Thursday, June 14, 2007

It's a Long Season...

Series Recap—Dodgers vs New York (NL)


6/11: Dodgers 5, Mets 3
6/12: Dodgers 4, Mets 1
6/13: Dodgers 9, Mets 1

After everything seemed to go wrong in the last two series, the Dodgers seemed to be humming along on all cylinders for this one. The pitching was terrific, the fielding crisp, and the hitting timely and powerful. It's also true that the Mets are better than demonstrated, but it's very satisfying to beat the tar out of them after all the denigration of the NL West I heard on WFAN leading up to the series.

With Abreu, Kemp, and Loney up with the team, there's a lot to get excited about. Now if the Dodgers can just avoid being swept by the Angels again, everything will be jake.

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Betemit, Kemp, and Kuo went back to back to back, hitting homers on three consecutive pitches in game 2. Kuo even flipped his bay after his shot, which was no cheapie. It was also the first time a Taiwanese player has hit a home run in the major leagues.

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Betemit finally seems to have gotten untracked, with two dingers in the series. That's good to see. Home runs are good! Loney hit his first of the season last night, as well.

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Eddie Murray was fired as hitting coach today, with Bill Mueller taking over the job for the time being. I don't know what to think about that. When Murray got fired by Cleveland prior to coming to the Dodgers, one reason put forward was that Murray isn't very proactive about helping players, preferring to let them come to him for advice. That may work with veterans, but not so much with kids, as Cleveland had and the Dodgers have now. The Dodgers approach hasn't been great this year, with too many batters not working counts. Not necessarily Murray's fault, since he was also batting coach last year when the Dodgers walked a lot, but troubling just the same, especially if Murray wasn't advising guys like Ethier to be a little more patient. (Although, I don't think Pierre or Nomar would listen even if he did.)

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Monday, June 11, 2007

Skidding Along...

Series Recap—Dodgers vs Toronto


6/8: Dodgers 4, Blue Jays 3 (10 innings)
6/9: Blue Jays 1, Dodgers 0
6/10: Blue Jays 11, Dodgers 5

Another ugly series, but there were bright spots, even if they are the kinds of things that pay off long term rather than immediately.

Bad: Jason Schmidt pitching batting practice to the Jays yesterday. All the hope off of his first start coming back from the DL has evaporated. How bad was it? Roy Halladay, who'd had exactly one hit in his entire career prior to the game, went 2-4.

Good: James Loney was recalled from Vegas yesterday, and started in place of Nomar. Drove in a run in his first at bat, too.

Bad: Still not hitting well as a team. Derek Lowe threw a complete game four-hitter Saturday, giving up a single run to the Jays, and lost because none of the Dodgers hit. Friday was a near thing, too, with Saito blowing his first save of the year.

Good: Lowe has been an absolute rock for this team of late, despite getting no run support. Three complete games, already more than LA had in either 2005 or 2006. Penny's been great, too.

Bad: Brady Clark, we hardly knew ye. I'm kind of surprised it was Clark, and not Anderson, who was let go to make way for Loney. OTOH, it leaves Kemp as the only right-handed hitter in the outfield, more or less indicating that he's here to stay.

Good: Grady has apparently had it with Pierre, dropping him to eighth in the lineup. He pinch hit for him with Ethier late in Saturday's game, and double switched him out in the fifth with Kemp yesterday. Still, what do you do with him? His contract makes him tough to trade and tough to sit.

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Friday, June 08, 2007

Bother, Swept Again...

Series Recap—Dodgers at San Diego


6/5: Padres 1, Dodgers 0
6/6: Padres 5, Dodgers 2
6/7: Padres 6, Dodgers 5

Kent and Nomar are taking most of the blame for last night's meltdown in the ninth, but Broxton has looked terrible in three of his last six outings. Grady held out Pierre last night, but he's back in the lineup tonight. The best news to come out of this is that Matt Kemp has been recalled. (All of a sudden Ramon Martinez's back hurts, so he's on the DL.) The bad thing is that Kemp is going to take time from Ethier, not from Pierre.

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The Dodgers, with the 20th pick, had a shot to draft a player out of my old high school yesterday, Rick Porcello, a kid projected to be the second best pitcher in the draft, but passed. Porcello is a Boras client, and may opt to go to UNC, so there are big signability issues. The Tigers wound up picking him at 27.

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Tuesday, June 05, 2007

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly...

