Garret Anderson « Mike Scioscia's tragic illness

MSTI’s 2010 in Review: Left Field

October 27, 2010 at 12:27 pm | Posted in Garret Anderson, Jay Gibbons, Manny Ramirez, Scott Podsednik | 19 Comments

Would you believe that nine different players started a game in left field for the Dodgers in 2010? We’ve already discussed Jamey Carroll and Russ Mitchell in the infield, and you’ll see Trent Oeltjen in center field. Then, even though they had more starts in LF than anywhere else, I’m putting Reed Johnson and Xavier Paul with Andre Ethier in right field just to balance out these articles a bit. That still leaves four men here…

Manny Ramirez (C)
.311/.405/.510 .915 8hr 1.3 WAR

I feel like I wrote a pretty definitive review of Manny’s time in LA back in August, and as little as I want to write more about him, that’s about as much as you probably want to read more about him. So let’s just look at the 2010-only section of that piece:

Heading into 2010, expectations were high. The expected controversy over whether Manny would exercise his opt-out clause never came, as he quietly acknowledged he wouldn’t be passing up his guaranteed 2010 payday on November 6. With that out of the way, conditions were ripe for a comeback. Manny had had the entire winter to rest his hand, he was in a contract year, and if the thought of playing for his next payday didn’t motivate him, the embarrassment he’d suffered in 2009 certainly would.

Well, it didn’t work out exactly like that. Manny landed on the disabled list with leg issues three separate times, and played just 65 games with the Dodgers, the fewest in his career other than a cup of coffee as a 21-year-old with the 1993 Indians. Eight homers, 232 plate appearances, months on the disabled list, and far more Scott Podsednik and Garret Anderson in left field than we ever could have dreamed. That’s not exactly what we’d hoped for, I’ll grant you.

Classic Manny? Clearly not.

But again, nor was it the post-steroid disaster that the media liked to portray it as. Manny’s .915 OPS was 13th in MLB, among players with at least 225 PA. That’s higher than players like Adrian Gonzalez, Joe Mauer, Prince Fielder, Ryan Zimmerman, and Evan Longoria. Remember, PED suspension or not, we’re still talking about a guy who’s 38 years old. A .915 OPS is 91% of his career average 1.000 OPS; for a 38-year-old to get that close to matching his usual Hall-of-Fame level is impressive. In fact, it was the 21st highest OPS+ of any ballplayer 38 or older (220 PA or more) in history, and the list above is littered with names like Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, and Ty Cobb.

I’m not saying he was worth every penny this year; it’s hard to do so with how much time he missed. But to keep up the facade that he could no longer produce is just wrong. If the numbers above aren’t convincing proof of that, how about the fact that they’ve scored more than 5 runs per game with him in the lineup, and fewer than 4 without him? If he’s not classic, “in his Boston prime” Manny, or superpowered “just got to LA” Manny, he’s still an effective force in the lineup, one the Dodgers have proven they cannot win without.

Manny ended his Dodger career with a bizarre ejection after just one pitch while pinch-hitting with the bases loaded, which is oddly appropriate. He also ended his Dodger career atop the team’s all-time leaderboards in OBP, SLG, OPS, and OPS+ (minimum 500 at-bats), all in exchange for a failed third baseman, a mid-level pitching prospect, and a ton of heartburn. Now, he’s gone, dropped onto the White Sox for nothing but salary relief, and no matter how you feel about Manny’s time in LA, there’s not much argument we got exactly what we signed up for. Dominant offensive performance, more than a little controversy, and a less-than-glorious exit? Yeah, that sounds about right.

None of that’s really changed, with the exception of this week’s revelation that Manny had hernia surgery to fix a groin issue which had bothered him all season. To put up the line he did despite all of the leg issues he had is impressive, though of course all the time he missed due to them balances that out quite a bit.

Scott Podsednik (D)
.262/.313/.336 .648 1hr -0.2 WAR

When Podsednik came to town, I didn’t hate the deal as much as you might think, reasoning that he could be of value as depth in LF and CF and as speed off the bench. (Let me clarify that by saying that I didn’t hate his acquisition; the team overpaid to get him, but that’s not his fault.)

That’s not how it worked, however. Podsednik basically became the everyday LF until he was hurt, a role he was woefully unqualified for, especially since he’s about one-tenth the hitter that Manny was. This was clear less than a month after he arrived:

So here’s all I ask of the team: whichever path you choose, don’t half-ass it. If you think you really have a shot, then don’t trade Manny. There’s no question that his presence fundamentally changes the lineup, and you can’t really be saying you’re trying to win if you’re playing Scott Podsednik (one of the three worst .300 hitters this year, according to baseball-reference) in left field instead of Manny, because that’s a huge dropoff in production. There’s no way you can let Manny go, and act as though you’re still a contender.

But pretend they did, and Podsednik didn’t really do much to contribute before his season ended due to plantar fasciitis in early September:

If this is indeed it for Podsednik’s season, his Dodger tenure ends as a disappointing one. His line of .262/.313/.336, with 5 steals and 3 caught stealing, comes out to just a 79 OPS+ (and -0.2 WAR), well below his 107 OPS+ line for Kansas City. By comparison, Lucas May had an .878 OPS with 5 homers in 24 games for the KC AAA team. So there’s that.

Podsednik will be 35 in March and showed zero power, poor defense, and mediocre on-base skills with the Dodgers. There’s absolutely no way he should be back in 2011. So of course he’ll be back in 2011.

Garret Anderson (those damned kids are on my lawn again!)
.181/.204/.271 .475 2hr -1.1 WAR

Like with Manny, I’ve already spent far too much time this season discussing a late-30s outfielder who didn’t even last the season. So we’ll just point out that it was a bad idea when the rumors surfaced in January…

Yes, I don’t like him because he’s old (38 in June). Yes, I don’t like him because he’s coming off the worst year of his career despite having just moved to the easier league (.705 OPS, the third year in a row that decreased). Yes, I don’t like him because he is by all accounts a horrible fielder (-16.5 UZR/150 last year). Hey, a senior citizen who can’t hit or field? Sign me up?!

But what I like even less than the fact that Garret Anderson is a terrible baseball player is the idea of Garret Anderson. Let’s say he was where he was three or four years ago, when he was past his peak but still an average-ish hitter. That’s still valuable, but you’re not playing that guy over Manny, Kemp or Ethier, right? Nor was his glove so good that he’s really a huge upgrade over Manny in the late innings, agreed? And since he’s not much of a LF, you’re sure not going to put him into center or right to rest those guys either.

It was a bad idea in March when he was signed…

Since then, the Dodgers have imported Reed Johnson to be the 4th outfielder, plus Giles and others to battle for the last bench spot. What Garret Anderson adds to that mix is… well, not “quality” exactly… I don’t know. Formaldehyde?

It was a bad idea at the end of April when he had proven he had nothing left…

Speaking of Manny’s absence… Garret Anderson needs to be cut. Now. Not when Manny comes back. Today. After another 0-4 last night, in which he didn’t even get a ball out of the infield, he’s hitting an almost unbelievable .122. This experiment was a terrible idea from the beginning, and it’s a terrible idea now. The pinch-homer he hit on April 22 is the only hit he’s had in nearly three weeks. How much more do we need to see here? He’s had a nice career, but he’s cooked, and it’s time to acknowledge that. And for the love of GOD, Torre, if you must play him, can you please stop batting him second? The thought process here is almost unfathomable.

