Around The League
Some news from around the majors. Braves pitcher, AJ Minter will have to have hip surgery. It is not known if he will miss the rest of the year, but with so few games left, that is a distinct possibility. Harold Ramirez was released by the Nationals. He had some success in 22-23 for the Guardians. He was released and signed by the Nats earlier this year.
The Marlins told P Sandy Alcantara that they would not be trading him this winter. The Giants recalled OF Grant McCoy and optioned Marco Luciano back to AAA. The Yankees designated P Enyel De Los Santos for assignment. Jazz Chisholm was placed on the 10-day IL and Oswald Peraza and Will Warren were recalled.
Mauricio Llovaro was released by the Mariners. Braves designated OF Parker Dunshee for assignment. Michael Harris II was activated from the 60-day-IL and Eli White was optioned to AAA. Arizona recalled infielder Blaze Alexander and optioned OF Alex Thomas back to AAA. Angels released 2 LHP, former Dodger Adam Kolarek and Amir Garrett. Both were in the minors.
Aaron Judge became the fastest player to reach 300 homers in MLB history. He did it in 955 games. Arizona thumped the Rockies 11-4 and San Diego beat the Pirates, 8-2 to put pressure on the Dodgers and cut their lead to 2.5 games with the Brewers beating LA and ending the win streak at five. Dodgers made three errors and all of them led to runs. The errors were made by players who usually do not do that, Betts, Ahmed and Kike.
Buehler struggled through 3.1 innings giving up 4 runs. Only 1 was earned. The bullpen did a good job until Honeywell hit a batter in the bottom of the 7th after LA had tied the game in the top of the 7th. Phillips came in and got the second out before allowing a single to right that Mookie tried to grab and overran. The error allowed the winning run to score. Honeywell took the loss, his first.
Kiermaier saved Buehler in the bottom of the first. With the bases loaded and no outs, Contreras hit a shot to center that Kiermaier caught and then fired a strike to Barnes to cut down the runner at the plate. Kevin also had 2 hits. Both teams were 3-10 with RISP. Betts was 2-5 and struck out 3 times. Freeman was 3-5. Ohtani was 0-4 with a walk and 2 stolen bases. His BA is now down to .295. Teo got an RBI on a bases loaded walk, but Teo struck out his other 3 at bats. Miguel Rojas drove in the tying run in the top of the 7th as a pinch hitter.
Minor League Scores
OKC: OKC is tied with Las Vegas at 5 in the bottom of the 5th. Edman and Muncy are both 1-3 with a K. Jordan Lyles started and gave up all 5 runs in 3 innings of work. Lao replaced him. Feduccia and Hoese have homered. Brasier is now pitching. Update: OKC now up 10-7 in the bottom of the 7th. Edman is playing SS tonight. He is 2-4 with a run scored and an RBI. Rushing hit his first AAA homer in the 6th. He also has a double and 3 driven in. Brasier went 1.1 innings giving up only a walk and striking out 2. Tanner Dodson relieved Nick Anderson who gave up 3 runs so far in the bottom of the 7th. The error was on Max Muncy at 3rd allowing Max Muncy to score!!!! LOL. Game is now in the top of the 8th.
Tulsa: Tulsa eked out a 2-1 win over Midland. Ferris went 5 scoreless innings giving up 3 hits, a walk and struck out 5. Knowles and Hobbs pitched the next 3 innings allowing the run and 2 hits. Hobbs allowed the homer that tied the game in the 8th. Drillers scored the winning run in the bottom of the 9th. Two walks a hit batsman and a single scored the winning run in the bottom of the 9th.
Great Lakes: Lake County shut out the Loons on 3 hits. Bruns went 3 scoreless, Ruebeck pitched a scoreless 4th, and Jo Rodriguez got the loss giving up both runs in the bottom of the 5th. Gelof, Mongelli and Thompson had the hits. The Loons struck out 12 times.
Rancho: Visalia is up 8-1 on the Quakes in the top of the 7th inning. Visalia did most of their damage against Santillan a Gutierrez. Rojas and Osorio are 2-3, Hope and George, 1-3. Update: Rancho now down 9-1 in the 9th.
Not a good loss. Untimely errors, clutch hitting not happening. Just forget about it and win tomorrow. Both SD and Az off tomorrow so LA can pick up .5 on both and move the lead back to 3. Flaherty against Myers. Smith should be back in the lineup. Game starts at 11:10 LA time. Then on to St Louis who was swept by the Reds. Phillies finally beat the Marlins. How about that Kiermaier guy? One of the best outfield assists I have seen in years. Great throw.
