Rollercoaster Ryu
The Dodgers had many question marks headed into 2017 but one of the biggest was if Hyun-Jin Ryu was even going to pitch professionally for the Dodgers. By that standard, this season has a been a huge success for Ryu but it has not been without some ups and downs.
The downs came first. The Dodgers gave Ryu the tough task of making his first two starts against the Rockies at Coors and the World Champion Cubs on the road. Predictably he failed to impress in either game. The worry warts begin in earnest however in his 3rd start when he pitched against the Rockies at Dodger Stadium and gave up three home runs. In three starts, fourteen innings, ten earned runs, and a whopping six home runs. The Ryu Roller Coaster was at the bottom and it was hard to see how it could power itself to the top.
Just as many were writing him off as a great story but not someone you want in a Dodger rotation he rolled out a great start in his fourth try against the Giants at Dodger Stadium. The cart was headed up. Ryu followed that up with a solid start against the Phillies and had a season-high nine strikeouts, the cart was gaining momentum so the Dodgers put him on the 10 day DL either because it was legitimate or they simply needed the room and he was deemed the DL pitcher of the moment.
The Dodgers did him no favors, aligning him with the Rockies at home for his first start when activated off the disabled list. This would be the 3rd time in only five weeks he would be facing the Rockies and it did not go well. Ryu walked a season-high six hitters and put up the lowest game score (14) of his career. The roller coaster cart was falling back. Gravity was winning.
The Dodgers gave him one more start but the writing already seemed to be on the wall. Ryu pitched a decent game against the Marlins but it wasn’t enough to keep him in the rotation. On May 19th it was announced that Ryu was headed to the bullpen. The Roller Coaster cart was back at the bottom.
The question had to be asked. Was Ryu able to pitch out of the bullpen? Was he going to be an asset or a liability, and if he was a liability how long would the Dodgers keep him on the active roster?
Ryu answered those questions by bailing Kenta Maeda out on May 25th with four brilliant innings and picked up the noteworthy four innings save.
On 5/31/17 Ryu was placed back in the rotation and has made six straight starts. They have not been brilliant, but they have certainly been effective.
Over his last six starts, Ryu has pitched 32 innings, given up 35 hits, 15 Earned runs, and seven home runs. The better news is that he has walked only six hitters while striking out 31. While hittable, his ability to limit the passed ball and strike out hitters has helped him stay in the games. The Dodgers are 3 – 3 in those six games. I think if a team can win at a .500 level from the starts the 5th starter is making, they have to be happy with that outcome.
The Ryu rollercoaster hasn’t peaked yet, it is slowly moving toward the top. Will it fall back again or chug to the top? Looking at the Fangraphs pitch types he is pitching differently. The fastball velocity is just a notch below vintage Ryu but he has ditched the slider in favor of more curveballs and changeups.
Now the question is, can this Ryu be a positive for the Dodgers? All season the Dodgers have had to dodge the rotation bullet. Urias made it easier when he went down for the year even though that was a massive blow to the Dodgers postseason hopes given I expected Urias to be the Dodgers 2nd best pitcher by October. Even without Urias, they have six bonafide starters. They have done an exceptional job of juggling their assets and maybe that is what they will continue to do.
You could easily see a case where each of these fragile pitchers needs time (say 10 days) to heal every few weeks.
Ryu game logs courtesy of Fangraphs:
| GameDate | Opp | IP | H | ER | HR | BB | SO | GSv2 |
| 6/28/17 | @LAA | 5 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 55 |
| 6/22/17 | NYM | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 42 |
| 6/17/17 | @CIN | 5 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 52 |
| 6/11/17 | CIN | 4 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 28 |
| 6/5/17 | WSN | 7 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 55 |
| 5/31/17 | @STL | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 70 |
| 5/25/17 | STL/Relief | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| 5/18/17 | MIA | 5 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 42 |
| 5/11/17 | @COL | 4 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 11 |
| 4/30/17 | PHI | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 67 |
| 4/24/17 | @SFG | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 65 |
| 4/18/17 | COL | 6 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 38 |
| 4/13/17 | @CHC | 4 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 34 |
| 4/7/17 | @COL | 4 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 48 |
Steve Perrin nails my thoughts on Chris Paul and the new Clippers
Steve doesn’t write much for SBNation anymore, and I hadn’t been over there in a long time but once the news of the Chris Paul trade had made it to Ferndale, I popped over there to see the take.
