Tonight's game
A quick post from the clubhouse, as I’ve got to get Russell to an SI photo shoot here in Skydome/Rogers Centre.
And while you’re voting for Russell and the rest of the Dodgers, check out the new video spots promoting the All-Star Game. I’m sure you’ll see these all over TV in the next few week if you haven’t already seen it over the weekend.
Also, Brady Clark has cleared waivers and is now a free agent.
Lineup for today is:
Furcal, SS
Pierre, CF
Nomar, 1B
Kent, 2B
Gonzalez, LF
Martin, C
Saenz, DH
Betemit, 3B
Ethier, RF
Kuo, P
Inside the Dodgers 
Let’s keep the momentum going! You couldn’t go wrong with Saenz or Anderson DHing, both have success against Halladay.
GO DODGERS!
VOTE FOR MARTIN!
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!!!!!!ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!!!!!!
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I’m still keeping the d4p-joeyp Dodger hate poll open.
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But I want to announce a brand new contest.
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Its called the $250 Challenge.
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The 1st person who can get joeyp to say he wants the Dodgers to win the World Series in 2007 will receive the $250.00 bounty. I’m quite confident this can’t be done.
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But if youre the 1st person to get joeyp to make such a statement and you get me a link to the statement you win the $250.
If you can just get joeyp to say he’s a fan of the Dodgers I’ll send you $20.
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Why not get both Saenz and Anderson into the line-up? Put Anderson in right, or even Saenz at third. Both have hit Halladay very well.
Haha, Jon. Very funny. But thanks for being the only Dodger site I haven’t been banned from. My constant Dodger hate and Choi love has gotten be banned everywhere else.
This is the lineup I’d prefer seeing….
Milton Bradley – cf
Hee Seop Choi – 1b
Brian Giles – lf
JD Drew – rf
Jayson Werth – dh
Antonio Perez – 2b
Willy Aybar – 3b
Joel Guzman – ss
Dionner Navarro – c
hahahaahaha!!!! now this guy is great, this is like the 7 year war of baseball blogs.
Do you know when the issue of SI with Russell’s article will be out on the newstands?
P.S. Vote for Martin
I was just going to ask who is this joeyp guy?—not me!!! but I feel alot better now his last posting is right above me. As I make this one.LET’S GO DODGERS*** MAKE IT LA ALL THE WAY THIS YEAR
i like this lineup…
just a note…it seems that pierre and furcal are never hot at the same time. with pierre very very hot, we scored ten runs…can you imagine what will happen when both of them are hot, and furcal starts running again and stealing bases and such?…that will be very fun to watch
the all depo-team. ha.
on the barrett trade, i think its a good trade for the pods offensively but not defensively. im mad that they got an above average offensive catcher basically for nothing, and wish we were capable of making such similar trades. anyways, here’s hoping that kuo will be effective so that our BP will be spared.
I’m hoping Betemit bounces back from that horrid game in Dodger Stadium. I heard Etanislao Abreu was sent back to Triple-A any truth to that?
If a baseball game is tied after 9 innings, then extra innings are played.
This joep –if he’s not a Dodger fan he sure follow us pretty close. Also he might be a frustrated Dodger fan, I’ve been down that road before, It’s not a lonesome road, but you got to think POSITIVE.
Johann Santana was extremely lucky yesterday. His BABIP was like .100. He really didn’t pitch that well. Only 1 K.
love watching K/Guo do his thing.
I did think positive. The year was 2005. That’s when I referred to the team as ‘we’. I don’t do that anymore. God I miss that 2005 season.
I won’t be suprised if I see Brady Clark in my own back yard with the METS, they need a spare outfielder.
I wish the best to Clark he just didnt fit in our club it was kind of a weird pick up anyway but i understand that managament wanted someone to back up our outfield rather than have our rookies fold up, but hey what do ya know our rookies are producing just like last year when the pressure is on.
Hey Josh any chances of us getting some raw photos posted here from the SI shoot? That would make an awesome wallpaper here at work!
Last year I never expected this team to be anywhere near the post season, I won tickets to the opener of the NLDS I was the only person in my section in Dodger Gob(a tee ****). Even though that wasn’t a winning game(on top of the double out at home shocker) and to leave amongst a hostle croud, I was proud of my team. Yes joeyp, even if you rooted for the Dodgers in ’05, since you stopped now… you never were a true fan.
Did I mispell shirt? isn’t that a coincidence, I’ve been having a problem with that mispelled word for the last 24 hours.
Did the Dodgers call up the youngsters to showcase them for other teams at the mlb level as well as to give Nomar and Gonzo a little rest? I’ve thought about it and while I think they were probably doing both but I don’t know which they were doing more of.
Any thoughts?
I guarantee they are not showcasing Kemp. The rest I’m not so sure.
pierreseastmeetswest@yahoo.com (and anyone else who doesn’t already know):
All of the posts from anyone “@dodgerthoughts.com” are fake, posted by some strange individual with a weird vendetta against a blog that Josh must have some respect for since he links to it under “Dodger Links” on this page.
