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
Justin Turner is giving batting average new life
Batting average isn’t the end all anymore when it comes to evaluating the kind of season a player is having but it is can still catch the fans imagination when a player flirts with the magic .400 season.
Justin Turner is still at .387, and as the calendar turns to late June he could set a few LAD records. That batting average would currently be the best in LAD history for a first half break. Mike Piazza and Tommy Davis had to be on this list. I had forgotten about the great start Nomar had in 2006. Seeing Manny Mota with a high batting average is no surprise, seeing him with over 200 plate appearances in the first half is. 1971 was the year of the 3Dog.
The table below uses 200 plate appearances as the cut off point.
Player Split Year BA PA H 2B 3B HR RBI OPS Justin Turner 1st Half 2017 .387 210 70 14 0 5 27 1.011 Mike Piazza 1st Half 1996 .363 336 109 6 0 24 63 1.055 Nomar Garciaparra 1st Half 2006 .358 303 96 24 1 11 53 1.004 Mike Piazza 1st Half 1997 .357 342 107 19 0 16 51 1.004 Tommy Davis 1st Half 1962 .353 380 126 15 8 15 90 .949 Manny Mota 1st Half 1973 .351 234 73 7 2 0 20 .806 Willie Davis 1st Half 1971 .350 376 126 25 8 3 45 .852
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/23/2017.
I’m sure you are now wondering how many LAD had an OPS over 1.000 in the first half. I sure was.
No surprise to see the trading partners Gary Sheffield and Mike Piazza at the top. Nor is it any shock to see the greatest offensive Dodger of all-time Cody Bellinger on the list. Piazza did the trick twice. One of my favorite all-time Dodgers Reggie Smith is right there. Wally Moon and his moon shots were flying out plenty in 1961.
Player Split Year OPS PA 2B HR RBI BA OBP SLG Gary Sheffield 1st Half 2000 1.093 368 11 27 71 .334 .440 .652 Mike Piazza 1st Half 1996 1.055 336 6 24 63 .363 .432 .623 Reggie Smith 1st Half 1977 1.021 352 18 17 53 .307 .436 .585 Wally Moon 1st Half 1961 1.020 296 11 14 46 .333 .449 .571 Justin Turner 1st Half 2017 1.011 210 14 5 27 .387 .464 .547 Cody Bellinger 1st Half 2017 1.009 227 12 22 49 .271 .344 .665 Mike Piazza 1st Half 1997 1.004 342 19 16 51 .357 .424 .580 Nomar Garciaparra 1st Half 2006 1.004 303 24 11 53 .358 .426 .578
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/23/2017.
Alex Wood finds home cooking to his taste
Right now Alex Wood has a career ERA at Dodger Stadium of 1.78 which would place him 6th on the all-time list for pitchers who have made at least 10 starts at Dodger Stadium.
The only Dodgers on this list are Sandy Koufax and Alex Wood. Heady company indeed. Anyone who watched J. R. Richard pitch against the Dodgers would not be surprised to see him on this list. I never saw Curt Simmons pitch but I did see Jon Matlack and Dwight Gooden dominant the Dodgers when they pitched for the Mets. Interesting that Jon Matlack made the cut but his more famous teammate Tom Seaver did not. Or Jerry Koosman. Jim O’Toole was also before my time but I do remember having a geat O’Toole baseball card. I’ll have to go find it.
Player Split From To ERA GS IP WHIP SO9 SO/W OPS Sandy Koufax LOS03 1962 1966 1.37 85 715.1 0.822 9.5 5.31 .467 Curt Simmons LOS03 1962 1967 1.53 10 88.1 0.940 3.6 2.50 .538 Jon Matlack LOS03 1972 1977 1.63 10 83.0 0.880 5.4 3.85 .502 J.R. Richard LOS03 1973 1980 1.77 13 107.0 0.916 9.9 3.47 .505 Alex Wood LOS03 2013 2017 1.78 16 111.0 0.883 8.9 4.78 .507 Dwight Gooden LOS03 1984 1994 1.82 11 84.0 1.060 8.4 4.11 .545 Jim OToole LOS03 1962 1966 1.87 10 77.0 1.117 6.2 3.53 .581
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/23/2017.
Dodger notes as they take aim on the Rockies
Lots of great stuff came through the daily Dodger press release this afternoon. One of the great secrets of a Dodger broadcast is that the Dodgers provide boatloads of stats for the broadcasters to refer to during a game. You can be sure that Joe and Orel will sample many of the stats found below.
