Sorry guys, I have two papers due this week, so needless to say, my writing mind is a little preoccupied this week.
Therefore, I'm not going to really do a week recap.
Well, ok, how about a small one?
We swept the Pirates. Yay.
Took two out of three from the Giants. Beat Tim Lincecum. Good stuff.
Our magic number is 8. We have seven games against the Nationals and Pirates. Destiny is in our hands.
Ok, now, back to my analytical paper.
Hey, look at that. A good week! Not a great week, but winning both series, and winning 4 of 6 during the week is still pretty good.
And more importantly, another week ticks off the season, and the teams chasing us slowly start running out of time.
On the bad side, for the first time in over a month, Dodger pitching surrendered more than four runs (in the first 9 innings) in Sunday's 7-2 loss to the Giants. Congrats, though, to the pitching staff for keeping it going that long.
In any case, let's do Round 19 of HOT, COLD, or ROOM TEMPERATURE:
COLD:
- Chad Billingsley - 0-1 (2 starts), 6.30 ERA (7 ER in 10.0 IP), 16 H - Two starts for Billingsley this week. His first was... ok... I guess. Four earned runs in 6.0 IP (8 hits, 3 BBs). His second start was less so. Three earned runs in only 4.0 IP (another 8 hits). Frankly, Billingsley has become hittable. Again, 16 hits in 10 innings. Either way, Billingsley is going to skip his next start, and I'm totally for it. He should sit back, relax, and clear his head a little bit. Something is off with Billingsley, here's to hoping he can get back on track.
ROOM TEMPERATURE:
- Matt Kemp - .259 (7-27), 2 2Bs, 3 RBIs, 1 BB, 6 Ks, 2 SBs, 1 GiDP - A better week for Kemp. He actually collected a hit in every game this week. Unfortunately, it ended up being pretty much only one per game (1-5, 1-5, 1-4, 2-4, 1-5, 1-4). Still, nice to see some improvement this week over last week.
HOT:
- Manny Ramírez - .400 (6-15), 1 3B, 2 HRs, 4 RBIs, 4 BBs, 4 Ks - I don't think I've awarded Manny a "HOT" since April, but he deserved it this week. Couple of homeruns, and a triple! Come on, you know how much those dreads weigh? It's hard to run with those.
- Russell Martin - .286 (6-21), 1 2B, 2 HRs, 9 RBIs, 3 BBs - Yeah, not too many hits, but hits when they counted. And RBIs. Oh, so many RBIs. Good week for Martin, who like Manny, hasn't had too many.
- Vicente Padilla - 2-0 (2 starts), 1.50 ERA (2 ER in 12.0 IP), 8 Ks - Who would of thought Padilla would be such a good pickup? I mean seriously. He's made four starts for us, and each has been pretty good. Vicente Padilla? Good? ...what in the world?
- Hiroki Kuroda - 1-0 (1 start), 2.25 ERA (2 ER in 8.0 IP), 5 Ks - It's really nice when Kuroda whips out one of these fantastic performances. It's doubly nice when he does it in just his second start back from a horrific head injury.
- James Loney - .381 (8-21), 1 2B, 3 HRs, 8 RBIs, 4 BBs, 1.319 OPS - Seriously, what's going on this week? Manny, Martin, now Loney? All these guys who have been quietly floating through this season have suddenly showed up this week. I guess it doesn't matter why it's happening, just that it is. If everyone starts to contribute on this team, and the offense starts going at all gears, we might finally return to being that scary team we were at the beginning of the year.
Alright folks, Pirates come into town for a three game set. Then we get the Giants again, for the last time this season. Another good week would do real well for our playoff hopes.
Meanwhile, I'm going to the game tonight, and I got to get going. Free Dodger Dogs await me.
In this instance, the Dodger offense is Lisa. And I'm the crazy foreign guy.
The Dodgers went down 4-3 today to the Arizona Diamondbacks. And while most of today's blame lays at the feet of Ramon Troncoso, the struggling Dodger offense can not go unnoticed.