So far, I haven’t seen any efficiency in Buehler. He wasn’t terrible and I feel we lost this game because of our vaunted Defense. Mookie, Kike, etc…This game was a wrap but we couldn’t put the finishing touches on it.
Badger asked the question, ‘Can SD & AZ sustain their 90% win streak. Yes, they are doing it. Of course it won’t last forever but neither will the Dodger win streak which we’ve just witnessed. Can you feel them breathing on our necks?
At this stage I´d rather have Ferris Buehler than Walker Buehler .
Sorry to say but IMHO the man is done, at least for this season.
Dodgers can not allow to let him work on his comeback during an intense pennant race. Not with Clayton trying to reestablish himself too and Stone not providing many innings lately too. This is a sure recipe to pile drive this bullpen right into the ground.
I would rather have Wrobleski, Miller or Knack or even Casparius taking the ball next time this spot in the rotation comes up. At some point loyality to a player has to stop when it starts to hurt the rest of the team.
Great play KK.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Obviously it’s important to play winning baseball all year. The Dodgers are 7-3. Keep that up and they should be fine.
The West will be decided in September as teams in that Division will be playing each other a lot, right into the last week. If the Dodgers play to their abilities they should be fine. Games like yesterday are going to happen, but they better not happen often.
I felt kind of bad for Buehler last night. Hw was obviously struggling. To compound that his defense let him down in the second inning. Although Kiermaier did save him with his incredible throw in the first inning. I think he was close to sixty pitches after two innings. Things went better in the third and then in the fourth he seemed to run out of gas and lose focus.
What to do with him for the rest of the season will be a tough decision for the front office. It’s easy to say just DFA him and bring up Knack or Wrobleski. I would like to see him given a couple of more starts, but with the SD and Arizona hot on the Dodgers tail, they may not want to risk another short outing and add more stress to the BP. And increasing the odds of defeat. Buehler is such a competitor, but it’s easy to see his ability and confidence are not to the level the team needs right now. Let’s see what team decides to do with Buehler.
Carry on.
Coming in to Milwaukee, we were 2nd in the NL, right behind Philly. But Mil was 3rd, right behind us.
They’re a legit team, and I”m very happy we won 2 of 3 games so far. Jack Flaherty can make a statement today with a strong game and help us take 3 of 4, on the road, vs a likely potential playoff opponent.
I’m excited for this 11am game today. Let’s get it!
Also, for those that care, NBA season opens Oct 22, and Lakers open at home that night vs Minnesota.
Mookie not in the lineup today. 🙁
Probably needs rest.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!
Extremely weird baseball game. And a big part of the weirdness was David Rackley, behind the dish. His ineptitude on balls and strikes just added questions and indecision on the part of hitters, knowing what to swing at. There was a mysterious, moving strike zone. Add that to errors, poor pitching and specular plays which made for an entertaining game, if you don’t give a shit who wins.
My book on Rackley was spot on. “Really inconsistent on fringe pitches”. How he earned game 4 of the 2023 WS and was rated #4 best in 22, is a mystery to me.
Rick Monday said a mouthful in the first inning about Walker Buehler “You can’t battle against the hitters and fight yourself at the same time”.
I really don’t want to add misery to Walker’s struggle. He’s obviously battling himself. There are signs that his current 95 and off speed stuff can play. If he lets it. He’s a mess mentally. Without about 4 outstanding defensive plays Buehler may have never gotten out of an the first 2 innings.
He needs more rope to come to grips with his current stuff and start believing in himself.
While I’m not googling the address of that pitching lab in Florida, his alignment to the plate is better. He’s not falling off the glove side as much. But his release point is just so inconsistent.
Awesome plays kept Buehler in the game.
Kiermeier’s throw home and Barnes tag was a thing of beauty.
Kk may be a dead man walking but he’s not going down without a fight. He likely knows his fate when Muncy and Edman return but he’s busting his retiring ass in his swan song. I like the guy.
The blocking or obstruction calls are so subjective. Barnes and Smith are way different in their approaches to tags at home. Will is a swipe tag guy; he gets in front of the plate and sweep tags, like an infielder. Barnes just blocked the plate while catching KK’s great throw and made the tag. I was waiting for a review and reversal on the call, but thankfully the call went our way..
That play and check swings just have to be addressed this winter by the rules folks. Oh yeah, and put in the no challenge ABS System so we don’t get David Rackley influence games anymore.
It was very subtle but did you see Contreras try to deke Shohei top 7? He brushed the ground and shuffled around trying to deke a pitch coming inside. The pitch was away. Cat and mouse all the time.
