Dodgers Dugout: Joe Davis and Orel Hershiser get unwarranted criticism

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell, and playing the Mets and Rockies is the best cure for a team slump.

We are going to shift gears a bit here and talk about the Dodgers’ broadcasters, specifically Joe Davis and Orel Hershiser. A few weeks ago, our weekly sports letters feature had several letters critical of both of them for talking too much about issues that don’t involve the team, such as what they like to eat.

All season long, I’ve gotten emails from readers telling me the same thing, that they are tired of listening to them ramble on about their personal lives and not focusing on what is going on in the game and that Vin Scully never did this. The readers usually ask for my opinion, so here it is.

I think they do a fine job.

There will never be another Vin Scully, so if you are waiting for someone to come along who is as good as he was, you are going to be eternally disappointed. Vin had a couple of advantages the Davis-Hershiser team don’t have.

1. He worked in the booth alone, so he was talking directly to us all the time. It was as if he were sitting on the sofa with us, telling us directly about the game. There was no one sitting next to him that he had to bring into the conversation. It was just Vin and us. If you ever listened to him call national broadcasts with Joe Garagiola, you could hear the difference. Garagiola would talk about his favorite restaurants in St. Louis, and Vin would often chime in with his opinion. The days of a one-man booth are long gone though.

2. Some people complain Davis’ stories about players aren’t as good as Vin’s were. Well, my first memories of watching the Dodgers start in 1974. By that time, Vin had 25 years of calling games to draw upon for stories. We were spoiled. If you started listening to the Dodgers in the 1980s, then Vin had more than 30 years of stories to draw upon. Hopefully, some kid will start watching the Dodgers in 2041, which would be 25 years since Davis started with the team. He won’t realize that the person he is listening to has 25 years of stories to tell.

3. Vin would seem to focus on the game more because, not only was he alone, but he was also calling the game for radio as well as TV. On radio, you have to be much more descriptive because the audience is listening, not seeing. You have to paint the whole picture. You don’t need to do that for a TV audience. They can see what’s going on.

Are Davis and Hershiser perfect? Of course not. Are there times they go off on tangents that don’t interest me? Sure. But they make a great team. Davis has honored Scully’s legacy by incorporating stories into his broadcast. He has been the perfect successor. Hershiser has amazing insights into pitching. It doesn’t happen every game, but occasionally he will say something like “The pitcher has the batter set up here where if he throws him a slider, he’ll strike him out.” Next pitch is a slider and the batter strikes out. I’ve never heard him be wrong about it. It’s uncanny.

And for those unhappy that Davis spends so much time away calling events for Fox Sports, remember that Vin spent a lot of time away calling baseball for NBC and golf and football for CBS.

Vin broadcast the Dodgers for 67 years. For Davis to match that, he will have to broadcast Dodgers games until 2083. And I’m sure that the AI overlords who run the world then will say “Who’s this guy who replaced Joe Davis? He’s not as good.”

But, let’s hear from you. Vote in our poll and let us know what you think. Click here to vote.

How’s the offense?

An interesting stat is runs created per 27 outs (you can read more about it here). It tells us how many runs a team would score if it had one player hitting in all the spots? How many runs would a lineup made up entirely of Mookie Betts score? Or Shohei Ohtani? Let’s take a look:

Shohei Ohtani, 9.35 (a lineup of nine Ohtani’s would score 9.5 runs a game)
Mookie Betts, 8.8
Freddie Freeman, 7.0
Miguel Vargas, 6.7
Will Smith, 6.6
Max Muncy, 5.6
Miguel Rojas, 5.4
Teoscar Hernández, 5.3
Jason Heyward, 4.2
Andy Pages, 3.4
Austin Barnes, 2.7
Gavin Lux, 2.6
James Outman, 2.3
Kiké Hernández, 2.0
Chris Taylor, 0.8

The league average is 4.3. It’s amazing how many Dodger fans are down on Freddie Freeman this season. When you look at his numbers, the are less than last season’s, but he’s having a typical Freeman season. Any team would take that production in a heartbeat.

