In breaking news tonight, the Dodgers Nation has three big reasons to celebrate. Three members of the team sit prominently among the top three leaders in three postseason awards categories.
Manager Dave Roberts has been named as a top three finalist in the running for NL Manager of the Year. The other finalists are Dusty Baker (Nationals) and Joe Maddon (Cubs).
Roberts did not have an easy rookie year managing the blue, as his team was beset by injuries to key players right out of Spring Training, and carrying throughout the season. He ended up bringing the Dodgers within two games of the NL pennant; a heck of an accomplishment.
His record for 2016 sits at 91W and 71L, a W/L percentage of .562.
Starting pitcher Kentas Maeda is among the top three Rookie of the Year candidates, along with fellow Dodger, Corey Seager and Trea Turner (Nationals). This is the first time that two Dodgers have been among the top three ROY finalists.
Maeda’s line for 2016:
STATS
| GP | GS | CG | SHO | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | W | L | P/GS | WHIP | BAA | ERA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 Regular Season | 32 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 175.2 | 150 | 72 | 68 | 20 | 50 | 179 | 16 | 11 | 91.6 | 1.14 | .229 | 3.48 |
| 2016 Postseason | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 10.2 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 68.3 | 1.78 | .273 | 6.75 |
| Career | 32 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 175.2 | 150 | 72 | 68 | 20 | 50 | 179 | 16 | 11 | 91.6 | 1.14 | .229 | 3.48 |
Last, and very far from least, Corey Seager finds himself among another elite group of players, the final three nominees for NL Most Valuable Player. The other two are Kris Bryant (Cubs) and Daniel Murphy (Nationals). Thanks to a tweet from Eric Stephan at TrueBlueLA, we learned no Dodgers rookie has finished among the top three since Joe Black, back in 1952. Fernando Valenzuela was the closest since Black, who hit 5th place.
Seager’s 2016 stats:
STATS
| GP | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | CS | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 Regular Season | 157 | 627 | 105 | 193 | 40 | 5 | 26 | 72 | 54 | 133 | 3 | 3 | .308 | .365 | .512 | .877 |
| 2016 Postseason | 11 | 44 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 0 | 0 | .205 | .255 | .364 | .619 |
While the Dodgers came up short of the World Series, it appears the baseball world will soon be honoring one or more members of the team in ways that will etch their names into the history books.
My predictions: Corey Seager for ROY and Dave Roberts for Manager of the Year. Bryant will probably take the NL MVP. While I doubt the boys in blue will sweep, two out of three aint bad.
Oscar Martinez
I was born in the shadow of Dodger Stadium and immediately drenched in Dodger Blue. Chavez Ravine is my baseball cathedral, Vin Scully was the golden voice of summer all my life, and Tommy Lasorda remains the greatest Dodgers manager ever. My favorite things are coffee, beer, and the Dodgers beating the Giants. I also blog about my baseball card hobby at All Trade Bait, All the Time.
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Bryant will win but I would vote for Murphy.
Hawkeye
I would take Murphy’s bat, and let him play second, just as long as he makes most of the routine plays at second.
Bryant will probably win.
I just hope the media doesn’t continue to favor the Cubs next year, now that they finally won there World Series.
The Cubs were lucky to win that last game, with some of the bad moves Maddon made.
Would anyone be all that surprised if Maddon won? Nate Silver at 538 has him at 62%. Ok, I made that up.
Bryant and Seager.
Badger
Maddon was manager of the year last year.
Roberts in his first year, with much less talent, took this team further, then Maddon took his team last year.
If Maddon wins, it is plainly east coast bias.
My predictions on this fine Election day……Maddon MOY, Seager ROY, Bryant POY. Trump in an upset. ‘Box’ turns into a crate and drops on the blog.
3 out of 4 ain’t bad Chili.
Or would that be 4 out of 5?
I wonder if the LADodgerBlather site has started up. We haven’t seen as much of the FAZ ingurgitates since the predictable, and notably predicted, Cubs thumped everybody in route to their expected World Series victory. Timmons surfaced with some hilarious insults this morning, but all of those guys have been conspicuously exiguous in here.
I think it’s a scenario where it’s either 5 for 5 or 3 for 5…… LOL. Well guess it could be 2 for 5 if Roberts wins out over Maddon.
Could I get a public vow from you right now to never go on Timmon’s site if and when he starts it?
