The Dodgers placed outfielder Franklin Gutierrez on the 10-day disabled list with a strained left hamstring. The DL stint is retroactive to April 11. Right handed hitting Trayce Thompson has been recalled and he’ll join the Dodgers in Chicago. Gutierrez injured his hamstring while getting thrown out attempting to steal second base during the Dodger’s 3-2 loss to the Cubs on Monday night. Meanwhile the Dodgers will juggle the lineup because Justin Turner injured his quad on a takeout slide in the same game. Logan Forsythe will slide over to third, and Chase Utley will take over keystone duties for tonight’s game.
Dodgers placed Franklin Gutierrez on 10-day DL (retroactive to 4/11) with a left hamstring strain and recalled Trayce Thompson from OKC.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 12, 2017
Brandon McCarthy will get the start for the Dodgers looking for his second win of the season. He defeated the Padres on the Dodger’s opening home stand going six innings and allowing just two runs on a two-run home run to Wil Myers.
The Cubs will give the ball to veteran right hander John Lackey. He’s looking for his second win of the season as well after beating the Cardinals in the opening week of the season. In that game he struck out seven over six innings. Lackey is 7-4 at Wrigley Field with a 2.62 ERA.
Dodgers @Chicago
Andrew Toles LF
Corey Seager SS
Logan Forsythe 3B
Joc Pederson CF
Chase Utley 2B
Yasiel Puig RF
Brandon McCarthy P
Brandon McCarthy-1-0 vs. John Lackey-1-0
Game time 5:05 PM – TV – SNLA
Forsythe is batting third for the first time this season and Puig is dropped down to the eighth spot in the Dodger lineup. In case you were wondering Forsythe has batted third just 18 times in his career and has a .159/.245./.247 slash line in the third spot. He’s just 7 for 44 batting third with no home runs.
Go Blue!
Trayce will tear it up for us. Puig is right back where he belongs, let him bat 8th for at least 30 days before placing him in the 3 thur 6 spots in the order. And for God’s sake get Grandal out of the 5 hole. This roster has a lot of holes, a lot of holes.
Puig in the 8th spot sounds good. Looks like another frustrating game – 2 on, no outs, and end up with 3 strikeouts. Huge opportunity wasted.
Now that is a hit from Puig that I love, to the right side!
I hate when these pitchers don’t wait for a strike to bunt.
Anyone know anything about an Oneil Cruz? 6’8″ 3B for the Dodgers?
McCarthy seems to be back in his low exit velocity/high GB mood.
Yeah, I heard of him. 6’6″ 175 pound .200 hitter.
McCartilage is living good. Double plays and 2 home runs on any other night driven back the yard. It’s good to be lucky.
Maybe they will start hitting again, now that Lackey is out.
FanGraphs likes his bat. Only .200?
Ha! You almost had me there. Very funny.
I meant what do people know beyond what I can look up….
Our hitters are not bad, and they are trying to give Lackey a hard time but so far Lackey’s got them thinking and using their tendencies against them, and getting them to overthink based on all the missed opportunities.
I’m not there on McCathy yet. 3rd time through the lineup coming up.
That was the best tag I have seen Corey make!
Last year, he had trouble with his tags, and he often would try to tag a runner a second time, and that made it look like, he missed the tag.
They’ll take him out before he gets through the lineup a third time.
I don’t like Jim Bowden as either a Baseball exec, or an ESPN “insider.”
But he has a column that should drive some people here batty.
http://www.espn.com/blog/the-gms-office/insider/post?id=14113
It’s an insider piece, but it talks about how pitching staffs are changing. Getting deeper. Touching on what YF touches on above:
There is also simply too much data out there that says the third time through the order is when most starters get hit and give up the most runs. Twenty years ago, the spread in OPS between a first at-bat vs. a third was almost 60 points; last year that spread had expanded to almost 70 points. Therefore, general managers are building deeper bullpens, not just in quantity to get innings but also quality.
But I bet the people here will love this part:
Dodgers president Andrew Friedman is frank about his mission on that score. “Starting pitching has become the most overvalued in the industry because, outside of the aces, they are pitching less innings, with less starts as more depth is needed,” Friedman said. “We have a tremendous amount of depth on the prospect side and at the major league end by design. Quantity is just as important as quality in today’s baseball.”
