Dodgers vs Padres. Game Two. The returns of Adrian Gonzalez and Matt Kemp. Exciting stuff.
Alex “Who knows which way he’ll bend?” Wood on the mound. Exciting in an entirely different way.
Cut to the third inning:
3rd inning
Padres
Alex Wood strikes out the side. It looked like Strudy Wood was on, as six of the first nine outs were Ks.
4th inning
Dodgers
The problem was, the Dodgers were falling down in line like blue dominoes.
Padres
Alex Wood, job well done again. Only 1 hit, 8 Ks
5th inning
Dodgers
Still missing in action.
Padres
Wood at 11 Ks.
Then came Wood’s first real challenge of the night. Two on, one out for Matt Kemp.
He got Kemp to fly out, but it was deep enough for a tag up RBI. Padres went up 1-0.
Wood ended the inning with a career high 13 Ks.
7th inning. Padres 1-0
Dodgers
Trayce Thompson hit a two run blast to center field. Dodgers took the lead 2-1.
Padres
Wood back on the hill.
He gave up a lead off double to Derek Norris.
After another base hit, and with runners on the corners, Wood was out.
Adam Liberatore came in and gave up the sac fly for the second, and tying Padre run. 2-2
Nobody scored in the 8th and 9th innings, so it was time for…
EXTRA INNINGS
11th inning Score tied 2-2
Dodgers
Nothing
Padres
Cin-hui Tsao on the mound for the Dodgers. Bases loaded for the Padres, and then he walked in the walk off run.
Dodgers lost 3-2.
Last night the Dodgers were scoring runs, but the starting pitcher kept giving them back. Tonight the starter was solid, with 13 strike outs, but the Dodgers’ offense was hibernating.
Manager Roberts got Adrian Gonzalez back in the lineup tonight, but he kept repeating the insanity of putting Justin Turner in the top of the lineup. He went 0 for 4 with a walk. The other mortal offensive sin is breaking up the three hot bats of Seager, Thompson and Pederson.Those three should follow Seager.
I’m not even sure I would keep Gonzalez batting clean up. I would bat him fifth, right after the youngsters, until he starts to show some power. But I’m not the skipper, so they’ll keep repeating the losing formula, and I’ll keep watching them creatively settling into third.
Alex Wood went 6 innings with 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 13 Ks. ERA 4.03
Home run: Trayce Thompson
Team with RISP: 0 for 2
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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Neddy Jr is FELONY STUPID. As a GM I would NEVER call up a RP with a WHIP higher than 1.00. Tsao had a WHIP of 1.35 at AAA. There are 3 other RPs at AAA that have a WHIP lower than 1.00. NEDDY Jr. DOES NOT HAVE A CLUE ABOUT PLAYERS. Thus why I said the other day that Tsao was a mistake. Watching the LAD is becoming a big mistake.
That is disrespect to Ned Colletti who obviously had a far worse owner to work for and made some good and some bad moves…..but nothing this stupid
Where is all of the depth allegedly bought with the $249.8 mil salary pool?
Get rid of the 8th RP and bring up Segedin to play 3B for a week. Turner is not healthy and needs to play part time.
Grandal looked like a player with a bad knee the other night stumbling around home plate. DL and bring up Barnes for 15 days. Any other reason for his slump. Hey stupid GM that was his reason last year.
Choose between West 0.75, Bawcom 0.90, and Thomas 1.00 (WHIPS) and dump TSAO.
Put KAZ-MIRE on the DL and bring up Urias for 15 days. Lee has an ERA of2.00 when you do not count the shuttle bus start where he gave up 10 runs. Just saying he should be given a chance if they do not want to start Urias’ clock.
AND FIRE THIS NEW TRAINING STAFF
What kind of FELONY IDIOT keeps 2 OFs with BA below .235 at AAA as depth and on the 40 man roster instead of going out and getting real depth?
THEY AIN’T WINNING THE WAY THEY ARE DOING THINGS SO GET THE PLAYERS HEALTHY ON THE DL AND COME BACK WITH THE BEST PLAYERS AND THE HEALTHIEST PLAYERS, STOP LYING ABOUT PLAYER HEALTH, AND MAKE THE SURGE IN JUNE.
