Were you at the game yesterday? Did you watch at home or in a sports bar surrounded by fellow Dodger fans? Did you jump up from your chair (like I did), or yell out loud inside your car when Joc Pederson hit that grand slam?
If you missed yesterday’s exciting Opening Day 14-3 win, the Dodgers plan to do it again tonight, with another beat down of the hapless San Diego Padres.
Yesterday the Dodgers sent their Clayton to the mound, and today the Padres will counter with theirs, Clayton Richard.
Last year Richard only pitched 67.2 innings with a record of 3-4. His innings count is low because he spent a part of last year traveling up and down in the Chicago Cubs system before they dealt him to the Padres. They made him a starter and he put up a 0.4 WAR, 1.66 WHIP and a neat 3.33 ERA. The southpaw struck out 41, but he also walked 31 and gave up 4 dingers.
The Dodgers bring Kenta Maeda to the party, hoping he’ll repeat his winning major league debut performance from 2016, which was also against the Padres, and featured Maeda slamming his first ML home run as well.
Maeda followed that opening weekend performance with a 16-11 winning record for the year. He tended to give up a few runs when he pitched, ending with a 3.48 ERA and 1.14 WHIP, so hopefully the Dodgers bats will stay red hot tonight and score plenty of runs in support.
Bright Spots: Maeda had a strong Spring Training and he’s added a new pitch to his arsenal this year, a cut fastball. He also upped his training regimen in an effort to pitch deeper into games.
Tonight's Dodger lineup vs. Padres:
Forsythe 2B
Seager SS
Turner 3B
Gutierrez LF
Puig RF
González 1B
Grandal C
Hernández CF
Maeda P pic.twitter.com/oVkUbKjS31— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 4, 2017
Game time: 7:10 pm
Giveaway: Dodgers phone charger, and CSULB night.
My predictions:
Kenta Maeda will go six complete innings, giving up one run with 7 Ks.
The Dodgers will score first, in the first inning.
Kenley Jansen won’t be needed.
Home run: Justin Turner
Go Dodgers!
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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OK Oscar, now you have gone too far! You cannot take an old Dodger nickname and apply it to this team. They need something original and new. The Big Blue Wrecking Crew of the 90’s is gone. It would be like these Reds reviving the Big Red Machine. Or the Yankees being the Bronx Bombers again. So put on your thinking caps out there guys we need something original. Like the Blue Mashers, or something along those lines. Blue Steamroller comes to mind. Just starting things along, do not expect those 2 to fly. I was home, watching the game on MLB.TV….Had the computer on so I could hear the radio broadcast instead of the Droner….Joe Davis…..
Blue Bashers
I like it…..or Blue Bash Brothers.
Blue Man Crew
Sticking with the LA/UCLA thing…..Big Blue Ballers.
Fair enough, Michael. I like the idea for christening a new nickname for this year’s club.
I’m not real fond of the Blue Ballers bc of the connotation with “blue balls”. It’s really easy to be turned against the team if they lose or in a bad way, so I secretly hope that one doesn’t stick.
I have two suggestions:
The Blue Buzzsaw or Doc’s Dodgers
PS…I forgot to mention I’ll be at Chavez Ravine tonight, so if any of you out there use twitter, check in with my twitter @omsports42 for some tweets from the game!
I like it Oscar. We can keep this going a while and maybe you can ask some fans at the Ravine for ideas too…
The Big Blue Wrecking Crew actually dates back to the 70s. If they could resurrect it in the 90s, why can’t they resurrect it now?
Good memory! I thought it was from back then, but I didn’t really trust my memory. Ha!
Blue Ballers is more appropriate for this current group. The team just can’t get off against lefties.
Oscar
I that so too!
Per the previous thread about Grandal. I think Badger nailed it with his analysis of Grandyman. He is a mediocre defender with some pop in his bat. He played well the first couple months in 2015 and last year also, then he went to what he is. A 220-240 hitter. Sure he has power, and that is good. But framing is over rated, and he is a passed ball waiting to happen. He and Gonzo are both DP machines and start counting how many rally’s are killed when they ground into a DP. Grandal is also prone to strikeout. He has a decent OBP, because he does walk. We have plenty of run producers on this team. That being said, I hope he does great because the team would benefit from it, but there are 2 kids in the minors right now, Smith and Ruiz who will be ready in a couple of years. Grandal is what he is. I expect I will see pretty much what I have seen his last two season’s. And like Badger, I doubt he will play in 130 games. He is healthy now, but he also has a history of getting hurt.
Turner looked dialed with that long ball swing of his. Good call. Maeda sharp too. Should be no contest, but those are still Big Leaguers with some AAA’ers mixed in on the other side. There’s a reason they play the games and why even the very best teams lose 60 and the very worst win 60.
Normally I would agree Rye but I’m not sure that SD team would win a Triple A league. I’m now understanding who the ‘other ML executives’ were that rave about the Dodgers depth. Can anyone envision what that SD team will look like in a month or two once injuries have set in. Hell, they’ll be wanting the June draft to happen in May so they can fill their Major League Roster. Probably safe to assume their #1 pick will be the highest paid player in the organization.
That is one sad organization. I hope they are charging minor league admission at the gate and concession for this team. When will the rumors begin of them leaving SD for Vegas?
