Today's lineup
J.D. Drew is back in the lineup but Jeff Kent is still out. It’s getting closer to looking normal again (plus Gagne throws tonight in Vegas!)
Furcal, SS
Lofton, CF
Garciaparra, 1B
Drew, RF
Kemp, LF
Aybar, 3B
Martinez, 2B
Martin, C
Penny, P
Inside the Dodgers 
Lofton and Kemp both at CF? Kemp is playing LF.
OK Guys. Here’s the choke of the year so far. Living on the east coast of Canada, dying to see the Dodgers play, especially Russell Martin and guess what? The Game was on TBS and I didn’t know it was an afternoon game. Got to see the last out. Kemp a great game. Bet I’ll check the TV guide for the next two days. Go Dodgers.
anyone else have a huge issue with penny’s reaction after being pulled. He had given up a string of hard hit doubles and base hits. What was Little to do, leave him in there and lose the game. I am thinking discipline for the bat to the cooler. Opinions?
I don’t really know what was up with Penny – he should have been mad at himself, not Little. The best way to finish an inning yourself is to get guys out. Oh well, we won.
Meanwhile, to Roy S and the Dodgers, and to you armchair GMs out there, here’s a trade idea for you:
Toronto needs **** (they had Troy Glaus playing there the other day and not much else to impress over at that position).
Cesar Izturis (back) to Toronto for OF Frank Catalanotto (whom the Dodgers have always liked).
Possible? Good?
Penny is a big wuss, he throws his 5 innings then ducks out every game. I don’t know why he was whining, he would’ve been asking out after that last out anyways. The only reason he was upset, he lost out on a W, but with us still up by 4, a Dodger win is what’s important not a w for Penny. His value is super high right now, I say we ship him out. That kind of stuff can ruin what Grady and co. are working so hard to accomplish. That was bush league all the way.
I didn’t see the Penny incident. If he was angry with himself, that is childish. If he was angry with Grady, that is disrespectful and should not be tolerated by the team. The idea of a Catalanotto trade is interesting. I see a lot of Blue Jay games on TV. Playing the Red Sox right now. I love watching Catalanotto hit with two strikes on him. A difficult out. Jays have Wells, Rios, Johnson, Hinske for OF. Do need ****. Good idea.
Brad Penny, for a guy with a bad back, isn’t the most mature fellow. The milkman has his flaws. Maybe he thought he was such a good pitcher Grady should have left him in too long.
Tommy Lasorda and Doug Rau in the ’77 series, anyone?
Let’s hold off on talking Izturis trades, and make sure Rafael Furcal is not the next Jose Offerman.
Brad Penny should apologize to Rick Honeycutt, Grady Little, and the entire team. If he were upset about his performance that would be one thing. How could he be upset about being removed after giving up a warning track fly ball and six consecutive hard hit singles and doubles? Beimel came on and rescued what could have been a catastrophic inning by inducing a double play. If Penny were still upset after the game, that tells me he’s all bout Penny and not concerned about the team.
I think it is great that he is showing passion. Once in a while players will throw bats or whatever, no harm done, it just shows he cares. I think next time Little will leave Penny in that situation.
Showing passion, and showing up your skipper due to selfish reasons are completely different. Every time the guy throws I’m waiting for him to wince in pain, trade his tail while his value is high. Penny went Milton Bradley on us, and that’s unacceptable. Once again I say that was straight bush league!!!!!!
With respect to an earlier comment:
Catalanotto? Come on. It’s another outfielder, but his numbers do not merit trading a gold glove shortstop over. The Dodgers have high-performance rookies, after all.
If there’s anyone to trade for, he should be an impact player who would lead by example, and have some pop in his bat. The LA Times reported that the Dodgers, like nearly everyone else in baseball, would like Alfonso Soriano. Not only does the guy have a lot of home runs, but he also leads the league in outfield assists, and he has a great work ethic, as reported here
http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060521&content_id=1464555&vkey=news_was&fext=.jsp&c_id=was
And this is exactly the type of influence that the Dodgers would want for their youngsters coming up. And he can speak a bit of Japanese after he played over there for a while. I have to imagine that if the Dodgers are going to trade off their youth, they would want really substantial impact players. And having Soriano would also put less pressure on JD Drew. Obviously there are some prospects off limits, like Billingsley, but if LA wants to deal for someone, he’s the prize.
I for one was glad to see that Grady pulled Penny with the lead eroding fast. I would have pulled him a batter sooner. With the leads that we’ve given up in past games Grady should be more aware when the starter does not have his stuff – like he should have pulled Seo much earlier the previous game, when it was obvious he wasn’t getting his pitches under control. Shame on Penny for taking his frustration out on the wrong target. Hopefully he’s mature enough to have apologized later.
Sad to see Penny’s actions. Most likely he knows he’s headed to the DL. Grady did the right thing, he protected the game first and his Ace second !! Lets not forget the blown 5 run lead in the 9th in San Diego !! I agree he needs to apologize to Grady, Honeycut and the entire team. Because last I saw the only result worth anything is the “W” and that was achieved by the team not an individual.
6 straight hits,on the verge of blowing a 7 run lead. His fastball wasn’t there, nor was he hitting his spots. Maybe he would have been happy if Grady left him in, only to blow the lead and our stinkin’ W. How about Penny and Izturis 4 V.Wells??? Bring up Chad to take that spot in the rotation,if there are any prospects that should be promoted, it’s him. His stuff is nothing short of electric.