The Freeway Series shifted to Anaheim and saw the return of Mike Bolsinger to the Dodgers’ starting rotation. Manager Dave Roberts was hoping to get 5 or 6 innings out of Bolsinger, and give the rest of the Dodgers’ starters an extra day off.
Too bad Roberts didn’t wish for some run support too.
1st inning
Angels
Mike Trout hit a “Welcome to Anaheim” home run. 1-0
2nd inning Angels 1-0
Angels
Bolsinger gave up that dinger to Trout last inning, and he got into in a jam here as well, with two on. Luckily, no one scored.
4th inning Angels 1-0
Dodgers
Justin Turner walked.
Corey Seager doubled, but JT did not score. For some reason Turner hit the brakes and stumbled on the way home. He stayed at third.
On Howie Kendrick‘s bouncer to third Turner ran into a stupid out. He never looked behind to see Escobar had stopped the ball at third. He ran home and was thrown out by a mile.
Joc Pederson base hit to score Kendrick. 1-1
Angels
Yasiel Puig put a scare in us by showing some soreness in his arm after a throw. It seems he bounced off the turf hard while making a diving catch. There was a time out, but everyone eventually went back to playing.
5th inning Tie score 1-1
Dodgers
Puig batted, and of course made a first-pitch out, but he also showed some shoulder or neck pain when he returned to the dugout. Hmmm…
Angels
Bolsinger went as far as one out and two on. He was pulled when Albert Pujols came up.
Louis Coleman came in and quickly walked Pujols to load the bases.
Infield single scored a run. 2-1.
Another infield hit that Howie Kendrick bobbled, scored another run. 3-1.
Bases still loaded. Still only one out.
A pop fly double to left scored two more. 5-1.
One more in made it half a dozen for the halos.
In the inning 9 men came to the plate and 5 scored.
6th inning Angels 6-1
Angels
Add two more runs.
7th inning Angels 8-1
Dodgers
Three singles in a row got the Dodgers bases loaded with no out.
Enrique Hernandez came in to pinch hit for Chase Utley. Unknown why Roberts batted for him. Nothing happened, and the Dodgers ended the inning quietly.
The Dodgers spent the rest of the game like a wounded animal in the bushes – occasionally thrashing about, but obviously finished.
The return of Mike Bolsinger was not unpleasant. He kept the team close for four innings and who knows if the fifth inning would have been as horrible if he had been allowed to continue.
Despite my advice too the contrary, Roberts kept the dull knife that Justin Turner has become in the second batting spot. He went 0 for 3 with a walk. Even more laughable, he made Carl Crawford the DH. He did manage to go 2 for 4 with 2 singles. There was no signof Adrian Gonzalez, so we’ll all be on Gonzo watch tomorrow, for the final of the four game series. The Dodgers will be hoping for a split.
Mike Bolsinger (0-1) went 4 1/3 innings with 7 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks, 2 Ks, 1 home run ERA 6.23 Yikes!
Doubles: Seager, Utley, Pederson
Team with RISP: 2 for 9 The usual.
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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The Dodgers are a struggling, mediocre team that have done very little to help their own cause from last year. What we learned last year, was the team had offensive problems and a huge drop-off in pitching after baseball’s best one-two punch in Kershaw and Greinke.
The ‘new’ management, headed by Freidman, began making some changes before the start of the 2015 season, trading Kemp, acquiring Grandal, and the two infielders, Rollins and Kendrick. Kemp probably needed the change and I can’t fault them for trading him, but Grandal has been a big disappointment in his inability to be a consistent hitter. I’m not sure about his defensive prowess, so can’t comment. I think we lost on this transaction. Rollins went into a dive last year and provided little in the way of batting or fielding prowess as advertised. He’s gone for this season’s start and Kendrick, who is slipping through the cracks, looks like his ticket is punched for the next train out of town.
The pitchers rounding out the starting rotation have looked insipid and ineffectual last year (Woods, Bolsinger, McCarthy, etc.), and gimpy. Management knew their attempt to stuff the bullpen was also a crap shoot. Pitching became a major concern after the season and into the free agency period. Amazingly, the Dodgers became penny-pinching when dealing with Greinke’s contract and destroyed baseball’s best one-two punch leaving them with only Kershaw while the Giants, knowing exactly what they needed to re-tool and make a run for the glory, re-loaded their starting rotation with two top guns added to their ace, Bumgarner. The Giants did what they had to, what was obvious, if they wanted to compete with the likes of the Dodgers, Cubs, and Mets. Now, they are off to the races and they have no offensive woes like our Bums. It’s not even close now.
