Imagine if Puig started hitting LHP again
Last year at this time Yasiel Puig was playing in AAA. Not only had the front office had enough of him, so had the majority of fans. There was a barely a whimper of indignation when Puig was shipped off to AAA and his job was given to the recently acquired Josh Reddick.
I was against the move at the time, given that Puig was one if not the only hitter in the lineup who was doing damage to left-hand pitching. I also thought he was still an above average right fielder. Puig wasn’t crushing LHP but he did have a slug% over .450 against them. The word was that the Dodgers put him on waivers and almost dealt him to the Brewers in what would have been a blockbuster Ryan Braun deal. Not many felt he would get another shot in Dodger blue but on Sept 2nd, the Dodgers added him back to the active major league roster. Puig must have done enough at AAA to convince the Dodgers they should give him another shot. Or his replacement had been so bad, they saved face by saying they were giving him another chance. Either way, Puig was back in Dodger blue.
When the Dodgers brought back up Puig, they inserted him back into right field but only against LHP. He hit well enough putting up a .900 OPS in Sept of 2016 but that didn’t quiet the trade talk this past winter. Luckily that trade never materialized and Puig was still on the Dodger team when camp opened this spring.
Word was that Puig worked hard this winter, came into spring in great shape in body and mind and has cemented himself as the regular right fielder even though he bats eighth in the lineup.
But a funny thing happened to Puig this summer. While he finally remembered how to hit right-hand pitching, he has completely forgotten how to hit left-hand pitching. It is humorous to me when the manager brings in a right-hand pitcher to face Puig. Come on guys, read your scouting reports. It is not like they don’t have up to date stats that are telling them that Puig against RHP is as bad as most pitchers.
He is however, crushing RHP. Crushing them. When you look at the table below you will see that his slug% this season is the highest of any split except his golden 2013 season. And that was against LHP. Puig has played a while now, and the only time he ever struggled against LHP until this year was in 2014.
The Dodgers have plenty of top 20 MVP candidates this year in Turner, Seager, Bellinger, and Taylor. If Puig was hitting LHP like he normally does, they might have five because he’s also been a beast on defense this year. Of course, Puig has never put together a complete season like that since 2013, but I think he’s getting closer. The harder part was learning how to hit RHP again, I think the other is going to come, and when it does he won’t be hitting eighth anymore. Plus, he’s running quite well with twelve stolen bases to being caught only three times. Even Davey Lopes would be proud of that.
His BABIP against LHP is a woeful .160. Historically it is .285. I can’t wait to see what it will be on Oct 1st. I’d be betting on a large rise.
I didn’t put it in the chart below but it was also interesting to see that Puig has much better plate discipline against LHP. That is something I’d expect. His walk percentage is 11%, his strike out percentage rate only 17%.. Against RHP that walk rate falls to 8% and the strikeout percentage rises to 21.
It is easy to be over shadowed on a team that already has four stars, but Puig in 2017 has been an important piece to this team. He hasn’t been hurt this year for the first time since 2014. He looks to be playing like the Wild Horse again, having fun and being productive at the first time. His teammates seem to genuinely like him now instead of putting up with him.
And dammit, he’s the best fielding RF I’ve seen. Just added this throw from last night 08/12/17. 96 MPH, 270 feet. Plus three walks and a bullet to RCF last night against LHP Clayton Richard. Moved his OBP up 18 points.
At 270 feet, it was Puig’s longest throw among his four outfield assists this season. Since Statcast™ was introduced for the 2015 season, Puig’s hardest throw was a 96.3-mph laserto third base, to get the Angels’ Kole Calhoun on June 26 at Dodger Stadium, but only from 159 feet away.
| Year | Pipe | TSL |
| 2017-LHP | | | .145/.262/.205 |
| 2017-RHP | | | .294/.359/.563 |
| | | ||
| 2016-LHP | | | .261/.313/.491 |
| 2016-RHP | | | .265/.329/.355 |
| | | ||
| 2015-LHP | | | .278/.380.544 |
| 2015-RHP | | | .248/.302/.402 |
| | | ||
| 2014-LHP | | | .288/.377/.359 |
| 2014-RHP | | | .307/.384/.516 |
| | | ||
| 2013-LHP | | | .340/.419/.583 |
| 2013-RHP | | | .312/381/516 |
Dodger Front Office hitting on all cylinders
I’m sure there are still some fraudman folk out there, but these have to be fans who will never be happy with a modern day analytical approach to running a baseball team. Back in his day, I’m sure they wouldn’t have been happy with Branch Rickey either.
