Monthly Archives: May 2008

It’s Like Christmas In May…

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As has been reported pretty much everywhere, megaprospect Clayton Kershaw’s making his debut today at Dodger Stadium against the Cardinals. First things first: if you’re anywhere near Los Angeles right now, stop reading this immediately, get off the Internet, and go find some tickets to this game. Not to add to the hype unnecessarily, but I can’t even remember the last time we had a rookie’s debut who was hyped this much. Let me put it this way: I have holiday events to attend, and while I normally can live with missing a game or two here and there to be a part of society, you’d better believe I’m going to drop whatever I’m doing to be ready to watch this kid.

For the record, I’m not convinced this was the right time to bring him up. We all knew he was making his debut this season, and that’s fine. But I guess I’m just not sure why it’s happening now. There’s no new injury to the starting rotation, and no one’s pitched poorly enough to lose their jobs. The front four of Brad Penny, Derek Lowe, Chad Billingsley, and Hiroki Kuroda is about as set in stone as any rotation in the game right now. For the 5th spot – when you even need it, which isn’t always – you’ve got Chan Ho Park and Hong-Chih Kuo, who have each been surprisingly effective, plus all signs are positive so far on the return of Jason Schmidt. Granted, Penny and Lowe (until Derek’s last start) have struggled greatly, but Kershaw isn’t being called up to take their spots. He’s being called up to take the spot of Parkuo (hat-tip on that name: BluePastorKyle); and speaking of that two-headed monster, how is it that after they combined for 7 shutout innings in Anaheim last Saturday, Kuo didn’t get into another game until a meaningless inning last night and Park has still yet to? Point being, it’s not that I’m against Clayton Kershaw; far from it. It’s just that when the two guys you’ve got joining up to be your fifth starter have been pretty good over the season and very good in their last outings, I’m just not sure why now is the time to bring up Kershaw. You’d think you’d at least want to see how long you can ride Parkuo, figure out what the hell is going on with Brad Penny, maybe see if Schmidt’s got any prayer of productivity, and let Kershaw percolate in the minors and continue to work on his control.

That said, while it’s not necessarily the way I would have gone about it, the fact is that Clayton Kershaw’s finally making his debut in a few hours, and I could not be more excited about it. Safe to say, no matter how well or poorly this goes, this is going to be a day we’ll remember for quite some time. Hell, just take a quick look around the Dodgers blogosphere to catch the excitement:

Sons of Steve Garvey:

Aaugh! I can’t help it! This is going to be awesome! Help us, Clayton Kershaw! You’re our only hope!

6-4-2:

Well, good an excuse as any for me to make my first visit to Dodger Stadium.

True Blue LA:

heck, it’s Kershaw time now, what do I have to complain about?

Jeff Kent as cleanup hitter deathwatch: Tonight’s 1-4 puts him at a 61 OPS+. He is now 11% worse of a hitter than the worst cleanup hitter of the last 50 years. Until Torre starts dropping him in the order, I’m going to have to keep harping on this.

Plus: The Free Terry Tiffee campaign worked!

And! With Andruw Jones on the shelf for 4-6 weeks, it seems kind of unfair to keep him up in the “cause corner” busting him for his batting average. Looks like we need a new one already! Thoughts?

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

My Pick For MVP: The Kidnapper Of Ned Colletti

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My fellow blogger readers: I have some breaking news to report to you, this evening.  During the early morning of May 24th, 2008, Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti was kidnapped.  While Colletti was at work in the early morning combing his toupee, three suspects walked into his offices at Dodger Stadium and kidnapped him.  Two of the three suspects put Colletti in the trunk of their car and took him back near the San Francisco area, while the other one is reported to be currently taking over duties inside Colletti’s office.

The suspect remains at large and the following has happened under his reign today:

- Designated Esteban Loaiza for assignment

- Called up pitching phenom Clayton Kershaw

- Andruw Jones to get scoped and miss the next 4-6 weeks

- Placed Nomar Garciaparra on the 60 DL and called up Terry Tiffee

Authorities and washed up old veterans are trying to find the suspect, however, the best that they can find is this photo:

Authorities have identified him as Babu, previously on the old 1990′s sitcom: “Seinfeld.”  Babu has previously kidnapped Colletti and taken over his job more than once, such as in late 2005, when acquiring Andre Ethier and signing Rafael Furcal, and during the trade deadline in 2006 when trading for Greg Maddux and other moves that have been beneficial to the Dodgers.

If you see him, please call 1-800-866-DODGERS and give him a fucking raise.

- Vin vinscully-face.jpg

Just Get the Knee Scoped Already, Would You?

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Obviously, last night’s loss can’t entirely be pinned on 9th-inning managerial decisions; it’s not Joe Torre’s fault that the team put up only one run and five hits last night. But I have to take some issue with how he used his pinch-hitters in the bottom of the 9th.

After James Loney struck out and the skies opened, causing an hour’s delay, Matt Kemp walked and stole second on Blake DeWitt’s strikeout. That brings to the plate the #8 hitter, Chin-Lung Hu, who’s been an offensive disappointment thus far but did have a single and a triple in his last two at-bats. Available on the Dodgers bench against righty Ryan Franklin were switch-hitter Delwyn Young and righties Luis Maza, Danny Ardoin, and Andruw Jones.

