Some Random Thoughts on the Passing Season

While sitting here in my recliner, remote in hand, watching the Dodgers-Red Sox, I have some random thoughts on the passing season (with apologies to Thomas Sowell):

•           First, and foremost, it is important for all of you to know that I have not made a single mistake in the past 5 – 10 years as to Dodger in-game decisions, lineups they should have used, and as to trades they should or should not have made.  Not wanting to boast, but it’s an amazing record if I have to say so myself.  Of course, every one of those decisions was made in hindsight and no one, except for me knew what I was thinking at the time the decisions were made in real-time.  It surprises me though, that the Dodgers do not appear to have any interest in utilizing my remarkable services.  

•           Despite all the claims that he calls all the shots, I have yet to see Andrew Friedman in the dugout during any games.   I also have not observed Dave Roberts being handed any notes during the games or taking any phone calls. 

•           Joc Pederson has been a frustrating player for me.  When drafted, I was very excited when he signed, foregoing a scholarship to USC.    His minor league performance just added to the thrill.   I thought he would be the second coming of Duke Snider, if not, at least Don Demeter.  He exhibited great bat to ball skills, could hit with power, and steal bases.   But alas, he has to date, fallen short of those expectations.    His performance and ability have been discussed on this blog endlessly.   Then came the Home-run Derby and my oh my what a performance he put on!   It was absolutely epic!! I was so proud of him representing the Dodgers.   On top of that watching Clayton Kershaw’s adorable daughter Cali, lead Team Pederson with chants of “Let’s go Joc!” was the best.  What a moment!   Then comes Friday and it’s back to reality, as Joc sits in the first two games against the Red Sox.   

•           The All-Star game reminded me of how nice it is to have a solid, dominant, reliever, on whom you can rely in the late innings.  Ardolis Chapman, warts and all, was absolutely lights out.   That said, I do believe the Dodgers will obtain a reliever or two in the next two weeks.   Will Smith seems like the obvious choice, but he is going to be in high demand and some team will overpay to get his services.  Felipe Vasquez seems to be the flavor of choice currently, but I just can’t envision a scenario whereby Pittsburgh trades him.      

•           What is to be done with Austin Barnes?   He looks lost at the plate and, from my view, seems to be pressing more and more.    Dave Roberts is on record saying that he is confident that Barnes can snap out of his current slump.    I like the thought of giving Will Smith the opportunity.   It becomes a simple question for me, who would I rather have hitting in the bottom of the 9th of game 7 in the WS, bases load and 2 outs?   Barnes?  Martin?   Smith?   Of course, I’ll give you my answer after it happens.    Hindsight you know.  

•           David Freese is a special kind of player.  His days as a full-time player are over.   However, in a part-time role, he has given the Dodgers a whole lot more than we could have ever expected.   I’m hoping he doesn’t collapse before season’s end.   

•           Kike is another player that I find frustrating.   At times he looks like a star in the making.  Albeit those times are few and far between.  Many have called for him to be traded.   If he is traded, who takes over Kike’s role as a multi-positional player?    I personally believe that Gavin Lux could give us better overall production at 2B.    I just don’t know if it’s this year or next.  

•           I’m not sure why we the Dodgers would want to move Seager off of shortstop.   He is very good there.   Sure, give him rest now and again, but keep him put otherwise.  

•           Justin Turner is getting older and it is showing some in his at-bats.   I hope he can muster up one more outstanding half to lead us to the WS.    When on, he makes a world of difference and makes everyone around him better. 

•           Do we really need another power-hitting right-hand bat to platoon with Joc in left field?   I’m not so sure that Nick Castellanos or Trey Mancini would provide a significant upgrade over what we already have.   Despite it being a small sample size, D.J. Peters’ performance in AAA is very encouraging.   As Vin would say, “his power is prodigious!”   Perhaps he can be an in-house answer as opposed to being trade bait.  

•           A Pollock/Verdugo center field rotation for the next several years makes me feel very comfortable. 

