Chase Utley decides to stay while Franklin Gutierrez is finally going to see Chavez Ravine
The Dodgers get their greybeard back this summer with Chase Utley deciding to sign a one year contract with the team. Last year headed into spring it looked like Chase was going to be the super utility player and Howie Kendrick the second baseman but spring injuries to Howie gave Chase the chance to take the starting gig.
This year Logan Forsythe is the incumbent second baseman, so once again Chase looks like he’s headed toward a super utility role.
Only good can come from having Chase Utley on your roster.
Meanwhile. in a surprise move the Dodgers signed FA outfielder Franklin Gutierrez to help them against left-hand pitching. Back in November I reviewed some free agents I thought would help the team and this is what I said about Gutierrez:
Franklin Gutierrez of – at one time the 33-year-old Gutierrez was considered one of the best defensive center fielders in the game. That was in 2009, but this is 2016 and now the defensive stats say he’s negative. He still brings big right-handed power against left-handed pitching putting up a .884 OPS against them in 2016, after hitting .973 against them in 2015. For his career, he can boast a .846 OPS against LHP in over 1,000 plate appearances.
Gutierrez was one of the first players traded by Paul DePodesta back on April 4th, 2004 when he was sent to the Indians for Milton Bradley. Gutierrez was one of the highest ranked Dodger prospects in a system that didn’t have much in the way of prospects in AA or AAA at the time. He would end up Seattle and have a fine career as a right-handed defensive first center-fielder. I for one can’t quite buy into the fact that someone who just a few years ago was the best defensive center-fielder in baseball is now a defensive liability in the outfield but I have to admit I’ve rarely seen him play and that is what the defensive metrics say.
We shall see, what we do know is that he can spank left hand pitching so unless he’s hurt this spring I’d be expecting him to be part of the left field platoon with either Andre or Toles. Or even maybe Joc if he shows he can still play centerfield.
I like both these moves, it improves the team bench and thus the team. Who gets removed from the 40 man roster to make room for two more players remains to be seen. No sense in speculating, we will know soon enough.
Tape Chronicles – One – X – Whiskey A Go Go
Number one was X Live at the Whiskey. The album was recorded over a three day period in December of 1987. I was there for one of those gigs. At the time I lived in Santa Monica and worked in Santa Monica. X was my favorite band at the time and favorites of my good friends Eric Blanco and Rebecca Perkins. The news about the show came the same day, and so I left work early to head down to the Whiskey to get tickets. I’m not sure anymore when I arrived but as I was waiting for the door to open to buy the tickets, I could hear X doing a sound check. They were playing “around my heart” ‘one of my favorites. It was kind of cool to be kicking in a line with other X files while hearing them playing through the old plaster of the Whiskey. I got six tickets and headed back to work. My future wife Verdell, myself, Eric, Rebecca, Rick Rabuck, and Jeri went to the show.
At that time Tony Gilkyson was playing guitar instead of Billy Zoom or Dave Alvin. The show was great and included all of the primal music they had created during their greatest musical run from the early 80’s to the late 80’s. For years X was voted the best rock band in Los Angeles but they never managed to hit it commercially.
They still play in Los Angeles or Ventura once in a while. I guess whenever they need some money, they get the group together and bang out a few shows. I still try to catch those shows. Billy Zoom is back, still standing in one place, doing his thing. Bonebrake is still pounding away on the drums. Exene still combines with John Doe for one of the more interesting vocal combinations of any band at any time. And John Doe. Man, I love John Doe.
The early label for X was punk but I prefer the “psychobilly” label. I never went hardcore into the punk world like Black Flag but X for whatever reason resonated with me.
The tape kicks off with the seminal Los Angeles. X was making their mark when Reagan was doing his thing. Los Angeles wasn’t a pretty city in early 80’s so it was easy to see where the Los Angeles punk rose up from.
Listening to this again, my favorites are Los Angeles, Around my Heart, The New World, Burning House of Love, The once over twice, Hungry Wolf, Riding with Mary, and White Girl.
X also had a country side and would perform as an alt-country band called the Knitters. My wife liked the Knitters more than she liked X and they performed several songs from their Knitter albums.
The show ended with Hit and Run Pauline. Classic
If you have never heard the song, Los Angeles, check it out.
