Fans Still Do Not Get Freidman

                                       After the trade deadline passed, many Dodger fans were extremely irked that Freidman and his GM, Gomes did not acquire the kind of impact player they desired. Instead, he tweaked the roster and sent two players, Outman and May, out of town. May is a free agent at the end of the season, so he is just a rental to the Red Sox. But they sent the Dodgers two young outfielders, one of whom was part of the Devers trade to the Giants. For Outman, they got an old friend, 33-year-old, Brock Stewart who now is part of the back end of the bullpen. Outman was being used mostly as a defensive replacement, so his bat, as anemic as it has been, won’t be missed.

                                    But feeling this way about his moves or non-moves is nothing new. It started when he first took the job in November of 2014. Andrew almost immediately began reshaping the roster to his idea of what a winning roster should be. He ran a small market team in the Rays and built a winner that eventually went to its first World Series in 2008. His teams went to the playoffs 3 more times before he left after 2014. In Los Angeles though, he was not the GM. Guggenheim named him the President of Baseball Operations. That meant he was in charge of everything baseball. He hired former A’s employee, Farhan Zaidi as the GM. 

                                 His first trade of note shook up the roster. He traded Dee Gordon, Dan Haren and Miguel Rojas to the Marlins for Austin Barnes, Kike Hernandez, Chris Hatcher, and Andrew Heaney. He immediately flipped Heaney to the Angels for Howie Kendrick. A week later, he traded Matt Kemp and Tim Federowicz to the Padres for Yasmani Grandal, Zach Elfin and Joe Weiland. Although Kemp really had not been the same player since he crashed into the outfield wall at Coors in 2012, I really disliked this trade. I was a bit biased I will admit because I do not like players who use PEDs, and Grandal had already received a 50-day suspension for that earlier in his career. 

                               It had been written that Kemp had become a clubhouse cancer, much like Hanley Ramirez was thought to be. I do not know if it was true or not. What I do know is true is that Matt resisted the move to left field after being the teams center fielder for so many seasons. AF, as we began to call him, did not stop there. To many of us fans, it seemed like he was signing almost every mediocre free agent pitcher on the market. 

                             Brandon McCarthy got a 4-year deal for 48 million. Was he worth that? Not in my eyes, he was 52-65 for his career when he signed. LA would get just 11 wins from him in his 3 full years with the team. In fact, in year one, he got 3 wins and pitched in just 4 games before hitting the IL for the rest of the year. Over the next 2 seasons, he pitched in just 29 games. He traded Elfin to the Phillies for Jimmy Rollins. He signed Brian Anderson, another pitcher with a sub .500 record to a 1 year 10-million-dollar deal. Anderson was at least serviceable starting 31 games, winning 10 and losing 9. He started one game in the NLDS against the Mets and gave up 6 runs in 3 innings. 

                          The team actually regressed a little winning 92 games, down from 94 the year before. Freidman’s first move was to hire a new manager, Dave Roberts. Not many fans were down with this, in fact I think most wanted the other finalist, Gabe Kapler. But Andrew hired Doc and continued to mold the team the way he wanted it. He gave Andreson the QO and then re-signed him. His first trade of the winter brought Micah Johnson, Frankie Montas and Trayce Thompson to LA. He shipped Scott Schebler, Jose Peraza and Brandon Dixon to the Reds, who sent Todd Frazier to the White Sox. Only player in that deal who would spend any time in LA was Thompson. 

                        Once again, he stockpiled pitchers.  Names like Scott Kazmir, Brandon Beachy. He signed Japanese star Kenta Maeda to a very team friendly contract. Maeda would immediately join the rotation. He let Greinke and Rollins leave in free agency, but brought back Utley, who he had traded for late in 2014, and Kendrick. He signed arms all the way through spring training. Some would be released, others sent to AAA as depth pieces. 

                      His second draft class in 2016 netted future big leaguers, Gavin Lux, Will Smith, Mitch White, Dustin May, Luke Raley, Cody Thomas, Zack McKinstry and Tony Gonsolin. Plus, a couple of guys who had a cup of coffee in the majors, DJ Peters and Jordan Sheffield. His deadline trade brought Rich Hill and Josh Reddick. The Dodgers would eventually lose the NLCS to the Cubs, and they had the lowest total, with the exception of the pandemic year, wins at 91 of any of the teams Freidman has built. 

                       Every year Freidman and whomever his GM is, Zaidi et al, does basically the same thing. He loads up on pitching, for the Dodgers and for the farm system. He builds as much depth as he can. He signs both position players and pitchers, starters and relievers. As an example, just look at the players traded or signed after 2016. First, he traded Carlos Ruiz for Vadal Nuno III from the Mariners. He traded Kendrick to the Phillies for Darren Ruf and Darnell Sweeney. 

                     Some of his signings would make it to the Dodgers, several just went to the minors. He signed Rich Hill. Wilmer Font and Justin Turner were next. In January he re-signed Jansen. He did not make any trades at the baseball meetings. Guys like Madison Younginer, Henry Ramos, Tyler Holt and Steve Geltz were depth pieces at AAA. His first trade in 2017 that affected the major league roster, was trading for Logan Forsythe to play second base, sending young pitching prospect, Jose De Leon to the Rays. Another impact free agent signing brought Brandon Morrow in to help out the bullpen. 

               In April he signed Max Muncy as a free agent. Max would not pay dividends until he joined the team in the majors in 2018. He is definitely one of AF’s better free agent signings. At the deadline, he traded for three pitchers, two left-handed relievers, Cingrani and Watson, and Yu Darvish for the starting rotation. This is the way he works and has since he took over the team. To expect him to veer from what he is comfortable doing is not exactly being realistic. He has traded for stars at the deadline, but not once has he exceeded making what he feels is an equal return. 

