Monthly Archives: April 2008

Also, He’s a Canadian Pop Singer

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How many errors can you make in one sentence? From the Cincinnati broadcasters (not sure which one) in the top of the 1st of tonight’s game:

Andre Ethier came over from Oakland three years ago and made quite a splash, helping the Dodgers to a division championship in 2006. They’ve been trying to replace him ever since, bringing in Juan Pierre two years ago and Andruw Jones this year.

1). The Dodgers won the Wild Card in 2006, not the division.
2). Juan Pierre was signed one year ago, not two.
3). The signings of Pierre and Jones had absolutely nothing to do with “replacing” Andre Either. Pierre was brought in to play CF after J.D. Drew opted out and Kenny Lofton was not re-signed, leaving the outfield short handed. Jones was brought in to add power and replace Juan Pierre.

But hey, it’s not like these guys are paid to talk about baseball, right?

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

“Can We Shake Left-Handed?”

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- Chip Caray, in the top of the 7th inning on TBS in today’s game, relating what Nomar Garciaparra requested of him in the clubhouse on Saturday.

Because of his right hand. Which still has a microfracture. I think we all knew that Nomar was pushing it a little to get back before Andy LaRoche does, but that surprised me quite a bit to hear that it was still hurting him so much.

Nomar’s now 1-for-10 since his return. You can sell me on the small sample size argument at the plate, but have you seen him in the field yet? 2 errors in 3 games – but even that is misleading, as on Saturday he misplayed two crucial balls that didn’t go down as errors, which could have easily changed the outcome of the game. So he’s not hitting, he’s not fielding… how is he helping?

And it’s not just me, the lowly jaded blogger, who’s asking this question. Tony Jackson writes,

Just a thought, but I think the question has to be asked whether Nomar needed a longer rehab assignment. He is 1 for 10 (zero for his past nine) at the plate, and yesterday, he made three fielding gaffes (only one was an error, but one of the non-errors cost the Dodgers two runs). After the game, Torre said Nomar was “still getting his legs under him.” When I pressed him and asked if that suggested he should have had a longer rehab — because, really, when you come off the DL to play in games that actually count, your legs should be under you by then, IMHO — Torre seemed to push it off on Nomar, saying that with veteran players, you have to trust them to tell you when they’re ready.

Considering that Blake DeWitt – you know, the rookie who we all feared would have a severe case of deer-in-the-headlight-itis if he had to play every day – has played exactly 110 more innings than Nomar while committing one less error, I think it’s pretty fair to say that Nomar is in no way prepared to be the everyday third baseman.

I don’t want to place all the blame on this team’s current woes on Nomar. It’s obvious that Andruw Jones has been a disaster (3 more K’s today!), Martin’s still under .200 (though he did take one deep today), and no one seems to be able to hit with men on base. The fact is, though, that this team has enough issues going on right now. Blake DeWitt, while by no means an All-Star, is not currently one of them. Why create another new one? I’ll accept that it’s because of Nomar’s hand, even though he hadn’t been good before that in quite some time. But if he’s not even healthy enough to shake hands with a guy who looks like this, how can we expect him to perform at the highest level?

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

Just In: Man Lands on Moon! Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor

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Via Deadspin, I can’t tell if this blog post is a joke or not:

Here’s what I want to do next spring. I want to return to 1955 and listen to every game played by the Brooklyn Dodgers, in real time, several games a week through to the end of the season.

I don’t know what happened to the Dodgers that year. I have no idea whether Brooklyn did well or badly. So if someone can contrive to play the radio broadcasts over the week and send me newspaper clippings at the appropriate intervals, I can live the entire season with each inning, each game, and the season outcome as a complete surprise. Within certain limits I can experience the Brooklyn Dodgers of 1955 as if I had found a seam in time, stolen back in history, and managed to come upon these boys of summer as they played a season completely unaware that there was a time traveler in their midst.

This is actually kind of a romantic idea, and I think it could be kind of interesting. Except that…

The 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers? Really? Probably one of the most well-known champions in MLB history? Does anyone who counts themselves as more than a casual baseball fan – which, I imagine you’d pretty much have to be if you’re really going to listen to 154 50-year old games – not know the one year the Brooklyn Dodgers finally brought the trophy home? Maybe if he’d said the 1940 Pittsburgh Pirates, or the 1976 Detroit Tigers, etc. There’s no way you know what happened to those teams if you didn’t look it up. (Which I just did to make sure I didn’t actually pick a pennant winner: the 1940 Pirates came in 4th at 78-76 and the 1976 Tigers finished 5th at 74-87. Just as non-descript as I’d been hoping.)

