May Cody Ross Get A Perpetual Case Of Hemorrhoids
May 17, 2009 at 12:21 pm | Posted in 2009 rules so far, Clayton Kershaw, Guillermo Mota, What has gotten into Juan Pierre? | 6 CommentsSo, I’m sitting here on this nice Sunday morning, relaxing, typing out an article on the awesomeness of Chad Billingsley, and as I’m busy typing this, I’m watching the Dodger game and, as I’m watching, I note that I’ve just seen something historical.
Juan Pierre drew a walk.
And it was intentional.
So I had to put the article on hold and get typing on this. Because in case you missed it, there was some other notable thing that happened, today: some guy called 
Kershaw pitched a pretty nifty game, throwing a no-hitter through 7 innings, until it was broken up by a leadoff double from Cody Ross in the 8th inning, who has now punched his ticket to hell for all of eternity after committing such an atrocious act. Nonetheless, the final tally on Kershaw was 7+ IP, 1 ER (off a sacrifice fly after he was out of the game), 1 H, 4 BB, 9 K.
The short of it was that Kershaw was simply brilliant and continued to give us another taste of what could be with his unlimited potential. Since his brilliant 13 K performance against the Giants at the beginning of the year, Kershaw hasn’t been particularly good (5.21 ERA going into today’s game, with an 84 ERA+), going from a mixture of Kaz Ishii to, as we saw today, Sandy Koufax. However, as has been said many times, he’s barely 21 and to be able to get even that production from someone his age is highly encouraging. Hopefully this is the type of start he can build on as he continues to mature and improve, which he has been doing. Well done, young man.
In other news…
Welcome To Juanville 
You’re going to witness something even rarer right now than the almost no-hitter and the intentional walk to Pierre. Yes, that’s right, we here at MSTI are going to give some love to the Pierre Man. The Juanster. The Mayor Of Juanville.
Let’s face it, once Manny got suspended, we didn’t just scream “oh shit!” because his production was going to be gone, but because it also meant that Juan Pierre was our new left fielder. But if the first 10 games are of any indication, he’s been flat out brilliant. Over the past 14 days (not counting today), he’s put up a line of .415/.478/.515 with 6 SB’s to boot and also went 3-5 today, with 3 RBI’s. What’s particularly nice is that, while Pierre has normally been a singles hitter, we’ve also been seeing an increase in extra base hits. Counting today’s 3-5 performance, which included 2 doubles, Pierre’s (who has played 31 games this year) total amount of doubles this year is 8. Now why is that even worth bringing up? Well, because last year in the 119 games he played, he had 10. And 7 of those doubles he’s had this year have come in the past two weeks. You see, when we get the old, vintage Pierre, the one who gets on base, gets a bit more extra base hits, then you know what? He’s not bad and does make a valuable contribution to the team. It’s when he stops doing that, then he gets his justifiable criticism. But you know what? I can’t complain about him, right now. He’s been simply brilliant and one of the key parts of this offense since Manny got suspended. I’m shocked as hell, yes, but good for him and I truly hope he keeps it up.
I now expect Juan Pierre to soon get suspended for 50 games for violating MLB’s drug policy.
Either way, nice production. But, of course, we can’t let this article be 100% positive, now can we? This brings us to…
Guillermo Makes Me Want Some Mota 
Because that’s the only way I can get through watching him when he comes in. Is there any reason why this guy still has a job? Even in a 12-1 blowout, he damn near gets Florida to cut the lead in half by giving up 4 ER, which came from a Cody Ross Grand Slam in the 9th with 2 outs. The guy simply serves no purpose with this team, other than as a motivational tool for the starting pitchers to continue pitching well, lest he come in for them and screw them of a win. The last time Mota came in was the 3 ER performance against the Giants, where he blew the lead twice, and eventually lost the game in the 13th inning, not to mention he has also not had an easy, scoreless 1-2-3 inning since April 26th. I mean, come on, where do I begin? The wicked 9.00 ERA? That sick 2.17 WHIP going into today?! I mean, if we have to keep him, can we at least inject him with steroids again? Sure, there is a moral issue with steroids, but I argue that it would be, if anything, moral to give him steroids to save Dodger fans from the utter torture and nightmares that he creates every time he takes the mound. Actually, that’s what he should be doing! Somewhere in Guantanamo Bay, they need to set up a pitchers mound where he gets to pitch and where they subject all the terrorists to watching this. Holy shit, the information will just come POURING out! But put him anywhere, I don’t care… just not with us. He’s just so detrimental… he’s like… I don’t know… the swine flu.
