2011 April « Mike Scioscia's tragic illness

Matt Guerrier Doesn’t Have the Heart to Pitch the 8th Inning

April 30, 2011 at 10:13 pm | Posted in Dioner Navarro, Matt Guerrier | 55 Comments

I’m joking, but not exactly in the way you might think. After Hiroki Kuroda went seven innings allowing just two runs (the 25th time in his 3+ years as a Dodger he’s done that), Matt Guerrier entered, and that’s where things started to go sideways.

Here’s the damage:

I make jokes about Guerrier because as painful as that list seems, it wasn’t really as bad as all that (and I’m someone who hated his signing in the first place). Both of his walks were intentional. The last run would have been saved had Dioner Navarro not dropped a perfect throw from Jerry Sands at the plate (hey, isn’t it great he’s up instead of A.J. Ellis?). And none of the hits were screaming line drives. The first, by Will Venable, was a bouncer between first and second that a better second baseman than Aaron Miles may have come up with. Jason Bartlett‘s single to left-center fell just out of the reach of Sands, and almost certainly could have been caught by Tony Gwynn or any number of outfielders more fleet of foot than Sands. The final one, by Cameron Maybin, was nothing more than a bouncing ground ball just out of the reach of Jamey Carroll at shortstop. Even on the wild pitch, you could make a good argument that it should have gone down as a passed ball by Navarro.

The point here isn’t to absolve Guerrier of blowing the game, because he did, and it looked bad. The point is that this is exactly the sort of bad luck / good hit placement / subpar defense that has often victimized Jonathan Broxton this season, yet the outcry over it won’t be 1/10000th as large. I know the reply to that will be “well, Broxton’s issues have come in the 9th inning while Guerrier was in the 8th”, but that’s silly: a game can be lost just as easily in the 8th inning as the 9th, as we saw tonight. All of Broxton’s issues aside – and there are issues, which I have never denied – baseball is still a game that largely relies on batted ball luck and the support of your defense, not ‘heart’. For a guy like Guerrier who’s never had strikeout stuff, being on a team that doesn’t always put out the best defensive squad behind him can lead to trouble. Tonight, we saw that combined with the whims of the BABIP gods, and the results weren’t pretty.

Oh well. At least Andre Ethier extended his hit streak.

Tony Gwynn Saves the Day

April 29, 2011 at 10:35 pm | Posted in Tony Gwynn | 45 Comments

With two outs in the ninth inning, I had written a whole post about how tonight had gone almost perfectly. Don Mattingly had made out what looked to be my favorite lineup of the year, with Jerry Sands hitting second and in at first base against the lefty, pushing Aaron Miles to 8th. Ted Lilly allowed just one run over six innings, and Andre Ethier kept his hitting streak alive with a 5th inning double. Matt Kemp and Juan Uribe each homered, and the much-maligned infield chipped in with seven hits, three of which came off the bat of Miles. Even the defense turned four double plays, and featured exciting back-to-back diving catches by Kemp and Ethier in the seventh inning. It wasn’t all roses – Sands went 0-4, and while he did reach via walk, he almost immediately was picked off – but with Broxton looking great while retiring the first two Padres, it looked like this was a game that would be a nice kickoff to the short homestand, despite the presence of Frank McCourt trying to gladhand in the right field bleachers.

And then Will Venable singled to right. And Orlando Hudson singled to left. And Chase Headley singled to right, and all of a sudden it was a one-run game with the tying run on third, before a crowd growing restless. None of the balls were particularly hard-hit, and at least two of the three would have been easy outs had they not been perfectly placed grounders, but still, Broxton was on the precipice there.

Nick Hundley stepped up to the plate, and ripped a liner to left, and you can’t possibly imagine all of the thoughts that were going through my head in that millisecond. (Actually, you probably can.) That ball was going to land, the Padres would tie (or conceivably take the lead, had it gotten past the diving left fielder), and all hell was going to break loose. That’s what would have happened… had that diving outfielder been anyone but Tony Gwynn, completing the outfield trifecta of diving plays in the biggest spot possible. The defensive specialist had essentially lost his job when Sands was recalled, getting just nine plate appearances in the preceding seven days, but reminded all of us what his value on this team can be. (And kudos to Mattingly for ensuring that he was out there in the 9th in the first place.)

As for Broxton, nothing’s changed for me. He actually looked good in that his velocity seemed up, and the hits weren’t hit that hard – except the one that landed not on the grass, but in Gwynn’s glove. I’d still have no objection to a superior option usurping him in the 9th, and I still don’t see that the Dodgers have one, particularly since Vicente Padilla was less than impressive in walking two in the 8th. I think it’s safe to assume that none of those facts are going to stop the continued public outcry, of course.

Casey Blake to DL, Russ Mitchell to LA

April 29, 2011 at 7:20 am | Posted in Casey Blake, Russ Mitchell | 32 Comments

No surprise here: Casey Blake is headed to the disabled list, with Russ Mitchell called up to replace him, reports Ken Rosenthal. (h/t Rob @ 6-4-2.) Blake’s infection sounds particularly nasty, according to friends Marc Normandin and Corey Dawkins at Baseball Prospectus:

Infections can be rather serious—just ask Casey Blake, who was placed on the disabled list with an infection of the olecranon bursa in his left elbow. His was serious enough to require IV antibiotics, and he may require minor surgery to drain and clean the area out.

The Dodgers are expecting Blake to miss about three to four weeks and will be conservative in bringing him back, so as not to risk a recurrence. Because of the location of the bursa, it is susceptible to re-injury during the course of a baseball game by sliding and landing on the elbow.

I suppose Blake isn’t going to be the one to break the sorry streak of 37+ third basemen, as I surmised last September. Still, while Blake certainly wasn’t going to keep up the .321/.446/.509 run he was on (in only 66 plate appearances, of course), his loss is pretty damaging to a club that regularly rolls out a lineup that features 3-4 players hitting .220 or less. With Rafael Furcal also disabled and Juan Uribe at much less than full strength, you can look forward to a lot of underwhelming infield configurations over the next few weeks.

As for Mitchell, it’s no secret that I’m not a fan, claiming last September that his mostly underwhelming minor league career was inflated only by the friendly confines of Albuquerque. He didn’t do much to change that impression in September, getting just six hits in 43 plate appearances. Beyond that, ABQ hasn’t been nearly as friendly to him so far this year, as his line stands at .214/.281/.393 thus far. Still, injury concerns being what they are, there’s nothing wrong with his recall, particularly because he’s the only other infielder on the 40-man roster. (And calm down with the Corey Smith love just yet, friends.) Mitchell’s probably not going to contribute much at the plate, and at 26 isn’t really a prospect, but his defensive versatility should come in handy for the next few weeks. If anything, at least he’s an extra bat on the bench, which had been woefully short with Blake and Uribe active but unavailable in recent days.

A Much Needed Day Off

April 28, 2011 at 7:35 am | Posted in Frank McCourt, Vicente Padilla | 36 Comments

The Dodgers have today off, their first after a stretch of 20 games in 20 days, the maximum allowed by the collective bargaining agreement. Usually a day without baseball is arduous, but I for one am glad for the break, because what happened in a stretch of just two hours yesterday afternoon is unlike I’ve ever seen.

At approximately 12:30 pm PST, the Dodgers were avoiding a sweep in Miami, as homers from Rod Barajas in the 5th and Andre Ethier in the 10th – along with four scoreless innings of relief from Blake Hawksworth, Matt Guerrier, and Vicente Padilla – helped overcome the 4-0 deficit that Chad Billingsley had put them into. Billingsley’s final line indicates a shaky start, but all of the Florida damage came in the second innings; other than a few walks, he was essentially perfect in his other five innings.

