Dodgers, Yesterday and Today

Weekend nickname uniforms

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 25, 2017 ♦ 1 Comment

This weekend major league baseball will attempt to connect their players with their fans by having each player wear a nickname on their jersey in an effort to show that the million dollar kids are still human.

Dodgernicknames

A few of my favorites:

Austin Barnes: “SAM”
“The guys sent me on a taco run last year, and when I got back with them, A.J. Ellis was kidding Chase Utley that he didn’t know my name and Utley joked, ‘Yeah, it’s Sam,’ and that’s the story,” Barnes said.

Kenley Jansen: “KENLEYFORNIA”
A fan sent Jansen a California state flag, edited to read “Kenleyfornia,” which Jansen hung above his locker, and it’s become his new motto. “It got me going,” he said.

Josh Ravin: “CUERVO”
“It means raven in Spanish,” said Ravin. “Maybe it will help people understand that you pronounce it raven and not ravine.”

Raven has to be thrilled he is even on the roster and gets to participate in this little shindig.

Chase Utley: “SILVER FOX”
“I asked Corey [Seager] to come up with a nickname for me. It’s all Corey,” Utley said.

Heck, we have been calling Chase the Silver Fox for months.

If you clicked on the link at the top you can tell that not all of the players are buying into this public relations branch.

Some updates

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 24, 2017 ♦ 3 Comments

A few days ago I posted how Walker Buehler was performing as a relief pitcher and that he has long odds to make the Dodger postseason roster in that role. Tonight he got eight outs in relief, striking out four. He has to be on the Dodger roster before Sept 1st so expect to see him called up before next Friday.

I was wrong about the Sept 1st date, here from the comments is the actual status:

He just has to be in the organization prior to Sept. 1st to be eligible for the post-season roster. Player eligibility is anyone on the 25 man roster as well as anyone on the disabled list; those on the disabled list can be replaced by anyone else that is on the 40 man roster and was in the organization prior to Sept. 1st. So, Buehler only needs to be added to the 40 man, which will happen whenever they call him up, and then he can named to the post-season in place of someone on the DL.

Puig has walked three more times since I mentioned his walk rate in August giving him 18 for the month. That would be good for 3rd best for the Dodgers in August since Puig started playing in 2013.

Chris Taylor picked up three more hits tonight, making it ten times he has had three hits in a game this year, along with three times he has had four hits in a game. It was the second time in the four game series he had three hits. Taylor now has a .404 OBP in August, a .418 OBP since the all-star break, and a ridiculous .653 slug% since the all-star break.

Angel Sanchez finally makes his debut

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 24, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

When the Dodgers minor league system was horrible, Angel Sanchez was at least interesting. This little thread from TBLA back in the fall of 2012 shows what I mean. Brandon was conducting a vote for the 9th best Dodger prospect and this was what he had to work with:

Again, the candidates for this vote are:

James Baldwin – OF (20 years old)

Alfredo Silverio – OF (24.5 years old)

Angelo Songco – 1B (23 years old)

Jonathan Garcia – OF (20 years old)

Angel Sanchez – RHP (22 years old)

Alex Castellanos – OF (25.25 years old)

Griff Erickson – C (23.5 years old)

Scott Van Slyke – OF/1B (25.25 years old)

Tim Federowicz – C (24.25 years old)

The only player to even touch the majors were SVS and Tim Federowicz.

Until today. Angel Sanchez finally made his major league debut, but it was with the Pirates, not the Dodgers. Sanchez had been traded by the Dodgers on July 6th, 2013 for Rickey Nolasco.

Here is how he got to the Pirates. A feel good story as they say.

At first, Sanchez said, “I couldn’t talk.” In his mind, he retraced the seven years since signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2010. He may have been a month away from a September promotion with the Pirates in 2015 before he underwent Tommy John surgery. With his aunt waiting on the other end of the line, Sanchez finally said, “I’m going to the big leagues.”

I was a fan of Angel Sanchez, he had signed late for a Dominican, seemed to have a good head on his shoulders but I had forgotten all about him until Eric Stephen tweeted that he used to be in the Dodger organization. It still didn’t click with me that this was the Angel Sanchez who I use to tout until I saw him pitch.

