From Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com, after a postgame chat with Dodger manager Don Mattingly:
… Mattingly seemed to concede for the first time after the game that shortstop Dee Gordon might not be long for the leadoff spot. Gordon continued to struggle there, going 0-for-5 without hitting a ball out of the infield, and he now is 2-for-31 over the past seven games.
“Seeing it from where I was at tonight, it wasn’t very good,” said Mattingly, who got to watch most of it from the center-field television camera on the television in his office because he was ejected by plate umpire Tom Hallion in the top of the third inning. “The game seems to be moving awfully fast for him right now. We are going to continue to make decisions. But in the same breath, this kid is going to be a good player. He is going through something right now that is going to make him a better player later on.
“Things aren’t easy in this game, and there are times when you’re going to go through rough stuff. He is going through some rough stuff right now.”
Reading between the lines of Mattingly’s comments, it sounds like something will happen with Gordon soon, possibly before Saturday night’s game. Because Gordon is such a key part of the Dodgers’ future, it isn’t likely anyone is going to let him sit around on the bench. A stint in Triple-A would seem more logical because it would mean he would be getting regular at-bats and have a chance to work out the kinks, something he couldn’t do as a reserve player in the major leagues. …
Gordon’s batting average fell to exactly .200 Friday, with a .239 on-base percentage.
One delaying factor could be the health of Mark Ellis, who had to leave Friday’s 6-5 Dodger victory over St. Louis shortly after he was hit with a hard takeout slide. X-rays were negative, but if Ellis has to miss any games, that would remove another starter from the Dodger infield. That said, the Dodgers could still bring up someone like Ivan De Jesus to be a reserve to back up the infield of, yes, Adam Kennedy, Justin Sellers and Elian Herrera.
Herrera, who drew the eight-pitch walk to start the bottom of the ninth and then went from first to third on Adam Kennedy’s fourth hit, could see more playing time thanks to that at-bat.
underdog
Would probably be for the best, alas, I do think the game is moving too fast for him right now though I have faith he’ll figure it out. It would be easier if Hairston and Uribe weren’t on DL (just for IF depth in general) yet alone now Mark Ellis. Sigh.
Anonymous
I think some ABQ time would do Dee good.
Meanwhile, LAT’d: One night after making his debut with two hits, Yan Gomes of Toronto became the first Brazilian to homer in a major league game. Whether he is yet the first Brazilian to strike out or commit an error, I don’t know.
Anonymous
How about simply hitting him 8th? At one time AJ was considered only a number 8 hitter :)
Anonymous
That might be a short-term solution, but he really looks overmatched lately, and has no patience whatsoever.
Anonymous
IMO he needs to go down, and has needed to go down for weeks now. Not even batting 8th will help him. The knock on Sellers is he cant hit, well right now Gordon cant hit, and leads the MLB with 10 errors. I rather have Sellers play SS, bat 8th, and know im getting dependable defense from my SS if he isnt giving me much hitting wise. Let Gordon fix whatever he needs to fix in the minors in the meantime.
Anonymous
And have an OF run over him once to teach him to listen when called off. Especially should go now while Kemp is out, Gwynn can leadoff as he is going to play CF every day anyway
Anonymous
I will be sad if Dee Gordon turns out to be the second coming of Mike Ramsey.
Anonymous
Is he the one who played for the cardinals?
Jon Weisman
The second coming of the second coming?
Anonymous
Wasn’t he the lefty CF who played just a few games for us circa 1985?
Jason Ungar
Did he really need to see it on TV to tell what’s been obvious for weeks?
Anonymous
I wonder how bunting in front of Matt Kemp looks on his TV. It doesn’t look good on mine.
Vin Skully
One of the things that makes this team fun to watch is the camaraderie an that would be hurt if Dee was sent down. Something needs to change though. He is way over matched right now with no plan at the plate whatsoever.
Jon Weisman
Nine out of 10 Eastern Division teams in MLB are above .500. Last-place Phillies have better record than NL West’s second-place Giants.
Two out of 11 Central Division teams in MLB are above .500. Three out of nine Western Division teams in MLB are above .500.
