Look who’s off the mat: Charlie Haeger threw six shutout innings for Albuquerque today. Josh Lindblom followed with two shutout innings in relief.
Also of note: Kiko Calero has not been scored upon in six innings since joining the organization. The 35-year-old had a 1.95 ERA and 69 strikeouts in 60 innings for Florida last year and a 3.24 ERA in his career. He made his major-league debut at age 28.
I like Andre Ethier. Like him a lot. I like Jonathan Broxton a lot, too.
I don’t like that Andre Ethier is allowed to fail, but Jonathan Broxton isn’t. Or maybe that’s the wrong way to put it – maybe it’s just that Broxton’s excellence is taken for granted in a way Ethier’s isn’t.
Because of Ethier’s history of walkoff success, no one holds it against him when he doesn’t come through in the clutch – which, quite frankly, is often. Part of that is the nature of hitting, which is very difficult.
Nevertheless, it’s something that when Ethier walks off with a victory, the fans build statues in his honor, and when Broxton walks off the mound with a Dodger victory, people shrug. That includes the past two postseasons. In his 11 appearances, Broxton did his job nine times.
Oh, but he didn’t do it 11 times.
In Game 4 of the 2009 National League Championship Series, Broxton entered the game in the same situation he entered Saturday’s game against Boston: runners on first and second, two out. And he got the out.
Then, after having had four consecutive scoreless appearances against the Cardinals and Phillies in the playoffs, he gave up the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. But does anyone remember what happened in the top of the ninth, with Rafael Furcal on third base and two out against Phillies reliever Brad Lidge?
Ethier struck out.
But I suppose some Dodger fans would rather have had Lidge on Saturday. After all, he did win a World Series once.
Here’s Broxton’s game log for this year before Saturday. I mean, it’s incredible. Those of you who can only focus on Broxton’s failures, you’re missing a heck of a show.
Think back to what the expectations were that summer day in 2008 when the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired Manny Ramirez. Think back to the fears.
That’s the standard Ramirez had to meet to be a success. And by that standard, that’s exactly what Ramirez has been.
As Ramirez was leaving the Boston Red Sox, the shout could be heard from coast to coast: “GOOD RIDDANCE!” He was 36 years old, objectively past his athletic prime and subjectively a cancer. For a Dodgers team saddled with its own nightmare in Andruw Jones (without the benefit of that nightmare having led the team to any World Series titles just a few years before), for a Dodgers team spinning its wheels with a 54-54 record, Ramirez was a calculated risk, potentially a waste of time and potentially a disaster. But instead of relying on the sub-.700 OPS Juan Pierre and Delwyn Young to fill out their outfield, the Dodgers gave up their third baseman of the future, Andy LaRoche, and first-round draft choice Bryan Morris, in the hopes that Ramirez would provide a jolt and not an electrocution.
That trade, in and of itself, can only be seen right now as a complete success. A spectacular one. Ramirez put together one of the most pyrotechnic hitting performances in Dodger history – an on-base percentage of .489 and slugging percentage of .743, 17 homers in 53 games – to lead the Dodgers to the National League Championship Series for the first time in 20 years. LaRoche, endorsed in this space repeatedly as the real deal, has fallen into a utility role with the struggling Pittsburgh Pirates at age 26, while the 23-year-old Morris is in the minors trying to come back from arm trouble. Both are young enough to change the scorecard, but I’m not sure anyone’s expecting the scales of that trade ever to be balanced.
If Ramirez’s accomplishments then seem tainted by his 2009 suspension now, the stain would only be darker on the Red Sox’s titles.
Then came the 2008-09 offseason, with the Dodgers talking Ramirez agent Scott Boras down from his histrionic expectation of a six-year megadeal – a request blindly endorsed by many in the media – to a two-year contract (including Ramirez’s option for the second year). Through May 6, 2009, the performance remained stratospheric: Ramirez on-based .492 and slugged .641. Then came his 50-game suspension.
That Ramirez broke the rules was distasteful. That he missed 50-plus games in his age-37 season is simply something anyone could see was possible. It was part of the risk; it was part of the reason that Ramirez and Boras got a contract that was only a third as long as they wanted. The May suspension and then a July hand injury accelerated Ramirez’s decline. The out-of-this-world player from late 2008 had left this world in 2009. By Ramirez standards, he was down.
Funny thing, though. By Dodger standards, he was still nothing less than great. For the year, Ramirez had a .418 on-base percentage and .531 slugging percentage in 104 games. His adjusted OPS of 155 was the highest by a Dodger (minimum 100 games) since Adrian Beltre in 2004.