So the Dodgers end the road trip by going 4-2; in other words, they took 2 out of 3 from both the Phillies and Marlins. Not bad and nice to see some improved play from them on the road, after being a .500 team (8-8) away from Dodger Stadium prior to this trip. Now it’s back to Dodger Stadium beginning tomorrow. And we don’t get to mess with the Johan! Sweet!
- Vin 
I’ve Got To Admit: It’s Getting Better
May 16, 2009 at 12:19 am | Posted in 2009 rules so far | 7 CommentsSo, first off, the biggest news: Vin has taken over the ship here at MSTI for the week
end! Yes, to paraphrase the great Stevie Wonder, I have been, if that, a Part Time Blogger, but it’s nice to be back.
But we have more important things to talk about: like, how about those Dodgers? You know, the team that was supposed to fall into this deep funk post-Mannygate, start sucking, and wallow themselves in sadness and stuff themselves with lots of Lithium? And who could blame them? I mean, for crying out loud, they started out 1-3 without Manny! Surely the season is over!
Well, not quite. As you saw today, the Dodgers came back from a 3-0 deficit against Chris Volstad and won 6-4 aided by HR’s by Casey Blake, Xavier Paul’s 1st career HR (who, by the way, continues to impress), and a respectable pitching performance by Eric Stults, who went 5 IP, giving up 3 ER, walking 2 and striking out 5. Broxton was shaky again in the 9th, and was only throwing a mere 98 MPH this time, but he got the job done and, given his pitch count over the past two days (28 pitches today, 27 pitches the night before), will likely get the day off tomorrow. No, actually, make that a guarantee.
So far the road trip has been a very refreshing one for the Dodgers. Coming off the horrible series against SF, they didn’t look their best, but they have rebounded quite nicely, taking 2 out of 3 from the World Champion Phillies and rallying to win the first game in Florida at Sand Bark Stadium (yes, I will continue to screw up the name of the stadium… it can’t be any worse than what it ACTUALLY is!). The really good news, in particular, has been the emergence of James Loney on this road trip. Not just because he’s belted 2 HR’s, but his approach at the plate in general looks better and it shows, collecting another two hits today. It’s interesting, though: the more I watch this team, the more I’m reaffirmed at just how good we are and can still be even with the absence of Manny. That isn’t to discount his impact, our team is still obviously better with him, but my confidence in our offense is still relatively high; we’re still piling up runs (and with a really struggling Ethier) and, for the most part, if we’ve had issues in these past eight games, they’ve primarily been due to bullpen issues, namely that Guillermo Mota was born.
Even with that, the Dodgers advance to 25-12 and retake the claim of having the best record in baseball. Not bad, huh?
- Vin
These Jackholes Are Taking Your Dodgers Away From You
May 15, 2009 at 8:00 am | Posted in Eric Milton, Stupid | 13 Comments
See that guy, over to the right? That’s something called “Stevie B”. Hey, Stevie – nice notch in your hair, there. You look like the black Kenny Powers, only somehow stupider-looking. And did you steal that red leather jacket directly from the set of “Thriller”, or did you just decide it was so cool that you had to have one yourself?
Look, I don’t care that your biggest hit, “Because I Love You”, somehow made #55 on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Hot Songs, because I couldn’t make it more than 12 seconds into the video without having my eyes start to bleed. (By the way, Billboard, you’re putting this piece of crap higher than the varied excellence of “I Love Rock n’ Roll”, “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In”, and that tour de force, “Whoomp! There It Is!”? For shame.)
Let’s put Stevie B aside for a second and move on to 1980s Latin Freestyle trio TKA. (Bear with me here, I swear that this will become relevant and that we haven’t sold out to become 
Boyz II Men’s Tragic Illness). Yep, that’s those fine looking young gentlemen to the right – the ones that appear to have applied the graphics to their CD cover with Microsoft Paint. TKA had approximately 10 minutes of popularity in 1991 and broke up shortly after, but that didn’t stop them from reuniting in 2001 to unleash Forever, described by allmusic.com as… well, it didn’t even rate a review. On ALLMUSIC DOT COM. This is a site that was able to force out a few words about the soundtrack to the third installment of the Mighty Ducks movies, yet they couldn’t be bothered to say anything about TKA’s big comeback. In fact, this group was of such little importance that AllMusic only bothers to list their leader, “K7″, as a member of the group. This is important when you realize that in the travesty I’m about to describe, it’s not the band “TKA”, and it’s not the musician “K7″… it’s the other two guys from TKA. The Florida Sun-Sentinel has further details:
It’s freestyle flashback featuring Stevie B with special guests Angel and Aby formerly of TKA at Florida Marlins’ Super Saturday this weekend.
Angel and Aby formerly of TKA rose to fame in 1991 with hits such as “Louder Than Love.”
The first pitch in the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers is set for 6:10 p.m. at Land Shark Stadium, 2267 NW 199 St., Miami Gardens. The first 15,000 fans will receive Marlins pom pom.
First: “Land Shark Stadium”. Haaaaaa.
Second: Yes, I thought that last line said “Marlins porn porn” at first.
But the most important part of that sentence is the 6:10pm (3:10pm PST) start. You see, Saturday afternoons have been FOX’s exclusive territory for years – there’s a national blackout between the hours of 1pm and 4pm western, and that’s why the teams that don’t have the 1pm FOX game scheduled either play at 10am PST, or the regular 4pm PST. If any team wanted to be stupid enough to start a game in the blackout period, they’d be unable to broadcast the game until the blackout ended - even in either team’s home market. Knowing this, no team would do something that idiotic.
Ladies and gentlemen, your Florida Marlins.
That’s right, thanks to the Marlins wanting to fit in a “concert” of washed-up never-was’s, they’ve pushed up the start time an hour to 6:10pm eastern, under the theory that if the post-game concert had to wait until 10pm, it’d be too late for those who - for some reason – actually wanted to see this crap. So thanks to this, it means that we’re all going to be missing the first two or three innings of the game – just so this ridiculous concert can go forward. With this being Eric Milton’s first start, that might be just long enough for us to not even get to see him at all!
You can blame FOX if you like, and I agree that I hate that they’ve been given such power. But the fact is, this isn’t a new rule, and it’s not a surprise to anyone – this is entirely the fault of the Marlins. This isn’t the first time this season this has happened, either, as the same issue came up against the Mets in April due to a concert by rapper Flo Rida. As you can imagine, their fans weren’t that pleased either…
So you know what that means, kids? I can’t watch the game until 7pm, when SNY (the Mets channel here in NYC) begins broadcasting. I can’t even go on the internet to watch it because it’s the same fricken’ situation down in Miami. I just. can’t. watch. the. game.
I can only hope that instead of Ron, Keith and Gary, the SNY team decides to have Ralph Kiner open up the telecast. I’d love to hear Ralph try to explain this %#$!-show on-air (Welcome to Mets baseball. This is uh… I’m uh… Well, we open up the telecast in the fourth inning here in uh… There’s a musician named Flo Rida who’ll be playing tonight… And as a result, here we are in the second inning, with Darryl Strawberry coming to bat).
It might be the only thing that could make this okay.
Due to a rap concert after the game Saturday, the Marlins decided for some reason to start that nights game at 6PM instead of 7PM why? Beats the shit out of me as I’m sure the Gang Bangers that want to hear Flo-Rida rap out “LOW” (luv them Apple Bottom Jeans girlfriend) don’t mind staying up a little later on a Saturday night so if I’m going rip anyone a new asshole over this it’s has to be the Florida Marlins and that little stooge David Samson.