How about that. I had lost touch with him after he left the Dodgers and just assumed he was back on the Island, but no, at the age of 27 he finally made the show.

Good for him, and best of luck going forward. I doubt he’ll have fond memories of the bombs that Grandal and Granderson blasted off of him.

October Bullpen battle

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 24, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

Rich Hill pitched a complete game on Wednesday so no one pitched in the bullpen.

On Thursday Ryu pitched six strong innings, making both his case for a spot in the Dodger October rotation or the bullpen. The odds are against him in both cases but if he keeps pitching like that, he might not be denied. Right now I’d rather have Ryu on the roster instead of Tony Watson but that is fluid. Dave Roberts said today that if they are considering any of the rotation pieces for the bullpen in October they would get work in Sept in the bullpen to prepare them. Expect Ryu to get some of those games.

In a very close game, some pitchers came through big time, and one did not. Josh Fields got his first out on a comebacker but then gave up a ringing double. With the score 3 – 1 Tony Watson came in and got the first out before giving up a walk and single putting the score at 3 – 2 and being replaced by Pedro Baez. Pedro just had one of his worst outings of the year on Tuesday Night when he walked three batters. He was facing one of the hottest hitters in baseball in Andrew McCutchen with the tying run on 3rd base and the go ahead runner on 1st. Twitter did not take kindly to Baez being in the game but he turned those jeers to cheers when he struck out McCutchen to end the inning. Baez started the next inning and finished it after giving up a walk and hit batsman giving the Dodgers four key outs. Brandow Morrow finished the game with a flourish striking out Jose Osuna to end the game.

In other game notes, early in the game Adrian Gonzalez hit another long out and I was wondering if was just missing it, or if that was all he had. Turns out he was just missing it, as he crushed a long home run in the top of the 9th. That was good to see. His home run had followed an even longer home run by Grandal. The 3/4/5 hitters had come into the 9th hitless, but those back to back blasts gave the Dodgers a nice three run cushion for the bottom of the 9th.

Chris Taylor had two bloop hits, one barrel double, and another long out.

Justin Turner is in his first prolonged slump of the season.

Granderson put one into the Allegany river prompting my wife to ask me why they were called the Pirates. I said River Pirates and she scoffed saying there was no such thing. She googled it and found that there certainly were river Pirates, but the Pirates didn’t get their name from river Pirates they got it when they were accused of stealing a baseball player from another team and were called Pirates for the action, and they liked it so much they changed their name from the Pittsburgh Alleghenys to the Pittsburgh Pirates. I still prefer to think they are the Pirates because of the infamous Allegheny River Pirates but evidently, they never existed.

Stay tuned, this is the one battle that will make Sept interesting.

Pitcher	Position	October	8/21/2017	8/22/2017	8/24/2017
Kenley Jansen	Closer	Locked
Brandon Morrow	RHSetup	Locked	+++		+++
Luis Avilan	LHSetup	Locked	+++	+++
Tony Watson	LHSetup	Locked	–	+++	—
Tony Cingrani	LHSetup	Maybe		+++
Josh Fields	RHSetup	Maybe	+++	+++	+
Javier Baez	RHSetup	Maybe	—		+++
Ross Stripling	RHSetup	Maybe	+++
Brock Stewart	RHSetup	Maybe		—
Ryu	LHSetup	Maybe			+++
McCarthy	RHSetup	Maybe
Kenta	RHSetup	Maybe
Josh Ravin	RHSetup	Maybe		++
Walker Buehler	RHSetup	Maybe

Historical Branch Rickey Winners

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 24, 2017 ♦ 1 Comment

The Branch Rickey award has a long history that dates back to 1989. The award itself has as many hits as it does misses, so winning the award does not guarantee major league success. Mike Huff started it all off and Mike Huff should give you fair warning when the winner is older than twenty-four. Huff had a major league career but not a good one.

