DODGERS NEWS/RUMORS/AROUND MLB Thread

...coulda woulda shoulda...it still would have been an out,, and it changes the whole game. Pitch selection, different batter, etc, etc... everything....nothing is the same...ever.

 

Could you imagine if that was your brother, father, son? Getting beer thrown at them? Ugh. So sad.

 

Bartman should get no sympathy from anyone. He fucked up and deserves the fate he created for himself.

 

The Cubs deserve no sympathy for their 105 years of failure.

 

The Cubs got screwed. They were the better team and Bartman's selfish antics crushed their momentum.

 

You can't say they were the better team when they couldn't close out that series AND the winning team goes on to win the World Series.

 

Red Sox and Buckner were worse. Luckily there was Curb Your Enthusiasm redemption.

 

DSP likes this

 

Bye Felicia. Dodgers designated P Mat Latos for assignment

 

Eric Stephen ‏@truebluela 1m1 minute ago
Needed to wait until Latos' ERA with Dodgers was actually 6.66. There is probably some sort of occult contract clause involved

 

Jesus... never been more wrong about a trade. Could of been worse and we acquired Cueto as well.

 

One of the biggest scumbagsI've seen in a long time was that turd with the Boston hat on who tried to wrestle the ball away from Agon...what a fucking douchebag.
And he was with a really good looking Asian chick...
I hope they beat him before they threw him out.

 

Well Matt, enjoy your time with the Giants, you demonic loser.
Mark of the Beast.

 

Dodgers hopeful their bullpen has turned a corner

The Dodgers have cobbled together a bullpen to help them get games to closer Kenley Jansen. Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports

LOS ANGELES -- With October rapidly approaching, there may be panic in the streets of Los Angeles about the Dodgers' bullpen, but there is calm in the team’s front office.

“With a bullpen, it’s about trajectory and where they’re heading as much as where they have been, so we’re kind of looking forward with this group and think the guys are sort of figuring it out,” general manager Farhan Zaidi said.

Of the five National League teams lined up for the post-season, three -- the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Mets -- have bullpen ERAs that rank in the top four in the league. The Chicago Cubs are eighth.

And the Dodgers? Their bullpen, a hodge-podge of mostly young pitchers cobbled together via trades and promotions, has built a sometimes-shaky bridge to a very good closer, Kenley Jansen. Overall, the Dodgers bullpen ranks 12th in the NL in ERA, ahead of only the San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies and Atlanta Braves, three teams headed nowhere this post-season.

For Dodgers fans who watched the team’s relievers allow home runs in each of the first three games against the St. Louis Cardinals in last year’s NLDS and post a 6.48 post-season ERA, the bullpen stands out as a potentially frightening weakness for an otherwise balanced team.

Bullpens tend to draw fans’ ire anyway, because few take note when they succeed, but everyone groans when they melt down. Dodger fans have reserved a special sort of derision for this group. At one point, the negative scrutiny on social media and elsewhere prompted Jansen to complain after a game, “People just, I'm sorry, talk s--- about us. They just don't understand this game sometimes.”

The streakiness of the Dodgers’ bullpen has fueled some of the mistrust. For a month-and-a-half, even without Jansen, who was recovering from foot surgery, the Dodgers bullpen was among the most effective in the majors. For the next two-and-a-half months, it seemed as if no lead was safe, forcing Zaidi and the rest of the front office to burn up the transaction wire trying to find more effective solutions.

Since Aug. 1, the bullpen has been far more effective and two pitchers in particular, Chris Hatcher and Yimi Garcia, have emerged as reliable options for the bridge innings, the seventh and eighth. Since Aug. 1, Hatcher has a 1.26 ERA, 18 strikeouts and four walks. Garcia has a 0.66 ERA, eight strikeouts and no walks. Manager Don Mattingly has begun using Hatcher, who struggled in a closing role in April, as his primary setup man.

A deeper dive into the cumulative statistics suggest the Dodgers’ bullpen is far more stout than the group that went into the playoffs a year ago that was put together by former general manager Ned Colletti. That group was anchored by former closers Brian Wilson, Brandon League and Chris Perez, none of whom are still in the major leagues.

This group also has far superior raw stuff. Hatcher’s average fastball is 96 mph. Pedro Baez’s is 96.9 mph. Garcia gets excellent lateral movement on his fastball due to one of the highest spin rates in baseball. Jansen’s fastball has a natural cutting action that reminds many people of Mariano Rivera’s famous cutter.

Dodgers relievers might have an unflattering ERA, but they rank third in strikeouts and have walked fewer batters than any NL bullpen other than the San Francisco Giants’ and Washington Nationals’.

“You know what? I always say you can’t judge a reliever just by ERA,” said Dodgers lefty Luis Avilan.

One Avilan pitch in Cincinnati epitomizes the optimism the Dodgers’ front office has for this young core of pitchers heading into October. After coming to the Dodgers in a three-team, 13-player trade near the deadline, Avilan had been hesitant to throw his curveball. He had used it a career-low 6.9 percent of the time this season.

