So, I guess that happened. That being the entire 2011 season. Anyway, I just had a couple of thoughts that were too long for Twitter and decided to post them here.
1. Before the season began, I thought to myself that if everything went right this season the Dodgers could get somewhere around 86 wins and (again, all things going right) that might allow them to win the division. That meant Casey Blake contributing (ha), getting quality innings from Jon Garland (Ha), getting a lot of scoreless outings from Broxton, Kuo, and Vicente Padilla (HA!), and getting a handful of homeruns and some solid defense from Juan Uribe (HAHAHA!). Obviously, things didn't go right.
Of course, I never imagined the Diamondbacks would win 94 games, so that really blew everything away anyway.
Still, for all the injuries and question marks, the Dodgers had a great second half and still ended up winning 82 games. Even though there's no reward for finishing in 3rd place in your division, there's still some pride to be had in having a winning record for this season, especially because a few months ago, winning 70 games seemed like a barely achievable goal.
This team deserves a lot of credit for the strong finish. And that means a lot coming from me, considering how cynical and "dead inside" I've been for the last several months.
2. Speaking of credit, James Loney deserves a bunch for saving himself from what was quickly becoming a horrific season. He somehow managed himself 12 homeruns and a line of .288/.339/.416. That's not that much worse than his career numbers. 2011 actually turned out to be a very James Loney year.
Does this mean he shouldn't still be non-tendered this offseason? Yes and no. I know that's not an answer. Let me explain.
If there is money to spend for free agents this offseason, 1st base is definitely in need of an upgrade. But let's be honest, the budget will probably be conservative. Where is McCourt going to get the money to sign big checks? If that's the case, might as well keep Loney (this route might include non-tendering him and resigning him cheaper). There's not a whole lot of sense in letting Loney go and creating a hole at first base if the front office isn't going to have the money available to replace him.
(Quickly, while I'm still partially on the subject, Rod Barajas had a totally Rod Barajas year as well: 16 homeruns and a line of .230/.287/.430. Compare that to his career line of .238/.284/.414. I guess you couldn't ask for more?)
3. Dee Gordon, Jerry Sands, and Rubby De La Rosa (may his 2012 season rest in peace) have me excited for the future. Flashes of brilliance from all three.
4. Finally, Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp.
Granted, I'm biased, but these two should be Cy Young and MVP, respectively. Both races are going to be close, and both players should be really proud of themselves no matter where they finish in the race.
A lot has been said about who should win what and for what reasons, so I won't get into it too heavily. I'll just say this about Matt Kemp:
If Matt Kemp had won the Triple Crown (ignoring how unimportant the stats that make up the Triple Crown are) he'd probably be a near unanimous MVP choice. Kemp finished the season at the top of the leaderboard in both homeruns and RBIs. He finished with a .324 batting average, coming in third to Ryan Braun (.332) and Jose Reyes (.337). Kemp was 195 for 602 on the season. If Kemp had gone 203 for 602, he would have finished the season batting .33721 to Reyes' .3371 (181 for 537).
What I'm saying is this: Kemp missed out on the batting title in the Triple Crown race by eight hits. Eight. This is over a six month season. That's something like just one more hit every three weeks of the season. One bloop single here or there. A lucky hop. A squib single towards a 3rd baseman who was playing too far back. A fly ball that an outfielder loses in the sun and never gets his glove on. A line drive or ground ball that stays fair instead of just drifting foul. Eight hits over the course of a long season is so, so minimal.
Point being, if you would have voted for Kemp had he won the Triple Crown but wouldn't now that he just missed out on it, consider how very slim the margin was here. If missing just eight hits over an entire season costs Kemp the MVP award, it would be a tremendous shame.
Last thing, still related to Kemp and Kershaw.
It is such a travesty that the Dodgers have, arguably, the best young starting pitcher and the best young position player in the league and the best they can do is finish 3rd in the NL West.
These two young players are in or entering their prime and they are being surrounded by players the likes of Juan Uribe and Eugenio Velez (not that Velez cost this team their shot at the playoffs, but I think you get my point). Frank McCourt won't, or can't, spend big to improve the team, and the small amount of money he does allot, Ned Colletti wastes on poor free agent signings (Matt Guerrier is still owed $7.5 million over the next two years).
They've turned what should be something great into a mess.
I guess if I were to point a single reason why I only went to one home game this season (and the tickets were bought by someone else) it'd be that. So, there you go, McCourt. If you are wondering why attendance is down so much this year, it's you. You are the face of a group of people that have turned this great franchise into one of constant upheaval, and one, worst of all, that has begun to squander some of the best years of its brightest young players.
Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw should be the center pieces of a 100 win team heading for the playoffs. Instead, they are heading home before the start of October while McCourt still sits in court trying to get control of a team no one wants him to have.
