LADodgerTalk.com – Matt Kemp, Clayton Kershaw, Vin Scully, Andre Ethier and the Dodgers

When I first noticed AJ Ellis about 6 or 7 years ago, I said: “someday  this guy will be a good backup catcher in the majors.” Here we are 6 or 7 years later and AJ Ellis is an All-Star Catcher at the age of 31. How did this happen? I think this song explains [...]

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Matt Kemp to the rescue.  It appears he is rested and ready after homering in his two rehab starts. The Dodgers survived without him and should be better with him back. SVS is most likely the “odd-man-out.”  Juan Rivera will be back on Thursday and Jerry Sands will say bye-bye too.  A platoon in LF [...]

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Players that teams wait on year-after-year to reach their potential, seldom do.  That’s a sweeping statement and I don’t have time to do the scientific research, but it seems about right to me.  It seems like players with “potential unrealized” frequently achieve that potential with a different team than the one they start with.  It [...]

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Here we are, just over one-quarter of the way through the season and the Dodgers are riding high.  Injuries have been a factor, but the motto has been “Next Man Up.”  Last night, the next man was Andre Ethier, Matt Freaking Treanor and Justin Sellers.  James Loney even hits a two-run jack!  Next man up [...]

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An ejected manager, 4 unearned runs, blown save, errors, stranded runners, leads squandered… and  a walk-off-walk – it was ugly and the Dodgers won because they never stopped trying.  Adam Kennedy went 4-4 (that’s not a misprint), James Loney was 3-4 and both Loney and Kennedy are above .250.  Tony Gwynn also had two hits, [...]

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 The Dodgers keep winning and it’s with pitching and defense as Badger pointed out.  If you have pitching and defense, you can win an awful lot.  It may look awful at times, but Just Win Baby! By the Way – the Dodgers are now in posession of the Best Record in Baseball. I have said [...]

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By now, you all should know that Clayton Kershaw doesn’t pitch well at Coors’ Field.  His ERA is 5.85 there.  Not so impressive. In case you haven’t heard, Vin Scully calls Clayton’s curveball “public enemy number one.”  However, in Coors it is called “Little Sisters’ of the Poor.” As impressive as Kershaw is, a guy [...]

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It was a nice way to start the season as the Dodgers beat the ChiSox 6-4.  It’s just one game, so don’t go crazy but here’s my take: AJ Ellis looked good – Fed-Ex looked bad. Scott Van Slyke tuned some heads with his bat and glove.  If we believe him when he says he [...]

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You are only supposed to say good things about people who are gone. Dioner Navarro is Gone – GOOD! Other than being fat, lazy, slow, and he couldn’t block a pitch in the dirt or throw out a runner,  he was a good guy! What took so long? Ok, nevermind…  I remember who the GM [...]

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If you were grading the Dodgers first-half performance the team would have to get a D -. There’s no way to sugar-coat it – the Dodgers sucked big time in the first half.  There were a few bright spots including Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Jamey Carroll and even Aaron Miles.  At the end [...]

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The biggest question mark this offseason is not the McCourt divorce fiasco, the Dodgers new manager, which free agents they sign or what trades they make.  The biggest and most difficult question facing the Dodgers is: “What do we do with Russell Martin?” It’s a simple question, but the answers are complex.  At first blush, [...]

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The Dodgers and A’s tied after nine innings last night 3-3. Hiroki Kuroda pitched 5.1 strong innings allowing just 1 Hit and 2 BB to go with 2 Strikeouts.  In addition to the two strikeouts, he had 8 fly outs and 6 ground outs.  With Joe Torre set to name the 5th Starter today, it [...]

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Arguments can be made who should hit where, but I do think Joe Torre has a definite plan of hitting Kemp right behind Furcal (who has looked re-juvenated this Spring) and ahead of Ethier with Manny at Cleanup.  This is all subject to change, but that lineup followed by Loney and Blake would give excellent [...]

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Periodically the Dodger management lets us know implicitly which of the young players are possible or probable future major league players. Two of themethods are (1) the players sent to the Arizona Fall League, and (2) the players invited to the Dodger Development Program. In my opinion the players sent to AFL and not invited [...]

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Russell Martin is down for the count for 4-6 weeks.  The Dodgers should err on the side of caution, so we may not see Russell until May or June.  That’s OK – at least he won’t “wear-down” this year.   The workout regimen he went through this winter is extremely grueling.  My 23-year-old son tried it for [...]

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Dylan Hernandez says it’s his groin. Tot Holmes says it’s his hip. Tony Jackson says it’s his stomach. He had an MRI last night and they know the results, but aren’t telling… It may be nothing, or something. AJ Ellis – Next Man Up! Stay tuned!

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I made my plans and got my tickets yesterday for Camelback Ranch.  I will be there on March 20th through March 27th.  My wife and son will be flying in on the 25th to see the last 3 games with me.  I haven’t gotten the away game tickets, but I’ll work on that next week.  [...]

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… of hitters!  I mean, think about it – who do the Dodgers really have that is a major league hitting prospect who looks like  Gordon, maybe Lambo – that’s it.    Gordon has a crazy huge upside, and while I still like Lambo, this is his “make or break” year.  He has to start raking.  [...]

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I think that Frank and Jamie McCourt need to learn that hate is not the opposite of love, because right about now they are loving to hate each other.   When you get to apathy,  then you are at the opposite of love.  Look, I don’t know who did what to whom… and I don’t care.  Move along.  [...]

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