MLB SP are currently averaging 5.75 innings per start. That is not what they are being paid for, and not what we want to see, but that is the state of this world. Out of shape SP, stupid training habits, and lack of mental discipline all around. In today’s dumbed down world 6 innings is a good game. However, a Shitty bullpen to back it up is not acceptable.
Not a whole lot I can say this morning. This is who we are. No longer surprised as I kinda figured this level of play was possible out of this group. How long will it last? Hard to say, but it looks like it could be a while. 4 in a row. Damn. And this time the pitching did its job for 9. I don’t count Tsao. Just the fact he is here tells me the depth thing is a myth. Something is terribly wrong when we are forced to bring that guy in.
It’s still too early to say anything definitively as a win streak changes everything and the deadline is two months out. But it’s quite possible we could be sellers. Damn.
I’ll leave you this morning with one word of advice:
Om…………………
Sellers . . . sellers . . . who is that to sell? A few old players or the two or three promising rookies. The rest of the staff are just hangers-on. Not a lot of value here.
Kershaw might go. Could re-stock AAA with the returns.
Badger
You were difinitly right, it is about the pitching. Because the Giants are a good hitting team, and they didn’t score that many runs when they played the Padres, in there last series, against them. But Roberts still needs to finally take Turner out of the heart of the order. He just isn’t hitting like a number three hitter should, for some reason. If Roberts wants to still play him, drop him down farther in the order. Have in the heart of the order, Howie, Agone, Cory, and Chase leading off. And have Thompson or Joc after Howie, depending on if the pitcher is a leftie or rightie. The Dodgers are really missing Ethier’s bat, in the line up. And that is because the Dodgers don’t have there number three hitter in the line up. Turner is just not the same hitter. He has been given more then a chance, to start hitting. Roberts needs to do Turner a favor, as well as the Dodgers. Drop Turner lower in the line up, where he wIll get better pitches to hit, and he won’t be that number three guy, that pitchers, don’t want to give anything good to hit. This would be best for Turner, as well as the Dodgers.
The Dodgers are losing games, because the front office, didn’t get the team, quality starting pitchers. And the starting pitchers, that the front office, brought to the Dodgers, just can’t pitch well, enough, to pitch deep into games. And the other reason the Dodgers are having trouble winning, is because the front office didn’t do enough to fix a shakey bullpen. And when a team doesn’t have enough quality starting pitchers, that can’t pitch deep into games. They need a very strong bullpen, to be able to compete. And the front office didn’t give this team, either.
After the front office felt Greinke was to expensive, they didn’t even try to bring a decent starting pitcher, to the Dodgers. They acted like they would have signed Greinke, if he didn’t insist on one more year. But after that, they didn’t even try to sign or trade for a pitcher, that was close to being comparable to Greinke. They went for retreads, instead.
And that makes me think, that they never seriously entertained signing Greinke. It was just all a show! And after the front office tried to bring Chapman to the Dodgers. They didn’t even try to bring a relief pitcher to the Dodgers, that was even close to Chapman, and his pitching dominance.
And bringing up that relief pitcher, from AAA, was also just another retread, instead of a young strong arm. And if they don’t bring up someone from AAA, the Dodgers might get to far behind, even before Ryu is able to come back, and give a little stability to the starting rotation.
The hard throwing pitcher, that they got from the White Sox, comes off the DL on June 3. I think they still don’t know, if they want this young pitcher, to be a relief pitcher, or a starting pitcher. There has to be one young pitcher, with a strong arm, in there minor league system, that can help this team.
Instead, of constantly bringing up retreads, that are past the twilight of there careers. The last seven games, were suppose to be the easy part of the Dodger schedule. But the last seven games, of the twenty straight games, on the Dodger’s schedule, that was suppose to be easy, has only brought out all the flaws on this team.
And this front office, is the reason the Dodgers have all of these flaws! Because they didn’t bother, to get this team the starting pitching, they needed, and didn’t bother, to fix, or strengthen the bullpen. They choose to sign the bottom of the barrel, of starting pitchers, and relief pitchers, on the free agent market.
And they are not even trying to fortify the Dodgers, with any of the Dodgers, young strong arms, from there minor league system. It would be easier to watch a young arm struggle, at least you know they are just learning. Because watching these retreads pitch, and predictably fail, is getting old. This front office, has more help, as well, as the manager, of the Dodger’s AAA team, then Roberts has, for the Dodger’s major league team. And isn’t the major league team, what is is all about?
