June 15, 2016

What You Need to Know

Don't Ever Get Used to Coors Field

by Nicolas Stellini

The Tuesday Takeaway
Coors Field is a beautiful ballpark. The field itself is always well tended, as is the little forest beyond the center field wall. The building is constructed with an eye toward grandeur and comfort.

Perhaps this was all done in an effort to mask the evil that lurks there.

Coors Field is home to a monster. It lays in wait and preys upon the unsuspecting. It lures both home and away teams into a false sense of security. Passersby of Coors Field sometime report hearing unearthly screams and roars, and the cracks of ball on bat. Oh, you have a cute little nine-run lead. That’s nice. Oh, you put the best reliever in baseball into the game. That’s nice.

The monster doesn’t care. It will eat you alive, laughing maniacally as it feasts on your flesh and your lead as balls sail over the fence, no matter how deep all that grass looks. What’s left of your lead hangs from its horns as it prances around in the stadium without any pants on.

Dinger has no soul. Look into his eyes.

He wants to feel your pain. He wants to laugh at you as the ball flies all over the damn place in his thin-aired lair. That’s exactly what happened on Tuesday night. The Rockies hosted the Yankees, and in the eighth inning, saw a 12-3 lead become a rather uncomfortable 12-10 lead. There had already been three home runs in the game, two of them back-to-back blasts from Trevor Story and Ryan Raburn, the other being a shot from Didi Gregorius that accounted for the three Yankee runs.

Dinger feasts on chaos. A seven-run inning is just the kind of pandemonium that the satanic pantsless triceratops subsists on. Just because the a Daniel Descalso triple wasn’t good enough for him, Dinger deigned to have New York score all those runs without any blow greater than a single. There was even an Ike Davis cameo involved. Walt Weiss had removed Nolan Arenado from the game to rest him. It was a blowout, after all. Suddenly there were only two runs and an already heavily depleted Colorado bullpen separating the Yankees from a win, and the Rockies were without their best player.

There was also Andrew Miller. Miller, who entered the game with an hysterical 0.68 WHIP. He was the one tasked with holding the Rockies to those 12 runs. But Dinger had something to say about that.

Carlos Gonzalez, who was hitting .203/.225/.406, took Miller out to the deepest part of the park. Chaos reigned. Cats and dogs got along like best friends. Pigs flew through the air. The American League banned the DH.

Never, ever doubt Dinger.

He will make you pay, and he will laugh at you while you writhe.

The Rockies won, 13-10.

Quick Hits from Tuesday
We’ve been waiting a long time for Jameson Taillon. The second overall pick of the 2010 draft has lost nearly two years to injury but is somehow still just 24 years old. He finally made his debut last Wednesday against the Mets to decent results (three earned runs in six innings) and was promptly sent back to Triple-A.

Gerrit Cole’s injury opened a door for him, though, and Taillon was recalled to once again face the Mets on Tuesday. This time, the results were much better.

Taillon took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and allowed just two hits in eight innings, striking out five and walking just one. The Mets are woefully depleted and were without Neil Walker, Juan Lagares and Michael Conforto in their starting lineup. David Wright and Lucas Duda are both likely done for the year, and, well, Kelly Johnson was batting fifth.

That’s not to take away from the excellent performance that Taillon had in any way. He pitched brilliantly, and is a blue chip prospect for a reason. This may very well be the first of many brilliant outings that he has in his career.

***

Hyun-Jin Ryu. Brandon McCarthy. Brett Anderson. Alex Wood. The Dodgers already have four starters on the DL. They can scarcely afford to eat into more of their depth. They’ve already had to call up uber-prospect Julio Urias earlier than intended. That’s a big part of why what happened to Kenta Maeda was so terrifying.

Paul Goldschmidt, who destroys the Dodgers on a regular basis by getting hits and knocking in runs, inadvertently threatened to cause headaches for Los Angeles in a new way by shooting a line drive right at Maeda’s leg, causing him to collapse to the ground in pain. Maeda eventually had to be helped off the field.

At first blush, the scenario looked catastrophic. Maeda entered Tuesday with a 2.70 ERA and has been one of the great non-Kershaw bright spots on a Dodgers team that has more than its fair share of warts. Thankfully, manager Dave Roberts said after the game that Maeda will make his next start.

That Goldschmidt is a bad, bad man. I’d advise Madison Bumgarner to watch his back, but he’d probably just hit Goldschmidt with a line drive in return.

***

Jeff Mathis first reached the big leagues in 2005. He had 2,190 plate appearances to his name before playing in Tuesday’s game. Over the course of what’s now 11 years in the Show, he has failed to clear the Mendoza line.

The funny thing about baseball is that none of that matters in the moment. In the moment, all that matters is how good your grip on the ball is, how deceptive your delivery is in that very moment, how well you swing the bat, how well you get a read on the ball and how effective you are at trying to field the ball. Numbers go away in that one very moment. It’s how Bartolo Colon can hit a home run and how Philip Humber can throw a perfect game.

It’s how Jeff Mathis can hit a grand slam and put a game somewhat out of reach in the first inning.

It’s a funny game, baseball.

Defensive Play of the Day
When I say “Javier Baez,” you think “big freaking swing and big freaking home runs.” Maybe you should also start picturing defense.

The Cubs beat the Nationals on this play. Baez ranged far to his right, turned, threw the ball, and beat out a speedy Ben Revere.

What to Watch on Wednesday
This section should probably include a flowchart for all future installments. The chart would begin with “Is Clayton Kershaw pitching?”, followed by arrows that point to boxes labeled “Yes” and “No.” If the answer is “Yes,” then, the chart would tell the reader to “Watch Kershaw pitch by any means necessary.” Clayton Kershaw is pitching today at 3:40 EST. He’s facing the Diamondbacks, and while Jake Lamb and Paul Goldschmidt are all sorts of fun to watch, the real appeal here is Kershaw. You should probably watch Kershaw pitch no matter who he’s facing. It'd be worth watching him pitch in a Home Run Derby.

If for some reason it is your life’s mission to disappoint the baseball gods, you could theoretically watch the Cubs and Nationals at 4:05 EST. I mean, I guess Stephen Strasburg is putting his 10-0 record on the line against a ridiculous Cubs offense, and Jason Hammel is kind of having a great year, and maybe these are two of the best teams in baseball throwing down in an 800 pound-gorilla mud wrestling match. Perhaps that could be of interest to you, baseball fan. Fine, be that way.

For those of you interested in watching baseball in the evening, you could watch the White Sox and Tigers at 8:10 EST. Chris Sale and Mike Pelfrey will square off in an attempt to see if the Sox can shake off the shackles of mediocrity that have hampered them and take advantage of that they are being given Mike Pelfrey on a silver platter. Chris Sale is also kind of fun.

But, he’s no Kershaw.

Nicolas Stellini is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @StelliniTweets
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