That May Be the Best Pitched Game You’ll Ever See
September 14, 2008 at 2:43 pm | Posted in Adrian Beltre, Casey Blake, Greg Maddux, Hong-Chih Kuo | 8 CommentsYou almost have to feel bad for both Greg Maddux and Aaron Cook, who were both just unbelievable today. What else could you ask of Maddux? He breezed through seven innings on just 68 pitches, a number which we’ve all seen other pitchers accumulate in just two innings, and allowed just two base runners. Of course, Cook was just as good, going eight scoreless innings. All this in Coors Field, which makes me wonder what would have happened if these two had matched up in Petco today. Would 14-inning dueling perfect games be out of the question?
I’m not all that worried about the loss, because it’s still a series win, and that’s all you can ever expect. What does worry me a little is Hong-Chih Kuo. We all know his gruesome history of arm injuries, and even now he just had to take an entire week off (plus a cortisone shot in his elbow), and after his first batter Joe Torre rushes to the mound to inquire about his health (seen at right). Kuo waves him off, but then proceeds to give up 4 hits and blows the game. It can’t be overstated how much he’s meant to the pen this season… so let’s hope this is just rust, and not anything more serious.
On to Pittsburgh, hopefully aided by the return of Andre Ethier.
* Casey Blake left today’s game with, according to Diamond Leung, “minor back stiffness.” I’m not sure if this is something that’s just popped up, but with how poorly he’s performed lately it wouldn’t surprise me if this has been bothering him for some time. Looking at his stats coming into today, Blake’s been very all-or-nothing. Over the last month, his power numbers have been fine (5 homers and a .432 SLG), but he’s only hitting .227 and getting on base at a .313 clip. It’s been worse even more recently, as he’s only been able to get 3 hits in the entire last week. He has hit 9 homers since joining the Dodgers, which is nice, but his OPS+ is now at 101 in LA - making him just about league-average. Of course, since Blake DeWitt had fallen off a cliff and Andy LaRoche never really got going, league-average was an upgrade.
* Speaking of third base… as a general rule, I’ve tried to refrain from worrying about 2009 while the Dodgers are still very much alive in 2008. This is why I haven’t really touched on the “Will Manny stay?” questions or “Will Sabathia come to LA?” rumors that are out and about. But this is a new one: via MLBtraderumors, we have Bill Shaikin wondering whether the Dodgers might be interested in re-acquiring Adrian Beltre from Seattle in the offseason. We’ll get into this and other rumors in a much more indepth fashion after the season ends, but for now I’ll say this: I wouldn’t mind seeing Beltre return, but I doubt that it’ll happen. For all the heat Beltre has recieved for being unable to match his monster 2004 season since going to Seattle, he’s still been a very effective third baseman. Still one of the best defenders in the game, he’s now completing his third straight year of 25+ homers with an above average OPS+, and that’s with an injured wrist that just required surgery. Would I be willing to pay the $12 million for 2009 remaining on his contract to see if a return to the LA area would be bring back his 2004 form? Probably – but when Beltre’s name popped up in rumors (mostly to Minnesota) this July, all the whispers said that Seattle was looking for frontline young prospects in return, partially to mend the wounds they caused themselves in the brutal Erik Bedard deal. That’s not a price I’m willing to pay for one year of Beltre. So I don’t expect to see it.
- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness 
8 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a Reply
How Many McCourt Sins?
MSTI on the web
MSTI Library
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
[...] Scioscia’s Tragic Illness takes another look at one dandy of a pitcher’s duel yesterday afternoon in [...]
Pingback by Sports Brief - Sept. 15 at SportsHubLA— September 15, 2008 #
I would totally be OK with Beltre returning to LA. He’s the Chocolate Bunny – always been one of my favorite guys. I was so sad when he left.
Comment by BlueMamma— September 15, 2008 #
Beltre is one of the best if not the best “potentially available” 3rd basemen for next year. The problem, however is exactly what you write above– Seattle is going to ask more for him than the Dodgers should or could part with. Some other team that’s looking to contend next year is going to get him in the off-season or possible at the break for a nice haul of prospects for Seattle, which desperately needs them.
Comment by Erich— September 15, 2008 #
If we were going to trade Meloan and Santana for a 3B… I wish it had been Beltre rather than Blake.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— September 15, 2008 #
Yeah you’d think the Ms would’ve bitten on that given their problems with Johjima at C this year. But I wonder if that wasn’t offered and rejected, because I know the M’s and Dodgers have good lines of communication and Beltre was supposedly potentially available around that time. Maybe it came down to $$$, or maybe the M’s wanted even more then Meloan on the pitching side.
Comment by Erich— September 15, 2008 #
Yeah, I agree. If we were going to trade Meloan and Santana, Beltre would have been the better get than Blake. But it didn’t happen that way, so there’s nothing we can do about it. Going after Beltre right now would probably be a waste of good prospects. I say probably because Beltre’s agent is Scott Boras. If Beltre had any other agent, I’d say trade for him so long as we could negotiate a long-term contract with him. But Boras doesn’t do things like that, so trading for Beltre right now would mean 2 or 3 good prospects without any guarantee that we could keep him for more than one year.
The Dodgers best option, I think, would be to re-sign Blake on a 3-year contract for $24-26 million. Since we’ve already paid the prospects, we might as well hold on to Blake (so long as he’s willing).
And, seriously, Blake isn’t the worst option at 3b. He’ll probably hit .270 – .280 with 20-22 HR even at 36 (his age next season). Not the greatest, but respectable. His defense can be a little spotty at times, but again he’s adequate.
The great thing for the Dodgers is that 3b is one of the few positions we have great depth in in the minors. In addition to Josh Wall, we have Pedro Baez and Austin Gallagher (who may need to move to the outfield). None of them will probably be ready to be ML starters for at least 2 years, with 3 years being optimum. So a 3 year deal with Blake may be the best option for the Dodgers in the long run since he fills a gaping hole at 3b while not blocking any of our young talent.
Comment by Westsidedodger— September 15, 2008 #
Oops, did I say Josh Wall. I meant Josh Bell.
Comment by Westsidedodger— September 15, 2008 #
Westside is right, both Baez and Gallagher are still two to three years away and Bell can’t stay healthy for more than two months. Plus, his arm is a lethal weapon – to the fans sitting behind first base.
The only other option would be to hope that we resign Furcal and run DeJesus to second base, but that would be a huge reach. I like the idea of DeWitt playing second, he is a solid glove and has the look of a good stick with some discipline. If we don’t resign Blake, we are stuck with the crapola of column B – Joe Crede, Hank Blalock or Rich Aurilia. Not exactly scintillating winter talk.
I would prefer to hear talk of how we are gonna void Andruw’s contract because the fat bastid is nearly a hundred pounds overweight or that we are dealing Slappy (and some kids) for another young arm like Homer Bailey – if there ever was a kid who needed to be anywhere but Cincinnati, it is him.
Comment by grabarkewitz— September 15, 2008 #