Rookies Brock the week
The Dodger rookies faced down the Reds/Giants/Cubs giving the Dodgers a huge lift during a big week of games. It wasn’t your normal rookies either, sure Corey Seager was brilliant once again, but this rookie week was filled with wonderful antics from unlikely sources.
Monday – Dodgers crushed the Reds 18 -9 and sure Adrian Gonzalez hit three home runs and drove in eight runs, but the big story were the rookies Andrew Toles and Rob Segedin hitting their first major league home runs back to back. Oh, and Corey Seager hit a home run in the same inning. Three rookies, three home runs, one inning
Tuesday – Rookie Kenta Maeda won the game, and Andrew Toles and Rob Segedin hit their 2nd major league home runs one game after hitting their first major league home runs back to back. Toles didn’t even start and still drove in three runs. Rookie Corey Seager had three hits including his 35th double.
Wednesday – The rookies sat this one out, giving up the limelight to Rich Hill who while not a rookie made his Dodger debut and won the game 1 – 0. Segedin took a one-day paternity leave, and Toles after hitting home runs on Monday/Tuesday was given the day off by Dave Roberts because why play the hottest player on your team when you can play the coldest player on your team instead.
Thursday – Rookie Ross Stripling pitched well enough giving up three runs in five innings. Toles once again was given the day off, Rob Segedin did play but did not hit a home run. I guess being a father zapped him of his baseball abilities. Oh yeah, the Dodgers lost 4 – 0
Friday – Rookies once again sat this one out. Literally. Toles and Segedin on the bench again but did get to pinch hit. But hey Seager played and got two hits. Oh yeah, the Dodgers lost 6 – 4.
Saturday – Rookie Julio Urias starts out the game as though he was a 20-year-old pitcher facing the best team in baseball. He quickly rights himself after giving up one run, and proves once again, he’s no ordinary 20-year-old pitcher. Six innings later Urias exits the game and picks up his fourth straight win. Rookie Corey Seager hits a home run becoming the all-time Dodger leader in home runs for a shortstop. Rookie Andrew Toles finally gets to start again, and guess what? He collects two more hits.
Sunday – Rookie Brock Stewart fans eight Cubs in five scoreless innings. Rookie Andrew Toles pinch hits, gets hit by a pitch, and guess what? Scores the winning run. Stewart also collected his first hit, and it was the first hit of the game. It demoralized Lester so much he was only able to strike out one more hitter after fanning five of the first eight hitters he had faced.
One thing seemed clear. The Dodger rotation has been given a huge lift by the rookies, and Andrew Toles is awesome. ThinkblueLA gives us some insight into why Andrew Toles has the best blackbeard on the Dodgers.
Jose De Leon, rhp, Dodgers. De Leon was the No. 1 player on last week’s Hot Sheet and after Sunday’s outing, he most assuredly will be on the list next week. De Leon struck out 13 in 7.2 scoreless innings as Oklahoma City beat Colorado Springs (Brewers) 6-1. In his past three starts, De Leon has struck out 33 and walked none. De Leon’s fastball can touch 95 mph and he has a tight slider, but it’s the plus-plus changeup that makes him unhittable at times. In addition, the win clinched the PCL American Northern division title for OKC.
Oh, look more on Brock Stewart by Baseball America:
Brock Stewart, rhp, Dodgers. Stewart had a meteoric rise from high Class A to the majors. The son of Rays scout Jeff Stewart, Brock was barely on the Dodgers’ radar at the start of the year, but injuries and his performance forced their hand. His first three major league appearances didn’t go well, but on Sunday he matched up with Jon Lester of the Cubs and turned in his best performance to date. He didn’t get his first MLB win, but struck out eight in five scoreless innings as the Dodgers went on to a 1-0 win over baseball’s best team.
Brock Stewart has made three starts and has this strange statistical quirk
Brock Stewart dominated for five innings today which didn’t surprise me. Brock has made three starts and only given up runs in three of his 14 innings. Maybe I don’t understand quirky.
Just seems funky to me:
In his three starts:
- 12 Scoreless innings
- 1 five run inning
- 1 Four run inning
- five runs zero outs so he can’t even say he pitched an inning. I don’t even know what to call it.
- Brock has either thrown a scoreless inning or given up at least four runs.
