Dodger bullpen hits all-star break with breathtaking July

♦ July 11, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

Until Kena Maeda decided to have the game of his young Dodger career, the Dodger rotation in the past week had gotten 15 / 10 / 12 / 15 / 14 / 9 / 15 outs respectively from their starters leaving the bullpen to pick up the pieces.  The magnificent bullpen was more than up to the task.

From July 1st to July 10th:

  • Eleven games have been played in July, the Dodger bullpen had forty appearances and almost forty-six innings.
  • Seven of the ten bullpen pitchers gave up zero runs
  • Blanton led the staff with 20 outs and zero runs
  • Kenley Jansen got eighteen outs, gave up zero runs, and struck out twelve of the eighteen batters he faced in July.
  • The much beleaguered Pedro Baez got 20 outs, gave up zero runs, and only gave up one hit, while striking out eight.
  • Adam Liberatore got thirteen outs, gave up zero runs, zero hits, and struck out seven.
  • Carlos Frias made only one appearance but made it count by going four shutout innings, and saving the bullpen for another day.
  • Even Luis Avilan helped out with two scoreless appearances.

 

 

Yasmani Grandal – by the numbers

♦ July 9, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

  • Grandal hit three home runs last night, and could have had a shot at a home run cycle. Grandal hit a solo home run in the 7th, a two-run home run in the 1st, and a three-run home run in the 3rd. At one point it looked like he might be able to come up with the bases loaded but Adrian hit into a double play between two walks.
  • Grandal become the 14th LAD to hit at least three home runs in a game. Here is the complete list.
  • Grandal is only the second catcher to ever hit three home runs in a game
  • Grandal is only the 3rd LAD to ever collect at least five hits, and hit three home runs in a game.
  • Grandal has hit twelve home runs, four of those twelve have been three-run home runs. He hit his first two-run home run last night.
  • Grandal had his first five-hit game as a Dodger.  He had a four-hit game on May 7th, 2015, a game in which he hit two home runs and drove in eight runs. He also had a  four-hit game as a Padre on April 8th, 2014.
  • He now has had two games as a Dodger in which he has driven in at least six runs. Last night, and the aforementioned game on May 7th, 2015.
  • His three home runs now give the Dodgers five players with at least 12 home runs, Grandal (12), Thompson (13), Turner (13), Pederson (13), and Seager (17).
  • Grandal has only 39 hits, but has driven in 37 runs
  • Grandal has eight hits in July, five of the eight hits have been home runs. He has driven in eight runs. He has a TSL of .444 / .545 / 1.278 with an OPS of 1.823 in July.
  • Grandal now has 12 home runs. LuCroy as 11. Grandal now has the fourth most home runs as a catcher in major league baseball. He is 2nd in the NL.
  • Grandal is now tied with CJ Cron and Wilmer Flores for the most home runs in July with five.

 

On June 29th, I disagreed with the assertion the Dodgers needed to trade for Jonathan Lucroy with this statement:

I fully expect Grandal to if not out hit Lucroy from this point on, at least match him. I could point to all sorts of advanced metrics as to why I believe this, but if you got this far, you are probably already sleepy. Let’s check back in a few months and see if I whiffed or not.

This should change dramatically but since I’m now doing well on this statement I just thought I’d put it out there:

Grandal – six home runs, eleven RBI, hitting .333 / .438 / 1.000 with an OPS of 1.438

Lucroy – one home run, three RBI, hitting .300 / .364 / .400  with an OPS of .764

Ryan Schimpf?

♦ July 8, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

I pride myself on not only knowing every major league baseball player but most of the players expected to play in the major leagues, so when the Padres called up 28-year-old Ryan Schimpf, I had the same reaction that just about everyone else had. Who?

Every year a few minor league journeyman get lucky enough through injuries and what not to make their long-anticipated major league debut.  Schimpf had over 3,000 minor league at-bats before getting his chance and has made the most of it.

It is always fun for me to check out who the hottest hitters in baseball are. I normally use Fangraphs and their seven-day split to check these guys out. I knew Wilmer Flores, CJ Cron,  and Danny Espinosa had been making some noise, but I’ll admit, that Schimpf was flying under my radar. I had noticed him, but hadn’t really noticed him.

Over the past seven days, Schimpf has hit four home runs, and three doubles. That is a nice XBH per game.  Which is even more awesome because he only has eight hits.

