We made it guys. Today is the first day of exhibition baseball. Welcome back everyone! Welcome back Dodgers! Welcome to the first game thread in Ladodgerreport history! This is a moment in time guys. Our first game thread! It seems like ages ago since we actually had real live games to watch. Now we will get four weeks of meaningless games to slog through until opening day in about a month. Although the first exhibition game is always fun. We get to see old friends, and watch new faces in Dodger blue for the first time. Today we’ll get our first glimpses of the 2016 Dodgers.
Unfortunately I will not be around to join in the festivities. I will be at work all day without the ability to watch the game. Check that, I have the ability and the want, but I would rather not make my boss angry. It’s hard to baseballs while I am working. It sucks when life gets in the way of Dodger baseball. However I’ll be able to pop in from time to time on my mobile, and I can watch the replay on SNLA when I get home. You guys can catch the game on MLB.tv and the Dodger radio network. For those of you who have SNLA, you can catch it there as well at 1:05 PM.
Clayton Kershaw will kick things off for the Dodgers in grand style as he takes on the White Sox and John Danks. Kershaw will probably only throw two innings today as will most of the starting pitchers around Cactus League action this afternoon. I’ll try and sneak in the lineups if I can. Anyways, here’s hoping the Dodgers still get a win even though it doesn’t count. Enjoy the first game chat guys! Welcome back boys! Go Blue!
Dodgers vs. White Sox @ Glendale
John Danks vs. Clayton Kershaw
TV-SNLA-MLB.tv- 1:05 PM
Rock N Roll… It’s time for Dodger baseball…
I too am hoping that Anderson’s and Ryu’s aches and pains are just ST related and they’ll be ready as previously hoped … Duct Tape and rubber bands??? Clever…
Pete – when are you heading out to Glendale?
I know it’s your favourite time of year
Sports fans — remember . . .
Spring Training games are for training. The wins are simply extra. Many years the weaker teams win a lot of these games for many reasons.
On the stronger teams, some players are working on stuff. Holding back in some areas. Trying rookies here and there. Just all working out the kinks. Some pitchers working on new pitches; staying away from some pitches for injury problems as they build up their bodies, fingers, legs, backs, arms, etc.
So wins or loses are not important until April. Relax and have a Bud.
Ahhh happy opening day!!
Funny, yesterday I wrote about Brett Anderson’s core workouts. He promptly goes out and tweaks his back. I agree, let De Leon have first crack at that #5 role.
Here is a great article on the historical numbers Kersh is putting up:
http://m.mlb.com/news/article/165857272?partnerId=ed-10085508-877704023
Watford you’re absolutely right… With ST & March Madness staring at me I’m a happy camper..
26th. thru 28th. that’s if God’s willing and the creek don’t rise…
Good time to go – just before the season starts.
Gonna put ST on my to do list, looks great especially the way Slotim does it – golf in the morning, Dodgers in the afternoon.
That is my perfect day.
That’s Everybody’s perfect day watford
I made all of our tee times yesterday Watford. Everyday we tee off at 7:30, and some super nice courses, including TPC.
Baseball! Yahoo!
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I want to get into golf. That’s my goal this year.
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Hit the ball you bum!!!!!
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I love baseball!!!!
Brett Anderson out 3-5 months with a bulging disk
Guess the core workouts didn’t help
That is bogus, they have not even gotten the report back yet….
???
No it isn’t ! Look at Dodger news. Roberts says that Bolsinger, and Beachy are going to be next to fill Anderson’s place in rotation, and then the prospects.
Guys here it is as I expected….
@billplunkettocr’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/billplunkettocr/status/705431923078746112?s=09
Just as well we have lots of Depth
Surgery!!
On the upside, at least he’s only signed for a year.
yeah, and I guess we won’t be offering him any qualifying offer next offseason !!
Bobby I read a good tweet from Dylan Hernandez, that said, did anyone outside of the Dodger front office, think that Anderson would make it through another season, without something like this happening, or getting hurt. This is not his exact words, but something like I just wrote. Will hopefully something good, will happen for the Dodgers this year, in spite of some of the front office’s high risk, average award, or worse, pitchers, that they have signed,
Are you sure Bobby?
