To Trade or Not to Trade That is the Question
Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune of losing Trevor Bauer, Dustin May, and Clayton KershawOr to take Arms against a Sea of troubles by trading prospects for Max Scherzer or some other ilk Yes, old Billy has nothing on me. I m a poet but don t know it, yet my feet are Longfellows. OK, I ll stop right there. I wear size 15
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune of losing Trevor Bauer, Dustin May, and Clayton Kershaw
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles by trading prospects for Max Scherzer or some other ilk…
Yes, old Billy has nothing on me. I’m a poet but don’t know it, yet my feet are Longfellows.
OK, I’ll stop right there. I wear size 15 shoes, but if not for my prehensile toes, they would be a Size 6. 😉
However, that is the question and some of it could be answered as soon as tonight if (as anticipated) JoJo Gray can step up and show out. It would seem to me that he should get the opportunity. JoJo has the tools to be a Top-of-the-Rotation Starter and sometimes guys like this take the league by storm and other times they get pounded. You never know.
Right about now, the Dodgers need a shot in the arm. Mookie was hot and then went down with a hip injury. It turns out it has been bothering him for a while. Corey Seager is due back at any time, but we can’t expect him to immediately hit like the World Series MVP. Cody Bellinger is struggling and experiencing some bad luck, but that’s what happens. Sometimes the baseball Gods just try you.
The Dodgers lost Dustin May, have had a plethora of injuries, will possibly lose Trevor Bauer for the season and Mookie Betts is a huge question. We don’t know what his hip injury is, but it seems serious. The fact is: Hip injuries do not fix themselves. I can’t speculate what is wrong, but I just know it ain’t good. I would guess he probably got an injection, which may help for a few weeks.
Corey Knebel is on his way back and it looks like early to mid-August for him (barring setbacks) and Clayton will be back then too, but are there just too many things to overcome? No, there is not, but do the Dodgers KNOW that? My favorite saying is this:
No Mountains Can be Moved… Until you KNOW Mountains Can be Moved
The only way for the Dodgers to overcome their injuries and overtake the Giants is to change their thinking. When you change your thinking, you change your destiny.
You may think I am going all metaphysical on you… and I am because it is true. There are times when the Dodger look lost and defeated. That was apparent last night. They were behind 3-0 in the first and then Muncy and Turner hit home runs in the bottom of the inning… and then they shut down! This is not on Andrew Friedman or Dave Roberts. This is on the Collective Soul of the team. Only they can fix it. It seems like they all hit or no one hits.
Gabe Kapler is a metaphysical guy and the Giants are confident. They are believers. They KNOW mountains can be moved. I don’t have problems with Dave Roberts lineups, use of the bullpen, and all of that. It’s all subjective. Everyone has an opinion and no one has all the data and info that Doc has. But Roberts is a guy who may not understand the metaphysical side of baseball and the impact that your thoughts… the teams’ Collective Thoughts have on the game. I would say that right about now, the Giants grasp that and embrace it, while the Dodgers do not! It is that simple… and yey so hard to achieve!
Dodger News & Notes
- Steven Souza, Jr. is still playing at OKC.
- Sheldon Noisy is playing a lot of shortstop for OKC. He is being groomed to take over for CT3, in case he leaves.
- Tut Tut is still hitting .182 at OKC.
- Matt Davidson has 14 HR at OKC.
- Kaybear is biding his time, knowing that he is WAY too good to be at AAA.
- Yasiel Sierra pitched his first “clean inning” last night at OKC (2 K’s).
- OKC was the only Dodger Farm Team that played last night. If you want to know whether they won or lost… Look it up!
- Quit sayng that Bellinger doen’t change his approach with two strikes. He did last night only to hit a liner to the LF’er. Pick a new mantra!
- Victor Gonzalez looked awful last night. I think I give him a pass based upon his body of work. Let’s see his next outing.
Am I the Only One?
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Discussion (197)
Disagree, not disagreeable
OKC trounced Reno 10-3. Ruiz, Tsutsugo, Neuse and Estevez all homered. Tsutsugo went 3-4 to raise his average to .207. The HR was his 6th. Ruiz had 3 hits adding a double and single to his line for the night. Neftali Feliz got the win, he pitched 1.2 innings with 1 walk and 3 K’s. Graterol had a clean inning striking out 2. Pazos gave up 1 run, and Quackenbush closed the game with a clean inning. Ramirez started and went 4.1 giving up 2 runs, walking 5 and striking out 3. He gave up only 2 hits.
