The Dodgers acquired Hyun-jin Ryu back in 2013 and he’s always been a solid pitcher. The Korean southpaw was highly respected in his native country and the old administration saw the value in him. The Dodgers signed him and paid him a little over 3 million dollars in his first campaign. The move immediately paid dividends for the Dodgers as Ryu posted a 3.00 ERA and a 14-8 record while striking out 154 over 192 innings pitched in his first season as a Dodger. The next year Ryu posted similar numbers but threw just 152 frames.
Over the next two years injuries derailed Ryu’s career significantly and he didn’t get back on the mound consistently until 2017. He was good that year and then posted a 1.97 ERA over 82.1 innings in 2018 before a severely torn groin cut his season short. Ryu has always been a good pitcher but he’s never been a great pitcher, well until now.
Before the 2019 season the Dodgers extended a 17.9 million dollar qualifying offer to Ryu, which he happily accepted. It made sense for both sides. Ryu has always loved pitching for the Dodgers and the Dodgers have loved Ryu’s pitching. But there were concerns about Ryu’s health. Would Ryu hold up over a full season? Would he prove that he was worth the 17.9 million dollars that the Dodgers gave him this past winter?
So far he’s earned that and then some. The 32-year old is having a career year this season and I think it’s very possible if he keeps it up, remains healthy that he could win the National League Cy Young award. He already is the best pitcher in the National League right now.
The Dodgers defeated the Arizona Dbacks 9-0 on Tuesday night and Ryu tossed another seven scoreless innings. He may have only struck out two but he didn’t walk anyone, allowed only three hits and induced 17 ground ball outs during the Dodger’s pounding of the snakes.
Apparently Ryu discovered a higher release point sometime last year and it’s helping him dominate opposing hitters. He’s exhibiting impeccable control and poise on the mound like we’ve never seen before. As of right now, Ryu has a 9-1 record and a MLB leading 1.35 ERA. He’s allowed just 12 earned runs this year across 80 innings. That included a complete game four-hit shutout over the Braves back on May 7. Take a look at his pitching lines this season.
Ryu has not allowed more than two earned runs in any of his starts so far this year. His peripherals are incredible. He’s struck out 71 and walked only 5 all season. Coming into Tuesday’s game he was allowing just 6.7 hits per nine and was striking out 8.5 per nine. This also includes an unbelievable 13.8 strikeout to walk ratio. He has a Whip of 0.8 and he’s limited opposing hitters to a miniscule .083 batting average against with runners in scoring position. He has a 1.01 ERA at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodger’s starting pitching has been fantastic in 2019 and Ryu is a big part of that. Right now Ryu isn’t just the ace of the Dodger staff, he’s the best pitcher in baseball. If things continue going so well for him than he could very well take home the Cy Young award at the end of the season. Wouldn’t that be cool?
Dodger’s New Ace Hyun-jin Ryu Could Win The National League Cy Young
if Ryu continues to do what he has been doing you could replace COULD with WOULD and maybe the award should be changed to the Hyun-jin Ryu Award. In the politically correct world of the MLB, they might just push for that. Replace evil white man Cy Young with a Korean man, the MLB must be considering it. If Ryu was a Korean woman it would be a slam dunk.
No I’m not a racist, just an observer of trends in society.
Peace and love,
Evil White Man
NICE! More incomprehsible trash from TrueBlue?
What exactly do you find politically correct about MLB? Mike Trout winning the MVP year-on-year? Maybe Christian Yelich winning it last year? Blake Snell winning the Cy Young? Or maybe it was Jacob DeGrom winning the Cy Young.
Oh, I have it. It was Snitker and Melvin winning Coach of the YEar!
Cynical, much? Sheesh, it’s baseball.
Let’s be honest, Hyun Jin Ryu had been a major disappointment with all his injuries. The last two years, however, he has emerged as the top pitcher in the NL, and maybe even in MLB altogether.
Tough to fill the shoes of Kershaw, but his rebirth has come at the most opportune time, when the Dodgers needed a pitcher to step up and carry the torch. He took the qualifying offer last year, because he still had something to prove in Los Angeles. I think he may gave even felt he owed it to the Dodger Fans.
His total command of all his pitches, and all quadrants of the strike zone make it really tough opposing batters. Very difficult to anticipate what he will throw, and where in the strike zone it will be. He very rarely gets behind in the count, evident with his amazing strikeout-to-walk ratio. Only 5 walks so far this season. Let’s not forget the remarkable 1.35 ERA. He has the uncanny ability to work his way out of trouble. He rarely panics.
A sure bet to make the All-Stars, and should be in the running to start the baseball classic.
I hope he stays healthy. The 31 year old, Chubby Cherub does not look athletic, but he has shown that looks can deceive. He hustles on defense, can hit, and also sacrifice.
Hyun Jin Ryu will be the key to Dodgers’ success in the post season.
True Blue….?really?
Yup, really
Little early in the game to be talking end of the season awards, but even ESPN and MLB have had these discussions. I believe Ryu has opened a few eyes, but he was always a very good pitcher when healthy anyway. Not this good, but good. IF, and that’s the qualifying word here, he stays healthy the entire season, gets this kind of support the rest of the way, and has no issues, he is pretty much a lock to win the award. Right now he is the best in the game, not just the best in the league. He is doing it by mixing his pitches and being so much like Maddux as to draw comparisons to him from a lot of sources. Makes sense since Maddux was an advisor in the Dodgers system for a while. Cody cooling off a little, but still maintain balance in his game. Kid has mad skills.
Michael, of course as far as the PS will be concerned, no BP, no deep PS run or WS appearance . It’s that simple, but maybe not. Another key will be if Dodgers can somehow get a bit more production from the RHB, because if not, it certainly will be exposed. As far as Ryu goes, hopefully Dodgers can retain him after this year but we all know that won’t be that easy to do and why? 2 words….Scott Boras.
Here is something else to ponder, and that is since we are seeing our starters going deep into games now, (7, sometimes 8 innings) actually all 5 are doing so, why not eliminate 1 BP arm and replace it with another position player. Any thoughts about that?
Well, you can look at both sides, Paul.
Keeping too many arms in the pen, gives DR too many options to make wrong decisions.
On the other hand, the starters are steamrolling now, but they cannot expect that to continue. You have to have enough reliable arms in the pen.
What they have to do is get rid of the dead arms in the bullpen, and find a couple of reliable replacements for Kelly and Stripling. I like Chicken Strips and would hate to lose him, but he is being wasted as a middle reliever. He needs more work on becoming a starter, and actually could be good trade bait at this point. Even Urias is being wasted as a reliever, and should be starting. Need to keep Julio, as Kershaw, Hill, or Maeda are probably not going to be around once their contracts are up. Could even lose Ryu after this season.
Well, BP implosion again today. Dodgers lose in extra innings. Maeda only able to last 5 innings…. I guess he did not get the memo. 5 strong innings, but unfortunately not deep enough to avoid middle relief. Dodger offense sputters again, 0-3 RISP, 9 K’s. Cannot score runs, if you can’t get runners to 2nd base. I blame this loss on bullpen mismanagement, and offensive lapse.
What a conundrum… either the bullpen gets overworked, or they are underworked and unprepared to go to battle. What is a Manager to do?
Roberts pulled him tooo early. He had only made 70 something pitches, but the book is, the 3rd time through the lineup they lite him up and DR did not want to take that chance. Maeda was pitching well and only made a couple of bad pitches and was leading when he went out. That’s all on Roberts. Bad hop grounder tied the game and with the speed of a guy like Dyson he was able to cruise into second. Alexander continued his one good one bad streak. He was good last night and then served up a cookie that was hit for a triple. After the game Maeda said he could have easily pitched another couple of innings. So early hook cost them this time. But a lot of the onus is on the offense. The top 3 in the lineup had one hit and that was it. Other than Smith’s 2 run jack the offense was very ineffective. Muncy struck out 7 straight at bats before grounding out meekly. Arizona used a 4 man outfield shift on Bellinger. Another thing is that the humidor they are now using there has cut down on the number of long balls. Turner and Belli hit balls that would have been homers in LA, but were just warning track shots here.
