The Dodgers made a few minor-league moves this week, and the two most significant ones involved the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. —– Tony Delmonico, 2008 sixth-round pick, was released. The 25-year-old was hitting just .188 with the Quakes in 21 games. He was drafted out of Florida State, converted to catcher, and had a great debut season in the Pioneer League: ... Read More »
With the Dodgers finalizing the transfer of ownership from Frank McCourt to Guggenheim Partners yesterday, the new owners held a press conference today to answer questions and make statements about the state of the team. It went well. “We’re not going to gouge the fans just because we paid a nice sum for this franchise,” Johnson said, disclosing that general ... Read More »
Pitching was the story this week with the Dodgers minor-league system, despite giving up more runs than scored at all but one level. Some strong performances by Chris Reed, Garrett Gould, and Ethan Martin weren’t enough to make the cut. The Isotopes checked in with the best record at 3-3, while the Lookouts scored the most runs this week with ... Read More »
After having the sale delayed by a day, the Los Angeles Dodgers are finally, and thankfully, free from the clutches of Frank McCourt. Source: #Dodgers sale has closed. McCourt era has ended. — Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) May 1, 2012 With that done, now the Dodgers are going to win every World Series for the next decade, right? Well, not quite. ... Read More »
There has been no harsher critic of Ethan Martin than myself. While I once rated him as the Dodgers second-best prospect, he has since fallen flat on his face and my rankings have reflected that. This season, however, he’s showing signs of putting it all together for the first time as a professional baseball player. —– Martin was extremely raw ... Read More »
Javy Guerra seems to be miraculously recovered from taking a ball off the jaw, but has hurt his foot. Javy Guerra no longer has a swollen jaw, and outside of a slight headache on Thursday he has passed every test with flying colors, including a CAT scan. But Guerra does have a sore foot, which happened as Guerra twisted to ... Read More »
Everybody wants to find the reason that Javy Guerra is struggling in 2012, especially after he burst onto the scene with a too-good-to-be-true 2011. One common theory? He’s throwing too many fastballs. @ChadMoriyama do you think guerra is throwing too many fastballs especially with 2 strikes? — Brian Rincon (@bmr209) April 26, 2012 I was skeptical at first, as I ... Read More »
When Brian Cavazos-Galvez put up a .971 OPS with Ogden in 2009, there was some hope for the 12th-round selection. As a 22-year-old, he was a lot older than his competition, but as far as debut seasons go, it was satisfactory. He then moved up to Great Lakes the next season and posted an .863 OPS, which got some folks ... Read More »
With Javy Guerra getting smashed in the face, I have a question: why was he allowed to stay in the game? I trust the trainers and coaches, and I’m sure Guerra felt he was fine, but I’m not so sure it was the correct move. We can all put ourselves in Guerra’s shoes, as we’ve all been terrified at some ... Read More »
With yet another curiously timed injury to a bullpen arm, this time Matt Guerrier, the Dodgers have managed to avoid making a bullpen decision for at least 15 more days. Dodgers reliever Matt Guerrier, signed in part to be the bullpen workhorse, was placed on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday because of right elbow flexor tendinitis. Guerrier had an MRI, ... Read More »
As I watched Houston Astros catcher Jason Castro get absolutely lit up in a home plate collision with Mat Gamel of the Milwaukee Brewers, I wondered to myself why this aspect of baseball was even necessary. I’m obviously not the first person to suggest this, and I’ve read all the criticism of writers who have previously suggested such rule changes, ... Read More »
Dodger Thoughts: Jon Weisman asks how much you would pay to watch the Dodgers. I think it’s a great question. Personally, I answered: $1, $5, $10, $500. —– Baseball Prospectus: Dash Treyhorn analyzes how the perception of Charlie Manuel has evolved, primarily due to winning. Sometimes I wonder if the same would be possible with Ned Colletti. We’ve already seen ... Read More »
The Dodgers won yesterday’s game against the Braves 7 to 2, but the logistics of how they got that win is the interesting part. The team finished the game with 29 AB, 2 K, and 15 H. That means for balls-in-play, the Dodgers finished 15-for-27 for a team BABIP of .556 on the night. Furthermore, they had only one extra-base ... Read More »
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 ... Read More »
Starting this year, I’ve made a habit of utilizing Twitter’s search function to find fan reactions to Dodgers events. The purpose of this is partially for laughs and partially for curiosity, but a larger part of the reason revolves around wanting to keep track of which players fans like and dislike … irrationally. So yeah, I willfully torture myself for ... Read More »
Chad Moriyama Dodgers, Sabermetrics, Scouting