solitary posts that effortlessly summarize the 2013 LA Dodgers

this is the thread where I post to myself about my team, the richest payroll in MLB history and if they end up sucking ass this is the thread where people kick me when Im down

can we go ahead and kick you just because they have the richest payroll in MLB history?

;)

probably. if they suck this year the shit talk I get from my friends from SF will be intolerable.

What else is new lol

winning the world series twice doesnt help either..

dodgers rotation will be giants-like tho..

kershaw
greinke
beckett
billingsley?
fat ryu

also have insurance with capuano, harang and lilly but I assume at least one of those guys are gone once a big injury goes down during spring on this team or another.

omg fat ryu is awesome

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Korean sensation Hyun-Jin Ryu was not sensational during the first conditioning run of Spring Training, huffing and puffing and cutting corners at the back of the pack that included pitchers and catchers.

Ryu then joked to the Korean media that in America, they run too fast in Spring Training.

Having given up cheeseburgers on a diet that has seen him shed eight pounds, Ryu might soon need to consider leaving cigarettes behind, too.

"He made it," said manager Don Mattingly, only to be told by a reporter that Ryu actually didn't finish. "No shortcuts in baseball. Well, we told him, 'If you feel something, don't go too far.' He didn't."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uozLFsEPu8

Vin is so timeless.

The Dodgers will battle the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday afternoon in Maryvale, and will do so without Zack Greinke, their schedule starter. Greinke, who reported mild irritation in the back of his right elbow on Sunday, was scratched from his second straight start.

Greinke will travel to Los Angeles to be examined by team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache in what is being termed by the team as a precautionary exam. Greinke's next start will be delayed pending the results of the examination.

Its almost inevitable with that contract that he'll be out for at least a year with tj or something horrible, would suck if that was the very first. Supposedly the scan he got today is clean so who knows.

via sbnation:

Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Zack Greinke will resume playing catch on Friday, but his status for Opening Day is in question, according to Eric Stephen of SB Nation.

Due to the uncertainty surrounding Greinke's elbow, Stephen notes that the Dodgers have explored "different scenarios" for their Opening Day roster in case the former Cy Young Award winner is not available. Manager Don Mattingly admitted that the team doesn't know if Greinke will "be able to make Opening Day."

Friday will mark the first time Greinke will pick up a baseball in a week. He was scratched from Monday's regularly scheduled start due to elbow irritation, and a meeting in Los Angeles with Dr. Neal Elattrache confirmed the right-hander was dealing with inflammation in the joint. While no structural damage was found, Los Angeles opted to shut Greinke down.

The Dodgers refuse to "force anything," according to Mattingly. He told reporters that Greinke won't throw another bullpen session until next week. Stephen notes that the setback will afford Greinke only two more spring starts, at most, prior to Opening Day.

The Dodgers signed Greinke to a six-year, $159 million free agent contract this offseason. The 29-year-old owns a career ERA of 3.77 over nine seasons in the majors.

PHOENIX – Zack Greinke played catch Friday, throwing a baseball for the first time since he received a platelet-rich plasma injection in his sore elbow four days earlier.

“Pretty good,” Greinke said.

Greinke said he made 60 throws at 75 feet.

“Doing more tomorrow,” he said.

Greinke said he didn’t know if a tentative date had been set for him to throw a bullpen session. Manager Don Mattingly said earlier that Greinke wouldn’t return to the mound until some time next week.

Greinke didn’t know if the PRP injection was responsible for making him feel better.

“It’s an interesting thing, though,” he said. “It will be interesting to see when it gets proven whether it works or proven it doesn’t do anything. I saw a Kardashian got it in her face, though.”

On a recent episode of “Kourtney & Kim Take Miami,” Kim Kardashian was shown receiving PRP injections in her face to treat her skin. The treatment is known as a “vampire facial.”

dodgers cuban sensation yasiel puig is just fucking destroying spring training.. only issue is the lack of walks but whatever..

