Alright, I'm bored already with the Nationals. They didn't put up even a whimper in the Dodgers 5-0 shutout yesterday. The Dodgers are doing what they need to do this series which is to pound a bad team while it's down.
Grady Little made his choice of 5'th starter a little more clear via the L.A. Times that Hong-Chi Kuo will be the club's 5'th starter against the Pirates. Again I ask, why not Chad? What was Tomko doing as a starter that Chad couldn't? Billingsley had an era+ of 121 last season. He was the 3'rd best starter on the team in terms of era+ last season. Chad's knock from Grady and legitimately so is inefficiency. Sticking him in the bullpen is supposed to help that? How is Chad supposed to apply the apple strategy to the new orange situation? Did you get confused last sentence? Well, you're just like Chad right now.
Another great article written about our hero, Russell Martin. Reading it got me twitterpated. I liked this article better than the sports illustrated one over here. The latter making it seem a little like Martin is kind of an also-ran among the obvious great young catchers.
Lastly, word is that Schmidt did well down in San Bernardino in his rehab start, but various fans posting their scouting report of him say his fastball is in the upper 80's. Anyways, you can read a great article about Schmidt's rehab start done by Kevin Pearson of the Press Enterprise here. Here's hoping he's able to help us down the stretch when I'm sure some of our arms will be more than weary.
--Thanks for reading
5/31/07
I Can See Clearly Now A Sweep Is On...
5/30/07
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!
5/27/07
Dodgers Squeak By Cubs 2 to 1
A great game to watch despite the anticlimactic ending. Ramon Martinez had the key play of taking third after he stumbled and lost his balance 4-6 steps away from the second base bag. Luckily the pitcher threw behind him and the throw to third wasn't in time.
Pierre got the game winning r.b.i. on a questionable hit by pitch call. Even if the ump missed the call the blue crew most likely would have at least gotten the game winning run in on a sac fly anyway. Hopefully Ethier's homer today may earns him some more playing time at the expense of Gonzo.
I am starting to look through some of my card collection gaining dust in a closet and try to incorporate that into this blog somehow. Most people I have cards for are out of baseball except for very old players ('91 or '92) is the latest I have. We'll see what happens once some card(s) inspire me to post about them. I will stay away from doing player profiles because someone else has already done that beautifully (start blogging again).
Game Preview: Battle of the Lefties
The Dodgers failed to capitalize on the struggles of Carlos Zambrano Saturday. They need to take advantage of another struggling Cub's starter, Rich Hill today to guarantee they at least stay tied for first in the NL west. Glad we're playing the Cubs instead of the Brewers like the Padres are doing. Should be interesting.
Russell Martin is hitting 3'rd this afternoon and as you can see by the splits he has been there before. This makes me happy. I hope Martin can make this spot his, regularly, instead of just waiting for Nomar to get a rest day. We'll see. A fan can dream, can't he?
Andy LaRoche and Brady Clark get starts today at 3B and RF respectively. We'll see how that goes. Both have done well in somewhat limited playing time this season. Not quite sure what to make of the combination of LaRoche, Betemit, and Abreu still unless the Dodgers are instituting a trial by fire to showcase their 3b talent for both themselves and potential trading partners. I'm partial to LaRoche even though he isn't hitting for power. Thank goodness such important decisions aren't left to me.
Enjoy the game!
5/26/07
Bad Ohman!
Frustrating loss, though the Blue made a game of it. They didn't have the fight that they did last night. Carlos Zambrano's slider had the break one usually sees only in video games. Looks like the real Carlos Zambrano stood up and took the mound for the first time this season. Martin looked completely over-matched, but did manage a walk. Chad Billingsley pitching well in relief combined with another so-so Hendrickson performance has me thinking Chad may have won a rotation spot. Betemit hit a bomb that served as a whimper of protest and at least prevents the indignity of a shutout. They built up a little momentum which was killed with Kent's strikeout to Ohman. You can certainly question Little's move by pinch-hitting Kent for a guy that has a 4-6 record against the cubs' reliever. I did. But Kent is, as Vin would say, 'the butter and egg man'. He is the "clutch" guy, if you believe in that kind of stuff. Also, 6 at-bats is a small sample size, even for pitcher vs. hitter scenarios. So I'm not going to bemoan Little rolling the dice with taking a shot with the biggest gun in his holster, because that's what Kent was sitting on the bench at that particular time. It was entertaining to see Andy LaRoche log his first big league inning in left field. I imagined him pleading to himself for no balls to be hit his way. Better luck next time, Dodgers.
According to the Press Enterprise, Wilson Valdez cleared waivers and was sent outright to Vegas.
5/25/07
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.
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.
5/24/07
Martin Always Seems To Have His Mitts On Everything
Unbelievable--In a good way, of course. Russell Martin keeps the good times rolling for the 'lil blue machine that could by smacking balls around when it counts like they owe him more than the major league minimum money that he's receiving. He is crushing rocks like he belongs on the front of my Cocoa Pebbles cereal box. O.K., I'm going a bit overboard. In short, he is driving in runs like a cleanup hitter right now. He seemingly wills the Blue to victory a la Gibson. I think he could be the first catcher to win the MVP since Munson in '76 for the AL and Bench in '70 and '72 for the NL. Now maybe I'm going overboard again, but I'm not so sure.
Unbelievable--In a bad way now, is I find it hard to believe that Martin will be able to keep this up without wearing down as the season rolls along. I'm still pretty apprehensive about it. He's carrying the team so much right now that Little almost has to keep playing Martin despite Grady's reputation for being the players' manager that doles out ample amounts of rest days.
I love this little guy so much I'm going to skip commentary about Brad Penny's great rebound outing, Yhency Brazoban's first MLB inning since TJ surgery, and not feel guilty. I'll have to be mentioning Martin a lot since he's involved in seemingly every Dodger run scoring play. HeHe...o.k. I just giggled like a schoolgirl yet still confident in my masculinity. You go, Martin!
5/23/07
Emperor Tsao Sent down
Dang, I need some Panda Express now.
And I ask myself, 'Why do they have to keep trotting out the human sneeze for garbage innings?'.
An Alternative Is Here!
This will last until I realize nobody cares but me, I can't keep up with it, the Dodgers frustrate me to the point that blogging about them is
With that out of the way let's talk what's new in Dodgerdom:
In all honesty, here's to a long and 'hot' career to the youngster. May we all (especially Vin) eventually forget that he spells his name in the D.R. with an 'I'. I'm rooting for you.
Second order of business is where are the chips going to fall for our friend, Wilson Valdez. Hopefully Lovelace can get something that pans out for him. I'm not pessimistic about it, but I'm also not holding my breath. We are talking about Wilson Valdez here.
So, take the Tony call up, sprinkle in a little Wilson Valdez waiver deadline, mix in a bunch of Andy LaRoche sitting on the bench last night, some already brewing newspaper rumors (which I'm not going to link to) about obtaining a third baseman with power, add just a touch of Tomko and Hendrickson finally turning back into pumpkins, and we may have ourselves some interesting roster moves-a-brewing.