Scott Kazmir and Hyun-Jin Ryu threw live batting practices.
Good News Dept: Ryu’s batters reported he showed good command of his pitches.
As of noon today, the skipper had not yet decided on who would start at first base in tomorrow’s Cactus League opener.
Adrian Gonzalez is still unavailable to play (for at least one more week), and when he does become available, he’ll probably join Team Mexico for the WBC. Combine that with the new “regular rest” policy that manager Roberts will implement in 2017, and the question of who will play first base in Gonzalez’s absence takes on deeper meaning for all involved.
These Spring Training games are essentially tryouts for a critical component of the Dodgers’s 2017 strategy. The skipper’s new strategy will give everyday players scheduled rests throughout the season. Whomever rises to the occasion at first base this spring is likely to become the go-to sub for Gonzalez all season.
For the Cody Bellinger Marching and Chowder Society: Expect to see plenty of Cody this spring. The skipper says Bellinger will see playing time at first base and all three outfield positions.
Per Bill Plunkett: Clayton Kershaw requested to pitch only one inning tomorrow. Expect Rich Hill (on Sunday) and Kenta Maeda (Monday) to throw for two innings when they start.
When we wake up tomorrow morning…it’ll be Cactus league Opening Day!
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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Who do we play tomorrow?
We get to see those cool uniform #’s: 74, 78, 83!
Artieboy
The White Sox
I just can’t wait to see everyone
Master of the malaprop….
To whom do you refer?
Joc Pederson…
Is he going to play pretty much everyday as I thought I read, or is he going to be part of a platoon? His splits vs. lefties were awful and he crunched righties.
Will they just force him to work through the issue, see the ball, stay back, go the other way, or defer to a guy that can handle the southpaw?
How do you guys see 2017 shaking out for Joc? Where would you position him in the lineup?
Front office loves platoons, but roster size limitations probably, ah, er, um, limits their usage.
I’d imagine that most of his rest days come against lefties, but it’s not a platoon type situation.
Unless they really start a massive import/export program out of AAA.
Which will be a sight to see.
Bluto
I totally agree with you about these platoons taking up to much roster space, beyond a few platoons, and that is part of the problem.
I hope our young players that come up to the majors, are not going to be a bunch of platoon players.
With Joc they are going to let him hit against more lefties, this year.
And we will have to see what happens.
The thing with Joc, is that he wasn’t able to hit at least 250, when he was mostly platooned, so what is he going to do, when he is facing lefties too, is the question.
I still think Roberts will sit Joc, against particularly hard lefties.
Rye I think Joc needs to change his thinking when there are runners on base, when he has two strikes, because his odds with two strikes, are not good.
And I would hope he would shorten his swing, and try to go the opposite way, like you mentioned.
Joe tends to get in deep counts, so he is in these two strikes situations a lot, because he is trying to work walks, too.
If he is hitting eighth, that is a good strategy, but in the other positions, it might be different.
But I think Joc hits best in the eighth position, because he has to be much more selective with his pitches, and that causes him, to only swing at his pitch.
And if you look at what he did last year hitting eighth, that is where he hit best, by quite a bit.
Joc? I put him where he’s likely to do the most damage – at the bottom of the lineup.
In response to Ray Charles comment on the last thread about Blanton:
RC I can’t either. It’s been written he will not accept anything less than what he made($4MM) last year. I don’t blame him.
We signed Romo for $3MM but couldn’t afford an extra $1MM for Blanton? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!! I have not read anything about Blanton demanding a multi-year contract.
Richie
Blanton probably didn’t ask for 4 million, at the begining of the off season.
He was probably trying to ask for more, or a two year contract.
But now that he is unsigned, and most of the teams have what they want, he probably changed his mind, and just wants what he made last year.
Because the market wasn’t there for Blanton, for a multi year contract, or for more money, before it got so late in the off season, where Blanton is at now.
It doesn’t seem fair to Blanton, especially with what we are paying McCarthy and Kazmir.
You would think one million wouldn’t be much, but the front office is trying to save money, because of the free agents they signed this year, and because all the money, they have to pay McCarthy and Kazmir.
Richie and Ray
Did you guys read the Dodger Blue article on Blanton?
If you look at what he really did in the National League championship series, it isn’t good, at all.
I knew he gave up that one HR, with the bases loaded, and another, but his stats are terrible in that series.
In that article they list Blanton’s stats, so take a look.
And his performance in that one series, probably reminded teams, of Blanton, the starter.
And you know that there were more people watching that series, then the games Blanton pitched, in the regular season.
MJ:
Yes I did read the article and he was terrible vs the Cubs no doubt but what did he do vs the Nationals? Would we have even played he Cubs had not Blanton given us 5 innings of one hit no run ball vs the Nationals?
Matter of fact, would be have even been in the PS without Blanton?? I doubt it and I’m sure others do too.
