Category Archives: Scott Elbert

All Hail Aaron Miles & Jamey Carroll

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Hey, I have to reach for positives somewhere, right? The Dodgers had just six hits today, and five came from Aaron Miles (three) and Jamey Carroll (two). The duo also combined for the only Dodger run, with Miles singling in Carroll after the latter had doubled to lead off the third inning. Credit where credit is due: Miles has five multihit games in his last ten, and while he’s not drawing any walks or hitting for any power, his recent production is still about 10,000% more than we’d ever expected from him.

Of course, when you’re rolling out a lineup that features Dioner Navarro 6th (3 K!) and Juan Castro 7th, you’ve basically conceded the game anyway. As we’d worried all season, once Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier stopped being world-beaters, this team was going to be in massive trouble, and they’ve each been in mini-slumps, with today’s combined 0-7 dropping both of their May OPS lines down near .700. Factor in Ted Lilly‘s continued issues with keeping the ball in the park, and this was a game that was over pretty much right after it began, save for a brief spurt of life in the 9th that came up short.

The Dodgers have scored just seven runs in their last three games, and five or more just twice over their last sixteen. It might not get much easier this week, with Shaun Marcum, Randy Wolf, Madison Bumgarner, Gavin Floyd, and Mark Buehrle among the scheduled opposing pitchers.

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Let’s not overlook two brief bullpen positives from today’s game: Scott Elbert, making his season debut, struck out all three Diamondbacks he saw in the 8th inning. Javy Guerra, making his major league debut, followed by striking out one in a scoreless 9th inning. Elbert will have to prove it over much more than just one inning after how inconsistent he’s been over the last three seasons, but this is definitely a step in the right direction, and a glimpse into just how much talent he has if he can figure out how to harness it.

I Think The Rotation Is Ready For the Season (Updated)

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Nice weekend for the starting staff, right?

Chad Billingsley, today: 3.2 innings, 3 hits, 2 runs (1 earned), 2 K, after last week’s 3 scoreless inning debut.

Clayton Kershaw, yesterday: 4 scoreless innings, facing the minimum 12 batters, giving him 7 scoreless innings this spring in which he’s allowed just 3 hits.

Jon Garland, on Friday: 3 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit.

Any comments about the offense, or lack thereof, should be held back on a day that has a lineup missing Matt Kemp, Rafael Furcal, Andre Ethier, Casey Blake, and Juan Uribe, and features Dioner Navarro hitting cleanup. On the other hand, Marcus Thames, on his 34th birthday, doubled off the left-center wall to tie the game at 3 in the 8th.

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25th man update: Justin Sellers replaced Juan Castro in the starting lineup at shortstop, walked once in two tries and made two errors on the same play in the first inning, destroying a WGN banner in the process. Castro struck out pinch-hitting in the 5th (against Carlos Marmol, to be fair) and later doubled. Aaron Miles, playing third, tripled and scored the first Dodger run, while Ivan DeJesus went 0-2. The arrow is still pointing strongly in Castro’s direction.

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Ramon Troncoso got four outs on seven pitches, prompting new DodgerTalk co-host Joe Block to claim that he’s made the team; Troncoso has now thrown 3.1 scoreless innings without allowing a walk. I think that may be a bit premature, but with the turmoil at the back end of the bullpen, there’s certainly opportunity. You’d think that his history, and time away from the overuse of Joe Torre, would get him some consideration, though.

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Hey, Navarro’s going to get a hit sometime, right? I know, it’s spring, it’s early, I get it. Just saying, guys who have hit .212 over the last two seasons and have an arguably superior player behind them need to show something a little more than not getting on base once over their first eleven plate appearances. He at least plated Gabe Kapler on a sac fly today, though of course if Kapler hadn’t been on third, it’d have just been another flyout. Meanwhile, A.J. Ellis drew a walk and threw out a runner trying to steal.

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At the Los Angeles Times blog, Steve Dilbeck wonders what might happen if James Loney‘s knee troubles end up being worse than they appear. Despite Russ Mitchell getting the most playing time in Loney’s absence right now (where’s John Lindsey?), Dilbeck thinks that Casey Blake would get the bulk of the time during the season, with Juan Uribe sliding to third and Jamey Carroll entering at second, because it’s just not realistic to think that Jerry Sands breaks camp with the team.

I think Dilbeck’s assumption is probably correct, but it got me thinking – would that alignment actually make the team better? There’s a few reasons to think that it might:

  • Carroll would add badly need OBP. His mark has been .355 or higher in each of the last three seasons, four of the last six, and five of the last seven. Carroll doesn’t hit for power, but then again neither does Loney; overall, Carroll had a higher OPS+ last year.
  • It’d help optimize the lineup, since Carroll could be a good #2 hitter, pushing Blake down to 6 where he belongs.
  • It’d shift Uribe to 3B, which is his stronger defensive position.
  • It’d improve platooning possibilities. If Blake were the 1B, then he’s a much more dangerous hitter against lefty pitching than Loney is (though I hope that’s going to happen regardless). You could also spot in Gibbons against tough righty pitching, which likely wouldn’t happen if Loney was in.

It’s not all roses, of course, because you couldn’t expect the 37-year-old Carroll to play every day, and you’d weaken an already questionable bench by removing him from it. The ideal solution is that Loney is healthy and productive, so by no means am I rooting for him to be out. But just the fact that this is a conversation worth having shows the extent of the questions that he’s going to have to answer this year.

Update #1: Well, looks like Carroll has injury concerns of his own:

Jamey Carroll was unable to throw comfortably Sunday after taking a pitch off his right index finger Saturday, but X-rays were negative.

Carroll was able to hit despite the swelling in the finger and will probably need a few more days before he can return to game action.

Update #2: I’d meant to note that Scott Elbert, who was originally supposed to pitch today, did not. Here’s why:

Scott Elbert, the lefty reliever struggling with his control in games, was held back from a scheduled Sunday appearance and instead will throw batting practice Monday while working on a mechanical adjustment.

 

Scott Elbert Should Be in AAA, And That’s Okay

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You’ll probably hear people say that Scott Elbert punched his ticket back to the minors this afternoon in Arizona, as he walked four of the six batters he faced and managed to get just six of his 21 pitches across for strikes. That comes after a spring debut in which he walked two in one inning, meaning that he’s walked six of the ten spring batters he’s seen.

Now maybe his slow start to the spring is what’s going to get him knocked down to AAA, and maybe it’s not, but my feeling has always been that it shouldn’t matter. Unless he was able to come to camp and dominate, that always should have been the plan. And why not? He’s always had control issues, walking 5.0/9 in the minors, and last year that went up to an untenable 7.1/9. That’s of course before his well-publicized but little-understood leave of absence that meant he didn’t pitch after June.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers have a wealth of other options, even in the absence of Ronald Belisario and Vicente Padilla, including Ron Mahay, who I’ve been high on. Elbert’s undeniably talented, yet there’s no reason to force him onto the roster before he shows he can harness his control issues and when he hasn’t pitched in a real game in about eight months. He has a minor league option remaining, and there’s no harm in using it. That’s not a reflection on today’s performance; it’s simply what the plan should always have been with him. I still have high hopes for a long and successful major league career from Elbert, it’s just that the events of the last year mean that starting the season back in the minors is hardly an insult.

On the other hand, it’s possible that today’s trouble was all the result of some global conspiracy, coming as it did in the same game as Tim Redding tossing three shutout innings and Juan Castro (!) bashing a homer, which probably assures him of a roster spot. Strange things are afoot at the Circle K…

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Clayton Kershaw today received a $500k salary for 2011, his last before arbitration. While I’ve made my preference for a long-term contract for him clear, it’s hard to argue having a guy like Kershaw on the books for a lousy half-million. For the production we expect to get from him this year, is there a better value in the bigs? I think not.

Should the Dodgers Be Looking For A Lefty Bullpen Arm?

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Ponder this: it’s the first week of January, yet there may not be a single pitching spot up for grabs when camp starts in roughly six weeks. While the offensive side may see mild competition at backup catcher and the possible addition of a low-cost righty outfielder (and as I have been for months, I’m still on board the Lastings Milledge train), the pitching staff seems to be entirely set, barring any unexpected trades.

The rotation is obvious, as Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda, Ted Lilly, and Jon Garland will head up one of the more solid starting groups in the game. Then, assuming the Dodgers carry seven relievers – as they almost always do – it seems pretty obvious that the seven are going to be Jonathan Broxton, Hong-Chih Kuo, Kenley Jansen, Vicente Padilla, Matt Guerrier, Ronald Belisario, & Blake Hawksworth. You can quibble about Belisario and Hawksworth, I suppose, but each are out of options and I doubt either is exposed to waivers, particularly with Belisario reportedly throwing well in winter ball. Behind them, there’s familiar names like Travis Schlichting, Jon Link, and Ramon Troncoso in the mix as well, ready to start at ABQ and come up when depth is needed. It’s a solid group.

Yet the question must be asked: should the Dodgers try to ensure that there’s another lefty in the bullpen alongside Kuo? If so, who?

Kuo may be the only southpaw in that group, but he’s of course hardly your typical lefty reliever. He may well end up with part of the closer’s job again, and since he’s dominant against all batters there’s no need to restrict him to just lefties anyway. Now, you don’t have to have a second lefty, but since Kuo generally doesn’t pitch on back-to-back days and may be held back for the 9th inning anyway, there’s a real risk that the team would almost never have a real situational lefty available for big spots in the 7th and 8th innings.

Unless you’ve really got your heart set on Dana Eveland, the only viable internal candidate is Scott Elbert, who has begun to make the transition from starter to reliever. Elbert was impressive in the AFL, his power stuff (10.4 K/9 in the minors) would play well in the bullpen, and I’d love to see the longtime prospect finally break through. Elbert comes with obvious risk, of course; not only was there the well-known leave of absence that cost him much of last season, but until he harnesses his control (5.0 BB/9 in the minors) relying on him in late-inning situations may be dicey. Considering that he didn’t pitch in the minors last year after June, starting him off back at ABQ may not be the worst idea in the world.

If you’re willing to look outside the organization, there’s several veteran options who may come at a reasonable cost – and no, I’m not talking about Brian Fuentes, who is overrated and reportedly wants a three-year deal. There’s a few familiar names out there, including several former Dodgers. Let’s take a look at who’s out there with their 2011 ages, 2010 K/BB stats, and 2010 performance against lefties…

Will Ohman, 33 (9.2 K/9, 4.2 BB/9, .636 OPS vs. LHB)
Ohman’s 2009 in Dodger blue was nothing less than an injury-filled disaster, as he pitched just 12.1 terrible innings before being non-tendered. Yet Ohman had several successful seasons before that and bounced back with Baltimore and Florida last year, starting his year with 25 straight games without being charged with a run. Though his walk rate was certainly higher than you’d like, he’s still getting lefty hitters out; his 2010 OPS is nearly identical to his career mark of .646.

Joe Beimel, 34 (4.2 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, .653 OPS vs LHB)
Beimel was something of a fan favorite in LA during his three seasons as a Dodger (2006-08), and was vocal in his preference to stay with the team. He had to wait until March of 2009 to sign with Washington, and made it only until July before being traded to Colorado, where he’s been ever since. Though he was successful against lefties in 2010, it was significantly lower than his career mark of .720, and the declining K rate is a concern.

Dennys Reyes, 34 (5.9 K/9, 5.0 BB/9, .862 OPS vs LHB)
Yep, that’s the same Dennys Reyes who was signed as an amateur by the Dodgers in 1993 and pitched in 25 MLB games before being included in the horrendous “Paul Konerko for Jeff Shaw” debacle of 1998. Though the loss of Konerko is obviously the most egregious, Reyes has made a career for himself as well, pitching in over 600 games for 9 teams since leaving LA. Reyes very nearly signed a $1.1m deal with the Phillies last month before it fell through, so we know what his price range is. That awful line against LHB last year may be an aberration, since he’s been very good against them over his career (.669), yet it’s not promising, and he fell apart in the second half last year after a good start.

Ron Mahay, 40 (6.6 K/9, 2.1 BB/9, .520 OPS vs LHB)
How old is Ron Mahay? He tried to make it as an outfielder in the Boston system in the early 90s, briefly appearing as a replacement player in 1995, before converting to pitching and getting back to the bigs several years later. Despite his age, Mahay was death on lefties in 2010. That’s not a rate he’s managed for his entire career, but he’s still sub-.700 against them over 14 seasons, and he did strike out three times as many as he walked last year.

Randy Flores, 35 (5.8 K/9, 4.4 BB/9, .888 OPS vs LHB)
Yep, .888. I almost didn’t include him, but figured I might as well just to be complete, and it is at least down to .780 for his career. Still, Flores doesn’t seem like the right kind of fit here.

So does anyone here interest you? Reyes and Flores are non-starters for me, and though Beimel was fun to have around, his performance has been decent at best. I’ve always been a big Ohman fan – yes, I’ll admit that part of that is because he’s perhaps the funniest guy in the league – though I wonder if his poor 2009 experience has soured the relationship on both sides. That leaves Mahay, who signed just a minor-league deal last season and was excellent.

Of course, if you do sign any of these guys to a major league contract, then one of the current seven has to go. Perhaps that’s the long-rumored trade of Broxton for an expensive left fielder. (Unlikely.) Or perhaps they want Jansen to gain more experience in the minors. (Very unlikely.) Maybe “being traded for Ryan Theriot” isn’t enough to guarantee Hawksworth a spot. (Possible.) Or maybe Belisario takes a wrong turn on the way to Arizona and somehow ends up in Siberia. (Even odds.)

So your choices are:

1) Go with just one lefty in the bullpen.
2) Add Elbert, find a way to dump someone else.
3) Add one of the free agents, find a way to dump someone else.

Me? If it’s cheap – less than $1m, or even better a minor-league deal – I’d try to get Mahay and see if Hawksworth slips through waivers. If not, then let Elbert and Hawksworth battle it out in camp.

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I, for one, will be so happy when Adrian Beltre finally signs somewhere so Dodger fans can stop hoping that he’s coming back. Beltre’s a fine player, but he’s not a superstar, and he wants superstar money. Not that signing him for 3B and pushing Blake to LF wouldn’t be fun and all, but the Dodgers have to be at or near their payroll limit, and I just can’t see how fitting Beltre in would work – especially when you don’t know if you’re getting awesome Beltre (2004, 2010), or average-to-slightly-above Beltre (most other years).

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I should have mentioned this the other day when I noted that Ivan DeJesus didn’t make John Sickels’ top 20 Dodger prospect list, and that I didn’t align with people who are hoping that he’d claim the 2B job in camp, thus pushing Juan Uribe to 3B and Blake to LF. The Dodgers recently announced the roster for their offseason development camp, which starts later this week in LA and features some of the brightest prospects in the system, like Jerry Sands, Dee Gordon, Trayvon Robinson, Rubby de la Rosa, and Chris Withrow. Seven attendees of last year’s camp saw big league time in 2010 – Carlos Monasterios, John Ely, Jon Link, Travis Schlichting, Kenley Jansen, A.J. Ellis and Russell Mitchell.

Ken Gurnick describes it as…

This will be the fourth year of the developmental minicamp, which is designed to take the best and brightest of the farm system, accelerate their Major League arrival and aid acclimation to what they will encounter when they get there.

Yet DeJesus wasn’t invited. Nor was he given a token call-up last September, like Mitchell and several others were. It’s not that I don’t like DeJesus - far from it – it’s just that all the signs seem to be pointing in the wrong direction for him, and that he won’t be the second baseman in 2011. We’ll learn more about how he’s percieved when Kevin Goldstein, Baseball Prospectus prospect expert, publishes his Dodger system review on Tuesday.

MSTI’s 2010 in Review: Relievers, Part 1

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Slight change of plan here. I was originally going to have this first threesome of reliever reviews be devoted to Jonathan Broxton, Hong-Chih Kuo, and Ronald Belisario. But each of those are going to be pretty long, so they should probably be split up; besides, who’s going to want to read the piece I’d then have to post in a week that’s just Travis Schlichting, Russ Ortiz, and Jeff Weaver? No thanks. So for relievers, we’re going to completely randomize it, three at a time.

Jonathan Broxton (D)
4.04 ERA, 3.01 FIP, 10.5 K/9, 4.0 BB/9, 0.0 WAR

Oh, look, Jonathan Broxton. Nothing interesting happened with him this year, right? Reliable as usual. Let’s just thank our lucky stars for that and move on.

Ah, crap.

Before we get into Broxton’s meltdown, it’s important to remember how awesome he was in the first half. He’s got the All-Star card there for a reason, and that’s because he was nails. You want to know why the quotes I’m about to show are almost entirely from the second half? Because no one talks about the closer when he’s getting the job done, and Broxton most certainly was for the first three months. Other than occasional complaints about Joe Torre’s bizarre usage of him, bringing him into blowouts rather than the lesser arms, my main mention of him came on June 14, when I pointed out this stat:

Jonathan Broxton, last calendar year: 74 games, 4-2, 37 saves, 6 blown, 74.1 IP, 2.42 ERA, 106/21 K/BB, .212/.269/.282 line against.

After shutting down the Yankees on June 26, Broxton’s 2010 line was asburd. He’d held batters to just a puny .217/.254/.258 line, with an amazing 48/5 K/BB. Say that he wasn’t dominating at that point, and be wrong. And before we get into what happened against the Yankees on June 27th, we’re tossing out the “failed in a big situation” argument immediately, because it’s just not true. Broxton’s previous seven games came against St. Louis (2), the Angels (3), Boston (1), and the Yankees (1). He struck out eight while not allowing a run. Those are the top teams in baseball most years, and he was just fine against them. How’s your argument now?

Then came the disaster against the Yankees on Sunday Night Baseball on June 27th, where he faced nine batters and allowed six to reach and four to score. Though it was fueled in part by James Loney botching what could have been a game-ending double play, it was a meltdown so bad that it didn’t even get him a blown save because the lead was so big. Still, I didn’t absolve Broxton, but my main issue at the time was with Torre’s usage of him:

In the 9th, Broxton was brought on to pitch for the 4th time in 5th days, two of which were for more than one inning, despite the Dodgers having a four run lead. As Eric Stephen will happily tell you, “the last 3 [games were] with win expectancies of 95.5%, 98.8%, and 98.8%” when he entered. The point being, those are the kinds of situations in which you bring on your lesser relievers, at least to start. Even if you don’t trust them – as Torre clearly doesn’t, other than Hong-Chih Kuo – if they run into trouble, then sure, bring on the big man. And no, I’m not suggesting that Broxton should only be brought into save situations (which he hasn’t seen since June 9) but you have to measure his usage a little more carefully, especially in all of these non-vital situations.

So when the lead was pushed to four on Rafael Furcal‘s 8th inning double, that’s when you pick up the phone to the bullpen and say, “you’ve pitched enough lately, Jonathan, especially yesterday. Sit down and we’ll let the other guys pick you up, and only bring you in if there’s a disaster.”

But no, Torre brings in the clearly overworked Broxton, and we’re supposed to act surprised that one of the best teams in baseball fouled off pitch after pitch, dropped in hit after hit, and patiently drew walks.

It capped off a long week for Broxton:

If there’s any takeaway from this, it’s this: Broxton has thrown 99 pitches since June 23rd. By comparison, the Dodger starting rotation since then has these counts: Kershaw 101 (tonight 6/27), Kuroda 110 (6/26), Padilla 111 (6/25), Haeger 102 (6/24), Ely 97 (6/23). Because apparently, Broxton is a starting pitcher now.

The impact didn’t start immediately – Broxton converted his next three save situations – but after getting the save in the All-Star Game, things started to head south. In the first series after the break, the Dodgers went into St. Louis and got swept, with Broxton blowing the final game. That was a team effort – the blown save seemed bigger than it was because the Dodgers had lost the first three games, none of which Broxton was in, and two relievers couldn’t get through the 8th, forcing Broxton into a bad situation – but it was still his fault. That’s fine, but just as long as you realize what exactly the problem was.

All I ask is to be fair about this. Broxton didn’t blow the game last night because of some garbage you’ll hear about not seeing the killer instinct when you look into his eyes, as though any one of us has a real personal relationship with him. That’s ridiculous, and it’s unfair of anyone to even speculate what goes on inside his head, because you just don’t know.

No, Broxton lost last night because he dicked around against rookie Jon Jay, who has all of 75 career at-bats. He tried to nibble rather than challenging him, and issued him a free pass. He lost because he threw 27 pitches in the 9th inning, and all but three were fastballs. I don’t care how hard you throw; unless your fastball has some movement on it, which Broxton’s largely doesn’t, guys are going to be able to get around on it if they know it’s coming. (This, by the way, is exactly the same thing I said when I was analyzing last year’s botched NLCS game against the Phillies in the Maple Street Annual.) He threw, according to MLB.com, 17 fastballs in a row to Brendan Ryan, Felipe Lopez, Jay, and Allen Craig.

That’s not lack of intestinal fortitude; that’s just being stupid, bull-headed or both. Broxton has a decent slider. He just needs to mix it in more, because as hard as it may be to hit 99 MPH heat when you know it’s coming, it’s downright impossible when you have the worry of a knee-buckling breaking pitch in the back of your mind.

As much as Broxton may have deserved that blown save, he didn’t deserve the one that got hung on him two nights later – the infamous Don Mattingly “double visit” game:

When I looked at the box score on my phone and saw that Jonathan Broxton picked up the loss after walking two and allowing three runs in 1/3 of an inning, it got even worse. Had he really blown a second game in a row? Was I going to have to deal with all of this again?

Well, not quite. Because it turns out that one of those walks was intentional, the one hit he allowed was an infield single and not a single one of the runs scored while he was on the mound. Not that he’s blameless – but that the line score is horribly misleading.

After sandwiching a few good outings around blowing a game by allowing a Pat Burrell longball, he had yet another rough outing in Philadelphia. By this time even I was starting to sour, though I felt it was important to remember that he was hardly the only one who’d contributed to that loss:

You’re probably coming here expecting me to defend Jonathan Broxton, as I’ve done so often. But you’re not going to find that tonight. He was crap, loading the bases with no outs (on a hit batter and two walks), and eventually blowing the three-run lead that was handed to him on a game-winning double by Carlos Ruiz. So if you want to tear apart Broxton, you go right ahead, because you’ll get no pushback from me, and I’ll need to be devoting an entire post to his recent failures soon. I don’t want to hear any crap about how “he’s scared of the Phillies,” because that’s just amateur psychiatrist BS. He’s been lousy against everyone lately, and that points towards a larger issue.

All I ask is this: while you burn him in effigy, you don’t ignore the fact that Ronald Belisario faced five men in the 8th and got zero outs, and that Broxton induced a perfect double-play ball that went right through Casey Blake‘s legs. Broxton’s going to get the lion’s share of the blame here, and probably rightfully so. But he’s not alone in this loss, and that’s important to remember.

The next day, Broxton was removed from the closing role in favor of Hong-Chih Kuo, a move I supported. It’s hard not to see that Yankee game as a major turning point in his season; while he was the best reliever in baseball to that point (don’t forget the 48/5 K/BB), from that game on he was horrendous: .915 OPS against, 7.58 ERA, 25/23 K/BB.

The one bright side of that is, any statements about whether the 9th inning had gotten the best of him were simply not grounded in reality; he was awful against everyone in every inning in the second half of the year.

So what caused it? It’s worth noting that he was extremely unlucky, because even just in addition to poor defense by Blake and Loney directly leading to two of the worst blown saves, his BABIP was a career-high .369. That’s why his FIP of 3.01 looks a lot better than his ERA of 4.04, not that ERA means anything for relievers anyway.

Mere random luck certainly doesn’t explain all, or even most, of his issues, though. His velocity was down, though he claimed no injury, but I think the loss of movement on his fastball was the primary culprit – just look at how much the vertical movement on his heater declined this year. So what can you do with him? I looked at trade possibilities and determined that between his $7m salary and his value being at his lowest that it just didn’t make sense. Don Mattingly claims that Broxton heads into next season as his primary closer, and whether that makes sense or not, it’s simply foolishness to ignore the 3+ years of excellence. As I said in my 2011 plan…

Really, I just want to extract the most value from Broxton, whether that’s on-the-field performance or return via trade, and moving him now isn’t the way to do that. Besides, all the people you hear saying he’s “mentally weak” were saying the same thing about Chad Billingsley last winter, and you saw how well that worked out. If Broxton’s late-season disaster proved anything, it’s that the 9th inning wasn’t the source of his problems. Whether it was bad mechanics, overuse by Joe Torre (don’t forget that he was asked to throw 99 pitches in five days, and that’s where his troubles began), or an unknown injury (Josh Suchon on DodgerTalk claimed he saw Broxton’s ankle heavily taped after a late-season game), there’s a lot of viable reasons for his downfall. The hope is that a winter of rest can help him come back and regain that value, and giving him that chance – even if he’s not the closer initially – is the right move.

Even if Broxton does return to his former status, god help us all the first time he has a rough outing, because he’s either perfect or he’s garbage. That’s a fair standard, right?

Scott Elbert (inc.)
13.50 ERA, 16.58 FIP, 0.0 K/9, 40.5 BB/9, 0.0 WAR

If you thought Jack Taschner‘s 2010 stint with the Dodgers was brief, then you probably missed Scott Elbert‘s time with the club entirely. Elbert faced six batters on May 29 in Colorado, walked more (three) than he retired (two), was almost immediately optioned back to ABQ and was never heard from again.

No, really. Not only did he not return to the big leagues, but he walked away from the organization entirely due to an unknown personal issue, eventually returning to pitch at the club’s spring training home in Arizona, but not getting back into any real games. It was almost as well; in the nine games he did pitch for ABQ this year, Elbert flashed the strikeout stuff we’ve seen from him previously (9.3/9), but was undone by an absurdly high walk rate (7.1/9).

While that may sound bleak in terms of his career, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Since he’s pitching in the Arizona Fall League, he’s got the dual benefit of pitching for new manager Don Mattingly in addition to playing in a league largely composed of players several years younger. Though Elbert’s been almost exclusively a starter, he told Tony Jackson that he’d like to be a reliever, and that’s likely his quickest path to the bigs:

Although he was a starter at Albuquerque this year before his departure, all indications are that the Dodgers now view him as a reliever, and given the bullpen issues the team had this year, that could bode well for Elbert in his effort to secure a spot on the Opening Day roster.

With George Sherrill almost certainly not returning, there’s a big hole in the bullpen for a second lefty behind Hong-Chih Kuo. Who’s to say it can’t be Elbert?

Jon Link (inc.)
4.15 ERA, 3.54 FIP, 4.2 K/9, 4.2 BB/9, -0.1 WAR

How many times did Link get shipped back and forth between LA and ABQ this year? Despite pitching in just nine MLB games, he appeared for the Dodgers in every month but May and August.

Still, he pitched just 8.2 innings for the big club, so there’s not a whole lot to say about his performance, especially when you look at how low-leverage they were. No, really; other than his last outing of the year (three runs), Link never once pitched in a game that had a margin of four runs or fewer.

That said, as long as he didn’t get arrested, it was going to be a great season; the simple fact alone that the Dodgers got someone who looks like he might actually have a big league future for Juan Pierre (in addition to John Ely) is a big win. Link’s big concern headed into the year was his control, yet he managed to knock down his BB/9 from 4.3 in back-to-back years down to 3.1 this year. He’ll be 27 in the spring, and he’ll be squarely in the mix for a bullpen role, fighting for a spot with guys like Travis Schlichting. He’ll surely be seen at some point next year even if he’s not on the Opening Day roster.

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Next! Hong-Chih Kuo cannot be destroyed! Holy crap, remember Jack Taschner?! And Justin Miller keeps the seat warm for the other Justin Miller! It’s relievers, part 2!