Astros: Phil Garner hired a hypnotist to convince the team that the start of the season was really the 2nd half. He didn't count on the Hypnotist being afraid of flying west and since he didn't come on this trip they have realized that it's really the 1st half of the season and if they didn't get to work they wouldn't be behind the Cards by 10 or more games on July 4th. That's the truth and I'm stickin' to it! Terry
8) Meanwhile out west.. As the Red Sox are leaving New York, the Dodgers are arriving in San Francisco...
Also, Lidge almost blew it again yesterday. Garner is going to have to make a move it would seem. But I would imagine being demoted from closer would be crushing to Lidges ego, you wonder if he could recover. But it was good to get a win and stop the streak. Terry
8) The Giants tossed the kitchen sink at the Dodgers in Frisco tonight and got steamrolled for their trouble... It was a strange crowd up there, that wasn't anything like the normal collection of misfits and warf-drunks who're their regular fan base. For their first home Dodger series it was Felipe Alou Night, Willie Mays Birthday Night, with a fuzzy, orange/black, squirrel wig give-away, on top of Balco Barry trying to tie the Babe. Can you say 'three ring circus?" During the game, the Dodger telecast had several votes for Dodger Dogs watching at home. One asked who was the "better player; Aaron, Ruth or Bonds." Ruth won going away and Bonds didn't get a single vote...not just zero percent...he was shut out. In another vote, Dodger Dogs were asked what they would do with Bond's 714 HR ball if they caught it. Nearly 80% said, "Sell it." Meanwhile, rumor has it that Tommy Lasorda may be arranging some kind of fan protest against Bonds if he does hit it against the Dodgers... In the game itself, that strange crowd started out sounding like real Giants fans, screaming "Beat LA", "Beat LA", as the home team took the field, but seemed to lose interest quickly as the talent difference between the two teams became apparent. Half of them left after Bonds third at-bat and most of the squirrel wig wearers bugged out after seven. Not much was really said to the Dodger players and nothing was thrown at them this time. It looked like a crowd lured in with the free wig promotion and a chance to catch the HR ball. They weren't real Giants fans at all... Slowly but surely, the Dodgers are getting younger and younger as the young whiz-kids are brought in from Triple-A Las Vegas one at a time. One third of the starting lineup in Frisco tonight were kids who weren't on the team two weeks ago. Russell Martin was the catcher again and he's hitting .300. Willy Aybar was at 3rd base and he had some nice hits and looks like a stud, while Andre Ethier started in LF and had more doubles. All of them look great and there's more on the way. The only places where the kids may not be able to unseat the incumbents are at first base, where Nomar is hitting .350 with power and shortstop where Rafael Furcal is only 27 years-old himself... The Dodgers won easily tonight and look like their roster will improve and continue to get younger as the season goes. This is important, because younger players are cheaper players and the Dodgers may be in position to buy any help they need down the stretch... Meanwhile the Giants have one of the oldest lineups in major league history... Vin Scully mentioned that tonight was the anniversary of "The Little Hoosier's" (Carl Erskine) no-hitter....
The season is now 1/4 over and the Dodgers are: 5-5 -- 10-10 5-5 -- 13-17 3-7 -4 20-20 7-3 -- Last year at the 40 game mark the Dodgers were: @@-18 +4 Finally a winning segment! George in Ct.
8) This Dodger team is coming together, slowly but surely. Nomar Garciaparra is en fuego. The last I looked, he was batting .354 overall and .379 in May. He drove in the winning run again today and made more spectacular plays at 1st base. Being a former SS, he might be the best at that position for the Dodgers since Wes Parker... The kids are still doing well. The team is now 13-3 since Russell Martin became the starting catcher and Willie Aybar is hitting everything thrown in his neighborhood. In the bullpen, 20 year-old Jonathan Broxton is still 6'3", 300lbs of rumblin, tumblin fastball. The future is now for some of these kids... Grady Little no longer says dumb things like, "When Gagne comes back, he won't automatically be the closer...I'll alternate him and Dannys Baez." The bullpen is 2-14 with a dozen blown saves, including four in-a-row. Instead, he is now lighting a candle on bended knee and praying for the return of the great one along with everybody else. Gagne is now throwing in the pen and may be ready by June 1... This is a much better team than they had on opening day and its getting better with every game, as the pieces fit together and new kids fit in...
Tonight's starting pitchers in the Dodgers-Angels freeway series were Aaron Sele vs. Jeff Weaver. I'll wait for George to settle down before I proceed......still waiting.......ahem... Weaver was shelled and Vinny said that he was hard to recognize as the same guy who pitched in LA. Most of his pitches were changeups and curves, some clocked as slow as 70mph, and he was using his fastball as his changeup. He's now 1-7 and opponents are batting about .350 against him... Final score: Dodgers 16 _ Angels 3 The Dodgers broke the all-time LA Dodgers record with 25 hits in one game. Rookie Andre Ethier (pr. EE THEE ER) went 5 for 5 with a HR. Rookie catcher Russell Martin had three hits and gunned down Chone Figgens attempting to steal. Figgens had been 14 for 14 before this. Rookie Willie Aybar had three RBIs and a couple of hits... Nomar Garciaparra had three hits to raise his BA over .360. He's also batting over .400 with men on base and an incredible .875 after the 6th inning. His defense is a wowza too. The former shortstop now has over 200 chances at first base without an error and he has the greatest range for a first baseman that I've ever seen. We've had some great defensive 1st basemen here, like Wes Parker, Eric Karros, Dumbo Larker and Gil Hodges, but Nomar might be the best of them, because of his range... The Angels look sick. As BDR and I observed the other day, they are not playing fundamental baseball. Tonight they had a pitcher forget to cover 1st base on a ball hit to the right side. PFP (Pitcher Fielding Practice) is the most repetitive defensive drill that pitchers participate in. How do you forget that? This morning's newspapers were filled with stories of shouting matches between players in the Angels clubhouse after the games and its reached the point where the players are doing it in front of reporters. Something is definitely crooked in Denmark... The wheels are coming off the wagon... File this next one under "Why I love baseball." Before the game, the Dodgers said it was "just another game." "Fun for the fans, but nothing to the teams" etc. Then it turned out that the Dodgers had refused to recognize the "Los Angeles" Angels in promoting the game. Tonight's tickets said "Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Angels of Anaheim" and the visitors on-deck circle was painted "Angels of Anaheim." I guess the fans aren't the only ones in Dodgerland who regard the Angels as a Mickey Mouse franchise... ........................DD
re: budding rivalry The radio postgame show was hilarious too. Every single caller had been drinking, except for a 12 year-old boy who actually had a good question about proposed roster moves. All the others were still drinking in the parking lot and calling in on their cell phones. One guy was angry that the Dodgers left 13 runners on base. He was furious; "We could have whacked them 29-0!" And so on... Today the Dodgers whacked them again 8-4. I'm posting some of this, because I know some of you play that fantasy baseball and the Dodgers have a lot of newbies that you may not have heard of. Willie Aybar raised his average to .400 with another 3-run HR that tied the game. He's on the roster to replace Bill Mueller at 3rd, but its becoming obvious that it would be pointless to send him back to Triple-A Las Vegas, where he was batting .358 when Mueller gets back. Russell Martin continues to shine behind the plate and knock the cover off the ball and the team has the best record in baseball since he was brought up more than two weeks ago. Dionner Navarro is coming off the DL now, but Martin isn't going anywhere. He's beaten Navarro out. Gagne returns in 10 days, which will give the team 3 closers...and two of them aren't named Gagne. Its getting pretty close to the time where the Dodgers are going to have to make some trades... (Odalis Perez?) So how important is Gagne to the Dodgers? When he went to the hill yesterday before the game to pitch some live batting practice, the entire team stood in front of the dugout to watch. Manager Grady Little complained, "Why can't I have him right now?" The Dodgers continue to look great and get better and better with every roster move. The Angels look absolutely terrible, with a defense that is simply not major league... ...................DD