The Padres clobbered the Dodgers 6 – 0 last night and it should not have been unexpected. The names might surprise you but the Padre offense is in high gear. Solarte, Schimpf, Alex Dickerson, and Derrick Norris are all red hot now. Add in All-Star and player of the month for June  Wil Myers, and you have a lineup that for the short term is on a feeding frenzy.

Myers set a franchise record with 11 June homers — tying him with the Cubs’ Kris Bryant for the NL lead. He batted .327/.529/.765 while equaling a franchise mark with 21 extra-base hits in a single month.

Past 7 days:

Name wRC+ PA HR RBI OBP SLG
Yangervis Solarte 266 31 3 10 0.484 0.893
Ryan Schimpf 237 27 4 6 0.37 0.92
Alex Dickerson 199 18 1 5 0.389 0.75
Wil Myers 176 32 1 4 0.438 0.571
Derek Norris 130 24 1 6 0.375 0.5

Past 14 days:

Name wRC+ PA HR RBI OBP SLG
Yangervis Solarte 231 52 3 11 0.481 0.745
Wil Myers 199 56 3 14 0.464 0.644
Ryan Schimpf 176 36 4 6 0.333 0.719
Alex Dickerson 156 27 1 5 0.37 0.583
Melvin Upton Jr. 151 49 5 9 0.306 0.638

You will notice Matt Kemp is not on this list. Kemp had a solid June, but did most of his good work in June in the early part of the month. I only listed  the top five but to get to Kemp I’d have to go deeper than ten. Kemp has been very unproductive over the past fourteden days, making it even harder for the Padres to move his albatross contract to make room for Hunter Renfroe.

This may have been bad timing for the Frankstein rotation to face one of the hottest offenses in baseball.

LAD Rookie hitting streaks – by the numbers

♦ July 8, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

Corey Seager had his hitting streak ended at 19 games. That streak doesn’t stack up very high against all time LAD hitting streaks, but it was good enough for 2nd place among LAD rookies.  Below are three tables showing the LAD Rookie data.

For the complete baseball reference list, click here. 

Raul Mondesi stands out here. Raul had two streaks of fourteen in his rookie year. If not for May 23 and May 24th, Raul could have had a monster thirty game hitting streak, but alas, he went o – 6 in those two games before starting another fourteen game hitting streak. Easy to see why Raul Mondesi won ROY in 1994.

Other notables.

  • Bill Sudakis had by far the most home runs with seven
  • Bill Sudakis had by far the most RBI with seventeen
  • Corey Seager had the by far the most doubles with ten
  • Bill Sudakis had the most walks with nine
  • Raul Mondesi had the highest batting average at .434, just beating out Jerry Sands who checked in at .431. Of course,  they did this by only hitting in 14 games in a row.
  • Raul Mondesi had by far the highest OPS with a 1.304 mark albeit accomplished in just fourteen games.
Name Beginning Ending Games
Tommy Davis 7/30/1960 8/20/1960 20
Corey Seager 6/16/2016 7/6/2016 19
Bill Sudakis 7/31/1969 8/19/1969 18
Andre Ethier 7/26/2006 8/12/2006 16
Steve Sax 6/11/1982 6/27/1982 16
Jerry Sands 9/12/2011 9/26/2011 14
Raul Mondesi 8/10/1994 5/8/1995 14
Raul Mondesi 5/25/1994 6/10/1994 14
Raul Mondesi 5/8/1994 5/22/1994 14

 

Name R 2B 3B HR RBI OPS
Tommy Davis 9 7 0 3 11 0.928
Corey Seager 17 10 2 2 5 1.094
Bill Sudakis 13 2 1 7 17 1.132
Andre Ethier 10 4 3 3 11 1.08
Steve Sax 11 2 2 0 7 0.787
Jerry Sands 6 5 0 2 8 1.147
Raul Mondesi 17 4 2 4 11 1.155
Raul Mondesi 10 2 0 3 7 0.951
Raul Mondesi 9 8 2 3 12 1.304

 

Name AB H BB BA OBP SLG
Tommy Davis 85 31 2 0.365 0.375 0.553
Corey Seager 79 31 8 0.392 0.448 0.646
Bill Sudakis 67 23 9 0.343 0.416 0.716
Andre Ethier 62 23 4 0.371 0.403 0.677
Steve Sax 69 22 6 0.319 0.382 0.406
Jerry Sands 51 22 7 0.431 0.5 0.647
Raul Mondesi 58 21 8 0.362 0.448 0.707
Raul Mondesi 57 21 1 0.368 0.39 0.561
Raul Mondesi 53 23 3 0.434 0.474 0.83

It takes a lot to score a LAD catcher

♦ July 7, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

AJ Ellis has now gone 74 at-bats without scoring a run. I was wondering how that places him historically so I ran the numbers this morning and to no one’s surprise the leaderboard is filthy with catchers.

