Category: Dailies

Rocky Mountain News

Some of you might have seen this article but in case you missed it, another interesting piece was in today’s Rocky Mountain News. Though it didn’t really break new ground for die hard Dodger fans, this is the sort of article that you’ll see a national reporter like Jack Etkin write when the Dodgers come to town. So, when we were in Denver last week, Jack spoke to the various people in this article and summed up our last six to eight months.

This is also the reason why you’ll notice stories in the Daily News that usually have something to do with the team we just played. Tony Jackson writes a national weekly notes column and this past weekend it had to do with Coors Field and the cut in run production there.

Also, for you writers out there, the Daily News is running an online contest that gives you the chance to cover the Dodgers for a game at the end of the season. A pretty cool idea if you like to write.

And, while we’re at it, does anyone have any good suggestions for new chants at Dodger Stadium? While I love seeing the fervor of Dodger fans, I can’t help but think that we can come up with something better than "Angels ****" or "Giants ****." At least something a little more creative or family friendly, don’t you think?

Today's lineup

Just got finished with Grady Little in his morning briefing with the media. There’s undoubtedly a positive vibe with the team this morning for obvious reasons, but Grady pointed out a very important thing. He told the media that one reason the team has been doing so well lately (10 out of the last 13) is because they’ve adopted the belief that "yesterday doesn’t mean anything." Whether we win or lose, today is a new day and I certainly think that an attitude like that goes a long way.

Other updates include Eric Gagne throwing a bullpen session today. He’ll throw live BP again on Monday and start a rehab assignment next week. Jason Repko, though, could be out for another month, according to Grady, as his ankle sprain has not healed as well as we had hoped. Ricky Ledee is getting closer and so is Dioner Navarro, but both guys will need rehab stints in the minors before getting in a big league game.

Grady also stated the obvious by saying that you can’t ignore what Russell Martin has done up here and that it would be extremely difficult to send him down to the minors when Navarro comes back. Obviously that’s still a little while away, though. As for Drew’s absence in the lineup, it’s just a day off.

Today’s lineup:

Furcal, SS

Lofton, CF

Nomar, 1B

Kent, 2B

Aybar, 3B

Ethier, LF

Cruz, RF

Martin, C

Tomko, P

Nothing like breaking a record

25 hits in a night. Hard to believe we haven’t done that in Los Angeles…ever.

What a night for Andre Ethier, who asked me before the game if he could get field passes for his four family members that were in town from Arizona. I can’t imagine a more proud moment than getting to watch your son, nephew, brother, etc. get five hits, a sacrifice fly, a home run and throw a runner out from the outfield. Andre told me after the game that he rembered a six-hit game in college and a 10-for-10 double header in junior college. Wow.

We got the lineup card from tonight’s game, plus the ball that went for the 25th hit and they’ll go in the Dodger archives, which will hopefully be displayed someday at Dodger Stadium.

Carter recalled

You guys are the first to find out that we’re bringing Lance Carter back up and have optioned Franquelis Osoria back to Las Vegas. Lance was 1-1 with three saves and a 1.08 ERA for the 51s and seems to have gained his control back.

Meanwhile, I just got back from Universal Studios Hollywood, where Derek Lowe and "Sweet" Lou Johnson spent time with some youngsters, signing autographs and giving pitching lessons to the kids. One of them earned the right to throw out the first pitch at an upcoming Dodger game, which must be pretty cool if you’re a kid.

And for those who hadn’t heard, all kids 14 and under that come to tomorrow’s game get a free ticket to Universal Studios Hollywood as part of our new agreement with the theme park.

Lineups to follow in a couple hours. I’ve pasted a couple interleague notes below and congrats to Graham Clancy at the University of Oregon, who realized that I had hidden a code in yesterday’s blog in honor of the opening of The Da Vinci Code. He won four field level tickets to an upcoming game and I might try and do more interactive stuff like that on the blog, if you guys are interested.

INTERLEAGUE BATTLE – Tonight marks the start of Interleague Play and the Dodgers enter the game with a 75-71 (.514) all-time mark against the American League.

INTERLEAGUE PITCHER’S DUEL – Tonight’s starter, Aaron Sele, is tied with Mike Mussina for second all-time in Interleague victories with 18, one behind Greg Maddux. His opponent, former Dodger Jeff Weaver, is tied for ninth with 14 wins. The duo makes up two of the 81 players in Major League history to have played for both the Dodgers and Angels.

