Jul 28

Game 101, 2015

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.