Player of the Year:

The Golden Hits- Mike Piazza, Paul Konerko, Corey Seager

The Hits – Eric Karros, Franklin Gutierrez, James Loney, Dee Gordon, Joc Pederson

The misses – Billy Ashley, Andy LaRoche, Jerry Sands, Scott Van Slyke

The whiffs – Adam Riggs, Angel Pena, Chin-Feng Chen, Joe Thurston, Phil Hiatt, Joel Guzman, Chin-lung Hu, Ivan De-Jesus,

Pitcher of the Year:

The Best Pitcher Ever – Pedro Martinez

The I look like Fernando but that was about it – Dennys Reyes

The guys who broke my heart because I thought were going to be our Sandy and Don – Greg Miller and Edwin Jackson

The All-Stars- Eric Gagne, Chad Billingsley

The Starters – James McDonald, Rubby De La Rosa, John Ely, Julio Urias

The Bullpen – Jim Poole, Todd Williams, Kip Gross, Luke Prokopec, Scott Elbert, Shawn Tolleson,

The Who? – Jamie McAndrew, Greg Hansell, Gary Rath, Billy Neal, Carlos Garcia, Ricardo Rodriguez, Mark Alexander, Zach Lee

Looking at these ages, I think Keibert Ruiz is the youngest prospect to ever win the Player of the Year award. Ruiz entered the season only eighteen years old. Anyone who follows this blog, knows I targeted Ruiz as an up and comer way back in June before he was on anyone’s top ten Dodger list, now he’s the Dodgers best position prospect. Didn’t expect the Dodgers to reward Ruiz with the Branch Rickey Award, I though that would go to Alex Verdugo.

Branch Rickey Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year: 1989-2017

Year	Player of the Year	POS	League	Pitcher of the Year	League
1989	Mike Huff	OF	AAA	Jim Poole	A
1990	Henry Rodriguez	OF	AA	Jamie McAndrew	A+/AA
1991	Eric Karros	1st	AAA	Pedro Martinez	AA/AAA
1992	Mike Piazza	C	AA/AAA	Todd Williams	A+/AA
1993	Billy Ashley	OF	AAA	Kip Gross	AAA
1994	Billy Ashley	OF	AAA	Greg Hansell	AAA
1995	Adam Riggs	Infielder	A+	Gary Rath	AA/AAA
1996	Paul Konerko	Infielder	AA/AAA	Billy Neal	A
1997	Paul Konerko	Infielder	AAA	Dennys Reyes	AA/AAA
1998	Angel Peña	C	AA	Luke Prokopec	A+/AA
1999	Chin-Feng Chen	OF	A+	Eric Gagné	AA
2000	Joe Thurston	2B	A+	Carlos Garcia	A+
2001	Phil Hiatt	Infielder	AAA	Ricardo Rodriguez	A
2002	Joe Thurston	2B	AAA	Edwin Jackson
2003	Franklin Gutierrez	OF	A+/AA	Greg Miller	A+/AA
2004	Joel Guzman	SS	A+/AA	Chad Billingsley	A+/AA
2005	Andy LaRoche	3B	A+/AA	Chad Billingsley	AA
2006	James Loney	1B	AAA	Mark Alexander	AA/AAA
2007	Chin-lung Hu	SS	AA/AAA	James McDonald	A+/AA
2008	Ivan De Jesus	SS	AA	James McDonald	AA
2009	Dee Gordon	SS	A	Scott Elbert	AA/AAA
2010	Jerry Sands	OF	A/AA	Rubby De La Rosa	A/AA
2011	Scott Van Slyke	OF	AA	Shawn Tolleson	A/AA
2012	Joc Pederson	OF	A+	John Ely	AAA
2013	Scott Schebler	OF	A+	Zach Lee	AA
2014	Joc Pederson	OF	AAA	Julio Urias	A+
2014A	Corey Seager	SS	A+/AA
2015	Alex Verdugo	OF	A/A+	Zach Lee	AAA
2016	Edwin Rios	3B	A/A+/AA	Brock Stewart	A+/AA/AAA
2017	Keibert Ruiz	C	A/A+	Walker Buehler	A+/AA/AAA

Dodgers honor Walker Buehler and Keibert Ruiz

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 24, 2017 ♦ 2 Comments

Per the Dodger Press Release:

DODGERS NAME WALKER BUEHLER, KEIBERT RUIZ AS THE BRANCH RICKEY MINOR LEAGUE PITCHER/PLAYER OF THE YEAR

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers today named right-handed pitcher Walker Buehler as the Branch Rickey Minor League Pitcher of the Year and catcher Keibert Ruiz as the Branch Rickey Minor League Player of the Year.