And Roberts is only in his first year. I can’t believe that these owners, payed out to get good players and pitchers, when Mattingly was still at the helm. But have stop spending, once Mattingly is finally gone. What a waste!
And this front office’s retread pitcher, predictly failed badly last night, just like this front office has, with all of there bad off season moves, that they have made, since coming to the Dodgers.
Donald Trump was asked if he wanted to buy the Dodgers in case the national election did not go his way.
Response: “Hell no. I don’t want to be around a bunch of losers. And this team are losers.”
Considering the Dodger present manager, Dave Roberts. I have nothing against the guy, nor really for him – either. He probably comes pretty cheap, salary wise. And he probably will follow orders from above, most of the time.
But this club needs a more experienced manager. Oh, but the Cubs got lucky with their newer manager. Joe might have been just the guy the Dodgers needed.
Players — if the Dodgers had solid players at each position, they would start the same basic 8 on the field each game. This left right thing kind of tells me that the manager (or GM) does not have confidence in all of the players to player every day.
And not player will make the future, Hall of Fame being a once or twice a week starter.
When will Ethier be ready???
Yes, some rest from time to time is good. But not what the Dodgers have been doing the past several seasons.
Ethier has not even started baseball activities yet. So late July maybe. Fried Brains has a lot to say with who Roberts plays on a night to night basis because he is a saber metrics geek who goes with percentages. This team is for the most part an assemblage of bench guys with a couple of everyday players thrown in. Until last year, Turner had never really been a starter. Grandal was a platoon guy for the Padres. Kike has always been a utility guy. A-Gone, Pederson, Puig, Kendrick, Seager have all been starters pretty much in their careers to date. It is nice to have multi-positional players, but a permanent starting 8 is even better. Their bench is weak because they are missing 2 huge pieces from last year in SVS and Ethier. CC was injured for most of last season, so he was for the most part not a factor. Me, I would do this, Start these 8 guys every night regardless of who is pitching ..1B Gonzo, 2B Kendrick, 3B Turner, SS Seager, LF Thompson, CF Pederson, RF Puig and C Ellis. Ellis is catching because he is a much better game strategist than Grandal, and right now is the better hitter. Ryu should be back in a couple of weeks, I drop Kazmir out of the rotation, or Stripling. I promote Lee from AAA and see what the kid can really do, not Urias because I think rushing a 19 year old makes no sense. I call up Rob Segedin and see what he can contribute, and have a bench of Utley, Kike, Grandal, Crawford, and SVS when he is ready.
Michael
I agree with most of what you have said. But I would play Utley over Howie. Utley just makes Howie look like the older player. And Utley is hitting well, against right handed pitchers, and is better on the field.
Utley also moves much better then Howie, as well as has more range then Howie has. And a team always faces many more, right handed pitchers, then leftie pitchers.
And Chase has been really strong, in the lead off position!
Trade out Turner for Utley. Utley has the hotter bat and is a better fielder. Utley is a career .280 batter (13 years!). Turner should come off the bench.
You guys are probably both right, I just like Howie’s history a lot better. He is a career .280 hitter. Utley had at one time more power, and both have a longer more productive history than Turner, who in my estimation is not 100%. His surgery was more serious than previously thought.
Utley has a higher career OBP as well, which is why he’s batting leadoff. But can anyone explain why almost all the Dodgers are hitting so much better on the road? Do they stay at Holiday Inn Express or something?
From MLBTR:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/05/dodgers-notes-urias-oday-ryu.html
Thanks Wondering, the part about O’Day was especially timely. I have said a few times that just because FAZ hasn’t made the move we would like them to make, it doesn’t mean that they didn’t try.
