Daily Clips

August 16, 2016

LOS ANGELES DODGERS

DAILY CLIPS

TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2016

DODGERS.COM:

Segedin a product of all-hands-on-deck system-Ken Gurnick

LA TIMES: The evolution of Justin Turner: How a bench player in New York became a Dodgers star-Andy McCullough

OC REGISTER:

Dodgers turn to Driveline to boost minor leaguers’ velocity-J.P. Hoornstra

On deck: Dodgers at Philadelphia, Tuesday, 4 p.m.-Staff Reports

DODGER INSIDER:

The Johnny Wholestaff Dodgers: Just get the outs-Jon Weisman

#VinTop20: No. 19, Manny’s Bobbleslam-Jon Weisman

Farm fresh: Minor League weekend highlights-Josh Gurnick

Dodgers All-Access returns September 1-Jon Weisman

Challenge accepted: After 10 years in the Majors, Howie Kendrick reinvents himself-Jon Weisman

TRUEBLUELA.COM: Dodgers vs. Phillies series snapshot: Citizens Bank Park edition-Eric Stephen

Dodgers vs. Phillies schedule & probable starting pitchers-Eric Stephen

Dodgers Week 19: Breaking even-Eric Stephen

Trevor Oaks 3-hitter leads OKC Dodgers to a series sweep-Craig Minami

FANGRAPHS: Joc Pederson’s Taken the Difficult Step-Jeff Sullivan

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER:

Dodgers announcer Vin Scully started his 67-year career in Philadelphia-Frank Fitzpatrick

TODAYS KNUCKLEBALL: Why haven’t the Dodgers called up Jose De Leon?-Nate Aderhold

ESPN.COM:

Bowden: MLB's best rookies this season-Jim Bowden (Insider Subscription Required)

BLEACHER REPORT:

How Have the Dodgers Erased the SF Giants' Huge Lead Without Clayton Kershaw?-Danny Knobler

LA TIMES:

Dodgers Dugout: How has the Dodgers’ reliance on once-injured pitchers worked out for them?-Houston Mitchell

LOS ANGELES DODGERS DAILY CLIPS

TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2016

DODGERS.COM Segedin a product of all-hands-on-deck system By Ken Gurnick LOS ANGELES -- A mass of roster moves by Dodgers management this year has the side benefit of keeping Minor Leaguers on their toes, because in this organization you never know when you'll get the call. Non-roster players like Rob Segedin can spend the first half of his first season getting passed over by other Triple-A infielders like Charlie Culberson and Chris Taylor and not feel hopelessly buried. Segedin kept to the task and finally got the call Aug. 7. He's played in every game since, going 6-for-20 (.300) with six RBIs and starting the last two games at third base because of Justin Turner's bruised hand. The Dodgers have made 140 roster moves since Opening Day, many dictated by a record-breaking number of injuries. They have recalled 40-man roster players 26 times and selected non-roster players nine times. While front-office manipulation around the roster fringes might seem like an obsession to some, the players most affected appreciate the club's willingness to spread opportunities around in the search for incremental improvement. "You never know what the move's going to be," said Segedin. "It seems like it happens every other day, almost like a revolving door that keeps shuffling us back and forth, but we appreciate the opportunity. "A lot of it goes off current performance. That helps you keep that edge, going out on a daily basis and giving your best and perform at the top of your game. We're all working to be here [in the Major Leagues], and any given day any of us can get called up." Segedin spent his first six professional seasons with the Yankees and described their approach as more traditional -- the top prospects on the 40-man roster are usually the ones promoted, while the non-roster players are generally considered fillers. "The Dodgers have overall more of a sense of urgency," he said. "A Yankees prospect stays on the 40-man and it's more long term, where the Dodgers it's more day to day -- whatever they need to do for the next game. Other organizations, you've got to hope you're on the 40-man. But me, Andrew Toles, they want to put the best team out there that day, and it's awesome to be part of that kind of organization." Segedin was acquired from the Yankees for Ronald Torreyes and Tyler Olson in January. The 27-year-old missed his sophomore season at Tulane with an injury called a pars defect, a stress fracture of the vertebrae in the spine. In 2013, he was limited to only 18 games before doctors discovered femur deformities that required labrum surgery and bone shaving in both hips.

With greater flexibility from the surgery, Segedin earned his promotion this year, batting .319 with a .989 OPS at Triple-A Oklahoma City. It hasn't been an easy journey, but he's not complaining. "My wife and I have a mantra, from the [Robert Lipsyte] book, The Contender -- 'It's the climbing that makes the man. Getting to the top is an extra reward.' That's how I feel about the ups and downs I've had to get here."

LA TIMES The evolution of Justin Turner: How a bench player in New York became a Dodgers star By Andy McCullough The ritual begins when Justin Turner unsheathes his 31.5-ounce Rawlings bat from the rack and strides through the dugout. When he was still a teenager, he learned the importance of a routine, and so he stands on the steps, near Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts, repeating a set of actions ingrained in his memory. Turner inverts the bat and claps the knob against the three steps separating him from the diamond. Middle step, top step, middle step, bottom step, middle step, then a last whack for the padding on the railing, a concussive noise that reminds Roberts of a barrel striking a ball. “Man,” Roberts tells him, every single time, “I love that sound.” Turner walks toward the on-deck circle and hits his cleats four times or more. He straps a weighted doughnut onto the lumber and sprays a white chalk adhesive across the handle. He faces the crowd and takes two warm-up cuts. He turns around and watches the action at the plate, regulating his breathing to steady his pulse. When his turn to hit arrives, Turner takes two more practice swings. He adjusts his gloves and digs into the batter’s box. He sweeps the dirt with his right foot. He steps out, taps his feet with his bat, holds the barrel aloft, staring into it. Then he inhales deep and returns to the box. “I got a chance to re-create my whole identity when I came over here,” Turner said, and each step of his route to the plate reveals the keys to his evolution: The breathing techniques he learned on the field and in the classroom at Cal State Fullerton. The swing he rebuilt after the New York Mets released him in 2013. The physique he reshaped after his first season in Los Angeles. The knee he rehabilitated from microfracture surgery last winter, emerging from the process a sleeker defender with more power than ever before. After three seasons as a Dodger, Turner can now consider himself a member of the game’s elite. Since signing a minor-league contract with Los Angeles in 2014, his .864 on-base plus slugging percentage ranks 21st among hitters with at least 1,000 plate appearances. He resided at No. 20 among position players in FanGraphs’ version of wins above replacement before Monday’s games. An eight-figure payday awaits Turner, 31, this winter in free agency. He wants to remain with the Dodgers. He grew up about 30 minutes south of Dodger Stadium, where he’s become a player who

outshines the statistical expectations for his position while enhancing the clubhouse chemistry. Roberts considers him one of the most influential voices on the roster. “J.T. is the epitome of what we’re trying to do going forward, the type of baseball player he is, what he stands for,” Roberts said. “Those are the guys you win with.” One day this winter, shortly before he reported to Camelback Ranch, Turner went to lunch with a retired kinesiology professor named Ken Ravizza. Ravizza is considered a titan in the field of sports psychology, a consultant with teams such as the Angels, Chicago Cubs and Tampa Bay Rays for three decades. When Howie Kendrick slumped through May, he called Ravizza. Ravizza met Turner while teaching at Cal State Fullerton, where he also aided the baseball team. He considers Turner “almost like a son to me.” During four years together, Turner enrolled in a pair of Ravizza’s classes, a course on sports psychology and a course on stress management. In one session, Ravizza went around the room and asked the athletes about motivation. “I play my sport,” Turner told the group, “because I love going to Omaha,” the site of the College World Series. Ravizza considered Turner a ravenous study at psychology. “He came to class!” Ravizza said. Turner appreciated how Ravizza encouraged his students to fail and “see that life goes on,” Turner said. On the diamond, Ravizza helped Turner build mechanisms to combat the havoc baseball can create. Turner developed a routine that acts as his anchor, absorbed relaxation techniques to calm himself during crises and learned breathing techniques to “really focus on taking one breath at a time, which related back to playing one pitch at a time,” Ravizza said. “It’s a routine that allows him to give 100% of what he’s got to win the next pitch,” Ravizza added. “I really think that’s what he is about: Winning the next pitch.” Turner played well in college, but his physical profile was unremarkable. He hit eight home runs in four seasons, and scouts doubted he could handle shortstop in the majors. Drafted in the seventh round of the 2006 draft, he bounced from Cincinnati to Baltimore to New York. He spent three seasons as a reserve for the Mets, painting himself into a corner as a useful but expendable asset. The tide started to shift in 2013 when the Mets signed Marlon Byrd, a well-traveled outfielder who would accept a 162-game suspension in 2016 for repeated violations of baseball’s performance-enhancing drug policy. Turner impressed Byrd with his knowledge of the craft, as he lamented his inability to translate the insight into production. “I felt like I took great at-bats, and had a chance,” Turner said. “I just, mechanically, wasn’t very efficient to do any damage.” Byrd invited Turner to spend the winter with him and his hitting guru, Doug Latta, who ran a facility in Chatsworth. Latta suggested an overhaul of his swing that spanned both mechanics and philosophy. Turner had always tried to keep his weight back and slap grounders. Latta encouraged him to lower his hands and transfer his body forward to launch the baseball.