In 24 combined appearances (19 starts) this season with Single-A Rancho Cucamonga, Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City, Buehler has a 3-3 record with a 3.36 ERA (31 ER/ 83 IP) and one save, striking out a combined 117 batters against just 29 walks. Buehler started his season dominating the California League, posting a 1.10 ERA (2 ER/16.1 IP) in five starts, before his promotion to Tulsa on May 10.

Buehler then made 11 starts for the Drillers, going 2-2 with a 3.49 ERA (19 ER/49.0 IP), a 1.12 WHIP and a .225 opponent’s batting average. He was named Texas League Pitcher of the Week after his start on June 30, in which he fired 5.1 scoreless innings while allowing just two hits and striking out seven against only one walk. Buehler was promoted to Oklahoma City on July 16 and made three starts – including his first Triple-A victory on July 31 (5.0 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 6 K) – before being moved to a relief role in August. Since moving to the ‘pen, Buehler has struck out 11 batters in 7.2 innings. Overall, he has limited the opposition to a .224 average with the OKC Dodgers.

The Dodgers originally selected the Lexington, Kentucky native with the 24^th overall in the 2015 First-Year Player Draft.

Ruiz, who turned 19 on July 20, was signed out of Venezuela in July 2014 and after a stellar 2016 campaign for Rookie-level Ogden, combined to hit .329 with 56 runs, 22 doubles, two triples, eight home runs, and 49 RBI in 92 games for Single-A Great Lakes and Single-A Rancho Cucamonga this season.

Ruiz began 2017 by slashing .317/372/.423 in 63 games for Single-A Great Lakes and was promoted to Single-A Rancho Cucamonga on July 9. With the Quakes, Ruiz is batting .353 (41-for-116) with six homers, six doubles, 25 RBI and 22 runs scored in 29 games. In 192 career minor-league games, the switch-hitting catcher has slashed .337 /.379/.473 with 11 homers, 52 doubles and 116 RBI.

Buehler and Ruiz will both be presented their respective awards and honored in a pregame ceremony at Dodger Stadium on Sept. 23 vs. San Francisco.

Branch Rickey Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year: 1989-2017

Year	Player of the Year	POS	League	Pitcher of the Year	League
1989	Mike Huff	OF	AAA	Jim Poole	A
1990	Henry Rodriguez	OF	AA	Jamie McAndrew	A+/AA
1991	Eric Karros	1st	AAA	Pedro Martinez	AA/AAA
1992	Mike Piazza	C	AA/AAA	Todd Williams	A+/AA
1993	Billy Ashley	OF	AAA	Kip Gross	AAA
1994	Billy Ashley	OF	AAA	Greg Hansell	AAA
1995	Adam Riggs	Infielder	A+	Gary Rath	AA/AAA
1996	Paul Konerko	Infielder	AA/AAA	Billy Neal	A
1997	Paul Konerko	Infielder	AAA	Dennys Reyes	AA/AAA
1998	Angel Peña	C	AA	Luke Prokopec	A+/AA
1999	Chin-Feng Chen	OF	A+	Eric Gagné	AA
2000	Joe Thurston	2B	A+	Carlos Garcia	A+
2001	Phil Hiatt	Infielder	AAA	Ricardo Rodriguez	A
2002	Joe Thurston	2B	AAA	Edwin Jackson
2003	Franklin Gutierrez	OF	A+/AA	Greg Miller	A+/AA
2004	Joel Guzman	SS	A+/AA	Chad Billingsley	A+/AA
2005	Andy LaRoche	3B	A+/AA	Chad Billingsley	AA
2006	James Loney	1B	AAA	Mark Alexander	AA/AAA
2007	Chin-lung Hu	SS	AA/AAA	James McDonald	A+/AA
2008	Ivan De Jesus	SS	AA	James McDonald	AA
2009	Dee Gordon	SS	A	Scott Elbert	AA/AAA
2010	Jerry Sands	OF	A/AA	Rubby De La Rosa	A/AA
2011	Scott Van Slyke	OF	AA	Shawn Tolleson	A/AA
2012	Joc Pederson	OF	A+	John Ely	AAA
2013	Scott Schebler	OF	A+	Zach Lee	AA
2014	Joc Pederson	OF	AAA	Julio Urias	A+
2014A	Corey Seager	SS	A+/AA
2015	Alex Verdugo	OF	A/A+	Zach Lee	AAA
2016	Edwin Rios	3B	A/A+/AA	Brock Stewart	A+/AA/AAA
2017	Keibert Ruiz	C	A/A+	Walker Buehler	A+/AA/AAA

