Tag: NL West

Dodgers vs. Giants Live Blog: Instant Reactions and Analysis

At a cursory glance, the final Blue Crew and Bay Bombers showdown of the 2015 season seems somewhat uninspiring. The Los Angeles Dodgers, crowned NL West division champs on Tuesday, shut down their California rivals’ flirtation with postseason possibilities in the process.

With one team celebrating and the other standing in the rain, there certainly couldn’t be any reason to tune in—or could there be?

After witnessing Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers gleefully shut them out of contention (at home, no less), it’s difficult to imagine that the San Francisco Giants want some extra salt in their wounds—that much was made clear Wednesday, when the Giants hit the presumably celebration-hungover Dodgers with a 5-0 victory.

And the Dodgers? Well, some momentum heading into the playoffs wouldn’t hurt. 

Although it seems as if L.A. won’t be making a tremendous push for home-field advantage, per ESPN.com’s Mark Saxon, there will at least be some underrotated players looking to make an impression with the extra field time.  

Make no mistake, however. After being abruptly stunned just a day ago, the Dodgers won’t be taking the same lackadaisical approach to this contest.

So who will it be in the interstate fight for (momentary and isolated) supremacy? Check back in at 3:45 p.m. ET to discuss and find out!

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Dodgers’ NL West Title Cannot Overshadow Big Postseason Concerns

Before we inject some Debbie Downer realism into the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ champagne-soaked celebration, let’s pause to appreciate what they’ve accomplished.

By defeating Madison Bumgarner and the archrival San Francisco Giants 8-0 Tuesday night, the Dodgers clinched their third consecutive National League West title. That’s no mean feat, considering three of the other five division winners this season will likely be teams that didn’t even make the playoffs last year.

In fact, it’s the first time in franchise history the Dodgers have won three straight division crowns.

“What a relief that we’ve been able to accomplish this,” manager Don Mattingly told SportsNet LA’s Alanna Rizzo immediately after the game. “We got into the dance, and now we’ve just got to take care of business.”

The Dodgers are ticketed for the National League Division Series, where they lost last year to the St. Louis Cardinals, who also knocked them out in the National League Championship Series in 2013.

This time, L.A. will miss the Cards in the first round and face the NL East champion New York Mets.

In any event, the Dodgers enter October with some serious, potentially fatal flaws.

Yes, their starting rotation—and, indeed, entire roster—is anchored by co-aces Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, who will likely finish in the top three in NL Cy Young balloting (the Chicago Cubs‘ Jake Arrieta is the only non-Dodger with a shot at the prize).

Kershaw was simply brilliant in Tuesday’s clincher, twirling nine innings of one-hit, no-run ball with 13 strikeouts.

And all you need to do is glance at Greinke’s ridiculous 1.68 ERA to understand what he’s accomplished this season.

Still, as I recently argued, it’s unreasonable for the Dodgers to expect Greinke and Kershaw, great as they are, to carry the franchise across the Fall Classic finish line the way Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling did for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001.

We’re living in the era of pitch counts, matchups and late-inning relief specialists. Los Angeles’ two-headed mound monster can do a lot, and Kershaw has a lot to prove, what with his unsightly 5.12 postseason ERA. But they can’t do it alone.

For the Dodgers to end their 27-year championship drought, they’ll need another starting pitcher to chip in. 

Alex Wood has had his moments since L.A. acquired him from the Atlanta Braves at the trade deadline, but the 24-year-old left-hander has coughed up a whopping eight runs in two of his last four starts (to be fair, the most recent one was in Colorado).

And Brett Anderson, another lefty, has failed to get out of the fifth inning in his last two trips to the hill, yielding a total of 20 hits and 11 runs.

That suggests the bullpen will play a big role, and the reviews there are mixed.

Closer Kenley Jansen has been excellent, posting a 2.36 ERA and converting 34 of 36 save opportunities. After that, things get dicey.

Right-hander Chris Hatcher has emerged as a reliable setup option, posting a 1.29 ERA, with 17 strikeouts in 14 innings since Aug. 31. And lefty J.P. Howell owns a 1.50 ERA in 12 games over the same stretch.

Still, overall the Dodgers’ relief core carries easily the highest ERA of any NL postseason club. If it’s not an outright weakness, it’s at least a hold-your-breath kind of thing going into October, when every inning and every out is magnified.

