Tag Archives: Yasiel Puig

Oct 27

Dodgers’ offseason notes, Part II

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No new hire to replace Mattingly yet. I suspect (hope?) the Dodgers won’t step on the World Series by announcing a new manager in the midst of the games. Remember 2007 when Scott Boras announced that Alex Rodriguez, his client, was going to opt out of his contract with the Yankees in the middle of Game Four?

Should the Dodgers keep Puig? Will they sign Greinke? Can Pederson find a hitting stroke? Who’s gonna play second base? Will Ryu, McCarthy and possibly Arroyo recover? Can Alex Wood become an effective pitcher? Will Bolsinger improve?

Questions, questions, questions.

Oct 17

New Dodgers Notes

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10/27: New Dodgers’ post up top

Buster Olney of ESPN offers up seven things the Dodgers should do this off-season.

  • Re-sign Zack Greinke, no matter how much he wants or how long he wants it for
  • Decide on Mattingly’s fate
  • Add another deluxe starting pitcher
  • Decide Puig’s fate.
  • Keep Howie Kendrick
  • Shore up the bullpen
  • Change the clubhouse culture

On Puig: Olney reports that on the day Puig started in the series against the Mets he caught the last bus from the hotel, he didn’t start the stretch period with the rest of the team and he didn’t take as many cuts in the batting cage as usual. He thinks the Dodgers need to decide whether Yasiel’s “quirks” can be lived with and if so, they need to get the other players to learn to live with them too.

Well, maybe. From what we’ve read in the media Puig does seem to have a little trouble with clocks, but he’s shown nothing to me that would indicate he’s not a team player.

On clubhouse culture: He says some players felt “unsettled because for others besides Kershaw and Adrian Gonzalez and a handful of others, there was no sense about who might be headed out the door and who might arrive. Some players spoke about a diminished sense of investment in each other.” Olney then says the Giants, Cardinals and Pirates all exude mutual respect and esprit de corps, and the Dodgers don’t have it.

Who’s to say? He’s certainly in a better position to know that than am I. I can certainly understand if some of the everyday players whose names no one but fans know might feel like they’re parts to be slotted in from day-to-day.

If you’ve got an Insider account at ESPN you can read the whole thing.

10/27: New Dodgers’ post up top

Oct 04

Pre-playoff Palaver

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Have at it. Who’s on first? Which pitchers are on the roster, and whose dreams are crushed? Should Yasiel Puig be on the first-round roster? What about the injured Scott Van Slyke? Should Seager start at shortstop or should it be Rollins? Should Utley be on the 25-man roster?

Do the Mets’ starting pitchers hold a candle to the Greinke/Kershaw combination? Should it be Wood as the number three starter, or should it be Anderson? It’s ironic that gaining home field advantage means the Dodgers’ #3 starter, whether Wood or Anderson, will start on the road. Anderson was 7-4 away from Dodger Stadium with a 3.07 ERA while Wood was 2-4 with a 6.14 ERA.

Oct 04

Game 162, 2015

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Padres at Dodgers, 12:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, FSSD. The game is available to stream free out of market on MLB.TV.

Clayton Kershaw makes his 33rd start for the Dodgers this season hunting for 300 strikeouts (he needs six) and his 17th win. He’s also put up an ERA of 2.16. The Padres’ lefty Frank Garces will make his first major league start but only go one inning. San Diego wants to look at several relievers one last time to see who they might want to keep around next season.

Don Mattingly says Puig won’t start today but will either pinch-hit or be part of a double-switch. I assume that’s an attempt to save his hamstrings from too much effort too soon.

Playoff talk can continue in the Pre-postseason thread below.

Lineup when available.

Aug 26

Game 125, 2015

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Dodgers at Reds, 4:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Two more lefties go against one another: Brett Anderson (7-8, 3.52 ERA) versus David Holmberg (1-3, 6.57 ERA). If this matchup looks familiar, there’s a reason: they faced one another back on August 15. The Dodgers came out ahead in that game 8-3, getting five hits and seven runs off Holmberg and driving him out of the game in just two innings. Puig, Hernandez and Turner all hit homers off him, and Gonzalez hit one off his successor. Anderson went six innings and gave up three earned runs to get the win.

Lineup when available.

Aug 22

Game 122, 2015

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Dodgers at Astros, 4:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Zack Greinke has been emulating Superman recently. He’s made 11 consecutive starts without a loss, and he’s now 13-2 with an MLB-leading 1.58 ERA. He’s also the second-best hitting pitcher in the NL behind Madison Bumgarner of the Giants. His opponent will be left-handed Scott Kazmir (6-8, 2.43 ERA), who’s given up nine earned runs in his last three starts. He’s 1-3 with the Astros after coming over from the As at the trade deadline.

Lineup:

Puig’s back in right, Utley’s at second, and Kiké is in center. Van Slyke’s in left because Kazmir’s a lefty and neither Crawford nor Ethier hit southpaws well at all.

Aug 21

Game 121, 2015

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Dodgers at Astros, 5:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLBN

Brett Anderson (7-7, 3.48 ERA) goes for the Dodgers and Mike Fiers (5-9, 3.87 ERA) goes for the Astros.

Anderson probably needs to be watched carefully by the Dodgers, since he’s pitched more innings (134 2/3) this season than in any year since 2009. So far he’s done very well; two-thirds of his starts have been quality ones.

Fiers came over from the Brewers with Carlos Gomez at the trade deadline. This will be his fourth start for the Astros, his second at home in Minute Maid Park.

Chase Utley will likely start at second base for the Dodgers. Yasiel Puig is day-to-day, but he might be the DH in this interleague game (it still seems odd that the Astros are now in the American League and not a team the Dodgers play regularly).

Lineup when available.

Jul 28

Game 101, 2015

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Athletics at Dodgers, 7:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA, MLBN, CSNCA

Here’s an interesting note which may or may not be taken as true (that’s why they’re called rumors): the Dodgers may listen to trade offers for Yasiel Puig. That’s the hook for the entire post, and there’s not much else there other than what we already knew: the team is unlikely to give up either Seager or Urias but it wants/needs starting pitching. The author thinks it unlikely they’d move Puig, and in fact the same site reported two days ago that the team had assured him he wasn’t on the block. However, that same day Ken Gurnick of MLB reported there had been no such assurances.

I can’t see trading Puig. He’s an excellent outfielder with a lot of potential upside and he’s cheap. He’s being paid $4.5M this year and the Dodgers control his future for three more years for just $19.5M. That’s less than one Crawford-year.

In other trade news of note within the division, the Rockies traded Troy Tulowitzki to the Blue Jays for Jose Reyes and three pitching prospects. Since neither team needed a shortstop, why they swapped them must have had more to do with money (Tulo’s owed $113.7M over the next five years) than anything else. None of the other three teams in the division have made any deals yet, at least not ones made public. The next time we see the Angels they’ll have old friend Shane Victorino with them, as he was traded by the Red Sox today.

In tonight’s game it will be Brett Anderson (5-5, 3.33 ERA) going for the Dodgers against his former team, which trots out ace Sonny Gray (10-4, 2.30 ERA). Anderson says and the team agrees that his Achilles tendon is fine now after causing him to leave his last start early. Gray has cooled off some recently. He’s 2-1 with a 3.95 ERA and .232 opponents’ batting average over his last six starts after going 5-3 with a 1.37 ERA and .190 opponents’ batting average over his previous nine starts.

Lineup when available.

Jul 25

Game 99, 2015

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Dodgers at Mets, 4:10PM PT, TV: SPNLA

Righty Zach Lee, Los Angeles’ first-round pick in the 2010 Draft out of McKinney High School in Texas, will start for the Dodgers in his major league debut. He’s 7-3 with a 2.36 ERA in 12 starts this season for Triple-A Oklahoma City. Matt Harvey (8-7, 3.19 ERA) will start for the Mets. He’s walked at least four batters in each of his past three starts, two of them losses.

Scott Van Slyke made a heckuva play in the ninth inning of last night’s game:

Lineup when available.

A-Gon sits, Crawford gets his first start since his return from an extended stay on the DL this season, and Puig gets the day off. Puig’s about seven years younger than Ethier, so you’d think Andre would get the day off instead, but no. Mattingly works in mysterious ways.

Whoops. Updated lineup:

A-Gon says his neck is well enough to allow him to play, I guess, so Turner shifts to third base and Callaspo sits.

Jul 09

Game 87, 2015

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

Zack Greinke brings his 27 2/3 scoreless-inning streak to the game against Severino Gonzalez. Greinke is 7-2 with a 1.48 ERA and headed for the All Star Game. Rookie right-hander Gonzalez rejoins the Phillies’ rotation for Thursday night’s series finale against the Dodgers. He is 3-2 with an 8.28 ERA in six starts and has been unable to pitch more than 5 1/3 innings in any of them, but the Phillies would rather give him another look than right-hander Kevin Correia, whom they designated for assignment Tuesday.

Lineup when available.

Turner gets a night off, Puig drops down to sixth.