Bellinger leads the Marlin Total Base Leaderboard
Cody Bellinger not only hit for the cycle on Saturday night he put up the greatest offensive night against the Marlins by a Dodger in Miami.
Player Date Tm Opp Rslt PA H 2B 3B HR TB RBI Cody Bellinger 2017-07-15 LAD MIA W 7-1 5 4 1 1 1 10 3 Raul Mondesi 1995-04-25 LAD FLA W 8-7 5 3 1 0 2 10 4
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/16/2017.
The last Dodger to have at least ten total bases against the Marlins in Miami was Raul Mondesi way back in 1995. Twenty-Two years ago.
Saturday – Saturday for Cody Bellinger
Cody Bellinger woke up last Saturday in a slump, his OPS had dropped from a high of 1.021 on June 25th to .948 on Saturday Morning. He hadn’t hit a home run since June 25th. Had the league figured him out? Was he worn out from all the media coverage of his crazy start to this career?
Saturday, July 8th – Cody Bellinger is highlighted on the Fox Saturday Game of the week and while they talk of his slump he proceeds to blast his first home run since June 25th. He also hit a double and walked twice getting on base all four times. It was only the second time in his brief career he had gotten on base four times in a game.
Sunday, July 9th – a quiet day for Cody as he goes hitless getting ready for his all-star week.
Monday, July 10th – Home run derby day, Cody advances past the first round but loses to the Judge in the second round. Still a very good showing by the kid.
Tuesday, July 11th – Plays in what is surely the first of many all-star games
Wed-Thurs – I’m assuming he got laid a lot
Friday, July 14th – meh, one single, but he went with the pitch
Saturday, July 15th – single, home run , double, triple and the game is still going on.
Last year Justin Turner and Grandal hit 27 home runs to lead the team. Cody has 26 right now. On July 15th.
Of course he did
Joe Davis called it right “Of course he did” as Cody Bellinger added to his legendary season by hitting for the cycle in Miami tonight, and he did it the hard way, hitting a triple to complete the cycle.
I’m extremely pleased because he replaces Orlando Hudson as the last Dodger to hit for the cycle and while I have nothing against Hudson I don’t particularly like one year free agents holding Dodger records.
I enjoyed Wes Parker having the only cycle since 1970 until Hudson performed the feat in 2009 and have been waiting eight years for someone else to do the trick.
And of course, it was Cody Bellinger, the fastest Dodger on the team, who also happens to have the most power. A combination you just don’t find often, so it is a good bet that this will not be his last cycle. Considering the season he is having, he could do it again this year.
Cody could be fighting Puig for NL player of the week.
Joe Davis keeps giving us some nice cycle tidbits. Wes Parker was the first LAD to hit for the cyle and he did it against the Mets in 1970. The manager for the Mets was Gil Hodges who was the last Brooklyn Dodger to hit for the cycle.
Oh, come on
At some point, the Dodgers had to lose so this game seemed as good as any for that weird streak of having won 39 straight games that they once had a lead come to an end.
Top of the 9th, down by one run
Two out, two strikes, Joc Pederson slams a single into RF
Two out, two strikes, Grandal works a walk.
Two out, two strikes, Puig looking completely overmatched
What a season
What is Dee Gordon?
It has been 2 1/2 years since the Dee Gordon trade that had all sorts of moving parts. Over those three years, we have won the trade several times, lost the trade several times, and even now, have to wonder just who is Dee Gordon?
Is he the batting champion of 2015? His first year with the Marlins, Dee led the league in hits (204), batting average (.333), stolen bases (58), and caught stealing (20). He also won the Silver Slugger award, and a Gold Glove to boot. Sure, he is that guy because he did it, but given his PED suspension will he do it again or come close. Maybe, he’s still all slash and dash and Matty Alou showed that a proper slash and dash can get a boatload of hits and run into a few .330 batting averages. In July of 2017, Dee Gordon is all slash and dash going 14 for 38 with 3 stolen bases.
Is he the PED child of 2016? The following year Dee was busted for a PED violation and served an 80 day suspension. His production also cratered from his 2016 season, but his stolen base percentage improved dramatically with 30 stolen bases to only seven caught stealing. Yes, he is that guy, but he was one of the stranger PED cases given his game was slash and dash.
Is he worth the contract he signed in January of 2016 right after his break – out season? Maybe? Probably. He continues to steal bases at an elite leve with 32 more this year at the break while only being caught six times. His defense is still above average according to Fangraphs. Using fWAR Gordon is the 8th best 2nd baseman in the baseball even with an OPS of only 90.
Is he the best base stealer in the baseball not named Billy Hamilton?
