Having fun with LAD spring stats
Hitting:
- Grandal leads the team in hits with 14
- Grandal leads the team in extra base hits with 7
- Brett Eibner leads the team in doubles with 4
- Erick Mejia has two triples in only six at-bats. He did not score either time. This should not be a surprise as he has 23 minor league triples compared to 34 doubles.
- Joc Pederson leads the team with four home runs.
- The projected starting outfielders Puig/Joc/Ethier have slugging percentages of .594 / .583 / .833 respectively.
- Chris Taylor leads the team in walks with eight in only thirty-six plate appearances. You could write a whole column on Chris Taylor spring stats. He’s gotten on base 21 times in those thirty-six plate appearances.
- Scott Van Slyke has zero extra base hits. hmmm
Pitching:
- Lefty Patrick Schuster has been in ten games and given up only one run.
- Lefty Adam Liberatore has been in five games and has not allowed a run
- Three pitchers vying for a bullpen spot (Josh Ravin, Chris Hatcher, Josh Fields) have all been horrible.
- Which allows Ross Stripling to keep making his case for inclusion in the bullpen as he has pitched effectively with 11 k’s to only 2 walks in 9 innings.
- Trevor Oaks doesn’t have the pedigrees of all the prospects ranked higher than him, but he has pitched 7 2/3 innings without giving up an earned run.
- Rich Hill has ten walks and seven K’s in 8 2/3 innings. I only put this out just to remind myself that most of the time, spring stats mean nothing.
- Favorite stat of the spring has to be that Ryu has been able to pitch five effective innings.
Segedin and Dickson fighting for relevance
Two players generally acknowledged as long shots to make the 2017 Dodger roster, are doing their best to make it harder for the Dodger brass to ignore them when it comes to making the hard decisions. Making it even harder for the duo is that they both are fighting for the same spot.
That current spot would seem to be headed to Scott Van Slyke who can play 1st/OF and swings a right-hand bat. SVS however, has a history of health issues, and it is no given that his bat is any better than the duo gunning for his job.
Rob Segedin was acquired last year in a minor deal with the Yankees and gave the Dodgers a much-needed lift in August when he had quite a week at Chavez Ravine. September was not kind to Segedin and his hold on a 40 man roster spot seemed tenuous. He came into this spring with a newly tooled swing and has not stopped hitting. He hit at the beginning of spring, he hit for Italy in the WBC, and he continued to swing a torrid bat this weekend. Segedin is now 8 for 16 with 5 XBH. Segedin has the versatility the Dodgers seem to covet as he can play 1st / 3rd / OF though it is hard to imagine that he would be plus defensively at any of them. I’d normally think of Segedin as simply an AAAA player who is having a great spring, much as he did in 2016. Yet, we have seen too many players in the past few years who have taken to a new swing and changed the direction of their careers, so I’m not writing off Segedin as simply a spring wonder. He might be but he also might be much more.
If you look at the Dodger spring training stats you see a few things. One is O’Koyea Dickson having a great spring. Dickson is an interesting story, just a year ago at this time his career as a future Dodger seemed in danger of never happening. He had been left off the 40 man roster and got zero at bats during the 2016 Cactus league play. He was such a non-factor in the organization that he only garnered 44 plate appearances the first two months in AAA and didn’t exactly impress with a .750 OPS. Everything turned around for Dickson in June when he started getting full-time burn and his offense exploded putting up a 1.028 OPS with sixteen home runs in his final 333 plate appearances. That didn’t get him added back on the 40 man roster but it did get him an invite to spring training and with Adrian Gonzalez dicking around for Mexico in the WBC he has made the most of his opportunity. Dickson hit a home run on Saturday that was as hard a bit ball as you’ll ever see.
If I squint hard I can see a spot for Segedin this year because he’s a tad more versatile than SVS or Dickson in that he can play 3rd base. He might be the equal of SVS against LHP, and he is already on the 40 man roster.
The case for Dickson is very hard as he’s behind SVS/Segedin in the pecking order for 1st base backup. He’s behind a boatload of right hand hitting outfielders, and he’s not on the 40 man roster. Yet, everything he can do this spring to not only impress the Dodger brass but impress scouts from other teams could eventually help him snag a major league job. Dickson probably still doesn’t have a Dodger future but given what his future looked like a year ago, he is making great strides. He may even be able to make some money playing for Japan or Korea.
Alternative Cuban WBC team
Was just wondering what a Cuban team would look like for Cuban players who have left the island.
Here is what I got. A very potent offensive team, but without Jose Fernandez to lead the rotation, it is very thin in starting pitching. You would basically have to convert Raisel Iglesias back to a starting pitcher. Simply not enough pitching to make a good run without Fernandez. May he RIP.
| Position | Player |
| 1st | Jose Abreu |
| 2nd | Yunel Escobar |
| Shortstop | Jose Iglesias |
| 3rd Base | Adonis Garcia |
| Catcher | Yazmani Grandal |
| RF | Yasiel Puig |
| CF | Leonys Martin |
| LF | Yoenis Cespedes |
| DH | Kendrys Morales |
| Bench | Jorge Soler |
| Bench | Alexei Ramirez |
| Bench | Yonder Alonso |
| Bench | Brayan Pena |
| Bench | Adeiny Hechavarria |
| SP | Raisel Iglesias |
| SP | Ariel Miranda |
| SP | Roenis Elias |
| RP | Aroldis Chapman |
| RP | Dalier Hinjosa |
| RP | Odrisamer Despaiqne |
Ryu throwing a monkey wrench into rotation plans?
Of all the options that were being considered for the rotation after the big three (Kershaw, Maeda, Hill) Ryu was the longest shot among Kazmir, McCarthy, Wood, Urias, Stewart, and Stripling.
That long shot may end up paying as Ryu pitched three solid innings against the Cubs yesterday and declared that he is planning on winning a rotation spot to start the year. With each outing, his velocity moves closer to his norm and his command has looked Ryu like.
With Scott Kazmir likely headed for the DL to start the season, Stewart unable to throw, and Urias with very limited innings so far the competition is starting to thin out, and it is between Wood and Ryu for that last spot. McCarthy looks to have the four spot sewn up unless health or Steve Blass intervene over the next few weeks.
Even if Ryu does win the spot that is no guarantee he can hold it as he will need to pitch effectively to hold off Kazmir, Wood, and Urias. The odds though are lower now than they were entering spring. Just off the top of my head, I would have put Ryu at 50 / 1 to crack the opening day rotation. I think we are down to 5/1 that Ryu will be pitching in the rotation on May 1st.
Is Enrique Hernandez the next Dodger traded?
The current LAD front office has made a habit of trading players they traded for in the first place. With Chris Taylor hitting like a healthy Cory Seager, Charlie Culberson showing that he’ll never embarrass you no matter where you play him, and Darnell Sweeney displaying his versatility, this may leave Enrique Hernandez on the outside looking in.
A year ago Hernandez was looking more like a backup outfielder than an infielder. This year he’s being looked at more as an infielder because the Dodgers have Puig/Joc/Ethier/Toles/Thompson/SVS/Gutierrez battling for outfield spots.
With Chase Utley already on the roster and offering backup for 2nd / 3rd the Dodgers only have room for another utility infielder. One who can play SS and bats right handed.
This is what Hernandez offers.
- He can play 2nd/SS/Of
- At one time he could pound LHP
- He has speed
This is what his competition offers:
- Taylor – can play 2nd/SS and has now taken reps inhttp://www.truebluela.com/ CF. Bats right handed and is impressing everyone this spring with his new batting approach, and a healthy arm.
- Culberson – can play 2nd/SS/3rd has never taken reps in the outfield but does anyone doubt that Culberson would be just fine in the outfield? Bats right handed
- Sweeney – can play 2nd/S/Of and is a switch hitter. Eric Stephen reports that Sweeney is impressing this spring.
Hernandez is not exactly a hot trading chip, but it would free a spot on the 40 man roster assuming they traded for a player they don’t have to put on the 40 man roster. He has value, it just seems that Chris Taylor has made him redundant.
Dodgers traded by this front office that they traded for in the first place:
Howie Kendrick
Zach Eflin
Joe Wieland
Jose Peraza
MIke Morse
Micah Johnson
Frankie Montas
Carlos Ruiz
Vidal Nuno
Kershaw 33/1 to win MVP
Bovada odds came out today and this one jumped out at me. The 2014 MVP Clayton Kershaw is at 33/1. I know pitchers don’t win MVP awards, but this guy already did, and it is the NL, and he could easily be the best player in the NL again in 2017.
