I'll be in the green dodger hat wearing the Team Depo shirt and ghame over shirt.. third row behind home plate. if I am not directly on camera, i'll walk into frame.

June 12, 2003

Finishing off their first series of regular season games in Detroit in franchise history, the second place Dodgers completed a sweep over their woeful Tigers with a 3-2 win at Comerica Park. Kaz Ishii won his sixth game while Eric Gagne earned his 24th save.

One of the weakest-hitting Dodger teams ever (especially compared to other teams in the same era) managed to score just three runs in each of the three games in Detroit, but that was good enough for a sweep. Fortunately, the Dodgers also had one of the best pitching staffs in the league. The Dodger pitchers ended up with a 3.16 ERA for the season, over half a run better than the next best staff, San Francisco.

The Dodgers scratched out their three runs in typical fashion on June 12. Down 1-0 in the second, left fielder Mike Kinkade got to second on an infield single compounded by a throwing error from Tigers third baseman Eric Munson. Third baseman Jolbert Cabrera singled in Kinkade. Second baseman Alex Cora singled in Cabrera.

The Tigers tied the game at 2-2 on a Craig Monroe home run in the third. But in the fifth, the Dodgers got a leadoff single from shortstop Cesar Izturis. Center fielder Dave Roberts laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Izturis over and catcher Paul Lo Duca singled him home.

Ishii was his typical self, striking out eight, but walking six. He was helped out by the Tigers' bad baserunning as they were caught stealing four times. The win kept the Dodgers four games behind the Giants in the NL West.

2003 would be a maddening year for Dodger fans as they saw an incredible team performance on the mound go to waste, as the offense could not support it at all. The Dodgers finished 85-77 and 15 ½ games behind the Giants.

Of course, the big story was the Cy Young award winning performance of Gagne, who converted all 55 of his save opportunities and had a 1.20 ERA. Gagne struck out 137 of the 306 batters he faced in 2003. He surrendered just two home runs all season, one to Todd Helton of Colorado and the other to Vladimir Guerrero of Montreal.

Hideo Nomo had his second straight solid season in his return to L.A., going 16-13 with a 3.09 ERA. Kevin Brown had a 2.39 ERA and went 14-9. Odalis Perez went 12-12 and 4.52 after a good 2002. And the setup men for Gagne were all tough. Paul Quantrill had a 1.75 ERA and Guillermo Mota had a 1.93 ERA. Reclamation project Wilson Alvarez came up at the end of the year and went 6-2 with a 2.37 ERA.

But the offense in 2003 was awful. Shawn Green, coming off seasons of 49 and 42 homers was slowed down by shoulder problems and hit just 19. Adrian Beltre led the team in homers with 23, but he batted .240 with an OBP of .290 and struck out 103 times while drawing just 37 walks. Lo Duca made the NL All-Star team, but slowed down with a heavy load of catching and batted .273 with just 7 home runs.

Some players expected to provide power were dismal failures. Fred McGriff came by to try to take a stab at hitting his 500th home run in Dodger Blue, but came up 9 short and hit just 13 in 86 games. Injuries limited outfielder Brian Jordan to 66 games. Daryle Ward was expected to provide power and in 52 games with the Dodgers had one extra-base hit, a double. 44-year old Rickey Henderson was even brought in to provide some spark at the top of the order, but age and injuries limited Henderson to just 30 games.

The Dodgers scored just 574 runs on the season, 52 fewer than the next worse team in the NL, New York. The Dodgers scored 17 fewer runs the Tigers, who finished 43-119. The Dodgers scored in double figures only three times all season.

And to top it off, the team was for sale. News Corp (aka Fox) wanted out.

Thanks to the BaseballReference.com and Retrosheet

https://dodgerthoughts.baseballtoaster.com/archives/2003_06.html

Has anyone seen anyone in either shirt yet at the yard? If anyone posted a sighting I missed it. Batch 2 of TEAM DEPO arrived today so by next week there will be around 60 of them walking the earth. Now I'm thinking about a World Champs edition that reads "He did it. We helped."

I believe the response that Icaros and I both had to Choi's homer was "Wow!" It was the longest home run I've ever seen at Dodger Stadium in person.

I will miss today's game. I have no couch to sit on while enjoying Dodgers game and I have come to the conclusion that many things can be bought online, but furniture shouldn't be one of them. Until someone develops a way for people to sit on something while using their computer.

Longest shot I've seen in person at DS was Piazza's roof-bouncing shot. It was just a fly ball, but it kept going up and up and up. Choi's looked that way too. Like gravity was turned off briefly.

