Ravings from behind the plate at Chavez Ravine

The Dodgers move back into first place

2007-06-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

The Dodgers won 3 of 4 from the Diamondbacks to finish their roadtrip, moving them into a tie with San Diego for first in the NL West. The Dodgers outscored Arizona 23-13 in the serires. Here is a summary of the four games:

Game 1 - Dodgers win 8-1 on Brad Penny's stellar pitching. Penny improved to 10-1 and catcher Russell Martin led on offense going 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs. Wilson Betemit again showed his pinch hitting prowess getting his 4th pinch-hit HR of the year. In 24 pinch hit at bats this year, Betemit has 8 hits: 2 doubles and 4 HRs for a .333 avg.

Game 2 - Takashi Saito picked up his 21st save for the season giving the Dodgers a 6-5 win over the Diamondbacks. Saito pitched the bottom of the 10th inning after Tony Abreu hit a pinch hit tie breaking HR in the top of the inning. Abreu was given his first MLB HR ball by the generous Arizona fans who caught it. 1B James Loney rewarded manager Grady Little with 2 run HR in the 2nd inning. Little has begun the process of giving Loney the reigns at 1B full time by moving Nomar Garciaparra over to 3B. Nomar went 0 for 5 in his Dodger debut at 3B.

Game 3 - Arizona pitcher Brandon Webb outpitched Derek Lowe to give the Diamondbacks a 2-0 victory. Dodger 1B Loney went 3 for 4 to raise his season's batting average to .500. Rafael Furcal and Juan Pierre continued to struggle going a combined 0 for 8 at the top of the lineup.

Game 4 - The Dodgers greeted Randy Johnson's return from the DL by getting 6 hits and 4 runs off the former Cy Young winner who lasted just 3 inning. One of those hits was a HR by Martin in the 1st inning with Furcal on base. Both Furcal and Pierre added 2 hits each and scored 3 runs combined. Martin led the offense (as usual) with a 3-6, 3 runs, 3 hits, 2 RBI performance. Dodgers' starter Randy Wolf struggled a bit, giving up 6 walks, but managed to hold on to get the win to improve to 9-6 on the season. Saito picked up his 22nd save as the Dodgers won 9-5.

RUMORS: More rumors surround the Teixeira to Dodgers trade. No names have been mention from the Dodgers, but it will more than likely involve prospects as Texas is entering a rebuilding stage. Texas doesn't need another 1B, so Loney would likely not be traded. The top prospects in the Dodgers' fram system are pitchers; however, with big signee Jason Schmidt lost for the season and the instability of rookie Chad Billingsley - the Dodgers may not part with pitching talent. My take is this trade is the best availabel out there for the Dodgers, but it is one they should not be pressed to make and will likely let it fall through without making the deal.

One analyst writes: "Loney fails to provide the power the Dodgers are looking for over the next several weeks. He may eventually become Mark Grace, but could disappoint in the short term." So far, Loney has disproven this rumor going 7 for 13 with a double and HR with 3 RBIs in the short term. Mark Grace? Naaahhh.... I know its still early, but I see Steve Garvey like numbers in his future.

Next series starts at home tonight against San Diego.

Walker's view on recent Dodger games and rumors

2007-06-27T16:07:00.000-07:00

In 23 games this June, the Dodgers have played borderline .500 baseball. Winning 12 and losing 11, the Dodgers have lost the early season surge that put them quickly in 1st place in the NL West. Luckily for the Dodgers the NL West is still looking for a dominate team as it has in past seasons, thus allowing a .500 team to still compete for division title. The Dodgers entered June tied for 1st place and currently stand a 1/2 game from the lead spot.

Amidst all the mediocre team performance some exciting glimpses into the Dodgers' future have been seen. If these brief sightings can foretell the future for the Dodgers, the NL West may finally see the return of a dominate team. Bright spots have been 1B James Loney, OF Matt Kemp and IF Tony Abreu. Loney and is hitting .448 for the season in 11 games and Kemp is
hitting .431. Abreu has shown decent offense while showing his versatility playing 2B, SS and 3B.

The Dodgers most recent win came last night (6/25) with an 8-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the start of a 4 game series to wrap up their current road trip. P Brad Penny keeps inching closer to the NL Cy Young award with an impressive 8 inning outing giving up just 4 hits and striking out 4 to bring is season W-L total to 10-1. OF Luis Gonzalez continues to
produce after his slow start to the season. Gonzalez raised his batting average from .267 to .291 during the month of May and is currently hitting .294. Gonzo added 4 HRs so far for the month of June. Meanwhile, both SS Rafael Furcal and OF Juan Pierre have seen their averages peak around .300 and slump during the month of June to the .270s.

DODGER RUMORS: Rumor has it that Dodger manager Grady Little will try 1B Nomar Garciaparra at third base, opening the door for Loney to play first base full-time. Look for Nomar to be playing 3B in upcoming games for the Dodgers, maybe as soon as their next home game.

Other rumors surrounding the Dodgers include the trade market. Possible names mentioned in trade rumors include Chicago White Sox OF Jermaine Dye. The positive? Dye's contract is affordable and short term. He can provide some power. The negative? Dye has not made much contact this year and he is on the tail end of his career talent wise. Also rumored headed to the Dodgers is Texas Ranger's 1B Mark Teixeira. The positive? Teixeira's bat would be a welcome
addition to the Dodgers' lineup. The negative? Adding Teixeira would create a log jam at 1B with Nomar and Loney already sitting on that position. If Loney would be traded, it would be a great loss for the Dodgers future.

In other Dodger rumors, the city of Glendale, AZ is finalizing an $80+M spring training facility to host two teams, the Dodgers and White Sox.

Got good news for you, Walker is on board!

2007-06-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

Suddenly when the gates of this blog were about to close, a knight on a white horse carrying the badge of the Walker appeared on the dim-lit horizon.

Ok, it's the middle of the night in Poland and I don't exactly feel like writing a script for the opening scene of Shrek 3. In short then...

Walker, who is a Dodger fan, currently with MLB at the AAA White Sox affiliate in Charlotte, NC decided to give my a hand and help out with the Dodger series blogging. Isn't this great? His first entry is coming up, just on top of this post.

Wow, what a difference Walker makes :). Thanks, pal!

The Dodgers are doing good...

2007-06-16T11:39:00.000-07:00

...while I'm signing off to another project.

One thing's for sure: when it comes to baseball the Dodgers remain my team all the way. When it comes to life, though - I'm getting more missional. The world is ready for God's love being shown to them in a practical way.

Best to you all,

Myself :)

I could tell you I have lost the password to this site...

2007-05-25T06:28:00.001-07:00

... but it would not have been true... The fact is, there have been things happening in my life that effectively took my time away from following the Dodgers. Things big enough in their meaning and bearing upon lives of people around me that I don't even feel remorses for staying away from baseball for a while. I managed to see just one or two Dodger games and some extended highlights but have been reading up on the team on daily basis. Time to write has been short though.

My life is going to change very soon. Think missionary change, if you like. But that's a story for another post, if not another blog altogether.

Back to baseball however.

My feel is that the month of May have been full of frustration for the LA Dodgers. Just have a look at the series since I have last reported them:

Series 9: @ San Diego Padres 2-1

Tough-luck series for both teams as all three games have been decided by just one run each time.

Series 10: vs Arizona Diamondbacks 2-1

Two great performances from the pitchers (Penny and Hendrickson with 6.0 IP of no run ball each, followed by splendid bullpen work)

Series 11: @Atlanta Braves 1-2

First a Brett Tomko implosion in game 1 of the series, than the only time Tsao got shelled in the season so far end up with a series loss.

Series 12: @Florida Marlins 2-2

With a little bit more timely hitting, this series could be Dodgers' all the way. I'm sure there is a Marlins blog our there that claims the same could have happened for Florida 7-10 May.

More May series to come pretty soon.

Andy LaRoche gets called up

2007-05-06T13:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, let me celebrate - my favourite Dodger in the system, third baseman, Andy LaRoche, just got called up before this afternoon's game in Atlanta. How about that!

I have nothing against Wilson Betemit - who will likely be DLed in order to slip him through the waivers to LV - but it's inconceivable to me that Andy could hit for lowe average and/or less power than Wilson did. So, barring injury, I'm looking forward to him actually keeping the job at the hot corner for the rest of the season!

(big grin)

Series 8: Dodgers vs San Francisco Giants

2007-05-04T05:45:00.000-07:00

It hurts to lose against long time arch-rivals. Getting swept is even worse. How to call getting swept at home by the Giants then? The Dodgers suffered big time, as the games were close.

Game 1 was frustration-ridden as both teams collectively stranded 37 baserunners in nine innings of play. The difference was a 5th inning 2-run HR by former Dodger Dave Roberts off Derek Lowe. The veteran RHP just can't find his groove this season. It's not that he pitches poorly on most nights, just not dominant enough to warrant his team a win. Which, given the most recent news about Jason Schmidt's arm likely shut down for the season (better not, fingers crossed!) is not what you would like to get from your ace of the staff.

And no, I'm not ready to hand this title over to Mark Hendrickson just yet ;).

Game 2 saw Dodger pitchers battle Barry Bonds with a see-saw result. First Barry belted a three-run HR in the first against LHP Randy Wolf, then he got a base hit to raise his BA to .346 at that time. The only other two times Bonds faced LA pitchers - he struck out.

Two runs were again the difference of the game, as the Dodger batter could not get anything going in the final 2 1/3 innings (just one walks with no hits).

Game 3 seems to have slipped from the Dodgers hand. They had a lead which they could not hold, behind steady but not spectacular Brad Penny (6.0 IP, 7H, 3 ER).

Dodgers series in April

2007-05-03T04:47:00.000-07:00

With April now officially in the books, it's worthwhile saying that the Dodgers have been on the winning end of most of the April series. Here's how:

Series won (6): vs Giants 3-0, vs Rockies 2-1, vs Padres 2-1, @ Diamondbacks 2-0, vs Pirates 2-1, @Padres 2-1
Series tied (1): @Rockies 1-1,
Series lost (2): @Brewers 1-2, vs Giants 0-3

Had it not been for the clean sweep from the SF Giants at the Ravine, you could almost say the month of April was spectacular (6-2-1 in the series). The early season success against last season foes from the south, the Padres, is especially worth noting (but I thought it was going to be like that as soon as the Padres got rid of the Dodger killer player, that currently plays for the Indians, I guess - hush, don't bring back even his name here ;)).

Anyway, May's schedule has some "bottom half" opponents coming up in Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Chicago Cubs and Nationals, and two showdowns at Atlanta and at Anaheim (interleague).

Keep hitting and pitching bhoyz! Start fielding, too (that was to you, Juan!)

Series 7: Dodgers vs Pittsburgh Pirates

2007-04-30T22:53:00.000-07:00

The Dodgers came home to host former manager Jim Tracy and the Pittsburgh Pirates and promptly took two out of three from the Bucs.

The first two games looked like as good a combination of great pitching (Randy Wolf, 10 SO in game 1 and Brad Penny in game 2) and timely hitting as any so far this season. While the first one was basically over by the third inning when the Dodgers put up six runs on the board, the second went right down to the wire with an amaizing bases-loaded walk-off HR by Russell Martin. At the moment Jeff Kent seems to be the hit/run machine for LA as he raised his BA to .355 after the first two Pirate games (going 5-for-7).

Game 3 of the series was not as fortunate for LA as sloppy fielding plays (three errors) ended up in a 5-7 loss. The Dodgers stranded sixteen baserunners that night, which partly explains how they ran out of outs.

First time over one thousand

2007-04-30T22:36:00.000-07:00

I just checked the website stats. Regardless of the current choke with game reports (more coming up soon), we just broke the monthly unique visits record. For the first time in its existence the Ravings from behind the plate at Chavez Ravine registered more than 1.100 visits per month!

A big thank you for all of you readers around the world! :)

While it might not seem a lot from the perspective of other (sports) blogs, it means a lot to me personally (and Matt nods his head from the Bay Area, too). Keep'em coming. Let's break the record as early as in May, huh? What do you say? :).

Thanks again, folks.

The amazing story of Chin-hui Tsao

2007-04-30T22:15:00.000-07:00

He's the mysterious and faceless out-maker. He really is.

The guy gets the nod from Grady Little more and more often lately, got a cover page story on the Dodgers MLB page with nothing but praise and what's most important to LA fans world-wide, he produces outs every single time he's out there.

And by mentioning producing outs I definitely do not mean Juan Pierre type of outs at the basepaths (OK, that was mean... ;)).

He's Chin-hui Tsao, a 26-year old, Taiwanese right-handed Dodger reliever who has so far found second life after his career-threatening arm problems which cut his stay short with the Colorado Rockies the last three years. 2007 has been like a dream for Tsao. The dream he's willing to maintain for as long as possible.

Since the day he was called up (as he did not make the opening day roster), he's been arguably the best Dodger reliever so far. Not a small task given the fact that LAD might as well lead the majors in most reliever categories. Wow.

For a close-up look at his stats, here's his game-by-game log so far:

DATE	GAME	W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	SVO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	NP-S	GO-AO
APR 18	@COL	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.1	0	0	0	0	1	2	26-16	2-0
APR 19	@COL	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.1	0	0	0	0	1	1	11-6	0-0
APR 21	PIT	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	12-7	3-0
APR 24	SF	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.1	0	0	0	0	0	0	14-11	2-2
APR 26	SF	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	1	10-7	1-1
APR 28	@SD	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.2	0	0	0	0	0	1	6-6	2-2
APR 29	@SD	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	0	0	0	2.0	0	0	0	0	0	1	15-11	1-4

Untouchable, right? And he looks that way on the mound, too. Sometimes the stats do not tell the full story. It's one of these times.

Here's what his every-day catcher has to say about the quality that Tsao brings with him to the mound:

"He's making nasty pitches," said [catcher] Russell Martin. "He's throwing strikes and going after guys and not shying away. When he needs a ground ball, he keeps his pitches down. When he needs a strikeout, he can reach back. He's got a good slider, a splitter or change-up, plus he can throw really hard."

Pretty amazing when you come to think of it. Let the dream continue into May. All we can ask for with an arm as fragile as his.

Series 6 Recap: Dodgers @ Colorado Rockies

2007-04-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

The Dodgers found enough strength to split the short two-game series on the road with the Rockies in a lop-sided fashion.

Derek Lowe struggled to find his composure in the mountains and went only 4.2 IP of hittable baseball as he eneded up with 4H and 3 ER and 3 BB (to go along with his 2 SO) in a forgettable series opener. Dodger fielding errors (by Rafael Furcal and Andre Ethier certainly did not help the pitcher's cause that day), but not to take anything away from the Colorado hitters it must be mentioned that they still left on base 18 baserunners in a convicing 7-2 win over LA. Brady Clark spelled Luis Gonzalez in LF for a day and did not disappoint going 2-for-4 with an RBI and run scored.

The climate and outcome of the game changed completely the following day, as th Dodgers scored eraly and often on a windy afternoon and won 8-1 behind the pitching of spot starter Mark Hendrickson. He replaced Jason Schmidt who was earlier DLed for precautionary reasons. Hendrickson gave LA all he got, making 76 pitches (while conditioned to relieve) in 5.2 IP of 1 run, 5 hit ball. Most of the offense was provided by a trio of Jeff Kent, Luis Gonzalez and Andre Ethier (good sign!), who collectively went 6-for-10 with 4 runs scored. 3B Wilson Betemit is still hitting below the Mendoza line (currently at .118) and is a prime candidate to be replaced in the lineup by either Wilson Valdez (on the ML roster) or Andy LaRoche (in Triple-A Vegas).

Series 5 Recap: Dodgers @ Arizona Diamondbacks

2007-04-30T21:47:00.000-07:00

This one was the first short (two-game) series of the short season and the Dodgers managed to sweep both games from the 'backs in the desert.

The first W came on the heels of another strong outing by Brad Penny (7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER) and timely hitting against Arizona SP Ed Gonzalez. The Dodgers managed to tack single runs in four of the first five innings and were never in real danger of losing the game in the late innings due to the spectacular play of their bullpen guys, Joe Beimel and Chad Billingsley (collective one hit through the final two IP).

