Category Archives: Angel Berroa

I Almost Miss Cesar Izturis

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Let’s look at the deciding innings (10th on Saturday, 9th on Sunday) of the Lost Weekend in San Francisco.

12 batters
2 solid outfield hits (Roberts, Winn)
2 ground ball singles (Rowand x2)
2 non-advancing outs (Molina K, Vizquel bunt popout)
1 outfield single that a better LF may have caught (Winn to Manny)
1 poorly-hit RBI fielder’s choice (Burriss to Broxton)
1 hit by pitch (Ochoa by Broxton)
1 error which could have been a game-ending DP (Blake on Castillo)
1 RBI fielder’s choice which a better 2B may have made a game-ending DP (Castillo thanks to Ozuna)
1 RBI infield single which a better SS would have at least had a shot at (Velez thanks to Berroa)

There’s been a lot written all around the baseball world over the last two days about how Jonathan Broxton and Hong-Chih Kuo “blew” back-to-back saves, and in the strictest sense of the word that’s true. It’s hard to argue that they got the job done when the team lost so clearly, they didn’t.

I just think it’s hard to lay all the blame at the feet of these two guys when it’s pretty clear that neither of them performed all that poorly. There were zero walks, zero homers, and one hard-hit ball apiece. It was the defense which completely blew it behind them, especially on Sunday. If Blake makes that play, you’re guaranteed one out with the possibility of a game-ending DP. If Ozuna doesn’t break the wrong way, there’s a much better chance of getting two outs rather than one. And on the last play, while it would have been a highlight if the out had been made, Berroa being unable to even pick the ball up guaranteed that there’s not even a chance to make the play to first. It’s hard for any pitcher to succeed under those circumstances.

But what’s to be expected when your middle infield in the late innings of a close game consists of two guys no one wants? Especially when you’ve got a middle infielder like Chin-Lung Hu in the minors who’s well-known to be one of the slickest fielders around and is pretty likely to be a superior hitter as well? Before this whole debacle went down, I’d already argued that Hu should be up to replace Berroa (or Ozuna) – and FireNedCollettiNow agrees.

I’m not insensitive to the injury issues that have left us barren at shortstop. But the continued presence of players like Angel Berroa and Pablo Ozuna continues to blow my mind. Neither can hit a lick – that’s no surprise. Berroa and Ozuna share nearly identical 76 and 75 career OPS+ marks, making them a full quarter worse than the average hitter. When you figure that you’re down somewhere around your 6th and 7th options on the middle infield depth chart, you don’t expect a whole lot of offense, so you can live with that. You just expect that for what you give up in offense, you’re going to get some contributions on defense.

Except that neither of them can field, either. Ozuna is 4 runs below average for his career as a second baseman, according to Baseball Prospectus, and Berroa is an almost unfathomable 45 runs below average as a shortstop over his career. It’s not like we didn’t all know this going in – just read some of the quotes included in our original report on Berroa.

As for Casey Blake, he’s not off the hook either; that error was crushing. But unlike Berroa and Ozuna, he’s at least provided some value with the bat, and his defense has actually been pretty good up until that boot.

I don’t know how this could be any clearer: shoddy defense had a direct impact in one and perhaps both of the previous two late-inning collapses. The two men you currently employ at crucial up-the-middle positions when defense is needed are both decidedly below-average at that task (nor can they hit). You have a far superior option in the minor leagues. What’s the hold-up here?

————

On another topic, fair’s fair. We’ve been really critical of Joe Torre around here lately, and I think it’s all been justified. So now when he does something that shows he might finally Get It, it wouldn’t be right to not applaud him for it.

Torre also indicated that Andre Ethier will remain in the starting outfield along with Matt Kemp in center and Manny Ramirez in left. Torre said Andruw Jones’ surgically repaired right knee is tender again and his availability even as a defensive replacement is day-to-day.

Meanwhile, Juan Pierre is really the odd man out. Although Torre initially indicated after the acquistion of Ramirez that Pierre would get the bulk of playing time ahead of Ethier, it hasn’t worked out that way. Ethier came into Sunday’s game 11-for-19 lifetime against Matt Cain, then went 2-for-3 against him with a triple, RBI and two runs scored.

“He’s seeing the ball really well right now and he has a little more pop [than Pierre],” Torre said. “As long as he looks comfortable, it’s easy to watch right now.”

The lineup for tonight’s game against Philly just came out and once again, Ethier in, Pierre out. Excellent work, Joe. Keep it up!

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness msti-face.jpg

Can We Just Get Hu Back Up Here Already?

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We’re not always right around here, you know. Sometimes we’re strongly for a move that backfires horribly. And sometimes we question a move that works out wonderfully. And sometimes we get one right; we deride a move as awful from day one and it works out exactly as we said it would. (That, by the way, remains one of my favorite posts I’ve ever written for this site).

With that, it’s time for Angel Berroa to hit the road to, well, anywhere that’s not Los Angeles. And it’s time to get Chin-Lung Hu back to the bigs.

Sure, there was a time where you could maybe, sort of, kind of make an argument for Berroa – back when Nomar and Furcal were both DL’d and the slim possibility of Berroa’s resurgence was preferable to Hu’s .159 struggles in the bigs. Maybe.

But to no one’s surprise, Berroa’s been terrible, despite his 2-4 performance tonight. Even in the emergent circumstances that have allowed him to play, a .206/.267/.243 line (coming into tonight) in a pennant race just isn’t going to cut it. Of the 72 men who’ve played shortstop in the big leagues this year, Berroa is 67th in VORP.

Now I know that Hu was awful at the plate in his shot earlier in the year; in fact, he’s one of the 5 players ranked lower in VORP than Berroa. But the idea that Hu should be given another shot over Berroa rests in two nearly indisputable facts:

1) Chin-Lung Hu is a better fielder than Angel Berroa. Actually, Berroa hasn’t been all that bad at shortstop, but Hu is so good that there’s little argument here. If you’ve got two guys who probably won’t contribute all that much at the plate, you might as well go with the one who offers more in the field, right? Even when Hu was struggling at the the dish, he proved that his fielding was the real deal, not even committing a single error in his 28 games at SS earlier this year. While Berroa hasn’t been as bad as I feared with the glove, he’s been middle-of-the pack (indeed, his .975 fielding % would tie him for 15th of the 20 shortstops with enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title, if he were qualified as well).

2) Chin-Lung Hu is more likely to contribute offensively than Angel Berroa. The fact that I’m saying a guy who hit .159/.224/.206 is carrying a bigger bat than anyone is pretty damning, but I really think this is true. Hu hit the minor league DL with vision problems soon after he got there, and since getting that taken care of has been killing the ball, putting up a .361/.400/.475 line. There’s precedent for this with him, too; after struggling through 2006 (.660 OPS) problems with his vision were first made public, and after getting his eyes healthy in the offseason, he busted out with an .871 OPS in 2007. I don’t know exactly what the problems with his eyes have been, but this is twice now that after getting his vision issues corrected he’s come back with a vengeance. Not to mention that Hu is a highly-touted 24-year-old who can be expected to improve, while Berroa is now 30 and five years removed from his one decent season.

The shortstop situation remains fluid; Nomar is supposedly going to return in the next week or so, and Rafael Furcal has targeted September 1 for his own return. Each will likely need a caddy, so why not go with the younger superior fielder who may have fixed his hitting problems rather than the older mediocre-at-best black hole of a veteran? Seems to make sense to me.

Also, I’m not going to write yet another post about how lousy Juan Pierre is and Joe Torre’s inexplicable infatuation with him; we’ve done that plenty around here. That said, I can’t help but direct you to the wonderful article Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus wrote on the situation yesterday. A lot of it is exactly the same sort of thing we’ve been saying around here from day one, but it’s still a good read. It’s far too long to copy and paste the whole thing here (plus, it is behind a pay wall), but these snippets should give you a good idea.

Ethier was also better last year, and has been the better player than Pierre from the moment he stepped into the league. This isn’t a debatable point—Andre Ethier is a better baseball player than Juan Pierre.

The argument that Pierre’s poor rate stats don’t accurately capture his skills is false. He isn’t a good leadoff hitter who generates runs via his speed. He’s not on base enough, and because he’s not on base enough, both he and his team are poor at scoring runs when he bats leadoff. Batting Juan Pierre leadoff is, to bring back a term, baseball malpractice.

If the Dodgers fail to reach the postseason, it will be in part because Furcal got hurt. You can’t just ignore that part of the equation. But it will be just as much because Joe Torre elected to kneecap his offense by putting a bad baseball player in a critical role, and stubbornly sticking with that decision despite what it was doing to his offense. No amount of geniality, experience, speed, or hustle can counter the statistics above. When anybody but Juan Pierre leads off, the Dodgers score 50 percent more runs than they do when Pierre leads off. Consistently

So… hard… to type… through… tears of joy…

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness msti-face.jpg

MSTI’s First Half Review: Offense

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Is it that time of the year already? Sure, it’s not really “halfway” through the year since the Blue have already played 95 games, but here we are at the All-Star break. This won’t be as extensive as last year’s season reviews, since there’s only three days to do it in, but it still will touch upon everyone who appeared in a game for the Dodgers this year. So today is offense, tomorrow pitching, and the next day will be front office/coaching staff/awards/overall grade. And on Thursday, a big MSTI announcement. How did we do this last year? That’s right:

First, some quick ground rules. Completely unscientific and arbitrary, this is how we’ve seen the results of the season. One important distinction, is that the letter grade is based upon what we reasonably could have expected of the player entering the year, not comparing him to other MLB players at his position. You’ll soon see why this is so important.

Less than 10 IP or 100 at-bats gets you an “incomplete”. Stats are presented (BA/OBP/SLG).

We’ll knock that down to 50 at-bats for the half-season review, but everything else remains the same.

Catcher
Russell Martin (.294/.394/.436 10hr 45rbi) (A+)
Without question, the best offensive player so far. There were actually some inane stories out there that I won’t even subject you to linking to saying that he’s been off his game this year, but that’s mostly thanks to his very slow start to the season, hitting .197 as late as April 20th. But you know what? Martin’s actually having the best offensive year of his career overall. His 118 OPS+ is up 5 from last year, and while his slugging % is down slightly (.029 less than last year), it’s more than made up by his exemplary .394 OBP, which is actually better than Alex Rodriguez, Josh Hamilton, and Hanley Ramirez. Plus, he plays third base! What can I say? This guy’s the heart and soul of the team. He’s the best player, and he never complains. Love this guy. Love him.

Gary Bennett (.190/.261/.381 1hr 4rbi) (incomplete)
What a weird, weird season for the initial 2008 recipient of the Mike Lieberthal Memorial “Guy Who Rots on the Bench Behind Russell Martin” Award. Bennett only really got notice in two of my posts all season, and they couldn’t be more divergent – first, he got some recognition for a good game in Milwaukee on May 15, and then just five days later we cheered his being placed on the DL, saying,

“Left foot plantar fasciitis.” Let me say, the quotes could not be thicker around that. We’ve had no word of any injury problems surrounding Bennett, but tons of stories about his throwing problems, and suddenly his foot hurts? Hey, call it a bad foot, the flu, or the heebie-jeebies; whatever it takes to get this guy’s head right and get those lollipop throws off the field. Seriously, he even made Rotoworld today, which is rare for a mediocre backup catcher, and at no point is the foot mentioned.

Thanks for showing up, Gary. Lousy hitter who can’t throw – fantastic. If you wanted to hit the slots in Vegas the rest of the summer, that’d be A-ok by me.

Danny Ardoin (.211/.250/.263 0hr 2rbi) (incomplete)
Another member of the Loyal Order of Backup Catchers, Ardoin’s been.. well, he’s an improvement on Bennett, anyway. He’s not much of a hitter either, but everything I’ve read about him says that the pitchers like throwing to him way better than Bennett. As far as I’m concerned, the team is screwed if Martin’s hurt anyway, so it doesn’t really matter all that much which one backs him up, but I’d really like it if it would be Ardoin rather than Bennett, whenever he’s healthy. Amazingly enough, Ardoin’s already doubled Mike Lieberthal’s RBI total from last season.

First Base
James Loney (.291/.351/.446 7hr 50rbi) (C+)
Loney gets a C+ not because he’s been that lousy, but simply because we had such high expectations for him. After last year’s offensive explosion in the second half, who among us wasn’t drooling at the prospect of him playing 1B for the entire season? But after the first two months, he was only hitting in the .270s with 5 homers. Of course, he dominated in June (.362/.425/.500), only to fall back in July, hitting just .224 so far. He’s been.. okay. Not bad, not great. I still think he’s got it in him to pick it up.

Second Base
Jeff Kent (.253/.304/.407 9hr 40rbi) (C-)
This, I must say, was a tough one. On one hand, he was really bad for a good portion of the season – I assume you haven’t forgotten the whole chase to be the worst cleanup hitter of the last 50 years, but on the other hand, Kent’s 40 years old, and how much can you ever depend on a guy that age, anyway? At least he’s been able to stay relatively healthy, and his bat has turned it around a bit lately.

On the plus side, no one’s accusing Kent of being involved in any clubhouse fiascos so far, so at least he’s got that going for him. 

Third Base
Blake DeWitt (.263/.330/.372 5hr 34rbi) (A)
Just like Kent, this is a tough grade to assign. I know it seems like a long time ago now, but do you remember how desperate this team was at the hot corner at the end of March? Nomar was hurt, LaRoche was hurt, Abreu was hurt, and the trade options were either unavailable or unappealing. So we turn over the job to the guy who was guaranteed to put up Hu-like offensive numbers. Except that.. he was good. Really good, slugging .517 in May. He was a lock for Rookie of the Year and surprise of the year. Go Blake!

Of course, great story aside, he’s cratered since then, with just 4 extra base hits in the last 6 weeks, which is Pierre-like levels of mediocrity. Ah hell, it doesn’t matter. He shouldn’t be starting every day anymore, but that’s a topic we’ve already covered. He gets an A simply because I shudder to think what would have happened if he hadn’t held things down for the first two months.

Andy LaRoche (.192/.294/.341 2hr 3rbi) (incomplete)
Seems like LaRoche is shaping up to be part of the next Dodgers holy war, following in the footsteps of Juan Pierre and Hee-Seop Choi. No, he hasn’t done much in the bigs. But the people who want to write him off are insane – he’s gotten just 44 at-bats this year. Look, he’s got nothing more to prove in the minors (career .895 OPS). The Dodgers need power. Blake DeWitt is slumping badly. So then why can’t LaRoche ever start more than two games in a row? Why has he been benched the day after hitting a home run both times? Some things, I’ll never understand.

Shortstop
Rafael Furcal (.366/.448/.597 5hr 16rbi) (R)
That’s right, I gave Furcal an “R”. Why? Because the best way I can sum up his 2008 is “ARRRRRRRGGGHH!!!!” From the best start of his career, to an injury that was to keep him out a few days, to surgery that will end with him missing 4 months. Despite everything that’s gone wrong with this season, it’s hard to point to anything that was more damaging than this. Furcal’s back woes not only cost the team its hottest hitter, but lead to the failings of Hu, the misery of Angel Berroa, and the so-far entertaining Nomar era. Think about it, the Dodgers are one game out. It’s not much of a stretch to say that if Furcal had stayed healthy, the Dodgers are in first place, is it?

Angel Berroa (.192/.253/.219 0hr 0rbi) (F)
I have to say, of all the stats I looked up for this article, Berroa surprised me more than anybody. He really has zero RBI? Not even one? Despite starting 21 games? That would be incredible, if it weren’t so depressing. Look at it this way, Berroa’s had 72 at-bats without an RBI. That’s the most in MLB by a large margin, nearly double the 40 at-bats by Washington’s Roger Bernadina. Yikes! Actually, now that I think about it, maybe Berroa doesn’t deserve an F here. Maybe he should be getting a C. I mean, it’s not like we didn’t all know he was going to suck from day one. And to the surprise of no one except perhaps Ned Colletti, he has. He’s been exactly as bad as we thought, not that it was possible to be any worse, so in that sense he’s been the average Angel Berroa.

Nah, forget it. Big. Fat. F.

Chin-Lung Hu (.159/.224/.206 0hr 7rbi) (D)
This really should be an F, because Hu’s utter failure to perform once Furcal went down has to rank as one of the bigger disappointments of the season. The only thing bumping him up to a D is the fact that his defense more than lived up to its sparking reputation. But I don’t think it was too much to expect that he had a shot to be a decent hitter, since after a breakthrough 2007 where he OPS’d .871 in the minors, he popped 2 dingers in 29 late-season at-bats in the bigs. And then.. fizzle. Now, he’s apparently had some vision issues since returning to AAA, so if that’s what caused this, I haven’t completely given up on him. It’s just that if he could have been even a mediocre hitter, we could have kept his slick glove in the lineup and avoided the entire Berroa fiasco.

Infield
Nomar Garciaparra (.250/.328/.400 2hr 12rbi) (!!!)
What a year for Nomahhh. Breaks his hand in spring training, comes back to play in all of 8 games (hitting .226) before hurting his calf and missing two more months.. only to return at shortstop. You can’t make this stuff up. In fact, I wish I had predicted this in the offseason, just so I could see what kind of responses I’d have gotten saying that I’d completely lost my mind. Remember last year when Nomar couldn’t be moved from 1B to 3B to make room for Loney because he was “too fragile”? Well, a year and several injuries later, now he’s playing shortstop. Unbelievable. He’s hit okay since coming back (.286/.333/.500 in 8 games), but there’s just no way this doesn’t end with him somehow spontaneously combusting turning a double play, right?

Luis Maza (.228/.282/.278 1hr 4rbi) (C… ish)
Remember, we’re doing these grades based not on how they compare to the rest of the league, but based on how a player has performed based on reasonable expectations at the beginning of the season. This is why Hu gets a D, since he was below expectations, and why DeWitt gets an A, since he was so far above. The only time this method runs into a problem is in the case of Luis Maza, because for someone who runs a Dodgers blog and likes to think he knows entirely too much about the Dodger organization.. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I had never even heard of this guy coming into the season. So it’s hard to say I had any expectations of him. That said, he’s been pretty much what you’d think he’d be – a quad-A player who’s a mediocre hitter and a decent fielder, albeit with a particularly lousy arm.

Mark Sweeney (.094/.181/.125 0hr 3rbi) (?)
Sweeney gets a question mark for a grade. That’s partially because he doesn’t even deserve to attain a letter, but mostly to represent the question of, Why is Mark Sweeney on This Team? He serves no function. He’s a pinch-hitter who can’t hit. He can’t hit lefties. He can’t hit righties. He can’t hit at home. He can’t hit on the road. He can’t hit during the day. He can’t hit at night. We do not like him here or there, we do not like him anywhere.  His OPS is negative 18, which I believe means he’s lapsed into some sort of an unknown dimension. He’s 38 years old, and he’s got 6 hits in 72 at-bats! It’s the end of the line, and it’s just stubbornness on the part of the Dodgers front office that they allow him to keep making outs (he’s supposedly coming off the DL on Friday). I would love to know what kind of pictures Sweeney must have of Colletti with a lampshade on his head in order to keep his job.

Time to go, Mark. Time to go.

Terry Tiffee (.250/.400/.250 0hr 0rbi) (incomplete)
Tiffee only went 1-4 in his short time up, but I’ve been backing him for over two months. Now back at Vegas, he’s kept up his amazing season, currently rocking a .396/.434/.598 line. Sure, say it’s a fluke, say whatever you like. Maybe you’re right. But there is simply no argument you can use to convince me that he shouldn’t be taking Mark Sweeney’s place. None. Tiffee is more useful than Sweeney in every conceivable way – hitting, fielding, versatility, you name it. (And I did, right here.) I suppose I’m venturing more into Colletti territory than Tiffee, but really, all Tiffee’s done is hit all year long. What else does he have to do?

Tony Abreu (n/a) (incomplete)
“Knock, knock.”
“Hello?”
“Is this Mr. Abreu?”
“Yes, who are you?”
“I’m opportunity. And I’m knocking.”
“Hmm.. thanks, but no thanks. Bye!”

Outfield
Matt Kemp (.278/.331/.437 9hr 49rbi 20sb) (B)
We’ve exhausted a lot of pixels on Kemp around here lately, so I won’t revisit it all again. But suffice it to say, there’s been nothing boring about Kemp’s season. To wild trade rumors to arguments about what type of player he is and will be, Kemp’s been front and center. As you probably know, considering his age and inexperience, I’m pretty satisfied with what he’s done, especially his improvement in the outfield. The strikeouts have to be cut, of course, but remember that he’s only 23. Guys like Matt Holliday and Ryan Howard hadn’t even made their debuts by 23, instead being allowed to develop in the minors. Considering Kemp’s already been (roughly) an average MLBer at that age, let’s cut the kid a little slack, okay?

Andre Ethier (.286/.350/.464 11hr 41rbi) (A-)
Don’t look now, but Ethier is leading the entire team in homers and slugging %. That’s pretty impressive for a guy who’s been continually jerked around in terms of playing time when both Jones and Pierre were available. He gets a bit of a demerit for that .195 June, but he’s come roaring back in July with a 1.061 OPS. So of course, we can look forward to him seeing some bench in two weeks when Pierre returns. Because that’s what a team who can’t hit should do – bench their biggest power hitter. Amazing.

Juan Pierre (.277/.327/.318 0hr 24rbi 35sb) (D)
This isn’t the place to rehash the whole Pierre argument yet again, but it’s pretty simple, as far as I’m concerned. He’s having the worst season of his career by every single offensive stat (save steals), which is saying a lot when it’s the fourth straight season he’s declined since his career year of 2004. Regardless of how you feel about him, he’s not even living up to his own mediocre standards. That’s not good, and I can’t imagine it’ll be any better if his knee is any less than 100% when he comes back. Yet Joe Torre is infatuated with him, but I guess that’s something more to discuss in Torre’s review. Of 19 MLB leftfielders with enough at-bats to qualify, Pierre is dead last in OPS, coming in nearly 340 points lower than leader Matt Holliday’s. That’s not just bad, that’s really bad.

By the way, in that “career year”, his OPS+ was 107 (it’s down to 69 this year). Andre Ethier’s this season is 110. Just sayin’.

Andruw Jones (.167/.261/.253 2hr 9rbi) (you don’t even deserve a letter, Andruw)
What. A. Disaster. Hey, we’re not always right at MSTI either, because we both supported this deal when it was signed. But geez. I can’t even get on Colletti for this one, because really, who the hell saw this happening? If you didn’t see this link the other day, ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark says Jones is on pace for the Worst Offensive Season in Baseball History.

You know what, I can’t even talk about him. You don’t need stats on this one. You have eyes. You’ve watched the Dodgers. He’s awful, and no one seems to know why. What a mess.

Delwyn Young (.255/.327/.343 1hr 5rbi) (C-)
Have to admit, I’m a little torn on Delwyn. We’ve been big fans of his for a while, because on a team that’s struggling so badly offensively, a guy who’s done nothing but kill the ball at every stop would seem like a useful player to have. I mean, it was just last season that he broke a 41-year-old PCL record for doubles. That said, he hasn’t really done all that much with the big club this season. Oddly enough, his stats are the exact opposite of what I had thought; I was all set to say “but he doesn’t get to play that much with the OF logjam, and its hard for a kid to be a pinch-hitter”. Except that as it turns out, he’s hitting .342 off the bench vs. only .203 as a starter.

Jason Repko (.000/.000/.000 0hr 0rbi) (incomplete)
Oh, Jason. Poor Jason. Just can’t catch a break. You come up and go 0-5 with 4 K’s in your first game, and then get all of two more at-bats before getting sent down, probably for good. Damn shame, really.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness msti-face.jpg

I Know it’s the 4th of July…

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…you’ll be busy. You’ll have a family barbeque to get to, a local fireworks celebration – whatever it is you do to enjoy a national holiday. Really, if you’re actually reading this post right now, I’m a little disappointed in you. But I implore you, make some time in your day to catch the Dodger game (1pm PST). Because as you should already know, both Nomar Garciaparra and Andruw Jones have sped up their rehab in order to be available today. Tell me you’re not interested in seeing Nomar playing shortstop for the first time since 2005! Especially now that it’s been another year and nine more injuries since “he’s too fragile to play third base” was offered as a reason that he couldn’t be shifted across the infield from first base to make room for James Loney. And you know you want to see if Jones is going to offer any glimpse of the player he once was, especially since his rehab was originally supposed to end a full two weeks from now on July 18th. I know it’s only 3 minor league games, but he did go 4-8 with a homer and a stolen base in Vegas – and zero strikeouts. Is it possible that the knee really was the source of his problems? I guess we’ll have to see. But if he can come back and be even half of his former self, that would still help this power-starved team and be a massive improvement on the guy who was approximately 1/100000th of his old self earlier this year.

Of course, bringing both of these guys back will require some roster moves, especially for Nomar because, having been placed on the 60 day DL, he’s no longer on the 40-man roster. Ken Gurnick of Dodgers.com says:

The Dodgers will need to make two roster moves to make room for the veterans. Newly arrived outfielder Jason Repko is one likely candidate. The other could come from a group of bench players, including Angel Berroa, Andy LaRoche and Mark Sweeney.

Repko, fine. Yeah, it’s only been seven at-bats, but the four K’s and zero hits haven’t exactly made much of an impression. Get an OF back in Jones, send one down in Repko. But here’s the thing, Ken. There’s a bunch of guys that could get the axe for Nomar. Angel Berroa’s got an OPS+ of 27, to the surprise of absolutely no one except Ned Colletti. With Nomar around, Berroa and Luis Maza seem a little redundant – and Maza’s OPS+ is 44, which is still bad, but at least he can play second as well. Mark Sweeney may be the most useless player the Dodgers have ever had, and yes, I do remember Jason Grabowski. He’s hitting .094, for chrissakes. There’s even a case to be made for sending down Blake DeWitt, now that he’s down to hitting .169 over the last month. The point is, there’s a lot of filler on the roster right now. However, in no way should Andy LaRoche be considered among them. I know, he’s not really lit the league on fire yet. But unlike Berroa, Maza, and Sweeney, he’s actually got a future. 30 big league at-bats is hardly enough to decide what it is. If Andy LaRoche is the one sent down for Nomar… well, that might be the end of this blog entirely, because I don’t know if I could ever rationally write about this team again.

On to trade rumor news, because that’s always a topic I find endlessly fascinating. First, the shortstop problem. We’ve discussed the possibility of David Eckstein before, and although I wasn’t really for it, I understood why he might be in the conversation. Well, hopefully this juxtaposition from the Toronto Sun can put an end to that right here and now:

It’s no surprise that the Blue Jays are shopping right-hander A.J. Burnett.

But what they’re looking for in return certainly is.

The Jays are looking to obtain a shortstop in talks with other teams.

Wait, the Jays have two shortstops, Eckstein and John McDonald. Why would they want another?

“They’re offering Burnett to any team that needs pitching,” said an American League general manager. “They’ve told us they’re not happy with either David Eckstein or John McDonald.”

McDonald signed a two-year contract for $3.8 million last fall and before spring training the Jays signed Eckstein to a one-year deal worth $4.5 million. Eckstein has had problems in the field while McDonald is hitting .163 in 29 games.

Manager Cito Gaston has given as much playing time at short to Marco Scutaro, who was signed as an utility infielder.

Fantastic. The Jays are in last place and even they can’t stomach Eckstein. I especially like the “has had problems in the field” part of this. I know the Dodgers are desperate at SS… but not that desperate, right?

Finally, C.C. Sabathia, also known as “an expensive starting pitcher the Dodgers simply do not need, yet the media seems to insist that they do”. I can’t find the video, unfortunately, but my eyes nearly fell out of my head watching Tim Kurkjian on ESPN last night saying that the Dodgers “desperately need a starting pitcher”. Yes, the fact that the Dodgers have the #1 pitching staff in the NL (by ERA), a bonafide young ace in Chad Billingsley, and a lousy offense shouts “more pitching!” Well, Ken Rosenthal is reporting the Brewers are jumping into this with both feet, saying:

The Brewers’ offer for Sabathia includes Class AA left fielder Matt LaPorta, according to sources with two other clubs that are interested in acquiring the pitcher.

Class AA shortstop Alcides Escobar also may be in the Brewers’ proposed deal, one of the sources says.

To put this into Dodgers terms, consider sending Matt Kemp and Chin-Lung Hu – plus likely more since LaPorta is considered an even better hitting prospect than Kemp. How many times can I say “pass”?

Have a happy holiday, folks.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness msti-face.jpg

Clayton Kershaw Doesn’t Know How to Win

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I’m completely kidding, of course. But thanks to the bullpen blowing his lead tonight – and yes, Brian Falkenborg, even though two of those three runs got charged to Kershaw, it was you who gave up that three run bomb – Kershaw has now gone almost 11 months since his last professional win, on August 20, 2007, for AA Jacksonville. I know, I know; wins are a terrible way to evaluate a pitcher, and for much of that time his pitch count has been so regulated that he’s been unable to go the five innings required to get the victory. Throw in the fact that the Dodgers simply cannot score, and there’s plenty of extenuating circumstances. I get it. But still… it’s been nearly a year since the kid’s last victory.

It’s with this in mind that I say I hope that Kershaw is sent down once Brad Penny and Hiroki Kuroda return to the rotation. No, it’s not that he’s been all that bad. He’s been almost exactly what we thought he’d be – very inconsistent with flashes of greatness. For a 20 year old kid coming straight out of AA, the fact that he’s been almost exactly league average (4.42 ERA vs. the 4.38 average NL ERA) is actually very impressive, as are the 33 K’s in 38.2 innings. Kershaw has come up in a situation where most pitchers would embarrass themselves, and he’s shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s got the talent to dominate once he harnesses his control and learns to be a pitcher.

But the fact is very simple: is he one of the five best starting pitchers the Dodgers have right now? I’d say no. Chad Billingsley is already one of the top young pitchers in the NL, and after a rough stretch Derek Lowe has been excellent (3.21 ERA over the last month). Penny and Kuroda are obviously guaranteed slots once they return, and you’ve still got both Chan Ho Park and Eric Stults for the 5th spot, each of whom have been surprisingly effective.

This is why I didn’t want Kershaw to be called up in the first place – not because I thought he’d be overmatched, but because I simply didn’t see the need to rush him. Perhaps if he’d been called up when Penny and Kuroda went down within days of each other, I would have felt differently, but the fact is that the Dodgers already have too many good starting pitchers for too few slots, and it’s certainly not as though Kershaw has nothing left to master. Send the kid down for the next two months while he feels good about proving that he can hang with the big guys. Let him work on his weaknesses, especially his command and ability to work deeper into ballgames. Give him another start or two in September once the rosters expand, and hope that he’s learned enough to be counted on for 2009 out of the gate.

In other much more disappointing news, Dodger announcer Charley Steiner reported during tonight’s broadcast that Rafael Furcal was returning to Los Angeles for another exam after waking up in Las Vegas with back pain after his very first rehab game last night. Considering that Furcal was expected to rejoin the Dodgers as soon as this weekend vs. San Francisco, it’s becoming more and more clear that we simply cannot count on him at all. Even if he’s able to make it back to the big club at some point, it’s entirely too much of a risk to assume that he won’t get hurt again. And since this team absolutely positively cannot continue to go with Angel Berroa at shortstop, it’s really time to start looking into acquiring a shortstop. As bad as we all knew Berroa would be, he’s actually been worse. A line of .183/.246/.217 is an absolute joke, and he’s been so bad that he’s been benched for Luis Maza the last two nights in search of “offense”, even though Maza’s only putting up a 54 OPS+ himself. Although I know it sounds like I’m just tooting my own horn here, it’s not as though we didn’t all know this is what was going to happen from the moment Ned Colletti acquired him. 

I looked into what we could do at shortstop recently, and it’s time to really amp this up. Contrary to what I wrote yesterday (that Nomar was useless since he wouldn’t beat Furcal back), it now seems that we’re really going to see Nomar as the starting SS on this team, and that’s pretty much unacceptable too. Ned, forget about C.C. Sabathia. Find this team a competent shortstop. Do it now. We’re begging you, here.

Finally – and I know this is starting to drag on, but hey, what fun would writing a blog while drinking be otherwise? - old pal Ken Rosenthal checks in with a new rumor, this time that the Dodgers are interested in Toronto DH/1B Matt Stairs. I know what you’re thinking; “MSTI thinks Rosenthal is a joker, and he especially couldn’t handle Colletti acquiring yet another old veteran part.” Well think again, because I actually don’t hate this idea, presuming that it lives under the following conditions:

1. That it means the end of the Mark Sweeney era
2. That it wouldn’t require sending much of value back to Toronto

Yes, Stairs is old. But unlike Sweeney, he can hit. The last time he didn’t get double-digit homers in a season was 1995, and he only got 88 at-bats that year. Just a year ago he put up 21 homers and a 138 OPS+. This year he hasn’t been as good, but still slightly better than average for an AL player and his 8 HRs would instantly make him tied for the club lead. Plus, he can fill in at 1B and the OF corners. I’m not saying I’m dying for this to happen, but if the above two conditions are met (and really, I can’t imagine that Sweeney would stick if Stairs came, they’re the exact same player, except that Stairs isn’t dead), I could live with it.

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness msti-face.jpg