We're almost there. This long, winding death-march to mediocrity ends in a week.
I'm in a weird place with the Dodgers right now. I'll be honest, I haven't really been watching many games these past few weeks, at least not actively. I'll have the game on in the background with the sound down while I do other stuff or I'll check the score every now and then, but I can't seem to just sit down and watch them.
It's probably because I don't want the Dodgers to win. I'll explain. Being a fan, thinking with my heart, I couldn't really ever say "I want the Dodgers to lose." But, thinking about it logically, the best thing for the team is for them to do badly this last week.
I'm looking at it like this: coming into today, the Dodgers were in the middle of a pack of teams with similar records. You have the Milwaukee Brewers on one end, who at 73-82 would pick 9th in the Draft next year. On the other end, you have the Oakland A's, who at 77-77 would pick 15th in the Draft. The Dodgers, coming into Sunday at 75-80, would pick 11th.
Here's where I start to have a problem. What good, at all, does it to for the team to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in the four games, including today, that we play against them? It's not as if we receive some kind of prize for finishing the season at .500 or finishing above a handful of other teams.
In fact, it's detrimental to us.
Some people might talk about playing for pride or something similar. I reject that notion. How much pride can someone really get from winning a meaningless game against a team like the Diamondbacks? They've been dead in the water since June. Really, Andre Ethier is going to go home this offseason, think back to the disappointment of this season, but cheer up when he remembers win #76 against the hapless D-backs?
Look, I'm not saying we should tank. I don't like the idea of intentionally losing.
What I'm saying is, I haven't been able to watch games the last couple weeks because, in a way, I'm rooting against the Dodgers. I'm sitting there thinking something like: I want a well pitched game that the Dodgers lose 2-1 because Reed Johnson loses a ball in the lights. Or let George Sherrill pitch more and see what happens. Do well, but not well enough to actually win these last 7 games.
The great equalizer.
So... that's where I'm at. There's not a whole lot else to add about this week because it was really just another blah week in a lost season.
I did realize one thing, though. If you are a Pirates fan and you run a real quality blog about them, I give you all the credit in the world.
The Pirates lost their 100th game this week. They've been a losing team longer than the internet has been around (the popular version that we know today). At the very least, the Pirates being a bad team predates the idea of blogs, for sure.
So, again, credit to Pirates bloggers. It's hard to be a fan of team and watch as they continuously lose, even more so to try and write interesting things about that team on a consistent basis.
I mean, this is the first time since I've started this blog that the Dodgers have had a losing season, and look, I'm spending my week recaps saying things like: "Yeah! I'm glad we're losing!"
Anyway, one more week of this nonsense and then we hop into what will probably be a long, and most likely painfully inactive offseason.
I can't wait.
I don't know about you, but this week was kinda weird for me.
It felt like a pretty good week, right? And yet, I take look back at past seven games and see the Dodgers finished just a game over .500 (4-3).
Still, the Dodgers will head into the All-Star break 10 games over .500 and two games back of the Padres in the NL West, tied for the Wildcard lead with the Rockies, which ain't a bad place to be with half a season to go.
Today, We Spell Redemption: K-U-O.
A quick note before I jump into it this week, congrats to Rafael Furcal and Hong-Chih Kuo for making it into the All-Star game as reserves, replacing Jose Reyes and Jason Heyward, respectively. Doesn't really make up for the fact that Reyes shouldn't have ever made the team in the first place or that Heyward shouldn't have been voted in by the fans as a starter, but I'm done complaining about that. Better late than never. It's a nice thing for a couple of guys who've been through a lot.
-----
The retrospective this week is actually more a retrospective for the first half. I'm not going to go crazy in-depth into it, but I just wanted to touch on who I felt were the top 3 and bottom 3 MVPs of the first half.
First Half Anti-MVPs
3. Tie - Ramon Ortiz and Russ Ortiz
Oh yes, I haven't forgotten. I've covered my extreme dislike of the Ortizes several times on this blog, but I'll just remind you of some of their numbers. Russ Ortiz: 7.0 IP, 8 ER, and a sweet, sweet 2.143 WHIP. Ramon Ortiz stuck around for 30.0 IP over 16 games and posted a nice 6.30 ERA.
