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The Dodgers’ plan, as it always is when the subject of the trade deadline is raised, was simple as their front office mapped out this season.

Spend big in the winter. Build as strong of a roster as possible at the outset of the campaign. And hope that, come the deadline, they wouldn’t be in a position where they have to go out and buy more talent at inflated midseason prices.

“Our goal this whole time,” general manager Brandon Gomes told the California Post recently, “was to have made all of our headline acquisitions in the offseason.”

So far, so good on that objective.

Three months in, the Dodgers have the most wins in the majors.

Even with several star players sidelined with injuries, they have built a nine-game lead in the National League West that — given the reinforcements they’ll have coming off the injured list in the coming weeks and months — already feels close to insurmountable not even halfway through the year.

Still, as is also the case at the deadline every year, the Dodgers will be looking for upgrades as they chase a third-straight World Series.

They could be a player for two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. They could try to shore up a bullpen that has been up and down since Edwin Díaz underwent an elbow procedure back in April.

At the very least, they’ll be lying in wait to see how the market develops.

And if the opportunity for a splashy acquisition strikes, they’ll have plenty of ammunition to swing almost any caliber of deal.

For all the uncertainties that remain more than a month out from the Aug. 3 deadline, the one thing the Dodgers know is that they have is a deep, talented and highly-coveted minor-league farm system.

They figured that would be the case entering the year, when their pipeline was once again ranked among the best in the sport, receiving near unanimous top-five rankings from industry outlets.

But since then, the performance of their minor-leaguers — and a loaded group of hitters in the outfield, especially — have surpassed expectations and amplified their organizational strength.

“We’re basically [ranked] 1-2 across the minor leagues in OPS, expected OPS. Top 5-10 in strikeout rate. Top 2-3 in walk rate,” Gomes said. “All the things that you really want to be good at, we’re performing at a really high level.”

Individually, standout performers have emerged at almost every level.

In triple-A, James Tibbs III is putting together a monster season in his first full year in the Dodgers organization, having already hit a Pacific Coast League-leading 20 home runs with a 1.000 OPS to showcase his potential as a former first-round draft pick.

In double-A, Josue De Paula has had a similar breakout, ranking second in the Texas League in batting average (.321) and third in OPS (.978) while tapping into natural power that has long made him a top prospect in the sport.

Mike Sirota might be having the best individual campaign of anyone, having already been promoted from high-A and double-A while carrying a 58-game on-base streak across both levels.

Even the team’s most recent first-round pick, University of Arkansas product Charles Davalan, is quickly finding success in pro ball, slugging .453 clip as the best hitting prospect in high-A Great Lakes.

And that’s not even to mention Zyhir Hope (another double-A outfielder ranked by MLB Pipeline as the team’s No. 2 prospect, behind De Paula), Eduardo Quintero (the club’s reigning minor-league player of the year from last season), Emil Morales (a toolsy 19-year-old shortstop already playing in high-A) or Kendall George (who avoided knee surgery, per Gomes, after a freak incident with a team bat dog with double-A Tulsa).

“Having our guys perform is obviously good for the short-term and the long-term,” Gomes said.

As for how much the performance this year will aid the Dodgers’ at this deadline specifically:

“It sure beats the alternative,” he quipped with a grin.

While the Dodgers system was already highly ranked before the year, the strength of their pipeline then had been more depth over elite star power.

Now, however, with so many promising bats having emerged this season, both the floor and the ceiling of the organization have gone up.

In Baseball America’s latest prospect rankings, the club had five players in the top-60 — headlined by De Paula at No. 5 and Sirota at No. 17.

Come Aug. 3, it will only give the Dodgers extra ammunition to work with, allowing them to hunt either a big fish (like Skubal, the type of needle-moving superstar the Dodgers always want to explore when they become available) or search the market for smaller impact additions (as they did at last year’s deadline, when they bolstered their bullpen and bench) without sacrificing too much of their internal future options, as well.

