BREAKING NEWS: Chad Billingsley is joining the Dodgers and will make his first start of the season for the Dodgers on Thursday in San Diego. Billingsley joins Andre Ethier, Russel Martin, Willy Aybar, Joel Guzman and Matt Kempt as rookies to all be called up to the club this year.

Let's go Chad!!

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Dodgers may be calling up AA outfielder Matt Kemp sometime soon. After calling up Andre Ethier, Russell Martin, Willy Aybar and Jonathan Broxton (and all of them contributing greatly), why not?

"Emboldened by the success of recent call-ups Russell Martin, Andre Ethier and Willy Aybar, the Dodgers are seriously considering promoting power-hitting outfielder Matt Kemp from double-A Jacksonville.

Kemp, 21, is batting .343 with six home runs and 29 runs batted in with 10 stolen bases in 42 games. He has 30 strikeouts and 19 walks."

Here's the link to the story.

The Dodgers moved to 3 games above .500 for the first time this season today, and I have to say that things are looking up for the boys in Blue. They're getting contributions from 1-9 in the order, and suprisingly the rookies are doing a lot of the talking with their bats. Nomar is looking like his old self and is contributing with clutch hits nearly every night.
The Dodgers destroyed the Angels last night, with a 25-hit outburst, the most ever in their Los Angeles history. If that wasn't incredible enough, it was highlighted with Andre Ethier's first major league 5-hit game. Some players go their entire career without ever having a 5-hit game, but Ethier can say that he's done it before he even got his feet wet.

Willy Aybar hit a clutch 3-run homerun in today's game, and the Dodgers beat the Angels 8-4... they are now 23-20 and are in 3rd place, 1.5 games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The NL West definitely looks like it's going to be a tight division again this year. I've always said that the Dodgers have a good chance of winning the division if they just stay healthy. Well, they've obviously not stayed healthy up until this point in the season yet it still looks like they can be considered serious contenders. We'll just have to see how the rest of the season plays out injury wise.

Let's get the Angels tomorrow and call it a sweep!

The Dodgers played a solid game tonight, beat the Giants 6-1.

This team has won 6 of their last 7 and they seem to really be coming together. I could not have imagined that rookies would be producing as much as they are at this early in the season, but it just proves how awesome our young guys are. Just a month ago, the following players were playing in AAA Las Vegas - Aaron Sele, Willy Aybar, Russ Martin, and Andre Ethier. They are now playing for the Dodgers and are contributing significantly. Couple that with Garciaparra's hot hitting and the Dodgers' willingness to run and play small ball... and you have a team that looks like a definite contender. I'm excited about the rest.

Oh and Bonds didn't hit 714 against them today. Thank God. Hopefully we can keep him homerless and let that disgrace hit it against some other team. Part of me deep down just knows he is going to hit it off the Dodgers though... he always seems to.

						1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9				R		H		E
				LAD (18-18)		0		0		3		0		1		1		0		0		1				6		11		2
				SF (17-19)		0		0		0		0		0		1		0		0		0				1		4		0
			W: B. Penny (3-1, 2.66); L: M. Morris (2-4, 6.20) HR: SF: P. Feliz (6).

May 12, 2006
	Final  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R H E Memphis 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   0 6 1 Las Vegas 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 X   3 10 1 box | log | gameday W: W. Juarez (3-2, 2.89); L: A. Reyes (1-1, 3.65); SV: L. Carter (2) HR: LVG: J. Weber (1).

05/12/2006	Final
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R H E Jacksonville 0 1 3 0 0 2 0 0 0   6 11 1 Mobile 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   0 5 3
W: D. Muegge (3-4, 4.08); L: S. Thompson (0-3, 5.14) HR: JAX: A. Zapp (4).

Joel Guzman was 0-for-4 for Las Vegas and is hitting .311 for the season.
James Loney was 3-for-4 with a double, RBI, and is hitting .379 for Las Vegas.
Matt Kemp was 2-for-5 with a double and 2 RBI for Jacksonville. He's hitting .347 on the season.
Andy LaRoche was 2-for-5 with a double and 1 RBI for Jacksonville. He's hitting .252 on the season.
Kuo and Lance Carter pitched solid in relief.

In other good news, Gagne is headed to Las Vegas soon...

"The tentative start date for Eric Gagne's injury rehabilitation assignment at Triple-A Las Vegas is May 25, but he's already absolutely, positively sure that his elbow is fixed.

After throwing off a mound on Wednesday for the first time since April 7 surgery to remove a nerve in his elbow, Gagne felt well enough to toss again in the outfield before Thursday's game."

Click here for the story.

Well I've taken over a week off of blogging to move twice in the last 10 days and I finally have my computer set up in our new place and can return to my Internet life.

It's amazing how much has changed with the Dodgers since I last wrote. 3 of the 6 Dodger minor leaguers that I had spent a great deal talking about have now made it to the major league club - Jonathan Broxton, Andre Ethier, and most recently Russell Martin. They all have contributed since they've been with the team, and most recently they ALL contributed significantly in last night's 12-6 pounding of the Houston Astros. It sure is great to see these young players finally getting the chance at the big league level and making an immediate impact.