Because Juan Pierre played above his own head for the month of May and pieces of April and August, Ramirez was considered a flop. Countless wanted him benched, claiming Pierre was the team’s MVP. Yet Ramirez was, quite simply, the better player. (His Wins Above Replacement figure of 2.6, according to Fangraphs, was nearly 50 percent higher than Pierre’s 1.8.) Ramirez did more to boost the Dodgers to their second consecutive NLCS appearance. Of course, Pierre gets more respect for his character, but tellingly, you don’t hear Pierre’s name mentioned in Los Angeles anymore, not with his OPS down to .588 this season in Chicago. No one’s busting Frank McCourt’s chops for failing to sign Gandhi and Mother Teresa to multiyear contracts.
This season, Ramirez has been inconsistent. He’s looked feeble in the outfield. He’s also been withdrawn from the media – a fact that seems to matter greatly to the media and not at all to anyone else. And yet, as he heads to Boston for the first time since his acrimonious departure, look where his numbers are: .386 on-base percentage, .517 slugging. Of late he has heated up, with an OPS of nearly 1.000 in June. The Manny Ramirez who will be cascaded with boos this weekend is a Manny Ramirez who is still one of the bigger offensive cogs in baseball.
Amid all the concerns swirling around Dodger ownership today, it’s quaint now to look at Ramirez’s $45 million price tag and debate whether the McCourts were overspending. You can look at the list of 2008-09 free agents and find a better way to spend $45 million – if you look long and hard enough. Mostly, what you’ll find is a host of players who, with a lot less grief, have done noticeably worse than the war-torn Ramirez.
If you compare Ramirez to the player he was in September 2008, if you hold him to a standard so unreasonable only he could have set it, then he’s a disappointment. But if you compare him to the player he was in July 2008, the player many people reasonably feared he might become in 2009 and 2010 – in other words, if you make a sane comparison – he still looks rather remarkable. Ramirez has few to blame but himself for becoming a fan and media pinata, but those smashing might pause for a moment to note all the candy that has been pouring out of it.
The Dodgers have never played a World Series Game 7 in my lifetime, but Game 7 of the 1984 NBA Finals between the Lakers and Celtics came during my heyday as a Laker fan. And I have no memory of it. It’s bizarre. I remember so much of what led up to that seventh game, but the game itself jogs nothing in my brain. Basically, when I think of the 1984 Finals, I think of Gerald Henderson’s steal. For all that went on, that tells the story.
So maybe tonight’s won’t be a game for the ages, for me, anyway. When I think of the 2010 NBA playoffs, maybe I’ll be more likely to think of Ron Artest’s put-back against Phoenix than anything else.
Maybe.
The push and pull of this series has revved me up. I went to Game 2 of the NBA finals and left in defeat but with relative piece of mind, believing that the Lakers would have no trouble regaining home-court advantage by winning one of three games in Boston. And so they did, in their next opportunity.
But by the time Game 5 came, I was dying as Boston made shot after shot. With Game 6, the turnaround by the Lakers brought back the passion of my days as a no-holds-barred Laker fan — not so long ago, really.
I’m not as hardcore as I once was. Almost nothing in the NBA regular season affects me anymore, and if the Lakers had bowed out in earlier playoff rounds this year, I would have been disappointed but similarly composed.
But tonight, I’m back. It’s not a matter of being a fair-weather fan, because the Lakers’ nearly bottomless pit of fair weather this year has mostly anesthetized me. It’s this all-stakes, live-or-die night that’s done it. I want this. I really want this. I hope it’s one worth remembering.
With 21 doubles in 64 Dodger games this season, James Loney is on pace to tie the franchise record of 52 in a season and break the Los Angeles record of 49.
If that doesn’t suit you, there’s always this: Will Loney become the first Los Angeles Dodger to finish a year with single-digit homers and triple-digit RBI?
From the Dodger press notes:
RAINY DAY TUESDAY – The National Weather Center is now predicting a strong chance of severe weather (with the potential for tornadic activity) late this afternoon and early evening. If the nasty weather becomes a reality, all credentialed press will be sheltered in the left field level media interview room as the press box and broadcast booths will need to be evacuated.
The Weather Channel paints a rosier, if plenty muggy, picture.
ESPN’s Page 2 asked me to write about The Scream, and I said I would, and then it turned out they didn’t want an Edvard Munch piece at all. They wanted this.
Anyway, I didn’t say this in the Page 2 piece, and I realize this is all for a good cause, but tonight’s scream strikes me as just an extraordinarily bad idea. But I guess I’m biased against the idea of people being involuntarily subjected to the loudest scream in history …
* * *
He’s here — or more accurately, he’s there. Cleveland has called up Casey Blake tradee Carlos Santana.
AAA Albuquerque slugger John Lindsey has been placed on the Isotopes’ disabled list with a strained calf, according to the team’s press notes. For the time being, Justin Sellers is taking Lindsey’s roster spot.
