Tonight is the Biggest Game of the Year

Mark, I agree with you that Castellanos would be a good addition for any team, but where would you play him? You have three outfielders already signed for 2022 and JT is probably going to be the DH next year so you can’t put Casty there either.

He’s going to get a major contract so you can’t just sign him and say wait until 2023 and we’ll have room for you.

They’re saying AJ might be back in about 3 weeks but you can never tell with hamstring injuries. The player is often out longer than expected.

The problem this creates is that we have all kinds of potential replacements who bat left handed and don’t hit southpaws very well and the cupboard is bare with regard to a right handed hitting replacement.

The OKC roster isn’t of much help. Neuse is on the 60 day IL, Davidson is a corner infielder and the list goes on. I wonder if they would consider trying Souza again, although that would create the need to lop someone off the 40-man roster.

Maybe AF will use his magical talents to scoop someone off the waiver wire that none of us had ever considered. There must be another Muncy or Taylor out there who is just waiting to be discovered. Do your stuff Andrew!

The fact that Kike Hernandez is in the top 30 in WAR is yet ANOTHER example why WAR is a flawed stat.

I’m glad Mark touched on the fact that defense is overrated. Defense is also what makes WAR a flawed stat.

Don’t get me wrong, I do value defense, but I don’t value it first or over value it like some people do.

The best defense is a good offense. And baseball differs from all other sports because defense has control of the ball and pitchers attack batters.

It was a great win last night, knotting things up again for the top spot in the league. But, it came with a great cost. Let’s hope that AJ’s injury looks a lot worse than it actually was. With our luck this year, that scenario seems unlikely.

Not as unlikely as Puig coming home for a reunion. That’s just not going to happen. They aren’t going to move Betts off right field, and there’s probably no way Puig is going to be happy playing left field. He’s a square peg in a round hole. Sure, it would be a great story, but it is firmly grounded in fiction.

Defense vs. Offense? You have to have both. I still like the old school way of building a team with strong defense up the middle and power on the corners. If you can add defense to the corners without sacrificing power, you gain competitive advantage. If you can add power up the middle without sacrificing defense, the same is true.

Kike is an enigma and like Eric, I don’t put a lot of stock into defensive stats. The crazy thing about Kike’s defense is that DRS loves him, but UZR hates him. That’s a big red flag for me. He’s having a good year with the bat, but we’ve seen that before. He will regress as he’s done in the past.

As far as Nick Castellanos goes, that dude was always supposed to be a tremendous hitter and he’s gradually improved over time with the bat. Unfortunately, he hasn’t with the glove. He’s still a horrible outfielder with no range and he’s probably right at his peak at age 29 this year. Sorry, but I’m going to have to pass again. I’m not going to give him a 5 year deal and pay him for horrible defense and diminishing offense in those last couple of years. MT was pretty quiet about Casty last year when he OPS’d .784. He’s putting up big numbers in a small ballpark, that won’t translate to Chavez Ravine. Don’t believe me? Look at his home/road splits. He looks like he plays for the Rockies.

There’s no magic pill to replace Pollock. We aren’t going to pick up a waiver claim on a hitter as capable as he is. Our best bet is to just keep rolling out CT3 and Belli and hope they manage to break out of their slumps. It’s crazy to hear everyone so upset about Pollock when everyone is trading him away every offseason.

That WAR list is pretty crazy. Is Cedric Mullins the next Mookie Betts at 5’8″, he’s sure doing a great Mookie impression for the O’s. Carlos Correa is going to paid! I wonder how all those back injuries in recent years will affect him.

It doesn’t surprise me that Will Smith is the top catcher on that list.

With Bryan Reynolds and Ke’Bryan Hayes, the Pirates have a couple of stars to build around.

Throw in Jake Cronenworth in the Tommy Pham trade is looking like the heist of the century.

Bryce Harper is fifth in WAR. I guess for every Nick Castellanos, there’s a Bryce Harper. Don’t pat yourself on the back too hard. K-Bear so far with the Nats .150/.150/.150/.300, but a very small sample size for the 22 year old. We kept the right catcher.

Yoan Moncada is the guy the Dodgers passed on in order to blow their International Money load all over Yasiel Sierra and Company. You win some, you lose some.

Doc and company are handling Julio just right. At around 95 pitches, it was a good time to pull him. Keep him under 100 pitches each outing and keep him fresh. I’m not going to complain about Urias’ physique, he’s in great shape. Like Ryu once said, round is a shape.

I really wish Belli would pull his head out. A little less hitch and lot more swinging at strikes would go a long way. He looks like he’s pressing again. He needs to focus on the process, not on the results.

I love Seager and hope he comes back. There isn’t another shortstop in the league I would rather have. He’ll make an unbelievable third baseman in a few years when Eddys Leonard is ready to take over.