I won’t let the Skill Sets off easy either as they should be using their muscle in getting the Used Car Salesman to force the Fish into changing the time of the game.
I’d kill FOX but that’s a lost cause as any company that thinks having Doofus Joe Buck and Tim Mc Fullofshit as it’s lead team is beyond help.
Yeah, that sounds about right. So enjoy that, Dodger fans, and mark my words that something amazing is going to happen in the early innings of this game that we’re going to miss. Like a triple play, or a Juan Pierre grand slam, or a zombie apocalypse. I’m not sure which of the last two seem less likely. Seriously, though; it’s one thing to miss a few innings of Eric Milton, but it was just about this time last year when Clayton Kershaw made his debut. Can you imagine the uproar if we’d been deprived of seeing that?
(Have a good weekend, kids. I’m blowing out of the big city and headed to… a slightly smaller big city. But the good news is, I’m turning over the reins to our very own long lost Latin Freestyle King, VIN! Treat him right.)
I Guess I Can Only Help One James At a Time
May 14, 2009 at 4:07 pm | Posted in Eric Milton, James McDonald, Jeff Weaver | 5 CommentsAs none of you saw because you were at work, Chad Billingsley was great again, Jonathan Broxton blew it in the 9th (no one freak, it happens), and Russell Martin and Matt Kemp came up with big RBI doubles in the 10th for a big 5-3 win to take the series over the Phillies.
However, it wouldn’t be a Dodger day without another pitching roster move…
From SI.com:
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -Eric Milton is heading back to the big leagues after a nearly two-year absence.
The Los Angeles Dodgers purchased the contract of the veteran left-hander from Triple-A Albuquerque after their 5-3, 10-inning win over the Phillies on Thursday.
Milton will start Saturday against the Florida Marlins in place of Jeff Weaver. The Dodgers optioned right-hander James McDonald (1-1, 6.75 ERA) to their Pacific Coast League club.
First things first, listen closely because you don’t hear this too often around here: I’m perfectly okay with the old-and-busted veteran taking the place of a top young prospect. No way around it; McDonald’s been completely awful so far, mainly due to walking 16 in just 18.2 innings. So, let him go back to the minors and work himself out, because it’s clearly not working out for him in the bigs right now.
Yes, I was really high on him entering the season, and yes, I’m disappointed in how he’s performed. But I’m hardly giving up on him just yet – remember, we’ve been completely spoiled with how the other young guys like Martin, Loney, Billingsley, and the like all burst onto the scene with little difficulty. Despite what we’ve seen, it doesn’t always happen like that! So enjoy Albuquerque, James, and remember: if you don’t think that throwing strikes is important, just know that it’s the difference between a life in New Mexico and a life in Dodger Stadium.
No offense to the people in New Mexico, but that’s a pretty big incentive to me.
As far as having Milton bump Jeff Weaver out of the rotation… well, I thought Weaver had done an admirable job, allowing 4 earned runs total over 2 five-inning starts. Really, can you ask for any more than that from him? It’s not great, but not enough to lose his spot. That said, Milton’s been pretty good in AAA (2.83 ERA, 1.00 WHIP) so it’s not really a big enough deal to get all worked up about. Oddly enough, this now gives the Dodgers four left-handers in the rotation. It wasn’t all that long ago that we were watching a three- or four-year streak of never having a lefty start.
Besides, I’d like to think that regardless of whether it’s Milton or Weaver, they’re just holding the spot that Hiroki Kuroda is going to reclaim in the next few weeks… but there’s no way that Joe Torre’s going to stick with MSTI fave Eric Stults over a formerly famous veteran, right?
I’m Taking Full Credit For This
May 14, 2009 at 12:13 pm | Posted in James Loney | 11 Comments
A little over 24 hours ago, I wrote an entire post about how disappointing James Loney has been this year, including how he hadn’t homered in seemingly a decade.
Since then? Two games, two homers. Oh, sure, some would like to kill my buzz by pointing out the fact that yesterday’s homer probably wouldn’t have made it out of any other park in the bigs, but still: Loney’s riding the MSTI bump. And he might still get another at-bat in this game!
