Game of the Week: April 24: LAD @ SF

[Commissioner Erick]

Los Angeles Dodgers (14-5) @ San Francisco Giants (12-7)


LAD: Rich Hill (3-0, 1.80)
SF: Drew Pomeranz (2-1, 4.50)


Despite baseball rebranding from the MLB to the PBA, some things stay the same. Once again, the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers do battle with each team a favorite for the National League West.

This will be our first time seeing the Giants this year. In a division with potent offenses in Los Angeles and Colorado, the club has made a conscious effort to really go after starting pitching. Adding to a talented staff of Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, and Jeff Samardzija, San Francisco made two separate deals to land Daniel Norris and tonight's starter Drew Pomeranz. Norris has been excellent to begin his Giants career. Pomeranz? He's held up half of his end of the bargain.

Pomeranz has some of the most extreme splits in the league. Among 139 pitchers who have faced at least 25 left-handed hitters and 25 right-handed hitters, Pomeranz is tied for 11th in left-handed average against, 10th in slugging against, and is 23rd in OPS against. All of these are pretty good!

Against right-handed hitters, he's 10th worst in right-handed average against, 9th worst in on-base percentage against, and 18th worst in OPS against. That's pretty bad!

In fact, it's the third largest average increase, sixth largest slugging increase, and fifth largest OPS increase against right-handers from left-handers in the majors. Long story short, teams should avoid using lefties and should stack righties against Pomeranz. He's an excellent fastball curveball pitcher, but his changeup is spotty. When on, he has a pitch that can neutralize righties, but when off, righties can get a decent look at Pomeranz' release point on his fastball and curveball without risk of being fooled with a change.

With only three lefties in their starting lineup against most lefties, the Dodgers could be in position to take advantage of that. They have an .852 OPS against lefties so far. That's best in the National League, but it comes in the second fewest number of at bats. Corey Seager is a good enough hitter to hold his own against left-handers, and Joc Pederson has power against hurlers from any side.

Plus, the Dodgers offense has come to life since the last time we saw them. They scored only one run on the Game of the Week two weeks ago, and were shut out in their next game. That dropped their runs-per-game average to 3.3. Since that shutout, they've averaged 6.0 runs per game, culminating in 27 runs scored in a weekend sweep of Arizona.

Any kind of offense will make the Dodgers a powerhouse with the pitching they have. They're first in starting pitching ERA, and their starter tonight is no exception. Rich Hill is 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA in the early going. He profiles very similarly to Pomeranz in that he has a devastating curveball and doesn't have a great third pitch against righties. His curveball is so good that it's not much more ineffective against right-handers than left. He's just more willing to spike it to avoid the heart of the plate. He's coming off 8.1 scoreless innings against Colorado and will look to keep the momentum going tonight.


Questions for the GMs:

For Troy Allenbagh, your team has a few minor injuries. Will Yasmani Grandal move to the DL? What about Franklin Gutierrez? With Austin Barnes moving to catcher perhaps, who becomes the designated hitter?

Corey Seager isn't just a great player, he's one of the handful of best players in baseball. How easy is it for you to pencil in a lineup knowing he's going to be in the middle of it producing terrific production

Pomeranz is known to be very tough on lefties. How to you orient your lineup to take advantage of his relative weakness against righties?

For Samuel Rutledge, your offense has only three players with double-digit home runs. One will be on the DL for three months, one is hitting .176, and the third has an OPS of .621. How do you find ways to score without a fearsome power hitter?

The Brandon Crawrod injury is a serious one. He's a good power hitter and a tremendous defender. Who gets his spot at shortstop tonight?

You signed Che-Hsuan Lin from Taiwan this offseason. Tell the fans what kind of player he is if they haven't heard of him before.

[dodgerstroy]

I wish I had time to reply..... 30 second response. Kershaw was moved up to pitch this game, Bellinger was brought up for his first action in the Major Leagues and Grandal will sit out this week but not move to the DL. Guti went on the DL and may never play again in LA.

[Commissioner Erick]

Whoa, Bellinger's debut AND Kershaw moved up!

[rutledge]

Pence should come around and be a home run threat at some point. Other than that, there's maybe a couple of guys who could have double digit bombs. Home runs won't be a focus for us, but you might see some moves for power guys at some point. Having so many guys who can hit .280+ with at least an average amount extra base hits should be good enough to produce runs, especially when arroyo comes up. 

Adrianza will be taking his spot after a trade to the Twins. Plus defender at short, and he's hits lefties hard. Should be serviceable against righties too.

Che-Hsuan Lin flew under the radar hard during free agency. His bat is nothing to be excited about, but he has great plate discipline. He should be an average hitter at peak, but more than likely you'll see a .650 - .700 OPS. What makes him exciting is he'll probably still collect 3+ WAR. His defense is up there with the best, making almost no errors and he's got an absolute cannon.

Also, decided to move MadBum up should make this more interesting.

