The 2012 version of the Chicago Cubs is a terrible team in transition. How they transition is anyone's guess but in the meantime they are fighting a losing fight with the Houston Astros for the worst team in the NL.

Their record is 9 - 16, they can't even turn an eight-inning scoreless game from Ryan Dempster into a victory. Their closer walked three straight batters and gave the game away today. Their catcher sucks, the 3rd baseman sucks, their LF sucks, their RF sucks, their center fielder sucked so bad he was sent to Fenway. They not only suck, they are expensive. Excuse the vulgar slang but the Cub outfield hits like the Dodger infield.

I'm not going to waste much time here.

April Stud Muffin Bryan LaHair is the story in Chicago. The 29 year old LaHair had a total of 219 major league appearances headed into 2012 and 150 of those came way back in 2008 for the Mariners. Much like the Dodgers giving a 30-year old career minor league catcher the starting gig, the Cubs did the same with 29-year old LaHair. His AAA numbers were incredible with 99 minor league home runs over the past three years. His OPS was on the move each year from .880 - .940 - 1.070. Still it was PCL AAA.

Hell, he was just kidding around in AAA. Would you believe a major league triple stat line of:

.381 / .459 / 1.253

and that does not even include the bomb he hit today. Of course his BABIP is otherworldly but who cares? The man is raking. He might beat the Dodgers all by himself. I'll give the Cubs some huge kudos here. Very very very very few General Managers would have given Bryan LaHair a chance for regular at bats. At 29 it normally does not matter what you have done in AAA, you have already been pigeonholed. His performance in April is as stunning as Albert Pujols's.

Starlin Castro is the only other Cub who hits likes he's a major league baseball player. Castro is probably the second best hitting SS in the NL; at age twenty-two he has plenty of time to catch up to Tulo. His triple stat line of .340 / .356 / .447 might show a chink in his armor. Three walks in hundred plate appearances gives one pause.

How sad is that. The Cubs have two of the best hitters in baseball and they still rank as the worst offensive teams in the NL.

2nd baseman Darwin Barney can hit

a little.

3rd baseman Ian Stewart hasn't hit a lick since 2010.

Catcher Geovany Soto is on a jet stream to oblivion.

Left fielder Alfonso Soriano makes Vernon Wells look like Matt Kemp.

RF David DeJesus was touched by Billy Beane and has never been the same.

Over in CF they have Tony Campana who is smacking .351 since Marlon Byrd was sent to Fenway. Don't be fooled, he can't hit. He can run, and he will run, but he can't hit.

All these guys were good once. They may be good again. But right now they are all DeWitts.

Once the hitters start normalizing upward, LaHair and Castro should be descending so the end result is still going to be an offense struggling to score. As much as I love stories like LaHair the cold truth is that he probably has a 3 for 30 stretch coming up. At some point Anthony Rizzo and Josh Vitters will get playing time, so maybe the Cubs will be a tad more interesting the next time we meet up.

On Friday we will face Paul Maholm who has made four starts and has gotten better with each start. Saturday will be Matt Garza, who is as solid as they come. Sunday is Chris Volstad.

The bullpen got one-time phenom Kerry Wood back but they still go to Carlos Marmol for the close. They traded excellent setup man Sean Marshall for two AAAA starters. Starting on Monday, the Dodgers faced the toughest bullpen in the NL based on xFIP. This weekend they will face the worst.

Matt Garza could shut us out and still not feel comfortable he's going to win because

A. His bullpen blows

B. His offense blows

Still it is baseball so anything can happen this weekend, but I for one will not be turning off my TV even if we are down 4 - 0 in the 9th.

Last year at this time Jerry Sands was lighting up Camelback, making his case to be the eventual replacement for Thames or Gibbons. Not many felt he'd get a chance during 2011 but he proved them wrong, and eventually garnered 227 plate appearances.

It was a split season for Sands. He came up on April 18th and struggled for two months putting up a line of .200/.294/.328. Upon being sent back to AAA he was given the daunting task of remaking his swing. So for two and half months he did just that. When he was finally recalled on September 8, his new swing looked ready for the major leagues.

Sands started just about every game in Sept, and responded with the best bat in the outfield all year outside of Matt Kemp. Sands hit .342./.415/.493 in 85 plate appearances during this time and appeared ready to be the Dodgers everyday left or right fielder in 2012.

Ned Colletti felt different

Trivia

Sands hit 35 home runs in 2010, who was the last Dodger prospect to hit at least 30 home runs in the minor leagues that did not play in AAA that season?

Contract Status

Sands has 67 days of service time, and is under team control for three more years. He has two option years remaining.

Stats

2012 Outlook

Sands' major league outlook looks bleak for 2012. The Dodgers re-signed Juan Rivera to be the everyday left fielder. Sands did nothing this spring to make his case so he's expected to start the year in AAA and continue to hone his new swing.

What are the TBLA community thoughts on when Jerry Sands makes his 2012 debut?

The Dodgers signed Uribe for a whopping three years and $21 million in the winter of 2010. His versatility played a part in his signing, as the Dodgers had the injury-prone Casey Blake at third base and Rafael Furcal at shortstop, and although both had options for 2012, it seemed likely that at least one of them, if not both, would not be back in 2012.

Fast forward a year and Juan Uribe is now the Dodgers starting 3rd baseman right on schedule and Uribe / Blake be gone.

Going into 2011 Juan Uribe was going to be the Dodgers starting 2nd baseman. When Casey Blake got hurt he became the starting 3rd baseman. When Juan Uribe got hurt he became the whipping boy for a lost season.

Eric asked this question last year in the profile:

But what if Uribe isn't an upgrade, or a marginal one at best? Remember, Uribe spent his age 25-28 years hitting .241/.284/.409, a 77 OPS+ with the White Sox. He does have a career on-base percentage of .2998, after all. There is the fear that Uribe could revert to his almost-out-of-baseball status at any time.

Looks like Eric asked the right question

Trivia

Juan Uribe joins a select list of terrible LA Dodger 3rd baseman with over 200 plate appearances.

                                                  
Player           OPS+  PA Year   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS
John Kennedy       50 294 1966 .201 .241 .281 .522
Juan Uribe         56 295 2011 .204 .264 .293 .557
Dave Hansen        67 379 1992 .214 .286 .299 .585
Tim Wallach        67 522 1993 .222 .271 .342 .612
Dave Anderson      69 262 1985 .199 .310 .281 .591
Dick Tracewski     70 216 1965 .215 .313 .263 .577

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/21/2012.

Contract Status

Uribe is in the second year of a three-year, $21 million contract. He will be paid $8 million in 2012.

Stats

2011 Outlook

Surely he will bounce back, the question is how much? To his White Sox level, or to his Giant level? He could bounce back and still be a detriment. He could bounce back and become an asset. I think he'll simply get hurt again.

What is your guess for Uribe in 2011? Be sure to guess BA/OBP/SLG, PA, and number of starts at each infield position.

The 26 year old Scott Elbert was born August 13, 1985 and drafted in the first round by the Dodgers in 2004. In 2010 Elbert walked away from the Dodgers but solved whatever problems were eating at him and came into 2011 determined to get his career back on track and that is exactly what he did.

The former number one pick finally made his mark with the Dodgers in 2011, becoming the go to left hander when Kuo battled mental/physical problems all year. The former wild ass lefty appeared in 47 games but only accumulated 33 innings. In 47 games Elbert gave up nine earned runs but in three of those games he gave up seven of those nine. The other 44 games he was money.

Left handed hitters had a measly .517 OPS against Scott in 75 plate appearances. Overall he gave up only one home run all year. Scott gets it done with a 92 MPH fastball and an 87 MPH slider. HIs fastball has nasty movement and while he may never have the Billy Wagner future I envisioned for him he certainly looks like he's going to have a a long career.

