Dodgers-Reds. Game Two of three. The return (again) of Mike Bolsinger vs a pitcher making his ML debut. It was an even money bet.
1st inning
Dodgers
Singles for
Chase Utley
Corey Seager
Justin Turner hit a blooper that dropped just right. RBI for Turner and score Utley. 1-0
2nd inning Dodgers 1-0
Reds
1,2,3 inning for Bolsinger.
Dodgers
1,2,3 as well.
4th inning
Reds
Two-out double by Jay Bruce.
And then a home run to Adam Duvall. Reds 2-1
Dodgers
Trayce Thompson single.
Joc Pederson doubled to drive in Thompson. 2-2
Joc stole third and went home on a wild throw into left field. 3-2
6th inning Dodgers 3-2
Dodgers
Trayce Thompson hit a one-out double off the center field wall and ended up on third on an error.
That was all for Reds pitcher, Daniel Wright.
Yasiel Puig hit a long single off the right-center field wall scoring Thompson. 4-2
On a hit that glanced off the glove – and an error – by Reds first baseman Joey Votto, Yasiel Puig went from second all the way home and slid just under the tag. 5-2
8th inning Dodgers 5-2
Reds
Pedro Baez shut them down.
Dodgers
Justin Turner singled with the bases loaded to score Howie Kendrick and Chase Utley. 7-2
Adrian Gonzalez single and RBI. 8-2
9th inning
Adam Liberatore closed it out.
Dodgers Win! 8-2 Three in a row!
Bolsinger delivered five quality innings, only giving up two runs. I would have loved to get at least six innings, but with this pitching staff, we’ll take what we can get.
The eight runs are certainly welcome, but slightly suspect, as back to back singles in the first inning ended up as only one run. JT’s blooper was barely a hit, and Adrian Gonzalez struck out. That took the air out of the inning and the Dodgers were quiet again until the fourth.
The later runs in the eighth came courtesy of the lousy Reds bullpen that quickly got Crawford and Grandal, then walked almost everyone until the bases were loaded. Turner just had to wait until the guy finally found the plate and grooved one for him. Runs are runs, but some are kinda lucky.
However, it still shines like three in a row in the standings, so it’s a happy night for the Boys in Blue, and something to build on for tomorrow night.
Mike Bolsinger (1-1) went 5 2/3 innings with 3 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 1 home run. ERA 4.50 (Still scary)
Dodger Doubles: Pederson, Thompson
Team with RISP: 4 for 15 (Also scary)
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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It’s always nice to play a team that is doing poorly. I think hitting is a great deal about confidence. Maybe our hitters can gain some against these little sisters of the poor. The Reds ain’t good! I’ll take any win right now.
Bluenose Dodger profiled Scott Griggs over at ThinkBlue LA.com and I think he is a guy you could see in the Dodger pen before the year is over. Let’s see what he does at Tulsa, but he’s got some stuff. Also, watch Chase De Jong – Griggs is a reliever but De Jong is a #3 or #4 starter in my opinion. I think he’s an inning eater.
Roberts is putting his stamp on the team with the yanking of Puig out of the game. It seems that Puig even agrees with it. Little things like this can make a big difference going forward!
Bolsinger pitched well “Yeah, but he didn’t make it through the lineup 3 times.” The Dodgers are up to 6th in MLB in pitching “Yeah, but it’s because of Kershaw.” The Dodgers bullpen has climbed up to #13 Yeah, but they will revert back to their old form soon. When you have people whose whole lot in life is to be negative, nothing you ever do is good enough! That’s sad!
Everytime the Reds play the Dodgers in LA, they black the games out in Indy and I have to HideMyAss.com What sense does that make?
Today is a very important start for Kazmir – Can he right the ship?
Looking at Dodger hitting, last night they scored 8 runs . . . They had 11 hits – 2 were doubles, and 9 were singles.
Power wise, the Dodgers are 19th in MLB with 44 HRs. The leading team, is really a 3 way tie: Baltimore, Mets, and the Rays with 65, or 21 more HRs.
But feel for the Braves on the bottom with only 18 HRs total for the season.
But of the teams below the Dodger’s 44 — when you look at RBIs (the Dodgers have 186) the Pirates have hit 4 fewer HRs but have 22 more RBIs than Blue.
The Dodgers have 365 Ks as hitters at #16 in MLB. But feel for the Astros as they have 100 MORE Ks from their hitters. On the other end of the scale are the Angels with 82 less Ks than the Dodgers.
