2008 August 06 « Mike Scioscia's tragic illness

Stop. Collaborate, and Listen.

August 6, 2008 at 8:56 am | Posted in Hong-Chih Kuo, Jason Johnson, Joe Torre, Jonathan Broxton, Juan Pierre sucks, T.J. Simers | 4 Comments

The flurry of stories in today’s newspapers bring two major things I have to touch upon:

* Torre’s use of the bullpen yesterday. You may have noticed that I had, oh, a few issues with Torre’s moves yesterday. Mainly, I excoriated him for bringing in Falkenborg in the 6th and Johnson in the 11th. I stand by everything I said about Falkenborg; clearly, Wade, Beimel, and Park were all still available, and they all should have been used before Falkenborg.

As for Johnson, I strongly felt that it was ridiculous that he was used while Kuo and Broxton sat. Dylan Hernandez at the LA Times points out that:

Hong-Chih Kuo had pitched in three of the last four games and was ruled unavailable by Manager Joe Torre, and Jonathan Broxton was being saved for a save situation.

Now, that might very well be true. But don’t forget, “three of the last four games” came before an off-day. Considering that Johnson had thrown 87 pitches in Sunday’s game while Kuo had only thrown 17, you would think that Kuo would still be a better choice than Johnson. But okay, if Torre really wanted to avoid him, why not Broxton? I don’t understand the whole “saving him for a save” idea; because how likely is it you ever get to that situation if you bring in a mediocre pitcher who threw 87 pitches two days prior? Johnson admitted as much, saying:

Asked how much he had left in the tank, Johnson said, “You saw it. Obviously, it wasn’t great.”

Torre, when asked about using Johnson, said:

“We were looking for volunteers at that juncture,” Torre said of the end of the game. “It’s a tough loss, but I’m proud the way this ballclub played nine innings.”

I think I’ve made my feelings pretty clear that Kuo should have been available, and that if he really wasn’t, you absolutely use Broxton to give your offense another shot or two to score. But even then, if you insist on bringing back a starter, why not Hiroki Kuroda for an inning or two? I’ve always been a big proponent of letting starters get an inning out of the pen on their throw day, and Kuroda’s getting a solid week off between his Saturday starts. He’d already had an extra day off than Johnson had, and he’d still have three more days off until he goes this Saturday. Remember, this isn’t just about me not liking Jason Johnson – it’s that as much as I don’t think he’s all that great at full strength, I really don’t see how you expect to have any chance to win going with Jason Johnson two days after 87 pitches.

Moving on from that debacle to something even more frightening…

* I completely agree with TJ Simers. Or he agrees with us, since both Vin and myself wrote about it first. Either way, I generally despise Simers’ usually unfunny tactics, but this time, he’s dead on: even he can’t stand Juan Pierre’s sobbing anymore. Seriously, read some of these quotes and tell me that these aren’t something that could have been lifted precisely off this blog?

Boo-hoo, says Pierre, it’s great the Dodgers were able to land Ramirez, but what about me?

Andre Ethier is the only player in uniform with a legitimate gripe of not enough playing time, and he’s not saying anything to disrupt the 25-man effort to win it all. OK, so make that 24-man effort, not counting Pierre

I would argue the best position for Pierre is on the bench, waiting to pinch-run and swipe a base. Then grab a shower.

If Andruw Jones is earning his keep these days, Jones is playing center, flanked by Ramirez and Matt Kemp, while Pierre returns to getting mistaken for a bat boy.

“Write whatever you want to write,” Pierre says, and so OK, what a self-centered brat, Manny mania the best thing that’s happened to the Dodgers in years, and Pierre pouting.

Wow. I don’t even know how to respond to these, except that I’m just thrilled and floored that someone in the mainstream local media finally sees what we’ve been saying for over a year. I just never expected it would be TJ Simers, of all people. I hate to say it, but you’ve earned it: kudos, TJ.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness

Joe Got Some ‘Splainin to Do

August 6, 2008 at 12:04 am | Posted in Brian Falkenborg, Cory Wade, Hong-Chih Kuo, Jason Johnson, Joe Beimel, Joe Torre, Jonathan Broxton | 8 Comments

When you look back on a season, there’s always a few games that really stand out in your mind. The game that really got the season on a roll; the game that really got the momentum going. A game that kicks off a road trip where you come back from a 4-0 deficit to tie with 4 runs in the 9th definitely falls into that category, and even moreso if you consider that one of the runs came on a pinch-hit homer from the corpse of Andruw Jones. If you can pull out a game like that, the momentum boost you’ve already received from adding Manny Ramirez is accentuated that much more, and in immediate short term gains, you keep pace with Arizona, who’d already won earlier in the night.

This is one of those games. And this is going to be one that might haunt the Dodgers for the rest of the season for not being able to take advantage of it.

