Dodgers News: Yasmani Grandal Impressed By Carlos Frias’ Velocity
With a rotation that’s without two starting pitchers, one being Brandon McCarthy who was lost for the season to Tommy John surgery, and the other Hyun-Jin Ryu whose recovery was slowed and return is largely unknown, the Los Angeles Dodgers have heavily relied on their crop of Triple-A pitchers.
Scott Baker, Mike Bolsinger, David Huff, Carlos Frias and Joe Wieland have all been called on this season as the Dodgers essentially have a revolving door to and from Oklahoma City attached to the final spot on the active roster.
Of the group, Frias is the only pitcher to make more than start for the Dodgers (two), earning his third win of the season in four total appearances. Plenty of focus was on Yasmani Grandal’s outburst that led the Dodgers to a 14-4 win over the Milwaukee Brewers, but the catcher took time to praise Frias’ velocity as the game wore on and development, via J.P. Hoornstra of the LA Daily News:
I thought he wasn’t going to be throwing that hard toward the end, but toward the end he was still 96, 97,” Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal said. “And he’s done that for two games already, where in the sixth inning he’s still just like he was in the first inning — and he’s just getting better. Hopefully he just keeps on going.”
Frias ran into some trouble in the fourth inning Thursday as he allowed four consecutive hits, including a leadoff home run and allowed the Brewers to tie the game. However, with the go-ahead run in scoring position, he got two strikeouts and fielder’s choice to get out of the jam.
The 25-year-old right-hander was 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA and had 15 strikeouts in three games (12.2 innings; two starts) with the Oklahoma City Dodgers and figures to remain in the starting rotation at the Major-League level for the foreseeable future.
Thursday marked the first time with the Dodgers this season Frias has allowed any runs as he’s 3-0 with a 2.13 ERA and 1.18 WHIP over 12.2 innings pitched (two relief appearances, two starts).
Brett Anderson Encouraged By Health And Results
At some point the Dodger front office is going to have to
answer for the 2014 off season. They are in 1st place now so they
are getting a pass. But the time is coming when they will need to patch up off
season mistakes. Lets recap; They traded Dee Gordon and Dan Haren for Andrew Heaney
infielder Enrique
Hernandez, reliever Chris Hatcher
and minor leaguer Austin Barnes. They then used Heaney to get Howie Kendrick.
Hatcher has yet to live up to expectations. So what was the net benefit of the
trade? The Dodgers could sure use a pitcher like Haren now. Kendrick is a .280
gap hitter and Gordon is a 300 slap hitter with great speed who can ignite a
team. The Dodgers tried to diminish the D of Gordon but he has more range and a
stronger arm that Kendricks. http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/fielding/_/position/2b/league/nl/sort/rangeFactor
Dodgers signed two fragile pitchers in Anderson and
McCarthy. Here is a shocker; McCarthty is already gone for the season. Anderson can’t seem to
pitch beyond the 6th
The Dodgers knew they had a problem at S.S. so they picked
up an aging Rollins who was coming off of his career low batting average and
they seem shocked that he is now below .200. He ranks near the bottom in all defensive
categories in the NL http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/fielding/_/position/ss/league/nl.
They have the smooth fielding Aribuena (released), Seager, rojas (since traded). Was this an upgrade?
They traded Kemp for
Grandahl and while Grandal has been hot recently There is nothing in his past
to suggest he will be more than an average or below average catcher. To his
credit he has improved greatly behind the plate. He still has some issues
keeping the ball in front of him and he is throwing out less than 30% of base
stealers. To be fair some of that is due to the pitchers. I find it hard to
believe that that was all they could get for Kemp.
It also appears that part of the reason for trading Kemp was
to give Pederson a clear field. O K so what is the prognosis for Pederson? He
could be a star or bust. He is striking out over 40% of the time. That is not
sustainable. He is getting away with it now because of his HR’S and OBP. Both
of which will decline in short order. Unless and or until he is able to make
better contact he will be a defensive center fielder.
I know Mattingly and certain team leaders are all saying the
right company things but what do you see. What grade would you give the Dodger
front office?
The great John Wooden said never mistake activity for
productivity. The Dodgers were very active but I question their productivity.
I give the front office a D. I do not believe this team is
as good as last year’s team.
The Dodgers front office get a B+/A-.
(1) Dee Gordon is hitting at an unsustainable rate, kind of like April last year. I like Dee and hope he continues to improve but he was not traded for Kendrick straight up. Even if Gordon performs slightly better than Kendrick, you also need to consider the other pieces that were obtained– Kike Hernandez, Hatcher and Barnes, the first two having already contributed and Barnes will probably be called up if AJ continues his (lack) of hitting. The combination of these players (Kendrick, Hernandez, Hatcher, and Barnes) will have a stronger a effect on the team, more so than Dee (and Haren) could do. Dan Haren has been worse than a replacement level pitcher for the past three years.
(2) It’s only been one month and you’re swearing off Rollins. Alot of people were swearing off Grandal too (LOL!!!!) If he doesn’t come around by the ASB, they have in-house options. They have in-house options right now in fact. But Rollins plays because the front office thinks he will pull it together offensively and he provides value defensively. And if he doesn’t, they can go through Hernandez, Turner, Barney before they get to Seager.