The big story there – other than Ethier’s heroics, of course – was Padilla entering the game to nail down the save in the bottom of the 10th, rather than Jonathan Broxton, deemed “unavailable” despite not having pitched the day before and with today being a day off. Much will be made of Padilla’s usage over Broxton, despite Don Mattingly claiming after the game that Broxton remains his closer. (Dylan Hernandez later reported that Broxton was dealing with some elbow soreness; whether that’s legitimate or a convenient excuse to not use Broxton remains to be seen, but this would be the rare case where I’d actually be thrilled if he had an arm injury, if only because it would provide a reason for his troubles.)

Regardless of how the 9th inning situation works out, I’m glad to have another alternative besides Broxton, who’s clearly not right. (Padilla and Kenley Jansen are each featured in my new Baseball Prospectus piece on relievers, which I was writing yesterday when all the Dodger fun went down.) Still, I’d caution against heaping too much praise on Padilla just yet; while he was able to smoothly get through the inning, he was also helped by three defensive plays that ranged from good to outstanding, support Broxton hasn’t always received. Padilla’s struck out just one of the eleven batters he’s faced, and while I’ll chalk that up to his quick return from arm surgery, he’s not quite there yet either.

But the fun hardly stopped there, of course. Hours later Frank McCourt was in New York, just three blocks from where I sit, giving a press conference on how MLB had wronged him. I won’t recap the play-by-play of the proceedings here – Tony Jackson, Jon Weisman, and Ramona Shelburne have all done so expertly already – but if anything has become abundantly clear, it’s that McCourt just doesn’t get it. He can act contrite, accept blame, and play the victim all he wants, but he doesn’t seem to understand that everything he says he’s doing for the fans of Los Angeles, he’s really just doing for himself. If he really wanted to help the fans and the Dodgers, he’d accept what a villain he’s become and slink away – and by “slink”, I mean “sell for many, many millions more than he paid for the club with other people’s money”.

We’re not close to being done yet, though. Almost immediately after McCourt finished in New York, back in Los Angeles, new Dodger caretaker Tom Schieffer met the media for his own meet-and-greet – and struck all of the right tones about how his goal is simply to return the Dodgers to respectability. The visual overtones were hard to ignore; Schieffer in Los Angeles, riding in to save the day, while McCourt was 3,000 miles away in New York stamping his feet that he couldn’t get his way, after Bud Selig had vetoed his proposed deal with FOX.

Of course, the main problem with that it didn’t necessarily really happen that way. Just after the dueling press conferences finished, Rob Manfred, Executive VP of Labor Relations for MLB, kept the rollercoaster going by issuing a statement, which read in part:

It is unfortunate that Mr. McCourt felt it necessary to publicize the content of a private meeting. It is even more unfortunate that Mr. McCourt’s public recitation was not accurate. Most fundamental, Commissioner Selig did not ‘veto’ a proposed transaction. Rather, Mr. McCourt was clearly told that the Commissioner would make no decision on any transaction until after his investigation into the Club and its finances is complete so that he can properly evaluate all of the facts and circumstances.

If it wasn’t clear already that MLB wants nothing further to do with McCourt, Manfred’s statement made it crystal. Even better, we’re still going this morning, as Drew McCourt, better known as one of the McCourt sons on the payroll despite questionable contributions, refuted Manfred’s opposition:

Recap of meeting with baseball was 100% accurate… Manfred’s comment not truthful… Someone ought to ask him.

In addition, McCourt’s making the media rounds, stopping by CNBC early this morning to repeat much of what he said in his press conference.

(I particularly enjoyed CNBC slapping up a graphic showing Jamie as “co-owner” over his face while he was talking. I bet Frank will love that.) I will admit that I am hopelessly biased in this case, but there is nothing that comes off as genuine there. He continues to harp on the fact that the Dodgers have met all of their obligations without asking MLB for assistance, neglecting to mention that he had to take a loan from FOX to meet payroll. He insists that $300m of his proposed megadeal with FOX will go directly into the team, not his own debts, hoping we won’t ask what happens to all the rest of that money, of which $300m is a drop. He apologizes for taking “only” $50m out of the team (plus another $50m in a loan), as though that makes it all okay. He complains that Selig won’t speak to him and that he doesn’t understand why, as though it’s not totally obvious that Selig is concerned about a possible McCourt lawsuit and doesn’t want to provide anything actionable. He attacks MLB for moving to insert Schieffer, as though his actions didn’t lead to that in any way.