And how did it all end up? With arguably the worst season by a Dodger hitter in 100 years:

The list you’re looking at above is of the ten worst seasons by OPS+ in Dodger history, among hitters with as many plate appearances as Anderson’s 163. You’ll notice that of the six seasons worse than Anderson’s, not a single one came after World War I. Let me put that another way: none of those seasons were even recent enough to take place in Ebbets Field, which didn’t open until 1913. Jul Kustus played just that one season as a backup for the Dodgers, never returned to the big leagues, and was dead six years later. Bill Bergen was so historically bad that he still holds the record for the longest hitless streak by a non-pitcher (0 for 46 in 1909), though he was regarded as an outstanding defensive catcher. Not exactly the company you want to keep if you’re Anderson, especially when you’re not contributing at all on the bases or in the field.

The whole experiment was actually pretty painful to watch, just because of the respect Anderson had earned in his long career in Anaheim. He never should have been out there, and knowing that the Dodgers chose to not go with their best 25 men for two-thirds of the season was infuriating. I’ll be shocked if we see Anderson in the big leagues again.

Jay Gibbons (∞)
.280/.313/.507 .819 5hr 0.1 WAR

Here’s how little I thought of Gibbons being signed to a minor-league deal in the spring: if you search “Gibbons” on this blog, you’ll first see a mention from December of 2007, when he was mentioned in the Mitchell Report. Though he was doing well in the minors, he didn’t even warrant a second mention until July 8, 2010, when I noted that he would be taking part in the AAA Home Run Derby. (That’s how come he gets “infinity” as a grade. How can I say he bested a preseason expectation when I didn’t even spend one brain cell thinking about him? It’s like dividing by zero. It’s dangerous.)

Of course, then I mentioned him several times over the next month, pointing out that he kept raking as Garret Anderson kept failing, until he was finally recalled when Anderson was DFA’d on August 8. At the time, I tried to discuss what you could expect from him:

Still, simply besting Anderson isn’t a high bar to clear, and the fact that Gibbons can play 1B as well as LF or RF offers some much-needed bench flexibility. As with any Isotope, you have to look at the home/road splits to see how much the Albuquerque environment helped him. It certainly has – his OPS is nearly 200 points higher at home – but he’s also been effective on the road as well, hitting .306/.335/.503.

Hey, if he works out, great. If not, you bring back up Xavier Paul or try someone else. Either way, he’s far more deserving of the opportunity right now than Anderson is, and this is an experiment which should have been tried months ago.

Gibbons bashed a homer in his first start and stayed hot before tailing off at the end, and though he drew just four walks and did a hilarious impression of “defense” in left field, his bat made the decision to keep him on the farm in favor of Anderson look all the worse. Or as I said on September 6…

If you look at #5 on my list of things I wanted to see over the rest of the season, you’ll see “finding out if Jay Gibbons is worth a roster spot for next season.” So what happened? Gibbons got the start on Saturday and collected his third homer of the season. Someone remind me again why it took so long to get rid of the corpse of Anderson and get Gibbons up here – not like many of us hadn’t been calling for just that for months – because I sure as hell can’t come up with a good reason.

Gibbons almost certainly earned himself a spot on the 2011 club, and with good reason; with six double-digit homer seasons under his belt, he’s got the track record, and the defensive versatility is great to have on the bench, though he’s hardly a plus at either. Just keep in mind that, like Rod Barajas, one hot month does not make an All-Star. Gibbons as a power bat off the bench? Love it. Gibbons as your full-time left fielder? Not good. That said, he’ll likely sign for the minimum or something close to it, and that’s great value to add to your reserve corps.

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Next! Matt Kemp disappoints everyone! And who the hell is Trent Oeltjen?! It’s center field!

The Worst Offensive Season in LA Dodger History

August 9, 2010 at 9:25 am | Posted in Garret Anderson, Jay Gibbons | 62 Comments

(Note: I had written 90% of this before Anderson was DFA’d yesterday, always planning to run this on today’s off-day. I can’t tell if the fact that he’s now gone makes this anticlimactic or perfectly timed. Still, a season this historically bad deserves its own post, so here it is anyway.)

Part of me feels like this is mean-spirited, because by all accounts Garret Anderson is a fine person with an excellent career behind him. The other part of me wants the team to, you know, win, and having a guy who can’t hit, run, or field wasn’t exactly helping to do that.

So the point here isn’t to bash Anderson any more than necessary, because you never heard any stories about him complaining, loafing, or causing problems in the clubhouse – all you need to do is just read Steve Dilbeck’s piece on how he took the news to realize what a classy player Anderson was. But that doesn’t change the fact that he wasn’t getting the job done on a historic level, so let’s look at just how Anderson’s 2010 ranks in the Dodger record books.

Rk	Player	OPS+	PA	Year	Age	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1	Bill Bergen	-4	250	1911	33	84	227	8	30	0	10	.132	.183	.154	.337
2	Bill Bergen	1	372	1909	31	112	346	16	48	1	15	.139	.163	.156	.319
3	Bill Bergen	6	273	1910	32	89	249	11	40	0	14	.161	.180	.177	.357
4	Bill Bergen	16	372	1906	28	103	353	9	56	0	19	.159	.175	.184	.359
5	Jul Kustus	25	192	1909	26	53	173	12	25	1	11	.145	.204	.191	.395
6	Bill Bergen	28	347	1904	26	96	329	17	60	0	12	.182	.204	.207	.411
7	Garret Anderson	29	163	2010	38	80	155	8	28	2	12	.181	.204	.271	.475
8	Bill Bergen	31	320	1908	30	99	302	8	53	0	15	.175	.189	.215	.404
9	Rube Walker	32	187	1957	31	60	166	12	30	2	23	.181	.243	.265	.508
10	Bill Bergen	32	265	1905	27	79	247	12	47	0	22	.190	.213	.219	.431

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

The list you’re looking at above is of the ten worst seasons by OPS+ in Dodger history, among hitters with as many plate appearances as Anderson’s 163. You’ll notice that of the six seasons worse than Anderson’s, not a single one came after World War I. Let me put that another way: none of those seasons were even recent enough to take place in Ebbets Field, which didn’t open until 1913. Jul Kustus played just that one season as a backup for the Dodgers, never returned to the big leagues, and was dead six years later. Bill Bergen was so historically bad that he still holds the record for the longest hitless streak by a non-pitcher (0 for 46 in 1909), though he was regarded as an outstanding defensive catcher. Not exactly the company you want to keep if you’re Anderson, especially when you’re not contributing at all on the bases or in the field.

Now, I mentioned this on Twitter a few weeks ago, and Eric Stephen of TBLA noted, completely reasonably, that the plate appearance ceiling may be somewhat arbitrary, as it’s hard to think that 163 PA of a 29 OPS+ was worse than Maury Wills putting up 152 PA of a 3 OPS+ in 1972. It’s a fair point. However, I’m giving the prize to Anderson for several reasons. First, Wills was a Dodger legend who, at 39, had completely and suddenly fallen off the cliff. In 1971, he had a 91 OPS+ and finished 6th in the MVP voting; in 1972 he didn’t start a game after July 31st and finished up as a backup 3B and pinch-runner. It’s understandable that they wouldn’t want to simply cut such a historically important player coming off a good year, as opposed to Anderson, who had no history with the Dodgers. (As Chad from MOKM correctly noted, all due respect to Anderson’s career, but Dodger fans shouldn’t be expected to care about how good he was for a rival a decade ago). Besides, Anderson had a higher K rate (21.9% to 13.6%), lower BB rate (3.1% to 6.6%), higher BABIP (.215 to .149), and lower WAR (-1.2 to -0.5) than Wills did. Taking that all into account, Anderson’s 2010 is more detrimental to the team than Wills’ 1972.

