As the season is winding down, I was waiting for an “exciting” opener for two teams headed for the playoffs, but seemingly unable to hit with RISP, and trying to figure out what to write. I was going to write about the 107 wins (now 108) and other related notes, but Badger posted an excellent summation that explained it better than I could and saved me a ton of research time.
With Houston’s loss on Wednesday and the Dodgers win on Thursday, the Dodgers magic number to be the home team thru the World Series was down to 1. Not a lot of drama impacting the Dodgers. There was no MiLB game that I could write about. I guess I will just write about some random thoughts that hit me during the game.
It is clear that Brusdar Graterol does not have swing and miss pitches. That could prove to be a problem in the playoffs, as it was in last night’s game. He was not hit hard at all, but he was hit. A lot of velo, but not a lot of movement. He still deserved much better than his numbers on the night.
Andrew Heaney has swing and miss pitches, but didn’t seem to throw them on 0-2 pitches. To be fair, both hits on 0-2 pitches were not in the strike zone, but obviously hittable. But he was able to come back and punch out Manny Machado on an 0-2 pitch, but it probably did catch too much of the plate. Heaney also dodged a bullet with a 750 foot foul ball hit by Machado with the bases loaded. But he settled down and completed a brilliant 4.0 scoreless innings. 3 hits, 1 walk, and 6Ks.
The umpiring behind the plate was especially bad in the Padres series. Thursday’s plate umpire, Edwin Moscoso is considered an extreme hitter friendly umpire (2nd most). That might explain why some of Heaney’s clear strikes were called balls. And to be fair, also true for Sean Manaea and all the pitchers that followed, LAD and SDP pitchers alike.
The official scorekeeper was obviously very favorable to SD hitters in this series. The double hit off Caleb Ferguson by Austin Nola (Tuesday night) should have been a two base error by CT3. And that Brandon Drury hit that got by Trea Turner in the 1st? Am I being too tough on Trea?
There were an awful lot of Dodgers jerseys in the seats behind the plate the entire series. Probably throughout the stadium. The Dodgers play more than 81 home games.
Miguel Vargas is showing people he belongs in the Show. That 2 strike pitch he hit off Pierce Johnson for a 2-run single was brilliant. Everywhere Vargas has played he has hit. Every time he starts at a new level, he starts slowly. But once he gets comfortable, he has been special. This year at OKC, on April 27 and 77 ABs, Miggy was batting .233/.341/.384/.725. When he was brought up to LA after August, Vargas’ batting line with OKC was .304/.404/.511/.915. Over his last three games with LAD, Miguel is 4-11 with a sac fly and 5 RBIs. Over his last five games he is 5 for 17 with 6 RBIs.
Cody Bellinger is still an elite CF.
It was nice to see David Price pitching again for LAD. I am not sure that he makes the playoff roster. But I hope he finishes strong. The relief pitching AGAIN was terrific for LAD. The Padres got 10 hits, but other than the Machado double, not much trouble. The Padres were 1-9 WRISP while LAD was 3-8.
The Dodgers take the series against San Diego 2 games to 1. They are now 14-5 against San Diego for the season with a RS vs RA of 109-47. Average score of 5.7 to 2.5.
The Dodgers have 54 road wins in 2022, the most in franchise history.
The Dodgers have now won at least 106 wins in the last three full 162 game seasons. With another 104 win season two seasons earlier. Even with the great regular season, the ultimate goal of a WS championship did not happen.
2022 – 108-48 (and still playing)
2021 – 106-56
- Beat St. Louis in wild card game
- Beat San Francisco 3 games to 2 in NLDS
- Lost to Atlanta 4 games to 2 in NLCS
2019 – 106-56
- Lost to Washington 3 games to 2 in NLDS
2017 – 104-58
- Beat Arizona 3 games to 0 in NLDS
- Beat Chicago Cubs 4 games to 1 in NLCS
- Cheated by Houston 4 games to 3 in WS
The Dodgers have had 5 additional 100 win seasons since 1900.