Nice comeback and win. What is weird is the fact that I have seen all of Will Smith’s walk of HR’s. I was at Dodger Stadium when he hit his first, against the Phil’s in 2019. I was watching the Rockies series when he, Verdugo and Beaty all hit walk offs in a 3 game series, and then the one tonight. I think that even though he got tagged for 3 HR’s, I saw some good things out of Gray, and I think he will improve his next time out which would work out to Sunday against the Rockies. And the pen did their job, despite a few shaky moments and did not give up any more runs after Gray left. Taylor had a Mookie like game, and McKinstry made a huge defensive play when he was in RF. Beaty is no 3rd baseman, that is for sure, but with them carrying 14 pitchers, the bench is short. Early word is that Turner will most likely not play tomorrow, Muncy is day to day, and with his wife close to giving birth, I would not count on Max to be in there. So, guys like Reks, and Beaty, who for damn sure can hit, are going to have to step up, McKinstry too. Padres lost to Atlanta tonight to drop 4.5 back of LA. Dodgers have the same amount of wins as the Giants, and can be the first team to 60 with a win tomorrow. Congrats to the Bucks who came back from a 0-2 hole to beat Phoenix and win the NBA title. Chris Paul denied again.
That’s the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it! If adversity builds character, the Dodgers showed it tonight!
What’s the big difference between this year and last year: injuries, plain and simple. We need to keep gutting out wins, making the best of a bad situation with our battered and bruised line-up (no, that is not a reference to TB!). Then, when we are finally healthy, we make a run for it, and hope that the Midgets finally regress to the mean. I predict that we will win the division, but it will be close. Unless the injury Gods are truly against us, and we lose major pieces for the rest of the season, but that is the one thing we can’t control.
Regarding TB, I predict that we will never see him again in a Dodgers uniform. AF will get Max Scherzer for us, suspend TB for the rest of the season, then a long legal battle will ensue about his contract. I am agnostic about TB’s guilt or innocence, but his continued presence on the team would be a huge distraction.
So Will Smith comes to the rescue…. Whew.
But let’s review this game. Rough baptism for Josiah Gray…. Throwing Ks, giving up HRs.
But how about that Alex Wood? Too bad he hit Turner and Muncy, but he’s having a fine year for the Giants, sort of like that guy Jake McGee.
Where did the Giants find these guys? Why didn’t their last team pony up the $$?
Well, as it turned out, some of that money would represent just a small fraction of what was spent to sign Bauer, who may or may not come back this season, and will forever be taunted as a choke artist.. As I’ve mentioned often, I was against signing Bauer, but not because I anticipated something like this. Doc and the players might pretend like Bauer’s troubles really don’t matter that much, but it sure can’t help team chemistry. If he’d suffered a season-ending injury like May, they’d say, well, that’s baseball. But this? They talk among themselves, they wish they’d never signed him and then they go home and their wives and girlfriends ask questions.
Even the best case scenario for Bauer at this point is not a great one for the Dodgers.
Anyway, that’s one reason AF isn’t just looking at rentals. I hope he is considering quality SPs under contract for more years, like Castillo and Berrios. Come to think, Scherzer supposedly wants a longer deal to waive his no-trade. What would it take? Can they swing it without including Ruiz or a top pitcher?
And I still think another proven bat would help. One report suggest that the Giants are interested in Starling Castro. All-Star Adam Frazier is a Taylor type with less power–and he seems certain to be dealt. Right now, it seems we think Seager will return and again be Mr. October. No guarantee of that–and he, or another key player, could go down with injury.. Meanwhile, Belli struggles, and Lux, even when healthy, seems no better that the guys from OKC who showed they weren’t ready for prime time.
Speaking of Lux, I hope he’s rooting for McKinstry…even if it means that he loses his starting job.
Good night Mrs. Calabash wherever you are!!!
Oh what a night,
Late ninth inning and Smith walks it off
What a moment what a night
Power outage at Dodger stadium, Will Smith turns off the light.
Season saving comeback!!!!!!!
Finally a 9th inning walkoff for Dodgers! Now the sprint starts here!
Smith bomb for the win.
Beaty has been hitting the ball so hard lately he is so due. Everybody on your feet. We got it baby we got it baby we got it baby Smith walks it off how sweet it is
I love LA
For all you dreamers, take Bauer off your list. Even if MLB clears him he will never pitch for the Dodgers again. Can you picture the reaction if he takes the mound at Dodger Stadium! The Dodgers, their fans and the city of Los Angeles would, rightfully so, never stand for it. The history of this wonderful franchise is too valuable to jeopardize it for a yo-yo like him.
Go Dodgers!
The guy Taylor was talking to what’s his name
What a crying shame. I feel sorry for this kid although I was looking forward to his major league debut, it really shouldn’t of been in such a high leverage situation. Against the team that’s leading us in the division and a game we really needed to win
I think I’ve heard this song before. The opener will give up a run or two or three, then Gray will suck not being used to coming out of the bullpen.
The script pretty much wrote itself.
Remember that just a couple of weeks ago we swept a two game series against the Giants. Back away from the shotgun.
Josiah Gray doesn’t look so good.
That’s OK kid, if you can pitch three or four more innings and not give up a run you did great. We’re all pulling for you
Wood has never looked better!! The giant mediocre players hit homer homer homer.
Here we go again. Going to have to score a lot of runs to win with our current bullpen.
This year is just very frustrating!! The injuries have killed us. I don’t think we can win the division with the current team as is.
We need a starting rotation not a bullpen rotation. Current we have buhler, Urias, and price. U can’t really count Gonsolin as he is just an opener. Stretch him out blah blah. He has had plenty of time to stretch out. I really don’t think LA sends an injured pitcher out there but he has something wrong when your fastball drops 5 mph in the next inning. What frustrates me is no urgency!! Price could have been in the rotation some time back.AF response has been throw some more bullpen guys out there. Our bullpen is starting to show the stress.
Our offense is basically turner and Muncy with a streaky pollock and smith hot so smith sits. The giants are going to just start walking Muncy or he will start going out of the zone. We have got to give Bellinger going to have a chance. I don’t think u can count on Betts with his injury and who knows if Seager will even come back. If he does will he have enough time to get comfortable? Btw the giant ss who replaced Crawford got a big hit. We need somebody to do that but instead reks ks 3 times. We just don’t have enough quality depth we need our starters mlp to perform.
Our defense needs to play better but I don’t know if they can. Holding runners kills us but we seem helpless to do anything about it. Without our regulars and without our regulars performing we just are a good team but not a division champ. When and if kershaw comes back how many starts until he is ready? If Bauer comes back how long would that take? We need starters and productive starters.
It’s great to see a 0 on the scoreboard going into the bottom of the first. That has to be huge for the players too, not to be down this early in the game.
Maybe the Vegas oddsmakers knew something I didn’t know.
If there has ever been a day you haven’t done something stupid you aren’t a smart person.
So far I’m brilliant.
Anyone see the Lux reaction to the Muncy home run last night. They just showed it on the pregame show
Man that kids got some facial expressions
Wow!!! At the pool walking and come back to this crapola…
Badger, MT, consider they’re like obscene phone callers…. No responses will kill em…
P.S. Do you think Eric worked at Guantanamo??
It’s Time for Dodger Baseball…
Could someone please explain to me how and why Vegas has the Dodgers as the favorites tonight? I mean come on….be real….just look at the pitching match ups to start with. This is always huge, I think we can all agree.
Wood vs an assortment of unproven/questionable pitchers. This has to be considered a huge advantage for SF
Hitters: look at our last 4 guys…..is there anyone who scares you….or you think scares their pitchers? Now I know the first 5 guys can go off and that may be all we need, but here is the rub for me….SF probably scores as many runs against our bullpen as they did last night against……our bullpen. We have to face Alex Wood, 8-3, and who knows our team pretty well. Advantage again has to be SF
So again I ask….how are we the favorites? Home field maybe? Means nothing in this rivalry, in my opinion. Doc is the better manager? I can’t imagine anyone giving an “amen” to that one either. So why?
In conclusion: my “gut” is telling me tomorrow morning when I wake up to check on the score, I may not be smiling. I hope my gut is wrong, but most of the time my gut (which is connected to my brain) is spot on! Nevertheless….GO LA….JUST DO IT AND SHOCK THE WORLD….or at least my gut!