When I look at individual Dodger hitters, I need more from AGon who only has 4 HRs to this point.
Looking at average, there are 51 major league hitters that have higher batting averages than the top Dodger who is Utley at .291. Then you have to drop down to 68 position for AGon at .278. Then a drop to 82nd place in the majors to Seager at .269. Then Pederson at .254 in 106th place.
So the Dodgers only have 4 hitters, hitting over .250 or 1 for 4 a game. That will not win many games. Add to that starting pitching that struggles to go 5 innings, and middle relief that in up and down — and you get at .500 club.
Your so called starting catcher is even worse than that. Grandal is hitting .190 with 3 dingers. This is the guy you want starting every day? Please, get this dreg out of here,.. the Matt Kemp trade looks worse everytime he plays.
Silly
Roger
Thompson should be in that group to. I think he has a higher average then Joc, and Cory.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/05/dodgers-notes-lazarito-fernandez-urias-van-slyke-guerrero.html
Several things about this give me pause. Payroll sits somewhere around $234 million, and how many Cubans are included in that number I’m not sure, but not all of them. I know many believe we are trying to get payroll below tax levels, maybe that’s true, hard to really know, but the only thing that keeps the Dodgers from spending more on international signings, in this case Cubans, is league restrictions. And I have to ask, when you look at the Cubans we have signed, why the continued high level of interest? It’s not like our signings are tearing it up.
Badger some of those Cubans they sign don’t count against the payroll, I remember reading, so they don’t count with the luxary tax. But I don’t like that they are signing a lot of Cubans, because most of them, are getting up
front money, and we don’t really know if they are worth it.
It seems like even the top picks from our country, and DR, don’t get that same up front money. So some of these Cubans, are to risky to sign to me.
This is going to be a theme for you and you’re going to keep banging this drum, so let me answer that with a question? Why wouldn’t you aggressively utilize an untapped resource? If the normal talent development networks, from high school, to college to Dominican academies have been scoured endlessly for talent by each of the thirty teams for decades, there’s no opportunity to gain a competitive advantage. Cuba represents a relatively untapped resource for talent. By leveraging their financial advantage to aggressively sign Cuban prospects, the Dodgers recognize an opportunity to gain a marginal but statistically significant comparative talent advantage vis a vis other teams. What’s the problem?
Do all the prospects pan out? Of course not. Do prospects immediately tear it up at the major league level. Again…of course not. To criticize the front office for implementing an aggressive player development strategy because the signings aren’t “tearing it up” is not a very good argument.
And player talent, like most assets, is fungible. I wouldn’t say the Olivera signing was a bust. By acquiring that asset and trading it for other assets, the Dodgers acquired players that are currently contributing on the major league roster and, with Montas, might soon be on the major league roster. Last I heard, Olivera was languishing and hasn’t made the roster on one of the worst offensive teams in baseball. The Dodgers dodged a bullet by getting rid of him and did well to get the players for him that they did. Even thought he signing bonus to Olivera is an expensive sunk cost, the future value in the players the Dodgers received in return might exceed that.
Fungible. I don’t think that word means what you think it does. It certainly does not apply to young Major League talent.
Why wouldn’t I sign $250 million worth of untested foreign talent? Well, I wouldn’t because I don’t have a quarter billion. But clearly the Dodgers do, so those who keep suggesting money is an issue – just stop it.
$30 million to Olivera for what? I don’t recall exactly, too busy now to research it, but it was as I recall a complicated deal. It seems to me we took on some more contract money, Arroyo I think, got Johnson who was a tire fire, sent over Paco and Bird, and got Wood and Peraza. $30 million is a lot of cabbage dropped on a guy who who never played for us and ended up in jail and gave us back who it did. You like the deal. I’m not so sure. Peraza, Schebler and Dixon for Montas, Johnson, and Thompson, might work out. Still, $30 million?
And by the way, you suggest I “keep banging the drum” whatever, but seems to me you only show up to pound back. That’s ok I guess, if coming after me is your only motivation, pound away. I can take criticism.
major league talent, in the form of prospects or picks or current players is most certainly a commodity that is and can be traded. That makes more sense when you realize Friedman’s last gig was analyzing equities.
