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.
What's this? A blog post?! Yes it is. I should point out that I've pretty much abandoned this blog and moved my Dodger opining exclusively to Twitter.
Except, that is, for when I have thoughts longer than 140 characters (not often).
Anyway, the Dodgers stand 6-4 after ten games, and I have some thoughts.
1. I'm still worried about this somewhat patchwork roster. Of the 25 men to make the roster, I'm still at unease with five of them.
Hector Gimenez had a good spring, but, frankly, he's looked overmatched more than a few times in the major leagues. He's on the DL now, with a phantom knee injury and I'm in no hurry to get him back.
Aaron Miles. I don't get the point. He's not a good hitter, not a great fielder. Jamey Carroll does everything he does and does it better. I guess with health questions hanging over the heads of both Rafael Furcal (who, as I'm writing this, it turns out has a broken thumb) and Casey Blake, you need another utility infielder around. I just wish we had better options than Miles. I'm no big fan of Ivan De Jesus, but at least he can provide the club some defensive value. And Mattingly won't be tempted to bat him leadoff or second.
Mike MacDougal and Lance Cormier. MacDougal was good at one point, but that was many moons ago. He's been ok so far in his relief appearances, giving up just a homerun over three innings of work. Cormier isn't a great option, barely squeaked onto the roster at the end of Spring Training, and has already given up four runs in four innings. I'm guessing Vicente Padilla, whenever he returns, kicks out Cormier and we just end up hoping MacDougal doesn't blow up in our faces, but that's really less than ideal.
AJ Ellis/Dioner Navarro. Ok, so this is more a technicality. Navarro wasn't really on the Opening Day roster and he's the one I have more of a problem with, but this is my blog, so deal with it. I'm not a big proponent of AJ Ellis. I like his on-base skills, but he has the power stroke of a four year old girl. Still, he seems to call a pretty decent game, and he's more than comfortable with our starting pitchers. And it's not like Dioner Navarro, who hit .258/.294/.323 in Spring Training (and .194/.270/.258 last year) is really a guaranteed offensive improvement. If Mattingly is intent on catching Rod Barajas almost every day (though in fairness to Mattingly, the way his roster was built, he has little choice), then I'm ok with Ellis as backup. Again, this is really less than ideal. It's an unfortunate by-product of the way this roster was put together.
2. If this team wants to continue to do well this season, we're going to need some players to not regress too much, and others to progress a whole lot more.
I love what Matt Kemp has done this first week and a half. He's been a man on fire. It's fantastic. But before we all freak out too much, let's not forget that Kemp, in his first 10 games last season, hit .333/.385/.756 with five homeruns, four doubles, and five walks. And we all remember how last season turned out. I'm not trying to be a downer, but I'm just reminding everyone that the .441 batting average Kemp has right not is almost certainly going to drop.
The key is making sure it doesn't drop too much.
The same goes for Tony Gwynn. He's had a pretty solid start to the season. And I really like the defense he provides in the outfield. But I have doubts we can trust him to continue hitting .333 like he has so far. However, if he can stay somewhere in the high .200s and continue with his excellent defense, I'll be ok with him taking a majority of the starts in left field.
On the flip side, Juan Uribe and James Loney are killing me. Both are hitting in the .100s (.129 and .154 respectively) and neither is drawing walks or getting extra base hits (0 BB, 1 2B for Uribe; 2 BB, 1 2B, 1 HR for Loney). These were the two guys expected to battle it out to be the third option behind Ethier and Kemp on offense. Instead, it feels like the entire offense is resting its hopes on Ethier, and more so Kemp to get anything done. The 5, 6, 7 spots in the lineup have been a black hole.
If these two can turn it on, I'll feel a lot better about our chances in 2011.
And isn't how I feel what really matters?
So, I was watching the first round of the MLB draft on MLB Network earlier today, and the Dodgers were on the clock.
Now despite the fact that I know almost absolutely nothing about the kids being drafted except the most basic of information (I've heard good things about #1 pick Bruce Howard ... he's going to be the next Steve Strasman) I still get pumped for the draft.
Horrible, insane looking Strasburg picture courtesy of Yahoo! Sports.
So even though I had to sit through Bud Selig pronounce Los Angeles as "Los Angeleees" several times, I patiently awaited the announcement of the Dodger pick.
The time came, and Bud Selig stepped to the podium in all his wrinkly glory and proclaimed the Dodgers had selected Zach Lee with the 28th pick.
