Nomar makes his Dodger debut

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R H E
Arizona 1 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0   5 13 0
Los Angeles 0 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 0   4 8 0

Winning pitcher – Miguel Batista (2-0)
   

Losing pitcher –  Jae Seo (0-2)
   

SV –  Jose Valverde (3)
       

CrashWell, Nomar finally made his Dodger debut tonight and he did not disappoint. He was probably the best looking Dodger out there offensively and was hitting everything hard. He finished 2-for-4 with a double and could have easily been 3-for-4 with an RBI if his hard hit ball got past the pitcher in the first inning.

It was a poor day for Dodger starting pitching, and a pretty solid day from the bullpen. I know Hamulack has a lot of detractors but he pitched 2 scoreless innings only giving up one hit. Saito and Kuo also pitched an inning each of scoreless ball. L.A. mounted a pretty decent comeback effort but couldn’t get that elusive 5th run, and the D-Backs did a solid job of pitching in the 8th and 9th inning.

Update from the farm – Dodger prospects:

Chad Billingsley was impressive again for Las Vegas tonight. He pitched 5 innings of shutout baseball, allowing only 3 hits while striking out 6. He allowed 2 walks and didn’t get a decision. The 51’s ended up losing the game 6-2 to Sacramento. Jacksonville (AA) beat Birmingham 2-1.

Joel Guzman was 3-for-4 with 2 doubles and an RBI. He’s hitting .319  for Las Vegas.
Andre Ethier was 0-for-5 with 3 strike outs. He’s hitting .377 for Las Vegas.
Russell Martin was 3-for-3 with a walk. He’s hitting .312 for Las Vegas.
Andy LaRoche was 0-for-4 with 1 RBI. He’s hitting .241 for Jacksonville.
Matt Kemp was 1-for-4. He’s hitting .309 for Jacksonville.

Izzy In, or Out? – Los Angeles Times

Steve Henson of the Los Angeles Times writes today about Cesar Izturis‘ possible upcoming move from shortstop to the outfield when he returns from the disabled list in the upcoming weeks. The article talks about the Dodgers’ plan to move Izturis to the outfield and questions whether or not Cesar would be willing to make that move. Cesar himself questions the possibility.

He does have a tough decision. He’s an all-star, gold glove winning short stop, but he admits that he hasn’t even thought of the possibility of replacing Rafael Furcal at the SS position.
"It’s never crossed my mind that I would take his job," he said. "He’s there now."

Ned Colletti is quoted as saying, "We aren’t saying that as long as you are with the Dodgers, this is
your role. We’re saying that at this point in time, with this team, if
your arm is healthy, it might make sense."

A show down may be imminent, but I hope it doesn’t come to that.

Link: Izzy In, or Out? – Los Angeles Times.

Note: If you don’t want to sign up for an L.A. Times accout to view the article, just head over to bugmenot.com and type in latimes.com for an anonymous login.

Dodgers day off, Derrek Lee hurt bad

Nothing doing much today as the Dodger have a day off. Nomar is playing in Las Vegas as I write this. Maybe a day off for the Dodgers to dwell on that horrible loss last night will help them get back on track.Leehurt

In other news Derrek Lee is going to miss 8-10 weeks and be in a cast for maybe 6 weeks from that collision with Furcal last night. Ouch… that will hurt the Cubs big time. Super unfortunate thing to happen to their superstar first basemen.

Link: ESPN.com – MLB – Cubs ready to place Lee on DL with broken wrist.


Report from the farm:

Final Thurs. 4/20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R H E
Las Vegas 2 0 0 2 0 1 0 1 0   6 13 0
Fresno 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0   4 9 0


Nomar Garciaparra started his rehab assignment tonight in Las Vegas and got 3 at bats as expected. He did pretty well, going 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored. He will play again tomorrow and is expected to play the full game.

Joel Guzman was 2-for-5. He’s hitting .317  for Las Vegas.
Andre Ethier was 2-for-5 with a triple. He’s hitting .431 for Las Vegas.
Russell Martin was 0-for-3 with 2 walks, 1 RBI, and a run scored. He’s hitting .262 for Las Vegas.
Jonathan Broxton pitched 2 more solid innings. He didn’t allow a run or a hit, walked one and struck out two. He earned his 3rd save of the season and still hasn’t given up a run all season.

Final Thurs. 4/20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R H E
Jacksonville 0 0 0 0 1 3 1 0 0   5 7 2
Carolina 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 0   4 9 3


Andy LaRoche was 0-for-4 and is hitting .235 Jacksonville.
Matt Kemp was 1-for-3 with a double, RBI, and walk. He’s hitting .295 for Jacksonville.