Russell Martin, I’m looking in your direction. You’re next.
James Loney’s Tragic Pop-ups
May 13, 2009 at 10:26 am | Posted in James Loney | 19 CommentsMuch has been made over the last few weeks about how James Loney (in addition to Russell Martin) has yet to hit his first homer, more than six weeks into the season. While it’s certainly disappointing, it didn’t bother me all that much; with guys like Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, Casey Blake, and – until the you-know-what – Manny Ramirez showing good power, Loney’s homer totals were of secondary importance to the desire that he simply produce as part of an all-around game. Get hits, drive in runners, play good defense: that’s what we need to see from James Loney. The power, the idea went, would come.
So it came as a bit of a surprise to me when I actually looked into Loney’s season thus far, and came upon one unmistakable truth: forget the homers, Loney’s been just plain bad. I think his hot start (6 for his first 12) and the fact that we still saw a batting average over .300 four times a night on the TV screen even through April 17th has somewhat obscured just how lousy he’s been overall. Since that first 6-12 stint against the Padres, Loney is hitting just .239/.326/.301.
For the season, his OPS of .665 puts him at 156th in the majors, behind even magical pixie elf David Eckstein. Among first baseman, it looks even worse – that gets him 26th out of 27 qualifying 1B, ahead of only Derrek Lee, who’s 33 and fighting a neck injury. But you don’t watch David Eckstein every day, and you don’t watch Derrek Lee every day. What does a .665 OPS mean to you? Well, it’s just slightly ahead of Juan Pierre, 2008. So what it means is: not good.
Worse, this isn’t just a slump for James. After bursting onto the scene in 2007 to force the first baseman’s job away from Nomar Garciaparra, his OPS has steadily dropped from .919 to .772 to this year’s low, and it really started at the end of 2008, where he was brutal in September, putting up only a .526 OPS.
So what, exactly, is causing this? I think the numbers (almost all of these from FanGraphs) might surprise you…
1) He’s not striking out more.
Actually, he’s striking out far less. In 2007, he K’d in 14.0% of his appearances. In 2008, that stayed about the same at 14.3%. So far in 2009? That’s dropped to just 8.0%, which is excellent in a league that strikes out an average of 19.9% of the time.
2) He’s not grounding out more.
He’s been remarkably consistent with this the last few years, hitting grounders 42.1%, 42.7%, and 43.1% of the time.
3) He’s not hitting fewer hard line drives.
As with K rate, this has actually improved, from 21.5% to 22.1% to 24.1% this season.
4) He’s only hitting slightly fewer fly balls.
This has dropped, from 36.4% to 34.2% to 32.8%. It’s not exactly a good trend, but it’s also not so alarming as to really raise any huge flags.
5) His outstanding luck has betrayed him a bit.
In 2007, his BABIP (Batting Average on Balls In Play) was an excellent yet completely unsustainable .352, against a league average of .306. In 2008, that was .320, which was a drop, but still good. In 2009, that’s come all the way down to .287, which is below the league average of .303.
That explains the drop in batting average to some extent, but it doesn’t really cover the power loss.
No, what’s really killing him is…
6) Holy crap, is he popping out a lot!
In 2007, his IFFB (Infield Fly Ball) % was 13.0. In 2008, that fell to 8.5%.
In 2009, so far? 28.5%.
What exactly is causing that, I can’t say. His discipline stats (i.e. % of balls swung on in and outside the strike zone, contact made on each, etc.) are all roughly in line with his career averages, so it doesn’t seem as though his approach has changed at the plate. But there is no question that this huge rise in infield fly balls is cripping his overall output.
I’m not suggesting it’s time to bench or dump Loney – not yet. He’s still only 25, and either way there’s no viable alternative to him right now. But I do think it would be a great idea to give him the next two games off, partially to give him time to step away and think about what’s going on… and partially because he’s been absolutely useless against lefties this year, hitting just .148/.207/.148 against them. With the Phillies throwing Jamie Moyer and Cole Hamels, you’d probably rather see lefty-crusher Mark Loretta (.804 career OPS vs. southpaws, though only 2-10 this year) at the plate than Loney.