On offense, uncertainty also abounds. First baseman Adrian Gonzalez is an All-Star-caliber run producer, and shortstop Corey Seager is hitting .333 since an early September call-up.

But with formerly scalding rookie Joc Pederson mired in an extended cold streak and one-time Cuban spark plug Yasiel Puig on the disabled list, Los Angeles’ lineup is lacking, particularly in the power department, as Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times highlighted:

They don’t have the kind of late-inning pop that dramatically, historically has helped the Dodgers to championships. Hello, Kirk Gibson.

Listen to these numbers: They’re 21-26 in one-run games, they’re 6-9 in extra-inning games and they’re 5-47 when trailing or tied after the eighth inning.

Some of that can be laid at the feet of Mattingly, whose strategic machinations don’t always inspire confidence. In the final analysis, though, you live and die with the talent on the field. And while the Dodgers, owners of baseball’s biggest payroll, have some legitimate stars, they’ve got a few black holes as well.

Clinching the division with a week to spare will allow L.A. to line up its rotation and rest its regulars, including guys such as third baseman Justin Turner and catcher Yasmani Grandal, who have both battled injuries.

And certainly if you’re not going to celebrate with the blue-bleeding faithful at Chavez Ravine, doing it at AT&T Park in front of a bunch of bummed-out Giants fans is a fine consolation prize.

Enjoy it for now, L.A. Because when the champagne dries and the autumn tournament begins, you’ll have work to do—and some pressing questions to answer.

 

All statistics current as of Sept. 29 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

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LA Dodgers Clinch NL West: Highlights, Twitter Reaction to Celebration

For the third consecutive season, the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched the National League West by virtue of Tuesday’s 8-0 victory over the archrival San Francisco Giants.

Despite the amount of success the Dodgers organization has enjoyed over the years in both Los Angeles and Brooklyn, this marks the first time it has won three straight division titles. 

The Giants have been attempting to chase down the Dodgers all year long, but they were never able to get within realistic striking distance in September because of their late-season struggles. It feels fitting Los Angeles clinched the crown with a head-to-head victory behind Clayton Kershaw’s dominance.

Kershaw put the team on his back with a shutout. He notched 13 strikeouts in the process and allowed only one hit. The team provided some of the southpaw’s highlights:

Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News did not hold back on his praise of the pitcher:

Kershaw beat last year’s postseason hero Madison Bumgarner on Tuesday. ESPN Stats & Info noted Bumgarner tied his career high with three home runs allowed (he gave up three homers to the Dodgers last season as well).

Not even Bumgarner at his best was beating Kershaw on Tuesday. ESPN Stats & Info pointed out Kershaw became the third pitcher in 100 years with a one-hit shutout and at least 13 strikeouts against the Giants and added, courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau, that he became the second pitcher to throw a shutout and allow one hit or less in a division-clinching game in MLB history.

Molly Knight, author of The Best Team Money Can Buy, summarized the superstar’s greatness and provided a picture of him in the triumphant aftermath:

Kershaw had plenty of support in the final inning from Dodgers fans in attendance in San Francisco, as the team highlighted:

The team also provided some of the postgame celebration:

Unsurprisingly, the celebration carried over into the locker room well after the final out. J.P. Hoornstra of the Los Angeles News Group and MLB provided a glimpse at the euphoria:

Pitcher Brett Anderson enjoyed himself:

Even the rival Giants congratulated the Dodgers:

This marks L.A.’s fifth playoff appearance in the past eight years, but its previous four runs have all been stopped prior to the World Series. In fact, the Dodgers have not made the World Series since winning it way back in 1988.

Los Angeles has the talent to go all the way, but the NL Central trio of the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs has outperformed it, so it isn’t the favorite to win the pennant like it was entering the 2015 campaign.

If the Dodgers do win the National League, the ace starting-pitching duo of Kershaw and Zack Greinke will undoubtedly have plenty to do with it. Kershaw has dominated again to the tune of a 2.16 ERA, 0.89 WHIP and 294 strikeouts in 229 innings, per Drew Silva of NBCSports.com, while Greinke has raised his game significantly, with a 1.68 ERA, 0.85 WHIP and 192 strikeouts.

