After another frustratingly pathetic loss on Friday evening the Dodgers are now officially a losing club with a 14-15 record. Get used to it. There are more losses to come. I am sorry I can’t be optimistic right now, but I have seen enough from this roster. Major changes need to be made now or the Dodgers won’t contend this season. It’s that simple. I believe that the Dodgers need more baseball people in the front office. What they have is a front office filled with executives and number crunchers, but no baseball people. This is why accounting departments don’t run companies.
It’s important to realize my next point. Let me make it and then I will move onto Saturday’s match-ups. The front office is trying to win; they are just very bad at it. Some of you have said you don’t believe the front office is trying to win. Trust me they are. I believe that they are just very bad evaluators of talent. That’s the big problem. They’re bad at their jobs. Anybody who believes that Chris Hatcher, Scott Kazmir, or some of the rest of those bums are good pitchers is bad at evaluating talent. The advanced metrics don’t even favor any of these guys.
The problems remain the same from last season and the front office didn’t do anything to improve the club. They have two starting pitchers, no middle relief, and no situational hitting. The hitting will probably come around, but the pitching staff needs a major overhaul. Unless the club makes some major changes to the pitching staff, then they will not contend this season. If that happens then there needs to be accountability. I’ll talk about that in a later post.
Dodgers Lineup @ Toronto
Utley 2B
Seager SS
Turner 3B
Gonzalez 1B
Puig RF
Kendrick LF
Pederson CF
Crawford DH
Ellis C
Clayton Kershaw-3-1 vs. R.A. Dickey-1-1
Game time – 10:07 AM TV-SNLA
For today, the Dodgers will try and even up the series behind ace Clayton Kershaw. He’s coming off his epic shutout of the Padres last week. Overall he is 3-1 with a 1.96 ERA in six starts. He’s struck out 54 and walked only 3 in 46 innings. Kershaw has allowed just 5.9 hits per nine innings and has a 1.84 FIP. He’s on pace for another Cy Young type season. It’s such a shame his excellent pitching is surrounded by such lesser talent, but I digress.
Kershaw has never faced the Blue Jays and never pitched at Roger’s Center. The current Blue Jays are batting .233 (21 for 90) against Kershaw. Most of these are guys that faced him in the National League. You’ll see Troy Tulowitzki’s name in there. He’s batting .270 (17 for 63) with three home runs off of Kershaw. Oddly though, we might not see much of him in this series. Tulo is in a massive slump right (.163 .584 OPS) and was out of the line on Friday night.
Kershaw vs. Blue Jays
| Name | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | SH | SF | IBB | HBP | GDP |
| Troy Tulowitzki | 69 | 63 | 17 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 15 | .270 | .319 | .444 | .763 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Darwin Barney | 10 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .222 | .222 | .222 | .444 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Russell Martin | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .000 | .167 | .000 | .167 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| R.A. Dickey | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Michael Saunders | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Justin Smoak | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .333 | .333 | .333 | .667 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Josh Thole | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .333 | .333 | .667 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Marco Estrada | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 100 | 90 | 21 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 6 | 20 | .233 | .278 | .356 | .634 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
Toronto will counter with old man R.A. Dickey. The former Cy Young award winner is still pitching and still rocking that knuckleball. The 41-year old is not having a very good start to the season. Dickey is 1-3 with a 5.73 ERA over 33 innings. Dickey has allowed 10.6 hits per nine and struck out 6.8 per nine in six starts. He’s definitely already in steep decline.
Old age will do that. The Dodgers haven’t faced him in a while. However Dickey is 1-1 with a 2.08 ERA in 4 starts against the Dodgers. Dickey has struck out 19 and walked 3 in 21.1 innings pitched versus the Dodgers. He’s 27-17 with a 4.18 ERA in his career at Roger’s Center. The current Dodgers are batting .278 (10 for 36) against Dickey. Surprisingly it’s Carl Crawford that has hit the only home run and is also batting .429 (3 for 7) against Dickey. Chase Utley has also hit Dickey well with a .313 (5 for 16) average and two extra-base hits.
