LOS ANGELES -- Waymon Roberts was the kind of father everyone would want -- loving and supportive -- but he was the one that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and his sister, Melissa, got to have. And after Waymon died in the spring of 2017, Dave spoke with his mother in the months that followed about ways to remember his father.
An idea stayed with him -- to spread some of his father's ashes at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers won the National League West again that year, swept the Arizona Diamondbacks in the division series and eliminated the Chicago Cubs in five games to reach the World Series for the first time since 1988.
"It just kind of came about where, the more I thought about it, no better time to do it before Game 1," Roberts recalled on Saturday.
Hours before the World Series began, he carried some of his father's ashes to center field, as he first mentioned to the Los Angeles Times last year. On Saturday, Roberts talked about how he also left some ashes adjacent to the Dodgers dugout, right next to the place where he stands in every game.
"Every day when I come to work and look out there," he said, nodding toward center field, "I'll feel close to him. Every day."
Roberts didn't tell anyone in his family until afterward, and when he informed his mother, Eiko, she "was grateful ... emotional. Happy I did it."
Recently, Roberts missed his first day of work in 25 years of professional baseball, to attend the high school graduation of his son, Cole -- on the manager's 47th birthday.
News from around the major leagues
George Springer racked up 178 strikeouts in 2016 and made up his mind the following year that when he got to two strikes, he was going to do everything he could to put the ball in play and not strike out. Subsequently, he slashed his strikeouts to 111, a staggering 38% reduction. Mike Trout had a similar transformation, adapting to the high fastball and cutting his strikeouts from a league-high 184 in 2014 to just 90 in 2017.
Now, Cody Bellinger is following a similar track. The Dodgers' slugger whiffed 151 times in 2018, with 69 walks. And going into Saturday's game, he had just 41 strikeouts in 67 games, with 43 walks -- more walks than strikeouts.
But Bellinger said he took a different path to this improvement than the competitive epiphany of Springer and the mental adjustment of Trout, who decided to react to the high fastball, rather than anticipate it. Bellinger's change, he said Saturday, is about controlling what he is doing in the batter's box better -- understanding his swing better, which allows him to more effective and efficient with his swing.
Here's some more on Bellinger's dramatic improvement in his two-strike approach, as ESPN senior researcher Paul Hembekides details it:
• He has decreased his strikeout rate by 9.7% year over year, the biggest improvement in baseball.
• He has increased his walk rate by 4.0% year over year, the ninth-best improvement in baseball.
• He has increased his BB/K rate by 0.59 year over year, the second-best improvement in baseball.
In other words, he has improved his command of the strike zone better than any player in the league.
• Many fans of the Cleveland Indians have been angry the last few years - frustrated that the team wasn't able to finish off its World Series climb in 2016, angry that the team didn't add a lot before the trade deadline last year, and infuriated by the decision to cut payroll for 2019. That collective rage will be stoked again in the weeks ahead, in all likelihood, as the Indians weigh offers for the likes of right-hander Trevor Bauer and closer Brad Hand.
But in an era in which a lot of teams have embraced the tanking strategy, slashing payroll to the marrow and surrendering two or three or four seasons in a hope of restocking, the Indians are trying to remain competitive as they go through some difficult financial choices. They've finished over .500 in each of the six seasons leading up to 2019, reaching the playoffs four times and the World Series once -- and if they objectively assess their chances from year to year and get maximum value in the return for players who aren't going to remain in Cleveland long-term, the Indians should continue to be competitive year after year, behind the likes of Mike Clevinger and Shane Bieber.
The greatest jeopardy for franchises these days is becoming irrelevant for extended periods of rebuilding or tanking or whatever you want to call it.
• Cody Allen was designated for assignment by the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, after signing a one-year, $8.5 million deal. He was one of baseball's best closers in 2016 and 2017, and with the Dodgers looking for relief help -- a left-hander and a right-hander -- there is some sentiment within the organization that Allen is an option worth exploring after the Angels cut him free.
Allen is one example of the volatility of relievers, and here's another: Last winter, Edwin Diaz was widely regarded as the best and most coveted reliever, and the New York Mets made a very pricey trade for him. In his past 17 outings, Diaz has allowed 21 hits -- four homers among them -- and has a 5.29 ERA. As the lives of relievers go, it's very possible that Diaz adapts and applies some fix that works for him in the next few months.
But this is why teams are wary of investing heavily in relievers. More than with any other position, you just don't know.
• Hyun-Jin Ryu wants the record corrected, as he said with a laugh on Saturday: He'll sit in a hot sauna for 10 minutes at a time, not the 30 minutes suggested by his Dodgers teammates for a report published a few days ago. Thirty minutes in that kind of heat might melt him.
