How did the Dodgers resurrect their season?
On May 16th the Dodgers were 16 – 26 and had lost six games in a row to the likes of the Cincinnati Reds and Miami Marlins. They were only 8.5 games out of 1st place because the Arizona Diamondbacks were involved in their own freefall.
The Dodgers are now 30 – 30 and very much back in the NL Western Division hunt, as well as the best record in the National League.
How did they get here?
It wasn’t with Clayton Kershaw who has pitched all of five innings during the hot stretch.
It wasn’t with Justin Turner leading the offensive charge when he returned on May 15th, as Justin Turner has put up a measly .660 OPS since he returned.
It wasn’t with the Catchers who forgot how to hit in May and so far in June.
It was because of these guys, some improbable, some not so improbable.
As someone who has time to time had trouble with Dave Roberts in-game decisions, his playing personnel decisions are a big reason why the Dodgers are now 30 – 30.
Dave choose bullpen pitcher Ross Stripling to become a starter when the team needed one instead of Brock Stewart who was already stretched out and Ross rewarded that Dave Roberts decision to become the best pitcher for the Dodgers, and the second best pitcher in the NL during his run.
Dave looked at Max Muncy and decided he needed to get his bat into the lineup and moved Cody Bellinger to CF to make room for Max at 1st base after Justin Turner had returned from the DL. This was a very questionable move at the time and the kind of move that might make Dave Roberts the Manager of the Year. Max only had an OPS of .775 on May 15th, it was not like anyone was clamoring to “get Max Muncy into the lineup”.
Yasiel Puig went on the DL April 28th with an OPS of .500. Puig returned on May 9th and put up an OPS of .970 in May, and currently has a June OPS of 1.441.
Matt Kemp – what can you say about Matt Kemp? He’s been everything he wasn’t supposed to be. The bison is back and combined with the Wild Horse the Dodgers have run roughshod over the NL pasture.
Walker Buehler has been the most impressive rookie hurler since the days of Clayton Kershaw.
Chris Taylor took over shortstop duties on April 30th. He had an OPS at the time of .695. As the Dodgers starting shortstop he has put up an OPS of .930. The man he replaced had a career OPS of .866 and was considered a MVP level player. What does that make Chris Taylor?
Joc Pederson was late to the party and was a realistic candidate to go to AAA and be replaced by Alex Verdugo who is considered by many the best position prospect in the system. Joc couldn’t buy a home run and had a May OPS of .602. Many, including myself, wondered which one of Cody Bellinger or Joc Pederson would get sent to AAA because it seemed one of them probably needed to jump-start their season in AAA. Joc went into Coors to start June and had one of the most productive games for any Dodger this season. Joc followed that up with a big game last night. His June OPS now sits at 1.600 but we have to keep several things in mind. Joc did this damage at Coors and against a Pirate pitcher who he had homered against three times. Could this be a harbinger of things to come? He certainly has the talent and has shown it in the past.
Kenley Jansen was certainly a big part of the Dodger struggles in April, but he has righted the ship and is now in Jansen cruise control, making all Dodger fans feel safe again when he takes the mound to protect a win in the 9th inning.
How about Scott Alexander. Scott was the big bullpen acquisition this past winter but he looked like a bust when he sent to AAA to get straightened out. Scott left for AAA with an ERA of 6.35, he returned on May 9th. Over his next twelve appearances, he has given up a run just once. Scott has become a big part of the bridge to Jansen.
The rest of the bridge has also been quite good. Fields, Baez, Cingrani, even Erik Goedell. Dodger fans no longer cringe when the bullpen is summoned as once again, Dodger management has proven fluent at building that Jansen bridge.
Kenta Maeda needs to get a mention here. He may be on the DL right now but when the Dodgers needed some big games from a piece of the rotation, Kenta delivered the goods.
All in all, it was a bizarre team effort that has the Dodgers at 30 – 30 and it makes me look forward to the next 60 game stretch.
Can Dodgers continue to ride the Oklahoma pitching train?
Only one Dodger is still standing at the moment from the opening day rotation, thus the Dodgers have repeatedly dipped into their AAA affiliate at Oklahoma to replenish the battered rotation.
