Doyers Thread

[Villain]

Bump for discussion.

Is Matt Kemp worst CF of all time?

:nope:

 

 

[Villain]

May 20, 2013 - State of the Dodgers

17 wins, 25 losses. 5th Place in the NL West (7 games back)

---

Starting Rotation:

Good things
1. Clayton Kershaw. Not much to say here, one of the best in baseball. Best lefty starter in the NL. We're lucky to have him.
2. Zack Greinke. Before the injury that should never have happened, he was stellar. His work ethic and maybe the severity of the non-throwing clavicle fracture brought him back into the rotation way ahead of schedule. He looked great against the Harper-less Nationals in his return, but he admits he's at "Spring Training" shape. We'll see what happens, but I'm not too worried.
3. Hyun-Jin Ryu. In his first MLB season, I think he's been a success so far. Great velocity on his fastball, the change up and curve ball are also pretty nasty. His control has left him looking wild in some starts, but it's been pinpoint in others. He's also been a decent hitter, which I find to be hilarious.

Dodgers starters have the second-best FIP in the NL.

Bad Things
Injuries, and Josh Beckett. Beckett has made all but one good start, a complete game loss to the Diamondbacks. What a nightmare. Billingsley looked halfway decent in his first start, then it's Tommy John surgery. Ted Lilly was never supposed to start but he forced his way onto the MLB roster by refusing a rehab assignment and guess what? He wasn't completely healthy and when injuries forced him into the starting role, he was a disaster. Ted Lilly has no business being on a Major League roster. I hated his contract when he received it, and I hate it now that it's forcing us to keep him around. More injuries to the back of the rotation: Capuano spent time on the DL, even though he was never meant to have a starting spot in the first place, and even the minor league replacement Stephen Fife is on the DL with shoulder bursitis. 23 year old Matt Magill isn't major league ready and yet here he is starting for the team who had too many pitchers in Spring Training. He's been iffy at best and clearly-not-ready at worst. The strikeout-happy Braves made him look good over the weekend by playing to his strengths, but more patient lineups will crush him. It's mid-May and the Dodgers have already had more starters than they did over the entirety of 2012.

Beckett is on the DL for apparently a number of injuries that have been bugging him. Who knows if correcting those issues can correct his shitty pitching.

Outlook Going Forward
The effectiveness of the top three starters - Kershaw, Greinke, and Ryu - must not falter if this team is going to have any success over the rest of the season. Beckett has been terrible, but if optimism connects his ineffectiveness to injuries, then maybe he can turn it around to be a passable 4th starter. The fifth spot is going to be a black hole unless a roster shakeup happens. Capuano has looked great in his last two starts since the calf strain, so maybe he can do well to stay healthy and limit the awful 3 to 5 inning starts that have been occurring to an overworked bullpen. If he can't, then maybe Zach Lee is able to crack the rotation this summer and be a 5th guy or maybe he gets traded for someone who's going to get hurt and be terrible, like Jake Peavey.

---

Position Players:

Good things
1. Carl Crawford. He almost looks worthy of his stupidly huge contract. Here's hoping that things remain this way.
2. Adrian Gonzalez. He has been on of the best hitters in the NL this season despite not being able to turn his head without pain.
3. AJ Ellis. Still underrated.
4. Juan Uribe. I can't believe I typed that. He still has the best BB% in baseball for those with the more or the same amount of PA's.
5. Mark Ellis. He's been playing great defense and he's been effective at the plate. Now that he's been injured, that will unfortunately go away.
6. Nick Punto. Same as Mark Ellis, but replace injury with regression. His baBIP is somewhere in the stratosphere.

Bad Things
1. All players who've been on the left side of the infield not named Hanley Ramirez, Juan Uribe, or Nick Punto. Luis Cruz and Justin Sellers have never had a valid place on the major league roster. Dee Gordon is one of the worst hitters on the team and his defense is always an adventure in the way that running from a T-Rex in Jurassic Park is an adventure. Maybe Dee would do better if Mattingly didn't have him bunting every time, but that's never going to go away.
2. The lack of production from Kemp and Ethier. Mainly in the slugging department. They've both been hitting a little better (in the sense that some is better than none), but the power outage has been almost intolerable. It's frustrating to watch two guys who have good looking swings that look pretty as the ball goes right on into the catchers' mitt. You want guys like this to be feared hitters in the lineup and that's just not been the case. Here's hoping that this is just a slump and not the new normal.
3. Injuries. Maybe this should be made into a singular. Jerry Hairston Jr. has been a decent backup, but that's all he is. Most important has been the hole that is left when Hanley Ramirez isn't in the lineup. I'm of the opinion (because of course I am) that Hanley is on the verge of returning to being an offensive star, even if his defense is terrible. We need him back, badly. The Dodgers need someone other than Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez to be a spark plug.

Outlook Going Forward
While they Dodgers have generated the second-fewest runs in baseball, they have been doing a good job at getting on base, taking walks, and not striking out too much. The issue can be simply related to a lack of power. If Kemp and Ethier can go back to hitting home runs while the other regular hitters continue what they're doing, then I think the Dodgers offense will be in good shape. If the slugging does not increase, then it's optimistic to expect a new face in the General Managers' chair.

