Must win game on May 1st?
The Dodgers weren’t expected to win Monday with bullpen pitcher Ross Stripling going against Greinke and it played out as expected. Tonight is different, tonight Clayton Kershaw needs to be Clayton Kershaw and give the Dodgers a chance for victory.
Eight games back on May 1st with three games to go on the road against the hottest team in the NL just might qualify as a must-win game. I hope Clayton is healthy because the Clayton we have seen the last two starts does not look like a healthy Kershaw. If Clayton Kershaw has a big game in him, now would be the time to unveil it. Given the number of high-quality players missing from the Dodger offense and the recent ineffectiveness of the bullpen, he may need to throw seven scoreless innings and hope KJ and company can hold any lead they might have.
They have won the NL West Division by the following margins.
| 2013 | 11 |
| 2014 | 6 |
| 2015 | 8 |
| 2016 | 4 |
| 2017 | 11 |
The Diamondbacks are smelling blood and even as they are missing Ray/Walker/Lamb/Miller they continue to crush their opponents. An eight-game lead on the team that beat you by eleven games in the standings is impressive. If Kershaw can’t staunch the bleeding tonight, the Diamondbacks will be well on their way to another series victory and possibly a double-digit lead by the time this series is over.
Manny Machado time?
With the news that Corey Seager is headed for surgery and will miss the rest of the 2018 season, it just so happens that possibly the best shortstop in baseball is actually available if the Dodgers decide to make a play for him.
I have pretty much ignored all the Manny Machado trade talk since the Dodgers had no place to put him, but that landscape has dramatically changed. No team in baseball needs Manny Machado as much as the Dodgers do right now.
He’s a one-year rental and the price will be high. How high, I have no idea but this is what I’d be putting together.
Package One – All players bubbling at the major league level who are under team control for quite a while. Have to say, this is more quantity than quality but the Orioles have so many holes that each of these players could actually find playing time.
- Alex Verdugo – ready to be their starting right fielder. Top positional prospect in the Dodger system.
- Edwin Rios – ready to challenge Pedro Alvarez/Trumbo for DH duties. Has bat with no place to play.
- Brock Stewart – ready to step into the rotation
- Tim Locastro – could be their shortstop
- Manny Banuelos –
Package two – Prospect Package – One from each level
- Alex Verdugo – ready to be their starting right fielder. Top positional prospect in the Dodger system.
- Dennis Santana – ready to step into the rotation next year or possibly even help this year. Santana has worked himself up the prospect ladder where some think he’s the second best pitching prospect in the Dodger system.
- Gavin Lux – 2016 number one pick
Package three – Mix n Max
- Kiké Hernandez – they will need a starting SS for Machado
- Alex Verdugo or Andrew Toles
- Brock Stewart or Dennis Santana
- Will Smith or Connor Wong
Something bold
Chris Taylor – starting shortstop, Dodgers would need to play Joc in CF.
Andrew Toles – ready to be a starting outfielder when he comes off the DL
Brock Stewart – ready to be in the starting rotation
If I was the Orioles I think I’d have to look hard at package three. I expect everyone will think they are overpaying for a one-year rental. They might be, but without Walker Buehler in the deal, you will need quantity with some quality. This is, after all, Manny Machado.
These are just spitballing idea’s, but I do hope the Dodgers are at least contacting the Orioles and checking into what it is going to take to bring Machado to Los Angeles for at least one year.
Caleb Ferguson takes weekly FFA
Caleb Ferguson doesn’t get the press of the other Dodger pitching prospects. Much more has been written about his teammates, Dennis Santana and Yadier Alvarez, but it is Caleb Ferguson who keeps on plugging away solid game after solid game. This week he threw two gems and won the weekly FFA award.
Caleb did it by making two starts, throwing eleven innings, giving up nine hits, zero earned runs, walking three and striking out eleven. Caleb has now given up just one earned run in his last four starts with twenty-six strikeouts in just twenty innings. He has statistically been the best Dodger pitching prospect so far in April.
