Results tagged ‘ Los Angeles Dodgers ’
Exciting News: Per Pedro Gomez, Jonathan Sanchez close to Dodgers deal
Just trying to ignore the defensive mishaps in this Giants game I’m watching when:
LHP Jonathan Sanchez looks like he’s zeroing in on a deal with the Dodgers. May need a few starts in minors before call up.
— Pedro Gomez (@pedrogomezESPN) May 14, 2013
Jonathan Sanchez could be a Dodger. Soon. While this may make you laugh at the Dodgers, what if Dirty finds everything that’s been lost for so long? What if he figures it out and stops walking people? What if he
| Date | Tm | Opp | DR | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | HBP | BF | Pit | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 5 | PIT | @ | LAD | 99 | 5.0 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5.40 | 22 | 88 |
| Apr 10 | PIT | @ | ARI | 4 | 3.1 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 12.96 | 23 | 93 |
| Apr 21 | PIT | ATL | 10 | 3.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 11.12 | 15 | 74 | |
| Apr 26 | PIT | @ | STL | 4 | 0.0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 12.71 | 4 | 17 |
| Apr 29 | PIT | @ | MIL | 2 | 2.1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 11.85 | 11 | 48 |
| PIT | 13.2 | 25 | 18 | 18 | 8 | 15 | 7 | 2 | 11.85 | 75 |
…I mean he could
| Year | Age | Tm | G | GS | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | IBB | SO | HBP | BK | WP | BF | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 29 | KCR | 7.76 | 12 | 12 | 53.1 | 65 | 47 | 46 | 8 | 44 | 1 | 36 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 270 | 54 | 2.044 |
| 2012 | 29 | COL | 9.53 | 3 | 3 | 11.1 | 17 | 13 | 12 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 57 | 51 | 2.294 |
| 2013 | 30 | PIT | 11.85 | 5 | 4 | 13.2 | 25 | 18 | 18 | 7 | 8 | 0 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 75 | 31 | 2.415 |
…well, alright. Best of luck, Dirty. How bad could it actually get.
#BeatLA Round Two: No matter how many injured Dodgers, Giants must still beat Kershaw
I’ve been mostly quiet on the internet today due to some computer gaming, a habit that’s been developing this week, but will probably die out next week because I’ll start to be busying myself with other, more career-minded business. The world moves on, and the lineups were posted for tonight’s game, with the Dodgers noting Carl Crawford and Mark Ellis were injured, but available tonight, and not in the starting lineup. Then Adrian Gonzalez get scratched from the lineup with neck pain, but unfortunately the Dodgers are allowed to replace him. Therefore, the lineup for the visiting Dodgers look like this:
Updated #Dodgers lineup: Hairston 1BPunto 2BKemp CFRamirez SSAJ Ellis CEthier RFCruz 3BSchumaker LFKershaw P #whiff
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 4, 2013
Meanwhile, in the Champions corner, Barry Zito and company lookalike this:
Tonight’s #SFGiants lineup: Pagan cf, Scutaro 2b, Sandoval 3b, Posey c, Pence rf, Arias ss, Torres lf, Belt 1b, Zito p
— San Francisco Giants (@SFGiants) May 3, 2013
Also important to note that the Giants finally sent down the very much offensively-struggling Hector Sanchez, and called up the doing-well-in-Fresno Francisco Peguero. Jeremy Affeldt also was taken off the disabled list today. You might be aware that tonight is Metallica Night at AT&T Park, and while Brandon Belt‘s mug with a wig has been floating around the tubes, a Panda picture surfaced:
#PandaMODE in Metal Mode #MetallicaNight#BeatLAtwitter.com/SFGiants/statu…
— San Francisco Giants (@SFGiants) May 4, 2013
Game time is 7:15PM PST, and should be a good challenge against Kershaw. I won’t remind you how it went last time they saw him.
The paper says: Two days of strikeouts, and one day of LOL Dodgers
The Dodgers come to San Francisco this weekend for a three-game series against the Giants where there will be a license plate frame giveaway to the first 20,000 fans on Saturday, and a Sergio Romo Gnome on Sunday to the first 30,000. The matchups tell us this is whom we should expect to see on the bump this weekend:
Friday: Barry Zito (3-1, 3.29) vs. Clayton Kershaw (3-2, 1.73)
Saturday: Ryan Vogelsong (1-2, 6.23) vs. Ted Lilly (0-1, 5.63)
Sunday: Matt Cain (0-2, 6.49) vs. Hyun-jin Ryu (3-1, 3.35)
Raise your hand if you thought of Zito, Vogelsong, and Cain, Zito would have the best ERA going into May of the three. The stock on Zito was pretty high going into this regular season, but not so much that you thought he’d outdo them by almost double. As Giants fans, you know what you’re going to get out of Zito, Vogey, and Cainer, but do you know what you’re getting out of Kershaw (yes), Lilly (lol), and Ryu (did you know the media guide now says to say his name as “Roo”)?