There were other Albuquerque roster moves that I mentioned in the Dodger Thoughts comments Thursday – so in case you missed them, here’s the press note version:
“Lefty Brent Leach has been sent to Double-A Chattanooga in the place of starter Alberto Bastardo, who joins the ‘Topes after going 5-3 with a 4.85 ERA in 11 starts for the Lookouts. In the bullpen, Jon Link returns from his latest stint in Los Angeles and Major League veteran Kiko Calero joins the Dodgers organization after signing as a free agent. Calero started the season at Triple-A Buffalo in the Mets organization but was released on May 16 after going 2-0 with a 10.59 ERA (20 ER / 17.0 IP) in 10 games. To make room for Calero and Link, Scott Elbert was placed on the Temporary Inactive List and Eric Thompson was transferred to Ogden’s roster.
The Washington Nationals plan to start Steven Strasburg every five days (as opposed to every five games), according to Dave Nichols of Nationals News Network (via Baseball Musings).
If the Nationals keep to that schedule, that would put Strasburg in Dodger Stadium on Saturday, August 7.
Blake DeWitt doesn’t need to worry about being sent to the minors anymore – and that was true before Monday’s five-RBI explosion – writes Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com. “I finally had to call him in at one point and tell him, ‘No, you’re not going (to the minor leagues),”‘ Dodger manager Joe Torre told Jackson. “And then I said, ‘We’re going to make another move this weekend, and it’s not going to be you then, either.”‘
* * *
… Zach Lee, 6-foot-4, 195-pound right handed high school pitcher from McKinney, Texas.
He’s a high-school quarterback committed to Louisiana State, so there are immediate signability issues. This draft choice sets up a new referendum on the McCourt ownership.
Here’s a scouting report with video from MLB.com. An excerpt:
Summary: With above-average to plus stuff across the board — fastball, slider, changeup — good command and tremendous athleticsm, Lee should be one of the high school arms being mentioned up close to the top of the Draft, or at least on a short list of top high school arms. If he’s not, it’s largely because of one thing: signability. As a quarterback recruit, he’s committed to play two sports at LSU next year, and many think he’s unsignable as a result. That said, there’s bound to be a team with deep pockets that will take a shot at luring him away from the gridiron and life as a collegiate athlete.
Here’s what Marc Hulet of Fangraphs has to say:
A top quarterback prospect from Texas, it will clearly take a lot ($$$) to sway Lee away from his commitment to Louisiana State University. A team drafting Lee in the first round will have to have a pretty good feel on his signability. Lee has a three pitch repertoire that includes a low-90s fastball, slider, and change-up. His arm slot tends to wander at times. Thanks to his focus on the football field, the right-hander is still raw but he does display solid control for his age.
From ESPN.com:
Lee is a star quarterback who has committed to LSU to play both football and baseball, but if he put word out tomorrow that he was willing to sign and focus exclusively on the world’s greatest sport, he’d go off the board in the top 50 picks next month.
Lee will show three pitches, with the changeup already flashing plus, and his fastball velocity is likely to increase as he fills out and if he dedicates himself to baseball.
He has a really bright future if and when he chooses baseball, but if he’s not interested in a pro career now, doesn’t that say something about the kid’s commitment to football and/or school? Buying him out of LSU isn’t the solution, and I think he’ll be a top-20 guy in 2013.
From Baseball America:
Lee’s status as one of the best quarterback recruits in the nation and a top student will make him one of the most difficult signing decisions in this draft. The perception among area scouts is that Lee might require as much as $3 million—and even that might not be enough to steer him away from playing two sports at Louisiana State. He passed for 2,565 yards and 31 touchdowns last fall, and his arm is just as potent on the mound. He already has a 90-93 mph fastball with room for more projection in his 6-foot-4, 195-pound frame. He also throws a sharp slider and a changeup that needs work but shows promise. Unlike many two-sport stars, he has a lot of polish. Lee has a clean delivery that he repeats, enabling him to throw strikes with ease.
Here’s some video of Lee playing football at YouTube. And here he is on the mound last summer at the Area Code Games.
Jim Callis of Baseball America called the Dodgers “the last team” he expected to go after Lee.
Of course, there’s always the possibility that football is leverage, rather than the top priority for Lee. And it’s not as if the Dodgers have no draft budget – they could always have made a conservative pick that would sign relatively inexpensively. But hardcore fans will be watching carefully to see if the Dodgers punted this pick, or if they will complete the Hail Mary. Certainly, there is going to be tons of skepticism.
The draft continues Tuesday.
Update: From Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“People can think what they want, he was the best talent available and I want to sign him, absolutely,” said Logan White, assistant general manager of scouting. “I didn’t take Zach to not sign him. You’ll see as the summer goes along we’ll make every effort to sign him, and I want to sign him. I know it won’t be easy, but hopefully we’ll get it done.” …
“If he focuses on baseball, I think he can move quickly, like Kershaw and Billingsley,” said White. “A lot will be made of the two sports, but as a pitcher, he has a real good arm and delivery, a plus breaking ball, he has a feel for a changeup, and when I saw him he was 90-92 [mph] with the fastball and up to 95. The ball comes out of his hand easily.