---

Bullpen:

Good things
1. Kenley Jansen. Outside of being roughed up in Atlanta, he's been solid.
2. Paco Rodriguez. Same as Jansen. A huge surprise from a player who would normally be in the minors at this stage in his career. 12 months ago, he was still pitching for the University of Florida.

Bad things
1. Everyone else. League has been a disaster. Belisario has been hot and cold, but mostly cold. The Dodgers have the second worst bullpen in the National League.
2. The bullpen has been overworked. Wouldn't it be nice if this was the cause of why the bullpen has been so bad? All you'd need is starters to go deeper into the game and viola! Everyone is effective again. I seriously doubt that, but it's nice to dream about. The only thing worse than going to your bullpen early is going to your bullpen early when you have a shitty bullpen. It's bad.

Outlook Going Forward
Not good. League will be around for awhile. There are not very many guys in the minors who look to be ready to crack the 25-man, and Ted Lilly will be back soon in what I hope is purely mop-up duty. The arms you see don't look to be replaced soon, so this is the nightmare for the rest of the year. Once the starter leaves, the worrying begins. If this team's run production doesn't increase soon, things are only going to get worse.

 

[Villain]

Bump for discussion.

Is Matt Kemp worst CF of all time?

:nope:

 

 

[NAHSTE]

Matt Kemp has been worth negative 1 win per FanGraphs so far.

:tiptoe:

 

[Villain]

Matt Kemp has been worth negative 1 win per FanGraphs so far.

:tiptoe:

Sounds generous.

 

[Villain]

"From Rotoworld, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said Wednesday that the club has discussed calling up prospect outfielders Yasiel Puig and Joc Pederson.
Very interesting. However, while the Dodgers are struggling to score runs, it's hard to see a great fit for playing time as long as Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, and Carl Crawford are healthy. Puig, 22, is batting .314/.385/.579 with six homers and a .964 OPS through 32 games this season with Double-A Chattanooga. Pederson has been even better, batting .327/.400/.554 with eight homers, 13 stolen bases and a .954 OPS."

Good for Mattingly, I think you'll see Van Slyke platoon with Ethier for awhile before they call these 2 guys up though.

I don't think Puig or Pederson will be coming up soon. I think it's just motivational lip service for Emo Ethier to either kick him into gear or make him want to get traded - two things the organization will be happy with.

As for the Van Slyke platoon... YES! SMRT Doyer fans have wanted that for awhile. Van Slyke has a hefty platoon split and some teams play him with an extreme-pull shift in the minors. Van Slyke could definitely, in my eyes, be in a rotation where he starts against lefties for Ethier, while also working in a few rest days maybe once or twice per two weeks for Gonzalez and Crawford. I've wanted a power righty 1B/OF off the bench for three years so this is welcome if it's what ends up happening.

I wanted the Dodgers to sign Gomes to play that lefty-masher-off-the-bench role (although I don't know of his corner-infield history) but he smartly chose the regular position in Boston.

 

[Villain]

 

[Villain]

A nice write-up on how SVS has matured since last season:

TBLA

TThe story of the 2013 Dodgers won't be written without Yasiel Puig, who in two days has captured the hearts of Los Angeles. But Puig isn't the only player to come up from the minors and breathe life into the Dodgers this season. Scott Van Slyke came into this season with a purpose, and it's paying off big time for the Dodgers.

Van Slyke has played in just 18 games for the Dodgers, including 13 starts, but he's already second on the team with five home runs. Van Slyke is hitting .250/.304/.635, providing much needed power to a team that has been mostly on-base percentage heavy (.325 as a team, fourth in the National League) yet light on runs scored (3.61 per game, 13th in the NL).

"I shortened up a little bit, but being more aggressive with strikes, being more conscious of swinging at strikes you'll take a lot more pitches that are balls," Van Slyke said. "Even last year in the minor leagues (the high fastball) wasn't a pitch I swinging at, but when I came here I was trying so hard to get hits I was swinging at anything I saw."

The high fastball was his downfall in 2012 in a pair of major league stints with the Dodgers. In limited duty he hit just .167 (9-for-54) with two home runs. He had his moments early, like an RBI single in his first major league at-bat and a pinch-hit three-run home run to beat the Cardinals. But a 6-for-45 (.133) slump after that got him sent down for good. Van Slyke said his plate discipline has improved and helped him in 2013 wait for his pitch and do something with it, which has improved his confidence as well.

Facial Hair Battle

Scott Van Slyke and Peter Moylan both began the season with the Isotopes. When Moylan joined the Dodgers on Friday, the gauntlet was thrown by the Dodgers as to which player had better facial hair. But Van Slyke said he didn't feel threatened by the Aussie.

"I'm the one that made him start growing the mustache at the start of the season," Van Slyke said.