And I wouldn’t be so hypersensitive. If you’re going to make critical opinions, be prepared to have them challenged from time to time if they don’t past logical muster. Dodgerrick’s critique down below I thought is one of the best so far. He doesn’t begrudge the FO for mining Cuban talent, if I may paraphrase his position, he supports it. What he’s critical of is, at the same time, neglecting to sign current major league players who can help the team now. If the Dodger front office is willing to spend so much money on prospects for potential future value (and they are outspending everyone else on Cuban players), why on Earth can’t they they sign a decent free agent pitcher….if their stated goal is make at a cursory attempt to field a competitive team now? That is a valid criticism. Yours…that the lack of current impact by the Cuban signings is evidence that the front office is incompetent and is wasting money….is not for the reasons I articulated.
Maybe I should just let this go but as an attempt at finding common ground I will respond.
I agree with you about the Cuban signings. I’m all for signing everybody as long as they have talent. I hope they all make it and contribute. My point has always been the same – these FAZ guys are not bringing top Major League talent directly to the Major League team. And since I agree with most everything rick has said its my opinion that he and I are saying the same things. Maybe he just says it better.
We are spending a lot of money on international talent and that is a good thing. But all of that is for later. What about now? The pitching we needed went elsewhere, three of them to Division rivals. And this lineup sure looks similar to last year’s lineup.
SCOTT BORAS is Urias’ agent? Eeeeuw! And he thinks they should keep Julio down until next year. Well, we have a player who is to valuable to trade and too valuable to put on the major-league roster. What to do?
I too am happy to beat up on weak teams. It will keep us around .500, which for now means only the better teams won’t run away from us.
Dodgers pitching is in the top 10. It’s a good point to make. It surprises me. Sure doesn’t feel like it. We are actually 2nd in BAA. Amazing. In games that Kershaw has pitched we are 9-1. You can do your own math on our record in the other 37 games we’ve played. He’s the reason our record is as close to .500 as it is.
Puig standing and admiring his single was maddening. He took some heat from Roberts and probably from teammates as well. How do you break these habits? Roberts sat him. Will it help? Somehow I doubt it. He remains painfully immature. Apparently our new staff can’t get through to him any better than the old one did. What a shame. So much raw talent.
Dodgers 12th in runs, 19th in average, 23rd in OPS, 27th in stolen bases. I would have thought saber metrics would value those stats more highly.
It’s all about Pythagorean Win Percentage, Badger. Stolen bases and batting average stochastically unimportant. Relief pitchers are fungible.
See, I’m taking classes online to get a job in the front office.
stochastic — adjective Statistics.
of or pertaining to a process involving a randomly determined sequence of observations each of which is considered as a sample of one element from a probability distribution.
Well, if one pays attention, even old guys can learn something every day. And this one I will have to chew on for a while.
I still value speed and the ability to hit for average, hit with power and get on base – something about “tools” I remember from the 60’s. Fungible I know, but I think relief pitching is important. I would think with this current group of starters, by September we are going to hope our relief corps is more consistently better than what we’ve seen.
Good luck with that job search. I think if I was in the front office I wouldn’t last a week. Me and the FAZ would come to blows.
Here’s an idea to exploit our front-office depth: platoon the GMs. Friedman and Zaidi can run the team on months with an R; Anthopolous and Ned can run the team the rest of the time.
Badger
I don’t like that everyone in baseball, knows that Roberts benched Puig for doing that. That is because it isn’t that Puig doesn’t hustle, because he always runs hard to first base. Puig’s problem, is that he doesn’t know when he hits a HR, like everyone else knows. And we all know that Puig makes that mistake, when he thinks he hits a HR. And almost every major leaguer, watches there HRs like that. But I also have no problem with Roberts talking to Puig about standing there, because everyone needs to run all out, until they truly know, that they hit a HR.
And Puig especially needs to run all out, because he never knows for sure that he hit a HR.
Puig is not like Cespedes, who never bothers to move, and back up his fellow outfielders, when a ball is hit to them.
MJ, I agree 100%. Hustling isn’t a Puig issue. Look at how he scored last night. It was pure hustle. He made a boneheaded mistake and he was 100% accountable.
FAZ is weaving quite a spell on the rich guy owners apparently. It sure does make me wonder if there is any correlation at all between intelligence and wealth…..
What is the current situation with Guerrero. His rehab was contractually limited? Go figure. Twenty days to figure out what to do with him. This from a team that has no problem with a 4 man bench.