4/20 Prospect Batting Totals:  5-for-22, triple, double, 2 RBI.

Garciaparra in Vegas, Izturis on the comeback  track

So Nomar Garciaparra is in Las Vegas to complete a 2-day rehab assignment. He is expected to join the major league club on Saturday. He is expected to get 3 at bats in tonight’s game and play a full game on Friday. Maybe he can give Joel Guzman some tips on how not to get injured.

You can follow the game live at 7:05pm.

Izturis on the way back:

"Cesar Izturis said his surgically
repaired right elbow has shown some improvement recently, but he wants
to get 10 consecutive days of infield throws in before setting a
timetable for a return to the field.

"I think (the pain) was because of the cold weather, at least that’s what the doctors are telling me," Izturis said.

Izturis is expected to continue his rehab in the minor leagues before returning."

Link: LA Daily News – Sports.

Ugly Baez, ugly Repko – Dodgers lose a game they should have won

               

 
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LAD

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  W: Williamson  L: Baez  SV: Dempster
HR: LAD: J. Repko (2).

Do you remember that old adage that defense wins games? Well defense definitely lost this game for the Dodgers, and what an ugly sight the top of the 8th inning was for the Dodgers tonight with 2 costly errors coming on back-to-back Danys Baez pitches.

First off, what was Danys Baez doing coming in for a 6-out save anyway? I’m not blaming that decision for the loss as who could have honestly foresaw that defensive fiasco but it just struck me as a bit odd. Maybe Grady had him on his fantasy team and wanted him to pick up some extra points. Baez totally botched that 2-out no-runner-on soft hit chopper that would have put the Dodgers into the bottom of the 8th with a 2 run lead. It wasn’t the easiest play in the world to make as he was ranging to his left but a major leaguer should make that play. Jason Repko then made an ugly throw from left field to home plate (or should I say to the high back stop) allowing both runners to move up 90 feet to second and third and putting them in position to score what would eventually be the tie and go ahead runs. On 2 pitches, the Dodgers gave away 3 bases when the inning should have been over. Just inexcusable for a team that hopes to contend for a division crown. You can’t give away bases like that! Man… I really miss the old Eric Gagne saving everything that was handed to him.

The play where Rafael Furcal took out Derrek Lee was pretty scary – he seemed to be in a lot of pain and was clutching his right wrist. Hopefully for you Cubs fans he’s doing alright and will just feel soreness tomorrow… I’d hate it if something bad happened to him. It was one of those plays where you an errant throw put him in an awkward position and BAM! Let’s hope for the best.

The Dodgers minor leaguers didn’t have such a great day either…

Report from the farm:

The Las Vegas 51’s (AAA) lost 3-2 to Fresno. The Jacksonville Suns (AA) beat Carolina 9-1.

Joel Guzman was 1-for-4 with a single. He’s hitting .309  for Las Vegas.
Andre Ethier was 1-for-4 with a triple. He’s hitting .435 for Las Vegas.
Russell Martin was 0-for-4. He’s hitting .282 for Las Vegas.
Andy LaRoche was 1-for-4 with a HR for Jacksonville.
Matt Kemp was 2-for-4 with a HR, a walk, and 3 RBI for Jacksonville.

4/19 Prospect Batting Totals:  5-for-20, 1 triple, 2 home runs.

Well, better luck tomorrow.

Greg Maddux heading to L.A.?

ESPN is reporting that we may see a future hall-of-famer in Dodger blue next year… now wouldn’t THAT be cool?!

Link: ESPN.com – MLB – MLB Rumor Central: West bound?.

West bound?
Apr 18 – If Greg Maddux doesn’t pitch for the Cubs next year, the Dodgers are a possibility, the Daily Herald reports. New Dodgers GM Ned Colletti was with the Cubs when Maddux was there the first time (1986-92), and in San Francisco in 2004 when the Giants made Maddux a better offer than the deal he signed to return to the North Side.

Maddux is making $9 million this year, and his contract expires at season’s end.

Injury Updates:

In other news, Nomar Garciaparra took his second round of batting practice yesterday at Dodger Stadium and is closer to rejoining the club. When asked if Garciaparra would have to endure a minor-league rehab assignment before rejoining the ballclub, Grady Little said, "It’s a strong consideration right now."

Jayson Werth is still in a lot of pain from his wrist surgery five-months ago and there’s no time table on his return. "Is there a word beyond frustration?" Werth said. "If so, that’s the word to use to express how I feel."

Yhency Brazoban had Tommy John surgery on his right elbow on Tuesday. He’s expected to miss at least a year.

