We are all living in Muncy town
At least Matt Kemp has done this before. I’m wagering this is the greatest 150 plate appearance stretch of Max Muncy’s professional career and he decided to do it, at the highest level. Baseball is weird, but this, this is beyond that.
Player OPS+ OPS PA Year Age Tm Max Muncy 175 1.011 152 2018 27 LAD Freddie Freeman 173 .998 293 2018 28 ATL Brandon Nimmo 168 .969 179 2018 25 NYM Brandon Belt 160 .950 226 2018 30 SFG Eugenio Suarez 156 .954 215 2018 26 CIN A.J. Pollock 150 .969 166 2018 30 ARI Nolan Arenado 141 .956 263 2018 27 COL
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Generated 6/12/2018.
Finally, it appears to be Manny Bañuelos time
[Caleb Ferguson was recalled today so everything I wrote below is a moot point]
It has almost been ten years since a Manny was rocking Dodger Stadium but as of right now it looks like the Dodgers will be dipping once again into the Oklahoma rotation and finally giving Manny Bañuelos his shot this coming Tuesday Night against the Rangers.
Manny has arguably been the best starting pitcher all year for Oklahoma but Walker Buehler, Brock Stewart, Dennis Santana, and even Caleb Ferguson all got their shots before Manny. Not that Dennis actually started a game but you get the point.
Name Age ERA GS IP H ER BB SO WHIP BB9 SO9 Manny Banuelos* 27 3.45 11 60.0 57 23 19 71 1.267 2.9 10.7 Guillermo Moscoso 34 4.97 10 58.0 67 32 19 54 1.483 2.9 8.4 Justin De Fratus 30 4.50 7 44.0 50 22 9 22 1.341 1.8 4.5 Tyler Pill 28 3.78 7 33.1 42 14 7 22 1.470 1.9 5.9 Daniel Corcino 27 1.95 6 37.0 24 8 15 34 1.054 3.6 8.3 Brock Stewart 26 2.08 5 21.2 16 5 8 22 1.108 3.3 9.1 Walker Buehler 23 2.08 3 13.0 10 3 4 16 1.077 2.8 11.1 Dennis Santana 22 2.45 2 11.0 10 3 2 14 1.091 1.6 11.5 Caleb Ferguson* 21 2.25 2 8.0 6 2 7 12 1.625 7.9 13.5 32 Players 29.0 3.49 59 521.0 483 202 190 513 1.292 3.3 8.9
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2018.
It is understandable in that Manny is yesterday’s news. He isn’t the Dodgers hot new prospect that was his role with the Yankees when at the tender age of 21 he was their top pitching prospect in 2012 and was ranked as high as # 12 overall by Major League Baseball. That is Walker Buehler territory.
For all that buzz about Manny in 2012 he never pitched for the Yankees. Instead, he has spent his career in the minors and only get a brief major league chance with the Braves in 2015. Manny and Alex Wood were teammates on the 2015 Braves for the month of July. Three years later they will be teammates again.
I’m not a scout but Manny has always had the arm but not the control. In 2018, Manny has a career-best strikeout rate of 10.9 and his walk rate of 2.9 is the best since he was 18 years-old. His walk rate has been a problem for most of his minor league career. The fact it sits at 2.9 is very encouraging for me. I love wild ass lefties who figure things out. He probably hasn’t, there must be a reason why the Dodgers had to be desperate to give him a shot. Or is there? Or has he?
I have no idea how his start is going to work out on Tuesday, but I’d make a big bet it is better than the start that Caleb Ferguson gave the team last Wednesday and better than the debut of Dennis Santana. Not because Manny has a better future in store, but because he should be ready for this start, something I don’t think the kids were. After all, they had a combined four AAA starts in their young careers.
