Over/Under: 5 2/3 IPs

My first time leading off.
vr, Xei

Random Dodger game callback

June 7, 1995

Sparked by a 2-run homer in the first inning by right fielder Raul Mondesi, the Dodgers got to the .500 mark with a 7-1 win at home over the Montreal Expos before a crowd of 36,994. Hideo Nomo won his second major league game, pitching 8 innings and giving up just six hits, one a home run by Montreal catcher Scott Fletcher.

The Dodgers were in third place on June 7, three games behind leader San Francisco with surprising Colorado 2 ½ games in front of the Dodgers also.

The big story in the LA Times was Mondesi. His homer was his 10th of the season and his teammates were raving about him in the paper.

"He's the most exciting player in the league, without a doubt," Eric Karros told the LA Times. "He can do it all. You name it and he can do it."

But GM Fred Claire was a bit more guarded in his remarks to the Times. "There's no question to his ability, but it's unfair to compare him to Roberto Clemente or anyone else. Come back in 10 of 12 years." (It's been 10 years, so judge for yourself.)

Mondesi would finish 1995 with 26 HRs and batting .285 with an OBP of .328. He did steal 27 bases in 31 attempts. However, his lack of discipline at the plate was troublesome as he drew just 26 walks.

As expected, the Dodgers big man on offense, despite missing part of May with an injury, was Mike Piazza who slugged 32 home runs in 112 games and batted .346. Karros also hit 32 homers.

But the hero of 1995 was Nomo, the first Japanese player to play in the majors in 30 years. An unknown quantity coming into the season despite great success in Japan, Nomo took baseball by storm. He led the NL in strikeouts out with 236 and went 13-6 with a 2.54 ERA. Nomo struck out 10 or more in 11 of his 28 starts. Nomo won National League Rookie of the Year honors.

But there were other pitching standouts for the Dodgers in 1995. Ramon Martinez went 17-7 and Ismael Valdes went 13-11 with a 3.05 ERA. Todd Worrell had 32 saves and a 2.02 ERA. The Dodgers needed some extra pitching help down the stretch and picked up Kevin Tapani and Mark Guthrie from Minnesota. Tapani would leave as a free agent at the end of the year, but Guthrie would hang around until 1997 and turned in a pretty good 1996 season.

The Dodgers and Rockies ended up in their only pennant race together and the Dodgers finally prevailed, clinching the division on the next to last day of the year when Nomo struck out 11 Padres in 8 innings to give the Dodgers a 7-2 win. The Rockies did make the playoffs as a wild card. Because of the late settlement of the players strike from the year before, the season was just 144 games. The Dodgers went 78-66, the worst record of any of the six division winners in the majors. Seattle was a half game better after winning a one-game playoff for the AL West over the California Angels, dashing any hope of a Freeway World Series.

In the Dodgers first postseason appearance since 1988, the Dodgers faced the NL Central champion Reds, managed by Davey Johnson. And it turned out to be no contest. The Reds swept the Dodgers in three games, with the Dodgers getting close only in Game 2, a 5-4 loss. In Nomo's lone playoff appearance, in Game 3, the Reds hit him for five runs in five innings. Guthrie gave up a pinch grand slam to Cincinnati's Mark Lewis, the first ever pinch-hit slam in postseason play.

Thanks to the Los Angeles Times, BaseballReference.com and Retrosheet

I'll take the over on Thompson.

"I don't like it... they announced 33,000 tonight- there wasn't more 23,000 in the ballpark. I think it detracts from the World Series, the All Star game etc. I just don't see the point. I'd rather play more games within the league or the division. I'll probably get burned for saying it but it's just what I think."

Gotta love this guy!

OT, did anyone notice Lo Duca's batting third tonight? He of the .720 OPS. How long has this been going on? And it's not a rest thing - Cabrera, Delgado and Encarnacion are all playing. I know you're supposed to see better pitches with a good hitter behind you, but does Lo Duca need three layers of it? Jack McKeon must love grit more than a backed-up parakeet.

Thompson deserves a win. What a story that kid is. I'm hoping 6 innings, 3 runs out of him is enough for a win today.

Not quite literally, of course, but look it up and you'll get the general idea.

So, Luke;s got that going for him. Which is nice.

BTW, to explain my absence around here for the last few weeks (I know how much I've been missed), there's a new Dodger fan -

Maxine "L"
6 lbs. 14 oz.
born May 18 at 2:33 a.m.

Michigan was down 2-0 and now leads 4-2 in the fifth.

Michigan has to win to stay alive. There was a triple in this game. It must be really hard to get a triple in softball. The fences aren't far away and no one really hits the ball all that hard.

After landing Ivan DeJesus with a 2nd round pick, will DePo, and Logan White trail blaze a new player development technique of exploiting the gene pool of former back up infielders? Is there a Dave Anderson Jr, or Rafael Landestoy Jr. out there waiting to be signed?