I don’t like Jim Bowden as either a Baseball exec, or an ESPN “insider.”
But he has a column that should drive some people here batty.
http://www.espn.com/blog/the-gms-office/insider/post?id=14113
It’s an insider piece, but it talks about how pitching staffs are changing. Getting deeper. Touching on what YF touches on above:
There is also simply too much data out there that says the third time through the order is when most starters get hit and give up the most runs. Twenty years ago, the spread in OPS between a first at-bat vs. a third was almost 60 points; last year that spread had expanded to almost 70 points. Therefore, general managers are building deeper bullpens, not just in quantity to get innings but also quality.
But I bet the people here will love this part:
Dodgers president Andrew Friedman is frank about his mission on that score. “Starting pitching has become the most overvalued in the industry because, outside of the aces, they are pitching less innings, with less starts as more depth is needed,” Friedman said. “We have a tremendous amount of depth on the prospect side and at the major league end by design. Quantity is just as important as quality in today’s baseball.”
I think this is all true and all things that we’ve discussed before, and are the trends we saw all of last year with how the pitching staff was managed. There was and is a lot of groaning about starting pitchers not lasting past five innings as a sort of flaw, but these execs are simply playing the averages. If a pitcher tends to get hit the third time through the order, why on Earth wouldn’t you put in a fresh arm and a fresh look to that batting order? In the past a team couldn’t because that middle reliever was typically the worst pitcher on the staff – the “mop up” guy. I think with the bullpen the Dodgers put together last year, and even more this year (tonight with Stripling is a perfect example), they have bona fide quality starter assuming that middle inning role. They’ve extended that bridge to the closer.
Makes sense to me. It worked for the Royals. It’s backed by statistical evidence and good sense. I don’t have a problem with it.
Freidman said the same thing I’ve been saying for a while. The ability of a pitcher to pitch through the 7th inning is an extremely overvalued commodity…unless he’s someone like Kershaw. I just think the Samardzija contract for 90 mil is just the dumbest thing ever.
I was ok with that until the last sentence bluto. If your quantity has no quality, you’re screwed. Ask the giants.
I get what the theory is. Frankly I’d rather win it with great starting pitching, but, it’s a team game. Doesn’t really matter how you get it done.
Was that a bit of framing there by Grandal?
That was an outside pitch called a strike. Gibson blew it, big break for Dodgers.
yes. As Badger says, pitch framed for the K.
I could see it was outside from Arizona. Moving a glove doesn’t fool me.
Wow Strip looked good today!
Bobby
Everyone has looked good tonight!
And Stripling has looked good, since the regular season began.
I am very impressed with what he has done, and in tough situations.
Bobby
I meant all the pitchers have looked really good tonight.
And even though Toles just struck out, I think it was one of his better at bats, because he hung in there, pretty good.
That was only his second strike out this year.
Caught a break there – 2 throwing errors on one play!!
Caught breaks all night. This one we were just meant to win. The baseball gods were with us. Yeah, you got those gaudy rings before the game, but the night you got them you were shut out. By the way, did you see Orel’s ring? Classy.
Well it’s a final!
Great pitching, not much offense, but still a win. Feels like we’ve played a month but it’s only been 9 games.
I listened to the game and the Dodgers sounded good, real good. Grandal and McCarthy played great. Thumbs up baby, nice game.
Who received the error: Seager or Agone?
AGon got the error, but Orel said it should have gone to Seager. I agree with him. Though it hit the very top of AGon’s glove, Adrian was stretched out as far as he could go. It was a bad throw.
Badger
Yes Corey should have got the error, but I thought in a one run game, Agone should have got off the base and caught the ball, so the runner, wouldn’t get in scoring position.
That is if Agone could have caught that ball, by taking his foot off the base.
I saw the game. Not impressed. But it’s ok, it’s early and we got some breaks.
I saw it too. The wind blowing hard in saved McCarthy two home runs and a loss. Maybe he used it to his advantage purposely. I doubt it. But we’ll all take it.
Badger
Thanks for reminding me to wait until thirty games, and 100 at bats.
I only wish everyone else would do the same, but almost everyone here, is good about that.
YF reminded us the other day, and Artie agreed with YF about that.
But in that good weather, it is hard for everyone to play there best.
And I am with Badger, about that not being Baseball weather.