I can’t speak for others, but I don’t read or contribute as much here simply because the season is over and there’s not as much to talk about, there haven’t been much in the way of new posts and I don’t want to sift through 250 comments – but also and more fundamentally because of posts like yours above. For you it has been this non-stop 12 year Quixotic journey of ego self-aggrandizement through snide condescension and this need to be right. It’s predictable because it never changes. It’s not very interesting because it’s mostly self-referential and doesn’t really add to the discussion.
I don’t particularly care what your predictions have been or whether they’ve been right. I care even less what your feelings are about Mark. Be the change you want to see.
Patch…..I think you are a decent guy. I respect your opinions and for the most part I am pretty sure you respect other people. I have only known Mark and Badger since I came on here. So I personally do not know their history. I do know that if someone says something Mark does not agree with or feels that it is somewhat stupid to think that way, he usually over reacts and feels the need to belittle. Now it might not seem that way, but that is how it is perceived. He got pretty belligerent with me not long after I started posting on here. Being the age I am and the fact that I have always spoken my mind, I reacted in such a way that a war of words started and got a little nasty. I stepped back and tried to look at it from his point of view and since I felt I needed to try to be a better person and not attack anymore, I quit arguing with him. That does not mean the guy is not infuriating sometimes. Badger and he have issues, that was very obvious. But a lot of people who come on here not armed with saber metric graphs and figures and not believing in the FAZ plan, found themselves being challenged as mental incompetents. You try and tell someone who had cheered and rooted and cried over this team for decades that their opinions have no credence, and that they are basically dolts, it does not sit well. He thinks my dislike of Grandal is asinine. I understand why, but my reasons are part of my moral makeup, and that is I do not like cheaters and care less when the act was committed. I do not want Braun, Grandal or anyone who used that crap playing for my team. But that is not my choice, it is up to the top dogs. Badger is absolutely right about one thing though. Since Mark more or less retired from posting on here, the tone has been a lot less confrontational. Myself, I try to respect everyone’s idea’s and opinions even though in some cases I think they are way too far out there. Some of the projected trades, including those Mark suggested in the last thread, are totally asinine.
For the record, I do not think your dislike of Grandal is asinine and I understand why you dislike him. I never liked Pete Rose, even before he was caught gambling, but I would never say he was not a great player. Your dislike of Grandal is not asinine – what would be asinine is denying he’s one of the best catchers in baseball.
I see your point. And I understand where you are coming from. But how either of us judges a player greatly differs. I do not recognize his so called pitch framing as an easily gauged skill. The average fan does not see that. The average fan looks at things he sees happening on the field. I see a low average with a lot of power and I instantly think Rob Deer. I do not think he is a great game caller aka Yadier Molina, nor do I think he is a good field general, a skill I think is essential in good catchers. But you and I have totally different perceptions. I also think he over swings a lot and is pretty prone to striking out in clutch situations, or grounding into rally killing DP’s. Something he has done a lot these last 2 years. Not to be prejudiced, A-Gone does that a lot too. But he is a far superior hitter than Grandal even with his diminished skills. So to answer your question, I do deny he is one of the best catchers in baseball because his skills are not up to the standards I feel the best need……..pitchers may like pitching to him, maybe he sets a great target……but I think he lacks a lot…..my opinion, not yours…..does not mean either of us is right. By the way, I loved Rose as a player, but what he did was wrong…
Chili
Do you think Maddon deserves the MOY more, or are you just predicting what you think will happen?
Just my prediction there MJ. It’s tough to say who deserves it over the other. I think Roberts did a great job with the team and the team over performed. But a case can be made with the expectations of the Cubs going into the season that ‘meeting’ those expectations is just as impressive of an accomplishment. 103 wins does not happen often and because of that I think Maddon gets MOY.
Chili
Maddon won last year, and they vote for these awards before the post season.
The Cubs were expected to win like that.
That team won those 103 games, more because Theo built a really good starting pitching rotation.
Don’t disagree. Like I said a case can be made for either of them but my gut says Maddon gets it. Trust me, I could be wrong.
Mark
I saw the article on Dodgers Digest that you refered to, and I thought the writers trade with the Tigers, sounded good.
But his trade for Braun, sounded like he was giving up to much, to get Braun.
Braun is not young and he has had injury problems, that has affected his hitting in the past.
