I want to, but I can’t find any reason not to like the Bud Norris acquisition
A few minutes ago the Dodgers addressed the holes in their rotation by acquiring Bud Norris from the Braves. The whole deal is a five-team deal:
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers today acquired right-handed pitcher Bud Norris, minor league outfielder Dian Toscano, a player to be named later and cash considerations from the Atlanta Braves in exchange for minor league pitchers Philip Pfeifer (LHP) and Caleb Dirks (RHP). To make room for Norris on the 40-man roster, Los Angeles designated left-hander Ian Thomas for assignment.
The price was right, and the need is great for someone to pitch on Friday. I can see some parallels to the Latos trade last year. They both pitched great just before the trade, they both had some major ups and downs. They both get a fangraphs article saying why they are pitching better now. They both have a history of being assholes.
Hopefully, that is where the parallels end and Bud Norris continues to pitch as well for the Dodgers as he’s been pitching for the Braves.
Finally a trade rumor that makes sense, come on down Erasmo Ramirez
I typically discount trade rumors because, for the most part, they make little sense for at least one of the two teams, and sometimes both teams. That said, this rumor being floated by Ken Rosenthal makes perfect sense for both teams.
To that end, they are talking to the Rays about Erasmo Ramirez, according to major-league sources.
Ramirez’s only start this season was April 16, but he has a resilient arm and the Dodgers believe that he could pitch four innings and possibly five immediately, sources say
The LAD clearly need pitching, and the Rays are one team with an abundance of it. Erasmo started 27 games for the Rays last year and did a very solid job in those 27 starts. This year Erasmo has been unable to crack the Ray rotation and they have used him to pitch multiple innings per appearance. Thirteen times, Erasmo has been asked to get at least six outs. His rubber arm has responded to the task. The one game he started he got 17 outs, gave up zero runs, which would be the best case scenario if the Dodgers were to acquire him.
Erasmo is only 26, and under team control until 2020. A trade that could benefit now and in the future. For the present, he could step in for the recently DL’d Clayton Kershaw, and either stay in the rotation to replace Urias or Brock if Ryu/McCarthy aren’t up to snuff, or simply head to the bullpen giving the Dodgers another solid setup option.
What would it take, I really have no idea, he was traded last year from the Mariners to the Rays for Mike Montgomery who is doing good work in the Mariner bullpen.
Better a shot than a knife, Kershaw gets an epidural
Multiple reports from LAD beat writers have Clayton Kershaw getting an epidural shot which would put him on the DL and leave the Dodgers scrambling for a starter on Friday.
In a best case scenario, the shot does what it needs to do allowing Clayton to rejoin the team right after the all-star break.
Baseball Notes
The Indians have won twelve in a row to take a six-game lead over the World Champion Royals. Once Carlos Carrasco rejoined the team on June 2nd, the team has taken off with a rotation of Kluber / Salazar / Carrasco / Bauer / Tomlin giving teams fits.
Kendry Morales shook off a horrendous early season slump and has been the best hitter in baseball over the last fourteen days with a triple stat line of .548 / .591 / .846. He has three home runs and thirteen RBI. On June 16th, Morales had an OPS of .603. On June 29th, that OPS has risen to .731.
Jack Lamb and Yasmany Tomas have heated up for the Diamondbacks, combining for eleven home runs in their past 105 plate appearances. Peter O’Brien also has four home runs in his last 57 plate appearances, but for O’Brien that is his only trick. He is 7 for 57 since being called up. If your only going to have one trick it might as will be the long ball.
Uber prospect Tim Anderson has struck out 23 times in his last 57 plate appearances.
Yadier Molina leads the all-star voting for NL catchers but he won’t be going into the game in high gear. Yadier has six hits, all singles in his last 39 plate appearances, with only one walk.
Howie Kendrick now has 94 plate appearances as a left fielder and has yet to drive in anyone but himself.
A.J. Ellis has scored one run since May 1st in 77 plate appearances
Corey Seager has a 12 game hitting streak with 20 hits, 8 doubles, 1 triple, 1 home run, but only two runs batted in. Probably because Chase Utley has OBP of only .286 in June.