The quality here sucks but it was recorded by a fan at the show
Ducking in with the President
For those unfamiliar with the Duck, you can check out the archived Duck Talk Section at TrueBlueLA or the newer Duck Talk here on Dodgers, Yesterday and Today. We ask the questions we want to ask and try to see through the clichéd responses we normally get. Don’t get confused, this is a complete fabrication based on interviews within my troubled mind.
A few months ago the Duck had a brief conversation with President Elect Donald Trump. Now that the President has had a few weeks to be presidential we thought it might be a good time to talk with him before Sean Spicer goes duck hunting.
Duck: Good afternoon President Trump. You promised your electorate that you would bring the best people into your administration to help you make America great again, even though only you know how to defeat ISIS. As your cabinet is getting confirmed it doesn’t really seem that Betsy DeVos and Dr. Ben Carson are indicative of that kind of talent.
Donald Trump: Betsy is the best. Just the best. It is sad that so many bad things were said about her. She’s just like me. She had to survive in this world with just a few million to start out with and let me tell you, that isn’t easy.
Duck: So she didn’t buy herself a cabinet position with her family contributing something like $200,000,000 to the GOP over the past 40 years? Ben Carson himself said he wasn’t qualified to get a cabinet position but now the Doctor with zero experience in running anything, is going to be the head honcho for The Department of Housing and Urban Development
Donald Trump: Well the contributions certainly helped but she came highly recommended by the Hulk and right now I’m doing everything the Hulk suggests I do because he’s got some videos.
Duck: The Hulk?
Donald Trump: Yeah, you know, Steve Bannon
Duck: Oh… You do know that his name was Bruce Banner, not Steve Bannon?
Donald Trump: Banner Bannon, all I know is that he turns green when he gets angry
Duck: So basically the country is being run by an Orange and Green duo? Doesn’t that make Brown? Why do white people want to be brown but don’t like people who are brown?
Donald Trump: That’s too deep for me, ask me something I can answer in 135 characters, and use the word Sad to finish it off.
Duck: You are now the president, why do you persist in acting like a child and using twitter to harass companies like Nordstrom and people like civil rights hero John Lewis?
Donald Trump: I just call it the way I see it. No one is going to edit me. I’m going to run this country my way. Sad
Duck: So you really believe that a President should call out companies via twitter, or individuals that disagree with you?
Donald Trump: Yes, my way or the highway. Sad
Duck: Why do you only consider Muslim terrorist attacks as Sad? You never comment when a white supremacist kills Muslims in a mosque or burns down an African-American Church?
Donald Trump: The Hulk told me those aren’t terrorist, just people upset with how the natural order of things has gotten screwed up. Muslims are terrorists, white supremest are simply mad and trying to do the best they can do given how this country has tied their arms behind their back simply because they were born white.
Duck: You went way over 140 characters
Donald Trump: I’m exhausted
Duck: I’m petrified. From up in the air, you appear to be very uncomfortable with being President. Your wife won’t even stay in the White House. I read a report that said, the taxpayers of the United States would be spending more money simply protecting your wife outside of the White House than the amount of money the Arts gets annually.
Donald Trump: This place is a dump, Sad
Duck: You seem in such a hurry to put things into play that maybe you are shooting yourself in the foot. The Muslim ban, wouldn’t it have made more sense to make that play after you have your Supreme Court nominee confirmed giving you a majority just in case those nasty Federal Judges defy your executive order and the Supreme Court has to decide the case?
Donald Trump – No, we had to blunder into this as quickly as possible. We have to stop the Muslim Terrorists from coming in. At least that is what the Hulk told me.
Donald Trump -I don’t believe those studies. That is simply the media printing what they want because they hate me. Sad
Duck: How do you feel about the idea that everyone thinks Steven Bannon is really running this country and you are simply his puppet? Is that better than when they thought Putin was running this country and you were simply Putin’s puppet?
Donald Trump – That is ridiculous, I’m the one making every stupid decision. all me. I’m no one’s puppet.
