Season preview – Page 2 – Dodger Thoughts

Category: Season preview (Page 2 of 2)

The 2011 National League West: A first look

On January 24, 2011

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty ImagesIn 2011, Juan Uribe will be trying to bring at least a division title south to Los Angeles from San Francisco.

With so much attention locally focused on what the Dodgers are or aren’t doing, it’s easy to lose perspective of where they stand relative to their rivals in the National League West. Realizing that we all have higher goals than a division title, let’s nonetheless check in on the coming division race and see where the competition stands heading into spring training.

Arizona Diamondbacks

Brad Mangin/MLB Photos/Getty Images
Justin Upton

On Aug. 30, 2008, Arizona hosted the Dodgers with a 4 1/2-game lead in the NL West and the combination of Dan Haren and Brandon Webb starting the next two games. Since that moment, the Diamondbacks have gone 152-204 and have been by far the worst team in the division. Arizona had a flat-out ugly 2010, finishing 65-97, 15 games behind the fourth-place Dodgers and 27 behind the division-winning Giants. The offense was mediocre, punctuated by 9.4 strikeouts per game. The pitching was worse, with an adjusted ERA of 89 (100 being average) that was 14th in the National League.

Hopes for a turnaround in 2011 are pretty limited, based on an offseason that has only brought names the caliber of Henry Blanco, Willie Bloomquist, Geoff Blum, Zach Duke, Aaron Heilman, Melvin Mora, Xavier Nady, Willy Mo Pena and J.J. Putz. Plus, at least last year they had Haren (and Edwin Jackson) for more than half a season, not to mention 57 homers (and 383 strikeouts) from departed corner infielders Mark Reynolds and Adam LaRoche.

Putz, though he’s about to turn 34, should help last year’s disastrous bullpen, and at age 23, Justin Upton (like his Bison-like counterpart in Los Angeles), could easily bounce back from the setbacks of last season, when his OPS dropped from .899 to .799. Daniel Hudson, acquired at midseason, will try to build upon his 11-start, 1.69-ERA debut. But overall, it’s going to take more than strategically placed eyeblack to make Kirk Gibson a winning manager in his first full season at the helm.

Colorado Rockies

Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images
Troy Tulowitzki

A popular pick to win the NL West entering the 2010 season following their spirited near-miss in 2009, Colorado fell out of the lead on the second day of the season and never returned. They did make a late charge, pulling within a game of the division lead after making up 10 games in the standings in 26 days, capped by a 12-2 thumping of the Dodgers on Sept. 18. They then took a 6-1 second-inning lead against Clayton Kershaw the next afternoon. But if you’ll recall, the Dodgers rallied to win that game in 11 innings, handing the Rockies the first of a stunning 13 losses in their final 14 games of 2010.

That tailspin doesn’t rule out a pennant pursuit in Denver this year. The Rockies return four budding stars in Troy Tulowitzki (26), Carlos Gonzalez (25), Ubaldo Jimenez (27) and Jhoulys Chacin (23, with a second-half ERA of 2.44 and 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings) and complements in Dexter Fowler (25 in March) and Ian Stewart (26 in April). But you also haven’t had much of an offseason when your biggest acquisitions are arguably infielders Ty Wigginton and Jose Lopez.

This is a team that will contend for the division title, and Rockies management has enough faith in it that their main expenditures, at least thus far, were to richly extend the contracts of Tulowitzki and Gonzalez rather than bring in big outside talent. That might well be the right strategy, especially if last year’s stretch crawl was a fluke, but with 37-year-old Todd Helton at first base and question marks elsewhere, Colorado didn’t make itself an obvious favorite this time around.

San Diego Padres

Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Mat Latos

Last year’s guide against wasting your time making predictions, San Diego sat in first place at the end of April, May, June, July and August. Then came the Giants, but even so, the Padres had a chance to tie San Francisco in the 162nd game of the season.