I normally would take some of these stats to write a column around but with the Dodgers so hot, there are just too many nuggets to work with, so here is the Dodger Press Release. Remember all these stats were compiled by the Dodgers for the media. I think I can release them as they were written.
Dodger Notes:
This is the first time in the divisional era (since 1969) that 3+ teams in the same division have all had a .615+ win percentage through games of June 22. SOURCE: STATS, LLC
The club’s last eight-game winning streak was from Aug. 7-17, 2013, when they were in the midst of a 42-8 stretch.
The Dodgers have won eight consecutive games at Dodger Stadium, their most since recording 10 straight victories at home from June 17-July 5, 2016. The club is 29-10 (.744) at home this season, which is the best mark in the Major Leagues. The club is 40-11 (.784) in its last 51 games at the Ravine since Sept. 3, 2016, which is the best home record in the Majors during that span.
In 20 games during the month of June, the Dodgers own the best record in the Major Leagues at 15-5 (.750).
The Dodgers’ +123 run differential is the best in the Major Leagues, three runs better than the Houston Astros (+117).
The Dodgers have homered in 14 straight games. The last time the Dodgers homered in 15 straight games was from June 7-22, 1977.
The Dodgers’ 15 homers in the Mets’ series were the most hit in a series in franchise history, besting the 14 blasts they hit at Coors Field from Sept. 25-28, 1997.
Cody Bellinger extended his career-high hitting streak last night to eight games and is slashing .303/.376/.829 with 17 runs, seven doubles, 11 home runs and 20 RBI in 20 June games. Bellinger leads the Majors in home runs and slugging percentage during June and his 11 home runs this month are the most by a Dodger rookie in a single month.
Since his promotion on April 25, Bellinger leads the Majors in home runs (22) while ranking second in RBI (49) and fourth in slugging percentage (.665).
LONG MAY YOU SCORE RUNS: The Dodgers have scored six or more runs in each of their last six contests. That is one away from their longest streak since moving to Los Angeles:
LA Dodgers, Most Consec Games w/ 6+ Runs – Since 1958
Los Angeles Dodgers 7 06/26/2001 – 07/02/2001
Los Angeles Dodgers 6 06/17/2017 – ACTIVE
Los Angeles Dodgers 6 05/17/2012 – 05/22/2012
Seven other streaks of 6
The 54 runs the club has scored over that six-game stretch are the most they have tallied in a six-game span in more than 20 years, with the last 54+ run outburst coming from June 29—July 4, 1996, when they plated 56 runs against the Rockies and Padres. SOURCE: STATS , LLC
Is Puig the best 8th hitter?
Much has been made about the success that Puig is having hitting out of the eight hole, which led me to wonder if Puig was the best eight hitter in baseball?
The simple answer is no. He is, however, one of the best. I used 50 PA as the criteria for this which might be too low. The table below has several interesting columns. The OPS is what that hitter is doing from the eight spot. The OPStot column is their cumulative total OPS for the season. The PA column is the number of plate appearances hitting from the eight spot. The PAtot column is the total number of plate appearances.
This shows that while Puig has hit in the eight spot a lot, he has spent much more time in other spots in the order.
That .881 OPS by Puig is very good. Seven home runs in only 113 plate appearances is excellent. He is clearly thriving from the eight hole, but he is far from the best at it.
Player OPS OPStot PA PAtot HR RBI BB BA OBP SLG Matt Wieters 1.137 .690 65 225 5 13 9 .345 .446 .691 Kolten Wong .964 .838 100 179 1 15 12 .341 .434 .529 Devin Mesoraco .961 .842 66 107 4 6 10 .255 .379 .582 Travis dArnaud .910 .736 91 143 7 20 8 .259 .330 .580 Cameron Rupp .894 .650 51 168 2 6 5 .304 .373 .522 Yasiel Puig .881 .773 113 271 7 19 13 .268 .345 .536 Jordy Mercer .863 .785 116 273 3 11 15 .297 .388 .475 Jarrod Dyson .856 .686 69 246 2 11 6 .317 .406 .450 Sandy Leon .827 .653 70 145 3 11 6 .281 .343 .484 Joey Gallo .820 .820 82 255 5 16 10 .194 .293 .528 Chase Headley .816 .697 66 263 1 8 10 .315 .409 .407 Michael Taylor .815 .763 92 210 4 11 4 .284 .315 .500 Eddie Rosario .809 .768 104 234 3 9 5 .306 .340 .469 Andrew Knapp .799 .720 54 108 2 4 7 .255 .352 .447
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/23/2017.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 