Mike Easler will be replaced by Don Mattingly after the All-Star break.

With the Dodgers' offense ranking among the worst in the league, the club is expected to change hitting coaches at the All-Star break by replacing Mike Easler with Don Mattingly, according to sources close to the situation who requested anonymity because the move hasn't been finalized. Mattingly is due to take over when the Dodgers start the second half of the season in Arizona on July 18.

Manager Joe Torre declined to comment.

If Easler is dismissed, the Dodgers would have let go a hitting coach in midseason for the second consecutive year. Bill Mueller replaced Eddie Murray last June.

Easler, who is expected to be reassigned within the organization, is the Dodgers' eighth hitting coach in the last 10 seasons. The Dodgers appointed him last January, after Mattingly resigned from the coaching staff to tend to family matters amid his divorce proceedings.

Mattingly, a career .307 hitter with the New York Yankees, was on Torre's staff in New York and was signed to be his Dodgers hitting coach in November. After his resignation, he stayed on as a special assignment coach and has joined the team when it has traveled to the Midwest, near his Indiana home.

Mattingly has told the Dodgers that he is ready to coach for the rest of the season. Mattingly's agent, Ray Schulte, did not return a phone message Tuesday.

The Dodgers lead the National League in earned-run average but rank among the bottom five in runs, hits, home runs, walks, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/dodgers/la-sp-dodfyi9-2008jul09,0,6047902.story

Also, that same link has some info on the CC trade, Shapiro is quoted that the Dodgers had sincere interest but it appears once it got beyond the initial 2 for 1 deal, one of the names is reportedly Andy LaRoche, it didn't meet with what the club wanted to do.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/5mu54x

That gets priority because those people paid extra money to get mentioned while the game is going on.

Block of rooms in Peoria, nightly Adult beverages, face time with some of the "boys"....I might even go for that.

That's one of my favorite answers.

http://tinyurl.com/6a7xqh

"Report: Dodgers will make Mattingly hit coach"

So which coach are they going to make him hit?

Agree, only concern I have is doesn't it take weeks and months for a new coach to effect changes? Heads are spinning at this point changing coaches every year. But I guess Mattingly has been working with them on and off all year (which might have been adding to the mess).

That's how I make my important career decisions.

Bowa is Joe Torre's id, and Mattingly is his superego.

Flying eastward last night, a Yankee fan told me the best thing the Dodgers have going for them is Joe Torre. When I replied that I didn't think it was working out quite as well as I'd hoped, that in fact he's making some puzzling decisions that seem to be harmful to the team's prospects, she blamed it on L.A. "He's not an L.A. kind of guy."

So there you have it. It's not Torre, it's us.

Occasionally, I have to view the Bums using the mlb.tv archives. I try to ignore the highlights, as they usually foretell the outcome. However, once I saw a highlight that said that the benches had been cleared. I expected to see what is usually the worst of the worst, a baseball fight. But all it was was a bunch of guys milling around on the field and I assumed that it must of been a Mongo/gas incident.

23 Yay, Ratt found a laptop it appears. ;-)

If I was, I was probably typing the complaints on my laptop.

I am a bit schizoid, however, so anything's possible.

Anyway...if Carroll's perception is true then good for the Dodgers. Let teams try to blow us away with trade offers. If a team really, really wants one of our guys, they need to know that only offers that will impress Colletti, Ng, White and McCourt will be considered.

--

Hm, wasn't Will Carroll the one also predicting for 2 years running that Chad Billingsley's body was going to fall apart any second now?

I will probably be following tonight's game via you all plus Gameday, unless by some miracle ESPN is covering it. I love monitoring the games that way. With apologies to Merle Haggard, it's not Vin Scully, but it's not bad.

His velocity is reportedly down, so they made the deal now rather than wait a couple more weeks.

Beane really likes Gallagher apparently.

I'm saying I hope Mattingly isn't only able to help sweet swinging 1B like he was.