Is 66 less of a knucklehead because we have a new manager? Or because he admits he was wrong? He is still one. No different than the last 2 years. I’m starting to wonder about that “raw” talent. Talent is talent. After a while, when the word “raw” can’t reasonably apply, it is just another guy who is not good enough to play at the highest level. Right now, there are hundreds of baseball failures who never reached their potential. That happens in baseball and in life. Puig is starting to become one of them. The team will someday have to decide how much longer it can wait. He could still be a star, but for a guy who was better than Cespedes at first, is now nowhere close to him as a ballplayer. The only good thing about the win last night is that Bolsinger didn’t self destruct. It should have been Zack Lee’s start, but I’m afraid he will never be good enough to get a real shot for this group.
I’m starting to agree b17. I’ve been a Puig fan for a while now because he has Trout-like potential. He’s fast, can hit the ball 450′, can throw, but with the exception of a few months, his time in the big leagues has been one excuse after another. He does have a career .288 average, a 135 career OPS+, and is only 25 so his best years should be in front of him. But it does feel his head is permanently fixed up his own ass. 1382 at bats. To stand and admire a ball that hits the base of the wall, turning an easy double into a single is inexcusable. Enough! It’s time to play like a Major Leaguer.
If he hits .288 with 15-20 HR’s while playing stellar defense will that be enough for people?
Sure. As long as his OPS is around .900.
http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/9417098/sport-science-analyzes-dodgers-outfielder-yasiel-puig-swing-espn-magazine
Eventually I want to see this guy uncork the monster seasons, one after another for 5 years. It can start any night.
Here goes KAZ-Mire tonight
For those of you that don’t see my pun – “Mire” = a situation or state of difficulty, distress, or embarrassment from which it is hard to extricate oneself.
When will his hand be healed?
BOB is that called a quagmire?
It is possible to improve a team’s bullpen in one season
Seattle
2015 4.15
2016 2.65
Too bad Neddy Jr. does not know how to do it. In fact the bullpen has been the real problem for years and one of the reasons Kerfailure was left in playoff games for too many innings. Insanity reigns.
BOB guess who the Mariners have in there bullpen, Joe Peralta. Does that name sound familar to you?
Well 3 in a row is nice, BUT, they should have been beating the crap out of the Angels, Padres and Reds. They need to win tonight to go 5-5 over the last 10 games. A stretch that if they were a better team, they should have had at least 8 wins. With this pitching staff against the Mets, and the Cubs, they will be lucky to win 2. Granted, they hit better on the road, why is a mystery, but other than Kershaw, and especially in that band box Wrigley Field for 4 games, the Cubs hitters will have a field day against guys like Kazmir who gives up a ton of homers.
I have to disagree with some comments posted today. I really can’t think of any ball player in the 60+ years of my fanship who changed as much as Puig has. Sure, he made a couple of embarrassing errors this week, but the real concern should be what he does in the future. It seems to me that he has gone from being very unpopular with his teammates to being very popular and interactive with them; from always ignoring the cut-off man to being more discerning; from being constantly late to being punctual, etc. He took the criticism from his manager, accepted the criticism and said things that indicate that he understands. Thus, I think there are many signs that he can continue to make positive changes. If he can hit; he will be an important part of this team. If he can’t, all these things are neither here nor there.
Puig is still a knucklehead. Didn’t advance on Ellis’ sac bunt on Sunday, possibly prolonging the 17 inning game. Missed a popup that he should have caught too. Didn’t run yesterday. Too busy show-boating to do his job.
Not getting everything out of his talent. He has superstar talent but doesn’t play like one.
DodgerRick, Nomar and Orel didn’t see it that way on the bloop hit. Certainly, it was not a lack of effort. No, he is not a finished product, but his trends are in the right direction.
Only Cubans on the 40 man roster or signed to major league contracts who were taken off of the 40 man roster count against salary cap. See True Blue LA :
http://www.truebluela.com/2013/10/21/4861112/los-angeles-dodgers-payroll
Arruebarrena, Puig, Guerrero, Sierra, count against this year’s cap.
I have no objection to the Dodgers going to Cuba or anywhere else to get talent. My objection is that while they don’t sign actual successful major league players due to salary constraints, they spend money in buckets to sign unproven Cubans. The chance that most of these guys will ever make an impact in “The Show” is not great.
