NEWS/RUMORS/AROUND MLB Thread

They should have giant industrial fans blowing in from all angles.

 

2016 Dodgers, statistics, fun facts & figures
by Eric Stephen | True Blue LA — 7 hours ago

The regular season is done, and before we jump full bore into coverage of the National League Division Series, here is a look back at some of the notable facts and figures from the 2016 Dodgers season.

Dodgers pitchers led the majors in both strikeouts (1,510) and strikeout rate (25.1%), setting franchise records for both. They struck out 114 more batters than in 2015, topping the previous franchise record by 8.2 percent.

Of the 31 different pitchers used by the Dodgers — tying their franchise record, set in 2015 — 15 (almost half) had at least as many strikeouts as innings pitched.

The trio of Kenley Jansen (104), Pedro Baez (83) and Joe Blanton (80) gave the Dodgers three pitchers with at least 80 strikeouts in relief for the first time ever.

Kenley Jansen recorded all 47 Dodgers saves in 2016, the first time since 1919 they only had one player record a save (many of these are retroactive, as the save wasn’t an official statistic until 1969).

Kenta Maeda led the Dodgers with 175⅔ innings, the fewest innings for a Dodgers leader since Ramon Martinez (170) in the strike-shortened 1994 season. This is the first non-strike season since World War II that the Dodgers didn’t have a pitcher throw 200 innings.

The Dodgers bullpen led the majors in both appearances (607) and innings pitched (590⅔), setting franchise records for both.

Blanton finished fifth on the Dodgers in innings (80) and fourth in wins (7).

Clayton Kershaw put up a 0.725 WHIP in 149 innings, the lowest WHIP in MLB history with a minimum of 100 innings, and just the fourth pitcher to post a sub-.800 WHIP in a season, joining Hall of Famers Walter Johnson and Pedro Martinez, and Guy Hecker.

Kershaw finished with 172 strikeouts and 11 walks, the most strikeouts by any pitcher in history with no more than 15 walks. Phil Hughes in 2014 had 186 strikeouts with 16 walks, setting the MLB record with an 11.63 strikeout-to-walk ratio for pitchers to qualify for the ERA title. Kershaw, who fell 13 innings shy of qualifying, had a 15.64 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Despite the low innings total, Kershaw tied for the National League lead in FanGraphs pitching WAR (6.5), and finished tied for second in the Baseball-Reference version of WAR (5.6).

Kershaw (12-4) was the second starting pitcher in the last 97 years with more wins than walks, with a minimum of 10 wins, joining Brett Saberhagen and his 14 wins and 13 walks for the 1994 Mets.

Julio Urias, who at 19 years, 289 days old on May 27 was the youngest Dodgers starting pitcher in 51 years, ended up fourth on the team with 15 starts.

Urias, who more than held his own with a 3.39 ERA and 3.17 FIP, set a Dodgers record with 84 strikeouts, the most by a pitcher in his age-19 season or younger, beating Ralph Branca’s 1945 season by 15 whiffs.

The Dodgers got a whopping 70 starts out of rookie pitchers in 2016, second-most in franchise history, and the most since 1903 (77 starts).

Chase Utley did not ground into a double play in 565 plate appearances, the first player to qualify for the batting title without a GIDP since Craig Biggio in 1997.

Yasmani Grandal led all major league catchers with 27 home runs. The only catchers in Dodgers history with more home runs in a season are Roy Campanella and Mike Piazza, each with four such seasons.

Grandal on Sept. 22 became the first Dodger with a home run from both sides of the plate in the same game since Orlando Hudson on July 12, 2009 at Milwaukee.

Grandal’s 20 home runs at home were the most by a Dodger since Andre Ethier (22) in 2009.

Justin Turner tied for the team lead in home runs (27) and RBI (90). He set career highs in both categories in 2016, as well as runs (79), doubles (34), triples (3), walks (48) and total bases (274).