Dodgers beat the Cubs 2-1 in a pitcher’s duel (4/18/06)

 

 

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  W: T. Saito (1-0, 0.00); L: W. Ohman (1-1, 21.60)
HR: None.

Paul’s take on Tuesday night’s (4/18/06) game:

Well last night runs were at a premium for the 5th consecutive game. Carlos Zambrano didn’t seem to have amazing stuff, yet he still only surrendered 1 earned-run in 6 innings of work. He walked 5 and only struck out 3 batters which is suprising for him being such a power pitcher… his average is nearly a strike out an inning. He seemed to struggle a lot with control but the Dodgers failed to capitalize on all the free passes that he was issuing. The Dodgers 1 run rally with 2-outs in the bottom of the ninth inning really took me by suprise as Cubs reliever Will Ohman had retired Jose Cruz Jr. and Rafael Furcal easily and got Kenny Lofton down 0-2 with no runners on. Kenny did a fabulous job of working the count full and fighting off a pitch and eventually drew the base on balls. Having speed on the base path was key at that moment as he stole second and eventually set up J.D. Drew’s second RBI – his game winning RBI single down the right field corner… It’s possible Kenny may have scored on that even if he was on first but, having stolen the base, he was able to easily cruise home and the Dodgers picked up their 7th win of the year.

A few more thoughts I had during the course of the game:

1st inning – Kent drilled a Zambrano pitch hard to right field and got semi-robbed by a diving Juan Pierre. After he made contact I realized he’s probably suffering no bad ill effects from the Hennessey bean to his helmet a few days earlier.

2nd inning – James Loney got drilled in the left leg by a hard Zambrano pitch. Scary… but he walked it off like a trooper and didn’t seem to suffer any ill effects.  Everytime a Dodger gets spiked of beaned of comes up limping I say to myself, "Oh no here we go again…"

5th inning – J.D. Drew’s RBI double… finally. 1-0 lead. This is the first run scored against Zambrano at Dodger Stadium ever! Vin says he had gone 20 2/3 inning with no run. Amazing.
Later Kent strikes out. He looks to be struggling at the plate. His average has dropped to .250

6th inning – What’s up with Juan Pierre wearing his helmet over cap? Why do players still do that? Isn’t that a little league thing? I hate it.

Loney’s rookie error in the 6th could have hurt us… he totally stepped in front of Kent – it would have been a routine play.

Dioner is looking bad defensively behind the plate – base stealers are 15 for 15 against Dodgers. I wonder to myself if Russell Martin would be producing more for the Dodgers right now if he was in the bigs?

Later is Lowe pitching out of a jam.. strikes out Ramirez w/ 1st and 3rd 1 out.. Nice!

In the bottom Dioner flies out again. He’s really looking bad at the plate… he seems to be popping everything up.. always lazy fly balls. I can’t remember the last time I saw him hit a ball hard, for a hit OR and out. He ALWAYS seems to be coming up with runners on and he can’t convert any of them into runs. He goes 0-for-4 for the night with 2 strikeouts and LEAVES 7 MEN ON BASE. Not what I want to see.

7th inning – Kenny Lofton really makes a pitcher work. Its a great asset. He’s made Zambrano throw a ton of pitches and he’s doing the same to Scott Eyre. He ends up flying out but it was a good at bat.

8th inning – Saito looked really good today. He struck out 4 of the 6 batters he faced, retired all 6. That’s nice to have out of the pen.

Dioner keeps coming up when he dodgers need a hit, and keeps failing. Chased BALL 4 in the dirt. Ack!

Some other general thoughts I had were that Rafael Furcal is really nice to have defensively at short stop, and that Lowe pitched a very strong game… he never found himself in that much trouble and did really good not to give up the big inning like he is has struggled with in the past. Looking at his last 2 starts I think that he’s found his groove and hopefully he continues to retire batters as easily as he did on Tuesday night.

Update from the farm – Dodger prospects:

The Las Vegas 51’s (AAA) won 9-5 on Tuesday night vs. the Fresno Grizzlies. The Jacksonville Suns (AA) lost 3-2 to the Carolina Mud Cats.

Joel Guzman was 2-for-4 with a double, home run (3) and 3 (13) RBI’s. He’s hitting .314.
Andre Ethier was 4-for-5 with a double, home run (1) and 2 RBI’s. He’s hitting .452.
Russell Martin was 1-for-4 with a double. He’s hitting .314.
Jonathan Broxton pitched an inning and allowed 1 walk while striking out 1 batter. He still has a 0.00 ERA for the season.
Andy LaRoche was 1-for-4 for the Suns.

4/18 Prospect Batting Totals:  8-for-17, 3 doubles, 2 home runs.

