Chase Utley returned to Philadelphia yesterday and cracked the liberty bell in grand style belting a two run dinger followed by a grand slam en route to a 15-5 drubbing of the fightin phils. The Giants also lost 4-3 to the Pirates which propelled the Dodgers to First place in the NL West by a 1/2 game. The Dodgers are actually playing 500 ball on the road thanks to the victory.
For the first time since May 10th, the #Dodgers lead the #NLWest.
— AlaNNa Rizzo (@alannarizzo) August 17, 2016
So today the Giants will play the Pirates at 12 noon. So we will know if the Giants won or lost prior to the start of the Dodgers game. It’s been a long road to pass the free-falling Giants. The Dodgers need to keep the momentum going to avoid the wild card game.
So today against the Phillies it will be Scott Kazmir 9-6 4.44 ERA on the hill for Dodgers against Jake Thompson 1-1 8.68 ERA. The Dodgers have never faced Thompson so hopefully he won’t look like Cy Young today. We know how the Dodgers can make certain pitchers look unhittable.
Game Time – 4:05 PM – TV- SNLA
Dodgers and Phillies Lineup TBA
Jake Thompson is a rookie so the Dodgers have never faced him. I would expect the same lineup they had last night against Velasquez. We all know the Dodgers have has success against right handers. Here’s the scoop on Thompson from Baseball America:
Thompson owns two fastballs—a four-seamer in the 93-94 mph range and a two-seamer a tick lower than that—as well as a slider, curveball and a changeup. He likes to mix his fastballs at what he labels a roughly 50-50 clip, especially to keep lefthanded hitters from diving out on the plate to get to his four-seamer. His changeup is developing and the Phillies would like him to incorporate it more. He’s a big-bodied guy who needed to work on his conditioning in order to improve his stamina and he’s pitched at least six innings in 10 of his past 11 starts, topping 100 pitches in four of those starts. Here is the Link to find out info on Jake Thompson.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/expect-jake-thompson/#wzqZCB4elUeiWOe5.97
Scott Kazmir faced the Phillies last week at Dodger Stadium. Kazmir pitched well allowing two runs on four hits over six innings while striking out six and walking three. He was nonetheless tagged with a 6-2 loss. The two runs off Kazmir came in the 7th inning. So look for six innings from Kazmir. I’m expecting the Dodgers offense to take care of this game. Let’s go Pirates at 12 noon.
James Moya
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Dodgers in first place. I told you so Mark. You should have been a believer.
Bum I remember when the Dodgers were eight games back, writers were asking Roberts about the wild card.
And Roberts told the writers that Dodgers are not going after the wild card, they are going to be the national league west champions again.
And Roberts never wavered from his position.
4-0 SF 🙁
I think we’ll need our bats tonight with Kazmir on the mound. Hard to keep the ball in this park.
I saw tonite’s lineup and I am wondering why Reddick is in the #4 slot when Granny is #6 and Howie #8.
Since July 1st: Granny- .330 BA. Howie-.352 BA.
To me the hottest hitters should get the opportunity for more AB or am I wrong?
Richie
I have wondered that too.
But the way Howie is hitting in the eigtht position, maybe it is better to keep him there.
I don’t think Reddick should bat fourth, but Roberts is doing that for a reason.
I think that Reddick would hit better, down farther in the line up, because he is trying to hard to hit in runs, batting fourth.
They had a big article on him, in Dodgers Digest today.
And it showed that Reddick is swinging at more balls, out of the strike zone, then he did on the A’s.
And that is causing his walks to go down, and his strike outs, are going up.
Obviously Miller Huggins didn’t know how to make out a lineup. He should’ve batted Gehrig fifth, Lazzari eighth and put Joe Dugan in cleanup. Sad.
We were questioning the batting order position of Turner earlier in the year. Roberts said that Turner was having good a bats and that it was just a matter of time. Turns out that he was right. It could be argued, however, that Turner could have turned it around from another position in the batting order. I think that there is an argument both ways. 1) Make adjustments based on current performance (use the hottest hitter) or 2) Display confidence in a good player.
Reddick has been hitting the ball in bad luck which Vinnie points out a lot regarding Reddick. I don’t disagree with you Richie, and I guess it is a matter of style.
6-4 pirates
And three more outs to go 🙂
Mark is not taking my bait.
Yet
Gints lost. Yippee. Can we all get along and agree that is a good thing? Geez peeps can everyone just MELLOW OUT!!!!
Wow the crap that has gone around the last couple of days.
Everyone just take a deep breath and a chill pill.
Please!!!!!!!
This was posted in an older stream in response to dodgerpatch from yesterday:
In response to your previous post, there is actually such a thing as injury prone-ness. There may be a genetic component:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/02/the-genetics-of-being-injury-prone/385257/
The article notes a particular collagen gene may be involved but suggests that “However, because of the vast complexity of the human genome, it’s highly improbable that a single variant within a gene can determine a person’s genetic risk for a given soft-tissue injury. Researchers agree it’s much more likely that these injuries, like complex conditions such as obesity or type 2 diabetes, are influenced by multiple genes. ”
Another article cites studies that the way that certain athletes move may make them more prone to injury.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6211-why-some-athletes-are-injury-prone/
In any event, the stiffness of connective tissue can result in frequent and seemingly unrelated injuries. Check it out if you don’t believe me.
“If you’re rebutting my argument it would be more effective if it involved more than sarcasm.” I was rebutting your previous statement that we dummies just don’t understand that sports outcomes contain an element of randomness with sarcasm. I think that everyone hear understands that. NOT ONLY YOU.
“Players who are coming off a history of injury but who possess good fundamental metrics are often UNDERVALUED relative to their potential effectiveness.” Would you say that Anderson and McCarthy have performed as if they were undervalued relative to their effectiveness? I wouldn’t.
” You can use data and the most experiences scouts to evaluate a player to forecast their future performance, which gives you a statistical advantage when done well, and makes your educated guess a little more educated, but it doesn’t allow you to predict the future. ” Again, the Straw Man. I never said that data and experience allow you to “predict the future”; I said that the past was the best predictor of the future. Do you really want to disagree with that?
You cannot refute that injury prone players do not receive the kind of compensation and are not as desirable to teams looking to sign players than those who have been healthy. And you cannot refute that there is a good reason for that. And you cannot refute that the Braintrust has signed more of the infirm than most teams have. And you cannot refute that the reason for this is that they are less expensive. And you cannot refute that the experiment has not, generally, been successful.
You cannot refute that there is a reason that the David Prices of the world make more money than the Brandon McCarthys – they have had more successful careers and are generally healthy.
The Braintrust has made a decision to cut payroll and this has required them to hire someone other than the stars that you might think would populate the rotation of the Dodgers. From week to week, we don’t know what other team’s cast-offs will start – Kazmir, Hill, Wood, McCarthy, Anderson, Norris – none of these have had a stellar career. They have all had significant issues with health and/or effectiveness and all have found their way to the Dodgers, a team with “the highest payroll in baseball” as we are constantly reminded, as if this were an excuse for having a rotation of the old and infirm. Since Kershaw went down, Dodgers starters have averaged about 5 innings per game.
The Dodgers are 13th in the National League (out of 15 teams) with only 48 quality starts to date. (6 ip with 3 runs or less – not a high bar) And Kershaw has 14 of these, so the rest of the Dodger staff has 34 quality starts in 102 games. The Dodgers are 4th in team ERA, but non-Kershaw starters have an ERA of 4.46. This is no way to run a ballteam, but is what we have to expect given whom the Braintrust has signed to the Dodgers’ rotation.
I am one who predicted at the beginning of the season that the Dodgers’ rotation would be a problem for the team – yeah, I know, it’s all random and all of that – but my brain told me that the rotation would break down. It must gall you that many here could see that, since we are all too dumb to know about how random baseball is. Now that it has come to pass, how do you account for the predictions of those who made them?
By the way, this was intended to respond to your post from yesterday, not the post above – but learn what hearsay is. “The basic rule that testimony or documents which quote persons not in court are not admissible. Because the person who supposedly knew the facts is not in court to state his/her exact words, the trier of fact cannot judge the demeanor and credibility of the alleged first-hand witness, and the other party’s lawyer cannot cross-examine (ask questions of) him or her.”
Why is my comment being moderated?
Not sure Dodgerrick,
Sometimes the spam filter moderates comments it shouldn’t. Normally if there is a link in it. Ive pushed your comment out.
The homey from Turner is a relief. I was worried about his health and his swing.
Come September we need to give the vets some time off here and there, especially AGone, Grandal and Turner, and maybe Kendrick and Utley, though not all at once of course. I’m very ready for that AJ Ellis September surge.
YF
Remember when Mattingly gave all the regulars a day off, at the same time?
Yes, that’s why I said that. Not that I hope anyone in the organization reads that, but just to get it off my chest.
And if the staff ends up running a starter out there, when it’s obvious to everyone that he has a should injury … I don’t know I might just lose it.
OMG Dodgers do not blow this!
One thing that Roberts does that is lightyears better than Torre and Mattingly. Roberts really knows how to handle a bullpen over a long season.
YF
Roberts really learned to put the right pitcher in, for the right moment in the game, as the season went along.
I think that is because Roberts listens to the guys around him, like Honeycutt, and his bench coach.
He makes the final decision, but he is open to any good info he has around him, from people that he trusts.
I don’t think that Honeycutt felt comfortable giving Mattingly unsolicited info.
I could be wrong about that, but that is my feeling.
And I am only talking about the bullpen, and Roberts has done more, then just the bullpen.
Grant Dayton was fantastic once again. Really like him in our pen
We won the gints lost. That is wonderful. Does no one post unless they can get in someone’s face.
OK. Really????
Sad, but true.
I just got home. Had a funeral viewing from one of my VP’s father. Then dinner with the wife.
Great time at Louie’s Wine Dive
We won!
First Place!
OK here’s the deal: I have taken so much crap this year “FAZ is Horrible.” etc.
BUT, HERE WERE ARE IN FIRST PLACE. I lost some friends: The Truth Hurts left, Badger left and others because they told me I was a dumbass! The truth is: I was not the dumbass! I’m a big picture guy. I can wait for the story to play out.
Here is where I am at:
1. The Dodgers could win it all;
2. They could fade away!
But here we are and most thought we would never be where we are at!
I am all in.
Although you were ready to be a seller after Kershaw was hurt.
Mark
They didn’t leave because you were right.
Sometimes it is just the way you present yourself.
Even though some people here said that Badger was negative, he wasn’t really as negative as some believed.
He wanted the Dodgers to do well, even if he had concerns about the way the team was built in some areas.
He believed that the plan was for 2018.
He did think the front office would eventually stop acting like they are still at a small market team, once 2018 came.
Really Mark? Was that needed. Dude chill out. You have good knowledge and insight. Stop with the bombastic attitude. It’s baseball. Enthusiasm is great!!! But cool the Indiana jets .
Yeah, it was necessary!