After sweeping a two-game series against the San Francisco Giants and an off day on Thursday, the Los Angeles Dodgers were supposed to start a three game series in Chicago Friday against the Cubs. That series will now start now Saturday, after Friday’s game was postponed due to inclement weather.
Friday’s game will now be part of a Saturday doubleheader. the first game will start at 10:05 a.m. and the second game will begin at 4:40 p.m. Pacific.
So, a rare week in which the Dodgers actually didn’t play a game for three days out of the week. However, Saturday will begin a stretch in which they will play 31 games in 31 days. Left hander Tyler Anderson was originally supposed to start the Opening Game of the series Friday; but with a doubleheader, the Dodgers may want to shake things up and it appears they will.
Anderson will start the late game of the doubleheader while Clayton Kershaw is scheduled to start the early game.
For the Cubs, left hander Drew Smyly will start the early game. He’s 1-2 with a 2.79 ERA. In the late game, left hander Daniel Norris will get the start at 0-1 with a 6.00 ERA. The Dodgers will look to continue a three-game winning streak against the struggling Cubs who are 9-15.
The NL West continues to be a surprise this season, as all of the baseball world expected the Dodgers and either the Padres or Giants to be big contenders. However, the whole division has solidified itself as the best in the majors. Every team in the division is at a .500 winning percentage or better as only 4 ½ games separate the first place Dodgers and the last place Diamondbacks.
In other news, the Dodger farm system continues to excel. Michael Busch is having a stellar season at Double-A, and switch hitting catcher Diego Cartaya smacked a homer off of former Cy Young winner Blake Snell in his rehab start over in Single-A.
In the next couple of seasons, the Dodgers will have some big names hit free agency. One of those who will hit free agency after this season is Trea Turner, and he’ll surely have many teams in pursuit of his services. There had been talk before the season of a possible contract extension, but that has not come to fruition.
According to the latest report from Jon Heyman of The New York Post, it has been rumored that Turner may have a preference of playing on the East Coast.
“However, Turner, from Lake Worth, Fla., is said by sources to at first have had a negative reaction to the trade out west and still believed to prefer the East Coast, though some of that may be related to the 2021 position switch, and folks close to him insist he’s settled in and won’t rule out the West Coast.”
Obviously, this is all non official, but one of the bigger key pieces in the trade that brought Turner along with Max Scherzer last season to L.A. was the two years of control the Dodgers had for Turner in case they lost Corey Seager, which they did.
Turner in all likelihood will get a huge deal as he is a career .301 hitter and is the reigning N.L. batting champ.
Dodger baseball will be back Saturday with the first doubleheader of the season.
Dodgers have several infielders that should be ready next year. Busch is 24 and hitting well at AA. Vargas only 22 and has hit everywhere he goes. On the 40-man roster, they have Amaya, Eddy’s, Vivas, & McKinstry. Lux has settled down and has been solid offensively and he originally was a SS. So do they attempt to sign T Turner or give Lux or one of the several Farm guys a shot:? JT, Kershaw, Kimbrel, Price, and Barnes are all on their last contract year. Guys like Beeter, Knack, Pepiot, Jackson, and White are all competing to get a shot. Busch has been surprising as his splits last year against lefties was abysmal and he has turned it around along with walking more. How many of these “Prospects” will thrive in the MLB? No one knows until they get a shot… I would guess Cartaya is 2-3 years away but the way he plays?? And Smith has a firm hold on the position.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Busch, Vargas, Amaya, Eddys Leonard and Vivas all spent next year in the minors. For sure Leonard and Vivas won’t be ready, Amaya probably needs another year, and Busch and Vargas may be determined by the shortstop/2nd base situation, what kind of year Lux has this year and whether we sign Trea (possible), Bogaerts (not too likely) or Dansby Swanson (I don’t think so).
Price will certainly be gone (at last), Barnes will want more than a 1-year deal so he’ll leave, I don’t think AF will give Kimbrel the number of years he’ll want so he’s probably gone, but JT and Kersh could be back, depending upon this year’s performances and health.
Vargas is 22 but Busch is 24 and needs to get to the bigs soon. If the Dodgers decide not to sign T Turner then I believe they will go in-house as they have lots of options in the infield and outfield.
Wow Bellinger heated up and is back to striking out. He is headed for below the Mendoza line again. It has to be mental. Hard to fix that.
Just because Busch is 24, doesn’t mean he gets promoted to the big club. He has to be ready, not in our eyes, but in the eyes of the front office. Yes, I realize that if we go by the Gordon Rule, we have to promote him by next year at the latest or trade/release him, but luckily Andrew doesn’t know about the Gordon Rule. Gordon, please send AF a copy.
I’m in my mid 70’s (wow, that’s a scary thing to actually put in writing). I should have been promoted to the big club 50 years ago. Maybe I missed the phone call. 🙂
Hunter Greene sucks the ruby begonia and we should trade for him. Give them two of our many minor league arms and a shortstop.
The amount of high ranked talent the Dodgers have in the Minors leads me to believe they will not sign or trade for another pitcher for the rotation. May should be back next year. Gonsolin is showing he belongs so next year Urias, Buehler, Gonsolin and May are under contract. Plus you have Jackson, White, Grove, Pepiot, Miller and others competing to get the call to the show.
As usual, you have more faith in the youngsters’ ability to produce quickly than I do Tmax.
You’ve also not included Kershaw, Anderson or Heany, any or all of whom might be back (or might not). If AF doesn’t bring any of those three back, I definitely think he’ll sign another established starter.
White and Jackson have not yet shown they can be major league starters. Grove, Pepiot and Miller, although they all have nice potential (and don’t forget Knack), they haven’t proven anything at the major league level. Friedman is not the kind of guy to just say “I’ve got a bunch of young guys and I’m sure one or two of them will work out this year.”
JMO. I wonder if either of us will remember this conversation on opening day next year so one of us can tell the other “Told you so!”.
I didn’t add Kershaw as his contract is up and do not know if he wants to continue. Is Heaney physically sound? Not sure. Heaney, & Anderson are also on 1 year deals. The Dodgers need to decide if they want to bring some of the young pitchers up or trade them. It’s a long season let’s see what happens.
You are right I like prospects. I have been watching MILB and as many have rated the Dodger minor league they have some good talent fun to watch.
Yes, we have some great prospects, both pitching and position players, and I love to watch them progress also. We just have different time frames as to when we think they’ll get here.
Yes Jeff. So darn hard not to understand the Gordon rule. Never been wrong. I’ll send af a reminder.
switch hitting catcher, caught me eye. Cartaya is strictly a RH hitter.
Good catch Gary. Jose was probably thinking of Ruiz, or maybe he just stuck that in there to see if anyone was reading carefully. I was reading, but obviously not carefully enough.
Is the second game of a double header 7 or 9 innings?
A new name. Welcome Kathi.
All games are 9 innings this year, although they’ll still be using the runner at second base to begin all extra innings.