Still, management refused to go after the top guns in free agency. Kazmir, Maeda, Stripling, et al, don’t equal Cueto or Samardzija. They also did virtually nothing to help the bullpen, hoping guys like Hatcher and Baez would miraculously turn around. Fools. This group has made more mistakes with their pitching selection and decisions than anything else and has weakened the team immensely.
Then, they hire a guy with no managerial experience. Okay, a gamble on a nice guy, a baseball guy who once played here. Can anyone tell me what Roberts has added that Mattingly couldn’t have done? It looks to me like they borrowed a page out of basketball’s book by firing the manager in favor of the player, Puig, that they had high hopes for who couldn’t/didn’t respond to Mattingly’s style.
And, speaking of Puig, what happened to this guy? When he first arrived, he was a monster like nothing we’ve seen in years. What did Mattingly or the management, do to this guy that took his cojones away and made him a good citizen? He was on fire. Now, he’s limp and damp.
Who is calling the shots on this team? I’m in the dark about who makes the rotational and the lineup changes. Is it computerized and Roberts is handed paperwork at the start of each day? If it’s Roberts that’s calling the day to day shots, god help us. Pinch hits Hernandez for Utley? Pulls Maeda after 4 innings after he’s settled down? Now, the rotation is expanding to 6 starters. Madness. Do you think players like Kershaw are happy about the lack of turns that will take away from him and the chances that this team will have to win games? My mother could make better decisions than this.
Sorry for all this ranting, but a guy can take only so much and I don’t want to take it out on my wife! 🙂
Amen Jeff. You are 100% correct in your assessment. The decision makers are laughable. The front office is a joke. These are obviously not baseball guys making the calls. This is why you don’t have the accounting department run a company.
Everything you said is accurate. Dodgers weren’t a great team last year. After a hot start, they in fact were quite mediocre, but the rest of the division wasn’t very good. Their one strength was a great 1-2 starting pitching punch, which they passed on Greinke this winter and brought in a bunch of middling guys again. Sorry, I’m not sold on Maeda and he appears to be returning back down to earth. He was projected as a 3-5 starter, so not surprising. The bullpen is a complete and total travesty outside Jansen, and it’s laughable these idiots brought back pretty much the same pen other than a couple veteran castoffs.
Scott talks of shedding veterans, but a lot of these guys have nil value. How much is Howie Kendrick going to get you? Only guys with high value are Seager, Kershaw, and Jansen, and as of now, you can’t deal any of those guys nor why would you. Maybe Pederson has value, but again, why deal him. Puig I’m almost done with, and his value right now is probably at a nadir.
All this team can do is wait for their prospects to come up, which might take a couple years. I thought this was a .500 team this year, and I think it’ll be a .500 team next year.
Also, the Gnats FA signings have worked brilliantly for them as of now. I think they win the division by at least 8 games.
Jeff I don’t think it is fair to compare Roberts to Mattingly. Mattingly had much better teams to work with. Roberts doesn’t have two number ones, in his starting rotations, or the offensive power, that Mattingly had, when he managed the Dodgers. The owners wasted good money, and a good team, on Mattingly’s management. And once he was finally let go, they started breaking the team down, and they didn’t put any money, into a good starter, or some good arms, for the bullpen.
And Mattingly was the reason that Kemp was traded, because he told the new front office, that Puig would step up, and be that big right handed bat,after Kemp was traded. Mattingly didn’t like that Kemp had challanged him, when Kemp was moved to leftfield.
The front office, didn’t know much about the team, when they first came to the Dodgers, so Mattingly was the one that filled them in, to what the team needed. Remember they traded Kemp, and got Howie, to make the team more functional, so they would go farther, in the post season.
Amen
Welcome to the party.
Some of us called this team mediocre prior to the start of spring training. This is not rocket science.
All we hear is ‘felony stupid’ and ‘your just negative.’ Those same folks talk out of both sides of their mouth.
