Logan Forsythe was a big part of the Dodgers’ plans to chase down a pennant, and ultimately, a World Series Championship when they traded away pitching prospect Jose De Leon to Tampa Bay.
The Dodgers were counting on Forsythe to fill several immediate needs: an everyday second baseman, a leadoff hitter, and a right-handed bat to balance a southpaw-heavy lineup that often had trouble against lefty pitching. So far Forsythe has delivered on just one of those hopes, and he’s recently begun sliding backward on that one – playing solid defense up the middle.
The Dodgers tried Forsythe at leadoff for 93 starts, and Logan batted .247/.368/.355. Not anemic, but those leadoff numbers won’t get your team into the Fall Classic. Forsythe has batted up and down the lineup, mostly in the five slot, and his season numbers are .235/.358/.316. Logan hasn’t been getting better at the plate, and within the past couple of series, he’s become an almost sure out right in the middle of the lineup.
The Dodgers have been able to carry him because the rest of the players around him are batting well enough, regularly enough, to support his dead bat. How much longer can that continue? Blue magic or not, the other Dodgers probably aren’t going to continue that mad batting tear, so if one or two bats run into a slump, Forythe will just compound it. Besides that, he isn’t likely to come out of this batting funk, and that would be very bad news in the middle of a playoff series.
In his defense, Forsythe looked like a decent gamle when the Dodgers traded for him. His troubles at the plate began back in April when he suffered a broken right big toe due to a fastball. He was out for just over a month and never showed any batting prowess when he returned.
The Dodgers are fast approaching the final run to the end of the season, and although there isn’t any real threat to their NL West leadership, the team is soon going to begin thinking about their postseason lineup. While their 14-game lead in the division offers plenty of breathing room for them to carry an easy out in the lineup for now, they should be seriously contemplating what to do when the season ends if Forsythe is still a black hole at the plate.
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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Yes, definitely need to replace a starting component of this team. Especially now, when nothing is going right.
Maybe a replacement can be found on the waiver wire?
.368 OBP at leadoff is acceptable. Yeah, we’d all like .400 with speed. We don’t have it.
If he were to be replaced it could be done in house. I don’t see it happening until season’s end.
How much sports experience do you have, Bluto? Did you play in High School or College? How good were you? No matter how good a team is, they should ALWAYS try to get better, to replace the weak links… FAZ WILL do this. Are you going to tell him he was wrong? Or will you forget about this and keep on saying how great FAZ is? Take your stand.
I play and watch sports only recreationally. In high school, I went to a small private school and only made Varsity because it was so small.
Worse than that, I barely have time to follow sports when I’m not working.
Even worse than that, I just like to be an optimist and not worry, so I just get very superficial at times.
Worse that that, if possible, is that baseball is only one of four sports I’m interested in (European Soccer, Hockey and the NFL are the others)
Here’s my stand:
The Dodgers have a widely admired, very intelligent management team. They have a very good 25 and 40 man roster and a stacked minor league system. They have a lot of resources at their disposal.
Don’t worry (about the 2B)
Be happy (about the team)
Soccer??? Hockey??? I give up…
Oscar
I don’t think we do anything this year.
It might be worth keeping Forsythe just for his bat, against lefties, in the post season.
Because he is hitting lefties, much much better, then righties.
He has an OPS in the 900s, against lefties.
And he seems pretty sure handed, on defense.
I think his problem is the change of pitching, in the National League..
I can’t blame the injury problem, because Forsythe went on the DL last year, and I think he has a rep, of getting hurt to much..
I do think he should hit in the back of the line up though, not fifth or sixth, especially against righties.
I’m not saying Forsythe is bad, just that we have better available in Taylor and maybe Barnes…
Jonah
I really don’t think they need to keep him next year, because of Taylor.
We will have him through the post-season. He has about a million and a half in salary still due him, plus the million option buy-out. Nobody’s going to waiver claim him and pay him that much. But he should be on the bench.
Start Barnes at second base and have Grandal/Farmer share time catching.