2. George Sherrill
He doesn't have the worst ERA of all the pitchers the Dodgers have used this year, but of all the pitchers, Sherrill has been, by far, the biggest disappointment. He has struggled to get outs all year and as such, has affected the entire bullpen.
I mean, could you imagine if Joe Torre had Sherrill in his bullpen pitching like he did last year. Imagine if he trusted Sherrill enough to use him when he's overworked Broxton. Then he could use Hong-Chih Kuo more sparingly. Wow. The idea having more than two go-to guys in the bullpen makes me doubly sad when I'm confronted with the reality of the situation.
1. Garret Anderson
Hey, maybe it was obvious, but how I can I not give it to him?
He finished his first half batting .179. And not just in 30 something at-bats. He went 24-134. That's twenty-four hits ... in one hundred and thirty four at-bats. He's also drawn three walks. I can't help but smile as I write this because that is so ludicrously absurd. It's insane. He can't hit and he has no patience. He can't play defense. He can't run. I just... I start talking about how bad Anderson is and I begin to ramble because there's so much ground to cover. My thoughts are rapid firing from one reason to the next as to why Anderson should have been released months ago. I'm want to express myself but I can't. I feel like I need to get a canvas and just start painting my feelings. Yes, Garret Anderson is so bad, he's inspiring me to create art.
To be honest though, I can't help but enjoy watching Anderson play. At this point, I almost don't know if I want him gone because I have to know how bad he can be. Mike at MSTI broke down Anderson's numbers to show that he's having one of the worst seasons in Dodger history. He might not have the worst season ever, but at this point, I kinda want to see how close he can get.
"Only three walks? That's hilarious! Manny had three walks in one game a week ago!"
First Half MVPs
3. Andre Ethier
Ethier is second on the team in batting average, leads the team in slugging, and is second in OPS, just four points behind Manny, but in almost 100 more at-bats. He's got 14 homers on the season, and, oh yeah, a starting job in the All-Star game. I have to wonder how good Ethier's season might be if he didn't break his finger when he was his hottest (.392, 1.201 OPS when he went down). I know expecting that kind of play over a full season is unrealistic, but when you are on a crazy hot streak, you got to ride it out.
2. Clayton Kershaw
Remember when Jon Heyman said Kershaw was regressing? Ha-ha-hah-ha-ha.
Kershaw in 18 starts: 112.1 IP, 2.96 ERA, 128 Ks. For record junkies, that translates to 9-4.
He polished off his first half with an excellent 8.0 innings against the Cubs on Thursday, striking out 12.
1. Rafael Furcal
Furcal leads the team in average, and more importantly, heart. That's right. I found a way to measure it. Still working on scrappy-ness, but that's for another day.
Seriously though. Furcal returned from family tragedy and started putting it all out on the field. Since June 23th, Furcal has been hitting .397, with a 1.109 OPS. He's hit six doubles, a triple, four homeruns, and has driven in 14 runs over the 17 game span. More importantly, though, for a leadoff hitter, he's scored 21 runs in those 17 games. Oh, and he's also stolen five bases.
All this is for a guy who was already hitting .305 coming in.
Furcal is playing out of his mind, and when he plays like that, the Dodgers play like a different team.
...and so, for all that, Furcal got named to the All-Star team.
...and for all that, he's my first half MVP.
Getting back in the swing of things. I'm glad I got back to town just in time to see the Dodgers start playing .500 baseball again.
They went 3-3 this week ... although, silver lining: they did it in such a nice pattern - L, W, L, W, L, W.
Alright, so, what happened this week?
Clayton Kershaw Continues To Regress
Admittedly, he looked shaky at times this week, but he made two starts and the final box score shows:
-6.0 IP, 0 ER (1 Run), 4 Ks
-5.0 IP, 2 ER, 9 Ks
So, you can obviously see his future is bleak.
