Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
So over the last month, 182 hitters have had enough plate appearances to be considered “qualified.”
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Padres
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Dodgers
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7:10 p.m.
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Los Angeles
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1B
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Solarte
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CF
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Pederson
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2B
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Spangenberg
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SS
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Rollins
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RF
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Kemp
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2B
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Kendrick
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LF
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Upton
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1B
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Gonzalez
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C
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Norris
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C
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Grandal
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CF
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Venable
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3B
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Turner
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3B
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Middlebrooks
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RF
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Ethier
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SS
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Barmes
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LF
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Van Slyke
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P
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Cashner (R)
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P
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Greinke (R)
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One of them, Milwaukee catcher Martin Maldonado, has been unfathomably bad, with a .159/.195/.195 line that’s good for a wRC+ of 3. 3! But of course, he’s not supposed to be playing every day. He’s a backup. He’s been pushed into a regular role only because Jonathan Lucroy is injured. The next-worst hitter over the last month? Matt Kemp. It’s hard to talk around a .200/.227/.248 (34 wRC+) line.
Now, obviously, we’re only talking about a few weeks of play, and we’ve already taken a look back at the Kemp trade, and it’s not like the Dodgers haven’t had a terrible time of hitting themselves over the last week. It’s just surprising to see Kemp struggling so badly, because a huge part of the appeal in this trade for the Padres was in 2015. Even those who criticized the deal from the Dodger perspective knew that the back end of Kemp’s remaining contract could be ugly, but since he finished 2014 so well, the idea was that you’d reap some immediate benefits. That hasn’t happened, and it’s been a big problem for San Diego.
Anyway, the Dodgers could use some offense of their own, and it’s not going to come from Yasiel Puig any time soon, apparently…
Puig tried to jog, still had tight hamstring, no return timetable.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) May 22, 2015
…or Carl Crawford:
Carl Crawford is still in Arizona, working out at Camelback Ranch. Oblique still bothering him during some exercises
— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) May 22, 2015
So if you were worried about how to find at-bats for Alex Guerrero or Andre Ethier or Scott Van Slyke, well, some problems aren’t problems. Some problems are problems, though. Being shut out in three straight games, that counts. I personally guarantee the Dodgers will score a run tonight.
In other, far more minor news, the Dodgers have acquired lefty Eric Surkamp, and you know how you know a move isn’t a big deal? When it’s buried at the bottom of a game thread rather than being given a post to itself.
@TBrownYahoo you so just made that name up
— Alden González (@Alden_Gonzalez) May 22, 2015
Surkamp was a 2008 draft pick of the Giants and got into seven games for them before being picked up by the White Sox off waivers following 2013. He got into 35 games as a reliever last year, but was DFA’d in April and was then outrighted off the 40-man. He won’t require a 40-man spot with the Dodgers, so presumably he’s headed to Triple-A; even more presumably, we’ll never talk about him again.
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