Joe Torre is amazing…
Last Thursday…2 outs, bottom of the 8th in St. Louis…game tied, 3-3…man on 3rd…Hong-Chih Kuo on the mound…he just struck out Ryan Ludwick…the fastball was working…next batter, Albert Pujols…Joe Torre comes to the mound…usually, Joe makes a pitching change, but instead, there was a conversation…pitch to Pujols or walk him intentionally?…we got our answer 4 pitches later – the intentional walk…so, up steps Matt Holliday – probably the hottest hitter in the NL since his trade from Oakland…I was thinking that you pitch around one great hitter to face a hot hitter?…interesting…

…then I was amazed…Kuo walked Holliday intentionally to load the bases!…this setup a lefty-lefty matchup with Rick Ankiel…in a classic battle, Ankiel swung at all 3 pitches he saw…all 3 of them were fastballs…and he didn’t make contact on ANY of them!…the Dodgers escaped and eventually won the game in 10 innings…wow!

Joe Torre is amazing, part 2…
In Atlanta on Sunday, Chad Billingsley was pitching a great game…he had 9 strikeouts in 5 innings while holding the Braves to just 2 hits and no runs…a freak hyperextension of Billingsley’s left knee led to Joe Torre pulling him after the 5th for precautionary reasons…I don’t blame him…why risk further injury at this point of the season?…our goal is to win in October, so let’s take care of our guys…

Billingsley was slated to lead off the top of the 6th inning…because the Dodgers were short of bench players (only 3 hitters were available on Sunday), Joe went to power hitting pitcher, Jason Schmidt, to pinch hit…Schmidt has 7 career home runs…what did Torre have to lose?…anyway, Jason lined a 1-1 pitch back up the middle for a single and eventually came home to score the 5th run of the game…the Dodgers went on to win, 9-1.

George Sherrill Trade
Have you guys fallen in love with George Sherrill yet?…as I mentioned in a previous post, he’ll be great out of the bullpen for us and gives us another strong lefty for matchup situations (ie – the Phillies lineup) or be the 8th inning setup guy for Broxton in the 9th…in just 2 appearances (1.1 innings), he has 3 strikeouts, 1 hold, 0 hits and 0 runs allowed…of course, we’ve only seen him twice…sooner or later, he’ll get touched up for a hit, maybe even a run…until then, the Dodgers got the better end of this trade…

Vin Scully’s Farewell Tour
The LA Times published an article last week challenging the Dodgers to send out the great Vin Scully in style…Vin announced he will come back for one more year in the booth before retiring after an incredible career…here’s my 2 cents on what should be done…#1 – Dodgers win the World Series this year and next year!…win it for Vin!…#2 – next season, let Vin choose 81 Dodger greats (1 for each home game) from his days of broadcasting and have that player, manager, coach or Dodger employee take part in throwing out the first pitch and then come up to the booth so Vin can share some great memories with that person…let VIN choose the 81, not the Dodgers…simulcast all 81 of those home games so fans can take part in the farewell – whether you are watching on TV or listening in your car on the radio…that would be awesome…

The site I’m keeping my eyes on this week is this one – http://trades.mlblogs.com

While there was initial talk about the Dodgers and Roy Halladay, those seem to have gone by the wayside (along with Halladay talks to virtually every other MLB team)…Toronto is asking too much and they are in a position to do that (Halladay would be under contract for this season and next season, so a team would be trading for him and have him through 2010 rather than just having him for a couple months)…

Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians seems like the next best option…Cy Young award winner…great numbers…we’ll see where that goes…

The most recent rumors on the site indicate Baltimore is shopping their closer, George Sherrill…I know George from a fantasy baseball perspective (he’s on my team) and he puts up great numbers…sure, we have Broxton on the back end of our bullpen, but it would be great having an established closer in the fold to help with 8th inning duties, lefty-lefty matchups and best of all, be available if Broxton has pitched 2-3 consecutive games…and the better part is the rumor has the trade involving a minor leaguer, so we’re not trading anything from our current major league roster…

I love it!