When Turner finished his first session, Latta turned to Byrd, wowed by Turner’s hand speed. “Does he know what an impact player he can be?” he asked. Within a month, Turner started to feel comfortable with the adjustment. He was beginning to wrap his mind around his future as a slugger. “Once that feel starts getting better, confidence builds,” Latta said. “Timing gets better. You see the ball better. Now add that up to a hitter.” The transformation excited Turner and it worried him. He felt capable of punishing pitchers like never before, but he had yet to experience success in games. When the Mets cut him loose before 2014, the Dodgers invited him to camp because he could play different positions and hit off the bench, not because they expected him to supply power. Turner was gambling that his new approach would convince them otherwise. Turner called Latta that spring to tell him about ripping six consecutive homers during batting practice. When Latta started to congratulate him, Turner interrupted to finish the story. “One of the guys gave him flack, like, ‘That’s not your game,’” Latta said. “You get this disconnect. But all those things fueled J.T.” Turner made the club and became a reliable contributor. He appeared at every infield position and posted an .897 OPS. He batted .400 as a pinch-hitter and .419 with runners in scoring position. He caught the attention of strength and conditioning coach Brandon McDaniel, who marveled at Turner’s skills, but noticed his physical limitations. “I didn’t feel like he had the ability to play nine innings at a high level,” McDaniel said. “Let alone every day.” McDaniel offered to move to Los Angeles from his home in Nebraska to train Turner that winter. By December, the two were meeting six days a week at Dodger Stadium. McDaniel threw him batting practice, hit him grounders and paced him through conditioning drills. The activity improved his dexterity in the field, stripping inefficiencies from his movements so that “the way he plays third base now, it’s a difference-maker for us,” McDaniel said. Turner became wedded to the schedule. When he spent Christmas with his girlfriend outside Chicago, McDaniel designed a plan for him to work out at Valparaiso University “so I didn’t miss anything,” Turner said. The changes extended to his diet. McDaniel advised Turner to cut out refined carbohydrates and increase his intake of “healthy fats” like almond butter, avocados, coconuts and olive oil. Turner lost nearly 20 pounds. “There were times that first offseason where he figured it out and started losing weight so fast that I was like, ‘I’ve got to pick it up. You’re making me look bad,’” McDaniel said. After Turner blossomed into a star last season, the ethic established with McDaniel created a framework for recovery this past winter. His knee had bothered him for years, and surgery kept him off his feet for nearly two months. As he recovered, the training staff sought to keep Turner’s gait even, while maintaining the balance of strength between the two legs.

Turner was ready for opening day. But he started slow unable to lift the baseball, and by the second week of June, his batting average hovered at .220. Searching for an answer, he ditched his 34-ounce bats for a lighter model used by Chase Utley. Rather than fall into old habits, he reinforced the need to put the ball in the air. “He understands his swing, and he understands his strengths,” hitting coach Turner Ward said. “It’s about him being in a good body position so he can get the elevation.” The parts came into sync on June 8, when Turner smashed a game-winning homer in San Francisco. He started a tear that has yet to abate. Since June 26, the day of Clayton Kershaw’s last start, Turner has hit .315 with 10 homers and 30 RBI. The evolution of Justin Turner did not occur overnight. He built himself for stardom from the top down: the brain, the swing and the body, unwilling to settle for a career as a minor-key major-leaguer. At his core, Ravizza explained, Turner still resembles that undergraduate who thirsted for Omaha. “He was always open to learning,” Ravizza said. “He never had all the answers, and still doesn’t. He’s a real warrior. He’s a competitor, man. And he wants to get better all the time.”

OC REGISTER Dodgers turn to Driveline to boost minor leaguers’ velocity By J.P. Hoornstra Spring training was over, and David Reid-Foley and Corey Copping were eager to pitch in games that counted. Copping, 22, was entering his first full season of pro baseball after the Dodgers grabbed him in the 31st round of the 2015 draft. Reid-Foley, 25, was in the second act of his career. The Dodgers signed him as an undrafted free agent catcher out of Mercer University in 2013, then converted him into a pitcher the following year. While their peers were shipping out to Michigan, Oklahoma and Southern California to begin the season, Copping and Reid-Foley were grounded in Glendale, Ariz. They were two of a handful of pitchers told to stay in extended spring training, forbidden from throwing off a mound. Dodgers farm director Gabe Kapler and pitching coordinator Rick Knapp explained what was about to happen. Two representatives from Driveline Baseball, a pitching performance facility in suburban Seattle, would lead a 10-week program designed to increase velocity and hone mechanics. Once the 10 weeks were up, everyone would be allowed to pitch again. The results would speak for themselves. Copping felt like a guinea pig. “That was the vibe behind it,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect from it.” “You are paid to pitch and you’re not pitching on a mound,” Reid-Foley said. “You’re just throwing the ball into the wall as hard as you can.”

There was a little more to it than that. Driveline treats pitching as a science, not an art form. And in science, the devil is always in the details. METHOD TO THE MADNESS In Driveline’s case, the science has only gradually gained acceptance. Kyle Boddy, who monitored the Dodgers’ minor leaguers along with Driveline CEO Mike Rathman, founded the company eight years ago. He now counts some of the top Division I college programs in the country among his disciples. That includes Coastal Carolina, which won the 2016 College World Series. They also advertise camps in Washington state for pitchers as young as 9. But the Dodgers are one of only four major league teams who have reached out to Driveline to employ a training regimen for their pitchers. Their typical pro client arrived on his own. A few major leaguers swear by the program. Others have never heard of it. Their poster boy is Trevor Bauer, a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians and former UCLA standout whose fastball is among the hardest in the game. Earlier this year, Boddy incorporated TrackMan technology into his research arsenal. Using a military-grade 3D Doppler radar system, TrackMan claims to be able to capture 20,000 measurements per second. It doesn’t miss a beat in tracking a baseball’s movement: horizontal break, vertical break, spin rate, spin axis (tilt) and, of course, velocity. So-called “pitching gurus” have existed in baseball as private consultants for decades. Boddy believes his granular, data-driven focus increasingly mimics that of major league teams. “We’re the ones using a sabermetric approach,” he said. On a recent Sunday afternoon in Kent, Wash., sabermetrics never looked so normal. Eminem’s anthemic “Lose Yourself” filled the massive Driveline facility, a light-industrial building in a neighborhood full of them. A young man in a tank top cut fastballs loose from a makeshift mound. Almost instantly, the velocity and spin rate of each pitch appeared on a monitor in the background. Nearby, two men performed barbell squats. Another man strained to crank out one last pull-up. Joe Beimel, the former Dodgers pitcher who’s currently a free agent, was also in the house looking to stay sharp. “My daily job is basically doing R&D, interviews and corporate-type work,” said Boddy, who studied economics and computer science in college, then cut his chops in the tech industry before moving on to baseball. Above the training floor, stacks of books fill the shelves of Boddy’s office. His desk is covered with literature at the intersection of baseball and biomechanics. His summer interns are up to their ears in numbers.

Lose yourself, indeed. FROM GLENDALE TO RANCHO CUCAMONGA Even though Copping and Reid-Foley weren’t throwing off a mound, their arms were throbbing. “All the guys in Driveline the first few weeks, we were hurting after all the lifts,” Copping said. Their daily regimen was as monotonous as it was painful. For two hours they would lift weights, followed by light running and a break for lunch. They returned to the field to warm up using flexible bands, then threw a series of weighted baseballs against a wall – heaviest balls first and getting progressively lighter, finishing with 3-ounce baseballs. A standard baseball weighs 5 ounces. Each day of training ended with long toss and a typical postgame recovery. “Ice, massage, electric stem, whatever you needed,” Reid-Foley said. That was it for 10 weeks. Rinse, wash, repeat. Along the way, Driveline’s biomechanical data was employed as feedback. “It was interesting to hear where you need to put your body to throw the ball as hard as you possibly can,” Reid-Foley said. “Most of the time, they’re just like ‘lift your leg and throw the ball.’ These guys actually broke it down to where you need to get your hand behind your head; how much torque and turning you need to do. It was pretty cool.” Neither he nor Copping saw the real fruits of their labor until the final week of extended spring training, when they were finally free to pitch in a game. Copping said his fastball was clocked between 86 and 88 mph at the end of spring training. After 10 weeks of Driveline, he was regularly touching 92 to 94. Reid-Foley said his velo went from 88-91 mph at the end of spring training to 90-94. And their actual performance? Reid-Foley allowed 17 runs in 82/3 innings (a 17.65 ERA) with advanced Class-A Rancho Cucamonga in 2015. This year, his ERA is down to 5.16 and he’s averaging nearly a strikeout per inning. Copping was promoted to Rancho Cucamonga in July. Since then he hasn’t allowed a run in eight of 10 appearances out of the bullpen. “After an outing I did all my recovery stuff through Driveline,” Copping said, “and it felt like I didn’t pitch that night.” ASSESSING THE RISK Copping and Reid-Foley are considered long shots. Undrafted free agents and 31st-round draft picks don’t often reach the major leagues. Of the Dodgers’ Driveline guinea pigs, they’re the two most advanced in the organization; most haven’t made it out of Rookie ball.