Imani Abdullah goes scoreless five for the Loons
Nineteen-year-old Imani Abdullah continues to pitch well for the Great Lake Loons of the Midwest League. The 11th round pick out of San Diego in the 2015 draft is making his case to be a piece of the next great Dodger trade.
Imani Abdullah went five innings, gave up zero runs, zero walks, and struck out five. He now has a 33/3 strikeout to walk ratio in his eight starts.
Brock Stewart has one bad inning, the Dodger offense has nine of them
Brock Stewart wowed Dodger fans for all of six batters. At that point, he had struck out two, gotten five outs, and given up two bleeding hits. That would be as good as it gets. Seven of the next eight batters would get on base, and when it was over five runs had scored amid multiple rockets, the big blows being a three-run blast by Captain Kirk, and a two run double by Ryan Braun. It could have been worse, with the bases loaded and two outs, Brock was able to strike out Chris Carter to end the inning.
From that point on, Brock was on point and delivered to the Dodgers five innings. Not that it mattered, because the Dodger offense decided to go AWOL and was shut out.
Howie Kendrick inched closer to getting 100 plate appearances as a left fielder without driving in anyone but himself.
A.J. Ellis went another game without scoring and has not scored in the month of June, and only once since May 1st.
Adrian Gonzalez got himself kicked out early in a game that had the Dodgers playing with limited bench players in the first place.
Puig ran into a fence but hopefully escaped injury.
LAD – by the numbers 06/29/16
Adrian Gonzalez loves Miller park so much that in 136 plate appearances he has the highest BA (.420), highest OBP (.507), and highest slugging percentage (.795) of his career at Miller park. No wonder that last night he might have broken out of his season-long slump by getting on base five times via three hits, one walk, one HBP.
Corey Seager has seven doubles and seven home runs in June and is hitting .340 for the month, with a 1.065 OPS. If Claytons back is hurting from carrying the rotation, Coreys might be feeling the weight of carrying the offense.
Howie Kendrick now has 91 plate appearances in left field with only one run batted in. That run batted in came via a home run, so basically in 91 plate appearances, Howie has yet to drive in someone other than himself.
| Split | PA | H | HR | RBI | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| as LF | 91 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 0.183 | 0.264 | 0.256 | 0.52 |
| as 2B | 58 | 17 | 1 | 5 | 0.309 | 0.345 | 0.382 | 0.727 |
| as 3B | 46 | 12 | 1 | 4 | 0.279 | 0.304 | 0.395 | 0.7 |
| as 1B | 22 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0.211 | 0.273 | 0.316 | 0.589 |
| as PH | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.333 | 0.4 | 0.444 | 0.844 |
| as DH | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.5 |
and now this
Left-handed relief pitcher Adam Liberatore has not allowed a run since May 20th, spanning 19 games. The unheralded Liberatore has appeared in 33 games, and only given up a run one time. For context, the much more ballyhooed Andrew Miller has also appeared in 33 games but has given up a run in five games. Granted Miller is usually required to get at least three outs and has thus pitched 33 innings compared to Adams 25. Still, Adam has been awesome, and I’m not sure he’s been getting the recognition he deserves.
Yazmani Grandal drove in two runs last night and now has 28 RBI. Grandal has struggled this year with his batting average now at .178, but he has made those 30 hits count. Grandal has almost averaged an RBI per hit with 30 hits and 28 RBI.
A.J. Ellis still hasn’t scored a run since May 1st in 77 plate appearances. He clearly needs Urias hitting behind him.
Julio Urias wins the first of a possible four game stretch of Dodger rookie starts
On Tuesday night Julio Urias won the first game of a bizarre stretch of games. It is very possible, the Dodgers will start four straight rookies over four games. Yesterday I tweeted to Eric Stephen if any Dodger rookies had started three straight games, eventually, Eric found that the last time the Dodgers used three first-year pitchers was in 1960.
Dodgers started Jim Golden, Phil Ortega & Ed Rakow on final 3 days of the 1960 season. Last time they started 3 straight 1st-year pitchers
Those games, however, were the final three games of the 1960 season, not smack dab in the middle of a pennant race in June.