But a lot of what Ryu does to prepare for his starts is outside of convention. Almost all starting pitchers will throw a bullpen session two or three days after each start, but Ryu will instead just play catch on flat ground between starts to hone his feel for the ball, which teammates regard as exceptional and something that can't really be taught.
When he does miss the target, said Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes, "They're good misses. They're not over the plate." A pitch might start out appearing to be a strike, but then go out of the zone, or perhaps a pitch right off the edge of the zone stays out of the edge, giving hitters little at which to swing.
Ryu's command is excellent, and because of that, hitters have to be aggressive against him -- and end up swinging often at pitches outside of the zone. Opponents have hacked at 36.2% of his pitches beyond the strike zone, the fifth-highest rate in the majors. The four highest rates are generated by pitchers you have heard of -- Justin Verlander, Stephen Strasburg, Blake Snell and Jacob deGrom.
Ryu also has the eighth-highest ground ball rate of any starter, and that soft contact has fueled absurd success when opposing teams have threatened.
Opposing hitters with runners in scoring position against Ryu: 2-for-54, with 12 strikeouts and one walk.
Opposing hitters with runners in scoring position and two outs: 0-for-26, no walks, five strikeouts.
"You look at his repertoire," Barnes said, "and you wonder how he's doing what he's doing. But you can game plan him against pretty much anybody. With all of his pitches, he's got pretty much 80 command" -- 80 being the highest rating a scout will bestow -- "with all of them. He's kind of a catcher's dream, to be honest, because there's so much you can do with him."
• Ryu believes that his mentality and ability in commanding his pitches was embedded when he was a kid, when his father and coaches constantly reinforced the message to him that it was better for him to allow a home run than to walk hitters.
Now, at age 32, he has allowed more home runs (7) than walks (5) this season, avoiding walks at a historic rate. He currently has a strikeout-to-walk rate of 15.4, significantly better than Phil Hughes' single-season record of 11.625, and Bret Saberhagen's National League record of 11.000.
Some further great stat notes about Ryu from Hembekides: Ryu has faced 320 batters this season; just 48 of them have reached a three-ball count (15%). Five of them have resulted in a walk. There are 60 instances of a pitcher walking at least five batters in a single appearance this season.
Ryu has pitched fearlessly in three-ball counts. No qualified pitcher has thrown a higher percentage of strikes in three-ball counts (94%) or garnered a higher percentage of opponent swings (78%). Yet, opponents own a .533 OPS against him in three-ball counts (the MLB average is .968), third best among qualifiers.
Ryu also has been economical. No qualified pitcher is averaging fewer pitches per inning this season than he is (14.0). That number has declined in each of the past three seasons. So, it should come as no surprise that he is averaging a career-high 6⅔ innings per start in 2019.
• Ryu pitched for Korea in the 2009 World Baseball Classic at Dodger Stadium, earning the attention of evaluators around baseball, including Ned Colletti, then L.A.'s general manager.
"I loved his makeup and his know-how, even then," Colletti wrote in an e-mail. "He was a battler -- and is now, although for him, it's been more about overcoming injury. He never lit up the radar gun, but that didn't matter to me. It was about stuff -- and intellect."
The numbers 3 and 7 carry special meaning in Korea, and as Colletti recalled, this shaped the Dodgers' offer to the Hanwha Eagles for Ryu -- $25,737,737.37.
Baseball Tonight Podcast
Friday: Karl Ravech on the question of whether Justin Verlander could reach 300 victories, and Tommy Pham's criticism of the All-Star voting situation; Jessica Mendoza on Hyun-Jin Ryu, Cody Bellinger and Kyle Schwarber's breakout.
Thursday: A great conversation with Jake Odorizzi about the Twins, his breakout this season and the climb in fastball velocity; Sarah Langs and The Numbers Game; Joel Sherman of the New York Post and Baseball Network and a wide-ranging discussion about the forthcoming trade market -- the Indians, relievers, Yankees, Madison Bumgarner, Dodgers, etc.
Wednesday: Alex Anthopoulos on the Braves' chase of Dallas Keuchel and the trade market for relievers; Boog Sciambi on Corey Seager's injury and the Red Sox struggles; Paul Hembekides brings the numbers.
Tuesday: David Ross discusses David Ortiz and the Cubs' pursuit of Craig Kimbrel; Marly Rivera from Boston, about Ortiz; Marly Rivera and The Numbers Game; David Schoenfield and the accelerating diminution of the home run.
Monday: A conversation with the Cardinals' Paul Goldschmidt; Todd Radom's weekly quiz and cap talk; Tim Kurkjian on the David Ortiz news, Madison Bumgarner's confrontation with Max Muncy and Dallas Keuchel's pointed words about the union's last collective bargaining agreement.