So San Diego was the big surprise team — with Adrian Gonzalez. Can it be without him? Unlike Colorado, San Diego will have lots of new faces, potentially starting Brad Hawpe at first, Orlando Hudson at second, Jason Bartlett at shortstop and Cameron Maybin in center field, almost making July 31 pickup Ryan Ludwick seem like an old-timer. Meanwhile, ex-Cincinnati Red pitcher Aaron Harang will try to help returning starting pitchers Clayton Richard, Wade LeBlanc and most importantly, 23-year-old Mat Latos (2.92 ERA in 2010) absorb the losses of Jon Garland and Kevin Correia.

I’m not going to be the one to argue that the Padres will be better in 2011 after trading Gonzalez for three minor-leaguers and outfielder Eric Patterson (.652 OPS in 179 career games), or that they’ll maintain any of their 10-game advantage over the Dodgers. But I’m also not ready to say they won’t be a thorn in the Dodgers’ side.

San Francisco Giants

Rich Pilling/MLB Photos/Getty Images
Buster Posey

Seven-and-a-half games out of first place and one game over .500 at the midpoint of the 2010 season, San Francisco went 51-30 in the second half to rally to the title and start what I think can objectively be said was a surprising postseason stomp to the World Series title. The Giants went 9-3 against the fading Dodgers in the second half to emphasize their superiority.

Are they still superior? To date, their lone offseason addition of note has been to sign Miguel Tejada (36 in May), and that effectively only supplants the loss of Juan Uribe to the Dodgers. Much like Colorado, San Francisco is putting its faith in the status quo. That status quo, of course, includes their top-flight starting rotation, superb young catcher Buster Posey and third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who has been tweeting photos showing how much weight he has lost this winter. It also includes 30-and-over position players Cody Ross, Andres Torres, Mark DeRosa, Aaron Rowand, Freddy Sanchez and Aubrey Huff.

Much of the Dodgers offseason has seemed an unspoken bid to emulate the Giants’ path to the top: Build a starting rotation that’s competitive every night, and try to sneak by with limited offense. For all the concern about who takes residence in Mannywood, Los Angeles still seems to have the better outfield. But the potential of superstar in Posey and a comeback from Sandoval (not to mention a promotion for minor-league first-baseman Brandon Belt) might give San Francisco the edge elsewhere.

Summary
Eight months from October, the Giants look like the main roadblock for the Dodgers, with the Rockies close behind. With serious questions about a) what kind of production the Dodgers will get at catcher, third base and left field, b) the ongoing health issues of Rafael Furcal and c) the bounce-back potential of Matt Kemp and James Loney, it doesn’t seem inappropriate to pencil the Dodgers in for third place at this time, but they should be in the thick of the race for the division title.

Not much room at the inn

By Jon Weisman

On January 18, 2011

In Season preview, Spring Training

Kirby Lee/US PresswireJay Gibbons will be among several Dodgers vying for playing time in left field.

Can’t recall when so many spots on the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster seemed locked up by Martin Luther King Day:

Starting pitchers (5): Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda, Ted Lilly, Jon Garland

Relief pitchers (7): Jonathan Broxton, Hong-Chih Kuo, Vicente Padilla, Kenley Jansen, Blake Hawksworth, Ronald Belisario, Scott Elbert*

Starting lineup (8): Rod Barajas, James Loney, Juan Uribe, Rafael Furcal, Casey Blake, Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, Jay Gibbons**

Bench (5): Jamey Carroll, Tony Gwynn Jr., Marcus Thames, Dioner Navarro or A.J. Ellis, Juan Castro***

* The last bullpen job is up for grabs. In fact, I wouldn’t necessarily call Hawksworth or Belisario locks, but they have the great advantage of not having any remaining options. Or instead of going to a seventh reliever, because of the deep starting rotation, they go with a sixth position player reserve like Xavier Paul.

** Gibbons is listed as a starter because someone had to be.

*** Castro or some other infielder. Maybe the still-unsigned Eric Chavez, or maybe Justin Sellers or another nonroster player sneaks in, or a longshot like Ivan De Jesus, Jr.

