Mar 22

Tibias, forearms, obliques, oh my!

Andre Ethier broke his lower leg (the tibia, for the purists) when he fouled a ball off it last Friday. He’ll be out 10-14 weeks. This means in all likelihood that Carl Crawford will be the Dodgers’ starting left-fielder for the first three months of the season.

That stinks.

So do all these injuries:

pitcher Frankie Montas had a rib removed and was placed on the 60-day disabled list. Brett Anderson suffered a bulging disk and had surgery. Hyun-Jin Ryu’s recovery from shoulder surgery has been slow and he won’t pitch in a spring game. Pitcher Josh Ravin broke his non-throwing left arm in an auto accident. Brandon McCarthy is still recovering from Tommy John surgery. Brandon Beachy (elbow) and Mike Bolsinger (oblique) have had their fifth-starter candidacies derailed by injuries.

Seager sprained his knee almost two weeks ago, but is expected back by Opening Day. Starter Alex Wood missed a start with forearm soreness. Julio Urias was slowed with slight groin tightness. Caleb Dirks never pitched because of a back injury.

Yasmani Grandal missed several games with strained forearms and came out of Monday’s game after aggravating the right one. Alex Guerrero missed a week with a twisted knee. Adrian Gonzalez missed a couple games with a bulging disk in his neck. Howie Kendrick missed a handful of games with a tight groin muscle. Justin Turner has been eased back slowly after offseason microfracture knee surgery. Crawford missed a game last week because of a sore back.

Other than that, Dodgers’ fans, it’s been a great spring training.

Jul 20

Game 94, 2015

Dodgers at Braves, 4:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, Sports South

Right-hander Brandon Beachy makes his second start of the year for the Dodgers after missing all of 2014 with Tommy John surgery and rehabilitation. He went 4 innings and gave up 3 runs in his first outing on July 11, walking 3 and striking out 2. He wasn’t very pleased with his performance:

“I’d like to tell you I feel really accomplished, but in this moment, I didn’t accomplish what I set out to do. I didn’t set out to pitch in a big league game. I set out to dominate a big league game,” he said.

Beachy will face Matt Wisler, who’s pitched well in 4 of 5 starts this season and compiled a 3-1, 3.10 ERA while doing so.

Tidbits: Carl Crawford is expected to be reinstated sometime during the series, which means somebody has to go down to Oklahoma City or get released or designated for assignment.

The Braves are 22nd in MLB in runs scored and 27th in slugging percentage. The Dodgers have a best-in-MLB team fielding percentage of .989 and only 38 errors, fewest in the big leagues.

Lineup when available.

Jul 11

Game 89, 2015

Brewers at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Taking the place of Carlos Frias, who’s been on the DL since July 1 with lower back tightness, is the Dodgers’ latest reclamation project Brandon Beachy. He’ll be making his first major league start in nearly two years. He last pitched for the Atlanta Braves in August 2013, then had Tommy John surgery (for the second time!) in March of 2014 and has been rehabbing ever since. In four years with the Braves he was 14-11 with a 3.23 ERA. None of those numbers mean a thing now.

Sports Illustrated’s current issue (July 6, 2015) has an illuminating article which cites a study showing that only 67% of pitchers who undergo Tommy John surgery fully recover. And a different statistician cites his numbers to indicate that one of every two pitchers who undergo the surgery throws fewer than 100 innings in the rest of his career.

For Beachy’s sake let’s hope he fits in the “more than 100 innings” category.

His opponent will be rookie right-hander Taylor Jungmann, who’s 3-1 with a 2.43 ERA in six big league starts.

Lineup when available.