Rich Hill reminds everyone he sucks in March
Rich Hill had his second lousy start this spring but compared to a game he pitched last March for the Oakland A’s he doing just fine. In that game, he walked the bases loaded and didn’t even get three outs.
I was curious so I looked up a few things. As great as Hill was last year he didn’t start out the season very good, getting pounded in game one and game three. Game two however, was brilliant and that was what he leaned toward for the rest of his season when he was able to take the mound.
Hill has had such a bizarre career that you actually have to go back to 2008 to find his last April starts that didn’t occur in 2016. He was horrible. Those five starts got him demoted and he didn’t see the majors again until May 16th, 2009.
After starting the Cactus league 5 -1 the Dodgers have lost five of six and are now 6 – 6 in Cactus league play.
Recently acquired Drew Jackson showed up in the box score and struck out in his only plate appearance.
Joc Pederson led off the game with his 3rd cactus league home run and now has a 1.000 OPS.
Brett Eibner and Trevor Holt continue to lead the offense. Both are trying to buck the odds and beat out Trayce Thompson for the job of backup outfielder or platoon mate for Andre Ethier.
Willie Calhoun got his first start at second base and was hitless in two at-bats. Jose Fernandez replaced him at second and took a walk. Fernandez now has three walks in eleven plate appearances. He doesn’t have a hit yet but he is showing the eye we heard about.
Trevor Oaks once again put up zeros in two innings of work. Oaks has now pitched in three games, going two innings every time, and has yet to allow a run.
CIA Emoticons
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щ（ﾟДﾟщ） < “Dear god why‽ )
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╯‵Д′)╯彡┻━┻ angry guy flipping a table (maybe my favorite)
◔ᴗ◔ – how I feel about Kershaw
Cody Bellinger – Sooner or later?
The general feeling is that Cody Bellinger is blocked and won’t see much major league action in 2017. Not everyone agreed with this.
Is he really blocked?
The Dodger top prospect plays 1st base and the outfield. Barring injury Adrian Gonzalez has a firm grip on 1st base and given he’s never hit the DL, that grip is solid.
Not so solid is the grip on left field by Andre Ethier / Andrew Toles/ Franklyn Gutierrez / Trayce Thompson / SVS.
Andre Ethier is having a great spring and looks completely healthy following a year in which he missed 99% of it due to fouling a ball off his shin in 2016 spring training and breaking stuff. In what was supposed to be a competition between Andre and Andrew, at the moment, Andre is kicking Toles butt.
If Andre was to win the job (and I suspect he will) what are his prospects? Going back to 2010 – 2016 we can do a quick Baseball Reference Play Index and look for any LF with at least 400 PA with at least an OPS+ of 100 who was 35 or older. We find five players who have done this. Soriano three times, and Raul Ibanez twice. The best they could do was an OPS+ of 123.
It is very possible that Andre Ethier will join this leaderboard at the end of 2017, but it also just as likely that he doesn’t. In 2014, Andre was fighting injuries and posted a mere OPS+ of 97. He followed that with a very healthy and productive 2015. Two of the last three years Andre has not been healthy.
I would not be betting on Andre seeing 400 plate appearances in 2017 with an OPS+ > 100.
Player HR OPS+ PA Year Age BA OBP SLG OPS Pos Alfonso Soriano 34 114 626 2013 37 .255 .302 .489 .791 *7D/H Alfonso Soriano 32 118 615 2012 36 .262 .322 .499 .821 *7/DH Raul Ibanez 29 123 496 2013 41 .242 .306 .487 .793 *7D/H9 Alfonso Soriano 26 104 508 2011 35 .244 .289 .469 .759 *7/HD Marlon Byrd 23 100 544 2015 37 .247 .290 .453 .743 *79/H8D Matt Holliday 20 107 426 2016 36 .246 .322 .461 .782 *7H3/D Raul Ibanez 19 103 425 2012 40 .240 .308 .453 .761 *7HD9 Carlos Lee 18 117 653 2011 35 .275 .342 .446 .788 *7*3/DH Raul Ibanez 16 111 636 2010 38 .275 .349 .444 .793 *7/HD3
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/5/2017.