I hate to break the news, but…

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Furcal for MVP! Plus, Nomar’s Back…

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After getting shut out on Sunday by San Diego, and kicked in the stomach by Pittsburgh on Monday, how welcome was last night’s romp? Matt Kemp – who as you may or may not have noticed, I have advocated allowing to play – scored three times. James Loney has now hit in every game this year (that’s 14 in a row, longest to start a season for LA since Steve Garvey in 1978. I believe “14 in a row in 1978″ was also Steve’s record for stewardesses, but we’ll save that for another time). Russell Martin finally gets something going with his first home run of the year, and even Andruw Jones showed some life with two hits. And what can you say about Rafael Furcal after a 2-5, 2 RBI night that pushes his average up to .364? Well, there’s this:

2008 MLB Leaders in VORP:
1. Rafael Furcal SS LAD 11.5
2. Hanley Ramirez SS FLO 11.4
3. Nate McLouth OF PIT 11.1
4. Pat Burrell OF PHI 10.9
5. Albert Pujols 1B STL 10.8

Is it too early to start the “Rafael for MVP” chant? For tonight’s game, Andre Ethier is going to sit in favor of Juan Pierre, according to Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times, but since Ethier has yet to sit even once this year, I can’t get too worked up about that.

But here’s where things may get interesting. We have Nomar news, also from Hernandez:

Back in Los Angeles from a minor league rehabilitation assignment, Nomar Garciaparra is set to be activated in time for a five-game trip that begins Friday in Atlanta.

“You have steps throughout the whole process to get back and I’ve taken every step,” Garciaparra said. “Now, it’s go out there and play.”

Great! I’ve been more than thrilled with Blake DeWitt, but since the team obviously doesn’t view Chin-Lung Hu as more than an emergency option at 3B, DeWitt has played every single inning at the hot corner thus far. Think about that for a second – there is no Dodger who has played more this season than Blake DeWitt, other than James Loney, who has also played every single inning at his position. Mind-blowing. Anyway, I think this team could use the infield depth, not only to have another viable 3B option, but also because Loney can’t play every inning all year either, and Torre has already said he’d prefer not to start Mark Sweeney and lose his bat off the bench, going so far as to have Ethier take grounders at 1B in practice. I don’t think any of us want to see that experiment, so Nomar will come up, hopefully get some time at both corners (I’m thinking, two starts a week at 3B and one at 1B?), and keep everyone happy and healthy. Right?

Garciaparra said his preference would be to play “every single day.”

Oh. I suppose I can’t blame him for saying that; would you really want a guy who admits he doesn’t want to play every day? The thing is, DeWitt’s actually been surprisingly good. DodgerThoughts does a good job of breaking down the supposed “success” of DeWitt this year vs. the supposed “failure” of Andy LaRoche last season – although I might add, it seemed to me that most of the people who considered LaRoche’s debut to be poor were those who only look at batting average as an evaluation tool.

As for the corresponding roster move, Tony Jackson, on his blog, says:

And although I have been hinting that DeWitt is going back to the minors when Nomar comes off the DL, it now looks like they are at least considering keeping him and cutting back to 11 pitchers temporarily. That would almost certainly mean Ramon Troncoso is the odd man out.

Maybe it’s just me, but isn’t that the only possible move? There’s no way you can send down DeWitt just yet. Even if Nomar is handed the everyday third base job, which I can’t imagine happening right off the bat, the Dodgers obviously have no other third base solutions. There’s simply no way you can count on the fragile Nomar to play every single inning. With Tony Abreu suffering yet another setback (is it possible he’s going to make Nomar look like an ironman?) and Andy LaRoche just about to start his rehab assignment, DeWitt can’t possibly go anywhere. If he’s sent down, he has to stay down for ten days, and that’s a scary proposition to have to count on Nomar to be able to handle all of that immediately. It’s not that any of this is groundbreaking; I’m just surprised that Jackson would even consider that DeWitt gets sent down until LaRoche or Abreu are available.

Also, Joe Torre has an Iphone? I don’t know why that thought entertains me so much.

Finally, just to throw fuel on the fire, take it away, Buster Olney!

Nomar Garciaparra has rejoined the Dodgers, but if he doesn’t play regularly — and he says within this piece that he wants to play every single day — you wonder how long this situation will last. Blake DeWitt has done a nice job at third base, and you wonder if it would be best all for all involved for the Dodgers to cut ties with Garciaparra and move on.