How did we get here?
Urias has basically taken the place of Alex Wood who went on the DL May 31st. Wood was supposed to start a throwing program this week. The initial diagnosis was a posterior impingement in his throwing elbow. Wood was supposed to be shut down for four weeks, but once he starts throwing, there is no guarantee he is going to be okay and his return is completely up in the air.
Brock Stewart is going to make his major league debut tonight. He deserves his own column, but for this article, he’s replacing Nick Tepesch who replaced Mike Bolsinger who replaced rookie Ross Stripling who replaced Brett Anderson.
Kenta Maeda is only technically a rookie because of major league rules but just like Jackie Robinson in 1947, he’s hardly a rookie. We got a rookie ringer. Which makes most of this silly, except…
With Clayton Kershaw headed to Los Angeles to have his back examined, it is possible he will miss his start on Friday. And the pitcher lined up to make that start just might be a rookie and Futures All-Star Jharel Cotton.
You just can’t get enough Brock Stewart updates
Brock is such a unique story that I’m trying to post what is being said around the baseball universe. Earlier today David Laurila from Fangraphs weighed in. He too was caught off guard when the Dodgers brought up Brock sooner than was what expected.
On rare occasion, I’ll interview a player and end up not writing about him — at least not right away — despite fully intending to. This happened with Brock Stewart, who will be making his major-league debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers later tonight.
Vince Lara-Cinisomo of Baseball America has a nice story up about Jeff and Brock. Jeff Stewart is a professional baseball scout and Brocks father. This is a great story if anyone pops by, I suggest they click the link and read the article.
“It’s tough being the son of a coach or son of a scout,” Jeff Stewart said. “Because when they accomplish something, someone says, ‘his dad’s a coach, his dad’s a scout.’
“I want my kids to cut their own path.”
Kingston was not surprised by his former boss’ stance.
“I’ve known the Stewarts since the late 1990s, and I knew Brock as a little child, so I knew when Brock got the chance (to be drafted), Jeff’s preference was that it would be
Howard Cole of Forbes feels the Dodgers should get Lucroy
I have, to be honest, I go to Forbes for business information, certainly did not expect to run into a fairly well-written Dodger article. If you click the link you will find that Howard Cole feels the Dodgers should do what it takes to acquire Jonathan Lucroy and either Sonny Gray or Julio Tehran.
Now close your eyes and picture Jonathan Lucroy behind the plate instead of Yasmani Grandal. Open them again and watch Grandal chase a passed ball to the screen.
Lucroy is clearly the better catcher right now.
| Player | Year | PA | HR | RBI | TripleStatLine |
| Grandal | 2016 | 197 | 6 | 28 | .178 / .289 / .331 |
| Lucroy | 2016 | 286 | 10 | 38 | .302 / .360 / .504 |
Yet, just one year ago on June 29th, no one would have argued that Lucroy was better than Grandal. At this time last year this was the story:
| Player | Year | PA | HR | RBI | TripleStatLine |
| Grandal | 2015 | 219 | 10 | 26 | .259 / .370 / .459 |
| Lucroy | 2015 | 157 | 1 | 12 | .215 / .268 / .285 |
For further perspective, Lucroy is 30 years old and a free agent after 2017. Grandal is only 27 and can’t be a free agent until 2019.
It is easy to see why fans are excited about the prospect of acquiring a bat like Lucroy, but I have to feel this is recency bias. This is the most that Grandal has ever struggled, his career OPS+ is 110. Grandal has never had a full season OPS+ below 110. Of course, that will change this year, hard to imagine Grandal getting to that level this year. Lucroy has a career OPS+ of 111, they have been basically the same offensive player until this year. This year Lucroy is having his career offensive season, Grandal is having his career worst season.
Do you trade for someone having their career season at age 30?
Do you trade someone having their career worst season at age 27?
I don’t. 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.
As far as making a play for Sonny Gray or Julio Tehran, I’ll save that for another day because I’ve yet to give it any thought.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 