Dodgers: Brusdar Graterol Slightly Tweaks his Knee, but Roberts Has a Plan to Help
Brusdar Graterol fans had a mini heart attack on Wednesday night when the Dodgers’ reliever appeared to slip and possibly injure himself on a pitch. The man they call “Bazooka” landed awkwardly while throwing a slider, and proceeded to slowly walk around the mound, smacking his leg once in anger after the incident.
Thankfully, he finished off the inning. Moreover, manager Dave Roberts said his reliever came out of it fine.
Brusdar’s fine, it was something a little bit with the knee. Everything checked out good.
If anything, Brusdar might have been more embarrassed than hurt after the outing. Luckily, Roberts had a game plan to help.
He’s a big strong guy, loves mangoes, so I’ll get him a mango and he’ll be happy. He’ll be fine.
BREAKING: Graterol loves mangoes! Also, get you a manager that cares the way Dave Roberts cares.
All joking aside, the Dodgers can ill-afford to lose another reliever for this final stretch of the regular season. The club has been without Pedro Baez for the last few weeks and without Joe Kelly for the better part of a month. With the recent struggles of Caleb Ferguson and Kenley Jansen among others, Graterol has been one of the more steadying forces in the bullpen for Dave.
Something that, apparently, gets you a mango.
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Even though Jansen gets his saves he is shaky. When does he not put a guy on base? I wait for the day The Bazooka or Trienen become the regular closer.
Dave, I believe Roberts will not make the smart move and go to a closer by committee because it would upset Jansen. It would help the club but Roberts is not a good strategic manager he is a nice guy manager.
Depending on the situation Treinen, Graterol, Floro, McGee have all shown they can get guys out and have for other teams.
I would remove Jansen from the closer spot immediately. There was the near disaster the other night and last week he blew a save before the offense bailed him out. Gatorade looks like the closer of the future. This is not the old lights out Jansen.
Kenley has lost a lot of velocity. He’s still filthy, but unless he regains the velocity. Hitters will not really fear him. They’d rather see him than Graterol or somebody with more velocity. Every time he comes on all the fans sit at the edge of their seats because they never know which Kenley will show up.