The other thing with Braun, is that we would have to pick up four more years of Braun’s contract, and the yearly pay, is not that much less then Agone’s yearly pay.
As far as I’m concerned they are all more than welcome to post but I will say that the tone of the blog over the past few days has been much more pleasant. Disagreements are dealt in a respectful manner.
I do disagree with your assessment of Mark’s posting (at the end of the previous blog)…..as I didn’t take it (as a whole) as insulting. If he would keep that tone than most could accept his thoughts/comments. It’s the ‘backhanded’ remarks as well as the narcissism that needs to be checked at the door.
Chili
I could be wrong too, because I saw what Roberts had to deal with, and the writers don’t see that.
Pretty wrong there MJ. I have read more than one writer who said what Roberts had to overcome was tough to do. I think all of baseball was pretty surprised with the Dodgers getting as far as they did with the injuries and starting pitchers unable to go more than 5 innings most of the time. He will get a lot of votes, but sometimes winning it all is the swing vote.
Michael
I sure hope you are right about the writers, and I have heard that, but Michael, this is voted on before the post season, and like you just said, no one thought the Dodgers would even win the division, especially with Kershaw going out.
I think Roberts deserves this more then Maddon, who won this award last year.
But there was, and there still is, so much bias towards the Cubs.
And that is the only thing that gives me doubt.
There’s a reason it wasn’t as insulting and it’s very simple: I won’t insult you if you don’t insult me. It’s always been that way.
I like other points of view.
But sometimes it does get tiring when some give Faz credit for eveything good that happens.
There is an article in True Blue LA by Grant Brisbee, where he rates the free agents this year.
He does a pretty good job and uses his usual witty language in this article.
I thought it was a good read, and a fair rating of all of the free agents.
http://www.sbnation.com/2016/11/8/13473502/mlb-free-agent-rankings-2016-2017-offseason-rumors
Thanks Wondering!
I bet you will be up all night, waiting for the election results.
Thanks Wondering!
Brisbee is awesome.
Bluto
I thought he was very fair, and very entertaining.
Sure things…..Seager…ROY and Bryant…..MVP… MOY tossup, Roberts or Maddon..Maeda not a snowballs chance…….
Harper did little for the Nats this year. Many of Murphy’s offensive stats are better than Bryant’s. The Cubs won the division by about 20 games. I think they still win the division with or without Bryant. Remove Murphy and where are the Nats?
Perception is 9/10ths of the battle. The scribes think the Cubbies needed Bryant to be exactly what he was. Murphy over achieved, but will not get rewarded for a great year. He did carry the Nats, and almost took us out in the playoffs….
Hawkeye
They give Bryant credit for being able to play different positions well defensively too.
And Murphy is penalized for his defense.
I really don’t think those defensive metrics, are right on.
And how much does defense effect the game anymore with these shifts.
Understand why they traded Ruiz, especially at his age. Not sure why the got another LH reliever. This team over loaded with LHP.
Nunez is eligible for arbitration, $1.1MM predicted. Don’t be surprised if the Dodgers non-tender him. Then they can offer him a minor league contract for a lot less money. I’ve often thought some of these minor trades are “good will” offerings, if you wish. They don’t want the player so they “give” him to another club as a favor which may be returned someday. Like you giving an old bicycle to a neighbor or something…
Wondering
I think your right about that.
Nothing the FAZMASTER does surprises me any more.
Two games from the World Series, two measly games! Breaks the heart. Oh well. Hopefully DR can snag MOY. Seager is a given, IMHO, for ROY.
So do we have a 3B yet?
Nope….lots of candidates though….including Howie….
Michael, don’t believe that Timmons is gone, he quits at least a dozen times per year. His narcissism won’t allow him to not post, it’s impossible for him. He’s like the dogshit you get on your shoe, stinks – hard to get rid of – never pleasant to be around. In fact, he is reading all these posts on a daily basis, probably 4 or 5 times a day (just wait for his response to this and others’ comments about him, he’s pretty predictable). He ain’t gone, he is just living in his own myopic world. I really lost interest in this site when Timmons resurfaced in here. He’ll be back, he can’t help himself.
He already responded to what I posted so you nailed that one. I replied back and was very respectful.
“He’s like the dogshit you get on your shoe”.
🙂
Giants supposedly going to go after both Justin Turner and Jansen.