Exactly Michael,
Pulled him way too soon. DR likes to do this, when he feels his bullpen has not had enough work. The pen has been incognito with all the quality starts the past few days. Maeda a victim of DR’s micromanaging his bullpen…. way too many options in the pen, with pitchers who had not pitched in a while.
Also a victim of a impotent offense. Belli had a chance to go the other way or bunt to beat the shift, but choose to hit right into it. When game is close, and on the line, you have to take advantage of the defensive alignment.
I hate when he does that….
Michael
Agree that Dummy should not have taken out Maeda so early but let’s face it the bullpen sucks and needs to be upgraded. I really hate to see any of them come in. So Dummy is Dummy and even more dumb for going to the BP early that is no good. In his behalf he needs better relief pitchers.
DR loves to play matchups, and assumes that his pitchers are tired of incapable of pitching further into the game….Happened with Hill a couple of times, as well as Maeda in previous outings.
It is fine and dandy to play the odds and matchups, but if your bullpen stinks, then what is the point? It does not matter which side of the rubber the pitch is coming from.even their closer is no longer a sure thing. DR has to stop assuming and looking at Friedman’s spreadsheets.
We all agree an upgrade is needed. But the question is who? There are probably at this point in time, some fringe guys available…but are they any better than what is in the pen right now? It is not like those guys down there have not had success before. Alexander is a ground ball pitcher who right now is not inducing it as before. Baez is what he is, if he mixes his pitches he can be very effective. The real disaster down there has been Kelly. Floro was very good and then has had back to back bad outings. There is no quick fix like we all would like. When it gets closer to the deadline they will most likely look to see who out there is an upgrade to what they now have.
makes total sense Paul. Stripling could easily take the 7 inning guy role, replacing Bobblehead Kelly. Bobblehead is going to be a problem all season, from comments I have heard Bobblehead isn’t ready to listen to Honeycutt, thus Honeycutt won’t work with him until he comes ready to change few few things. Bravo Honeycutt!
Damn it is shocking to see the improvement of this squad with Puig removed from the field and the clubhouse. Puig was resented and broke up the spirit of team with his constantly trying to draw all attention to him. Plus Bellinger is such a more consistent player, especially on offense and possibly even on defense. He do have a canon and he is faster and takes better routes to the ball. You could argue that Bellinger makes some plays look easy that Puig made look difficult.
Kimbrel signs with the Cubs pending a physical. Interesting poll on yahoo today rating all the MLB managers from worst to first. …Roberts was number 6, right behind Bochy. Number one was Francona.
Too bad about Kimbrel. Theo is Theo. Let’s see how this plays out.
Will Smith aka the Vanilla Prince is the real deal. His two homers were not cookies. And even though he had that passed ball/wild pitch in Kershaw’s game, I love how he looks behind the plate.
And yes, Roberts again pulled the starter too soon. I’ve given up hope on Alexander. He needs to figure it out somewhere other than on the 25 man roster.
Bullpens seem to be a problem around the league. The Dodgers have had bullpen issues over the last few years. They have plugged guys in seemingly helter-skelter. The best reliever at AAA right now is Chargois. None of the options out there right now seem to be much better than what we have. Closer to the July deadline some teams might become sellers and the better relivers will be available in trade. And the Dodgers surely have some pieces that could bring back maybe 2 quality arms for down there. We all have to just wait and see.
75 years ago today, baseball was probably the last thing on the mind of many young Americans as they approached the coast of France to mount the greatest invasion ever. They were there to take out Hitler’s Fortress Europa and free people from the grasp of the Nazi regime. Many of us here have relatives who served, and some have relatives who did not come home. Those men fought to keep freedom in the world. They should be remembered and honored today. On D-Day 1944, my dad was in the Pacific with the US Fleet aboard the USS Dewey. A destroyer. He was also at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7th on the USS Nevada. I salute those who gave all so that we today can watch a ball game, have some refreshments and enjoy the game we love. I remember so many war movies that came out later. The one thing they always seemed to have was some guy from Brooklyn who was a Dodger fan. Brooklynites were colorful and made for great characters in the movies. RIP to those who gave all, June 6th, 1944. The Longest Day.
