dodgerfan Live From The Pressbox Tonight!

Keep an eye out for Chris’s upcoming pre-game notes from Joe Torre and live blogging from the pressbox tonight!

LAT: Manny Ramirez Headed to Minors on Tuesday

Our Friend Dylan Hernandez is reporting that Manny should be headed to the minors on Tuesday (assuming his recent flu-like symptoms and weight loss don’t reappear).

From the L.A. Times:

Manny Ramirez is tentatively scheduled to return to the field on Tuesday in New Mexico, according to baseball sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter.

Ramirez, who is in the final weeks of a 50-game suspension for violating baseball’s drug policy, will be with the Dodgers’ triple-A affiliate in Albuquerque for a four-game series that runs from June 23-26. His next stop will be with Class-A Inland Empire in San Bernardino for a three-game series from June 28-30.

I’d really like to see if I can find out from he Dodgers organization how many press credentials are requested for those series in Albuquerque and Inland Empire as opposed to the usual figures. We’ll see if we can get the numbers from the Dodgers PR Team!

dodgerfan.net Welcomes New Contributor

I’m happy to announce that the dodgerfan.net staff has recruited a new member to our staff. Ryan (pictured above in his best Manny Ramirez threads) is a long-time friend of mine – we went to school together way, way back in the day and he brings a fresh perspective to some new areas we’d like to cover with the blog.

A few words from Ryan himself:

My earliest memories of Dodger baseball came back in the early 80’s when my dad would turn down the volume on the TV and turn up the radio so we could listen to Vin Scully call the game…

My athletic background revolves around swimming, water polo and golf…I bet there are 8 year olds out there who can strike me out on 3 pitches…

My interest in baseball exploded in the mid 80’s when I started collecting baseball cards…from there, I moved into fantasy baseball and began to study the numbers…now I’m back into collecting cards…my wife and dog love the fact that I’m in front of the computer looking at stats and managing my fantasy team while also spending time sorting and cataloging cards…I guess this is better than drinking and doing drugs, right?

I’m certainly looking forward to contributing to the blog and will cover things that I find interesting – stats, fantasy baseball, baseball memorabilia…of course, talking Dodger baseball is always high on my list!

As he mentioned, Ryan is (and has been) an avid card collector not too long ago, so expect some interesting perspectives from him on that front – both on the current state of memorabilia and a retrospective. Ryan is also the closest thing we have to a “numbers guy” here at dodgerfan.net so if anyone is going to crunch the stats to get to
some unique and intriguing insights, it will be him.

Watch for some great posts coming your way soon – as well as interesting perspectives from the press box and the field as Ryan joins our team that blogs from Chavez Ravine periodically.

Welcome, Ryan!

ESPN OTL Segment Shows Journalists Still Dissing Bloggers

Wow – I just finished watching the ESPN Outside The Lines segment on the recent Raul Ibanez steroids blog post that has the interwebs on fire!

The guy in question, Jerrod Morris, a writer for Midwest Sports Fans, wrote an article that discussed how Raul Ibanez’s power numbers have increased this year and speculated on the reasons why this jump occured. One explanation, he mused, was performance enhancing drugs and, well, the rest was history. The blogosphere began reporting that Jerrod said that Ibanez was taking steroids (not accurate), and ESPN took it a step further by getting two journalists together (including Ken Rosenthal and a guy from the Philadelphia Inquirer) to interrogate Morris.

Man, this was a takedown that was orchestrated like no other. I’d encourage you to watch it yourself and form your own opinions, but some of mine are:

1. Many in the media still thinks bloggers are unprofessional, unaccountable, inaccurate writers – the writers that were tearing Morris apart kept hammering on the fact that he made accusations without any facts. When I read the article and watched the segment, I thought that Morris wasn’t given a fair shake – he was pretty clear in his statement online and on ESPN that he didn’t accuse Ibanez of taking steroids but it everyone seemed to try to accuse Morris of that very fact. Weren’t the mainstream media members pushing Morris on something that wasn’t accurate? It seemed they were practicing the very activity that they were accusing the blogger of – hmm…

2. No one has really spelled out how Ibanez was made aware of anything – This seems like a big game of telephone, where the blogger posts something, another media outlet writes their interpretation of it, another person relays this to Ibanez, and the player unleashes on someone where no one is clear on what the message was.

3. Jerrod’s blog is going to blow up because of this – The very media outlets that try to discredit Jerrod and his blog have actually done quite the opposite- they have made everyone aware of the power of these blogs to write on hot topics and tackle topics that the mainstream media won’t. I think Jerrod and his blog will ultimately be the winners here…much to the dismay of folks like Ken Rosenthal.

writers note: The only research I did for this article was reading Jerrod’s words and watching the OTL segment

6/11/109 Update
A few words from the blogger (Jerrod Morris) today wrapping up his thoughts…

After reflecting more about the interview on Outside the Lines yesterday, just a few more thoughts:

Ken Rosenthal asked at one point, “how did we get here?” What I wish I had said was: “We got here because one newspaper mischaracterized what I said, because a reporter from that same paper went running to Raul Ibanez for a comment without (ostensibly) Ibanez or the reporter reading the actual article I wrote, and because the mainstream media and its holier-than-thou high standards decided to run with the story. If none of that had happened, the Raul Ibanez story would be making its way towards 300-400 views right now and fading from relevance even here at MSF, as opposed to being a national story.

I wasn’t setting out to create a firestorm, but it is curious (there’s that word again) that the MSM was so quick to jump on the story. Could it be because the MSM salivates anytime the terms “steroids” or “PEDs” and an actual player’s name are in the same sentence? Might such stories drive pretty high traffic and viewership? Seems to me they would (and, admittedly, the last few days have proven it for us here at Midwest Sports Fans. Thanks mainstream media!).

Dodgers Phlat against Phillies; Split Series

Man, you could almost taste it – the Dodgers had a chance to rob the Phillies of their consecutive record of road series wins…and then Philly pulls out some great starting pitching whilst also bringing the big stick to the party. No es bueno.

Antonio Bastardo, who probably has the greatest name in Major League Baseball, took it to the Dodgers this time. Through two starts, he has a 2.45 ERA and a 9/2 K/BB ratio in 11 innings. Not bad for a guy who has played only two games in the majors.

The Dodgers still have the best record in baseball at 39-20 and lead the NL in batting average, runs and on-base percentage so they can’t complain too much. However, if there is one gripe it’s that they have delivered only seven runs in 46 innings against opponents’ starting pitchers over their last seven games. The bats only seem to come alive once the releivers are in – something that’s not sustainable.

Oh well, the Lakers won – does that count for anything? Nah, didn’t think so.

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