I’ve said multiple times that this organization is headed for deep trouble unless ownership steps in. This team isn’t winning anything in 2018. Rookies and 2nd year players aren’t winning a Championship. And then Kershaw is likely gone.
MONEYBALL!
Jeff, 1 for 1.
I can look ahead to 2018 with my Blue glasses and see, at the very least, a beginning. Dead contracts will be gone. The money we pay Crawford, Ethier, Guerrero, and possibly others can be used to get a few strong pieces. The team will have $100 million to spend. Kershaw and Puig will be in contract years, Urias will be the #2 by then followed hopefully by De Leon. Seager will be peaking, Bellinger should be here, Verdugo, Montas, Thompson, Anderson (Chris, not Brett) Holmes, Buehler, Cotton, Barnes, all the Cubans, the list is long and if we can’t use them all we can trade them for pieces we can use.
This management group are highly credentialed. I contend they are marking time preparing for the future. They are building the house and the completion date is down the road. Will it work? Yeah, I think so. In the mean time we get Bolsinger going 4 innings followed by Stripling, a 37 year old backup leading off (and so far not bad, but not gonna make it for 600 PA’s) Howie, AJ, and a long line of sub .250 hitters.
Miracles do happen. I’m still hopeful, but I’m not surprised by our .500 start and frankly after than Kershaw I just don’t see the team that can beat the elite teams in the league. And, I don’t see management trying all that hard to make it happen this year. They are rebuilding the system. And I approve of that. But the ML roster is constructed just well enough to compete if all goes right. And, maybe it will. We are still over .500 with the offense sucking. We get hot, we could get on a roll. But I don’t expect much.
a lot of those prospects will turn out to be busts, just the nature of the business. this team better be looking to land a bryce harper or mik stanton type down the road with all that money freed up.
Badger I appreciate your point of view, because you know that the Dodgers will not be the exact model of the money ball teams, that are small market teams. Because the Dodgers are a big market team, that has much more money, then these small money ball teams have. And they have to function like they do, because they don’t have the money, that a big market team, like the Dodgers have.
And you also truly want the team to do well, but you are not overly invested, because of the front office, not really trying to make this team much better. Because they are waiting until the money comes off the board. And that is when everyone will know, just how bad or good this front office really is. And of course I am not convinced at this time, because of a lot of there moves, and transactions to date, haven’t been very good.
And Badger I like that you put the team in perspective, and know that they are not as bad, as they looked last night, and they are not a great team either. And you do know that hitting can be streaky with teams, and no team in the Dodgers division, is going to run away, from all the other teams. And you don’t think, that Turner and Puig will continue to hit this bad.
And you know, that Cory , and the other young kids, should only be getting better, as the season goes along. And the Dodgers do have some reinforcements, coming back to the team, that will help the team, like Ryu and Ethier, and maybe Urias down the line.
But will the front office bring up Urias, before the September call ups is the real question. Last night showed, that when Agone is not in the line up, the team doesn’t play well. And Agone is much more important to this team, then some want to believe.
Because Agone is missed, both defensively, and offensively. And when his bat is not in the line up, it is missed not only for the hits, that Agone might have got. It is also missed, because his bat, also has an impact on everyone else’s at bat. And this is because the players, batting in front and in back of Agone, get better pitches to hit. And the line up, looks much longer, to the pitcher, who is facing the Dodgers.
Disagree. Evidence #1…..Matt Kemp. Moved him primarily because of his long term contract (had more RBI’s than any other Dodger last year and would be leading the team in HR’s and RBI’s this year.) Evidence #2…..Did not trade for any high quality pitchers prior to the deadline or look to sign any high quality pitchers in either of the past 2 off seasons. Evidence #3…..Did not resign Grienke (too much money in their opinion). Evidence #4…..not even talking to Jansen or about re-signing Jansen. They want to get by cheaply.
So THEY are not acting like a big market team. Hasn’t been one example that would support that.
Not even going to go into what MONEYBALL is about but keep telling yourself that they aren’t going down that path and maybe you can totally convince yourself of that but the facts are hitting everyone else squarely in the face.
Well, they did raise payroll to near $300 million an invested around $240 million in Cubans. I’d call that acting like a big market team. Have to look very closely to see who all that involves as no big names showed up. I’d like to see Matt Kemp in the lineup too. If for no other reason it’s one less platoon I’d have to look at.
