Welcome to the world, the Garciaparra girls
Labels: Nomar Garciaparra
Labels: Nomar Garciaparra
Labels: James Loney, Larry Bigbie, Wilson Valdez
Labels: Joe Mays
Ok, it ended up being 4-3 Dodgers, with Larry Bigbie coming up with the last at bat single (missplayed by and OF error) that scored both Russell Martin (from second) and James Loney (all the way from first). Wow! Loney went 3-for-4 at the plate and about this chasing balls in the RF outfield for the whole afternoon :).
While Bigbie, in the light of Repko's injury has virtually booked a utility OF spot on the Opening Day roster, the same cannot be said about Rudy Seanez. His fastball is simply too predictable and flat (at least that's what it was today), he's too easily hittable and had it not been for a couple of good defensive plays behind him, he would have been on hook for more than 2 ER (and almost a "L").
Not to judge Seanez on a wind-blown HR today, every contact made by the Indians batters was hard and seemed to be hit because of poor location of Rudy's pitches. To be honest, this is also consistent with what I noticed in his earlier seasons with the Red Sox and Padres. Seanez looks to me a second coming of an Elmer Dessens-type of pitcher, without the ability to become an occasional long man (due to age and lack of durability). If he's indeed tabbed to become an elusive "seventh-inning gap bridge" to Jonathan Broxton and Takeshi Saito - I'd be a little bit scared...
Andy La Roche, on the other hand, had a wonderful throw to the plate (AFAIR in the 7th) to erase a triple on a groundball with infield in. Other than that - he struck out at least once (offhand), and looked to me as if he was looking to hack one out of the stadium (with the gusting winds, that might not have been such a bad idea after all :)).
Overall, a game which was very exciting to watch, and one with a happy ending.
Labels: Jason Repko, Larry Bigbie
Labels: Knuckle Curve
Labels: Dodgers Blue Heaven, Spring training
"It doesn't appear Rafael Furcal (moderate left ankle spring) or Jason Repko (high left hamstring strain) will be ready for opening day, although trainer Stan Conte stopped short of saying that when it came to Furcal. "It will be longer than a week," Conte said.
"Right now, this is 100-percent medical. With respect to figuring out when he'll be able to play, that is kind of the least of our concerns at this point." The Dodgers break camp in a week. Do the math, and it doesn't look good for Furcal leading off at Milwaukee on April 2. As for Repko, Conte said, "It will probably be measured in weeks."
"We think this guy's going to be a great hitter in the major leagues. When his time comes, there's no doubt in my mind he's going to crash right though that door." says Grady Little.The defense - not quite:
"La Roche's defense remains a concern, as he has committed six errors in only 13 exhibition games. He made five in his entire time in Las Vegas, where team officials could very well send him after camp breaks to get more seasoning."Not quite yet. It will come. Watch this space.
Labels: "TALRW", Andy LaRoche
"I talked to Chad yesterday and let him know what we had in plan for him this year, and that's to work in the middle part of our bullpen," Los Angeles manager Grady Little said.That means a number of things for the Dodgers. First, Mark Hendrickson's fate as situational lefty is practically sealed. The Dodgers simply do not have an efficient lefty pitching out of the bullpen as of now. Second, at this stage it might be advisable for GM Ned Coletti to look around to swap either Elmer Dessens (virtually replaced by Billingley in the longman role) and/or Joe Mays (very decent this spring) for a harder-throwing lefty reliever. Think Alan Embree 5-6 years ago. Not now, Ned! :)
Labels: Chad Billingsley
Last September Jae Seo got the a one-year contract extension from the Devil Rays after he went 3-12 with 5.33 ERA in 36 games (26 starting) for them and the Dodgers last season.
Last year about this time (spring training) I remember feeling pretty secure having Seo become our fifth starter. That feeling went south pretty quickly, I agree :). To me he always seemed to miss a pitch or
two which used to turn around and bite him in the back for a big inning (especially in his Dodger days). Also a "slow warm-up syndrome" never helped him in the first innings.
He's currently listed on the TB depth chart as their fourth starter. At 30 years old - do you think he'll finally manage to establish himself as middle-of-the-rotation pitcher?
As for Dioner Navarro, I remember having second thoughts about him playing in front of Alomar last spring training (that was BEFORE the emergence of Russell Martin, folks :)). Dioner is only 23 yo and due to a particularly difficult year last year in terms of family incidents (car accident, serious illness of one of his children), he only managed to hit .254 with 6 HR and 28 RBIs. He's currently out for a couple of days with a hamstring strain.
Do you think letting him go by the Dodgers was a little bit premature? (we got pending FA Toby Hall and Mark Hendrickson in the deal) While he might have lost the battle for the lineup spot to Martin over last season, he's still got more upside than Mike Lieberthal and Kelly Stinnett (let alone Sandy Alomar and Hall) and I'm not sure how much confidence the organization has in Edwin Bellorin (currently with the 51's). Is there another young catcher in the Dodger system to turn into a big league backup for Martin in say two years?
So far he's played there one game (IIRC) and handled his fielding chances adequately."When you put a player in a new position they seem to hit balls at them right away," said manager Grady Little. "I don't know if it's coincidence or the baseball gods. Sure enough, they hit a couple but he [La Roche] handled them well."Do you think it makes sense for the Dodgers to experiment with LaRoche out of his natural position at 3B? Especially that he's not such a good fielder (by default) as Loney (great with the glove at 1B and more than capable in limited tries at RF). And especially that both Gonzalez and Ethier (if not playing RF) are clearly ahead of LaRoche on the OF depth chart. Plus there are both Bigbie and Anderson as spare corner outfielders.
Do you really think Andy can't be a "proper" backup 3B for Betemit on the active roster come April 1? There is still plenty of time for him to beat Betemit to the starter's job, mind you. Why mess up putting him at LF?
"But La Roche's finest moment came in the ninth inning. The Dodgers trailed 2-1 with runners on second and third with none out after a double by Fernando Tatis. For a young player pining to make a season-opening roster, this would have been the perfect situation to try to impress, to swing hard at everything in hopes of getting the big hit that would turn that one-run deficit into a one-run lead.
But instead of getting overeager and chasing pitches out of his zone, La Roche patiently worked Adkins for a walk to load the bases, and ultimately he came around to score what would have been an important run if this were an important game. And that is the sort of thing general managers and managers tend to notice."
How can you leave this kid out of the active roster April 1 ;). Agreed, he only went 1-for-5 at DH yesterday against the Minnesota Twins, but there are so many things that he already does the right way, I'm tempted to take even a closer look at the "race for third base" between him and Wilson Betemit.Q. You had a new contract with [Takashi] Saito and are you happy to have him back to the Dodgers?
GRADY LITTLE: I would say so. You know, he got an opportunity last year to come in. He joined our club I think in May and I don't know the exact numbers but I do know the exact number of saves that he had -- he blew a save and that was one out of all of his opportunities. He has good control. He has good stuff and we're
certainly glad he's back.
But I still haven't been able to figure out why I see the catcher go to the mound or my pitching coach go to the mound or I go to the mound and he puts his glove over his mouth so no one can read his lips. I haven't really figured out why he does that yet. *I think he's been watching too much TV*.
Knowing how restrained (I previously used the wrong word "conceited" which Robert pointed out to me in the comments section) Grady can be (and is in many respects in this interview) I find this comment absolutely hilarious. I vaguely remember Saito having trouble speaking English last season - has he
picked up any in the process so that he's protecting himself from being overheard? ;)
Well, for starters, we did hold JD Drew hitless (0-for-2 with a walk and strikeout) in his first (unofficial) game against the Dodgers, which is always a good thing for team confidence. By the way, Drew's replacement, RF Moss scored the only Red Sox run yesterday.
Anyway, speaking of JD, there is a very interesting article on the top scroll at mlb.com, which sheds some light on Drew and Boras' reasons for invoking the infamous opt-out clause. One of the cited reasons is Boras making Drew aware of the fact that with a young family they ought to have had more job security.
Apparently, the was no no-trade clause in the Dodgers contract with Drew. Says JD:"You know, the thing with me is that we were looking for some job security, and I know where the Dodgers are heading and I didn't want to become trade bait at some point down the road. Those were the things that were very important to me, and it just didn't seem like they wanted to pursue any of those avenues, so they moved on and I kind of had to do the same thing."
In effect Boras made Drew accept a limited no-trade from the Sox - limited to... two teams?? Having said that:"Sources with knowledge of his Dodgers contract said Monday there was language in that deal allowing him to block trades to five teams, ostensibly giving him more job security with the Dodgers than in his current deal."
My question: why beat about the bush with lingo on peripheral aspects of contract when everybody and their mother knows it was mostly a guaranteed money-based decision? Drew then turns around and blames Colletti for being pissed with the last-second opt-out decision.
In general I was thinking that JD going public about his leaving the Dodgers in the off-season would make me understand the rationale of his (their, with Boras) decision. Having read this piece (very informative, no doubt) - I'm puzzled all the more.
And you?
"Oh, sure, they'll try to mimic that field of daydreams known as Holman Stadium. Whatever the Dodgers do, though, is already doomed to be a bad imitation. A VHS tape compared to a high-definition DVD. A ventriloquist whose mouth moves."There will never be another Dodgertown. Not in Glendale, AZ where the Dodgers are moving. Not anywhere.