Take a look at our results from the last month. At first glance, they look pretty average. In fact, since August 9th, we have gone 16-13. Talk about uninspired baseball.
So what? Yeah, we've been playing kind of lame, but we still went three games over .500 over that span. What's the big deal? The big deal is that we could have done so much more.
Here's the kicker. In the 29 games we've played the last month, Dodgers pitching has not surrendered more than four runs in any game during the nine regulation innings. Yes, there were two instances where the pitching gave up five runs, both coming in the 10th inning. Ok, fine. But let me repeat that first fact, because it bears repeating. No more than four runs a game. For an entire month.
Basically, the Dodgers, if they scored 5 or more runs in the first nine innings a game, could be guaranteed, with 100% accuracy, of winning said game. A guarantee. For an entire month.
I mean, look at it like this. Say, at the beginning of the season, I told you that for a whole month during the season, Dodger pitching would not give up more than four runs in a game. If you looked at our lineup, what would you expect our team would go over that span? 24-5? 25-4? Little better? Little worse? Something like that right? How could a lineup as stacked as ours, from 1-8, not manage to scrape together just five runs a game? Manny is good for one or two. Ethier? Kemp? Blake? They could add one. Maybe Furcal. Or Hudson. Even Loney and Martin. Someone could step up and contribute. Five runs is nothing.
And this is what is tearing me apart. We shouldn't be just 2.5 games in front of Colorado. We shouldn't be playing just above .500 baseball.
With the kind of pitching we're getting, and the kind of offense we're supposed to be getting, we should be destroying the league. Instead, the playoff race is getting uncomfortably close. Like, smelly guy on the bus sitting next to you close.
And the worst part about all this: what do you do about it? What do you say to these guys to make them start getting timely hits again? It's infuriating.
Here's the silver lining, I guess: we still have a 6.5 game lead on the Giants for the wild card.
I just hope we don't have to use it...
Hey, remember last week when I said: "...we still need to beat up on the teams we should be beating up on, starting tonight against Arizona."
NO ONE IS LISTENING TO ME!!!
The Dodgers went 3-4 this week against the fourth and fifth place teams in our division. That's just ugly.
Let's just do Round 18 of COLD, HOT, or ROOM TEMPERATURE:
COLD:
- Russell Martin - .217 (5-23), 1 2B, 1 RBI, 2 BBs, 3 Ks - Interesting week for Martin, who found himself leading off at the beginning of it. He was quickly moved back into the bottom third of the lineup. Nothing seemed to matter. Another bad week in what is a pretty bad year.
- Orlando Hudson - .214 (3-14), 1 2B, 1 BB, 3 Ks - Hudson only made it into four games this week. Why? Ronnie Belliard started taking starts away from him. Maybe for good reason. Hudson is struggling at the plate, and if he doesn't start turning it around, he might find himself losing more starts.
- Matt Kemp - .160 (4-25), 2 HR, 3 RBIs, 1 BB, 4 Ks - Tough week for Kemp, who still came through with a couple homeruns, but not much else. Though not for lack of trying. Only four strikeouts in the week. He's just not hitting them where they ain't.
ROOM TEMPERATURE:
- Clayton Kershaw - 0-1 (1 start), 1.50 ERA (1 ER, 2 R, 6.0 IP) - Statistically, it was not a bad week for Kershaw. But, oh, what's this? "Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw will miss his next start after bruising his right shoulder when he ran into the outfield wall during batting practice." Now this is an important thing to note, and I can't stress this enough, especially for young pitchers: DO NOT RUN INTO WALLS! Again, I cannot stress this enough. You may think running into a wall might have some added benefit, or hey, maybe it even looks fun. I can assure you, it's not. So please, for the sake of the children, do not run into walls.
HOT:
- Ronnie Belliard - .304 (7-23), 1 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBIs, 1 BB, 6 Ks - Yeah, I could probably do with less strikeouts, but Belliard was actually one of the few guys in the lineup who was coming up with some big hits this week, including smacking a homerun in his very first at-bat in Dodger blue.