But Moylan sees things differently, noting, "It was a joint venture, but I took it to another level with the boxing man mustache. He's out of line."

The debate and mustache rivalry rages on.

"That's a big part of being able to drive the ball. Getting hits, and just swinging at strikes," Van Slyke said. "It's just about having confidence and believing in your abilities. Just looking around the league and seeing guys I played with having success up here."

But the new and improved Van Slyke didn't come without a wake-up call. He was passed over for a September call-up even though he was on the 40-man roster. Then, when the Dodgers acquired Skip Schumaker in a trade with the Cardinals in December, they designated Van Slyke for assignment.

Van Slyke was placed on waivers, and all 29 other major league teams had a chance to add him to their 40-man roster for free. Everyone passed, and he was outrighted to Triple-A.

"It definitely was a kick in my butt. Coming up here I only had like 50 at-bats, I thought that I still had a chance to come back in spring and show them what I had," Van Slyke said. "It definitely made me realize how quickly things can turn around in this game, that you have to be on your A game. You always need to have good at-bats."

Last year Van Slyke was 249 pounds, and this year he's down to 220, and it shows. He embodied the cliche, coming into spring training in the literal best shape of his life.

"Honestly it was some feedback I got from some guys like Josh Bard, guys I played with last year. They saw some things in me they knew I could get better at, and obviously being in better shape helped that," Van Slyke said. "They got me to come into spring training in better shape. Obviously I needed to make the decision myself.

"I remember running around in the outfield at 220 pounds when I was 22, and it felt good being able to move like that. I kind of wanted to get back to that."

Van Slyke began the season in Albuquerque, but he wasn't roaming the outfield. He manned first base for the Isotopes and began the season on fire. He hit .397/.503/.733 with 10 doubles, nine home runs, 32 runs scored and 30 RBI in 34 games in Triple-A before his call-up on May 10.

He has been able to continue crushing the ball with the Dodgers, including a home run in Monday's 2-1 win over the Padres.

"I'm just trying to have good at-bats and hit the ball hard," Van Slyke said.

So far, it's working.

 

[Villain]

1st Day Doyer Picks:

1. LHP Tom Anderson
2. RHP Tom Windle

 

[strahanfan92]

As a Van Slyke owner in my 16 team keeper league, that article is refreshing to hear.

 

[Villain]

As a Van Slyke owner in my 16 team keeper league, that article is refreshing to hear.

He looks like a completely different player than he was when called up last season.

 

[Villain]

They call me Cuban Puig. I'm the king of beisbol, you see?
When I swing the bat it goes chick-chicky-boom, chick-chicky boom​

 

[Slateman]

Puig is just fun to watch right now. I wish I got fantasy points for laser beam throws. That throw last nigh was gorgeous.

 

[Villain]

After today's bloodbath, it's safe to expect as many as two to three roster moves tomorrow.

*Magill will definitely be sent down (hopefully for the rest of the season) and his spot will likely be taken by a relief pitcher.
*Andre Ethier could hit the DL with a foot injury. I would expect the Dodgers to call up either Alex Castellanos (more likely) or Joc Pederson (wishful thinking).
*Hanley Ramirez could go back on the DL if his MRI results don't look good, or the front office can grow some balls and DFA Luis Cruz. The problem that arises is that there's little-to-no help to be found in the system.

Chris Capuano is likely to be activated on Friday, so the spot that Magill will vacate tomorrow doesn't need to be permanent.

 

[ram29jackson]

LOL they have to play like close to .680 or something to make the playoffs at this point

 

[Villain]

LOL they have to play like close to .680 or something to make the playoffs at this point

:ukiddingme:

They're only 7.5 games back. The NL West is a joke.

 

[ram29jackson]

:ukiddingme:

They're only 7.5 games back. The NL West is a joke.

they aren't going to gain ground at this rate. They cant score runs

 

[Villain]

they aren't going to gain ground at this rate. They cant score runs

Hard hitting analysis from Captain Obvious.

7.5 GB in June does not equate to a lost season.

 

[ram29jackson]

Hard hitting analysis from Captain Obvious.

7.5 GB in June does not equate to a lost season.

again, they cant score runs and if you are 7 games back in a weak division 1/3 of the way through the season, you are sucking.

 

[Villain]

My hopes of the Dodgers making any kind of fun roster moves were dashed. The great help that was recalled in Matt Magill's place? Justin fucking Sellers.

These roster moves are like watching someone run into a wall, take a step back, then run into the wall again. Repeatly.

On the horizon, we can expect AJ Ellis to return as soon as his DL stint is over. Kemp seems like he'll be on the DL for a longer period of time, which I'm absolutely fine with. Ethier doesn't look like his injury was serious enough for the DL and Hanley Ramirez is stubbornly on the active roster with only clearance to hit. When he reached base as a pitch hitter on Saturday, Clayton Kershaw came in as his pinch runner.

:kuzzy:

The Dodgers-tinted glasses bring some good news! Kershaw, Greinke, and Ryu will be our starters against Arizona this week so at least that'll give the team an edge as far as starting pitching goes.