McCourt vows to fight on, saying, “Nobody gave me this property or handed it to me and nobody is going to take it away. These are my hard-earned dollars that I’ve put in my franchise, and I’ll protect my rights. I’m not going anywhere.” As ever, he’s completely out of touch. Fans want him gone. Baseball wants him gone. His ex-wife wants him gone. Even Joe Torre has gone over to baseball’s side, and while Ned Colletti would never say it, you better believe his life would be a lot easier without all of this.

The only one who doesn’t want Frank gone is Frank himself, and he’s apparently willing to burn the team down to the ground to hang on to it.

Go away, Frank. Go. Away.

Fun News For Your Morning Coffee (Updated)

April 27, 2011 at 7:24 am | Posted in Casey Blake, Hong-Chih Kuo | 57 Comments

Wake up, Angelinos. It’s 7:24am, half of you probably aren’t even out of bed yet, and already we’re getting hit after hit after hit.

Let’s start with Casey Blake, one-third of the world famous “75% of our infield is injured and the other one is James Loney!” infield. Dylan Hernandez warns us not to expect him back any time soon:

Casey Blake is probably DL-bound. Elbow is infected. Fever spiked last night, forced him to go to a hospital.

Who had “three separate injuries and two DL stints in the first month” in the “Blake is too old” pool? Come claim your prize. For the record, while we have no real details on Blake’s infection, it does remind me of Xavier Paul getting a staph infection in his knee in 2009, a concern that cost him about half the season. Again, there’s absolutely nothing that says this is the same thing or in any way related; just something to keep in mind.

(Update: Hernandez now reporting Blake could be out for 4 weeks. But that’s okay, Russ Mitchell – hitting .214 in ABQ – would come save us.)

But as if the realization that the left side of the Dodger infield is never going to be healthy at the same time, thus dooming us to an enternity of Aaron Miles, isn’t bad enough, there’s also the news that the help you were hoping for in the bullpen this weekend might not be coming.

Dodgers.com:

Dodgers reliever Hong-Chih Kuo‘s anticipated Friday return from the disabled list is in doubt after he retired only one of five batters in a Class A rehab assignment Tuesday night.

Kuo, disabled two weeks ago with a sore back that led to a relapse of the yips, was pitching on back-to-back nights for the first time this year after having allowed a run in one inning Monday night. In Tuesday night’s game, he was charged with two runs on four hits with one strikeout.

Oh, and Jerry Sands is also out of today’s lineup, so Tony Gwynn joins Miles, Ivan DeJesus, James Loney, and Rod Barajas in the “guys who aren’t Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, or Jamey Carroll” portion of the order.

Depleted Dodgers Fried By Fish

April 26, 2011 at 7:15 pm | Posted in Clayton Kershaw, James Loney | 11 Comments

Clayton Kershaw sure helped avoid the “OMG WHO WILL CLOSE WTF BBQ” conundrum, didn’t he? You generally don’t have to worry about who’s pitching in the ninth when the starter doesn’t get out of the sixth. He was actually fine through five before… well, look. This game wasn’t very interesting. Once Kershaw tired in the sixth, all the air seemed to go out of the building (though the fact that there were about 15 people there didn’t help), so since it’s been a trying last 24 hours, and since there’s another game in about 14 hours, let’s just move on.

That said, I’d be remiss to not point out that James Loney had four hits, all singles. They all came off a righty and all, of course, on the road. The theory holds. Jerry Sands also doubled – at one point, I tweeted, “Jerry Sands now has 5 doubles in 36 PA over 9 games. Loney has 5 doubles over his last 176 PA spanning 46 games.” That’s still true, and I very much hope that Sands is playing first base when the Padres throw out lefty Clayton Richard this weekend in Dodger Stadium.

