Play. LaRoche. Now.

Sincerely,
GIT9

Hopper CF
Bruce RF
Phillips 2B
JP's Friend LF
Encarnacion 3B
Votto 1B
Bako C
Janish SS
Harang P

Thats just bizarre coming from a supposed new school GM.

I've said it all along, it doesn't bother me what people say or think, especially someone outside of the organization who has no idea of anything that goes on here. He's not even in our country."

...the reason D-Lowe was yanked with a 4-1 lead with one out in the sixth and after just 85 pitches was because he threw 121 his last time out and because being moved up a day messed with his between-starts routine (even though he was pitching on normal rest). Derek had done his lower-body workout on Tuesday, before he was told he was pitching. He normally does that TWO days before he pitches.

Since his release, Thomas has hit .319/.417/.516 with the A's.

The Blue Jays have essentially had to play BOTH Stewart and Stairs, with a healthy dose of Brad Wilkerson mixed in recently.

The non-Thomas DHs have hit .182/.303/.331.

Go Dodgers!

At the very minimum, LaRoche is an asset to the club by being a good bat off the bench. That alone is reason for him to be here.

Next!

ooh I was all over that Frank Thomas release the day it happened.

You know what? I think what JP Riccardi needs is a team player with a hard work ethic and a full head of steam. Someone speedy with "energy and excitement." Maybe the Dodgers could help him out. Any ideas?

Rats! I have a work meeting in a couple of hours, I'll miss the last few innings of the game. Darn that work! Always getting in the way of things.

Its really not that complicated to see what has happened. When you see a player not even make a move to hit a fastball, you know he is guessing offspeed. When you guess offspeed, you just cannot hit a major league fastball. I've played a lot of ball and a lot of high level ball, and I've never seen a player sit on a breaking ball as much as Kemp does. Some people can't hit a fastball because of their bat speed, overall pitch recognition, etc. Kemp cannot hit a fastball because he sits breaking ball on almost every pitch, and unless you are Barry Bonds with the quickest bat ever, you cant catch up to a fastball when sitting offspeed.

I cant imagine that would be possible, but you never know. I just think the organization wanted him to be more patient and hit breaking balls better than last year, which led to a complete overhaul of his approach. Kemp's greatest strength as a hitter was his aggressiveness and ability to hammer a fastball, and he has totally gotten away from that. With his aggression taken away, he isnt nearly the same player, and that can be seen in his power numbers. The sad thing is that even without the power numbers, he still strikes out a ton and doesnt walk. So whatever he changed (either by his own decision or by the organization "suggesting" it), it hasnt worked.

BTW, with Harang on the mound, I'm going to continue my harangue from yesterday. Lets chase a starting pitcher before the 6th inning!

This is not the Matt Kemp that I know and love.

Is anyone using gameday, I just get a blank screen today?

Here's our slugger!

Obviously Kemp still has the ability to be a major hitter with power. I really dont see him looking the bad forever, but his approach needs to change in order to do so. Its hard to hit for power when sitting offspeed and trying to take everything the other way. Hitting a curveball on the out half 400 feet to right center isnt a good way to hit home runs.

What the heck was Berroa doing?

Single by Berroa.
Walk to Stults

89 Yes.

Plus/Minus
Kemp: +1 (298 innings), 21st in MLB
Jones: 0 (307 innings), 24th in MLB

Throwing
Kemp: 17 of 27 (63.0%) have advanced an extra base, 26th in MLB
Jones: 19 of 39 (48.7%) have advanced an extra base, 6th in MLB

Ya, Russ stung it pretty well.

I'll shut up now.

He went the other way! And out! Huzzah!

Dodgers Ride High on Stults

Alright Stults!

What does Sporky's coworker think about Eric Stults, I wonder. Approve or disapprove?