Blue Ballers. I like it.
San Diego is in a resign and rebuild mode. They need FAZlosophy big time down there, but in the Tampa mode, not the LA mode. Paying $48 million for older ailing maybes won’t work there. They need 3 WAR for half million type players. Good luck. This year? 100 losses is not out of the question.
We scored big on a lousy team. Yeah, squirrel went yard from both sides, but let’s see him do it against Bumgarner and Melancon. That would be Blue Balling.
Did everyone see the report that Pedro Guerrero is near death?
Yes, He had a stroke.
Grandal is the Squirrel? Outstanding nickname. Gas Can Hatcher and the Blind Squirrel….I like it. New nicknames for the players too..works for me…….
Chili
You made the best point about there payroll, as compared, to Kershaw’s salary.
I don’t like that we are playing the Padres first, because we don’t know for sure, how our offense is right now, against the Padres pitchers.
They used to have pretty good pitchers, but it doesn’t look like they have to many right now.
And we have to face the Rockies, and the Cubbies, after this series.
And the Rockie have some good pitchers, that have decent fastballs, and we know what the Cubbies have.
In all honesty, opening with a triple A team should instill confidence and going 4 and 0 to start the season is a good thing. Everyone else in the Division will get their 19 games with the Padres. Once could surmise that the NL West team with the best record against these vaunted Padres just might be the Division winner.
Interesting way to look at it. If everyone beats up on the Padres, and I suspect they will, then it’s the other games in the Division that will matter more. That said, going 19-0 against any one team would sure help the overall record.
The Las Vegas Padres? I don’t think that will work. That would be like the Notre Dame Hookers. Maybe they could become the Vegas Baseball Raiders. The Silver and Black Round Ball Attack. I’m sure Davis wouldn’t mind. That’s an open minded cooperative there.
I see that Urias is on the Rancho Cucamonga roster and will make his debut for Oklahoma City.
Like I keep saying, why waste his pitches? Supposing he has X amount of pitches in his arm.
I could go on and on. Supposing he gets hurt. Innings Limit? Debut starting at Oklahoma City?
Odd
Ray
I agree, if Urias is going to pitch in any games, it should be in the majors.
I thought they were having him go slow.
Then I thought they would build him up, in four or five weeks, for the day, that works for the innings, that they want him to pitch this year.
No one knows exactly what amount of innings, that a pitcher will get hurt from.
That is obvious because they still have pitchers, getting hurt, even on the prescribed innings.
We don’t know what the physical plan is. It might be number of pitches, not innings. And the stress level in the minors is no where near as intense as it is in the Majors. This is about September and October, not April and May.
Badger
We know that.
You think he’s gonna give them a break because the’re AAA hitters?
Take it easy? I doubt it
I think he’ll do his best to smoke them all.
Maybe he’ll pitch a no-hitter (for OKC)
If he’s going to pitch, I doubt he cares what month it is, or what League it is
“You think he’s going to give them a break”
No. I didn’t say that. We’ll see what the plan is. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him slowly build up to 90 pitches. Maybe 45-50 first time out. Maybe an extra day rest. Maybe 3-4 innings. I don’t know. I’m just guessing.
Funny you guys are talking about Urias because Orel and Joe were discussing that on the broadcast. The Dodgers are doing it to protect his arm. They do not want to wear him out way before his time. Remember, this kid is only 20….they want him for the long haul and feel this is the way to do it.
Michael
Everyone knows that.
The debate is why put mileage on his arm, in AAA?
He can throw the same amount of pitches, up in the majors.
And he did pitch out of the bullpen last year, so that isn’t the problem.
Like I already said, they should have had him report later, and have him come to work, when they were ready to build him up.
the debate there is, where are they going to put him in the rotation? He is no relief pitcher and wasting him in that role when there are 3 lefty’s in the pen now is ridiculous He could fill Wood’s role as the long man, but like I said before, relief pitchers warm up differently and have a total different routine from starters. We can debate it all day long, but the FACT of the matter is, this is what the powers at be think is best for him and the team. It is better if he is starting every 5th day at OKC and ready when the call comes, than pitching oh say once a week out of a stacked bullpen. Let the people who know what they are doing do their jobs.
Oh, and MJ, everyone does not know it or understand it because they keep bringing it up. Wish as they might it is what it is, and they have to live with it.
Well we knew they would not go 162-0. Bats very quiet. Richard pitching a gem. LA has hit into 4 DP’s so far…
Looking at the box score it would appear we didn’t get a man into scoring position all night. Yoiks. A real snoozer. Against the worst team in the league. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.
Badger
Do you think our rightie line up, and the rest of the regulars, still are showing, they will have trouble, hitting a leftie pitcher?
After 1 game MJ, who knows? If a total journey man like Richards, who has had shoulder problems can totally dominate them, what is going to happen when they see the Mad Bum. I think Roberts made a mistake starting Gonzo over SVS. They hit the ball pretty hard, but only Forsythe seemed to take the right approach. I will say this for Richards, he pitched exactly like his scouting report says he does. A lot of ground balls on that heavy sinker of his. Result, 4 Dodger double plays. Kike still cannot hit anyone. Turner had a nice solid single to RF. But I think part of the problem is that they were over aggressive and making outs on the first pitch a lot. Puig hit into a DP doing that and so did Seager.