baldwinishere

stevebaldwin.blog

Tag: shohei-ohtani

  • Week twelve highlights, lowlights, and observations

    Week twelve highlights, lowlights, and observations

    -After pounding the Twins 12-3 last night the Dodgers have completed 49.3% of regular season games, and at 51-29 now enjoy a 9-game game lead over the second place padres. 

    -The Dodgers hit a minor skid last week but handled it like a championship caliber team. After losing two of three to the White Sox they pulled off three, one-run wins against the then first-place Rays, then ook two of three from the Orioles.

    -That is the mark of a team with character. Fall off the horse, immediately get back on and win five of six.

    -The Dodgers are the first team to 50 wins. No other team has more than 48.

    -Division standings can be deceiving. The Padres, currently at 41-37, would be tied for first if they played in the terrible AL Central. Those lovable last-place Angels, at 33-48, would be in fourth place, ahead of the Giants and Rockies, if their home was the NL West.

    -Sell the team, Arte!! Oops I’m sorry, it slipped out.

    -Speaking of the Giants last week they announced they are having a team garage sale and are open to parting with multiple heirlooms including Willy Adames, Matt Chapman, Rafael Devers, and four-time batting champion/defensive liability Luis Arraez.

    -So far Buster Posey’s era as San Francisco’s President of Baseball Operations has been a Giant disappointment (thank you, hold your applause).

    -The Dodgers coveted Willy Adames for years before the Gi-Aints swept in and nabbed him from Milwaukee. But he’s underperformed in San Francisco compared to his career numbers.

    -A thought is, take Adames, put him at short, move Mookie back to right where he belongs. I would push back hard on that. Given Mookie’s successful transition to short and Teo Hernandez’s pending return, I’d stand pat with what we have. Plus it’s not as if the Dodgers are struggling with Mook at short. Actually, they are excelling. Leave it be.

    -The interesting player to me is Arraez, who could be a hugely valuable asset in the post season if he would accept a part-time or bench role. Having a base-hit machine like him coming off the bench in the late innings could be a real advantage in October.

    -Or, DH him in the ninth slot on days when Ohtani pitches and bats leadoff, and you’ve essentially got two leadoff guys with close to .400 OBP back-to-back in middle and late innings.

    -Other notes around baseball. My Detroit Tigers are 12-4 in June and swept the White Sox last weekend. They lost a tough one to the Yankees last night and get another chance with them tonight, then get the Asterisks at home this weekend.

    -Michael Wacha, who wears #52 and might be that old, pitched seven scoreless on Monday night for Kansas City who beat the Rays 2-1. If the Royals played in the NL West…never mind, they’d still be terrible. But Kaufman Stadium is cool and I’m sad it might be going away.

    -The All-Star Game is around the corner and the player who has received the most votes in the NL and overall is no surprise: The Sho. The leading AL vote getter is…Judge? Trout? Alvarez? None of those slackers. It’s Blue Jays second baseman Ernie Clement. The All Star game is Tuesday, July 14th in Philadelphia.

  • Week nine highlights, low lights, and observations

    -At 40-22, the Dodgers have now played 38% of their games this season. One hundred games to go, and they’ve built a 7 1/2 game lead in the NL West.

    -I figure the Dodgers need to win at least 93 games to win the division. They’ll do it if they go 53-47 the rest of the way. 

    -I try not to bore you guys with all the “Shohei Ohtani is the greatest baseball player to ever live,” stuff, because you can get that anywhere. But, Shohei Ohtani is the greatest baseball player to ever live.

    -What he’s done in his career is unprecedented and what he’s doing this year is… I don’t know what to call it. Extraordinary? Phenomenal? Sick? As of today he’s hitting over .300 and leads the league in on base percentage. He’s also 5-2 with a 0.74 ERA, one inning short of qualifying among the league leaders.

    -He’s on his way to his fourth consecutive MVP award, the Dodgers have won two championships in the two years he’s been on the club. He’s kind to opposing players and loves his dog. 

    -Sure, things can change quickly. Baseball is finicky. He could nosedive into a season-long slump or suffer a freak injury. How many guys miss six weeks because they slice a finger cutting an orange (happens every Spring training) or slip getting in the shower (Freddie Freeman last year)? 

    -But the $700 million contract he signed two years ago, most of which will be paid out after the contract expires, seems like a pretty good deal for the Dodgers at this point.

    -Of course, any single player on any roster is only as good as the players around him. The Dodgers have made sure to surround Ohtani with the best players available, allowing him to thrive on the mound and at the plate.

    -Still, he was an MVP with the Angels, when he wasn’t always surrounded by the best players available, aside from Mr. Trout. 

    -Speaking of the Angels, the Dodgers get to play them for three games at home this weekend. The last time the Dodgers and Angels played a weekend series, the Dodgers modified their season run differential by +30. 