Please Lord, may Jose Offerman have no draft eligible offspring.

OT, any one hear Lasorda's draft announcements: "The only team in Los Angeles selects...." heh heh. Tommy's blog (has anyone commented on that yet?) ends every post with "This is LA baseball." Kid--you got the gig!

And the Pirates take the 6-5 lead.

[shudders]

Good guys:

Izturis (SS)
Repko (CF)
Perez (3B)
Kent (2B)
Saenz (1B)
Werth (RF)
Phillips (C)
Edwards (LF)
Thompson (P)

Other guys:

Inge (3B)
Guillen (SS)
Young (1B)
White (LF)
Rodriguez (C)
Monroe (RF)
Martinez (2B)
Logan (CF)
Robertson (P)

It turns out neither Choi or Drew will start tonight.

Makes sense to me.

Us:
Izzie
Scrappy
A-Rez
The Man With Two First Names
Old Maid
It Has a Y!
Goggles
Wow, I Get to Play Today!
Hard to Believe I'm the Third Best Starter!

have the feeling this thread is about to get very, very silly.

I'll take the under.

"I bet you $50 I can put at least two minor leaguers in the starting lineup for the entire week and the LA Times won't question my judgment."

There usually aren't many walks. Batters reach more often on singles, errors or getting hit by pitch.

As for Drew, I have to think that he's a little banged up. He hasn't missed that many games so far. At least by JD Drew standards.

Ledee was 1 for 1 against him!

Curse our luck!

maybe Drew isn't in cause he has a (.283 slugging percentage in 69 plate appearances against lefties this season)

LOL

I take the under.

I guess we're all human and are react with optimism or pessimism depending on how the news has generally been...hence everyone picking the over when we got Hochevar.

Anyway, I'll take the over.

Vin just confirmed that Tracy decided to give him the day off.

Seems like tonight's game a LHP is as good a time as any to rest Drew, since he hasn't been hitting them too well this year.

Detroit - 28th in the majors in walks
22nd in majors in OPS

Doesn't mean it's not possible for Detroit to get to young Derek, but they don't exactly wear pitchers out like the dodgers do (first inning is a case in point).

Obviously I'm taking the over, put me down for 6 2/3

I think Drew would have got hits off of Robertson.

Get used to it, SF fans. Your team is going nowhere but backward for the next half-decade.

Alas, I think his baseball career may be over. He turned down an opportunity to play indy league ball this year to get on with his "real" career. He's working as a forest ranger intern in Massachusetts.

Sparky has been a longtime member at a private golf course near where I live. I had an opportunity to play a round there last year. We walked into the clubhouse to check in and Sparky was there, hanging out with the kid working the counter. I looked at him and did a kind of double-take. He could tell I was wondering 'is that Sparky Anderson?', so I just nodded and he nodded back. It was an interesting moment - I hadn't expected to bump into a famous ML manager that afternoon, for sure.

[fumes]

An interesting gambit, we'll see how it works out.

"We never counted pitches, I never had a gun. a guy is throwing 95 and balls are flying in the upper deck. who cares, give me the guy who throws 70 and gets outs"

he started laughing.

I'm so optimistic today that I'm not even worried about Erickson pitching a couple of innings...

And I can't say enough how impressed I am with Thompson for stepping into the rotation and doing so well.

Pads and Indians still scoreless.

Darth Saenz. Beautiful, man.

Michael Cuddyer homers for Minnesota and the Twins lead the D'Backs 8-5. Indians and Padres still tied at 0-0.

You know the LA Times article about the game in 1995 didn't mention that Lasorda won his 1500th game on this day.

JT must have bet on the under.

I like how he put Tracy first.

Can we get out the pikes, torches et. al to run this guy out of town yet?

And don't think DePo gets off the hook for this. If he leaves the loaded gun on the table, and his idiot brother picks it up and fires it, he's negligent, and he's liable.

The guy who should have been in at the beginning of the inning was Osoria. This guy is an actual real live pitcher.

Loses his first chance at a win when Duaner can't control his glove.

Then he loses the next one because Scott Erickson still inhabits the Dodgers roster.

Franquelis Osoria, career ERA 0.00!

And the Tigers just tied the game even though Osoria makes quick work of the Tiger hitters (atleast according to Gameday).

Osoria looked good, threw strikes, unfortunately Ericksuck blew the win for D-Train.

Only 86 pitches with his spot coming up third in the lineup, gotta really question Tracy on this decision.

Yes.

With a runner on first and no outs, at bat for the Indians is "Coco Crisp"

Osoria (AAA): 2.52 ERA; 39.1 IP; 44 H; 25 K; 7 BB; 2 HR (5.72 K/9, 3.57 K/BB, .46 HR/9)

From the Baseball America scouting report (he's ranked as our 27th overall prospect):

"Osoria doesn't throw as hard as Carvajal but shows the ability to command a nast sinker. Osoria has a sixth digit on his right hand, but doesn't use it to grip the ball."

