I Wish My Job Was Like This
January 30, 2008 at 6:33 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 5 CommentsTroy from West Virginia checks in with some even-more-awesome mutton chops that’d put Jonathan Broxton to shame and his early thoughts on the 25-man roster. Complete with headshots! The best part? Juan Pierre, pulling up some tasty bench. Seems like every Dodger fan is in agreement on that, no? Too bad it probably won’t turn out that way.
- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness 
Santana: Still Not Goijg to LA
January 29, 2008 at 8:03 am | Posted in Johan Santana, rumors | 6 CommentsSo, if you’re like me, you’re sick of the ongoing “Johan Santana to: Mets/Red Sox/Yankees” talks, because A. we’re all sick of those teams and B. this has been dragging on for months, now.
What’ll make that better? I know! An irrelevant blog (pot, kettle, yes, I know) pointing out several reasons why Santana could never come to LA, then saying – with no evidence – that Santana might be coming to LA. Love it.
Meanwhile, despite Santana’s protestations that he did not wish to play on the West Coast, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ similar statements that they are “tapped out for 2008″ and the advice that now-hitting coach Mike Easler told Gotham Baseball Magazine at the Winter Meetings that “Matt Kemp is goijg to be a star”, L.A. is creeping into the picture.
That’s right, Matt Kemp is goijg to be a star. So what you’re saying is.. Santana won’t come here; the Dodgers aren’t going to trade the players for him; and the staff is high on one of the players who’d likely have to be included.. yet the Dodgers are “in the picture”. Based on.. no quotes, proof, or other evidence.
Yeah, not buying it. Normally I wouldn’t even bother to post such unfounded crap, but, well, why are we here if not to pass along ridiculous Dodger-related (sort of) findings?
- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness
Like You Need Another Reason to Be Glad You’re Not A Giants Fan
January 25, 2008 at 6:45 pm | Posted in dodgers > giants | 5 CommentsIn 1958, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants ditched the 5 boroughs and headed west to the Pacific coast. That would make 2008 the.. uh.. carry the one… 50th anniversary of these continent-shattering moves. That’s sort of a big deal for these teams, right?
Well, the Dodgers PR machine is going full steam ahead. We’ve got a fancy logo, complete with super lame corporate speak about how everything represents something – though I must say, it’d be way more entertaining if they let the fans guess what everything meant. “Uh.. the two palm trees represent.. palm trees. Because it’s in southern California. And the TH stands for.. Todd Hundley?”
Not only that, the Dodgers had a big fancy float in the Rose Bowl Parade on New Year’s day, and a whole mess of 50th anniversary celebrations, including having the fans vote on an all-time LA roster at each position, and the top 50 moments in LA dodger history, and getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They’re going to commemorate the 1958-61 seasons played at the LA Coliseum by opening up the old girl for a celebratory exhibition game against the Red Sox just before the season starts. Each month of the season will be a celebration of a different LA decade (April: 1950s, May: 1960s, etc) and September will feature a day where they’ll bring back a ton of living LA Dodger stars out to the park for a celebration.
All of this is literally plastered over Dodgers.com, clearly making the point that this is the huge PR push for the year.
So I’m sure the Giants will be celebrating their 50 (championshipless. Yep, there it is.) years in San Francisco too, right? I mean, it’s not like they’re going to have anything else to celebrate in 2008. A quick look at the Giants’ official webpage must have a list of celebrations, easy to find, no?
Except that the top headlines on the Giants’ page are:
Should Giants rework rotation?
Pen tweaks unlikely heading into spring
In addition, there’s ads for game tickets and, gasp, Kenny CHESNEY is coming June 8th! Yes! There’s a tiny 50th anniversary logo in the top corner, but other than that: nothing.
I guess the San Fran PR department can’t even be bothered, hmm?
- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness
Mattingly’s Not Hitting Coach!?
January 22, 2008 at 2:19 pm | Posted in Don Mattingly, Mike Easler | 2 CommentsJust in:
DODGERS NAME EASLER HITTING COACH
Former NL All-Star to replace Mattingly on Joe Torre’s staff
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers today named former National League All-Star Mike Easler as the hitting coach for the 2008 season. Dodger General Manager Ned Colletti made the announcement. Easler will replace Don Mattingly on Joe Torre’s staff, as Mattingly will shift to the role of Major League Special Assignment Coach for the 2008 season due to family reasons.
Mike has enjoyed success as both a player and a coach in the Major Leagues and he’s extremely familiar with our players,” said Colletti. “This is an opportunity to promote a very talented individual from within the organization and we expect him to make a seamless transition to the Major League staff.”
Easler, 57, was the St. Louis Cardinals’ hitting coach from 1999-2001 and served in the same capacity for the Brewers (1992) and Red Sox (1993-94). He spent the last two seasons as a hitting coach in the Dodgers’ minor league system, first with Double-A Jacksonville in 2006 before being promoted to Triple-A Las Vegas prior to last season. In that role, he worked extensively with Matt Kemp, James Loney, Andy LaRoche, Tony Abreu, Delwyn Young and Chin-lung Hu, among other Dodger prospects.