Caleb Ferguson will be following in the footsteps of Walker Buehler, Brock Stewart, and Dennis Santana. Walker Buehler, for now, looks like a permanent part of the rotation even as the Dodgers try to manipulate his innings. Brock Stewart has made two starts but the Dodgers seem to think he’s better suited in the bullpen. Dennis Santana hasn’t actually made a start even though it was really a start when he followed Scott Alexander last week in his debut. Dennis will get his first major league start tomorrow, which means the Dodgers will be using two pitchers who started the season in AA in back to back starts on Wednesday/Thursday this week.
What can we expect of a 21-year-old with two AAA under his belt? David Hood at Truebluela gives us a rundown of what Caleb bring to the mound.
Ferguson primarily pitches off of his high spin four seam fastball, which sits around 92 mph in the early innings but he can reach 94 mph when he needs it. His velocity did tend to tail off to 90-91 mph in the middle innings but he didn’t show signs of laboring in his mechanics or command. His fastball has slight armside run, and he primarily pitches up in the zone and can keep the ball above the barrel. The fastball wasn’t a true swing and miss pitch, but he was able to keep hitters from squaring it up much.
David also notes that Caleb’s primary strikeout pitch is his high spin curveball. Caleb also throws a changeup but doesn’t use it much.
Luckily for Caleb the Pirates are in a bit of a hitting slump having been shutout two games in a row by an identical score of 5 – 0 while the Dodgers are hitting home runs like the 27 Yankees.
The Dodgers have played four games in June and have hit three home runs in every game this month. Headed into June the Dodgers had only hit three home runs three times in their previous fifty-six games.
Ramon Martinez has the best game score for any LAD starting debut 21 years or younger.
Caleb Ferguson is only twenty-one years old and thus here is the game score leaderboard for Los Angeles Dodgers who made their debut start at the age of twenty-one or younger.
Ramon Martinez has the highest game score at 68. Rick Sutcliffe showed in Sept of 1976 what was to come in 1979 when he won the ROY award. That is kind of odd don’t you think? They gave the young Sutcliffe a start in Sept of 1976 but he didn’t make another start until 1979 when he went onto win the ROY.
I feel bad for Urias in that he will always be on the bottom of these lists and it will never change until another Dodger starter bombs in their debut. I hope it isn’t Caleb.
Gcar Player Age Date Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc 1 Ramon Martinez 20.144 1988-08-13 W 2-1 7.2 4 1 4 5 68 1 Rick Sutcliffe 20.100 1976-09-29 W 1-0 5.0 2 0 1 3 65 1 Edwin Jackson 20.000 2003-09-09 W 4-1 6.0 4 1 0 4 64 1 Doyle Alexander 20.295 1971-06-26(2) W 4-3 8.0 7 2 0 3 63 1 Clayton Kershaw 20.067 2008-05-25 W 4-3 6.0 5 2 1 7 60 1 Don Sutton 21.012 1966-04-14 L 2-4 7.0 7 2 1 7 59 1 Bill Singer 20.153 1964-09-24 L 3-4 6.1 4 1 5 1 57 1 Nathan Eovaldi 21.174 2011-08-06 W 5-3 5.0 4 2 2 7 56 1 Dennys Reyes 20.085 1997-07-13 W 9-3 6.0 4 3 4 6 54 1 John Duffie 21.349 1967-09-18 L 2-7 5.0 3 1 3 4 52 1 Chad Billingsley 21.321 2006-06-15 W 7-3 5.1 6 2 2 3 49 1 Mike Kekich 20.068 1965-06-09 L 3-7 3.1 2 4 5 5 40 1 Julio Urias 19.289 2016-05-27 L 5-6 2.2 5 3 4 3 35
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/6/2018.
LAD debut starts in the 21st century
Dennis Santana didn’t get to make this list due to the Dodgers sleight of hand regarding who started and who relieved last week, but from what I gather, Caleb Ferguson will actually start the game tonight so I thought we could look at all the debut starts for the Dodgers. I limited this to the 21st century because the list would be quite long otherwise.