•           Bellinger is a great young player.   I think the best of him is yet to come.   That said, Cody has not won the MVP trophy yet.    As good as he is, I find myself not enjoying the “MVP” chants that rain down every time he comes to the plate.   Let’s wait towards the end of the season and see where he is then.   Moreover, if Bellinger doesn’t win the MVP, I’m absolutely okay with that.   I would be extremely happy with a .325 avg, 200 hits, 45 home runs; 125 RBI and 120 runs, and an OPS close to 1.100.   MVP or no, that’s a very good year

•           Same is true for the CY Young award.   Ryu hasn’t won it yet, and might not.   If he ends the season with a 17 – 5 record and a 2.10 era, who on this blog would not be happy that he chose to accept the qualifying offer?  

•           Same can be said for Walker Buehler.  If he finishes with a similar record as Ryu, with a 3.00 era, who here would not be ecstatic?   

•           Alex Verdugo will probably not win the Rookie of the Year award.   Once again, it doesn’t matter.   If he finishes with a .300 avg, 18 home runs; 75 RBI and 70 runs and produce a 5.0 to 6.0 WAR, I’ll gladly take him over the Pete Alonso, power notwithstanding, any day of the week. 

•           I don’t know when I have been as excited about the Dodger prospects as I have this year.  I was too young to pay attention during the Garvey, Cey, Valentine and Lopes years.  I was excited when the Dodgers had the Jacksonville Five (Martin, Billingsly, LaRoche, Guzman, and  Broxton).   Gone, for the time being, are the days that we would hope Jerry Sands and Blake DeWitt (and I mean them no disrespect, as they were good players), might turn out to be something special.   Lux, Smith, May, K. Ruiz, Peters, Gonsolin, White, Downs, Cartaya, Gray, A. Jackson, Amaya, Uceta, Ortiz, etc., and the newly drafted players are very fun to follow. 

•           I was very excited about the Dodgers draft this year and particularly liked the players they were able to sign on the last couple of days.   If AC, DC, or MT don’t beat me to it, my next post will be about the players signed and what we can reasonably expect from them as to their ceilings and floors so to speak. 

•           I don’t know about the rest of you folks, but I sincerely appreciate everything that Mark T., AC and DC do for this blog.   I read this blog every day.   My work keeps me from being able to comment each day.   Because of their efforts, and in like fashion the readers and those that comment regularly, I always learn something new and I’m constantly stimulated in thought by their posts.   Thank you, gentlemen, your efforts do not go unnoticed or unappreciated.    

I end this post with 3 random thoughts that I borrowed(and slightly altered) from Thomas Sowell,  one of my favorite all-time commentators:

•           One of the problems with being a pessimist is that you can never celebrate when you are proven right.  

•           The best New Year’s Resolution I ever made was to stop trying to reason with unreasonable people. That may be especially valuable during baseball trading season.  

•           The old are not really smarter than the young, in terms of sheer brainpower.   It is just that we have already made the kinds of mistakes that the young are about to make, and we have already suffered the consequences that the young are going to suffer if they disregard the record of the past.

2Demeter2’s Minor League Lowdown!

OKC had the day off .

Tulsa Drillers beat the NW Ark. Naturals:   9-2

Good offensive day for the Drillers as they pounded out 17 hits.   They were led in the hitting department by Drew Avens and Carlos Santana, who each had 3 hits.  Avens had 3 RBI and Santana chipped in with 2 RBI.   Cody Thomas, Errol Robinson, Jared Walker, and Logan Landon each had 2 hits.  The only extra-base hits were doubles by Avens and Santana.    Jordan Sheffield started and pitched 1 inning, allowing 1 run on 1 hit and 2 walks.   He also struck out 2.   Parker Curry followed and had a nice outing pitching 5 innings, allowing but a single run on 4 hits and 1 walk.  He struck out 4.   Ryan Moseley threw 2 nice scoreless innings, allowing 1 hit, 1 walk, and striking out 3.   Yordy Cabrera finished the night throwing a clean inning, striking out 1.  

