By Jon Weisman
If this doesn’t get you pumped … well, don’t worry. It will.
Clayton Kershaw, April 1
[mlbvideo id=”25948801″ width=”550″ height=”308″ /]
Month: February 2014 (Page 3 of 6)
By Jon Weisman
One week until it’s time for Dodger (Spring Training) baseball …
- Injury updates on several Dodgers are provided by Eric Stephen of True Blue L.A. It could be a couple of weeks before we know more about Matt Kemp.
… Kemp has had monthly MRI exams since having surgery to remove torn cartilage in his left ankle in October. Mattingly said the last exam was roughly two weeks ago, so we could have another two weeks or so before hearing anything new. …
- More encouraging news — and a great quote — are coming from Josh Beckett and Dan Haren, according to Mark Saxon of ESPN LosAngeles.
… “I said, ‘Did you ever dream you’d be watching a guy with a beard like Brian Wilson pitch with Sandy Koufax standing 10 feet from you?’” Beckett said. “Dan Haren’s like, ‘Yeah, it seems like there should be a unicorn somewhere.’” …
- Since before the beginning of Spring Training, it’s been apparent that there might not be a full-time starter at second base come March 22. As Saxon and Stephen report, nothing has changed on that count.
- Proclamation time:
“If (@HanleyRamirez) plays 130-140 games this year, you’re looking at the leading candidate for MVP.” –@AJEllis17
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) February 19, 2014
- “There’s no reason not to be confident” in Paco Rodriguez, despite the fact that he ran out of steam last fall, Don Mattingly told Ken Gurnick of MLB.com … along with Stephen.
- In this Gurnick news feature about Don Mattingly, managers and long-term contracts comes this tidbit: “Jamey Wright has played for 29 managers in his 21 professional seasons.”
- Yasiel Puig’s signing could have an impact for the Dodgers’ future international efforts, reports Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com.
… “The way it works down there, [amateur] players come to tryouts at your camp, and we had a hard time getting players to come to the academy [in the Dominican Republic] until we signed Puig,” (Ned) Colletti said. “I was down there about three weeks ago or so, and it was probably the best group of players that I’ve seen. A lot of it has to do with our ability to spend, and we’ve increased our scouting internationally three-fold from where it was. We have the finances to be competitive with players from Cuba and amateurs in other countries. Puig was a very key sign for us in more ways than just his talent.”
- Tommy Davis is the latest to be featured in Ernest Reyes’ 1961 Union Oil Family Booklet series at Blue Heaven.
- Joe Morgan talked with Bill James? It’s more than 80 minutes (via Baseball Think Factory), but this I gotta hear. “A lot of you may not know him as well as I do,” Morgan said, “but he is the father of sabermetrics, so to speak, and a guy that I really have a lot of admiration for. I don’t agree with a lot of sabermetrics people, but I’ve rarely disagreed with Bill.”
Kenley Jansen blew a couple past Yasiel Puig — Puig responds: https://t.co/t6BsEqCpXZ
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) February 19, 2014
[wpvideo shmKE2TA]
By Jon Weisman
Before dawn on February 12, I found myself on the westbound Interstate 10, heading toward LAX to leave Los Angeles. I flew in a plane to Phoenix, landed, rented a car and found myself … on the westbound Interstate 10 with signs pointing toward Los Angeles.
I mean, that’s a little weird, isn’t it? In order to reach the Spring Training home of the Los Angeles baseball club at Camelback Ranch, I had to head for the regular-season home of the Los Angeles baseball club. I guess the only way I could have topped that would have been to leave from Glendale, California to get to Glendale, Arizona.
This was my first Spring Training trip in 21 years, and on the surface the journey was less exotic than when I went from Washington D.C. to Vero Beach by way of Fort Lauderdale. That 1993 trip was focused on seeing as many games as possible up and down the Grapefruit League (I believe it was something like eight in seven days), while last week, I was going to be at Camelback Ranch before the games even started, barely budging from my destination.
But this trip, which ended Sunday, provided its own version of a stranger in a strange land. This would be the Dodgers at Spring Training from the inside out, with more of my time spent confined to the clubhouse and clubhouse-adjacent, working and pursuing interviews, than on the fields soaking up atmosphere. At times, I wondered if I was doing it right – not just the job, but the experience itself.
