Category Archives: Personnel News

Aug 01

Trade deadline day!

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The Dodgers have acquired OF Josh Reddick and LHP Rich Hill from the Oakland As for three good minor league pitchers, Jharel Cotton, Frankie Montas, and Grant Holmes. MLB Pipeline rates Holmes fifth, Montas eighth and Cotton thirteenth among Dodgers’ prospects.

This is why Friedman et. al. have emphasized stocking the farm system: to have useful pieces available for trade to fill immediate needs.

At Dodgers.com Ken Gurnick says Reddick gives the Dodgers coverage if they do trade Yasiel Puig. He says the latest rumor about him involves a swap with the White Sox for James Shields. Other rumors: Ken Rosenthal says: “Dodgers’ talks with Rays revolve largely around TB’s starting pitching, but LAD also likes infielder Logan Forsythe, source says.”

Yahoo’s Jeff Passan on Hill: “Rich Hill was best reasonably obtainable pitcher on market. He has a blister. Those heal. He has a 2.25 ERA. No one else in baseball does.”

Jul 23

Game 99, 2016

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Dodgers at Cardinals, 4:15PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FS-M

Kenta Maeda (8-7, 3.25 ERA) tries to bounce back from a poor start his last time out against the D-Backs in which he gave up five runs in 4 1/3 innings. He’ll face Mike Leake (7-7, 4.00 ERA), who has won his last two starts.

Also: “Dodgers have recalled RHP Ross Stripling from Triple-A Oklahoma City and optioned LHP Grant Dayton to OKC.”

Lineup when available.

Jul 22

Game 98, 2016

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Dodgers at Cardinals, 5:15PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FS-M

Brandon McCarthy (2-0, 1.69 ERA) has come back from TJ surgery much more strongly than I expected. Tonight he’s up against Michael Wacha (5-7, 4.45 ERA), whose 2016 season has been disappointing after his outstanding 2015 one.

JT is having much too much fun with Animal, who thinks the Dodgers need a drummer:

Video deleted as it kept restarting randomly.

Lineup when available.

Jul 04

Game 85, 2016 and 4th of July historical revisionism

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The guy who wrote the latest Ty Cobb biography explains why most of what we’ve been told of Cobb is a lie. For example, his family history would indicate he was no racist, despite what we’ve been told:

Ty Cobb was descended from a long line of abolitionists. His great-grandfather was a minister who preached against slavery and was run out of town for it. His grandfather refused to fight in the Confederate army because of the slavery issue. And his father was an educator and state senator who spoke up for his black constituents and is known to have once broken up a lynch mob.

[snip]

Cobb himself was never asked about segregation until 1952, when the Texas League was integrating, and Sporting News asked him what he thought. “The Negro should be accepted wholeheartedly, and not grudgingly,” he said. “The Negro has the right to play professional baseball and whose [sic] to say he has not?”

I’ve read the biography, and it’s a good one. I give it 4 stars.

On to today’s game.

Orioles at Dodgers, 6:10PM PT, TV: MLBN (out-of-market only), MASN, SPNLA

The Dodgers have won four straight and the Orioles have lost four straight. Despite that the Orioles still lead the AL East by three games. Each streak could continue after this evening’s game with its early start time (fireworks afterward!). The Dodgers ask young Julio Urias (1-2, 4.09 ERA) to keep up his good work; he’s lowered his ERA from one game to the next in each of his 7 starts. He’s thrown 33 innings so far for the big leaguers in 2016 after throwing 41 in the minors this season. The most he’s ever thrown in a season is 87 2/3 in 2014, so he’s coming close to a shutdown point.

Urias will be opposed by Yovani Gallardo (3-1, 5.77 ERA). This is his fourth start after coming off the DL, where he’d been with shoulder tendinitis. His last start was his best since his return; he went six innings against the Padres and got the win.

Note: the Orioles hit a lot of home runs. They just set a major league record by hitting 56 in June, the most ever in that calendar month. They are on pace to hit 262 for the season, just two short of the all-time record of 264 set by the A-Rod-Griffey Jr.-Jay Buhner-E. Martinez Mariners in 1997.

Update: Hyun-Jin Ryu will start Thursday’s game for the Dodgers against the Padres.

Lineup:

Jul 01

Game 82, 2016

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Rockies at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, ROOT Sports

The Rockies start Jorge De La Rosa (5-4, 6.47 ERA) against the Dodgers’ newly-acquired Bud Norris (3-7, 4.22 ERA). After a hiatus De La Rosa moved back into the rotation on June 14 and has won all three starts since while posting a 2.11 ERA, but he’s not made it past the sixth inning in any one of them. Norris had a bad two months to start the year with the Braves but has gone 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA in six appearances in June.

Pitchers’ history:

De La Rosa has faced the Dodgers 25 times in his career, opposing only the Padres, Giants and D-backs more. He has historically struggled against Los Angeles, holding a 5.22 ERA over 120 2/3 innings. However, he has a 3.90 ERA at Dodger Stadium and has a 2.87 ERA in his last five starts against the Dodgers, spanning back to August 2014.

