Los Angeles Dodgers

Snake’s Take: Are the Dodgers the BoSox of old?

Snake Eyes — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:14:01 +0000

As a Dodgers fan I must finally not only vent my frustration with the 2008 squad, but also contemplate a trend I have noticed with the Dodgers in that of disappointment. First for the frustration. We can’t hit the ball to save our lives and we can barley pitch. In recent years we have had both disappointment as well as minor success in making the playoffs a couple times. We haven’t won a World Series since 1988. That is 20 years if we do not win it this year. Are the Dodgers going to turn out to be the Bo Sox or the Cubbies? I don’t have a crystal ball that will answer that for sure, but this team has had minor sucesses at the best the past twenty years. This is a trend that scares the heck out of me. If we don’t get up and running consistently soon, and by that I mean making the playoffs and be in contention for several years consistently then we may be seeing a trend of consistent mediocrity and thus subsequent failure to the expectations of Dodger fans. I fear that could quite possibly be happening. That is my take, and I hope I am wrong. I have been before, I was wrong about Kuroda, at least so far. Maybe we can turn this ship around in a couple of years.

No Run Support

SOAD — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:59:38 +0000

LOS ANGELES (AP)—The Angels got another outstanding pitching performance, and this time they even won.

John Lackey held the Dodgers to three hits for 8 2-3 innings, then Francisco Rodriguez finished off a nervous ninth Sunday afternoon to give the Angels a 1-0 victory.

The previous night, Jered Weaver and Jose Arredondo held the Dodgers without a hit, but the Dodgers’ unearned run was enough to give them a 1-0 victory in one of baseball’s strangest games in recent years.

“Last night was bizarre,” Rodriguez said. “Today was a great game.”

Lackey (6-1), whose 2008 debut was delayed six weeks by a strained triceps, allowed only five base runners in a dominant performance. He struck out nine and walked two. The right-hander retired 14 in a row at one juncture.

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Dodgers On A Roll

SOAD — Wed, 07 May 2008 07:21:19 +0000

LOS ANGELES (AP)—In a span of about 24 hours, Blake DeWitt hit his first two home runs in the big leagues. He had to hustle a lot more to get the second one.

DeWitt hit a drive in the fifth inning that right fielder Ryan Church just missed catching at the top of the right field fence. The ball stayed in play, and the two-run inside-the-park homer gave the Los Angeles Dodgers a lead they would not relinquish in a 5-4 victory over the New York Mets on Tuesday night.

“I never would have dreamed I would have gotten an inside-the-park home run,” DeWitt said. “I mean, it’s hard enough for me to get a triple. So that was fun. I have to say I was pretty shocked that Larry was waving me around. It took everything I had to get from third to home.”

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Offensive Spark

SOAD — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:27:03 +0000

LOS ANGELES (AP)—Jeff Kent and Russell Martin homered, James Loney extended his season-opening hitting streak to 14 games with an RBI single, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat Pittsburgh 11-2 on Tuesday night to end the Pirates’ four-game winning streak.

Esteban Loaiza (1-2) got the victory in relief of starter Hong-Chih Kuo, allowing a run and three hits over the final five innings with two strikeouts and no walks. The right-hander, who made his big league debut with the Pirates in 1995 and has pitched for seven other teams since, is 2-0 in two appearances against them.

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Early Struggles

SOAD — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:00:44 +0000

LOS ANGELES (AP)—Nate McLouth extended his season-opening hitting streak to 13 games with a two-out, three-run homer off closer Takashi Saito in the ninth inning, and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the stunned Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 Monday night for their fourth straight victory.

Saito (1-1) was trying to save the win for countryman Hiroki Kuroda, who made his Dodger Stadium debut. But the right-hander gave up a one-out single to Jose Bautista and a two-out single to pinch-hitter Adam LaRoche before McLouth drove a 1-0 pitch deep into the right-field pavilion for his second homer this season.

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Hot Start

SOAD — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:58:56 +0000

The Dodgers started a season with two victories for the first time since 2000, when they won a pair of 10-4 decisions at Montreal. Rafael Furcal scored from second on pinch hitter Young’s infield hit with two outs in the ninth inning, giving the Los Angeles Dodgers a 3-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night.

“The night turned out better than the day,” Young said with a smile after getting his first hit and RBI of the year. “Anytime you get a game-winning hit, it’s big.”

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50 Years On The Field

Darth Rekal — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:37:58 +0000

Yesterday March 31, 2008: The 2008 campaign started with a great shutout win from our ace Brad Penny. With festivites hovering around the 50th anniversary of Dodger blue in L.A. From Saturday’s Coliseum game to Opening Day’s pre-game of having Dodgers alumni on the field. This season is poised to be a good one. Come in and enjoy it with us

Spring Wrap Up

Snake Eyes — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:46:58 +0000

To the average eye, Spring Training for the Dodgers was a failure. There exists a silver lining however, and that is what we are going to look at today. It is true that the Dodgers record was below .500 (11-18-4) but there are a few good things about it. One was that there were 4 games in which ended in a tie. In Spring Training they are only allowed to play 9 innings. If those games were to go on longer the Dodgers could have a 15-18 record. It isn’t a sure thing, but a possibility. Also, 6 of those losses were decided by one run. To me those games could have gone either way. Looking at these to things could easily turn the record around to one of that as a winner. Also some of those games were split squads and the starters were not playing all the time. This is why they call it Spring Training. One other good thing came out of the Spring as well. That is Andre Ethier working his behind off to become the starting LF over Juan Pierre whose D has been shaky. Ethier will bring more power and much better D in left to complement Andruw Jones. If one looks into the silver lining they shouldn’t fret over the Spring that appeared worrisome.

One last note worthy thing to notice was the 50th anniversary game against Boston where the Dodgers lost 7-4. That was a world record for the most people to witness a Baseball game in person ever! I wasn’t there but that is still a cool thing to know as being a Dodgers Fan.

Check out our Opening Day Roster and discuss it here

Also please check out our Gameday Thread for the Season Opener here

Blue is Back!

Darth Rekal — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:14:53 +0000

Feb. 28th 2008: Welcome to the 50th Anniversary of Dodgers Blue in Los Angeles. Spring training kicked off today with Andruw Jones facing his former team and Joe Torre making his debut. It looked dire for a while as the Dodgers trailed for most of the game. The pitching was on but the offense was stifled by Atlanta’s pitching. That is until the ninth inning. That’s when John Lindsey… WHO? you ask? John Lindsey a non-roster invitee hit a two-run single to complete the comeback. Read more about and see pics in our forums.

Snake’s Take: Offseason Brings Options and Post-Season Hopes!

Snake Eyes — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:49:21 +0000

Today is January 1st 2008. What a great day, a new year, a new slate, a new season for the LA Dodgers. Some may not realize just how close the season is. Tentative schedules show the first spring training game is scheduled for February 28th. That means as of today, there is only 59 days until Spring Training! With that said, lets recap what the Dodgers have done, and how that shows a chance for success for the Dodgers in 2008.

The LA Dodgers didn’t really do a whole lot this off season. They really only brought in three people. But those three people are going to equal success for the Dodgers in 08. First was the hiring of Joe Torre. Dodgers wanted Grady Little’s head on a silver plater after the 07 collapse. Many didn’t see it coming but that is exactly what the management did. Then to replace him they signed one of the best managers in the game in Joe Torre. Now it is true that one can look at his career record and see a lot of problems, and one could argue that Torre wasn’t as good as people thought, that it was the Yankees. I mean just look at the talent that they Yankees had. But that is where Torre helped them get over the hump. Also, lets face it, Torre is better than Little as a manager. Torre also commands a certain amount of respect, which should take effect on the whole team, thus getting better performance out of the squad. That move alone automatically gave the Dodgers a B- in the off-season. I highly doubt there will be a huge collapse that could be attributed to Torre’s managerial skills that we all witnessed in 2007.

Next came the signings of two players that should help the team immensely. Andruw Jones had a rough season in 2007, but his defense was still there. After seeing Juan Pierre’s horrid defense in CF last year the Dodgers needed a change. They looked in the direction of Andruw Jones who needed a change of scenery. It just seemed like it was an equation that worked out perfectly for the Jones and the Dodgers. He will provide a great change in CF defensively, and if last year was indeed a fluke for him offensively he will be the power bat the Dodgers have needed for several years.
With this signing, it also will help Juan Pierre. With him playing so bad in CF I do think, and so does Joe Torre apparently, that Pierre would be a better fit in LF. There is less room to cover out there, and with his amazing speed, he should be able to be a better outfielder. Pierre can still run the bases well, especially with the tandem of him and Rafael Furcal. Now some might argue that we have too many outfielders that deserve a starting position out there. Yep, that is true, but it gives the Dodgers more options. It gives them speed, and power options with Pierre, Kemp, and Ethier. These guys are fairly interchangeable on the corners of the outfield and depending on the situation, or team we face, we keep one on the bench until he is needed for power or speed and then substitute him in when Torre thinks we need him. For example, if we need more power for a game the we can keep Pierre on the bench. But lets say the game is tied in the 9th and Nomar Garciaparra happens to get on first base with 2 outs. He can’t run all that well, but Pierre can, the Dodgers can pinch run by brining in Pierre. Maybe Pierre steals second and the next guy gets a double to win the game. There are a plethora of options that having four outfielders can bring us.

The last guy the Dodgers brought in was Hiroki Kuroda, a starting pitcher from Japan, who is supposed to be the big name coming out of Japan. I already stated my opinion on him earlier this off-season. I am sticking to my guns on that opinion. I hope I am wrong, but I no longer think we should trade our outfielders for another starting pitcher. I do think that he will help our team, but our starting Pitching will still be a problem for us this season. We only currently have two quality starting pitchers in my mind. Kuroda will help us by maybe being an average pitcher for us, and then filling a starting spot that would be taken up by a worse pitcher. I still like to not even think Schmidt will get on the field, and if he does hopefully he will be effective. This is what we currently are looking as our starting rotation.

1. Penny
2. Lowe
3. Billingsley
4. Kuroda
5. Loaiza

Hopefully Schmidt can take Loaiza later on during the season, but only starters one and three are going to win a lot of games for the Dodgers this season. It would be nice to have been able to get Johan Santana but the options that would take away from the team this season, and maybe next as well, would hurt us too much. All in all we are going to be more powerful offensively this season, and in the long run of this season, Kuroda may not be that bad of a signing. It would be better than not doing anything at all.

These moves will help the Dodgers be faster, have more options, better both offensively and defensively. All around the Dodgers have improved. They really did everything they have needed to do so far except get a 3rd baseman. But maybe that isn’t the Dodger’s fault. The Dodgers are re-armed and have readied up to go on into this season as a major contender to get far into the MLB playoffs. The off season isn’t over yet, things could change in the next 59 days, but even if it doesn’t the Dodgers will be ready to go far into the post-season.