1974 – 102-60
- Beat Pittsburgh 3 games to 1 in NLCS
- Lost to Oakland 4 games to 1 in WS
1962 – 102-63
- Lost to San Francisco 2 games to 1 in NL Playoff
1953 – 103-49
1942 – 104-50
- Finished in 2nd place in National League
1941 – 100-54
As can be seen, winning 100 games has not helped the Dodgers win any world championships. Will 2022 be different? I say yes. But I do believe it was Bluto (and others) who are taking the field. With the Dodgers (and Trojans) I always lead with my heart over my head.
I know everyone is excited about Diego Cartaya. Andy why not? He is 21 years old (20 baseball age). He is the #1 LAD prospect. He was the LAD MiLB Player of the Year. He was assigned first to low A and then quickly promoted to High A in 2022, where in 445 PA, he accumulated a batting line of .254/.389/.503/.892 with 22 HRs. He had 119 Ks (26.7%) and 63 BB (14.2%). For the season, Cartaya had a CS% of 19% (18 out of 96) with 10 passed balls.
It was my hope that Diego could be pushed a bit to get to AA. Keibert Ruiz was playing AAA at the same age, and made his MLB debut at 21. If it were not for Will Smith, Ruiz would be the starting catcher for LAD. There were some who believed that the Dodgers should move Smith to 3B just so Ruiz could catch for the Dodgers. I am glad that person(s) is (are) not the Dodger GM. Will Smith is the best overall catcher in MLB.
Why bring this up? Today NYM is promoting Francisco Álvarez to the Show. He will be playing in the middle of a pennant race against Atlanta in the big 3 game series. For the season at AA and AAA, Álvarez posted a batting line of .260/.374/.511/.885, with 27 HRs and 123 Ks (24.8%) and 70 BBs (14.1%). He had 495 PA. He had a CS% of 29% (31 out of 108) and 10 passed balls.
Álvarez is actually 11 weeks YOUNGER than Cartaya and he is making his MLB debut this weekend in a hot pennant race. They both signed July 2, 2018, and they are both from Venezuela. Cartaya was #3 International FA, while Álvarez was #17 (#3 catcher). And yes I do understand the difference in organizational catching depth. While the Dodgers have Will Smith and Austin Barnes, the Mets are stuck with Tomás Nido, James McCann, and Patrick Mazeika. But it sure would have been nice to see Cartaya pushed like Álvarez so he could be in a position to replace one of the two if an injury occurred. Barnes signed for two more years, so it would seem the Dodgers are looking at Cartaya at AA in 2023 and AAA in 2024.
Cartaya will be on the 40 man roster this December, and could make his ML debut at any time in 2023 or 2024.
Good summation Jeff.
“Am I being too tough on Trea?” Hell no. Make the play Trea. You’re a Major League shortstop. Softball shortstops across the country make more difficult plays than that every night.
I fell asleep somewhere around the 5th. Dodger games have been soporific of late. It’s ok. Better than Ambien I suppose.
Anybody seen our outfield bats? They’re about 34” long and don’t have any scuff marks on them. Vargas, and his .165, is actually making a move on a roster spot.
Gallo’s sun is setting, but some loud contact this coming week could change that. Come on Joey. See ball hit ball
I’ve said it before but it’s worth regurgitating – Graterol needs some grip education. Take that 100 mph tubed fastball, bend it to 97 and watch how many bats you miss. Maybe it’s grip strength. If I were his coach I’d have him 3 finger hang from a high bar 7 minutes every day. I’d also have him talk to Orel about grips. Orel bores the heck out of me on a telecast but I’ve heard him talk about gripping seams and nobody knows more about that than he does.
108. Yawn. I see 112, several days off to heal owies then out of the October gates like Seabisquit. This is our year.
Kimbrel and Gallo need to go away.