Get out yer brooms kids, the Angels have been swept... Final score: Dodgers 7_ Angels 0. Stick a fork in them: they're done. In the three game series, the Dodgers outscored the Angels 31-7 and it wasn't even that close. The Dodgers are in the Top 3 of MLB in nearly every offensive category, including runs scored, hits, OBP etc. The Angels are at the bottom two of every offensive category...along with the Kansas City Royals who may be the worst team in major league history... The Dodgers are still looking to trade Odalis Perez, Jayson Werth, Oscar Robles, Lance Carter, DJ Houlton and several others. If they can, they're also looking to bring up 5-tool whiz kid Matt Kemp from Double-A Jacksonville. Although he's not on the 40-man roster, he's tearing up the mid-minors at a pace that shows he may be ready right now... Things are looking mighty good right now...on THIS side of SoCal...heh...heh... ...................DD :twisted:
Dodgers 8_ Rockies 1 Dodgers have won 6 in-a-row, 14 of the last 17, 15-2 with Russell Martin at catcher and the last 6 series in-a-row against all comers. Both Gagne and Izturis going out to the minors on rehab assignments and both should be back with the team in June. The Dodgers are leading the National League in nearly every offensive category, with Nomar zeroing in on .400, Aybar at .400 and everybody else is hitting too... Odalis Perez still sitting in the bullpen for $8 million per year. They don't even use him as a set-up man. He's been fired... The Rockies had been in 1st place when they came in here after sweeping Toronto, but they're getting steamrolled too... What to do with Izturis? Kent is at 2nd, Nomar at 1st, Furcal at SS, Willie Aybar is batting .391 at 3rd base, with Mueller returning next month too. What to do with Aybar? Izturis? Mueller? Perez? Repko? Navarro? Ethier? There are too many good players; maybe 30 for only 24 roster spots. Some trades will have to be made before the inter-league trade deadline...
Dodgers 7_ Rockies 1 The Dodgers sweep again and finish an undefeated homestand for the first time since 1994. Nomar is batting .375, so is Willie Aybar. Kent is hot. Everybody is hot. The team still leading MLB in almost all offensive categories beginning with Runs Scored at 257... Plenty of trade bait. Odalis Perez is still sitting unused in the bullpen as his replacement, Aaron Sele won again tonight with 7 more shutout innings... I think its safe to say that new GM Colletti knows what he's doing and so does manager Grady Little, although I'm still not convinced that he understands pitching... ...................DD
8) Dodgers lost yesterday when they gave rookie catcher Russell Martin the day off and won today with him back in the lineup. The team is now 16-2 with Martin at catcher... The Mighty Gagne was clocked at 95mph in Las Vegas last night and will return to the team as their closer next Thursday when they return home from their road trip... Cesar Izturis is on assignment down at Single-A ball in Florida. If he's healthy, he's the best SS in the National League. His arm stregnth will determine if he plays 2nd, or SS. 3rd base is now out of the question and Bill Mueller will be lucky to retain his job when he returns, because of the play of rookie Willie Aybar... The Dodgers are in the market for a power-hitting outfielder and a starting pitcher, in that order. Rumors have them pursuing Crawford of Florida and/or Hunter from Minnesota... The Dodgers wet dream fantasy deal would be to trade a combo of players, prospects and cash to Florida for Miguel Cabrera and pitcher Dontrelle Willis. If that's not doable, the Dodgers will pursue Willis alone or a combination of Willis and Crawford... ................DD
Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 10:42 am Post subject: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The season is now 5/16 over and the Dodgers are: 5-5 -- 10-10 5-5 -- 13-17 3-7 -4 20-20 7-3 -- 28-22 8-2 +6 Last year at the 50 game mark the Dodgers were: 26-24 +2 Now two winning segments! George in Ct.