If you were new to the Dodgers and saw Ross Stripling with the best game score of any Dodger debut start in the 21st century you might not be surprised that he’s been the best Dodger pitcher in 2018. The rest of us are a bit shocked.
Gcar Player Date Tm Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc IR 1 Ross Stripling 2016-04-08 LAD L 2-3 7.1 0 1 4 4 74 1 Kazuhisa Ishii 2002-04-06 LAD W 9-2 5.2 2 0 3 10 72 1 Hiroki Kuroda 2008-04-04 LAD W 7-1 7.0 3 1 0 4 71 1 Kenta Maeda 2016-04-06 LAD W 7-0 6.0 5 0 0 4 66 1 Edwin Jackson 2003-09-09 LAD W 4-1 6.0 4 1 0 4 64 1 Matt Magill 2013-04-27 LAD L 4-6 6.2 4 2 2 7 63 1 Clayton Kershaw 2008-05-25 LAD W 4-3 6.0 5 2 1 7 60 1 Stephen Fife 2012-07-17 LAD L 2-3 6.0 4 1 3 1 58 1 Jose De Leon 2016-09-04 LAD W 7-4 6.0 5 3 0 9 57 1 Nathan Eovaldi 2011-08-06 LAD W 5-3 5.0 4 2 2 7 56 1 Derek Thompson 2005-05-28 LAD L 4-5 5.0 2 2 4 4 55 1 Red Patterson 2014-05-01(2) LAD W 4-3 4.2 2 1 3 1 54 1 Hyun-Jin Ryu 2013-04-02 LAD L 0-3 6.1 10 1 0 5 50 1 Chad Billingsley 2006-06-15 LAD W 7-3 5.1 6 2 2 3 49 1 John Ely 2010-04-28 LAD L 3-7 6.0 6 5 3 4 41 1 Brock Stewart 2016-06-29 LAD L 0-7 5.0 8 5 2 7 36 1 Julio Urias 2016-05-27 LAD L 5-6 2.2 5 3 4 3 35 1 Zach Lee 2015-07-25 LAD L 2-15 4.2 11 7 1 3 16
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/6/2018.
It has been sixty years since a LAD starter did what Caleb Ferguson is going to do tonight.
Only two Los Angeles Dodger pitchers have ever made their debut as a starter against the Pittsburgh Pirates and you have to go all the way to the inaugural season of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958 when these two starters did it.
Gcar Player Date Tm Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc 1 Bob Giallombardo 1958-06-21 LAD PIT L 7-11 4.0 7 5 3 2 27 1 Ralph Mauriello 1958-09-13 LAD PIT L 4-9 0.1 3 3 1 1 33
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/6/2018.
Yeah, I have never heard of Bob Giallombardo or Ralph Mauriello but with good reason.
Bob Giallombardo only made five starts in his career and they all came in 1958 at the age of 21. Even though his debut did not go well, Bob actually pitched well in 1958 and I don’t know why his career ended so quickly which led me to try to find out why but was was unsuccessful. I did find this cool tidbit.
The Brooklyn-born lefthander joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in their new home on the West Coast in 1958 after his showing in Reno the season before. Giallombardo was the star pitcher at Lafayette High School in Brooklyn the year after Sandy Koufax graduated from the same school. Bob was 1-1 in five starts with his victory coming by a 3-2 score over the Cincinnati Redlegs.
Ralph Mauriello also never pitched for the Dodgers after 1958, making only two career starts. Investigating why Ralph had such a short career I stumbled across this story and it struck me as I was reading it, that this is why I’m still blogging. The column in the LA Times was written in 1989 by Jeff Myers and the first sentence is what caught my eye.
Like Bob Uecker, who has raised self-deprecation to an art, former Dodger right-hander Ralph Mauriello of West Hills enjoys poking fun at his major league career, which spanned 12 innings at the tail end of the 1958 season.
West Hills!!! Ralph had been living right under my nose and while the story was written when he was 54 he is now 83 and still alive. I wonder if he still resides in West Hills.
“I went into Buzzie’s office and he showed me a list with the names of 11 pitchers,” Mauriello says. “They were going to keep 10. At the bottom of the list it said ‘Erskine or Mauriello.’ They kept Erskine.”