Driveline might not be an established name in the industry. Yet for the Dodgers, the motivation behind the experiment is obvious: Why not? “Velocity is so valued in our industry that if you’re a low-end velocity pitcher most likely you won’t get a chance to perform,” said Rick Peterson, a veteran pitching coach and the Baltimore Orioles’ director of pitching development. “Scouts are looking at velocity. If you’re right-handed throwing 87, you’re not going to get a chance.” Within the Dodgers’ clubhouse, opinions are split on the use of weighted baseballs. Brandon McCarthy has one in his locker, branded with the Driveline logo. “I talk to (Boddy) all the time because I like everything he does and the way he approaches his business,” McCarthy said. Dodgers pitcher Scott Kazmir has tried training with weighted baseballs in the past, though not through Driveline. He would begin by throwing the heaviest ball and taper down to the lightest, just like the Driveline gang. He didn’t like it. “You’d throw that weighted ball and you would feel stronger,” Kazmir said, “but my release point would be out of control so I stopped.” McCarthy has been dealing with a release point issue in recent weeks, but Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt doesn’t think a weighted baseball is the cause. “Why would it be (happening) now and not before?” he asked. Still, at least one expert in the field of biomechanics has reservations about this aspect of the Driveline method. Dr. Glenn Fleisig is the research director of the American Sports Medicine Institute. As an expert on elbow injuries, his medical advice carries significant weight in baseball circles. Speaking at ASMI’s annual Injuries in Baseball Conference in January, Fleisig presented the findings of a study on the use of weighted baseballs. He gave participants balls ranging from 4-9 ounces, but refused to test a lighter ball because of the injury risk. Driveline baseballs begin at 3 ounces. In any event, it might be too soon to assess the long-term effects of the throwing program. Fleisig is in Year 2 of a five-year study designed to uncover the biomechanical causes of arm injuries. Data from hundreds of professional pitchers will be studied. Drawing hard conclusions requires many data points and lots of time. The Dodgers might not get any major league pitchers out of their Driveline experiment, but both Copping and Reid-Foley said they feel better about their careers today than they did at the start of the season. They’re throwing harder. Their arms aren’t as sore. “Another step closer to the show,” Copping said. “Couldn’t ask for anything better.”

On deck: Dodgers at Philadelphia, Tuesday, 4 p.m. By Staff Reports Where: Citizens Bank Park TV: SNLA, 4 p.m. Did you know? The Dodgers roughed up Philadelphia’s Vincent Velasquez when they faced him a week ago at Dodger Stadium, scoring nine runs on 11 hits (three home runs) over 42/3 innings. In his past 10 starts he has allowed more than two runs in just one other outing. THE PITCHERS DODGERS RHP KENTA MAEDA (11-7, 3.31) Vs. Phillies: 1-0, 5.40 At Citizens Bank Park: He has never pitched there before. Hates to face: None Loves to face: None PHILLIES RHP VINCE VELASQUEZ (8-4, 3.94) Vs. Dodgers: 0-1, 15.19 ERA At Citizens Bank Park: 4-1, 1.72 (47 innings) Hates to face: None Loves to face: None UPCOMING MATCHUPS Wednesday: Dodgers LHP Scott Kazmir (9-6, 4.44 ERA) at Phillies RHP Jake Thompson (1-1, 8.68) , 4 p.m., SNLA Thursday: Pirates RHP Bud Norris (6-9, 4.26 ERA) at Phillies RHP Jerad Eickhoff (8-12, 3.82), 4 p.m., SNLA

DODGER INSIDER The Johnny Wholestaff Dodgers: Just get the outs By Jon Weisman The 1916 National League champion Brooklyn Superbas used 10 pitchers to throw their 1,427 1/3 innings.

The 2016 Los Angeles Dodgers used 15 pitchers to throw 54 innings last week. Some people — even those under the age of 100, have noticed the difference. In a perfect world, you’d have one pitcher, and he’d retire every batter you faced in a given season. But we have never lived in a perfect world. Bugs Bunny ain’t walking through that door. So we ask our best pitcher to retire as many batters as he can, as quickly as possible, and when that pitcher’s done, we put in another. In 1916, after Jeff Pfeffer’s 328 2/3 innings with a 1.92 ERA, there were nine others. In 2016, after Clayton Kershaw’s 121 innings with a 1.79 ERA, there have been 28 others. We can debate whether this is an evolution or a devolution, but here’s the deal: You just need to get the outs. It’s certainly simpler to use 10 pitchers rather than 29. But if 29 do the job, all that matters is that the job got done. Starting today in Philadelphia, the Dodgers play 16 days in a row to finish the month of August. They’ll play approximately 140 innings. Without Kershaw, the Dodgers are carrying 13 pitchers on their active roster. With the potential returns of Rich Hill, Casey Fien, Adam Liberatore and Bud Norris from the disabled list, they have 17 that they can rotate through, in and out of uniform, in and out of games. You just need to get the outs. PITTSBURGH PIRATES VS LOS ANGELES DODGERS Sometimes you get a clunker. In their comebacks from injuries, despite their best efforts, Brett Anderson and Brandon McCarthy each stumbled badly this weekend. But guess what: There were clunkers in the good ol’ days, too. You just had fewer alternatives to turn to when one happened. (Also, it didn’t hurt to pitch in the Dead Ball era.) Partly by design, partly as a response to injuries, partly as a consequence of market forces, the 2016 Dodgers operate differently from classic Dodger teams of years past. They’re not the 1916 Superbas. They’re not the 1966 Dodgers, whose Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Claude Osteen, Don Sutton and Phil Regan got 81 percent of the team’s outs that year. They’re not even the 2015 Dodgers, with Kershaw and Zack Greinke and a healthy Brett Anderson. (All three of those pitchers have lost time to the disabled list this year; Greinke’s ERA this season has ballooned, however temporarily, to 4.31). The 2016 Dodgers do it with volume. It’s not conventional — it’s disturbingly easy to mock — but they do it.

Their ERA is fourth in the NL. Their fielding-independent ERA is third. Their WHIP is second. So is their strikeout-walk ratio. And that’s with 28 pitchers not named Clayton Kershaw throwing 936 1/3 innings so far. And just watch out when September 1 arrives, rosters expand, and every pitcher is just there, no transaction magic necessary. Maybe Kershaw will even be one of them. You just need to get the outs. If you’re waiting for this approach to implode, consider that logically, it really might not. When a Dodger pitcher gets tired, or gets hurt, there’s another one to turn to. If that one can’t do it, go to the next. If that one gets hurt, go to the next. That doesn’t stop being true, not when you have the numbers. There’s nothing inherently flawed about the approach. Weird it may be, but weirdness is a description, not a demerit. Who says an innings-eater has to be one guy? Why can’t it be Johnny Wholestaff? In fact, if you were designing a baseball team from scratch — if this were Year One and no tradition or historical records existed — and aces were at a premium, and your skill is in amassing volume, you’d probably find that there’s sense in volume. In the absence of four 1966-style studs (boy, that reserve clause came in handy, didn’t it?), get what you can from a host of pitchers, and use the DL and the minors to shuttle them around. By the postseason, should the Dodgers get that far, things will be different. Short series, tough opponents, rigid rosters. The Dodgers will have had six months to figure out who their best and healthiest pitchers are, and they’ll live or die with them. Even then, though, there’s similarity to the challenge. In a five-game series, they’ll have 12 or 13 pitchers to handle about 43 innings over seven days. In a seven-game series, they’ll need to handle about 61 innings over nine days. Will they do it? No idea. Can they do it? Just because it’s different doesn’t mean the answer is no. #VinTop20: No. 19, Manny’s Bobbleslam By Jon Weisman Between now and Vin Scully Appreciation Day on September 23, the Dodgers are revealing the results of the fan vote ranking Scully’s top 20 Dodger calls of all time, one at each home game. Here’s No. 19: Manny Ramirez’s pinch-hit grand slam on his Bobblehead Night. Farm fresh: Minor League weekend highlights By Josh Gurnick

Here are weekend highlights from the Dodger farm system, including series sweeps and a flurry of homers… The Oklahoma City Dodgers swept their weekend series at home against El Paso, outscoring the Chihuahuas 25-8, and Logan Bawcom had a hand in two of the victories. After tossing one scoreless inning in relief on Friday, Bawcom returned Sunday as a starter, going six innings and allowing one run on four hits with four strikeouts. Bawcom lowered his ERA to 1.85 in 28 appearances with Oklahoma City. In nine starts, he has a 1.40 ERA with 33 strikeouts over 45 innings, limiting opposing batters to a .199 average. Yasiel Puig went 6-for-12 with a home run, triple, four RBI and four runs scored in the three-game set, and Micah Johnson went 4-for-12 with a triple, four runs and three RBI. Double-A Tulsa’s Willie Calhoun continued his hot hitting over the weekend, recording his third multi-homer game yesterday with his 24th and 25th blasts of the season. Calhoun finished the weekend going 7-for-13 with two doubles, two homers, five runs scored and seven RBI in a three-game sweep against Frisco. Tulsa outscored the RoughRiders 25-6 in the series. Single-A Rancho Cucamonga took two of three games against Visalia, including a 17-run outburst Sunday on 21 hits. Johan Mieses hit his 25th homer on Friday and 26th on Saturday, and has now hit a home run in four consecutive games with a plate appearance. In his last 14 games with an a plate appearance since July 29, Mieses has hit 10 home runs with 23 RBI. Yusniel Diaz went 4-for-6 with his seventh home run of the season, including three runs and a career-high six RBI Sunday. Cody Thomas recorded his 18th multi-hit game of the season, hitting his ninth and 10th homers in Rookie League Ogden’s 15-4 victory Sunday over Billings. Brandon Montgomery went 3 for 3 with a home run, four RBI and three runs. Since being promoted to Odgen on July 28, Montgomery has hit safely in 10 of 12 games (.373 (19-for-51)/.400/.765). In addition, Mitchell Hansen smashed his 10th homer of the season Sunday and finished the game going 4-for-4 with two runs and four RBI In the Dominican Summer League, Juan Herrera tossed five hitless and scoreless innings and struck out seven batters in a 2-1 victory over the DSL Cubs. Herrera has allowed one run or fewer in six games this season with a minimum of five innings pitched. The Arizona League Dodgers were led by a pair of hot bats to a 5-3 extra-inning victory over the AZL Athletics on Friday and a 4-3 win over the AZL Indians on Saturday. Gavin Lux extended his hitting streak to seven games over the weekend, going 2 for 6 on Friday and 2 for 4 on Saturday. During the streak, Lux has collected five multi-hit games and is hitting .387 (12-for-31) with three doubles, a triple and five runs. Andres Ayon went 2 for 4 on Saturday, extending his hitting streak to 10 games, going 13-for-35 (.371) since July 26. Dodgers All-Access returns September 1 By Jon Weisman The third-annual Dodgers All-Access event will take place September 1 at Dodger Stadium, beginning at 5 p.m. The evening features panel discussions with current and former Dodger players, coaches and executives. Guests will also have the opportunity to take batting practice in the Dodger batting cages, pitch in the

