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

Hiroki Kuroda is 4-6 with a 3.82 ERA for the Yankees and has given up 70 hits in 68 innings with a 1.35 WHIP.  Aaron Harang is 4-3 with a 3.90 ERA for the Dodgers and has given up 63 hits in 64 innings with a 1.35 WHIP.   Chris Capuano is 7-2 with a 2.50 [...]

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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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In a season that has underwhelmed us all, we are seeing two very special superstars develop for the Los Angeles Dodgers, namely Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp.  If you name the TOP 10 players in all of baseball, Kemp and Kershaw have to be in that discussion. If they are not TOP 10, they are [...]

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I have been extremely busy the past week, but generally manage to check in here daily.  Here’s my two cents on the State of the Dodgers and other stuff: Down deep, Bin Laden is a good guy! The Dodgers seem very distracted as a team and Don Mattingly does not seem to be a soothing [...]

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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.

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Most Rants – Few Raves… First the Raves: Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda, Ted Lilly – that would be a nice rotation 1-4, but the last two are most likely out of the picture.  Raves to Kershaw and Billingley.  Clayton has shown that he can be the Ace and Bills has righted his ship [...]

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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.

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Jared Massey and I were both at Blogger Night in LA on Monday Night and during the six plus hours at Dodger Stadium we gained a lot of insight into the 2010 Los Angeles Dodgers.  So, here is some of what we have learned: Ned Colletti spoke with us for nearly an hour and was [...]

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Jon Broxton again has demonstrated that the bigger the stage, the smaller he is.  I am tired of people making excuses for him.    I have heard that “He hasn’t pitched enough and that’s why he blew the game“ and now I hear “he has pitched too much which is why he blew the game.”  As [...]

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I think there comes a time when you have to assess what you have and what you could have if you are willing to roll the dice. Sure, the hitters have been slumping lately, but that’s only temporary.  This is a very good hitting team, especially when all the parts are in place.  I think [...]

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John Ely is simply amazing!  Who knew?  I wonder if his bubble will burst, but here’s the thing – he IS a PITCHER!  Dude flat out knows how to pitch. Matt Kemp is not a Bison.  He’s more like a Puma.  Pooommmm!    Was it me who predicted 40 HR for him (and Walkoff Ethier)? [...]

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The Knucklehead:  Getting shot in the leg is enough to cause you to get branded as a knucklehead, but there’s a lot more to it than that.  Vicente Padilla arguably has some one thebest stuff you will ever see, but it’s his “knuckle-headedness”  which has kept him from achieving his potential.  Obviously, something happened in [...]

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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 [...]

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Many of you had the Dodgers dead and buried a couple of weeks ago (no, I am not going to just let it go – you need to learn a lesson) and now they are red-hot-on-fire-the-hottest- team-in-baseball! Like it or not, here is what you are seeing: You are seeing the maturation of some young [...]

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I think James McDonald and Josh Lindblom will both play a big role with the 2010 Dodgers. If Hiroki Kuroda can continue to hit 95 MPH on his fastball and mix up his pitches like he has, he will be an All-Star this year. The Kiddie Corps of Chad and Clayton are starting to hit [...]

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That number 42 was all over the field last night, making silly errors and then turning around and making fabulous plays to rob someone of extra bases, pitching well or hardly at all and then the best part of all – the Walk Off win.  Come to think of it, I think I’ve seen #42 [...]

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One need look no further than the first inning of Thursday’s game to to see the benefits of having Rafael Furcal and Matt Kemp hit 1, 2 in the Dodger lineup. Raffy doubled to start the game and Kemp followed it with a sharp single to left field which allowed Raffy to go to 3B. [...]

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Camelback Ranch – March 23rd – PM The major leaguers (except for Chad Billingsley) had the day off, but there were two minor league games which featured Chad Billingsley in one, and James McDonald in the other.  Joe Torre said that the “players are probably bored” at this juncture, so an off day can’t hurt. [...]

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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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The game is just getting ready to start, but a couple of updates are in order: James McDonald was option and re-assigned to minor league camp (what’s wring with a 20+ ERA – As Ken pointed out, McDonald could be Oakland’s Ace.  $10 mil bucks for Sheets?  Please! Brad Ausmus had an epidural  injection today (forget [...]

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