Open letter to Andrew Friedman #2. I have been a Dodger fan for over 60 years. I have seen both the great and the bad. I have seen Dodger teams with less talent win World Series, 59, 63,65, 88. And I have seen Dodgers teams with lots of talent fall flat. But never for this much money have I seen a collection of cast-offs as bad as this. Nothing you did or have done has worked. We have a great collection of 6 inning pitchers, who might give you a chance to win, and might not. Every one of those guys not named Kershaw, turns around and gives up a lead almost as soon as the hitters, well so called hitters, give them an edge. Wood as good as he pitched last night did it. Kazmir has done it a couple of times. Maeda too, and the league is starting to figure him out. You call up Tsao, because you do not trust the guys you already have to do the job. Hatcher has been the hatchet man, Howell inconsistent, Liberatore has been ok, Baez good one time awful the next, Coleman has been good, Blanton was nails last night, but has also had problems. Bringing Bolsinger up for one start made no sense what so ever, and also threw the Rotation out of whack. You have nobody hitting behind A-Gone to protect him. Your rookie manager has made some DM type moves, and although I love the guy’s enthusiasm, he has a lot to learn. All this could have been avoided, but you continue to shop the Bargain Bin to stock Macy’s………
Based upon Baseball-Reference’s 162 game average:
• Adrian Gonzalez’ average season is .290/28 HR/103 RBI
• Chase Utley’s average season is .281/24/93 RBI
• Howie Kendrick’s average season is .291/11 HR/74 RBI
• Justin Turner’s average season is .279/9 HR/55 RBI
• Yasmani Grandal’s average season is .237/19 HR/69 RBI
• Kike Hernandez’ average season is .268/12 HR/46 RBI
• Carl Crawford’s average season is .291/13 HR/73 RBI
• Andre Ethier’s average season is .286/18 HR/78 RBI
• AJ Ellis’ average season is .244/11 HR/59 RBI
• Yasiel Puig’s average year is .287/22 HR/71 RBI
All of those players, except Utley as well below their career averages. Are they all horrible, done and finished as major-league players? If they are, this season is shot. If they are not, there is hope.
Here’s what I do worry about: Launch Speed in MPH! The MLB average is 88.29. Look at this:
• Adrian Gonzalez – 89.45 MPH
• Chase Utley – 92.23 MPH
• Howie Kendrick – 91.28 MPH
• Justin Turner – 89.76 MPH
• Yasmani Grandal – 94.78 MPH
• Kike Hernandez – 90.02 MPH
• Carl Crawford – 88.39 MPH
• AJ Ellis – 87.79 MPH
• Yasiel Puig – 91.00 MPH
• Trayce Thompson – 90.01 MPH
• Joc Pederson – 94.82 MPH
• Corey Seager – 90.37 MPH
Now, Gonzalez, Hernandez, Kendrick, Puig, Turner, Crawford, Grandal, Ellis and Hernandez are all considerably below their career averages. Maybe you believe they will stay that way, but the evidence is against you… except in the cases of Gonzalez, Turner, Crawford and Ellis who are all near or below the MLB Launch Speed. Translation: They are not hitting the ball as hard as they used to. If you want to worry – worry about those four. The fact that the rest are still hitting the ball hard gives you hope that the hits will start dropping.
If you revert to a player’s average year, you generally won’t be far off. Maybe Justin Turner had two aberration years and is now back to being the hitter he used to be (although I have seen flashes recently that indicate otherwise). The guy I really worry about is A-Gon. He no longer has a A-Game. He’s now a second tier first baseman offensively. He’s still solid against RH pitching (.803 OPS), but he’s getting closer to being a platoon player.
Let’s not forget a couple of things. Everyone seems to think that the Dodgers like to shop at Dollar General and that FAZ just makes bad deals. Let’s look at the entire situation:
1. In case you didn’t know – the Dodgers have the highest payroll in all of baseball… by a considerable margin!
2. Ned left FAZ with three players who are either worthless, league average or below league average with THE HIGHEST PAYROLL OWED TO THREE BELOW AVERAGE OR WORTHLESS PLAYERS. I like A-Gon, but I’d like to have the $65 million owed to the THREE instead of them.
3. Honestly, without them, the Dodgers would be a better team.
4. FAZ can’t sign long-term bad deals to players when you are already saddled with $65 million in bad deals.
Smardzija and Cueto deals look good now, but how about in a year… or even later this season? The fact of the matter is that they were huge risks, but so far they have panned out (Barry Zito anyone). Add in the fact that Matt Cain is looking Cainesque again and the Giants are looking solid.
It’s a long season and things even out, but I see youngsters being the key. With Ryu due back in July and Urias pitching like a mad-man in AAA, the Dodgers have options. Alex Wood is getting his Mojo back and his advanced stats indicate he has been the victim of bad luck – he should pitch even better. Kazmir and Stripling are on the bubble. I would call up Urias and let him take Stripling’s next start.