The Cardinals reached the postseason in two of his three years as a hitting coach, ranking third in the NL with a .270 batting average and fifth in the league with a .339 on-base percentage and .441 slugging percentage in 2001, his last year as a big league coach.
During his 14-year Major League career, Easler played primarily in the outfield and posted a .293 average with 118 homers and 522 RBI with the Astros, Angels, Pirates, Red Sox, Yankees, and Phillies. His best season came in 1984 when he finished sixth in the league with a .313 average while slugging 27 homers and 91 RBI in 156 games for Boston. He was named to the National League All-Star team with Pittsburgh in 1981.
The Cleveland, OH native was a member of the 1979 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates and served as a minor league manager and college baseball coach following his big league playing career.
Mattingly will remain employed by the Dodgers full-time in the role as a Major League Special Assignment Coach in 2008 and will assist with the Major League coaching staff during Spring Training as well as other duties throughout the season.
I’m very grateful that the Dodgers have allowed me to take care of these family matters and I hope that everyone can respect our privacy during this time,” said Mattingly. “I truly appreciate the support of all Dodger fans since joining the organization and I look forward to helping the team win in 2008 and beyond.”
Say what? Didn’t see that coming. No idea what the “family reasons” are (hopefully nothing serious of course, unless he wants to personally teach Preston how to hit), but I’d say after all the ballyhoo this offseason about Mattingly being the hitting coach and heir to Torre, this is a pretty big surprise.
- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness
Baseball Really Needs to Move Opening Day to Feb 1
January 21, 2008 at 6:47 pm | Posted in Joe Beimel, roundup | 5 CommentsTo say things are slow right now couldn’t be more of an understatement. As we all know, the team is 97% set for the season, with the roster relatively settled except for the very end of the bench and the staff, which will sort themselves out during spring training. That said, let’s do a quick roundup of what has happened over the last week or so. (As an aside, I’m writing this fresh off of watching Cloverfield. The required suspension-of-disbelief over crazy monster movies aside, does anyone want to explain to me how the girl who gets a shard of rebar through the heart for three hours gets the rebar yanked out of her, and then is tip-top after that? I’m buying the monster destroying Midtown before I’m buying that.)
- Possible good news on the “Juan Pierre is bad at baseball” front? Joe Torre’s giving me a bit of hope here:
Torre, the Dodgers’ new manager and the man with whom the ultimate decision will rest, seemed to suggest that Pierre’s place in the regular lineup isn’t necessarily a given.
“Andruw is obviously our center fielder,” Torre said. “He anchors everything. Ethier, Kemp and Juan Pierre are competing for two spots out there.
“We’ll just have to figure it out. I have had situations in the past where we had too many outfielders for three spots. The only thing (definite) is that we will start the season with our best option.”
- RHP Scott Proctor avoids arbitration by signing a one-year deal worth $1.115 million. Lets hope he’s got a good financial planner, because I’m still worried about Torre making his head explode like the guy from Scanners.
- OF Jason Repko gets one year and $487,000. Here’s hoping he gets to spend a hot summer in Las Vegas not injuring the other players we actually care about this year.
- Good run-down of all Dodgers offseason moves, both on-field and off, right here at DodgerThoughts.
- Not that it hasn’t been known for a while, but the Dodgers are officially destroying spring training by going to play a few games in China in the middle of March. This means the team congregates in Vero Beach, FL in the middle of February and functions as normal until a group of as-yet-undetermined Dodgers jet off to China on March 11th. Then, Dodgers China go off on their own for a week, while Dodgers Vero stick around in FL until the 18th. The two teams then meet up on the 19th – in Arizona. This has the oh-so-happy consequence of: making some of the players travel about 10,000 miles to wear them out right before the season; making first-year manager Joe Torre spend a week of camp half a planet away from his new players; and most importantly, totally ruining my plan of heading down to Vero to see the last games at Dodgertown. Thanks, team!
- Finally, remember last week’s installment of “The Legend of Joe Beimel”? Tastefully-named commentator “Slayer” has brought it to my attention that there’s a part 2. Except, this isn’t by the same “Troy from WV” who did the first one, this is a video response. Which looks to actually have an appearance from Joe Beimel at the end? I can’t really tell. But man, do I hope so. Enjoy!
Update: it appears this is actually Joe Beimel in the video. Which, considering how similar this is to the original video, would really make it seem as though someone brought it to Beimel’s attention, and got a buddy to set up a similar basement setting and southern accent, for the sake of satire. We have an early candidate for “2008 Dodger of the Year”, right here.
- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness
So Long, Lurch
January 16, 2008 at 6:28 pm | Posted in Mark Hendrickson | 1 CommentRemember a few weeks ago when I outlined that I actually wanted Mark Hendrickson back as a reliever, because he was shockingly pretty decent in that role, as opposed to how terrible he is as a starter?
Yeah. About that. 
MIAMI — The Marlins have added a veteran presence to their young pitching staff.
On Wednesday afternoon, the team announced the signing of free-agent left-handed pitcher Mark Hendrickson to a one-year deal.
The addition of Hendrickson potentially gives the Marlins three left-handers in their starting rotation. The pitching staff also includes southpaws Scott Olsen and Andrew Miller.