For all my interviews, I left with some questions unanswered, at least for now. How much do the players feel like they’re in a fishtank, with the fans close enough to rap the glass, and how much do they care? What do the players think of the reporters standing around the clubhouse, draggedly waiting for their interview opportunities, hovering like a bad clutch of helicopter parents?
Those to-be-continueds aside, I also left with a few newly cherishable memories. Riding on the back of a golf cart next to Don Mattingly. Clayton Kershaw throwing on a back field in front of maybe 20 people. Sandy Koufax in a hallway, conversing so quietly that I nearly walked right by him without noticing.
Perhaps most of all, there was Scott Van Slyke carrying his toddler son into the clubhouse in the relaxed post-workout serenity of a Sunday afternoon. Man, that little boy was as cute as can be, electrifying me at once with how lucky Scott was to have that experience (presumably both ways, bookended with his father Andy), and how lucky I would be to be reunited with my children that night.
It’s fair to take a step back and wonder why the lure of Spring Training is so strong, especially during this pre-preseason period that offers no meal of games, just an appetizer of batting practice, bullpens, stretches and drills. The obvious answer is that it’s about connection, with celebrity, with heroes, with greatness, with simplicity, with parenthood, with childhood, with warmth, with grass, with sky, with a slice of life that you never want to slip away.
Nothing’s perfect, and inside or outside, Spring Training can bring its own set of frustrations and disappointments. But done right, Spring Training will wipe the cynicism clean off your soul.
The point being, I guess, that even as you’re going home from Spring Training, you’re leaving, and even as you’re leaving, you’re going home.
… we’re getting closer.
It hasn’t even been two weeks since the field looked like this:
And not even four weeks since we were still like this:
— Jon Weisman
[mlbvideo id=”31367651″ width=”550″ height=”308″ /]
By Jon Weisman
Koufax in Camelback? Like Thanksgiving in February.
- Here’s a roundup of recent Sandy Koufax stories by Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, Dylan Hernandez of the Times, Eric Stephen of True Blue L.A., Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles. and Bill Plunkett of the Register.
- Koufax can also be seen in Monday’s photo gallery from Jon SooHoo. Here’s his gallery from today.
- And here’s a post about Koufax at the Countdown Down Under MLBlog, as we approach the 50th anniversary of Koufax’s only (yes, only) Opening Day start.
- By the way, Koufax isn’t the only Cy Young winner who can give advice …
Sandy Koufax and @OrelHershiser give @RossStripling a pitching lesson: pic.twitter.com/BtQfXcHsiT
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) February 18, 2014
- Brandon League has had his throwing reduced in recent days because of a lat strain. Zach Lee, suffering from a similar problem, had plans to throw off a mound today.
- What will the Dodgers’ lineup be in 2017? Dustin Nosler of Dodgers Digest speculates.
- Seth Rosin prides himself on his “3-wood”-like versatility, writes Tyler Emerick for MLB.com.
- Former Dodger pitcher Dana Eveland signed a minor-league deal with the Mets, according to Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish. Eveland went to Baltimore in the 2011 deal that brought to Los Angeles pitcher Jarrett Martin, who is profiled here by MLB.com and by J.P. Hoornstra of the Daily News.
- Roger Angell, the baseball specialist for the New Yorker, was one of the formative writers of my youth and young adulthood. That declined somewhat in the past 10 years as he wrote less frequently and telescoped more on the New York scene when he did (understandably). But his piece this week for the New Yorker on aging and dying will stick with me as much as anything he has ever done.
By Jon Weisman
Happy Day of the Leaders of the Executive Branch …
- Non-roster invitee Chone Figgins talked with Bill Plunkett of the Register about his … well, maybe it’s too strong to call it a comeback attempt in the traditional sense, but close enough, you know?
… By the end of his lost season, Figgins had decided he would work out for scouts during the winter in hopes of landing an invitation to someone’s spring camp.
He did that on Jan. 15 with about 10 teams sending scouts. The Dodgers sent Vance Lovelace, vice president for player personnel and a close advisor to General Manager Ned Colletti.