How is James Outman doing?

Outman has played 11 games at triple-A Oklahoma City and is hitting .357/.542/.619 with two doubles and three homers in 59 plate appearances. So, he’s doing well. When will he come up again? Well, Chris Taylor and Kiké Hernández have the advantage of playing multiple positions. Andy Pages has started hitting again, and Jason Heyward is a veteran. Miguel Vargas has an OPS+ of 139. Unless the team thinks it can live without Taylor or Hernández or unless Pages or Vargas go into a massive slump, there’s not an obvious spot.

Clayton Kershaw is ahead of schedule

Some encouraging words in this injury update story by Mike DiGiovanna:

The outlook for Kershaw seemed more encouraging after the 36-year-old’s fastball touched 88 mph during a 20-pitch simulated inning in which he faced three batters Saturday, a workout that Kershaw likened to “basically the first step of spring training.”

Kershaw will throw a two-inning simulated game with Rancho Cucamonga later this week while the Dodgers are on the road. If he follows a normal six-week spring training progression without setback, he could return in mid-July.

“Right now, we’re way ahead of schedule, which is really encouraging,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He came out of it feeling good, feeling strong. There was no tentativeness. I didn’t see him guarding anything. He felt free and easy.”

In other injury news, Evan Phillips has returned and already has a save. His presence should help stabilize the rest of the bullpen. To make room for him, Elieser Hernández was designated for assignment.

However, Max Muncy had a setback and his return date is unknown. As DiGiovanna wrote,

Muncy said he felt a “twinge” in his rib cage while taking batting practice in Arizona during the Dodgers’ last trip and has been shut down indefinitely from most baseball activities.

“It felt great. It felt normal. I was taking ground balls and throwing across the infield and didn’t feel a thing, so we progressed to swinging,” Muncy said Sunday. “I had two good days of full batting practice, where I didn’t feel anything at all. And then the third day, it flared up. It’s one of those things where my body was telling me to slow things down.

“I don’t think anybody has a timetable, because we can’t really put one on it. [An oblique strain] is probably the worst injury you can have as a position player because you can’t do anything.”

Computer strike zone poll

The question: Are you in favor of an automated strike zone? After 12,607 responses:

It should remain called by umpires: 39.5%
Every ball or strike call should be automated: 36.7%
I prefer a challenge system: 23.8%

Up next

Tuesday: Dodgers (Tyler Glasnow, 6-3, 3.04 ERA) at Pittsburgh (Jared Jones, 3-5, 3.55 ERA), 3:40 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, 1020 KTNQ

Wednesday: Dodgers (*James Paxton, 5-0, 3.29 ERA) at Pittsburgh (Paul Skenes, 2-0, 2.45 ERA), 3:40 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, 1020 KTNQ

Thursday: Dodgers (Walker Buehler, 1-3, 4.32 ERA) at Pittsburgh (*Bailey Falter, 3-2, 3.22 ERA), 3:40 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, 1020 KTNQ

*-left-handed

In case you missed it

Hernández: Dodgers are winning again, but who’s convinced this team will win in October?

Dodgers injury updates: Bobby Miller, Clayton Kershaw progress but Max Muncy has setback

Analysis: ‘We need them.’ Why it’s crucial for Dodgers to find ‘spark’ from bottom half of lineup

Even with reduced playing time, Dodgers’ Miguel Rojas has become more valuable than ever

The Dodgers have a top-heavy problem | Dodgers Debate

Move over Ruth and Cobb: MLB adds Negro League stats and Josh Gibson surpasses legends

Shohei Ohtani misses pitching, but is DH-only role boosting his plate production?

And finally

Vin Scully appears on “Late Night with David Letterman” and discusses Kirk Gibson‘s home run. Watch and listen here.