Donald Trump – The left is still mad they lost. The media (not Fox) is the arm of the left and they hate me. sad
Duck: I’m not sure they hate you, disgusted with your blatant lies, childish tweets, and incredible ignorance of how this country was created. You oligarchic elite may run the country but it was built on the backs of every single immigration. From the forced immigration of Africa to the Chinese to the Japanese to the Irish to the Polish to Italians to the Mexicans to the South Americans. This land is their land every bit as much as it is your land. There is the silver lining that if the country survives this administration, in the long run, you will be good for the future of the country. Maybe we got complacent with our Democracy and it took an incompetent wannabe demagogued to wake us up and remind us that our Democracy is fragile and that it will take diligence by more than the 50% who are normally politically active to keep it. You should get used to protests because that woman’s march was probably just the beginning. And if you go Kent State……………
Donald Trump -We will crush the opposition, my way or the highway.
Donald Trump – The people spoke Yes for Pipelines, reduced regulation, reduced corporate taxes, trade wars, white is right
Donald Trump – No on Muslims from any country I don’t have a business in, no Nato, no Mexicans, no healthcare, no civil rights, no voting rights, and we white males get to tell every woman what should happen within their vagina.
Donald Trump – seems clear to me what Steve Bannon and the almost majority of the United States wants me to do. The puzzling part is why you persist in trying to keep me from my mandate?
Duck – Nevertheless, we will persist
Fangraphs Hitter Contact Series – LAD OF
Tony Biengino of Fangraphs is doing a fascinating series looking at hitter contact quality, utilizing exit speed, and launch angle data.
Yesterday we looked at the how the LAD infield is viewed by this data. Today we will wonder through the LAD outfield.
Right field is first up, so let’s see what he has to say about Yasiel Puig:
Yasiel Puig‘s upside remains substantial, but it’s time for him to work on the major blemishes on his offensive game. His always above-average pop-up rate really got away from him in 2016; it was far and away the highest among NL regulars. It’s even more noticeable when compared to his relatively low fly-ball rate. With the two in such proportion you get all of the risk with very little reward. In addition, his liner-rate percentile rank has now remained in single digits for three years running. Below average is fine (ask Hunter Pence), but that far below is not. To top it off, he was an extreme grounder-puller, offsetting to some extent his well above-average grounder authority.
Should he figure it out, his Adjusted Fly Ball (137), Liner (109) and Grounder (142, despite the penalty) Contact Scores tell you all you need to know. His batted-ball mix was so bad that it took those high-quality ingredients and created a soup resulting in a below-average 97 overall Adjusted Contact Score. I still believe in the upside.
Both risk and reward abound in Joc Pederson‘s profile. He destroys all BIP types, but most importantly, decimates the ball in the air (298 Unadjusted and Adjusted Contact Score, the best among NL regulars). His walk rate is high, and his significant grounder authority also affords him some batting-average insurance. His overall 159 Adjusted Contact Score was the best at his position, even better than Cespedes. It needs to be, as his K rate is a real problem. Pederson hits the ball the other way just enough to keep clubs honest, but he rates as a clear power-before-hit guy, albeit a very good one. With targeted improvements, he could be one of the stars of his generation, but the time to make those adjustments is now.
Sadly, none of the LAD left field options played enough to make the NL left fielder list. It does, however, say some nice things about Howie Kendrick.
Howie Kendrick was quite unlucky last season. His Unadjusted Contact Scores fell well short of his adjusted marks across all BIP types (103 vs. 141 Fly Ball, 82 vs. 108 Line Drive, 97 vs. 118 Grounder, 82 vs. 106 overall). Kendrick’s profile has been incredibly consistent over the years; he’s been among the most prolific opposite-field grounder and line-drive hitters in the game. The liner rate spun away from him in 2016, but I’d expect it to bounce back this season. The Phils bought relatively low on an older player with a much younger offensive profile; it’s highly likely that he can provide them with at least a .280-.340-.400 line in the near term.
Watching Joc Pederson hit is a joy for me. When he makes contact, my eyes told me he simply punished the ball, so seeing the data back that up always makes me feel like the game hasn’t completely passed me by.
I’ll have to do my own research on how Toles/Thompson fared. Applying the data to Andre given his health situation last year and small sample size would be fruitless.
Fangraphs Hitter Contact Series – LAD Infield
Tony Biengino of Fangraphs is doing a fascinating series looking at hitter contact quality, utilizing exit speed, and launch angle data.
We will start by going around the infield horn.
