First day of workouts
A gorgeous day in Vero Beach and it was just as pretty to watch the pitchers and catchers working out for the first time.
Joe Torre addressed the team this morning and as you can imagine, when someone with his resume speaks, the room is all ears. That’s not to say that our previous managers were chopped liver by any means, but obviously very few in the history of the game have four World Series rings to hold up and grab someone’s attention. (Don’t worry, Joe didn’t hold up four rings in the meeting today).
Generally speaking, there were two mobs at Dodgertown today and I was unsure which one I was supposed to be following. The first was a group of about 25-30 Japanese media members, who followed Hiroki Kuroda’s every step on his first day of Spring Training. What jumped out at me was that even during PFPs (pitchers fielding practice), there would be about 10 photographers taking a shot, then busting out their laptops and sending the photo immediately to Japan for the entire world to see within minutes. The speed of information truly amazes me these days and this was one example that really spoke to that.
Meanwhile, just as Kuroda was leaving the field I was at, Joe Torre was coming towards it and he had about 50 fans chasing him down for autographs. He was gracious and signed for just about everyone, but obviously he has to also be able to watch practice, too, so I was going to try and help him wade through the masses. But, with the dozens of media members chasing Kuroda, I had to make a decision and figured I’d help him out, as he’s the new guy in town.
Nonetheless, both made it through just fine and there wasn’t a ton of new news otherwise today. Russell Martin is celebrating his birthday while Ron Cey turned 60, which is almost hard to believe. Then again, just as I typed that, it dawned on me that this blog is almost two years old so I went to look up the first post and sure enough, it was two years ago today that we started to take the fans Inside the Dodgers. It appears I was a lot better back then about adding photos, but for some reason the site doesn’t seem to let me do that anymore.
Nonetheless, hopefully it’s the regular feedback that’s far more valuable than the photos, as you can get those every day from Jon SooHoo’s gallery on the front of the site.
Speaking of feedback, to respond to the comment about joining your Fantasy League, I’m honored to be invited but I don’t think you want someone with inside info going up against the rest of the group. Seems kind of unfair. And to the question about photos from Dodger Stadium renovation, we will post some new ones next week. SooHoo is here with the team, but I’ve reached out to Mark Langill, our team historian, to see if he can shoot some and put them on the site soon.
Anyway, back to today…After Joe met with the media following workouts, we sat him down with Tim Kurkjian of ESPN, so he will be the Sunday night conversation in case you want to see it.
Also, be sure to vote for your favorite Dodger outfielders, as that category opened today at dodgers.com/anniversary.
And finally, for those of you who were awaiting the TV schedule for the regular season, here it is.
Inside the Dodgers 
Thanks Josh as always!
Ron Cey is 60!?! It seems like yesterday he was my favorite player as a kid, but then again I just turned 40…
Scarry isn’t it Scott?!? Doesn’t seem like that long ago.
HEY EMMA!
A while ago you mentioned being next to EK at the Panda Inn on one of the caravans. Is that you in the blue shirt on the left?
Ethier/LaRoche 2008! Make it a campaign!
ETHIER LAROCHE ETHIER LAROCHE ETHIER LAROCHE ETHIER LAROCHE ETHIER LAROCHE ETHIER LAROCHE ETHIER LAROCHE ETHIER LAROCHE ETHIER LAROCHE ETHIER LAROCHE ETHIER LAROCHE ETHIER LAROCHE ETHIER LAROCHE ETHIER LAROCHE
knoufbrok,
I am next to EK in the first pix of Caravan 3/6 at the stadium where the boys were posing with the truck heading to Vero Beach. I got a kick out of the “Two Buck Chuck” cases inside the truck. -Emma
ETHIER/LAROCHE!
ETHIER/LAROCHE!
ETHIER/LAROCHE!
ETHIER/LAROCHE!
ETHIER/LAROCHE!
ETHIER/LAROCHE!
no i perfer pierre/garciaparra.
haha im just kidding. thats a big joke.