My observation is that the Braintrust has a visceral need to show themselves to be the smartest guys in the room and to build a roster using non-traditional means just to show that they can do it and outsmart the competition – it’s like the Nerd Superbowl. Rather than do the obvious thing and sign, I don’t know, maybe Johnny Cueto, they would rather sign Scott Kazmir and Kenta Maeda. They can call it depth that way, since there are 2 of them and not 1. Quantity rather than quality. Cubans rather than major leaguers.
Thus far, the only Cuban who has made a difference is Puig (I know, Puig, Guerrero, and Arruebarrena were signed by Colletti et al). And I also know that a few of the Cubans are highly touted prospects. But really, Sierra was not a good pitcher in Cuba and they gave him 6 years and $30MM.
As others have observed, it’s not about spending money apparently. It’s about how it’s spent. Would you rather have, say Johnny Cueto for $21MM per year or would you rather have Sierra, Guerrero, Olivera et al; or Kazmir and Maeda?
Just to be clear – I like that they are signing the Cubans. I would like Cubans AND quality major leaguers rather than as an alternative due to “salary constraints”.
Good points rick. If it works out later, our geeks win the Nerd Super Bowl. It’s still way too early to tell, but the Giants signings look like the winner so far. The wheels have come off the Shelby Miller go-cart. I think Greinke will get it going but if Miller is a bust? Ouch in the desert.
I have no problem with signing any young talent, but how can we not question the young Cubans? $250 million would go a long way to sign ML proven talent. And by not using that money to do just that it reaffirms the idea it’s not about now. You don’t sign Cueto/Price/Zimmerman/Samardzija but you do sign McCarthy/Kazmir/Anderson/Maeda and try to sell it as win now? Bullsh*t. I think we are going to need patience in dealing with our team and our FO. There appears to be a lot of baseball pedigree there, so, I hope they are as good as they think they are.
Of course it’s BS. But they can’t say they are rebuilding otherwise they couldn’t justify their ticket prices or their cable channel.
Badger
I think that Kazmir’s and McCarthy’s contracts combined, was what Zimmerman signed for, give or take, a couple million dollars.
It still sounds funny, to say, give or take a million dollars.
Are they really making those figures?
Agreed, Rick. I have nothing against signing any foreign players, but shouldn’t they be as “careful” with money as they are with putting together a big-league roster? One problem with Cuban players is the difficulty in scouting them, which can lead to overpaying for guys who are not close to being ready for the show.
To me Diaz and Alvarez are the Cubans to watch in the minors right now.
Hawkeye
I was just watching the MLB Channel, and they had a discussion about Puig, and they said he has had a history of not hustling.
That is the reason that I don’t like that everyone in baseball knows, that Roberts took Puig out.
Because just like I said above, he doesn’t have a problem with hustling.
And everyone in baseball, are now jumping to conclusions about Puig, like they always do, when it comes to Puig.
And like I said above, everyone should run until they know for sure, that they have hit a HR.
And Puig never knows, so he should always run.
And the bottom line is, Puig loves to run.
I think Puig would love to hit, an in the park HR much more, then hit a HR over the fence.
I would also love to see Puig hit, an in the park HR, off Bumgarner, in AT&T park.
And I would love to just watch him run, and at the same time, watch all of those Giant fans, in AT&T park squirm.
And I am not trying to protect Puig
I am just telling the truth.
To not run EVERYTHING out is inexcusable. That is something you learn in T-ball. Standing and admiring is bush league and to do it on a warning track fly ball is embarrassing. His name is still being brought up for this stuff and it’s years later. We know Mattingly couldn’t get through to him, can Roberts? I sure hope so. I am so ready to see this guy put it together.
Badger
I’m not making excuse. When did you become hard core? Did you read what I wrote? I said everyone should run, until you know for sure that it is a HR. All I said was the truth. These players from other country’s play baseball differently. Puig sees Poppy, and others do that.
” it’s like the Nerd Superbowl. ”
🙂
Dodger rick
Thanks for the info! I thought I read something like that!
FAZ: Mr Tsao, you have a sore arm or something and you are going on the DL for awhile…
Tsao: My arm isn’t sore, why would I need to go on the DL?
FAZ: Because if you don’t go on the DL we can’t recall Bolsinger till his 10 days are up.
Tsao: But I want to pitch…
FAZ: Two reasons. One, you get major league salary, $3000 a day, on the DL. Two, we really don’t need you in Oklahoma City so we’ll have to put you on waivers…
Tsao: You’re right, my arm’s hurting…
Wondering
Tsao is so good at walking, he just walked out on them, before getting told he would get 3000 day.