Easily
Player SB From To PA CS Billy Hamilton 222 2013 2017 1920 45 Dee Gordon 194 2013 2017 2130 54 Jose Altuve 177 2013 2017 3165 49 Rajai Davis 157 2013 2017 1964 35 Starling Marte 150 2013 2017 2332 50
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Generated 7/14/2017.
Dee is also already one of the top 15 stolen base leaders for NL second baseman with at least 70% of games played at 2nd base. Based on the leaderboard below, good chance that Dee Gordon will be 2nd when his career ends. Look at all the Dodgers on this list. Davey Lopes, Eric Young, Delino DeShields, Juan Samuel, Steve Sax, and Dee Gordon.
Player SB From To Age PA CS Joe Morgan 681 1963 1983 19-39 10891 159 Davey Lopes 495 1972 1987 27-42 6016 98 Eric Young 451 1992 2006 25-39 6582 159 Frankie Frisch 419 1919 1937 21-39 10099 74 Delino DeShields 404 1990 2002 21-33 5413 128 Juan Samuel 352 1983 1993 22-32 5792 124 Ryne Sandberg 344 1981 1997 21-37 9282 107 Luis Castillo 336 1996 2010 20-34 6435 127 Johnny Evers 324 1902 1929 20-47 7207 26 Miller Huggins 324 1904 1916 26-38 6795 31 Larry Doyle 298 1907 1920 20-33 7380 41 Steve Sax 290 1981 1988 21-28 4745 126 George Cutshaw 258 1912 1921 25-34 5486 79 Dee Gordon 250 2011 2017 23-29 2693 71 Bill Doran 208 1982 1992 24-34 5855 93 Brandon Phillips 201 2006 2017 25-36 7225 73 Quilvio Veras 183 1995 2001 24-30 3293 83 Tom Herr 178 1979 1991 23-35 5771 61 Dick Egan 167 1908 1916 24-32 3547 14 Rodney Scott 166 1976 1982 22-28 2021 42
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/14/2017.
So what is Dee Gordon? Dee Gordon is all those guys and a solid 2nd baseman who augments elite speed and defense to singles based offense. If he could have learned to take a walk his whole game might be considered elite but he’ll have to settle for being good. Good enough he’s being targeted by multiple teams as an acquisition to help bolster their postseason aspirations.
Midseason Prospect Rankings coming in
David Hood was the first with an update prospect list, and he published it this morning. MLB did their update last year around July 20th and that is when we will be looking for it this year.
I was pleased to see that David was aggressive on Keibert Ruiz and Dennis Santana the two prospects I’ve written about the most this summer.
I don’t agree with his extremely generous ranking of this years number one pick Jeren Kendall who has never played a professional game over the likes of Alex Verdugo and Keibert Ruiz. David was higher on Kendall entering the draft as he felt he was a top five pick talent so that plays into his high ranking but I’d still stick with the prospects who have actually performed as professionals before putting draft picks above them.
I also think Lux has done nothing to warrant being listed above Brendon Davis who is not on his top 20. I don’t think I’d have either in a top 20 list with the emergence of Cristian Santana and Starling Heredia as the short summer seasons kicked into gear.
The only good news about Lux is that the player they could have drafted instead of Lux, Delvin Perez has also struggled to find his game in 2017. Struggled is kind, he can’t even hit rookie league pitching right now.
With Keibert Ruiz promoted this past week, the time of sleeping on him may have passed. Scouts are going to notice an 18-year-old catcher in the California League.
Easy schedule coming up
As we noted a few days ago, the Dodgers first half record is one of the best in franchise history and if the Dodgers can take advantage of an easy schedule coming out of the break they could make a real run a winning 100 games plus this year.
Only one time from now until the end of the year do the Dodgers play two good teams in a row. It is crazy just how weak this schedule looks right now.
They don’t play a winning team until July 24th, and by that time the Twins could even be in a tailspin given what they are working with.
Finally, on Aug 8th, the Dodgers get to meet the Diamondbacks again. We should know by then if they are real contenders for the West or simply playing for the wild card. Or neither.
On Aug 25th, the Dodgers start a series against the 1st place Brewers, followed by the Diamondbacks. Let that sink in. Using the current records, the two best teams the Dodgers will face from now until Sept are the Brewers and Diamondbacks and what are the odds that both those teams would still be playing well by then?
The only two teams left that you could say right now are good teams are the Rockies and Nationals.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an easier schedule. Maybe I should knock on wood but it would not be hard for me to see the Dodgers win 110 games this year.
