Ethier helping Dodger fans actually think about baseball

Andre Ethier is playing motivated this year. In an otherwise so-so start for a seemingly so-so team, it would be a highlight. For a so-so team knee-deep in ownership-MLB shenanigans, it is a godsend. Anything to take our mind off that soap-opera nonsense.

What a job he is doing....He hit safely in his 24th straight game on Wednsday, making it a record for the month of April. His overall stats are pretty impressive also. Coming out of the gate with a .381/.451/.560/1.011 line is nothing to sneeze at, and to think he really hasn't completely found his power stroke yet is downright mesemerizing. Let's see if he can keep it upo for a whole season.

The Rockies have seemed to have jumped out to an early lead......if their young guys all mature and stay healthy, ist may spell doom for the rest of the so-so (I use that word alot) NL West. The Dodgers, Giants and Diamondbacks are all hanging around .500, and the Padres are learning that when you let your stars go, you're not always going to be like the early 2000's A's. I'll bet Jed Hoyer is reading Moneyball and digging up Paul Di Podesta's resume...

It is testament to how rock-bottom it was that the MLB taking over things from McCourt is seen as a positive step. This is the same MLB who sold out the Expos as a favor to Jeffery Loria, who is curently trying to find ways to de-stabilize the Marlins. Selig can really pick em, but at least this time he is owning up to it and cutting out the cancer. Mc Court is nothing however, if not a dirty street fighter type who would sell out his grandmother to win a fight, so brace yourselves.

Selig's guy Tom Scheiffer is saying all the right things for the fans, and we do remember the last team the MLB took over was the Rangers last year- the ones who ponied up for Cliff Lee, beat the Yankees, and made a good run before going down to the Giants.....not bad at all.

Almost makes you want to risk a beating to go to the ballpark.

Bring out the Gimp

To the whole Frank McCourt-Bud Selig ownership situation, all you can really say is "bring out the gimp". You may have no idea wh I'm talking about, so I will explain.

Quentin Tarantino has a way of turning the violent and terrifying into the surreal. When Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames are tied up by two psychopath redneck homosexuals, it is a potentially terrifying situation that turns surreal when one of the bad guys says "bring out the gimp" and some sad-sack guy in a leather outfit is let out of the box to observe the redneck baddies doing their evil business on Rhames, Ned Beatty-style.

Bud Selig taking over the Dodgers is the same. he must've really smelled a dead animal in Dodger Stadium for him to do this. Frank McCourt not making payroll must've sprung it on. Frank has not had a good year. His and his wjfe's financial mis-adventures were exposed while the undermanned Dodgers were laying a turd in the second half of last season, His wife them dumps him somewhat less than amicably, openly contesting his ownership and tying up what little money he had. Season ticket sales, according to Yahoo's Tim Brown, were down 40% this year, a Giants fan gets beaten comatose in the parking lot on Opening Day, and now this.

I don't think Bruce Willis is coming to his rescue this time. Selig, the rednecks and the gimp will have their way, and Frank will end up without a team. Not that Selig isn't complicit in all this, and anyone saying the O'Malleys should come back are wrong also. They originally created this mess by selling of to FOX, who had no idea how to run a baseball team.

Selig okayed the sell by the bored and dis-interested FOX to the over leveraged McCourts. Hopefully Selig doing the right thing here is a sort of mea culpa. Hopefully he'll at least run a background check on the next owner. He obviously skipped that park with Frank. Getting the O'Malley's to run things temporarily may make everyone feel good inside, but is no solution. Let Stan Kasten run the team until Selig can figure out what to do. Where are you Mark Cuban? Why Selig would sell to a guy like Frank and cur you out is beyond intellegent thinking, so it is what it is.

A bad situation is now surreal. The once-proud flagship organization is now being treated like the Montreal Expos when Selig and Jeffery Loria conspired to sell them out. It is sad right now, and based on Selig's past ownership decisions, one can only be skeptical.