The second game of the series was the top/heart of the order affair as Juan Pierre and Jeff Kent combined for 5-for-9 with 4 runs scored and 2 RBI. Every Dodger starter (but struggling Andre Ethier and Wilson Betemit, got at least one hit). The bullpen was again spectacular bailing out SP Brett Tomko after only 5.0 IP. Though they mae 65 pitches on the game, the bullpen limited the D'backs to measly 3 H and 1 BB through the final 4 IP. Marvellous!

Blue Man Matt missing in action

2007-04-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

Since Blue Man Matt has been obviously MIA for the last couple of series, I will do my best to quickly wrap things up for you so that you feel up to date. This should happen later today. Over and out :)

The Andy LaRoche report (part 1)

2007-04-21T01:16:00.000-07:00

Photo: Cashman Field in Las Vegas, LV aka Andy LaRoche's cubicle.

As promised, we will follow the developments in the AAA and MLB legs of the career of the 3B phenom, Andy LaRoche - my favorite Dodger all over the system (how about you, Blue Man Matt? ;)).

Andy has started the year a little bit under the weather due to the fielding mistakes that cost him a place on the Dodgers opening day roster. To date he's played in 13 games (making only 2 errors). Andy is currently hitting a paltry .259 (.317 OBP) with 3 HR and 7 RBIs. He also has two doubles and 5 walks to his credit.

Series 4 Recap: Dodgers vs. Padres

2007-04-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

Well, the Dodgers take down another series. This time, it was against the pesky Padres. Series wins were few and far between for the Dodgers over the Padres last year, with the Padres taking 13 of 18 games throughout the season.

It was definitely a psychological series for the Dodgers.

On Friday, Derek Lowe took to the hill, pitching eight strong innings. He improved to 2-1 on the year, while allowing seven hits and walking two. He struck out six.

It wasn't all smooth for Lowe though. He found himself in a bases loaded jam in the seventh. He pitched his way out of it by forcing Marcus Giles to hit a comebacker. Lowe tossed it back to Russel Martin who then threw to Nomar Garciaparra at first, completing the 1-2-3 double play.

The only run Lowe gave up was on another double play grounder by Khalil Greene.

The Dodgers helped out Lowe by striking against David Wells early. They got eight hits and five runs in the two-and-a-third innings Wells survived.

Luis Gonzalez, proving to all the critics, including myself, that he may just have enough fuel in him for another season, hit a solo homer and an RBI single off of Wells. Rafael Furcal, just reactivated off the disabled list before the game went two-for-five with two RBIs, making it look like he hadn't missed a thing.

Garciaparra had a two-run single in the fourth by reliever Mike Thomspon. This was first run the Padres bullpen had given up all year. Lowe was happy a team he was on finally did well against Wells.

"It was good to see a team that I was on finally get to him," Lowe said of Wells. "Knowing you're facing a guy like that, you've got to be on your game. Over the years, going back to the Yankees-Boston games, I wouldn't say he dominated us -- but he came close. Anytime you face a guy like that, you know that nine out of 10 times it's going to be a low-scoring game. This kind of game probably doesn't happen very often for him."

David Wells was a t a loss for words on how he wasn't able to get the Dodgers out.

"I couldn't get them out," Wells said. "It's like they knew what was coming -- whether there was a guy on second or nobody on. I don't know. I know I don't tip my pitches -- but if I do, I wish one of those guys would come forth and tell me. That would be an admirable thing to do."

Yeah, thats gonna happen. If a veteran like Wells needs the other team to point out his problems, its time to hang up the cleats and walk away from the game.

Final score: Dodgers 9, Padres 1

On Saturday, the Padres came out looking for revenge. Unfortunately for Jason Schmidt, the Padres came out swinging.

Schmidt gave up first pitch homers to Brian Giles and Kevin Kouzmanoff.

That made things easy for Jake Peavy, who is 5-0 in his last six starts against the Dodgers.

Schmidt gave up six runs, five of which were earned, on seven hits in two plus innings. He faced sixteen batters, but was only able to retire six of them.

Final score: Padres 7, Dodgers 2

On Sunday, the entire Major League Baseball remembered and honored Dodger Hall of Famer, Jack Roosevelt Robinson for his corageous breaking of the color barrier. That, though will be another post.

In Sunday's game the Dodgers struck early and often. They scored in each of the first three innings and never looked back.

Furcal, Gonzalez and Wilson Valdez each got an RBI. Valdez went three-for-five, increasing his average to .417. Russell Martin went three-for-four with two RBIs and Andre Ethier went three-for-five with four runners knocked in.

Randy Wolf helped his own cause by reaching base twice on walks. He continues to impress on the mound as well. He pitched six solid innings, giving up three runs on six hits. He struck out seven.

Final score: Dodgers 9, Padres 3

Series 3 Recap: Dodgers vs. Rockies

2007-04-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

Monday's game started on a high note-- The Dodgers Season Opener at Chavez Ravine, but ended on a low note. Jason Schmidt left the fifth with what originally looked liked a pulled hamstring and Matt Kemp came out the inning before with an injured right shoulder after running into the scoreboard attempting to make a play.

Neither of them look to be very serious, fortunately.

"It's OK. It's definitely not a hamstring pull," Schmidt said. "I just got dehydrated out there and got a little cramp in it."

"At first I thought it was worse than what it was," Kemp said. "It hurt really bad when I was walking off the field. I thought I was done. But everything will be all right."

This 6-3 loss could have been much worse.

Tuesday's game, after the Dodgers held a collective sigh of relief knowing the injuries weren't as serious as originally feared, got back to their winning ways. It should definitely be noted, that Brett Tomko was amazing on his first outing of 2007. He allowed just one hit, in six scoreless innings in his first start since June 2006.

As a regular critic of Tomko, whom I affectionately nicknamed Bombko for his tendency to Bomb out after a couple months, I feel it important to give him credit where credit is due.

I am still no where near ready to remove the monkier of Bombko from him, as his M.O. is to start strong then fade fast, and it is much too early to tell, but I am reluctantly optimistic.

The Dodgers took Tuesday's game 2-1.

Wednesday's game gave Brad Penny another chance to dominate the Rockies, beating them for the sixth consecutive time dating back to last season. In a show of his off-season weight loss he showed a new flash of athleticism, making a brilliant diving catch.

Penny started the game out slow. he retired the first batter he faced, then proceeded to give his critics some ammunition by walking the next three batters. When all appeared lost, he regained composure and struck out Matt Holliday on three straight pitches. He then retired Brad Hawpe on a fielders choice to third, getting out of the inning without giving up a run. It took him 24 pitches, but he made it.

Rockies pitcher, Jason Hirsch, who grew up in nearby Burbank and grew up a Dodgers fan, didn't go very well for him. Although he denies it, his head wasn't in the game-- his first start at the hallowed Chavez Ravine.

"It was everything it was cracked up to be," Hirsh said. "It was a thrill of a lifetime to be out there. I had a lot of family and friends here, screaming and hollering. It was enjoyable. I mean, obviously it was not the outcome I wanted, but it wasn't bad."

The fourth inning was especially horrendous for Hirsch. Russell Martin and Juan Pierre each singled with two out. Then, while Hirsh looked like President Bush when stumped, as he absent-mindedly gazed at the catcher for a sign, Martin and Pierre exectued a brilliant double steal. He kept his foot on the rubber and never even made a throw. Even Rockies catcher, Chris Ianetta jumping out of his crouch and pointing towards second base didn't take Hirsh out of his Bushism.

"That was the first time a runner had gotten to second base, so I really didn't even think about it," Hirsh said. " Chris told me to step off, and I thought maybe a beach ball had fallen onto the field because that's happened many times since we've been here. The next thing I know, both guys had moved. I wouldn't say I was rattled, but I was definitely surprised by it."

Nomar Garciaparra lined the next pitch to left field for a two-run single.

Before Hirsch could even make another pitch, he balked Nomar to second. Jeff Kent then singled home Garciaparra and the Dodgers took a 3-0 lead, in which they never looked back.

At the end of the series, the Dodgers remain just 1/2 game out of first place.

Penny and Tomko deja vu?

2007-04-11T06:41:00.000-07:00

Is it April 2006 or 2007?

You wouldn't know that judging by the early-season performance of two Dodger starting pitchers Brad Penny and Brett Tomko. The former is 1-0 after his start with 1.29 ERA in 7.0 IP with 1 SO and 1 BB. The latter, after last night's gem against the Rockies at the Ravine, opens the season up at 0.00 ERA after 6.0 IP with amazing 9 SO and 3 BB.

Early days, but the PROMISE is there. As much as there was last year where Penny and Tomko opened their respective seasons very strong (remember that Penny actually starter the ASG? That's how good he was in the first half of 2006!). If my memory serves me right their collective W-L record at some point in time was about 15-5 or something. Than the promise started fading away...

This is why these two Dodger pitchers, unlike perhaps any other starter or reliever wearing blue this season, have to focus on the PREMISE. It will be crucial to their overall success this season if they can maintain the momentum past the first two months. First checkpoint for Penny is tonight against the Rockies. He was something like 6-0 last season against them. Can he continue like this in 2007?

Series 2 @ San Francisco Giants: Sweeeeeeeeeep!

2007-04-09T17:05:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentleman, as you may recall a few days ago, I predicted the Dodgers would sweep and they did just that.

Friday night's game was beautiful, with Brad Penny looking good; even better than last year. He seems to be more of a pitcher, rather than just the thrower he used to be in the past. He had some more finesse on his pitches. It was worrisome, just a little, that he seemed to give up quite a bit of hits, but he did well nonetheless.

Russell Martin is fast approaching the top echelons of current MLB catchers. He threw out two runners and made what turned out to be the game saving block of home plate that would have made Mike Scoscia proud had he not been too busy trying to deflate the possibile cheating situation he had with K-Rod.

That being said, props are due to Luis Gonzalez for his great throw from deep LF to start the throw out at home. Nomar Garciaparra, Matt Kemp and Gonzo each hit safely twice.

In Saturday's game, Derek Lowe bounced back from his bad outing on opening day and notched his first win of the season and Jeff Kent hit the go ahead RBI double in the fifth for the Dodgers.

And Sunday's game-- What a beauty!!!

Randy Wolf looked like he was about through in the first and second innings, but he adjusted and came back stronger than ever. The Dodgers beat the gnats for the eighth consecutive time, dating back to last season. All eight victories have been in SF. What made this game so great was the fact that we beat the $126M man. No, we embarassed him and the Giants organization for signing him.

Gonzalez became the most successful visiting home run hitter at Steroid Boy Central Park, hitting his sixth and seventh homers of his career on Sunday. Kemp had three hits with two RBIs and scored twice while Kent, amongst booing, jealous gnats fans, scored three runs.

It was great to be at all three games live, but more of that to come.

Recap:

Friday: Dodgers 2, Giants 1
Saturday: Dodgers 4, Giants 1
Sunday: Dodgers 10, Giants 4

We finish the road trip 4-2 and sit just a half game out of first place. Colorado is coming to town for our opening season at Blue Heaven on Earth.

Going up against their ace will be a challenge, but taking two of three should be pretty realistic.

James Loney Shout Out

2007-04-07T01:29:00.000-07:00

It is completely bullshit that the Dodgers couldn't find a place for James Loney on the roster. As much as I love Nomar, I would much rather see J-Lo at first.

Now, before all of Nomar's supporters jump me, I do not advocate releasing him or benching him.

I would much prefer to keep him in the lineup. With a gaping hole at 3B that Wilson Betemit doesn't seem able to fill, I think it makes more sense to move Nomar to third base and put Loney at first. Both their bats, coupled with Loney's defense and Nomar's defense apparently being better than that of Betemit, it would be a win-win situation.

Sometimes their thinkin amazes me.

Now Loney is unhappy, and rightly so. He is respectfully asking for a trade and as much as I want to see him don that Dodger blue one day, I think the Dodgers owe it to him.

Ned (Colletti), you have probably made the worst decision of your short GM career by sending Loney down.

Many more gaffes, and it will be time to promote Kim Ng.

Blue Man's MLB Picks

2007-04-07T01:14:00.001-07:00

Ths is number one in a series of picks, etc. I have made for the 2007 season.

American League West

1. Oakland
2. Anaheim
3. Texas
4. Seattle

American League Central

1. Cleveland
2. Detroit
3. Chicago
4. Minnesota
5. Kansas City

American League East

1. Boston
2. New York (WC)
3. Toronto
4. Tampa Bay
5. Baltimore

National League West

1. Dodgers
2. San Diego
3. Arizona
4. Colorado
5. San Francisco

National League Central

1. Chicago
2. Houston (WC)
3. Milwaukee
4. St. Louis
5. Pittsburgh
6. Cinncinatti

National League East

1. Philadelphia
2. Florida
3. New Yok
4. Atlanta
5. Washington

ALDS: Boston over Oakland
Cleveland over New York

NLDS: Dodgers over Chicago
Philadelphia over Houston

ALCS: Boston over Cleveland

NLCS: Dodgers over Philadelphia

World Series: Dodgers over Boston

Series One Dodgers at Milwaukee (1-2)

2007-04-07T01:02:00.000-07:00

Well, this sure wasn't a good startfor the Dodgers. It was understandable to lose to Ben Sheets, but the Dodgers should have won the second game.

Derek Lowe had an uncharacteristically poor showing in Milwaukee and the Dodgers' offense seemed to still be in Vero Beach, on vacation.

Randy Wolf looked rather good for being such a risk when signing. I was a little concerned that he was left in to bat, but him getting walked made that point moot.

In the finale, Jason Schmidt looked decent in getting the win, with continued shaky bullpen that held onto the win.

It was a beautiful win, especially for mysef. Being a Bay area resident, I am forced to live with tons of gnats fans as neighbors. It sure was great to see Schmidt get a "W" before the San Francisco Gnats won a game as a team.

We look forward to a weekend road series against the hated and over rated San Francisco gnats. Anything less than a sweep of the lowly gnats will be a disappointment. We need to send those bottom dwellers deep into the basement where they belong.

I will be at all three games, with my hair and face painted blue. If any of my fellow Dodger fans see me, give a shot out. On Easter, keep an eye out on the pissy smelling streets of San Francisco (Moises Alou must have left his mark before bailing out of that hell hole) for the Dodger mobile. An emphasis wll be on the downtown area near Steroid Boy Central Park and North Beach.

Take Me Out To The Ballpark...

2007-04-05T17:06:00.000-07:00

This has been an extremely long six months. A six months where I have tried everything to get out some form of sports into my brain. I ended up joining several March Madness Pools, but having never watched a NCAA hoops game in whole, it just wasn't the same.

But, alas, the Dodgers season has once again begun!

We have what shows to be a solid team, especially the starting rotation. In the coming days, I will share with all of you my season picks for each division, post season and a few surprises.

The only big difference this year, as Marcin has pointed out is that we will be doing series recaps, rather than individual updates.

My plans this baseball season is to catch games in San Francisco (all of them), San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, Chicago and Pittsburgh. So, if any of you readers are there, look for the guy decked out Dodger style. Hair dyed blue, face painted blue (or blue and white) and if I can get my Dodger flag back from my neighbor who is a gnats fan, you should see my flag waving proud.

Series wrap-up reports coming up!

2007-04-05T04:17:00.000-07:00

We have agreed with our major newscaster - Blue Man Matt - that this season he will be doing *series* wrap-up reports (rather than individual games). The first one, from the Milwaukee Brewers series (lost 1-2), should be hitting the net later today.

We might be able to use the good-bad-ugly format to bring you our perspective on how the Dodger pitching/hitting/fielding and intangibles fared in a given series.

All that while looking ahead to a weekend road series at arch-rival San Francisco Giants.

In the meantime, here's a sneak peak at the current NL West standings:

San Diego	2	0	1.000	-
Colorado	2	1	.667	0.5
Arizona	1	2	.333	1.5
LA Dodgers	1	2	.333	1.5
San Francisco	0	2	.000	2.0

In the battle of "if"s, if the Giants could take the final game away from the Padres tonight, it would help the Dodgers climb up the standings after the weekend series in SF is over. I just can't imagine LA being swept clean there :).

