From the bus…

This post comes to you from the bus on the way back from Jacksonville, where the Dodgers took on the Jacksonville Suns in an intrasquad game today. The players representing the club’s Double-A affiliate were victorious, 8-3. Dodger third baseman Bill Mueller led off the second inning with a solo homer over the right field wall on his first swing in a Los Angeles uniform, while prospects Delwyn Young, Andre Ethier and Joel Guzman each hit two-run homers for Jacksonville. Ethier’s bomb actually cleared the pavilion in right field, landing in the parking lot outside the stadium — and he drew two walks.

On the mound, Justin Orenduff pitched two scoreless innings to earn the victory while Jonathan Broxton closed out the win with a scoreless ninth inning, striking out two. Center fielder Matt Kemp went 3-for-4 and catcher Dioner Navarro threw out two of the three runners attempting to steal off him. It was an impressive showing for the Dodger prospects, who you’ve all heard so much about.

Other guys you might be interested in were Nomar Garciaparra (0-for-3), Oscar Robles (2-for-3 with an RBI) and Chad Billingsley (2.0 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER).

Now, February has come to an end and the Dodgers will play their first game of the Grapefruit League season on Thursday against the Braves at Holman Stadium. If you’re reading this from Vero Beach, tickets are still available. Brad Penny will start the opener for the Dodgers, followed by Aaron Sele, Lance Carter, Kelly Wunsch, Tim Hamulack and Danys Baez. Friday’s rematch between the two teams in Orlando will feature Brett Tomko in his first start for the Dodgers.
 
Plus, there was a little more news today: Tommy Lasorda will be enshrined in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. Tommy spent nine years in the International League, where he became the Montreal Royals’ all-time winningest pitcher, earning him a spot in the country’s Hall of Fame. That marks the fifth Hall of Fame into which Lasorda will be inducted, joining the National Baseball Hall of Fame (1997), the National Italian American Hall of Fame (1989), the Montgomery County Coaches Hall of Fame (2002) and the South Atlantic League Hall of Fame (2001). In the meantime, Tommy is heading to Japan tomorrow as part of the World Baseball Classic.

195 comments

  1. raydar7@sbcglobal.net

    Impressive!! Atleast the youngsters are going to be Dodgers in the future. How far do you think Andre’s homer went? If you could rank the top 2 prospects in every position, who would they be? Thanks and GO BLUE!!

    Reply
  4. trublu4ever

    Had a thought about how hard it must be for Vinny to do the games each night. With all the crap on the field, he has to try and make us interested. Thank goodness for his stories! At least we have ITD to vent our frustrations…poor Vinny has nothing.

    Reply
    • trublu4ever

      That’s probably true, Nellyjune 😉 I don’t think we will ever see the days of 1000 posts on a single thread….it would take a half hour to load a comment…lol

      Reply
  10. dodgereric

    The latest in “Are You Kidding Me?” quotes:
    .
    “General Manager Ned Colletti said the problem has become magnified because of other injuries, particularly those to shortstop Rafael Furcal and third baseman Casey Blake.
    .
    “I don’t ever like to use injuries as an excuse, but if you have Furcal and Casey Blake back in, left field becomes less obvious,” Colletti said.”
    .
    Let me translate: The shortstop and part-time third baseman are injured, so we’re playing both of our backup infielders every day. I’ll conveniently leave out the part that they’re actually out-performing the starters. But let me draw attention away from the fact that I created the problem in left by signing 3 guys who have a combined career line of .220/.250/.300 by crying about injuries to the infield.
    .
    That settles it. If Ned ever had a mind at all, he’s lost control of it now.
    .
    http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-0517-dodgers-fyi-20110517,0,5729071.story

    Reply
    • JhallWally

      You gotta be freaking kidding me!!! I wonder why they are not addressing the 1st base situation. The production there is just as bad as LF. What a mess!!!

      Reply
      • trublu4ever

        It just proves how stupid they think we, the fans, are. Well, I’ve got news for F & N…..WE ARE NOT BUYING ANY OF YOUR CRAP!!!!! And, by the lack of attendance, neither are the other 99.9% of the fans!

  11. trublu4ever

    The Giants have batting averages as poor as ours….Rockies too….Krud & Krap says this is the year of no offense. I find it all very offensive, indeed!

    Reply
  12. selltheteam

    Tonight’s Lineup That Will Lose to Randy Wolf
    .
    Carroll SS
    Miles 2B
    Ethier RF
    Kemp CF
    Uribe 3B
    Barajas C
    Loney 1B
    Sands LF
    Kuroda P
    .
    I’m predicting 0 runs for our offense, which will frustrate Kuroda to no end.

    Reply
  14. trublu4ever

    Speaking of bobbleheads, I saw a picture of Andre’s new one….he is wearing the ugly blue throw-uo uniform and, except for his hair, doesn’t look a bit like him. So sad 😦

    Reply
    • enchantedTheBeav

      No worries Tru. Most everyone that plays for the Dodgers is just a shadow of their former selves.