Another 87 mph offering from Harang

From Dodgers.com: "Stults pitched and played centerfield for Bethel College (Indiana), which won the 2002 National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association Division I championship...hit .408 with 14 homers and 47 RBI while going 10-1 with a 2.15 ERA and eight complete games during his senior season."

150 Hey, it's not like it was a Zito/Loaiza fastball!

Huh? Thank you, Psycho!

Ya, a really tough in-between hop for Berroa.

(all entering game)

Good timing, too, I have to leave in a few.

Not that I'm complaining.

Although the rest of the current NL West isn't so hot, either. But boy do we mysteriously own the Reds. Be nice if we could continue to shame Ohio this weekend, too.

"A reliever will be called up if Park can go Saturday. If he can't a starter would be called up, with the candidates being James McDonald, Jason Johnson and Justin Orenduff"

Would be interesting to see how he does up here.

http://tinyurl.com/67ljh6

If we are going to grab a pitcher for Saturday, doesn't it have to be Orenduff out of the 3?

Jason Johnson on the Vegas roster for exactly this reason. I'm a little surprised they let him start Tuesday knowing the results at the time and the fact Kuroda was going to have an MRI or didn't they know on Tuesday?
How much insight does it take to hold back McDonald, Johnson, or Meloan when you have 2 starting pitchers ailing? It is not like Orenduff is the guy we want to take the start on Saturday.

Orenduff pitched Sunday, so he'd be more in line for Saturday than Johnson, who pitched Tuesday and would be on 3 days rest Saturday.

Reds have scored 2 runs in their last 33 innings.

I could use some Dodger fans to help fight the fire.

http://www.youremyboyblue.net/2008/05/top-five-friday-crosstown-rivals.html

There's the post in question.

He has 7 walks and 1K over his last 45 Abs.

my logic: he should play second base.

Up to now, "Eric Stultifies Red Bats".

If I were running the Dodgers, there's one move I would make, right now. I would get Blake DeWitt out of the lineup, and get Andy LaRoche in. DeWitt's been below average this season; aside from his little hot streak last month he's been well below average. Granted, LaRoche is no savior. But so many things have gone wrong for the Dodgers this season that if they do wind up in the playoffs, it'll be a very close-run thing. So they have to take the runs, right now, wherever they can find them

Wow! Do you guys agree with that? All I know is: all LaRoche does is get on base.

Probably one fewer than Tuesday night. :)

- J. Votto reached on fielder's choice, E. Encarnacion to third on second baseman J. Kent's fielding error
- P. Bako singled to second, E. Encarnacion scored, J. Votto to second

Beimel just struck out Bruce. Yes!! Two outs.

I'll clean up my spilled milk now.

The wheels falleth off the apple cart.

Nice to see they're finally here!

1. Stults walked the leadoff man.
2. Kent botched ground ball.
3. Loney couldn't catch Bako ground ball
4. Proctor walked a pinch-hitter on 4 pitches.
5. Phillips hits first pitch for a base hit.

I think Kent's trangression is number one, the walks by Stults and Proctor were tied for number 2.

340 Berroa's experienced. He should have been able to move the runner over without a bunt. In any case, all the batters after Ethier struck out, which doesn't get the man home anyway.

(sits on hands)

Again?!
He hit one last year vs the Twins.

He is however an upgrade to the Hu we were enduring.

Anyone could have had Russ Branyan but the Brewers took a chance on him and it has paid off. Now sitting with a 1.200 OPS since they gave him the job over Bill Hall.

I'd like to see a picture of Prince and Prince Fielder together.

on second thought, don't.

When he hits like this his nickname of 4-6-3 is meant in an endearing way by me.

I'm starting to wonder. Has Canuck been wrong about any Dodger prospect? When we were unimpressed with Loney in AA he said have faith. When Martin was only in AA he said he'd be an all-star. When DeWitt looked like his prospect star had dimmed he said not to write him off yet. When I wrote Miller off last winter, he said it was to soon. Even Xavier Paul is starting to have a very solid season in AAA. He always maintained that Billingsley would be a stud even after the lack of dominance and control in his rookie season. He was the first that I remember to point out the chinks in Joel Guzmans game. I could go on but those are what I remember off the top of my head. He was the only prospect guy who had McDonald in his top 20 going into last season.