But the front office, through the coaching staff, had urged all of the Dodgers’ young relievers to use their secondary pitches more frequently. In Avilan’s case, the front office thought his hesitancy to use his curveball accounted for his struggles against left-handed batters. Typically, left-handed relievers enjoy a major platoon advantage, but lefties have hit .270 off Avilan this season and righties, generally flummoxed by his sinker and changeup, have hit .210.

On Aug. 25 at Great American Ballpark, Avilan came in to face Jay Bruce with the bases loaded and the Dodgers leading the Reds by four runs. The at-bat turned into a good cat and mouse game, with a couple of foul balls to keep it alive. Avilan used his fastball to pound the inside corner of the strike zone, but on a 2-and-2 pitch, he threw a curveball away. Bruce swung and missed.

That moment, as much as any other, has stood out as a turning point of this Dodgers season. Before that game, the Dodgers were 11 games over .500 and leading the division by 1½ games. Since then, they have gone 17-5 and they lead the San Francisco Giants by 7½ games.

For Zaidi and the front office, Avilan’s strikeout was a “Eureka!” moment. Their analysis suggested that what plagued the Dodgers’ young relievers was an overreliance on their fastballs. To allow them to get more comfortable with their secondary pitches, they had to buy them time. Garcia was optioned to Oklahoma City for much of July and August. Hatcher and Baez worked on their off-speed pitches while on the 15-day disabled list recovering from strained muscles.

Now, Garcia and Baez are throwing more breaking balls and Hatcher is mixing in his slider and split-finger fastball.


“We have a pretty young group and guys that were pretty fastball-centric in terms of their mixes,” Zaidi said. “Early on, I think, they had the ability to just throw the ball by people. When the league caught on to it, they had to make the adjustments.”

With success comes confidence and the Dodgers are hopeful that the past few weeks has been more predictive of the bullpen’s upcoming performance than the previous few months were. It certainly sounds as if these guys are getting more and more comfortable.

“Whenever we have to show up and do our job, I’m sure we’re going to do it,” Avilan said.

And yet once the late innings of playoff games roll around, you can bet Dodgers fans will be holding their breath.

 

I really hope that the front office learns something from the Latos disaster. Finding value is okay when you have no funds to work with. But when you have more money than God, you don't make 30 trades, just to pay the salaries of 28 of those players for the 2 marginal ones you want.

That is small ball play with a big time salary....like they were paralyzed by their own good fortune.

That was a huge waste of time and money. I hope the lack of SP and a steady BP doesnt hurt us in the post season.

 

"With a bullpen it's about trajectory and where they're heading as where they have been"...WTF is that? Wow...
I guess that's what genius IQ guys say to discount the past or something. If you watch every game, like most of us all do, what has happened; like for instance , the 3 run HR the other night, very often Johnson, Avilan lately, flotsam/jetsam Latos, etc., doesn't count?
I know what he is trying to get across, and I dearly hope he's right...but c'mon...He would have made a good politician I think...sounds very similar to the shit they say, or how they say it, anyway.
There's also "those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it".

 

Calling it a small ball play with big money is right, but that's not a negative...what it is is more of the old adage in that you're only as good as your 40 man roster in MLB. Without going to Google, can you remember the name of the Diamondback's #3 and #4 starters from their title run with Randy Johnson and Schilling leading the way? My point is that we have enough starting pitching...if they can't find a way to put runs on the board in the 1 or 2 post season games that CK and Greinke aren't pitching in then they don't deserve to win anyway. The Nationals walked into the season with all the starting pitching in the world and look at them. But we halfway agree here because of the pen. Not getting Andrew Miller is my biggest gripe with them other than Mattingly still being manager.

But in regards to the deadline trade they still wound up with one of the better prospects in the game in Peraza and a guy, who with a little more seasoning and more work with Honeycutt, could look very much like Ryu in Alex Wood. It had to be done, Latos be damned, because they weren't going to put all their chips behind Anderson with his injury history and teams aren't lining up to help the Dodgers mainly because of what you talked about initially...they have all the advantages/leverage in terms of money and the minds in the FO. These 3 teams trades and willingness to pay players to play elsewhere have yielded guys like Kike, Barnes, Grandal, etc. The positives outweigh the negatives ( Latos). And it doesn't just pertain to the guys in front of our faces all year...they aren't OK with just having a Heisey either. Remember, Heisey was let go because of Kike and the addition of Peraza ( major league ready upgrades). Heisey's only back because those two are hurt.

We know they're trying to build major league depth in quick fashion without giving up their best prospects. That's not easy to do in such fast fashion. To do that you either give up money or you give up the prospects and God bless ownership for putting their foot down and not moving our best specs. I mean this is still a mop up job because of old, overpaid guys that they're having trouble moving and finding value for. In essence, don't be surprised if you see a couple more 3 team trades where they send out a bunch of cash to rid themselves of old head OFs, but they likely want 40 man depth in return there as well. They may pull in a dud or two in those deals as well, but so far they've gotten good out them as well. That's all you can ask for.