.489/.478/.756 - with the most at bats than any other player on the roster so no sss disclaimers

there's no such thing as a spring training sample that isn't small

http://dodgers.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=25787865&c_id=mlb

true, but looking at this video makes you feel better about investing like 45m in a dude who played pro ball for 2 years tops

‏

@Ken_Rosenthal
Sources: Hanley needs surgery on his right thumb. #Dodgers.

out 8 weeks.. didnt look nearly as bad as it ended up being, either

http://msti.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/hanley_wbc_hand.gif?w=450

i'm curious, management was against him going but didn't forbid it explicitly, so there's no contract or payment issues?

They didn't want Hanley to play 3rd because the dodgers want him to play ss during the season but Reyes was there too. I read something about some other policy for the WBC but I don't know how it works.

Ps puigs average up to .535

puig to double-a chattanooga

Opening day lineup:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/41151b68dd6a30a64c39fb3cd6ca6c51/tumblr_mkl4vkuDem1qzxulzo1_1280.jpg

and the world asks itself, who the fuck is justin sellers

I can't read Gonzo's bat

can't beat Cain-Kershaw so far

"Kontos comes in and is Greek to the Dodgers" - V.S.

KERSHAW BEAST MODE

clayton kershaw, leading the nl west in slugging

http://deadspin.com/sandy-koufax-relieves-magic-johnson-to-throw-out-first-464891110

I can't read Gonzo's bat

― polyphonic, Monday, April 1, 2013 3:10 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it says RIP Pimp C in third grade cursive.

Glorious

http://msti.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/kershaw_openingday_homer_celebrate.gif?w=450

https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/319138277078728704

Luis Cruz just asked for the ball after finally getting a hit after going 0-17 lol

ohhh

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/eye-on-baseball/22053104/zack-greinke-broke-collarbone-in-brawl

damn

there's no way that HBP was intentional, what the hell was Quentin thinking?

apparently it's the third or fourth time Greinke hit him

Three or four out of 115, and they were in the same division for three years.

love that there was a WWF hallway confrontation afterwards

http://www.fatwallet.com/static/attachments/251256_anchorman_well_that_escalated_quickly_966.jpg

apparently it's the third or fourth time Greinke hit him

― Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Friday, April 12, 2013 10:24 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there are probably several pitchers who have hit him this much or more, dude practically stands in the strike zone

and it happens so often to him i'm guessing it was whatever greinke said afterwards that had him charging, or maybe they actually have a personal history or smth. of all the HBPs for quentin to get mad about this one made no sense

Keri breaks it down:

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/58194/greinke-vs-quentin-the-official-breakdown

The Dodgers have revealed that RP Chris Capuano originally suffered his left calf strain last week during the brawl with the Padres.

Billingsley TJ surgery not a big surprise eh

Didn't know that Hanley was back until I saw him helped off the field last night.

not a good couple of weeks for the blue. we lead the league in players on the dl.

well, this game may never end

like I said

230m buys you last place in may

‏@pedrogomezESPN
LHP Jonathan Sanchez looks like he's zeroing in on a deal with the Dodgers. May need a few starts in minors before call up.

there is no god

haha

he has amazing stuff, just has no idea where the ball is going. only the Giants staff could keep him under a bit of control.

donnie baseball's last stand

"We gotta find a team with talent that will fight and compete like a club that doesn't have that talent," he said, pointing to last year's team which led the NL West by 5 1/2 games at the end of May despite a far less-talented lineup.
"I felt we got more out of our ability (last year). I don't know about being tougher but I felt we got more out of our ability.
"There has to be a mixture of competitiveness. It's not 'Let's put an All-Star team together and the All-Star team wins.' It's finding that balance of a team that has a little bit of grit and will fight you. And also having talent to go with it.
"All grit and no talent isn't going to make you successful. But all talent and not grit isn't going to get you there either."