Welcome to the world, the Garciaparra girls

2007-03-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

As reported by the Dodgers PR-man, Josh Rawitsch, Mia Hamm, Nomar Garciaparra's wife, has just given birth to twin girls! Congratulations to the whole family!

Bigbie, Loney or Valdez?

2007-03-28T03:15:00.000-07:00

Out of the three reserve players listed above (although I hate to call James Loney that...), which one would you put on the Opening Day roster, considering that:

1. With the acquistion of Brady Clark, a right-handed OF bat off the bench, and Juan Pierre's propensity to play every day, Larry Bigbie might be a long shot, even if one were to account for Jason Repko's season ending injury. I would like to see Bigbie make the roster more than Clark, however, it would mean all our potential pinch-hitter are lef-handed. Not good...

Having said that, I'm not even sure Clark will hit anything, at 34 yo, from the *right* side of the plate...

2. Loney has nothing to prove in Triple-A Vegas, where he tore the league up last year. However, he's the only one of the three with minor league options left, so moving him to Nevada does not mean losing him. Loney is also blocked at his two potential positions by veterans (Nomar Garciaparra at 1B, and Luis Gonzalez at LF).

3. Wilson Valdez (SS/2B) is a utility infielder with potentially less power than Ramon Martinez (who will most probably make the roster as UT/IF). With the repercussions of the injury to Rafael Furcal, though, Valdez has shown during the spring training, that he could at least hit for average, get on base and steal. He's out of minor league options, so basically, if he does not make the roster, he's free to find another club.

Which one would you put on the roster April 1, Dodger Nation and why? :)

Joe Mays stays, will open the season in Las Vegas

2007-03-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

In what seems to me a very smart move, the Dodgers retain the rights to former starter Joe Mays, and send him to Las Vegas 51's where he will start ballgames. In another smart move, Joe accepts the assignment to Triple-A (much like Aaron Sele did last March) in hopes he could be called back as soon as any of the fifth starter combo (Brett Tomko / Mark Hendrickson) gets injured or ineffective.

In a perfect world I would have Mays compete with Chad Billingsley for the fifth spot right away, but well - things are far from perfect in this world, and I'm too far from LA, anyway.

One way or another, Mays will should have a chance to resurrect his career within the Dodger organization.

Last at bat brings a "W" over Tribe

2007-03-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

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.

Bigbie bound to make the roster

2007-03-24T12:59:00.000-07:00

Spare corner outfielder Larry Bigbie's good spring at the plate and the recent injury to Jason Repko, which will keep him away from the field for months, have virtually guaranteed the former an Opening Day roster spot.

Bigbie is currently batting .383 for the spring, with 2 HRs and 13 RBIs and should make an ideal fourth outfielder (when you get past Gonzo, Juan Pierre and Andre Ethier, from left to right). Given their current production and big-league experience, I'd also take him in front of Matt Kemp for the time being (let alone Marlon Anderson).

Spelling Gonzo every fourth game in LF and occasional pinch-hitting duties are in store for Mr. Bigbie at least until Kemp breaks out and/or Repko comes back.

PS. In the photo on the left, doesn't Larry look like a lost buddy of Matt LeBlanc from his "Friends" days?

Knuckle curve

2007-03-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

I have just come across a general baseball site called Knuckle Curve. Interesting - especially the stat comparison parts. The person behind this blog, Geoff Young, might be a Padres fan - but his writing has caught my eye well enough to put the Dodgers-Padres rivalry aside when I read his blog.

Photos from Dodgertown

2007-03-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

Ernest Reyes, over at Dodgers Blue Heaven has published some amazing Dodger spring training photos. If you haven't seen them recently, it definitely worth having a prolonged look.

Who's playing themselves off the Opening Day roster

2007-03-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

Grady Little said in an interview there were virtually no guarantees as to the pitching spots and the managers will pick the best team with the chance to win for the Opening Day roster.

Out of the current players with the big league club, the following, to me, are playing themselves off the Apirl 1 roster (in the order of least probability to stick around):

1. Hong-Chi Kuo - mostly due to shoulder trouble, wildness and inability to relief effectively
2. Elmer Dessens - just too many long-relief candidates better suited than himself to that role (Mays, Mark Hendrickson) or simply younger and more promising in the long run (Chad Billingsley)
3. Joe Mays - there must have been one more demotion / release / injury apart from Kuo and Dessens for him to make the roster.

In the struggle for the incumbent fifth starter position, I think Brett Tomko has just got a tad of a lead over Hendrickson. Even though, purely because Billingsley was tentatively moved to the bullpen for the start of the season.

Had it been up to me, the Dodgers starting rotation now would be: Derek Lowe, Jason Schmidt, Billingsley, Brad Penny, Randy Wolf. Period. No Hand-riggs, no Bombko. Period. But that's just me...

X-rays negative. It's a sprain...

2007-03-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

I'm hearing the Furcal ankle X-rays came out negative. Seems like an ankle sprain and things might have been a lot lot worse.

It's still unclear how much time Furcal might be out...

Update: from Tony Jackson of Daily News:

"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."

Uh-oh, Furcal's down with ankle injury

2007-03-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

Bad news, Blue Nation: Raffy Furcal has gone with apparently seriously ankle injury after a collision in shallow center field with Jason Repko. It happened during the first inning of today's game against the Baltimore Orioles.

More news coming up as it becomes available...

PS. Should it be serious to warrant considerable time off the field, the Juan Pierre acquisition would look much better.

Photos from my visit to Fenway Park

2007-03-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago I mentioned how Boston Red Sox' Fenway Park was the second most important baseball stadium to me. Just after Chavez Ravine, obviously :).

While I did visit the Dodger Stadium for an LA-Philly game last June, last week I had a privilege of visiting the Fenway Park in Boston, MA. The stadium is being overhauled for the new season, so the guided tour meandered through the construction site, in between the steel, wood and nails, so to say.

Please enjoy some of the photos I have taken:

Above: my first-ever glimpse at Fenway from the outside (just left off the Shell gas station) at the corner of Boylston (sp?) street and some other lane.

Getting closer and closer :)

The entrance to the ticket box at Yawkey Way.

Above: the look outside of the the Red Sox commentators' booth. This is where Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy actually broadcast from.

The Red Sox will have a two-feet narrower warning track this year as they move the line of grass closer to the outfield walls.

The monster with the recently added left-field seats on top of it.

Tamara - our very knowledgeable tour guide.

Time for trivia question: any idea why there is one distinctively red seat among green ones in right field? (I know the answer thanks to Tamara ;)).

I guess one ends up with a crazy face like this when one tries to make a photo of himself with the stadium as a backdrop, rather than asking other polite people on the guided tour to shoot one for him :).

PS. Got some more of these pics, just did not want to bore you to death with NDC [non-Dodger content]. Let me know, if you're ready for a second helping.

Parting shot(s) with Andy LaRoche

2007-03-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

Andy LaRoche will be back on the roster. With the Dodgers. Perhaps even later this year.

For the time being though, his defensive mistakes seem to have cost him a place on the opening day roster...

The power is there already:

"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.

Let me make it official. With Franquelis Osoria gone from the Dodgers, Andy LaRoche takes over as the main event on the "TALRW": The Andy LaRoche Watch"!

Billingsley to the bullpen, Abreu - first positional callup?

2007-03-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

There are some interesting development today regarding the initial roster positioning. Mind you, it's only 14 March.

Namely, we have learned that Chad Billingsley will start the season pitching out of the bullpen.
This is not as bad news to the young pitcher as it would seem to be. Remember, last season when he was almost as highly touted (but unproven), after a more than decent spring training, he still started the season in the minors. This time, he gets a chance to stick around in the form of No1 long-man (spot starter).

"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! :)

Thirdly, Hong-Chi Kuo will most probably start in the minors to get his control issues out of the way and fight to regain his chance at becoming an efficient starter for the Dodgers during the season. Eric Stultz will join him in the Las Vegas 51's rotation. Hence the incumbent No.5 starting role will go to Brett "Bobmko" Tomko. But both Kuo and either of the Dessens/Mays pair will be watching his performance very closely.

In short (as of today):

Rotation: Schmidt, Lowe, Wolf, Penny, Tomko
Relief: Billingsley, Hendrickson, Mays/Dessens/new lefty, Beimel, Broxton, Saito
Released/traded: Mays/Dessens
Minors: Kuo, Stults, Tsao, Hamulack, Brazoban (when back from IR) + plus the prospects

Now, on a totally different (non-pitching note): the play of 2B Tony Abreu is making heads turn. Heir apparent to Jeff Kent? Perhaps even later this season? More to come.

Hats off to Fenway Park!

2007-03-12T12:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had a privilege to attend a 1-hour guided tour at Fenway Park in Boston! Those who know me will be aware of the fact that the Red Sox are my second most favorite team, so that was ALMOST as big for me as my visit to a Dodgers-Philly game last June at Chavez Ravine.

I had a great time walking around Fenway, which is currently well under construction in terms of the outfield grass line being moved closer to the Wall/walls/stands (the warning track will be 2-3 feet narrower). They are also refurbishing press rooms to accomodate the influx of the Japanese media (we were allowed to enter the Remy broadcast booth) and totally moving the opposing batting practise area. It used to be in a shabby and secluded place in the rough viscinity of center field. They are moving it now to the location where the opposing batters would actually be seen from the inside of the "Game On" restaurant (with a one-way see-through window between the batting area and the restaurant sitting area. That seems like a great idea from the fans' standpoint!). In general the place looked as if it was January 11, not March 11, but we were told the crews are working 24/7 and should get everyting in order in time for the season opener.

Anyway, I took a lot of pictures and will probably put them up here when I'm back. I bought my black coffee mug and an MLB baseball. Just wanted to share my joy with you as I know you will be happy for me :).

PS. Now, the prices of parking around Fenway - that's another story (we've been discussing that on one of the Dodger yahoo groups lately). As far as I have learned it's 30 USD per car on an official Red Sox parking lot (though the club encourages the use of "green T" subway that takes you right next to the ballpark). There are privately operated parking lots everywhere around the stadium, which have the following price structure: "weekdays - 10 USD, weekends - 20 USD, Fenway events [look out!] - 35 USD".

If I was a Bostonian and followed the Red Sox AND had lots of money to spare, I would have bought a condo in the apartment building just the opposite of Boylston Str. (where Yawkey Way merges into Jersey Str.). They are well within walking distance and you save 81 x 35 USD per season, which makes it up to 2835 USD per year ;). Just enough to buy 7 (seven) right field pavilion packages with a table for four and 25-dollar per capita worth of food :).

How about Joe Mays?

2007-03-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

One pitcher that gets a bit overlooked this spring in the starters-relievers dilemma is former Twin starter RHP Joe Mays. He's 32 yo now and has been quite dependable this spring.

In fact, he's just gone 3 IP of one-hit no-run ball in the game against the Orioles that the Dodgers won 4-2. He got seven ground out and struck out the other two batters. He's pre-season ERA is 2.57 as of today.

How do you think the pitching situation will play out for him? Can he make the opening day roster?

James Loney's crystall ball future

2007-03-11T04:17:00.000-07:00

This crystal ball feature is thanks to Dem Bums Dodgers blog, a great find! Please check out the comments section as well for some insight.

About the only thing I do not agree with is the second part of Loney's career... with the Astros? We should be able to keep guys like James, shouldn't we? :)

Same time last year

2007-03-11T00:22:00.000-08:00

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?

LaRoche tried out at LF

2007-03-09T11:04:00.000-08:00

Dodgers MLB website has a good article about Andy LaRoche being tried out in LF.


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?

The Poise of LaRoche

2007-03-06T19:47:00.000-08:00

Andy LaRoche, that is. See how team-oriented he is? Check out this little tibdit, pointed out to me at Dodger Thoughts:

"
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.

Saito's watching too much TV

2007-03-05T20:33:00.000-08:00

In a December interview with Grady Little made during the winter meetings (I just happened to stumble into it via Red Sox usenet group), an otherwise lackadaisical (sp?) Grady Little has this to say about our closer:


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? ;)

JD Drew rational for opting out

2007-03-05T20:22:00.000-08:00

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?

Sweet top of the ninth (Dodgers - Mets 5:2)

2007-03-03T13:16:00.000-08:00

I just finished stat watching at mlb.com (my mlb.tv season package will get activated later on in March).

What a great game it must have been: no score through five and a half, than very close (2-1 Mets) until the top of the ninth when the Dodgers exploded for four unanswered runs.

Larry Bigbie has certainly been making a case for himself this spring so far: two more RBI (seven in three games) with no strike-outs. My favourite young Dodger, Andy LaRoche was not far behind him as he went 2-for-3 with a walk and run scored! As sound defensively as he is touted to be I was surprised he has not shaken off pre-season rust yet with two fielding errors (which did not lead to runs scored).

Very solid outing from our pitching, despite the number of walks they issued (8 in the game), they managed to get most (all?) of them back by stranding 12 Met runners on base. Mets were sporting their above average lineup with Reyes, Delgado, Green, LoDuca, Beltran and Wright.

The Dodgers are 2-1 on the pre-season and Andy LaRoche is batting .429. Life could not be sweeter in cloudy and rainy Poland :).

First farewell article to Dodgertown

2007-03-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

I know it's early, as the Dodgers will only leave Dodgertown two spring trainings from now, but the dramatic piece by Peter Kerasotis rings so true:

"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.

"Achieve Your Goals Through Sports And Education"

2007-01-28T21:15:00.000-08:00

That is the motto of the new California Sports Hall of Fame.

As perhaps the most successful Californian in baseball, Tommy Lasorda has achieved many of his own goals and the goals of others.

In between leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to four National League Penants, including two World Series Championships, Mr. Lasorda has led an education drive.

From leading the education drive on how to survive from a heart attack in 1999, to high blood pressure awareness to advocating for strong educations.

I think Tommy said it best last year, while visiting Hawai'i to promote the World Baseball Classic. At a baseball camp, teaching children how to play baseball. Tommy gave a memorable speech about what it takes to make it through life.

"I tried to impress upon them these three lessons: First, never take illegal drugs. Drugs will do nothing but harm your body, they are illegal and they will lead you down the path of destruction. Second, make sure to get a good education, which is something that they will have forever. An education will open many more doors of opportunity than baseball ever will. Third, always show their parents nothing but love and respect."

Sounds like a class act that has been inducted into the California Sports Hall of Fame. Maybe that is why the Louisiana Italian-American Hall of Fame inducted him in 1986, the National Italian American Hall of Fame inducted him in 1989, followed by Montgomery County Coaches Hall of Fame's induction in 2002, the South Atlantic League Hall of Fame in 2001, the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Canadien Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. This all on top of his prestigious induction into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997.

Congrats Tommy!

Matt Kemp Showing Just How Good He Can Be...

2007-01-28T20:59:00.000-08:00

In wrapping up his winter league playing time in the Dominican Winter League championship series, Matt Kemp singled in the go-ahead run in the ninth inning of the third game in this best of seven championship series. His single brought his team, the Tigres del Licey their first win against the Aguilas Cibaenas, whom they trail two games to one. Licey won the game, 3-2.

On Monday, Kemp drove in both of Licey's runs in a one sided, 7-2 loss. The young Dodger prospect has been one of the better, more consistent batters in the Dominican Republic this winter. He batted .265 with 12 runs batted in in his 19 playoff games.

This is definitely a pleasant showing after Kemp had such a slow start to this year's winter leagues and faded fast last season. Hopefully he has fixed his mechanics and can be a contributor in the near future.

New deal for Hendrickson

2007-01-17T07:37:00.000-08:00

I wonder how you feel about the brand new deal that Mark Hendrickson has just gotten from the Dodgers.

My first impression was that I hated it. Boy, I hated keeping him on the roster altogether in the first place. I really did, especially that the Dodgers already have a long-relief specialist in either Brett Tomko, RHP or Hong-Chi Kuo, LHP, who will most likely be this season rotation's odd man out.

And then I started thinking about it. While it's true that:

"Hendrickson received a raise [to 2.925 USD] from a 2006 salary of $1.95 million",

which is hardly justified, given his overall level of play for the Dodgers last year (notwithstanding his last month in relief and the play-offs), the deal is NOT outrageous by any means. Just look what other ML relievers with not much better numbers last year got in the free agent market this offseason.