This board will be hilarious if even just one go North.
“if even just one go North”
Awkward grammar, should be “goes North”. I normally wouldn’t do this but you have corrected people here a couple of times and that is impolite. Can we call it even now and overlook others’ mistakes as they overlook ours?
You are right, sorry about that slip and thank you for alerting me to it.
I actually think grammar is important, even more important in discourse like what happens here. I don’t understand or think it to be insulting.
I do too, it’s one of the few things I’m halfway decent at. But many people didn’t pay as much attention as they should have in school. I ignore their little mistakes in the fond hope they will overlook some of my faults….
I see mistakes on here in grammar every day. But we cannot correct them all. I have many faults. And I am totally aware of all of them. Some things that others consider faults I believe are my strongest assets. But we all come from different back grounds and experiences. I did not realize how much an education was worth until I had been in the Army a couple of years. I had skated because I did not study all that much, but I had a really great memory which allowed me to retain much of what I heard and read. I first got my GED, because I quit HS to join, then I took the classes I needed to graduate and get an actual diploma from my last HS that I attended. When I found out how close I was to graduating, I really kicked myself. I was 1/2 credit short, and that was in US Government. Since then, every chance I have had I have taken courses to improve my knowledge. I also am a voracious reader.
What kind of books do you read, Michael? I have been a reader since I started school almost 70 years ago. I like Tom Clancey, W E B Griffin, Clive Cussler, Alex Berenson, Arthur C Clarke, Craig Johnson, Frederick Forsyth, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Nelson DeMille, Stephen Ambrose, Stephen Hunter, Tony Hillerman, Vince Flynn, and many others. Got into ebooks a couple of years ago, have about a thousand books from the above and other authors. I usually have two books at a time going on my computers; One on a laptop on the dining room table for meals, and another going on on my desktop, read awhile, Internet awhile, etc. Be glad to send you some books and you can download free ebook reader at IceCreamReader.com.
All kinds. I love history, and mystery’s. WEB Griffin is probably one of my all time favorites along with Clancy, Herman Wouk, and Leon Uris. I have started reading Bill O’Reily’s killing series. Have read Reagan, Kennedy, Lincoln and Patton. Just finished Legends and Lies, the Real West and almost done with its successor, The Patriots. I also just finished Killing the Rising Sun. Very good book. The movie Hacksaw Ridge is based on a real person who is prominently mentioned in the chapter on Okinawa. I am also into Biography’s. Usually the ones about people in history that I admire. Very critical when a book is made into a movie because most movies cannot tell in 2 hours what it takes 700 pages to explain. Some are easy, the Ian Fleming James Bond stuff, and some are hard. The Caine Mutiny comes to mind, and some need to be told in a miniseries like Lonesome Dove or Shogun. Best movie from a long novel that I can remember is Exodus. They did a great job on that one. Clancy’s novels have been good movies with the exception of Sum of All Fears, which was more to mis casting than a bad plot.
So how about it, want some books to try, maybe someone you haven’t read yet?
Bluto
In Brisbee’s piece he gave the same explanation that I feel the Dodgers have to sign Turner.
Turner’s contract isn’t going to be way out there, because of his age, and his injury history.
And there are probably some teams, that still wonder how long this former utility player will perform at this level, so there will still be some doubt with Turner.
Jansen more likely to leave than Turner, although I would not be surprised if both are gone which will force FAZ to probably expand his search and trade for a 3rd baseman too. Atlanta is also rumored to be hot on Turners trail. SF, and even Chicago rumored to be after Kenley….Texas might jump in there too. Boston is in on Sale if the Sox make him available. They have the farm system to pull the trigger on that too.
Michael
I saw Killing Lincoln on the Discovery or National Gio, and it was done really well.
It was the best film I have seen on this subject manner.
I think most here know the correct grammar.
It probably gets messed up when someone changes something they were going to say, and in there rewrite they don’t check it well enough.
Scott
There is something going wrong with my comments.
Scott
I think I figured it out.
There’s nothing wrong MJ, your comments got caught in the spam filter Sorry about that.
Thanks anyways Scott!
TRUMP WINS!!!!!!! not yet, but just want to see how many groan! LOL
Dewey loses!
They say they are looking to trade Howie.
He was the one that was frustraded with his lack of playing time, we heard about right before the post season.