Dickey vs. Dodgers
| Name | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | SH | SF | IBB | HBP | GDP |
| Chase Utley | 18 | 16 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | .313 | .333 | .438 | .771 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Carl Crawford | 8 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | .429 | .429 | 1.000 | 1.429 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Howie Kendrick | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .200 | .200 | .200 | .400 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Clayton Kershaw | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .200 | .000 | .200 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| A.J. Ellis | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .333 | .333 | .333 | .667 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Joe Blanton | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 41 | 36 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 8 | .278 | .308 | .444 | .752 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
The roof is supposed to be open today. Maybe some fresh air will do the Dodgers some good. Unfortunately neither the metric system nor the air will change this pitching staff into a good one. Once again poor Kershaw will have to do it all. He’ll have to pitch another compete game shutout because the bullpen can’t and won’t hold any leads obtained. Kershaw will also have to drive in a couple of runs himself because obviously the offense can’t and won’t score any runs for him. Seriously, great roster you built here Mr. Friedman.
Hopefully things will change once the Dodgers bottom out. When the Dodgers are firmly in last place and 8 games under .500 (believe me it’s coming soon, possibly after this next home stand) then that might spark the front office to make some changes. Hopefully those come soon, because I like you can’t take much more of this mediocrity.
Go Blue.
We have reached the point in the season where we are facing a few of the better teams. You are right, we will see how good we really are over the rest of this month. I think it will be an accomplishment to win half of them. We will be at home for most of the next 10 so that is an advantage. Wait a minute……
Oh well After Toronto, NY and St Louis we have the Angels, SD and Cincinnati. But then the Mets again, and the Cubs. If we are not below .500 by June 1st it will be a very positive sign. That’s what I look for – a .500 team on 6-1 of ’16.
Tell me Scott what you really think of the Dodgers. I quit watching after being down 0-2 . I just knew they could not come back. I am older so I am not a metrics guy. I believe what my eyes tell me. Pederson, Grandal and Thompson need to play full time. I would go to the end of May with our starters and then sort out what needs to be done. Bullpen needs to be blown up. What I just said above will never happen because of contracts that some of these players have. Some of these contracts FAZ inherited, but some are on FAZ.
I would bring up DeLeon, Urias, Lee, and Cotton. Put Deleon and Urias in the starting rotation and let them pitch 5 innings. Put Lee and Cotton in the bull pen so they can pitch multiple innings. If you do not want to bring up Lee and Cotton then put Kasmir and Wood in the bullpen to pitch multiple innings. I would wait Until the end of May to make these decisions.
You have some more terrible decisions to make when SVS and Ethier come back. I like what Herscheiser said a couple of times. How did these players ever get to the majors, if they could not hit left or right handed pitchers. Enough said about platooning.
I disagree about Grandal. He is not that great a catcher or a game caller. Is he a better hitter than AJ? Well even that is debatable. He has more power, but lifetime their averages are close, and the pitchers have a better ERA with AJ behind the plate. As for bringing up Lee, Deleon, Urias and Cotton……You have no room to bring up all 4 guys. You have Kazmir, Kershaw and Maeda all on guaranteed contracts. They are not going to pay Kazmir over 16 million to pitch out of the BP. You are stuck with him unless he gets injured. Urias is not even 20 years old yet. He has never pitched over 100 innings in his career. You want these guys to pitch 5 innings and stress out an already mediocre bullpen? That is LUNACY. Lee is 3-1 with an ERA north of 5. Deleon just came off the DL less than a week ago. He is far from being ready. Cotton has not pitched well. You cannot blow up the bullpen. Blanton, Howell and Jansen are on guaranteed contracts. You can mix and match maybe, send guys down who have options. But up until last night Blanton had been pitching well. Remember the inning before he got out of a base loaded jam on one pitch. Liberatore, who loaded the bases, has also been pitching well. The biggest culprits out there have been Howell, Baez and Hatcher. Coleman has pitched well since his return. There is no quick fix….and honestly, this is on the FO for going mediocre in the off season. Maeda has been a pleasant surprise, but he is a 6 inning guy so far. Only Kershaw out of that whole bunch goes more than that with regularity. You cannot win with a rotation of 6 inning pitchers unless your BP is nails every night. You also cannot win with a lineup that is hitting south of the Mendoza line with runners in scoring position, rarely has 2 out rally’s, and strikes out way too much. Too many wasted AB’s with runners on. How many times this month have they had the bases loaded and failed to score??? Ethier is 2 months out. SVS is not even doing baseball activities yet, Guererro is just now starting to get some baseball stuff in. Bolsinger, Ryu and McCarthy are starting to throw more often, with rehab starts coming very soon……..If they get to June with a better than .500 record, it will be a miracle.
