Dodgers swept by the Angels and the games weren't close. Some things will have to change and some trades will have to be made. The same Dodgers who beat down Cincinnati and St. Louis pitching had no chance against the Angels pitchers. They only scored 4 runs in three games... The Dodgers and Angels are almost identical teams in the way they're constructed, so a result like this really highlites the problems that the Dodgers have had all year and which aren't apparent against lesser competition... The two BIG differences between the Dodgers and Angels are: 1. Vladimir Guererro The Dodgers have now left more men on base than any team in baseball. Something like 350 runners have been left stranded so far. A guy like Guererro changes the way that you pitch to the entire lineup. You always have to account for his at-bats, but the Dodgers have nothing like him. The Dodgers do have one of the great on-base teams top to bottom, but they're dying on the vine. You can't put .280 hitters everywhere, without a little pop to drive them in, but that's the situation now... 2. Mike Scioscia Grady Little is a good manager, but Scioscia is a great one. The difference in ability between the two was obvious all weekend... There was only one real surprise in the three games (for me) and that was Angel LF Reggie Willits. http://www.rallymonkey.com/player.php?plast=Willits&pfirst=Reggie I'd never heard of this guy, but he's batting .370 and playing so well that the there's serious talk in Anaheim of Garret Anderson not getting his job back when he returns from the DL. Willits is a real lead-off hitter who is a major pain in the arse for visiting teams... Dodger fans are turning evil on the talk radio dial...
A few posts back there, I said that the Dodgers were starting to pull away, but their upcoming games with the Angels and Brewers would tell us a lot. Well... The Dodgers lost again tonight, this time to the Brewers, so they're 0-4 in this six game set with two other first-place teams... Dodger problems: - No power - Below average defense - Tomko being shelled With their tremendous depth, the Dodgers must make some trades. These flaws have been there since spring training and trades are the only way to solve these issues this year. Just like the last few years, they have enough to make the playoffs, but not enough to win a title with what they have now... Wilson Betemit got another pinch-hit and RBI tonight, making him 5-for-6 as a PH... Prince Fielder launched two monster bombs into the pavillion tonight for Milwaukee. One was almost 500ft. I feel old watching him play. I saw his father (Cecil) play high school football for Nogales High School... Getting old Part II: A pitcher for the Brewers tonight was Matt Wise. He lives here in Montclair and he used to play summer ball for Claremont against Montclair when I managed that team...(sigh) Possible Dodger trades would be for need at: 1. 3B (power hitter) 2. #5 starter to replace Tomko 3. LF (power hitter younger than Luis Gonzalez)
I wonder if the Dodgers would be interested in Morgan Ensberg, he's got a lot of power and he's a USC guy. I'd love to trade him to the Dodgers.
Dodgers beat the Brewers with their bullpen 3-2. Milwaukee had only one hit after the 3rd inning. Broxton was blowing people away at a clocked 98mph tonight and the Dodger Stadium radar gun is regarded as the slowest in MLB... The Dodgers brought up another 3rd baseman from Las Vegas tonight: Tony Abreu. This gives them three, so they're obviously showcasing somebody as trade bait. The three are Wilson Betemit, Andy LaRoche and Tony Abreu. All three are in their 20's... re: Matt Kemp? Dodger Dogs are asking these same questions. The team has been stocking insurance players at Las Vegas, like Matt Kemp, James Loney, Delwyn Young, Larry Bigbee, and pitchers DJ Houlton, Yhency Brazoban, Hong Chi-Kuo, Greg Miller and Eric Stultz. Something has to give. Loney's agent has been demanding a trade since spring training. Bigbee will have to be released by rule soon and everybody could use those pitchers. IMHO- all of them could be traded, with Loney the most likely to go and Kemp the least likely to be traded... Current trade rumors have involved names like Troy Glaus and Miguel Cabrera. Yes, Morgan Ensberg name has come up, but the feeling here is that he's not better than what we already have. I sure would like to get Cabrera...