Kershaw has been harassing the Giants since 2008. How much harassing? Let this table show you:
| Year | G | GS | CG | SHO | IP | H | ER | HR | BB | SO | BF | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 0.00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3.000 | |
| 2009 | 1.29 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 22 | 0.286 | |
| 2010 | .500 | 1.55 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 29.0 | 18 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 25 | 116 | 0.966 |
| 2011 | 1.000 | 1.07 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 42.0 | 29 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 49 | 161 | 0.881 |
| 2012 | .400 | 1.62 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 39.0 | 27 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 40 | 147 | 0.872 |
| 2013 | 1.000 | 0.00 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 30 | 0.444 |
| Career Total | .692 | 1.28 | 18 | 17 | 3 | 3 | 127.0 | 81 | 18 | 5 | 27 | 134 | 481 | 0.850 |
I miss when Clayton Kershaw wasn’t a starter, because even though I’m sure he’d shut down the Giants 1-2 innings at a time, at least he wouldn’t be doing it 6-9 innings at a time as a starter, which he kinda does these days. He averages at least 7.0 IP in every start against the Giants in his career. That’s insane. I’m not sure I’ll get to watch Friday’s game, and I’m not sure it’d make me that happy to anyway. But it is Barry Zito. Somehow, he has done some crazy things lately, and do you wanna be the one that bets against crazy?
Here’s Kershaw’s pitch usage for this year
Didn’t realize the usage of the fastball was so high, but there yea go.
Ted Lilly… hasn’t been good. He was tolerable in 2012, but so far, nothing to report. The Rockies teed off on him in his last start, and unless he gets ruled out due to injury, this is who I’ll get to see pitch for the Dodgers in person on Saturday.
Low velocity everything, so Lilly does not have that big of a margin for error, and as you can guess, he’s not been pitching within that margin, and so he’s been getting hit. The Dodgers are probably happy they have a day off tonight and a Kershaw start tomorrow so the bullpen will be well rested for Saturday’s game.
Hyun-jin Ryu is still the new guy on the block, but he’s actually ahead of Clayton Kershaw in terms of percentage of strikeouts, which doesn’t really make anybody who’s an opponent feel better about facing him, but at least the Giants have seen him once before. It was that ten hit game, and maybe there were some first-game jitters for Ryu, but he’s certainly not the reliever we thought he’d be at worst, and definitely looks like he belongs in the Dodgers rotation.
Opponents are still getting used to his four pitches, and I’ll admit I’m still getting used to what he’s putting out there despite having the TV on to the Dodgers whenever they’re on down here in sunny Southern California. Always seem to hear from pitching veterans though that a good fastball-changeup combo will do you good, and hey, throw in a third pitch in his slider that’s major league average, and there’s a starter for you, gosh darnit.
All series with the Dodgers are always spirited, but if you make your way to the yard, make sure you play nice!
GIFPost: Skip Schumaker can throw a 90 MPH fastball, changeup, and a curveball
When games get towards the very latest stages, or the deficit is so large that it’s just a matter of recording outs. When that happens, sometimes we are blessed with the happening of a position player taking the hill for an inning. Enter Skip Schumaker, one career MLB inning in 2011 when he was in St. Louis in 2011. I wonder how much Ryan Wheeler, Michael Cuddyer, and Jonathan Herrera will owe in kangaroo court when they get fined for recording an out against a position player that pitched.
Schumaker’s four-seam fastball is not a horrible pitch, even if it’s straight as an arrow:
He’s actually in pretty good position to field a comebacker, I mean, for someone that doesn’t pitch.
You’ll have to take my word for it on the 90, I know I didn’t show it, because it was nowhere close to the strike zone.
Skip threw a changeup, one that dropped pretty well, and others that just stayed straight
Kind of interesting movement on this one, where it goes left, then right at the end, I believe BrooksBaseball classified this pitch as a knuckleball. It certainly had some interesting movement.
That pitch’s movement is a little deceiving due to the way it was received, but Skip’s changeup isn’t as horrible as I thought it was when I watched it. It has a little movement, but sometimes it was also pretty straight.
