Kenley has been great recently eh It was his 3rd save attempt in as many days. He obviously didn't have great stuff today but I think he has been mainly fine. Really wanted the sweep. Oh well
waiting until the facts come out before I jump all over him, but pretty much have no tolerance for this bullshit.
Nice article on Rich Hill https://theathletic.com/1004229/201...r-still-thriving-as-baseballs-oldest-pitcher/ Spoiler When teammates ask, 39-year-old Rich Hill says he plans to pitch until he is 50. He doesn’t know if he actually does. He just knows he has no desire to retire after his three-year contract with the Dodgers expires this offseason. “Not when you feel like you have so much more to give,” he said. “It’d be different if I wasn’t throwing the ball well or there were injuries and all these things stacking on top of each other.” Hill missed a month to begin this season because of a knee strain, but he has logged a sharp 2.73 ERA over six starts since his return. When unbothered by blisters and healthy as a Dodger, he has almost always pitched well. He owns a 3.24 ERA over 62 games since his August 2016 acquisition. His wife, Caitlin, and son, Brice, want him to keep playing. And he believes he is “throwing the ball arguably better than I ever have in my entire life.” That statement means more than it might coming from his peers. Last week, Hill quietly reached two age-related milestones: He became baseball’s oldest active pitcher when the A’s designated 42-year-old Fernando Rodney for assignment on Saturday. The previous day, Hill hit 10 years of major-league service, guaranteeing him the best possible pension, a potential windfall of millions of dollars. Years ago, before he found sustained success in the majors, Hill would calculate his expected pension. He envisioned what career level he might be able to reach: six years, maybe eight, maybe 10 if everything worked out right. “It’s a natural thing to think about,” he said. “And it’s obviously something that I was thinking about from a family perspective, from a life perspective.” When the milestone arrived, he did not notice until informed by a reporter. The season takes precedence. And the $48 million contract he signed in December 2016 already secured his family’s financial future. Still, the pension will provide a significant sum. If players elect to begin collecting at age 45, they are guaranteed nearly $70,000 per year going forward. That amount increases with every year they wait to formally declare retirement. If Hill does so at 62, he is guaranteed more than $220,000 per year from then on. “It’s very cool,” Hill said. “It’s been a long time coming.” Hill was 19 when he was first drafted — 20 years ago Monday. He was 22 when he signed. He was 25 when he made his major-league debut, 27 when he made his first opening-day roster. And he was 35 when he began to dominate opposing hitters, after he reconsidered his approach to pitching during an independent-league stint. He attributes his late-career success to the decision he made, in mid-summer 2015, to make another go at starting, requesting his release from the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate and signing with the Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks. “It’s really interesting, because it really changed my career path,” he said. “You’re pushed into that level of creativity. Because, if I don’t do this, I’m not playing, and I’m not doing something that I love to do. You do it out of necessity.” His teammates also attribute his success to intensity. Last week, Hill offered his latest prominent example, when his grunting and cursing ricocheted around the nearly empty Tropicana Field. “Everyone in here really wants to win, there’s no doubt about it,” said reliever Ross Stripling. “But Rich really wants to win. You can see that when he pitches, like in Tampa Bay, when he’s screaming out F-words in front of 2,000 people. There’s not a lot of people that have that fervor.” Hill is not the only older Dodger. Russell Martin and David Freese are 36. Justin Turner is 34. Chase Utley was 39 last season. All of them carry influence. But Hill is unique in that he is both an inspiration and the butt of occasional jokes, because of his age and because of his eccentricities, on the field and off. His hitting and running stances inspire laughter. “A lot of times, those guys with a lot of service time are the guys there to keep you accountable,” Kiké Hernández said. “He helps us stay loose, he helps us win ballgames, he entertains us when he’s in the batter’s box, and he’s a great guy to have in the clubhouse. We love that fire, we love that edge, and we love all the F-bombs.” When AC/DC songs play at the ballpark, the Dodgers tend to look over at Hill and make a quip: “What was it like being in high school when this stuff was popular?” Hill will chuckle and jog on to his next task. “The craziest thing to me is how, at 39, he can run around and shag better than some of the 22-year-olds we have walking around,” Stripling said. “He’s as lively as anyone we have.” Hill has also expended less of himself over the years. Because of his earlier injuries and his years as a reliever, he has thrown only 911 ⅔ major-league innings and 1,705 professional innings. Clayton Kershaw, seven years his junior, has thrown 2,148 ⅓ major-league innings and 2,397 professional innings. “You think about the mileage on Kersh, who is 31 years old, versus Rich, who battled through independent ball and all that stuff and doesn’t have as many innings,” Stripling said. “That helps. Also, the fact that he went through that is probably what motivates him.” Since 2015, Hill has narrowed his motivation down to simple goals: He wants to throw every pitch with every iota of intensity he can summon. He wants to let out all his passion. He wants to always embrace the moment, because he doesn’t know how long this will last — this season, the next, or five more. At some point, he knows, he may have to decide that for himself. “You understand that there will be a time to move on, and you don’t want that to be too late,” Hill said. “Because you see, unfortunately, some guys run it thin at the end. And I totally understand that, because it’s very difficult being the player in that moment and not having the foresight and the understanding that it isn’t the same.” Hill loves to counsel younger teammates about the importance of passion. He comes to them from an understanding perspective. When he was 26, he said, he felt like he would be 26 forever. Now, he reminds the young Dodgers they won’t be, but it doesn’t have to matter if they care enough. They have to care. “If you don’t have passion, you’re probably gonna quit at the first sign of failure,” Hill said. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, I really want to open a restaurant, but I don’t know the first thing about being successful with it.’ Let’s say you have one bad year. Some people will shut it down. But if you are determined to be successful, that keeps you going.” No one should start any pursuit, he is convinced, unless they are prepared to repeatedly fail before locating success. “Some people would call that crazy,” Hill said. “But that’s the way you have to be.”
That 5th inning bomb from Joc tonight is what makes me think he would kill a golf ball. He does such a great job of loading up on his back foot and then delivering the bat with full weight transfer to his front side.
I enjoyed going to Will Smith's first game, though it was a loss. Kid is promising for the Dodgers. And watching Cody hit a HR was nice too. My only Dodger game of the year so far. Going to a Cardinals game in August with another STL friend and a bunch of Dodger buddies...will get hammered
lol'd at the first line of this dodgers/mailbag article I read "The Rockies, bless their souls, have won eight straight and nine out of 10. And gained precisely zero games on Los Angeles."
Taylor and Hernandez have been rough lately. Really bad last night. Also Seager is expected to miss four-to-six weeks