Torre, Ramirez and Loney headline team of Dodger players on international goodwill trip

PHOENIX – The Los Angeles Dodgers today announced the expected roster for the upcoming three-game series in Taiwan. Additional players may be added or changed prior to the March 10 departure.

The Dodgers will bring 33 players, including 17 with Major League experience, in their first team trip to Taiwan since the 1993 Friendship Series. Manager Joe Torre, left fielder Manny Ramirez and first baseman James Loney will be joined by Taiwan natives Hong-Chih Kuo and Chin-lung Hu, Japan native Robert Boothe and South Korea native Hyang-Nam Choi.

Six players on the roster also made the Dodgers’ historic trip to Beijing, China in 2008 for the first-ever games in that country. They are Kuo, Hu, John Lindsey, Lucas May, Xavier Paul and Eric Stults as well as Torre and coaches Lorenzo Bundy and John Shoemaker.

Lindsey registered the first hit, a single to left field, during the two-game series against the Padres in China.

A complete roster is below, subject to change.

Pitchers (15): RHP Mario Alvarez, LHP Alberto Bastardo, RHP Robert Boothe, RHP Jesus Castillo, RHP Hyang-Nam Choi, RHP John Ely, RHP Francisco Felix, RHP Charlie Haeger, RHP Kenley Jansen, LHP Hong-Chih Kuo, RHP Josh Lindblom, RHP Jon Link, LHP Juan Perez, LHP Eric Stults and RHP Josh Towers.

Catchers (4): J.D. Closser, Gabriel Gutierrez, Lucas May, Jesse Mier

Infielders (8): Ronnie Belliard, Angel Berroa, Jamey Carroll, Chin-lung Hu, John Lindsey, James Loney, Russ Mitchell and Ramon Nivar

Outfielders (6): Brian Barton, Xavier Paul, Manny Ramirez, Prentice Redman, Michael Restovich, Trayvon Robinson

Coaches: Manager Joe Torre, first base coach John Shoemaker, third base coach Lorenzo Bundy, pitching coach Jim Slaton, hitting coach/bench coach Tim Wallach and bullpen catcher Mike Borzello.

I had a cheesy grin on my face as I read the Top 200 Prospect list put out by True Blue LA.  The Dodgers do not have 200 Prospects.  They have about 20 PROSPECTS and 180 SUSPECTS!  However, the Dodgers Organization is not nearly as bereft of prospects as some think.  We don’t have a bunch that are major-league ready, but DeJesus, Lindblom, Elbert, Haeger, Schlichting and Leach are all close to ready and while I don’t see any as “superstars” I believe that some of them will be very good players.  However, we are in a position where we don’t need a bunch of young players RIGHT NOW.

Behind the players mentioned above are Gordon, Lambo, Robinson, Van Slyke, Russell, Withrow, Adkins, Martin, Eovaldi, May, Mitchell, Baez, Jansen, Delmonico, Gallagher, Miller and Guerra.  Some of those guys will be complete “busts” and others who are not on the radar will step up.   Additionally, last years draft has yielded some very good prospects. 

All-in-all, we have 4 or 5 young players who could make the team this year and the second wave is another year or two away.  We don’t have the Jacksonville Five, but in 2011 you could see the Lambo Leap! Read the full story

 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

No Dumbass Vaccine!

Blame it all on Joe Torre if you want, but when we score ZERO runs, the likelihood of losing is pretty high.  Blame it on Kuroda if you want.  Blame it on Billingsley or the fact that  we left Jon Garland and Jeff Weaver off the playoff roster.  But, the reality of the situation is that we have seen the Dodgers do this before.  The team that lead the league in batting average and on-base percentage and was 4th in runs scored is hitting 46points below their season batting average and 69 points below their seasons OB%,  and have been outscored 20-8!   Now, their 6.92 ERA is horrible, but most of that was acquired yesterday in the 11-0 loss.   The Dodgers have scored 8 runs in 3 games against the Phillies and have been lucky to win one game!  We should be down 3 games to none and facing elimination and yet, we are only down by 1 game.  That’s the good news.

The bad news is that we have all seen this happen before – usually when this teams offense goes into an offensive funk (which is where they are now), it takes a week or two to snap back.  Well, we don’t have a week or two.  We have a game or two.  WE NEED TO WIN TODAY and I won’t put this on Randy Wolf.  I put it on Manny, Raffy, Casey, Andre, Matt, James, Russ, and Orlando (I think he needs to start – not that Ronnie did anything wrong – it’s just a gut feeling), who are our starters.  The offense needs to GET WELL NOW and jump all over the Phillies’ pitching – no matter who is pitching.  Ronnie Belliard has been good, but Orlando Hudson is MOTIVATED to show Joe Torre he deserves to start.  I would start O-Dog today, if for no other reason than to get another left-handed bat in there. 

