This was a nice comeback win against the second-best bullpen in the American League. Fixed it for you.
I stand by my statement. ERA certainly tells a lot about a bullpen, but not everything. Take a look at the other numbers. BAA is Batting Average Against. Hitters are batting .232 against the Red Sox pen, but only .218 against Toronto's. Also, the BJ's pen has had to pitch a lot more innings. The numbers are close, but they're scewered by Papelbon, who is the best pitcher in either pen. The other mid-relievers and setup guys in the Jay's pen are slightly better, IMHO. The fellow the Dodgers lit up yesterday, Casey Janssen, hadn't been touched all year with zero losses and a an ERA under one. In fact, he'd only given up one run in his last nine appearances. That's pretty good for a setup man...
I understand what you're saying, JO'Co, but I guess I'd rather have a bullpen that allows a couple more hits as long as those hits are scattered and no (or fewer) runs score. As far as Papelbon skewing the numbers for the Red Sox, he is a member of their bullpen, which was the original comparison made. In any event, his individual BAA is .245, so without him included the Sox' bullpen BAA actually goes down. And Janssen's numbers are pretty good for a set-up man. Okajima's are better, especially after yesterday :wink:
Dodgers 6 D-Rays 3 The Dodgers pounded out 16 hits and made it look easy against a very strange team. Luis Gonzalez was back in his home town and had a HR and a triple. The kids had a field day with James Loney leading the way... The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are talented, but young and inexperienced. They're 2nd in the American League in HRs, but dead last in defense where experience counts the most. A typical D-Ray player is 21 year-old centerfielder Delmon Young. On offense he had a couple of hits and RBIs, including a HR. So what's the problem? After hitting a single to drive in a run, he rounded first base too far and the cutoff man threw behind him and hung him out to dry for an out. Later on, 39 year-old Jeff Kent ran a double off the wall into a triple, when Young was lazy getting his throw back to the infield... In fact, the Dodgers had back-to-back triples by Kent and Luis Gonzalez (Oldest pair ever to do that?) when Tampa rightfielder Jonny Gomes dove for a ball and had it hit off his forearm and roll away as Gonzalez just kept on going... The D-Rays look like a bunch of young hitters who don't really know what they're doing. They were taken to school today... Matt Kemp is now batting .432... Russell Martin 2 for 4... Most of Martin's family made the trip to Toronto on a five-hour bus ride from Montreal. They had never seen him play before; not even in Little League. All those years growing up, it was just Russell and his dad... The crunchy part of the Dodger schedule comes after Tampa Bay. The Dodgers go to Arizona, then San Diego. Brad Penny's next start has been moved back one day so that he will skip the D-Rays but pitch in Zona... Dodger vets are having fun at the expense of the kids. 22 Year-old pitcher Chad Billingsley was told the story that their hotel where the team was staying, was haunted. When he went to his room alone, the toilet flushed by itself. Later he went in there again to discover paper in the toilet, when he hadn't used it yet. He told this story, because he wondered if the tales might be true... Haunted friggen toilets... Dice-K vs. Maddux down in San Diego right now. Go Sox go!!!
Ugh...Dodgers blow a game to the crummy D-Rays: D-Rays 4 Dodgers 3 The Dodgers loaded the bases half-a-dozen times and left them loaded without scoring three times. In total, they stranded 15 runners. It was just one of those days. They hit line drives that turned into double plays... Tampa is still totally clueless. Crawford is typical. He may be the fastest guy in the American League, but forgot to tag up on a flyball, then stole 3rd base with 2 outs... The winning run was knocked in by revenge minded Dionner Navarro. He's the catcher who lost his job to Russell Martin. He was batting a buck-fifty and he was 3 for his last 33 at-bats when he connected. Good Grief Charley Brown... If Edwin Jackson beats us tomorrow, we'll have to call it a new curse. He's another former Dodger who was let go and is currently 0-8 with an ERA larger than his shoe size... Russell Martin broke the all-time Los Angeles Dodger record for stolen bases by a catcher with his 13th steal. He has a chance to break the franchise record of 18 set by Con Daily of the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in 1892... The legendary "Jacksonville Five" as they were once known when they were tearing up the minors are all on the varsity now and doing very well: Russell Martin, Matt Kemp, James Loney, Jonothan Broxton and Chad Billingsley...