Amen to that Michael, Amen.
My dad fought in the Pacific Theater, flew torpedo bombers all over the place, receiving the distinguished flying cross and numerous other heroic medals. Special breed of men in those days. God rest his great soul.
Much respect to your dad. My dad was wounded when the Arizona blew up, but refused treatment until the more seriously wounded were helped to the hospital. He ended up being in there until Jan 1942. The Nevada was out of commission and headed for dry dock and extensive repairs. So he was transferred to the Dewey. He served as a gunners mate on her until mid April 1945 when he was transferred to a destroyer tender for the rest of the war. The Nevada, after being repaired was sent to the Atlantic and took part in the D-Day bombardment of the beach. She later was sent back to the Pacific fleet and took her place with her sister ships in beating Japan. She was used as a target ship in Bimini for the A-bomb test there and survived. So they ended up torpedoing her. My uncle flew B-24 Bombers out of India.
Hey Bluefan, the other day you took offense to me mentioning Political Correctness and the MLB. Well the very next day, there were numerous articles concerning the NBA considering dropping the term “Owner” because most NBA players are black and nearly all NBA owners are white. My point the other day was regarding the increasing trend in professional sports is to political correct the shit out of nearly every issue (used the absurdity of changing the Cy Young Award name to shine the light on the issue). So, again I state, I am not a racist and my post had zero to do with racism, but I do observe what is going on in society with trends, especially politically correcting everything for the sake of political agendas and identification politics to divide and segregate society. I fear that many don’t see the forest from the trees and miss the real issues at work behind any movement. Get smart and dig a little deeper (no I am not accusing Bluefan of shallowness, just a general comment to all).
Again, True Blue, Thru and Thru on the cutting edge, lol. God gave you a brain, don’t waste it.
Dead issue. Don’t know why you keep bringing it up. Maybe you have a guilty conscience? You do not have to try and justify your ignorance.
My major gripe was your reference to “kim chee” in relation to the female and her body parts. Just a bit racially sexist.
BTW, in reference to the Korean staple of pickled cabbage. Kim Chee, or Kimchee, or Kimchi, or Kim Chi…. All are acceptable names for the popular dish. All the same.
But like I said, dead issue, as far as I am concerned. Please don’t keep bringing it up. Let’s just talk baseball.
Like I said, God gave you a brain don’t waste it. BTW, you are the one sporting the hard-on regarding your racist use of KimChee power for a Korean player. Quit trying to cover up your ignorance because you reallyexposed yourself with that one, dumba$$.
Might as well be talking to a dead horse…. you don’t realize how stupid you sound. ? Geez!
Enough said….Bluefan4Life, Out.
He/she most definitely does not.
So moving right along, the Dodgers need a decent bullpen.
Indeed they do, Package.
Or maybe better starter and bullpen management? Management has to have more faith in their starters. Let them do their job, and encourage them to go 7 or 8. Don’t just assume he will not be able to get past the third time around. If you have go to the pen, go with your best arms in the pen, don’t just throw a reliever out their because has been idle too long, or you think he needs to go out there to break out of a slump. Not every situation is a Jansen, Floro, or Urias moment. If a pitcher is not laboring, pitching well, let him go, even complete the game.
Screw the matchups and spreadsheets. Forget about the typical Dodger bullpen protocols and go with your gut and the situation at hand.
Relievers need to be on a special training regimen, so they will be ready to go at a moments notice, quickly, without stressing their arms. That is what they are paid for. Seems that they come in tired from being overworked, or they come in cold, from sitting idle too long. That is why using Stripling and Urias as relievers is tough on them. They are not conditioned to be relievers, and when given the chance to start, they struggle.
