Chad Moriyama Dodgers, Sabermetrics, Scouting
Don Mattingly revealed that James Loney is a swing tinkerer.
About the last thing Dodgers manager Don Mattingly wants is Loney doing anything that will change his batting swing, which is Loney’s tendency.
For example, after going 3-for-11 during the three-game series in Milwaukee, Loney struck out in his first at-bat in Houston on Friday night and Mattingly immediately noticed a mechanical difference.
“I figured he must have taken a roll of quarters and gone to the local batting cage and somebody he knows there changed him,” Mattingly said of Loney, who grew up in Houston. “I had [hitting coach Dave Hansen] pull up that at-bat and one from Milwaukee and told James to go look at them. When he came back and said, ‘My bad,’ that’s when I knew he changed something.”
Well, this explains a lot, and it basically invalidates my analysis of his swing.
Guys who constantly tinker with their swings on their own are nightmares for coaches, because you can never get locked in to which adjustments he is or isn’t using at any given moment.
This was probably supposed to be a throwaway quote, but it’s important information to me.
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Ned Colletti wants to sign Andre Ethier to an extension when new ownership rolls into town.
“You know, I’ve talked to them a little bit about it so it’s on the map already,” Colletti told SiriusXM Radio. “And when everything gets settled in and people get a chance to think about a lot of different things, that’ll be one of the topics we do bring up. I’d love to keep him here. Of course, it takes more than the organization and more than me to get it done. It takes a lot of different people and factions that have a say in it, but hopefully he can be here for a long time.
“He’s had a great start. Except for a little bit of a blip when he had a bad knee last year, he’s been a very consistent player for us and somebody who does provide some protection for Matt [Kemp]. A couple of years ago it was the other way around in the order. But he’s somebody that we count on and somebody that’s been here really his whole Major League career. He started with Oakland, but he’s been a Dodger ever since he showed up in the big leagues, and if we can keep it that way, it’s fine with me.”
I’ve already given my general feeling on the extension thing, and it seems like this is more than likely to get done if the GM is motivated.
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Mattingly says Chad Billingsley‘s groin wasn’t to blame for his poor outing.
Even though Chad Billingsley was roughed up Sunday after complaining of groin discomfort his previous start, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said the groin was not the reason for Billingsley’s bad outing.
“I’m pretty sure of that,” Mattingly said. “I talked to Chad today and he felt like the biggest thing with him is that they wrapped it and I don’t know if he wasn’t comfortable with it, but he wasn’t striding as far.
Didn’t seem like he was hurt to me either, he just appeared to lose the zone in the second inning and it was all downhill from there.
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Todd Coffey is coming back, which means Josh Lindblom‘s roster spot is in jeopardy once again.
Coffey said he expects to pitch in Minor League rehab games Wednesday and Friday, then be activated on Sunday, when the Dodgers will face the same roster dilemma they had on April 14, when they put Coffey on the disabled list to make room for the activation of Ted Lilly.
Lindblom is pretty obviously the 7th inning guy at this point, and the Dodgers are winning, so why screw that up in favor of a fungible veteran? We’ll find out soon.
I’ve already said what I needed to say on the subject.
Is Jamey Wright (who’s been decent at times) still the guy to go? Or should it be MacDougal, who has been truly awful?
IMO, should be Mac. With Wright, at least you know you’ll get a guy who will be around the plate.
They both project about the same. I don’t care either way.
“Mattingly says Chad Billingsley‘s groin wasn’t to blame for his poor outing.”
Was this in response to when the media asked him if Chad lacked testicular fortitude? lmao…cuz you know how many fans love to cite that as the reason for any poor outing.
“HE HAD A MOPEY FACE!”
“He has a mopey face when he throws a CG SHO…”
What’s the most you would give Ethier?
I have a friend who thinks he will get over 100 mill easily….
Even with a market that appears to have blown up, I don’t see how he could get more than Jason Bay got.
Of comparable outfielders
Holliday
Werth
Bay
Swisher
Willingham
Markakis
Dejesus
Kubel
Ross
Hart
Pence
He’s closer to guys like Dejesus and Willingham in value.
It will be interesting to see whom signs first of Ethier/Pence/Swisher as I expect they will fetch similar contracts
I’d offer a five-year deal to Ethier for around $16-17m per year, with a player option to opt out after three years.
Is this a Drew joke?
Hahaha – nope. If my plan came together, Ethier would have three really great years for us, then opt out at age 34, and we replace him with one of our youngsters or a younger free agent, or we use our surplus of pitching three years in the future to get a good young outfielder.
The problem with Eithier is that we don’t have a great feel for how he’s gonna be over a full year when healthy or whether he will even be able to stay healthy. Colletti mentioned the “blip” caused by his knee last season, but how quickly he’s forgotten the pinky issue that pretty much screwed up getting a good read on his prior season. I don’t think we can label him as injury prone, with the pinky being kind of a freak thing, but his injuries have made it difficult to really judge his full value.
I get that the Dodgers need to start building their image back up and that keeping guys who started their career with the team is a step in that direction. However, I don’t think it should come at any cost, especially in a year where the team may be willing to spend big $$. Ethier is going to want a big pay day and there may be other teams out there willing to give that to him, which could really drive up the price. I just hope the Dodgers don’t try so hard to retain him that they overspend or even overlook the potential for what he could have been returned in a trade.
Locking up Kemp and Kershaw were priorities. Locking up Ethier…I’m not so sure. I’d love to see him remain in Dodger blue, but not if it’s gonna cost them a ton of years and a ton of payroll. His injuries were just extremely poorly timed.
Right.
If he can get more than five years or $15 million per, then good luck to whatever team signs him.
There are so many areas on this team that need to be addressed anyway.
I mean, that’s assuming he even has a great year in 2012.
He’s a 2.0-3.0 WAR player.
He’s going to be 31 next year and has already had trouble with injuries.
A maximum of five years at $15 million per. If he can get more, great for him.
$100 million? What the fuck for?
5 years 15 mill per is exactly what I think should be the max contract as well.
I hate dissing my friend here, since there is a small chance he reads this. He is kinda new to being a big baseball fan, and has not really gotten into advanced stats of the evaluations of value yet.
He just views it in the context of him being the Dodgers second best offensive player, and that he has to stay or else who would replace him?
Of course that’s not a great reason to overpay for a player, nor does it mean he would not possibly sign for much less than 100 mill.
I’m optimistic whomever is in charge will make the correct decision. Even Ned Colletii must know that Ethier is inferior to Kemp, and that hes older….he would definitely want to sign him to a much smaller long term deal than the one Kemp signed.
If you’re going to pay that much, you might as well sign Hamels or something.