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

A strong case could be made that the undoing of the Dodgers’ 2010 season was the bullpen… or lack thereof.  Sure, the hitting in the second half was non-existent, but as a team in NoCal proved, you can win with little hitting , good pitching and a good bullpen. In 2010, Cory Wade was AWOL, [...]

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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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There are a variety of reasons for this, but the not the least of which is the disconnect between the coaches and the players. Joe Torre and Company are not known for being brilliant strategists, and that issue was readily exposed this season. In my opinion, none of the coaching staff should be back. There needs to be a clean sweep. I would give Ned Colletti one more year. I think he has learned a lot, but I still think giving up James McDonald for Dotel was a bonehead move. I believe that James McDonald IS BETTER RIGHT NOW than Octavio Dotel.

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It pains me greatly to say this.  I never raise the white flag, but Ned tried and it was too little, too late.   Podsednik, Theriot, Lilly and Dotel arrived at the fort after the troops had already been massacred. This year is done.  It’s time to hop on the Bus Gus, we don’t need [...]

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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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There isn’t much difference between a dude and a dud – One Little Letter! An offseason ago, it was proposed that the Yankees trade Robinson Cano for Matt Kemp.  It made sense for the Yankees:  Cano was under-performing and they needed a CF.  To me, it made no sense for the Dodgers – after all Matt [...]

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It looked for a while that the Dodgers might have squandered a 3-0 lead through 4 innings in Cincinnati last night, so after a 2-1/2 hour rain delay, the Dodgers took batting practice and tacked on 9 more runs to spank the Reds 12-0.  That score in itself, doesn’t mean much.  What means the most [...]

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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 [...]

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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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Remember what I told you after Kershaw got bombed in his last start prior to Sunday? http://www.ladodgertalk.com/2010/05/unleash-the-kracken/ In case you forgot, I said: When Clayton Kershaw gets beat, he gets mad and gets even. The pounding that he took yesterday is simply going to Unleash the Kracken! Watch out, he’ll be back with a vengeance. [...]

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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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Isn’t it ironic that Padilla’s leg was shot in the off season and now his arm is shot? So, who takes his place? Odds: Ramon Ortiz – 2-1 Scott Elbert – 10-1 Josh Lindblom – 20-1 Carlos Monasterios – 28-1 Josh Towers 100-1 Sandy Koufax – 100,000,000,000 – 1 There you have it.  I’m pretty [...]

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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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During my 8-day trip to Camelback Ranch last week, on Thursday, March 25th, I sat down with Logan White in his office for a twenty-minute  interview which lasted about an hour an a half. While it is impossible to present it all, I have selected certain aspects of the interview which I think you will [...]

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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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The Dodgers and A’s tied after nine innings last night 3-3. Hiroki Kuroda pitched 5.1 strong innings allowing just 1 Hit and 2 BB to go with 2 Strikeouts.  In addition to the two strikeouts, he had 8 fly outs and 6 ground outs.  With Joe Torre set to name the 5th Starter today, it [...]

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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 [...]

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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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Periodically the Dodger management lets us know implicitly which of the young players are possible or probable future major league players. Two of themethods are (1) the players sent to the Arizona Fall League, and (2) the players invited to the Dodger Development Program. In my opinion the players sent to AFL and not invited [...]

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