Monday, August 17, 2009
Conclusive proof that Brett Favre reads SBS
Because I've been lazy and coasting on my posting duties lately, the current tagline for this blog ("Where we're convincing Brett Favre that he's still better than like 20 starting QBs") has been left up for 10 days now. Any coincidence, any at all, that Favre's once-dead career has now been mysteriously revived in the form of comeback rumors from his Viking teammates? I say no. Like always, Brett: I don't know if you're really back or not, but welcome back (maybe)!
Friday, August 7, 2009
A tribute to Dr. Dre
Well, here's a quick bombshell to drop before I really start this: That Joe Blanton-for-Andre Ethier/James Loney/Clayton Kershaw trade that fell through in July 2007 is the best thing that's happened to the Dodgers since 1988.
You think I'm kidding? If that happens, the Dodgers gain a very serviceable #4 starter for the next few years, and lose their best power hitter and best starting pitcher from this current team. And they don't really have a future either. So yeah, advocating that trade at the time is probably the most embarrassing thing I've ever done. That'll haunt me till the day my Dodger fanhood dies.
And the main reason why? Andre Ethier. Doctor Dre. Or, as he should be known by now, Doctor Clutch. Of course, "clutch" doesn't really exist (or at least to the point that most people think it does), but Ethier does seem to have a knack for coming up big in big moments. Over the last calendar year, Ethier has seven walkoff hits, a positively Ortizian feat (only without the steroids...or at least, I pray to God that it's been without the steroids, because nowadays you can never take anything for granted). Now, this isn't going to be a fawning, lovestruck, man-crush, Simmons-like post on Ethier (although, ironically, Simmons recently declared Ethier his favorite Dodger on a podcast, of course citing his "clutchness" as the reason why). Although Ethier is my favorite Dodger, I do know that I have to take everything in stride, and I know that he could easily be playing for the Giants in four years with the way baseball works now, so I can't get too attached to any particular player. All this post will be is a simple recap of Ethier's numerous walkoff adventures. Without further ado:
1. May 25, 2008; The Legend Is Born
With the score tied at 3 in the tenth, Ethier ripped a single to right to score Juan Pierre from second and give the Dodgers a 4-3 win. This was where it allllllllll started. Years from now, the only thing I'll remember Mike Parisi for is his giving up that hit. Well, until Jason Schmidt gets hurt and Ned Colletti signs him to a $100 million contract.
2. August 12, 2008; Against a Lefty, Even??!?!?!?
After the Dodgers acquired Manny Ramirez, Joe Torre stupidly started playing Juan Pierre against lefties more than Ethier, apparently unaware that Pierre batted lefty as well. In a rare appearance against a lefthander (J.C. Romero) with the game tied at 3 in the ninth and Russell Martin on second, Ethier laced a single to left in the ninth, with Russ barely beating the throw and the Dodgers taking the win over Philadelphia. Not gonna lie, the clip of that hit got me through some dark Dodger fan days (namely, every minute that passed from "Matt Stairs goes deep!" to "AND THE PHILLIES ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS!").
3. August 17, 2008; From Embarrassment and Dismay to Jubilation
After the Dodgers blew a 5-1 ninth-inning lead to the Brewers on a two-out, two-run homer by Ryan Braun, the entire stadium was silent as the bottom of the ninth got underway. But with Matt Kemp on first, Ethier brought the stadium to its feet with a walkoff two-run shot off Carlos Villanueva. This was Ethier's first walkoff of the home run variety, and the first time that the Dodgers had a dogpile at home plate that kind of seemed just a little awkward...of course, it wouldn't be the last one like that.
4. May 2, 2009; Who needs a sac fly when a single will do?
With the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the 10th against San Diego and the game tied at 1, most Dodger fans figured that the win was well in hand. They were correct, as Ethier drilled a Luke Gregorson pitch off the right-field wall to give the Dodgers the victory. Interestingly, the Padres would go on to lose nine of their next eleven to fully and completely slide out of playoff contention after a hot start, and they'd end up trading or nearly trading every cornerstone of their franchise that summer. So did Ethier destroy the Padre franchise with this hit? It's very possible.
5. June 5, 2009; The most dramatic of all?
Quite possibly. The Dodgers trailed 3-0 early and 3-2 entering the bottom of the ninth, and Brad Lidge quickly got the first two outs to all but give Philly the win. But then...a single by Casey Blake. A walk to James Loney. An error by Pedro Feliz to load the bases. And then...Dre Time. Ethier hit a line drive to the right-field corner that fell juuuuuust out of Eric Bruntlett's reach, scoring two and giving the Dodgers a victory that came completely out of nowhere and was deliciously sweet. Of course, if Matt Stairs had been the right fielder reaching out desperately for the ball and missing it would have been deliciously sweeter, but you can't have everything I guess.
6. June 6, 2009; Just one day later?
Yep. Bottom 12, game tied 2-2 thanks to a Rafael Furcal home run in the ninth, last seven Dodgers have come and gone without getting on base...and then Ethier steps up with two outs and blasts a homer to center off Chad Durbin to beat Philadelphia again. Incredible. And yes, there was another awkward dogpile moment, in case you were wondering.
7. June 29, 2009; The marathon ends
Whew. One of the craziest games of the '09 season was finally put to rest by Ethier in the 13th. The first twelve innings went by with the two teams combining to use seven pitchers, leave 16 men on base, steal five bases, go 2-for-19 with runners in scoring position, and have six pinch-hitters...and after all that, it was an Ethier two-run homer off Joel Peralta following a Casey Blake leadoff single that finished things. Go figure. This was another personal favorite of mine, as my dad's coffee table probably would have been thrown through the window if the Dodgers had lost. So I guess it's probably one of my dad's favorites, as well.
8. August 7, 2009; THE most dramatic of all?
Yeah, I'd have to say so, even though I didn't see it live. Down 4-2 in the ninth, facing a closer with a sub-2.00 ERA (Rafael Soriano), having had numerous opportunities to take the lead and squandered them, two runners on, home run would win it even though nobody could seriously, honestly, been thinking about or expecting one...and BOOM. Line drive over the right fielder's head that got out of the park by a foot, if that, and then of course there was Matt Kemp jumping for joy for his buddy, and Orlando Hudson being Orlando Hudson, and Manny playing along with everything although it's sometimes hard to take his playful emotions seriously anymore, and...well, everything else. Just another Ethier walkoff, this one better than all the others.
May you get a thousand more walkoff knocks as a Dodger, Dre. Just don't ever have one as a Giant.
You think I'm kidding? If that happens, the Dodgers gain a very serviceable #4 starter for the next few years, and lose their best power hitter and best starting pitcher from this current team. And they don't really have a future either. So yeah, advocating that trade at the time is probably the most embarrassing thing I've ever done. That'll haunt me till the day my Dodger fanhood dies.
And the main reason why? Andre Ethier. Doctor Dre. Or, as he should be known by now, Doctor Clutch. Of course, "clutch" doesn't really exist (or at least to the point that most people think it does), but Ethier does seem to have a knack for coming up big in big moments. Over the last calendar year, Ethier has seven walkoff hits, a positively Ortizian feat (only without the steroids...or at least, I pray to God that it's been without the steroids, because nowadays you can never take anything for granted). Now, this isn't going to be a fawning, lovestruck, man-crush, Simmons-like post on Ethier (although, ironically, Simmons recently declared Ethier his favorite Dodger on a podcast, of course citing his "clutchness" as the reason why). Although Ethier is my favorite Dodger, I do know that I have to take everything in stride, and I know that he could easily be playing for the Giants in four years with the way baseball works now, so I can't get too attached to any particular player. All this post will be is a simple recap of Ethier's numerous walkoff adventures. Without further ado:
1. May 25, 2008; The Legend Is Born
With the score tied at 3 in the tenth, Ethier ripped a single to right to score Juan Pierre from second and give the Dodgers a 4-3 win. This was where it allllllllll started. Years from now, the only thing I'll remember Mike Parisi for is his giving up that hit. Well, until Jason Schmidt gets hurt and Ned Colletti signs him to a $100 million contract.
2. August 12, 2008; Against a Lefty, Even??!?!?!?
After the Dodgers acquired Manny Ramirez, Joe Torre stupidly started playing Juan Pierre against lefties more than Ethier, apparently unaware that Pierre batted lefty as well. In a rare appearance against a lefthander (J.C. Romero) with the game tied at 3 in the ninth and Russell Martin on second, Ethier laced a single to left in the ninth, with Russ barely beating the throw and the Dodgers taking the win over Philadelphia. Not gonna lie, the clip of that hit got me through some dark Dodger fan days (namely, every minute that passed from "Matt Stairs goes deep!" to "AND THE PHILLIES ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS!").
3. August 17, 2008; From Embarrassment and Dismay to Jubilation
After the Dodgers blew a 5-1 ninth-inning lead to the Brewers on a two-out, two-run homer by Ryan Braun, the entire stadium was silent as the bottom of the ninth got underway. But with Matt Kemp on first, Ethier brought the stadium to its feet with a walkoff two-run shot off Carlos Villanueva. This was Ethier's first walkoff of the home run variety, and the first time that the Dodgers had a dogpile at home plate that kind of seemed just a little awkward...of course, it wouldn't be the last one like that.
4. May 2, 2009; Who needs a sac fly when a single will do?
With the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the 10th against San Diego and the game tied at 1, most Dodger fans figured that the win was well in hand. They were correct, as Ethier drilled a Luke Gregorson pitch off the right-field wall to give the Dodgers the victory. Interestingly, the Padres would go on to lose nine of their next eleven to fully and completely slide out of playoff contention after a hot start, and they'd end up trading or nearly trading every cornerstone of their franchise that summer. So did Ethier destroy the Padre franchise with this hit? It's very possible.
5. June 5, 2009; The most dramatic of all?
Quite possibly. The Dodgers trailed 3-0 early and 3-2 entering the bottom of the ninth, and Brad Lidge quickly got the first two outs to all but give Philly the win. But then...a single by Casey Blake. A walk to James Loney. An error by Pedro Feliz to load the bases. And then...Dre Time. Ethier hit a line drive to the right-field corner that fell juuuuuust out of Eric Bruntlett's reach, scoring two and giving the Dodgers a victory that came completely out of nowhere and was deliciously sweet. Of course, if Matt Stairs had been the right fielder reaching out desperately for the ball and missing it would have been deliciously sweeter, but you can't have everything I guess.
6. June 6, 2009; Just one day later?
Yep. Bottom 12, game tied 2-2 thanks to a Rafael Furcal home run in the ninth, last seven Dodgers have come and gone without getting on base...and then Ethier steps up with two outs and blasts a homer to center off Chad Durbin to beat Philadelphia again. Incredible. And yes, there was another awkward dogpile moment, in case you were wondering.
7. June 29, 2009; The marathon ends
Whew. One of the craziest games of the '09 season was finally put to rest by Ethier in the 13th. The first twelve innings went by with the two teams combining to use seven pitchers, leave 16 men on base, steal five bases, go 2-for-19 with runners in scoring position, and have six pinch-hitters...and after all that, it was an Ethier two-run homer off Joel Peralta following a Casey Blake leadoff single that finished things. Go figure. This was another personal favorite of mine, as my dad's coffee table probably would have been thrown through the window if the Dodgers had lost. So I guess it's probably one of my dad's favorites, as well.
8. August 7, 2009; THE most dramatic of all?
Yeah, I'd have to say so, even though I didn't see it live. Down 4-2 in the ninth, facing a closer with a sub-2.00 ERA (Rafael Soriano), having had numerous opportunities to take the lead and squandered them, two runners on, home run would win it even though nobody could seriously, honestly, been thinking about or expecting one...and BOOM. Line drive over the right fielder's head that got out of the park by a foot, if that, and then of course there was Matt Kemp jumping for joy for his buddy, and Orlando Hudson being Orlando Hudson, and Manny playing along with everything although it's sometimes hard to take his playful emotions seriously anymore, and...well, everything else. Just another Ethier walkoff, this one better than all the others.
May you get a thousand more walkoff knocks as a Dodger, Dre. Just don't ever have one as a Giant.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Schmidt = Babe Ruth
After Jason Schmidt's six shutout innings on Friday and his pinch-hit single on Sunday, I'm just floored. In a season where Manny Ramirez gets busted for steroids, Juan Pierre bats .900 for a month, Andre Ethier goes 0-for-June and still has a batting average above .270, Ramon Troncoso becomes Ron Perranoski, the Dodgers walk off with a win once a week, and Jason Schmidt throws shutouts and gets clutch pinch hits...I mean, can I get a "in a year that has been so improbable, the impossible can't stop happening?"
Sunday, August 2, 2009
The biggest emotional roller coaster of them all
Yep, the Trade Deadline. Every year now, it seems like the Dodgers' entire season revolves around the moves they make on July 31. In 2006, they were floundering in last place, with barely any pitching and half their team on the DL...and then Ned Colletti pulled Greg Maddux and (to a much lesser extent) Julio Lugo out of his ass, and the Dodgers went on to win like their next 12 games and eventually make it into the playoffs. And, of course, last year, the Manny trade ignited one of the dullest, most disappointing teams in Dodger history and basically won them the division. So, with the Dodgers up by 7 games in the standings on July 31, 2009 but still having some very glaring pitching problems, what would Ned Colletti do? And what would happen with the rest of the league? Here's a recap of what I can remember:
11 AM, EST: I wake up, unusually giddy. There are only a few sports days that I wake up feeling this way for. The first day of March Madness...January 1st for the bowl games...the day of the Super Bowl...the first day of baseball season...and the trade deadline. That's pretty much the list. Of course, today, I'm coming off a 4:30 a.m. wakeup which was then followed by 17 hours spent in airports or airplanes, all because I missed my initial flight, and basically ruined the days of every single one of my family members involved in the trip I was taking. So...maybe my spirits are dampered a little.
11:01: Nah. Screw it, I'm still excited.
11:45: I'm all showered and packed, and ready to just chill out and let the trades and trade rumors come. The biggest names rumored to be on the move are Roy Halladay, Victor Martinez, and Jarrod Washburn, with the Dodgers apparently feverishly pursuing Halladay to shore up their rotation. If they get him, I'm reacting like the little kid in the PS2 Christmas morning commerical.
11:48: MLBTraderumors is loading. Seriously, is there ANY better baseball website than this? I say no.
11:49: Already, a big trade: Jarrod Wasburn dealt to Detroit for two prospects, who are "fringe-good" according to most scouting websites. Not a bad one for the Tigers. Hmmm, wouldn't Washburn have been perfect for the Dodgers, considering their main competition in the NL is the lefty-loaded Phillies? No, I guess that makes too much sense.
12:30 PM: MLBTR has an update which indicates that the Dodgers are "pursuing relievers over starters," mentioning Mark Lowe, David Weathers, Matt Capps, Arthur Rhodes, and Jason Frasor as possible trade targets. When your bullpen is amazing, and your starting pitchers suck, the logical solution is, of course, to...get...more...relievers?
1:00 PM: Incredibly, there's still not much going on...and now my mom and stepdad are here (because my flight got in so late, and they were an hour's drive from the airport, I stayed with a friend of theirs), and frankly I'm scared to death of what their reaction is going to be of my missing my flight yesterday, since it cost them 50,000 travel miles and almost worried them to death. At the very least, I know that I can't be running to my room to check MLBTR every five minutes when they're at a friend's house. So I bite the bullet, and call my dad to tell him to text me updates whenever they come in. My Dodger fan life is now hanging on my dad's ability to text. Ugh.
1:07 PM: Tmobile online message from my dad (hey, it's something): "LET THE VINNY ROTTINO ERA BEGIN! ROTTINO FOR VARGAS!" I have to laugh. The Dodgerblues guys are probably getting a kick out of that. And Vargas wasn't important at all; this is almost definitely a cost-cutting move meaned to free up salary for a trade. My excitement builds.
3:04 PM: After waiting on pins and needles for the last two hours, another Tmobile text comes in: "RUMORS! GONZALEZ TO LA?!?!?!??!" I'm dying. DYING. Need MLBTR...Need MLBTR...
3:05 PM: No! I can't...have to put on a good show for the fam...have to put on a good show...UGH...
3:11 PM: We're now in the car on the one-hour drive to my mom and stepdad's house. Another Tmobile text comes in, and my hands are shaking as I open it, expecting a Shawn Estes-for-Adrian Gonzo trade...nope. "V-MART TO RED SOX FOR PROSPECTS." Eh. Good trade for the Sox, I guess, depending on the prospects. I relay the info to my mom and stepdad, both diehard Sox fans. Their reaction? "You've got to get to the airport earlier from now on!"
3:20 PM: New one: "ADAM LAROCHE TO BRAVES, JERRY HAIRSTON JR. TO YANKEES." Huh? Didn't the Braves just trade LaRoche to the Pirates like 5 minutes ago? And what the hell do the Yankees need with Hairston? AND WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON WITH ADRIAN?!??!?!?
3:25 PM: Another text. Okay, this has to be it. Maybe they had to throw in Loney or something, but this is definitely the Gonzo text..."ROCKIES ACQUIRE JOE BEIMEL." Or it could just be a trade that rips my heart out. I love Joe Beimel, and now he's playing for a divison rival? Great. Why don't the Rockies just sign Bono and trade for Bruce Springsteen while they're at it?
3:46 PM: "REDS TRADE FOR SCOTT ROLEN." Cool. What about the Dodgers????
4:00 PM: The deadline. And...nothing. It's alright, I tell myself, the Manny trade didn't offically come in till like an hour after the deadline. Surely, the Dodgers have completed some blockbuster, and Roy Halladay or Adrian Gonzalez is going to be throwing shutouts/smashing home runs for LA any day now. Right?
4:05 PM: A text! Okay, this HAS to be it. "Dodgers acquire Halladay, GONZO!, GONZO AND HALLADAY OMG!" or something like that. I smile as I open it up, get ready to party, and...
4:05 PM: ..."MARLINS ACQUIRE NICK JOHNSON."
4:06 PM: Yep, it's just now dawning on me that the Dodgers' big deadline acquisiton was Vinny Rottino, a 29-year-old Double-A catcher who was batting .250 in the Brewers' system. No Halladay, no Adrian Gonzalez, nothing. The Dodgers are now going to war with like 2 1/2 competent starting pitchers and a heavily overused bullpen. What a freaking cocktease.
It only gets worse a couple hours later, when MLBTR reports: "The Padres very nearly traded Heath Bell and Adrian Gonzalez to the Dodgers for James Loney, Russell Martin, James McDonald, Blake Dewitt, and Ivan Dejesus, but the Dodgers backed away." Hmmm, so they almost had the World Series wrapped up (Manny and Gonzo in the middle of the order? Heath Bell, George Sherrill, and Broxton sharing the same bullpen? Yeah, I'd be getting advance tickets to the Dodgers' World Championship parade) but backed away at the last second. Awesome. Last year they managed to pull the trigger, but...not this year. Go figure.
Things improve later that night, when July 30 acquistion George Sherrill makes his first appearance as a Dodger with LA leading 4-0 in the seventh in a two-on, nobody out jam, and proceeds to strike out the side. Jason Schmidt picks up the win, throwing six shutout innings (no, really), Andre Ethier homers and doubles, and the Dodgers pick up a game on both Colorado and San Francisco...but I just can't shake the feeling that they blew a big opportunity. Adrian Gonzalez AND Heath Bell, for a few young guys that were either disappointing (Loney, Martin) or hadn't panned out yet despite numerous chances (McDonald, Dewitt)? That would have been a freaking steal, and possibly a championship-clincher. Alas...George Sherrill will have to do. Go Dodgers, and may Cliff Lee lose his next seven starts.
11 AM, EST: I wake up, unusually giddy. There are only a few sports days that I wake up feeling this way for. The first day of March Madness...January 1st for the bowl games...the day of the Super Bowl...the first day of baseball season...and the trade deadline. That's pretty much the list. Of course, today, I'm coming off a 4:30 a.m. wakeup which was then followed by 17 hours spent in airports or airplanes, all because I missed my initial flight, and basically ruined the days of every single one of my family members involved in the trip I was taking. So...maybe my spirits are dampered a little.
11:01: Nah. Screw it, I'm still excited.
11:45: I'm all showered and packed, and ready to just chill out and let the trades and trade rumors come. The biggest names rumored to be on the move are Roy Halladay, Victor Martinez, and Jarrod Washburn, with the Dodgers apparently feverishly pursuing Halladay to shore up their rotation. If they get him, I'm reacting like the little kid in the PS2 Christmas morning commerical.
11:48: MLBTraderumors is loading. Seriously, is there ANY better baseball website than this? I say no.
11:49: Already, a big trade: Jarrod Wasburn dealt to Detroit for two prospects, who are "fringe-good" according to most scouting websites. Not a bad one for the Tigers. Hmmm, wouldn't Washburn have been perfect for the Dodgers, considering their main competition in the NL is the lefty-loaded Phillies? No, I guess that makes too much sense.
12:30 PM: MLBTR has an update which indicates that the Dodgers are "pursuing relievers over starters," mentioning Mark Lowe, David Weathers, Matt Capps, Arthur Rhodes, and Jason Frasor as possible trade targets. When your bullpen is amazing, and your starting pitchers suck, the logical solution is, of course, to...get...more...relievers?
1:00 PM: Incredibly, there's still not much going on...and now my mom and stepdad are here (because my flight got in so late, and they were an hour's drive from the airport, I stayed with a friend of theirs), and frankly I'm scared to death of what their reaction is going to be of my missing my flight yesterday, since it cost them 50,000 travel miles and almost worried them to death. At the very least, I know that I can't be running to my room to check MLBTR every five minutes when they're at a friend's house. So I bite the bullet, and call my dad to tell him to text me updates whenever they come in. My Dodger fan life is now hanging on my dad's ability to text. Ugh.
1:07 PM: Tmobile online message from my dad (hey, it's something): "LET THE VINNY ROTTINO ERA BEGIN! ROTTINO FOR VARGAS!" I have to laugh. The Dodgerblues guys are probably getting a kick out of that. And Vargas wasn't important at all; this is almost definitely a cost-cutting move meaned to free up salary for a trade. My excitement builds.
3:04 PM: After waiting on pins and needles for the last two hours, another Tmobile text comes in: "RUMORS! GONZALEZ TO LA?!?!?!??!" I'm dying. DYING. Need MLBTR...Need MLBTR...
3:05 PM: No! I can't...have to put on a good show for the fam...have to put on a good show...UGH...
3:11 PM: We're now in the car on the one-hour drive to my mom and stepdad's house. Another Tmobile text comes in, and my hands are shaking as I open it, expecting a Shawn Estes-for-Adrian Gonzo trade...nope. "V-MART TO RED SOX FOR PROSPECTS." Eh. Good trade for the Sox, I guess, depending on the prospects. I relay the info to my mom and stepdad, both diehard Sox fans. Their reaction? "You've got to get to the airport earlier from now on!"
3:20 PM: New one: "ADAM LAROCHE TO BRAVES, JERRY HAIRSTON JR. TO YANKEES." Huh? Didn't the Braves just trade LaRoche to the Pirates like 5 minutes ago? And what the hell do the Yankees need with Hairston? AND WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON WITH ADRIAN?!??!?!?
