Puig has added the walk to his repetiore
Puig has fifteen walks in August which made me run a search to find out how many Dodgers had at least fifteen walks since Puig started playing baseball in 2013.
Some surprising findings:
- This only the second time in his career that he has gotten at least fifteen walks in a month.
- Adrian Gonzalez has only done it once since 2013 despite playing every day until this year.
- Yazmani Grandal has only done it once despite a reputation as a patient/power hitter.
- Hanley Ramirez only did it once
- Justin Turner has only done it once
- Chris Taylor has only done it once but this is his first full-time season.
- Corey Seager has done it twice this year
- Joc Pederson currently playing in AAA has done it five times but four of those five times came back in 2015.
I expected more. Much more.
Player Split Year BB PA BA OBP SLG OPS Adrian Gonzalez Sept/Oct 2015 15 115 .232 .330 .364 .694 Yasmani Grandal August 2016 16 91 .253 .385 .560 .945 Joc Pederson Sept/Oct 2016 15 79 .286 .430 .651 1.081 Joc Pederson May 2015 16 123 .236 .341 .519 .860 Joc Pederson April/March 2015 17 77 .298 .461 .596 1.057 Joc Pederson August 2015 21 74 .120 .384 .260 .644 Joc Pederson June 2015 22 124 .222 .379 .495 .874 Yasiel Puig August 2017 15 68 .226 .397 .472 .869 Yasiel Puig May 2014 17 128 .398 .492 .731 1.224 Hanley Ramirez June 2014 15 84 .294 .417 .441 .858 Corey Seager April/March 2017 15 107 .319 .411 .549 .961 Corey Seager May 2017 17 116 .255 .371 .388 .758 Chris Taylor May 2017 17 107 .322 .430 .511 .941 Justin Turner July 2017 18 94 .260 .404 .507 .911
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/22/2017.
A Sidewalk Sunflower Season
Chapter One:
The Goldfinch picked at the sunflower and gobbled up the ripe seed while keeping one eye and both ears on the interested feline below. The bell tinkled on the cat’s neck, setting off the alarm within the Goldfinch and so he bounced into the sky for safety but the seed he had just plucked fell loose and headed for the ground.
The seed was pleased to be spared and hoped to land in the same fertile earth that she had spawned from as so many of her brethren had done before her, generation after generation, but the goldfinches momentum as he took to the sky had changed the direction of the path and instead of landing in the fertile earth with its brethren it landed softly on a concrete path.
A collective ohhhhhhhhhhhhh resonated from all the seeds in the earth, as they knew that only death awaited the seed. Would it be a quick death as a bird or animal could easily see the ripe seed laying on the concrete, or would the large earth matter who tended them sweep it up during his daily ritual of keeping the concrete clean of vegetative matter?
Night came to the garden, the seed could only wait out its fate. It was very warm where she had fallen and even if she survived the night without bringing substance to the raccoons or ground squirrels, or the sweeping, the heat of the concrete during full sun tomorrow would bake the seed into oblivion. She needed the earth to survive but that didn’t seem likely. She felt other seeds around her, she knew she was not alone. Many had fallen just like her to the concrete. She came from such a huge floret that the gluttonous birds worked faster than they could eat, with many full seeds falling to the ground. Some made it to the earth, but many also landed like her on the concrete.
The ground squirrel came whirling up to the garden plot. He picked up a few of the ripe seeds on the concrete but his focus was on the sunflower itself. As he shuffled up and raised his tiny arm to grab a low hanging sunflower his hind legs kicked a few sunflowers seeds into the crevice between where the two concrete footing met. Years ago the crevice would have been completely solid but time had worked a few holes in the crevice. As luck would have it, she was kicked into the one spot that had such a hole. She had her earth but it was a tenuous life she clung onto.
She felt great life within her and was determined to see what she could make of it even though she only had a 1/2 inch of dirt to work with. In just one night her fortunes had changed as she had made landfall, while the other seeds had either been eaten by the foraging ground squirrel or were still sitting on the concrete.
The next day, the large earthen creature, swept up the seeds on the concrete and placed them into a tub. She hunkered down hoping to escape the brushes that came dangerously close to including her in the murderous roundup. It was finally done, and once again she had survived.