Contract Status

485,000, Team Control

Stats

2011 Outlook

For the first time in Elbert's career he seems assured of a role with the Dodgers. He may end up being the only left handed pitcher in the bullpen so you'd expect he'd be held in check to face the tough lefties late in the game. He could pitch in 70 games and probably not amass more than 50 innings. If we do acquire another left handed relief pitcher I'd like to see Elberts role expanded to what Kuo was for us.

The hard throwing right-handed 27-year old Shane Lindsay was signed in 2003 by the Colorado Rockies out of Melbourne, Australia. He pitched for the Rockie organization from 2004 - 2006, then missed all of 2007 with shoulder surgery. Lindsay came back in 2008 - 2009 but never got above AA ball with the Rockies.

After spending six years on one organization things got a bit chippy for him.

On May 14th, 2010 the Yankee's claimed him off waivers from the Rockies. Twelve days later the Yankee's decided they liked Chad Gaudin better and designated Lindsay for assignment. On June 1st, 2010 the Indians claimed him off waivers and he spent the 2010 season pitching in the Indian organization.

On Jan 9th, 2011 Lindsay signed a minor league deal with White Sox and eight years after being signed by the Rockies made his major league debut on Sept 2nd. It was a successful debut as he gave up no runs in his one inning of work. His second major league game was not quite as successful, as he gave up seven runs in one inning of work.

On Dec 13th, the Dodgers signed him as a free agent. Five teams in 20 months. Doubt it gets any better for him going forward.

Lindsay is known for two things.

1. A bad ass fastball that reaches 94 MPH and allows him to K minor league hitters at a decent clip.

2. Control so bad that even Vance Lovelace winces when he watches him pitch.

Based on his minor league numbers does he have a shot at a major league career? Not unless he can get his walk rate below 6 per 9 innings. Can Shane Lindsay add his name to the very small list that includes Mark Clear, Ryan Duren, and Doug Creek? Those are the only relief pitchers since 1960 who have managed to have a K rate above 9, along with a walk rate above 6 who pitched over 200 major league games. That is a small haystack. You can add two more if you don't care about the K/9 rate being any good: Mitch Williams and Brian Bruney.

Trivia

Lindsay pitches for the Melbourne Aces during the winter months.

Contract Status

NRI

Stats

2012 Outlook

He has no chance in hell of making the opening day roster, and little chance of seeing any time with the big club this season.

What is your prediction? Be sure to guess Linday's ERA, BB./9, K/9, number of innings pitched, plus anything else you would like to predict.

You have been waiting all winter to take another crack at Phil's rosterbation skills so here you go.

Roster contest ends 03/09/12 at midnight

Using Eric's Spring Training Roster Primer, pick your opening day Roster.

For each player you get right from the locks you get one point.

For each player you get right from the bubbles you get five points

For each player you get right from the long shot list you get 10 points

For each player you get not even mentioned you get 25 points (pickup of someone else's drop)

LOCKS 23 Players (1 Point each)

Infield - James Loney, Mark Ellis, Dee Gordon, Juan Uribe, Adam Kennedy, Jerry Hairston Junior

Catcher - AJ Ellis, Matt Treanor

Outfield - Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, Juan Rivera, Tony Gwynn Junior

Rotation - Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, Ted Lilly, Aaron Harang , Chris Capuano

Bullpen - Javy Guerra, Kenley Jansen, Scott Elbert, Matt Guerrier, Todd Coffey, Mike MacDougal

Bubbles ( 5 points each)

Infield:Josh Fields, Russell Mitchell, Justin Sellers

Catchers:Josh Bard

Outfield: Jerry Sands, Trent Oeltjen, Angle

Pitchers: Nathan Eovaldi, John Grabow, Angel Guzman, Wil Ledezma, Josh Lindblom, Fernando Nieve, Jamey Wright, Ramon Troncoso

Long Shot: (10 Points each)

Infield: DeJesus,Jeff Baisley, Luis Cruz, Lance Zawadzki

Outfield:Alex Castellanos, Cory Sullivan, Scott Van Slyke

Catchers:Tim Federowicz

Pitchers:Jon Ely, Michael Antonini, Alberto Castillo, Matt Chico, Stephen Fife, Shane Lindsay, Scott Rice, Will Savage, Ryan Tucker, Josh Wall, Chris Withrow,

I suggest cut and pasting when providing the lineups. I will put my guess in the first comment you have an idea of the format.

Looking at the rosters we have only two open spots. If Hawksworth and Belisario were not starting out the season on the DL and Suspended list we would probably have 24 locks. Last year we had 21 locks, but injuries quickly made this a wide open contest with Padilla being the first to go down. Who will tweak something this spring? Remember this is the opening day roster, so even though Ivan DeJesus did not stick around long he made the opening day roster and thus the victory to those who went out on the ledge. You can play it safe and probably tie with ten others or you can shoot the moon and dance in the glory of mayhem. You make the call.

The winner of this contest will be announced on opening day. The choice of prize will be:

1. Two Free Tickets to First TBLA Game Night

2. Two Beers on TBLA Game Night

3. 2012 Dodger Media Guide

4. 2012 Dodger Yearbook

along with praise and glory .

Josh Fields was the 18th overall pick of the 2004 draft by the Chicago White Sox. By 2007 he was the White Sox starting 3rd baseman and slugged 23 home runs in only 100 games looking like a man with a bright future. Since that moment of success it has been a downhill flight that Franz Klammer would be proud of as Fields starts 2011 trying to become the backup infielder to Juan Uribe after not playing one game in the major leagues in 2010.

Since 2007, he has made only 353 major league plate appearances while hitting 10 home runs. Most of 2011 was spent in the PCL in the United States but Fields also spent time in the Japanese Pacific Coast League. He did murder the ball in our PCL putting up an OPS of 1.103 in around 200 plate appearances that was good enough for 3rd best.

In 2005 he was Baseball America's prospect number 95, by 2007 he had moved to 45.

Trivia

A two sport star for the Oklahoma State athletic program he was the Cowboy quarterback in two bowl wins including setting the Cotton Bowl Classic passing record with 307 yards in 2004 against Mississippi.

Contract Status

NRI

Stats

2012 Outlook

If Brian LaHair can be the starting 1st baseman for the Chicago Cubs I don't see why Josh Fields can't get some playing time for the Dodgers given his only competition for backup 3rd baseman is Adam Kennedy and Russell Mitchell. Since he can also play 1st base he does give the Dodgers a right handed corner bat that probably has a better chance of helping the team then most of the other candidates.

What is your guess for Fields in 2012? Be sure to guess BA/OBP/SLG, and anything else you wish to guess.

Matt is a right handed hitting catcher, born on March 3rd, 1976 in Garden Grove, California. Matt was a fourth round pick of the Royals in 1994, in 1997 Matt was traded to the Florida Marlins for Matt Whisenant. His path to the major leagues took 10 years of minor league ball involving 3300 plate appearances.

In 2005 when he finally made it for good, he was the backup catcher to our own Paul LoDuca the year after the big trade. Matt has had a career you would expect from a journeyman bouncing around the league. He has played with the Marlins, Detroit, Texas, Kansas City, and back to the Rangers. In 2011 he was the opening day catcher for the Royals. His biggest hit of his career might have been his three run walk off home run against the Angels last year on April 3rd.

Matt Treanor was not the worse offensive catcher in baseball last year but he was in the bottom 10%. I was unaware that he had an offensive skill but lo and behold he does know how to take a walk. When you hit .214 but carry a . 338 on base percentage you are not totally useless. To bad his slugging % can't break .300.

We may have found the older version of AJ Ellis. I'm not sure if I've seen a better comp for AJ Ellis then Matt. Like AJ they had very very very very long minor league careers. Like AJ, Matt showed a propensity for taking a walk but with zero power. Treanor has a career .90 split between his batting average and on base % so last year was no fluke. The man can take a walk.