Edwin Rios trying to make up for lost opportunity
By all rights, the call to Oklahoma for Max Muncy should have gone to Edwin Rios the 2016 Dodgers position prospect of the year. The problem for Rios was that he wasn’t at Oklahoma to accept the call, instead, he was rehabbing in Arizona. Rios could only think of what could have been as Max Muncy replaced Justin Turner at 3rd base, then Cody Bellinger at 1st, and then Justin Turner again, all the while watching Muncy mashing like he belonged in the major leagues his whole career instead of being classified as a AAAA player.
Rios was one of the Dodgers highest ranked position prospects not Max Muncy. Rios was the guy who put on a hitting clinic this spring, not Max Muncy. Rios was the guy who also just happened to play the exact same positions as Max Muncy, 1st and 3rd base.
They both tore up the PCL last year but one guy was twenty-three and the other was twenty-six.
In 2017 on the same team in the same league:
- Rios had nine home runs in 169 plate appearances and posted a .901 OPS.
- Max Muncy had twelve home runs in 320 plate appearances and posted a .905 OPS.
- Muncy got his .905 OPS by virtue of a plus .400 OBP while Rios did it more with a plus .500 slug%.
But it is Max Muncy who is in now in the catbird seat that Rios would have rightly expected to be his. It was common talk this spring that Rios could hit, but had no position because of Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger. Now we sit in the middle of June and even after coming off the disabled list, you can see Justin Turner sitting on the bench more often than manning third base as his injury has lingered longer than his disabled list stint. It would surprise no one if he takes another 10-Day DL stint to get more time for his troublesome injury. At least Justin Turner had an injury when Max Muncy replaced him at 3rd base. Max simply shoved Cody Bellinger to centerfield.
Without Max Muncy, I’m not sure where the Dodgers would be, but at least we now know that if something happens to Max, Edwin Rios is ready to get his shot.
Rios finally showed up to play in 2018 on May 25th and has done what he has done his entire minor league career. Punish the baseball. Rios has had multiple hits in seven of the thirteen games he’s been in, including eight extra-base hits in just fifty-two at-bats for a triple stat line of .365/ .411/ .635.
Rios hit two home runs yesterday and Baseball America checked in him.
• Edwin Rios, 1B, Dodgers. Rios is one of the best pure hitters in the minors and he was on fire on Sunday. Rios hit a pair of home runs and a double as part of a 4-for-5 with 2 runs scored and 5 RBIs
JUNE DINGERS
It isn’t your imagination if you think this version of the Los Angeles Dodgers loves the month of June. It was the same for this group in June of 2017 when they slugged fifty-three home runs. Of course, home runs aren’t the only offensive stat, and they actually had a better OPS in July while driving in forty runs less in five fewer games. Pass me the dingers and hold the OPS.
June 2017 Dodger Splits:
Split GS PA HR RBI OPS TB April/March 26 985 28 101 .743 352 May 28 1079 34 151 .791 420 June 28 1097 53 146 .821 454 July 23 869 35 105 .840 374 August 27 1038 36 115 .733 368 Sept/Oct 30 1123 35 112 .710 394
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2018.
2018 is not proving any different for this group. The two biggest changes from the June 2017 team and the 2018 team have been the additions of Max Muncy/Matt Kemp with the subtractions being Corey Seager. That huge subtraction has not made a dent in the Dodgers June offensive production. The Dodgers have already hit more home runs in June in nine games than they did the whole month of April. They are only five home runs back of the thirty-one total in the month of May. In nine games!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 2018 Dodger splits:
Split GS PA HR RBI OPS TB April/March 28 1120 25 125 .723 394 May 28 1039 31 102 .690 353 June 9 355 26 67 .966 188
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2018.
