On OBP, John Lindsey, and the Continuing Fallacies of Bill Plaschke
December 10, 2010 at 10:53 am | Posted in Bill Plaschke, Jamey Carroll, John Lindsey | 64 Comments
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the offseason moves of the Dodgers and how they seem to have no regard at all for on-base percentage, which we all know to be vital if you want to score runs. I joked on Twitter the other day that I might almost be ready to start a “Free Jamey Carroll!” campaign, if only to have someone in the lineup who can actually get on base, and today Jon Weisman at Dodger Thoughts takes a deeper look at that idea. (Warning: you may not want to click that link if you didn’t like the Juan Uribe signing and don’t want to see stats that suggest Carroll was more valuable than Uribe in 2010.)
I wondered just how much losing the OBP skills of Russell Martin and others would hurt now that they’ve been replaced by the low-OBP likes of Uribe and Rod Barajas, but wasn’t quite sure how to quantify it. Fortunately, baseball-reference had a similar question, in that they wondered how much the Red Sox offense would improve now that they’ve added Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford. They used the lineup generator at Baseball Musings to try and predict the estimated runs scored for the likely 2011 Sox lineup.
I’m going to do the same thing, by comparing what the generator said for the 2010 Dodger lineup as compared to the likely 2011 squad. To choose a starting 9, I went with the 8 players who had the most PA at their position in 2009, and put the top bench player – Carroll – in the pitcher’s spot.
2010:
A lineup of Furcal, Martin, Kemp, Manny, Ethier, Blake, Loney, DeWitt, & Carroll would be predicted to score 5.148 runs / game. (The “ideal” lineup, featuring such moves as Carroll leading off and Manny 2nd, would get you 5.266 runs / game.)
2011:
A lineup of Furcal, Uribe, Kemp, Either, Blake, Loney, Barajas, Gibbons, & Carroll would be predicted to score 4.965 runs / game. (The “ideal” lineup gets you to 5.069.)
It’s not an exact science, of course; the games do take place on the field and not in a database, and you certainly can’t expect every player to perform identically to how they did the year before. We’ve always known that if there’s not some bounceback from players like Kemp and Loney, the team’s in big trouble anyway. But there’s always the worry of Furcal breaking down, Blake continuing to regress, and the complete unknown of the left-field situation.
Long story short, it’s not a good trend.
******
Over at TrueBlueLA, Eric Stephen posts one of my favorite pictures ever, as you can see a color-coded, numerically-based roster board behind Juan Uribe at his introduction last week. Eric notes that we see J.D. Closser and Jon Huber listed as non-roster invites, which we didn’t know, but I also saw that John Lindsey is not listed under his #35. He’s still technically on the 40-man roster, but that’s about to be full, and his omission on the board almost certainly points to his departure. That doesn’t mean he can’t come back in the spring, of course, but any small bit of job security he may have had seems to be gone.
******
I hate, hate, hate to even acknowledge Bill Plaschke’s presence, but if he’s going to spout misinformation and stupidity, I suppose it’s my job to refute him.
Today, Billy’s complaining about how Los Angeles is apparently no longer a preferred baseball destination, because neither the Dodgers nor the Angels are going to land big-ticket free agents like Carl Crawford, Cliff Lee, or Jayson Werth. Nevermind that giving $130m+ contracts isn’t always the best way to build a team, nevermind that Werth would never have come back to the Dodgers after how his previous tenure ended, and nevermind that the Dodgers needed to build an entire starting rotation, not just an ace. Nevermind that the Dodgers don’t get marquee free agents because they’re constrained by the McCourt divorce, a fact which Plaschke conveniently neglects to mention until the very last sentence. Why let facts get in the way of a sob story?
Rather than do the entire article, lest my keyboard get covered with bile, I’m going to pick and choose some of the fun ones.
In what may be the saddest of possible words, we were also the place that somebody named Matt Diaz just rejected for some place called Pittsburgh.
Though that did seem odd at first, Diaz – who went to high school in Florida – said he made the choice because he wanted to stay in the East and spend his spring in Florida. Also, the Dodgers never made a formal offer. Kind of hard to argue that, no?
The last time the Dodgers signed a premier free agent, they made Kevin Brown baseball’s first $100-million man, but that was a dozen years and a million Kevin Malone jokes ago.
Well, there was the time they signed Manny Ramirez after 2008. He seemed pretty “premier” to me. Or when Rafael Furcal bolted Atlanta, then chose to stay when he hit free agency a second time. Or the $44m and $47m, respectively, they handed out to Juan Pierre and Jason Schmidt, and even though those were poor choices that didn’t work out, they still happened. Or when Derek Lowe, J.D. Drew, and Jeff Kent all came to town. None of those guys got paid, or contributed, right?
These days, they don’t even last as long as the Washington Nationals, whose $126-million contract for Jayson Werth borders on the clinically insane, but at least the Nationals are players.
Not that Werth was coming back, but if the Dodgers handed him $126m, you wouldn’t be praising them for spending. You’d be assailing them for being foolish, just like we’ve all said about the Nationals. Don’t deny it.
When is the last time someone really wanted to play baseball in Los Angeles?
Well, there was last winter, when Jamey Carroll turned down more years and dollars from Oakland to come to Los Angeles. Or when Jon Garland turned down the likelihood of more money with the Padres to come back to the Dodgers. Or when Hiroki Kuroda turned down the chance to test the market for a certain three-year deal for big dollars to come back to LA. Or when Jay Gibbons and Rod Barajas repeatedly said they wanted to be Dodgers. Or when Furcal, Ted Lilly, and Casey Blake all re-signed with the team after reaching free agency, rather than going elsewhere. And that’s just the Dodgers, in the last year or two, not including the Angels, and off the top of my head. LA’s actually a pretty good draw for players, wouldn’t you say?
I realize attacking Plaschke is low-hanging fruit and all, but… he gets paid for this. And people read it.
Buster Olney Contemplates the Unthinkable
May 24, 2010 at 1:16 pm | Posted in Bill Plaschke, Buster Olney | 9 CommentsUnlike most of you, I think, I actually like ESPN’s Buster Olney a lot. Not only did he grow up a Dodger fan in Vermont, his daily link collection is immensely useful, and he’s even promising a feature on John Ely tomorrow.
All that said, I think he may have gone off the deep end today:
The Dodgers’ payroll has been on lockdown, however, diminished by about 40 percent in recent seasons, and with the McCourts’ divorce proceedings in the slash and hack phase, ownership might not approve a significant midseason expenditure, such as Oswalt.
The truth is that maybe the best chance for the Dodgers to get some money freed up by midseason would come if the leading columnists in L.A. were to generate a daily drumbeat of sentiment for the team to spend some money. In other words: T.J. Simers and Bill Plaschke, the eyes of Dodger Nation might be turning to you in the Roy Oswalt sweepstakes.
I don’t care if it resulted in the Dodgers picking up Roy Oswalt, Cliff Lee, Albert Pujols, and Joe Mauer – I don’t ever want to be in a position where we have to look to Bill Plaschke, of all people, to be our voice in the community. Besides, as best as I can tell, Plaschke hasn’t even been bothered to write about the Dodgers since April 17, when it was – surprise, surprise – a negative article about the team’s slow start. Before that, it was April 5, complaining about Ronald Belisario‘s late arrival to camp. Typical Plaschke, isn’t it? He pops up to whine, but when the team surges into first place, he hasn’t been heard from in over a month. Sure, he’ll use the excuse “I’m on the Lakers beat,” but that’s all too convenient, isn’t it?