James, we still believe in you, and the advanced stats show that things aren’t as bad as they seem. It’s just that, with Manny gone, it’s really time to step up and turrn some of those pop-ups into doubles. And a homer every now and then wouldn’t be too bad either.
Update, 4:31pm PST: Loney just popped up to second base in his first at-bat against Jamie Moyer. Heh.
Stay Thirsty, My Friends
May 11, 2009 at 3:15 pm | Posted in Andre Ethier, Bill Plaschke, Brian Wilson, Casey Blake, Chan Ho Park, Eric Milton, Guillermo Mota, Juan Pierre sucks, Orlando Hudson | 8 CommentsHey, after a fun streak of 20 games in 21 days, including the longest homestand of the year, we’ve got a day off today. So take a breather, enjoy a baseball-free day, catch up on all that DVR’d pornography, and get ready to watch the boys head east to finally play some real competition in the defending champion Phillies, plus the completely nose-diving Marlins (6-14 in their last 20 games). With that in mind, let’s touch on a few outstanding topics…
* So long, Eric Milton?
Still trying to find out the details here, but from Baseball America‘s minor league transaction section:
Los Angeles Dodgers
Released: RHP Miguel Ramirez, LHP Eric Milton, C Andrick Villalobos, 1B Chris Gibson
This is pretty surprising – Milton was holding AAA batters to a .641 OPS and had a 3.00 ERA, and it seemed almost like a given that he was going to get a shot with LA sooner or later. I believe his contract had an out if he wasn’t up with the big club by a certain date – have to check on that – but I’m kind of surprised that the Dodgers would just let him go instead of bringing him up over Brent Leach or Guillermo Mota.
* Hey, you may not like Ned Colletti, but it could be worse… much worse.
Via Dodger Thoughts, the Detroit News has a piece on the development of former Dodger prospect Edwin Jackson. It’s a nice read, and it’s good to see a former Blue phenom achieving success, but try to read this sentence without having your brain try to push its way out of your skull:
And in the waning days of August 2003, after Jacksonville’s season had ended and as Jackson packed for a trip to see family in Detroit, Bill Bavasi, then the Dodgers’ general manager, phoned a 19-year-old pitcher to tell him the short-handed Dodgers wanted him to start, the next weekend, at Colorado.
I don’t know if the reporter (Lynn Henning) incorrectly named the Dodgers GM (it was Dan Evans) or Bavasi’s position (in charge of player development) but really, it doesn’t matter – the words “Bill Bavasi” and “Dodgers general manager” should never, ever, ever, be in the same sentence.
* You can see his charisma from space. He’s a lover, not a fighter, but he’s also a fighter, so don’t get any ideas.
I’m a little late on this – both FireNedCollettiNow and SonsOfSteveGarvey have the story, complete with pictures, but the fact is that this whole “Casey Blake offended Brian Wilson” story is too ridiculous not to mention. (If you’ve missed it, basically Wilson does this goofy “X” symbol with his hands after each save, which Blake mocked in the dugout after yesterday’s game-tying extra inning home run, and now Wilson is offended because the symbol partially represents his faith and his late father.) As Kensai says, if Blake was knowingly mocking Wilson’s faith and family, then yeah – that’s not cool. But it sure seems as though Blake didn’t know that at all, and was just goofing on a stupid hand motion, which is unquestionably funny.
Besides, Wilson seems like a bit of a wingnut, even to some of his teammates:
I asked him about teammates dropping the X, including Omar Vizquel who does it every time. (Omar doesn’t know what it means. “I just like him because he’s crazy,” Vizquel said.)
Brian, maybe you should get over it. Oh, and it’s nice that you made the All-Star team and got 41 saves and all last year, but a 95 ERA+ and a 1.444 WHIP isn’t much to get worked up about. (Admittedly, he’s been much better this year.)
* Either fielding stats are still completely wonky, or we really do watch every game through blue-colored glasses. Or both.