The major league team is on pace to win the most games in LAD history, Dodger history, NL history, and major league history. They have built and added to the team as they point to October. They are playing without their best player and they keep on winning. They have more starting pitching than they know what to do with. They have more position players than they know what to do with.
They even have a minor league pipeline that they will have trouble finding room for.
Along with this, they have rarely made a misstep when trading from that pipeline. It does appear they didn’t grasp how good Yordan Alvarez might be, or it might be that was who Houston wanted and if they wanted Josh Fields that was going to be the price. If Josh Fields gets some highly leveraged outs in the postseason, it might still be worth the price.
I was highly skeptical of the price they paid last summer for Rich Hill and Josh Reddick, but it looks like they traded the right trio in Cotton, Montas, and Holmes. None of them have been able to get consistently untracked. Holmes has been good enough to make the MLB Pipeline team of the week only to follow that with an eight run outing. Montas can’t throw strikes or as hard as he did. Cotton had Pedro Martinez in his corner but it turns out that Pedro is not a good cut man. Yet
I liked the trade for Logan Forsythe but did expect Jose De Leon to prosper with the Rays, Not happening, he simply can’t get healthy. Yet
They just kind of threw away Chase De Jong but as bad as the Mariner rotation is, he can’t help them. Yet
I still hope that Willie Calhoun can help the Rangers but he had no role for the Dodgers. AJ Alexy and Brendon Davis are simply too young. I still can’t get over the fact the Dodgers have Yu Darvish for these three. I expect the Houston Astro players feel the same way. Of course, I’d have been fine with trading Alex Verdugo that is how much I wanted Yu on the team.
One other suspect trade might have been moving Scotty Schebler in the complicated Red/WhiteSox/Dodger trade that saw the Dodgers get Trayce Thompson/Montas moving Jose Peraza/Schebs to the Reds, with the White Sox receiving Frazier. Going to cover that in the “They learn quickly from mistakes”.
Besides trading the right guys from the pipeline, more importantly, are the players they did not trade when being beseeched to make a deal for the present back in 2014, 2015, and 2016.
Corey Seager survived and is now going to be the greatest LAD shortstop in LAD Dodger history.
Cody Bellinger survived and is going to shatter the amazing rookie home run mark of 35 by Mike Piazza, and the NL rookie record of 38 by Frank Robinson.
Julio Urias survived and is going to win the 2017 CYA – oh scratch that one. Can’t have everything.
I haven’t even mentioned the major league trades that brought Alex Wood, Grandal, Barnes, Hernandez.
Nor have I mentioned that free agent signings of Chase Utley, Brandon Morrow, Andrew Toles, Kenta, Hill. Have there been misses? Sure, Scott Kazmir and Brandon McCarthy stick out like sore thumbs.
Not releasing Ryu and sticking with him.
Now the They learned quickly from their mistakes.
The biggest mistakes they have made was in throwing money at suspect Cuban free agents. Hector Olivera was the biggest of these mistakes but before the rest of the league had caught on to how bad an egg he was, they were able to turn him in into Alex Wood and Jose Peraza. They then turned Jose Peraza into something that they used to get Rich Hill while keeping the plum piece, Alex Wood. Somehow the Dodger brass turned what would have become an ugly situation into something bright and shiny. We haven’t heard much kick back on that deal, so the Braves must have been the team that wanted Olivera but beware a team who says yes when asked for the multi million dollar foreign free agent signing as soon as that player is eligible to be traded.
They are still stuck with Arry, and Alex Guerrero took the Dodger money and fled to the far east.
But they then fired that whole Cuban scouting group so I think they learned something.
