Meanwhile, A.J. Ellis still can’t score

♦ August 18, 2016 ♦ 4 Comments

In one of the stranger going on’s in 2016, A.J. Ellis has moved into second place among the LAD leaderboard for position players not being able to score. Ellis moved past Dodger great Mike Scioscia during his last start and has now been unable to score in his last 101 at-bats.

You can see why it has been hard to score Ellis since May 2nd, he doesn’t get on base much. His TSL since May 3rd is .186 | .273 | .216.  With only three doubles since May 2nd, he simply doesn’t put himself in scoring position very often.

Ellis is now only chasing Doug Camilli who set the record back in 1964.  With a four-game set against the Reds, Ellis is sure to get into one game. This weekend would be a good time for me to end this foolishness, but you can be sure that Doug Camilli has some champagne on ice because this is one record he’d love to not own.

  1. Camilli – 105 at bats / 18 hits / 6 walks
  2. A.J. Ellis – 101 at bats / 18 hits / 10 walks
  3. Mike Scioscia – 96 at bats / 20 hits / 8 walks
  4. Len Gabrielson -95 at bats / 20 hits / 4 walks
  5. Steve Yeager-86 at bat / 17 hits / 3 walks
  6. John Hale-80 at bats / 10 hits / 12 walks
  7. Wally Moon-78 at bats / 15 hits / 3 walks
  8. Jeff Torborg-73 at bats / 10 hits / 7 walks
  9. Juan Samuel– 73 at bats / 19 hits / 2 walks
  10. Don LeJohn – 72 at bats / 18 hits / 4 walks

Yazmani Grandal slugs 20th home run, last Dodger catcher to hit 20 was Paul Lo Duca in 2001

♦ August 18, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

LoDuca hit 25 home runs in 2001, but only 20 as a catcher. All 20 of Grandal’s home runs have been as a catcher this year.

At one time it was very common for Dodger catchers to hit at least 20 home runs. From 1993 to 2001 they did it eight times by three different catchers.

Below is the chart. Under the HR column,  the first number is the total number of home runs for the season, and the second number is the number of home runs while catching.

The one year missing is 1998 in that run from 1993 – 2001 but Dodgers catchers still hit 20 home runs only it was divided between Piazza with 9 and Charles Johnson with 12.

Player HR Year â–´
Joe Ferguson 25 / 20 1973
Joe Ferguson 20 / 14 1979
Mike Piazza 35 / 35 1993
Mike Piazza 24 / 24 1994
Mike Piazza 32 / 31 1995
Mike Piazza 36 / 36 1996
Mike Piazza 40 / 40 1997
Todd Hundley 24 / 24 1999
Todd Hundley 24 / 24 2000
Paul Lo Duca 25 / 20 2001
Grandal 20 /20 2016

Jose De Leon dominates again while waiting for his chance

♦ August 17, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

As the Dodgers turn to Bud Norris, Ross Stripling, and Brett Anderson over the next three games, they all better be on their game because Jose De Leon is putting everyone on notice.

He’s ready for his chance.

On Wednesday night Jose pitched another strong seven innings, striking out ten without a walk while giving up two earned runs. That is four straight starts of at least six innings, and never more than two runs given up. In total over those four starts, 27 innings, six earned runs, four walks, and twenty-three strikeouts.

Baseball America chimed on:

Jose De Leon, rhp, Dodgers. The Dodgers’ No. 2 prospect at midseason, the former Southern ace is positioning himself to help the big club later this season. He struck out 10 Wednesday in Triple-A Oklahoma City’s 3-2 win over Albuquerque (Rockies). De Leon allowed just six hits and two runs in six innings, walking none. De Leon has a fastball that sits 92-93 mph and touches 95 with a great spin rate. He throws a tight slider but the difference-maker is his double-plus changeup.

 

 

Everyone can’t get hot at the same time, can they?

♦ August 17, 2016 ♦ 2 Comments

Do you remember thinking when one or two Dodgers got hot, how great it would be if they could all get hot at the same time? Don’t look now but I think it has been happening for a few weeks, and this is why they are able to continue to win while the rotation pitches barely more than half a game everytime out.

  • Chase went crazy
  • Cory continues to make a case for MVP
  • Justin Turner continues to make a case for hottest three-year run for any LAD 3rd baseman in history
  • Adrian Gonzalez has been Rod Carew for ten weeks
  • Yazmani Grandal is clearly the best hitting catcher in the NL over the past two months
  • Joc Pederson is En fuego
  • Howie Kendrick has been the 2nd best hitting left fielder in the NL since the all-star game

Who am I missing?

Oh yeah – Josh Reddick – well you can’t have EVERYONE hitting at the same time. That would be unfair.

I’ll put some real numbers to these runs after they win tomorrow 10 – 5 or something but for now here is the fangraphs link for the past 30 days.