This is what the team did in June of 2017:
| Name | GS | PA▼ | HR | RBI | OPS |
| Justin Turner | 17 | 79 | 5 | 13 | 1.211 |
| Joc Pederson | 15 | 69 | 6 | 13 | 1.149 |
| Cody Bellinger | 27 | 119 | 13 | 27 | 1.104 |
| Corey Seager | 21 | 94 | 5 | 15 | 0.99 |
| Yasiel Puig | 22 | 99 | 6 | 13 | 0.965 |
| Austin Barnes | 11 | 48 | 2 | 10 | 0.942 |
| Enrique Hernandez | 15 | 74 | 4 | 7 | 0.719 |
| Chris Taylor | 24 | 108 | 3 | 14 | 0.708 |
| Chase Utley | 18 | 82 | 2 | 7 | 0.694 |
| Yasmani Grandal | 19 | 85 | 5 | 7 | 0.674 |
| Logan Forsythe | 22 | 99 | 1 | 5 | 0.597 |
This is what the team is doing so far in June of 2018:
I’ve been calling this group of Dodgers the Fab Five (Muncy/Kemp/Puig/Joc/Cody) for good reason.
As you can see the Fab Five dominate the top five spots but Chris Taylor is making a push to call them the Sweet Six or Sexy Six.
Six full-time players with an OPS over .900 after nine games in June. No wonder it doesn’t matter who starts, the Dodgers have been pummeling their way to victory with seventy-two runs scored versus forty-seven runs allowed in just nine games giving them a 7 – 2 record for the month of June.
| Name | GS | PA | HR | OPS |
| Joc Pederson | 6 | 23 | 6 | 1.783 |
| Max Muncy | 8 | 36 | 5 | 1.491 |
| Cody Bellinger | 7 | 33 | 4 | 1.172 |
| Yasiel Puig | 8 | 33 | 2 | 1.143 |
| Matt Kemp | 9 | 39 | 3 | 0.988 |
| Chris Taylor | 8 | 40 | 1 | 0.956 |
| Logan Forsythe | 7 | 29 | 1 | 0.75 |
| Austin Barnes | 3 | 14 | 0 | 0.742 |
| Yasmani Grandal | 6 | 28 | 3 | 0.679 |
| Breyvic Valera | 2 | 16 | 0 | 0.661 |
| Justin Turner | 4 | 20 | 0 | 0.617 |
| Enrique Hernandez | 4 | 24 | 1 | 0.583 |
Grandal has passed Mike Scioscia on the LAD Catcher Home Run Leaderboard
Actually, Grandal passed Mike much earlier this year but his two home runs last night made me look up the LAD catcher home run leaderboard and I just now noticed that Grandal had passed Scioscia. Grandal came into the year with 65 Dodger home runs and has hit eleven this year to give him 76. Mike Scioscia had 68. Next up is John Roseboro at 90. Yaz would have to hit fourteen more home runs, a pace he can certainly handle. With Grandal set to be a free agent after this year, there is a very good chance he will end his Dodger career as the catcher with the 3rd most home runs since the team moved to Los Angeles.
This was a quick and dirty list, a list of all Dodger catchers since 1958 who have caught a majority of their games. Some of these will have been pinch-hit home runs, and other positions but it is close enough for this blog. I will need to look at Joe Ferguson in a more detailed matter since he hit a lot of home runs (91) as a Dodger but often played the outfield. Overall Joe hit 96 home runs as a catcher but how many of those were in Los Angeles? A quick look says it was less than 90. I’ll look into this more when I have time to get a precise number of home runs that Joe Ferguson hit as a catcher in Los Angeles.
Player HR From To PA OPS Pos Mike Piazza 177 1992 1998 3017 .966 *2/HD3 Steve Yeager 100 1972 1985 3869 .657 *2/H John Roseboro 90 1958 1967 4505 .713 *2H/7583 Yasmani Grandal 76 2015 2018 1580 .786 *2/H3 Mike Scioscia 68 1980 1992 5057 .700 *2H Paul Lo Duca 57 1998 2004 2361 .771 *2/3H79D5 Russell Martin 54 2006 2010 2713 .761 *2/H5D Todd Hundley 50 1999 2003 822 .826 *2/HD
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Generated 6/9/2018.
