Furcal is back
Prior to tonight’s game, we will activate Furcal and option Chin-hui Tsao back to Las Vegas. It’s beginning to look a lot like we thought it would. The last time San Diego was here, we hit four homers in a row…not that you should expect that again tonight. Here’s the lineup:
Furcal, SS
Pierre, CF
Nomar, 1B
Kent, 2B
Gonzo, LF
Martin, C
Clark, RF
Martinez, 3B
Lowe, P
For any of you who speak Spanish, we’ve started a new blog on losdodgers.com, which will include posts from Jaime Jarrín, Pepe Yñiguez and several other Spanish-speaking members of the Dodgers. Both of them, plus Fernando Valenzuela, were at a press conference today where we announced a new partnership with Aeromexico, the largest airline in Latin America.
There’s plenty of Jackie Robinson information at the special landing page from MLB.com. Earlier today, the Los Angeles City Council officially declared April 15 Jackie Robinson Day in the City of Los Angeles. Accepting the resolution was Robinson’s wife, Rachel, his former teammate, Don Newcombe, former Dodger “Sweet” Lou Johnson, City Councilmembers Ed Reyes, Jan Perry, Bernard Parks, Herb Wesson and Dodger Senior Vice President Howard Sunkin.
Tomorrow, Juan Pierre and Marlon Anderson will participate in a clinic at Major League Baseball’s Urban Youth Academy in Compton. The event, will also include former Dodgers Don Newcombe, Ken Landreaux, “Sweet” Lou Johnson and Rudy Law.
And finally, a couple things I noticed while doing game notes today.
Entering play today, 12 of the 16 NL teams are above the .500 mark.
Also entering play today, the ERA in the National League for all 16 teams is just 3.47, 0.39 higher than the Dodgers’ team mark (3.08). The NL’s batting average is just .247, .008 higher than the Dodgers’ team mark (.239). Last season, the NL batted .265 and posted a 4.22 ERA. The sample size is too small to make anything of it, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
Oh, and the Dodgers have made just three errors in their first nine games.
Inside the Dodgers 
quick question since betemit is being benched against wells—is betemit going to be permanently platooned? And if so… should we really be pinning our hopes on him staying at third base?
You know I read this blog everyday and it never ceases to amaze me how much of a loser Joey P. is. He has absolutly no life to the point where he goes online to blog pointless insults on a fan-only blog. Get a life loser.
Moving on, the top of the lineup is looking great now that Pierre is in the right role and Nomar is heating up.
I might be wrong on this but Grady Little seems to have LITTLE (no pun) patience with young up & coming players, Ethier must feel like **** right about now & he will probably feel allot more pressure to perform perfectly when he gets another shot. I don’t like it.
Brady Clark and Ramon Martinez?? Why??
Geez, show some faith in the young players…….the franchise has absolutely NOTHING to gain in the short term or long term by benching the Betemit and Ethiers of the world for journeyman players like Clark and Martinez……this is the one pet peeve I have with Grady Little…..but I think this kind of vibe originates from the GM unfortunately.
On top of that, we should be keeping guys like Tsao and booting old washed up players like Rudy Seanez.
Just ignore all posts from the person claiming they are JoeyP, their blog is a total fake, too. I can’t believe someone doesn’t have something better to do than to do up such a cynical enterprise but if we ignore it eventually it will go away. (I hope.) Meanwhile, I dunno if Ethier’s officially in Grady’s doghouse – I think he plans to platoon Kemp (when healthy), Ethier and Clark depending on pitching matchups and who is hot. Right now Ethier is not hot, he’s struggling, but I don’t think he’ll be permanently benched necessarily. Hope he pulls through it soon. we could use the Ethier of last year. Possible too that other teams have figured out a weakness in his hitting and are exploiting it until he figures it out, too. I still can’t believe that LuGo hasn’t gotten a single day off yet though, but at least he’s swinging the bat better. Hope it’s a good series.
And thanks as always for your posts, Josh.
Nice to see Furcal back.
I generally agree that Ethier and Betemit deserve every opportunity, but let’s not jump to conclusions just yet. I think tonight is probably a good night to sit Ethier and give Clark a chance. Wells is the only left hander SD’s got, so why fill our lineup with a bunch of leftys?
While I definitely don’t think that Martinez is the full time answer at 3B, giving Betemit the night off again isn’t going to destroy anything…he’s been pretty abysmal at the plate lately.
I’m just so happy to have Raffy back. He will jump start this offense like he did most of last year.
YAY FURCAL IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!
Good to hear that Furcal is back but whats the deal with barely any games available in HD?
We Want HD!
