Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Dodgers Could Use a Hand Against Left Handers

Luis Avilan

We’re getting later into the season and the trade deadline fury will be upon us sooner than we think. The pitching market is already starting to develop and as you would have thought the Dodgers will likely be major players in such potential dealing. Don’t get me wrong here, the Dodgers have the best pitching staff in baseball. I still believe they need a starter more than a reliever, but they’ll probably be ok.

Of course as you well know by now the Dodgers have a bunch of injury riddled starters that are unable to stay healthy for long periods of time. The front office still feels they have enough starting rotation depth between Brandon McCarthy, Alex Wood, Rich Hill Kenta Maeda, Hyun-jin Ryu, and Julio Urias. They also have Ross Stripling as a potential spot starter even though he’s been fantastic as a swingman in the Dodger’s fantastic bullpen.

And fantastic the Dodger’s bullpen has certainly been. They rank third in MLB in ERA and are currently in the midst of a 21.2 scoreless innings streak. The bullpen has been dominating and it stands to reason if the Dodgers rally could use another reliever.

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But reportedly the Dodgers feel differently. They believe that they could use another reliever, preferably a left hander more than another starter. So the Dodgers are probably going to be shopping for another southpaw reliever for added bullpen depth.

It might actually make sense. As of right now Luis Avilan is still on the disabled list as is Grant Dayton. Right now Adam Liberatore is the only left handed hurler in the Dodger bullpen and he’s battled various injuries this season as well.

One potential target for the Dodgers is San Diego lefty Brad Hand. The 27-year old relieve is having a terrific season for the Padres. In 29.2 innings pitched he’s posted a 1.82 ERA and struck out 11.9 per nine innings pitched. Hand has limited left handed hitters to just a .133 batting average against.

Hand appeared in a MLB leading 82 games for the Padres last season and posted a 2.92 ERA in 89.1 innings pitched. He struck out 111 last year while walking 36. Hand primarily throws a heavy four-seamer, slider, and sinker. He would fit in pretty well with this current crop of Dodger relievers. Perhaps he can provide some effective eighth inning duties.

He’s signed through 2017 for the Padres and earning just 1.38 million dollars this season. Since he is a free agent next winter it seems unlikely the sad sack Padres would resign him. He’ll probably want a big payday. One would think that the Dodgers should be able to con the awful Padres into flipping him to Los Angeles. You know we have a guy named Scott Van Slyke who is super available!

It’s not like the Dodgers really need much help in this category. The Dodger bullpen is holding left handed hitters to a .245 batting average against and have posted a 3.56 ERA. They rank tied for seventh overall against left handers.

Let the trade speculations begin!

Scott Andes

Scott Andes: Longtime writer and Dodger fanatic

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Scott Andes
Scott Andes: Longtime writer and Dodger fanatic
https://ladodgerreport.com

23 thoughts on “Dodgers Could Use a Hand Against Left Handers

  1. Well that was UGLY! Maeda not looking like last time….there goes the winning streak.

    1. It’s the second inning. Yeah, they look like crap. Give them a few minutes to shake it off

      This ump is bad. He’s screwed both pitchers.

      1. I was trying to light a fire under the offense because Maeda is far from the guy he was last year. He goes 4 and the offense, lousy Cardinal pitching and defense bail him out again. We might win this one but little credit goes to Maeda.

          1. It worked didn’t it? (wink) I texted Joe and Orel and told them to relay a message to Roberts and he followed my advice……………..hmmmm

  2. Team looks really good, depth both at the plate, in the ‘pen and in the rotation. Read today that Buehler is under pretty significant innings limitation, so he may be shut down soon. Oaks had a good outing to boot.

    Schebler had a double today! .BA at 247, but more importantly his OPS is at .862

  3. Cards don’t look like all that to me. 83 wins max. 35% to make playoffs.

    Astros Dodgers lined up in the World Series. Who you got?

    Did you see Schebler’s web gem?

  4. Sure seems that Maeda muscled up and lost the whippit effect. Maybe he should go back to doing whatever it is he used to do. We don’t need him to be the marathon man he thought he needed to be, we have more depth than last year thanks to the rise of Woods. Even though the bullpen is doing great, I still miss Blanton

  5. I’m against trades in general, but I think FAZ is ok for churn-type trades. If we need another lefty I think we go to the scrap pile to get it and let Roberts and Honeycutt work their magic. After a year an a half, I like where our relievers and young pitchers are.

    I think for Maeda and the rest of our starting pitchers, pitching a tick slower is the key. I’m hopeful that they get better when September and October comes, and hopefully Grandal goes on a hot streak at precisely then.

  6. This team is doing great and recently they have been getting very timely hits. We are due for a regression. But I am loving this in May even if our BABIP with RISP comes back to earth. Because it builds a sense of being able to come back. We will hit a bad spot soon but the team effort and the coaching is there. The mindset is more important at this stage, and at some point we need to pace the team for a breakout in September and October. So far I think Roberts is doing that because he’s not burning 1-2 relievers like Mattingly and Torre would have done. (But I think we still need 1 more long reliever.)

    And Wacha should serve as a good reference point for prospects. He totally dominated a few years back. If Urias pitched like he did we’d have been in tgevWS. He will be a good pitcher but this game is really hard.

    1. Sorry – that was a bungled sentence. I meant that if Urias last year had pitched like Wacha did, we would have been in the #Covfefe World Series. (Sorry couldn’t resist …)

        1. It’s a new sabremetric stat. something like Total Games Evenly Valued World Series. Pretty soon, teams won’t actually play to win the World Series, stat geeks will just get together and create a probability chart to crown the champions.

          btw, I just made up that stat.

      1. There’s a name out of the past…….Javy Guerra is still trying to make it back. Cannot remember which team he signed with. Angel fans gearing up for Albert’s 600th. Might come tonight, who knows.

  7. If FAZ wants to trade for a solid righty bat I am ok with that, as long as it isn’t Batista, Braun, or some other over the hill way past 30 over paid player. Would not take much to get Batista, but he would be a train wreck in the OF. Braun is back on the DL, and according to reports there are no talks going on about him at all. They have enough RH bats as it is. They just need to hit. I read where the Dodgers have a couple of LH relievers on their radar, one of which is Tony Watson of the Pirates.

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