Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
So it’s only May, and the bottom half of the Dodger lineup is Andre Ethier, Alex Guerrero, Enrique Hernandez, Austin Barnes, and Carlos Frias. I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say you wouldn’t have predicted that in March. I think it’s safer to say that you wouldn’t have predicted you wouldn’t be angered by that in March.
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Padres
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Dodgers
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1:10 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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CF
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Venable
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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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RF
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Ethier
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2B
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Spangenberg
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3B
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Guerrero
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3B
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Middlebrooks
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LF
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Hernandez
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Amarista
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C
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Barnes
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P
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Shields (R)
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P
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Frias (R)
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But you’re not, are you? Ethier has been surprisingly good. We all know what Guerrero has done, though he’s got just three hits (all singles) in his last 22 plate appearances. Hernandez’ versatility has been all we’ve expected, since he’s the first Dodger to get starts at LF/CF/RF/SS since Jolbert Cabrera in 2003, and he can play second and third too. Frias has made adjustments that have brought him success, as Brim showed. And while Barnes is probably around only until Yasmani Grandal returns next weekend, it’s still pretty fun to see the last part of the Dee Gordon trade made his big league debut:
Making his @MLB debut today, Austin Barnes. pic.twitter.com/57O6P88Una
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 24, 2015
Austin Barnes is about to make his ML debut for the @Dodgers. You don't know him yet. You will…and you'll like it.
— gabe kapler (@gabekapler) May 24, 2015
Now, less fun is that Jimmy Rollins is still hitting second. On the other hand, Don Mattingly‘s quote is interesting:
Mattingly on shaking up lineup to wake up offense: "So if I take the same 8 guys and put them in a different order you get more runs? (cont)
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) May 24, 2015
That’s going to get him killed among fans, because the knee-jerk reaction is “yes, obviously.” But while I’d love to see Rollins get diminished, as someone who’s long been pushing “batting order doesn’t matter as much as you think it does” — I wrote about exactly that in the May issue of Dodger Insider — it’s hard for me to crush him on it. It’s not the right call to leave Rollins second. It also doesn’t really have that big of an impact, all things considered.
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