Ryan Dempster Practices Voodoo
... It's the only way to explain how he can shut down the Dodgers so consistently. In 22 career games (12 starts) spanning 93.2 innings against the Dodgers, Dempster's ERA is 2.31. I mean ... seriously.
Notorious Dodger slayer Jake Peavy has a 2.27 career ERA against the Dodgers in 158.1 innings. Tim Lincecum's career ERA against the Dodgers is 2.96 in 48.2 innings.
Dempster is a guy, by the way, who has a career ERA of 4.39. His 2.31 mark against the Dodgers is 2nd lowest amongst all NL teams (Dempster has a 2.00 ERA against Florida, in 27 IP) and the lowest in his career against any team he's pitched over 30 innings against.
I know a pitcher's ERA versus a team over their career is a skewed stat because of all the variables (changes in lineup, changes with the pitcher himself) ... all I'm getting at is this: why in the world can't the Dodgers beat Ryan Dempster?
Ryan Dempster, seen here owning the Dodgers.
Andre Ethier Is Almost Back
... and I'm giddy like a school girl.
After being shutout twice by the Cubs (Tuesday vs. Dempster and Thursday vs. Ted *cough* cheater *cough* Lilly ... I kid. But seriously ... cheater.) the Dodgers could use him back in the lineup.
Whatever The Opposite Of A Gold Glove Is, Rafael Furcal Wins It For This Week
Furcal came off the DL this week, and apparently forgot how to play defense while he was away.
Here's a quick list of the days this week in which Rafael Furcal started a game and did not commit an error: Friday.
Seriously. This was his week:
Two errors Tuesday, one error Wednesday, pinch hit on Thursday and didn't play the field, error-less Friday, one error Saturday, and one error Sunday.
At this point, you start to wonder if it's a mental thing. Doubt that he can't make a simple play might have gotten in his head and it's screwing with him.
Or maybe it's just rust and maybe he just shakes it off. I guess we'll see...
...and finally:
The Dodgers Can't Win When Vin Scully Doesn't Call The Game
The Dodgers record in all games in Denver or West of Denver: 23-9
The Dodgers record in all games East of Denver: 5-13
I mean, it's good to be able to win at home (15-8), and it's definitely good to be able to beat up on the other NL West teams (15-5), but at some point you have to be able to get past the fact the Steve Lyons is announcing and win in a foreign land (The Dodgers play another 24 games east of Denver, plus more if we get to the playoffs).
Alright! I'm back! I was in Argentina for the last week or so. The timeline was something like this: I left when the Dodgers swept Arizona and they proceeded to lose only one game while I was gone.
I got back early Sunday morning, just in time to learn Jose Lima died and then watch the Dodgers lose ... so, sadness...
Either way, I won't do a full week review because I had limited access to information ... Still, here are a few things I was able gather, even while on another continent.
#JonHeymanIsBadAtHisJob
Clayton Kershaw's three games since then:
-8.0 IP, 0 R, 9 Ks
-7.0 IP, 1 R, 7 Ks
-7.1 IP, 1 R, 7 Ks
Chad Billingsley's four games since then:
-6.0 IP, 4 R, 3 Ks
-5.1 IP, 2 R, 7 Ks
-7.1 IP, 0 R, 6 Ks
-7.0 IP, 1 R, 5 Ks
...
Bran Penny's four games since then:
-6.0 IP, 3 R
-7.0 IP, 4 R
-5.0 IP, 7 R
-3.0 IP, 4 R (+ a trip to the DL)
#HowIsItYouGetPaidToDoThis?
Oh, and by the way, this isn't related to anything, but I gotta love this tweet.
So, wait ... are you proud of yourself for doing this? Come on...
#SeverePettiness
EDIT: Credit to MikeSciosciasTragicIllness and nineteen84 on Twitter who found out that Heyman's definition of regressing isn't "the act of trending or shifting toward a lower state" but rather "had a bad start." I guess that's good news because horrible regression turned into progression in less than a month.