Dodger bullpen, tour Dodger Stadium, call play-by-play action on historic Dodger moments, take photos throughout the stadium with Dodger alumni and enjoy a dinner on the infield. Among those scheduled to take part in the panel discussions are Adrian Gonzalez, Justin Turner, Joc Pederson, Dave Roberts, Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi. Others set to participate in the event include Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Mickey Hatcher, Orel Hershiser, Eric Karros, Tommy Lasorda, Bill Russell, Reggie Smith and Steve Yeager. Proceeds from the event will be split between the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation and the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Council, which partners with the City of Los Angeles to bring such major sporting and entertainment events to Los Angeles as NBA All-Star Weekend, the Grammys and more. Challenge accepted: After 10 years in the Majors, Howie Kendrick reinvents himself By Jon Weisman Howie Kendrick had one of his best weeks as a Dodger over the past seven days, going 10 for 21 with a walk, a home run and five doubles for a 1.357 OPS. At this moment, Kendrick’s adjusted OPS for the 2016 season is 100, which is the equivalent of league average. But this has been anything but an ordinary season for Kendrick, who had to adjust to becoming the Dodgers’ primary left fielder after spending the previous 10 seasons almost entirely at second base. In the cover story of the most recent Dodger Insider magazine, we talked to Kendrick as we detailed the transition. “I learned a long time ago you have to put your ego and your pride on the backburner and just go out and play,” said Kendrick, who already has met or exceeded his 2015 totals in doubles, walks and stolen bases. “Because all that matters is, is your team going to win the game? What can you do to help your team win that day?” Read the entire story by clicking here.

TRUEBLUELA.COM Dodgers vs. Phillies series snapshot: Citizens Bank Park edition By Eric Stephen After taking two of three games last week against the Phillies at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers try for more of the same this week at Citizens Bank Park. Here is a brief look at the two teams heading into their three-game set in Philadelphia. Teams: Dodgers (65-52) vs. Phillies (56-63) Split records: Dodgers 27-28 on road; Phillies 28-29 at home Run differential: Dodgers +58 (4th in NL); Phillies -98 (12th in NL)

Runs scored: Dodgers 4.41 runs/gm (9th); Phillies 3.82 (13th) OPS+: Dodgers 97 (6th); Phillies 83 (14th) wRC+: Dodgers 97 (6th); Phillies 80 (14th) Runs allowed: Dodgers 3.91 runs/game (4th); Phillies 4.64 (9th) ERA+: Dodgers 107 (4th); Phillies 93 (12th) Last 10 games: Dodgers 6-4; Phillies 6-4 2016 head-to-head: Dodgers 2-1 2015 head-to-head: Dodgers 5-2 (2-1 in Philly) Phillies SB Nation site: The Good Phight Series schedule Pitching matchups Tuesday, 4:05 p.m. PT: Kenta Maeda vs. Vince Velasquez (SportsNet LA) Wednesday, 4:05 p.m.: Scott Kazmir vs. Jake Thompson (SportsNet LA) Thursday, 4:05 p.m.: Bud Norris vs. Jerad Eickhoff (SportsNet LA) Dodgers vs. Phillies schedule & probable starting pitchers By Eric Stephen The Dodgers continue to get by despite decreasing production from their starting rotation, but send their two healthiest starting pitchers to the mound in the first two games of their three-game series against the Phillies in Philadelphia. Since Clayton Kershaw last pitched on June 26, the Dodgers are 24-16, trailing only Washington (25-15) among National League teams since then. But that is despite a starting rotation that has put up a 4.93 ERA in those 40 games, all while averaging 4.88 innings per start. Dodgers starters in that span have failed to record an out in the sixth inning 24 times in 40 games, and have pitched a total of 195⅓ innings, barely more than the bullpen (173 innings, 4.33 per game) during the same time. In August the cracks have started to show, with the starters owning a collective 6.54 ERA while averaging 4.36 innings per start. The Dodgers are 6-6 this month. But in the first two games at Citizens Bank Park, the Dodgers send their two pitchers with more than 16 starts this season, a duo that combined to allow three runs in 11 innings against the Phillies last week at Dodger Stadium.

Here is the schedule and probable starters for this three-game series in Philadelphia. Tuesday, 4:05 p.m. PT (SportsNet LA) The Dodgers have won Kenta Maeda’s last four starts, with the right-hander putting up 17 strikeouts and two walks to go with his 3.57 ERA in 22⅔ innings during that span. He got the win against Philadelphia in his last start, last Tuesday, allowing three runs in five innings. Maeda got the win thanks in large part to the Dodgers scoring nine runs in 4⅔ innings, including three home runs, against Vince Velasquez, who starts the opener for the Phillies. Velasquez allowed only three home runs total in his previous nine starts, with a 2.96 ERA during that span. Wednesday, 4:05 p.m. (SportsNet LA) DODGERS VS. PHILLIES Series snapshot Scott Kazmir has lasted at least six innings in every other start in his last 10 starts, though if that trend continues that means fewer than six innings on Wednesday. Kazmir pitched six scoreless innings against the Phillies last week before his two batters faced in the seventh inning both scored. Jake Thompson was part of the haul from Texas last July for Cole Hamels, and the 22-year-old right-hander put up a 2.50 ERA in 21 starts for Triple-A Lehigh Valley this season before getting his first major league call. Thompson in two starts with the Phillies has allowed nine runs in 9⅓ innings, with five walks and seven strikeouts. Thursday, 4:05 p.m. (SportsNet LA) Bud Norris is scheduled to be activated from the disabled list to start the series finale, but a lot of Dodgers pitchers have been scheduled to do a lot of things this season. Norris pitched into the sixth inning last Saturday in his lone minor league rehab start for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga. Jerad Eickhoff also came to the Phillies in the Hamels trade, and the 25-year-old leads the team with 143⅔ innings this season. With 120 strikeouts, Eickhoff is also one off the club strikeout lead; Philadelphia has four starters bunched together 121, 120, 120 and 119 strikeouts in 2016. When Eickhoff lasts at least six innings in a start this season, the Phillies are 9-6, and when he doesn’t they are 2-7. Dodgers Week 19: Breaking even By Eric Stephen The Dodgers split six games with the Phillies and Pirates last week, continuing to balance the strain of a starting rotation held together by chewing gum and baling wire with a bullpen that has been effective but with an extremely heavy workload to date. The relievers pitched more innings than the starters did last week, and that isn't the first time that has happened recently. But so far, the staff has managed to somehow hold things together. How long they can continue down this path remains to be seen. The Dodgers did get wins last week from a 19-year-old starting pitcher and a 20-year-old relief pitcher.

The offense, as it has since the All-Star break and even a little before, came through in a big way, serving as a buoy last week averaging over five runs per game. Joc Pederson hit .429 with seven extra-base hits, Howie Kendrick hit .476 with six extra-base hits, and they were joined by MVP candidate Corey Seager and his 12-for-26 (.462) week as well. The week saw the Dodgers briefly taste a share of first place, catching the Giants after Tuesday night's win, but the week ended as it began, with LA one game back of San Francisco in the National League West. Dodger Batter of the Week: This one goes to Joc Pederson, who has hit .300/.388/.614 in 22 games, and last week hit his first home run to left field all season. Dodger Pitcher of the Week: The starters put up a devilish 6.66 ERA for the week, with no true standout though Scott Kazmir came close in his tough-luck loss on Wednesday afternoon. This award goes to Jesse Chavez, who after a rough first week with his new team came through with 5⅓ scoreless innings and six strikeouts to pace the bullpen. Sadly he didn't pitch in a game with Josh Ravin, let alone consecutively at home. Game of the Week Tuesday: Dodgers 9, Phillies 3 Three homers and four doubles were enough to drub Philadelphia (Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea | USA Today Sports). Week 19 Record: 3-3 32 runs scored (5.33 per game) 33 runs allowed (5.50 per game) .486 pythagorean winning percentage 2016 season Record: 65-52 516 runs scored (4.41 per game) 458 runs allowed (3.91 per game) .554 pythagorean winning percentage (65-52) Transactions Monday: Joe Blanton was placed on the bereavement list, and reliever Josh Ravin was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City. Tuesday: Scott Van Slyke was placed on the 15-day disabled list with right wrist irritation, and infielder Chris Taylor was recalled from Triple-A. Friday: Blanton was reinstated from the bereavement list, and relief pitcher Luis Avilan was optioned to Triple-A. Sunday: Brett Anderson was reinstated from the 60-day disabled list to make his 2016 debut, and pitcher Brock Stewart was recalled from Triple-A. Pitchers Brandon McCarthy and Josh Ravin were placed on the 15-day disabled list, and utility man Zach Walters was designated for assignment.