[Commissioner Erick]

Dodgers 8 Giants 4

WP: C. Kershaw
LP: D. Pomeranz


The Los Angeles Dodgers made sure to move up Clayton Kershaw's start to try to take the opener of a four-game set with the San Francisco Giants. As it turns out, with Cody Bellinger now in the majors, they didn't need Kershaw.

Cody Bellinger homered in his first major league game, the Dodgers knocked Drew Pomeranz out after 4 innings, and the Dodgers won 8-4 despite Clayton Kershaw not having his best start.

Called up to provide more beef to an offense that was turning the corner, but a bit banged up, Bellinger showed why baseball fans are drooling over his potential. He turned around Drew Pomeranz, who was murder on lefties, and took him deep for a home run in his first major league plate appearance.

Pomeranz' at bats against right-handers were hinted towards being a key factor in the game. As it turns out, both lefties and righties went 2-8 off him with a pair of home runs, with those home runs being the key. Two home runs in four innings in too many, as he allowed a three-run home run to Justin Turner in the third to make it 4-2 Dodgers. Pomeranz stayed on in the fourth as the Dodgers sent out two lefties. He retired the side, but it was his final inning of a disappointing start—4 innings, four runs, two home runs.

That normally would have been more than enough offense for Clayton Kershaw, but he wasn't his dominant self. He had trouble finding his command early, going to three balls on Eduardo Nunez, giving up a hit to lefty Denard Span, and following that with a home run to Buster Posey. He sat down Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt on ground balls after that, but it wasn't the best start.

The third inning was a key inning for Kershaw. He gave up a single to Nunez and Buster Posey had a second hit. However with two outs and two on he got Hunter Pence to swing and miss at an 0-2 pitch out of the zone, to strand two runners with the score 4-2.

That third inning allowed Kershaw some rope in a shaky sixth inning. After Span grounded out, Posey hit a ground single the other way to get something going with the Giants down 5-2. Pence boomed a double to get Posey to third before a ground ball got him in. Conor Gillaspie doubled in Pence to make it 5-4, and Kershaw was done. Sergio Romo came in, and with the pitch of the game, froze Jae-gyun Hwang with a 3-2 slider on the inner part of the plate, stranding a man in scoring position in the process. The strikeout closed the book on Kershaw who went 5.2 innings allowing four runs in eight hits. He didn't walk anybody, but only fanned four.

While Romo got a huge out in relief, Derek Law was miserable, allowing the Dodgers to blow things open. Adrian Gonzalez, who may lose some playing time with Bellinger's presence, dumped a single to lead off the frame. Austin Barnes walked with one out before a rope of a single by Corey Seager loaded the bases. Law struck out Turner, who homered off him earlier, to get to two outs. Yasiel Puig, who homered earlier, worked a bases loaded walk to make the score 6-4. Bellinger had his second big hit, a ground single to right to plate two runs and make it 8-4.

Romo worked a scoreless inning in the seventh, Grant Dayton worked around two baserunners to get through the eighth, and finished up with a scoreless ninth to preserve the win.


Questions for the GM's:


For Troy Allengbah, you called up Cody Bellinger to make his debut, and it was obviously an unforgettable one. You pivoted from your stance of not wanting to rush him. What changed?

You pushed up Kershaw to and he looked a bit more hittable than usual. Why did you bump him over Hill?

Sergio Romo was fantastic in retiring Hwang. What's it like in having a former closer like that working your middle innings?

For Samuel Rutledge, you gave Jae-Gyun Hwang the start while Ehire Adrianza gets acclimated after the trade. He went 1-4 and struck out in a pivotal spot. What is he providing for you?

For all the spectacular defense he provides, Che-Hsuan Lin has not had a single RBI in 67 plate appearances this year. Is he a liability at the plate?

Buster Posey had a mammoth day with four hits, including a home run. For the way your roster is comprised, lacking premium power hitters in the lineup, how important is it for Posey to play well?

[rutledge]

I didn't want him to start. Adrianza is my primary SS until Crawford gets back, I just assumed my manager would stick him in there, because Hwang isn't exactly great. Not that it would have changed much.

Yes, Lin is a liability at the plate, as I mentioned earlier. I highly doubt he ends the season with 0 RBI, I'd expect around 40-50. He currently has a 7.6BB%/20.7SO%, which is fairly close to average. His .234 BABIP is driving his stats way down and is extremely unsustainable. I'd also expect to see him steal way more bases & be a threat on the basepaths.

Buster is the only real star hitter in the lineup. If he doesn't play up to expectations, I can't expect this team to have a shot at the playoffs.

[Dodgers Press Release]

The Giants are a streaky team and if you let them have confidence they will can quickly take a series away from you. I moved up Kershaw to try and shut them down early, not that Hill couldn't have done it, but come on it's Kershaw. No team wants to play against him.

As for Bellinger, we still plan on not rushing him but the timing of the Giants being in town and the combination of injuries and some players needed a rest we felt it was the perfect time to showcase his talents. He is fully aware that this trip to the show is limited as he still has a few more things to learn in AAA before he becomes the star we believe he will be.

[Commissioner Erick]

Bellinger dominates in his debut and will get sent back to the minors. Crazy!