We can only hope that young Caleb Ferguson not only has a better debut than Bob or Ralph, but that he has a much longer Dodger career. No one was expecting Caleb to be making any starts for the Dodgers in 2018 but here we are and as we all know, debut games are must watch games.
He only has to follow a team shutout. In case you missed my earlier write-up on Caleb when he got promoted to AAA here it is.
In his AAA debut last week Caleb kind of announced himself to those who had never heard of him. He went five innings, gave up 3 hits, zero earned runs, zero walks, and struck out ten. The kind of game that if Walker Buehler or Dennis Santana had thrown would have gotten all sorts of oohs and aahs.
Max Muncy laughs at the MLB draft
Most of the baseball world will be looking at their new draft picks and salivating about things to come, and certainly, the Dodgers have done well enough in the draft to brag about the likes of 2016 ROY Corey Seager, 2017 ROY Cody Bellinger, and newest Dodger rookie sensation Walker Buehler. They were picked number one, number four, and number one respectively in their Dodger draft class.
But the Dodgers of 2018 are being led not by draft whiz kids, but by journeyman and castoffs. We are talking about Max Muncy, Ross Stripling, and Matt Kemp.
He’s batted 126 times. Out of the 298 players with at least 100 plate appearances, Muncy’s wRC+ ranks in the 90th percentile. Meanwhile, his expected wOBA, based on Statcast inputs, ranks in the 97th percentile. By hard-hit rate, he ranks in the 94th percentile. And by chase rate — out-of-zone swings — he ranks in the 90th percentile. Out of everyone with at least 50 tracked batted balls, Muncy ranks third in the rate of batted balls hit between +10 and +40 degrees. At last, his contact rate is basically average.
At the end of a long column, Jeff Sullivan says he can see shades of Matt Carpenter another non-prospect who didn’t get established in the major leagues until his age 26 season. Carpenter started out a 2nd baseman, moved to 3rd base, moved to 1st base, and this year has played all three positions. Matt Carpenter is a very valuable baseball player, and if Max Muncy can even sniff that career, that is a huge win for a man who anyone in baseball could have had for virtually nothing.
Ross Stripling is starting tonight after finishing one of the best months of May by a right handed Los Angeles Dodger starting pitcher in history. The table below shows you how he ranks for any LAD who made at least five starts in the Month of May with an ERA below 1.50. It is an exclusive list with only Mike Morgan being the abberation of brilliant Dodger pitchers. Yet, if Ross Stripling can put up a run of Mike Morgan Dodger seasons, it will be more than anyone expected headed into 2018. The K rate is ridiculous, but just as outstanding is the SO/W rate.
| Player | Split | Year | SO | GS | IP | H | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Don Drysdale | May | 1968 | 45 | 0.53 | 8 | 68.0 | 46 | 0.853 | 6.0 | 3.75 |
| Kevin Brown | May | 2003 | 36 | 1.02 | 6 | 44.0 | 28 | 0.795 | 7.4 | 5.14 |
| Zack Greinke | May | 2015 | 31 | 1.05 | 5 | 34.1 | 21 | 0.816 | 8.1 | 4.43 |
| Ross Stripling | May | 2018 | 41 | 1.2 | 5 | 30.0 | 24 | 0.933 | 12.3 | 10.25 |
| Don Drysdale | May | 1967 | 44 | 1.2 | 7 | 60.0 | 47 | 1.000 | 6.6 | 3.38 |
| Mike Morgan | May | 1989 | 31 | 1.27 | 5 | 35.1 | 25 | 0.962 | 7.9 | 3.44 |
| Don Sutton | May | 1969 | 38 | 1.29 | 7 | 56.0 | 39 | 0.893 | 6.1 | 3.45 |
| Don Sutton | May | 1975 | 46 | 1.35 | 7 | 60.0 | 38 | 0.800 | 6.9 | 4.60 |
Eveyone has already written about Matt Kemp but suffice to say, WOW.
Of course I now cross my fingers that Muncy, Stripling, and Kemp don’t turn into June pumpkins, but if they do, Dodger fans can’t forget they kept the ship afloat in May when very few were.