On the road

With an off day today, it seems like the perfect time to answer the question that was asked earlier this week about what kinds of things travel with the Dodgers throughout a road trip.

First, I spoke with Dodger Clubhouse Manager Mitch Poole, who said that he brings about 9,600 pounds of baseball gear on every road trip and about 4,500 pounds of personal luggage. This does not include the approximately 1,500 pounds of television and radio equipment that goes with the team on every trip.

Before each trip, every player packs his own baseball bag, which includes two of their own jerseys, pants, bats, gloves, shoes, batting gloves, etc.

Included in what Mitch brings is two of each size BP top and uniform just in case we make a trade while we’re on the road. He also has more than enough actual uniform numbers in case of a trade or call-up.

For each player, he brings six new bats in addition to the six that they bring with them. He makes sure that he has enough batting practice hats, game-fitted hats, adjustable hats, t-shirts, dry fit shirts, long sleeves, fleeces, pine tar, weighted bats, resin bags and just about everything else we can think of that a guy might request on the road. His 9,500 pounds also includes all the medical supplies that our trainers bring with them on the road.

We bring one case of BP baseballs with us for each game we’ll play and the home team provides us with another one once we get there.

I also talked to team travel manager, Scott Akasaki, whose job it is to make sure all the flights are set, rooms are booked, buses are waiting for us at each point in the day and that the equipment truck gets where it needs to go. Scott also handles all ticket requests on the road for players and takes care of ordering all the food on the plane, as well as a ton of other daily tasks. He said that a typical flight includes about 65 people, which is usually about 27 players (including DL guys), a manager and seven coaches, four medical staff members, the video coordinator, the team travel manager, five broadcasters, baseball operations staff (either Ned Colletti, Kim Ng, Roy Smith or Bill LaJoie) a PR guy (either myself or Joe Jareck) and about 15 people who work on our radio and television broadcasts behind the scenes.

One benefit of traveling with the team is that the bus pulls up on the tarmac and we fortunately, we don’t have to deal with airports at all. There’s security at the bottom of the stairs to the plane and they do go through very strict measures, as Scott has said that 9/11 has had an effect on chartered flights, too.

I hope that answered some of your questions and that you can appreciate the jobs that some of the people in the organization get to do a little better than maybe you did before.

Scouting – Roy Smith

A week ago I went on a week-long scouting mission. During that week, which was spent watching both minor league and big league games, often I got asked questions by fans in the stands about what exactly I am doing. Therefore, I thought I would explain what it is that the scouts are doing when you see them behind the plate at a ball game.

Generally speaking, there are two types of scouts – free agent/amateur scouts whose primary function is to  watch college and high school games to scout players who they want to draft in June, and professional scouts whose job it is to watch and report on Major League and minor league games.   

At a Major League game, those professional scouts are there for one of three reasons. One reason would be that they are there to cover and report on an entire team. Each of our professional scouts are assigned a certain number of teams prior to the season. It is their job to scout and file a report on every player on those teams. They enter those reports on their computer and it goes into our professional scouting database.

Another reason a scout may be at a game would be because the team that he works for may be having trade discussions with a team and he might be sent to watch that team for a number of days to report on certain players or to help decide between two or three players who have been offered in a trade.

The third reason would be to "advance" one of the teams playing the game. An advance scout watches the team that his club plays next and reports on tendencies, individual strengths and weaknesses and a host of things that help his team prepare for that upcoming series. For example, Mark Weidemaier is the Dodger advance scout.

His report will include a pitcher’s velocity and movement on all his pitches, any patterns that the pitcher has, the time a pitcher takes to throw the ball to the plate for our base runners, batters strengths and weaknesses, running times to first base, the arm strength of every player on the field, managers’ tendencies (when he bunts, who does he hit and run with and on what counts, etc.), and many more.

Advance scouting is one of the toughest forms of scouting and in Mark, we feel like we have the best in the business. 

In the Dodger organization, we have nine scouts who are strictly professional scouts. These men are consulted on trades and have a lot of interaction with Ned Colletti, Kim Ng and myself. After the June draft, we also have our free agent scouts go out and scout minor league and big league games. It is important for these scouts to see professional games not only for coverage purposes, but also to keep their minds attuned to what it is they are looking for in amateur players.