- Jonathan Broxton - 0-0, 3 SVs (4 games), 0.00 ERA (4 IP), 7 Ks - Good week for Broxton. He gave up just a few hits here and there, but mostly, he's been effective. Keeping the pitch count low, getting some strikeouts, and probably, most importantly, not walking anyone this week.
- Randy Wolf - 1-0 (2 starts), 2.77 ERA (4 ER in 13.0 IP), 12 Ks - Wolf continues to be one of the more solid, reliable starters in our rotation. Not much more to say about Wolf that hasn't already been said. Just, keep up the good work, I guess.
- Jon Garland - 1-0 (1 start), 2.57 ERA (2 ER in 7.0 IP), 6 Ks - A nice homecoming for the kid from Valencia. He started out kind of slow, but settled in and really delivered an excellent start. Plus, he made himself a strong contender for the number four spot in the playoffs.
Another series with Arizona? I'm so tired of them. Then this weekend, we'll take on San Francisco in a pretty big series. This would be a good time for our hitting to start kicking it into gear.
I'm back with another look at some of my best tweets from August, just in case you haven't been following me on Twitter.
- Some of the pitches [Jair] Jurrjens threw that inning were fatter than a chubby child going to work on a chocolate cake. Also, probably as ugly.
- Realized I've neglected talking about the Claudio Vargas trade. I'd say the biggest factor behind this decision would be that I don't care.
- Jon Miller's egg yolk shirt is really disturbing me.
- Interesting to note that Schmidt was put on the DL today with Terrible-initis. It's not known if there is a cure...
- In my opinion, and I can only say this because I'm not affiliated with MLB, is that homeplate umpire Mike Reilly sucks.
- Aww. Puns? Don't do this to me. RT @DodgertownUSA Garko hits one into the Castro District to end the game. #Dodgers win game one vs #Giants.
- [James] McDonald should actually bean [Pablo] Sandoval now. I want to see Sandoval explode into a hundred angry bits of Orange Chicken. (Panda? Get it?)
- In retrospect, that last tweet was in poor taste. (Taste? Chicken? Get it?) But still, I'm actually not sure if I got the connection I made.
- Just a thought watching baseball highlights last night: Adam Dunn hit his 31st HR (86 RBIs), maybe we should've signed him this offseason. [Dunn currently: 35 HRs, 91 RBIs]
- Plaschke on ESPN says Dodgers are in trouble because they didn't add a starting pitcher. Most runs by a Dodger starter in last 10 games: 4.
- In fact, in all of August, no Dodger starter has given up more than 4 runs. [Dodger starter ERA in August: 3.33]
- Online banking site asked me if I wanted to try Giants Banking (checks with the SF Giants logo and whatnot). I almost canceled my account.
- BEES! That's horrifying. That would ruin the game for me. I hate leaving early, but being attacked by a swarm of bees might be my exception.
That's all folks.
So, I was at the game last night. What? Don't believe me? I'm not sure why you wouldn't. But that's ok. I have proof!
I got on television!
See me? No?
How about now? I'm the pixel blob on the right. The other two pixel blobs are my mom and grandpa. I think...
By the way, I know it's been said many times before, but Dodger Stadium is really one of the best baseball parks in the world.
Seriously.
But, I digress. While at the game, some interesting stuff went down. And we should talk about it...
Ronnie Belliard! Nice homerun!
Oh... and we traded for Jim Thome and Jon Garland. Ok, I guess if we have to talk about this, let's talk about it.
We got Thome for virtually nothing. An older low-A prospect who wasn't hitting too well, which is great.
And Thome certainly fills a void for us. He'll provide an excellent pinch hitting option off the bench, and looking into the all-to-distant future, a DH in an American League ballpark.