I'm going to give up debating Canuck until further notice.

Pretty incredible in Milwaukee actually.

Haha.

That, or Kim Ng.

I said not long before Ned DFAd Tomko last year that he should never throw another pitch for the Dodgers.

So maybe it'll work this time too...

OT...Sushi, belated regrets on your family tragedy. Saw it way too late to comment after you originally posted about it. Hope and pray things are going as well as could be expected.

After the last such moment, I am not taking any chances.

And just I type that, the point becomes moot.

>>Hong-Chih Kuo is not being considered to return to the rotation not only because he has been a smashing success as a long reliever, but also because he has had trouble throwing his off-speed pitches for strikes. "A lot of his stuff is hard, hard, hard," Torre said. "He needs the ability to throw soft." Kuo, who agreed that the location of his breaking balls have been off, said he is doing better in relief this season because it has taken less time than before to get warmed up.<<

Also mentions that Andy might see some playing time against Cleveland.

We just thought they were one in the same. Outside of DT, I always give my friends "no-no" alerts when they happen.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN196908190.shtml

Phil Niekro was the losing pitcher.

How about some serious kudos to Stults for giving the big club a big time boost. Heck of a game and a great way to end a road trip. Let's get back home and continue to pummel the state of Ohio.

I do agree with Kuo is a work in progress, so some judiciousness is reasonable.

I'm not saying I'm not particular. You guys are kind to live with it.

As of right now, June NL OPS Leaders
Loney, LA - 1.114
Schumaker, STL - 1.080
Burrell, PHI - 1.079
Cantu, FLA - 1.062
Chipper, ATL - 1.004 (due up 3rd in the 10th)

Have you seen the end of Old Yeller or Of Mice and Men? :)

nofatmike in 369 was ahead of the curve in this one, but Loney's line after today's game is .307/.365/.466.

>> • NOTES -- Dodgers infielder Nomar Garciaparra, who was in Las Vegas on a rehabilitation assignment for a strained left calf, flew to Boston to have his doctor evaluate him. Los Angeles general manager Ned Colletti was to watch Garciaparra on Wednesday but canceled the trip. ... <<

http://www.lvrj.com/sports/20557779.html

Ira (utah): Keith, how come no one is pointing the finger at Colletti for his brillant moves (Nomar, Pierre, jones, schimidt)

Keith Law: So here's an interesting question. Logan White is considered one of the best GM candidates in baseball, and much of what is good about LAD this year is his doing and his staff's (Loney, Martin, Billingsley, Broxton, Kershaw, and arguably Kemp). He has to be on the short list in Seattle, although I don't know that for sure. If you're the McCourts and you're waffling at all on Colletti, do you let White walk out the door to helm some other team, or does the interest he's getting from elsewhere induce you to make a decision on Colletti sooner? They're not the only team that's going to face that kind of decision this year, but they're the most obvious one.

I love Mr. White as much as anyone here, but do we have any indication that he would be a better GM than Ng or even DeJon Watson? I have no doubt that he could be great at it, but I am not really sure that he is automatically successful in the GM seat.

Even more crazy is that their overall record is 36-38.

Kemp: 293/336/446/782
Either: 288/351/441/792

He interviewed with Houston during September last season, so such a move wouldn't be unprecedented.

Has White ever said anything about his philosophies when it comes to talent evaluation.

And White has certainly used terms like makeup and intangibles when commenting about his draft picks and minor league prospects.

To be fair, statistical analysis of high school and college players is not very useful given the variance in competition.

But I am just saying that for Keith Law to make that statement, its more what we know about the guy is currently holding the job than what we know about Logan White.