Wow! Anderson didn’t even make it to a ST game. My instinct is suspicion that someone knew about this particular back issue long before today….but I’m just a conspiracy theorist.
Either way, I’m happy to see baseball being played. The countdown to opening day in SD really begins today!
Of course every writer, is now talking about how the Dodger’s depth is disappearing day by day.
Dan Haren had a tweet saying he better start throwing again.
I’m not going to allow such a small thing sour this fine day that started after 8 hours undisturbed sleep immediately fallowed by a rare completely emptying bladder! The things we once took for granted………CHEERS!
Quas is today your birthday?
No, it was 9 days ago. Today is a better day as I think the super-glue that someone slipped me finally broke down and thus my prostate is no longer welded shut. That and in just a couple minutes……
Quas belated happy birthday! And congrats on your perfect nite of sleep.
Guerrero at 3B!
Time to shine kid
Puig definitely looks leaner.
FAZ is so eager for draft picks they let it cloud their judgement and that led to offering Anderson a QO.
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Watching spring training games for me took second fiddle to watching morning workouts. I’d rather watch maybe two games and see all morning workouts that my time there would allow. Golf would take the place of watching more than two games.
Bums, yeah they gambled and lost. Next up.
I agree about looking forward and even enjoying the competition for the open spots in the rotation but, until FAZ gets us into the WS, I am going to both support and poke at them.
I hope Roberts can find a way to utilise Guerrero better than Donnie did.
Kids got power.
I didn’t know Charlie Culberson was trying out with us.
I didn’t know who he was! Where’d he come from
Came up with SF but played occasionally for Rockies for 2 seasons before spending all last season at AAA.
We signed him in December with a ST invite.
Still – he did double in his 1st AB
Guerrero 2/3 HR & Double
Surely we can use him at 3rd to rest JT and off the bench?
Frias looked much like last season, good & bad.
I’ve said a few times that I think Guerrero should be ready to backup both 3rd and 1st. If he proves that he can do that, it creates an ability to trade either Guerrero or SVS, whichever gets the Dodgers a player that fills a need.
Bum sorry your guy didn’t play, so you missed nothing. And sorry I had to use your guy for Dodgerpatch.
I know it was only the first game of spring but it was a nice start. Ethier and Puig had hits going the opposite way. Ethier had a hit against a lefty. Solid base running first to third on a single, Van Slyke with a stolen base. The hitters were going with the pitch, new hitting coach’s approach maybe, and the base running was aggressive. Looks like a whole new attitude on offense.
Pitching was solid, Frias struggled a little, Kershaw was Kershaw, Yimi did well and Blanton looked really good. I hope there is an open competition for the 5th spot in the rotation, I would love to see Stripling get a shot.
Ron Fairly F that was nice to see. I don’t think we saw much of that, last year. And maybe Ryu might still be able to pitch. Probably would have heard more, if Ryu was down like Anderson. I will think good thoughts. After all, thoughts are actions. Did you guys hear the Dodger’s GM comment? He said that Anderson was looking like a bargain, before this happen.
This site is great on this first day. But unbelievable about Anderson. He’s got a Tiger Woods injury, and you see how Tiger is doing. Forget him this year. And next. Now, comparing the rotations on paper makes us look like the minors next to the giants and Dbacks. Now it’s Kershaw …..and pray for rain. This will tax the whole staff. Terrible news. Anderson was going to be that free agent that played for the next contract. No more.
So, here we are with the Dodgers minus 4/5 of last years starting rotation and I like it a lot! FAZ rolled the dice on McCarthy and Anderson and it’s likely Anderson has thrown his last pitch as a Dodger. It has been suggested that FAZ should have not offered Anderson the qualifying offer, but EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE thought he would get a multi-year deal. Little did they know that more GM’s would think like FAZ and not want to give up picks. It happened to Kendrick and Desmond big time.