Skip also flashed has one curveball for us, unfortunately it was against Carlos Gonzalez so he got a base hit off of it
After the inning ended, no runs allowed after having the bases loaded, Skip could smile about it a little.
The only people that may have been rooting against Schumaker were the biggest fans of the Rockies players that had to go up against him. You don’t want them getting out against that guy! For everybody else though, this is always a lot of fun to watch.
The Dodgers are getting all of their injuries out of the way in April
The “injury news” tab on Baseball Reference is busy for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Busier than most teams after the regular season started, I’m sure:
- 4/27 Injury Report: Mark Ellis Left Friday’s game against Milwaukee (April 26, strained right quadriceps)
- 4/27 Injury Report: Chris Capuano On the 15-day disabled list (April 17, strained left calf)
- 4/27 Injury Report: Zack Greinke On the 15-day disabled list and is expected to miss two months (April 12, broken left collarbone)
- 4/27 Injury Report: Hanley Ramirez On the 15-day disabled list and will miss two months (March 22, right thumb surgery)
- 4/27 Injury Report: Chad Billingsley On the 15-day disabled list and will miss the remainder of the season (April 16, right elbow surgery)
- 4/27 Injury Report: Scott Elbert On the 15-day disabled list (March 22, left elbow surgery)
- 4/27 Injury Report: Shawn Tolleson On the 15-day disabled list (April 13, to undergo back surgery)
That’s a lot of injuries that call for the disabled list to be used.
No decision on Ellis yet:
Don Mattingly said Mark Ellis feels better today. Still no decision on DL but unavailable
— Eric Stephen (@truebluela) April 27, 2013
And then right before the game tonight in Los Angeles:
And now the Dodgers have scratched first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.
— Tom (@Haudricourt) April 28, 2013
Per Eric Stephen of TrueBlueLA, Gonzalez was the only Dodger to start every game this season. No information about the scratching of Gonzalez has been provided as of yet. UPDATE:
Adrian Gonzalez scratched from lineup tonight with a small skin infection in his right leg- at hospital now, but back at the stadium tonight
— Jon Weisman (@jonweisman) April 28, 2013
A name that’s actually missing from all that injury news is RHP Stephen Fife with right shoulder bursitis, and have had to recall Matt Magill to start in his place. That’s pretty far down the depth chart for the Dodgers, who have proved you cannot have too much pitching.
Some good news for the Blue team is that Hanley Ramirez is beginning his rehab tonight with their High-A affiliate and HanRam hasn’t been silent in his excitement to get back to playing.
Still, that’s a lot of injuries to happen for a team at one time and you don’t like to beat a team because they’re depleted (or at least I don’t), but because you beat them at their best. Maybe by mid-June the Dodgers will start to look like the Dodgers we thought they are supposed to be (minus Billingsley).
Depth at SP for #Dodgers once was amusingly deep, now it’s mostly used up
This morning’s news from LA Times beat writer Dylan Hernandez:
Chad Billingsley to the DL with elbow pain, doesn’t know if he’ll need Tommy John surgery. Stephe Fife into rotation: lat.ms/XYcU3K
— Dylan Hernandez (@dylanohernandez) April 21, 2013
There has been speculation even before now that Chad Billingsley might need Tommy John surgery, and if that turns out to be the case, chances are he’s done until 2014. Stephen Fife has been called back up to the big league team to help fill the gap for now.
Remember when the Dodgers had something like eight starting pitchers? It was pretty funny, especially because people knew the Dodgers would have a tough time getting rid of the extra pitchers that might be able to help out a second-tier major league roster. But they had depth! That depth can come in handy if there’s an injury, or somebody needs to make some mechanical issues. The original roster of pitchers looked as such:
Chad Billingsley
Hyun-Jin Ryu
Now, Greinke’s out after his unforgettable shoulder drop vs. Carlos Quentin, Bills could be done for a couple weeks, or a whole year, Harang was traded to the Rockies for Ramon Hernandez (and then Harang was traded to Seattle), and Lilly should actually be coming up this week to give the Dodgers a fifth pitcher. Oh, and Capuano also has a strained left calf, so he’s on the 15-day DL. Funny how baseball can work, it can give so much, and it can certainly taketh away so much more.