Then, again you have guys like Kelly, who just do not have it, yet Management insists on using them again and again, hoping that this rubber arm will resurrect, and earn his paycheck. FO, Tryouts are over…. you made a big mistake….The season has started.
Just my personal opinion. I am not claiming to be a baseball genius.
Blue
I think you have outlined it perfectly. The Dodger starters do need to go deeper into games and great thought is needed before making a move. Dummy does not possess great thought but he is at a disadvantage with some of the relievers being less than stellar.
So true!
Hopefully some of the pitchers (Kelly, Alexander primarily) come around, but there’s still going to be a need for more augmentation.
Well, I guess now the Dodgers will just quit hitting. Cannot beat Pomeranz. Oh well. Can’t expect Kershaw to win with 0 runs.
Well, the Dodgers’ Offense was missing in action. Even Pomeranz can dominate the Listless Lefty Lineup. The 9+ ERA Gnat hurdler looked like Cy Young out there. Dodgers had him on the ropes in the first inning, and they let him get away without a scratch. 0-2 RISP, then nothing after that….4 shutout innings, and 7 K’s. Giant bullpen slammed the door shut. Dodger bats 11 K’s total, and 6 LOB. Sure could have used Will Smith’s bat tonight. One HR by CT3, but his bad throw allowed the game’s first run… Pederson or Verdugo would have gunned down Belt. That run turned out to be the difference.
Kershaw pitched great… another quality start, but got burned on a couple of survival swing bloopers. Victim of a flatline lineup, sans Pederson and Verdugo.
Last place Giants make monkeys out of the Dodgers. I hope they can lick their wounds and take the next two from the Frickin’ Fidgets.
The really good Richie Justice suggest Brad Hand for the Dodgers:
https://www.mlb.com/news/7-baseball-trades-that-make-sense
I do love me some Rich Hill.
He danced on a dangerous edge for his last 3 innings, but ended only allowing 2 runs.
Hill since joining the Dodgers has allowed 11 total runs in 10 starts against the Giants, a 1.81 ERA in 54⅔ innings. 56 K, 13 BB
Wow, what a crazy game. Neither team could really get the conga line going, both stranding 27 runners on base., Dodgers 4-14 RISP, 13 LOB, & 10 K’s, and the Giants 1-11 RISP, 11 LOB, & 12 K’s. Verdugo and Hernandez led the stalemate… leaving a combined 15 runners and both going 0-5. Turner set the table, going 3-3 plus a walk. Boche, afraid of Belli, walks him 3 times. Seager made him regret it, going 4-5 with 4 RBI. Dodgers squeeze out 7 runs.
Hill could only square dance for 5 innings and 94 pitches before running out of bullets.
Urías a bit shaky but wiggled out of a jam. Kelly and Garcia close the door…. yup, I did not stutter, although Kelly did manage to save face with a wild pitch, just to keep us on the edge of our seats.
I hope Pederson is OK. Left with back stiffness? Seems to be pressing a bit, with his few opportunities to play. Trying to do too much.
Go Blue. Take the series tomorrow, guys.
A wasted quality start, again. Ryu did not deserve this. He was not at his best, but he battled all night, holding the Angels to 1 run, and keeping the Dodgers in the game. Cannot win Cy Young without Offensive support, and a better bullpen.
Blame it on a dismal 2-12 RISP. Stagnant offense, again.
Also blame it once again, on poor bullpen management. The wheels fell off the wagon again, tonight.
And then there is this rubber arm named Kelly. $25M and two more years stuck with Kelly? Thanks Friedman. You got to sell a whole lot of Dodger Dogs to recover your losses. I think Dodger Fans should boycott his bobblehead night…. nobody show up. Or at least throw them back onto the field in protest. Kelly is a basket case… a disgrace to the Dodger uniform.
Verdugo pressing, especially after hearing he will sit when Pollock comes back.
Pederson pressing too. Joc knows his playing time is limited as it is, and will only get worse when Pollock returns. Hope he still has those splinter-proof baseball pants on hand.
Come on, Blue. Tonight’s game was embarrassing.