I picked the wrong day to go to Lancaster
For years I wanted to visit the home of the Lancaster Jethawks and with the Rancho Quakes starting their playoff run in Lancaster, I decided that Wednesday Night would be the best time to finally make the trip.
I picked the wrong night.
On Wednesday night the Quakes offense couldn’t register on the seismic scale and the defense didn’t exactly play well. Caleb Ferguson for all his sterling numbers is just a crafty left hander who couldn’t dent the jug gun. Considering I spent about five hours making the round trip, I can’t say it was worth it.
Kaybear looked like a man, belying his nineteen years of age. He didn’t have much luck throwing out any runners but he looked good behind the plate and had an interesting setup as a left hand hitter. I did get to see the debut of Cristian Santana who played 1st base. He got some nice hits, hit the ball harder than anyone else on the team.
I stayed home on Thursday Night and the Quakes put a 7.0 on the seismic scale winning 17 – 8. I’m going to assume the wind was blowing out as the Quakes hit six home runs.
- Kaybear had five hits
- DJ Peters had three hits and a home run
- Brandon Montgomery hit two home runs
- Ariel Sandoval hit a home run
Dodgers becoming a punching bag for NL West
On Sunday, August 27th, the Dodgers played their last game against the NL Central losing to the Brewers 3 – 2. On August 25th the Dodgers had a 21 game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Since August 27th the Dodgers have only played NL West teams:
- The Diamondbacks swept the Dodgers in Arizona outscoring the Dodgers 21 – 11 and cutting the lead to 16 games. No big deal.
- Next up were the Padres and the Dodgers beat the 1 – 0 in Kershaw’s first game in months. Arizona also won so the lead was still 16 games.
- The Dodgers would lose the next three games to the Padres giving up at least six runs in each game. The previous seven games the Dodger pitching had given up at least six runs in each game, except for the Kershaw game.
- The lead over the Diamondbacks was now 13.5. Still no big deal.
- The Dodgers headed home for a three game series with Arizona. They lost every game getting outscored 19 – 2. The Diamondbacks had beat the Dodgers six in a row in a nine game period and outscored them 40 – 12. Included in that was a beat down of epic proportions when they won 13 – 0. The lead was now 10.5 games.
- Colorado came to town but Kershaw was on the mound. No matter, the Rockies made short work of Kershaw and crushed the Dodgers 9 – 1. Diamondbacks took the day off but still gained 1/2 a game. They are now 10 games back.
- The Dodgers have now lost 12 of 13 games
- The Dodgers have lost 10 of 11 games against the NL West since August 29th
- The Dodgers have four times only scored more than four runs while losing those 12 of 13 games.
We should be clear, with only 22 games left and a 10 game lead if would be virtually impossible for the Dodgers to not win the NL West.
Let us also be clear, I’m not panicking but this is also a meltdown of historical proportions. The Dodgers have had 11 games wiped off their lead in a matter of 13 games. The combination of the Dodgers losing 12 of 13 games, and Diamondbacks winning every game. I’ll let someone run the numbers but I’ll conjecture that no Dodger team that was ever in 1st place in August lost 12 of 13 games.
Everyone says not to worry, but right now this team is in disarray and while Dave Roberts can promise the fans the team will win the NL West, that does little to quiet the concern they see for a team being used as a punching bag.
Where are the Giants when you need them?
They have no starting CF. They tried an AAA prospect who failed to impress in very limited starts. They have currently gone back to the CF they sent to AAA and who performed miserably while in AAA. I was wrong in that I didn’t think Joc would get much play in Sept, but things must be a little alarming in that they have given him a tryout in Sept to win back his CF job.
Walker Buehler made his debut and looked great in two innings in a game that was already out of reach. I can’t wait to see him in a high leverage situation because he might need to join Jansen/Morrow/Cingrani/Watson. Though I worry he’s not ready for that role if they decide to use him in October.
- The LF they traded for has been as bad as the RF they traded for last summer.
- The 2nd base duo are not hitting
- The bullpen is getting tattooed.
- The 2nd ace they traded for has failed to pitch like someone who will match up well in October.
- The MVP candidate and all-star Shortstop has a bum wing.
- Baez blew up in Sept instead of waiting for October
They have 22 games to get his sorted out and the odds are that they will get it straightened out.
- Seager will be back, which will put Chris Taylor back in CF.
- Darvish will probably start pitching like that ace starting tonight
- Logan or Chase might start hitting again
- Granderson might start hitting again
- Most of the bullpen that is getting hurt, will not be on the staff in October.
Might, they need alot of mights right now. There are only good to great teams in their in their future in October if the Diamondbacks win the play-in game.
Time to start getting it back together.
Pedro Guerrero tops this leaderboard
If Jimmy Wynn tops the Dodger leaderboard for consecutive games with a walk, who tops the leaderboard with at least one walk and one hit?
Pedro Guerrero
Seems the only Brooklyn Dodgers to crack the top ten leaderboard are Jim Gilliam and Roy Campanella. Junior did it seven times in a row as a Brooklyn Dodger and six times in a row twice as a LAD.
Rk Name Strk Start End Games AB H HR BB OPS 1 Pedro Guerrero 1982-08-03 1982-08-10 8 32 12 2 8 1.063 2 Willie Crawford 1973-09-15 1973-09-21 7 21 10 2 8 1.478 3 Jim Gilliam 1953-04-26 1953-05-04 7 23 11 0 11 1.125 4 Matt Kemp 2009-07-03 2009-07-09 6 22 12 0 6 1.325 5 Russell Martin 2007-07-06 2007-07-15 6 22 12 2 6 1.519 6 Davey Lopes 1977-04-11 1977-04-17 6 21 8 0 8 .962 7 Jim Wynn 1975-04-07 1975-04-13 6 21 8 1 9 1.263 8 Jim Gilliam 1962-06-27 1962-07-02 6 22 8 0 7 .926 9 Jim Gilliam 1959-06-27 1959-07-03 6 20 11 0 8 1.429 10 Roy Campanella 1953-08-09 1953-08-16 6 19 12 3 6 1.878 11 Bobby Morgan 1952-06-08 1952-06-12 6 21 8 1 8 1.233 12 Pee Wee Reese 1951-04-28 1951-05-03 6 18 9 0 7 1.307 13 Jackie Robinson 1950-05-02 1950-05-07 6 20 9 2 8 1.607 14 George Shuba 1948-07-02 1948-07-06 6 22 10 1 7 1.223 15 Pee Wee Reese 1947-06-01 1947-06-05 6 18 10 2 7 1.624 16 Cookie Lavagetto 1940-06-18 1940-06-23 6 24 8 1 8 1.083 17 Sam Leslie 1934-05-01 1934-05-07 6 19 12 1 8 1.583
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/6/2017.
Trout and Wynn
Mike Trout walked for the 14th game in a row setting the Angel franchise record, which made me wonder who has the record for the Dodgers.
Even before I did the search I would have bet on Jimmy Wynn even though he only played for the Dodgers for two years, and sure enough, there he is on top.
Have to admit I never heard of Roy Cullenbine before.
Did not expect to see Raul Mondesi but did expect to see Gary Sheffield have at least ten games in a row.
Rk Name Strk Start End Games BB 1 Jim Wynn 1975-08-09 1975-08-28 12 16 2 Dick Allen 1971-08-03 1971-08-16 11 19 3 Pee Wee Reese 1942-04-15 1942-04-25 11 14 4 Roy Cullenbine 1940-04-16 1940-05-05 11 17 5 Raul Mondesi 1999-04-07 1999-04-17 10 11 6 Davey Lopes 1975-04-07 1975-04-17 10 14 7 Bobby Morgan 1952-06-04 1952-06-12 10 14
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/6/2017.
September fools
I don’t know why the Dodgers decided to stop hitting as a team but this is why the team has won only one game in Sept and that was the 1 – 0 game on Sept 1st.
Player Split HR PA 2B RBI BB BA OBP SLG OPS Chris Taylor Sept/Oct 1 23 1 1 0 .261 .261 .435 .696 Cody Bellinger Sept/Oct 2 20 0 3 0 .250 .250 .650 .900 Justin Turner Sept/Oct 1 20 3 4 1 .368 .400 .684 1.084 Curtis Granderson Sept/Oct 0 17 0 0 1 .063 .118 .063 .180 Yasiel Puig Sept/Oct 0 16 2 0 2 .214 .313 .357 .670 Yasmani Grandal Sept/Oct 1 15 0 2 2 .083 .200 .333 .533 Logan Forsythe Sept/Oct 0 15 0 0 1 .214 .267 .214 .481 Alex Verdugo Sept/Oct 0 13 0 0 2 .182 .308 .182 .490 Enrique Hernandez Sept/Oct 0 11 0 0 0 .273 .273 .273 .545 Andre Ethier Sept/Oct 0 10 0 0 1 .111 .200 .111 .311 Chase Utley Sept/Oct 0 9 0 1 1 .125 .222 .125 .347 Austin Barnes Sept/Oct 0 9 0 1 0 .222 .222 .222 .444 Adrian Gonzalez Sept/Oct 0 6 1 1 0 .500 .500 .667 1.167 OKoyea Dickson Sept/Oct 0 6 0 0 2 .000 .333 .000 .333 Rob Segedin Sept/Oct 0 6 1 0 0 .167 .167 .333 .500 Charlie Culberson Sept/Oct 0 3 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 Corey Seager Sept/Oct 0 2 0 0 0 .500 .500 .500 1.000 Alex Wood Sept/Oct 0 2 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/6/2017.
Reasons:
Corey Seager has only two plate appearances
Chris Taylor does not have one single walk
Cody Bellinger does not have one single walk
Guys like Dickson, Segedin, Ethier, and Verdugo have been given plate appearances and predictably produced diddly squat
Curtis Granderson has been August 2016 Josh Reddick like in Sept
Grandal has one hit
The Dodger 2nd baseman, Logan and Chase have been less than optimal
After six games in Sept, not one Dodger has more than two walks.
Top 15 positional prospects
Take this with a grain of salt but here are my top fifteen positional prospects.
| Rank | ProspecName | BirthDate | AGE | League |
| 1 | Keibert Ruiz | 7/20/1998 | 19 | A+ |
| 2 | Alex Verdugo* | 5/15/1996 | 21 | AAA/Majors |
| 3 | Yusniel Diaz | 10/7/1996 | 20 | AA |
| 4 | Starling Heredia | 2/6/1999 | 18 | A |
| 5 | Jeren Kendall | 2/4/1996 | 21 | A |
| 6 | D.J. Peters | 12/12/1995 | 21 | A+ |
| 7 | Gavin Lux | 11/23/1997 | 19 | A |
| 8 | Edwin Rios* | 4/21/1994 | 23 | AAA |
| 9 | Will Smith | 3/28/1995 | 22 | AA |
| 10 | Connor Wong | 5/19/1996 | 21 | A |
| 11 | Omar Estevez | 2/25/1998 | 19 | A+ |
| 12 | Cristian Santana | 2/24/1997 | 20 | A |
| 13 | Kyle Farmer | 8/17/1990 | 27 | AAA/Majors |
| 14 | Carlos Rincon | 10/14/1997 | 19 | A |
| 15 | Matt Beaty | 4/28/1993 | 24 | AA |
If you read this blog at all you know that I’m all in on Keibert Ruiz. His hitting approach for such a young player, his success at the age of 18 in the very tough MWL environment, the fact he’s a catcher and the Dodgers promoted him to Rancho when they could very well have simply kept him in the MWL. I’m not sure why the Dodgers put him on such a fast track, but he met the promotion head on and crushed it at Rancho for most of his time there. Ruiz may not have a high offensive ceiling, but he probably has a very high probability of having a successful major league career.
Alex Verdugo will be placed higher than Keibert Ruiz by just about everyone else. I’m not sure why except the group think may simply be smarter than myself. He doesn’t seem like a starting CF to me, and his lack of power could prove a problem in a league that is now dinger crazy. His hitting approach might have played better in an earlier era so it will be interesting to see which of DJ Peters or Alex Verdugo actually has the more productive major league career. I may be prejudiced by having watched Joc Pederson lack of footspeed try to handle CF these past few years, and Alex does not seem to have any better footspeed than Joc. Routes are cool, but Alex will need to prove to me his routes can make up for his footspeed. Still, want to see the gun though. Can you imagine that arm from left field?
Yusniel Diaz didn’t make much of an impression while playing two years at Rancho but he sure took to Tulsa. You don’t usually see someone hit 100 points higher in OPS moving from the offensive California League to the Texas League but that is what Diaz did. At only 20, he’s already in AA and almost put up an OPS of .900. That is why he is above the older Jeren Kendall.
Starling Heredia crushed the rookie leagues and was promoted to the Loons where he predictably struggled. Most kids do and he’s still just eighteen. I would not be surprised if Starling Heredia is the next great Dodger offensive prospect.