Ugh. Dodgers lose again. Lots of poor play, strange happenings, bad calls and haunted hotels... D-Rays 9 Dodgers 3 (Here comes a rant.) Lieberthal gets a relay throw to the plate and has the runner by 25ft. He's sitting on the plate, with his knees and gear facing the runner and holding the ball in the glove with his throwing hand locking it down. How can he lose? The runner has nowhere to go. So what does he do? The runner tries to slide around the plate (which he HAD covered up) and he goes after the runner with the tag... So the runner kicks the ball away from him, then goes back to touch home plate... How many years has Lieberthal been in this league? 15? How many All-Star appearances? 3? Good grief; what a moron. How could he fall for that. The catcher's highest priority after catching the ball is guarding the plate. Why leave the plate if you're sitting on it and holding the ball? Its impossible for anyone to score if you just sit there. Wow... re: Oregon State wins the CWS My BS detector is going off. Just like it did when 3 guys averaged 60 HRs per year for 5 years in MLB, after the league went over 150 years with only two guys hitting 60 one time each. You just knew something wasn't right... Here we go again. No northern team wins the CWS in over 40 years, when suddenly Oregon State, which has never even been to a CWS, not only wins it, but wins it back-to-back. This time they even became the first team in history with a losing conference record to win the championship! Not only that, most of this year's players weren't even on the team last year. They're new recruits. Pardon my cynicism, but that BS detector in the back of my brain is flashing yellow lights and popping road flares... I want to know how this is possible and why everyone else isn't doing it too... re: Daniel Moskos I see there's a lot of controversy in Pirateland over Pittsburgh's selection of Clemsen's Daniel Moskos with the #4 pick in the recent MLB player draft. The criticism is that they could have drafted someone better, but they selected someone they could sign instead. I love it. Daniel Moskos is another player from my alma mater, Damien High School. I've seen him pitch and he's pretty good. He's lefthanded and he throws hard and I'll bet he's laughing all the way to the bank. If there's anything else to this story, I'll find out when football season starts and I see all of my spies in LaVerne...
Tight race out west as usual: Dodgers 8 D-backs 1 Brad Penny is dominating again. His record of 10-1 leads the NL and so does his ERA of 2.04... Last year, Penny was 10-2 at the All-Star break, then imploded the rest of the way. He has a temper, so when he got flustered, he simply threw the ball harder. Now his normal fastball is clocked at 96-98mph, so trying to throw harder is not smart and it ruins his control and telegraphs what he's doing. He had some games where he threw no curves or changeups at all, as his ERA rose out of sight. This year, he's made the mental adjustment to control himself and its made all the difference in his game. He's only thrown one bad game all year and he didn't lose his temper even then; he just went to the shower and looked forward to his next start. He's still a ferocious player and you can see that in his batting. He was hit by the pitch, but didn't even look at the pitcher. Then he went halfway to the shortstop to break up a double play and he made certain that he knocked the man down. This was a nice retaliation that didn't require Penny to hit someone in return... but he will... late in the season when everyone else has forgotten. Pitchers never forget... The skipper announced that Nomar will move to 3rd base to make room for James Loney at 1B. This is the move that Dodger Dogs have been demanding since spring training and its nice to see that management has finally come around to our way of thinking. This also probably means that the Dodgers are no longer trying to deal for a 3rd baseman... Jonothan Broxton reported that his hotel room in Tampa was haunted too. Hmmmmm. That makes two 22 year-old pitchers who's rooms were haunted. I wonder why these things never happen to Kent, Gonzalez or Lowe?