Dodgers had the day off after winning the series with Milwaukee. The Brewers are showing signs of strain. They tried to start a beanball war by throwing at Russell Martin, but Grady Little wouldn't fall for it. The first batter up in the next inning was Prince Fielder and Brad Penny was on the mound, so the stage was set for retaliation...but they let it go. Dodger pitchers shut down everything the Brewers tried to do and in a show of force, the Dodgers closed out the game with Yhency Brazoban, playing for the first time in more than a year after Tommy John surgery; and he struck out the side in the 9th throwing 95mph... The Dodger bullpen now contains Brazoban, Broxton and Saito for full-tilt boogie heat after the 6th. They're now 24-1 with a lead after 6... Dodgers now have Tsao on the DL with a bogus "injury" to make room for Brazoban as they continue to overstock players everywhere in anticipation of a trade... Cubs in town today...
Dodgers are off today after taking 2 of 3 from the Cubs. Some thoughts... re: Milwaukee Brewers The Brewers are pretenders. Forget that 10 game lead they had. Its gone. They were pounding bottom feeders, but their trip to the Wild West exposed them. After their loss to Atlanta today, they've now lost six straight games to the Dodgers, Padres and Braves. They've also lost 8 of the last 10, and 13 of the last 17. They can't go the whole season beating up on Pittsburgh and Washington. They're not going to make it... re: Chicago Cubs The Cubbies are a very strange team. I don't even know how to analyze them and I don't think Lou Pinella has figured out how to coach them yet... They're one of the dumbest baseball teams I've ever seen. Watch Lou's face during a game. Watching his own team, his face goes from smiling contempt to furious outrage; from sneering disbelief to open-mouthed disbelief. He's now in permanent melt-down mode, teetering on the verge of nuclear explosion. If I were a player or coach on that team, I wouldn't sit anywhere near him in that dugout. Sooner or later the furniture is going to fly, along with the Gatorade tub, bat rack and pine tar can. The worst is yet to come... The Cubs have plenty of talent. They have a $100 million payroll and plenty of power...but they're stupid. They lost the last game of the series in the 11th inning on three walks and a wild pitch. The Dodgers didn't even have to put the ball in-play. All they had to do was stand there, along with Lou, and watch the Cubs self-destruct. In another incident, the Dodgers pulled off a Little League delayed steal of third. The Dodger runner at 2nd base came way off the base on a pitch and acted like he was stranded. The Cubs catcher, Barrett, threw down to 2nd base, and the Dodger runner simply walked over to 3rd. Tsk...tsk.. what a maroon! The first thing they tell you during Little League pickle drills is "If a runner is trapped between bases; run right at him." You never throw behind him...ever...that's stupid...and I can't believe that I saw a MLB catcher do it, but he did. These are only examples. One more: Andre Ethier tied the game yesterday on a pinch hit HR, with the count 0-2...I said the count was 0-2...0-2... The Cubs did so many dumb things in three games that it would take 10 pages just to list them all. All I know is: the Milwaukee Brewers are not good enough to run away with anything, unless the Cubs, Cards and Astros let them. Poor Lou... .............DD
re: Cubs As I predicted, the Cubs and their manager have melted down entirely. Their pitcher (Zambrano) attacked his catcher in the dugout and then again back in the clubhouse and sent him to the hospital. Dropped flyballs and a catcher who can't catch will do that to you... In today's game, the Cubs were playing their usual stupid brand of ball, when they had a runner thrown out trying to take 3rd on a wild pitch; in a one run game they were losing; with nobody out... Lou Pinella went berzerk. He tossed down his hat; kicked dirt on the umpire; kicked the hat again and had to be restrained by all of the three umpires who were not involved in the call. I predict that this situation will get even worse and there will be even more meltdowns. 