@Ken_Rosenthal
Kemp-Ethier RISP: Combined 0-for-5 today, .176 for season. Sixteen hits, 15 singles. #Dodgers

this is why the dodgers suck - kemp is probably going to get DL'd so instead of calling up puig or joc pedersen who are destroying the shit out of double a, they call up a third fucking catcher so andre ethier can play CENTER FIELD and RAMON HERNANDEZ can dh. f this s.

dodgers lineup tonight - 220m worth of fuckin crap

mark ellis - barely a ml starter
nick punto - utility player
adrian gonzalez - legit mlb starter
ramon hernandez - backup catcher
andre ethier - barely a ml starter
scott van slyke - utility player
skip schumacher - utility player
juan uribe - utility player

Sam Miller, BP: "Scott Van Slyke hitting cleanup for the richest team in history."

"There's one happy Cuban."

http://wapc.mlb.com/play?content_id=27719161

every starting pitcher except ryu and kershaw have been on the disabled list now. depth is overrated? dodgers have had 13 different players on the DL 17 different times so far this season.

dodgers pre opening day pitchers:

1. clayton kershaw - 1.85 era, .91 whip (holy shit)

2. zack greinke - 4.8 era, 1.6 whip, missed six weeks because of that fucking idiot carlos quentin

3. chad billingsley - 12 IP, put on DL for tommy john surgery on april 16

4. hyun-jin ryu - 2.89 era, 1.1 whip

5. josh beckett - 5.2 era, 1.5 whip, 43 IP, placed on DL 2 weeks ago with a possibly career ending injury

6. chris capuano - 33 IP, put on DL today with shoulder strain

7. ted lilly - 4.26 era, 1.5 whip, 19 IP, DL'd at least once this season

8. aaron harang - traded for piece of crap back up catcher

9. stephen fife - 4.5 era, 1.5 whip, 10 IP, DL'd on april 27th but pitched last night

10. matt magill - 6.83 era, 1.8 whip, 24 IP

Yasiel Puig is really not doing anything to temper everybody's excitement about him.

Kemp obliterated the ball in his first call up then got humbled by breaking pitches and got sent down after a couple weeks. Gonna cross my fingers tho...

notorious p.u.i.g.

0-4 last night what a bum

I can't even

It's funny that a lot of people were worried about his makeup and here he is doing curtain calls all week long

The Bo Jackson comparison I heard last night seemed pretty otm.

the BP podcast guys did a funny summary of the debut press putting a prose halo on him.

man, puig's swing reminds me a lot of manny's

getting crazy

"Yasiel said 'Yes sir,' and threw him out easily."

http://www.mlbgifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/000yasielpuigthrow.gif

Uhh...then he damn near kills himself sliding into first.

yea wtf is this

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3757/8993438246_7f19f2db31_o.gif

i appreciate his tribute to mario lemieux

Good thing C.B. Bucknor wasn't at first, he'd have been called out.

Question for anyone who goes to Dodgers home games: is the stadium P.A. exceptionally loud compared to other stadiums? Listening to this Braves-Dodgers series has made me want to stab my eardrums out because of the "EVERY BODY CLAPYO HANDS" BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM at 125 db. Maybe the booth mics are picking up a heavier dose of stadium P.A. than elsewhere, but it's driving me nuts.

I may have just gotten an answer to my question -- Joe Simpson just referred to "that big obnoxious loudspeaker in center field."

they just re-did all that stereo and big screens in the outfield in the offseason so its probably brand new and super loud and obnoxious

context for puig mania. the rest of this team is a tire fire.

Puig played every inning and batted leadoff in all seven games and put up a .483 on-base percentage. Even taking away his four home runs, Puig would have a .400 on-base percentage, in 25 plate appearances. Yet, Puig only scored four runs, all scored on his own home runs.

ouch

Freeman should've kicked his ass for that.

We can only imagine how Teixeira would have handled it.

puig is NL player of the week

dodgers had 14 hits but only scored 4 runs in a 5-4 cock up loss featuring a blown save by brandon league and his 6 era, 4 blown saves and 13 ks in 24 innings. fuuuuuck.

also worth noting - the dodgers have called up everyone on their 40 man roster except ONE dude in 1/3d of the season. what a fucking nightmare.

this is my favorite brawl ever, it's like hte expendables of baseball brawls

don mattingly! mark mcgwire! matt williams! don baylor! kirk gibson! alan trammell! all involved, all active players in 1988

Ya this was awesome.

i forgot steve sax!

old blood

Preston Mattingly ‏@Pmoney30 6h This video of my dad throwing down Alan Trammell like a rag doll gets me so hype!!!! http://i.imgur.com/Iqa0DRE.gif Expand Collapse Reply Retweet Retweeted
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shoulda tossed Greinke after the Montero HBP

Old McGwire w/ vestigial roid rage is not pretty

also (via the Giants blog) "the first Violent Femmes album was the only thing from the '80s not involved"

http://www.baseballnation.com/hot-corner/2013/6/12/4422076/dodgers-dbacks-brawl-ian-kennedy-zack-greinke

http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2013/6/12/4421988/dodgers-diamondbacks-brawl-mcgwire-trammell-gibson-wallach-sax-baylor-boggs-kittle-esasky

http://www.chadmoriyama.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/DodgersRoyalRumble.gif

montero: "It was like 25 against 72, because all the DL guys were out there, too. I guess their arms were feeling pretty good because they were throwing good punches."

I expected to see a lot more punches thrown based on the descriptions I was reading. Odd man out: Blue Jays benchwarmer (but two time World Series champ) Turner Ward.

I'm surprised that Kennedy managed to sneak off quietly in that scrum. Why weren't there ten Dodgers trying to rip his head off?

haha i love the expendables comparison

http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/muFfjAlFmxcBinA-VRO2AlQ.jpg

I've just seen a couple of clips, active players only. I nominate Matt Williams as the Don Zimmer of that group--he was balding when he played, so I assume he's even balder now.

The Yasiel Puig Drinking Game

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=20919

Daniel Hudson ‏@DHuddy41 32m
So if you throw punches when the benches clear, you get fined. You get sucker punched, you get suspended five games. Makes sense #not

http://puigdestroyer.bandcamp.com/album/puig-destroyer

http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/6/14/4430968/diamondbacks-dodgers-brawl-suspensions

apparently hinske "instigated" and provoked puig and puig was apparently only punching in response to being punched ("self defense") and didn't actually land any of his

makes me think hinske must've said something very very bad to puig

maybe he called him 'the next eric hinske'

even with puig, the dodgers still suck

dodgers with puig on base - .205/.279/.282

dodgers with puig in scoring position - 0-for-20, 2 BB, 5 K, 2 GIDP

http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2011/1101/360_bh_self_immolation_0119.jpg

http://msti.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/belisario_two-errors_2013-06-19.gif?w=450

vernon wells planned that

this is the guy mattingly brought in expressly to get wells out because god forbid a lefty pitches against a righty once the starter comes out

http://i.imgur.com/Wt6uDBw.jpg

what is this commie calendar

In the calendar referenced above the dodgers are 10-3. 4 more games to go against colorado before the break. also with puig coming up on june 2 the dodgers have gone from being 12 games under .500 to exactly .500 today.

9-1 lead for Kershaw through 5. Win Probability = ?

Ken Gurnick @kengurnick
Carlos Marmol has a locker in Dodgers clubhouse.

I guess Mattingly is safe for now, eh

The starting pitching trio of Kershaw, Greinke and Ryu is pretty tough. The Reds came in after swatting the Giants earlier this week and have gotten pretty close to shut down.

With those starters, Dodgers will be hard to face in a short series.

Brian Wilson a Dodger?

say it ain't so!

good luck to him...

Hanley Ramirez is hurt.

let the brian wilson era begin (in rancho cucamonga)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BRGVWc4CcAAJbuC.jpg:small

http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/799660035.gif?1376404724

the Magic Castle? Did Vin start that?