Defensively I know nothing about Matt Treanor but I don't think I'm going out on a limb by saying he's "probably" an above average catcher because why else would he be haunting the major leagues given his career OPS of .623. He did throw out three runners in a game on April 15th, 2005.

Since Treanor made the major leagues in 2005, only Jeff Mathis has a lower slug%. Bottom 5 for your enjoyment are:

                                                                  
Rk              Player  SLG   PA From   To   Age HR   BA  OBP  OPS
1          Jeff Mathis .301 1360 2005 2011 22-28 26 .194 .257 .557
2         Matt Treanor .309 1299 2005 2011 29-35 16 .224 .316 .624
3          Brad Ausmus .311 1778 2005 2010 36-41 12 .240 .323 .633
4        Jason Kendall .318 3419 2005 2010 31-36  8 .260 .333 .651
5    Humberto Quintero .319 1035 2005 2011 25-31 13 .234 .266 .585

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/21/2012.

It was easy to stop at the bottom five because number six had a slug% jump all the way to .347. These five are as futile a five as you will find. Yet all five have been able to carve out a major league career.

Trivia

Married to Misty May in 2004, one of the greatest female volleyball players of her generation. Misty is a Los Angeles native who might be one of Los Angele's greatest athletes. Her string of accomplishments is a long one and still growing.

Matt has also been in the last two world series so there is that.

Contract Status

Per the TBLA Payroll Worksheet

Treanor signed a one-year deal worth $1 million on November 15, 2011, which includes a club option for 2013.

2012: $850,000
2013: $950,000 club option ($150,000 buyout)

Previous Dodgers Player Profiles

None

Stats

2012 Outlook

Backup catcher to AJ Ellis. How long he stays with the Dodgers probably depends more on how FedEx does this summer than anything Matt does. Treanor is a given, he won't hit much but he will get on base.

Angel Guzman is one of the more intriguing arms that Ned has brought into this spring as an NRI. The Venezuelan was originally signed by the KC Royals but for reasons unknown to me his contract was voided by MLB, so the Cubs swooped in and signed him.

At one time he was the plum of the Chicago Cubs pitching prospects, hitting the Baseball America top 100 three times from 2003 - 2005, reaching as high as number 26 in 2004. Some thought he would be better then Carlos Zambrano.

By the age of 24 he was starting 10 games for the Cubs but would eventually get moved into the bullpen. Guzman had brief stints in the majors from 2006 - 2008 but made it full time in 2009. Headed into the spring of 2010 he was expected to be a mainstay of the Cub bullpen but he blew out his shoulder and two years later, here he is trying to resurrect what was once a promising career.

Click here for a nice story about Guzman by Dave van Dyck in the spring of 2011 as he attempted his first comeback from his shoulder surgery.

Evidently his surgery was a bit complicated as well as other parts of his life:

The latest setback was a shredded shoulder, requiring a delicate surgery that no pitchers have ever really overcome. That is on top of another shoulder surgery, Tommy John elbow surgery and the tragic death of a brother all spread over the past few years.

In 2009 before his shoulder surgery he was hitting 94-95 MPH on his fastball.

Trivia

There have been eighteen major league players with Angel as their first name. The only one who might qualify as being any good is Angel Pagan who is now a Giant. However four players were All - Stars and had Angel as their middle name.

Mike Angel Cueller

Miguel Angel Montero

Ruben Angel (Garcia) Sierra

Jose Angel (Cetty) Vidro

There is a lesson here, if you want your son to be a ballplayer don't look to the heavens for his first name.

Contract Status

NRI

Stats

2012 Outlook

Has little more than a zero chance to make the major league roster, he's simply hoping to impress in spring training, show his arm strength is back, provide depth in AAA, prove he can still pitch. If the big league team has some injuries, he might get a shot with the Dodgers. I'm rooting for him, March 22nd will be the 2nd anniversary of his surgery. We should know by then if he has anything left to offer on the mound.

Griff Erickson was drafted in the 15th round of the 2006 draft at the tender age of 18. He did not play any professional ball until 2007, and after two seasons (2007-2008) he had garnered less then 200 plate appearances. In 2009 the Dodgers cut the strings and gave him the full time gig on the rookie Ogden team where he rewarded them with a .860 slugging percentage. He followed that up by being terrible in his first foray into full season baseball with the Loons in 2010, posting a .619 OPS. His slugging percentage was .310. That performance got him an invite to the 2011 January Workout where it was assumed he was there because he was a catcher the real prospects could throw too, not because he himself was a prospect.

The tall catcher seemed like an afterthought when the 2011 season began but after putting up a .899 OPS in the California League and making the all-star team. Erickson was promoted to AA and surprisingly held his own, and in fact posted a decent .809 OPS. At that point Gorman Erickson had had a very exciting 2011 season and seemed to be our top offensive catching prospect passing the J.T. Wise's of the world. In my mind the offensive emergence of Erickson during the 2011 season was one of the big surprises in our system.

Erickson was selected to play in the AFL and instead of putting himself on the prospect map he did his best to make FedEx look like an offensive juggernaut as he put up a .640 OPS and impressed no one.

Brandon Lennox made him his 22nd top prospect

Why #22: What’s not to love about a big switching hitting catcher coming off his best season? Especially when he held his own during his first taste of AA as a 23 year old? The only thing keeping him out of my top 20 is the fact that he hadn’t shown much potential prior to this season, so I’m a bit worried that he’ll return to his career averages in the future.

2012 should give us a better idea of what to expect from him. Anyone can hit in the California League, what he did in AA gives us some hope, but that AFL turkey time makes one wonder.

Trivia

Erickson is a switch hitter and Ned has traded every other switch hitting prospect over the last few years: Carlos Santana, Josh Bell, and Trayvon Robinson. There is a good chance Erickson is not in the Dodger organization by the end of 2012.

Contract Status

Erickson is not yet on the 40-man roster, but was invited to big league camp in spring training as a non-roster invitee.

Stats

2012 Outlook

I expect he will spend most of the season in AA, it is possible that if he succeeds and Fed Ex does get promoted to the Dodgers Erickson could see AAA. He should be a September callup, can he throw his hat into the 2013 catching ring?

What were we drinking thread. The unbridled optimism from the TBLA community had no bounds for Mr. Left Field.

The experts were wrong, the community was wrong. At some point Michael White confused Marcus Thames with Craig Monroe but little did he know that he was being prophetic. I'm not even going to post some of the projections, safe to say everyone thought he'd at least hit against LHP.

The thread itself was one of our better spring threads, so while I'm not going to give you anything to read here, if you are bored take a look at what we were discussing on March 24, 2011.

Eric Stephen did the Juan Uribe preview in 2011

His most telling quote:

But what if Uribe isn't an upgrade, or a marginal one at best? Remember, Uribe spent his age 25-28 years hitting .241/.284/.409, a 77 OPS+ with the White Sox. He does have a career on-base percentage of .2998, after all. There is the fear that Uribe could revert to his almost-out-of-baseball status at any time.

We all know Uribe suffered through an injury plagued season of under Hollywood Bridge urine proportion. Did anyone see that coming? Not the experts, shockingly they expected the same production in 2011 as he delivered in 2012 with slight dips in OB and Slug.

How did our community do?

Continue reading this post »

This was Brandon's preview

All the experts nailed the projection. Looks like Marcel was the best of the excellent projection. We all know that 2011 was a tail of two seasons for James, fascinating that at the end of the day, his awful four months, combined with his brilliant two months resulted in your basic James Loney season.

I expect many community members to have nailed this projection. Brandon was a tad too optimistic, let's find out how the members did.

Continue reading this post »

This was Michael White's Preview:

None of the experts expected an increase in walks per nine innings, a decrease in strikeouts per nine innings, and the corresponding jump in all the various ERA metrics. They basically expected Chad in 2011 to be Chad in 2010 which is basically why some forecasts are as useful as Luke Walton.

How did the TBLA Members do?

First off we always look to SilverWidow for guidance.

214 IP
3.23 ERA
197 K
Arguably #1 starter on the team this year.

Hmmm, if only that had been true.

Taylor was even more optimistic:

I say he finally goes sub-3.00
ERA: 2.90
IP: 210
K/9: 8.50
Bam.

It was a bad thread for forecasting. The game thread came quickly so very few projections and every one was optimistic. That was to be expected given his success in 2010. No winners for this projection.

Two members did express concern about the declining K Rate:

3.90 ERA in 210 innings. FIP 3.50 with a 1.25 WHIP.
Is Billingsley’s declining K/9 rate reason for concern? 8K/9 is still excellent of course and his BB/9 has also declined.
by guy clinch on Mar 27, 2011 10:50 AM PDT actions

If it continues to decline this year
Then it could be of some concern, but typically its a declining K rate combined with an increasing walk rate that raises real red flags. As it is its plenty high.
by EMDarrow on Mar 27, 2011 11:39 AM PDT up actions

Based on the comment by EMDarrow, red flags have been raised after Chad's 2011 season.

Looking at Fangraphs, they say he stopped using his slider in 2011. In the past he would throw it about 3% of the time. He used his change up more then ever, going up to .6.5% from 2.9% the year before. Everything else stayed the same, so according to Fangraphs he discarded the slider for the change up. Baseball HQ has this to say:

Dramatic skills dips raise specter of a hidden injury but that's just speculation. Bet on some partial recovery from regression alone.

and this:

8/22/2011 - Chad Billingsley (RHP, LA) has looked like an elite pitcher the first time through lineups: 8.2 Dom, 2.4 Ctl, 43% GB%, 104 BPV. His control escapes him after that. He has a 4.2 Ctl the second time through lineups and a 4.5 Ctl the third time through lineups. He sustains a 7.0+ Dom during both situations, so if he can solve his middle and late-game control woes, he could re-emerge as an impact SP.

This is what Eric had to say coming into the season.

Probably no one destroyed the experts more then Matt Kemp this season. Matt Kemp did not simply beat every single projection, he stomped on them, lit them on fire, and kicked them into the gutter.

The question here is, did any TBLA members see this MVP season coming?

Continue reading this post »

Moderators -Eric, Phil, David, Michael

Members - IVDown, Delias, BHsportsguy, Robotmadeofnails,  HJ, GrimJack, Maddz, GScott, Julio, Jrock, Nolander, Court, Taylor, Josie

Kevin picked out a great field for us but in the beginning I was swearing at him in all the languages I know. Tiss was a bit of a walk with heavy goods as our guide took us down the ramp and headed for another field when boom, we turned right and realized that we simply needed to walk down the steps from the parking lot to the field we were at.

Lesson learned made the other four trips to the truck much easier and when HJ grabbed my table like a surfboard it was good to go. A large tree was stationed perfectly for shade but it sure didn't hurt to have David bring his portable shade. After brief introductions we grabbed our gloves and started playing catch.

Then came time for big decisions, do we eat first or play first?  The players won out so then the 2nd big decision came up. How do we pick teams? . At first it looked like we were going to abandon the whole 40 and over against the kid crew but when it looked like we might pick teams, I quickly intervened.  I was gravely afraid that I'd be the last player chosen so I had to act fast or else be forever embarrassed in front of my wife.

We asked everyone over 35 to step away and lo and behhold we had the making of a team.  Once I checked to see if our friend Patti wanted to play we got closer, Then Craig said he'd  play and we got even closer. Kevin volunteered leaving us one short of a full squad. Someone said  that Josh (Delias) acted like an old guy and so he joined the over-the-hill-gang and the teams were set.

THE GAME:

After going down meekly in the top of the first the OTHG took the field with following setup:

1st - Patti , 2nd Delias, SS HJ, 3rd Phil, C Craig, P Eric, LF -Friend of Kevin, LC - David, RC - Kevin, RF - GrimJack

Maddz led of with a one hopper to Phil who threw it away. Then someone else did something and Phil once again threw it away. Eric stomped off the mound and wouldn't come back until they put Phil in the outfield and replaced him with Kevin. From then on the defense was solid but damage had been done as the Kid Core put up five runs in three innings.

Maddz pitched for the tiny tots and shut us out for two innings before we broke through for three runs in the 3rd. With three innings in the book we shut down the game for food with the score 5 - 3 in favor of the bad guys.

Continue reading this post »

On the night before Rubby De La Rosa was going to make his first start as a Dodger after three relief appearances an innocuous comment was made by Xeifrank asking for a guess on his pitch count. Joey Joe said 90 and then spent the rest of the night defending that number.

Many of us felt the number was crazy high and that his max count should be 75 given his last start came on May 21st and he had thrown a total of 70 since then and it was now June 7th.

Not only did Rubby throw 90 pitches, he threw 96. Every single person was wrong but Joey Joe. The only reason I bring this up is not to feed Joey Joe's ego but to remind us  that we all thought it would be crazy for management to let him have a pitch count >= 75, given he had not started since May 21.  Some felt less was warranted. The Dodgers let him throw 96. On July 30th, he blew out his elbow. One is probably not related to the other, but I don't have a problem with going back to the date of his first start and at least reading what we thought would be prudent at the time.

Continue reading this post »

I'm not talking Dodger baseball, I'm talking about Xeifrank's sideboard contest / game that doesn't get enough action from our membership group. I will lay some of the blame on our feet as we do not promote the game like we should. TBLA is extremely lucky that Xeifrank has decided to use TBLA as his arena for promoting his simulator. The amount of work he puts into this on a daily basis staggers me when you consider what he gets out of it.  He may not even want more action then he's getting, but I at least want to put the word out that if you are not playing this game, you are missing out.

When Xeifrank first started the simulation contest last year it was a simple fare. He gave you the top 100 outcomes of the upcoming game based on his simulator.  The contest involved picking the one you felt was going to be the score for the game and you got points awarded based on where that score was in the simulation. It was a simple no brainer game that a gin soaked bag of bones was able to win the 2010 contest.

In an effort to make it harder, Xeifrank added in some complexity  that I was not fond of so I stopped playing. It seemed like too much work for me, and I mentioned that a few times. The hardcore players told me I was wrong and basically said GFM and leave them alone to play their game. Chagrined but still looking for a way to add some drama to the game threads I tried to incorporate some contests in our own threads with TBLA dollars being awarded for various things. That has pretty much been a failure.

A few weeks ago on a whim I popped over to one of Xeifrank's game contest threads and found that Xeifrank had taken his game to a level that I applauded.  He still has the game simulator going but now he gives you starting betting points per month (100) and you can now bet on Over/Under props or odd based prop bets. You decide yourself how much to bet, you can bet nothing or go all in. These are the new rules:

July Rules:
There will be eight questions. Five of them will have even money odds, the other three will have higher paying odds. You may answer any amount of the questions as you'd like and wager any amount as long as your wagers don't go over your remaining bankroll. Every person starts out with 100 points to wager with. A wrong guess loses points and a correct guess wins points (odds will always be whole number). You still pick the game score from the table of scores. Each game score has odds associated with it.  You will be given a free 5 unit bet on the game score.  If you pick the correct game score you win 5 times the odds for that score.  For questions where a starting position player is the answer, I will allow guesses of "starting SS" instead of "Dee Gordon". But if you guess a players name, then that is your final guess.  I will keep a Google Docs spreadsheet keeping track of everyone's bankroll.  As people play for the first time, I will add them to the spreadsheet.  A minimum of 250 units must be risked over the month to be eligible for the title.

This is more my style, I can't say enough how much I love how this contest has evolved. Here is what today's prop bets are:

Actual Contest Questions

A. O/U Total Runs Scored: 6.5 (1:1)
B. O/U Dodgers runs minus Rockies runs: 0.5 (1:1)
C. O/U Matt Kemp Total bases plus stolen bases: 2.5 (1:1)
D. O/U Dodgers hits minus Rubby De la Rosa strikeouts: 1.5 (1:1)
E. O/U Rubby De la Rosa HRs Allowed: 0.5 (1:1)

F. (Prop bet) Juan Uribe gets an RBI: (2:1)
G. (Prop bet) Andre Ethier or James Loney hit a HR: (3:1)
H. (Prop bet) Rubby De la Rosa strikes out 10 or more batters: (5:1)

Check it out, if you love to gamble and what baseball numbers person does not like to gamble, then I think you will be pleasantly surprised with what Xeifrank has come up with.  Even with one week to go you have plenty of time to try to dethrone me as current champ. With bets like these you can easily turn 100 points into 345 in a just a few games.

For lurkers who don't feel they have anything to say in our threads, this contest is a good place to dip your toes into the TBLA murky waters of interaction. No off topic stuff happening over there, just good old fashioned betting, without having to worry about how to buy those shoes tomorrow because you felt Rubby was going to K 10 batters tonight.

I honestly  can't see any of the current rabble dethroning me so Xeifrank needs some new blood to take a crack at me.

Big changes since I last did a Diamondback preview on May 13th as the Diamondbacks were 15 - 21 and looked headed for our season. Instead they used that weekend to springboard into contention. Their record now is 49 - 43 as they battle the Giants for the right to represent the NL West in the postseason. How has this team managed to turn around their season to the turn of a 34 - 22 record since May 13th?

For one thing they have Kirk Gibson as their manager a man who is only about winning, he seems to have taken the same force he used in Detroit,  and Los Angeles to forge a winning team out of a group of players that didn't seem to have it in them.

Outlook:  The offense has no black holes. Everyone contributes, some more then others but you cannot find an easy out in the lineup. Everyone has an OPS+ over 95, six over 100, and one sitting at 99. The top of the rotation is getting it done (Hudson / Kennedy).  Saunders has not been as bad.  Josh Collmenter had some Elymania action going in May, hit some trouble in June, but had a great last start before the break. To compete it would appear this team needs another solid pitcher as their best prospects are simply not ready.

Disabled List:  JJ Putz and Juan Gutierrez

Positions:

1st Base: The Juan Miranda story has ended for the Diamondbacks. They have brought up Brandon Allen who will give the major leagues a third try as he tries to prove he's not simply a Juan Miranda clone. Allen has power and contact issues. He was tearing up AAA and here is Baseball HQ's scouting report on him.

The 25-year-old Allen has long had similar contact issues while showing solid patience and good power--all of which are on display in his 70% ct%, 17% bb% and 18 HR over 304 AB in AAA Reno. Allen's numbers in two prior MLB stints are also eerily similar to Miranda's, most notably a .221/.319/.389 line with five HR in 149 AB. Still, he'll likely see the large portion of the ARI 1B ABs over the near-term -- sharing time with right-handed-hitting Xavier Nady -- while perhaps also seeing some PT in LF. 

I expect Allen is just holding the bag until Paul Goldschmidt is ready to take the reigns.

2nd Base: Kelly Johnson was having a forgetful year until May 20th. On May 20th Kelly had a .565 OPS, it now sits at .740 thanks to a tremendous run in which he has had 26 extra base hits in only 189 plate appearances. His OPS from May20th to the break was .922. So when you see his current TSL of .218/.300/.440 don't be fooled, Kelly is dealing.

Shortstop: Steven Drew is going in the opposite direction of Kelly Johnson. His OPS per month .973 / .673 / .698 / .477.

3rd Base:  Ryan Roberts is no longer the talk of the town but he played well enough, long enough that Melvin Mora was sent packing to find another team to help him feed his quintuplets. Roberts is now sharing time with one time wonderkid Sean Burroughs who was one of the first ballyhooed 3rd base prospect to face plant in the major leagues this decade.

Catcher: Miguel Montero continues to be a solid offensive catcher, ranking near the top in all NL offensive categories for catchers.

Right Fielder: Justin Upton exploded in June and is finally looking like the player we all thought he was going to be. His overall TSL of .304 / .370 / .518 is getting it done.  

Center Fielder: Chris Young is having the best year of his career. He has dropped his K rate from a high of 26% in 2009 to 18% in 2011 and the extra contact is paying off for him. Check out this on base progression this year by month. .272 / .323 / 375 / 405 while hitting sixteen home runs. Patience has paid off for the Diamondbacks as they now have the center fielder they thought they had back in 2007. 

Left Fielder: Gerardo Parra is holding his own in LF offensively, and defensively according to fangraphs, he's the best LF in the NL with a rating of 9.5.  His OPS is only .771 but among the sad group of left fielders in the NL that is not bad. . 

Bench:  Willie Bloomquist is the super utility man who can play everywhere, Henry Blanco is the back up catcher..

Starting Pitching:

Clayton Kershaw won the last matchup with Saunders but it was due more to the quality pitching of Clayton then the offense we generated against Saunders. Saunders is like the sacrificial lamb Gibson is throwing at us while letting his best two pitchers work toward victories against Kuroda and Lilly on Saturday and Sunday. That said knowing how this team struggles against LHP, we have to hope Juan Rivera can provide some pop so that we give something for Clayton to work with.

Hudson and Kennedy have scaled back a bit on their awesomeness since we last saw them but they are still a formidable duo.  We missed Hudson during the last series but saw more then we wanted from Kennedy as he dominated the Dodgers for six innings in his last start against them.

Bullpen:

Setup: Ghame Over is back and he's doing good work. Yhencey Brazoban has pitched the most out of the bullpen in July, putting up a 12 K/9 rate. Others in the bullpen are Micah Owings,  Sam Dremel, with lefties Joe Paterson and Alberto Castillo filling out the bullpen.  Aaron Heilman is also available for your consideration.

Closer: David Hernandez took over for the injured JJ Putz and as is often the case, the ex -starter is doing a bang up job as the Diamondback closer. He's been wildly effective so expect some Marmol type innings if they have to call on him. 

Matchup Notes:  The Dodgers scored only five runs in the last three game series they played at Chase with Saunders giving up four of them in his loss to Kershaw . That means that Kennedy and Collmeter pretty much shut down the team after that.  Can't say I'm a fan of Donnie boy letting Lilly pitch on Sunday instead of Monday but that is how he has made out the rotation to start the  second half.

Lookouts and Withrow GameDay

Great Lake Loons Play by Play with new sensation Angel Sanchez

Two weeks ago Phil Gurnee declared that We Got This even though the Dodgers were in fourth place, closer to last place then 3rd place. Two weeks later not much has changed. The Giants had a chance to bury the Dodgers but were swept by the A's,  and as we write this the Dodgers are still at the precipice, eight games out.

The same problems that have confounded the team still exist, no one will step up and take control of left field. Casey Blake continues to be in and out of the lineup. Juan Uribe continues to do nothing. Catching is still a huge offensive hole.

The only good signs are the continued signs of life in James Loney's bat as he's been the 3rd best hitter on the team in June. The problem with that stat is that Aaron Miles has been the second best hitter in June. And that can never be a good thing.

Matt Kemp continues to bedazzle us at a level that I don't believe even his most ardent backers thought he was capable of for long periods of time.

It is time for Andre Ethier to get hot, he's been resting on his laurels for a while now, this team needs him to heat up, and heat up fast. That won't be enough though. We also need Chad Billingsley to put the early woes of June behind him and be the man we expect him to be. Chad has the stuff to be a main component of any rotation, for most of his career he has pitched better then he gets credit for. He needs to start doing it again. This team just has two many known holes for the two main cogs of the team to not be at their best. 