Adrian Gonzalez is another of those lucky ones who can roll out of bed and hit liners, year after year. That said, it’s about all he can do these days. His fly-ball rate dropped precipitously in 2016, and he was fortunate to squeeze out as much long-ball production as he did: his Fly Ball Contact Score dropped from 102 to 75 when adjusted for context. His adjusted liner (97) and grounder (86) marks were both below average, as well. He’s clearly in decline.
Logan Forsythe tends to get lost in this impressive group of AL second sackers. There are no soft spots in his profile; the only shadings in any of his cells are yellow, in the overall-authority and line-drive-rate categories. Remember, the shading is based on relationship to all AL regulars, not just second basemen. Expect his liner rate to regress downward moving forward, but his power to increase. In past years, he hit many more fly balls than in 2016, and a return to form in that category can be expected. His floor is high, and his ceiling is moderate; I’d take Forsythe on my club.
Oh my, no wonder Corey Seager is going to win an MVP award someday
The AL has their Carlos Correa, the NL counters with Corey Seager. Forced to choose, I’d likely select Seager’s present and Correa’s future. Over time, we’ll see whether the Dodger rookie’s extremely high liner rate was for real, but I wouldn’t necessarily bet against it. His pop-up rate was almost nonexistent, and paired an impressively low K rate for a youngster with solid contact authority that stills leaves room for growth. He’s the best of all worlds: a hit-before-power guy who’s developed considerable power. No holes here.
Justin Turner is the line drive machine we thought he was:
Justin Turner just became a very rich man. He’s also one of the safer, most predictable offensive regulars in the game today. That said, there isn’t much, if any, additional ceiling to his game. Like Carpenter, he is a proven line drive machine, one of the few with a true knack for squaring up the baseball. In 2015-16, he was able to max out his fly ball rate without deflating that liner rate, or inflating his pop up rate. He keeps his Ks in check as well. He’s a fairly safe bet to be at least a league average bat over the duration of his new deal, and a 115-120 Adjusted Production guy over the next year or two.
Whether they planned it this way or not you have to give the LAD FO some credit. The one player in decline is the one position they have the top rated 1st base prospect at.
We all know from watching Corey Seager that he’s brilliant, but it is nice when the data backs it up.
Next up will be the outfield.
Fangraphs checks in on Brock Stewart and Sergio Romo
Jeff Sullivan took a look at Brock Stewart and liked what he saw.
Stewart’s fastball just averaged 93.2 miles per hour. Yu Darvish‘s fastball just averaged 93.3 miles per hour. And by spin rate, Stewart’s four-seamer wound up in the 96th percentile, right by Blake Snell and Dylan Bundy. Stewart doesn’t try to survive by guile — he blends command and above-average arm strength. He has three pitches, and his changeup is ahead of his slider.
Brock’s meteoric rise last year was one of the great stories for the Dodger farm system and made the 2014 6th round pick look genius. Headed into last spring the talk that wasn’t about Urias was about Jose De Leon and Jharel Cotton. They are both gone now, used to fill holes but Brock Stewart has arrived and only time will tell if the Dodgers kept the right one.
Travis Sawchik checked in on newest Dodger, Sergio Romo. Travis noted in the story that Romo is one of only 11 pitchers to pitch nine seasons or more with the Giants. Dodger fans know that only to well, having rooted against Romo for every one of those nine seasons, everyone one of the three runs to become World Champions, every one of those sixteen times he shut down his opponents in the postseason. He just needs to continue to excel to get Dodger fans to root for him instead of against him. Travis seems to think he still has the right stuff:
Romo struck out 28.2% of batters faced in 2017 — in line with his 28.7% career mark. His 22.2-point K-BB% figure is similar to the 23.6-point mark he’s recorded for his career. His 67 ERA- was near his career average of 69, too. In 2016, Romo generated a swinging-strike rate of 14.9%, which isn’t too different from his 2015 rate (16.7%) or 2014 rate (14.2%) or 2013 rate (13.6%). Steamer forecasts a slight drop-off, but generally more of the same from Romo in 2017, projecting he will be a useful bullpen arm (3.63 FIP).
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Are the Dodgers done shopping?
With just about all the questions answered you’d have to think the Dodgers might be ready to pack up this roster and head to Glendale to sort out who is going to be on the 25-Man roster come April.