I get what MJ is saying. And yes, I think we will see Urias sooner than later. He might be on an innings count, and he’s using them mowing down AAA lineups. Might as well give him 80 pitches here. He can take Bolsinger’s next start. Stripling’s maybe. Whatever.
A lot of that $300 million was to players to NOT play for the Dodgers. It’s dropped rather precipitously and will drop further next year. That’s the plan.
I see that I’m not the only one that isn’t too happy about the current situation. Sure, it’s not easy running a Pro sports team. More headaches than one can ever imagine. So, perhaps we can focus in on some imminent problems that need fixing right away.
PUIG. What happened to this guy? Any brilliant insights?
Brilliant insights? Not sure how brilliant it is but after the first 1/2 season the league has learned Puig and he has yet to adapt to the way he gets pitched.
Will he? Maybe his contract year.
Rather than partying in Miami with fellow Cubans in the off season probably should have spent more time observing 90 mph baseballs that are spinning away.
All you guys are talking about the team that plays games in LA and not the team that plays games on the road, right?
Bum are you saying that Angel stadium is to close to home, for the Dodgers?
I am just saying the Dodgers have so far been a Heckle and Jeckle team based on whether they play at home or away.
Bum I that you would get that. I meant that they don’t hit good at home, and maybe Angel stadium is far to close to Dodger stadium, where they don’t hit.
Bum Vinny has said, that half of the teams in baseball, have bad home stats.
I have been a Dodger fan since 1948 — have read every box score since then, listened to thousands of games on the radio (in them olden days), many on TV, and so on.
I have posted here about my dis-pleasure in the GM approach and the lack of completing a reasonable roster to win.
What I find now — is that I look forward more to watching a Cubs game, a Texas Ranger game, and I have seen the A’s win some great games of late. Even the White Sox are interesting as is Baltimore. And Miami is right there.
I am a Dodger fan, but they are on the back burner for me right now. Funny. They will win 2 games in a row and look like they have turned the corner and are on their way — then the next game — look totally lost. Enough of complaining about Dodger overall pitching, lack of a key bat, etc.
The Cubs are on at noon today and other fun games later.
I think this ownership is kind of stuck in the middle. We have an older, but talented team, with projected stud impact kids coming up soon. They don’t want to keep signing more expensive vets, but at the same time do not want to trade the projected stud impact kids for a rental or a vet either, because those projected stud impact kids are so close.
So they’re trying stopgap 1-2 year guys, like Latos, Johnson, Kazmir, etc to see if our current team, which is already pretty talented, can still go far, while at the same time biting time for our projected dynasty from 2018 thru 2026. And I do think regardless of how we do the next 2 years, we all will love the end of this decade thru the next half of the next decade.
Now we could go full rebuild. All that will get us is a bad year this year, and maybe a decent year next year before the true talent starts to kick in. But these guys are trying to do it both ways. Be good now, and don’t sacrifice the projected impact studs because they want us to be great soon.
So far, I think we’ve succeeded at that too. We’ve been very good (3 straight NL West titles), but something or another has kept us from winning it all (mostly Kersh choking when we needed him to be himself).
But this year I believe we’re at that crossroads. The older vets are starting the decline. Some of the kids are ready to step up (Joc, Seager, Trayce, Grandal even) The pitching staff has some youth (Kersh, Maeda, Wood, Strip). Urias will be up next month (once his super 2 arbitration thing sets in). Puig needs to step up, and isn’t. Turner is a vet who still should be on top of his game, and he’s been horrible so far, whether because he’s injured or he’s lost that magic he had. Agone we all know is slowly declining. Crawford should never play again. The 2b thing should be a platoon of Howie and Utley so they remain fresh, until Kike shows he can handle the job.
I really think many of our bullpen issues will be resolved when Urias comes up, much like K-Rod did for Anaheim a few years ago.
We’re a blah, .500 team right now. But the rotation is starting to settle down a bit (Wood, Kazmir). I still think we’ll be ok and be within the thick of things. I also don’t expect a major move because the guys people want are now like months away from coming up. So if we can’t trade for a stud, I saw bring our studs up and let them take over. We see it with Trayce; he’s starting to win that LF job.