UPDATE – July 30th
Of course, a day after this rumor came out, the trade happened…we got George Sherrill!…a nice addition to the bullpen which really needs some help in the coming days now that we went 15 innings in St. Louis yesterday and have no off days until next week…as I mentioned above, his numbers are great…will that translate to success with the Dodgers?…who will be the odd man out now that he’s on the team?

…it was a great position to watch another great celebration by the “walk off wonders” aka the 2009 Dodgers…

For most of the game, my attention was directed toward to specific players – Hiroki Kuroda who is on my fantasy baseball team and Manny Ramirez (who isn’t?)…Kuroda turned in a great game for me with 9 strikeouts and only 2 earned runs in 6 innings…not bad considering his recent “not-so-great” outings…Manny did me some good with a single in 5 trips to the plate.

The greatest part of the game, of course, was the bottom of the 9th…Juan Pierre led off the inning, pinch hitting for Broxton who pitched a scoreless 9th to get is 7th victory against zero defeats!…anyway, I told my friend that all I wanted was for someone to get on base so Manny had a chance to win it for us…

Pierre lined out to center…Furcal had a perfect bunt up the first base line that went for a single…Hudson then followed with a sharp line drive single to left field which setup possible hero #1 – Manny Ramirez…

At this point, the fans were on their feet for the rest of the game…Manny struck out much to the chagrin of the crowd, but it setup the situation for possible hero #2 – Andre Ethier…

Ethier, our walk off hero so far this season, drew a walk…this setup the situation for possible hero #3 – Casey Blake…

…bases loaded…2 out…bottom of the 9th…possible game winning situation…this is what you dream about as a kid, right?

Of course, that dream ends with a home run, but as I told my friend, all we need is a lousy single (to take the words out of Rex Hudler’s mouth)…

0-2 count…not looking good…

…2 balls later, things were looking a little better…Marlins pitcher Luis Ayala paced around the mound…2 more balls and he loses the game…he had to throw a strike…

On the 2-2 pitch, Casey made contact and from where I was sitting, I had a great view of something great – the ball coming down and landing on the GRASS between 3 Marlins fielders…

As I like to tell my water polo players, sometimes it’s better to have placement than power on shots and Casey’s certainly was placed perfectly…

DODGERS WIN!

The dog pile on Casey Blake after his walk off single against the Marlins on July 25th.

Trade Talk
While adding Roy Halladay to the starting rotation would be awesome (and keeping him out of the Phillies’ rotation or some other NL team), the asking price will probably be too high…there’s NO WAY I want the Dodgers to even consider Clayton Kershaw in the deal (the prevailing rumor these days)…what Kershaw has done in his last 7 starts is exactly what us fans like to see – domination! (5-0 record, 0.63 ERA – 3 earned runs in 42.2 innings!, 0.98 WHIP, only 21 hits allowed in 42.2 innings)…I like the fact that the Dodgers have been scouting Cliff Lee (Cleveland)…will he come at a cheaper price?

Manny’s Moment, Juan’s Salute
How awesome was Manny’s grand slam moment on Wednesday?…I was feeling somewhat sorry for the sellout crowd who went to the ballpark to get Manny’s bobblehead and of course, see Manny play…he wasn’t in the starting lineup for good reason – sore left hand from being hit the night before…we all know what happened, so I won’t rehash that Gibson-like moment…what I’d like to point out is yet another professional thing Juan Pierre did – allow the fans to cheer and savor the moment…as the guys pointed out on Dodgers Live after the game, if Juan had gone straight to the plate and stepped into the batter’s box for his at bat, the crowd probably would have cheered a little more and sat down to continue watching the game…instead, Juan stayed in the on deck circle and let the fans cheer like crazy, giving Manny the applause he deserved…

