Dodgers draft a Panda
Baseball America with a great review of Jeren Kendall. This kid sounds like a lot of fun.
That’s one quirk. Here’s another: Much like the late artist Prince, Kendall has become synonymous with a symbol. A Panda emoji. He’s used it in all of his Instagram captions for a year now. His intrasquad team in fall practice was named Team Panda. He’s not sure where the panda came from. Seriously. He has no explanation for it.
“I’ve just been a huge fan,” he said, laughing. “I don’t really know why I do it.”
Kendall has long been a trendsetter, a trailblazer. Stylish and bold. When he was a senior at Holmen (Wis.) High, he entered the school’s talent show—and won. His “talent” was catching marshmallows with his mouth, thrown by his younger brother, Justin, from 10 rows deep in the auditorium seats. It was a showstopper.
Read more at http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/jeren-kendalls-tools-play-emojis-outfield/#Lo23eM0JPeHo4pTD.99
That sure beats ping pong.
I just love the fact he’s from Wisconsin.
Jim Callis from MLB.Com loves the pick:
23. Los Angeles Dodgers: OF Jeren Kendall, Vanderbilt
Callis: I know the industry soured on Kendall a bit because of his strikeout rate at Vanderbilt, but I love this pick at No. 23, and personally, would have taken him in the top 10. Yes, he swings and misses, as evidenced by his 74 whiffs in 261 at-bats, but he has the best tools in the college ranks, and he’s been a very productive player at a top program. He has a chance to be a 15-HR, 30-steal guy while playing a quality center field.
Did the Dodgers just draft Jonathan Villar or Carl Crawford?
Based on the pre-draft rankings the Dodgers just stole their number one pick Jeren Kendall with the 23rd pick. I’ll be misspelling Jeren for a while unless I get to write it often.
MLB had him as their 6th top prospect. Baseball America had him at 18. John Sickels felt he was a top ten pick. David Hood of TrueblueLA had him as his 3rd top prospect.
Per Keith Law:
Jeren Kendall has proved himself to be a toolsy college player with a solid upside.
Speed is a key part of Kendall’s game. He stole 19 bases as a freshman in 2015 and increased that total to 28 in 2016. His hit tool does leave something to be desired because of his propensity to swing and miss. He’s struck out 60 times in 204 at-bats this season, per Vanderbilt’s athletic website.
Striking out in nearly 30 percent of your at-bats in college, even against SEC competition, doesn’t necessarily bode well for things to come against professional competition.
MLB.com’s scouting report notes Kendall’s “overall game draws comparisons to that of Jacoby Ellsbury, though his arm is significantly stronger.”
Kendall seems to have all five tools with the only caveat being his strikeout rate. Given his speed, he seems like someone who could steal 50 bases. I thought Drew Stubbs might show up as a comp but Drew never played enough to get 50 stolen bases.
Just for fun, I did a search for every player since 2000 who stole at least fifty bases while striking out at least 100 times.
Jonathan Villar anyone?
Player HR SB SO Year Age PA OPS Jonathan Villar 19 62 174 2016 25 679 .826 Hanley Ramirez 17 51 128 2006 22 700 .833 Scott Podsednik 12 70 105 2004 28 713 .677 Carl Crawford 11 50 112 2007 25 627 .820 Chone Figgins 9 52 100 2006 28 683 .712 Chone Figgins 8 62 101 2005 27 720 .749 Billy Hamilton 6 56 117 2014 23 611 .648 Tom Goodwin 6 55 117 2000 31 606 .698 Carl Crawford 5 55 102 2003 21 661 .671 Michael Bourn 3 61 140 2009 26 678 .738 Dee Gordon 2 64 107 2014 26 650 .704 Michael Bourn 2 61 140 2011 28 722 .734 Michael Bourn 2 52 109 2010 27 605 .686
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/12/2017.
