2016 Regular Season Thread

[Ranma]

I feel like the only way to win with the dodgers is for the Starting Pitcher to go 8+ innings.

The problem is that given our spate of injuries with starting pitchers, we can't afford to have our starters go too long. Both Maeda and Stripling have arm concerns as it is. Wood has a history of facing difficulty once he faces the opposing lineup the 3rd time through the order. That leaves us with Kershaw and Kazmir with Kazmir having bouts of inconsistency as well as previously dealing with arm problems himself. If anything happens to Kershaw, we're doomed.

[Ranma]

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[TKainZero]

I feel like the only way to win with the dodgers is for the Starting Pitcher to go 8+ innings.

The problem is that given our spate of injuries with starting pitchers, we can't afford to have our starters go too long. Both Maeda and Stripling have arm concerns as it is. Wood has a history of facing difficulty once he faces the opposing lineup the 3rd time through the order. That leaves us with Kershaw and Kazmir with Kazmir having bouts of inconsistency as well as previously dealing with arm problems himself. If anything happens to Kershaw, we're doomed.

I kind of have the feeling that this season will be one full of disappointment, and almost moments.

But there seems to be a good core in place now, and once the dead money is gone, the team can really improve.

It will be tempting to want to push all-in now for bullpen pieces.

[Ranma]

The bullpen definitely needs to be fixed for us to compete this season. Hatcher is reverting back to overlying on his fastball again. Baez and Howell are struggling. Our relief pitchers are increasingly becoming a concern and the problem would be further exacerbated if and when we lose Kenley Jansen after this season.

[Quake Griffin]

Unbelievable.
Unreal.

Nick phucking Ahmed?

Friedman. Get rid of the filth from this team. Let's take these bumps with somebody young like Jharel Cotton.
Baez aint **** and aint never gonna be ****. You shoulda knew that when Matt Holliday took his soul in Game 1 of the 2014 NLDS.

[Quake Griffin]

The bullpen definitely needs to be fixed for us to compete this season. Hatcher is reverting back to overlying on his fastball again. Baez and Howell are struggling. Our relief pitchers are increasingly becoming a concern and the problem would be further exacerbated if and when we lose Kenley Jansen after this season.

I have belief in Hatcher. Call me crazy but once you show up in the playoffs for me, I believe in your constitution. I trust him to fix the problem and I trust his stuff.


Baez and Howell have to go though….we're a better bullpen losing those guys and adding youth.
When Frias gets off the DL, he should get one of their spots.

[Quake Griffin]

http://www.sportsnetla.com/shows/access-sportsnet-dodgers.NCvA706BrBNB

Dave on the bullpen.
I'm emotional watching games or following them.

I'm going to put the guns down for a second. It's April 12th. Definitely frustrated but putting the guns down.

[Ranma]

I didn't mean to imply that we should panic into a trade or something. I initially said that players need to be given opportunities to prove themselves as well as work through issues, but my increasing concern with the bullpen just points to a troubling trend. Hatcher struggled in the 1st half of last season because he couldn't rely on his breaking pitches and, after making adjustments in the 2nd half to be effective, it is troubling that he seems to be reverting back to bad habits. He needs to establish himself as an effective reliever over the whole season instead of just the 2nd half of it.

Baez seemed to be the victim of bad luck and good hitting on Ahmed's homerun as his pitch seemed to have good break heading toward the plate, however, he subsequently also just missed giving up another homer with the long fly ball caught at the warning track by Thompson.

Our bullpen has to work through their struggles for now, but its struggles are of particular focus given how dependent we are on them to succeed in order to win games now. Our starting pitching and offense have been productive, overall. We shouldn't panic in making a move by either trading away assets or rushing the young prospects up before they're ready.

idnt-h8urteam via DodgersDigest.com comments

If there's BP relief it won't come from a trade but from the minors.

If you guys think Friedman is not mad over the BP he just threw his coffee cup at me a few minutes ago just for saying, "Have a good evening."

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[Quake Griffin]

It feels good to hear Dave not in panic mode just yet (because I'm emotional enough to fire everybody on the spot) and to know Friedman is throwing coffee cups.

I always thought it hurt our pen last year that we had to rely on Frias to make starts and then he hurt himself. He has a really live arm, I'd like to give him a try.

Question about you saying you don't want the young guys coming up too early.
Would you include Jharel Cotton in that group? Has 60 innings at AA….about 10 or so innings at AAA.

Also makes me wonder about Grant Holmes. He's shooting up prospect charts but is still only in High A ball.
Holmes in that group?

[Ranma]

Question about you saying you don't want the young guys coming up too early.
Would you include Jharel Cotton in that group? Has 60 innings at AA….about 10 or so innings at AAA.