Rich Hill gets 27 outs, can’t get 28

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 23, 2017 ♦ 1 Comment

Pirates-pitcher-Harvey-Haddix

Rich Hill found out how Harvey Haddix felt fifty-eight years ago when he finished the 9th inning with his no-hitter intact but with no decision because his team was unable to push across a single run.

The Dodgers went quietly in the 10th, and Rich Hill gave up a lead off home run to take the loss 1 – 0. It wasn’t quite Harvey Haddix who pitched twelve perfect innings before giving up an error and ultimately losing the game in the 13th 1 – 0. His opponent, Lew Burdette also went all thirteen innings. Both pitchers combined for twenty – six innings, and still finished the game under 3 hours.

Still, this might have been the toughest loss for a pitcher in the 21st century, even more so when you consider how many runs the Dodgers typically score. Rich Hill could be pardoned if he was humming ” you picked a fine time to leave me Lucille” in reference to the Dodger offense.

The NYT came out this morning with more information on the history of the Rich Hill loss. Turns out that Rich Hill is the first pitcher to lose a no-hitter on a home run in extra innings.

The last pitcher before Hill to throw nine no-hit innings and lose was Mark Gardner of the Expos on June 26, 1991, at Dodger Stadium. With the score 0-0 in the 10th, Gardner allowed singles to Lenny Harris and Eddie Murray before Darryl Strawberry singled off reliever Jeff Fassero to win the game for Los Angeles.

One final tidbit from the story:

And the year after Haddix’s excruciating loss, he was credited with the victory of every pitcher’s dreams: in Game 7 of the World Series, in relief for the Pirates against the Yankees.

The six man rotational disabled list

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 23, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

Jon Weisman tweeted yesterday that the Dodgers have a full rotation on the disabled list.

The Los Angeles Disabled Listers look like they’re headed for a six-man rotation: Kershaw, Darvish, Wood, Urias, McCarthy, Kazmir

— Jon Weisman (@jonweisman) August 22, 2017

Not just five starters but six

Not just any starters either:

A 3 time CYA winner and one time MVP
A four-time all-star
A one time all-star with a 14 – 1 record in 2017
A guy who was supposed to be future Cy Young and was the greatest teenage pitcher in LAD history
Two pitchers making a combined $29,000,000 in 2017
Those pitchers are making a combined $80,000,000

And they haven’t missed a beat because they still have a full rotation of arms with Rich Hill. Ryu, Kenta Maeda and Brock Stewart. No matter who starts, the Dodgers win. and win. and win.

They have an opening this Saturday before the arms start coming back. Yu Darvish will be back Sunday. Kershaw and McCarthy will both pitch rehab games this week. Kershaw will be back next week. McCarthy should follow shortly. Basically, by Sept 1st, the Dodgers will be adding at least three arms back into the rotation, and possibly four as Alex Wood is simply resting.

This Saturday could be intriguing. They could just use Ross Stripling and make it a bullpen game, They could give Wilmer Font a shot but Eric Stephen pointed out the complications of that move.

The best option might be Wilmer Font, who leads the Pacific Coast League with 170 strikeouts in 128⅓ innings, to go with his 3.58 ERA in 24 starts. His addition would acquire a corresponding move since he is not on the 40-man roster.

