tfp…Gonzo will never sit. Grady wont let him…unfortunately. I dont get what Grady and the Dodgers are doing to these two young kids though. One of them need to be sent down. It is a waste for them to be up here sitting on the bench. I’d like to see Tony get the call for the next two weeks.
We need to find a way to sit JP. He’s doing worse than my low expectations could have ever imagined. I don’t see a point of having Furcal batting in front of both Pierre and Nomar who aren’t taking pitches allowing him to steal bases as well as aren’t hitting all that well. Both of them are offering very little production out of the 2-3 spots in our order.
I guess the game between LaRocha and Abreu will be that the one who gets a hit in a game will get to start the next game; if no hit, the starting position reverts to the other one in the next game, and so on. Sounds OK, but I wish we had someone up here to play that same game replacing Gonzo and Pierre.
A possible silver lining about Pierre…
Now that he’s in the 1 slot in the lineup, he will probably get a lot more comfortable. As lvproduction said, he’s underperformed even our lowest expectations of him; this could be, in part, because of his unfamiliarity with batting 2nd. Of course his OBP stinks this year, but perhaps it will improve, perhaps drastically, since he’s back in the place he likes to hit. He’s so far below his career averages that he really can’t do much other than get better.
Can he…?
His career OBP is almost identical to Furcal’s, if I remember right, and if he can begin to approach that for the rest of the year he’s definitely more valuable hitting 1 than 2, since ideal 2 hole batters are more patient and powerful, both of which Furcal are by comparison. (Since he won’t be batting 8th, I get it guys…)
Oh yeah. And hooray for the return of Brazoban – he’s got a ton of talent, let’s hope he has matured in his time off, as well.
My wife calls him “Beelzebub.” Or “Beezelbub.” Hehe. She’ll walk by while I’m watching on my comp and say “Ooooohhh is that Beezelbub?” At least she has one or two Dodgers she knows on sight.
It was 5 years ago today Shawn Green hit 4 homers in a game in Milwaukee. It hardly seems possible that it has been that long. That day I got into my car to make some marketing calls. Green had already hit two homers at that point. I eneded up listening to the entire game, only getting out my car a couple times to make some quick appearances at a couple auto dealerships. I still remember Ross Porter’s call on the 4th homer.
Shawn not only had the four homers but he also had a double and single, setting a major league record with 19 total bases. The Dodgers set a team record for homers in a game with 9 (which is about 2 weeks worth this season). That was one heck of a fun game.
Funny enough, five years later the Dodgers are playing Milwaukee although it is in Dodger Stadium. The only two players who are still with their respective clubs are Ben Sheets and Geoff Jenkins.
1) Furcal is on a tear, so all the more reason to leave him at the top for a good start. Pierre wasn’t quite working out in the 1.
2) Pierre’s not doing what he usually does, looking at career numbers. It’s obvious the popups are a problem; he’s popping up about 1 in every 3 times he puts the ball in play, compared to his historical rate of about 2 in 9. He needs to get the ball on the ground, force the issue on the defense, poke through holes, etc. He’s also having problems bunting; last year 43% of his bunt attempts resulted in hits, but this year it’s less than 20%, aka the Mendoza line. If you look at his career stats, you notice that he’s a much more effective player later in the year; look at his batting average month by month:
APR .289
MAY .279
JUN .272
JUL .336
AUG .290
SEP .338
It probably wouldn’t hurt to give him a break now and then, but he’ll pick things up after the all-star break; he’s had a higher OPS in the second half of the season every full season he’s played.
3) Nomar’s got almost the opposite problem; he’s hitting too many balls on the ground, and he’s only gone big fly once. That won’t hurt his batting average as much, but it’ll really dent his slugging average. Another thing is that he isn’t hitting the first pitch as much, and he’s actually averaging 3.64 pitches per plate appearance, compared to 3.2 last year.
4) Jeff Kent has been doing pretty well, actually. He’s leading Dodger regular’s in slugging, gets on base at a decent rate, and might hit more than 20 homers.
5) Russell Martin is awesome, and I’m glad he’s our catcher.
I agree with Patriot Act and I never thought I’d ever say that…I second the 5 points coming back. I enjoyed reading them last year as well, so I look forward to more this year. Off to the stadium!
i like how all of the sudden we take a few pitches, and boom what happens….runs 4 of them. even JP took some pitches before weakly grounding out to 3rd, basically all JP does is sacrifice out of the 2 spot…martin showing his all star caliber skills once again completely picking up this whole team and throwing it on his back like santa claus would a sack of presents. some mighty expensive presents i might add.
How come Abreu only got last night’s start and not tonight’s? I’m actually surprised, but also pleased, that they called him up & started him right away. I figured Grady would ease him into the game or something, but since he did start last night, I figured Grady would give him a few more starts to see what he could do. I notice that about Grady… he doesn’t like to make changes too quickly. He’ll give guys a few chances to see how things pan out before making another change. I think the players like that about him because he does inject confidence in them. They know that it’s not their one and only chance.
Man, Martin is the man! I hope the Dodgers lock him up & keep him in Blue for a while.
Looks like Penny is pitching really well. This bodes well for us.
It was foul? Is that what happened? Since I’m at work, I’m following the game with Gameday. It initially said that he hit a home run and then later it showed that he walked. I was wondering what happened.
I think it’s a good idea to let Furcal lead off against left handers while Pierre(a great name) leads off against right handers. They’re both good lead off men and now maybe we’ll find out who’s the best. Let’s hope it pays off.
so why does kuo get chose over bills for a rotation spot? im not complaining just wondering… i suppose its because kuo is horrible out of the pen while bills has been relatively effective. Although Tomko out of the bullpen scares me now too.
Sure I’ll go out on a limb and say LaRoche gets the nod against another lefty.Lilly has been pretty tough so far this year but I think Grady puts up the same line up as tonight with Lowe to start.Andy really smoked a few balls tonight they are gonna start dropping or keep going one or the other needs to happen soon. He is really seeing the ball well and putting it into play with some power.Braz looked really good out there tonight maybe as good as ever.Kuo only went 4 inns but stultz then backed him with 5 inns of 1 hit shutout ball.Martin is just plain and simple sick good right now and leads all NL catchers in every hitting point except HR’s.Anybody know the story on the scuffle after Martin walked on a homer?Duncan sure looked like he was gonna take on the Brewers coach and bench!Fun Game tonight Hope this is the beginning of another hotstreak with the bats and I’m Glad the Brewers are done I really hate looking at some of the ugliest players in baseball especially that Jenkins guy……His face looks like the southend of a northboand horse.
I dunno JS Bills need some work to get himself back to Starter condition I think and with Kuo only going 4 albiet 4 shutout inns I’m not sure who gets it schmidt might be ready too I’ll take anyone of those 3 if they are ready to go 6 good inns.
Martin, Penny, Wolf, our entire bullpen, this TEAM is why we’re in first place, granted by the hair of our collective chiny-chin-chins. Martin is amazing, but it takes more than one guy to win games. I just got done reading T.J Simers’ column…it’s GOLD!
Also, if you haven’t voted for Russell Martin for N.L All Star Catcher and you’re reading this at 12:50 a.m, you surely (don’t call me Shirley!) can vote 25 times at MLB.com! So go do it!
We did exactly what Milwaukee did to us…That’s what good teams do! And we are a good team!
I’m loving the Martin/Gonzo switch in the lineup. Not only is Martin continuing to produce at an all-star pace but Gonzo is picking it up as well. Good move Grady.
If insulting players is gold them Max must be a vein of Platinum. As I said before JP’s numbers are not off that far and he gets better. He looks alot more comfortable in CF now then last month and is clearly getting better jumps on the ball.It is not his fault that we offered him that much money I mean are you gonna turn down a huge offer because you don’t think that you are worth that amount? No….and if someone comes to you after you take the offer and you are not progressing yet at what they feel that you should are you gonna give them the time of day just to be ridiculed and insulted? No….The man has a job to do and has had success in the past let him get his feet under him and try to get back to his performance level of when he was with the fish I’m sure nobody there was hounding him as nobody cares about baseball there and they always came on strong in the second half unlike what happens to this team normally after the AS break.Martin will fade Penny won’t shine as bright Nomar…. well he isn’t now and I hate to think about how bad he suffered 2nd half lastyear.Furcal will keep it in the .300 range with Kent staying on pace then you have pierre who will be scoring as much if not more by then.Speaking of Furcal who has been Red hot OBP.and Avg. why is he not stealing bases?he has what 5?JP has been getting deeper into the counts and Raffy seems anchored at first for that JP hasn’t been running either.Nomar has even takin a few pitches as of late…Gonzo took a base tonight Kent tried and failed miserably with 0 outs to 3rd….Where has Raffys running game gone to?JP is everyones favorite punching bag but the truth is that the whole team could be doing more. 1st inning aside tonight the rest of the offence was pretty dormant tonight and had a few gimmies and do overs as the Brew crew looked like they were the same old team that we beat on every year.Just kinna ticks me off when players get singledout when in all actuality several players are not getting it done big contract or not.Tonight was good I hope the progression continues and we tear it up on the cubs over the weekend to start rebuilding our lead in the NL west.
Alex,
Not sure why you liked that article…Simers basically just ripped on Pierre and Duncan for the entire thing. If you want to read more intense Pierre-bashing than that, just get on this blog every day…
Simers had nothing to say in his article. It was just a writer’s petty attempt to make two guys look bad because they didn’t want to be interviewed.
I’m not baggin on Pierre, but I have a funny story to share with you guys:
During BP yesterday (Wednesday), Pierre threw a ball up to my buddy David, who was in the LFP right behind him. A few minutes later, Pierre catches another BP fly ball. I holler to Pierre and he turns, looks directly at me, and throws the ball to. He comes up ten feet short and nearly hits some guy in the head. Thank God he missed the guy, but I couldn’t stop laughing for ten minutes at Pierre’s inability to make a 30-yard throw. That said, Pierre looked pretty good at the plate last night and also made a couple of nice plays in the OF.
Martin, Penny, and Brazoban were awesome. It was a great game; Weird, but great.
The only things that I feel disappointed about this year are the lack of power from Nomar and the absence of Da Gonz’s RBI. The bullpen seems to remain the best part of the team as the years roll by even with the personnel changes.Thank God we’re always blessed with a very good closer. The starting pitching(especilly inning wise), has improved immensely and may bring us past the first round this year or at least let the team play with more class.
Having been a vocal critic of our management, I am now looking to cut them some slack, because a number of our blogger suggestions have been implemented, particularly those concerning our younger players.
LAROCHE and ABREU are up with us and will presumably get a decent chance to prove themselves for the third base job. Whichever one does not make it, will probably be back in Vegas in another month.
TOMKO is back in the bullpen, and either BILLS or KUO will likely get the fifth starter opportunity when it presents itself again. I understand that Tomko did not take the demotion well, and I personally would love to see him traded off the Dodger team. With the shortage of pitchers on some clubs, we might even get a decent prospect for him.
PIERRE and GONZO will just be with us for the season, and we might as well hope that they do better in the remainder of the season than they have so far.
It looks like KEMP and LONEY will have to wait either until someone gets hurt or toward the end of the season to get an appearance, but then neither one seems to be making much of a case for himself this year at Vegas.
BIGBIE will probably be lost and go to another club. I would have wished that we had given him a chance for a couple of weeks up in the majors to see what he could produce, or at least to showcase him for some nominal trade rather than losing him outright.
