Dodgers Drop Another One To Astros

But I’d like to see Kemp get a PH tonight, even with his bad numbers against Oswalt.

Carlos Lee left the game for precautionary reasons due to a left knee contusion, per Alyson Footer.

At the end, they realized that Mike Hampton is pitching for the Astros on Sat. :)

Odd on the disrespect they Kershaw. ’He’s pitching better’?

Kinda cliched, but its good that he talked. Some guys might have ducked the thing.

Wonder if there’s a way to get Harden or Lilly from the Cubs.

As long as what he throws is good it doesn’t matter. Nobody needs one specific pitch. If you have two plus pitches, you don’t need much else to succeed.

ZOMG RANDY JOHNSON WOULD BE SO MUCH BETTER IF HE HAD MORE THAN HIS 80 FASTBALL AND 80 SLIDER ZOMG

It’s nice, sure, but not necessary. Ugh.

And he got lit up.

He pitched around 90 for most of the year.

I know CanuckDodger said that BIllingsley used to throw harder, but I think I noticed the same thing last year, where Billingsley was staying around 90 in the first half, and was throwing around 93-94 in the 2nd half. Chad might just need to take a while to build up his speed.

just came back 10 minutes ago from the game…
sucks they lost
bills got roughed up after the tejada home run
and went downhill
and manny went 0-4
that sucks too
oswalt was unstoppable
he went into the 9th with like only 98 pitches thrown
thats mad efficient…
hes probably one of the premier pitchers in the game despite the record
but odog had a nice triple thanks to the outfielder losing the ball
and their was a nice firework show….
still fun game to watch
hopefully they play better on saturday

It can possibly open up a 40 man spot for the Dodgers to work with.

Was pretty pumped as it was my first game seeing Chad- my favorite player.

Allow me to play the homer card; that game was all about bad luck. Don’t know what the game thread said, but Chad gives up 3 more runs in the first after he completely fools Blum and the ball rolls down the third base line and hits the damn bag. In the second, if Loney tosses the ball to Chad, the Astros don’t get another two out rally.

Plus, balls were just finding holes. When Chad has been ineffective this year its been when he’s walking batters. He walked none last night. Chad does not usually surrender hits (his BAA was like fifth in the MLB going into the game.) The only really bad pitches were the two hanging curveballs. The first one was the one that Tejada crushed and I Blum in the second.

Oh well, these games happen— but as I told the people I was with last night. Even after Chad’s bad night and Oswalt’s excellent night; Chad has still got better numbers on the year. Yet we have to constantly defend Chad as a “true ace.”

Mathew you can’t come here and say

a change up is the best pitch in baseball and every ace in baseball has a good one

What they might be waiting for is simply a deal that matches last year’s slot, as opposed to the ten percent reductions, which in the cases of Minor and Leake are differences approaching $250,000, not exactly a trivial sum of money. Still it’s enough to create either a situation with there is a stalemate between the team and the player, or in many cases, there may already be a deal in place, but Major League Baseball will not recognize it until late in the signing period, for fear of a domino effect of over-slot bonuses, which of course will happen anyway.

Some have called this the “Jason Heyward effect,” referring to the Braves’ first-round pick in 2007, also a year in which the slots were reduced by ten percent. The Braves and Heyward agreed early to a deal for the previous year’s slot, but could not announce the signing until the deadline approached. “It’s monumentally stupid,” said one front-office official. “Everybody talks to each other, everybody knows who is going to sign for what, all this does is hinder a kid’s development.”

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=9249

So it seems the commish office of blocking overslot deals is well known.

I’m not as concerned with “overusing” the bullpen the last two nights as the beat writers seem to be. Last night’s game was precisely the reason you have a long man on the staff. Weaver got the team through the 6th, just like he was supposed to do.

Last night we used Elbert and Vargas to finish the final three innings. I love Elbert, but he’s way down the totem pole right now. The back of the bullpen right now is Broxton, Troncoso, McDonald, and Mota, and none of them pitched last night. Only Mota pitched in the last two nights.

The problems might arise if starters continually give very short starts, but as of right now its not really a concern.

soon

Trading Loretta while he still has some value as a PH.

Maybe for that Dewlyn Young kid in Pittsburgh.

Kobayashi apparently ate 64 Taco Bell burritos in 15 minutes. Is that something to be proud of?

Chris Withrow last pitched July 15. His next scheduled start is Monday, July 20.

I know, I know. Not happening.

3. Los Angeles Dodgers

• Home games: 41 (of 74)

• Big hurdle: The Dodgers have a seven-game road trip coming up that will take them through St. Louis and Atlanta, but really, L.A. has a relatively easy schedule. Consider this late-September string: three games in Washington, four games in Pittsburgh, then two in San Diego.

• Games against teams with records of .500 or better at the break: 28

• Big finish: The Dodgers close out the season with three home games against the Rockies.

Than lose 2-1 and waste efforts by Lincecum and SF’s top guys.

But then, that’s me.

He’s not even the mop up man on this team. They sent Weaver and Elbert out before him.

Billingsley is throwing less than 50% fastballs this year, which way down from 59.2% last year, and 64.8% in 2007. He’s now throwing his cutter 28.7% of the time, compared to 20.9% last year, and his rate of curves is up from 17.5% to 20.7%.

The trend is recent, as well. Last night’s performance against the Astros was a case in point. Billingsley threw 22 fastballs, 18 cutters, and 12 curves. It’s not like he was struggling with his fastball either, as he was sitting 91-92 with his fastball, and topped out at 94-95. The same thing happened in his last start before the All-Star Game against Milwaukee, except it was more exaggerated and on a much larger scale. Billingsley threw 39 fastballs, 54 cutters, and 17 curves.

I don’t get it.

#phillies seem to be strong phavorites for halladay. latest i hear: #angels want to keep prospects, #rangers dont have $

This is annoying as hell. :o

Jose Reyes (hamstring) may have suffered a setback in his rehabilitation on Friday, reports the New York Daily News.
Reyes reportedly stopped an agility drill in Port St. Lucie by pointing to his bothersome hamstring. The Mets denied the eyewitness account by the St. Lucie News-Tribune, although, as the Daily News points out, the club doesn’t have the most sterling history of injury disclosure.

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/mets/2009/07/braves-11-mets-0-redding-out-l.html

he’s yet to disappoint me this year. Then we can argue who is the “ace” of the staff since Kershaw has been better for over a month and one could make a case he will be better going forward.

However he doesn’t have much of a changeup and rarely throws it so I guess he’s destined to only have a ceiling as high as Sandy Koufax instead of Greg Maddux. Fuck, I was hoping for so much more.

More Mota talk here.