Anybody who wants to make a prediction about the Dodgers finish this year, here’s the place for it.
In the previous post Howard Fox said “2015 prediction: final record 85-77 due to lack of pitching consistency, miss playoffs by 1 or 2 games, Donnie fired the day after the season ends, Padres win the World Series.”
Who’s next?
Pederson makes somersaulting catch in center field.
Puig and Kendrick collide in right-center field. Per the Dodgers, both players are fine. Puig left the game as a precaution.
Vinnie does his one-and-only game from Camelback Ranch tonight on SPNLA.
3/27/15-Something Vin-From the Press Box at Camelback Ranch-Glendale by Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers http://t.co/8r2REaFfLU
— Jon SooHoo (@JonSooHoo) March 28, 2015
Lineup:
Tonight’s #DodgersST lineup vs. Giants:
Rollins SS
Puig RF
Gonzalez 1B
Kendrick 2B
Crawford LF
Uribe 3B
Pederson CF
Ellis C
Greinke P
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) March 27, 2015
The Dodgers sent six players to minor league camp after today’s game, including top prospect Corey Seager:
In addition to Seager, outfielder Scott Schebler was optioned, while infielder Buck Britton, utilityman Darnell Sweeney and catchers Shawn Zarraga and Chris O’Brien were assigned to Minor League camp.
The Dodgers have 42 active players in camp, plus injured pitchers Chris Withrow and Brandon Beachy.
Click the link if only to see what Seager looks like with his hat off. My lord, I think he’s 15 years old.
Anyone interested in joining the Elysian Fields group to pick the winner(s) should go here and join up.
Group name: Elysian Fields
Password: hershiser59
From the rulebook:
Lock-time. All picks will lock at the scheduled tip off time of the Tournament currently scheduled for Thursday, March 19, 2015. Your picks for the matchups must be submitted, received and recorded by Sponsor’s computer by the scheduled locktime. Selections submitted after the deadline are considered invalid. Sponsor’s computer is the official time-keeping device for this Promotion.
Not only does he get the start today against the Rockies, but Baseball Prospectus published several stories about the new daddy in their March 9 blog post. Look in the “Today at Baseball Prospectus” section on the front page.
Update: Headline: Time Warner Cable ‘Actively Pursuing’ Talks to Finally Lift Dodger Blackout
Nonsense. The article says TWC is trying to sign the other distributors up without lowering its $4.90 per subscriber fee. So what concession has TWC made to them? Looks like none to me.
Erik Bedard will start it against the White Sox. He’ll probably go only two innings or so.
Thursday Clayton Kershaw will start, also against the White Sox. Friday is a split-squad day.
In much sadder news, Minnie Minoso passed away today. He was the first black player on either team in Chicago after he was traded to the White Sox in 1951, two years after he came up with the Cleveland Indians. Young people remember him, if they do at all, as the guy who kept getting active long enough to appear in a game or two in the Seventies and Eighties after his 40th birthday as an owner’s gimmick. That’s a shame, as he was a great ballplayer, a nine-time All Star who had nearly 2,000 hits and a career .298 batting average in his 15 years as a regular outfielder in the big leagues.
Jon Soo-Hoo is there with about 100 pictures per day.
This doesn’t look acrimonious.
Nonetheless, I’d like to have been a fly on the wall to hear what Don and André are saying to one another.
Correction: I thought the Dodger Insider post I linked to was written by Jon Weisman. I’m still not used to thinking of that site as a multi-author blog. It was actually written by Cary Osborne. I’m sorry for the misattribution!
By Mr. Weisman’s Cary Osborne’s calculations, the moves the Dodgers made during the off-season have made them the most improved team in the West in terms of Defensive Runs Saved.
Huh? What’s that number, you ask? Defensive Runs Saved is an attempt to determine the value of a player against other players of the same position. As Joe Posnanski put it at his blog: “the number determines (using film study and computer comparisons) how many more or fewer successful plays a defensive player will make than league average.”
Here’s the full-on explanation from its creators at The Fielding Bible, if you’re interested. It’s lengthy.
Anyway, Jon Cary says
Gone from the Dodgers are Matt Kemp, Hanley Ramirez and Dee Gordon, who combined for -37 DRS. In are Howie Kendrick, and Jimmy Rollins and what appears to be either Joc Pederson or Andre Ethier. Since there isn’t enough Major League statistical data on Pederson, we’re going to slot Ethier into the replacement for Kemp. Rollins, Kendrick and Ethier combined for six DRS. That’s a swing of +43 DRS.
He’s got the other NL West teams’ DRS data, and he comes up with the startling fact that the Dodgers are the only team in the division whose changes over the winter give it a net positive number.
Huh.
CBS Sports is running a series of features on the best and worst events in each baseball franchise’s history, and it was the Dodgers’ turn on Monday. As Dayn Perry (the author) says in his opening paragraph, “it’s impossible to hit it all.” He did a reasonable job, I’d say. He picks two best teams, one for Brooklyn (’53) and one for LA (’63). He picks best and worst trades (guess what’s worst). Anyway, it’s food for discussion.