And almost immediately there was some negativity. The Twitter-sphere was confused. The MLB Network guys already started talking about signability issues. And then, oddly enough, in the space where the MLB Network guys had been showing scouting footage of other players all day, they began showing clips of Zach Lee playing high school football.
And that was it. They showed some grainy footage of Lee completing a pass in some football game then went immediately to an interview with an unrelated old guy.
It was all very ... different.
I mean, seriously. Google Image search "Zachary Lee baseball" and you get mostly football pictures.
Response continued to pour in, most of it confused or unfavorable.
Jim Callis chimed in with: "WOW. LAD was about the last team I would have expected to take Zack Lee. Can they really sign him?"
Joe Sheehan felt that the Dodgers were "blatantly pushing [their] pick into 2011."
The more I read about, the more it started to seem like the biggest question was not whether Lee would be signed or not, but rather: is the best analogy for what the Dodgers did in the first round a punt or a fold?
I mean, this kid seems all ready to go play two sports as LSU next year. Some reports say he was asking for at least $5 million before considering not fulfilling his commitment to LSU (although others have said it's all a ploy to get more money at the bargaining table).
Basically, a big part of the picture being painted here is something like this: Lee is going to need a lot of money to sign. A lot. (Lest you forget that Matt Kemp is only making $4 million this year.) The rest of the picture is two words: Frank McCourt. As a whole, the picture looks pretty bleak.
But I started giving it some thought.
First I read the article on Dodgers.com. Logan White was optimistic, saying:
"People can think what they want, he was the best talent available and I want to sign him, absolutely ... I didn't take Zach to not sign him. You'll see as the summer goes along we'll make every effort to sign him, and I want to sign him. I know it won't be easy, but hopefully we'll get it done."
Now sure, this is probably just a PR job, and White said almost the exact same thing after the Dodgers picked a similarly unsignable Luke Hochevar in 2005:
"We took him with the intention of signing him. I talked to Scott a couple days ago. I feel he's signable. He wants to play. As long as the family thinks we're fair, I think the kid will sign."
I and my 5.35 career ERA demand 40 million dollars!
Still, despite all the evidence mounting against actually getting this signing done, I kept thinking about it and finally I came to this peace:
What's the worst that could happen?
Well, I mean other than spending millions of dollars on Lee to have him be a total bust.
There's really two scenarios to what happens here:
1. McCourt shells out the money, the Dodgers sign a good young pitcher.
2. The Dodgers don't sign him, he goes to college, and the Dodgers get another high pick in next years draft, which is expected to have a higher quality of amateur talent than this year's draft.
The key to all this is the fact that Lee is a quality prospect and as such, I think I can appreciate this technique. White didn't draft a more mediocre prospect who might sign for less. White went for broke.
I guess, ultimately, there's two ways to look at this: either the Dodgers punted/folded a first round pick in an act of cheapness/insanity or ... or the Dodgers made a shrewd pick at number 28 that's a possible win-win.
Of course, I might just be trying to talk some sense into a first day of the draft that didn't seem to have much.
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.
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.
So, I haven't written a blog post in almost a month. But can you really blame me? There hasn't really been a substantial bit of news in that time.
Matt Kemp is dating Rihanna? Good for him, but how sad is it that the biggest news the Dodgers have had in the last month was reported by TMZ?
Big News.
What then, you might ask, is this post about? Well, a small bit of Dodger news was reported today and I'm jumping all over it for two reasons. One: Guilt for not posting anything for about three and a half weeks. Two: I'm starving for any kind of Dodger news. I keep checking Dodger news sites and blogs just hoping for some sign of a pulse in this team's offseason.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, that pulse was found today!
The Dodgers have signed ... RUSS ORTIZ!
HUZZAH! HUZZAH! ...
Wait a second. Russ Ortiz? RUSS ORTIZ?! WHAT?! WHY?!
Look, normally I'm a sucker for these stupid "Local Boy Comes Home to Pitch for Dodgers" stories, but even I can't get behind this one.
Russ Ortiz? Russ Ortiz who's last "just above average" year was 2004? Russ Ortiz who's has been dreadful in every following year (and I mean dreadful, ERAs: 6.89, 8.14, 5.51, 5.57)?
Russ Ortiz, seen here being slightly above-average.
Oh, and the Dodgers signed Michael Restovich, too, which immediately places him 7th on the Dodger outfielder depth chart, behind Jamie Hoffmann, who's on another team.
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."
Ok, well, I was going to award the Gold Glove today. And I was going to award it to Matt Kemp for the second year in a row. I was going to do this because I felt he was good enough last year to be the team's Gold Glove and I think he's only improved since then.
