Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Los Angeles Dodgers | Profile & Projection | 639

Episode Date: March 25, 2023

The Los Angeles Dodgers lost a LOT of guys, but they won 111 games last year! How can they avoid an early postseason exit with a slightly new-look squad?Use code JOMBOYPRESEASON for 15% off your next purchase at SeatGeek* https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/JOMBOYPRESEASON*max discount $50, expires 3/31/2023 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Maggie Roe. What's going on? Everybody, welcome to another team profile and projection here on talking baseball, which is brought to you by Seat Geek. We have Treves Dodgers. Oh, baby. Jay, can you tell us what the Dodgers were up to this off season? Not much.

Los Angeles, Dodgers, Vanaheim. 111 wins last year. That's good. That might be more than your team's ever won in a season. 51 losses. They won the NOS, but they lost to the fathers. Three games to one in the DS. Who they added.

Now, they did add some fellers. Noah Cindergarde, sure. Why not? Tap into it. J.D. Martinez, good first half last year. The freight train, David Peralta, hurts our snakes to see him in that jersey. Alex Reyes,

Miggie Roan a trade. JP fire hydrants there. And a couple other vets are hanging around. Jason Hayward on the minor league deal. Stephen Dougger barely know her. Who they lost? You know a lot of these guys. Trey Turner.

Team USA's Trey Turner. Tyler Anderson goes cross town to light it up for the halos. Justin Turner. Not in a Dodgers uniform anymore. Cody Bellinger. Chris Martin, the heen dog. Kimbril. We gallo.

Tommy Canley, Edwin Rios, Bowers technically gone. David Price retired. I'm handsome Hanser, Alberto. A lot of pieces out for the Dodgers. That people are kind of wondering,

is this a new Dodgers squad? What's the, what's that lineup look like, Trev? Because I know the top's still good. They lost a lot of people. Oh, my goodness. That's like an all-star team

worth of people, but they have an all-star team in their lineup as well. Mookie. bets, you know them, you love them. He's also doing it for Team USA. Freddie Freeman, he'll be there forever.

He played with Canada. How about that? Will Smith behind the plate, Max Muncie at third base, J.D. Martinez, D.H. It's always weird. I forget the D.Hs in both leagues. When did that happen?

I'm an old man. I forget things. David Peralta comes over. He'll be in the outfield. Trace Thompson. He'll be in the outfield. Playing center most likely. Miguel Vargas. We're going to have a rookie at Saturday.

Are we doing that? And then our guy, Miggie Rose, stepping in for Gavin Lux. We'll be at shortstop on the bench. You got Austin Barnes. He can play a little bit of everywhere. Chris Taylor's going to play a little bit infield, a little bit outfield. Yoni Hernandez. Is Jason Hayward going to make this team? The lineup is very top heavy, James. It's good. You know they're going to get the job done. What about that rotation in the bullpen, though? Well, you got some injuries. Walker Bueller had Tommy John, so he's still out. Tony Gonsland sprained his ankle. I spread him an ankle three times as a youth. So that leaves the rotation right now as Clayton Kershaw. He's good.

Julio Urius. Very good. Noah Cindergarde. Good for him. Dustin May. and I have questions about him because I think there are questions and Dodgers fans, you obviously know more than us

about your team, so let us know. Are they going to limit his outing starts? He's returning. It seems like there's got to be some sort of handle with care situation there. And then I have read this person, oh, Pepio. Okay, Ryan Pepio. I've always read it, but I'm not positive.

We have a pronunciation guide here. Pipeat. Pepiott. Ryan Pappiott. You know, Pepio, that's cool. he slides in in the fifth spot. But they got so many names like prospects at Gavin Stone, Michael Grove.

Who's your dude that's been untouchable for them for a little bit, Trev? Bobby Miller, he's been dealing some shoulder injuries. He got sent down to mind the camp. But yeah, eventually, yes, he's ready. They got a lot of options, man. I think the Dodgers coming off 111 win season, they did lose guys. this is a very interesting year because we've, you know,

we've schemed up are they waiting for Otani next off season and they're going to make him superstar of the world and give him half a billy. What scares me in a good way for Dodgers fans is a lot of young dudes are knocking on the door. We talked about some of the pitchers. Pepio, I mean, Dustin May, like, should count. He's 25 this year.