I like your perspective for the Dodgers Bobby.
I can’t get in the believer camp for Grandal though. The White Sox were said to be up to something and if it is with the Dodgers I would help them fill a catcher weakness and a Dodger reliever weakness by trading Grandal for David Alan Robertson.
Ellis is making good swings and generally hitting the ball hard and hopefully Barnes can be good enough to catch half of the games.
Bum Grandal didn’t play much at the end of spring training, and didn’t start on the team, on opening day. And Grandal had a slow start like this last year, and then turned it around enough, to make the Allstar team. Puig and Turner don’t have this excuse, and I haven’t heard much about Turner from you.
What do you think about Turner, and Roberts, keeping him batting third?
Turner’s bat, is the one bat, that this team, is really missing. Because he is the Dodgers’s third hitter, and the team bet on him, in the off season, and let Fraizer go, because of Turner.
Bobby Thompson didn’t get any hits last night, and I thought he might be pressing, in his last two at bats, because his father was at the game, because Trayce doesn’t normally do this.
Jeff – it was always gonna be this way with Puig. He arrived with a bang but MLB pitching caught up to him, and unfortunately he cannot adjust.
I’ve actually warmed to him as a person, but in reality he is an average player capable of brilliance, but infuriating at the same time.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he played his best baseball in a team with some real hitters, namely Kemp & Hanley, and of course had his old pal Uribe around him. I think he enjoyed the competition and banter.
It’s only my opinion, but I sincerely believe that most of our lineup would benefit from a proper thumper in their midst.
As I’ve said before, this is a .500 team so I’m not surprised.
If we can hang on to SF’s coat tails then maybe we can keep some interest going until September time.
I would seriously consider trading Kershaw & AGon if we are out of it at the Deadline and face up to facts, that we are looking a couple of years ahead.
Get the kids up ASAP and let em play.
Just read Bobby’s comments above, and think that is a very good take on where we are at.
The Dodgers need to find a way to replace on the 25 man roster two or three of these players: Kendrick, Agon, Crawford, Baez, Hatcher, Howell.
If they moved, Agone, that would be a very bad mistake.
He was really missed, in that game last night, both defensively and offensively.
Depends who the Dodgers got in return for Agon I guess. Would a great reliever and SVS at first do more for the Dodgers than Agon at first and the same relievers they have now.
Folks, it is not the hitting —– the down mark on this team is the pitching. Some of the starters — but other than Jansen — the rest of the pen are not winners. That is the back eye here. That could have been fix this past winter, but no. The dead-heads making deals and signings players went cheap and so far, lost.
Even if the front office doesn’t want to give out big contracts, because of there plan on 2018.
They have given away money, to a couple of subpar injury prone pitchers.
And this wasted money, could have gotten one or two good arms for the bullpen. Look who they choose to give multi year contracts to. Both of these pitchers should have never been given multi year contracts. This is money that could have been used much better, to help the Dodger bullpen, and maybe somewhere else.
I see trades coming but little in return,which we all know will happen.
Maybe Bobby is just more articulate with his prose, but he said the exact same thing I’ve been saying for months now. I used the term “mark time”. For those who aren’t familiar with the term it means “marching in place”. Management is trying to hold serve and frankly I think they are doing a horseshit job of it. Latos and McCarthy and Anderson and Stripling and Bolsinger and Wood and Kazmir every other #5 they’ve thrown out there is not going to carry this team to the finish line. Anyone who believed that (most who did are quiet or left the building) are fooling themselves. And taking my blue glasses off maybe these FAZ guys were right. We had Hanley and Kemp and Manny and Kershaw and AGon and Greinke and etc and those guys didn’t bring it home. And Bobby is on the money when he says the main reason it didn’t get done is Kershaw swallowing olives a couple of years in a row. Even the contract year Cy runner up Zack faded to black in Game 5 last year.
Maybe it’s an LA laid back mentality. F it. Feed them all PED laced Cheerios and hope for the best.
Badger is that what you eat for breakfast?
No. I eat the breakfast of champions – whatever’s in season organic smoothies with hemp/coconut/flax oil.
Lots of seeds too. All kinds.
Sound good Badger.
Maybe O’Malley should’ve blown up that Brooklyn team that couldn’t get it done and brought up some hot Cuban prospects. Would have had a dynasty.
