Rockies/Dodgers Series Opener is Pending Weather

Did I mention how annoying Dee Gordon is? Oh that’s right the Marlins have left town now. Don Mattingly is still seething over the screwed up review system. Donnie has a point, the system needs to be overhauled because it is completely messed up. Anyways, let’s move on from last night’s irritating loss. The slumping Colorado Rockies come into Dodger Stadium to kick off a four game series from Thursday through Sunday. That is of course if the weather permits.

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The Dodgers are waiting on MRI results on Pedro Baez’s pectoral muscle. That’s basically Baez’s man boobs. Poor Baez injured himself in the eighth inning of Wednesday night’s loss. We’ll let you know once we hear something.

And here it is….lord help us

Dodgers Lineup vs. Colorado

Pederson CF

Rollins SS

Kendrick 2B

Gonzalez 1B

Van Slyke LF

Grandal C

Ethier RF

Uribe 3B

Anderson P

Chad Bettis-0-0 vs. Brett Anderson-2-1 Game Time – 7:10 PM-(Pending Weather) Tonight’s pitching match-up features third year right hander Chad Bettis going up against left hander Brett Anderson. Bettis is a 26-year old from Lubbock, Texas, who went to Texas Tech University. He was drafted by Colorado in the second round of the 2010 draft. Last year he pitched in 21 games and posted a 9.12 ERA in 24.2 innings pitched. He allowed 42 hits, and was horrific while pitching out of the bullpen.

So Colorado is moving him back into the rotation. Hey they’ve lost eleven in a row, so what do they have to lose at this point? Nothing that’s what. Bettis started eight games in 2013, and posted a 5.64 ERA/4.94 FIP in 44.2 innings pitched. Overall he is 1-5 with a 6.88 ERA in 37 major league games. The last time the Dodgers faced him was back on July 4, of 2014. In that game Bettis pitched 2.1 scoreless innings of relief and allowed four hits and no walks. Bettis has a career 5.19 ERA in 8.2 innings pitched against the Dodgers. The current Dodgers are batting .409 (9 for 22) with no home runs, and a .980 OPS against Bettis. Although nobody has more than five plate appearances against him.

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Bettis is primarily a fastball/slider guy, but has three different heaters thrown at a side angle. He has a two-seamer, four-seamer, and cutter. He can reach the upper 90’s with his fastballs, but his slider is considered his best pitch. Here’s the scouting report on Bettis according to Baseball Prospectus……

Bettis’s bread and butter is a three-way fastball that includes a cutter, a two-seamer with arm-side life, and a harder and straighter four-seamer. He tiers his velocity well with each variation, and the differing action across the three pitches can make the heater difficult to square in spite of the lack of downhill plane. Bettis can reach the upper-90s with the four-seamer, and operates comfortably in the low- to mid-90s.

His best secondary offering is a sharp, tilted slider that comes with hard bite and low- to mid-80s velocity. It’s a solid plus offering that can flash plus-plus and should provide Bettis with a second swing-and-miss offering at the highest level. His changeup has its moments, matching his two-seamer trajectory with arm-side action, but he is still working to implement the pitch as a consistent third weapon. While Bettis is somewhat undersized, limiting the plane he is able to create, he has the in-game and start-to-start durability to stick in a rotation. The utility of his arsenal will determine whether he can regularly turn over major league lineups or if he will shift to the pen, where his fastball and slider could both play to plus-plus. He’ll likely need to pound the lower-U of the zone and continue to grow the off-speed in order to effectively navigate the highest level.  

Still 4.5 hours before game time, but it’s raining hard at Dodger Stadium pic.twitter.com/lke5dcHRuf  Anderson beat the Rockies last week in a rain shortened complete game win. He allowed one unearned run on six hits in that game. Anderson is 1-0 against the Rockies. Overall this season he is 2-1 with a 3.52 ERA. He’s struck out 16 and walked 5 in 30.2 innings pitched.

Getting back to last night’s game, commenter Michelle makes a good point about Guerrero being double-switched out of the game last night.

Why did they take Guerrero out of the game last nite? Every ball that Guerrero hit last night, he hit hard! Even the ball that Stanton couldn’t handle in right field, was hit extremely hard, and it made Stanton look awkwardly weak! I know Mattingly was thrown out, but doesn’t he still run the lineup from behind the scenes? These moves look like moves, from Mattingly! Who brings in your their weakness pitcher in, with the base loaded, in a close game? Baez had proven in the first game, just how fearless he is, in the same situations in prior games! I’m glad that Baez injury is not his arm, because he knows had to really deal, in these situations! I thought that Kike looks really good at short, and is very reasuring out there, and he can hit too! Both Guerrero and Kike, look like hitters! I don’t understand why people are so upset, about the Gordon trade, it was a good trade, and give it a year or two, it will show it was a good trade! If Gordon was not given second last year, Guerrero would have been up on the team! Gordon was given many chances to make the team, and he never really played well enough, to make the team!

It seems like the meme around the internet is “Guerrero bad at defense”, but at the same time has anyone seen Juan Uribe? He hasn’t started since last Friday in Colorado, (he is in the starting lineup today) and his face may already be on the cover of a milk carton. Because if defense is so important at the end of the game, then you would think Mattingly would put Uribe into the game and not Turner. No knock on Turner, he’s awesome, but of the three players, Uribe is the strongest with the glove.

We’ll see if that comes into play tonight if the game gets played. The Rockies are mired in a horrendous slump, having lost eleven straight. They’re in the cellar in the NL West. However there is the due to win factor that worries me in a long four game series. Even the worst clubs are going to win a few games at some point. Let’s hope it’s not anytime this week.

Stat of the day – Not really a stat, but on this date about 17 years ago the Dodgers made one of the worst trades in franchise history, sending Mike Piazza along with Todd Ziele to the Marlins for Bobby Bonilla, Gary Sheffield, Charles Johnson, and Jim Eisenreich. Oh and Manuel Barrios was involved as well, but nobody cared about him. We did get Sheffield in the deal, but yikes what an awful trade. Piazza only went on to hit like 250 more home runs with the Marlins and Mets.

Tonight’s weather forecast calls for rain for the remainder of the night, so it is anyone’s guess if this game gets played. The Dodgers have not had a rainout at home since 2000, but you never know. Rain in Los Angeles? That’s like sunshine in Colorado. Strange. The tarp is on the field right now, so we’ll see if this gets played. If it does, Stacie will have the call.

Go Blue!