Anyway Cub fans can’t be happy about today’s outcome. They had Jon Lester going against a team who can’t hit left hand pitching. They were facing a pitcher with an 11.00 plus ERA in his two previous starts.
And they still lost, because……..pick your poison:
- Hit Toles with a pitch
- Error by the pitcher on a play at first
- 3rd baseman forgot that 2nd baseman was playing in right field and Adrian Gonzalez was running to 1st base.
- Brock Stewart was awesome
- Combination of all above
In any case you can bet if/when the Dodgers face the Cubs in the NLCS they won’t be using Bud Norris or Julio Urias or Brock Stewart. By that point the big boys should be ready to take over for the kiddie corps.
And as someone who has given Clayton Kershaw some grief over his October shortcomings, I have to say it made me boil to hear a Cub fan say they weren’t worried about October because Kershaw doesn’t show up in October. I felt the need to swing a Loney their way but she was eighty year old and I can understand her being a cranky Cub fan.
What a series, baseball doesn’t get any better than what Dodger fans saw this weekend.
I’ve tried to cut down on my games this year so that I can hear all of Vinny but I went today and saw a great game with David Young and Coach Jay. I’ve heard that Vin was at his best and wowed the Cub fans with his 3rd inning. I’ve got it ready to tape at 02:00AM so hopefully I’ll be able to hear it for myself sometime tomorrow.
Dodgers don’t make it easy for Brock Stewart
Brock Stewart will be making his 3rd career start for the Dodgers today, and he’ll be going against the best team in baseball, and Jon Lester.
In his first start against the Brewers way back on June 29th, Brock pitched four scoreless innings. The problem was the 2nd inning where he gave up five runs.
In his last start start on August 3rd, the Dodgers asked the rookie Stewart to navigate Coors field and he threw three scoreless innings, but also got hammered in the 1st and 5th giving up 5 and 4 runs respectively.
It would seem that Brock is either going to hold the team scoreless or give up at least four runs in the inning. No picket fences for Brock Stewart. It is a unique approach that probably does not have the possibility of any long term success:)
This will be the 3rd game out of four that a rookie will be making the start for the Dodgers. Brock Stewart has little use for the prospect ladder
I’m headed out to the game courtesy of tickets from Coach Jay, and hope to catch up with David Young while there.
Schebs and Kemp go boom boom & boom
I can’t help but LIMH when a player I like has a big day. Tonight Scott Schebler and Matt Kemp made me smile as the two ex-Dodger right fielders wrecked havoc upon their competition. Matt Kemp helped the Dodgers by blasting a three run run home run to lead the Braves to a 3 – 1 victory over the 2nd place Giants. Scott Schebler didn’t help the Dodgers any but he did hit two home runs tonight and drove in five runs playing RF for the Reds.
Now I can understand how strange that sounds. The last time a Dodger RF hit two home runs and drove in five runs was probably when Puig was one of the best players in baseball, not some AAA player on a time out.
Oh wait, upon further review, it gets better. The last time a Dodger right fielder hit two home runs and drove in five runs was the second game of Yasiel Puig’s career. Ha ha ha
Just for fun Scott Schebler has six home runs and 25 RBI in August in 84 at bats.
Josh Reddick has zero home runs, zero RBI in 82 at bats
For the season the Dodgers right fielders have hit .233 / .301 / .369. Those numbers looked a lot better on July 31st. They would look worse without the three rookies Thompson, Toles , and Segedin.
I’m sure this will all work out with Reddick, but you have to think it is starting to enter Dave Roberts mind that Toles might be the better option in RF. Sure going to get interesting when Andre is ready come September.
Julio Urias has Erv Palica next on his list
With eight more strikeouts Julio Urias is moving up the all-time Dodger strikeout leader-board for pitchers 20 and under. Julio already has the most strikeouts in LAD history for a 19 year old, so I thought I’d mosey over into all time Dodger territory. An area I rarely tread onto but I go where the stories are and Erv Palica is a great story.
I’d never heard of Erv Palica but sabreorg/bioproj has and the story is interesting enough that I thought I’d drop a line about him. Erv had 75 strikeouts through age 20, and Julio has 70 after today.
Only six Dodgers have struck out more than 60 hitters through the completion of the age 20 season using baseball-reference baseball age, and the list is a complete who’s who of Dodger baseball.
