Thursday Dodger Notes: Is Brian Giles Done?
by Eric Stephen on Mar 4, 2010 4:30 PM PST
in News
42 comments
On the eve of the spring opener, here is what's going on in Dodgertown:
- Brian Giles, whose agent said he would retire if his right knee wouldn't allow him to perform up to his standards, is having trouble with that knee. Giles told Ken Gurnick of MLB.com he wasn't sure his knee could take the punishment of playing, even at what essentially would be a pinch-hitting role, saying, "It's just okay. Obviously, I'll give it a few more days. It's not where I want it to be. I'll see if it gets better with more conditioning and how that changes it." Tony Jackson, in his weekly ESPN.com chat, speculated that "Giles' knee will ultimately force him to retire in the next week or so."
- The Dodgers held an open tryout this morning at Camelback Ranch, and actually signed someone. Ricardo "Ricky Rivas, a former 48th round pick of the Pirates and former Oklahoma State Cowboy pitcher, was inked to a minor league deal, per Gurnick.
- Tim Brown of Yahoo compared and contrasted the weight fluctuations of catchers Russell Martin (up) and Geovany Soto of the Cubs (down), noting both are looking to rebound in 2010 after poor 2009 campaigns.
- Dodger single-game tickets go on sale this Saturday at 10am. You can order online, over the phone (866-DODGERS), or in person at Dodger Stadium. The Sunset gate will open at 8am, and Dodger legends Ron Cey and Sweet Lou Johnson will be there signing autographs between 10am and 11am.
- Former Dodger Orel Hershiser will join the ESPN Sunday Night broadcasting team of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. Kudos to Bulldog.
- As BHSportsGuy pointed out last night, a 6.4 earthquake hit Taiwan. However, Ken Gurnick pointed out that the Dodgers' plans remain intact.
- Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts took a look at age 35 and older bench players in LA Dodger history, and concluded that older isn't necessarily better
- Shawn Hoffman of Baseball Prospectus looked a little more in-depth at the financial plans submitted in court filings by Jamie McCourt, calling the plan to grow revenue while keeping payroll relatively flat "a sales tool, pitching an investor on what they think he'll want to hear."
- Chad / Kensai of Memories of Kevin Malone took a look at high strikeout prospects in the minors over the last decade to see how they fared in the majors, in an effort to see the future of Kyle Russell. [UPDATE: Chad also examines Scott Elbert in the latest of his Prospect Profiles 2010 series. -ed.]
- Tomorrow is the spring opener, at noon in a "road" game at Camelback Ranch against the White Sox. Scheduled to pitch for the Dodgers are Vicente Padilla, Ramon Ortiz, Charlie Haeger, Luis Ayala, Scott Dohmann, and Jon Link. Manny Ramirez will be the designated hitter.
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We'll just keep on running out them ol' vets
till there’s no more minor league deals to give out. Keep em comin’ Ned!
The Airman of Westwood
Sometimes I find it a bit spooky
… when Eric and I post at the same time. It’s like we speak each other’s unspoken language … fluently. :)
From the Dodgers' ticket press release
All fans purchasing at least one ticket at Dodger Stadium this Saturday will receive two free tickets to the Dodgers’ exhibition game against the Cleveland Indians on April 1.
Fans will receive numbered wristbands, a starting number is randomly selected at 8:45 a.m. and fans should note that there is no advantage to arriving before 8 a.m. The person with the selected number will have the first opportunity to purchase tickets at 10:00 a.m. and the rest of the group will be served in numerical sequence. Fans arriving after 8:45 a.m. will receive a different color wristband and will be helped after the first group.
There is a limit of four Opening Day tickets available for purchase per person while supplies last. Farmer John Dodger Dogs this Saturday are just $2 and Dodger merchandise kiosks will be open. Individual tickets purchased at Dodger Stadium will not incur any service charges.
I was a little disappointed in Tony’s answer to my Josh Bell question earlier today. He basically said the Dodgers traded him because they needed something now and Bell wouldn’t help for years. I was trying to see if he had inside info behind the thinking of that trade. He either doesn’t or isn’t at liberty to say.
Often there is no "inside info"
It could be this, Dodgers wanted Sherrill, gave a list of names to Orioles, Orioles picked two, that was it.
And, again, pretty much short of someone being at a Kershaw level, there really is no such thing as an untouchable player once the season starts and the focus becomes the season at hand. I think Tony’s answer reflects the thought that the Dodgers were getting a reliever who pitched effectively in the AL East, was going to be under their control for another year and in 2009, could provide a solid inning of relief.