MARTIN has just been outstanding – much more than one could expect of a second year player, and batting him fifth appears to help us generate so much more offense.
Actually my biggest disappointment now is with NOMAR – absolutely no power and the OBP is declining. You wonder whether he has a physical problem that he is likely to keep hidden.
Let’s keep things rolling after the positive series with the Brew Crew!
TOMKO’S OUT OF THE ROTATION!!!! I’m glad, I’m flying all the way to LA this weekend to watch the Cubs series and I wasn’t looking forward to seeing him give up six runs in four innings. So, now I get to see Lowe, Wolf, and Hendrickson. I would have preferred C-Bill over Hendy, but c’est la vie.
Since Grady found the courage/wisdom to pull Tomko from the rotation, I don’t think he’ll cut Hendrickson too much slack for remaining in the rotation, unless he can shape up his starting performance as well. Once we get Schmidt back, it might be Lowe, Penney, Wolf, Schmidt and fifth up for grabs between Hendrickson, Bills and Kuo. Actually I’m hoping that once Schmidt has proven himself to be recovered both physically and in form, we might trade Hendrickson and/or Tomko either as part of a package for some needed power or for some valuable prospects.
Nice post Fisher, it’s good to hear someone else say something about all the negative crude that gets posted here. Some of you might be wondering why a lot of last years bloggers aren’t posting this year. Simply put it’s not enjoyable to hear all of the whinning and complaining. My image of a true blue Dodger Fan is one that can make their point without the constant head hunting. How in the world can a true Dodger Fan ask for Ned’s, Grady’s or any players head when we’re in 1st place. Lasorda once said that every team win win 60 games and lose 60 games, it’s what you do with the rest of them that counts. Nobody hated to lose more then Tommy and God forbid those who accepted the loss. But Tommy would also be the very first one to do everything in his power to build up the confidence of his players. This is a good team, some might say a great team !! Which ever one it is, it’s our team and it’s a 1st place team TODAY !! So enjoy it while you got it !!
I’ve been critical (not too openly though) of Pierre, or at least worried about him out there in CF for the next 4-5 years, but have nothing personal against him, know he works hard, and found the Simers hit piece depressing. Depressing because it’s a journalist trying to get everyone in on his snickering snarkiness by trying to push someone’s buttons, instead of just being a human being. Pierre has a sense of humor, too, I’m sure a real journalist would have found some way of telling the story and engaging with Pierre without acting like 10 year old. It’s sad that the Times thinks Simers sells papers – or maybe he does, which is even sadder – given their previous history of producing great sportswriters. I hope Pierre can just rise above it. I’d rather have Matt Kemp manning CF but the team comes first and it’s best for all of us if Pierre starts playing better.
I hope Tomko can stop sulking and put the team first, too.
Great game last night – here’s to a great series vs. Cubs.
Agreed Gary! All of you old-school posters who have been in hiding, feel free to come back and pipe in with some encouraging words.
We all agreed in the offseason that two of this team’s strengths were pitching depth and young talent. Both of those things set up any team for posturing for beneficial trades in June/July. That’s what we still have, and I think so much of the negativity around here was fueled simply by impatience – impatience to give players a chance to prove themselves, impatience for Ned and Grady to bench them when said players DIDN’T prove themselves. Too many of the negative bloggers on here don’t understand that in baseball, you don’t bench a player for a bad month – 7 out of 10 times, they just need to play through it. The other 3 out of 10 times, you want them to start doing better, even if it’s not incredible play, so that they can be traded and value can be obtained in return.
The only thing that makes me mad about the negativity is it seems that some of you guys (you know who you are) are actually rooting against the players you don’t like. Instead of pulling for Pierre or Gonzo, you actually celebrate when they fail because it proves your point. To me, that just sounds like you’re much happier about being “right” than the Dodgers succeeding. And that pisses me off. You might say “I root for them every time, but they fail so I rip into them on the blog,” but the fact that during games there are so many posts every time Gonzo or Pierre fails to get on base or screws up defensively says to me that you just enjoy hating on them as much as possible. None of us here mind objective criticism – but most of the negativity that occurs is just repetitive, knee-jerk hating on the players you don’t like.
Get behind the team! Ned and Grady are here to stay, at least for a few years, so if you hate them that much go root for the Angels until then. Because your repetitive posts about how they are the worst managerial duo in sports are MEANINGLESS.
Man from China, I appreciate the heartfelt comments, you must be new. I’m the token ‘positivity guy’ I rarely bash the team although when I do I let them have it, people think I turn a blind eye to management mistakes etc.. I understand your comments, in fact, I completely understand why you would think that. I happen to have a very sardonic and sarcastic sense of humor and find T.J Simers to be a very good columnist, he pops up when things are down for the Dodgers and writes some very interesting columns. In fact he has the uncanny ability to light a fire up their bums in all the wrong ways. It’s just his style of writing and he asks questions and statements that most reporters would never dare to ask. Just because I said GOLD doesn’t mean I loved it (although I did find it extremely entertaining), by GOLD I meant it’s a must read because of what he said to Pierre etc… and Mariano Duncan screaming, “Jesus Christ” it was a good column IMO.
I love the Dodgers and have since I was 4 years old when my mother’s friends let me sit in their season seats and I was hooked from that day forward. I currently attend half the home games and support my team and believe me I’m very critical of this team. I get p’d off just like the rest of you, I just choose to express myself differently. And I’m not going anywhere, I love this blog, I respect all of your opinions and most importantly I love our Dodgers!
China man, i will second Alex’s post and just reiterate that he really is “one of the good guys”. Puppyhead, very well said about the immediate posting of hatred right after Gonzo or Pierre has a bad AB or gets a poor jump– it really is ridiculous how often that **** happens, and its so frustrating because when good things happen it doesnt receive the same speedy treatment.
I read that column though Alex, just for you, and sincerely hated it. I loved though how at the very end, after the piece was finished, someone criticized the writer for using his initials instead of a real name– that was funny. Maybe he asks questions that no other reporter will ask because there is such a thing as journalistic integrity and asking a player if they want an arm transplant certainly lacks any type of credibility or integrity. T.J. is a bum. Go Dodgers. Great Series Win. We really needed this one. Lets keep it going. I hate off days….
On another note – here’s a link to a very convincing article about how overrated Andruw Jones is. I’m still rooting for A-Rod as our offseason power solution…
Hey i can vouch for alex, rarely do i see a post from him that is worthy of calling a Dodger hater, and your right alex that guy must be new because we all know the difference between those who give objective criticism and those who just like to feel the attention of being so hateful of some of the players.
There has been some good postings the last couple games and i must say i have enjoyed everyone of them. Let’s keep supporting our boys and help them continue their winning ways.
Also after reading the last couple post as well i must say something about the immediate post during the game. I for one love to watch the blog while im watching the game as well because i love to see what people have to say about a certain situation or a play. I also have posted immediately after a bad Ab by Gonzo or Pierre but more of what i thought he did wrong and sometimes i find myself frustrated and confused and maybe 1 out of 10 times i post a frustrated filled post after a AB so i for one am guilty of that no and again! Just my input on that.
The 3rd base situation reminds me of left field during the last 10 years, or so,in Brooklyn(The BIRTHPLACE of the Los Angeles Dodgers).Everybody and his wife played there, George Shuba,Cal Abrams,ANDY PAFKO, Jackie Robinson, Junior Gilliam,Sandy Amoros(Thank GOD, he was there),even Roy Campanella to name a few….They say the past is dead so I’ll come to the present..Where have you gone Billy Cox & Ron Cey???…Now we bath-the-meat, have the roach or I’ll Bay Youuu…Should have paid ADRIAN belt the ball over the wall Traaaay. P–arzzaaa, low-duke kaaa….Good bye(welcome to Shea)…..Let’s go R-u-s-s-e-l, the greatest base stealing catcher I’ve ever seen. I hope he doesn’t run out of gas. We might get stuck with Libby, whose there proberbly just to catch the ball.
just looking back on his stats— i never realized he always hit for so poor of an average. I always had him in my head as a 280-300 kind of hitter, but that is definately not the case. Maybe Stark was onto something with that article. Also, he is on pace to record over 400 putouts this year, so we will see on that one. His slugging and OBP is still nice looking, but maybe i would reconsider championing the idea of giving him a huge contract this offfseason (obviously before the Pierre signing)… Great article.
you’re right i am new, from what others are saying about you alex i appoligize…however for others i do feel that way. a few weeks back pierre had a great game as did nomar and best of all we got the win. that night i asked myself “what are they gonna say on the blog tomorrow morning”? i couldn’t think of anything bad to say about that game but sure enough the next morning the negativity was there. if you didn’t know anything abouth the dodgers and read these posts you would think we were in last place with a week to go in the season.
again i appoligize alex it was aimed more towards the blog as a whole. thogh i must admit at times it’s fun to read.
one more thing on that article… was it just me or was he portraying jp as a bad guy, and a liar? i think most of us can agree that he is one of the better guys on this team and in the league. i love his work ethic and i think he is gonna turn out to be a good pickup. maybe not great but in the long run i belive he is gonna help the team more that he is going to hurt it.
I like seeing all the positive posts. I don’t post often, but when I do it is usually to defend our 1st place team,the players or to criticize in an objective manner. I think all the negative posters are just football fans thinking each game is 10x more valuable than it actually is. Baseball is a marathon! The players that are underachieving right now will turn it around IMO (ie. Furcal). Any educated baseball fan should know that it’s not kosher to bash established players when they are struggling, especially this early. To bash players on your “favorite team” at this juncture of the season is just showing baseball ignorance.
manfrom… how can a .300 OBP possibly help us? add that along with 20 annual caught stealing and bad defense and 1 homer per year… **** of a pick up Coletti.
Pierre can hurt the team by creating more outs than any other player in baseball. He isn’t the worst player in the baseball, but according to ESPN.com’s article, he’s the fourth most overrated player in the MLB:
yes, the pierre bashing goes overboard, but to ignore the fact that it was a terrible signing is another thing. Especially with the free agent CFs available in ’08 and especially because Kemp’s defense in CF was prematurely panned.
Jimmy Rollins actually leads the league in outs, is he a bad player too? Pierre is a Jeckyl and Hyde type guy, always slow out of the gates but starts to hit stride sometime midway through the season. He is 2nd in MLB in steals and 2nd on our team in runs scored- only 1 behind Martin (even with his sub-par start and OBA). He is still on pace to score 100 runs and swipe 59 bags, I’ll take those numbers assuming he is still going to heat up.
Its getting really tiring hearing people complain about the negativity. This is a BLOG. Everyone has the right to post there OPINION. No one complains when overly optimistic people write their overly optimistic ****. No one constantly mentions it. So please, stop mentioning every single day the existence of the negative comments. We all see them, we read theme every single day. What we dont need to read is another person commenting on the negativity. It is enough already. Everyone posts what they believe and the rest of us read it and respond. We dont need to read others commenting on the substance of this blog.
All all i know is we have him and we have for a good amount of years. My problem with all this is that everyone keeps on bringing up the fact that he was a bad signing!, ok so what we probably could have gotten a more productive player in cf or gotten it with in but what can we do about it now?! Your not going to sit a player because he is having a rough time stringing together hits or for having something mechanically wrong in his swing, all you can do is work with him and encourage him to play better. You dont do that by benching him and playing a young guy who can surely hit the ball but lets face it his D in CF was iffy last year in the bigs.