Corey Seager is 12/1 after his 3rd place MVP finish in 2016.
Justin Turner/Puig/Grandal are off the board while Matt Kemp is 100/1.
Odds to Win the 2017 NL MVP
- Kris Bryant 11/4
- Bryce Harper 3/1
- Nolan Arenado 7/1
- Anthony Rizzo 9/1
- Cory Seager 12/1
- Freddie Freeman 14/1
- Daniel Murphy 22/1
- Paul Goldschmidt 25/1
- Yoenis Cespedes 33/1
- Clayton Kershaw 33/1
- Andrew McCutchen 33/1
- Buster Posey 33/1
- Max Scherzer 33/1
- Kyle Schwarber 33/1
- Giancarlo Stanton 33/1
- Joey Votto 33/1
- Matt Carpenter 50/1
- Adrian Gonzalez 50/1
- Trea Turner 50/1
- Starling Marte 55/1
- Carlos Gonzalez 66/1
- Charlie Blackmon 100/1
- Ryan Braun 100/1
- Adam Eaton 100/1
- Maikel Franco 100/1
- Matt Kemp 100/1
- DJ LeMahieu 100/1
- AJ Pollock 100/1
- Addison Russell 100/1
- Jonathan Villar 100/1
- Christian Yelich 100/1
Odds to win the 2017 National League Cy Young Award
Kershaw is the odds on favorite as he should be. Little surprised to Kenta here at 33/1. So the odds makers feel that Kenta Maeda has as much a chance to win the CYA as Kershaw has of winning the MVP. Go figure. Jansen is 66/1. Evidently, Rich Hill is a longer odd than Bartolo Colon at 100/1.
- Clayton Kershaw 8/5
- Max Scherzer 7/2
- Madison Bumgarner 10/1
- Noah Syndergaard 10/1
- Jake Arrieta 16/1
- Jon Lester 16/1
- Stephen Strasburg 16/1
- Johnny Cueto 16/1
- Jacob deGrom 25/1
- Zack Greinke 25/1
- Matt Harvey 25/1
- Gerrit Cole 33/1
- Kyle Hendricks 33/1
- Kenta Maeda 33/1
- Carlos Martinez 33/1
- Tanner Roark 33/1
- Adam Wainwright 33/1
- Julio Teheran 40/1
- Dan Straily 50/1
- Kenley Jansen 66/1
- Marc Melancon 66/1
- Bartolo Colon 100/1
Odds to Win the 2017 AL MVP
- Mike Trout 5/4
- Mookie Betts 5/1
- Jose Altuve 10/1
- Miguel Cabrera 12/1
- Josh Donaldson 14/1
- Manny Machado 14/1
- Carlos Correa 16/1
- Gary Sanchez 18/1
- Robinson Cano 20/1
- Nelson Cruz 33/1
- Jose Abreu 50/1
- Jose Bautista 50/1
- Xander Bogaerts 50/1
- Jackie Bradley Jr. 50/1
- Chris Davis 50/1
- Edwin Encarnacion 50/1
- Todd Frazier 50/1
- Adam Jones 50/1
- Francisco Lindor 50/1
- Carlos Santana 50/1
- Justin Upton 50/1
- Adrian Beltre 66/1
- Brian Dozier 100/1
- Eric Hosmer 100/1
- Ian Kinsler 100/1
- Evan Longoria 100/1
- Rougned Odor 100/1
- Dustin Pedroia 100/1
- Albert Pujols 100/1
- Miguel Sano 100/1
- Kyle Seager 100/1
- George Springer 100/1
- Troy Tulowitzki 100/1
Odds to win the 2017 American League Cy Young Award
- Chris Sale 7/2
- Corey Kluber 9/2
- Yu Darvish 12/1
- Aaron Sanchez 12/1
- Justin Verlander 12/1
- Chris Archer 14/1
- Masahiro Tanaka 14/1
- Carlos Carrasco 16/1
- David Price 16/1
- Cole Hamels 20/1
- Felix Hernandez 20/1
- Dallas Keuchel 20/1
- Danny Duffy 33/1
- Michael Fulmer 33/1
- Kevin Gausman 33/1
- Lance McCullers 33/1
- Rick Porcello 33/1
- Sonny Gray 40/1
- J.A. Happ 40/1
- Jose Quintana 40/1
- Danny Salazar 40/1
- Marcus Stroman 40/1
- Chris Tillman 50/1
- Zach Britton 66/1
- Aroldis Chapman 66/1
- A.J. Griffin 66/1
- Ian Kennedy 66/1
- Craig Kimbrel 66/1
- Jake Odorizzi 66/1
- Michael Pineda 66/1
2017 Regular Season MLB Home Run Leader
- Giancarlo Stanton 8/1
- Nolan Arenado 9/1
- Kris Bryant 10/1
- Chris Davis 10/1
- Nelson Cruz 14/1
- Edwin Encarnacion 14/1
- Bryce Harper 14/1