Doug Camilli sits on top of the scoreless leaderboard with 105 at bats over 36 games. He basically didn’t score all year. His scoreless streak started in May and ended in Sept.

The top ten names:

  1. Camilli – 105 at bats / 18 hits / 6 walks
  2. Mike Scioscia – 96 at bats / 20 hits / 8 walks
  3. Len Gabrielson -95 at bats / 20 hits / 4 walks
  4. Steve Yeager-86 at bat / 17 hits / 3 walks
  5. John Hale-80 at bats / 10 hits / 12 walks
  6. Wally Moon-78 at bats / 15 hits / 3 walks
  7. A.J. Ellis – 74 at bats / 13 hits / 10 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

Camilli / Scoscia / Yeager / Torborg and AJ are all catchers. All five were well known for being the slowest players on the team. Yet Yeager would hit the occasional home run so I was surprised to see him on the list.

I know nothing about Doug Camilli

Mike Scoscia needs no introduction.

The two biggest surprises are my old friend Len Gabrielson, and speedster extraordinaire Juan Samuel.  Len did the feat in 1969, just one year after leading the Dodgers in home runs in 1968 with his measly 10. Len only hit one home run in 1969 and couldn’t help his own cause. Len was on base 24 times and no one could bring him home. Juan Samuel is even stranger. Juan hit the ball well with 19 hits, had the highest BA of any of the top ten scoreless folk, and more than that, was extremely fast. Juan was only 31 at the time, so granted he may have lost some speed but it seems inconceivable that someone with his speed could get on base 21 times and never get knocked in one time.

Steve Yeager should need no introduction.

John Hale was one of my favorite prospect busts. Hale came up in Sept of 1974 at the age of 20 and proceeded to go 4 for 4. The 1974 team was loaded so he didn’t get much burn that Sept. That would be as good as it got for Hale. He had a pretty horrible career, but maybe was a player before his time. The one thing Hale could do was take walk. He had a career OBP of .307 which was astonishing given his career BA was .201. 100 point OB spreads between BA and OBP are celebrated these days.

Wally Moon  was known for his Moon shots over the left field wall at the Coliseum but by 1964 his career was in the final moon phase and he had just a sliver of talent left.

Torborg is famous for catching the last perfect game by any LAD, and his managing. He was the Roseboro backup for much of his career, and a horrible hitter.

I got nothing on Don LaJohn.

We will keep an eye on AJ Ellis, and hope he can find his way to home plate before too long. This is not a list that he wants to move up on.

This is not a list that he wants to move up on.

[update] I first wrote this on July 7th, at which point AJ Ellis was 10th. He got two more at bats without scoring on July 7th, moving up from 10th to 7th.

 

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Wild Card race – Pirates don’t know if they are coming or going

♦ July 7, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

The Dodger lead in the wild card race is starting to dwindle, and the main culprit is the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Just a few weeks ago the Pirates were being declared dead, and silly rumors of them trading off pieces were surfacing. No one is more Jekyll and hyde than the Pirates, and right now they are streaking upward with seven straight wins. More importantly for the Pirates, the latest wins all came at the expense of the Cardinals which allowed the Pirates to jump over the Cardinals into 2nd place in the NL Central.

With eighty-five games played, the Pirates already have winning streaks of seven, six, and five games. They also have two losing streaks of five games and two losing streaks of four game.  Just two weeks ago they were five games under .500. Now they are three games over .500.

The Dodgers still have the best wild card record, but the Mets are now only 1/2 a game back, while the Pirates have moved to within 3 games. Miami is also only 3 games back, and though the Cardinals have lost three in a row to the Pirates, they are just 3.5 games back.

The Dodgers end the first half with a four-game home set against the last place Padres. It would behoove them to make some hay in these four games because right after the break, they embark on a nine game, three city road trip. As of now,  they are ten games over .500 at home, but one game under .500 on the road.