No June Gloom for Dodgers
June Record 6 – 4
Overall Record 39 – 25
Position – 1 1/2 games back of the Rockies
By sweeping the potent Reds the Dodgers moved over .500 for June and kept the Rockies in their sights. The Rockies won seven in a row until yesterday, so it was imperative the Dodgers make hey against the Red pitching, and they did just that.
The offense in June is being led once again by Cody Bellinger who blasted three home runs over the weekend. Corey Seager’s bat also woke up and he obliterated the production of his competition for all-star shortstop.
I hedged my bets on Seager. I said I voted for Cosart but also expected Seager to make me look like a fool.
I expect Cory Seager to hit three or four home runs and Zack Cozart to be punchless thus resulting in my ridicule for picking Cozart over Seager in the 2017 All-Star vote, along with misspelling his name in my tweet.
Chris Taylor has slowed down, and it would probably be wise to give him some time off. This is not a guy who has ever played full time before so you could easily expect him to be getting some fatigue. He currently sports the second most plate appearances for the month.
On May 9th, no one expected Chase Utley to lay claim to the starting 2nd baseman job, but one month later he has done exactly that. With the return of Turner, and the struggles of Forsythe, Chase will probably be getting most starts against RHP until he slows down.
Puig is doing just enough to warrant starting full time but it is a far cry from what we were hoping for.
Several regulars are holding back the Dodger offense. Grandal, Gonzalez, and Forsythe are all sporting an OPS less than or equal to .544. For Grandal this is just a mini slump but for Adrian Gonzalez this is starting to get worrying.
I expect Forsythe to break out of his slump but in his career he has only played in small market teams who have never had a winning season. Maybe he’s having trouble adjusting to playing in games that count every day.
I hadn’t noticed how bad Kiké Hernandez had been this month. Just the one extra base hit in June after being an extra base hit machine in April/May.
One interesting note in June. I don’t normally include the stolen base totals because the Dodgers don’t run but in June they Dodgers have stolen nine bases and have been caught only once. Chris Taylor and Cody Bellinger both have three steals each. The rest of the year the Dodgers had twenty-one stolen bases but were caught eight times.
Player Split HR PA 2B RBI SB CS BB SO OBP SLG OPS Corey Seager June 2 45 4 7 0 0 7 7 .378 .514 .891 Chris Taylor June 1 39 3 5 3 0 3 10 .282 .389 .671 Cody Bellinger June 4 38 2 6 3 0 4 13 .316 .647 .963 Yasiel Puig June 0 35 3 2 2 0 5 5 .371 .367 .738 Chase Utley June 1 32 2 3 0 0 7 2 .438 .480 .918 Yasmani Grandal June 1 32 1 2 0 0 0 12 .188 .313 .500 Adrian Gonzalez June 0 31 2 3 0 1 2 5 .258 .286 .544 Logan Forsythe June 0 30 0 0 0 0 2 13 .133 .071 .205 Enrique Hernandez June 1 23 0 1 1 0 2 7 .174 .238 .412 Austin Barnes June 0 18 0 1 0 0 1 4 .333 .294 .627 Brett Eibner June 0 11 0 0 0 0 1 5 .182 .100 .282 Justin Turner June 1 10 0 2 0 0 0 2 .500 .778 1.278 Franklin Gutierrez June 0 10 0 3 0 0 0 3 .200 .200 .400
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Generated 6/12/2017.
Dodgers newest weapon – the Piggyback
With the plethora of starting pitching who can’t pitch past the fifth inning, the Dodgers may have found a way to turn a struggling asset into a strength.
Two weeks ago when they moved Ryu to the bullpen he piggybacked with Kenta Maeda to give the Dodgers a 7 – 3 victory over the Cardinals. In that game, Kenta went the first five and Ryu the final four. Ryu was so brilliant in relief he quickly reclaimed his role in the rotation.