Gotta love how he plays it off not like he was wrong, but that he can just make bold declarations with no substance whenever he wants, then change his mind depending on circumstances. Bravo for journalism!
Broken Pinkies Suck
Probably doesn't need much more explanation, but seriously: Ethier is having a Triple Crown season and a broken pinkie derails him (at least temporarily). Suckage.
Ramon Ortiz Continues To Prove Me Right
I wrote way back in my thoughts on Opening Day I was not a fan of Ramon Ortiz, nor Russ Ortiz.
Now, some people who shall remain unnamed jumped all over me for this, calling me such things as "nimrod." Granted, I didn't give a whole lot of evidence to prove either Ortiz was a bad pitcher, I was just acting on a baseball hunch.
I'll admit I'm not always right, or probably not even mostly right. I've said stupid things on this blog. But guess what ... I nailed this.
Russ Ortiz had a 10.29 ERA when he was Designated for Assignment less than three weeks after I wrote that post. Not long after that he retired so he could spend more time BEING A HORRIBLE PITCHER WITH HIS FAMILY!
Meanwhile, Ramon Ortiz continues to defy odds and common sense by taking up a roster spot. He's sporting a nice 6.30 ERA in 30 innings. 30. That's not a: "Oh, I gave up two runs in three innings" six ERA. It's a: "I've been in 16 of the 44 games this season and made two starts" six ERA. What I'm saying is, it's not a small sample size. Ortiz is bad. Ortiz needs to be replaced.
I was right all along.
So that was odd. It was a week that ultimately saw the Dodgers go .500, but I can't remember a week that had more highs and lows. And not just highs and lows, but highs that were really high, and lows that were really low.
I mean, look at these games. Dodgers get blown out on Tuesday after the Brewers score 9 runs in the second inning. Then on Wednesday, the Dodgers blew a close game late when the bullpen gave up 7 runs in the 8th and 9th innings. And on Saturday, the Rockies scored six runs in the first and shut the Dodgers out the rest of the way. Three games ... three ugly losses.
But the three wins? A walk-off Grand Slam on Thursday, a close back and forth game the Dodgers pulled a win out of on Friday, and on Sunday, the Dodgers won a pitchers' duel against arguably the best pitcher in the league. Three games ... three really nice wins.
And so, with that, let's take a look at the players who made it the week that was. It's going to be a little shortened because it's late and I'm coming off a Mother's Day high.
Andre Ethier - Ethier had another fantastic week, going 10-22 with a walk, two doubles, and a walk-off Grand Slam. Oh, and by the way, he's either in the lead (BA and RBIs) or tied for the lead (HRs) in all three of the Triple Crown categories.
John Ely - One start for Ely this week, and a pretty good one. 6.2 innings, one run, seven strikeouts. He was a stopper when the Dodgers needed one. And his reward? A demotion to AAA. Yep, Ely was sent back to AAA while Ramon Ortiz remains on the roster. A demotion for a young player in favor of a broken down veteran. On Joe Torre's watch? What?! But more on that later.
Clayton Kershaw - Kershaw's week mirrored the Dodgers' week in general. His low was probably the lowest of his career. 1.1 innings, 7 runs. Just an ugly, ugly, terrible, ugly start. But his high mark, 8.0 innings, no runs, 9 strikeouts, was arguably the best of his career. Two starts, one awful, one brilliant = two stars for the week.
Charlie Haeger - What's going to be forgotten in Haeger's week is that he did provide 4.0 innings of quality relief on Tuesday. Still, it's impossible to overlook his start on Saturday. He wasn't able to record an out and ended up credited with five runs. He most likely lost his spot in the rotation if not on the roster as a whole.
Garret Anderson - Anderson is my new Mark Sweeney. Especially because Anderson has now committed a similar crime to what Mark Sweeney did in 2008. He's unbelievably, impossibly bad, yet somehow manages to take up a roster spot that should belong to a younger player who deserves it better.