“Usually a guy with 10, 12 years in the big leagues or whatever – you go see a guy’s workout and he’ll do, like, 10, 15 minutes,” Lovelace said. “This guy worked out for a good 45 minutes. He ran the 60 (in 6.3 seconds, according to Figgins). He hit from both sides of the plate. He was a one-man infield but he took balls in center field, he took balls at third base, he took balls at shortstop, second base. It was the full gamut.”
Figgins joked that it was “a full high-school workout” but acknowledged it was a very humbling “reality check” for an 11-year major-league veteran. …
Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles has more.
- Eric Stephen of True Blue L.A. has a good news feature on why salary arbitration is a necessary evil, with first-hand quotes from Ned Colletti, Don Mattingly and Tim Wallach, among others.
- Dodger president and CEO Stan Kasten did a one-on-one interview with Ken Gurnick of MLB.com.
- Gurnick also mentions the annual clubhouse ping-pong tournament, with Clayton Kershaw commissioner and Ellen Kershaw assistant commissioner and poster artist.
- A nice pass-along from J.P. Hoornstra of the Daily News: this front page of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from October 1916. I’ll leave it to you to find the gems.
- This was a fun bit of President’s Day trivia from Bill Cluck at Gammons Daily: pitching win leaders by presidential term. Paul Derringer, anyone?
Sandy Koufax is in the building: pic.twitter.com/z55q1r6fZv
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) February 16, 2014
By Jon Weisman
GLENDALE, Ariz. — It is quite humbling to walk in the same hallway with royalty. And in a sense, it happened more than once today, with Sandy Koufax and Clayton Kershaw.
Kershaw was the featured player at Spring Training this morning, going over to minor-league camp to face hitters for the first time this year. He threw about 25 pitches, and until the last one, the best swing was probably a foul ball grounded wide of third base.
Then, on Kershaw’s final pitch, minor-league free-agent signee Aaron Bates, who only joined the organization 19 days ago, shot a grounder up the middle. Kershaw reacted in midseason form, dropping down to snare the ball on one hop.
Clayton Kershaw in midseason Miyagi form: https://t.co/6KGGSN2Qj0
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) February 16, 2014
“It was good that I caught it — it might have hit me right in the shins,” Kershaw said with a laugh.
Kershaw, along with manager Don Mattingly, took numerous questions from reporters today on workload and how Kershaw will be used at the outset of the season. Because of the odd spacing of the early season schedule, Kershaw could start as many as three of the first six games of 2014 — March 22 in Sydney, March 30 in San Diego and April 4 against the Giants in Los Angeles. Kershaw is certainly willing, but Mattingly was wary of that possibility, as Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, Dylan Hernandez of the Times, Mark Saxon of ESPNLosAngeles.com, J.P. Hoornstra of the Daily News, Bill Plunkett of the Register and Eric Stephen of True Blue L.A. could tell you.
Mattingly discussed monitoring Kershaw’s innings in general after the lefty threw 259 innings in 2013 (including postseason), but raised a point that Kershaw also emphasized — the real thing to keep an eye on was stressful innings.
“You’d see it three or four times last year where it’s just not clean, he’s having to fight the whole game,” Mattingly said (via Saxon’s report). “Those wear on guys. There are other games where you throw nine innings, but it’s 10, 11 pitches an inning and it seems like he’s just out there playing catch.”
Said Kershaw (via Stephen): “I’ve never been a big fan of monitoring innings. I feel like throwing 100 pitches in nine innings is a lot different than throwing 100 pitches in five innings. I think stressful innings is what you have to monitor. Inning count isn’t a huge detriment, but the stressful innings really get you.”
There’s also the issue that the more often the Dodgers use Kershaw in those early games, the more stale such pitchers as Hyun-Jin Ryu and Dan Haren might become. In any case, there are weeks for this to play out.
Coincident to all this, Koufax walked into Camelback Ranch during the quiet period after workouts, with players trickling out the doors. No doubt, he and Kershaw will have a conversation, royalty meeting royalty. It happened about an hour after I asked Kershaw about the best advice the Hall of Famer had ever given him.