This team has a lot of talent and the ability to make trades. I have always been about the youth movement. If it were up to me, I would try and trade Gonzo, Kendrick, Utley, Puig, Ethier (I left Crawfish out because no one is that dumb) and Turner. This is my lineup:
1. Johnson 2B
2. Hernandez 3B
3. Seager SS
4. Thompson RF
5. Grandal 1B
6. Barnes C
7. Pederson CF
8. Van Slyke LF
Do you think the team would be any worse? That said – it won’t happen and the team will turn it around shortly. They are just snakebite right now.
Patience, Grasshoppers!
I for one, am happy FAZ has not traded the farm. It doesn’t get you your “fix” now, but it’s sustainable.
And, you can’t DL guys unless they agree that they are hurt or tell you they are hurt. Have you ever heard of the MLBPA?
You can blame Ned for the bad contracts, but Kasten signed off on every one of them. I still remember him dropping into the booth to crow about the Punto trade. And the Dodgers would not have needed to trade the farm to get the help they needed; there were a number of free agents available. They just hoped that this roster would be good enough to win the NL Worst, and if Turner and Agone were hitting like they were last year and Ethier hadn’t broken his leg it might have worked.
Micah Johnson has a .234 career BA in MLB. He is hitting .259 in AAA and has 32 K in 139 AB, and from what i have read isn’t a good defensive 2B, so no thanks.
Grandal is not even a league average 1B.
Thompson has done well so far but didn’t hit well in the minors. Dodgers Digest had a good article on why he might turn into a pumpkin.
http://dodgersdigest.com/2016/05/17/trayce-thompson-his-potential-as-a-starting-outfielder/
He has hit well so far this season and I am glad that he has (although his defense leaves much to be desired),
Kike is not a 3B.
i agree with some of what you have said about players who have histories of playing better than they are playing right now. Some have gotten off to bad starts or are in slumps; some maybe just aren’t good players any more. I would put Crawford into that group for instance. Some have been misused – as others have posted, is there anything in Kendrick’s past performance that screams out that he should be used as a utility player and play LF, 1B, and 3B?
The Dodgers have the highest payroll in baseball but:
1 – it is down $85MM this year compared to last;
2 – you have to look at how it has been spent.
Really – have the decisions to sign McCarthy or Kazmir been good ones? 4 years at $12MM for a guy with McCarthy’s track record. Same with Kazmir? Making a qualifying offer to Anderson?
And if money is the issue, what about the millions spent on signing Cubans?
I have been saying for a while that if this team has any hope for 2016 that some combination of injured guys and kids coming up are it. I don’t have any expectation that McCarthy or Anderson will add anything this year – Ryu maybe. He isn’t throwing 90 MPH yet but they are talking about bringing him up anyway. I would still like to see Urias – after 27 consecutive shutout innings at AAA, I don’t really think that the move to MLB would be premature. I know that he hasn’t pitched more than 87 innings in a season yet and there are concerns about arm strength, but this is further evidence that he has been mishandled by the Braintrust. He didn’t have to have cosmetic surgery in the middle of the season last year – it could have waited until the off-season, but he didn’t have an opportunity to get his innings up last year. Bad decision.
Finally, for all of the talk of 2018, I have to point out that the “Great Farm System” mostly has pitchers because that is how the Dodgers have spent their top draft picks (mostly) for years. Other than Bellinger and Verdugo, they have few top non-pitching prospects. Given the Braintrust’s track record (not spening big $$ on long-term contracts), I have no confidence that the Dodgers will spend much to fill in the holes on the roster after contracts come off. I also don’t have confidence in their player evaluation skills shown thus far.
Mark I love to hear from you, but I don’t agree with your analysis of launch rates. Launch rates don’t mean a thing, if a hitter, doesn’t have consistent contact! And the player on the Dodgers, with the best launch rate, also has the most strike outs, on the team. And the player, with the second highest launch rate, is batting at the Mendosa line, and has had a lot of strike outs lately.
And I bet you, if you looked at all the good launch rates in baseball, you would see a lot of players, that have high launch rates, also have a lot of strike outs. And they also have problems, with making consistent contact.