Turner hit 26 of his 27 home runs as a third baseman, just the fifth Dodger ever at the hot corner to hit 25 home runs in a season while playing third. He joined Ron Cey (four times), Adrian Beltre, Todd Zeile and Pedro Guerrero.
MLB: Colorado Rockies at Los Angeles Dodgers Justin Turner and Clayton Kershaw made their marks on the 2016 Dodgers Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Adrian Gonzalez tied for the team lead in RBI, his 10th consecutive season with at least 90 runs batted in. He is the only player in the majors with 90+ RBI in each of the last 10 years.

12 different Dodgers drove in four or more runs in a game in 2016.

Gonzalez also hit 31 doubles, his seventh straight season with 30 or more doubles.

Corey Seager hit .308/.365/.512 with 40 doubles and 26 home runs as a rookie, the first rookie since Albert Pujols in 2001 with 40 doubles and 25 home runs.

Seager combined with brother Kyle Seager of the Mariners for 56 home runs, and became the first pair of brothers to each hit at least 26 home runs in the same year.

Seager set LA Dodgers rookie records in doubles (40), hits (193), runs scored (105) and total bases (321). He finished second to Mike Piazza (1993) in batting average and home runs (tied with Joc Pederson), and third in on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

Seager’s 26 home runs were the most in a season by any Dodgers shortstop, and he was the first Dodger with 300 total bases since Matt Kemp in 2011.

The Dodgers stole 45 bases in 2016, their lowest total since 1944.

The 2016 Dodgers used 55 players, tying the franchise record set last year.

Pederson followed his 26-homer rookie season with 25 home runs in 2016, his age-24 season, joining Duke Snider as the only Dodgers with two 25-homer seasons through age 24.

Grandal, Turner, Seager and Pederson gave the Dodgers a quartet of 25-homer hitters for just the fourth time in franchise history, and the first time since 1997.

Seager, Grandal and Gonzalez each hit three home runs in a game this season, matching the Dodgers’ total for the previous 10 years combined. The only other season in franchise history with three players hitting at least three home runs in a game was in 1950, when Gil Hodges (4), Roy Campanella and Tommy Brown turned the trick.

The Dodgers had eight players with 10 or more home runs, one shy of the franchise record of nine players set in 2004.

With Seager (.512), Pederson (.495), Turner (.493) and Grandal (.477), the Dodgers had four players with a .475 or better slugging percentage in at least 400 plate appearances for just the second time since moving to Los Angeles, also accomplishing the feat in 2006.

 

Not only Donnie, they had people saying that Stanton didn't like him and pretty much ignored him completely by the end. Seems like only the owner was defending Bonds

 

Debunking the narrative that Kershaw can't succeed in Postseason
By Jeff Spiegel | Dodger Blue — 48 minutes ago

It’s the most sorry and tried angle of all-time, but it’s a favorite of haters everywhere: Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw and his collapse under the pressure of playoffs in October.

But, wait…. This critique is sorry right? It is tried? It can’t be true….right? Right?

With Game 1 against the Washington Nationals in the National League Division Series just a few days away and a matchup between two of the regular season’s best pitchers (No. 1 and No. 4 in WAR according to Fangraphs), let’s look at Kershaw’s history in the playoffs and see for ourselves.

For the sake of relevance, let’s focus our time on the last three seasons and not his performance in 2008 and 2009. In 2008, Kershaw appeared in two games and didn’t start either, while in 2009, he was so inexperienced his regular-season ERA was a bloated 2.79.

In the last three postseasons, Kershaw has started eight games and has allowed 23 earned runs over 49.1 IP, for an ERA of 4.20. Over that stretch he has allowed 37 hits, 14 walks and recorded 66 strikeouts.

On the surface, none of that (aside from the ridiculous strikeout numbers) is very good. Every single one of those would be above Kershaw’s regular-season averages in the past four seasons. So, what’s the deal?

Honestly, it starts with luck.