“Nothing that I want to talk about,” Kershaw said. “Sandy’s a pretty private guy, and I respect him so much. He talks about the game, and it’s just great to be around him.”
“It looks like you picked up some style since last year.” -Sandy Koufax “I’ve always had style, Sandy.” -Matt Kemp pic.twitter.com/DuCmuoMLdw
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) February 16, 2014
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrmGKylacQg&w=550&h=413]
By Jon Weisman
Check out the stars. Check out the hats. Check out the moves in this time capsule from March 1985 of the long-forgotten game show “Body Language” with Steve Sax, Dave Anderson, Mike Marshall and Greg Brock. It is quite a sight.
Thanks to Joe Adalian for the link.
[mlbvideo id=”31365675″ width=”550″ height=”308″ /]
By Jon Weisman
Notes from a Saturday in the park …
- Dylan Hernandez of the Times and Ken Gurnick of MLB.com have pieces on Carl Crawford’s physical status. From Hernandez:
… Living in Arizona over the winter, Crawford addressed his health problems by spending a significant part of his off-season at the Dodgers’ spring-training complex. Under the supervision of Dodgers trainers, he worked to strengthen his core and back.
Crawford, who was a four-time American League stolen-base champion with the Tampa Bay Rays, intends to become a threat on the basepaths again.
“I really want to run,” he said. “I got gun shy last season because any time I stole a base, I had pain. I know I can steal 25 bases. It’s frustrating when I’m stealing 10 or 11. I do everything else fast. I still run down balls in the outfield, I still get triples, I still go first to third, so it’s frustrating I don’t steal more bases.” …
- Because the Dodger pitchers got their one off day from Spring Training today, Dodger catchers had a precious day to focus on hitting, notes Gurnick. “Being a catcher, sometimes you’re unavailable to get in the quality swings other position players get,” A.J. Ellis said.
- Miguel Rojas discussed the challenges of transitioning from shortstop to second base — keeping Alex Guerrero in mind — with J.P. Hoornstra of the Daily News.
- Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles writes about the comfort zone for Cuban Dodgers Yasiel Puig, Alex Guerrero and Onelki Garcia, who locker side-by-side-by-side.
- Aaron Harang, one of the Spring Training starting pitchers with the Dodgers a year ago, has just signed a minor-league deal with Cleveland and will compete for a spot in the Indians’ rotation, reports Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.
- Another 1961 Dodger artifact comes from Ernest Reyes of Blue Heaven, featuring Walter Alston. Definitely worth the click.
- Mark Mulder, whose Paco Rodriguez-inspired comeback after more than five years away from the majors looked like it might be the story of the year in baseball, saw that hope end when he ruptured his left Achilles’ tendon in an agility drill before his first bullpen session for the Angels, writes Mike DiGiovanna of the Times.
I can handle this. But seeing my son in tears when he saw me in a boot and crutches and I told him I wasn’t going to pitch. That was tough.
— Mark Mulder (@markmulder20) February 15, 2014
Mike Baxter, second from left, runs with fellow reserve candidates Miguel Rojas, Dee Gordon,
Nick Buss and Chone Figgins at Camelback Ranch on Friday.
By Jon Weisman
GLENDALE, Ariz. — He hasn’t been the subject of much chatter at Spring Training, but outfielder Mike Baxter has displayed a special skill that might be of intrigue to fans wondering about the Dodger bench in 2014.
Baxter, quietly claimed October 17 off waivers from the New York Mets by the Dodgers (who were planning for 2014 even during the 2013 National League Championship Series), has a career .417 on-base percentage and .463 slugging in 84 plate appearances as a pinch-hitter. His .313 batting average coming in cold off the bench trails only Corey Hart, Jamey Carroll and Seth Smith among MLB players active in 2013.
“A lot of my time has been as a bench player,” the 29-year-old said today. “Over the years, I’ve kind of gotten comfortable in that role, so I have a lot of experience with it. I look forward to getting at-bats off the bench.”
That’s easy enough to understand. In 2012, Baxter was unconscious as a pinch-hitter, leading MLB by going 11 for 24 with eight walks and six doubles for a .458/.559/.708 slash line. He came back in 2013 with a .412 on-base percentage in another 34 pinch-hit plate appearances.
