I just wanted to whip this graphic up real quick, because it was made official that the Dodgers just let Manny go to the White Sox on a pure waiver claim.
The black lines indicate either of the two possible actions the Dodgers should have taken with Manny this weekend. Obviously, there's risk and reward for either path, as designated by red circles (for negative outcomes) and green circles (for positive ones).
The blue line indicates what actually happened this weekend.
As you can see: the best of both worlds, really.
Look, I understand the player the Dodgers were likely to get back wasn't going to be a top prospect. At this point though, I just wanted something tangible for Manny.
Sure, the $4 million or so in salary relief is nice, in theory... assuming, of course, the money goes back into the team. But, at this point, with these owners (who currently sit in a Los Angeles courtroom arguing over money and control of this team), then who really knows?
There are a couple things I do know, though.
First, and foremost, there is no reason for Hiroki Kuroda, Ted Lilly, Octavio Dotel, George Sherrill, Scott Podsednik, and maybe even Casey Blake to remain on this team. There may be other players that I am forgetting, but these six strike me as the most important ones. (Looking at the roster, I think the guy I'm missing is Vicente Padilla, who can't be moved while on the DL, which is really a shame because his stock was so high earlier this season.)
With Manny gone, whether the front office wants to believe it or not, they've thrown in the towel on this season. As such, there's no reason to continue paying veterans with expiring contracts to help this team to a 4th place, .500 finish. Sell. Sell them all. Get whatever you can. But as the final, final trade deadline approaches tomorrow, none of these six players (five if you don't include Blake who has another year on his contract) should be on the roster.
Here's the second thing I know.
Joe Torre, the manager everyone in the media seems to adore for his ability to win, was managing a .500 team to a 2nd place finish in 2008. That was before Manny came along. Suddenly, the Dodgers start winning. Then, the Dodgers make the playoffs. And then, for the first time in 20 years, the Dodgers win a playoff series.
Now, it's 2010. Joe Torre is still here. There's that constant. Manny isn't. He mostly wasn't. (Though when he was, the Dodgers were 10 games over .500.) It's starting to look like crazy speak to even consider contending for the playoffs at this point.
So, you tell me who is really more important to this team.
Here's the third thing I know.
Ignoring the first five games of a season (when numbers like batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging can fluctuate like crazy due to the low amount of at-bats), Manny has never, not once, had his OPS dip below .800 in his tenure with the Dodgers.
For all the drama about steroids, and injuries, and lack of hustle or heart or whatever similar crap, Manny produced.
For all the hate that Manny received from main stream media (see Bill Plaschke, amongst many others), who turned and praised gritty guys like Juan Pierre, steroids or not, Manny always out-hit them.
Look, I'll admit it. When we acquired Manny, I was not thrilled. One, because we gave up Andy LaRoche (who I still like, despite the fact his career is slowly dying in Pittsburgh). And two, I was real worried he might give up on us (this mind you, in the same season Andruw Jones already had).
Well, now that the Manny era is over, I can say this: He never gave up.
The trade was definitely worth it. Resigning him was absolutely worth it. He made mistakes, sure. He was injured, sure. But up until the very last pitch of his very last at-bat, Manny never gave up on the team or the fans.
He showed up. And he produced.
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.
This is kinda weird. Supposedly, according to Dodgers.com, the scheduled starting pitcher for Monday's Spring Training game is some guy named... Jason Schmidt (sp?).
Who is this guy? He's not a Dodger minor leaguer. He didn't come up through our system.
Ok, I checked his stats. It says he pitched six games for us in 2007... what???
Does anyone remember that?
Seriously: Andruw Jones, Esteban Loaiza, Mark Sweeney, Shea Hillenbrand (amongst others). These are all guys who started their Dodger careers after Jason Schmidt's last start with us and finished them before his next one. Randy Wolf has had two go-arounds with the Dodgers in between Schmidt's starts. Hell, Andy LaRoche (*tear* still miss you, buddy.) had his first major league at-bat, was sent down, called up, hit his first major league homerun, then was horribly injured, called up and sent down several times more, hit some more homeruns, and was shipped off to Pittsburgh in between Schmidt's starts.
Really, is anyone in waiting on pins and needles to see Jason Schmidt return? Is anyone expecting a major league, regular season start for the Dodgers from Jason Schmidt?
That's not to say I wouldn't gladly welcome a healthy Jason Schmidt as our 5th starter.
I'm just not holding my breath.
Player: Manny Ramírez
2008 Stats: 53 games, .396, 17 homeruns, 53 RBIs, 1.232 OPS (Full Season: .332, 37 homeruns, 121 RBIs)
2008 Analysis: Manny really had two seasons in one. His first season was not bad. Through 100 games with the Red Sox, he had 20 homeruns, 68 RBIs, and he was batting .299. He was bored, he was playing lackadaisically, he wanted a new contract. Then he was traded on July 31st.