3:25 PM: Another text. Okay, this has to be it. Maybe they had to throw in Loney or something, but this is definitely the Gonzo text..."ROCKIES ACQUIRE JOE BEIMEL." Or it could just be a trade that rips my heart out. I love Joe Beimel, and now he's playing for a divison rival? Great. Why don't the Rockies just sign Bono and trade for Bruce Springsteen while they're at it?
3:46 PM: "REDS TRADE FOR SCOTT ROLEN." Cool. What about the Dodgers????
4:00 PM: The deadline. And...nothing. It's alright, I tell myself, the Manny trade didn't offically come in till like an hour after the deadline. Surely, the Dodgers have completed some blockbuster, and Roy Halladay or Adrian Gonzalez is going to be throwing shutouts/smashing home runs for LA any day now. Right?
4:05 PM: A text! Okay, this HAS to be it. "Dodgers acquire Halladay, GONZO!, GONZO AND HALLADAY OMG!" or something like that. I smile as I open it up, get ready to party, and...
4:05 PM: ..."MARLINS ACQUIRE NICK JOHNSON."
4:06 PM: Yep, it's just now dawning on me that the Dodgers' big deadline acquisiton was Vinny Rottino, a 29-year-old Double-A catcher who was batting .250 in the Brewers' system. No Halladay, no Adrian Gonzalez, nothing. The Dodgers are now going to war with like 2 1/2 competent starting pitchers and a heavily overused bullpen. What a freaking cocktease.
It only gets worse a couple hours later, when MLBTR reports: "The Padres very nearly traded Heath Bell and Adrian Gonzalez to the Dodgers for James Loney, Russell Martin, James McDonald, Blake Dewitt, and Ivan Dejesus, but the Dodgers backed away." Hmmm, so they almost had the World Series wrapped up (Manny and Gonzo in the middle of the order? Heath Bell, George Sherrill, and Broxton sharing the same bullpen? Yeah, I'd be getting advance tickets to the Dodgers' World Championship parade) but backed away at the last second. Awesome. Last year they managed to pull the trigger, but...not this year. Go figure.
Things improve later that night, when July 30 acquistion George Sherrill makes his first appearance as a Dodger with LA leading 4-0 in the seventh in a two-on, nobody out jam, and proceeds to strike out the side. Jason Schmidt picks up the win, throwing six shutout innings (no, really), Andre Ethier homers and doubles, and the Dodgers pick up a game on both Colorado and San Francisco...but I just can't shake the feeling that they blew a big opportunity. Adrian Gonzalez AND Heath Bell, for a few young guys that were either disappointing (Loney, Martin) or hadn't panned out yet despite numerous chances (McDonald, Dewitt)? That would have been a freaking steal, and possibly a championship-clincher. Alas...George Sherrill will have to do. Go Dodgers, and may Cliff Lee lose his next seven starts.
Friday, July 24, 2009
And at #11...Juan Pierre's first home run as a Dodger!
Usually, when Bill Plaschke thinks thoughts and then writes them down, bad things happen. That's never been more true than now, when Plaschke responded to Manny's epic grand slam from the other night:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-plaschke24-2009jul24,0,2198246.column
This time, it's not so much his writing style that's stupid and tired (although the one-word paragraphs make me want to puke), but it's what he's writing about. The Manny Granny apparently prompted him to think of other great Dodger home runs, and put them in a list according to, I guess, importance and impact. Or, what should have been importance and impact; in fact, I'm not really sure what he uses as the criteria for the list. Here's the whole thing:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-plaschke24-2009jul24,0,2198246.column
This time, it's not so much his writing style that's stupid and tired (although the one-word paragraphs make me want to puke), but it's what he's writing about. The Manny Granny apparently prompted him to think of other great Dodger home runs, and put them in a list according to, I guess, importance and impact. Or, what should have been importance and impact; in fact, I'm not really sure what he uses as the criteria for the list. Here's the whole thing:
10 The Giants Lose The Pennant, The Giants Lose The. . . . The Giants Lose The Pennant, The Giants Lose The. . . . Mike Piazza hits two home runs on the final day of the 1993 season to knock the Giants out of the playoffs and clinch his Rookie of the Year award.
9 Wrigleyville Blackout. . . . Wrigleyville Blackout. . . . James Loney hits a grand slam in the first game of the 2008 division series against the Chicago Cubs, silencing the Wrigley Field crowd, killing the Cubs' spirit, leading to a stunning three-game sweep and the Dodgers' first postseason series win in 20 years.
8 The Fergie FlashThe Fergie Flash. . . . On the final Friday of the 1980 season, Joe Ferguson hits a 10th-inning walk-off homer against the Houston Astros to spur the Dodgers to a three-game sweep, forcing a one-game playoff against the Astros for the division title.
7 Gibby Before Gibby. . . . Gibby Before Gibby. . . . Gibson could never have pulled off his 1988 World Series heroics if Mike Scioscia didn't nearly equal that feat in Game 4 of the National League Championship series with a ninth-inning, two-run tying homer against New York Mets' ace Dwight Gooden.
6 Sweetest Of All. . . . Sweetest Of All. . . . Sweet Lou Johnson hit a homer for a lifetime, in the fourth inning of Game 7 of the 1965 World Series against the Minnesota Twins, giving Sandy Koufax all he needed in an eventual 2-0 victory.
5 Monday, MondayMonday, Monday. . . . Although he's known more for saving an American flag, don't forget the time Rick Monday saved a National League flag. In the ninth inning of the deciding Game 5 of the National League Championship Series in Montreal, Monday went deep off Steve Rogers to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead and the eventual victory, which later led to a World Series title.
4 Four Plus One. . . . Four Plus One. . . . It was the first time in the history of Dodgers ninth innings that fans were fighting to get back into the stadium. Of course you remember the four consecutive homers to tie the San Diego Padres, but do you remember the order? Jeff Kent, J.D. Drew, Russell Martin and Marlon Anderson, with the final two coming on the first two pitches from future Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman. The only thing more Hollywood occurred an one inning later, when the Dodgers won the game on a walk-off homer by a guy who initially couldn't play because of a sore leg, one Nomar Garciaparra.
3 BobblebombBobblebomb. . . . The last thing you need to know about the impact of Ramirez's home run is that, in the clubhouse afterward, Casey Blake was boogeying to a celebratory rap song. Yeah, Casey Blake.
2 Disappearing Act. . . . Disappearing Act. . . . I've still never seen the ball that Finley hit to win the division over the Giants on the second-to-last day of the 2004 season, have you? I was there, I was watching, the hit disappeared into the sun above right-center field, Finley jumped up and down, the roar shook Chavez Ravine, I'll never forget the roar. But I never saw that ball, and I wasn't alone, with Vin Scully memorably noting that wherever it was, whenever it came down, the Dodgers would be champions. Of course, the Giants never saw it coming either, leading 3-0 entering the ninth inning before giving up seven Dodgers runs.
1 Gibby Being Gibby. . . . Gibby Being Gibby. . . . More than two decades later, is the improbable becoming the impossible again?
Allow me, on behalf of all Dodger fans, to say: Huh????? What???? I mean, of course Gibby and Finley have to be 1-2, but 3-10 are just...wrong. For one thing, his #10 home run is actually two home runs, and his #4 home run is actually four home runs. And the order is utterly and completely out of whack.
As great and as fabulous and incredible and unlikely as the Manny Granny was, it can't beat out other home runs that came at much more critical times. I'd say that Scioscia's has to be #3, because that was easily the second-least-expected big home run in Dodger history after Gibson, and it was what propelled the Dodgers to the upset NLCS win over the Mets. And Monday's has to be fourth, because it basically won the freaking pennant.
After that, it becomes pretty subjective. I'm strongly in favor of only considering one home run for each spot, and unfortunately there the four-home-run game gets devalued because you either have to pick Nomar's homer (that won the game) or Marlon Anderson's (that was the fourth of four to tie it in the ninth). So maybe you could sneak the Manny Granny in here, but I'm more in favor of this spot belonging to Loney's slam; I mean, all of the air went out of the Cubs' balloon after that. They never even threatened the rest of the series, and that allowed the Dodgers to pull off one of the most shocking playoff sweeps in history. So that's my choice for #5.
Number six is where I put Marlon Anderson's homer. Very few times in my Dodger fanhood have I actually leaped off the couch in joy. Loney's slam did it for me; so did Finley's. And so did Marlon's homer, probably the third-most unlikely big home run in Dodger history. And Plaschke points out that Manny got a "dugout dogpile" as if it had never happened before; Marlon got a much bigger and longer dugout celebration after his shot.
And number seven is where the debate comes in: Nomar's walkoff homer to win the four-home-run game, or Manny's slam? You know, I have to vote Nomar here. What many forget is that the Dodgers, after tying that game in the ninth, immediately fell behind 10-9 in the top of the tenth (and it could have been a lot worse if Kenny Lofton hadn't reeled in a long fly ball at the center-field fence with two on), and losing that game after such an incredible comeback would have scarred many Dodger fans for life. And yes, that was a "leave the couch" moment as well, one that's captured forever in an SI photo on my bedroom wall. So that's number seven.
Then you can stick Manny eighth, and then come the last two spots. I've only ever heard about the Sweet Lou homer in Game 7 in '65, but I guess Plaschke was there for it and knew how important it was, and I should take his word on this choice. (Wow that was tough to say). So that's #9. And at #10, I'm putting Dick Nen's home run against the Cardinals in the 1963 pennant race. Very obviously, I wasn't there to see it, but the story is great: The Dodgers' once-great lead over St. Louis in the NL pennant race falls down to just a couple games. They call up some nobody from nowhere named Dick Nen (father of Robb, by the way) purely to add a little depth to the roster. The Cardinals throw the great Bob Gibson at the Dodgers in an attempt to cut down the lead even more. It's 5-4 Cardinals in the top of the ninth, when Nen (who'd come into the game as a pinch-hitter a few innings prior) comes up with his first career hit and home run, a solo shot to tie the game at 5. The Dodgers go on to win in 13 innings, and the victory propels them to win five out of their next six to easily clinch the pennant. And get this: that home run was Nen's only career hit as a Dodger.
Yeah, Mike Piazza cracking a few homers to eliminate the Giants is cool, but can you really beat that?
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Luckily, being a sportswriter means never having to admit you were wrong.
Unluckily, I'm not an "official" sportswriter yet (if you think that having this blog qualifies me in any way as a "writer," then I'm a little frightened for your mental health) and thus, I have to eat crow when I'm wrong. And trust me, after watching last night's game and all the magic that went along with it, I have to come to grips with the fact that I was wrong, dead wrong, about something very important regarding my favorite sports team.
Here's why. This is a link to a post I made on May 7, 2009:
http://allsportsbysam.blogspot.com/2009/05/this-dodger-fans-perspective.html
Jeez. "The Dodgers will struggle to keep a .500 record in Manny's absence..." "Without Manny, the Dodgers are only like 1% better than the rest of the NL West..." "I can see Ned and Frank doing all they can to keep Manny from exercising his player option for 2010..." "I can see myself agonizing over how I can root for the team without rooting for Manny..." (and the kicker) "So, in the end, I guess this steroid news has made me question my love of baseball, my love of the Dodgers, and my love of Manny, while basically ensuring that it's going to be a tough time for me to be a Dodger fan until the year 2011." Yeah, except it's only been my favorite year to follow the Dodgers since I started becoming a hardcore fan in 2002. That's all. That's all I was wrong about. And you wonder why the sports editor of my high school paper didn't like me.
In case you're wondering what all of this is about, then you obviously didn't see the highlights of their game against the Reds yesterday. Manny Ramirez was out of the game with a sore hand, as he'd gotten hit by a pitch in the previous game and even had to go to the hospital to get it checked out. Dodger fans across the country nearly died from holding their breath before tests came back negative and revealed that Manny would just be day-to-day with his injury. Still, it would be enough to keep him out of the starting lineup the next day against the Reds, coincidentally on Manny Ramirez Bobblehead Day (and if you don't think that ESPN played up that angle so much that it became simply nauseating to watch, you obviously haven't watched much ESPN). Dodger fans, of course, were initially disappointed that Manny was out of the lineup, as I guess simply being able to watch a 60-34 team rolling toward possibly the best regular season record in franchise history wasn't enough for them. But they would get satisfaction, and a lot of it. With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth, Russell Martin singled to load the bases with one out and bring up the pitcher's spot. Mark Loretta had been standing in the on-deck circle, but when Martin got his hit, Manny emerged from the dugout instead as the crowd exploded. Dusty Baker tried to ice the fans with a pitching change, but it didn't matter. On new pitcher Nick Masset's first offering, Manny took a giant hack and hit a scorching line drive straight into the heart of Mannywood, giving the Dodgers a 6-2 lead and the eventual win. Vin Scully would later say that they he hadn't heard the crowd as loud as it was during Manny's home run trot for 20 years. The rest of the Dodgers reacted as if Manny had just hit the fourth of four straight home runs to tie a game in the ninth. Manny took an unprecedented two curtain calls, which according to Vin Scully had never happened before at Dodger Stadium. I'm telling you, this was an amazing, fantastic, incredible moment, one that makes you realize why you love sports in the first place.
And yeah, I cheered in my living room. I clapped. I had my hands behind my head in joyful disbelief. Does that contradict everything I wrote about Manny when shit originally when down on May 7? A little, yeah. I mean, if he'd played this entire season out without the steroids, I would have felt unabased joyfulness and complete satisfaction after his slam. But considering the circumstances, I'd have to say that my joy was somewhat...restrained. I wanted to take Manny back and forgive and forget, but some things you just can't forgive. He did something stupid and immoral, and I can never really accept him as a favorite player or even a favorite Dodger after what he did (in case you're wondering, yeah, Ethier's my favorite Dodger now just like he was on May 7; unlike most Dodger fans, I can forgive guys who slump every once in a while). In time, I have definitely softened my views on the matter; it's pretty clear that Manny wasn't cheating his whole career, because he never got huge one day like Barry Bonds and his numbers never really started jumping at one point. And even if he was...well, so what, there are steroid users on every team, and there are people that do things to get ahead in every job in every facet of life. I'm definitely not completely excusing him, of course, and I'm still mad at him, but to make him out to be a devil in a group of angels was definitely an exaggeration.
And the main reason why I've softened is this, which my dad helped me see: comparing Bonds to Manny is ridiculous because Bonds was a DICK. Everyone he ever played with hated him (his Arizona State teammates famously refused to play if he was let on the team). He was cold to everyone around him, pompous, cocky, and downright mean. He was a terrible teammate (when amphetamines were found in his locker, he blamed their presence on Mark Sweeney, only of the nicest and purest guys in baseball). He openly criticized reporters every chance he got, giving them no good quotes and acting like they were completely beneath him. He was just a dark shadow in every sense of the word, a walking embodiment of everything wrong with baseball and sports. Manny? He's a grown-up kid. He's nice to fans, all of his teammates adore him, he's polite and quirky to reporters (if you can win over TJ Simers, you're pretty fucking kind and accepting), and while he can be pompus and cocky, he comes off as still loving the game of baseball and working his ass off to stay good at it. Yes, he cheated like Bonds did, and that's bad. But because he's such a good and likeable guy, you forgive a lot faster. And it helps that Bonds cheated so that he could earn a lot of money and a lot of everlasting glory (breaking the all-time home-run record), whereas Manny probably did it just for the money. Still bad, but nowhere near as bad as Bonds' intentions.
So where do I come out on Manny after his most recent display of Being Manny? Well, after forcing myself to be restrained in my cheering for these first few weeks of him being back, I'll now go back to treating him like any other player on the Dodgers; I'll cheer him when he does something good and shake my head in frustration when he does something bad, instead of being nonchalant when he does something good and critical when he does something bad. Was it this one grand slam that did it? No; it's everything he's done since he returned, which includes a torrid hot streak and a handful of huge home runs...all clean, because even the biggest idiot in the world wouldn't continue taking steroids after already getting busted for them. He's showing that his entire career, and his entire Dodger career, wasn't a fluke, and that's been very reassuring to me and my memories of the 2008 squad. So I guess my opinion of Manny got a lot higher, although it can't ever go back to the way it was on May 6th, 2009 (which feels like 10 years ago, by the way). It's something, anyway. Go Dodgers...and Manny, too.
Here's why. This is a link to a post I made on May 7, 2009:
http://allsportsbysam.blogspot.com/2009/05/this-dodger-fans-perspective.html
Jeez. "The Dodgers will struggle to keep a .500 record in Manny's absence..." "Without Manny, the Dodgers are only like 1% better than the rest of the NL West..." "I can see Ned and Frank doing all they can to keep Manny from exercising his player option for 2010..." "I can see myself agonizing over how I can root for the team without rooting for Manny..." (and the kicker) "So, in the end, I guess this steroid news has made me question my love of baseball, my love of the Dodgers, and my love of Manny, while basically ensuring that it's going to be a tough time for me to be a Dodger fan until the year 2011." Yeah, except it's only been my favorite year to follow the Dodgers since I started becoming a hardcore fan in 2002. That's all. That's all I was wrong about. And you wonder why the sports editor of my high school paper didn't like me.
In case you're wondering what all of this is about, then you obviously didn't see the highlights of their game against the Reds yesterday. Manny Ramirez was out of the game with a sore hand, as he'd gotten hit by a pitch in the previous game and even had to go to the hospital to get it checked out. Dodger fans across the country nearly died from holding their breath before tests came back negative and revealed that Manny would just be day-to-day with his injury. Still, it would be enough to keep him out of the starting lineup the next day against the Reds, coincidentally on Manny Ramirez Bobblehead Day (and if you don't think that ESPN played up that angle so much that it became simply nauseating to watch, you obviously haven't watched much ESPN). Dodger fans, of course, were initially disappointed that Manny was out of the lineup, as I guess simply being able to watch a 60-34 team rolling toward possibly the best regular season record in franchise history wasn't enough for them. But they would get satisfaction, and a lot of it. With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth, Russell Martin singled to load the bases with one out and bring up the pitcher's spot. Mark Loretta had been standing in the on-deck circle, but when Martin got his hit, Manny emerged from the dugout instead as the crowd exploded. Dusty Baker tried to ice the fans with a pitching change, but it didn't matter. On new pitcher Nick Masset's first offering, Manny took a giant hack and hit a scorching line drive straight into the heart of Mannywood, giving the Dodgers a 6-2 lead and the eventual win. Vin Scully would later say that they he hadn't heard the crowd as loud as it was during Manny's home run trot for 20 years. The rest of the Dodgers reacted as if Manny had just hit the fourth of four straight home runs to tie a game in the ninth. Manny took an unprecedented two curtain calls, which according to Vin Scully had never happened before at Dodger Stadium. I'm telling you, this was an amazing, fantastic, incredible moment, one that makes you realize why you love sports in the first place.
And yeah, I cheered in my living room. I clapped. I had my hands behind my head in joyful disbelief. Does that contradict everything I wrote about Manny when shit originally when down on May 7? A little, yeah. I mean, if he'd played this entire season out without the steroids, I would have felt unabased joyfulness and complete satisfaction after his slam. But considering the circumstances, I'd have to say that my joy was somewhat...restrained. I wanted to take Manny back and forgive and forget, but some things you just can't forgive. He did something stupid and immoral, and I can never really accept him as a favorite player or even a favorite Dodger after what he did (in case you're wondering, yeah, Ethier's my favorite Dodger now just like he was on May 7; unlike most Dodger fans, I can forgive guys who slump every once in a while). In time, I have definitely softened my views on the matter; it's pretty clear that Manny wasn't cheating his whole career, because he never got huge one day like Barry Bonds and his numbers never really started jumping at one point. And even if he was...well, so what, there are steroid users on every team, and there are people that do things to get ahead in every job in every facet of life. I'm definitely not completely excusing him, of course, and I'm still mad at him, but to make him out to be a devil in a group of angels was definitely an exaggeration.
And the main reason why I've softened is this, which my dad helped me see: comparing Bonds to Manny is ridiculous because Bonds was a DICK. Everyone he ever played with hated him (his Arizona State teammates famously refused to play if he was let on the team). He was cold to everyone around him, pompous, cocky, and downright mean. He was a terrible teammate (when amphetamines were found in his locker, he blamed their presence on Mark Sweeney, only of the nicest and purest guys in baseball). He openly criticized reporters every chance he got, giving them no good quotes and acting like they were completely beneath him. He was just a dark shadow in every sense of the word, a walking embodiment of everything wrong with baseball and sports. Manny? He's a grown-up kid. He's nice to fans, all of his teammates adore him, he's polite and quirky to reporters (if you can win over TJ Simers, you're pretty fucking kind and accepting), and while he can be pompus and cocky, he comes off as still loving the game of baseball and working his ass off to stay good at it. Yes, he cheated like Bonds did, and that's bad. But because he's such a good and likeable guy, you forgive a lot faster. And it helps that Bonds cheated so that he could earn a lot of money and a lot of everlasting glory (breaking the all-time home-run record), whereas Manny probably did it just for the money. Still bad, but nowhere near as bad as Bonds' intentions.
So where do I come out on Manny after his most recent display of Being Manny? Well, after forcing myself to be restrained in my cheering for these first few weeks of him being back, I'll now go back to treating him like any other player on the Dodgers; I'll cheer him when he does something good and shake my head in frustration when he does something bad, instead of being nonchalant when he does something good and critical when he does something bad. Was it this one grand slam that did it? No; it's everything he's done since he returned, which includes a torrid hot streak and a handful of huge home runs...all clean, because even the biggest idiot in the world wouldn't continue taking steroids after already getting busted for them. He's showing that his entire career, and his entire Dodger career, wasn't a fluke, and that's been very reassuring to me and my memories of the 2008 squad. So I guess my opinion of Manny got a lot higher, although it can't ever go back to the way it was on May 6th, 2009 (which feels like 10 years ago, by the way). It's something, anyway. Go Dodgers...and Manny, too.
Don't...stop...believin'?
Apparently, because not only did Schmidt not get bombed, he actually pitched kinda sorta well. He gave up three runs in five innings, but all of those came in the first, and at least one was due to iffy defense behind him. Sure, he had more walks (3) than strikeouts (2), but he didn't even give up a grand slam or a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch, which I was fully expecting. And he picked up the win, his second as a Dodger and first in 28 months. Frankly, this 2009 Dodger season has thrown me completely, completely off. Up is down, black is white, right is left, etc. If Brett Favre came out of retirement to play for the Dodgers and then threw a complete-game shutout to clinch the pennant, I'd probably just shrug (although ESPN would explode). It's been that kind of a year, ya know?
Monday, July 20, 2009
But seriously
Jason Schmidt is starting for the Dodgers tonight. For God's sake, the last time he started a game for the Dodgers, nobody had ever heard of Twitter, the Jonas Brothers, or the Tampa Bay Rays. People still used Myspace! I mean, come ON!
Still, the Dodgers have to try to get something out of their $47 million investment, although I'm not entirely sure what they can hope for. Schmidt is now 36 years old, and has barely limped his way through a few months of pitching to minor league hitters to get to this point. It'd be a miracle if he could survive five innings again at the major league level, let alone make any kind of discernable impact. Maybe Ned Colletti's hoping that he can throw a no-hitter, win the deciding game of the World Series, or come off the bench in the ninth inning to hit a two-run walkoff homer off Mariano Rivera with two bad legs? I'm not sure. The wise "baseball move," of course, would be to cut Schmidt loose and give someone like Scott Elbert or Josh Lindblom a shot at the fifth starter job, but neither of those guys even make $470,000, let alone ten times that, so fuck all that noise. I guess I seriously have to hope that Schmidt does well. Hell, if the LA Clippers can trade Zach Randolph without having to include Blake Griffin and their next 17 lottery picks, anything's possible.
