Today's game
It’s warm up here in Oakland…and the A’s are hot, having won seven in a row. Hoping we can knock them off their streak a bit. The last time the team played here, they faced Barry Zito like they are today and went 15 innings. The Dodgers won on back-to-back bases loaded walks.
We also made a transaction today – we reinstated Navarro from the DL and optioned him to Triple-A, where he’s been rehabbing. As for the lineup:
Furcal, SS
Lofton, CF
Nomar, 1B (now qualified for the batting leaders)
Kent, 2B
Saenz, DH (one of three Dodgers to ever homer as a DH)
Kemp, LF (he’ll be on ESPNews live at 3:40 PT/6:40 ET from our dugout)
Cruz, RF
Martin, C
Martinez, 3B
Tomko, P
Inside the Dodgers 
y is j.d. drew not in the lineup?… and josh, do you have any news on the draft picks that the dodgers have signed?…
BELIEVE IN THE ’88 REPLAY!
BELIEVE IN THE RELEASE!
Yeah.. whats up with drew? We’re stuck with Cruz again!?! How has he not been DFA’d yet?
evermind.. forgot Zito was on the mound. That makes Cruz start a little more bearable knowing he’ll be on the right side of the plate.
Look at his history, JD Drew is not a tough ballplayer. He probably still has discomfort with his shoulder. With St. Louis, and Atlanta he never played through pain. With the crafty lefty Zito Grady had to start him instead of Ethier. I just hope Andre’ gets a shot at playing against the team that traded him. I am sure he would love to show Billy Beane what he gave up for the cancerous mr. bradley.
I meant to put that Grady had to start Cruz against Zito..
Cruz is a miserable 2 for 16 with 7 k’s against Zito lifetime so him batting right handed probably won’t make much of a difference. Now he’ll hit 2 HR’s and prove me wrong…
It’s better than Gagne playing through pain and not telling the trainers.
Cruz has good stats on lefties, so we’ll ignore the fact that Barry Zito is good, because Zito can also just as easily be shelled.
I’m pretty sure Grady has been looking forward to this series for months. Not for Milton Bradley, but because he gets a DH.
great article by jayson stark re trade rumors of the big names –
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2485721&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos2
basically he states g. maddux would have to approve a trade and would most likelly prefer the d-backs because its close to his las vegas home.
also, there seems no shot that the fish will move d-train, and that that the asking price will be very high (two young mlb players and two prospects) for carl crawford. and that soriano will want 15-16 mil next year for whoever trades for him (most likely two high prospects).
what does this mean to the dodgers…
i say we have more than enough outfield depth – but really need pitching – starters, relief, whatever..
hopefully billingsly can stabilize the fifth spot ….why not give oliver perez of the pirates a shot? he is a fireballer, lefty who might need a change of scenery?
What is up with absolutely NONE of these A’s games being televised on DirecTV?? This really stinks not being able to watch the Dodgers this weekend. None are on FOX. None are on ESPN. None are on FSN Prime.
I want to see Cruz do well, but I don’t understand the switch hitter aspect. If you’re hitting well over .300 from the right and about .150 from the left, what good is it to be a switch hitter? If someone could hit .500 from the right and .050 from the left, is that really a “switch hitter?” At what point do you suggest that someone focus only on one location? We can all swing from both sides, it’s the amount of success that determines if we consider ourselves to be switch hitters or not. Perhaps somsone ought to think about telling Cruz to hit from the right. If he’s eventually .250 from both sides, then fine, but with more than a 200 point difference in average, it seems there would be an obvious conclusion reached.
Without giving up the farm:
1) Lance Carter for Jose Lima?
2) Trade Odalis to the broadcasting booth for Fernando Valenzuela?
I think with perez’s attitude he’d get his *** kicked by Jaime. Lima is an intresting idea because however flawed his pitching is for Homerun hitters he does Fire up the team and the fans I really enjoyed his time with the Dodgers. it was always a fun Rollercoaster ride when it was Lima Time. He Has a Positive impact on the team as a Cheerleader if Nothing else.Lima For Perez and whatever he is still owed in his contract offset for lima I’d take it.Otherwise with perez in the booth we’d end up with riots in LA… again.Hope Raffy Brought his glove and Bat to Oakland Tomko will need both these guys are hot.
Watching Dodger pregame on KCAL…. What is up with Todd Zeile’s hair? Can’t wait to see what “The Oklahoma Kid” (Kemp) is goin 2 do 2nite. The Dodgers rake the American League, Go Blue!
I like the Fernando idea. It’s solid. lol…
Just a thought, but with the rotation next week, it might be a good idea to switch Lowe and Tomko so that Brett can take a little pressure off by pitching against the Pirates instead of the Mariners. Lowe will still have 4 days rest because of the off-day.
Nice that Seo was on tonight. If he can find out how to be on regularly, then no problem.
Izzy got his 10th walk of the rehab assignment (to 2 Ks). Move Furcal to 3rd.
Hail Cesar!
I think we should Trade perez to Jello for bill cosby get him to throw jello balls and Get the kids to rally around him.
Wow Now I’ve seen it all LV had 3 blown saves in one game. Where DJ Houlton went 7 inns gave up one run and struckout 8 osoria, carter and hamulack combined for 3 blsv and wunsch for 6 er in 5.2 inns……….. Sorry vegas…
Has anyone noticed that the Dodgers really stink right now?
Gban, here’s what I’ve noticed:
The Dodgers defense is rather suspect, particularly Furcal, although Aybar doesn’t inspire that much confidence, nor does Kenny Lofton actually. The back of the rotation is a bit shaky, particularly Tomko, and Ethier and Aybar seem to be hitting cold spells at the plate. JD Drew also has some nagging injuries, and we all know what that means.
Lowe and Penny are solid, Nomar will drop his BA if he goes 1-3 at the plate, Sele has been largely consistent, Billingsley debuted well, and Kemp and Martin are phenomenal.
The Dodgers do not stink, but they are vulnerable, and should not lay back and say “we’re in first place, yay” until their lead in the NL West is as big as a lead that you would hand over to Danys Baez.
Speaking of Houlton… why is he not on the major league staff yet?
i say put houlton and billingsly in the rotation and move tomko and perez to the minors.
shocking yes….but neither one is doing anything to help the team win and maybe a taste of humble pie will shake them up…and yes, liking the d-backs release of ortiz more and more…why not just cut the cord with one or both of them and move on.
we have done crazier things with paychecks to hundley and driefort
Houlton is 3-6 with a 5.38 era… no answers there.
If Tomkko were good he wouldn’t have lost 15 games last year. I hope we can get rid of him ,and not have to suffer through another year of his pitching! The problem is who do we put in the rotation who’s better?
Here’s my advice on a rotation: Lowe, Penny, Billingsly, Perez (yes we need to give him one more chance) and Sele (for the time being as long as he fairs better than Seo).
Tomko joins Seo in the bullpen and we have two guys who can give us 2 innings (that’s kinda been missing this year). I wonder if lofton doesn’t belong in left and Kemp in center? Ethier is a natural right fielder remember.
I wonder how Cararra is doing in the minors…we have a ton of tradeable bullpener’s down there and Atlanta is suffering. Trade time? 49 years a dodgers fan, I’ve seen most of this before. This ain’t a bad team if it’s used properly.