At this price, I might want him (as if I had anything to say) to stick to his new-found gimmicks and pitch out of the bullpen, though. Mark sees his role outherwise, unfortunately:

"The way my situation unfolded last year and the fact they've signed some veterans to help the staff, I know there's a surplus of starters. But I'm confident I can win a spot in the rotation. I've always been a starter and I'm approaching the spring like I'm going to start. At the end of last year, I felt I could have done more, but my role was limited to short stints."

He might have "always" been a starter on a poor Tampa Bay team, but I just don't see him beating out on the likes of LHP Randy Wolf or RHP Brad Penny this year. Unless, Hendrickson knows something we don't and there's a imminent deal that would rid us of one starter (Penny?)

We'll see, but my take is we've gotten ourselves a serviceable, though hardly spectacular reliever who will be hard pressed to repeat his last year bullpen numbers, but who has no right to belong to the starters, even if he bounced back from horrendous numbers as a starter last year. Overall, a very limited role, 'cause should a starter go down, Kuo and Tomko would be the guys I'd go to before I call Hendrickson's number.

But that's me. And what do you think?

Blue Man Matt, do you copy?

2007-01-17T07:35:00.000-08:00

Matt, my fellow-Dodger poster, I can't get through to you over e-mail. Can you write back to me for us to discuss how to share our blogging duties for the upcoming season?

Looking forward to hearing from you, my friend :).

I was thinking...

2007-01-11T11:40:00.000-08:00

...about putting this blog to (eternal) rest.

Time constrains on topics much more important than baseball (like international missions) lead me to believe that unless somebody would like to chip in with editorial help, I might as well close the door on the Behind the plate blog.

Well, that is unless you have other ideas.

Do you find this blog worth continuing? If so, what to focus on should I get some help from fellow Dodger bloggers?

Let me hear it from you, Dodger Nation. Thanks!

On Dodgers and Giants' rotations

2007-01-04T05:44:00.000-08:00

There still like five (?) weeks until catchers and pitchers report, but the cornerstones of the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants' rotation are already set.

This is what Dodgers starting five will most likely look like:

1. Jason Schmidt, RHP
2. Derek Lowe, RHP
3. Randy Wolf, LHP
4. Brad Penny, RHP
5. Chad Billingsley, RHP of Hong-Chih Kuo, LHP

The Giants will most likely field:

1. Barry Zito, LHP
2. Matt Morris, RHP
3. Matt Cain, RHP
4. Noah Lowry, LHP
5. Brad Hennessey, RHP

Let's see how they match up (in a scale of +3+2+1-0-1-2-3 of each other):

1. Schmidt vs Zito: -1.5 (advantage Zito)
2. Lowe vs Morris: +0.5 (advantage Lowe)
3. Wolf vs Cain: -1.0 (advantage Cain)
4. Penny vs Lowry: +1.5 (advantage Penny)
5. Billinsgley vs Hennessey: +1.5 (advantage Billingsley)

Overall, at first glance, the Dodgers should come up with a 1.0 point advantage, though most of it would come from the bottom of the rotation. And how do you see the imminent rivalry in starting pitching matchups next season?

The final installment of the Franquelis Osoria Watch

2006-12-19T00:03:00.000-08:00

You might, albeit vaguely, remember we ran a feature called the Franquelis Osoria Watch here. It focus on the major league achievements of the Dodger reliever during his relatively short stint with the big club last season.

Franquelis split the 2006 season between the Las Vegas 51's (roughly 80% of his time) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (20% in April-May). His stats in LA were not particularly notable, which in large part decided about his demotion to Vegas. In Nevada he almost quadripled the number of his outings (44) while getting the ERA down to somewhat acceptable level (4.35).

Well, this is the final installment of the Osoria Watch, folks. The Dodgers thought they could slip him through waivers in order not to put him on the 40-man roster and it turned out the Pittsburgh Pirates had Osoria in their plans. They snatched him and will, most probably, use him next season as their core reliever.

Well, it's not like we suddenly depleted the farm with this departure, but I thought Franquelis would be able to see the light of day in SoCal again. Right now, I could only hope the Dodger batters hit the daylights out of him next time we play the Pirates at Chavez.

That's life, Fran. Good luck.

Thanks for the memories, Eric

2006-12-14T04:05:00.000-08:00

It's official, Eric Gagne is no longer a Dodger. He signed a one year contract with the Texas Rangers worth 6 mln USD plus performance-based incentives.

Wow, no longer "Welcome to the jungle", when the bullpen door slams open.

And then again, when you consider how much time Gagne spent off the field while being on the Dodgers payroll in the last two years, you can't help but wonder why he turned down the apparent Colletti deal for 4 mln for a year... It's only (I know, in the baseball superstars' world), it's only two frigging million dollars, while Eric has been paid 10 mln for riding the pine at Chavez only this year!

Talk about home discount.

And no, I'm not putting this one on Boras. Gagne has his head straight and he sure knows which side his bread is buttered on, I just thought a notion of team loyalty wasn't as outworn with him as with any other free agent around these days.

Silly me.

Then again, good luck in Texas, Eric. And thanks for the memories. Just not the most recent ones.

Who will be the first to file?

2006-12-08T09:25:00.000-08:00

Recognize this man?

Correct. It's Scott Boras. Agent of, amongst others, JD Drew.

Now: read this, will you?

I'm very curious of your judgment. Will any major league team file a motion to investigate tampering charges against the Red Sox and Boras? Let me know what you think.

Luis Gonzalez signing in perspective

2006-12-08T03:32:00.000-08:00

Ned Colletti must have felt that the price for Manny Ramirez was way too high (and he was right) and kept the risk to minimum by signing Gonzalez to only one-year contract. The question is whether we needed a veteran LF in the first place? My understanding is that even though Luis is probably well over the hill, the Dodgers, suddenly without Drew and with injury-prone Garciaparra and Kent, might have been without a serious homerun-threat. So paying 7 mln for a year does not seem that bad, if that was Colletti's thinking.

It also means that Manny is now out of question.

In effect we do have a surplus of OFs with Gonzo, Pierre, Ethier, Repko, Kemp, Anderson, Werth and part-time Loney. At this point Kemp and probably Werth (when fully heallthy) start in Vegas (Jayson is a question mark anyway). Anderson is a PH/OF/IF-utility and the first four OFs rotate for a year.

Since we already have PH/INF-utilities in Saenz and Martinez, as well as Loney to play part-time 1B, what to do with Betemit, since he can no longer be a part of the package for a "Manny-type"? Will he bring a quality LHP reliever we seem to lack? What if we package Toby Hall with him? I would not like us to trade Betemit, but it seems he should bring more quality back than any combination of Martinez/Robles/Werth/Hendrickson/Tomko...

My first impression after the recent signings is that we now have excess of starting pitching, which is always good (especially if we could move Hendrickson and/or Tomko and keep Dessens as the long man/spot starter). On the other hand - we do have also excess in OF/INF department. Even if we assume that Kemp, Werth and Robles start in Vegas, there's more than 12 players on the roster fighting for those 12 spots...

What do you think the current situation will play itself out like?

Four new Dodgers

2006-12-07T02:47:00.000-08:00

The current offseason has been good to the Dodgers. They managed to acquire key pieces of the starting rotation in Jason Schmidt (3 yrs for 47 mln) and Randy Wolf (1 yr at 8 mln with a club option). This bolsters the rotation which lost free agents Greg Maddux and Aaron Sele to the degree where the Dodgers can negotiate with other clubs from a position of seller strength.

As of now the group of potential starting pitchers consists of Schmidt, Wolf, Derek Lowe, Brad Penny, Chad Billingsley and Hong-Chih Kuo, with long relievers Brett Tomko and Mark Hendrickson also in the mix. It's interesting who the Dodgers will trade in order to get another key piece of the offense. As of now Brad Penny seems to be able to bring the most back.

The other two new Dodgers are CF Juan Pierre and LF Luis Gonzalez. I'm less excited about them as they seem to block the lineup places for many of the up-and-coming youngsters (Matt Kemp, James Loney, destined to play at least some OF next year, and Andre Ethier).

GM Ned Colletti has kept his cards close to his chest and declined to trade the future. I hope he continues to do that, even if it means the Dodgers are not to expect any more moves.

Thoughts on getting Manny

2006-12-01T05:57:00.000-08:00

I'm really excited about a possibility of the Dodgers acquiring Manny. I really am.

If we could get Manny Ramirez from the Red Sox without losing anyone from the Broxton-Kuo-Billingsley-Loney group (I'm willing to part with either Ethier or Kemp, but not both), we would finally land a bona fide slugger who can both hit for power and not lead the league in strike outs (like Carlos Lee or Adam Dunn-types) ;).

An outfield of Ramirez-Pierre-Repko/Loney (with Kemp moving in into RF in 2008, when Loney takes over 1B and Nomar becomes a subersub) would have the right mix of speed and hitting ability. About the only disadvantage would be below average fielding in LF/CF.

Do you think the Red Sox (depleted and/or disillusioned in their starting pitching department) can settle for a Penny + Betemit + Ethier package? Can, as someone mentioned, a first round pick resulting from NOT offering Lugo arbitration (when he should turn around and sign with the Red Sox) be part of the "informal" package.

I am so much looking forward to how the whole thing plays out :).

My (brief) take on the latest Dodger acquisitions

2006-11-29T06:44:00.000-08:00

I admit I have been living in another world as of late, but I did not fail to notice the two newest members of the Dodger World, the centerfielder Juan Pierre and the lefty starter Randy Wolf.

I have mixed feelings leaning to "I don't like it" towards Pierre. I just don't see how a five-year deal at 9 mln per could be given to a player that will eventually block the development of the likes of Either, Repko and Kemp and if it came to it - Loney. Why don't just go with the youth movement in the outfield coupled with Marlon Anderson as utility OF and Jayson Werth (if he ever comes back)? I know Pierre is a speedster, but Repko has also been very decent in terms of base running and getting on base when he batted second (behind Furcal) last year.

On the other hand - I like the signing of Wolf to a one-year ca 8 mln contract with a club option. The Dodgers have nothing to lose with him and Wolf makes two pitchers (Mark Hendrickson and Greg Maddux) expendable, which really helps us save money for other (bullpen?) purposes. With Kuo and Wolf in the starting rotation, the Dodgers will have two southpaws next year as opposed to mostly none throughout this past season.

In the scale from zero to five, I would rate the Pierre signing as 2 while the Wolf - 4.

Dodger transactions...

2006-11-08T20:27:00.000-08:00

Dodgers sign INF Ramon Martinez to a one year contract with a club option.

Promoted Logan White to assistant general manager- scouting.

Promoted Vance Lovelace to special assistant to the general manager.

Named Toney Howell special assistant to the general manager; Tim Hallgren director-amateur scouting; Chris Haydock assistant director-player development; Ellen Harrigan assistant director-Baseball administration; Luchy Guerra assistant director-international player development; Bill McLaughlin manager-scouting; Jane Cabobianco manager-scouting and administrative travel; Adriana Urzua coordinator-minor league administration.

Blue Man's Top 50 Free Agents & Predictions

2006-11-04T14:51:00.000-08:00

1. Daisuke Matsuzaka - Yankees. Unlimited bankroll will obviously give the advantage to the Yankees. Coupled with thier need for a frontline starter, they will be willing to gamble.

2. Alfonso Soriano - Phillies. Philadelphia seems intent on spending some big bucks to acquire another superstar that strikes out a lot. They are taking a gamble that his home runs make up for the Ks.

3. Aramis Ramirez - Dodgers. The Dodgers are looking for a power hitter and as a third baseman, Ramirez would fit with the Dodgers nicely.

4. Barry Zito - Dodgers. The Dodgers' announcement that they would not negotiate for Daisuke Matsuzaka only increases the liklihood of signing Zito. The Mets, Yankees and Red Sox will try to get him, but he seems to prefer to play on the West Coast.

5. Jason Schmidt- Red Sox. Jason Schmidt has shown that he isn't he is all hyped up to be. Don't get me wrong. When he is on, he is one of the best pitchers in the league. But it seems the past couple of years he has been off at least as much as when he is on. That being said, the red Sox are in dire need of pitching.

6. Roger Clemens- Retire. He proved once again that he can still pitch-- if he starts in June. With steroids accusations surfacing, this seems like an appropriate time to call it quits. If for some reason he decides to stick it out, I think it will be with Houston.

7. Carlos Lee - Astros. Almost seems like a foregone conclusion. Lee already lives on Drayton McLane's ranch in the spare bedroom or something like that so it seems appropriate.

8. Gary Mathews, Jr.- White Sox. After a career year, he is generating tons of interest. Although a bit older than most clubs would hope for, he will still play a fine center field and a good enough offense to warrant hois signing.

9. Barry Bonds - Orioles. Any team that is brave/foolish enough to have already announced their interest in a steroid using, aging ball player must be very serious. It will help bring in fans and possibly compete for a bit longer in the tough AL East.

10. Frank Thomas- A's. Reports are already surfacing that a deal is imminent. After his MVP-calibre season, the A's would be foolish to let him go.

11. Jim Edmonds- Cardinals. After his redeeming postseason, he has earned a new contract with the Cards.

12. Jose Guillen - Pirates. Not too many teams are in need of a right fielder, but the Pirates could shift Nady to 1B to make room for Guillen. Because he lost 2006 to injury, Guillen could come pretty cheap.

13. Tom Glavine - Mets. A deal seems rather likely, as the Mets can't afford to lose another pitcher now that it seems Pedro Martinez will miss at least the first half of 2007-- if he even comes back at all.

14. Vicente Padilla - Mets. Omar Minaya seems to feel as if he has to make big-name additions, and in a depleted rotation, this is the biggest that will come.

15. Ray Durham - Giants. The Giants should have a lot of free cash after declining to sign Barry Bonds and Jason Schmidt, and with Durham coming off his best year yet, it makes sense to keep him around. It is a much better choice than Kevin Frandsen.

16. Akinori Iwamura - Indians. The Phillies and Padres will be after him as well, but I think the Indians will prevail, in signing Iwamura. He is versatile and can play either side of the diamond.

17. Greg Maddux - Dodgers. Maddux has already said that he prefers to come back to Los Angeles, and he was excellent in his 73 innings as a Dodger, nearly throwing a couple of no hitters. But, more importantly, the Dodgers need him to help mentor their young arms.

18. Mike Mussina - Yankees. He doesn't seem very interested playing elsewhere.

19. Andy Pettite - Astros. He is in a similar situation as Clemens. Either retire, or play another year with the Astros. I don;t see him fielding any other offers from other teams.

20. Gil Meche- Blue Jays. Seems to be really the only FA pitcher the Jays have a chance to acquire. He is one of the top mid-rotation guys available and would fit nicely in Toronto.

21. Julio Lugo - Red Sox. The Red Sox tried to trade for him this summer and I think they'll snag him this winter. With his adamant desire to play shortstop, that leaves the Red Sox as the only viable option, in my opinion.

22. Kei Igawa- Dodgers. This would be a nice supplement to any ny team for not getting Matsuzaka. Because of all of Matsuzaka's hype, Igawa seems to have been overlooked considerably.

23. Moises Alou - Giants. A player who rubs urine on his own hands is a fitting player for the town that smells like urine.

24. Adam Kennedy - Cardinals. Kennedy could be one of the left-handed bats the Cards need. And the Angels no longer need him now that Howie Kendrick ready.

25. David Dellucci - Cardinals. An affordable, professional, left-handed hitter to play left field. Dellucci could also lead off if need be.

26. Ted Lilly - Giants. Lilly wants to return to the Bay Area, but the A's won't have him. Which means he will probably get stuck in San Francisco.

27. Jeff Weaver - Cardinals. The Cards obviously need a couple of starters. Weaver has had success under Dave Duncan after his career appeared over while pitching for the Angels. Even with the World Series heroics and Scott Boras he could be a mild bargain.

28. Jeff Suppan - Orioles. Jeff Suppan is probably going to be one of the worst signings this offseason. Someone will give him a multi-year deal, and I can see the Orioles making such an awful move.

29. Luis Gonzalez - Giants. He's old and the Giants seem to love that in a player. Todd Linden may be worth a shot in right but the Giants need some kind of stability in left.

30. Nomar Garciaparra - Angels. Even with a possible Miguel Tejada acquisition, Nomar can come in and play some first base or DH. He'd have some name value as an acquisition for the Halos.

31. Frank Catalanotto - Rangers. Not only is he a former Ranger, but they tried to trade for him this summer.

32. Dave Roberts - Rockies. The Rockies are going to find a center fielder one way or another. Roberts looks like that guy. He's a helpful player but may have a hard time playing above average CF defense and staying healthy.

33. Woody Williams - Astros. Williams has been rumored a future Astro for some time, and it seems like an approproate time for those rumors to come true.

34. Trot Nixon - Phillies. This signing might hinge on a Burrell trade, but I can see Nixon in Philly.

35. Kenny Lofton - Rangers. Someone has to fill the void in center when Matthews tests the market and finds something better. Much better.

36. Adam Eaton - Mariners. Usually signing hometown guys just because they are hometown guys doesn't make much sense, but in this case it seems to.

37. Randy Wolf - Rangers. It'll be a somewhat risky signing, but the Rangers need some starters. Unless they plan to trade Young or Teixeira, this seems the most logical.I

38. Mark Mulder - A's. Mulder still has friends on the A's and could be a bargain for Billy Beane on an incentive-laden deal. The Orioles have been mentioned as well, but are probably the third choice after the A's and Cards.

39. Kerry Wood - Mets. With questions in their rotation, he may be worth the gamble to Minaya.

40. Eric Gagne - Dodgers. Gagne seems like he truly wants to stay in Los Angeles and if a team is going to give him an incentive laden contract, it may as well be the Dodgers.

41. Rich Aurilia - Cubs. He'd be a fine fit as the Cubs' second baseman for a year, even with Freddy Bynum, Ronny Cedeno and Ryan Theriot there.

42. Mark DeRosa - Phillies. There have definitely been some whispers that former UPenn player DeRosa might jump to Philly if they offer him a starting job. How about third base?

43. Joe Borowski - Giants. There aren't a lot of decent closers out there. The Giants are in dire need of bull pen help. He's one guy who could slide into middle relief without a tantrum if Armando Benitez actually shows something.

44. Aubrey Huff - Padres. Although some think the team could try Russell Branyan as the starting 3B, I think Kevin Towers will go after some kind of "name" player, with Huff as a decent option. Afterall, the Padres have quite a bit of money to burn.

45. Craig Wilson - Blue Jays. J.P. Ricciardi has liked Wilson for some time, and now he has a need for a LF or DH depending on where Adam Lind plays. I think Wilson would come out to Canada for a chance at a regular role and a team that respects his abilities.

46. Ryan Klesko - Tigers. In Klesko we have a patient left-handed slugger on the cheap who claims he's finally healthy. Why not throw him a few mil to find out? He would be a good fit in Detroit.

47. Kevin Millar - Orioles. Perhaps his second half resurgence saved him. I can't find too many other teams where Millar could be mostly a regular, so he might sign for a little less to stay another year.

48. Miguel Batista - Rockies. One of the game's best groundballers would work in the Colorado rotation. He wouldn't be spectacular, but the Rockies need a starter or two.

49. Orlando Hernandez. Blue Jays. The Blue Jays obviously want to compete in the AL East. To do so, they need an extra starter.

50. Mike Piazza. Angels. He could be a pretty decent DH for Anaheim.

What lies ahead for the Dodgers?

2006-10-18T07:09:00.000-07:00

The post-season is over and there are some roster decisions to be made by the management regarding next year. Here are the most of important of them (in no particular order):

(1) Is Brad Penny a top-three starter, or do the Dodgers go after Matsuzaka (sp?) or Barry Zito?

(2) Should we extend Nomar Garciaparra and if so, will putting him at third with a one-year contract do?

(3) Is JD Drew better off at center field while Matt Kemp gets some time at RF?

(4) Why would Takeshi Saito want to go back to Japan and what to do about it?

(5) Can the Dodgers qualify and go far into the playoffs without a bone fide power hitter? If not who's the answer (Alfonzo Soriano? Carlos Lee? Adam Dunn?)

(6) Whatever happened to Andre Either in the second half of the season and which Ethier did we finally get for Bradley?

We will take our time as the developments unfold and start answering these questions pretty soon for you. In the meantime, please feel free to comment.

NLDS Game 3: Mets @ Dodgers 5:9

2006-10-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

Former Dodger Shawn Green glided toward the right-field foul line to make the final catch, just as he envisioned.

Green and the Mets hitters started fast, Billy Wagner closed it out quickly and the New York Mets completed their first postseason sweep since 1969, beating the Dodgers 9-5 in Game 3 Saturday night.

After rolling in the first round, the Mets will open the NLCS at Shea Stadium on Wednesday against the San Diego-St. Louis winner. The Cardinals lead 2-1 in that best-of-five series.

"We played all kind of ball," Mets manager Willie Randolph said. "We played long ball, small ball. Whatever it takes to get it done."
Green had three hits and two RBIs in a game decided by the bullpens after starters Steve Trachsel and Greg Maddux made early exits.

Wagner got the final out in all three games, retiring pinch-hitter Ramon Martinez on a fly ball
to Green to finish the series.

"The irony of this is crazy, to be celebrating in the visiting clubhouse," said Green, who played for the Dodgers from 2000-04 and was acquired by the Mets from Arizona on Aug. 22.

"It's a little weird, after doing this in '04 on the other side of the field," he said. "I was actually out there hoping that the last ball came to me, and it did. It feels incredible."

Another former Dodger and current Mets catcher Pual Lo Duca was moved to tears when he was traded by the Dodgers to Florida in July 2004. Sent to the Mets last offseason, he has no regrets now.

"There's a lot of guys in here who want to prove something," he said. "It's a good feeling to get it done," he said.

It was a familiar ending for the Dodgers, who are 1-12 in postseason games since 1988, when they beat the Mets in the NLCS and the Oakland Athletics in the World Series.

Jeff Kent had four hits, including a two-run homer, for Los Angeles.

"We just got outplayed -- pitching, hitting, defense -- but there's no sense in being specific," Kent said. "It doesn't really matter. We got beat by a team that was playing better baseball than us.

And a team that had a manager making much better calls.

"We got, what, 16 hits and scored five runs? That's one you shake your head at and wonder why. They got two less hits than we did and scored almost twice as many runs."

"When El Duque and Pedro went down, we bounced back," Lo Duca said. "I didn't get to pop the champagne here in 2004. I did in 2006. It's a happy day."

And Paul, as much as I love the Dodgers, I was glad to see you get to celebrate. If the Dodgers couldn't at least a well deserving person could.

Sad but true:

Rafael Furcal and Kenny Lofton, who bat 1-2 in the Dodgers' lineup, went a combined 3-of-24 in the series. They hit .300 and stole 59 bases between them during the regular season. Talk about sucking under pressure.

NLDS Game 2: Dodgers @ Mets 1:4

2006-10-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

All of a sudden, the Dodgers find themselves facing elimination once again from the first round of the playoffs.

The Mets, in their first postseason appearance since 2000, find themselves one victory away from going tot he league championship series.

The Mets will go for the sweep Saturday in Los Angeles against Greg Maddux, who has 333 career wins.

"We're in a tight spot," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "We've got to come out ready to win three in a row."

The Dodgers dropped to 1-11 in the postseason since winning the 1988 World Series.

They also lost Nomar Garciaparra in the sixth inning because of a leg injury -- he hobbled across first on an infield hit in the fourth. The All-Star first baseman has been playing with a strained left quadriceps. His status for Game 3 was uncertain.

Hong-Chih Kuo shut out the Mets for six innings on Sept. 8 at Shea in his only big league victory. That was one reason he got the start in this one. The Dodgers also figured a lefty might have success against New York's lineup -- the Mets struggled down the stretch vs. left-handed starters.

But this time, New York fouled off many of Kuo's tough pitches and chased him in the fifth.
"He was tough again," Randolph said. "We just made him pitch a little bit. We had some at-bats where we taxed him a little bit."

The good teams adapt. The Dodgers didn't adapt.

Glavine was at his deceptive best -- changing speeds, nipping the corners and escaping jams. With runners at first and third in the fifth, he got Kenny Lofton on an inning-ending grounder, then calmly handed Lofton's shattered stick to a Dodgers bat boy.

"It was the wrong guy for us to face," Dodgers slugger Jeff Kent said. "A lot of pitches just off the plate, and you get frustrated."

Glavine, who beat Los Angeles twice during the regular season, gave up only four hits in his first playoff win since 2001 with Atlanta. After making the playoffs year after year with the Braves, he improved to 13-15 in the postseason with a 3.34 ERA.

Wilson Betemit homered for the Dodgers in the eighth.

Mets manager, Willie Randolph mentioned before the game that the Mets needed to have a more patient approach against Kuo this time, and they forced him to throw 51 pitches in the second and third innings alone.

Garciaparra's infield single with one out in the fourth was the first hit off Glavine. Garciaparra didn't even run out a grounder in the sixth, and was removed before the bottom half.

Why he was even left in is beyond me. Yes, he's a gamer. But this was a playoff game, and once again Little showed that he didn't have any balls.

NLDS Game 1: Los Angeles @ New York Mets 5:6

2006-10-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

Well, we are back in the post season after missing it for a year. Expectations are high, like always. And, as this game unfolded, I realized why my grandparents used to refer to the Dodgers as dem bums.

The Mets were short two top starters and were still able to walk away with a victory in Game One of the National League Division Series. A major reason for their walking away with it was their capitalization on a wild baserunning blunder by the Los Angeles Dodgers and a perfectly respectable performance from emergency replacement John Maine Wednesday.

After crawling back into the game, Nomar Garciaparra came up to bat in the top of the ninth with the potential tying run on second base. Garciaparra then proceeded to strike out, ending the game.

"A lot of guys have been waiting for this time in their life, and I think everybody stepped up today," said 34-year-old catcher Paul Lo Duca, another newcomer to the playoffs.

The Dodgers now face a must-win game Thursday night, with rookie left-hander Hong-Chich Kuo on the mound for the Dodgers against 290-game winner but fading Tom Glavine. Kuo pitched six shutout innings at Shea Stadium on Sept. 8 for his first major league win.

"We haven't quit all season long, especially these last couple months," Los Angeles manager Grady Little said. "We'll keep coming at you."

But hopefully a little less enthusiastically than Jeff Kent and J.D. Drew, whom were the victims in getting thrown out at home on the same play, by the same throw.

With two on and none out, rookie Russell Martin hit an opposite-field drive off the base of the right-field wall. But Jeff Kent hesitated at second base, apparently thinking the ball might be caught, and got an extremely late jump.

That left J.D. Drew, who was on first, practically running up Kent's back as coach Rich Donnelly waved one -- or both -- around third. A quick, accurate relay from right fielder Shawn Green to second baseman Jose Valentin to Lo Duca nailed Kent, who attempted a headfirst dive into the plate.

"If I hold him, we've got two guys at third base," Donnelly said. "I was hoping they'd throw the ball away. I didn't really want to send Jeff. J.D. was right behind him, and I thought, one's going to be out and one's going to be safe."
Drew was left in no-man's land, trapped about halfway between third and home. Yet Lo Duca, who got spun around on the play at the plate, didn't realize that at first as he struggled to his feet.

With Lo Duca unaware for a moment, Drew tried to sneak his way in. But the catcher turned his head, suddenly noticed Drew bearing down on him and applied a second tag as Drew also tried a headfirst dive.

"We've been in L.A. all season long. We know about traffic jams. We certainly had one again right there," Little said. "That's a trick play we work on in spring training."

So, we screw up and the manager makes jokes??? I've been to spring training in the past, and have never seen any team work on this supposed trick play. Grady Little needs to grow some balls. I've supported him all year, but this is pure stupidity on his part.

It was the kind of sequence you often see in a Hollywood movie, but rarely on a major league field. Ironically, all three New York Mets that were involved were all recent ex-Dodgers.

"We got two for the price of one," Valentin said.

To add insult to injury, Marlon Anderson followed with an RBI double for a 1-0 lead, but that was all the Dodgers got after running themselves out of a potentially big inning.

In a managerial blunder that Boston Red Sox fans warned us about, and with the score tied at 4, Little brought starter Brad Penny out of the bullpen in the seventh. Penny, bothered by a bad back and 3-10 lifetime against the Mets with a 6.16 ERA, walked two of his first three batters.
Delgado put the Mets ahead with an opposite-field single, then gave a huge fist pump after rounding first.

Not even taking into consideration about Penny's injury, which was the reason he wasn't starting game one in the first place, one can't seriously expect a starter to do such a different role.

And Brad Penny, of all his choices, seemed the worse choice. Of late, he had been having a pretty bad first inning. Over the course of several innings, he would normally have time to settle down and make up for it. But in a relief role this is not only unrealistic, but also unfair.

The Dodgers tied it at 4-all with three runs in the seventh against reliever Guillermo Mota.
Anderson got the rally going with a bunt single, and a throwing error by second baseman Valentin helped Los Angeles. Rafael Furcal's RBI single made it 4-2, and Garciaparra's two-out, two-run double tied it.

Random Note:

Dodgers Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax watched the game from a box with Mets owner Fred Wilpon. The two were high school teammates growing up in Brooklyn.
Updated on Wednesday

Game 162: Dodgers @ San Francisco Giants 4:2

2006-10-05T00:59:00.000-07:00

The regular season has just ended on the right side of the sweep. And a sweet one, while we're at it. Any time you could take'em'all from the Giants in SanFran to complete the season with seven straight wins, should put a smile on every Dodger fan worldwide.

As we knew in case of the tie in the standings:

The Dodgers and Padres finished tied at 88-74, but because
both clubs were assured of advancing to the postseason,
the National League West title was decided by
a head-to-head series tiebreaker
(San Diego dominated, 13-5) instead of a playoff
elimination game.

Due to the above, both teams fielded rather second-tier lineups, but the Dodgers still had the upper hand.

The Dodgers will play the New York Mets in the NLDS, starting Wednesday afternoon in Big Apple, where Derek Lowe takes on John Maine. Game 2 will also be in NY with lefthanded Met-killer Hong-Chih Kuo facing veteran lefty Tom Glavine.

Game 161: Dodgers @ San Francisco Giants 4:2

2006-10-05T00:53:00.000-07:00

That's what I longed to say for the entire season - the 2006 Los Angeles Dodgers have clinched a playoff birth! Congratulations to the team, coaches and management. Now, the wild ride begins as anything is possible during baseball playoffs.

It was very fitting, that the post-season was clinched on another excellent performance by the latest Dodger acquisition Greg Maddux.

"I think the job he's done speaks for itself," Little said. "It's not just
what he does on the mound, it's what he means around the ballclub.
Today, he took the bull by the horns. He said he was just
about done after six. I said, 'No, you've got one more.'
He was outstanding."

Other key contributors were veterans we have all been expecting to show up more prominently come playoff time: Kenny Lofton, Rafael Furcal, JD Drew and Jeff Kent. They went combined 8-for-16 with all 4 RBIs, two doubles and a triple.

Game 160: Dodgers @ San Francisco Giants 4:3

2006-09-30T10:49:00.000-07:00

This is why I love living in the Bay Area. I get to see stunning wins for the Dodgers in Phonebank Park in front of thousands of Giants fans. Them chanting "Beat LA, Beat LA" just to watch their little hearts break in anguish when they realize the Dodgers are the far superior team.

This team sure is about dramitic endings as of late. Friday nights game was no different.

Russell Martin scored the go-ahead run on Mike Stanton's wild pitch in the ninth inning after pinch-hitter Olmedo Saenz singled in the tying run, and the Dodgers beat the San Francisco 4-3 Friday night to tie San Diego for the NL West lead.

Last Sunday, it was a game-winning grand slam by Nomar Garciaparra. This time, a gutsy ninth-inning catch over a railing along the left-field line by third baseman Ramon Martinez.

J.D. Drew hit a two-run homer in the seventh for the Dodgers, who overcame a 3-0 deficit to win their fifth straight. Los Angeles and San Diego also share the wild-card lead, two games ahead of Philadelphia, and each team would clinch a playoff berth with one more win or a Phillies loss.