So thanks, Buster, but no thanks. If you’d like to help hammer the McCourts on the damage they’ve done, by all means, we’ll welcome you. But Plaschke pretending he represents the Dodger fan? Pass.
Even The LA Times Photo Department Can’t Stand Bill Plaschke
February 14, 2010 at 10:09 am | Posted in Bill Plaschke | 5 CommentsI’m not trying to make light of the tragic death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili - obviously, what happened was awful, and it’s a video I wish I could un-see. Still, “Death at the Olympics” makes for a pretty poignant tale for opportunistic psuedo-journalists, doesn’t it? It’s the kind of heart-wrenching story that cretins like Bill Plaschke drool over, and he didn’t disappoint, complaining that the Olympics seem to be business as usual despite the tragedy.
Now, whether the lifelong dreams of thousands of athletes and families, along with the years of work by the host country, really should be lessened or dashed by this unfortunate accident are a completely different argument. What’s not up for discussion is that, as usual, Billy’s got his facts wrong – except this time it’s the Times online layout itself that serves as the proof.
Plaschke’s article – dated today, February 14 – launches right into how he thinks the death has been overlooked, because the flags aren’t at half-staff and there’s no memorial to Kumaritashvili. In fact, he says just that:
One day later, the national flags above Turn 16 still flapped at full staff, the Olympic rings there still glowed a sweet blue, there was no makeshift memorial of flowers or cards, there was no visible memory.
Sad, isn’t it? You’d think that between the thousands of visitors and competitors affected by this tragedy, that someone would have at least put down some flowers in remembrance.
Oh, what’s that? They did, and depsite Plaschke’s claims to the contrary, there’s a photo of exactly that leading the story, just pixels above where he says they didn’t? Looks like my birthday came early this year!
Bill Plaschke: distorting the facts to fit his narrative since 1987.
If this all sounds slightly familiar to you, it’s because it’s not the first time. When Manny came back from his suspension last summer, Plaschke railed against him, saying (among many other tenuous claims) that Manny didn’t acknowledge the support of his fans in Mannywood… except for the photos on Deadspin clearly showing that he did.
Game 3 Aftermath: The Sky is Falling!
October 19, 2009 at 7:54 am | Posted in 2009 NLCS vs. Phillies, Bill Plaschke, Cliff Lee | 10 CommentsWell, I suppose this was predictable. I’ve been trying to make an active effort not to focus on the crazy ramblings of one Mr. Plaschke over at the LAT, because I feel like whenever I talk about him, it just brings more attention to him that he clearly doesn’t deserve.
However, sometimes he just goes off the rails so far that I feel like I wouldn’t be doing my job here if I didn’t present a counter-argument that contained a little bit more, what’s the word? Oh yes. Truth.
Okay, Bill. Get on with it. Go all Chicken Little on us here.
On a blustery night featuring timid Dodgers offerings and furious Phillies hacks amid an angry stadium awash in blue blood, you know what I would have liked to see?
I would have liked to see those Dodgers prospects whom they liked more than Cliff Lee.
Now that would have been ugly.
Who are those guys? Where were those guys?
It’s good that we’re starting off with a supremely important point – who were the prospects that were offered to Cleveland in July? The answer is, “we don’t know for sure,” and keep that in mind, because it’s going to come back to bite Bill here shortly.
They needed to stand amid the ruins of Sunday’s 11-0 Philadelphia Phillies victory to witness what the organization sacrificed to keep them.
They need to be part of this Dodgers tumble into the ropes in the National League Championship Series, the team falling behind two games to one after the franchise’s worst postseason loss in 50 years.
They needed to be here, and we needed to see why.
Didn’t realize the NLCS had now turned into a best of three, where being down 2-1 automatically disqualifies you from victory. I won’t pretend that yesterday’s disaster wasn’t ugly – it was – but one of the 78,234,871 reasons I like baseball better than soccer is that there’s no such thing as “total runs” being a tiebreaker. Regardless of whether you lose 11-0 or 1-0, it’s still just one loss in the books.
Oh, and way to throw 19 year old kids who had nothing to do with this under the bus. Real nice.
Why did the Dodgers sacrifice the chance to acquire Lee, the starter stolen instead by the Phillies at the trading deadline, the guy who brilliantly held the Dodgers to three singles in eight innings of puzzled stares?
Yes, I’m sure it was as simple as, “ehh… no thanks.” We’ll get back to this in a second.
Why did the Dodgers sacrifice a sensible postseason rotation, forcing Joe Torre to hand the ball to a spooked Hiroki Kuroda, who threw it well for all of about one batter?
No. False. First of all, Kuroda’s been a very reliable starter when healthy since coming to LA, and as I wrote yesterday, there were several reasons to believe in him against the Phillies. You could make the case that Randy Wolf should have recieved this start, or even Chad Billingsley, but there’s nothing wrong with giving a guy like Kuroda a start. And if there was, you certainly didn’t mention it before he got shelled, did you? Besides, if the Dodgers did get Lee, they likely don’t feel the need to go get Vicente Padilla, meaning Kuroda gets this start anyway.
Why must this season now rest on the shoulders of Randy Wolf, tonight’s Game 4 starter, in whom Torre has so little confidence that in the fourth inning of the division series opener he was yanked with a lead?
Also false. Torre was universally praised for taking advantage of his huge bullpen advantage and not sticking with a starter for too long. I don’t see that so much as “lack of faith” as “going with your strength.” So, this is a faulty point.
Was it worth this? Were these players worth this?
These have been questions asked several times in this space since Ned Colletti’s trade-deadline whiff, and Sunday’s embarrassment makes it perfectly fair to ask it again.
“It’s just one loss,” Russell Martin said afterward. “But at this point, every game means the world.”
Well, it’s nice to see that we’re not overreacting based on one loss that probably happens regardless of a trade for Lee or not, isn’t it?
And one trade could have meant this game. Colletti has long said that his offer was better than Philadelphia’s offer, but the Indians obviously didn’t agree, and baseball folks say the Dodgers continue to overvalue their lower-level prospects.
Here’s where we get into the meat of this thing, because remember when I said right off the top that we didn’t know who the Dodger prospects were? So, how are you supposed to judge the failure or success of a deal when you don’t even know what you’d have to give up? Plaschke seems to think that no price was too high for Lee. What if that price was Kershaw, Billingsley, Kemp, and Ethier? Would you have been okay with that? I didn’t think so.
No, there’s two reasons why the deal got made with Philadelphia and not the Dodgers, and neither of them are due to some epic failure by Ned Colletti:
1) The Indians wanted players who were closer to the bigs. The top of the Dodger system has been emptied out by (mostly successful) graduations to the big league team; guys like Kemp, Kershaw, Billingsley, etc. The next wave of Dodger stars (Dee Gordon, Andrew Lambo, Trayvon Robinson, Ethan Martin, etc.) are at least 2 years away, if not more.
2) The Indians chose poorly. By just about any stretch, the Indians accepted a package of players that was not the most they could get for Lee. In addition to the fact that Colletti says his deal was better, you’ve got Indian fans who hated the trade at the time:
“It’s the worst trade they ever made,” Vavra added. “They really got nothing in this deal.”
“Nothing” is four minor-leaguers — pitchers Carlos Carrasco and Jason Knapp, catcher Lou Marson and infielder Jason Donald — but not the Phillies’ top pitching prospect, Kyle Drabek.