Still, the Dodgers have to try to get something out of their $47 million investment, although I'm not entirely sure what they can hope for. Schmidt is now 36 years old, and has barely limped his way through a few months of pitching to minor league hitters to get to this point. It'd be a miracle if he could survive five innings again at the major league level, let alone make any kind of discernable impact. Maybe Ned Colletti's hoping that he can throw a no-hitter, win the deciding game of the World Series, or come off the bench in the ninth inning to hit a two-run walkoff homer off Mariano Rivera with two bad legs? I'm not sure. The wise "baseball move," of course, would be to cut Schmidt loose and give someone like Scott Elbert or Josh Lindblom a shot at the fifth starter job, but neither of those guys even make $470,000, let alone ten times that, so fuck all that noise. I guess I seriously have to hope that Schmidt does well. Hell, if the LA Clippers can trade Zach Randolph without having to include Blake Griffin and their next 17 lottery picks, anything's possible.
...Huh? Wha? WHAAAAAA??? OKAY! I'M AWAKE! I'M AWAKE!
Yep, all it took was a legitimate Jason Schmidt major league comeback to jostle me out of the three-week posting coma I had nestled myself in. I feel a little cheated to have missed out on writing about many landmark events that occurred during my time off (the Now Officially Insane Ron Artest signing with the Lakers, all 50 of Manny's different "returns," a fourth-of-July baseball/father-son bonding excursion in Southern California that was fucking awesome, three different marquee free agents turning down the suddenly fatheaded Blazers, etc), but I'm sure that I'll make up for all of that soon. For starters: expect at least ten different snarky/sarcastic responses to Jay-Schizz's inevitable "1.1 IP, 8 H, 7 BB, 10 ER" debut tomorrow night.
(That is, once I lure my typing limbs out of atrophy, of course.)
(That is, once I lure my typing limbs out of atrophy, of course.)
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
George Bush is no longer president. Stephen Colbert no longer has hair. U2's music is no longer interesting or good. IT'S NOT 2008.
But still, almost every time I see a Dodger highlight on ESPN, somehow, inevitably, someone will bring up the "fact" that "the Dodgers are so lucky to be playing in the worst division in baseball." Oops!
The team with the best record in the National League (the Dodgers) is in the NL West. The team with the second-best record in the National League (the Giants) is in the NL West. Colorado is right in the wild-card hunt as well. Explain to me how the NL West is any worse, than, say, the AL Central? Or the NL East? Hell, the AL East is the only division that's clearly and definitively better than the NL West. So why all the NL West hate?
The only possible explanation is that every baseball expert around the country still thinks it's 2008. If that's the case, I'd like to bet them all five thousand dollars that the Arizona Cardinals will make the Super Bowl, fifty thousand dollars that Villanova will make the Final Four, and five hundred billion dollars that Manny Ramirez will get suspended for using steroids the day after his team sets a record by opening the 2009 season 13-0 at home. (Two days until he returns, in case you haven't caught one minute of ESPN in the last 96 hours.)
The team with the best record in the National League (the Dodgers) is in the NL West. The team with the second-best record in the National League (the Giants) is in the NL West. Colorado is right in the wild-card hunt as well. Explain to me how the NL West is any worse, than, say, the AL Central? Or the NL East? Hell, the AL East is the only division that's clearly and definitively better than the NL West. So why all the NL West hate?
The only possible explanation is that every baseball expert around the country still thinks it's 2008. If that's the case, I'd like to bet them all five thousand dollars that the Arizona Cardinals will make the Super Bowl, fifty thousand dollars that Villanova will make the Final Four, and five hundred billion dollars that Manny Ramirez will get suspended for using steroids the day after his team sets a record by opening the 2009 season 13-0 at home. (Two days until he returns, in case you haven't caught one minute of ESPN in the last 96 hours.)
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Sorry son, we just don't think you're cut out to play with the big boys
I probably got a lot more enjoyment out of this minor transaction than anyone else, but it's still worth reporting: Manny Ramirez was demoted from Triple-A to Single-A ball yesterday. The reasoning behind the move, of course, has nothing at all to do with his play (the Single-A team is like an hour's drive from Los Angeles and the Dodgers want him to be nearby), but still, it's not every day that you see a guy with 533 career home runs not only play in the minor leagues but get downgraded in the minor leagues. That's incredible. Can I get a "Manny Being Manny"?
Friday, June 26, 2009
Sports By Nostradamus?
Here's me, yesterday:
"Unfortunately, as the Wolves have six of the first 50 picks this year (#5, #6, #18, #28, #45, #47), it's a foregone conclusion that they'll find a player who won't completely suck. Or is it? Here's my prediction for who they'll take with those picks:
#5: Charles Barkley
#6: J.D. from Scrubs
#18: Brett Favre
#28: Spencer and Heidi's baby
#45: Manny Being Manny
#47: Incredibly, Blake Griffin, as he falls all the way down to here due to signability concerns. (Griffin will shed tears of joy at finally being picked, then will confidently toss on his T-Wolves lid and proclaim himself a "Timberwolf for Life." Shortly thereafter, Minnesota will trade Griffin and their next 15 first-round picks to the Lakers for Adam Morrison.)"
What did the T-Wolves actually do? They used four out of those six picks on point guards. Four. Two of those four were taken with their back-to-back lottery picks. Hey Minnesota, want to add some small forward depth? Maybe get a little more size in the frontcourt? No, you're good with just taking four dudes that play the same position?
I guess the bottom line in this T-Wolves draft disaster is: I'm a fucking genius. For my next prediction, I say that the Dodgers make a four-way trade in which they give up Juan Pierre and get Roy Halladay, Johan Santana, and Albert Pujols. Watch it happen!
"Unfortunately, as the Wolves have six of the first 50 picks this year (#5, #6, #18, #28, #45, #47), it's a foregone conclusion that they'll find a player who won't completely suck. Or is it? Here's my prediction for who they'll take with those picks:
#5: Charles Barkley
#6: J.D. from Scrubs
#18: Brett Favre
#28: Spencer and Heidi's baby
#45: Manny Being Manny
#47: Incredibly, Blake Griffin, as he falls all the way down to here due to signability concerns. (Griffin will shed tears of joy at finally being picked, then will confidently toss on his T-Wolves lid and proclaim himself a "Timberwolf for Life." Shortly thereafter, Minnesota will trade Griffin and their next 15 first-round picks to the Lakers for Adam Morrison.)"
What did the T-Wolves actually do? They used four out of those six picks on point guards. Four. Two of those four were taken with their back-to-back lottery picks. Hey Minnesota, want to add some small forward depth? Maybe get a little more size in the frontcourt? No, you're good with just taking four dudes that play the same position?
I guess the bottom line in this T-Wolves draft disaster is: I'm a fucking genius. For my next prediction, I say that the Dodgers make a four-way trade in which they give up Juan Pierre and get Roy Halladay, Johan Santana, and Albert Pujols. Watch it happen!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Manny now 0-for-3 in two games at AAA
It's clear: The Dodger left fielder on July 3rd needs to be Juan Pierre. Or Mitch Jones. Or Jamie Hoffman. Or Kelly Leak. ANYONE BUT MANNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111!!!!!!!!!11!!!!!!1!!!!!!!1111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
NBA Draft tomorrow
I think my dad would watch a six-hour darts tournament backwards before he'd watch the NBA Draft, but I actually find the draft interesting. I can easily explain to you why I have so much more enthusiasm than my dad: I actually know who the players in the draft are, whereas my dad probably couldn't tell Earl Clark from Dick Clark. Here's the thing: I love college hoops. I watch as many games as I can during the season, and I actually cancel plans and get out of work to watch the first round of March Madness every year. Do I do that for the first round of the NBA playoffs, the NFL playoffs, or even the MLB playoffs? No way. College basketball is the only sport that can absolutely suck me in.
So I've heard of all these guys, as I've seen them all play, and therefore I think I have a pretty good idea of which players are going to be good and which players are going to be bad. That's what makes it so much fun for me; for example, in 2007, I knew that Kevin Durant was going to be great and Greg Oden might or might not ever be, and watching Portland pick Oden over Durant on Draft Day was both hilarious and exasperating at the same time. That's how I'll feel this year when some team picks Jrue Holiday over Stephen Curry; that mixture of, "Wow, what dumbasses!" and "Ugh, I feel so bad for that team's fans!" just gives me a rush, I guess.
And that's the other really fun part of the draft: watching teams screw up their selections by taking unproven foreign guys, underacheiving "freakishly athletic" guys who sucked in college, untalented 7-foot white guys with no mobility, etc. One of my favorite teams to follow in this regard is the Minnesota Timberwolves, whose draft futility peaked in 2006 when they drafted Brandon Roy sixth overall and then almost immediately traded him straight-up to the Blazers for Randy Foye, who the Blazers had just picked seventh. They, along with the Knicks, Kings, Clippers, and probably a few other teams, just make for great Draft Day TV. Unfortunately, as the Wolves have six of the first 50 picks this year (#5, #6, #18, #28, #45, #47), it's a foregone conclusion that they'll find a player who won't completely suck. Or is it? Here's my prediction for who they'll take with those picks:
#5: Charles Barkley
#6: J.D. from Scrubs
#18: Brett Favre
#28: Spencer and Heidi's baby
#45: Manny Being Manny
#47: Incredibly, Blake Griffin, as he falls all the way down to here due to signability concerns. (Griffin will shed tears of joy at finally being picked, then will confidently toss on his T-Wolves lid and proclaim himself a "Timberwolf for Life." Shortly thereafter, Minnesota will trade Griffin and their next 15 first-round picks to the Lakers for Adam Morrison.)
Can't wait to see it all unfold tomorrow!
So I've heard of all these guys, as I've seen them all play, and therefore I think I have a pretty good idea of which players are going to be good and which players are going to be bad. That's what makes it so much fun for me; for example, in 2007, I knew that Kevin Durant was going to be great and Greg Oden might or might not ever be, and watching Portland pick Oden over Durant on Draft Day was both hilarious and exasperating at the same time. That's how I'll feel this year when some team picks Jrue Holiday over Stephen Curry; that mixture of, "Wow, what dumbasses!" and "Ugh, I feel so bad for that team's fans!" just gives me a rush, I guess.
And that's the other really fun part of the draft: watching teams screw up their selections by taking unproven foreign guys, underacheiving "freakishly athletic" guys who sucked in college, untalented 7-foot white guys with no mobility, etc. One of my favorite teams to follow in this regard is the Minnesota Timberwolves, whose draft futility peaked in 2006 when they drafted Brandon Roy sixth overall and then almost immediately traded him straight-up to the Blazers for Randy Foye, who the Blazers had just picked seventh. They, along with the Knicks, Kings, Clippers, and probably a few other teams, just make for great Draft Day TV. Unfortunately, as the Wolves have six of the first 50 picks this year (#5, #6, #18, #28, #45, #47), it's a foregone conclusion that they'll find a player who won't completely suck. Or is it? Here's my prediction for who they'll take with those picks:
#5: Charles Barkley
#6: J.D. from Scrubs
#18: Brett Favre
#28: Spencer and Heidi's baby
#45: Manny Being Manny
#47: Incredibly, Blake Griffin, as he falls all the way down to here due to signability concerns. (Griffin will shed tears of joy at finally being picked, then will confidently toss on his T-Wolves lid and proclaim himself a "Timberwolf for Life." Shortly thereafter, Minnesota will trade Griffin and their next 15 first-round picks to the Lakers for Adam Morrison.)
Can't wait to see it all unfold tomorrow!
How often can you break a 50-year losing streak?
Well, the Dodgers did today: they'd lost their last four games in the White Sox' home park (dating back to the 1959 World Series), but snapped that, uh, "streak" with a 5-2 win today. Next up: breaking their 125-year two-game losing streak at the home park of the Toledo Blue Stockings.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Lists are cool!
When I was in Chicago last week visiting family, my uncle happened to bring up an interesting point to me: If you could attend any sporting event in the world, what would it be?
Naturally, my first response was, "Game 7 of the World Series." But then I got to thinking; would going to Game 7 of, like, a Rangers-Marlins World Series be as fun or special as going to, say, a Notre Dame-USC football game in South Bend? Or a Red Sox-Yankees playoff game at Fenway? No way. So after giving this some serious thought, I've decided to make top-five lists of "What game would you like to see most?" for every sport, as well as an overall top five at the end, while adding a "number 1,000,000" to describe which game I would least like to see from each sport. Lists are great, aren't they? So without further ado:
PRO BASKETBALL
1. Game 7 of a Blazers-Lakers playoff series at the Rose Garden.
2. Game 7 of a Lakers-Celtics playoff series at Staples.
3. A regular-season Blazers-Lakers game at the Rose Garden.
4. A Knicks-Warriors game at Oracle Arena. (Why? Because I hate the Knicks, like the Warriors, and the two teams might combine for 400 points, that's why.)
5. Any game involving Lebron James.
1,000,000. Any game involving the L.A. Clippers.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
1. The National Championship Game.
2. A Duke-UNC game at UNC.
3. A UCLA-USC game at UCLA.
4. A first-round game featuring a week 12 seed and a "gutty" 5 seed.
5. A Final Four Game.
1,000,000. Probably one of those Division III games you see on Youtube where there are like 12 fans in the stands, all of them parents of the players. Feel the excitement!
PRO FOOTBALL
1. The Super Bowl.
2. A playoff game at Lambeau Field.
3. A Packers-Vikings game at Lambeau Field.
4. A Patriots-Colts game at Gillette Stadium.
5. An Eagles-Cowboys game at Lincoln Field.
1,000,000. A Seahawks game. Honestly, I've lived in the Pacific Northwest my whole life and I've never once had the urge to attend a Hawks game. Even when they played in the Super Bowl, I literally could not have cared less. I'd honestly rather go watch one of my old high school's football games than a Seahawks game.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
1. A Notre Dame-USC game at Notre Dame Stadium.
2. A UCLA-USC game at the Rose Bowl. (Preferably if neither team was an overwhelming favorite, but whatever.)
3. An Ohio State-Michigan game at Ohio State.
4. The National Championship Game.
5. Any non-USC game at Notre Dame Stadium.
1,000,000. A Duke-North Carolina game. The 1,000 fans who attend that game are probably only there in hopes that Roy Williams or Christian Laettner will make a cameo.
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
1. A potential World Series-clinching game for the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.
2. A potential pennant-clinching game for the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.
3. A potential pennant-clinching game for the Cubs at Wrigley Field. (As long as the Dodgers aren't involved.)
4. A Red Sox-Yankees playoff game at Fenway.
5. A Red Sox-Yankees regular-season game at Fenway.
1,000,000. A Pirates-Nationals game, at least until 2011 when the Nationals have Cy Young (Stephen Strasburg) and Babe Ruth (Bryce Harper) playing for them; then it'll just be any Pirates game.
OLYMPICS
1. The Gold Medal game for basketball.
2. The 100-meter dash.
3. The 200-meter dash.
4. A swimming event in which an American has a chance to break Michael Phelps' gold medal record.
5. A swimming event in which an American has a chance to beat some Euro dude who was talking shit before the race.
1,000,000. A tie between men's figure skating and men's gymnastics. Who does watch either of those?
MISCELLANEOUS (Yeah, I'm sorry; I don't like soccer, hockey, tennis, college baseball, or any other sport enough to make a full top 5 list. My apologies.)
1. Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
2. The FIFA World Cup Finals.
3. A Rafael Nadal-Roger Federer tennis match.
4. A boxing match featuring Floyd Mayweather.
5. The Kentucky Derby.
1,000,000. The World Championship of darts. Yep, I can't believe it's a "sport" either, but there you go.
And now, the overall top five:
1. A potential World Series-clinching game for the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.
2. A potential pennant-clinching game for the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.
3. A Notre Dame-USC football game at Notre Dame Stadium.
4. Game 7 of a Blazers-Lakers playoff series at the Rose Garden.
5. A potential pennant-clinching game for the Cubs at Wrigley Field. (As long as the Dodgers aren't involved.)
1,000,000. The World Championship of darts; there can really be no other.
That's my top 5; what's yours?
Naturally, my first response was, "Game 7 of the World Series." But then I got to thinking; would going to Game 7 of, like, a Rangers-Marlins World Series be as fun or special as going to, say, a Notre Dame-USC football game in South Bend? Or a Red Sox-Yankees playoff game at Fenway? No way. So after giving this some serious thought, I've decided to make top-five lists of "What game would you like to see most?" for every sport, as well as an overall top five at the end, while adding a "number 1,000,000" to describe which game I would least like to see from each sport. Lists are great, aren't they? So without further ado:
PRO BASKETBALL
1. Game 7 of a Blazers-Lakers playoff series at the Rose Garden.
2. Game 7 of a Lakers-Celtics playoff series at Staples.
3. A regular-season Blazers-Lakers game at the Rose Garden.
4. A Knicks-Warriors game at Oracle Arena. (Why? Because I hate the Knicks, like the Warriors, and the two teams might combine for 400 points, that's why.)
5. Any game involving Lebron James.
1,000,000. Any game involving the L.A. Clippers.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
1. The National Championship Game.
2. A Duke-UNC game at UNC.
3. A UCLA-USC game at UCLA.
4. A first-round game featuring a week 12 seed and a "gutty" 5 seed.
5. A Final Four Game.
1,000,000. Probably one of those Division III games you see on Youtube where there are like 12 fans in the stands, all of them parents of the players. Feel the excitement!
PRO FOOTBALL
1. The Super Bowl.
2. A playoff game at Lambeau Field.
3. A Packers-Vikings game at Lambeau Field.
4. A Patriots-Colts game at Gillette Stadium.
5. An Eagles-Cowboys game at Lincoln Field.
1,000,000. A Seahawks game. Honestly, I've lived in the Pacific Northwest my whole life and I've never once had the urge to attend a Hawks game. Even when they played in the Super Bowl, I literally could not have cared less. I'd honestly rather go watch one of my old high school's football games than a Seahawks game.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
1. A Notre Dame-USC game at Notre Dame Stadium.
2. A UCLA-USC game at the Rose Bowl. (Preferably if neither team was an overwhelming favorite, but whatever.)
3. An Ohio State-Michigan game at Ohio State.
4. The National Championship Game.
5. Any non-USC game at Notre Dame Stadium.
1,000,000. A Duke-North Carolina game. The 1,000 fans who attend that game are probably only there in hopes that Roy Williams or Christian Laettner will make a cameo.
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
1. A potential World Series-clinching game for the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.
2. A potential pennant-clinching game for the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.
3. A potential pennant-clinching game for the Cubs at Wrigley Field. (As long as the Dodgers aren't involved.)
4. A Red Sox-Yankees playoff game at Fenway.
5. A Red Sox-Yankees regular-season game at Fenway.
1,000,000. A Pirates-Nationals game, at least until 2011 when the Nationals have Cy Young (Stephen Strasburg) and Babe Ruth (Bryce Harper) playing for them; then it'll just be any Pirates game.
OLYMPICS
1. The Gold Medal game for basketball.
2. The 100-meter dash.
3. The 200-meter dash.
4. A swimming event in which an American has a chance to break Michael Phelps' gold medal record.
5. A swimming event in which an American has a chance to beat some Euro dude who was talking shit before the race.
1,000,000. A tie between men's figure skating and men's gymnastics. Who does watch either of those?
MISCELLANEOUS (Yeah, I'm sorry; I don't like soccer, hockey, tennis, college baseball, or any other sport enough to make a full top 5 list. My apologies.)
1. Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
2. The FIFA World Cup Finals.
3. A Rafael Nadal-Roger Federer tennis match.
4. A boxing match featuring Floyd Mayweather.
5. The Kentucky Derby.
1,000,000. The World Championship of darts. Yep, I can't believe it's a "sport" either, but there you go.
And now, the overall top five:
1. A potential World Series-clinching game for the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.
2. A potential pennant-clinching game for the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.
3. A Notre Dame-USC football game at Notre Dame Stadium.
4. Game 7 of a Blazers-Lakers playoff series at the Rose Garden.
5. A potential pennant-clinching game for the Cubs at Wrigley Field. (As long as the Dodgers aren't involved.)
1,000,000. The World Championship of darts; there can really be no other.
That's my top 5; what's yours?
Thursday, June 18, 2009
It just FEELS like they're a .500 team
All right...
I know what you're all probably thinking. The Dodgers are currently 43-23. The closest team to them in the division standings is 8.5 games out. They've gone 22-15 (.595) in the six weeks that they've been without their best hitter. They've got three relievers with ERAs under 2.50, three starters with ERAs under 3.50 and six hitters with OPSs of .800 or better. They're second in the NL in runs scored and second in OBP. They're first in the NL in ERA and BAA. Basically, they're a very balanced, deep, good team. So why have many of my recent posts about them been about Andruw Jones and Jason Schmidt and how much wins suck as a stat because Guillermo Mota has as many as Randy Wolf? Why am I being such a spoiled little bitch about their fantastic season?
Well, here's the thing: the Dodgers aren't really this good. I mean, come on: Ronald Belisario and Ramon Troncoso are combining for a 2.32 ERA in 81.1 innings. 2.32! Had you ever heard of either one of them before I mentioned them just now? Don't be embarrassed if you hadn't, because I'm the most diehard Dodger fan there is and I had no idea who Belisario was until Opening Day. Then you've got Eric Milton and his 2.89 ERA (?????), Brent Leach (who?) and his 3.65 ERA, and Guillermo Mota and his current consecutive scoreless inning streak of 12.1 (you see what I mean? This is fucking "Twlight Zone" material.)...and it just seems like everyone's playing way over their heads. Eventually, guys will tire and guys will start to get hit, and the Dodgers won't be winning all these 1-0 and 3-2 games. Ned Colletti will probably have to acquire a relief pitcher to help give some of those other guys a break, and the last time the Dodgers were in that situation Colletti acquired 43-year-old Roberto Hernandez. So color me skeptical in that regard.
So, wait...do the Dodgers actually suck and they've just gotten by on pure luck to this point? Hell no. Their offense is legitimately good; their lineup is full of patient hitters who work the count and know what to do in every game situation. Starting pitchers rarely last past the sixth inning against them because they have to throw so many pitches, so the Dodgers see more atbats against crappy middle relievers than any team in baseball. And that's not even counting the Manny Ramirez factor; throw him back into that lineup and they're the same team that was killing fools by 7-8 runs in late April and early May. Plus, good hitters like James Loney, Rafael Furcal, and Russell Martin haven't really even gotten going yet (combined batting average of .255?). Who knows if they ever will, but if they do they'll be a huge boost as well.
So, in conclusion, are the Dodgers a great team, capable of playing their current .652 ball for the rest of the season and finishing with 106 wins? No. But are they still a very good team capable of getting to the playoffs? Sure. And yes, I am enjoying the ride, contrary to what this blog might have you think; when Kemp hit his walkoff single in the ninth a couple nights ago, I jumped up and fist-pumped in celebration. Trust me, I'm not becoming complacent or spoiled; I'm just being level-headed and cautious. But I'm definitely having fun following the team; let there be no doubt about that.