Jeren Kendall was the Dodgers number one pick in 2017 but he has a signficant wart in that he is already 21 and still has mighty swing and miss issues. For all his speed he has been a horrible base stealer, having been caught eight out of seventeen attemps so far in his professional career. He must have the speed because he rocketed seven triples in just 140 plate appearances for the Loons. Aren’t too many players who have more triples than doubles or home runs but he is that guy right now. And I love the triple. I look forward to watching this kid play as his tool kit spells excitement.
DJ Peters was the California League Player of the Year. He was called by Rotowire the most impressive player in the California league. He looks like he could walk right onto a movie lot and play a super hero. He has power to spare. He’s not higher because he also struck out over 30% of the time in an A ball league. At only 21 he has plenty of time to work that out, and if he does, BOOM BOOM.
The first six seemed somewhat easy to me. The next group was much tougher.
Gavin Lux was the 2016 number one pick and you would have liked to have seen him higher on the list. He actually needed a very nice second half to get this high. He was another young prospect struggling with the Loons (see why I like Ruiz so much) but he got it going and might be ready to zoom up this list. His August OPS was .885 and after not hitting a home run in April/May hit seven over the final three months. It is not easy for anyone to hit home runs with the Loons in April / May. Lux can take a walk, and stole twenty seven out of thirty seven attempts. I’d like that to be better but it works.
I choose Edwin Rios next because he continues to hit at every level, and hit with power. As a left handed hitting 1st/3rd he will have to continue to hit. I don’t seem him having a Dodger career but I think he could find his way onto a major league roster by virtue of his bat. The scouting reports say his swing is slow and that he’ll eventually find out that he’ll be outmatched at the highest level, but so far he’s handled every level just fine.
The Dodgers drafted two very similar players in Will Smith in 2016 and Connor Wong in 2017. Right now Will Smith is ranked higher as he is in AA and Wong is in A ball but it is hard for me to tell much difference between them. They are both converted athletic catchers with good speed. Smith seems to have the better plate discipline while Wong has more raw power.
Omar Estevez is only here because of his age. He has been a workhorse at a very early age, netting almost 1,000 plate appearances in just two years while still a teen-ager. He spent the whole year at Rancho and while he didn’t knock the socks off of anyone, he held his own. Once Drew Jackson was promoted to AA, Estevez took over at shortstop.
Cristian Santana may have the worse plate discipline in the system. The chances of him overcoming this problem is not very high, but when he makes contact, things happen. Even as I write this I’m having second thoughts about putting him in the top 15.
The late blooming Kyle Farmer is next, mainly because…………….he is
Carlos Rincon beat off a plethora of other prospects because of his power but I don’t hold out much hope he can do something with it.
Matt Beaty was the Tulsa League Player of the Year. Like Rios he is a left handed 1st/3rd baseman. He had a great year but no one seems to think much of him but I couldn’t deny what he did for Tulsa this year.
Other players considered were
| Ronny Brito |
| Luke Raley |
| Errol Robinson |
| Tim Locastro |
| Jared Walker |
| Erick Mejia |
| Ibandel Isabel |
| Romer Cuadrado |
| Drew Jackson |
Is AAA/OKC where Dodger outfielders go to die?
Normally when a proven major league outfielder struggles and gets sent to AAA they blow back up and are quickly promoted back to the major leagues.
Case in point Keon Broxton of the Brewers was their starting CF for most of the season. In an extended slump, Broxton was sent to AAA on July 21st with an OPS of .725. which isn’t bad, however, he had just three hits in July giving him a July OPS of .310. Yup, that is .310. Broxton wasted no time in getting his swing together in AAA putting up an OPS north of 1.000 and thus, seven games later he was back playing CF for the Brewers. Broxton didn’t waste all his hitting at AAA, as he put up an OPS of .794 in August for the Brewers.
Or the 2016 version of Scott Schebler who was so bad at the start of 2016 he was demoted to AAA but crushed AAA and has hit 34 home runs since returning to the majors at the start of August 2016.
Or the 2016 version of Yasiel Puig. We all know what he did to AAA during his exile.
Joc Pederson did not go the Keon Broxton route.
Trayce Thompson did not go the Keon Broxton route.
Scott Van Slyke did not go the Keon Broxton route.
With varying degrees, all three struggled at the major league level and were sent to the minors to work on getting back on track. None of them did. They got worse.