Andrew Toles is supposed to be next up on the depth chart. Toles shocked the baseball world last year by flying up the minor league ladder after taking the 2015 season off. He was so good that eventually Dave Roberts was forced to use him in the postseason in LF instead of Howie Kendrick. Andrew Toles could eventually find his way into being the LAD starting left fielder against RHP. As much as I enjoyed Toles last year I do think he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. The rock is Andre Ethier’s contract. If healthy Andre is going to be the starting LF even if Toles is his equal because they can only carry one of Andre or Andrew. The hard place is Cody Bellinger. Toles might be an adequate left fielder, Cody Bellinger could be a star. He might be able to hold off Cody for a few months, but I’m not sure he could do it for the whole season.
The other three players on the LF depth are all right handed hitters who would play against LHP.
This is my guess for the 2017 season. Andre Ethier will win the job to start the year but injuries will get in the way of him being productive and eventually he’ll hit the DL. Toles will get the call-up but between Toles being meh, and Bellinger hammering in AAA, the Dodgers eventually give Bellinger the call and he takes the LF job and holds it the rest of summer and 2018 to boot.
For some reason as I watched the Mariner / Dodger game today, a vision flashed before my eyes, and that vision was Andrew Toles playing for the Mariners.
Cody Bellinger puts his skills on display
With Adrian Gonzalez ailing, and headed out to represent Mexico in the WBC, Dodger fans are going to get to see a lot of number one prospect Cody Bellinger. I suspect they will like what they see.
Today, Cody put some of his skills on display. In his first at-bat, he struck out on a high strike and looked like a free swinging little leaguer. Later in the game with runners on 2nd/3rd, he took a smash headed into RF and instead of a two-run single turned it into an out. He followed that defensive gem with a nice two-strike bullet up the middle to plate a run.
He continues to look comfortable in a major league uniform and is maybe just an Andre Ethier injury away from being the starting left fielder. At some point, I think the Dodgers will want to inject Cody Bellinger into the lineup and while Andre has looked good this spring, he’s now 35 and might be considered a high injury risk. Headed into spring it was believed that Toles would be fighting Andre for that starting gig, but Andre seems to have stuffed Toles, and it looks to me as though Cody Bellinger would get the rebound should Andre fail to get his feet off the ground.
Plenty of time for Toles to get his get turned around but it might simply be a case of the superior talent winning out even if he does.
Other Thoughts:
20-year-old Julio Urias tossed two shutout innings and what does it say about Urias that this was a ho-hum appearance? Any other 20-year-old doing this in spring training would be a big story, but at this point, you expect this from Urias.
Ravin can’t afford to many appearances like this if he wants to beat out Chris Hatcher for a spot in the bullpen. Three-run home runs aren’t just one mistake, that is three base runners in one inning of work.
The Mariners played a horrible defensive game
Yasiel Sierra does look like Ramon Martinez
I felt bad for AJ Ellis after hearing he was hurt and would miss his chance to represent the US in the WBC. He seemed very excited that he had been picked for the US squad.
Couldn’t help but watch Sopko and feel the California League Pitcher of the Year had replaced Chase De Jong in the Dodger depth chart.
MLB Network Top 100 show
You can make light of how MLB Network comes up with their top 100, but it is still a fun show to watch. With the Red/Angel game blacked out for us in Los Angeles they showed the 2017 Top 100 countdown.
Kershaw came in 2nd, and Mike Trout won for the fourth year in a row. It would be easy to argue about all the other spots but it seems quite clear at this moment that the two best players in baseball play within 30 miles of each other.
I was surprised to see Cory Seager clock in at 11 given that Correa and Lindor were 20/19 respectively. With only one year under his belt that is a very high ranking. Justin Turner made an appearance, something like 56, which is a pretty good ranking when you consider the number of great 3rd baseman in baseball today. Four of them are in the top 12 overall with Donaldson, Bryant, Machado, and Arenado.
It was fun to have the editor of the show defend the choices that didn’t make the top 100 pointing to how the MLB analysts made their choices.
In the end, baseball is loaded with talent, from young to old.
This year Freddie Freeman made a huge jump up the ranking after being left off last year. Cory Seager climbed 88 spots after cracking the top 100 simply based on his 2015 September.
This year, which player will make the biggest climb? My bet is on Puig who was left off the ranking.
MLB Dodger Prospect Update
MLB updated their prospect lists this week which gives us a chance to see the progression from 2016 Preseason to 2016MidSeason(after draft) to 2016 PostSeason to 2017 Preseason.
We can identify those who graduate, and those who moved up and dropped down.
Dropping off the list because they exhausted their rookie status were Julio Urias and Corey Seager.
Dropping off the list because they were traded are Jose De Leon, Grant Holmes, Jharel Cotton, and Frankie Montas.
Last year Cody Bellinger was ranked 6th in the Dodger organization, he’s now number one and ranked 12th overall.
You can understand the fact that Brock Stewart and Andrew Toles were both unranked a year ago. Toles had missed a whole year of baseball, and Brock Stewart was just a big arm with little experience. What a difference a year makes.
It is good to see that MLB finally got on the Toles wagon. At the end of 2016 they still had him ranked 27th, but with a few months to think about it, Callis and company have moved Toles upto 9th place.
Alvarez at this time last year was simply hype, but a year later the hype proved well founded and Alvarez is now the LAD 2nd best prospect.
Alex Verdugo petty much stayed in the same spot. He was 7th last year and is now 3rd basically moving up those spots because of the departures of Urias/Seager/Holmes.
Willie Calhoun made a huge jump from 18th to 4th even with the defensive issues.
Mitchell White was drafted in the 2nd round last year but didn’t get much respect in Sept when he was ranked 28th. Without throwing a pitch, White is now ranked 12th.
Keibert Ruiz has been flying up prospect lists and this list is no different. Ruiz is now ranked 15th after being 24th last Sept.
The recently acquired Drew Jackson was ranked 20th. Chase De Jong had been ranked 17th.
Ariel Sandoval continues to be ignored by everyone but David Hood. Thus he would be my pick to make the biggest move this summer. I also think that everyone jumped off the Yasiel Sierra bandwagon a little to fast. He might come fast now that he’s being used in relief.
Players not ranked after the draft last year and who made the top 30 this year are Brock Stewart, Andrew Toles, Mitchell White, Trevor Oaks, DJ Peters, ONeil Cruz, Dustin May, Carlos Rincon, Dennis Santana, and Andrew Sopko.
Players dropping out of the top 30 that are still in the system are Kyle Farmer, Jacob Rhame, Jacob Scavuzzo, and Chris Anderson. Chris Anderson has to be the biggest disappointment in the system being a former number one pick in 2013. Aren’t to many number one picks completely out of a teams top 30 prospect list in three years.
With the trades of Jose De Leon, Grant Holmes, Jharel Cotton, Chase De Jong, and Frankie Montas the system has taken a hit but it is still loaded with high end arms. Says something that you can trade five arms like that and have little problem replenishing them.
The table below is sorted by the MLB 2017 PreSeason ranking, and then by David Hood’s ranking.
Legend:
- NR – means they were Not Ranked at the time the ranking came out
- NYD – means they were Not Yet Drafted at the time the ranking came out
- NOT – means they were Not On Team at the time the rankings came out
| Prospect | AGE | MLB/2016 Preseason | MLB/2016 MidSeason | MLB/2016 Postseason | MLB/2017 Preseason |
| Cody Bellinger | 21 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Yadier Alvarez | 20 | 10 | 9 | 5 | 2 |
| Alex Verdugo* | 20 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| Willie Calhoun* | 22 | 18 | 6 | 4 | 4 |
| Walker Buehler | 22 | 8 | 10 | 7 | 5 |
| Yusniel Diaz | 20 | 11 | 7 | 6 | 6 |
| Gavin Lux | 19 | NYD | 12 | 9 | 7 |
| Brock Stewart | 25 | NR | NR | 14 | 8 |
| Andrew Toles* | 24 | NR | NR | 27 | 9 |
| Jordan Sheffield | 21 | NYD | 11 | 8 | 10 |
| Austin Barnes | 27 | 12 | 14 | 10 | 11 |
| Mitchell White | 22 | NYD | NR | 28 | 12 |
| Omar Estevez | 19 | 19 | 16 | 12 | 13 |
| Starling Heredia | 18 | 13 | 17 | 13 | 14 |
| Keibert Ruiz | 18 | NR | 29 | 24 | 15 |
