NEWS/RUMORS/AROUND MLB Thread

Discussion in 'Los Angeles DODGERS' started by irish, Feb 15, 2017.

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  1. irish

    irish DSP Staff Member Administrator

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    he's done being the elite player he once was
    but 31/119 .268/.323/.457 is still pretty productive
    arguably better than adrian's 18/90 .285/.349/.435
    of course we only have this year and next on his contract
    anaLheim is still on the hook for 5 years and $140MM
     
  2. irish

    irish DSP Staff Member Administrator

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    Puig expected to play a lot in right field
    by Eric Stephen | True Blue LA — 17 hours ago
    [​IMG]
    PHOENIX — A few days into camp at Camelback Ranch, and the Dodgers’ outfield situation is essentially what we thought it was before spring training started — a pair of regulars plus some mixing and matching likely in left field.

    The wild card in all of this is Yasiel Puig, who was sent to Triple-A Oklahoma City for a month last season and then returned in a reduced role. But this year, the Dodgers thus far have described Puig more as a solution than a problem.

    “We expect him to get a lot of at-bats out there in right field,” manager Dave Roberts said on Wednesday. “If you look at his skill set defensively, there might not be a better right fielder in the game. The adjustments he made to his swing last season, all good things.

    "With Yasiel's skill set, he's shown he can hit right-handed pitching. And obviously he hits left-handed pitching. The more he's out there, the better for the Dodgers. The only thing for us, is continuing to look at the at-bat quality. It's important.”

    In his career, Puig doesn’t have much of a platoon split at all, hitting .282/.370/.476 against lefties and .289/.358/.470 against righties. But in the last two seasons he has hit just .256/.316/.394 against right-handed pitchers compared to .267/.338/.497 against southpaws.

    Once Puig returned from Oklahoma City in 2016, he started just one game against a right-handed pitcher in September and October.

    But his playing time figures to go up in 2017. Puig showed up to camp on Friday morning, wielding a bat covered in barbed wire.

    Roberts was asked this morning if right field was Puig’s to lose.

    "We expect him to be out there the majority of the time. Yasiel put in a lot of work this winter with his swing, the swing mechanics, and obviously the body. He looks great,” Roberts said. “I think even after last year he grew a lot. I think he just wants to go out there and play. If he goes out there and plays well, he'll be out there.”

    The Dodgers could theoretically platoon in all three outfield spots, but with Puig in right field and Joc Pederson expected to man center field on most days, that leaves only left field open for split duty.

    Franklin Gutierrez and Andre Ethier seem like logical platoon partners, but several others are in the mix for outfield playing time as well, including Andrew Toles, Scott Van Slyke, Trayce Thompson, Kiké Hernandez and Brett Eibner, among those on the 40-man roster.

    "You look at the depth chart and you look at the roster, those guys understand. There are only so many spots out there. But again, it's not as much, 'Here's our opening day roster.' It's easier to say in my position, but I've been a player before. There's a lot of anticipation and hope to break camp with the big club. I get it,” Roberts said. “As an organization, what's going to make us the best team over 162 games, we're not going to break camp with eight [outfielders].

    “It will be fun to see how it plays out. It will play out it always does.”
     
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  3. Fall Winslow

    Fall Winslow McRib

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    Pujols and Adrian, about the same in overall offensive value last season.
    Defense sorta separates the two at this point, Adrian still being pretty slick @ 1B.
    Well, that and Adrian's something like 3yrs younger than Pujols and closer to the back of his prime, so I can see the argument for Adrian
     
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  4. irish

    irish DSP Staff Member Administrator

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    pujols is tolerable now as a dh
    but how's he going to be in 4 years, at 41, when the anaLs are [still] paying him $30MM? :laff:
     
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  5. irish

    irish DSP Staff Member Administrator

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    tbh, this would only be news if he wasn't starting opening day

    Kershaw to extend streak of opening day starts
    by Matthew Moreno | Dodger Blue — 17 minutes ago
    [​IMG]
    Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts formally announced Clayton Kershaw as his starter for Opening Day of the 2017 season. In taking the mound against the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium on April 3, Kershaw will have made seven consecutive Opening Day starts.

    Vincente Padilla was the last pitcher other than Kershaw to start for the Dodgers on Opening Day (2010). It’s a streak bested only by Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez, who has started each Opening Day from 2009-16, and presumably will do so again this year.

    Amongst Dodgers pitchers, Kershaw will tie Don Drysdale and Don Sutton for most Opening Day starts in franchise history. However, only four of Drysdale’s seven outings were in succession (1958-61), while Sutton’s Opening Day string ran from 1972-78.

    Los Angeles is 6-0 in their season openers with Kershaw on the hill. The ace is 4-0 with a 0.93 ERA 44 strikeouts in those contests, and a fifth victory would tie Drysdale for most wins in franchise history on Opening Day.

    Kershaw’s best performance came in 2013, when he fired a complete game with nine strikeouts and hit a go-ahead solo home run against the San Francisco Giants.

    This year will mark the second consecutive time Kershaw faces the Padres to begin a season, and third time overall. Last year, he held San Diego to one hit and had nine strikeouts over seven shutout innings at Petco Park.