Oh yeah. This is going to end well. Take a mediocre vet, put him in a role he’s clearly proven he’s not cut out for, put him in front of a young and particularly defensively-challenged team, and add him to a division filled with some serious offensive talent. This is going to be cover-your-eyes bad.
So long, Lurch. I’ll enjoy watching Matt Kemp launch a ball 550 feet off you this summer.
Oh hell, who am I kidding? Former Dodgers always come back to bite this team head-to-head.
- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness
R.I.P., Johnny Podres (1932-2008)
January 14, 2008 at 1:42 am | Posted in Johnny Podres | 5 CommentsFormer Dodgers great, Johnny Podres, has passed away. 
GLENN FALLS, N.Y. — Johnny Podres, who pitched the Brooklyn Dodgers to their only World Series title in 1955, died Sunday at the age of 75. A spokesman for Glens Falls Hospital confirmed Podres’ death but said he didn’t know any details.The left-hander pitched in four All-Star games and was the first Most Valuable Player in World Series history. He became a hero to every baseball fan in Brooklyn when the Dodgers ended decades of frustration by beating the Yankees to win the World Series. It was the first time a team had won a best-of-seven World Series after losing the first two games, and it was Brooklyn’s only World Series victory. The Dodgers moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season.
R.I.P., Johnny.
- Vin 
The Legend of Joe Beimel
January 9, 2008 at 10:28 am | Posted in Joe Beimel | 4 CommentsAKA, “What in the hell?!?!” Via Diamond Leung, there’s, well… this.
I think my favorite part is how he’s got all his official NFL helmets arranged in the Wild-Card matchups from this past weekend. That, or the part where he drunkenly meets Joe Beimel’s dad.
- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness
MSTI: The Podcast – Breaking Down Andruw – Episode #1 – 1-8-08
January 8, 2008 at 5:24 pm | Posted in Andruw Jones, Episode 1, Podcast | 4 CommentsWell, you knew we had to do it eventually.
One of our goals going into 2008 was to be able to expand a little bit into other mediums and we thought this would be an interesting place to start. This could (and likely) end up being an utter disaster, but, since it’s the slowest period of the offseason, we’ll probably try some things and see if they stick. So, whether this ends up being a regular feature or a one-time only thing, we haven’t the slightest clue. In any event, enjoy! We know we’re breaking this signing down just a tiny bit later (like a month), but we did say we would, so here you go:
MSTI: The Podcast – Breaking Down Andruw – Episode #1 – 1-8-08
- Vin
Baseball and Dragons, Together at Last
January 7, 2008 at 6:34 am | Posted in fantasy, Jeff Kent, Russell Martin | 3 CommentsPreamble: this was by far one of the oddest Google image searches I’ve had to do for a post on here. Yikes, are there some weird people out there. I’ll let you discover this for yourselves.
Any of you folks play fantasy baseball? The only reason I bring it up, is because two of the most recent posts at RotoAuthority.com deal with the Dodgers and specifically, Russell Martin and Jeff Kent.
Rnk Name 1 Russell Martin 2 Victor Martinez 3 Joe Mauer 4 Jorge Posada 5 Brian McCann 6 Kenji Johjima 7 J.R. Towles 8 Geovany Soto 9 Bengie Molina 10 Ivan Rodriguez 11 Carlos Ruiz 12 A.J. Pierzynski 13 Ramon Hernandez 14 Ronny Paulino 15 Mike Napoli 16 Jason Varitek 17 Paul Lo Duca 18 Ryan Doumit 19 Salty 20 Johnny Estrada
#1, baby! I know this is for fantasy teams, so Turtle’s absurd (for a C) amount of SB factor in heavily here, but still. My second immediate reaction is: JR Towles and Geovany Soto in the top 10? Holy crap is catching poor right now. I still don’t think we all truly understand how lucky we got with Martin yet.
Where’s the love for Jeff Kent?
I hadn’t noticed, but apparently Jeff Kent sucks now or something. His Average Draft Position is 202.19, 16th among second basemen. Did this guy not hit .302-20-79-78-1 last year? Has he not been a model of consistency since back when you were playing with Go-bots?
Here are a bunch of second basemen who are being picked before Kent, who shouldn’t:
- Dan Uggla
- Kelly Johnson
- Dustin Pedroia
- Orlando Hudson
- Kaz Matsui
- Asdrubal Cabrera
Asdrubal going before Kent is the perfect example of fantasy leaguers blindly opting for youth over boring experienced guys. Asdrubal Cabrera can’t hold Jeff Kent‘s jockstrap in fantasy baseball, even if he does steal 15 bags. Ditto with Pedroia going before Kent or Placido Polanco.
The fact that people, fantasy or otherwise, think Kaz Matsui is a good baseball player blows my mind. It was acceptable for the Rockies because they pulled him off the trash heap – i.e. “replacement player”. But then Houston giving him 3 years and $16.5 million? Yeesh. I actually kind of feel bad for Houston fans.
Remember, kids – Kent may not be a great defender, and he may be a dick. But the man can still hit, and better than just about anyone not named Chase Utley at his position.
- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness
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