Saturday baseball
Quite a night last evening, as Hiroki Kuroda exceeded everyone’s expectations with an unbelievable outing. Safe to say he probably could have pitched a complete game, as he needed just 77 pitches through seven innings. He was known for complete games in Japan, so it will be interesting to see how that carries over to the big leagues this season.
The media turnout was quite impressive, as there were probably 50 people from Japan on site at PETCO Park. The game was shown live in Japan and I even saw Hiro, as they’re now calling him, crack a smile a couple times after the game.
One year ago today, it was Daisuke Matsuzaka who made his big league debut and threw seven innings and gave up just one run. Let’s hope Kuroda’s season ends the same way Daisuke’s did…with a champagne bath.
It was also nice to see the team score six runs in an inning, which equaled the best output last year and even then, they hadn’t done it since the second game of the second half of the season.
Here’s the lineup that will back Brad Penny today on FOX.
Furcal, SS
Martin, C
Loney, 1B
Kent, 2B
Ethier, RF
Jones, CF
Pierre, LF
DeWitt, 3B
Penny, P
Inside the Dodgers 
I sure hope JP plays well today.
He can’t do any worse than he did in spring training
Great game last night. I like yesterdays lineup better than today’s, but lets try and beat the pads again today.
its still a good lineup… even though I hate pierre as a dodger, I hope he does well today.
I’m going to accept the lineup change with Pierre in lieu of Kemp, considering that Peavy is pitching and Kemp seems really over-anxious and struggling. I’m assuming that this isn’t necessarily a start of platooning the two. I hope that Kemp invests some extra time in his batting practice – seems like he’s trying for power and trying to pull everything, and that’s never worked for him.
Dodgers baseball for me….MEH!
This is the lineup I’d prefer seeing…..
1) Milton Bradley – cf
2) Hee Seop Choi – 1b
3) Brian Giles – lf (Homered yesterday. Loved it!)
4) JD Drew – rf
5) Joel Guzman – ss
6) Antonio Perez – 2b
7) Willy Aybar – 3b
8) Dionner Navarro – c
That’s 8 potential .800+ OPS bats in the lineup. DePo would have gotten this done.
Meanwhile the Dodgers are stuck with the fodder that is James Loney. He’s terrible. Lacks the power potential of a Choi.
All right, all my fellow Deadhorsemen, most of us said that once the season starts that we were going to get behind JP. He seems to have clammed up and accepted his role as a pinch-hitter/part-time starter. He’s still in Dodger Blue, so unless he starts complaining, let’s back him.
I know that he’s going to be costing someone at-bats, and that’s unfortunate. It would appear that this is how it’s going to be unless Ethier and Kemp force Torre’s hand by knocking the stuffing out of the ball.
Hey, joeyp is back – thanks for the laughs.
I think you’re doing DePo a big disservice to think that he wouldn’t do better than that lineup. Personally I liked him better than I do Ned, but even his worst enemies wouldn’t come up with a lineup like that – you’re plain slandering the man.
Ned is an idiot.
He pays a manager 13mils over 3 seasons? LOL…
Managers aren’t worth 50K a season.
All you need to do is fill out a lineup card and take a pitcher out when he’s tired. All its takes is a cell phone.
I could manage from the press box.
MLB is run by dummies.
choi? choi struck out everyother at bat and drew was an overpaid underachiever and milton bradley was a wife beater (i realize this doesnt take away from baseball abilities but come on now…)
haha…is this guys serious?
I’ll echo messagebear’s sentiments joeyp, DePo is good in the front office and you’re selling him short. I know that you are here trolling around for an argument but c’mon man our lineup right now has the potential to OPS 800+, this isn’t last year dude…if you watch the game today look how much more patient and selective our hitters are. Granted Peavy is an absolute stud so we can be behind in the count with that approach often today (just the the Pads with Kuroda last night) but at least we’ll get his pitch count up so he can’t go 8 strong on us.
BTW, your A’s are under the radar this year…I hope Harden and my boy Crosby can stay healthy because I think they’re gonna suprise a lot of people this season. I know you wish nothing but bad for the D’s but unless the injury bug kills us this year, we’re gonna be good.
Only thing I have against the lineup is Pierre should either bat eight or lead off.
OK. In my quest to keep track of ABs Pierre takes away from Ethier and Kemp, I’m not counting today. Kemp is swinging (and missing) at everything, and against Peavy this isn’t a bad day for him to take off and catch his breath. Good move by Torre today in that respect. Seems that Kemp is trying too hard to either prove he belongs, or that he’s the power man. He needs a day or two to get his head back into using all the fields and staying within himself.
I like that Torre’s preaching it and Easler is teaching them some plate discipline. Going to wear out a lot of starters that way and get into the soft underbelly of middle relief. They do that all season long come the dog days, they should really reap the benefits of the philosophy.
Looks like we may have a winner in Kuroda. If he’s the real deal, as a fourth starter, he ought to win 13-16 games. I don’t think we’ve gotten that kind of production out of the 4 & 5 starters the last two years combined.
Goodluck boys – now go get Peavy!!
I’m hoping Brad can “Randy Wolf” that 1st inning and the Dodgers can use some hitting discipline against Peavy.
Peavy’s pitches must look easy to hit otherwise, What are they swinging at?
To appease Dodger fans on both coast.
The Giants & the Yankees both got bombarded yesterday 13-4.
I can’t see JP batting behind a hitter like Jones.
I would rather see him behind DeWitt or Penny
I’m having trouble seeing the logic.
To show you how much I’ve advanced in the past year.
The Dodger writeup in the Daily News(N.Y.) today:
Dodgers 7 Padres 1
Hiroki Kuroda was Brilliant in his big league debut, holding host San Diego to 3 runs in 7 innings.
Before I went online, that plus maybe a minute on ESPN or if I was lucky enough to catch them on National T.V. or when they played the Mets or the Braves or in the World Series or post season whenever they got past the first round. Then I go looking for a copy of the L.A. Times.
I don’t know how I did it for 50 years.
That was a great catch by Josh Bart, you can’t take that away from him and the presence of mind to think of Furcal.
Watching Furcal running around the bases just about renders Pierre unnecessary to me.
Love that catch by Ethier.
Hey Brooklyn. Need to work up that pitch count on Peavy. See if we can get him out of there soon and take our chances with their bullpen.
DeWitt took a good one on the elbow.
I may have a lot of you disagree with me but I think either Peavy is right in the strike zone or the Dodgers are swing a little to much.
Peavy is tough. All we can do is work the count and make him throw alot of pitches. He’s an ace for a reason.
I don’t think we’ll ever see the bullpen the way our boys are up there hacking away at almost every offering by Peavy.
Yep, he’s dealin’.
The Blue crew seems to be in a hurray to get it over with with Peavy. They are absolutely not making him work at all, so far. He’s always hard to hit but they should take some more pitches.
Karros looked great as usual in the broadcast booth. It always good to see those old Dodgers.
I loved seeing Drysdale at Dodgertown in the broadcast booth.
Is it my imagination or do the Dodgers have the most first ball swingers in baseball?
I’m extremely proud of Kuroda’s efforts. He should do well in 2008.
dodgersblog.mlblogs.com
After that bottom of the 1st, I was looking for Penny to give us a “Randy Wolf” type game. Well I got my wish.
You were on it Brooklyn.
The Dodgers are not the type of team that can beat Peavy unless he has a real bad game.
TRONCOSCO eh! This kids doing all right.
I guess they knew what they were doing when they kept him. Ironic. LOL
Cesar Isturis played ss and hit nineth in the St. Louis batting order today with the pitcher batting eighth.
As usual the least we face this guy the better.
Izturis
No face lost in losing to Peavy. Penny acquitted himself well after the first by going six and not blowing through the bullpen.
They’ve been facing some pretty tough pitching, but they’re also helping make it look better than it really is. I see JP had his normal day, but maybe a day or two off for Kemp is what he needs. Don’t know what Martin’s funk is. A day off wouldn’t hurt him either. Anyway, not getting shutout is a moral victory, and most anytime you spot Peavy 4, he’s gonna beat you. Series is 1-1, so you can still take it on Sunday. Lowe’s going to have to pitch a good game though.
Interesting Mike, Thanks.
Disappointing game today. Tip O’ the cap to Peavy. Let’s whip’em tomorrow.
Let’s get that rubber game tomorrow gang.
Hard to match Peavey on the mound when he is on his game. Two guys who’re looking bad for us at the bat are Martin and Jones. I’m thinking that Martin has to break out of it – Jones just may anymore be what we’re seeing, in which case we will have bought a very expensive defensive CF. If you add him up with Pierre, we’re paying as much for two essentially CF’s as the cost of the entire Marlins team. So far showing no productivity for it.
I think Torre orta copy LaRussa style of batting the pitcher 8th when JP( bat 9th) is in the lineup. One thing hitting in front of Jones doesn’t look good. Maybe letting him lead off might be the next best thing, since he’s good at that and he can help us more. And the only guy hitting ahead of him will be the pitcher.
Pierre is making his second start in five games after losing the left-field job to Andre Ethier. General manager Ned Colletti said he received a call from Pierre’s agent asking for clarification of his role and Colletti said he delivered a message that the better Pierre performed in the opportunities he had, the more playing time he was likely to earn.
Interesting?
Phew is starting to stink.
I like Ned’s terse(bite me) answer.
SF has a decent pitching staff. SD certainly does. Haven’t noticed who’s getting the starts for AZ, then back to SD and another look at Peavy… We may not see too much hitable pitching until the Pittsburgh series. Not an easy schedule we’re starting off with this year.
If Ned is a man of his word jhall, it doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing too much of Pierre, who appears to be picking up right where he left off in ST. Another start or two with nothing to show for it and maybe we see DY out there instead.
Another thing we have to remember is that we are essentially a young team. It might take another year or two for these guys to fully reach their potential. They’ll compete OK this year, maybe even make a run at the division title, but in a couple of years, this team should be lights out.
The future is certainly bright if we stay the course.
I’ve said this before, Arizona & Colorado both finished last for a few years until their players matured. If the Ds fail to win this year , they should still improve , and then the following years watch out west here we come.
5 GAMES IN AND MOMMY IS ALREADY CALLING…Why won’t you let my son play.
But, um, this is a good problem to have.
I like Kuroda better than Dice-K. I think he’s a smarter pitcher than Dice-K for one thing, and I like Kuroda’s splitter better than any of Dice-K’s offspeed pitches. Dice-K is often stubborn, he’ll pound his fastball over and over on the inside corner to right handed hitters until they’re finally sitting on it and they crush it. The media makes a big deal about Dice-K having about eight pitches but he really only uses three pitches consistently(fastball, slider, cutter). Dice-K has shown an outstanding split/change combo at times but he just doesn’t throw it enough! Kuroda looks like he knows exactly when to use his split, and last night he sure used it effectively!
I was willing to concede a Dodger loss if UCLA could advance to Monday. Double bummer day… Pierre should tell his meddling agent to go away, unless Juan told him to make the call. The only way to get Kemp hitting is to play him. Sit Pierre until May.
Looks like we catch AZs 3-4-5 starters with Webb going tonight and I assume Haren tomorrow. Looks like we counter with our 5-4-3. Maybe we’ll start to show some life with the bat…
Mariano let us down today…he’s supposed to get in Peavy’s head!
Was watching the highlights on Basball Tonight (ESPN) and noticed that after the last out Peavy had dirt/brown-black substance on some of his fingers. Can the league review the tapes and check for any infractions?
HEY!!! I saw that walter!!! PINE TAR!!! seriously, whats up w/ that???? its bad enough we can’t beat the guy on top of that he pitches with pine tar in his hand???
Jungar- Are you implying that Pierre’s mom is calling ned? lol.
Ned’s “terse” answer is exactly what I would expect. The more time goes by, the worse pierres contract looks and the harder it will be to move him. What can you say ? Peavy dominates us as always, although I too would LOVE to know what that substance was on his hands. Petco is just a house of horrors for us. Hopefully we break the spell tommorrow.
At least Ned has accepted the fact that his signing of Pierre was foolish. In my humble opinion, Colletti has continuously shown poor judgement in assessing players: Hendrickson, Lugo, Nomar, Schmidt, Mueller, Lance Carter, Pierre, Seanez, Hillenbrand, etc. If it wasn’t for Logan White, who scouted for Martin, Loney, Billingsley, Kemp, Ethier, Abreu, Laroche we would have an embarrassing team. Ned doesn’t get it.
An aside on Grady vs. Torre
Grady wouldn’t dare break JP’s consecutive game streak all last season and Torre ends that streak on opening day. I loved that Torre set the tone right off the bat: “i’m not going to play someone to preserve their record or because they have a big contract.” Learn to bunt, practice not swinging off your back foot and take routes to the ball more fluidly.
I forgot Bombko.
I have to assume Ned is looking for someone to trade Pierre to. Not an easy task. Dodgers will have to eat at least half of his contract and there still doesn’t seem to be any interest in him from anyone. That should tell you something. If he was so good, teams would be knocking at the door and there is NO INTEREST. Some team is going to have to suffer a major injury in the outfield to consider Pierre. We may have to package Pierre with a good prospect to garner any interest.
Think you’re right jhall if we want to trade him now. The other side of the coin is, what do we trade him for? – can’t think of anything we need right now that we can’t get plenty of off of waivers or the farm.
Think the only viable option right now is to hang onto him and hope that sometime before the trade deadline some team becomes in desperate need of a CFer. Maybe then we can flip him (plus a ton of dough) for a prospect or middle relief.
Good part is as you pointed out, we don’t need to get anything for him. Just someone deperate enough to take him off our hands. We will still have to pony up some cash, no matter what. He is just not a 8-9M per year player. Unfortunately he never was and Ned really blew it by panicking and signing that deal. Another reason that I truly detest JD Drew. Unappreciative ba$tard.
I guess in fairness, we all wanted Princess Drew to opt out. I guess we just didn’t figure Ned would overreact as badly as he did. I still have a hard time seeing how Ned would sign Pierre to that contract when he could have signed Lofton for one year at less money. All he needed was a short term fix.
I do believe Ned learned alot from the Pierre debacle.
Let’s hope Ned’s learned anyway!
That had to be a great conversation:
JP to Agent – find out what my status is on the team.
Agent to Ned – What’s my client’s role on the team?
Ned to Agent – the better your client performs in the opportunities he has, the more playing time he’s likely to earn.
Agent to JP – You’re scre wed.
Next Day:
JP to Agent – Tell Ned I want to be traded to a team that appreciates my talent and where I can start.
Agent to Ned – My client would like an opportunity to play elesewhere. We’ll waive any no-trade clauses and accept a trade to any team.
Ned to Agent – I’ve tried, but nobody wants him even if we pick-up half the cost.
Agent to JP – Well its like this Juan, Mom’s on the roof and we can’t get her down…
LMAO Enchanted. Good one.
Juan; help, I’m hitless, and I can’t get a decent bunt down.