Dodger Thoughts

On February 26, 2011

Above – Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com interviews Jerry Sands.

Spring Training, Day 1

Highlights:

Matt Kemp hustled his way to a second-inning run, as documented by Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk.
Hiroki Kuroda faced the minimum in two shutout innings, and dual starter Tim Redding crawled out of his sickbed to throw two scoreless frames himself.

Lowlights:

In 18 innings spread over two games, the Dodgers drew two walks, though they did rack up 15 hits against the Giants.
Carlos Monasterios and Oscar Villarreal each gave up four runs in an inning.

Sidelights:

Facing mostly Angels starters, Rubby De La Rosa was one out away from completing his second shutout inning when he gave up a two-run homer to Mark Trumbo.
Calacaterra has a photo of the funny midgame path some Dodgers took after their work was done against the Angels.
A total of 50 Dodgers played today: 25 in each game.
Update: Karen Crouse of the New York Times has a lovely profile of Clayton and Ellen Kershaw, post Zambia. (Thanks to Bob Timmermann for the link.)
Update 2: Both Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com and Ken Gurnick of MLB.com have pieces on Scott Elbert.
Update 3: The agony and the ecstasy.

Happy Spring Training Opening Day

On February 26, 2011

In Game chat

Morry Gash/AP“See, in Scottsdale, the guy on the top bunk has gotta make the guy on the bottom’s bed all the time. It’s in the regulations. If we were in Tempe, I would have to make yours. But we’re going to Scottsdale, so you’ve gotta make mine. It’s regulations.”

Dodgers at Angels, 12:05 p.m.
Jamie Hoffman, LF
Dioner Navarro, C
Andre Ethier, RF
Matt Kemp, CF
Hector Gimenez, DH
Russ Mitchell, 3B
Jerry Sands, 1B
Justin Sellers, 2B
Juan Castro, SS
(Hiroki Kuroda, P)

Dodgers at Giants, 12:05 p.m.
Tony Gwynn Jr., CF
Jamey Carroll, SS
James Loney, 1B
Rod Barajas, C
Marcus Thames, DH
Xavier Paul, LF
Gabe Kapler, RF,
Ivan De Jesus Jr., 2B
Aaron Miles, 3B
(Tim Redding, P)

* * *

For your morning reading pleasure: Howard Cole of Baseball Savvy has a nice interview with uber-fan blogger Roberto Baly of Vin Scully Is My Homeboy.

App-endicitis

On February 25, 2011

Pennant Preview from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

While folks are talking about the arrival of the 2011 version of the MLB At Bat mobile application, which is fairly indispensable in my world, there are other new portable treats out there.

One is the historically oriented “Pennant” for the iPad, illustrated in the clip above. If you sit through the whole demonstration, you might find it more than a little bit cool.

In addition, the Bill James Baseball IQ App has just been introduced.

What other baseball apps have you guys used? Anyone have the Fangraphs app?

* * *

Andre Ethier and Ivan De Jesus Jr. are the main subjects of Tony Jackson’s notebook today for ESPNLosAngeles.com.
Joe Torre is expected to be named Major League Baseball’s executive vice president of baseball operations Saturday, reports The Associated Press.
Adrian Beltre’s Texas career is off to a sluggish start — he’ll miss a couple of weeks of Spring Training games with a calf strain, reports Richard Durrett of ESPNDallas.com.
John Kilma writes about “the new generation of pitching that is quickly accelerating college baseball’s role as fertile ground for professional pitching development “for ESPNLosAngeles.com.

* * *

The first Spring Training radio broadcast is Saturday at 12:05 p.m. Pacific on KABC 790 AM. The first Spring Training telecast is Sunday at 12:05 p.m. Pacific on Prime Ticket.

Dodger baseball is under 24 hours away …

Think this shade of blue

On February 25, 2011

In Dodger Stadium, Uncategorized

These 1940s Brooklyn road uniforms will be worn by the Dodgers at six midweek day games in 2011.

Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers

From the Dodgers:

Each of the games will feature half-price food and drink, including alcoholic beverages, for the first time ever at Dodger Stadium, with a special half-price six-game ticket plan available for fans who want to attend each of the games.

Nearly 50,000 votes were cast at dodgers.com/throwback with the winning uniform edging out the 1911 road uniform by less than 2,000 votes.

Though the original uniform worn in the 1940s was made of a highly reflective satin fabric to make it more visible under the lights for night games, the throwback jerseys will maintain a similar feel as those worn by the Dodgers throughout the 2011 season.

Rest didn’t help Casey Blake much in 2010

On February 25, 2011

Gary A. Vasquez/US PresswireCasey Blake

One of the many mantras of the 2011 preseason has been the Dodgers’ determination to get more rest this year for Casey Blake, who turned 37 in August.

That made me curious as to whether Blake (whom Tony Jackson wrote about Thursday for ESPNLosAngeles.com) actually performed better when rested last year. And the short answer is, he didn’t.

I went through the 2010 game logs, and here’s how Blake performed.

Total: 146 games, 571 plate appearances, .320 OBP, .407 slugging percentage, .727 OPS.
No days off: 110 games, 425 plate appearances, .332 OBP, .397 slugging, .729 OPS.
One day off: 22 games, 91 plate appearances, .252 OBP, .342 slugging, .594 OPS
Two or more days off: 11 games, 47 plate appearances, .319 OBP, .410 slugging, .729 OPS
One or more day off: 33 games, 138 plate appearances, .275 OBP, .364 slugging, .639 OPS.
(The plate appearances don’t quite match up to his season total, because I left sacrifices out of the equation. Also keep in mind there were some games Blake played in without batting.)

First of all, I’m not going to pretend that a .727 OPS is what the Dodgers want out of their third baseman. But it’s hard to say that rest made it any better.

Given that Blake played so many games without no rest, there’s still the question of whether he would have been better down the stretch had he rested more early. Here’s his OPS by month: .833, .827, .692, .556, .812, .634. Did he burn out at mid-summer, then rally in August, then burn out again? Or is it just a case of luck as much as anything? (Blake’s July batting average on balls in play was .207, August was .338.)

This data doesn’t take into account matchups or game conditions, and it’s certainly susceptible to small sample size issues. But at a minimum, it should make people think twice about how much days off actually helped Blake. Not that I’m suggesting that he play 162 games, but it’s fairly easy to posit a theory that frequent play keeps Blake’s batting eye honed in. Or, that rest just isn’t that much of an issue, and the Dodgers should just shrug their shoulders and play him when they have no better option.

How often will Juan Uribe at third base and someone like Jamey Carroll (.380 OBP vs. righties last year) at second base be a better combination? You tell me.

Padilla has surgery, could resume work in three weeks … or more

On February 24, 2011

In Health/injuries, Uncategorized

Vicente Padilla had his surgery today. From Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com:

… The surgery was performed in Los Angeles by team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache and Dr. Steve Shin, who conveyed the results to Dodgers trainer Stan Conte at Camelback Ranch.

“Stan said it went well,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “[Padilla] is supposed to be back in Arizona sometime [on Friday], and he’ll start the rehab process. What I got was that his best outlook is three or four weeks, then he’ll start tossing.”

Because this type of surgery is so rare among pitchers, there are no plans for how long the rehabilitation will last. Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said Wednesday, the day before the surgery, that he had been given reason to believe Padilla would return sometime during the season’s first half. …

* * *

Kenley Jansen’s spot on the roster seems even more secure to me after this tweet from ESPN the Magazine’s Molly Knight from Camelback: “Mattingly says Jansen will work 7th inning typically, 8th when Kuo is unavailable and could close if Broxton has gone three days in a row.”
My favorite tidbit from Ken Gurnick’s roundup of Dodger non-roster invitees at MLB.com is on Ramon Colon: “This is his 15th professional season and he had a great Spring Training last year to make the Royals Opening Day roster, but after a month he was released and wound up pitching in Korea. He signed with the Dodgers because they became his favorite team when they signed his older brother, Daniel, in 1989.”
More details on the pitching plan on Saturday from the Dodger press notes: “In Scottsdale, Dodger right-handed hurler Tim Redding will get the start and is scheduled to be followed by RHP Carlos Monasterios, RHP Oscar Villarreal, RHP Jon Huber and LHP Wilkin De La Rosa. Over in Tempe, RHP Hiroki Kuroda will make his first start of the spring and is scheduled to be followed by RHP Rubby De La Rosa, LHP Scott Elbert, RHP Lance Cormier, RHP Roman Colon and RHP Luis Vasquez.”
Also from the press notes: “A contingent of Dodger employees will take on a group of White Sox employees looking to avenge their loss in the 1959 World Series in a “friendly” softball game on Field 1. The skirmish will take place at 6 p.m. and admission is free.”
Ernest Reyes of Blue Heaven passes along this photo of Walter O’Malley in Cuba in 1959. Cutline: “Officials and players of the Reds and Dodgers received a warm welcome from Fidel Castro’s forces when they played two games at Havana, March 20-21. In front row, left is Gabe Paul, general manager of the Reds. In the second row, standing, are Bud Holman (with beret), a Dodger director, and Walter O’Malley (wearing deputy sheriff’s badge), Dodger prexy.”
Happy birthday, Nancy Bea Hefley …

* * *

Update: The Dodgers “plan to add one more Cactus League game to their schedule to be played sometime in late March in Tucson, Ariz., to benefit the Christina Taylor Green Memorial Fund,” according to Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com.

The travails of Podsednik and Martin

On February 24, 2011

Catching up with two expatriates …

Here’s the first interview I’ve seen with Scott Podsednik since his offseason went south (non-geographically speaking). From the Canadian Press:

Scott Podsednik’s spring is not off to an ideal start, far from it, but at least he can take some solace in knowing that other years have also started poorly and turned out fine.

Like 2009, for instance.

“It’s a crazy game,” he said Wednesday after checking into camp with the Toronto Blue Jays. “A couple of years ago I was sitting on my couch at the start of the ’09 season, so anything can happen.

“I’ve learned over the years to just kind of focus on the things you can control, and all I can control is trying to get myself ready and playing my game in between the lines. Anything outside of that is not up to my decision, so I’m going to try to focus all my energy on things I can control.”

A sound approach and, given the circumstances, a wise one for the speed demon and former all-star.

Podsednik arrived in camp on a minor-league contract signed last week, the best deal for him after an off-season that didn’t play out anything like what he expected.

In November, he declined his end of a US$2-million mutual contract option for 2011 with the Los Angeles Dodgers and opted for free agency. It backfired since “for whatever reason my market just didn’t develop,” said Podsednik. …

Then there’s Russell Martin, who is not as ready for game action as he and the Yankees thought he would be. From Wallace Matthews of ESPNNewYork.com:

The Yankees signed Russell Martin to be their everyday catcher, but he won’t be behind the plate when they open their exhibition season Saturday against the Philadelphia Phillies.“I don’t think he’s quite ready to go and I’m not going to rush him,” manager Joe Girardi said Wednesday at George M. Steinbrenner Field. “He still talks about [his knee] doesn’t quite feel the same as it did before. I told him, I want to know when you’re 100 percent. Because I don’t want any setbacks with him. When I put him in, I want him to be ready to go.”

The 28-year-old Martin passed a physical before signing a one-year, $4 million contract in December to replace Jorge Posada behind the plate. But within a matter of days, it was announced he would undergo surgery to repair “a small meniscus tear” in his right knee, the same surgery both Posada and CC Sabathia underwent in the offseason.

At the time, general manager Brian Cashman said, “It’s not a serious surgery at all,” that Martin’s recovery would take two to three weeks and that the catcher would be “back to normal within a month.”But now, nine weeks after the surgery, Martin is still feeling discomfort. Worse, on Wednesday, he added three ominous letters to the mix: MCL, as in medial collateral ligament.

“I injured my MCL in the offseason,” Martin said. “But the surgery wasn’t for the MCL, it was for the meniscus. When they looked at my knee they saw that I had a meniscus issue as well, so in the time it would take for the MCL to heal, the surgery would heal, so they might as well do it. It was just a prevention type thing.”

Whatever the real extent of the injury, it has so far prevented Martin from participating in the full range of catching drills — he has not taken part in blocking drills yet — and will keep him out of the first spring training game at least. …

Andre Ethier on the Baseball Tonight Bus

Andre Ethier, Tim Kurkjian and John Kruk on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight bus.

Not to be confused with Joe Bologna, Vic Tayback and Stockard Channing on “The Big Bus.”

Mota motors

Kirby Lee/Image of Sport/US PresswireManny Mota, fastest pinch-hitting genius on three wheels …

When the Dodgers open Cactus League action Saturday with split-squad games on the road against the Angels and Giants, the starting pitchers are scheduled to be Hiroki Kuroda and Tim Redding, respectively.

In other news and notes …

Today from Tony Jackson: Dodger hitting coach Jeff Pentland talks about James Loney.

… it is precisely that — not getting the ball to leave the yard, but getting Loney’s bat into the relatively small hitting zone more quickly — that Loney and Dodgers hitting coach Jeff Pentland have been working on not only since the start of spring training, but basically since the end of last season. Loney flew to Phoenix from his home in Houston twice this winter for extra work with Pentland at the team’s Camelback Ranch facility.

“In order to hit the ball in that certain area, it’s really difficult,” Pentland said. “James probably isn’t as consistent as he needs to be at getting his bat to that spot. What he needs to do is put the bat head in a better position so we can add some sharpness to the ball. I never tell guys to swing for the fence. I want guys to hit the ball hard consistently. If they do that, there are going to be times where they catch it just right and it’s going to go out of the ballpark.”
Here’s Baseball America’s 2011 Top 100 Prospects list. Dodgers: Dee Gordon (26), Zach Lee (89), Rubby De La Rosa (90). In a related story, J.J. Cooper writes about how spectacular the 2011 Royals class of minor leaguers is, putting it atop a top 10 that also includes the 1991 and 2006 Dodgers.
Today’s edition of David Pinto’s 2006-10 PMR defensive ratings at Baseball Musings hones in on center field. The Dodgers have performed poorly there over the past five years. On an individual basis, Juan Pierre and Matt Kemp are neck-and-neck.
According to Jesse Wolfersberger of Fangraphs, no starting pitcher in baseball allowed fewer homers than expected in 2010 than Chad Billingsley.
Hank Aaron appears on tonight’s “Late Show with David Letterman.” Here’s a clip.
At today’s Hollywood Radio and Television Society panel, writes my Variety colleague Stuart Levine, Showtime president David Nevins said that “it’s not a God-given right” for viewers to be able to watch sports for free and called the transition of high-profile events to cable a “very natural and obvious evolution.”
Lead (or lede, if you’re on the inside) of the day goes to my former Stanford Daily colleague Eric Young, writing for the San Francisco Business Times:

The Warren Commission took 300 days to turn in its probe of the Kennedy shooting.It took the 9/11 Commission 603 days to publish a report after the Twin Towers attack.

It has been 695 days — and counting — since baseball commissioner Bud Selig appointed a three-person group to study whether the Oakland A’s can relocate in the East Bay. …

Kurkjian, Jackson: Sound bites on the Dodgers

“The thought that the Dodgers are going to be irrelevant this year like they were the second half of last year, I just don’t see that happening in this division,” ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian says in the clip above. “I sense a whole-new Dodgers this year.”

Below, here’s Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com talking about Davey Lopes and the Dodger baserunning.

With Padilla out, who is the Dodgers’ No. 6 starter?

In Pitching

Kelvin Kuo/US PresswireJohn Ely

Vicente Padilla was ticketed for the bullpen, but everyone expected him to be the first guy Los Angeles turned to if anyone in the Dodgers’ starting rotation had to miss a start. In fact, Padilla was going to be on a starters’ program in the early days of Spring Training before shifting to a relievers’ routine.

Dodger fans can still hope that Padilla will be back in uniform before a sixth starter is needed, but in case he isn’t, who’s next in line?

Blake Hawksworth started some last year for St. Louis, but Don Mattingly seemed pretty keen on keeping him in the bullpen. “As a starter he was throwing 90 (mph), 91 and out of the bullpen 94, 95,” Dodger manager Don Mattingly told Ken Gurnick of MLB.com earlier this month. “Sometimes a guy thinks when he’s starting he has to pace himself. Out of the ‘pen he’s more aggressive and attacking. We feel that’s where he fits best.”
Carlos Monasterios started 13 games for the Dodgers last year, but also performed much better in relief. The question is how the Dodgers view him going forward: He was ticketed for Albuquerque to start this season, but if he’s going to be in the rotation, he might be someone they turn to.
The Dodgers have toyed with Scott Elbert and even Ramon Troncoso as starting pitchers in their minor-league careers, but they are firmly relievers now.
Jon Link has gotten some brief starting work in his pro career, but he seems an unlikely option.
Minor-League Pitcher of the Year Rubby De La Rosa? Maybe later, but too soon for now.
Tim Redding is the player in camp with the most starting experience: 144 starts in the 33-year-old’s major-league career. But none of those have come since 2009, when he had a 5.10 ERA for the Mets.

That brings us back to last spring’s rotation savior, John Ely. Ely had a 2.54 ERA through June 1, an 8.00 ERA after. If there’s any chance that Part II was the fluke and not Part I, Ely might get the first opportunity to prove it. Elymania II?

Vicente Padilla to have surgery

In Health/injuries

Ric Tapia/Icon SMIVicente Padilla had a 4.07 ERA in 95 innings for the Dodgers in 2010.

Vicente Padilla will have surgery Thursday, the Dodgers said, with a timetable for his return to be determined afterward. Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com has more.

Padilla was examined in Los Angeles on Tuesday, and according to the Dodgers, “it was determined that the right radial nerve was being entrapped by one of the deep muscles in the forearm.” The goal of the surgery is to “release the muscle and free up the nerve.”

It could be worse. St. Louis is facing the loss of Adam Wainwright for a considerable length of time, ESPN.com reports.

The talk of the sports world: Caltech ends 310-game losing streak

It’s actually a 310-game losing streak in conference games – Caltech has an overall record in 2010-11 of 5-20. But Tuesday, the Beavers won their first conference game since January 23, 1985.

More at ESPNLosAngeles.com and from Diamond Leung at ESPN.com:

… And after the 46-45 triumph at home against Occidental, they celebrated with students who rushed the court and dumped water on the third-year coach.

“I always wondered, ‘How does a coach let that happen?’” (Caltech coach Oliver) Eslinger told ESPN.com late Tuesday night. “I saw it out of the corner of my eye, and I kind of didn’t want to get out of the way.

“I was marinating in the moment. It was like the world stopped, and the stupid streak stopped, and now we can concentrate on winning the SCIAC.” …

Davey Lopes gets me excited about 2011

On February 22, 2011