The Best is Yet to Come!

Totally off the subject but watching last night’s game I thought the home plate umpire was outstanding. I didn’t see him miss one ball or strike call. His name is Nick Lentz. A breath of fresh umpiring air–tip ‘o the hat to you Mr. Lentz.

Did anyone else notice or am I seeing things?

Thanks for feedback but the point of upgrading LF is to not rely on AJ so much. Weaponize him as a bench/spot starter.

It’s thinking outside the box. Maybe too far!

Something else is going on with Santana! I didn’t realize Burns was even on the 40 man roster!

DODGERS SELECT ANDY BURNS

DODGERS OPTION RHP MITCH WHITE, DFA RHP DENNIS SANTANA

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers selected infielder Andy Burns from Triple-A Oklahoma City and optioned right-handed pitcher Mitch White. Additionally, the Dodgers designated right-handed pitcher Dennis Santana for assignment.

Burns, 30, appeared in 30 games for the Oklahoma City, batting .330 (32-for-97) with 11 doubles, five homers and 20 RBI. In parts of eight minor league seasons, he is a career .268 (754-for-2811) hitter with 79 homers and 366 RBI. He played in 10 MLB games in 2016 with the Toronto Blue Jays, going 0-for-6 with two runs scored. He was originally drafted by the Blue Jays in the 11th round of the 2011 First Year Player Draft out of the University of Arizona.

White, 25, pitched two scoreless innings last night. The right-hander has appeared in 11 games for the Dodgers, posting a 0-0 record with a 3.29 ERA (5 ER/13.2 IP). The former second rounder out of Santa Clara University is 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA (6 ER/16.2 IP) in 13 career MLB games. In five minor league seasons with the Dodgers, he is a combined 14-15 with a 3.98 ERA and 316 strikeouts in 78 games (67 starts).

Santana, 25, appeared in 16 games for the Dodgers in 2021, posting a 6.00 ERA (10 ER/15.0 IP) and eight strikeouts. He had been with the Dodgers parts of four seasons, going a combined 2-2 with a 6.42 ERA (29 ER/40.2 IP) and 36 strikeouts. The San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic born right-hander was originally signed by the Dodgers as an international free agent in March of 2013.

The problem with moving Smith is where? He might become a decent 3rd baseman, but Turner has at least another year and an option. Right now there is no spot for Ruiz. Much as I would love to see him play up in LA. Not sure they would move Lux. McKinstry still needs to crank his game up. He will be starting in RF tonight with Mookie moving to CF.

Mark, whose dissing Ruiz? He’s a star in the making. Having a great year at OKC. His power has arrived and he has incredible bat to ball skills. And I think I read where he transformed his body this off season. So he wants it. If we’re healthy I don’t see a place for him this year but next year he’ll get a shot.

The BP does need to be improved, but if it can get and stay healthy then the Dodgers should be in good shape. Same with the offense. I think I read here that the opening day starting lineup has not played together since. Now we see Bellinger and Muncy have some issues that we hope are short term. With a completely healthy team there’s no other team in baseball that can match our talent and experience. And, that’s with an average BP.

Lux has had somewhat of a rocky few weeks. I hope they give him until at least the half way mark to decide his fate for the remainder of the season. His defense has been good. For a first full season he projects out to about 17-20 HR’s and 80-90 RBI’s which isn’t so horrible. SO rate is about 25%. Of course, he has to improve with hitting LHP. I don’t think he needs to be platooned exclusively right now. He definitely needs to work on having better success with LHP during the offseason. I believe he will be a plus all around player with more experience.

There has been discussion here on MLB’s handling of substance use on the baseball. Yesterday philjones mentioned a Steve Stone had an idea I should be considered. phil, also, had his thoughts on the matter. His idea of having a rougher cover is a good idea. With the rougher cover the resistance when a ball is hit would need to be compensated for. Maybe, go with the 2020 ball with a slightly rougher cover. One of the pitcher’s bullshit excuses for using illegal substances is for a better grip so as not to hit the batter. Well, HBP is up this year and I thought that’s what the bag of rosin was used for.

I think MLB should shelve enforcement this year and let the player’s union know that it will enforced in 2022. I know the last thing baseball needs is for a game to be stopped for a ten minute strip search. I think the tracking of spin rates can be used as a red flag (after getting a baseline for each pitcher per S Stone). If the high spin rate continues then let a team and pitcher know that MLB is seeing an uptick in spin rate. If an illegal substance is found after the warning then a penalty should be applied. The penalties for illegal drugs and supplements are pretty severe and appear to have curb their use. I ‘m sure that there are some instances where the player does ingest band substances innocently because of incorrect labeling or being sloppy and not checking the ingredients thoroughly. But, the policy doesn’t allow for any excuses and was agreed upon by the players and MLB. Test positive and you’re suspended. With this issue I believe that the penalties should be similar. It’s a decision that a player can make without any question as to it’s intent or consequences. Either you enforce the rule or change the rule. The pitcher will have access to a rosin bag (the same one for both sides) which will give the pitchers the comfort to know that the hitter will be protected from being hit with a thrown ball. LOL. Example of penalties might be: 1st time – 50 games, 2nd time – 100 games, 3rd time – 162 games. The fourth time – you just don’t get it and are too dumb to be a MLB player…lifetime. And the team should get the max fine, which I think is $5 million per occurrence. After all it’s cheating (Astros’s fine). It’s so exhausting having to hear about the constant attempts by players to cheat the rules. That’s why Boob Manfred made a huge mistake in his decision not to suspend or band any of the players involved with the Astros cheating. Where’s the repercussions for breaking the rules? Thanks to the most incompetent commissioner in the history of sports there were none.

