You know I don’t want to beat a dead horse, especially when things seem to be ticking upwards for the Dodgers. Sunday’s series finale between the Dodgers and Padres at Petco Park was rained out. That’s fine since the Dodgers already won the series by winning the first two games, and the game will be played as part of a double-header in September.
It also gives the Dodgers an extra day to figure out what to do about their starting rotation. Clayton Kershaw who was originally scheduled to pitch on Sunday was moved up a day because Brandon McCarthy figured he wanted to look like Ronnie or the Situation from Jersey shore and tweaked his shoulder in the weight room. He was supposed to pitch on Saturday and we’re still not sure if he can pitch today or not. I’m sure we’ll know in a few hours.
So who pitches tonight if McCarthy can’t go as the Dodgers return home for a three game series against the Pirates? It can’t be Kershaw obviously as he just pitched on Saturday night. It’s a shame that he can’t pitch every game for the Dodgers. It can’t be Kenta Maeda since he pitched on Friday night. I suppose it could be Julio Urias who pitched last Wednesday against the Giants. It could be Alex Wood, who is unable to get past the fourth inning. Wood has pitched well, but never gives the Dodgers innings. Normally the Dodgers just give the ball to him these days when they need a spot start.
It would be nice to know who was starting every day instead of guessing and playing rotation roulette. The way you do that is by acquiring durable healthy starting pitchers. No more injury riddled arms that make you guess when they can actually take the mound.
For the Dodgers two more injury riddled arms are close to making comebacks. Hyun-jin Ryu is near returning from a sore hip. He’s been primarily terrible this season, and who knows how many innings he can give the Dodgers in his brittle state. Blister boy Rich Hill is the other starter getting close to returning as he continues his rehab assignments.
For the record I think McCarthy will probably take the mound tonight against the Bucs. Which is probably bad since McCarthy is 1-2 with a 5.66 ERA in 5 career starts against the Pirates. Look at these numbers, because they’re not good. The Pirates are hitting .355 against McCarthy with 5 walks. Wood is 1-2 with an ERA of 3.00 in 5 starts against the Bucs. Wood would probably be the better choice despite the lack of innings.
McCarthy vs. Pirates
| Name | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Andrew McCutchen | 12 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | .400 | .500 | .500 | 1.000 |
| Jordy Mercer | 6 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .400 | .500 | .600 | 1.100 |
| Gregory Polanco | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | .250 | .400 | .250 | .650 |
| Francisco Cervelli | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .333 | .333 | .333 | .667 |
| Gerrit Cole | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Juan Nicasio | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .333 | .333 | .667 |
| Chris Stewart | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 |
| Philip Gosselin | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| John Jaso | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | |||
| Total | 36 | 31 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 7 | .355 | .444 | .419 | .864 |
The Bucs are countering with right handed youngster Trevor Williams making just his second MLB start. Williams is 1-1 this year with an ERA of 5.40 in 6 games and is coming out of the bullpen to start because Jameson Taillon has an injured groin. Williams is 25 years old and has never faced the Dodgers. Of course that means he’s probably going to throw a shutout. Somebody tell Brandon to take it easy on the weights.
Wood is pitching the first game, Urias the 2nd and Maeda the 3rd.
Giants have the perfect farm team for Yamani Grandal to play on, the Richmond Flying Squirrels of the eastern league, a AA team…the blind squirrel would fit in perfectly.
Flying blind squirrels don’t find nuts, Michael!
Well he still fits……
This is why you have roster depth, so you don’t have to pitch people when they are not in optimal condition.
Major kudos to Scott for an unprecedented amount of snark in today’s post.
What depth? All they did was skip his turn. And that was after a rain out. Better said, not my definition of depth.
Roberts said something last week along the lines of the Dodgers will be shuffling pitchers at every opportunity to give spread the workload across all the pitchers.
Grrrr. Can’s find it, but I found this which is along the same train track:
“… to expect these guys to go out there and each throw 200 innings, it’s not realistic.”
Dodgerpatch jinxed McCarthy on the last thread. I think we see Oaks in August. It’s a matter of time before Ryu, Maeda, Hill and even Woods spend more time on the DL. I also think Dayton rushed back because he doesn’t look right.
Fangraphs has a nice article on the death of sinkers. I tend to agree as teams value velocity more and more and hitters hit with more uppercut swings. Personally I love the sinker and sinker ball pitchers do very well at Chavez Ravine. And they tend to be durable (Brett Andersen aside). I’d love for Dodgers to get more sinker ballers into our rotation after 2018. (Don’t look now but Yadier Alvarez is not having a good year and his star is fading fast.)
Dodgers Digest also has a nice article on Puig hitting into GIDPs despite hitting grounders at 97 mph exit velocity. His fly ball rate is up a little but line drive rate way down. I like his approach however and it’s obvious he’s working on his swing.
Let’s hold our horses with proclaiming a 19 year old’s star fading after a month!
Sheeeeesh. I’ve seen people on this board continue to pine over Montas/Holmes and Cotton even with their imperfect starts. They will hopefully turn out to be great, so too will Alvarez.
To make us feel better? Through May 7, Dodgers pitching leads the NL in WHIP, K/BB, K/9, K%, ERA, ERA+, FIP and WAR.
We will see. There is always a fair amount of spin and secrecy when it comes to prospects. Alvarez is dealing with personal and maturity issues, not physical issues. It’s also better for kids to work through their issues early and we will see what Alvarez is made of over the next two years.
YF
Five of his eleven double plays, were that velocity, but a lot of players hit the ball hard into a shift.
The biggest problem is that his line drive rate, is lower then before.
Hopefully Puig will start hitting the ball, to the right side of the field more.
I hope so too MJ. Puig is an excellent RF. But if he doesn’t cut it, we’ve got Verdugo after 2018. Okoyea Dickson may also be ready.
Okoye Dickson is older than Puig. Verdugo is 20, and has very little power. Neither of them have Puig’s fielding skills. They definitely do not have Puig’s arm. Puig is working with the hitting coach every day.
Video of Buehler with Rancho C.