We've just seen him since he's 21. Andre Jackson, Michael Grove, Gavin Stone. I think these are guys we're going to see this year, and guess what? If you're in the Dodgers org, I don't think you can, like, skate by and sneak your way into the bigs for the Dodgers. I think those guys, along with Vargas,

who's going to be playing some infield for them, like I think we're about to see the first year, of like a new generation of the Dodgers. Like we just saw, you know, Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger tap out. We've seen a couple other guys in the recent years that I think it's going to be bad news for the NL West that we're seeing a new young core with the Dodgers

because they can build around it so easily with their financials as well. It's just how different does that actually feel over 162? Because, man, it feels like this franchise has mastered the 162 game season, We kind of haven't seen from any other franchise ever. They've always been able to call people up and have them play at above replacement level. That's what we always say over the Dodgers. It's always been true.

They're going to have to have it be done again this year. And the more and more you look at that Miguel Rojas move, the more you're like, thank goodness they did it if you're a Dodgers fan. I think he's going to step in and give you stability at shortstop. Is he going to light the world on fire offensively? Probably not, but he's going to give you a everyday shortstop that you're not going to be afraid when the ball is hit to him, and that is something that you need.

So I like that move a lot. And now we start to talk about all these young guys. We talk about Shohei. A lot of young pitchers knocking on the door. I mean, if you're trying to pry Showhay away before the end of the season, you're going to have to give up some of those guys. Like it's, that's a real world scenario that we see Show Hay over there by the end of the year. And then we're talking about a completely different Dodger team.

Yeah, it's kind of like the elephant that everyone is looking at in the room for the Dodger. this season. There's one, it's like, okay, how are they going to win the division again with a, it's a different formula, it's younger guys like Jake Sang. And then two, it's, what are they going to offer for Shoah if the angels are in a position to move show A in the middle of the season? Because that's kind of like, whatever, two collision course of like, they're going to offer a lot. They should, they can also, they also might make moves at the end of spring training. I don't know if they already did when this comes out or not, but, you know, because they had some guys go to the World Baseball Classic,

they've had other people step up. Outman is hitting the ball hard and making waves and names this whole time. Does that allow them to move Trace Thompson or someone to get another option at short or something else in depth because they know this kid's going to come up at some point, hit the ball hard for him and be in center field? I don't know. I just think it's kind of like, like Jake said,

it feels at least for me like a turning point of, okay, we saw that five-year window of the Dodgers and they were awesome and they got the 2020 win. Now this is, the page is going to turn before you realize it by probably the end of this season or halfway through next year. You're like, shit, man, this is a whole new team. And they're still just as good.

That's, I think, what we're going to be feeling. Mooky Betts and Freddie Freeman's Dodgers, which a couple years ago. Yeah. Seemed unreal. Does. Mookie's been playing second in the World Baseball Classic. You see anything out there, winked at DeRosa after making a nice. stab at a ball?

Is he going to, like, what are they doing? They keep saying that. They keep saying that, yeah, he could be an answer. I don't understand why you have other guys that feel like could step up and do it. Is it going to be a situation that we just talk about with the Yankees where some days is going to happen? And some days we're going to look out of the Dodgers lineup and be like, what the max monseys going on here?

Probably. And that's what they do well, though. You know, they can mix a match out there. They do have some depth. Guys that can play multiple positions. I mean, you got a guy named Chris Taylor can play pretty much anywhere. He's going to be all over. place. So we are going to see some funky lineups, I think, from the Dodgers this year.

But I think there, we always got to give credit to the player development side because when the guys come up, they seem to be ready to play in the big leagues. And it's going to be that way again for them this year, for sure. And I think I want to change the whole tone of all of this because we're showhays and, you know, these young guys, who are they? This team was first in starting pitcher ERA last year. They were second in relief pitcher ERA last year. They were first in OPS last year.

So, hey, I know Justin Turner was the heart and soul of that team. He had a really slow first half. He had an awesome second half. Trey Turner actually had kind of a down year for Trey Turner. Still a very nice season. Gallo didn't click over there. Cody has been struggling to hit the past couple years. Like, at end of the day, you're talking about the number one OPS team,

the number one pitching team. I think they've got some opportunities for guys to click. like think about what they did with Heaney and Tyler Anderson last year. This organization is on another level with how they take care of veterans. Like, I don't know. I'm half expecting to see Jason Hayward or Miggy Rojas making like an all-star campaign. Like this team knows how to tap into veterans. They know how to tap into kids.

