I missed another 2019 Dodgers' Topps Now card released over the weekend. This time it is of rookie catcher Will Smith and it highlights his walk-off home run on Saturday. Check it out above and on the right. Per Sarah Wexler at MLB.com:“That’s going to be a memorable homer for Will,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Man, you know, the first one is always a good one and memorable, but at home, packed house, a walk-off ... that was fun. That was a lot of fun.”Below are more links to check out:
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“That was awesome,” said Smith. “I mean, first walk-off I’ve ever had, first home run in the big leagues, couldn’t have asked for a bigger stage and a bigger moment. I’ll remember that forever.”
- This Day in Dodgers History: In 1888 the first publication of Ernest L. Thayer's poem Casey at the Bat appears in the San Francisco Examiner. In 1958 Los Angeles residents approved a referendum by a slim margin of 24,293 votes that would honor a contract negotiated between the City of Los Angeles and the Dodger to allow the city to sell 300 acres of Chavez Ravine to the Dodgers. In 1989 the Dodgers and Astros play a 22-inning game at the Astrodome that is the longest game in National League history -- it last seven hours and 14 minutes. The game featured Fernando Valenzuela playing first base and center fielder John Shelby going 0-for-10 at the plate. Unfortunately, the Dodgers lost 5-4 (boxscore)
- Happy Birthday, John Dobbs, Jim Gentile, Barry Lyons & Nelson Liriano!
- Video: Dodgers 3rd base Coach Dino Ebel chats with Dodger Insider Rowan Kavner about the emotions of being in Dodger Blue, being mic’d up and his coaching philosophy (YouTube Link).
- FYI, via a tweet by Alanna Rizzo:
Austin Barnes will likely be activated in SF. When he is, #Dodgers unlikely to carry 3 catchers. Will Smith will be optioned to @okc_dodgers.— Alanna Rizzo (@alannarizzo) June 2, 2019
- The life of a dad. Per Jordan Hall at NBC Sports -- "Poor Chase Utley couldn't go to Phillies-Dodgers game, but reason was totally valid."
- Per Jorge Castillo at the LA Times -- "Dodgers reliever Tony Cingrani likely to miss rest of the season." He's having arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder.
- I have no idea if the Dodgers would sign him, but if they do it'll likely happen soon. Via Mark Polishuk at MLB Trade Rumors -- "Dallas Keuchel, Craig Kimbrel No Longer Attached To Draft Pick Compensation."
- Via Craig Edwards at FanGraphs -- "Finding Cody Bellinger’s Weakness."
When the pitch is low and away, Bellinger is either taking it, fighting it off to get another pitch, or he’s whiffing on it. He doesn’t chase many pitches outside of the zone. He’s controlling the inside part of plate by standing nearly on top of it, getting to pitches low in the zone and nailing the pitches in the strike zone. He’s hitting a ton fly balls and line drives and rarely going the opposite way. His strengths have been too much for pitchers to overcome at this point in the season, but he’s not without weakness. There’s a narrow portion of the strike zone low and away where Bellinger isn’t annihilating the competition.
- A Redditor named u/strongsmash helpfully provides a synopsis of a Hyun-Jin Ryu interview on a Korean news site called Naver Sports. Here's the original Korean article, and here is a rundown of the interview:
He recalls that before his shoulder surgery, he heavily relied ONLY on his intuition for any pre-game preparation. All the different player reports, player analysis, and data that were given to him by coach Rick Honeycutt were only referenced but never taken seriously. However, he realized that he needed to work twice as hard after the surgery so he seriously got into analyzing different player reports and studying films. Then, when Honeycutt saw how interested Ryu seemed in these data reports, he suggested to Ryu about presenting whatever he studied to the coaches the day before his outing. To prepare for his presentation, Ryu would reference all the data given to him, study them and look for additional information about players and teams and request any information he needed to the club. With all of this data, he would then make a game plan and report it to Honeycutt and other coaches right before his outing. He notes that this had an enormous impact on his game because the difference between studying the data himself versus being handed the data was so so massive. (Also, he really enjoys presenting this data to the coaches and says its fun). From his studies, he became more prepared for any situation like pinch hitters because he's studied them so thoroughly before. Whenever Honeycutt visits him on the mound, he would simply say "Hyun-Jin, this is a player you presented to me yesterday, you know that right?".He also talks about how surprised he was at himself for being able to memorize his game plan word for word and would think to himself "was I always this good at memorizing?".
- Via Chris Lee at Vulture -- "Rocketman’s Wildest Scene Ends at Dodger Stadium. Here’s How Director Dexter Fletcher Made It Work."
- Justin Turner will be back today, via a tweet from JP Hoornstra:
Justin Turner will start tomorrow against LHP Robbie Ray in Arizona, Roberts said. JT took grounders at third base just now: pic.twitter.com/acx8ovvIbI— J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) June 2, 2019
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