Despite that dominant combo, legendary television host Larry King isn’t high on the Dodgers’ chances in the postseason:

King certainly has a point regarding L.A.’s bullpen, as it has been unreliable outside of closer Kenley Jansen and lefty J.P. Howell.

Even so, general manager Farhan Zaidi believes that unit is on the ascent with the playoffs approaching, according to ESPN.com’s Mark Saxon.

“With a bullpen, it’s about trajectory and where they’re heading as much as where they have been, so we’re kind of looking forward with this group and think the guys are sort of figuring it out,” Zaidi said.

The Dodgers also have an interesting situation offensively. Veterans Adrian Gonzalez, Howie Kendrick, Justin Turner and Andre Ethier have all been solid contributors, but question marks abound otherwise. Catcher Yasmani Grandal is trending downward, shortstop Jimmy Rollins has never found his stride and power-hitting youngster Joc Pederson hasn’t been the same since the All-Star break.

Rookie infielder Corey Seager could be the key to the Dodgers’ offensive success come playoff time if he continues his torrid pace, but the same could be said for ailing outfielder Yasiel Puig. The Cuban star has been on the shelf since August with a hamstring injury, and while his status is uncertain, he is willing to do anything to help the team in October, per Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times.

“I’ll be there to do what is needed, whether it’s pinch-hitting or play as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning,” Puig said. “Whatever they need me to do, I’ll do.”

The Dodgers are arguably the most intriguing team in the playoffs since they could just as easily get swept out of the National League Division Series as they could go all the way and win the World Series. There are plenty of unknowns surrounding the squad, but now that the Dodgers have won the division and qualified for the postseason, they have a fighting chance.

 

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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Matt Kemp Injury: Updates on Padres OF’s Hand and Return

The 2015 season is a lost cause for the San Diego Padres, and they received more unfortunate news Tuesday when Matt Kemp was forced to leave the game against the Milwaukee Brewers with an injury.

Continue for updates.


Melvin Upton Jr. Replaces Kemp

Tuesday, Sept. 29

Kemp had two at-bats Tuesday, but the team noted he left the contest with soreness in his right hand. It was a disappointing development for the outfielder in the same game he knocked in his 100th RBI of the season.

“Soft tissue issue in his hand, swollen,” manager Pat Murphy said after the game, per the team. “Will have an MRI tomorrow. He wanted to continue, we thought best to take him out.”

Melvin Upton Jr. pinch hit for Kemp to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning after the injury.


What Kemp’s Absence Means for the Padres

Tuesday, Sept. 29 

Kemp has been a bright spot in an otherwise lackluster campaign for the Padres. The team traded for him this offseason, and he has 23 home runs, 12 steals and the 100 RBI on the year. Corey Brock of MLB.com noted it was the first time Kemp reached the 100 RBI mark since 2011.

Upton Jr. is a veteran who has been in the league since 2004. He is not that far removed from the 2012 campaign when he drilled 28 home runs and stole 31 bases for the Tampa Bay Rays. While he has been nowhere near that player this season (.243 batting average, with five home runs and 17 RBI entering Tuesday’s game), he can at least play out the string for the Padres if Kemp cannot return.

San Diego sits in fourth place in the National League West and has long been eliminated from playoff contention. There is no reason for Kemp to risk further injury by returning this year unless he is 100 percent healthy.

It is far more important for the Padres that he is ready to go by the start of spring training in 2016.

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San Diego Padres Fined for MLB Infraction Before International Draft

An already frustrating season in San Diego took another hit earlier this month when Major League Baseball fined the San Diego Padres an undisclosed amount for holding an illegal international workout this summer, according to Bleacher Report sources.

Kim Ng, MLB senior vice president, declined to comment when reached Monday. Padres president Mike Dee also declined to comment, saying he considers it a “closed matter.”

The workout was held in Aruba in June, not long before the international signing period opened in July, multiple sources with knowledge of the workout told Bleacher Report. The Padres paid for flights for prospects from Venezuela and some of their parents, furnishing them with airfare, hotels and meals, the sources said.

According to MLB rules, it is forbidden to take prospects who are at an age level not yet eligible for that year’s international signing period out of their native country.

