My buddy Hris almost got his Braun

♦ September 12, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

 Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports and MLB Network was first to report that the Brewers had claimed Puig on revocable trade waivers and engaged the Dodgers in trade talks. According to a source, one scenario would have netted the Brewers Puig and two prospects along with pitcher Brandon McCarthy, whose departing contract would have helped offset the Dodgers’ luxury tax hit for adding Braun. The source said Braun remained at Miller Park with some teammates after the Brewers’ Aug. 31 game against the Pirates while the Brewers and Dodgers continued talks up to 11:59 p.m. ET — a minute before the Trade Deadline to acquire players and have them eligible for the postseason. In the end, they simply ran out of time.

That would have been interesting. Adding Braun would certainly have helped the lineup against LHP as Braun crushed them like no one else on the current Dodger roster. To the tune of a 1.050 OPS in 2016 and 1.032 for his long career.

I’m not sure if it was a good thing the LAD ran out of time or a bad thing. Braun is probably a difference maker in 2016 and the future. Might have been the best for both parties to get fresh starts in new cities.

Oh well, it didn’t happen but thought this was interesting nonetheless that they came that close to actually moving Puig and picking up Braun.

Didi the Diamondbacks make a Gregorius mistake?

♦ September 12, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

Much has been made this summer and last winter about the Arizona Diamondback deal that sent SS Dansby Swanson and others to the Braves for Shelby Miller.  While Miller has been the worst pitcher in baseball, it is too soon to tell if Swanson can turn into that beautiful Swan or not.

Meanwhile a few years ago the Diamondbacks traded a different shortstop to the NY Yankees in a three-team deal. The Diamondbacks at least got back Robbie Ray in that deal, and Ray has become a solid part of the Diamondback rotation. Just the other day he put the Dodgers on their ear with his strikeout performance. 

Didi Gregorius was considered a defensive first shortstop with limited offensive skills. Those limited offensive skills have provided forty-seven extra base hits this year. Only four shortstops in 2016 have had at least 30 doubles and 15 home runs. Cory Seager, Carlos Correa, Jonathan Villar, and Didi Gregorius.

I hope the Diamondbacks are happy they kept Chris Owings, and Nick Ahmed instead.

Per fangraph, Didi’s overall numbers would look better if he wasn’t currently mired in a horrendous slump over the past 30 days:

Name wRC+ AVG OBP SLG
Gary Sanchez 216 0.351 0.439 0.784
Ronald Torreyes 188 0.395 0.439 0.632
Rob Refsnyder 151 0.333 0.455 0.444
Brian McCann 117 0.28 0.353 0.453
Chase Headley 112 0.265 0.338 0.471
Starlin Castro 109 0.284 0.296 0.514
Jacoby Ellsbury 106 0.266 0.327 0.457
Aaron Hicks 102 0.286 0.34 0.408
Brett Gardner 81 0.276 0.352 0.303
Tyler Austin 81 0.224 0.274 0.414
Mark Teixeira 72 0.196 0.274 0.375
Didi Gregorius 59 0.222 0.246 0.389
Aaron Judge 53 0.177 0.258 0.316
Name PA HR R RBI BB% K%
Gary Sanchez
114 12 17 20 13.20% 21.90%
Ronald Torreyes 42 1 6 4 4.80% 4.80%
Rob Refsnyder 11 0 3 1 18.20% 9.10%
Brian McCann 85 4 11 10 9.40% 12.90%
Chase Headley 77 4 10 10 10.40% 22.10%
Starlin Castro 115 7 15 14 2.60% 20.00%
Jacoby Ellsbury 105 4 16 13 8.60% 12.40%
Aaron Hicks 53 2 7 6 7.50% 20.80%
Brett Gardner 88 0 9 7 11.40% 11.40%
Tyler Austin 62 3 5 7 6.50% 35.50%
Mark Teixeira 62 2 5 9 9.70% 19.40%
Didi Gregorius 115 3 13 14 1.70% 19.10%
Aaron Judge 89 3 9 9 9.00% 43.80%

Hey, remember Ronny Torreyes? He’s the guy we traded last winter for Rob Segedin. Ronny got a brief run as the Yankee 3rd baseman in August and did quite well.  He’s been an excellent utility player for the Yankee’s so it looks like a nice win win for both teams.