Dodgers beat Atlanta 12-5. Russell Martin is now 18-3 as the starting catcher... With the team down to just three outfielders, this weekend's games featured the long-awaited appearance of The Kid, The Natural, The Phenom, The Second Coming, The Can't-Miss Prospect, The Young Gun-Super-Duper, 5 -Tool, hotter than Jeepers Leaping Cheetos greatest rookie of them all........Matt Kemp. Coletti was supposed to go watch him at Double-A Jacksonville while they played the Braves, but he changed his mind and just brought him up right now. So far, so good, but he's still a kid. He struck out his first three at-bats on sliders away on virtually every pitch. Obviously, the Braves have a book on him and MLB pitchers can throw sliders like he's never seen before at Double-A, which is college level. He finally got a hit on his fourth at-bat, but looked confused before that. In the field, he overran a ball that cost the Dodgers a run. Today he looked more comfortable with two hits, but he played a routine fly nonchalantly and a runner burned him for an extra base. (Gee whiz! They never did that at Jacksonville!) While Kemp does look raw and a tad intimidated at times, the talent potential is off the chart. He's so fast, that he stole one base before the ball got there. He also showed his arm on a play to the plate and the kid has an absolute cannon. He's built like a linebacker at 6'4" 240lbs and runs like a deer. He really does have all 5 tools and he's exciting to watch. The acid test will come when the league pitchers adjust to any weaknesses they can find. Some guys never overcome that. Look at Clint Barmes of the Rockies. This time last year he was the talk of baseball. Now his average is hovering down near the Mendoza line. The unofficial fraternity of pitchers is ruthless. They all talk to each other and help each other. If Kemp survives that...Then he will have a lot of weapons in his toolbox to employ. ...............DD
8) Dodgers beat Atlanta again 8-3. Since Cinco de Mayo, the Dodgers have the best record in MLB; better than Detroit, St. Louis, anybody. This surge coincides with several things: Russell Martin is now 19-3 since being named the starting catcher; rookie Andre Ethier was brought up to play OF; rookie Willie Aybar was brought up to play 3B; Nomar was moved to #3 in the batting order; Odalis Perez was dropped from the rotation and old-pro Aaron Sele was brought up to replace him... re: The Golden Child Matt Kemp screwed up again today. Put in to pinch run, he attempted to take 3rd on a ball hit in front of him with less than two outs. The shortstop simply flipped the ball to the 3rd baseman who tagged him out. What a rookie-bonehead play! His only job as a pinch runner was to NOT do something stupid...and he did. re: Garciaparra This is one of the greatest players I've ever seen in a Dodger uniform. WOW! He's batting .360, but he's also batting .500 with runners in scoring position and he's an incredible 14 for 17 with runners in scoring position after the 6th inning! BTW- in Boston his name was incorrectly pronounced "Nomah-Garsha-Pah-Rah"; here we pronounce it correctly as, "No-Mar Gar-See-Ah Par-Rah." re: The Penny Explosion Brad Penny blew up after being relieved in the 5th inning two days ago. The raging bull from Oklahoma (6'5", 300) dropped the F-bomb on the skipper at the mound and in the dugout in front of TV cameras. Then he took a bat to the Gatorade tub and tossed sparkling water, helmets and towels around the dugout and up the tunnel. He continued the rant long after the game was over and screamed at reporters long after the coaches had left. He was out of control and today he refused to apologize. There is no word on how this situation will be resolved... re: super rooks Andre Ethier hit another HR today and he has completely out-played the player that he was traded for, Milton Bradley, in every phase of the game. Willie Aybar had more RBIs today and he is batting over .350... re: The Mighty Gagne Eric Gagne was reactivated today. He will serve a 2-day suspension for yelling at an umpire, then rejoin the team Thursday when they return to Dodger Stadium. Time to crank up "Welcome to the jungle!" .....................DD
:cry: I give up. I just spent 90 minutes writing a reply about intimidation in baseball. I did research and everything but it disappeared when I tried to post it. Its after midnight and I'm going to bed... ..........DD