"Tonight definitely was a big win," Drew said. "We could have stayed
right where we were with San Diego and lost a game to the Phillies."

Los Angeles got a scare when Garciaparra came out of the game after re-injuring his left side on a swinging strikeout in the eighth. He could be seen hunched over in the dugout being attended to by the training staff. He was scheduled to be re-evaluated Saturday.

"He was in a lot of pain in the dugout," manager Grady Little said.
"That's about as much grimace as I've seen in his face."

Jonathan Broxton improved to 4-1, getting the final out of the eighth for the win. Takashi Saito pitched a shaky ninth for his 23rd save in 25 chances.

Steve Finley and Randy Winn singled with one out to put runners at the corners, and Omar Vizquel then fouled out to Martinez, who leaned way over the railing to make the catch. Pinch-hitter Mark Sweeney then took a called third strike, sending the Giants to their seventh loss in eight games.

After Jeff Kent's leadoff single, Drew struck out and Martin walked. Saenz was replaced by pinch-runner Delwyn Young and Julio Lugo grounded into a fielder's choice that moved Martin to third. He scored on a wild pitch moments later.

"Every night it's somebody different," Martinez said.
"That's what a championship team is made of."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Little announced before the game that Derek Lowe would start Game 1 of the division series as long as he isn't needed to pitch in Sunday's season finale. Even if the Dodgers were to clinch the wild card in the next two days, Little said he would still hold out Lowe for the playoff opener rather than try to win the NL West.

"I'd go with Derek Lowe," Little said. "We're not going to be comfortable
until we're able to get the job done. When you have your fate
in your own hands, it makes it a lot easier."

Glad to hear it. There is no need to jeapordize our playoff chances trying to get a division crown. It is also nice to see that Little doesn;t seemed worried about the Mets.

Game 159: Dodgers @ Colorado Rockies 19-11

2006-09-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a game. This was a tough one to watch at first. So much up and down. But fortunately for the Dodgers, James Loney player with the heart of a champion, never giving up. He tied the franchise's 56-year old record by knocking in nine runs.

How was he thanked?

By being taken out of the game.

Truly remarkable. How can a manger take out a player who has nine ribbies? Did Walter Alston take out Gil Hodges 56 years ago? I seriously doubt it. Especially in a pennant race.

"He had a great day, what can you say?" Los Angeles manager
Grady Little said. "He'll be ready the next time we need him, I'm sure."

What can you say?

What kind of response is that? It's a bullshit response that borders on ignorance and stupidity. It was nice to see Loney be professional about it and take it in strides, though.

Subbing for the injured Nomar Garciaparra, Loney hit two homers, including a grand slam, to lead Los Angeles past Colorado 19-11 in a slugfest at Coors Field.

The Dodgers remained one game behind San Diego in the NL West and moved two games in front of Philadelphia in the wild-card race. The Padres beat Arizona 12-4, while the Phillies lost 3-1 to Washington.

Since being brought up from Triple-A Las Vegas, Loney is batting .286 and the Dodgers are 14-5 when he starts at first base.

"They brought me up and told me to be ready at all times,"
Loney said. "We've had a lot of magic over the last two weeks.
Sitting on the bench watching that, I wanted to be a part of that."

Yet, he swears he won't be bummed by going back to backing up Garciaparra.

"Whenever they need me," he said.

This is a special type of player. He truly is.

They needed him big-time Thursday in a game that featured 30 runs, 33 hits and 16 pitchers, prompting Little to wonder what was all this fuss this summer about the humidor making Coors Field a pitcher's park.

Loney, who entered the game with one career home run and eight RBIs had by far his career game. Getting the start at first base with Garciaparra dealing with sore side and thigh muscles, Loney hit a grand slam in the second, a two-run double in the third, a run-scoring single in the fifth and a two-run homer in the seventh before striking out in the eighth.

That tied the club record for RBIs set by Hodges for Brooklyn on Aug. 31, 1950, against the Boston Braves in a game in which he hit four home runs. It's the first nine-RBI game in the National League since Sammy Sosa's drugged up body and corked bat did it for the Cubs at Coors Field on Aug. 10, 2002, and the most in the majors since Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees drove in 10 against the Angels on April 26, 2005.

The wild win was the Dodgers' 15th in 19 games against the Rockies this season. They blew a five-run lead when Colorado scored seven times in the fourth to take a 10-8 lead, but the Dodgers tied it in the fifth and then put together a seven-run rally in the sixth.

Kenny Lofton hit his third homer of the season, followed by Marlon Anderson's twelth homer of the season. Wilson Betemit added a two-run double off Jose Mesa, who also served up Loney's two-run shot. Lofton came around on an error to make it 17-10.

Left-hander Mark Henderson, the Dodgers' fourth pitcher, picked up the win. He gave up an unearned run and one hit in two innings. It seems as if we finally found a niche for Hendrickson, who never seemed to get out of the early innings as a starter.

Dodgers starter Brad Penny left the game after one inning when he was unable to loosen up his stiff lower back. Little said he might start Monday should the Dodgers find themselves in a one-game playoff.

"It is an issue when someone's not 100 percent, but we'll keep working
and try to make him better," Little said. "We need the guy to pitch."

Penny, who has struggled since the All-Star break, allowed four hits, including a three-run home run to Matt Holliday. Afterward, he said he first experienced pain in his last start at Arizona on Saturday and felt a cramp when he warmed up Thursday. Penny was lifted for a pinch hitter in the top of the second, right after Loney's grand slam off Byung-Hyun Kim gave Los Angeles a 4-3 lead.

The Dodgers scored four times in the third to make it 8-3. But the Rockies bounced back to take a 10-8 lead by scoring seven runs on eight singles in the fourth. The Dodgers got the runs back in the fifth on RBI-singles by Betemit and Loney tying it at 10 and setting up LA's big sixth-inning outburst that included Loney's two-run shot.

"We ran into a hot hitter," Mesa said. "Loney was a hot hitter,
someone we couldn't get out."

Game 158: Dodgers @ Colorado Rockies 6:4

2006-09-30T09:59:00.000-07:00

Even the Dodgers described this game as ugly.

Derek Lowe won his seventh straight decision despite a shaky outing and the Dodgers held onto their lead in the NL wild-card race by overcoming a three-run deficit for a 6-4 victory on Wednesday night.

"Right now it doesn't matter how we win, only that we win,"
center fielder Kenny Lofton said after helping the Dodgers stay
one game ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Dodgers also pulled within one game of NL West-leading San Diego, which lost to St. Louis 4-2.

"Still, our No. 1 goal is to win our division," said Lowe
who improved to 16-8on the year.

He got the win despite scuffling through six innings and getting roughed up for four earned runs and 10 hits.

Lowe said he won't look back with any regrets on his performance because at Coors Field, outfielders play deep and fly balls that are outs at other ballparks fall in for hits here, and the runners often take the extra base.

"This is the only place where I try to go into the game and all
I think about trying to stay in the game longer than
the other starting pitcher," he said. "It doesn't matter
what the score is because runs are going to be scored here.

"It was an exceptionally good win because of the time
of the year it came."

Jonathan Broxton pitched two hitless innings of relief and Takashi Saito pitched the ninth for his 22nd save in 24 chances.

The Dodgers fell behind 4-1 entering the sixth but J.D. Drew's two-run triple put Los Angeles within striking distance, and the Dodgers scored three times in the seventh to secure their 14th win in 18 games against Colorado this season. Andre Ethier, pinch hitting for Lowe, tied it at 4 with a run-scoring single, and a bad throw allowed Wilson Betemit to score the go-ahead run. Jeff Kent followed with a run-scoring double.

Rafael Furcal and Lofton each hit potential double-play ground balls during the three-run inning but beat the relay.

"Those were the keys to the whole inning," Los Angeles manager
Grady Little said. "I tell you, the hustle that we got out of some
baserunners kept us right in there for a chance at a couple of
big hits, and that was the difference."

Betemit gave Los Angeles a 1-0 lead with a 437-foot homer into the second deck in right-center field above the bullpens in the third.

The lead was short lived though, a mile high into the atmosphere, where no lead is safe. The
Rockies erased that deficit in the fourth when Helton singled home a run and Matt Holiday scored when Brad Hawpe grounded into a double play.

The Rockies added two runs in the fifth, thanks in part to a balk by Lowe.

Nomar Garciaparra tied his season high with three hits despite a sore side muscle and a sore quadriceps, which limited him to a single when he hit a ball off the wall in the first inning.

Why Garciaparra got the start over Loney is beyond me. Let the kid contribute. We will need him down the stretch and in the playoffs. More importantly, we will need Nomar at full health once the playoffs begin. Little said he probably won't start Garciaparra against the Rockies on Thursday. Garciaparra said he'll be ready to pinch hit, however. You do gotta love his dedication, regardless. Little also said that because Lowe was limited to 90 pitches, he will pitch on three days' rest Sunday at San Francisco if the Dodgers need to win that day to wrap up a playoff berth.

Game 157: Dodgers @ Colorado Rockies 11:4

2006-09-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

The Dodgers routed the lowly Rockies Tuesday night, 11-4. More importantly, it gave them the lead in the National League Wild Card race. And that still wasn't the best part. Because Greg Maddux only needed 76 pitches, he should be able to go on short rest in the Giants series.

Maddux seems confident on pitching on short rest.

"I don't get as sore as I used to," the 322-game winner explained.
"I don't throw hard enough anymore to get sore."

He sure befuddled the Rockies, who had been on a tear at Coors Field this month.

Maddux improved to 14-14 on the year by allowing just three earned runs and seven hits with no walks and three strikeouts in six innings. Maddux said he never felt comfortable at Coors Field, where his six wins is the most by an opposing pitcher.

"Nope. You wake up panicking and hope to get through six
when come here," he said. "Tough place to pitch. Tip your hat.
The boys scored a lot of runs today. Eleven runs makes it a lot easier."

The Dodgers bats sure do seem to be coming alive. Nomar Garciaparra drove in three runs and hit his 20th homer despite straining a muscle in his side trying to avoid a tag at the plate in the first inning. This is the first season Nomar has hit at least 20 home runs since 2003. His big day helped the Dodgers move one game in front of Philadelphia, which lost 4-3 at Washington, in the wild-card race.

"I'll trade an injury for a home run any day," said Garciaparra,
who left the game after homering in the fifth. "I'll do that any time
as long as we keep winning. I'll be back in the lineup tomorrow.
I'll play through this. We were scoring some runs and Grady said,
'Let's take you out.' He said, 'Go take care of it."'

Russell Martin had a bases-loaded triple in the sixth and drove in four runs as the Dodgers were able to empty their bench and play seven reserves. Marlon Anderson singled, doubled and homered for the Dodgers, who are two games behind first-place San Diego in the NL West. Anderson's homer capped a six-run sixth that made it 11-1.

The Dodgers scored three times in a wild first inning in which the Rockies committed an error and had a mental miscue and right-hander Jason Jennings surrendered two bloop singles and Martin's infield run-scoring single.

Rafael Furcal led off with a bloop single to center, stole second and scored on Kenny Lofton's triple down the right-field line. Garciaparra followed with a bloop single to center to score Lofton. Jeff Kent reached on an error by second baseman Kaz Matsui, who booted the ball twice. J.D. Drew walked to load the bases and Martin dribbled a ball in front of the plate. Rookie catcher Chris Iannetta didn't chase down the ball and Jennings had to try to field it and tag out Garciaparra, who got hurt trying to avoid the charging pitcher, who missed the ball anyway.

Garciaparra hit his 20th homer in the fifth, a two-run shot following a walk to Lofton. Kent then drew a walk and came around to score on Anderson's double down the right-field line.

Random thoughts:

1) With Nomar possibly being injured, this is the time we need Loney to step it up and prove he is ready for the big leagues.

2) This was Maddux' twelth victory against the Rockies, the third most wins against the Rockies among all pitchers.

3) The Dodgers are pretty much in charge of their own destiny now. Each game needs to be played with playoff mindset. Each game, it its own right, is a must win.

Games 154-156: Dodgers vs Arizona Diamonbacks 2:0, 3:9, 5:1

2006-09-27T06:59:00.000-07:00

You have probably found out on you own that we here are as much out of gas as the Dodgers. Hence series reports rather than game reports. I never realized how hard it's going to be to cover a whole *baseball* season. The whole 162 games.

I've covered Boston Celtics every game for two seasons I believe, have done the same with St. John's and Toronto Maple Leafs in hockey, now getting ready for yet another year in the NHL, this time on the West Coast with the Kings. But I'm learning to appreciate the gruelsome MLB season, when games are played almost every day and they tend to be relatively long. I purposefully skipped the part where I remind you that my time zone does not help out either.

Anyway, the Dodgers hosted the Diamondbacks for the final regular season home series at Chavez Ravine. They were quite lucky to take two out of three. Good starting pitching from Derek Lowe (7 IP, no runs in game one) and Hong-Chih Kuo (same 7IP, no runs, and 8 SOs) obviously helped the cause greatly. The Dodgers lost the middle game big time, due to yet another implosion by Brad Penny.

If I were Grady Little I'd seriously reconsider the following pattern for the final six games: Greg Maddux (already pitched in COL last night), Lowe (scheduled to make a start), Chad Billingsley, Kuo and again Maddux and Lowe on three day rest each.

The truth is, here's the math roadmap of what the Dodgers need to achieve in Colorado and San Fran to get at least the wild-card spot:

Dodgers sweep COL and SF (likelihood: 2%): LA is sure of wild-card, clinches NL West if Padres go 3-3 over the same span (likelihood: 10% on its own)

Dodgers win 5: sure wild-card unless Phillies sweep everything.

Dodgers win 4: minimum for a wild-card one game playoff

Dodgers win 3 or less: nice meeting you.

Sneak preview: the Dodgers already won last night in Colorado (11-4), so they just need four out of five now to make SURE of post-season. Fingers crossed.

Game 151-153 Pittsburgh @ Dodgers Series to Pittsburgh, 2 games to 1.

2006-09-22T11:31:00.000-07:00

This was an ugly series. There is no excuse for the Dodgers to not take at LEAST two of three, yet they were fortunate to get one. With supposed post season hopes, the Dodgers floundered. The Dodgers couldn't even handle the team with the second worst record in the National League on their home turf. It seems as if the Dodgers miss their familes and just want to call it quits and go home. They need to get off their arses and do their job. That is entertain those who pay their salaries--us, the fans. I, personally, don't spend large percentages of my pay to travel to dozens of games a year for this kind of play. Not in a pennant race.

I may have tickets to September 29-October 1 games for sale in San Francisco. Fans if you are interested, email me. Dodger players, management and other personnel, if you are interested, start to play, manage and operate better. This is a joke. Now I know what my grandparents meant by dem bums.

Games 149-150 Dodgers vs San Diego Padres 1:2, 11:10

2006-09-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

This will be a pretty quick recap. Marcin asked me to fill in and here i am several days later and a few hospital visits later (food poisoning, no not spinach) here I am.

Game 149, was a nail biter. The Dodgers were lucky to even be in that game. With the Padres success against the Dodgers this year and the lack of offensive output, it is a wonder the game was so close.

Derek Lowe pitched a spectacular game. However, it was all for naught as the Dodgers' bats fell silent once again.

The one shred of silver lining is at least it was the Dodgers who ended the Padres' Cla Meredith's consecutive innings scoreless streak at 34 innings.

Game 150, turned into a nail biter. The entire game, it appeared the Padres were going to take this must win game at Chavez Ravine and with it a one and a half game lead and probably the division flag.

But then a miracle happened; the Dodgers bats had a resurgence. Heads were shaking in disbelief on both sides. Nobody could believe what they had just witnessed.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Dodgers down 9 to 5, something that hadn't happened since 1964 occurred. No, I am not talking about the fans whom had already left actually coming back into the stadium from the parking lot. Although, I am sure it has been at least as long since that phenomena had happened as well. But no, this rare feat is what actually caused the fans to turn around.

The Dodgers's bats not only came alive in the bottom of the ninth, but they cracked out back-to-back-to-back-to-back homeruns, tying the game at nine a piece.