In fact, if a championship or even a Finals appearance is the ultimate goal (a dubious goal to be certain, but one that is frequently espoused), then signing Paul to a new five year deal would have been the worst possible move. Consider these four simple facts: Chris Paul, 32; Blake Griffin, 28; Steph Curry, 29; Kevin Durant, 28. Five years from now, Paul will be ready to retire. If he were wearing a Clippers’ uniform in the interim, he’d be losing to the Warriors each and every year, because Curry and Durant aren’t going anywhere.
Gary Sheffield is the total base bar at nine
The Dodgers have had little success against the Angels and it shows in the anemic total base games the Dodgers have had against the Angels on the road.
Gary Sheffield is the only Dodger to have at least nine total bases in the above scenario. I usually set the criteria at 10 but this time I had to dip below 10 to find a game. The good news is that the last time I had such an anemic total base leaderboard, Cody Bellinger and Corey Seager re-wrote it in days. Hopefully, that happens again.
Player Date Tm Opp Rslt PA R H HR TB RBI Gary Sheffield 2000-06-03 LAD ANA W 8-3 5 3 3 2 9 4
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/28/2017.
How about the Angels against the Dodgers while playing at home? The surprise name is Mike Napoli and just the like the Dodgers the Angels have only one player with at least nine total bases.
I guess we’ll have to play a few more interleague games.
Player Date Tm Opp Rslt PA R H HR TB RBI Mike Napoli 2008-05-18 LAA LAD W 10-2 4 2 3 2 9 5
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/28/2017.
Graybeard and Graybeard
I went up to Ferndale (650 miles north of Los Angeles) this week to see my Dad on his 89th birthday. I also had one other goal. When my Dad was in the army he shaved twice a day from West Point to Frankfurt, Germany a span of 22 years. When he retired, the first thing he did was stop shaving and has had a beard since 1970. Eventually, that beard became gray, and he used the moniker Graybeard for the numerous rotisserie baseball/football games he played with me and my friends.
A few weeks ago I started playing in a senior softball league but being one of the younger players in the league, I felt a little out of place. I grew a beard, and not surprisingly the beard is mostly gray. I had become Graybeard and fit in better with the senior softball players.
I also thought it would make a good photo opp with my Dad when I went to see him. I showed up expecting him to comment on the beard because I hadn’t had one in well over twenty years, but while he recognized me, not a comment about the beard.
I got my photo op, right after he had his beard trimmed at the local barber shop. I hope I can look like that at 89. Physically he’s doing very well. actually seems stronger than the last several times I had seen him. Strong enough that I took him for walks without his walker and he seemed to relish the freedom. I had to keep a sharp eye, lest he tumble but he was able to navigate quite well. The dementia is still there and rambling conversations that made little sense to us, but perfect sense to him as he told some story that came from him on his birthday. Memory is weird, he would remember something from 50 years ago but have no idea if he had eaten breakfast or not.
I’m still there, will be here for a week. I hope we can make a big deal about his 90th birthday next year. At which time I’ll ask my four brothers to grow their beards for the occasion.
LAD 14 game splits – to much good stuff
The Dodgers have a ten game winning streak and have won 13 of 14 games so let us quickly see how they have gone about it. I have a feeling that Cody Bellinger and Alex Wood are heavily involved.
Dave Cameron of Fangraphs has a new column in which he likens the Dodgers to the 2016 Cubs. He does a bit of gushing and also points out that the Dodgers are doing all this even though the rotation has had its share of problems.
And then there’s the pitching. Clayton Kershaw has already set a career-high with 17 home runs allowed, Rich Hill has thrown 40 low-quality innings while struggling with blisters and command issues, Julio Urias struggled before they found out his shoulder was shot, Kenta Maeda lost his rotation spot, and Hyun-Jin Ryu is giving up nearly two home runs per nine innings pitched… and yet they still lead the majors in pitching WAR (+12.7). There’s an incredible disconnect between their overall results and the number of things that have gone wrong for LA’s pitching staff; if I read you the list of issues their pitchers have faced in the first half, you’d probably think it was the collective reason the team was playing .500 ball.
