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 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.
Well, one week in the books for the Dodgers and they are off to a 2-4 start, which is a bit unexpected. I mean, when you looked at the schedule and saw the Dodgers were starting the season against Pittsburgh and Florida, you thought that we'd at least finish this week 4-2, right? Sure you did. And no one blamed you for it.
But here we are, several bullpen implosions later, and the Dodgers finish a road trip that they could have hypothetically gone 5-1 on, with a record of 2-4.
Anyway, enough of what could have been. Let's look at what really was. Last season, on my weekly reviews, you might remember I had a "HOT" "COLD" and "ROOM TEMPERATURE" system. Well, I'm tired of that. I now introduce my new system: a Four Star rating! With real stars!
What's the difference? Now there's four tiers instead of three!
Does it change much? No!
Does it mean anything? No!
Am I having flashbacks of Jim Tracy interviews right now? Yes!
Enough of that, let's do this!
Hiroki Kuroda - Kuroda only had one start this week, but went 8.0 innings and surrendered only one unearned run while striking out seven.
Matt Kemp - Painful error in Sunday's game aside, Kemp went 9-28 this week, with three doubles and a (monster) homerun. A side note: maybe it's just me, but does it seem like Kemp is chasing more bad breaking balls this year? He was definitely showing improvement on that aspect of his game last season, but so far this week, he's taken some bad hacks at sliders he'll never get to. Chalk it up to Opening Week nerves?
Ronnie Belliard - Belliard made the most of his playing time this week, going 6-12. He went 3-5 on Thursday with a double, a triple, and a homerun, just missing out on the cycle. If he keeps this up, he might make a case for more playing time.
Charlie Haeger - Haeger went 6.0 solid innings in his start, striking out 12 ... 12 (!) Marlins. He did surrender a pretty ugly three run homerun to Jorge Cantú and allowed a fourth unearned run (see aforementioned painful Matt Kemp error) but I won't hold that against him. Six innings, three runs is almost exactly what you'd hope for from a 5th starter.
Chad Billingsley - Billingsley went 5.1 innings in his only start this week, and was solid. He only gave up one run while striking out seven. Still, he gave up five hits and four walks in just those 5.1 innings, and saw his pitch count over 100 by the 6th inning, and that my friends, is not pitching effectively.
Russ Ortiz - Ortiz had two good outings (three innings) to start the season before imploding on Friday. Ortiz came into the game in the 9th inning, with a 7-1 lead, gave up a single, retired one batter, and gave up two walks to load the bases, bringing Joe Torre out of the dugout to pull him.
Ramon Ortiz - The other half of the Ortiz power hour, Ramon had almost the opposite week of Russ. Ramon went two scoreless innings in his third outing on Saturday. This, unfortunately, was only after his first outing, when he allowed three inherited runners to score before giving up a run of his own, and his second outing, in which he allowed the Pirates to score the winning run in the 10th inning on Wednesday.
Clayton Kershaw - Kershaw struggled a lot in his first start. A LOT. He only made it 4.2 innings while giving up five hits and walking six. By the time Kershaw was pulled with two outs in the 5th inning, he had made 109 pitches and left with the bases loaded. Jeff Weaver came in and got out of the inning without any more damage. It was not a good start to the season for Kershaw. On the other hand, he still managed to only give up three runs, so I can't bump him down to 1 STAR.
Vicente Padilla - Padilla made two starts this week in which he only made it 4.1 innings into the game. In his first start, he was charged with seven runs (three given up by Ramon Ortiz). In his second start, he gave up four runs and left with two runners on in the 5th before Weaver came in to bail him out.
George Sherrill - Sherrill gave up two runs in 27.2 innings of work last year for us. In three games this year (two innings), Sherrill has given up five runs. On Monday, he gave up a big three run homerun that basically closed the door on any hope of a comeback in that game. On Saturday, he blew a save and gave the Marlins a win by surrendering two runs in the bottom of the 9th.
Ok, there you have it. The Stars and lesser Stars of the first week that was. 2-4. Sigh.
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.
We're back, for another week recap.
Dodgers started the week splitting two games with the Cardinals, before losing the third game and the series.
They started the next series by taking three straight from the Cubs, before the Cubs won the fourth game, avoiding the sweep.
They went 4-3 during the week, going over .500 in a week for the first time in the last month. All things considered, not a terrible week.
Which brings us to Round 17 of HOT, COLD, or ROOM TEMPERATURE:
COLD:
- Rafael Furcal - .167 (5-30), 2 RBIs, 5 Ks - Furcal's season long slump continues. Which begs the question, how long does a slump go in a season before you just declare the season a waste? Furcal's shown some flashes of brilliance recently, but this week was a regression.
- Manny Ramírez - .200 (5-25), 1 2B, 1 RBI, 3 BBs, 5 Ks - Talk about slumping. Manny's been pretty punchless recently (.240 slg this week) but now he's not even getting the regular base hits.
ROOM TEMPERATURE:
- Casey Blake - .250 (6-24), 2 HRs, 4 RBIs, 6 Ks - Not too many hits this week for Blake, but he did drive in some runs, including two on solo homeruns. It's good to see Blake flashing a little power again after hitting only one homerun in 34 games from June 27th to August 6th. He's hit three since then (obviously two in the last week).
