For a while, it looked like Capuano’s improbable run might continue, but Chase Headley, who I’m still hoping might be a future Dodger, had something to say about that. Headley put the first San Diego run on the board with a solo homer in the first and doubled two more in the sixth, and that was all the Padres would need as Clayton Richard, Andrew Cashner, & Dale Thayer struck out nine Dodgertopes while walking none; conversely, Dodger pitching issued six free passes. Against Thayer in the ninth, they did at least manage to get the tying run to the plate, but Don Mattingly chose to pinch-hit for Sands with James Loney – you know, James Loney – and the struggling first baseman popped out to third to end the game.

Aaron Harang faces Edinson Volquez tomorrow night to conclude the bizarre two-game road trip, before the Dodgers return to Los Angeles to face St. Louis for a weekend series.

Fortunately, I suppose, the San Diego team we saw earlier this year is about on the same level as the Albuquerque squad we’re seeing today, though I’ll say this – at some point, Chris Capuano is going to regress. Let’s hope it’s not today.

Bask in the glory that is tonight’s lineup, friends, because it’s either the greatest thing that ever happened or the worst. Either way, it’s fantastically interesting. Andre Ethier, center field! Scott Van Slyke, hitting third! Van Slyke and Jerry Sands, both starting together! A.J. Ellis, hitting fifth! Adam Kennedy, nowhere to be found! I’m not sure I can think of a game all year in which I’d hoped so badly that the offense busts out, because if some of these choices don’t work, you can bet that we’re never going to see them again. (Other than Ethier in center, of course, which I think we’d all be happy to never have to see. I’m glad this game isn’t on the road so we don’t have to listen to Steve Lyons talk about how Ethier’s Gold Glove award allowed him to slide over to the tougher position.)

This is all happening because the Diamondbacks are tossing out lefty Wade Miley, of course, but even still I’m surprised that Mattingly fully embraced the youth movement that seems to be unintentionally afoot here. It’ll be interesting to see how much he sticks with it tomorrow as the Dodgers head to San Diego to face Padres lefty Clayton Richard, the final southpaw they’ll see for the next few days. I’m guessing Bobby Abreu gets back in for that, though hopefully either Sands or Van Slyke will be replacing James Loney at first. Either way, really looking forward to tonight’s game, just because the lineup is fascinating.

Hey, have you voted A.J. Ellis for All-Star yet?

All that being said, our continued love affair with what Ellis has done so far this season demands that we do whatever we can to get the previously-unloved minor-league lifer onto the National League roster that will take the field in Kansas City in July, providing a nice segment in the inevitable TV movie on his life.

The stats are impressive, even at this early stage of the season. His .454 OBP is good for fourth in all of baseball, behind only David Wright, Joey Votto & Josh Hamilton – and it was above even the ridiculous Hamilton until last night. That takes on even more importance when you remember that’s coming from a catcher, traditionally a difficult area to find offense from. Just looking at his position, his 1.7 fWAR and .407 wOBA are each among the two best from all catchers in baseball, so there’s little doubt he’s deserving. Jon Weisman, writing at ESPN/LA yesterday as though he’d looked in my drafts folder, argues that Ellis has indeed been the best catcher in the NL through the first quarter or so of 2012. Even if there’s inevitable regression coming – and believe me, there will be at some point – not bad for a 31-year-old with 244 career plate appearances entering the season, right?

But the competition at catcher in the National League is quite tough. Brian McCann & Buster Posey are unquestionably bigger names. Carlos Ruiz & Miguel Montero have been solid players for several seasons, and Jonathan Lucroy has been excellent this year as well. In St. Louis, Yadier Molina has not only the benefit of Cardinal fans who always come out for the vote, but an NL team run by his former manager, Tony LaRussa. Whether or not Ellis is more deserving isn’t even relevant; it’s whether he can overcome the relatively limited name recognition outside – and, arguably, even inside – Dodger fandom to get himself onto the team. And he’s almost certainly going to have to get voted in as a starter, because I just can’t see LaRussa looking past Molina and the other names to select the little-known Ellis as one of his two backups, especially when the Dodgers are already going to have Matt Kemp and possibly Clayton Kershaw & Andre Ethier representing them as well, in a world where each of the 16 NL clubs must have at least one player.