Anonymous
Where has my buddy craigusc been? Thought about him the other day, ever time I hear DeWitt’s name I think of him haha. Hope he is doing ok.
KT
Season ticket holder with the Angels
Anonymous
Sellers could certainly take over, but would need a back-up, particularly if it is a long stay for Dee on the farm. Hard to see it happenning until Happy gets back, the 22nd? (and, of course, he was a disaster there in ST) Herrara doesn’t seem to have SS included on his utlity belt (BR caption), but he played a bit there in the minors.
Anonymous
What I think the real question is what are the dodgers going to do with FedEx if Ellis keeps doing this well. Just send Gordon down already he has the options and will not go on wavers so i don’t know why Don hasn’t already. Ellis and FedEx are the one’s we need to be more worried about
Anonymous
What is your concern regarding Fedex?
Jon Weisman
Yeah, I don’t understand this concern either much less how this is “the real question.” Is it even among the first 10 real questions?
Anonymous
I THINK he is inferring equal performances from both of them, begging the question, who sits and who plays. No problem. If Fedex is another Piazza, he’s got the job; If he’s “only” good enough, he’ll still have a secure spot on the bench because he’ll be cheap for several years. By the time his salary starts climbing, AJ will we old enough to take over the bench job while Fedex starts…
Anonymous
Why?
DXMachina
Yeah, Dee needs to go down, not only to get his hitting in order, but also to learn what the words “I’ve got it!” actually mean. Watching him on pop ups reminds me of the old “Yo la tengo!” story about Richie Ashburn when he played for the ’62 Mets.
Jon Weisman
Thanks to a gift double that fell untouched between to outfielders, Sellers raised his 2012 batting average to .161 (5 for 31). In his career, he has a .574 OPS.
DXMachina
Somebody has to play short. Otherwise there’ll be a lot of ground ball hits to left. Right now I’d rather it wasn’t either of Sellers or Gordon, but since Gordon is more likely to develop further at this point than Sellers, it makes more sense to me to send Dee down to work on things than Justin.
Jon Weisman
I don’t disagree with that. What I’m saying is that I see some people online expecting Sellers to bring some significant improvement, and that’s unlikely.
DXMachina
I agree. I hope they at least try Herrera there. If he hits, and is at least mediocre in the field, they can always bring Sellers in late in the game.
KT
I’m with the same mindset as DXM…Dee has the higher ceiling than Justin and sending him down will hopefully reap higher “rewards” in the long run
Anonymous
Sellers also has amassed positive WAR value for his career, something you can’t say about Dee Gordon. Gordon has cost our team 0.7 wins this season.
Anonymous
Saddest part of today is that I can’t go to the Fan Fest and get Chuck Essegian’s autograph.
Chuck Essegian: Great Armenian Pinch Hitter or Greatest Armenian Pinch Hitter?
DXMachina
What’s weird is that I remember Essegian as an Oriole, because that’s who he was with the first year I collected cards. I just looked up his stats, and it turns out he had exactly one at bat with the O’s. I suspect he must’ve been injured, because he had what was probably his best season the following year with the Indians.
Anonymous
Only thing I remember about Chuck Essegian is that his sister was a movie actress. So was Carl Erskine’s. I can’t document Essegian’s sister but I just found out that he is one of only two men who played in both a World Series and a Rose Bowl (Stanford, 1952) His two pinch hit home runs on the World Series is still the record although tied (Bernie Carbo).
Anonymous
Hey… what happened to my comment?
I went to edit it, and it said that the “moderator needed to approve it?”
….
Jon, please put my comment up there…
The only ‘curse word’ I used was “bunt” …. :-)
Anonymous
Bummer.
Anonymous
This happened to me a couple weeks ago, but it was only a brief glitch. Try closing and restarting your browser.
foul tip
Well. DT chatter yesterday seriously disrespected Kennedy. Seems like I may have chimed in. I dissed Loney’s offense, something about his needing to find the key to exit Donny’s doghouse.
Then the two of them exploded last night. Hmmm…think they saw DT?
Just in case, who should be dissed here today before tonight’s game? A rerun of those two, or someone new? Maybe add Sellers to the target diss list of weak-hitting infielders? ;-])
KT
I say the whole team including Kershaw so we can have a slugfest to go along with the fanfest
Anonymous
I’m liking the fact that at the moment (other than Dee) there are no easy outs and anyone is likely to get that clutch hit just when we need it
Anonymous
Not that he is the solution to all our problems, but is there any update on when Miles will be ready?
Anonymous
I fear more a problem that would arise that would make Aaron Miles the solution.
Anonymous
true,true
Anonymous
What’s wrong with letting him bat 8th for a while and see what happens, before sending him down to Albuquerque?
Jason Ungar
I think there are things he can work on as a leadoff hitter that he may not get a chance to work on as a 8 hole hitter..both mental and physical. Triple A games are meaningless…I hope they send him down, not cause Sellers will be better, but so hopefully Gordon will be better when called up again.
Anonymous
Dee’s also on track to make 50 errors. Batting 8th won’t change that.
Anonymous
I would enjoy seeing Sands and Van Slyke in the lineup more.
It seems to me that Kemp and Loney are not friends.
Anonymous
Agree on Sands and SVS, but what leads you to make the other statement. I’ve never seen any indication either way.
Anonymous
I think with Sands and SVS its a righty lefty thing. Donnie had no problem having both of tthem start the other day against a lefty.
Anonymous
Mattingley seems to be trying to figure out what to do. He seems to have the human skills down which are the hardest but his game management is a work in progress and that includes his lineups.
Anonymous
a rather facile comment considering it was clear he had the human skills last season; and, since sometime last summer he has quite a record with what looked and continues to look on paper like a 500 roster. I suggest you examine his line-up every day in an effort to ascertain what the foundation of his thinking is and then critique that if you can.
Anonymous
I suggest you examine his line-up everyday and ascertain as needed.
Here is one curiosity I have: I thought Kennedy might be hitting behind Ethier so that in the later innings Mattingley could use Sands or Van Slyke to hit for Kennedy with risp but Kennedy was left in against a lefty.
Anonymous
Psychic phenomena, observation, vibes, and maybe the irritation Loney might have with Kemp recruiting Fielder. There just seems like there is some distance between the two.
Anonymous
never even thought of that. yikes.
Anonymous
Mark Ellis to DL, DeJesus called up.
Anonymous
Wow.
Anonymous
Wow is right!
Anonymous
i feel like i’m waiting in line to get into DT if that makes any sense.
Anonymous
As mentioned a few posts ago, (particularly now) anything above .500 ball will be a real bonus for us. I really like the teams fighting spirit at the moment
Anonymous
In case anybody was worried, the White Sox signed Orlando Hudson.
Anonymous
In a similar vein, has it been mentioned at DT that Oeltjen is back on the Alb. roster?
Anonymous
excellent!!
Anonymous
I will have to make do with the cardinals announcers tonight.
whatever they are, they’re better than the freaking dbacks announcers
KT
agreed with the snake announcers…If MLB does have vinny then I also have to hear the cards announcers
It’s vinny on MLB…YEA
Anonymous
indeed. thanks for the heads up. my dad always loves to hear vin
Anonymous
in 120 at-bats in ABQ Herrera had a 381 OBP. His AB yesterday was very very impressive man.
Linkmeister
Umpires stink, no matter the sport.
In the UH – North Dakota softball game the UH catcher blocked the plate and caught the
ball from CF. The runner never touched the plate. But the ump decided it
was catcher’s interference and called her safe. The ball clearly
arrived at the same time as the runner, so she should have been called
out (if it arrived late and the catcher blocked the plate, interference
is the right call, as I understand the rules). Highway robbery, and it
was the go-ahead run in the 3rd inning!
Jon Weisman
NPUT
Anonymous
well, that’s better than at the end of the game, I guess.
KT
Nice catch Bobby
Anonymous
Dee would have had that ball.
KT
Sellers had that ball but Dee wouldn’t have been called off by Bobby
KT
Sellers threw bobby off
KT
Still waiting for that DP I ordered a couple of days ago
Does it seem like forever since we have turned one
KT
Nice catch Dre
They are making good contact against Clayton
Anonymous
Miles started at 2nd tonight for Alb.
KT
NPUT Mike