I know what you're all probably thinking. The Dodgers are currently 43-23. The closest team to them in the division standings is 8.5 games out. They've gone 22-15 (.595) in the six weeks that they've been without their best hitter. They've got three relievers with ERAs under 2.50, three starters with ERAs under 3.50 and six hitters with OPSs of .800 or better. They're second in the NL in runs scored and second in OBP. They're first in the NL in ERA and BAA. Basically, they're a very balanced, deep, good team. So why have many of my recent posts about them been about Andruw Jones and Jason Schmidt and how much wins suck as a stat because Guillermo Mota has as many as Randy Wolf? Why am I being such a spoiled little bitch about their fantastic season?
Well, here's the thing: the Dodgers aren't really this good. I mean, come on: Ronald Belisario and Ramon Troncoso are combining for a 2.32 ERA in 81.1 innings. 2.32! Had you ever heard of either one of them before I mentioned them just now? Don't be embarrassed if you hadn't, because I'm the most diehard Dodger fan there is and I had no idea who Belisario was until Opening Day. Then you've got Eric Milton and his 2.89 ERA (?????), Brent Leach (who?) and his 3.65 ERA, and Guillermo Mota and his current consecutive scoreless inning streak of 12.1 (you see what I mean? This is fucking "Twlight Zone" material.)...and it just seems like everyone's playing way over their heads. Eventually, guys will tire and guys will start to get hit, and the Dodgers won't be winning all these 1-0 and 3-2 games. Ned Colletti will probably have to acquire a relief pitcher to help give some of those other guys a break, and the last time the Dodgers were in that situation Colletti acquired 43-year-old Roberto Hernandez. So color me skeptical in that regard.
So, wait...do the Dodgers actually suck and they've just gotten by on pure luck to this point? Hell no. Their offense is legitimately good; their lineup is full of patient hitters who work the count and know what to do in every game situation. Starting pitchers rarely last past the sixth inning against them because they have to throw so many pitches, so the Dodgers see more atbats against crappy middle relievers than any team in baseball. And that's not even counting the Manny Ramirez factor; throw him back into that lineup and they're the same team that was killing fools by 7-8 runs in late April and early May. Plus, good hitters like James Loney, Rafael Furcal, and Russell Martin haven't really even gotten going yet (combined batting average of .255?). Who knows if they ever will, but if they do they'll be a huge boost as well.
So, in conclusion, are the Dodgers a great team, capable of playing their current .652 ball for the rest of the season and finishing with 106 wins? No. But are they still a very good team capable of getting to the playoffs? Sure. And yes, I am enjoying the ride, contrary to what this blog might have you think; when Kemp hit his walkoff single in the ninth a couple nights ago, I jumped up and fist-pumped in celebration. Trust me, I'm not becoming complacent or spoiled; I'm just being level-headed and cautious. But I'm definitely having fun following the team; let there be no doubt about that.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
The Legend of Don't Stop Believin'
For those who don't know, the Dodgers' "eighth inning stretch song" (a new trend that the Red Sox started with "Sweet Caroline" that I used to be lukewarm about but have grown to love) is the immortal "Don't Stop Believin'." If there was any doubt about it being in the top 1 songs in the history of music, there's none anymore...because I now present "The Legend of Don't Stop Believin', 2009 Dodgers Edition."
1. April 15th: Dodgers trail the Giants 4-2 entering the bottom of the eighth following a crushing three-run homer in the top of the inning that normally would have deflated them. But a single, a double, a sacrifice fly and another single later, the game's tied 4-4, and then the Dodgers win in the ninth on a walkoff walk.
2. May 20th: Dodgers and Mets are tied at 1 entering the bottom of the eighth. The Dodgers get a one-out single and a one-out walk, and then, incredibly, Russ Martin (batting something like .120 at the time) comes through in the clutch with an RBI single to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead that Jonathon Broxton holds for the win.
3. May 23rd: Down 4-1 to the Angels at one point, the Dodgers cut to 4-3 entering the bottom of the eighth. Loney leads with a double (one of his like three extra-base hits on the season), and one out later Casey Blake (henceforth referred to on this blog as "Beard") drives him home with a single to tie it up. The Dodgers win in the 10th on a walkoff walk.
4. June 2nd: The Dodgers trail the Dbacks 5-0 at one point and 5-1 most of the way, as they look absolutely lifeless against Dan Haren. Then comes the bottom of the eighth. Leadoff single by Kemp, then two quick outs, then another single, two walks to make it 5-2, and then a shocking bases-loaded double off the wall by Loney to tie it at 5 (the second of Loney's like three extra-base hits on the season). Beard then follows with a go-ahead RBI single, completing a crazy comeback to give the Dodgers a 6-5 lead and the eventual victory.
5. June 16th: Dodgers down 4-2 entering eighth. Enter opposing reliever. Cue Furcal double. Then Blake single. Then Loney walk. Then Kemp single. Then Ethier game-tying fielder's choice. Fast-forward to 10th. Leadoff base hit. Then error. Then Loney GIDP...but then Kemp walkoff single. Dodgers win 5-4.
I guess what I'm trying to say is this:
Juuuuuuust a small town girl!..............Livin' in a looooooonely wooooooorld!..............(Good luck getting that out of your head.)
1. April 15th: Dodgers trail the Giants 4-2 entering the bottom of the eighth following a crushing three-run homer in the top of the inning that normally would have deflated them. But a single, a double, a sacrifice fly and another single later, the game's tied 4-4, and then the Dodgers win in the ninth on a walkoff walk.
2. May 20th: Dodgers and Mets are tied at 1 entering the bottom of the eighth. The Dodgers get a one-out single and a one-out walk, and then, incredibly, Russ Martin (batting something like .120 at the time) comes through in the clutch with an RBI single to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead that Jonathon Broxton holds for the win.
3. May 23rd: Down 4-1 to the Angels at one point, the Dodgers cut to 4-3 entering the bottom of the eighth. Loney leads with a double (one of his like three extra-base hits on the season), and one out later Casey Blake (henceforth referred to on this blog as "Beard") drives him home with a single to tie it up. The Dodgers win in the 10th on a walkoff walk.
4. June 2nd: The Dodgers trail the Dbacks 5-0 at one point and 5-1 most of the way, as they look absolutely lifeless against Dan Haren. Then comes the bottom of the eighth. Leadoff single by Kemp, then two quick outs, then another single, two walks to make it 5-2, and then a shocking bases-loaded double off the wall by Loney to tie it at 5 (the second of Loney's like three extra-base hits on the season). Beard then follows with a go-ahead RBI single, completing a crazy comeback to give the Dodgers a 6-5 lead and the eventual victory.
5. June 16th: Dodgers down 4-2 entering eighth. Enter opposing reliever. Cue Furcal double. Then Blake single. Then Loney walk. Then Kemp single. Then Ethier game-tying fielder's choice. Fast-forward to 10th. Leadoff base hit. Then error. Then Loney GIDP...but then Kemp walkoff single. Dodgers win 5-4.
I guess what I'm trying to say is this:
Juuuuuuust a small town girl!..............Livin' in a looooooonely wooooooorld!..............(Good luck getting that out of your head.)
WHAT???????????? GET THE %$&# OUTTA HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aaaaaaaaand Jason Schmidt's back on the 60-day DL:
http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090616&content_id=5358902&vkey=news_la&fext=.jsp&c_id=la
As Schmidt's contract ends after this season, this probably signals the end of his Dodger career. For those who aren't aware of the gory details, here's a timeline of relevant Dodgers/Schmidt events from the last few years:
July 31, 2006: In the middle of a pennant race, the Dodgers trade for Greg Maddux to bolster their starting rotation. Maddux turns back the clock to 1995 (6-3, 3.30 ERA) and helps them reach the playoffs.
November 9, 2006: Agent Scott Boras goes behind Dodger GM Ned Colletti's back and gets J.D. Drew to exercise his player option and opt out of his contract. Colletti throws a hissy fit and declares that he'll never deal with Boras clients again--Maddux included.
December 6, 2006: With Maddux no longer an option, Colletti gives Jason Schmidt a three-year contract for $47 million. (Schmidt, at the time: 33 years old. Long history of injuries. Very hated player in Los Angeles as he'd owned the Dodgers during his six years as a Giant. Forty-seven million. Yeah, this one never really had a chance at turning out well.)
April 4, 2007: Jason Schmidt makes his first start as a Dodger, going five innings while giving up one run as Los Angeles beats Milwaukee. Schmidt gets credited with the victory: his first and last as a Dodger.
April 18, 2007: After two straight shaky starts, an MRI reveals that Schmidt has an inflamed bursa sac and he hits the DL...not for the last time as a Dodger.
June 5, 2007: Schmidt comes off the DL and delivers his best start in a Dodger uni, pitching six innings and giving up only one hit. He gets a no-decision in LA's 1-0 loss to San Diego. Despite the loss, Grady Little says after the game in reference to Schmidt's start: "'If there is such a thing as a moral victory, it's what happened tonight for the Los Angeles Dodgers. We'll reap the benefits of that all year long.'"
June 16, 2007: Schmidt gets rocked for the second straight start, surrendering three runs in four-plus innings innings to the Angels. The Dodgers later note that Schmidt's fastball velocity is down significantly from early April.
June 18, 2007: Schmidt hits the DL for the second time.
June 21, 2007: Schmidt undergoes right shoulder surgery and is shelved for the season. At this point in his Dodger career, he has made six starts and is 1-4 with a 6.31 ERA.
October 1, 2007: The Dodgers finish the season 82-80, eight games out of first place. Thanks to Schmidt's injury and the resulting gaping hole it left in the starting rotation, the Dodgers had been forced to acquire David Wells and Esteban Loaiza in August, both of whom did more to hurt the team than help it. Those three pitchers combined to go 6-9 with a 6.31 ERA for the Dodgers in 2007...as Greg Maddux went 14-11, 4.22 in 34 completely healthy starts for the Dodgers' division rival, the San Diego Padres.
March 30, 2008: The day before the 2008 season starts, Jason Schmidt is one of four Dodgers placed on the DL, as his right shoulder still has not healed following surgery.
May 11, 2008: Schmidt appears in an actual game for the first time since June 2007, pitching one scoreless inning for Single-A Great Lakes. He keeps pitching in the minors for the next few months, having to be shut down for extended stretches several times due to fatigue.
September 28, 2008: The Dodgers' regular season ends with Schmidt failing to reach the majors. His final minor league line for 2008: 0-1, 5.55 ERA in 9 starts, with his fastball velocity dropping to the low 80s. At this point, he has gone a year and a half without pitching in the majors, yet has made something like $24 million in that time span.
December 10, 2008: The LA Times reports that Ned Colletti and Frank McCourt knew that Jason Schmidt had shoulder problems when they originally signed him to the $47-million contract. Read that sentence again.
February 14, 2009: On the first day of spring training, Schmidt declares that he's ready to go out and grab the Dodgers' open fifth starter job, saying about his arm, "'Now, it feels better than it did. There are still a lot of unknowns. But it's definitely night and day from last year.'"
March 16, 2009: Joe Torre declares Schmidt to be out of the running for the #5 starter job, citing decreased velocity and stamina as the reasons why.
April 5, 2009: On the eve of the 2009 season, Schmidt is again placed on the DL.
May 12, 2009: After a month of "extended spring training," Schmidt makes his 2009 season debut...at Class A ball, throwing five innings and striking out six while giving up one run. After his successful start, Joe Torre says, "'He's continuing to build momentum.'"
May 26, 2009: The Dodgers halt Schmidt's rehab assignment because of right shoulder irritation.
June 17, 2009: The Dodgers transfer Schmidt to the 60-day DL, effectively ending his season and his Dodger career.
So, to recap, here are some relevant stats related to Schmidt and his Dodger tenure:
- 47 million dollars earned/stolen
- 6.31 ERA
- 1 win
- 6 starts made, none after June 16, 2007
- 4 DL stints
- 3 minor league rehab assignments halted because of decreased stamina and velocity
- 10 million Dodger fans who have developed ulcers and other stress-related illnesses because of this saga
- 1 very clear reason why Ned Colletti is a ginormous dumbass
http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090616&content_id=5358902&vkey=news_la&fext=.jsp&c_id=la
As Schmidt's contract ends after this season, this probably signals the end of his Dodger career. For those who aren't aware of the gory details, here's a timeline of relevant Dodgers/Schmidt events from the last few years:
July 31, 2006: In the middle of a pennant race, the Dodgers trade for Greg Maddux to bolster their starting rotation. Maddux turns back the clock to 1995 (6-3, 3.30 ERA) and helps them reach the playoffs.
November 9, 2006: Agent Scott Boras goes behind Dodger GM Ned Colletti's back and gets J.D. Drew to exercise his player option and opt out of his contract. Colletti throws a hissy fit and declares that he'll never deal with Boras clients again--Maddux included.
December 6, 2006: With Maddux no longer an option, Colletti gives Jason Schmidt a three-year contract for $47 million. (Schmidt, at the time: 33 years old. Long history of injuries. Very hated player in Los Angeles as he'd owned the Dodgers during his six years as a Giant. Forty-seven million. Yeah, this one never really had a chance at turning out well.)
April 4, 2007: Jason Schmidt makes his first start as a Dodger, going five innings while giving up one run as Los Angeles beats Milwaukee. Schmidt gets credited with the victory: his first and last as a Dodger.
April 18, 2007: After two straight shaky starts, an MRI reveals that Schmidt has an inflamed bursa sac and he hits the DL...not for the last time as a Dodger.
June 5, 2007: Schmidt comes off the DL and delivers his best start in a Dodger uni, pitching six innings and giving up only one hit. He gets a no-decision in LA's 1-0 loss to San Diego. Despite the loss, Grady Little says after the game in reference to Schmidt's start: "'If there is such a thing as a moral victory, it's what happened tonight for the Los Angeles Dodgers. We'll reap the benefits of that all year long.'"
June 16, 2007: Schmidt gets rocked for the second straight start, surrendering three runs in four-plus innings innings to the Angels. The Dodgers later note that Schmidt's fastball velocity is down significantly from early April.
June 18, 2007: Schmidt hits the DL for the second time.
June 21, 2007: Schmidt undergoes right shoulder surgery and is shelved for the season. At this point in his Dodger career, he has made six starts and is 1-4 with a 6.31 ERA.
October 1, 2007: The Dodgers finish the season 82-80, eight games out of first place. Thanks to Schmidt's injury and the resulting gaping hole it left in the starting rotation, the Dodgers had been forced to acquire David Wells and Esteban Loaiza in August, both of whom did more to hurt the team than help it. Those three pitchers combined to go 6-9 with a 6.31 ERA for the Dodgers in 2007...as Greg Maddux went 14-11, 4.22 in 34 completely healthy starts for the Dodgers' division rival, the San Diego Padres.
March 30, 2008: The day before the 2008 season starts, Jason Schmidt is one of four Dodgers placed on the DL, as his right shoulder still has not healed following surgery.
May 11, 2008: Schmidt appears in an actual game for the first time since June 2007, pitching one scoreless inning for Single-A Great Lakes. He keeps pitching in the minors for the next few months, having to be shut down for extended stretches several times due to fatigue.
September 28, 2008: The Dodgers' regular season ends with Schmidt failing to reach the majors. His final minor league line for 2008: 0-1, 5.55 ERA in 9 starts, with his fastball velocity dropping to the low 80s. At this point, he has gone a year and a half without pitching in the majors, yet has made something like $24 million in that time span.
December 10, 2008: The LA Times reports that Ned Colletti and Frank McCourt knew that Jason Schmidt had shoulder problems when they originally signed him to the $47-million contract. Read that sentence again.
February 14, 2009: On the first day of spring training, Schmidt declares that he's ready to go out and grab the Dodgers' open fifth starter job, saying about his arm, "'Now, it feels better than it did. There are still a lot of unknowns. But it's definitely night and day from last year.'"
March 16, 2009: Joe Torre declares Schmidt to be out of the running for the #5 starter job, citing decreased velocity and stamina as the reasons why.
April 5, 2009: On the eve of the 2009 season, Schmidt is again placed on the DL.
May 12, 2009: After a month of "extended spring training," Schmidt makes his 2009 season debut...at Class A ball, throwing five innings and striking out six while giving up one run. After his successful start, Joe Torre says, "'He's continuing to build momentum.'"
May 26, 2009: The Dodgers halt Schmidt's rehab assignment because of right shoulder irritation.
June 17, 2009: The Dodgers transfer Schmidt to the 60-day DL, effectively ending his season and his Dodger career.
So, to recap, here are some relevant stats related to Schmidt and his Dodger tenure:
- 47 million dollars earned/stolen
- 6.31 ERA
- 1 win
- 6 starts made, none after June 16, 2007
- 4 DL stints
- 3 minor league rehab assignments halted because of decreased stamina and velocity
- 10 million Dodger fans who have developed ulcers and other stress-related illnesses because of this saga
- 1 very clear reason why Ned Colletti is a ginormous dumbass
Monday, June 15, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Andruw Jones sets all-time single-game records with 6 home runs, 18 RBIs, 50 pounds lost
Just kidding, but it wouldn't have surprised me.
(Jones still did hit a home run and steal a base; I'm not sure which of those blew me away the most.)
(Jones still did hit a home run and steal a base; I'm not sure which of those blew me away the most.)
Saturday, June 13, 2009
I don't usually (well, ever) write about hockey, but...
Congrats to the Pittsburgh Penguins on their victory in the Stanley Cup Finals and for reaching the top of the hockey world. Their next goal: get the TV ratings for NHL games higher than the TV ratings for fishing shows.
I'm so depressed I guess I'll just hit .160
You may have heard of Andruw Jones. Burst onto the scene as a 19-year-old rookie in the 1996 World Series with a couple of monstrous home runs. Became well-known for his great range and diving catches in the outfield. Has a closet full of Gold Gloves. Regularly hit 30-40 homers a year in the early 2000s. Was one of the greatest players in Atlanta Braves history during his twelve-year tenure there. Then he signed with the Dodgers for $36 million in the 2007 offseason (despite coming off a year where he batted .222 with a .311 OBP, easily his worst season) and proceeded to gain 400 pounds and start off something like 1 for his first 50. He finished the season at .158 with 3 homers, one of the worst offensive seasons in baseball history. He was probably the most disgraceful free agent signing of all time.
But if you listen to Jones, it's all Frank McCourt's fault.
"
Sitting at his corner locker in the Texas Rangers' clubhouse Friday, Andruw Jones said the main reason he asked the Dodgers to release him this winter wasn't his desire for a change of scenery.He said he asked out mainly because of the way he was treated by Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.
"He wasn't standing behind me, I think," Jones said, adding that if McCourt had shown him more respect, "I almost definitely would be part of the L.A. Dodgers right now."
McCourt was unavailable for comment.
Jones' season with the Dodgers was an unmitigated disappointment, as he reported to camp overweight for the first year of his two-year, $36.2-million contract.
He batted.158 with three home runs and 14 runs batted in and was granted his release over the winter by agreeing to defer a significant portion of the $22 million remaining on his deal.
"As things were going along, I didn't think I was in their plans," Jones said. "I had to make a decision and move on.
"I know they had Matt Kemp, who was going to play center field all the time, so I didn't feel like I was in their plans."
Jones said he started to get the sense that he was on his way out of Los Angeles when he met with McCourt before undergoing knee surgery last May.
"It was disrespect," Jones said of the way McCourt spoke to him.
Jones said he was upset when his agent, Scott Boras, told him in the off-season that McCourt was looking into ways to void his contract.
While acknowledging that McCourt paid him a hefty salary, Jones said the owner had no right to complain about a deal that was mutually agreed upon.
"I got paid that money because that was my value," Jones said, pointing to the numbers he posted in 12 seasons with the Atlanta Braves.
"
Emphasis fucking mine.
Good God, Andruw, are you serious? You show up to Dodgers camp weighing 800 pounds with the bat speed of a grandma with arthritis and you expect the fans and front office to show you respect? After a year where you hit fucking .222? Then you watch them acquire Manny Ramirez in July and take off to the NLCS while you hide your fat ass in the minors, and you complain about not being in their plans? Wow. At least nobody can say that you're not a fatheaded dick.
And now, of course, he'll hit four home runs against the Dodgers today. You can put that one in the books right now.
But if you listen to Jones, it's all Frank McCourt's fault.
"
Sitting at his corner locker in the Texas Rangers' clubhouse Friday, Andruw Jones said the main reason he asked the Dodgers to release him this winter wasn't his desire for a change of scenery.He said he asked out mainly because of the way he was treated by Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.
"He wasn't standing behind me, I think," Jones said, adding that if McCourt had shown him more respect, "I almost definitely would be part of the L.A. Dodgers right now."
McCourt was unavailable for comment.
Jones' season with the Dodgers was an unmitigated disappointment, as he reported to camp overweight for the first year of his two-year, $36.2-million contract.
He batted.158 with three home runs and 14 runs batted in and was granted his release over the winter by agreeing to defer a significant portion of the $22 million remaining on his deal.
"As things were going along, I didn't think I was in their plans," Jones said. "I had to make a decision and move on.
"I know they had Matt Kemp, who was going to play center field all the time, so I didn't feel like I was in their plans."
Jones said he started to get the sense that he was on his way out of Los Angeles when he met with McCourt before undergoing knee surgery last May.
"It was disrespect," Jones said of the way McCourt spoke to him.
Jones said he was upset when his agent, Scott Boras, told him in the off-season that McCourt was looking into ways to void his contract.
While acknowledging that McCourt paid him a hefty salary, Jones said the owner had no right to complain about a deal that was mutually agreed upon.
"I got paid that money because that was my value," Jones said, pointing to the numbers he posted in 12 seasons with the Atlanta Braves.
"
Emphasis fucking mine.
Good God, Andruw, are you serious? You show up to Dodgers camp weighing 800 pounds with the bat speed of a grandma with arthritis and you expect the fans and front office to show you respect? After a year where you hit fucking .222? Then you watch them acquire Manny Ramirez in July and take off to the NLCS while you hide your fat ass in the minors, and you complain about not being in their plans? Wow. At least nobody can say that you're not a fatheaded dick.
And now, of course, he'll hit four home runs against the Dodgers today. You can put that one in the books right now.
Friday, June 12, 2009
You'd have to be an idiot to declare an NBA Finals game over in the second quarter
But to insinuate that Adam Morrison could ever see the floor? Even if it was a 20-point game? That's beyond idiocy. You'd have to be Paris Hilton, Damon Stoudamire, and Miss Teen South Carolina all rolled into one to be that stupid. You shouldn't be allowed to see the light of day if you're that stupid. And you definitely shouldn't be allowed to have an ultra-critical, tongue-in-cheek, holier-than-thou sports blog if you're that stupid. It's unimaginable to think that somebody could be that dumb.
(Please ignore my last post.)
(Please ignore my last post.)
Thursday, June 11, 2009
I think you're all missing the real story here
With the Lakers currently trailing by double digits in the second quarter of Game 4 against Orlando, there are probably a million questions running through people's minds. Is Kobe gassed? Could this series go seven? Is Orlando better than people thought? How high is JJ Redick's blood-alcohol level? How badly will Mamba maim his teammates if the Lakers lose the series? Which guy from the movie Troy does Pau Gasol look exactly like? How stupid is it to keep showing those fucking Lebron/Kobe puppet commercials when the King is currently sitting at home on his couch eating Doritos? And could this actually end up being a classic Finals when, after the first two games, some said that it might be the most boring one in history? But I think I have the most relevant question of all:
If the Lakers are losing by 20 in the fourth quarter and they play Adam Morrison with Jordan Farmar, um...how's that gonna go?
