MLB DW Slate Preview - August 19
Thoughts, stats, DFS, player props, and more for today's slate of MLB action
Here’s a little table of xwOBA I shared on X. I took March through June data and compared with July through August to see which hitters have improved and declined the most.
Dodgers vs. Rockies
I saw this wild tweet that the Dodgers and Rockies basically have the same record over the last few weeks. I cannot find it, but these are two teams with opposite arrow-pointers. Not that anybody thinks these two teams should actually be in the same league, but the Rockies did knock them off last night to open the series.
Colorado has won four in a row, LA is 30-30 on the road. But this is small-sample talk. The wrongs will be righted.
What do we have with Emmet Sheehan? The Dodgers are trying to figure that out. I don’t think you’ll get great information from a Coors start tonight. Sheehan has a non-awful fastball with an 11.5% SwStr% on 48% usage. But he doesn’t throw it for strikes nearly enough, at a 45% Strike%. The slider is the strikeout pitch for him, and the thin air will take some sharpness off of that.
The Dodgers will score some runs here. Austin Gomber is probably the worst pitcher in the league. He has a 4.82 JA ERA and a K% under 13%.
Freddie Freeman has figured it out. He is hitting .323/.396/.531 over the last thirty days. You can’t say the same for Mookie Betts and his .245/.313/.347 line over those last thirty days. But I think the Dodgers lineup is going to be fine. For a little bit there they were a one-man show with Ohtani at the top and not much else going on. Max Muncy is back on the IL and the Andy Pages stuff has cooled down.