And most importantly, they run the world on pitching. So if this team could take a step back in pitching, be top five in starting pitching. and bullpen pitching. And guess what? That still makes you one of the best teams in baseball. This team's a factory, man. Losing Trey Turner and Gavin Lucks is big, though.

You lose Trey Turner out of your lineup. I know a down year for him was still, what, 4.9 more. He drove in 100 for you. In the shortstop position, I mean, this is something that's not easily replaced. And Miggi Rojas, like, I love him very much. I think he's going to be fine there, but he's not Trey Turner.

So it's going to be an interesting year. I think most Dodger fans that I taught through are a little nervous about this year. Kind of they're a little because they don't care about the regular season anymore either. Like they're kind of over that. They want to know what this team is going to look like in the postseason and then they can get the job done

in the postseason. They're at that point now. You talk about they just show up and win 100 games. I think fans out here are kind of like, okay, that's not enough for us. Like postseason or World Series or bust is definitely what they have going on here. I think that's what the fans care about here.

Yeah, I think you're going to see a lot of changeover. Like, J.D. Martinez, I know spring training doesn't matter, especially veterans. He's got the most at bats out of anyone on the Dodgers right now and hasn't done anything yet. Like, that'll be an interesting. Either that doesn't matter at all or, oh, shit, signs are there and this isn't going well. And then you got Vargas. Vagas. They like him a lot at second base.

Moncee at first. Who's third? Or Moncy at third. Freeman at first and then Rojas at short. That's a, I don't know. Then they're saying Taylor, Mookie, gonna play everywhere. Like it's a little bit Yankees

where it's like, what's the final plan? Yes. They're closer to it than the Yankees are that we talked about last episode. But they're gonna win and we don't know how yet. That's how I feel.

I'm curious, the JD Martinez thing, I think most of our fans know, but if you're kind of a casual, JD Martinez getting linked back up with his hitting coach, Rob and Scott. Goyek who's there.

Seems to me like they're trying to figure some things out, giving him all those A-Bs, and he hasn't really performed to what he wants. They're ironing the kinks out. I expect him, because the way they work together is beautiful. I expect him to do really well in Los Angeles this year. I'm buying some J.D. Martinez stock. Same. Having your own personal, like, hitting coach there with you every single day.

I mean, it happened with Lucas Gialito when he went back to his high school pitching coach who ends up becoming the White Sox pitching coach, you know, helped him become, you know, a guy guy again. So I like that for JD a lot. And that was the over-under. Damn, Martinez had some sad quotes. He said,

I wanted a team that was going to be in October, be in the swing of things all year, and give me a chance to win. I didn't want to get stuck with the Red Sox getting the guy they wanted and me left wondering where I was going to go. Okay. There was a couple weird years for Boston.

Yeah. Because they want him to opt out and then he didn't and he was good. Weird. Where the Dodgers coming in at? 116? 95 and a half is the draft king's over under. Well, I mean, if you think the Padres are going to steal a couple more wins.

Pesky snakes. Luckily, they only have the Padres. I think last year, it was something like 98 or 99, and you took the over. I said, dude, it's so hard to win 100 games. And you're very confident on it. and they won 111. You coerced me into the under. You took the under?

I'm thinking about the under again right now. I'll take the over. They'll take the over. Their line was 97 and a half last year. Jimmy was the only one who officially took the over. I gave one of his Minnesota twins hype speeches. It's hard to win games. When you're in Minnesota.

Dodgers last three full seasons, 106, 106, 111. And I kept out the COVID season. They won the World Series, and they had their highest win percentage. You know what? Last year they slightly beat out on it. But they were 43 and 17 in the 60 game sprint. So I'll take the over. I love when Dodgers have a bad month.

And everyone's like, oh. Worst month last year was 14 and 12. Terrible. That's garbage. They had 419 plus win months. Awful. They operate differently. Show Hay comes over mid-season

ruins the clubhouse chemistry I'm just kidding Don't don't close it It was a joke Angels get a hall Grove Miller Stone Some good names

Did I get all of them right? Gosh I some good like earthy names Every fiber of my being wants to take the under And again I'm a smart Gamblin man

I'm taking the over baby Smart I'm running it Smart move Because of everything Jake said. All the good they have. Over. Over's, over,'s, overs.

To Hodgers fans, tell us what we missed. I think it makes Cindergarde good? Sure. Why not, right? I think we're going to see, like, a stable of those guys come up, and then they all get traded for showhead. Just a debut. I think they're just going to wait and sign them.

Possibly. Cindergarde lights out this spring.