This is not the first time Padres general manager A.J. Preller has run afoul of MLB’s international rules. He reportedly was suspended for one month in the late 2000s for an incident in the Dominican Republic when he was working for Texas, a suspension that was reduced from three months after the Rangers appealed. The Texas club also reportedly paid a $50,000 fine.

Preller came to San Diego with a reputation for being highly successful in finding and acquiring international talent. The Padres said when they hired him last August that part of the reason they settled on Preller was because they wanted to aggressively pursue international talent.

Despite this summer’s infraction, sources say, Preller‘s job in San Diego is not in jeopardy. The Padres signed him to a five-year deal last August, and Padres sources reaffirmed the club’s intent to continue working hard to develop a fertile pipeline of talent internationally.

Ng declined to detail any investigation “of the Padres or any other major league club.”

 

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.

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Inhuman Greinke, Kershaw Duo Unlikely to Replicate Schilling-Johnson Postseason

Incomparable. You’ve probably heard that word thrown around in connection with Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, the dynamic duo that’s poised to pitch the Los Angeles Dodgers into October.

Certainly, the likes of Greinke and Kershaw don’t come around often, and even less frequently do such immense talents occupy the same rotation.

But there is a comparison for the Dodgers’ two-headed mound monster, if an imperfect one.

We’ll talk more about the “imperfect” part in a moment. First, let’s step into the wayback machine and set the coordinates for the autumn of 2001. (Yes, that was 14 years ago. And yes, you should feel old.)

That season featured a seemingly unbeatable pitching twosome who double-handedly carried a National League West club to a thrilling World Series victory.

The club was the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the arms they rode across the Fall Classic finish line belonged to Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling.

Johnson (2.49 ERA, 249.2 innings pitched, 372 strikeouts) and Schilling (2.98 ERA, 256.2 IP, 293 K) dominated in the ’01 regular season, finishing first and second in National League Cy Young balloting, respectively. But they flipped a switch in the playoffs, changing their settings from “superb” to “superhuman.”

Schilling went 4-0 with a 1.12 ERA in 48.1 innings and started Games 1 and 5 of the National League Division Series, Game 3 of the National League Championship Series and Games 1, 4 and 7 of the World Series.

Johnson went 5-1 with a 1.52 ERA in 41.1 innings and started Game 2 of the NLDS, Games 1 and 5 of the NLCS and Games 2 and 6 of the World Series. Then, for good measure, he came out of the bullpen in Game 7 to get four crucial outs and set the table for Luis Gonzalez’s game-winning single off the New York Yankees‘ Mariano Rivera in the ninth.

Johnson and Schilling wound up sharing World Series MVP honors. It was frankly impossible to place one above the other, just as it was impossible to imagine Arizona sniffing the Commissioner’s Trophy without its pair of aces. Baseball is a team sport in the truest sense, but that 2001 title run—the only one in the D-Backs’ brief historywas as close as any two men can come to carrying an entire franchise on their backs.

In 2011, the 10-year anniversary of Schilling and Johnson’s impossible-unless-you-witnessed-it feat, Gonzalez offered a firsthand perspective, per MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert:

It was awesome. They went out there and dominated the game. They quietly competed against each other. And you loved it when one of them had a fantastic game, because you knew the other guy was going to be amped up and ready to go and outshine the other guy. It was a great mix of those two guys. It was the yin and the yang, but they did it.

The question now is: Can Greinke and Kershaw do it too?

There are parallels. Greinke (1.65 ERA, 207.2 IP, 185 K) and Kershaw (2.18 ERA, 215 IP, 272 K) are in the midst of superlative seasons and could well finish one-two in Cy Young voting, though the Chicago Cubs‘ Jake Arrieta is in the mix.

They’re also a righty-lefty combo like Schilling and Johnson. Johnson was coming off two consecutive Cy Young seasons, and so is Kershaw, his southpaw counterpart. And, as Steve Dilbeck of the Los Angeles Times outlined, Greinke and Kershaw motivate each other with the same friendly-yet-fiery competition Gonzalez described:

After Kershaw flirted with a perfect game July 23 against the Mets in New York, [catcher Yasmani] Grandal recalled a conversation he’d had with Greinke after a spring game.

“Kershaw better watch out because I’m coming after him,” Grandal recalled Greinke telling him.

They’re pushing each other to rarefied air.

Whether they’ll push the Dodgers to their first championship in 27 years remains to be seen. But if they do, they aren’t likely to do it in the same wayor, more specifically, to the same extentas Johnson and Schilling.

Here’s a striking fact: In the 2001 postseason, Johnson and Schilling threw a combined five complete games. By contrast, Greinke and Kershaw have tossed only four complete games between them all season.

That’s the norm in today’s MLB, with its emphasis on pitch counts, relief specialists and late-game matchups. In 1998, Schilling led the majors with 15 complete games. In 1999, Johnson paced baseball with 12.

This season, four pitchers are tied for the lead with four complete games apiece.

One of those pitchers is Madison Bumgarner of the San Francisco Giants, who turned back the clock last October and threw an astounding 52.2 postseason innings, breaking the record set by Schilling in 2001.

The Giants left-hander tossed 21 frames in the World Series alone, including a gutsy Game 7 relief appearance that sealed San Francisco’s third championship in five seasons.

So it is possible, even today, to shoulder the load. More than a template, though, Bumgarner was the exception that proves the rule. Part of the reason his performance glistened so brightly—besides its utter brilliance—is that it was an anomaly among anomalies.

Likewise, what Johnson and Schilling did in ’01 is a rarity in this or any era. Having a pair of top-shelf pitchers doesn’t correlate with postseason success, as Houston Mitchell of the Los Angeles Times outlined last September:

A check of other teams with at least two dominant starters since expanded playoffs began in 1969 says otherwise. Using the criteria of at least two starting pitchers who, like Kershaw and Greinke, have a WHIP of 1.16 or lower and an ERA+ of 125 (meaning they were 25% better than the average pitcher that year), 39 other teams have two pitchers like that. One of those are the 2014 Washington Nationals, with Tanner Roark and Jordan Zimmermann. Of the other 38, only 21 made the playoffs. Only four of those teams won the World Series, with nine teams losing in the first round of the playoffs.

The 2014 Nationals didn’t end up in the World Series, and neither did the 2014 Dodgers. In fact, after sweeping the Cy Young and NL MVP awards in the regular season, Kershaw tripped over his cleats in the playoffs, going 0-2 and raising his career postseason ERA to an unsightly 5.12.

That doesn’t mean Kershaw will fade this year. But it does prove that even the greats can wilt under baseball’s brightest glare.

In all likelihood, if the Dodgers are going to spray champagne and dump confetti for the first time since the waning months of the Reagan administration, they’ll need the offense, which has scored the third-fewest runs in baseball since the All-Star break, to click. They’ll need another starting pitcher (Alex Wood? Brett Anderson?) to chip in. And their frequently wobbly bullpen must rise to the occasion.

Los Angeles is right to expect a lot from Greinke and Kershaw. They’re the studs in the stable, after all. And Dodgers fans can be forgiven for closing their eyes and letting visions of Schilling and Johnson dance in their heads.

It’s a scintillating comparison, no question.

In the end, though, some things are simply incomparable.

 

All statistics current as of Sept. 23 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

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Zack Greinke Injury: Updates on Dodgers Star’s Calf and Return

Zack Greinke is in the midst of his best season, but the Los Angeles Dodgers star finds himself on the mend with an injured calf. 

Continue for updates. 


Greinke to Miss One Start

Wednesday, Sept. 23

Per MLB Network Radio on Twitter, the Dodgers will skip Greinke’s start on Wednesday due to soreness in his calf, but he’s expected to make his next start that will presumably be on Monday against San Francisco. 

Greinke has been marvelous this season, owning an MLB-best 1.65 ERA, 0.848 WHIP and 227 ERA+. He’s been banged up at times in the past, starting just 28 games in his first season with the team, but the good news is this particular issue sounds like a short-term problem. 

The Dodgers rotation has already been tested in 2015 with Hyun-jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy out for the season. Clayton Kershaw got off to a slow start, but he has found another gear and looks like the best pitcher on the planet. 

Losing Greinke for a short period of time does hurt the Dodgers, though they can survive. The advantage for Los Angeles is it’s opened a six-game lead over the San Francisco Giants with 12 games to play, so having the right-hander miss one start won’t hurt its playoff chances.   

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Nolan Arenado Injury: Updates on Rockies Star’s Status and Return

Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado has been one of the few bright spots for the team during a disappointing 2015 campaign, but the season hit another low point when the star left Tuesday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates with an injury.