Inaugural Dodger Daily Blog

Another day, another blog… for me at least. This blog, as you can tell by it’s name, color scheme, and Internet location, is going to be entirely dedicated and related to the Los Angeles Dodgers, with a special emphasis on the great farm system the Dodgers have. Enough with the pleasantries, I’m going to get to the meat of the first post…

As I write, the Dodgers are mired in their first offensive slump of the year. Yes, it has only been 4 games since their bats have gone quiet, but as a Dodger fan it doesn’t look good. In their last 4 games they’ve managed only 5 runs on 17 hits… that’s just 5 runs in 36 innings. This was quite a departure from the way the Dodger’s offense had been powerfully running along–they had just returned home from a 7 days road trip that saw them score 6.6 runs per game… and I mean they were banging them out. I’m not quite ready to throw up the white flags just yet and concede the division, however what we saw in the last 4 home games cannot please the Dodger fan. After seemingly scoring at will they’ve looked lost at the plate… and their recent inability to drive in runners in scoring position is also alarming. We’ll have to just watch and see if their bats come alive during the rest of this homestand.

In better news, the Dodger’s farm system is thriving, as many of you know… and our top prospects are out to a ferocious start. Let’s take a look at some of the numbers entering today (4/18/06).

According to Baseball America, the top 5 Dodger prospects are, in this order:

1. Chad Billingsley, rhp
2. Andy LaRoche, 3b
3. Joel Guzman, ss/3b
4. Russell Martin, c
5. Jonathan Broxton, rhp

4 of the 5 prospects are currently playing with the Las Vegas 51’s, with Andy LaRoche being the only player still with the Jacksonville Suns. Here are their current stats:

1. Chad Billingsley
W-2  L-0  ERA-2.93 G-3  GS-3  IP-15.1  H-12  R-6  ER-5  HR-2  BB-7  SO-19  WHIP-1.24

2. Andy LaRoche
G-11  AB-39  R-4  H-10  2B-2  3B-0  HR-0  RBI-5  BB-10  SO-5  SB-0  CS-0  E-NA AVG-.256  OBP-.420  SLG-.308  OPS-NA

3. Joel Guzman
G-12  AB-47  R-7  H-14  2B-2  3B-0  HR-2  RBI-10  BB-0  SO-14  SB-1  CS-0  AVG-.298  OBP-.306  SLG-.468  OPS-.774

4. Russell Martin
G-9  AB-31 R-7  H-10  2B-5  3B-0  HR-0  RBI-5  BB-4  SO-6  SB-0  CS-0  AVG-.323  OBP-.389  SLG-.484  OPS-.873

5.Jonathan Broxton
W-1  L-0  ERA-0.00 G-5  GS-0  SV-2  IP-5  H-3  R-0  ER-0  HR-0  BB-1  SO-9  WHIP-0.80

I have added the color and the bold for emphasis – I’ll be doing this throughout the blog. BLUE means I am highlighting a positive stat and RED means I am highlighting a negative stat, or at least in this case something alarming.

I am very excited about the future of all of these Dodger prospects but especially Joel Guzman, however his 14 strikeouts to 0 walks is a little worrisome. I won’t harp on him too bad though… he is a young hitter and I’m sure the thinking is that he’ll gain plate discipline as he grows and matures in the pro leagues. He does have tremendous power, however, and I think he’s one of the brightest hitters shining in the minors today. I can’t wait to get a look at him on the Dodgers… maybe it will be later this year? Who knows. I’m not desperate to want to rush any of these players into the majors, however if things keep going the way they have been for the Dodgers injury-wise, it’s probably we might see most of these players before the year is up. As for now, I’ll keep tracking their minor league stats and continue to report on them as I see fit.

Both pitchers have gotten out to a tremendous start. Billingsley is looking very sharp and he has the stats to back it up. 19 strike outs to only 7 walks is nice to see, as is the ERA under 3. Broxton is looking equally dominant, with only 3 hits allowed in 5 games (5 IP total) and 9 strike outs to only 1 walk. We’ll see how long he can go without allowing an earned run.

Andy LaRoche is the only player that is off to a slow start, but again I must reiterate that it he’s only had 39 plate appearances in this young season. His 10 walks to 5 strikeouts is nice to see as his OBP is higher than Guzman and Martin despite his average only being at .256.

Russell Martin is off to a fast start and he’s hitting for average with the highest OPS of the bunch. Not bad for the Dodgers’ best defensive catcher in the organization (according to Baseball America).

Well that’s it for my first blog entry. Hopefully you enjoyed it somewhat. If you are reading this feel free to leave me some feedback/comments/criticism and join the discussion. Peace, and go BLUE!