Last night after Kenta was moved to the bullpen the exact same thing happened but in a different order and one different pitcher. Rich Hill struggled through his five innings, and this time Kenta Maeda finished up with four sparkling innings in the Dodgers 7 – 2 victory over the Reds.
As long as egos are put aside this could help a team but it will only work if the manager does not yank the 2nd pitcher for a pinch hitter in a close game. The Dodgers have been lucky enough to have a large enough lead that they can afford to let the second pitcher finish the game. They won’t have that luxury if they are behind or in a close game.
Last night’s game might have been a turning point in how the Dodgers view Adrian Gonzalez going forward. The Dodgers had an off day on Thursday and still sat Gonzalez against an LHP, deciding to go with the struggling Cody Bellinger instead. I find it telling that Bellinger is struggling and still got the call over Gonzalez.
I’m curious to see what lineup will Dave Roberts used today. Will he use Chase at 2nd signaling a possible future platoon role for Chase or will he give Logan more time to figure out his slump against RHP? Is Chris Taylor ever going to get a day off? Taylor has played in every game this month starting seven of the eight. Don’t be surprised if Kiké gets the start in CF tonight.
The Big Red Machine is coming into town
This ain’t the Bench/Morgan/Perez/Foster version but this version kicks ass the same way. The offense was already one of the best in the National League this year, but they have ratcheted it up a notch in June, and have been the best hitting team in June.
Talk about firing on all cylinders:
| Name | OPS | wOBA | wRC+ | PA | HR | R | RBI |
| Joey Votto | 1.247 | 0.513 | 221 | 31 | 2 | 6 | 6 |
| Zack Cozart | 1.114 | 0.46 | 187 | 33 | 2 | 7 | 6 |
| Scooter Gennett | 1.192 | 0.491 | 207 | 26 | 4 | 5 | 13 |
| Adam Duvall | 0.962 | 0.418 | 159 | 26 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Eugenio Suarez | 0.814 | 0.357 | 119 | 26 | 0 | 6 | 6 |
| Tucker Barnhart | 0.841 | 0.351 | 115 | 17 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Scott Schebler | 0.900 | 0.391 | 141 | 15 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Devin Mesoraco | 0.853 | 0.356 | 118 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Patrick Kivlehan | 0.904 | 0.376 | 131 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Arismendy Alcantara | 0.637 | 0.262 | 56 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Billy Hamilton | 0.414 | 0.196 | 13 | 25 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Jose Peraza | 0.394 | 0.172 | -2 | 26 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
Other quick notes:
- Ex – Dodger Scotty Schebler is tied for the NL lead in home runs with 17.
- Ex – Dodger Jose Peraza is basically the only healthy Red not hitting in June. Peraza does have fourteen stolen bases which are good enough to be tied for 5th in the NL.
- Joey Votto does not have the highest OBP on his team even though his OBP is .423 for the season. That honor belongs to Zach Cozart who clocks in at .430. I think this is the first time I’ve ever done a Reds report that Votto does not have the highest OBP on his team.
- Zack Cosart became Honus Wagner this year and he’s carried it over 230 plate appearances.
- The Giants could sure use Adam Duvall in LF. The Dodgers and Giants have combined to give the Reds 31 home runs in the outfield this year between Duvall and Schebler.
- The Red pitching is horrific. This would be a good series to go to the stadium. They are the worst pitching team in the NL.
I expect Cory Seager to hit three or four home runs and Zack Cozart to be punchless thus resulting in my ridicule for picking Cozart over Seager in the 2017 All-Star vote, along with misspelling his name in my tweet.