It is easy for me to look at the rotational shortcoming, but as someone pointed out to me, the offense more than makes up for it? Can they continue to do so?  Are they this good?  I don’t know, but it sure is fun to watch while it is happening.

As the Dodgers head into Thursday they have four players who could  get consideration for NL Player of the Week if they continue to build on what they have done on Tuesday/Wednesday.

Chase Utley, Adrian Gonzalez, Yazmani Grandal, and Joc Pederson. Oh hell,  make it five with Justin Turner.

Funny thing is that I predicted that Josh Reddick would go off this week, and he’s the only one who hasn’t.

Having Mark Grace for a few months was great but it is better to have Adrian Gonzalez back

♦ August 17, 2016 ♦ 5 Comments

On June 27th Adrian Gonzalez was hitting .264 | .337 | .372 a far cry from his normal slugging percentage.  Adrian was heard to decry the shifts and to this fan it felt a bit like whining. I mean a forty-year-old David Ortiz was having no problem with the shift, and if you are a power hitting first baseman just hit the ball where they can’t catch it.

Anyway, something changed and for the next ten weeks,  Adrian Gonzalez turned into Mark Grace. Forget that, for the next ten weeks,  Adrian Gonzalez turned into Rod Carew. The Dodger 1st baseman from June 28th – August 16th hit a blistering .354 | .425 | .517. The home runs were still missing but he was doing everything else. All those one time hits that were being gobbled up by the shift found hole after hole, gap after gap. I’ll let someone else show you the hit spray chart on why all of the sudden Adrian got hot. For me I’ll just talk about the aesthetics of the hit parade.

It was beautiful to watch.

They say all good things have to come to an end. In this case,  they ended tonight, yet I think the return of Adrian Gonzalez will end up being a great thing. Adrian powered two home runs today after hitting only four in his last 167 plate appearances.  Adrian is a streaky home run hitter so don’t be shocked if the guy who only hit ten home runs in his first 410 plate appearances of 2016, doesn’t still reach 20 plus home runs this year.

Sit back and enjoy, the rockets are about to be launched.

Apologies are due Dave Roberts and Howie Kendrick

♦ August 17, 2016 ♦ 2 Comments

I have been hard on Dave Roberts in his stubbornness to make Howie Kendrick the starting left fielder and in my own stubbornness to acknowledge my ignorance I was wrong. Roberts was right in continuing to give Howie the at-bats in left field, and I was wrong that Howie wasn’t up to the task. Not just a little wrong, this was a huge whiff on my part.

I just never felt the elderly career 2nd baseman would hit enough to warrant playing in a position noted for offense. I particularly made fun of the fact that for one 100 at-bats, Howie only drove in one run, and that was himself with a home run. But I can’t deny that Howie has hit. and hit. and hit.

Baseball Reference gives us a snapshot for the whole year for Left fielders with at least 300 plate appearances:

Player OPS+ BA OBP SLG OPS
Ryan Braun 151 0.325 0.388 0.566 0.954
Christian Yelich 138 0.316 0.386 0.494 0.88
Starling Marte 122 0.316 0.373 0.461 0.834
Adam Duvall 111 0.243 0.295 0.518 0.813
Angel Pagan 110 0.291 0.344 0.438 0.783
Jayson Werth 107 0.255 0.346 0.443 0.789
Yasmany Tomas 106 0.264 0.304 0.5 0.804
Howie Kendrick 106 0.283 0.341 0.421 0.762
Matt Holliday 103 0.242 0.318 0.45 0.768
Melvin Upton 99 0.256 0.304 0.439 0.743
Michael Conforto 89 0.218 0.297 0.414 0.71

Sure, he hasn’t been great compared to peers but he’s right smack in the middle which is pretty good for a 32-year-old second baseman playing LF. Left field only has two elite players right now in Braun and Yelich, with Marte knocking on the door. I’d have lost a lot of money if someone had bet me on May 1st the Howie Kendrick would be out hitting Michael Conforto.  I didn’t see that coming either way.

Yet that above chart is misleading because that involves the whole season, while Howie has been ripping since about May, we are going to use Fangraphs to tell how Howie is doing since the All-Star break compared to his peers:

BOOM

Yup, Howie is having a better second half than MVP candidate Kris Byrant, and folks, it ain’t even close.  Not only has Howe been adequate in LF, at this point, Howie Kendrick is one kick ass left fielder – again, my apologies to Howie and Dave Roberts for doubting them.

