Game 102, 2015

Athletics at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, CSNCA

The Dodgers send Clayton Kershaw to the mound tonight nursing a 29-inning scoreless streak and admiring a July in which he won three of his first four starts with an ERA of 0.27. His opponent will be Jesse Chavez, who is 5-10 but has a 3.45 ERA. His last start was pretty bad, though: he gave up four runs in three-plus innings against the Giants.

There’s late word that the Dodgers-Marlins trade of Matt Latos and Michael Morse to the Dodgers for prospects may be falling apart over medical issues. Stay tuned.

Lineup when available.


You’ll note that Kershaw isn’t starting any more and Bolsinger is. Kershaw apparently has a sore muscle in his hip or glute.

156 thoughts on “Game 102, 2015

  1. Dodgers have 4 new pitchers to shoehorn into the 25 man roster. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them trade a couple of people off the 25 man roster before 1:PM…

    • Seem simple enough without trading. Send down Yimi, Lee and Ballslinger and DFA Peralta. Though I suppose they could try to trade the Peralta.

  2. Perspective for those unhappy because of no splashy trades–

    “Let’s face it,” Saxon wrote. “A playoff rotation of Clayton Kershaw, Greinke and Price just sounds more unbeatable than one in which the third name is Wood, Brett Anderson or Latos. Then again, what did Price, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander get the Tigers last season in October? Not a single victory.

    “In 2011, the Philadelphia Phillies had Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt. They lost in the first round to the St. Louis Cardinals.”

      • Still could happen offseason as a FA. Several reports have said he likes the Dodgers.

        Be interesting to see if this FO will ever sign a big name and pop for the megabuck contract. It’d go against what they’ve done so far, but they didn’t create the roster they inherited.

        First test will be Greinke. I think they’ll offer, maybe renegotiate to try to keep him out of FA, but not as many years so they’re not paying him into his late 30s. Highly unlikely they’d pop for Greinke AND Price.

        I kind of think they would have popped for Kershaw due to his age and generational and maybe all-time talent.

        Think they’re going to be hard to categorize and likely to spring surprises

        • Will be interesting to see how they deal with this. Would imagine that Cueto as well might be in the mix. Can we afford 3 starters in the $30 million range and would it be good use of the money? Salaries are expected to go from $282 million down to $207 million next year. Rollins, Kendrick, Anderson and Latos will be major FAs. Seems doable, but would depend on what they want the salary ceiling to be next year.

  3. Price rental to Blue Jays cost them the country’s 12th ranked prospect.

  4. So, giants (sic) get Leake rental, but cost them their number 1 prospect from an admittedly weak farm system.

  5. Here’s the link to the Dodgers’ President Andrew Friedman explaining the moves he and his team have made so far before the deadline.

    He expects both Latos and Wood to be in the starting rotation, which means Bolsinger is out of it. He may go for long relief or perhaps to AAA OKC to pitch regularly. “We expect Bols to continue to make an impact down the stretch,” he said.

  6. I don’t know how many of you are ESPN Insiders. I paid for it this year for the first and probably last time. Their Keith Law thinks this was an excellent deal for the Dodgers, “a mixed bag for the Atlanta Braves, and yet another trade for the Miami Marlins in which the owner can’t keep his hands out of the till.” What he means by that last crack is this:

    This deal was just about clearing salary for them, exactly as you’d
    expect from a team owned by someone who fleeced the taxpayers of Florida
    for a stadium that only enriches him and has left the handful of true
    Marlins fans every bit as bad off as they were with the old ballpark.

    About Latos and Wood, Law says

    He’s [Latos] a big upgrade in quality and in quantity — he takes some
    pressure off the bullpen — and is probably worth two extra wins to the
    Dodgers the rest of the way, perhaps more if you compare his production
    to the current crop of Dodgers fifth starters.

