Dodger alarm clock fails to go off
On Dodger Alarm Clock giveaway day, the Dodger offense played little heed to the numerous alarms going off throughout the stadium and instead stayed in their “somnambulant” sleep.
SOMEONE AROUSE THE SOMNAMBULANT OFFENSE!!!
— David Young the Elder (@DavidYoungTBLA) April 25, 2018
The Dodgers are treating the Marlins pitchers as though they are facing Randy Glavine and Frank Viola, two crafty lefthanders who bedeviled hitters for most of their careers. I’m pretty sure that Garcia and Peters are not that good and that the offense is simply sputtering.
Kiké couldn’t save the offense today and the bullpen gave away the meager runs that they were able to produce. Kenta did his job for six innings giving up just the solo home run to Realmuto. Daniel Hudson making his Dodger debut pitched a perfect seventh with two strikeouts. Tony Cingrani, however, did something he hadn’t done all year and gave up a run. You can blame the balk but the run scored. Pedro Baez than gave away the game. It happens, when you only score two runs a game, you are working with a thin margin for victory.
At some point, Corey Seager has to start hitting the ball with some authority as he has been a big part of the successful Dodger offense over the past two years. Chris Taylor needs to get on base at a better clip, and Puig needs to start being productive, but the real problem has been 3rd base. It is not surprising given the Dodgers best hitter was our 3rd baseman yet it was expected that Logan Forsythe would produce some offense, and it was realistic to expect the other options to at least have some production but the combination of Forsythe, Muncy, and Farmer have been the worst producers at 3rd base in all of baseball. When a position on your team can only put up a .150 / .225 / .263 triple stat line after twenty-two games you have a huge problem.
Split PA BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP as C 99 .310 .414 .512 .926 43 3 as 1B 100 .253 .310 .418 .728 38 2 as 2B 92 .221 .337 .325 .662 25 1 as 3B 89 .150 .225 .263 .487 21 3 as SS 104 .278 .356 .444 .800 40 2 as LF 93 .244 .323 .402 .725 33 1 as CF 105 .245 .286 .469 .755 46 2 as RF 98 .233 .286 .289 .575 26 2 as P 47 .095 .116 .095 .212 4 0 as PH 50 .326 .420 .442 .862 19 0 as Infield 484 .244 .331 .396 .726 167 11 as Outfield 296 .241 .297 .389 .686 105 5
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/25/2018.
- Posted in: 2018 Dodgers ♦ Uncategorized
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 
Puig could use a dose of The Strawberry Alarm Clock.
2B and 3B are going to require some re-tooling, re-vamp the plan?
What is being tried now is not working.
The return of Forsythe will do little to move the needle here.
You can believe Turner is all the way back when you see it.
There is no guarantee that Turner will quickly regain the form that made him such a potent threat with the bat.
In 2017, so many things went right, the challenges were met and overcome.
In 2018, not so much, so far.
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We are basically at the same spot we were when Bellinger joined the team last year. Given the lack of production from Seager, Puig, 3rd base they are doing ok because Seager and Puig will get it going. Kiké is actually doing OK, and a two headed monster of Kike/Chase is not bad. If KJ had been himself the Dodgers are looking at three extra wins. Since I think KJ is going to figure it out, I think 2018 is going ok and will just get better.
Forsythe should have been an OK option for 3rd base while Turner is not. The fact he was useless on offense and defense was surprising. Maybe when he comes back he can get it going but hard to make a move for a 3rd baseman when JT is only weeks away not months. Martin Prado should be available if they decide to go that route. Nothing special but will get the job done.
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For some reason, the feel of the 1968 season keeps re-visiting me lately.
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I remember waiting all season long for the Dodgers to start hitting in 1968
and I’m still waiting.
It was during these times that I read an article in Sport Magazine that put forth the observation of how teams can have several players who have career type years together in the same season and that when this happens their team wins a lot of games and go to the World Series. There were no divisional playoff games in those days.
On the flip side the article also noted that these same teams would struggle finding wins when several of their players experienced down type years together during the same season making wins much harder to come by.
It was an eye opening article for me. I had felt that I had my players abilities pretty much pegged and that they would perform in the future in a way similar to how I had seen them perform recently and in years past. Kinda like the way people now just expect their favorite players to regress to their mean. I learned that this does not always happen for a player within the time frame of a single season.
So I decided to look up the 1968 Dodgers season stats.
I realize that the 2018 season is just getting underway and that comparing the numbers for an entire season vs. the small sample size of the first month of a season might not show that much, but here are the numbers side by side.
1968 Pos – Player OPS, OPS+ … 2018 From BBR
C Haller .733, 128 – Grandal .975, 172
1B Parker .626, 96 – Bellinger .770, 114
2B Popovich .551, 72 – Utley .857, 141
SS Versalles .510, 59 – Seager .671, 89
3B Bailey .656, 104 – Forsythe .507, 42
LF Gabrielson .765, 137 – Kemp .887, 146
CF Davis .636, 97 – Taylor .709, 96
RF Fairly .600, 88 – Puig .499, 41
Lefebvre .646, 107 – Hernandez .840, 133
Boyer .720, 123 – Pederson .616, 74
Crawford .735, 129 – Barnes .750, 113
Savage .588, 83 – Farmer .596, 69
Fairey .517, 61 – Muncy .505, 40
Colovito .604, 89
Now here are the Dodgers Players numbers comparing all of the 2017 season with only the small sample size of 2018
2018 OPS, OPS+ vs 2017, Player
.975, 172 – .767, 100 Grandal
.770, 114 – .933, 142 Bellinger
.857, 141 – .728, 92 Utley
.671, 89 – .854, 125 Seager
.507, 42 – .678, 82 Forsythe
.887, 146 – .781, 107 Kemp
.709, 96 – .850, 122 Taylor
.499, 41 – .833, 118 Puig
.840, 133 – .729, 91 Hernandez
.616, 74 – .738, 95 Pederson
.750, 113 – .895, 137 Barnes
Today these numbers do not mean much, but they do warrant tracking as the season ages.
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Sorry Gary, you usually have a good Dodger radar but I’m not buying this in any way. The 68 team was my team, the first time I followed the team in daily detail, and the one thing that 1968 team had was zero talent. They were bad, because they were bad and that is why they stayed bad all year.
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You can’t buy this bread yet, because it is still in the oven!
The answer or the buying will … take place/or not … when this 2018 season is completed.
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The 1968 Dodgers team did not play well and it had some bad players on it, but this team also had some good players who played below their Career Averages in 1968.
Here are the numbers
1968 OPS, OPS+ – Career Avg OPS, OPS+ Player
.733, 128 – .753, 114 Haller Close to Career Avg.
.626, 96 – ,726, 111 Parker Below Career Avg
.551, 72 – .557, 62 Popovich Close to Career Avg
.510, 59 – .558, 53 Versalles Close to Career Avg
.656, 104 – .750, 111 Bailey Below Career Avg
.765, 137 – .675, 94 Gabrielson Above Career Avg
.636, 97 – .725, 107 Davis Below Career Avg
.600, 88 – .768, 117 Fairly Below Career Avg
.
.646, 101 – .701, 104 Lefebvre Close to Career Avg
.720, 123 – .810, 116 Boyer Below Career Avg
.735, 129 – .757, 116 Crawford Close to Career Avg
.588, 83 – .694, 95 Savage Below Career Avg
.517, 61 – .597, 70 Fairey Close to Career Avg
.604, 89 – .848, 132 Colovito Below Career Avg.
Glove Guys
Versalles, Popovich, Fairey, 3 Close to Career Avg
Bat Guys
Gabrielson 1 Above Career Avg
Haller, Crawford, Lefebvre 3 Close to Career Avg
Parker, Bailey, Davis, Fairly, Boyer, Savage, Colovito 7 Below Career Avg.
So 7 0f the 11 Bat guys or 64% suffer a down season together in 1968.
For the 2018 Dodgers
Bellinger, Seager, Forsythe, Taylor, Puig, Pederson and Barnes, 7 Bat guys are starting their seasons off with one foot on the Below Avg Boat.
Will this continue?
How many of them will bounce back during the 2018 season?
This is the question.
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