Power arms, power arms!

Then again, if he did that, would Ng really want to stay?

So basically...Colletti needs to be the puppet with Logan pulling the strings and making him dance.

Geez, why'd you have to put it like that?

If everyone around Ned is competent, how are we penciling him out as a deficient baseball mind? In other words, with all those good advisors surrounding him, you wonder if any of them are having a hand in some of these moves.

I didn't really have any qualms with Ned's moves this past offseason. I like the majority of them. I just believe that Logan White has been the most influential person in the Dodgers organization for a while. He is responsible for the majority of good players on the current dodgers team. If he leaves the organization, will that stream of good players stop or are there other people in the organization that can identify talent as well as Logan White?

Trading players and internal roster moves, he has to rely upon his staff for assistance in those matters.

Again, generally its easier to fire one guy than an entire staff so that's why Colletti gets the most attention.

Moving him to where he is now, probably gave him a bigger voice on certain things but let him retain a part of the draft.

But his next move, wherever it is, will probably mean less involved in the specifics and more influential in terms of how much the budger is for amateur talent, how many scouts you have, etc.

- AD

Again, Ned has said repeatedly, he knew what Juan Pierre can do and what he has done is pretty much what he probably expected.

As far as for Schmidt and Jones, other people who cover baseball for a living, including those from statistical view, gave those signings a thumbs up.

Amd White has said before that he works well with Ned (certainly promoting him, didn't hurt)

I love your positivity. I think I'm still stung by the association with the Giants and Sabean, plus I'm not far removed from the idiocy of "The Sheriff".

Fred Claire wasn't much better either. I think the Dodger GM staff as a whole is not bad, but still, Ned seems to be shooting from the hip when he really doesn't have to.

"The Dodgers plan to move Nomar Garciaparra back to shortstop..." Are you excited? I'm excited.

SportsNation Keith Law: Chad Billingsley (Los Angeles): I am NOT excited

Interesting that he chose Billingsley and not Lowe.

Because Chad is a hoss!

Ivan DeJesus is a no-power SS with a good glove and a decent eye - he could probably start in the big leagues next year

He could probably do better than Wesley Snipes right now.

Whooooo hooo!

But of course work got in the way of my following the last few innings of the game live, or the no-no in progress for that matter. And then when I came back later to try to watch the last part of the Dodgers game live from the MLBTV archives, well, the MLBTV archives thing stinks, if you want to fastforward to later in a game, forget it. It will get stuck continually.

Anyway, glad they held on to win!

Ivan Dejesus Southern League age 21: 300/420/379

essentially, the same type of discipline as Martin. We should put him on a HGH cycle and see if that helps a bit.

I think Nomar could be helpful off the bench, but that's about it.

Maybe we can start calling him Cotton Candy.

I hope he excepts that role but last I checked he has a huge ego & WANTS a starting gig so we shell see.

Matt Murton
Jacque Jones
Jason Giambi
Kirk Gobson

Those last two are especially interesting...

As I mentioned in a post yesterday, in an attempt to be funny, given Nomar's injury history and the amount of games left, I think if we get 50 more games out of Nomar both as a starter at short for Furcal and pinch hitting duties we will be lucky.

The issues of Berroa are obvious, but with a few hits in this past series, I think Joe will bring Nomar back slowly. With his trip to Boston to see his PT, it seems clear to me, that he is still not comfortable and will try and play for a few games but eventually another injury or a repeat of the same injury will occur.

http://thebiglead.com/?p=6349#more-6349
http://tinyurl.com/6ewquw

Snippet from Sandy Alderson:
I know there's a lot of controversy about [letting bloggers in the press box] among mainstream media and so forth, but our attitude is, the more access, the better.

Jon, correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you fairly easily get into the press box if you wanted, based on this blog? Or is your SI.com connection more the impetus for that?

Kirk Gibson is also JD Drew's #1 comp. Love that.

