Monthly Archives: April 2008

Does Anyone Really Miss Rudy Seanez?

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Me neither. So why does Rotoworld think we do?

Broxton might have a lat strain similar to Rich Harden’s. He’ll miss at least tonight’s game. If he’s forced to the DL, the Dodgers could call up Yhency Brazoban or Ramon Troncoso. The decision to cut Rudy Seanez at the end of the spring is looking more foolish by the week.

Really? It does? I don’t remember a single Dodger outlet – blogger or traditional media – complaining about letting Seanez go. Not one. And as you may or may not have noticed, we love to complain about things!

Besides, the Dodger bullpen has, on the whole, been outstanding this year.

2008 MLB Bullpen ERA
1. Tampa Bay 2.56
2. Florida 2.56
3. Arizona 2.56
4. Philadelphia 2.77
5. Oakland 2.82
6. Dodgers 3.18

Sixth out of thirty teams. Fourth in the National League. The bullpen is a problem how? Every reliever currently on the team has an ERA below 4.00 except for Scott Proctor’s 5.14 – and even for him, all 8 of his earned runs this year came in 2 disastrous outings, leaving him with 10 scoreless appearances. Sure, Rudy’s been good thus far in Philly (although, while a 1.00 ERA in 9 appearances looks nice, the 8 walks vs. 3 strikeouts in 9 innings certainly doesn’t back it up, so I can’t imagine that nice ERA stays anywhere near that low.)

Besides, if another arm is needed to bolster the ‘pen? Yhency Brazoban’s been dominating the minors (0.83 WHIP and a .591 OPS against), Ramon Troncoso had four scoreless outings in LA before getting hit hard in his last two, Jon Meloan (yes, he’s starting again in AAA, but there’s no reason he couldn’t come back to the pen if needed) has a 2.49 ERA in notorious hitter’s haven Las Vegas – and it’s by no means out of the question that uberprospect Clayton Kershaw (currently allowing batters a .482 OPS – not a typo, that’s OPS) in AA couldn’t follow the Johan Santana career path and debut in the bullpen.

No, you’re right, Rotoworld. We definitely should have held onto the almost 40-year-old reliever who’s masking the fact that he’s nearly walking three times as many as he strikes out behind a pretty (lucky) ERA.

What were the Dodgers thinking?

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness msti-face.jpg

Everytime You Groan at Juan Pierre and his $44 Million…

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… thank whomever it is you might pray to that it’s not three times worse:

SAN FRANCISCO — Barry Zito was demoted to the bullpen Monday by the San Francisco Giants, who hope the former ace can correct his problems by working in relief.

The move was first reported by ESPN The Magazine’s Buster Olney.

Zito, who only 16 months ago signed a $126 million, seven-year contract with the Giants to lead their rotation, was informed of the move in a meeting with manager Bruce Bochy.

“I’m certainly not happy with it, by any means,” Zito said. “But this is the bed that I’ve made. I have to lay in it for the time being and I have to overcome. I trust management and I trust what their decisions are.”

The left-hander has lost his first six starts this season and has a 7.53 ERA that jumped considerably after Zito was tagged for eight earned runs in a 10-1 loss Sunday to Cincinnati.

The 2002 AL Cy Young Award winner with Oakland, Zito lasted just three innings against the Reds and was booed frequently by the crowd at AT&T Park during his shortest outing of the year.

“It’s good sometimes just to back off,” Bochy said. “It’s happened to a lot of great players, position players and even pitchers. We just felt at this point it’s time for him to sit back, miss a start and help us in the pen.” (ESPN)

I think most people realized that this was a terrible deal at the outset but… he made it all of 39 (awful) starts before being dumped. While we’re wondering what we’re going to do with 4 more years of Juan Pierre, what do the Giants do with 6 more seasons (and $111.5 million!!!) of Barry Zito? Move over, Mike Hampton, and take a seat, Darren Dreifort. We have a new undisputed champion of worst contract ever.

Looking around some Giants blogs (and yeah, I feel plenty dirty now) it seems that Zito (shown at right caught red-handed stealing money) is like Juan Pierre times a million. Much as we dump on Pierre, he’s at least got some value. Zito? Well…

It can’t be stressed enough. It just can’t. Barry Zito is probably my least favorite topic to think about, discuss, or devote any brain power to. On one hand, I feel bad for watching a once talented pitcher dissolve in front of our very eyes. It’s a metamorphosis none of us thought would happen this soon or this completely. Nobody expected Zito to do what he’s doing right now and I think even the most hard boiled critic of the Zito deal assumed that he’d be alright for the first couple of years and then slowly start to decline. The decline is now and it’s frightening. (Bay City Ball)

Let’s get some stats!

The line on Zito so far this season is pretty pathetic to say the least. He is 0-6 in his six starts this season, with a 7.53 ERA, 15 walks, 11 strikeouts and has given up 30 runs. Lefties have hit .348 off him and righties have hit .333. He’s averaging only 4 2/3 innings per start and taxing the bullpen every time he takes the mound. (michaelnewjr.com)

Brutal! How about the fantastically named El Lefty Malo?