Many fans believe their team should have received more, much more, for the popular Lee, winner of last season’s American League Cy Young Award as the league’s best pitcher, and everyday left fielder Francisco.
And those who hated it after they got a look at their new players:
If Indians fans wanted instant gratification from the players they received in return for Lee, it isn’t happening. Righty Carlos Carrasco is 0-2 with a 9.64 ERA (six homers in 14 innings); catcher Lou Marson is hitting .154; shortstop Jason Donald went on the disabled list in Triple A; and righty Jason Knapp underwent surgery to remove fragments from his shoulder.
In addition to not getting Drabek, Cleveland didn’t get any of Philly’s other top prospects, either – outfielders Dominic Brown and Michael Taylor. What did Baseball Prospectus have to say?
Given the valuation of prospects and the cash situation around the industry, you might have expected that the cheaper contract might yield a better package of prospects, but barring the Indians’ scouting achieving some unanticipated coup, that doesn’t look to be the case at first blush.
and…
between J.A. Happ‘s breakthrough and the retention of pitching prospect Kyle Drabek as well as outfielders Dominic Brown and Michael Taylor, the Phillies might just have kept their best stuff for themselves despite making this sort of major move.
The point being, the Indians – for whatever reason – totally boned this one, in nearly every baseball person’s opinion. It’s hard to say why they chose the offer they did, and impossible to judge whether Colletti “whiffed” when you don’t even know what the Dodger offer was.
Back to Plaschke’s Cavalcade of Wrong:
Here’s hoping those protected kids are named, I don’t know, Koufax and Piazza?
Imagine if Plaschke had been a writer in the late 50s, back when Koufax was a wild fireballer with mediocre results? Koufax was 8-13 in 1960, with 100 BB in 197 IP at the age of 24. You don’t think ole’ Billy would be beating the bandwagon to trade that no-good Koufax? You better believe he would have. Please don’t take this comparison any further than it needs to go, but Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley are both far superior pitchers at their ages than Koufax was at the same ages.
Here’s hoping that one of those protected players wasn’t, as rumored, Chad Billingsley, who was finally forced into a game Sunday and responded by giving up two runs in less than four innings.
Of all the stupid things this sad excuse for a “journalist” has said, this is by far the dumbest. If Billingsley had been traded for Lee, Dodger fans would have turned this city upside down (remember, at the time, Billingsley had barely started his second-half slide yet). Lee has the right to be a free agent after the season if he chooses, and you want to give away a 24-year-old All Star with all the talent in the world? This is why I hate writing about Plaschke, because he clearly knows nothing about baseball – it’s just unfortunate that so many read him and believe him.
Blah blah blah through another few lines repeating the same point over and over, until:
Lee not only fooled the Dodgers such that only one player reached second base, he also struck out 10, including a memorable punch-out of Manny Ramirez.
Memorable, because it came as the Citizens Bank Park crowd chanted, “You took steroids. You took steroids.”
Manny got 2 of the 3 Dodger hits last night. By this logic, 98% of the blame for the loss lays on him. But knowing that Philly fans – always known as a paragon of class – were chanting at Manny during a big playoff rout, well, that completely changes my opinion.
Skipping a few more lines to…
The Dodgers needed an ace, and Toronto’s Roy Halladay and Cleveland’s Lee were available, yet Colletti decided to fortify the bullpen with George Sherrill instead.
I don’t want to completely rehash July here, but saying “Roy Halladay was available” is bending the truth. We all know that what Toronto was asking for Halladay was astronomical – that’s why he didn’t get dealt! Whatever it would have taken to acquire Lee, it would have been much more to get Doc. No team felt that was the right course of action, not just LA.
For all the ways Colletti has respected Dodgers culture by building with pitching and defense, he has failed to adhere to their most important of traditions.
Did you know that a Dodger, Don Newcombe, was the first winner of the Cy Young Award? Did you know that the Dodgers won five of the first 11 Cy Young Awards?
Completely irrelevant to the 2009 NLCS. We all know how inaccurate the votes of the baseball writers can be for major awards, and besides, three of those five were won by Koufax, who’s only one of the five best pitchers who ever walked the earth. Why, oh why, don’t we still have one of the five best pitchers who ever graced us with his presence? Why? Ridiculous argument.
Yet they have not had a starting pitcher win a Cy Young Award in 21 years. That was also, incidentally, the last time they won the World Series.
Ah, yes. The little-known caveat deep within baseball’s official rules that the team with the Cy Young winner must win the Series. That’s why the Royals, led by Zack Greinke, are doing so well this October, and are on track to face Tim Lincecum’s Giants in the World Series. Right?
The point here is not that the Dodgers couldn’t use a top starting pitcher right now; of couse they could. It’s just that you can’t kill Colletti for not making a move for Lee when A) you don’t know what his offer was and B) the Indians seemed intent (wrongly, it looks) on taking the Phillies package of lower-ceiling guys who were closer to the bigs.
Bill Plaschke: playing “I told you so” even without the facts since 1996.
What Is With the Musical Ignorance of Today’s Baseball Media?
October 8, 2009 at 4:57 pm | Posted in 2009 NLDS vs. Cardinals, Bill Plaschke | 5 Comments
Bill Plaschke, tweeting on the national anthem:
Slash did weird guitar national anthem, making me wonder…who the heck is Slash?
Dick Stockton, in the bottom of the 6th discussing Russell Martin’s full name:
Coltrane is a tribute to Martin’s father, who was a jazz saxophonist.
Dodgers 5, Cardinals 3
October 7, 2009 at 10:30 pm | Posted in 2009 NLDS vs. Cardinals, Bill Plaschke, Matt Kemp, Randy Wolf | 8 Comments
Be
honest. If I’d come up to you before the game and said, “so, you know
how everyone’s all freaking out about how awesome Chris Carpenter is?
Yeah, well, Randy Wolf’s going to put 11 men on – five walks! – in just
3.2 innings, including loading the bases with zero out in the first,”
how would you have felt about tonight’s odds?
If you said anything other than “I’d feel like stepping in front of
a bus… that’s headed off a cliff… and is full of orphans… with
diseases,” then you’re a dirty, dirty liar, and it’s time to
re-evaluate your life.
Really, it’s Wolf’s struggles that were the story of this game. He
wasn’t good – far from it. (To be fair, saying “five walks” is pretty
misleading, as two were intentional jobs to Albert Pujols and he
was getting squeezed by home plate umpire Dana DeMuth all night.) But
despite clearly not having his best stuff, Wolf was able to
keep the messes he kept getting into from getting out of control, which
is more than Carpenter could say. Wolf’s two runs allowed came on a
ball that Matt Kemp probably should have had in the first, and a
cueball double by Skip Schumaker in the fourth.
Meanwhile, Carpenter was also not his usual self – even the outs
were hit hard – but unlike Wolf, wasn’t able to avoid the big play,
which was of course a two-run bomb by Kemp that put a point – as if
there was any question - onto his arrival on the national stage as a
big-time player.
Wolf’s line was terrible tonight, and I guarantee you’re going to
see a slew of articles in the morning about how the Dodgers rotation
issues are already rearing their head. In my book, I’m giving Wolf a
huge deal of credit for keeping this thing calm when he could have
easily left down 6-2.
Heroes
Matt Kemp. He got a poor jump on that ball in the
first that could have prevented the first run, but more than made up
for it. If the Dodgers go quietly in the bottom of the first after the
Cards loaded the bases in the top, it could have changed the complexion
of the entire game. It’s amazing how different it feels to be facing a
Cy Young winner when you’ve just deposited a ball into the dead center
bleachers, doesn’t it?
