Jesus, that game fucking sucked. Maeda got papercut to death in that first inning, but that leadoff walk was bad. Other than the HR and said walk, he wasn't terrible. He is no #2 in this rotation, but I understand why he is where he is at for now. My guess is he was a little over amped last night, hence the added velocity, but I'll be interested to see if it was that or the fact he bulked up in the offseason. Maeda adding 2 MPH could make him a much more valuable pitcher. Though there will be a period of learning for that if it is the case as your pitches don't break the same and location can struggle. Also, not thrilled with Roberts last night, that lineup was dumb not using Joc and I wanted to see Maeda at least start another inning. I want to see Joc starting 150 games this year, we have got to start attacking some of the weaknesses on this team and not hide our guys from it to "protect" them. Too many hittable balls were just straight swung through, plus there was some just plain old bad luck, SVS pissed one down the line, Puig scalds a couple right at the defender and Gutierrez misses a 2 run homer by a foot. I am liking what I am seeing from AGon in that he has gone back to doing something that helped make him a star early in his career. He is using the whole field to spray the ball and so far is having success with it. He tried it last year after getting shifted repeatedly early on in the season and said that it screwed him up, so it looks like he must have really attacked that in the offseason. His early injury was said to be due to him going overboard on the training in the offseason. Only issue is, that his power will likely see a big drop. He may be able to flick the ball into left, but the guy does not have the power anymore to drive the ball into the LF stands on a regular basis like he could earlier in his career. So we could see a rise in lazy flyballs to LF, not a guarantee, just a guess. This is how the Padres are going to win their games this year, fucking luck and being grinders. Not a lot of hard contact tonight, but they fouled off a shit ton of pitches and found holes with bloops/15 hoppers. Anyway, yeah that was a stinker and immediately brings back the issues of LH problems. Should be a fun opening day for me in CO when the Rockies roll out a Freeland to face the Dodgers.
Sofa king sad.... It could have been 14-3 in reverse and Vin's "Goodnight everybody" would have made it alright. This is gonna be tough on me.
Thing is, as long as the" Puig is useless/ Joc should play all the time/ trade for Braun/ be willing to give up this prospect but not that one, etc." shit, as true as some of it may or not be, it still boils down to the two same problems we had last season...The pitching staff, beyond Kershaw and Jansen are a very large question mark, AND, we still suck against lefties, no matter what quality they are. All props to the FO for getting back JT, KJ, Hill, and Lofo. I believe Hill may not last as long or be as good as we need him to be ( but the best available), Logan a fine ballplayer, but simply not enough. We had to get JT and Kenley back, as the team would not be even near what it was without them. But, like it or not, I think those two problems, those two that keep us away from the series, year after year, are simply still with us as much as they ever were. I hope Doc's MoY wasn't a fluke because of injuries...Because some stuff already seems kinda silly from Dave. It's not really a big mystery for other teams about what our struggles are...It's front and center. The gorilla, as it were. With all that talent running around all over, too. Let's get the series tonight! Or are they throwing a LH out there?
Nice segment just now on MLB Central about optimizing lineups..Mike Lowell seems like he gets it. Adrian and Matt Holliday are probably in the same territory at this point, don't really need protection, could drop either out of the 4 spot altogether and they'd be OK. Probably don't want Yasmani in the 4 spot due to lack of contact..they should maybe think about going w/Forsythe there given the lack of options. Toles/Corey/JT/Forsythe/Joc/Adrian/Yaz/Puig VS RHP would be interesting. Corey/JT/Forsythe/Gutierrez/Joc/Adrian/Yaz/Puig VS LHP Very similar, only real changes are leadoff and cleanup..guys can get used to following one another
Los Angeles DodgersVerified account@Dodgers 52m52 minutes ago Tonight's Dodger lineup vs. Padres: Toles LF Seager SS Turner 3B González 1B Forsythe 2B Pederson CF Grandal C Puig RF Hill P
The big plan better not be to drastically change the lineup every other night. I'm no traditionalist but some stability with that shit is valuable.
agreed have no prob with spelling joc [or others] periodically but not on the second day of the season
My deal is that you find out if Kike is worth keeping faster by showing how truly he sucks nice and early.
People seem to forget how good he was in 2015. Admitted that he was never healthy getting into the season and was carrying the burden of his dad's cancer. I hope he rights the ship and is back to being the lefty killer he once was.