So ned probably shouldnt have offered him so much money but he did what he felt he had to do to sign him because he felt we needed a veteran CF. If we look at what Ned has done and what Grady has done with this club since last year you cannot complain! A losing record turned into a playoff birth and a season in which we are in first place with a pretty darn good record, i know i cant complain.
It’s hard to ignore when the guy is batting lead-off or second in our lineup. If he was batting, say…..8th, (where he should be!) it be a little easier to ignore.
I think it’s also safe to say that lead-off hitters, especially durable ones that play everyday (Pierre) can be expected to lead the league in outs because they have many more AB’s over the course of a season. I mean he’s hitting .270 not .133 like Chone Figgins for example. By the way I don’t hear Angels fans hating on Chone (who was leadoff today) for his slow start to the year.
I think for the Angels situation the only reason he was batting leadoff is because they lost a good bat in Izturis so they dont have much of a chose but i agree Pierre is producing. Even though its not what everyone would like to see i think he is a big asset to the team down the road.
Izturis is the Angel’s version of Ramon Martinez and he never hit lead-off when he was healthy and really the only reason he played everyday was because Figgins was hurt.
Chone went 1 – 2, w/ 2BB today. He has had 77 ABs so far this season and has 8 BB’s. Pierre has had 200 ABs and has 9. Who else would like to compare him to??
Great post Gary! I agree with you 100%! I end up getting ****** into the defense of our team and find myself futilly trying to support certain players… only to have others bash the **** out of them because they’re not super-stars… but hey… the Dodgers will always be my team no matter how bad it gets. Stay positive and know that there is still a long, long way to go before the first playoff pitch is thrown… and a lot can happen between now and then… that’s what makes the ride so much fun… right?
Good post for fisher too… Simmers isn’t much fun to read these days… guess that’s what happens when your reputation preceeds you.
Ok nkirby since were comparing the two, when this year has Pierre’s average ever been that low? Whats Figgins OBP? What is more valuable hits or walks?
I never said he batted leadoff but i did think he played more than in reality but he was definately a good bat for them when he was in the lineup. I was just simply giving a reason as to why they would all of a sudden put Figgins in the top spot when they had that guy Willits doing pretty good.
Charris said….”I was arguing that you can create many outs and still be a productive hitter”… and this is true
But its not true when u have a 300 OBP and no power. Check this stat out… Kevin Kouzmanoff, rookie 3B for the Padres, has struggled mightyly this year until just recently. he has a .205 BA and looks like he’ll improve that. His OPS right now is 21 points higher than Pierre’s, who admittingly is struggling, but is not batting .205. How much can we really expect Pierre to improve? Pierre OPS .608.Kouzmanoff OPS .629.
see thats the thing i dont think he is going to anything that while stick out and shine! But what i do think is he will get his hits and his steals and help this team done the road. But also he is not the super star that his payroll may suggest but hey who knows maybe he will earn his money come playoff time (where i heard he is solid)
Would you like to save 6 million dollars in 2007 and another 38 million dollars over the next 4 years?
If so my bad.
Now of course we would HAVE to go with player A over player B. But trust me player B is better cause he gets ‘an awful lot of hits”. Also my scouts tell me that player A isnt very good in the OF, but then my eyes tell me that player B is even worse..so I dont know.
15sb/3cs/.267/.341/.404/.746
17sb/5cs/.270/.303/.305/.608
I know they look the same now, but trust me and the positive bloggers, player B is gonna get hot!! And Kenny Lofton isnt good, you saw him play for us last year. We just barley made the playoffs with him.
Also, I have 17 million reasons why Matt Kemp and James Loney are in triple A, but we can talk about that later.
here’s the biggest problem with Pierre, and Im sure I’ve said this before… $9 million for 5 years! Weak bat, bad patience, gets caught stealing a lot, bad defense, no power, and clogs up center for 5 years! Ichiro, Torii Hunter, and Andruw Jones avail next year. Matt Kemp doesnt have a spot.
The one above average part of his game is his speed. He will turn 30 in august of this year. How long will his legs be there?
Ned’s been a pretty good GM so far. He’s made some good moves and some questionable ones, but no Gm bats 1000. Grady is not my favorite nor would he have been my pick to manage this team, but as long as we stay in first, he’s the man. As for being negative, it’s a fans right to question management , especially if it’s in the interest of winning.
Kouzmanoff has an inflated OPS because he is a “power hitter” with 3 HRs, 7 2Bs compared to Pierre’s 0 and 5, thats 16 more total bases right there. His OBP is .269 and that is slightly inflated because he has hit 8 and has the LaRoche walk syndrome going on. P.S. I really hate the Padres.
Charris… since when can a .629 be considered inflated? .629 is horrible… also… OPS measures walks and power. On base percentage + slugging percentage = OPS. In case you dont already know… walks are good. Hitting balls hard and far are good too. Good baseball players should be able to do both. Pierre does neither.
now dodgerdude i think its unfair to say or even mention that he may get slower with age (which may happen), but look at freakin Julio Franco he still produces when needed so i dont think age is that big of a deal when you have talent!
dahustlasbac… You dont think it’s fair to say a players skills decline with age? Geez, u must really like our offense then huh… Luis Gonzalez gonna go back to hitting 50+ bombs?
I never said that Kouzy’s OBP was good but Pierre doesn’t hit for any power, just that his SLG was inflated comparitively and look at my post above yours before trying to explain things to me that I obviously already know.
hahaha that did seem a little modest didnt it, but no i do think there skills will decline with age but not as drastically as one might think. Sure gonzo isnt producing what he has in the past three years and neither is Kent or Nomar, but there has got to be a reason for that and not just age. You can’t just fall off that much and i think the skills these players have will fade away not completely disappear. Ya know?! I may not be making any sense!
Bottom line to me is every time Pierre is up I say to myself
1. I hope he dosent hit it in the air (i. e weak fly ball to LF)
and
2. I hope his groundball get thru.
and
3. well at least he wont hit into a double play cause he is fast
I don’t have anything against the guy but I dont want my 44 million dollar guys at the top of my lineup to be that way. It’s Tom Goodwin all over again.
I just dont get how, if you already know the things I am saying, you still defend pierre. Also, how is his SLG inflated? he has 3 homers. Just because Pierre has zero?
By the way those 3 HR are currently more than Nomar’s 1, I think thats a bigger issue than Pierre hitting leadoff. We didn’t sign Pieree for his slugging percentage anyway.
Gonzo has clearly been in a decline for 5 years. In fact he is producing last year like numbers, but we didnt have to watch THE HORRO last year everyday. Add that he is coming from a great hitters park to our and look for his OPS to be around .775 this year.
.934 2003
.866 2004
.825 2005
.795 2006
.809 2007
kent has been steady
.860
.880
.889
.861
.868
Nomar has never recovered from what hurt him last year in the 2nd half. (just my opinion, but his OPS is now under 7 for 6 months and thats not nomar like)
well rollins was hitting leadoff earlier this year, and gee i bet now that victorino is he’s opsing higher than pierre too. or put in brian roberts, alex rios, ichiro, chris young… the list goes on.
I think we’re all in agreement that Pierre is not playing well. Some people think he could be a lot better, others think not so much. Pierre is the ideal 8 spot hitter. Ideal, meaning he is perfectly suited to bat in that position and would be an asset to this team if he did so.
jspelk, they may have a higher OPS% than Pierre but I think that lead-off hitters for the most part have below average OPS’s. BA, OBP, runs, SB’s, and BB are stats that should be used to evaluate leadoff guys and to me Pierre is only doing bad in two of those catagories but we all expected that going into this year
i really dont care if all the positive old guys dont post. if you cant handle the truth gary then dont read it..this isnt the sugarcoat everything headquarters last I checked, and dodger fans from all over can post the feelings they feel for the team. its not gary’s positive blog…..if your gonna be positive dont be negative by ripping guys that post legit questions, and post legit statistics that you dont like. it is what it is, answer a question before you ride off on your high horse….do you really feel juan pierre should bat anywhere in the top half of our order, if so post your reason, i would like to hear it.
It good to see that after a great series victory over a first place team we can always go back to the Pierre debate…it is entertaining but personally I’m tired of it. The Pierre situation is distracting the real issues of the team. Pierre is a constant we know what he will and won’t do, I think we should focus on the real issues of the team…Nomar, third base and the 5th starter. I will throw this in about Pierre, if Abreu steps up, there’s no doubt in my mind Pierre would be dropped to the eight spot. In fact if LaRoche stepped it up I could see him moved in the two spot. But if neither of them do it’s a moot point. Pierre is what he is, there are no surprises, sometimes that’s a good thing. Nomar so far is a surprise and in this case it’s a bad thing.
Charris… he’s doing bad in the most important one OBP. and he isnt a good career OBP guy either. around .350 for his career is just barely above average. but he hasnt even done that last couple years… .330 last year in fact
Also, it is a great concern that our #3 hitter is batting so poorly thus far. The reason i argue more about Pierre than our 3 hitter is because of the decision to sign the guy. It’s not good when ur GM is willing to spend that much on such a bad hitter. Would have done much better just re-upping Lofton as jungar has suggested.
Good post Alex. Very True. I think you need to add no power from corner OF spots as an issue as well. It’s ok for one, but not both. That’s my general aggrevation.
jungar and dodgrdude17 i applaud you for proving some real points these supposed “real” fans wont address. charris is a goodsport , but you just cant possibly make any argument pierre is best suited to hit either 1 or 2. furcal is our leadoff guy, he took us to the playoffs last year why tinker. what was so wrong with kenny lofton to where we had to pay 3 times for a player that isnt half as good as him?
hey max its nice to see Jp in the same category as a bunch of pitchers, that is really sickening. i guess ned really was right, i believe he stated he didnt want pierre to sign with the halloweenies so he gave him an extra year, he really thought that pierre going to the giants was going to make that big of a deal. SF trying to sign him to a 4 year deal is pathetic, let alone 5 for that money. throw in a few millioN AND WE HAVE THE BEST LEADOFF HITTER INTHE GAME!! match up ichiros stats with pierres. rude awakening.
switching nomar with martin could work very well. takes some pressure off of nomar, gives our 1 and 2 more chances to steal, and best of all gets r martin some more atbats, and maybe even some better pitches.
To the suprise of many, I’m not a huge JP fan, he’s obviously not a great player, but I think he’s pretty good. Our major problem this year is the lack of power and lack of clutch hitting (it seems like we leave a small village on base most games). I guess what I’m frustated about is all the negativity being aimed at JP alone. His low OBA may take part in our offensive woes, but it certaintly isn’t our biggest concern. To keep harping on that on a daily basis is like saying I won’t date that 400 pound bearded lady over there because she has ugly toenails.
nkirby… what’s better first place by 1/2 a game or first place by 10 games… we’re just in May. Long way to go still. I’ll say this… if we win the world series, i promise to never say an ill word about Pierre ever again.
I love the dodgers and I want our true fans, the ones who have been following the team even longer than me (born in 71, die hard since 77) to get pissed….we havent won a playoff series since Ronald Regan was in office and we should be tired of it. Our 120 million dollar payroll, along with our farm system, we should be blowing this division away.
charris… haha, that bearded lady comment made me laugh. I’d however say that Pierre is more accurately the beard on the lady than the toenails. He is a pretty big part of our problems man.
Ya. *** is up with that… Pierre does poorly so he gets rewarded by being moved up in the lineup? Another stat for you fellas… every spot in the lineup adds up to 20 plate appearances over the course of the year. So the difference between the 1 spot and the 8 spot for the year is 140 plate appearances. We need to give Pierre as little PAs as possible.