Buster, I still don’t really have a problem with Nomar saying that – that’s what he has to say. Besides, this team is in absolutely no position to start dumping third basemen. Plus, as much as I like to be objective and focus on the stats, cutting Nomar would be a pretty big PR hit for a team that doesn’t need any right now. Here’s what I’d do when the injured start returning:

1. Nomar comes off the DL, Troncoso goes down. Nomar gets two starts a week at 3B and is available to give Loney a breather at 1B.
2. LaRoche comes off the DL, DeWitt goes down. DeWitt gets to play every day in the minors, which he wouldn’t with both LaRoche and Nomar around. LaRoche gets the majority of starts at 3B, Nomar available to spell both infield corners.
3. Abreu comes off the DL (assuming this ever happens), Hu goes down. Abreu’s now your middle infield backup, and Hu gets to play every day in AAA, which, considering how high I am on him, is very important, as I think he might be stagnating a little sitting on the bench every day in the bigs.
4. To get back to 12 pitchers: cut Mark Sweeney. I know, I know: Torre loves his veteran bat off the bench. Well, guess what? Sweeney has 1 hit in 10 pinch-hitting at-bats. He’s yet to touch his glove. Dump Sweeney, and make Nomar the new Big Sexy.

Of course, since this is what I’m proposing, none of it will actually happen.

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

How Do You Silence the Little Voice That Says, “Think”?

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You mean, Lisa?

(You may have remembered I had a whole thing here about Matt Kemp only playing vs. lefties. Commenter-of-the-year “Elessann” points out that Micah Owings is in fact a right-handed pitcher, which sort of destroys that whole point. I think I was thinking of the Rockies’ Micah Bowie, who is in fact a lefty. So thanks for the heads-up, and let’s pretend all that other stuff never existed.. moving on!)

Regarding today’s game, I said earlier that I didn’t have a problem with putting Juan Pierre in the lineup because he’d had such great success against Greg Maddux in the past (he went 1-4) but that I did have a big problem with Kemp being nailed to the bench yet again, and that if anyone had to sit today, it should have been Andruw Jones. I’m not going to rehash those choices; what concerns me is what happened once the game was going on. (And no, I haven’t limited discussion on how awful Jones has been just because we backed the deal when it was signed – its because I can’t even think about just how hideous he’s been playing without wanting to eat my own face right now. Trust me, it’ll come.)

Here’s the problem I had today. If you have to have Matt Kemp on the bench, then at least you know you’ve got yourself a pretty good weapon to bring out at just the right time. In a tight game where your pitching staff is dominating (14 strikeouts!) yet you’re still down by a run, every decision looms large. So explain these to me – and remember, this is not meant to be Pierre-bashing, as I already said I didn’t mind him starting today, and also because Torre seems to regard Kemp and Pierre as two sides of a rotation, rather than Ethier and Pierre as we all had assumed it would be.

Bottom 6th. Padres up 1-0. LHP Joe Thatcher comes in to relieve Maddux, and after retiring Furcal, Pierre is allowed to hit. Now what’s that about? Not only is there a lefty in the game, but the Dodgers have been able to get zero offense going. Kemp’s got the ability to tie this game with one swing of the bat, while Pierre has no such chance. It’s not as though Torre doesn’t want to pinch-hit for Pierre with Kemp, because he’s already done it twice in this young season. Against a lefty, down by one… this is where you put in Kemp.

But that one is nowhere near as egregious as..

Bottom 8th. Padres up 1-0. Blake DeWitt (who really deserves a lot more press than everyone has been giving him for his stellar defense and acceptable bat so far) gets a single off RHP Heath Bell. After Mark Sweeney and Furcal both manage to make outs without advancing DeWitt, Pierre comes up. Remember, there’s already two outs. You need a guy with some power in this situation, if even only the ability to put a ball into the gap and possibly allow DeWitt to score the tying run. Instead, you leave up the guy who we’ve discussed ad nauseum is a mediocre hitter. Predictably, he grounds weakly into a fielder’s choice.

How does Kemp finally get into the game? As a pinch runner for James Loney after Loney doubled in the 9th. Kemp’s a pretty fast guy, so I don’t mind him running, but tell me it didn’t cross your mind that if he had been given the start over Pierre… you’d not only have had a better chance of four more productive at-bats, but you’d have Pierre available to do what he’s most suited to: run. Forget the Loney double. Imagine that situation in the bottom of the 8th if it had been Kemp at bat and Pierre inserted to run at 1st, rather than Pierre at the plate and DeWitt’s below-average speed at first. Just not the best use of assets.

On a somewhat related topic… who was going to play first base in extra innings if the Dodgers had tied the game in the 9th? Loney had been pinch run for after his double, and Sweeney had already been used as a pinch hitter. Delwyn Young had also been used to hit, which meant that the only players left on the bench were Chin-Lung Hu and Gary Bennett. Might we have seen Hu at 2B, pushing Jeff Kent to first base for the first time since 2006? Or left Kemp in, pushed him to RF, and given Andre Ethier his first career opportunity in the infield, as was discussed recently (it was on Tony Jackson’s blog, but since their redesign, his archive links don’t work anymore.) Just something interesting to think about; I’d like to know the answer to that one.

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