The umpiring crew for the World Series has been announced. Veteran umpire Gerry Davis will be the crew chief. This is the sixth World Series he’s worked and has 136 postseason games under his belt. Needless to say he’s been around the block in October baseball. Here are the rest of the umpires for the series. Laz Diaz is the third base umpire, so everyone better be on their best behavior.
#WorldSeries umps announced pic.twitter.com/gitUBZVVPO
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) October 23, 2017
Here’s a few interviews from Media Day at Dodger Stadium. First up is Justin Turner.
Here’s Logan Forsythe talking about the World Series
Here’s Yasiel Puig talking about Houston first baseman Yuli Gurriel.
Corey Seager is reportedly ready to go for the World Series. he’s been recovering from a back injury and was not on the NLCS roster. Here he discusses the importance of the World Series for Dodger fans and Los Angeles.
Finally Curtis Granderson talks about the preparations for the Dodgers against the Astros in the World Series. Granderson is appearing in his third World Series.
Game 1 is tomorrow with pregame festivities scheduled to air on FOX at 4:30 PM. First pitch is scheduled for 5:00 PM PST. Excite!
Laz Diaz is the third base umpire, so everyone better be on their best behavior.
What is the deal with this guy that you reference, Scott?
I have to admit i don’t really follow the umps or know much about them. What I do know is that there are very few, it seems, that call a good strike zone, it’s as bad as I have ever seen in my years of watching baseball. One name I do know and know he is terrible x10 is Angel Hernandez. How the hell does that guy keep his job?
Laz Diaz is a former marine, I believe. In any event, he’s former military. The way he wears his hat gives it away. So that’s what he’s referring to.
And to your comment about Angel Hernandez, he’s about as bad as it gets in MLB. CJ Bucknor is worse, but Angel carries a chip on his shoulder. He even cries racism and I believe has a pending lawsuit against baseball.
Nice interviews – thanks Scott for putting them up!
Puig giving plenty of respect to Gurriel, who I read was the man like Mike Trout for the Cuban national team. Note to Granderson – good advice to everyone else, but please do not do things the same way for yourself, try to change it up please, whatever you’re doing or eating aint working.
Here is a East Coast bias article against Puig.
“If you were raised to love baseball and to recognize the smart, winning kind from everything less, the Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig is insufferable. As the sport is diminished by professionals who disregard the basic act of running to first base as a matter of style, Puig, an incurable home-plate poser, often makes turning doubles and triples into singles appear effortless.”
http://nypost.com/2017/10/19/why-baseball-doesnt-need-more-yasiel-puigs-it-needs-less/
I guess this “oldtimer” does not recognize plate discipline, aggressive base running and great defense. Stuff like that is for my generation, I guess. I do admit the guy is a major camera hog, but I also think most of our team are camera shy so it’s good to have cameras focus on the guys who don’t mind it. In addition to Puig the cameras are always on Bellinger and Hernandez too, I think Bellinger just naturally enjoys the fun too – he’s got a rock star personality. Roberts seems to hate the camera – he always purposefully lean away from the camera when it is on him.
I guess I’m an “old timer” in the sense the game has diminished. However I prefer to think the game has evolved. Puig’s plate discipline is impressive. And his ability to turn a double into a triple is worth the price of admission.
It would have been a crying shame if the Dodgers would have given up on Puig, like many many suggested. There were a few of us that saw his awesome talent and potential. The question was always could he mature and really learn to play the game and not just rely on raw talent. Thank God the Dodgers decided to stick with him and had a staff the was willing to work with him both on and off the field. Now we have seen a change this post season in the maturity level of our coaching staff, they have decided to really ride the Wild Horse, day in and day out, no more platoon, instead ride that horse all the way to the finish line. I think the staff finally realized that they were maybe setting up Puig to live up to their expectations. Those expectations said Puig couldn’t hit left handers, so Puig lived up to that expectation. So now they have left him in to play against leftys and rightys and Puig believes them (just like trusting Turner Ward about his batting approach). Puig is impressionable and he can be influenced, now he is getting good influences, Donnie Tball and staff gone, Roberts and his staff in place.
Like they say, “I love it when a plan comes together”
True
They have played Puig all year against lefties, even though he didn’t really start hitting them well this year, until the post season.
He has had some days off that may be the day the team is facing a leftie, but other then that, he has played against both righties and lefties this year.
They did that, hoping Puig would start hitting lefties again.
No not factual, they sat on many many days they faced lefties
I thought when we faced the Cubs at Wrigley, when Hendricks was pitching, the umpire behind the plate that day, was really fair, and very good.
Because last year the umpire was giving Hendricks strikes at the batter’s ankles, and not many hitters, can hit with a strike zone like that.
The ump this year, was telling Hendricks to get his pitches up, when he was complaining or asking about the strike zone.
Well the day is here. Reading some of the comments I am depressed to see Granderson on the roster if that is indeed true. And who goes so Corey comes back? The announcement is a few hours away. But to tell the truth, I wish Culberson is on that roster. He earned a place with is fine play in the NLCS. I watched Kershaw’s interview on ESPN yesterday. He looked calm and some of the questions were really inane. I was interested that he said the butterflies leave after the first pitch. MLB has the Dodgers winning in 7 as does Yardbarker. Lots of Astros fans have been on the Dodger site saying that the Dodger fans do not respect the Stros. They also were saying that the Stros had to beat better teams than the Dodgers did to get to the series. Typical. They did not see the Diamondbacks and their powerful offense so they wrote them off as being mediocre. They did not respect the fact that the Cubs were defending champs. And they poo-pooed the Dodgers saying it was easier to pitch in the NL because pitchers hit. They are going to get a dose of that NL way of pitching and a bullpen that comes in with nothing more on its mind than shutting you down. Yeah, the Stros hit more homers, and had a higher team BA than the Blue. But this team has a ton of grind it out, never say die, no quit players. They will play hard and they will play to win.
Odd phrasing here Michael:
I am depressed to see Granderson on the roster if that is indeed true.
Brandon McCarthy is on World Series roster. Curtis Granderson is NOT on the roster.
Oh how the times change stat: only TWO (2) LHP on the Astros WS roster.
Also, great Plunkett article on the analytical departments of the Astros and Dodgers:
http://www.ocregister.com/2017/10/23/dodgers-vs-astros-is-a-world-series-built-for-the-information-age/
“You should know there are at least a half a dozen, maybe 10 teams that are all in on analytics,” says Dodgers team president and CEO Stan Kasten. “Most of the teams in the playoffs were those kind of teams.”
Players who come to the Dodgers from other organizations recognize the difference.
“Just the sheer numbers as far as the bodies, the staff that is analytically-driven,” says Dodgers reliever Tony Watson who spent 6-1/2 seasons with the analytically-open Pittsburgh Pirates before joining the Dodgers this summer. “Then I later found out it’s the largest R & D in baseball. … Coming from Pittsburgh, it’s definitely bigger. That’s the focus. And it works. The numbers don’t lie.”
Not odd at all. I had read some reports on how he was preparing for the Series, and another saying that this is his 4th or 5th trip to the series. That guy would depress anyone. Since he is not on the roster, I feel better. I do not agree with having McCarthy back. He has not pitched in a game competitively in more than a month.
I understand your sentiment, and I’m being a little precious here, but it’s odd because your tenses don’t align. You start with the present tense, then base it on the conditional tense. Anyone would see that’s incorrect.
At my age I am lucky I can form a sentence….get over it.
Just announced. Cody Bellinger won the Sporting News NL Rookie of the Year Award. He got 97 out of 102 votes. Also read that A-Gone is in Italy right now and not with the team. I really wish A-Gone could be a part of this. He has played his butt off ever since he became a Dodger.
Granderson and Farmer off. Seager and McCarthy on.
I am not a big fan of McCarthy being on this roster, and I don’t trust him to pitch well in relief, but if he does find a way to help this team, what can I say!
I just don’t think he has the same ride and die attitude, that are other players have, on this team.
MJ – maybe they thought of him as a better option than Granderson off the bench ?
Agreed, MJ. The team has been retooled while he was gone and Roberts has come up with a very good rotation and pen, as is. With the addtion of Maeda in the pen, a pitcher like McCarthy should not be necessary. That goes for the starters, too. No way he breaks the rotation. Now, in an emergency, McCarthy might be a pitcher that could be used, and after all, it might help to boost his confidence, once again. He will probably not be with team for much longer. Too many options out there.