Matt Kemp your NL Batting Average Leader
Even if you don’t subscribe to batting average being part of the cool club, it is still something to marvel at when Matt Kemp leads the National League in batting average after two months of the season are in the books.
Notice I did not say he leads the NL in hitting as that is a completely different thing but hey his wRC+ is also quite lofty. For now let us put this stat to paper so it will remain forever logged.
As I was writing this Matt Kemp just slugged a home run and is now completely in front of Scooter Gennett.
| Name | PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | wRC+ | WAR |
| Matt Kemp | 181 | 0.343 | 0.37 | 0.55 | 152 | 1.4 |
| Scooter Gennett | 222 | 0.343 | 0.377 | 0.551 | 152 | 1.9 |
| Freddie Freeman | 253 | 0.335 | 0.435 | 0.538 | 162 | 2.5 |
| Nick Markakis | 252 | 0.333 | 0.401 | 0.505 | 147 | 2 |
| Nolan Arenado | 221 | 0.319 | 0.416 | 0.58 | 152 | 2.3 |
| Odubel Herrera | 220 | 0.313 | 0.377 | 0.485 | 137 | 1.7 |
| Albert Almora Jr. | 165 | 0.313 | 0.366 | 0.44 | 121 | 1.6 |
| Corey Dickerson | 214 | 0.31 | 0.346 | 0.49 | 124 | 1.4 |
| Brandon Belt | 225 | 0.309 | 0.404 | 0.55 | 162 | 2.4 |
| Brandon Crawford | 209 | 0.307 | 0.349 | 0.469 | 122 | 1.4 |
| Christian Yelich | 199 | 0.307 | 0.372 | 0.492 | 133 | 1.4 |
| Starling Marte | 196 | 0.306 | 0.357 | 0.506 | 135 | 1.7 |
| Asdrubal Cabrera | 224 | 0.303 | 0.344 | 0.529 | 140 | 1.9 |
Dodger debuts are always special
Position player debuts are exciting but there is something different when it is a starting pitcher. Especially a starting pitcher who is considered a bonafide prospect and not someone just filling in like let’s say, Stephen Fife.
Yeah, this is going to be a long list.
Not as long as I thought it was going to be. The criteria were very simple. Making their first appearance must be a start, for the Los Angeles Dodgers. So if the first appearance was a relief appearance like Walker Buehler last summer his first start will not show up on this list.
I’m going to sort it by game score.
Yeah, Pedro Astacio was on top. I thought Ross Stripling would be near the top and he clocks in at number 5. Doug Rau who seems to be quite undervalued as a Dodger pitcher had the 3rd best debut ever.
Does anyone even remember that Jose De Leon struck out more in his first start than any other LAD when he fanned nine on Sept 4th, 2016? Well, it turns out I can’t even read my own list. Ishii and Astacio both fanned ten, but still that Jose De Leon debut was awesome.
The worst first start ever belongs to Zach Lee. That is not a surprise. What is a surprise is that Julio Urias had the 4th worst start. The last time I got together with the TBLA gang was to watch his debut at a bar in Hollywood.
I think the most famous first start debut was Edwin Jackson defeating Randy Johnson on his 20th birthday.
The starts that I can remember:
Pedro Astacio, Doug Rau, Eric Gagne, Ross Stripling, Kazuhisa Ishii, Kuroda….oh hell, who am I kidding, I saw them all except for Sutton and Singer, and these guys who I never heard of – Nick Willhite, Larry Miller, John Duffie, Jim Golden, Ralph Mauriello, and Bob Giallombardo.
So many of these were gone so fast like Matt Magill, Stephen Fife, Jim Neidlinger, Derek Thompson, Red Patterson, and Terry Wells
Where will Dennis Santana fit on this list? In about eight hours we will know.
Player Date Tm Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc Pedro Astacio 1992-07-03(2) LAD PHI W 2-0 9.0 3 0 4 10 87 Nick Willhite 1963-06-16(2) LAD CHC W 2-0 9.0 5 0 1 6 82 Doug Rau 1972-09-02 LAD STL W 5-1 9.0 3 1 2 2 77 Eric Gagne 1999-09-07 LAD FLA L 1-2 6.0 2 0 1 8 75 Ross Stripling 2016-04-08 LAD SFG L 2-3 7.1 0 1 4 4 74 Kazuhisa Ishii 2002-04-06 LAD COL W 9-2 5.2 2 0 3 10 72 Hiroki Kuroda 2008-04-04 LAD SDP W 7-1 7.0 3 1 0 4 71 Hideo Nomo 1995-05-02 LAD SFG L 3-4 5.0 1 0 4 7 68 Ramon Martinez 1988-08-13 LAD SFG W 2-1 7.2 4 1 4 5 68 Kenta Maeda 2016-04-06 LAD SDP W 7-0 6.0 5 0 0 4 66 Shawn Hillegas 1987-08-09 LAD ATL W 5-2 8.2 7 2 3 6 65 Rick Sutcliffe 1976-09-29 LAD HOU W 1-0 5.0 2 0 1 3 65 Edwin Jackson 2003-09-09 LAD ARI W 4-1 6.0 4 1 0 4 64 Matt Magill 2013-04-27 LAD MIL L 4-6 6.2 4 2 2 7 63 Doyle Alexander 1971-06-26(2) LAD SDP W 4-3 8.0 7 2 0 3 63 Clayton Kershaw 2008-05-25 LAD STL W 4-3 6.0 5 2 1 7 60 Don Sutton 1966-04-14 LAD HOU L 2-4 7.0 7 2 1 7 59 Stephen Fife 2012-07-17 LAD PHI L 2-3 6.0 4 1 3 1 58 Jose De Leon 2016-09-04 LAD SDP W 7-4 6.0 5 3 0 9 57 Bill Singer 1964-09-24 LAD CHC L 3-4 6.1 4 1 5 1 57 Nathan Eovaldi 2011-08-06 LAD ARI W 5-3 5.0 4 2 2 7 56 Jim Neidlinger 1990-08-01 LAD SFG L 1-2 6.0 7 1 1 3 56 Larry Miller 1964-06-21(2) LAD CIN L 1-2 6.1 5 2 5 5 55 Derek Thompson 2005-05-28 LAD ARI L 4-5 5.0 2 2 4 4 55 Dennys Reyes 1997-07-13 LAD SFG W 9-3 6.0 4 3 4 6 54 Red Patterson 2014-05-01(2) LAD MIN W 4-3 4.2 2 1 3 1 54 John Duffie 1967-09-18 LAD NYM L 2-7 5.0 3 1 3 4 52 Sandy Vance 1970-04-26 LAD NYM L 1-3 6.0 4 3 1 0 51 Hyun-Jin Ryu 2013-04-02 LAD SFG L 0-3 6.1 10 1 0 5 50 Chad Billingsley 2006-06-15 LAD SDP W 7-3 5.1 6 2 2 3 49 Jim Golden 1960-09-30 LAD CHC W 7-5 7.0 6 5 4 4 45 Terry Wells 1990-07-03 LAD CHC W 7-6 6.0 8 4 1 6 41 John Ely 2010-04-28 LAD NYM L 3-7 6.0 6 5 3 4 41 Mike Kekich 1965-06-09 LAD PHI L 3-7 3.1 2 4 5 5 40 William Brennan 1988-07-19 LAD STL L 2-3 4.2 6 3 3 2 39 Brock Stewart 2016-06-29 LAD MIL L 0-7 5.0 8 5 2 7 36 Julio Urias 2016-05-27 LAD NYM L 5-6 2.2 5 3 4 3 35 Ralph Mauriello 1958-09-13 LAD PIT L 4-9 0.1 3 3 1 1 33 Bob Giallombardo 1958-06-21 LAD PIT L 7-11 4.0 7 5 3 2 27 Zach Lee 2015-07-25 LAD NYM L 2-15 4.2 11 7 1 3 16
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/1/2018.
Dennis Santana about to go where no Dodger has ever gone before.
The pressure over making your first major league start must be heady stuff, but imagine making your first major league start at Coors Field? That is what Dennis Santana is going to do tonight and no Dodger has ever done this.
Below are the Dodger who have made starts at Coors within their first five major league starts. The last to be tasked with this was Brock Stewart and that did not go well as Dave Roberts left him out to be beaten like a drum and his career ERA has yet to recover.
The only starter to have any success at all was Kenta Maeda who made his fourth major league start at Coors on April 23rd, 2016 and made a quality start. It is the nature of Coors that Nomo gave up seven runs and the Dodgers still won.
Ishii, Gorecki, Magill, and Rubby were all here today, gone tomorrow types. Rubby was at least the Dodgers top pitching prospect when he got the call. He would make only a few more starts before his arm blew along with his career.
Here is hoping that somehow Dennis Santana can navigate the white waters of Coors Field and make some history. The Dodgers could use a big game as they try to chase down the Rockies on the Rockies home court.
Gcar Player Date Tm Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO Str GSc 2 Brock Stewart 2016-08-03 LAD COL L 2-12 4.0 10 9 1 1 46 6 2 Hideo Nomo 1995-05-07 LAD COL W 12-10 4.2 9 7 2 7 60 23 3 Kazuhisa Ishii 2002-04-17 LAD COL W 6-3 6.0 8 3 3 6 54 47 4 Rick Gorecki 1997-09-28 LAD COL L 9-13 2.1 7 9 4 4 37 7 4 Kenta Maeda 2016-04-23 LAD COL W 4-1 6.1 3 0 1 8 65 74 5 Matt Magill 2013-06-02 LAD COL L 2-7 6.0 5 6 9 5 55 32 5 Rubby De La Rosa 2011-06-12 LAD COL W 10-8 5.0 3 3 3 6 44 52
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/1/2018.
Ross, Walker, Kenta, and KJ lift the heavy load in May
The Dodgers were one game into May when they lost Clayton Kershaw for the whole month except for one start on May 31st. They lost Ryu two games into May. Later they lost Rich Hill. Kenley Jansen came into May staggering but left swaggering. With 3/5 of the starting rotation on the disabled list for most of the month of May, the Dodgers turned to wonderkid Walker Buehler and bullpen piece Ross Stripling who both pitched so well that nobody was missed.
Walker and Ross were not only plugs in the rotation dike, they put up some of the best numbers of any starting pitcher in the month of May across all of the National League.
Ross is not doing it with mirrors. Look at the ground ball percentage, the FIP, the xFIP, the K/9 rate, the BB/9 rate. This is elite pitching and sure it is only 29 innings but the underlying skills support the success.
Walker Buehler has done everything you want your top pitching prospect to do, and more. He may not have been ready last Sept for his audition for the postseason, but he is doing everything he can to keep the Dodgers in contention for this postseason.
| Rank | Name | WAR | IP | K/9 | BB/9 | GB% | ERA | FIP | xFIP |
| 1 | Max Scherzer | 1.6 | 40.2 | 13.94 | 2.21 | 30.10% | 2.21 | 2.19 | 2.42 |
| 2 | Aaron Nola | 1.5 | 40 | 10.35 | 1.8 | 53.20% | 1.8 | 2.07 | 2.35 |
| 3 | Ross Stripling | 1.4 | 29 | 12.41 | 1.24 | 54.40% | 1.24 | 1.23 | 1.73 |
| 4 | Walker Buehler | 1 | 31 | 10.74 | 1.45 | 50.00% | 2.32 | 2.15 | 2.36 |
| 5 | Jon Gray | 1 | 32.1 | 11.41 | 2.78 | 55.30% | 5.57 | 2.81 | 2.76 |
| 6 | Sean Newcomb | 1 | 35 | 7.71 | 4.11 | 51.60% | 1.54 | 2.78 | 4.21 |
| 7 | Miles Mikolas | 0.9 | 33.1 | 6.48 | 1.35 | 50.00% | 1.89 | 2.61 | 3.34 |
| 10 | Jake Arrieta | 0.8 | 30 | 6 | 2.7 | 52.30% | 0.9 | 3.12 | 4.04 |
| 12 | Stephen Strasburg | 0.8 | 32.1 | 11.13 | 2.51 | 44.90% | 2.51 | 2.87 | 3.02 |
| 15 | Noah Syndergaard | 0.7 | 30 | 9 | 2.4 | 50.00% | 3.3 | 3.09 | 3.52 |
| 19 | Zack Greinke | 0.5 | 30.2 | 8.8 | 1.76 | 41.70% | 2.64 | 3.87 | 3.6 |
| 29 | Jon Lester | 0.3 | 30 | 8.1 | 2.7 | 31.60% | 2.7 | 4.06 | 4.15 |
| 35 | Jose Quintana | 0.1 | 32 | 9.56 | 4.78 | 43.00% | 3.09 | 4.62 | 4.26 |
Here are the Dodger numbers for the month of May courtesy of Fangraphs:
One stat that stands out is the ground ball rate of Scott Alexander at 83%. The return of Alexander gave a much-needed boost to the bullpen.