My only gripe with the Thome trade (and it is very minor) is just a question of how much we can actually use him. Thome himself told Ned Colletti that he can't really play first base anymore (though during the phone call he personally placed to Colletti, he did say that he was perfectly happy riding the bench and pinch hitting which, to me, shows good character from a guy I already liked). So, Thome will primarily be used as a pinch hitter. Maybe he'll get a start once or twice (if there are no lefties in the lineup to hit it at him) but ultimately, we're kinda just looking at something like 30-40 at-bats for Thome, and the possibility that somewhere down the line we use him at DH anywhere from 2-4 games. It's not too much. That's the danger with acquiring anyone this late in the year.
However, (and remember, I warned you this was just a small gripe) when looking at what we gave up for him, if Thome can affect a game or two with even just a couple of those at-bats, then he's given us value.
And now, we turn to the Jon Garland trade. At first, admittedly, a bit of a head-scratcher. Geez... I don't like that term at all. Conundrum is too extreme though. I'll have to work on this.
But, again, I digress.
Garland was acquired for a PTBNL. Now, before we discuss Garland's value, the PTBNL needs to be addressed.
So far, the only name being branded about is Tony Abreu, which would be unfortunate. Yes, Tony Abreu is probably too much for Garland, though there are certainly enough options for the positions that Abreu plays (third and shortstop are shored up for the next several years, and resigning Orlando Hudson, Ivan DeJesus Jr., and Blake DeWitt are all options at 2nd next year, not to mention Chin-lung Hu, who has recently had a resurgence in AAA). But. But... Tony Abreu's name is only being brought up in the most flimsy of manners. The D-backs beat writer said on his Twitter account that Dodger players were saying that Abreu was the PTBNL. Now, obviously, I don't know anything about a professional clubhouse, but I was under the assumption that the players weren't making the trades.
In any case, we'll see. Again, Abreu for Garland is probably too much, but even if it is Abreu, I'm not going to be too broken up over it.
Now, for Garland's worth. Like Thome, Garland probably won't be able to contribute too much this season. He'll most likely make 5-6 starts, though some of his value might come if his arrival makes Joe Torre comfortable enough to go with a six-man rotation. If Garland's arrival allows Clayton Kershaw or Chad Billingsley (or both) to skip a start or two while still providing quality pitching in their place, he'll have provided value.
The next question comes if (when?) we make the playoffs. Garland might or might not be the 4th starter. He'll probably battle it out with Kuroda for that spot, though I wouldn't mind giving it to Garland, given his prior playoff and World Series experience (2 excellent starts: 9 IP, 2 ER and 7 IP, 2 ER). Not to say Kuroda's two starts last year weren't quality, they just weren't as good. Either way, I'd be comfortable with both pitchers on the mound.
Looking at the big picture, I'm happy with both trades. Yes, the PTBNL in the Garland trade might dampen my happiness a bit, but I think I'll still take it.
Overall, pretty good, and kind of exciting to have so much happen on one night...
I mean, Ronnie Belliard hit a homerun in his first at-bat with the Dodgers.
How cool is that?
Sorry guys, I have two papers due this week, so needless to say, my writing mind is a little preoccupied this week.
Here's the kicker. In the 29 games we've played the last month, Dodgers pitching has not surrendered more than four runs in any game during the nine regulation innings. Yes, there were two instances where the pitching gave up five runs, both coming in the 10th inning. Ok, fine. But let me repeat that first fact, because it bears repeating. No more than four runs a game. For an entire month.
And Thome certainly fills a void for us. He'll provide an excellent pinch hitting option off the bench, and looking into the all-to-distant future, a DH in an American League ballpark.
Now, for Garland's worth. Like Thome, Garland probably won't be able to contribute too much this season. He'll most likely make 5-6 starts, though some of his value might come if his arrival makes Joe Torre comfortable enough to go with a six-man rotation. If Garland's arrival allows Clayton Kershaw or Chad Billingsley (or both) to skip a start or two while still providing quality pitching in their place, he'll have provided value.
