Dodgers make SNEAKY good signing... This is PERFECT

Dodgers make sneaky good signings, and I'll tell you what, I think this is a needed thing, and you may disagree, or you may agree with me, but for after Dom, it's going to be all right, and we'll get to that story. That is coming up. Hey, subscribe, like, turn on notifications. We are ever so growing close to that 8,000 number, and not even a year into this thing, and couldn't even expect to run any better than that. All right, let's get down to the story, Brad J, stop panning around and let's go, Dodgers make sneaky good signing, okay well here's the deal the Dodger bullpen has been taxed, can we all agree on that? I know we don't agree on everything but can we all agree that the Dodgers bullpen has been taxed of late? Why starting pitching has not been good? Why is starting pitching not been good, Brad J? because our starters have been out, three of them uh there are three signings that we expected to pitch a little bit more than a couple of games are out and that's why, so the Dodgers need to make a signing, that's what they do, they get right down to it and this signing happened yesterday when I was doing the live show uh I was doing an hour long live show and look I got a couple messages saying hey Brad let us know before you're gonna do those live shows, you know what, they just pop up in my head I'm like let's go live, so if you subscribe and turn on notifications you'll know when uh your your boy Brad J is going live, okay so that's how that works on that, all right let's get into the story on this one, who do the Dodgers sign and you might go who Who's Chris Stratton? Well, we didn't know who Trevino was and he's actually been doing pretty good for the Dodgers right so the Dodgers see something in someone and then they act upon it and they think that even if the guy like well why he's got an ERA that's like seven or he's been horrible the last few games okay, Dodgers see something in someone and they know they're going to need to help, Dodgers signed right hand reliever Chris Stratton to a uh major league deal on Sunday then the option right hander Bobby Miller, man this one hurts, I like Bobby but he just is not fitting in, he just he gives up too many hits, he gives up too many runs, so I'll show the team also announced in order to make room for Stratton on the 40-man roster, designated right-hander, J.P.yByrnes for assignment. So he's going to have, well, they need to make room on the 40-man. So you had to get Chris Stratton on there. Chris Stratton is on there. What has Chris Stratton done as of recent? What is it? Does he have some numbers, Brad Jay? No, he does not. Well, don't just read into the numbers. Don't be a numbers guy or girl, okay? You can look at the numbers. You can agree all you want. You can disagree. You can say, well, those numbers aren't good as of right now. But how many times have you seen a Dodger pitcher or a Dodger batter come into the Dodgers from a different team and been slumping and then comes out of the slump? It happens a lot, right? The other world champs for a reason. Here's the stats. Here's what he's done so far this year. He's not been good. Only been part of 12 games. He's only pitched a total of 17 innings. But in those 17 innings, 16 strikeouts. But you like seeing that, that's better than seeing 10 strikeouts in 17. That means he might just be missing a little something, and they just need to help him out with it. So 7-9-4, his career regular season is in the fours, 4-6-3. So not the best number right there, but I feel like as a reliever, you've got to look at it this way. The Dodgers bullpen is taxed. The Dodgers need more arms. So what do you do to bring in a guy like this? So, to me, Dodgers make a sneaky good signing on this one. And look, when I brought the fact up that they got Trevino on the Dodgers, people would say, who's that guy? And he's actually been doing quite well. So, pay attention. Sometimes I hit the nail on the head. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, right, is what they say. All right, losing a Dodger is like losing a family. Come on, let's be honest. The Dodgers fan base, we're all, we're family. And even if we agree or disagree on things, It's always tough to lose a member of the team because you feel like that's the guy. You're just so happy with that guy being on the team, and then all of a sudden, he's done. So Freddie had a chance to kind of clear it up a little bit about what goes on with that, and here's what Freddie had to say, and I like what Freddie said. A lot of people don't understand there's a lot of things that go on. Losing people over the course of a year, it stinks. It does suck. There's no way around it. If you're not sad when you lose friends, you're not human. And that's kind of the message I go out to people who say, he needs to be cut. Like, come on. Let's see if the dude's been on the team for a while. First shot haters, you know who you are. If you say you're not sad when you lose friends, you're not human. Just get going. You're going to be a little sad, but you can't let that be the reason you go over to it. So, he's a smart dude, man. He's got a good head on his shoulder. Don't worry about him, I'll tell you what. So, it sucks. It is part of baseball, and we'll just deal with it. And like Freddie says, you've got to move on. And don't let that be the reason you go over, right? You don't