The Dodgers’ losing streak extended to five games after dropping a 3-2 result to the Astros today. It was another rough outing for the struggling Los Angeles bullpen, as Kenley Jansen blew a save by allowing Houston to tie the game in the ninth, and Chris Hatcher picked up the loss after giving up a 10th-inning walkoff homer to Jason Castro. Entering Sunday, Dodgers relievers had combined for a 6.00 ERA since the All-Star break, the second-worst bullpen ERA of any club in the second half. Here’s some more from around the NL West…
- Rafael Betancourt was designated for assignment by the Rockies earlier today, and the veteran reliever told reporters (including MLB.com’s Thomas Harding) that he’s at peace with the fact that his 12-year career could be over. He isn’t too optimistic about another team picking him up, saying “I don’t see any team that’s a contender right now that is looking to” acquire a struggling 40-year-old. Betancourt may be a little hard on himself; several ERA indicators (3.32 FIP, 4.27 xFIP and 3.67 SIERA) show that he’s pitching much better than his 6.18 ERA would imply, and his velocity, strikeouts and walk rates are around his career averages. Betancourt has been hurt by a .328 BABIP and a stunningly low 52.6% strand rate over his 39 1/3 innings of work.
- The Dodgers declined to claim Will Venable on trade waivers, Jon Morosi of FOX Sports tweets. Los Angeles is rather deep with outfield options but, as Morosi notes, the Dodgers could’ve used Venable in center with Joc Pederson struggling. The Dodgers were hardly alone in passing on Venable, who went through waivers and then garnered interest from several teams. The Padres dealt Venable to the Rangers last week.
- The Diamondbacks are eager to make an impact in Japan both marketing-wise and in terms of player acquisitions, team president Derrick Hall told Jason Coskrey of the Japan Times. “For us, we’ve always looked to be identified with someone in Japan. We’re still hoping to find that talent one day,” Hall said. “It’s a dream of mine personally to have a Japanese player in a D’Back uniform, as well as a Mexican-born player who can have an impact. Because I’ve seen what a difference that makes having grown up and cut my own teeth in the Dodgers organization all those years. Of course I was around during the time of Nomo-san and Nomomania and that was electric.”
- Hall, Tony La Russa, Randy Johnson and Luis Gonzalez recently traveled to Japan on a goodwill tour on the Diamondbacks’ behalf, and while they weren’t specifically there to scout players, they did see Kenta Maeda and Shohei Otani pitch in NPB action. Arizona was one of several teams linked to Maeda last offseason before the righty decided to re-sign with the Hiroshima Carp. Maeda could be posted this winter, while Otani is just 21 and it’ll be at least a few seasons before the Nippon Ham Fighters consider making him available to North American teams. Hall said the D’Backs are “going to be aggressive” on signing talent they believe in, though given the large fees involved in signing top-flight Japanese talent, “it makes it more difficult for teams like us in smaller markets. When we write that big a check, we cannot miss. We’ve gotta be right.”
This has to be the worst Dodgers team in recent memory. Ladies and gentlemen, your Los Angeles Cubs.
you cant hate the the bats they arent that bad, but you can hate the pitching and the very poor attempt to rebuild the pen. the front office just need to rethink on how to build a team. well at least the pitching part. maybe a change in leaders will turn things around. im calling for a tim wallach hire if don ever fired
I honestly don’t know how the Dodgers get away with being run horribly while everyone jumps on the Padres and ignores the Dodgers issues. Around 300 million and they’re not the best team in baseball.
Padres give up two great prospects in Joe Ross and Trea Turner, they get crucified which none of the other prospects look as good which Wisler and Peterson havent lived up to their hype. The Dodgers gave up Andrew Heaney which they stole from the Marlins selling high on Dee Gordon only to ship him off for a rental in Howie Kendrick and had to replace Kendrick with Utley going forward which cost them more prospects. They gave up two quality pitchers in Windle and Eflin for Jimmy Rollins. Because of the bad investments in starting pitching they gave up more prospects to get Latos and Wood
People jumped on the Padres taking Upton’s contract from the Braves in the Kimbrel deal and yet the Dodgers took Arroyo’s contract, still have Crawford’s contract, and have Utley until 2019 now. People hate the contract Shields got but seem to forget McCarthy’s contract, Guerrerro making 7 mill to be a bench player, Ryu is damaged goods and hasn’t pitched at all this year I think. At least Upton is up around .240 as a platoon guy.
Preller may have destroyed the farm, but compared to what he gave up vs. how the team is doing this year compared to last in comparison to what the Dodgers gave up compared to last year Dodgers easily have been the worse franchise.