Finally, the Dodgers are going to have to do something about their short bench. Both Casey Blake and Juan Uribe have missed several games in recent days, and besides for forcing Aaron Miles and Ivan DeJesus into the lineup, it means that Tony Gwynn and Marcus Thames are the only two bats available other than the backup catcher. Uribe pinch-hit in the ninth, which I assume means he’s almost ready to return if only because it reset any retroactive DL date.

Early game tomorrow. Don’t forget.

So Here’s Your Closer By Committee (Update: Kinda Not Really)

April 26, 2011 at 12:01 pm | Posted in Jonathan Broxton, Vicente Padilla, Xavier Paul | 28 Comments

Hard to say this was entirely unexpected. Molly Knight, hit me:

Ned Colletti says Broxton is being removed as Dodgers primary closer until he gets his confidence back. Team will use Padilla/Brox/Kuo.

This sounds momentous. This sounds like Jonathan Broxton has lost his job. But don’t think you’re rid of him yet. Hong-Chih Kuo‘s on the disabled list through Friday at least, and must always be used tenderly. Vicente Padilla hasn’t gone on consecutive nights since 2001, and didn’t look any better than Broxton did last night. (This raises the fun question of who tonight’s closer is, assuming Broxton won’t go three days in a row and if Padilla’s not ready for back-to-back nights so soon off arm surgery. Mike MacDougal, anyone? Ugh.) So the big man is still going to get his chances, like it or not.

As for the idea of whether Broxton should be removed… well, you know how I feel by now. He’s not doing that well, he hasn’t for a while, he probably doesn’t deserve the job right now, and if there’s a better option, then by all means go for it. I’m just not sure that there is a better option, and I mainly find the timing of this odd. Half of my point after last night’s mess was that it shouldn’t have been seen as any sort of turning point. Broxton’s been several shades of mediocre all season, and he wasn’t really any better or worse than usual last night; if anything, you could argue that he was slightly better, because he didn’t give up a homer, merely a terrible walk and then a single to a great hitter. The only difference is that the luck that sustained him through the first five not-entirely-deserved saves failed him last night, thanks to Jamey Carroll and Jerry Sands. So to make an announcement, especially on a night where Broxton was almost certain to not pitch anyway, seems needlessly premature. I’m sure it’ll satiate the masses’ lust for blood, however.

Update: So…

Broxton was told by Mattingly that he is still the #Dodgers’ closer.

Broxton heard TV analysts say #Dodgers would go to closer by committee. Mattingly called him into his office to clarify that wasn’t case.

That’s two tweets from Dylan Hernandez just now, claiming that everything you know is wrong. As I’d said above, the move didn’t really seem to make sense coming when it did. And… it didn’t come at all, apparently.

That said, I think we’ll still be having this conversation in a week or two.

******

As expected, Xavier Paul didn’t make it through waivers and is now a Pirate, following in the footsteps of Andy LaRoche and Delwyn Young. The Pirates generally pick near the top of the waiver list so this sounds like Paul didn’t get that far down the list. Sad to see him be lost for nothing, though I’ll admit that neither Young nor LaRoche really worked out there. Best of luck, Xavier. ESPN’s Keith Law actually put some praise on him, noting that he’s better than an organizational guy, and could be a bench bat. That’s high praise from Law.

Jonathan, Jamey, & Jerry: Oh, My

April 25, 2011 at 4:55 pm | Posted in Jamey Carroll, Jerry Sands, Jonathan Broxton | 99 Comments

Let’s talk about the good things first, because they’re going to get swallowed up by the bad things.

Jon Garland gave up just four hits and two runs over seven innings, numbers which are good from just about any pitcher but great from a fifth starter. Jerry Sands broke out with three hits, including a double and a stolen base (should have been two, if not for Rod Barajas getting called for catcher’s interference), becoming the 31st LA Dodger to have a three-hit game in his first ten career games. Matt Kemp doubled and threw a laser to nail Omar Infante at third, Andre Ethier extended his hitting streak again, and Ivan DeJesus showed some life with two hits.

