2010 April 18 « Mike Scioscia's tragic illness

The Clayton & Manny Show

April 18, 2010 at 7:08 pm | Posted in Clayton Kershaw, Jonathan Broxton, Manny Ramirez | 10 Comments

Winning a game on the backs of your best players – that’s the way it’s supposed to work, isn’t it? You wouldn’t have thought a day that started with Vin Scully’s 60th anniversary and the long-awaited release of Russ Ortiz could get any better, but indeed it did.

Clayton Kershaw shook off his mediocre first two starts to make it into the 8th inning, striking out 9 and allowing 1 run - yet still nearly lost the game since Barry Zito took a shutout into the 8th himself. It was Kershaw’s second longest career start, behind only his outing last July in which he tossed 8 full shutout innings (in a game the Dodgers ended up losing). Remember, Kershaw didn’t get the win in either that game or this one (or his 13-strikeout game against the Giants last April). Do I really have to give you the line about “wins” again?

Of course, even though Kershaw made it that far into the game, it still didn’t even save the bullpen as much as you’d think, since after allowing Kershaw to start the 8th, Joe Torre used three pitchers to get an out apiece in the frame – Jeff Weaver, George Sherrill, and Ramon Troncoso. Jonathan Broxton followed with a perfect 9th, meaning that despite the starter going into the 8th, five pitchers had to be used. Still, with a day off tomorrow, that’s hardly a huge concern right now.

For a while, it looked like the Dodger offense would squander the starting outing they’d been waiting so long for, since the much-maligned Zito matched Kershaw for much of the game. That, of course, lasted only until Manny came off the bench to launch the second pinch-homer of his career (after the Bobbleslam last year).

Remember how down everyone was just 24 hours ago, after watching Charlie Haeger toss up duck after duck and the offense get shut down by Tim Lincecum? Amazing what a difference a day can make. Is there anything better than a pinch-homer from your biggest star, at home, against your biggest rival, on the last game of a homestand, on a day that already started off so auspiciously? I think not.

The Dodgers Must Have Hated Russ Ortiz More Than We Thought

April 18, 2010 at 3:41 pm | Posted in Jon Link, Russ Ortiz | 5 Comments

First of all, let’s get right to the good news, on the official Dodger Twitter feed:

The Missing Link?…RHP Jon Link in the big leagues for the first time, joins #Dodgers. Russ Ortiz designated.

Hurrah! He’s gone! And thus ends the short and painful era of having the worst pitcher in baseball wearing Dodger blue. Shockingly, a mildly productive spring against inconsistent opponents didn’t mean more than six solid years of being horrible. Who’d have thunk? It’s just surprising that it took this long to happen, is all. Ortiz ends his Dodgers career with a line of 0-1, 10.29 ERA, 2.143 WHIP thanks to allowing 12.9 hits/9 and 6.4 BB/9, along with a trail of Dodger tears, and one surely hilarious entry in our season review series this fall.

I’ll have to come up with a new thing for the Ortiz DFA-o-Meter, so for now, this quick update to the right will have to do. So long, old man!

Now, I hate to throw even the slighest bit of questioning into this otherwise joyous occasion, but I have to wonder about why it is that Jon Link is coming up. It’s not that I have anything against Link, who will be making his major league debut; if anything, I was intrigued by his strikeout stuff and the fact that Baseball America named him as having the best slider in the White Sox system last year. He’s got a shot to be a decent middle reliever, if he can get over some control issues, so I’m happy to see him get a shot. (Juan Pierre, who Link was traded for along with Jon Ely, is hitting .186 for Chicago, by the way. Haaaaaaah.)

What I don’t understand, however, is the timing. Just an hour ago, Eric Stephen reported that Hong-Chih Kuo would throw today in San Bernardino, and if he felt okay, would probably get activated for the road trip. So if that’s the case, why bother bringing Link up now, as opposed to just doing a straight exchange of Kuo-for-Ortiz tomorrow? Maybe, as the title says, the club just couldn’t stand to see Ortiz in Dodger blue even one second longer – which I can completely sympathize with. It just seems to odd to bring Link up just for today’s game and then send him back down – and yes, my fondest dream is that Kuo then replaces Ramon Ortiz tomorrow, but I could never really hold out hope that we could lose both of these guys in just 24 hours.

