Mother's Day
A special shout out goes out to my mother and the moms of all the Dodger players, coaches, broadcasters, front office members and fans. If you watch the game today, the pink bats will be evident throughout, with several Dodger players planning to use them.
Andre Ethier wrote his mom a postcard for the world to see today and the L.A. Times checked in on Brett and Donna Tomko a year after she beat breast cancer.
If ever there was a day to be thankful for what we have, this would be it. And for those inclined to donate to the Susan G. Komen Foundation or purchase a pink bat of your own, you can do so at these links.
The lineup is almost the same as the last two days, with one change at the bottom of it.
Furcal, SS
Pierre, CF
Nomar, 1B
Kent, 2B
Gonzo, LF
Martin, C
Betemit, 3B
Ethier, RF
Hendrickson, P
And here are a couple notes on a Sunday morning…
A SALUTE TO MOMS – Today is Mother’s Day and the first 25,000 fans in attendance will receive free lip gloss, compliments of Smashbox Cosmetics. Major League Baseball will be dedicating the day to raising money and awareness for the fight against breast cancer through the Susan G. Komen “For the Cure” Foundation. Numerous Dodgers have agreed to use pink bats to help raise awareness for the disease, including Wilson Betemit, Brady Clark, Andre Ethier, Rafael Furcal, Nomar Garciaparra, Jeff Kent, Mike Lieberthal, Russell Martin, Ramon Martinez, Juan Pierre and Olmedo Saenz.
MANNING THE HOT CORNER – Third baseman Wilson Betemit has struggled to find a groove at the plate this season but it has not affected his defense. Betemit has committed just one error in 26 games at third base, making him one of just six third basemen in Major League Baseball this season with one miscue or less and 25 or more games played at the hot corner.
A TALL ORDER – Mark Hendrickson’s 1.95 ERA is the eighth-best in baseball and the sixth-lowest mark in the NL among all pitchers with 30.0 or more innings pitched. Hendrickson has allowed just five earned runs in four starts this season, his best four-start stretch since June 3-20, 2004 when he also allowed five earned runs in four starts. Incredibly, the best four-start stretch of Hendrickson’s career was his first four big league starts when he permitted just three earned runs in 26.0 innings (1.04) from Sept. 7-25, 2002.
IT’S A LITTLE STUFFY IN HERE – Luis Gonzalez had three hits last night to give him 2,405, tying him with Stuffy McInnins for 101st place all-time. He is 10 hits shy of cracking the Top 100 in baseball history, with the century-spot currently being held down by Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle. Gonzalez also scored three runs to surpass Barry Larkin and put himself in 99th place all-time with 1,331, two behind Lave Cross. Gonzalez legged out his first triple last night since July 23, 2006 and drew his team-leading 19th base on balls.
LONGBALL LORE – Of the Dodgers’ 18 homers this season, eight have come against left-handers and 10 against right-handers despite having more than three times the at-bats against righties (951) than lefties (306).
Inside the Dodgers 
A Mother’s Day game with the pink bats swinging for the fences! I love it! A special shout-out to all the Mothers that this day is set apart for… and especially for my Mom… even though she won’t read this, I still think of her every year. I still love you Mom…
Hendrickson on the hill and a good line-up to get us our third win in a row and sweep the hated Reds. I stll remember the days of Rose, Foster, Bench, Concepcion… etc. Now that WAS the Big Red Machine… this one of today resembles the Little Red Contraption.
Go Dodgers!!
Go Pink Bats!!
Go Moms!!
Is anyone else starting to get concerned at the way Grady is handling Russ? He played a day game after a night game Thursday in Florida and he is in there again today after a night game, I know it seems to be a gauranteed loss when Russ isn’t in there but the kid is gonna wear down.
Why is LaRoche sitting???
520 OBP, 267 avg., and solid defense.
Some people (“ewk”) think that questioning management is “irrational.” But I simply disagree with sitting a kid thats doing a good job (certainly better than what Betemit has shown). They did the same thing with Ethier at the start of the season. I just can’t see how, barring injuries, our prospects will ever develop in this environment.
“Ewk”, the reason I complain despite the fact that we’re in first place right now, is because I disagree with Ned and Grady’s philosophy of shrinking from the risk of playing so called “unproven” prospect and instead settling for certain mediocrity with aging vets. The payoff of having young players succeed can be extremely high because they’re cheap and highly energetic. It’s just a shame that management doesn’t have the stones to take that risk.
Although we’re winning right now (and believe me, i’m enjoying it), I fear that, in the long run, this philosophy is going to produce exactly what its designed to produce…mediocrity.
time to trade for glaus and his bone-spurred heel, i suppose.
dodgerdude,
Seems simple to me. Betemit needs ABs so his trade value goes up. They don’t want to lose him on waivers, so they hope he has 3 or 4 good games in the next few weeks to prove he hasn’t totally fallen apart. I still think LaRoche will get much more playing time overall, one day’s benching is nothing to worry about.
If we were going to alternate between Betemit and LaRoche at some point, you would think that Betemit would have played last night against the right hander rather than today against the lefty.
Betemit against a lefty….:(
It looks like Ned’s Inability to add apower bat for Penny was a blessing in disguise. Go blue
If Betemit doesn’t get a hit in his first three at bats, LaRoche or if we’re up Martinez will get in there after the 6th inning. That’s pretty much the pattern with Betemit, so they’re giving him a start and if he doesn’t deliver he’ll be out of there with a double switch. Betemit is definitely not worth giving up on so I have no problem with him starting every 4th game (spelling Kent every now and then at 2nd). As for Martin, he wants to play everyday, with that being said, I could see Grady sitting him Wednesday night when Wolf pitches and giving Martin two days off with the Thursday off day.
DodgerDude
I agree with you 1000%..
What you say is right on..
It’s very frustrating…
Puppyhead. I really hope you’re right.
i have no problem starting betemit *occasionally*, but i never want to see him starting everyday again. i’d rather make a trade if it came to that.
Tony Abreu is not playing for Vegas today. He didn’t play last night, either. I wonder if he’s on the way up…
I agree, I think the dodgers might be showcasing betemit for a trade. too bad baseball
doesn’t allow trades for draft picks, I could see some team trading a first round
pick for betemit. as it is we would probaly only get a wahed of vet, or a couple of low class a players who will never make it past double a.
might as well release him,Betemit, and eat his salary, and let LaRoche develope. he can not develope much only playing a few days a week.
opps, washed up old vet, replaces wahed of vet.
what GM would be dumb enough to trade anything decent for Betemit? If anything we;ll get a B prospect for him. Probably a relief pitching prospect if we are lucky. We might just be better off taking a chance he clears waivers.
>>>what GM would be dumb enough to trade anything decent for Betemit? well, our’s did.
i doubt they’d trade betemit. he’s ned’s guy. i love abreu but i dont see the sense of replacing laroche with abreu after, what, 5 days?
yeah but we got rid of our garbage last year, Baez and a drug addict, for him so we can’t expect much from him. Just DFA him and if someone claims him right if they don’t just send him to triple A.
right should be Fine*
i trust john schuerholz, hey wouldnt have let go of him for a **** overpaid reliever and and a “B” minor league prospect. I think betemits numbers last year were flukey, and the league figured him out, he has yet to adjust. i agree max, whos gonna trade anything worth a **** for him? steve phillips might have contemplated it. hopefully he clears waivers if not that trade was just a baez salary dump, and 12 homeruns. let him go strikeout somewhere else in the west.
Dodgerdude, where did I ever say that questioning management was irrational? Absolutely no where. What is irrational is only acknowledging what you wish to and completely ignoring other facts, something that many people, definitely you, are guilty of doing all to oftern. PLEASE don’t put words in my mouth—I would never even imply that questioning anything is irrationl- – although it does look kind of strange considering we are winning. Another thing that it is irrational, since you don’t understand the word, is assuming that management is employing a philosophy that is designed to produce mediocrity—GIVE ME A B REAK. What is mediocre about the Dodgers thus far this year? You will tell me the throwing arms of two players like it is the only important thing about a player—again conveinently ignoring things that don’t go along with you “philosophy”.
Also, why do you put quotation marks around the word unproven. Kids in the minors are unproven. You put quotes around the word like it doesn’t belong there for some reason or is bogus and meaningless. I think teams with veterans generally tend to do better, and I know you will argue yes, but in moderation, however we are winning games, now, so why would you go with what is unproven when what is proven is working pretty **** good????
And I will tell you when the kids will develop—WHEN THEY GET THEIR **** SHOT- that is why they are kids.