Then there were the kinda bad things that are worth noting, but aren’t quite the “really bad thing”.

Barajas may or may not have injured himself after reaching base on a strikeout that got past Florida catcher John Buck. There was no official word, but he was removed for pinch-runner Tony Gwynn on a 2-1 count, which is basically unheard of before the 9th inning. Come back, A.J. Ellis! (Update: after the game, Tony Jackson reported there was no injury.) James Loney went 1-4, but even the one hit was a soft grounder up the middle that got past a backup shortstop playing in a drawn-in infield. The bell tolls for thee, James, especially as Sands is catching on. Of course, there were men on base, so that got Loney an RBI, leading directly to the final “kinda bad thing”, Steve Lyons. Just as he did on Sunday, he exulted over Loney’s “ability to drive runs in”, which I don’t need to explain to you is just garbage. He also spent about ten minutes talking about how Jamey Carroll was a “gamer” who “plays the game the right way”, (i.e. “moderately talented short white guy”), and while I like Carroll, you didn’t hear Lyons busting that out in the 9th, did you?

Then there’s the really bad thing… the 9th inning, which, good lord, could not have gone worse for everyone involved.

Let’s get right to the meat of it, and yes, Jonathan Broxton deserved to lose. With two outs and no one on, Florida manager Edwin Rodriguez inexplicably allowed the punchless Emilio Bonifacio to hit, despite having Hanley Ramirez on the bench. For all the laughs we have at the expense of Loney and Aaron Miles, Bonifacio is legitimately one of the worst hitters in baseball, with a career 66 OPS+.

And Broxton walked him.

In nearly 1,000 career plate appearances, Bonifacio has just one homer, and even that was an inside-the-park job. He is one of the least threatening batters in the game. You do not pitch around Emilio Bonifacio. You make him beat you, and Broxton didn’t. He issued him a free pass, and that’s inexcusable. I can’t say whether he was physically wild or emotionally weak – and neither can you – but walking Bonifacio with two outs is grounds enough for a loss.

That, of course, brought up Ramirez – and why in the world he was held back to not hit if Bonifacio ended the game is still beyond me – and cold or not, Hanley’s still one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball, and so it’s no surprise or shame that he singled to right, moving Bonifacio to third. (Though it should be noted that Broxton arguably had a third strike on Hanley that was not called.)

Still, first and third with two outs is still a game worth saving, and Broxton’s made a season so far of getting himself in and out of tight spots. But here’s where it all went sideways, because Broxton induced that game-ending groundball by Scott Cousins to Gritty Gamer Jamey Carroll… and it went right. under. his. glove. Don’t listen to any of Lyons’ garbage about a bad hop; it was a simple ground ball, and Carroll absolutely should have had it.

With the game now tied, getting the last out would at least send the game into extras. Chris Coghlan was intentionally walked, and Infante hit a liner to left that should have ended the inning… except Sands played it like it was covered in bees, allowing it to go over his head to end the game, and that was that.

So if you want to vilify Broxton, go right ahead, because I am in agreement that whatever ailed him last year is not fixed. Head, arm, legs, who knows what body part is causing this, but it’s an issue. I don’t deny that. Unfortunately, this was a team loss. Carroll’s horrendous error, his third of the trip, was the main culprit, and Sands should have caught his ball as well. Vicente Padilla allowed three baserunners and a score in his one inning of work, and as I’ve asked before, if not Broxton, who? Kenley Jansen‘s rounding into form, but he’s not ready yet. I don’t even want to hear Mike MacDougal and his 6/5 K/BB mark, or Matt Guerrier, who’s been relatively good but is definitely not a closer. The only hope is that Hong-Chih Kuo comes back healthy at the end of the week, but you’re a smart person and therefore you better than to ever count on that – and he’s too fragile to do the job alone anyway.

The simple fact is, Broxton’s not very good right now. I stipulate to that, and if there were another option, I’d be for it. Unfortunately, there’s really not, and when the defense is doing their best to give the game away, that’s not helping matters either.