Tonight's game was a battle of the bullpens. The D-backs have a good one and they only made one mistake: Dodgers 6 D-backs 5 Rookie Tony Abreu hit his first MLB HR in the 10th inning and Saito closed them out. The Dodgers are now 5-0 in extra inning games and moved back into first place... This game saw the beginning of the James Loney era at 1st base. He's beaten out Nomar who moved over to 3rd base, where he was 0-5 and struck out with the bases loaded in the 9th on a pitch over his head. Meanwhile, over at 1st base, James Loney had a single, a double and a HR. The young Dodgers have emerged. The only vets who're currently hot are Luis Gonzalez and Derek Lowe... Lot's of Jermaine Dye rumors still floating around...
D-Backs 2 Dodgers 0 Another punchless night. The Dodgers had runners on in every inning except the 9th. They loaded the bases and came up empty...again. Nomar will never get his job back. James Loney is so hot, the deal for Teixiera may not happen, and if they ever trade Loney the fans will revolt. Loney had three more hits tonight and he went into the game batting .471 with the highest slugging percentage of any player since Babe Ruth! He's another 22 year-old and he's done this at every level and spring training too. On a team as punchless as the Dodgers, guys like Loney, Martin and Kemp really stand out. Let's trade the other guys! Among teams that have both scored the fewest runs and allowed the fewest runs, the Dodgers, Padres and D-Backs are all in the Top (or bottom) 5, with San Diego allowing the fewest runs and also scoring the fewest...
Dodgers win again to take 3 of 4 in Arizona and leave the D-Backs doubting themselves as well as their fans: Dodgers 9 D-backs 5 Russell Martin has replaced Nomar as the #3 hitter in the lineup and he responded again with a single, a double and a monstrous HR off Randy Johnson. Martin's blast landed in the upstairs balcony, above the 20ft wall at the 413ft sign in straight away centerfield... Nomar is almost out on the street. He lost his 1st base job to James Loney who raised his BA to an incredible .500 even and three HRs since his call-up... Matt Kemp had more hits too and he went into the game batting .423 in more than 60 at-bats... Randy Wolf cruised to his 9th win and Takashi Saito closed it out... Nomar was on the bench again today as 22 year-old Tony Abreu took his 3rd base job... Dodger dogs are beginning to wonder about all this money the team is paying for nothing, while Saito, Martin, Kemp, Loney, Abreu, Broxton, Billingsley, and Eithier all make $1 million or less... Team back home tomorrow for a big one with the Padres. The classic pitching matchup should be Saturday's game: Jake Peavy vs. Brad Penny...
Tough game tonight as we near the halfway mark. With these two super bullpens, the team that gets an early lead is hard to catch and that happened again tonight. The Padres scored six times off hapless Hong Chih-Kuo in the 4th inning and he never did record an out after the first nine. Although the Dodgers got to the Padres bullpen for three in the 8th and one more off Hell's Bells Hoffman in the 9th, it wasn't enough as they left the tying run at 2nd base: Padres 7 Dodgers 6 Padres players came out to perch on the rail during the game and check out baseball's latest phenom: James Loney. He didn't disappoint, going 2 for 4 to raise his BA to .478 (22 for 46). The only outs he made were a screaming liner down the leftfield line that was caught on the warning track and another liner up the middle that struck the pitcher and deflected to the shortstop who made a circus play. The kid hits everything hard and National League pitchers haven't figured out what to do with him yet... Nomar returned from the dead. He was 3 for 4, with an RBI, a run scored and a great play at 3rd base... Matt Kemp finally drew a collar to drop him under .400 (.393)... The Dodgers ran crazy on catcher Michael Barrett and pitcher Chris Young, with 5 steals in the first 3 innings... The Padres assistant GM Paul Depodesta (remember him?) is up to his old tricks. He believes that Money Ball stats are more important than heart, guts, team play and effort, you know, all those things that can't be measured. Not only did he trade for Michael Barrett, (The Cubs catcher who attacked two of his own pitchers in a two week period!) but now he has obtained Milton Bradley from the A's. Uncle Miltie will join their team on Sunday. Look out...