I just hope kemp gets to start and laroche well… eehh.
just glad to see everything is going well so far in Sring Training.
http://dodgersnbaseball.blogspot.com
Is was only yesterday that I would watch Cey rounding the bases. I saw an old pic of him where he had a real penquin in the dugout. Saito-san had a birthday on Valentines day. He turned 38 I think.. -Emma
Thanks Josh for two great years. You read stuff here that you can’t read anywhere else and I sure appreciate how much you keep us informed!
I haven’t post it it here in a while so I feel out of place but HAPPY BIRTH ItD.
I’m sure I’ll be posting some angry posts on why Pierre over Ethier but just remember I do it cause I care.
Go Dodges ’08 campaign!! woo!!!
by the way, HAPPY 25TH BIRTHDAY TO OUR ALL-STAR CATHCER. I WISH HIM WELL AND UH… LETS CELEBRATE!
SORRY I SPELLED CATCHER WRONG. I JUST DONT WANNA LOOK STUPID.
Predicted opening day line-up vs. Zito:
Furcal
Pierre
Martin
Jones
Kent
Garciaparra
Loney
Kemp
Penny
Despite being outplayed by Ethier overall in ST, Torre goes with Pierre in hopes he’ll “come around when the bell rings” like a true veteran.
Torre also likes what he sees of LaRoche at third, but goes with Nomar as a symbolic gesture to the venerable veteran on opening day.
Enchanted if thats the openind day lineup, then we’re in for a long year.
*opening
HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY too Russell Martin!!!!!
Predicted lineup on the day after the All-Star break, which features HRs by Loney, Martin, and Kemp– but no appearance by JP or Ethier:
Furcal
Martin
Loney
AJ
Kent
Kemp
LR
DY
Schmidt
DY is hitting .350 and 7 HRs in limited playing time behind JP and Ethier, neither of whom have done any better than their career averages. DY is hitting the cover off the ball, so Torre decides to go with the kid.
There you are. It’ll be good to put a face with your posts.
Cey was my favorite too. It was a bad day for me when he went to Chicago. Got to see the game when he and Lopes returned to the Stadium as Cubs. Got to give them a big well deserved cheer before the game and then had to hope they didn’t hurt us with their at bats. They did not. I think Honeycutt threw for the Dodgers that night.
yeah swood – my nightmare too!
Congratulations on the start of year 3, Josh. Thanks for the blog – the is one of the five Dodger blogs I visit daily. I think you do a great job keeping open a useful, direct communication channel to the fans.
Zito being left-handed, perhaps Delwyn Young will be the opening-day starter in LF. After all, he always owns a HR off the $126 million dollar man. Check out the highlight, and Vin’s call, on the Sept. 30 highlight here:
http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/multimedia/tp_archive.jsp?c_id=la
… or maybe LaRoche at 3B and Nomar in LF on opening day … 😉
Nice Andruw Jones article just up on the LAT site:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-jones16feb16,1,3881504.story?page=3&cset=true&ctrack=4
Finally. No more days til Pitchers and Catchers report! Nice to hear good reports about our Team. Got to believe Joe T knows what he is doing and go with it if he makes a lineup that goes contrary to what seems like good Managing to the arm chair coaches. Defense! Can we order Dodger Dogs online?
btw. I like Nomar. Does anyone else wonder what was wrong last year? Hard to feature 2 bad years in a row. Looking for the comeback to come back. Also, please be a little more sensitive. There was a post a while back about JP’s arm comparing it to a noodle. Noodles have feelings too. (and get more praise!) heh.
Most unkind: After Loaiza went to all that trouble to get #25 from Mariano Duncan, they just took it away from him and gave it to Andruw. Somebody once told me the Florida weather isn’t the best but it’s better than Arizona. Well when ya gotta go ya gotta go. The Dodgers keep moving west. Ya know what happens if you keep doing that? Ya end up in the east. I voted for Willie Davis***Dusty Baker***& Gary Sheffield. It was a lot harded to do then the infield. My infield is Garvey***Kent***Wills***Cey and Piazza behind the plate.
Happy 2nd Birthday to ITD Josh and to Russ & Ron.
I just found out on Dodger Thoughts that it would have been Red Barbers 100 Birthday. It brings back memories of Red & his sidekick with the mellowest voice this side of the Missisippi(my side) Connie Desmond. That’s what Red always said about him. Connie was my favorite **Then along came Scully. ************Happy Centennial RED where ever you are.
Man it sure is great to have baseball back, seems like the winter went on forever. I’m really enjoying all the stories coming out about Torre, Schmidt, etal., but I had to chuckle when I saw the picture of Repko all alone (from the 14th) it seems like nobody wanted to be on the same field with him after taking out Furcal last year, I’m sure it’s a coincidence but still, it looks funny. Thanks Josh for your fine work, you know, this blog is what introduced me to blogging in the first place, thanks again.
REPKO should have warning lights all over him and maybe wear some rubber under his uniform. I hope he doesn’t get himself killed ****The re-encarnation of Pistle Pete Reiser.
Good to be back! Spring is in the air.
On Jungar’s posts–it’s Ethier getting the majority of starts in left and “other” for Schmidt (he’ll return late and be pretty good for a fifth starter for most of the year, but never return to his old form–which will be OK, because Billingsley will become and ace, Penny will continue to be an ace, and Lowe and Kuroda will do well).
Great posts by old-fogey about Pierre.
That being said–enjoy the spring. Let’s see how the guys play. I’m rooting for Ethier, Kemp, and LaRoche, but for now I am trusting that Torre will play the right guys when opening day rolls around.
Who’s going to the Coliseum game?
TV schedule announced: The Dodgers will broadcast more than 150 games on television in 2008, including 50 from KCAL and 100 from FSN PRIME TICKET. For the second consecutive season, KCAL will air all of its games in HD. All home 2008 Dodgers games telecast on FSN PRIME TICKET will be available in HD; the regional sports network will announce the extent of its road game HD availability in March. KCAL will also televise six exhibition games, two from Florida, two from Arizona and two in Los Angeles.
Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully, entering his 59th season as the “Voice of the Dodgers,” will call all televised Dodgers home games. Scully will also handle the road telecasts against the team’s National League Western Division opponents (San Francisco, San Diego, Arizona and Colorado). For Dodgers road games against non-NL West opponents, the broadcast booth will be manned by Emmy Award-winning broadcaster Charley Steiner and former Major Leaguer Steve Lyons, who are returning for their fourth seasons.
I’m back for those of you could care less…..But my question is in that quote where is Rick Monday and as another Award winning broadcastor why is he not mentioned?
After looking at that group of outfielders to choose from for the anniversary team, I gave up. How could you settle for just three? Who would you leave off?
I posted my personal Dodger all-star team last year (25 man roster) and six from the anniversary outfield group made it. But after looking at the entire list there are about six more you could include.
Leek,
My brother and I will be at the Coliseum. We got our tixs in the mail today. I guess the rest of the season with the tixs location 😦 (section 24, row 51). Only extra tix I got were from the Booster club for some very good friends of mine from San Diego and one that is coming from back East. Not sure where those ones will be. Wonder if those will be better than mines.
-Emma
My ideal lineup:
Furcal
Ethier (good patience)
Loney (best pure hitter out of Kemp/Martin/Loney)
Jones
Kent (still hitting quite well)
Martin
Kemp (keep him in 7 until he learns how to see curves better)
LaRoche/Nomar
I think you could switch Martin, Kemp, and Kent around however you want, but I like my top 4. I prefer to keep Martin in the bottom half so that he can steal bases all season long, not just in the first half. Give the workhorse a little break.
Matt “I need to see curves better” Kemp hit .342 last year. He WILL bat higher than 7th.
Furcal
Martin
Loney
Jones
Kent
Kemp
LaRoche/Nomar
Ethier
I would start this lineup 145 games out of the season without blinking. Ethier thrived in the eight spot last season and gives LaRoche or Nomar some protection.