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

I have a busy day today, but here are a few observations: That’s the Padilla the Dodgers need.  If he can pitch like that, they will be just fine. The Dodgers offense is among the most potent in baseball, with Ethier, Kemp, Loney and Martin coming into their own, Blake improving at 36, Manny being [...]

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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 [...]

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I thought that Doug Mientkiewicz was smarter than he is acting. It seems that when he left camp on Friday, he also wanted his release from the Dodgers and get this – the Dodgers want to hold onto him as long as they can in case there is an injury to Garrett Anderson and they [...]

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Well, we are settled in at Camelback Ranch.  I sat next to Eric Stephen of TrueBlueLa, Tony Jackson of Espn/LA and Jim Peltz of The LA Times – at least there were three good writers in that group.  I feel like on of those “Which one doesn’t belong” kid’s games. “Which one doesn’t belong?  Jackson, [...]

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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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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 [...]

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Just a laundry list of a few things I expect to see this year (actually my wish list along with predictions): A healthy Rafael Furcal who is 100% physically and (most importantly) mentally (it takes a while to recover mentally from a surgery) regains his form and is again one of the elite short stops [...]

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… nor am I a hater.  I see the good he has done as the owner of the Dodgers.  I see the mistakes he has made as well.  However, he seems to have learned each time he makes a mistake.   Overall, the Dodgers are in much better shape than when he took over.  His lifestyle [...]

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It turns out that Ronnie Belisario and I have a lot in common – No I don’t have a DUI, but we both have Visa problems that prevented us from reporting yesterday.  He hasn’t been able to obtain his, and I have to work to pay mine off!  So there you go.  Joe Torre isn’t [...]

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The Dodger roster is finally coming together and now the discussions are changing from where is the rest of the team to why did they sign these slugs.  For the 2010 season the Dodger management, more than ever, must attempt to simultaneously win the NL West, delay the major league start dates of the future [...]

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Green, Berroa, Carroll, Belliard, Johnson, Repko, Paul,  Hu, DeWitt, Mientkiewicz and Amezaga are all in the running to be “stuntmen.”   The reality of the matter is that the majority of them will end up at AAA waiting for a call…  If you look at the stats of each (and I shall not bore you), not much jumps [...]

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Some people are saying that the Dodgers are a .500 team (when I say “some people” I don’t mean “informed baseball people”), which I think is just plain delusional.  I think sometimes Dodger fans fail to take into consideration that change is inevitable, and often, it is good.  Will everything be OK?  Seth Godin summed [...]

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There is much debate among baseball professionals and fans regarding the benefit of taking multiple pitches during an at bat in order to drive up the pitch count of the starting pitcher and to see more types of pitches in order to be more productive later in the game.  However, it is well know that [...]

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Los Angeles – In what has to be somewhat of a surprise, the Dodgers made two major announcements today.  The first announcement has to do with the divorce proceedings of Frank and Jamie McCourt who agreed to a continuance of their May hearing: The McCourt’s announced that they have resolved their personal issues and that [...]

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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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Some people say I am too optimistic and that I always predict career years for the Dodgers, so I thought I’d post what I said last year.  This is from a February 16, 2009 post, which was BEFORE O-Dog and Manny were signed: 1B- James Loney is quietly becoming a force at 1B.  He will win [...]

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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 [...]

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This is off-topic, but I can do that: Oh the weather outside is frightful, But the Colts are so delightful. As the Broncos already know, 13-0, 13-0, 13-0!   DODGER NEWS: Now, back to your regularly scheduled Dodger programming: The Mets allegedly offered Luis Castillo to the Dodgers for Juan Pierre, but were turned down.  [...]

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Just in case you haven’t figured it out, attendance at Dodger Stadium is not the only source of income for the Dodgers.  While their have attendance has been stellar,  most other teams  have seen substantial declines in attendance, which means that the Dodgers get a smaller cut of the gate and concessions.  It is not clear [...]

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I had a cheesy grin on my face as I read the Top 200 Prospect list put out by True Blue LA.  The Dodgers do not have 200 Prospects.  They have about 20 PROSPECTS and 180 SUSPECTS!  However, the Dodgers Organization is not nearly as bereft of prospects as some think.  We don’t have a [...]

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