But given how well the 27-year-old has pitched this season, coupled with the fact that he’ll be a minor league free agent at season’s end, he was a potential September addition to the Dodgers roster anyway. If the Dodgers were planning to add Font in September, bringing him up a week early doesn’t present too much more of an obstacle, other than that Font can’t be optioned back to the minors, having used his four option seasons in 2011-14.

I’m hoping for Font, might be his only chance to start a game in 2017 before all the arms come back.

The Monthly walk LAD leaderboard

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 23, 2017 ♦ 1 Comment

With Yasiel Puig taking walks this month more than he has ever done before, I decided to bring back the leaderboard for walks in a month.

Of course, Jimmy Wynn is on top, that was his bread and butter. How about the rest of the group that has managed at least twenty-three walks in a month?

Jim Gilliam had quite the month of June in 1959. He not only walked twenty-seven times, he also hit a blistering .431 to give him an OBP for the month of .536. That sounds really high but when I run the numbers that is only the 5th best OBP for a month by a LAD. I’ll show you that table tomorrow.
Dick Allen was also known for the walk and his 26 walks were good for 3rd place. Jimmy Wynn played two years and has the best monthly total, while Dick Allen was only here for one year and had the third best total. Maybe Al Campanis wasn’t a fan of the walk?
The largest split between BA and OBP belongs to Gary Sheffield who managed an OBP of .407 even though he only hit .226. Gary made the list twice and was the only player with double digit home runs in the same month he walked over twenty-three times.
Other patient players I was not surprised to see on the list were JD Drew, Brett Butler, and Reggie Smith.
I was surprised to see Jose Offerman. He and Davey Lopes were the only players to have over twenty-three walks in a month but not hit at least one home run.
Gilliam and Brett Butler were the only two who managed at least twenty-three walks and hit over .400. Couldn’t keep those guys off base.

Player                 Split Year BB  PA HR   BA  OBP  SLG   OPS
Jim Wynn                June 1975 29 122  3 .283 .451 .457  .907
Jim Gilliam             June 1959 27 139  2 .431 .536 .532 1.068
Dick Allen            August 1971 26 114  3 .276 .439 .414  .852
Gary Sheffield      Sept/Oct 1999 26 113 12 .226 .407 .667 1.074
Gary Sheffield          July 2000 26 112  7 .353 .509 .671 1.180
Wally Moon               May 1961 24  95  2 .324 .495 .493  .988
Jose Offerman            May 1995 23 128  0 .356 .480 .455  .935
Reggie Smith            June 1977 23 112  3 .271 .432 .435  .868
Shawn Green              May 2000 23 118  5 .367 .508 .667 1.175
Pedro Guerrero        August 1982 23 139  8 .360 .475 .614 1.089
Davey Lopes      April/March 1975 23 114  0 .276 .432 .356  .789
Russell Martin   April/March 2008 23 114  3 .292 .439 .449  .888
J.D. Drew           Sept/Oct 2006 23 106  6 .317 .462 .683 1.145
Brett Butler            July 1992 22 124  1 .442 .547 .547 1.094

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/23/2017.

October bullpen countdown

Phil Gurnee ♦ August 22, 2017 ♦ 2 Comments

The Dodgers have two big decisions to make come October. Who will start game three and game four, and who will make up the October bullpen.

The bullpen is so crowded that when I did my breakdown of the Walker Buehler chances I forgot to mention Josh Fields who reminded me tonight how foolish that was.

The bullpen has been taxed over the last two nights, but they came through and helped the Dodgers to two victories. Morrow and Avilan further cemented their locked in status for the October bullpen. Watson had one good outing and one bad outing. Cingrani was outstanding tonight along with Josh Fields. Ross Stripling did the job last night but Pedro Baez showed why he still makes most Dodger fans nervous. By all accounts, Pedro Baez has been outstanding this year, but every time we say that he seems to have a game like last night. Brock Stewart did himself no favors with his poor showing tonight. Josh Ravin has to be a huge longshot but after giving up the double that did in the ERA of Brock Stewart he was fantastic.

I think we have four locks with Jansen, Morrow, Avilan, and Watson. Maybe Cingrani is a lock. Fields might be. You’d think Baez would be. Will all the rotation pieces end up on the outside looking in?