In those eight starts, 45 percent of hitters who have reached base against Kershaw have scored. To be honest, I initially wasn’t certain how that compared to his career number. After digging deeper, I unearthed just 28 percent of those who reached base on Kershaw in his career, score.

Think about that.

That’s compared to the average of all teams this season, which is 36.3 percent of baserunners went on to score. Last season it was 35.1 percent.

If 28 percent of baserunners scored against Kershaw in the playoffs, his ERA would drop to 2.61. For comparison’s sake: Madison Bumgarner has seen just 26 percent of baserunners score against him in the playoffs, down from a career 33 percent.

If both left-handers simply pitched to their career averages, Kershaw would actually have a better ERA than Bumgarner in the postseason (2.78).

Now, this is hypothetical, but somewhere in there, there’s probably something interesting as well. The second thing to consider is the small sample size we’re dealing with.

In those eight starts, Kershaw has six games with less than three runs allowed and two games with more than three runs allowed. Here is his list of earned runs allowed in each start: one, zero, zero, seven, eight, three, three, one.

Which two don’t look like the others?

The reality is, you could pitch six perfect games and throw those two middle outcomes into the equation and the ERA will still look bloated (as it should). So what happened on Oct. 18, 2013 and Oct. 3, 2014?

Let’s start with 2013 — Game 6 of the NL Championship Series in St. Louis.

Simply put, it was a rough outing. Kershaw left the game in the fifth trailing, 5-0, and with two runners on and nobody out. Ronald Bellisario and J.P. Howell allowed both runners to score before getting out of the inning, and that was that.

Kershaw’s final line that night: four innings pitched, 10 hits, two walks, five strikeouts, seven earned runs allowed. And he deserved blame for every inch of that poor start. Even the best in the world have off days.

The NLDS game on Oct. 3, 2014, however, is a different story. Over 6.2 innings, Kershaw allowed eight hitters to reach base (all via hit) and struck out 10 (exactly half of the outs he recorded).

All eight baserunners came around to score against him.

Is that bad luck? Is it bad pitching? An argument could be made for both, but either way it’s impossible to read that and not think there’s some bad luck involved. Just as you can’t blame all eight runs on bad luck.

In that outing, Kershaw allowed a home run to Randal Grichuk in the first inning before retiring 16 consecutive batters. The next hit was yet another home run — this time from Matt Carpenter in the sixth.

Then came the seventh. Dodgers were leading, 6-2, and Kershaw was at 81 pitches when he took the mound for what would become the worst 30 minutes of his career.

Single, single, single, single, strikeout, single, strikeout, double.

The ball was put into play six times, and all six times it found an unoccupied plot of land to plant itself. Twice in this stretch Kershaw was ahead 0-2 on a batter that would eventually get a hit.

But it didn’t matter, because now down 7-6, Kershaw’s night was done. In came Pedro Baez, who promptly walked the first batter he saw before giving up a three-run homer to Matt Holliday.

Did the Dodgers wait too long to pull Kershaw? Was the shotty bullpen the reason? Was it just a batter of BABIP (batting average on balls in play) bad luck? Who knows.

The reality is, Kershaw allowed eight earned runs for just the third time in his career and he had allowed eight or less runs total in each of the final four months of that season.

Sometimes, baseball is just weird.

In 263 career starts, Kershaw has the best ERA and WHIP in baseball history. He led the league in ERA in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, and would have again this year had he pitched 13 more innings. Kershaw has won the Cy Young three times and also has an MVP to his name.

None of this is news to anyone, but the fact that we’re going to assume that because of two bad starts in the playoffs that Kershaw is anything less than the most feared pitcher in baseball come the postseason is ridiculous.

Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher in baseball — and that won’t change just because the calendar has turned.

 

Fake SportsCenter ‏@FakeSportsCentr 1 hour ago
The Marlins have fired hitting coach Barry Bonds after just 1 season.
Bonds was unable to "inject" his knowledge to young Marlins hitters