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
Oh what a night,
Late ninth inning and Smith walks it off
What a moment what a night
Good night Mrs. Calabash wherever you are!!!
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.
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.
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.
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.