If the boys don’t bring their bats today, it could be a long, cold winter and I still can’t believe that the morons who own the team couldn’t keep their mouths shut for a couple of weeks.  It just simply proves what Jimmy Buffett sings about (in bold) Read the full story

Joe Torre Has Spoken:

Read the full story

I was surfing the net yesterday and I have to say that I was amazed by the people who were criticizing Russ Martin.  “Trade Him”  “Bench Him” and all the rest of the things that people

Future All-Star!

 who have no clue write.  Here’s why I like this site:  say something stupid, we will call you out.  Say something without artuculatiung why, we will call you out.  Bench or trade Russ Martin?  Are you crazy?  Some say Martin can’t throw – Well he can.  Watch and see.  He hasn’t caught every runner and at Memories of Kevin Malone, Kensai, who is a smart guy (except when he disagrees with me), had this to say about Russ Martin:

The problem I notice most frequently is his (Orlando Hudson’s)  inability to tag stealing baserunners. He always shies away from throwing his wrist into the runner to apply the tag, and it costs both Martin and Brad Ausmus outs. 

Martin was named the #2 defensive Catcher in the NL (behind Yadier Molina of the Cards) by Baseball America and he is having a bad year – his first!  Have you ever looked at what other catchers are doing?  Joe Mauer doesn’t count – he’s a freak!  The Cubs Catcher Geovany Soto who hit .285 last year and was heralded as the next great offensive  catcher is hitting .217.   Catcher  are up and down, and the fact of the matter is that no catcher has caught as many innings as Russ Martin over the past four seasons.  Bring us AJ Ellis or Lucas May?  Are you crazy?  You have no idea what they can do…  Geezzzz!  Are you crazy?  AJ Ellis and Lucas May may or may not have a future as a starting catcher, but they are totally unproven.  My sense is that AJ Ellis is a backup, at best!  He’s not a Top Prospect.

Yes, Russ Martin is under-performing, but who are you going to replaced him with who is better?  If you say May, Ellis or Santana, then you Are Read the full story

From the LA Dodgers PR Staff:

LOS ANGELES – The Dodgers’ minor league report is a weekly window into the Dodgers’ farm teams, with updated standings, league leaders, team and individual player stats, and the latest team and player news.  Player bios can be found in the Player Development section of the Dodgers’ Guide (Pages 411-478).

Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes

Pacific Coast League American South Division

26-27, 1st Place, 1.5 Games Ahead

LUNA TUNES: INF Hector Luna ranks fifth in the Pacific Coast League with a .359 batting average and second with a 1.106 on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS)…the 29-year-old batted .382 (39-for-102) with eight homers and 29 RBI in 28 games in May…the Dominican Republic native is hitting .436 (17-for-39) against left-handed pitchers… Luna appeared in 15 Cactus League games for the Dodgers as a non-roster invitee, batting .204 (5-for-24) with a homer and four RBI. Read the full story

First of all, I am a Russ Martin fan, but foremost, I am a Dodger fan.  Earlier this year, I suggested that James Loney may be trade bait, but now I am also going to suggest that Russell Martin could be the one to be traded.   First of all, you should trade from a position of strength and we have AJ Ellis, Lucas May, Tony Delmonico, Matt Wallach and others moving up the ladder.  Russ Martin may also have peaked – we may have seen his best.  He was an overachiever, and maybe he will just continue to be a very good catcher, but not a star.   He will always be a good player, but trading him now may net us the most value in return.  Read the full story

A few days ago, Miguel Salcido wrote about the Dodgers’ bench and how productive it has been this year.  As I was re-reading it, suddenly the moniker that Mickey Hatcher hung on the 1988 Dodger reserves jumped into my mind – The Stuntmen!  In 1988 we had  Dave Anderson, Mike Davis, Pedero Guerrero, Rick Dempsey, Tracy Wooden, Danny Heap and the head stuntman, Mickey Hatcher.   This year it’s Juan Pierre, Juan Castro, Xavier Paul, Doug Mientkiewicz, Mark Loretta and Brad Ausmus.  They currently go by the name “Bomb Squad,” but I think that “The Stuntmen” are back.   Bomb Squad may be more 2009, but The Stuntmen are timeless.   Read the full story