It wasn’t a terribly busy winter for the Dodgers but they did what they needed to do:
- Resigned Turner, Jansen, and Rich Hill
- Traded Jose De Leon for starting 2nd baseman Logan Forsythe to replace Chase Utley who is still looking for a job.
- Signed free agent Sergio Romo to replace Joe Blanton who is still looking for a job.
and a few others that they didn’t need to do but did anyway:
- Traded Howie Kendrick for Darin Ruf and Darnell Sweeney
- Jettisoned Micah Johnson to Atlanta
- Jettisoned Carlos Frias to Cleveland
- Traded Carlos Ruiz to Seattle for Vidal Nuno
Puig is still here.
All the prospects but Jose De Leon are still here.
Unless the front office has a few more tricks under their sleeve this is the roster that will head to spring training:
| Pos | | | Player | | | Age |
| Starting – 1st Base | | | Adrian Gonzalez | | | 35 |
| Starting – 2nd Base | | | Logan Forsythe | | | 30 |
| Starting – Shortstop | | | Corey Seager | | | 23 |
| Starting – 3rd Base | | | Justin Turner | | | 32 |
| Starting – Catcher | | | Yazmani Grandal | | | 28 |
| Starting – CF | | | Joc Pederson | | | 25 |
| Starting??? – RF | | | Yasiel Puig | | | 26 |
| Starting??? – LF | | | Andre Ethier | | | 35 |
| | | | | |||
| Starting Pitcher | | | Clayton Kershaw | | | 29 |
| Starting Pitcher | | | Rich Hill | | | 37 |
| Starting Pitcher | | | Kenta Maeda | | | 29 |
| Starting Pitcher | | | Julio Urias | | | 20 |
| | | | | |||
| Bullpen | | | | | ||
| Closer | | | Kenley Jansen | | | 29 |
| RH Setup Man | | | Sergio Romo | | | 34 |
| RH Setup Man | | | Pedro Baez | | | 29 |
| | | | | |||
| | | | | |||
| Bench Players | | | | | ||
| Backup Catcher | | | Austin Barnes | | | 27 |
| | | | | |||
| | | | | |||
| Rotational Possibilities | | | | | ||
| Starting Pitcher | | | Alex Wood | | | 26 |
| Starting Pitcher | | | Scott Kazmir | | | 33 |
| Starting Pitcher | | | Brandon McCarthy | | | 33 |
| Starting Pitcher | | | Hyun-Jin Ryu | | | 30 |
| Starting Pitcher | | | Ross Stripling | | | 27 |
| Starting Pitcher | | | Brock Stewart | | | 25 |
| | | | | |||
| Bullpen Possibilities | | | | | ||
| LH Setup Man | | | Grant Dayton | | | 29 |
| LH Setup Man | | | Luis Avilan | | | 27 |
| LH Setup Man | | | Adam Liberatore | | | 30 |
| LH Setup Man | | | Vidal Nuno | | | 29 |
| RH Setup Man | | | Josh Fields | | | 31 |
| RH Setup Man | | | Chris Hatcher | | | 32 |
| RH Setup Man | | | Josh Ravin | | | 29 |
| NRI – Best Chance | | | Brandon Morrow | | | 32 |
| | | | | |||
| Bench Possibilities | | | | | ||
| Outfielder | | | Andrew Toles | | | 25 |
| Utility Infielder | | | Chris Taylor | | | 26 |
| NRI – Utility Infielder | | | Charlie Culberson | | | 28 |
| 2nd/SS/Outfielder | | | Enrique Hernandez | | | 25 |
| RF/LF/CF | | | Trayce Thompson | 26 | |
| NRI – 2nd/SS/Outfielder | | | Darnell Sweeney | | | 26 |
| 1st/OF | | | Darin Ruf | | | 30 |
| 1st/OF | | | Scott Van Slyke | | | 30 |
| 1st/3rd/OF | | | Rob Segedin | | | 28 |
The Dodgers have six of the eight positions locked up. The real questions are?
How will Urias be utilized in 2017? It sounds like Urias may hit extended spring training to keep his major league innings down so that he can be properly utilized during the later months of the season. If that is the case, the Dodgers have two rotational openings. Who will win them? I don’t know but I’m rooting for McCarthy/Ryu/Wood. Nothing against Kazmir I just like the upside of those three over Kazmir. Realistically, Ryu would have to do some major hurdling to make it into June and still be in the rotation. Ideally, everyone is healthy and they can move Kazmir or McCarthy. By June, if Urias is ready, they should only have one spot unless…..