Except Erv Palica.
You have Drysdale, Fernando, Branca, Kershaw, Podres, Palica, Urias, and Koufax.
Just like Julio Urias, Erv Palica was signed at the tender age of 16, still a junior at Harbor High school.
I thought Erv had joined the team the same year as Jackie Robinson in 1947 because that is what Baseball Reference showed on his pitching page. But no, Erv actually joined the team at the age of 17 as a pinch runner because at the time Branch Rickey thought he was going to be shortstop. Erv would get into two games as a pinch runner in 1945 and then was sent back to the minor leagues. His being a SS never took and he would pitch for the Dodgers from 1947 – 1954 with some major happenings. Those teams lost to the Yankees four times in the World Series. He then had the misfortune of being traded before 1955 and thus missed out on getting his World Series ring with the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers after having had to deal with losing four World Series.
Palica had his best season in 1950 when he was finally inserted into the rotation full time in the second half and responded by leading the team in strikeouts even though he logged sixty innings less than Don Newcombe. He was instrumental in the late run by the Dodgers that just fell short of catching the famous 1950 Whiz Kids. Heck he even hit a grand slam that year.
But all was not great for Palica. His new manager in 1951 was Charlie Dressen, and Dressen was not a fan. Dressen had two problems with Palica. The first was that he felt that Palica’s best pitch was his fastball but he rarely used it, and thus Dressen felt Palica was a coward. If that wasn’t bad enough he also thought Palica was a hypochondriac and it came to a head one day after a tough loss on July 19th:
When asked to comment on Palica, he grabbed his throat in a choking gesture and ordered reporters to put it in print. He then launched into a tirade: “He’s got more alibis than Carter’s has liver pills! If it isn’t his fanny it’s his arm! If it’s not that, it’s his groin! If it’s not that, he’s worried about his wife! If it’s not that, he can’t run with his high blood pressure! If it’s not that, the Army is going to get him!”
“The guy is a joke around the team,” Dressen continued. “The players laugh at him. One day when he said he was ready, they gave him a big hand of applause in the clubhouse.”
After that outburst by his manager, Palica was only used four more times by Dressen. Could be the case of someone cutting off his nose to spite his face. The Dodgers/Giants of course ended 1951 in a tie, and the Dodgers would lose the playoff series. One can imagine a scenario where the manager instead of breaking his ballplayer did the opposite and got the most out of him and thus might have won 1951 instead of losing it.
Palica was in military service for 1952/1953 but was available to the team from time to time though rarely used by Dressen. By 1954 Dressen had moved on but Palica could never regain his 1950 form and the Dodgers traded him in the winter of 1954.
The “hypochondriac” died at the young age of 54 to a heart attack after a 15 plus year as a longshoreman in Southern California. I guess the high blood pressure really existed. Even though he lived in Southern California he was never invited to any LAD activities, which could be one reason why I’m just reading about him now.
As I read the different stories I’m now sure I’d read about Palica before because I can’t imagine not reading the Boys of Summer, or the books about those Brooklyn Dodgers without his name coming up, but right now I was blank about him until I read about him today.
Bob Uecker was a fan according to the Baseball Almanac:
“Erv Palica had so many pitches, the catcher had to take off his mitt to give the sign.” – Joe Becker in Baseball’s Greatest Quotes (1982)
Day time Adrian Gonzalez ready to rumble
I knew Adrian was doing great work during the day but I didn’t know until the Dodger notes came out this morning that he has been the best day time hitter in baseball this year:
González leads the Majors in batting average in day games, hitting .395 (51-for-129) with a .448 on-base percentage, 12 doubles, six homers and 31 RBI in 34 games. This season, he has 16 multi-hit games in his 34 day games, including seven three-hit games, and during the course of his career, González has a .315/.382/.533 slashline in 510 day games vs. a .281/.355/.479 mark in 1,262 night games.
I’m sure the Dodgers note folk used a different plate appearance criteria, but when I use at least 50 plate appearances I get a little different number. Adrian is 2nd in OPS behind Sandy Leon. Yeah, Sandy Leon, the little known journeyman catcher for the Red Sox who has gone off this year. I expect they used 100 plate appearances as their cutoff.