 

Gary Sanchez and the Yankee 9/12/16 Preview

♦ September 12, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

How about this:

  • The Yankees got Alex Rodriquez to retire
  • Traded their best hitter in Carlos Beltran
  • Traded their best relief pitcher in Chapman
  • Traded their second best relief pitcher in Andrew Miller
  • Traded a key component of their 2016 rotation in Ivan Nova

Yet they have won seven of their last eight games to climb right back into the AL Wild Card race. The first trade they made was on July 25th when they unloaded Aroldis Chapman for a boatload of talent from the Cubs.  The record at the time was 51 – 48 , now they are 76 – 66.

From the Cubs for Chapman – Rashad Crawford , Billy McKinney , Gleyber Torres and Adam Warren. Adam Warren is actually on the major league roster and helping the Yankees. This is Christopher Crawford’s take on the haul.

Yankees fans might wonder if and how Torres compares with Jorge Mateo. Crawford gave Torres the nod, saying that Torres is now the top middle-infield prospect in the system, and that he’s Aaron Judge’s stiffest competition for the title of the best Yankees prospect.

From the Indians for Andrew Miller –  J.P. Feyereisen, Clint Frazier , Justus Sheffield and Ben Heller. Bernie Pleskoff breaks down this deal. 

Scouting grade for Sheffield: 55 – A consistent member of the starting rotation.
Scouting grade for Heller: 55 – A dominant member of the bullpen.
Without question, Frazier should make an impact with his new team with home run power and an exciting overall game

From the Rangers for  Carlos Beltran – Nick Green , Erik Swanson, and Dillon Tate

From the Pirates for Ivan Nova – Tito Polo and Stephen Tarpley

And finally this detailed report from saberballblog about everyone they got in the deadline deals.

In return for these 5 players, New York received quite a haul. In particular, this includes top 25 prospects outfielder Clint Frazier(#22) and shortstop Gleyber Torres (#24), as well as top 100 prospect, pitcher Justus Sheffield (#93). Additionally, pitching prospect Dillon Tate ranks all over the top 100, so his positions were averaged, coming in solidly in the 60-70 range. Lastly, outfield prospect Billy McKinney is a former top 100 prospect, and is generally among the first left off of midseason lists. He is estimated as being a top 125 prospect. The remainder of the prospects are either too young or too uncertain to project surplus value going forward.

They did send one of their own prospects Vincente Campos to the Diamondbacks for setup man Tyler Clippard.

How are they winning after depleting their team of at least four key members when they were barely a .500 team with those players?

Gary Sanchez

Lis Roscher of SBNation tells us why Gary has had some an impact:

Gary Sanchez is a rookie sensation in a season full of rookie sensations. Sanchez signed in 2009 when he was just 16, and has made his way up and down the prospect lists. Over seven seasons in the minors, he had a .275/.339/.460, which isn’t anything to get too excited about, but he’s certainly proved himself in the majors. The Yankees called him up when they traded nearly everyone on their roster, and ever since he’s been a magical baseball wizard, forcing Brian McCann into a part-time role. In 32 games and 129 plate appearances, he’s hit .341/.417/.707 with 12 home runs. In August alone, he hit .389/.458/.832 in 107 plate appearances. That’s just insane.

Click on the link above for the rest of the Gary Sanchez story. Well, worth reading about the most exciting young player to hit that tired Yankee franchise in many a year.

 

 

Daily Wild Card race update – 09/11/16

♦ September 12, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

The Giants went into the weekend facing stiff challenges from the Mets and Cardinals, but as the weekend ended they had increased their wild-card lead to 1 1/2 over the Mets and two games over the Cardinals by sweeping the Diamondbacks in Arizona. The Cardinals are now 1/2 game back of the Mets for the second spot.

The Giants beat Zack Greinke behind their deadline acquisition Matt Moore 5 – 3. The Giant bats which had been in a slumber for weeks, awoke this weekend scoring 23 runs. In their previous eight games, they had scored only 22 runs. The Giants are now 4 – 4 in games started by Matt Moore.  Hunter Pence is one big reason why the Giants are scoring again. Pence returned on July 30th and proceeded to put up a dismal OPS of .642 through Sept 5th. Since Sept 5th, Pence has collected 12 hits in five games, including four doubles and a home run, driving in four runs, and scoring eight times.  The Giant offense just got their best cog back in production, so the scoring line should continue to improve going forward.

The Mets clobbered the Braves 10 – 3 behind a grand slam by Cespedes. It was his 30th home run. James Loney clocked in his 7th home run. The Mets like the Dodgers have been getting good pitching from rookies. Yesterday it was Seth Lugo making just his 5th major league start at age 26 who picked up the victory with seven sterling innings. Name like Seth Lugo, Logan Verrett, Robert Gsellman, and Rafael Montero have all made key starts for the Mets while Harvey / Matz/Niese sit on the DL.