Wow, I look up and it’s June 12th already. Maybe a little early to talk about the trade deadline, but I’m sure the early action is just around the corner.

Full time left fielder you say? AJ Pollock led the team in homers last year and was our best hitter against lefties. Sure, you might be able to find someone marginally better against righties, but he’s probably not going to be a lefty killer if you relegate him to the small side of a platoon. If that were the case, they would have kept Joc. AJ is the Rodney Dangerfield of the team, he don’t get no respect.

Remember, Seager’s still on the IL. When he comes back, Lux is back at second and CT3 is going to need to get some playing time. It sure looks like Muncy is gearing up to play some second base against lefties with Albert at first. CT3 is going to have to spell AJ in LF a couple of times a week and spell JT at 3B. There’s barely enough ABs to go around without trying to replace a really good player.

The Dodgers offense is very good, in case you haven’t noticed. The only team with more runs scored is the cheaters and they get to use a DH and a trash can. And we’ve done that with half of our team on the IL for most of the year.

If you’re going to spend money and prospects at the break, you might as well get more pitching.

Joe and Orel were discussing the rising number of injuries this season. The Giants have 15 players on the IL. Joe also noted that soft tissue injuries are up 100%. That is alarming as is the number of players needing TJ surgery. We can only hope this is a hiccup caused by not playing a full season last year, and not really enough time to get in shape for some players. Seager is ahead of schedule and should start a rehab stint in the minors really soon. I see him back by July 1st.

The depth we have in young catching is scary good. And we have some very good young pitching depth. But other positional depth is lacking. To me Busch seems to be the only guy coming up that has any star potential. Maybe Vargas

Whomever does the minor league report forgot to mention Cameron Gibbens (I’m high on him) from Great Lakes Loons who pitched a scoreless inning while striking out 2. He now has a 15.2 K/9 rate, 0.00 ERA, 1.13 WHIP at Great Lakes. Overall this year his stats are 0.57 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 32 strikeouts in 15.2 innings.

He’s only in high A ball, but I like what I see.

Prediction: we trade for a full-time LF at the break and move AJ to the bench for PH/spot-start role. Or straight platoon.

Yes, the Dodgers absolutely destroy journeyman right handed pitching. Today they’ll face Cy Young again, so that most likely means a day off for Muncy and possibly Belli as well. Lefties hitters injured the night before against a lefty on the hill today = day off. Hopefully, these injuries aren’t serious and they’ll be back out there on Sunday.

With all these muscle pulls, it seems like they aren’t hydrating. Maybe they should hire Adam Sandler to be their water boy.

If you haven’t noticed, Fat Albert right now has a higher OPS with the Dodgers than his highest mark at season’s end for his entire Angels career. That’s gotta hurt. 5 Bombs in fifty something ABs is incredible considering his age and lack of mobility. Maybe finally having a chance to earn another ring has rejuvenated him.

Gavin Lux, for all intents and purposes is a kid. Let him mature and he will reward us. He has more RBI and more HR than Verdugo who plays in a hitters ballpark. And he’s two years younger and has done it with less ABs and much less big league experience. Have you noticed Verdugo’s splits this year?

Man, the injury bug keep biting. I’m not happy about Belli and Muncy coming off the field. What the hell is going on?

The Padres are two games behind us and 3.5 behind the Giants. Most of their lineup is still intact. I wonder if their fans are complaining as much as we were just a few days ago.

I’m hoping Bauer will step up and keep us close against Cy Young with two of our best hitters out of the lineup. Yes, Belli is one of our best hitters, I don’t care about what his stats say after just 62 ABs.

WTF? Rangel has missed three straight games now.

Saw comments about the bullpen after the game yesterday. It’s funny how small sample size is a thing when our reliever is doing well, but not a thing when our reliever is doing poorly?

Pujols is the Man! He crushed that homer. Belli and Max pulled, but it is better to be safe than sorry. Belli said it was only a cramp when he came out of the game. But we will see. Bauer pitching tonight. Sight of the game was the look on Joe West’s face when Yang uncorked that pitch to the backstop, priceless.

I was surprised when the Dodgers signed Albert, but increasingly he does seem like the perfect fit–in no small measure because Muncy can slide over to 2B and Lux can sit against lefties.

But mostly he is a great fit because he is Albert By God Pujols, the most accomplished major leaguer in the game today–and no one is even close. On the Angels, this legend became a creaky old guy who was standing in the way of Ohtani at DH and Walsh at 1B, and occupying space that belonged to role players like Ward. He no longer fit. He knew it and it couldn’t have felt good…. But on the champion Dodgers, he’s still a reliable, dangerous bat against lefties and a guy who even MVP caliber players like Kershaw, Mookie and Belli look up to. (I really do wish I could complain that Albert is blocking Peters, or Raley, or Neuse, or Ravelo… But nope. Albert’s still got more game.)

That’s good news. The bad news is that, yeah, he really isn’t needed if Lux starts proving he isn’t just the infield version of Joc. And that would be great, because Albert will be getting the rocking chair at some point.

Loving the updates from the farm, especially regarding Cartaya and Miller. I wonder if Miguel Vargas’s record hitting streak at Great Lakes continued. He’s only 21, but some seamheads rate him ahead of Hoese at 3rd.

Will Texas keep Bret de Geus (with his 8.14 ERA), or return him to the Dodgers? They will keep him. They’re a bad team and have nothing to lose holding on to him.