Series Recap—Dodgers at Pittsburgh


6/1: Dodgers 5, Pirates 4

6/2: Pirates 3, Dodgers 1

6/3: Dodgers 5, Pirates 4

6/4: Dodgers 6, Pirates 5

The Good - Three out of four to pull a half game away from the Pads and Snakes.
DeLo taking a no-hitter into the seventh. Russell Martin hitting not one, but two game-winning homers. Jason Schmidt coming off the DL tonight.

The Bad - I listened to Sunday's game on delay, and as things got dicey late, I opened up Gameday just to see how things turned out, and was stunned to see that Beimel had gotten the save in relief of Saito. OMGWTFBEIMEL?!? Pulled up the ninth inning recap, and saw that Beimel had relieved Saito due to injury. OMGWTFSAMMY'SHURT?!? There wasn't any detail about what happened, so I just kept plugging along with Monday and Reuss on the radio archive. When it happened, there was actually some relief. It wasn't his arm. Saito was trying to walk it off, and it seemed as though he was removed as a precaution. The later news also wasn't horrible. Strained hamstring, day to day.

The Other Bad - Kuo's luck. Lowe losing it so quickly once the no-hitter was gone. Penny giving up his first and second homers of the season.

The Ugly - The Pirates' baserunning, especially in the 6th inning of Game 2. After Nady put the Bucs up by two with a solo shot to lead off the inning. LaRoche then doubled. Paulino also doubled, but LaRoche only got as far as third. Wilson hit a grounder to short. LaRoche got caught in a run down between third and home. Snell was up next, and Tracy put on a squeeze play, but Snell missed the bunt, and Paulino was dead. Snell then struck out to end the inning.

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Saturday, June 02, 2007

The Rumble at Wrigley...

The Cubs' Michael Barrett and Carlos Zambrano got into a shoving match in the dugout yesterday when catcher Barrett apparently pointed out to his pitcher that he was getting shelled. Zambrano took exception. The, er, discussion was broken up, and Pinella sent Zambrano to the showers. Barrett followed, and the next thing ya know Barrett had to go to the hospital for stitches in his lip. Pinella, who has been seething this year at the play of his team, let all his players have it in the post game interview. Remember, this is a man who was present when Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin got into it in the Yankees dugout in '78, and was a long term member of the Bronx Zoo. But that was a much better team than what Lou has in Chicago.

Zambrano, who was terrific last year, is in his walk year and stinking it up. Barrett, who punched out A.J. Pierzynski last year (fulfilling the dreams of practically everyone in North America, including Pierzynski's mother), has also been awful. He made about three mental mistakes in one inning against the Dodgers the other night. The whole team, which was expected to do well, has stunk. I'm not sure what they can do, either. It certainly looks like Barrett will be gone sooner rather than later, and if they can get a reasonable deal for Zambrano, he may go, too.

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Friday, June 01, 2007

Regression to the Mean...

Series Recap—Dodgers at Washington


5/29: Dodgers 10, Nationals 0
5/30: Dodgers 5, Nationals 0
5/31: Nationals 11, Dodgers 4

Penny and Lowe both pitched terrific games yet again, but then Hendrickson failed to deliver yet again. Juan Pierre had a triple followed by two doubles in the opener. The only thing that held him back was that Penny kept winding up on the base immediately ahead of him. The bullpen has taken a couple of hits. Brazoban got hurt in the finale, and was placed on the DL. Eric Hull (who) was brought up from Vegas to replace him. Meanwhile Broxton got clobbered again. He's given up 9 earned runs this season, 6 in two of the last three games. Here's hoping it's just a bad week

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Hendy, Hendy, Hendy... Here I'd started to believe in you, if only a little. Your numbers in your first six appearances were so good...

yeariperawhipfipgb%k/9bb/9hr/9slga
2004183.14.811.404.4845.64.272.261.030.443
2005178.15.901.554.6346.24.492.471.210.503
2006164.24.211.434.7448.35.413.390.930.373
200727.21.300.692.3258.77.801.620.320.193
But now...

200753.34.171.264.3547.86.592.531.350.420

Five games later and you're right back to your less than mediocre career levels. I am so disappointed. It wouldn't be quite so bad, but 7 home runs in the last five games. Have you stopped seeing that psychologist? If so, you might want to dig out his number. Back to the pen. Fortunately, it looks like Schmidt will be ready to come off the DL sooner rather than later.

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