Bueller on the hill tonight with those shadows helping him out. I would say the win probability is pretty good.

Clayton Kershaw To Begin Rehab Assignment

By Darragh McDonald | September 5, 2021 at 8:11am CDT

Clayton Kershaw will begin a rehab assignment on Tuesday, per Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says the plan is for Kershaw to throw three innings for their Triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City. The star lefty has been out for more than 60 days, meaning he’s eligible to come off the 60-day IL at any time. Castillo also relays that another Dodgers starter, Tony Gonsolin, began a rehab assignment of his own yesterday. Both pitchers could potentially be activated soon if they don’t experience any setbacks.

If this all goes according to plan, it would be great news for the Dodgers and a rotation that has had to improvise for a lot of the season because of injuries. In addition to Kershaw and Gonsolin missing significant time, they lost Dustin May to Tommy John surgery. To cover for these losses, the club made the deadline additions of Max Scherzer and Danny Duffy, the latter of whom was also injured at the time and has yet to throw for his new team. They also signed Cole Hamels, only for him to suffer a season-ending injury before getting into a game.

Before going on the injured list, Kershaw was having another excellent season, throwing 106 1/3 innings with an ERA of 3.39 and excellent strikeout and walk rates of 30.1% and 4.5%, respectively. Gonsolin has also been effective when healthy this year, throwing 35 2/3 innings with a 2.78 ERA and solid 26.6% strikeout rate, although his walk rate of 16.5% is well above the 8.7% league average. Getting one or both of those hurlers back would be a tremendous help for a team that, despite the injuries, is locked into baseball’s tightest and most exciting pennant race, with the Dodgers and Giants sharing both the top spot in the NL West and the best record in baseball. (The Rays are also tied for the latter distinction.)

Kershaw’s return is also important for him personally as the 33-year-old is a few months away from reaching free agency for the first time in his career. Assuming he can stay healthy and pitch up to his usual standard, he’d be sure to receive and reject a qualifying offer at season’s end, before hitting the open market.

Great great win for our boys. I went to bed with the score 3-1 and surprisingly woke up to see 6-1. I just figured the Giants would make a late push and make it a very close game. I guess Trienen, and of all people, Graterol, had something else in mind.

Losing Pollock really hurts, not only because he is doing so well, but because he is RHB. I think the league knows, if you want to beat the Dodgers, pitch a lefty against them. Fortunately for us, Max and Seager hit lefties pretty well. Too bad Max doesn’t also play the OF. We could play Pujols at 1B and Max in LF if he did.

I guess the Giants do another bullpen game tonight seeing they have no rested starters. Them playing on Thursday while we rested really did benefit us. They had to use Logan Webb instead of using him to open up on Friday. Sorry….. But they do have a very good bullpen so we may see some of them go 2 innings instead of 1 inning tonight. Guys like Rogers, Leone, McGee, and Littell. Good luck with that SF….. Not really!

One last point….I know some of you here are excited seeing Cody hit the ball hard (for an out) and I can understand that- baby steps, right? But, without Pollock, I cringe at the thought of Cody batting against LHP. He is the closest thing to an automatic out when facing a lefty….a decent lefty for sure. It boggles my mind to know we don’t even have one RHB (outfielder) in the minors who can come up and at least platoon with Cody. Oh well…it is what it is. Go Blue…first place tomorrow morning looks good!

TM

I would guess there’s about 20 guys in the Dodger locker room that don’t want Puig back! Probably more of a chance that Mark would be our new closer. Even without a curve! A big Striker performance tonight would go a long way towards a Cy Young

Yasiel Puig is HATED (that may be an understatement) by many Dodger players and coaches. I know it for a fact!

If the Dodgers brought him back (and they would not even consider it), there might be a revolt.

You can believe what you want about Trevor Bauer, but nothing has been proven, except that he had rough sex with that woman. How rough is up for conjecture?

Some of you have acquitted him in your minds and some of you have convicted him. Both of you are mistaken. I learned Evidentiary Law from the best: Edward J. Imwinkelried, and what you may think is “evidence’ is not.

I have read that book at least 5 times… and to me, he bears a resemblance to Jeff Dominique. Edward is a handsome man, Jeff! 😉

TM wrote, “I think the league knows, if you want to beat the Dodgers, pitch a lefty against them.” I am certain that is a common thought because I keep reading it. But the facts say different. LAD has 40 games against LHP and 96 games against RHP. Against LHP, the Dodgers have a .650 winning percentage and against RHP they have a .625 winning percentage. So percentage wise, they have a better chance of victory against LHP. The Braves started two LHP against LAD and lost both games (Smyly and Fried). No team has a better winning percentage against LHP than do the Dodgers. No team is really that close. The next best team has a .622 winning percentage (White Sox). Against LHP, 18 teams have a winning percentage and 12 teams do not.