And if you really believe in launch rates, why would you put Thompson in rightfield, when Puig is the best defensive rightfielder, on the team, and also has good launch rates? Scotty might have good launch rates, but he doesn’t have the athleticism of Thompson, and Thompson is younger.
And if Puig continues to not hit, when Ethier comes back, Ethier can play leftfield. Ethier is a better hitter, then all of the outfielders, at this time, in there career. And Scotty has had trouble, staying on the field the last couple of years. And for the people, that insist that Scotty is the only one who can really play first when Agone needs a day off. Scotty is out of the line up, more often then Agone is, and Scotty is only a part time player.
I do agree that the kids should be playing. Should have been from the beginning of the season. I don’t disagree about the $65M but what about the $100M+ to the Cubans. The $27M to Kendrick & Utley. The $48M to Kazmir. The whatever it was to McCarthy & Anderson. Look at their signings. Those are all bad deals too. Still waiting for their first good signing. Must be nice to be in a profession where you can go 0fer and still make $7M a year. In mine, that gets you fired immediately.
Chili, I have to disagree about Utley being a bad signing, but I’m with you on the rest of those guys. Trading Peraza for Thompson is looking pretty good right now, but then Grandal was looking like a great acquisition this time last year. I also believe something is wrong there and I’d give Barnes a call-up if we could DL Grandal. FAZ can keep wishing and hoping that the Giants pitchers’ arms will fall off–that is what their “deep” rotation has reduced us to.
Was anyone else surprised that given Wood’s record the third time through the batting order, that Roberts let him start the seventh? I know he had 13 strikeouts but obviously Dave doesn’t trust the bullpen very far, and who can blame him.
Look at how hard Grandal is hitting the ball. He will be fine.
LOL!
I second the LOL, and will add a ROF to it. Launch rates are a joke if you’re hitting .196 with .636 OPS. Mark told us last year Grandal would hit. He didn’t. We are hearing it again? Career .237. We need him. We need everybody. Not everybody will produce.
Mark
I do like Grandal, but I think right now, his hitting, is affecting his defense.
He is really furstrated right now.
He needs to swing the bat to hit. He’s taken about half a dozen called third strikes in his past five starts.
I like Grandal, I really do, but I think we are seeing why the Padres included him in the Kemp deal. Once again the front office got played for a sucker. The problem is he can’t stay healthy nor put together two consistently healthy halves. The Dodgers need healthy players who can stay healthy over an entire season.
Scott, I have been trying to trade Grandal and you are not helping telling everybody he isn’t too good. I would like to get a relief pitcher for him.
That is for sure Snider!
But signing a 37 y/o to a 1 year contract is just taking AB’s from the kids. That’s my take. Won’t know what you have at 2b by years end…oh wait, Kendrick is it for next year. That is not building for the future.
I hated the Howie deal.
Utley is not the bad signing, Howie is, and Howie has a two year contract!
THEN DL THE LIARS AT THE END OF THE BENCH AND PUT THEM IN EXTRA BATTING PRACTICE AND FIELDING PRACTICE UNTIL THEY ARE ELIGIBLE TO BE SUSPENDED FOR LACK OF EFFORT!
I’m a kid advocate too. Seeing Trayce shine is fun! Joc is hanging in there. Seager, doing what we thought! Time to rely on some youngsters and release the hounds. I was at the Big A watching our boys get drubbed last week, 8-1. Double Kettle Ones helped. Saw Tommy “charming his fans” with a gaggle of groupies close at hand. Some guys have all the luck!
Go Tommy!
MLBTR indicates that the Dodgers offer to O’Day was the best, but he wanted to stay on the East Coast. Ditto on Andrew Miller. Scherzer wasn’t coming West either.
The point is: the Dodgers are not locked into bad contracts. Ethier, Crawfish, Utley, Kendrick, Kazmir and Gonzo are all short term, but they are examples of what happens at the end of contracts.
When Kasten hired Friedman (a year and a half ago) he said that the Dodgers wanted to build the farm while winning now.
Here are the facts:
1. In FAZ’s first year, they won the NL West and got beat in the NLCS. They won in 2105, but didn’t win it all. They were competitive.
