Mark Ellis finally hit the 15-day DL, being placed on it Monday retroactive to April 27. The Dodgers activated Chris Capuano from the 15-day DL in a corresponding move. It took the Dodgers about a week longer than it should have, but as expected Mark Ellis was placed on the 15-day disabled list on Monday with a strained right quad. ... Read More »
Zack Greinke is ahead of schedule as he works his way back from his broken left collarbone. For the third time in six days, Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke threw a bullpen session on Tuesday afternoon before the Dodgers hosted the Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium. The right-hander is ahead of schedule in his recovery from a broken collarbone. Greinke threw just ... Read More »
The Dodgers announced the cuts of eight players yesterday, moves that essentially set the Opening Day roster for the team. The club reassigned right-handers Kevin Gregg and Peter Moylan, utility man Alfredo Amezaga and catcher Matt Wallach to Minor League camp. In addition, the Dodgers optioned outfielder Alex Castellanos, right-hander Stephen Fife, utility man Elian Herrera and right-hander Josh Wall ... Read More »
Opening Day for the Dodgers is Monday, and since Spring Training feels like it has taken forever, it’s about damn time. Given the closeness of the start of the season though, it’s a bit odd that there are so many question marks as to what will happen with the roster. Every team has to deal with decisions on the 24th ... Read More »
Why hasn’t Dee Gordon emerged as a useful MLB player yet, right? Well one play from yesterday’s game sort of summed up why he’s having so much difficulty. On a clean single to left-center from Carl Crawford (yes, really), Dee freezes like it’s hit to the shortstop or something, then completely turns his left shoulder to look at the ball ... Read More »
Baseball fans love to talk about clutch plays and clutch players, and Dodgers fans are no exception, but like with a pitcher’s best and worst pitches, there tends to be a lack of evidence presented. As such, I decided to find some basis for clutch plays and clutch players, courtesy of the WPA and Clutch statistics. WPA Most sabermetric statistics ... Read More »
The Dodgers, as a club, have a ton of injuries or guys rehabbing, so I expect this feature to be busy all season. Two of the most important injury cases will start off today, as we get timeline updates on Matt Kemp and Carl Crawford. Manager Don Mattingly said March 1 is a very rough target date for Kemp to ... Read More »
Paco Rodriguez, Alfredo Amezaga, and Peter Moylan, three Dodgers with shots at making the Opening Day roster, have withdrawn from the World Baseball Classic to focus on making the club. With Scott Elbert rehabbing, Paco in particular is competing for the spot of left-handed reliever, though J.P. Howell would appear to be the front-runner there. Moylan is in the running ... Read More »
The 2013 projection for the Dodgers from Dan Szymborski‘s ZiPS system was released last week, and given that it’s probably my favorite forecasting tool, it’s worth a look to see how the team fared. Forecasting is not a complete science, obviously, and I’ll address some of the potential pitfalls as we go along, but it’s better to use objective tools ... Read More »
The Dodgers have sent a lot of guys to play in winter ball following the conclusion of the Arizona Fall League. They are well represented in the Caribbean Winter Leagues and it’s nice to see some guys getting consistent playing time. —– Dominican Winter League Geison Aguasviva has a 7.71 ERA in 2 1/3 innings. Juan Abreu has thrown 6 2/3 ... Read More »
Matt Kemp After an amazingly elite 2011 that saw him finish second in MVP voting — even though he was the best player in the National League last year — Matt Kemp had to spend far too much of 2012 as you see him above. Kemp’s season is really quite easy to break down: when healthy, he was elite, but ... Read More »
As everybody knew going into the game, it was literally a must-win contest for the Dodgers, as the magic number of the Cardinals was one for the final playoff spot in the National League. —– Buster Posey started the scoring in the top of second inning with a homer off Chris Capuano. A Luis Cruz RBI groundout knotted the game ... Read More »
Chad delved into it further here, but the Dodgers have retained the services of Ned Colletti with a multi-year extension. They have also let it be known that Don Mattingly won’t be going anywhere. Mattingly I can live with (but please, for the love of every God ever worshiped, stop bunting, especially with A.J. Ellis), though my preference has always ... Read More »
The Isotopes, Lookouts, and Raptors all made the playoffs in 2012. The Isotopes went up against a team with the best hitter in minor league baseball in Wil Myers. It was, as expected, a slugfest, but the Omaha Stormchasers got the best of the ‘Topes, 3-2. The Lookouts went up against one of the more stacked teams in the minors ... Read More »
Now that rosters have expanded, let the speculation on who gets the September call begin! Pump the brakes a bit though, because unfortunately for the people who wish to see young players show their stuff: 1) the 40-man roster is full 2) guys on the 60-day DL are due to return 3) um … the team just traded away all ... Read More »
Chad Moriyama Dodgers, Sabermetrics, Scouting