At least, that's just my reason for attending the fewest amount of Dodger games in season since I was a little kid ... though, what am I but just another fan?
God, this got depressing. I didn't mean for it to be, but whenever I get to thinking about the number McCourt has done to this franchise, I start to go to a dark place.
Sorry.
I'm going to take a couple of deep breaths and get myself ready for the offseason.
The Dodgers announced today that they have resigned Vicente Padilla to a one year contract worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million.
Now, I'm having trouble deciding how I feel about this.For one, I don't care much for Vicente Padilla, the man. And that's not just me, lest we forget his Rangers teammates threw a small party when they learned he was let go from the team last year. But this is also the guy who mysteriously got shot in the leg this offseason. Seriously, did we ever get the straight story about what went down? The article on Dodgers.com said he did it, but until I just read that, I was pretty sure his bodyguard did it. Look, this has obviously nothing to do with his pitching skills. I'm just saying that this guy seems to have trouble follow him around wherever he goes.
Also, is it Vincente or Vicente? That always messes me up.
Which Padilla is going to show up for us in 2010? Is it going to be the one who posted a 4.92 ERA in Texas for the good part of 2009, or the one who showed up in Los Angeles and had a 3.20 ERA over seven starts and made two excellent starts in the playoffs?
Also, how many innings can we get out of Padilla? In his last six seasons, Padilla only made over 30 starts and cracked 200 innings just once, in 2006.
To be honest, I was hoping to fill the #4 starter spot with Jon Garland (or someone like him, though, really, I'm too lazy to think of a comparable name on the Free Agent market). Garland is someone who has made 30+ starts in each of his last eight seasons and has gone 200+ innings in five of those (the other three ending with him in the 190 inning range). Garland's ERA, though similar to Padilla's over that stretch, seems to be slightly lower. Oh, and, in each of those eight seasons, Garland was never run out of a city, nor has he been shot or shot somebody (or both, at the same time).
But, I guess you go into the 2010 season with the team you have, not the team you want. Look, Padilla isn't horrible. He isn't good, but he'll probably give us 20 something starts and a 4.00 ERA, which for a #4 starter at $5 million isn't horrendous.
It's just, after Milton Bradley, Jeff Kent, and Manny, you start to get a little tired of the headcases.
Hey, remember last week when I said: "...we still need to beat up on the teams we should be beating up on, starting tonight against Arizona."
NO ONE IS LISTENING TO ME!!!
The Dodgers went 3-4 this week against the fourth and fifth place teams in our division. That's just ugly.
Let's just do Round 18 of COLD, HOT, or ROOM TEMPERATURE:
COLD:
- Russell Martin - .217 (5-23), 1 2B, 1 RBI, 2 BBs, 3 Ks - Interesting week for Martin, who found himself leading off at the beginning of it. He was quickly moved back into the bottom third of the lineup. Nothing seemed to matter. Another bad week in what is a pretty bad year.
- Orlando Hudson - .214 (3-14), 1 2B, 1 BB, 3 Ks - Hudson only made it into four games this week. Why? Ronnie Belliard started taking starts away from him. Maybe for good reason. Hudson is struggling at the plate, and if he doesn't start turning it around, he might find himself losing more starts.
- Matt Kemp - .160 (4-25), 2 HR, 3 RBIs, 1 BB, 4 Ks - Tough week for Kemp, who still came through with a couple homeruns, but not much else. Though not for lack of trying. Only four strikeouts in the week. He's just not hitting them where they ain't.
ROOM TEMPERATURE:
- Clayton Kershaw - 0-1 (1 start), 1.50 ERA (1 ER, 2 R, 6.0 IP) - Statistically, it was not a bad week for Kershaw. But, oh, what's this? "Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw will miss his next start after bruising his right shoulder when he ran into the outfield wall during batting practice." Now this is an important thing to note, and I can't stress this enough, especially for young pitchers: DO NOT RUN INTO WALLS! Again, I cannot stress this enough. You may think running into a wall might have some added benefit, or hey, maybe it even looks fun. I can assure you, it's not. So please, for the sake of the children, do not run into walls.
HOT:
- Ronnie Belliard - .304 (7-23), 1 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBIs, 1 BB, 6 Ks - Yeah, I could probably do with less strikeouts, but Belliard was actually one of the few guys in the lineup who was coming up with some big hits this week, including smacking a homerun in his very first at-bat in Dodger blue.
- Jonathan Broxton - 0-0, 3 SVs (4 games), 0.00 ERA (4 IP), 7 Ks - Good week for Broxton. He gave up just a few hits here and there, but mostly, he's been effective. Keeping the pitch count low, getting some strikeouts, and probably, most importantly, not walking anyone this week.
