Monthly Archives: May 2009

Please Look At Our New Reliever’s Wikipedia Page

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Eric Stults has pitched his way right onto the DL (thanks for making me look bad, Eric) with a severe case of “he sucked, but let’s go with.. *throws dart at board*… thumb“. In his place, right-handed reliever Travis Schlichting gets the call from AA Chattanooga.

schlichtingwikipedia.jpgHe’s not someone I know a whole lot about, so I started doing some research and… well, look, I know Wikipedia is hardly a paragon of truth in journalism, but still, when you look up biographical information on a pitcher, you don’t expect to see this picture (at right) on his page. I suppose that’s sort of like seeing James Loney as a top high school pitcher on his own page.

Anyway, that’s not an incorrect picture, it’s just old – Schlichting was drafted by Tampa Bay in the 4th round of the 2003 draft and never really hit in about 900 low minors at-bats between 2003-05. In 2006, he was traded to the Angels for catcher Josh Paul, and did so well as a 21-year-old in A ball that they flat-out cut him.

Here’s the interesting part, though. He decided to reinvent himself as a pitcher, and went off to the independent leagues to do so. So just two years ago, he was pitching for a Kansas City T-Bones team populated by an entire roster of guys no one has ever heard of, other than perhaps failed Orioles prospect and real-life Crash Davis, Calvin Pickering. That league (2007 Northern League) featured such well-known outfits as the Joliet Jackhammers, Gary Southshore Railcats, Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks, and the Edmonton Cracker-Cats (go Cracker-Cats!!). Here’s the real kicker: Schlichting was terrible. Sure, it was his first year as a pitcher, so fine. But a 5.29 ERA and a 1.980 WHIP (and allowing 12.7 hits/9) in the indy leagues hardly puts a guy on the fast past to major league stardom.

Somehow – and believe me, I would love to know how this happened, so please email me or comment if you know – that got him an invite to Dodgers camp last year and a spot on the AA Jacksonville Suns, where he was actually decent, putting up a 3.77 ERA in 59.2 innings, and cutting that WHIP down to 1.274. Kept in AA as the affiliation switched to Chattanooga this year, he’s been phenomenal, allowing just one earned run in 13.2 innings thus far. As far as what he throws, his skill-set, etc, just check out the prospect profile over at FNCN, because I’m not coming up with anything to add to that.

I know this, though: a story like “terrible third baseman to lousy independent league pitcher to the bigs in less than three years” is enough to get my attention.

Don’t Expect to See This Again For A While

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255269494_6c33b8a238.jpgNo, don’t worry – there’s nothing wrong with Chad Billingsley. The point here is a pitcher batting in the road grays, because after tonight’s game in Chicago (Eric Milton on ESPN! …whoooo?) the Dodgers don’t play a road game in an NL park until July 3 in San Diego - which just so happens to be the day that Manny returns.

The entirety of June’s road schedule will be in AL parks, as the Dodgers play three each in Texas, Anaheim, and Chicago. So get used to the DH! For a second, I wondered if that would be the time that you’d have to drop off of 13 pitchers (which will be restored when Hiroki Kuroda takes AJ Ellis’ spot on Monday), because if you’re adding another bat to the lineup, you’re down to just two non-backup-catcher reserves, which is quite a thin bench. But then I thought about it for a bit, and I realized the exact opposite might be true. You’re not pinch-hitting for anyone in this lineup, and now you don’t even have to worry about the pitcher. Why shouldn’t Joe Torre just throw in Mark Loretta as DH, or sometimes Juan Pierre or Andre Ethier with Jamie Hoffmann in the outfield, and toss the lineup card away?

And that is why I prefer the National League.

Eric Stults May Be Pitching For His Job Today

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With the news that Hiroki Kuroda will make his long-awaited return from the DL to pitch at Dodger Stadium on Monday, someone’s going to have to be dropped from the rotation – and it’s obviously going to be Eric Stults or Eric Milton. Since they’re pitching back-to-pack this weekend against the same opponent (each on national TV, no less) it makes a pretty nice competition between the two. However, dodgers.com seems to have already declared a winner: 

stultslaststart.jpg“Will likely make his last start for a while” sounds pretty pro-Milton to me. Are we really that sure of the outcome already? Sure, Milton was nice the last time out, getting a win in Colorado, but he only went five innings and was hardly dominant. Stults has had two lousy starts in a row, but he did throw a fantastic shutout the time before that and was effective in four of his first five starts preceding the shutout.

I tend to think that it’s probably not going to matter much, both due to the big lead and because it’s likely both are still going to get some time as the #5 starter regardless, but let’s not write off Stults so easily. He’s inconsistent, but he’s shown some real talent at times. And isn’t that all you can ask for from a #5 starter?

(I now reserve the right to delete this entire post if he goes out and gets lit up today.)

From 12 Pitchers to 3 Catchers

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From DodgerThoughts:

After tonight’s game, the Dodgers placed Will Ohman on the disabled list, according to Dodgers  broadcaster Charley Steiner (via Dodger Thoughts commenter Dave60). The team called up catcher A.J. Ellis, moving back to a 12-man pitching staff and freeing Brad Ausmus to pinch-hit more frequently.

87toppsajellis.jpgWell, then. Ellis is likely only up for a week or so until Hiroki Kuroda’s ready to return from the DL, so this isn’t really a huge deal either way. I’m just not quite sure I understand why a team with only one backup outfielder and two backup infielders is investing in a third catcher. Ellis is doing nicely at Albuquerque (.819 OPS), but he’s hardly the superstar of the club. Infielders Blake DeWitt (.908) and Hector Luna (1.086!!), along with outfielder Dee Brown (1.020) and 1B/3B/OF Mitch Jones (.977, 15 HR) have all been productive. (Hmm, I sense that Jones is going to be this year’s Terry Tiffee).

Granted, Ausmus is hitting much better than we’d thought (which should tell you something when even that is just a 106 OPS+), but I just don’t see how having him available to pinch hit is better than having one of the aforementioned guys who are both swinging the bat well in AAA and offer positional flexibility that this team could probably use.

On the other hand, when this is the biggest thing we have to complain about – and it’s not really even a complaint, as much as an observation – you know things are going fantastically.

As for Ohman, you’re almost glad to see that something’s wrong because he’s been lousy lately. Rotoworld says it’s a “sore left shoulder”, but nothing too serious, which is basically doublespeak for “you’ve been bad, go take a break, we’ll make something up.” He better turn it around upon his return, if only because he’s the funniest guy on the team, by far.

Who Needs Jonathan Broxton?

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Knowing that absolutely no one was backing him up – and don’t even get me started on the possibility of Guillermo Mota coming into a tight game in the 9th – Ramon Troncoso just struck out three over two innings to nail down the save. Oh sure, it wasn’t the prettiest thing you’ll ever see, since the Cubs did load the bases and get the winning run on in the 9th, but still: if there’s one questionable area on this team, it’s the bullpen, and seeing Troncoso step up like that was huge.

That’s 19 games over .500, if you’re keeping track. Which we clearly are.

tron.jpg