In the 1998 NBA playoffs, in the Eastern Conference Championship game 4, Larry Johnson of the Knicks started a brawl with Alonzo Mourning- both players got ejected. Johnson at that time was a role player, while Mourning was the star of the Heat. Mourning's loss ripped the heart out of the favored Heat, while Johnson ploy, while getting him ejected, was ultimately no big deal for the Knicks, and won them that playoff series. That was how the Eastern Conference was in those days.
Carlos Quentin of the lowly San Diego Padres ripped a page out of that book yesterday. Zack Grienke threw hit him on the arm and he charged the mound starting one of the most entertaining brawls in recent baseball history. At first it was great to see the Dodgers and Padres get feisty- they are two of the most laid-back teams in history, and it was great to see passion in that rivalry. The frightening part, however, was the aftermath, with Greinke getting a broken collarbone and Matt Kemp probably getting ejected for several games. There his no doubt who really won here. The Dodgers won the battle, with Juan Uribe's homer, but the Padres won the war.
Quentin is laughing his ASS off right now. He is a mediocre power hitter on the downside of his career, whom in his best years, sits out a quarter of the games. Greinke is the #2 starter of the Dodgers whom the they paid big money for, and Matt Kemp is well, Matt Kemp. Larry Johnson is smiling somewhere, his protege was obviously taking notes.
Greinke and Quentin have a history, dating back to when they were on the Royals and White Sox, respectively. Quentin won this latest chapter, he will get to rest for a few days, while the Padres plug in some journeymen like Jesus Guzman and Alexi Amarista and otherwise do not notice. The Dodgers, on the other hand, will have a hole in their lineup for the next week or so, and more importantly, a huge hole in their rotation until at least June. While they do have some depth, it is still a big loss.
Quentin and the Padres know if you can't do it on the field, you have to resort to other means. They started it, and they finished it. Can't wait 'til next week.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Waiting for Hanley: What about Dee Gordon?
Nobody is saying Dee Gordon is going to save the world or the season, or that anybody should be worried about that right now. I figure, if I'm going to panic, I will panic about Matt Kemp's 0 for 10 or Josh Beckett getting shelled before I panic about the left side of the infield.
But let's look at this Luis Cruz is 0 for 10, Justin Sellers is 0 for 6, and Juan Uribe is 0 for 3. We can rightly say that Gordon has not figured out how to hit major league pitching, but none of those guys is exactly lighting it up, either. One thing Gordon has that those guys don't have is speed, and when Tim Lincecum hands you 7 walks in five innings and you can't pull out a win, you figure some speed might help.
Pitchers may be figuring out Cruz, Uribe is most likely not poised for a comeback and Sellers is a decent utility guy, but perhaps not muh more. If Gordon is the future, or if you want to decide if he is the future, this may be a good time to get him at bats. When Hanley comes back, it may be a good idea to send him down to get him consistent at bats, but until then, why not? You can move Cruz back to third and release Uribe (he contributes more to the Giants wearing a Dodgers uniform then he would in a Giants uniform.....really), and let him continue his growth process, plus give the Dodgers a little more speed (none of thos guys are exactly rabbits), which may help them score a few runs.
Nobody's panicking, and it is a long season, but they should bring up Gordon to see if he can give them a little jolt.
But let's look at this Luis Cruz is 0 for 10, Justin Sellers is 0 for 6, and Juan Uribe is 0 for 3. We can rightly say that Gordon has not figured out how to hit major league pitching, but none of those guys is exactly lighting it up, either. One thing Gordon has that those guys don't have is speed, and when Tim Lincecum hands you 7 walks in five innings and you can't pull out a win, you figure some speed might help.
Pitchers may be figuring out Cruz, Uribe is most likely not poised for a comeback and Sellers is a decent utility guy, but perhaps not muh more. If Gordon is the future, or if you want to decide if he is the future, this may be a good time to get him at bats. When Hanley comes back, it may be a good idea to send him down to get him consistent at bats, but until then, why not? You can move Cruz back to third and release Uribe (he contributes more to the Giants wearing a Dodgers uniform then he would in a Giants uniform.....really), and let him continue his growth process, plus give the Dodgers a little more speed (none of thos guys are exactly rabbits), which may help them score a few runs.
Nobody's panicking, and it is a long season, but they should bring up Gordon to see if he can give them a little jolt.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Don Mattingly- Hot Seat?
One good thing about working for Frank McCourt was nobody expected much, with his piecemeal, on-the-cheap Dodgers teams, Ned Colletti would scrap together just enough talent to keep the Dodgers competitive most of the time. Don Mattingly was perfect for this. His mix of hard-boiled baseball knowledge and competitiveness with a more or less laid-back veneer was a perfect mix for that situation. He kept his team playing hard throughout the whole McCourt divorce/Bud Selig crackdown circus, and that was good.
It is a different world now.
Accountability has found it's way back to Chavez Ravine, and as extremely likeable as Mattingly is, he is probably more accountable than anyone. None of those gargantuan contratcts are going anywhere, so if the the team deep-sixes or under-preforms, Don will be in the hot seat. Some guys are best suited managing young, scrappy teams, but have trouble managing high-priced veteran teams. Buck Showlater comes to mind as a guy who can take a mess of a team and make it competitive (see Orioles 2012), but had problems when he had veteran teams with tons of expectations (Yankees and Rangers). Other guys are built to run championship teams- see his predecessor Joe Torre, who seamlessly managed a high-profile Yankee teams, but despite his dignified manner, seemed to age running the dysfunctional Dodgers.
Which one is Don? We will find out this season.
It is a different world now.
Accountability has found it's way back to Chavez Ravine, and as extremely likeable as Mattingly is, he is probably more accountable than anyone. None of those gargantuan contratcts are going anywhere, so if the the team deep-sixes or under-preforms, Don will be in the hot seat. Some guys are best suited managing young, scrappy teams, but have trouble managing high-priced veteran teams. Buck Showlater comes to mind as a guy who can take a mess of a team and make it competitive (see Orioles 2012), but had problems when he had veteran teams with tons of expectations (Yankees and Rangers). Other guys are built to run championship teams- see his predecessor Joe Torre, who seamlessly managed a high-profile Yankee teams, but despite his dignified manner, seemed to age running the dysfunctional Dodgers.
Which one is Don? We will find out this season.
Despite all the firepower, it shall be the pitching this year....
Clayton Kershaw's performance on Monday was one for the ages. We can do away with all this talk about "potential". he is entering his prime, and has one scary ceiling. Barring injury, he will go up with in the pantheon with guys like Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela and Orel Hershiser, if not surpassing them. We can be happy that Stan Kasten, Magic Johnson and crew are actually trying to put a team around him that is worthy.
Do not be fooled though. It is still about the pitching. Matt Kemp can have a crazy year a la 2011. Adrian Gonzales, Hanley Ramirez and Carl Crawford can have years like they did in the hopefully not too distant past. You can figure once and hopefully future mainstay Andre Ethier, with all those other guys around him can maintain his decent power and high OBP, but it is still about the pitching. How Kershaw, Zack Grienke, Josh Beckett, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Chad Billingsley and whoever fills the fifth spot hold up in consistency and health over the season will determine whether the Dodgers are a playoff team or better, or watching the World Series at home like everyone else in L.A. has been doing since 1988.
The fact that Kershaw had to fuel the Opening Day rally with his bat says all you need. Yes- the bats will certainly have their moments, even if all of our wishes do ot come true, but Kershaw will have to be the horse of the rotation, the guy who gives the other teams an uneasy pause when they know they will face him in an upcoming series. Grienke should be a fine #2, despite the fact he doesn't seem to be profusely bleeding blue (He said he took the Dodger job for the money, and while that is the truth for more ballplayers than we would care to admit, he could at least throw a half-assed bone toward the Great Blue Legacy). I figure if he goes out there 32 times and keeps his ERA in the low 3's, he can say what he wants.
It is the middle guys that have you wondering. I'm not worried about Ryu's so-so performance on Tuesday- he had lots of ground balls and kept the Dodgers in the game, and was not helped by Justin Seller's errors. You have to be encouraged by Josh Beckett- lousy final spring start aside, he looked sharp in Arizona, and was a pleasant surprise last year down the stretch. You have to like a guy like Beckett pitching half his games in Dodger Stadium, still a pitcher's park like no other. These four guys should also take some of the heat off Billingsley, who actually started to resemble his good self last season before injury. If these guys get hurt, Aaron Harang and Chris Capuano are more-than capable fill-ins.
All this sounds great on April 3, but what about September? Kershaw began to break down last year, Grienke stayed pretty consistent, but Ryu is still untested, Beckett is a wild-card, and we're not sure we want Capuano or Harang as our lean-to guys in the dog days. You know the Giants will be there like they always will, and the Diamondbacks are always a pain in the neck, and while the prognosticators doubt the Rockies and Padres, they have snuck up on us before, so who knows? They need to be consistent and durable. The organization has shown it is not afraid to make a trade to make things happen, but do we want it to come to that?
Do not be fooled though. It is still about the pitching. Matt Kemp can have a crazy year a la 2011. Adrian Gonzales, Hanley Ramirez and Carl Crawford can have years like they did in the hopefully not too distant past. You can figure once and hopefully future mainstay Andre Ethier, with all those other guys around him can maintain his decent power and high OBP, but it is still about the pitching. How Kershaw, Zack Grienke, Josh Beckett, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Chad Billingsley and whoever fills the fifth spot hold up in consistency and health over the season will determine whether the Dodgers are a playoff team or better, or watching the World Series at home like everyone else in L.A. has been doing since 1988.
The fact that Kershaw had to fuel the Opening Day rally with his bat says all you need. Yes- the bats will certainly have their moments, even if all of our wishes do ot come true, but Kershaw will have to be the horse of the rotation, the guy who gives the other teams an uneasy pause when they know they will face him in an upcoming series. Grienke should be a fine #2, despite the fact he doesn't seem to be profusely bleeding blue (He said he took the Dodger job for the money, and while that is the truth for more ballplayers than we would care to admit, he could at least throw a half-assed bone toward the Great Blue Legacy). I figure if he goes out there 32 times and keeps his ERA in the low 3's, he can say what he wants.
It is the middle guys that have you wondering. I'm not worried about Ryu's so-so performance on Tuesday- he had lots of ground balls and kept the Dodgers in the game, and was not helped by Justin Seller's errors. You have to be encouraged by Josh Beckett- lousy final spring start aside, he looked sharp in Arizona, and was a pleasant surprise last year down the stretch. You have to like a guy like Beckett pitching half his games in Dodger Stadium, still a pitcher's park like no other. These four guys should also take some of the heat off Billingsley, who actually started to resemble his good self last season before injury. If these guys get hurt, Aaron Harang and Chris Capuano are more-than capable fill-ins.
All this sounds great on April 3, but what about September? Kershaw began to break down last year, Grienke stayed pretty consistent, but Ryu is still untested, Beckett is a wild-card, and we're not sure we want Capuano or Harang as our lean-to guys in the dog days. You know the Giants will be there like they always will, and the Diamondbacks are always a pain in the neck, and while the prognosticators doubt the Rockies and Padres, they have snuck up on us before, so who knows? They need to be consistent and durable. The organization has shown it is not afraid to make a trade to make things happen, but do we want it to come to that?
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