Great move by Doc top 7, going to Rojas for Lux, hitting .177 v LHP. Great pinch hitting decision.
You’re right Badger, the old man needed a blow from SS for a day, but he found a way to contribute
For all the critics of small ball, take a look at the impact of the Brewers sac bunt bottom 7. Hit by pitch, bunt , error, run.
I was really interested in the Dodger’s defensive alignment after Heyward pinch hit for Ahmed in the 8th. Thanks to Stephen wtf’s his name, we got no information that Mookie moved from right field to 2nd, Rojas moved to short and Heyward in right. I could assume that but maybe Stephen could just tell us.
Another day, another minor league focused podcast.
This one by Baseball America, and focused on the NL West:
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/assessing-the-state-of-every-nl-west-organization/
For my money, this is a great listen. Good discussion on the arm injuries incurred by the Dodgers, how Dodgers and Rays seem to be recently impacted by arm injuries, how draft profile and drafting position may impact the rash of injuries. The lack of high-end talent, the next wave of talent and more.
Saw this report on CBS about MLB Weighing starting pitchers going a mandatory 6 innings pitched. With all the Tommy John surgeries over the last few years it would seem like a reach by MLB but at least they are spinning their wheels over trying something. Thought it was interesting read.
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-reportedly-weighing-six-inning-requirement-for-starting-pitchers-how-mandatory-outings-could-work/
Some interesting stuff to note:
Over the past week plus, Pages is hitting .391/.500/.739/1.239 with six extra-base hits.
I wonder if this is why Edman played shortstop instead of center field last night for OKC?
With Pages slugging and Betts playing right field, maybe Edman plays more shortstop than originally anticipated to keep Pages in the big leagues / in the lineup (though that would mean more Pages in CF!)
Angels to DFA Willie Calhoun.
Really bad pitching performance from Hudson. Had no swing and miss stuff with everything hit hard. Not good, not good.
Split the series and definitely could have won all four. Hudson looked gassed. Maybe he should have used him earlier and let Kopech pitch later in the game.
So it looks like my prediction of the Dodgers falling out of first place is correct. The lead is down to just 2 games now over SD and AZ. AZ is in TB and the Padres are in Colorado playing the crappy Rockies. The Padres will likely sweep the Rocks, and I don’t see AZ losing in TB, but you never know. It looks like the Dodgers are playing with a little more urgency this past week, but the results have not changed. They are still losing winable games, and are unable to beat good teams. They sweep the Pirates, but split in Milwaukee. The only way to avoid falling out of first place would be for them to literally win every game from here on out, and obviously that’s not going to happen. The Dodgers problems outside of injuries are due to a flawed organizational baseball philosophy. Here they are in no particular order…
Load management losing
The club has been committed to putting inferior lineups on the field due to “load management”. They think that scheduling rest will keep the players healthy, but has that worked at all? The Dodgers have had more injuries and more players on the injured list than any other team in the majors. Just today, they didn’t start Mookie, but just had to start guys that are hovering around the mendoza line, like Kike, and Heyward. Then they pinch-hit him in the ninth inning.
This is horrible strategy. They’ve sat around and watched while their division lead has dwindled away to nothing. Load management does not prevent injuries, and only leads to them starting .200 hitting utility players, which they’ve been doing most of the year. You want to know the truth? The players these days, pitchers and hitters are coddled and babied. You want to win a championship, you have to be tough. Guys are going to have to suck it up and get out there and play. Guys don’t need rest at this time of the year.
I think the older guys like Bear and Jeff can atest to players playing through bumps and bruises back in their generation. Players were tough back then, and management didn’t coddle them. You didn’t see the Yankees scheduling Mickey Mantle “load management rest days” and playing a .200 hitter in his place, and Mantle played most of his career with no knee ligaments winning several Rings. You want to win a title? Suck it up and play. Unless you have broken bones, or torn ligaments you should be in the lineup every day. Mookie’s hand is healed, and there was no reason for him not to be in the lineup.
2 Starters not going deep into games.
The reason MLB is looking into requiring starting pitchers to go deep into games, is because watching 7 middle relievers trot in on a nightly basis, openers, or bullpen games is boring and provides little intrigue. The front office nerds have made the game stale. In the Dodgers situation, their starting pitchers have not been conditioned to pitch deep into games, they are not efficient enough to pitch deep into games, and they have burned their bullpen into the ground. I’m not asking for complete games here, but 7 innings is not asking for much.
3 obsession with lefty/righty matchups.