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You guys are just idiots.
Its useless even educating you because you guys are just gonna decide to be stupid bc of irrational hate for a guy, DePo, that rebuilt the Dodgers entire flawed system.
But never fear, the Dodgers are going back to the old school and will s*ck and be medicore because of it.
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i feel like Tsao is just gonna be in an out of the DL, i really hope we show case him & sell high on him. We got Meloan waiting in the wings.
“Dodger Links’ whatever, you need comments like that(joeyp) to keep the ball bouncing. I hope Bill Mueller concentrates on the hitters, not like Eddie Murray one eye on the game the other on Alyssa Milano(I would’ve never mentioned that if he wasn’t fired). I hope RAMONE Martinez feels better, but he don’t have to rush back. We need time to look at our kids. EVERY GAME IS A BIG GAME ALWAYS IS IN THIS DIVISION CAN’T AFFORD TO LOSE SO LET’S WIN DODGERS.
Showcasing TSAO or anybody else, for that matter isn’t a bad idea, but the player must perform well, nobody wants somebody else dead wood. although TSAO looked like somebody, somebody might want.
If Tsao is recovered and as effective as he was earlier in the season, he could be a valuable addition to the staff, particularly since Bills will be a starter and Schmidt and Brazoban are unlikely to see any action the rest of this season. I would still like to see Tomko and possibly Hendrickson traded, but we would need somebody like Tsao to step in.
Hey dahustlasbac – You can access every single “Inside the Dodgers” blog (from day-one) by clicking on “Archives” on the left column of this (and every) ITD page.
I was hoping that we might get through this season without the immature antics of the fictitious poster, but apparently not. Perhaps if we ignore him (as we did last year), he will dry up and blow away.
I like tonight’s line up and believe that we will win with it. I agree with timjyoo – When Furcal AND Pierre are both hot at the same time, we will score a lot of runs.
JUST WIN BABY!
GO DODGERS!
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Joeyp ignored my question at the Toaster. I was hoping I’d win so I wouldn’t have to pay anyone. Who am I kidding though? Joeyp hates the Dodgers. He’ll never say he wants the team to win tonite, let alone a WS in ’07.
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Time to see if the vets can hit real pitching!
Yesterday’s flat semi-BP pitching produced a big old flurry of singles and tons of runs. Hopefully today the stars will align for the Dodgers for once: a strong, long start from Kuo to save the bullpen, who’ll need to spot Billingsley as he builds up stamina, and some situational hitting from the lineup.
Let’s go get them, Dodgers.
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I like the stars better! Thanks for the info on the archived blogs fansince. I am still trying to figure out when im gonna be able to make the trip out there to the LF pavillion to share a game with ya but hopefully it will be on the next homestand.
I like the line-up to especialy if we get what we got last night out of our middle of the line-up guys. I really hope this is a sign that things for those guys are turning the corner… it pained me to see them struggle both out of sympothy for them and heart break for us.
GO DODGERS!!!!!!!
GO KUO!!!!!
VOTE 4 MARTIN!!!!!!
We have so many good players coming through the system and now sitting on the bench (some days), that it would be easy to complain any day your favorite isn’t playing.
It is hard to mix vets with the new kids and keep everybody happy.
I’m just glad our pitching was so deep this year. Kudos to Coletti on that one.
While it looks like both Hendy and Tomko are available to trade, remember that we need innings eaters in relief so that we don’t burn the entire bullpen out.
As far as Barrett going to the Pods, it does offensively look like a good pick up for them. But you have to think after trading Bradley that the Dodger management was hesitant to take a hot head on the team and jepordize team chemistry. Although I am the first one to wonder about who our 3rd string catcher is.
But Mike L. is an okay back up. Plus With Ramon on the DL and coming off soon and LaRoche chomping at the bit in the minors did we really have room for Barrett without trading Mike L.? And that would make no sense.
Hope the rest of the road trip looks good.
I would rather see Gonzo in the DH slot tonight with both Kemp and Ethier playing in the outfield. I can understand that Saenz has a good history against today’s pitcher, but I don’t think he has been very effective this year as shown by his batting average. If he does not produce in this DH assignment, I would like to see his used exclusively as a pinch hitter from here on out.
joeyjohn P. Weisman is a crack-up, I’m really beginning to think that this guy is a schitzo which makes it pretty funny to me.
Anyhow, for somebody to have so much hatred towards our squad he sure isn’t quick to let us know who his favorite squad is? And why not…because we can probably bash his team 3 times as hard as he does ours. So how about it johnjoeyweisenheimmerP who do you like that is soo much better? (and where were you when we were in first you fair weather basher???)