And he started giving 100%.
He almost matched his entire offensive output for the season in half the games. He was playing like a man looking for one last nine figure contract. And boy did that benefit the Dodgers. 30-23 after the trade and a first place finish in the NL West.
2009 Outlook: Manny is hoping for a big payday and multi-year contract, and so far, he really hasn't gotten many buyers. 
There aren't many teams that can afford a Manny contract. The Yankees may be interested, the Red Sox certainly aren't, the Mets and Angels might be long shots. We really might end up being the best fit for Manny.
That said, I've got very mixed feelings about Manny. I do like him, and I'd want him in the lineup for the next several years if there was some guarantee that he won't give up on us a year in. We've seen what Manny can do when he plays at 100%, and we've also seen Manny play at about 50%. When he's playing at 100%, it's a beautiful thing. When he's not, you'll want to pull your hair out.
Ah, screw it. We gave up Andy LaRoche for him, might as try to get more out of him than a trip to the NLCS...
Player: Andy LaRoche
2008 Stats: .203 (12-59), two homeruns, six RBIs (Full Season: .166, five homeruns, 18 RBIs)
2008 Analysis: It was a bit of a tough year for Andy. After suffering a painful injury in Spring Training, LaRoche rehabbed quickly to try and get back to help the team. Upon recovering from his injury, he found his 3rd base job being filled by Blake DeWitt (having the best month of his life). So LaRoche was optioned to AAA, where he began to play 1st and 2nd base to try and get back to the majors. He was called up June 10th and hit a homerun in his first game on June 11th. Then he was benched. He made a few spot starts here and there until late July when he got to start more than two games in a row.
He was being showcased for a trade.
On July 31st, he was traded.
2009 Outlook: Andy LaRoche is will be the starting 3rd baseman in 2009...
...for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Here's my issue, and it has been ever since the trade. Manny Ramírez was fun. He got us to the playoffs and we won a series... but we didn't win it all. In fact, all we really won was the title of NL West 2008 Division Champion (which is nothing to be ashamed of, but nothing to be too proud of either).
Now, this is where it really hurts. I cringe looking at the 3rd basemen free agent list. I'm not kidding when I tell you that Joe Crede and Casey Blake are the only options worth consideration in that free agent pool (and by the way, don't think they don't know that). And now that the Dodger owners might or might not be willing to spend money to bring in quality free agents, I'm starting to get very scared about what 3rd base will look like next year (Mike Lamb anyone?).
To tell you the truth, I'd give back our minor success in 2008 to have Andy LaRoche back as our starter in 2009. And the funny thing is, the money we now have to spend to get a quality 3rd baseman could have gone toward signing Manny away from the Red Sox. We could have had both, now we don't have one, and might not end up with either.
Isn't that ironic?
The Dodgers win a game in extra innings to take the series from Pittsburgh.
Scott Proctor got the win, he's 2-0. Craig Hansen took the loss, he's 1-4. Jonathan Broxton picked up his 14th save.
Clayton Kershaw's start was short. He went five innings, giving up one run on two hits and two walks while striking out five. 
Unfortunately, it took him 86 pitches to do that, and only 44 of those pitches were strikes (about 56%). The bullpen managed to give up the lead twice in the following two innings, before shutting down the Pirates over the last five. This included 1.2 scoreless innings thrown by Chan Ho Park and a perfect 11th thrown by Scott Proctor. Jonathan Broxton was a little shaky, but ultimately shut down the Pirates in the 12th to close out the game.
The Dodger offense was a bit odd today. They scored four runs on six hits and 11 walks. No one Dodger had a particularly good game. 
The best two really only collected one hit each. Blake DeWitt went 1-4 with two walks and two RBIs. James Loney had the big RBI in the game. He only went 1-6, but the hit came with the bases loaded and one out in the top of the 12th to give the Dodgers the lead.
The Arizona Diamondbacks also won today, so the Dodgers remain 3.5 games in front in the NL West race. The Dodgers now come home to start a three game weekend series against the Giants. The first game starts tomorrow at 7:40 L.A. time.
Also: With the win (the Dodgers' 80th on the season), the Dodgers move back up to seven games over .500 (80-73)... With the win, the Dodger Magic Number is down to 7... James Loney's RBI was his team leading 87th.
Opinion: These last two games weren't so good. The Diamondbacks are heating up. They completed their four game sweep of the Giants (smashing my prediction from two days ago) and now are moving on to Colorado, who might or might not be a little harder. 
In any case, I'm glad we won today. A series split with the Pirates would have been disasterous at this point in the season. The offense seemed a litle dead today. We still got the win, but we seemed to be lacking the passion we've had the past couple weeks. We'd better get that back soon... Looks like Nomar Garciaparra's knee injury is not as bad as I had thought. He could be back in the lineup soon, but that doesn't mean I'm not worried. I just hope it can hold up. We'll see... 