How much will Rich Hill pitch? No one is expecting more than 150 innings. Everyone seems to expect him to be good no matter how many innings he does pitch. I’m not optimistic either way so I hope he blows my mind and shatters my presumptive nature to not trust anyone to do something no one has done before.
Who mans the bullpen after the big three? I have little idea who is going to make up the rest of it. You could make a case for everyone trying to win a spot. I do think Hatcher is probably the odd man out since he’s out of options and probably not one of the seven best options. Avilan is also out of options and unless he’s hurt or horrible this spring, Avilan should make the team. You’d expect Dayton to have a leg up after his brilliant 2016 campaign but the numbers might have him starting out in AAA. Brandon Morrow has the stuff to be the best NRI option to make the 25 man roster, but he also has as much chance of being healthy by April 1st as any pitcher being better than Clayton Kershaw during the regular season.
Is Puig going to be healthy enough or are those dual hammy issues problematic? I have no idea. If they are a problem, then the team will have room for Toles and Andre in the outfield. If that is the case, Cody Bellinger might be knocking on that RF door before June.
Who is going to play LF? I think Andre Ethier beats out Andrew Toles for the strong-side platoon. One of Scott Van Slyke, Trayce Thompson, Darin Ruff, or Enrique Hernandez will handle the left-handers. Thompson has the most upside of the quartet and if healthy should eventually get that gig, but he may not be healthy enough come April to stake his claim to the job. It is not out of the question that Cody Bellinger simply takes the job in which case I should probably have added him to this roster table. I am however rooting for Toles to win the job.
At 35, is this the year that Adrian Gonzalez relinquishes his iron man title or does he continue to play 150 games or more? Let’s just say that it is a good thing Cody Bellinger is still here.
Which utility infielder will the Dodgers carry? Honestly, who cares except the players involved?
Which Enrique Hernandez will show up? The 2015 or 2016 version? or something in between? The safe bet is to say something in between. I hate being safe, I’m thinking the 2015 version is going to pop up again.
Whoever makes the 25 man team for opening day, they shouldn’t get comfortable. With Cody Bellinger knocking on a few doors, Urias hanging out in extended spring training, and all those starters needing a place to pitch, you can expect the roster to be as fluid as our President’s opinions.
This is a deep team, with the best starting pitcher in baseball, the best closer in baseball, a top five shortstop in baseball, the best pitcher from Japan in baseball, the best curveball pitcher in baseball, the best red-bearded 3rd baseman in baseball, the best switch-hitting framing catcher in baseball, the best Mexican 1st baseman in baseball, the best ex-Padre futility hitter turned studly 2nd baseman in baseball, the best Cuban right fielder in baseball, the best center fielder named ofter an athletic gear in baseball, the best left fielder to skip a year of baseball.
If that ain’t good enough, I don’t know what is.
The Godfather of Dodger blogs is moving on
Jon Weisman who parlayed his groundbreaking Dodger Thoughts blog into a position with the Los Angeles Dodgers has decided to move onto a different path and is headed for Showtime.
Jon will become the Vice President of Corporate Relations for Showtime
Weisman will be responsible for the strategic development and execution of media relations, and internal and external communications for the company
Jon’s last note on Dodger Insider was posted last week and contained this sweet nugget of information:
One thing I’m happy to say for certain is that I’m not done writing about the Dodgers. In the fall, I signed a deal for a book on the Dodgers that is scheduled to come out in 2018.
I kind of love and hate Jon. I love Jon for all the great writing he did about the Dodgers and how it intertwined within his life. I also kind of hate Jon for being such a good writer that his blog reeled me in twelve years ago and has left me dangling from the hook ever since.
Jon was responsible for me becoming a Dodger blogger at truebluela and while I’m not a good writer, I found I loved writing. You would have thought I’d have spent some time in the past ten years getting better at it, but I don’t like writing, I like “writing”. The fun part is taking the rush of words in my brain and putting them to paper. The laborious part is trying to make those words grammatically correct enough that the stream of consciousness was legible once it was pulled from the flow. That didn’t always happen, but it happened enough that I’m proud of a few things that came from me and without Jon I’m fairly certain I’d have never tried to write.
