Wednesday, June 4, 2008

My Prediction for tonights game...

Kershaw strikes out the side in the first.

Pierre singles to left.

Kemp hits one out of the stadium and eyes the pitcher while rounding the bases. The pitcher attacks him and just before he gets there Kemp one punches him and the pitcher lies on the ground twitching. The Kemp finishes rounding the bases pumping up the crowd along the way taunting the rest of the rockies players to try anything!

The Rockies forfeit the game out of fear of one man. A man on a mission!

Matt Kemp!

Bison!!!!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Can Penny turn on a dime?

I had to use the pun.

Penny continues to struggle pitching, in his last 5 starts he has given up 10, 5, 5, 4, and 6 runs.

Over 27 innings in 5 games he has a 9.43 ERA with 13 walks and 17 strike outs... not good... actually it's horrible... like Odalis Perez bad.

Even stranger he has given up 4 homes runs. The same guy that gave up 4 home runs all of the first half of last year has all of a sudden given up 4 in 5 games.

My analysis is that Penny is just getting unlucky as teams have a 390 BABIP against him in this time period. His groundball rate is up and his line drive and fly ball rates are down. Having Furcal at SS will really help and if we are lucky Jeff Cant can help us by giving more offense! In the meantime... lets all enjoy watching our SS production go 0-30 again, go eat a Dodger Dog.

Fortunately for Penny he is facing the Rockies. The one team that has struggled MORE than the Dodgers. It'll be just our luck that they start a hot streak against us that lasts until late September when they have clinched the division...

Probably not.

Monday, June 2, 2008

More numbers crunching.

Since Furcal has been out (May 6) the Dodgers enemic offense has gone from hitting 283 BA, 361 OBP, 416 SLG to 243 BA, 298 OBP, 339SLG.

WHO IS AT FAULT?

It's not Russell Martin (353, 421, 435) who has 9 RBI's and 9 Runs scored.

It's not Blake Dewitt (296, 345, 469) who has 15 RBI's and 10 runs scored.

Maybe not completely Matt Kemps fault (284, 370, 333!) with 6 runs, 6RBIs and 21 K's!

And not completely Andre Ethier's fault (304, 337, 405) with 5 RBI's, 7 runs, and 13 K's.

And maybe not completely James Loney's fault (281, 319, 438) with 6 RBI's, 12 Runs, and 17 K's.

But it could verrry easily be Juan Pierre's fault (250, 314, 271) with 13 runs, 6 RBI's and 6 K's.

But most of all it IS Jeff Kent's fault (186, 230, 271) 5 runs, 6 RBI, 9 k's. As he does his best impression of Andruw Jones. It doesn't help that Torre keeps on throwing him out there to bat in the cleanup spot, but at 40 years old when do we start looking for his replacement?

I have been pretty high on Brian Roberts for some time and think that we could trade our utility infielder posing as a left fielder (Juan Pierre) for him along with 17 prospects and 20 million dollars.

Fill the open outfield spot inhouse with someone... anyone really, and just pay Jeff Kent to go away.

The starting piching hasn't been as bad as the offense but not good enough to sustain a one run lead. 4.39 ERA, .333 OBP, 376 SLG since May 6.

Ken Rosenthal suggested trading Penny. Though as good as Penny is he has a BABIP (batting average of balls in play) of 391 over his last 4 starts. A stat like that can't stay like that especially for a guy like Penny and it's just a matter of time either the defense gets better or Penny says he is injured. Not to mention Penny has a team option with the Dodgers for 9 million dollars next year, which is really cheap for a guy who got 3rd in the Cy Young vote last year.

Furcal is an impact bat and we need to keep him! But we need someone else to take this team to the next level. Juan Pierre makes this team weak as he is our weakest player. I wouldn't be opposed to getting Adam Dunn. But matching him up with Jones in the OF is insane. Hopefully Jones comes back healthy and hits like a man on a mission! Because no one else is and we need him. Otherwise I'd say we should just let him go and call it a lost cause and sign on of the many free agent corner outfield impact bats that will be on the market next year.

Kemp and Loney need to start pulling more of their weight though. They need to be the guys that take this team to the next level. Just the same way Bills and Kershaw will take the pitching staff to the next level.