If the Lakers are losing by 20 in the fourth quarter and they play Adam Morrison with Jordan Farmar, um...how's that gonna go?
What if a team only drafted pitchers?
How important is pitching in this day in age? Well, it's probably not 90% of baseball, as I think Connie Mack once said, but it's pretty damn important. Good pitching is so rare in this day in age that the best available starting pitcher on the trade market come July might be Doug freaking Davis of the Arizona Diamondbacks. If you have two good starters, you probably have one of the top three rotations in your league. It's borderline insanity, but it's the truth.
So let's say that you're a first-time general manager, about to take over a small-market team with a low payroll that has been a perennial loser for years. Well, wouldn't "drafting young pitching" be your absolute #1 priority? Even if each young guy you get only has like a 20% chance of being a star, won't the odds be in your favor that you'll have a solid pitching staff before long? I believe so. And the best part about young pitching is, it's what other teams want more than anything, so you also have some very valuable trade chips to use in transactions to acquire other pieces of the puzzle without needing to spend lavishly on free agents.
Obviously, with this logic, pitching should be paramount for small-market teams. So I'm going to try a hypothetical situation here: what if one such team only took pitchers in their draft? What if the Nationals followed up their Stephen Strasburg and Drew Storen picks with 49 other pitchers? Would they be better off? About the same? Worse? What would happen? I'm opening this up to any and all discussion. Personally, I say yes, but there's a ton of room for debate, of course.
So let's say that you're a first-time general manager, about to take over a small-market team with a low payroll that has been a perennial loser for years. Well, wouldn't "drafting young pitching" be your absolute #1 priority? Even if each young guy you get only has like a 20% chance of being a star, won't the odds be in your favor that you'll have a solid pitching staff before long? I believe so. And the best part about young pitching is, it's what other teams want more than anything, so you also have some very valuable trade chips to use in transactions to acquire other pieces of the puzzle without needing to spend lavishly on free agents.
Obviously, with this logic, pitching should be paramount for small-market teams. So I'm going to try a hypothetical situation here: what if one such team only took pitchers in their draft? What if the Nationals followed up their Stephen Strasburg and Drew Storen picks with 49 other pitchers? Would they be better off? About the same? Worse? What would happen? I'm opening this up to any and all discussion. Personally, I say yes, but there's a ton of room for debate, of course.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Sometimes Red Sox fans are just the best
Fourth inning, Wednesday Night Baseball, The Greatest Rivalry In The History Of Sports playing on The National Brett Favre Sports Network. It's 4-2 in favor of the Boston Sam Malones, with the New York Jerry Seinfelds threatening with runners on first and second with two out. As Johnny Damon steps in to face Tim Wakefield, my Sox-loving stepdad casually observes, "Come on Wake! You're our ace!"
Now, of course, I was faced with a tough decision: Exactly which argument should I use to make my elder look completely foolish?
a. Josh Beckett: 3.77 ERA. Tim Wakefield: 4.50 ERA.
b. Josh Beckett: 1.30 WHIP. Tim Wakefield: 1.43 WHIP.
c. Josh Beckett: 76 strikeouts and 32 walks in 76.1 innings. Tim Wakefield: 41 strikeouts and 32 walks in 72 innings.
d. Josh Beckett: 8.96 K/9. Tim Wakefield: 5.13 K/9.
e. Josh Beckett: STF rating of 27. Tim Wakefield: STF rating of 4.
Wakefield does have an edge in defense-adjusted ERA (3.59 to 3.70). But it's very, very, very clear that Josh Beckett is the Red Sox' ace, and Tim Wakefield is not.
Of course, I went with "f: none of the above" and meekly muttered, "Wait, what about Beckett?" as my stepdad proceeded to contradict me by talking about reasons why Wakefield was good (while failing to mention defense-adjusted ERA because, well, he's a normal person and not a blogging stat geek). Rick Sutcliffe then made a remark that insinuated in some way that Wakefield wasn't very good, and naturally my stepdad spent the rest of the half-inning pimping Wake every chance he got while also (to my immense joy) berating Sut every time he said anything.
Here's what I'm trying to say: Bandwagon Red Sox fans who wear yellow Sox hats and think Pedro Martinez is still on the team can all fall on a cactus. But Red Sox fans like my stepdad? They're the best.
Now, of course, I was faced with a tough decision: Exactly which argument should I use to make my elder look completely foolish?
a. Josh Beckett: 3.77 ERA. Tim Wakefield: 4.50 ERA.
b. Josh Beckett: 1.30 WHIP. Tim Wakefield: 1.43 WHIP.
c. Josh Beckett: 76 strikeouts and 32 walks in 76.1 innings. Tim Wakefield: 41 strikeouts and 32 walks in 72 innings.
d. Josh Beckett: 8.96 K/9. Tim Wakefield: 5.13 K/9.
e. Josh Beckett: STF rating of 27. Tim Wakefield: STF rating of 4.
Wakefield does have an edge in defense-adjusted ERA (3.59 to 3.70). But it's very, very, very clear that Josh Beckett is the Red Sox' ace, and Tim Wakefield is not.
Of course, I went with "f: none of the above" and meekly muttered, "Wait, what about Beckett?" as my stepdad proceeded to contradict me by talking about reasons why Wakefield was good (while failing to mention defense-adjusted ERA because, well, he's a normal person and not a blogging stat geek). Rick Sutcliffe then made a remark that insinuated in some way that Wakefield wasn't very good, and naturally my stepdad spent the rest of the half-inning pimping Wake every chance he got while also (to my immense joy) berating Sut every time he said anything.
Here's what I'm trying to say: Bandwagon Red Sox fans who wear yellow Sox hats and think Pedro Martinez is still on the team can all fall on a cactus. But Red Sox fans like my stepdad? They're the best.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Things more exciting than the Brett Favre saga
1. Listening to Joe Buck announce a Sewing Contest For The Elderly
2. Painting a door white and then watching it dry
3. Counting the blades of grass in your yard
4. Watching a five-hour silent romance movie from the 1920s
5. Cleaning your entire swimming pool with a toothbrush
6. Going to Starbucks and ordering a regular coffee
7. Writing a 90-page graduate paper in a dead language
8. Imagining the perfect cloud
9. Buying a gray T-shirt
10. Watching the World Championships of Darts
11. Staring at a blank wall
12. Everything in the fucking world. Seriously, I'm almost ready to give up on ESPN. The banter and commentary on your average episode of "Sportscenter" or "Baseball Tonight" or "NFL Live" is painfully, painfully awful. My dad is currently boycotting ESPN probably from some kind of "Price is Right"-themed show that NBA Live once did, and I may not be far behind him if this relentless coverage of non-stories continues. Can't Fox Sports just have a 24-hour highlight channel?
2. Painting a door white and then watching it dry
3. Counting the blades of grass in your yard
4. Watching a five-hour silent romance movie from the 1920s
5. Cleaning your entire swimming pool with a toothbrush
6. Going to Starbucks and ordering a regular coffee
7. Writing a 90-page graduate paper in a dead language
8. Imagining the perfect cloud
9. Buying a gray T-shirt
10. Watching the World Championships of Darts
11. Staring at a blank wall
12. Everything in the fucking world. Seriously, I'm almost ready to give up on ESPN. The banter and commentary on your average episode of "Sportscenter" or "Baseball Tonight" or "NFL Live" is painfully, painfully awful. My dad is currently boycotting ESPN probably from some kind of "Price is Right"-themed show that NBA Live once did, and I may not be far behind him if this relentless coverage of non-stories continues. Can't Fox Sports just have a 24-hour highlight channel?
Friday, June 5, 2009
I thank my father for not being raised in Houston
Because if he had been, I'd probably be holding Drayton McLane at gunpoint right now:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bb/6458985.html
There's some positive talk in there, particularly, "We have to make a stronger investment and smarter picks in the draft. You've got to invest in young talent." But then he slits his own wrists with this:
"He emphasized he would like both Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt to finish their careers with the Astros. If either asks to be traded, he’ll attempt to talk them out of it."
FACEPALM.
The Astros are currently 23-29 and in last place in the NL Central. Their farm system is more barren than the Sahara Desert. Their future is ugly and bleak, as they play in one of baseball's best divisions and their talent level (both major and minor league) doesn't even begin to approach the rest of their divisionmates, and it's not like they can just outspend everyone either. As Tampa Bay showed us last year, the only real way to succeed in a division where you have much less money, resources, and talent than your competitors is to collect young talent that can provide you with cheap production and allow you to spend your money on good free agents that can actually help your team win instead of crappy "role players" who are really just there to fill out the lineup (Geoff Blum, Exhibit A). One of the sad but necessary steps to take to begin this process is to trade away your good, high-priced talent at its peak value in order to get the best possible return on it, even if said talent represents your most popular players. And let's be honest; Roy Oswalt is a good pitcher, but he's also 31 years old and has been slowly but steadily declining since 2005 (not coincidentally, a year in which he threw a combined 269 innings in the regular season and playoffs). He'll never be more valuable then he is right now. Same with Lance Berkman; yeah, he's still plugging along, but he's 33, and he's played over 1,400 games in his career. He's going to start wearing down soon. The intelligent thing to do if you're Drayton McLane is to concede 2009 and sell these guys off in July while you can still get a shitload of top prospects for them.
So that's what DrayMac is doing, right? FUCK NO. He's going to let these guys stay Astros until the day they retire, presumably when they're both 40 years old, clogging up the payroll, and playing like shells of their former selves. In Drayton McLane's mind, "letting two pretty good players who have been with the team for a while retire as Astros" >>>>>>>>>>>>> "winning fucking baseball games."
I'm sorry, Astros fans. At least you can look forward to five Roy Oswalt bobblehead days a month in the year 2019.
(P.S. 100th post!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bb/6458985.html
There's some positive talk in there, particularly, "We have to make a stronger investment and smarter picks in the draft. You've got to invest in young talent." But then he slits his own wrists with this:
"He emphasized he would like both Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt to finish their careers with the Astros. If either asks to be traded, he’ll attempt to talk them out of it."
FACEPALM.
The Astros are currently 23-29 and in last place in the NL Central. Their farm system is more barren than the Sahara Desert. Their future is ugly and bleak, as they play in one of baseball's best divisions and their talent level (both major and minor league) doesn't even begin to approach the rest of their divisionmates, and it's not like they can just outspend everyone either. As Tampa Bay showed us last year, the only real way to succeed in a division where you have much less money, resources, and talent than your competitors is to collect young talent that can provide you with cheap production and allow you to spend your money on good free agents that can actually help your team win instead of crappy "role players" who are really just there to fill out the lineup (Geoff Blum, Exhibit A). One of the sad but necessary steps to take to begin this process is to trade away your good, high-priced talent at its peak value in order to get the best possible return on it, even if said talent represents your most popular players. And let's be honest; Roy Oswalt is a good pitcher, but he's also 31 years old and has been slowly but steadily declining since 2005 (not coincidentally, a year in which he threw a combined 269 innings in the regular season and playoffs). He'll never be more valuable then he is right now. Same with Lance Berkman; yeah, he's still plugging along, but he's 33, and he's played over 1,400 games in his career. He's going to start wearing down soon. The intelligent thing to do if you're Drayton McLane is to concede 2009 and sell these guys off in July while you can still get a shitload of top prospects for them.
So that's what DrayMac is doing, right? FUCK NO. He's going to let these guys stay Astros until the day they retire, presumably when they're both 40 years old, clogging up the payroll, and playing like shells of their former selves. In Drayton McLane's mind, "letting two pretty good players who have been with the team for a while retire as Astros" >>>>>>>>>>>>> "winning fucking baseball games."
I'm sorry, Astros fans. At least you can look forward to five Roy Oswalt bobblehead days a month in the year 2019.
(P.S. 100th post!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Thursday, June 4, 2009
It's not business, Tommy; it's strictly personal
Yeah, okay Michael Corleone:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4228623
Right. And then 10 minutes later, after clearing Glavine's $1 million-plus off the payroll, the Braves added a bunch of salary by trading for Nate McLouth. But it was still just about performance! Really!
By the way...the Braves released Tom Glavine? Seriously? They really think he would have been a worse #5 starter then Kris Medlen (6.28 ERA) or Jo-Jo Reyes (7.00 ERA)? They don't realize that this forever stains their relationship with the greatest or second-greatest pitcher in franchise history? They don't think that their fans might riot? They're dumb enough to think that Nate McLouth is the missing piece of the puzzle, especially considering that his career averages are .261/.339/.462 and that they're in the same division as the Mets and Phillies? Honestly, the only ones dumber than the Braves in this whole thing are the Pirates; they failed to trade McLouth at his peak value of "potential 30-30 guy with Gold Glove defense!" last offseason, and then traded him for three subpar prospects while he still had a good amount of value and when they were still within shouting distance in their division. Just a shit job by pretty much everyone involved. Braves fans have to be disappointed. Pirates fans have to be disappointed. But most disappointed of all has to be my mom, who picked the Pirates as her sleeper team this year (despite probably thinking that Roberto Clemente still played for them) and still had hope going into yesterday of seeing her pick pan out. Devastating day in the Sports By Sam household.
Anyway, here's to Tom finding a team soon and shutting up all his doubters. Hell, if Eric Milton has one more shaky start...
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4228623
"This was not a business decision," Wren said. "This was a performance decision."
Right. And then 10 minutes later, after clearing Glavine's $1 million-plus off the payroll, the Braves added a bunch of salary by trading for Nate McLouth. But it was still just about performance! Really!
By the way...the Braves released Tom Glavine? Seriously? They really think he would have been a worse #5 starter then Kris Medlen (6.28 ERA) or Jo-Jo Reyes (7.00 ERA)? They don't realize that this forever stains their relationship with the greatest or second-greatest pitcher in franchise history? They don't think that their fans might riot? They're dumb enough to think that Nate McLouth is the missing piece of the puzzle, especially considering that his career averages are .261/.339/.462 and that they're in the same division as the Mets and Phillies? Honestly, the only ones dumber than the Braves in this whole thing are the Pirates; they failed to trade McLouth at his peak value of "potential 30-30 guy with Gold Glove defense!" last offseason, and then traded him for three subpar prospects while he still had a good amount of value and when they were still within shouting distance in their division. Just a shit job by pretty much everyone involved. Braves fans have to be disappointed. Pirates fans have to be disappointed. But most disappointed of all has to be my mom, who picked the Pirates as her sleeper team this year (despite probably thinking that Roberto Clemente still played for them) and still had hope going into yesterday of seeing her pick pan out. Devastating day in the Sports By Sam household.
Anyway, here's to Tom finding a team soon and shutting up all his doubters. Hell, if Eric Milton has one more shaky start...
I have very few rules in life
But this is one of them: every time a Sports Illustrated columnist declares a 16-year-old kid to be Roy freaking Hobbs, I have to get off my ass and blog about it. (Sorry for the two-week vacation. It's summer and I'm 19, for crying out loud! But still, sorry.)
Anyway, here's the guy who will be suiting up for the Hebrew Oilers any day now:
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1156215/index.htm
Anything he wants to hit he hits! Anything he wants to do he does!
I'm as wide-eyed as anyone when it comes to statements like "ZOMG This 16-year-old could hit circles around Babe Ruth OMFG!!!!!!"; hell, when Matt Kemp hit 7 homers in his first 15 games as a Dodger in 2006 I figured him to be Albert Pujols Lite for the next 18 years (and we all know how that turned out). Sure, it's not at all normal for a kid to hit 500-foot homers before he can legally get into an R-rated movie, but for once could we tone down the hoopla? Josh Hamilton was an incredible high school athlete with an enormous amount of hype, and the resulting pressure weighed on him so much that he became an alcoholic and a drug addict. At least the mainstream media learned nothing from that whole saga. Good job boys.
In reality, there's so much that could go wrong for this kid on his way to the top (injuries, mental problems, Barbara Hershey stalking him and then gunning him down in a hotel room, etc) that it's completely dumb and ignorant to proclaim him a "baseball savior" at age 16. Until he strikes out The Whammer or hits the cover off the ball, color me unconvinced. (But still a little excited at the same time.)
Anyway, here's the guy who will be suiting up for the Hebrew Oilers any day now:
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1156215/index.htm
Anything he wants to hit he hits! Anything he wants to do he does!
I'm as wide-eyed as anyone when it comes to statements like "ZOMG This 16-year-old could hit circles around Babe Ruth OMFG!!!!!!"; hell, when Matt Kemp hit 7 homers in his first 15 games as a Dodger in 2006 I figured him to be Albert Pujols Lite for the next 18 years (and we all know how that turned out). Sure, it's not at all normal for a kid to hit 500-foot homers before he can legally get into an R-rated movie, but for once could we tone down the hoopla? Josh Hamilton was an incredible high school athlete with an enormous amount of hype, and the resulting pressure weighed on him so much that he became an alcoholic and a drug addict. At least the mainstream media learned nothing from that whole saga. Good job boys.
In reality, there's so much that could go wrong for this kid on his way to the top (injuries, mental problems, Barbara Hershey stalking him and then gunning him down in a hotel room, etc) that it's completely dumb and ignorant to proclaim him a "baseball savior" at age 16. Until he strikes out The Whammer or hits the cover off the ball, color me unconvinced. (But still a little excited at the same time.)
Thursday, May 21, 2009
5/20: Unlikely contributors fuel Dodgers' third straight win
With Manny Ramirez sidelined, the Dodgers have had to rely on unlikely heroes in their mission to stay atop the NL West. And every day, it seems that a new one emerges.
Brent Leach worked out of an eighth-inning jam to record his first major league victory on Wednesday as the Dodgers beat the Mets 2-1 to complete a three-game sweep at home. The Dodgers have now begun the 2009 season with a 17-3 record at Chavez Ravine, tying the all-time record for best home mark to start the season with the 1998 Yankees.
With the game tied 1-1 entering the eighth, Ronald Belisario came in and immediately walked Luis Castillo and Carlos Beltran. David Wright then flew out to deep center, advancing the runners to second and third. Leach (1-0) then came in to face the lefthanded David Murphy, and got him to ground out with the infield drawn in. The Dodger rookie then induced an inning-ending groundout from pinch hitter Fernando Tatis to preserve the tie.
In the bottom of the eighth, another unlikely hero stepped up for the Dodgers.
After Rafael Furcal struck out to lead off the inning, Orlando Hudson singled and Andre Ethier walked to bring up Russell Martin, who had gone 0-for-10 in the series to that point. Martin picked a perfect time for his first hit, as he grounded a single to left off J.J. Putz (1-3) that scored Hudson with the go-ahead run.
The Mets got a runner in scoring position against Jonathon Broxton in the ninth, as Angel Pagan singled with one out and stole second, but Broxton got Ramon Martinez to ground out to end the game. The Dodger closer earned his 11th save in 13 chances.
Martinez had entered the game in the bottom of the third, taking over for Jose Reyes. In the top of the inning, Reyes had strained his hamstring running out a grounder and had to leave. He is listed as day-to-day.
Continuing a trend, the Dodgers struck first in the game, scoring their major-league-leading 44th first-inning run to take an early lead. Juan Pierre and Rafael Furcal led with singles off Met starter Livan Hernandez, and after an Orlando Hudson groundout moved both runners up, Andre Ethier hit a sacrifice fly to give LA a 1-0 lead. That was the highlight of Ethier's day, though, as he went 0-for-2 to finish off a hitless series.
The Mets tied the game in the third off Dodger starter Jeff Weaver, as Luis Castillo stroked a one-out single and came around on an RBI double by Carlos Beltran. The Mets then had a golden opportunity to take the lead when Weaver walked Wright to put runners on first and second with one out, but David Murphy grounded into a double play to end the inning.
Weaver, who didn't even join the Dodgers until April 30th, continued his resurgence, going five innings and allowing just one run to lower his ERA to 3.00. Weaver had been demoted to the bullpen on Saturday when Los Angeles called up Eric Milton from AAA, but got the start on Wednesday when Eric Stults was scratched due to a thumb injury. He will go back to the bullpen when Stults returns to the rotation on Monday.
It's been rumored among the Mets' brass that Livan Hernandez could also be a candidate for a bullpen demotion, but his start against the Dodgers may have ended those talks. Hernandez went seven innings and allowed just a run on seven hits and a walk while throwing 93 pitches. However, he could only earn a no-decision for his effort. Hernandez dropped his ERA to 4.93 on the season.
The Dodger victory, coupled with the Giants' 2-1 loss to San Diego, pushed their lead in the West to 8 1/2 games. The Mets' deficit in the NL East stayed at one game, as Philadelphia lost to Cincinnati 5-1.
Both teams are off Thursday, with the Dodgers then hosting the Angels over the weekend and the Mets traveling to Boston to play the Red Sox.
Game notes: Juan Pierre kept up his torrid hitting pace with two hits in four atbats, to keep his season average at .405. He's 23 for 53 (.434) since Manny Ramirez was suspended on May 7...Ramon Martinez went 0-for-3 after taking over for Jose Reyes and is still looking for his first hit of 2009 (he's 0 for 12)...David Wright went 4 for 7 in the series against the Dodgers, continuing his hot streak against them...Dodger pitcher Randy Wolf pinch-hit for Jeff Weaver in the bottom of the fifth inning, his second pinch-hitting appearance of the season. He grounded out.
Brent Leach worked out of an eighth-inning jam to record his first major league victory on Wednesday as the Dodgers beat the Mets 2-1 to complete a three-game sweep at home. The Dodgers have now begun the 2009 season with a 17-3 record at Chavez Ravine, tying the all-time record for best home mark to start the season with the 1998 Yankees.
With the game tied 1-1 entering the eighth, Ronald Belisario came in and immediately walked Luis Castillo and Carlos Beltran. David Wright then flew out to deep center, advancing the runners to second and third. Leach (1-0) then came in to face the lefthanded David Murphy, and got him to ground out with the infield drawn in. The Dodger rookie then induced an inning-ending groundout from pinch hitter Fernando Tatis to preserve the tie.
In the bottom of the eighth, another unlikely hero stepped up for the Dodgers.
After Rafael Furcal struck out to lead off the inning, Orlando Hudson singled and Andre Ethier walked to bring up Russell Martin, who had gone 0-for-10 in the series to that point. Martin picked a perfect time for his first hit, as he grounded a single to left off J.J. Putz (1-3) that scored Hudson with the go-ahead run.
The Mets got a runner in scoring position against Jonathon Broxton in the ninth, as Angel Pagan singled with one out and stole second, but Broxton got Ramon Martinez to ground out to end the game. The Dodger closer earned his 11th save in 13 chances.
Martinez had entered the game in the bottom of the third, taking over for Jose Reyes. In the top of the inning, Reyes had strained his hamstring running out a grounder and had to leave. He is listed as day-to-day.
Continuing a trend, the Dodgers struck first in the game, scoring their major-league-leading 44th first-inning run to take an early lead. Juan Pierre and Rafael Furcal led with singles off Met starter Livan Hernandez, and after an Orlando Hudson groundout moved both runners up, Andre Ethier hit a sacrifice fly to give LA a 1-0 lead. That was the highlight of Ethier's day, though, as he went 0-for-2 to finish off a hitless series.
