Letters: Who's pitching in for the Dodgers?

April 28, 2017 2:44 PM PT

Not much seems to have changed. Still the same old Dodgers. Five-hit-game wonders and Dave Roberts looking more and more like Don Mattingly as he shuffles his pitching staff, most notably removing Alex Wood, who pitched six innings of shutout ball and threw only only 77 pitches, followed by a shaky bullpen without Kenley Jansen blowing a three-run lead and the game.

I’m still trying to figure out why he relieved Clayton Kershaw in the ninth inning with a substantial lead. So is Kershaw. It’s a puzzlement.

Bob Murtha

Santa Maria

What is this weird compulsion driving managers to put their fingerprints on a game? Why don’t we just adopt Little League rules if we are going to treat major league pitchers like fragile snowflakes?

I guess I’m just one of those purists who goes to the ballpark hoping to see a masterful complete game when a pitcher has his command. At least this was not a perfect game in progress like last season.

Maybe we can convince Dave Roberts to leave well enough alone and to acknowledge major league starting pitchers have the stamina to complete what they start.

Jay Smith

Highland Park

OK, all together now: The Sergio Romo experiment is over. Just like the Brian Wilson one and the Jason Schmidt one before him. Can it be a law that the Dodgers cannot ever sign another Giants castoff? Romo and his family got their wish, he put on a Dodgers uniform. Now please send him away.

Geno Apicella

Placentia

I just watched the Dodgers’ relievers give up nine runs in the eighth inning to the Dbacks. Thanks to genius Andrew Friedman for for grabbing Giants discard Sergio Romo for the setup man. His ERA is now 11.81.

With all the money Friedman had to play with, he never once grabbed a dominant pitcher or hitter. Despite all the preseason hype in the Times, right now it looks like the team is not going far, let alone all the way.

Donald Norris

Oxnard

Regarding Rich Hill’s blisters: I’ve been told ophthalmologists use Super Glue instead of stitches when performing eye surgery. It’s non-toxic. The worst that could happen; it may work.

Patrick Kelley

Los Angeles

As long as Rich Hill keeps getting blisters and Scott Kazmir can’t throw a fastball anymore, maybe it’s time for them to learn to throw a knuckleball.

Mary Anne Vincent

Corona

Major League Baseball has become the Major League Disabled List. Only one month into the season and the Dodgers already have had 12 players hit the disabled list. I scratch my head year after year. In an era of elite athletes with access to the best trainers, equipment and medical specialists that money can buy, they fall over like dandelions in the wind. Dodger teams of my past had injuries, but nothing like the numbers that are making the DL in today’s game.

Gianpiero Leone

Pasadena

Andy McCullough struck gold in his article on Clayton Kershaw’s approach to hitting. He quotes Rob Segedin as saying Kershaw has the best two-strike approach on the team. Segedin is probably right. What it looks like from where I sit is that quite a few Dodgers have no two-strike approach and no approach with runners in scoring position. Yasiel Puig is the worst offender. Put him in a clutch situation and he tries to do too much and rarely does anything useful. Unless the Dodger hitters learn the meaning of “approach” it is going to be a long season for us Dodger fans. Please share this with Turner Ward.

Larry Weiner

Culver City

Thanks to KTLA for the Dodger broadcasts these last few weeks. If I had another month or so maybe I would recognize the players, other than the “famous five” (Turner, Seager, Puig, Gonzales & Kershaw).

Bob Sands

La Habra

Is George the man?

As the old saying goes, “Be careful what you wish for, because you might get it.” Case in point: Paul George.

As his team was being swept out of the playoffs by the incomparable LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, George scored a pedestrian 15 points in the final game of the series, shooting five of 21 from the field at home.

James, in the same game, dropped 33 points on 13-of-25 from the field, leading Cleveland to the next round. This is what champions do. George spent a lot of time this series complaining about not getting the ball in crunch time and pointing fingers. This is what first-round exits do.

Now, it’s no secret the Lakers want a star player to build around and to be the centerpiece of their burgeoning team for years to come.

And Paul George’s name has come up regularly since he wants to play for the Lakers and is a free agent.

All I’m saying, Lakers, is choose wisely.

Gino Cirignano

Playa del Rey

Paying more at the Coliseum

I’ve been going to USC football games for over 50 years. I’m heading into my 35th year as a season-ticket holder. Now it seems the SC powers that be want to do some sort of PSL to possibly retain our seats. As a devout fan who has missed only two games in 35 years, I’m puzzled. Wasn’t there funds for this? Wasn’t SC having the Rams help pay for part of this year during their stay?

I’m retired now with a fixed income that fortunately does allow me to purchase my tickets, but this may change. I don’t want to badmouth my father’s university, but paying extra above what we are currently paying will leave a bad taste in a lot of longtime fans. My seats inTunnel 18 are decent, but I don’t believe they warrant paying extra to enjoy SC Football.

Phillip Trujillo

Ontario

Line change

On paper, the selection of John Stevens as the Kings’ new coach is confusing. He, like Terry Murray, who preceded Darryl Sutter, was trained in the same Philadelphia Flyers system and both trained as defense-minded coaches. With the Kings being offensively challenged, not defensively challenged, why Stevens? It is further confusing that GM Rob Blake did not interview anyone else. The only reason for hope lies in the words of Luc Robitaille, who understands offense. Luc correctly noted that the Kings didn’t lack for shots on goal ( in fact they outshot the opponent on most nights ) but rather effective shots, primarily because too many were shot on the periphery and only caused contusions to goalies’ chests and didn’t hit the back of the net. Further, seemingly blind that teams with great power plays position a big body in front of the goalie to impair sight lines and result in deflections, Luc called for that.

Coach Stevens: May the Luc be with you.

Bruce N Miller

Playa del Rey

In Helene Elliott’s “Stevens’ vision scores with Kings (April 24), Anze Kopitar is quoted as saying “It certainly won’t hurt us to score some more goals.”

I assume that, as a King, Kopitar was using the “royal we” to mean himself, since his performance plummeted from 25 goals and 49 assists during the 2015-16 season to just 12 goals and 40 assists in 2016-17 — easily the most disappointing goal-scoring performance by any Kings player this past season...

Megan Rich

Los Angeles

It is truly the year of retribution in the NHL where three coaches (Mike Yeo, Alain Vigneault and Todd McLellan) all enjoyed the satisfaction of eliminating the team that had previously fired them!

Nick Rose

Newport Coast

Holy cow! Two full, consecutive pages of hockey coverage? Hockey? And pages two and three at that? Mostly about the Ducks, and only a small chunk about the Kings?

What are we, Canadians all of a sudden?

Thank you!

Bill Harris

Covina

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