The fab five (Joc,Matt,Puig, Max, Cody) have now hit 18 home runs in the month of June in only seven games. That is redonkulous
| Name | GS | PA | HR | OPS |
| ▼ | ||||
| Joc Pederson | 5 | 21 | 6 | 1.81 |
| Cody Bellinger | 5 | 25 | 4 | 1.48 |
| Matt Kemp | 7 | 31 | 3 | 1.197 |
| Max Muncy | 6 | 28 | 3 | 1.179 |
| Yasiel Puig | 6 | 25 | 2 | 1.232 |
How do you play your five hottest hitters when you only have four positions for them?
The Dodgers have four positions for five very hot hitters. Matt Kemp has been here all along, Max Muncy announced himself in mid – April, Yasiel Puig joined the party in Mid May, Joc Pederson got the call last weekend, and Cody Bellinger showed up this week.
The June numbers are ridiculous for these fab five.
| Name | GS | PA | HR | RBI | OPS |
| Joc Pederson | 4 | 17 | 5 | 7 | 1.941 |
| Matt Kemp | 6 | 27 | 3 | ?10 | 1.314 |
| Cody Bellinger | 4 | 21 | 3 | 5 | 1.311 |
| Yasiel Puig | 5 | 23 | 2 | 5 | 1.253 |
| Max Muncy | 5 | 24 | 2 | 4 | 1.017 |
Dave Roberts has found a novel way to get all five in the lineup by giving the Dodgers “best hitter” Justin Turner rest two days this month due to lingering soreness in his wrist.
At some point do they really let Max Muncy play 2nd base? I hope the beat writers are all over Dave at the scrum today, asking that question.
For those counting that is fifteen home runs from those five in just six games in June. The team only hit twenty-five home runs for the whole month of April. Last year the Dodgers hit 53 home runs in June, the only month they hit more than forty in a month so maybe this team just loves June dingers?
However Dave figures it out, it is a good problem to have, and we can only hope the team continues to make it tough to make out a lineup because of the production from all involved.
Dodgers start and end successful roadtrip with bullpen games
By any measure, the recent Dodger road trip through the Rocky Mountains and Pittsburgh was a resounding success but it wasn’t easy and Dennis Santana was as involved as anyone could be who only got fourteen outs in those six games.
On the first game of the road trip, the Dodgers decided to use Dennis Santana out of the bullpen instead of making the start, and eventually used six pitchers to record a satisfying opening series victory over the Rockies. The game was started by Scott Alexander and he was followed by Dennis Santana who had a rocky major league debut giving up five runs while recording just fourteen outs. He left the game with a 12.27 ERA and sadly for him it may be a while before he has a chance to lower it. Luckily for the Dodgers, the offense was in full Coors mode and scored eleven runs and even got the win for Santana. Not many pitchers can boast of receiving a win in their debut while giving up five runs with only fourteen outs. In fact the previous sentence made me wonder how many times it had even been done. Not many, and never by a Los Angeles Dodger though old friend Luis Avilan did it as a member of the Atlanta Braves. The list below uses 1958 as the cutoff date.
Player Date Tm Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO Dennis Santana 2018-06-01 LAD COL W 11-8 3.2 6 5 1 4 Braden Shipley 2016-09-14 ARI COL W 11-6 4.0 8 5 1 3 Luis Avilan 2014-04-14 ATL PHI W 9-6 1.0 4 5 1 1 Addison Reed 2013-06-05 CHW SEA W 7-5 3.0 5 5 1 5 Paul Clemens 2013-04-09 HOU SEA W 16-9 4.0 6 5 1 0 Ed Whitson 1986-04-29 NYY MIN W 14-11 3.1 6 5 4 3 Jim Slaton 1983-07-10 MIL CHW W 12-9 2.2 6 5 2 3 Tom Johnson 1977-09-16 MIN TEX W 9-7 4.0 8 5 1 0 Diego Segui 1974-06-11 BOS OAK W 10-9 2.0 5 5 1 2 Bob Veale 1971-07-20 PIT SFG W 11-7 4.0 6 5 3 0 Orlando Pena 1970-08-01 PIT ATL W 20-10 4.0 7 6 0 2
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Generated 6/8/2018.