Can the Frankenstein rotation hold it together for that road trip? Will anyone be alive in the bullpen when it is over? Someone has to pitch at least seven innings once. The last pitcher not named Clayton Kershaw to go at least seven innings was Scott Kazmir way back on May 14th.  I can guarantee one thing. It won’t be tonight as Ryu makes his first start since the 2014 Postseason, and he’ll be lucky to even get 15 outs.

Chase Utley’s six hits – by the numbers

♦ July 7, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

Chase Utley collected six hits in yesterday’s loss to the Orioles, the most he has ever collected. Six hits is a special number in baseball, a feat accomplished only 103 times in the history of baseball.

  • Chase Utley was the 3rd oldest player to collect at least six hits in a game. The oldest were Cal Ripken and Ty Cobb. Here is the complete list sorted by age.
  • This was the 3rd time in 2016 that someone had collected six hits. CJ Cron and Wilmer Flores did it earlier this year. No one did it in 2015, and only one player did it in 2014, Charlie Blackmon
  • Four players have collected six hits for the LAD, Wilie Davis on May24, 1973, Paul LoDuca on May 28th, 2001, Shawn Green on May 23rd, 2002, and now Chase Utley
  • Chase collected six hits but didn’t drive in anyone. Willie Davis didn’t fare much better other than collecting six hits. Paul LoDuca had a huge day, six hits, a home run, and four runs driven in. Shawn Green still stands alone, six hits, four home runs, one double, seven runs driven in. Unless someone does something quite spectacular Shawn Green will always own the greatest single game by a LAD.
  • Chase and Willie would both lose their six-hit games.
  • LoDuca would win his six-hit game 11 – 10 and even score the winning run in the bottom of the 10th.
  • Everyone but Shawn Green got their sixth hit via extra innings. LoDuca got his sixth hit in the 10th inning. Chase got his sixth hit in the bottom of the 13th. Willie Davis got his sixth hit in the bottom of the 14th in a game that lasted 19 innings.
  • Chase Utley had previously had only one five-hit game in his career and that came nine years ago on April 25th, 2007.

 

Frankenstein five rotation makes run into All-Star break

♦ July 6, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

A ligament here, a shoulder there, a new brain, can it all add up to extended success?

This will be the rotation headed into the all-star game:

Bud Norris, coming off of two brilliant games, including his first one as a Dodger. He’ll be facing his ex-teammates the Baltimore Orioles. You can excuse the Orioles if they don’t recognize this Bud Norris, since the last time they saw Norris he was putting up one of the worst pitching seasons of the 21st century for the Orioles. Only three pitchers for the Orioles in this century have managed to make at least ten starts and put up an ERA+ < 60. Bud Norris, Rich Hill, and Brian Matusz.  This is a different Bud Norris. This is not the Bud Norris that was released by the Orioles on Aug 8th, 2015 because of incompetence. This Bud is no longer Abby normal. He’s been fixed.

 

Hyun-jin Ryu will make his first start in two years on Thursday. His last start was Sept 12, 2014. For two years Ryu was a steady part of the Dodger rotation, slotting in nicely after the dynamic duo of Kershaw / Grienke. Not having Ryu in the postseason for 2014 and 2015 is a big reason why the Dodgers did not play deep into Oct. It has been a tough road back for Ryu, and given how many times he had to stop his rehab, I’m surprised he has even made it back. Labrum recovery is tough, successful returnees are a rare breed so expectations have to be tempered.  The new shoulder will have to face the fire.

Scott Kazmir has been here all year and sometimes pops in with dynamite games, mixed in with duds.  A pitcher who career was buried, but resurrected ………….I got nothing.

Brandon McCarthy had as great a return from TJ surgery in his 2016 debut as anyone could have hoped for.  That new ligament looked better than ever.

Kenta Maeda is unlike the others on this list. While Bud, Scott, Brandon all pitched the best games of 2016 in their last start, Kenta went the other way and pitched his worst game of 2016.  Hopefully just an aberration. He’s just part of the Frankenstein five by association.

No more teenage rookies. No more three level leaping rookies. No more Bolsingers. No more Ross Striplings. No more journeyman Tepesch.

At least not until one of the Frankenstein five go down

Corey Seager – anatomy of an eighteen game hitting streak

♦ July 6, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

All-Star Corey Seager tied Bill Sudakis for the second best hitting streak among LAD rookies when he collected a hit in his eighteenth straight game. Seager took all the suspense out of the hitting streak when he doubled in his first at-bat.