But overall, I would say that barring injury or trade, 22 of the 25 spots seem taken, with the 23rd going to the backup catcher, potentially leaving as few as two spots to battle for in Spring Training.

Update: I completely forgot about Matt Guerrier. That takes Elbert’s theoretical spot, and tightens the noose on the roster even more. Thanks to Dodger Thoughts commenter BLUE4life MK27 for the reminder.

Amid the flurry on the mound, quiet times in left field (for now)

By Jon Weisman

On December 5, 2010

In Season preview, Uncategorized

Jeff Roberson/APAre the Dodgers sincere when they say Xavier Paul is a contender to start next season?

Overall, I’m satisfied – even impressed – with how Ned Colletti has pulled together the 2011 Dodger starting rotation over the past month.

I was worried about how the Dodgers would fill their three offseason vacancies in the rotation. Then, thanks in part to Hiroki Kuroda’s agreeability, the Dodgers got their front four. As in the past, I would have been prepared for the team to enter Spring Training with a combination of youngsters and journeymen battling for the No. 5 spot. But the Dodgers didn’t even make us wait until December before filling that spot with a solid (though not spectacular) starter in Jon Garland.

There was another shoe to drop: Garland admitted to AM 710 that there are concerns about his health. Whether this means shades of Jason Schmidt remains to be seen, but it’s hard to get too worked up when the salary commitment to Garland is about 90% less than what the Dodgers paid Schmidt (are still paying, in fact). Garland figures to give the Dodgers something, and perhaps more than something.

There have been rumors that the Dodgers aren’t done with the pitching, that they are contemplating also bringing back adding Vicente Padilla as a swingman, a super-utility pitcher. The addition would further increase the Dodgers’ chances of presenting a smothering pitching staff next season, led by Clayton Kershaw in the role of Tim Lincecum, only wholesomer. Yes, my friends, the Dodgers have their ace – or rather, their king and his court.

All that being said …

The left-field situation resembles what we expected the No. 5 spot in the starting rotation to look like. Journeymen, kids and babies. Jay Gibbons is Jeff Weaver, Xavier Paul is John Ely, Jamie Hoffmann is Carlos Monasterios, Trayvon Robinson and Jerry Sands are Chris Withrow and Rubby de la Rosa. I’m not losing sleep over it – certainly not in December. Should it remain this way until April, I’ll admit I’ll be surprised. But also fascinated.

If the Dodgers don’t make any big additions in the outfield – and it could be months before we know – they will be doing exactly what they did when they handed four April starts to Charlie Haeger. That they did so once means they could do it again, but I have trouble believing the Dodgers have invested all this money in catcher, second base and the starting rotation, just to let left field twist in the wind.

On the other hand, they might sign Scott Podsednik and think they’ve done something useful, and simply be wrong.

* * *

Following the news that former Dodger outfielder Jayson Werth had signed a remarkable seven-year, $126 million contract with Washington, I tweeted the following:

At Matt Kemp’s current age (26), Jayson Werth hit .235/.338/.374 before sitting out his age-27 season because of injury.

Through 2009: Matt Kemp career 116 OPS+, Jayson Werth career 115 OPS+. Kemp is 5 1/2 years younger.

The point, I hope is clear, is not to say that Matt Kemp is better than Jayson Werth (though he might be, sooner than people think). Rather, it’s to remind people that it’s a wee bit early to be giving up on Kemp because he had a disappointing season at age 25.

If we stipulate that Kemp has some issues to address going forward, let’s remember that they are not insurmountable.

* * *

I was very satisfied with the season finale of “Boardwalk Empire,” both in how it wrapped up this season’s threads and set up Season 2. We haven’t had any formal TV chat here in a while, so if anyone wants to share their thoughts, please feel free.

The Big Blue Wrecked Crew: 2010-11 Dodger offseason primer

By Jon Weisman

On September 16, 2010

In Season preview, Status report

Kirby Lee/US PresswireRussell Martin: Just one of the many questions the Dodgers face this winter.