Sabremetric Splits:
Six hitters with a wRC+ over 190!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, I think the exclamation mark is well deserved here. As Chase starts to struggle, Logan is starting to pick it up.
Have you ever seen an ISO over .600 even in a 14 game split?
I guess the Grandal walk rate jumps out. For a player known for patience, he has thrown it away over the past fourteen games.
| Name | PA | wRC+ | wOBA | WAR | ISO | BB% | K% |
| Cody Bellinger | 60 | 239 | 0.533 | 1.2 | 0.611 | 8.30% | 18.30% |
| Justin Turner | 53 | 233 | 0.524 | 1.1 | 0.286 | 18.90% | 5.70% |
| Joc Pederson | 53 | 219 | 0.502 | 0.8 | 0.415 | 18.90% | 17.00% |
| Corey Seager | 45 | 210 | 0.489 | 0.8 | 0.282 | 13.30% | 26.70% |
| Yasiel Puig | 47 | 197 | 0.469 | 0.7 | 0.447 | 17.00% | 17.00% |
| Austin Barnes | 22 | 195 | 0.466 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 31.80% | 13.60% |
| Chris Taylor | 51 | 107 | 0.331 | 0.4 | 0.205 | 13.70% | 37.30% |
| Kiké Hernandez | 38 | 152 | 0.399 | 0.4 | 0.344 | 15.80% | 31.60% |
| Yasmani Grandal | 41 | 99 | 0.32 | 0.3 | 0.25 | 2.40% | 34.10% |
| Logan Forsythe | 52 | 102 | 0.323 | 0.2 | 0.119 | 17.30% | 21.20% |
| Chase Utley | 33 | 15 | 0.192 | -0.3 | 0.067 | 6.10% | 21.20% |
Baseball Card Stats:
RBI may not impress some folk, but they still impress me.
| Name | HR | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | R | RBI | SB |
| Cody Bellinger | 9 | 0.352 | 0.400 | 0.963 | 1.363 | 14 | 20 | 1 |
| Justin Turner | 3 | 0.429 | 0.547 | 0.714 | 1.261 | 13 | 9 | 0 |
| Joc Pederson | 4 | 0.341 | 0.491 | 0.756 | 1.247 | 12 | 7 | 1 |
| Corey Seager | 3 | 0.410 | 0.489 | 0.692 | 1.181 | 11 | 8 | 1 |
| Yasiel Puig | 5 | 0.316 | 0.426 | 0.763 | 1.189 | 8 | 10 | 1 |
| Austin Barnes | 0 | 0.333 | 0.545 | 0.533 | 1.078 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Chris Taylor | 2 | 0.227 | 0.333 | 0.432 | 0.765 | 9 | 8 | 6 |
| Kiké Hernandez | 3 | 0.250 | 0.368 | 0.594 | 0.962 | 4 | 6 | 0 |
| Yasmani Grandal | 3 | 0.250 | 0.268 | 0.500 | 0.768 | 7 | 4 | 0 |
| Logan Forsythe | 1 | 0.238 | 0.365 | 0.357 | 0.722 | 8 | 5 | 0 |
| Chase Utley | 0 | 0.133 | 0.212 | 0.200 | 0.412 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
Chasing Piazza/Green/McGwire on June 26th
Cody Bellinger continues to make a mockery of baseball blasting two more home runs yesterday. He’s now almost a month a head of the Shawn Green pace of 49 home runs which is the all-time Dodger home run record.
As promised, I’ve added the Mark McGwire rookie season to see how Cody is doing on that pace. Big Mac hit 49 home runs to set the all-time rookie home run record way back in 1987. Cody is currently a head of the pace, but it will change in two days. McGwire had 22 home runs on June 25th, would not play on June 26th, but would hit three home runs on June 27th.