The greatest thing about the Barrett pickup (from the Dodgers’ perspective) is the fact that it has the potential to upheave their pitching staff somewhat. And although Barrett has 9 dingers this year, he only has 10 more RBIs than Bard had. 10 more RBIs in almost 3 months. His offensive numbers are significantly down when compared to 2004-2006. He won’t make a significant enough impact offensively to offset his potentially negative clubhouse influence and the uncertainty he will bring to all the red-hot pitchers the Pads put out there every day. When the Pads are wholly dependent on their pitching staff continuing to do as they have been doing, this has the potential to be the next worse thing to a string of injuries for their team.
From ESPN:
Padres pitchers can’t help but suffer slightly in the ERA department with two of the weaker defensive catchers in the league handling them. Bard and Barrett, for instance, have combined to throw out only 13 of 91 opposing baserunners (14.3 percent) this year, a dreadful rate. Last year, they combined for 32 of 142 (22.5). Taking into account that Greg Maddux is one of the game’s weaker pitchers at holding runners — 18 steals allowed this year, 75 since 2005 — expect perhaps a quarter-run rise in ERA, making him more a bet for a 4 than a mid-3s number. Chris Young is even worse than Maddux at preventing steals, with 60 allowed compared to only four caught since the start of last year. Be prepared for his ERA to rise, perhaps as high as the low 3s.
the Pads get a compensation pick & they also got him for next to nothing, i’m thinking he’ll see playing time at 3rd base, his catching ability is that awful.
paulg57: “It is hard to mix vets with the new kids and keep everybody happy.”
That right there is, without question, THE most accurate statement posted on this blog this entire season – and the source of COUNTLESS debates here, civil or otherwise. Great call on that one paulg57! No matter what line-up Grady puts out there, someone on this blog will not like it.
That being said; messagebear – I believe that Saenz will go 2 for 4 tonight with a dinger as our DH. Remember, the walk-off that he hit on June 8th was a slider, so he may see a couple of fastballs this time. And like Vin Scully says: “Trying to throw a fastball past Olmedo Saenz is like trying to throw a pork chop past a wolf.” (God I love Vin Scully!).
GO DODGERS!
Hey, fan:
I hope you’re so right on with Saenz.
The Pads gave up a compensation pick from last year’s draft for Barrett…they traded more from their empty farm for a totally insignificant upgrade offensively and a downgrade defensively. I love it.
Dodger Thoughts is a good blog, run by a smart guy named Jon Weisman. I suspect that the jonweisman that posts here is an imposter. JoeyP is either insane or intentionally annoying, and proclaims love fore the failed era of DePodesta (hey we all lived through 2005, but we didn’t like it). We should ignore him, and hope he goes away, but it is sometimes fun to see a suggested line-up that includes at least 2 players that are out of baseball, several that should be, and one who would be pretty good if he did not take a lot of called third strikes when he is not on the DL. I sometimes think that JoeyP is a huge Colletti fan, because every time you see the alternative, you have to remember how well things are going in comparison.
Brady Clark will be picked up somewhere, and deserves to be. It’s too bad we could not work some trade for some young talent (which is always good). He served well, but the roster just did not have room for him, as Kemp and Loney are here (I think, and I hope) to stay. Similar to Toby Hall last year.
The reason that I don’t think that our young guys are here to be showcased for a trade are, first, they are a big part of the future, and I think the team knows that, but second, it’s too risky. Kemp and Loney have oodles of talent, and have performed as well as you could hope in AAA and in their MLB stints. If you are trying to dangle them as trade bait, they are hot (ideal for a club with an “established” bat who needs to lower the payroll and build for the future). But if they were to flop at the big league level, the trade value plummets. Of course, if they turn into the big bats that I think they will, it vitiates the need for a trade. I think we’re rolling the dice. Colletti said it the other day that we have the hitting we need in the organization now.
This is basically the line-up I expected. The Tomato’s history with Halladay is perfect to DH with, and all the veterans were hot last night, and Grady plays the hot hands. I still expect to see Kent, Gonzo, Nomar, and Martin rotated through that DH spot.
One other thing, and maybe Josh can dare pass it on to Grady, but in a 10-1 blowout like last night, and if you are going to use Lieberthal as a pinch-hitter, insert him behind the plate. I saw that Lieberthal box score that he hit for Anderson, and did not understand it. There was no realistic chance of a Toronto comeback, and since we were comfortable in using the back-up catcher, we weren’t afraid that we would need an emergency catcher, so give Martin’s knees a rest for an inning or two. I know it’s Canada, and he has a lot of people there, but he had done his bit by the end of the Seventh or at least the Eighth.
Nice 1st inning from Kuo. I’m liking this kid more and more.
Kuo is money! joeyp has to be loaded yeah Depo and tracy that was a great combo!
As much as i didnt love the pick up of da GONZ, the guy is proving all the doubters wrong. It may have taken him a little but he has gotten his bat going and I LOVE IT!!!!!!!! I hope that is the case for Nomar, Kent, and Pierre!
Betemit’s shot at 1b could have been an RBI double had the first baseman not been holding Gonzo on. Nice solid contact.
i don’t think seanez should be given 4 ABs in a game. He really hasn’t done didly this year aside from a few HRS and pretty much bails out against off speed stuff. i hope im wrong as well.