Manny Bañuelos also pitched two gems last week. The one time prized NYY prospect is trying to get his career back on a path to the major leagues and statistically, he appears to be moving in the right direction. Walks have plagued him for several years, but so far in 2018 he has gotten the walks under control. In the two starts last week, Manny threw nine innings, gave up seven hits, three earned runs, walked just one, and struck out fifteen. Overall, Manny now has pitched twenty-five innings, given up just eighteen hits, six earned runs, four walks, and twenty-nine strikeouts. Whatever tweaks the Dodger pitching coaches did, seem to be working.
Rancho 3rd baseman Rylan Bannon had one hit in every game last week. One hit. Three times that one hit was a home run giving him eight on the year and a share of the California League home run lead with eight. He shares that with teammate Connor Wong who did not hit a home run last week.
2016 first round pick Gavin Lux is heating up for Rancho. The twenty-year-old shortstop collected ten hits in nineteen at-bats last week. Included in that was his first home run of the year. He also picked up five walks making him an on-base machine. Lux played 2nd/SS in 2017 but the Dodgers have pretty much left him alone at shortstop this year.
4th place Dodgers take on 1st place Diamondbacks
As April turns to May the Dodgers head to Arizona where they take on the 1st place Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks aren’t just in first place, they have won every series so far this year and take a sparkling 19-8 record into the four-game match. The Dodgers could sweep the Diamondbacks and still be three games back of 1st place.
Much has been made of the Dodgers slow start last year and how they still managed to win 104 games in 2017. This does not feel like last year. None of the pieces seem to fit right now no matter how much Dave Roberts juggles the lineup. Three catchers have now started three games as he tries to plug holes at 2nd and 3rd base. Farmer is not an everyday 3rd baseman, nor is Max Muncey.
Even with the offensive explosion in game one of the doubleheader on Saturday, the Dodgers had a poor week. They dropped three of four games against the Giants, They lost two of three games against a very poor Miami team. This was a week in which the Dodgers needed to make some hay, instead, they laid down in it.
Now they face the best team in the National League who would like nothing more than to rub the Dodger faces further into the quagmire they have created. The Dodgers will try to counter this with Ross Stripling starting the first game of the series because Rich Hill cannot go. Why Ross Stripling? He has pitched all of fourteen innings in ten games this season. Brock Stewart was brought up yesterday, he has started every game in AAA with good results. Expect the Dodgers to be down by five runs come the fifth inning.
The Diamondbacks have not been without their own injuries. They lost a key member of their rotation for the year a few weeks ago. They haven’t had their own all-star 3rd baseman since April 2nd. They have actually batted Delcaso at clean up and won games. Right now everything is going right for the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers have to hope that stops this week. Good luck with that.
One thing that won’t happen today is someone cracking this leaderboard. A plethora of pitchers have had great games in Arizona but it is a strange list. Clayton Kershaw has done it three times, but no one else has done it more than once. They were all brilliant just that one time. Kevin Brown, Kaz Ishii, Hideo Nomo, Ramon Martinez, Chad Billingsley, Jose Lima, Chan Ho Park, Zack Greinke, Brad Penney, Darren Dreifort, Odalis Perez, Hyun-Jin Ryu, and Derek Lowe. Kuroda is notable for his absence.
Player Date Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc Kevin Brown 2000-06-15 ARI W 4-0 9.0 4 0 0 10 89 Kazuhisa Ishii 2004-07-07 ARI W 11-0 9.0 1 0 1 5 89 Hideo Nomo 2003-03-31 ARI W 8-0 9.0 4 0 1 7 85 Ramon Martinez 1998-05-23 ARI W 7-1 9.0 2 1 0 6 85 Chad Billingsley 2011-05-14 ARI L 0-1 8.0 1 0 2 8 84 Jose Lima 2004-05-29 ARI W 10-0 8.0 2 0 1 7 84 Chan Ho Park 1998-07-24 ARI W 3-1 8.0 2 1 2 11 83 Clayton Kershaw 2017-07-04 ARI W 4-3 7.0 2 0 2 11 82 Zack Greinke 2015-09-13 ARI W 4-3 8.0 3 0 2 8 82 Brad Penny 2005-07-01 ARI W 7-0 8.0 3 0 1 7 82 Clayton Kershaw 2018-04-15 ARI W 7-2 7.0 2 1 0 12 81 Darren Dreifort 1998-05-22 ARI W 5-0 9.0 6 0 0 6 81 Odalis Perez 2003-07-05 ARI W 2-0 8.0 3 0 0 5 81 Clayton Kershaw 2011-05-13 ARI W 4-3 7.0 3 0 2 11 80 Hyun-Jin Ryu 2014-04-11 ARI W 6-0 7.0 2 0 1 8 80 Derek Lowe 2008-09-05 ARI W 7-0 8.0 2 0 2 4 80
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/30/2018.