Game Results Monday: Dodgers 9, Phillies 4 Tuesday: Dodgers 9, Phillies 3 Wednesday: Phillies 6, Dodgers 2 Friday: Pirates 5, Dodgers 1 Saturday: Dodgers 8, Pirates 4 Sunday: Pirates 11, Dodgers 3 Trevor Oaks 3-hitter leads OKC Dodgers to a series sweep By Craig Minami Oklahoma City got a great performance by Trevor Oaks, Rancho Cucamonga came back to win and Great Lakes cruised to their win. Only one Rookie affiliate won on Monday. Player of the day Oklahoma City right-handed starter Trevor Oaks had his best start of the season as he pitched a complete game and gave up just a run and three hits. Oaks also had a career high 11 strikeouts. Triple-A Oklahoma City The Dodgers got great pitching and good offense and that meant a series sweeping 8-1 win over the Chihuahuas (Padres). The Dodgers have now won six straight games including the four-game series sweep. Trevor Oaks won his fifth game with the Dodgers and his overall record in his three minor league stops is 14-3 and Oaks has now pitched over 150 innings. Oklahoma City had 13 hits. Max Venable hit a two-run home run. Andrew Toles, O'Koyea Dickson, Corey Brown, Charlie Culberson and Brandon Hicks were the Dodgers who each had two hits. Double-A Tulsa The Drillers were off on Monday. Class-A Rancho Cucamonga The Quakes were trailing the Nuts (Rockies) 2-0 in the top of the ninth. But a two-out hit in the ninth by Yusniel Diaz drove in the tying run. And then in the tenth, Erick Mejia drove in two runs that proved to be the difference in the Quakes 4-2 win. Corey Copping picked up the win for throwing three scoreless innings. Chris Anderson also pitched two scoreless innings to keep the game within reach. In the ninth, Devan Ahart tripled and he later scored the first Quakes run. Will Smith would walk and he was followed by singles from Matt Beaty and Yusniel Diaz that drove in Smith to tie the game. With two out in the top of tenth, Ahart doubled to make it runners on second and third with two outs. Erick Mejia untied the game with a base hit that drove in the ultimately winning runs.

Class-A Great Lakes The Loons jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the fourth and only one run was to be added in their 7-1 win the over the Lugnuts (Blue Jays) 7-1. Imani Abdullah won his third game of the season. A big four run second provided all the runs Abdullah and the Loons would need. In the second, a bases loaded single from Serge Jenco plated two runs, a bases loaded walk and a wild pitch would provide the other runs. Two hits for Omar Estevez, Logan Landon, Brendon Davis and Jenco. Pioneer - Ogden The Raptors fell short in the their comeback as the Voyagers (White Sox) took a one-run 7-6 win over the Dodgers. Ogden had ten hits, Mitch Hansen, catcher Keibert Ruiz and Jared Walker had two each with a pair of hits on Monday Arizona League - AZL Dodgers AZL Dodgers lost 5-3 to AZL Reds, the Reds struck out 16 hitters. Gavin Lux was 1-for-2 and walked twice in the loss. Dominican Summer League - Dodgers One & Dodgers Two Dodgers One defeated the Orioles Two 7-3 on Monday while the Rays One took their game over Dodgers Two by an 8-3 score. Transactions Triple-A: Los Angeles optioned right-handed pitcher Brock Stewart to Oklahoma City. Rookie: Oklahoma City sent outfielder Rico Noel on a rehab assignment to AZL Dodgers; Tulsa sent left-handed pitcher Jordan Schafer on a rehab assignment to AZL Dodgers. Monday Scores Oklahoma City 8, El Paso 1 Rancho Cucamonga 4, Modesto 2 (10) Great Lakes 7, Lansing 1 Great Falls 7, Ogden 6 AZL Reds 5, AZL Dodgers 3 Dodgers One 7, Orioles Two 3 Rays One 8, Dodgers Two 3 Tuesday Schedule 4:05 p.m. PT - Great Lakes (Yadier Alvarez) at Lansing (Ryan Borucki)

4:30 p.m. - Tulsa (Andrew Sopko) at Midland (Athletics) (Joel Seddon) 5:05 p.m. - Albuquerque (Rockies) (Kyle Freeland) at Oklahoma City (Jeremy Kehrt) 6:00 p.m. - Great Falls (Alec Hansen) at Ogden (Nolan Long) 7:00 p.m. - AZL Dodgers at AZL Indians 7:05 p.m. - Rancho Cucamonga (Tommy Bergjans) at Modesto (TBD)

FANGRAPHS Joc Pederson’s Taken the Difficult Step By Jeff Sullivan It feels like ages ago, but back when he was a high-level prospect, George Springer was absolutely fascinating. In Springer, the Astros had a phenomenal athlete with almost unparalleled bat speed. But Springer’s game also came with a lot of swinging and missing, whiffs to such a degree that there were real questions about how he’d be able to handle the bigs. You know how this has gone: Springer has established himself as a quality outfielder, after having dramatically improved his contact skills. Getting better at contact is not an easy thing to do, but Springer made himself an outlier, and now he’s a star. Springer’s big gain came between 2014 and 2015, and this year he’s actually taken another step forward, in terms of getting the bat to the ball. As a rookie, Springer posted baseball’s very lowest contact rate. As a rookie himself, Joc Pederson posted baseball’s sixth-lowest contact rate. There’s long been concern about Pederson’s own ability to make consistent contact. His swings and misses could get exploited, but Springer demonstrated improvement could be possible. And now Pederson is following in Springer’s footsteps. The Dodgers just lost pretty badly, but Pederson at least did something of note. Facing a good heater in the bottom of the fourth: One thing you might notice is that Pederson almost knocked himself off balance. No one would ever accuse him of, say, shortening up and swinging at anything less than 100%. But that being said, that’s a quality inside fastball and Pederson turned it completely around. That’s not an easy home run to hit, and it’s a home run he might not have hit a season ago. I’ll get into that, but first, how about an eye-opening rolling-average plot of Pederson’s contact skill? If you know one thing about contact rate, you know it tends to stay pretty steady. It’s one of those numbers that stabilizes fast, and the way we understand things, there’s generally an inverse relationship between contact and power. You hear about players who sell out for homers. You hear, less often, about players who might do the opposite. Pederson’s contact is up. He hasn’t sacrificed any of his pop. Where Pederson last year hit the ball with two-thirds of his attempted swings, lately he’s been flirting with 80%. Pederson has gone from exploitable in this regard to almost league-average.

Time for perspective! Comparing last year and this year, Pederson is presently sitting on a contact rate that’s gotten better by 10 points. We have 15 years of information, and over that span, there are 3,259 cases of players who have batted at least 250 times in consecutive seasons. Here are the 10 biggest year-to-year gains in contact rate: The point isn’t that maybe, just maybe, Joc Pederson could turn into the next Bill Hall. The point is that these gains are extremely rare, and we haven’t seen something of this magnitude in a decade. If you were to expand beyond the top 10, you’d find George Springer in 12th. His contact rate improved 8.5 points. Of note: Miguel Sano is up almost six points. Kris Bryant is up five points. They’ve also faced contact questions, and to some extent they’ve answered them. By this measure, at least, Pederson’s answer is perhaps the most emphatic. One thing that’s true is that, compared to last year, Pederson now is being platooned more heavily. That does work in his favor, but still, against righties alone, Pederson’s contact rate is up 11 points. And here’s what I find even more striking: Brooks Baseball defines “hard pitches” as fastballs and cutters. Against those hard pitches last year, Pederson made 68% contact. This year he’s at 84%. It hasn’t been nearly so easy to just blow the ball by him, so where Pederson was one run above average against those pitches, now he’s already at +11. He’ll still whiff, and he’ll still whiff against the best heat, but that’s not uncommon for anybody. As a hitter he’s just more complete these days. Here are Pederson’s contact heat maps against hard pitches. He’s a lefty and these are from the catcher’s perspective, so he’d be standing to the right of these plots. You can see improvement just about everywhere. Pederson is simply better prepared for fastballs now, and if you look at the inner part of the plate, you can see a big gain, which might have powered his homer against the Pirates on Sunday. Maybe last year he could’ve turned that pitch around. Maybe he would’ve hit it out to center. Pederson didn’t never make good contact inside as a rookie. Just on averages, though, he makes more contact inside, and he also makes better contact inside. As lefties go, Pederson now has top-10 exit velocity against inside pitches, patching what had been a bit of a hole. Pederson’s swing patterns haven’t budged much. The better overall contact rate is fueled by both better in-zone contact and better out-of-zone contact. Now, you don’t want to make a habit of putting out-of-zone pitches in play, but getting the bat to those balls can help to keep a hitter alive. If you foul one off, it buys you another opportunity. Every pitch matters, as pitch-framing statistics have argued. Something interesting here is that I don’t think Pederson’s actual swing has evolved a lot. Some swings do look shorter than they did last season, but Pederson’s average 2016 swing looks mostly the same. He’s toyed with his leg kick. There have been slight adjustments to the hands. And Pederson did spend the winter looking for a consistent attack. But this looks a lot like just better prep. Pederson still has a big, powerful swing. But if you better understand when a fastball could be coming, you can plan for better timing. You can get around on those pitches in, because you’re braced for them. I’m sure Pederson could say more about how he’s adjusted over time. His second-half slump was something ugly, and it called for a response, which Pederson spent his offseason constructing. If there are subtle changes, well, there typically are, and Pederson couldn’t afford to do nothing. But he didn’t change the core of his swing. He still has the strength and bat speed that first put him on the radar. Joc Pederson now swings a lot like the Joc Pederson of 2015. He’s just now putting the swing to better use. He’s become a more dangerous threat in the process.

