Tag Archives: James Shields

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.”

Apr 05

Game 2, 2016

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Dodgers at Padres, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSSD

The Dodgers began their quest for NL West domination with a 15-0 shutout of the Padres yesterday, the largest Opening Day shutout by any team in Major League history. Clayton Kershaw got off to a superlative start (but that’s not surprising anymore, I guess), going seven innings, striking out nine, giving up no runs and only one walk.

Today is another day, and so we see Scott Kazmir go for the Dodgers against James Shields of the Padres. Kazmir faced them once last year as a member of the As and went five innings, giving up three runs, two earned, getting a no-decision for his troubles. Shields started four games against the Dodgers last year and pitched well, going 1-0 with three quality starts.

Lineup when available.

Sep 04

Game 134, 2015

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Dodgers at Padres, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSSD

The Dodgers start Mike Bolsinger (5-3, 2.38 ERA), back up from OKC. According to Mattingly he will remain in the rotation “beyond Friday.” His opponent will be James Shields (10-6, 3.78 ERA), who’s looking for his third win in his last four starts.

Justin Turner gets the day off at third base, and young Mr. Seager will replace him there. Jimmy Rollins is expected to play shortstop.

Lineup when available.

For scoreboard watchers: Giants at Rockies

Jun 14

Game 63, 2015

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Dodgers at Padres, 1:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSSD

Mike Bolsinger brings his 4-1 record and his 2.08 ERA out on the road, where his ERA is 3.78. He’s going to try to get the better of James Shields, who’s unbeaten at 7-0 with a 3.79 ERA. Shields has made three career starts against the Dodgers and has never lost to them.

Howie Kendrick and Jimmie Rollins have both had success against Shields in the past, each hitting a cool .500 in 32 and 14 ABS, respectively.

Lineup (From ESPN; the Dodgers haven’t tweeted it yet).

J. Pederson, CF
Y. Puig, RF
A. Gonzalez, 1B
H. Kendrick, 2B
Y. Grandal, C
A. Ethier, LF
J. Rollins, SS
A. Callaspo, 3B
M. Bolsinger, P

May 24

Game 43, 2015

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Padres at Dodgers, 1:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSSD

Carlos Frias brings a 3-1 record and a 2.55 ERA to the hill on a Sunday day game. He’ll face James Shields, who hasn’t lost this season and has won five of his nine starts, posting a 3.74 ERA along the way. Because Shields has spent his career in the AL until this year, only two Dodgers have extensive records against him: A-Gon has 28 ABs hitting .357 with 2 HRs and 4 RBI, and Howie Kendrick has 17 ABs hitting a whopping .471 with 1 HR and 2 RBI.

Lineup when available.


We get our first look at Austin Barnes behind the plate. He’s 25 years old, he’s caught 9 of 23 base stealers and he’s had 3 passed balls. He’s got a slash line of .290/.390/.430 with 5 doubles, 3 homers and 13 RBI.

Dec 07

Winter meetings begin Monday

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Grantland’s got speculations!

Question 1. Will the Dodgers move Kemp? Grantland and the Magic 8 ball say “Can’t predict now.”

Questions 2 through 5. Who cares? The only guess about the Dodgers here is whether they’ll try hard to get one of the available starters: Lester, Hamels, Scherzer or Shields.

As Paul Harvey used to say, “Stand by…for news!”

Oct 26

World Series Day Five, 2014

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Royals at Giants, 2:00PM HST/5:00PM PT, TV: Fox

MadBum goes for the Giants and Big Game James goes for the Royals. It’s a rematch of Game One’s starters, one the Royals hope will turn out better than the original did. Bumgarner held the Royals to a run on three hits and a walk over seven innings in that game, while Shields gave up five runs on seven hits and a walk and was gone after three innings.

Oct 21

World Series Day One, 2014

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Giants at Royals, 2:00PM HST/5:00PM PT, TV: Fox

The Giants ask Madison Bumgarner to start the Series and do what he did in the Wild Card game and in Game One of the NLCS: give them a strong and long performance and get them off on the right foot in the Series. The Royals send James Shields to the mound. He also started the Wild Card game, although he didn’t do well in it (5 innings, 5 hits, 4 earned runs, ERA of 7.20). He then started Game Three of the ALDS and won it to send the Royals to the ALCS, where he pitched Game One against the Orioles. He didn’t do well in that game either, (5 innings, 10 hits, 4 earned runs, ERA of 7.20 again).

Have the two teams faced each other recently? Yes. In August the Giants went to Kauffman Stadium, where they were swept by the Royals, who were in the midst of a stretch where they won 14 of 16 games. San Francisco was outscored, 16-6, with Bumgarner taking one of those losses in a complete-game effort.

Fun fact: in all the postseason games so far, 14 have been decided by one run.

Not so fun fact: once again we get Joe Buck doing play-by-play. This time his partners are Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci, with Ken Rosenthal near the Royals’ dugout and Erin Andrews outside the Giants’.

If you’re in your car, ESPN Radio will have the games, with play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman and analyst Aaron Boone. The pregame and postgame show consists of host Jon Sciambi, analyst Chris Singleton, ESPN MLB Insider Peter Pascarelli and in-studio host Marc Kestecher.

Oct 10

ALCS Day One, 2014

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Royals at Orioles, 2:00PM HST/5:00PM PT, TV: TBS

We have all read this a lot: “Baltimore hasn’t reached the Fall Classic since 1983; Kansas City last made it to the playoffs in 1985.” (Trivia: who did Baltimore play in 1983? Who did the Royals play? What were the results?)

That 1983 Series was broadcast on ABC. The announcers? Al Michaels, Howard Cosell and Earl Weaver, who had retired as manager of the Os after the 1982 season.

In 1985 ABC had the Series again, but Cosell was removed from the broadcast team because his recent book had criticized everybody he’d ever worked with. In his place was Tim McCarver, making his first World Series broadcasting appearance.

To today’s game, then. The Orioles start Chris Tillman, who was 13-6 with a 3.34 ERA during the regular season and 1-0 with a 3.60 ERA in the ALDS against the Tigers. He went five innings in that game, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits and striking out 6. The Royals go with James Shields, 14-8 with a 3.21 ERA in the regular season and 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in the ALDS against the Angels. He went six innings, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits and striking out 6. Both teams have excellent bullpens and their managers are unafraid to use them.

The conventional narrative for this series seems to be “Royals run, Orioles bash.” We’ll see.

Oct 05

ALDS Day Three, 2014

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Orioles at Tigers, 12:30PM PT, TV: TBS

The Tigers, down 2-0 in a five-game series, send out David Price, their mid-season acquisition who was 4-4 with a 3.59 ERA after coming over from the Rays at the trade deadline this summer. The Orioles ask Bud Norris (15-8, 3.65 ERA) to close out the series.

Price needs to go really really deep in this game, because the Tigers’ bullpen has been awful so far.

Angels at Royals, 4:30PM PT, TV: TBS

The Angels, down 2-0 in a five-game series, send out C.J. Wilson in the hope he can stop the unlikely juggernaut that is the Royals, while the KC team sends James Shields to the hill and asks him to put an end to the Angels’ frustration.

The history of teams falling behind 2-0 and coming back to win three straight is short: it’s only happened five of the 44 times it’s happened. But the Angels have had 13 winning streaks of three or more this year, so they and their fans are hanging their hopes on that.