The man was overused. H appeared in more games, pitched more innings, faced more batters, threw more pitches than anyone else in our BP.
Richie
I know that, but not every team saw what we saw, with Blanton.
And with the times he tried to be a starter, on the Dodgers, and then with the Angels, along with that series, that might have made teams, try to be a little more careful, not to make the wrong deal, maybe.
I don’t have a problem with Blanton, but a lot of good players, had to settle on lesser contracts.
Look at the Bluejay’s former first basemen.
He was first offered by the Bluejay’s, a three year, 20 million a year, contract.
And later he signed with the Indians, for far less money, then the original contract, that the Bluejay’s, offered him.
Give Blanton the money. He was solid for us all season long. Known quantity. There are a lot of question marks in the bullpen. I don’t see him as one.
Signing Blanton would be playing it safe. Someone else will peak come playoff time. He’ll help get us there.
Blanton won me over last year–hope there is still a shot at him. Romo? Who knows? Why did the giants let him go? At any rate, I have a feeling that this is the year. Stacked! Arriving at Camelback tonight. Anybody know if there’s a schedule for the workouts on all the different fields?
Giants had some other options and Romo had pretty much shown up the manager on the field multiple times. His time had come. Still a pretty darn good roogie. The no-dot slider is still very tough to pick up, even when fastball velo maybe tops out at 88.
I read that Agone called the front office a few times, saying that they should sign Romo.
Agone must of saw him pitch in the Mexican league, and when they were working out, and thought Romo still had it.
And also Romo really wanted to pitch for the Dodgers, so he took a smaller deal, and he actually has a longer history of pitching relief, then Blanton.
As long as his arm is ok, he probably be fine.
I think this may ha e been posted already but it’s worth the read:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2017-zips-projections-los-angeles-dodgers/#more-240807
Many of our starters show great “per inning” projections but few show the ability to get 100+ innings. If there is a pitching weakness, I think that’s it. We have a plethora of good to great arms in the bullpen and enough good platoon sticks to compete offensively. This is a 90 win team out of the gate and most s-spurts agree the team to beat in the West. Better than the Cubs? Not on paper.
Emerson, my advice, from my own experience, is to get there early and go immediately to the back fields. That’s where instruction is taking place and where you will see all the young talent working their asses off. The full field just east of the game field always has a batting practice show too. That’s where last year I saw Ethier and Puig in an all fields home run contest. It was really cool and had the fans whoopin and hollerin. By my count Puig won, finishing with left, center, right home runs on three successive pitches. He got a standing O from the 100 or so fans watching.
Badger: “This is a 90 win team out of the gate and most s-spurts agree the team to beat in the West. Better than the Cubs? Not on paper.”
Well the good thing is, once the playoffs begin that “paper” might as well be toilet paper!!
Thanks Badger. I may send some pics to the blog.
Emerson
Do send some picks, that would be great!
And bring some reports, about the players, off the games, and when they are practicing, before and after, the games.
Badger
Yes this is nothing new.
I think we all know, that our starting pitchers, on won’t be pitching a lot of innings, except for Kershaw.
I don’t see our starting rotation, is being better then the Cubs, but they have a couple veteran pitchers, that might not pitch a lot of innings too, possibly.
Lackey did go out on the DL last year, and Lester isn’t getting any younger, either.
They have a better starting four pitchers then us, but we have a lot more depth, and we have quite a few young pitchers in the minors, that the team can bring up, if they are needed.
And the Cubs don’t have that.
“I don’t see our starting pitching, is being better than the Cubs”
As a group, I don’t think it’s even close.
Badger
I agree, but they don’t have the depth and pitching, we have either.
They don’t have a lot of good young pitchers, in there minor league system, like we do.
Once Urias is able to start every five days, after starting later in the season, he will help a lot.
Remember the Cubs fifth in the rotation is another leftie pitcher, or Anderson.
I don’t think Hammels, is going to
be as good, this year.
He has to almost make a perfect pitch, most of the time, and he had the umpires on his side, at Wrigley too.
You know I am big on having at least, the first three pitchers, in the starting rotation, to be quality pitchers.
Badger
Those last two leaks, along with banning some of the press, is making the reporters, to really dig in, now.
Support investigative journalism and the free Press. Subscribe. Donate. Dig in.
Rye
Exactly.
I agree, let’s help make America Great Again. Everyone do your duty. Including You, and You and You
Is the game not on MLB.com?
It should be Watford
Watford
If you can’t get it there, in Truebluela, in there most recent article, in the comments section, they have the thread for the game, to see on line there.
It must be about the sixth or seventh comment, and it is a comment, from the guy David, who runs TBLA.
It should be on MLB.tv
Thanks guys – I’m watching-i needed to update my ATBat App
Good to see Belinger – he’s got good hands.
Liked the innings pitched by Younginger, he looked good.
Eibner helped his cause with a HR in his first AB
Kike has a really ugly batting stance.