Every front office is going to have missteps, but this front office is so clearly outperforming the norm that even my cynical heart, has to step back and let things play out when they make a move I find questionable.
Like signing every player who is ever released and then releasing them a few weeks later. I don’t get that strategy but it must have something behind it.
Cody Bellinger matches Jose Canseco
With his 33rd home run last night, Cody Bellinger ties Jose Canseco, Earl Williams, and Jimmy Hall. The key to this is that Cody hit his 33 home runs in only 389 plate appearances. It took Jose Canseco 682 plate appearances. When Jose burst upon the scene in 1986 he took baseball by storm much like Aaron Judge has done this year. No one had quite seen anything like Jose Canseco in a baseball uniform before. Two years later he would be the AL MVP and when he crushed a grand slam in the first game of the 1988 World Series in the 2nd inning it looked like he would lead the A’s to a crushing defeat of the Dodgers. But he didn’t. That was his last hit in the World Series as he went 1 for 19 as the Dodgers torpedoed the Bash Brothers with pitching and clutch hitting.
Earl Williams was a slugging catcher who hit 33 home runs his rookie year and followed that by hitting fewer home runs each year. 28 / 22 / 14 / 11 before finally stopping that trend with 17. Earl had hit 83 home runs in his first three years. If that doesn’t impress you maybe this chart will. Earl Williams hit more home runs as a catcher by the age of 24 than anyone not named Johnny Bench. Anyone. Of course, he stopped hitting home runs after the age of 24 and also stopped being a full time catcher.
Player HR From To Age PA OPS Johnny Bench 154 1967 1972 19-24 3229 .822 Earl Williams 83 1970 1973 21-24 1747 .792 Joe Torre 76 1960 1965 19-24 2487 .814 Gary Carter 75 1974 1978 20-24 2168 .774 Brian McCann 70 2005 2008 21-24 1821 .859 Ivan Rodriguez 68 1991 1996 19-24 2868 .753
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/10/2017.
Cody now sits alone with the most home runs by rookie left handed hitter in the NL with his 33 and ties Jimmy Hall who is in second place.
Hal Trosky has the major league rookie record for home runs by left handed hitter with 35.
Trosky had an interesting career. When you look at his baseball reference page you see a player who started with a bang but stopped playing at age 28 in 1941. I thought the war interrupted his career but the baseball sabr bio says it was migraines.
his career reached its apex in 1936, when he led the American League in runs batted in with 162, yet he has largely been consigned to historical obscurity. This anonymity is not only due to the reality that his career overlapped a triumvirate of Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg, and Lou Gehrig, a triumvirate of future Hall of Fame first basemen who held a virtual lock on the position on the American League All Star teams of the mid-’30s, but also because, at what should have been the peak of his career, Trosky was sidelined with two years of severe migraine headaches, pain so debilitating that he became unable to take the field for days in a row.
From age 21 – 28 Trosky hit 215 home runs. He tried to come back in 1944 and 1946 but it didn’t work out and he ended his career with only 5748 plate appearances and 228 home runs with an OPS+ of 130. He had a short but brilliant career. The man once hit 42 home runs, drove in 162 runs, had an OPS of 146, led the league in TB with 405 and finished 10th in MVP voting.
Player HR Year Age Tm Lg PA Mark McGwire (RoY-1st) 49 1987 23 OAK AL 641 Frank Robinson (RoY-1st) 38 1956 20 CIN NL 667 Albert Pujols (RoY-1st) 37 2001 21 STL NL 676 Al Rosen 37 1950 26 CLE AL 668 Jose Abreu (RoY-1st) 36 2014 27 CHW AL 622 Mike Piazza (RoY-1st) 35 1993 24 LAD NL 602 Ron Kittle (RoY-1st) 35 1983 25 CHW AL 570 Rudy York 35 1937 23 DET AL 417 Hal Trosky 35 1934 21 CLE AL 685 Aaron Judge 35 2017 25 NYY AL 460 Ryan Braun (RoY-1st) 34 2007 23 MIL NL 492 Walt Dropo (RoY-1st) 34 1950 27 BOS AL 609 Cody Bellinger 33 2017 21 LAD NL 389 Jose Canseco (RoY-1st) 33 1986 21 OAK AL 682 Earl Williams (RoY-1st) 33 1971 22 ATL NL 550 Jimmie Hall (RoY-3rd) 33 1963 25 MIN AL 571 Chris Young (RoY-4th) 32 2007 23 ARI NL 624 Matt Nokes (RoY-3rd) 32 1987 23 DET AL 508 Tony Oliva (RoY-1st) 32 1964 25 MIN AL 719 Tim Salmon (RoY-1st) 31 1993 24 CAL AL 610 Jim Ray Hart (RoY-2nd) 31 1964 22 SFG NL 625 Ted Williams 31 1939 20 BOS AL 675
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/3/2017.