Gm# Date Tm Opp 91 Friday Jul 14 preview LAD MIA 92 Saturday Jul 15 preview LAD MIA 93 Sunday Jul 16 preview LAD MIA 94 Tuesday Jul 18 preview LAD CHW 95 Wednesday Jul 19 preview LAD CHW 96 Thursday Jul 20 preview LAD ATL 97 Friday Jul 21 preview LAD ATL 98 Saturday Jul 22 preview LAD ATL 99 Sunday Jul 23 preview LAD ATL 100 Monday Jul 24 preview LAD MIN 101 Tuesday Jul 25 preview LAD MIN 102 Wednesday Jul 26 preview LAD MIN 103 Friday Jul 28 preview LAD SFG 104 Saturday Jul 29 preview LAD SFG 105 Sunday Jul 30 preview LAD SFG 106 Tuesday Aug 1 preview LAD ATL 107 Wednesday Aug 2 preview LAD ATL 108 Thursday Aug 3 preview LAD ATL 109 Friday Aug 4 preview LAD NYM 110 Saturday Aug 5 preview LAD NYM 111 Sunday Aug 6 preview LAD NYM 112 Tuesday Aug 8 preview LAD ARI 113 Wednesday Aug 9 preview LAD ARI 114 Thursday Aug 10 preview LAD ARI 115 Friday Aug 11 preview LAD SDP 116 Saturday Aug 12 preview LAD SDP 117 Sunday Aug 13 preview LAD SDP 118 Tuesday Aug 15 preview LAD CHW 119 Wednesday Aug 16 preview LAD CHW 120 Friday Aug 18 preview LAD DET 121 Saturday Aug 19 preview LAD DET 122 Sunday Aug 20 preview LAD DET 123 Monday Aug 21 preview LAD PIT 124 Tuesday Aug 22 preview LAD PIT 125 Wednesday Aug 23 preview LAD PIT 126 Thursday Aug 24 preview LAD PIT 127 Friday Aug 25 preview LAD MIL 128 Saturday Aug 26 preview LAD MIL 129 Sunday Aug 27 preview LAD MIL 130 Tuesday Aug 29 preview LAD ARI 131 Wednesday Aug 30 preview LAD ARI 132 Thursday Aug 31 preview LAD ARI 133 Friday Sep 1 preview LAD SDP 134 Saturday Sep 2 preview LAD SDP 135 Saturday Sep 2 preview LAD SDP 136 Sunday Sep 3 preview LAD SDP 137 Monday Sep 4 preview LAD ARI 138 Tuesday Sep 5 preview LAD ARI 139 Wednesday Sep 6 preview LAD ARI 140 Thursday Sep 7 preview LAD COL 141 Friday Sep 8 preview LAD COL 142 Saturday Sep 9 preview LAD COL 143 Sunday Sep 10 preview LAD COL 144 Monday Sep 11 preview LAD SFG 145 Tuesday Sep 12 preview LAD SFG 146 Wednesday Sep 13 preview LAD SFG 147 Friday Sep 15 preview LAD WSN 148 Saturday Sep 16 preview LAD WSN 149 Sunday Sep 17 preview LAD WSN 150 Monday Sep 18 preview LAD PHI 151 Tuesday Sep 19 preview LAD PHI 152 Wednesday Sep 20 preview LAD PHI 153 Thursday Sep 21 preview LAD PHI 154 Friday Sep 22 preview LAD SFG 155 Saturday Sep 23 preview LAD SFG 156 Sunday Sep 24 preview LAD SFG 157 Monday Sep 25 preview LAD SDP 158 Tuesday Sep 26 preview LAD SDP 159 Wednesday Sep 27 preview LAD SDP 160 Friday Sep 29 preview LAD COL 161 Saturday Sep 30 preview LAD COL 162 Sunday Oct 1 preview LAD COL
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/13/2017.
Re-visiting the Rotational guesses
On Feb 17th we made our first guesses on how the rotational starts might be distributed in 2017. When spring training ended we did it again since the information had changed.
How did we do?
Kershaw has been the rock we expected, never missing a start.
Urias ended up being the only casualty in the first half going down in flames, both medically and production.
Alex Wood stepped right into the Urias breach and has arguably been the Dodgers best pitcher which is strange to type.
Using the new 10 day DL the Dodgers have managed to keep a six-man rotation in good shape doling out at least 10 starts to Hill/Ryu/McCarty/Kenta.
The exercise back in Feb was to show the Dodgers had plenty of pitching and indeed they have, even with Kazmir providing zero starts so far, and Urias having season-ending surgery.
They have not needed to tap into Brock Stewart and instead have been able to utilize him as a very effective setup man. Same with Ross Stripling.
All this while Masterson and Font have shown in AAA they are ready for 2017 starts if anything should come up. As has Trevor Oaks.