Besides, Link hasn’t exactly been lighting it up as Albuquerque’s closer, as he’s got a 6.23 ERA and 2.308 WHIP next to his name (granted, in just 4.1 innings). By contrast, Luis Ayala’s allowed just 3 baserunners in his 4.1 innings, and Justin Miller’s allowed just 2 runs over 7 innings. So I’m not entirely sure what the reasoning is behind elevating Link over those guys

But then again, that’s not really the point, is it? At long last, half of the Ortiz blight across Dodger land has been lifted. It’s a good day to be a Dodger fan.

Today’s Weird Lineup Actually Sort of Makes Sense

April 18, 2010 at 1:44 pm | Posted in Barry Zito, James Loney, Manny Ramirez, Ronnie Belliard | 7 Comments

After yesterday’s debacle, in no small part fueled by the miscues of backups Jamey Carroll, A.J. Ellis, and Ronnie Belliard, you could be forgiven for hoping to see the regular starting 8 today – especially with tomorrow being an off-day. If you’re like me, you cringed a little bit when you saw Eric Stephen of TrueBlueLA post the lineup on his Twitter:

#Dodgers lineup: Furcal SS Martin C Ethier RF Kemp CF Blake 3B Belliard 1B Johnson LF Carroll 2B Kershaw P

Belliard at first? Johnson in left? Carroll at second? The bottom half of that lineup seems downright brutal, especially after yesterday. But with a bit of a deeper look, it starts to become a little more reasonable.

Let’s start at first base, where Belliard gets his first crack at resting James Loney. I realize that along with Matt Kemp, Loney is one of only two Dodgers who hasn’t received a break yet, though I can’t say I’m all that worried about making sure 25-year-olds get a day off two weeks into the season. But if you’re going to do it, now is the day, because Loney has been absolutely putrid against Barry Zito – in 20 career tries, Loney has reached base exactly one time. Once. And even that one time was merely a groundball single between 1B and 2B back on Opening Day of 2008. He’s struck out 6 times, and hasn’t walked at all, so his line is .050/.050/.050. I’m all for acknowledging small sample sizes, but I can see that this seems to be a trend you don’t want to tempt – especially when Belliard has a line of .324/.395/.441 in 38 plate appearances. So I’m totally fine with this.

In left field, this is a little more disappointing, because Manny’s crushed Zito in their careers – a .913 OPS with 3 homers. However, Manny did leave Friday’s game early, and sat out Saturday’s, with a strained calf, so in the interest of seeing a 38-year-old last the season, I suppose I can see the appeal of combining that time off with Monday’s off-day to make sure this calf doesn’t become a serious issue. It’s too bad, though, because while Reed Johnson has had nice success against Zito as well (.938 OPS in 16 PA), this would have been a great opportunity to let Andre Ethier skip a lefty he’s had little hope against (.540 OPS in 22 PA). Still, if Manny’s calf is the reason here, it’s an unavoidable choice.

Finally, you’re looking at Jamey Carroll at second base. DeWitt’s hardly made himself irreplacable at second yet, especially with the glove, and while he’s just 1-5 against Zito, Carroll does have 8 hits and a .381 batting average. Granted, since he’s Jamey Carroll and has zero power against anyone, he’s also got a .381 OBP and a .381 SLG since all 8 hits have been singles, but it’s still something.

So none of these replacements are really arguable today, and if you look at the total list of Dodger hitters vs. Zito, all that really matters anyway is that Matt Kemp is playing. Kemp’s stepped to the plate 37 times against the $126 million dollar man, and though he doesn’t have a homer (yet), the results are eye-popping: .469/.541/.563 for a 1.103 OPS. Uh, yeah. That’ll do.