Questions are coming around from Dodger fans to their favorite Dodger bloggers when they can expect from the estimated time of arrival for their top prospect Zach Lee (a break from all the Yasiel Puig questions!), and the consensus seems to be that it’ll be later (2014) rather than sooner (2013) that he’ll be able to contribute to the club. This of course assumes Lee is still a Dodger in 2014 and not in somebody else’s minor league system. I’m not sure if fretting about other former prospect Allen Webster, whom was called up to pitch for Boston today, is all that worthwhile, since he did help LA land Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford (and those other guys). Giants fans will show no sympathy for that “should have kept” complaining.
The Dodgers rotation will be interesting to watch in the next month, as their one ace works, Ryu has looked decent so far, Beckett doesn’t, Capuano will probably be pulling his weight for the most part, and Lilly is likely going to be getting calls for the DFA from fans. It’s gone from having two strong figures standing tall to protect the glory of Los Angeles to having Kershaw and him wondering what they’re going to get out of the other four, hoping things don’t go as bad as most baseball fans think they will.
Adding another opinion to last night’s mess
I made a GIF post of the fight last night, but I’m not going to pretend that watching the whole video of it wouldn’t be better, so
You know the story about Zack Greinke and Carlos Quentin, and now there’s an added bit to hearing Matt Kemp and Quentin met in the hallways towards the player parking lot on their way out and got face to face. @ProductiveOuts was able to make some pretty funny commentary out of peacemaker Clayton Richard and Matt Kemp getting up in one another’s space
Matt Kemp and Clayton Richard perform a stunning a cappella cover of “Here And Now” by Luther Vandross. yfrog.com/nx41qdp
— Productive Outs (@ProductiveOuts) April 12, 2013
Then, before everybody went to sleep, and actually before the hallway meeting, the Dodgers official account tweeted this
See you on Monday in Los Angeles: twitter.com/Dodgers/status…
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 12, 2013
Were there San Diego fans, and maybe a player or two backing Quentin last night? Absolutely. Quentin does say Greinke says something to him, so until we know what that is, it’s hard to deliver a clear judgment on the rush that led to Greinke’s broken collarbone. However, my opinion is that the Dodgers account stepped over the line in not helping relations with San Diego. Do they care? Probably not. Should they care? Absolutely. I’m not saying they should have said, “Good game, Padres, see you next time! xoxo” but giving just the official recap and notes from the press conference would have been enough. I’m not sure why it was necessary to create more bad blood between teams and fanbases, because you know San Diego fans probably didn’t enjoy seeing that.
To make my stance clear, I agree with Don Mattingly that Quentin shouldn’t play before Greinke does, but I realize that’s probably not going to happen. This is MLB’s chance to take a stand on the matter, but I don’t expect them to start now. The MLB might also want to have anger management classes for all of its athletes before the season, because maybe it might prevent another broken collarbone, or any other injury. All in all, this is not a good thing for baseball, and I’m just hoping Quentin gets his suspension, Greinke recovers quickly, and the fans from different teams don’t start hurting each other.
Couple of fan fights breaking out down LF line at Petco #fightnight
— David Vassegh (@THEREAL_DV) April 12, 2013
The season series resumes on Monday at Dodger Stadium.
GIFs of the Shove and Shout-Fest in San Diego
Maybe it didn’t all start with a Jason Marquis pitch to Matt Kemp in the first inning. Maybe this goes further back. There was a game recap from 2009 (credit to Bill Shaikin for reminding the people) where Carlos Quentin and Zack Greinke met when they were with the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals, respectively:
An instance between Carlos Quentin and Greinke with one out in the fourth stood out as the game’s only real fireworks, and even this uprising didn’t amount to much. Quentin was hit squarely in the back by a Greinke pitch and immediately took a couple of steps toward the mound.
Home-plate umpire Bill Hohn stepped in front of Quentin and catcher Miguel Olivo quickly restrained the slugger. Television broadcasts showed Quentin telling Olivo that he was all right, and Quentin moved down to first base.
By Greinke’s estimation, it was a first-inning pitch that got away and almost hit Quentin in the head causing the residual anger three innings later.
“He had a reason for [being upset],” said Greinke of Quentin. “Any time you throw it that high, it’s justified. You’ve got to be better than that and not pitch like that. You’re going to make mistakes, but the last thing you want to do is hit someone where it could seriously hurt them. As soon as I let go of it, I was scared for him.”
So there is history that goes back as far as that. On to the GIFs:
The delivery from Greinke
You’ll notice AJ Ellis yelling “HEY” to Quentin because really, nobody wants to risk injury or suspension of anybody else
Another view, complete with Greinke glove drop and taking the hit
The pile that ensued
From the home plate camera now
The bullpen getting their exercise
Matt Kemp was very angry, and was protected by multiple Dodgers to not get any further involved. As of this moment, it’s unclear if by this point he was already ejected.