Might be beating a dead horse but two of our horses have to carry some load if this team is going to have a strong finish. It can still happen.

The hottest team is housed in our nations capitol. The Nationals are 9 - 1over their last ten games and have evened their season record at 37 - 37. Their three best offensive players could not be guessed by 99% of baseball fans.  Michael Morse (145), Laynce Nix  (126 OPS+) and Danny Espinosa  (116 OPS+).  Ryan Zimmerman only has 73 plate appearances so I did not include him. Overall the Nationals have six players with over 100 plate appearances with an OPS+ over 100. Ryan Zimmerman will soon make it eight.  Michael Morse might be the best kept secret in baseball. Some TBLA members campaigned for him to become a Dodger and solve our LF problem this past winter. If only that had come to pass.

The Brewers put a move on the Cardinals even before Pujols got hurt. With the big three of Zack Greinke, Yovani Gallardo, and Shaun Marcum doing good work, they are a team to be reckoned with. Some may look at Greinke's 4.77 ERA and think he is struggling but his xFIP of 1.84 along with a 11.93 K/Rate supplemented by a 1.34 BB/rate tell us the real story. Grienke is dealing and the Brewers are surging. Prince Fielder has the second best wRC in June at .266 trailing only Paul Konerko who has an unreal .305.

Best hitting SS in baseball in June is JJ Hardy who has slugged seven home runs to augment his .730 slug%.

Phillies continue to dominate pitching. Doc is the overall best pitcher in baseball so far this year, but his teammates Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee have been the 1st / 3rd best pitchers in June.

Michael Pineda and Alexi Ogando continue to fight for ROY pitching honors, with Zach Britton tagging along in case they struggle.

The Giants have FOUR starting pitchers in the top 11 of WAR. That is even after Bumgarner gave up eight earned runs in one inning this week.

Jered Weaver is number one in WAR in the AL. Kershaw is number three in the NL. They meet this Sunday. Might want to bet the under.

Much has changed for the Rockies since our last preview.

Additions: Charles Blackmon, Eric Young, Juan Nicasio, Aaron Cook, Clay Mortensen, Chris Nelson

Subtractions: Jose Lopez, Felipe Paulino, Ian Stewart

On the DL: Dexter Fowler, Jorge De La Rosa

Position Breakdown

1st Base - Todd Helton is having a big resurgence, looking very much like the 2009 model with his .316/.384/.534 Triple Stat Line.

2nd Base - Jose Lopez  lost the gig and his spot on the 25 man roster. Chris Nelson is trying to fill the spot with Jonathan Herrera and Eric Young Junior waiting for him to fail.  He's had 23 plate appearances so far, so nothing to talk about yet. He was the 9th pick of the 2004 draft and it has taken him longer then anyone expected to find a spot on the Rockie roster. Scouting report per baseballhq.com

Chris Nelson (INF, COL)
In need of infield depth, the Rockies turned to the 25-year-old right-handed hitter. Nelson was a first round selection in the '09 draft and finally reached the majors in '10 - he hit .280 with 0 HR. He is an outstanding athlete who is starting to live up to lofty expectations. Nelson has the ability to hit for BA while showcasing his moderate power and speed. His pitch recognition is more than adequate, though he can be a little aggressive and expand the strike zone in the hopes of hitting for more pop. Nelson is a good defender with a strong arm, ample range, and soft hands and he can play any infield position. Injuries have taken their toll on him, but if given the opportunity, Nelson could still become a starting infielder in Colorado. He is a career .278/.342/.440 hitter with a high of 19 HR in '07.
STATS: Colorado Springs (AAA) - 197 AB, .315/.346/.503, 14 2b, 5 HR, 0.29 Eye, 2 SB

SS - Troy Tulowitzki is struggling offensively  for a man with his talent. Since April 15th he has an OPS of .666. The number of the beast just keeps showing up in these previews.  At this point in the season he has a wRC of 112. Jamey Carroll is at 111. The man many considered the best NL SS is far behind the likes of Jose Reyes and Stephen Drew. Defensively, the metrics in 2011 say he is the best by far.

3rd Base - Like Jose Lopez, Ian Stewart also failed to keep his gig. Stewart his now crushing in AAA while Ty WIggington tries to hold down the fort.

C - Chris Iannetta still having a solid season.

CF - Carlos Gonzalez has been moved back to CF with Fowler on the DL. The word is that he's going to stay there. Carlos had a great May but so far in June he's struggling as though caught in quicksand with a June OPS of .472. That is not slugging, that is OPS. Who says Jerry Sands does not have anything in common with Cargo:)

LF - Now belongs to Charles Blackmon who was just recalled this week.  Blackmon is left-handed, was the second round pick in 2008, so he's made a quick journey to the major leagues.  He had an OPS of .965 in the PCL. To put that into perspective, Ian Stewart who was demoted because he can't hit major league pitching has an OPS of 1.226 on the same team. Scouting report per baseballhq.com

Charles Blackmon (OF, COL)
The Rockies selected the 24-year-old in the second round of the '08 draft and he was fairly raw at the time. Since the draft, Blackmon has steadily improved and polished many nuances of his game. At 6'3" 200 pounds, he is a solid athlete with an intriguing mix of power and speed. His bat speed is starting to translate into moderate-to-plus pop. As evidenced by his career line of .316/.376/.475, Blackmon is a good hitter who makes easy contact. He isn't the most patient hitter, but he takes clean cuts and doesn't strike out much. In the outfield, Blackmon can play all three positions, but projects best in a corner. His arm strength and range are merely average, but he has shown improved routes and jumps. The Rockies have an abundance of outfielders, but it is expected that Blackmon gets regular work.
STATS: Colorado Springs (AAA) - 243 AB, .342/.396/.576, 19 2b, 10 HR, 0.56 Eye, 12 SB

RF - Seth Smith (LH) and Ryan Spilborghs (RH) continue to platoon. Smith is hitting , Ryan is not.

Bench -  Ryan Spilborghs, Jose Morales, Jonathan Herrera, Eric Young Junior, and Jason Giambi round out a solid bench with power, speed, and patience. 

Starting Pitching for our Series:

Game One - Newcomer Juan Nicasio gets the call against the Dodgers. He's made two starts so he has gotten his feet wet. Scouting report per baseballhq.com

Juan Nicasio (RHP, COL)
The Colorado Rockies called up RHP Juan Nicasio to fill in temporarily for the injured Jorge De La Rosa. Nicasio has a solid three-pitch mix that includes a 90-95 mph fastball that tops out at 97 mph, an inconsistent slider, and a much improved change-up. Somewhat of a late bloomer, the 24-year-old Nicasio had a breakout season in 2010. In 28 starts in the hitter-friendly CAL, Nicasio was 12-10 with a 3.91 ERA. Even more impressive was his strikeout to walk ratio. In 177 IP Nicasio walked only 31 while striking out 171. Nicasio is a strike-throwing machine and hasn't missed a beat to start 2011. After nine Double-A starts he is 5-1 with a 2.22 ERA with 10 BB/63 K in 56.2 IP. The jump from Double-A to the majors will not be easy, but if Nicasio can learn to keep the ball down in the zone he has the potential to develop into a solid mid-rotation starter and is worth rostering in NL only leagues.
STATS: Tulsa (AA) - 9 gs, 5-1 2.22 ERA, 56.2 IP, 6.3 Cmd, 1.6 Ctl, 10.0 Dom, 3 HR.

Game Two - Jhoulys Chacin should be fresh in Dodger fan minds after he twirled a beautiful game on April 5th against them.

Game Three - Jason Hammel has started twice against the Dodgers this year giving up 11 runs in 9 innings. Nuff said

Game Four - Ubaldo Jimenez appears to be back with zero walks over his last two games in 16 innings.

Bullpen - Huston Street continues to be the closer but the Rockies have a new kid on the block. Scouting report per baseballhq.com

Rex Brothers (LHP, COL)
In a highly anticipated move, the Rockies recalled the 23-year-old from Triple-A where he was dominant with a very high strikeout rate. Brothers was a supplemental first round selection in the '09 draft and has all the ingredients to become a big league closer. He was converted to a reliever upon signing and there are no apparent plans to move him from his role. Brothers' fastball runs between 91-97 mph and it exhibits plenty of late movement. He isn't very tall (6'0"), but he relies on pitch movement to keep the ball down. His mid-80's slider is his strikeout pitch and it has severe late break. Brothers rarely throws a changeup and he must improve his command in order to secure a prominent role in the bullpen. He has high upside with his potent fastball-slider combo. Brothers has posted a career 3.13 ERA, 4.9 Ctl, and 11.8 Dom.
STATS: Colorado Springs (AAA) - 25 g, 3-2 2.89 ERA, 28 IP, 3.0 Cmd, 4.8 Ctl, 14.5 Dom, 2 HR, .266 oppBA

Others in the bullpen include Rafael Betancourt, Matt Belisle, LHP Matt Reynolds, and Matt Lindstrom

In a lifelong of Dodger memories some of them are etched deeper then others into my neocortex.  While watching Jerry Sands struggle for yet another game since his grand slam, it reminded me of the struggles of another one time hot Dodger prospect after the greatest day of his career.

Twenty eight years ago Greg Brock had huge shoes to fill, but the minor league home run champion seemed more then capable of replacing fan favorite Steve Garvey.  Going into the May 18th game Greg had an OPS over .900 with everything going his way. By the end of the game, Greg had hit two home runs, including a grand slam, and as the ball soared over the right field fence in Montreal Vin Scully was commenting on how Greg Brock had arrived. For one of the few times in Vin Scully's career he was premature in his pronouncement of Brock's arrival.

For the next 209 plate appearances Greg Brock would suffer through the greatest stretch of Castroish hitting he would ever encounter. It was not until Aug 3rd that he would hit rock bottom and start working his way back up the stat chart.

When Jerry Sands collected that grand slam a few weeks ago, many of the same thoughts were being passed about. Seemed just a matter of time before Sands would be ready to take the reins and deliver the offense one would expect from a power hitting left fielder. Yet, just like Brock, Jerry Sands has found the going tough after that grand slam. Hopefully this is just a blip and he'll quickly rectify this slide once he slides into Coors. Greg Brock never had that opportunity. If any place is a slump buster it has to be Coors, so by Monday the chart below should be made meaningless.

Below is a table showing the pre grand slam and post grand slam slumps of these power hitting prospects.

First preview series repeat, normally I would not bother but I found out some info on Dar Bar and Pena,  and I couldn't wait to write about the home run tendency's of the first two pitchers we will face. When we last faced this staff a mere 10 days ago, the Dodgers torched the pitching staff for 27 runs in only three games. The Dodgers have scored more then seven runs only twice and both those games were against the Cubs.

Season Series: Dodgers 2 - 1
Manager:  Mike Quade (12-15) Lifetime (36-28)

No longer are the Cubs doing the great lose one, win one dance, as they have gone 2  - 4 since we last saw them.

Key Additions:  Carlos Pena, Darwin Barney, Reed Johnson, Matt Garza, Casey Coleman, Kerry Wood

Key Subtractions: Tom Gorzelanny, Carlos Silva

Position Breakdown:

1st Base- Carlos Pena is still not hitting, has one extra base hit in 81 plate appearances. He might be the only 1st baseman who can make James Loney look good in comparison. Fangrapsh takes a look as his dismal start to see if they can find any clues.

Pena falls into the category of a three-outcome hitter. So far, two of the outcomes are there. Pena’s 15.6% walk rate is consistent with what we’ve seen from him over the past few seasons. His 36.5% strikeout rate is a bit elevated, but striking out one-third of the time is not uncommon for him; zero home runs, however, and one extra-base hit is not only different, but rather scary. In fact, if you go back to the final two months of 2010, Pena has just five home runs in his last 237 plate appearances.

2nd Base-  Darwin Barney is now firmly entrenched as the Cub 2nd baseman and is doing a solid job. Heck at this point more then a solid job with an OPS at .809. Rotowire's Bernie Pleskoff highlighted Darwin last week.

Barney is a 5-foot-10, 188-pound grandson of a Korean grandfather and a Japanese grandmother. His nickname is Dar Bar. He plays the game in a manner similar to Boston's Dustin Pedroia. Although he doesn't have Pedoria's bat, he comes to each game with high intensity and a desire to win. He was so intent on improving his chances to make the big league club that he spent the offseason in Arizona working closely with the Cubs hitting guru, Rudy Jaramillo. Barney worked on his pitch recognition, while shortening his stroke and overall mechanics under Jaramillo's guidance. During the winter Barney added 18 pounds of muscle to his frame.

Shortstop- I love Starlin Castro; the 21 year old prodigy is a good reason to watch the Cubs. He had a four hit game against us last week and continues to be one of the better offensive shortstops in the NL, however in 2011 he's been an error machine with seven so far.

3rd Base- Aramis Ramirez is healthy and doing his normal good work. At 33 he might never see a full season OPS of .900 again but he should still be an above average offensive 3rd baseman for them this year.

Catcher- The 2008 ROY Geovany Soto had a big bounce back season in 2010 and didn't seem to get much attention. He's struggling so far in 2011and Cub fans have to hope he's not going to start doing that odd/even crap.

Left Field -Alfonso Soriano has a joke of a contract but he is hitting home runs again, knocking out ten so far in the young season.  At 35 years old Soriano has hit 324 career home runs. With 54 Million still to run on his contract after the 2011 season, Cub fans have to hope he's got a lot more left in him.

Right Field- Kosuke Fukudome and Tyler Colvin split time here. Fukudome is off to his typical fast start, hitting .375 but with only two XBH.  Colvin was the 13th player picked in the 2006 1st round and came up last year to quickly became a fan favorite by pounding 20 home runs in only 394 plate appearances. However in 2011 Tyler Colvin has been a huge bust, with a .532 OPS in 58 PA's.

Center Field- Marlon Byrd evolved from one of the better platoon center fielders into a solid all around full time center fielder. A little more power against LHP is the only thing differentiating his splits. One of the better bargains in baseball, he is signed through 2012. In 2011 Marlon is struggling big time. In his last 16 games, his TSL is .227/239/.273. Yikes

Bench: Should be familiar to Dodger fans as it is riddled with old friends. We have Blake Dewitt chewing up splinters as his bat was not deemed good enough to offset his below average defensive skills at 2nd base. Reed Johnson fills in around the outfield and pinch hits. Koyie Hill is still their backup catcher. Moving on from ex-Dodgers we have Jeff Baker who can handle 2nd/3rd/1st and this is it. Might even see Baker start at 1st base for the struggling Pena.

Starting Pitching for our Series:

Game 1:James Russell appears to be a lousy pitcher. His team is 0 - 3 in his starts, his pitching TSL is 8.31/8.75/4.73. The big left hander has given up six home runs in only thirteen innings.  That can't keep up can it? Warm night in Dodger Stadium might just be what the Doctor ordered for the Dodger bats.

Game 2: Ryan Dempster has been a mainstay of the Cub rotation for a few years now but he's getting rocked in 2011. His ERA is a mind boggling 9.58 due to the nine home runs in 31innings. Have these guys been pitching to Babe Ruth?

Game 3: Carlos Zambrano is more fun to watch hit then pitch. He now has hit 22 career home runs. Pitching wise he still is a force but he's never been as good a pitcher as his rep. Don't get me wrong he's good but that walk rate has kept him from being great. According to FanGraphs he's only hitting 89 on his fastball but he's got five different pitches he uses, and he uses all of them.

