With Curley, Larry and Moe running the team, the Dodgers officially became sellers today.   No way that bunch can overcome 7 games.

Joe Torre proved he wanted to take early retirement by leaving George Cheryl in the game today to pitch to a righthander in the 9th with the winning run on 2B.   Even Ray Charles could have foreseen what would happen next!

The Six Stooges

Joe is tired, and wants to go race his horses, pickup his daughter at school and sip his Begelow Tea.  Don Mattingley is busy looking for the other half of his wits, and Rick Honeycutt is irrelevant.  Of course, Frank McCourt can get his share of the blame for not freeing up any money, but realistically, what does he expect with Curley, Larry and Moe running the ship?  Enough already!

Let the fire sale begin, and start by whacking the Three Stooges!

Wasn’t there a 4th Stooge?  Oh yeah, Ned was his name!

Blake, Furcal, Martin, Johnson, Broxton, Padilla, Belliard, Carroll, Manny (in a month) and Podsednik could all be dealt.  Cheryl could be given away.  Anderson could be released.  Stock up on prospects!

Lineup:

1. DeJesus  SS
2. Paul  LF
3. Ethier  RF
4. Kemp  CF
5. Loney  1B
6. DeWitt 2B
7. Mitchell 3B
8. Ellis C

I would enjoy that.

Joe and Rick?

I wondered and now I know. The Dodgers didn’t right the ship – it’s just that the Pirates are THAT bad, but against a good team like Milwaukee, the Dodgers have ZILCH. Chad Billingsley suffered first-inning woes, but then settled down and pitch 5 more very good innings.  He pitch good enough for the Dodgers to win, but then the arsonists in the bullpen ended the game for the Dodgers.  Belisorryo was sorry.  Tronarmfalloffsco  was horrid (Joe is trying to see if he can blow out Ramon’s arm by June) and Cheryl pitched by a little girl.

One common denominator among all this:  Joe Torre and Rick Honeycutt! OK, that’s two.  It is my opinion that the Dodgers have the talent to win, but they lack the leadership, managing, coaching and motivation.  The Dodgers are tied for the lead in hitting in all of baseball, but are 26th in pitching and 29th in fielding (there are 30 teams in case you don’t remember).

Lay off the fact that we should have signed Orlando Hudson – hitting is not our problem, and Blake DeWitt, while not dazzling with the glove is improving.  The fielding and the pitching is the problem.  Signing an ACE wouldn’t have helped much either – the whole pitching staff is under-performing… by a country mile.

Only Broxton and Kuroda are immune, and the newcomer, Carlos Monasterios is doing quite well.  Compare this year with last year and you will see dramatic differences in ERA with the rest of the staff.  Belisario was 2.04 last year and now is 8.22.  Sherrill, Kuo, Kershaw, Bills, Troncoso, Weaver, Padilla, Haeger are all under-performing DRAMATICALLY.  At some point, the pitching coach has to take responsibility, and maybe the pitches are being “tipped” or their is some repetitive pattern other teams have figured out.   I don’t know.  I just know that the results are unacceptable and uncharacteristic of the pitchers involved.  They are all pitching WAY below their talent level.

www.JoeTorreShould Be Fired.com

LOS ANGELES – The 2009 National League West Division Champion Los Angeles Dodgers today announced that their entire Major League coaching staff will return for the 2010 season.

Led by manager Joe Torre, the staff has guided the Dodgers to two straight National League West Division titles and two consecutive National League Championship Series. General Manager Ned Colletti made the announcement.

The coaches: Larry Bowa – Third Base Coach (third season) Mariano Duncan – First Base Coach (fifth season) Rick Honeycutt – Pitching Coach (fifth season) Ken Howell – Bullpen Coach (third season) Don Mattingly – Hitting Coach (third season) Manny Mota – Coach (31st season) Jeff Pentland – Instructor (third season) Bob Schaefer – Bench Coach (third season) Bowa will enter his fifth straight season as a third base coach for Torre and his third with Los Angeles. Read the full story