Continue for updates.


Arenado Suffers Injury Diving for Ball

Tuesday, Sept. 22

Arenado was taken out of Tuesday’s game after trainers examined his wrist, jaw and neck. Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted the third baseman dove for a ground ball that ultimately deflected off his wrist as “he face-planted in the dirt.” Fortunately, Thomas Harding of MLB.com reported the third baseman passed concussion tests. 

This is another blow for a Rockies team well out of postseason contention. Arenado sported a .283 batting average, 39 home runs and 114 RBI entering Tuesday’s game and is one of the best young stars in the league.

At 24 years old, he recently became the youngest player in franchise history to be selected to an All-Star team. It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that Arenado has drawn rave reviews from teammates all season long. 

“He’s always been a great teammate and somebody who brings energy to the clubhouse and field,” second baseman DJ LeMahieu said, according to the Denver Post‘s Patrick Saunders. “He’s not afraid to make the great play, and he’s never afraid to make mistakes. He goes after it and lets his talent take over.”

A second-round pick by the Rockies in 2009, Arenado has established himself as one of MLB’s most prolific fielders since making his professional debut in 2013.

He’s gunning for his third straight Gold Glove award after capturing the hardware at the hot corner in 2013 and 2014, and any sort of extended absence could derail his chances for a three-peat.

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Corey Seager’s Instant Stardom Gives Dodgers a Postseason Spark Plug

Corey Seager didn’t play an inning for the Los Angeles Dodgers until Sept. 3, when he made his big league debut. Still, the lanky 21-year-old could be one of the most essential Dodgers of 2015.

No pressure, kid.

No doubt the Dodgers could have won the National League West without Seager. The injury-bitten San Francisco Giants are in the midst of another odd-year tailspin, and the rest of the division is mired under .500. Even with a loss Sunday to the Pittsburgh Pirates and a Giants win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles’ magic number sits at seven with 14 to play.

But as L.A. steps onto the postseason stage for the third consecutive season, Seager figures to play a prominent role. And if he keeps hitting like he has been, the needle on the Dodgers’ championship-o-meter will nudge noticeably northward.

First, a quick recap of what Seager has done during his eye-opening MLB audition.

In 16 games with the Dodgers, Seager is hitting .379 with a 1.082 OPS. Nine of his 22 hits have gone for extra bases, including seven doubles and a pair of dingers, and he’s collected 10 RBI.

If there were any doubts about the 2012 first-round pick’s ability to handle major league pitching, he’s put them to rest.

It’s a small sample, sure. But with once-scalding rookie outfielder Joc Pederson hitting an anemic .218 and Cuban masher Yasiel Puig on the disabled list with a wonky hamstring, Seager’s debut has been a splash of sweet, life-giving water on a parched offensive desert in Southern California.

Really, the entire Dodgers offense needed a drink. Since the All-Star break, L.A. has scored the third-fewest runs in the National League and has posted a collective .725 OPS.

It’s unrealistic to ask one untested September call-up to shoulder the load, but Seager has provided a shot, a jolt, a spark—pick your ham-fisted metaphor.

“The beautiful thing about him is somehow he just rises to the occasion every time, it doesn’t matter the expectations,” Dodgers outfielder Scott Schebler said of his phenom teammate, per ESPN.com’s Mark Saxon. “I’m sure he knows they expect the world from him, but for some reason he just somehow slows the game down every time.”

Despite his smashing early success, Seager won’t necessarily be the Dodgers’ everyday shortstop for the final stretch of the regular season and into October.

For most of the 2015 campaign, that job belonged to veteran Jimmy Rollins. A sprained index finger put Rollins out of commission, but he pinch-hit Sunday, indicating a return to the field could be imminent.

Will the Dodgers really swipe playing time from their hottest hitter and hand it to Rollins, who owns a pedestrian .220/.278/.354 slash line?

It seems absurd on its face, but it might happen.

“Well, we’ll see,” skipper Don Mattingly said of the Seager-Rollins conundrum, per Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times. “We’ve used Corey, and we’ll continue to put our best lineup out there.”