Blach party
Once again, Ty Blach silenced the Dodger bats and sent the team off to Arizona with a faint smell of desperation in the air. Ty Blach has now made seven career starts against the Dodgers in barely two seasons plus, and in those seven games, the Dodgers have not been able to score more than two runs in any of them. It isn’t just Ty Blach as he has only pitched into the seventh in three of those seven games, it is just every game he starts against the Dodgers, the bats go into sleep mode. He’s not brilliant, but he is certainly effective.
Date Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc IR 2018-04-29 LAD W 4-2 6.0 6 2 1 4 55 2018-04-08 LAD L 1-2 6.0 4 1 3 1 58 2018-03-29 LAD W 1-0 5.0 3 0 3 3 61 2017-07-29 LAD L 1-2 7.0 8 2 2 3 54 2017-05-16 LAD W 2-1 7.0 5 1 2 4 65 2017-04-25 LAD L 1-2 5.0 4 2 1 2 52 2016-10-01 LAD W 3-0 8.0 3 0 1 6 81
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/30/2018.
Kevin Elster still sits on top of the AT&T Total base leaderboard
It has been eighteen years since Kevin Elster blasted three home runs at AT&T park but only one other Dodger has managed at least ten total bases since that game and it was Yasiel Puig almost four years ago.
This weekend would be a good time for a current Dodger or Puig again to put their name on this leaderboard.
Player Date Rslt PA R H 2B 3B HR TB RBI BB Kevin Elster 2000-04-11 W 6-5 4 3 3 0 0 3 12 4 1 Yasiel Puig 2014-07-25 W 8-1 5 2 4 1 3 0 11 2 0
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Generated 4/27/2018.
Kershaw dominates AT&T Game Score Leaderboard
I knew even before I ran the numbers from baseball reference for best games scores by a Dodger at AT&T Park that Clayton Kershaw was going to be on the leaderboard. I just didn’t expect this kind of domination.
Only seven times has a Dodger pitcher had a game score of eighty or greater at AT&T Park, and Clayton Kershaw has done it six times. I would not have bet on Odalis Perez being the only other Dodger to accomplish this.
Player Date Rslt IP H R BB SO GSc Clayton Kershaw 2015-09-29 W 8-0 9.0 1 0 1 13 97 Clayton Kershaw 2011-07-20 W 1-0 8.0 3 0 1 12 87 Odalis Perez 2004-04-16 W 3-2 8.0 2 0 1 10 87 Clayton Kershaw 2014-07-26 W 5-0 9.0 3 0 1 7 87 Clayton Kershaw 2012-07-29 W 4-0 9.0 5 0 1 7 83 Clayton Kershaw 2010-09-14 W 1-0 9.0 4 0 0 4 83 Clayton Kershaw 2011-09-09 W 2-1 8.0 3 1 1 9 82
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/27/2018.
Clayton Kershaw doing his WAL look
When Clayton Kershaw cruised through the first inning with three strikeouts you could understand why no-hitter, perfect game, a legendary game were coursing through Dodger fan minds. When a line drive bounced off of Kiké’s glove I even shouted you ruined a perfect game even though it was the second inning. Other fans behind me echoed the same thought. He had looked that good in the first inning.
Little did we suspect that two hours later, Clayton Kershaw would exit with one of the wildest games of his career. Clayton walked six Marlins in just five innings. Only ten times in his career has he walked at least five. Only three times has he walked six. The last time was in 2010. And it wasn’t just the walks when the Marlins made contact they hit the ball hard. Very hard.
Date Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc 2018-04-25 L 6-8 5.0 5 3 6 7 46 2009-08-03 L 5-6 4.0 4 3 6 6 42 2010-04-07 L 3-4 4.2 5 3 6 4 40 2010-08-22 L 2-5 7.0 5 3 5 11 61 2010-06-04 W 5-4 6.2 5 3 5 8 53 2010-04-13 W 9-5 5.1 3 2 5 7 56 2012-09-23 W 5-3 5.0 5 1 5 5 53 2011-04-16 L 2-9 4.2 6 5 5 5 32 2009-07-01 W 1-0 5.0 1 0 5 5 65 2009-07-12 W 7-4 6.0 2 1 5 4 63
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/26/2018.
