Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Finally, it’s here. After 161 games of baseball, the regular season ends today. With home-field advantage locked up, there would be almost no reason to watch this game — odd, especially since Clayton Kershaw is pitching.
|
Padres
|
Dodgers
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
12:10 p.m.
|
Los Angeles
|
|||
|
CF
|
Upton
|
LF
|
Crawford
|
|
|
1B
|
Norris
|
2B
|
Utley
|
|
|
3B
|
Solarte
|
1B
|
Gonzalez
|
|
|
2B
|
Gyorko
|
RF
|
Ethier
|
|
|
SS
|
Barmes
|
SS
|
Seager
|
|
|
C
|
Hedges
|
C
|
Ellis
|
|
|
LF
|
Amarista
|
3B
|
Guerrero
|
|
|
RF
|
Jankowski
|
CF
|
Pederson
|
|
|
P
|
Garces (L)
|
P
|
Kershaw (L)
|
But Kershaw has a chance to add another impressive line to his resume. If he strikes out six Padre hitters, he’ll become the first pitcher to record 300 strikeouts since Randy Johnson struck out 334 and Curt Schilling struck out 316 in 2002. Thirteen years, no 300-strikeout pitchers. Seeing as the overall strikeout rate has been up in baseball, that’s almost unbelievable … until you realize it’s 300 strikeouts.
He truly is amazing and I’m looking forward to what the rest of October (and hopefully/maybe November) has in store.
Despite this being a meaningless game in the standings, the Dodgers are fielding a competitive lineup (hard to say with Alex Guerrero in there, but not even one guy can do that much harm).
/looks at the Padres’ lineup
/sees Clint Barmes batting fifth
/questions everything in life
Today’s manager is Jimmy Rollins. The Dodgers have done this in year’s past in the final game of the season (as long as it didn’t matter in the standings). It was Juan Uribe last year. I’m guessing Rollins put Guerrero in the lineup because he wanted some entertainment outside of the actual baseball on the field. Kenley Jansen is the pitching coach. Fun fun.
In disappointing-yet-maybe-not news…
Source: Giants and Eddie Julio Martinez, ranked #4 on @MLB int'l prospect list, have agreed to a $2.5 million deal. http://t.co/7cqNWTtPTy
— Jesse Sanchez (@JesseSanchezMLB) October 4, 2015
Odd. Kiley McDaniel linked Martinez to the Dodgers just before the July 2 signing period began. He had the bonus being $11 million. It’s odd that Martinez hadn’t agreed to a deal until now, seeing as he is 20 years old and was ranked by MLB.com as the top international prospect available (and has somehow slipped to No. 4). This smells of two things:
- He was overrated/overvalued from the start and was never an 8-digit bonus guy
- Something happened in the last three months to cause his value to plummet
Both are plausible, but I’m inclined to lean toward No. 2 — be it an injury, an off-the-field matter or what have you. My first thought went to Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez, who initially agreed to a $48 million deal with the Phillies. After an injury concern presented itself, he ended up signing for $12 million.
I’m a little disappointed the Dodgers didn’t land him, but I’m sure there’s a good reason they didn’t sign him. It certainly wasn’t because he was priced out of their budget (what budget?).
Finally, this.
#Mets have set NLDS rotation v #Dodgers
Game 1 — Jacob deGrom in LA
Game 2 — Noah Syndergaard in LA
Game 3 — Matt Harvey in NY— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) October 4, 2015
I think this was expected, but it’s now confirmed. Should be a good series.