      Reply
      • trublu4ever

        :-)….I messed up…it was supposed to be throw-up uniform. I can’t believe I used to type for a salary…lol…now, I hunt & peck. Completely forgot how to do it.

  23. enchantedTheBeav

    How stupid do you have to be to not pitch around the only two guys in the line-up that could hurt you?

    Reply
  26. enchantedTheBeav

    Why is it Sands they’ll stick with even though he’s batting under .200 and obviously isn’t ready for the show, but they cut Paul without ever giving him half the chance that Sands has already had?

    Reply
    • JhallWally

      It really doesn’t make any sense Beav. The only knock on Paul was that he didn’t have alot of power. So they bring in washed up guys who hit a few HRs 3-5 years ago. Stupid!!

      Reply
      • nedsajerk

        I’d rather have him over Loney at 1st base and Paul is you’re typical lead off hitter.

    • trublu4ever

      Now, Vinny says, Sands will mostly play against lefties. So, do we get the thrill of Gwynn or the agony of Gibbons?
      .
      And, letting Paul go is another one of Ned’s brilliant moves!

      Reply
    • nedsajerk

      They should send Sands down and he would still be qualify as a rookie next season because he hasn’t gotten to 150 AB’s.

      Reply
  28. vl4eccjr

    Send some of that rain this way!
    We sure need it! With the constant high winds fueling the wild fires, and the severe drought here, it’s been bad. Air quality is terrible!

    Reply
  30. JhallWally

    Just an aside, speaking of Ned and bad trades/deals; I recently read that LaSorda was the interim GM and was responsible for trading away Konerko. And he was also instrumental in the trade of Pedro Martinez!!! Didn’t think he was big enough and would not hold up.

    Reply
    • enchantedTheBeav

      Didn’t know that about Konerko, but damn, that was pretty stupid with Pedro. Who’d we get – Delino DeShields? That one’s even beyond the Ned catagory of stupid.

      Reply
      • JhallWally

        Yep Beav!! They don’t talk about those two bonehead moves however!!! LOL!!

    • nedsajerk

      I don’t know if it was bad to trade Konerko but that trade probably work off for both team but we would never know if Konerko would’ve still be a Dodgers but that Martinez for DeShields was insane. Was that the time when Jody Reed didn’t want to resigned with us and we was desparate for a 2nd baseman?

      Reply
      • JhallWally

        We traded Konerko to the Reds for Jeff Shaw!! I’m not sure about why we traded for DeShields but the Jody Reed thing could have had something to do with it. I can’t remember.

      • JhallWally

        I looked it up Shad. I think you are right about the DeShields trade. Jody Reed played for us in 1993. DeShields played for us from 1994-97!!! Never hit above .256 for us and Pedro went on to win 3 Cy Youngs!!!

  36. JhallWally

    I can’t believe Monday just said that Loweeney was starting to get hot!!! Those guys must have some funny Kool-Aid in the booth. Geez!!! The guy doesn’t have and rbi in May. And just one XBH!!!

    Reply
  39. enchantedTheBeav

    Carroll’s more useless than Loney with runners on base. He’s hitting the quietest .313 in the history of baseball.
    .
    2-3 days ago I read that the team was batting .100 with the bases loaded (3 for 30.) Absolutely pathetic.

    Reply
  47. vl4eccjr

    Loney swinging like he lost his cohones.
    I can’t remember the last extra base hit from him it’s been so long.

    Reply
  50. vl4eccjr

    Kuroda’s sure dialed in!
    Hesitant to see this go to the pen, even though they’ve done better that last couple of games.
    WTF MILES??!!

    Reply
  51. dodgereric

    Just kinda bouncing around baseball-reference while watching the game.
    .
    We’re just above average in “Plate Appearances with runners on base”, 7th in the NL.
    .
    Not surprisingly, we’re tied for 14th (and dead last) in scoring those runners. Guess who we’re tied with? Hint ——— the bastards won the Series last year.

    Reply
    • nedsajerk

      They didn’t want no part of Fielders can’t really blame Jansen on this but I think they should’ve pitch to him.

      Reply
  60. dodgereric

    We’re a hair above the NL median (8th place) in Batting Average @ .252 (NL median is .250)
    .
    We sink to 11th in OBP @ .314, 12th in Slugging @ .357.
    .
    Milwaukee is 5th in Ave (.259), 5th in OBP @ .323, 3rd in SLG @ .413.

    Reply
      • Nellyjune

        I am doing good…… just busy. Baseball playoffs for Michael (plus graduation stuff, prom, etc.) a hurt hubby (foot surgery again), Open House and First Grade program, plus all the usual stuff that happens at the end of a school year.
        .
        How are you doing sir?

      • JhallWally

        Sounds exciting and fun except for the foot surgery. Hope your hubby is doing well with that. Everything going well here, thanks. Good luck to Michael in the playoffs.

      • Nellyjune

        Glad things are going well with you too!!! Always fun this time of year, but I will also be glad when the school year is over. 12 more wake-ups, but who’s counting? – lol!!!

  74. dodgereric

    Here’s a fun one, and I think enchanted was talking about this earlier: At Bats per RBI
    .
    Kemp is 14 in the NL at 6.0 AB/RBI
    Uribe (of all people) is 35th @ 7.1
    Ethier is 41st @ 7.6
    Barajas is 51st and exactly at the league average at 8.5
    Loney is 78th @ 12.7
    Kelly Johnson of the Dbacks is 91st at 21.0
    Right behind him, last in the NL in 92nd place is Jamey Carroll @ 49.3. Yes, 49.3. Less than half the frequency of the next-to-last hitter. Man……..

    Reply
  76. dodgereric

    We went over a million in attendance in this game last year. We’ll need a few more games for that mark in 2011.
    .
    Game 23’s attendance (2010): 46,053
    Today’s attendance courtesy of trumom: 42,138
    Greater than last year = 5 / Less than last year = 17
    .
    2010 attendance (23 games) – 1,005,377 (43,712 average)
    2011 attendance (23 games) – 844,347 (36,711 average) #9 in MLB
    .
    Drop of 161,030 total
    Average drop of 7001
    Extrapolated for 81 games – 567,106
    Projected 2011 final attendance – 2,973,570
    2010’s final attendance – 3,562,318 (#3 in MLB)
    .
    Next game’s (24) attendance in 2010 – 45,325

    Reply
  77. dodgereric

    Yep, and I think that’s significant. Those kinds of numbers are important to everyone in MLB because the Dodgers are counted on to kick in a lot of money in revenue sharing. Dropping a half-mil will cost the little guys a lot of money.
    .
    Boy, tonight was really the Matt Kemp show!

    Reply
  78. JhallWally

    Latest rbi/lob/pct numbers(less HRs):
    Sands 10/34/29.4%
    Ethier 17/64/26.6%
    Kemp 21/81/25.9%
    Uribe 14/69/20.3%
    Miles 9/51/17.6%
    Loney 11/83/13.3%
    Barajas 7/72/9.7%
    Carroll 3/44/6.8%

    Reply
  81. nedsajerk

    The right-hander gave up an infield single by Rickie Weeks leading off the eighth, then was charged with his first balk in 557 1-3 innings since joining the big leagues in 2008. But Corey Hart and Ryan Braun both flied out, and Kenley Jansen retired Casey McGehee on a foul pop after walking slugger Prince Fielder.

    Matt Guerrier pitched a perfect ninth for his first National League save and second of his career.

    Reply
  82. nedsajerk

    Notes: Kuroda was charged with only two balks in 1,700 1-3 innings over 11 seasons with Hiroshima of the Japanese League. … A moment of silence was observed for Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew, who died Tuesday at age 74. He played at Dodger Stadium in the 1965 World Series and homered against Don Drysdale in the Minnesota Twins’ Game 3 loss. … Brewers radio play-by-play man and ex-major leaguer Bob Uecker, who starred on the television sitcom “Mr. Belvedere” in the late 1980s, recalled the time Killebrew made a guest appearance. “The script of that particular show called for me to play a game against my son’s Little League team,” Uecker said. “So I went out and I got Harmon, Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Johnny Bench and Reggie Jackson. That was my team. And they all showed up. It’s one of the pictures I have that when I look at it, I say: ‘Geez, what a picture this is. They’re all Hall of Famers.”’ Uecker also is enshrined at Cooperstown—in the broadcasters’ wing.

    Reply
  83. nedsajerk

    Kuroda was called for his 1st balk in his major leaguer career after Garland just got called for his 1st balk this season in his career.

    Reply
  84. Dodger4life

    Good work Kuroda and crew…
    .
    My thought’s and prayers are with the Killebrew family. He was before my time as a player, my father did admire him much though. I have a really good friend here where I live, whose sister is married to one of the Killebrews, he has offered to get me something signed a few times, I would always respectfully decline. So I can’t help but imagine what they are feeling as I type this. From everything I know, he was an outstanding individual, an outstanding ballplayer, and is leaving an outsatnding legacy behind.
    .
    Harmon Killebrew’s life should be cherished in passing as he surley cherished ours while living.
    .
    God Bless his soul.

    Reply
  86. selltheteam

    Lineup
    .
    Carroll SS
    Miles 2B
    Ethier RF
    Kemp CF
    Uribe 3B
    Loney 1B
    Gibbons LF
    Barajas C
    Kershaw P

    Reply
  89. nedsajerk

    May 19 RHP Matt Guerrier, a native of Birmingham, Ala., donated $25,000 to the Salvation Army’s tornado relief efforts, along with $10,000 to the Dodgers Dream Foundation. Guerrier earned his first save for the Dodgers on Tuesday night, working a clean ninth in a 3-0 win. It was Guerrier’s sixth career save and first one since June 8, 2010.

    Reply

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