- Manny Machado 14/1
- Mark Trumbo 14/1
- Josh Donaldson 16/1
- Kyle Schwarber 18/1
- Paul Goldschmidt 20/1
- Mike Trout 20/1
- Khris Davis 28/1
- Anthony Rizzo 28/1
- Gary Sanchez 28/1
- Miguel Sano 28/1
- George Springer 28/1
- Brian Dozier 33/1
- Jose Abreu 40/1
- Jose Bautista 40/1
- Miguel Cabrera 40/1
- Yoenis Cespedes 40/1
- Adam Duvall 40/1
- Todd Frazier 40/1
- Mike Napoli 40/1
- Chris Carter 50/1
- Carlos Gonzalez 50/1
- JD Martinez 50/1
- Rougned Odor 50/1
- Trevor Story 50/1
- Robinson Cano 66/1
- Mookie Betts 66/1
- Carlos Correa 66/1
- Corey Seager 66/1
- Justin Upton 66/1
- Ian Desmond 75/1
- Maikel Franco 75/1
- Freddie Freeman 75/1
- Joey Gallo 75/1
- Aaron Judge 75/1
- Matt Kemp 75/1
- Evan Longoria 75/1
- Carlos Santana 75/1
- Adrian Beltre 100/1
- Jay Bruce 100/1
- Evan Gattis 100/1
- Adrian Gonzalez 100/1
- Adam Jones 100/1
- Kendrys Morales 100/1
- Albert Pujols 100/1
- Hanley Ramirez 100/1
- Addison Russell 100/1
- Kyle Seager 100/1
- Yasmany Tomas 100/1
- Troy Tulowitzki 100/1
Mitch White impresses Keith Law
A couple of notes on Mitch White and Julio Urias. Typically the Dodgers do poorly with second round picks but they may have gotten a gem this time. Keith Law chimed in on what he saw this week:
White went with the 65th overall pick in that draft, but if teams redrafted today, he might go in the top five overall.
Did that get your attention? How about this?
White threw two innings in the Dodgers’ first Double-A game of the spring on Monday and was 95-97 with above-average fastball life and a plus slider at 88-90 mph. The slider has hard, big downward break, and he also shows a true curveball at 81-83 that has some power to it, although I think the slider is the better pitch.
Julio Urias is no longer a prospect but he is just 20. Doug Thorburn of Rotowire had this say about him.
I have seen Urias morph his delivery twice in two years, add five mph to his fastball in the course of a single season and show off the best quick pick-off move in baseball, in which the southpaw steps off the rubber with his back foot and makes a snap-throw to first base. His developmental acumen is off the charts, his right-now talent is good enough to carve hitters in the bigs
Dodgers renew Seager
According to Jon Heyman the LAD renewed their superstar shorstop for $575,000. They had an opportunity to reward Seager with the largest second-year renewal in baseball but decided to give Seager a modest raise. For some context, the Cubs gave Kris Bryant $625,000 after his 2015 season. Byrant had a great rookie season but he wasn’t a top three MVP player, only 11th:) I guess the Cubs felt the larger than normal raise for a ROY was a down payment on the fact they screwed him out of millions by letting him have only 171 service days in 2015 instead of 172.
For whatever reason, I can’t really explain I had been hoping that Seager would top that $625,000 and get rewarded for having one of the greatest rookie seasons in Dodger history. As it is, he’s already arguably the best 22-year-old in Dodger history and easily the best LAD 22-year-old position player. Well not easily. Adrian Beltre has his own argument and would win if you were using bWAR to the bar.
