DODGERS NEWS/RUMORS Thread

99 pitches in an intrasquad game?

 

• There is growing belief that the Dodgers could be active in pursuing a starting pitcher at the deadline and that would make a lot of sense. Right now the Dodgers staff is incredibly thin on the veteran presence front and may need to look for someone to slot in behind Kershaw and Buehler. The problem is that with the expanded playoffs, there are very few actual sellers at this time and even less with viable starting pitching options that they're willing to trade. The biggest names being floated are said to be Lance Lynn and Taijuan Walker, with names like Mike Clevinger, Johnny Cueto and Kevin Gausman expected to also be discussed. Clevinger would easily be the most exciting, but he is not expected to come cheap by any standards even with his Covid misstep. While Lynn is continuing his resurgence in Texas, his history of being horrific in the postseason could draw pause from contenders(except for when he has pitched against the Dodgers) and he is steadily outperforming his metrics. Cueto, Gausman and Walker all look like guys that would be at the bottom of a good rotation at this point. Walker is getting all sorts of love for the way he handled the Dodgers last week even though in 5 starts, he has had two absolute duds paired with 2 stellar outings and really just a very solid one against the Dodgers. We are going to have to get REALLY creative in all likelihood to add to our rotation. BTW, MLB.com believes the Dodgers will acquire Lynn.

• The early talk is centered specifically around relief pitching according to reports. The Dodgers are not expected to dive into this market even with Kelly and Baez out at this time.

• There is some speculation that the Dodgers could make for an interesting landing spot for J.D. Martinez. His bat has started to wake up the past couple of weeks and there is some belief the team could be looking to reunite him with hitting coach Rob Van Scoyoc. The Red Sox are looking for salary relief and due to the Betts trade, the Dodgers may know of some players that could be intriguing to the Sox in a PTBNL scenario. Only way this would make sense to me is if the Dodgers found a place for Joc Pederson, but that is hard for me to see with how absolutely horrific he has looked this season. The other idea here would be the Dodgers could fear they are not going to get the starting pitching they need and have to load up with bats.

• With that said, Roberts has said that this has been the quietest trade deadline that he has had with the club. That could always be him posturing, especially with the way the roster is constructed, but it would also make sense with the type of players the club has brought to the Alt site. I have a hard time seeing too many of the players that are there being actually made available via trade. Like I mentioned above with the Martinez thing, the team could be looking more at clubs they have a history with to explore the PTBNL route.

 

The quote I saw on mlb.com linking Lynn and the Dodgers was from Ken Gurnick saying "...why not Lance Lynn?" It suggests to me that there is no insider reason to believe the Dodgers will trade for Lynn, beyond it being a good fit. I'm on the fence as I think a move like that would be just as likely to block a surge from one of our young guys as it would save us in the playoffs. But when I think about it, I'd gladly welcome Price into the rotation right now, and from both a cost-saving and performance perspective Lance Lynn is probably better than Price in both. So why not Lance Lynn (or the guy who ate Lance Lynn)? Clevinger is the only other pitching name I find intriguing. While Walker's game against the Dodgers wasn't bad, I didn't come away super impressed either. He benefitted from a generous strike zone in that game, and I never felt like he was dominant throughout the start.

JD Martinez almost makes too much sense for the Dodgers. The Dodgers don't have a true DH (most teams don't) and while that works well for the season when you can use the DH slot to rest guys, in the playoffs where rest is not as important, it would be a game changer. Martinez would be a huge upgrade in this lineup, and that's hard to find with our team. If the team needs to move Joc Pederson to make this happen, I don't think that would be an issue at all, there are plenty of landing spots for Joc. The bigger complication would be the 2 years remaining on his contract at $20m/year. If the DH is here to stay (I think it is, but there's no guarantee) then it works great, but if not Martinez loses some luster after 2020.

 

The piece I was mentioning was some MLB.com prediction thing. I do remember now reading that Gurnick piece as well. The big issue for the Dodgers rotation is not necessarily blocking a kid, but instead having potentially rookies going for you in games 3 and 4 of a series. No matter how great those guys have been, that is asking A LOT from a rookie and making your path a bit muddier to a championship. I think the idea would be let a rookie get game 4 this year and then introduce the other next year if they can crack the rotation. I think Lynn would be an upgrade for us at the moment, I am just super wary of his postseason past.

As for Martinez, that would be fun and the Dodgers have a decent bit of money coming off the books this year where they could make it work even if the DH does not come back. Sadly that could mean the end of Turner in Dodger Blue, though I really don't know how they don't go to a full time DH now. The more I thought of it, I came away thinking that maybe you could make it work with Joc sticking around.

RF Betts
SS Seager
3B Turner
1B Bellinger
DH Martinez
2B Muncy
CF Pollock
LF Joc
C Smith

That would be an absolutely brutal lineup and if Joc turns things around(as well as Muncy, Belli and Martinez), no pitcher would get through that order 3 times in a game and bullpens could get very burnt out. Not sure what it would take, but man would that be a fun lineup to watch.

 

Great opportunity to build him up.

 

Too bad they aren't looking for a manager that they can win with, no matter who they get to bolster wherever...
Unless the firepower they can assemble is just simply s-o- o overwhelming, they can't lose.
Like Hillary in 2016...

 

LOL yeah, I didn't even want to write a lineup with Martinez in it out fear it would look too good. You can potentially throw Lux into Joc's spot in the lineup, and I think the defense would improve.

 

It was just announced that Clevinger will start tomorrow's game for the Indians.

 

So the rumor is that the Indians could move Clevinger for high-end major league outfield talent with several years of team control. That begs the question, would we consider moving Chico for Clevinger?

 

So you’re firmly in the “don’t trade Chico” camp? I can respect that.

 

#LetChicoHit

 

Bext record in ML in spite of themselves. The LAD, like no other team can be so great, while simultaneously sucking in so many areas.
Imo the pitching is very suspect, in spite of the early successes. Kershaw is looking good, but the clock runs forward and can't be turned back forever.
Buehler has one win, becoming a high pitch commodity, and goes from 11 Ks to really mediocre or less.
May a kid learning ojt, and only a powerful lineup allows the big league baptism.
Stripling and Urias are pretty bad, for whatever reasons, and both commit the cardinal antithesis of what a ML should do when the team gives him a lead and advantage. Almost without fail.
I think that if allowed to continue ( and Wood is far from legit help), the lead will dwindle, perhaps even eventually disappear. The shallow game innings that the SPs give in most cases, will wear down the BP to a nub, as sure as hell.
There are teams with renewed purpose that are legit challenges, and the defense looks pretty fucking far from OK, to use a great line from Pulp Fiction. Definitely not championship calibre.
I 'm always wary of Jansen. No matter how good he is for a block of games, there is always a blown save lurking in the near shadows. Like looking into the beautiful brown eyes of a German Shepherd, but aware that a hungry wolf is in that DNA behind them.
We can wallow in a .700 winning percentage glory all we want on here, and so can Orel and Joe- it's their jobs -essentially. But Andy and whoever has has input better get serious about these holes, that right now, are being negotiated very well, but could be canyon- like by post.
Oh, and really, fuck Kike and his Steve Sax psycho throws.
Oh, and don't forget to tell Belt about Kenley's great " soft contact rate".
Oh, and please make Dave go away.

 

Here's the RH stick we've been yearning for.