Padres @ Dodgers Sept. 8, 2014: Is It October Yet?

You’re going to want to watch Odrisamer Despaigne tonight.

	Padres			Dodgers
	7:10 p.m.			Los Angeles, Ca.
3B	Solarte		2B	Gordon
RF	Liriano		SS	Ramirez
2B	Gyorko		1B	Gonzalez
C	Rivera		RF	Kemp
1B	Grandal		LF	Crawford
LF	Medica		CF	Puig
CF	Maybin		3B	Uribe
SS	Amarista		C	Ellis
P	Despaigne (R)		P	Kershaw (L)

Normally I don’t kick off game threads with news about the other team — we’ll get to Dodger stuff in a second — but Despaigne is kind of fascinating, maybe moreso than we knew when we first saw him in July. That was the 27-year-old’s fourth major league start, and since then we’ve learned a few things about him. He doesn’t throw hard, rarely topping 90. He doesn’t strike many out, whiffing only 16.3% of hitters, and he has decent but not elite control.

All in all, I don’t think Despaigne has a long career as a starter ahead of him, but he does have a lot of pitches. According to Brooks, he throws: 1) fourseam fastball 2) sinker 3) cutter 4) curve 5) slider 6) slow curve 7) change, and I’m not even convinced that’s all of it. There’s just not a lot of pitchers like that in the big leagues, and that’s pretty fascinating. Now let’s hope the Dodgers smash his head in. In a baseball sense, of course.

As for those Dodgers, some small bits of news: Carlos Frias, who looked good in his first and only big league start last week against Washington, is not being considered for a second one, says Don Mattingly. Why? Because apparently Mattingly likes him better in the bullpen, as a setup man, and considering the issues the bullpen has had, maybe that’s not a terrible idea. It’ll be interesting to see what situation Frias next gets a chance to pitch in. Onelki Garcia, who has missed basically the entire year aftr elbow surgery, is reportedly “healthy and ready to go,” so we may yet see him as well.

Oh, and Clayton Kershaw is pitching against the one of the worst hitting teams in baseball, so that should be fun. Make it fun, please.

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