    The Dodgers also pick up lefty Alex Wood,
    who has been excellent over the past two-plus years for Atlanta,
    reaching the majors just a year after he was drafted, then developing a
    much-needed third pitch (a curveball) to give him the pitch mix to work
    as a starter. However, his arm action is long and awkward, and he had
    Tommy John surgery before he was drafted. He also has seen his velocity
    and strikeout rate gradually decline over the past two years (although
    he split time between the rotation and bullpen in his rookie season).
    Four years of control of even a league-average starter is a valuable
    asset, and one that helps the Dodgers, who have only two
    starting-pitching prospects (Julio Urias and Jose De Leon) close to the majors, but I worry that Wood may have already peaked.

    Then, about the remaining pieces:

    Jose Peraza,
    also heading to the Dodgers, was Atlanta’s top prospect coming into the
    season, but has a .318 OBP with little power in Triple-A right now, and
    most scouts and execs I’ve talked to feel like his ceiling is lower
    than expected; he’s going to be a quality regular, but probably not an
    above-average one or a star. I would modify that if the Dodgers put him
    back at shortstop where he belongs; Atlanta moved him off short under
    the Frank Wren regime because they had Andrelton Simmons
    in the majors, even though at that point Peraza was a good two years
    away from the big leagues. Peraza is a natural shortstop and became a
    plus defender at second right away; he’s probably a grade 55 (on the 20-80 scouting scale)
    defender back at short and, with that, doesn’t need to do much more
    than hit an empty .270-280 and steal some bases to be a very good big
    leaguer.

    The Dodgers’ haul also includes two relievers, lefty Luis Avilan and right-hander Jim Johnson, helping address a weakness in the middle innings, although they’re just fine in the ninth with Kenley Jansen and have gotten very good work from Yimi Garcia before him. Mike Morse is just a throw-in, earning $8 million next year but a long way removed from the career year he had in 2011, as he can’t play any position at even an average level and doesn’t get on base or make much contact against right- or left-handed pitching. Taking on his salary probably helped the Dodgers add the compensatory draft pick that’s going to Atlanta and avoid giving up that much to Miami in prospects.

    If they conclude Seager is too tall for short they could put him at third and then put Peraza at short.

  7. The part of the write up on mlbtraderumours that I like the best about the 13 player trade, is the part that says that this will benefit our rotation not just in 2015, but possibly up to 2019

    • Winning now is important . . . but so is farsighted thinking. (As someone with extreme near-sighted vision, I can only imagine what that’s like!)

      • I like the idea of getting 2 very good starters over getting 1 excellent one

        • For less money, too. Latos will be a free agent, but Wood can’t be a free agent till 2020 and can’t even go to arbitration till 2017. If his arm stays healthy…

        • Good point, especially with the way starting pitchers have ended up on the DL lately.

  8. Hatcher and Arroyo to the 60-day DL, Luis Avilan, Alex Wood & RHPs Jim Johnson, Mat Latos to roster, and as WBBsAs said below, RHP Brandon Beachy, OF Chris Heisey, IF/OF Michael Morse and RHP Chin-Hui Tsao designated for assignment. Morse probably won’t clear waivers. Heisey might, Beachy probably will due to inconsistency and injury history. Tsao, who knows?

    • I’ll guess, given a healthy Beachy’s upside, that they hope he clears waivers. May want to keep Heisey also if they can.

      • Heisey’s not going to opt out of a lucrative contract. I’m not sure about Beachy’s contract status. Morse will not opt out either, but somebody will claim him at the minimum.

    • That’s an excellent analysis. I don’t know if I agree with all of it, but it shows how to make sense of what the Dodgers are doing.

      • As a perennial contender, the Dodgers will never get the highest draft picks. This is how they can leverage their resources to stay on top without risking an inordinate number of huge back-loaded contracts to players who will soon be past their prime.

  9. SI sez it’s a done deal.

    the Dodgers will receive righthander Mat Latos and first baseman Michael Morse from the Marlins. They will also receive pitchers Alex Wood, Jim Johnson, Bronson Arroyo and Luis Avilan as well as top prospect Jose Peraza from the Braves.

    In exchange the Braves will receive pitcher Paco Rodriguez and minor leaguers Hector Olivera and Zack Bird from the Dodgers.