Nomar Garciaparra has been a gift for the Dodgers - he's playing great, both defensively and offensively, and has single handedly kept us in close ballgames, with 2 game winning hits in the last week.

There are trade rumors that the Dodgers are looking into possibly trading Odalis Perez to the Mets or another team since they see to have more starting pitchers than they can handle. Most people agree Aaron Sele is not going anywhere after winning the PCL Player of the Month award and being called up to the Dodgers and having a very solid first outing, and there is always Chad Billingsley down in AAA Vegas who is just waiting to burst on the scene. I welcome trading Odalis if we can make a good deal that would benefit us in other ways.

Well that's it for now, more regular blogging to continue.

Well, no Dodger game today. They sit at 10-12, 2 games under 5. Maybe we'll have better luck against the slumping Padres. Let's take a look at the minor leaguers:

Report from the farm - Dodger prospects:

April 27, 2006
	Final  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R H E Colorado Springs 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   0 6 3 Las Vegas 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 1 X   7 8 0 wrap | box | log | gameday W: E. Stults (2-1, 3.43); L: S. Nin (0-2, 4.43) HR: None.

Joel Guzman was 1-for-3 with 2 RBI's. He's hitting .325  for Las Vegas.
Andre Ethier was 1-for-3. He's hitting .366 for Las Vegas.
Russell Martin was 2-for-4 with a double. He's hitting .310 for Las Vegas.
Willy Aybar was 2-for-4 with a double, 3 RBI. He's hitting .379 for Las Vegas.

April 27, 2006
	Final  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R H E Jacksonville 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0   6 9 1 West Tenn 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0   4 9 2 wrap | box | log W: D. Muegge (2-2, 4.30); L: J. Mathes (2-2, 5.40); SV: M. Alexander (4) HR: None.

Jacksonville
Player	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG
Hu  SS	5	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.270
Abreu  2B	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	.269
Kemp  CF	5	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	.325
LaRoche  3B	4	1	1	1	0	0	2	0	1	.230
Ruggiano, J  RF	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	.232
Alvarez, C  P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Diaz  P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Alexander  P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Zapp  1B	4	1	1	0	0	0	Posted on April 27, 2006 at 11:05 PM Permalink Comments (2) Tags: Ballgames Report any abuse or spam 2 game losing streak ... Quick blog tonight because I'm tired and in a lot of pain... yeah... fell off the back of a flat bed truck last night while unloading a heavy hutch (we're moving) and so the left side of my body is still pretty pissed off at me right now. I didn't want to get in the habit of going 2 days without updating, however, so I'll just say that tonight the Dodgers lost their second straight to Houston and pitcher Wandy Rodriguez. What kind of a name is that anyway? Wandy? Well... I actually have him on my fantasy team and tonight was the first night that I had a conflict in rooting tendency... I wanted Wandy to score me some points because my league lead is in jeopardy but I'm a Dodger fan above all else and I wanted to see my team win (of course). So going into the game I guess I was hoping for a 1-0 Dodger victory where both pitchers pitch well... obviously as Odalis started giving up runs I realized that wasn't going to happen, unfortunately, but I ended up doing pretty good with Wandy. Man he's off to quite a start. Who would have thought... Wandy!? Who needs Rodger when you have Wandy??? That's what I'm sure Houston is thinking (well... I'm sure they'd like to have both, but let's just pretend). No minor league scores tonight. Sorry but I'm too tired and sore. What I can mention though is that Hot Shot #1 Prospect for the D-Rays Delmon Young THREW HIS BAT and hit an umpire after being ejected for being an *** and staring him down after a called third strike that he disagreed with. What a seriously immature and lame thing that is to do... I don't care who you are or how coveted you are as an up and coming star. That is REPREHENSIBLE Delmon, and this blogger calls *** on you. I hope you actually learn some kind of lesson from this as I'm sure you'll be punished severely. Geez it even made ESPN.com headline news on a fairly busy sports night... and you're a minor leaguer! Takes a lot to do that. Well that's it. The Laker's beat the Suns tonight... go them. I'm sore, and I'm out. Posted on April 26, 2006 at 11:48 PM Permalink Comments (0) Tags: General Report any abuse or spam Nomar wins it in grand fasion (cheesy baseball headline) April 24, 2006     1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LAD (10-10) 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 5   6 6 1 HOU (13-6) 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0   2 6 0   W: T. Saito (2-0, 0.90); L: B. Lidge (0-1, 6.75); SV: D. Baez (6) HR: LAD: J. Drew (4), N. Garciaparra (1). HOU: L. Berkman (7). LA Dodgers AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG Furcal, SS 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 .215 Lofton, CF 2 1 1 0 2 0 0 .233 Drew, RF 3 1 1 1 1 2 2 .338 1-Repko, PR-LF 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .333 Kent, 2B 3 1 0 0 1 1 2 .200 Garciaparra, 1B 3 1 1 4 1 0 0 .429 Mueller, 3B 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 .323 Cruz, LF-RF 4 1 1 0 0 1 1 .270 Navarro, C 4 0 1 1 0 2 1 .222 Lowe, P 2 0 0 0 0