The Mets tied the game in the third off Dodger starter Jeff Weaver, as Luis Castillo stroked a one-out single and came around on an RBI double by Carlos Beltran. The Mets then had a golden opportunity to take the lead when Weaver walked Wright to put runners on first and second with one out, but David Murphy grounded into a double play to end the inning.
Weaver, who didn't even join the Dodgers until April 30th, continued his resurgence, going five innings and allowing just one run to lower his ERA to 3.00. Weaver had been demoted to the bullpen on Saturday when Los Angeles called up Eric Milton from AAA, but got the start on Wednesday when Eric Stults was scratched due to a thumb injury. He will go back to the bullpen when Stults returns to the rotation on Monday.
It's been rumored among the Mets' brass that Livan Hernandez could also be a candidate for a bullpen demotion, but his start against the Dodgers may have ended those talks. Hernandez went seven innings and allowed just a run on seven hits and a walk while throwing 93 pitches. However, he could only earn a no-decision for his effort. Hernandez dropped his ERA to 4.93 on the season.
The Dodger victory, coupled with the Giants' 2-1 loss to San Diego, pushed their lead in the West to 8 1/2 games. The Mets' deficit in the NL East stayed at one game, as Philadelphia lost to Cincinnati 5-1.
Both teams are off Thursday, with the Dodgers then hosting the Angels over the weekend and the Mets traveling to Boston to play the Red Sox.
Game notes: Juan Pierre kept up his torrid hitting pace with two hits in four atbats, to keep his season average at .405. He's 23 for 53 (.434) since Manny Ramirez was suspended on May 7...Ramon Martinez went 0-for-3 after taking over for Jose Reyes and is still looking for his first hit of 2009 (he's 0 for 12)...David Wright went 4 for 7 in the series against the Dodgers, continuing his hot streak against them...Dodger pitcher Randy Wolf pinch-hit for Jeff Weaver in the bottom of the fifth inning, his second pinch-hitting appearance of the season. He grounded out.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
5/19: Mets make four fewer errors, but lose anyway
It would have been nearly impossible for the Mets to play any worse on Tuesday than they did on Monday. As it turned out, they played much better, but couldn't overcome yet another strong start from Chad Billingsley.
Billingsley went 6 1/3 innings and retired 10 of the last 11 batters he faced, and the Dodger bullpen backed him up with 2 2/3 scoreless innings to preserve the 5-3 LA win. It was the third straight win for the first-place Dodgers, who moved to 7.5 games ahead of San Francisco with the Giants' loss to San Diego.
Billingsley (6-1) not only helped himself on the mound, but also at the plate, going 2-for-2 with a walk, a single, and an RBI double that came with two outs in the fourth after a Casey Blake single. Blake later hit a three-run homer in the game, his team-leading ninth of the season, to give the Dodgers a two-run lead that they would never relinquish.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Mets led 3-2 when James Loney and Matt Kemp both singled with one out to bring up Blake. John Maine threw an inside fastball and the Dodgers' veteran leader powered it into the leftfield bleachers. Chad Billingsley then singled to chase Maine from the game.
For a while, it looked like Maine (3-3) was going to be the double-threat victor in the game. In the top of the second inning, Billingsley walked the bases loaded to bring up the Met pitcher with two outs. On an 0-1 pitch, Maine lined a two-run single up the middle to give New York the lead. They would add another run in the third when David Wright singled in Carlos Beltran, who reached base on a Rafael Furcal throwing error.
The Dodgers started the scoring in the first inning, tacking on their major-league-leading 43rd first-inning run. Juan Pierre led off with a line drive to left field that glanced off David Murphy's glove for a two-base error. After a Rafael Furcal walk, Orlando Hudson brought in Pierre with a single to center to give LA a 1-0 lead.
Hudson would leave the game in the 7th with a bruised shoulder after diving for and missing a soft line drive hit by Jose Reyes. He is day-to-day.
Reyes' single put two runners on with two outs for the Mets in the seventh. Gary Sheffield then pinch-hit for David Murphy, but Ronald Belisario induced an inning-ending groundout from him.
The Mets would rally one last time in the top of the eighth, as Carlos Beltran greeted Cory Wade with a single and David Wright drew a walk to put runners on first and second with nobody out. But then Ryan Church flied out to left, and Ramon Martinez bounced into a double play to end the inning.
Jonathon Broxton pitched a perfect ninth, striking out one, to collect his 10th save in 12 chances.
The Mets' loss, coupled with a 4-3 Philadelphia win, dropped them into second place in the NL East. They are currently one game behind the Phillies, despite having a +22 run differential to Philadelphia's +13. The Dodgers currently have the best run differential in the majors at +73.
On Wednesday night, the Dodgers will send Jeff Weaver to the mound in search of a sweep, while the Mets will counter with veteran workhorse Livan Hernandez. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT.
Game notes: Jose Reyes returned to game action for the first time since May 15th. He went 1-for-4 with a single and made several good plays in the field...Eric Stults was slated to start on Wednesday, but has been scratched with a sore thumb. There is no word on whether he will be placed on the DL...Carlos Delgado had hip surgery on Tuesday and is expected to return around the All-Star Break...Hiroki Kuroda is expected to make a rehab start at High-A Inland Empire on Friday...David Wright boosted his career line against the Dodgers to .426/.510/.656...The Dodgers are 7-5 without Manny Ramirez.
Billingsley went 6 1/3 innings and retired 10 of the last 11 batters he faced, and the Dodger bullpen backed him up with 2 2/3 scoreless innings to preserve the 5-3 LA win. It was the third straight win for the first-place Dodgers, who moved to 7.5 games ahead of San Francisco with the Giants' loss to San Diego.
Billingsley (6-1) not only helped himself on the mound, but also at the plate, going 2-for-2 with a walk, a single, and an RBI double that came with two outs in the fourth after a Casey Blake single. Blake later hit a three-run homer in the game, his team-leading ninth of the season, to give the Dodgers a two-run lead that they would never relinquish.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Mets led 3-2 when James Loney and Matt Kemp both singled with one out to bring up Blake. John Maine threw an inside fastball and the Dodgers' veteran leader powered it into the leftfield bleachers. Chad Billingsley then singled to chase Maine from the game.
For a while, it looked like Maine (3-3) was going to be the double-threat victor in the game. In the top of the second inning, Billingsley walked the bases loaded to bring up the Met pitcher with two outs. On an 0-1 pitch, Maine lined a two-run single up the middle to give New York the lead. They would add another run in the third when David Wright singled in Carlos Beltran, who reached base on a Rafael Furcal throwing error.
The Dodgers started the scoring in the first inning, tacking on their major-league-leading 43rd first-inning run. Juan Pierre led off with a line drive to left field that glanced off David Murphy's glove for a two-base error. After a Rafael Furcal walk, Orlando Hudson brought in Pierre with a single to center to give LA a 1-0 lead.
Hudson would leave the game in the 7th with a bruised shoulder after diving for and missing a soft line drive hit by Jose Reyes. He is day-to-day.
Reyes' single put two runners on with two outs for the Mets in the seventh. Gary Sheffield then pinch-hit for David Murphy, but Ronald Belisario induced an inning-ending groundout from him.
The Mets would rally one last time in the top of the eighth, as Carlos Beltran greeted Cory Wade with a single and David Wright drew a walk to put runners on first and second with nobody out. But then Ryan Church flied out to left, and Ramon Martinez bounced into a double play to end the inning.
Jonathon Broxton pitched a perfect ninth, striking out one, to collect his 10th save in 12 chances.
The Mets' loss, coupled with a 4-3 Philadelphia win, dropped them into second place in the NL East. They are currently one game behind the Phillies, despite having a +22 run differential to Philadelphia's +13. The Dodgers currently have the best run differential in the majors at +73.
On Wednesday night, the Dodgers will send Jeff Weaver to the mound in search of a sweep, while the Mets will counter with veteran workhorse Livan Hernandez. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT.
Game notes: Jose Reyes returned to game action for the first time since May 15th. He went 1-for-4 with a single and made several good plays in the field...Eric Stults was slated to start on Wednesday, but has been scratched with a sore thumb. There is no word on whether he will be placed on the DL...Carlos Delgado had hip surgery on Tuesday and is expected to return around the All-Star Break...Hiroki Kuroda is expected to make a rehab start at High-A Inland Empire on Friday...David Wright boosted his career line against the Dodgers to .426/.510/.656...The Dodgers are 7-5 without Manny Ramirez.
Monday, May 18, 2009
The last week of freshman year of college is the easiest time of your life
I'm serious! For 167 of the 168 hours during the last week, I was laying in a hammock in front of my TV on the beach in my dorm room, reminiscent of those Corona beer commercials. I had all of my food brought to me on a silver platter, slept fourteen hours a day, and downed an average of five beers an hour (giving me a VORD (Value Over Replacement Drinker) of 47.2, which easily exceeds the previous record of 29.4 held by J.J. Reddick and Guillermo Mota). I think I might have eased myself out of my beer/relaxation coma for like 20 minutes to study for my final exams and unpack my room, but I don't really even remember that.
But anyway. The relaxation is over, and I'm set to return to my regularly scheduled posting. Look forward to many Juan Pierre and Eric Milton posts in the near future.
But anyway. The relaxation is over, and I'm set to return to my regularly scheduled posting. Look forward to many Juan Pierre and Eric Milton posts in the near future.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
A little game for you readers
The following are events that have taken place since May 7, 2009. Rank them in order of "most believable" to "least believable." Go!
1. Manny Ramirez fails a drug test and is banned for 50 games.
2. Dodgers lead the Nationals 6-0 in the sixth and go on to lose.
3. Juan Pierre and Juan Castro combine for six hits in a game.
4. Pierre and Castro also combine for four extra-base hits and five RBIs in said game.
5. Eric Stults throws a four-hit shutout.
Yes, it's a very challenging task. But keep at it!
(It's been a WEIRD few days for Dodger fans.)
1. Manny Ramirez fails a drug test and is banned for 50 games.
2. Dodgers lead the Nationals 6-0 in the sixth and go on to lose.
3. Juan Pierre and Juan Castro combine for six hits in a game.
4. Pierre and Castro also combine for four extra-base hits and five RBIs in said game.
5. Eric Stults throws a four-hit shutout.
Yes, it's a very challenging task. But keep at it!
(It's been a WEIRD few days for Dodger fans.)
Thursday, May 7, 2009
This Dodger fan's perspective
Well, everyone in the world knows it, and just thinking about it makes me want to repeatedly bang my head against a giant block of ice, but I guess I have to lead this post with the big Dodger news from today: Manny Ramirez has tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and will be suspended for 50 games.
He apparently was taking something called hGC, which is a female fertility drug used to combat erectile dysfunction by increasing testosterone production in the body. First off, if you actually believe that Manny was only using that shit because he couldn't get a fucking erection, then I'd like to sell you some New York Times stock. The drug he tested positive for is commonly used by PED users as either a testosterone trigger after a steroid cycle or as a masking agent for a worse drug, and it's like 99.9% certain that Manny used it for one of those two reasons. The sooner you can just accept that, the sooner we can all move on and see what has to happen from here. Ready to accept it yet? Yes? Good.
This is what I posted on dodgerblues.com's message board right after hearing the news: "I'm never rooting for Manny again. Never. He could hit a walkoff grand slam to win the World Series and I wouldn't care. He just destroyed his legacy and our season. Fuck him. I'll still root for the Dodgers, but I'm never rooting for Manny again." Is that an overreaction? Hell fucking no. Manny ruined my entire winter with his "Will we or won't we sign him?" shit by turning down like 20 offers that would have made him one of the richest people on the planet before eventually "settling" for one (in fucking March) simply so that he could rake for a year and then leave for more money from another team. He was already on shaky ground with me entering the season, and now that this news has broke, he's dead to me. Even on the 0.01% chance that he really hasn't been using steroids and this is just a one-time usage for a personal medical problem, he still knowingly risked the Dodgers' entire season by taking it. I can't root for a guy who puts himself before the team as much as he has. And therefore, what I didn't want to believe since July 31st, 2008 has finally and truly registered with me: Manny is all about Manny. He did quit on the Red Sox, not because he disliked living in Boston but because he wanted a fat paycheck. He concentrated and played hard for the Dodgers for the last half of 2008 not because he wanted to win a championship but because he wanted a fat paycheck. And in 2009, he took steroids not because he wanted his team to do well, but because he himself wanted to do well so that he could get a fat paycheck. Everything that I've continually denied about him for the last 9 months has turned out to be true. I feel completely betrayed by somebody that I'd undyingly supported and respected. It's a heartbreaking feeling.
It's also heartbreaking on another personal level. Before Manny became a Dodger on July 31st, 2008, my Dodger fan experience had been pretty "blah." They'd made the playoffs in a breathtakingly exciting 2004 season featuring 53 come-from-behind wins (ironically, a season also now marred by the realization that Eric Gagne, Paul Lo Duca, and Guillermo Mota are noted steroid users) and had had a similar run at the end of the 2006 season to also reach the playoffs, but for the most part, they were a bunch of clueless underacheiving losers during the time that I followed them. They had no identity and were usually pretty boring to watch. My frustration came to a head in the first half of 2008, when high-priced black holes Andruw Jones, Juan Pierre, Nomar Garciaparra, Jeff Kent, and Jason Schmidt were all clogging the payroll and embarrassing every Dodger fan that had committed themselves to following the team. Here was a franchise that had the most money and the most power of any team in the NL West, and they were wasting it all on these over-the-hill schmucks when they could have been spending it wisely and ruling the division? It made me feel ashamed to simply wear my Dodger cap regularly. But then when Manny came aboard, everything changed. The Dodgers had a leader, a slugger, an identity, and a true team. I witnessed Manny's first three games as a Dodger and saw him spray line drives and home runs all over the park, and also witnessed the Dodgers actually win when I saw them in person (after seeing them lose the previous 11 games I went to). I watched nearly every second of every Dodger game from then on out; I saw them rally in September to overtake the Diamondbacks for the division title and then get the "postseason series monkey" off their backs by sweeping the Cubs in three of the most enjoyable Dodger games I've ever watched. And of course, this season, I saw them jump out to a 21-8 start, win their first 13 games at home to set a major league record, and lead the NL West by 6.5 games before school even got out. From July 31st, 2008 to May 6th, 2009, you couldn't ask for many better teams to be a fan of than the Dodgers. It was one of the greatest sports fan experiences of my life.
Now? All that is stained, tainted. I'm not sure if Manny was doping during the 2008 season, but you can't rule anything out, and if we cheated to win our first postseason series in 20 years then I don't know if I'll ever remember it the same way. I certainly won't remember this magical 21-8 start the same way ever again. And that's all Manny's fault. He's soiled every good Dodger fan memory I have from the last 9 months. And here's the absolute worst thing: all throughout today, I've been thinking things like, "Man, I really wish Andruw Jones had just done what everyone thought he would in 2008," and "What if we'd signed Torii Hunter in the 2007 offseason?" The point of these thoughts was, of course, to wish that the Dodgers could have had all this recent success without Manny ever needing to be involved. But the same thing always came back to me: how can you be sure of anyone anymore? For all I know, Torii and Andruw and fucking everyone else in the entire sport is on some kind of drug cycle, and I'll never feel completely safe about anyone again. My favorite player of all time is Ken Griffey Jr., and over the last 6 hours I've gone from feeling 100% sure that he never took steroids to maybe like 10% sure. My favorite Dodger is Andre Ethier, and I wouldn't be surprised in the least if news broke tomorrow that he was caught with steroids too. Most fans my age lost their baseball innocence once news broke that Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire's home run chase was illegitimate, but I didn't really care because neither guy played for my favorite team. It's much, much, much different when the news comes out about someone from the team that you devote so much of your time and energy to, because you just feel like they stabbed you in the back. And Manny did.
So where do we all go from here? Well, as for tonight, I'd bet everything I own that the Dodgers' home winning streak comes to a quick and decisive end; Juan Pierre will probably be the only one on the team who gets a hit, and I could see like four or five errors being made in a 2-0 or 3-0 Washington shutout. I can see the Dodgers struggling to achieve a .500 mark in the next 50 games without Manny, because I mean...without him, they're a decent offensive team with a mediocre pitching staff, and maybe like 1% better than the rest of the NL West instead of their current 500%. I can see Manny returning from his suspension on July 3rd (again, in a weird twist of fate, I'll be at that game in San Diego) and deservedly getting booed lustily for a couple of weeks before his return to Dodger Stadium on July 16th, when the clueless Dodger fans will give him a standing ovation before his first atbat and act like nothing happened. I can definitely see the Dodgers still getting to the playoffs (I mean, come on; barring a big trade, who in the NL West besides the Dodgers has the chops to finish with more than 83 wins?), at which point I'll be faced with the unenviable dilemma of how I can root for my own team without rooting for Manny. I can see Ned and Frank doing all they can to keep Manny from exercising his player option for 2010 because they'll want him gone due to all the bad PR...but Manny will exercise it anyway, because he'll know that nobody will want to pay more than $20 million to a steroid user. And then I can see myself agonizing over the same dilemma for the entire 2010 season, trying to find a way to root for the Dodgers without rooting for Manny.
So, in the end, I guess this steroid news has made me question my love of baseball, my love of the Dodgers, and my love of Manny, while basically ensuring that it's going to be a tough time for me to be a Dodger fan until the year 2011. America's pastime, indeed. May Juan Pierre bat .500 in Manny's absence, may Ethier/Kemp/Loney/Martin step up in their team's time of need and all collectively realize their full potential, may Manny return and rake while I cheer for the team's success instead of his, and may Ned and Frank have the balls to get rid of him any way they can once this season is through. For today, I still say Go Dodgers...albeit with much, much, much less enthusiasm than I did yesterday.
He apparently was taking something called hGC, which is a female fertility drug used to combat erectile dysfunction by increasing testosterone production in the body. First off, if you actually believe that Manny was only using that shit because he couldn't get a fucking erection, then I'd like to sell you some New York Times stock. The drug he tested positive for is commonly used by PED users as either a testosterone trigger after a steroid cycle or as a masking agent for a worse drug, and it's like 99.9% certain that Manny used it for one of those two reasons. The sooner you can just accept that, the sooner we can all move on and see what has to happen from here. Ready to accept it yet? Yes? Good.
This is what I posted on dodgerblues.com's message board right after hearing the news: "I'm never rooting for Manny again. Never. He could hit a walkoff grand slam to win the World Series and I wouldn't care. He just destroyed his legacy and our season. Fuck him. I'll still root for the Dodgers, but I'm never rooting for Manny again." Is that an overreaction? Hell fucking no. Manny ruined my entire winter with his "Will we or won't we sign him?" shit by turning down like 20 offers that would have made him one of the richest people on the planet before eventually "settling" for one (in fucking March) simply so that he could rake for a year and then leave for more money from another team. He was already on shaky ground with me entering the season, and now that this news has broke, he's dead to me. Even on the 0.01% chance that he really hasn't been using steroids and this is just a one-time usage for a personal medical problem, he still knowingly risked the Dodgers' entire season by taking it. I can't root for a guy who puts himself before the team as much as he has. And therefore, what I didn't want to believe since July 31st, 2008 has finally and truly registered with me: Manny is all about Manny. He did quit on the Red Sox, not because he disliked living in Boston but because he wanted a fat paycheck. He concentrated and played hard for the Dodgers for the last half of 2008 not because he wanted to win a championship but because he wanted a fat paycheck. And in 2009, he took steroids not because he wanted his team to do well, but because he himself wanted to do well so that he could get a fat paycheck. Everything that I've continually denied about him for the last 9 months has turned out to be true. I feel completely betrayed by somebody that I'd undyingly supported and respected. It's a heartbreaking feeling.
It's also heartbreaking on another personal level. Before Manny became a Dodger on July 31st, 2008, my Dodger fan experience had been pretty "blah." They'd made the playoffs in a breathtakingly exciting 2004 season featuring 53 come-from-behind wins (ironically, a season also now marred by the realization that Eric Gagne, Paul Lo Duca, and Guillermo Mota are noted steroid users) and had had a similar run at the end of the 2006 season to also reach the playoffs, but for the most part, they were a bunch of clueless underacheiving losers during the time that I followed them. They had no identity and were usually pretty boring to watch. My frustration came to a head in the first half of 2008, when high-priced black holes Andruw Jones, Juan Pierre, Nomar Garciaparra, Jeff Kent, and Jason Schmidt were all clogging the payroll and embarrassing every Dodger fan that had committed themselves to following the team. Here was a franchise that had the most money and the most power of any team in the NL West, and they were wasting it all on these over-the-hill schmucks when they could have been spending it wisely and ruling the division? It made me feel ashamed to simply wear my Dodger cap regularly. But then when Manny came aboard, everything changed. The Dodgers had a leader, a slugger, an identity, and a true team. I witnessed Manny's first three games as a Dodger and saw him spray line drives and home runs all over the park, and also witnessed the Dodgers actually win when I saw them in person (after seeing them lose the previous 11 games I went to). I watched nearly every second of every Dodger game from then on out; I saw them rally in September to overtake the Diamondbacks for the division title and then get the "postseason series monkey" off their backs by sweeping the Cubs in three of the most enjoyable Dodger games I've ever watched. And of course, this season, I saw them jump out to a 21-8 start, win their first 13 games at home to set a major league record, and lead the NL West by 6.5 games before school even got out. From July 31st, 2008 to May 6th, 2009, you couldn't ask for many better teams to be a fan of than the Dodgers. It was one of the greatest sports fan experiences of my life.
Now? All that is stained, tainted. I'm not sure if Manny was doping during the 2008 season, but you can't rule anything out, and if we cheated to win our first postseason series in 20 years then I don't know if I'll ever remember it the same way. I certainly won't remember this magical 21-8 start the same way ever again. And that's all Manny's fault. He's soiled every good Dodger fan memory I have from the last 9 months. And here's the absolute worst thing: all throughout today, I've been thinking things like, "Man, I really wish Andruw Jones had just done what everyone thought he would in 2008," and "What if we'd signed Torii Hunter in the 2007 offseason?" The point of these thoughts was, of course, to wish that the Dodgers could have had all this recent success without Manny ever needing to be involved. But the same thing always came back to me: how can you be sure of anyone anymore? For all I know, Torii and Andruw and fucking everyone else in the entire sport is on some kind of drug cycle, and I'll never feel completely safe about anyone again. My favorite player of all time is Ken Griffey Jr., and over the last 6 hours I've gone from feeling 100% sure that he never took steroids to maybe like 10% sure. My favorite Dodger is Andre Ethier, and I wouldn't be surprised in the least if news broke tomorrow that he was caught with steroids too. Most fans my age lost their baseball innocence once news broke that Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire's home run chase was illegitimate, but I didn't really care because neither guy played for my favorite team. It's much, much, much different when the news comes out about someone from the team that you devote so much of your time and energy to, because you just feel like they stabbed you in the back. And Manny did.