Back to the present, when the news broke yesterday, Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times posted some thoughtful insights on his Twitter. He didn’t disagree with the decision to cut Anderson loose, but he noted that he found it surprising that fans seemed to care so much about the failings of the 25th man, more so – in his opinion – than the team’s inability to go out and get an ace, for example. They’re fair questions, but I think this goes back to the heart of the matter: no one hated Garret Anderson as a person. As I mentioned, he’s a class act and all that, but on a team that is apparently trying to win this year – judging by the deadline deals – it’s hard to accept that a roster spot is completely wasted on a guy who just can’t get the job done anymore. The anti-Anderson campaign this year was never an indictment of him personally, but of the team for actively choosing to not go with the best 25 men available to them for most of the year. When you’ve got coaches complaining that they don’t think all of the young players are doing their best to win, how can you look back at the team and not note that they’ve let several veterans hang on all year with little to no production?

And it’s not like this was some sort of surprise to us. I hated the idea in January when we first heard even the rumors that they might be interested in Anderson, hated it in March when he signed, and said he needed to be cut immediately at the end of April when he’d been basically hitless for three weeks. He was never going to be a fit on a team which had three plus bats in the outfield, two of whom are below-average defensively and one of who requires regular time off. Veteran presence or not or not, a declining outfielder who can’t hit, run or field isn’t helping the team – but even I never thought that he’d end up with the most punchless season we’ve seen in nearly a century.

So I think we’re all sorry to see it end like this, a proud ballplayer who hung on a year too long being unceremoniously sent packing, after having to endure calls for his job from fans all year. Almost as sorry as I was for us to have to watch him play all year.

Good luck, Garret.

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So what can you expect from Jay Gibbons? To be honest, probably not a whole lot, though the fact that he contributed an RBI single in his first pinch-hitting opportunity yesterday got him off to a good start. Gibbons is a veteran of seven seasons in Baltimore, hitting over 20 homers three times, but he was in the Mitchell Report, hasn’t seen the bigs since 2007, and has a career .314 OBP.

Still, simply besting Anderson isn’t a high bar to clear, and the fact that Gibbons can play 1B as well as LF or RF offers some much-needed bench flexibility. As with any Isotope, you have to look at the home/road splits to see how much the Albuquerque environment helped him. It certainly has – his OPS is nearly 200 points higher at home – but he’s also been effective on the road as well, hitting .306/.335/.503.

Hey, if he works out, great. If not, you bring back up Xavier Paul or try someone else. Either way, he’s far more deserving of the opportunity right now than Anderson is, and this is an experiment which should have been tried months ago.

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A final thought: why now? I’m certainly not complaining, but I also don’t quite understand why August 8 was the breaking point. Sure, Gibbons was hot in AAA (.433/.485/.600 in his last 10 games), and Anderson was as useless as ever, but you could have said those things in May, too. With just a weeks until rosters expand, it’s a bit confusing why they wouldn’t let him just stick it out until then. Again, though, no complaints here.

The Dodgers Finally Put Garret Anderson Out of Our Misery

August 8, 2010 at 1:48 pm | Posted in Garret Anderson | 15 Comments

Garret Anderson is finally, mercifully gone. His quest to be the worst Dodger in team history has been short-circuited, as the Dodgers came to the realization that the rest of us had known for months, and designated him for assignment today.

Since I’ve been somewhat leading the anti-Anderson charge, you’re probably expecting me to laugh, gloat, and cheer. But that’s not really what you’re going to get, because Anderson deserves better than that. Let us not forget that he was a solid player and a great person for many years in Anaheim, and that his one terrible partial year in Dodger blue shouldn’t whitewash over the rest of his career.

Oh sure, I’m happy that the last spot on the bench will finally be filled by a player who can do, well, anything, but mostly I’m happy for Anderson. I’m happy that we won’t have to watch him stumble around out there and further embarrass himself.

Fun fact: I had written the above months ago, in preparation for this day. And of course it comes while I’m on a ferry, of all places, but it still applies. I’ll still be posting about how he’s had the worst season in LA Dodger history tomorrow, since I already have it mostly written.

It’s Friday…

July 16, 2010 at 1:13 pm | Posted in Garret Anderson, George Sherrill, James McDonald, Ramon Troncoso, Ron Belliard | 11 Comments

…so why is everyone at work in such a foul mood? Anyway, the less said about last night’s game the better (I’m only half kidding when I say that watching it was less entertaining than watching the cat chase bugs around), so let’s touch on a few widely varied topics.

Let’s start off with the rotation, where James McDonald appears likely to get the Monday start in John Ely‘s place, and while that’s not confirmed, McDonald was scratched from his start today. McDonald missed over a month with a hamstring pull, and his three starts since his return have been mixed. Four shutout innings on July 1 was a nice start, but then he allowed four earned runs in 6.2 IP at Iowa on July 6. Then on the 11th, he allowed just one run over 6.1 at Omaha, but did so while walking four and striking out just two, so it’s hard to say what to expect. I’m not convinced that he’s any better than Ely is right now, but I’m glad to see him get a chance – and fortunately for him he gets to face the Giants.

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How many people were confused when George Sherrill got into last night’s game? I asked that on Twitter, and the answer was: a lot, since they thought he had been immediately removed from the roster. Think of this like the month of August, where trades are still allowed but only once players have made it through waivers. You never hear about it, but tons of players - even ones teams don’t really plan on trading – are placed on waivers, just to see who makes it through and is available to be used in deals. It’s kind of the same thing for Sherrill, who finds out if he clears waivers today and is on the roster until then. The only difference here is that if Sherrill is claimed, he can’t be pulled back by the Dodgers, unlike the usual August waivers I mentioned.

In a related topic, I suppose this is why waiver deals are supposed to be kept so secret. Imagine if Sherrill had come out and struck out the side last night? (I know, you’d probably need some sort of medicinal help to imagine that.) How would that have made things look then?

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BP’s Jay Jaffe says that the Dodgers have regressed more on defense from 2009 to 2010 than any other team in baseball:

Having accentuated the positive, we’ll move on to lambasting the negative, since eliminating it doesn’t seem to be an option, or even very much fun. And No. 1 on the list of teams that deserve it are the Dodgers, who went from leading the league in DE last year by a whole seven points to ranking 10^th this year. Not surprisingly, one key culprit appears to be the loss of Orlando Hudson (+17), though Blake DeWitt and friends have been a respectable two runs above average at the keystone. At third base, Casey Blake has declined (+13 to -5), and Rafael Furcal has dropped off (+13 to +4), surprising given how much more Furcal-like he’s been when available. In the outfield, Matt Kemp has lost 10 runs himself (+8 to -2), a particularly rough blow when coupled with his 20-point drop in True Average. Luckily for the Dodgers, they’re second in the league in strikeout rate, minimizing the number of balls in play.

It’s really hard to argue with any of that.

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Ramon Troncoso‘s pitched in four games for the Isotopes, and he’s allowed two homers – though he has struck out five and walked just two. Only one of the two homers was at home, so it’s not all the ABQ effect, though last night’s was a walkoff. Not good.