HOT:
- Matt Kemp - .333 (7-21), 2 2Bs, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 5 Ks, 1-2 SBs, .905 OPS - A nice week for Kemp, despite blowing his bobblehead night (0-4).
- George Sherrill - 0-0, 1 SV, 2 HLDs (3 games), 0.00 ERA (3.1 IP), 2 Ks - Sherrill collected his first save as a Dodger this week, but this "HOT" is just to acknowledge that Sherrill has been excellent since arriving in L.A. He's appeared in 11 games so far, going 11.2 scoreless innings while holding opponents to a .195 BAA. He's also picked up six holds over that time, plus the save this week.
- Randy Wolf - 1-0 (1 start), 1.29 ERA (1 ER in 7.0 IP), 5 Ks - Only one start this week for Wolf, but another quality one, holding the Cubs to one hit over seven innings. Good stuff.
- Jonathan Broxton - 0-1, 2 SVs, 1 HLD (5 games), 0.00 ERA (1 unearned run in 5.1 IP), 9 Ks - A nice bounce back week for Broxton, the only black mark being the loss he took against the Cardinals, though that could be attributed as much to Russell Martin as to Broxton. Either way, I guess he doesn't need time off like I suggested last week.
- Charlie Haeger - 1-1 (2 starts), 1.93 ERA (3 ER in 14.0 IP), 9 Ks - Haeger had to face the Cardinals' and Cubs' lineups this week, and came out pretty unscathed. In fact, Haeger was probably only two bad pitches away from shutting down both teams this week. For a guy who was just supposed to come up and eat some innings, he's done a lot more than that for the Dodgers. Whether this keeps up or not is yet to be seen, but for now, I'm just going to enjoy watching that knuckleball dance.
Alright, big time series coming up now. Three games in Colorado. The Rockies play later tonight, and depending on how that goes, they could be either 3 or 4 games behind by the end of the night. Looking at the pitching matchups, they seem to favor us, but with the way the Dodgers have been hitting, who knows?
Hey peeps. Another week, another week recap. Let's do it.
The Dodgers started the week strong enough, taking two out of three from the Giants, in San Francisco.
This, however, was followed up by a poor showing in Arizona, where the Dodgers lost their first two games, before beating down the D-Backs in the third game to avoid the sweep.
And with that, let's do Round 16 of HOT, COLD, or ROOM TEMPERATURE:
COLD:
- Casey Blake - .095 (2-21), 1 3B, 5 BBs, 11 Ks - Oh Casey. What happened? Striking out in more than half of your at-bats? That's poor form, Mr. Blake. Poor form, indeed.
- Russell Martin - .091 (2-22), 2 Ks - Russell Martin was moved into the 2nd spot in the lineup at the beginning of the week and responded by not hitting. Not to say he's not trying. Only two strikeouts. He's just not hitting it where they ain't. One of his hits came on Sunday, after he was moved back into the 7 spot. And he also missed another two on good plays by Stephen Drew. Hey, who knows? Maybe this week he'll find a few holes.
- Jonathan Broxton - 13.50 ERA (3 ER in 2.0 IP) 1-2 SVs (2 games), 3 HRs - Broxton is struggling. There's been a lot of talk this week in the blogosphere over what to do with Broxton. Some say promote George Sherrill to closer. Others say leave Broxton alone. Others say, put him on the DL. Frankly, each side has valid arguments. I'm still riding the fence on this, but I'm starting to think that maybe Broxton needs a DL trip. Sherrill has proven himself to be reliable, he can take over the closer role for a few weeks. Broxton has given up a run in four of his last seven outings. He gave up three homeruns this week after giving up only one this entire season. And watch some video of the homeruns. They are bad pitches. Really mis-located fastballs and flat sliders. He's become hittable. So, I propose we give him a couple weeks off now, let him regroup, let him keep off his feet (I know he says his toe isn't a problem, I'm not convinced it isn't the source of all this). Let Broxton relax for a couple weeks, then, bring him back and make him the closer again.
ROOM TEMPERATURE:
- Hiroki Kuroda - 1-0 (2 starts), 1.59 ERA (2 ER in 11.1 IP) - I wasn't entirely sure what to do with Kuroda's week. Statistically, it was an excellent week. In actuality, it was a pretty bad week for Kuroda. You've probably seen it, but just in case, in Kuroda's start against Arizona, he was hit in the head with a comebacker and had to be taken to the hospital. Though, and this also led to my confusion, maybe he should be looking on the bright side. He's not seriously injured, or worse. The x-rays and scans came back negative, so he'll live to fight another day. When that day will be is yet to be seen, but above all, his recovery is the most important thing. So, good for his stats, bad that he got hit, good that he wasn't seriously hurt. (P.S. SoSG takes an interesting look at Kuroda's pitching mechanics. It's easy to see how what happened was probable.)