"Right now ... our quality is a lot better and the approach is a lot better. Once the approach improves on a regular basis, I think the results will improve. It's important to have the quality be the same and the approach be the same, because that's the only way the team is going to get [the] confidence that they need to go out there and compete every day.

530 Jon would say, yes, it is blasphemous.

See. Easy!

Alderson's take on the response to DePo's blog.

I'm not sure what we get back in the form of commentary is terribly useful because it tends to be — not a fringe element, but I wouldn't say it's [laughs] an accurate poll of public opinion.

Well folks, we have hit a pretty friendly stretch of Vin called games, this homestand, he will miss one game (this Saturday's game on Fox) unless the game against the Angels is moved to 5:00 on the 29th.

Then he misses the 4 in Houston at the end of June/beginning of July, but after that, 26 straight until August when the team has 3 series in the Central/East division teams.

After that 26 out of 30 to close the season.

And thats probably the biggest indictment on Ned Colletti, and the #1 reason he should be fired.

He thought Juan Pierre was a useful player.

That is mis-evaluation to the highest degree. Doesnt get much clear cut than that.

If a GM wants Juan Pierre on the team, I dont want the GM. Simple as that.

As to Nomar,if he has any instinct for SS left, he won't hurt us being there until Furcal is back. With Hu's eye trouble, and needing to get back on track hitting, we have nothing else at SS that is not totally destructive.

From what I have gathered from interviews, he did not want to have an outfield where only one player played more than 1/2 a season in the majors.

He did not want to go down the Kenny Lofton type path because at best you are looking at someone who plays 80% of the games.

None of the other outfielders of note namely Soriano and Lee wanted to move out west.

He was also talking to Matthews, Jr. at that time.

Here's what Pierre offered, his skill set was well defined, he plays everyday, no injury history, good makeup and clubhouse guy.

That is what he knew he was getting.

So how can you mis-evaluate something that you knew you were getting.

You can disagree all you want about the choice but I don't think you put blinders on him and say he thought he was getting something different than what he got.

Re: Nomar, yah as I told fanerman, I have no doubt Nomar can still hit adequately and field okay. My doubts are all about his health, and I just can't see expecting him to be or stay healthy for any length of time. It will be a miracle if we get a month out of him.

Ned thinks Pierre is a good player bc he hits .290, scores 100 runs, and steals 50 bases.

Unfortunately, thats inept thinking. Instead of valuing OPS and some of the more advance metrics that show Pierre to be bad, he instead looked at the old school stats that really have very little value.

Its not about Juan Pierre. It could be any player that he evaluates in this way, that proves he should not be making baseball decisions.

Whether you call it valuing experience over talent, old school stats over new school stats, heart & soul over whatever...from every angle its a dumb signing.

The only possible use I could see for having Juan Pierre on any 25 man roster, is that as a 5th Of'er/designated pinch runner. Ned certainly didnt sign him to be that.

And to quibble on a small note, you don't need "some of the more advance metrics" to see Pierre is really not good. :) Nice guy though, but get him off my team.

That guy's no vegetarian; he could eat Prince Fielder!

"Mis-evaluate" is a confusing term in this context because there are actually two things to be evaluated:

1) Pierre's utility to a team.
2) Pierre's utility to a team at $44+M/5 years.

The real crux of the thing is (2), since Pierre proved (1) with the Marlins under that team's control. For Ned to believe (2) is a real blunder.

At least we're only stuck with him for three more years after this. Playing everyday...making hundreds of outs...misjudging fly balls...getting picked off...throwing like a four-year-old girl...pouting to his buddies in the press when better players start over him.

Fun.

It would be neat to continue this streak against the other Ohio team, who should be a tougher opponent even if it is at home. But it should be fun to watch. Go blue.

When Juan Pierre is on fire, he has a new and improved approach. Juan Pierre never slumps, because Speed Never Slumps.