A little understatement
We could use a win today. Here's the lineup:Furcal, SS
Lugo, 3B
Saenz, 1B
Kent, 2B
Ethier, LF
Martin, C
Kemp, CF
Repko, RF
Lowe, P
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Inside the Dodgers 
Hey Josh, nice hit and run !!!
Go Dodgers !!!
i pretty much like the line up, Lugo batting any were but 3rd is good for me, NOW LET’S WIN AGAINST THIS SORRY TEAM!!!
is something wrong with mike marshall j.r.? hes been out 2 games now, i know its been against 2 lefties, but he had surprisingly been swinging the bat well.. last night better have been “shawn bradleys” last game of the season, we have won 1 game of which he starts!.. hes horrible, it will be interesting to see what sport he’ll try next.. hope grady doesnt do anything stupid today..
BELIEVE IN BLUE!
Ethier needs a day off! Why does JD get so many off? He should rebate part of his check.
joeyp,
Maybe you should get a life and stop posting on the Dodgers blog then. Seriously.
hey drj, joey is just a Pseudonym, the real person behind joeyp is paul depodesta.. and depo needs to leave this blog..
BELIEVE IN BLUE!
Oh come on guy let Joey P vent. I’m hoping he jumps off the mountain as soon as the Dodgers lock it up !! We wouldn’t want to miss that now would we ??
Go Dodgers !!!
Regarding the Grady Little bashing of yesterday, after watching Jim Tracy manage this team the last few years, I’ll take Grady anyday. Right about now though, the guys could use a Tommy Lasorda “pep” talk. No way Tommy would have tolerated the effort of the past three days.
They should fly in Lasorda to stir the team up, then 🙂
Glad to see Nomar and his toothpick bat out of the lineup.
Let joeyp vent all he wants to.
Let’s hope this team doesn’t take the field with some silly excuse for mailing in their day’s work all ready in their minds.
To my imposter:
You win. Your phony posts under my name are truly annoying. Congrats.
To everyone else:
Please know I won’t be posting at this message board until this problem somehow disappears. In the meantime, disregard anything else you see under my name here.
– Jon Weisman
Dodger Thoughts
Interesting lineup, can we please win a game in Milwaukee!!!!!!!
They will win tonight, DLowe will be on his game. Oh and stop by dodgerstalk.com for some pre and post game fun. GO DODGERS!
Folks, sorry for the troll on this official Dodgers club blog as well as on Tommy’s blog. I have deleted all of his comments and we’ll continue to monitor, but would ask that anyone please report any further problems with the person to our community MLBlogs email address below. We’re able to tell which new email accounts come from the troll’s same IP address as you can see below, and the person’s MLB.com registrations will be terminated each time:
View all comments from this IP address: 216.30.249.53
author joeyp@oldbear.com
View all comments from this IP address: 216.30.249.53
jonweisman@dodgerthoughts.com
Thanks,
Mark/MLB.com
http://mlblogs.mlblogs.com
lol, joey got kicked out!… wow, that made my day.. hopefully the dodgers continue the good news and win today,
BELIEVE IN BLUE!
Thanks for managing this blogsphere – unfortunately there’s always the lowest common denominator who finds that kind of behaviour cool, eh?
lol, it was his destiny that Joey P would crash and burn !!!
I feel a win !! Come on Blue Crew !!
Go Dodgers !!!
Ok, down to three points tonight:
1) Nomar needs a break, and Olmedo’s a good call here. He lead’s the team in slugging percentage, and Capuano’s weakness is getting hit hard. Olmedo in the 3 hole is a little surprising, but should be good.
2) What does not bode well, though, is the infield defense setup. A simple move would yield
Saenz – 3B
Furcal – SS
Lugo – 2B
Kent – 1B
which would give a guy with decent range on each side of the infield. With the posted setup, we are going to learn more than we want to know about Jason Repko’s ability to charge ground balls, but don’t get your hopes up for a Raul Mondesi style 9-3 groundout.
3) Grady has decided that two lefties in a row is a good oppurtunity to give Drew two days off in a row, and the fact that the played the Dodger Stadium day game followed by the Miller Park day game probably contributed to his fatigue. Nonetheless, I’d rather have him charged and ready to go against New York over the weekend.
no Joey…this will mean good karma for the Crew in Blue tonight (that and Hendrickson isn’t starting)
Go Lowe, show everyone why you Maddux and Penny are going to be a force in the playoffs.