Game of juxtapositions
This game was supposed to be about the HOF bound postseason veteran pitcher dominating the young kid who had never been West of Oklahoma. For one inning it played that way, as the HOF bound pitcher struck out the side on twelve pitches. From that point on though the HOF looked like a rookie pitcher missing his spots more time than not and left the game behind 3 – 0 when it easily could have been six or seven to nothing.
The rookie pitcher, the kid who was in indy ball at this point last year, the kid who never been West of Oklahoma looked like he was the one bound for the HOF. This kid struck out ten Dodgers in a fourteen out outing. He had only one walk headed into the fourth inning when he struck out two, and walked two, and was replaced with two on and two out. The Dodgers failed to score and his final tally read fourteen outs, one hit, zero earned runs, three walks, and ten strikeouts.
To further complicate this game, the Dodgers had the 2016 ROY at shortstop. The Dodgers had the shortstop who came in third in MVP voting in 2016. The Dodgers had the shortstop who came in seventeenth in MVP voting in 2017. The Marlins had a shortstop who was a glove-first guy, a throw-in, in the Dee Gordon deal, a guy who was only starting because the Marlin starting shortstop has been hurt all year.
The Dodgers shortstop had one of the worst games of his young career. He would weekly make outs four times before finally getting a single in the 9th. He would strike out twice. He would make two costly blunders in the 9th. One was a simply throwing error, the second was falling down on a simple fly ball. I’ve seen many senior softball players fall down on that play, I haven’t seen many major league shortstops with the athleticism of the Dodger shortstop fall down on that simply play. Those plays were key in the Marlins scoring two unearned runs in the 9th. Which turned out to be important given the Dodgers managed to score three runs in the 9th and only lose by those two runs.
The Marlin shortstop, the glove-first guy, had the big blow of the game for the Marlins against the HOF bound pitcher. That pitcher had wiggled out of trouble in the 2nd, 3rd, and fourth and was one out away from doing it again when the shortstop slugged a mistake down the foul line and off the pole.
This is the kind of game that stop gamblers from betting on baseball. Everything was in the Dodgers favor. Everything. They still lost.
Dan Hudson took the hard road
In a quiet move on April 2nd, the Dodgers signed free agent pitcher Daniel Hudson after Hudson had been released by Tampa on March 28th. You might have wondered why the Dodgers would take on a pitcher that a pitching-poor team like Tampa could not find a spot for on their major league roster.
You could have wondered the same thing when the Dodgers signed JT Chargois after the Twins inexplicably took him off their 40 man roster and allowed him to be made available to all of baseball. We now know the answer to that. The Twins front office was not smart about Chargois and the Dodger front office was. His stuff plays, he may not be great but he certainly is a major league pitcher.
The same can be said of Dan Hudson. He is a long cry from his days before multiple TJ surgeries but he is still a major league pitcher. The Dodgers ultimately decided they liked what they had in Hudson over Wilmer Font. Hudson now has to prove he can be more valuable to the team, than Kimi Garcia who is rounding into shape in Oklahoma.
He took a baby step in that direction last night with a flawless inning. Hudson has to manage the walks and last night pitched a clean inning.
Hudson may not last long in the Dodger bullpen, the odds are against it, but considering his road, I’m rooting for him to be a difference maker.
Tommy John surgery. Elbow tears again.
Another Tommy John surgery. Almost three years to get back.
Thrives. Gets paid.
Struggles. Gets traded.
Cut. Goes to the minors.
Daniel Hudson has been through a lot. So to see him punch out two in his Dodgers debut — that was cool.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 25, 2018
I’ve always been a fan of Dan Hudson. You can never tell why I take a liking to certain players but Dan Hudson was one of them and it is always pleasing when those players end up on the Dodgers. I think Jimmy Wynn was the first of these players, Chase Utley continued the trend, and Dan Hudson is the latest.
I may have to come up with a column on all the players I’ve liked before they were Dodgers.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 