Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Happy Independence Day. On this episode of “Dugout Blues,” Jared Massey (Dodger Blue) and I reflect on the 2016 Dodger season, as it is clearly over after Clayton Kerhsaw‘s back injury.
But seriously, the Dodgers are going to need players to step up while Kershaw is out. Particularly some of the veteran players who have struggled this season (I’m looking at you, Adrian Gonzalez).
Corey Seager has not only cemented himself as the Dodgers’ best non-Kershaw player, he’s on his way to becoming one of the best players in the National League. He is so incredibly good. If only the Dodgers had Michael Wacha instead.
Brock Stewart made his MLB debut. He had one bad inning, which you cannot discount. But he looked really good in innings 1, 3, 4 and 5. He was demoted back to Triple-A, but there were plenty of encouraging signs in his outing.
The Dodgers are going to be without Joc Pederson for a couple weeks. He hurt his shoulder crashing into the wall in Milwaukee. While they have the depth to overcome it, it’s too bad because he was having a fairly consistent season to date.
Bud Norris is now a Dodger more out of necessity rather than want, but he was good in his first outing. Let’s just hope he doesn’t say a whole lot while he’s here.
Brandon McCarthy is back! And he was really great in his first outing back from Tommy John surgery. More of that, please.
On the minor-league side, Willie Calhoun and Jharel Cotton got much-deserved invites to the Futures Game (July 10). Yadier Alvarez has been dominant in his first three AZL outings. That isn’t surprising, as he’s way too talented for complex ball. But it’s about building his workload at this point. The Dodgers signed Albert Suarez on the first day of the 2016-17 international signing period. Ben Badler told us of this in the last episode. And Yaisel Sierra has been outrighted off the 40-man roster. His signing has been less than great so far.
To finish, we have a solid Q&A session. Please keep them coming.
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Look for new episodes of “Dugout Blues” every Monday. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and review us on iTunes. We want to make this the best podcast we can so we’re always looking for suggestions and ways to improve.
If you have questions you’d like us to answer or certain topics/players you want to hear more about, feel free to email us ([email protected]) or send us messages on Twitter (@JaredJMassey or @DustinNosler). You can also “Like” the podcast on Facebook. We always welcome audience participation.