Player OPS+ PA From To Age OPS Pos Jimmy Sheckard 169 609 1901 1901 22-22 .944 *7/58 Pete Reiser 145 843 1940 1941 21-22 .903 *8/59H6 Corey Seager 142 800 2015 2016 21-22 .892 *6/H5 Zack Wheat 123 783 1909 1910 21-22 .748 *7/8 Casey Stengel 115 577 1912 1913 21-22 .762 *8/9 Willie Crawford 111 689 1964 1969 17-22 .716 H7/98 Ed Stevens 111 591 1945 1947 20-22 .754 *3/H Duke Snider 110 876 1947 1949 20-22 .804 *8/H97 Willie Davis 109 1140 1960 1962 20-22 .784 *8/H Ron Fairly 106 690 1958 1961 19-22 .796 9/H837 Red Smith 105 679 1911 1912 21-22 .733 *5 Adrian Beltre 100 1918 1998 2001 19-22 .765 *5/H6 Bill Buckner 100 860 1969 1972 19-22 .697 *9/3H7
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/14/2017.
Doing some extra research it is well known that Mike Trout was renewed at the minimum. How about Albert Pujols? In 2001 he exploded on baseball and was ROY along with a top 4 MVP vote receiver. In 2002 his page shows he earned $600,000 which was a lot more than the minimum in 2002. I keep hearing about precedent, I’ve found Kris Bryant and Albert Pujols.
Just saying
The Giving Tree
The children’s classic book “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein was probably a mainstay in every parent’s library/kindle or elementary school library for the past fifty years even though the meaning of the book has been hotly debated.
I personally always thought the kid was a selfish prick who didn’t deserve the stump to sit on, but as I’ve aged I had to cut down many a tree. Right now I have a massive old Pine Tree that looms over my house with some fairly large cracks. In the last ten years, two huge limbs have sunk down to quietly rest on the driveway doing as little damage as possible waiting to be set free from the main trunk as their weight eventually proved untenable. With the recent rains and winds, I crossed my fingers that he would continue to adorn my front yard and unlike many others trees in the valley he continued to stand guard.
Soon I’m going to have to cut that tree down and when I do I’ll leave a stump much like the photo you see at the top. I’ve grown several pine trees from little seedlings from that tree. I let one grow about 10 yards from the original knowing that one day he would take the place of the original.
Pappa
and Junior
Junior
That photo at the top came to me from the NY Times with this story:
And Finally … Seeing a stump where a tree once stood in Oakland, a passer-by was apparently reminded of the children’s book “The Giving Tree.” With the stump as a canvas, the person wrote a quote from the Shel Silverstein classic about a tree that gives everything — its apples, branches, and trunk — for the love of a boy.
After a tree was cut down in Oakland, someone wrote lines from Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree” on the stump.
Phoebe Calef
Scoresheet LAD style
One of my favorite games during the summer is playing Scoresheet baseball. It is something akin to the old Strata-Matic game except an algorithm uses the actual stats for the week to determine how you did against your opponent. It only uses the raw data, so we are talking at-bats. hits, type of hits. No RBI stat no run stat, those are game dependent so if your player hit a grand slam against the Giants, all you know is that your player will hit a home run but it will be game dependent on how many base runners are on when he does. For pitchers, it is innings, strikeouts, walks, and most importantly how many actual runs they gave up that week. Not xFIP or any other variety of earned runs but actual honest to god runs given up. Defense matters, but not enough to make Matt Kemp worthless. You can decide if your players bunt in key situations, bring in defensive replacements, and when you replace a pitcher.
I have several Scoresheet teams but I’ll only bore/enlighten you about one of them. That is my Dodger Scoresheet Root team. The concept of a Scoresheet root league is each owner picks a franchise they want to represent. When the league is first formed you pick seven players from that team’s roster and ten minor leaguers from that team’s farm. My original draft was over ten years ago but the team below is what I currently have.
I won the league in 2015 but the normal winner has been the owner of the Rockies franchise. For a while, I thought I was going to be like the actual Dodgers and never win a championship with Kershaw but after three losses in the Championship series I finally broke through in 2015.
This is what a championship series looks like when you lose a seven game series.
This is what it looks like when you win a championship.