Twice in three nights last year, on May 7 and May 9, Baxter had walkoff singles, the first breaking a 0-0 tie in the bottom of the 10th.
[mlbvideo id=”26983057″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]
“I’ve developed an in-game routine that I’ve tried to stick to through the course of the season,” Baxter said. “When you’re coming off the bench, you’ve just got to be ready to go from the first pitch they throw you. You get a good pitch to hit, you’ve got to go for it.”
Overall, Baxter has hit .229 in 353 career at-bats, dragged down by a .189 season in 2013, but with walks in 11 percent of his trips to the plate, his lifetime MLB on-base percentage is .335. He walked five times on August 4, 2012 to tie an NL record for a nine-inning game.
[mlbvideo id=”21940177″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]
Baxter has also displayed defensive ability as well as determination, earning a broken collarbone on a catch that helped preserve Johan Santana’s no-hitter on June 1, 2012. He said he spent the 2013-14 offseason “just trying to get back to kind of staying down through my swing and not popping out of it … staying down through contact.”
Last year, Dodger pinch-hitters OBPed .256 and slugged .313. No one reached base more often as a pinch-hitter than Jerry Hairston, who had seven hits but is now part of the SportsNet LA broadcast team. The Dodgers’ leading returning pinch-hitter is Scott Van Slyke, who went 4 for 10 with a home run.
“I’m excited to be here,” Baxter said. “When they claimed me in October off waivers, I was thrilled to have another chance and come out on a team with such a good roster and so many good players. I’m excited to be a part of it. I know that I can help them win.”
[mlbvideo id=”31364045″ width=”550″ height=”308″ /]
By Jon Weisman
The headline that came out of Camelback Ranch on Friday was Matt Kemp’s feelings about potentially being labeled a fourth outfielder, interpreted in different camps outside the clubhouse as an impending crisis or a declaration of confidence.
Putting aside the obvious that no one would want to be labeled below their potential — and at his maximum potential, Kemp isn’t a fourth outfielder but rather a starting outfielder at an All-Star Game — what’s most important about what Kemp said is when he said it.
On February 14.
We’re all eager to tap into the future and find out what this Dodger team is made of. But there’s no getting past the present — and the outfield, like second base, like the back of the starting rotation, like the back of the bullpen, like anything with the team, has several weeks to sort itself out.
It’s February. And yeah, soon it will be March, and this year, the season starts in March (for two games, anyway), and it’s true that time catches up with all of us and what is the meaning of life anyway?
Where was I? Oh yeah: It’s February.
As I wrote in January, we should be so fortunate if the Dodgers have a problem of four star-cailber outfielders who are healthy at the same time. A footnote: As Kemp spoke Friday, the Dodgers technically had no more than one of those. Kemp’s not running, Carl Crawford just had his wisdom teeth out and Yasiel Puig has a minor case of shoulder inflammation. Maybe not earthshattering, but it reminds you about the players’ vulnerabilities.
And it shouldn’t be lost that even Kemp realizes it’s early. As good as he feels with his swing …
Matt Kemp’s effortless power swing is back. He increased his baseball activity on Friday’s first full-squad workout, taking ground balls off the bat of first-base coach Davey Lopes and moving around like a healthy ballplayer. Then he matched every one of Yasiel Puig’s moonshots with the swing that’s been missing during two seasons of shoulder problems. Those seem to be over, based on the unrestricted follow-through of every swing. (Ken Gurnick, MLB.com)
… he knows he has to progress on his running.
“Me rushing back hasn’t helped any in the past two years, so I need to take a different approach,” Kemp said. “Rushing back I’m better, but when I come back other injuries happen from rushing back. I don’t want to be the player who comes back, feels good, gets hurt again, comes back. I want to be 100%. (Eric Stephen, True Blue L.A.)
For that matter, even Kemp understands that none of the four players in question wants to take a back seat.
“I get it. I think all of us four outfielders feel the same way. None of us are fourth outfielders, and everyone wants to play every day,” Kemp said, according to Stephen.
Opening Day is more than a month away, and even that is only the first of at least 162 games for the Dodgers. Kemp’s not rushing, and neither should we.