I’ve always considered Andre Ethier to be a pretty decent right fielder, though I think in my heart I knew he was never as good as I thought he was. At second base, Orlando Hudson has looked great, though with a similar disclaimer in that it’s not all that hard to follow four years of Jeff Kent and look good. But man, does FanGraphs and their UZR rankings disagree with us…
The White Sox, Dodgers, Nationals, and Red Sox make up the bottom of the league. I’m just as surprised as you to see the Red Sox ranking low. So far Jason Bay (-8.2, the lowest in the majors amongst qualified players), Julio Lugo (-2.4), Mike Lowell (-2.3), and J.D. Drew (-2.2) are killing them. The team leader is Kevin Youkilis at 1.4 runs. As for the Dodgers, Orlando Hudson and Andre Ethier are sinking them. You hate to make assumptions based on these small of sample sizes for defense, but if it holds up over the long haul then it’s time to proclaim Hudson’s run as an excellent defender over.
The comments to their post are littered with suggestions that small sample size warnings apply even moreso to defensive ratings than offensive, but still: a big surprise to see that about Hudson.
Buster Olney, you’re too smart to be parroting the mainstream media line like this.
The absence of Ramirez has been acutely felt by the Dodgers, who are 1-3 since the outfielder was suspended.
Fact: the first of those losses was due to a total disaster by the bullpen, not because the offense “only” put up nine runs. The ’pen doesn’t implode like that, and you’re not complaining about the team being 2-2. Besides, as much as I hate to admit it…
Credit where credit is due: Juan Pierre’s been outstanding.
Obviously, a .991 OPS isn’t going to stick for Juan. Nor is .891, .791, or .691, which he hasn’t even reached since 2006. But for as much as I bag on him around here, it’s only fair to give him credit when he’s doing well, and 9-16 with 2 walks and 0 K’s in the 4 games since Manny went down is pretty impressive. No, there’s no prayer of him keeping anything like this up, but you can’t point at left field in the post-Manny era as being an enormous black hole. Yet.
It’s the Guillermo Mota lightning round:
1) Why does no one care that Mota also got a 50-game ban for steroids? Hey, Bill Plaschke and Kurt Streeter: if you two jokers want to get up on your accusatory high horses about how the fans of Los Angeles are idiots because no one seems to be as upset as you two about Manny’s steroid test, maybe one of you could have ever once mentioned that the Dodgers currently employ one of the few players to go down for 50 games previously. So tell me, Bill, why aren’t you calling for Mota to be banned from baseball for life like you are for Manny? Is it because no one cares about Mota and writing about him won’t sell as many headlines for your dying industry? Nah, I’m sure it couldn’t be that.
2) Why is Mota still on this team?
Let’s go back to my thoughts from when Mota was signed:
Let’s look at this fun “Gee, You Think Steroids Helped?” timeline:
2006, April-August: 6.21 ERA, 1.699 WHIP for Cleveland. Mota, your stats… woof.
2006, August 11: DFA’d by Cleveland.
2006, August 20: Acquired by the Mets.
2006, August-Septmber: 1.00 ERA, 0.833 WHIP for the Mets.
2006, November 1: MLB announces a positive test from “sometime” during the 2006 season and hands down a suspension.Gee. You think steroids helped?
At the moment, I don’t care whether Mota is hopped up on steroids, PCP, or Yoo-Hoo, because whatever he’s doing, it just isn’t working. After giving up 6 hits and 3 runs in just 2 innings to blow yesterday’s game in extra innings, his ERA now stands at 7.42 and he’s given up multiple runs in 5 of his 14 appearances. He’s 35, and his WHIP is 2.175. I don’t care about his contract – it’s over. Really, if the team ever gets down below 13 pitchers, he ought to be the man to go. Will he be? I doubt it.
We’re coming to get you, Chan Ho!
Hey, remember when we said it was a big mistake for Chan Ho Park to leave the only team with which he’s found success to go to a hitter’s park in Philadelphia? Well, predictably, Park is 0-1 with a 6.67 ERA with the Phillies and is on the verge of being dropped from the rotation. So I’m hoping that the big offense of the Dodgers can help him with just that. Good series, though – after Clayton Kershaw vs. Park on Tuesday, you’ve got two old lefties in Randy Wolf and Jamie Moyer on Wednesday, and then a fantastic matchup of Chad Billingsley vs. Cole Hamels on Thursday afternoon.
