Archive for Dodgers

I was in the Dodgers clubhouse before a game last week at PNC Park when the Sports Illustrated cover was released featuring Justin Turner immersed in Gatorade, the orange liquid nearly a match for the hue of his iconic mane and facial hair.

The amiable Turner was of particular interest that day due to his cover-boy status. He accommodated round after round of media interviews before his locker in the road clubhouse. The Dodgers have perhaps the largest traveling media contingent in the National League.

I waited not for not an interview but an introduction. As someone who has promoted the Air Ball Revolution, I wanted to express my appreciation for his work and to note our mutual acquaintance, private hitting instructor Doug Latta, who helped Turner rebuild his swing and philosophy. In passing, I asked Turner not about the photo (which is tremendous), but about a passage from the accompanying article by Stephanie Apstein.

[Justin Turner] persuaded a fringe major leaguer with a career .598 OPS to spend last offseason overhauling his mechanics; Chris Taylor, now a starting outfielder, has been L.A.’s best second-half hitter, with an OPS of 1.105. Since Turner assigned right fielder Puig five pushups for every grounder he hit in spring training, Puig has pounded the ball harder than in any season since his first. Turner cues up the curveball machine and challenges 22-year-old rookie first baseman Cody Bellinger to fly ball competitions, with the winner taking home $10 per session. “I’m down a little bit,” Bellinger admits. It’s worth the lighter wallet, though: His .800 slugging percentage on curves is second in baseball. The team as a whole has cut its ground ball rate by 8%, the biggest drop in the league.

I’ve previously explored the idea of how air-ball advocates like Daniel Murphy might influence teammates in positive way, how they might be adding value simply by communicating ideas.

Turner is another.

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Yesterday’s start didn’t work out particularly well for Rich Hill. In his first appearance since bringing a perfect game into the ninth inning and then losing a no-hitter (and the game) in the 10th, the Dodgers left-hander conceded a single to the first Diamondbacks hitter he faced on Tuesday. He also conceded hits to the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh batters he faced. By the time he’d recorded his third out in Arizona, he’d allowed five runs. His club’s win expectancy? Less than 13%.

Hill’s night wasn’t a complete shambles, however. Because, even en route to allowing six runs, he also did this:

What this is, is Rich Hill executing a nearly perfect drag bunt against Zack Godley and the rest of the Arizona infield in the the third inning. This is, of course, unusual — a fact which even the casual viewer might have gathered by the reaction of Dodgers first-base coach George Lombard.

While it’s not uncommon for pitchers to bunt — nearly a quarter of their balls in play as batters are bunts, noted Eli Ben-Porat yesterday for the Hardball Times — almost all of those are sacrifice attempts. Of the 539 successful bunts recorded by pitchers this year, only 45 (or, 8.3%) have resulted in hits — and many of those batted balls ultimately classified as “bunt hits” are actually just sacrifice attempts with extenuating circumstances.

Consider the case of Cardinals righty Carlos Martinez. Martinez currently leads all pitchers with three bunt hits. As one can observe, however, he hasn’t really intended to reach base in any one of those instances.

Here’s one of those so-called “bunt hits,” from May 13th:

A second, from June 5th:

And the most recent one, from August 18th:

All three of Martinez’s bunt hints have actually been squeeze attempts in which the fielder has endeavored to record an out at home. In all three cases, the fielder has failed in that endeavor. As a result, a hit has been assessed — almost by default — to Martinez.

The only other pitcher with multiple bunt hits is Zach Davies. Both of them look very much like the sort for which Carlos Martinez is responsible.

Here’s the first one, from a July 25th game against the Nationals:

And from later that same game, on a play that very much resembles an error, but is apparently not an error.

Between Martinez and Davies, that’s five bunts scored as hits, but never intended to be hits — certainly not in the way Hill intended to bunt for a hit.

The difference, of course, is that Martinez and Davies were batting with men on base in every instance. Hill attempted his bunt with no one aboard. And this, for pitchers, is a much more rare event.

A data query by my colleague Jeff Zimmerman reveals that, including Hill’s attempt last night, pitchers have bunted with the bases empty on just 13 occasions this year. Along with Carlos Carrasco, Hill is the only pitcher credited with two bases-empty bunt attempts.

His first one, back on June 3rd, actually caused some trouble for the Milwaukee defense:

Notably, Dodgers pitchers account for five of the 13 bases-empty bunt attempts — and the only successful one before last night, executed by Julio Urias on May 9th.

Urias’s effort resembled Hill’s from last night:

There’s so much to like about Yasiel Puig, and the season he’s having in 2017. He has a career-high rate of walks, and a career-low rate of strikeouts. He has a career-high isolated power, and he also has a career-high 12 stolen bases. He’s remained, for the most part, totally healthy, even on a team that makes liberal use of the disabled list, and Puig’s even got easy career-best marks in both defensive runs saved and UZR. In so many different ways, Puig’s game is looking more polished. Yet his WAR is simply a hair over 2.