Jeff Weaver. The man who I didn’t expect to even be
on the NLDS roster was put into an impossible spot when Wolf left in
the 4th inning. The Cards had loaded the bases with two outs, and had
just scored to draw within a run. A hit here blows the entire game
open; but Weaver got Ryan Ludwick to tap weakly back to the mound to
put out the fire, and then added a scoreless fifth on top of it.
Rafael Furcal. After a very mediocre season, Furcal
ended the year red-hot (.891 OPS in Sept/Oct). But who knew if that
would hold up into October? Well, how’s 3-4 with a triple and a
sacrifice fly RBI strike you? He could be a huge secret weapon this
month.
Every Dodger pitcher who faced Albert Pujols. When
you’re facing the absolutely-no-doubt-about-it, might-not-even-be-human
best player alive, and in five trips to the plate he comes away with
three groundouts and two intentional walks, you know you’ve done a good
job. That is how you beat the Cardinals. For the record, that’s
Wolf three times (two intentional walks and a groundout), Belisario
once (groundout), and Broxton once (groundout).
Having an awesome bullpen.
Belisario in the 6th! Kuo in the 7th! Sherrill in the 8th! Broxton in
the 9th! That’s just the scariest foursome of fireballers around, and
you haven’t even used Ramon Troncoso yet.
Including Weaver, the
five relievers combined for 5.1 innings of 5 hit, 1 run ball, a line
which could have even been better if Kemp hadn’t misplayed that hit in
the 9th. We’ve been saying it for months around here – it doesn’t
matter if your starters go deep into games in a short series with lots
of off-days when you have a pen like this.
Joe Torre. No hesitation to pull Wolf in the 4th
before things got out of hand, inevitable complaining that he’s
overworking the bullpen be damned. Clearly, you can’t ask the pen to
work 5-6 innings every night, but few things are more important than
winning a Game 1.
Brendan Ryan.
This was probably common knowledge to a lot of people, but I had
absolutely no idea he was rocking such an epic pornstar/child molester
‘stache. The sheer cojones it takes to wear such a thing puts
him squarely in the “heroes” category, and probably gets him on the
offseason list of “guys we need to trade for.”
Just look at it. Look at it. It’s glorious, horrifying, and ingenious all at the same time.
MSTI fans on Facebook. What? You’re not a fan yet? What are you waiting for? We had a pretty good conversation going on over there tonight. It’s what the cool kids are doing.
Goats
Tony LaRussa. Come on, Tony. I know you’re
notorious for this, so I can’t be surprised, but do you have any idea
how painful it is to watch you stride to the mound 12 times a night?
Did we really need to go through 3 pitchers in the 6th inning? I’m
watching this game from the East Coast, friend-o. Help a brother get
some sleep. This game didn’t need to be 3 hours, 52 minutes.
Mark DeRosa. It didn’t mean much in the course of the game, but there’s throwing errors and then there’s throwing errors. That ball he airmailed into right field from third base was at least 25 feet off the ground. Hey, keep it up, fella!
Matt Kemp.
Hey, Bison, you can hit awesome dingers off Cy Young Award winners all
you want. That’s enough to look past a bad jump that probably cost a
run in the first inning. And while not getting to the possible
game-ending ball was bad enough, allowing it to bounce past you to
allow a run to score is unacceptable. Fortunately, Broxton was able to
end it, but it should never have come to the tying run being at the
plate. That said, it was good to see him mouth “my bad” during the
fistbumps at the end.
Cashing in opportunities. This is on both teams; an
NLDS record 30 men left on base. You could say “well, that’s good
pitching not letting runners score,” but remember – you have to get 30
men on base in the first place.
TBS. I know it’s probably hard to get used to live events when you’re mostly showing reruns of Family Guy
and “Con Air”, but you realize how bad things are when the fact you’re
subjecting us to the Corpse of Dick Stockton isn’t the worst offense,
right? Because I know when I think of “playoff baseball,” I think “Dick
Stockton”. Actually, when I think of “Dick Stockton,” I think of
“Grizzlies! Timberwolves! It’s meaningless December basketball!” Or at
least I would if I gave a dick about the NBA. Which I do not. Anyway,
it’s all well and good that you point out that you realize you’re
having technical difficulties, but could you, I don’t know, FIX IT? I
was seeing jumpy video and losing audio for the entire game. Oh, and
Dick – Carpenter wasn’t “gritty” tonight. He was just lousy.
Bill Plaschke. It goes without saying that he’s
always a goat, but I’m starting to wonder why the grumpy old man agrees
to cover a team he so clearly hates. What were your thoughts in the
first inning? Mine went something along the lines of “Crap, Wolf
doesn’t look great/Phew, he got out of it/MATT KEMP IS A GOLDEN GOD!”
First error on Joe Torre, for playing
Ronnie Belliard at second base, fly ball falls between Belliard and
Matt Kemp for first Cardinal run..
Don’t
forget, tomorrow’s a 3:07pm Pacific start. So skip work, cut class,
break out of jail, do whatever you need to do. Kershaw! Wainwright!
Dodgers lead, 1-0!
Does Anyone Have a Direct Line to Bill Plaschke?
September 2, 2009 at 8:15 am | Posted in Bill Plaschke, Rob Neyer | 13 CommentsBecause someone needs to get a hold of him and set him straight about the misinformation he’s putting out there. Look, it’s not that I particularly care what this joker has to say, and I don’t like having to focus on him in September of what’s been the been Dodger season in years (especially when Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier continue to blow me away); it’s just that when he’s out there in print and on television presented as an “expert”, the general public tends to take what he says as honest, researched facts. And of course, nothing could be further from the truth.
Today’s fallacy: Ned Colletti’s a failure because he didn’t get the Dodgers an ace.
After some blathering intro about how Colletti’s box doesn’t have air conditioning and this means that he stewing in his own sweat of impending failure – or some such thing – we get to the meat.
Colletti finished his season’s work late Monday night, acquiring enough players to satisfy most of the team’s postseason needs.
All but the one that burns brightest.
The lack of an ace starting pitcher is still hanging out there, blinding and brutal.
Off to a good start. With wildfires torching much of the LA area (including close enough to Dodger Stadium to see giant plumes of smoke) Plaschke starts off with a reference to something that “burns the brightest,” that is “hanging out there, blinding and brutal”. Way to care about the people suffering, Bill.
(Yes, I know that’s not what he means. But hey, if he can twist things around to come up with ridiculous metaphors, it’s only fair to do it right back to him, right?)
Colletti has done a masterful job of collecting every other imaginable championship piece, but none of it will work without an ace starter.
Why? Says you? It’s worked well enough to get the best record in the NL and second-best in MLB, hasn’t it? Baseball’s about more than “ace starters”, Bill. Just ask the Royals how well they’re doing despite having Zack Greinke, baseball’s best pitcher.
Jim Thome and Ronnie Belliard will be nice late-inning threats — if the Dodgers can hold the lead that long.
Best ERA in baseball. 4th best starters ERA in baseball. Best relievers ERA in baseball, and it’s not even close. 135 more runs scored than their opponents, best in baseball – even better than the Yankees. What exactly makes you think that they won’t have leads?
George Sherrill has been nearly unhittable as an eighth-inning setup man — if the Dodgers are winning that late.
Which… they usually are. Still not seeing the problem here, Billy.
Jon Garland and Vicente Padilla are nice fourth starters — if the Dodgers are still in series contention.