Cody has his work cut out for him.
| Player | Year | PA | HR | HR/PA | Total HR Thru June 25th | Total |
| Mike Piazza | 1993 | 438 | 24 | 18.25 | 15 | 35 |
| Joc Pederson | 2015 | 497 | 24 | 20.71 | 19 | 26 |
| Corey Seager | 2016 | 584 | 24 | 24.33 | 16 | 26 |
| Shawn Green | 2001 | 422 | 24 | 17.58 | 18 | 49 |
| Mark McGwire | 1987 | 262 | 24 | 10.92 | 22 | 49 |
| Cody Bellinger | 2017 | 240 | 24 | 10.00 | 24 | ??? |
If this confusing here is a quick legend.
PA – this is the number of plate appearances it took for each player to reach 24 home runs. We used 24 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 24 home runs.
HR/PA – this is the home runs per plate appearance pace when they each hit their 24th home run.
Total HR by June 25th – self-explanatory but it includes games of June 25th
Total – season home run total
Dodgers dominating June
Overall Record – 51/26 – Best record in National League
June Record – 18/5 – Already tied for 3rd most wins in the month of June. The record is 21 wins in 1973. As of right now, they have best-winning % in the month of June.
Team Split Year W W-L% LAD June 1973 21 .724 LAD June 2002 19 .704 LAD June 2017 18 .783 LAD June 1959 18 .600 LAD June 1991 18 .667 LAD June 1995 18 .643 LAD June 2014 18 .643 LAD June 1971 17 .607 LAD June 1988 17 .607 LAD June 1977 17 .607 LAD June 1962 17 .548 LAD June 1978 17 .586 LAD June 1965 17 .548 LAD June 1969 17 .607 LAD June 1968 16 .552
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/26/2017.
Western Divison – 1st place, 2.5 games over the Diamondbacks
Streak – 10 game winning streak
The numbers in June aren’t as cool as the 14 or 10 days split which we will be showing in a few minutes.
June offensive notes:
- Bellinger, Seager, and Taylor lead the team in games started in June. Talk about youth being served.
- Puig is having a fantastic June. Power/Speed/Patience/Defense. I’m starting to feel a little better about the 26-year-old column.
- Joc Pederson has come alive
- Justin Turner is a pretty good hitter
- Can Gutierrez last all year? How many times will he hit the DL this year?
Player Split Year HR GS PA 2B RBI SB CS BB OBP SLG OPS Cody Bellinger June 2017 13 22 98 8 26 4 0 9 .367 .841 1.208 Corey Seager June 2017 5 20 90 6 15 1 1 13 .433 .605 1.039 Chris Taylor June 2017 3 20 90 6 13 9 0 10 .311 .413 .724 Yasiel Puig June 2017 5 18 82 5 12 3 0 13 .402 .588 .991 Logan Forsythe June 2017 1 18 82 2 5 0 0 11 .280 .243 .523 Yasmani Grandal June 2017 4 16 73 2 6 0 0 1 .233 .417 .650 Chase Utley June 2017 1 14 65 4 5 0 0 9 .323 .327 .650 Justin Turner June 2017 4 13 63 3 11 0 0 10 .540 .725 1.265 Enrique Hernandez June 2017 4 12 61 2 7 1 0 8 .295 .453 .748 Joc Pederson June 2017 4 11 53 5 7 1 2 10 .491 .756 1.247 Austin Barnes June 2017 0 9 40 1 3 2 0 8 .450 .406 .856 Franklin Gutierrez June 2017 0 4 23 0 4 0 0 2 .261 .190 .451
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/26/2017.
June Pitching Notes:
- Alex Wood continues to be the best starting pitcher in June. The OPS against is crazy.
- Kenley Jansen is losing control. That walk, come on man, find the plate. Don’t be going McCarthy on us.
- Kenta Maeda has quietly had a solid June. Rich Hill has not.