There’s only one thing that has held back that number. I mean, all right, sure, Puig could stand to have a higher BABIP. He’d look better if he gathered some missing singles. But there’s just one area where Puig doesn’t look good. If you know how WAR is calculated, you’re probably one step ahead, but I should issue some quick background context. Some numbers around these parts have changed.

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Daily notes on prospects from lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen. Read previous installments here.

Michael Hermosillo, OF, Los Angeles AL (Profile)
Level: Triple-A   Age: 22   Org Rank: 14  Top 100: NR
Line: 3-for-4, 2 HR, BB

Notes
Hermosillo, a 28th rounder in 2013, was a two-sport high schooler committed to play football at Illinois, but he was coaxed into pro ball by a $100,000 signing bonus. He opened up his stance a bit last year and hit fairly well during an injury-shortened regular season before heading to the Arizona Fall League, where his physical tools measured up nicely compared to some of baseball’s better prospects.

This year, Hermosillo’s in-box footwork has again been tweaked, and he’s deploying a slower, more committed leg kick. Hitters who have deployed a leg kick like this in recent years have noted that it not only unlocks more pull-side power but also improves their timing. This is what seems to have happened for Hermosillo, who’s now more consistent and comfortable in the batter’s box than he was last season. He’s patient, athletic, and might do enough offensive damage to project in more than just a bench outfield role if these changes have truly unlocked previously dormant physical ability.

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PITTSBURGH — FanGraphs alum and MLB.com analyst Mike Petriello authored the following tweet last October. The social-media missive is pinned to his Twitter profile — and rightfully so, because it’s funny, and humor is often rooted in some truth.

The truth, in this case, is that Kenley Jansen has dominated with one pitch like few before him — specifically, with a cutter that he’s thrown 86.0% of the time this year and 88.4% of the time over his carer. Jansen’s usage has invited natural comparisons to Mariano Rivera’s own approach for years. Jansen has become dominant in Rivera-like fashion and now just requires ultimate postseason success to further raise his profile.

I showed Jansen the tweet recently in the visiting clubhouse at PNC Park. To get a better look, he took my iPhone in his massive catcher’s mitt of a left hand and examined it. He could have crushed it like a soda can and returned the fragments to me. I waited in suspense for his reaction.

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PNC PARK — On Wednesday, I approached Yasmani Grandal on something of a covert mission in the visiting clubhouse at PNC Park. I was attempting to extract a candid answer from the Dodgers catcher.

I did not formally introduce myself, though he could surmise I was a reporter from my visible media credential, and possibly from my build and attire.

I began by asking him if he knew where he finished in NL MVP voting last season.

“I heard someone voted for me,” Grandal said.

I asked Grandal what he thought of that vote.

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Rich Hill keeps forcing us to rethink everything.

He has us rethinking how to pitch, finding success even while employing just a fastball and curve — and frequently utilizing the latter as his primary pitch.

Has has us rethinking when it’s appropriate to give up on an arm. Perhaps never, in his case. Hill’s return to the majors — and to a three-year, $48-million deal — began in independent ball two years ago.

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Sometimes it takes a while to really hear an idea. Justin Turner told me something two and a half years ago that only recently clicked. All it took for this idiot to finally understand was an illustration of a bat path, a couple of graphs, and like 10 others players articulating a similar thought. Maybe you got it the first time. The rest of you, though, might benefit (as I did) from hearing it again: go get the ball. It’s that simple, but it’s also not that simple.

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Below are the updated summer top-10 prospect lists for the orgs in the National League West. I have notes beneath the top 10s explaining why some of these prospects have moved up or down. For detailed scouting information on individual players, check out the player’s profile page which may include tool grades and/or links to Daily Prospect Notes posts in which they’ve appeared this season. For detailed info on players drafted or signed this year, check out our sortable boards.

Arizona Diamondbacks (Preseason List)

1. Anthony Banda, LHP
2. Jazz Chisholm, SS
3. Jon Duplantier, RHP
4. Pavin Smith, 1B
5. Marcus Wilson, OF
6. Taylor Clarke, RHP
7. Socrates Brito, OF
8. Domingo Leyba. INF
9. Kristian Robinson, OF
10. Drew Ellis, 1B/3B

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About a month ago, the notion of adding Yu Darvish seemed to be something of a luxury for the Dodgers. After all, not only had the Dodgers emerged as the best team in baseball, they had entered the season with the most pitching depth in the game.

But then Clayton Kershaw was sent to the DL, a place where Rich Hill, Scott Kazmir and Hyun-Jin Ryu have resided at times this season — and where they have been placed often throughout their careers. Read the rest of this entry »