In Anderson's case, he's now occupies a roster spot that rightfully belongs to Xavier Paul. Now look, I'm not mad at Anderson personally. He's a baseball player just trying to keep his job and he didn't make the decision to send Xavier Paul back to AAA. But seriously, is there one thing Anderson does better than Paul? One single thing? Fielding? No. Throwing? No. Running? No. And at this point, not even hitting.
Admittedly, this is a small sample size, but in 29 at-bats for Paul, he hit .276, had a .323 OBP, and slugged .483 (that's a .805 OPS in case you were wondering). Anderson, on the other hand, went 1-6 this week, bring his season total (in 48 at-bats) to 6 hits. That brings his average for the season to ... .125. His OBP is .157! His slugging is .208! In case you are too lazy to do the math, that's a .365 OPS.
So ... yeah, there's absolutely no reason to keep Anderson over Paul unless, of course, the managerial staff has a thing for keeping around useless veterans at the end of the careers while sending down better younger players at the cost of making the team worse as a whole ... but that would be ... that would be just crazy...
The Dodgers head back on the road this week, where they are 4-11. It is, however, against two NL West teams (the Diamondbacks and Padres) and the Dodgers are 6-3 against NL West teams this season. Something has got to give, let's hope it's the horrible road record.
Week 4 was like two weeks in one. There was the really ugly part of the week where the Dodgers were swept by the Mets in New York before coming home and losing the series opener to the Pirates 2-0 on Thursday.
And then there was the second part of the week ... suddenly: Pitching! Hitting! Winning! The Dodgers suddenly turned it on and took the last three games from the Pirates.
Ultimately, though, the Dodgers still went under .500 on the week. The Dodgers are 4-11 on the road this season. On the bright side, they are 7-3 at home, so there's that.
Hiroki Kuroda - Kuroda had two good starts this week. In the first game of the doubleheader against the Mets, Kuroda surrendered just two runs in 6.0 innings. Then on Sunday, Kuroda went 8.0 strong innings against the Pirates allowing just one run. 14.0 innings, three runs. Kuroda has a 2.08 ERA on the season.
Andre Ethier - Andre went 9-26 this week with three walks, two doubles, and four homeruns.
Clayton Kershaw - Kershaw had one start this week, and like last week, it was pretty solid. 6.2 innings, two runs, and seven strikeouts.
Chad Billingsley - Billingsley had a similar week. In his one start, he went 6.0 innings, gave up two runs as well, though Billingsley only struck out four.
Carlos Monasterios - Monasterios had a start this week, too, the first of his major league career, and though he only went four innings, they were quality (just one run on a solo homerun). Plus, add to that the two innings of scoreless relief he pitched Tuesday, and his final line for the week comes to 6.0 innings, one run.
James Loney - Loney's hitting this week kind of paralleled the performance of the Dodgers in general. Loney during the four losses: 1-14 with four strikeouts. Loney during the three wins: 8-11, three doubles, a walk, and a homer. I know that ultimately makes Loney 9-25 on the week, but I'm giving him two stars for a half good week and a half bad week ... because I can.
The two faces of James Loney this week.
Garret Anderson - Another week, another step closer to a DFA for Anderson. 0-7 with four strikeouts. He's now on a 1-26 tear since April 14th. Now, I know I advocated for putting Anderson on the roster when we signed him in Spring Training and I stand by that because the alternative was Doug Mientkiewicz and it seemed we were destined to have an old guy on the roster. However, Mientkiewicz is gone (somewhere) so we don't need to worry about him, and Xavier Paul has looked pretty good in the last week, so here's to hoping we keep Paul over Anderson when the next roster move comes.
Russell Martin - Martin started the year strong but has since seen his numbers starting to dip. He went 3-24 with a homerun and a couple walks.
Martin scoring on one of his hits this week ... because they don't take pictures of people not getting hits.
Casey Blake - Blake had an even worse week than Martin. 1-20 with a couple walks. Maybe it's time to start letting the beard grow again.
The Dodgers went 3-4 on the week, but it still feels like a win because you start to feel like the momentum has shifted.