Miguel Caberra……he’s 24. Florida’s got no money, no fans and going nowhere. Send La Roche, Billingsley (I like both those guys) and pay them to take Pierre. Instant improvement
I think its safe to say that we are all a little frustrated with our offense or lack there of lately but I’m confident that Pierre has shown a history of improving as a season goes along, Nomar on the other hand is scaring me, he was white hot to start the year last year. This year he hasn’t looked like homself at all.
Yeah Nomar kind of ***** this year. The 1 HR is scary, but he looks so pathetic when he swings the bat. We need Martin batting third, kemp playing left instead of “my skills are GONE-ZO.” and Pierre moved down.
I agree jspelk, in fact I don’t think a trip to the DL would be “phantom”. I think he’s pulling a NLDS tough guy act and trying to play through an injury when we could have healthier options getting AB’s right now.
I got a name for you guys… Adam Dunn. They really dont like him in Cincy from what i’ve seen. Great power and on-base guy. the BA is crappy, but i can deal with it if he’s hitting bombs, and I think his walking so much makes up for that too. The K’s are frustrating, but again if he produces those bombs, i’ll look the other way.
Hey charris1010321 – “…in fact I don’t think a trip to the DL would be “phantom”.
I have to agree with you on this one. Although I never really watched Nomar closely until he arrived here in L.A., I have watched him closely since and there is definitely something wrong with him (in my humble opinion). Last year, he struck out a TOTAL of 30 times and he already has 21 so far this season. He used to be pretty much a dead pull hitter and now he is spraying the field (which isn’t such a bad thing), but his power is not there. When he hits the DL (which I sadly believe he will), it definitely won’t be a phantom thing.
No offense to Dunn, but lets talk a little more about Miggy!! Masher at age 24 can play 3b or LF. What’s not to love? Power and Avg and Slugger. He is one of only a handful of guys i’d trade any dodger/51er for.
Loney gets the call up of course. Seanz is one of the other players that isn’t pulling his weight this year along with Martinez they are both down nearly .100 points each in batting they were both very clutch lastyear during injuries and bad performances.You can say they haven’t had the chances but they have and have failed to produce.Along with Eithier and Nomar.
Good points fansince53, I went to the Saturday Dodgers-Angels game and saw Nomar consistently get beat by Weaver’s 92 mph fastball, so something is up. On a side note, I did get my first ML baseball at the game when Nomar hit a bomb right at me during BP, of course it was BP where even LuGo looked like Babe Ruth so thats not saying much.
I’d give up the farm to get him. And I am a huge play the kids type. But he is still a kid himself. As long as we could hold onto Kemp and Kersaw I say roll the dice.
yeah charris no one was sneaking those weak fastballs by nomar last year…..remember when brad lidge tried and he hit that grand salami, thats nomar garciaparra. the guy battin 3rd for us this year is not quite the same.
I think we’d have a better chance at landing Wright from the Mets than Miggy. The Mets are over-loaded with offense and have no pitching. I say package Tomko, Hendrickson, Billingsley and LaRoche for Wright. That gives the Mets some pitching depth, 2 prospects and really doesn’t hurt that line-up all that much sans Wright. We lose two great prospects and land one great player.
jungar,
I agree with you for once – only because it’s simple arithmetic to realize that all of our prospects will not play on the major league team. 8 positions, a few which are already spoken for, and realistically about 2, maybe 3 of these position players we currently have will become Dodgers for multiple seasons. Probably Kemp, maybe Loney, maybe Abreu, maybe LaRoche. But if they all make it as Dodgers…where do we put a power bat if we sign one?
I’m all about protecting the kids. But a big part of being a GM is knowing who you plan on keeping and not letting anyone else know that…trade the “expendable” young guys when their value is highest, and pray to God you made the right choice.
Ya ever see the David Wright blog? Women wall to wall throwing everything they have at him.Well that was lastyear before he got married I saw that. Over 1,000 posts he’s VERY popular there.
In defense of the “negativity bashing” going on earlier – I guess, more specifically, I’m not bashing negativity. I feel negative every time this team loses. It’s just the repetitiveness – saying something about JP or Gonzo is just fine by me. Saying the same thing 3 times on 3 consecutive days is fine by me. Saying the same thing every day since the first game of the season…it’s just old. That’s what I’m saying. Please be constructive, please criticize, but know when you’ve made you’re point.
Dude, we have some people calling for that deal with Miggy, who right now is a better hitter than Wright, the Marlins would have no reason to pull the trigger on a deal like that because they have nothing to play for this year. The Mets on the other hand need pitching and need it badly, if they’re gonna make a WS run this year, remember last year’s NLCS?
I think A-Rod is more of a possibility than Wright would be. The Mets actually do have pitching… check out their team ERA… top 2 I think in the National League. There’s no way Wright will be traded man… New York loves stars as much as LA does. How much **** would the NY media give the Mets for trading their great young 3B who a year ago ppl were saying is better than A-ROD.
Man, you guys are killing me with the Nomar van chick. The look on that valet dude’s face says it all.
Hey charris1010321 – Congrats on your first BP home run ball! You gotta start somewhere and a Nomar ball is a great one to start with. There are still several Dodgers that I haven’t caught one from yet, including Nomar. Were you in the LFP or the RFP? (He jacked a few to both fields). I was in the RFP and Brad Penny tossed a ball up to me. I’m sending it to a die-hard Dodger fan friend of mine.
Anyway, thanks again for all of the Nomar van chick laughs!
Charris, although I want A-Rod a Dodger, I don’t want Ned to trade the farm for him – I’m just hoping that A-Rod will opt out in the offseason and we’ll have a shot at him for nothing but $$.
Great then we’ll all have to pay per veiw to see the team….or $40 parking and $100 upper deck tix…
LOL I wouldn’t cry about having him but he’s gonna fetch some Major bucks for a very long time.
I just wanted to say I did the lineup nice and early this morning, except for Abreu & Ethier, which I didn’t write in. I left the 7th & 8th spots open,because I noticed he’s switch them a few times. I put Furcal in the lead off spot because Ted Lilly was the proberble pitcher and he is a left hander. I agree that Ethier should bat 8th,because you need a decent hitter to bat before the pitcher, in this case a more experianced hitter.
That game tonight was a little out of the ordinary especialy Beimal & Brazoban, Lets just hope it was a bad night for both of them and they come back like nothing happened. Both are (closer like pitchers), Brazoban comes from the Gagne clan.I’m glad Broxton walk off with a smile. I think Saito is another Mo Rivera, and maybe he’ll break all the records, I just hope its for us. Trevor Hoffman,here comes Sammy.
Glad to see Gonzo in tonight, Front Row dugout seats and he my sons favorite player.
Just glad to see he isn’t taking tonight off.
tfp…Gonzo will never sit. Grady wont let him…unfortunately. I dont get what Grady and the Dodgers are doing to these two young kids though. One of them need to be sent down. It is a waste for them to be up here sitting on the bench. I’d like to see Tony get the call for the next two weeks.
We need to find a way to sit JP. He’s doing worse than my low expectations could have ever imagined. I don’t see a point of having Furcal batting in front of both Pierre and Nomar who aren’t taking pitches allowing him to steal bases as well as aren’t hitting all that well. Both of them are offering very little production out of the 2-3 spots in our order.
http://dodgerbaseball.mlblogs.com/…just trying to get some publicity!
http://dodgerbaseball.mlblogs.com/ …just trying to get some publicity!
I guess the game between LaRocha and Abreu will be that the one who gets a hit in a game will get to start the next game; if no hit, the starting position reverts to the other one in the next game, and so on. Sounds OK, but I wish we had someone up here to play that same game replacing Gonzo and Pierre.
A possible silver lining about Pierre…
Now that he’s in the 1 slot in the lineup, he will probably get a lot more comfortable. As lvproduction said, he’s underperformed even our lowest expectations of him; this could be, in part, because of his unfamiliarity with batting 2nd. Of course his OBP stinks this year, but perhaps it will improve, perhaps drastically, since he’s back in the place he likes to hit. He’s so far below his career averages that he really can’t do much other than get better.
Can he…?
His career OBP is almost identical to Furcal’s, if I remember right, and if he can begin to approach that for the rest of the year he’s definitely more valuable hitting 1 than 2, since ideal 2 hole batters are more patient and powerful, both of which Furcal are by comparison. (Since he won’t be batting 8th, I get it guys…)
uh puppy,
he is batting 2nd tonight
Oh yeah. And hooray for the return of Brazoban – he’s got a ton of talent, let’s hope he has matured in his time off, as well.
My wife calls him “Beelzebub.” Or “Beezelbub.” Hehe. She’ll walk by while I’m watching on my comp and say “Ooooohhh is that Beezelbub?” At least she has one or two Dodgers she knows on sight.
kev,
DOH! Thanks for pointing that out to me. I thought Grady said he was gonna stick with Pierre in the 1 slot for a while…I guess not?
It was 5 years ago today Shawn Green hit 4 homers in a game in Milwaukee. It hardly seems possible that it has been that long. That day I got into my car to make some marketing calls. Green had already hit two homers at that point. I eneded up listening to the entire game, only getting out my car a couple times to make some quick appearances at a couple auto dealerships. I still remember Ross Porter’s call on the 4th homer.
Shawn not only had the four homers but he also had a double and single, setting a major league record with 19 total bases. The Dodgers set a team record for homers in a game with 9 (which is about 2 weeks worth this season). That was one heck of a fun game.
Funny enough, five years later the Dodgers are playing Milwaukee although it is in Dodger Stadium. The only two players who are still with their respective clubs are Ben Sheets and Geoff Jenkins.
1) Furcal is on a tear, so all the more reason to leave him at the top for a good start. Pierre wasn’t quite working out in the 1.
2) Pierre’s not doing what he usually does, looking at career numbers. It’s obvious the popups are a problem; he’s popping up about 1 in every 3 times he puts the ball in play, compared to his historical rate of about 2 in 9. He needs to get the ball on the ground, force the issue on the defense, poke through holes, etc. He’s also having problems bunting; last year 43% of his bunt attempts resulted in hits, but this year it’s less than 20%, aka the Mendoza line. If you look at his career stats, you notice that he’s a much more effective player later in the year; look at his batting average month by month:
APR .289
MAY .279
JUN .272
JUL .336
AUG .290
SEP .338
It probably wouldn’t hurt to give him a break now and then, but he’ll pick things up after the all-star break; he’s had a higher OPS in the second half of the season every full season he’s played.
3) Nomar’s got almost the opposite problem; he’s hitting too many balls on the ground, and he’s only gone big fly once. That won’t hurt his batting average as much, but it’ll really dent his slugging average. Another thing is that he isn’t hitting the first pitch as much, and he’s actually averaging 3.64 pitches per plate appearance, compared to 3.2 last year.
4) Jeff Kent has been doing pretty well, actually. He’s leading Dodger regular’s in slugging, gets on base at a decent rate, and might hit more than 20 homers.
5) Russell Martin is awesome, and I’m glad he’s our catcher.
I agree with Patriot Act and I never thought I’d ever say that…I second the 5 points coming back. I enjoyed reading them last year as well, so I look forward to more this year. Off to the stadium!
Go Dodgers!
You can find a way but JP is not sitting.
Nice job Patriotacts see we did miss them. Maybe the Pancho needs to come back too maybe that’ll get Nomar going again!!!
