I don't know if it has been mentioned here yet, but is Matt Kemp becoming more slective? I see his BBs are up to 12 on the year - still not a lot, but he does have 3 more than Jeff kent. Kemp does have 16 more PAs.

I'm not sure why Torre won't move Kent lower in the order. I didn't think he was a cleanup hitter last year. Wasn't this one the reasons for getting Andruw - to have a legitimate 4th in the order hitter? Just because Jones has not worked out so far, does not seem like a reason to continue to bat Kent 4th.

Kent did bat cleanup last year, for what it's worth. I fully expected he'd be pushed down by now.

With the pitcher's spot due and runners on the corners, Torre sent up Jones, despite the fact that he's hitting .167 overall, is an astounding 1-for-32 with runners in scoring position and hadn't played since Sunday because of torn cartilage in his knee. With the count 1-2, Jones fouled off two very hittable, hanging sliders before waving at a slider down and away to end the game.

The Dodgers managed only five hits off Wainwright, two each for Hu and Russell Martin. Among the 0-fers was struggling clean-up hitter Jeff Kent, who had one hard-hit out but is 5-for-51 over the last 15 games, his average falling from .298 to .228.

When the Dodgers seemed to find a way around the Jones situation, they hesitate to do the obvious.

When Kent appears to be a #7 hitter they continue to hit him cleanup.

At some point the Dodgers need to say the hitting core of this team is Martin, Loney, Kemp, Ethier, DeWitt and say the other hitters are fill in players/hitters and put them in the batting order accordingly.

Cool.

Hit Kent 7th and Pierre/Jones 8th. And eventually, replace them with LaRoche and Young.

Yeah, right.

Does the research you refer to make the distinction between power-heavy lineups and "long-sequence" lineups?

High on base, low slug
Best hitter
Third worst hitter
Second-Sixth best hitters
Worst hitter
Second worst hitter

"The 20-year-old Dodger phenom, Clayton Kershaw, will make his first start as a Major Leaguer this Sunday at Dodger Stadium, and you can be here to share the memory."

What the heck, I know what I'm doing tomorrow afternoon.

And so I will, and so I will.

If Jones goes 60 day DL will the Dodgers make him hang around LA and work with the club on the rehab and trips to Ginny Craig?

The allure of pulled pork is hard to pass up. And besides by the time I leave, Kershaw should be out of the game. I doubt he will pitch more than 5 innings and I wouldn't be surprised if he got pulled before 5.

9 - Yeah, the choice at that point was Jones, Maza, or Ardoin. I might've been tempted to send up Brad Penny.

Anyway, good luck to the Dodgers. May the games be filled with better clutch hitting than seen last night. May Brad Penny, well, suck less than he has. I shall be offline, which is a good thing but a sad thing when it comes to missing Kershaw's debut. To the archives with me, then. Have a good Memorial Day.

Hopefully a little girl won't have to choke for this revelation to happen.

"That's what Vin Scully called Clayton Kershaw's curveball back in Spring Training and it'll be on display tomorrow at Dodger Stadium in his big league debut.

To make room for him, Esteban Loaiza was designated for assignment and Yhency Brazoban was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas..."

Awesome.

Some sucker team will pick him up.
Of course our sucker team is paying for him. But still.

Btw, neat story on Lamar Odom on Yahoo today.
http://tinyurl.com/3gyyob

Now I'm really leaving.

Believe it or not Steve Lyons has been pushing for something similar to that during the pre & post game shows. I didn't get to watch the game yesterday & the only thing I did watch was Andruw Jones K'ing, man I gotta tell you guys his swing just screams out K me.

right on!!

I'm getting that feeling (you know) of butterfly's in my stomach, like when your gonna meet a smokin' chick or when your gonna pitch a very important game, historical day?? who knows, all I know is that I wanna be there, I WILL BE THERE & if it turns out he is a mythical creature I can tell my kids I was there in his L.A. Dodger debut.

He doesnt have quite the dominant numbers that Lincecum or Scherzer, Joba had when they were called up.

Traditionally though, it ain't good!

/Plaschke'd

I was at the game last year where he crushed one into the loge deck down the left field line. He hasn't done anything like that this year. I think we could use some home runs - last night's game for example - and we need Kemp to start showing he's a potential 30 home run guy.

Jenny Craig has a five week weight loss program, who'd a thunk.

Stan from Tacoma

And though this is beside my point, as Tom wrote yesterday, the comparison between Kershaw and Jackson isn't even fair. How much more common is failure than success for pitchers with Kershaw's credentials.

Kershaw is not Jackson; Kershaw is not Valenzuela. Kershaw is Kershaw.

The Donald is working on a special class in Trump U for that very thing, classes in comb jobs is an extra.

The problems with the Dodger rotation are not related to Kershaw's presence or absence. My only real issue with the way the rotation has been handled is Kou, who clearly needs to be made a starter and left there for a substantial period of time. Park and Loaiza are not good choices since at best they are a wash and Kou has so much potential upside. Torre has been a real idiot to insist that somehow having a second lefty in the BP provides so much value that Kou can't be given a real chance as a starter.

Moving Loiza out to make room for Kershaw is such a lesson learned. One can hope Colletti, or I should say McCourt after he fires Colletti, will never let this team get bogged down by overpriced fading veterans again.

60 - Despite his laying off bad pitches a bit better this year, he hasn't really learned to look for a pitch he can drive yet. He's never really been a big HR hitter even in the minors: he had the one season where he hit 27, but over his minors career, he's averaged roughly 20 HRs per 500 ABs (60 in 1579 minor league ABs), and even in individual seasons, he's only really exceeded that average once.

64 - Jackson's collapse had more to do with his mechanics being overhauled then anything, I suspect. He was converted to pitching by the Dodgers so he had very little experience prior to pro ball, and the tweaking just didn't take. Unless Honeycutt goes completely overhauling Kershaw's delivery like was done with Jackson, I don't think the comparison fits.

Speaking of former Dodger prospects, looks like Chuck Tiffany is back pitching, tho' he's having a very Greg Miller-like performance in Vero Beach for Tampa thus far.

One thing I like about bringing Kershaw up when the pitching has had a pretty good week is that the team isn't going to have to live and die with his performance. A good outing by Penny tonight would sure reinforce that, though.

I have a lot of confidence in Kershaw, but I hope he isn't judged moment-to-moment the way Billingsley was.

The news of how he's progressing and when he's going to reappear on the active roster seems to have dried up.

Anyone...Got News?

The thing is, absurd expectations are going to hang over Kershaw's head regardless of when he's called up, and I suspect even Ned Colletti knows you don't punt on a pitching prospect of this caliber. Ever. Unless you know for a medically-certified fact there's something wrong with him, in which case you deal him for Pujols and never look back. But, um, the organization's recent record of recognizing injuries means that could never happen either.

Stand down.

That's the topic tonight on "Firing Line."

Let's ask CanuckDodger for his opinion first.

He'll get 127 days, assuming they keep him up the rest of the year. Every year since the Super Two rule was enacted, the cutoff has been somewhere between 128 and 153 days, according to BP. So it would appear that we're safe.

"You're a starter!"
[slap]
"You're a reliever!"
[slap]
"Starter!"
[slap]
"Reliever!"
[slap]

With Jones and Kent not performing like 3, 4, or 5 hitters, not even performing like #8 hitters and Pierre really hot and cold, could there be a trade being discussed? If Penny falters again is it because he is about to go on the DL about the time Schmidt will come off?

There is something going on. I can smell it.

Which, of course, is presumably reason enough for us to trade him to Florida and boo the hell out of him whenever he comes back.

Martin is going to make a killing.