Also makes me wonder about Grant Holmes. He's shooting up prospect charts but is still only in High A ball.
Holmes in that group?

I'm going to give the lame answer of deferring to Dodgers management with regard to Holmes and Cotton. I was primarily concerned about rushing Urias and De Leon to be stopgaps in the bullpen and throwing their respective development off. Jharel Cotton and Josh Sborz were both guys I thought should have been fast-tracked to the Majors as bullpen arms, but since the team has been stretching them out as starters, I'm not sure how effective either will be as relief arms now. I've considered Holmes as my personal favorite to be the team's closer once we lose Jansen, but you make an astute point that I've noticed as well: he's still in the lower minors for whatever reason. It scares me to think his development could possibly have stalled like Chris Anderson's has. I'm not sure what to make of Anderson at this point. Yaisel Sierra could be an option but he doesn't seem ready yet either.

At this point, Holmes looks doubtful given his station in the minors while I'm not sure about either Cotton or Sborz. Cotton would make a lot of sense to me as the 1st call-up for the pen should Frias, Bolsinger, et al not come back soon enough but I'm not sure how his development as a starter has affected his effectiveness as a reliever to this point. You would think it would be an easy transition, but Chris Reed went from projected elite relief arm to irrelevance after not rediscovering his stuff after his time as a starting-pitching project.

[Neddy]

The bullpen definitely needs to be fixed for us to compete this season. Hatcher is reverting back to overlying on his fastball again. Baez and Howell are struggling. Our relief pitchers are increasingly becoming a concern and the problem would be further exacerbated if and when we lose Kenley Jansen after this season.

I have belief in Hatcher. Call me crazy but once you show up in the playoffs for me, I believe in your constitution. I trust him to fix the problem and I trust his stuff.


Baez and Howell have to go though….we're a better bullpen losing those guys and adding youth.
When Frias gets off the DL, he should get one of their spots.

meh.. small sample size. don't panick guys.

Baez pitched well, he only gave up one hit which happened to be a HR by Ahmed. that was an outlier.

Hatcher pitched well but what the hell was AJ thinking? with one out and nobody on, you got 3 balls and no strike, it's motherloving Goldie at the plate, why the hell are you giving signs to throw a goddamn fastball right down the middle? that is ALL on AJ. if Dave called it, then it's ALL on DAVE. but I doubt it was Dave. AJ can't frame, AJ can't hit consistently, only thing to his credit was that he can call a good game. well, he blew it.

I really thought Coleman was a spot relief and once he got the third out in the 8th, he was done. we should have gotten Jensen out there, we ended up scoring a run, it should have been 2-2 going into the 10th. Dave needs to learn that when we are away, it is easy to make that decision when Jensen should come out in a tight game since we can assure the lead before, but at home, you HAVE TO GO FOR A TIE when you are swinging in the bottom of the 9th if we want to give yourselves a chance to win. maybe he was saving him for the next two days as our starters are Wood and the lucky rook. I love Ross but his no hitter was a fluke. he will have much better pitchinng performance where he gives up more hits and inevitable runs than the "almost" no hitter which was a game where the ball found gloves.

[Quake Griffin]

Give us some good vibes today at Chavez Neddy. We need it.
We can bounce back.


“I think the ‘pen’s going to be fine,” Roberts said. “We can’t always be hitting on all cylinders.” He added, “No concern.”
Dave has faith.
I'm out of panic mode. A win tonight can make Quake a happy man. One game at a time blue.

[Quake Griffin]

Howie in LF tonight.

Buckling up.

[Quake Griffin]

After a solid start, Alex Wood walks 2 batters.

smfh

[Ranma]

Ahmed hits his 2nd homerun in as many nights. This time off Alex Wood.

[Quake Griffin]

NICK AHMED AGAIN!

smfh.

[Ranma]

We get another break on a replay review at home. Turner missed the tag at 3B because he didn't want to be spiked. There was a possibility that he could have lightly grazed the runner's spikes but it didn't look to be the case upon multiple viewings of the replay.


Update: A-Gon goes yard with a solo shot to tie up the game!

[Quake Griffin]

definitely escaped one on that Turner review.


just smfh at Rubby escaping that inning after we started hitting him hard.

Things aren't normal in Dodger Country.
We're unstable as fans. Sports Gods need to let us have our big inning.

[Ranma]

Rubby De La Rosa tends to self-destruct after giving up a big hit or homerun and it looked to be the case after the homer by Adrian, but that double play on the line out by Grandal ended the momentum. Hopefully, De La Rosa still won't be settled down as he takes the mound for the bottom of the 5th inning.

[Quake Griffin]

D-Backs get one back on the replay.


Ahmed was off the bag.