Of course, it could just be because we played the Pirates, but I'd like to look on the positive side and say we've turned a corner.
Six games coming up at home this week against the Brewers and the Rockies, two teams that should be good but have gotten off to slow starts.
Is this the week? Is this finally the week we get over .500? A guy can hope, right?
Week 3 was a step back from Week 2.
2-4, losing two straight series on the road, just like Week 1. So for those of you keeping score at home, Dodgers are 4-2 in games at home against the NL West ... and they are 4-8 in games on the road against the rest of the league.
This week was particularly infuriating as the Dodgers were able to find new ways to lose, utilizing both slugfests (11-9 to the Reds on Tuesday) and pitchers' duels (1-0 to the Nationals on Sunday) to fall two games under .500 on the season.
At least a turn around can't be too far away, right? Alright, enough of that, it's time to hand out some stars.
Matt Kemp - Kemp went 7-24 on the week, with a two homeruns and a couple walks. He did go 0-4 on Friday, though, bringing the total amount of games this year in which Kemp has not collected a base hit to: 2.
Andre Ethier - Ethier went 7-23 this week, with three walks and a couple homeruns.
James Loney - Loney went 9-27 on the week with a walk and three doubles.
Rafael Furcal - Furcal went 8-28 this week with a double, two triples, two walks, and four stolen bases.
Carlos Monasterios - Monasterios pitched 4.1 scoreless innings this week in two appearances and collected his first career win.
Quality-Relief-High-Five!
Clayton Kershaw - Kershaw had a solid start this week. One start, nothing Earth-shattering, but he held the Nationals to two runs in 6.0 innings on Saturday.
Chad Billingsley - Chad Billingsley had two starts this week. One was of high quality, one was of suck quality. Billingsley went 6.0 strong innings against Washington Sunday, allowing just one run while striking out five ... and if that was his only start this week, he would've walked away with three stars. Except that on Tuesday he went just 3.0 innings and gave up 7 runs. Yeah, only four we're earned, but Billingsley's own error led to the other three, so really ... they count. Ironically, Billingsley took the loss in Sunday's start, but walked away with a no-decision on Tuesday. Either way, one bad start, one good start equals something like two stars.
Garret Anderson - First the positive: Anderson hit a pinch hit homerun this week. Now the negative: he went 1-12 this week, the one hit being, of course, the homerun. Anderson started the season 2-5, and has since gone 3-30. He's sporting a .441 OPS right now, which is just ... nifty.
Anderson, collecting a hit on April 11th, after which he's gone 1-19.
Week 1 = Bad. Week 2 = Good. Week 3 = Bad. Week 4 = ? It has to be good, right? Maybe this is the week we finally get above the .500 mark. Maybe.
Week 2 in the books for the Dodgers, and we witnessed a nice improvement.
The Dodgers went 4-2 on the week, beating both the D-backs and the Giants in three game sets.
But, like always, there were ups and downs, and luckily, I have a 4 Star system to deal with just that!
Clayton Kershaw - Two good starts for Kershaw this week. On Tuesday, he went 5.1 innings against Arizona surrendering only two runs, and followed that up by going 7.0 strong against the Giants, giving up just one solo homerun while striking out nine.
Andre Ethier - Ethier went 11-26 this week, with three homeruns, and nine RBIs. He had a multi-homer game and a walk-off hit.
Matt Kemp - Kemp went 8-25, with a double and four homeruns, which came on four consectutive days. Meanwhile, Kemp is also riding a eight game hitting streak and has collected a base hit in all but one game this season.
Jonathan Broxton - Broxton threw four scoreless innings of relief this week, bring his season total to 5.2 scoreless innings. He hasn't gotten a lot of work, but he's looked solid when he's gotten it.
Vicente Padilla - How nice of Vicente to show up in his third start of the year: 7.0 innings, 7 Ks, three runs. Solid. He lowered his ERA from 11.42 to a sparkling ... 8.04. Good start, but I'd like to see that just a little bit lower. Little bit.