If Ellis is going to make it, he’s going to need votes. Today, you can help. Through June 28, you can head on over to the MLB All-Star balloting page and vote for Ellis (and any other Dodger you like) up to 25 times per email address… and who among us has just one email address? Besides, as I’ve been reminded by the wonderful commenters of this site, there’s ways around that; reportedly, you can use the same email address many times from different devices, and if you have a gmail account, well, it’s a fun fact that gmail completely ignores periods even if other sites don’t. That is, the voting process will read ladodgers@gmail.com differently from la.dodgers@gmail.com and lado.dgers@gmail.com… even if it’s all the same account.

Vote early, vote often, as they say. And don’t stop there. Spread the word as much as you can, to friends, family, whomever. Use the Twitter hashtag #AJ2KC as often as you can (hat tip to Sons of Steve Garvey for that one). Download the campaign button you see above in this post and always on the right sidebar – helpfully provided by the wonderful Stephen Caver, who designed this site – and put it on your blog, on Facebook, make it your Twitter icon, put it anywhere you can. If you’re a blogger, feel free to steal it and use it on your own site. Just make sure to link it back either to this post or to the MLB.com voting page directly.

Do it for OBP. Do it because it’s always, always funny to mess with the All-Star voting. But most of all, do it for A.J. Vote now. Now!

Jerry Sands is coming back up to take his place, and while his struggles this year have been well-documented, at least he’s been better lately, with three homers for Albuquerque this week. If anything, this is going to lead to some pretty interesting roster maneuvering for Don Mattingly, and I’m intrigued to see how he’ll handle it. He’s shown little inclination to use Scott Van Slyke this far, and now you’ve got Sands, a very similar player who had fallen behind Van Slyke, and Elian Herrera, who everyone knows little about.

Oh, and then there’s this…

Gwynn will be the primary center fielder with Kemp on the shelf, which Mattingly doesn’t think will be more than 15 days. But Mattingly also wants to make sure Gwynn doesn’t get overused, and said he would use Andre Ethier in center field for “two or three games” with Kemp out.

I’ll place that under “I’ll believe it when I see it,” because, wow. Imagine a defensive alignment that features Bobby Abreu in right, Ethier in center, and let’s say Sands in right? Sands and Van Slyke are at least adequate at worst, but in general that might be the worst defensive outfield we’ve seen in years.

I doubt that happens too much, though, because if Gwynn’s great glove isn’t enough to overcome his lousy bat in left, it just might in center, and if Gwynn does get a day off, Herrera has experience there. Since Van Slyke has little experience at first, my guess is that we’ll see him – if we ever do – sharing time with Bobby Abreu in left, while Sands sees more time at first base than anywhere else.

And that’s not a bad thing, you know? Though I admit it’s hard to see Mattingly wanting to put in both young players at the same time, you could have both Abreu and James Loney out against tough lefties, and that immediately strengthens what had been shaping up to be a horrendous bench. (Herrera hits from both sides, increasing flexibility.)

We’ll miss Kemp, but I’m glad to see him get the time to heal properly, especially with the Dodgers enjoying such a cushion, and the spate of injuries suddenly gives Mattingly some fascinating new options. (And leaves Albuquerque with like, one outfielder.)

It seems that having Ellis 8th is the worst of all worlds, because his OBP skills are wasted ahead of the pitcher and Gordon, and his “run production skills” are under-utilized behind the lousy second half of the lineup. It just makes no sense, at all – and you’d hope that seeing Ellis’ success batting #6 on Sunday would help to illustrate that.

And what do we have today? Ellis in the lineup, catching and hitting 5th. The only possible explanation here is that Don Mattingly must read the blog, so I’m going to go with that. Oh sure, some will say that with Matt Kemp out of the lineup, someone would have to help fill that void, but where’s the fun in that?