    Kershaw has completed at least six innings in five of six Opening Day starts. The exception came against the Padres in 2012, when illness limited him to just three scoreless frames.

    Although Padres manager Andy Green named his Opening Day starter last year — Tyson Ross — during the first few days of camp, he’s yet to do so for 2017. Conceivable options are Jhoulys Chacin, Christian Friedrich, Luis Perdomo and Clayton Richard.
     
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  6. Bluezoo

    Bluezoo Among the Pantheon

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    That's a good characature of him, but what is he doing? Yawning? Why?
    Starting Opening day is boring?
     
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  7. N.Z

    N.Z DSP Legend

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    How would this make Joc sad exactly? They don't play the same position, Joc will be hoping Bellinger comes a long and hits 80 homers his first season.

    Weird post.
     
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  8. Fall Winslow

    Fall Winslow McRib

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    Joc and Adrian play the same position now?
     
  9. LASports96

    LASports96 DSP Legend

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    0.9 WAR
     
  10. Fall Winslow

    Fall Winslow McRib

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    Not very far from Kemp status, who also didn't make the list
     
  11. N.Z

    N.Z DSP Legend

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    Okay. I'm officially confused.
     
  12. LASports96

    LASports96 DSP Legend

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    Same
     
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  13. BlueMouse

    BlueMouse 2020 World Champions

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    I think I know where Fall is going on this. Think of it this way: Chewbacca is a Wookiee who lives on Endor...
     
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  14. irish

    irish DSP Staff Member Administrator

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    ouch
    and declining
     
  15. Fall Winslow

    Fall Winslow McRib

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    We were talking about the Top 100 list and Adrian's on it while Joc is not, hence the sad Jordan face meme irish posted
     
  16. Fall Winslow

    Fall Winslow McRib

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    Expanded list..Joc and Forsythe would maybe be between 101-120 and ahead of Pujols in their own right
     
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  17. TheKnockdown

    TheKnockdown DSP Legend

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    Evan Longoria laments Logan Forsythe trade, focuses on winning
    9:17 AM PT
    PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- It was less than four weeks ago -- on the day Tampa Bay traded productive second baseman Logan Forsythe to the Los Angeles Dodgers -- that the Rays' highest-profile player, Evan Longoria, delivered a three-word review of the deal that raised many eyebrows in baseball:

    "Surprised and upset," the Rays' third baseman told the Tampa Bay Times.

    By Saturday, the day the Rays' position players took the field for the first time in spring training, Longoria had softened his stance, but he still admitted that he is having a difficult time accepting the subtraction of Forsythe.

    "I actually like where we are," Longoria said. "I don't know that I'll ever get over losing Logan, because we got real close and he became one of the clubhouse leaders. So when you take that away, it feels like there's a much bigger void."

    Forsythe, who ranked sixth among American League second basemen in wins above replacement over the past two years, was traded to the Dodgers on Jan. 23 in exchange for highly touted pitching prospect Jose DeLeon. Longoria conceded Saturday that while he has come to like the makeup of his team, he is still trying to process how the pieces fit.

    Asked if he now felt as if the Rays have a chance to win, Longoria replied: "I do. I do. It's just a different situation. There was so much shuffling. The loss of Logan can't be overlooked because it kind of casts a cloud. But at the same time, when you look at it in totality, I think that ... at the end of the day, we've bettered ourselves a little bit.

    "You know, I can't say that we got much better, with losing Logan," Longoria continued. "But I think that if you take him away and then you insert the pieces that we have, I like it. I think that we've positioned ourselves to be right there again."

    Drew Smyly but added outfielder Colby Rasmus, injured catcher Wilson Ramos and former Braves outfield prospect Mallex Smith.

    FanGraphs recently projected the Rays to win 13 more games this season and finish 81-81. It's the second-biggest projected win jump in the AL (behind Minnesota's 16).

    "It's always good to have some expectations of winning," Longoria said.

    "But projections are what they are -- just guesses," he added. "I think those algorithms are based on everything going right for everybody. And as we all know, that doesn't happen very often. But it's about piecing it together. And if everybody has the year that they're expected to have on our team and we stay healthy, I really like our chances."

    Longoria is coming off a 2016 season in which, at 30 years old, he set career highs in home runs (36) and extra-base hits (81). He said his swing feels "as good as it's ever felt coming into the spring."

    But he still changed his workout program over the winter, dropping offseason yoga workouts in favor of Pilates, saying he had taken that advice from Chicago Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta.

    The one thing Longoria learned from all those Pilates classes: "Women are so much better at Pilates than men," he said. "These older women in [his class] make me look like I'm just a child."

    Longoria also arrived in spring training sporting a thick, Arrieta-style beard.

    "I started growing it in November," he said. "And it just kept growing. And my wife likes it.

    "I think I'll probably keep it until I suck for a couple of weeks. Then it will be gone."
     
  18. BlueMouse

    BlueMouse 2020 World Champions

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    TMI, Evan.
     
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  19. Bluezoo

    Bluezoo Among the Pantheon

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    Top 100.
    Top 10.
    Top 20.
    KLAD....First with all the hits....
     
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  20. Fall Winslow

    Fall Winslow McRib

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    Also probably wishes he was the guy who got to leave Tampa for LAD
     
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