So where do we all go from here? Well, as for tonight, I'd bet everything I own that the Dodgers' home winning streak comes to a quick and decisive end; Juan Pierre will probably be the only one on the team who gets a hit, and I could see like four or five errors being made in a 2-0 or 3-0 Washington shutout. I can see the Dodgers struggling to achieve a .500 mark in the next 50 games without Manny, because I mean...without him, they're a decent offensive team with a mediocre pitching staff, and maybe like 1% better than the rest of the NL West instead of their current 500%. I can see Manny returning from his suspension on July 3rd (again, in a weird twist of fate, I'll be at that game in San Diego) and deservedly getting booed lustily for a couple of weeks before his return to Dodger Stadium on July 16th, when the clueless Dodger fans will give him a standing ovation before his first atbat and act like nothing happened. I can definitely see the Dodgers still getting to the playoffs (I mean, come on; barring a big trade, who in the NL West besides the Dodgers has the chops to finish with more than 83 wins?), at which point I'll be faced with the unenviable dilemma of how I can root for my own team without rooting for Manny. I can see Ned and Frank doing all they can to keep Manny from exercising his player option for 2010 because they'll want him gone due to all the bad PR...but Manny will exercise it anyway, because he'll know that nobody will want to pay more than $20 million to a steroid user. And then I can see myself agonizing over the same dilemma for the entire 2010 season, trying to find a way to root for the Dodgers without rooting for Manny.
So, in the end, I guess this steroid news has made me question my love of baseball, my love of the Dodgers, and my love of Manny, while basically ensuring that it's going to be a tough time for me to be a Dodger fan until the year 2011. America's pastime, indeed. May Juan Pierre bat .500 in Manny's absence, may Ethier/Kemp/Loney/Martin step up in their team's time of need and all collectively realize their full potential, may Manny return and rake while I cheer for the team's success instead of his, and may Ned and Frank have the balls to get rid of him any way they can once this season is through. For today, I still say Go Dodgers...albeit with much, much, much less enthusiasm than I did yesterday.
Somewhere, Ty Cobb and Squanto Wilson are turning in their graves
Why? Because thanks to the 2009 Los Angeles Dodgers, the 1911 Detroit Tigers lost the last shred of meaningfulness they ever had, as their record 12-game home winning streak to begin the season was broken last night with the Dodgers' 10-3 win over Washington. It's inexplicable what causes the Dodgers to play not just better but crazy better at home compared to the road, but whatever they're doing is undoubtedly working. Fortunately for ESPN, the Dodgers start a six-game road trip next week at Philadelphia and Florida, so John Kruk is already preparing his "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA THE DODGERS CAN'T BEAT GOOD TEAMS" rant. Oh well, at least the Dodgers should still be undefeated at home by then.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Well, they still can't get themselves into the opening highlight montage of "Baseball Tonight"
But the Dodgers have done it (well, tied it): they won their twelfth straight home game to start the season to equal the ML record set by the 1911 Tigers. Andre Ethier broke out of a 0-game slump with two hits, and the rest of the offense...well, they didn't do that much, but thanks to Jeff Weaver's five solid innings they didn't need to. Yep, Jeff Weaver's five solid innings.
Frankly, it was still a little jarring to see Weaver actually making a start for the Dodgers four years after his last one. Sure, the guy pitched pretty okay in blue for two years (with an ERA+ just around 100 in 444 innings), but he was always generally known more for his shitty attitude on the mound and his likeness to an escaped mental patient than his actual pitching. And of course, Weaver's career went straight to hell after he left Chavez Ravine following the 2005 season, as he combined to go 15-27 with a 5.96 ERA from 2006-2007 and then not pitch at all in the majors in 2008. It's a damn shame that a guy who was once thought of as one of the best young pitchers in all of baseball is now barely hanging onto the fifth starter spot in one of baseball's shakiest rotations, but he's definitely got staying power if he keeps pitching like this. He must have used thirty different arm angles on his delivery throughout the game, and somehow that worked as the Dbacks managed just five hits off him.
Ramon Troncoso, Will Ohman, Ronald Belisario, and Jonathon Broxton combined to pitch four scoreless innings in relief of Weaver to preserve the 3-1 win, while Olmedo Saenz hit a pinch-hit home run and Hee Seop Choi struck out six times. Tomorrow, with the Dodgers going for the all-time home winning streak record, Wilson Alvarez will get the start with Cesar Izturis leading off and J.D. Drew batting cleanup. I just hope Jim Tracy doesn't leave Alvarez in 3 innings after it's clear that he's done.
Frankly, it was still a little jarring to see Weaver actually making a start for the Dodgers four years after his last one. Sure, the guy pitched pretty okay in blue for two years (with an ERA+ just around 100 in 444 innings), but he was always generally known more for his shitty attitude on the mound and his likeness to an escaped mental patient than his actual pitching. And of course, Weaver's career went straight to hell after he left Chavez Ravine following the 2005 season, as he combined to go 15-27 with a 5.96 ERA from 2006-2007 and then not pitch at all in the majors in 2008. It's a damn shame that a guy who was once thought of as one of the best young pitchers in all of baseball is now barely hanging onto the fifth starter spot in one of baseball's shakiest rotations, but he's definitely got staying power if he keeps pitching like this. He must have used thirty different arm angles on his delivery throughout the game, and somehow that worked as the Dbacks managed just five hits off him.
Ramon Troncoso, Will Ohman, Ronald Belisario, and Jonathon Broxton combined to pitch four scoreless innings in relief of Weaver to preserve the 3-1 win, while Olmedo Saenz hit a pinch-hit home run and Hee Seop Choi struck out six times. Tomorrow, with the Dodgers going for the all-time home winning streak record, Wilson Alvarez will get the start with Cesar Izturis leading off and J.D. Drew batting cleanup. I just hope Jim Tracy doesn't leave Alvarez in 3 innings after it's clear that he's done.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Live-blogging Dodgers-Snakes tonight
With the Dodgers about to go for the National League record for home wins to start a season, I thought this would be the perfect time to try blogging the entire game live. Unfortunately, I also have two loads of laundry going downstairs, so if there's a crucial fair/foul or ball/strike call in the game that goes undescribed because I had to attempt to shove a week's worth of wet and dirty clothes into a tiny dryer, know that I was suffering just as much as you from missing it.
Anyway, on with the proceedings! (This entire thing will be in Mountain Time. Deal with it.)
7:35 pm: We're about a half hour away from the first pitch, with the Dodgers sadly conceding the game before it even begins by benching Juan Pierre, Mark Loretta, Brad Ausmus, and Juan Castro (combined batting average of .392, as noted in yesterday's blog entry). Manny Ramirez, Casey Blake, Russell Martin, and Rafael Furcal will have to make do in their absence. The "second-team" Dodger lineup:
SS Furcal
2B Hudson
LF Ramirez
RF Ethier
1B Loney
C Martin
CF Kemp
3B Blake
P Stults
I know that lineup order doesn't really matter, but...why are Ethier and Loney back to back? In a critical late-game situation, couldn't the Dodger offense be seriously neutralized by a manager ordering an intentional walk of Manny and then bringing in his lefty specialist? Martin's shown signs of busting through as of late; what would be so wrong with switching him and Loney today? Especially against a tough lefty starter? Should a Hall of Fame manager making $4 million a year really have to be questioned this many times before the game even starts? No? I didn't think so.
7:48 pm: The Red Sox-Yankee game is currently showing on ESPN; it's the second inning, at Yankee Stadium, and Phil Hughes is pitching. Anyone want to guess if there's been a home run hit yet? (The answer's yes.)
7:52 pm: I'm now perusing the Dodger minor league system for game updates. The most talented team is either Low-A Great Lakes (SS Devaris Gordon, OF Kyle Russell, C Anthony Delmonico, and P Ethan Martin are all potential top 100 prospects for 2010) or Double-A Chattanooga (featuring 1B/OF Andrew Lambo, easily the best position prospect in the system). Of course, Great Lakes lost 5-1 and Lambo isn't playing today. Go figure.
7:58 pm: Orel Hershiser relates a funny anecdote about Nolan Ryan during the Yankee game. Orel's insightful, intelligent, and funny...so naturally, they bump him to the Monday night games while Joe Morgan continues to give rambling non-analysis for the much-more-hyped Sunday night broadcasts. Gotta love ESPN.
8:01 pm: On a side note, I think Steve Phillips gets a bad rap. My dad's hated him ever since he led those "fake press conferences" for Baseball Tonight a few years ago (which is really much more a reflection on Baseball Tonight than him), and he's definitely not as smart as he thinks he is (ask any Met fan about the "Steve Phillips, General Manager" era and there's a 100% chance that a twelve-letter expletive will be involved)...but he at least knows the game, does research, and gives thoughtful analysis at times. I'll take him over Morgan 100 times out of 100, and I'll take him over Tim McCarver infinity times out of 100.
8:05 pm: Gotta check the laundry. I'll probably miss the first pitch. Hey, I warned you.
8:11 pm: Nope! I got back in time! Felipe Lopez flies out to start the game! More exclamation points!
8:12 pm: You know, I think I could listen to Vin Scully say "it's a lovely 68 degrees" for a solid 200 straight hours. You think I'm lying.
8:15 pm: Conor Jackson doubles down the left-field line with two outs. Manny moves to field the ball like he's wading through pond water. Whatever, he's hitting .349.
8:16 pm: Mark Reynolds hits a grounder to Casey Blake (or Casey "Baker," as Vin Scully calls him; hey, shut up, nobody's perfect), who makes a nice play for the out. Not a bad inning for Stults. That's probably the last time you'll read that sentence tonight.
8:19 pm: Doug Davis has a career 3.04 ERA against the Dodgers; I would have thought the 0 and the 3 would have been switched.
8:20 pm: The most notable thing about Davis, of course, is that he heroically came back from cancer to pitch well at the major-league level. But Vin reminds us of a fact about Davis that only Vin would know: he had four consecutive seasons with a .500 record as a starter. I'd like to hire Vin to narrate my life for a day. No, really.
8:22 pm: Furcal and Hudson ground out, bringing up tonight's feature attraction:
"MAN-NY! MAN-NY! MAN-NY!"
(I'm still not sure if there are any players on the team besides him.)
8:24 pm: Nope. Manny whacks a 3-2 fastball into the seats. 1-0, Dodgers. Of course.
8:25 pm: Wait, there IS another player on the Dodgers??????? Apparently! Andre Ethier drills one into the rightfield bleachers. 2-0 now, as Andre continues to make that one Tampa writer look foolish for proposing an "Andy Sonnanstine for Ethier" trade in the offseason. That article will get 100% funnier every year.
8:26 pm: James Loney is known around Dodger cyberspace (meaning exclusively dodgerblues.com) as "James Pierre" because of his power outage over the last 7 months and counting. Also, for his habit of softly grounding out to end innings, as he just did. 2-0 Dodgers into the second.
8:30 pm: Stults walks Justin Upton leading off the second, bringing up my dad's least favorite player ever, Eric Byrnes. It's a combination of his hair and his idiotic performance at the 2007 All-Star Game that really did him in in my dad's eyes.
8:32 pm: Classic Byrnes play: hits a grounder up the middle that should be an easy double play, only it bounces off Stults' leg and Orlando Hudson can only get one. Byrnes is really David Eckstein with talent, isn't he?
8:35 pm: Hit and runs are stupid, and even when the Dodgers execute them well I'll shake my head and consider myself lucky that something horrible didn't happen. And when another team perfectly executes one against the Dodgers, I feel like whipping my remote out the window. In a related story, the Dbacks now have runners at first and third with one out.
8:37 pm: Some guy named Josh Wilson singles through the left side. 2-1 Dodgers. Oh well, the Stults shutout never had much chance anyway.
8:38 pm: Russell Martin is batting like .111 right now, but you've got to love him for plays like this: Davis drops a bunt down about 2 inches in front of the plate, Martin grabs it and whips it over to third for one, Blake throws it on to first to get Davis by 10 feet. How many times do you see a 2-5-3 double play? About as many times as you hear Joe Morgan say something useful. 2-1 Dodgers going to the bottom of the second.
8:40 pm: Russ leads off in the second. I'll bet anything that he gets on base here. Anything.
8:42 pm: And he walked. Hey, maybe I should broadcast for ESPN. (During the Monday night games, of course.)
8:49 pm: After the Dback shortstop drops an easy double play ball from Matt Kemp, the Dodgers hit and run--and Casey Blake lines into a triple play. No. Really. He did. My remote is now falling from a four-story dorm window.
8:52 pm: Still reeling. The last triple play turned against the Dodgers happened 18 years ago. I'm not sure what to do with that. Also, Eric Stults wouldn't be Eric Stults if he didn't put the first batter on base in the 3rd.
8:55 pm: ESPN breaks into the Sox game with Dodger highlights, showing the first-inning back-to-back homers but strangely not showing the triple play. I'm sure that when Orlando Hudson and Manny both get thrown out at home on a double later on that that'll be all over the Worldwide Leader.
9:00 pm: After hitting the first batter of the inning, Stults gets a pop-up and two grounders to retire the side. The pessimistic Dback fan on dodgerblues' live chat is now on suicide watch.
9:03 pm: Classic Dodger Stadium moment: Stults, leading off the third, connects solidly as the crowd goes wild...followed by the ball being easily caught in medium center field as Charlie Steiner changes his pants.
9:08 pm: Furcal singles to left, followed by Davis being sufficiently rattled that he throws to first three straight times before throwing a wild pitch. Hey, nobody said speed isn't important from a leadoff man. It's just like the 6th or 7th most important thing.
9:10 pm: Orlando Hudson walks, bringing Manny up with two on as Vin describes him as "full of frijoles." Hey, I was just thinking that.
9:13 pm: 3-2 count, crowd in full "MAN-NY! MAN-NY!" mode...and he hits into a double play. Was that GITP really a full-scale momentum killer?
9:16 pm: Scully: "We have some more facts about the triple play, in case you care." Vin, you could talk for 45 minutes about Juan Castro's bowel movements and we would still care. Don't be apologetic.
9:20 pm: Long shot by Byrnes, deep to right center...and Kemp makes a running catch while leaving a giant body imprint in the centerfield wall. If he hadn't single-handedly lost that Giant game last week with two first-inning misplays, I'd be a lot more impressed with his improved fielding this year.
9:22 pm: Random Sox-Yankees Tangent: Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira both connect for medium-range pop-ups that somehow reach the Yankee Stadium bleachers. That place makes Coors Field seem like Dodger Stadium in 1963. Meanwhile, Stults picks off Justin Upton for the second out before getting a strikeout to end the inning. Maybe I'm being too hard on the guy.
(The Dbacks will now score 16 runs in the fifth.)
9:31 pm: Seemingly everyone on dodgerblues.com is falling over themselves to trade Russell Martin, apparently unaware of the dark days in 2005 when Jason Phillips (!!!!!!!!!) was getting four atbats a game for the big club. The best way I can describe his baserunning is "a thin guy imitating a fat guy's running style." It was pretty embarrassing.
9:32 pm: Of course, Russell strikes out to end the inning. 2-1 Dodgers to the fifth.
9:35 pm: MLB.TV's doing some weird shit where the broadcast is fading in and out, making Vin sound eerily similar to Dick Clark. If that's a joke, Dodger radio team, it's not funny. It's pretty fucking far from funny, actually. Meanwhile, Kemp chases down another long fly ball for the first out in the fifth.
9:38 pm: Stults gets a strikeout and a weak fly ball to end the inning. Through 5 innings, he's only at 72 pitches, which is a decent third-inning total for Clayton Kershaw.
9:40 pm: Vin goes on a weird rant about thumb sucking as the camera pans to several small children in the crowd and every Dodger fan listening to the game nervously clears their throat. You know what? I don't give a shit. Vin, you could talk about thumb sucking for the next four innings and you'll still be a million times more interesting than...well, anybody, really.
9:43 pm: Kemp lines a single to left. I feel like that's his first hit in about six years.
9:44 pm: Blake grounds a single to left that somehow eludes Mark Reynolds, putting runners at first and second for the first time since the triple play. Cue 'Nam-like flashbacks.
9:46 pm: Kemp pulls off a delayed steal of third with Blake holding at first. Now I know that hasn't happened in six years...back when I did it for the Beaverton American Legion District 2A "Bombers." Oh, the glory days.
9:48 pm: Torre stupidly lets Stults swing and miss on 2-1 instead of having him bunt, and then gets bailed out on the next pitch when Stults connects on a medium-range fly ball for a sacrifice fly. 3-1, Dodgers. Guess that's why he's the manager and I'm the blogger.
9:52 pm: Davis wild-pitches Blake to second before walking Rafael Furcal. The Dodgers have been throwing jab after jab all night...they can finally go for the knockout here...they can smell blood...and they have Hudson and Manny due up...and those guys are like .950 career hitters at Dodger Stadium...and the Dbacks are on the ropes...
(So you just know a hit-and-run's coming.)
9:55 pm: I have no idea how you throw Orlando Hudson four straight balls with two runners on and Manny on deck. But it happened. Bases juiced, one out, Manny coming up, Doug Davis going out, Jon Rauch coming in, and the Dodgers T-minus one pitch away from either breaking the game open or fucking up the best opportunity they've had all night. And of course, the radio team screws up and forces the "Dick Clark Scully" voice on me.
9:57 pm: "High fly ball, deep to center field, back goes Young, a way back..."
9:57 pm: "...with room at the wall."
9:59 pm: But seriously...if that ball hits 1/900th of an inch closer to the fat part of Manny's bat, it's gone. And I love you ManRam, but please only preen at the plate when you're absolutely sure that you hit a home run. Damn it all. Oh well, 4-1 Dodgers on the sac fly.
10:03 pm: Ethier works a walk, followed by Loney striking out to end the inning. Can we get Juan Pierre a first baseman's glove, please?
10:04 pm: Checking on the laundry. If I miss anything, know that it was so I have clean socks to wear tomorrow. Noble cause, I know.
10:14 pm: Figures that I would return to find the lead cut to 4-2 (on a Mark Reynolds homer) with a runner on first (via a single by Justin Upton, chasing Stults) and with Ronald Belisario coming in (a virtual certainty to give up a 450-foot laser beam to Eric Byrnes). Laundry breaks suck.
10:16 pm: Belisario somehow induces an inning-ending groundout from Byrnes. 4-2 Dodgers headed to the sixth, with me wondering how a quadruple play would be possible.
10:22 pm: After a Martin single, the Dodgers hit and run with Kemp fouling the ball off at the plate. Will Joe Torre ever learn that hit and runs are very, very, very risky and therefore incredibly dumb? No? Didn't think so.
10:25 pm: I'm still reeling from my trip to the laundry room, mainly the elevator portion of it. There's so much dried piss, vomit, spit, and God knows what else on the floors of dorm elevators that any direct contact with them would probably make your skin melt. Well, this time, there was an actual pool of liquid taking up half of the elevator floor. It looked like plain water, but knowing that it was a dorm elevator, I couldn't help but think about all the, um, "other possibilites." Needless to say, I jumped off the elevator as soon as humanly possible.
10:26 pm: Kemp doubles to left, bringing home Martin. I wonder how you say "Slump busted" in Bison talk. 5-2 Dodgers, as Rauch leaves along with 35,000 of the Dodger fans in attendance.
10:32 pm: Casey Blake strikes out (after being ahead in the count 3-0 at one point), but on the third strike, Kemp steals third for the second time this game. He's baaaaaaaaaaaack.....
10:34 pm: Finally, a real hitter! Mark Loretta comes up, pinch hitting for Belisario. A base hit is imminent.
10:35 pm: The Arizona pitcher moves Loretta's bat with his mind and forces him to offer at a 1-2 pitch a foot off the plate. That wasn't Mark's fault. No way, no how. As far as I know, he's still hitting .391.
10:37 pm: I really hope that, 50 years from now, the only thing Josh Wilson will remember about this game is the fantastic play he made to start a triple play. I say this because he just rushed a throw from shortstop to first, resulting in Tony Clark having to come off the bag and Rafael Furcal being safe at first. Kemp scores from third, and it's 6-2. The remaining 10,000 fans in attendance take off to beat the traffic as 10,000 new ones arrive late to take their place.
10:39 pm: The O Dog flies out to center. Nine outs to go, and history will be made at the Ravine. Hopefully, Guillermo Mota won't be involved in any way. 6-2 Dodgers to the seventh.
10:42 pm: Torre brings in Mota. Unbelievably believable.
10:47 pm: With one out, the Dbacks' #8 hitter ropes a double off the wall. Try to contain your surprise.
10:49 pm: Mota actually strikes someone out. Sure, it was Tony Clark, but I'll take it. And on that, after Mota's most successful outing in like 3 years, Torre decides to pull him with two outs in the inning to bring in Wade. Your guess is as good as mine.
10:54 pm: Yet Another Random Red Sox-Yankees Tangent: Do you think Jonathon Papelbon's buddies ever give him shit for that ridiculous "intense look" thing he does right before he throws a pitch? You know, when they're not sleeping in his mansion or riding in his Porsche?
10:55 pm: Wade gets a strikeout to end the inning. Again, be glad I'm not managing the Dodgers. Bottom of the seventh coming up, as I'm about to go against everything I believe about broadcasters by muting Vin for a bit to listen to the rest of the Yankees-Sox game. Vin, if we ever meet, suffice it to say that I'm never telling you this story.
10:59 pm: 6-4 Sox, two guys on, one out, bottom of the ninth, Mark Teixeira up. Steve Phillips: "If Teixeira hits one out here, he will be well on his way to becoming a Yankee." If I'm not mistaken, that event already occurred in late December, but hell, I don't work for ESPN, so I guess I don't know shit. (Can I take back what I said earlier about Phillips, by the way?)
11:02 pm: Tex K's, bringing up Swisher as the Yankees' last hope. Can you hear that? It's the sound of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry finally, officially turning toward Boston after like 1,000 years of New York ruling. Sucks to be a pinstriper these days.
11:07 pm: Huge brain lapse by the Sox: the two Yankee runners on base steal to put the tying runs in scoring position, and Varitek is caught so far off guard that he can't even make a throw. That's followed by Swisher hitting a monstrous drive to right that goes foul, and then working Papelbon for a walk to load the bases. Drama!
11:09 pm: A dodgerblues member characterizes Papelbon's intense look as his "rape face." I'm pretty sure that's funny somehow. Meanwhile, Papelbon blows away Robby Cano to end the game as the entire population of Boston prepares their taunting emails. Great game.
11:11 pm: Back to the Dodger game. Right now, the bases are loaded with one out. According to Yahoo!, Manny Ramirez led off with a hit-by-pitch, followed by an Ethier single, a Loney flyout with Manny moving to third, and a Martin walk. And according to the dodgerblues chat, Manny got hit by the ball square on the ass. Bet anyone $50 that Juan Pierre is in left at the start of the eighth.
11:13 pm: Anyone surprised that the Dodgers battled and rallied while my attention was on the Yankees-Sox game, and then immediately went dead (via a Matt Kemp double-play grounder) when I turned back? If you are, you shouldn't be. 6-2 Dodgers, going to the eighth.
11:19 pm: Three quick outs for Wade in the eighth, who's looked simply dominant since his return from the DL. Still, until the Dodgers trade for Jonathon Papelbon, the mass media will keep saying that their bullpen is full of can't-hack-it-pantywastes. (A Sandlot reference! Ha!)
11:20 pm: Bottom of the eighth at Dodger Stadium. And you know what that means...
11:21 pm: "STRAAAAANGERS.....WAAAAAAAAITIN.....UP AND DOWN THE BOULLLLLLLLLLLLEVARD.....THERE'S SHAAAAAAAAAAADOWS.....SEAAAAAAAAAAAARCHIN.....IN THE NIIIIIIIIIIGHT.....STREEEEEEETLIGHT.....PEEEEEEEEEEOPLE.....LIVIN JUST TO FIND EMOTION.....HIDIN.....SOOOOOMEWHERE IN THE NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT....."