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ESPN’s Buster Olney speculates on who may want to buy the Dodgers should the McCourts be forced to sell:

There is speculation within the sport that if the McCourts are forced to sell the Dodgers as they go through their divorce proceedings, the person who is most perfectly positioned to buy the team is Dennis Gilbert, the longtime agent and team executive. Gilbert lives in the L.A. area, is a known quantity to commissioner Bud Selig, and Gilbert essentially finished second in the bidding for the Texas Rangers last year — largely because Nolan Ryan chose to align himself with Chuck Greenberg. Gilbert knows a whole lot of people, big hitters in the money world, and if the Dodgers’ franchise needs rescuing — and in the sport right now, the team’s ownership troubles are regarded as a cover-your-eyes embarrassment — Gilbert will have the financial wherewithal to restore the club to its past greatness.

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Garret Anderson update: his 0-1 last night kept him steady at #10 on the list of “worst seasons in Dodger history“, though with only six more hitless at-bats, he’ll likely be up to #7.

Also, while I have a lot of respect for Tony Jackson, this part of his chat yesterday killed me:

Sam (Fullerton)
How much longer will the Dodgers leave the corpse of Garret Anderson out on the field before they waive him?

Tony Jackson
That’s a good question, Sam, but I get the sense they’re not going to wait much longer, unless Garret suddenly gets hot. I do think Torre and the coaching staff likes having him around for what he brings to the clubhouse. He lockers next to Matt Kemp at home, and I think they think he has been a good influence. So it may come down to how long the front office is willing to go along with the wishes of the staff.

Maybe I’ve been off on a distant planet or something, but haven’t we heard plenty of whispers that people aren’t always thrilled with Kemp’s attitude, culminating in the benching that seemed to be a direct result of a spat he had with bench coach Bob Schaefer? So… wouldn’t that then mean that Anderson’s actually doing a terrible job at mentoring, too? Guess we can just add that to the list of things he can’t do anymore.

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As long as we’re getting on Anderson, I should be an equal opportunity naysayer and expand on the D I gave Ronnie Belliard in the first-half grades. He’s got one hit in his last twenty-eight at-bats, and he’s hitting just .220 on the season. Clearly, he’s not much of a contributor in the field, either.

I don’t think cutting him is as clear-cut as it is for Anderson, simply because there’s not an Xavier Paul behind him ready to step in. Chin-lung Hu isn’t any sort of a bat, and Ivan DeJesus needs to play every day after losing last year to injury. In addition, Belliard is really the only backup 1B on the team, unless you count Casey Blake.

So his spot is secure for now, but I’d really like to see if the Dodgers can cheaply go after Russell Branyan, as I suggested earlier this week. Think about it: dump Anderson, dump Belliard, keep Paul, acquire Branyan. You’d then have your non-catching bench split between two righties and two lefties, you’d be covered in the outfield with Paul and Johnson, Jamey Carroll could cover backing up 2B/SS/3B, and Branyan would be a true lefty power bat who could actually play some 1B. Even if you think that stretches the non-1B backup infield to have only Carroll, remember that it’s only six weeks until rosters expand, ABQ isn’t that far away should injury happen, and if worst comes to absolute worst, you could still stick Russell Martin at 3B for the late innings of a game where injuries mount until reinforcements arrive.

The Least Depressing Shutout Loss Ever

July 8, 2010 at 9:59 am | Posted in Brad Ausmus, Garret Anderson, Jay Gibbons, Ronald Belisario, Trent Oeltjen | 12 Comments

Sometimes your team gets completely shut down, and you get frustrated. You wonder why your stars look bad at the plate, you can’t figure out how the opposing pitcher is getting everyone out with his junk, and you wonder why Garret Anderson continues to exist.

Not last night, though. Despite getting about 10% of the press that Ubaldo Jimenez gets, Josh Johnson is just about indisputably the best pitcher in the NL right now, if not all of baseball. And when you run into a train like that, sometimes it’s better to just sit back and appreciate the performance, even if it’s sending your team directly to a loss.

Besides, as Jon noted, the Dodgers tossed out 8 scoreless innings of their own, so aside from a tough 2nd inning, it was hardly a disaster. Definitely one of those games where you say, “yep, that happened” and move on.

Anyway, tons of other minor notes to get to:

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Remember the other day when I mentioned that Brad Ausmus‘ recovery from back surgery was ahead of schedule and that he might be looking to begin a rehab stint after the All-Star break? Apparently, it was even closer than that, since he DH’d for Lake Elsinore last night, going one for two. He’s supposed to catch three innings today, and while 1/3 of a game after DH’ing the night before may not sound like much, not forcing a 41-year-old coming off of back surgery to take a day off after his first game back sounds like he’s in better shape than any of us anticipated.

Barring a setback, that means Ausmus’ 30-day rehab clock is ticking, putting his return in the first week of August at the latest. I already discussed whether that was really a good thing or not, but it’s also worth noting the domino effect that will have throughout the organization. A.J. Ellis would likely get sent back to AAA, where Lucas May has a .902 OPS that’s only partially fueled by the ABQ effect. You’d think the team would want each to play every day, but it’s hard to demote May to AA now.

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Still no news on what sent Ronald Belisario to the restricted list, but the more I hear about it the more it sounds like it’s a family emergency and not a substance abuse problem. Tony Jackson:

Kinzer also said that Belisario was still in Los Angeles, but indicated the pitcher might be heading home to Venezuela at some point.

“It’s just some personal problems, and he’s got some things he’s got to work through,” Kinzer said. “It’s just a lot of anxiety, and that is about all I want to say right now.”

Pressed on what he meant by the word “anxiety,” Kinzer declined to offer details.

“Right now, he is [still in town], but we will have to see how things work out later,” Kinzer said. “Obviously, his family is in Venezuela. But we haven’t set up [any travel].”

If it was some sort of disciplinary action or rehab issue, you’d think that leaving the country wouldn’t be an option. The fact that he’s from Venezuela is doubly concerning, as Yorvit Torrealba, Victor Zambrano, and Ugueth Urbina have all had to deal with kidnapping situations there in recent years.

Again, we have no idea if that is the case, but the pieces all fit. For the sake of everyone involved (and while I include the Dodger bullpen on that list, they’re about 78th on it) let’s hope it’s something else entirely.

******

Garret Anderson put up another 0-4 with 2 K, plummeting his line to .182/.197/.280. For once, I’m actually not trying to single him out here, because it’s no shame to go hitless against Johnson, and Casey Blake and Rafael Furcal suffered the same fate.

However, earlier this week I noted that 1,337 Dodgers in history had as many plate appearances as GA did, and his OPS+ rank was 1,318, putting him in the bottom 1.33% as far as productivity goes. The four chances last night knocked out a few of those players who now have fewer PA’s than his 138, and the four outs pushed GA’s OPS+ from 34 to 29.

That means the updated standings have Anderson at 1,322 of 1,334 seasons, or in the bottom 1%. With one more plate appearance, he’ll be able to remove Moe Berg’s 1921 and Ben Geraghty’s 136 from the cutoff point, and another out or two will probably push his OPS+ below Bill Bergen’s 1904.

And yes, I am going to keep track of this, because the historical significance is stunning. He just needs 14 more plate appearances to qualify for the worst offensive season in Los Angeles Dodger history by someone with that many chances, and that’s something worth tracking. Fortunately for him, the -4 (yes, negative) that Bergen put up in 250 PA in 1904 is probably safely out of reach.

******

Albuquerque updates: Claudio Vargas got lit up for 7 earned and 10 hits in just 3.2 innings for the ‘Topes last night against the Iowa Cubs. His ERA is 7.71. It’s ah, not working out. In better news, Jay Gibbons will be taking part in the Home Run Derby, before playing in the game alongside teammates Lucas May and John Lindsey. Gibbons is somewhat a result of the ABQ air, but he’s also a lefty who can play outfield and a bit of 1B, and doesn’t have his OBP about to drop below .200, like Garret Anderson‘s is. Just sayin’.

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For the sake of completeness, let’s note that the Dodgers released Timo Perez from AAA and signed former D-Back Trent Oeltjen, who had opted out of his minor-league deal with the Brewers last week. The Australian native has had minor league OPS’s over .800 in each of the last three years, and had been on a hot streak recently. But it’s not his bat that denied him a call-up:

Oeltjen had been on an offensive tear with the Sounds, raising his batting average to .301 with 24 doubles, two triples, eight homers, 38 RBI and a .851 OPS. But his defense wasn’t considered major-league ready, so the Brewers opted not to call him up and move out one of their players.

“Our reports were that he was coming on dramatically with the bat,” said assistant general manager Gord Ash. “We liked him, obviously. That’s why we signed him. But as a defensive outfielder, he wasn’t what we were looking for.”

So after opting out of his deal, a man who clearly should have signed with an AL team in order to keep the DH option open not only stayed in the NL, but he signed with perhaps the only other team who can top Milwaukee’s level of outfield stackitude. Time for a new agent, maybe?

In Which MSTI Attempts to Jinx the Entire Pitching Staff

July 7, 2010 at 1:30 am | Posted in Garret Anderson, Matt Kemp, Travis Schlichting, Vicente Padilla | 12 Comments

I’d written up a whole bit about how Vicente Padilla had shaken off the rough start to his 2010 by throwing out quality start after quality start, capped by tonight’s 9 K, 0 BB gem. As he struck out Ronny Paulino for the 2nd out in the 7th, it became clear that the bullpen would be coming in for the 8th, and I started doing some research on Padilla’s season, including this nugget, which I oh-so-brilliantly put on Twitter:

Unless something awful happens right here, this is going to be Padilla’s first outing of 2010 in which he doesn’t allow a homer.

Less than two minutes later, Marlins rookie Mike Stanton deposited the 112th and final pitch of Padilla’s night into the left field stands, because of course he did. I invited the punishment which I so richly deserved, which I’ll post along side to the right here for your enjoyment, because it’s the only way I’ll learn.

Still, Padilla’s got a pretty interesting stat line going on. 9 K against 0 BB is quite impressive, and he joins Chad Billingsley (11 K on May 31 against Arizona) in being the only Dodger to strike out as many as 9 without a walk this season. (Four Dodgers did it last season, including Padilla himself when he set down 10 on October 4th against Colorado).

Following up on what I mentioned last time regarding Padilla:

Vicente Padilla showed just how effective he can be when he’s right, allowing just three hits and a run over seven innings. Remember, his ERA has been misleading all season. After his first two lousy outings, in which he allowed eleven earned runs while not making it out of the fifth inning either time, Padilla’s allowed three, two, (DL stint), four, two, and one earned runs in the five starts since.

Just two earned runs in 6.2 innings certainly qualifies as a solid start in keeping that streak alive, though the fact that he has become so oddly homer-prone is disconcerting at best. Regardless, his slow start and ensuing injury were huge parts of this team’s May starting rotation panic, and his turnaround is of utmost importance.

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But wait! There’s more jinxing to come. Travis Schlichting started off his 2010 season by putting up 10 scoreless innings in his various MLB stints. (That’s 10.2 consecutive if you cheat a little bit and include the two outs he got to close out a 6-0 loss on June 12 of last year, in a game also started by Padilla… but for Texas.) Schlichting set down the Fish in the 8th inning, and as Vin Scully pointed out that Jonathan Broxton was warming to enter in the 9th, I noted the scoreless streak fact. What could go wrong?

Well, Rafael Furcal just had to go and extend the lead to five in the bottom of the inning, meaning that Broxton wasn’t needed (yet, anyway)… and you can note my increasing horror at this fact in this succession of tweets as Schlichting allowed his first run to cross the plate:

Ha. I only said it when Vin made it clear JB was coming in. @DodgersDynasty: @MikeSciosciasTI hopfully Schlichting doesn’t pitch the ninth.

Uh-oh. Vin: “With a 5 run lead, Broxton has stopped throwing, so Schlichting will go back out for the 9th inning.”

I’m more nervous about Travis Schlichting‘s mop-up 9th inning than his mom is right now.

Farewell, Twitter. I’ll miss you.

If you want to see the replies I got to those… well, you’re just going to have to go search it out yourself. Disaster city on my part.

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Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, & Casey Blake all hit homers, two of which came off of Marlins starter Chris Volstad (who was optioned back to AAA within 10 minutes of the game ending). Kemp’s blast was a particularly monstrous shot, in addition to two stolen bases. He’s OPSing 1.124 with three homers over the last seven days. Can we please at least agree that whether or not he did need some sort of wake-up call, that this is the result of an immensely talented player coming off a poor month far more than it is some sort of voodoo clubhouse magic worked by Joe Torre? I’m not immune to the idea that the time on the bench may have gotten into Kemp’s brain a bit, but the level that some people are going to credit this all to Torre is mind-blowing.

******

Rafael Furcal had two more hits and 3 RBI. You may have noticed this, but he’s sorta good. I’m in the middle of writing the dedicated post to him which he sorely deserves, but know this: we’re in the midst of some of the finest shortstop play in the long history of the Dodger franchise, dating back to Brooklyn.

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I posted this on Twitter earlier, but I can’t help but add it here as well. In all of Dodger history, there have been 1,337 seasons in which a Dodger has received at least 134 plate appearances, or exactly what Garret Anderson had seen entering tonight’s game.

Rank those 1,337 seasons by OPS+ (Manny’s 2008 is at the top, no surprise), and you’ll see that Anderson ranks 1,318th. That means that 98.57% of previous Dodger hitters dating back to the 19th century were more productive with that amount of plate appearances than he’s been. And some could even play defense, too!

But why stop there and just say those things, when through the magic of baseball-reference I can show you them specifically? (And no, I didn’t have to start with Andruw Jones on the list. I could have just put GA at the top. But I wanted to make it clear that GA has some work to do just to reach the tubby depths of Jones’ 2008 debacle.)

