2007 September 20 « Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness

Keith Law Gets It…

September 20, 2007 at 10:35 am | In Keith Law | 3 Comments

…even if he does work for ESPN.com. Actually, I don’t agree with him that Colletti deserves more blame than Griddle, but at least we’re recognizing there’s a problem here.

Ty Bicks (Reno): How many games did Little cost the Dodgers by using Nomar, Pierre, Gonzo, Tomko, Hendrickson, Hernandez instead of Kemp, Ethier, Billingsley, Loney, LaRoche and Meloan every day from Opening Day on? Definitely cost us a playoff berth, right?

Keith Law: (1:07 PM ET ) Yes, I believe it did cost them a playoff berth. But you have to split the blame between Little and Ned Colletti. And I’d put more blame on the guy who actually signed Pierre and re-signed Nomar.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness

Well, At Least Things Can’t Get Any Worse

September 20, 2007 at 5:33 am | In Jonathan Broxton, uh-oh | No Comments

Sure, it’s embarrassing to come out and lose 3 games in 2 days when winning at least 2 of those 3 was an absolute neccessity to keep hopes alive, but now we can look forward to the offseason and…

…what?

Uh-oh.

Jonathan Broxton revealed to reporters Wednesday night that his pitching arm is “sore,” verbal confirmation of what opposing bats have been hinting at for weeks.

“I’m a little sore, nothing to make a big deal about,” said Broxton, whose fastball continues to be clocked consistently at 97 mph. “It ain’t super-sore where it affects me. I can tell it’s September, I can tell with my location. I’m hanging some balls. I’ve made a lot of appearances and stuff. Sometimes it’s [a loss of] velocity, a lot of times it’s location. My velocity is still there, but I’m missing location. I’ve got to be able to get the ball down and not in the center of plate. I’ve got to throw it on the corners.”

Oh, good. Just what we needed to hear. It doesn’t take stats to show that Broxton hasn’t been the same lately.. but here they are anyway.

July: 0.69 ERA, 13 IP, 0 HR allowed
August: 1.13 ERA, 16 IP, 1 HR allowed
September: 9.00 ERA, 8 IP, 4 HR allowed

That’s right - the man who went nearly 5 months before giving up his first homer of the season has now given up 4 in his last 8 innings pitched, and as he even admits, is hanging sliders left and right. So is he hurt? Is his sore arm an indicator of something worse? I’m no doctor, so that’s not for me to say. But this is for me to say:

Grady. Shut the kid down. I don’t care what the mathematical chances are of this team making the playoffs - not that you care about math and stats anyway - it’s not happening. You’re about to get swept in Colorado. You’re in 5th place in the Wild Card hunt. If this team is going anywhere next year, it’s going to need Broxton in the pen and not on the operating table. Besides, he’s not helping you right now anyway.

Do the right thing. No more Broxton in 2007. It’s not worth it.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness