Monthly Archives: September 2011

Court Deals Yet Another Blow to McCourt Ownership

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After what seems to have been weeks of inactivity on the McCourt / MLB front, Bill Shaikin drops in with some concrete news, which I will display in a series of tweets even though I know that by waiting 20 minutes or so, I could just link to the inevitable LA Times article.

Bankruptcy court sets key #Dodgers hearing Oct. 31, Nov. 1, 2, 4. “The Court expects the Commissioner and Mr. McCourt to testify in person.”

That’s Halloween, of course. Selig will come dressed as a Stormtrooper, while expect McCourt to appear as Robin Hood. Oh, not because he wants to appear generous to those less fortunate, of course. He just likes the feel of the green tights.

Gross: “The Court will not permit [Dodgers] to take discovery into or of other baseball clubs. These cases are about the Dodgers.”

This is a big blow for McCourt, given the recent suggestion that he may try to drag the Marlins and the rest of MLB into this mess. No better way to try to deflect criticism of your own mess than to use the tried-and-true defense of every five-year-old, “but DAD! He did it too!”

BOTTOM LINE: McCourt: Selig has double standard in treatment of #Dodgers vs Mets, Marlins, etc. Gross: Other clubs not relevant.

BOTTOM LINE: McCourt: “Hey, an enormously huge part of my case rests on this one idea.” Court: “Get bent.”

Gross wants key issue resolved soon so #Dodgers can “utilize the approaching off season to prepare for the 2012 season.”

No. No, no, no. Don’t get sucked in by this, because I know it sounds lovely. As you’ll see in the next tweet, this is just about whether MLB has the right to be rid of McCourt if they choose to be. That does not mean that there would be any sort of new owner in place in time for this offseason, and if anything the finances could be even more of a mess.

If court schedule holds, we could have answer in early November about whether McCourt can hold onto #Dodgers or MLB can kick him out.

So tempting to be excited about this. Then we remember that McCourt almost certainly has about 27 more appeals lined up to last decades. Still, this is progress – and very, very bad news for Frank McCourt, which certainly brightens my day.

Forget Matt Kemp, as Jon Heyman appears to have already done. Bill Shaikin, MVP.

A Dodger Fan Guide to Rooting in the Playoffs

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It is now… *checks watch*… 186 days until Opening Day 2012. And while we might all be anxious to see what the Dodger lineup will look like when the team takes the field in early April, there’s still a whole lot of baseball to be played in 2011. But in the seven hours or so before C.J. Wilson throws the first pitch of the playoffs against Tampa Bay (starting Matt Moore, a decision that – right or wrong – I just can’t get over because of the sheer bravado involved), Dodger fans have a decision to make: who are we pulling for to win the title this year?

First, the good news: it can’t be the Giants again. As someone (and I forget who, so sorry) noted on Twitter during Wednesday night’s wildness, “we don’t have to deal with Brian Wilson this October, so that means we’re all winners.” Truer words were never spoken. Even if they weren’t spoken, but rather Tweeted, and then paraphrased by me.

At ESPN, Jim Caple attempts to measure a team’s “Rootability Index” through a complex series of criteria, but sometimes it’s more fun to be subjective. Let’s look at the competitors through Dodger-tinged glasses, from most offensive to least.

Absolutely No Way In Hell Division

Philadelphia Phillies

Like I even need to explain why, right? The Phillies not only have a recent championship and two recent NL pennants, they crushed the Dodger postseason dreams in both ’08 and ’09 in the most brutal ways possible. That alone disqualifies them from consideration. Plus who among us doesn’t find Shane Victorino to be insufferable? Besides, it’s not that I haven’t enjoyed the collection of rotation aces they’ve put together from a fan point of view, but I do like the idea that simply having a roster like that doesn’t automatically equal victory.

Oh, and everyone from Philadelphia is a horrible, soulless subhuman. So there’s that.

Chances of Me Rooting For Them Are Roughly Equal to Eugenio Velez Getting a Hit Division

New York Yankees

Unlike most of you, I’m guessing, I don’t despise the Yankees. Yes, they have the most money, and they can be obnoxious at times, but they’re run by smart people and I don’t see the point in rooting against them just for the sake of it. On the other hand, I have absolutely no idea how you can claim to be an impartial fan and actually root for the Yankees. It’s not like they need more people on the bandwagon or are desperately in need of a recent championship, though considering their rotation is C.C. Sabathia and not a whole lot else, it’d be interesting to see them pull it off. Still, a whole lot of things would have to go terribly wrong for me to start pulling for the Yankees in the playoffs.

If you’re not a Yankee fan and you’re rooting for them this October, you’re dead inside.

Arizona Diamondbacks

To be honest, I don’t hate the Diamondbacks either – most of them. Their worst-to-first run this year has been a great story for the game, and I’m glad to see Kirk Gibson & Kevin Towers having success as manager and GM, two guys I’ve always admired. Even their roster is mostly inoffensive, and toiling away in the desert means that megastar Justin Upton is woefully underappreciated on a national scale. If they win the NL pennant, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world (unless you’re a television executive, which, who cares.)

Yet there are a few problems with rooting for the Snakes from a Dodger fan point of view. First of all, they are a division rival, so that’s hard to cheer for, and they already have a World Series championship despite being in just their 14th season. They’re also the team that collected Willie Bloomquist, Geoff Blum, and Sean Burroughs at various points this year, leading to untold levels of “grit” and “scrap” like the world has never seen before. That’s not a notion of victory that I want to reinforce.

But most of all? Gerardo Parra. Screw Gerardo Parra.

St. Louis Cardinals

Tony LaRussa manages the Cardinals. Ryan Theriot plays for the Cardinals. With apologies to Rafael Furcal, absolutely not.

Good Teams From Places I’m Glad I Don’t Live Division

Texas Rangers

Rooting for Texas holds some appeal, if only because they were in financial straits nearly as dire as the Dodgers and have been one of the best teams in baseball despite it. Jon Daniels is the kind of GM I wish the Dodgers had, and he’s one of the few who can say that he snookered Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos by stealing Mike Napoli for Frank Francisco on the back-end of the Vernon Wells trade last winter.

That said, they were in the World Series just a year ago, and I like variety. Besides, if Michael Young is hilariously already receiving MVP support for what was a good-but-not-great season, just imagine what it’ll be like if he’s flashing a ring.

Detroit Tigers

Other than the teams who are facing the Tigers, if you’re rooting against Detroit, you hate America, freedom, and puppies. How could you not want to give some amount of joy to that barren region? Yes, the Tigers were in the World Series just five years ago, but they haven’t actually won one since Gibson and Jack Morris were rolling over the Burger King Padres nearly 30 years ago, and Justin Verlander is an absolute joy to watch.

On the other hand, Brad Penny would get a ring too. I’m not sure I can abide by that.

Jumping on the Bandwagon Division

Tampa Bay Rays

The funny thing about the Rays is, they’ve already been one of the best stories in baseball for years. Coming from the depths of the “Devil Rays” era, they’ve already been to a World Series (2008) and won a division title (2010) – hell, they’ve already had a book written about them. They could have done just about nothing else and still had their recent clubs be memorable, but no, they had to top that this season by ditching Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, and their entire bullpen, falling nine games out of the Wild Card in early September, fighting back to tie on the last day before being down 7-0 in the 8th inning against the Yankees… only to tie the game on a homer by Dan Johnson and his .108 average and win it on an Evan Longoria walkoff, his second of the game, almost simultaneously to the Orioles coming back to topple the mighty Red Sox.

You’re going to root against that team? Really? Hey, their fans may not support them, so you might as well, though slight demerits for the team that turned fringe players (Danys Baez & Lance Carter) into a few years of just-above-replacement performance from Edwin Jackson (2.2 rWAR with Tampa) into Matthew Joyce (matching 132 OPS+ scores the last two years) at the expense of the Dodgers.

But while I’d be quite happy seeing them come out of the AL, I can’t quite root for them to take the whole thing just yet, because there’s still the…

“One Brat to Unite Them All” Division

Milwaukee Brewers

I am trying, and failing, to think of a single reason to root against Milwaukee this postseason. Despite being in a small market, they have outstanding fans who consistently support the team. They have arguably the best owner in baseball, one who is willing to reinvest in the club, and one who I’ve already hoped would come rescue the Dodgers. They might have a small window, because of their very risky (and very entertaining) strategy to go “all-in” this year on the Zack Greinke & Shaun Marcum trades, in addition to Prince Fielder‘s impending free agency. (To clarify, because I’ve seen this before, that doesn’t mean they’re losing 98 games in 2012, just that there’s little left coming from the farm and Prince is likely to be elsewhere.) Their closer, John Axford, has a wicked mustache and comes out to obscure Swedish hardcore, rather than the generic butt-rock so many closers use today, and one of his set-up men is our old favorite Takashi Saito. They have Nyjer Morgan, who – while loved and hated by many – has created a gentlemanly Twitter alter-ego, Tony Plush, which is so ridiculous that it’s amazing.

Like Arizona, they’re led by a former Dodger, Ron Roenicke, and none of the three-headed ace crew of Greinke / Marcum / Yovani Gallardo threw more innings than old friend Randy Wolf. Hell, they also have Matt Kemp‘s main competition for the MVP in Ryan Braun, and it’s hard to even root against him because Braun has had such an absolutely MVP-quality season himself.

So… I guess I’m rooting for the 30th largest market (i.e., the smallest) to face the 26th largest market in the World Series. Oh, television people are going to love me.

82-79

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Now that the insanity of last night has subsided a bit, I can look back at the season and honestly say: what.. a.. year.

I can say with little hyperbole that 2011 had some of the lowest and most exhausting moments I can ever remember in my years of following this club. Every time you thought it was as bad as it could get, it would get worse. I mean, bad enough where we were pining for the good old simple days of a bitterly public divorce that was threatening to tear the organization apart. That was before Frank McCourt made as many deals with the devil to make payroll as he could, before MLB took steps to take over the club, before McCourt then took the club into bankruptcy to save his skin, before a list of his many embarrassments became the most-read post in this history of this site, before court dates became more important than playoff dates, before Bryan Stow was nearly beaten to death in the parking lot, and before thousands upon thousands of empty, empty Dodger Stadium seats.

That’s also all before we even got to baseball. A team largely built on older players who couldn’t get on base… got hurt and didn’t get on base. The projected starting infield foursome started all of two games together. Casey Blake couldn’t stay healthy. Rafael Furcal couldn’t stay healthy or perform before being traded. Juan Uribe, when he wasn’t busy also not staying healthy, was an expensive and horrific disaster. James Loney looked to threaten records for offensive futility, and the question was less “will he be non-tendered” and more “will he even make it through the season?” Andre Ethier complained about his contract status, had a 30-game hitting streak, and then hit just .265 with 8 homers over the next four months while continuing to say stupid things before ending his season early to have knee surgery. Eugenio Velez existed. Dioner Navarro got hurt, was awful, and then was cut due to a poor work ethic. Aaron Miles got nearly 500 plate appearances. The three-headed left field monster of JaMarcus Gwybbons, Jr., which was never ever going to work, didn’t work. Trayvon Robinson was traded in a deal that just about no one outside of Ned Colletti seemed to like. Ted Lilly kicked off his $33m deal by serving mostly as a butt of jokes about how many dingers or stolen bases he’d allow that day. Chad Billingsley infuriated us by continuing to be consistently inconsistent, and Hiroki Kuroda refused to be traded. Jonathan Broxton never recovered from Joe Torre’s abuse. Hong-Chih Kuo‘s demons returned. Ronald Belisario didn’t. Jon Garland and Vicente Padilla combined to throw just 62.2 innings, while Kenley Jansen had to deal with a heart condition. Rubby De La Rosa made a smashing debut and was then cruelly snatched away from us for a year or more.

By July, they were 14 games under and 14.5 out, lows that hadn’t been reached in years, and it was somehow even worse than that. It’s one thing to follow a bad team; Pirates fans, among others, have been doing that for decades. But the off-field disasters combined with an on-field product that was not only lousy but just flat out boring made for the worst combination of all. It was hard to care. That’s how you know the season has gotten away from you, when you’ve got the option to flip on the Dodger game, watch yet another rerun of “the Simpsons”, or just go to bed, and the Dodger game is no longer a no-brainer choice.

And yet, as the season slowly droned on… there was hope. Not off the field, perhaps, as the legal battles have no end in sight and long-time communications honcho and all-around good guy Josh Rawitch departed for Arizona, though Stow is thankfully showing signs of recovery. But on the field, things turned around. At one point starting in late August, they won 11 of 12 games; their 34-20 record in August and September was among the best in baseball. Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw busted out to battle for the highest individual awards and produce seasons that will go down in team history. Loney suddenly became the best hitter on the planet, while Juan Rivera came over from Toronto to give Kemp some much-needed aid. Even Lilly turned it around, finishing the year with six consecutive homer-free starts after having allowed 16 in his previous 12. On the bench, Don Mattingly began to earn our respect. Young arms like Nathan Eovaldi, Scott Elbert, Josh Lindblom, and particularly Javy Guerra arrived to join the unhittable and record-setting Jansen to reinforce what was a tattered relief staff. The next wave of hitters made their debuts, generally forced to do so ahead of schedule, and Dee Gordon, Jerry Sands, Tim Federowicz, & Justin Sellers all look like they could be contributors in 2012. Perhaps most importantly of all, Vin Scully announced that he’d be so kind as to grace us with his presence for at least one more season.

A season that could have easily been a 61-101 debacle turned into an 82-79 revelation – an actual winning season, which in itself is a minor miracle considering all that happened. While there’s a ton of uncertainty headed into the offseason, this is at least a team where if you squint hard enough and jam your fingers in your ears deep enough to drown out the courtroom battles, you could possibly see a playoff contender next year. That might not sound like much, but it’s something, and that’s a whole lot more than we had just a while ago. (I, uh, didn’t mean to paraphrase a semi-obscure punk rock band there, but it just sort of happened.) Where once there was merely despair and hopelessness, the second half rebound at least provided some measure of joy and a possible light at the end of the tunnel.

As for this side of the screen, it’s been a good year. The blog has broken every previous traffic record it ever had, thanks to you all, and I was lucky enough to win an award I had no business winning, to be interviewed on SNY, do a few video podcasts with Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts (yes, you can all relax, my goofy beard is long gone), and fulfill a lifelong dream of being called a goof on the radio by Pat O’Brien. Yes, that Pat O’Brien. I was also able to conduct a fun interview with Christopher Jackson of the Albuquerque Baseball Examiner (who provided invaluable AAA insight all season), get interviewed a few times on Sirius / XM radio, and continue my duties at Baseball Prospectus.

All of which is to say… it might not have been the brightest year on the field, but sometimes that makes it all the more fun. Cheers to all of you for sticking it out with me and keeping me honest. Baseball never stops, of course; we’ll be starting to look at arbitration decisions, 2011 reviews, and 2012 plans before you know it, probably early next week. See you there.

Dodgers Say Goodbye to 2011 on Greatest Night in Baseball History

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I was going to put up a post after this game that served as a quick season recap before we get into offseason business, but after everything that’s happened tonight, that’s going to have to wait until tomorrow. Who, myself included, could honestly focus on the relatively meaningless Dodger game tonight, even though it was the final one of the year?

Sure, I had it up on MLB.tv on my computer, and I cheered when Matt Kemp hit his 39th homer of the year. But I also had the Red Sox / Orioles game sharing half the screen, with Phillies / Braves & Yankees / Rays (once the Yankee bullpen started to fall apart) sharing time on my television. As if having four must-win games with vital playoff implications wasn’t enough, three of them were nailbiters, with two going into extra innings. I absolutely cannot remember a night of baseball more entertaining than this, to the point where the “OH MY GOD” I posted on Twitter when Dan Johnson completed the Tampa comeback with a 2-2, two out dinger in the 9th was matched by a similar verbal exclamation in my living room, even though it was a game I had absolutely no vested interest in.

Honestly, part of this has to be the times we live in. Simply watching 3-4 amazing games on multiple devices simultaneously (plus the Dodger game) wasn’t enough, because the magic of Twitter meant that I was watching them with about 150 of my closest friends. As I joked at the time that Johnson’s ball hit the foul pole, I wish I could have printed out the last 200 or so tweets and framed them.

And then it got even better. The Braves choked away their game in the 13th inning in Philly. About 15 minutes later, Jonathan Papelbon gave up the tying and winning runs in Baltimore. Less than five minutes after that, Evan Longoria was walking off in Tampa. Is that even all accurate? Who can tell – it all happened so fast, and so hilariously, because in the span of about 20 minutes we witnessed the two worst collapses in baseball history.

I loved every minute of it. Seriously. I can’t remember the last time watching baseball was so absolutely joyful, and I’m not sure we’ll ever see anything like it again.

And the Dodgers? Yeah, that happened. Ted Lilly threw seven solid shutout innings, and five Dodgers had two hits, including James Loney‘s 12th homer of the year. Really, the game was in no way as close as the 7-5 final would indicate, because it was 7-0 until Ramon Troncoso decided it was time to allow a grand slam and then a solo homer in the ninth. Oh, and we saw another kind of history: when Eugenio Velez grounded out weakly to second, it was his 46th consecutive hitless at-bat, a new major league record. So, uh, congrats there, Eugenio.

But let’s not pretend any of that is more important than this, Rod Barajas holding Gordon in some sort of bizarre baby cradle before the game. For a guy who writes hundreds (or more) words about the Dodgers every day, I am, for once, speechless:

Back tomorrow with the farewell to 2011 post. For now, I’m breathless from an absolutely outstanding night of baseball.

That Loss Was More of an Oddity than a Disaster

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Before we all start beating each other up over Tuesday night’s historic loss, let’s turn it over to commenter Paul for some much-needed clarity:

I tried really hard to be bummed out about this, but just couldn’t. This game means basically nothing, and I was almost amused by the statistical oddity of overcoming a win expectancy that high. Plus watching Ryan Roberts making fun of Kirk Gibson was pretty great.

It’s true. In previous, more competitive seasons – or lord help us, if it had been Jonathan Broxton on the mound – we’d have heard untold doomsday predictions and suicide pacts after this one. But now, in the penultimate game of a generally mediocre season after they’ve already clinched a winning record? It’s definitely more of an “wow, that happened” sort of feeling.

I mean, look at the FanGraphs WPA chart and try not to laugh:

And “happen” it did, somewhat disappointingly for Hiroki Kuroda, if this was indeed his final start as a Dodger, since he was outstanding through six shutout innings. Just look at the hijinks that took place in the top of the 10th, when the Dodgers scored five to bust open a one-run game. Dee Gordon “doubled” on what was really a well-placed (though well-struck) ground ball through the right side, then when Jerry Sands did his best to sacrifice himself with a foolish bunt (don’t get me started), Micah Owings gifted them a run by throwing the ball away attempting to get Gordon at third. That was followed by another error – Chris Young kicking around a single by Matt Kemp - and then after a groundout, single, and a walk, A.J. Ellis tripled in two runs. And by “tripled”, I of course mean, “he blasted a ball off the right field fence that ricocheted back into Justin Upton‘s face,” which is the only way Ellis is hitting triples. (When I first saw that, my initial throught was, “Chad Moriyama‘s going to gif that.” Yep, and it’s glorious.) Owings retired Jamey Carroll and Justin Sellers to finish off his nightmare frame, but the damage was done. (And more on him in a second.)

As fun as it was to see the Dodgers take such a lead in the top of the tenth, it didn’t come without a large amount of Arizona assistance, particularly Owing’s throwing error, so when Blake Hawksworth made his own mistake by failing to cover first on what would have been a game-ending bouncer to James Loney it almost seemed poetic. But still, that only put one man on, and he was still able to come within one strike of ending the game against Miguel Montero… and he couldn’t do it. Montero singled. Young walked. Aaron Miles booted a grounder to third – and I don’t want to hear any more about Miles, who’s a brutal third baseman and who is hitting .234/.292/.313 since the All-Star break – and that was it for Hawksworth.

Javy Guerra, who’d already been up and down at least once, entered as the eighth Dodger pitcher of the night. I don’t need to tell you what happened after that. But I do find it entertaining that no one is asking if Guerra has the “ice in his veins” or the “guts” to be a closer, right?

As Paul says, this was an embarrassing but ultimately meaningless loss. If anything, I think it illustrates much of what we talked about earlier yesterday as far as the bullpen goes: 1) relievers are inherently volatile; 2) veteran relievers don’t automatically mean superior performance, since even though Guerra gets the loss, it was Hawksworth who really choked this game away, and Matt Guerrier allowed the first run by failing to record a single out.

It probably says a lot about this season, I think, that on the list of “awful things that happened,” this can’t be higher that 15th or 20th on the list. Ted Lilly tries to end it on a high note later today.

******

Reason #1390138910 why pitcher wins and losses are stupid: Kuroda entered the game 13-16, and he didn’t factor into the decision. That record represents a career high in both wins and losses. So, he’s had both the best and worst season of his career? Got it.

Reason #1390138911: I mean, Owings allowed five runs in one inning before heading off to the showers. He got the win. I can’t believe I still have to argue with people about this. (Jon Weisman amusingly pointed out that since Owings had a 45.00 ERA in the game but won, that must mean the ERA stat is flawed. Ha.)

******

Good news: Ned Colletti noted that the entire coaching staff is expected back in 2012. You know what a big proponent I’ve been of this group, particularly after the ineffectiveness of Joe Torre’s crew, so this is a big win.