LOL!!!! Pierre batting second is even worse!! Now Furcal is going to get forced out at second more!
Heard a funny one on KFWB yesterday… something about a Jeff Weaver Swivelhead doll night lol 52 hits over his last few starts or something like that.
hopefully on the next road trip the Dodgers will leave Pierre at the airport.
Putting Pierre back in the 2 hole makes no sense at all… He should be batting 1st or 8th (8th being the best option – can do less harm)
What is next Grady??? Putting Martin back in the 6 hole… Wouldn’t suprise me one bit…Idiotic..
News Flash !!!
Earlier today Grady told reporters that Pierre is batting 2nd because the Brewers pitcher is a lefty..
Also, he told them that Tomko has been demoted to the Pen… He has yet to decide who will take his place as a starter..
I personally think this is a positive step in the right direction.. Time will tell..
Well Kuo is on the hill tonight for Vegas and has 4 shutout innings in so far.
55 ROCKS!!!!!!!!!
russell martin…wow! i just totally got a russellnathancoltranejeansonmartinjrgasm
ok more then we needed to know but good for you! lol
Martin the man.
Gonzo is showing life!!!
seriously…about time. yay gonzo…keep it going, man.
I really wanted a LaRoche 2 runs homerun there.
it’s only the 2nd inning. he can still hit one 🙂
Attention Grady!!!
Martin is by far your best hitter — drop Nomar down in the order — Martin should be batting 2nd or 3rd.. Wake up..
Wouldn’t it be nice if the dodgers had a left fielder that could throw to home plate like the Brewers do???
We do — but guess what, they are all playing in Triple A.. What is wrong with this picture??
i like how all of the sudden we take a few pitches, and boom what happens….runs 4 of them. even JP took some pitches before weakly grounding out to 3rd, basically all JP does is sacrifice out of the 2 spot…martin showing his all star caliber skills once again completely picking up this whole team and throwing it on his back like santa claus would a sack of presents. some mighty expensive presents i might add.
How come Abreu only got last night’s start and not tonight’s? I’m actually surprised, but also pleased, that they called him up & started him right away. I figured Grady would ease him into the game or something, but since he did start last night, I figured Grady would give him a few more starts to see what he could do. I notice that about Grady… he doesn’t like to make changes too quickly. He’ll give guys a few chances to see how things pan out before making another change. I think the players like that about him because he does inject confidence in them. They know that it’s not their one and only chance.
Man, Martin is the man! I hope the Dodgers lock him up & keep him in Blue for a while.
Looks like Penny is pitching really well. This bodes well for us.
GO DODGERS!!!
I wanted that homerun by Martin but the replay did show it foul.
It was foul? Is that what happened? Since I’m at work, I’m following the game with Gameday. It initially said that he hit a home run and then later it showed that he walked. I was wondering what happened.
Yes it was way foul not a chance of being fair. The 3rd base ump call it fair but the reply show it way foul.
All the umps confirmed and it was foul and Martin almost got hit and the count was 3-2 but got on base with a walk.
Man, Martin is becoming an RBI machine for us. Woo hoo!
Penny & Martin should definitely be starters at the All-Star game. If they aren’t, then something is wrong with the world.
Peavy probably making a strong case about that one.
WB Brazoban
It’s great to see Brazoban back… and in full force with 3 SO’s!
Great pitching…
Great game by Martin…
Dodgers win…
so anyone wanna play take a wild guess whos starting at 3rd friday?
I think it’s a good idea to let Furcal lead off against left handers while Pierre(a great name) leads off against right handers. They’re both good lead off men and now maybe we’ll find out who’s the best. Let’s hope it pays off.
so why does kuo get chose over bills for a rotation spot? im not complaining just wondering… i suppose its because kuo is horrible out of the pen while bills has been relatively effective. Although Tomko out of the bullpen scares me now too.
Sure I’ll go out on a limb and say LaRoche gets the nod against another lefty.Lilly has been pretty tough so far this year but I think Grady puts up the same line up as tonight with Lowe to start.Andy really smoked a few balls tonight they are gonna start dropping or keep going one or the other needs to happen soon. He is really seeing the ball well and putting it into play with some power.Braz looked really good out there tonight maybe as good as ever.Kuo only went 4 inns but stultz then backed him with 5 inns of 1 hit shutout ball.Martin is just plain and simple sick good right now and leads all NL catchers in every hitting point except HR’s.Anybody know the story on the scuffle after Martin walked on a homer?Duncan sure looked like he was gonna take on the Brewers coach and bench!Fun Game tonight Hope this is the beginning of another hotstreak with the bats and I’m Glad the Brewers are done I really hate looking at some of the ugliest players in baseball especially that Jenkins guy……His face looks like the southend of a northboand horse.
northbound
there’s no doubt about it… between jenkins, fielder, counsell and turnbow the brewers are the ugliest team in baseball.
we should have headhunted fielder, just for kicks. oh well.
I dunno JS Bills need some work to get himself back to Starter condition I think and with Kuo only going 4 albiet 4 shutout inns I’m not sure who gets it schmidt might be ready too I’ll take anyone of those 3 if they are ready to go 6 good inns.
I thought for sure somebody was gonna get plunked but thats not our style and our guys are much classier then that.
we wouldn’t be in first place if we didn’t have russell martin.
Martin, Penny, Wolf, our entire bullpen, this TEAM is why we’re in first place, granted by the hair of our collective chiny-chin-chins. Martin is amazing, but it takes more than one guy to win games. I just got done reading T.J Simers’ column…it’s GOLD!
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-simers24may24,1,789893.column?coll=la-headlines-sports
Also, if you haven’t voted for Russell Martin for N.L All Star Catcher and you’re reading this at 12:50 a.m, you surely (don’t call me Shirley!) can vote 25 times at MLB.com! So go do it!
We did exactly what Milwaukee did to us…That’s what good teams do! And we are a good team!
GO DODGERS!
I’m loving the Martin/Gonzo switch in the lineup. Not only is Martin continuing to produce at an all-star pace but Gonzo is picking it up as well. Good move Grady.
-luxx80
If insulting players is gold them Max must be a vein of Platinum. As I said before JP’s numbers are not off that far and he gets better. He looks alot more comfortable in CF now then last month and is clearly getting better jumps on the ball.It is not his fault that we offered him that much money I mean are you gonna turn down a huge offer because you don’t think that you are worth that amount? No….and if someone comes to you after you take the offer and you are not progressing yet at what they feel that you should are you gonna give them the time of day just to be ridiculed and insulted? No….The man has a job to do and has had success in the past let him get his feet under him and try to get back to his performance level of when he was with the fish I’m sure nobody there was hounding him as nobody cares about baseball there and they always came on strong in the second half unlike what happens to this team normally after the AS break.Martin will fade Penny won’t shine as bright Nomar…. well he isn’t now and I hate to think about how bad he suffered 2nd half lastyear.Furcal will keep it in the .300 range with Kent staying on pace then you have pierre who will be scoring as much if not more by then.Speaking of Furcal who has been Red hot OBP.and Avg. why is he not stealing bases?he has what 5?JP has been getting deeper into the counts and Raffy seems anchored at first for that JP hasn’t been running either.Nomar has even takin a few pitches as of late…Gonzo took a base tonight Kent tried and failed miserably with 0 outs to 3rd….Where has Raffys running game gone to?JP is everyones favorite punching bag but the truth is that the whole team could be doing more. 1st inning aside tonight the rest of the offence was pretty dormant tonight and had a few gimmies and do overs as the Brew crew looked like they were the same old team that we beat on every year.Just kinna ticks me off when players get singledout when in all actuality several players are not getting it done big contract or not.Tonight was good I hope the progression continues and we tear it up on the cubs over the weekend to start rebuilding our lead in the NL west.
Go Blue 2007!!!
Alex,
Not sure why you liked that article…Simers basically just ripped on Pierre and Duncan for the entire thing. If you want to read more intense Pierre-bashing than that, just get on this blog every day…
Simers had nothing to say in his article. It was just a writer’s petty attempt to make two guys look bad because they didn’t want to be interviewed.
I’m not baggin on Pierre, but I have a funny story to share with you guys:
During BP yesterday (Wednesday), Pierre threw a ball up to my buddy David, who was in the LFP right behind him. A few minutes later, Pierre catches another BP fly ball. I holler to Pierre and he turns, looks directly at me, and throws the ball to. He comes up ten feet short and nearly hits some guy in the head. Thank God he missed the guy, but I couldn’t stop laughing for ten minutes at Pierre’s inability to make a 30-yard throw. That said, Pierre looked pretty good at the plate last night and also made a couple of nice plays in the OF.
Martin, Penny, and Brazoban were awesome. It was a great game; Weird, but great.
GO DODGERS!
The only things that I feel disappointed about this year are the lack of power from Nomar and the absence of Da Gonz’s RBI. The bullpen seems to remain the best part of the team as the years roll by even with the personnel changes.Thank God we’re always blessed with a very good closer. The starting pitching(especilly inning wise), has improved immensely and may bring us past the first round this year or at least let the team play with more class.
Having been a vocal critic of our management, I am now looking to cut them some slack, because a number of our blogger suggestions have been implemented, particularly those concerning our younger players.
LAROCHE and ABREU are up with us and will presumably get a decent chance to prove themselves for the third base job. Whichever one does not make it, will probably be back in Vegas in another month.
TOMKO is back in the bullpen, and either BILLS or KUO will likely get the fifth starter opportunity when it presents itself again. I understand that Tomko did not take the demotion well, and I personally would love to see him traded off the Dodger team. With the shortage of pitchers on some clubs, we might even get a decent prospect for him.
PIERRE and GONZO will just be with us for the season, and we might as well hope that they do better in the remainder of the season than they have so far.
It looks like KEMP and LONEY will have to wait either until someone gets hurt or toward the end of the season to get an appearance, but then neither one seems to be making much of a case for himself this year at Vegas.
BIGBIE will probably be lost and go to another club. I would have wished that we had given him a chance for a couple of weeks up in the majors to see what he could produce, or at least to showcase him for some nominal trade rather than losing him outright.
MARTIN has just been outstanding – much more than one could expect of a second year player, and batting him fifth appears to help us generate so much more offense.
Actually my biggest disappointment now is with NOMAR – absolutely no power and the OBP is declining. You wonder whether he has a physical problem that he is likely to keep hidden.
Let’s keep things rolling after the positive series with the Brew Crew!
TOMKO’S OUT OF THE ROTATION!!!! I’m glad, I’m flying all the way to LA this weekend to watch the Cubs series and I wasn’t looking forward to seeing him give up six runs in four innings. So, now I get to see Lowe, Wolf, and Hendrickson. I would have preferred C-Bill over Hendy, but c’est la vie.
Since Grady found the courage/wisdom to pull Tomko from the rotation, I don’t think he’ll cut Hendrickson too much slack for remaining in the rotation, unless he can shape up his starting performance as well. Once we get Schmidt back, it might be Lowe, Penney, Wolf, Schmidt and fifth up for grabs between Hendrickson, Bills and Kuo. Actually I’m hoping that once Schmidt has proven himself to be recovered both physically and in form, we might trade Hendrickson and/or Tomko either as part of a package for some needed power or for some valuable prospects.
Send Tomko to KC. He can complain about demotions with blowdalis.