Now there’s lots of ways you can go here, with the tying run in scoring position and two outs. You can let Hu hit, hoping that his multihit game means he’s having a good night and still have plenty of options to hit for the pitcher at the #9 spot. You could let Luis Maza hit, who for all the complaints about his terribly weak arm in the field has still put up 5 hits in his 11 MLB at bats (.455) after hitting .402 in AAA. Or you could put Delwyn Young in, playing the lefty/righty game and using the hitter who’s probably the best of all the available options right now. Under no circumstances do you hit Andruw Jones, who’s been A) a bust of biblical proportions, B) nursing a bad knee which had kept him out of the lineup for the last 5 days, C) on an 0-7, 4K streak, and D) the only available Dodger who had faced Ryan Franklin before, but with a 0-5, 2K line. You especially don’t hit him in a 2-out situation when he’s having massive problems even making contact with the ball.

So Torre chooses to send out Young, which is fine by me. He walks, and Kemp advances on a wild pitch, putting the tying run 90 feet away. Now, Torre is faced with another decision: someone has to hit for the pitcher, but who? You can discount Danny Ardoin since he’s the backup catcher and not much of a hitter anyway. You’re left with Luis Maza or Andruw Jones. Both righty, so that doesn’t matter. Small name who’s accomplished nothing vs. a huge name with a big history, no doubt; but the small name has been hitting all season wherever he’s been, while the huge name has been beyond terrible.

Of course, Jones is Torre’s choice.

And to absolutely no one’s surprise, he strikes out weakly and looks bad doing so. Game over.

Yes, I am fully aware of the absurdity of the fact that I am arguing for Luis Maza over Andruw Jones in a two-out, bottom of the 9th situation. But the fact that I can even make this argument, and make it a pretty strong one, I believe, should be a pretty good indicator of what this has come to. Some of the blame has to go to Torre for even letting him be in such a situation last night; but something else has to be done. We can’t go all season with Jones eating up outs like this. It’s clear his knee just isn’t right. If he really only hurt it last week vs. Anaheim, and he was that horrible before that, what’s he going to be like trying to gut through a bad knee? Just get it taken care of, and hopefully come back with a clear head and healthy knee in two months.

Also: Jeff Kent as cleanup hitter deathwatch: Yet another 0-4 puts him at a 64 OPS+. He is now 8% worse of a hitter than the worst cleanup hitter of the last 50 years.

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

There Goes My Hiro…

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So, the Dodgers continue their topsy turvy season with a nice sweep of the Reds, who had won 6 straight games going into this series. It was the type of series the Dodgers needed and they got a stellar performance out of Hiroki Kuroda, who went 8 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, and 3 K. However, as the spotlight continues to shine on such people as Blake DeWitt and the rest of the kids, and rightfully so, you never hear too much about the success story that Kuroda has had since beginning his MLB career. In fact, I even argue that he’s been our ace up to this point.

Now, I know what some of you might be thinking: “Are you smoking crack, Vin?! How can you argue that he’s been our ace?! He only had 1 win before last night!”

Yes, that’s true, and it’s probably the reason why he’s not getting enough attention, but, as we’ve said like a mantra, W/L records do not tell the whole story and if the fact that Brad Penny ranks 1st on the team with 5 wins doesn’t convince you of that, nothing will. Having said that, let’s look at all of Hiroki’s 10 starts this season:

Note the amount of innings pitched. Outside of 2 starts, he has pitched into the 6th inning in every start and you could make an argument that last night, and in his debut, he could have very well had two complete games already, were it not for Joe Torre. To use a Morganism (Dear Lord, please forgive me, for I have sinned…), Kuroda has been really “consistent,” (hence why Thunder Thighs doesn’t get the “best Dodger pitcher of 2008″ nod… yet) and has been the lone pitcher that our bullpen probably actually likes, as they don’t have to enter the game in the 5th or 6th inning whenever he pitches. But he’s been more than just that; he ranks 1st amongst all Dodgers’ starters in ERA (3.48), ERA+ (124), WHIP (1.27), VORP (9.6), and quality starts (7). Now while comparing any good pitcher to the 2008 Dodger pitching staff is like saying “Vin Scully is a great broadcaster and I’m gonna prove it to you, dammit… now let’s compare him to Rex Hudler,” he has also held up with the rest of the NL, as well. Kuroda ranks a respectable 21st in the NL in ERA (Johan is 19th, by the way), as well as ranking 21st in WHIP. He ranks 6th in quality starts, and one of the more impressive things about Kuroda is how efficient he is with his pitches. Out of all NL pitchers who have put in at least 40 innings this year, Kuroda is the 11th most efficient pitcher, only surrendering 15.4 pitches an inning.

The point of this whole article? When you sign pitchers from other countries, there usually is a large risk and successes are more the exception than the rule. However, after the first month and a half, it’s safe to say that Kuroda has been a success, so far. He has been very good, going deep into games, not wasting any pitches, and keeping his team in the game better than any other Dodger pitcher. That’s not to say everything about his stat sheet is very good; I’d like to see some of the hits per game go down a smidge, but, then again, let’s remember, he’s being paid to be the #3/#4 in our rotation. Based on the numbers he has put up so far, he has more than exceeded expectations. With a pitching staff that has been either erratic (Billingsley) or just flat out awful (Penny, Lowe), Kuroda has been the one piece of stability that we have been able to count on at this point.

Well done, Hiroki!

- Vin vinscully-face.jpg