| Will Smith | 21 | NYD | 15 | 11 | 16 |
| Imani Abdullah | 19 | 26 | 20 | 16 | 17 |
| Josh Sborz | 23 | 21 | 19 | 15 | 18 |
| Trevor Oaks | 23 | NR | NR | 29 | 19 |
| Drew Jackson | 23 | NOT | NOT | NOT | 20 |
| D.J. Peters | 21 | NR | NR | NR | 21 |
| Ronny Brito | 17 | 28 | 26 | 21 | 22 |
| Oneil Cruz | 18 | NR | NR | NR | 23 |
| Edwin Rios* | 22 | NR | 30 | 25 | 24 |
| Dustin May | 19 | NYD | NR | 30 | 25 |
| Carlos Rincon | 19 | NR | NR | NR | 26 |
| Dennis Santana | 20 | NR | NR | NR | 27 |
| Johan Mieses | 21 | 29 | 27 | 22 | 28 |
| Brendon Davis | 19 | 23 | 22 | 18 | 29 |
| Andrew Sopko | 22 | NR | NR | NR | 30 |
| Ariel Sandoval | 21 | ||||
| Mitch Hansen* | 20 | 27 | |||
| Kyle Farmer | 26 | 30 | 28 | 23 | |
| Ibandel Isabel | 21 | ||||
| Caleb Ferguson* | 20 | ||||
| Jacob Rhame | 23 | 22 | 23 | 19 | |
| Jacob Scavuzzo | 23 | 25 | 24 | 20 | |
| Yaisel Sierra | 25 | ||||
| Angel German | 20 | ||||
| Kyle Garlick | 25 | ||||
| Devin Smeltzer | 21 | ||||
| AJ Alexy | 18 | ||||
| Cristian Santana | 20 | ||||
| Madison Younginer | 26 | ||||
| Rob Segedin | 28 | ||||
| Chris Anderson | 24 | 17 | |||
| Cody Thomas* | 22 | ||||
| Jordan Paroubeck | 22 | ||||
| Jared Walker | 21 | ||||
| Tim Locastro | 24 | ||||
| Michael Boyle | 22 | ||||
| Logan Crouse | 20 | ||||
| Kam Uter | 21 | ||||
| Ralston Cash | 25 | ||||
| Erick Mejia | 22 | ||||
| Julian Leon | 21 | ||||
| Gus Schlosser | 28 | ||||
| Scott Barlow | 23 | ||||
| Scott Griggs | 25 | ||||
| Mike Ahmed | 25 | ||||
| Chris Mathewson | 20 | ||||
| Errol Robinson | 22 | ||||
| Nolan Long | 23 | ||||
| O’Koyea Dickson | 27 | ||||
| Daniel Corcino | 26 | ||||
| Romer Cuadrado | 20 | ||||
WBC will give some players a chance to shine this spring
Players are getting ready to depart to their respective teams for the World Baseball Championship.
Dodgers headed out will be:
Ike Davis playing for Isreal – an interesting decision by Ike. With Adrian headed to Mexico he might have gotten some extended time in games in front of the coaches but instead, he will play in South Korea.
Rob Segedin playing for Italy – might as well as he auditions for his future Korean career in his bid to wipe Eric Thames out of the Korean league record books.
Kiké Hernández playing for Puerto Rico – Chris Taylor will try to impress while Hernandez is gone. This looks like a nip and tuck battle between Taylor and Enrique, maybe not the best time for Enrique to get patriotic.
Adrian Gonzalez, Sergio Romo, and Alex Verdugo will play for Mexico – With Adrian, Ike, and Segedin out of camp, Cody Bellinger should get plenty of at-bats in their absence. Removing Romo might give some extra innings to relief pitchers on the bubble such as Hatcher/Ravin/Rhame/Morrow. Adrian and Romo are going to be main pieces of the Dodgers 2017 team. Alex Verdugo, on the other hand, is definitely headed for AAA and this experience playing with many major leaguers should help him.
Los Angeles Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers are 11 – 1 in Cactus League play
Or course there is only one Los Angeles baseball team but the other team that uses the moniker of Los Angeles has now won seventeen straight cactus league games. They are 6 – 0 in 2017 after winning their last eleven games last year.
It doesn’t mean anything but that doesn’t make it any less amazing.
How many people are wondering who Henry Ramos is these days?
How many months will Drew Jackson be in the Dodger organization before they trade him after acquiring him a few days ago?
It didn’t take Sergio Romo long to warm the hearts of Dodger fans who have hated him for years.
With starting infielders Logan Forsythe and Justin Turner both getting lubricant injections into their knees are they going to be known as the Lube Brothers?