Agreed.. I thought they brought Andrew Friedman in to stabilize the team.. Instead he has spent money like a drunken sailor on his first shore leave.. I don’t think the McCarthy contract is as bad as Shields though because he will still provide decent value when he returns next year.. Shields has a backloaded deal that was a serious mistake.. That got him for $10m this year but he will be a $20m+ man in the future.. I think Preller seriously thought the Padres would make the playoffs this year and he would have that extra money to use for Shields in the future.. Had Myers stayed healthy and the pitching staff performed like they did last year I believe the Padres would be serious contenders.. Regardless, Preller re-energized the fan base and got people interested in the Padres again.. That alone is a big win.. Nobody predicted Turner would turn into the player that he has.. That is why he had to give up both Ross and Turner for Myers.. Again that is not an awful trade on his part.. Myers when healthy is a very good power bat.. The Dodgers didn’t just take on Arroyo’s contract.. They also ate Morse’s deal and DFA’d him right after the trade.. Not to mention the huge signing bonus for Olivera that they just ate.. They essentially paid $30 million (I think not quite sure of the exact amount) for Wood.. I know there are other parts to the deal but they could have essentially used that money plus the Arroyo/Morse/McCarthy money and just signed Scherzer or Shields themselves last offseason.. Their fan base should be screaming mad because they could have basically just kept Uribe and avoided Callapso entirely.. Turner could have started at 2nd until Olivera was deemed ready and avoided Kendrick.. They would have had a young cost controlled starter in Heaney.. A rotation of Kershaw/Greinke/Scherzer or Shields/Ryu/Heaney would have been very solid to start the year.. Replacing only Ryu during the year would have meant they could have avoided the Latos and Wood nonsense.. They could have easily gone after Andrew Miller or David Robertson.. I was very surprised they didn’t pursue Miller seeing as how affordable he was for the Yankees.. I could go on and on about the Dodgers and their mess but fortunately they have a very very deep farm so no matter how badly they mishandle money they should still be contenders for the next decade or so.. Hopefully, Friedman learns his lesson and signs a few quality arms for his bullpen.. Dodger Stadium is known as a pitchers park and the Dodgers are contenders every year.. I don’t see very many pitchers passing on an opportunity to pitch there.. Had they spent the little bit of money to acquire Neshek and Gregerson instead of the Astros they would not be imploding right now.. Had they signed those 2 plus Miller than would be running away with the West..
The difference is the Dodgers can pay for their and other teams mistakes monetarily. Padres need to build organically, as they will never be able to out-spend their rivals.
I agree for the most part but Chase Utley is actually a free agent after this season.
Excellent points and of course you are correct.
Perception is developed as some teams or GM’s are given special treatment.
My favorite is the clamoring over Kris Bryant. He’s having an excellent year. People nationwide are reveling in his prowess. His not starting the season with the Cubs brought on outcry’s nationwide. But Miguel Sano starting the year in the minors didn’t bother anyone. Yet if one looks at the BA, OBP, SLG and OPS here in late August- one will notice that Sano is higher then Bryant in all 4 categories, and Sano plays his home games in a pitchers park.
Just the way it is.
A big difference between Sano and Bryant comes from the teams they play for. No one expected the Twins to be any good this season, much less in the thick of playoff contention. Meanwhile, the Cubs were very much expected to make a run at the postseason this year. The Twins waiting to promote Sano was considered more “acceptable” because there was very little expectation of winning. The Cubs playing with Bryant’s service clock came off as risking a few wins early in the season that might be important at the end of the year for a team trying to make it to October baseball.
If the Twins had opened the season as strong playoff contenders with the expectation of making a run at the postseason, the cries for Sano would have been much louder than they wound up being.,
The Dodgers did not spend nearly as much money via trades as all those players would make it look like. Chase Utley is a FA at the end of the season, the Dodgers did not guarantee his option to obtain his services. Yes, they took Bronson Arroyo, but are only paying a paltry $500K for him. They can now add him to their rotation for 2016 as a BOR arm for a mere $4 million. Maybe they do it, maybe not, but it is an “insurance option”. Yes, they gave up talent to get Rollins, but then, one needs to give talent to get talent, and the players they gave up are not projecting as having terribly high ceilings.
Olivera was traded, but is directly replaced by Peraza, who is actually healthy and not looking at missing another full season for TJ surgery like Olivera is. Alex Wood is under control for a few more years at a very affordable rate. Along with Peraza, that’s two future starters making well below the league average. The team also has over $80 million coming off the books at the end of this season. They have more coming off the books than some teams are going to spend in total. So yes, they have spent big, but the vast majority of those expenditures are short-term in impact.
When they moved Morse, they picked up a younger, better version in Tabata. Once the OF shakes itself out during the offseason, the Dodgers likely have another player in LF that players for below market value who is very reasonably signed through 2019, should the Dodgers keep him. Everything from 2017-2019 falls under team option, so even he represents another way to save, either through providing excess value on the field, or by being easily allowed to walk without a need to unload him.