AJ and Grandal go over every pitcher together, so Grandal is calling the game the same way that AJ would.
Michael you know that the Dodgers shouldn’t have to have Blanton as a set up guy. They should bring one of the young pitchers up, for the bullpen. Then you can watch how many inings they are pitching.
This bullpen problem, is because this front office, did nothing in the off season! And our guys didn’t do that bad, with there hitting yesterday. The Bluejays have a much more powerful offensive line up, then the Dodgers, and they didn’t do much more then the Dodgers did yesterday. The Dodgers had a two out rally, that they would have never done last year.
And they were facing the Nationals former closer, in there last at bats. And the Bluejays were facing Blanton. Blanton gave up a double before that HR. And Blanton was ahead of the count, and had two strikes, on the hitter, who hit the HR. He should have thrown a different pitch, with that count, and he has already said that!
You probably already know this:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/05/dodgers-considering-promoting-julio-urias.html?fv-home=true
I would rather not feel forced to do this. The kid is 19. Yeah, he has greatness written all over him and can probably handle the assignment. I would just prefer he stay where he is and work on his stamina.
Agreed Badger, leave him there. He will do nothing to save this roster. Let this season end, start the overhaul. Actually, start it now.
I wouldn’t do this, sounds like a rush, but it’s purely because of the complete garbage that is the Dodger bullpen (sans Jansen of course). When Joe Blanton is your set up guy, you don’t have a bullpen, you have a tire fire. If there’s a middle relief corps worse than the Dodgers, Id like to see it. But this should have been seen from a mile away. All of these guys had issues last year as well, and the Dodgers felt the short turnaround by Hatcher last year meant he “figured it out.”
As for the Dodgers’ brass trying to win, they’re trying to do it this year on the fly while semi rebuilding. Their next wave includes JDL and Urias, both likely in the rotation next year with Kershaw, Maeda, etc. The young “core” of their lineup includes Pederson, Puig, Seager and Grandal. Agonz is getting up there in age and Turner seems to have lost his touch.
I have more faith in the future of the Dodgers’ rotation over their position player core. I don’t know if Puig or Pederson are foundation players.
You had me, your exactly right! If your bullpen’s set up guy is Blanton, your F–ked!
I don’t see it as a rush. About same age and time spent in minors as Kershaw and if it wasn’t harmful for Kershaw why would it be so for Urias?
Which means Dickey will be like Cy Young to the Dodgers and the Dodgers will lose 2-0 because Bautista is on Ped’s.
I think everyone is being to hard on the Dodgers hitting in yesterday’s game. The Bluejays have a much more powerful offensive line up, and they didn’t do much more then the Dodgers did. Our players tied the game up, with two outs. And three players, had back to back to back, doubles. And in the top of the ninth, they did try to come back, pretty well. They could never come back, after the seventh inning, last year, and the year before. And like Bum said, Blanton gave up not only a HR. He gave up a double before a gave up that HR. And Blanton had two strikes on his last hitter, and he allowed him to hit a HR against him, with two strikes. The big cardinal sin! And everyone here, knows that Blanton should not be a set up guy, for the Dodgers. This front office is the reason that this bullpen is crumy, and is the reason, that Blanton is the set up guy! They are the one that did nothing for this bullpen, in the off season.
Mr. Andes, I will have you know that ever since the accounting department took over General Motors they have turned it into a financial juggernaut. Our proprietary projections clearly show that by 2018, we will be the largest car maker in the world. Anyone who does not believe that is delusional! Bwahaha!
Roger Smith
Did those proprietary projections clearly show impending bankruptcy? Not being sarcastic just curious
They have already tried to down play Urias, so I don’t see that happening. And I still want to watch Utley play, he is also one of the young ones!
Did I read that Mark wanted to blow up the team, like the Cubs did a few years ago — get top prospects, and build a new team??