The Dodgers went into the top of the tenth with what seemed to be all the momentum in the world. But then Aaron Sele decided it just wasn't meant to be. For he, with this huge momentum shift on the side of the Dodgers, decided to let the Padres reclaim the lead.

The Dodgers came up in the bottom half of the tenth, most of the fans who had miraculously returned, had again begun to leave, realizing that their commute home just got prolonged for no good reason.

Well, Sele owes steak dinners to both Kenny Lofton and Nomar Garciaparra. Kenny Lofton drew a walk to lead off the tenth and Nomar, reminiscent of the previous inning, took the ball deep, hitting a walk off home run.

Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

Note:

The four-game series drew 219,124 which is the largest ever for a four-game series at Dodger Stadium. One can definitely feel the playoffs in the air.

Mental maintenance period

2006-09-21T01:06:00.000-07:00

Blue Man and myself are quite deep into a mental maintenance after two Dodger losses against the Pirates. Blue Man said he was going to take over with the game reports pretty soon but I must admit I have not checked his pulse for quite some time now.

I'm getting discouraged by the recent Dodgers performance. Are you? If so, what do you do to keep faith and look up? Let us know - we might need every piece of advice...

Games 145-146: Dodgers vs San Diego Padres 3:1, 2:11

2006-09-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

I must say that with mid-September stage of up and down play of the Dodgers I do get distracted a lot towards the preseason camp on my LA Kings blog. Therefore here are the recaps for game one of the Padres series, taken from the official mlb.com webpage as well as game two.

I probably need to get Blue Man going on recaps for the remainder of the regular season (and hopefully play-offs, since I'm in a Dodger slump).

Or else - we call it quits unless we hear from you not to. What do you say? The comments section is all yours (not that too many of our readers will use it anyway ;)).

Before the Padres Series

2006-09-15T05:01:00.000-07:00

Let's face it: the Dodgers have only a 0.5 game lead over the Padres, with the tough W-L record against them this season (mostly lost, and some of them badly).

Fact 2: Apart from long winning and losing streaks most of this Dodgers season has been like this: won-lost-won-lost-W-L-W-L. Here are my odds for the weekend series:

40% Dodgers win one
30% Dodgers win two
20% Dodgers win three
5% Dodgers sweep
5% Padres sweep

What are yours?

Yes, we're still alive (though tomkoed a bit)

2006-09-15T00:02:00.000-07:00

I have made a conscious decision this morning not to pin the Wrigley series onto anyone player, even though I have seen some ugly swings by Wilson Betemit and some poor ball movement by Brett Tomko. And I will not. On days like this the name on the front matters much more to me than the (lack of) one on the back. Baseball is a team effort and the team of the Los Angeles Dodgers have lost two out of three on the road in Chicago to a injury-riddled Cubs during the stretch run.

So, all in all, I will recap the Cubs series a little bit later on. But still today. I want to put all my negative thoughts about the Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde Dodgers behind me before Greg Maddux takes the hill against the Padres this evening...

Game 144-146: Dodgers @ Chicago Cubs 8:9 (11 inngs), 6:0, 5:6

2006-09-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

We must have taken two out of three and we failed to do so. Especially given the number of chances that the Dodgers were presented with to even sweep the Cubs. Let's name some:

(1) A 7-0 lead through three innings in Game one with Derek Lowe on the mound;

(2) 6 errors by the Cub fielders in Game one;

(3) A 5-2 lead in the sixth in Game three;

(4) Great starts by Brad Penny and Hong-Chih Kuo, with the latter being blown by the bullpen;

The funny thing is the San Diego Padres did manage to fulfil their goal and took two out of three from the Reds. Which has several implications which I'm going to tackle in the very next post.

To finish on a positive note however - is JD Drew seeing the ball beter lately? Him and Raffy Furcal, even when they made out in Chicago, at least seemed to have that psychological makeup of "getting after the pitchers".

What needs to happen

2006-09-11T04:46:00.000-07:00

Ok, we're coming out of the Shea Stadium with the split against the NL-powerhouse Mets (strange, how it sounds, eh? ;)) and heading into the series at the Wrigley Field with the Chicago Cubs, starting on Tuesday.

In the meantime, the Padres (currently 1.5 games back from us) visit the Cincinnati Reds, who are in the thick of the chase for the NL Wild Card (3.5 GB from SD). Here's what needs to happen (and realistically) for the Dodgers to get a little bit of the breathing room during the upcoming weekend series against the Friars at Chavez Ravine:

The Dodgers are sending to the hill Derek Lowe, Brad "15 outs" Penny and Hong-Chih Kuo against the bottomish level of Cubs pitchers, namely Sean Marshall (5-9, ERA 5.29), Angel Guzman (0-5, ERA 7.23) and a pitcher to be announced. Taking two out of three is definitely NOT beyond the capabilities of this team.

Now, the Padres are facing Cincy for a three game set and have the following starting pitchers: Chris Young, Jake Peavey and Clay Hensley. Since Aaron Harang will pitch the finale of the set for the Reds, I'd image, they'be able to take at least one game away from the Padres.

All in all, if both NL West contenders take 2-of-3 in the upcoming series, the Dodgers will remain at 1.5 games ahead of the Padres and would need to split the weeend series to remain so. In the unlikely event that we lose out of three over the weekend, we'd be still only 1.5 GB of the Padres with San Diego having a more difficult schedule in front of them.

This is the remaining schedule for both teams *after* the weekend series at Chavez Ravine:

LA Dodgers: 3 x vs PIT, 3 x vs ARI, 3 x @COL, 3 x @SF
SD Padres: 3 x vs ARI, 3 x vs PIT, 3 x @ STL, 4 x @ ARI.

While the two first series virtually offset, the six away games at Colorado and San Fran are to me more winnable for the Dodgers than the seven away games at St. Louis and Arizona for the Padres.

Key thing for the upcoming series: keep at least the status quo with the Padres by taking at least two out of three from the hapless Cubs!

Game 143: Dodgers @ New York Mets 9:1

2006-09-10T13:44:00.000-07:00

Eric Stults looked like a seasoned veteran pitching in a big game. However, it was his first career start for the 26-year-old. He gave the Dodgers a win in this must win game.

Stults limited the Mets to two hits in six innings, and Kenny Lofton gave him an early lead with a three-run triple in the Dodgers' 9-1 victory Sunday. Nomar Garciaparra added a three-run homer and four RBIs for the Dodgers, who began the day with a 1 1/2 -game lead over second-place San Diego in the NL West.

Pitching in place of Mark Hendrickson, who is supposedly working on his mechanics while pitching in relief, Stults gave up a single up the middle to his second batter, and didn't allow another hit until Jose Reyes homered to left-center with two outs in the sixth.

Stults (1-0) struck out three and walked two, throwing 86 pitches and combining with three relievers on a three-hitter. The left-hander was 10-11 with a 4.23 ERA this season at Triple-A Las Vegas, then allowed three runs and five hits over three innings in his major league debut Tuesday at Milwaukee.

The game began with a solemn ceremony marking Monday's fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but by the sixth inning resembled a spring training contest at Vero Beach or Port St. Lucie, with both teams liberally substituting.

Los Angeles loaded the bases on second-inning singles by Wilson Betemit, Russell Martin and Rafael Furcal. Lofton, who had been 0-for-6 with the bases full this year, batted with one out and worked the count to 3-2, then pulled a high pitch down the right-field line. His helmet flipped off as he rounded second and he easily made it to third with a triple, then scored when Garciaparra singled over third baseman David Wright with the infield in.

Furcal singled in a run in the fourth against Brian Bannister, Betemit hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth and Garciaparra made it 9-0 in the sixth with his 17th homer.

Game 142: Dodgers @ New York Mets 2:3

2006-09-10T13:10:00.000-07:00

In a pitcher's rematch of the 1999 World Series, this game lived up to October feel that their last matchup was.

Orlando Hernandez allowed one earned run in seven innings, and David Wright's two-run single after Greg Maddux left tagged the 40-year-old pitcher with a loss Saturday as the New York Mets beat the Dodgers 3-2. Just as El Duque did pitching for the Yankees in the World Series opener seven years ago, he got the best of Maddux again.

"For me it was kind of cool because it brought back good memories,"
said Maddux, who was pitching for Atlanta then.

Maddux was staked to a 2-1 lead in the top of the sixth but got the loss because of his intentional walk to Beltran -- his last hitter and the only free pass he issued.

Tough luck, but why would Grady Little keep him in JUST to walk a batter? It makes no sense at all to me.

Maddux fell to 12-13, losing his second straight start and fell to 3-2 in eight outings with the Dodgers. He allowed all three runs and five hits in five and one-third innings, quite an improvement from his previous two starts this season against New York when he gave up 12 earned runs in 13 innings with Chicago.

After Rafael Furcal's leadoff double on the second pitch of the game, El Duque retired 15 straight hitters before running into trouble in the sixth. No. 8 hitter Russell Martin singled and advanced to second when Maddux faked a bunt and swung away. Shortstop Jose Reyes was covering second, and had to range deep in the hole to field the grounder. His throw to first bounced in and out of the glove of first baseman Carlos Delgado, allowing Maddux to reach on the error.

Furcal sacrificed, and Kenny Lofton drove in Martin with a single to center. Maddux advanced to third on the base hit, then was caught in a rundown when Nomar Garciaparra grounded into a fielder's choice. J.D. Drew followed with a broken-bat RBI single to put Los Angeles in front 2-1.

Hernandez got Jeff Kent to ground out with runners on first and second to limit the damage.

He worked around a leadoff walk in the seventh and finished by getting pinch-hitter Marlon Anderson on a broken-bat grounder. Hernandez yielded four hits, one walk and struck out six.

Maddux was lifeted after just 72 pitches, worn out after running the bases.

A quick note:

1. The Dodgers held a closed-door pregame meeting. Little declined to discuss it. Hopefully this is a good sign that they want to truly get out of this funk.

Game 141: Dodgers @ New York Mets 5:0

2006-09-09T14:31:00.000-07:00

It was a more than fitting night for Hong-Chih Kuo to get his first major league start. It was Taiwan heritage night at Shea Stadium. It was even more fitting for Kuo to pitch such a stellar game. I was really impressed by Kuo's attitude. When told he was getting the start, it seemed like no big deal. When told later, that he would receive a second start, he replied, "Just got to get ready."

Paul Lo Duca wasn't surprised at Kuo's success. Lo Duca said that Kuo had always been a great pitcher and that he had been through a lot with two Tommy John's or else he would have been up in Los Angeles much sooner.

Rafael Furcal and Nomar Garciaparra helped awaken the bats a little, each homering in the Dodgers' 5-0 win.

Kuo improved to 1-4, yielding three hits, striking out seven and walking three in six innings on. He became the third Taiwanese pitcher ever to start a game in the major leagues.

"We knew he was limited with the number of pitches that he had to
work with because of his inexperience starting games this season
but he got us very deep into that game with a good quality
start out there," said Dodgers manager Grady Little,
who announced afterward that Kuo would start against
the Cubs on Thursday. "We're proud for him."

Kenny Lofton had two hits and an RBI for the Dodgers, who won for only the second time in their last six games. The win also ensured another day in first place for the Dodgers, which led the NL West by a half-game over San Diego heading into play Friday.

The Mets, who were blanked for the second in time five days, only managed four hits against Kuo and three relievers -- Brett Tomko, Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito.

Furcal led off the fifth with his 10th homer to put Los Angeles in front 3-0. One batter later, Garciaparra hit an 0-1 pitch into the bleachers in left. The Dodgers almost had a third solo homer in the inning but Carlos Beltran timed his jump perfectly, sticking his glove over the wall to take one away from J.D. Drew.

Kuo held the Mets hitless into the bottom half of the fifth, when the Mets finally got their first hit of the evening.

"He was throwing nasty, pitching great," Furcal said.

Kuo was subbing for injured right-hander Chad Billingsley, who is working his way back from a strained side muscle and is slated to return to the rotation next Saturday against San Diego. The left-hander did well in Billingsley's absence in his first start after 23 relief appearances to start the season. He was converted to a starter last month at Triple-A Las Vegas.

"I feel a little better for the warmup and stuff," Kuo said.
"For me right now, just whatever they put me at I've got to do it.
I've got to go for it, try to finish my job."

The Dodgers pushed across two unearned runs in the first to snap the Mets' scoreless streak at 25 innings. With the bases loaded and two outs, newly-acquired Dodger Marlon Anderson hit a grounder to third that was bobbled for a second before being thrown wide of first.

Furcal and Garciaparra raced around to score to make it 2-0.

Random notes:

1. Eric Stults will start Sunday for Los Angeles. It will be Stults' first major league start and second big league appearance. Glad to see Hendrickson finally OUT of the lineup. Unfortunately, it seems they are going with the inexperienced lefty simply because he is a lefty.

Pretty decent Kuo-tation

2006-09-09T04:28:00.000-07:00

I know Matt will bring the full (and joyful) game report from the blanking of the Mets pretty soon, but in the meantime I just wanted to bring you attention to two things I noticed during last night's game:

[1] How composed Hong-Chi Kuo was in between a batter who reached base and the following batter (not that there were too many of the former). He did not flinch, he did not gesture, but went about his business from one batter to another. Minding his own business which was getting outs and preventing the other team from scoring. I like that from a reliever-turned-starter. I like it a lot. With this mindset, he's not wasting energy on things beyond control and showed last night, with the occasional lucky bounce, he'd be able to sweep the runner out with the double-plkay ground ball.

I'm not going to say too much after his first major league start, but he might have found a place in the next year's spring training roster. And - he's a lefty (mode on: cheers for the departure of Mark Hendrickson, mode off).

[2] Is Rafael Furcal unbelievable lately or what? Seemed like he hypnotized the groundballs to go right to the place where he was or moving to. Apart from Wilson Betemit most Dodger infielders did have good nights fielding.

Game 140: Dodgers @ New York Mets 0:7

2006-09-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

Missing: The Los Angeles Dodgers' hitting abilities.

Last seen: September 2, 2006 in Los Angeles, California when the Dodgers offense was led by Nomar Garciaparra, J.D. Drew, Andre Ethier, Rafael Furcal and Wilson Betemit. The team at Chavez Ravine compiled a total of fifteen hits and fourteen runs. Since then, they have been outscored 10-35, winning just one of their past five games.

Reward for an arrest leading to a conviction for those responsible for this most recent slump.

Prime suspects: The San Francisco Giants. Hey, they cheated in 1951 as a team. They condoned cheating from their players in the late 1990s to the present. Why wouldn't they be a viable suspect?

Tom Glavine made the Dodgers' playoff hopes look shaky. After a seven-game winning streak, Los Angeles has dropped four of five, its NL West lead cut to a half-game over San Diego. The Dodgers have been shut out twice.

"It's been a team struggle, but we'll get out of this," manager
Grady Little said. "We've been rather streaky. I don't have the answers."

Aren't managers supposed to have the answers? Aren't they supposed to sound a bit more positive and upbeat? Anybody know if Jim Leyland offers himself up for motivational speeches?

Shea Field is Brad Penny's personal house of horror. He fell to 1-8 at Shea and saw his ERA there rise to 6.75 in 10 career starts. Penny dropped to 15-8, giving up seven runs and 10 hits in 5 2-3 innings. He dropped to 3-10 against the Mets.

"That's one of the best lineups in the National League," said Penny,
the NL's only 15-game winner. "There were a couple of times
where they hit good pitches."

Former Dodgers pitcher Guillermo Mota loaded the bases with a walk to Furcal but overpaid-for Julio Lugo couldn't even get the ball into fair territory. He fouled out, ending the inning.

Two scoreless games out of three

2006-09-08T00:36:00.000-07:00

Not good. The Dodgers have been blanked out in two out of three games lately. Pretty horrifying when you consider we are in the stretch run and the San Diego Friars have been hitting out of their minds (with a good does of luck) winning 13 of their last 16...

Somebody needs to step up and take charge. Now. *After* the current Mets series it might be too late...

Is Hong-Chih Kuo the answer?

Game 139: Dodgers @ Milwaukee Brewers 2:1

2006-09-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

I agree with Dodgers manager, Grady Little. After Wednesday's stellar performance, the only thing worth discussing is Derek Lowe.