Jacksonville 13, Carolina 0
Hanrahan 6ip, 0er, 5ip, 2bb
3HR (Young, Weber, Meadows)
8bb for Suns

Vero Beach 9, Brevard County 0
Laroche 2-4, HR #21 (grand slam)
RHP Justin Orenduff, 7ip, 0er, 8k, 0bb

Of course, all five of them will now probably go 0-4 this game.

Eel for all!

And ugh to Houlton.

Dodger Stadium is turning into a hitters haven.

Someone said a few nights ago that he didn't hit the ball hard, ever!!!

lmao!!!

Now, Sam NYC, beat up on all you want. (interesting that he's been MIA these last few games...)

Please, enlighten me about this.

Shades of Darin Erstad.

Maybe they thought the Twins' plan was to walk both Choi and Drew, juicing the bases for 0-for-2 Kent?

At least, that's what John Kruk says.

Oh well, we didn't deserve to score any runs that inning anyway.

Seems like time to bring in releif...

D.J.'s been more unlucky than lucky.

I love Choi, but, this is just ridiculous.

Anyway, I'd say Choi is in "the zone" right about now. Let's try to get someone on next time he's up.

I cannot believe that they did not walk Choi.

Why? Giovanni pitched yesterday, Duaner didn't. All Giovanni has to do is pitch well in one situation to get his game ruining job back?

Unbelievable.

Maybe he's trying for first!

I think he will be starting from here on out

Their Fantasy Analysis:
"Choi is 0-for-18 in his past six games. He's a decent option in NL-only leagues, but still isn't a quality option in most mixed leagues.
(Updated 05/31/2005)."

Right after that is a link to an article that requires VIP access, so I can't read it, but the headline is: "1B Hee-Seop Choi can't hit..."

Hilarious.

Is it not clear that Gio should be relegated to Erickson's role (and Erickson should be executed)?

I will never take another Sunday afternoon nap.

Sincerely,

Steve

Izturis to #2

Choi to #5

As it is, he's already going to be spending tonight in a fetal position, whimpering "Choi" over and over.

On the plus side, if he did do it then it wouldn't be in a save situation anymore, so JT might have brought in Erickson to close out the game.

Time to get the job done for Choi and DJ now.

Or, you know, not so much.

It would be amusing if DePodesta saw it on the tape.

In any case, graded on a curve JT doesn't seem as bad.

I rewound my Tivo and rewatched the homers again, and one thing I really enjoyed was watching the reaction of the fans behind home plate. First homer today, they're happy but don't think much of it. Second homer, a "Hey, he did it again!" kind of celebration. Third homer, total amazed jubilation. His final AB, fans are openly rubbing their hands together and rooting for him to make it 4 for 4. A little disappointed when he doesn't, but still happy for and with him, because who can argue with his performance today?

I really enjoyed watching Choi's swing - it looks terrific, very smooth, fast and powerful, and he's so locked in right now. I hope the Dodgers are treating him to dinner tonight or something.

What??? I mean...WHAT??? They pay these guys to host a show with the word "baseball" in the title, and they get away with saying things like that?

I'm beginning to think HSC is the most misunderstood player in the game. I don't mind seeing him out there at first base, but JT Snow or Darin Erstad he ain't. What Choi is, was and will be is a fearsome power hitter with great plate discipline, who is still adjusting to major league hitting. He has had long slumps, including the entire second half of last season, but that's part of his growing process. If there's been any reason for him to stay in the lineup during these slumps, it's been his matchless ability to draw walks; not his defense!

Dang, the stupidity of these guys. ESPN should just fire all of them.

Could see Brendan sitting in the Dugout Club. Hope the shirt got lot of air time because his seats were pretty much the most expensive in DS. I'm just green with envy.

They're both great, though.

3rd time's a charm!

Peavy may not be as great when he gets some age on that arm.

That's, like, profanity.

You'd think that, but I wouldn't bet too much on it.

"That's what you need your number three hitter to do -- not walk."

Glad to hear KC took the lead, since the game feed appears permanently stuck. In fact, I think it's even gone back in time a little.

NL West:
--------
SND 36-27 -
LAD 33-29 2.5
ARZ 33-31 3.5
SFN 25-36 10
COL 21-40 14

Wildcard:
---------
PHI 36-38 -
CHN 33-27 1
LAD 33-29 2
FLA 31-29 3
ARZ 33-31 3
ATL 32-30 3

It's amazing what a good week and a half can do. In the last 10 games since getting swept by the Cubs and falling to .500 (26 -26), the Dodgers are 7 - 3. The Padres are 3 - 7 over the same period, cutting their lead from 6 1/2 to 2 1/2.

Honestly, I worry more about whether several of our streaky players will get hot at the right time or whether we'll limp into the playoffs, in which case we might as well not have made the playoffs at all for all the good it'll do us. We really need to have at least three of our guys hot at once to have a chance of making it deep into the postseason.