NL West matchup

The rain seems to be staying away for the moment, so the Dodgers will face the Giants for the first of about 20 times over the next six months.

There was a “B” game this morning at Camelback Ranch against the Sox and while I don’t have all the details, I know that as of 10:50 AM, the Dodgers trailed the White Sox 3-0 in the bottom of the fifth, despite having seven hits. Brian Giles was 2-for-2 with a couple of singles and Restovich, DeJesus, Reyes, Ausmus and Lindsey also had base hits.

On the mound, Scott Elbert allowed 3 runs (2 earned) in 2 IP while striking out three, walking one and hitting a batter.

Josh Linblom allowed one hit over two very quick scoreless innings.

Ramon Troncoso was on the mound with 2 on and one out in the fifth.

Over in Scottsdale, first pitch is in a few minutes and here’s the lineup:

Furcal SS

Kemp CF

Ethier RF

Ramirez DH

Loney 1B

Blake 3B

DeWitt 2B

Johnson LF

Ellis C

Billingsley RHP

Talk about Curing Autism (and the rain)

It’s coming down lightly here in Arizona, so who knows what will become of the trip to Mesa today. Assuming we make the trip and play the game, the lineup will be:

Paul, LF

Carroll, SS

DeWitt, 2B

Johnson, CF

Giles, DH

Green, 3B

Ellis, C

Mitchell, 1B

Repko, RF

Kershaw, P

Meanwhile, last night Matt Kemp hosted his second annual poker event called Ante Up for Autism and it was a big success. It seems like every player in Arizona, from every team, was there, and a lot of money was raised for TACA (Talk About Curing Autism).

At my poker table were a couple huge Dodger fans, including one who is an ITD reader and we took great delight in knocking Bruce Bochy out of the tournament. In the end, I’m proud to say that I finished third at the final table, behind Chad Billingsley and a guy that had a huge stack of chips when they ended the tourney at 11 p.m. Chad’s final hand pushed him into the #2 spot which earned him a nice little trophy.

And for those Amazing Race fans out there, we even had to knock out the two professional poker players, Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho, as well as Flight Time and Big Easy, who were all there to support the great cause.

All in all, a very successful night for charity and Matt should be extremely proud of what he accomplished in support of his brother, Carlton, and every autistic child out there.

Cactus League play underway…

The players have headed out to the fields for practice this morning, but the first Cactus League game is today here at Camelback Ranch against our co-tenants, the White Sox.

Meanwhile, this morning at 8 a.m. we had a logistics meeting for Taiwan and people are starting to get excited for the trip. Obviously the earthquake there created a few raised eyebrows, but MLB has confirmed that there is no structural damage to any of the areas we’re going and that our Wednesday morning departure is all set.

There will be lots of fun things going on while the team is there, including an autograph signing for fans, a clinic for kids, a Success Seminar they’ve asked Joe Torre to participate in, and a little bit of sightseeing. Taipei 101 used to be the tallest building in the world until a new skyscraper in Dubai recently topped it. I guess we’ll find out if any of our players are afraid of heights.

Anyway, first pitch is at 1:05 and you can listen on KABC 790 or KHJ 1330…Rick and Charley on the English side and Jaime, Pepe and Fernando in Spanish. Tomorrow’s “home” opener will also be at 1:05 p.m. and can be watched on PRIME TICKET.

UPDATE:

Today’s lineup

Furcal, SS

Kemp, CF

Ethier, RF

Manny, DH

Loney, 1B

Blake, 3B

DeWitt, 2B

Martin, C

Johnson, LF

Padilla, P

Taiwan roster officially set

Of course, anything can change between now and March 10, but as it stands, Joe Torre, Manny Ramirez, James Loney, Chin-lung Hu and Hong-Chih Kuo, among 30 others.

Most names have been trickling out over the last few weeks, but Manny has confirmed to his agent that he plans to make the trip and will be with us when we depart Phoenix a week from tomorrow.

We’ll play three games out there, host a clinic, an autograph session in downtown Taipei and Joe Torre will even have a “success seminar” for local baseball and business people.

Two of my favorite photos that I’ve seen from the 1993 trip are these…
first, a young boy who is probably about 10 years old, holding up an autographed ball from Orel Hershiser. The kid is probably now in his mid to late 20s and hopefully still a huge Dodger fan and attending these games this year.  It’s amazing what these trips are able to do in terms of creating Dodger fans and spreading baseball around the world. Copy of img110.jpgThe second photo, well, it’s the guy who signed the autograph during part of the tour.

Copy of img088.jpg

 

Bill James calls Dodgers #11 in Young Talent Inventory

It seems these days that everyone ranks top talent, but Bill James is obviously someone who has been doing it for quite some time. He put Matt Kemp #11 on his list of the top 20 young big leaguers and ranked the Dodgers #11 overall.

See below for the full release

Bill James names Matt Kemp
among top 20 young talent in baseball

Calls Dodgers #11 in Young Talent Inventory

In the third year of his newly developed “Young Talent Inventory,” groundbreaking baseball analyst Bill James names Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp #11 on his list of the top 20 young major league ballplayers. In the just-published Bill James Gold Mine 2010, James also judges the Dodgers to have the eleventh-best overall young talent in Major League Baseball, up two places from last year and just below the Marlins but above the Phillies. The Tampa Bay Rays were ranked #1.

James rates all of the young talent on each of the thirty major league teams. The Dodgers are rated #11 overall: “Despite the presence on their roster of Kemp, Ethier, Martin and Loney, the Dodgers are actually fairly near the bottom of the list in young position players. They rank first in young pitching, however,” he says. “Their top six: Kemp, Billingsley, Ethier, Broxton, Loney and Kershaw. (If the system worked perfectly, Kershaw would rank ahead of Loney.)”

James lists the 20 “most valuable properties” among young players in the majors (with ages in parentheses):

Felix Hernandez, Seattle (23)
Prince Fielder, Milwaukee (25)
Hanley Ramirez, Florida (25)
Ryan Braun, Milwaukee (25)
Pablo Sandoval, San Francisco (22)
Tim Lincecum, San Francisco (25)
Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay (23)
Justin Upton, Arizona (21)
Miguel Cabrera, Detroit (26)
Nick Markakis, Baltimore (25)
Matt Kemp, Los Angeles Dodgers (24)
Dustin Pedroia, Boston (25)
Zack Greinke, Kansas City (25)
Ryan Zimmerman, Washington (24)
David Wright, New York Mets (26)
Joe Mauer, Minnesota (26)
Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado (24)
Adam Lind, Toronto (25)
Jair Jurrjens, Atlanta (23)
Mark Reynolds, Arizona (25)

As James has noted often, “Competitive teams don’t have as much room to let young players thrash around, and consequently most of the top teams don’t show as having a lot of young talent. They may have the young talent; it just isn’t in the lineup yet.” That having been said, here are his rankings of the Young Talent Inventory of all 30 teams (with their rankings last year in parentheses):

Tampa Bay Rays (3)
Colorado Rockies (8)
Minnesota Twins (1)
Arizona Diamondbacks (2)
Boston Red Sox (10)
San Francisco Giants (22)
New York Yankees (29)
Texas Rangers (19)
Chicago White Sox (25)
Florida Marlins (4)
Los Angeles Dodgers (13)
Philadelphia Phillies (20)
Atlanta Braves (9)
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (11)
Kansas City Royals (5)
New York Mets (16)
Chicago Cubs (26)
Seattle Mariners (18)
Milwaukee Brewers (6)
Baltimore Orioles (24)
Oakland A’s (12)
Toronto Blue Jays (28)
Washington Nationals (23)
St. Louis Cardinals (14)
Pittsburgh Pirates (17)
Cleveland Indians (7)
Cincinnati Reds (15)
Detroit Tigers (27)
San Diego Padres (21)
Houston Astros (30)

For more information information on The Bill James Gold Mine 2010,
go to www.actasports.com or call Andrew Yankech at 800-397-2282.

 

One night only…

I’m guessing that many of you back in LA will be heading to Joe Torre’s Safe at Home Fundraiser tonight, where he and Sandy Koufax will talk about all sorts of interesting things at the Nokia Theatre. For those at the Scully/Wooden event a few years ago, you know this is a unique opportunity and hopefully you can make it out there.

We’ll be here at Camelback, so I’m taping it on PRIME TICKET so I can see it when I get home. It’s only airing one time…live!

Back here in Arizona, it’s still pretty cool but workings are plugging along. We had the annual photo day, which is always a very busy day in which numerous photo companies (as well as Jon SooHoo) come out and take head shots or action shots of the players. However, in recent years it has expanded so that now they do a lot of other things on that day, including the “head scans” that allow the players to look so real on video games. Our TV partners, KCAL, also shot some cool photos and on top of all that, our DodgerVision crew is in town to film the players for the stuff you’ll see all season long at Dodger Stadium.

These sorts of things take hours of time that the public rarely gets to see until the finished product, but it’s a cool thing to experience “behind-the-scenes.”

And of course, a tradition the PR department started in Vero Beach continues here at Camelback. Prior to photo day (which starts at 7 a.m.), we hit up Cracker Barrel so seven of us enjoyed some biscuits, gravy, hashbrown casserole and other such goodies at 6 a.m.

 

Spring rotation in place

Vicente Padilla will start the first spring game against the Sox on March 5…Stults, Kershaw, Billingsley and Kuroda to follow. Joe Torre said he thinks we’ll have six or steven guys on a starters’ program in addition to the four that we have in the rotation.

Belliard and Furcal arrived in town today, leaving only Belisario to arrive.

And Jeff Weaver is back home waiting for his wife to give birth, so best of luck to them on the biggest day of their life.

That’s about all this morning…we’re trying to keep this blog relevant and updated regularly without just serving as a repeat of the media outlets that already exist, including Ken Gurnick whose coverage is second-to-none. If you guys have questions about how things work in Spring Training or anything you want us to see on the Inside the Dodgers blog, please throw it out there so we can provide what you’re seeking.

Sunny days

The sun has come out at Camelback so it’s actually starting to feel like Spring Training. Of course, much of our days are spent indoors in an office, but for those of you in town or able to get to town, these are the two weeks you really want to do it. Tons of access to players, autographs, etc. It’s a very cool vibe and it doesn’t cost a penny to come out. Of course, then you don’t get to see a game, so perhaps planning a trip around the last few days of workouts and first few games is the way to go.

Joe Torre told the media a bit ago that he has a pretty good idea who the Opening Day starter is but he hasn’t yet shared it. As soon as he does, we’ll tell all of you.

Otherwise, it’s a relatively quiet day around camp. We certainly appreciate all the comments on the ITD blog and there’s no way I can ever expect everyone to see things the way I see them. All we can do is try to explain our thinking behind various decisions we make and continue the dialogue with all of you. This sort of communication was not nearly as easy until we started this blog several years ago and it’s part of what makes this a fun place to “hang out” online.

The outfield arrives and talks…

Manny Ramirez, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier all reported early today, and Manny chatted with the media a few minutes ago.

He said that he hit quite a bit this offseason to try and figure out the mechanical issues that had him a bit off during the end of last season. He also said that he expects this to be his last year at the Dodgers so he’s going to enjoy it as much as possible. His funniest line, I thought, was when he told reporters that from the waste down, he feels 15 years old but from the neck up, he feels 43.

Anyway, that’s the buzz around camp at the moment. Andre and Matt haven’t really spoken yet to the media in a group, but I know Ken Gurnick chatted with Andre when the clubhouse opened, so I’m sure stories will be on the front of the site soon.