Another glorious article by McCullough this one starts with a prescient anecdote:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-dodgers-magic-20170804-story.html
Good story there Bluto, but I care less about this team making history. I care about them changing the history of the last 28 years. I want to see them win it all. Yep, they are playing great, getting contributions up and down the line up. Manipulating the 40 man and 25 man roster like a magician and at the time being, and nursing the infirm and oft injured so that they are at least making a contribution to the effort. THIS year, they are doing a great job. The team is cohesive, and has great chemistry, they play well together and there really seems to be a lot of leadership in the club house. We all hope this leads to a championship. But until that is done, they have accomplished nothing. They win 110 games and get beat in the playoffs, everyone will say it was a bad year. That’s just the way people react. They should have won, they were the best team in baseball after Bellinger came on board and they still lost. You think FAZ gets heat now? They are in a position with the fans that they had BETTER win this year, or a lot of people are going to be VERY disappointed. This whole run has been great to watch and as a fan to be a part of. I love it because I can toss into my son in laws face how god awful his Giants are. They are EXPECTED to win now. They made the big over the hump move they failed to make the last 2 years before this. Teams who are the best at the end, do not always bring home the trophy. Just ask the 116 win Mariners. I am enjoying the ride, trust me, but I am also a realist. I look for the unexpected to happen because it usually will.
Just setting yourself up for disappointment, in my opinion, Michael.
Too many crazy things happen to derail a World Series Championship. Just enjoy this run, enjoy the team being set up for a good run of sustained success. The more successful years you have the greater the chance of getting lucky and winning the World Series.
Trust me. I know. I’m a Red Sox fan.
But, I appreciate your passion.
Not me Bluto, I have been a fan too long to expect anything. I take what they give me and enjoy it. I am talking about the fan who does expect them to win and win now. I have seen too many crazy things happen myself, like getting knocked out of first the last day by a Joe Morgan HR off of Terry Forster. And Morgan was with, guess who, the Giants then. Losing game 3 of the 1962 playoffs when they were winning 4-2 in the 9th at home. First year Dodger Stadium was open. Losing the World Series to the Yankees when they jumped out to a 2 games to none lead. Losing last year when they were up 2-1 on the Cubs, or how about losing to the Mets, with Greinke on the mound in the 5th game when he was cruising and then gives up a 2 run dinger to Murphy. Seen it all Red Sox fan. But never had to wait that long for a title.
Bluto
I have never been a big fan of the American League, but I have always liked the Red Soxs, and Royals.
And I always wanted them to beat the Yankees, anytime they played.
I will be happy when our payroll goes down, and we won’t have to pay so many players, that are no longer on the team.
Because everyone thinks we should win with that big payroll, but they don’t realize that high payroll isn’t most of the current players, on this team.
“ginger bearded”? I got ginger in my reefer right now (use it every day) and it’s a light brown . Turner’s beard is more a cayenne color. Cayenne and ginger together will light your fuse.
Good story about the snake. The rest of it wasn’t all that newsy. But cept for the music maybe, which I can’t say I recognized.
Was Cigaretti getting “smoked” last night just a “first night jitters episode” or was it more telling on how his career has “smoldered” over the last few years? Nice to have the luxury to see if he will get “lit up” or can he “snuff” out his woes on the mound. (yes, Michael I know his real name).
Brutus, you seem to have a very strange take on sports and just about everything you comment on. I think you better just stick to the kiss ass blog, where you can just fall in line and agree with the Catcher and have the lovefest. Or maybe you have a desire to just come off strange and detached from the reality of fandom. Either way, PLEASE!
Was that code?
Kiss ass blog?
Catcher?
Are you going back to the elevated discourse of homophobia?
Was it addressed at me? Are you seriously incapable of getting my fake name correct?
And, above all else, Tried Blue, I have yet to, and I mean this on a literal level, read any post of yours that has added anything of value to any discussion here.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
True Blue there’s a Smoker in the Mets bullpen.
Tonight’s line up…..Taylor LF Seager SS Turner 3B Bellinger 1B Pederson CF Grandal C Utley 2B Puig RF Darvish P. To me, this is the best offensive lineup they put out there.
Good call Michael. Lots of Ks but we wore out DeGrom.
True Blue, don’t be a prick please. He has some good opinions and balances the site out, without the other suck ups.
And anyone who has bad words for soccer, shove it.
Hey, True Blue.
Call your mother.
You finally got someone (aside from my insults) to respond to one of your posts.
This is a great day!
And there is an example of why you must try to beat Taylor with off speed stuff – especially in a fastball count. You cannot throw fastballs over the middle of the plate to the Dodgers.
31 pitches in the first inning does not bode well for deGrom….
I’d keep Forsythe for the whole year. I think he’ll get better and we also need his glove at third from time to time.
We probably have no choice. But Taylor and Barnes both play third also….
We don’t need Forsythe. But we will keep him through the year.
Yes, 31 pitches does not bode well. I expect to see deGrom through it over the plate next inning. If he can’t spin them, or change speeds, we are going to clobber him.
If we can not go for those high fastballs, just out of the strike zone, we will be fine.
I am so proud that Puig knows when he has hit a HR now!
Way to start this game, Taylor and Puig!
Badger
Do you see decent movement on Yu’s fastball?
Yeah. Great movement on 4 different pitches. He has hung a couple, but so far no damage. It’s the Mets.
How long do we think the Dodgers let Darvish go?
I’d say 7 tops…
Turner just ain’t right, I don’t think it is just a slump, I think the guy really is having problems with his legs. He has lost his leg strength and seems to not getting down and thru his swing, evidenced by an abundance of fairly short lazy flyball outs. He needs to sit for a series or maybe a whole week and just get his strength and reset himself mentally. He is batting below .150 over the last two weeks. Hey, he could shave his beard and head and start anew.
I have been trumpeting the Forshyte problem for some time now, he really has only earned a spot on the bench. His defense isn’t so tremendous that it is justified to keep him in the line up. We have plenty of 2Bers that can actually hit, dude’s outs aren’t even productive outs. the guy watches so many called 3rd strikes, it is just amazing and a problem each and every game.
True Blue
Turner has had that bronchitis, and you know that can really wear you out, and sometimes it lingers, just when you think your over it.
I had Bronchitis once in college, and I had a essay paper due, and I had to force myself to get that paper done, but I almost felt like that took all of my energy for the day.
Bluto
I think your right with seven.
Yu is Japanese pitcher on the right team, because we will give him more blows, then most teams, because of our depth in starting pitching, and with our lead.
Chase is getting some really good timely hits, considering he isn’t playing full time.
But the way Roberts and his coaches, work the players, even our part time players, are getting enough playing time, to keep them pretty sharp.
What a mistake Mattingly made, by not playing Chase against the Mets, in the post season.
Chase had and has, so much familiarity with the Met’s pitchers playing in the same league, almost his entire career.
I am so glad Mattingly is gone!
I think Utley has made himself into a very good PH. A true professional. Hopefully AGon can do the same when he comes back.
I think they need to let Darvish go 3 times through their lineup and see what happens.
YF
Utley is even learning to hit the other way more this year too.
That is probably a pretty good way to gauge Darvish, but I think Roberts pulls him after the seventh.
It just seems like Roberts pulls most of his pitchers a little earlier then you would think, even when they are pitching well, but what do I know!
99 pitches. That’s enough.
I like this pickup.
Badger
I know this deal finally woke you up!
He is suppose to have a lot more different pitches, then most pitchers have, but sometimes they say, he tries to be over cute with all of his pitches, when he doesn’t need to.
I wish Avilan and our relievers would stop coming into games, and walking hitters.
There is nothing good with those kind of walks, especially in tight games.
This is what Avilan did in his last game.
He got two quick outs, then walked two hitters in a row.
I am just glad this wasn’t the fifth game in a row, one of our relivers gave up a HR.
It will definitely be interesting when AGon come back.
Impressive debut. Oh, and tomorrow the NL pitcher of the month in July goes.
We can match 42-8 tomorrow. Who the hell ever thought we’d see that twice, let alone within 4 years ?
I didn’t. Nobody did. Remarkable.
I think we caught them already. If we lose tomorrow it’s 42-8. If we win we go 43-7, one game better. But yes who would have seen this coming, particularly after an ugly April. People on the other blog will take credit, but that’s their delusion.
I like this team much better, because everyone in the line up take their turn at being the star of each game.
And because of that, it is hard to pitch around certain hitters!
And we also have a lot of young players, and some hungry players, that had to fight their way, into our line up too!
Artieboy
Good info!
You know that 42-8 2013 club wasn’t very good the rest of the year. Even though the streak is the same, this team looks different.
Bobby
I got a fun or rare fact about Darvish, his current girl friend, is a Adult enertainment star.
But I can’t remember her name, so I will let you men, look her up.
And I hope you men, have a good time doing it!
I thought this was a typical Dodger .550 team, and that it had a better chance to
be less than that than more.
Wow! So much more!!!!:-)
Still don’t see a championship team….
Curious to see how Yu handles post-season. He was nice tonight. Good on him…
Pointed out in spring Logan hasn’t shown he can put up numbers in a genuine
pennant race. So I’m from Missouri until he does.
Adult entertainment star?
Where did you hear that?
Badger
People that post at Dodger com.
They actually had a professional picture of Darvishes girl friend on there yesterday, when I looked to see what the line up was.
But I can’t remember her name.