Whenever he comes up to errrr, bat, gets stolen on, runs like a turd going backwards, lets a ball by him, grounds weakly into a DP and walks back to the dugout with that sorry ass, dumbfuck look on his face and immediately looks for the nearest guy to apologize to I want to fucking break something.... anyone else feel this way?
Haven't noticed him do the apology thing but yeah this shit was old after a month. Remember last year and his Godly .230 avg.?
just another reason why Olivo was such a disappointment. they probably wish Ellis would just get hurt, so they could play Butera without everybody crying for Ellis
I have called him, on more than one occasion, the worst catcher in BB....but my friend in FL assures me that the Rays catcher, Molina is worse. How is this possible? Actually, I would rather see Butera there than AJ, and their respective roles reversed. Evidently, that is the most that could possibly happen, at least for now anyway. It's not like if Butera had a game losing PB, we could honestly say, "damn-if AJ was playing instead, he would have blocked that." When you look around MLB, and the catchers we had, fairly recently, and let get away for one reason or another, by whatever means, we....NED...made bad decisions. I liked Beard, don't get me wrong, but is a catcher with Santana's potential (then it was potential-now he's a team leader actually) less important than a third baseman? the guy who catches your pitchers and runs the game essentially seems to be pretty important. I know it's ancient, like me, but you build a team (not counting pitching, of course) offensively with hitting strength at all four corners, and defensively excellence up the middle, starting with your catcher. Your second baseman , ss, and CF can be light hitting, as long as they've got the gloves. We've strayed pretty far from that formula, but have been successful so far. I hope it lasts about another two months.
yeah they would cry...and the organization, in general, IMO, have over rated AJ from the beginning. However, deluge of tears or not, it is Donnie's job to put the best guy out there we have, and to give the team it's best shot. That's why he gets paid the big bucks...if he's worried about "player feelings" moreover, than he should sell tractors in Indiana instead. Let someone else do what needs to be done. It's starting to slip away, and automatic outs and weak D take it's toll eventually, sooner or later, every time, and time is running out...September, man.
IMO, Ellis' one saving grace is his potential to get hot IF we make the playoffs. he did just that last year. he hit .323 with a .400 OBP and slugged .613 in those 2 series. that's basically all we can hope for..and we have to get to the playoffs 1st and foremost.
It's not funny, it's what he does. He's never been that good with a bat, but he's always been pretty good at pitch selection and taking walks. Last year his average dipped but his OBP was still .080 higher. This year his average is even worse but he's still getting his walks. His OBP is only.139 higher than his average, the best differential he's ever had. But couple the low average with the fact that his extra base hits have gone from 44 to 28 to 10 over the past 3 years and it's not a pretty picture. Just for fun imagine Dee Gordon walked at the same rate as Ellis. Gordon has an OBP of .329, only .001 behind Ellis at .330. BUT if Gordon walked the same percentage as Ellis his OBP would be .394 and he'd have roughly 90 walks. And what would that do for his stolen base totals??? Instead of 58 stolen bases, assuming his percentage stayed the same, he'd have 77!
He is seeing the highest rate of fastballs in the game and yet he still can't do anything with them. I like the guy Ellis is, but he is not a starter in this league anymore. He looks worn down and overused. He turned it on in the playoffs with the bat, but you could tell he was worn out with how his play behind the plate started to struggle mightily(his pitch framing was downright inexcusable). Catcher is our organizations biggest long term weakness, may be time to make a move with the future in mind.
well, here are a couple options that could be real..starting with Zunino out in Seattle. is there a package that could net Zunino? i believe so. if Kemp continues to rebuild his value, Dodgers could sell high on him and Seattle's had interest in him. now, a good portion of Dodger fans don't want to dump Kemp now..which was totally predictable. when he was sucking, it was easy to say " we'll sell high when he comes back! " but now that he's actually returning to form, fans are gettin clingy. now, i doubt that a revitalized Kemp for Zunino deal would work straight up, but i think it would get conversations going in a positive direction..Seattle would probably like to have a bit more because Zunino's so young and giving up a young, up and coming catcher with his tools is tough. but you'd have to say that these teams could be a match..especially since we have young Seager. now, would i give up Kemp and Seager for Zunino..if it were me and Seattle asked for the younger Seager, i'm going back to them with my own list and it'd start with either Tijuan Walker or Paxton..first thing i'm looking to do is lock down the #4 spot in the rotation with a major league ready, young fireballer. if the Dodgers believe Hanley will embrace a role at 3B, and be good enough there, it may make moving C.Seager a bit easier. point is, i believe these two teams could work something out that's fair for both ( with us maybe giving up a little more). it'd leave Seattle with a hole @ catcher, but Matt Wieters will be a free agent soon and that leads me to our next option.. Matt Wieters. instead of getting into big trade discussions with Seattle..the Dodgers could cross their fingers and just hope that Wieters' arm is alright and lock in on him. Baltimore has a young catcher that's currently breaking out in Caleb Joseph and the Orioles are cheap..they'll likely be moving Wieters before he gets to free agency after next season. Baltimore may just be the place to dump Crawford and Ethier if the Dodgers are of course willing to eat a large portion of the money. and Baltimore needs a left fielder and of course they have the DH over there..Ethier and Crawford could fit in. Baltimore may want a young prospect or two to go along with those two though. Wieters, if healthy and ready to go, is of course one of the game's best defensive catchers and will basically give you 20HR on average to boot. basically, what i'm looking for here is long term/high caliber solutions for the most important position on the field..no more of these stop gap bums. we deserve better..we're the Dodgers..we used to be known for our catchers. by hook or by crook, it's time to get back to that.
..to add, and now that i'm thinking about it..our front office may not have to give up more than Crawford, Ethier and load of cash for Wieters. think about it..and i said this a long ways back on the David Price/trade subject..the league-wide expectation is that David Price is gonna end up signing with us, so the price for him in trade talks ( talks that didn't involve us) wasn't very steep. no one was willing to dump a load of prospects on Tampa for a rental. now, if the Dodgers once again flex a little power on the future free agent market and make Wieters their marked man..the same may happen with him when it comes to trade talks with Baltimore. the asking price in terms of the return Baltimore asks for may drop..we'd just have to see if they were willing to work with us in ways that Tampa wouldn't. but eventually, the winter of 2015 will come and he'll likely be available one way or another. ..too add about Kemp and his availability as well..i think a good portion of that will come down to his attitude towards moving to left field because that's gonna be his spot whether he likes it or not. Joc, as we all expect, is the future center fielder and we all know who the natural RF is on this team. it really wouldn't surprise me if Kemp started crying about LF again..our front office needs to get ahead of that and when teams call about Kemp, try to stay below the radar and manage the situation before both Stewart and Kemp start complaining and putting the screws to their trade leverage.
you can be different, but you better win the more you stray from the old bones the weaker the new body will be orthodoxy is where you go when all the new stuff gets old
crawford and ethier might be box office draws due to name recognition in a place like baltimore sadly we can give them ellis too to teach their rookie how to have a long mlb career even if he turns out to not be able to hit defend or throw very well
We're stuck with AJ until 'something' else happens when it does... trade his ass for a 6 pack and it doesn't need to be cold.
Well, it's true as Cap'n posts, we will have AJ, like it or not. And I think I heard/saw/dreamed that Fedex was hitting quite well. But on the light side, AJ does seeem better lately, and is making contact more frequently at least. I don't know about the D, but never look a gift horse in the mouth, they say...
