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

I admit that I make some predictions with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, however today I am deadly serious and will give you my honest assessment of how the Dodgers will do this season. First of all, none of us can anticipate exactly what will happen, especially in regard to new ownership.  Stan [...]

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Where’s Waldo and where’s Greg Miller? It scares me when I agree with TJ Slimers, but I too have a lot of questions about the new owners.  TJ articulates it in depth HERE in THE LA TIMES Maybe I’m wrong, but the auction was halted after it started like this: Kroenke: “We bid 1.5 Billion”; [...]

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I have been busy the last couple of days, so when I got back and checked the blog, I was dismayed that I had written Rivera would hit 28 HR.   Believe it or not, I meant 18 HR for Rivera, but hit the 2 instead of the 1.  OK,  I’ll just live with it, maybe [...]

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It sounds like Jerry Hariston, Jr. has an arm, or shoulder issue and can’t throw properly according to Ken Gurnick of Dodgers.com.  It’s simple – if he can’t throw, he can’t play.  He has to go to the DL.  His defense at multiple positions is his greatest asset. Justin Sellers deserves a shot at the [...]

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2011 was an aberration for the Los Angeles Dodgers.  For those of you who think the 2012 version of the Dodgers is not a very good team, I say:  “I beg to differ.  In fact, I will go as far as saying you are crazy if you think this is a bad team.” It’s popular [...]

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Let me make something perfectly clear.  If Andre Ethier could quit being his own worst enemy, I would be his biggest supporter, but if I have to keep Andre Ethier as he is, I would trade him in a heartbeat.  The Dodger Beat Writers can’t and won’t say much about it, but Andre Ethier wears [...]

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I had high hopes that Andre Ethier would do what Matt Kemp did last year.  I thought he was due to extract his head from his butt.  However, on his first days of Spring Training, he shoved his head even further up his proverbial ass, which is also what he is (an ass). If you [...]

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OK, it’s almost time for pitchers and catchers to report.  I’ll make some predictions for the 2012 season.  This is from the gut, not from any empirical evidence: Fed-Ex will be the Dodgers starting catcher before the season is over. Javy Guerra will be supplanted by Kenley Jansen as the Dodgers closer (in fact, I [...]

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I spent a couple of days last week going back several years and reading what the blogs who focus on baseball sabermetrics predicted about Dodger players, and what I predicted about those same players. Without getting into a pissing match, what I found was that our batting averages were pretty much the same.    I [...]

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You can’t blame Prince Fielder for taking the money the Tigers offered, but after reading numerous reports from many sources (some actually reliable), it is apparent that the Dodgers interest in the Prince (and their offer to him) was genuine.  If it was only only a ploy, then the Dodgers would have probably publicized it [...]

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It’s on the Radio and in print all around the blogosphere that Andre Ethier could be a “man on a mission.”  In part, he said: “It comes down to the security part, too, but it also comes down to unfinished business and I feel like, yeah, I’m facing that decision now where hopefully it doesn’t [...]

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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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The title of this post was inspired by the book “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” by Stephen King.  If you haven’t read it, you should* – but I digress!  I frequently compare my writing style to Stephen King, other than the fact that I can’t write and have no style, we are the same! [...]

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It seems that Mr. Jack O’Connell, the secretary-treasurer and award administrator of the Baseball Writers Association of America says that the BBWAA will not strip Ryan Braun of the MVP award, in part because  ”We did not strip Alex Rodriguez of the 2003 MVP when it was learned later he used PEDs while in Texas. [...]

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Ryan Braun allegedly tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Now, of course he’s going to appeal, but if he loses, will Bud grow a pair and strip him of his MVP award along with the mandatory 50 game suspension?    

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Now that Frank McCourt has been give the go-ahead by the bankruptcy court (barring reversal upon appeal) to negotiate a new TV deal, he might just have given Ned the go-ahead and sign Prince Fielder. As near as I can figure, I think it will take probably the same amount Albert Pujols received. He’s 5 years younger [...]

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I am giving Bill Plaschke a temporary respite from being a fish hack. His article in The LA Times today hits the nail on the head.  Tomorrow he will go back to being a fish hack like the rest of his ilk, but today he’s FREE. Look, you can spin it anyway you want it, [...]

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Matt Kemp used to be the Bison, but I never really embraced that name, maybe in part due to the stigma attached to Bison Dele (OK, that’s a stretch).  I just never liked the name “The Bison.” So now that Matt Kemp has evolved into “The Beast,”  let’s just call him what he has become [...]

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Shoot!  Shouldn’t all of Major League Baseball learn from the Cardinals?   Last years Hot Stove signings included Carl Crawford and Jason Werth who both were gigantic (and expensive) boat anchors for their teams.  The Cardinals, on the other hand, didn’t make any big waves.  Hey, they already had one of the Top 5 players [...]

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Sporting News’ AL and NL All-Star Teams Announced October 27 – Voted on by 55 members of major league front offices, twenty-six AL executives and 29 NL executives, Sporting News has released its 2011 AL and NL All-Star teams, presented by Gillette Odor Shield. Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander, chosen as the team’s starting pitcher, [...]

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