Decisions, Decisions...Dodgers Must Make Some Decisions

The L.A. Times reports here that the Dodgers haven't decided who will replace Brett Tomko in their starting rotation. Hong-Chi Kuo didn't do himself any favors by giving up 5 in 4 2/3. Little also mentions D.J. Houlton, the former rule 5 pick, as a candidate. Boo! This may be unfair since I am not familiar with the '07 D.J. edition, but I saw the '06 D.J. more times than I'd have liked to in action at Cashman Field and he didn't look good at all. Imagine Eric Stults type stuff but getting hit all over the place. Little goes on to call Billingsley as an, "innings-eater". Well, Grady, I've known some innings eaters in my day. Jeff Weaver was an innings eater. Heck, Tomko fits that description quite well also. But Billingsley is not an innings eater. The mention of Weaver reminds me to mention a great article by LAWeekly about Scott Boras. If you dislike him, read the article. If you like him, read the article. If you've never heard of him, definitely read the article. I think the author was remiss in notifying his audience that Jeff Weaver is performing so badly after his jackpot one year deal that he may get the Sidney Ponson treatment soon. It is a long, but great read.

Fan to L.A. organization: Stop toying with the kid and ride him out as your starter for a season. He is going to be inconsistent, but what can you do? If you keep jerking him around he may never reach his talent ceiling as a frontline starter. You have to take the bad with the good in terms of a young player's development and sometimes that means some losses on the big club because Chad had to learn something the hard way that day.

My suggestions for the starting pitching and bullpen? Glad you asked. Billingsley would take the 4'th rotation spot. Kuo would take the 5'th starting slot. When/if Schmidt comes back Billingsley becomes the 5'th starter and Kuo goes back to Vegas. So this is how the rotation would look:

Penny
Lowe
Wolf
Billingsley
Kuo

Hendrickson becomes my "innings-eater" in long relief. Tomko I'd leave stretched out to pitch 2-3 innings or so at a time, but he'd be used in garbage time primarily. This applies even more so to Seanez. I would only put him into a game where the blue is way behind with no signs of a comeback. Brazoban would only be used in low pressure situations as well until his command improves. Beimel stays a situational lefty that occasionally pitches an inning in a close game. Broxton and Saito remain the setup and closer guys respectively. So the bullpen looks like this

Hendrickson LRP
Tomko LRP/MRP
Beimel LOOGY/MRP
Seanez MRP
Broxton SU
Saito CL

But the Dodgers need another arm until Tsao comes off the DL because these guys are showing wear. What sucks is nobody on the 40 man roster really fits the bill for a one inning reliever that aren't themselves already on the DL. My non-40 man roster pick would be Jonathan Meloan. He has stood out since late last season and is also doing o.k. this year. To make room I'd ditch Eric Hull off the 40-man roster, let him clear waivers and then re-assign him to Vegas. In the Alternative I'd call up Hull himself and hope for the best against MLB hitters, allowing Meloan to stay off the 40-man roster and saving an option, then sending down Hull as soon as Tsao is ready to be activated. I don't imagine the Hull experiment working but ya never know.

Geesh! This wouldn't be so complicated if the offense could score 10 runs every night like yesterday! Not much to comment on that game except to say easy win and we need more of those. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Moving up to a game ahead of the Padres is always a good thing. Not so good is that Arizona seems to have woken up and they are nipping at the Dodgers heels at a 1/2 game back. Thank goodness we're playing D.C.! Even better, we get the Pirates next!

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Cubs Bullpen Bails Dodgers Out

What a game! Frustrating yet entertaining. The Blue Crew did have that 3 game losing streak, but besides that bad stretch they somehow seem to pull runs out of thin air to get the job done. Was entertaining to see Tony Abreu get his first big league hit. He had one great play with the off-balance barehanded pickup, but he balanced it out with a throwing error on a low bouncing throw to Nomar to extend the cubs big inning.
The bullpen got really rocked tonight. Glad to see the offense picking them up though. This team's emotional mojo reminds me of how I felt watching the 1988 season. You just kind of knew somehow the Dodgers would win. Great to see Little encourage Broxton and get him to crack a smile as he was giving him the hook. Hopefully the relievers put this bad night out of their heads and move along.
You'd think the cubs would have a heck of a lot better record considering the offense they've put together. With Lee, Soriano, and A-Ram, they've got a lot of power and with Mark DeRosa they've got a guy that seems to be playing over his head, but somehow it's not translating into a lot of wins. Baseball's like the Forrest Gump box of chocolates...never know what you're gonna get.
Still nothing on the fate of Wilson Valdez. I wants to know, my preciooousss! Perhaps it will be announced tomorrow afternoon. That's it for tonight. I'm out. Be sure to revel in the crazy win by the Blue and the beginning of a new weekend.

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Bobbleheaded Dodgers

Since yesterday was an off day and I blog a day behind and I don't want to bore myself with another post kissing Russell Martin's behind, I figured I'd make some content by dragging bobble-heads from their closeted boxes, laying them on a free Dodgers blanket and having at them with a digital camera. Why is Greg Maddux wearing a strange red uniform? The answer is he is dressed up in his high school uniform. You can't see the seat section colors in this picture but they are the old primary colors instead of the current pastel. No Unocal logo either, sorry. I really should e-bay these things because I never look at them.

In other news, I didn't read too much on the Blue this morning but by my calculation today is judgment day for soon-to-be old friend, Wilson Valdez. Hopefully, the Dodgers cut a deal (only because I like the excitement of a trade no matter how insignificant) instead of him being claimed on waivers and riding off into the not-as-blue sunset.

Tonight's game should be a win. The Dodgers have a good record against sub .500 teams. In addition, the Dodgers have that nice home record. But, anything can happen in baseball. D-Lowe will be doing the pitching and hopefully Inside the Dodgers will post the lineup soon and maybe spell out the fate of Valdez a little early. Hopefully Juan Pierre sticks it to his old team tonight. I think he will.

As for all the Pierre loathing that goes on at I'm guessing a ton of blogs, it's just not my bag. Some things in life are just too easy to do and pointing out what is lacking in Pierre's game is one of them. I'm not going to use keystrokes belaboring the obvious. It's like arriving at home and making sure you let your significant other know you know she's gained 20 lbs and that she no longer looks attractive. It's not classy if you truly love the person (team). Even if done in the most supportive way possible, if you still point it out every day it's going to get counterproductive very quickly.

Even if you don't believe a word of what I said in the last paragraph believe this: If Pierre is miserable here because of all the negative press or as I guess he would put it a 'lack of appreciation' for his game, he will request out. The Dodgers most likely will oblige him as they don't want anyone that doesn't want to be a Dodger. Wherever he goes, Willis will sign. The year or 2 of Pierre will truly be for naught if that's the way things go down. If you don't like Pierre, then you don't like Dontrelle Willis.

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