One last note: Manny Ramírez and Andy LaRoche had the same number of RBIs in this series. I'm not saying that Andy would have made more of an impact in the last month and a half. Manny has been a tremendous influence on the team and we wouldn't be anywhere close to where we are now without him. All I'm doing is just merely pointing out an interesting statistic. Just something to chew on...
Because I can't really let anything go, I had a couple more notes about yesterday's trade.
I made the point in my last post about LaRoche's 152 major league at-bats with us and how that is hardly anything. Well, another thought came to me. 93 at-bats came last year when LaRoche played under Grady Little for the Dodgers. As far as the current manager, Joe Torre, he saw only 59 of Andy's at-bats. Well, here's my issue.
Apparently, those 59 at-bats were enough for Torre to determine that LaRoche wasn't worthy of playing 3rd for the Dodgers. However, Torre has given Mark Sweeney, (MARK SWEENEY!!!) 67 at-bats. And yet, Sweeney remains on the roster for the Dodgers.
So, therefore, 59 at-bats were enough to determine whether or not one player could be the 3rd baseman for the team, but not nearly enough to figure out that Mark Sweeney can't bat .200 to save his life.
I guess Mark Sweeney provides a veteran presence or something... or maybe he gives the team a lot of "professional at-bats." That's a phrase that I've gotten real tired of. Mark Sweeney might strike out 21 times in 67 at-bats, but he really looked professional wailing away at strike three.
I mean, is the only reason he's on the team because he's turning 39 in October?
One other note, Diamond Leung of the Press-Enterprise noted:
Logan White spoke with Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris, and he said LaRoche was excited to go to Pittsburgh. Asked if White was sad to see LaRoche go, he said, "Not at all."
I'm glad LaRoche is excited to go to Pittsburgh. I'd be, too. You want to go where you feel wanted...
Anyway, there's been some reaction to this. People are unsure of what White meant by it. Well, Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts went the extra step:
I asked Leung to give the context of White's response, and Leung replied that White meant in terms of "Look who we got back."
Interesting. I got a couple of other things from the quote as well. And while I might be reading too much into this, here's some other things he could have meant:
"I'm not going to say something to undermine my boss Colletti even though he ignored my advice about keeping LaRoche... 'Not at all'."
Or "It will be good to see LaRoche succeed in a starting role and prove me to be an excellent judge of talent... 'Not at all'."
Or even, "When this move backfires in Colletti's face and he's fired, I can give you a good candidate to replace him... 'Not at all'."
Ok, the last post was the simple informative post on the big trade. This one is reserved for my opinion and analysis.
I'll be honest, I'm having a flurry of emotions with this trade. There are some good points, and bad points, and overall, it raises a lot of questions.
For one, let me say this (and as a Dodger fan it pains me to say this): we are not that good a team this year. I had decided not too long ago that the goal for this year should be to get into the playoffs (something I think we could have done given our current players) and maybe win a game or two. Who knows, we could have lucked out and maybe even won a series. I had made peace with the fact that this year was more a rebuilding year, as we got to watch the kids play and grow a little, and we work toward the future. I was a huge supporter of letting the kids play, and saving up for the future.
Well, apparently, that has all changed. This trade for Manny is saying we want to win now. And for me, that's both the good and bad in this whole thing.
I'm glad we are committed to winning. I'm really glad we have a guy in the lineup now who will instill fear in the opposing pitchers. I'm glad we have that player who will be the guy that managers fear seeing on the lineup card every day (something the Dodgers have lacked since Adrián Béltre in 2004). It's going to be awesome to have that kind of power in the lineup. That's great...
But let's all be honest for a second. How much is Manny really going to help us? This is the part that raises the questions.
Is Manny good enough to carry us into the Playoffs? No doubt. We can easily take the Diamondbacks down now.
Is Manny good enough to help us win in the first round of the playoffs? Maybe. It depends on who we are playing...
Will we be able to out-slug the Philadelphia Phillies? What about the Chicago Cubs? Or for that matter, can we even come close to matching the Angels lineup or pitching should we even get that far?
What is our goal this year? How far into the playoffs are we trying to go? Because Manny alone won't be enough to get us there. He has no protection around him in the lineup. Our pitching staff, in its seemingly constant state of flux, might or might not survive the playoffs. If they aren't constantly on their game, we still might not make it past the first round. And that was something I was ok with before.
But...
The Dodger world is changed by this trade. I could accept some minimal success if this were still a rebuilding year.But now?
Anything LESS than a World Series seems like a waste... especially because Manny has a $20 million dollar option for next year that we aren't going to pick up (part of accepting the trade here for Manny).
This trade says that we want to win THIS year, and honestly, I don't think we are ready for that. I don't think this team is ready for that.
