Here’s a great analysis about Jason Repko from Phil Gurnee of TrueBlueLa:

Based on what Ned Colletti is saying, Jason Repko appears to be staying around for the moment. With the Dodgers trying very hard to trade Juan Pierre and his contract for either a starting pitcher or a 2nd baseman the battle for who becomes the Dodger fourth outfielder looks to come down to Jason Repko or Xavier Paul.  It would seem a given that Paul is the better candidate to be the fourth outfielder but is he?

Xavier Paul does everything as well as Repko in the field. Repko is faster on bases. What Paul does not  do well is hit LHP.  He hits RHP as well as Repko hits LHP but my argument is that this team needs someone to caddy for Andre.  If Manny was to get hurt, then I’d bring up Paul to be the everyday LF not Repko, but for a guy off the bench Repko might be that guy.

Jason Repko does many things well that you would look for in a backup outfielder. The thing he does best however is mash LHP.  His slug% against LHP over the last three minor league season has been greater then .585 every year and twice it has topped .600.  The Dodgers have a need for guy who can hit LHP and play RF. Repko can be that guy. What he can’t do is hit RHP, so the Dodgers will need to have a guy like Minky on the bench who can handle that role.

The Dodgers starting outfield is Manny, Kemp, and Andre. Of those three only one has a serious chink in their armor. That chink is that Andre does not hit left handed pitching very well. For his career Andre has a 200 point split in his OPS between facing RHP and LHP. Last year that split widened to .926 compared to .629. Part of the problem the Dodgers had last year with Pierre on the bench was that we could not use Pierre in RF to sit Andre against some LHP. The gain in moving Kemp to RF and Pierre to CF,with the left handed Pierre facing left handed pitching just wasn’t worth it.

They both can play all the positions of the outfield, they both have plus speed, and they both have guns for arms. So that is how they are the same. How they are different is probably why I think that Repko might be the better fit for a fourth outfielder role.

Keeping Repko is a bsaeball decision, obviously not a $$$$ decision

Dylan Hernandez reports that the Dodger have decided not to sell Eric Stults to Japan.  Another baseball decision.

I think that Pierre will be gone soon and Repko and Paul will be our extra outfielders.

Coming up soon:

Logan White and De Jon Watson discuss the Dodgers Minor Leagues and players like Lambo and Gordon.  Watch for it on Friday right here on LAdodgertalk.com

• It’s still about 14 degrees out – who was the genius who picked Indy for the Winter Meetings?  I’ll bet he’s fired!
  

  De Jon Watson

• We are editing the Logan White/De Jon Watson interview – I hope to have it up tomorrow.
• Hey, how come nobody says anything when the Dodgers have 2 other teams pick Rule 5 players for them and then the Dodgers purchase them for cash, but the Dodgers are unwilling to pay Hoffman?
• The last time the Yanks took a Rule 5 from us it was Bubba Crosby and they kept him all season. Maybe they will keep Hoffman, but I doubt it – he’ll be back!
• The Dodgers were blasted for trading Steve Johnson and Josh Bell to the Orioles for Georgous George Cheryl (Sherrill), but the O’s thought so little of Johnson they didn’t protect him in Rule 5 and the Giants took him.  Go figure!

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,

Hu's on the team

 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 what the amount of the decline is to me, but I estimate it at around $15 to $20 million a year.  Couple that with MLB Apparel and Memorabilia sales declines and the Dodgers could be losing as much as $20 to $25 million a year in revenue as a result of the recession.  It may get better next year.  It may not.  Some teams (can you say Cincinnati Reds?) are looking to dump payroll.  The Dodgers are looking to stay level or even drop payroll.  I have an idea:

How about Juan Pierre, James McDonald, Ivan DeJesus, Jr., and Blake DeWitt to the Reds for either Aaron Harang or Bronson Arroyo and Brandon Phillips?  Up-shoot:  The Reds save $10 mil a year and get some prospects (along with a  leadoff hitter – Dusty Baker loves Pierre) and the Dodgers spend only an extra $10 mil to get an “inning eater” pitcher and a 2B.  Next, the Dodgers should offer Hudson and Wolf arbitration, making it clear to Hudson that Phillips is the 2B, and if he won his arbitration case he’d be a backup.  Hudson would decline arbitration, but Wolf could accept.  That’s fine!

Dole out the raises to the youngsters and the Dodgers are done!  Our rotation would look something like this:

1. Kershaw
2. Billingsley
3. Kuroda
4. Arroyo/Harang
5. Wolf or Heager

Lineup:

1. Furcal  SS
2. Martin  C
3. Kemp  CF
4. Manny  LF
5. Ethier  RF
6. Phillips  2B
7. Loney  1B
8. Blake 3B

I could live with that!  Harang makes $11.5 mil next year and Arroyo makes $11 mil, so pick ‘em.  You never know – they could be a dud or they could be a Godsend!  Sometimes you have to roll the dice.  Castro is headed to Philly and Hu is the logical backup infielder.  Xavier Paul, Jason Repko and Jamie Hoffman are candidates for two outfield spots.  Ausmus may or may not play for a million next year, but if he doesn’t Ellis or another bargain Free Agent will be available. 

The Dodgers should be able to field an excellent team for under (or around) $100 million.  Harang and Arroyo’s average years are not what I expect.  I would hope for a “carrer year” for whichever one come to LA.  You gotta’ believe!  The “kids” will be year better next and Martin and Loney will “breakout.”  Believe it!

GoodNews/BadNews:

• Bud Selig will be commissioner at least 3 more seasons.
• The Marlins are shopping Josh Johnson… Hummmmmm, I may have to revise my thinking…

 This team is far from needing rebuilding, but any good team needs to ”retool” every year.  Last year, the Phillies won the World Series with Pat Burrell in LF.  They evidently decided

Must Be A Padre Fan...

 that he wasn’t the answer this year, so they signed a guy even older who ended up having his career year.   The Phillies may yet be sorry that they signed Raul Ibanez, but right about now, that move is looking pretty good.    They added Shane Victorino and Jason Werth in 2005 and 2007 as key pieces to the puzzle.  How did they get them?  No Big Blockbuster Deals, just incidental signings, which turned out to be pretty good.    I don’t think we need to rebuild – the core of the team is in place, but re-tool, we must!

I have taken the 40-Man Roster, plus some others who are technically not on it and divided them into three (3) groups:

1. Core players who we need to keep – in BLUE;
2. Players who we needs to keep under the right conditions – in BLACK; and
3. Players we need to try and lose, trade, release or not sign – in RED.

It’s not hard to see that our core is young and will get even better.  I have Jon Broxton on the BLUE list (even though I have serious doubts about him), because we don’t currently have better options (that too could change).  Now, I am not saying that I wouldn’t trade Broxton or some of the others, but it would have to be a trade that we would make from a point of strength.  Read the full story

•  The ball looked like it was gone, but suddenly Spiderman aka/Andre Ethier, shot out his net, scaled the wall and brought it back into the
  

  The Real Spiderman

  park, all this after walking to deliver the winning run for the Dodgers.  It was the Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp show.  Get used to it.  

• After a rough start, Padilla looked pretty good, hitting 97 MPH on the stadium gun (Gameday had him at 94, which is what I believe).
• Repko, Elbert and Ellis were recalled.  I wonder why they kept Repko over Hoffman – there has to be some reason – Repko is out of options and Hoffman wasn’t.  Travis Schlichting was moved to the 60-day DL to make room for Garland.  If that looks fishy to you, it’s not.  He’s been in Arizona for a couple of weeks getting treatment for a back problem that has bothered him all year.  He hasn’t pitched in AAA for a while.
• It looks like Kuroda will be back Sunday.
• Cole Hamels pitched a 1-0 shutout last night and now has three good starts in a row under his belt.  Il we want to win this thing, HoneyBunchesOfOats needs to get Billingasley “FIXED” like now!  Get it done TONIGHT!
• Garland pitches against his old team Thursday.  How wierd is that?
• Kensai at Memories of Kevin Malone rates the Dodgers top prospects.
• Did you see Russell Martin flying around the bases and sliding into home?  He was flat-out moving.
• Keep Repko in RF and away from our SS. Read the full story

This is really simple – call me names, say I’m an Ethier hater, say I am biased.  Say what you want.  Make yourself feel good.  Cite some obscure stat.  Say he has a great swing.  Say I’m not objective.  Say I don’t know what I am talking about.  Say something (make it up) that will make you look smart.   How do you feel?  Do you feel better?  However, nothing you say will change the fact that Andre Ethier has become a platoon player.  Read the full story

The Dodgers have done exactly that.  They have seized the day.  In a NL West division, that “they” said was said to be incredibly weak (“they” are generally wrong), the Dodgers have just kept up their winning ways and still sit seven ames atop the NL West  with less than 20 games remaining in That Guy’s suspension.  Not bad. 

• I am not going to talk about Andruw Jones – Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish (Andruw, You are lucky I wasn’t the manager of the Dodgers – I would have hit you and then instructed the pitcher to hit you with a pick off throw). Read the full story

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 Cory Wade gave up a HR to the Fathead (more about that later) and the Bison blasted a 2-run HR to win the game.  Maybe Joe Torre knows more than we do about where to bat Kemp, but right now, Matt feels like he should be in the “middle-of-the-order.”  Maybe Joe thinks Matt is not ready to hit in the middle of the order.  Maybe Joe thinks he’ll doe better right now under less pressure – I don’t know what Joe thinks, but there have to be some reason you bat a guy like that 9th.  At least I hope there’s a reason… Read the full story

It was evidently over before it started.  I think the Dodgers are afraid of lightening and it messed with their psyches.  According to Dylan Hernandez of the LA TIMES, Matt Kemp said: “I’m going to blame it on the lightning. The lightning was scary. I was up to bat worried I was going to get struck by lightning. That’s why I didn’t get that hit when I needed it.” Read the full story

“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 season, the two vets signed for the bullpen (Mota and Ohman) have been arsonists, the rookie who was supposed to be our #5 starter is back in AAA, and the man annointed to be our cleanup hitter who had 22 RBI in April has only 8 in May!  Read the full story

I have only been down on the field once, because it is just too painful to walk.  I have appointments with two orthopaedic surgeons next week about my hip.  I plan to go down before the game today if the Advil allows me, but I am heading back home after the game and will watch Sunday night’s finale on ESPN.  My wife and son drove up last night and will also be at the game today.  No trip to Chi-town would be complete without a trip to Ditka’s, which is where we went for dinner last night,  and I have to say that it is simply the best steakhouse in the Country.  I had the absolute best steak I have ever had at Ditka’s, and I have been to some pretty good Steakhouses – Shulas, Morton’s, St. Elmos, Ruth Chris, etc.  My son was impressed when Coach Ditka walked by and spoke.   He said “Dad, this is so cool!”  We stayed at the Raffaello Hotel which is about a half block away from the Westin (where the Dodgers stay).  To put it in perspective, we were right beside the Sears Tower (old name) on Michigan Street and just a block and a half from Ditka’s.  Again, I would wholeheartedly recommend the Rafaello if you are staying in Chi-town as it has just undergone a $25 million renovation and is a 4-Star Hotel.  Very nice accommodations.  Now, let’s talk baseball: Read the full story

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 Fox with a filthy curve to save the win for Randy Wolf.  Ramon didn’t make it easy, but he managed to get his 3rd save.   Juan Pierre and James Loney both had 2 hits, Rafael Furcal had a nice swinging bunt that scored Juan Pierre all the way from 2B and Andre Ethier had his first extra-base hit in a long time.  13-7 we are without THAT GUY.  We have a higher team batting average and are averaging more runs a game without him.  Say what you will about that – it is what it is! Read the full story

Wasted opportunities, intentional and otherwise

Just read Dylan Hernandez’s game story on the L.A. Times website, which included the following bit of wisdom from Orlando Hudson:

“We had 50 guys in scoring position,” Orlando Hudson muttered as he raced past reporters on his way to the showers. Read the full story