    -Angel fans want owner Arte Moreno to sell the team. But to be fair, the position the Angels find themselves in is not all Arte’s doing. 

    -It’s not as if the Angels haven’t spent money on players. They’ve spent on the wrong players. And they’ve had some of the worst luck of any franchise in North American sports.

    -The Angels have endured horrific tragedies with the passing of Nick Adenheart and Tyler Skaggs, while playing in the shadow of Donnie Moore. It’s dark and horrible and unthinkable that any of that happened. Young people, especially professional athletes, are not supposed to leave us that way.

    -Then the bad signings. Everybody points to Anthony Rendon, who is the polar opposite of Shohei Ohtani, below average on the field (when he’s on the field) and generally grumpy, going so far as to suggest there should be fewer games. Ernie Banks (“Let’s play two!”), he ain’t. 

    -But don’t forget these other misguided spending splurges, in rank order from worst to barely tolerable, with Rendon holding the top spot: 2. Josh Hamilton: 5 years, $125 million in 2012; 3. Justin Upton: 5 years, $106 million in 2017; and as much as I like the guy, 4. Albert Pujols: 10 years, $240 million in 2011. All yielded zero playoff wins for the Halos. 

    -The latest and perhaps greatest offense is Arte Moreno’s claim that Angel fans don’t care about winning. Earlier this year he quoted an “internal fan poll” that revealed winning isn’t in the top five things that fans care about, allegedly. 

    -It probably doesn’t help that the other team in the Angel’s geographic region is the Dodgers, who have been run so successfully for so many years, now with eight world championship banners and seeming unlimited resources. 

    -Of course now that I’ve written this, watch the Angels go out and smoke the Dodgers three games in a row this weekend. 

    -I’d be very disappointed if that happens, but I wouldn’t be shocked. Because that is how baseball works sometimes.

    -Dodgers v. Angels at Chavez Ravine this weekend, start times: Friday, 7:10, Saturday 7:10, Sunday 1:10 pacific. 

  • Week seven highlights, low lights, and observations

    -At 29-18, the Dodgers have now played 29% of regular season games. 

    -Like everything else as I get older, baseball seasons seem to progress more quickly than they used to.

    -The Azul are back atop the NL west, barely. This 1/2 game lead will be tested starting tonight in San Diego. 

    -This past weekend was “rivalry” weekend and as such, the Dodgers should have been playing the Padres rather than the Angels. If you were to ask 100 Dodger fans, which team is our biggest rival, I’d bet 90 would say either the Padres, Giants, Yankees, or Blue Jays. The other two teams in the NL west plus and the Angels might claim the other 10 votes. Might.

    -A week ago, I would have bet against the Dodgers being in first place today. They were fresh off  Saturday and Sunday losses to the red hot Braves and then lost Monday and Tuesday night against the Giants. And then out of nowhere the bats woke up, the pitchers beared down, and the Dodgers win Wednesday and Thursday vs. SF and then destroy the hapless, hopeless Angels over the weekend. 

    -The Dodgers vs. Angels run differential in favor of the team that actually plays their home games in LA was an insane +28 for a three game series. And it was good to see Ohtani swing the bat well. After getting an extra day off mid-week, Shohei had six hits over the weekend including three on Sunday. 

    -The Mets took two of three from the Yankees last weekend. Sunday was the first time in two years the Mets won a game when losing after the 8th inning. The Mets were 0-96 when trailing after eight, including the post-season, since October 2024.

    -Philadelphia has completely turned things around since Donny Baseball took over as manager on April 28th. Since then the Phillies are 14-4 and now have a winning record at 24-23. 

    -Talking about winning records, there are five teams in the American League at .500 or above, two of them being the White Sox and the A’s. So if the regular season ended today, the White Sox and the A’s would be in the playoffs.

    -I love the A’s home alternate uniforms, bright yellow with Sacramento in script across the front. Not sure exactly why. I just dig ‘em.

  • How the Dodgers Should Play October

    How the Dodgers Should Play October

    Art by @snarshall

    At the beginning of the 2025 baseball season, Dodgers’ Andrew Friedman was asked how it feels to have so many injured pitchers on his team. “Not fun,” he replied. 

    He might have been predicting his bullpen’s performance in August. Also, not fun.

    Last year’s world champion Dodgers relied heavily on the bullpen. They needed to, since the starting pitchers showed up to the ballpark every night held together with pine tar. Remember the “bullpen games” that September, then in the NLCS against the Padres, and then in the World Series? 

    The Dodgers’ bullpen and the New York Yankees gave us a championship in 2024, and for that and Freddie Freeman we are forever grateful, blessed was the fifth inning of game five, amen.

    But that was then and these are the chaotic 2025 Dodgers, who can look like world beaters for a week and then get beat down the next. 

