The Legend of Three Dingers (and One Very Sad Baseball)

Not panic at all. Just an observation that the kid is not making progress. He keeps putting the team behind the 8 ball. 6 plus ERA after three games. hasn’t made it out of the 5th inning in any of his starts. Forces the bullpen into the game early, and today, they were not up to the task. Whole staff with way too many walks today.

Thanks, Bear. The team is incredible. Virtually no holes. Best team I’ve ever rooted for. But watching him he just doesn’t have it [right now]. He’ll be facing a #7 hitter batting .180 and walk him on four pitches. He’s not even inconsistent because that would be a compliment. He’s not ready for prime time. If we’re developing, fine, but say that. He doesn’t currently present the team its best chance to win. I’d skip him next time through.

You’re the first person I’ve heard say their ex walks too many.

Worst doesn’t mean bad in this case.

You can take that any way you like. She walked with way too many.

Brian, my biggest concern with him is that he doesn’t look like he is confident in any of his pitches. He also does not attack the zone. He is trying to be too fine and hit the corners all the time. I do not think he trusts his stuff.

How else would you put it? Of his three starts, the Dodgers have lost two. Half of their losses came in games started by Roki. That is bad pitching. The win came against DC in the sweep and he pitched just five innings in that game and allowed 6 earned runs on 5 hits and 3 walks. 2 of the hits were homers. That is not awe or confidence inspiring pitching.

Fair. You get me. During this run we’ve rarely put guys out there we don’t trust. He’s approaching that territory.

One pitcher with stuff and command vs a pitcher with stuff and no command. Both deGrom and Sasaki throw 97-98 but deGrom’’s fastball seems much much quicker. Typical Sasaki scenario that drives me up a wall. In the third, two out, two strike count on Joc, who has embarrassed himself on off speed stuff and he throws him a fastball right down the middle.?It cost him a basehit, a run and 20 more pitches. Really frustrating!

1. I am guessing, but I think that 40% of the pitches Sasaki throws are “non-competitive,” meaning they are so far out of the zone that no one will swing. 2. That puts him at a huge disadvantage, because automatically, that gives the hitter a huge advantage. 3. Then, when he throws a strike, it’s right down Broadway. 4. Bear is right, he has no confidence. 5. For some reason, the Dodgers believe he should learn at the MLB level, but if he is that fragile mentally, is he going to do it? I do not see where they are going with this… but I have been wrong plenty of times. What I would do, is keep him in relief until he matures a little more. There’s no shame in that.

I like it. Attack attack attack. Put him in situations where he can just go after guys. I would take right now and leave the table a winner.

Not a good night for our young homegrown arms. Ferris and Rosario lit up in OKC as well as our big league young guys.

Sasaki was regularly at 100-102mph when he pitched in Japan. now he is averaging around 97 at max. That is a considerable loss of velo for a young man. With all his other problems , location/command/lack of movement on the heater , that is just too much to stay in the rotation IMHO. You can get away with 100mph + without much movement but not at 97 mph. At some point the Dodgers will have to put him out of the rotation or he alone will drive the bullpen into the ground by not providing enough innings.

The problem with stats: Klein gave up no runs but the two hits he gave up drove in two inherited runs. Not a good day but the ERA stat look good. Kinda like fake news.

Maybe it’s ethnic loyalty and I’m not being racist here, but a Korean hitting over .400 (and now hitting .300 on his return)gets sent down in flavor of a guy hitting 200 a in SD a Japanese pitcher gets to stay while stinking up the diamond under a half Japanese manager. Maybe management doesn’t want to piss off the huge Japanese following and the new field sponsors.

Great job Mark as always, Deduct one day’s pay from my check this week.