It's 0-0 going to the bottom of the 9th.

Why is he bunting?

It's just baffling that people do that.

People.

They're no damn good.

Secret Weapon.

Can we get a bandage or something.

He's the next Antonio Alfonseca.

Oh, and Cararra is warming in the bullpen to clean this mess up.

Do we have anyone warming up in the BP? Yes, I know we really don't have anyone better unless we bring in Ghame Over or Game Over, and JT will never do that...but I've seen more than enough of Sanchez for tonight!

Might as well leave him in there. No use using up other relievers, now. Except maybe Gio so he's not available tomorrrow.

This is one of them.

If so, I still have full confidence we can win this game.

Tracy's relievers went:
Joker (Erickson)
Ace (Osoria)
Joker (Sanchez)

"With Jacque Jones batting, Torii Hunter advances to 2nd on caught stealing error by Jose Valverde."

I tend to feel that when it's the middle innings, it's better to choose to keep the good pitching over the offensive opportunities. Then in the late innings, we have fewer chances to score, but excellent 8th and 9th inning relievers, so the scales should tilt at that point to maximizing offensive opportunities.

Where's Tom Martin when you need him? (Never thought you'd read that, did you?)

Bringing in Erickson was ridiculously stupid, but bringing in Sanchez most definately was not.

Sanchez just blew up. Not much to be done about that. He just...blew up.

Maybe I'm the jinx and it's my fault Sanchez blew up?

Are you getting paid a commission by the International Commission for the Increased Use of the Comma?

Top of the order for San Diego coming up.

As for Osoria, I was joking when I said he should be the new 7th inning guy, but he did look pretty good today and a 2.5 ERA in Vegas is quite impressive. Right now I'd like to see him in situations where we're either down by 2 or 3 or up by 4 or 5, semi-pressure but not overwhelming. He handled today's pressure well, but it's only one game.

Sanchez, runs per appearance:

0 Runs: 20
1 Run: 4
2 Runs: 2
3 Runs: 1
4 Runs: 0

His lifetime batting average was .246 starting the year.

But putting in Sanchez is just what you do there. I don't see how you could have done anything different.

Beltre's at .234 this season, which is Cora-esque. Cora must then also be 2005-Beltre-esque by definition.

Moving on, we still have one more chance. Let's go Blue!

2nd and 3rd for the Indians in the 11th with one out.

They've had a bloop single, a real double, an error and another weak single.

Grabowski, my all-star write in pick is up.
vr, Xei

Typical Stanford hothead.

8. San Diego Padres
20. Los Angeles Dodgers
22. Arizona Diamondbacks
24. San Francisco Giants
29. Colorado Rockies

Ouch. Clearly they don't think much of our division.

When Dessens comes back, DFA Erickson.
When Perez comes back, package him up and ship him.
When Alvarez comes back, DFA Carrara.
When Valentin comes back, package Choi and ship him.
When Bradley comes back, Robles goes back down (I know, but I couldn't find any place).
When Ledee comes back, DFA Grabowski.

I can't stand the unabashed mediocrity on this team. I just can't stand it. I feel like DePodesta is riding the fence between wanting to be a buyer or a seller at the All-Star Break. This team blows. Be a seller. Just start over.

They are a flawed team, but I think you really have to wrap your head around the fact that outside of St. Louis, pretty much everyone is flawed. Seriously.

And the minute Erickson is gone, the Dodgers become that much better.

He is even boring to top it all off. A team really reflects the manager's personality, but Tracy doesn't seem to have one. At least last year we had LimaTime to pump the guys up in the dug-out. This year, I feel like I'm watching a bunch of guys just going through the motions. It's all so ho-hum.

I am almost to the point of rooting against the Dodgers so Depo can give Tracy the ax.

Even with a twelve-man staff, I don't think there's room for a guy you can't trust to put in with a two-run lead in the sixth inning. If you're going to save a roster spot for a guy who'll only pitch when you're winning/losing by 8 runs, they might as well have one of us in that spot.

The experience this year with Erickson and Thompson just proves again what Bill James says: talent is not in short supply. If you're going to keep a pitcher with a 7+ ERA, there's dozens of minor leaguers who can do that. You don't have to waste your time with an "established major leaguer".

DePo has to DFA Erickson and replace him with a 24-year old no-name pitcher from the Dodgers minor-league system or somebody else's.

Firing Tracy is a feel-good that will not deliver the expected results. Unless--unless there's a great manager available to replace him. In reading 10,000 posts on this topic, I've yet to see one solid suggestion.

Granted in the current situation I would still DFA Erickson and bring up a minor leaguer, but I would do that because we have some talented minor leaguers and that minor leaguer has the potential to be BETTER. Based on how you describe it, Bill James is saying if you have to choose between Erickson and a minor leaguer just as bad as Erickson, go with the minor leaguer, and that makes sense but is generally only relevant during the offseason.