I must admit that I did not see the Gonzo addition initially, but his performance has converted me. I would like to see our other vets perform in like fashion.
In our lineup tonite we have one hitter batting .218 and another hitting .202 who, in his last game struck out 3 times on 9 pitches…
HONESTLY people —- don’t we have better options ????
Saenz?
I hope he makes me eat my words, but I also think that Saenz is miscast as the DH. He is not doing much with the bat this year, and, therefore, his previous performance against Halladay may just be meaningless.
Our worst fears are coming to fruition if Kuo can’t stop the bleeding fast, then get back to his norm…
This could do real harm to our bullpen situation…
Looks like *** for tat tonight, we bashed them yesterday, they’re bashing us tonight
I don’t think Kuo is the answer at the major league level at this point. He does not have the control. What does management have against bringing Houlton up?
I wonder if we are capable of coming back from a 4 run lead… or possibly worse…
Anything is possible, right???
Kuo’s been pretty amazing as a starter thus far…ERA under 3 I believe.
Not anymore…Grand Slam…ouch. I guess I’ll watch tomorrow night’s game.
Talk to ya all tomorrow
that is as they say south of the border “el juego”
Might as well let him throw about 150 pitches today and then send him back to Vegas on the first flight tomorrow morning. Bring Houlton in for his next start.
how can kuo be so good sometimes and then so bad? its amazing.
Toroto just said “PAYBACK IS A BITCHHHH”
If you didn’t take him out before the HR what is the point in taking him out now???? Can’t do anymore harm than what has already happened…
Oh great, here comes bomko….
Oh boy. When we need him to come through for us, Kuo buckles and flames out.
Scanning up and down the lineup, the averages are almost all on the 260-280 range. Ouch.
The Diamondbacks never seems to lose and neither does the Padres!
Well, tomorrow is a fresh new day.
Does it matter anyway if Tomko is in?
Of course, at this point Tomko will probably throw about five scoreless innings and make everybody think that we need to hold onto him.
bomb’s away. just like old times…
Well, I’m actually glad that Tomko proved me wrong. Reliable old Tomko!!!
Not really 2 bomb already.
Didn’t the Blue Jays already taking batting practice before the game?
Tomorrow is most definitely a new day…
Plus, we get to see Chad B. start for the first time this year…
Should be a much better day for the Boys in Blue…
Maybe they should invoke the 10 run mercy rule tonight. Here the game is on TV here in Nova Scotia and we aren’t even in the game. Oh well, time to sit back and watch the kids play. Billingsley tomorrow. GO DODGERS!!
Halladay is good. A game like this sometimes tells us how much heart the team has. Rest the oldtimers and put the rest of the kids in. GO DODGERS!!
Tomko saying to himself “What the heck, we are already 8 runs behind, I don’t need to make any supreme effort to help the team”…
As if he could ….Ha Ha
I just do not get Granny Little. What was he waiting for? You knew it was coming. Frank Thomas was going to it a Grand Slam. He can not manage a pitching staff if his life depended on it. Granny will be fired by the Dodgers by the end of next year. Just like in Boston, the fans will wan him fired.
That’s ridiculous sltaufer. You’re right, we all knew Frank would hit a HR even though he’s been bad this year. Kuo gets him out, he might pitch 3 more innings and we save the ‘pen for Bills tomorrow. It didn’t work, but we NEEDED Kuo to go deeper. End of story.
Are you saying Kuo should been pulled already? Did you not hear them say Chad is going to be on a short lease and they didn’t wanted to burn the bullpen tonight? This is not Grady fault.
Kuo is the only person you can blame tonight. He didn’t even give the defense a chance to mess up behind him.
Bomko has been sitting all week. If he comes in and gets the out there are only four runs and not eight. Even if Bomko comes in the inning and gives up two home runs like he did, it is only 6-0 and not 10-0 like it is now. You have also completly crushed Kuo brain.
With your approach sltaufer, why don’t we put Kuo in some pampers and give him a pacifier? Give me a break, we don’t have any off days until the all-star break… Bottom line, Kuo is in the Bigs now, we needed him to extend today and he couldn’t, he choked not Grady.
Yes, it was strictly Kuo’s fault. Under the circumstances Grady should have left him in for another couple of innings. He was just trying to save him further embarrassment, and there’s probably something to be said about that.
Who would say that Tomko would’ve got out that innings?
against Thomas? probably not, but you do have the righty v. righty advantage you don’t have with Kuo.
It is not about Tough Love for Kuo. Yes it is Kuo’s fault. But, every game is critical in the NL west. I am talking about a chance to win the game. Right now the game is over. At 4-0 or 6-0, there still is a chance.
Yeah and if you burn up the bullpen tonight, what do you do tommorow when Billingsley takes his 1st start with a VERY limited pitch count? Grady was trying to play for the long-term and Kuo continued to get hammered. We need our bullpen crisp and ready to go for an extended period of time and Kuo really killed us tonight.
in all seriousness, has tomko completely forgotten how to pitch?