She tried to stay awake but the voice of nature was calling her to sleep. It was a voice you could not ignore, and before the season turned to fall she had fallen into a deep sleep, and would not wake until nature told her too.
The odds of being alive to hear that alarm clock going off were infinitesimally small.
Almost as small as the Dodgers winning 110 games in one season.
Almost as small as Chris Taylor being the leadoff hitter, playing CF, for a team on pace to win more games than any in the history of the Dodger franchise
Almost as small as an AAA player getting called up in late April and hitting more home runs than any rookie in Dodger history
Almost as small as an injury prone Morrow finding out he has many more tomorrows.
So it turns out, those weren’t bad odds at all, were they?
Walker Buehler relief experiment
Watching Pedro Baez struggle last night, I was left wondering how the Walker Buehler experiment is doing.
Walker Buehler is currently the Dodgers top pitching prospect and after a disastrous first start in AAA he settled down and looked more like the Dodgers top pitching prospect. A few weeks ago the Dodger front office moved Walker from the rotation in AAA to the bullpen and said they might consider him for October in a relief role. I kind of scoffed at the idea given that Walker admitted he was mentally shaky in his first start in AAA. How could a guy who couldn’t handle the dim lights of a debut AAA start shine in October when the glare is magnified 100 times and looks like this?
The hurdles for Buehler are significant.
- He has to prove dominant as a setup man in AAA
- He has to get promoted to the Dodgers and prove dominant in highly leveraged outings.
- He needs an opening
Hurdle one has been hit and miss. Walker has made five appearances and been dominant in two of the five. In the other three, he has given up eight hits while getting eleven outs. That percentage of success won’t cut it in October.
Date Inngs IP H ER BB SO HR 2017-08-05 7-8 1.1 2 3 1 2 1 2017-08-09 7-9 2.0 1 0 2 1 0 2017-08-13 (2) 6-7 2.0 0 0 0 5 0 2017-08-16 (2) 6-6 1.0 3 1 0 1 0 2017-08-20 6-7 1.1 3 1 0 2 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 8/22/2017.
The first part of hurdle two will probably happen as soon as the rosters open up in Sept. From that point on we can see how he does but we do have to keep in mind that no game in Sept is a must win game, while every game in October will be.
One misstep by the rookie could bring an end to the historic Dodger campaign.
Is there any room for him? We have to remember that only four of the seven Dodger starters will be in the rotation leaving McCarthy, Ryu, and probably Kenta as pitchers available for bullpen duty, and all of them could be useful in that role. You also have Brock Stewart who has given up just two earned runs in seven games in relief.
Kenley Jansen, Brandon Morrow, Luis Avilan, Tony Watson, Tony Cingrani, Javier Baez, Ross Stripling, Brock Stewart, McCarthy, Ryu, and either Kenta/Hill/Wood.
I’m just not sure where Walker would fit even if he has a great Sept unless the names mentioned above suffer some injuries or implode. A few of them have to be left off anyway.
I guess it is a good problem because if Walker Buehler does push his way onto the October roster because of performance, it would have had to have been an incredible run.
I’m still betting against it while admitting it would be exciting if we could have a Bob Welch situation.
LAD Grand Slams within their first 25 games
Hmm, I have to edit this as I only have it for a Dodger in their 25 games in the majors. Thus Grandy and Chris Taylor don’t count until I figure out how to get them in.
Before 2015 only four LAD had ever hit a grand slam in their first twenty-five games. Three players have done it since the start of the 2015 season. Guerrero, Toles, and Bellinger.
Last year Andrew Toles hit a grand slam on August 31st, Cody Bellinger did it earlier this year on May 6th against the Padres and last night Curtis Granderson pulled it off. Granderson owns all sorts of grand slam fun. He was the first player to ever hit grand slams for two different teams in four days. Remember he hit a grand slam in his last game as a Met becoming the only Met to ever do that. Granderson’s grand slam was most timely as the Dodgers trailed 3 – 0 late when he took Gerrit Cole deep. I’m sure I’m not the only fan who was wondering why Cole was still in the game. During the inning the Dodgers had a single, walk, ground out, single, single and Cole was over 100 pitches and clearly laboring. Later I would find out that the Pirates had entered the game with only three pitchers available so now it made sense, but it didn’t at the time.
Curtis Granderson is the 1st player in MLB history to hit 2 grand slams in a 4-game span for different teams (via @EliasSports) pic.twitter.com/6YDpgIrh8T
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 22, 2017
When Andrew Toles hit his momentous grand slam last night he did it in his 25th career game. Which left me wondering what other LAD have hit a grand slam in their first 25 games.
We all remember Yasiel Puig hitting his first grand slam in his 4th game.
Alex Guerrero did it in his 13th game on April 12th, 2015. Might have been the hit of the year.
Cody Ross had one of the strangest games in LAD rookie history. He hit two home runs including a grand slam on April 13th, 2006 and was traded eleven days later to the Reds.
Oh look , I fit a Bill Sudakis moment in here, what a shock. Billy hit his grand slam in his 7th game on Sept 8th, 1968
Now this was the biggest surprise to me. Norm Sherry did it in his 9th game on May 31st, 1960. I had no idea that Norm Sherry was a rookie in 1960. Wow, look at the career, one could say it very closely mirrors the career of one A.J. Ellis. I’ll have to look at that more later.
Last but not least, Frank Hondo Howard hit one on May 17th, 1960 in his 21st game. Frank Howard would be the only one of these rookies to go onto win the ROY award.
FFA for Week of 8/14 – 8/20
The contenders are:
Dennis Santana/AA/Tulsa – Santana finally pitched a gem after three straight bad starts. He went six inning, five hits, one earned run, one walk, and ten strikeouts. This was his best game in AA and hopefully a sign of things to come for the rest of the month.
Yadier Alvarez/AA/Tulsa – The top pitching prospect coming into 2017, Yadier had done little to keep that title, but on Saturday night got sixteen outs for the first time since 6/26. This was the first time since late May he did not give up an earned run. He went six innings, three hits, zero earned runs, two walks, and five strikeouts. This was the best game of the year stat wise for Alvarez.
Ibandel Isabel – A+/Rancho – Ibandel had nine hits in five games, but the reason he’s here is that he had four hits, two home runs, and eight runs batted on Friday Night.
“I can’t recall a moment in my little career in baseball where I’ve seen a guy knock in eight runs and hit two balls probably a combined half a mile,” Rancho Cucamonga manager Drew Saylor said. “It was pretty special to be able to see that.”
Isabel leads the California League with twenty-six home runs. DJ Peters is second with 24. DJ Peters also leads the league in strikeouts with 172, and Isabel is 3rd with 149. Great power comes with a great price.
Gavin Lux – A-/Loons – had twelve hits in twenty-seven at-bats. Lux has definitely gotten hot, but only one of those twelve hits was an extra-base. He has moved his OPS to .696 just a shade below .700 with an OPS in August of .944. Nice to see the 2016 number one pick get it going offensively.
Keibert Ruiz – A+/Rancho – Keibert also had twelve hits but in only 23 at-bats, with two doubles, and one home run. Keibert had seen his average drop to .312 from a high of .377 but by the end of the week, it had climbed back to .353. The only troubling thing is that he had zero walks, and has zero walks in his last ten games. One of the nice things about Ruiz with the Loons was his increasing patience.
And the winner of the Farm Factory Award for August 13 – 20th is Ibandel Isabel.
Farm Notes:
Wilmer Font finally pitched a bad game getting knocked around on Sunday. I guess he got tired of waiting for that call to the major leagues that never came. Has to be frustrating to be the best pitcher in a hitters league but spend the whole season while pitcher after pitcher get the call instead.
Tim Locastro had a hot week just not hot enough.
Sopko and Sborz both had good games last week on the same day as each won their part of a doubleheader.
Jeren Kendall has struggled with the Loons but he does have four triples in just 79 plate appearances.
Starling Heredia also struggled in his first month with the Loons but had a nice week last week. His walk rate is sterling, so once the balls start dropping for hits, we are going to have a nice prospect. Just like Kendall, contact is an issue right now.