8 LAD Pitchers with an ERA above 5.00 during the last week. Wow!
Half of the starting position players with a BA below .250 during the last week, with 3 below .200. Wow?
Just not a good team right now. Will they ever be?
Folks, we are officially at the quarter point now (21-20). How does the team stack up? Here are a few nuggets from Baseball Reference.com:
1 – The Dodgers have 5 relievers with negative WAR on the season (Avilan, Baez, Coleman, Hatcher, Howell);
2 – The following position players have negative WAR on the season: Crawford, Grandal, Kendrick.
3 – The Dodgers are 9th in the NL in BA (.244), 9th in runs, 11th in team OPS, 12th in SLG.
4 – The Dodgers have 3 members of the rotation with negative WAR (Kazmir, Wood, Stripling)
5- Top Dodger in WAR is Kershaw (+2.8). Whole staff WAR is +4, so rest of staff composite WAR is 1.2.
6 – Top position player WAR is Seager (1.6).
On balance, there isn’t any facet of the Dodgers that stands out as being particularly good. They have a few bright spots and we know who they are: Kershaw, Jansen, Seager, Pederson, Utley (surprisingly). Some here like Thompson – his DWAR is bad (-.5), as is Pederson’s (-.5). Defensive metrics like Puig, Kike, and Ellis.
It’s hard to dispute those who have posted here that it appears that the Braintrust is shining us on – they are “trying to win now”, but they really aren’t.
I still question those who believe that 2018 is going to be great. The Dodgers should have some good young arms coming up, but very few impact position players. The Braintrust has shown no inclination to sign impact free agents to fill in gaps – no one for more than 3 years except Maeda and his contract is so odd that it really doesn’t count. No one for more than $12 – 15 MM/year. Those who think that they will be in on big time free agents like Harper are fooling themselves -those days are gone. They will keep on trading for prospects and, like Jansen, when they become free agents, they will let them go rather than pay market prices to keep them. No – 2018 will be Kershaw’s last pre-opt-out year. They will let him walk rather than pay him $40MM/year. The team will consist of the latest group of prospects, and that group of prospects will be allowed to leave when they get to be good and expensive too.
The future does not look as bright in my view as others here have hypothesized.
Dodger rick what is Agone’s?
What is bad about saber metrics, is that they count a strike out, as the same as any other out. And they count a walk, as the same value as a hit.
And both of these saber metric values are not true. And this causes saber metrics, to value players, that have a lot a strike outs, and a lot walks, higher then they should be valued.
Because a walk is not the same as a hit, and a strike out, is not the same, as an out, when it comes to value.
I agree with your assessment of some of the biases that SABRphiles show in valuing all outs or all times on base similarly, but that isn’t WAR (Wins Above Replacement). 0 WAR isn’t the same as saying average – it is for a “replacement” player (like someone from the minors who comes up to replace an injured player). So for a player to have a negative WAR means that he is a worse-than-average major league player – someone that could be replaced by a guy off of the waiver wire or a minor leaguer. For reference, you can click on the link from Baseball Reference to get the definition which is really long and unnecessarily complicated:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/about/war_explained.shtml
Adrian Gonzalez’ WAR is .7. That means that over the course of a 162 game season it would be about 2.8. This is the same as Joc Pederson’s and lower that Yasiel Puig at .8. The difference is that Pederson plays a premium defensive position (although not well according to his dWAR of -.5) and Puig has a big plus dWAR rating of +.8. WAR considers both offense and defense to give you a composite number.
Regardless of whether you like the WAR number or not (and I agree that it certainly isn’t a perfect metric – I especially distrust defensive WAR numbers as they don’t pass the eyeball test with me), the Dodgers’ lack of production speaks for itself. At the 1/4 mark they are a .500 team. 3 or 4 of the team’s starters are at best inconsistent and at worse crummy. The ‘pen is the same – Jansen great, the rest inconsistent or worse. The offense simply doesn’t produce runs and Grandal, Turner, Puig, Kendrick, Crawford and other simply aren’t hitting and even Gonzalez only has 4 HR on the season after his hot start.
Per the eyeball test, this simply isn’t a very good team right now.
Good info. Thanks.