Fans can certainly justify their beliefs that the best way to beat LAD is to pitch a lefty, but the numbers do not bear that out. Small sample size? Perhaps. Maybe they just got lucky and only faced bad LHP.

Defense is important, it is not the only key to winning, but of course it is important. Isn’t defense the main reason you put Cody in the outfield? Mark makes that argument only because the Dodgers defense is not good. in tight games and with good opposing pitching you can avoid losing with good defense or losing with mediocre one

There is no reason to worry about an offence that has T. Turner, Seager, Betts, Muncy, J. Turner, and Smith.

A couple of notes. Former Dodger Henry Ramos, how many remember him? He has been called up by the Diamondbacks. He was raking at AAA hitting way over .300. Raley will not get the call. He is on the IL. Tanner Roarke was declared a free agent. Congrats to UCLA on their upset win over LSU.

With the minor league schedule going through September it makes me wonder if they challenge Leonard with one more promotion. It also seems strange to me that Cartaya has been shut down for the rest of the year. There has to be more to the story than the injury that was reported.

This afternoons lineup. Turner 2B, Muncy 1b, Betts RF, Turner 3B, Seager SS, Smith C, Taylor LF, Bellinger CF, Buehler, P. No roster moves announced yet.

The best way to beat the Dodgers is to throw off speed! Max has been especially flailing away the last week or so. Can’t blame Roberts for not putting out our best lineup today!

A couple of notes about Taylor. His next K will be number 150 for the season! In 129 games. He has struck out 43 times in his last 30 games. Over the last month he is hitting .228. He has struck out 11 times in the last 7 games. So gripe all you want about Bellinger, But Taylor and Muncy are slumping big time. Muncy has struck out 34 times in the last 30 games and is hitting .202. He has hit 8 HR’s over that time. He also drew 13 walks. Bellinger has struck out 30 times in the last 30 games. Hitting a paltry .190. He does have 4 homers. JT is hitting .225 over the last 30 with 20 K’s, That is 127 K’s in the last 30 games by some of your best hitters, except Cody of course. He has not been himself all year.

Some of you may recall a couple of years back that I was pulling hard for Henry Ramos to get called up by LAD. He has had some very productive MiLB campaigns (including with LAD), but has never made it to ML…until now. The DBacks have selected Ramos to be on the ML roster. I could not be happier for the young man. Below is the MLBTR article on his selection.

09/05/21 Los Angeles Dodgers recalled RHP Mitch White from Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.

09/05/21 Los Angeles Dodgers placed CF AJ Pollock on the 10-day injured list. Right hamstring strain.

Just found the perfect right handed hitting outfielder to replace AJ. Young kid named DJ Peters who plays for the Rangers. He’s hit two homers so far today and the game is only in the 5th inning.

Or, if we want another lefty hitting outfielder, there’s a guy named Tsutsugo who hit his 7th homer for the Pirates today in his 19th game with the team.

September 5, 2021

Danny Duffy (forearm) completed a bullpen session Sunday and is expected to throw another in the near future, Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reports.

Good piece in The Athletic by Fabian Ardaya about how close the Dodgers-Giants games have been this, often turning on a single play (or so it appears.)

Somehow I’d forgotten about Belli airmailing that throw from first to third. Certainly remember Kenley getting screwed on a “””check swing that wasn’t.

And Fabian didn’t even mention Trautman robbing Pujols of a HR… OK, that wasn’t really a great robbery–unlike Pollock’s recent Play of the Week–but Pujols just missed by inches.

And by the way, Trea Turner needs to make that throw. But wasn’t it possible to play Smith at 3rd and move JT to 1st?

Looks like Bobby Miller is being moved up to Tulsa.

I remember how impressive he was in a game that was televised from the alternate site last year.

Maybe we’ll see him next year, but if not, I would think 2023 for sure.

Actually, Tim, I never said Giants were ranked No. 3 in defense.

I quoted Charlie Steiner as making two interesting points:

–That the Giants’ pitching staff had allowed the fewest number of walks in the MLB.

–And that only two teams in the MLB have committed fewer errors.

As Charlie summed up, the Giants just don’t make as many mistakes as most teams. They are fundamentally sound. Total errors, like fielding %, don’t come close to quantifying defensive quality. Remember Sheldon Neuse failing to stretch for a throw on that force play at 2nd Base? (Roberts certainly does–and all but called him out in the postgame.) Neuse didn’t make an error–and frankly I thought the throw from SS (Taylor, I think) could have been firmer. At any rate, a bad play that wasn’t an error.

Fucking Bell!!!. Now, Dodgers have yo hit..that is a Big problem

Chris Taylor was the key batter there, and he totally failed.

It was predictable that Bellinger would strike out, and then the pitcher.