The biggest fish to fall from Jon’s Dodger Thoughts pond was Eric Stephen who has gone from Dodger Thoughts commentator extraordinaire onto editing the current version of truebluela. Eric can now boast of being a carded member of the BBWA and I’m fairly certain he doesn’t get there without springing forward from Dodger Thoughts.
I’m not sure the history of all the Dodger blogs that currently inhabit the Dodgersphere, but I feel comfortable in stating that Jon Weisman’s Dodger Thoughts paved the way for all of them. Yet, even though there are now a plethora of Dodger blogs no one does it the way Jon did it. Much like Vin Scully calling a game, Jon’s take was different than anyone else’s. Jon tied the Dodgers to himself, and thus you not only knew the Dodger 25 man roster, you learned a little about Jon along the way.
I wish Jon the best and look forward to his Dodger book, and I hope this path is the path that will give him the most satisfaction.
I also hope he loses the beard, some men simply aren’t meant to be bearded up.
Sergio Romo the ring king heads for LAD bullpen
Sergio Romo and his three World Series rings are headed home to the Dodger bullpen. For now it looks like he’ll be replacing Joe Blanton as the main right-handed setup man for Kenley Jansen. Blanton did good work last year but will only be remembered for his hanging slider to Miguel Montero that may have cost them the first game of the NLCS series. Blanton gets more shit for his one pitch mistake to Montero than the rest of the team seems to get for shitting the bed in games 4, 5, and 6.
Romo was born in Brawley, California to Mexican parents and was reportedly a huge Dodger fan growing up. For the first time in his professional career, Romo can help his childhood team instead of hurting them.
How much Romo has left in the tank is up in the air but there is little argument that Romo was a huge cog in the three World Championships the Giants have won in the twenty-first century. Even though Romo was tattooed in his first postseason appearance the Giants won that game and every single game he appeared in during their runs to those three titles. Romo appeared in nine series in that run, and in six of those series he gave up zero runs while pitching in 16 games.
Romo was recently pitching for Mexico
“Being in the Mexican uniform, it’s been quite the experience,” Romo said. “I was able to be around family that had I not seen in a while — and play in front of family that had not seen me play in the States. For me and for my Dad, especially, it’s been an unreal ride so far.
More than 2000 sliders ago, Romo was a good middle reliever for the Giants as they headed to the World Series. There, he faced Bengie Molina, who had just been traded from the Giants to the Rangers. After the Giants won, Molina gave the reliever “the greatest compliment.” The catcher told Romo that “catching it and seeing it in the box were two completely different things,” and that “if I don’t have confidence in my stuff, I’m a waste of talent.
Romo should replace Joe Blanton and might even be an improvement on him.
MLB Top 100 Prospects – Five Dodgers crack the list
The Dodgers:
- 13 – Cody Bellinger
- 49 – Yadier Alvarez
- 61 – Alex Verdugo
- 82 – Willie Calhoun
- 93 – Walker Buehler
Dodger Prospects traded in the past year:
- 33 – Jose De Leon – Tampa Bay via Logan Forsythe trade
- 85 – Grant Holmes – Oakland via Rich Hill trade
Notes:
Cody Bellinger went from not being on the list at all to being ranked number 13. That was the biggest leap of any prospect.
Bellinger is noted as having the most power
Bellinger was also made the all -defensive prospect pipeline team
First Base: Cody Bellinger, Dodgers
Not only is Bellinger the best power-hitting prospect in baseball, but he’s one of the top defensive first basemen to come through the Minors in years. He moves well around the bag, scoops throws out of the dirt, owns solid arm strength — and as a bonus, he can play all three outfield positions if needed.“I realize first base isn’t a premium position, but he has the potential to be one of the best defenders I’ve seen at the position,” a special assistant with a National League team said. “Add in the fact he’s a very capable outfielder, and he gets my vote.”
Delvin Perez made number 91. The Dodgers had a chance to draft Delvin when he was dropping in the draft but they elected to go with a different shortstop in Gavin Lux.
Last year Corey Seager was number one, this year it is Andrew Benintendi, OF, Red Sox
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 