2. In FAZ’s first year, they built the farm to #1 in all of Baseball.
You can talk about bad deals and all that, but you can’t judge deals after a quarter of the season. The season is far from over. Some of you rag about Todd Frazier. I think that by the end of the season, you might not trade Todd Frazier even up for Trayce Thompson… let alone the fact that Montas and Johnson are in the deal.
Wait until the season is over!
I keep hearing comparison the Theo Epstien: He became Boston’s GM in 2002 and won the World Series 2 years later, but he inherited a powerful veteran team. He became President of Baseball operations for the Cubs before the 2012 season and had big losing records the first 3 years before becoming one of the best teams in baseball.
I keep hearing about the BAD DEALS FAZ has made, but no one tells me what they SHOULD have done instead that would have made them better NOW and LATER! I don’t think anyone can…
You can’t wait until the season is over to fix the season – it’s too late!
Many (including you, I think) have posted previously on being able to ascertain what kind of team you have at the 1/4 point of the season. Well, the Dodgers are past the quarter point and are currently not playing well, losing 5 of 6 to the Angels and Pads. The management decision making has been iffy to say the least – the Bolsinger game was a disaster. He didn’t pitch well and added stress to an already stressed bullpen, leading to Tsao being used in an high-leverage situation. A bad decision to use him there by Roberts; a bad decision to put him on the roster by the Braintrust. A bad decision to bring Bolsinger up to pitch to begin with.
Theo is Ivy League, Friedman isn’t .
Actually they got beat in the NLDS. And almost all the top prospects were already in the farm system. I’ll admit they have bolstered the system, but I’d trade the #1 farm system for a championship.
Off the top of my head, how about: keeping Gordon and Haren; trading Kemp for, let’s say, Montero and prospects; trading Puig for Cueto and Chapman; having a plan B after failing to sign Greinke, signing Fowler or even Cespedes?
Andy Freidman took a good team and not even two years later has built a lousy one. He should be commended really. Dodgers since the opening series against SD have a record worse than the Padres, a team many thought were a bottom 3-5 team in baseball.
Complete and utter garbage. These kids in the pipeline better be Damn good.
Honeymoon is over for Guggenheim.
Rotation July 1st:
Kershaw
Ryu
Wood
Maeda
Urias
Mark Urias arm is not built up enough, to pitch a lot of innings yet.
I think he should be able to go 6 MJ. Let’s hope.
Have you given up on De Leon pitching for the Dodgers this year Mark?
Mark are sure about Urias? And there building Montas arm up like a starter. Mark will they bring Montas up on June third for the bullpen?
Wild card, anyone? Is there any part of this team that is better than last year? Shortstop? Maybe. Our Guessers with $ have done nothing to make this team better. I’m getting really pissed that these minor league phenoms are treated with kid gloves. It’s almost like we are afraid of letting them be BASEBALL PLAYERS! My God. These guys are picked because someone thinks they can play baseball, and then when they get to a certain point in development, they don’t want them to play. The doctors and trainers are bigger guessers than the suits, at this point. 100 pitches? 6 innings? No one knows how durable a player will be until HE PLAYS. I would hate to be drafted by the Dodgers because it will take 5 years to make it, even if I prove to be good. Zack Lee has been screwed over big time. I hope he goes somewhere else and excels. The giants will win the division going away. They KNOW HOW TO WIN. Our team only knows how to lose. Oh, by the way, they ARE making baseball fun again. Who’s laughing?
At least RC beat San Jose. It sounds like SJ booted the ball around late in the game to give RC the win. I’ll take it. Rubber game today. Tulsa lost to KC farm. When you look at the farm’s success rate against the teams from winning organizations, you will find, I think, that we are just average. So much for our great player development. Mets, Royals, Giants, Cardinals. See how the farm does against those organizations. I think you will be a bit disappointed. Even Mariners and Rangers. It’s not what we all think.
As far as Trayce goes, I don’t think he turns into a pumpkin. I think he’s more like Jason Werth; a later bloomer who finally figured it out and got his chance in his mid/late 20s. Let him play; he’s our best or 2nd best outfielder as it is.
Great game by Wood last night; too bad we didn’t help him. He looks like he’s actually figuring things out. Good for him.
Urias won’t be up before June 1, only because of that Super 2 thing where his arbitration year gets pushed back another year if he comes up after June 1. Everyone does it, including the Cubs with Kris Bryant last year.