Fabian Ardaya @FabianArdaya Edwin Díaz said he isn’t dealing with anything physically. Felt during the outing Friday he didn’t have his usual life on his fastball, but said he’s had issues with early-season fastball velocity every season since injuring his knee in the 2023 WBC. Maddie Lee @maddie_m_lee Dave Roberts said he was staying away from closer Edwin Díaz tonight. “He was down today. … The velocity was down (Friday), so we’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”

For a number of reasons that game sucked. 2 runs with Sasaki on the mound. That’s pretty much a guaranteed L. I’m reviewing Sasaki’s stats at Savant this morning and what I see that I didn’t know is he actually has 4 pitches. Four seamer, 41% of the time, slider 30%, split finger (it’s a forkball, Hershiser is right on this one) 28%, and a “sinker” .4%. which according to the metrics he’s thrown once and he threw it for a strike. His accuracy is of course all over the map but it appears his slider is over the plate (though not necessarily in the strike zone) more often than the fastball and the split finger. I have no idea what’s wrong with him, apparently neither does the Dodgers staff, but two things seem apparent to me. 1, his stuff is plenty good enough and 2, he needs to throw that sinker, which is a two seamer and something I’ve been saying for weeks now, more often. I think they have to keep putting him out there every 6th day and hope he can give them 5.

I was in Scarsdale NY yesterday and just watched the replay of the game. Sasaki is maddening to watch and even though we lost, we did have ample chances to win the game.

During the post game interview, Roberts said he thought Sasaki is being to fine with his pitches.

Is it possible for a picture who was considered great throwing one type of baseball to never be able to get used to throwing a slightly different type of baseball? He was considered great throwing a slightly smaller baseball which was a fair amount tackier.

So Roberts thinks it’s a choice? I don’t. It looks to me like Sasaki trying to throw strikes and can’t. If it’s “too fine” then go out there and tell him to throw it down the middle. I bet he can’t do that either. A down the middle attempt might end up on the edges.

when Snell returns then one of Sasaki, Wrobleski, and Sheehan have to leave the rotation. If this is truly a meritocracy, I can’t see them running Sasaki out there every 6 days to lose or tax the bullpen. He simply doesn’t look ready to me. He consistently throws non-competitive pitches.

Totally agree. He is not aggressive enough. He nibbles. Reminds me a lot of what Maeda used to do when he was starting. They put him in the pen and he became more aggressive .

Geez, bring on the dancing bears. Yesterday’s loss was a circus. We haven’t had many but this one was just bad baseball in so many ways: 1. Let’s start with the 10 walks. How can a quality major league baseball pitching staff walk 10 guys? 2. Watching Sasaki pitch is like watching paint dry, 94 pitches and 5 walks in 4 innings is awful. And the frustration is he had 6 K’s. That forkball can be so devastating, but he’s all over the place. I’m still not convinced he has the arsenal right now to be a starting pitcher. If the Dodgers insist let him get better in AAA of send him to the bullpen. 3. Then Roki was followed up by the equally frustrating Henriguez. Another guy with a high ceiling who can’t find the plate. His errant throw to first was the capper. I know both these guys are young with great promise but work this stuff out at OKC. 4. ABS Challenge at work again. Rushing and Kim wasted our challenges by the 4th and we played the final 5 at the mercy of the HPU. Once again, this whole deal is a crowd pleaser but doesn’t address getting all the pitches called correctly. 5. Rushing refuses to block a breaking ball in the dirt. He attempts to glove the ball instead of blocking the ball. There were a couple of wild pitches that were costly and very easy blocks. While I’m at it his body language and demeanor suck. I really don’t like the loud F-Bombs after a strike out but he’s learned well from Muncy. And the shoulder slump, whipped dog look, walking back to the dugout doesn’t cut it for me. Man-Up show some fight and maturity. 6. Where was Call going on the checked swing by Pages in the 3rd, with 2 outs? Way to run yourself out of the inning. The announcer said that it was okay because you are running with 2 outs on a swing. Not really. 7. How about Freeman’s pop up that dropped between Seager and Jung in the 6th? 8. deGrom was great. And we weren’t