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

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 [...]

Read the full story

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 [...]

Read the full story

It turns out that the Dodgers have 34 minor league free agents, which is more than any other team.  What does that mean?  Does it mean that our farm system is depleted?  Well, we did trade away a few prospects (Santana, Bell, Johnson, Young, LaRoche, Meloan, et al), but the biggest culprit of why we have [...]

Read the full story

If you have a home which is worth $400,000 or $400,000,000 and you are served divorce papers by your spouse,  what do you do?  It’s obvious that a great part of the parties’ net worth is that asset.  Some people are idiots about this – some have even burned-down the house rather than split the [...]

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  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 [...]

Read the full story

Look, several (many) players let us down, but that’s the nature of playoff baseball.  Look at A-Rod, and how he failed his first few years in the playoffs.  Players handle the situation differently.  Some step up (Loney, Martin) and others struggle (Kemp, Ethier), while some vets disapear (Blake, Furcal), which is very, very disappointing.  Casey [...]

Read the full story

No matter how bleak it looks, and being down 3-1 is bleak, especially after a loss was snatched from the jaws of victory, we have to hope for a miracle.  It’s a big blow, but the Dodgers have to recover and realize that victory is still attainable.  Therefore, I will be watching every pitch in game [...]

Read the full story

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 [...]

Read the full story

Never send Honeycutt to the mound without taking out the pitcher.  I felt it coming both times – Kershaw was breezing and midway  through the fifth inning, he lost it.  Flat out lost it!  I mean, even Ray Charles could see it!  He went from being very good to just downright awful.  To me, it [...]

Read the full story

In the celebration last night, I sensed that the boys still know this is only one step to get where they want to be.  They have traveled this path before only to have their dreams shattered by a team they might have to play again.  I sensed that, while happy, they will really celebrate when [...]

Read the full story

Joe Torre Has Spoken:   Pitchers (11) Ronald Belisario, RHP                         Chad Billingsley,RHP                           Jonathan Broxton, RHP                        Jon Garland, RHP                                Clayton Kershaw, LHP                        Hong-Chih Kuo, LHP                          Vicente Padilla. RHP                           George Sherrill, LHP                            Ramon Troncoso, RHP Jeff Weaver, RHP Randy Wolf, LHP Infielders (8): Ronnie Belliard Casey Blake Juan Castro Rafael Furcal  (S) Orlando Hudson (S) James Loney  [...]

Read the full story

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 [...]

Read the full story

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 [...]

Read the full story

Just when we need to step up and win some games, we don’t get any effort.   The Dodgers are human and I think they are so focused on the playoffs they have forgotten about the last 7 games.  They are looking ahead and plan to make up for last year, but they need to finish [...]

Read the full story

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 [...]

Read the full story

I think some of you may misunderstand why I said Chad Billingsley “has deep-seated psychological problems.”  First, you need to know that I have been a Chad Billingsley fan way back to the beginning of his career.  I am still a big proponent of Chad Billingsley and… I’ll say it:  I think he should be in [...]

Read the full story

In conjunction with MLB and TBS Hot Corner, LAdodgerTalk.com is offering 2 special posters of Russell Martin,  To obtain one of the  posters you will have to do one the following: Correctly name the first three Dodger starting pitchers for the first round of the playoffs; or Correctly name the first Dodger player to hit a [...]

Read the full story

It turns out that Chad Billingsley’s pitching problems are the fault of the guys who work on his car.  Mr. GoodWrench is at fault!  Boy, that really makes me mad and I know that he’s bent  out of shape about it as well.   Joe Torre informed us of the situation and Ken Gurnick of Dodgers.com [...]

Read the full story

Do the Dodgers already have a ticket to the dance with Destiny this October?  After flirting with mediocrity for a couple of months, theDodgers are starting to peak late in the season.  It’s too early to anoint them Champs of anything, but they do have a magic number that we will post that until they clench.   The [...]

Read the full story

The Great Lakes Loons were the last Dodger team to be eliminated from the playoffs, losing to the Ft. Wayne Tin Caps last night 4-3 in 10 innings.  Dee Gordon was 1-5 with a stolen base, Kyle Russell was 1-2 with a BB and an RBI, Silverio hit a HR and Aaron Miller pitched a [...]

Read the full story