hit a dribbler out of the box about 20 feet up the 3rd base line but did not get out of the box quickly and the catcher made the play. Verdugo did turn it on the last 40-50 feet, but he may have beat it out had he gone hard out of the box (maybe not – but we will never know). On that same AB, he looked at two pitches, and was backing out with the 2nd pitch without calling time. After that, there was a walk to Taijeron, a HBP to Beaty to score a run, and then an infield single by Angelo Mora who absolutely hustled down the line to beat out the throw by the 2B and scored another to tie the game.

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In the 9th, on his last AB, Verdugo hit a two hopper to 2B but jogged out of the box, carrying his bat half way to 1B before tossing it to the dugout and was thrown out by 20 – 30 feet. With 2 outs, Taijeron got a big single to CF, followed by a walk to Beaty and Mora’s 4th hit on the night to score Taijeron. Edwin Rios PH for Michael Ahmed and hit an absolute pea that just went foul before striking out to end the game.

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Verdugo was not alone. Moscoso looked as if he did not want to be there. In the 4th inning with the bases full, Moscoso actually swung twice (surprise), and on a 3-2 count hit a ball to the 3B and did not get half way down the line with a jog, before he turned to go to the dugout. There was no thought that the 3B might throw the ball away, he just gave up. I recognize that he is the pitcher, but that does not excuse not running it out.

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In the 8th down 7-3, Paredes gave up a lead off single to Austin Slater. With Steven Duggar up, Paredes uncorks a WP over Farmer’s head, and Farmer casually jogs to the backstop, and Slater was almost half way to 3rd before Farmer got the ball. I would have liked to see Slater keep going forcing a play. The way OKC was playing, Farmer would have thrown the ball into LF.

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While I cannot blame it on poor attitude or indifference, JT Chargois looked absolutely horrible. OKC tied the game at 3 in top of the 7th, Chad Girodo got two quick strike outs, but then Ahmed booted a 3rd out ground ball, and Girodo followed that up with a walk. Now comes disaster. With runners on 1st and 2nd and 2 outs, JT Chargois is called in and proceeds to walk the next three batters. He threw 9 straight balls before he threw a strike. In 15 pitches, 3 were strikes. He wasn’t being pinched, he wasn’t close. Venditte is then called in and walks the 5th straight batter before he strikes out Eury Perez to end the inning. The River Cats “batted” around and scored three runs while hitting the ball once which Ahmed booted.

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Locastro had 2 big doubles, and Mora had 4 singles (two hustle infield singles). Matt Beaty went 1-3 but was on base 3 out of 5 PA. Kyle Garlick hustled to 2nd base a pop fly into right-center which was dropped. I do not know why Michael Ahmed was playing SS over Mora. There were two balls hit to him and he made an error on both. I have nothing negative at all to say about Toles. He hit the ball hard twice and did strike out three times, the last 2 looking. But he looked like he was ready to play and play hard.

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The biggest positive I got out of last night’s experience was Matt Beaty. The clubhouse is behind CF at River Cat Stadium, and as soon as Beaty came through the CF gate, he came to the 1st base fans and started signing autographs and taking pictures with the kids. He did this WILLINGLY and with a SMILE. He did this for 10+ minutes. After stretching and running, Toles came over and signed several as well. But those were the only two (that I saw). There was a large Dodger contingent on the 1st base side past the dugout.

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My wife grew up with a baseball junkie father, and then married a bigger baseball junkie husband. She raised a major league baseball player. So she has seen a ton of baseball games. Both she and I agree that this was the worst game/effort we have ever seen. Her comment over and over was…”they have just given up”. Our grandson played LL for the 1st time this year. He is more of a soccer player and runner than a baseball player, but our daughter grew up knowing how baseball is so important in our lives signed him up. The one point that I drove home every game was, I do not care how well you play, but you have to play hard and DO NOT DISRESPECT THE GAME. Last night’s game was a total antithesis of that, and we were glad he was not there to see this debacle.

James Outman is only west coast player drafted so far. His last name would be a good one if he were a pitcher. Maybe he will be a plus plus plus defender a la Kevin Kiermaier.

It will be interesting to see Ferguson tonight and Santana on Thursday. Hard to believe we are starting two rookies. I have a feeling Santana may pitch pretty well. He has one game under his belt and looked like the stage was not too big for him.

Stripling only goes 5 innings but pitched shutout ball, and the Dodgers win.

Ferguson tonight, let’s see how it goes.

Buehler, Stripling, Santana, Ferguson, and Wood, wouldn’t that be interesting?

Toles back in the lineup for OKC goes 1 for 5.

Gavin Lux has hit an HR in each of his last four games, he is now hitting .320.

Hudson is my guess.

Any speculation about who goes down when Ferguson is officially brought up tomorrow? Valera, Hudson?