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.
Tonight's #Dodgers lineup vs. A's:
Rollins SS
Kendrick 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Grandal C
Ethier LF
Puig RF
Pederson CF
Guerrero 3B
Bolsinger P #whiff
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 29, 2015
You’ll note that Kershaw isn’t starting any more and Bolsinger is. Kershaw apparently has a sore muscle in his hip or glute.
NPUT
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.
Broxton is now a Redbird.
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.”
I’d rather have Price, but no at the price that the Jay’s paid.
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.
Price rental to Blue Jays cost them the country’s 12th ranked prospect.
You mean another country’s first-ranked prospect?
He appears to be from another planet.
http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/12420393/top-blue-jays-prospect-daniel-norris-lives-own-code
So, giants (sic) get Leake rental, but cost them their number 1 prospect from an admittedly weak farm system.
And they still don’t have a No. 2 or 3 starter.
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.
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:
About Latos and Wood, Law says
Then, about the remaining pieces:
If they conclude Seager is too tall for short they could put him at third and then put Peraza at short.
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.
With 18 hours to go, anything else looming?
https://twitter.com/pedromoura/status/626897959301439488
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 expect Morse will clear waivers, because nobody will want his contract.
Now they have to carve on the 25 man roster.
Would guess Lee, Yimi, and Ballslinger, with Peralta to be DFA.
A less portentous bit of news: Andre takes the day off.
https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/626895524986159104
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.
“The strategy is brilliant, a way to circumvent the artificial spending limits placed almost everywhere on young talent.” https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/626860424282157056
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.
Chop Talk’s take. Quite rational, but they don’t care for it.
http://www.gondeee.com/2015/07/30/braves-trade-alex-wood-and-jose-peraza-to-dodgers/
SI sez it’s a done deal.
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. 😉
One thing’s clear: With Olivera’s contract, this FO avoided the blunder Ned made with Guerrero.
Also opens a tiny sliver of chance he stays with Dodgers.
It gets better… We;re getting Bronson Arroyo too…http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/07/dodgers-nearing-deal-to-acquire-mat-latos-michael-morse.html
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.
https://twitter.com/Joelsherman1/status/626820405131636739
Price to Toronto.
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.
Not bad for hitters to have to worry about another pitch. Just keep it off the plate.
Yeah, it’d give him 3. Cutter, slider, gopher ball. ;-])
Method to the madness? http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/dodgers-upgrade-rotation-in-unexpected-intelligent-way/
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.
Best summation of the M.O. of this Dodger FO I’ve seen.
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.
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
Terrific comeback after blowing the lead.
Cloud Department: Kenley’s lack of effectiveness recently
Well now. That turned out better than anticipated in the middle innings.
Woo-HOO!!!
Cool, I lost Internet briefly at 7-6 with puig at bat. We are not giving up the division lead to anyone!
Jimmy! Howie!
Yasiel!
Puig looking good.
Alright!
Comeback time
Nice to see signs of the early-season team’s ability to do that!
Loves me some Quique!
Possibly now or never
Through May 12, the Dodgers found ways to win.
Since then, it’s been the opposite as often as not.
The way they won was to bludgeon the opposition.
Been with grandbabies for two days. Just looked in to see a disaster of a half-inning. What’s happening to these guys?
Disaster of an inning.
Just saw your post. Didn’t mean to quote you so directly!
Your’s is more precise. (as this other half of the inning in proving)
Ugh.
Really
BOBBLE THAT!
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.
Nice start
Let’s score first this time
Sure
It was worth trying something different
Just scoring seems important.
Almost rare!
Phew!
https://twitter.com/BillShaikin/status/626572258346033152
Meanwhile, another blackout tonight. Three innings of Vin, and then I get Steinered.
mlbtraderumors.com has crashed, presumably because too many people are trying to read it.
Well, now it’s back up.
I like that joc has gone down to 7th (and a stranger batting 8th)
It’s getting a lot more complex. Read this: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/07/dodgers-nearing-deal-to-acquire-mat-latos-michael-morse.html
Just read that, it actually sounds more exciting
It’s getting really crazy as the deadline approaches: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/07/dodgers-nearing-deal-to-acquire-mat-latos-michael-morse.html
Don’t expect the item at the link to represent the final deal.
Turner out a few more days with leg infection.
Oh dear. Jack meets Yasiel.
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…
So, with a logjam in the outfield, the Dodgers should acquire a declining OFer with a bloated contract?
Better than Morse. SVS could easily be traded and Crawford is begging to be DFAed.
The Dodgers will just cut Morse loose.
And pay him $12MM
Dodgers will also get a high draft pick for next year, when MLB rules will limit their foreign spending. It could be a smart use of their huge financial resources.
Aren’t we paying Kemp’s salary anyway?
Only part of it.
Trade still on hold, but here’s some detail about the reasoning from CBS Sports.
Kershaw apparently has a sore hip, so Ballslinger starts. The lineup has also changed a bit: https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/626517772567212032