Great news about Raffy. I liked letting Kemp get his chances, but I don’t get sitting Ethier for Clark. Kemp is going to be a big part of the team for a long time, but Clark is really just a back-up. Let Andre hit out of it. But, it’s one day.
I also am concerned about not letting Betemit get his chances. He may need to sit, so that he can get his confidence back hitting against Right-Handers, rather than try to break out of a slump from his weaker side. But here’s the rub–we’re nine games into the season, and he has 1 hit. If he’s still not hitting after we’re into the thick of it (say, maybe, another 9 games), don’t we have to try moving Nomar across the diamond and giving Loney his shot.
Also, I wanted to re-post my comments from the last entry, because by the time I posted, this new one was up, and I want to make sure Josh saw it:
mhardy78–Great Post about shortwave radio. I think I read about your friend or saw him on the news last year. A great fan.
Josh, please take note, because this idea is really solid. I noticed last Saturday that the radio feed was slower than the TV Feed (I turned off th Fox broadcasters in favor of Charley and Rick–and would naturally have preferred Vin), and saw in the LA Times today about the 10 second delay, and that KFWB was able to reduce this. The delay is silly, and the ideal situation is if the Dodgers (and all of MLB) could work to get the FCC to change their position on this–it’s not like there is a half-time show in a baseball game that needs a tape delay.
But, for an in-park solution, another idea that might work better than shortwave would be a very low power AM transmitter at like 530 or 1610 or 1620 on the AM Band that would simulcast the KFWB (or whatever future flagship of the Dodger Radio Network) feed without tape delay. The transmitter could be low power enough so that it only reach the confines of Chavez Ravine. Airports do this for traffic and flight status, and a number of cities have low-power transmitters that do the same thing. A few signs around the stadium would indicate to fans that you could tune in to station on a conventional AM Radio to listen. The Dodgers could set up another one to broadcast on Spanish.
It used to be common-place to hear Vin (and Ross and Jerry, then Don, then Rick) while watching the game at the Stadium. When I first started going to games, I remember my brother brining a radio, but we often did not bother, because there was so many radios, you could hear it throughout the ballpark. These days, you don’t get that anymore, and it’s really too bad.
They could actually use Vinny’s FSN Prime feed, if you wanted to get Vinny over Charley and Rick (I don’t know if that would be a problem with the FSN contract, and also because Vin tends to react to the cameras after the simulcast ends in the Fourth Inning, which he generally makes a point not to while he’s on Radio–amazing guy). BTW–none of this is meant to be a slight to Charley and Rick, who I think are gerat themselves–but there is no one like Vin Scully.
My two cents: The bench guys need a start now and then to keep them sharp and to see what they can do, but Ethier should be given a little more rope than Betemit.
I would start Ethier tonight (he’s already missed so many starts because of Kemp’s deserved chances). He basically carried the team for months last year as a rookie, then slumped at the end (injury or too long a season? whatever you want to believe.) That ought to be worth something. Betemit, on the other hand, came in for a month or so and hit with some power but hasn’t really earned the cred Ethier did in his short time.
agreed Mitchell@terragon
Ethier hit .359 againts lefties last year.
These #s are not exact, but Ethier has about 10 hits in his last 120 or so ABs. Grady isn’t bing unfair. His job is to win games.
Hopefully Ethier snaps out of it, seems like a great kid with a nice future.
Welsome, Raffy!
I see you’re point drj884 but there’s a BIG TIME COUNTER POINT to your way of thinking.
Ethier hit .359 againts lefties last year.
Posted by: max_power_05@yahoo.com
But that was last year and before he was ‘Mentally spent’
Grady is putting up the lineup for the situation with what he has to work with.I’m sure Grady will be hard pressed to sit him once he gets it going but I’d rather see him Hot later in the year then what we saw at the end of last year Russ Ortiz was winless in his last 31 appearnces and pitched a 2 run game through 8 2/3. Things change and Eithier didn’t have a major league ab til May….
1-2-3 1st
Go Blue!
Go Gonzo!!!!…..’Washed up old man and all’
he still is washed up as far as an everyday player goes, imho. marshmellow man getting rocked. good times.
Gotta love Vin…” After loading the bases with no one out they(Padres) are lucky to get 1″ Classic Vin.
ugh. get a freaking life and stop ruining this blog.
9-1 Dodgers now. I love these doubles!
Geez look at Betamit and Ethier batting average. Are we forgetting how Betamit do when he bat right handed and should give it up? There is nothing wrong started Clark. Clark is doing fine tonight and I still want Saenz to played 3rd against the LH starters but Grady won’t let him start. Ethier batting .118 had something to do with Grady decision.
Gagne save #1 tonight, 1K, all fastballs around 93-94
Welcome back, Furcal, we missed you.
And can someone please tell me why we won’t trade Betermit for a draft pick and bring up Andy LaRoche?
an unexpected great night for Clark & Lowe at the plate.
elkim…you can’t trade draft picks in baseball.
can you imagine how many runs we’d have if Pierre actaully got a base hit? Those duck fart grounds outs were pathetic.
Sole possesion of 1st place.
Troll keep trolling
Dodger keep rolling.
The haters continue to hate.
I’m not taking ther bait.
jspelk and maxpower are mserable,
but I’m not swalowing that pill
Depo is will ver come back, he’s gone.
Thank God Mr. Colletti signed Juan
Iggy bin.
Look what happens as soon as Furcal is back at the #1 spot…9 run game. I know he didn’t do it all, but he scored one and drove in two. Gotta love him – not a bad 1st game back, even with 2 strikeouts. Good also to have a leadoff man with some gap power…
Maybe because we trade Aybar/Baez for Betamit. They think Betamit have great talent and don’t won’t to lost trading him just yet.
LOL…im not a Depo fan im glad he’s gone. If you are happy that Ned signed Pierre you might want to look at his stats the last three years.
As i said before if he plays like he did in 2004 i’ll be all for Juan being on the team but the way he started this year he is gonna kill our offense.
Way to come back Rafael!! Very good first game… and gappers to boot! If only Lowe had some foot speed, you’d have had a triple and a double tonight. We’ll take two doubles any night…
Lowe was fabulous as well… Martin looked comfortable in the six slot… Clark was spanking the ball… and Pierre was pressing still. Just relax Juan… you don’t have to lead off any longer. Hope he settles in quickly…
Great win!!
Go Dodgers!!
Hmm I’m going to forget the offense for a minute…has the staff done one poor job since opening day? The starters are already going deeper than last season, and it’s early when their arms are usually a bit more tender. The ‘pen is closing up shop nicely, whether the game is close or not. I’ve said it before, and I’m not the first to do so…pitching and defense baby. Add the depth the Dodgers have in their system and I’m starting to REALLY like this team.
The pitching is impressive. If they can do this consistently through out the yaer i think we’ll run away with the west.
I don’t know what to do about Ethier. He’s lost all confidence. I think he would benefit from some time in Triple A. He needs to start doing that inside out swing and driving the ball to the opposite field.
Betemit needs to be traded. Sorry he may have power potential but power doesn’t mean anything if you can’t put the bat on the ball. I think grady will stick him in the lineup and hope he gets hot and then trade him when his value had peaked.
I’ve said all i can about Pierre. call me a stat head if you want but Pierre was vastly overpaid for his speed. He’ll get you 200 hits but at a cost. He made 599 outs last year. He has no gap power. So any extra base hits he’ll get will have to be down the line. He doesn’t walk. He’s not patient. He is pushing himself to try and impress but i still think we would have been better served keep Lofton.
Hey guys, new subject, just had to tell you about this. I just had the greatest Dodger experience of my life. My wife and I were in Las Vegas this week, celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. We were out walking along the strip, past Ceasar’s Palace, and decided on a whim to stop in at the Forum Shops. We had not planned to go there, as we had seen them several times before. At a sports memorabilia store, to my HUGE surprise, Steve Garvey was meeting fans and autographing
merchandise! Now I know these guys do this type of thing all the time, but it was incredible to me because 1) we had no idea he was in town, and 2) Steve is one of my all time favorite Dodgers. I’m the one last fall who was pushing hard for Steve to be in the Hall. ( Don’t get me started on that.) Anyway this was my biggest Dodger thrill, to sit and talk with Steve, and get an autographed jersey, photograph and a ball which I am giving my son who is also a huge Dodger fan. To top it off, I wasn’t planning to bring my camera, but tossed it in my bag at the last minute just for the heck of it. Now we have photos of the whole event ! Just wanted to share the moment with all of you.
VERY Cool gregg!!!!
Garvey was my hero growing up too never wanted to play anywhere but 1st in LL and an even bigger one as an early adult with the paterity suits as I wanted to be more a stud then then play baseball.
Guess there are better jackpots to be had in Vegas outside the casinos at times.
This is gonna be a great year! GO DODGER BLUE 2007!!!
Oh BTW did ya Hear?
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Dodgers are in 1st place!
Dodgers are also tied with the Mets and Braves for best record in baseball…I know it’s early, but a good start never hurts a team.
OK..You Furcal supporters, you
have done VERY well. NOW where
are you GONZO bashers.I had
always believed in GONZO,thats why I’m asking this…..