The scary thing is, the Dodgers can afford to renegotiate a nice raise in pay for Greinke and will still have oodles of money to go and sign Price as well. Price+Greinke for the Dodgers in the offseason is likely only an increase of $35 million. For any other team, that is an increase of closer to $60 million.
The Dodgers have money, and AF is not afraid to spend it, but he is spending it shrewdly.
Sort of right, but for all the wrong reasons. The only trade I can really fault is the one you thought was good for the Dodgers, the Dee Gordon deal. Turns out they weren’t selling so high on him after all. I also can’t fault any trade because the player they got was later injured. That’s just the fates of baseball, especially when it’s a common injury or one they’ve never had before. What I can fault is a team that has all the talent needed to win, but doesn’t. When this happens a lot of fans want to immediately blame the manager or the GM. Hardly anyone places the blame on good hitters who aren’t hitting and good pitchers who aren’t pitching. But that is where it belongs. Even Kershaw said it yesterday: it’s time for some urgency, a little bit of panic.
If this is the worst Dodger team you can remember, Happy 3rd Birthday! I know you obviously don’t remember too far back, but from 2010-2012 the Dodgers averaged less than 83 wins and missed the playoffs three straight years. Even last season, they were only 70-53 at this point of the season and about to begin a 3 game losing streak that left them at 70-56.
I remember 40 years worth of Dodgers teams, thank you very much. What I have not forgotten and perhaps you have is that the few really weak teams they fielded were by the penny-pinching McCourts (and Fox) for about a quarter of what the current ownership is paying to field a team. Some of them were actually quite competitive. And that is the point. This current team should not have anywhere close to as many deficiencies as those other teams, and on paper, they don’t. On the field is another matter. So yes, wasting that much talent makes this Dodgers team, for my money, the worst in recent memory. And as a season ticket holder, it really is my money.
Friedman had a great run in TB, but didn’t have much in the cupboard when he left. I thought the idea was to get the Dodgers to be more efficient and get move value out of the money spent on the roster. Instead he seems to be replicating George Steinbrenner in the mid-80’s. The moves he and/or Kasten and/or Zaidi have made during the season have been nothing but churning fantasy baseball moves. Most of the players without long-term contracts and no-trade clauses have to be wondering where they will be next week.
Moneyball didn’t take in LA when Paul DePodesta was running things. The area is very baseball conscious – people play it year-round. A good percentage of professional players from America came from the SoCal area. While Friedman has a different bent then Beane with the hitting foul balls and ignoring defense, this moving one guy out because another shows a 10% gain in some selected stats is not the way to build a baseball team. And no one knows it better then LA baseball fans.
Chase Utley was overkill, as are so many others. I’m starting to sympathize with Don Mattingly.
The Utley pickup surprised me too, but we both have to admit that the Dodgers know a lot better than we do how long they will be without Kendrick. They could afford an option other than starting a rookie, and they made the move. Hard to fault that as a fan. I also can’t find much fault with the other in-season moves. These players were good before they got here and will probably be good again. Somewhere. Here, and soon, with any luck.
Your Dodgers are having the same problem the Nationals are……
The pieces don’t fit, and most of the players go day-to-day wondering when the FO will bring in a bigger name player to take their job. Hard to build a group of players that will do anything to help the team win that day. Easy to build a group of guys looking to inflate their stats so that they can get out.
That’s just mystical metaphysics. Not an explanation for anything in the real world.
LOL
No. It’s very valid. Payers are human beings….with egos, families and friends.
I’d suggest the book – ‘The Best Team Money Can Buy’. She touched on things I brought up that were happening a few years ago and apparently still are. The similarities in the way the Yankee players thought and acted in the mid-80’s are there.
The Guggenheim people seem to feel that the best way to resolve any little inefficiency is to throw as much money as necessary at it. I lived in LA for most of my adult life, and remain a fan of Vinnie and Tommy. I loved the Dodgers, but following on Fox and McCourt, this seems to be just another flavor of craziness. The Branch Rickey / O’Malley Dodgers that played strong team and fundamental baseball as well as care for one another is long gone. EDIT – Tommy built camaraderie; Donny’s job is to massage and smooth egos.
Of course players are human, but you’ve provided no examples of players who do not “fit,” are worried about “bigger player names taking their place,” or who are “inflating their egos so they can get out.” So yeah, if you’re going to answer with nothing more vague generalities then you are dealing in metaphysics, not reality.
Who on that team other then Adrian, Turner and 2 starters has a steady job that will last through 2016?
Quite a few, but either way, your question is totally unresponsive to my point. Please don’t make me repeat it. I think think they’ve already heard it in the last row of the cheap seats.