The weekend brought several developments, none of them good. The biggest and least surprising was the continued horribleness of Barry Zito, prompting Giant brass to wonder aloud if Zito can remain in the rotation. Did you catch J.T. Snow on the radio broadcast yesterday? Instead of sticking to the fraternal code of ex-ballplayers — Thou Shall Not Embarrass Thy Brothers on the Air — J.T. basically said Zito has nothing. He wasn’t rude, but he was blunt: No velocity, no command, no confidence. Either he or Flemming, I can’t remember which, called Zito’s pitches “batting practice fastballs.” Batters are comfortable against him; even the outs he got yesterday were pop-ups because the Reds were swinging too hard, Snow said. In other words, no respect. Go up there and have fun, boys.

If I sound like I’m enjoying this well… I guess I’m not quite sure how to finish that sentence. Not that the Dodgers haven’t made any stupid signings in recent history, because they certainly have – just not on this magnitude. I think I’m going to enjoy the next half-decade or so of watching our most bitter rivals suffer.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness msti-face.jpg

Starting At Third Base: Russell Martin?!

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So, explain this to me: Ned Colletti is sitting in his nice, cozy office at Dodger Stadium and pondering the future of Blake DeWitt. Now, with Nomar about ready to come back, he sends him down for Cory Wade, because we somehow NEED a 12 man pitching staff. Now remember, Chin-Lung Hu, Delwyn Young, and the rest of the team? They don’t play third base. So, knowing this, Nomar will become the full-fledged starter for at least the next three weeks or so, until Andy LaRoche gets back..

Yeah… here’s how that worked out:

Top of the 9th inning:

  • T Saito relieved J Broxton
  • C Hu at second base
  • R Spilborghs hit for M Corpas
  • R Spilborghs walked
  • W Taveras ran for R Spilborghs
  • S Podsednik doubled to left, W Taveras to third
  • G Bennett catching
  • R Martin to at third base
  • W Taveras scored, S Podsednik to third base on passed ball by G Bennett

What the…?

That’s no typo. For those who didn’t tune in, as Podsednik doubled to left, Nomar popped his calf trying to get the ball, thus removing himself from the game and bringing in our backup third baseman Bl… uh… An… oh wait, Russell Martin.

Once he goes to third base, Bennett comes in to catch and on the very first pitch from Saito, Bennett botches it, bringing in the tying run.

Now, you see, this begs a much bigger question: just how fucking brain dead do you have to be to send down your young, hitting third baseman when he’s the ONLY POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE??!! It is beyond stupid to put yourself in this position with any third baseman, but the Stupid Meter goes up infinitely when that third baseman is a man who has been DL’d about 29238472309482903840923983488^2 times in the past few years and is expected to man the position every day for the next three weeks. Not only do you kill your depth, but this lack of depth caused the team to have no other choice but to move their starting catcher to third base, only to have their backup catcher come in and give up the tying run in the 9th inning. Now, sure, I don’t think anyone expected Nomar to go down THIS soon, but you should never put yourself in this position to begin with. It’s like Theo Epstein one day saying: “You know what? We don’t need any other right fielders for now… we have Drew to hold fort!” The good news is that, DeWitt will be able to be called up immediately, rather than waiting the standard 10 days. The reason is that Nomar will almost certainly have to be DL’d with what Joe Torre said was a pop in his calf, something similar to last year.

Thanks, beautiful.

- Vin vinscully-face.jpg

Three Cheers for Blake DeWitt! Hello… Cory Wade? What?

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Have to say, I did not see this coming. From Josh Rawitch’s official team blog:

As for tonight (back to the short-term), it’s another big game against Arizona. Joe Torre and the baseball staff believe we need to add another pitcher, so Cory Wade will be in uniform and Blake DeWitt has been optioned, surely with his head high. What an impressive job he’s done and he’s made a ton of people take notice (not the least of which are in Sikeston, MO, his hometown that named this Blake DeWitt month).

Cory Wade? Really? Well, first things first: DeWitt. I can’t say I’m totally surprised here, and I’m probably happier that he’s going to be getting some more regular playing time in the minors. But know this: Nomar is playing every single day for the next three weeks until Andy LaRoche comes back. I suppose the benefit in that is that at least we’ll know exactly how much he has left when LaRoche returns to make this a real competition. Also, I wish there was some way to split Chin-Lung Hu in half so that he could sub in on defense for both Nomar and Kent simultaneously.

As for Cory Wade: I’m extremely surprised. I think we all knew that Torre preferred to have 12 pitchers and that DeWitt would get sent down for a pitcher. Fine. But didn’t we all think it would be Yhency Brazoban? He’s rocking AA, striking out 11 in 8.2 scoreless innings. Even Tony Jackson said it would be Brazoban, saying:

Yhency Brazoban is being promoted to Triple-A because club officials want to get a look at him there before calling him up, but Torre hinted that the club isn’t going to stick with an 11-man pitching staff for too long, so that could mean Brazo gets the call in the next few days.