Scott Van Slyke is now in the Cincinnati system and still struggling. SVS hasn’t had real major league success since 2015 but you’d think he would still destroy AAA pitching instead of looking like someone whose career is over. At best SVS was going to be a bench player who could hit left hand pitching. Those days may be behind him. It went to hell in a hand basket for SVS when Wade Miley was traded out of the NL Western Divison.
Trayce Thompson was so good in April/May of 2016 that no one was missing Andre Ethier. Eventually, Thompson cooled off in 2016 and then hurt his back. Working his way back from his back injury Thompson had little chance of making the 2017 roster but when he stopped hitting in AAA that put a damper on any chance. He got a few major league at-bats this year only because of some injuries, at no point had he earned any major league time in 2017 based on his production. We are now 339 at-bats into his 2017 season and he’s not getting any better. His August OPS was .699. In AAA. For a 26-year-old. Save to say, he is no Scott Schebler.
Joc Pederson is different than the others. Joc was supposed to be the Dodgers starting CF, and eventually, start getting at-bats against left hand pitching to cement his hold on being the everyday centerfielder. When he wasn’t hurt he has been the Dodgers starting CF since April of 2015 against almost all right-hand pitching. Even in 2017 he still had an OPS of over .800 when he was demoted to AAA. He struggled in April and ended the month with an OPS of only .662. He struggled more in May and ended the month with a cumulative OPS of .623. If Adrian Gonzalez had not been hurt it was very likely that he would have lost his job back in May but Bellinger was needed at 1st base and not the outfield. Joc got it together in June and put up an OPS of 1.149 moving his cumulative OPS north of .800. He followed that with a good July OPS of .878. At the end of the trading deadline, he looked cemented as the Dodger CF for the rest of the year. The team was winning at a breakneck pace and he was a big part of it. Until August showed up. In August Joc went 2 for 37 and the Dodgers decided not to wait for him to come out of the slump and traded for Curtis Granderson, moved Chris Taylor to CF and sent Joc to AAA to work on his swing. I’m not sure how that is working out. Joc ended his AAA season yesterday with a .548 OPS. For perspective, in 2014 in AAA, three years ago he had an OPS over 1.000. Of course that was in Alburqurque not Oklahoma but still. What the hell has happened to Joc? Depression? Can’t get into the new swing? Something more fundamental? Either way, after being the Dodger starting CF for 16 out of 18 months over the past three years, Joc will have no role for the Dodgers for the rest of 2017.
I’m not sure right now if Joc will even have a role in 2018. His time may have already come and gone for the Dodgers. Heading into 2018 he will no longer being fending off competitors for his job but actually trying to win his job back. From Chris Taylor. From Alex Verdugo. Or from some outside player whose name we don’t know yet. Plus, even more telling is that maybe the Dodgers don’t consider him a CF anymore. He only played CF four of the fourteen games he played in the outfield in OKC. In which case his competition might be the same two, plus Andrew Toles, plus any possible outsider they bring in.
Yup, the winter of 2017 is not going to be anything like the past two winters for Joc Pederson. I suspect he’ll be working his ass off, and I hope it pays off because good Joc was a fun baseball player to watch.
Damn, baseball is a tough game.
Unless your name is Clayton Kershaw
FFA August 28th – Sept 4th
The minor league regular season ended last night so I thought I’d wait a day and get a final Farm Factory Award in with eight days instead of seven. The final eight days had quite a few notable performers so without further ado
The Contenders:
Yusniel Diaz – AA/Tulsa – Diaz had four multi-hit games, collecting thirteen hits, two doubles, and two home runs. Baseball America took notice last Wednesday.
Yusniel Diaz, rf, Dodgers. The Dodgers’ No. 5 prospect at midseason is making this Double-A thing look easy. Diaz had four hits Tuesday in Double-A Tulsa’s 9-3 win over Northwest Arkansas. After slashing .278/.343/.414 in high Class A, the Cuban is hitting .333/.398/.464 in 25 games in the Texas League.
Mitch White – AA/Tulsa – in his last regular season game, Mitch threw 5 scoreless innings, giving up only two hits. He did walk three, with four strikeouts.
Edwin Rios – AAA/OKC – Rios ended the regular season on fire with one huge game in which he drove in a career high six runs with four hits. Rios didn’t stop there, as he also collected six other hits and ended the time period with ten hits, two home runs, ten RBI, and five walks. Previously Rios had only walked thirteen times in 144 at bats, so five walks in twenty-four at bats is the kind of plate discipline progress you hope for. Rios would end the season with an OPS of .901 and an OBP of .368. MILB took notice.
Edwin Rios capped off an amazing night at the plate with a grand slam! It’s your Play of the Game presented by @FollowSNU! pic.twitter.com/MtZVSacah3
— OKC 89ers (@okc_dodgers) August 31, 2017
The four-hit night came after the Florida International product went through a 4-for-30 (.133) stretch over his previous 10 games.
Sandra E. Garcia“A lot of people can blame it on being the end of the year and just being tired or stuff like that. But it happens, it’s baseball,” he said. “People are always going through slumps, so I just kept my head up every day and be the same guy coming to the clubhouse. I knew it was only a matter of time it all turned around and today was the day.”
DJ Peters – A+/Rancho – Peters hit three home runs to end the year with 27, but Seth Brown hit four and won the California League Home Run crown with 30. Peters has great power but it comes with a price as he has struck out 189 times in A+ ball. Rotowire name DJ Peters the most impressive position player in the California League. Rotowire loves what DJ Peters did this year and isn’t scared off by the strikeout rate.
California League
Most Impressive: DJ Peters (Dodgers)
It is quite the indictment on the Cal League that Peters is pretty easily the most interesting offensive prospect who spent a full season in the league this year. Brendan Rodgers took full advantage of Lancaster en route to a quick promotion to Double-A, and Jahmai Joneshas been excellent in less than 200 plate appearances after a promotion from Low-A, but Peters has been the constant. His 32.3 percent strikeout rate will rightfully scare some owners off, but he has legitimate tools. He finished third in the league with 24 home runs, and among the hitters in the league with 15-plus homers, his .374 OBP ranks highest. The highlight of Peters’ season was when he took Madison Bumgarner deep twice in a rehab start. He bypassed Low-A entirely, and when he heads to Double-A next year, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see his strikeout rate drop and his overall offensive performance remain constant.
Dustin May – A+/Rancho – May made his first and only start for the Rancho yesterday and was brilliant. May threw five shutout innings, giving up only one hit, one walk, and striking out eight. It was a fine way to punctuate a great first full season. The 3rd round pick from 2016 turns 20 on Wednesday.
And the winner is………..
Edwin Rios because his OBP for the time period was .517 and I’m loving the seven walks in his last ten games while keeping the hits coming.
Other Minor League Notes:
One of my favorites this year was Dennis Santana but Santana didn’t pitch well in his last start, but he did hit a bomb. Santana is a converted position player so I’m sure he still loves to hit.
Dennis Santana Home Run @TrueBlueDoyers @Think_BlueLA @JaredJMassey @meercatjohn @YOHANNA_NUNEZ @truebluela @ElFanaticoDom @FutureDodgers pic.twitter.com/0QNgsvPKqd
— BIGDADDYOUU (@BIGDADDYOUU) September 3, 2017
Baseball America checks in on Walker Buehler
Walker Buehler, rhp, Dodgers. L.A.’s top prospect at midseason is coming to the majors. The Dodgers are expected to call up the former Vanderbilt ace today and he’ll work out of the bullpen. Buehler was 3-3, 3.35 with 125 strikeouts and 31 walks in 88.2 innings at three levels. He struck out 26.3 percent of hitters. The Dodgers were careful with Buehler’s innings in his first full season following Tommy John surgery and he showed a dynamic four-pitch mix, including a fastball up to 99 mph.
Stetson Allie is having quite a minor league career. Drafted as a pitcher he couldn’t find the plate walking 29 in 26 innings and decided to become a hitter. This was back in 2012 and by 2016 he was still a mediocre AA/AAA hitter. So a few weeks ago he decided to try pitching again. Can’t imagine this working out, and will probably join Brett Eibner when he blows out his elbow and is released by the Dodgers. Unlike Brett who looked to have a career as a backup major league outfielder, Allie had no real choice but to try pitching again since his hitting career had hit a dead end.
About that Pythag!!!
That record breaking season the Dodgers were headed for has hit a brick wall named Arizona. When the Dodgers won their 90th game on August 24th, you saw plenty of tweets about how the Dodgers only needed to go 10 – 26 to reach 100 wins. Or 15 – 21 to reach 105 wins, or 20 – 16 to win 110 games, or 25 – 11 to win 116 games.
Seemed easy peasy.
Ten games later the Dodgers only have 92 wins as they have gone 2 – 8 over their past ten games. Now that 115 looks a bit more out of reach. Pythag has taken a beating with the 13 – 0 beatdown by the Diamondbacks.
Just imagine how bad it would look if Kershaw had not shown up to win his game 1 – 0. Instead of five and four game losing streaks, it might be a ten game losing streak.
Still, we knew they had to have a bad streak, every team, every season has one of them. You can only hope this is just that, and it will be all out their system soon.
This game was different than the rest. This game the starting pitcher actually kept the team from scoring in the 1st inning. They just couldn’t keep them from scoring 13 runs after the 3rd inning.
JD Martinez not only four home runs in the same game, he
was the first Diamondback to hit four home runs in a game
he hit a home run against four different pitchers, Hill, Baez, Fields, and Font
Martinez is supposed to be the lefty killer but he went boom boom boom against three right handers.
And man, maybe the Diamondbacks should consider using Robbie Ray pitch the play-in game. He’s pretty damn good. According to the Dodger post game notes:
According to Elias Sports Bureau, Ray becomes the first pitcher in ML history with four games of 10+ strikeouts in a single season vs. the Dodgers. His 14 strikeouts tonight are the most by a D-backs pitcher since Randy Johnson, who had 15 on Aug. 31, 2004 against the Dodgers.
Since May 20, Ray has gone 10-2 with a 1.94 ERA (20 ER/92.2 IP) and has held hitters to a .177 average, while striking out 125 hitters against just 36 walks.
Catching and passing Piazza, still chasing Frank Robinson
It took longer than expected but Cody Bellinger finally caught Mike Piazza with his 35th home run on Saturday and passed him yesterday with his 36th home run. It was just a matter of time, and now Cody Bellinger holds the Dodgers Rookie home run record in a single season with 36.
Rk Player HR Year Age Tm PA OPS Pos 1 Cody Bellinger 36 2017 21 LAD 440 .967 *37/9HD 2 Mike Piazza (RoY-1st) 35 1993 24 LAD 602 .932 *2/H3 3 Corey Seager (RoY-1st) 26 2016 22 LAD 687 .877 *6/H 4 Joc Pederson (RoY-6th) 26 2015 23 LAD 585 .763 *8H 8 Frank Howard (RoY-1st) 23 1960 23 LAD 487 .784 *97/3H 9 Eric Karros (RoY-1st) 20 1992 24 LAD 589 .730 *3/H 10 Greg Brock (RoY-7th) 20 1983 26 LAD 543 .738 *3/H
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/4/2017.
With Mike Piazza now in his rear view mirror, the only reasonable record in sight is the NL Rookie home run record of 38 set by Frank Robinson. Frank hit eleven home runs from Aug 13th – Sept 3rd to get to his 36 home runs on this date. That was quite a run for Frank but he shot most of his bullets during that stretch. From Sept 4th on he only hit two more home runs and ended with the NL rookie record at 38. That was the major league rookie record until Mark McGwire came to town.
| Player | PA | HR | HR/PA | Sept 3rd | Total | Leader | Year |
| Frank Robinson | 575 | 36 | 15.97 | 36 | 38 | NL Rookie HR | 1956 |
| Mark McGwire | 368 | 36 | 10.22 | 40 | 49 | AL Rookie HR | 1987 |
| Shawn Green | 531 | 36 | 14.75 | 42 | 49 | LAD Alltime HR | 2001 |
| Cody Bellinger | 440 | 36 | 12.22 | 36 | ??? | Chasing | 2017 |
| Aaron Judge | 489 | 36 | 13.58 | 38 | ??? | Chasing | 2017 |
PA – this is the number of plate appearances it took for each player to reach 36 home runs. We used 36 home runs because that is where Bellinger is right now. This would be within 4 PA of accuracy as I didn’t check the game log for the specific plate appearance they hit the home run.
HR – This is a marker showing you 36 home runs.
HR/PA – this is the home runs per plate appearance pace when they each hit their 36th home run.
Total HR through August Sept 3rd
Total – season home run total
Leader – this is why they are on the list. For example Mike Piazza is the LAD Rookie Home Run Leader
Year – this is the year they accomplished the home run record that Cody Bellinger is chasing
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 