Yes, I voted for Zack Cozart
It wasn’t even a hard decision. I had hoped it would be but by any account, Zack Cozart has been the best shortstop in baseball this year and thus the vote was easy.
| Name | wRC+ | HR | AVG | OPS | wOBA | Off | Def | WAR | ISO |
| Zack Cozart | 170 | 9 | 0.347 | 1.042 | 0.435 | 17.8 | 6.9 | 3.2 | 0.265 |
| Carlos Correa | 145 | 11 | 0.306 | 0.905 | 0.383 | 13.3 | 1 | 2.3 | 0.218 |
| Xander Bogaerts | 120 | 2 | 0.322 | 0.828 | 0.357 | 11 | 2.3 | 2.2 | 0.126 |
| Francisco Lindor | 121 | 12 | 0.267 | 0.842 | 0.352 | 7.8 | 3.5 | 2 | 0.244 |
| Corey Seager | 126 | 8 | 0.274 | 0.83 | 0.359 | 8.6 | 2.8 | 2 | 0.177 |
| Andrelton Simmons | 106 | 6 | 0.276 | 0.74 | 0.322 | 2.7 | 4.4 | 1.6 | 0.125 |
| Tim Beckham | 101 | 9 | 0.271 | 0.74 | 0.318 | 3.3 | 2.9 | 1.4 | 0.156 |
| Jean Segura | 136 | 4 | 0.341 | 0.853 | 0.367 | 7.1 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 0.121 |
| Elvis Andrus | 115 | 7 | 0.302 | 0.811 | 0.347 | 4.2 | -0.4 | 1.3 | 0.164 |
| Chris Owings | 107 | 7 | 0.299 | 0.808 | 0.344 | 3.3 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 0.173 |
| Trea Turner | 89 | 5 | 0.27 | 0.729 | 0.311 | -0.2 | 2.9 | 1 | 0.156 |
Sure, if I had to draft a team I would draft Cory Seager over Zack Cozart and maybe that is what the all-star game is for many fans. For me, it is a huge % of what you are doing the year you are being voted.
Cozart has always been a great defensive shortstop but for whatever reason (Chris Taylor anyone?) his offense has exploded this year. I don’t vote early anymore, I learned my lesson with 2005 Izturis but I think by June I can vote. I fully expected Cosart to have a huge slump in May and Seager to surge but instead, Cozart continued to pound the ball and Seager had a bit of a misstep in May and most of June until his key home run on Wednesday.
I will admit to one other strange vote. I voted for Matt Kemp. I’ve decided going forward I’ll allow myself one sentimental vote if the player is having any kind of year. Since Matt Kemp is getting lots of votes and is having an excellent offensive season I decided to use my sentimental vote on Kemp. He’s not Conforto, or Duvall, or Ozuna but he’ll do.
I never expected to be voting for Yonder Alonso but he really does have the highest fWAR for 1st baseman in the AL. His competition was Marwin Gonzalez and Logan Morrison??????? What the hell happened to Miggy/Abreu/Pujols/C Davis/C Santana/Hosmer?
Here we go:
American League:
1st – Yonder Alonso
2nd – Jose Altuve
SS – Carlos Correa
3B – Miguel Sano
C – Salvador Perez
OF – Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, George Springer
National League:
1st – Ryan Zimmerman
2nd – Daniel Murphy
SS – Zack Cozart
3B – I did vote for Nolan Arenado – I may have bent over too far in trying to be objective but I just find his defense so dazzling. Turner missed to much time and is a good 100 PA behind his competition of Arenado and Byrant. I may have gone with Anthony Rendon as my 2nd choice.
Catcher – Posey
OF – Harper, Blackmon, Kemp
1st and 3rd base are beasts in the NL. At 1st the options are Goldy, Votto, Thames, and Bour. Plus, Freddie Freeman was better than all of them. At 3rd the options are Rendon/Turner/Byrant/ Suarez/Lamb
I expect Cory Seager to make the team either by getting the vote or being selected. I hope Grandal gets selected, he deserves to go. I think the injury to Turner keeps him from making the team.
Kershaw and Jansen have to go.
Usual suspects?
In this order of importance the usual suspects Clayton Kershaw, Cory Seager, Grandal, Puig, and Jansen kept the Dodgers from getting swept at home by the league-leading Washington Nationals.