Nice post Fisher, it’s good to hear someone else say something about all the negative crude that gets posted here. Some of you might be wondering why a lot of last years bloggers aren’t posting this year. Simply put it’s not enjoyable to hear all of the whinning and complaining. My image of a true blue Dodger Fan is one that can make their point without the constant head hunting. How in the world can a true Dodger Fan ask for Ned’s, Grady’s or any players head when we’re in 1st place. Lasorda once said that every team win win 60 games and lose 60 games, it’s what you do with the rest of them that counts. Nobody hated to lose more then Tommy and God forbid those who accepted the loss. But Tommy would also be the very first one to do everything in his power to build up the confidence of his players. This is a good team, some might say a great team !! Which ever one it is, it’s our team and it’s a 1st place team TODAY !! So enjoy it while you got it !!
Go Ned !!
Go Dodgers !!!
I’ve been critical (not too openly though) of Pierre, or at least worried about him out there in CF for the next 4-5 years, but have nothing personal against him, know he works hard, and found the Simers hit piece depressing. Depressing because it’s a journalist trying to get everyone in on his snickering snarkiness by trying to push someone’s buttons, instead of just being a human being. Pierre has a sense of humor, too, I’m sure a real journalist would have found some way of telling the story and engaging with Pierre without acting like 10 year old. It’s sad that the Times thinks Simers sells papers – or maybe he does, which is even sadder – given their previous history of producing great sportswriters. I hope Pierre can just rise above it. I’d rather have Matt Kemp manning CF but the team comes first and it’s best for all of us if Pierre starts playing better.
I hope Tomko can stop sulking and put the team first, too.
Great game last night – here’s to a great series vs. Cubs.
welll put gary
Agreed Gary! All of you old-school posters who have been in hiding, feel free to come back and pipe in with some encouraging words.
We all agreed in the offseason that two of this team’s strengths were pitching depth and young talent. Both of those things set up any team for posturing for beneficial trades in June/July. That’s what we still have, and I think so much of the negativity around here was fueled simply by impatience – impatience to give players a chance to prove themselves, impatience for Ned and Grady to bench them when said players DIDN’T prove themselves. Too many of the negative bloggers on here don’t understand that in baseball, you don’t bench a player for a bad month – 7 out of 10 times, they just need to play through it. The other 3 out of 10 times, you want them to start doing better, even if it’s not incredible play, so that they can be traded and value can be obtained in return.
The only thing that makes me mad about the negativity is it seems that some of you guys (you know who you are) are actually rooting against the players you don’t like. Instead of pulling for Pierre or Gonzo, you actually celebrate when they fail because it proves your point. To me, that just sounds like you’re much happier about being “right” than the Dodgers succeeding. And that pisses me off. You might say “I root for them every time, but they fail so I rip into them on the blog,” but the fact that during games there are so many posts every time Gonzo or Pierre fails to get on base or screws up defensively says to me that you just enjoy hating on them as much as possible. None of us here mind objective criticism – but most of the negativity that occurs is just repetitive, knee-jerk hating on the players you don’t like.
Get behind the team! Ned and Grady are here to stay, at least for a few years, so if you hate them that much go root for the Angels until then. Because your repetitive posts about how they are the worst managerial duo in sports are MEANINGLESS.
Man from China, I appreciate the heartfelt comments, you must be new. I’m the token ‘positivity guy’ I rarely bash the team although when I do I let them have it, people think I turn a blind eye to management mistakes etc.. I understand your comments, in fact, I completely understand why you would think that. I happen to have a very sardonic and sarcastic sense of humor and find T.J Simers to be a very good columnist, he pops up when things are down for the Dodgers and writes some very interesting columns. In fact he has the uncanny ability to light a fire up their bums in all the wrong ways. It’s just his style of writing and he asks questions and statements that most reporters would never dare to ask. Just because I said GOLD doesn’t mean I loved it (although I did find it extremely entertaining), by GOLD I meant it’s a must read because of what he said to Pierre etc… and Mariano Duncan screaming, “Jesus Christ” it was a good column IMO.
I love the Dodgers and have since I was 4 years old when my mother’s friends let me sit in their season seats and I was hooked from that day forward. I currently attend half the home games and support my team and believe me I’m very critical of this team. I get p’d off just like the rest of you, I just choose to express myself differently. And I’m not going anywhere, I love this blog, I respect all of your opinions and most importantly I love our Dodgers!
Go Dodgers!
China man, i will second Alex’s post and just reiterate that he really is “one of the good guys”. Puppyhead, very well said about the immediate posting of hatred right after Gonzo or Pierre has a bad AB or gets a poor jump– it really is ridiculous how often that **** happens, and its so frustrating because when good things happen it doesnt receive the same speedy treatment.
I read that column though Alex, just for you, and sincerely hated it. I loved though how at the very end, after the piece was finished, someone criticized the writer for using his initials instead of a real name– that was funny. Maybe he asks questions that no other reporter will ask because there is such a thing as journalistic integrity and asking a player if they want an arm transplant certainly lacks any type of credibility or integrity. T.J. is a bum. Go Dodgers. Great Series Win. We really needed this one. Lets keep it going. I hate off days….
I also second Puppyhead’s last post
On another note – here’s a link to a very convincing article about how overrated Andruw Jones is. I’m still rooting for A-Rod as our offseason power solution…
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2880979
Hey i can vouch for alex, rarely do i see a post from him that is worthy of calling a Dodger hater, and your right alex that guy must be new because we all know the difference between those who give objective criticism and those who just like to feel the attention of being so hateful of some of the players.
There has been some good postings the last couple games and i must say i have enjoyed everyone of them. Let’s keep supporting our boys and help them continue their winning ways.
GO DODGERS!!!!! GO DEREK!!!!
I will see you guys at the game on Friday!
Also after reading the last couple post as well i must say something about the immediate post during the game. I for one love to watch the blog while im watching the game as well because i love to see what people have to say about a certain situation or a play. I also have posted immediately after a bad Ab by Gonzo or Pierre but more of what i thought he did wrong and sometimes i find myself frustrated and confused and maybe 1 out of 10 times i post a frustrated filled post after a AB so i for one am guilty of that no and again! Just my input on that.
*now
The 3rd base situation reminds me of left field during the last 10 years, or so,in Brooklyn(The BIRTHPLACE of the Los Angeles Dodgers).Everybody and his wife played there, George Shuba,Cal Abrams,ANDY PAFKO, Jackie Robinson, Junior Gilliam,Sandy Amoros(Thank GOD, he was there),even Roy Campanella to name a few….They say the past is dead so I’ll come to the present..Where have you gone Billy Cox & Ron Cey???…Now we bath-the-meat, have the roach or I’ll Bay Youuu…Should have paid ADRIAN belt the ball over the wall Traaaay. P–arzzaaa, low-duke kaaa….Good bye(welcome to Shea)…..Let’s go R-u-s-s-e-l, the greatest base stealing catcher I’ve ever seen. I hope he doesn’t run out of gas. We might get stuck with Libby, whose there proberbly just to catch the ball.
Thank you for that. Sometimes we all need a relatively incoherent post, just to put things in perspective.
nice article on a-jones puppyhead…. how informative….
just looking back on his stats— i never realized he always hit for so poor of an average. I always had him in my head as a 280-300 kind of hitter, but that is definately not the case. Maybe Stark was onto something with that article. Also, he is on pace to record over 400 putouts this year, so we will see on that one. His slugging and OBP is still nice looking, but maybe i would reconsider championing the idea of giving him a huge contract this offfseason (obviously before the Pierre signing)… Great article.
you’re right i am new, from what others are saying about you alex i appoligize…however for others i do feel that way. a few weeks back pierre had a great game as did nomar and best of all we got the win. that night i asked myself “what are they gonna say on the blog tomorrow morning”? i couldn’t think of anything bad to say about that game but sure enough the next morning the negativity was there. if you didn’t know anything abouth the dodgers and read these posts you would think we were in last place with a week to go in the season.
again i appoligize alex it was aimed more towards the blog as a whole. thogh i must admit at times it’s fun to read.
one more thing on that article… was it just me or was he portraying jp as a bad guy, and a liar? i think most of us can agree that he is one of the better guys on this team and in the league. i love his work ethic and i think he is gonna turn out to be a good pickup. maybe not great but in the long run i belive he is gonna help the team more that he is going to hurt it.
ESPN needs to show more baseball stuff during the day, and less **** NFL ****.
I like seeing all the positive posts. I don’t post often, but when I do it is usually to defend our 1st place team,the players or to criticize in an objective manner. I think all the negative posters are just football fans thinking each game is 10x more valuable than it actually is. Baseball is a marathon! The players that are underachieving right now will turn it around IMO (ie. Furcal). Any educated baseball fan should know that it’s not kosher to bash established players when they are struggling, especially this early. To bash players on your “favorite team” at this juncture of the season is just showing baseball ignorance.
manfrom… how can a .300 OBP possibly help us? add that along with 20 annual caught stealing and bad defense and 1 homer per year… **** of a pick up Coletti.
Pierre can hurt the team by creating more outs than any other player in baseball. He isn’t the worst player in the baseball, but according to ESPN.com’s article, he’s the fourth most overrated player in the MLB:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2880887
so now people are starting to realize Pierre’s overrated. You guys should have just listened to me at the beginning of the year. haha
Pierre leads the league in outs (161) and in sac hits (6) unfortunately he’s the only position player in the top 5. The rest are pitchers.
yes, the pierre bashing goes overboard, but to ignore the fact that it was a terrible signing is another thing. Especially with the free agent CFs available in ’08 and especially because Kemp’s defense in CF was prematurely panned.
Jimmy Rollins actually leads the league in outs, is he a bad player too? Pierre is a Jeckyl and Hyde type guy, always slow out of the gates but starts to hit stride sometime midway through the season. He is 2nd in MLB in steals and 2nd on our team in runs scored- only 1 behind Martin (even with his sub-par start and OBA). He is still on pace to score 100 runs and swipe 59 bags, I’ll take those numbers assuming he is still going to heat up.
Scratch that comment on the outs, but comparatively speaking he has 1 more hit than J-Roll in the same amount of AB’s
Its getting really tiring hearing people complain about the negativity. This is a BLOG. Everyone has the right to post there OPINION. No one complains when overly optimistic people write their overly optimistic ****. No one constantly mentions it. So please, stop mentioning every single day the existence of the negative comments. We all see them, we read theme every single day. What we dont need to read is another person commenting on the negativity. It is enough already. Everyone posts what they believe and the rest of us read it and respond. We dont need to read others commenting on the substance of this blog.
Are you complaining on this blog about people complaining on this blog? Kinda contradictory isn’t it?
But they are complaining about people complaining. So i guess i am complaining about the complaining regarding the complaining. Very clever charris.
LOL, I thought you’d get a kick out of that one 🙂
ARE YOU TRYING TO COMPARE JUAN PIERRE TO JIMMY ******* ROLLINS!!!!!! Jesus Christ.
Rollins has 2 more doubles, 4 more triples, 9 more home runs, and 17 more rbis.
I was arguing that you can create many outs and still be a productive hitter
Rollins obviously has more POP than Pierre
Yes, Rollins is a much more productive hitter. You’re right about that.
So to say that Pierre ***** because he leads the league in outs is kind of an off-base (pardon the pun) argument
Nice.
All all i know is we have him and we have for a good amount of years. My problem with all this is that everyone keeps on bringing up the fact that he was a bad signing!, ok so what we probably could have gotten a more productive player in cf or gotten it with in but what can we do about it now?! Your not going to sit a player because he is having a rough time stringing together hits or for having something mechanically wrong in his swing, all you can do is work with him and encourage him to play better. You dont do that by benching him and playing a young guy who can surely hit the ball but lets face it his D in CF was iffy last year in the bigs.