"Anything you said about this game outside of talking about
Derek Lowe's performance would be secondary," Little said.

Whenever the Dodgers need to end a slump, he is the sole pitcher on the staff that I would feel 100% confident giving the ball to. Lowe allowed just three hits and an unearned run in eight innings to help the Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 2-1 Wednesday night and stop a three-game losing streak.

Lowe improved to 14-8 on the year, by winning his fifth straight decision. He gave up a double in the second, a single in the third and an infield hit in the eighth. Lowe was 4-1 with a 1.69 ERA in August and has allowed only six earned runs in his last six outings.

Lowe said that the Dodgers watched a lot of video of the previous two losses to Milwaukee.

"Being a sinkerball guy, you normally don't get that many
right-handers in the lineup," Lowe said. "So, I think that definitely
helped, having them only with two left-handers.
Right-on-right is normally more effective."

The only real questionable part to the game, other than the eerily quiet bats of the Dodgers, was why in the world was Lowe taken out? He had only pitched 79 pitches in the eight innings.

Takashi Saito is becoming a household name in the homes of Dodger fans. He followed Lowe and worked the ninth for his 18th save in 20 chances. Promising rookie, Matt Kemp scored the tying run and drove in the go-ahead run for the Dodgers, which avoided getting swept in the three-game series. The Dodgers had gone 16 scoreless innings over three games before Kemp scored on Rafael Furcal's sacrifice fly in the fifth.

Kemp tripled in the fifth and came home on Furcal's sacrifice fly, then hit an RBI single in the seventh after Russell Martin's leadoff double.

Now the Dodgers head to the Mets for a four-game series.

"Hopefully, this is the momentum we need to go into New York,
where we all know where they stand in the division," Lowe said.
"They're probably going to win it any day."

We really need Brad Penny to pitch a gem Thursday night. He needs to become the National Leagues first 16-game winner of the year.

Game 138: Dodgers @ Brewers 0:9

2006-09-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

The Dodgers seem to have gone from hot to cold in a flash. After winning seven straight games, the Dodgers have been anything but lucky.

The Dodgers lost their third straight Tuesday night, falling to the lowly Milwaukee Brewers in a one-sided, 9-0 shutout. The Dodgers could only muster four hits the entire game.

The Dodgers' anemic offense has been outscored 27-8 in their last three games.

"When you don't score runs, you look flat," Los Angeles manager
Grady Little said. "There is no getting around that. But we will put
this game behind us and come back tomorrow and see
if we will be ready to beat on somebody. Then when we start
hitting the ball, starting having baserunners, we won't look
flat anymore. I guarantee you."

This statement concerns me. Growing up, playing little league, my manager always emphasized the importance of having a winning and positive attitude. He always had us illustrate this by using positive language. One would never hear us or our coaches say "if we when" for example. It was always "when we win."

Now, we have Grady Little wondering if we will be ready to beat someone. Definitely not the type of attitude I want to hear coming from the manager. The Dodgers, which had opened a seven and a half game lead in the NL West on July 26, leads second-place San Diego just just one game now.

"It's hard to get it going if you are not getting any baserunners,
and we didn't get too many tonight," Little said.

Mark Hendrickson continues to show why Hong-Chih Kuo should get a chance to start, dropping to a sad 1-7 since joining the Dodgers. In his latest outing, Hendrickson lasted just four innings for the second straight time, giving up five runs (four earned) and seven hits. He has lost three straight decisions and has just one victory since June 20.

"It's kind of been frustrating for me," Hendrickson said.
"Obviously, I am not executing my pitches as well as I would like,
and I am not really getting away with any mistakes.
It just comes back down to executing pitches a lot better."

I am willing to put money on Kuo being able to execute. Little: Grow some balls and do what is best for the team! Replace Hendrickson with Kuo!

Questionable call up, reliever Eric Stults made his major league debut, allowing three runs and five hits in three innings.

Notes:

1. In some positive news, the Dodgers recalled Oscar Robles and Delwyn Young from Triple-A Las Vegas. It is nice to see Robles back up and will definitely be nice watching what Young can do.

2. Matt Kemp showed his arm strength, throwing a runner out at the plate. Kemp sure does look like the whole package.

Game 137: Dodgers @ Milwaukee Brewers 3:6

2006-09-06T10:05:00.000-07:00

Gosh, it sucks to be the team that loses to a the other team, snapping their ten-game losing streak. Coming in, it seemed like a sure fire win. Especially with Greg Maddux on the mound.

However, the stars were not aligned properly for the Dodgers. The Brewers beat the Dodgers 6-3, handing Maddux his first loss as a Dodger. To add insult to injury, San Diego won their game, cutting the Dodgers' lead in the National League West to just two games.

Maddux, who was 3-0 since being traded to the Dodgers by the Chicago Cubs at the July 31 deadline, allowed a run and two hits in his first four innings. But an infield hit glanced off Maddux's glove in the fifth, setting up a three-run inning for Milwaukee. Maddux (12-12) gave up six runs and 10 hits in his first loss since July 19. Maddux is 1-3 against Milwaukee this year.

"Usually you're not as good as you think and sometimes you're not
as bad as you think," Maddux said. "I could have made some
better pitches."

That is definitely the sound of a true professional.

After a leadoff single by Damien Miller and sacrifice bunt by Brewers starter Dave Bush, Maddux attempted to backhand a hard-hit ground ball by Brady Clark. The ball bounced off Maddux's glove and he couldn't pick it up in time to throw out Clark, putting runners on first and third with one out.

"I just couldn't find it," Maddux said. "It's hard to see sometimes, especially
when you're not really catching it and (are) just trying to react to it."

Graffanino's RBI double scored Miller, and Jeff Cirillo followed that up with a sacrifice fly that scored Clark to give Milwaukee a 3-1 lead. After an intentional walk to Prince Fielder, Corey Hart singled home Graffanino to put the Brewers ahead 4-1. Geoff Jenkins, making only his fifth start since being benched on August 11, singled to left, but rookie of the year candidate, Andre Ethier threw another rookie of the year candidate, Prince Fielder out at home to end the inning.

The Dodgers rallied for two runs in the sixth, cutting the Brewers lead to 4-3, but Corey Hart threw out Jeff Kent at the plate to end the inning. Dodgers manager Grady Little lifted Maddux with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth. Graffanino then singled off reliever Giovanni Carrara, scoring Miller and Bush to put the Brewers ahead 6-3.

Kenny Lofton scored on an RBI double by J.D. Drew in the first to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.

Fielder decided to cause some problems in the fourth inning, making an aggressive slide into second base for his sixth stolen base of the season then calling time to exchange words with Kent.

I understand that passions are high, and emotions are being worn on sleeves out there. Tempers will flare and words will be exchanged. But to call time out just to talk smack? That is just immature and lame. Maddux should have plunked Fielder his next at bat. That, by far, would have been his "welcome to the majors" moment.

Brewers manger, Ned Yost admitted Fielder might have slid a little late.

"Prince is a kid that plays the game hard, and I think he's been just
a little tired of getting his butt kicked," Yost said.

Some randomness:

1) Unfortunately, Grady Little said the chances of Chad Billingsley pitching in the team's series against the NL-leading Mets beginning Friday in New York are "very slim." Billingsley sustained a mild strain to his left oblique muscle on Sunday.

2) The Dodgers recalled LHPs Eric Stults and Tim Hamulack from Triple-A Las Vegas and purchased the contract of RHP Giovanni Carrara from Single-A Vero Beach before Monday's game.

3) Kent has an 11-game hitting streak.

Brazo(not)banned

2006-09-05T05:41:00.000-07:00

Yhency Brazoban is travelling with the team again:

Reliever Yhency Brazoban traveled to Milwaukee, rejoining the club
on the road for the first time since having "Tommy John"
nerve replacement surgery on his right elbow in April.

"He's just now beginning his throwing," Little said.
"He'll do that for the remainder of the season, and hopefully
he'll be ready to go at Spring Training."

Brazoban is throwing short distances, not off a mound yet.

Scottsdale, Arizona, do you copy?

2006-09-05T05:36:00.000-07:00

One of our most avid and frequent readers (checking in more often than every other day) is from Scottsdale, Arizona. While I'm grateful you're coming back, I'd like to know a little bit more about you. Care to let us know about yourself?

Game 136: Dodgers vs Colorado Rockies 5:12

2006-09-05T05:32:00.000-07:00

Instead of a boring blowout game report (after all tomorrow is another day) I have a question for you. What would be an English rendition of the following sentence in my language:

"W żadnym stopniu nie czuję się na siłach napisać
podsumowania takiego meczu jak ten".

Whoever gets it translated (and correctly) first, gets the Official Ravings title of the Linguistic Wizard and her/his page/blog is linked up to from our links section. Try it :).

Has he ever?

2006-09-03T23:22:00.000-07:00

Has Grady Little been ever so popular with the fans? Any fans of any team in any league he coached? Certainly not with the BoSox fans at the end of his tenure...

Let's sticky this ESPN rating page (thanks to the Kamenetzkies for the heads-up on this) and see how the ratings change at the end of the season. Something tells me there's almost nowhere to climb (Grady's currently at 92% approval rate) :).

On the other hand, you could almost feel indifference in the air regarding the Arizona Diamondbacks' skipper. It's not that Bob Melvin's approval ratings are going down (47%) as fast as his team's position in the NL West standings, it's how few people actually cared to vote (76 individuals only, second lowest to the Rockies vote).

No sooner have I said it...

2006-09-03T23:12:00.000-07:00

...that Grady confirmed what the DodgerLand had in mind. Look out for Hong-Chih Kuo to start a game some time soon.

It's quite possible that [Hong-Chih Kuo] will [start]," said Little.

"He was very impressive in his outing last night, and he's been

pitching very well since he started starting in [Triple-A Las Vegas].

It wouldn't surprise me if we don't stick him in there

for a time or two by the end of the season."

Since the management is not going to rush Chad Billingsley back from the oblique muscle strain, with less tension on the road, I would really expect the Korean lefty so start either of the two back games (after Greg Maddux's start later today) in Milwaukee.

Games 134-135: Dodgers vs Colorado Rockies 6:3, 14:5

2006-09-03T22:51:00.000-07:00

As witnessed by my earlier post reagrding the comeback kids, the success in two first games in the Rockies series clearly lied in how the Dodgers were able to strike right back after their opponents put up a big inning. I believe the April Dodger would have laid on their backs and practically called it quits right there and then when the threes and fives were put on the board by the visitors.

Anyway, have you noticed how well the Dodgers are seeing and hitting the ball lately? While I missed the series finale yesterday (due to heavy storm which made me turn off all power-based devices at home), I did notice that even when they made outs, it was not on weak grounders and/or popouts. At least not to a degree that had been noticeable before this trend. My lithmus (proper word?) test here is how Raffy and Nomar make their outs. On their worst days, it's a grounder to shallow short by Furcal and first-pitch centerfield lazy flyout by Garciaparra. While they are not exactly tearing it up recently (especially Nomar), they make defense work harder for the putout.

As for the two game themselves:

(1) How is this possible that Wilson Betemit is leading this team in HRs? ;) I admit, he has a sweetest longball swing, but with Jeff Kent and JD Drew onboard, it still feels strange.

(2) Since it's September, I guess it's safe to say that Drew DID indeed stay healthy this year. Partly due to the "play four-sit one" procedure advocated by Grady Little. My point though is: which version do you like more for the ca 11 mln, I guess it's what JD makes per year: the high-octane HR/RBI type which is more prone to injury, or the slap-hitter/adequate-fielder RF which we have seen mostly this year?

(3) Congrats to James Loney for his career-first homer run in the Dodger uniform, hit in the middle game (8th innings, nobody on, against a Manny Corpas!

(4) This second game of the series was indeed strange pitching-wise. It featured Mark Hendrickson, deprived (and rightly so) of the regular starting spot in late August and the former LH relief specialist Hong-Chi Kuo, whom I believe you easily challenge for the starter role next season. While both were equally efficient (no runs, no hits in their respective inning of play), Hendrickson is clearly on his way out the closer we get to the playoffs, while Kuo might just be a specialty lefty (to a much larger extent that Joe Beimel and/or Tim Hamulack's stuff will ever allow them to) coming out of the bullpen in the stretch run.

Streaking comeback kids

2006-09-02T21:33:00.000-07:00

One of the signs of a mental makeup of a team fighting for a playoff spot is how well this team reacts to a big inning by their opponents. I'm not going to do any spectacular math here, but the last two games, are showing a positive development:

Game 1 of the current Colorado series:
Three runs in the fourth put up by the Rockies are countered with Dodger three in the bottom of the same inning thus reclaiming the lead on the way to the win.

Game 2 of the current Colorado series (still being played as I write this):
Five Rocky runs in the top of the sixth were mitigated by a six run outburst in the bottom of that inning (the Dodgers even countered to a bases clearing double with the same feat on their own by Nomar). All of this happening on the way to yest another win in a row (13-5 through six innings).

Winning teams simply find a way to bounce right back.

The September combos they will throw at you

2006-09-01T22:29:00.000-07:00

Since it's time for September roster expansions and some teams have already found themselves out of contention, we have to assume the bottom-dwellers will throw some new faces at the Dodgers. The winner of the day (and believe me, it's only started as a process, since we're on the road to Milwaukee) is the Colorado Rockies combo of 6 through 8 hitters in the lineup. They are:

6 - Ryan Spilborghs,
7 - Chris Iannetta,
8 - Troy Tulowiztki.

I know these guys might (just might) one day turn out to be huge impact players, but for now - who, apart from their die-hard fans, has ever heard their names before? I certainly did not and hence the September Combos Award No1 goes to these three amigos!

Welcome, Marlon Anderson

2006-09-01T22:13:00.000-07:00

I must admit, my earliest recollection of Marlon Anderson is *not* as the majors-leading best PH last season. I remember him as an up and coming second baseman with the Phillies in 1999, that at that time the team was pretty high on.

Obviously, something must have gone wrong, and it was not his fielding percentage, that send him on the road to Tampa Bay, St. Louis, NY Mets and Washington. Somewhere on the way he was demoted from a regular infielder to utility infielder-outfielder with pinch-hitting duties. And, from what little I know about it, has gradually become very good at it.

All in all nice September pickup for the Dodgers, especially that we only gave up Jhonny Nunez (rhp) in the process. It makes sense that LA did not keep oft-injured Ricky Ledee in the primary LH PH spot for the stretch run:

Look:

Marlon Anderson: OBP .331 - SLG .423 - BA .274
Ricky Ledee: with Dodgers: OBP - .273, SLG - .396, BA - .245
with Mets (ouch!): OBP - .125, SLG - .067, BA - .067

I'm not a stat-head by any means, but can do the math ;).

Game 133: Dodgers vs Cincinnati Reds 7:3

2006-09-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

Unbelievable what a defensively minded and cool-headed pitcher can do for you as a forgotten ninth fielder. And if the same pitcher can successfully lay down a squeeze bunt, driven in two RBIs and go seven innings with no threat from the opposing team past the first inning - your team is crusing. Long live (and pitch!) Greg Maddux!

This is what the doctor ordered for those Cincinatti Reds - a clean sweep in the pushback series. Obviously, since the Reds turn around and face the second-place San Diego Padres, I would gladly accept their sweep of the Friars, even though it's rather unfathomable at this point.

(1) Anyway, another serious effort on the part of the bottom of the Dodger lineup. The trio of Wilson Betemit, Russell Martin and Madux went combined 5-for-10 qith 2 runs scored and 4 RBI. I like it.

(2) Is it possible that the Dodgers will not have a single hitter reach the 90 RBIs plateau for the season. I know September only just started, but the team-leadin JD Drew is only at 77... Nomar's at 69 right now, and that's pretty much it when it comes to a chance to reach 90 for the season. Same thing in the homerun department. Betemit leads the pack with 16 (most of them hit with Atlanta) and it is not out of question that the Dodgers will have no-one in the twenties for the season. Weird, isn't it?

(3) The Colorado Rockies come to town for a three-game Memorial Weekend series. Since we're going with Derek Lowe, Brad Penny and Aaron Sele (in place of the injured Chad Billinglsey) I'm reasonably optimistic about the outcome. While we should not get excited about another sweep, a series win is a must.