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Dodgers: Concerns About Craig Kimbrel Are Growing Early

Dodgers fans and frustration with their closers, it’s a tale as old as time. When Kenley Jansen headed out for free agency this year, you just knew that the next guy up was going to be on the hot seat. That became Craig Kimbrel when AJ Pollock was traded to the White Sox. 

Kimbrel just blew his first game of the season with the Dodgers on Monday night. But there are more things about him than a blown save that seems to be a bit of a concern right now. Just looking at his numbers from May should tell you why you need to worry.



Kimbrel has been tagged for 7 earned runs across 10 innings of work over the past month. That’s not going to work for Dodgers fans. Unfortuantely, getting tagged with some earned runs isn’t even his biggest problem right now. 

 

The good news? It’s only June 1st. There is plenty of time for the Dodgers to lock in some things with Craig Kimbrel and get him right by October. And that’s got to be the most important thing for Kimbrel right now. 

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Dodgers: Kimbrel’s Struggles, Baserunning Woes, Backhanded Love for Lux and More | Blue Heaven Podcast

10 Comments

  1. He’s making me miss Pedro Baez and of course Jansen. What happened, he had an excellent April with an era of 1.80, but then stunk it up in May with a 6.10 era. At this point, I’m not surprised the White Sox traded him.

    But as I write this, he’s not the only problem. LA just lost 3 straight to the Pirates and now are 1-5 against them. They lost 2 of 3 in Pittsburgh then came home and lost 3 of 4 to Philly. Will this 3 game losing streak turn into a 7 game losing streak with the surging Mets coming to town?

    It doesn’t look good!

    1. It could be a long 4 game series with the Mets, as they are far better than the Pirates over all, who just swept Dodgers at DS for 1st time since 2000.

  2. One thing we know about superstars who are acquired years after their prime, is that they are hardly superstars at all. The closer is arguably the most important pitcher on the staff, simply because he is expected to be flawless in every outing.

    Letting Kenley Jansen walk was a big mistake. His super-human closeouts became ho-hum routine for Dodger fans. He was entitled to the bump in the road earlier last year as he had made far more deposits than withdrawals throughout his tenure as closer. The brass apparently thought he was replaceable, which will by the end of the year result in maybe a dozen losses that would not have been.

    Superstar Kimbrel is way past his prime. Just as we have come to expect less from Clayton Kershaw these days, and we certainly didn’t expect a lot from Pujols last year, for some reason someone thought bringing Kimbrel to the Dodgers will result in a resurrection of his mighty days of years past. Can’t happen. Can’t fix it.

    Plan B was to go without an assigned closer and allow whichever bullpen figure was hot to pitch the final inning or two. Although I never thought that plan would result in nailing down games at the pace Kenley did, it’s time now to dust off the plan and go with it. Surely, the end result will be less blown saves than we will see going forward.

    1. Saying goodbye to Kenley was the best decision. He blew way more saves than Kimbrel.

  3. Dodgers catchers have to change the way they call pitches. They are not using the pitchers strength for their calls.

    1. Catchers don’t throw the pitches that miss the plate or get tagged for a hit. I’m not sure anymore if catchers really call pitches since electronics has taken over.

  4. We were Really great at Building up the next Closer , like Eric G . Now we have This Has been .. I am glad we let Jansen go , he wont last very much longer before he gives up the home runs ,, We only one one Ring , you dig ? Baseball is a business, and The Dodger fans are the best, with fans all over the world . The current Dodger team, belongs to the future .. This is Teams Needs to move forward , With Mookie, Freddie , Lux , T Turner,Taylor , Smith, Uris , May, Buehler,Gonsolin,Pepiot,Miller .. Time to let Kershaw < justin Turner and Cody needs a new team , He has been Brainwashed , by the old Cancer … There are three teams we can make a deal with .. and win for years to come . Dave Roberts and the nice guys have got to go !! We need to have an edge to our team , not a bunch of nice guys

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