Chasing Piazza/Robinson/Green/McGwire/Judge on Aug 9th
Cody Bellinger now has 33 home runs and is well on his way to obliterating the LAD rookie home run record of 35 by Mike Piazza. He continues to outpace Frank Robinson and looks like a good bet to end the year with at least forty home runs and the NL Rookie Home Run record which currently stands at 38.
He has also moved within striking distance of the all time Rookie record of 49 by Mark McGwire. Course he would have to beat Aaron Judge first who still has a two home run lead on Bellinger.
Shawn Green is about to hit three home runs in one game so while Cody is currently in front of the LAD all time home record pace of 49, it won’t be for long unless Cody continues his own torrid pace.
| Player | PA | HR | HR/PA | Aug 9th | Total | Leader | Year |
| Mike Piazza | 576 | 33 | 17.45 | 22 | 35 | LAD Rookie HR | 1993 |
| Frank Robinson | 543 | 33 | 16.45 | 25 | 38 | NL Rookie HR | 1956 |
| Mark McGwire | 330 | 33 | 10.00 | 37 | 49 | AL Rookie HR | 1987 |
| Shawn Green | 515 | 33 | 15.61 | 31 | 49 | LAD Alltime HR | 2001 |
| Cody Bellinger | 389 | 33 | 11.52 | 33 | ??? | Chasing | 2017 |
| Aaron Judge | 437 | 33 | 13.24 | 35 | ??? | Chasing | 2017 |
f this confusing here is a quick legend.
PA – this is the number of plate appearances it took for each player to reach 33 home runs. We used 33 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 33 home runs.
HR/PA – this is the home runs per plate appearance pace when they each hit their 33rd home run.
Total HR through August 9th
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
Jake Lamb is the new Goldy
Not long ago, Paul Goldschmidt owned the Dodgers but in the past two years, the Dodger pitchers have been able to corral Goldy and keep him under control. That is the good news, the bad news is that the guy who follows him in the lineup is crushing the Dodgers.
Besides the two home runs he hit last night including the game deciding grand slam off the foul pole, Jack Lamb had hit four other home runs against the Dodgers this year.
Six home runs by one player against one team in one year seems like a lot.
Date Opp Rslt HR RBI 2017-08-08 LAD W 6-3 2 5 2017-07-06 LAD L 4-5 2 2 2017-04-22 LAD W 11-5 1 2 2017-04-17 LAD W 4-2 1 1
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/9/2017.
Turner leads all NL in wRC+ on August 9th, 2017
You gotta take these snapshots when you can. With Justin Turner rocking two home runs last night he took the lead in the NL for wRC+. Using smart baseball methodology you could make a case that Justin Turner is the best offensive player in the NL right now.
The Dodgers have four of the top 11 offensive performers in the NL batting 1 – 4. That might be why they are on pace to win over 100 games.
- Justin Turner is 1st
- Corey Seager is 8th.