So now you’re predicting the Dodgers are going to be swept in the first round or down 3-0 in the NLCS? I’m keeping this one for October.
Oh, and, guess what: you’re wrong. Padilla probably doesn’t even make the postseason roster, and Garland would be the 5th starter (behind Wolf/Billingsley/Kershaw/Kuroda) and is unlikely to get a start. Nice try, though.
The Dodgers can be confident in nearly every player at every position, except the most important player in the most tenuous spot.
Every player at every position, eh? So you’re not all that worried about the lousy seasons of Rafael Furcal, James Loney, & Russell Martin? Because if there’s any cause for concern, it’s right there. But since they don’t get a fancy newspaper word like “ace”, they’re not worth discussing. They’re fine. Got it.
Who will take the ball in their first game in the first full week of October?
Who will set the tone the way Cole Hamels set the tone for last year’s Philadelphia Phillies?
Who will throw the first roundhouse the way Josh Beckett once punched it for the Boston Red Sox?
I’m not going to pretend that Randy Wolf is at the level of guys like that have been, because he’s a solid pitcher having an excellent year, and not more. Still, it’s hard to ignore how great he’s been this year, as he’s got a 2.80 ERA in his last 13 starts. Besides, funny thing about baseball… your pitcher isn’t facing the other pitcher. He’s facing the other offense. If the other team’s top guy shuts down the Dodger offense, as has been known to happen, it’s not really going to matter whether Wolf is excellent or merely just good.
The Phillies have Hamels and Cliff Lee. The St. Louis Cardinals have Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright. The San Francisco Giants have Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain.
Is that the same Cole Hamels who’s having the worst season of his career? Declining K rates, increasing hit rates, 4.26 ERA? So let’s not pretend he’s going to be Cole Hamels of 2008, no questions asked.
Clearly, the rest of those guys are great, but if you ask me if I’m trading the Dodgers 25 man roster for the Giants just so I can have Cain and Lincecum and absolutely no offense whatsoever, then there’s no chance of that. It’s a team game. If Manny, Kemp, and the boys don’t get it going against those top pitchers, it’s all over anyway.
The Dodgers?
“That’s what the rest of the season will tell us,” Colletti said.
So far, so-so.
Except… for all of the stats I posted above saying how the Dodgers have allowed the lowest ERA in baseball, and have the best bullpen in baseball. Funny thing how that works; if you realize your starters might only be good for 5-6 innings, you load up your pen with quality arms to finish it off. Really, am I going to be crushed if Chad Billingsley is great for 5.2 innings and we have to see a fresh Sherrill/Kuo/Troncoso/etc. rather than force Bills out there due to some bygone notion of “starters go deep?” That’s important in the regular season when you don’t want to wear out your pen. It’s far less so in October when there’s ample days off.
If the playoffs began this week, their top starter would be Randy Wolf, who has 274 career appearances but zero in the postseason.
Now this I love. Talk about not presenting the whole story. How many postseason appearances do Cliff Lee, Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, and hell, let’s even throw in Roy Halladay, have? That’s right – zero. You just keep making up the story that fits your mindset, Bill.
Their second starter would be Chad Billingsley, who has disappointed the organization with his inability to either act or pitch like an ace. Not to mention, his career postseason earned-run average is 7.24.
I won’t deny that Billingsley’s second half has been a struggle, but what the hell is this “act like an ace” business. Are you really going back to the same tired never-was-a-story-except-you-kept-harping-on-it business of Chad not throwing at people in the playoffs last year? God, let it go. Oh, and a 7.24 postseason ERA doesn’t mean much in just 13.2 innings, especially when one of those starts was excellent.
The other night in Cincinnati, Billingsley shook his head and said what the Dodgers hate to hear.
“Lately, I haven’t been able to find it, and I don’t know what it is,” he said.
Unfortunately, I can’t argue that this worries the hell out of me, but it’s sort of immaterial. There’s no way the Dodgers were getting enough starters better than Billingsley to deprive him of a postseason start, so all you can do is hope for the best with him.
Their third starter will be Clayton Kershaw, who will be a postseason ace in coming years, but not now, not at age 21, not with the sort of inconsistency that could end a game early.
“Sometimes, with young guys, you don’t know until you know,” Colletti said.
Inconsistency or not, he’s still got a 2.94 ERA and has allowed the fewest hits/9 of anyone in the entire league. Sure, there’s the chance he could go out and throw 103 pitches in 3 innings, but are you really going to pretend that a guy that talented isn’t worth throwing in October? As Colletti says, you don’t know until you know, and you won’t know until you give him a shot - and don’t forget, Bill, Kershaw has more postseason innings than Cain, Lincecum, and Lee combined.
Agreed. This is why the Dodgers should not have taken a chance. This is why Colletti should have offered more to the Cleveland Indians for Lee.
It is a failed trade that could haunt them through October, a failure of the entire Dodgers organization to either offer or cultivate the right prospects.
By all accounts, Colletti offered a package that included Midwestern League co-MVP Dee Gordon, as part of a four player deal, so let’s not pretend that the offer was a lowball. Most indications are that the Indians preferred the Phillies package of lower-ceiling players who were closer to the majors than the Dodgers package. Calling that a “failure” is a bit much; you can’t force Cleveland to like your package more than Philadelphia’s.
It could be that Colletti overvalued his kids. It could be that Logan White’s system has slowed in its development of kids.
I can’t even fathom how a man who’s watching a team with the best record in the league, fueled largely by the outstanding work of the farm system, is going to dump on Logan White right now.
Or it could be that this belongs on Frank McCourt’s desk. Remember that last summer, in an effort to save money, the Dodgers traded some of their best prospects for players — Manny Ramirez, Casey Blake, Greg Maddux — instead of just buying them.
This… doesn’t even make sense. “Instead of just buying them”? That’s not exactly how baseball works – this isn’t the supermarket. Then again, assuming that Plaschke has any clue about how baseball works is a stretch, so I’ll leave him be on this one. Besides, Andy LaRoche is hitting .244 in Pittsburgh while Bryan Morris has a 5.73 ERA in A ball, so don’t tell me that Manny Ramirez wasn’t worth that.
For Maddux, they gave up two low-minors prospects (Michael Watt & Eduardo Perez) who are still in A-ball and on no one’s top prospect list, so stop pretending as though they are. As for Blake, well, we’ve discussed Carlos Santana enough around here for my taste.
The bottom line is that, in acquiring Lee, the Phillies traded from a system that had four of Baseball America’s midseason top 50 prospects.
The Dodgers had zero players on that list.
This is so ridiculous I don’t even know where to start. Would you rather have guys on the prospect list, or guys who have been home grown and are the core of your club, like Matt Kemp, Billingsley, Broxton, Kershaw, & Martin? Of course the Dodgers don’t have anyone on that list; all of them have graduated to the bigs. And while you’re bagging on Logan White, higher than any Phillie on that list is Carlos Santana, a Dodger product.
Besides, three of the four Phillies on that list weren’t even part of the trade. Most people think the Indians got jobbed on the deal. So again, point invalid.
So Lee went to Philadelphia, where, typically for an American League pitcher going to the lighter-hitting National League, he is 5-1 with a 1.80 ERA.
And guess who could be on the mound against the Dodgers in October?
“I thought we had the guys,” Colletti said of the Lee deal. “I really thought we had the guys to get it done, but you never know how organizations value their players.”
Exactly my point; the Dodgers made a solid offer and the Indians decided, for their own reasons, they liked the Phillies offer better. What’s the problem here?
Judging from raw statistics, the Dodgers’ pitching is set, with the league’s best ERA and lowest opponent batting average.
Didn’t you just spend half your article saying how poor the pitching staff is?
But postseason pitching is about raw, period. It’s not about cold statistics as much as swagger and savvy and stuff. Even though starting pitchers work less than anyone in a World Series, it is no coincidence that 11 of the last 23 Series featured a starting pitcher as MVP.
Ah, yes. “Swagger” and “savvy” and “stuff”. As though Billingsley and Kershaw, for any of their other flaws, don’t have the “stuff” to hang with anyone else already mentioned. Also, the MVP stat is laughable, because another way to put this would be “less than half of the last 23 Series, and just 1 of the last 5, had a starting pitcher as MVP,” and that’s without even including the fact that MVP awards are completely meaningless. I mean, David Eckstein won one.
The top pitchers in championship rotations bring the heat. If that guy doesn’t emerge soon, the Dodgers will be feeling it.
The correct point of view is, “if the Dodgers offense can’t hit that guy, the Dodgers will be feeling it.”
There’s no question that Plaschke is a joke, but apparently I need to make this point for the 12038123th time: regardless of whether you want an “ace”, there was none available. Toronto’s demands for Halladay was laughable, and they made a competitive offer for Lee. What other aces did you want to go get?
I’m not pretending that I don’t wish we had a Lee or a Halladay, because of course I do. But pretending that not having them means that the season is doomed is really short-selling all of the great work the team has done so far in collecting the best record in the NL.
Update: Reader Tim points out that even ESPN’s Rob Neyer realizes how batshit crazy Plaschke is, too:
Cole Hamels is little (if any) better than the Dodgers’ best starters. Matt Cain is little better (if any) than the Dodgers’ best starters. The Rockies’ best starters are no better than the Dodgers’ best starters. The Braves’ best starters are no better than the Dodgers’ best starters.
It’s fair to say that the Dodgers can’t quite match Carpenter and Wainwright. But nobody can. Not in the National League, anyway. It’s fairly rare for one team to feature two legitimate (at this point) Cy Young candidates.
What gets Plaschke’s goat, I suppose, is that Chad Billingsley leads the Dodgers with just a dozen wins and nobody else has more than nine. Clayton Kershaw, with the lowest ERA (2.94) and (perhaps) the most talent, is just 8-7. It’s been an odd season that way.
Bigmouth Strikes Again, Part II
August 1, 2009 at 7:45 am | Posted in Bill Plaschke, Chad Billingsley, Clayton Kershaw | 3 CommentsYes, folks, he’s back,. Actually, he was back yesterday, 
with some crap article on Manny which I’m not even going to link, but, for my own sanity, I skipped it. But today, I just can’t resist. I try to resist, I really do, but it’s just so hard. It’s therapy for me, despite the fact that with the amount of columns he’s putting out lately, we might have to rename ourselves: “Fire Bill Plaschke.com.”
Anyways, he’s back today, whining about the ace the Dodgers failed to get. Because pissing off Dodger fans wasn’t enough, he decides to also devote his article to pissing off Angels fans too, but, for the sake of brevity, I’ll just post most of the pertinent Dodger quotes. Ironically, his article is entitled: “Dodgers, Angels make risky bets,” but it’s not half as risky as if you actually read the whole thing. I assure you.
Take it away, WPS!
Both teams have done this before, refusing to imitate the big-market
swagger of the New York Yankees, shunning the win-it-now attitude of
the Boston Red Sox, preferring to trust stopwatches instead of wallets.
Refuse to imitate the “big market swagger?” Not opening up their wallets? Hey Kevin Malone, is that you? If not, then, here’s a bit of a history lesson, WPS… but… hey… do the names Kevin Brown, Darren Dreifort, Shawn Green, Jason Schmidt, J.D. Drew, Juan Pierre, and Andruw Jones ring a bell? And, hey, I can’t even stand the Angels, but Vladimir Guerrero, Bartolo Colon, Kelvim Escobar, Gary Matthews, Jr., and Torii Hunter are all on line one. Does it also ring a bell when the Dodgers have been, sans 2005, in the top 10 in payroll every year with payrolls very near, but mostly above $100 million? Same with the Angels since Arte took over. Not bad for a bunch of cheapasses!
Oh yeah, I forgot another thing: for all of your grumbling about these two teams constantly holding back, wasn’t it these two teams who, this time last year, made the two biggest blockbusters when the Angels got Teixiera and the Dodgers got… oh, what was his name again… ah, that’s right… Manny fucking Ramirez?! I figured YOU, out of all people, would know that, given your fetish with smearing him every chance you get since May.
It
suits local fans who feel as if they are growing up with the kids. It
suits local bankers by keeping their payrolls manageable.Problem is, it doesn’t do much for the local ring industry.
So a team with young kids is detrimental to the “local ring industry?” And therefore, as WPS will imply later, that’s a reason why the Dodgers haven’t won in so long? Yeah, because you know what I’m really pissed off at over the past 21 years? That the Dodgers didn’t spend the 1990′s trading away MORE young talent and spending MORE money on older players and kissing away the future. Yeah, that’s right. In fact, Bill, there was a time when YOU were sick of it, too. Remember in 1999, which was, of course, a year after you advocated the Piazza trade (only to go 360 on it six months later, by the way), that you got sick of the Dodgers play to the point where you yourself advocated a youth movement to get back to “winning ways?” And that was all despite the fact that those Dodgers were in the midst of doing everything you’re advocating these Dodgers do now: establish themselves as that big market, “go for it now,” checkbook opening team. They even had the 7th highest payroll in all of baseball that year.
Didn’t quite help out that ring industry, did it?
In the last 21 years, the Dodgers and Angels have combined to win only one championship.
Really? Only one? So given that 21 years ago was 1988, did the A’s really win in 1988 or did the Giants really win in 2002 and that guy who used to be the Iraqi Information Minister is just lying to us? Dammit!
During that same time, the Yankees and Red Sox have combined to win six championships.
Hey, he might be able to count after all! Nonetheless, very deceptive, William. Did you also remember to mention that, while those Yankee teams did have their share of veterans, they also won their championships in the 1990′s on the backbone of players like Jeter, Williams, Pettitte, and Rivera? You know, all the guys who came out of their farm system. Thank God you weren’t in charge, though, because since Andy Pettitte’s first two postseason series (1995 and 1996 ALDS) weren’t anything to write home about (4 ER’s in each start), you would have shipped him out. And, remember, the Yankees of 1996-2000 weren’t the “hey, let’s spend more money than every team combined” Yankees of 2001-present. Yes, their payroll was always near or at the top, but it was at least very close. Ironically, this defeats your point: what have those big spending Yankees won in 9 years?
As for the Red Sox? I’ll concede that 2004 was largely a group of veterans, but 2007 is a bit different: what about the performances of Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Elsbury, Jon Lester, Daisuke Matzusaka, and even Kevin Youkillis, who was, for the most part, playing in his real first postseason (only 2 AB’s in 2004 playoffs)? Does that sound like the reckless “win it now” attitude you claim they have?
Yeah, I guess I can see your point; really didn’t do anything for the ring industry either, did it?
Billingsley has given up 22 runs in his last 26 1/3 innings and was rocked in two NL Championship Series starts last October.
And, in fact, totally rocked the Cubs in the NLDS that same postseason. Again, why is that forgotten?