Dustin Nosler goes in-depth on the recent Chase De Jong / Drew Jackson trade
Did Dodgers pull a minor league heist?
The Dodgers just announced they have traded Chase De Jong to the Mariners for Drew Jackson and an aneurysm to be thrown in later.
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers today acquired minor league shortstop Drew Jackson and minor league right-handed pitcher Aneurys Zabala from the Seattle Mariners in exchange for right-handed pitcher Chase De Jong.
On the surface, this looks like a heist for the Dodgers.
Jackson, 23, has a career .288 batting average with 63 stolen bases, eight home runs and 73 RBI along with a .363 on-base percentage in 183 games over two professional seasons with the Mariners organization. The Berkeley, CA, native was named by Baseball America as a Short-Season Single-A All-Star in 2015, along with being named Northwest League Player of the Year and selected by the league as mid- and post-season All-Star, after leading the league in batting average (.358), on-base percentage (.432), runs (64) and stolen bases (47) in 59 games. Jackson was originally drafted by the Mariners in the fifth round of the 2015 First-Year Player Draft out of Stanford University.
Jackson might give the Dodgers the best infield speed since the minor league days of Dee Gordon. As a shortstop, the Dodgers now have AAA depth in Culberson/Taylor, AA depth in Drew Jackson, and Single-A depth in 2016 number one pick Lux.
MLB had Drew Jackson ranked as the Mariners third top prospect in 2016.
More on this later but now I’m headed for the Clipper / Rockets showdown at Staples. Can Blake Griffin keep playing the best basketball of his career now that Chris Paul is back?
Yikes, that Clipper game was horrible
Updates on March 2nd, 2017:
Looking for some insight on the trade you may not need to go any further than what TBLA commentator Nolij had to say today:
One thing we do know is that Drew Jackson is now the fastest player in the Dodger organization and probably has the best arm. He was ranked 3rd in the Mariner organization after the 2015 season because of his nice debut. His value dropped quite a bit in 2016 when he failed to build on that rookie season in the hit friendly California League.
Keep him in mind when the team might need his speed as an October pinch runner ala Kansas City’s Terrance Gore.
The aneurysm (Aneurys Zabala) might turn into something useful. He has the arm strength so who knows what could happen if he gets the right pitching coach to coax some command out of his gun.
Chase was pretty far down the Dodger depth chart, but this trade will give him an opportunity to make the majors sooner than later. Zach Lee was given the same chance last year but wasn’t able to capitalize on it and was eventually released.
Get ready for a year without Vinny
Good thing Joe Davis showed up last year or this wouldn’t be as easy to write about. Joe has an easy way about him and surprisingly was not only pleasant to listen too, he was insightful and playful with his team.
I’ve tried to give Charley Steiner and Rick Monday a pass but I simply have been unable to enjoy their broadcasts. Luckily I rarely need the radio broadcast though that is my favorite way to listen to a game when the broadcaster can describe the action in a way that makes me feel like I’m watching it.
As far as Vinny goes everything has been said. Going into 2017 I will not miss the same stories I’ve heard from Vinny year after year, but I will miss the stories I’ll never hear.
Per the Dodgers daily PR spring training notes this will be the Dodger Broadcast team in 2017
DODGER 2017 BROADCAST TEAM: Joe Davis and Orel Hershiser will be calling tonight’s game with the Giants on Sportsnet LA. Davis and Hershiser will form the Dodgers’ two-man booth for the 2017 season and Alanna Rizzo will add in-game commentary and post-game interviews. SNLA’s Kelli Tennant will fill-in for Rizzo during the season. Charley Steiner will move over from the radio booth to television to fill in for Davis during the season and Nomar Garciaparra will work a number of games during the season subbing for Hershiser. Steiner and Rick Monday will call the action on AM 570 LA Sports and Kevin Kennedy will join Monday when Steiner moves over to television. Dodgertalk on AM 570 LA Sports will be hosted by David Vassegh during the season. Vassegh will have a rotating group of analysts including Jerry Hairston Jr., Ned Colletti and Garciaparra. The Dodgers Spanish radio team of Hall of FamerJaime Jarrin and Jorge Jarrin, return to the booth on KTNQ (1020 AM). The SNLA Spanish television team of Pepe Yñiguez, Fernando Valenzuela and Manny Mota will call all the action.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 
Posted by Nolij on Mar 2, 2017 | 9:46 AM reply rec (1) flag