The Kershaw/Grienke duo was dynamite. I traded Grienke in the winter of 2015 after he left the Dodgers for the Diamondbacks. I made a horribly great trade. The main focus of the trade was Jordan Zimmerman but I needed more and wanted a minor leaguer. I asked for JP Crawford, they offered me Trevor Story instead. Boom. I’ll be using Story as my 2nd baseman since I have Seager, I’ll take a defensive hit since he doesn’t qualify at 2nd, but the booming bat should make up for it, and I’ll simply replace him with a light hitting defensive wizard ala Ivan DeJesus Junior. Yup, ole DeJesus has a nice defensive ranking at 2nd base.
Anyway, you keep 14 players from the team from last year, as many minor leaguers as you want from other teams, and ten LAD minor leaguers. Each minor leaguer you keep that is not a LAD it reduces one draft pick. Last year I had Cotton and Montas as part of my LAD 10, but with the trade, they are now simply minor league players.
The table below is my team as we start the draft tonight. You don’t always get your players, when Ryu came over from Korea he becomes eligible in the draft and someone took him before I could. Eventually, I traded for him just before he blew out his shoulder, but luckily for me, it was Matt Cain who I traded so we both ended up with zilch.
This is an NL only league, with ten franchises. We had 12, but 2 dropped out. The Giants don’t have a franchise owner so all their players were available in the original draft as are all their minor leaguers.
I tend to use the BaseballHQ Runs Above Replacement to help me draft but sometimes you just have to zig or zag. They don’t like Brandon Finnegan but I do so he’ll be my first pick in this draft. I actually traded for him this winter but when it came time to create my 14 player keeper list I couldn’t find the space for him. This will also allow me to have Finnegan on every single type of team I playing with this year. Which means he should be blowing out his elbow in about two weeks time.
| Batting Statistics | |||||||
| PLAYER | Pos | Th | OPS | RAR | |||
| Seager Corey | SSS | R | 844 | 31.5 | |||
| Puig Yasiel | SRF | R | 790 | 5.6 | |||
| Kemp Matt | SLF | R | 807 | 16.3 | |||
| Pederson Joc | SCF | L | 827 | 11.9 | |||
| Grandal Yasmani | SC | R | 815 | 14.1 | |||
| Turner Justin | S3B | R | 817 | 13.2 | |||
| Story Trevor | S2B | R | 853 | 19 | |||
| Gonzalez Adrian | S1B | L | 801 | 5.8 | |||
| Verdugo Alex | MCF | L | 718 | -0.3 | |||
| Bellinger Cody | M1B | L | 809 | 0.8 | |||
| Toles Andrew | BLF | R | 748 | 0.3 | |||
| Barnes Austin | BC | R | 665 | -1.5 | |||
| Will Smith | MC | ||||||
| Willie Calhoun | M2B | ||||||
| Yusniel Diaz | MOF | ||||||
| Pitching Statistics | |||||||
| PLAYER | Pos | ERA | Ctl | Dom | Cmd | RAR | BPV |
| Kershaw Clayton | SP5 | 2 | 1.4 | 10.2 | 7.2 | 32.4 | 173 |
| Hamels Cole | SP4 | 3.55 | 3.2 | 9 | 2.8 | 8.7 | 101 |
| Lackey John | SP3 | 3.58 | 2.3 | 7.8 | 3.4 | 5.1 | 100 |
| Urias Julio | SP2 | 3.34 | 2.6 | 9.2 | 3.5 | 9.1 | 116 |
| Cotton Jharel | SP1 | 3.94 | 2.5 | 8.2 | 3.2 | -2.8 | 95 |
| Jansen Kenley | RP | 2.49 | 1.8 | 13.6 | 7.5 | 11.8 | 206 |
| Melancon Mark | RP | 1.97 | 1.5 | 8.3 | 5.6 | 10.7 | 143 |
| De Leon Jose | MSP | 4.06 | 2.8 | 8.5 | 3 | 0.3 | 94 |
| Stewart Brock | MSP | 3.58 | 2 | 7.5 | 3.8 | -1.6 | 101 |
| Montas Frankie | MRP | 4.09 | 3.7 | 9.4 | 2.6 | 0.2 | 90 |
| Wade Buehler | MSP | ||||||
| Yadier Alvarez | MSP |
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 