This shows that the Dodgers have plenty of pitching, the question the Dodgers have to be asking themselves are these the pitchers we want in October? They have two weeks to answer that question.
| Pitcher | 17-Feb | March 31st | Actual | PossStartsLeft |
| Kershaw | 30 | 31 | 19 | 14 |
| Maeda | 26 | 25 | 14 | 11 |
| Urias | 20 | 12 | 5 | 0 |
| Hill | 19 | 25 | 12 | 10 |
| McCarthy | 19 | 22 | 14 | 11 |
| Wood | 18 | 10 | 13 | 11 |
| Stewart | 11 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Kazmir | 9 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Ryu | 8 | 25 | 13 | 10 |
| Stripling | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 90 | 72 |
LAD July offense stat update
Some surprises here for me.
I thought Puig was doing better in July than he is.
Corey Seager is hitting but his walk/k rate is strange for him. Thirteen strikeouts in only 32 plate appearances with only two walks. That is not the Seager we know.
Kiké Hernandez has been terrible in July. I’m truly surprised to see this. I guess when you win just about every game you don’t notice failure as much.
Other notes:
Cody was bolstered by his big day on Sunday, otherwise, his July would not look good for an everyday cleanup hitter.
Justin Turner is a monster
Looks like it is time to let Chase sit a bit more and get Logan more starts.
The Grandal/Barnes combo might be the best the Dodgers have ever had. Will need to do some research on this but having a hard time remembering both the starting catcher and backup catcher being this good. Yeager and Fergy were a great combo but that was because was a defensive whiz and the other was an offensive force.
Nice to see Chris Taylor bouncing back strong in July, though one walk has to be concerning.
Joc be banging, and he’s not whiffing. A new type of Joc? Of course, this is not just SSS but SSSS.
Player Split Year PA HR BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS Justin Turner July 2017 33 4 8 4 .261 .455 .826 1.281 Chris Taylor July 2017 33 1 1 9 .344 .364 .531 .895 Corey Seager July 2017 32 1 2 13 .333 .375 .533 .908 Cody Bellinger July 2017 31 1 6 8 .200 .355 .360 .715 Logan Forsythe July 2017 29 1 5 8 .375 .483 .625 1.108 Yasiel Puig July 2017 24 1 0 7 .250 .250 .375 .625 Yasmani Grandal July 2017 20 1 1 6 .316 .350 .632 .982 Enrique Hernandez July 2017 20 0 4 6 .063 .250 .063 .313 Chase Utley July 2017 17 0 1 3 .200 .294 .267 .561 Joc Pederson July 2017 16 1 2 2 .308 .438 .615 1.053 Austin Barnes July 2017 13 1 1 3 .273 .385 .545 .930 Trayce Thompson July 2017 12 0 1 6 .091 .167 .273 .439
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/12/2017.
Cody chasing Piazza/Green/McGwire on July 12th
For the first time since we started doing this series, Cody Bellinger lost ground to everyone. Especially McGwire and Green, but even Piazza picked up some ground.
No longer does it look like a lock that Cody will break the long-standing rookie home run record by Piazza though he is still in great shape. He is way behind McGwire right now as Big Mac hit around 11 home runs in two weeks starting on June 27th.
Cody is still in front of the Shawn Green pace, but Green would hit five home runs in the next two weeks. If you look at the Green chart you will notice he needs to hit 29 home runs over his next 280 plate appearances. In other words, Shawn Green is about to go ballistic, and I don’t see any chance of Cody keeping pace.
That is what happens when you only hit one home run in 50 plate appearances after averaging a home run every 10.
With two more home runs, he will pass Joc and Corey, and they will drop from this list. Hopefully by next Sunday.
| Player | Year | PA | HR | HR/PA | Total HR Thru July 12th | Total |
| Mike Piazza | 1993 | 467 | 25 | 18.68 | 18 | 35 |
| Joc Pederson | 2015 | 533 | 25 | 21.32 | 20 | 26 |
| Corey Seager | 2016 | 596 | 25 | 23.84 | 17 | 26 |
| Shawn Green | 2001 | 427 | 25 | 17.08 | 20 | 49 |
| Mark McGwire | 1987 | 271 | 25 | 10.84 | 33 | 49 |
| Cody Bellinger | 2017 | 292 | 25 | 11.68 | 25 | ??? |
If this confusing here is a quick legend.
PA – this is the number of plate appearances it took for each player to reach 25 home runs. We used 25 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 25 home runs.
HR/PA – this is the home runs per plate appearance pace when they each hit their 25th home run.
Total HR by July 12th
Total – season home run total
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 