Some might want to do that. But what a let down after bring in new ownership with bags of money — and then rather than spending more, they cut back and down and now, almost out.
The new brain trusts of GMs, have made a boat load of moves — but really not one significant move for a key player. So we now have aging players: Ellis, AGon, Kendrick, Turner, Utley, Crawford, Ethier, Van Slyke. Nice to have them, but 3 of them are injured and not helping much.
So it is like the in-between time, the time of the aging injured players not producing enough — and the young kids either not consistent or just not ready for major league baseball.
On trading some of the kids for help now — remember, there are June drafts each year for new blood. The problem has been for 20 years — they Dodgers have had poor draft results overall.
Roger just look at who they gave multi year contracts to, besides Maeda, MCCarthy, and Kazmir.
They can’t take credit for Maeda. Maeda wasn’t even on there list! He was the only decent pitcher left. And if he didn’t want to be a Dodger, they would have never signed him.
Because Maeda had to bet on himself, because of the film on his elbow. But Roger, maybe I am wrong, because they love injured players!
So FAZ belong in the accounting department? That’s funny!
Roberts better move Puig farther down in the batting order. He can’t have a decent at bat. I thought he was doing better, but he just doesn’t learn.
He doesn’t belong any where near, the top of the batting order. And Puig shouldn’t even bat fifth. Most of the Dodgerd are hitting the pitch the other way. Puig comes up, and swings from his heels, and then strikes out.
And the Howie should have waited for a better pitch. Most of RA’s pitches, are not over the plate.
It seems like when the team gets a lead, they become complacent. They need to have good at bats, throughout the game!
They better come up to bat, and have some good at bats. Because Kershaw’s pitch count is way up. And this Bluejay team can get runs fast, with there offensive line up.
And our bullpen, better know, that this team will take there fastballs, and drive them out!
101 so far!
Fernando pitched in relief before he started games. I am fine with Urias joining the Dodgers now.
Did you hear Orel and Nomar talking about Joc, in Joc’s last at bat? The Dodgers always use to let there young pitchers, get adjusted to the majors, in the bullpen.
And the Cardinals still do that. They could control there innings, in the bullpen.
In the last thread, Badger said this:
Toronto is one of my picks for the World Series.
Uh, OK I disagree but OK!
Then as he talks about the Dodgers he says this:
Our record is a reflection of our play and it will continue like this until proper changes are applied.
Hey (you fill in the blank), the Dodgers have the same .500 record as the Blue Jays, but one side of your mouth says the Jays are your pick to go to the World Series and the other side say the Dodgers .500 record is a reflection of how bad they are and will continue until proper changes are applied.
If that’s not talking out of both side of your mouth, then it’s talking out your ass. Have a take – and do not suck!
Hey, for your information, there was a thread a while back where somebody asked for our early World Series picks. You probably missed it, because of course you missed it. I picked Toronto and Chicago.
Why is nearly everything you bring here aimed right at me? It’s boring dude. Get some new material.
I hear Urias will be here next week! Maybe Cotton too!
Hopefully
Please good coaching, and don’t copy Dummie any more.
Put the best players on the 25 man roster no matter who they are.
Send Kazmir to the DL to rest his hand. They all lie. Rest his hand so he will become a #3 during June through September. Felony stupid Trainer. Just call up Urias for 3 starts and then put him in the pen as a long reliever. So what if he gets slammed. He is a man and he will learn to pitch in the MLB after about 5 games.
Help (????) is on the way. No Urias.
https://twitter.com/BillShaikin/status/729036938498334720
PITCHING IS STILL THE PROBLEM!
Looking at the Dodgers’ pitching numbers in toto does not give an accurate depiction of the Dodgers’ staff. Look at the numbers:
Overall:
15 – 15 3.77 ERA 1.15 WHIP
But.. here are the numbers without Kershaw:
11 – 14 4.43 ERA 1.25 WHIP
And here are the numbers without Kershaw, Maeda and Jansen:
8 – 13 5.10 ERA 1.39 WHIP
i maintain that the pitching is a big problem. The Dodgers have a 3 man pitching staff – unless it’s 1889 or something, that won’t get it done.