Name | wRC+ | wOBA | PA
Ryan Braun | 203 | 0.482 | 102
Howie Kendrick | 168 | 0.419 | 116
Yasmany Tomas | 152 | 0.408 | 100
Starling Marte | 139 | 0.376 | 115
Christian Yelich | 136 | 0.377 | 135
Angel Pagan | 133 | 0.362 | 132
Jayson Werth | 129 | 0.367 | 106
Kris Bryant | 127 | 0.365 | 132
Alex Dickerson | 110 | 0.331 | 94
Adam Duvall | 93 | 0.316 | 114
Willson Contreras | 80 | 0.295 | 99

 

Puig batters AAA pitching as Dodgers climb into 1st place

♦ August 17, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

In a few weeks, Dodger fans will get a glimpse of where Yasiel Puig stands with the organization when the rosters open up on Sept 1st.

As of last night Puig has a triple stat line in AAA of .481 | .548 | .926 giving him an OPS of 1.474. He has thirteen hits in only twenty seven at bats, and has even walked three times to go along with his three home runs. He’s also healthy for now. On the field he’s done everything you could have hoped he’d do after being demoted to AAA for reasons beyond what he does on the field.

If the Dodgers don’t bring up Puig on Sept 1st, I guess we can figure that Dodger fans have seen the last of him in a Dodger uniform. They could certainly use him. They don’t really have a viable right handed hitting right fielder with both Scott Van Slyke and Trayce Thompson on the DL.  Rob Segedin has been a nice bat but he’s not really an outfielder. At least not at the level that Puig is a right fielder. Yet, the Dodgers may simply choose not to insert Puig back on the roster for the same reasons they demoted him in the first place.

Two weeks from now we will know.

 

Huge day for the Dodgers last night

♦ August 17, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

The Dodgers climbed back into sole custody of first place by plastering the hot Phillies. Everything clicked for the Dodgers:

  • Maeda threw six solid innings giving up a solo home run to the hottest catcher in the NL not named Grandal.
  • Chase Utley had a homecoming that most just dream about
  • Howie Kendrick continued his offensive resurgence
  • Yazmani Grandal launched his 19th home run amid three hits
  • Giants lost again and are now the leaders in the Wild Card race, not the Western Division.
  • Dodgers now have three players in play for the NL Player of the Week in Grandal, Chase, and Howie.

The only one on the outside looking in was Josh Reddick who went hitless, the only regular to go hitless. Yet, once again Josh hit the ball hard enough that it took solid plays by the defense to keep him hitless. Based on the numbers Josh has literally nothing to show for his two weeks with the Dodgers with the bat but everything who watches the games knows that he is simply hitting into bad luck time after time. Eventually,  those hard hit balls are going to find holes. Won’t they?

Yadier Alvarez – 100 MPH – WOW

♦ August 17, 2016 ♦ 2 Comments

I’ll let the MiLB report tell you all you need to know about what Yadier Alveraz did last night.

Alvarez hits 100 mph in five hitless frames
Dodgers’ No. 6 prospect strikes out eight in latest gem for the Loons

“It’s very impressive,” Velazquez said. “His fastball is a power fastball. He topped out at 100 [mph] a few times tonight. He’ll sit around 96 and he’s got a sharp curve. You can tell the hitters were intimidated. For him to be as young as he is and have such an easy delivery and hit 100 mph is impressive.”

Baseball America checks in:

Yadier Alvarez, rhp, Dodgers. The Dodgers’ No. 10 prospect at midseason, Alvarez pitched five no-hit innings Tuesday for low Class A Great Lakes in a 12-0 win over Lansing (Blue Jays). Alvarez struck out eight and walked three, touching 100 mph, manager Gil Velasquez told reporters. Overall at two levels, the 19-year-old Cuban—who got a $16 million bonus—is 3-2, 2.12 with 68 strikeouts in 46 2/3 innings. Alvarez has a lively, loose arm and a lithe, athletic frame that allows him to repeat his delivery easily. The breaking ball has good angle and the changeup is in development.

 

Chase responds big to either cheers or boos

♦ August 16, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

If you don’t want Chase Utley to go off on you the best choice of action as a fan is to sit on your hands. Upon his return to NY,  he was booed relentlessly and even watched a fastball sail behind him. He responded to this by driving in four runs in the first game and hitting two home runs and driving in five runs in the second game including a grand slam.

Tonight, Philly phans gave Chase a standing ovation and then watched him dismantle their team with two home runs including a grand slam.  Does that sound familiar? After each home run, Chase was given a standing ovation. The damndest thing you will ever see from an opponents phans.

Chase has had a good year, but he’s really had four exceptional games where he did much of his damage.

  • May 27th, 4 runs batted in
  • May 28th, 5 runs batted in, two home runs, one grand slam
  • June 14th, 4 runs batted in, one home run
  • August 16th, 5 runs batted in, two home runs, one grand slam.

Chase has 39 runs batted in, and 18 of them have come in four of his 101 games. Chase has 10 home runs, and five of them have come in three of his 101 games.