Then Jerry Hairston runs to the Padres dugout, a la Jorge Soler minus a bat, and gets another scrum started
The bullpen comes back out to get their jogging in
Greinke would leave with the team trainer, and his departure was called an injury, but we will not know the extent of it until after the game.
Matt Kemp, what do you think of this whole thing?
It’s “mother father bull kit?” I’m not sure I understand. It’s ok, no need to clarify.
Suspensions are likely for Kemp (allegedly for touching an umpire), Hairston, and Quentin. Not sure about Greinke, but that’s also possible. This could be trouble for the Dodgers if Greinke’s actually hurt, but we’ll wait to talk about all that until news is released post-game.
GIFPost: Pitching and Defense from Game 3 of Giants-Dodgers
The game ended 5-3, but the Giants had plenty of moments where their pitchers and their defense came through for them. Tim Lincecum had a stretch where he looked stellar, and then other moments where nobody knew where his fastball was going. After Jose Mijares loaded the bases off of a weak hit, a line drive, and a curveball for a HBP on Mark Ellis, George Kontos came in to save the day on what was deemed the biggest hit in win probability added for the Dodgers on this Matt Kemp double play:
Could Pablo Sandoval thrown home or to second and got the second out? Debatable. He did do the smart thing by getting two sure outs: one at third, and one at first as the Dodgers would score what would be their last run of the night.
Javier Lopez came in next to face Adrian Gonzalez and thought Buster Posey had received this well enough to get that 2-2 call. Ump didn’t though.
So he decided to throw his 3-2 pitch and strut off.
“Dah! Dah! Dah! Dah! Dah! Dah! Dah! Dah!”
Matt Kemp went 0-for-the-series and Chad Gaudin was more than happy to be a contributor to the cause, and also had pretty good control in Wednesday’s outing.
Next we turn to the defensive baseball porn. You could get lost in this play. Carl Crawford chops the baseball to maybe-brother-maybe-relative Brandon Crawford and the rest is just Golden
I mean, look at that handsome defense
Even from that angle I get lost in his beautiful eyes
And one more angle for good measure
Solid.
Sergio Romo got to face two Team Mexico teammates in Adrian Gonzalez and Luis Cruz. The first two guys made their outs, and it was time to make the new Dodger shortstop silly.
Good game, Luis Cruz, but not even close.
The Giants have an off-day today, then engage with the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday at 1:35PM PST at home in front of what I’m guessing will be three straight sell-out crowds.
Joaquin Arias at 1B tonight for #SFGiants
Lineups have been posted for tonight’s Giants-Dodgers game, and Brandon Belt is still a little sick, so…
No Belt, maybe still sick … Pagan CF, Scutaro 2B, Sandoval 3B, Posey C, Pence RF, Arias 1B, Torres LF, Crawford SS, Bumgarner LHP
— Alex Pavlovic (@AlexPavlovic) April 2, 2013
That’s right, Joaquin Arias is really playing first base tonight — for the first time since July 9th, 2010 when he was with the Rangers!… and with LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu toeing the mound tonight, Andres Torres will continue to be that platoon guy in LF. The Dodgers roll out their vs. LHP lineup
Carl Crawford out of #Dodgers lineup today: Hairston LF, M Ellis 2B, Kemp CF, Gonzalez 1B, Cruz 3B, Ethier RF, A Ellis C, Sellers SS, Ryu P.
— Dylan Hernandez (@dylanohernandez) April 2, 2013
Speculation is that Carl Crawford’s out since there is a LHP on the mound, yet Andre Ethier is still out there… but you wouldn’t want to bench two guys right off the bat like that, even against a lefty… I mean, are the options on the bench really that much better than Ethier?
This will be Ryu’s first career MLB regular season start, and the Giants did not face him during Spring Training, but I’m pretty sure they have video on him. Here’s a snapshot of what Baseball Prospectus’ scouting staff thought of him:
The Tools section say “5″ which equals a MLB average pitch, while a “6+” suggests a better than MLB average pitch, and you’ll notice it’s that changeup, so keep an eye out for that tonight as we all collectively scout him. My plea to you is that if Ryu struggles, don’t seriously consider him “done” or “overrated” or whatever falls into line with that. It’s one start, and first game jitters could very well hit him, and maybe even Madison Bumgarner.