Since the notes showed that Adrian has a career OPS of .915 in the day time compared to .834 in the night time, it made me wonder how Adrian’s day time splits as a full time Dodgers (starting in 2013) compared to the rest of baseball. Pretty good, not the best in baseball but number eight is very impressive.
Coming off a home run last night I think we can expect more from Adrian today as he hopes to help Julio Urias continue to write his name in the record books.
Even though Urias has pitched spot duty one could say he has been the most effective Dodger pitcher. Julio is coming off of six inning scoreless start and has not allowed a run in his last 10.2 innings. In the 2nd half Julio has gone 3-0 with a 2.18 ERA (5 ER/20.2 IP) in five games (three starts).
Kris Bryant shows why he is the MVP frontrunner
I tried to make a case for Corey Seager the other day for MVP but after watching Kris Byrant slug two important home runs on Friday Night, the road sure got tougher.
I was even playing with the idea of starting a daily checklist of who did what as we enter the last five weeks of the season, but it is probably best I don’t do that.
Not like Seager was a slouch tonight with two doubles, but a walk off in the 9th instead of foul pop up caught by none other than Kris Bryant didn’t do his case any help.
With those two doubles Seager is now tied with …………..AAA Right fielder Yasiel Puig and Steve Garvey for 9th place among LAD double leaders with 37. Puig hit his 37 doubles in 2014.
Bochy throws wussification out the window
It can’t be an easy position to be in. Your pitcher is throwing a no-hitter but racking up the pitch counts. At some point, you have to say enough and go get him, but to Bruce Bochy’s credit, he let Matt Moore take it to the limit going 132 pitches before Corey Seager broke up the no-hitter with a bloop single to right field on the 133rd pitch.
According to Vin Scully, no pitcher had thrown more than 125 pitches this year, so those 133 pitches were easily the most thrown by any pitcher this year.
For Bochy, Moore isn’t just some rental like Rich Hill, he’ll be under Giant control for a while yet, so the health of his arm is important to the future of the team. Add in that Moore had TJ surgery in the summer of 2014 and you can see what a tough decision he had to make.
We won’t know if the decision to let him go for it will have an adverse effect or not, but this is one fan who was glad to see him let Moore go for the no-hitter.
And yes, Vinny, I was with you hoping that he would get it.
A.J. will never score another run for the Dodgers
That seems sad that Ellis last scored for the Dodgers on May 1st.
[Update to this: David Young at TBLA pointed out to me that the last run that A.J. Ellis scored for the LAD was the 1 – 0 game Clayton Kershaw pitched on May 1st. The best part is that Ellis was driven in by his best friend Clayton Kershaw.
Single to CF (Ground Ball thru SS-2B); Ellis Scores; Kershaw out at 2B
How bloody cool is that?]
Even sadder is that Ellis has been shown the door by the Dodgers after a long career in the organization.
This season already looked like his swan song, it seemed inevitable that Austin Barnes would be the backup headed into next year but after this trade, I’m not sure that will be the case. Anyway, that is for another day, today is about A.J. Ellis.
Ellis is the only major league player I ever directly interviewed. It happened on the day that Mitch Jones was brought up and everyone was gathered around Mitch Jones because he had had this long minor league career and was getting his first major league start that night. A.J. Ellis had been brought up the same day, had the same career in the minor leagues, but no one seemed to pay him any mind. So I moseyed over and started asking him questions, I think I still have it on my recorder somewhere. Ellis said the same cliches that everyone ever says when they get promoted but I left the interview hoping he would have enough success to have a career. He only got into four games that year. Only ten games the following year. Forty-four games the year after that, and back to 31 games in 2011.
After four tuneups in four years that amounted to 89 games, no one ever envisioned that the 31 one year Ellis would be a full-time catcher for the Dodgers in 2012. The most games he ever caught in the minor leagues was 110, every other year it was less than 100. Yet, not only was he the full-time catcher he had a great year and caught a remarkable 133 games. It was a unique season to be a full-time catcher for the first time at the age of 31. To his credit, Ellis delivered the goods and has been a mainstay on the team since 2012.
Seems no point in discussing his shortcomings now. I just want to think A. J. Ellis for being a big part of a team that won three Division Championships, and for his humor during that period.
Good Luck Mr. Ellis, and I hope the Dodgers can deliver a WS ring to you sometime next year, wherever you catch on.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 