2016 Regular Season Thread

[Quake Griffin]

^^^^
Ignore the post above.

thnx in advance.

#yaz

[Ranma]

Anybody know how long I have to wait for this offense?


All star break?


trying to exercise patience here.

Apparently, 14 minutes.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/alannarizzo/status/745475309206528001[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/FlyByKnite/status/745475598651252739[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/FlyByKnite/status/745463431260569602[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/AndrewSimonMLB/status/745475855300759553[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/745474603263229952[/tweet]

[Quake Griffin]

Changing gears because I assume Kenley is going to do his job.


You have any problem with Dave handing RF to Puig and relegating Trayce to a platoon LF upon Puig's return?
I'm not sold on Trayce....but keep this merit based please.

[Ranma]

I'm fine with giving Puig RF for now even though Trayce has been doing admirable work as a RF. Tonight's misplay his 1st night back with the big club notwithstanding, Puig is still our best right fielder and arguably our best outfield defender. Puig has been hitting well in the minors so I'm hoping he carries that mental approach over to his big-league at-bats.

I'm not really keen on the idea of Thompson being designated as a platoon left fielder, but I understand Roberts going with that approach to appease and spare vet Kendrick's feelings. I'm with you. At this point, our best outfield option is Thompson, Pederson, and Puig. It sucks for Van Slyke, Kendrick, and Venable (like anybody cares) but I'm okay with playing this game for now, but I'm growing impatient with not giving Trayce the job as a starting outfielder. The kid has earned that opportunity and I don't want to endure another Jimmy Rollins situation for too much longer.

This will provide time for everyone to establish themselves one way or the other. I'm more concerned about Gonzalez right now as you pointed out previously but I hope he'll right himself eventually. However, he usually fades in the 2nd half of seasons instead of being revitalized midway through them. Van Slyke and Turner provide options behind A-Gon at 1B but not left-handed bats. Thank goodness for the progress of Bellinger but he's maybe a couple of years away.

[Ranma]

We still need to incorporate more timely hitting and are relying on homeruns too much. Our offense sputters against solid starting pitching, so we seem to wait until the other team's bullpen comes in to do damage. We need to be more balanced offensively, but I'm glad to see the power from our bats.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/745486033261760516[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/alannarizzo/status/745483322302730240[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/745480738590490624[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/745484861205426177[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/FlyByKnite/status/745482454077583361[/tweet]

[Quake Griffin]

We still need to incorporate more timely hitting and are relying on homeruns too much. Our offense sputters against solid starting pitching, so we seem to wait until the other team's bullpen comes in to do damage. We need to be more balanced offensively, but I'm glad to see the power from our bats.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/745486033261760516[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/alannarizzo/status/745483322302730240[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/745480738590490624[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/745484861205426177[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/FlyByKnite/status/745482454077583361[/tweet]

That's my problem with our offense. We don't hit good pitching. We have to wait for the pen to get in and then maybe we have a shot. It killed us in the DS last year.

A single bat could help as I think we have guys up to the task. But right now, we just got dominated for 7 innings by Tanner Roark until the 8th. Dominated by Garza.

You may hate the names I throw out. But you know a change has to be made and a bat added. That's why you like Yulieski Gourriel.

[Ranma]

That's my problem with our offense. We don't hit good pitching. We have to wait for the pen to get in and then maybe we have a shot. It killed us in the DS last year.

A single bat could help as I think we have guys up to the task. But right now, we just got dominated for 7 innings by Tanner Roark until the 8th. Dominated by Garza.

You may hate the names I throw out. But you know a change has to be made and a bat added. That's why you like Yulieski Gourriel.

While I still don't want to panic or whatever, I do think you make a good point as this has been something I've been concerned about our offense for the past few seasons. However, as I said before, I'm less concerned because our young guys are showing promise. Seager, Thompson, and even both Pederson and Puig seem to be on an upward trend. My concern has been with our vets in Grandal, Gonzalez, and Turner. Turner has been on fire of late but Gonzalez still seems a bit sluggish. Grandal may be dealing with an injury at any given moment, which seems to be a recurring theme for him.