And what did we give up for the trade. Well, for one, Bryan Morris was an intriguing pitching prospect. He was a first rounder that was coming off elbow surgery, but was looking like he had regained form, and was starting to pitch up to par. Sure, he was in Single-A. He might not even pan out, low risk there. But here's the killer for me: Andy LaRoche.
Again, it goes back to the idea of winning this year. If we somehow can win the World Series, then it will be all worth it. But here's my biggest question:
What happens if we don't?
Manny will probably leave at the end of the year. Casey Blake looks to be leaving at the end of the year. Jeff Kent will most likely retire at the end of the year. Who, exactly, do we plan on replacing Blake and Kent with? The Free Agent market for 2nd baseman, and especially for 3rd baseman looks very weak this year. Blake DeWitt is not going to hit for the kind of power that is expected from a 3rd baseman, if that's where the Dodgers plan on keeping him. If that's the case, who plays 2nd. If he moves to 2nd, who plays 3rd?So what becomes of our team next year? If we don't accomplish anything this year, where does it leave us?
For years since Adrián Béltre left for Seattle, we've seen a revolving door of 3rd baseman... just a list of guys who couldn't cut it with the bat, or with the glove, or both. 
In Andy LaRoche, I saw a kid who could draw a walk, who could play a pretty good 3rd base, who could hit for a solid average, and most importantly, could hit for power. I saw... a solution. And all the scouts saw it. All the other teams saw it. Dodger management were the only ones who didn't. Them, and the Dodger fans who wanted LaRoche's head because he didn't immediately come up and hit .400 and 10 homeruns by pinch hitting every third game. He got all of four starts in a row to prove he could handle the 3rd base job, though by most scout's estimations, he's a streaky hitter that was going to need to play everyday to show what kind of player he could be. But, apparently, all the Dodgers needed were 152 big league at-bats, scattered inconsistently over two seasons (that has seen him be sent back to Triple-A three times since his debut) to decide he wouldn't be the player they wanted handling the hot corner for the next several years. By comparison, Jeff Kent, with his day's off here and there, has had 154 at-bats since June 5th alone. That's it, less than two months of playing time (by the way, Kent had only had eight more hits than LaRoche over that stretch). And now our solution to the 3rd base issue is going to be playing 3rd base in Pittsburgh. I hope for his sake that Pirates' management treats him better over there than the Dodgers treated him here.
But on top of all this, I still have other questions...
If we were able to get Manny, could we have not as easily got Jason Bay, who was also involved in this trade, and who is younger than Manny, hits very well, is less of a clubhouse distraction, and who is under contract for at least another year? The pieces all seem to be in place, why not skip the middle man in Boston?
And will Joe Torre make out the lineup the right way every day? He now has five outfielders. There are three that should be out there every day. Can he bring himself to stick Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones on the bench where they belong?
And the third, and one of the most important questions:
How will Manny behave for us? Peter Gammons, who was on ESPNews after the trade to give his analysis was nearly in tears recollecting Manny's time there. Gammons, a life long Red Sox fan, grew up in a time when the game was played for love of the game. When he started talking about how Manny gets paid $20 million dollars to play the game of baseball, and then on top if it all, he gets unhappy and starts doing his little primadonna act and playing lackadaisically, you could hear his voice start to break. 
Manny was a perfect example of how the game has changed. There's not a lot of love for the game of baseball. It's become a lot more a game based on personalities and paychecks (Look for the Peter Gammons Analysis Video Here, listen to the sadness in his voice when he talks about what this has all done to Terry Francona).
But I can understand that. I'm 19, I've grown up in a time where it's been made abundantly clear to me that baseball is a business. I can understand how that would be a lot harder to take for 63-year old Peter Gammons. I, honestly, am at a point where I couldn't care less about money, as far as how much players earn. Yes, they are grossly over paid for simply having the ability to hit a ball with a bat, but I'm fine with that. What I won't be ok with, is if Manny chooses to not care anymore. It's bad enough that Andruw Jones clearly doesn't. It's going to be very hard to watch if another player joins him.
So... those are just my issues, but who am I but a lowly blogger. You want to know why I think this trade really happened?
...Because there is not enough foresight. Because it doesn't matter what the future holds (or doesn't) if you can get some positive press now.
Attendance has been down this year for the Dodgers. In part because the team has struggled, and in part with the struggling economy and people having less to spend.
What will Manny bring to the Dodgers? Attendance.
Already in radio stations and on message boards, people have begun to express how enthusiastic they are that the Dodgers have acquired Manny. They exclaimed that they are going to be heading back to the stadium now because the games are going to be exciting again. Have these people even considered what they want from the team? Do they think that Manny will be enough to put us over the top? I hate being so negative... but he won't. Do you really think we are making it to the World Series?
But what does Frank McCourt care? As long as Manny puts butts in the seats...
