No Dodger game tonight means we have some time to knock out a Youtube video.
Inside we talk about the rehabs of Adrian Gonzalez, Andre Ethier, and Clayton Kershaw. We also talk about the dilemma of Ryu v Maeda and what about the cold bats of Pederson and Forsythe?
Also we review Chocolate Bomber, a high-octane dessert beer from Hanger 24 Brewery.
Enjoy and please remember to “Like” our video!
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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Good topics Oscar. I’ve posted my views on some of those topics, which are, in summary:
– give AGon and Ethier the time they need in Aug and Sept to get right, before going with a hot young AAA call up
– assumimg everyone is healthy, the coaching staff should start preparing Ryu to be a postseason reliever and send down Avilan. Ryu is way better than Avilan at what they do. If we want lefty power pitching we have Cingrani and Dayton if he gets back.
– Joc is definitely on the bubble, Forsythe should be given some rope, and I think we’re a better team with Taylor in CF, Bellinger in LF and a fully recovered AGon at first.
– On Kershaw, we should set him loose on the league when he comes back; I’m looking for him to get a dominance state of mind knowing that he’s got a very good 2-4 starters coverage in a series
Some additional issues I’ve been thinking about:
– Need to give other relievers some save chances and rest Kenley more. There’s a new Fangraphs article on Chapman – it was an eye opener and believe it or not he’s only league average this year in effectiveness even with his usual 103 mile fastball
– I think we need to give Grandal lots of rest in September. He’s not built for a long season. He looks tired and slow to me, and I think both Barnes and Farmer can fill in very well.
– On batting order when AGon returns, I’d bench Joc and go with AGon fifth, Puig sixth, then Forsythe seventh and Grandal/Barnes eighth. We need to keep Puig from hitting into GIDPs if we want to move him up. Puig’s groundball rate is as bad as ever, and he does not hit slow rollers so it’s an easy GIDP if AGon or Grandal is in front of him. AGon should be behind Puig as much as possible – AGon being a contact hitter will offer protection and Puig bearing down second base on an AGon grounder could cause some bad throws. And I like Forsythe ahead of Grandal because Forsythe sees a lot of pitches which benefits patient hitters like Grandal.
YF
I don’t understand because you say you want Agone to bat fifth, and Puig sixth, but then you go on to say you want to keep Agone behind Puig.
I meant Puig 5th and AGon sixth. Oops!
YF
I think I would bat Grandal ahead of Forsythe.
Forsythe is hitting 199 against righties,and his OBA is 316, and he is slugging, 230 something against righties too, and that is terrible.
It looks like Forsythe is looking more for a walk then a hit every time he gets up, so I would bat him eighth.
Because Forsythe has not hit with any power, but he only has 7 less strike outs, then Grandal.
And at least Grandal has kept his average in the 260s, and he may strike out, but he also may hit a ball out, and Forsythe has not hit many extra base hits.
I would not want AGon and Grandal back to back.
Thanks for the compliment, Yueh Fei. I like your additional ideas.
The tail end of the lineup is starting to look ugly with Joc and Forsythe both still slumping and then pairing them ahead of the pitcher.
This will be interesting to see how it plays out.