So much winning
Ridiculous:
- Dodgers are 1 – 0 with Curtis Granderson
- Dodgers are 1 – 0 with Joc Pederson in AAA
- Dodgers are 2 – 0 since Adrian Gonzalez rejoined the team
- Dodgers have won six in a row
- Dodgers now have six streaks of at least six wins in a row
- Dodgers have won 13 in a row against the American League
- Dodgers have the second best Interleague winning percentage in National League history, behind only the 2004 Cardinals (11-1, .917).
- Dodgers are 13 – 3 in August
- Dodgers are 19 – 3 since Clayton Kershaw last started a game
- Dodgers are 26 – 5 since the All-Star break
- Dodgers are 52 – 9 since June 7th
- Dodgers have won 37 consecutive games in which they’ve scored four or more runs, with their last loss coming on June 15 at Cleveland (L, 12-5). There have only been three longer such streaks in MLB history, the 1954 Indians (42), 1906 Giants (41) and 1898 Boston Beaneaters (38) – Source: Stats, LLC.
- Dodgers have 16 sweeps and with a victory today, will make it 17.
- Dodgers haven’t lost a series since June 9th going 18 – 0 – 3 in that time span.
- Dodgers are 36 – 20 on the road.
- Dodgers are 51 – 14 at home
- Dodgers have beaten eight teams this year without a loss
Dodgers win at games and roster building
Tonight the Dodgers won again, this time with Adrian Gonzalez playing for the first time since June. I don’t think enough is being made about how useful a healthy Gonzalez can help this team. Probably because it appears they don’t need any help in winning, but winning in the summer isn’t the same as winning in October.
The front office must agree as they continue to tinker with the team, and in an effort to increase their odds this October they and went out and acquired the best human being in baseball, Curtis Granderson. If you follow ESPN columnist Mike Petriello you know that he has been banging the drum for someone to acquire Granderson, so the Dodgers finally obliged and added him to the roster tonight.
Top hitters since May 1 (minimum 294 plate appearances), by wRC+
176 — Jose Altuve / Joey Votto
169 — George Springer
166 — Marwin Gonzalez
164 — Giancarlo Stanton
162 — Aaron Judge
159 — Paul Goldschmidt / Justin Smoak
157 — Anthony Rendon
153 — JD Martinez
148 — Granderson / Kris Bryant / Eric Hosmer / Cody BellingerThere’s Granderson, tied over the past 3 1/2 months with last year’s NL Most Valuable Player Award winner, a World Series champ finally tapping into his power, and the clear front-runner for the 2017 NL Rookie of the Year Award. He’s ahead of Corey Seager and Daniel Murphy; he’s ahead of Anthony Rizzo and Mike Moustakas.
The roster was already complicated with the addition of Adrian Gonzalez and was going to be a little more complicated when Andre Ethier joins the team on Sept 1st, but now it is really complicated.
Or is it?
Seems clear, that Curtis Granderson should play right now instead of Joc Pederson. The Dodger only weak spot right now is CF, and that was probably going to result in Joc sitting so either Cody or Chris Taylor would play CF when Adrian was playing 1st. Curtis Granderson will join the outfield, I don’t know if he will play CF or LF but I doubt he is insurance as has been suggested.
He’s too good to simply be insurance.
The Dodgers just made their starting lineup better, and their bench better. I feel bad for Joc but he should have played better. His play in CF has been shall we say less than inspiring. Hopefully, the new batting stance will help him with the hitting tool, but I don’t think they can do much about his fielding tool. Seems strange, but in April/May of 2015 I thought he was playing a great CF, but he already seems to have lost a step and the routes just don’t seem good enough these days.
Update 08/19/17 – Looks like Joc is being sent to AAA for a few weeks.
12 months of the Puig elevator
A professional baseball players career is going to be full of ups and downs, but for Yasiel Puig the last twelve months have been quite the elevator ride.
On July 31st, 2016 Puig had three hits culminating his July with an overall OPS of .806 which had followed his June OPS of .826. The elevator is on the 5th floor.
His reward for being a productive offensive player and possibly the best Dodger outfielder was to be sent to AAA on August 1st, 2016. Puig went from being the Dodgers best hitting outfielder to playing in Oklahoma. From planes to buses. An attitude adjustment was the prognosis. Elevator has reached the basement.
Pundits said he was a cancer
During his first week with Oklahoma, he tweeted about a big team party and was derided in many publications as a man who simply wouldn’t grow up. The Dodgers said they sent him OKC with specific instructions on what they wanted him to work on. Being a better teammate might have been involved.
Puig destroyed AAA but was not brought back in August. Word got out that he had been placed on waivers and claimed by the Brewers. The Dodgers were trying to make a waiver deal with the Brewers before time ran out. Supposedly it would have involved the huge contract of Ryan Braun.
Pundits predicted that Puig would never wear a Dodger uniform again.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the player the Dodgers acquired to replace Puig had just finished one of the worst months in LAD history for an outfielder.
Player Split G Year PA OPS Eric Young August 24 1992 75 .359 Tommy Davis August 23 1961 79 .373 Josh Reddick August 25 2016 94 .396 Don Demeter August 19 1958 56 .401 Franklin Stubbs August 25 1986 87 .453 Devon White August 21 1999 86 .465 Willie Crawford August 23 1971 81 .468 Bill North August 21 1978 70 .469 Ron Fairly August 28 1967 78 .470 Brett Butler August 21 1997 81 .480 Juan Samuel August 23 1990 68 .484
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/17/2017.
Puig was finally reinstated to the Dodger team in Sept when teams are allowed to flaunt the roster rules they play with from April – August. Dodger management said that Puig had done everything they had asked of him in OKC and was being rewarded by being brought back to the Dodgers. The Josh Reddick .396 OPS in August as his replacement is not mentioned. Elevator heads back up to the 3rd floor
Pundits rolled their eyes
Puig would put up a .900 OPS in Sept playing mostly against LHP. The elevator moves up to the 6th floor.
Puig would once again fail to make an impact in October and went into the winter with his job very much in doubt. Elevator drops to 2nd floor
Pundits predicted he would be traded during the winter
Puig survives the winter and comes into spring as the Dodger starting right-fielder.
All the right things are being said about Puig, as he goes through a quiet spring. No reports of the ball booming off his bat, or Puig being a bad teammate, of Puig, at all.
Puig starts out the year with a bang with four home runs and 1.132 OPS by April 15th. The elevator moves up to the 7th floor with expectations that it will ride higher.
Puig hits a slump and his OPS drops to the low .700 for much of May/June. The elevator drops back to the 3rd floor.
Pundits say this is who Puig is, an average to good player but will never see the star potential that he displayed in 2013 and 2014.
Through all of this Puig is playing the best right field any Dodger fan has seen since the days of Raul Mondesi and Reggie Smith.
Puig gets it going and by the end of June has moved his OPS back to .800 where it has stayed for almost two months. Elevator rides back up to the 7th floor.
During all this time Puig has been hitting from the eighth hole and proven to be the best eight hitter in baseball.
With the lack of clutch hitting still being the piano on his back, Puig comes to the plate on July 14th and hits a game winning three run home run off of the Marlins ace reliever pitcher AJ Ramos. Elevator gets a jump start and finds itself on the 9th floor for the first time.
Did I mention that Puig continues to play gold glove caliber right field? Just about every game he makes a play that only Puig could make. Taking a home run away from JD Martinez, throwing out runners at home with 260 foot on the fly throws. He’s gotten so good in RF that he’s starting to catch the casual fly ball with aplomb much to the delight and chagrin of the broadcast team of Joe/Orel. Elevator has cruised to the 10th floor.
On Aug 16th, Puig comes through once again, this time with a walk off double to complete a 5-4 come from behind win putting the Dodgers 51 games over .500.
Puig is no longer batting eighth.
Puig is now a teammate
Puig is now getting Gatorade baths not just giving them
The Wild Horse is loose and running wild
The elevator is now sitting at the penthouse, a place it has not been since July of 2014.