So ned probably shouldnt have offered him so much money but he did what he felt he had to do to sign him because he felt we needed a veteran CF. If we look at what Ned has done and what Grady has done with this club since last year you cannot complain! A losing record turned into a playoff birth and a season in which we are in first place with a pretty darn good record, i know i cant complain.
It’s hard to ignore when the guy is batting lead-off or second in our lineup. If he was batting, say…..8th, (where he should be!) it be a little easier to ignore.
I think it’s also safe to say that lead-off hitters, especially durable ones that play everyday (Pierre) can be expected to lead the league in outs because they have many more AB’s over the course of a season. I mean he’s hitting .270 not .133 like Chone Figgins for example. By the way I don’t hear Angels fans hating on Chone (who was leadoff today) for his slow start to the year.
I think for the Angels situation the only reason he was batting leadoff is because they lost a good bat in Izturis so they dont have much of a chose but i agree Pierre is producing. Even though its not what everyone would like to see i think he is a big asset to the team down the road.
Izturis is the Angel’s version of Ramon Martinez and he never hit lead-off when he was healthy and really the only reason he played everyday was because Figgins was hurt.
Chone went 1 – 2, w/ 2BB today. He has had 77 ABs so far this season and has 8 BB’s. Pierre has had 200 ABs and has 9. Who else would like to compare him to??
Great post Gary! I agree with you 100%! I end up getting ****** into the defense of our team and find myself futilly trying to support certain players… only to have others bash the **** out of them because they’re not super-stars… but hey… the Dodgers will always be my team no matter how bad it gets. Stay positive and know that there is still a long, long way to go before the first playoff pitch is thrown… and a lot can happen between now and then… that’s what makes the ride so much fun… right?
Good post for fisher too… Simmers isn’t much fun to read these days… guess that’s what happens when your reputation preceeds you.
Go Dodgers!!
Ok nkirby since were comparing the two, when this year has Pierre’s average ever been that low? Whats Figgins OBP? What is more valuable hits or walks?
I never said he batted leadoff but i did think he played more than in reality but he was definately a good bat for them when he was in the lineup. I was just simply giving a reason as to why they would all of a sudden put Figgins in the top spot when they had that guy Willits doing pretty good.
I’m just saying that the Pierre situation could be much worse.
Charris said….”I was arguing that you can create many outs and still be a productive hitter”… and this is true
But its not true when u have a 300 OBP and no power. Check this stat out… Kevin Kouzmanoff, rookie 3B for the Padres, has struggled mightyly this year until just recently. he has a .205 BA and looks like he’ll improve that. His OPS right now is 21 points higher than Pierre’s, who admittingly is struggling, but is not batting .205. How much can we really expect Pierre to improve? Pierre OPS .608.Kouzmanoff OPS .629.
Yes it could be. But it could be so much better. I want him to play well. I just wonder if he’s capable.
Okay…..MOVING ON!!! Great to see Dodgers pitching is nearly lights out w/o Tomko.
see thats the thing i dont think he is going to anything that while stick out and shine! But what i do think is he will get his hits and his steals and help this team done the road. But also he is not the super star that his payroll may suggest but hey who knows maybe he will earn his money come playoff time (where i heard he is solid)
*will
Frank,
Would you like to save 6 million dollars in 2007 and another 38 million dollars over the next 4 years?
If so my bad.
Now of course we would HAVE to go with player A over player B. But trust me player B is better cause he gets ‘an awful lot of hits”. Also my scouts tell me that player A isnt very good in the OF, but then my eyes tell me that player B is even worse..so I dont know.
15sb/3cs/.267/.341/.404/.746
17sb/5cs/.270/.303/.305/.608
I know they look the same now, but trust me and the positive bloggers, player B is gonna get hot!! And Kenny Lofton isnt good, you saw him play for us last year. We just barley made the playoffs with him.
Also, I have 17 million reasons why Matt Kemp and James Loney are in triple A, but we can talk about that later.
Love Ned
here’s the biggest problem with Pierre, and Im sure I’ve said this before… $9 million for 5 years! Weak bat, bad patience, gets caught stealing a lot, bad defense, no power, and clogs up center for 5 years! Ichiro, Torii Hunter, and Andruw Jones avail next year. Matt Kemp doesnt have a spot.
The one above average part of his game is his speed. He will turn 30 in august of this year. How long will his legs be there?
Ned’s been a pretty good GM so far. He’s made some good moves and some questionable ones, but no Gm bats 1000. Grady is not my favorite nor would he have been my pick to manage this team, but as long as we stay in first, he’s the man. As for being negative, it’s a fans right to question management , especially if it’s in the interest of winning.
Kouzmanoff has an inflated OPS because he is a “power hitter” with 3 HRs, 7 2Bs compared to Pierre’s 0 and 5, thats 16 more total bases right there. His OBP is .269 and that is slightly inflated because he has hit 8 and has the LaRoche walk syndrome going on. P.S. I really hate the Padres.
Charris… since when can a .629 be considered inflated? .629 is horrible… also… OPS measures walks and power. On base percentage + slugging percentage = OPS. In case you dont already know… walks are good. Hitting balls hard and far are good too. Good baseball players should be able to do both. Pierre does neither.
now dodgerdude i think its unfair to say or even mention that he may get slower with age (which may happen), but look at freakin Julio Franco he still produces when needed so i dont think age is that big of a deal when you have talent!
dahustlasbac… You dont think it’s fair to say a players skills decline with age? Geez, u must really like our offense then huh… Luis Gonzalez gonna go back to hitting 50+ bombs?
I never said that Kouzy’s OBP was good but Pierre doesn’t hit for any power, just that his SLG was inflated comparitively and look at my post above yours before trying to explain things to me that I obviously already know.
hahaha that did seem a little modest didnt it, but no i do think there skills will decline with age but not as drastically as one might think. Sure gonzo isnt producing what he has in the past three years and neither is Kent or Nomar, but there has got to be a reason for that and not just age. You can’t just fall off that much and i think the skills these players have will fade away not completely disappear. Ya know?! I may not be making any sense!
Bottom line to me is every time Pierre is up I say to myself
1. I hope he dosent hit it in the air (i. e weak fly ball to LF)
and
2. I hope his groundball get thru.
and
3. well at least he wont hit into a double play cause he is fast
I don’t have anything against the guy but I dont want my 44 million dollar guys at the top of my lineup to be that way. It’s Tom Goodwin all over again.
jungar i to feel the same in game situations at bat but i think management will eventually do something about it.
I just dont get how, if you already know the things I am saying, you still defend pierre. Also, how is his SLG inflated? he has 3 homers. Just because Pierre has zero?
dahustlasbac… ya u should quit while ur ahead…haha
Again I said comparitively speaking, and OPS doesn’t matter as much for a lead-off guy, how many lead-off hitters in the league have a great OPS?
hanley ramirez, grady siezmore, damon, rollins, reyes…need me to go on?
By the way those 3 HR are currently more than Nomar’s 1, I think thats a bigger issue than Pierre hitting leadoff. We didn’t sign Pieree for his slugging percentage anyway.
Yeah kirby because you are probably done right there, not many major league teams have high SLG% guys batting leadoff
and Rollins is hitting 3rd
sorry kirby, I meant jspelk
Charris…
jose reyes. .888 OPS
Ichiro. .810 OPS
Sizemore. .848 OPS
…should i keep going?
As i said before, we could have signed Ichiro next year if it wasnt for Pierre.
Also, you’re right… the most important stat for a leadoff batter is OBP… and pierre is in the bottom 5 among all MLB starters.
OK you have a gripe with OPB but how about a 3 hitter with 1 HR in late May?
Gonzo has clearly been in a decline for 5 years. In fact he is producing last year like numbers, but we didnt have to watch THE HORRO last year everyday. Add that he is coming from a great hitters park to our and look for his OPS to be around .775 this year.
.934 2003
.866 2004
.825 2005
.795 2006
.809 2007
kent has been steady
.860
.880
.889
.861
.868
Nomar has never recovered from what hurt him last year in the 2nd half. (just my opinion, but his OPS is now under 7 for 6 months and thats not nomar like)
.867
.819
.772
.872
**.678**
1.004 before break in 06
.694 after break in 06
*OBP
well rollins was hitting leadoff earlier this year, and gee i bet now that victorino is he’s opsing higher than pierre too. or put in brian roberts, alex rios, ichiro, chris young… the list goes on.
the point is that pierre is a supposed premiere leadoff hitter and he’s not even good at that. or at least that’s my point.
I agree with everyone who says that Nomar in the three spot is hurting us more than Pierre in any spot.
Our 3 spot hitter has an OPS lower than Brady Clark and Wilson Bettiment
I think we’re all in agreement that Pierre is not playing well. Some people think he could be a lot better, others think not so much. Pierre is the ideal 8 spot hitter. Ideal, meaning he is perfectly suited to bat in that position and would be an asset to this team if he did so.
jspelk, they may have a higher OPS% than Pierre but I think that lead-off hitters for the most part have below average OPS’s. BA, OBP, runs, SB’s, and BB are stats that should be used to evaluate leadoff guys and to me Pierre is only doing bad in two of those catagories but we all expected that going into this year
i really dont care if all the positive old guys dont post. if you cant handle the truth gary then dont read it..this isnt the sugarcoat everything headquarters last I checked, and dodger fans from all over can post the feelings they feel for the team. its not gary’s positive blog…..if your gonna be positive dont be negative by ripping guys that post legit questions, and post legit statistics that you dont like. it is what it is, answer a question before you ride off on your high horse….do you really feel juan pierre should bat anywhere in the top half of our order, if so post your reason, i would like to hear it.
ok, but im saying pierre’s stats against other leadoff hitters are bad, not that they are just bad in general.
the question about nomar is whether he will fight out this and regain his power, or whether this is how he’s going to be all year.
It good to see that after a great series victory over a first place team we can always go back to the Pierre debate…it is entertaining but personally I’m tired of it. The Pierre situation is distracting the real issues of the team. Pierre is a constant we know what he will and won’t do, I think we should focus on the real issues of the team…Nomar, third base and the 5th starter. I will throw this in about Pierre, if Abreu steps up, there’s no doubt in my mind Pierre would be dropped to the eight spot. In fact if LaRoche stepped it up I could see him moved in the two spot. But if neither of them do it’s a moot point. Pierre is what he is, there are no surprises, sometimes that’s a good thing. Nomar so far is a surprise and in this case it’s a bad thing.
Charris… he’s doing bad in the most important one OBP. and he isnt a good career OBP guy either. around .350 for his career is just barely above average. but he hasnt even done that last couple years… .330 last year in fact
Also, it is a great concern that our #3 hitter is batting so poorly thus far. The reason i argue more about Pierre than our 3 hitter is because of the decision to sign the guy. It’s not good when ur GM is willing to spend that much on such a bad hitter. Would have done much better just re-upping Lofton as jungar has suggested.
Good post Alex. Very True. I think you need to add no power from corner OF spots as an issue as well. It’s ok for one, but not both. That’s my general aggrevation.