Dodgers Appoint Aaron Miles Team Trustee

April 25, 2011 at 1:08 pm | Posted in A.J. Ellis, Dioner Navarro, Jay Gibbons, Tom Schieffer | 26 Comments

…or something like that. Bill Shaikin, once again coming up with the scoop, breaks the news today that Bud Selig has appointed J. Thomas Schieffer to be the trustee of the Dodgers while the McCourt mess shakes out.

I don’t know who Tom Schieffer is, and neither, most likely, do you. But according to his Wikipedia entry, he’s done a lot of living in his 63 years. After getting his masters degree in International Relations in 1972, he was elected a state senator at just 24 years of age. He then left public office, got his law degree, and become a corporate oil lawyer, then partnered with George W. Bush and others to purchase the Texas Rangers in 1989. Schieffer was apparently the driving force behind the push to build the new ballpark there, which he did on time and within budget, and served as President of the team from 1991-99. After that, he served as ambassador to Australia and then Japan until 2009, before briefly running for Governor of Texas (as a Democrat, surprisingly) in 2010. Oh, and he wrestled a bear.

I’ve seen people complaining that it’s not Joe Torre or Kim Ng, but neither of them were appropriate for the job. Torre’s a baseball man, while this is a role that requires business acumen, and as great as Ng is, she’s probably too junior for this. (Not to mention how awkward it’d be to make Ned Colletti report to her). Schieffer seems like a decent enough choice, as a man with a wealth of experience both within and outside baseball. Remember, Schieffer is not the decision-maker; he’s there for oversight, making sure that the club doesn’t do anything financially that MLB would deem out of line. He has veto power over any expenses over $5,000.

******

Well, Ivan DeJesus is in the lineup tonight, alright, but not how we’d hoped. He’s not in there in place of Aaron Miles, but in place of Casey Blake, as Juan Uribe is still unable to play. Still, it’s a chance, and he’d to well to take advantage of it if we want to see him get at least a share of the time with Miles at some point.

The lineup is: Miles 3B, Carroll SS, Ethier RF, Kemp CF, Sands LF, Loney 1B, Barajas C, DeJesus 2B, Garland P. Yes, that makes an infield of Loney / DeJesus / Carroll / Miles, potentially the least dangerous in the history of baseball.

******

Ken Gurnick reports that Dioner Navarro has rejoined the club. There’s been no corresponding roster move, but we all know it’s A.J. Ellis headed back to AAA. (Update: Ellis has been sent down.) Speaking of injured Dodgers, I believe that Jay Gibbons‘ rehab stint ends tomorrow. At that point, he’d either need to be activated or DFA’d. Though I find it hard to believe anyone would claim him if he were DFA’d, my guess is they’ll be able to restart his rehab clock because of his continuing vision problems.

Dodgers 7, Cubs 3, Miles 3

April 24, 2011 at 3:10 pm | Posted in Aaron Miles, James Loney, Jerry Sands | 27 Comments

Coming into the series, the Dodgers had scored 68 runs in 20 games. In three games in Chicago? 27 runs, or nearly a third of their season total to that point. It sure helps when you can get off to a first inning like this against Carlos Zambrano:

Yes, that’s Aaron Miles getting things started with a triple, two of the three hits he had today after I dedicated an entire post to pointing out how much he sucks this morning. I take back nothing I said – come on, even after today’s game, he’s still only at .255/.271/.319 – but I’ll admit that the hits weren’t cheap and that, if only for today, he contributed. The Dodger television broadcast actually shed some light on my question of why Don Mattingly likes Miles hitting first with Jamey Carroll 8th; it’s because he likes having a stronger batter hitting 8th, so that the #8 guy is less likely to make the third out and ruin the next inning by having the pitcher leading off. In theory, that makes sense, but that’s not a situation that comes up all that often, while needing to have men on base for the middle of your order is something that happens daily. Right?

