Dodgers Diaries

... and walls and windows and doors, as they came out to volunteer with my local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. And not ex-Dodgers like Ken Landreaux and Lou Johnson, or part-time players like Justin Sellers or Tony Gwynn Jr. I'm talking All-Star Dodgers, recognizable by people who don’t even follow baseball. I'm talking 2011 Cy Young Award Winner Clayton Kershaw and his wife, and 2011 shoulda-been MVP Matt Kemp. Kemp and I spent some time taking sledgehammers to walls (the walls lost) as we tore down a garage to make room for another house for a poor hard-working family.

The all-stars were there for more than a photo op, hanging around and helping us get work done long after a cynic would have said they could have gotten back on the bus. Kershaw in particular, lingered for a while (he isn't scheduled to pitch tonight). Kemp wielded the sledgehammer with ease, but didn’t labor so long that anyone needs to worry about him wrecking his swing. Somebody asked him that question, in fact. His answer: “Don’t worry, I work out."

Josh Lindblom, who also came out the last time the Dodgers helped out at Habitat, was there today as well, and brought his wife Aurielle with him. Jill Painter, the LA Daily News columnist, told me the two of them volunteer all the time, even when the cameras aren't there. That makes him my new favorite Dodger. Sorry, Jerry Hairston. :-)

Maury Wills helped me remove a window, and my outstanding crew of Bank of America volunteers helped us tear the roof off the garage.

Photos by Jon Soohoo

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

A 2012 baseball season with neither Frank McCourt nor Tony LaRussa is something to keep me warm all winter.

If I had known LaGenius would have retired, having nothing left to prove after winning the 2011 World Series, I would have rooted for the Cardinals. Now I feel cheap for cheering on the God-fearing Rangers.

There's no denying LaRussa's success. He's among the greatest managers of all time, one of only two to win the World Series in both leagues, and took a 2011 Cardinal team that had no business being in the playoffs past the vaunted Phillies, through the powerful Brewers and over the speedy Rangers. His mix-and-match bullpen philosophy works, and so does whatever it is he does to get the most out of players like Octavio Dotel, Arthur Rhodes, Kyle Lohse and Jeff Weaver. Those guys all have rings, while Roy Halladay does not.

But I won’t be sorry to see him go. Lefty-righty matchups are here to stay, and it seems every manager has embraced the three-pitcher inning. But at least we won't be hearing about what a genius the man is for batting the pitcher eighth, or for pretending he didn't know all along that Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco were sticking needles up their butts.

As for Mr. McCourt, the sooner he sells the Dodgers the better. The sooner the Fox TV network can back up a Brinks truck full of money to the new owners and allow them to sign Prince Fielder or some other hitter to protect Matt Kemp in the lineup. The sooner we can talk about Clayton Kershaw defending his Cy Young award. The sooner we can stop talking about injunctions and stays and oxidation of staples in legal agreements. The sooner Jamie McCourt can fade into Georgia Frontiere oblivion.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

Is the bloom starting to come off Logan White's rose? I’ve long hoped the maestro of scouting would replace Ned Colletti as Dodgers GM, but as can't-miss prospect after prospect has regressed (see Martin, Russell, or Loney, James), you have to reconsider White’s supposed brilliance at spotting talent. Here's his hit list from the Dodgers' official bio:

Tony Abreu
Chad Billingsley
Jonathan Broxton
Blake DeWitt
Scott Elbert
A.J. Ellis
Chin-lung Hu
Eric Hull
Kenley Jansen
Matt Kemp
Clayton Kershaw
Andy LaRoche
Brent Leach
James Loney
Russell Martin
James McDonald
Russ Mitchell
Xavier Paul
Eric Stults
Ramon Troncoso
Cory Wade
Delwyn Young

There's no doubting that Kershaw and Kemp were A+ signings, Billingsley an A-, and the book is still out on Jansen, Elbert, and even Broxton (I won't blame Logan for injuries). But the others have all turned out to be mediocre players with occasional flashes of brilliance. Aside from the Carlos Santana deal for Casey Blake, Ned has gotten credit for not trading away any top-flight prospects. But that may have less to do with his own acumen and more to do with the fact that the Dodgers don’t really have any top-flight prospects.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

Because I don’t follow basketball with any care, I usually look forward to the day the Lakers are eliminated from the NBA playoffs. It’s not just that I find this particular group of Lakers distasteful, and can’t wait until the spotlight stops shining on them. It’s also because their exploits always tend to overshadow the interesting stories taking root in the spring at Chavez Ravine.