Cardinals lost to the Brewers 2 – 1 when Eric Siegrist gave up a home run to Ryan Braun in the top of the 9th inning. Former number one pick Luke Weaver dueled Zach Davies to a tie with each giving up one run in their respective innings. The Cardinals did not hit a home run which was news of it itself.

The Marlins beat the Dodgers but are still five full games behind the Mets.  Jose Urena pitched the game of his life, and maybe the game of his career.

The Pirates lost again and I won’t mention them again unless things change dramatically for them.

Boatload of outfield options awaits​ Roberts

♦ September 11, 2016 ♦ 2 Comments

With Andre Ethier joining the team this weekend and playing left field on Sunday, an already crowded outfield just got more crowded. The Dodgers now have seven legitimate outfield options, and lucky for Dave Roberts just about all have of them have severe platoon splits. Unfortunately for Dave Roberts based on the numbers he still doesn’t really have good options against left-handed pitching.

Splits by OPS:

Players LHP-2016 LHP-Career RHP-2016 RHP-Career
Yasiel Puig 0.765 0.847 0.716 0.829
Josh Reddick 0.368 0.643 0.865 0.784
Andre Ethier 0.635 0.889
Howie Kendrick 0.690 0.778 0.738 0.742
Andrew Toles 1.800 1.800 0.975 0.975
Joc Pederson 0.413 0.593 0.918 0.836
Kike Hernandez 0.699 0.877 0.537 0.637

Seems pretty clear that Josh Reddick  and Joc Pederson should never face a LHP in a playoff game, or a pennant race. I’d say the same about Andre Ethier. Andrew Toles has only five at-bats against LHP in the major leagues so his monster OPS can be taken with a grain of salt. The Dodgers don’t really have a left-handed hitting outfielder that should be allowed to start against LHP.

Puig for his career has shown he can hit either type of pitching but has had a noticeable drop-off in 2016 against RHP.  Given the plethora of left-handed hitting options, it would make sense for the rest of this year to simply use Puig against LHP.  Howie Kendrick isn’t hitting LHP very well himself this year.  Neither is Kike Hernandez. This is problematic because the Dodgers have seven outfielders but only one could you say with any conviction should actually be in the lineup against LHP and that is Puig. Hernandez will probably play CF because someone has to play CF against LHP and right now that is Hernandez. Even when Trayce Thompson was active, he was no great shakes against LHP and actually hit RHP better this year.

In a play-in game, the Dodgers would face either the Mets or Cardinals. You could expect the Mets to throw Thor and the Cardinals either Carlos Martinez or Adam Wainwright. The Cardinals could use Jamie Garcia to exploit the Dodgers inability to hit LHP. The Mets could use Steve Matz if he is ready to pitch by then.

If the Dodgers face the Nationals in the postseason Gio Gonzalez is the one left-hander the Nationals can throw at the Dodgers, so for that series their weakness with left-hand pitching may not be exploited to its full potential.

The Cubs have Jon Lester but nobody else that you’d expect to see who is left handed. I doubt they would start Mike Montgomery simply to get a left-hand starter into the rotation.

I don’t want to mention that the Giants can throw Bumgarner and Moore at them because that would mean the Giants either won the play-in game, and beat the Cubs, or won the Western Division and beat the Nationals.

So while the Dodgers are definitely top heavy with left bats, it may not be as big a problem as it seems during the season.  Of course, all this will be a moot point if Dave Roberts doesn’t pick the right group of outfielders to face the formidable right-hand pitching he’s going to get tossed at him in the post season. He has shown an affinity for Howie Kendrick against all kinds of pitchers, will he continue to use Howie as a starting left fielder against RHP in the post-season? If he does, will it be the right move?

The Dodgers have a 20 person analytic team to help them navigate the complexity of a modern day baseball organization, will they help Dave Roberts craft the correct lineup out of so many options? Or will it be a gut call?

Either way, tough decisions await Dave Roberts as he makes out his lineup on a daily basis, but it will get even tougher come October.

 

Now that was a Saturday Night game to stay home for

♦ September 10, 2016 ♦ 2 Comments

Some games have a little of something, and some games have a lot of something and this game had a lot of everything.