Kershaw, still only 21, has given up only three earned runs in his last
38 innings, but his next playoff start will be his first.
Yo, Cliff Lee, here. I’m the guy that Plaschke advocated the Dodgers should get. But do you wanna know a secret? Do you promise not to tell? Cool. Well… the truth is, I haven’t ever started a postseason game either! Shhhhh… (whispers) seeeeeeecret…
Billingsley was one player the Dodgers could have traded without much uproar but didn’t.
Hey, wait… something doesn’t seem right here… didn’t you just say a few days ago…
No, you don’t trade Kershaw and, even though it’s tempting, you don’t trade a 24-year-old Billingsley.
Ah, he DID say that! You liar! I feel SO violated.
The Dodgers will fight through with a starting pitching tandem of Chad
Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw, both of whom have postseason talent
but lack postseason pedigree.
Two things, here. First off, which pitchers don’t “fight through?” Why is it just the Dodgers? Secondly, ignoring all the vaguery of the terms “postseason talent” and “postseason pedigree,” if WPS means “postseason pedigree” in the terms of them lacking postseason history and experience, then way to contradict the whole argument, for both Billingsley and Kershaw on their own have more postseason history and experience than either Halladay or Lee combined. So given that we’ve settled the “postseason pedigree” part of this, then that leaves us with the “postseason talent” aspect, which you say both Dodgers have. Now, surely, you think Halladay and Lee have them too. However, given your articles and the quote above, you seem to place a much greater emphasis on pedigree. So, given your stronger emphasis on “postseason pedigree,” then shouldn’t it logically follow that you advocate Billingsley and Kershaw above Halladay and Lee?
Colletti stuck with them. He will now have to win with them.
Correction: not only can he win with them, but they have won with them. In fact, if it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion.
If Philadelphia shows up again, the young Dodgers have to keep down those pitches.
And, what, if we get to face Philadelphia, Lee gets to keep them up? What the hell does this mean? Only young pitchers get to keep their pitches down?
Suicide squeezing, all of them.
Coincidentally enough, after reading through your columns, I would also advocate that you try s… oh, forget it, I’m too tired.
- Vin 
Bigmouth Strikes Again
July 26, 2009 at 8:15 am | Posted in Bill Plaschke, Chad Billingsley | 8 Comments
Folks, meet William Plaschke Shakespeare. William Plaschke Shakespeare, the younger, less talented and evil twin brother of the great William Shakespeare, has struck the world with more blithering non-sense and even worse hypocrisy in his latest column.
Being prepared for this moment, I must first provide you with some background…
Growing up together, William Plaschke Shakespeare was always envious of his older brother’s work. After the elder William’s triumphant successes with “Romeo & Juliet,” “Hamlet,” “Lady MacBeth,” and more, William-Plaschke killed his older brother and immediately ran away to California, thus he was his only mother’s son, and a desperate one.
After awaiting the next 425 years to find work, he was hired by the L.A. Times in 1987. Since then, he has been extracting revenge on the audience that supported his brother through his miserable columns.
So, in his latest article, Plaschke, affectionately known as just WPS, argues that, essentially, the Dodgers don’t have an ace and, if they don’t get one, then they screwed!
Let’s take a look… hit it!:
There is nobody who will take the mound on a chilly fall night and
refuse to leave until morning. There is nobody who will grab the ball
in October and refuse to give it up until November.
Well, of course not. October is when Billingsley has his weekly canasta games, while Kershaw likes to keep tabs on his fantasy football teams. Wolf likes to go hiking, while Kuroda likes to spend the offseason pursuing a budding rap career. How can you blame them for not wanting to show up?
What a nice way to start this article off: blast the entire pitching staff’s character and motivations. Apparently, Plaschke can peer into the hearts of men. Neat trick. But while he derides their toughness, then we get this:
There is power here, there is speed here, there is brashness and belief and as much bullpen intensity as bullpen ivy.
So, on one hand, they’re weak and refuse to step on the mound in October, yet they’re brash and full of belief? Yeah, that really follows, William.
You win regular-season titles by using dozens of arms, but you win
championships with one, a guy who can carry the load and the pressure
and the strain.Yeah, an ace.
Wow, so if we get Roy Halladay, not only is he going to start for us, but he’s going to relieve himself, too?! OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG!!
Yeah, a moron.
During the last nine seasons, no world champion has had a starting
pitching staff that was ranked lower than ninth in the league in
innings pitched.The Dodgers’ starters currently rank 14th.
During that same time, no world championship bullpen was ranked in the top 10 in its league in innings pitched.
The Dodgers’ bullpen currently ranks second.
Wait, you mean World Series winners had a bullpen, too? But you said that all of them have this really supercool pitcher who can do it all by himself! Liar!
Seriously, this is such a meaningless statement, but also asinine. First off, Plaschke needs to show why starters throwing more innings and relievers throwing less innings pitched directly correlates into winning titles. I’m not saying it isn’t a preferable thing, it is, but he assumes that as long as the Dodgers fail to meet these goals sufficiently, then they’re not going to win the World Series, because past champions met the criteria while the Dodgers don’t. But he’s leaving out other factors. For starters, just because the pitching has thrown more innings, it doesn’t mean that they’ll be bad innings and, despite what Plaschke is assuming, you don’t win titles just solely on pitching, much less purely on how many innings they pitched.
Secondly, not all World Series winning pitching staffs are equal. In other words, just because you win a title, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you had elite pitching. Three of the top four pitching teams last year in ERA were everyone else that made the playoffs in the NL: the Dodgers, Brewers, and Cubs. The Phillies were middle of the pack. You can also have a non-World Series caliber team and have excellent pitching (see 2003 Dodgers). What he’s arguing just doesn’t follow.
And, yes, it’s tough to sell anyone on prospects when most scouts
believe that most great Dodgers prospects are already at the major
league level.But, hey, this is an organization that somehow acquired Manny Ramirez
for nothing, so surely there is something they can figure out.
Plaschke is suffering from the fallacy of equivocation on the word: “nothing.” If he means “nothing” in the sense of talent, then it’s just a false statement (see: LaRoche, Andy). If he means “nothing” in terms of money, that’s correct, but that’s completely separate from prospects. He’s using “nothing” in both senses or, at the very least, using it irresponsibly.
Coincidentally, Plaschke is also committing the fallacy of being a freaking moron. Yeah, we were able to get Manny free of charge last year, and while Ned gets big props for that, that was also a huge byproduct of Boston desperately wanting to get rid of Manny with the way things were going south.
They are a pitching staff that can lead the Dodgers to the league’s
best record,
Yet somehow that makes them…
But right now, they are a pitching staff filled only with decent arms
Yeah, gotta love that.
and daring souls and just enough heat to meld together the next two months.
Why, because you said so? And if that’s the case, then what’s the point of getting a Roy Halladay? If our staff falls apart, then not even he will save us. Oh yeah, that’s right, you said that these special cyborg, “ace” pitchers pitch all the time, right? Argh, now you’re lying again. Make up your mind, dammit!
but you know what that guarantees them? Ask the other best
teams from the last 15 years, and duck, as only one of them actually
won a World Series.
Yeah, so you know what would really help us, then? A big 8 game losing streak! Yeah, that’ll do it!
And it gets worse. From the caption:
Averaging 6 1/3 innings, Chad Billingsley doesn’t qualify as an ace.
Oh geez, so because he averages 6.3 innings per start, therefore, he’s
not “ace” enough? Yeah, you know who also shouldn’t qualify as an
ace? Johan Santana. That average arm is only averaging 6.5 IP/9!