Re: Michael Barrett. The Cubs are hitting on all cylinders now. Makes you wonder if there is a connection between Barrett's departure and the team's current performance. I have no feelings either way, but it's an interesting point to ponder.
It was a pitcher's classic, just as advertized. Penny and Peavy were super, as were both bullpens into extra innings. The only problem was, we ran out of pitchers before they did. In the 12th inning, Grady put in Brett Tomko, who's ERA is now 5.85. After he gave up two runs, the Padres still had Hoffman left and that was the end of that: Padres 3 Dodgers 1 re: so much for the stats Peavy had the longest streak of innings without allowing a HR in MLB. Meanwhile, Nomar hadn't hit a HR in nearly 300 at-bats. His last dinger was on April 16. So of course, Nomar hit a HR off Peavy... re: kids will be kids Russell Martin extended his hitting streak to ten games, but committed a costly mistake late in the game. After hitting a single, he stole 2nd base in a 1-1 tie. That steal was his 15th, the most for any Dodger catcher since 1905. Then with one out and Luis Gonzalez at the plate, he attempted to steal 3rd (on his own) and got thrown out. Gonzalez then walked, so he would have had the base for free anyway. So instead of Nomar and Loney coming up with the bases loaded and one out, the pitcher was able to wiggle off the hook... re: pitchers Hong Chih-Kuo aka "Meat" has been sent back to Las Vegas. Recalled to the team is DJ Houlton, who was a starter for Jim Tracy a few years ago, but who has never made the team for Grady Little. Now he's back in the Big Show for the first time in three years... re: Local color tonight Old friend from Claremont HS (and Sid's Ft. Wayne team) Justin Germano is the starting pitcher for the Padres tonight against Chad Billingsley. The last time we saw Justin, he was getting knocked around pretty good a few years ago, but he's back with a 5-1 record and seems to have his act together now. I hope not... re: Barrett I agree Sid. It's called winning by subtraction. Sometimes when a good team is losing (like the Cubs were) the answer is not to add more players, but simply to get rid of the guys who're causing the problems. The only stat that really changes is the 'win" column and of course, that's the only stat that counts. If I were a GM, I wouldn't touch either Barrett or Milton Bradley. The Padres will be sorry...
Dodgers cruised today behind the fabulous pitching of young Chad Billingsley: Dodgers 5 Padres 0 Billingsley K'd 9, walked 0 and gave up 3 hits in 7 easy innings to raise his record to 5-0... Matt Kemp hit a HR off Justin Germano, but he later K'd on 3 pitches that were all sliders. He still can't hit breaking pitches and he'd better learn or that's all he will see... Russell Martin has been named as the NL's starting All-Star catcher. I gave him most of his votes under various aliases and phony email addresses... We are now half way done with baseball and football players report to camp this month... Mrs. JO'Co just called me into the other room to watch a great old movie that she had never seen before: Knute Rockne All-American; starring a couple of Irishmen named Ronald Reagan and Pat O'Brien. She asked me if it was all true and I said, "yes"...