99 years is a looooooong time... re: Crankees The 2007 Yankees are becoming pathetic. Derek Jeter made two errors in the same inning today. If a Hall-of-Fame player like that is having trouble concentrating, then the ship may go down before the All-Star break... Roger Clemens looks like the most pathetic savior in the history of the game. He scratched himself from pitching at Boston... and he scratched himself from pitching at Chicago... now he's saying that he should be fully recovered from his "fatigued groin" injury to pitch against the Pirates at Yankee Stadium. Booooooo... re: Dodgers Everything remains the same in Dodgerland. The team is good based on excellent starting pitching, a super bullpen and a lot of contact hitters who get on base. The great weakness is zero power at the power positions. The Dodgers starting 1st and 3rd basemen have combined for a grand total of two HRs all season and the team is leading MLB in runners left on base. That's not going to cut it... re: Russell Martin If the season ended today, Russell Martin would be the MVP in the National League. He's leading NL catchers in virtually every offensive category, he's a defensive whiz kid in the Steve Yeager mold, and he even steals bases. He's hit HRs in three straight games, but rested today... Rookie Tony Abreu has beaten out Andy LaRoche at 3rd base and the kid was 3 for 4 today, with a BA of .367. LaRoche was returned to AAA Las Vegas. The only problem with Abreu is zero power. He's being groomed as Jeff Kent's replacement at 2B. Yhency Brazoban didn't last long. He threw only 13 pitches in his second appearance and left the game with a shoulder injury. He's on the DL again... If Jason Schmidt looks OK throwing on the sideline he will be cleared to start against the Padres in San Diego on Tuesday. It was reported that he was clocked in the low 90's in his rehab start for the Inland Empire 66ers...
DD...How would you compare Russel Martin to Joe Mauro the Twins young catcher? Also right now is there a more exciting rookie that the Astro's Hunter Pence? He's hitting almost .360, runs like a deer and plays great defense in CF.
J Mauer C 28 102 18 36 10 0 1 14 49 16 15 3 0 .446 .480 .353 R Martin C 53 187 36 58 14 1 6 38 92 23 28 8 1 .384 .492 .310 A comparison of the two players on paper doesn't tell you much. Martin has played in twice as many games as Mauer, so I'm assuming that the Twins catcher may have been hurt. Both of them are wonderful young players who should be around for a long time. Another fine young catcher is that McCann down at Atlanta. I would give Martin the edge at this time for the following reasons: 1. He's just beginning to hit for power. He's hit 4 of his 6 HRs in the last week. 2. His reputation behind the plate has grown to the point where some teams refuse to run on him. 3. His reputation with a veteran pitching staff has grown to the point where they don't even question him. Not one of them has asked for the backup catcher on their start day, despite the fact that the backup catcher is 15-year vet/All-Star Mike Lieberthal. 4. His ability to steal bases and hit behind the runners gives the Dodgers unusual weapons out of the catcher position. 5. Despite being one of the youngest players on the team, he's become the heart & soul, team leader of the Dodgers. This on a team that includes recognized leaders such as Kent and Gonzalez. Its scary to think that this kid is getting better, but he is and he's already the best in the National League. Let's hope they keep him. This team has traded franchise catchers before, like LoDuca and Piazza. I hope they learned their lessons. The best Dodger teams have always kept their catchers, like Campanella, Roseboro, Torborg, Scioscia, Yeager etc... re: Pence 8. H Pence OF 33 128 14 48 11 3 5 23 80 5 21 5 3 .403 .625 .375 I'm not familiar with this kid. We haven't played the Stros, but that .625 slugging average sure gets my attention! Looks like NL pitchers haven't figured him out yet. I'll be watching this one. Those are some big numbers and you say he can run too? I'll be watching...
