DeWitt Plays Waiting Game; Kuroda Sharp in Minor League Tune-up
by Eric Stephen on Mar 29, 2010 5:33 PM PDT
in Game Threads
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PrintDodgers (10-11-2) at Indians (15-6-2)
7:05pm, Goodyear Ballpark, Goodyear, AZ
Joe Torre said he won't make the announcement on his fifth starter until the team gets back to Los Angeles starting Thursday, adding that he has a good idea who the fifth starter will be but still "had work to do with the other guys" in the bullpen. Torre did say the club would likely start with 11 pitchers, noting that the club would need a fifth starter four times in April. However, he also said the club would use 12 pitchers most of the year, not surprising since the Dodgers didn't use fewer than 12 pitchers at any point last season.
Torre did say something else that was rather puzzling, as reported by Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times:
I'd say if we have an 11-pitcher scenario that Blake DeWitt's chances are better.
The bench, as I see it, will include Reed Johnson, Garret Anderson, Brad Ausmus, and Jamey Carroll. That's four guys, so with a 12-man pitching staff there would be room for one more on the bench, who would be Ronnie Belliard or DeWitt, whomever isn't starting on any given night. This bench presumes Carroll will be the backup shortstop. The only way there wouldn't be room for Blake DeWitt on the major league roster in this scneario would be to make room for a designated shortstop like Nick Green, who has a career .307 on-base percentage in 1,108 plate appearances.
You have to take spring stats with a grain of salt, but DeWitt has been hitting all spring, to the tune of .367/.456/.592. Including tonight, DeWitt will have started 18 out of a possible 24 Cactus League games. Factor in that two of his missed games were on split squad days, and DeWitt has started at second base this spring 18 out of 22 opportunities. I have seen quote after quote from Torre this spring praising DeWitt all spring, mostly of the "he has done everything we have asked, he hasn't hurt himself" variety.
The Dodgers have given DeWitt every opportunity to win the second base job, and DeWitt has seized that opportunity. Management seems quite pleased with his efforts. But they seem to be bending over backwards to find reasons to not name DeWitt the starter at second.
********
Hiroki Kuroda threw seven innings in a minor league game this afternoon against the Reds. He allowed just one run, on a home run, while striking out seven batters, throwing 91 pitches. Kuroda, who Torre called "very comfortable to watch," is scheduled to pitch next on Saturday at Dodger Stadium against the Angels. With a scheduled off day Sunday, and tonight's starter Chad Billingsley scheduled to pitch before Kuroda, on April 8 in Pittsburgh, I am guessing Saturday's game will feature a Billingsley / Kuroda tag team on the mound.
Russell Martin caught all seven of Kuroda's innings, his second straight day catching seven innings. After back-to-back days, Martin won't make tomorrow's trip to Tucson. "I'll leave him back here tomorrow to get his work in with a lot of the regulars. He'll get some running in because he didn't get much in during the game today," said Torre, "He'll catch Padilla here on Wednesday, him and Ausmus will split that game."
Here are the lineups. The Indians are using a designated hitter, but the Dodgers are not:for
| Dodgers | Indians | |||
| SS | Furcal | SS | Cabrera | |
| 2B | DeWitt | CF | Sizemore | |
| RF | Ethier | LF | Brantley | |
| LF | Manny | DH | Hafner | |
| CF | Kemp | 3B | Peralta | |
| 3B | Blake | 1B | LaPorta | |
| C | Ausmus | 2B | Valbuena | |
| 1B | Closser | C | Toregas | |
| P | Billingsley | RF | Crowe | |
Jonathan Broxton, Jeff Weaver, and Luis Ayala are also scheduled to pitch for the Dodgers tonight. Justin Masterson is pitching for the Indians.
Pitchers for tomorrow's game in Tucson are Eric Stults, Josh Lindblom, and Ramon Troncoso. Lindblom today won the Jim and Dearie Mulvey Award, given annually to the top rookie in Dodgers' camp, as voted on by Dodger coaches.
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I guess I'm already wrong on my 25 man roster prediction
because according to Gurnick on the Dodgers.com article, Weaver has already made the team…
“On the team are the four announced starters — Vicente Padilla, Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda — as well as relievers Jonathon Broxton, George Sherrill, Ramon Troncoso and Jeff Weaver. Kuroda pitched an impressive seven innings in a Minor League game Monday. "
It then goes on to discuss the other players fighting for the last few spots. I’m not sure if he is correct in this assumption, but it is interesting that he already wrote that.
If anything, I think that helps the anti-Russ Ortiz camp. :)
by Eric Stephen on Mar 29, 2010 5:56 PM PDT up reply actions
That's how I'm looking at it
And Monasterios perhaps the last guy?
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers/Lakers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants/Warriors country, and damned proud of it.
Er, plus Ramon Ortiz
And who am I missing?
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers/Lakers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants/Warriors country, and damned proud of it.
to add to Eric's point about Nick Green
and Belliard, for that matter, their ST batting averages are .192 and .172, respectively. Nick Green has done absolutely nothing to earn a spot on this roster- neither this spring nor in his career- and the only thing that seems worth noting about him is that he may have the only game tying, four strike at bat in Major League history. It would be irritating if he made the squad at the expense of one of these pitchers. If he made it at the expense of DeWitt…well, I guess we’ll see. But I already find this behavior bizarre, though unsurprising- Joe Torre can truly be a mysterious man at times.
As for Belliard, he obviously has a better case than Nick Green, but I don’t see how you start him and say with a straight face, “We’re just not sure DeWitt can handle the job defensively.”
I agree wholeheartedly
here. My question is this…What is the obsession with carrying a backup SS? I realize that every position needs ample backup, but how much is the backup SS going to play? I would think that Carroll or DeStud could play SS once every 10 days or so. I know that their defense is lacking, but I would think 2 or 3 times per month would be okay to have a less than stellar defensive replacement at short. I am not the wisest of fans so please lead the blind here…. :)
1. Kershaw
2. Bills
3. Padilla
4. Kuroda
5. Broxton
6. Sherrill
7. Tron
8. Weaver
If we carry 11 pitchers, are we going to continue to carry 11 when either a) Kuo is healthy or b) Belisario comes of suspension? If so, the 3 that are yet to named are soon to be the lucky 1 that gets to stay. I would think that we will carry 12 for most of the year, am I wrong in my assumption? It is obviously not a lock that either a or b come true as well.
My theory
We start with 11, and carry Green as a back up. With DeWitt starting. When Kuo or Belly are ready. We either drop DeWitt if he isn’t cutting it. Or one of the pen guys if they aren’t cutting it. Or Green if DeWitt is playing well and no one from the pen looks bad. Then once the other of Kuo or Belly are ready they something similar if no one else has gotten hurt by then. Once Kuo and Belly are both in we carry 12.
Charley and Rick on DeWitt tonight
Blake DeWitt has made at least two very nice plays in the game tonight, at least according to Charley and Rick. That was after Steiner had said that BDW has “had an excellent Spring but it hasn’t been made official that he’s the starting 2nd baseman.” When the announcers start blithely talking about it as if its fait accompli you start to assume it may be so, or at least that they too will express surprise if it is not.
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers/Lakers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants/Warriors country, and damned proud of it.
Sorry it has been a little slow here
Some of us are conducting the draft for the 2010 TBLA fantasy league right now
Once all the Dodgers are gone does it move faster?
;-)
I had to turn down two fantasy leagues this month because I was afraid of the time suck with so much else going on, but I really miss not participating in drafts.
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers/Lakers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants/Warriors country, and damned proud of it.
I turned down 4 leagues.
I’m getting married in September. By joining a league, I run the risk of there not being a bride at the altar.
“You see, it’s called playing the percentages.”
by Eric Stephen on Mar 29, 2010 7:54 PM PDT up reply actions
So where did you get the Gameday link?
When I go to:
1) dodgers.com – no Gameday link
2) mlb.com – this game has no Gameday link
3) mlb.scoreboard – no Gameday link for this game (most other games have them)
4) any other current or previous Gameday game: pick today’s date and click on the rectangle for this game: dead, no link. (One or two other games, only, have active links.) Seems to be a bug. Firefox 3.6.2 Mac on OS 10.5.8.
5) http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/ : again, like 4). clicking on this game’s rectangle does nothing, dead, no link
So do you have somewhere that lists all Gameday games, with links? Can you tell us what it is? Or do you do the same things as I do, but in a different browser/OS, and it just works?
I always just change the link in HTML code of the post….here is the link for tonight:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_03_29lanmlbclemlb_1&mode=gameday
I put in bold the things you need to change:
1) Date (two digits for both month and day)
2) Road team (three letter code for each team…when in doubt, it ends in “n” or “a” depending on league — sdn, cha, etc)
3) Home team (same)
by Eric Stephen on Mar 29, 2010 8:43 PM PDT up reply actions
You know, you could have used this link instead :)
by Eric Stephen on Mar 29, 2010 8:51 PM PDT up reply actions
yeah, true
I just used Google to get something quick, as I feared that someone would literally beat me to the punchline. :)
The links to tomorrow’s game:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_03_30_lanmlb_colmlb_1&mode=gameday
and opening day:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_04_05_lanmlb_pitmlb_1&mode=gameday
Already work
by Eric Stephen on Mar 29, 2010 8:45 PM PDT up reply actions
Changes
Weaver pitching
Steve Caseres at 1B
Closser (was 1B) now C
Hoffmann now LF (will leadoff next inning)
82 pitches, 47 for strikes for Bills
Maybe for those with DirecTV, but not for me
by Eric Stephen on Mar 29, 2010 8:52 PM PDT up reply actions
Looks like the Indians aren’t televising it either, so it’s not on anywhere except radio
by Eric Stephen on Mar 29, 2010 8:55 PM PDT up reply actions
He could've had some weighted classes
Taking advanced courses and getting some extra gradepoints. Otherwise, that’s literally 4 years of non-advanced courses with only one B.
AP classes give that extra weight - they count as 5.0
Without going into detail, I can relate.
If Withrow is going to pitch again in big league camp, the next two days might provide the best opportunity. It sounds like the trip to Tucson tomorrow won’t have many veterans, and Wednesday is a split squad with the final AZ game plus the Vegas game.
Of course, he still has a decent shot to pitch Thursday or Saturday if they want him to experience Dodger Stadium.
I will be there too.
It’s looking more and more like Bills and Kuroda will tag team that game, so I just wonder how many innings they want them to go. If it’s only like 3 each, Withrow has a chance to pitch. If it’s 5/4 or 4/4 for Bills/Kuroda, no chance.
by Eric Stephen on Mar 29, 2010 9:03 PM PDT up reply actions
Bills pitched a great game
5 ip, 1 run, walked 3, settled down nicely after that first inning. Huzzah.
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers/Lakers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants/Warriors country, and damned proud of it.
http://www.fangraphs.com/careerleaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&type=1&min=1000
Wow that list is AWESOME.
Nice
Against all odds, Ortiz has a worse FIP than the 12th worst man on the list.
by Eric Stephen on Mar 29, 2010 9:16 PM PDT up reply actions
Too many ex-Dodgers on that list.
The commenter formerly known as El Lay Dave.
by David Young on Mar 29, 2010 10:35 PM PDT up reply actions
I just lost KABC on Gameday Audio
Restarting doesn’t help. Anyone else getting the game on computer Gameday Audio?
same here
I switched to the Indians feed
by Eric Stephen on Mar 29, 2010 9:11 PM PDT up reply actions
Yep it crapped out on me
Ah well. Back to watching the Marxes on TCM. So BH is doing one better than me now in multitasking department.
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers/Lakers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants/Warriors country, and damned proud of it.
"I no like-a the second part."
Well, you should of come to the first party. We didn’t get home ’til around four in the morning. I was blind for three days!
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers/Lakers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants/Warriors country, and damned proud of it.
Yah that's the one thing I hate about the movie
the lovey dovey couple who take away from the Marxes and their singing. Ugh.
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers/Lakers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants/Warriors country, and damned proud of it.
Hoffman with a sac fly!
And Hu up for Furcal. (Listening to Indians broadcast for just a minute.) Only one “Who” joke so far.
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers/Lakers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants/Warriors country, and damned proud of it.
Who gets a base hit? Hu!
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers/Lakers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants/Warriors country, and damned proud of it.
I'll probably have a fantasy post up sometime later this week
but quick notes:
Phil got Kemp
I got Kershaw & Bills (& Furcal)
I have ManRam (and HanRam).
Drafted DeWitt in the last round – he’d better make the team Joe!
The commenter formerly known as El Lay Dave.
by David Young on Mar 29, 2010 10:37 PM PDT up reply actions
Nope
But to my knowledge he was still in AA camp as of last week, which could mean something.
by Eric Stephen on Mar 29, 2010 10:13 PM PDT up reply actions
selfishly
I’m hoping he ends up at A+, so we can get a glimpse of him before he advances too far in his career
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