“The guy’s a competitor, he’s smart. Put it all together and we really couldn’t pass him up. He’s worth the risk of not signing. I like him that much.”
Unlike many recent Dodgers top picks, the club did not hold a special workout for Lee. According to White, Lee was surprised to get the call.
“He certainly was surprised,” White said. “They didn’t have a feel for what we were going to do. It’s part of the gamesmanship of the Draft.”
Update 2: From Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com:
“These are unusual circumstances,” White said. “I can only say that I am optimistic we will sign him. … [But] I can’t sit here and tell you that we’re going to sign him. It will really be Zach’s decision and his family’s decision. But we feel confident that once he and his family are able to get a good look at what this organization is all about, we’ll have a good chance to get him.”
White said Lee’s fastball has been clocked anywhere between 89-95 mph and routinely hits 93 and that he already has a plus changeup and curveball to go with it.
“One thing I will tell you is that he is quite an athlete,” White said. “One thing we liked was his athleticism, his size and his strength. He is tall and has a very good delivery, just easy, easy arm action. He is a strike thrower, and he knows how to change speeds. He has a great feel for pitching. He doesn’t just try to blow it by everybody, even though he has that ability. It’s a chess game for him because he is very competitive.”
White said Lee plans to follow through with his plans to participate in LSU’s summer football workouts, so an agreement with the Dodgers probably isn’t imminent. White wouldn’t rule out an agreement that would allow Lee to play football at LSU while playing baseball professionally in the Dodgers’ system, but it also didn’t sound like the kind of agreement White is eager to enter into.
“I wouldn’t rule anything out, but I just feel like if we can get him into our organization, he is going to be [in the majors] pretty fast,” White said.
Casey Blake, who hasn’t played since Thursday’s 14-inning game, might be available to pinch-hit tonight, Joe Torre told reporters today. Torre now believes Blake will avoid a trip to the disabled list.
A.J. Ellis is starting for the second consecutive day in place of Russell Martin. Torre said Martin was ready to play, but Torre felt that he could use the extra rest. This is the first time since June 30-July 1, 2009 that Martin has missed consecutive starts.
Charlie Haeger is back on the taunting-the-skeptics disabled list with a sprained right big toe, the Dodgers announced this afternoon. Jon Link was recalled from Albuquerque, though his stay could be as short as 24 hours if George Sherrill comes off the disabled list Tuesday.
“Scully and Wooden: For the Kids” re-airs on Prime Ticket after tonight’s Dodger postgame show, for the first time since its live presentation. (Of course, some of us never deleted it from our DVRs.) Here’s my writeup the night of the event. If you never saw it, you don’t want to miss it.
A.J. Ellis’ 11th-inning single to left gave the Dodgers’ their Dodgers’ sixth win in their past eight games – all by one run, four by walkoff hit and three in extra innings. In going 6-2, the Dodgers have been outscored by one run.
Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com recaps Ellis’ heroic finish, which came after a long day.
Ellis has only six hits on the season, five singles and a double, but also has seven RBI.
* * *
The two-time All-Star was about to make his third pitch of the eighth inning to Matt Kemp when he was distracted by someone in the crowd who had an object that was reflecting the sun right into his eyes.
“One was a purse handle, one was a mirror, and some of the people up there were playing games up there,” (Braves manager Bobby) Cox said. “And these seats, the way they’re painted, you can’t see the ball off the bat in a day game at times. So that’s dangerous enough — along with somebody messing with mirrors to try to reflect light into your eyes.”
The game was held up about 5 minutes until stadium security could identify the fan in question, and Kemp singled on Hudson’s next delivery. At that point, Eric O’Flaherty relieved. Kemp advanced to third on Garret Anderson’s bunt and DeWitt’s grounder, but Ellis was robbed of a bloop single on a diving catch by center fielder Melky Cabrera.
“It kind of stinks that [the fan] screwed with the flow of the game, but you’re going to have occasions where people are idiots,” Hudson said. “I was probably just out there for one hitter, anyway, because we had O’Flaherty warming up. We were at the point of the game where we had to start going with matchups, because one run was probably going to win or lose the game.”
What happens when three old friends in crisis fall into an unexpected love triangle? In The Catch, Maya, Henry and Daniel embark upon an emotional journey that forces them to confront unresolved pain, present-day traumas and powerful desires, leading them to question the very meaning of love and fulfillment. The Catch tells a tale of ordinary people seeking the extraordinary – or, if that’s asking too much, some damn peace of mind.
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