Well, he won’t get another qualifying offer from the Dodgers. Signing McCarthy and Anderson was a risk, but half of it worked last year and McCarthy has 2-1/2 years to show his worth. Will he or won’t he? Time will tell, but we have to realize that right about now the Dodgers don’t have Anderson, Ryu or McCarthy, but that could actually be a good thing.
Here’s what the rotation looks like now:
1. Kershaw
2. Kazmir
3. Maeda
4. Wood
5. Beachy, De Leon, Stripling, Bolsinger, Frias, Urias, McCarthy (in June or July)
… and don’t count the kids out!
I’m not a second guesser, but Anderson can now be seen as a mistake, however it’s just “move on” time. I like what can now happen.
BTW, it’s only one game, but I saw a team that looked more confident and cohesive. Is it real or imagined? We will find out.
Alex Guerrero improved his stock I would say.
I said that Anderson would take the qualifying offer and he did. The Dodgers could have signed him for less or put the money elsewhere.
Mark I’m sorry but I disagree here. No GM in their right mind would give Anderson a multi-year deal. Maybe one year or two at most. He’s not good. Let’s just call a spade a spade. The McCarthy Anderson signings were horrendous. Huge swing and miss. That’s fine, everyone makes mistakes. Post coming tomorrow about this. Let’s not make excuses about it though. The front office did not use common sense with those two contracts. I just hope they learn from these gaffes.
I don’t second guess the qualifying offer to Anderson – it was just 1 year. The 4/$48 Mil to McCarthy on the basis of 2 months in New York in 2014 is mystifying. Ryu couldn’t be anticipated. What we could anticipate is that instead of signing a real #2 pitcher (Zimmerman, Price, Cueto, Greinke, etc.) the Braintrust signed less impressive, less proven, less expensive alternatives and all of their fanboys called it “depth”. Now, the so-called depth is all on the DL and we are back to where we were last year.
We have Kershaw and the 4 – or maybe 7 dwarves (or maybe more). The Braves had Spahn and Sain (and pray for rain). The Dodgers have Kershaw and ?
Kazmir is good for 160 ip/year and falls apart in September (2 years in a row) – can’t be counted on down the stretch. Maeda is ??? Wood is ??? Neither Ryu or McCarthy are sure things to ever pitch again although we hope they do.
The problem is – that the Braintrust has opted for quantity over quality. Instead of spending to sign guys with a track record of success (other than Kazmir) they have spent money on has-beens with iffy health histories (McCarthy, Anderson, Beachy), unproven Cubans (so far only 1 Cuban, Puig has panned out and he was signed under Colletti’s reign), and constant roster churn around the edges, with seemingly 100’s of insignificant signings and releases of players who will never wear Dodger Blue. I would rather have one guy with a proven track record of health and success then the roster churn that we have seen here and called depth.
Let’s let one of the prospects pitch! Instead of the spare parts who held down the 4th and 5th spots in the rotation last year (Baker, Beachy, Huff, Bolsinger, Frias, etc.) see if any of the prospects are for real and not just prospects! Let DeLeon, or Lee, or Stripling see what they can do. If they aren’t up to it, at least we’ll know and can move on!
My first choice would be Stripling or Lee followed by Bolsinger and Beachy. Maybe even Sierra. I don’t think Urias or DeLeon get the call until September unless they are just killing it in AAA.
Watching the nightly wrap up show they interviewed Ethier. He said they have been doing fundamental outfield drills they use to do in little league. He said the coaching staff is stressing fundamentals this year. The team definitely looked like they had a different attitude on the field today.
I guess if FAZ thought they might sign Anderson after the off-season settled down for $12M it wasn’t that much more to offer the QO and maybe get a draft pick.
They miscalculated on both Anderson and Kendrick. It would appear they miscalculated on Gordon too. Other outcomes are pending. It’s only been about 18 months, but if the goal for this organization is to win in the playoffs every year, it does not appear to be a successful start for these guys. I remain hopeful for the future. We have some Colletti secured talent ready to step in this year, next year, and the following year. FAZ gets? Meh. Not so much so far. Still early.