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

Sabermetricians seem to be all the rage in baseball.  There’s a stat for practically anything and more are being invented by the minute (maybe second).  It’s no longer ERA, BA, SLG %, OB%, it’s WHIP, OPS, BAbip, OWn%, XBT%, BABIP and on and on it goes.  There are literally HUNDREDS of more statistics that sabermetric [...]

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It’s good that we have a nice lead, because we might stumble a little down the stretch, but did it ever occur to you, that with the extra days of rest in the playoffs,  this team is built for just such an occasion?  As it stands right now, Clayton Kershaw would probably start game #1 of [...]

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Randy Wolf pitched a masterful game and the Dodger bats came alive just in time to add some separation between the Dodgers and the Giants.  After last night’s loss, the Giants are now  7.5 games back with the Rockies 6.5 games back.  Neither team has the horses to catch us.  Our malaise is behind us [...]

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Most Dodger fans want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.  “Everybody sucks, get a new team.  We should have traded for Lee and Halladay.  I knew this would happen, blah, blah, blah.”  Eric Stephen of TrueBlueLa.com puts it all in perspective: Before you go throwing dirt on a club with a 5½ game [...]

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With 88 games completed the Dodgers have 56 wins, which is the best in baseball.  The last Dodger team to do this well was the 1977 Dodgers who had 57 wins at the same juncture, and went on to win 98 games.  If  we just play .500 ball the rest of the way, we will [...]

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Don’t even get me started about yesterdays’ decisions on pitching, because I am sure that Joe Torre has a pet chimp named Bonzo whom Joe allowed to make all the pitching decisions.  After all, monkeys throwing darts at the stock pages is how Joe picks his stock portfolio, isn’t it?  That’s what it was – [...]

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We got 2 for 1.  At least that’s what it looks like to me.  Not only did we get Manny Ramirez back (who looked like he han’t played for about 50 games), but it appears that he brought Rafael Furcal back with him.  What a great deal.  I mentioned that this was a possibility yesterday.  [...]

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Like most baseball fans, I like stats, but there is something I like even more.  It’s something that can’t be measured.  There are guys you would have a beer with, and guys you would go to war with.  They may be the same guy.  They may be another guy.  There are players in every sport [...]

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… which is why it’s a good thing we don’t have to play any “perfect teams.”  Yes, we have flaws, and so does everyone else, but I am going to suggest that while we have a pretty good group of players, the sum of our parts is greater than any other team, and our record happens [...]

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Literally!  He threw 67 pitches in 5 innings and was on his way to his best outing of the year and was so “lights out” that a bank of lights literally went out (or didn’t come one) which resulted in a nearly 2 hour “light delay” and ended his night.   The pen held on after [...]

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So far, getting Orland Hudson has been worth losing the 17th pick in the draft.  However, there is a long way to go in the season, and that was always my concern – whether the O–Dog could stay healthy.  So far, he may have been the best free agent pickup of the off season.  Let’s [...]

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“Hey, how is your team doing, Buddy?” “The good news is that attendance is down, but not too much.  The bad news is that our MVP candidate has missed nearly half the season, our All-Star leadoff hitter when the season started, is hitting .240, our opening days starter has been on the DL for most of the [...]

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It was a classic battle in the end.  Randy Wolf had pitched an excellent game, and was in position for a win when Ramon Troncoso  loaded the bases in the 9th with one out, only to fan Bobby Scales (who plated the Cubs only run with an earlier HR), nd then strike out powerful Jake [...]

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First of all, I am a Russ Martin fan, but foremost, I am a Dodger fan.  Earlier this year, I suggested that James Loney may be trade bait, but now I am also going to suggest that Russell Martin could be the one to be traded.   First of all, you should trade from a position [...]

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OK, David Wright, A-Rod, uh, uh, Ryan Zimmerman, uh… who else?  Statistically speaking, Casey Blake may not be “all that,”  but who gets bigger hits and makes bigger players when the game is on the line?   When the other team is starting to rally, a hitter will hit what appears to be a sure double [...]

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In 1988 we had Dave Anderson, Mike Davis, Pedero Guerrero, Rick Dempsey, Tracy Wooden, Danny Heap and the head stuntman, Mickey Hatcher. This year it’s Juan Pierre, Juan Castro, Xavier Paul, Doug Mientkiewicz, Mark Loretta and Brad Ausmus. They currently go by the name “Bomb Squad,” but I think that “The Stuntmen” are back. Bomb Squad may be more 2009, but The Stuntmen are timeless.

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Bill Shaiken of The LA Times writes a piece about Frank MCourt, which I believe, shows how the Dodger Brand is being polished and a Dodger Dynasty is being built.  In part, Shaiken writes: McCourt glowed about Camelback Ranch, emphasizing that the new Arizona complex is not just a spring training ballpark but a year-round [...]

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