You Can t Win em All!

Sometimes being less predictable is working both sides of the plate. That can be on the catcher and game planning too. Game 5 of the WS is a perfect example.

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Yes, sometimes it’s starting the first pitch with a slider rather than a fastball. Clayton has been doing both of those things the last few years but what makes him strong is his pitch efficiency and getting a head of hitters

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I listened to him interviewed the other day and he addressed those issues. He’s never been one to accept his body of work as a finished product. He’s still looking to improve.

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Having said all of that, Clayton has three pitches and always has. It’s locating the fastball, his slider, and his curve ball. When all three are on he’s unbeatable. When the fastball and slider are on, he’s still going to win most of the time. When he’s had zero off speed stuff he’s in trouble.

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Unfortunately do to his success he’s held to a higher standard. He’s pitched well all season but every time he loses or has a bad inning it’s time to criticize him or belly-ache about his contract

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As Dodgers fans we would be lucky to have him in the Dodgers uniform for the rest of his career.

potential playoff roster:

starting pitchers: kershaw, buehler, hill, ryu [4]

swingmen: stripling, wood, maeda [3]

bullpen: jansen, alexander, floro, ferguson, baez/urias/axford/cingrani/garcia/hudson/fields [5]

infielders: machado, turner, muncy, dozier, utley [5]

outfielders: bellinger, kemp, joc, puig [4]

utility: keekay/taylor [2]

catchers: grandal/barnes [2]

longshots: verdugo, locastro, farmer

no chance: toles, gale

Bad take Mark.

In Clayton’s last 10 starts he has given up more than 2 Earned Runs one time. He also hasn’t pitched less than 6 innings in any of those starts. I think he is doing just fine.

I’ll take Kershaw over Wainwright 7 days of the week. If Kershaw got the strike zone Wainwright got he’d never lose.

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I too would have loved the sweep knowing Ryu has had a rough history against Colorado. However we would have all jumped at the Dodgers taking 3 of 4 from St Louis and the Rockies losing 2 of 3. The Cardinals have a tough schedule the rest of the way with the exception of their series with the Giants.

we got ourselves into this mess. it’s on us to get us out. winning 3 of 4 in STL was exactly what we needed. time to win 2 of 3 against the rockies. then we can really step on the gas. the pennant is right there for the taking. if we need to go through the wild card, so be it. it’s just one extra game. maybe 12 will be easier to get to than 11 😉

Tonight’s game is big, but for me this is a big series. So while I would not be happy with a loss tonight, right now I’m focused on winning the series, and of course hoping for a sweep that will put us up 2 games in the loss column. 2 of 3 just gets us even in the loss column. And let’s not forget that we lost the first game in the last series we had with the Rockies, and then went on to win the next 3.

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Before yesterday I wasn’t thinking about winning out for the rest of the season. I had a more modest hope, being that we would sweep both the Cards and the Rockies. But nobody ever said that this would be easy.

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104 mph is impressive, but I’ve seen nothing to tell me that Hicks is unhittable. And apparently Hicks has had some growth in his velocity since last year. I looked at the Baseball America Prospect Handbook for 2018, and they had Hicks in the upper 90’s last year, and occasionally hitting triple digits. I believe that they also mentioned that he didn’t perform very well in the AFL. I believe he was a 3rd round pick, so there must have been some growth in his physical maturity.