Jarrod Washburn?
Not much better. 6.6 IP/9. Should have looked this up, William.
There is no Cole Hamels, no Josh Beckett, no David Wells.
So, given that Cole Hamels is only averaging 5.8 IP/9, this season, does that mean that the Phillies have no ace, either? Oh yeah, the ace of the other team the Dodgers might see in the playoffs, Chris Carpenter, is averaging 6.6 IP/9, not too much better than Billingsley. So, no acehood yet for him, huh?
Given his experience, the man here should be Billingsley, but he still
needs to prove he has emotionally recovered from last fall’s two awful
starts against the Philadelphia Phillies, when he gave up 10 earned
runs in five innings.
Emotionally recover? What does that mean? What, does he need to go on “Dr. Phil” and bawl his eyes out or spend a month in Hawaii with Dr. Landy? Also, if you want to be consistent, C.C. Sabathia, a bonafide ace with lots of creamy veteran goodness and fits every criteria Plaschke sets in this article, not to mention also having a freaking 260 ERA+ with the Brewers last year to boot, also got totally shellacked by the Phillies in the playoffs, last year. Does he still need to prove that he’s emotionally recovered, as well?
Remember that? All the momentum the Dodgers built in a divisional
series sweep of the Chicago Cubs was wiped away with one Brett Myers
pitch behind Manny Ramirez’s behind.
Pardon my French, but: bullshit. The Dodgers came back after that miserable game 2 and won game 3 and were leading 5-3 in the 8th inning in game 4 until Cory Wade and Jonathan Broxton completely imploded and Matt Stairs essentially got a knife and twisted it in the heart of every fan in L.A. That’s when the momentum pretty much went to hell. Yet we don’t see any articles about how we should acquire an elite closer, do we? No, and for good reason.
Look, Billingsley’s been getting a lot of flack lately in all of these “we need an ace” articles, so can we just settle this now? Yeah? Alright, good…
This NLCS fiasco needs to go. Really, just stop. No, it’s not to exempt Billingsley: he sucked donkey balls. But for those who keep saying that he “needs to emotionally recover,” first off, what the hell do you mean? He’s been, for the most part, one of the better pitchers in the league for most of the season, including absolutely shutting down that Phillies team in a 7 IP, 1 ER, 4 BB, 9 K performance against them. The other problem is that if you’re going to accuse Billingsley of helping kill the momentum of the team last year, then you must also give him credit in sustaining it before that, namely his performance in the NLDS, when he went a commanding 6.2 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, and 7 K against a 97 win, heavily favored Cubs team. Or when he threw some scoreless relief innings as a 21 year old in the 2006 NLDS.
It’s simple: if he gets the blame for killing the momentum, then he should also get the credit for sustaining and building it through the NLDS. Similarly, if all of his troubles are essentially attributed to mental weaknesses, then his successes must be attributed to mental toughness. Why the asymmetry? Or do the latter instances not count? At least be consistent.
No Dodgers starter stood up then.
They need somebody to stand up now.
They need somebody to take the mound this October and stalk it, stomp
it, own it, because, as certain as browning leaves and buffeting winds,
another fight is coming.Yeah, an ace.
Don’t you love how whenever Plaschke wants to advocate the Dodgers to do something, he always words it like the freaking apocalypse is coming?
Yeah, a nincompoop.
So, to sum up, what have we learned on the blog, tonight, Vin?
Well, according to Bill Plaschke, we need to get an ace because, apparently, our starters want to vacation beginning October 1st and they don’t want to pitch until the morning. Here’s the kicker, and this has been somewhat of a theme, lately: notice how nearly all of these arguments are never really backed up with numbers, but merely attacks on character? In other words, forget the fact that the Dodgers’ pitching ranks the best overall ERA in baseball, and, statistically speaking, have an elite rotation and bullpen. Forget that; why? Because there’s no “big nerved, cold starting pitcher.” Because Clayton Kershaw isn’t going to walk up to the mound come October (if he even shows up, of course) and rip off his jersey and yell at the batter: “Whatcha gonna do when the Kershawmania comes after you… brother?!”
Basically, instead of realizing that a trade for this Halladay like figure would pretty much be a case of “the rich getting richer,” most of these so-called journalists feel the need to degrade the pitching staff in order to make some point. Look, of course getting a Halladay would make this staff better, and it would improve the team and give us a deadly staff come October… duh! But that doesn’t mean that the Dodgers haven’t had great pitching, as it is, and to argue otherwise is insane. Just because we had major pitching concerns coming into the season doesn’t mean that we necessarily do, now. Yet, for some mysterious reasons, these so-called journalists feel the need to degrade the pitching staff in order to make a point and, sadly, the guy who has taken the fire the most lately for it has been Chad Billingsley. He had a bad NLCS and apparently his regular season numbers aren’t enough to show how “emotionally recovered” he is, either because 1. the journalists are just flat out irresponsible and not bothering to look or 2. the numbers likely don’t carry much weight because it’s only the regular season and in order to “prove himself” he needs to show it in October.
But in this article, it’s likely the latter and note the contradiction. Plaschke doesn’t really seem to care about how the Dodgers’ pitching staff has done this year, instead making judgments on Chad Billingsley based on two games in the NLCS, and essentially tossing aside or at least not caring much about the great success of the pitching. But If we aren’t to place much emphasis in regular season numbers, as Plaschke has done with the Dodgers pitching, then that should also apply to Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee. After all, they’ve yet to throw a postseason game in their careers, so you’re essentially bolstering regular season numbers, too. But why is it O.K. with them, but what our staff has done over the course of the season (specifically Billingsley, in this article) is just sort of tossed aside? It’s inconsistent and dishonest.
But what else do you expect? It’s Plaschke.
Now it’s 8:14 A.M. I’ve yet to sleep. Goodnight!
- Vin
It’s Time to Build Something This Summer
July 22, 2009 at 11:03 am | Posted in Bill Plaschke, Hiroki Kuroda | 8 CommentsI have the flu right now. In July. Life rules. I can only imagine what people thought of the guy walking home from work yesterday on an 80 degree day with chattering teeth. Moving on, while listening to the Hold Steady/Deadspin podcast…
There’s about to be some awesome roster decisions, soon. Jason Schmidt is back on the roster, as we know, Hong-Chih Kuo is expected back next week, and Doug Mientiewicz could follow the next week after that. Plus, Tony Abreu is finally healthy and performing well in the minors, Ronald Belisario and Cory Wade’s rehabs are reportedly moving along smoothly, and you know the Dodgers will acquire at least one arm via trade. That’s at least 5 guys who will need to be added before the September 1 roster expansion, and while Blake DeWitt has the market cornered on being sent down, where are the other spots coming from? Unless we see some injuries, there’s about to be some tough decisions.
Apparently, not walking people isn’t enough. Back in June, Hiroki Kuroda went 4 starts and 26.1 innings without allowing a walk, striking out 22 in that time. What did that get him? A 1-3 record and a 5.13 ERA.
Finally, this:
Bill Plaschke’s on jury duty. Could you imagine being accused of a crime, preparing to defend yourself, and seeing Bill Plaschke in the room? I’m not even sure I could get the words “uh, I’ve been relentlessly bashing his journalism on my blog for years, so I don’t trust he’d give me a fair trial” out of my mouth without laughing. On the other hand, will he render his opinions on the case in one-line sentences?
How Many McCourt Sins?
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