And Ned Colletti will breath a sigh of relief. The media might just get off his back long enough that he might actually believe he has some job security. And if not, what does it matter, he'll be gone before the effects of what's he's really done begin to take shape.
But sure, for now, the Yahoo Sports or Fox Sports writers will write about how the Dodgers were "winners" at this year's trade deadline. And they'll leave us here to play our games, then won't think twice about what happens to us in the future.
And Bill Plaschke will jump up and say "Ah hah, ah hah! I said this should happen! I was right!" and when the Dodgers are full of holes next season and playing below average, he'll write a piece about the Dodgers having no soul or something like that, and condemn them for their lousy playing.
And T.J. Simers will write a moronic piece, kissing the Dodgers' butt, saying they are now the favorites to win everything, and exclaim he was a supporter all along. And then we will fail to make it to the World Series, and he'll write a piece where he explains how he wasn't really a supporter, and how the Dodgers were really a bad team all along.
And next year, he'll write 27 more articles about how he hates Andruw Jones... and collect a paycheck for doing so. Wow. Just wow...
But for now, all that matters is that the Dodgers have Manny. They have a four game series starting tonight against the Diamondbacks, of which Manny will probably make it to play for the last three of the series.
And who knows, we might just make it out of this weekend in 1st place, and never look back as we push towards the playoffs.
Presently, that doesn't sound too bad.
And that's what I'll have to do.
I'll keep thinking about the Dodgers in the present... because it makes me a little sick thinking about the future.
The Dodgers, in the last few minutes of the trade deadline, completed one of the biggest deals of the year. They sent Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris to the Pirates, who in turn, sent Jason Bay to the Red Sox, who sent Manny Ramírez to L.A. Boston also sent Brandon Moss and Craig Hansen to the Pirates to complete the trade.
With less than a week away from the trade deadline, the Dodgers acquired veteran 3rd baseman Casey Blake from the Cleveland Indians for minor leaguers Jon Meloan and Carlos Santana.
There are some positives and negatives to this trade:
First, if the Dodgers were looking for a big bat (a homerun hitter the likes of Adam Dunn, Mark Teixeira, or Jason Bay), Blake won't be it. Blake did have 28 homeruns in 2004, but has seen his power numbers decline each year since.
Blake, however, does come cheaply enough (more on that below) and will probably fit in nicely with the current line-up. His 11 homeruns this year are tied for the team lead (with Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp), his 58 RBIs put him in the lead, one more than James Loney, and his .289 average puts him in 4th place on the team in between Matt Kemp (.290) and Andre Ethier (.277).
As for what the Dodgers gave up for Blake, it's not too bad. Jon Meloan had some promise, but his role was unsure with the Dodgers. He started as a reliever, and had some success, but was recently converted to a starter and struggled in Triple-A. He might ultimately find success in Cleveland, but the Dodgers have enough quality pitchers that they can afford to see Meloan go.
Carlos Santana was an intriguing player. He is a switch hitting catcher in Single-A who was batting .323 with 14 homeruns and 96 RBIs and is, supposedly, pretty good defensively with a strong arm. He might someday be a very good catcher, but the Dodgers currently have a very good catcher (an All-Star to be exact) in Russell Martin. They also have Lucas May, a 23-year old catching prospect playing in Double-A right now. He's a pretty good hitter, and a year closer to the major leagues than Santana was, so Santana became expendable. It is possible that in a few years, Santana could still be as good a player? Yes, but you never know how a prospect will perform in the future, and his value might never have been higher than it was now. How Santana evolves might be the biggest indicator of the success of this trade. That will definitely be something to keep an eye on.
And while Blake isn't the impact bat the Dodgers probably need to go deep into the playoffs, in the weak NL West, Blake might be enough to at least get the Dodgers into the playoffs. Ultimately, though, Blake is a rent-a-player. He will be a free agent at the end of the season, and the Dodgers won't probably make too much effort to resign him.
And that is why I'm also a little worried. Trading for Blake is a move for this season, not for the future, and there has been talk now, that since the Dodgers have Blake, Andy LaRoche might be next to be traded. This would be a big mistake in my opinion. LaRoche, I believe, is our 3rd baseman of the future. Given that Blake is 35, and will most likely move on at the end of the season, he's obviously not a long term solution at 3rd, and if LaRoche is traded, the future of 3rd base becomes a big question mark again. 
LaRoche has not really been able to get his bat going this year due to injuries and inconsistent playing time, but I feel that given the 3rd base job, he will perform. Also, by many scout's projections, LaRoche is believed to have the best power of any of the current Dodger young players (Loney, Kemp, Martin, etc.). LaRoche will be valuable to us in the future. I feel the best plan would be to send Blake DeWitt down to Triple-A and have him play 2nd base. I feel that is where DeWitt's future is, considing his projection to hit for high average, but low power, plus his good range makes him an ideal candidate for 2nd. He can take that spot over after Jeff Kent most likely retires at the end of this year. As for now, he needs to learn better to adjust to pitching, as his batting average has significantly dropped since the end of May. For now, allow LaRoche to stay with the team, play backup to Blake, play a little 2nd on Kent's off-days, and even give Loney a day off or two at 1st. LaRoche has nothing left to prove at Triple-A, but he still has a lot more to show at the major league level, he just needs to be given the chance.