11:25 pm: After Casey Blake leads with a walk, Juan Pierre comes up. I wonder how many times he's dreamnt of murdering Andre Ethier this year.
11:26 pm: Beast Mode flies out to center, bringing up Rafael Furcal. If somebody would have told me back in March that Martin, Furcal, and Blake would all be batting under .260 in early May, I'd ask them how much Giant fans were ejaculating over being in first place for the first time in 20 years. Yet somehow, the Dodgers are three outs away from moving to 19-8 and setting the National League record for consecutive home victories to open a season. Just Manny being Manny, I guess (remember, him and Nomar are the only two guys on the Dodgers).
11:30 pm: Vin takes a slight shot at LA fans, pointing out that many of them are likely to leave after this inning because there'll probably be no chance of seeing Manny again. Even Vin knows that his team's fanbase is a joke. Is there anything we can do about this?
11:33 pm: Hudson singles to right, as thousands of parents in the crowd huff and puff over having to stay an extra two minutes to watch Manny's atbat with their kids.
11:35 pm: Manny ices the game with a double down the line. 7-2 Dodgers, as Manny looks up from second base to find the stands completely empty with tumbleweeds rolling down the aisles.
11:36 pm: Jonathon Broxton and rookie Brent Leach are both warming in the pen. I'd like to see Leach make his first major-league appearance here, but then again 100% of my hunches in this game have been wrong, so...bring on Broxton?
11:39 pm: Broxton comes in. Naturally.
11:43 pm: Well, I was wrong (right?): Broxton absolutely freezes Upton on an unhittable slider for the first out of the inning. That'll probably make the Top 500 on Baseball Tonight's "That's Nasty" later on in the evening.
11:45 pm: Thanks in great part to ESPN, probably 4 baseball fans outside of the greater Los Angeles area know who Jonathon Broxton is. In a related story, he just blew away some dude named Ryan Roberts on a high 98-mph heater. You get the feeling that he'll have to save 85 consecutive games before ESPN starts wondering to themselves, "Hey, what's the name of that fat dude who pitches for the Lakers?"
11:46 pm: Miguel Montero is the Dbacks' final hope, and he's extinguished quickly, grounding to second to end the game. Final score: Dodgers 7, Diamondbacks 2.
And just like that, a new (National League) record is set, for consecutive home victories to start a season. On Tuesday, the Dodgers will try to break the modern-day MLB record of 11 straight home wins to open a season set by the 2003 Royals. On Wednesday, assuming they win Tuesday, the Dodgers will try to break the all-time record of 12 straight home wins to open a season set by the 1911 Detroit Tigers (ironically, the first team that Joe Torre managed). And on Thursday, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier will combine for 8 home runs and still not get mentioned by name during the first half hour of Baseball Tonight. Good times all around!
Anyway, on with the proceedings! (This entire thing will be in Mountain Time. Deal with it.)
7:35 pm: We're about a half hour away from the first pitch, with the Dodgers sadly conceding the game before it even begins by benching Juan Pierre, Mark Loretta, Brad Ausmus, and Juan Castro (combined batting average of .392, as noted in yesterday's blog entry). Manny Ramirez, Casey Blake, Russell Martin, and Rafael Furcal will have to make do in their absence. The "second-team" Dodger lineup:
SS Furcal
2B Hudson
LF Ramirez
RF Ethier
1B Loney
C Martin
CF Kemp
3B Blake
P Stults
I know that lineup order doesn't really matter, but...why are Ethier and Loney back to back? In a critical late-game situation, couldn't the Dodger offense be seriously neutralized by a manager ordering an intentional walk of Manny and then bringing in his lefty specialist? Martin's shown signs of busting through as of late; what would be so wrong with switching him and Loney today? Especially against a tough lefty starter? Should a Hall of Fame manager making $4 million a year really have to be questioned this many times before the game even starts? No? I didn't think so.
7:48 pm: The Red Sox-Yankee game is currently showing on ESPN; it's the second inning, at Yankee Stadium, and Phil Hughes is pitching. Anyone want to guess if there's been a home run hit yet? (The answer's yes.)
7:52 pm: I'm now perusing the Dodger minor league system for game updates. The most talented team is either Low-A Great Lakes (SS Devaris Gordon, OF Kyle Russell, C Anthony Delmonico, and P Ethan Martin are all potential top 100 prospects for 2010) or Double-A Chattanooga (featuring 1B/OF Andrew Lambo, easily the best position prospect in the system). Of course, Great Lakes lost 5-1 and Lambo isn't playing today. Go figure.
7:58 pm: Orel Hershiser relates a funny anecdote about Nolan Ryan during the Yankee game. Orel's insightful, intelligent, and funny...so naturally, they bump him to the Monday night games while Joe Morgan continues to give rambling non-analysis for the much-more-hyped Sunday night broadcasts. Gotta love ESPN.
8:01 pm: On a side note, I think Steve Phillips gets a bad rap. My dad's hated him ever since he led those "fake press conferences" for Baseball Tonight a few years ago (which is really much more a reflection on Baseball Tonight than him), and he's definitely not as smart as he thinks he is (ask any Met fan about the "Steve Phillips, General Manager" era and there's a 100% chance that a twelve-letter expletive will be involved)...but he at least knows the game, does research, and gives thoughtful analysis at times. I'll take him over Morgan 100 times out of 100, and I'll take him over Tim McCarver infinity times out of 100.
8:05 pm: Gotta check the laundry. I'll probably miss the first pitch. Hey, I warned you.
8:11 pm: Nope! I got back in time! Felipe Lopez flies out to start the game! More exclamation points!
8:12 pm: You know, I think I could listen to Vin Scully say "it's a lovely 68 degrees" for a solid 200 straight hours. You think I'm lying.
8:15 pm: Conor Jackson doubles down the left-field line with two outs. Manny moves to field the ball like he's wading through pond water. Whatever, he's hitting .349.
8:16 pm: Mark Reynolds hits a grounder to Casey Blake (or Casey "Baker," as Vin Scully calls him; hey, shut up, nobody's perfect), who makes a nice play for the out. Not a bad inning for Stults. That's probably the last time you'll read that sentence tonight.
8:19 pm: Doug Davis has a career 3.04 ERA against the Dodgers; I would have thought the 0 and the 3 would have been switched.
8:20 pm: The most notable thing about Davis, of course, is that he heroically came back from cancer to pitch well at the major-league level. But Vin reminds us of a fact about Davis that only Vin would know: he had four consecutive seasons with a .500 record as a starter. I'd like to hire Vin to narrate my life for a day. No, really.
8:22 pm: Furcal and Hudson ground out, bringing up tonight's feature attraction:
"MAN-NY! MAN-NY! MAN-NY!"
(I'm still not sure if there are any players on the team besides him.)
8:24 pm: Nope. Manny whacks a 3-2 fastball into the seats. 1-0, Dodgers. Of course.
8:25 pm: Wait, there IS another player on the Dodgers??????? Apparently! Andre Ethier drills one into the rightfield bleachers. 2-0 now, as Andre continues to make that one Tampa writer look foolish for proposing an "Andy Sonnanstine for Ethier" trade in the offseason. That article will get 100% funnier every year.
8:26 pm: James Loney is known around Dodger cyberspace (meaning exclusively dodgerblues.com) as "James Pierre" because of his power outage over the last 7 months and counting. Also, for his habit of softly grounding out to end innings, as he just did. 2-0 Dodgers into the second.
8:30 pm: Stults walks Justin Upton leading off the second, bringing up my dad's least favorite player ever, Eric Byrnes. It's a combination of his hair and his idiotic performance at the 2007 All-Star Game that really did him in in my dad's eyes.
8:32 pm: Classic Byrnes play: hits a grounder up the middle that should be an easy double play, only it bounces off Stults' leg and Orlando Hudson can only get one. Byrnes is really David Eckstein with talent, isn't he?
8:35 pm: Hit and runs are stupid, and even when the Dodgers execute them well I'll shake my head and consider myself lucky that something horrible didn't happen. And when another team perfectly executes one against the Dodgers, I feel like whipping my remote out the window. In a related story, the Dbacks now have runners at first and third with one out.
8:37 pm: Some guy named Josh Wilson singles through the left side. 2-1 Dodgers. Oh well, the Stults shutout never had much chance anyway.
8:38 pm: Russell Martin is batting like .111 right now, but you've got to love him for plays like this: Davis drops a bunt down about 2 inches in front of the plate, Martin grabs it and whips it over to third for one, Blake throws it on to first to get Davis by 10 feet. How many times do you see a 2-5-3 double play? About as many times as you hear Joe Morgan say something useful. 2-1 Dodgers going to the bottom of the second.
8:40 pm: Russ leads off in the second. I'll bet anything that he gets on base here. Anything.
8:42 pm: And he walked. Hey, maybe I should broadcast for ESPN. (During the Monday night games, of course.)
8:49 pm: After the Dback shortstop drops an easy double play ball from Matt Kemp, the Dodgers hit and run--and Casey Blake lines into a triple play. No. Really. He did. My remote is now falling from a four-story dorm window.
8:52 pm: Still reeling. The last triple play turned against the Dodgers happened 18 years ago. I'm not sure what to do with that. Also, Eric Stults wouldn't be Eric Stults if he didn't put the first batter on base in the 3rd.
8:55 pm: ESPN breaks into the Sox game with Dodger highlights, showing the first-inning back-to-back homers but strangely not showing the triple play. I'm sure that when Orlando Hudson and Manny both get thrown out at home on a double later on that that'll be all over the Worldwide Leader.
9:00 pm: After hitting the first batter of the inning, Stults gets a pop-up and two grounders to retire the side. The pessimistic Dback fan on dodgerblues' live chat is now on suicide watch.
9:03 pm: Classic Dodger Stadium moment: Stults, leading off the third, connects solidly as the crowd goes wild...followed by the ball being easily caught in medium center field as Charlie Steiner changes his pants.
9:08 pm: Furcal singles to left, followed by Davis being sufficiently rattled that he throws to first three straight times before throwing a wild pitch. Hey, nobody said speed isn't important from a leadoff man. It's just like the 6th or 7th most important thing.
9:10 pm: Orlando Hudson walks, bringing Manny up with two on as Vin describes him as "full of frijoles." Hey, I was just thinking that.
9:13 pm: 3-2 count, crowd in full "MAN-NY! MAN-NY!" mode...and he hits into a double play. Was that GITP really a full-scale momentum killer?
9:16 pm: Scully: "We have some more facts about the triple play, in case you care." Vin, you could talk for 45 minutes about Juan Castro's bowel movements and we would still care. Don't be apologetic.
9:20 pm: Long shot by Byrnes, deep to right center...and Kemp makes a running catch while leaving a giant body imprint in the centerfield wall. If he hadn't single-handedly lost that Giant game last week with two first-inning misplays, I'd be a lot more impressed with his improved fielding this year.
9:22 pm: Random Sox-Yankees Tangent: Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira both connect for medium-range pop-ups that somehow reach the Yankee Stadium bleachers. That place makes Coors Field seem like Dodger Stadium in 1963. Meanwhile, Stults picks off Justin Upton for the second out before getting a strikeout to end the inning. Maybe I'm being too hard on the guy.
(The Dbacks will now score 16 runs in the fifth.)
9:31 pm: Seemingly everyone on dodgerblues.com is falling over themselves to trade Russell Martin, apparently unaware of the dark days in 2005 when Jason Phillips (!!!!!!!!!) was getting four atbats a game for the big club. The best way I can describe his baserunning is "a thin guy imitating a fat guy's running style." It was pretty embarrassing.
9:32 pm: Of course, Russell strikes out to end the inning. 2-1 Dodgers to the fifth.
9:35 pm: MLB.TV's doing some weird shit where the broadcast is fading in and out, making Vin sound eerily similar to Dick Clark. If that's a joke, Dodger radio team, it's not funny. It's pretty fucking far from funny, actually. Meanwhile, Kemp chases down another long fly ball for the first out in the fifth.
9:38 pm: Stults gets a strikeout and a weak fly ball to end the inning. Through 5 innings, he's only at 72 pitches, which is a decent third-inning total for Clayton Kershaw.
9:40 pm: Vin goes on a weird rant about thumb sucking as the camera pans to several small children in the crowd and every Dodger fan listening to the game nervously clears their throat. You know what? I don't give a shit. Vin, you could talk about thumb sucking for the next four innings and you'll still be a million times more interesting than...well, anybody, really.
9:43 pm: Kemp lines a single to left. I feel like that's his first hit in about six years.
9:44 pm: Blake grounds a single to left that somehow eludes Mark Reynolds, putting runners at first and second for the first time since the triple play. Cue 'Nam-like flashbacks.
9:46 pm: Kemp pulls off a delayed steal of third with Blake holding at first. Now I know that hasn't happened in six years...back when I did it for the Beaverton American Legion District 2A "Bombers." Oh, the glory days.
9:48 pm: Torre stupidly lets Stults swing and miss on 2-1 instead of having him bunt, and then gets bailed out on the next pitch when Stults connects on a medium-range fly ball for a sacrifice fly. 3-1, Dodgers. Guess that's why he's the manager and I'm the blogger.
9:52 pm: Davis wild-pitches Blake to second before walking Rafael Furcal. The Dodgers have been throwing jab after jab all night...they can finally go for the knockout here...they can smell blood...and they have Hudson and Manny due up...and those guys are like .950 career hitters at Dodger Stadium...and the Dbacks are on the ropes...
(So you just know a hit-and-run's coming.)
9:55 pm: I have no idea how you throw Orlando Hudson four straight balls with two runners on and Manny on deck. But it happened. Bases juiced, one out, Manny coming up, Doug Davis going out, Jon Rauch coming in, and the Dodgers T-minus one pitch away from either breaking the game open or fucking up the best opportunity they've had all night. And of course, the radio team screws up and forces the "Dick Clark Scully" voice on me.
9:57 pm: "High fly ball, deep to center field, back goes Young, a way back..."
9:57 pm: "...with room at the wall."
9:59 pm: But seriously...if that ball hits 1/900th of an inch closer to the fat part of Manny's bat, it's gone. And I love you ManRam, but please only preen at the plate when you're absolutely sure that you hit a home run. Damn it all. Oh well, 4-1 Dodgers on the sac fly.
10:03 pm: Ethier works a walk, followed by Loney striking out to end the inning. Can we get Juan Pierre a first baseman's glove, please?
10:04 pm: Checking on the laundry. If I miss anything, know that it was so I have clean socks to wear tomorrow. Noble cause, I know.
10:14 pm: Figures that I would return to find the lead cut to 4-2 (on a Mark Reynolds homer) with a runner on first (via a single by Justin Upton, chasing Stults) and with Ronald Belisario coming in (a virtual certainty to give up a 450-foot laser beam to Eric Byrnes). Laundry breaks suck.
10:16 pm: Belisario somehow induces an inning-ending groundout from Byrnes. 4-2 Dodgers headed to the sixth, with me wondering how a quadruple play would be possible.
10:22 pm: After a Martin single, the Dodgers hit and run with Kemp fouling the ball off at the plate. Will Joe Torre ever learn that hit and runs are very, very, very risky and therefore incredibly dumb? No? Didn't think so.
10:25 pm: I'm still reeling from my trip to the laundry room, mainly the elevator portion of it. There's so much dried piss, vomit, spit, and God knows what else on the floors of dorm elevators that any direct contact with them would probably make your skin melt. Well, this time, there was an actual pool of liquid taking up half of the elevator floor. It looked like plain water, but knowing that it was a dorm elevator, I couldn't help but think about all the, um, "other possibilites." Needless to say, I jumped off the elevator as soon as humanly possible.
10:26 pm: Kemp doubles to left, bringing home Martin. I wonder how you say "Slump busted" in Bison talk. 5-2 Dodgers, as Rauch leaves along with 35,000 of the Dodger fans in attendance.
10:32 pm: Casey Blake strikes out (after being ahead in the count 3-0 at one point), but on the third strike, Kemp steals third for the second time this game. He's baaaaaaaaaaaack.....
10:34 pm: Finally, a real hitter! Mark Loretta comes up, pinch hitting for Belisario. A base hit is imminent.
10:35 pm: The Arizona pitcher moves Loretta's bat with his mind and forces him to offer at a 1-2 pitch a foot off the plate. That wasn't Mark's fault. No way, no how. As far as I know, he's still hitting .391.
10:37 pm: I really hope that, 50 years from now, the only thing Josh Wilson will remember about this game is the fantastic play he made to start a triple play. I say this because he just rushed a throw from shortstop to first, resulting in Tony Clark having to come off the bag and Rafael Furcal being safe at first. Kemp scores from third, and it's 6-2. The remaining 10,000 fans in attendance take off to beat the traffic as 10,000 new ones arrive late to take their place.
10:39 pm: The O Dog flies out to center. Nine outs to go, and history will be made at the Ravine. Hopefully, Guillermo Mota won't be involved in any way. 6-2 Dodgers to the seventh.
10:42 pm: Torre brings in Mota. Unbelievably believable.
10:47 pm: With one out, the Dbacks' #8 hitter ropes a double off the wall. Try to contain your surprise.
10:49 pm: Mota actually strikes someone out. Sure, it was Tony Clark, but I'll take it. And on that, after Mota's most successful outing in like 3 years, Torre decides to pull him with two outs in the inning to bring in Wade. Your guess is as good as mine.
10:54 pm: Yet Another Random Red Sox-Yankees Tangent: Do you think Jonathon Papelbon's buddies ever give him shit for that ridiculous "intense look" thing he does right before he throws a pitch? You know, when they're not sleeping in his mansion or riding in his Porsche?
10:55 pm: Wade gets a strikeout to end the inning. Again, be glad I'm not managing the Dodgers. Bottom of the seventh coming up, as I'm about to go against everything I believe about broadcasters by muting Vin for a bit to listen to the rest of the Yankees-Sox game. Vin, if we ever meet, suffice it to say that I'm never telling you this story.
10:59 pm: 6-4 Sox, two guys on, one out, bottom of the ninth, Mark Teixeira up. Steve Phillips: "If Teixeira hits one out here, he will be well on his way to becoming a Yankee." If I'm not mistaken, that event already occurred in late December, but hell, I don't work for ESPN, so I guess I don't know shit. (Can I take back what I said earlier about Phillips, by the way?)
11:02 pm: Tex K's, bringing up Swisher as the Yankees' last hope. Can you hear that? It's the sound of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry finally, officially turning toward Boston after like 1,000 years of New York ruling. Sucks to be a pinstriper these days.
11:07 pm: Huge brain lapse by the Sox: the two Yankee runners on base steal to put the tying runs in scoring position, and Varitek is caught so far off guard that he can't even make a throw. That's followed by Swisher hitting a monstrous drive to right that goes foul, and then working Papelbon for a walk to load the bases. Drama!
11:09 pm: A dodgerblues member characterizes Papelbon's intense look as his "rape face." I'm pretty sure that's funny somehow. Meanwhile, Papelbon blows away Robby Cano to end the game as the entire population of Boston prepares their taunting emails. Great game.
11:11 pm: Back to the Dodger game. Right now, the bases are loaded with one out. According to Yahoo!, Manny Ramirez led off with a hit-by-pitch, followed by an Ethier single, a Loney flyout with Manny moving to third, and a Martin walk. And according to the dodgerblues chat, Manny got hit by the ball square on the ass. Bet anyone $50 that Juan Pierre is in left at the start of the eighth.
11:13 pm: Anyone surprised that the Dodgers battled and rallied while my attention was on the Yankees-Sox game, and then immediately went dead (via a Matt Kemp double-play grounder) when I turned back? If you are, you shouldn't be. 6-2 Dodgers, going to the eighth.
11:19 pm: Three quick outs for Wade in the eighth, who's looked simply dominant since his return from the DL. Still, until the Dodgers trade for Jonathon Papelbon, the mass media will keep saying that their bullpen is full of can't-hack-it-pantywastes. (A Sandlot reference! Ha!)
11:20 pm: Bottom of the eighth at Dodger Stadium. And you know what that means...
11:21 pm: "STRAAAAANGERS.....WAAAAAAAAITIN.....UP AND DOWN THE BOULLLLLLLLLLLLEVARD.....THERE'S SHAAAAAAAAAAADOWS.....SEAAAAAAAAAAAARCHIN.....IN THE NIIIIIIIIIIGHT.....STREEEEEEETLIGHT.....PEEEEEEEEEEOPLE.....LIVIN JUST TO FIND EMOTION.....HIDIN.....SOOOOOMEWHERE IN THE NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT....."
11:25 pm: After Casey Blake leads with a walk, Juan Pierre comes up. I wonder how many times he's dreamnt of murdering Andre Ethier this year.
11:26 pm: Beast Mode flies out to center, bringing up Rafael Furcal. If somebody would have told me back in March that Martin, Furcal, and Blake would all be batting under .260 in early May, I'd ask them how much Giant fans were ejaculating over being in first place for the first time in 20 years. Yet somehow, the Dodgers are three outs away from moving to 19-8 and setting the National League record for consecutive home victories to open a season. Just Manny being Manny, I guess (remember, him and Nomar are the only two guys on the Dodgers).
11:30 pm: Vin takes a slight shot at LA fans, pointing out that many of them are likely to leave after this inning because there'll probably be no chance of seeing Manny again. Even Vin knows that his team's fanbase is a joke. Is there anything we can do about this?
11:33 pm: Hudson singles to right, as thousands of parents in the crowd huff and puff over having to stay an extra two minutes to watch Manny's atbat with their kids.
11:35 pm: Manny ices the game with a double down the line. 7-2 Dodgers, as Manny looks up from second base to find the stands completely empty with tumbleweeds rolling down the aisles.
11:36 pm: Jonathon Broxton and rookie Brent Leach are both warming in the pen. I'd like to see Leach make his first major-league appearance here, but then again 100% of my hunches in this game have been wrong, so...bring on Broxton?
11:39 pm: Broxton comes in. Naturally.
11:43 pm: Well, I was wrong (right?): Broxton absolutely freezes Upton on an unhittable slider for the first out of the inning. That'll probably make the Top 500 on Baseball Tonight's "That's Nasty" later on in the evening.
11:45 pm: Thanks in great part to ESPN, probably 4 baseball fans outside of the greater Los Angeles area know who Jonathon Broxton is. In a related story, he just blew away some dude named Ryan Roberts on a high 98-mph heater. You get the feeling that he'll have to save 85 consecutive games before ESPN starts wondering to themselves, "Hey, what's the name of that fat dude who pitches for the Lakers?"
11:46 pm: Miguel Montero is the Dbacks' final hope, and he's extinguished quickly, grounding to second to end the game. Final score: Dodgers 7, Diamondbacks 2.
And just like that, a new (National League) record is set, for consecutive home victories to start a season. On Tuesday, the Dodgers will try to break the modern-day MLB record of 11 straight home wins to open a season set by the 2003 Royals. On Wednesday, assuming they win Tuesday, the Dodgers will try to break the all-time record of 12 straight home wins to open a season set by the 1911 Detroit Tigers (ironically, the first team that Joe Torre managed). And on Thursday, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier will combine for 8 home runs and still not get mentioned by name during the first half hour of Baseball Tonight. Good times all around!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)