While I like to say all hitting streaks aren’t created equal, this one was interesting to compare. Sudakis slammed seven home runs, but only had 23 hits. Corey only hit two home runs but collected 30 hits. Sudakis was an RBI machine driving in 17 runs in 18 games. Corey only drove in five runs. Yet, the OPS is almost an identical match.

At this point in his career Bill Sudakis was living up to the hype that he had created with his great Sept in 1968. This streak would be the highlight of the LAD Bill Sudakis career.

Player PA Hits DBL HR
Bill Sudakis | 77 | 23 | 2 | 7
Corey Seager | 80 | 30 | 9 | 2
Player Runs-RBI TSL OPS
Bill Sudakis 13-17 | .343 / .416 / .716 | 1.132
Corey Seager 16-5 | .405/ .450 / .662 | 1.112

Just to highlight how this hitting was the ultimate pinnacle of his career, those seven home runs in eighteen games were more than he hit in three of his eight years in the major leagues.Sudakis provided more home runs and in fact hit 50% of his home runs for the season during that 18 game streak. Sudakis would only hit fourteen home runs in 1969, and he clubbed seven during the streak.

Other notable hitting streak notes:

  • 806 PA, 30 hits, 16 runs scored,9 doubles, 2 triples, 2 home runs
  • Nine multi-hit games, seven times he’s had two hits, one time he’s had three hits, one time he’s had four hits
  • Triple slash line during the streak of .405 / .450  / .662 with a robust OPS of 1.112
  • Now holds the longest major league hitting streak of 2016 passing Ozuna and Zobrist
  • Tied with Bill Sudakis for 2nd longest streak for a LAD rookie, just two behind Tommy Davis at 20
  • The streak started on June 16th, at the time Seager had a triple slash line of .275 / .337 / . 504 with an OPS of 841. His triple slash line is now .304 / .362 / .530 with an OPS of 901

 

Manny Machado might just be the best player in baseball

♦ July 6, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

At 23 years old Manny Machado can do it all. The five tool player is in the hunt for the AL MVP this year, and it is easy to see why. At 22, Manny finally put together all the promise he showed at age 20 and had a brilliant season in 2015. In 2016 he is having an even better season with an OPS of 150, a fWAR of 4.0, and is leading his Orioles to 1st place in the tough AL East.  Machado had to move from his 3rd base position to SS this year when JJ Hardy got hurt and while he wasn’t Ozzie Vizquel with the glove he did well enough. He’s improved enough that he’s finally in the conversation for best young player in baseball. 

“He’s awfully good,” Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona says. “He can take over a game with his bat, he makes great plays on defense and he just has a great feel for the game for someone so young. He’s one of those rare players who can beat you all by himself.”

Starting at age 19 Machado has seen his OPS rise every year:

.739 – .746 – .755 – .861 – .964

Machado didn’t start as fully formed as Mike Trout did, but they are now almost comparable players.  Historically Machado ranks right up there with the best of the best at his given age and position.

3rd baseman or Shortstops through age 23:

Player HR BA OBP SLG OPS
Eddie Mathews 153 0.281 0.391 0.57 0.961
Alex Rodriguez 148 0.308 0.363 0.551 0.914
Bob Horner 106 0.284 0.327 0.525 0.853
Manny Machado 86 0.288 0.337 0.477 0.814
Cal Ripken 82 0.293 0.351 0.494 0.845
Troy Glaus 77 0.256 0.358 0.497 0.855
Adrian Beltre 76 0.267 0.327 0.429 0.756
Ron Santo 74 0.266 0.33 0.434 0.765
Eric Chavez 71 0.275 0.343 0.494 0.837
David Wright 67 0.306 0.375 0.527 0.902
Hank Blalock 64 0.279 0.347 0.49 0.837
Evan Longoria 60 0.277 0.355 0.528 0.883
Ryan Zimmerman 58 0.282 0.341 0.462 0.803
Scott Rolen 56 0.283 0.378 0.491 0.87
Vern Stephens 56 0.292 0.354 0.458 0.813
Gary Sheffield 54 0.283 0.341 0.444 0.785
Jim Ray Hart 54 0.291 0.346 0.489 0.834
Ken Keltner 54 0.286 0.34 0.469 0.809
Harmon Killebrew 53 0.236 0.334 0.473 0.807
Travis Fryman 50 0.268 0.318 0.436 0.755