There was another classic pitching matchup at Dodger Stadium tonight. Only three pitchers in history have been both 20-game winners and 40-save closers. One of them, Dennis Eckersley, is in the Hall of Fame. The other two, John Smoltz of Atlanta and the Dodgers Derek Lowe faced off in a duel that lasted six innings until the locals broke it wide open: Dodgers 8 Braves 2 Russell Martin was the difference again. All he did was go 4 for 5, steal bases, drive in RBIs and score runs. He has now stolen more bases than any Dodger catcher since Lew Ritter in 1904. He's so good that its difficult to make comparisons. Torborg and Yeager were as good defensively as Johnny Bench, but they couldn't hit. Piazza had power, but he was a lousy catcher. Roseboro, Scioscia, Dempsey, Haller, LoDuca were all fine leaders, but none of these Los Angeles Dodger catchers were as good as Russell Martin. Dodger Dogs are now talking about "Martinizing" the opposition and whispering a name that has not been heard since the days of the Boys of Summer in Brooklyn...Campanella... Matt Kemp blasted one of the longest HRs in Dodger Stadium history off Smoltz's only mistake. It was estimated at 465ft and was last seen headed toward the Police Academy. Kemp is the immediate subject of all trade rumors; before and after the game. Grady Little was upset when confronted with the stories after the game was over and denied any truth to them. The rumor is: Matt Kemp to the White Sox for Mark Buehrle. I hope not. As one wag said on a post-game show, "How many 40 HR prospects do the Dodgers think they have?" Lots of pitching prospects on the way. The minor league system may send several young pitchers to the team in the September call-up. The two most often mentioned (if they're ready) are Jonathon Meloan and 19-year old fireballer Clayton Kershaw... I see the Rockies and Dbacks are starting to show signs of wear & tear. I don't believe they'll be there at the end, but the Padres are for real and that will be a dogfight...
The Big Dodger in the Sky... http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-plaschke4jul04,1,5018679.column?coll=la-headlines-sports
Happy birthday, America! Its the 4th of July and the Dodgers are back in first place: Dodgers 7 Braves 6 Matt Kemp continues to pound the ball and raised his average to .403 and Wilson Betemit haunted the team that raised him up with 3 hits and 4 RBIs, including a massive HR into the right-centerfield pavillion... Mike Lieberthal got a start to rest Russell Martin, because he's terrorized the Braves throughout his career. He didn't disappoint with a couple of hits and a solid game behind the dish... Bad news: starting pitcher Randy Wolf left the game after three innings of severe pain in his shoulder. He will get an MRI Thursday. If he's gone, this could force the team to sell off some of the young guns they've been hording in order to obtain more pitching before the July 31 trade deadline... Today the Dodgers celebrated their 175 millionth customer with another sellout. The team is by far the most popular sports franchise of all-time, since their birth as the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in 1890, when their home field was at Washington Park in Brooklyn, NY: http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/la/history/ballparks.jsp Their greatest success has come here, in Los Angeles. The Dodgers all-time attendance in 44 years at Ebbets Field was 36 million. In their 49 years in LA, they drew 8 million in five years at the Coliseum and an incredible 128+ million at Dodger Stadium... Recent call-up pitcher DJ Houlton looks good. He pitched another three shutout innings tonight... Dodger Dogs realize that some of this excess young talent is going to have to go if we want to win this year, but we're holding our breath that they don't part with Kemp... Dodger GM Ned Colletti reports that he gets more calls every day about Wilson Betemit than any player they have. After his slow start, many teams want to grab him on the cheap. For the record; he won't come cheap...
The Dodgers are a storied franchise to be sure and have an exciting team this year that may go deep into the playoffs. However this statement caught my eye... "Today the Dodgers celebrated their 175 millionth customer with another sellout. The team is by far the most popular sports franchise of all-time, since their birth as the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in 1890, when their home field was at Washington Park in Brooklyn, NY: " For example, last year(2006) the Dodgers drew 3,758,421 while the Yankees drew 4,248,067. Similar numbers for 2005. In fact, in the Top Ten home attendance single season record book, the Yankees placed #2 and 3 while the Dodgers did not place. In spite of their lousy season to date, the Yankees are averaging 52,000 per game this year which translates into another 4,000,000+. By the way, if you needed starting pitching , send us some of that young talent for Clemens :lol:
Here are the real numbers for all-time Yankees attendance. Please note that they never reached even 3 million in attendance until 1999 and just recently passed the Dodgers in yearly attendance, thanks to the fact that the American League counts everyone who walks in the door, while the National League counts only paid attendance: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/yankatte.shtml
Jesus H! Do you have the attendance at the Little Big Horn as well? How many fannies were in the seats at the signing of the declaration of independence? :lol: Dig deep, JO'Co. Real deep. :lol: :lol: