Photo Day and Intrasquad
You might think with two days and no posts, that we had the weekend off, but in fact we’ve been here every day with little news to share. Everything is going well at camp and there are tons of fans right now watching the players go through the annual photo day, where are the various baseball card companies, photo agencies, etc. get a chance to get their official shots of the players.
The Dodger PR Department has made it an annual event to wake up really early on Photo Day (5:30 or so) and visit the local Cracker Barrel, which we did again today. Good eats, good company and we even found my daughter an outfit that said, "My First John Deere" with a picture of a tractor on it, so it’s been quite a morning. Plus, we found out that there’s a Cracker Barrel in Glendale, Arizona, so our annual tradition will continue even when we move spring sites.
There’s an intrasquad game today at 12 p.m. between team Koufax and team Drysdale. Here are the lineups:
Koufax: Abreu (2B), Hu (SS), Loney (1B), May (C), Tiffee (LF), Paul (RF), Chavez (3B), Logan (CF)…pitchers are Sturtze, Tom Martin, Falkenborg, Jones and Hull.
Drysdale: Young (2B), Ethier (LF), Sweeney (RF), LaRoche (3B), Lindsey (1B), Griffin (CF), Ellis (C), Martinez (SS)…pitchers are Myers, Johnson, Koplove, Shackelford and De La Cruz.
This is probably the first time Mike Myers has seen his name at the starting pitcher spot in quite some time. He’s appeared in 883 big league games, which is 22nd all-time, and none as a starter. He did make 80 starts in the minor leagues in 127 games, but the last time he started a game was 1994.
Game is at Holman Stadium, so come on down if you’re in Vero.
UPDATE: Drysdale beat Koufax. John Lindsey had three hits, Chin-lung Hu had two and Brian Shackelford threw the only perfect innning. While celebratin ghis 26th birthday, Diamond Leung of the Press Enterprise blogged play by play here.
Inside the Dodgers 
WHY is Sweeney batting ahead of LaRoche?!?!
(just kidding, guys…)
Ahhhh Cracker Barrels… can’t go wrong there Josh – saves the weary traveler from having to eat at Denny’s all along I-10. Breafast – Sampler platter. Dinner – chicken & dumplings. Coca-Cola chocolate cake… good stuff.
Josh,
thanks for the info on the Hollywood Walk of Fame star. I have put it in my calendar for another day off from work!
Ghosts in the Top Deck? Really? don’t know if I mention this before but that is where I have my season tix with my brother. I have become friends with other season tickets around there. we celebrate birthdays there bringing cake and singing “happy Bday. At the end of the year we had two big cakes for the workers there as a thank you. I am going to have to ask them about the ghost stories. Oh, and a friend of mine told recently when I told her about the ghost stories that itis mentioned in a Dodger baseball book.
For those that are members of AAA, checkout the Westways magazine. The article on the 50 years of L.A. Dodger memories have come out! There are 5 pages of coverage!
I like how Kent addressed the media talking about winning it all, commitment, and accountability. Here is a quote from him:
>”Gentlemen, my frustration doesn’t lie with anybody, they lie with wins and loses,” said Kent, . “You don’t win and anybody that’s not frustrated, they shouldn’t be playing the game. My frustration was not with a player or management, and therein lies the frustration.
“You hope to build on your mistakes as a player and an organization. You lean back and are complacent, anybody who’s complacent is not worth being a professional athlete.” >>
also on 2/17/08 there was an interview of Kemp by Plaschke. Here is what Kemp said
>>I do not want to be the person that everybody says, ‘Great player, bad attitude,’ ” he said. “I don’t want to be that guy.”
When Jeff Kent ripped into the young players at the end of last season, Kemp became that guy.
Kemp now has a different sort of answer to those charges.
“Jeff Kent is a leader, he is a gamer. Who wouldn’t want him on their team?” Kemp said. “He’s not a guy who says hello, but he will talk to you all day about a certain pitcher, and we’re lucky to have him.”
And about those rips?
“We didn’t make the playoffs, we were all frustrated, it was blown out of proportion, we’re all learning here,” he said.
I for one, are glad to hear from both of them that they have moved on on this issue. -emma(crzblue)
From PE.com’s Dodger Blog, compliments of Diamond Leung:
Before the game, Joe Torre said he forgot to put Matt Kemp in the lineup. Kemp will play right field, moving Xavier Paul to center and forcing Nook Logan out of the lineup.
Top of the 1st:
Mike Myers submarining.
Tony Abreu strikes out swinging.
Chin-lung Hu singles sharply to left.
James Loney strikes out swinging.
Lucas May grounds into force play.
Bottom 1:
Tanyon Sturtze pitching.
Delwyn Young flies to right.
Andre Ethier walks.
Mark Sweeney grounds to second on a hit-and-run, Ethier to second.
Andy LaRoche flies to center.
Top 2:
Jason Johnson pitching.
Kemp triples to right-center. He slides into third rather than doing this.
Paul hits a sacrifice fly to left, Kemp scores standing up barely avoiding the tag at the plate.
Angel Chavez grounds to short.
Terry Tiffee singles up the middle.
Danny Ardoin up pinch hitting.
Tiffee caught stealing second.
Bottom 2:
Tom Martin pitching.
John Lindsey solid single to center.
John Ford-Griffin batting, and Frank Torre (Joe’s older brother) just asked for a non-roster roster while sitting in a golf cart with Tommy Lasorda next to the press box.
Ford-Griffin flies to left.
A.J. Ellis double to left-center, Lindsey scores.
Ramon Martinez singles to right, Ellis scores
Rene Rivera batting, Martinez caught stealing second.
Rivera grounds to second.
Top 3:
Mike Koplove sidearming.
Ardoin fouls to first.
Abreu singles past first.
Hu singles to right, Abreu to second
Loney flies to center.
May pops to short.
Bottom 3:
Brian Falkenborg pitching.
Young flies to left.
Ethier grounds to second, but Abreu can’t come up with it. E4.
Sweeney grounds to second on a hit-and-run, but Abreu’s flip to Hu isn’t fielded cleanly.
LaRoche strikes out swinging.
Lindsey singles to the opposite field, Ethier scores, Sweeney to third.
Ford-Griffin doubles to right-center, Sweeney and Lindsey score.
Rivera grounds to the pitcher.
Top 4:
Brian Shackelford pitching.
Kemp grounds to short.
Paul flies to center.
Chavez grounds to short.
Bottom 4:
Greg Jones pitching.
Martinez walks.
Gabriel Gutierrez grounds into a 6-4-3 double play.
Young singles to right.
Ethier fouls out to third.
Top 5:
Fernando “Don’t call me Desgue” De La Cruz pitching.
Tiffee flies to center.
Ardoin hit by the pitch.
Francisco Lizarraga (minor league camper) pops out to second
Hu flies to right.
Bottom 5 (last ups):
Eric Hull pitching (only 40-man pitcher of the game)
Mark Sweeney oppo single to left.
Lindsey clinches MVP honors with a double to left, Sweeney to third.
Ford-Griffin flies to left.
Rivera grounds to short
Final score: Drysdale 5, Koufax 1
Thanks Alex. It’s neat to finally get some actual action.
I see JP is getting some extra work in with Wills. It’s ironic that the only guys (JP& Nomar) I saw getting in extra work in before the game I saw in Denver last year are fighting for a starting job. The team may be better served with these two guys coming off the bench, but they are both gamers. Give them their due
Great stuff from previous thread Jungar. Keep it coming. We eat this s**t up!
Yep Knouff, a little heat on the rear end from the kids is good for the PVL’s. LOL
Does anyone else agree with me that we NEED a left hander in the rotation?…I just don’t see us being successful without at least one left hander…I also think we need another lefty in the bullpen..
Thoughts??
Sure, we could use a lefty in the rotation…but at whose expense?
Penny, Lowe, Billingsley, Kuroda and Schmidt will all be in the rotation if healthy.
Awesome alex – nice play-by-play.
drp – I think you go with your 5 best starters regardless of what side they throw from. If Kuo shows he’s ready and a better alternative to Schmidt or Loaiza, then you go with him. I do think Kuo makes the team though – he’s out of options, can work from the pen (though how effectively we’ll need to see) and can spot start if necessary.
With Saito, Kuo, Kuroda, Operations Director Acey Kohrogi, Traveling Secretary Scott Akasaki, Interpreter Kenji Nimura(I hope I got that right), it doesn’t look like there is any trouble as far as a language barrier. So we can put that to rest. *****I see there are 3 catchers on the active roster including Lukas May. Is that necessary? I would safely say that won’t last.***I wouldn’t worry too much about Kemp learning how to run the bases(imagine him running into Larry Bowa) and bunting just so long as he knows how to use his bat. *****After seeing a photo of John Lindsey, I’m sure they won’t mistake him for one of N.Y ex-mayors. We also have a Carlos Santana. All I can say is we sure have a lot big names.****Nomar saying the team’s inability to hit with runners in scoring position(5 for 105 at 1 point), was the biggest reason for the fall last year is the same as saying it gets dark at night because the sun goes down. But the experience we have now should help corect that. *****I called to see if I could get “Dodgers in Demand”, but channel 1 on my T.V. is N.Y.1 an all news channel. They said if it’s not listed forget it. I guess I’ll have to settle for MLB-TV. Better than nothing.
I’m with enchantedsunset on the pitching.
John Lindsey is 31 years old and last season was the first time he played as high as AAA. That is quite the late-blooming.
I doubt there will be three catchers on the 25-man roster, and Lucas May is far from ready for the majors; last year was his first year in the California League AND his first year catching.
jungar posted this in Dodger Thoughts comments, but I don’t think he posted it here. Emphasis mine.
“That type of power makes him tough to pitch to,” Torre said of the 23-year-old Kemp. “And he’s got some speed. He goes after it and it’s a little intimidating to the opposing team. He’s got all the tools, it’s a matter of refining it and HE CAN ONLY DO THAT BY PLAYING.”
http://www.dodgerblues.com/gallery/albums/userpics/normal_0790731517_01__PE48__Grumpy.jpg