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

I want you to consider a few questions and how you would have answered them on January 20, 2010: If I had told you that James Loney would hit more home runs than Andre Ethier in 2010,  would you have probably felt pretty good about the 2010 season? If I had told you that RDLR [...]

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Frank McCourt has said that Bug Selig nixed his contract with FOX, which was immensely front-loaded. Not true! What if … Bug approved the deal, but still kept the trustee in place and would not allow Frank to pay off Jamie with the proceeds? In other words: the Dodgers would become flush with cash that [...]

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Some people are reluctant to call him “Ace.”  “He’s too young.   “He’s too wild.”  “He’s too inexperienced.”  Every year, we have seen Clayton Kershaw  progress, mature, grow and develop.  One of the first and probably the smartest thing Don Mattingly did when he started Spring Training was to name Clayton as the Dodgers Opening Day [...]

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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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I will preface what I am about to say, by stating that the Dodgers are capable of reeling off a 15 game winning streak! Jon Broxton can be a great closer, but he just lacks the “C” in closer, which makes him a loser.  According to some pin-headed bloggers (Jon Weisman not included), I have [...]

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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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Several months ago, I was already sick of hearing how the Dodgers would not spend any money, the divorce was crippling the Dodgers, the Dodgers need a new owner and blah, blah, blah.  I was on-board with all their off-season moves – the non-tenders of Wolf and Hudson, the trade of Juan Pierre for Link [...]

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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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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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Today is an off day, but if everything goes right, I will have photos and the inside story of the Camelback Ranch Minor League Complex.  It should be pretty cool and I think you will be amazed at the facility. A LOT WHEN ON YESTERDAY – Charlie Haeger pitched 5 or 7 strong innings against [...]

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For the second game in a row, the Dodgers “mailed it in.”  Playing without passion, they managed only 1 run on 9 hits throughout seven innings.  The tone was set when Xavier Paul doubled to lead off the game, was sacrificed to third by DeWitt and then stranded at 3B by Ethier and Loney.  It [...]

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Just a laundry list of a few things I expect to see this year (actually my wish list along with predictions): A healthy Rafael Furcal who is 100% physically and (most importantly) mentally (it takes a while to recover mentally from a surgery) regains his form and is again one of the elite short stops [...]

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Spring Training has broken out at Camelback Ranch and the news is pouring in: According to Ken Gurnick, Dodgers’ Bullpen Coach Ken Howell discovered a flaw in Eric Gagne’s delivery which he is attempting to correct. The former Cy Young Award-winning closer made a quick adjustment and, according to Howell, immediately gained velocity on his [...]

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I can see only three of those pitchers making the team, maybe just two. There will be some tough battles this Spring. What do you think?

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Well, if you ask me… and you didn’t (but I’m going to tell you anyway), it’s Young Clayton.  Maybe it’s a rush job, but maybe it’s not.  Maybe he’s ready.  Not “maybe” – he ISready!   I think it’s likely that Clayton Kershaw will be even better this year.  His ERA might not reflect that, but he [...]

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It turns out that Ronnie Belisario and I have a lot in common – No I don’t have a DUI, but we both have Visa problems that prevented us from reporting yesterday.  He hasn’t been able to obtain his, and I have to work to pay mine off!  So there you go.  Joe Torre isn’t [...]

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Some people are saying that the Dodgers are a .500 team (when I say “some people” I don’t mean “informed baseball people”), which I think is just plain delusional.  I think sometimes Dodger fans fail to take into consideration that change is inevitable, and often, it is good.  Will everything be OK?  Seth Godin summed [...]

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Los Angeles – In what has to be somewhat of a surprise, the Dodgers made two major announcements today.  The first announcement has to do with the divorce proceedings of Frank and Jamie McCourt who agreed to a continuance of their May hearing: The McCourt’s announced that they have resolved their personal issues and that [...]

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I made my plans and got my tickets yesterday for Camelback Ranch.  I will be there on March 20th through March 27th.  My wife and son will be flying in on the 25th to see the last 3 games with me.  I haven’t gotten the away game tickets, but I’ll work on that next week.  [...]

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