“As we get closer [to the deadline], we’ll continue to assess what’s going on,” Gomes said. “But we’re really excited about just the overall development and performance of a lot of these guys.”

Indeed, deadline concerns aside, Gomes emphasized what this year has shown about the club’s player development system.

He noted that, beyond the surface-level stats, there’s been “a big emphasis on two-strike hits, taking your RBI, moving the runner and not just saying, ‘Hey, we’re gonna hit for power.”

“Not that that was ever the message,” he added. “But there’s just been much of a focus on taking pride in shooting a ball and getting your knocks … How focusing on those little things can in turn help win games.”

He cited a couple other players who have embodied that approach, including single-A third baseman Chase Harlan (who has a .324 batting average) and former first-round pick shortstop Kellon Lindsey (who has hit .400 in a small but encouraging sample across the rookie ball and single-A).

“I know people don’t care about minor-league win percentages, but we kind of do,” Gomes said, with all four full-season affiliates currently comfortably above .500. “I think it’s a good proxy of how well your farm system is performing, and how to understand what it takes to win.”

That’s why, while the deadline provides an opportunity to cash in such prospect capital, the Dodgers will be selective with anything they give up.

For as good as their big-league roster looks right now, the performance of their prospects this year has kept the future looking similarly bright.

And even if they add to their big-league depth, the Dodgers could also look for ways to bolster their farm system ranks too, as they did with the Tibbs/Ehrhard trade last year.

“It’s been a fun group to watch,” Gomes said.

And it has made the Dodgers even more of a team to watch as the deadline heats up over the next couple weeks.

Hey, a day without a roster move. Who knew? In the absence, I’ll need to find something else to talk about. I saw this post on Reddit, which broke the seal on something I haven’t dared mention, for fear of angering the baseball gods. The D-backs have been the best team in the majors on Mondays, something of which I am very aware with regard to my recaps. They have just one Monday loss, that being all the way back on April 13. They lost 9-7 in Baltimore, and even that was a game they were leading 7-1 in the middle of the sixth inning. But overall they are 6-1. It’s the highest W% in the majors, and also gives them the biggest gap to their W% the rest of the week, at +386 points.

I do feel kinda bad about this, because it feels like certain other recappers have been getting the sticky end of the lollipop with regard to the team’s performances. So, I looked at the entire schedule, and here’s how Arizona’s record has broken down by day of the week so far:

• Monday: 6-1
• Tuesday: 5-7
• Wednesday: 8-4
• Thursday: 3-6
• Friday: 5-7
• Saturday: 4-9
• Sunday: 7-5

So, yeah: poor Dano has definitely been rather unlucky with his recaps his year. He is currently on a four-week losing streak, the longest sequence of L’s on any day this year. Though most days of the week have seen a losing record. After Monday, it would be Wednesday which has the next best win percentage (and the highest number of raw wins, having got off to a 5-0 start), while Sunday’s have actually been decent as well. We’ll see what happens today. If I can extend my winning streak to six today, I’m out of state next week, and then there’ll be just one more Monday before the All-Star break…

The Mets’ series against the Cubs will have to wait until Tuesday to get underway, as inclement weather has resulted in the postponement of the game between them that was schedule for 7:10 PM EDT in Queens. The teams will make up the game as part of a day-night doubleheader on Wednesday with the first game starting at 1:10 PM and the second staying in its original 7:10 PM time slot.

The Cubs enter the series with a 40-37 record, and at the time of this writing, they’re in the third Wild Card spot in the National League. They’re two games back of the Cardinals for second place in the National League Central and seven games back of the division-leading Brewers.

The Mets, of course, are in much poorer shape. They’re 34-43 on the season, and they’re closer to the cellar-dwelling Rockies in the standings than they are to the Cubs. You can read all about the four-game set between these teams in Brian Salvatore’s series preview.

The Cincinnati Reds are back in Great American Ball Park on Monday night to play host to the Milwaukee Brewers. Their division rivals are once again in 1st place in the NL Central, with the Reds occupying their familiar place of last.

Brady Singer and Brandon Woodruff get the starting assignments for their respective clubs in the series opener, which will begin promptly at 7:10 PM ET unless it doesn’t.

Here’s how both teams will line up to start:

I’m hoping to be back home before game time, but in case I’m not, here is a GameThread.

Nationals hand Phillies' bats a dud — but Alan Rangel looks strong originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

WASHINGTON — Just about the only thing that could cool off this red-hot Phillies lineup was a 92-minute rain delay.

And, as it turns out, a solid left-handed starter. Again.

The Phillies have masked their struggles against southpaw starters lately, but the larger issue remains.

The only lefties they have scored three or more runs against this season are Kyle Freeland (7.36 ERA), Nick Lodolo (6.12 ERA), Anthony Kay (4.61 ERA), Patrick Corbin (4.73 ERA), Shane Drohan, who has made only five starts, Sean Manaea (4.64 ERA) and David Peterson (6.09 ERA).

Not exactly a list of pitchers thriving this season.

In their other 17 games against left-handed starters, the Phillies have scored just 11 earned runs.

One of those outings came against one lefty who carved them up earlier this year, Foster Griffin.

On March 30, Griffin held the Phillies down over five innings, while the Nationals pounced on Taijuan Walker in a 13-2 Washington win.

A lot has changed since then, except for their issues against lefty hurlers.

Almost three months later, the Nationals left-hander had everything working again in the Phillies’ 4-1 loss to Washington. He attacked the Phillies all evening, starting 20 of the 26 batters he faced with a first-pitch strike.

That is a difficult formula for hitters against Griffin, who developed a seven-pitch repertoire during three seasons in Japan.

He is not overpowering, and it works. He’s got a 3.15 ERA in 16 starts this year.

Griffin threw 71 percent strikes, kept the Phillies off balance and worked 7 1/3 innings of four-hit, one-run ball. He walked nobody and struck out nine.

Superb.

The Phillies finally broke through in the seventh on a Brandon Marsh solo homer. Marsh continues to give the offense quality at-bats against lefties, and his shot cut Washington’s lead to 2-1.

It also gave the Phillies some hope as they prepared to face one of baseball’s shakier bullpens.

That hope did not last long.

With James Wood leading off the bottom of the seventh and two right-handed hitters set to follow, Don Mattingly turned to right-hander Seth Johnson rather than lefty Kyle Backhus.

Wood singled. Then former Phillies farmhand Curtis Mead hit a two-run homer.

The Nationals’ lead grew to 4-1, and that was the final.

For the Phillies, it was a tough finish because they got nearly everything they could have asked for from Alan Rangel.

The club recalled Rangel from Triple-A Lehigh Valley earlier in the day, then used Tim Mayza as an opener before handing the ball to the 27-year-old right-hander.

Rangel was not dominant.

But he delivered one of the more encouraging outings the Phillies have gotten from this spot in the rotation in about a month.

He allowed one run over five innings and gave the Phillies a chance.

Rangel brings a new look to the staff with a funky, hide-the-ball delivery from a steep over-the-top slot. His 69-degree arm angle would be the most vertical in Major League Baseball among qualified pitchers, even steeper than Blue Jays right-hander Trey Yesavage at 66 degrees.

The Phillies’ right-handed starters behind Zack Wheeler have struggled this season. Rangel’s first outing offered a possible sign that the club has another internal option worth exploring.

He filled the zone. Rangel threw first-pitch strikes 62 percent of the time, landed 71 percent of his pitches for strikes and generated a 41 percent chase rate.

For him, it will likely come down to execution more than simply throwing strikes.

Several Nationals hitters swung through or fouled off changeups above the zone. They also chased fastballs out of the zone. That could have something to do with Rangel’s unusual release point, which makes the ball tougher to pick up.

His next chance to start, or work in bulk behind an opener, will likely come Saturday in Queens against the Mets.

That lineup could have Francisco Lindor back by then.

Monday’s result did not go the Phillies’ way.

But Rangel gave Mattingly something to carry into the next turn.