Should be fun.
Best Week Ever
May 10, 2009 at 9:45 am | Posted in 2009 rules so far | 3 CommentsSo… how was your week? Not too much happened around here in Dodger-land, of course. If anything, this week really increased my regard for the fine community of Dodger bloggers we’ve got going on, because there were some really well thought out rational opinions about this debacle of a Manny story. Which was, of course, in direct opposition to the ill-informed, emotional, irrational, and occasionally downright ridiculous stories that came out from the local and national “professional” media.
Oddly enough, the blog community all appear to be specifically in tune on a couple of subjects…
Eric Stults May In Fact Be Better Than Previously Believed
May 9 – “Eric Stults Is Better Than You Think He Is“, MSTI
May 10 – “Eric Stults Is Even Better Than I Thought…“, Fire Ned Colletti Now
Gray Skies Are Gonna Clear Up, So Put on a Happy Face…
May 8 – “I Think Things Are Going to Be Okay“, MSTI
May 10 – “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright“, Sons of Steve Garvey
Not Only Do We All Agree That Plaschke Is a Joke, I’ve Had Three Non-Dodger Fan East Coast Friends Complaining About His Idiocy This Week
May 7 – “Hey, At Least Bill Plaschke’s Not Overreacting“, MSTI
May 8 – “Bill Plaschke: Newspaper Killer“, Fire Ned Colletti Now
May 9 – “Some Who Aren’t Bitter Over Manny Have Valid Reasons“, Dodger Thoughts
May 10 – “Plaschke Resembles Salem Witch-Hunters“, Sons of Steve Garvey
So, Jeff Weaver vs. Tim Lincecum today. Who ya got?
Eric Stults Is Better Than You Think He Is
May 9, 2009 at 5:36 pm | Posted in Eric Stults | 7 Comments
For the second time in a year, we’re praising Eric Stults on a completely dominating shutout performance. Don’t look now, but this guy is 4-1, and his two career shutouts is one more than Chad Billingsley has. Again, Stults is never going to be an ace, but can performances like this possibly get him more than the “one bad game gets you gone” leash that Torre always seems to have him on?
Well done, Eric.
(Oh, and in case you’re wondering what happened on the day Stults threw his last shutout – Scott Proctor was headed to the DL, we were against trading for CC Sabathia, and Brian Falkenborg was being recalled. Oh, how times have changed.)
Thanks, Sam Holbrook
May 9, 2009 at 8:22 am | Posted in Casey Blake, Sam Holbrook | 5 CommentsI know this is hardly the only reason the Dodgers lost. This isn’t as important as the lineup as a whole putting up only one run against Barry Zito (who has admittedly been much better this year than in the last few years), and it’s not as important as Juan Pierre inexplicably getting thrown out trying to steal third with two outs and Andre Ethier at the plate in the third. You can also look at the bottom of the sixth inning, when three of the first four men got hits and only one scored. All of these things contributed to this loss, of course.
But when you’re down two in the 8th inning, with two on, two out, and a full count, that’s what they call a “big situation”. And when you think you’ve drawn a walk to load the bases for James Loney, only to have it taken away on a pitch like this:
Well, that’s just a kick in the pants. Really, the look on Casey Blake’s face says all you need to know:
You know it’s bad when even the Giants fans over at McCovey Chronicles are counting their blessings…
A good time for the shitty ump to be shitty for us
by Sabean’s_Folly on May 8, 2009 10:10 PM PDT
VERY QUESTIONABLE BUT I’LL TAKE IT
by mrpata on May 8, 2009 10:10 PM PDT
Tonight’s strike zone has had more height than width. I think that may have
been ball 4.
Again: not blaming this loss entirely on the ump, because the Dodgers had more than enough chances to take control of the game. But geez… you hate to lose an opportunity because of a call like that.
How Many McCourt Sins?
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STFD!!!
Thank you, ump!
by Lars The Wanderer on
May 8, 2009 10:10 PM PDT