Hiroki Kuroda survived a tough first inning of his own by striking out seven over 6.2 innings, without issuing a walk. That’s the thirteenth time he’s pitched that long without issuing a free pass in his three-plus years as a Dodger. Oddly, he struck out the first five Cubs he retired, though it took nine Cubs to get that far as he allowed two singles and a double, along with a Carroll error, in the first. Mike MacDougal, Blake Hawksworth, and Jonathan Broxton followed with 2.1 scoreless innings, allowing just a hit (by Hawksworth) and a walk (by Broxton).

Also of note, Jerry Sands had a nice game, getting on base twice with a walk and an RBI double, and nailing Aramis Ramirez rounding second with a nice throw from left field. While it’s good to see him contributing, that’s not what interests me most right now. Yes, his .154/.233/.269 line is underwhelming at best, but the more important number is 25. That’s the amount of pitches Sands saw today, tied with Cubs catcher Geovany Soto for the most on both teams.

That’s significant because as Twitter pal EephusBlue pointed out to me early in the game, it seems like Sands has done a great job of showing patience at the plate, and forcing more pitches out of each at-bat. I looked it up, and it’s true. Entering the day, the MLB leader in pitches per plate appearance, among those with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title, is Daric Barton of Oakland, who sees 4.83 pitches per appearance. (Juan Uribe somehow sees negative two pitches each time he comes up. I’m not sure how he does it either.) Sands, after today’s game and if he had enough PA to qualify, would be at 4.44 – second in all of baseball. While the results haven’t been there yet, the approach absolutely is, and it’s why he deserves more than 34 PA to prove himself in the bigs. We’d heard plenty about Sands’ advanced approach when he was first called up, and so far, that looks to be accurate. Very impressive from a young player.

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Hey, I don’t want to pile on James Loney any more than I really need to, especially after taking two of three and because he’s been a big target a lot lately. So consider this more an issue with Steve Lyons, who raved about Loney on the air today. Loney went 1-5, but that could have very easily been 0-5 because his one hit was a broken bat duck that barely eluded the shortstop and went to left field. 90% of the time, that’s a play which goes basically unnoticed other than that it saves Loney from an oh-fer. Fortunately for Loney, Kemp was already on second base after a double and with two outs, was running on the play and scored easily. So basically, four things had to happen for Loney to come away with an RBI there. 1, his weak hit had to land in just the right spot. 2, there had to be a runner in scoring position. 3, that runner had to have been fast (Rod Barajas, for example, surely doesn’t move like Kemp). And 4, there had to have been two outs, or else Kemp isn’t running on contact and may stop at third.

Now since all four of those conditions were met, Loney gets credited with an RBI; it was his second of the day, because his groundout with Sands on second and Kemp on third in the first – the only one of the first six batters to fail to reach – got him an RBI as well. Now, my disdain for the RBI stat is well-known, and indeed Loney is the only Dodger who got two, despite at least four other batters (if not more) contributing more.

Yet Lyons, after the RBI single, goes on and on and on about Loney’s advanced hitting style, particularly how he goes the other way, simply because he’s “driving in runs”. Lyons even went so far as to point out to parents that they should have their children imitate Loney’s approach, which I suppose makes sense if you really want your child to rock a line of .167/.191/.211, as Loney has. (Lyons had a career line of .252/.301/.340, so maybe there’s something to that.)

As for Loney, well, it was pointed out to me several times today that Trayvon Robinson hit his 4th homer today to extend his hitting streak to 11; he was at .353/.431/.627 entering the day, numbers which are sure to go up when today’s game is over. I’m already hearing people wondering when Robinson gets his chance, pushing Sands to first, and while I think it’s too soon for that (particularly while Sands is hitting .154), Loney needs to start hearing the footsteps.

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Dioner Navarro, currently on a rehab stint while rehabbing his pulled oblique, could be back as soon as tomorrow, reports Ken Gurnick. I think I’ve been pretty clear that I prefer A.J. Ellis to Navarro, but Ellis has options and the Dodgers don’t have a ton of catching depth, so I suppose it is what it is.