Derek Lowe flirted with a no-hitter for 7 and Russell Martin hit another HR as the Dodgers beat the Pirates 3 out of 4 after beating Washington 2 out of 3. Now comes the hard part... The Dodgers finish their 10-game road trip at San Diego, where the Padres are tied with them for first place. The Pods also have the best pitcher in the National League in Jake Peavy and a pitching staff that may be as good as the Dodgers overall. We'll know after tonight. Jason Schmidt, the alleged ace of the Dodgers returns after missing nearly 2 months. He'll replace Mark Hendrickson in the rotation and Hong Chih-Kuo replaces Brett Tomko who have both been banished to the bullpen/trade bait. IF Schmidt is healthy and Hong can throw some quality innings, the Dodgers will be hard to catch. This series may tell the tale. Schmidt goes tonight and Hong is scheduled for game#3 against Peavy... Takashi Saito came up lame with a hammy the other night and that's a big subtraction for the Padres series. I'm not sure that folks in other parts of the country realize just how good Saito really is. As a huge star in the Japanese League for many years, the 37 year-old Saito is on a par with Eckersley or Smoltz as a starter-turned-closer. Check out these numbers: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=7726 His strikeouts outnumber his walks 15-1! He has control over several pitches, including a sneaky-fast 93mph riser. He will miss the entire Padres series and his replacement, Jonathon Broxton, is a 23 year-old and sometimes he looks scared out there. Like last night, when he was having control problems, so his fastball rose to a clocked 100mph. Throwing hard is nice, but only a young (or dumb) pitcher throws harder when he's trying to find the plate. He'll be a great closer some day, but unfortunately, we need him to be great right now... We're about to find out just how deep that Dodger bullpen really is...
I seem to remember these superlatives heaped on another Dodger closer.... How's that Gagne kid workin' out for ya :twisted: Did Lowe cry when he lost his no-hitter :twisted:
Eric Gagne was the greatest relief pitcher in baseball when he was here and the stats prove that.... Did you punch the link I posted for you? Saito's ERA is 1.50 and all batters for the last two years have a combined batting average against him of .179... I know that you don't get to see much pitching in New York, but I was hoping that you could imagine what they look like based on the actual numbers...
Well rats. The game went almost exactly as I feared: San Diego 1 Dodgers 0 It was a classic pitchers duel between the two best pitching staffs in the National League...that both have squirt gun offenses... Good news for the Dodgers was the return of Jason Schmidt. He gave up zero runs and only one hit in six complete innings and he threw only 85 pitches. He was consistently clocked at 89-91 mph, which is just right for him. This gives the Dodgers 4 premium starters: Penny, Schmidt, Wolf and Lowe. If Hong Chih-Kuo can create some wins as the #5 starter, the team should be tough in September... As I feared, the loss of Saito really hurt. The scoreless tie was broken in the 8th, when the Pods scored off Seanez who was filling in. Normally the 8th inning would be Broxton's spot, with Saito closing the 9th. With Takashi out, Seanez and Beimel pitched the 7th and 8th. The team never got to Broxton. Trevor Hoffman closed it out for Save #499 in the other dugout as the Pods won with only two hits. BTW- The San Diego's current pitching staff has the lowest home ERA of any major league team since the 1967 Chicago White Sox...
Well, what can I say Coach.... :twisted: Cards have 4 problems this year... (1) WS Hangover (2) Tony Larussa's Hangover (3) Another Death in the Cardinal Family (4) Pitching trades that are questionable oh, I forgot 1 more....Milwaukee Brewers. They're only 8 games out, and we're a long ways from the All-Star break....to be continued. Now the Yankees on the other hand.... :twisted:[/quote] 2nd place 6 out......they're pacing themselves..... 8)
There's still 104 games left to go, so even the lowly, pitcherless Yankees have a chance. When I last saw the Cards, Rollen was batting .208 and Jimmy Edmonds was lower than that. The Redbirds offense would get going sooner or later... The last time I saw the Brewers, they looked improved, but nowhere near as good as they thought they were. A quick analysis of their schedule showed that they had piled up a huge lead (which evaporated in one week) by beating the weakest teams in the NL. They may have the best pitchers in the Central, but they also have the youngest stars. If the Cards, Cubs and Stros press them, they could fold...
The slumping hitters in the Yankee lineup are now hitting ( Abreu, Cabrera and Cano ). Starting pitching has been fine. Middle relief terrible. Rivera seems to be finally rounding into form. The Yankees are one left handed middle reliver away from winning consistently. They have dug a deep hole for themselves but you can come back..... one step at a time.
First step will be getting Roger healthy, hope he doesn't miss the season for you guys. :twisted: :twisted: