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

CASTRO RETIRES AFTER 17-YEAR BIG LEAGUE CAREER Former Dodger infielder to join baseball operations staff as Special Assistant LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers today announced that 17-year Major League veteran and former Dodger infielder Juan Castro has retired as an active player and been named to the position of Special Assistant, Baseball Operations [...]

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Please note that I am writing this after TWO (count ‘em, 2) successful relief outings by Jon Broxton.  I don’t just pile one when he is bad! I have consistently said for over three years that J-Brox is not a closer. When I think of closers, I think about guys like Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter, [...]

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Of course, they didn’t win either.  6-6 was the tie after 10 innings.  Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all. Depressed and Impressed It’s risky business to try and evaluate a player based upon the microcosm of one game or even the four games I will watch here at Camelback Ranch.  However, there are some [...]

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The Dodgers lost to the lowly Royals 11-5, but let’s not forget that the Royals are rated #1 by Baseball America with the most prospects.  In fact, they are loaded – that’s what averaging 96 losses over the past ten years does for you.   They have a bunch of arms and MOST of the [...]

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The Dodgers have an inordinate amount of young pitching prospects in the minor league system and fewer position players, but contrary to the “gloomsters and doomsters,” the Dodgers Minor League system is not barren by any means.  On person even wrote this comment: “Like I’ve said before on more than one occasion, the Dogs got [...]

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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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 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  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 [...]

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Mark Loretta?  That bum is a waste of roster space!Ronnie Belliard?  Why should he start over Hudson.  Jeff Weaver?  Keep McDonald on the playoff roster for crying out loud!   Jim Thome?  Forget it, he’s shot! Juan Castro?  Why waste a spot for him when he won’t play? It was Joe Torre who decided which [...]

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Some people have said that you have to get Carpenter early or you don’t get him.  Not true – for the past three years, the league is hitting .305 against Carpenter after 61 pitches. The Dodgers need to be patient… and then NAIL Carpenter.  POUND him!  HAMMER him!  SAW him off!  SCREW him!  If that doesn’t [...]

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I have read extensive analysis of which match-ups are the best for the Dodgers in the NLDS, which is a lot like all the baseball pre-season predictions.  I read all those magazines (and save them, which shows how stupid I am) and then go back and see how the prognosticators fared.  A monkey throwing darts [...]

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Now that we have clinched a playoff spot and are within two games of  clinching the NL West Championship, I think it is time to shift the emphasis from our starters, namely Russell Martin, James Loney, Orlando Hudson, Rafael Furcal, Casey Blake, Manny Ramirez, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, and recognize the Stuntmen.  Actually, this [...]

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“We know we are a good team.”- Andre Ethier “The one thing I found out about them, is every time they’ve been tested they’ve done all right.” – Joe Torre “We’re just going through a bad stretch right now.”  – Russell Martin “We’re all right.  We’ll come back tomorrow and have a better game.” – [...]

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and I don’t mean that Joe needs to pop a cold one after the game.  THESE GUYS NEED THEIR BUTTS KICKED!  Figuratively!  If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.   You can put a lot of this offensive malaise on Manny, but not all of it.  If I were Joe, I’d start [...]

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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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First, I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July, but I suspect DRomo had the best.  What a day to be able to celebrate your daughter’s birthday!  Congratulations! 

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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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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 [...]

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Lineup: Pierre, LF Furcal, SS Loney, 1B Blake, 3B

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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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