Get Me to Diablo Stadium With a Dr. Pepper and Make It Quick, I'm In a Hurry!
by Eric Stephen on Mar 23, 2009 10:40 AM PDT
in Game Threads
Email
Print
Dodgers (13-11) @ Angels (18-4-1), 1:05pm
I don't put too much stock in spring training records or stats, but the Angels' gaudy record is hard to ignore. The Dodgers play the Angels today for the first time outside of California, as they travel to Diablo Stadium in Tempe.
Manny Ramirez is expected to return to the Dodger lineup today, after more than a week off. Chad Billingsley will start on the mound for the Dodgers.
The Angels will counter with Dustin Moseley, with shceduled appearances by Brian Fuentes and Matt Palmer, according to Dick Kaegel of MLB.com.
In other notes:
- Tony Jackson of the LA Daily News read between the lines and speculated both Juan Castro and Doug Mientkiewicz would make the club, Blake DeWitt and Chin-Lung Hu would be optioned to Albuquerque, and Delwyn Young would be traded or waived.
- Former Press-Enterprise Dodger beat writer Diamond Leung has started his own blog, Diamond Notes
- We are down to the Sweet 16 in our Dodger bracket, in the quest to determine which Dodger team of the past will most resemble the 2009 squad. Look for the voting to resume later today.
- The 4+1 Game will be replayed on FSN Prime Ticket next Tuesday (March 31) at 7:30pm
- A number of interview segments from MLB Network's "30 Clubs in 30 Days" feature on the Dodgers are now up on their website. Click to view interviews with Chad Billingsley, Orlando Hudson, Matt Kemp, Russell Martin, and Joe Torre.
Today's lineup, from Ken Gurnick:
CF Kemp
RF Ethier
DH Manny
1B Loney
C Martin
3B Loretta
2B DeWitt
LF Paul
SS Hu
31 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Yeah
The only thing better would be Delwyn Young getting to fight for a job that should easily be his anyway.
by Eric Stephen on Mar 23, 2009 11:29 AM PDT up reply actions
Agreed.
I don’t really see much point to having Eye Chart on the team. Loretta and Blake can play 1st and 3rd fine. Delwyn is younger and a better hitter. Hate to say this but hopefully Mientkiewicz will go on the DL to by Delwyn some time.
by Brendan Scolari on Mar 23, 2009 11:34 AM PDT up reply actions
re:
What do you base the fact on that D Young is a better hitter then Eye Chart? Eyechart has been a solid hitter but with little power for a 1st baseman. He’s got a career OPS+ right on 100 in over 3300 at bats and he’s not exactly Mark Sweeny. D Young has to small a sample size to even guess what kind of major league hitter he can become but his minor league resume suggests an upside of a 760-800 OPS corner outfielder with terrible defense.
At this point I’d rather have Xavier Paul as my back up outfielder if Juan Pierre is moved then D Young since the only thing Young can do is pinch hit while Paul can play above average defense at the corners, while being able to be plugged into CF if you need him. He has plus speed while D Young is a plodder. D Young has a cool nickname but he’s got no future with us other then as a pinch hitter. Let him go and hopefully he can find a team where he can build some value but he is not going to build any value for himself being our pinch hitter.
by meercatjohn on Mar 23, 2009 12:22 PM PDT up reply actions
Young > Paul
I’d rather have Paul playing every day this season in AAA than sitting on our bench. He still has room to develop and could end up being a regular down the road.
I like the concept of Mientkiewicz on the team, but I’m not sure the incremental upgrade over Young is worth losing Pee Wee.
The real hope of course is for Pierre to be traded so we can have both Eye Chart and Pee Wee.
by Eric Stephen on Mar 23, 2009 12:37 PM PDT up reply actions
re:
As I said having PeeWee as our 4th outfielder would not be a good idea for our bench. He is not the guy you want to replace Manny in LF, he is not the guy you want replacing Manny on the basepaths. If Juan Pierre is dealt, Xavier Paul has to become the 4th outfielder not Pee Wee.
by meercatjohn on Mar 23, 2009 12:47 PM PDT up reply actions
If Pierre gets traded
I think we should have an impromptu party. :-)
They’d probably keep Repko anyways though, because they’d want someone who can play CF as the 4th outfielder.
by Brendan Scolari on Mar 23, 2009 12:48 PM PDT up reply actions
Actually you're right
for some reason I thought Eye Chart was a worse hitter than he actually is. However, I still think Delwyn has the potential to improve while Eye Chart is only going to get worse. He’s already almost 35 and never had great skills anyway. It does look like he’d be a slight upgrade over Delwyn though.
The question is, is it worth ditching the young guy for a small bench upgrade? I don’t think Young is a terrible defender, but he is below average. Going forward, i don’t see much dropoff from Minky to Delwyn hitting-wise. I’d rather keep Delwyn around, but my view has changed after reading your arguement. I can see putting Minky on the team as a reasonable decision, and Delwyn will never be a starter in LA anyways barring a boatload of injuries.
by Brendan Scolari on Mar 23, 2009 12:45 PM PDT up reply actions
How about Juan Castro?
Are we all in favor of Hu making the team over him?
by Brendan Scolari on Mar 23, 2009 12:51 PM PDT reply actions
Castro
Of course Hu over Juan Castro.
I’d also take Fidel Castro over Juan Castro.
by Eric Stephen on Mar 23, 2009 12:54 PM PDT up reply actions
Penny
with 3 perfect innings in his spring debut. I usually root for ex-dodger but I’m hoping he crashes and burns. Not sure why he bugs me.
So in a perfect world
We would only carry 11 pitchers, giving us a 6 man bench:
C Ausmus
2B/3B/1B Loretta
1B/3B/OF Mientkiewicz
LF/CF/RF Paul
3B/2B/SS DeWitt
PH Pee Wee
Let’s look at some projections:
CHONE
Paul: .255/.322/.380, .312 wOBA
Pierre: .283/.328/.357, .312 wOBA
Oliver
Paul: .262/.316/.392, .312 wOBA
Pierre: .285/.329/.358, .308 wOBA
ZiPS
Paul: .260/.312/.384, .314 wOBA
Pierre: .282/.325/.346, .310 wOBA
Since Paul is just as good already as Pierre, and can play all 3 positions, and can run the bases, he gets the 4th OF spot over Pierre. This is my bench in a perfect world.
Playing devil's advocate against myself
The argument for keeping Paul over Pierre is that Juan could pout this season and be a relative bad apple.
However, right now Paul and Pierre are basically the same guy, and since the money’s already gone it’s probably better off to keep Pierre for 2009, and trade Paul’s age 24 season (2009) for his age 30 season (2015).
But it would be fun to root for X-Man.
by Eric Stephen on Mar 23, 2009 1:41 PM PDT up reply actions
Yes it would.
Is Paul really as fast as Pierre?
by Brendan Scolari on Mar 23, 2009 6:55 PM PDT up reply actions
I meant to say
same “hitter” as Pierre.
by Eric Stephen on Mar 23, 2009 7:14 PM PDT up reply actions
Long HR
by Erick Aybar. I’ll never look at Aybar or hot dogs the same way after reading Matt McCarthy’s book.
Experiment this weekend
I’m going to be at Camelback Ranch Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and since mobile commenting isn’t yet available for True Blue LA, I am going to send Twitter updates during the game using my phone to text message.
If you haven’t yet followed TBLA on Twitter, do so now!
Uh oh
I hope Estes doesn’t make the team as a reliever either.
by Brendan Scolari on Mar 23, 2009 7:32 PM PDT up reply actions
Billingsley
pulled after two innings. Slight muscle pull, not believed to be serious. Loretta also pulled, anyone have info on that? Weaver doing nothing to show that he should make this team. McDonald as the fifth starter and Lindblom in the bullpen would shock those who think Weaver has a spot on this team but it might be the best we can do. Do we care about starting Lindblom’s clock early?
In terms of clock
Calling up Lindblom sometime in late June will let us have him through 2015, with only three arb years. I wouldn’t call him up before then.
by Eric Stephen on Mar 23, 2009 3:12 PM PDT up reply actions
re:
Even if it means he relieved Claudio Vargas in the 2nd inning and pitched 3 shutout innings in a game we come back to win 8-7 and we end up winning a spot in the playoffs by one game?
We have better options
I’d rather have Lindblom starting every 5th day in the minors.
We can start McDonald or Stults, and we can put Elbert, Troncoso ahead of Lindblom in the pen.
by Eric Stephen on Mar 23, 2009 3:44 PM PDT up reply actions
+1
Unless they think Lindblom is ready to dominate. But I wouldn’t bring him up right away just so Torre can use him as a long reliever in blowouts.
by Brendan Scolari on Mar 23, 2009 7:03 PM PDT up reply actions
Troncoso
has been the disappointment of spring so far for me. Him and Elbert but at least Elbert put up a scoreless inning today.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on True Blue LA
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
In Association With
Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
- Will Bryce Harper start the season with the Nationals?
- Mitch Mustain puts football behind him, signs reported rookie deal with White Sox
- Robinson Cano and Denzel Washington face off in Jay Leno’s Yankees trivia contest
- Shane Victorino lands role on ‘Hawaii Five-0′
- Have you criticized Hanley Ramirez on Twitter? Your name may be on his bat!
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
