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Senioreditor
Ethier turned into another Carl Crawford real fast.
Dominic 2
Juice!
ltroyce2020
No one can be worthless or as useless as Carl Crawford was! Ethier is a whole different situation and actually made a contribution to the Dodgers! Crawford contributed nothing, but to collect a paycheck
BlueSkyLA
Crawford was a gimmie in the trade to get Gonzales. Not much was expected from him.
If it wasn’t for bad luck, Ethier would have no luck at all. I mean, most players never break a bone even once. He’s had it happen twice.
ba2929
Crawford was actually pretty solid with the Dodgers before he fell off the map when he turned 33., so I’m not entirely sure why you think he was that horrendous.
In fact, his 2014 season was pretty good and could have been even better had he not sprained his ankle.
BlueSkyLA
This is true, yet when the Dodgers took on his contract he was on the DL recovering from two separate injuries. They weren’t expecting much return for that outlay and one way or another they didn’t get much in the end.
dodgerfan711
Wood has pitched amazing and they are gonna kick him out of the rotation so maeda can keep getting lit up every game?
mkeving
Give Wood Maeda’s rotation spot and let Maeda have more of a long relief role.
SixFlagsMagicPadres
Tough luck for Jankowski, but he had been off to a pretty bad start.
lesterdnightfly
Golly, if Jankowski is out for very long — on top of not having Bethancourt to anchor the lineup — there go the Padres’ chances of winning the NL West….
CompanyAssassin
Wood pitched 6 1-hit innings, so is that 6 hits, 1 per inning, or 1 hit total. Also they still want maeda in the rotation? When I first heard about him I was told he was like this great pitcher but since he’s been awful. Dating back to the end of last season even.
shspringer99
He gave up one hit in his start
thinkblech
The fangraphs heatmap tool is interesting (and telling). From April thru August last year vs everything since, where he used to be on the edges of the zone quite a bit, now he’s leaving a ton of pitches up in the zone and over the middle of the plate, Just about every major league pitcher will get shelled with that profile. Could major league hitters have adjusted and laid off all the stuff outside of the zone? Possibly. Whatever the issue is, he needs to stay away from the middle of the plate, he’s getting shellacked there. I know, that’s not rocket science, but the heatmap doesn’t lie.
BlueSkyLA
Every pitcher has to establish himself in the strike zone but Maeda has been serving up basketballs in that zip code lately. He should be dropped to fifth in the rotation to give him a little more space to find his rhythm and occasional skipped starts. The rotation should be Kershaw, Wood, McCarthy, Urias and Maeda. Revaluate when/if Hill is healthy.
Blue_Painted_Dreams_LA
I think part of the issue just like most young pitchers, relative to his time in the MLB, is figuring out what works for him. Hitters made adjustments and he tired towards the end of last year. Right now the major issue is control. He’s never going to be the dominant K everyone type pitcher.
That being said if he scraps the 4 seemer and curveball which have been absolutely ugly and flat and works off his 2seemer/ sinker, sticks with the slider and backup slider, and change continues to develops he’ll be fine if he starts dotting up again. But I feel like he’s discovered he can pump it back up to 93-94 and he’s not really pitching. There has to be a happy medium between last year with his love for sl and this years love with 4 seemer. He’s going to be a productive SP if he can work off keeping guys off balance/hitting the ball on the ground. The stuffs there and it plays now mechanically he just needs to fix it and perform.
BlueSkyLA
True, it seems like his building up of weight and muscle mass over the offseason has backfired somewhat. Increased velocity but less control. He’s got a top pitching coach to work him through this but it could take time to find the right combination. Would prefer to see that happen either at the bottom of the rotation or in the bullpen.
davidcoonce74
When Maeda signed that team-friendly contract it was because he had “the worst medicals I’ve ever seen,” according to Dodgers insiders. So I’m just guessing he’s broken.
thinkblech
And yet he’s throwing harder than ever, and just went 7 strong. He was just missing (badly), doesn’t mean he’s “broken”, might just need to make adjustments. He’s a bargain, either way.
BlueSkyLA
He did look miles better tonight.
As for being a bargain, that doesn’t interest me very much. I want him to be good, not cheap.
davidcoonce74
A sudden velocity increase is a huge red flag for TJ surgery. And yeah, he pitched well tonight.
Against the phillies.
BlueSkyLA
The Dodgers wanted to increase his durability, so during the offseason they put him on a program to build muscle mass and weight. That’s where the extra velocity came from. But he was starting to rely too much on the four-seam, so they had him go back to mixing in more sinkers and cutters. Gets him lower in the zone where he’s much more effective.
The Phillies aren’t bad this year and came into last night’s game with a six-game win streak. They are definitely not the doormat team of recent years.
davidcoonce74
Have you looked at their hitters? They’re absolutely terrible.
BlueSkyLA
Yes, I have. By team BA they are 11th in baseball. By SLG and OPS, 12th. The only major offensive stat category where they rate below average is OBP (18th). They are actually well ahead of the Dodgers in most offensive categories. So they are above average, certainly not terrible.
padreforlife
Omg what will Padres do without 0 Rbis from Janko
bleacherbum
Right? Him getting hurt was a blessing in disguise for him because he has been awful so far this year. I mean Jabari Blash isn’t much better, he strikes out 3 times a game and looks overmatched 99 percent of the time, even when he gets his walks because of his big frame and his meaningless solo homers down 8-1 in the 8th inning off a reliever throwing dead read fastballs.
I think the Padres should bring up Franchy Cordero and see what they have in him, let him play Left Field. Or roll the dice on Leonys Martin, AJ Preller did draft him in Texas so that could hold some weight in possibly acquiring him again.
davidcoonce74
To be fair, the Padres entire outfield is bad. Margot can’t get on base, Jankowski can’t hit, Blash can’t hit (I don’t know why they’re wasting time on him), Renfroe just can’t recognize a breaking pitch and his defense has been brutal. I knew it would be a long season but wow. It’s bad.
bleacherbum
True. I hope they acquire Leonys Martin just so we can see something different out there. Because you are right this outfield is bad.
davidcoonce74
Martin would be an interesting upside play. He’s a little old for a rebuilding team, but was a league-average player as recently as last season and the defense still is good. Plus, the Padres have a lot of Cubans in the system and I don’t know how much that matters but it can’t hurt to have an older Cuban player around as a mentor type.
lesterdnightfly
Pete Kozma is available…..Plenty of bat production there !