Through six innings, Kershaw had only given up a home run to Babe Zimmerman but otherwise kept the Nationals off the board. With Strasburg dealing it appeared that run would hold up for the Nationals. Strasburg had given up one hit in five innings and seemed to be in cruise control.
In the bottom of the 6th however, Clayton Kershaw did something that won’t show up in the box score unless you look real hard. Kershaw grounded out to 1st base but he forced Strasburg to throw nine pitches. Chris Taylor grounded out shortstop to 1st but he made Strasburg throw eight pitches. How that impacted Strasburg we won’t know for sure but what we do know is that the next hitter Corey Seager crushed the fourth pitch from Strasburg 412 feet to centerfield for his first home run since May 20th. With the score now tied Adrian Gonzalez struck out on a curveball that handcuffed the catcher allowing the Tortuga to reach 1st base safely. Gonzales took second on a wild pitch. The wild Tortuga was feeling it. Yazmani Grandal knew it would take more than a single to score Gonzalez so he laced a double into the LCF gap, and the Dodgers had the lead 2 – 1.
Could they hold it?
Kershaw took care of business in the 7th and after hitting for himself in the bottom of the 7th it looked like he was going to pitch the eight. Roberts had his own curveball ready and decided at the last minute to go with Pedro Baez. Baez has been great this year but every fan still holds their breath when he’s pitching in a key moment. This was a key moment. Not to disappoint his fans, Baez gave up a leadoff triple to Trea Turner. Taylor played that into a triple by getting too close to the fence and not handling the carom correctly but on the other hand, Turner hit the fence on the fly and just missed a game-tying home run.
I’ll be honest. With no outs, one of the fastest runners in baseball on 3rd, and knowing Harper and Zimmerman would get at-bats I was conceding the tying run and simply hoping they could keep it tied.
That didn’t happen. Dusty Baker allowed Raburn to hit and Baez struck him out. That was not surprising because Raburn has one skill. He can hit left-hand pitching. That is it, he can’t hit someone like Baez. It was nice of Dusty to burn an out and it was nice of Baez to make sure of that out. They still had Bryce Harper to deal with. Do you walk Harper and pitch to the hottest hitter of 2017? Maybe a few weeks ago you but this Harper was in a mini-slump so they went right at him. Harper hit it hard but the ex-3rd baseman turned pitcher Baez snagged the sharp ground ball and got Turner in a run down. It was not a picture perfect rundown but in the end, it was Baez applying the tag on Turner at home plate. Baez had made the play on both ends. Still not out of the woods, Babe Zimmerman loomed.
Kenley Jansen was on his way in. Another comebacker and the Dodgers had escaped with their 2 – 1 lead.
Of course, the Dodgers went meekly in the 8th. I don’t think they scored a run against the worst bullpen in the NL in three games. I should probably point out that Adrian Gonzalez reached on an error by Murphy and then decided to steal 2nd base. That ended as you would have expected it too.
The 9th started with Daniel Murphy slamming a shot down the line that looked like a sure double. Except that Puig patrols right field and he quickly got on it and fired to 2nd. Murphy was having none of Puig and stayed right at 1st. Jansen did his Jansen thing and three hitters later the Dodgers had salvaged the win 2 – 1.
It wasn’t easy but they got it done.
Scherzer joins Seaver/J. R. Richard
Only three pitchers have ever struck out at least fourteen Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Tom Seaver was one of the greatest ever. J.R. Richard was one of the most intimidating pitchers of his era. Max Scherzer can sit easily in that company. I don’t know about you, but I’m way more impressed by a pitcher who pitches twelve innings and strikes out sixteen than I am a seven-inning start no matter how dominant. Unlike last night the Dodgers were able to beat Tom Seaver and the Mets in fourteen innings. Seaver gave up just the one run in his twelve innings, a solo home run by Steve Garvey.