Currently, the move to acquire Casey Blake seems to be a positive one. Two prospects were lost but the question now is what corresponding moves to the trade will be. I just hope moves aren't made (in desperation) to try and win in the present that will end up hurting us in the future.
The Dodgers, after having an offensive explosion yesterday, failed to mount any offense against the Rockies and lose the 2nd game in the series.
Ubaldo Jiménez got the win, he's 6-9. Clayton Kershaw took the loss, he's 0-3.
Clayton Kershaw was called back up to start today's game, and there's no better place for a 20-year old rookie making his first start in 20+ days than Coors Field. Kershaw made it only through three innings, giving up five runs on 10 hits and three walks. Jason Johnson came in and provided solid relief, going four innings and giving up just one run. Ramon Troncoso, though, pitched an 8th innings where he gave up four runs on six hits to allow the Rockies a total of 10 runs on the day.
The Dodger offense, meanwhile, was shut down for the most part by Jiménez. Jiménez went the full nine innings, giving up just one run (on a Matt Kemp 9th inning homerun to make the score 10-1) on four hits and two walks. Only two Dodgers reached base twice: Kemp on the homerun and walk, and Andy LaRoche on a single and a walk. The only other offensive output came on a Russell Martin pop-fly single and an 8th inning Nomar Garciaparra double. Overall, Jiménez got 18 Dodgers to groundout out, while striking out another four Dodgers on only 114 pitches. A bad offensive night for the Dodgers after a great one yesterday.
The Arizona Diamondbacks won their game today to move into sole possession of 1st place in the NL West. The Dodgers will try tomorrow at 12:05 L.A. time to win the rubber match of the three game series.
Also: As an update to yesterday's story, Eric Stults was sent back to Triple-A when Kershaw was called up for today's start... Matt Kemp's homerun, which was a monster shot over the wall in dead-set center field, was his 11th on the season, tying him for the team lead with Andre Ethier.
The Dodgers rally for five runs in the 9th to win the game and the series and jump back into a 1st place tie.
Ramon Troncoso got the win, he's 1-1. Brandon Lyon lost, he's 2-4. Jonathan Broxton got his 2nd save.
Derek Lowe had a fairly weak start for the Dodgers, he went just 5 and 2/3 innings, giving up four runs on seven hits and three walks. Ramon Troncoso pitched a strong two innings, striking out five and giving up no hits or walks to put him in position to get the win. Broxton gave up one run in the 9th, but settled down and closed out the game.
The Dodgers struggled all day against Brandon Webb, who coming into the game had a 9-3 career record against the Dodgers with a 2.78 ERA in 14 starts. He went eight innings, giving up just one run while getting 16 groundball outs. The Dodgers then exploded against Diamondback closer Lyon, who got into trouble in the 2nd game of the series, but ultimately shut the Dodgers down. Today, however, they rallied for five runs against him, though one run was cashed in on a hit given up by Leo Rosales, in to relieve Lyon. Andy LaRoche, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, and Russell Martin all collected 2-out RBIs in the 9th, and Kemp had an especially good at-bat against Lyon, fouling off multiple pitches before driving a ball into the left-center gap to drive in the tying run.
With the win, the Dodgers end up two games under .500, but tied for 1st in the NL West. The Dodgers will now travel to Colorado to face the Rockies for a three game series starting tomorrow.
There was a lot of talk recently about the attempts the Dodgers were making to obtain C.C. Sabathia from the Indians and ultimately why the Dodgers didn't acquire him.
In my opinion, it wouldn't have been a good idea to trade for Sabathia. As of right now, pitching is not our problem, hitting is, and almost all sources indicated that Matt Kemp was likely to be involved in the trade, along with a few other prospects as well. And that was just a deal for Sabathia...
Well, according to Tony Jackson of the L.A. Daily News:
"Dodgers owner Frank McCourt nixed a trade that would have brought Sabathia to Los Angeles, along with Indians third baseman Casey Blake and utility man Jamey Carroll."
This was a great call. First off, for Sabathia alone, the Milwaukee Brewers had to give up four prospects. Can you imagine how many players we'd have to give up for Sabathia, and Blake and Carroll on top of that?
Secondly, how could this trade have helped the team? We would have added Sabathia, who is an excellent pitcher, but he would have pushed someone out of our already crowded starting rotation, that has been doing very well recently. On top of this, we'd acquire Casey Blake, who will be 35 in August, and has seen his numbers decline the past few years, and frankly, wouldn't add much to our starting lineup. 
I'd rather see Blake DeWitt or Andy LaRoche out there. Also coming over in the deal would have been 34-year old Jamey Carroll. Carroll is a light-hitting (and I stress light hitting: 9 career hrs, .272 career average, plus not too much speed to speak of) utility infielder. What could Carroll give us that we couldn't already get from Luis Maza?
And to think, we could have given up some good prospects for that? I haven't agreed with too much Frank McCourt has done, but he gets some points in my book if he did, in fact, veto this trade. Now there's talk about what to do at the shortstop position, and whether or not there should be a trade. I'll write about that later.
The Dodgers struggles against the American League continued as the Dodgers were not able to muster much offense against Mark Buehrle.
Mark Buehrle got the win, he's 5-6. Derek Lowe took the loss, he's 5-7.
Derek Lowe got in trouble quickly, giving up a run in each of the first two innings before settling down and shutting down the White Sox until the 8th inning. He then gave up a two-run homerun to Jermaine Dye, followed by a single to Nick Swisher before being pulled. Cory Wade was unable to offer much relief, however, and allowed another two more runs to score before ending the inning.
The Dodgers offense did not fair much better. Mark Buehrle effectively shut down the Dodgers throughout the game giving up just six hits and one earned run over eight innings. He struck out two while collecting 15 groundball outs. The one run came from Delwyn Young, who hit his first homerun of the season in the bottom of the 5th inning. The Dodgers five other hits were all singles. James Loney collected one of those singles and brought his hitting streak up to 11 games.
A few other notes. Russell Martin made a pretty good defensive play in the 4th innings. Derek Lowe got in trouble, and with runners on second and third, he induced a groundball to Andy LaRoche at third. LaRoche fired home to Martin who used his left leg to expertly block out Pablo Ozuna coming home and apply the tag for the out. It was a good defensive play on a bad offensive night. Mark Buehrle, by the way, collected the 1,000th strikeout of his career with his two strikeouts today. His 1,000th came against Mark Sweeney.
The Dodger's offense was shut down again, this time by the Tigers, who before last night, had not had a shutout on the season.
Armando Galarraga got the win, he's 6-2. Derek Lowe gets the loss, he's 4-6. Freddy Dolsi went two innings to get his 2nd save on the season.
Derek Lowe's pitching performance was not bad. He went seven innnings, giving up three runs, only two of which were earned and struck out five. Unfortunately for Lowe though, Armando Galarraga pitched better. He also struck out five over seven innings, but he gave up no runs over those seven innings.
The big story in the game, however, would have to be the offense, or lack thereof. The Dodgers were shut out for the second straight game and have now not scored a run since Andy LaRoche's solo shot against Randy Wolf in the fourth inning of Wednesday's game. Of course, that was the only run scored in that game, so for the better part of the Dodger's last 27 innings, they've been outscored 18-1. Yesterday was very similar in that the Dodger's didn't just not get timely hitting, they hardly even threatened to score a run. There were only two scoring opportunities in yesterday's game, and both came with two outs. In the second inning, James Loney tripled and Andy LaRoche walked with two outs before Mark Sweeney, starting at DH, struck out swinging. Juan Pierre got to third base in the sixth inning with two outs before Jeff Kent grounded out to end the inning. There are three things that are hurting out offense right now. I'm make a post about them later. For now, the Dodger take another loss.
Brad Penny takes on Eddie Bonine tomorrow at 12:55 L.A. time.
Well, that happened.
Jake Peavy got the win, he's 5-3. Hiroki Kuroda gets the loss, he's 3-6.
As per usual, Jake Peavy dominated the Dodgers. He went six innings, gave up only 3 hits, and struck out four on 72 pitches (He's now 12-1 against us in his career). And when you can't score runs, you need to rely on pitching... which the Dodgers didn't get today. Hiroki Kuroda, coming off his best start of the season, has one of his worst starts. He went only 2 and 1/3 innings, gave up two homeruns, and six runs overall (including five in the first inning).
Offensively there wasn't much to speak of. James Loney got two of the Dodgers' five hits, and the only extra base hit, a double of Peavy to start the fifth. Three outs later, however, he was left stranded on second. There were a few other scattered hits here and there. I do wonder though, why Joe Torre chose to play Luis Maza at 2nd Base instead of Andy LaRoche, who's been playing there for the last few weeks in AAA. Not to say LaRoche would have saved the Dodgers in today's game, but he might have done better than Maza. He did pinch hit in the game and gave a Jake Peavy pitch a pretty good ride to the center field warning track.
Not much to write home about. The Dodgers will now pack their bags and head to Detroit for a weekend series. The Tigers have won five of their last ten games.
The Lakers try to tie their series at 2 tonight at the Staples Center. Let's try to go 1-1 today L.A. teams...
EDIT: L.A. Teams: 0-2 on the day. The second loss was a lot harder to take...