I still think Kemp is going to bust loose, today might be his last chance for a while. Tough tough pitcher though… lets go blue.
BELIEVE IN GETTING BACK ON TRACK!!!!!
I like the lineup….definitely gives us a different look, which I think we need.
I’m with a lot of the others….Drew should not be sitting as much as he has been the last month. His hitting has looked much improved the last month, and these “breaks” aren’t helping him get into a good flow.
I like the infield setup….Saenz at 3rd base in never a good thing. I do wish Betemit was given some opportunities against lefties…..he has been much more productive than Lugo.
I see us getting a win tonight!
Furcal leads off the game with a ground out to first in the hole requiring the pitcher to cover, joggs the whole way to the bag, in no rush, out by two or three steps. I really dont understand what it going on here.
we longer term Dodger fans (1951, 52, 53) remember some rough times. 13.5 game lead lost in 1951 and Bobby Thompson home run; Campy’s accident; Larson’s perfect game against Dodgers in 1956, last 33 innings no runs against the Orioles in 1966, Reggie Jackson’s three homers in 1977, etc. However, in due course something good and exciting always happened. Bit of a tough time right now but something good will happen again. Hopefully starting tonight. I do wish that we had a more consistent lineup instead of the changes every day. It must be hard to get into a rhythm. I think we gotta go with the horses now.
Looking for someone to take the lead and carry us for a while. Go Derek. Go Dodgers
How can you win ballgames when differant people play everyday? I’m all for the benching of Nomar, but Betemit has to play and Lugo has to sit. Drew also has to play more than 3 games a week. It’s hard to get any momentum going when you take out a guy after he starts hitting.
I like the way Lowe’s pitching so far. He may go 7 innings or more. Lugo screwed up our third.
Lowe is pitching well, but he’s already given up one run, and with this tepid offense, that means the L will go behind his name.
Man, what happened to this team?
For what it’s worth, Guzman could have hit for us at least as well as Lugo. I wish we would just keep him out of the lineup, and we’d have a better chance of winning some games. What a total loser! Well, Grady obviously likes him.
Lowe was brilliant, Martin and Kemp delivered the win.
Maybe we shouldn’t be so excited to win against the Brewers, but actually i am [so excited], because every win is important in September.
We’ll be better in New York with much more runs, i’m sure !
W00t, a win! 😀
The offense did JUST enough. Thank goodness for Lowe!
finally!, maybe someone should be kicked off this blog everyday.. i would have liked to see lowe go and finish it off, but seeing sammy get the save was nice…
BELIEVE IN BLUE!
Lowe didn’t pitch a no hitter, so it wasn’t good enough…
I’m just playing. We really needed this win, Lowe pitched a gem tonight!
Good to win this one. Way to go Derek, Saito, Martin and Kemp. Looking for a more consistent lineup in NY and scoring some runs. JD has to be in the lineup if he is healthy. Nomar has to get back on track.Be good to have a couple of earlier games here. Go Dodgers.
Very nicely done…
Way to go D-Lowe!! Timely hitting by Matt Kemp!! A great win all around. Let’s keep this type of play up… especially when the opposing pitcher is lights out.
I’m looking forward to the Mets-series, this time we’ll face not only Lo Duca, but Green, Ledee and Mota.
“I’m looking forward to the Mets-series, this time we’ll face not only Lo Duca, but Green, Ledee and Mota.”
So all you Depodesta fans out there, stop being negative and root for JD Drew, Jeff Kent and Brad Penny to lead the charge this weekend.
of course, there are plenty of non-whiny Depo fans who were going to root for the Dodgers anyway, and they should be acknowledged.
Ledee was DFA’d by the Mets, actually, though he’s still on the roster, being unclaimed, and batting .204 or something like that.
I’d root for Drew a lot now that he’s doing what I expect he’d do, which is show a shade of power and timely hitting. I actually missed him in the lineup the past couple of days 😉
Kemp came up big. Really like the way he is working counts now, and getting pitches to hit. If he can keep this up he will be a great boost to the line up. Guy has a very, very live bat.
D@mn Padres won in the 11
Yeah – stupid Rockies can only be pests against us, it seems 😀
I’m looking forward to the Mets-series, this time we’ll face not only Lo Duca, but Green, Ledee and Mota.
Posted by: kalmi@canada.com
Bad news first… Green went 6/8 tonight in the doubleheader with 2 dingers. He always seems to get hot in early sept. then fade by the end.
Good News our Vets should be WELL rested and ready to fire up those Bats!
Hope SD gets tired of winning soon… as the best I think we can hope for is a split series.Half of the Mets roster looks like our 2004 roster with the holes filled in…Play Hard and Good Luck Dodgers!
I highlighted the fact that we’ll face some ex-Dodgers – those guys know us, that’s why it’s going to be interesting.
//Stop guessing who is a Depo fan or not, does it really matter ? Btw i’m a simple Dodger fan from Europe and i don’t care who is the manager or the owner, i like the game and i hope every night that we’ll win, that’s all and maybe i deserve some acknowledgment too for getting up at 3am to watch the game live 😀
i too don’t understand the tossed salad lineups every night – esp with about 20 games to go and the playoffs on the line.
who needs rest at this time year? its not hot or humid and this is what you play for all year – a shot at the playoffs!
please, please grady refrain from inserting lugo in the lineup. he is not helping anywhere he plays.
and yes, time for eithier to get a break, esp with another lefty on the mound tonite (glavine).
Kemp had a good game,so you know he’ll sit tonite. That’s Grittle logic,if someone has a good game let him sit for a couple of days so he loses his stroke!
It’s not so much of a “tossed salad” lineup, but more that Grady insists on left-right combinations at the plate. It’s a statistical thing on his part… along with getting guys some rest. But now is not the time to be resting players. This is cruch time and we need the consistency heading down the stretch.
I like Kenny Lofton, but for this time of the year, I’d rather see Matt Kemp’s bat in the lineup. He’s not going to be pressing as much if he can get some more at bats under his belt. He looked very relaxed at the plate and laid off several breaking balls in the dirt.
Loney needs to be starting at first until Nomar can prove he’s out of his slump. Rest Nomar’s nagging injuries and he’ll be ready for the last few games of the year and hopefully the playoffs. Where’s the freaking sombrero when we need it the most?
The “pre-playoff” litmus test begins today with a four game series against the league-leading New York Mets. I like how the Dodgers match up against this team, however we cannot afford to be behind in these games or elese we’re cooked. Our goal here should be to take three of four, especially with the Padres hot on our tails after winning five in a row. Padres have a day off, so let’s not let them gain a game on us in the loss column.
This is a very important series guys!! Let’s make in memorable and see how close this team really is to competing against a class organization. Go Big Blue!!!
Come on fliegel, don’t distort the quote! Otherwise you get poor cause and effect.
“A lot of their success has to do with knowing they have the next day off,” Little said. “It gives them a relaxed kind of feeling.”
Little schedules days off, and with old and/or brittle players, namely Lofton, Nomar, Drew and Kent, that’s when success happens.
Kemp on the other hand is young, and besides, Glavine is a left hander and Lofton has bad splits against lefties. Besides, Kemp has the chance to learn from veteran leadership ™, as Maddux and Glavine were teammates for a decade, and he probably knows some of Glavine’s quirks, etc.
kalmi@canada.com – I used to get up at horrible hours to watch the game too, back when I lived in South Africa 😛 Doesn’t help that it is midwinter cold and the Dodgers are losing at 04:00am on a workday 😉
I really hope Hendrickson doesn’t start Sunday. The offense seems to give up before he touches the ball anyway, since they know he will cough up a 9.00 ERA’s worth.
They should get creative Sunday – whip out Sele for three innings, Hendrickson for one, Stultz for two or three … that’s a patchwork starter that may just get us in the game. You don’t want that lineup to see our garbage time starters twice!
Lugo was a trade bust – stop trying to make him happy by inserting his .219 toothpick in the lineup and messing up the rythm of the rest of the team.
I don’t understand why the guys play better knowing they’ll sit next day. Isn’t this what the team play for? Isn’t your whole hope and goal as a ball player to be playing meaningful games in September? Aren’t you supposed to look forward to that and want to play them?
We pretty much have to assume that was a bad/out of context quote by Grady, there’s really no other logical explanation. Really hope Kemp plays today. 1 of the 4 Dodger hits Tuesday, 2 of 5 yesterday, and another lefty today (maybe Ethier could use the day off)…. Lets take it to the Mets, I know they are good- but no Pedro, we need to bust out the bats b/c you KNOW they can score. Penny needs to stop throwing 97 and get back to hitting his spots and not running out of gas in the 5th. Hasn’t been the same since the allstar game when he decided to crank it up a notch on his fastball. Mets lineup not going to be wow’d by 97mph gas.
Agreed “drj”… the worst thing that could’ve happened to Brad Penny WAS the All-Star Game.
Agree – Penny’s become his own worst enemy since the All-Star Game. Suspect he’s the hardheaded fool kind who will not listen to outside suggestions, too, so we’re probably stuck with the shadow of a pitcher we have now.
Ethier can hit lefties. He’s proven it. So no reason to sit him due to a leftie on the mound though I agree he needs a break from getting schooled by a variety of pitchers.
Today starts the real test. If we whimper and roll over in this series against the Mets, we can only hope for clemency, that we don’t reach the post season. Because we won’t belong. Losses I can stand; lacklustre, spineless, white flag losses I can’t.
It is true that Ethier can hit lefties, and there is no particular reason to sit him against a leftheander. However, his average has been consistently on a decline, and he just may due for a couple of days of rest, which just could coincide with Glavine being on the mound. I would also like to see Kemp more than just one day at a time in the lineup to give him some consistency. Therefore, I’d like to see Ethier sit today and Kemp playing. As for Lugo, I believe he’s had more than a reasonable chance to adjust to National League pitching – I don’t want him inserted in the lineup on a steady basis anymore, because it only creates an 0-4 gap in the lineup. I believe Betemit should be given a chance against lefthanders to get his stroke back from that side of the plate. I watched him on the Braves Network earlier in the season, and he hit some lefthanders pretty well. I believe I saw him hit a home run against the Dodgers right handed early in the year.
I hope that Penny can pace himself today not to overthrow and to get back in a winning groove. His results have really been disappointing since the All Star game, and we’re not going anywhere post season unless he can bear more of the load and get on a winning track. GO BLUE on this very important weekend!
“I believe I saw him hit a home run against the Dodgers right handed early in the year.”
That is true, but in all fairness, that was Odailis Perez.
Yea, Ethier hits lefties fine, not an indictment in any way, just a day off. He looks a little tired. I have to assume JD is going to work today.
I dont think you can sit Kemp right now. Maybe Repko, Kemp, JD in the outfield? With the first 2 at the bottom of the order at 8 and 7.
BELIEVE IN 94 MPH!!!!!!
MessageBear on Ethier: “…However, his average has been consistently on a decline, and he just may due for a couple of days of rest.”
Disagree: Ethier is hitting .306 during his last 10 games. Andre has been one of the Dodgers’ most consistent hitters all season long. As for a rest? The kid is 24 years old… he can take it.
Repko is another automatic out in the lineup. I’d rather see Lofton, who can at least work the count a bit.
Hey kalmi!
That’s about the time I get up to check the late scores. I go back to bed before I get very awake, though. I enjoy seeing ex-Dodgers,too, and I always hope they do well. Just not this weekend. Green was my favorite, and when I went down to AZ last year he hit a dinger that landed right in front of me. Talk about mixed emotions. Kind of like when I saw Ron Cey in Dodger Stadium in a Cubs uniform. Anyway, I still think of them as good Dodgers, I just do not want them to be good right now.
I agree with Repko’s ineffectiveness other than being put in late in the game for defensive purposes. After all when he got the chance to play last year, his average didn’t get beyond .230, and he’s hitting at about the same level now. Sorry that he got hurt when he seemed to be going strong in the Spring. He’ll just have to fight for a slot in spring training again next year, and I doubt that he’ll come out of it on the major league club other than as a hustling but defensive substitute.
I’d start Dessens Sunday. If not I’d go with Sele, Tomko, and yes, Hendrickson with a extremely quick hook in that order.
“Where’s the freaking sombrero when we need it the most?”
Kevin, before Ray gets upset, Nomar had the poncho. Adam Dunn had the sombrero, namely the golden sombrero, on August 2 against the Dodgers.
is anyone as pumped about this series as i am?
Against S.D. is the ultimate in adrenaline for me, i had THE PADRES!!!
sorry typo, i mean i HATE THE PADRES!!!
Patriotacts425. All I’m saying is that no other manager rests his players as much as Grady,and when a guy gets in a good groove you should let him play. Rest them on occasion ,and if they slump, bet never when they’re hot.
Also Betemit is as good or better than Lugo. He should be playing everyday even though he’s better hitting lefty. I haven’t seen Lugo hit anybody!