Fantasy Baseball Hell
Those of you who participate in head-to-head Fantasy Baseball leagues know what I’m talking about…you are playing an opponent that week who has a Dodger or two…what do you do when you are cheering for the Dodgers, but at the same time, a great performance by a Dodger puts you behind in the standings?…I ran into this on Wednesday when my opponent had Chad Billingsley pitching…I had Manny Ramirez in my lineup, so when Manny hit the grand slam, it was great for me (homer, 4 RBI’s, 5.000 OPS, etc.) and gave the Dodgers the lead, but also great for my opponent because the grand slam led to Billingsley getting the victory…as it stands now, I trail my opponent in victories and am currently behind 7-5 with 3 days left…oh well, it all comes down to Dodger victories…that’s what we all want…that’s what we all need…

The Lucky Charm?
Last Saturday, my wife pulled out our Dodger flag which has been sitting in a closet waiting to be hung for the first time in front of our house…the reason it was in the closet was because it couldn’t hang on our existing flagpole…she needed to sew it so it could…sure enough, she got to work and had it ready in time for the game against the Houston Astros…we hung it, the Dodgers won…same thing on Sunday…we hung it, the Dodgers won…same thing on Monday…same thing on Tuesday…same thing on Wednesday…5 games in a row!…all I know is I will continue to follow a few “rules” when hanging the flag – can’t hang it out all day…it comes out on game day no more than 1 hour before the first pitch…it comes down within an hour after the final pitch (let’s hope I get out of the stadium quickly on Saturday and Sunday)…more rules will probably follow, but I’ll stick to these to start until the Dodgers lose a game with the flag hanging…

My new favorite card…
I’ll have a scan of this shortly, but I got a card recently that has become one of my favorites…an autographed Clayton Kershaw from the 2009 Topps set…this goes quite nicely with the Chad Billingsley jersey/auto card I have from the 2008 Upper Deck Heroes set…will they someday become the Drysdale/Koufax of the 21st century?…we’ll see…

…at least in my book, he’s an All Star…

After hitting a grand slam in the top of the 10th to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 12-6, Kemp came up with an unbelievable catch in the bottom of the 10th to end the game…an over the shoulder, Willie Mays style catch on a drive by Jason Kendall…

How big was that play?…men on 1st and 3rd, 2 out…if Kendall gets a double on that play, perhaps both runners score and we’re looking at a 12-10 game with Jonathan Broxton struggling on the mound…instead, Kemp ends the game and ends the threat…Dodgers win!

I can accept the addition of Shane Victorino to the NL All Star squad…the fans voted and those in Philadelphia seem to have nothing better to do than sit in front of their computers and vote…I bet we’ll see a spike in carpal tunnel problems in Philadelphia in the coming months and years…

What I cannot accept is the replacement of injured outfielder, Carlos Beltran of the Mets, by Jayson Werth of the Phillies…granted, Charlie Manuel sees Werth play everyday and knows his talent, but how can a guy who wasn’t even part of the “final vote” by the fans be allowed to go to the All Star game ahead of a guy who Major League Baseball thought was good enough in the first place and could have gone if the fans voted him in?

I wonder who Charlie Manuel would have picked to replace Carlos Beltran had Matt Kemp won the Final Vote…Victorino or Werth?

Oh, and of course, Philadelphia now has 5 guys on the All Star team and the Dodgers, with the best record in the majors, has just 3…go figure…

Perhaps the pricing at Citi Field is to blame…for the game versus the Dodgers (considered a “Gold” game), the cheapest ticket was $23…at Dodger Stadium, the cheapest seats are $9…the equivalent Loge level seats at Dodger Stadium ($60) go for over twice that at Citi Field ($138)…I guess the Mets have priced themselves out of bringing in the true fans…now, they are tailoring their home crowds to the likes of the theater district…the Dodgers have done a great job of keeping prices low for the fans!