Based on the numbers, that “best lineup” includes Seager. The offensive stats are irrefutable, and while Seager has committed three errors at short, Rollins isn’t the defender he used to be. His minus-seven defensive runs saved (DRS) and minus-6.5 ultimate zone rating (UZR), per FanGraphs, indicate a glove in steep decline.

There is the argument that Rollins is a seasoned pro, with 46 playoff games under his belt, and that benching him could disrupt team chemistry.

“Yeah, you want [Seager to play],” a front office source recently told Bleacher Report, pointing toward the home clubhouse at Dodger Stadium. “But you still have to deal with him [Rollins] in there. He’s going to be there in the playoffs. Do you want him mad the whole time?”

In the end, though, this can’t be about wounded egos. With two Cy Young-caliber pitchers—Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke—headlining their rotation, the Dodgers have an opportunity to make a deep run despite question marks in the lineup and the bullpen.

Seager and his streaking stick give the Dodgers the best chance to win, period. That should trump all other considerations.

That said, Seager can also play third base, like his All-Star older brother, Kyle Seager of the Seattle Mariners. In fact, Corey has already seen 18 big league innings at the hot corner.

So there are permutations that get Rollins and Seager on the field, as Plaschke spelled out:

Here’s guessing that if Rollins returns to the lineup within a week as expected, and if Seager continues to act like he belongs here, both guys will play in a rotation with third baseman Justin Turner in October. Sometimes Seager would play shortstop instead of Rollins. Sometimes he would play third alongside Rollins, with Turner, who’s batting just .188 since returning from a leg infection Aug. 13, taking a seat.

To further complicate matters, Turner is dealing with a bruised knee. The bottom line: Los Angeles will find a place for Seager one way or another.

Nothing is clinched yet, obviously. But if the playoffs started Monday, the Dodgers would meet the New York Mets in the division series. New York’s top three starters—Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard—are all right-handed. And Seager, who swings from the left side, has tattooed MLB righties to the tune of a .438 average and 1.257 OPS.

Again, sample-size caveats apply. Still, as with all things Seager, that must leave Dodgers fans licking their chops.

So the opportunity is there. If Seager can help the Dodgers hoist a Commissioner’s Trophy and bathe in champagne and confetti after two consecutive October exits and 27 years of World Series futility, he’ll be indelibly etched in Dodgers history. Heck, he could wind up a legend before he plays his first full season, with a place alongside greats like Sandy Koufax, Kirk Gibson, Orel Hershiser and the rest.

All he’s got to do is keep raking for another month or so.

No pressure, kid.

 

All statistics and standings current as of Sept. 20 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

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Mat Latos Designated for Assignment by Dodgers: Details, Comments and Reaction

The Los Angeles Dodgers appeared to bolster an already-formidable starting rotation at the trade deadline when they added Mat Latos from the Miami Marlins, but the right-handed pitcher is no longer with the major league team.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports noted Los Angeles designated Latos for assignment Thursday. Fox Sports MLB reported the Dodgers reinstated pitcher Carlos Frias from the 60-day disabled list to take Latos’ spot.

Latos looked like a critical addition when he threw six innings of one-run baseball in his first start with the team following the trade with Miami, but he didn’t even finish the fifth inning in his next four outings. In all, Latos tallied a 6.66 ERA in 24.1 innings of disappointing work with Los Angeles.

Michael J. Duarte of NBC LA said this move “most likely ends his rocky tenure” with the Dodgers. It was the next step down after manager Don Mattingly moved Latos to the bullpen earlier in September. 

Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times put Latos’ fall from grace into context during the pitcher’s most recent outing:   

That is a far cry from Latos’ five straight seasons with less than a 3.50 ERA coming into the 2015 campaign, including a standout 2010 campaign with the San Diego Padres that saw him post a 2.92 ERA, a sparkling 1.08 WHIP and 189 strikeouts.

D.J. Short of NBC Sports pointed out that “the Dodgers won’t need a fifth starter during the postseason, so they apparently decided to turn the page and open up a spot on the 40-man roster.”

Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw are arguably the top two pitchers in the league, and, as Short alluded to, the Dodgers can pitch them multiple times in a short playoff series instead of worrying about the back end of the rotation.

As for Latos, he is set to become a free agent following the season, per Spotrac. It is safe to assume his performance with the Dodgers potentially cost him millions of dollars on the open market, although his track record should earn him an opportunity with another squad.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com


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