My irregular circuit takes me to a lot of AAA cities. I saw a game in OK City a couple months ago. I'll be in New Orleans and Portland hopefully before the season's over. I don't know what Richmond's team is doing the next couple days, but I might try to see them.

If this is accurate (and please note use of the word "if"), it may shed light on Colletti's recent tendency to dump blame on some of the player personnel people.

Also, at the game last night, there were a LOT of people booing Kemp and yelling "bring back Pierre." I had to keep my fists to myself. That said, Kemp DID suck up the joint last night.

May 9, 2002
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK200205090.shtml
Lowe: 8 IP, 1 ER, 2/1 BB/K, Win
Hudson: 7 IP, 4 ER, 1/5 BB/K, Loss

April 3, 2006
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN200604030.shtml
Lowe: 5 IP, 7 ER, 1/2 BB/K, Loss
Hudson: 4 IP, 5 ER, 3/3 BB/K, ND

May 5, 2007
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL200705050.shtml
Lowe: 7 IP, 0 ER, 2/8 BB/K, Win
Hudson: 8 IP, 3 ER, 0/3 BB/K, Loss

Chad should have been able to get through the 6th, he got by (aside from the one pitch to McCann) the toughest part of their lineup.

Call it a friendly disagreement but I don't see the harm of letting Chad continue in the game.

53 - I was fine with leaving Chad in. I thought he had two good innings left. He has often righted himself after a bad inning.

http://ussmariner.com/2008/07/07/mlb-trade-value-top-fifty/

But they cheer for Nomar. And boo Jones.

Maybe the media just dislikes front offices generally, it just when its people you don't like, it doesn't bother some as much.

What a joke, it was an ugly game but he snapped a 7 game hitting streak and gets boo'd? .... D'okay.

Maybe someone could ask Tony Jackson to elaborate on the alleged tension in the front office. No Dodger beat writers or columnists have noted it, have they?

Interesting comment from Buster Olney, he just said that there is a difference between the Brewers and the Dodgers in this sense, for Milwaukee, getting CC to go for the playoffs makes a lot of sense, for the Dodgers, trading someone like Kemp (why his name keeps coming up who knows) for CC to win the West doesn't solve the problem of how to advance through the playoffs.

http://tinyurl.com/5c4xwd

The bit about Casey Blake is also pretty peculiar seeing as Torre won't give LaRoche a chance to take 3B away from DeWitt. Unless they were going to move him to SS?

I mean I could sell it that way if I was to make that deal. And had the deal been, oh let's say LaRoche and McDonald for CC, I would be tempted to do it.

http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/jEfV

78 after watching Kemp at the game last night, I'm not particularly enthralled by Kemp either

Kemp has great talent but he has not progressed as a hitter like Martin, Loney or recently Ethier. He gets by on just his athletic ability but as a baseball player, he is still learning.

I don't like how the Dodgers try to challenge him by vague comments to the press but over the last 2 months, he has been in the biggest slump of his career.

That made me think of a famous Bobby Knight 60 Minutes interview with Connie Chung.

Residents of Washington, D.C. and the remaining 44 states may now apply for the position of [Red Sox] Governor.

Deadline for submissions is July 29. For more information and to apply, visit redsoxnation.com. Governors will be selected on or about August 12.

The selected Governors will receive an Unlimited Fenway Park Tours Pass for two, two tickets to a select 2008 Red Sox regular season game, a Certificate of Governorship signed by the President/CEO of the Red Sox, periodic "Governors Only" conference calls with the Vice President of Red Sox Nation and a select Red Sox executive, a Red Sox Nation shirt, a 2009 Red Sox Nation Fan Pack Citizenship, a subscription to MLB.tv, personalized "Red Sox Nation Governor" business cards and a photograph of the Fenway Park centerfield videoboard with their name on it.

That brand will never escape him I fear.

I think he came out OK.