Alex Wood was overshadowed by the work of Ross, Walker, and Kenta but he held his own making five starts and putting up decent numbers.
| Name | WAR | G | GS | IP | K/9 | BB/9 | GB% | ERA | FIP | xFIP |
| Ross Stripling | 1.5 | 6 | 5 | 30 | 12.3 | 1.2 | 55.70% | 1.2 | 1.22 | 1.71 |
| Walker Buehler | 1 | 5 | 5 | 31 | 10.74 | 1.45 | 50.00% | 2.32 | 2.15 | 2.36 |
| Kenta Maeda | 0.6 | 5 | 5 | 26 | 11.77 | 2.77 | 32.30% | 3.46 | 2.93 | 2.92 |
| Kenley Jansen | 0.6 | 14 | 0 | 15 | 9.6 | 1.2 | 38.90% | 0.6 | 1.39 | 3.01 |
| Alex Wood | 0.2 | 5 | 5 | 27.1 | 9.22 | 2.3 | 40.50% | 3.29 | 4.22 | 3.26 |
| Tony Cingrani | 0.2 | 11 | 0 | 10.1 | 13.06 | 2.61 | 42.90% | 4.35 | 2.64 | 2.94 |
| Pedro Baez | 0.2 | 13 | 0 | 13.2 | 11.85 | 3.95 | 34.30% | 2.63 | 2.98 | 3.68 |
| Scott Alexander | 0.1 | 9 | 0 | 8.2 | 6.23 | 3.12 | 83.30% | 1.04 | 3.12 | 3.68 |
| Clayton Kershaw | 0.1 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 9 | 1.64 | 38.70% | 2.45 | 4.03 | 3.28 |
| Daniel Hudson | 0.1 | 10 | 0 | 13.1 | 6.08 | 4.05 | 40.50% | 4.05 | 4.1 | 4.94 |
| Yimi Garcia | 0.1 | 7 | 0 | 7.2 | 8.22 | 1.17 | 29.20% | 4.7 | 3.77 | 4.4 |
| Adam Liberatore | 0 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 6 | 44.40% | 9 | 2.46 | 4.07 |
| Hyun-Jin Ryu | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1.1 | 13.5 | 6.75 | 66.70% | 0 | 2.37 | 2.37 |
| Erik Goeddel | 0 | 6 | 0 | 5.2 | 9.53 | 7.94 | 46.20% | 0 | 3.65 | 5.65 |
| Pat Venditte | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3.2 | 9.82 | 0 | 38.50% | 7.36 | 5.3 | 3.52 |
| Edward Paredes | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 7.62 | 10.05 |
| Josh Fields | -0.1 | 13 | 0 | 13.1 | 6.08 | 2.7 | 35.10% | 2.7 | 4.62 | 4.49 |
| Brock Stewart | -0.1 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 6 | 3.75 | 42.10% | 4.5 | 5.46 | 5.04 |
| J.T. Chargois | -0.1 | 8 | 0 | 6.2 | 12.15 | 9.45 | 52.60% | 9.45 | 5.52 | 4.78 |
| Rich Hill | -0.4 | 3 | 3 | 9.2 | 8.38 | 5.59 | 38.70% | 6.52 | 8.5 | 5.63 |
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 