This was for a team that no matter how you slice it, often had 3+ innings of relief work a night, so getting quality arms to fill that spot (you had already Wade, Kuo, Troncoso and Belisario as examples of pitchers who had gotten the DL bug at or around the time of thatt deal). Was this a deal that was just adding more depth, sure it was but even in its success, the Dodger pitching staff was always in flux last year.
although
I will kind of miss those uncomfortable interactions where Phillips & Joe Morgan’s mutual-loathing was on full display, while Jon Miller would try to change the subject…
I can imagine some uncomfortable interactions
with Orel and Morgan together though, too. Less loathing, of course, and I don’t think Orel is much of a Dodger homer (sometimes the opposite) but I can imagine them having disagreements. But then again, Morgan in the booth with anyone else not his clone will probably lead to that.
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants country, and damned proud of it.
Joe Morgan
is a trip…..If you want a good laugh, try to find him sayng Eddie Murray’s name on a telecast. Hysterical to me.
Also makes me miss the
FireJoeMorgan web site. :-(
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants country, and damned proud of it.
Yep! I follow him
happily. Just not quite the same. Bet he’ll do some Morgan gems during the season tho.
There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! / Broncos/Dodgers fan in Niners/Raiders/Giants country, and damned proud of it.
Jimmy Bramlett of LAist may have said it best:
With Orel Hershiser in the booth, I won’t have to deal with being blasted in the face by Steve Phillips’ hairspray in the press box bathroom
by Eric Stephen on Mar 4, 2010 7:47 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
"On the eve of the spring opener . . ."
Seriously, this should be a holiday or something. I came home to watch the Angels/White Sox just in time to hear the announcers say [paraphrasing]: “There’s been a scoring change we want to let you know about. The single in the first inning by Juan Pierre has been changed to an error.” Ah, spring.
Off to Camelback in the morning
I’m like a little kid on Christmas Eve.
If you leave at 1am with no traffic at all, you’ll probably get there at around 7am unless you stop a lot.
I've made the drive from Redlands
to Camelback twice. Both times were right at five hours. Of course, I don’t have an overheating Miata. ;-)
Haha, luckily he’s driving his car :)
I actually found out that I blew 2 pistons, my head gasket, and i had a leak in the water line. That car was doomed.
Two blown pistons, blown head gasket, leaky water line
Is that your Miata, or me in a few years?
The commenter formerly known as El Lay Dave.
It’s 100 miles from Simi Valley to Redlands, so you sorta split the difference between those two estimates of eight hours and six hours.
The commenter formerly known as El Lay Dave.
We’re guessing it will be around 7 or 8 hours with the traffic that we will inevitably hit in the morning around 7 AM. I just hope we’re not going to be late to the game. It should be fine.
Nice. Is anyone going next Wednesday? I’m taking the day off to go. First time I’ve ever been to Camelback or Spring Training for that matter.
Hey all
I’m actually thinking about heading down to Camelback ranch for the back end of my spring break (going to Vegas as well), I’ve been looking a the schedule, and have sort of been trying to make sense of it.
I was thinking, ideally, I might go sometime between Tuesday or Wednesday the 9th/10th and saturday the 13th. I know the Dodgers are scheduled to be in Taiwan Friday/Saturday but saw they still have games scheduled through the weekend. Would it be worth it to go? Would any of the starters be in Arizona while the Dodgers are in Taiwan, and would any of those games be at Camelback?
I’ll definitely let you guys know if I head that way, and maybe try to snag some pic.s if I do.
William Doolittle at your service, a.k.a. will do.
Taiwan trip roster. Basically, you miss seeing Manny, Loney, and Carroll/Belliard, with all other starters in Arizona.
The commenter formerly known as El Lay Dave.
oh well not bad at all, minus the fct that Loney is my favorite player, but sounds like its definitely worth making the trip though
William Doolittle at your service, a.k.a. will do.
I was completely confused about this post,
until I saw the posts above! I guess as long as the real earthquake is below a 6.5 or so, it’s not in bad taste, so you just made the cut. :)
On a similar note, it’s funny you should say this, because I was almost up to the entrance gate at Dodger Stadium for game 1 of the NLDS, when Matt Kemp hit the home run off of Carpenter. The noise was so explosive from the stands, it really did shake the ground a little bit. Hope we see a few more of those this fall, but there’s a long way to go before then…
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NL West Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
San Diego
|
60 | 42 | .588 | 0 | Lost 2 |
|
San Francisco
|
60 | 45 | .571 | 1.5 | Won 2 |
|
Los Angeles
|
54 | 50 | .519 | 7 | Lost 4 |
|
Colorado
|
54 | 50 | .519 | 7 | Won 3 |
|
Arizona
|
38 | 66 | .365 | 23 | Lost 1 |
(updated 7.31.2010 at 9:51 PM PDT)
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