You’re post just cracks me up man: “The payoff of having young players succeed can be extremely high because they’re cheap and highly energetic.” ‘highly energetic’—what does that mean? You don’t think Nomar and Kent and Gonzo go the game every day not bringing it? And what about the downsides of young players my friend? They fail miserably, as is what happens to most young players. I don’t want a bunch of young kids trying out during the regular season—you don’t know what they are capable of. You bring up a young player, they start slumping, you don’t know if he is lost or just in a slump—there are no records to reference, no numbers to serve as a guide. Do you know how silly you sound with the way we are playing ? All of you? I love our team this year–I guess I just feel bad that you do not.
i hope we saw the last start of Mark Hendrcikson. I think we are playing with fire everytime he goes out there now.
yeah max i think we saw the pre sports psycholigist (real) mark hendrickson, i think hes goona pull a tomko before tomko pulls a tomko.
Happy Mother’s Day! Interesting I come back from the game and not one positive, optimistic post here, not that I’m surprised considering we scored 10 runs…nothing really worth posting about I suppose. Regardless I can understand the lack of activity because of it being Mother’s Day, so I hope each and every one of you have a great day with the people you love and here’s hoping we can continue this against the World Champions!
Go Dodgers!
too many hard hit fly ball outs for my liking. we need bills in the rotation, if not lets throw kuo in the water and let him sink or swim again…the stuff hes got i think he will swim. nice change of pace from wolf. 2 leftys would be nice.
obligatory postive post for alex: he nomar really snapped out of his funk at home, which works wonders for our offense, jeff kent showing his power, gonzo hitting leftys well. furcal exercising his demons with 2 doubles. definitely plenty of positives to be excited about alex. i was just shedding light on the mark hendrickson situation max brought up, hes getting really lucky on balls in play and the hitters are making the usual adjustments, we all knew he wasnt gonna be that lucky all year. he feasted on some weak offenses as well. who do you guys think is next in line when either faulter? i wanna see kuo up again when he gets right.
and at the same time im not gonna get to excited because after all we were facing an average triple a lefty we should have killed. nice sweep though, lets sweep the cards out of town next, they are really struggling to score runs. i believe last i saw something like 106 runs good for last in the majors.
Ewk…i just love it when you get a rise outta me.
BTW, please enlighten me as to what “facts” I’m ignoring.
I acknowledge we’re playing well right now with the current line-up.
I acknowledge having “proven” vets is a safer than taking a risk with youngsters.
I acknowledge that having vets on the team has its various benefits.
The point is, having considered all relevant “facts,” I still do not agree with management’s philosophy (and by philosophy I’m simply referring to their reluctance to take a risk with youngsters as opposed to blocking their path to development with older, over-paid vets – and you can’t possible argue with that characterization).
I think you have a problem with people that don’t see things the way you do, so you just choose to call them “irrational.” I watch the games, read the stories, and assess the “facts” just as much as you do. I simply come to a different conclusion. Get over yourself man.
I like that ‘obligatory positive post’. Mr. Genius I’ve always been very Quid pro-Kuo, Clarice, 5 bonus points if you name the movie! So if Hendrickson has a few more undesirable starts I’d love to see a healthy Kuo every 5 games. However, I also love Bills, so it’d be a tough choice. Plus, it would be tough to get Kuo on the roster considering that Kemp should be up any day now…Or at least I can hope. So my guess would be Bills would takeover. However Hendrickson has earned another few starts based off his early work this season so you stick with him till June at the least.
I think the thing being overlooked in the posts about us getting nothing in return for Betemit – he is not likely to be traded by himself. He is more likely to be packaged with Hendy, Tomko, Seanez, et al. Because of his youth and upside he can definitely sweeten a package deal.
Now *that’s* what I’m talking about. 🙂 Figures the one game I missed watching or listening to in awhile was this offensive outburst (offensive in the good sense). I realized for all our/my talk of what else the Dodgers should do to jolt their slumbering offense, one of the biggest is just – having Furcal ‘s bat wake up. Which we all knew would come, given his slow start last year, too. Today is great evidence of that. When Furcal gets going, whoever is on the Dodgers now or later will benefit from that.
A great mother’s day gift – a mother of an inning! 😉
Hey Alex… I’m disappointed in you. Not one positive post before yours? You obviously didn’t read the first one of the thread today. Seems pretty positive to me. : )
By the way, “The Silence of the Lambs” is your answer. As far as Hendrickson is concerned… the guy has pitched pretty well this year… no doubt about that. So he had a bad day. Let’s see how he regroups for his next start. Even the best have a bad day now and then… and now we suddenly expect Hendrickson to pitch lights out every time? That’s not a very realistic expectation. We all know what he’s capable of… both good and bad… but lately the good has outweighed the his performance from today… so he gets a pass from me this time. Again… let’s see how he rebounds in his next start.