Eight shutout innings for Kershaw today (plus a win, unless disaster strikes in the ninth). His ERA is approaching peak Maddux/Pedro/Guidry/Gooden territory.

Can something stop the Dodgers at this point?

42-8 over their last 50

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BSD6YCZCUAAWVsP.jpg

of all the things in the world to currently be on fire, why can't one of them be him

42-8 over their last 50

that is pretty incredible

michael young will show puig how to be scrappy, i'm sure

Veteran presenz?

Comparing the Dodgers to the 1914 "Miracle Braves" (got this from High Heat Stats):

•1914 Braves: from 30-41 to 82-56, a 52-15 interval.
•2013 Dodgers: from 30-42 to 83-55, a 53-13 interval.

Ah, but now the pressure really mounts, because those Braves had just begun a(nother) 9-game streak that brought them to 90-56 before coasting in at 94-59, winning the pennant by 10.5 games.

dodgers need to go 17-7 which im not sure they can do. mattingly is already resting starters and has edinson f'n volquez pitching tonight in COORS of all places..

http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20130919congrats-dodgers-get-out-pool-editorial.html

Pedro Gomez is at the scene:

@pedrogomezESPN
Dbacks definitely not happy that the Dodgers jumped into their pool during celebration. Already bad blood between these clubs. Now this.

not to be that guy but i do think that is pretty unchill of the dodgers

yeah that's shitty

i don't know why ballparks have celebratory pools in them now but still shitty

IDG why this is a big deal - they jumped in a pool that's rented out to rich fans like any other suite in the place.

Division rivals celebrating (something as basic as making the playoffs) on your home field?

oh c'mon, that's de rigueur now. Sorta like stage-diving devolved into "look at me."

milo otm! like how ridiculous is it that there is even a pool in that crappy ballpark in the first place?

http://31.media.tumblr.com/10b1ef3ed13f3f5d8c15f5bfcbb0d0b9/tumblr_mtecspfQbC1rs467vo1_400.gif

"I could call it disrespectful and classless, but they don't have a beautiful pool at their old park and must have really wanted to see what one was like."

- Diamondbacks President and CEO Derrick Hall

http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/9/20/4751178/dodgers-diamondbacks-pool-celebration-NL-West

lol what a schoolgirl

‏@pgammo
Does every team have to check with Diamondbacks management before celebratin? Can't find their rule book online

oh c'mon, that's de rigueur now. Sorta like stage-diving devolved into "look at me."

― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Friday, September 20, 2013 4:50 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh I def dont care, I think its funny but these athletes are always looking for a way to be butthurt so its not hard to see why they would care so much.

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=ss&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=300&type=8&season=2013&month=0&season1=1871&ind=1&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=18,d

too bad hanley's (yet again) had trouble staying on the field, since he's kind of having the best offensive season by a shortstop ever

Saw Puig hit a 457 foot home run tonight.

Ethier's ankle still a problem

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_/id/9719072/andre-ethier-los-angeles-dodgers-setback-postseason-availability-question

http://blog.sfgate.com/giants/wp-content/blogs.dir/2288/files/2013/09/BVJuS59CcAA50Bc-337x600.jpg

Yellin' at Larry Baer

steve lyons, eric collins canned

how did I miss this bit of amazingly awesome news?

im not sure why charlie steiner is banished to the radio.. he has his quirks but I like him overall.. especially compared to lyons, collins, monday, etc.

bullpen struggle

They play 12 inning games every goddamn day that's the problem

Brandon Hicks' home run off Kershaw today was only the second HR hit off his curveball in his career. The first one was five years ago, by Matt Holliday, in the postseason.

quite a tribute to Dodger fans, this being their forlorn thread.

Anyway Kershaw looks to be on rotation to pitch vs the Padres when I'm in LA, possibly on Thurs 7/10 -- that'd be ideal for him to pitch in the ASG too.

Kershaw's 6 June starts: 44 IP, 26 H, 4 ER, 4 BB, 61 K

wow, Ethier is signed for 3 more years

http://www.dodgersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Dodgers-shift.jpg

Should be noted that Smith did indeed hit into the shift but the play was bungled and the next guy up was able to get a runner home to score. =\

was it cause a center fielder was playing one of four 1st bases

Time has come for Dodgers to sit Yasiel Puig and play Andre Ethier

And, sure, [Ethier] has career-lows going in almost every offensive category. But at least he has a history. He’s been through the playoff wars. He’s responded under pressure.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/dodgersnow/la-sp-dn-yasiel-puig-andre-ethier-20140910-story.html

Thought that wld have been Plashke

down 14-0 in Denver in 5th

will a position player pitch?

I wonder if pitchers ever quote Ball Four when they leave Colorado: "This outfit sure can fluff up your ERA."

I was looking at Matt Kemp's stats in light of his recent run, and I did a double-take at his 0.9 WAR. It's all because of a -3.1 defensive WAR, second time he's been worse than -3.0 (he's almost -9.0 for his career). I pretty much never see him, so I guess this is a question for omar: is he that awful?

i don't pretend to understand modern defensive stats, but i have a great deal of trouble believing that an athletic-seeming outfielder (who was only in center a third of the time) cost his team three wins compared to a triple-a outfielder

You don't understand how an athletic guy could be a bad outfielder? If you take bad routes you're not going to get there as fast as a slightly slower player who takes good routes. Or if it takes you a while to pick up the ball in flight. The fastest route is usually a straight line and all that jazz.

But also, he's lost a lot of speed compared to his prime.

Amendment: "You don't believe that ..." rather than "You don't understand that..."

that -3.1 also incorporates pos adjustment and as you said he spent 2/3 of the year at a corner

Lonnie Smith stole almost 400 bases during his career--more than 50 three times--and James always said that he was as bad an outfielder as he'd ever seen. So I don't doubt that fast and bad can co-exist, and I'm not even questioning Kemp's badness. I'm interested in what makes him so bad. I'd have to check, but I think James said that with Lonnie, it was comically bad instincts--he'd wildly over-charge balls, etc.

I found someone online who quoted the essay I was thinking about (1986 Abstract):

"Many players can kick a ball behind them without ever knowing it; Lonnie can judge by the pitch of the thud and the subtle pressure through his shoe in which direction and how far he has projected the sphere...He knows exactly what to do when a ball spins out of his hand and flies crazily into a void on the field, when it is appropriate for him to scamper after a ball and when he needs to back up the man who will have to recover it. He has experience in these matters; when he retires he will be hired to come to spring training and coach defensive recovery and cost containment. This is his specialty, and he is good at it."

i can understand how an athletic guy can be a bad outfielder! three wins worse than replacement-level is *really* bad tho. that is an enormous difference

he has 219 putouts this year, plus six errors and six assists

in 1996 ryan fucking klesko had 193, five and six and put up -0.3 defensive war

(sorry ryan klesko, you were my first choice for 'outfielder statue')

Yeah...even Kingman and Greg Luzinski never hit -3.0 in a season.

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bz7Su41CIAA9awZ.png

whoa

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WQIIg9suL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

79 today--I bet he still looks to be about 55. That paperback was probably the first baseball book I ever read (still have it); either that or similar book on Seaver that came out in the early '70s. I know his sabermetric standing isn't equal to the folklore, but aside from maybe Ruth or Robinson, the one player I most wished I'd seen.

six ways to stop the moneybagggers

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/mlb-los-angeles-dodgers-outlook-2015-and-beyond/

(start a new thread)

Bad news for #Dodgers fans hoping for SportsNet LA: FCC again delays review of Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger, reports @MegJamesLAT

uf this whole saga is terrible. fans get left holding the bag.. luckily I'm part of the few 8% or whatever that actually gets the channel

gonna put this here so you stop avoiding your own (unsearchable) new thread

The St. Louis Cardinals Must be Destroyed - 2015 Doyers thread