want to do that, right? Shohei showed up and dropped some pitching skills yesterday. I covered this on the live show. He was supposed to pitch to live hitters on Saturday. The game went late on Friday night. That was a 13-inning game, so he couldn't do that. And the Dodgers said that his rehab is all on how many times the guy gets base hits and stuff like that. So, his rehab has gone quite well because he hasn't been hitting quite well. So, the worse he does batting is the better he will be staying on track to pitch. So, that's what I'm getting from all this. But, joking aside, Shohei has been showing up. .295 is batting average. He's below the .300 mark, but he's now tied with 18 home runs. Aaron Judge and him are locked in a tie. 32 RBIs. I'd like to see that number be a little bit more. 11 on the stolen bases, a 1.026 OPS. That's what he's been doing with the bat, all right? So here's what happened on pitching yesterday. He only threw mostly fastballs, cutters, and sinkers, as well as some sweepers. So he really, he dug in there for it in the pitches. Oh, splitter's five, right? His fastball sat around 94, 95, but it touched 97. That's fast, 97 miles per hour. And, well, he had to say, here's what Ohtani said, I'm aware that I do throw a little harder when there's a hitter in the box. That's just his drive to be the best. That's for sure. I try to keep it at 93 to 94, but I know I was touching sixes and sevens, which I wanted not to do, but it's a good sign that I could hit that. And the pitching coach, Mark Pryor, was pleased that he could hit that. That just doesn't sound right. I believe he's by his stamina throughout the outing. One of many encouraging signs in Ohtani's first live session. First live session is two years, man. Two years it has been since that dude has pitched to live hitters. 97, man. So, to me, I call it the perfect storm, all right? He's going to come back. The Dodgers have already said that they want him coming back after the All-Star break. So, July 15th is the All-Star break. What, there's games like on the 17th, I think, or 18th, right after that. So that is when he would come back. Now picture this. This is why I say perfect score. You have Shohei, full strength. You have Snell, full strength, hopefully. You have Glasnow, full strength, hopefully. Yamamoto and Sasaki, all full strength. Can you imagine? That's murderer's row right there of pitchers. To have all those guys at the same time when the All-Star break ends. So, to me, it's a perfect storm, and that's where I go with it. All right, let's dissect the box score from last night. There is Ohtani right there at the top. You see the run, the hit, the RBI. Yep, that was the home run. Did strike out once. Best, not the best game, managed to muster a hit. Freeman, what doesn't he do? He always is getting hits. But if guys aren't getting on before him, it's hard to get RBIs that way. So, two hits for Freddie in that one. Will Smith had an over. and then you had a tail with the one for four one out of four and you got a hit out of Muncie 210 so he has brought that average up Muncie watch continuing 210 now on that and Pa has having a rough outing over and Conforto I mean he did get that walk give him credit but that batting average 163 continues to drop and Edmund continuing to struggle a little bit too as well he's had a a few games so we look for those guys to clean things up and that's the problem like you have to look at tonight okay so the Dodgers face Cleveland and to me they're gonna always be the Cleveland Indians I'm sorry that's how I've known them forever so whatever you want to call them that's up to you but Cleveland and the Dodgers go at it and they play each other so and you got Williams on the mound facing Yamamoto Williams can pitch and with the Dodgers sputtering offense, Yamamoto could keep them in the game no matter what, but what's going to happen if they do not hit? So here's what it's showing right now. This is just the last three appearances you see these numbers for Gavin Williams and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. 4-0 on the ERA for Yamamoto. That's because he had one bad game. That's all that is. And the 1-6-9, that means Williams is actually doing pitching good, but he's still just about a 4, a 3-9-4 on his actual ERA for the season. Last few games, last three games, they both allowed about the same. They both struck out about the same. Williams has given up more walks. Dodgers are a little bit more patient. You like to see them working the walks and trying to get themselves on here as well. So that is the matchup. Three against Cleveland. The schedule gets gnarly. You got seven games in the next, like, three weeks against the Mets and the Yankees. And I'll tell you what, we got a four-game series against the Mets coming up. and the Dodgers need to just turn that back around and not be giving up the series against the Mets. And then we need to show up against the Yankees. So seven against those teams, four against the Mets, three against the Yankees, and seven games versus the Padres in June, and three versus San Francisco, who is in second. So it's breathing down the necks. I think only a game back right now. So that is what it's looking like right now. And, hey, my friends, we've come too close. That is Dodger Digest. As you go through the day, always remember to think Dodger blue. As the Dodgers take on Cleveland, let's go Dodgers.