Who are these guys anyway?

The Dodgers end April with a 16-11 record which is merely “OK”. The fact that they had a 13-2 start followed by a 3-9 stretch is what really bothers everyone. Fans are upset, but I guarantee you that the players are really pissed! During that 12 game stretch, the Dodgers are averaging 3.25 runs per game, after putting up an average of 5.8 runs a game in that 13-2 stretch! Clearly, you can bad mouth the bullpen all you want, especially if you are trying to obfuscate the fact that you are not going to win many games when you average 3.25 runs a game! The converse is also true. You are not going to lose many games when you score 5.8 runs a game!

Today, we turn the page on April and start a new month. The Dodgers have a clean slate. They are 16-11 and just about everyone would take that record, especially with knowing the following:

• That Cody Bellinger would only appear in 4 games;
• That Mookie Betts would hit .250 with 2 HR and 5 RBI;
• That super-utility man Zach McKinstry would spend half the month on the DL;
• That Justin Turner would be the only position player to exceed expectations;
• That David Price, the Bazooka, and Corey Knebel would be on the DL a substantial amount of the month; and
• That Joe Kelly had shoulder surgery in November to have a massive cyst removed from his shoulder (more about that later).

The State of the Bullpen

Overall, the Dodgers pitching is very good. Their ERA continues to be top 4 at 2.98 and they still lead in WHIP at 1.06. The starters are #5 in ERA and #1 in WHIP, while the relievers have dropped to #25 with a 3.70 ERA. Some of you don’t like to use ERA, but ERA currently says the Dodgers do not have a good bullpen. They are also #25 in WHIP, so both metrics declare the same result!

There are only three outcomes for this bullpen:

1. They will get worse;
2. They will get better; or
3. They will stay the same.

Two out of three of those options are not good, but there substantial is reason for hope. Jimmy Nelson is back and looked very good even if Angel Hernandez pinched him on what should have been a strikeout. He just sucked it up and got out of the inning. Looking at Jimmy Nelson’s career numbers means nothing as he has been a starter, not a reliever. His stuff looks very good and his velocity is up to 95+. Tony Gonsolin is ramping back up and it sounds like he could be a week to ten days away.

Mitch White is turning some heads and will continue to be an option in the bullpen. He now has 6.2 IP in MLB with a 0.75 ERA. I think he stiff plays well at this level. Victor Gonzalez now has 28.1 IP under his belt witha 1.59 ERA and 0.95 WHIP. There’s a lot to like there, and Scott Alexander is a use piece with a 2.53 ERA and is a ground-ball machine. He is perfect for middle innings.

Blake Treinen continues to be solidly spectacular at times to above average at others, but it is pretty much the same as last year. His 3.18 ERA belies his 1.68 WHIP. That needs to improve! That brings me to Kenley Jansen, who has a 2.61 ERA and 1.06 WHIP. He has allowed 3 hits in 10.1 IP which is outstanding, and his 13 K’s are fine, but his 8 walks will not work. He has to cut down those walks and if he does, he can be very, very effective. On the back of his uniform, it should read: Handle With Care! Do not use him in extra innings and on back-to-back days. If he walks a batter, I would take him out of the game because that runner is getting to 2B with quickness. Can the Dodgers win with a closer that has to be handled so delicately? Yes, but it will be hard until some of the injured players comes back.

Remember that maybe, possibly, pretty please with sugar on it, Brandon Morrow could be in the mix. We have no idea how long David Price, the Bazooka, Corey Knebel, and Tommy Kahnle will be out or even if they will be a factor this season. That’s reality. The odds say that maybe one or two of those five guys could be role players, but we simply don’t know. It’s a wing and a prayer.

Dennis Santana and Garrett Cleavinger have shown a lot of promise recently, so with the best starting staff in baseball, the bullpen looks like this today:

1. Cleavinger
2. Alexander
3. Gonzalez
4. Nelson
5. White
6. Treinen
7. Jansen
8. Uceta (very short leash)

There is plenty to hope for and I expect to see growth from Nelson, White, Cleavinger and Gonzalez. But help is on the way in the form of Tony Gonsolin (maybe by next weekend) and maybe Machine Gun Kelly. Yes, I have called him that before, but now we find out that he had an excuse for his ineptitude!

Why did the Dodgers not Disclose Joe Kelly’s Injury?

I think I know the answer. All of Joe Kelly’s teammates love him. He is a guy you would go to war with… and he does not make excuses. Joe Kelly did not want to use his surgery as an excuse, but the fact of the matter is that the cyst has likely been a factor since he arrived in LA. It has evidently been growing in his shoulder until it became “massive.” In the offseason, doctors ultimately ended up putting in metal clamps on Kelly’s labrum in order to decompress the cysts. They also removed loose bodies from the rotator cuff. This was reported on Dodgers.com:

“My shoulder hasn’t been good since the end of 2019,” Kelly told WEEI. “After the thing with the Astros, my arm was super weak. If I was laying on a table I couldn’t lift my arm past gravity. They asked me how long it was going on for and I told them forever. I couldn’t sleep at night and it felt like fire ants were eating my arm from the inside out.”

The future of Joe Kelly this season may be bright:

“Joe is doing everything we’ve asked trying to get him back,” Roberts said. “He went back to back, he’ll throw an inning on Sunday and the command, the velocity, the breaking ball, changeup, all of that is there. Then soreness after outings is dissipating so he’s bouncing back. Hopefully, second week of May we’d love to have him back.”

So, maybe it turns out that all of Joe Kelly’s problems were caused by this cyst. Certainly, it was a factor and now we know why he kept throwing curveballs and stayed away from the fastball. How can you even try and pitch when it feels like “ants were eating my arm from the inside out?”

Quite often, things that don’t kill you, make you stronger. Could it be that Pop Gun Kelly comes back as Machine Gun Kelly and fulfills the promise Andrew Friedman had when he signed him to a three-year deal? It would be a nice story for a really great guy! I am not holding my breath, but the path is there… Maybe it was Hanley who injured Joe’s arm when he did this:

I have a feeling a mammoth breakout is coming. It is always the darkest right before the dawn.