Monthly Archives: May 2010

You Can’t Win Em All…

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…but you especially can’t win any when Garret Anderson is batting second in the lineup. I get that he has to get a start every now and then if he’s going to be here, and circumstances don’t get much more favorable than against a junkballer righty in Coors Field. But hitting him second? Well, why wouldn’t you want to make sure that he gets more at-bats then Kemp and Manny? Predictably, he struck out twice without getting a hit.

It’s time for the Steve Dilbeck response lightning round!

1) No, I’m not worried about Hiroki Kuroda. Not yet. He was so solid to start the season – and really, whenever he’s been healthy since arriving in LA – that I won’t panic over a few lesser starts. Especially not when this one was in Colorado, where he’s never been successful.

2) I get questioning the Charlie Haeger decision, but not for the same reasons. Joe Torre’s insistence that John Ely needs an extra day of rest means that you’re using the 5th starter sooner than you need to, regardless of who that is. I haven’t seen anything in Ely that suggests he’s tiring already, so shouldn’t the goal here be to use offdays to minimize the use of starter #5 until Vicente Padilla returns in a few weeks?

As for Haeger himself, you know I’ve always been a big fan, though I do wonder why they’re showing him such dedication this year when he hasn’t been great after not giving him any rope last year when he was killing it. So I’m happy to see him get a shot on the off-chance his foot “injury” was legit, because this team still badly needs a viable starter option out of then pen when Padilla returns, and as nicely as Carlos Monasterios filled in, I’m not sure I’m ready to put that on him yet.

That said, I do wonder if Haeger isn’t being set up to fail. Who brings an injured pitcher off the DL to start on TWO days rest?

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Ugly outing by Scott Elbert last night. Then again, he couldn’t get the ball over the plate in AAA, so I’m not sure what made anyone think that’d magically change in Coors Field. I bet he doesn’t get a chance to redeem himself before getting shipped out, and we don’t see him again until September.

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I’ve seen some suggestions that the Dodgers ought to go after Dontrelle Willis, who clearly could use a change of scenery after getting DFA’d by Detroit. He hasn’t shown anything in about three years, so I can’t really see the interest. That said, the AAA rotation has Tim Corcoran & Seth Etherton in it (plus whomever is temporarily filling in with Elbert in the bigs and James McDonald on the DL), so it’s not like giving him a crack would bump anyone important. If he really wanted to try to make it back home to California, and was willing to sign a minor-league deal at the minimum, I don’t see the harm. I’d just consider it extremely unlikely.

Nick Green Heads to the Great Beyond

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Per everyone, Scott Elbert was recalled and Nick Green was DFA’d. With James McDonald tweaking a hammy in ABQ, Elbert was the obvious choice. His control has been iffy at best, but he’s done a good job at keeping runners off the board.

With Ramon Ortiz getting shipped off yesterday, that’s 66% of the deadwood getting chopped off the roster in just over 24 days, so no complaints here.

It’s a great start to the holiday weekend, anyway. And as I’m writing this on my phone in a bar, I’m going to get back to celebrating – and I’ll be sure to tip an extra one back in honor of Green’s departure. Discuss.

I Like This Problem a Whole Lot Better

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John Ely was outstanding yet again today, allowing just one run while pitching into the eighth, yet he was saddled with the loss thanks to the punchless Dodger offense. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Clayton Kershaw threw six scoreless in the first game of this series, and he came away with a loss as well, because the offense has been shut out twice in three games.

Yet as depressing as it is to see such great pitching performances going to waste, I feel a whole lot better about these losses than the ones we saw in April. Remember early in the season, when the Dodger offense was kicking ass and taking names – yet it didn’t really matter, since the pitching was so terrible? At the time, I said…

Okay, so maybe this team can’t pitch. Maybe they can’t field. Almost certainly, those weaknesses are going to come back to bite them in a big, stinking, painful way. There’s going to be plenty of time to discuss that, but tonight we’re going to focus on what just might be the most high-powered offense any of us have ever seen wearing the Dodger blue. It’s getting to absurd levels, and I mean that in the best way possible. Look at the lineup, and realize that 7 of the 8 regulars are carrying batting averages over .300. 7! And the one who isn’t – Blake DeWitt – merely has a .404 OBP.

And what did all of that fantastic offense get us? A 9-14 April record. At the time, you knew that the offense would eventually come back to earth a bit, but you couldn’t be equally sure that the pitching would turn it around.

Now, we’re seeing pitching that’s not only improved, but seems to be a good bet to keep it going. Chad Billingsley and Kershaw have found their grooves, Ely’s been a revelation, and both Ortizes are gone. Meanwhile, the offensive failure of the last few days can be seen as a bump in the road for a still-dangerous group – especially when Andre Ethier‘s return is imminent.

Anyway, as lousy as it is to lose a game 1-0, I just can’t say enough about John Ely, really. Each time out, you expect the other side to unlock the secret to his underwhelming stuff, and every time out he just keeps on humming along. A few more starts like this, and it’s not unreasonable to wonder about him being the MVP of the 2010 Dodgers. I mean, right?

This Team Is Ortiz-Free

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Dylan Hernandez with the news that’s made my day:

Justin Miller called up from triple-A Albuquerque; Ramon Ortiz DFA’d

Finally! That’s two lousy Ortizii gone in two months. Way to get the holiday weekend off on the right foot! Sure, Ortiz hadn’t pitched since last Wednesday anyway, so it makes me wonder why they let him eat up the roster spot for that long, but who cares: so long, Ramon. Don’t come back now, you hear?

As for Justin Miller, he’s a 32-year-old veteran of parts of six seasons with Toronto, Florida, and San Francisco, with 197 MLB games to his credit. Don’t let his shiny 3.18 ERA from last year with the Giants fool you too much, as his FIP was 4.91 thanks to a mediocre 36/27 K/BB rate and a surprisingly low .244 BABIP.

Still, if there’s one thing Miller’s got going for him, it’s that he’s not Ramon Ortiz, and he has been very productive in AAA in 2010. In 18 games for the Isotopes, he’s allowed just six earned runs with a nice 25/8 K/BB rate and a 1.027 WHIP. Miller is what he is, and that’s a mediocre, somewhat-usable veteran righty reliever, with a fastball that barely tops 90 and a heavy reliance on his slider. His career ERA of 4.84 fits nicely with his 4.90 FIP, which sounds exactly right. But again: he’s not Ramon Ortiz.

Now, not to let anything get in the way of this joyous occasion, but… wasn’t it just yesterday that Joe Torre said that Ortiz would be backing up Carlos Monasterios on Friday? And didn’t Tony Jackson say, also yesterday, that Jon Link was the front-runner for the promotion? Lesson learned: trust no one.

Looks like it’s time to update the Old Guy DFA-o-Meter to all Anderson, all the time. The bell tolls for thee, Garret…