Bullpen: Carlos Marmol is the closer and is the true three outcome pitcher. Last year Marmol struck out 138 in 77 innings while walking 52. Clearly hitters have trouble making contact against him. Not as exciting but just as effective is Sean Marshall. The 6'7 lefty came into his own last year and is now the main setup man for Marmol. This year Marshall has been even better with one walk so far this year with 12 K's in 12 innings. The big name in the bullpen is Kerry Wood but he's a far cry from the Kerry Wood who showed up here in 1998 and wowed the baseball world as a hard throwing 21 year old.  He's ditched his nasty slider for a cutter; the velocity of the fastball is still intact, but he still has control problems.  Filling out the bullpen Jeffrey Alan Samardzija,  Marcos Mateo, Jeff Stevens, and lefty John Grabow.

If the members want to complain about Eric sometimes being dismissive of differing opinions, of being too smart, too hard working, too full of vital Dodger information, arrogant with his knowledge to the point of annoyance,  or Phil of being a hack of a writer with an insensitive disposition, of being short,  or Brandon being too good at what he does, or David of simply being the constant pleasant presence who goes out of his way to respond in an optimistic manner, or Chad and Michael providing us with dazzling content, so be it.

Just do not question the integrity of the opinions simply because they do not mesh with your own.

Cardinals vs Dodgers coverage

Cardinals vs Dodgers preview

Viva El Birdos

GameDay

998 -998 is the all time record between the Dodgers and Cardinals, good odds that it will be 1000 - 1000 by Sunday Night. With seven games this season someone will be on the positive end when the season series is over.

Lance Berkman has homered in three straight games

Casey Blake  - His .967 fielding% is the highest all - time field % among Dodger 3rd baseman with a min of 250 games.

Jamey Carroll - leads the majors with a .358 batting average (36 for 106) in pinch hitting  since the start of the 2002 season, min 75 at bats.

Andre Ethier - Batting .421 during his current 10 game hitting streak

Andre Ethier's next home run will be number 100

Matt Kemp has now played in 216 consecutive games, longest current streak in the major leagues

Dodger Disabled List so far in 2011:

• Casey Blake
• Rafael Furcal
• Jon Garland
• Jay Gibbons
• Hector Gimenez
• Dioner Navarro
• Vicente Padilla

Continuation Thread: Part 2.

                                               
Date          Tm   Rslt  IP H ER BB SO GSc  ERA
2010-06-08   LAD W  1-0 7.0 4  0  1  6  74 0.00
                                               
2010-07-17   LAD L  0-2 6.0 4  1  1  8  67 1.50
                                               
2009-07-30   LAD W  5-3 6.0 4  2  0  5  61 3.00

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/14/2011.

Hiroki Kuroda has made three starts against the Cardinals and his ERA is on the wrong trend. 0 runs, 1 run, then 2 runs.  Then again I'll take a three in his fourth game if he can go seven.

Nice mastery over a good lineup, for our second best pitcher.

Cardinals versus Kuroda:

                                                                 
                 PA AB  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO   BA  OBP  SLG    OPS
Matt Holliday    21 20  8  2  0  1   6  1  2 .400 .429 .650  1.079
Lance Berkman     9  7  0  0  0  0   0  2  1 .000 .222 .000   .222
Albert Pujols     9  9  1  1  0  0   0  0  3 .111 .111 .222   .333
Yadier Molina     8  8  1  0  0  0   0  0  2 .125 .125 .125   .250
Skip Schumaker    8  8  2  1  0  0   1  0  2 .250 .250 .375   .625
Ryan Theriot      8  7  2  0  0  0   0  1  1 .286 .375 .286   .661
Colby Rasmus      6  6  0  0  0  0   0  0  4 .000 .000 .000   .000
Jon Jay           3  3  0  0  0  0   0  0  0 .000 .000 .000   .000
Gerald Laird      3  3  0  0  0  0   0  0  1 .000 .000 .000   .000
Tyler Greene      2  1  0  0  0  0   0  0  1 .000 .500 .000   .500
Total            82 76 14  4  0  1   7  4 18 .184 .235 .276   .511

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/14/2011.

Dodgers versus Jaime Garcia:

                                                                      
                   PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI  BB SO    BA   OBP   SLG   OPS
Juan Uribe          6  6 0  0  0  0   0   0  1  .000  .000  .000  .000
Casey Blake         3  3 1  0  0  0   1   0  0  .333  .333  .333  .667
Rod Barajas         2  2 0  0  0  0   0   0  1  .000  .000  .000  .000
Chad Billingsley    2  2 0  0  0  0   0   0  2  .000  .000  .000  .000
Jamey Carroll       2  2 2  0  1  0   0   0  0 1.000 1.000 2.000 3.000
Andre Ethier        2  2 1  0  0  0   0   0  0  .500  .500  .500 1.000
Matt Kemp           2  2 1  0  0  0   0   0  1  .500  .500  .500 1.000
James Loney         2  2 1  0  0  0   1   0  0  .500  .500  .500 1.000
Xavier Paul         1  1 0  0  0  0   0   0  0  .000  .000  .000  .000
Total              22 22 6  0  1  0   2   0  5  .273  .273  .364  .636

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/14/2011.

Dodger Notes:

• Last year, both clubs protected their home turf with the Dodgers winning all three games in Los Angeles and the Cardinals sweeping a four-game set in St. Louis.
• Kuroda has walked just two batters in 15.2 innings this season and the Dodgers’ starting rotation is averaging just 2.31 walks per 9.0 innings thus far (18 BB/17.0 IP), which is the second-lowest mark in the NL (Source: Stats, LLC).
• Kuroda ranks 11^th in the National League with a 1.72 ERA through his first two starts, including finishing an out shy of his third-career shutout on Saturday at San Diego.
• Dodger center fielder Matt Kemp continues to lead the Majors with a .531 on-base percentage and seven steals. Kemp also ranks fourth in the big leagues with a .425 batting average (17-for-40).
• The Dodgers are tied with the Padres for the National League lead and rank second in the Majors behind the Kansas City Royals (15) with 13 steals.
• The Dodgers have made just five errors on the season, tying for the second-fewest miscues in baseball. In the National League, only the Brewers and Phillies (4) have fewer errors. Los Angeles has not committed an error in five straight contests and seven of their last eight. Last season, the club’s longest errorless streak was eight games, accomplished twice, most recently from Sept. 25-Oct. 3, 2010.  

Lineups:

At 4:00 Sixteen Hundred Hours today the Dodgers will hold a press conference in parking lot G to discuss the additional security measures in place at Dodger Stadium for the coming home stand.

So far the Dodgers have removed 1/2 price beer from the 1/2 price business man dates.

Half-price alcoholic beverages are no longer part of the Dodgers' Half Price Food & Drink Promotion, set to begin with the game against the Atlanta Braves on Thursday, April 21, the team announced today.

Hired former LA Police Chief Bratton:

The Los Angeles Dodgers hired Kroll Chairman and former Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton to assess policies and procedures related to security and fan services at Dodger Stadium.

Threatened season ticket holders with the loss of their seats if they misbehave.

Given that we can't change the culture of Los Angeles, can we change the behavior of the crowd or are a few bad apples ruining it for everyone?

For those who go to more then one game a year, what would you do, or do you even think they need to do anything?

I, for one, would like to see a more proactive approach by the ushers by outfitting them with wireless communication to notify security when they see actions that might get out of control. Instead of simply heading to the top of the stairs and talk with other ushers, have them do their job which is making sure everyone is having as good a time as they can. Interact with the fans, let them know your watching.

I don't want to see ushers getting into confrontations with fans - let security do that - having one low level security person for every couple of sections might provide enough coverage for keeping things in check before they get out of control. For ejections, they should have an ejection squad ready on call at each level.