All in all a good win today. LaRoche showed he can come in off the bench and do some damage as well. Good for the kid… he smoked that single to left his first time up.
Go Dodgers!! Three in a row, let’s go for four!!
What a great series against the Reds! Now, if we can only do the same with the Cardinals this week.
I managed to get two baseballs this weekend at the Ravine. One was today’s 5th inning Ethier/Pierre warm-up ball that JP tossed into the crowd. A group of people kind of played volley ball with it and deflected it right to me.
But it was the other one that had an extra special meaning to me. During BP at Friday night’s game, I noticed that one of the ball boys shagging flies in left field had “Johnny” on his uniform shirt. I hollered down to him and asked him if he was Johnny Garcia and, to my surprise, he turned around and nodded yes. (He still had a slight shiner). I told him that he had given us a real scare and that it was great to see him back with the team. He thanked me and tossed a ball up to me.
Just thought you guys might want to know that Johnny Garcia is doing great and is back to his regular duties.
GO DODGERS!
5 BONUS POINTS! Haha, of course I saw yours Kevin, I should’ve said since the game started. Gotta love the pitching matchups against the Cardinals, it’s a big series since normally the Cards take us to the woodshed, but this season so far they’re just not the same team. As long as they have some guy named Pujols they’ll always be in the game!
Go Dodgers!
nice silence of the lambs referance. im of the just waiting for the 2006 hendrickson camp. im all for him but I just think hes going to get adjusted to. or whatever you wanna call what happened to him and tomko last year. yomko looked like cy young material the first 10 or so starts last year, then there was an explosion. enter chad billingsley. just waiting for it to happen to hendrickson, he got hit hard by a team normally bad against leftys. i liked kuo over bills entering this year, but think that both would be far better for both the short term and long term.
kssparkuhl, I’m with you. I think Hendy will probably stay in the rotation until Schmidt is healthy, which is probably for the next 3 weeks – month. I say so because if Hendy keeps pitching well, he’s trade bait as an extra starter. With the surplus of players on this 25-man roster, management has to showcase every player with potential to trade. Let’s just hope Hendy can keep up the good work.
About his start yesterday – I’m not too disappointed. He kept the damage to a minimum except for a bad first pitch to Ken Griffey Jr. And honestly, you can’t fault a guy too far for serving up a home run to one of the best home run hitters in the game. If he had gotten Griffey out, he would have only allowed 2 runs. So – give him a few more starts, that’s what I say.
Well i dont want to start anything but i would like to point out a couple things to a couple people out there:
(last 5 games)
Juan Pierre – 8-21 (.380 AVG)
2 runs scored, 3 RBI’s, 3 Stolen Bases
Luis Gonzalez – 5-14 (.357 AVG) 3 runs scored, 3 walks, 1 triple (granted it was a misplayed ball but hey he still had to run hard lol)
Nomar Garciaparra – 9-17 (.529 AVG) 2 runs scored, 4 RBI’s, 1 walk
Rafael Furcal – 7-16 (.437 AVG) 3 runs scored, 3 RBI’s, 2 walks, 2 Stolen Bases
Now i seem to remeber that quite a few of you out there were not loving the idea that some of these guys were in the line-up still. They got a day off each (except for pierre) and are looking like they are back to there bashing days! Also i know you will come at me with well they faced a couple of Triple A caliber pitchers! Yeah well last time i checked we were talking about the Majors and they were pitching in the majors. Thats one thing i never got about people who say things like that, the reason they are pitching in the game is because they have earned a spot on the club to start a game at the major league level, our guys still have to go out there and swing the bat and make contact. Like i said its the Major Leagues people!!!! But anyways im just as happy as anyone to see that our boys are starting to shwo some quality offensive production! about the whole Hendy vs Kuo/Bills debate i think Hendy has helped us tremendously this year wether it be coming in to pitch for a hurt starter or making those oustanding spot starts! He has earned a startiong job and its up to him to lose it, plus i think some have forgotten that Jason is on his way back so to put Bills/Kuo in and then have to take them out again when Jason comes back would do us any good. Hendy’s pitching well enough to get us the W’s and we need to not lose sight of that. I hope all of you had a great Mother’s day with your family!