Home Field Advantage…on the road!
From watching parts of the recent series at San Diego on TV, it was great to see the Dodger fans out in force…very similar to what I experienced at the Dodgers/Angels game in Anaheim when the Weaver brothers pitched against each other…our Boys in Blue must feel like they are playing in front of the home crowd when chants of “Let’s go Dodgers!” ring throughout the stadium…

Manny makes fantasy owners happy…
As a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball manager who happens to have Manny Ramirez on his roster, I am pleased that he’s back in my lineup…I was beginning to get sick of my replacement outfielder, JD Drew, sitting every other game and not getting stats for me…in the 4 games since Manny returned, the Dodgers are 3-1 as a team and Manny’s given me 3 hits, a homer, 4 RBI’s and a run scored…I’ll take it!

Hoping for a speedy return!
When news hit that Ronald Belisario returned to Los Angeles after complaining of a stiff elbow, my first reaction was, “Uh oh!”…I saw Saturday’s game at San Diego and how he struggled to throw strikes…chalked it up to simply having a bad day, but hearing the news of his elbow has me concerned…he pitched in 43 of the Dodgers’ first 82 games…add to that the number of times he’s had to get up and warmup in the bullpen and you can see that it’s a lot of pitches thrown for a guy who had Tommy John surgery and sat out the 2005 and 2006 seasons…I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will pass and he’ll be back in the lineup soon…after all, it’s hard to lose a guy with a 2.42 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and a blazing fastball…

I’ve done my part!
Matt Kemp is still in contention for the last roster spot for next week’s All Star Game in St. Louis…I find it amazing that the Dodgers, with the best record in Major League Baseball, have fewer All Stars (3 – Billingsley, Broxton, Hudson) than the New York Mets (4 – Wright, Beltran, Rodriguez, Santana)…didn’t the Dodgers just beat the Mets, 8-0 on Tuesday???…how did the Dodgers build their 53-30 record with just 3 All Stars and the Mets build their not-so-impressive 39-43 record with 4 All Stars?…oh well, I’ve done my part by voting for Matt Kemp over-n-over via mlb.com…have you?

Click on image to see a larger version!

Sorry for posting this the day after the fact…it was a long night that finished the right way – with a Dodger victory!

Thanks to a guy named “Doc” at work, I was able to watch Monday night’s game from a great position – loge level, first base side, row A…fantastic seats in foul ball territory (one landed one aisle over and about 5-6 more were in our “area”)…of course, the only souvenirs I walked away with were a soda cup and a white Dodger soft serve helmet…

The game got off to a great start as Randy Wolf pitched 3 perfect innings before giving up a hit to leadoff the 4th inning…even though Wolf gave up a 2-run homer in the top of the 5th, he made up for it with a 2-run single in the bottom of the 5th!

The bullpen went to work in the 7th inning when Ronald Belisario came in and struck out the first two batters he faced…it was great to see the Rockies a bit off balance – seeing Randy Wolf and his high 60′s curveball for six innings and then facing Belisario and his mid-90′s heat in the seventh…

It was then Ramon Troncoso’s turn in the 8th, pitching a scoreless frame and then handing the ball to Jonathan Broxton who was throwing even more heat (high 90′s with a couple of pitches reaching triple digits on the Dodger Stadium radar gun)…

The only inning where we got into trouble was the 10th when Jeff Weaver gave up hits to the first two batters he faced, but proceeded to strikeout the side to get out of the jam…the fans were going crazy!!!

Brent Leach, Guillermo Mota and James McDonald each pitched a perfect inning to setup the heroics in the bottom of the 13th…

Casey Blake led off with a single to right field that Brad Hawpe trapped on a diving attempt…Andre Ethier, the Dodger’s leading “walk off man” with three game winners this season, stepped to the plate…

Strike one called…everyone in the stadium disagreed with the call…

Ball one…low and away…

Strike two called…another questionable call from the fans’ perspective, but we all have a worse view compared to the home plate umpire…

Pitch #4 was fouled away…

It was at this point that my friend put on his jacket and called it the “rally jacket”…I told him he should have put it on in the 9th inning so we could have gone home earlier…

The 5th pitch was a thing of beauty – for Dodger fans…Ethier ripped a line drive to right field that I thought was going to hit the wall…so did Brad Hawpe as he stopped and prepared to play the rebound off the wall…

…except the rebound never came…

The ball barely cleared the wall in right field…HOME RUN!

The crowd was going crazy…the Dodger bench emptied onto the field, awaiting Ethier at home plate…the helmet was off…the grin was ear-to-ear…he was pointing to someone at home plate…the final leap to touch the plate was complete…the dogpile began…what a game, what a game…

While Ethier stole the headlines in the paper this morning, the true heroes of this game were the guys coming out of the bullpen…in fact, the entire pitching staff…

17 strikeouts were recorded in the 13-inning game…the bullpen did not allow a run in the final 7 innings…the ONLY hits the Rockies got came off Jeff Weaver in the 10th…we brought the heat and the Rockies could do nothing with it…I love it!

In Manny’s absence, Juan has been a blessing for the team…his 71 hits (4^th on the team), .327 average (tops on the team amongst the regulars) and 17 stolen bases (2^nd on the team) are great numbers for a leadoff man…

From what I’ve read and heard on the radio, there are some things the Dodgers may consider in the coming weeks…

• Trade him while is stock is high and reduce our payroll…that seems to be a very logical move and I’m sure some teams would be interested in a quality leadoff guy in their lineup…the positives for the Dodgers would be the reduction in payroll and maybe getting something good in return…
• Keep him on the roster and relegate him to the bench…the positive for the Dodgers is Manny Ramirez, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier are the top-3 outfielders and deserve their starting roles…my fear is this would take away Juan’s momentum that he has built during Manny’s absence and we may see a drop in his productivity if he’s not in the lineup everyday…
• Keep him on the roster, but give him a few starts here and there to give Ramirez, Kemp and Ethier a break…this works for me because you want to give guys a day off every once in a while to keep them fresh and allow them to be at full strength for what we all hope will be a long playoff run…PLUS, what if Ethier gets hurt?…what if Kemp runs into the outfield wall and is out for a couple weeks?…having an experienced outfielder available will do nothing but help the team…giving him a few starts here and there will keep him in “game” mode when called upon…

One thing I have thought about is this…

Have Ramirez, Kemp and Ethier be the starting outfield trio with Pierre on the bench…in the 6^th or 7^th inning, when we often see pinch hitters batting for our pitcher, use that as a time to get Pierre his first at bat of the game…

When the team takes the field for the next half inning, put Pierre into the game in left or center and you can move around the outfielders as you see fit (ie – if he replaces Kemp, Juan can play center…if he replaced Ramirez, Juan can play left…if he replaces Either, Kemp can move to right and Juan plays center)…

This will serve a couple purposes:

• give one of the outfielders 2-3 innings “off” for that game…rather than having them rest for a whole game, give them their 9 innings of rest over 7-8 games…
• Pierre will probably get 2 plate appearances per game if he comes in during the 6^th or 7^th inning…if you figure he does this 5-6 times per week, that’s 10-15 plate appearances per week which is better than giving him 6-10 as a bench player who pinch hits or fills in on occasion as a starter for the starters…
• If Pierre comes in and pinch hits for the pitcher, most likely that means he’s batting 9^th in the order and will bat in front of the projected leadoff man, Rafael Furcal…doesn’t Pierre/Furcal batting back-to-back sound familiar???…that’s what they do now!

Anyway, all this is just talk, but it’s something to think about as we anticipate the return of Manny to the lineup…whatever Joe Torre decides, I’m all for it (so long as we keep winning!).