And then I was going to talk about how Kemp's defense is underrated. And complain he doesn't get enough accolades for it. Yadda yadda...
Well, lookie here. I guess I don't need to do that.
Matt Kemp snagged the first Gold Glove of his career. Congratulations also to Orlando Hudson for getting his 4th Gold Glove.
So, my award was negated by the real one, but in any case, Matt Kemp is your "J's Dodger Blog 2009 Gold Glove" winner.
Hey, look at that. A good week! Not a great week, but winning both series, and winning 4 of 6 during the week is still pretty good.
And more importantly, another week ticks off the season, and the teams chasing us slowly start running out of time.
On the bad side, for the first time in over a month, Dodger pitching surrendered more than four runs (in the first 9 innings) in Sunday's 7-2 loss to the Giants. Congrats, though, to the pitching staff for keeping it going that long.
In any case, let's do Round 19 of HOT, COLD, or ROOM TEMPERATURE:
COLD:
- Chad Billingsley - 0-1 (2 starts), 6.30 ERA (7 ER in 10.0 IP), 16 H - Two starts for Billingsley this week. His first was... ok... I guess. Four earned runs in 6.0 IP (8 hits, 3 BBs). His second start was less so. Three earned runs in only 4.0 IP (another 8 hits). Frankly, Billingsley has become hittable. Again, 16 hits in 10 innings. Either way, Billingsley is going to skip his next start, and I'm totally for it. He should sit back, relax, and clear his head a little bit. Something is off with Billingsley, here's to hoping he can get back on track.
ROOM TEMPERATURE:
- Matt Kemp - .259 (7-27), 2 2Bs, 3 RBIs, 1 BB, 6 Ks, 2 SBs, 1 GiDP - A better week for Kemp. He actually collected a hit in every game this week. Unfortunately, it ended up being pretty much only one per game (1-5, 1-5, 1-4, 2-4, 1-5, 1-4). Still, nice to see some improvement this week over last week.
HOT:
- Manny Ramírez - .400 (6-15), 1 3B, 2 HRs, 4 RBIs, 4 BBs, 4 Ks - I don't think I've awarded Manny a "HOT" since April, but he deserved it this week. Couple of homeruns, and a triple! Come on, you know how much those dreads weigh? It's hard to run with those.
- Russell Martin - .286 (6-21), 1 2B, 2 HRs, 9 RBIs, 3 BBs - Yeah, not too many hits, but hits when they counted. And RBIs. Oh, so many RBIs. Good week for Martin, who like Manny, hasn't had too many.
- Vicente Padilla - 2-0 (2 starts), 1.50 ERA (2 ER in 12.0 IP), 8 Ks - Who would of thought Padilla would be such a good pickup? I mean seriously. He's made four starts for us, and each has been pretty good. Vicente Padilla? Good? ...what in the world?
- Hiroki Kuroda - 1-0 (1 start), 2.25 ERA (2 ER in 8.0 IP), 5 Ks - It's really nice when Kuroda whips out one of these fantastic performances. It's doubly nice when he does it in just his second start back from a horrific head injury.
- James Loney - .381 (8-21), 1 2B, 3 HRs, 8 RBIs, 4 BBs, 1.319 OPS - Seriously, what's going on this week? Manny, Martin, now Loney? All these guys who have been quietly floating through this season have suddenly showed up this week. I guess it doesn't matter why it's happening, just that it is. If everyone starts to contribute on this team, and the offense starts going at all gears, we might finally return to being that scary team we were at the beginning of the year.
Alright folks, Pirates come into town for a three game set. Then we get the Giants again, for the last time this season. Another good week would do real well for our playoff hopes.
Meanwhile, I'm going to the game tonight, and I got to get going. Free Dodger Dogs await me.
In this instance, the Dodger offense is Lisa. And I'm the crazy foreign guy.
The Dodgers went down 4-3 today to the Arizona Diamondbacks. And while most of today's blame lays at the feet of Ramon Troncoso, the struggling Dodger offense can not go unnoticed.
Take a look at our results from the last month. At first glance, they look pretty average. In fact, since August 9th, we have gone 16-13. Talk about uninspired baseball.
So what? Yeah, we've been playing kind of lame, but we still went three games over .500 over that span. What's the big deal? The big deal is that we could have done so much more.
Here's the kicker. In the 29 games we've played the last month, Dodgers pitching has not surrendered more than four runs in any game during the nine regulation innings. Yes, there were two instances where the pitching gave up five runs, both coming in the 10th inning. Ok, fine. But let me repeat that first fact, because it bears repeating. No more than four runs a game. For an entire month.