Player Date Tm Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc Tom Seaver 1974-05-01 NYM LAD L 1-2 12.0 3 1 2 16 106 Max Scherzer 2017-06-06 WSN LAD W 2-1 7.0 3 0 2 14 81 J.R. Richard 1977-10-02 HOU LAD W 6-3 9.0 4 3 2 14 79
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Generated 6/7/2017.
In that Tom Seaver game, Andy Messersmith went eleven innings himself which made me wonder how many Dodger pitchers have gone at least ten innings since 1974? Here is the answer. No surprise to see Fernando all over the list. Rick Rhoden and Doug Rau show up.
Player Date Opp Rslt IP H ER BB SO GSc Don Sutton 1975-08-24 MON L 3-5 11.0 4 1 3 9 89 Fernando Valenzuela 1985-09-06 NYM L 0-2 11.0 6 0 3 5 87 Andy Messersmith 1974-05-01 NYM W 2-1 11.0 6 1 2 5 84 Jerry Reuss 1983-06-25 HOU W 2-1 10.0 11 1 0 11 77 Fernando Valenzuela 1987-09-17(1) CIN L 2-3 10.0 10 3 3 8 65 Fernando Valenzuela 1982-09-19 HOU W 5-4 10.0 12 3 1 8 61 Fernando Valenzuela 1981-09-01 PIT W 3-2 10.0 8 1 1 7 78 Andy Messersmith 1975-05-17 PIT W 4-3 10.0 9 1 4 7 69 Rick Rhoden 1977-07-06 HOU L 1-2 10.0 7 1 1 6 79 Fernando Valenzuela 1984-09-06 ATL L 2-3 10.0 9 2 1 5 70 Jerry Reuss 1980-06-16 PHI L 2-3 10.0 5 2 1 5 78 Andy Messersmith 1974-05-18 ATL W 1-0 10.0 4 0 2 4 86 Doug Rau 1976-05-31 SFG L 1-7 10.0 9 0 3 2 71
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Generated 6/7/2017.
Mike Cameron should have hit the cookie
When I saw that Scooter Gennett had hit four home runs in a game my thought wasn’t congratulations but annoyance that a banjo-hitting utility infielder would impinge upon one of the hardest things to do in a baseball game.
None of this was supposed to happen. Gennett, a 27-year-old, 5-foot-10 career second baseman, was waived by the Brewers at the end of spring training, and picked up by the Reds to be a utility guy, which entailed learning some new positions. He’s started four games at third base this year, which he’d never played in the majors. He was in left field last night, a position he’d never played before this season. His previous outfield experience had consisted of one inning in 2014.
This is a personality flaw in how I view the game of baseball. I’m all for the underdogs in many aspects of the game, but I don’t like nominal players doing things that are completely out of the realm of their skill set. Unless it is Lee Lacy hitting three straight pinch hit home runs.
I’ve seen two players hit four home runs in a game. Shawn Green and Mike Cameron. When I say, I saw them do it, I’m talking about TV. The Shawn Green game has been talked about here before.
Mike Cameron did it on May 2nd, 2002. Unlike many of the seventeen players who have hit four home runs in a game, Mike had a chance for five, and he almost did it. Mike had hit four home runs by the end of the 5th inning. Mike and Brett Boone both hit two home runs in the first innings. That had never been done before. In his fifth at-bat, he was hit by a pitch. What kind of bullshit is that you have four home runs, and they hit you with a pitch? Couldn’t that have waited until the next game? Anyway, this is the at-bat I’ll always remember. He comes up in the 9th inning and works a 3 – 0 count. A cookie could be coming his way. A chance to do something no one has ever done.
He takes a pitch right down the middle. I couldn’t believe it. The announcer starts prattling about how Cameron is playing the game the right way. All I know is that I felt he should have swung with everything he had. Eventually, the count goes to 3 – 2 and Cameron crushes a ball to deep right-center field.
It had a chance.
It was caught.
But has anyone ever come closer? I don’t know but it was oh so close.
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 