Players do not have to be on the current 26 (28) man roster or even the 40 man roster to be eligible for the playoffs. The player only needs to be in the organization on September 1. While we tend to look at the pitchers who could take a spot on the roster not on the 26 man, all pitchers that are considered are on the 40 man. I will get to them in a bit.
Which player not on the 40 man, but eligible for the playoffs, should travel with the team as a member of the taxi squad? Catcher Chris Okey. Will Smith does not look like he will make it back (maybe the WS…maybe). That leaves Dalton Rushing and Ben Rortvedt as the two catchers who will be on the roster. But what if…? Rushing has always been subject to some injury so it is not unthinkable that he could get injured. Rortvedt has played well enough that I am sure the Dodgers will be okay if he assumes the majority of play time. But he too is playing a position that is prone to injury.
If either go down, next man up is Chris Okey, a 30 year old, former 2nd round pick of the Reds out of Clemson, outstanding baseball university. He just completed his 2nd year in the LAD organization as a depth catcher in OKC. He is not particularly overwhelming in any facet of the game, but seems to make all of the routine plays. 2 errors and 4 passed balls in 196.1 innings. He appears to have a relatively weak arm as 35 out of 39 would be base stealers were successful. Then again that could be a lot on the pitchers, as holding runners on does not seem to be a high priority for the organization.
Finally, his hitting is not all that inspiring at .220/.280/.336/.616 in hitter friendly Pacific Coast League.
Why not Chuckie Robinson? He was picked up off waivers by Atlanta. I am confident that he would have been next man up had he still been with LAD.
Lock position players:
- Freddie Freeman
- Tommy Edman
- Mookie Betts
- Max Muncy
- Michael Conforto
- Andy Pages
- Teoscar Hernández
- Dalton Rushing
- Ben Rortvedt
- Shohei Ohtani
- Miggy Rojas
- Kiké Hernández
That leaves Alex Call and Hyeseong Kim. That is going to be a tough selection. Kim has a plus because he is a better pinch runner option than Call. Another plus for Kim is that he could be a LH bat off the bench. Miggy Ro and Kiké are both RH hitting. Whatever catcher is on the bench will be LH hitting, but their primary role is backup catcher and not PH.
Kim is an elite defensive infielder. I don’t know if he is an elite defensive OF, but I am not sure that he is that much better defensive OF than Call, if he is at all.
But the tipping point is trust. We know that the Dodgers brain trust prefers veterans over rookies. With that in mind, this is what Doc had to say about Hyeseong:
“I don’t feel comfortable with him versus left-handed pitching. Balls that are going away from him,” Roberts said. “I think with Hyeseong, I love the defense. … This is his first year in the major leagues and I think he’s done a great job.
“I think right now for Hyeseong, there’s too much chase out of the hitting zone and there’s not enough contact. So for me, when you chase a lot and you don’t make a lot of contact, that is not a good spot for the postseason.”
So I am going with Alex Call. Dodgers want veterans on the bench. And the Dodgers are not a big base running team. Miggy Ro and Kiké are just fine as defensive infielder replacements or platoons.
Why do I think Conforto is a lock after being dismissed by the fans for most if not all of the season? For most of the year, Conforto was bad. No other adjective fits. But he has seemingly turned it around. Since August 24, Conforto has had 69 PA and has hit .311/.377/.492/.869. Is that sustainable? I have no idea, but Conforto does not hit at that level for him to be a positive contributor.
Is 69 PA too small of a sample size for the naysayers to be comfortable? Okay, here he is in his last 100 PA: .247/.310/.371/.681.
Lets compare that to:
- Teoscar Hernández – 100 PA – .213/.290/.360/.650
- Ramón Laureano – 102 PA – .226/.284/.419/.704
- Ryan O’Hearn – 101 PA – .245/.297/.271/.578
So AF was patient allowing Conforto to try and work things out, while AJ Preller spent a lot of prospect capital for both Laureano and O’Hearn. Even if Conforto hits between his last 100 PA and his last 69 PA, I think the Dodgers will be happy with the results. This is not a knock on either Laureano or O’Hearn, who are both very good players, and are more than capable of being a force in a short series. It is just that the Dodgers did not need to expend that level of prospect capital for a new LF.
Next I will work on the my forecast for the pitching, which is more of a challenge.
Joe Davis said it all…”No Words”
Ive never seen a team care so little about winning games in the regular season when they matter most.
Tanner Scott is one of the most pathetic pitchers Ive ever seen. There is absolutely no reason to ever use him again. No excuses. He should be immediately released as I am typing this post. Just pathetic.
Nobody can say a word to me about the Carlos Santana trade, or Andruw Jones or Jason Schmidt. The T. Scott, Kirby Yates, and Michael Conforto signings are the worst offseason acquisitions in Dodgers history. And the Dodgers are still using them in the last week of the regular season.
Still using Scott/Yates/Conforto at this point is beyond the team caring so little. They’ve gone insane!
OK, not insane, but definitely arrogance.
BP sucks right about now. Not a single arm down there I trust. 1.5 game lead over SD with 5 to play. SD has 4 left.
Not just now, but all season.
I expect Sheehan will become the closer in post season. The problem is, who can cover innings 6-8? It will be interesting to see how Sasaki does when he’s added tomorrow.
The 3 batter minimum is killing us
Total and complete meltdown!
Been a fan for a long long time. I have seen the Dodgers blow leads with less than a week to play. But I did not expect that from this bunch. And maybe that is my problem. Expectations. What I do know is that they had a 9-game lead and now they lead by just 1.5 games. with 5 to play. I also did not expect the top of this lineup to be as inconsistent as they have the last couple of months. Freddie is as solid a hitter as there is in the league, but he has not gone on one of his patented runs where he is just hitting the ball all over the ballpark. They are in the playoffs, but, if they were to tie for the lead with the Padres, they would win the division since they own the tie breaker and they still would stay in the same bracket as the Phillies. If by some miracle the Padres overtake them, then they would be in the same bracket with the Brewers.
Each player at the top of this lineup has not met expectations to various degrees this season–especially Freddie/Mookie who collectively are not what they used to be. And now the absence of Smith puts even more pressure on them to perform like stars on a consistent basis.