- Manny Ramírez - .348 (8-23), 2 2Bs, 1 HR, 3 RBIs, 3 BBs, 7 Ks - Yeah, Manny hit .348 this week, but like I warned last week, it's all in context. Manny had three good games this week (2-4, 2-3, 3-4), and three bad games (0-3, 1-5, 0-4). He's riding a weird roller coaster, showing up and looking good in one game, then coming back the very next day, going 0-3 and striking out twice. Just odd.
HOT:
- Andre Ethier - .440 (11-25), 3 2Bs, 1 HR, 7 RBIs, 1.180 OPS - Ethier continues to hit extra base hits, and drive in runs, but after being pretty good for the last month and a half or so, he's finally starting to see that average rise again (up to .281 as of today). Also, he continues to be clutch, adding a huge game-tying base hit in game three of the San Francisco series (that was lost in extra innings by the bullpen) to his series of late-inning hits this season.
- Randy Wolf - 2-0 (2 starts), 2.30 ERA (4 ER in 15.2 IP), 13 Ks - And the stats don't tell the whole story. When you look at the box score for Sunday's game, you see Wolf went 7.2 IP, giving up three earned runs. And while that's nice, the final line is almost a slap to the face of the game Wolf actually pitched, holding the D-Backs to 1 hit over seven innings, retiring 20 in a row, striking out 10. And on top of that, Wolf went 4-8 at the plate this week, with a double, a homerun, and three RBIs. Overall, not too bad a week.
Tough couple of series coming up. Cardinals and Cubs. I'm going to the game tonight. I'll get to see a knuckleballer! Charlier Haeger is going against the Cardinals. It might not be pretty, but it should be interesting.
Whilst reading the articles on Dodgers.com, something struck me as rather odd, and perhaps disturbing.
You see, the Dodgers are looking at possibly carrying up to five non-roster players on the Opening Day 25-man.
That's good, I do like the occasional reclamation project. Five might be too many, but still, I can live with it.
Let's take a look at who's in the running: Doug Mientkiewicz and Juan Castro. Ok... I'd rather keep Delwyn Young around, but Mientkiewicz and Castro are having good Springs, they are pretty good defensively, and they are versatile. I can live with these two on the roster.
Who else do we have?
Either Erick Threets or Brian Mazone will probably make the roster as the second left handed reliever. I did read another story that Will Ohman was working out for the Dodgers, and I'd like to go with him, but if we don't sign him, Mazone has had an excellent Spring and Threets is young and has some good stuff. I'd be ok with either as the lefty outta da pen.
Oh, here's a name: Jeff Weaver. He's not had a great Spring, a 7.00 ERA in eight appearances over 9.0 innings. Ummm... maybe not a great choice to make it off the non-roster invitee list. Especially because there's a couple of guys who've had better Springs as reliever, but hey, maybe Torre wants to go with a proven (kinda) name like Weaver over a Nick DeBarr (5.06 ERA in eight games, 5.1 innings), Jesus Castillo (3.86 ERA in four games, 4.2 innings), or Charlie Haeger (2.08 ERA in four games, 4.1 innings). Fine. I guess we can go with Weaver as the long relief/12th guy out of the bullpen kinda role. Why not? How much damage can he do?
Alright, that's four. Who's the fifth guy...
What? WHAT?
"The way manager Joe Torre is talking... Tanyon Sturtze... [is] alive in competition for [a job] as Spring Training winds down."
WHAT?!?
No!
"Oh hai dere! I'm just here to ruin your 25-man roster."
NO!!!
No Tanyon Sturtze! This was the guy last year, that when Designated for Assignment, opted instead to linger around with the club than pitch in the minors or look for another job.
He was the pitching coach last year in the final game of the season, which I thought meant he had practically retired.
Sturtze has a 5.14 ERA in nine games (7.0 innings) this Spring, which admittedly sounds not bad (though not really good for that matter, either). He's been better than Jeff Weaver, but still not better than any of the three names I previously mentioned (DeBarr, Castillo, Haeger).
Hell, if we're going down this road, I'd rather give Ramon Troncoso the job. He's got near similar numbers, but I think he's still got something left in the tank. He's got a 5.19 ERA in eight games (8.2 innings) this Spring.
But if we're going with Sturtze, here's the thing you don't get from Sturtze in his ERA, he's given up two walks and 11 HITS in his 7.0 innings of work. 
He's only given up four earned runs, but SIX runs overall. Sturtze's 5.14 ERA is much better than his performance indicates.
So why in the world is Sturtze getting possible consideration for a spot on the 25-man roster and in the bullpen?
This is the thing about Joe Torre that absolutely kills me. He plays favorites to no end. The article inadvertently (maybe not?) admits it.
"Three of them -- Weaver, Sturtze and Mientkiewicz -- played for Torre with the Yankees."
It's this crazy inclination on going with the veteran who doesn't have a lot left in the tank over a kid who shows promise. And while this is great for guys like Mientkiewicz, Weaver, and (*shiver*) Sturtze, guys like Delwyn Young and Charlie Haeger are screwed out of jobs, their only crime being that they aren't old enough to have played under Torre before.
And sometimes that just makes you stop and say: "What?!?"