Rk	Player	OPS+	PA	Year	Age	Tm	G	AB	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1315	Andruw Jones	35	238	2008	31	LAD	75	209	21	33	8	3	14	.158	.256	.249	.505
1316	Juan Castro	35	246	1998	26	LAD	89	220	25	43	7	2	14	.195	.245	.255	.499
1317	John Shelby	35	371	1989	31	LAD	108	345	28	63	11	1	12	.183	.237	.229	.466
1318	Garret Anderson	34	134	2010	38	LAD	64	128	6	24	5	2	11	.188	.203	.289	.492
1319	Jeff Torborg	34	136	1969	27	LAD	51	124	7	23	4	0	7	.185	.241	.218	.458
1320	Wally Gilbert	33	171	1928	27	BRO	39	153	26	31	4	0	3	.203	.274	.229	.503
1321	Rube Walker	32	187	1957	31	BRO	60	166	12	30	8	2	23	.181	.243	.265	.508
1322	Bill Bergen	32	265	1905	27	BRO	79	247	12	47	3	0	22	.190	.213	.219	.431
1323	Bill Bergen	31	320	1908	30	BRO	99	302	8	53	8	0	15	.175	.189	.215	.404
1324	Randy Jackson	30	145	1957	31	BRO	48	131	7	26	1	2	16	.198	.246	.252	.498
1325	Bill Bergen	28	347	1904	26	BRO	96	329	17	60	4	0	12	.182	.204	.207	.411
1326	Doug Camilli	26	134	1964	27	LAD	50	123	1	22	3	0	10	.179	.226	.203	.429
1327	Ben Geraghty	25	138	1936	23	BRO	51	129	11	25	4	0	9	.194	.241	.225	.466
1328	Jul Kustus	25	192	1909	26	BRO	53	173	12	25	5	1	11	.145	.204	.191	.395
1329	Ramon Martinez	24	147	2007	34	LAD	67	129	10	25	4	0	27	.194	.248	.225	.473
1330	Moe Berg	16	138	1923	21	BRO	49	129	9	24	3	0	6	.186	.198	.240	.439
1331	Bill Bergen	16	372	1906	28	BRO	103	353	9	56	3	0	19	.159	.175	.184	.359
1332	Tommy Brown	14	160	1944	16	BRO	46	146	17	24	4	0	8	.164	.208	.192	.400
1333	Bill Bergen	12	143	1907	29	BRO	51	138	2	22	3	0	14	.159	.165	.181	.347
1334	Bill Bergen	6	273	1910	32	BRO	89	249	11	40	2	0	14	.161	.180	.177	.357
1335	Maury Wills	3	152	1972	39	LAD	71	132	16	17	3	0	4	.129	.190	.167	.357
1336	Bill Bergen	1	372	1909	31	BRO	112	346	16	48	1	1	15	.139	.163	.156	.319
1337	Bill Bergen	-4	250	1911	33	BRO	84	227	8	30	3	0	10	.132	.183	.154	.337

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/6/2010.

That means there’s 19 seasons in which a Dodger has performed more poorly than Anderson, but two things should have jumped out at you immediately. First of all, a solid eight of those 19 belong to the legendary catcher Bill Bergen, who was an excellent defender but was infamous for being the worst-hitting player in baseball history (no, really; he holds the record for longest hitless streak by a non-pitcher) and who was out of baseball by 1912. Second, note the third column on line 1332; Tommy Brown was just 16 when he was pressed into service for the wartime 1944 Dodgers.

Finally, note that I’m even in a situation where I’m comparing Garret Anderson to a 16-year-old – and that the teen had a higher OBP. Anderson’s not going to come anywhere near the 250+ PA Bergen got on several occasions, and he’s probably not even going to get up to the 192 that Jul Kustus got in his one season in Brooklyn, 1909. But if you look at the PA numbers on the list below him, he’s going to be knocking some names off quickly. His next PA will dislodge Doug Camilli, and it won’t take long to say goodbye to Jeff Torborg, Ben Geraghty, and Moe Berg either. Even the 152 PA Dodger legend Maury Wills got in his final season (when he didn’t start a game after July 31 and was used strictly as a defensive replacement for the final two months because the team didn’t want to just cut him) isn’t out of reach.

We could be looking at the worst season in Los Angeles Dodger history; with a little luck, the worst in Dodger history since Bergen’s 1911. Or as you know I’d call it, “the worst season by a Dodger in one hundred years.”

Tough Night in the Desert

July 3, 2010 at 11:54 am | Posted in Blake DeWitt, Garret Anderson, Hiroki Kuroda, Joe Torre, Justin Miller, Manny Ramirez, Xavier Paul | 13 Comments

No way around it: Hiroki Kuroda‘s start last night was almost as ugly as those horrendous white hats that MLB is forcing upon every team in an attempt to ruin each holiday of the summer. He got just five outs, allowing six runs on eight hits and two walks (with two wild pitches thrown in for good measure) – really, just terrible no matter how you try to spin it. All you can do is realize that even a pitcher with Kuroda’s record of effectiveness is going to have a poor game every now and then (especially in a ballpark like Arizona’s, and who knows how much of an impact Thursday’s bloodbath had on a team desperate to not be further embarrassed had), and move on.

It wasn’t all bad, though. Rafael Furcal continued his hot streak with two more hits, and James Loney and Andre Ethier had three apiece. Even Blake DeWitt had 2 hits and 3 RBI, and for all the worry about his offensive production this season, it’s worth noting that if he had enough plate appearances to qualify, his OPS would be 11th in MLB among second basemen, far above noted contemporaries like Aaron Hill, Chone Figgins, and Howie Kendrick.

Really, if there’s anything to take away from this game, it’s that the bloom might be off the rose of Justin Miller. After starting his Dodger career with 6.1 scoreless innings over 4 games, Miller has now allowed runs in six of his last ten outings, letting opponents pile up a .995 OPS in that time. Since Miller was never all that good in the first place, this isn’t all that big of a surprise, but worth noting – and if it continues, it might not be a bad idea to start thinking about calling up a Travis Schlichting or Jon Link from ABQ to take his place.

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Kuroda’s lousy outing last night was somewhat obscured by the fact that – despite what we’d been told earlier – Manny Ramirez will indeed go on the DL to rest his hamstring. Xavier Paul is coming back up, and you would think that between Paul’s dominance in AAA and Torre’s previous statements about not wanting him to be somewhere he isn’t playing every day, that he’d be the starting left fielder, at least against righties, with Reed Johnson spotting against lefties. Right?

With Manny Ramirez unavailable Friday night and possibly headed to the disabled list with a bad right hamstring, manager Joe Torre indicated he would choose daily between Garret Anderson and Reed Johnson to replace him.

“It will be the type of pitchers or the match-up,” Torre said.

I don’t want to belabor the point here, because clearly there’s been absolutely no shortage of Anderson-bashing on this blog. But, seriously, what is it going to take to get Torre to come around on this? What pitchers are going to make a good matchup for Anderson right now, six-year-old girls with muscular dystrophy? He accounted for four outs in his first three at-bats yesterday before managing to drop a single into right field, and he’s hitting .183/.198/.296. This isn’t a situation where he needs time to acclimate to his new role. He’s DONE, and everyone seems to see that except for Joe Torre.

Meanwhile, Xavier Paul is hitting .348/.404/.635 for the Isotopes, and lest you think that’s a stat line which is entirely due to the ABQ atmosphere, note that he’s still got a pretty tasty line of .320/.381/.534 on the road. This is the fifth year in a row in which he’s increased his OPS in the minors, and he has a 103 OPS+ in his limited time in the majors. 90% of the rest of baseball would be falling over themselves to give a prospect like that a chance at a full-time job. Granted, most of those teams don’t have an outfield like Manny/Kemp/Ethier, but to say that you’re going to play a husk of a corpse of a cadaver like the 38-year-old Anderson, who has proven that his value is zero, is obscene. It’s hard to say that the Dodgers are doing everything they can to win when you see situations like these, isn’t it?

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A quick note about the story that Matt Kemp got into an argument with bench coach Bob Schaefer, and that’s why he was benched: ESPN’s Buster Olney has a pretty good dig at the situation:

Joe Torre wouldn’t talk about why he didn’t seek out a meeting with Matt Kemp, as Mr. Hernandez writes within this notebook. “It’s none of your business,” Torre told a reporter.

Not until the publicist calls as the next book is released, anyway. That’s when everything is fair game, apparently.

Funny How A Sweep Makes Everything Better

June 30, 2010 at 7:24 pm | Posted in Charlie Haeger, Garret Anderson, George Sherrill, Joe Torre, Matt Kemp, Vicente Padilla | 16 Comments

We all know where today’s focus is going to be, right? After the much-publicized benching, alleviated only by Manny’s hamstring injury, Matt Kemp came back today to get three hits, including a homer (plus a walk), drive in three, and make a few running catches in center field.

Clearly, Joe Torre’s benching/punishment/time out worked wonders, right?

That’s what the stories will say, anyway. As for me, I think it’s BS. Remember, Kemp got on base three times in his previous start, on June 26th against the Yankees. To act as though he was on an 0-40 streak headed into the benching, and that somehow Torre’s action snapped him into shape, just ignores the facts. Which is exactly why that’s how you’ll read it in Bill Plaschke’s column tomorrow.

But let’s not let this whole unfortunate situation overpower two performances which were just as important today. Vicente Padilla showed just how effective he can be when he’s right, allowing just three hits and a run over seven innings. Remember, his ERA has been misleading all season. After his first two lousy outings, in which he allowed eleven earned runs while not making it out of the fifth inning either time, Padilla’s allowed three, two, (DL stint), four, two, and one earned runs in the five starts since. It’s not ace-quality, but it is more than acceptable from your #4/5 starter, and better than what the majority of MLB teams are getting from that spot.

Suddenly, the Dodgers have five reliable starters again, and no wondering about which Haeger/Monasterios/Ortiz is going to have to be stuffed into a spot start. (Speaking of which, via Dodger Thoughts, Haeger will be joining the Isotopes. Glad he’s staying in the organization; I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him.) It’s a nice feeling to have.

Secondly, Rafael Furcal put up four more hits today. In his last five games, he’s got fourteen hits (and three walks), and he’s got his season average up to .333/.382/.488. He’s really playing some of the best baseball of his career, and the Dodger lineup just looks markedly different when he’s playing well and getting on base so often for the big guys.

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Still, as if this hasn’t been a bad enough week for Torre, only he could spoil an 8-2 sweep-capping victory over your biggest rivals. Kemp situation aside, you almost think this team is winning in spite of Torre sometimes. First, he hits Jamey Carroll (.397 OBP) 8th, while putting Garret Anderson (.197 OBP, and more on that in a second) 6th, above Reed Johnson and Carroll – both superior players.

However, that’s nothing compared to the bullpen usage. After Padilla went seven effective innings – and he’d thrown just 98 pitches, so I have no idea why he couldn’t have just stayed in – Ramon Troncoso came in for the 8th. I’m seeing others complain about that, but Troncoso hadn’t pitched since the Yankee disaster on Sunday, and it’s not the worst idea to let him go in a low-pressure situation, so fine.

Here’s what killed me, though. In the 9th, George Sherrill came in. He got Aubrey Huff to ground out, and then allowed singles to Pat Burrell and Pablo Sandoval (on a side note, note that this means he got the lefty out and let two righties reach base. Why does that sound familiar?) Remember, this is a seven-run lead. Rather than, you know, letting your struggling reliever try to work out of the situation against the likes of Juan Uribe and Eli Whiteside, here comes Torre with the hook, to bring in Justin Miller. I know there’s a day off tomorrow, but I also know that with a lead like that, you can give Sherrill the tiniest bit of rope. Or, as Chad from MOKM perfectly noted:

It’s like Joe Torre reads everybody’s blog and Twitter and just starts wasting the bullpen to troll us.

Still, none of that is the best part. When Miller entered the game, none other than Hong-Chih Kuo started warming. Yes, in the 9th inning of a seven-run game, by all means get your fragile superstar lefty up. Why not?

******

Finally, Anderson went hitless in five at-bats today, striking out four times and popping out to first. I’m just completely out of things to add to this situation. I hate to bag on a guy on his birthday (he’s 38 now), but to say that he’s a waste of a roster spot is about the kindest way I can think of to describe it. He’s now hitting .180/.197/.287. What do we have to do to finally end this already?

Xavier Paul’s hitting .345/.402/.633 with 12 HR in AAA, by the way, and three of those homers have come in his last ten games. But no, I’m sure he’s not a better fit for this defensively-challenged, injury-prone outfield, right?

We’re Going to Need Charlie Haeger (Updated)

June 20, 2010 at 5:33 pm | Posted in Charlie Haeger, Garret Anderson, Joe Torre | 11 Comments

With Carlos Monasterios joining Chad Billingsley on the DL, the Dodgers don’t currently have a 5th starter. With Monday’s off-day, they can juggle things so that the #5 spot doesn’t come up again until next Saturday (against the Yankees, unfortunately). So who’s it going to be?

Jon at Dodger Thoughts suggests that a bullpen game would be the best course of action, arguing that…

Right now, the best solution for the Dodgers might just be to start Jeff Weaver even if he can only go for two or three innings, and then follow him with a bevy of relievers. And then make a roster move the following day to help rebuild the bullpen if necessary.

Which is completely a fair point. However, with Monasterios out, the closest the Dodgers have to a long man is Travis Schlichting, who – while impressive so far – has all of 10.1 major league innings to his name. So, if Weaver were to start and go 2-3 innings, you’re looking at 1-2 inning stints from basically the entire bullpen, which could be a problem considering that John Ely and Vicente Padilla start two of the three previous games, and neither one merits a whole lot of faith that they’d go deep into games right now.

So what you need is an arm who can be used to eat up a good deal of innings in order to avoid totally destroying a bullpen which may already be stretched, and the Dodgers just so happen to have the man to do it: Charlie Haeger, who (also via Jon) threw six shutout innings today for Albuquerque. I know, I know; he hasn’t done much to engender confidence either. Still, he does have a few things running in his favor, even besides today’s quality start. First, he’s already on the 40-man roster, which is more than you can say for the other inferior options being tossed around like Claudio Vargas and Seth Etherton, so you wouldn’t have to risk losing someone like Justin Miller to get him on the roster. And unlike Vargas, who was cut by Milwaukee just a few weeks ago, and Etherton, who hasn’t seen the bigs since 2006, Haeger has at least had some success this season. I know it seems like eons ago, but we were all in love with him when his dancing knuckler struck out 12 Marlins in his season debut.

Besides, the clock is ticking on him anyway. He’s just about halfway through his latest rehab stint, so there’s only about two weeks left to make a decision on him. Short of coming up with another injury or exposing him to waivers, Haeger was going to have to come back at some point. It might as well be to fill a major need.

Granted, I’m a big Haeger fan and knuckleball supporter, so I don’t deny I’m looking at this with a slightly-less-than objective view. That said, there’s not exactly a ton of better options right now. Plus, as Eric Stephen noted in his profile of Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, Wakefield spent his age-26 year (which is where Haeger is now) split between the majors and minors before spending all of his age-27 year on the farm, and being cut in the spring of his age-28 year. The point is, knuckleballers are notorious for being late bloomers. I’d like to think that if Haeger ends up having a career that’s in any way reminiscent of Wakefield’s, the Dodgers won’t be looked upon in the same way the Pirates are for Wakefield.

Now, if you want to toy with semantics and have Weaver start with Haeger ready to go seven “bullpen innings” just to keep Steve Dilbeck off your back, I suppose that’s fine too. Regardless, this is looking a whole lot like a Haeger game.

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I don’t believe this is exactly “news”, but since Buster Olney’s put it out there…

Heard this: The Los Angeles Dodgers and Joe Torre are headed for a divorce after this season. Torre broke off negotiations over a contract extension this spring, and there are a couple of folks in power who are ready to turn the managerial page. Remember, things can change in a short time, feelings can be altered, but right now, it seems unlikely that Torre will be back.

My feelings regarding Torre are well-known, I think. Overall he’s done a satisfactory job, especially in keeping clubhouse harmony during the Manny hoopla, but his bullpen usage, lack of rest for Russell Martin, and affinity for over-the-hill veteran bench players continue to infuriate me. If this is indeed it for him, I’ll look back on these three years fondly, but I won’t exactly mourn his departure.

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Credit where credit is due: Garret Anderson has seven hits in his last fourteen at-bats, including a home run. That said, he had two hits in the previous twenty-two plate appearances. I know it seems as though I just despise the man, but that’s really not true. I just want a bench player who can contribute, and Anderson has shown he can’t field, run, or (until the last few days) hit. If he’s found something to fix that allows him to be useful for the rest of the season, then all the better for him, the Dodgers, and us. Let’s just wait until he gets the batting average over .200 before we start to celebrate, as Anderson’s line headed into the Sunday night game is still just .194/.213/.311. Meanwhile in Albuquerque, Xavier Paul is hitting .340/.400/.617, the sixth year in a row his OPS has increased, dating back to 2005 in advanced-A ball.

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Update: Apparently, they’re not going to maneuver the rotation to push the #5 slot back to Saturday. I assume this is to ensure that the emergency starter avoids the Yankees (we’re now looking at Padilla/Kuroda/Kershaw for Fri/Sat/Sun). Dylan Hernandez reports that Haeger or Vargas are indeed the two leading candidates for the Thursday start. Obviously, I lean towards Haeger, though as helpfully pointed out in the comments, the Dodgers do have an open 40-man spot so Vargas could be recalled without having to add anyone to the roster.

Claudio Vargas, Really?

June 19, 2010 at 9:50 am | Posted in Carlos Monasterios, Claudio Vargas, Garret Anderson, Matt Kemp, Nick Green, Ramon Troncoso, Travis Schlichting | 6 Comments

I’m not entirely sure I remember writing this on Twitter late last night, but apparently I did:

I could have sworn I just saw dodgers.com say Claudio Vargas may be the 5th starter soon. Clearly, I have alcohol poisoning.

Well, at least it was legible and without typos. And apparently it’s true:

Vargas could take over fifth-starter role

BOSTON — The Dodgers’ fifth-starter shell game has a new/old name in play: Claudio Vargas.

In his first start for Triple-A Albuquerque on Thursday night, the right-hander allowed one run on a solo home run in three innings, with four strikeouts and no walks.

Vargas was signed earlier in the week, two weeks after being cut loose by Milwaukee, where he had a 7.32 ERA in 17 relief appearances. The three innings was his longest outing of the year, an indication the Dodgers will try to stretch him out and make him a starter again.

I think the only indication here is that the rotation is in serious trouble, hurt by the injury to Chad Billingsley and the poor outings of John Ely and Carlos Monasterios – and that’s without having any idea how Vicente Padilla will do in his return today. I guess I don’t really understand why people are all that surprised Monasterios struggled last night; he’s a Rule 5 pick who’s striking out just 4.1/9. The fact that he’s been able to stick in the big leagues without completely embarrassing himself, and with some small successes, is remarkable in itself. It says far more about the Dodgers that he’s been asked to start so much than it does about him.

As for Vargas, well, why not? I actually was sad to see him go last season, mostly because the trade made no sense at all. It’s not like he’d come up until he shows he can get hitters out at AAA, so that’s at least a few more turns of the rotation.

Really, I think people are looking at the problem here in the wrong way. The issue isn’t really whether guys like Ely, Vargas, or Monasterios can pitch like All-Stars. They’re your #5 starter, and there’s plenty of teams in the bigs who have even larger issues at the back of the rotation. No, the problem is having more than one of them in the rotation at the same time. Now, part of that will be helped when Billingsley returns, hopefully as soon as his 15 days are up. But if and until Padilla proves himself… well, everyone seems to want the Dodgers to get a Cliff Lee or a Roy Oswalt. I’m not going to go through the reasons again why they’re so unlikely; we’ve been through that. But even if the Dodgers were able to get one of those guys, it likely wouldn’t be for another month. Maybe what they ought to be doing is getting a lesser veteran who wouldn’t cost as much – sort of like Jon Garland last year – right now, just to solidify things.

And no, I’m not talking about Pedro Martinez. I want someone who’s actually pitched this year. I’m talking more along the lines of (and I’m just tossing names out without really looking into salary concerns or doing a ton of research) Kevin Millwood or Jake Westbrook. They’re certainly not the piece that’ll push you to a championship, but they may be the stabilizing force in the middle of the rotation that will keep things from imploding until Billinglsey is healthy and you can work on getting a top starter.

(Although if you really want a good laugh, go read some of the jokers on the Dodger Facebook page, replying to the Vargas story. I’m not sure how some of these people managed to even turn their computer on; I particularly like the suggestion that the Dodgers should trade Vargas to Florida for Josh Johnson.)

Of course, Tony Jackson has the perfect last word on the situation:

Even when he is ready to go, well, he is still going to be Claudio Vargas.

Yep. He sure is.

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Ramon Troncoso got rocked, again. Travis Schlichting was effective, again. Whether you think Troncoso’s problems are that Torre ran him into the ground, that he was never that good in the first place, or both, there’s a roster move to be made today to activate Padilla, and it makes no sense to keep Troncoso over Schlichting. I’m not saying you demote Troncoso, but at least come up with an injury to get him some time off and away from the mound.

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I’m sure some people will read this as arrogance, but these anecdotes from Jackson’s story on Manny make me think that Matt Kemp is just hilarious:

Before any of the real reporters could approach him, a phony one did. Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp, holding his blue batting-practice bat like a microphone, immediately stuck it into Ramirez’s face and said, “How does it feel to be back in Boston?”

Ramirez gave Kemp about as much time as he was going to give anyone. After Kemp returned to the other side of the clubhouse, which was about seven feet away, he yelled at the assembled media, “Manny smells good today. If y’all get close enough, you can smell him.”

and…

When Ramirez stepped out of the cage after taking his first allotment of hacks, he received another loud cheer. Kemp, who had followed Ramirez into the cage, who had his right back pocket hanging out of his uniform pants and who, like Ramirez, was helmetless, stopped after one swing and turned to wave an acknowledgement to the crowd, feigning as if he thought the ovation was for him.

No complaints about immaturity, old people. That’s good clean fun.

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Yes, I saw that Garret Anderson hit a homer last night, and yes, it is making me reconsider the DFA-o-meter on the right sidebar, though not for the reasons you’d think. I still think he’s awful and want him to get cut, but since I don’t think the team will ever actually do it, I’m not sure I feel like updating it for the entire season.

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Hey, Nick Green signed with Toronto. Hooray! Gone for good.