- Randy Wolf - 1-0 (2 starts), 2.77 ERA (4 ER in 13.0 IP), 12 Ks - Wolf continues to be one of the more solid, reliable starters in our rotation. Not much more to say about Wolf that hasn't already been said. Just, keep up the good work, I guess.
- Jon Garland - 1-0 (1 start), 2.57 ERA (2 ER in 7.0 IP), 6 Ks - A nice homecoming for the kid from Valencia. He started out kind of slow, but settled in and really delivered an excellent start. Plus, he made himself a strong contender for the number four spot in the playoffs.
Another series with Arizona? I'm so tired of them. Then this weekend, we'll take on San Francisco in a pretty big series. This would be a good time for our hitting to start kicking it into gear.
So, I was at the game last night. What? Don't believe me? I'm not sure why you wouldn't. But that's ok. I have proof!
I got on television!
See me? No?
How about now? I'm the pixel blob on the right. The other two pixel blobs are my mom and grandpa. I think...
By the way, I know it's been said many times before, but Dodger Stadium is really one of the best baseball parks in the world.
Seriously.
But, I digress. While at the game, some interesting stuff went down. And we should talk about it...
Ronnie Belliard! Nice homerun!
Oh... and we traded for Jim Thome and Jon Garland. Ok, I guess if we have to talk about this, let's talk about it.
We got Thome for virtually nothing. An older low-A prospect who wasn't hitting too well, which is great.
And Thome certainly fills a void for us. He'll provide an excellent pinch hitting option off the bench, and looking into the all-to-distant future, a DH in an American League ballpark.
My only gripe with the Thome trade (and it is very minor) is just a question of how much we can actually use him. Thome himself told Ned Colletti that he can't really play first base anymore (though during the phone call he personally placed to Colletti, he did say that he was perfectly happy riding the bench and pinch hitting which, to me, shows good character from a guy I already liked). So, Thome will primarily be used as a pinch hitter. Maybe he'll get a start once or twice (if there are no lefties in the lineup to hit it at him) but ultimately, we're kinda just looking at something like 30-40 at-bats for Thome, and the possibility that somewhere down the line we use him at DH anywhere from 2-4 games. It's not too much. That's the danger with acquiring anyone this late in the year.
However, (and remember, I warned you this was just a small gripe) when looking at what we gave up for him, if Thome can affect a game or two with even just a couple of those at-bats, then he's given us value.
And now, we turn to the Jon Garland trade. At first, admittedly, a bit of a head-scratcher. Geez... I don't like that term at all. Conundrum is too extreme though. I'll have to work on this.
But, again, I digress.
Garland was acquired for a PTBNL. Now, before we discuss Garland's value, the PTBNL needs to be addressed.
So far, the only name being branded about is Tony Abreu, which would be unfortunate. Yes, Tony Abreu is probably too much for Garland, though there are certainly enough options for the positions that Abreu plays (third and shortstop are shored up for the next several years, and resigning Orlando Hudson, Ivan DeJesus Jr., and Blake DeWitt are all options at 2nd next year, not to mention Chin-lung Hu, who has recently had a resurgence in AAA). But. But... Tony Abreu's name is only being brought up in the most flimsy of manners. The D-backs beat writer said on his Twitter account that Dodger players were saying that Abreu was the PTBNL. Now, obviously, I don't know anything about a professional clubhouse, but I was under the assumption that the players weren't making the trades.
In any case, we'll see. Again, Abreu for Garland is probably too much, but even if it is Abreu, I'm not going to be too broken up over it.
Now, for Garland's worth. Like Thome, Garland probably won't be able to contribute too much this season. He'll most likely make 5-6 starts, though some of his value might come if his arrival makes Joe Torre comfortable enough to go with a six-man rotation. If Garland's arrival allows Clayton Kershaw or Chad Billingsley (or both) to skip a start or two while still providing quality pitching in their place, he'll have provided value.
The next question comes if (when?) we make the playoffs. Garland might or might not be the 4th starter. He'll probably battle it out with Kuroda for that spot, though I wouldn't mind giving it to Garland, given his prior playoff and World Series experience (2 excellent starts: 9 IP, 2 ER and 7 IP, 2 ER). Not to say Kuroda's two starts last year weren't quality, they just weren't as good. Either way, I'd be comfortable with both pitchers on the mound.
Looking at the big picture, I'm happy with both trades. Yes, the PTBNL in the Garland trade might dampen my happiness a bit, but I think I'll still take it.
Overall, pretty good, and kind of exciting to have so much happen on one night...
I mean, Ronnie Belliard hit a homerun in his first at-bat with the Dodgers.
How cool is that?
On the bright side, Uribe did end up the star of one of the best baseball memes of the season.