Martin to the 3 hole should happen soon too.
jungar and dodgrdude17 i applaud you for proving some real points these supposed “real” fans wont address. charris is a goodsport , but you just cant possibly make any argument pierre is best suited to hit either 1 or 2. furcal is our leadoff guy, he took us to the playoffs last year why tinker. what was so wrong with kenny lofton to where we had to pay 3 times for a player that isnt half as good as him?
hey max its nice to see Jp in the same category as a bunch of pitchers, that is really sickening. i guess ned really was right, i believe he stated he didnt want pierre to sign with the halloweenies so he gave him an extra year, he really thought that pierre going to the giants was going to make that big of a deal. SF trying to sign him to a 4 year deal is pathetic, let alone 5 for that money. throw in a few millioN AND WE HAVE THE BEST LEADOFF HITTER INTHE GAME!! match up ichiros stats with pierres. rude awakening.
Despite their offense woes, the Dodgers are in first place. Imagine how much better it could be. First first place would be tight.
switching nomar with martin could work very well. takes some pressure off of nomar, gives our 1 and 2 more chances to steal, and best of all gets r martin some more atbats, and maybe even some better pitches.
To the suprise of many, I’m not a huge JP fan, he’s obviously not a great player, but I think he’s pretty good. Our major problem this year is the lack of power and lack of clutch hitting (it seems like we leave a small village on base most games). I guess what I’m frustated about is all the negativity being aimed at JP alone. His low OBA may take part in our offensive woes, but it certaintly isn’t our biggest concern. To keep harping on that on a daily basis is like saying I won’t date that 400 pound bearded lady over there because she has ugly toenails.
nkirby… what’s better first place by 1/2 a game or first place by 10 games… we’re just in May. Long way to go still. I’ll say this… if we win the world series, i promise to never say an ill word about Pierre ever again.
It’s frustrating to see him play the same way everyday and the biggest change we get is moving him from the #2 spot to the #1.
I love the dodgers and I want our true fans, the ones who have been following the team even longer than me (born in 71, die hard since 77) to get pissed….we havent won a playoff series since Ronald Regan was in office and we should be tired of it. Our 120 million dollar payroll, along with our farm system, we should be blowing this division away.
charris… haha, that bearded lady comment made me laugh. I’d however say that Pierre is more accurately the beard on the lady than the toenails. He is a pretty big part of our problems man.
It won’t take a WS vic to shut my mouth. If he raises his OBP to 333, I’ll tone it down considerably.
Ya. *** is up with that… Pierre does poorly so he gets rewarded by being moved up in the lineup? Another stat for you fellas… every spot in the lineup adds up to 20 plate appearances over the course of the year. So the difference between the 1 spot and the 8 spot for the year is 140 plate appearances. We need to give Pierre as little PAs as possible.
Miguel Caberra……he’s 24. Florida’s got no money, no fans and going nowhere. Send La Roche, Billingsley (I like both those guys) and pay them to take Pierre. Instant improvement
I think its safe to say that we are all a little frustrated with our offense or lack there of lately but I’m confident that Pierre has shown a history of improving as a season goes along, Nomar on the other hand is scaring me, he was white hot to start the year last year. This year he hasn’t looked like homself at all.
*himself
Yeah Nomar kind of ***** this year. The 1 HR is scary, but he looks so pathetic when he swings the bat. We need Martin batting third, kemp playing left instead of “my skills are GONE-ZO.” and Pierre moved down.
seriously if we’re going to dream up trades, might as well dream up attainable ones. miggy aint happening even if we sent them the whole 51’s roster.
i think nomar needs a phantom dl visit. im just waiting for it to go down…he hasn’t looked good fielding wise either.
I’m disappointed with Ethier thus far too. Looking at the numbers, Gonzo has actually outproduced him. whats up with that.
I agree jspelk, in fact I don’t think a trip to the DL would be “phantom”. I think he’s pulling a NLDS tough guy act and trying to play through an injury when we could have healthier options getting AB’s right now.
I got a name for you guys… Adam Dunn. They really dont like him in Cincy from what i’ve seen. Great power and on-base guy. the BA is crappy, but i can deal with it if he’s hitting bombs, and I think his walking so much makes up for that too. The K’s are frustrating, but again if he produces those bombs, i’ll look the other way.
Hey charris1010321 – “…in fact I don’t think a trip to the DL would be “phantom”.
I have to agree with you on this one. Although I never really watched Nomar closely until he arrived here in L.A., I have watched him closely since and there is definitely something wrong with him (in my humble opinion). Last year, he struck out a TOTAL of 30 times and he already has 21 so far this season. He used to be pretty much a dead pull hitter and now he is spraying the field (which isn’t such a bad thing), but his power is not there. When he hits the DL (which I sadly believe he will), it definitely won’t be a phantom thing.
GO DODGERS!
so when nomar DL’s it, will kent slide over to 1st or will loney be called upon? i doubt they’d stick olmedo there everyday.
No offense to Dunn, but lets talk a little more about Miggy!! Masher at age 24 can play 3b or LF. What’s not to love? Power and Avg and Slugger. He is one of only a handful of guys i’d trade any dodger/51er for.
Loney is there as insurance to Nomar, so if Nomar goes down Loney comes up it’s that simple.
My guess is Abreau is being “tried out” for the option of moving Kent over to 1b
great points on Nomar fansince53
Miguel Cabrera… Firstly, there’s no sign yet that he’s available… Secondly, it would take pretty much the farm to get him.
Loney gets the call up of course. Seanz is one of the other players that isn’t pulling his weight this year along with Martinez they are both down nearly .100 points each in batting they were both very clutch lastyear during injuries and bad performances.You can say they haven’t had the chances but they have and have failed to produce.Along with Eithier and Nomar.
Good points fansince53, I went to the Saturday Dodgers-Angels game and saw Nomar consistently get beat by Weaver’s 92 mph fastball, so something is up. On a side note, I did get my first ML baseball at the game when Nomar hit a bomb right at me during BP, of course it was BP where even LuGo looked like Babe Ruth so thats not saying much.
I’d give up the farm to get him. And I am a huge play the kids type. But he is still a kid himself. As long as we could hold onto Kemp and Kersaw I say roll the dice.
Miggy is their new cornerstone only way we get him is if they see something wrong with him or we send them Martin,La Roche and Bills….
Seriously I blame all of Nomar’s problems on that chick with the Van in the Nomar commercial. She is spooky. He can’t shake her.
yeah charris no one was sneaking those weak fastballs by nomar last year…..remember when brad lidge tried and he hit that grand salami, thats nomar garciaparra. the guy battin 3rd for us this year is not quite the same.
Oooh and Lotsa plywood and tarps for hurricane season….
You notice that about her too? she gives me the willies….
Seriously guys the lady on that commercial is my mom so ease up
Just kidding
Oh I see that explains everything…….
It would be funny to see what other dodger players would have rolling out of their van.
Kent: Motorcycle cop looking guy
Pierre: rappers who look like 1989 ice cube
Ethier: 16 year old chicks
for starters..
I think we’d have a better chance at landing Wright from the Mets than Miggy. The Mets are over-loaded with offense and have no pitching. I say package Tomko, Hendrickson, Billingsley and LaRoche for Wright. That gives the Mets some pitching depth, 2 prospects and really doesn’t hurt that line-up all that much sans Wright. We lose two great prospects and land one great player.
Martin: zobeida.torres.06@alum.dartmouth.org
Seanz: 20 family members
Broxton:A Bull
uh….the mets just signed wright to a new contract. they’re not trading him.
so who’s van would milano be rolling out of ?
jungar,
I agree with you for once – only because it’s simple arithmetic to realize that all of our prospects will not play on the major league team. 8 positions, a few which are already spoken for, and realistically about 2, maybe 3 of these position players we currently have will become Dodgers for multiple seasons. Probably Kemp, maybe Loney, maybe Abreu, maybe LaRoche. But if they all make it as Dodgers…where do we put a power bat if we sign one?
I’m all about protecting the kids. But a big part of being a GM is knowing who you plan on keeping and not letting anyone else know that…trade the “expendable” young guys when their value is highest, and pray to God you made the right choice.
Ya ever see the David Wright blog? Women wall to wall throwing everything they have at him.Well that was lastyear before he got married I saw that. Over 1,000 posts he’s VERY popular there.
In defense of the “negativity bashing” going on earlier – I guess, more specifically, I’m not bashing negativity. I feel negative every time this team loses. It’s just the repetitiveness – saying something about JP or Gonzo is just fine by me. Saying the same thing 3 times on 3 consecutive days is fine by me. Saying the same thing every day since the first game of the season…it’s just old. That’s what I’m saying. Please be constructive, please criticize, but know when you’ve made you’re point.
Shes the future owner….
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=lukas/070524&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos2
Another Nomar quirk.
Let’s hope he can find a quirk or OCD habit sometime soon that involves returning the pop to his bat…
charris… are u for real? david wright? you are dreaming. Why not rise Babe Ruth from the dead?
Dude, we have some people calling for that deal with Miggy, who right now is a better hitter than Wright, the Marlins would have no reason to pull the trigger on a deal like that because they have nothing to play for this year. The Mets on the other hand need pitching and need it badly, if they’re gonna make a WS run this year, remember last year’s NLCS?
I think puppyhead called for it last week but why not try to swing that deal for A-Rod, that other NY team could use a little pitching as well.
dd17 Ruth wasn’t an infielder…
I think A-Rod is more of a possibility than Wright would be. The Mets actually do have pitching… check out their team ERA… top 2 I think in the National League. There’s no way Wright will be traded man… New York loves stars as much as LA does. How much **** would the NY media give the Mets for trading their great young 3B who a year ago ppl were saying is better than A-ROD.
jspelk2@uic.edu wrote, “so who’s van would milano be rolling out of ?”
Mine.
Out of a van with Gonzo and Nomar: baby carriages
Man, you guys are killing me with the Nomar van chick. The look on that valet dude’s face says it all.
Hey charris1010321 – Congrats on your first BP home run ball! You gotta start somewhere and a Nomar ball is a great one to start with. There are still several Dodgers that I haven’t caught one from yet, including Nomar. Were you in the LFP or the RFP? (He jacked a few to both fields). I was in the RFP and Brad Penny tossed a ball up to me. I’m sending it to a die-hard Dodger fan friend of mine.
Anyway, thanks again for all of the Nomar van chick laughs!
GO DODGERS!
All right – Pads lost. Helped us “Pad” our lead.
BOOOOOOOOOOOO for bad puns.
Charris, although I want A-Rod a Dodger, I don’t want Ned to trade the farm for him – I’m just hoping that A-Rod will opt out in the offseason and we’ll have a shot at him for nothing but $$.
Great then we’ll all have to pay per veiw to see the team….or $40 parking and $100 upper deck tix…
LOL I wouldn’t cry about having him but he’s gonna fetch some Major bucks for a very long time.
Yes he will…and he will likely break the Barry Bonds HR record by 2015, and it would be cool if he was a Dodger when he did.
I just wanted to say I did the lineup nice and early this morning, except for Abreu & Ethier, which I didn’t write in. I left the 7th & 8th spots open,because I noticed he’s switch them a few times. I put Furcal in the lead off spot because Ted Lilly was the proberble pitcher and he is a left hander. I agree that Ethier should bat 8th,because you need a decent hitter to bat before the pitcher, in this case a more experianced hitter.
That game tonight was a little out of the ordinary especialy Beimal & Brazoban, Lets just hope it was a bad night for both of them and they come back like nothing happened. Both are (closer like pitchers), Brazoban comes from the Gagne clan.I’m glad Broxton walk off with a smile. I think Saito is another Mo Rivera, and maybe he’ll break all the records, I just hope its for us. Trevor Hoffman,here comes Sammy.