Again, with all that being said, we've actually been hitting the ball hard, for the most part, so it seems like a little of BABIP bad luck along with our need to continue to adjust to the defensive shifts being employed all over baseball right now. This is why I'm not concerned enough to proactively pursue a big-name bat outside of free agency. Another thing that lessened my concern is that we actually dropped dead weight in both Alex Guerrero and Carl Crawford, which opened up roster spots for younger and more useful players.

I also want to give both manager Dave Roberts and hitting coach Turner Ward a fair amount of time to implement their respective approaches to see if that will help the team perform up to expectations.

Also, to be fair, I've wanted to pursue the Gurriel boys for years now, specifically Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. His brother Yuli just happens to make a lot of sense for us right now as a fit as well as increasing our chances of securing Tito once he's available. Likewise, I'll be interested in Shohei Ohtani even if our future rotation ends up being Kershaw, Fernandez, Urias, Gray, and Ryu with McCarthy, Maeda, Wood, and Montas all waiting in the wings.

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/alannarizzo/status/745688156108795908[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/Buster_ESPN/status/745693275248537600[/tweet]

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Bharper3407/status/745757666484551680[/tweet]

[Quake Griffin]

Yawn at Dusty.


We gotta get Julio through these innings quicker. Seems like he may be pitching for Ks and that might be getting his pitch count up.

[Ranma]

Urias and Grandal are having problems connecting, which hasn't helped the young phenom's outing thus far. Duh.

[Quake Griffin]

Urias and Grandal are having problems connecting, which hasn't helped the young phenom's outing thus far. Duh.

Wonder if there is a catcher within our organization that has experience catching Julio?

Just wondering out loud
#askingforfriend

Dont mind me.

[Ranma]

Wonder if there is a catcher within our organization that has experience catching Julio?

Just wondering out loud
#askingforfriend

Dont mind me.

Even Vin is in disbelief. After Grandal singled, he just completed his thought about how rare it is to see an everyday catcher bat .187 or something. The point is that position players batting below the Mendoza line don't usually start regularly for MLB teams.


Update: Grandal involved in another incident where he just dropped Harper's fould ball to get Urias out of the 5th inning in front of the Dodgers' dugout due to hearing Turner's footsteps. Vin blamed it on the bench players for not directing traffic but Turner was not that close to Grandal, so there shouldn't have been a need for it. Luckily, Turner catches another foul ball for the out.

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/745806133240094720[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/745828149280268290[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/745815773067673600[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/FlyByKnite/status/745817842608529408[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/745818273569087489[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/FlyByKnite/status/745820019683033088[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/TheDeliMan1/status/745820766449479680[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/745820084023627776[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/FlyByKnite/status/745820770144686082[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/745824589062770688[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/alannarizzo/status/745826604866146304[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/FlyByKnite/status/745825990811652096[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/FlyByKnite/status/745826840611192832[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/745826013892874240[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/FlyByKnite/status/745828037799731200[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/FlyByKnite/status/745828953303113728[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/745832907420409856[/tweet]

[Quake Griffin]

Color me unimpressed with Dave's management of tonight's game.

[Quake Griffin]

UNREAL!!!!!!!!!

[Ranma]

Dodgers get the win and head to Pittsburgh to face the Pirates, who've lost 17 of their last 22 games. Dodgers are now 5.5 games behind the Giants in the NL West. Michael Taylor was the Dodgers' MVP tonight.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ramonashelburne/status/745855689776570368[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/molly_knight/status/745856875158212608[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/ScottWarner18/status/745857330718326784[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/745856650511323136[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/jonweisman/status/745851563382607872[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/745853298368970752[/tweet]

[Quake Griffin]

Puig has hit the ball hard in these last 2 games and I think that's 3 hits.

Maybe those changes in his swing are working. That was, after all, a hit by him. It just turned into bad news for the Nats.

Here's to hoping we sign Yuli.
I'm out.

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/craigtminami/status/745857440390971392[/tweet]

[Quake Griffin]

Nick Tepesch gets the call from AAA on Friday night against Pit.

Once again we reach down under for another starter to make sure Maeda gets a 5th day.

Good luck Nick.
Hope it works.
Ryu please heal up soon.