Speaking of Kemp, his MRI showed a strained hamstring, but even if the original intent was to have Elian Herrera recalled to replace him, that’s no longer going to work: Herrera will be taking the place of Juan Uribe, still fighting a wrist injury. (And, you know, being terrible at baseball, but a stint on the disabled list won’t be helping that.) To get Herrera onto the 40-man roster, outfielder Trent Oeltjen was DFA’d. Hopefully, he’ll get through waivers and rejoin the Isotopes, because with Herrera & Scott Van Slyke (sadly not in the lineup tonight) up and Oeltjen gone, they suddenly have just three healthy outfielders in Jerry Sands, Matt Angle, & Tyler Henson. While I assume they’ll call up Kyle Russell or Blake Smith, it could only get worse if Kemp lands on the DL and Sands or Angle has to come up as well.

Oh, and Clayton Kershaw faces Ian Kennedy tonight as the Dodgers get their first look at their main competition in the NL West. Nothing interesting about that at all, though.

Note: I wrote this on Sunday night, planning to publish it this morning. Since then, Chad Moriyama had to go and completely steal my thunder, publishing what is essentially the exact same post. While we wait for news on Matt Kemp’s MRI, I’ll go ahead and post this anyway, but do be sure to check out Chad’s take as well.

I realize this is veering dangerously close to “beating on a dead horse” territory, because I made my feelings known in an April post and repeatedly in comments and on Twitter since; I also realize that the Dodgers are in first place and that the batting order does not have as much statistical importance as we like to think it does.

But with all those caveats out of the way, if Don Mattingly is going to ask the kind of question that he put to MLB.com’s A.J. Cassevell yesterday, namely…

“Dropping Dee in the order sounds really easy,” said Mattingly, who rested Gordon for Sunday’s series finale against Colorado. “But then who do you want me to hit there?”

… then I feel like I just have to go ahead and help him find an answer. Actually, Mattingly helpfully ran down the list for us:

Mattingly went through a list of other possible options for the leadoff spot but noted each had a drawback that leaves Gordon as the obvious choice.

Newly acquired outfielder Bobby Abreu could lead off, Mattingly said, but that would take a potent bat out of the middle of the order.

Well, “potent” seems a bit much, considering that Abreu is 38 and is barely more than a week off of being DFA’d by the Angels. Actually, I had never really considered Abreu in that spot, but now that I think about it, I don’t mind it, since he’s always had on-base skills and can still run a little. Hardly ideal, but not a terrible stopgap. I can see preferring him later on though, so who else?

Second baseman Mark Ellis could bat first, but Mattingly likes him in the two-hole, hitting ahead of Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, and doesn’t want Ellis’ role changing on a day-to-day basis.

Certainly. I mean, who else is going to grittily ground out to the right side to advance the runner? I jest, of course, because Ellis has been surprisingly effective this year, though if you could make any statistical inferences from early season splits – which, ah, you can’t – you might be swayed by the ridiculous difference between Ellis hitting with men on base (.392 OPS) and the bases empty (.932). I could live with him moving up, though I’m generally fine with him at #2. Moving on..

Left fielder Tony Gwynn Jr. got the start on Sunday afternoon in the leadoff spot, but as a platoon player, Gwynn won’t be in the lineup with Gordon very often. When Gwynn does play on the same day as Gordon, Mattingly said he’d be fully comfortable moving Gordon down because of the speed and on-base ability Gwynn brings to the table.

Gwynn is a fantastic defender, but that’s really the only value he brings. As for moving Gordon down on days Gwynn starts, I’ll believe it when I see it; Gwynn’s start yesterday was his ninth of the year. Six of those coincided with a Gordon day off, and Gwynn did not lead off in any of the other three. Besides, this doesn’t even make sense – Gwynn may have some speed, but the “on-base ability” Mattingly refers to is all but nonexistent, and that, terrifyingly enough, means that Mattingly is only worried about speed on the top of the order, and absolutely nothing else.

And then we come to the fan favorite…

Another option is moving A.J. Ellis higher in the batting order. Ellis, a catcher, has been one of the Dodgers’ best on-base percentage guys at a .455 clip this season, but he isn’t close to a threat on the basepaths.

Mattingly dismissed that notion, saying he is content with leaving Ellis lower in the lineup, where he can drive in runs and turn the order over.

Here’s the fundamental problem with that statement, and I’m not even talking about the fact that you prefer to have one of the worst hitters in the bigs leading off your lineup rather than use one of the most effective on-base artists we’ve seen so far this year. Let’s say we’re not even going pie-in-the-sky by trying to get Ellis to lead off; let’s just say we’re merely trying to get him out of the 8th spot so that he can at least see some extra plate appearances. Let’s say we’d be happy with getting him up to 6th, so he’s behind Kemp, Ethier, & Abreu, a compromise I think we’d all take. If that statement is accurate – if Mattingly really views Ellis as a run producer who “can drive in runs”, rather than the table-setter I see him as – wouldn’t it make so much more sense to have him hitting behind three guys who can actually get on base, rather than the dreadful combo of Juan Uribe & James Loney? It seems that having Ellis 8th is the worst of all worlds, because his OBP skills are wasted ahead of the pitcher and Gordon, and his “run production skills” are under-utilized behind the lousy second half of the lineup. It just makes no sense, at all – and you’d hope that seeing Ellis’ success batting #6 on Sunday would help to illustrate that.

I agree with Mattingly when he says there’s no perfect option to lead off, but I also know that the lack of a perfect alternative is not an excuse to continue on with one of the worst possible options. The Dodgers have managed to make it this far with a leadoff hitter who can’t get on base, but that’s only going to last so long – especially if the lineup is weakened if Kemp is absent for any length of time due to his hamstring injury. I still have a lot of hope for Dee Gordon, and I think he can help this team. Just not in the leadoff spot, and not right now. The time is overdue to make a move.

First things first, who the hell is Elian Herrera? I’ll admit that I know very little about him, other than that he’s a 27-year-old Dominican who signed with the Dodgers back in 2003 and made his stateside debut in 2006. He climbed slowly through the organization, not playing more than 70 games in a season until 2009, and is basically considered organizational depth, thought of as a complete non-prospect, if he’s even thought of at all. As far as I know, he’s never been mentioned on any prospect lists ever, and even Brandon Lennox, writing at TrueBlueLA this offseason, ranked him as the #117 overall prospect. No, not in the minors; in the entire Dodger organization.

While he’s shown a decentish ability to take a walk, he has just about no power, and would likely be a total zero at the plate at the big league level. What he does have going for him, however, is versatility, as he’s played every position other than catcher in his career; at Albuquerque this year, he’s mainly been playing second base and hitting leadoff. Christopher Jackson, guesting here a few weeks ago, had this to say:

Bundy said the Isotopes’ turnaround, from a 2-6 road trip to their current record of 11-9, has been thanks in part to the ultra-versatile Herrera. A pure contact hitter (.340/.357/.566), he is Albuquerque’s fastest player and has done well out of the leadoff spot. Defensively, he has looked especially sharp at second base and third base, while also seeing time at shortstop and the outfield. He would strictly be a bench player at the next level, but with Jerry Hairston and Adam Kennedy not getting any younger, the Dodgers could do worse.

Okay, so he’s speedy, he can play a bunch of positions, so that’s great. But what exactly is he doing with the Dodgers? I’ve been tossing this around in my head and it’s fascinating, because nothing quite makes sense. We know Matt Kemp is headed for an MRI, but he claims he’ll miss just a few days and it’s far too soon for him to go on the disabled list, and either way, 40-man outfielders Trent Oeltjen & Matt Angle might make more sense. Jackson suggests that perhaps Dee Gordon could be headed for the minors, but that doesn’t make a ton of sense either; Don Mattingly seemed adamant that Gordon would be back atop the lineup tomorrow, and despite all of Herrera’s flexibility, his experience at shortstop is limited – you’d think Isotope shortstop Luis Cruz might be a simpler fit.

Who else? You know I’d absolutely love to get rid of Adam Kennedy in any way possible, and Herrera’s versatility would be a nice improvement even if the bat is an equal zero, but I don’t see that happening either; though I think the axe will fall on Kennedy at some point, it seems odd that Herrera would be the man to push him out, and the timing is wrong anyway, since Hairston should be back within the next week or so. I hear some conversation that the club would rather have Justin Sellers play every day in the minors than sit on the bench in the bigs, though again, Herrera’s limited shortstop experience makes that unlikely. Or it could be something completely unexpected, like Juan Uribe‘s wrist acting up again. That’s all without figuring out how Herrera would get on the 40-man roster as well, since it seems premature to move Juan Rivera to the 60-day DL – which would mean that either Oeltjen or Angle are almost certainly going to get DFA’d tomorrow.

If I had to guess, right now, tonight, I suppose my best guess is that they just want him in town and available should Kemp’s MRI tomorrow come back worse than expected. If he goes on the DL, Herrera replaces him. If Kemp doesn’t go on the DL, he’s still probably going to miss a few days of play, so then Sellers goes back down to the minors because he has options, even though it leaves short thin. You’d need Herrera because he can play center and you just can’t have Tony Gwynn being the only man on the roster with that skill; then, when Kemp is available, you either bring back Sellers or have Hairston ready to come back

For the moment, this is just spitballing, though. Fascinating story, really, for a guy none of us had ever thought of before tonight.

Three wild hours later, I’d be surprised if anyone even remembers that Lilly pitched in this game at all.

The fun started in the bottom of the third when Matt Kemp, who had already driven in the first Dodger run on a groundout in the first, bounced out to Troy Tulowitzki but was noticeably limping while trying to beat the throw. He was removed from the game, throwing his glove at the dugout wall out of frustration, clearly still bothered by the sore left hamstring which he first injured last weekend in Chicago. Honestly, I wish he’d have received a day off before this.

On most days, losing Kemp alone would be a death knell for this offense, but amazingly, it nearly ended up being a net positive in just the fifth inning alone. Kemp was replaced in center field by Tony Gwynn, moving over from left, and in the top of the fifth Gwynn turned in a highlight-reel catch off the bat of Carlos Gonzalez – a ball that a hobbled Kemp almost certainly wouldn’t have come close to. In the bottom of the inning, Colorado starter Alex White completely fell apart, loading the bases on a Justin Sellers single and walks to Gwynn & Mark Ellis. Bobby Abreu, batting in Kemp’s spot, stroked a double to the left-center field gap, scoring three and putting the Dodgers up 5-4.

But if losing Kemp wasn’t quite enough, Andre Ethier quickly followed him, getting ejected (along with Don Mattingly) for arguing balls and strikes after getting called out looking immediately after Abreu’s hit. Though Ethier had a case – the strike zone this entire series has been all over the place – generally you’d like your second-best hitter to realize that the team’s main threat just left the game not ten minutes earlier, because then you end up with a lineup that looked, at the time, like this:

Gwynn CF/MEllis 2B/Abreu LF/Van Slyke RF/Loney 1B/AJEllis C/Kennedy 3B/Sellers SS

There might be something that stands out to you about that lineup, and it’s not that it looks Giants-level bad on the surface without the two big guns, or even that we finally got to see Scott Van Slyke actually get into a game (and he was more than impressive with a two-RBI double, a walk, a steal, and a laser of a throw from right field to third base). It’s that A.J. Ellis, conqueror of worlds, god among men, follower of me on Twitter, batted higher in the lineup than his usual eighth spot, and was still productive. I know! I couldn’t believe it either.

It’s greatly shortchanging to merely say Ellis “was productive”, of course. Down 3-1 in the second, he singled to right, scoring James Loney with the second run. In the fourth, he grounded out, but only because Colorado third baseman Chris Nelson made a fantastic play on an Ellis rocket. And in the fifth, the inning that saw the Dodgers score six to go from down 4-2 to up 8-4, Ellis came up to the plate against Colorado reliever Matt Reynolds with two men on. Ellis blasted his third home run of the season to left field, driving in three and setting a career high with four runs batted in. (He would also, of course, walk later in the game, as is custom.)

So that’s where we are, apparently, right now on May 13. The Dodgers have the best record in baseball. A.J. Ellis is hitting .317/.462/.512 on his way to certain enshrinement in Cooperstown. And I’m hoping that Kemp actually takes a few days off to rest his hamstring, because suddenly, the Dodgers have more outfield depth than they know what to do with, as Van Slyke and the castoff Abreu demand playing time.

Just where we thought we’d be in April, right?

By the way, an additional tidbit on Aaron Miles, courtesy of ESPN/LA’s Tony Jackson: he can opt out of the deal on June 30 if he is not a part of the major league roster by then.