Hiroki Kuroda - Speaking of solid, Kuroda's one outing this week: 3 runs (2 earned) in 7.0 innings against Arizona.
Chad Billingsley - Chad Billingsley had three good scoreless innings, and then fell apart. He surrendered six runs in his next three innings.
Charlie Haeger - Haegar was put in the Arizona game for relief on Wednesday, despite making 117 pitches on Sunday. Now, I know the idea is that knuckleballers can pretty much pitch any day because they aren't straining themselves that much, but 117 pitches is still 117 pitches, whether he was throwing knuckleballs or not. I'm not saying it necessarily affected him, but he did then proceed to give up seven runs (five earned) in 3.0 innings against San Francisco on Saturday. The knuckleball wasn't working and tired or not, Haeger still got lit up.
Russ Ortiz - Tough week for Russ Ortiz. Six earned runs in 3.2 innings. I was never a big fan of Russ Ortiz ... and apparently, neither was the front office. They designated Russ for assignment on Sunday, recalling pitcher Jon Link. He leaves the Dodgers with an 0-1 record, and a 10.29 ERA in six games. So long, Russ.
So, overall, nice turnaround for the Dodgers, but a 4-2 week still only puts the Dodgers at .500.
And here's the bad news: the Dodgers head back East for a nine game road trip. You know what that means? More Steve Lyons. Sigh.
So, it's come to this. The final award. MVP.
This is a tough one, let's take a look at the options.
The nominees are:
Randy Wolf
-A nominee for the "J's Dodger Blog Cy Young Award," even though Randy didn't win, one could arguably say he meant more to the team. He delivered quality start after quality start down the stretch for the Dodgers, and there is a lot of value in that.
Matt Kemp
-Gold Glove? Check. Silver Slugger? Check. 26 homeruns and 101 RBIs? Yeah. 34 stolen bases, too? Uh-huh. A breakout season for Matt Kemp as he slowly becomes a top tier player in this league. He's got five tools, and he uses them all. If this season is just a sign of things to come, Kemp is going to have a monster career.
Clayton Kershaw
-He did win the "J's Dodger Blog Cy Young Award." Have I mentioned yet that he's 21 and very good?
Andre Ethier
-A Silver Slugger, too? Yeah. Andre Ethier notched 31 homeruns and drove in 106 RBIs this season. I think most people felt Ethier could be a good player, but I don't know how many people thought Ethier was a 30-100 guy. He not only met expectations, he passed them easily. Oh, and by the way, when the playoffs came around, Ethier only got better: a .355 average, three homers, six RBIs, and a 1.235 OPS.
...and the winner is...
Andre Ethier.
This was a close call for me. Kemp was so good this year, but I can't deny what Ethier did. On top of how good his numbers were, you have to also factor in his six walk off hits.
Six walk off hits... including four homeruns. That, my friends, is a clutch performer.
Ethier was the team leader in homeruns, doubles, RBIs, walks, and walk off hits.
And for all that, Andre Ethier is your "J's Dodger Blog 2009 MVP."
I'm back, returned from the land of analytical papers. 'Tis a strange and lonely place, and it smells of despair.
In any case, I'm here to completely ignore the failure of the Dodgers the last half a week or so and just copy and paste some of my best tweets from the last month, you know, on the Twitter.
- Weird that Clay Zavada wasn't brought in to face Ethier. Maybe he needed the day off to rest his mustache.
- Zavada is in. Guess I was wrong. The mustache needs no time off. It is always ready to go.
- Sergio Romo's facial hair makes him look like an Aladdin villian.
- My Dad, on seeing Jim Thome getting ready in the dugout: "Oh good, Bigfoot is going to come up." Oh yeah, he went there...
- Can I just RT something I said earlier this season: "Over/Under: Juan Pierre finishing the season batting .300."
- Man, anyone know who that young third baseman is on the Pirates? That kid can hit! Though, hey, I guess Mark Loretta is 1-2 today...
- Dear Dodgers, you should have traded Blake DeWitt instead of me. Signed, Andy LaRoche.