Basically, the Dodgers, if they scored 5 or more runs in the first nine innings a game, could be guaranteed, with 100% accuracy, of winning said game. A guarantee. For an entire month.
I mean, look at it like this. Say, at the beginning of the season, I told you that for a whole month during the season, Dodger pitching would not give up more than four runs in a game. If you looked at our lineup, what would you expect our team would go over that span? 24-5? 25-4? Little better? Little worse? Something like that right? How could a lineup as stacked as ours, from 1-8, not manage to scrape together just five runs a game? Manny is good for one or two. Ethier? Kemp? Blake? They could add one. Maybe Furcal. Or Hudson. Even Loney and Martin. Someone could step up and contribute. Five runs is nothing.
And this is what is tearing me apart. We shouldn't be just 2.5 games in front of Colorado. We shouldn't be playing just above .500 baseball.
With the kind of pitching we're getting, and the kind of offense we're supposed to be getting, we should be destroying the league. Instead, the playoff race is getting uncomfortably close. Like, smelly guy on the bus sitting next to you close.
And the worst part about all this: what do you do about it? What do you say to these guys to make them start getting timely hits again? It's infuriating.
Here's the silver lining, I guess: we still have a 6.5 game lead on the Giants for the wild card.
I just hope we don't have to use it...
Hey, remember last week when I said: "...we still need to beat up on the teams we should be beating up on, starting tonight against Arizona."
NO ONE IS LISTENING TO ME!!!
The Dodgers went 3-4 this week against the fourth and fifth place teams in our division. That's just ugly.
Let's just do Round 18 of COLD, HOT, or ROOM TEMPERATURE:
COLD:
- Russell Martin - .217 (5-23), 1 2B, 1 RBI, 2 BBs, 3 Ks - Interesting week for Martin, who found himself leading off at the beginning of it. He was quickly moved back into the bottom third of the lineup. Nothing seemed to matter. Another bad week in what is a pretty bad year.
- Orlando Hudson - .214 (3-14), 1 2B, 1 BB, 3 Ks - Hudson only made it into four games this week. Why? Ronnie Belliard started taking starts away from him. Maybe for good reason. Hudson is struggling at the plate, and if he doesn't start turning it around, he might find himself losing more starts.
- Matt Kemp - .160 (4-25), 2 HR, 3 RBIs, 1 BB, 4 Ks - Tough week for Kemp, who still came through with a couple homeruns, but not much else. Though not for lack of trying. Only four strikeouts in the week. He's just not hitting them where they ain't.
ROOM TEMPERATURE:
- Clayton Kershaw - 0-1 (1 start), 1.50 ERA (1 ER, 2 R, 6.0 IP) - Statistically, it was not a bad week for Kershaw. But, oh, what's this? "Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw will miss his next start after bruising his right shoulder when he ran into the outfield wall during batting practice." Now this is an important thing to note, and I can't stress this enough, especially for young pitchers: DO NOT RUN INTO WALLS! Again, I cannot stress this enough. You may think running into a wall might have some added benefit, or hey, maybe it even looks fun. I can assure you, it's not. So please, for the sake of the children, do not run into walls.
HOT:
- Ronnie Belliard - .304 (7-23), 1 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBIs, 1 BB, 6 Ks - Yeah, I could probably do with less strikeouts, but Belliard was actually one of the few guys in the lineup who was coming up with some big hits this week, including smacking a homerun in his very first at-bat in Dodger blue.
- Jonathan Broxton - 0-0, 3 SVs (4 games), 0.00 ERA (4 IP), 7 Ks - Good week for Broxton. He gave up just a few hits here and there, but mostly, he's been effective. Keeping the pitch count low, getting some strikeouts, and probably, most importantly, not walking anyone this week.
- Randy Wolf - 1-0 (2 starts), 2.77 ERA (4 ER in 13.0 IP), 12 Ks - Wolf continues to be one of the more solid, reliable starters in our rotation. Not much more to say about Wolf that hasn't already been said. Just, keep up the good work, I guess.
- Jon Garland - 1-0 (1 start), 2.57 ERA (2 ER in 7.0 IP), 6 Ks - A nice homecoming for the kid from Valencia. He started out kind of slow, but settled in and really delivered an excellent start. Plus, he made himself a strong contender for the number four spot in the playoffs.
Another series with Arizona? I'm so tired of them. Then this weekend, we'll take on San Francisco in a pretty big series. This would be a good time for our hitting to start kicking it into gear.
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?
On the bright side, Uribe did end up the star of one of the best baseball memes of the season.
