Dodger Thoughts

Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers

By Jon Weisman

It’s the Dodgers and the Giants today. The last time these two teams met, the Dodgers were celebrating their National League West title at San Francisco’s expense. I don’t remember what happened after that.

Your pregame links:

• Baseball Prospectus went crazy with its self-proclaimed Kershaw Day today, offering more than a dozen stories on the Dodger ace. It’s a fantastic package.
• Yasiel Puig was shadowed by a rather large doppelganger Sunday, but also got to meet him, not only face-to-face, but face-inside-face, as David Brown notes at CBSSports.com.
• Puig is in the best mental shape of his life, writes Tyler Kepner at the New York Times.
• Meeting with reporters today, Don Mattingly offered some nice and unsurprising compliments for Sunday walkoff hero Corey Seager. From Dylan Hernandez in the Times:
  

  Mattingly lavished praise on 20-year-old Corey Seager, comparing the infield prospect to Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and former batting champion John Olerud.

  “Without a putting a giant X on his back, he’s more like a Ripken to me, as far as being the big shortstop that doesn’t really profile there but has great hands, great awareness, really good clock as far as calmness and knowing the timing,” Mattingly said. “At the plate, he’s more like a little bit of an Olerud if you really watch him. He’s quiet. He’s a big guy with a small swing.”

• The focus on switch-hitting catcher Yasmani Grandal has been on his power from the left side of the plate, but don’t sell his right side short, writes Dustin Nosler of Dodgers Digest.
• Alex Guerrero is the subject of this J.P. Hoornstra feature at the Daily News, a story that includes this insight from Adrian Gonzalez.
  

  “One of the things I know from playing winter ball, being around Latin American countries, is that the time that counts is the game time,” Gonzalez said. “If you don’t want to show up for BP, you don’t have to. … The extra work is up to you. So when you get here and they’re saying ‘you have to be here for BP’ you’re like, ‘why? I don’t need it,’ because you never needed it your whole life.

  “Here if you don’t get in the weight room, they label you as a guy who doesn’t work. People are so worried about all the things that you do” ‑ Gonzalez draws out the word “allllll” for effect ‑ “and not just what you do on the field.”

• Discussion continues about Guerrero’s stated desire to stay in the Major Leagues, as his contract dictates. I’m not sure why the conversation about Guerrero should be any different than any of the many other players who also can’t go to the minor leagues against their will. In any case, Guerrero clearly wants to make it on merit, and he’s aiming to do so on the field.
• Dodger Triple-A hitting coach Johnny Washington described Joc Pederson’s swing in detail to Hoornstra.
• Prospect guru John Sickels brought out his Dodger top 20 today at Minor League Ball.
• Sunday’s Dodger Stadium College Baseball Classic is recapped by Chad Thornburg of MLB.com.
  

  “I’ve been doing this 25 years and been in a lot of different tournaments, the College World Series, a couple different unique things,” said TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle. “This is right there with Omaha. No disrespect to the other things we’ve been a part of, but when you walk in the parking lot, you look up and say, ‘That’s where Kirk Gibson hit the ball.’ … It was just an awesome life experience.”