The Dodgers began the season hot at home and cold on the road. Now they are cold at home and hot on the road.
Here are the explanations:
- Through player transactions, the team has evolved from one more suited to playing at home to the opposite (possibility: 15 percent)
- Coincidence (possibility: 80 percent)
- Tides (possibility: 5 percent)
- Anything else (possibility: <0.5 percent)
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Stephen Fife has a 6.05 ERA with Triple-A Albuquerque since being sent back down, largely because he allowed nine runs in 4 2/3 innings on August 16. He has two quality starts in his other outings. In 19 1/3 innings, he has the same number of strikeouts (nine) as homers (three) and walks (six) combined.
I’m still comfortable with the idea that Joe Blanton – as disappointing as he’s been – was a better bet than Fife. Perhaps the tides will allow Rubby De La Rosa to be better still.
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Elsewhere …
- On his 36th birthday, former Dodger Randy Wolf has been released by the Brewers. Wolf had a 5.69 ERA, 1.574 WHIP and 6.13 strikeouts per nine innings this season. Milwaukee will swallow the remainder of his $9.5 million salary for 2012 and a $1.5 million buyout of his 2013 option.
- A few people wrote Tuesday about what impending free agent Nick Swisher of the Yankees will be worth on the open market; Dave Cameron of Fangraphs used Andre Ethier as a comparison.
- Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports devotes his column to the Matt Kemp-Tim Lincecum at-bat with the bases loaded Tuesday.
- The double-shot of 10-strikeout, no-walk performances by Madison Bumgarner and Clayton Kershaw on Monday marked only the third time since 1920 such a feat happened in the same game, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
- Former Dodger Jon Link has a 0.75 ERA in a comeback-from-release attempt with the Marlins’ New Orleans affiliate, writes Christopher Jackson of Albuquerque Baseball Examiner.
… Link was cut (by Norfolk) on June 12 and was still unemployed going into July.
“A month without a paycheck and a baby on the way is not the best situation to be in,” he said. …
- Carson Cistulli of Fangraphs has fun with an 1887 newspaper baseball clipping.
- Umpire Jim Joyce performed life-saving CPR on an Arizona Diamondbacks employee Monday.
- Best wishes to MLB players union chief Michael Weiner, who is being treated for a brain tumor.