    We Dodger fans don’t have the luxury of dreaming about this October on 2024 terms. The odds of winning the division are in the Dodgers’ favor, but unless they catch the Phillies for the second seed and earn a first round playoff bye, the third seed means a 3-game wild card series against probably the Mets or Cubs. A short series could go sideways more quickly than the plan for Roki Sasaki.

    In a year where the bullpen has been shaky, the prospect of a short series makes rotation choices and role adjustments all the more crucial.

    The biggest adjustment the Dodgers need to make is painfully clear. It’s a jagged pill to swallow but it must be done.

    Shohei Ohtani should be the fourth starter. Clayton Kershaw should move to long relief. I propose:

    • Yoshinobu Yamamoto: The Ace. Game 1 starter vs. anyone.
    • Blake Snell: The left-handed counterpunch. Cy Young. Playoff tested. Has been great of late.
    • Tyler Glasnow: Dominant so far this month. Can take over a game, but when it goes south, yikes.
    • Shohei Ohtani: Has built up to this, has dominant stuff, thrives in the spotlight.

    That’s the group Roberts must ride to Trophy Town. They are all pitching well at the moment, and any of them can swing a series on his own. 

    Look, I’m a Kershaw guy. But for the first time in a generation, Clayton Kershaw isn’t – shouldn’t – be in the Dodgers’ postseason rotation. Instead, his value lies in the bullpen, and that’s not a demotion. It’s evolution.

    Kershaw has absolutely earned his place on this roster. But in October, you want dominant strikeout stuff on the mound if you’ve got it, which the Dodgers have in Yoshi, Zilla, Glasnow, and Sho. What the Dodgers do not have is stability in the bullpen, and Kershaw is perfectly suited to bring that. They don’t need a fifth starter, but they might need a left-handed long reliever who can steady things if a starter wobbles. That’s where Kershaw’s experience can make an impact most. Kershaw might not throw the first pitch of any game, but he could still throw some of the most important ones.

    The Dodgers’ bullpen has been middling to terrible all season, as far as contenders go. Tanner Scott is the nominal closer, but Roberts has openly wondered what to do with him since he seems to be healthy and throwing with velocity but can’t stop grooving fastballs down the middle of the plate. Scott has shared with reporters that he feels like “baseball hates him,” right now.

    In their defense, hitters love him right now. But feeling like the game hates you is probably not the best mental space for a closer to hold come playoff time. 

    Roberts will manage by feel. If Alex Vesia looks sharp, he could close. If Blake Treinen has command, he’ll take the eighth or ninth. If Michael Kopech can find the strike zone, he might even close a game on a given night.

    Don’t expect set roles. Roberts proved last year that he is the maestro of knowing how to play the right cards.

    In the post season he’ll pull the plug quickly if trouble starts. Kershaw could become the bullpen bridge Roberts trusts most.

    The Dodgers’ lineup is still a weapon, and after last week it looks sharper now than it did a month ago (fine, the Rockies make teams look good, but still). Ohtani is the MVP of the league. Mookie looks like Mookie at the plate again, and at short leads the league in defensive runs saved – you can read about his expanding HOF credentials here. Ohtani is the MVP of the universe but Freddie Freeman might be the MVP of this team. Will Smith (hoping he gets healthy quick) has had an unbelievable year. Teoscar Hernandez in the fifth slot is seeing the ball better and – lo and behold – his defense has improved the last few weeks. It’s great to see Max Muncy back in uniform, the lineup is much longer with him in the sixth slot, followed by Pages and Rojas or Kim. I like Edman batting ninth as a second leadoff guy. Alex Call off the bench has looked good.

    Here’s how the pitching blueprint would round out depending on if we end up as the second or third seed:

    • Third seed: Wild Card Series (best of 3). Yamamoto in Game 1, Snell in Game 2, and Glasnow available for a decisive Game 3.
    • NLDS (best of 5): Ohtani starts Game 1 or 2 depending on Wild Card usage. (Oh the spectacle of Shohei starting in October!) if we end up a second seed, Yamamoto gets game one. Yamamoto could return for a Game 5. Kershaw becomes the bullpen safety net if starters don’t go deep.
    • NLCS and World Series (best of 7): Yamamoto and Snell each start twice, Glasnow and Ohtani take the other turns. Game 7 is all hands on deck: Glasnow to start, Yamamoto and Snell in relief, Kershaw ready to eat innings if chaos strikes. Orel Hershiser is in the booth if we need him late in game seven to pull a Buehler.

    Kershaw’s shift to long relief isn’t about fading away, t’s about filling the role this bullpen desperately needs. He’s not the headline starter anymore; he’s the trusted arm Doc can call when the season teeters on the edge. Which may happen the first week of October if LA plays New York or Chicago in a short series.