Good or bad WAR numbers require a lot of games/at bats to give an honest assessment. Some of the platoon guys will be more affected by slumps. I think the proven veterans with bad numbers will eventually square them away. Young unproven guys might not get the at bats needed. I would be surprised if Kendrick and Crawford end the year without improvement. I also doubt Utley can keep a 4+ WAR pace up. .800 OPS at age 37? Yeah, but for 150 games? Who knows about Thompson and I think we can assume Seager will do just fine. He might hit some bumps but he’s going to get the plate appearances.
Dodger rick thank you for all of the information, I appreciate it! I knew what that stat was, but I didn’t know how they calculate it. But when your talking about Agone,Joc, and Puig, what time period are you talking about. Because Puig is doing terrible offensively, and Joc has only did this, a month and a half?
Dodger rick I don’t trust the defensive metrics, for the same reason. If you think about it, how often does an outfielder, have really tough plays, in a week, that affects the out come of a game. Mostly there is a lot of routine plays.
And how about Ops.
In True Blue LA only two Dodgers had decent ops in May, and that was Agone, and Utley.
Dodgerrick-
Excellent Post. Someone that doesn’t live in LA LA Land!
Let’s be clear about 2018. I think that is the year it begins to be great. Much depends on how Friedman and Co spend the $100 million. Nobody knows how that will go because they’ve never really done it before. Yes it’s true, when they took over, some said payroll would now go down, it actually went up. Maybe that was a practice run. Hope so, because it accomplished little. In ’18 our young studs, you know, The Untouchables, will be on the roster and most with some experience gained in ’16 and ’17. So much depends on who it is that will be added to the group. This year and next, the Crawthier years, are likely to look similar. At this point I hope they trade NONE of the Untouchables. The time to do that was last July. It’s too late now.
I watched last night with little emotion. I wasn’t too bummed because at this point I’m not surprised. As you know, I don’t expect much out of this group. If you don’t expect much you won’t be disappointed. That said, I do want to see all the young hitters hit, and that includes Puig. He’s 25. It’s time. 25-29 are the years. Let’s go Yassie.
Payroll is $85MM less in 2016 than 2015. It will decrease again next year and the following year as well. In 2019, Kershaw’s $32MM comes off of the books too.
Dodger rick they should get the payroll down, to get under the luxary tax. But it is just how they are spending there money, and who they are spending the money on.
Badger aren’t you tired of watching Howie play? And what do you think about Turner, and why he isn’t hitting?
I’m on record. My second baseman is Kiké. Every day. I’m also fine with the Utley platoon.
But Kendrick is here and Kiké’s career is on hold. That being the case – go Howie.
And for two years.
Turner and Howie got on my nerves last night. Because neither one of them, played well last night. And I want Turner to hit badly, and I didn’t want the Dodgers to sign Howie.
Did everyone hear that Morey Safer the guy on 60 minutes, died 60 minutes after he anounced his retirment?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/05/19/cbs-icon-morley-safer-dead-age-84/84592038/
Thanks Wondering. I heard that on the news and I must have heard it wrong.
What did he die of?
If you all want a brief glimpse of the future….imagine Kershaw NOT being on this team. Take his 6-1 record out of the equation and the Dodgers record in non-Kershaw decision games would be 15-19 and that’s about what they look like.
Does anyone know or have a list of all the players that F&Z have DRAFTED, TRADED FOR or SIGNED since they have been in their current LAD positions. My gut feeling is that there aren’t many on that list that folks would be excited about and that all of the ‘performers’ now and last year were before F&Z.
I don’t have the time either but here is a link to the transaction page at Dodgers.com
http://m.dodgers.mlb.com/roster/transactions/
In a way the onus is on good players like Kershaw and Jensen. They should have a press conference and state flat out that if the team doesn’t begin getting good players, NOW, they will leave at the first opportunity. That would cause an upheaval among the complacent fans and the uproar would force the team to do something, maybe replace our dysfunctional front office.
But that would be throwing their current teammates and friends under the bus. I’m pretty sure they are too classy to do that. And I disagree that the onus is on them. It’s actually on the FO and the fans need to make the FO aware of their views of the team.
Then I am glad I’m not classy.
Kershaw would never do that. He’d look like an idiot.