  • First of all the Dodgers won 5 – 0 keeping the Giants four games back  which is a good thing because it looks like the Giants rediscovered how to use a bat.
  • Joc Pederson hit a home run that was simply majestic. His swings are pendulums of power, and when he connects, oh my does that ball soar.
  • Yasiel Puig playing his first game in LF made a jump out of your chair and scream so loud catch that your wife thinks your and idiot and all the animals went flying for cover.
  • Joc Pederson hit another home run, giving him two home runs out of the eight spot, and 22 for the season.
  • These highlights are not in game order.
  • Corey Seager hit his 25th home run and collected two more hits giving him ten hits in his last five games, including two doubles, and two home runs.  For one brief moment, the Dodgers had three players with 25 home runs.
  • Justin Turner launched his 26th home run because he didn’t like Cory Seager and Grandal being tied with him at 25
  • The Dodgers broke the Marlin Don Mattingly five-game winning streak which had to be annoying to everyone.
  • Josh Reddick did not get a hit.
  • Puig did not get a hit
  • The Marlins did not get a hit off of Rich Hill
  • The Marlins did get a hit off of Joe Blanton, though I thought Seager should have caught that for a player his size. ROY my ass
  • Rich Hill made his 3rd straight scoreless start and has yet to be scored upon as a LAD

Dave Roberts went from being brilliant to being roasted on Twitter in a matter of seconds. His brilliance was on full display when Yasiel Puig made a circus catch to keep the Rich Hill perfect game intact. Within seconds Roberts made the effort a moot point by not allowing Rich Hill to go for his perfect game. I mean who sticks Puig in LF? Who doesn’t let a pitcher try for a perfect game?

As a fan, I wanted to see Rich Hill get a chance for the perfect game, cause those are rare. I assume they are rare, if not why do we hear the Vin Scully call on the Sandy Koufax perfect game over and over and over?

As a Dodger fan, I wanted Dave Roberts to make the best decision he could make based upon the information he has.  I don’t know if he did that. I do know that Puig would not have balled out like that for a game in which they had a 5-0 lead unless something bigger was at stake. And to pull that stake out, just left it all a little empty. Everyone on the team will support Dave Roberts, and Dave was probably right to do what he did, but damn, it sure made my jump out of my chair scream at the catch by Puig look purdy damn silly.

This was a Don Mattingly quote on the catch:

QUOTABLE
“That’s just an incredible play. Those are the kind of plays you see when you see a no-hitter or a perfect game or something. You see a play like that. That was one of those plays where you’re like, ‘Ah, you never know what’s going to happen tonight.’ You don’t see catches like that very often. That was an incredible play.” — Mattingly, on Puig’s catch to rob Prado in seventh

It was fun to watch the twitter world explode. I was kind of interested in what actual pitchers had to say.

You had Dan Haren defending the move by Roberts

 

Anyway when it comes to entertaining games, this one is a highlight for 2016.

Daily NL Wild Card race update 09/09/16

♦ September 10, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

Close games but everyone won except the Pirates so no real changes took place except that Miami is now even with the Pirates at 5 games back. Still Giants by 1/2 a game over the Mets and the Mets 1/2 game over the Cardinals, with Miami/Pirates both five games back of the Mets.

The Giants won a 12 inning game against Arizona even though the Giants started Bumgarner against Rubby De La Rosa. Rubby hadn’t pitched since May 25th and was only able to pitch two innings. The Diamondbacks gave it their all, using 12 pitchers including three pitchers who had started at least eight games for them but to no avail as the Giants won 7 – 6. To rub more salt into the wound, the much maligned Joe Nathan picked up the victory by pitching one inning of relief.

The Mets stayed hot, coming from behind to beat the Braves by scoring four runs in the eighth inning to win 6 – 4. Matt Kemp blasted his 29th home run and even walked twice for the Braves in the losing effort.

The Cardinals barely hung on to beat the Brewers 4 – 3 behind Carlos Martinez. Carlos went seven innings but only struck out one batter. Cardinals got two more home runs this time from Carpenter and Piscotty.

Magnificent home Fernandez to much for the Magic of the Starting Toles and the Return of the King

♦ September 10, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

Dodger fans got a taste of what it is like when the rest of baseball faces Clayton Kershaw if they watched Jose Fernandez toy with the potent Dodger lineup last night.

As has been documented over and over Jose Fernandez is virtually unbeatable at home, and last night he showed why.  Striking out fourteen in only seven innings Jose won his fourteenth game of the year and increased his incredible home record to 28 – 2. Jose now has 238 strikeouts in only 167 innings. His strikeout numbers are boggling because he never pitches more than seven innings.