The Dodgers after showing some offense last night, take the loss tonight after failing to put more than one run on the board.
Randy Wolf pitching against his old team picked up the win bringing his record to 5-4. Chad Billingsley loses, his record is now 4-7. Trevor Hoffman gets the save, it is his 15th on the season.
Billingsley had a below average start today. He gave up four runs over seven innings and only struck out three batters, which is the lowest amount of strike outs in any of his starts this year. He struggled in the first three innings, giving up a run in each of them, including solo homers from Edgar Gonzalez and Khalil Greene. He settled down after the third before giving up another somewhat flukey run in the 7th. Chad will have to bounce in his next start in Cincinnati after giving up four runs in his last two starts.
The offense, meanwhile, offered not much run support for Billingsley. Matt Kemp after knocking in three runs yesterday went 0-4 today with three strikeouts. 
Russell Martin, after going 3-5 with 3 RBIs yesterday, went 1-4 today. Save for a one-out double off Trevor Hoffman in the 9th inning from Russell Martin, the Dodgers 3-4-5 hitters went a combined 1-12 today with four strikeouts. The one bright spot in the Dodger line-up today came from Andy LaRoche. In his first game back in the majors, LaRoche went 1-2, with a walk and a homerun. He hit the first pitch he saw in the fourth inning from Randy Wolf over the left field bleachers for his first hit of the season. Welcome back to the majors, Andy.
Tomorrow, the Dodgers get to take on old foe Jake Peavy in the rubber match of this three game series. Hiroki Kuroda will make his first start since pitching a complete game shutout against the hard hitting Chicago Cubs. Tomorrow might be something of a pitching duel...
Couple of notes before the Dodger game today.
Congratulations to Blake DeWitt for winning the National League Rookie of the Month Award for May. He hit .322 with five homeruns and 18 RBIs in May. Congratulations Blake, keep making Sikeston proud.
Andy LaRoche didn't play yesterday after getting his call-up but he will be in the line-up tonight in place of James Loney against lefty Randy Wolf.
Finally, lucky us, the Padres will activate Jake Peavy off the DL just in time for tomorrow's game against us. Peavy is 11-1 in his career against us with a 2.31 ERA and 127 Strikeouts over 132.1 innings in 20 starts. This bodes well for us tomorrow. We'd probably better cash in with a win tonight against Wolf.
So the Dodgers finally made a move today that was a long time coming...
From Dodgers.com:
"...the club [has] optioned rookie shortstop Chin-lung Hu to Triple-A Las Vegas."
I like Chin-lung Hu. He plays good defense and he might very well have some future with the Dodgers, but I think everyone, including Chin-lung himself could see he was just playing way over his head. He had collected just two hits in his last 34 at-bats and looked completely lost against any form of adequate big league pitching.
At the same time, however, Hu does deserve some applause. He was forced into starting for the Dodgers at shortstop due to injuries and he gave it his all every day. He never complained or whined, he just went out and played. Unfortunately, for all of us, it wasn't good enough. Hopefully, he'll get consistent playing time in AAA and fix his stroke. He can hit, he just hasn't been showing it.
Good luck, Chin-lung... Godspeed...
Anyway, on to other things.
Though it wasn't officially announced yet, all indications seem to say Andy LaRoche will be getting the call to replace Hu on the 25-man roster.
This simple roster move has accomplished two good things. We've got Hu back in the minors where he can work his issues out, and we're bringing LaRoche out of the minors, where he has nothing left to prove, so much so that LaRoche took to playing other positions while at Las Vegas to make himself more versatile for the big league team.
He already can play 3rd, but in the last few weeks has played several games at both 1st and 2nd, and his hard work should pay off with more playing time.
LaRoche should be able to platoon with DeWitt at third for a couple games a week (though possibly not just against lefties, as DeWitt is hitting surprisingly worse against right handed pitchers than against southpaws: .274 vs. .348) and can also play 2nd on Jeff Kent's weekly day off. He can take over for Loney on his occasional day off, and can also be a good right-handed bat of the bench. Plus, the Dodgers will be in Detroit this Friday where they'll be able to use his bat with the DH rule in effect for three games.
The only thing left now to wonder is if LaRoche can prove he can hit big league pitching. He struggled in his 93 at-bats last year and turned some people off the from the idea that he is our long term solution at third base (though 93 at-bats isn't nearly enough to prove or disprove anything). If he can come up this time and not overly try to impress (like I get the feeling he did last year) he should be able to settle down and show everyone why he's likely to be a Dodger fixture for years to come.
Then again, even if he doesn't impress immediately, he still probably won't be any worse than Chin-lung Hu (parting shot)...
The black lines indicate either of the two possible actions the Dodgers should have taken with Manny this weekend. Obviously, there's risk and reward for either path, as designated by red circles (for negative outcomes) and green circles (for positive ones).