- Grant Dayton is back
Player Split Year SO ERA GS IP H ER WHIP SO9 SO/W OPS Clayton Kershaw June 2017 45 2.70 5 33.1 21 10 0.870 12.2 5.63 .618 Brandon McCarthy June 2017 16 3.20 5 25.1 21 9 1.145 5.7 2.00 .574 Hyun-Jin Ryu June 2017 19 5.14 4 21.0 26 12 1.429 8.1 4.75 .915 Alex Wood June 2017 19 2.29 3 19.2 12 5 0.712 8.7 9.50 .480 Rich Hill June 2017 22 5.50 4 18.0 17 11 1.611 11.0 1.83 .773 Kenta Maeda June 2017 19 2.57 2 14.0 8 4 0.857 12.2 4.75 .530 Kenley Jansen June 2017 17 0.00 0 12.2 4 0 0.395 12.1 17.00 .273 Pedro Baez June 2017 10 1.64 0 11.0 14 2 1.545 8.2 3.33 .851 Chris Hatcher June 2017 11 8.31 0 8.2 7 8 1.615 11.4 1.57 .753 Grant Dayton June 2017 10 1.08 0 8.1 3 1 0.840 10.8 2.50 .441 Ross Stripling June 2017 6 9.39 0 7.2 15 8 2.478 7.0 1.50 1.075 Brandon Morrow June 2017 10 0.00 0 7.0 3 0 0.571 12.9 10.00 .354 Josh Fields June 2017 6 11.12 0 5.2 6 7 1.765 9.5 1.50 1.339 Luis Avilan June 2017 4 5.40 0 5.0 6 3 1.600 7.2 2.00 .919 Sergio Romo June 2017 7 1.93 0 4.2 2 1 0.643 13.5 7.00 .489 Brock Stewart June 2017 4 0.00 0 3.0 0 0 0.333 12.0 4.00 .200 Josh Ravin June 2017 2 0.00 0 2.0 1 0 0.500 9.0 .571
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/26/2017.
LAD FFA June 19th-June 25th
Contenders for the LAD Weekly Farm Factory Award for the week ending June 25th:
Alex Verdugo collected twelve hits, including five multi-hit games, and walked four times to boot. Over his last ten games, Alex has gone 21 for 42. He’s now pushed his June OPS to 1.043 and overall OPS to .880.
Walker Buehler made two solid starts for the week. Buehler pitched a combined nine innings, gave up seven hits, four earned runs, walked one, and struck out fifteen. Buehler has now made thirteen starts in 2017 and has yet to give up more than two runs in any start.
Yusniel Diaz only played in four games week due to the all-star break but he collected hits in every game including four in one game, and three in another. I’m not sure who is hotter in June, Diaz or Verdugo. Diaz now has an OPS in June of 1.210 and has raised his overall OPS to .810. I’d say he is settling in and I need to rethink the comments I made in in early June.
Sam Dystra of Milb.com checked in on him:
Dodgers OF Yusniel Diaz, Class A Advanced Rancho Cucamonga: 3-for-5, HR, 2 2B, 3 RBI, 2 R — The Dodgers’ No. 5 prospect is spending his second season in the California League but is starting to hit like somebody ready for a new challenge. Sunday’s showing was the second time in three games in which Diaz had three extra-base hits. In 20 games this month, he’s hitting .425/.463/.747 with five homers, two triples and nine doubles. No one in the Cal League has posted a June OPS higher than Diaz’s 1.210, nor can anyone in the circuit touch his 37 hits, 16 extra-base hits and 65 total bases. (Lancaster’s Roberto Ramos is second in the Cal League with 54 total bases in June.) This is still only Diaz’s age-20 season, so the fact that it took a repeat of Class A Advanced to make this breakout isn’t worrisome, but now that the results are coming fairly consistently, a move to Double-A Tulsa shouldn’t be too far away.
Not many Dodger pitching prospects are getting twenty-one outs but Dennis Santana is. For the 2nd game in a row, the converted shortstop pitched seven solid innings with an almost identical stat line from his previous start. Santana has now struck out eight hitters in three straight starts.
Dustin May threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings on June 25th. The final line was 19 outs, 5 hits, zero runs, two walks. five strikeouts.
Jacob Scavuzzo hit four home runs for the week, including three in one game. But his last three games for the week he was 3 for 16. He didn’t walk once. He had the great game, but………. I want to see a week of consistency, not one great game.
So the winner is………Alex Verdugo
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 