(3) Grandal is projected to have a break out year and he’s in the prime of his life. Even before his tear when his BA was hovering below .200, he was making hard contact and still getting on base. I’m not sure why you didn’t include his framing ability. The front office values framing, and he has elite framing ability, so he gets to start.
“There is nothing in his past to suggest he will be more than an average or below average catcher.”
Grandal was a first round pick (12th overall) and was ranked #53 prospect by Baseball America after the 2011 season. He also killed the pitching at all levels in the minors, lol. His only full season of baseball was last year, and he was coming off knee injury.
(4) Whatever Joc provides will be a ++. With his skillset, even if he gets into a slump, he will still walk a ton (you didn’t mention his awesome walk rate) and play awesome defense (you didn’t mention his awesome defense).
(5) Jury’s still out on Brett Anderson, but losing McCarthy makes the front office look bad especially since Shields signed for a lower-than-expected amount with the Padres. They don’t lose that many points with me because they stocked up on enough replacement level starters in AAA and have Zach Lee and Brandon Beachy who will pitch at one point this season. They also have a shit load of prospects they can trade for Hamels or Cueto, if it comes to that. The front office still has options, so I’ll withhold judgment on their ability to put together a rotation until more games have been played.
(6) An FYI on Kemp and the Padres. Grandal has more homers than Kemp. Joc has more homers than Kemp. Kemp plays terrible defense. The aforementioned two players provide more defensive value than Kemp ever will again. Oh yeah, and the Padres have the worst defense (at least outfield defense) in the NL.
You and me both. We watch endlessly as “fans” crap on player after player, finding every which way excuse to say our F.O. sucks. I’ve defended Pederson, Grandal, and our new bullpen to the bitter end ever since the trades and the CF promotions. “Too much pressure on Pederson; he’ll fall flat on his face! Grandal sucks; I want Ellis back! Who are these dead arms in the pen?! We’re no better than last year!” Just walking through flying tomatoes left and right for the last 6 months.
Until they actually start producing, then all the trolls disappear. Funny how that happens. Unfortunately, there will always be one player who will bat 0-4 in a game, so the trolls will always be around. But seeing Pederson hit his 9th dinger, Grandal bat .300, and the bullpen smoking the league is a good feeling. It’s finally refreshing to be at the light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you for fighting the good fight and for knocking some sense into people.
Well said by both of you.
We need to exist in order to prevent all of this ignorance from being spread further.
But seriously, this team hasn’t even begun to flex it’s muscle. Jansen, Puig, and Ryu and whatever they get from the eventual trade of one of our third basemen will catapult this team even further. A boost to the bullpen, rotation and lineup. They’ve been relying on depth and it’s fun to think how far they will go once those 3 players return.
Yeah man, it’s crazy to think that at one point Puig was supposed to carry the bulk of the hitting load, but now that we’re winning despite him being out almost all year is really telling of our depth.
How long do they stick with AJ
Probably until the end of his contract because he’s Kershaw’s best buddy and does alot of behind the scenes work like watching film, studying stats, talking to pitchers that raw numbers simply can’t measure. I’m ready for the Austin Barnes movement though.
How is getting a D a pass? LOL. They are getting an A+.
You realize we have the 2nd best record in major league baseball?
You realize we are the best hitting team in all of baseball? With one of the best bullpens, too?
Funny how all the good production is “unsustainable,” yet all the bad production makes the F.O. horrible.
You want to compare Gordon, ok, but what about Matt Kemp with his one homer this season? What about his horrible defense in the outfield, constantly letting fly balls drop and letting singles turn into doubles? What about Hanley Ramirez predictably going back on the DL? Conveniently forgetting to mention that?
Dan Haren has given up 6 homers in 6 games, and his FIP is 4.62, which is living proof that his low ERA is unsustainable (not to mention his last 6 years he’s averaged a 4.30 ERA).
I invite you visit my blog;
http://harryreed.sportsblog.com/
Is the info in it as bad as your above post?
It is only a bad post if you have a closed mind and are unable to consider new thoughts. The question is are they better team this season than they were last season? You apparently think everything is peachy because they are winning and in 1st place. You may be right. I think it is a question worth asking.
New thoughts? There’s nothing new there. As Alex mentioned above, it’s all been discussed ad nauseum on here since the off season. Certainly everything is not peachy since we have so many guys on the DL, BUT the fact that we are still winning proves that the front office did a great job of making the team deeper than in past seasons. In the last two years, what happened when kemp or hanley or puig was hurt or slumping? What happened when pitchers starting going down? WE LOST. Oddly enough, we’ve got some players hurt, some players slumping, and every night someone else steps up and we have the second best record in MLB. The last two years, we were 9 games back by the all star break. Now, we are 4 games up.
I swear, I just don’t understand what people are still complaining about. This is a good, solid, deep, resilient TEAM. That is a drastic improvement over recent seasons.
Skirting all our questions is being closed minded.
It’s exactly what you wrote above. What was the point?
They also answered to their trades by being 2nd place in all of baseball. If they get a D, what does everyone else get????
I think you got trolled pretty good here. Obviously, this team is better than last year. They upgraded defensively up the middle. They’re getting offensive production 1-8. The bullpen is obviously better. And despite injuries to Ryu, Jansen and Puig, the Dodgers have the 2nd best record in baseball. I don’t expect that clown to respond. “The Dodgers were very active but I question their productivity.” lol