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Dodgers announcer Vin Scully started his 67-year career in Philadelphia By Frank Fitzpatrick If he were a younger, more sentimental man, Vin Scully probably would have accompanied the Dodgers to Philadelphia for the Citizens Bank Park series that begins Tuesday. But the sport's most eloquent, mellifluous and beloved broadcaster is 88 now and happy for any respite from the spotlit hoopla that has accompanied his 67th and last season. A final visit here would have brought Scully full circle, back to the city where, in the third inning of a Dodgers-Phillies game at Shibe Park on April 18, 1950, his long and distinguished career officially began. No tapes survive from that Philadelphia debut, when partners Red Barber and Connie Desmond yielded the mike to him for the third and seventh innings of the Phillies' season-opening 9-1 victory. And Scully, who has politely declined most interview requests, including from the Inquirer, has said he recalls almost nothing from that first of more than 10,000 broadcasts as a Dodgers announcer. "But the one thing I do remember," Scully said last year, "was that I was terrified." On that springtime Tuesday in 1950, the Dodgers were the defending National League champions about to open the season against the Phillies. As 29,074 fans entered the North Philadelphia ballpark - an opening-day record for the historically forlorn franchise - there was palpable promise in a city that hadn't witnessed postseason baseball since the Athletics, the Phillies' Shibe Park landlords, lost the 1931 World Series. Young and talented, the 1950 Phils already had a sports-page nickname, the "Whiz Kids." Seeking to capitalize on the optimism, owner Bob Carpenter heeded a fashion suggestion from manager Eddie Sawyer. "Our uniforms were the ugliest things you ever saw," Sawyer recalled in 1990. "I thought our young team needed a new look." So that day, for a first time, the Phils wore the uniforms that 66 years later remain standard home attire. Milky white with red pinstripes and the team's name in red script across the chest, they were boldly accented by cherry-red caps and socks. As the freshly outfitted Phillies were thumping Brooklyn - the Dodgers had yet to relocate to Los Angeles - behind 23-year-old Robin Roberts, another enduring baseball tradition was being born in the tiny visiting radio booth, which, like a mountain aerie, projected out perilously from the press box. Brooklyn catcher Roy Campanella, his boyhood Nicetown neighborhood just a short walk from the ballpark, was in the batter's box to start the third inning. That's when Barber, the lead Dodgers

announcer, introduced his new partner, a skinny 22-year-old with a lofty red pompadour named Vin Scully. Scully, who served briefly in the Navy toward the end of World War II, played center field at Fordham where, until he discovered campus radio station WFUV, he'd dreamed of becoming a serious writer. "My ambition had been to have a literary career," he once said. "I got cured by radio." Following graduation in 1949, he found a summer internship at Washington's 50,000-watt WTOP, where Barber, who also served as CBS Radio's sports director, first heard him. The following fall when CBS needed someone to provide live updates from a Maryland-Boston University football game, Barber remembered Scully. Though the youngster's broadcast position that windy Saturday was atop Fenway Park's roof, he never let the conditions affect his call, further impressing his soon-to-be boss. Long resisted by hidebound owners, radio - and to a lesser extent TV - was becoming a major force during the postwar baseball boom. All Dodgers games had been broadcast since 1947, and beginning in 1949 a few were televised by WOR-TV. When in November 1949 Ernie Harwell, one of Brooklyn's three announcers, departed for a job with the rival Giants, Barber contacted Scully, who accepted the job for $5,000 annually. A younger, much-less-experienced third wheel behind the popular and more-than-competent Barber and Desmond, Scully got little work that first spring training. Barber was a stern mentor. When he saw Scully drinking a beer in the press box that first season, he angrily rebuked him. Such fastidiousness had driven away the easygoing Harwell and initially bothered Scully. " 'Red's giving me a hard time,' " Scully recalled telling Harwell. "But Ernie advised me to hang in there. [He said,] 'Barber is tough, but he's a great teacher.' " Desmond, whose alcoholism would end his career prematurely, was a gentler but more erratic influence. "Red was like the father. He might chew me out once in a while," Scully said. "Connie was the older brother. He might counsel me and calm me down. I was the kid brother." On opening day 1950, Scully, who still lived with his parents in Bogota, N.J., traveled here by train from New York. Deboarding at North Philadelphia Station, he taxied to nearby Shibe Park. The hours moved slowly for the anxious rookie. He chatted with the players and, as would long be his custom, took notes. Just 22, he'd developed an easy rapport with the Dodgers, though Barber cautioned him that getting too close might endanger his objectivity.

As game time neared, Scully moved to the claustrophobic radio booth where he nervously sat through the Phillies' opening day festivities. "Here I was, the team's No. 3 announcer," he recalled in 2014, "and I was still living with my parents. I was very unsure of the future." Elliott Lawrence's Orchestra provided pregame music for the big crowd that included Mayor Bernard Samuel. A wheelchair-bound World War I vet named Si Rappaport threw out the ceremonial first ball. And after a Marine color guard brought in the flag, Philadelphia's Police and Firemen's Band played the national anthem. Then home plate umpire Babe Pinelli yelled, "Play ball!," Roberts threw a fastball to Brooklyn's Pee Wee Reese, and the season, if not yet Scully's career, was underway. The Phils took an instant lead when Richie Ashburn singled and Granny Hamner doubled on Don Newcombe's first two pitches. They were up, 5-0, in the top of the third when Barber handed the microphone to "a young fella I hope you're going to like." There's no way to know if Scully used his now-familiar greeting ("Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good day to you, wherever you may be") or whether that musical voice employed any of the graceful metaphors or literary references he so enjoys. There certainly wasn't much drama to relate. His first call was a Campanella single up the middle. Scully's debut inning then ended routinely after Roberts struck out the next two Dodgers and George Shuba popped up to the infield. More relaxed, he returned for the seventh, when a little excitement bubbled. Jackie Robinson's double began the inning. But, despite two subsequent singles and a pair of Phillies errors, Brooklyn scored just once. When Phils catcher Andy Seminick grounded out to Reese to end the seventh, Scully's first day on the job was over. On Tuesday, the 2016 Phils will be wearing the same uniforms they unveiled in that now historic game. And Scully, though he won't be there, is still the Dodgers broadcaster. During those 61/2 decades, he's become the most respected baseball voice ever. Whether it's the World Series or any of the countless all-star, playoff or nationally televised games he's worked, Scully has managed to combine a pleasant conversational tone with rare erudition. Listening to him, said Tom Winship, an author who grew up a Dodgers fan in Brooklyn, is like listening "to a bar pal . . . with Einstein's wisdom." "His command of the language and the game is so masterful that he always has just the right words," wrote Gary Kauffman in a Salon.com profile. "He paints you a picture." On the final day of that 1950 season, the Phillies beat the Dodgers again, this time in Brooklyn, to clinch the pennant.

Afterward, his rookie year ended in disappointment, Scully encountered Dodgers rightfielder Carl Furillo, who had failed to drive in what would have been the winning run. "I said to Furillo what a young kid would," Scully told Sports Illustrated in 2000. " 'Tough luck.' And Furillo looked at me and responded, 'You either do or you don't.' It was the most professional approach and because it was my first year, it stuck with me." Two months from the end of Scully's historic 67-year career, his broadcast style unaffected by countless changes to the game he loves and enhances, it clings to him still.

TODAYS KNUCKLEBALL Why haven’t the Dodgers called up Jose De Leon? By Nate Aderhold The Los Angeles Dodgers took yet another hit to their beleaguered starting rotation Sunday. The team placed Brandon McCarthy back on the disabled list in the morning, then in the afternoon watched Brett Anderson strain his wrist just 27 pitches into his long-awaited return from the DL. With Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Rich Hill, and Alex Wood already out indefinitely, the Dodgers now find themselves in danger of having six starting pitchers on the shelf heading into the season’s final month. The Dodgers’ 2016 injury woes, especially concerning the pitching staff, are a well-worn topic at this point. The club currently sits one shy of the all-time record for most DL’ed players in baseball history (26) and trails only the tanking Braves, Reds, and Padres in terms of starting pitchers used (13). That the team even possesses legitimate starting options at this point seems a small miracle. That they do and are doing so without their most rested and perhaps most promising young arm seems impossible. And yet… A consensus top-30 prospect in baseball entering the season, Jose De Leon is presently biding his time by mowing down hitters at the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate. Through Sunday, the right-hander owns a 3.20 ERA, 10.9 K/9, and 2.8 BB/9 in 64.2 IP. He’s allowed more than three runs in a start only once all season, and he fanned 29 batters in a span of three starts (20 IP) last month. Whereas the organization’s other precocious arms (Julio Urias, Brock Stewart) are taking on MLB hitters while dealing with career-high workloads, the 23-year-old De Leon is cruising through the Pacific Coast League at just over half of his innings total from last season (114). The reasons for De Leon’s limited appearances—i.e. ankle and shoulder issues that sidelined him for all of April and much of May—were worrying at the time, but now look like blessings in disguise. So why isn’t De Leon pitching in the big leagues? The window for service-time considerations is long passed, so it’s not that. De Leon was dominant in his last three starts, so it’s not that. Urias is overworked and in the bullpen, so it’s not him. Stewart and Ross Stripling don’t possess De Leon’s ceiling, so it’s not them either. Well, at least not directly.

There were rumors that De Leon might finally get to make his MLB debut two Saturdays ago, on August 6, when Bud Norris went to the DL (of course) with a back strain. Manager Dave Roberts talked about De Leon “getting stronger” and reporters made note that it was his regular start day. Ultimately, though, that start went to Stripling, likely because he was already on the 40-man roster. Most teams have no trouble adding a player to the 40-man when a need arises; there are often three or four fringe players on the roster who can be designated for assignment without worry that it will hurt the team later. The Dodgers certainly have those kinds of players—see: Rob Segedin, Charlie Culberson, Casey Fien, Carlos Frias—but they also have eight players on the 60-day disabled list, and thus 48 players on their 40-man roster. This glut of players creates a level of inflexibility that makes it all but impossible to put De Leon on the big-league club. While some 60-day DL guys are out for the season and therefore irrelevant to rostering decisions, the impending returns of Clayton Kershaw, Andre Ethier, Alex Wood, and Trayce Thompson mean that the Dodgers have to continue to occupy at least four 40-man spots with players they are willing to lose to other teams. If De Leon were added in the meantime, Andrew Friedman and company might ultimately be forced to part with something more than a bit player—say, Andrew Toles or Kiké Hernandez. Compounding this issue is the absurd number of relief pitchers out with injuries. The front office would probably have no problem cutting one of their lesser bullpen arms loose to make room for De Leon under normal circumstances. But with three relievers out for the season and another three nursing arm injuries on the 15-day DL, the Dodgers need every healthy inning they can get from the ‘pen. So while the Dodgers’ rotation enters the home stretch held together with duct tape and string, it may still be some time yet until De Leon gets the call to Chavez Ravine. It seems absurd that the club could get through the 2016 season without giving him an opportunity to help in Los Angeles, especially with a postseason berth likely, but weirder things have happened. Or, you know, maybe the Dodgers make this whole article null tomorrow by calling up their best remaining healthy, rested starter. One can hope.

ESPN.COM Bowden: MLB's best rookies this season By Jim Bowden The Los Angeles Dodgers' Corey Seager and the Detroit Tigers' Michael Fulmer were the leading rookies back on my June breakdown of ranking the class with shortstops Trevor Story of the Colorado Rockies and Aledmys Diaz of the St. Louis Cardinals not far behind. Since then a lot has changed. A trio of outfielders have jumped onto the board. In addition, a young class of rookie starters have made an impact since and two rookie relievers have quickly become some of the game's best. The 2016 class did not disappoint but because of injuries to Story and Diaz, it looks as though the frontrunners -- Seager and Fulmer -- will hold on to their lead for National League and American League Rookie of the Year Awards despite stiff competition.

Here is the breakdown of the best of the class as of today. Rookie position players 1. Corey Seager, SS, Los Angeles Dodgers 2016: .310/.363/.533, 21 HRs, 56 RBI, WAR: 4.8 (Insider Subscription Required)

BLEACHER REPORT How Have the Dodgers Erased the SF Giants' Huge Lead Without Clayton Kershaw? By Danny Knobler A little after 1 p.m. Sunday, a Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher not named Clayton Kershaw took the mound. Fifteen minutes later, the Dodgers were down 5-0, and the pitcher not named Clayton Kershaw was done for the day. By day's end, the Dodgers—without Clayton Kershaw—had lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 11-3. Sunday starter Brett Anderson had a sprained left wrist. Rich Hill, acquired at the non-waiver trade deadline because the rotation needed help, had his Dodgers debut pushed back for a third time because of blisters. It would be funny if it weren't so predictable. I wrote them off six weeks ago, and I wasn't the only one. On second thought, don't click on that June 30 column. The one where I said the Dodgers' season could fall apart because of the back injury that sent Kershaw to the disabled list. The one I wrote when the Dodgers were seven games over .500—14-2 in Kershaw's 16 starts and 30-35 in the 65 games he hadn't started—and six games behind the first-place San Francisco Giants in the National League West. The Dodgers have gone 21-15 since then and are tied with the Washington Nationals for the best record in the National League over that span. As of Monday morning, they were one game behind the Giants in the West and a 93.6 percent bet to make the playoffs one way or another, according to Baseball Prospectus. So the season didn't fall apart when Kershaw went down. It didn't even fall apart when Jon Heyman wrote last week on Today's Knuckleball that Kershaw might not come back at all this year. It hasn't fallen apart, even though the Dodgers have used nine different starting pitchers since Kershaw was hurt. They've used 13 starters this season, second-most in MLB behind San Diego, Atlanta and Cincinnati.

Overall, the rotation has been as mediocre as you'd expect since Kershaw went down, posting a 4.82 ERA while averaging fewer than five innings per start. The offense has been good, but six teams in baseball have scored more runs than the Dodgers in that span. So how are they doing it? How are they playing at what amounts to a 96-win pace without the great Kershaw, who was touted for much of the first half as an MVP candidate? 1. Building the Bullpen As Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci first pointed out, the Dodgers are on a record pace in one significant category. Their opponents have a .202 batting average in innings 7-9. That's not just the best of any team this season, it's the best of any team in any season over the last 113 years, according to Baseball-Reference.com's play index, beating the 1968 Detroit Tigers (who won a World Series) and the 2001 Seattle Mariners (who won 116 games). The Dodgers have used 20 different relievers this year, and they've regularly carried an eight-man bullpen. They've needed it, because their starters pitch so little and their bullpen pitches so much (only the Reds have more bullpen innings). First-year manager Dave Roberts has maneuvered it so well that only 35-year-old Joe Blanton is among the top 17 in the majors in relief innings pitched. With a strong and deep bullpen, first-year manager Dave Roberts has been making the right moves. No Dodger is among the top 12 in relief appearances—proof that Roberts understands he can't rely on just two or three bullpen arms. Give Roberts credit, but also remember that a strong, deep bullpen is a trademark of Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers president of baseball operations, dating back to his best Tampa Bay teams. 2. Doing It with Depth Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal played up this angle, another one borne out by the numbers. Unheralded catcher Yasmani Grandal has a .710 slugging percentage since Kershaw went on the DL, the best in baseball. Third baseman Justin Turner is in the top eight in the National League with 29 RBI in that time and has been key in a lineup where so many of the big hitters swing left-handed. The Dodgers have dumped some big names since Friedman arrived 22 months ago, including Matt Kemp (Grandal was acquired in that deal), Carl Crawford (released with about $35 million left on his contract) and Yasiel Puig (sent to the minor leagues with a $7.2 million salary). They've also played most of this season with Anderson ($15.8 million) and Andre Ethier ($18 million) on the disabled list and the last six weeks with Kershaw ($34.6 million) on the DL. The current 25-man roster makes only about $113 million this year—more than Friedman ever had to spend with the Rays but hardly a big-market number. It's working. 3. Managing Matters

Roberts works the bullpen and the depth but also gets high marks for the tone he has set and the clubhouse he has run. Friedman told Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times: "He's been challenged as much as I can imagine someone being challenged in year one, just with the sheer volume of injuries. To handle it the way he has, in his first year, is incredible. I know manager-of-the-year banter doesn't really pick up yet, but I don't know how he's not front and center in that conversation." 4. Giant Problems The Giants had the second-best record in the National League (49-31) when Kershaw went on the DL. Had they kept up that .613 pace, they'd have 72 wins and the Dodgers would be seven games behind. Instead, the Giants opened the door. Because of injuries and poor play coming out of the All-Star break, they're 17-20 since the Kershaw DL announcement. Credit the Dodgers for taking advantage. 5. Semi-Soft Schedule This one isn't as much of an explanation as you'd think, given how top-heavy the National League is this season. The Dodgers' 21-15 run includes 12 games against teams that are currently in playoff position (Baltimore, Washington, St. Louis and Boston). They went 7-5 in those games. Still, with the injuries that have hit the Cardinals, Miami Marlins and New York Mets, it's hard to find five worthy NL playoff teams. The Dodgers have played at a 96-win pace with Kershaw on the DL, but they shouldn't need to keep up that pace to make it to October. They may need to have a shot at passing the Giants, who they meet for three games next week at Dodger Stadium (just before the Cubs come in) and six more times in September and October. Even a playoff spot would be an accomplishment, given the challenges the Dodgers have faced and the forecasts of doom when they lost Kershaw. But for a franchise that has played in October seven times in the last 12 years but hasn't been back to the World Series since winning it with Kirk Gibson in 1988, the goal will always be higher. No matter what they've done over the last six weeks, it's awfully hard to see them winning in October with the team they have now. There's no way they're a World Series team without Kershaw. This time, I'm sure of it.

LA TIMES Dodgers Dugout: How has the Dodgers’ reliance on once-injured pitchers worked out for them?

By Houston Mitchell Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. This morning I woke up with a sore arm, so I am hoping Andrew Friedman will sign me to a big contract. Sore-armed crew As longtime readers of this newsletter know, I have not been the biggest fan of Andrew Friedman. I keep hearing about how he has maintained a strong major-league roster while keeping the farm system intact, but most of the top players were there when he got here, so I’m not sure how much credit he gets for that. He holds on to prospects like a man stranded in the desert holds on to his canteen of water, and when he does trade some prospects, we get guys like Mat Latos, Jim Johnson, Josh Reddick and Rich Hill in return. (I’d like to point out that you have made as many appearances for the Dodgers as Hill, and the team didn’t have to give up a thing to acquire you.) One of the things Friedman has done is to build the starting rotation with a bunch of guys coming off arm injuries or other pitchers who can be signed or acquired relatively cheaply. Instead of giving people like Zack Greinke or Johnny Cueto $150 million-$200 million (or more), he has been content with spreading out that money to guys like Brett Anderson, Brandon McCarthy and Scott Kazmir. Has this strategy been successful? Let’s take a look at the Dodgers career for some of these pitchers: Brandon McCarthy: 5-2, 4.53 ERA in 12 career starts with Dodgers. In second year of three-year, $35-million deal. On the disabled list. Kenta Maeda: 11-7, 3.31 ERA in 23 starts. In first year of an eight-year, $26-million deal that has heavy incentives. Success or failure? Scott Kazmir: 9-6, 4.44 ERA in 23 starts. In first year of a three-year, $48-million deal with an opt-out close after this season. Alex Wood: 6-10, 4.19 ERA in 22 starts. On the 60-day DL. In second season with Dodgers and under team control until 2020. Gave up no players of consequence to acquire him. Bud Norris: 3-2, 4.34 ERA in six starts. On the 15-day DL. Gave up no players of consequence to acquire him on June 30. Is a free agent after the season. Brett Anderson: 10-10, 3.92 ERA in 10 starts. Was on disabled list for all of 2016 until making his first start Sunday. Is a free agent after the season. Making $15.8 million this season. Rich Hill: Has not played for the Dodgers. On the disabled list with blister. Acquired for three prospects who project to be mid-rotation starters or bullpen arms. Mat Latos: 0-3, 6.66 ERA in five starts in 2015. Released during season. And that doesn’t include pitchers signed for low money who didn’t work out, such as Scott Baker, Joe Wieland and Brandon Beachy.

Maeda has been a really good signing. Kazmir got off to a shaky start but has been pretty decent since then. The big question is, will he opt out after the season? I’d say no if it ended today, but let’s hope he rolls off a string of victories and leaves. Anderson was a great signing last season, but has been a disaster this season. Alex Wood has great long-term potential, but long-term potential does no good unless he fulfills it. Latos was a disaster. I’m not convinced Rich Hill actually exists. I think Friedman will end up on an episode of “Punk’d” with the A’s tricking him into trading for a player they invented. So, the strategy of signing a bunch of high-risk guys and hoping three or four pan out hasn’t been a big success. The Dodgers talk a lot about how their “depth” has paid off this season, but I’m not sure you get to brag about depth when you knew you were relying on a bunch of injury-prone pitchers. If depth is due to “let’s get a bunch of pitchers who get hurt a lot. When one goes down, the next man can fill in till he gets hurt,” you can’t really jump up and down and get excited about it. If I hire a construction crew to build a new house, and they build 10 houses because eight of them are going to collapse after I move in, I don’t think they get to brag about the depth of the houses either. But what is the alternative to the above? Let’s say it’s Greinke and Cueto. I get a lot of emails saying a rotation of Kershaw, Greinke, Cueto, Maeda and Kazmir would be nice. Except, if the Dodgers had re-signed Greinke and signed Cueto, they would not have signed Maeda or Kazmir. So, it would be a rotation of Kershaw, Greinke, Cueto and…. who? Remember, if you sign Greinke and Cueto, you can’t sign a bunch of borderline guys hoping a couple of them stick. Dodgers ownership did not want payroll staying above $300 million forever. You have to pick two or three and hope they work out. If I were the GM, I would have let Greinke go because the years and asking price would have made it too much of an albatross for the last three seasons. I would have signed at least one of the other big names, like Cueto. But would the Dodgers really have been better off? Cueto would replace Maeda. Maybe it gives the Dodgers three more wins and puts them in first place. Or maybe Cueto gets injured in his second start. The problem with playing Fantasy GM is that in the mind of the person playing, all their decisions turn out great. Friedman took a different course, one I would not have taken. Many fans thought Friedman’s course would land the Dodgers in fourth or fifth this season. They are in second place. Friedman’s performance will ultimately be judged on how the Dodgers do in the playoffs, if they make it there. They will need Kershaw back and another starter to step up big to reach the World Series. They will also need a couple of people on offense to get hot and stay hot throughout the playoffs. I’m still not a big fan of Friedman. I think he relies on numbers to the exclusion of everything else, and that’s not the best way to run a team. I think he sometimes has a small-market mentality and treats players like they are numbers instead of people. And I think he got lucky that ownership pushed him to hire Dave Roberts instead of someone else. But his starting pitcher strategy has not been a colossal failure. It is just a strange strategy to use when you have the resources the Dodgers have. Of course, if the Dodgers collapse and fail to make the playoffs, then we can totally blame him. Speaking of Hill Hill was acquired at the trade deadline to bolster the rotation. He was on the disabled list because of blisters and was scheduled to start Aug. 7 against Boston. But a new blister pushed him back to Friday against Pittsburgh. Then the Dodgers decided he would pitch this coming Friday against Cincinnati. On

Sunday, the Dodgers said no, Hill will face hitters at the Dodgers’ training camp in Arizona on Wednesday or Thursday, which means the earliest Hill will start is Aug. 22 in Cincinnati. Except the air is damp in Cincinnati, and that’s not the best conditions for a pitcher with blisters, so maybe he will start Aug. 23 against San Francisco. I believe they mean Aug. 23 of this season, but at this point I’m not quite sure. Meanwhile, for $3 they could have bought a jar of pickles and stuck Hill’s hand in it. Pickle juice is great for blisters, or so my mom always told me. Good news and bad news The Dodgers got some good news Sunday with the return of Brett Anderson. Then they got some bad news when he actually had to pitch. Bud’s almost back Bud Norris is expected to come off the disabled list this week. Who will be removed from the rotation? Apparently no one, as Dave Roberts said they might go with a six-man rotation. The rest of the schedule It looks like the Giants and Dodgers will fight for the NL West the rest of the season. So when do they play each other the rest of the season? Aug. 23-25, at Dodger Stadium Sept. 19-21, at Dodger Stadium Sept. 20-Oct. 2, at San Francisco You just know the season will come down to those final three games. The magic number Each week I will look at a uniform number a Dodger is wearing and go through the history of that number with the Dodgers. When I was a kid and went to games, I was always curious who wore the number of my favorite players. Then again, I was a strange kid. For “best Dodgers to wear the number,” only the stats a player compiles while he was with the team and wearing that number count. Next up is: No. 35 (Brett Anderson) Best Dodgers to wear No. 35: Sal Maglie (1956-57), Bob Welch (1978-87), Jim Gott (1990-94). Others to wear No. 35: Rosy Ryan (1933), Goody Rosen (1944-46), Cal McLish (1946), Marv Rackley (1947-49), Johnny Hopp (1949), Mal Mallette (1950), Pete Wojey (1954), Larry Sherry (1958), Johnny Klippstein (1958-59), Doug Camilli (1960-64), Jim Hickman (1967), John Purdin (1965, 1968-69), Fred Norman (1970), Bobby Darwin (1971), Dennis Lewallyn (1975-78), William Brennan (1988), Dave Clark (1996), Wayne Kirby (1997), Greg McMichael (1998), Brett Tomko (2006-07), Esteban Loaiza (2007), Jack Taschner (2010), Ramon Ortiz (2010), John Lindsey (2010), Jamie Hoffmann (2011), Chris Capuano (2012-13), Jamie Romak (2014), Kevin Correia (2014).

What Vin Scully means to me I asked you to tell me your best Vin Scully memory, and I got a lot of responses. I will publish selected ones in each newsletter. And keep emailing them to me. Deborah Goldman: About 15 years ago, my then-11-year-old son and I went to the Stadium Club to cool off after a game. It was a particularly hot summer day, during which we had sweated a lot and poured cold water over our heads to cool off. In other words, I was no longer wearing any makeup and my hair was unkempt. As we left the Stadium Club, we saw Vinny in the hallway outside the press box. My son was an autograph hound, so I told him to run and get Vinny’s autograph. When I caught up to them, Vinny was signing the brim of my son’s cap with a Sharpie. Unable to keep from making a fool of myself, I said, “I just want you to know I’ve been listening to you since the Dodgers moved to L.A.” Barely looking up, Vinnie said, “You don’t look old enough to have been born when the Dodgers moved to L.A.” I said, “Unfortunately, I am.” Without skipping a beat, Vinny said, “No, fortunately you look the way you do!” My heart melts every time I think of this story. The TV situation If you would like to complain about the Dodgers’ TV situation, you have three options: The Dodgers, Time Warner Cable and whatever local cable or satellite provider you have that doesn’t carry the Dodgers. Here’s who to contact: For the Dodgers, click here or call (866) DODGERS ([866] 363-4377). (I hope you like form letters.) For Time Warner, click here. For DirecTV, call (800) 531-5000 or click here. For your local cable or satellite provider, consult your bill for the customer service number and for the website. And finally Vin Scully opens a Dodgers broadcast discussing Tony Gwynn, who had died that day. Watch and listen to it here.