In the vacuum of tonight’s game, there’s a few fingers to be pointed. You’ve got James Loney grounding into 2 double plays and leaving 5 men on base; you’ve got Russell Martin striking out (and looking bad doing it) with men on the corners in the top of the 10th. But that’s baseball, and these things happen. As much as you want to and as hard as you try, you’re simply not going to get that hit every single time out. Often, these things are out of your control. Which is why it’s so goddamn frustrating when the things that are in your control are executed poorly and come back to bite you in the ass. You should know by now what I’m talking about, and if you don’t, well, you must be Joe Torre. I don’t know how to put it any simpler than:

If you’ve got good pitchers available, don’t use the crummy ones.

Makes sense, right? So please, someone, anyone, explain to me how both Brian Falkenborg and Jason Johnson got into a one-run and tied extra inning game, respectively, while neither Jonathan Broxton or Hong-Chih Kuo made an appearance. It’s not as though either Broxton or Kuo were unavailable; Kuo hadn’t pitched either of the previous two nights, and Broxton has had three nights off. (In fact, Broxton’s only thrown nine pitches since July 29th – I know he’s warmed up in the bullpen a lot of those days too, but what’s up with that?)

It couldn’t be simpler. When your entire bullpen is rested, as it should be after an off-day, you use your five effective relievers (Beimel, Park, Kuo, Broxton, and Wade) – if you even need that many, which most days you won’t – and if the game goes into extra innings and you just need some arms, only then do you get the hammer and smash the “break only in case of emergency” glass to retrieve Falkenborg, Johnson, and Troncoso. Yeah, I know – the season’s a long grind, and you’ve got to use your entire pen, not just the best guys, so you don’t overwork them. But again, there was a day off prior, and two of your best (Kuo and Broxton) hadn’t even pitched in the game (or two) before that. They’re rested. You don’t let them sit while lesser men blow the game.

Let’s start with the first one, Brian Falkenborg coming in down 1-0 to start the 6th after Chad Billingsley is pulled from the game after just 74 pitches due to a second rain delay. You’ve got plenty of options with a fully rested pen. Since you’re being forced to dip into your bullpen so early, you probably want a guy who can go more than one inning. Someone like, say, Hong-Chih Kuo, who’s been simply dominating all year (1.85 ERA, 76K in 64 IP), or Chan Ho Park, leading candidate for Comeback Player of the Year with his 2.65 ERA, or even Cory Wade, who’s gone multiple innings several times and has been impressive with a 2.54 ERA.

What you don’t do is bring in veteran retread Brian Falkenborg ahead of all of these guys. Can we finally give up on the ”Falkenborg is a good pitcher” train that some people seem to be on? We’ve been pretty unhappy with him since day one (see here and here) and we’ve actually gotten some grief over it, and I just can’t understand why. Is it his 4.91 ERA coming into the game (that’s now 5.56 after it, by the way)? Is it his history of being unable to stick at the major league level? Even if you can justify him being on the team ahead of some guys we have in the minors (that’s a tough sell for me), I don’t see how anyone can say he’s any better than the last man out of the pen. Look, if we get to the 14th inning and it’s him or letting Russell Martin take the mound, that’s fine – if he gets hammered, what else could you have done? But there’s just no reason you let him pitch before every single other one of your rested and effective pitchers.

To no one’s surprise but Joe Torre’s, Falkenborg let the team down by allowing three of the four men he faced to reach base. Yeah, Joe Beimel hit Rick Ankiel to force the run in, and that was a pretty terrible job by Beimel (although he did rebound to get the next two outs with no further damage). But it’s a situation that never should have happened in the first place.

Now we’re onto the eleventh inning. After Cory Wade came through yet again with two scoreless innings (plus drawing a walk!), Torre’s got three men left in the pen: Jonathan Broxton, his closer. Hong-Chih Kuo, who as discussed above, has been lights-out all year. And Jason Johnson, who after three surprisingly good outings to begin his Dodgers career, was pretty mediocre his last time out, giving up 3 runs and 5 hits in 4 1/3 innings vs. Arizona. How is there even a discussion here? You’ve got two excellent well-rested pitchers, and a mediocre veteran journeyman with less rest than either of them.

I can’t stress that last point enough. Two good rested pitchers, one demonstrably lousy pitcher on shorter rest. Even if you make the case that since it’s a road game, you want to save Broxton to close in case you get a lead, you still bring in Kuo over Johnson. And of course, what happens? Single, pop-out, walkoff dinger. While Broxton and Kuo look on helplessly, since Torre never saw fit to bring them in.

And now the Blue are 2.5 games back of Arizona and deflated from the loss, where they could have been 1.5 games back and on a roll. Is it possible that Kuo or Broxton give up that homer too? Sure, it’s absolutely possible. But as a manager, your #1 priority is putting your team in the best position to win, and I don’t think you can say Joe Torre did that tonight. You live and die by your best players, whenever they’re available. I hate to think that the Dodgers lose out on the playoffs by one game due to the failures of two players who ostensibly are somewhere around 15th and 16th on the organizational pitching chart.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness