Monthly Archives: October 2008

The World Series is Still Going On?

Posted on by Leave a reply

Call it blasphemy if you must, but I’m waiting for this thing to end as soon as possible. I have no particular rooting interest, and having to wait for it to end is just holding us up while we wait to get down to serious business, like building the Dodgers for 2009. I know, I’ll complain when the Dodgers make it next year and I see fans of other teams making these same posts, but still – let’s get on with this already. Because in the meantime we’re stuck trying to figure out if who’s making up Manny-related stories about contract offers, and by the way, I don’t have a problem with Ned Colletti denying he actually made a 2 year, $60 million deal. But shouldn’t we be a little worried about his assertion that “the Dodgers haven’t had any internal conversations about the value or length of a deal they should offer the 36-year-old outfielder.” No? Colletti, McCourt, Ng, and/or White haven’t even had casual conversations about it? Ned, I certainly hope you’re just screwing with the media there.
In better news, John Perrotto of Baseball Prospectus expects the Red Sox will sign Jason Varitek for 2 years and $16 million, which is great only in the sense that he would be unavailable for the Dodgers to sign. As we’ve said here many times, Varitek is beyond cooked, so any kind of deal that brings him to LA and Russell Martin to third base or another city would be a terrible move.
The Red Sox are also kicking around the idea of signing Mark Teixeira, moving Kevin Youkilis to third base, and dealing Mike Lowell. Might he be a possibility for the Dodgers? Lowell’s owed $24 million over the next two years, so the Red Sox would have to pick up a decent portion of that. He’ll be 35 in the spring and he’s coming off hip surgery that kept him out of the ALCS, but he’s been a very productive third baseman for a long time. Except for his disastrous final season in Florida of 2005, he’s never hit fewer than 17 homer runs or had an OPS+ of under 103 since he became a full time starter in 2000. Plus, he’s well-known as one of the best defensive 3B in baseball, and we all know how much McCourt loves Boston guys. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind having him at the right price – but the size of that contract plus whatever it’d take to get him from Boston probably makes it pretty unlikely.
Our 2008 in review returns tomorrow. Go Phillies! If only because they’re already up 2-1!

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illnessmsti-face.jpg

MSTI.com’s 2008 in Review: Second Base

Posted on by 5 Replies

On to our second base review, and no, I didn’t forget Blake DeWitt – he’ll be included under third base, since that’s where he played most of the season.

Jeff Kent ()
(.280/.327/.418 12hr 59rbi)
What a wild year for Mr. Friendly, right? When summing up a season, I always like to look back and see what we thought about him at various points in time. But few players have had all of these things written about them in the course of the same season:

May 21: “Just in Case Jeff Kent Needs Some Motivation…“

Think about that. If Jeff Kent keeps up his current pace and Joe Torre continues to bat him cleanup, he’s going to be the second worst cleanup hitter of the last fifty years – and as the THT article explains, Aramis Ramirez was only so bad in 2002 because he played all year on a destroyed ankle.

July 13: “Too Many Problems, Whatcha Gonna Do“

Back to Joe Torre, I implore you to read this carefully, because it just might be the greatest thing ever uttered:

On Jeff Kent: “He’s the perfect example of a player. He’s struggling, but we know we’re going to get a professional at-bat every time he gets in the box.”

“He’s the perfect example of a player.” I love this sentence. I want to get it tattooed on my back. I want to take it out behind the middle school and get it pregnant. I want it to be prominently displayed on all forms of United States currency from now until the end of time. “He’s the perfect example of a player.” As opposed to, say, Russell Martin, who is the perfect example of a 1920s vaudeville singer, and Brad Penny, who is the perfect example of a hamster.

Aug. 30: “Eight is Enough“

You would think that a knee injury so painful that he’s missing the biggest series of the year would explain why Kent’s having the worst season of his entire career, right? But Kent says that he’s been playing with pain for a month – a month in which he’s been excellent, hitting .357/.394/.439. Whether that’s Manny-aided or not, that’s impressive, but who gets hurt and then has their performance improve?

Aug. 31: “Jeff Kent’s Dodger Legacy” (Dodger Thoughts)

Jeff Kent, whose Dodger career began at age 37, is the greatest-hitting second baseman in Los Angeles Dodger history.

Sept. 2: “Are the Dodgers Better Off Without Jeff Kent?“

This is hardly a solid cause-and-effect, but with Kent, the Dodgers had lost 10 of their last 11 games. As soon as he was out of town (and not just out of the lineup. The whole point here is the idea that just his presence may have been detrimental), they’ve ripped off four wins in a row, starting with Saturday’s game, since as the article notes, he left before it.

Sept. 21: “Sunday, Bloody Sunday“

Say friends, did you also know that, yesterday, the Dodgers activated Jeff Kent?  You know, the one who just had knee surgery TWO weeks ago.

And so forth. I could go on, but I think you get the idea – Jeff Kent’s (likely) swan song was a wild ride of ups, downs, injuries, downs, postseason benchings, and downs. For the record, his 77 OPS+ out of the cleanup spot merely ties him for the third worst cleanup season of all time, and he’s still a lousy defensive second baseman (last of 16 qualified MLB 2B in range factor, 14th in fielding %, 12th in zone rating), although it’s not like anyone thought he’d be anything otherwise.

That said, 2008 wasn’t a complete debacle for Kent. Any discussion of his statistics has to of course begin with the standard age-related disclaimer: the man is 40 years old. In that light, putting up a seasonal 95 OPS+ isn’t that bad. Only five 40 year olds have managed to play most of a full season at second base since 1961, and the most productive of that group was Tony Phillips for the 1999 A’s, who put up a 108 OPS+, so Kent’s not that far off. Simply put, it’s pretty rare for anyone his age to still be a starting second baseman, and the fact that he very nearly was a league-average hitter is pretty impressive. Among all 2008 second basemen, his .745 OPS ranks him 16th, which is just about the middle of the pack, but still above names like Rickie Weeks, Robinson Cano, and Akinori Iwamura. And just like any old man, Kent was wildly unpredictable. Sometimes he’s fondly remembering his date with that cute nurse right after V-E Day (OPS of .750 or better in April, June, and August), and sometimes he’s wildly cursing at John F. Kennedy and the damn Demmycrats ruining the country (.551 OPS in May).

Almost as importantly, Kent seems to have not ignited any clubhouse fires this season, although I’ve always felt that most of the “young immature guys” vs. “get off my lawn!” battles were hugely media-driven because they make for good copy. Hell, Matt Kemp even said that he and Kent listened to Lil’ Wayne before games to get pumped up, and while I’m not sold that that’s 100% true, Kemp probably wouldn’t have even joked about if it he was afraid Professor Kent was going to sit him down, rap his knuckles with a ruler, and educate him about the days when men were men and all we needed to toughen up the god damn hippies was to send them to ‘Nam.

You know, the more I write these things, the more I realize that I think of Jeff Kent as Red Forman from That 70′s Show.

Anyway, Kent doesn’t get a letter grade. You can’t give him an A or a B because he simply wasn’t all that great, but I can’t see giving him a C or a D because he’s doing things at his age and position that almost no one has done before. So Jeff, take your gold watch and ride off into the sunset of Texas on your motorcycle. We’ll miss you (his 2005 was excellent, he now holds the Dodger record for homers at ages 37, 38, 39, and 40, and as DodgerThoughts said, he might be the best LA 2B ever), but I can’t imagine that anyone is really pining for you to return next year - and we will respectfully stay far, far away from your lawn.

Luis Maza (inc.)
(.228/.282/.278 1hr 4rbi)
Ah, Luis Maza, the 2008 winner of the “Token Minor League Lifer Who Gets Called Up That Even MSTI Has Never Heard of Before”. Previous winners include Wilson Valdez, 2007, and Brian Myrow, 2005. Maza was only up for about two months from mid-May to mid-July, and to no one’s surprise, he didn’t really do much at the plate, which is basically what you expect from a middle infielder who’s making his major league debut at age 28. To his credit, Maza destroyed the PCL (.378/.450/.492) in 2008, but here’s the really odd thing about him: when you have a middle infielder who can’t hit big-league pitching, you really expect that he’s a plus glove. There’s been about a billion of these guys over the years, to the point that they really ought to start their own union like the backup catchers club. But Luis Maza may have had the worst throwing arm of any middle infielder I’ve seen in my entire life. This is what I said after his first game, a start at shortstop on May 16:

If you saw his start against Milwaukee yesterday, you’ll know that it won’t matter if he’s hitting .402 or .902 – we need him to never be at shortstop ever again. I’ve never seen a shortstop with such a weak arm, to the point that the Milwaukee broadcasters were trying to figure out what he was even doing in the majors.

Oh yeah. It’s always good when the opposing team’s announcers are making fun of your shortstop’s lollypop throws. I suppose the defining statement on the Dodger career of Luis Maza is that he was DFA’d not to make room for a returning injured player like Rafael Furcal or Nomar Garciaparra… but to get replaced by the equally dreadful Pablo Ozuna. Yikes. If that’s not a sign that it’s time to start working towards that carpentry degree, I don’t know what is.

Pablo Ozuna (inc.)
(.219/.242/.375 1hr 3rbi)
I’ll say this for Pablo Ozuna – I’ve never heard of a player making the playoff roster a month after getting DFA’d. And it wasn’t just a standard DFA, it was a “yeah, we could wait four more days until rosters expand and recall Blake DeWitt without losing you, but we’d rather just be rid of you right now.” I don’t want to be too harsh on Ozuna here, but let’s not mince words: he has no business being on the major league roster of a contending team. His career OPS+ is 76 (largely aided by his incredibly fluky 105 in 2006, since he never even hit 90 in any other season) and at 34, it’s not like there’s a lot of time for him to improve. Oh sure, he can play a lot of positions. Big deal, it’s not that hard to find a utility guy, and you could throw darts into the stands and hit at least twenty people who are better hitters.

At least we were consistent with him, though. I said his “continued presence blows my mind” on August 11th, called him “a stiff” and asked “what value he brings” on August 13th, “endlessly mediocre” on August 17th, and “completely useless” on August 27th.

Damn, I had no idea I laid so much hate on Pablo Ozuna in August. Nothing personal, Pablo. It’s just that I find you useless as a baseball player, and you’re the early lead for my “least favorite Dodger of 2008 (human division)”, and while I know what you’re thinking, what Andruw Jones accomplished this season was so monumentally awful that I don’t think any human could have done that if they tried.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illnessmsti-face.jpg

MSTI.com’s 2008 In Review: First Base

Posted on by 12 Replies

Welcome to day 2 of MSTI’s 2008 Season In Review.  Today, we continue on the diamond to first base, where we evaluate first base, beginning with Crazy Legs James Loney.
Now before I get into this, let us get some perspective.  Last year, in our reviews, I gave James an “A Fucking Plus” (the “fucking” part, of course, gave some authority!) due to his monster 2007 season where he put up just Godly numbers (.331/.381/.538), especially a sick September, where he hit .382/.429/.709 with 9 HR’s.
In fact, here was most of my 2008 outlook on James:

2008 Outlook: I don’t necessarily think that the James Loney that we saw this past September is the one we’ll see all year in 2008 (he did finish 2007 with a .352 BABIP), however, I don’t see James being all that far off, either. Simply put, he is such an awesome hitter. The ball just explodes off his bat and even his outs seem to be hit hard. I fully expect 2008 to be the first of many years that he will compete for batting titles along with Gold Gloves.

Err… O.K., so maybe not quite 2008.  Which brings us to our final grade:
James Loney = D+

(.289/.338/.434, 13 HR’s, 90 RBI’s)
I know, I know… “how dare you, Vin!  What, do you secretly wear a Nomar jersey to bed, every night?!”  I don’t, but I do want to clarify a few things.  First off, this was a hard grade to give and I’m more somewhere between D+/C-, and even I wasn’t expecting to give this grade, until I looked through everything.  Secondly, keep in mind that when I make this grade, it isn’t to say that he had this really crappy year.  He didn’t.  However, on the other hand, when I look at his overall numbers and after watching him this year, my reaction to his 2008 season was more… meh?  For someone who had such a strong season in 2007 after building some solid foundation to end an impressionable, albeit brief, 2006, you expected him to continue on that plateau, but, instead, like Russell Martin, took a step back this season.  In fact, they’re similar cases.  Because of their previous years, high expectations were set, but, alas, neither succeeded in fulfilling them.  And remember, we primarily base these grades relative to expectations.
So why the D+?  Well, as much as it pains me to say it, in 2008, James Loney was one of the worst first baseman in the National League.
It’s really hard to say it, because he started off the year so promising.  Remember, he began his 2008 campaign with a 15 game hitting streak and did have some torrid months in June (.362/.425/.500) and August (.330/.371/.468), but, alas, these are also inbetween a decent month (July = .277/.343/.479), a couple of below average months (April = .272/.322/.398, May = .267/.315/.446) and just a downright terrible month (September = .209/.229/.297).  Amongst NL first baseman to have at least 450 at bats, Loney ranked dead last in VORP (17.0) and MLV.  I know, I know… you must be asking: “What is this MLV you talk about, Vin, you nerd you?”  Well, basically, what MLV shows is how many additional runs a player adds over the course of a season if you had a lineup of completely average players. For instance, Albert Pujols was the best first baseman in the NL, and he added 89.2 runs above average.  Loney added 9.8 runs over the course of the season, the only NL first baseman to be in single digits in this category.  Just to illustrate the drop from last year, in 2007, Loney had a VORP of 30.7 to rank him 9th amongst NL first baseman with at least 350 at-bats (if 450, he wouldn’t have qualified due to not being called up until June), and also ranked 9th in MLV at 25.7.  His EqA this year was .269 (league average is .260) which is a drop from his .305 EqA of 2007.
But even if you’re into the more traditional stats, Loney doesn’t fare much better.  His .289 batting average was quite good, but it’s marred by his low .338 OBP, which ranks him 2nd to last amongst NL first baseman and also a big drop from his sweet .381 OBP, last season.  His slugging percentage of .434 also ranks him last amongst NL first baseman, and is a .104 point drop off from his .538 SLG%, last year and his 102 OPS+ (100 is average) is a big drop from his OPS+ of 131, last year.  His RC27 (basically, how many runs a full team of James Loneys would score per game, hence the 27, as there are 27 outs in a 9 inning game) dropped from 7.9 in 2007 to 4.7 in 2008.
Still, while he wasn’t particularly productive relative to his peers at first base, he was still a bit more productive relative to his team, albeit the results are still somewhat disappointing.  Amongst Dodgers who have enough at-bats to compete for the batting title (which counts Manny out, since he wasn’t here long enough), there are four: Russell Martin, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, and James Loney.  Remember, we had some shuffling at 2B, SS, 3B, LF, and CF (which raises the question: how the hell did we make the NLCS again?!), so that explains the low number.  Still, with this criteria, Loney ranked 3rd in BA (.289), 4th in OBP (.338), 3rd in SLG% (.434), 4th in OPS (.772), tied for 4th in HR’s (13, also Martin’s total), but, to his credit, ranked 1st with 90 RBI’s.  And, as we’ve said before, yet another reason not to take RBI’s as an indicator of a player’s value.
So, it’s safe to say: the bat just didn’t cut it, this year.  However, when we turn to look at the defensive side of things, we get a much different story.  As has been said before and probably will many times again, defensive statistics are a bit murky and are not as definitive as offensive statistics.  So, what do we do?  Well, we can look at how other players relative to his position are doing and get a general idea of what’s going on, as well as using some of various statistics.  So, let’s do that:
Amongst all qualified NL first baseman, James Loney ranked 7th in fielding percentage at .991 (Berkman, Adrian Gonzalez and Pujols are tied for 1st at .996), while ranking 2nd only to Pujols in Range Factor at 9.81.  His Zone Rating isn’t as high, though, as Loney ranks 7th at .857.  His Rate2 is 101 (100 is league average).  The good news about all of these statistics is that they are all upward trends from 2007.  In 2007, Loney had a fielding percentage of .989, a Range Factor of 9.13, a Zone Rating of .809 and a Rate2 of 100.  So we’ve seen some improvement in areas; some far bigger than others.
So, when we put all these fangled statistics together, what do we get?  Well, simply, we get a player who had a regression and, offensively, was average at best.  But don’t get me wrong: I still love James Loney and have hope, and while this season does give me some slight concerns going forward, I am mostly optimistic.  He will barely turn 25 at the beginning of 2009 and let’s remember: despite the fact that he’s been up with the Dodgers in some capacity since 2006, this was his first full season.  That does take some adjustment and it is unreasonable to expect him to start becoming Don Mattingly reincarnate so soon, despite his flashes of brilliance.  But, while we weren’t expecting Mattinglyesque numbers, we did expect better, hence the grade.  Though speaking of flashes of brilliance, even though postseason performance doesn’t factor into grades, the “old Loney,” if you will, did show up with the big grand slam in game 1 of the NLDS and was one of the very few who decided to show up for the NLCS, going 7-16. So we at MSTI give James big props for that.  And, also… speaking of Mattingly, I do like the fact that he is paired up with Loney now and as James advances forward with a full season under his belt, I do expect an improved 2009.
God, I hope my prediction doesn’t turn out as crappy as last year; that one defined crapulence, I think.
Speaking of crapulence, this brings us to…
Mark Sweeney = F-
(.190/.250/.163, 0 HR’s, 5 RBI’s)
So you might say: “Vin, you DO know Sweeney only had 92 AB’s this year, right?”  Yes, I say.  But, like Gary Bennett, he was so fucking crappy this season, he HAS to get some sort of grade.  And so he does.  And, yes, the “-” part of the grade is tongue and cheek, although if I could go lower, I would.  But we’re saving that for another person… guess who!  But back to Sweeney…
I admit… after watching Sweeney play this year, I think I have officially run out of different ways to describe his sucktitude.
Actually, no, I haven’t.  He was sucky.  Shitty.  Shitty McShitty.  A waste of roster space, and, hey, even Olmedo Saenz version 2007 was better.
I mean, do I really need to show you all these fancy statistics to demonstrate why he was so miserable?  He couldn’t hit lefties, righties, at home or away.  In fact, the only associations I have with the words “hit” and “Sweeney” were most of the 92 times this year he made me want to hit a freaking bong after the painful at-bats he would give us.
However, while we have liked to rag Sweeney, because 1. it’s usually justified and 2. it’s just too damn fun, I do put quite a lot of blame on Joe Torre for this one.  While Sweeney can’t help the fact that he, well, sucks now, it’s not like he’s going to refuse to go up to the plate if he’s asked.  Torre had complete control on who would be in the lead pinch hitting role and he continued to send Sweeney out there, due to “swing paths,” “body language” and “demeanor,” rather than… I don’t know… whether he could hit the ball or not.
Yes, I have to ask again: how the hell did we make the NLCS?
To Torre’s credit, though, he did finally get it once the postseason started and regulated Sweeney to the more apt role: cheerleader.  Awesome, but, still, that move should have happened by at least June.
Outside of a brief moment of douchebaggery this season, Sweeney does seem to be a good guy and one of the pranksters in the clubhouse.  He’s had a very good career, but all careers come to an end, and it’s time for him to hang it up.  Or at least play for another team…
See ya, Sweeney Poo…

- Vin vinscully-face.jpg

Off To a Good Start: Thanks, Seattle

Posted on by Leave a reply

Hit me, MLB.com:

SEATTLE — Seattle Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln and President Chuck Armstrong announced today that Jack Zduriencik has been named the Mariners new Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations.

Why do you care that Jack Zdun… Zdurie… Zudu-not-gonna-work-here-anyway is the new GM for the Mariners? Because that means that Dodgers assistant GM Kim Ng, a finalist for the job, is not. I don’t mean to sound as though I’m applauding what is certainly a disappointment for Ng, but it’s phenomenal news for the Dodgers, and in the long run that’s really all that matters to me and my irrational history of cheering for Los Angeles-based laundry.
I would have never ever believed this just a few months ago, but it now seems likely the Dodgers are going to make it through this offseason without losing either Ng or Logan White to GM jobs elsewhere, which count as huge wins for us.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illnessmsti-face.jpg

MSTI.com’s 2008 in Review: Catcher

Posted on by 14 Replies


That’s right, it’s that time again! Just like we did last year, we’re going to give a review to everyone who played for the Dodgers this year. I’m sure I’ll regret this when it comes time to discuss Luis Maza.
Remember, each player’s grade is in relation to what we could have reasonably expected from them and them alone, not as compared to other players. So even though Blake DeWitt and Andre Ethier are both getting A’s, it doesn’t mean that I think DeWitt did as well as Ethier did. Besides, if I did it the other way, Manny would get an A and no one else would even rate a letter grade.
Less than 10 IP or 100 at-bats gets you an “incomplete”. Fun new twist this time around, rather than just put up pictures of everyone, I’ve whipped up some modern day versions of the indisputable best baseball card set ever, 1987 Topps. Hope you all enjoy these as much as I did making them.
Russell Martin (C-)
(.280/.385/.396 13hr 69rbi 18sb)
It’s hard to give a guy I like so much a grade like that, but a lot of this is due to the incredibly high expectations we had for Martin this year. Although his OBP is outstanding, his power really dropped off this year (three-year SLG from .436 to .469 to .396) and his 2008 OPS dropped markedly every single month from April to August before a September resurgence. Now as we said many times, I place a lot of the blame for that on Joe Torre and his insistence on playing Martin at 3B on his “days off” rather than actually letting him get a breather. I really think there’s more to this than people realize, because if you remember from July’s first-half review, I gave him an A+ and said,

Without question, the best offensive player so far. There were actually some inane stories out there that I won’t even subject you to linking to saying that he’s been off his game this year, but that’s mostly thanks to his very slow start to the season, hitting .197 as late as April 20th. But you know what? Martin’s actually having the best offensive year of his career overall.

Which, at the time, was true. The problem was that his second-half OPS dropped 122 points. While his OBP was still pretty good, his slugging dropped 100 points and he hit only 3 HR after the break. If that’s not a sign of a catcher who’s running out of gas, I don’t know what is. Pay attention, Joe! Also a matter of concern is Martin’s slipping defense, because he “led” the NL with 11 errors. Granted, the fact that he plays so often gives him more chances to make the errors, but still – that’s tops in the league. It’s sort of difficult to come up with a lot of defensive catching stats, especially since we all agree that caught stealing numbers mostly lie with the pitchers, so you’re just going to have to give me the eyeball test on this one – his defense wasn’t superb in 2008. Getting just five hits in the eight postseason games isn’t really helping his case either. I don’t mean to get down on Martin, because even if he’s not Joe Mauer or Brian McCann, he still finished 5th in the majors in VORP among catchers, and with the state of catching the way it is in baseball right now, that’s plenty valuable. Plus, he’s still only going to be 26 next year and just entering his prime, so it’s possible we’ve yet to see the best of him. But hey, you know what would really help with that? Joe Torre not trying to make Martin walk like my grandpa by the time he’s 30. Also, not trading him because of “bad makeup”. Shut up, Joel Sherman.