My favorite Dodger was traded on this date
Hat tip to Ernest Reyes at Dodger Blue Heaven for reminding me that Pedro Guerrero was traded on this date in 1988. At the time of the trade, Pedro was the second best hitter on a fairly anemic offensive team. He was traded for John Tudor who I already disliked as a Cardinal and nothing he did as a Dodger changed my feelings. Tudor would make nine starts for the Dodgers and one horrible postseason start. Not like he was a difference maker.
I can’t complain, as it all worked out, but even now I’m now sure how trading Pedro made the Dodgers a better team in 1981 unless it was addition by subtraction. Maybe they thought Franklyn Stubbs would hit better. Whatever, they won an inconceivable World Championship so they must have known what they were doing.
The Dodgers acquired Pedro at the age of seventeen from the Indians in one of the greatest trades in Dodger history. Pedro came up in 1980 for good at the age of 24 and never stopped hitting. At the age of 25 he helped lead the old Dodgers to the 1981 World Championship with the second highest OPS+ on the team.
By the time he was traded in 1988, Pedro had put up three of the top five offensive seasons in LAD history. He was pretty much the greatest offensive LAD until Mike Piazza showed up.
Player HR OPS+ Year Age PA OPS Pos Pedro Guerrero 33 182 1985 29 581 .999 *7538/H9 Reggie Smith 32 168 1977 32 603 1.003 *9/8H Reggie Smith 29 162 1978 33 531 .942 *9/H8 Pedro Guerrero 32 156 1982 26 652 .914 *985 Pedro Guerrero 27 154 1987 31 630 .955 *73/H Jim Wynn 32 151 1974 32 656 .884 *8/H Dick Allen 23 151 1971 29 649 .863 573/H
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/16/2017.
From 1981 – 1987 he was the best hitter on the Dodgers and it wasn’t close. Using 1,000 plate appearances as a minimum requirement which seems decent given we are looking at a seven-year span.
Player OPS+ PA From To HR BA OBP SLG OPS Pedro Guerrero 150 3818 1981 1988 162 .309 .384 .514 .898 Dusty Baker 122 1694 1981 1983 47 .291 .356 .432 .788 Mike Marshall 118 3127 1981 1988 126 .273 .325 .455 .780 Greg Brock 108 1737 1982 1986 71 .233 .326 .412 .739 John Shelby 106 1063 1987 1988 31 .270 .319 .429 .747 Steve Garvey 105 1121 1981 1982 26 .282 .309 .415 .724 Mike Scioscia 100 3143 1981 1988 34 .263 .352 .354 .705
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/16/2017.
Alex Wood shows both sides of the win
Keith Law has a great book out right now called Smart Baseball telling us in one of the early chapters how wins are a ridiculous stat because so much of a win is team based. I’ve gotten through about five chapters so far and have learned nothing new except on how to tell baseball fans why baseball card stats suck using many many words. Don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying the book, but for someone who learned from Bill James thirty years ago about how to properly view baseball stats, the first few chapters are not eye openers. I do look forward to the ensuing chapters and really enjoyed the vitriol displayed toward the save stat which I may hate even more than Keith Law, and he really hates it.
Alex Wood showed last night why the win is a crappy stat as he pitched seven beautiful innings, only to leave with the game tied 1 – 1. His team would earn the win by blowing open the game in the bottom of the eighth after Brandon Morrow had pitched a clean top of the eighth. Brandon Morrow pitched one inning and was credited with the win. Alex Wood pitched seven innings of one run ball and got nothing.
Still…………………
I can’t quite give up my back of the baseball card winning percentage love. Ron Perranowski and Phil Regan blew me away with their winning percentages.
And right now, Alex Wood has the best winning percentage amoung starters with at least fourteen wins. So while 5/6 of me has moved on from the win, that 1/6 still sees some kind of beauty in a plus .900 winning percentage.
Player W-L% W L Year Age IP ERA FIP OPS+ Alex Wood .933 14 1 2017 26 117.1 2.30 2.70 54 Greg Maddux .905 19 2 1995 29 209.2 1.63 2.26 29 Randy Johnson .900 18 2 1995 31 214.1 2.48 2.08 48
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/16/2017.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 