No Dodgers baseball tonight? No worries, as LADR brings you yet even more Dodgers coverage and opinion to get you through the night.
In this issue of LADR on Youtube, we cover what Dave Roberts might have in store to keep the Dodgers frosty even though they have a double-digit lead on the NL West, we talk a bit about the Dave Roberts vs Don Mattingly debate that I wrote about earlier today, and I review Peach Berliner Weisse from The Dudes Brewing Co. out here in LA. Enjoy!
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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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There’s a few interesting articles floating in the blogosphere:
On Dodgersway there’s an article comparing Puig and Forsythe. And coincidentally there’s another article on Puig by Dustin Nosler via Dodgers Digest. While I like Nosler for the most part, I think his post (which suggests that Puig should pull more and hit for power) is a bit off base. I think Puig is not even at that level – he’s simply trying to internalize pitch recognition and anticipate better what pitches are coming on what counts – which means he’s gotta do some homework and it taken him years (and Ward) to get him to this point. His pulling pitches is a function of his better anticipation. He’s got raw bat speed and raw power, but I don’t think he’s got enough barrel control to manipulate where he’s going to hit the ball yet. But he’s improved a lot under the Ward – Roberts regime.
And Wilmer Font went another six innings while giving up 1 earned run. He’s now the leader in AAA with 160 strikeouts and a 1.06 WHIP. I think Cervanka and AC need to cover this guy more on their blog writeups since they tend to focus on minor league action.
5-38 has an article strictly on the Dodgers, believe it or not, and a couple on relief pitching. Using their metrics, Jansen is the best relief pitcher in the NL. But at the same time teams are not paying a premium (via trades) for relief pitching. Oh well.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/baseball-is-finally-realizing-that-the-save-is-dumb/
Good to see folks are finding value at 538
and I thought you were just a 420 fan, lol
Thanks Artie, both of the 538 articles are good reads. So based on their analysis, we have a 13.5% chance of 117 wins and Jansen is the undisputed best reliever on baseball (with Andrew Miller close behind). Both makes sense to me!
Oh well?
Isn’t that a good thing, given how the Dodgers are constructing their whole pitching staff.
It just sounds like a contradiction on their part, that’s all. Kenley is at the front of the class, yet what he does, i.e. close games, seems to now have “diminished value”.
I’ve been saying for years that games can be saved, or lost, in innings before the 9th. Nate Silver agrees. I think the GWAR stat is a good one.
If the middle of the order is coming up in the 8th, isn’t that where you want your best bullpen arm in the game?
I never understood the sacred cow 9th inning for “the closer” theory either. If you need a tough out bring in your bad ass from the pen. Fight fire with fire.
I also have never liked the idea of changing a pitcher who is mowing em down and suddenly jerk him because a righty batter comes up to face the lefty pitcher, or visa versa. If a guy is mauling the batters, let him continue mauling. Bad ass is bad ass, if a guy is totally having a bad ass night, let him keep rolling (sorry not that kind of rolling Badger).
It’s cool True. I’m an edible guy at this age.
The matchup thing is often overthought in my opinion. But I know they have data going back years on these guys so every matchup is calculated by computers. Today’s coaches and managers have pages of matchup information for every possibility in each game. Roberts might use a hunch now and then, but not often. He knows exactly what he will be doing in every inning before the game starts. Every player knows too. In the 8th, if this guy is pitching, then that guy is coming in to hit and vice versa. Managing by gut is only done by Michael. He’s a dinosaur. And I believe I’m older than him. We are both relics of the past. Ancient history. Old and in the way, that’s what I heard them say. They used to heed the words we said, but that was yesterday. Gold has turned to gray, and the youth has faded away, like old dogs gone astray, we’re just old and in the way.
Somebody already said that: Old soldiers fade away…
Baseball America has listed the best tools, in their eyes, for the PCL:
Verdugo and Oaks make an appearance. As does old friend, Frankie “Fastball” Montas!
http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2017-pacific-coast-league-best-tools/#qrTw7oo0rGR909eR.97
Just curious but does anybody look at Oscar’s videos? I haven’t yet, it generally takes an attractive and scantily clad female to get me to look…
I do. I like the beer reviews.
I don’t. Don’t care about beer reviews.
I watch sometimes but never one in its entirety, although I do skip ahead to the beer review.
So much for Grandal’s vacation…. Apparently he’s starting tonight…
There’s a 3 part post on an Arizona Diamondbacks blog, venomstrikes.com , on how to beat the Dodgers.
Their key is to get through the first 3 innings without giving up more than 1 run.
They also mention that since they will play the Cubs after the Dodgers, they have to win both series or risk losing their wildcard spot. They like the first two matchups, Godley vs Maeda and Greinke vs Wood.
I’m interested to see how Wood does as his velocity has been down. (But Wood says a mechanical tweak has gotten it back up and I read somewhere that his last bullpen was “nasty”).
Also I recall Bellinger is from AZ and this will be a homecoming or sorts. I think Bellinger will go off in this series and in the launching pad that’s Chase Field.
The DBacks got 3 relievers at the trade deadline. It’ll be interesting to see our new relievers vs their new ones (note: if I were them I’d probably not send up Fernando Rodney …).
venomstrikes is wrong. The Dodgers have come from behind fortyleven times this year. The key to beating the Dodgers is to score early and often against their starters and hope like hell they don’t blow your bullpen up.
Yeah, Bellinger is from Chandler.
Cleared waivers (eligible to be traded to any team):
OF Justin Upton (Tigers)
RHP Justin Verlander (Tigers)
1B Joey Votto (Reds)
1B Chris Davis (Orioles)
OF Bryce Harper (Nationals)
RHP A.J. Ramos (Mets)
INF Asdrubal Cabrera (Mets)
2B Neil Walker (Mets)
OF Yoenis Cespedes (Mets)
OF Jay Bruce (Mets)
OF Curtis Granderson (Mets)
RHP Felix Hernandez (Mariners)
SS Brandon Crawford (Giants)
Guys,
game thread is up
https://ladodgerreport.com/dodgers-end-road-trip-desert-snakes-maeda-counters-godley/