Danny Ardoin (inc.)
(.235/.278/.314 1hr 4rbi)
There’s few things tougher to write about than the performance of Dodger backup catchers, and I’m already realizing that I still have two guys with fewer at-bats than Ardoin did. Fantastic. Anyway, last year when writing about Chad Moeller I said, “This guy’s straight out of the Journeyman Catcher Central Casting Agency here. Now paging Paul Bako, Kelly Stinnett, Mike DeFelice, and Sal Fasano, please pick up the white courtesy phone.” Danny Ardoin could just have easily been dropped in that category, as the Dodgers were his 6th team in 5 MLB seasons. That said, Ardoin did a decent job – no, he can’t hit, but I had no problems with his defense and the pitching staff seemed happy with his work behind the plate. I’d rather that the Dodgers get a better hitter in 2009, so that Torre will feel more comfortable with resting Martin, but if it’s Ardoin again, I won’t really complain that much.

Gary Bennett (F!)
(.190/.261/.381 1hr 4rbi)
That’s right, we’re three players in and I’m already breaking my own rules by giving Gary Bennett an F, rather than the “incomplete” he deserves for only getting 21 at-bats. Bennett, like Ardoin, is your standard journeyman catcher, with the 2008 Dodgers his 8th team in 13 years. So when you’re a backup backstop, especially on a team with a solid starter like the Dodgers do, you’re really expected to do all of two things. You need to be a mediocre hitter (.241 career average: check) and you need to be a good defensive reciever. What you don’t need to do is to completely lose the ability to throw the ball back to the pitcher, causing both annoyance on the hurler’s part and occasional errors for you. The best part was, his season ended when he was put on the DL with plantar fasciitis in his left foot, but the timing was fantastic. This is what I said when the news first came out about his “injury”:

The hits keep on coming – Gary Bennett gets placed on the DL, per the official blog, and Dodger Thoughts has the reason: “Left foot plantar fasciitis.” Let me say, the quotes could not be thicker around that. We’ve had no word of any injury problems surrounding Bennett, but tons of stories about his throwing problems, and suddenly his foot hurts? Hey, call it a bad foot, the flu, or the heebie-jeebies; whatever it takes to get this guy’s head right and get those lollipop throws off the field. Seriously, he even made Rotoworld today, which is rare for a mediocre backup catcher, and at no point is the foot mentioned.

Needless to say, Gary Bennett probably shouldn’t have a job anywhere in 2009, but he especially shouldn’t have a job in Los Angeles.

A.J. Ellis (inc.)
(0-3)
Ah yes, the fun part of writing about every player. You get to dissect the September expanded roster call-up who got just three at-bats. I think Ellis’ impact on the 2008 Dodgers can be mostly shown by the fact that I couldn’t even find an action picture of him in an LA uniform and had to go with a 2007 spring training shot. I think most of my thoughts regarding Ellis this year revolved around me hoping he’d at least get an at-bat, because after getting called up in September he got into three games without getting a chance at the plate. (I believe at one point I declared, “Free A.J. Ellis!”) Fortunately for him, acting manager Nomar Garciaparra gave him a start on Sept. 28 in the last game of the year, where he promptly went 0-3 with 2 K’s. Seriously though, Ellis is going to be 28 next year and he might yet deserve a shot to be a backup somewhere; he did tear up AAA this year with a .321/.436/.456 line.

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