Author Archive: Phil Gurnee
Puig and Kemp dominate Fangraphs May wRC+ leaderboard for NL outfielders
Given the Dodgers struggles to win in May it is a big surprise that the Dodgers have three players in the top ten of wRC+ for National League outfielders in the month of May. It is no surprise the Yasiel Puig is number one on the leaderboard with his 214 wRC+ as he is as …
Max Muncy doesn’t take Buehlers day off
but the rest of the Dodger offense did. Once again Max Muncy led the Dodger offense just as he has done most of May. Before Justin Turner returned last week and Puig got hot most of the May damage had come from the unlikely source of Max Muncy. It isn’t just an illusion as you …
My first Brother in Arms game
Reading Jon Weisman’s Brother in Arms was like reading my own history with the Dodgers. It took a few chapters to get there but once Jon reached Don Sutton I was with the man who started my Dodger chapter at Dodger Stadium. When I came to Los Angeles in the spring of 1970, Don Sutton …
Kenta Maeda lights up the game score leaderboard
Late Wednesday Night the Dodgers had just lost to the Marlins again and the pit of despair was looming large three thousand miles away in Los Angeles. The tunnel was dark and fans couldn’t see any glimmer of light as they tried to make their way into positive energy. Just as the last rays of …
Dodger pitching finds the footing just in time
The Dodgers went into the weekend against the Nationals without Clayton Kershaw and came away with three victories as Ross Stripling saved the rotation and the bullpen saved the rotation when Rich Hill ripped off a blister and didn’t record one out in his start. Kenta Maeda got the pitching rolling with a fantastic getaway …
Dodgers make offensive progress with sweep of Nationals
Things looked very grim for the Dodgers as they headed into a key three-game series against the hottest team in the National League after winning just two of the previous eleven games against mostly sub five hundred win percentage teams. The Dodgers got a rainout on Friday and whatever they did on that off day they …
Dennis Santana wins the May 14 – May 20th Farm Factory Award
I’m not sure any Dodger prospect has had a better AAA debut than Dennis Santana had on May 19th when he struck out eleven with zero walks in his six innings. I may have to check that out just for fun. It was a slam dunk to give Dennis Santana the weekly Farm Factory Award …
Bizarro day finds Dodgers only six back
The odds were already stacked against the Dodgers in the second game of a doubleheader having to face the best pitcher in the National League in his park, but they looked even worse after Rich Hill left the game with a torn blister without retiring a single batter. This meant the bullpen would have to …
Brother in Arms by Jon Weisman
When Jon Weisman announced his new project last year I was excited to see what kind of prose he could put together about the pitchers of my youth and the pitchers I read about in my youth. His book is called Brothers in Arms: Koufax, Kershaw, and the Dodgers’ Extraordinary Pitching Tradition and is now available in …
Baseball gravity pulls sophomore slugging 1st baseman back to earth
Last year witnessed not one, not two, but three first baseman who broke all sorts of home runs records even though none of them started the season in the major leagues. The first up was Dodger phenom Cody Bellinger who started his first game on April 25th and proceeded to light up the NL and …
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 