For the second straight day, there will be no Cubs baseball due to weather:

Game times Wednesday will be 12:10 p.m. CT and 6:10 p.m. CT (the originally scheduled game is the 6:10 p.m. game).

At this time we don’t know who will be starting for the Cubs or Mets, as no announcement has been made. I’d think the Cubs would go with Edward Cabrera (tomorrow’s scheduled starter) and Javier Assad (Wednesday’s scheduled starter), with today’s starter Shōta Imanaga going Tuesday.

The bullpen, for whatever that’s worth, should be well rested.

But that’s just speculation, we’ll find out later.

Some interesting postponement notes from BCB’s JohnW53:

The last time the Cubs had consecutive games postponed by rain or cold was April 20 and 22, 1977. Both were at home.

The first followed two losses to the Phillies. The second, after a day off, preceded two wins over the Reds.

They lost both make-up games, the first of doubleheaders, on July 27 vs. the Reds and Aug. 14 vs. the Phillies.
…
Their last back-to-back postponements of any kind were Sept. 12-13, 2008, at Houston due to Hurricane Ike. Games were played Sept. 14-15 at Milwaukee. Carlos Zambrano pitched a no-hitter in the first one.

Games at Miami scheduled for Sept. 3-5, 2004, were postponed due to Hurricane Frances. One was played at Miami on Sept. 10 as part of a doubleheader. The two others were played at Chicago as a doubleheader on Sept. 20.

Six games, all at home, three each vs. the Pirates and Reds, were postponed Sept. 11-16, 2001, due to the 9/11 attacks, and played Oct. 2-7.

Games at Montreal scheduled for Sept. 20-21, 1991, were postponed due to damage to Olympic Stadium. They were played at Chicago as a doubleheader on Sept. 22.

Six games, three at Philadelphia and three at home vs. the Mets, were postponed April 3-9, 1990, due to a strike. The three vs. the Mets were played in April, June and September; the three at Philadelphia, Oct. 1-3.
Games at St. Louis on Aug. 6-7, 1985, were postponed due to a strike. They were played on Sept. 5 and 9.

As was the case yesterday, feel free to use this thread as an open thread for baseball or other discussion within the rules of the site. Back tomorrow with more Cubs baseball!

The start of the Mets’ seven-game homestand is on hold.

Monday night’s game in Queens against the Cubs has been postponed due to pouring rain and severe thunderstorms in the afternoon, with a split-admission doubleheader now set for Wednesday.

The games will start at 1:10 p.m. and 7:10 p.m.

The Mets are coming off series losses to the Reds and Phillies, losing their last two games to Philadelphia by a combined score of 21-5.

On Sunday, David Peterson was the latest Mets pitcher to blow a game for the team.

He allowed five runs (four earned) across four innings on six hits and logged two walks and five strikeouts.

It won’t get any easier for the Mets in the near future as they’re set to host the Cubs and Phillies.

The Mets (34-43) are six games back of the final wild-card spot yet that would requiring jumping seven teams to get there.

The Mets announced that Monday's game against the Chicago Cubs has been postponed due to rain.

The game will be made up as part of a split-admission doubleheader on Wednesday. First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m.

Kodai Senga was scheduled to face left-hander Shota Imanaga, but now he will go up against RHP Edward Cabrera (4-4, 5.21 ERA). 

As for Wednesday's doubleheader, Nolan McLean and Sean Manaea will start for New York, while Imanaga and Javier Assad will go for Chicago, but who will pitch in the afternoon and who will pitch the 7:10 p.m. start are to be determined. 

The Mets (34-43) come into the Chicago series having dropped each of their last two series against Cincinnati and Philadelphia. Meanwhile, the Cubs(40-37) have won six of their last nine.

New York may have Francisco Lindor back for Wednesday's twin-bill, as the shortstop will play another rehab game with Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday. Manager Carlos Mendoza said the plan will be to "reassess" Lindor after his third minor league appearance as he works his way back from a calf strain, leaving the door open for him to rejoin the big league club.

Go Rays!