- Chris Taylor is 9th
- Cody Bellinger is 11th
- Puig is 34th – not bad for a guy hitting from the 8th spot
I’ll provide the link to the Fangraphs leaderboard but if you look at it tomorrow it will have changed which is why we supply the snapshot below.
| Rank | Name | wOBA | wRC+ | WAR |
| 1 | Justin Turner | 0.425 | 167 | 4.7 |
| 2 | Bryce Harper | 0.428 | 164 | 5 |
| 3 | Joey Votto | 0.429 | 164 | 4.4 |
| 4 | Paul Goldschmidt | 0.425 | 158 | 5.2 |
| 5 | Michael Conforto | 0.404 | 153 | 3.3 |
| 6 | Anthony Rendon | 0.406 | 150 | 5.2 |
| 7 | Giancarlo Stanton | 0.403 | 150 | 3.8 |
| 8 | Corey Seager | 0.391 | 145 | 4.9 |
| 9 | Chris Taylor | 0.389 | 144 | 3.9 |
| 10 | Daniel Murphy | 0.395 | 142 | 3 |
| 11 | Cody Bellinger | 0.385 | 141 | 3 |
| 12 | Charlie Blackmon | 0.412 | 138 | 4.2 |
| 13 | Andrew McCutchen | 0.383 | 138 | 3.5 |
| 14 | Buster Posey | 0.379 | 137 | 3.9 |
| 15 | Kris Bryant | 0.382 | 135 | 3.4 |
| 16 | Marcell Ozuna | 0.381 | 135 | 3.2 |
| 17 | Anthony Rizzo | 0.379 | 133 | 3.3 |
| 18 | Ryan Zimmerman | 0.378 | 131 | 1.7 |
| 19 | Travis Shaw | 0.38 | 130 | 3.2 |
| 20 | Jake Lamb | 0.378 | 127 | 2.6 |
| 21 | Nolan Arenado | 0.393 | 125 | 3.9 |
| 22 | Matt Carpenter | 0.363 | 124 | 1.7 |
| 23 | Eric Thames | 0.37 | 124 | 1.5 |
| 24 | Willson Contreras | 0.363 | 122 | 3.1 |
| 34 | Yasiel Puig | 0.337 | 110 | 1.4 |
Seager and bWAR at age 23
Nineteen shortstops have accumulated at least 10 bWAR by the age of 23. Eight of them went on to become HOF. Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, and Francisco Lindor are all 23 right now and each are playing in their 3rd year. Elvis Andrus and Jose Reyes are the other two active shortstops on the list. Doing the math, you have 19 shortstops, five are active, eight are HOF, leaving only six who didn’t make the HOF that were eligible.
- They are Alex Rodriguez who we can all agree is a HOF shortstop.
- Alan Trammel who I think is a HOF shortstop
- Jim Fregosi who was the face of the original Los Angeles Angels franchise, and was eventually traded for HOF Nolan Ryan.
- Vern Stephens a slugging SS
- Garry Templeton who had 600 hits and 50 triples by the age of 23 who was eventually traded for HOF Ozzie Smith.
- Someone named Donie Bush
Derek Jeter is not on this list. Nor is Nomar Garciaparra.
But Corey Seager is.
| Player | WAR/pos | bWAR/PA | Age | PA | OPS |
| Arky Vaughan | 26.6 | 0.0107301 | 20-23 | 2479 | 0.924 |
| Cal Ripken | 22.4 | 0.010482 | 20-23 | 2137 | 0.845 |
| Carlos Correa | 15 | 0.0102249 | 20-22 | 1467 | 0.864 |
| Corey Seager | 12.6 | 0.0101043 | 21-23 | 1247 | 0.905 |
| Alex Rodriguez | 27.6 | 0.0097081 | 18-23 | 2843 | 0.914 |
| Jim Fregosi | 17.7 | 0.0082672 | 19-23 | 2141 | 0.767 |
| Francisco Lindor | 13 | 0.0080796 | 21-23 | 1609 | 0.809 |
| Joe Cronin | 12.8 | 0.0077016 | 19-23 | 1662 | 0.82 |
| Travis Jackson | 16.6 | 0.0069954 | 18-23 | 2373 | 0.777 |
| Lou Boudreau | 11.4 | 0.0069301 | 20-23 | 1645 | 0.778 |
| Donie Bush | 14.2 | 0.0069167 | 20-23 | 2053 | 0.672 |
| Joe Tinker | 10.3 | 0.0064902 | 21-23 | 1587 | 0.647 |
| Vern Stephens | 11.3 | 0.006202 | 20-23 | 1822 | 0.813 |
| Garry Templeton | 11.8 | 0.0052679 | 20-23 | 2240 | 0.744 |
| Alan Trammell | 11.5 | 0.0052583 | 19-23 | 2187 | 0.703 |
| Jose Reyes | 10.2 | 0.0052121 | 20-23 | 1957 | 0.749 |
| Rabbit Maranville | 10.2 | 0.0050975 | 20-23 | 2001 | 0.629 |
| Elvis Andrus | 12.9 | 0.0049788 | 20-23 | 2591 | 0.695 |
| Robin Yount | 14.7 | 0.004206 | 18-23 | 3495 | 0.672 |
Dicking around with LAD bWAR
With so many Dodgers having great seasons, while premature I thought it would be fun to check in on the all-time bWAR infield leaders for the Dodgers and see how the new brood is matching up.