What the difference!!! Tomko will always be ****.
Yes but as sad as it is to say, we need Tomko as rested as he can be with the daunting schedule ahead of us.
wow im glad i took my lunch early just to come home to watch part of the game. 😦 This is game is a bigger trainwreck then most Jerry Springer episodes.
We would never come back against Halladay so 4-0 would been enough.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/6134
charris at this point im not ready to rely on tomko for anything. he needs to be DFA’d for meloan or something, his fastball is straighter than a laser.
I’m looking at our lineup and we have players batting .198, .206, and .211. That’s in addition to a couple of veterans not playing up to expectations. I think we’re lucky to be in third place, and we better watch out for the Rockies, or we may wind up right alongside the Giants. That should not be so surprising, since our GM came from there, NO?
ha. straighter than a laser.
well…at least something good came out of this. saito got some good work in and andre ethier had a great game and hopefully will continue to heat up.
Very glad to see Ethier get some good at bats and good results. Would like to see him get on a roll. It did look to me like pretty much all of the others just gave up and went through the motions to get the game finished.
Well that was ugly.
Let’s win the series tomorrow boys!
GO DODGERS!
the blue jays returned the favor today, hopefully we’ll take the series.
max_power_05: “This game is a bigger trainwreck then most Jerry Springer episodes.”*******, Max, you did it again; That’s classic! I don’t know what you do for a living, but you could be a writer for Vin Scully (or Jay Leno). Funny stuff indeed – and when we need it most.
GO BILLINGSLEY!
GO DODGERS!
These days just happen, just ask the Padres. 4 Orioles have come to the plate and the Orioles have jumped out to a 3-0 lead Top 1 with nobody out. Just shake it off and take the series tomorrow.
A Rod …….27
Fielder……26
Morneau……20
Griffey……19
Dunn………19
Hardy!…….17
Sheffield….17
Puljos…….16
Howard…….16
Cabrerra…..16
Carlos Pena!.16
alex rios….15
Hunter…….14
Gonzales…..14
Bonds……..14
(3)Nomar(4)Kent(5)Gonzo…18
Dodgers……………….46
get carlos pena on this team!
Max —
I also would give you kudos for some of your witty remarks —
But, if you watch Jerry Springer I’m not so sure you deserve it…
Jungar —
That is really sad isn’t it…
Those numbers speak volumes…
Comments from Tony Jackson of the Daily News—
Not much you can say about this one. Besides Kuo’s implosion, Dodgers revert to form offensively, but a lot of that was due to Roy Halladay, who was vintage. Andre Ethier homered to lead off the eighth inning, but the Dodgers didn’t get another runner past first base. Of course, once the Blue Jays hung that snowman in the second inning, which was about six runs more than they would need to win, the Dodgers didn’t seem all that interested in being here. They drop to 40-31 and back into third place in the NL West.
Fun to read — He says it like it is….
Well I guess the game ended when Frank Thomas put us to sleep. Yeah, I went to sleep and while I could hear the game in the backround(My eyes were open all the time and I didn’t miss a thing). I dreamed about a young Frank Thomas. Right now he’s in his twi-light. I also dreamed about a young Matt Stairs who might also be heading south by now. but remember those guys when they were traveling north, on the way up. The Dodgers snubbed them. I’m not blaming Ned Colletti, this happened long before him. I think when they snub them they snub us. Oh I know what you’re thinking, If it wasn’t for the DH, Thomas proberbly wouldn’t be around now. But Stairs is still stumping away. They’re just examples. The Dodgers would pay for pitching but not for hitting and that’s what they got, PITCHING. A product they did well on their own. They developed their own fine pitching, yet they were never satified and went out and bought more. THANK GOD OF THAT, but you need somebody to support that pitching. Right now we’re coming up with a fine bunch of hitting from our own farm system. I think it is a fine time to bring in a hitter when the right free agent becomes available… without messing everything up. When Frank McCourt was told that the Yankees were the best team in baseball, he said, “Oh I see, there are two of us” when I read that I said, happy days are coming. I just hope his plans work out( I hope he checks out his bank account). A lot of you think that you’re giving up, if so I’ll ask you some questions, “Did you check on the scores tonight after the game? Are you wondering about the Pods, the Sneakes, the Cauliflowers? Are you afraid the Gnats will hit that tramboline and bounce right back up. Well you haven’t given up and sorry to say, this will last a lifetime. WE’RE NOT GIVING UP…WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN. COM’ON BILLS COM’ON DODGERS
Schmidt DONE for the year…but we finally know why his velocity was down. And Grady saves the bullpen for Bills despite Kuo’s horrible night.