             He did the exact same thing this year and got roasted on social media. He also got heat on most of the Dodger blogs. I learned a few years ago that this is simply the way he is going to work. Has he made mistakes? Obviously, we all do. Hill may have been good, but Reddick was a total bust. Tyler White? Please, but as Jeff pointed out to me, he did not cost them much. I think one of his biggest wins was David Freese. Freese played great for LA. Another was signing Albert Pujols. Pujols was under the Mendoza line with the Angels and was shown the door. AF took a chance and signed him. He might not have been great, but many times he was clutch. He became Tio Albert to his teammates and the fans. Even after he left, he got an ovation for what he had done for the Dodgers when he returned with the Cardinals in September. How many opposing players would ever receive a standing ovation after clubbing two homers against the Dodgers in an 11-0 blowout? Albert did, simply because Dodger fans loved the guy, and he hit #699 and #700 in the same game. 

         Andrew definitely marches to his own drummer. It is best we try to accept the way he does business than to expect large deviations from it. He has built a veritable dynasty. The team is built for the long haul. The team as is is as talented as any of his prior squads. Like many of the seasons recently, the team has been plagued with injuries to key players especially the pitching staff. We, as fans, have been lucky to see the longest stretch of success, especially during the regular season, in Dodger history. Yes, we all would have loved a couple more Series wins. I am pretty sure that Guggenheim and Freidman wish the same. 

MiLB GAME SUMMARY REPORT

OKC Comets 12 – Salt Lake Bees (LAA) 10

Max Muncy (1), Chuckie Robinson (5) and CJ Alexander (12) each hit home runs as the Oklahoma City Comets defeated the Salt Lake Bees, 12-10.

After being held to 13 total runs through the first five games of the series, the Comets offense broke out for 12 runs in the series finale and started the scoring in the first inning when Muncy connected on a solo home run out to left field. OKC went in front, 2-0, on a sacrifice fly by Austin Gauthier.

The Bees then scored four runs in the second inning to take the lead. Oklahoma City went back in front, 5-4, on three straight RBI knocks by Muncy, Ryan Ward and Alexander. The Bees knotted the score at 5-5 in the fifth inning before OKC regained the lead in the bottom of the inning by scoring four runs, including a two-run double by Kody Hoese and two-run homer by Robinson.

Salt Lake added two runs in the seventh inning before Alexander belted a three-run homer out to right field to extend the Comets’ advantage to 12-7. The Bees rallied with two outs in the ninth inning, scoring three runs before bringing the potential tying run to the plate, but the Comets held on for the win.

Max Muncy played his fifth game with the Comets as part of a Rehab Assignment, going 2-for-3 with a home run, double (1), two RBI and two runs scored…Muncy is now 5-for-6 with three RBI in his last two games after starting his rehab assignment 0-for-9.

CJ Alexander led the Comets with three extra-base hits and four RBI as he went 3-for-5 with two doubles (13) and a home run. He homered in a second straight game to bring his season total to 12 home runs.

OKC connected on a season-high eight doubles as 11 of the Comets’ 13 hits went for extra bases. The eight doubles were the most for an Oklahoma City team in a game since June 16, 2018, against Las Vegas.

Kody Hoese went 2-for-4 with two doubles (17), two RBI and scored a run. He has hit safely in five straight games (7×16) and in nine of his last 11 games (13×38).

Chuckie Robinson hit his fifth home run of the season and finished the game 2-for-3 with a double (9), home run, two RBI and two runs scored…Robinson is batting .405 (13-for-37) and has 12 RBI over his last 10 games.

Ryan Ward reached base four times, connecting on a RBI single, drawing three walks and scoring a run.

Other doubles – Justin Dean (10), José Ramos (2)

Box Score

Tulsa Drillers 1 – Midland RockHounds (A’s) 0

Roque Gutierrez was brilliant for 7.0 scoreless IP.  He gave up one single and one BB in his 7.0 IP.

Jerming Rosario and Antonio Knowles each pitched a scoreless inning.

Unfortunately, the Midland pitching staff also pitched a 9 inning shutout.  In the 10^th, Zach Ehrhard was the placed runner at 2^nd.  Nelson Quiroz singled and Ehrhard scored.  Knowles pitched a perfect 10^th for the win.  Quiroz had 2 hits, and was the only Drillers batter with a multi-hit game. 

Box Score

Fort Wayne Tin Caps (San Diego) 5 – Great Lakes Loons 2

Maddux Bruns was not able to replicate his last start.  In this one, Bruns pitched 1.2 innings, allowing 5 runs (3 earned).  He issued 2 BB and registered 3 K.  He needed 49 pitches in his 1.2 IP.

Six relievers followed Bruns and did not allow a run.  They allowed 2 hits, 3 BB, and compiled 9 K.

The Loons scored their 2 runs on a Wilman Diaz 2-run HR.

Frank Rodriguez hit his 4^th double.

Box Score

Fresno Grizzlies (Colorado) 3 – Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 2

The Fresno Grizzlies broke a tie game in the eighth, taking a 3-2 win over the Quakes on Sunday evening.

Just moments after the Quakes tied the game in the eighth, the Grizzlies took the lead for good, giving them four of six in the series over Rancho.

Mairo Martinus tied the game in the eighth off eventual winner Brady Hill (5-3), as his two-out RBI single plated Jaron Elkins to even the game at 2-2.

In the ninth, Fresno retired the side in order to close out the game.

Quakes starter, Marlon Nieves, pitched 4.0 scoreless innings.  It was Nieves’ 2^nd consecutive scoreless start.  His last start was 4.2 innings.  Combined, the Quakes pitchers only issued 1 BB.

RC will send Jesus Tillero to the mound on Tuesday night against the Storm at 6:30pm.

Box Score