I used > 5 bWAR as the criteria
Since bWAR is an accumulation stat the more you play the more you will add to your bWAR. To add a little color to the table I created a column that divides the bWAR by the number of plate appearances.
HOF Mike Piazza clocked in with a WAR/PA of over .010. As did current Dodgers Cory Seager and Justin Turner. The only other Dodgers to have a WAR/PA over .007 were Hanley Ramirez at .0085 and Ron Cey at .0077. To put that in perspective a WAR/PA of over .010 is a historical rate. Only four NL HOF players have a .010 rate in baseball since 1958. Mike Piazza as a Dodger is .01057 but overall he drops to .07999. The longer you play the game the harder it is to keep that rate above .010.
The lowest WAR/PA Dodger infielder with at least 5 bWAR is Eric Karros at 0.001721 and it is not even close.
They consider catchers part of the infield so we will start with the catchers.
Piazza had the most accumulated bWAR and the highest WAR/PA by far. This plays out as expected, with Grandal now on the list. The Dodgers have had a long history of good catchers starting with John Roseboro and ending with Grandal. Rarely has the team had an ineffective catcher for any length of time.
| Player | bWAR | WAR/PA | Age | PA | OPS |
| Mike Piazza | 31.9 | 0.01057 | 23-29 | 3017 | 0.966 |
| Mike Scioscia | 26.2 | 0.00518 | 21-33 | 5057 | 0.700 |
| John Roseboro | 22.3 | 0.00495 | 25-34 | 4505 | 0.713 |
| Steve Yeager | 17.7 | 0.00457 | 23-36 | 3869 | 0.657 |
| Russell Martin | 15.9 | 0.00586 | 23-27 | 2713 | 0.761 |
| Paul Lo Duca | 13.8 | 0.00584 | 26-32 | 2361 | 0.771 |
| Tom Haller | 10.2 | 0.00623 | 31-34 | 1637 | 0.737 |
| A.J. Ellis | 7.4 | 0.00385 | 27-35 | 1922 | 0.688 |
| Yasmani Grandal | 6.1 | 0.00498 | 26-28 | 1225 | 0.789 |
At 1st base:
Garv leads in both categories with Wes and Adrian giving him a run for WAR/PA. Yeah, James Loney was bad, but Eric Karros was worse.
| Player | bWAR | WAR/PA | Age | PA | OPS |
| Steve Garvey | 36.4 | 0.00518 | 20-33 | 7027 | 0.796 |
| Wes Parker | 22.9 | 0.00474 | 24-32 | 4835 | 0.726 |
| Adrian Gonzalez | 13.8 | 0.00473 | 30-35 | 2916 | 0.797 |
| Eric Karros | 11.4 | 0.00172 | 23-34 | 6624 | 0.782 |
| James Loney | 8.6 | 0.00255 | 22-28 | 3378 | 0.764 |
| Eddie Murray | 8.3 | 0.00419 | 33-41 | 1983 | 0.798 |
| Greg Brock | 5.9 | 0.00340 | 25-29 | 1737 | 0.739 |
At 2nd Base:
Davey Lopes takes both categories. Sax and Kent must have been punished for defense. 1969 ROY Ted Sizemore does surprisingly well. Mark Ellis had an excellent 944 plate appearances as a 2nd baseman.
| Player | bWAR | WAR/PA | Age | PA | OPS |
| Davey Lopes | 32 | 0.00603 | 27-36 | 5308 | 0.729 |
| Steve Sax | 15.8 | 0.00333 | 21-28 | 4745 | 0.696 |
| Jeff Kent | 6.6 | 0.00308 | 37-40 | 2146 | 0.847 |
| Ted Sizemore | 6 | 0.00455 | 24-31 | 1318 | 0.659 |
| Charlie Neal | 5.8 | 0.00269 | 27-30 | 2159 | 0.738 |
| Mark Ellis | 5.5 | 0.00583 | 35-36 | 944 | 0.685 |
At ShortStop:
Maury Wills barely nosed out Bill Russell in bWAR but with 1300 less PA he easily wins the bWAR/PA category. At catcher, 1st, and 2nd base the top bWAR player was also the top bWAR/PA player but not at SS. The two top bWAR earners are the two worst WAR/PA performers. Seager is playing at a HOF rate but Hanley Ramirez did some great offensive work for the Dodgers at SS during his stay here. You could have made an argument that Rafael Furcal was the best LAD SS when he finished his LAD career but not anymore.
| Player | bWAR | WAR/PA | Age | PA | OPS |
| Maury Wills | 31.9 | 0.00473 | 26-39 | 6745 | 0.663 |
| Bill Russell | 31.4 | 0.00391 | 20-37 | 8021 | 0.648 |
| Rafael Furcal | 15.4 | 0.00549 | 28-33 | 2803 | 0.757 |
| Corey Seager | 12.6 | 0.01010 | 21-23 | 1247 | 0.905 |
| Hanley Ramirez | 9.6 | 0.00857 | 28-30 | 1120 | 0.874 |
At 3rd base:
Kind of loaded. You have Ron Cey and future HOF Adrian Beltre both being crushed by Justin Turner on the WAR/PA category. In only 1745 PA Justin Turner can make a real claim about being the best LAD 3rd baseman ever.
| Player | bWAR | WAR/PA | Age | PA | OPS |
| Ron Cey | 47.4 | 0.00776 | 23-34 | 6108 | 0.804 |
| Adrian Beltre | 23.3 | 0.00610 | 19-25 | 3818 | 0.794 |
| Justin Turner | 17.7 | 0.01014 | 29-32 | 1745 | 0.887 |
| Casey Blake | 9.1 | 0.00566 | 34-37 | 1608 | 0.768 |
| Juan Uribe | 7.5 | 0.00539 | 32-36 | 1391 | 0.687 |
Dodgers still undefeated against B-Z since July 4th
The Dodgers lost last night but should we have been surprised? They were, after all, playing a team whose name starts with an “A”. Since July 4th the Dodgers have now only lost to the Atlanta Braves and Arizona Diamondbacks going 23 – 4 in that span.
When you are on a pace to win over 110 games you have to be really nit picky to find any fault with Dave Roberts but since he has been mostly infallible in 2017 when you find something you might as well run with it.
While watching the game last night, the Dodgers seemed to be in the driver’s seat. They had a 3 – 2 lead, they had Brandon Morrow on the mound, and they had Kenley Jansen waiting in the wings.
Sure Morrow gave up up a single but he had just struck out Ketel Marte very easily. A left handed pinch hitter was being inserted into the game and Joe Davis had just mentioned how only one left hander all year had a hit off of Morrow so it seemed like a no-brainer that Morrow would face Chris Herrmann.
Split PA H OPS vs RHB 58 14 .579 vs LHB 38 1 .134
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 8/9/2017.
Dave Roberts had other ideas and elected to bring in newly acquired Tony Watson. Arizona countered with a right-hand pinch hitter putting Watson at a disadvantage. With one one move, the Dodgers went from having the advantage of a lefty killer Morrow facing a lefty to our own left-hand pitcher having to face a right-hand hitter. Watson hit Rosales and would eventually give up the grand slam to Jake Lamb. A lucky grand slam, but still a grand slam.
I’m just curious if Brandon Morrow continues to get left-hand hitters out, if Roberts come crunch time is still going to pull him in these kinds of situations come October.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 