From the Daily News:
“Jason Schmidt had a torn labrum, scarring of the bursa and a frayed biceps tendon. He won’t throw for three or four months, but they’re hopeful he’ll be ready by the start of spring training. At first glance, this would appear to be devastating news. But as GM Ned Colletti correctly pointed out in the most relevant quote of the day, “With all due respect, he wasn’t throwing well. It’s not as if he were on the way to a Cy Young season and suddenly you lose him.” … By the way, I was wrong in my assumption that a pitcher will be called up today. Grady might have managed his best game of the season tonight, given the quandary he was put in when Kuo didn’t get through the second inning with Billingsley not expected to go more than four (or, best case, five) tomorrow night. Grady squeezed 3 1/3 out of Tomko, despite the fact two of the first three batters he faced went yard off him,, then used Beimel, Broxton and Saito — all of whom were fresh and remain so heading into tomorrow — for an inning each. Hendrickson will follow Billingsley, and the two of them together should at least get the game to those three guys.”
The news on SCHMIDT could be a blessing in disguise. Now we will see what we had before him. I always wanted ZITO, but not for the above reason. Good luck to Jason on his recovery, maybe he’ll come back, as he use to be.
Colletti has a point there…
There really isnt a silver lining here other than that Bills now gets to start. Hopefully Schmidt can return to form next season. He has dealt with shoulder problems before. Him healthy is a huge plus but him like he was does nothing, so i guess im glad they figured it out more than anything…
I cant wait for Clayton!!
don’t pitchers like never recover from a torn labrum? im not optimistic at all. having this, and elbert already this year, i hope they keeping kershaw encased in an injury repellent bubble.
The small amount of good news, maybe?, with this is that he had a partial labrum tear in 2000 along with a partial tear of the rotator cuff and he was able to come back 100%. Granted he is older, and i wouldnt be surprised if this were a more severe injury, but i will remain optomistic otherwise.
Also, something to be positive about, he had his 2000 surgery with Dr. Andrews in Alabama- who is the same amazing doctor who worked wonders on my QB Chad Pennington, so hopefully he goes back to him and all is well next year…
http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player_career.jsp?player_id=121834&y=2000
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Read the career highlights for 2000 and it sounds very similar to this year…
Here is a portion of my post from 6-10-07:
“I watched Jason Schmidt’s velocity very closely today and knew that he was going to get lit up when he couldn’t get above 88 with his fastball. Most of them were between 83-85. He is definitely headed for the DL and, in my opinion, is done for the season. He is our new Darren Dreifort.”
I’m pretty sure that most of us saw this one coming.
As much as I would love to see Clayton Kershaw come up, he is only 19 years old and bringing him up now fron Single-A might destroy him. That said, I do believe that he will be at Double-A Jacksonville by the end of this season and in Las Vegas by the end of next season. Heck, he might even get an invite to Spring Training next year.
I am also a little concerned about bringing Jonathan MeLoan staright up from Double-A, even though he is a little older (almost 23). I think that we may see D.J. Houlton before the All Star break, but here again, he is a starter and would it be wise to put him in the bullpen? I definite think that he will come up if Wolf or Kuo continue to struggle.
GO DODGERS!
I’ll be pessimistically optimistic about this latest Dodger development. While perhaps having a healthy/repaired Jason Schmidt next spring should be something to look forward to (and to say it’s good thing having found these injuries (plural!!!) sooner than later is an understatement), might I remind everyone that our record with free-agent pitchers is abysmal (again… another understatement). It’s one of those “I’ll believe it when I see it” type situations.
Good luck Jason… you’re going to need it. History ain’t exactly on your side now is it? Get well soon…
ouch i guess you could consider that damaged goods, torn labrums are no walk in the park. say we do get him back, im not expecting anything above what ive already see. and thus we see the reason sabean didnt want schmidt, they obviously knew and opted for zito. what i wann know is why did stan conte keep his mouth shut for so long…
Nice conspiracy theory there… haha
In my book that makes STRIKE 2 on Colletti. If this team, in spite of every thing else, does not make at least the second round of the playoffs, it will be STRIKE 3 and GONE. In the meantime, as the owner of the club, I would express “every confidence” in my management team and wait for the end of the season.
Please… Terrible analogy. you should look at his batting average…
Let’s warm up LOGAN WHITE!!!
The Ds gave Schmidt a nice retirement package. Schmidt had to have known something was wrong and the Ds should be able to void the contract. Pitchers almost never come back the same after that kind of injury and Schmidt will be no exception. Maybe Pierre has the same issue with his shoulder, that would explain his inability to throw. 🙂
So, what exactly does Ethier need to do to get moved up in the lineup? Three hits in a game? More homers than the #3 hitter, the #2 hitter, and the leadoff hitter combined? Methinks that should do it, but….
I think it’s hilarious that some of you think that Schmidt was so obviously injured that Coletti was an idiot to take him. Every commentator in the offseason talked about how brilliant the acquisition was and never mentioned his velocity that I can remember. 3 years in the insane market of last offseason was a great deal. Also, for those who think the Giants unloaded him because they knew he was damaged – you ever think that Schmidt was tired of playing for a losing, aging squad season after season? It seemed like he had 0 interest in returning there, and the Giants panicked at losing their ace and signed overhyped Zito for WAY too long.