    The Marlins will get minor league pitchers Jeff Brigham, Kevin Guzman and Victor Araujo from the Dodgers

    So we give up a 30-year-old Cuban infielder and a currently-injured relief pitcher plus four minor league pitchers none of us have ever heard of for two starters (Latos and Arroyo, the latter injured and possibly done for a career), Wood, who might be the best pitcher of the three if he lives up to potential, and some useful relief (Johnson and Avilan) and a 20-year-old highly-regarded shortstop prospect in Peraza. I’d call that a pretty darned good deal.

    I’d like to see Arroyo pitch for the Dodgers because I like his straight-leg windup and his guitar playing. 😉

  10. One thing’s clear: With Olivera’s contract, this FO avoided the blunder Ned made with Guerrero.

    • What’s that, five ex-Braves pitchers that we have picked up so far this year?

      • Wonder if there’s a Maddux, Glavine, or Smoltz among them. Can always hope…

    • At age 38 and on the DL with TJ, he’s nothing more than another contract offloaded onto the Dodgers. When healthy, he’s the second coming of Eric Stults. Which means that if he ever throws a pitch for this team, things have gone very, very wrong.

      But he does flash plus-plus-plus DFA potential.

  11. Saw (at DD I think) that Kenley’s gopher balls aren’t coming on his cutter but on a 2-seam with armside run he seems to be trying. If so, maybe time to ax that experiment.

    Gameday thinks it’s cutters. But Gameday knows just so much.

    • Beyond using the abundant resource, money, as noted in the article, the other part of their madness/method is not to part with top prospects (Otherwise Hamels could have easily been had).

      • As a consistently winning team, Dodgers will not qualify for the highest draft choices, but they can overcome that at least partially by using their financial resources in unusual ways.

  12. I wonder if we could flip Latos and Morse and their salary to the Pads for one of their pitchers. They’re a cinch to trade Justin Upton.

    • Nobody wants Morse, and the Dodgers will will DFA him. The Pads will not want ex-Pad Latos, especially as a short-term rental. Dodgers have no need of Justin Upton.

      • You mis-read but that doesn’t surprise me. I in no way implied the Dodgers wanted Upton. And anyone who thinks he knows what any club will do, much less all the clubs, is wasting his time here, he should be working the stock market. San Diego especially, might do anything.

        • Why would SD want two months of Latos? And an overpriced Morse, who’s a defensive liability everywhere, for any length of time?

          • Maybe just the $15MM that comes with them. Whether we release Morris or trade him, we pay the money either way. Some clubs don’t care about winning, or at least don’t expect to, anybody they can get for free and send out on the field works for them.

  13. We still ended up with that stiff, Morse and his $12MM salary, though he’s almost certain to be traded or released, some players for the farm system, and maybe 3 pitchers for the Dodgers. Some of our bullpen is going down… Hated to see Olivera go, after we paid so much money and incurred the two year penalty. I think there is a chance now that Kendrick gets re-signed. Never an easy moment around here…

    • Dead meat now, Mike was a beloved player here in DC. The Nats sold high in 2013 (OPS+ 130 in his four years), much to the disappointment of the fans. They continued to play his walk up song at the seventh inning stretch until this year (fans could never quite hit the high notes of the chorus in the sing-a-long).

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914

  14. Terrific comeback after blowing the lead.
    Cloud Department: Kenley’s lack of effectiveness recently

  15. Cool, I lost Internet briefly at 7-6 with puig at bat. We are not giving up the division lead to anyone!

  16. Through May 12, the Dodgers found ways to win.
    Since then, it’s been the opposite as often as not.

  17. Been with grandbabies for two days. Just looked in to see a disaster of a half-inning. What’s happening to these guys?

  18. It doesn’t matter how many pitchers they pick up, if they can’t score runs, they won’t win (or they’ll need perfect pitching from everyone who comes in).
    Unfortunately, this last inning which started soo promisingly ended soo familiarly: in frustration.

  19. Meanwhile, another blackout tonight. Three innings of Vin, and then I get Steinered.

  20. If we’re taking bad contracts in order to get pitchers, how about getting Matt Kemp and a pitcher or two from the Pads, in exchange for two or three minor leaguers who will never amount to anything anyway…