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It’s hard to believe, but Juan Pierre’s sprained MCL was the first injury the speedy outfielder has received that’s caused him to land on the DL. Pierre has 35 steals, placing him second in the majors, one behind Willy Taveras. Replacing Juan (if that can be done) is Jason Repko who’s up from AAA. Repko’s batted .375 (39-for-104) with eight doubles, 15 RBI, and eight steals in 26 games in June, which is good considered Juan’s only supposed to be gone for 15 days. Here’s to a (ahem) “speedy” recovery for Mr. Pierre!

Game update: Unfortunately that hot month in AAA didn’t carry over in the bigs. Repko was 0-5 tonight with four strikeouts, leaving four men stranded. I think I can hear that choking sound from Houston all the way out here in Santa Monica.

You heard me correctly, $75 will buy you lunch and the opportunity to press palms with many current and former Dodgers at Dodger Stadium this Saturday.

The Dodgers are planning to honor their star players from the 1970s Saturday at a luncheon open to the public at Dodger Stadium. It will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. and include a question-and-answer session and the opportunity to score autographs and mingle with former players.

The ever-popular Tommy Lasorda is scheduled to attend, along with former Dodgers Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Bill Russell, Maury Wills, Rick Monday and others. The players will be honored before Saturday’s game and sign autographs before Sunday’s game (both of which are against the Angels). This is a serious lineup of former players that should be of interest to hard-core fans and a great way to help a Dodger charity at the same time.

Tickets are $75 for adults and $50 for children 14 and under and include parking and a reserve level ticket to Saturday’s game. Fans can upgrade to a loge box, field box or baseline box club ticket for an additional fee. Proceeds benefit the Dodgers Dream foundation

Tickets are available at the team’s Web site, www.dodgers.com and Dodger Stadium. Additional information is available by calling (323) 224-1507 or by e-mailing fanfeedback@ladodgers.com.

OK, I admit it - I was worred that we were going to be seeing the 2007 version of Eric Stults when he came up from Las Vegas to cover for Penny and Kuroda. That Eric Stults was not up to 2006 form and was quickly forgotten as the season wound down.

Instead, we’ve got the guy who was in control back in AAA Las Vegas and who has carried that poise and control back up to the Majors. After notching a win where he pitched six innings and gave up three runs (only one earned) against the Cincinnati Reds in his first outing of the season for the Dodgers, Stults delivered a four-hit shutout against the AL Central leading White Sox and notched another win for the boys in blue.

In addition to his stellar pitching of late, Stults also has contributed offensively during interleague play. In the game against Chicago yesterday, Stults manaegd a sac fly to earn his first major league RBI. Not bad for a pitcher with only nine major league starts and 21 games - all of them with an NL team. He’s 8 for 22 with a .364 batting average by the way.

What did the White Sox have to say about the shutout delivered to them by a 28 year old recently up from AAA? Basically, they whined that no one had any experience facing him so they didn’t know what to expect. If only that theory held true for all pitchers - with all of the injuries that Dodgers pitching roster has faced recently, the team could simply raid the minors and deliver wins!

Some on the White Sox team gave Stults due props though - catcher A.J. Pierzynski indicated that the Dodger pitcher deserved a little respect after his latest outing. “That guy pitched pretty good,” he said. “He used all his pitches and kept the ball down. We really only had one chance, and that was in the first inning. Other than that, he really didn’t make too many mistakes.”

Update: Looks like Stults has ensured himself as a fixture for at least the next three weeks. With the move to a six-man starting pitching rotation, Torre has confirmed that Stults will remain until the All-Star break, if not longer (according to the Los Angeles Times). The Dodgers’ lefthander is currently 2-0 with a 0.60 ERA.

 

You know, it’s pretty incredible that Dodger fans are lucky enough to have a HOF broadcaster who has called the majority of their games over their 50 years in Los Angeles.  What’s even amazing is to have two broadcasters working for the same club.

Tonight, Jaime Jarrin is being honored for his 50 years of service as the Spanish voice of the Dodgers.  Today’s LA Times article is a great look into the life of this legend. 

I also happened to catch Charlie Steiner’s pre-game interview with Jarrin and learned that the Ecuadorian broadcaster started out calling boxing matches in LA, before taking on world championship fights all over the world.  Pretty cool stuff.

Congratulations Jaime!

Unfortunately, both are not candidates are not for the Dodgers GM position.  From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

GM CHATTER: The Mariners probably will wait until the offseason before deciding what to do about their general manager’s job. For now, Pelekoudas is the interim GM, and he will be one of the candidates down the line.

Club president Chuck Armstrong isn’t saying who else he might be thinking about, but the speculation around baseball is getting up to speed.

The Los Angeles Times reported that while the Mariners haven’t called to ask about any of the potential Dodgers candidates, Los Angeles GM Ned Colletti said he would grant permission if asked.

The Dodgers personnel include Kim Ng, an assistant GM for the past seven seasons who is seen as the most highly qualified woman when GM jobs are talked of, and Logan White, who has run the L.A. scouting department the past seven years.

“They’re both worthy,” Colletti told the Times.

Ng is believed to be interested in the job and White, who played in the Seattle minor league system, told the Times he would be interested in discussing the job.

Losing either Ng or White would be really bad news for the Dodgers organization.  Ng is known as a shrewd negotiator (she handles many of the club’s arbitration cases) and we all know White’s credentials with the copious amounts of young talent currently in the farm system.

Frank McCourt, now is the time to act.  If Ned is your man, so be it.  But don’t be naive enough to think that the club could afford to lose either of these two All-Star front office execs.  Do what you need to do to lock these two up for the foreseeable future.