Vegas wins 9 - 3 as Eric Stults wins his 1st game of the season giving up 3 runs in 6 innings. The offense was the story as Vegas banged out 7 doubles. Tiffee could only manage two hits tonight and saw his average plunge from .613 to .583. Maybe Raglani should have stuck it out after all. Lombard is hitting only .048,  Xavier Paul .161, and Repko .229.  Andrew Ellis had 3 hits and maybe we have our backup catcher playing in AAA.

Jacksonville was postponed due to rain. They will be playing a doubleheader tomorrow.

Inland Empire loses in extra innings 6 - 5 even with 22 year old Javy Guerra tossing one hit ball for 4 innings. He is still being plagued by control issues as he walked 3 but at least he is keeping his hit rate down and K rate up. Given Kutz gave up most of the damage as he was touched up for 4 earned runs in 1 inning of work. The offense was provided by Andrew Locke and newly acquired Christian Lara.

Great Lake loses 6 - 2 with Kyle Smit taking the loss. He went 4 2/3 and gave up 5 runs. Mathews and Rosario had two hits each but the offense has yet to thaw out. 2007 rookie league stars Baez(.080) and Ortiz(.080) have found it a little harder to replicate their success last year. Preston Mattingly on the other hand has had no problem replicating his inability to hit in the MidWest league as his average dropped below .200.

Jon Weisman solves the mystery of Raglani and Dunlap

 Vegas wins 6 - 2 behind Meloan who did much better in his 2nd start as he lasted six innings this time, punching out six in the process. Terry Tiffee is on fire as he collected 3 more hits and his robust average now sits at .613 and he holds a 90 point lead in the PCL batting average derby. Tiffee was once a decent Twin prospect and got some time with them from 2004 - 2006 but failed to impress. The Dodgers invited him to cap this spring on a NRI and he is in AAA for insurance. He is more along the lines of Phil Hiatt then Jones or Lindsey since Hiatt also saw some time in the bigs and a was failed KC prospect at 3rd base while Jones or Lindsey never have spent a day on a major league roster.

 The Suns lost 2 - 0 in Clayton Kershaw's 2nd start. He was limited to 75 pitches but managed eight strikeouts in five innings. According to Jon Weisman's report noted above, DeJon Watson has stated that both McDonald and Kershaw will see the number of pitches allowed increased with their next start.

InLand Empire lost a slugest 11 - 10as everyone got beat up on. Actually it was a walkfest for Inland Empire as they received 10 free passes. Free passes was not the problem for our pitching, it was lousy pitching. Bastardo was the main culprit in giving up 5 runs in 2 innings but supplemental pick Adkins also failed to impress. On the plus side the offense came alive which is not surprising as the weather is warming up. Josh Bell and Carlos Santana lead the attack by getting on base 7 times in 10 at bats. Jamie Pedroza cashed in 3 of those baserunners and looks to be heating up.

Great Lakes game was postponed due to rain. At least it wasn't snow.

Mark Reynolds continued his display of "light tower" power when he crushed a pitch from Chad Billingsley for his 3rd home run in two nights. Even though the Diamondbacks scored 10 runs it was the only home run of the night which comes as a surprise given the power the kids have been displaying.

The Dodgers behind Loney, Kemp, Martin, and Ethier were supposed to be the new kids on the block but the Diamondback kids are pushing them around and rubbing their noses in the dirt.

After Tuesday Nights loss the Diamondback Kids (Upton/3), (C Young/4),  (Reynolds/5), (Drew/2), (Snyder/1), and (C Jackson) had hit 15 home runs compared to ONE by the Dodgers.

Some of that could be explained by the Diamondbacks playing in Coors and the Dodgers in Petco but in the last two games the Diamondback Kids have also out homered the Dodger kids 4 - 0.

I'm sure we will catch up, just as I'm sure Chad has better days a head but I'm also sure the Diamondback Kids are not going to play 2nd fiddle to anyone so the Dodgers better get it in gear. Loney has hit a bunch of harmless singles and sports a high but empty batting average, so at this time it has been the old man who has put the only charge into balls in the past week.

I've made fun of the fact the Dodgers are going with a 40 year old 2nd baseman as their clean up hitter. After watching the rest of the team I guess he really is their best option. At least for now.

Vegas wins 6 - 5 Miguel Pinango struck out 10 in 5 innings of work but Greg Jones vultured the win with Koplov and Myers suppling the hold and save. The offense was provided by the slugging Tiffee who is now hitting 560 for the season as he collected 3 more hits including his 1st home run of the season.

All good things must come to an end and for the first time in 26 games John Lindsey went hitless.

Inland Empire wins 3 - 1 behind the stellar pitching of Cody White and Given Kutz. They combined for 11 punchouts while walking only two. The meager offense was provided by Thomas Giles who plated two runs with a single. New Dodger Christian Lara made his debut and walked twice.

Great Lakes wins 5 - 1 as the other Miller (Justin) and Robert Blevins give up zero earned runs in 9 innings. Blevins displayed great command at Odgen in 2007 and is continuing the trend in Great Lakes with zero walks after two appearances. Lambo had a perfect night with 3 hits and a walk and was responsible for most of the offense. He continues to make a mockery of his draft position. Great Lakes is typically a tough place to hit in April but the West Valley resident is showing no signs that the cold weather is bothering him.

Dodgers end week one tied for 1st place and tonight will decide who is in 1st place come Tuesday. While the Rockies, Diamondbacks, and Padres closers were all having trouble finishing off games, Broxton and Saito were proving to be the strength of the Dodger team.

April 2nd, Diamondback closer Brandon Lyon blows save by giving up 3 run jack to Edwin Encarnacion
April 6th,  Diamondback closer Brandon Lyon blows save by giving up a solo home run to Holliday
April 2nd, Padre closer Trevor Hoffman blows save
April 6th,  Padre closer Trevor Hoffman loses game on Hu single
April 6th,  Rockie closer Manny Corpus blows save by giving up a 2 run home run to Mark Reynolds

Not exactly what you want from your closers.

Everyone in the West is displaying solid starting pitching but the difference between the Dodgers and everyone else is that the back end of our bullpen has held up while all of their's have faltered. The Diamondbacks may be in 1st place but they have to be worried about Brandon Lyon already blowing two saves. Luckily for them they have options in Pena Jr or Chad Qualls but the decision to trade away Valverde might come back to haunt them. The Padres played a great weekend against the Dodgers and they could just as easily have won 2 out of the 3 instead of losing 2 out of 3  but they don't appear to have the rock solid bullpen which has been their staple over the past few years. Hoffman looks more and more like time has caught up to him as his fastball is now barely distinguishable from his changeup. Heath Bell could be the answer, but who will do the yeoman work that he provided as the setup to Hoffman? The Rockies have more problems then just their bullpen as their 1 - 5 mark attests but Manny Corpus killed them yesterday when he allowed Reynolds to take him deep in the 9th inning yesterday. No need to discuss the Giants as other then starting pitching, they have more holes then Bonnie and Clyde

Broxton and Saito are doing exactly as the Dodgers expected but they have also gotten some solid pitching from Troncoso who at this time last year was an unknown pitching in the California League. The offense has been anemic as Martin, Jones, Kemp, and Kent have all been MIA after one week. The defense was a big part of the win on Sunday as Rafy Furcal made Broxton look good in the box scores when he extended his full 5'9 and turned what looked like a sure game tying hit into the last out. Chin-Lung Hu not only made a heads up play to nail Brian Giles who strayed to far from 3rd base but also drove in the winning run.

That would be plus one for defense at 2nd base over offense as Hu was the difference maker in this game.

A little shout out to Blake DeWitt who has held his own defensively and offensively after one week. Many of us, including myself expected him to be over matched but so far, so good.

Tonight Estaban Loaiza goes against Dan Haren as the decision to bring in Billingsley last Wednesday before the rain delay continues to hurt us 4 days later as Chad's start was bumped to Tuesday.

Torre is doing some good things and some not so good things. Love the way he's handled the bullpen, not to crazy about Pierre playing but I'm not going to expend much energy on that until I see a few more weeks of baseball.

 

Vegas loses 3-2 but John Lindsey kept his hitting streak alive with a double. He's now hitting 471 for the year. Eric Stults got pounded but two major league journeyman and one ex-top prospect combined to shut down Salt Lake over the last 6 innings.

Jacksonville wins 2 - 1 behind Jesus Castillo who went five innings and only gave up one run. Ghame Over Brazoban picked up 2nd save in two tries. The offense was supplied by DeJesus who picked two hits.

Inland Empire lost 8 - 7 in a shoot out. Highly regarded Javy Guerra did his job for 4 innings by only giving up one run on one hit but Gabe Wight got torched for 5 runs while only getting one out. Josh Bell banged out 3 hits and Carlos Santana got on base 3 times but they fell one run short. Carlos Santana continues to show the plate discipline that intrigues me as he has now walked 5 times in 12 plate appearances.

Great Lakes came from behind to win 4 - 3 when they scored two runs in the bottom of the 9th. Lambo drove in Preston Mattingly with the winning run when he doubled for his 3rd hit of the game. Preston Mattingly had two hits and is showing more signs of life this season on the offensive side. The Loons were able to come back only because my sleeper pick 20 year old Johnathan Dutton pitched 3 1/3 no hit innings in relief while striking out 5. According to my calculations he now has a scoreless streak dating back to last year of 22 innings.

Pee Wee Young delivered the big hit but it was a healthy Furcal scoring from 2nd that was the big story of the Dodgers 3-2 win last night.

For the 1st time since Rafael Furcal signed his 3/39 million dollar deal in the winter of 2005  he is healthy in April. This is what he did in April in the first two years of his deal.

Those are dismal numbers and many Dodger fans were just hoping that Furcal could end spring training without suffering any type of lingering injury. In 2006 he had surgery during the winter and it just took him longer to get ready and his numbers suffered at the beginning of the year. By the end of 2006 a healthy Furcal was the best player on the team.

In 2007 Jason Repko may have ruined the Dodger season when he took out Furcal in a spring training game and turned a routine pop up into a season long ankle sprain.

Finally the Dodgers are seeing a healthy Furcal and last night's dash home from 2nd on an infield single would never have happened in 2006 or 2007.

More then anyone, a healthy Furcal might be the key to the season. If the Dodgers can get a full season of a healthy Furcal I like their chances.

 If yesterday had been April 1^st, instead of today, most Giant fans would have felt that Brian Sabean was pulling the ultimate April Fools joke with the lineup they put on the field yesterday.

In all honesty I think the Jacksonville Suns 2005 team would have beat the Giant team that took the field for opening day.

Luckily for Dodger fans, the Diamondbacks, Rockies, and Padres will give us plenty to worry about over the course of the next few years while we put the Giant rivalry on the backburner until they restock.

Ramon Martinez should be the starting SS in a matter of days.

Baseball Mastermind has part two of the 30 best players in baseball up.

If I were David Ortiz I would not be happy about having the world's girliest drink named after me.

I didn't realize that a columnist that works for a major newspaper could be this blatantly racist, but here we are.

Spring training has not been kind to our 3rd base options so far.

1st it was Nomar - we quietly rejoiced
2nd it was LaRoche - we sweared loudly
3rd it was Abreu - it was expected

I was running around the 3rd base situation and most names have been mentioned by all the blogs except for one.

Mark Teahen was moved off of 3rd base not because of his fielding ability but because of Alex Gordon. KC is stockpiling young pitching and they might be willing to part with Teahen for something like D Young and some pitching prospects. He isn't as good as he hit in the 2nd half of 2006 but I think he's much better then he hit in 2007. For 2008 we need a real solution not a stop gap.

Nomar will not be healthy. LaRoche could easily have problems with that thumb all year long. Abreu even if healthy couldn't possibly hit enough for us to carry him as a regular 3rd baseman. DeWitt simply is not ready. Hu could be the guy but again I don't think he will hit enough and I think he will be needed at 2nd base quite a bit this year since Abreu doesn't seem up to it.

Continue reading this post »