[snip]

[Norris] is 2-1 with a 6.23 ERA in 10 games (five starts) against the Rockies in his career, but 13 of the 21 earned runs came at Coors Field.

Other news of note:

  • “The Associated Press will begin using an automated writing service to cover more than 10,000 minor league baseball games annually, the news cooperative announced Thursday.”
  • Two nitwit Congresspeople (one of whom has now retracted her sponsorship) wrote legislation attempting to exclude Minor League Baseball from the Fair Labor Standards Act because the millionaires and billionaires who own MLB and pay the minor leaguers’ salaries don’t want those wages to be governed by labor law. Grant Bisbee rips the argument to shreds.

Also, Kershaw and Pederson have been placed on the 15-day disabled list and Will Venable has been brought up.

All Star Game voting ends at midnight ET. Vote often (well, up to 35 times)!

Lineup when available.

Jun 25

Game 76, 2016

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Dodgers at Pirates, 4:15PM PT, TV: Fox

Kenta Maeda makes his first trip to PNC Park. He carries a 6-4, 2.64 ERA record with him and for now appears to be the #2 guy in the Dodgers’ rotation, at least in terms of reliability. He’ll face the Pirates’ Jeff Locke, who’s 6-5 with a 5.44 ERA. His latest outing was a 6 2/3 inning one in which he outdueled Madison Bumgarner with help from the bullpen and won 1-0.

Local color:

Dodgers left-handed reliever and native Pennsylvanian Adam Liberatore is having an off-the-radar phenomenal season. In 24 innings over 32 games, he has a 0.75 ERA, second lowest among National League qualifiers, and he didn’t even open the season in the big leagues.

Tepesch DFA’ed, IF Chris Taylor up.

Lineup:

Jun 24

Game 75, 2016

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Dodgers at Pirates, 4:05PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLBN (out-of-market only), ROOT Sports

To start this game the Dodgers brought up Nick Tepesch from OKlahoma City, where he’d achieved a 2.00 ERA in 18 innings. They acquired him as a free agent June 6 after he was released by the Texas Rangers, where’d he spent five years, mostly in their minor league system. He has a 9-17 record and a 4.56 ERA in the big leagues, all with the Rangers. His opponent will be Jameson Taillon, who’s 1-1 with a 3.50 ERA in his previous three big league starts.

To make room for Tepesch on the roster, the Dodgers designated Will Venable for assignment.

Lineup:

Jun 20

Game 72, 2016

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Nationals at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MASN 2, ESPN

The hype has already begun for this game, and it’s only natural. Washington’s Stephen Strasburg hasn’t lost a game yet this year while winning ten; Los Angeles’s Clayton Kershaw has lost one game while also winning ten. In ERA Kershaw has the edge, giving up a measly 1.58 earned runs per nine innings; Strasburg has given up 2.90 earned runs per nine innings.

The Dodgers may activate Yasiel Puig today. If they do they’ll have to send someone down to OKC. Update: Nope, tomorrow, says Roberts.

In other news:

Lineup when available.

Jun 14

Game 66, 2016

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Dodgers at Diamondbacks, 6:40PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FS-A

The Dodgers’ Kenta Maeda (5-4, 2.70 ERA) goes against the D-Backs’ Archie Bradley (2-2, 5.22 ERA) in a battle of righthanders. Maeda has won two of his last three starts and made two quality starts in a row. Bradley has lost two straight but has a 3.79 ERA since his callup from Reno May 29.

Goldschmidt continues to be a terror against the Dodgers: he’s now hit 23 home runs against them in his career. That’s bad enough, but he’s only 28 and in just his sixth year in the big leagues. He may hit a lot more against them before he’s through.

In personnel news:


I have no idea why they think they have a need for a sixth outfielder, particularly a 32-year-old one with a .251 career batting average and a lifetime OPS of .722.

Lineup:

May 31

Game 53, 2016

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Dodgers at Cubs, 5:00PM PT, TV: SPNLA, ESPN (out-of-market only), ABC7

The last time the Dodgers saw Jake Arrieta it was a Sunday Night Baseball game on ESPN in which Jessica Mendoza made her second ESPN appearance and he threw a no-hitter against them. That was last August 30. Since then he’s thrown another no-hitter, hasn’t lost a game yet this season, and is currently 9-0 with a 1.72 ERA. Scott Kazmir (4-3, 4.84 ERA) has been improving (he’s 3-1 in May with a 4.13 ERA) since a poor start, but he’s got his work cut out for him. He’ll need to hold the Cubbies at bay and hope the Dodgers can get a couple of runs off Arrieta.

Oh, the Cubs have won all of the last 23 starts Arrieta has made. That ties a Major League record.

Lineup when available.

Personnel news: Julio Urias will be brought back up to replace Alex Wood, who’s been placed on the 15-day DL with elbow soreness. Yasiel Puig has been scratched from today’s game with a sore left hamstring and Alex Guerrero has been designated for assignment.