There’s still a good chance that the Dodgers will get two great seasons out of Schimdt. It ***** for this year, but this STRIKE TWO business is nonsense. You don’t just turn over management every two years with a team because a manager makes a few bad signings. This team has a TON of upside with the youth, and with the exception of Pierre (maybe Nomar? We’ll see) has very few veterans blocking the kids for the long run.
“A TON of upside with the youth” is hardly to Colletti’s credit, other than he didn’t trade off more than a couple of dubious prospects. With the payroll that he’s been allotted, it’s not like we should have low expectations. It’s certainly not my money that he has to throw around, and maybe the owner of a sports franchise shouldn’t expect but 0 return from those inflationary signings as long as he can fill the stadium with three million plus each season. When you haven’t been to the World Series for twenty years, maybe you should change your management team every two years when you see $47 million wasted. Like I said WARM UP LOGAN WHITE – at least that would bring some Dodger blood back in the organization.
I usually agree with your point of view puppyhead, but I kind of have to wonder about this situation. Conte has worked closely with Schmidt for years and had a large sample size to judge his ability. Last year his velocity was significantly down and I know people will say he’s getting older so thats to be expected but his drop was alarming (mid 90’s to high 80’s). That is a Pedro-esque size drop (and we all know he required major surgery to fix it). Look at other older pitchers ie. Schilling, Johnson their drops were minimal (mid to high 90’s to low to mid 90’s). So looking back on it I think their were some serious red flags, did Conte endourse Schmidt knowing that he was damaged goods? I thought players had to pass extensive physicals before they signed contracts. If you take the money we threw at Schmidt and Pierre, we could have been right in the running for Mr. Soriano this offseason.
From ESPN.com:
“Conte said there’s no way to tell when Schmidt suffered the injury. Colletti insisted there was no sign of any damage when the Dodgers inspected Schmidt in the offseason before making their contract offer.
‘If I had any inkling that this was what was going to be happening in the middle of June, I doubt if we would have gone forward with that,’ Colletti said.”
Of course he passed a physical as standard procedure. And, if anything, the fact that the trainer that was so familiar with Schmidt’s history gave him the green light should absolve Ned of most of the responsibility, not heap more on him. Some people on this blog are trying to turn this into a conspiracy where Conte and Ned had inside knowledge that Schmidt was injured and wanted to give him his “retirement package.” Insane. These things happen with baseball contracts all the time, Ned isn’t the *******’ antichrist, ***** it up and let’s see how Schmidt performs next season.
Good info puppyhead, I’m not insinuating that their is a conspiracy theory as much as an unthourough job of looking at the facts at hand. With such a significant decrease in velocity in a relatively short period of time, I think their should have been a very detailed examination, perhaps more than just the status quo like a physical where we looked for structural damage in his arm. I don’t question whether or not Conte knew the extent of the injury, I question his neglect toward what I mentioned in my previous post.
Coletti is a disaster. I can’t wait until our owner sees that.
LOGAN WHITE 2008!!!
Milton Bradley is available. Oakland just DFA’d him.
Whoa… momoracci. Talk about wasted talent. If he’d never have blown up at the hometown fans, I think he’d still be with the ballclub. It seems he’s had some nagging injuries of late. As long as Bradley keeps his head on straight, some ballclub might get a good deal for a few years. I don’t think he’d be a good fit in Los Angeles though. You can never go back, especially after his various outbursts and the one directed at the fans in the right field corner… the infamous “bottle” incident.
Miltie is so talented and I loved watching him play. Too bad that he’s insane. Just wait, the Pods will pick him up and he will rake against us.
I suppose that Schmidt can become the highest paid pitching coach, much like Mueller is now the highest paid hitting coach. Now, who can we get for our third base coach?
and seriously, what good are MRIs if they didn’t show any damage in Schmidt’s shoulder?
7 players in basbeaball make more than jason schmidt this year.
There are 85 players in baseball that have hit more homeruns than our home run leader.
There are 2 dodger pitchers with as many home runs as our 3 hole hitter.
We lead MLB in errors between our ss/2b
The only NL teams to score less runs than us are the nationals and the Pirates. You can combine both of those payrolls and its less than our payroll.
The Diamond Backs and Padres have better overall ERA than we do. Thankful their offenses are as bad as ours
http://story.scout.com/a.z?s=260&p=2&c=653399
Labeled the Dodgers pessimist over the winter and early going, it does seem that more and more baseball pundits are now allowing what we feared all along – the players coming in were old and expensive and, to boot, were keeping very talented youngsters from participating up to their skills. We were lamenting the handling of James Loney, the decision on Chad Billingsley and the hiding of Matt Kemp in particular.
