Mailbag Tuesday: What's wrong with Andy Pages?
Answering your questions!
A very fun mailbag TUESDAY coming your way! As always, thank you so much to everyone who asked a question this week, let’s not waste any more time!
Peter Zales — Chucky Robinson? There is no better catcher in the organization than him? What happened???
This just goes to show how valuable Dalton Rushing is! Having a backup catcher of his caliber is huge. With him out, the Dodgers don’t really have a lot of depth at the catcher position. There’s a reason Chuckie Robinson is a third string catcher, so I’m not expecting him to post great numbers. He’s fine behind the plate, but yeah when he’s in the batters box it looks pretty rough. Luckily the Dodgers can afford him going 0-for-3 every night he needs to start. At this point, I’d like to see Austin Barnes come back and fill in for a few starts!
Travis — Best record in baseball. 9 game division lead. They lost 2 of 3 to the O's last year. How'd that turn out? It's just late June - they're missing Smith and Teo, not to mention (as everyone has) the corpse of Kyle Tucker. That AB to end the game on Saturday was brutal. He did not swing at a strike. I think he'll be Ok eventually. But yes, this is a bad start to his Dodger stint. Plus, lest we forget, 2 of our top starting pitchers and a few key bullpen arms. Just saying, I'm not freaking out over this. My concern right now is the hitting with runners on. Except yesterday, they're leaving small islands on all the time. Does this concern you? Small sample, it'll even out?
Like you mentioned at the very beginning, it’s June and they have the best record in all of baseball! Obviously there are some things I would love to see the Dodgers improve upon, but at this point there really isn’t a reason to worry. By the time the games matter in October (I hope) everyone will be healthy and the Dodgers will be ready to go. For now, I’m trying my best not to stress over anything. Doesn’t mean I wasn’t yelling at my TV after that Kyle Tucker at bat on Saturday night!
OhioDodger — I think it is time to move Mookie back up in the order and move Pages down. What do you think? Will the Dodgers be active at the deadline and what do you think they will go after??
Obviously slumps happen, but Pages hasn’t been the same player since moving up to No. 2 in the order. In his 24 games as the new No. 2 hitter, Pages is hitting .221 with a .698 OPS. Not ideal from the guy hitting behind Ohtani! When he moved up, Pages was hitting .286 with an .840 OPS, which was GREAT coming from the bottom of your lineup. I do think the Dodgers should try sliding Pages back down and seeing if he can find success again.
I’m sure as always the Dodgers will be active, but as of right now I’m not really sure what they need. Injuries can obviously happen, but the team doesn’t have a glaring need now. The only move I think they should make is for Skubal, and they don’t even really need him! I’m sure they’ll end up acquiring some reliever or bench piece, as it feels like they do that every year.
Carlos Garcia — 1. What would you say is the team’s biggest need heading into the trade deadline?
1b. How do you think AF will fix that need?
2. What do you think is going on with K. Tucker? is this usual for a player to adjust?
If I had to say biggest need, I know I kind’ve highlighted it in the previous question, but I would actually say a starting pitcher. Yes, the Dodgers have a number of starters, but we can’t assume anything come October. Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow are question marks as of this moment. Roki Sasaki and Justin Wrobleski have shown flashes, but would you trust them starting a game? Shohei is dealing with a blister. Yamamoto has been great, but what if he gets hurt? I think adding another starter as insurance would be ideal. It doesn’t have to be an ace by any means, but I firmly believe adding Skubal would be a difference maker that would enhance LA’s chances.
I have no idea what the issue is with Tucker. I feel like the Dodgers don’t either. This is a player who was arguably a top 10-15 player in the sport when he was healthy over the last five years. It would be one thing if his numbers took a slight dip, but they’ve taken a significant dip. He’s not hitting for power. He’s striking out more. He’s not stealing bases. His defense has dropped off. It’s remarkable how bad of a player he has looked like when he was guaranteed to have a 5-WAR season just by suiting up. Hopefully whatever the issue is can be fixed, otherwise these are going to be a LONG four years.
Art Remnet — So I get that we will lose 60+/-10 games this year - like most every year. It does seem like Sunday games that aren’t on a national broadcast are just “phone it in” games. The win/lose record may not support this and it may just be that Sunday games are more set aside for me - night games are easier at the end of the day.
Are the Sunday games just something that I should ignore and be happy when they win? Is there anything to this?
For some reason, it does feel like the disaster games always happen on a Sunday afternoon. Usually the B lineup suits up in those games and the Dodgers aren’t as committed towards winning the final game of the series, hence why it seems like they may be phoning it in. At the end of the day, despite how ugly some of these games end up being, we just gotta flush em. Now if I spent my hard-earned money on Sunday’s game to take my dad as a Father’s Day gift, I might have a different opinion!
Marilyn Fisher — We know Tucker has issues but what is going on with Pages? He seems lost at the plate. Also, would you bring up River Ryan to see if he can do any better than Sheehan?
It’s tough to really know if Pages moving to No. 2 in the lineup is a result of hitting second, or just a badly timed slump. Pages got off to such a hot start to begin the season, he was due to struggle at some point. It just so happens to be right now. Obviously hitting behind Ohtani is different than hitting behind Muncy, so I’m not sure if that’s forced him to change his approach and mindset at the plate.
I would love to see River Ryan called up and I do think he’d be better than Sheehan at this point. It just sounds like the Dodgers are content with building his innings in the minors. They are smarter than us, so they feel as if he’s not ready just yet. Or, they have some grand master plan they’re not sharing with us. It is tough to see him doing worse than Sheehan, though. Hopefully he gets his shot at some point because I really do think Ryan has the potential to be a very reliable starting pitcher.