- I totally get taking out Duke here. Best pitcher all season, 2 outs, 9th inning, 10 run lead, last home game for the Pirates. Good move.
- Plus, this 59th win is pretty vital to their season, so can't risk blowing a 10 run lead, at the expense of giving the fans something nice.
- I like Everth Cabrera's name. It's like someone with a lisp trying to say Everest.
Playoffs starting soon. Remains to be seen if we'll be the NL West champions or the Wild Card. Sadly, I'm only half joking.
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...
Wow. I haven't written an article (non-week recap) in a while. I guess, for right now at least, I'm just going with the flow. The Dodgers are up, they're down, they're up again.
Let's look at this week, for example.
The Dodgers lost the first game in Colorado, and had their division lead cut down to two. Everyone starts to get worried (me included).
We then win the next two games, and leave Colorado on a series win, with a bigger lead in the division race than we came in with.
We go into Cincinnati, take two out of three, and finish the weekend with a division lead of six games on both the Giants and Rockies. Which means, as up and down as we've been in the last month and a half, we've really only lost two or three games on our division rivals. So, with all the run around, and all the drama, we're really back where we started.
In any case, the Dodgers went 4-2 on the trip. ...and look at that, our second week in a row of over .500 baseball.
And that brings us to Round 18 of HOT, COLD, or ROOM TEMPERATURE:
COLD:
- Casey Blake - .158 (3-19), 1 HR, 1 RBI, 4 BBs, 4 Ks - The homerun is nice. Drawing some walks is nice. Most of the rest of his stat line isn't so nice. Come on Blake, pick it up.
- Charlie Haeger - 0-0 (1 start), 15.43 ERA (4 ER in 2.1 IP), 2 HR - Haeger had only one start this week, and got roughed up a little bit during it. It's ok. Knuckleballers are susceptible to getting rocked every now and then. Just rebound in your next start, please.
ROOM TEMPERATURE:
- Rafael Furcal - .250 (7-28), 1 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBIs, 4 Ks, 2 GiDP - Come on, Furcal, you're supposed to be fast! How do you ground into double plays? Two of them! Still, at least you're hitting the ball a little. .250 isn't pretty, but it's better than .167.
- Andre Ethier - .333 (8-24), 3 2Bs, 2 HRs, 4 RBIs, 7 Ks - Those are nice numbers, I'm not going to lie. However, it's all in context (as I've said too many times before). Ethier had two excellent games to start the week in Colorado (6-8, 2 HRs, 4 RBIs) but went on to finish the road trip in weak fashion (2-16, 6 Ks).
- Vicente Padilla - 1-0 (1 start), 3.60 ERA (2 ER in 5.0 IP), 4 Ks - The start was solid enough. Ideally, you'd like to get a few more innings out of your starter, but he did keep us in the game through five innings. Not great, but solid.
HOT:
- Clayton Kershaw - 0-0 (2 starts), 2.70 ERA (4 ER in 13.1 IP), 17 Ks - Two nice starts for Kershaw this week, after struggling a bit during August. Plus, 17 Ks in 13.1 IP? That's good stuff.
- Randy Wolf - 1-0 (1 start), 1.23 ERA (1 ER in 7.1 IP), 5 Ks - Another quality start for Wolf, who's really adopted the title of staff ace in the last month or so. Nice stat: Wolf has won his last four starts. I guess that's karma for not getting any decisions in the first half.
- Matt Kemp - .360 (9-25), 1 2B, 3 HRs, 8 RBIs, 2-3 SBs - Kemp really put on a show this week, the high point coming in the form of a monster homerun in Cincinnati on Sunday. He also later added a game winning sac-fly. Plus, he's set new career highs in homeruns and RBIs this week. And he's got another month to go. If he keeps this up, he'll have some really, really nice numbers by season's end.
Here comes September, and frankly, it should be easier from this point on. Only six games in all of September against an above .500 team (the Giants). But, we still need to beat up on the teams we should be beating up on, starting tonight against Arizona.
The great equalizer.