RC Quakes lost to the Stockton Ports:   6-0

No offense for the Quakes yesterday, as they were only able to muster three hits, one each by Donovan Casey, Devin Mann and Deacon Liput.   Leo Crawford was the starting pitcher and he worked 5 innings, allowing 2 runs on 7 hits, 1 walk, and 8 strikeouts.   Bryan Warzek followed and had a forgetTable out, as he allowed 4 runs on 2 hits and 2 walks in 0.2 innings.   He was followed by Conner Strain and Darien Nunez, who each pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless ball.   Nunez registered 3 strikeouts.   

Great Lake Loons beat the Peoria Chiefs: 9-8 

Classic pitchers duel.   The offensive stars for the Loons was Leonel Valera, who went 3-3, with a home run, 2 RBI and 2 runs scored;  Hunter Feduccia walked 3 times, hit a home run and scored twice.  James Outman and Luke Heyer also homered, with Heyer chipping with 3 RBI and 2 runs scored.   Stephen Kolek started and had a rough night keeping the Chiefs off base.  He allowed 11 hits, 2 walks, and 6 runs in 4 innings.  He did strike out 6.   He was followed by Zach Willeman who pitched a solid, but wild 3.1 innings, allowing 1 run on 1 hit and 5 walks while striking 1.   Justin Hagenman got the save, pitching 1.2 innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits, no walks while striking out 2. 

Side story (forgive me if this was previously posted), but the other night, Jacob Amaya followed in his late grandfather, Frank Amaya’s, footsteps.  Amaya hit a 3‑run home run in Cedar Rapids while going 2‑4, with 3 RBI.  His grandpa, Frank Amaya, played for Cedar Rapids in 1957 which was a Brooklyn Dodgers affiliate at that time.   How cool is that?   Amaya’s grandfather, also a shortstop, was in the Brooklyn Dodgers organization starting in 1955.  He died the year before Amaya was drafted by the Dodgers. 

Ogden Raptors defeated the Missoula Osprey:   17-11

Another pitchers’ dual.    The Raptors jumped out to a quick 7-2 lead by the 3^rd inning, but held on for the victory.   The offensive star was Joe Vranesh who went 4-6, with 2 home runs, 5 rbi and 2 runs scored.   Justin Yurchak chipped in with his 8^th homerun and Sam McWilliams added his 7^th on the season.  Brandon Lewis and McWilliams had 3 hits apiece and Ryan Ward added 2 hits.   As you could imagine, not much pitching in this game, with only Corey Merrill and Reza Aleaziz having any success.   Merrill threw 1.2 scoreless innings in relief and Aleaziz pitched the final two innings allowing no runs, no hits, with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts.   The Raptors have won 12 of their last 19, have a 7 game winning streak and have outscored their opponents 82-29 during those 7 games.   The Raptors have an eight-game lead in their division, with 10 to play. 

AZL Mota Lost to the AZL Royals:   8-0

Kody Hoese and Alex DeJesus each had 2 hits, but that was pretty much it for the offense.  Julien Smith started and continued his struggles as he seeks to return from his arm injuries and surgery.  He pitched 2 innings, allowing 5 runs on 9 hits and 3 walKS.  2019 draftees Cyrillo Watson and Zack Plunkett each followed with scoreless innings, keeping their ERA’s at 0.00.  Plunkett, who played catcher in college, struck out 2 in his inning. 

AZL Lasorda lost to the AZL Mariners:   5-3

Edwin Mateo and Jorbit Vivas each had 2 hits, with one of Mateo’s hits being a double.  Michael Busch served as the DH and went hitless.  He has yet to register his first professional hit.  Carlos Duran started and allowed 4 runs on 8 hits in 3 innings.  He also walked 1 and had 3 strikeouts.  Let’s not be too harsh on the young man though, he is only 17 and this is his 1^st year in the USA. He is still 6’7″ and weighs 230.  He’s a big boy who has lots of projection.  Franklin De La Paz followed with a scoreless inning and Juan Morillo pitched the final 3.1 scoreless innings in relief, striking out 6.