This year, however, I'm not so sure I'd like more media scrutiny of the Dodgers. This is a team that wasn't expected to go very far, and so far, they’ve barely lived up to that expectation. Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley have delivered some fine performances, but the bullpen has been one of the worst in baseball. Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp are both OPS-ing over .950, but it feels like they're the only Dodgers who can hit. Even Ethier's 30-game hitting streak came to an end before the Lakers’ ignominious exit. The team lead in home runs belongs to Rod Barajas, he of the .216 batting average.

More sportswriters focusing on the Dodgers will only expose how horrendous the past 11 months of James Loney’s career have been. More broadcasters following the team will only shine the spotlight even more brightly on Jonathan Broxton's inabilities as closer. More talk on sports radio will only amplify the swing-hard-three-times-in-case-you-hit-it tendencies of Juan Uribe and Marcus Thames. Worst of all, more media attention on this team will undoubtedly focus on the travails of their duplicitous owner, Frank McCourt, who has overstayed his welcome a lot longer than Ron Artest has.

For now, I will content myself with the fact that the Lakers’ classless exit with dominate headlines and highlight shows for at least another week. And the dismantling of this team after the 4-0 sweep by Dallas is sure to keep the purple and gold in the limelight at least until LeBron and D-Wade waltz to the championship they assigned to themselves nearly a year ago.

But then it’ll be all Dodgers all the time. And the only team that will be good for is the Angels.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

All the talk about whether the Dodgers wanted Vernon Wells (whom the Angels landed Friday), could afford his bloated salary, or should have gotten him, is immaterial because they don't really have any chips they could have traded away to get him. Assuming that Bills and Kershaw are untouchable, that you wouldn't bother trading one outfielder to get another, who is it the trade bait that would bring back much more than a bunch of minnows?

To my mind, Toronto got the best of this trade by landing Mike Napoli to play C/1B/DH, unloaded a lot of Wells's big salary, and even got Juan Rivera besides to hold down left field. He's no worse an outfielder than ThamesGwynnGibbons.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

Yeah, yeah, Clayton Kershaw went eight scoreless, threw a gem against the Mets, kept them from scoring for what amounts to almost two straight games. Yeah, yeah, Russell Martin drove in a run so the blogosphere can overlook the fact that the Dodgers haven’t exactly been mashing the ball. Yeah, yeah, Casey Blake made a nice defensive play.

All I want to talk about is Kenley Jansen. Kenly who? The guy who started the season in Single A. The guy who was converted from catcher less than a year ago. The guy who is so new he’s still wearing No. 74 on his uniform. And the guy who has retired the first six batters he’s faced, four by the K. We’re going to be seeing a lot of KKKKKenley signs at Dodger Stadium pretty soon.

It’s still too early to anoint Jansen the next setup man much less the closer who has more grit and manliness than Jonathan Broxton. It’s still too early to ink him to any postseason plans. But the addition of a stud pitcher to a bullpen that sorely needed some fresh arms would be a highlight on any day. On a day where the team won 1-0 and the kid gets his first big league save, it’s a day to remember.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

No, I’m not going to take credit for the fine performance put on Sunday by the 2010 Dodgers. But I’m going to enjoy it. Great pitching (on both sides) and some extremely timely hitting from Manny Ramirez, who seems to have a flair for the dramatic, in case you haven’t noticed, contributed to a thrilling 2-1 victory over the visiting Giants.

If only Clayton Kershaw could have gotten the win. The 22-year-old lefty has a talent for pitching brilliantly, only to see the game decided after he departs. Can’t blame him for Sunday’s game: he gave the Dodgers 7 strong innings, and maybe went a batter too far when he gave up a home run to Juan Uribe. Ramon Troncos snuck off with the victory, as he was the last of the four FOUR! Pitchers Torre used in the 8th inning to get three outs.

As if to underline the point I made yesterday, Jonathan Broxton got his first opportunity 12 games into the season. Thankfully, he converted it with six strikes on eight pitches.

Day off today means the nobody in the bullpen will have to work consecutive days for a bit. They’ll need the rest: the Dodgers play 13 games in a row until their next off day May 3. Prepare for a lot of Jeff Weaver. Those games are against the Reds, Nationals, Mets, and Pirates. They need to make hay against the underbelly of their schedule if they’re going to compete this year.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

It’s not as if the final result of the Dodgers’ 2009 season wasn’t predictable. For as much as Dodger fans hoped this team could win it all, the truth was there from the start. The same team that lost in five games to the Phils in 2008 never got any better in 2009.

Sure, the record was better. The 2009 version won 11 more games than the previous year. But the finish was the same, and the first-round playoff result was the same: A 3-0 sweep over the highly favored Central Division champs (Chicago in 2008, St. Louis in 2009). When we look back on 2008, however, we see a team that peaked in late August and continued an unlikely run through the NLDS before falling back to earth.

When we look back on 2009, we will see a team that peaked in late April, played .500 the rest of the way, and stole three from the Cardinals before reverting to the putrid form that defined them in the last month of the season, when they couldn’t beat the Nationals, Padres or Pirates to clinch the division. That team was the one that showed up against the Phils.

When the 2008 season ended, the decisions to let go of Derek Lowe, Takashi Saito, Chan Ho Park, Joe Beimel and Brad Penny meant the team was going to have to find a way to get another 500 innings of sub 4.00 pitching. Yet one free agent pitcher after the next signed — elsewhere. The Dodgers began the season without an ace, convinced that Chad Billingsley was ready to shoulder that responsibility even though he had been terrible in two starts against Philadelphia and broke his leg in the offseason. Hmm.

The lack of a No. 1 starter plagued this team all year. The Opening Day starter, Hiroki Kuroda, made three trips to the disabled list. Billingsley faltered so hard down the stretch that Joe Torre didn’t even name him a starter in either playoff series. Randy Wolf became the de facto No. 1 based on a strong September, then failed to get through five innings in his Game 1 start in the NLDS. Clayton Kershaw fared even worse in Game 1 of the NLCS.

Even as the season went along, they refused to bid on Pedro Martinez, a free agent. Failed to land Roy Halladay. Failed to trade for Cliff Lee. As they go into 2010, Billingsley has to be considered a question mark, and the Dodgers are fools if they want to slap the No. 1 tag on Kershaw as early in his career as they did with Bills. Now, as then, they have no No. 1. No guy who goes deep into ballgames and saves the bullpen. No guy who stops losing streaks every five days.

Bullpens are great, but for them to work, everybody has to be on his game. They’re only as strong as the weakest link. If Troncoso or Sherrill or Kuo is off his game, it can ruin a great night by everyone who preceded him. Or it can turn a game one out away from evening the NLCS into another Broxton nightmare.

--- JOHN ROSENTHAL

I can understand the home runs that caused the Dodgers to lose Game 1 of the NLCS to the Phillies. Carlos Ruiz has been a thorn in their side for two seasons now, and Thursday night was no exception. Raul Ibañez is a good hitter and George Sherrill was desperate to throw a strike in that situation. The Phillies hit in clutch situations and the Dodgers did not. End of story.

Some questions linger, however. For one, how does Joe Torre let Clayton Kershaw pitch to Ryan Howard in the fifth inning? The lefty had already given up the three-run bomb to Ruiz and had that look he always has when he starts to falter. I know Torre wanted to rebuild the youngster’s confidence after he got Jimmy Rollins to ground out and Shane Victorino to strike out. But after his third wild pitch of the inning, what the @#$^# are you waiting for? After he walks Chase Utley, what are you waiting for?

The pitcher’s spot was due up second in the bottom half of the inning. So burn Scott Elbert. What’s the big deal? Instead, Howard doubled home two more runs, which proved to be the decisive runs in the game.

Another question: How do you not have your Jim Thome runner pre-selected at the beginning of the game? It’s not like it’s a surprise that Thome can’t run the bases. Thome looked like the fat guy in my softball league who doesn’t even want to walk all the way to first base before taking a runner. Frankly, I’m surprised teams don’t just let him hit it and throw him out from the outfield on a single. So what were the Dodgers doing while he was working out a walk? Being surprised that he didn’t hit a homer? Realizing they shouldn’t have pitched to Howard? Telling Randy Wolf to get ready to run? No, they were caught flat-footed while Wolf had to go change his shoes. It didn’t matter to the outcome, but it showed the Dodgers’ lack of preparation.

Finally, how does TBS get away with interjecting a Game Break when there are no other games being played? The new LCS playoff format practically forbids gamesfrom being played on the same day. The only times there will assuredly be an NLCS and ALCS game on the same day are Friday and Sunday.

Nice snood, Manny.

--- JOHN ROSENTHAL

Joe Torre made an unexpected move by naming Clayton Kershaw his Game 1 starter. But if you factor in a desire to have Vicente Padilla start at home, the choice isn’t that surprising after all. Given the choice of moving one of his lefties to the road, Torre opted for the more seasoned Wolf, who spent the first eight years of his career in the city of brotherly love and is almost assuredly itching to show the Philly faithful what he has left in the tank.

The rest of the roster filled out almost in lockstep, with the same 11 pitchers as in the NLDS except for Kuroda replacing Garland. The hitters include the usual starting eight, plus Belliard (or Hudson if you consider Belliard the new starting 2B), Castro, Ausmus, Pierre, Loretta and Thome. Sorry Jon, but you didn’t see any action in the NLDS, and you definitely won’t in this series. Then again, neither did Chad Billingsley, who started the season as the Dodgers’ ace. Baseball is a funny game.

With the Phillies’ abundance of left-handed pitching, it would have been nice to add a right-handed bat to the bench, especially one that could play the outfield as a defensive replacement for Manny Ramirez in the late innings. Problem is the Dodgers don’t have a player like that in their system. Xavier Paul is probably their best outfielder not in the starting lineup, but he too is a lefty. The only right-handed bat in the system is Jason Repko, known more for his glove. And after Mark Loretta’s heroics against St. Louis, there’s no way the Dodgers were going to bump him from the roster.

With Jim Thome taking up two roster spots (one for himself and one for somebody to run for him should he reach base), the Dodgers’ bench is going to be short again. After Thome and Pierre pinch-hit, there isn’t much pop on the pine. Unlike the pitching staff, where the strength is in the late innings, the Dodgers' offensive attack is going to have to come from the front lines.

--- JOHN ROSENTHAL

If you made a movie about Thursday’s events, nobody would believe it. Down to their last strike in the bottom of the ninth, the comeback kid Dodgers get new life when Matt Holliday, a pretty good outfielder, can’t corral the third out. It lands for an error, James Loney runs hard all the way to second and the Dodgers are alive.

You know the rest: The walk by Casey Blake that put the winning run on base, and according to all in the Dodger clubhouse, gave the team hope that not only could they tie the game, but win it. The huge hit by the Jekyll and Hyde Ronnie Belliard. I’ve never seen a guy look so bad in some at-bats and so solid in others. Like Thursday’s game-tying single.

Holliday will get all the blame for this game, because his error would have been the final out. But Yadier Molina’s passed ball put the winning run 90 feet away. I have no doubt that Mark Loretta’s bloop would not have scored Blake from second base. But from third, it was a piece of cake. Then again, Loretta might not have batted, since Russell Martin was semi-intentionally walked.

Also deserving of goatee horns is Ryan Franklin, the closer who should've been out of the inning, but never got another out. Two walks and two singles later, he was the recipient of a blown save and a loss.

Only the diehards will remember the stellar pitching performances in this game, by both Adam Wainwright, who was robbed of a win, and Clayton Kershaw, who pitched well enough to merit one. Both youngsters kept piling up zeroes on the scoreboard. Andre Ethier is quietly putting up Manny-esque numbers. It’s only two games, to be sure, but he’s got a single, a double and a homer in seven at-bats, with a sick 1.556 OPS. He’s also making people forget that Manny has done quite little so far. Everybody goes into slumps, but when you hit like Ramirez did last year, fans come to expect it every year.

Put another way, when you’re as antic a player as Manny is, you had better put up Manny-esque numbers. Fans will only let Manny be Manny as long as he delivers. If he continues to hit .125, he might even become Juan Pierre’s backup. Naah; it’ll never happen.

--- JOHN ROSENTHAL

The Dodgers won a pair of games over the weekend like they did when they were the best team in baseball. Good bullpen holds the other team and offense unloads for a bunch of runs, or just enough to win in extra innings, with a different hero every night. Sunday’s was Juan Castro.

The cynic says, “It’s only the Reds,” the last team that the Dodgers swept and a team they usually own. If you’re supposed to win a game, does it take the fun out of it? I hope not.

Lost in Sunday’s game may have been Clayton Kershaw’s performance. If the Dodgers had managed to score three or four runs for him, we’d be talking about how he has been unhittable. But because he left with a Randy Wolf-like no decision, the night belonged to the bullpen.

Oh, and just let me say this:

Ronnie Belliard?

--- John Rosenthal.