The Dodgers used six pitchers in that game but that was nothing compared to what happened on the getaway game yesterday. Dennis Santana was scheduled to make his first actual start for the Dodgers but while warming up the Dodgers noticed his slider was not effective and it turns out Dennis was feeling some lat pain and was bumped from his start. Daniel Hudson took the start and nine pitchers later the Dodgers had managed another bullpen victory. For all the pain I’ve given the Dodgers over using a short bench they needed every pitcher they had on the roster during this six-game road trip.
The offense was the real story of the road trip. The Dodgers had only scored one run in their last game at Dodger Stadium before heading off to Coors but they found their offense just in time. The Dodgers scored 11, 12, and 10 runs in the three-game sweep of the Rockies and followed that up with 5, 9, and 8 runs in Pittsburgh to take two of the three games.
Fifty-five runs in six games is a good start to the month of June. The rotation isn’t as bad shape as you’d think based on the twitter chatter. They are lined up nicely this weekend with Walker Buehler, Alex Wood, and Ross Stripling going against the young stud Braves. It only gets dicey starting next week but we will get to that come Monday.
Dodgers rolled dice and crapped out
The Dodgers didn’t have to hand the ball to a twenty-one-year pitcher who had only started two games in AAA and wasn’t on the 40-man roster but that is what they choose to do for the Wednesday night game. It was exciting for everyone but in the end, it was too much to ask of Caleb Ferguson and he wasn’t able to get out of the second inning, taxing a bullpen, and wasting a nine-run effort by the offense.
I also want to take this moment to say I wasn’t really happy with the SNLA producers focusing on the family as much as they did. It was clear his mother was a nervous wreck and they could have just gone with the beginning shot and let it play out as Caleb pitched. These emotional shots of the family after every batter was annoying. I know they got a lot of mileage out of Bellinger’s family last summer but that was because Cody was hitting a home run at a historic pace.
The Dodgers had picked up P.J. Conlon off of waivers from the Mets and he could have started for the Dodgers. He had made two starts for the Mets and while they were not good starts there had to have been a reason the Dodgers had picked him up on waivers. Conlon had last pitched on May 22nd and could have easily made the start. Instead, they had to release Conlon to make room for Caleb Ferguson. I’m not sure why but it did give birth to this great tweet by Conlon.
— PJ Conlon (@pjconlon29) June 6, 2018
The Dodgers could also have gone with Manny Bañuelos who was scheduled to pitch for OKC on Wednesday but they didn’t. Manny was signed for depth and by the time you have to reach for a kid with only two starts at AAA you would think the guy signed for depth would get the call. Manny has earned that start with a solid season at AAA, including getting his command under control for the first time in his career. At 27 he has always fought the Wild Ass Lefty label but you can’t call him that in 2018 with only nineteen walks in sixty innings. On Wednesday night as Caleb couldn’t get the Dodgers two innings, Manny threw one of his best games of the year for OKC, getting seventeen outs, strikeout out ten of those seventeen and walking only three.
With the news that Dennis Santana couldn’t make his start today, will the Dodgers give Caleb Ferguson another start or will Manny Bañuelos get the call?
Caleb was a bit unlucky in his debut. The first hit batter was a bad pitch, but the second hit batter just barely skimmed the hitter. The hit that put him out of the game was a ball that was right on the chalk, one more inch it could have been foul and who knows how that inning turns out. You could easily make a case the Caleb deserves another start, but you could also make a case that Manny Bañuelos deserves that assignment.
Either way, it is not a good look for the Dodgers that they have already had to dig this deep into OKC to plug holes, but at least for now these holes are just temp with Kenta and Hill ready to go very soon.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 