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

Think how different the Dodgers might have been this year without the contracts of Broxton and Sherrill. They could have afforded another big bat or top-of-the-rotation starter. I begged them to trade Brox for two years and Sherrill after last season. Some people think that I am just a “Broxton Hater” and that there is no way that I can tell he is not a guy who thrives under pressure, Think what you want – don’t judge me by what you can do – but I have been saying that Broxton chokes under pressure for three years and that the Dodgers should have traded him.

Read the full story

The Number One Reason is that Jon Broxton’s inability to pitch in the clutch cost the Dodgers 8 games, and what made it worse, is that nearly every game he blew or lost was of the “tear-your-heart-out” variety.

Read the full story

Look, Joe Torre is nor a cerebral manager. He is a Hall-Of-Famer, but sometimes being a Hall-of-Famer is just being in the right place at the right time. Maybe Joe Torre was the perfect manager for the Yankees and their big contracts and big egos and the bigger pressures of playing in NY. I am not going to take away his HOF status, but this team has quit on him.

Read the full story

We have all watched the hitters on this bipolar team for 3 years, and it seems that they are all smoking hot or all ice cold. Some of it was predictable.  When Andre Ethier was hitting .393 we all knew he couldn’t keep that up.  That his batting average has dropped a .100 points is [...]

Read the full story

I really though the Dodgers would become sellers after the Dodgers dropped 7 games back, but what do I know?  The Sellers became Buyers and they got quite a lot.  In the past couple of days they have added Octavio Dotel, Ryan Theriot, Ted Lilly and Scott Podsednik, all vets, to their roster.  Let’s take [...]

Read the full story

I’ll be in I agreement with Joe Torre that Carlos Monasterios is the “odd-man-out” of the rotation. He will be better served and better serve the Dodgers as a long-man in the pen when Padilla is activated on Friday.  The question is, who comes off the roster?  It will probably be Justin Miller, which means [...]

Read the full story

The beat goes on… It seems like it’s a different player stepping up every day.  Lat night it was Ely, Paul, Kemp, Blake and Loney.  Kemp and Blake both had 3 hits for the “white-hot” Dodgers. It looks to me that Jon Ely is the “real-deal”  - he struggled last night, but had a quality [...]

Read the full story

Want an Ace? Would you trade Manny Ramirez, James McDonald and Chris Withrow for Cliff Lee? Let’s not stop there.  Seattle sucks.  Their re-building is dead. How about Manny Ramirez, James McDonald, Vicente Padilla, Dee Gordon, Chris Withrow,  Casey Blake, Xavier Paul and Jon Broxton for Cliff Lee and Ichiro Suzuki? Eight for two! Then [...]

Read the full story

On April 26, 2009 Clayton Kershaw was pounded by the Colorado Rockies.  He lasted 4.2 innings while giving up 9 earned runs, on 2 HR, and his ERA sat at 7.29 after that game.  I his next start he pitch 7 shutout innings against the Padres and won 1-0. When Clayton Kershaw gets beat, he [...]

Read the full story

Two weeks into the season and many questions still exist.  Did the Dodgers pitching staff actually spend the last two weeks in a simulated extended spring training? The following lists the pitching staff’s ACE Meter scores (A concept that I introduced here last year): Pitcher Name ACE Meter Score Ace Meter Grade Significant Problem(s) Kuroda [...]

Read the full story

But I am sure that Joe Torre just needs to give Charlie Haeger the baseball every 5 days and let him pitch as long as he can. He’ll have some good outings.  He’ll have some bad ones, but the good will outweigh the bad.  He’ll pitch over 200 innings for us and most importantly, he’ll [...]

Read the full story

Flash: As a result of last night’s error, Blake DeWitt has been benched and forced to walk around the clubhouse as pictured here. Dodgers Lineup: Furcal, SS Johnson, Re, LF Kemp, CF Loney, 1B Belliard, 3B Anderson, G, RF Carroll, J, 2B Ausmus, C Billingsley, P

Read the full story

Clayton Kershaw struggled all night with his mechanics and admitted he was “amped up” and could get his rhythm.  Blake DeWitt played 2B like he hadn’t played there much (he hasn’t) and the Dodger hitters were again horrid with RISP.  They were 2 for 15 and stranded 12 runners.  You simply can’t win doing that. [...]

Read the full story

Rants & Raves A few days ago when Joe Torre named Vicente Padilla the Opening Day Starter, eyebrows were raised because the guy who is arguably the #4, maybe the #5 starter on the team was picked.  That is troubling, especially in light of the fact that some of the writers who regularly cover the [...]

Read the full story

REALITY CHECK Reality Baseball:  Blake DeWitt has won the second base job – Hands Down! Fantasy Baseball:  Are the Dodgers stupid enough to send him down to solve “roster issues?” Reality Baseball: Charlie Haeger is the best Option for the Fifth Starter and absolutely proved it yesterday. Fantasy Baseball:  Does anyone really believe that Russ [...]

Read the full story

Dodgers Starting Lineup: Furcal  SS Kemp  CF Ethier  RF Ramirez  LF Loney  1B Blake  3B Anderson  DH DeWitt  2B Ellis  C Hiroki Kuroda Starting followed by Josh Lindblom. Pre-Game Notes: Joe Torre says Russ Martin will start a minor league game tomorrow  and that he feels “good.”  I won’t be surprised if Martin is our [...]

Read the full story

Most of what follows come from Ken Gurnick of Dodgers .com: A day after losing catcher Russell Martin for four to six weeks with a pulled groin muscle, the Dodgers saw third baseman Casey Blake come out of Monday’s exhibition game against the Giants with a strained rib-cage muscle. Joe Torre said this about Josh [...]

Read the full story

Are you afflicted with Dodger Myopia?  Do you only see up close, but fail to see the big picture? I say:  ”Blake DeWitt will be a solid 2B and has the power to hit 20-25 HR.” You say:  ”No way he does that – your’re crazy!” I say: “James Loney will start showing some power [...]

Read the full story

It’s easy to measure the “dog in the fight” but that’s only part of the deal.  For example, in terms of talent, Pete Rose was not in the same category as an athlete when compared to Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Barry Bonds and most other hitters, but Pete Rose holds the record for hits.  There [...]

Read the full story

Here’s what I see with our offense for next season: Furcal  SS -  Raffy rebounds (it is an “even” year) and has his career year with a .303 BA, .381 OB% and 126 Runs Scored, even though he only steels 26 bases Martin C- Perfect #2 hitter rebounds with a .279 BA to go with [...]

Read the full story