He later amended that to say that Brazoban hadn’t gotten the call to AAA yet, but would soon. So why Cory Wade all the way from Jacksonville? So far he’s given up a hit per inning in AA, with a 4.40 ERA in 14.2 Cory Wade innings, although only 1 walk. He’s 25 and now in his 5th season of minor league ball, with a 4.22 career ERA. I’ll admit to not knowing much about him, but that’s probably because legitimate prospects make it out of A-ball before they’re 24. In Feburary, Baseball Prospectus listed their top 11 Dodgers prospects, plus three more that just missed the cut: Wade wasn’t mentioned. In fact, I couldn’t even find a better picture than his “official headshot” shown at right. I can’t imagine he sticks for more than a week or so, or however long it takes for Brazoban to prove his readiness.

In other news, former major leaguers Mike Koplove (31 with a 0.96 AAA ERA), Greg Jones (31 with a 3.00 AAA ERA), Mike Myers (39 with a 3.48 AAA ERA) and Matt Riley (28 with a 4.26 AAA ERA) can be found tonight at the nearest bar to Cashman Field in Vegas.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness msti-face.jpg

This Is Going to Make You Cry

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We’re all familiar with the list of regrettable trades our favorite team has made, no matter who you root for. In case you feel the need to get some scabs ripped off of past injuries, Ross Newhan has a list of the five worst trades in Dodger history. To absolutely no one’s surprise, Pedro-for-Delino tops the list, as it should. There’s also “lots of 80s young pitchers for no one good” at #2, “Maury Wills to Pittsburgh” at #3, and “FOX sells Piazza to Florida”at #5. All well and good. Can’t argue these. This article sort of writes itself.

Oh, I missed #4, you say?

No.4 – It is hard to overlook the 1998 trade that cost the club Paul Konerko for Jeff Shaw or the April 4 deal in 2004 that brought the destructive Milton Bradley for Franklin Gutierrez, who has since fulfilled his promise in the Cleveland outfield, but Paul DePodesta may have compounded Bradley’s eventual chemistry implosion four months later when he traded Paul Lo Duca, Guillermo Mota and Juan Encarnacion to Florida for Brad Penny, Hee-Seop Choi and Bill Murphy, the Dodgers never regaining the roll they had been on at the time.

I’m not even sure where to begin with this one. Let’s go in order!

1. “Franklin Gutierrez has since fufilled his promise in the Cleveland outfield.” Well, that’s true. But only if his “promise” was to generate an 89 OPS+ over parts of 4 big league seasons, with a seasonal high of 271 at-bats. He’s only 25, so he may yet turn out to be something. But let’s not go giving him MVP votes quite yet, shall we?

2. “Paul DePodesta may have compounded Bradley’s eventual chemistry implosion four months later…” What exactly is Newhan trying to say here? Hey, far be it from me to defend Milton Bradley. In fact, feel free to take a quick look back at one of my favorite posts on this blog, from last September, after he blew out his knee arguing with an umpire. If you’ll notice, that post contains a near-exhaustive list of all of his public incidents up to that point. None of them contains any problems with Brad Penny, Hee-Seop Choi, or Billy Murphy. How does this trade cause Bradley to start freaking out? Is Newhan really suggesting that the absence of Dr. Paul LoDuca’s honorary master’s degree in Chemistry really the reason that Bradley never behaved? Really?

3. Oh right – there’s the fact that the trade which dumped an overrated steroid-using catcher for a young ace who’s started two All-Star games in a row somehow makes a list of bad trades. I’ll admit it came as a shock, because LoDuca was popular; and I’ll admit that DePodesta did screw up royally by not having another deal in place to acquire a catcher. But does anyone besides Bill Plashke (and his opinion doesn’t really count, because he’s Bill Plashke) really still think this deal was a bad idea? Brad Penny’s the ace of the staff, and Paul LoDuca’s been exiled to Platoon-ville, DC. SportshubLA did a good review of how well this trade turned out for the Dodgers a few weeks ago, if you’re interested in the exact details.

Sorry, Ross. You couldn’t be more off-base on this one.

And I’ve actually gotten way off-topic here; I didn’t even intend to have this post be about Newhan’s article. Everyone’s got their own opinions on trades that have been made, but what’s really juicy is when you hear about trades that could have, but didn’t, happen years after the fact. Like this nugget from former GM Fred Claire, from an interview he did today with MLBtraderumors.com – and yes, this is what’s going to make you cry:

MLBTR: Could you tell us about the biggest trade you seriously considered but ultimately did not make?

Claire: I think a “near” trade that comes to mind quickly is a deal in my final year (1998 ) as the GM of the Dodgers where I felt we were going to be able to acquire Randy Johnson from the Mariners with Hideo Nomo as part of the package. I believe the Seattle front office was willing to do the deal but that Mariner ownership stepped in and stopped the trade in the final stages. I could be wrong because you never know exactly what is happening in the other front office but I had the feeling this deal was a real possibility.

Fantastic. I almost wish I didn’t know that. Johnson was traded on July 31, 1998 to Houston, while Nomo ended up being traded on June 4, 1998 along with Brad Clontz for the immortal Greg McMichael and Dave Mlicki. Hey, those guys are almost as good as Randy Johnson, right? It’s not like he won the next… four… Cy… Youngs… in… a…. ROW… right?

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness msti-face.jpg