Frankie Montas starts today for Tulsa; hopefully he gets a couple of good innings in.
Refreshing Bobby.
Bum
I hope we start winning, because that makes everything different, even here.
Bobby
did you read that article on LA Times.com about Urias?
Bobby
I think we will win today with Maeda. And I think Maeda will get his confidence back, against the Padres. The problem with Wood, is that the third time around in the order, he is a different pitcher,
and it is like night and day.
He pitches really well, the first two times around the order, and then he has a big drop off.
It wouldn’t be that bad, but with the other starting pitchers, not pitching deep into games, and the inconsistent bullpen, anything less then seven innings, just is not enough.
Wood needs to find out, what he is doing the third time around in the order, to win more games. What is he doing the same, or what is he doing different, that he becomes so much more hittable, that third time around.
And maybe after that pitcher, that the front office brought up, blew the game last night. Maybe now, the front office, won’t hesitate, and they will bring up that pitcher, that they got from the White Sox. He is eligible to play, on June third. The one you commented about , that throws in the triple digits.
What I find most frustrating is the bullpen. I understand that we made genuine efforts to sign O’Day, and Chapman but when those efforts failed I don’t understand how we entered the season with Hatcher as a legitimate option. Watching him pitch is painful, he doesn’t have swing and miss stuff. He doesn’t have anything nasty in his arsenal that he can throw with confidence over the plate, his only chance of putting a hitter away is to get him to chase a pitch out of the strike zone. The offense is a mystery, remember our opening series against the Padres…what a misnomer that is turning out to be. Turner was consistently mashing last year, with out that productivity our lineup suddenly seems pitiful. Seager is the only hitter who looks formidable, but he is often overmatched by elite pitching. Puig is a perfect example of our woes, he has a few good at bats, offering a glimmer of hope and then looks down right awful for several games…watching him get blown away by 92mph fastballs from lefty Brad Hand last night left me in head scratching despair. We have one pitcher on the roster who offers us any reason to feel confident. I have an awful feeling that we are going to marinate in mediocrity all season.
Pretty Much yes to all of this
Is something going on with the Dodgers? No lineup and it’s only 1 hour to game time. The lineup is usually posted several hours earlier.
Nope. lineups are posted on twitter. Sorry no pregame over here today. I’m taking a day off for mental health reasons.
https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/734445129822556160
Mark, why in the world are you so adamant about making Johnson the Dodger 2nd baseman?
Speed!
Mark
the Dodgers are getting no breaks in this series. And that was a pop fly, and it was in the air, for a long time. But the Dodgers need to start making something happen.
I’m going to guess that Hernandez’ best position is 3rd base. He says he thinks short stop is so at least I am keeping him on the same side of the infield.
I think Agon could use more rest and therefore Kendrick, Utley, and Agon should share 2nd and 1st base and only play those two positions.
I will guess that Lee is the prospect most likely to pitch into to 7th inning.
Why are you trying to get Agone off the field? Howie only plays second decent. He doesn’t play first, third, and leftfield well. And when Roberts put Howie in leftfield, for Crawford, in the later innings, the other night, I didn’t think that was much of a defensive up grade.
Because when a single is hit to left, and Howie and Crawford are out there, it seems like it becomes a double. And Utley is playing better then Howie. Turner and Puig better start hitting, because when Scotty and Andre come back, Puig won’t be playing, if he is not hitting.
And if Turner doesn’t start hitting, it will be interesting to see, if they will give Guerrero a chance, on Turners days off, to see if Guerrero can hit, and play third.
Nomar was saying that this isn’t still the begining of the season anymore, he said that players, should be hitting by now. I think that Maeda pitches better, when AJ is behind the plate! And I don’t think AJ has been catching, in Maeda’s last three games, when he has had trouble.
Who was on the left side of the infield, when the offense was playing in?
Bum
The Dodgers are not getting any breaks in this series. And Maeda pitched a good game. When that new umpire came in, the strike zone changed, as well as the game.
I am so tired of these relief pitchers getting behind the count, and walking people. The Padres don’t have to even get hits, because our relief pitchers get behind, and put them on base.
And just lost us a run. If he would have went to third on that bunt, Crawford’s flyball, would have got him home. I can’t take this anymore.