What now, Rafi?

I love Rafael Furcal and what he brings to the Dodgers. He is a very gifted shortstop defensively and one of the best leadoff guys in the game. While his OBP isn't outstanding, his batting average, his ability to get extra base hits, and his speed more than make up for it. His consistently over .700 OPS is superior for a finesse-hitting leadoff type, who most years hits single-digits in homers. When healthy, he is good for 30 SB, and he doesn't get caught that much. I emphasie WHEN HEALTHY. He broke his thumb, and it looks like it will keep him out 4 to 6 weeks, and an obviously frustrated Furcal was actually talking retirement. It's tough because the guy is pretty well into his 30's, and is looking at probably his third in the last four seasons to be seriously shortened by injury. He's not half-assing it, and you can only relate to his frustration. His agent is dismissing the retirement talk, which is good. Even if healthy for 60% or half of the season, he is a great table-setter, a fine middle infielder and is surely a nice professional presence in a very young clubhouse. No Rafi is bad for the lineup, though. Jamey Carroll will surely do a decent job, but he doesn't have Furcal's athleticism and his absence robs the Dodgers bench of it's depth. There are no other table-setter-types in the lineup full of middling power guys. James Loney is in a slump, Juan Uribe and Casey Blake are power guys, as are Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, Rod Barajas and whoever is in left field not named Tony Gwynn. Gwynn just doesn't hit enough. Ivan De Jesus is too young and Dee Gordon is not ready. Hurry back Rafi, don't retire, we really need you this year.

Baseball things, human being things and Clayton the Ace

There are baseball things- things that we fans care about and might even have a shred of interest outside the baseball world. The Barry Bonds case is a baseball thing. Why our govenment spends time and energy going after guys like Bonds and Roger Clemens is beyond me. We have trillion dollar deficits, are involved in three overseas wars we have open borders to the South letting all,and everyone in and all these jackasses can do is go after baseball players. While my previous statement is a deliberate over-simplification, you get my point. Bonds and Clemens are baseball stories, while there are some Shakesperian-type human lessons that can be learned from this. Nobody really cares, except those in baseball. The Bryan Stow thing is a human-being issue. A guy hitting a ballgame, even in an arch-rival ballpark, does not deserve to get beaten into a coma. Yes, the issue is security at Dodger Stadium, but the real issues are, first, why should anyone have to not feel safe going to a ballgame or any sporting event or even walking around the block? It's one thing if he's looking for a fight, it's one thing to be staring down the animals that did this to him, and even then, a fight is one thing, beating someone to death is completely another. That is not to say Stow provoked those guys in any sort of way. Second is we need to ask how we're raising our kids, or if we are at all, and what kind of relationships are we in? Is this something to be proud of if you are their parents and family members? Or do they even know or care? And how about the driver of the getaway vehicle. One of these animals was your boyfriend or husband. You chose THAT? You had a kid with THAT? Poor kid. He must've really drawn a lucky card in heaven to be fathered by one of those animals. Good job by Giants and Dodger players to show their solidarity before yesterday's game. I will personally give the benefit of a doubt to the photo-op a few days back where Mayor Villarigosa, McCourt and Charlie Beck resolved to fix the security situation. I just hope it doesn't turn into a TSA situation where they're strip-searching garndma and four year olds while waving obvious thugs by. Society is more concerned with protecting psycopaths and sociopaths than it is normal law-abiding people. Hopefully this does not apply here. (Oh yeah, baseball!) You have to love Clayton Kershaw. He is looking every bit the ace. Granted the Giants are not the Red Sox or Yankees offensively, but he has looked dominant, every bit the ace so far. he is eagueaveraging 11 K's per nine innings, while it is only sixth(?) in the league, it is awesome. What's best is his walks are down to 1.8 per 9 IP, which is phenomanal. His biggest opportunity so far in his young career was his ability to keep his walks down, and he has done it so far this year. The biggest thing here is that the Dodger lineup, even on a good night is hardly awe-inspiring. They will put up some runs here and there, but the key to the postseason is the pitching. Kershaw is looking every bit the stopper thus far, and hopefully the other starters will keep up.

Oh yeah! Baseball!

For awhile there, I'll admit I forgot that there was a baseball season going on. Between the violence in the parking lot, Frank's lack of response, than his appointing of Bill Bratton to help him fix it, there has been much more going on than baseball. So let's give Frank, Bill and the Dodgers security team the benefit of the doubt and move on to baseball. Yes. Baseball. The Dodger season has thus far been like Chad Billingsley's starts. They looked pretty amazing coming out of the gate against the Giants, but then went thud against the Rockies. just because the Giants won the world championship last season and the Rockies failed to make it to the playoffs does not matter. It is a wide-open NL West race this year, the Rockies look as good as anyone, and the Giants look a little clumsy. So now come the Padres. They took two out of three from the Cards in the opening series, than split two with the Giants. They have yet to hit, hitting .213 so far with only three homers andf a .298 OBP. Their pitching has been decent, with a 3.33 ERA, but not alot of strikeouts with Mat Latos out. the Dodgers seem to bring out their best, so this may get interesting. Tonight they're throwing Cliff Richard at Ted Lilly, and one can only hope Lilly will rebound from his terrible first start. Next we see Dustin Moseley against Hiroki Kuroda, and Hiroki looked like his consistent self, and Mosely looked great. the Padres have a strong pitching staff, so perhaps Mosely may be their breakout guy this year. the Dodgers will toss out either Tim Redding or John Ely against Aarion Harang on Sunday, and while either is likable, one can only wait for Jon Garland or Vicente Padilla to come back. The Dodger pitchers should keep them in the game, but the question is the hitters. Will they or won't they? It's time for James Loney to wake up, and it's time for Juan Uribe to start earning his money. Interesting stat: the Dodgers lead the league with triples with three, with jamey Carroll, Casey Blake and Marcus Thames bringing the lumber. maybe Blake is the savior, after all, being a veteran to help light a fire under some asses. The Padres' Nick Hundley has a .550 OBP. look out world!

Chief Bratton to the rescue

Well- looks like Frank McCourt hired former L.A. police chief William Bratton to fix all that ails security-wise at Dodger Stadium. If it's true and all partie are sincere, that is a good move by McCourt. Hopefully he realizes that people going to games and feeling safe is a big factor on whether people go to games or not. Props also to Supervisor Mike Antonovich for calling out the Dodgers about this also. I myself, as much as I love the Dodgers do not wish to observe gang activities, arguing with beer vendors after the seventh innings, or beatings of rival fans. My wife is even crazier about that. You can bet, whatever I rant and rave about here, she is watching even closer. It is families like us that are the bread and butter for teams like the Dodgers. Scare us away, and you will be hurt. Hopefully this isn't some PR gang band where McCourt is going to shake Bratton's hand, have a few photo ops with cops, security officers and fans. Hopefully McCourt and Bratton mean business on this one and will take fundamental steps to enact fundamental change.

Casey Blake the Savior?

Listening to Dodger Talk last night, the hosts seemd to be implying that the return of Casey Blake was somehow a saving grace to a so-far hot-and-cold picture for the Dodgers. That is a scary thought. While Blake is a gamer who does add depth to the Dodgers, relying on him as a savior seems a little scary. It looks to me like he further clouds or hopefully will solidify the Dodgers infield. Juan Uribe can move to second, Blake can take over third, with Rafael Furcal holding down shortstop as long as he is healthy and Jmaes Loney at first. However, Don Mattingly seems to be speaking in tounges here, saying one thing one day and another thing the next. What about the supposed saviors, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and Clayton Kershaw? They will need to be the saviors this year if the Dodgers are to go anywhere, while guys like Blake should be prominent role players a la Scott Brosius of the 1990's Yankees. While Ethier hasn't hit a homer yet, he is hitting .353 with a .450 OBP. he is nearing free agency and the expensive arbritration years, so whether or not he wishes to be a Dodger, he is playing for his long-term career. Kemp has only one homer, but is hitting .313 with a .421 OBP, a .625 SLG and a 1.025 OPS with two doubles to go along with the HR. he seems to be engaged both on the field and on the basepaths, a good thing for a guy in a similar situation as Ethier. Kersaw has acted like an ace, with a brilliant Opening Day outing and while the statline wasn't outstanding at Coors yesterday, he still struck out 8 in 6 innings and gave the Dodgers a chance to win. These guys are basically doing their jobs, it's the rest of them, expecially offensively, that need to help out. That is where Blake comes in, I believe, to give a boost to the still-sleeping Loney and Uribe to help out the saviors.

Props to Mason and Ireland on ESPN 710 for calling out Frank McCourt to do something, anything to respond to the cretins beating the Giants fan comatose. They've been on this stories for days. Props also to the los Angeles Times for putting out a front-page story on this. It is that important. You have a flagship MLB franchise and a living postcard of L.A. basically standing silent throughout all this. As of this printing, McCourt has done nothing. Tommy Lasorda came out and said "It's not right. It's a baseball game." No official word from McCourt except for that "blow it off/cover my ass" response the next day. I am not a McCourt fan, but I will acknowldge that he got the Dodgers closer to a world series than anyone has in 22 years- he did bring in Ned Colletti, Joe Torre and Manny Ramirez, but he has to get out in front of this. Please Mr.McCourt. We do not want to be known as the Raiders South. We don't want to glorify in this thuggery. Your silence gives the ever-expanding army of gangbanger cretins to take over Dodger Stadium, if they haven't already.

Just own it, Frank

After the Opening Day violence that left a Giants fan gravely injured, it would've been nice if Frank Mc Court owned it, stepped up like a man, and admitted some for of culpability, even if he privately didn't think so. He didn't. In his staements on dodgers.com, he went right into "cover my ass mode" and "I did what I could" mode. No wonder why nobody likes him. He just paases the buck. Here are some of his statements: "Any human being doing physical harm to another human being, just words can't describe how awful that is. That said, it happens. It's one of those awful things, and I'm not making any excuses whatsoever....but I'm quite confident that all of our measures were in place, and it's just one of those thingsthat you can have 2,000 policemen there and it's not going to change that random act of violence. It's a sad, sad thing." He does show a few shreds of humanity in sharing his regret and dis-pleasure, but takes no responsibility, not even in a token form. No "We will investigate this" or "we will get to the bottom of this", just "We did all we could" Own it, Frank.

The Thug Element

I remember when I was younger, Dodger stadium was a safe place to go. You could take your family there and have a good time and not worry about getting robbed or stabbed. Things are changing- Now fans that my strongly homer-istic Indians fan referred to as very knowledgable are being replaced by people who don't care who the owner is, they don't care that there is a gaping hole in left field, and they don't care that Clayton Kershaw looked like an ace on Thursday evening. They want to fight, they want to kill and they want to drink. Some poor sap whose only mistake was to come from Santa Cruz to catch his Giants is lying comatose because some piece of crap human beings used the excuse of the Dodgers-Giants rivalry as a reason to beat this guy up. These guys dress up in Dodger Blue, they act like fans, but are really just cretins who just want to cause trouble. They are not Dodger fans. Dodgers fans may have a pop or two, they may boo the Giants and even have some back and forth with Giants fans, but that is where it ends. Us Dodgers fans have no use for these cretins that make us Dodger fans look bad and make the Dodgers look bad. We are not these cretins. They are not who we are. Giant fan, do not confuse those piece-of-crap human beings for Dodger fans, because they're not.