Eleven weeks into the season, Schmidt has won a single game, underwent the knife and will be lost for the season. Pierre has been his usual soft player in the first half and has an arm that will be run on for the entire season. LF Luis Gonzalez, not as expensive as Schmidt and Pierre, nevertheless is slower afoot and has an arm not anywhere near what it was before Tommy John Surgery.
The decision makers gave starting rotation jobs to Brett Tomko and Mark Hendrickson, and the pair both pitched themselves out of the rotation in short order. They gambled 1B Nomar Garciaparra had sock left and he has a single homer in 11 full weeks and counting. Its not even July 1 and clearly 39 year old 2B Jeff Kent year old 2B Jeff Kent needs rest every five days or so. What happened?
The old got older.
If Depo can get canned after two season so can Nedorino. And lets be completely honest. If Depo made these moves (schmidt, Nomar and Pierre, which he never would have btw) a majority of the people here would be in front of his office with pitch forks.
White in ’08. Please Mr. McCourt.
Wow, then that Ethier trade has now become an absolute steal!
Ethier for Bradley and Perez
That’s probably one of the best long term deals in a while. And has turned into one of the best deals Ned has put together. Not every deal works, but that one has paid off and Ethier is only 25. Flat out great deal from our GM.
I’m laughing so hard at the fire Coletti posts btw thanks you guys.
GO DODGERS!
VOTE FOR MARTIN!
Bradley this year has more value to his team than Juan Pierre does.
VORP
Bradley: 5.4 in 71 PAs
Pierre; 0.8 in 304
i’ll wait until i see ethier’s numbers from the end of this year before we decide how great the deal really was.
jungar, that’s simply why you don’t give people contracts based on past performance. you have to base on what you see them capable of contributing in the future, factoring in age, injury history, resources, etc. The infield and outfield defence in particular is one thing that has taken a nosedive since last year that no one really thought about until it happened.
alex you really need to take that cheerleaders outfit off. Im sure you are a fine looking man but skirts really aren’t your thing.
wow Pierre’s VORP is sad.
With Bradley available maybe there is a way to convince Kent into retirement.
Looking ahead now:
I would consider Bill’s first start successful if he’s able to go four full innings with no more than two runs allowed.
Then Hendrickson could contribute mightily with two innings and no more that one run allowed. I’d let the real bullpen take over from there. So, if we can score four in the game, we should be O.K.
Please do not DH Saenz in order to accomplish that. He’s no longer the hitter that he has been. Maybe that’s also age related, but true.
LOL, good stuff Max. Don’t worry I’ve got one for you in October. I suppose my cheerleader outfit would be rose-colored no doubt.
Though seriously it’s so ridiculous to be taking about firing Colletti. I’m just going to leave it at that, because I don’t want to defend the man again.
You keep laughing Alex!! But it’s not funny!!! I know you mean well and a good guy but you must be frustrated a little that we have put together such a crappy product for the money that was spent. When they raise parking to 20 next year it wont be so funny
I don’t see any reason to keep Coletti around. Oh I know we were a wild card team last year with a payroll that was 40 million more than the team that won the NL west. And this year if all goes well we may win a wild card spot again while spending way more money than the other teams in the NL west. I just don’t know how many facts people need that shows our current GM is in over his head….
No track record of success.
Terrible free agent signings
Terrible defensive team
Terrible offensive team
Old middle of the order
signing a leadoff hitter when we already had one.
I mean seriously 85 players have more homeruns then our clean up hitter? we couldnt somehow get one?
What is good about the Dodgers was here before he was for the most part. If we didnt have the orginizational depth and more money to burn this team would be a disaster.
You know why I’m laughing…because you’re treating this team like it actually IS a disaster. I know the flaws of the team, I know we have power issues, I know ALL of our issues. I know this team ridiculously well, BUT at the end of the day this team can win. All teams have flaws, all teams have strengths and at our best we can beat any team. And I know just as well when we’re at our worst we can’t win. It is so hard to win a World Championship, everything has to come together in the post season. And the only way we win a World Championship is if we play our best baseball in October. That goes for every team that qualifies for the postseason. Who knows if that will happen to us? This team has the pitching to stop the greatest offense, which is what wins playoff games. On the other hand we do not have the offense to beat great pitching. But, first things first we have to make the playoffs before any of that matters.
This team is not a disaster, this TEAM (overall) can win. It’s up to them to go out there and do it. Are we as good as the team that swept the Mets? Are we as bad as the team that lost 5 of 6 to the Angels? Is our pitching this good? Is our power this bad? Am I asking too many questions? Only time will tell, but I will not sit here and bash our General Manager because the players are underachieving and Schmidt pulled a Schmidt. We were 7 1/2 games out last season and we were playing awful baseball, much worse than we are now. So I’m sorry I will not turn on management because this IS NOTHING compared to last season. We’ve gone through so much worse than this in the past. Just chill out people and laugh a little, you might just feel better.
Here is a simply yes or no.
Do you think Derek Lowe and Brad Penny will throw 2.50 era baseball over their next 200 combined innings pitched?