  • On June 5th, 14 K’s, zero walks, 21 outs, home start
  • On July 18th, 14 K’s, two walks, 19 outs, road start
  • Sept 9th, 14 K’s, three walks, 21 outs, home start
  • April 6th, 13 K’s, one walks, 16 outs, home start
  • June 26th, 13 K’s, three walks, 21 outs, start

Fernandez has struck out >= 13 hitters five times this year. It has been done 25 times this year but the only other pitcher who has done it more than one time is Clayton Kershaw who has done it three times.

Andrew Toles is now 12 – 3 in starts after running into the buzzsaw that was Jose Fernandez. This was the first loss in a starting game for Toles since July 30th.  Toles struck out three times but he was in good company. Josh Reddick was the only Dodger not impressed with Jose as he picked up two of the three hits against Fernandez. Toles did drive that ball deep in his last at-bat against Ramos so hopefully, this was more of the case of Jose Fernandez  than it was about Toles cooling off.

The Return of the King kind of went as expected, In was what basically a rehab game, Kershaw only went three innings though it looked like he wanted to go four. He had some good pitches and some bad pitches, but the most important thing that happened last night was Clayton Kershaw pitching in a major league game for the Dodgers.

The Dodgers lost a game in their lead over the Giants, but that should have been expected. The Dodgers were facing Jose Fernandez at home, the Dodgers were pitching someone who hadn’t pitched since late June other than one brief rehab game, and Bumgarner was facing Rubby De La Rosa who hadn’t pitched in months. The Diamondbacks still made it close.

 

 

Looks like the Dodgers just added a left-hand​ hitting outfielder

♦ September 9, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

Just as Andrew Toles gets his second start in a row tonight, he looks in the rear view mirror and sees Andre Ethier coasting into Miami. According to the pre-game Dodger notes Andre is headed to Miami and at some point this weekend, possibly even tonight the Dodgers will be activating the longest tenured Dodger giving the Dodgers another left-handed hitting outfielder.  Currently not exactly a position the Dodgers are short in with Reddick / Pederson / Toles, but at the very least Andre should give the Dodgers another weapon as a left-handed pinch hitter.

It has been speculated that Andre will DH when the Dodgers head up to face the Yankees after the three-game series with the Marlins. That makes sense, once that series is done, we will have to wait and see if Andre is able to handle defensive duties in LF.

The Dodgers hope to make amends for the four-game sweep by the Marlins way back in April. It might be tough in game one with Kershaw squaring off against Jose Fernandez for several reasons. This will be Clayton’s first game in months and he can’t be expected to be either particularly effective or last very long, but this is Clayton Kershaw so who knows. The other reason is that Jose Fernandez is hard to beat at home as Vin Scully mentioned a few times in the past week.  Just to iterate Jose is 27 – 2 at home, and if wins don’t matter to you, how about an OPS against of just .511. For context the best pitcher in baseball over the past five years, Clayton Kershaw has an OPS at home of .542.

After tonight it gets easier with the Marlins throwing two sub-par right-handers at the potent left hand hitting Dodger lineup.

 

 

Sound of the Dodgers – Starring Vin Scully

♦ September 9, 2016 ♦ 4 Comments

soundofthedodgerscropped Craig Minami mentioned that vinyl was hot so I started going through all my vinyl and found this in my Mother-In-Laws collection.  She actually had two, one used and one still plastic wrapped.

Need to get my turntable back up and running. I took apart my music center and when I put it back together it wasn’t functioning correctly.

Looking forward to giving it a listen

These are the tracks:

  1. Dodger Stadium with Maury Wills, Willie Davis, and Stubby Kaye
  2. Somebody’s Keeping Score with Maury Wills
  3. What is a Dodger with Vin Scully
  4. Soliloquoy Of A Dodger Fan with Stubby Kay and the Album spells Soliloquy that way.
  5. Dandy Sandy with Jimmy Durante
  6. That’s The Way The Ball Bounces with Willie Davis
  7. The Story Of The L.A. Dodgers with Vin Scully

From what I gather they sold this at Dodger Stadium, looks like 1963 so these two albums are 53 years old. I will admit right now, at this moment I have no idea who Stubby Kaye is. Now that I’ve looked him up, he is easily recognizable.

Jimmy Durante was famous for many things but the two things I remember were his huge Schnozzola, and gravely voice.  I wonder if Louis Armstrong and Durante ever sang together?