Playing the percentages with lefty-righty matchups is a strategy that is supposed to be used sparingly throughout the season. It’s ok to use in the late innings when a tough southpaw comes out of the bullpen or when one particular hitter crushes left handers. But the Dodgers are obsessed with this losing strategy and deploy this during every single inning. Every lineup has the left right left right alignment. Someone on this board joked the Dodgers should just acquire 9 switch-hitters. This rarely works, because it’s supposed to be used sparingly, not in every inning of every game. If you base your entire game strategy on lefy-righty, then you will become predictable, and easy to defeat.
These are the primary reasons the Dodgers are going to fall out of first place and will likely be swept out of the playoffs again. it is a direct result of management’s neglect for the roster, arrogance, and refusal to adjust to failing strategies. It’s time to bring in some fresh voices. I think there is going to be a massive shakeup in the offseason if the Dodgers get swept out of the playoffs again.
I know some of you may disagree with me, but that’s ok. I think for some of you, you will come around when you see the team fall into second or third place, finish 90-72, and then swept out of the wild card round, which is likely to happen at this point. A perfect example of management’s arrogance and inept is the recent trade deadline. The Dodgers picked up three position players at the deadline. One is injured and can’t play. One is a .300 hitter this year, spraying the ball all over the field., and the third player is a sub mendoza line hitting utility outfielder. Management dumped the .300 hitter claiming there was no playing time for him, and of course kept the .190 hitter. Guess who is gettng consistent playing time? Yes I know Keirmaier is a gold glove outfielder. So what? The Dodgers need offence right now, not another mendoza line hitter in the lineup. They already have plenty of those.
Over the past ten games, both the Padres and D’backs have gone 9-1, while the Dodgers have gone 6-4.
So the lead over both rivals has been whittled to two games.
Happy to see the news that the Tigers are bringing up SS Trey Sweeney from the Toledo Mud Hens. Sweeney, you’ll recall, was part of the deal for Jack Flaherty, along with C Thayron Liranzo.
When the Dodgers got Sweeney from the Yankees (for RP Victor Gonzales), he had a reputation as good defender but an iffy bat.
I rooting hard for Sweeney to succeed. If he does, perhaps the Dodgers brain trust will re-think its habit of scouring the DFA lists for experience guys like Cavan Biggio and Nick Ahmed, and instead give rising prospects more a chance. After Max was injured and the Dodgers brought it Biggio, a lot of were wondering why hot-hitting Andre Lipcius didn’t get a chance. When Feduccia finally made it to The Show, he managed to have exactly one AB.
AF & Associates have done a great job finding veteran pitchers that need a little polish, but their record with position players is suspect. Not long ago, our keystone combo was supposed to be Lux at SS and Vargas at 2B. Wrong and wrong. Did that blunder make AF want to play it safe in bringing in vets like Biggio and Ahmed?
So I hope Sweeney makes AF think, gee, why didn’t we give him a chance?
A couple of notes. Yelich is going to have back surgery which ends hit season. He is going to have the surgery tomorrow and hopes he can be back for the 2025 season. The Mets signed Eddie Rosario to a minor league deal. The Twins placed oft injured Byron Buxton on the IL with hip inflammation. The Rockies outrighted Josh Rogers to the minors. The Red Sox outrighted infielder Jamie Westbrook.
Alot of negative comments about Walker Buehler and his performance last night. Suggestions to DFA him. I agree that Buehler has not been himself this year, and he is very unlikely to be on postseason roster. But Walker has been a great Dodger and deserves to finish this season as a Dodger. As poorly as he pitched yesterday, he gave up 1 earned run in 3.1 innings. For comparison, Flaherty gave up 3 ER in 5 innings today, and 4 ER in 5.1 innings his last start. Buehler is still struggling with command coming off of his second TJ surgery. Prior to this injury, he was a warrior and a great postseason performer. I understand why the dodgers would give Buehler every chance to regain his form, as during his career he has been the best postseason pitcher on the roster. Unfortunately, this season may be his last with the Dodgers, and I have greatly enjoyed watching him perform. I appreciate his talent, effort and determination.
I agree that this team needs Ohtani. It also needs Smith. Frankly it needs all of the top 6 in that order. They were slugging early in the year and the Dodgers were rolling.
Will Brasier, Treinen, Hudson and Phillips return to form? Wherever the top of the opposition lineup comes up in innings 7-9, I want Kopech facing them.
Don’t know what to say about Buehler. His team played poorly behind him, that’s for sure, but his command is off. I think he deserves another start. If the team can play solid baseball behind him and score like they are supposed to, he could finish 5, and at this point any starter that can do that would be helpful.
I still believe in this team. Slumps happen, and I’d rather see them in July and August than in September and October.