Dodgers vs. Angels, 6/20/09

Tonight’s game at Angel Stadium was nearly perfect, and I was there to witness it…

Jeff Weaver and the Dodgers beat Jered Weaver and the Angels, 6-4…in yesterday’s post, I “correctly” predicted Jeff would win because he was the older brother…the trend from the past 3 brother matchups had the older brother winning the game over the younger brother!

…actually, that had nothing to do with it…the Dodgers played a great game and there were plenty of highlights…

The game started off a bit rocky for Jeff and the Dodgers…the Angels got out to a 1-0 lead after the first inning and increased it to 2-0 when Kendry Morales hit a home run in the 2nd inning…while that may seem like it was really bad for the Dodgers, I wasn’t too disappointed…why?…Morales’ home run meant ALL fans in the stadium got a coupon for a free classic taco at Del Taco! (it was the “home run” inning)

The play that may have changed the momentum for the Dodgers came on the 3rd out in the bottom half of the 2nd inning…

Erick Aybar hit a shot to right center field that looked like it was going to go for extra bases…instead, Matt Kemp timed his leap perfectly and made a spectacular catch (from my vantage point) while crashing into the wall to end the inning…the Dodger fans were going crazy…

In the top of the third inning, Russell Martin hit his first homer of the season to left field…it was the first of 3 hits for Russell on the day…has he found his stroke?…is this the start of a hot streak?…only time will tell…

The Dodgers added another run in the inning to tie the score at 2-2…

The 5th inning saw the Dodgers break the game open…three runs courtesy of an RBI single by Casey Blake and a two run triple by Andre Ethier…our boys had a 5-2 lead and were looking good…

Chone Figgins led off the bottom of the 6th with a triple…Joe Torre pulled Jeff Weaver after just 66 pitches, but he brought in another guy who came up with a huge game – Ronald Belisario…

Man on third, nobody out…a golden opportunity to score a run, right???…the Angels couldn’t thanks to a great pitching performance by Belisario…he struck out the side in the inning and had 2 more strikeouts in the 7th…1 2/3 innings pitched…all 5 outs courtesy of the strikeout…THAT’S what we call shutting a team down when it matters…

Despite a 2 run homer for the Angels in the bottom of the 9th off of Jonathan Broxton, the Boys in Blue won the game and sent the thousands of Dodger fans home with ear-to-ear grins…

It was a perfect night…

• the electric atmosphere…many Dodger fans sporting their Dodger blue…
• the Weaver brothers matchup with our favorite Weaver picking up the win…
• the free taco (thanks, Kendry Morales)
• Matt Kemp making a great play in the field
• Russell Martin hitting his first homer of the season
• Ronald Belisario throwing bullets and coming up with a big game
• the Dodgers winning

Can it get any better?…yes, how ‘bout a win on Sunday?

Jered Weaver, Angels (left) and Jeff Weaver, Dodgers (right)

Since I’m heading to the Dodgers/Angels game on Saturday night, I figured I’d post something special about the game – the fact that Jeff Weaver will be the starting pitcher against his brother, Jered Weaver!

The dodgers.com website had some interesting tidbits and facts about brothers facing each other on the mound…

• The last time it happened was 9/6/2002 when Andy Benes (Cardinals, the older brother) and Alan Benes (Cubs) faced off against each other…
• The most recent brother pitching duel in Dodger history was when Ramon Martinez (Dodgers, older brother) beat Pedro Martinez (Mets) on 8/29/96.
• This is the 8th time brothers have faced off against each other with a total of 20 brother-brother matchups taking place in MLB history.

Of course, I’m picking Jeff and the Dodgers to beat Jered and the Angels because the older sibling has won the pitching matchup the last 3 times this has happened…it’s what we call “looking at the trends”…

…then again, I don’t know if it means anything that the last 3 brother-brother pitching duels came in 1988, 1996 and 2002…do trends really work when you have 6-8 years between games like this???