“Hey, ingrate, we gave you both the specie and the horses and for 5 years we’ve relied on you to bring it home. 2-6 with a 4.59 ERA. Not all that MadBum of you hot shot”
He’s not an idiot. He will just wait this out, cashing enormous checks.
MJ, you asked me about what I thought about Turner. I still like him but he is playing for a new contract and he is going to have to get it going or he won’t be a Dodger next year. If Kendrick is still here he might be a one year, 2017, 3rd baseman for the Dodgers. After that , who knows.
Agon came into the season in great shape and is doing okay. Turner didn’t get his usual off season work outs due surgery, Kendrick had a leg problem and missed most of spring training, Grandal had forearm issues and missed lots of spring training so who knows, maybe there is hope that they will all get it together.
Joc needs to get through June without another June swoon. Utley needs more rest and hopefully is physically okay. He stumbled at second base and maybe hurt a toe or something. Something has to explain why Kike’ pinch hit for him besides a Roberts whim.
Bum I thought that Roberts thought that the game was over, and wanted to give Chase a rest. Bum Turner was hitting into the gaps, and hit some HRs, at the end of spring training, and then nothing.
I know the quality of the pitchers, are not the same, but when Turner was playing in the early innings, there were major league pitchers, pitching. They have to move him down in the line up, and I know you agree, Turner wouldn’t say anything, because he is just not hitting, and we are getting close, to the end of the second month.
Yea. But isn’t that Vin Sculley great? We have the best announcer in the league. At least we win something. For one more season. This team is dumbing down along with the rest of the world. Now a 4 point era is good. 5 innings is great. .260 gets 7 mill. And we jump on that bandwagon with Mgr. Rah Rah. 66 is having fun again, at least. That’s all that matters; that he feels accepted by his teammates no matter what a knucklehead he is. I can’t believe he hasn’t figured out even mediocre pitching yet. He hits like he’s facing Cy Young every day. He is hitting against #’s 4&5 a good deal of the time, and he still can’t be productive. But he IS having fun again. I don’t know about you all, but all this horsing around in the dugout turns me off. Win. Then horse around. It seems they do this just to show the people watching how much fun they are having and that they really ARE just regular guys. B.S. It’s phoney fun. The real fun for a professional ballplayer is winning. But if your goal is to make a run at the playoffs, and nothing else, if a grade of B+ is good enough, then we should all stop caring. Mike Bolsinger? Brandon McCarthy? Come on! These guys are not even average pitchers. Although McCarthy sure does a good tweet. We should all be glad they are having fun. Because that’s all that matters.
These comments are something I hoped would have happened last year and throughout the off season, ones that actually make sense and expose the horrendous make up of this team.
Instead, we had optimist nazi overload take over and renounce anyone speaking the truth, or in their terms, negatively. Based upon results that proved to fail us 2015 such as, offensive stats, bullpen stats, etc. I never understood it.
It is so nice to see us speaking what it is and not what we want it to be.
79-83, I still hold firm that our position players still suck, our bullpen still sucks and that Dave Roberts was not going to wave a magic wand and somehow, fix everything, something many on this board went along with.
Welcome back Truth.
Thanks Watford, I had to take a break, I could only be called a “hovering vulture” for so long until I decided to let this thing play out a few weeks, in which, I am not surprised of the outcome.
I do not see to many of those people around anymore, but, in terms of fixing this team, it is going to take a lot of time. The lineup is horrendous and I see our offensive stats hitting the bottom third just like last year. The starting pitching ERA will crumble as our pathetic bullpen pitches more and more.
This is seriously a huge mess right now, and believe it or not, I hate it, like we all do.
Ok let’s have a bit more positivity in here. This division sucks and still there for the taking, still early. The team is a bit under siege and let’s see what they are made of.
I want to see some of the vets put on DL and not complain. Get some “rehab” starts to get themselves together, and let’s give the kids a bit of room.
I’m talking about primarily the bullpen and the 4-5 spots, plus Turner, Crawford, and Hendricks and Puig. Puig will be interesting. If Roberts can convince him to take a DL stint and he’s still with the program, he’s turned a corner. He probably needs a week of immersive studies in film. Show me that you want to get better:
This division does not suck. The giants have the arsenal to run the table in the division. After that only the Cubs, maybe Nats, Mets stand in the way for #4. I can’t stand it.