The Dodger roster heading into the 2010-11 offseason, and I don’t say this lightly, is a mess.

2010-11 Dodger Offseason
Payroll Worksheet

Note: Salary figures marked with an asterisk are estimates. Contract and roster information has been researched, but corrections are welcome. Minor leaguers not on 40-man roster have not been included. Cot’s Baseball Contracts and True Blue L.A. were used as resources for some of the below information.

*	$7,710,000	Starting pitchers (5)
*	$6,000,000	Chad Billingsley
*	$500,000	Clayton Kershaw
*	$405,000	John Ely
*	$405,000	Carlos Monasterios
*	$400,000	Scott Elbert

*	$19,740,000	Relief pitchers (7)
	$7,000,000	Jonathan Broxton
*	$5,000,000	George Sherrill
	$4,500,000	Octavio Dotel
*	$2,000,000	Hong-Chih Kuo
*	$420,000	Ramon Troncoso
*	$415,000	Ronald Belisario
*	$405,000	Kenley Jansen

		Also on 40-man roster
		Javy Guerra
		Brent Leach
		Jon Link
		Travis Schlichting

*	$50,450,000	Starting lineup (8)
	$12,000,000	Rafael Furcal
	$9,250,000	Andre Ethier
*	$7,000,000	Russell Martin
	$6,950,000	Matt Kemp
	$5,250,000	Casey Blake
*	$4,500,000	James Loney
*	$3,500,000	Ryan Theriot
	$2,000,000	Scott Podsednik

*	$4,707,500	Bench (5)
	$2,500,000	Jamey Carroll
	$1,000,000	Brad Ausmus
*	$405,000	Xavier Paul
*	$402,500	Chin-Lung Hu
*	$400,000	Russ Mitchell

		Also on 40-man roster
		Trayvon Robinson
		Ivan DeJesus, Jr.
		John Lindsey
		A.J. Ellis

*	$17,075,000	Also paying
*	$7,700,000	Manny Ramirez
	$3,500,000	Juan Pierre
*	$3,375,000	Andruw Jones
	$1,500,000	Jason Schmidt
	$1,000,000	Vicente Padilla

*	$99,682,500	GRAND TOTAL

It’s not a hopeless mess. But it is a mess, and it’s going to take some skill from the crew in charge to clean up. It’s a goop of oil and water, an unsightly combination of having to fill holes while also figuring out which rising salaries to jettison and which to risk holding onto.

Oh, and when the 2010 season ends, the No. 5 starter on the 40-man roster, at least by major-league experience, will be someone who hasn’t pitched in a professional game in four months: Scott Elbert.

The Dodgers have one absolute jewel on the team: Clayton Kershaw. The team’s top player won’t be arbitration eligible for one more year and only figures to earn approximately $500,000 in 2011.

Then, there are a few players whose higher salaries the Dodgers won’t mind paying. Chad Billingsley, who will command somewhere in the neighborhood of $6 million, knocked down many of the questions others had about him with a resurgent 2010 season. Hong-Chih Kuo will draw low seven figures, and after the way he has persevered and performed, no one should begrudge him. Kenley Jansen will make people swoon, and only receive the major-league minimum pay and meal money in return.

So much for the good news. Now, the concerns:

Rafael Furcal surely remains talented, but the Dodgers have $12 million going to a player who has averaged fewer than 100 games per year since 2008.
Slumping reliever Jonathan Broxton’s final season before free agency is tagged with a $7 million salary.
Coming off an injury that ended his second straight disappointing year, arbitration-eligible Russell Martin would also get as much as $7 million if the Dodgers don’t non-tender him.
Andre Ethier looked like an MVP at the start of the year; by the end, his $9.25 million 2011 salary for an outfielder who struggles against lefties didn’t seem like quite as much of a bargain.
Lightning Rod Award-winning outfielder Matt Kemp has $6.95 million coming next year.
Casey Blake, game but aging, gets $5.25 million in the final chapter of his three-year deal.
By now, James Loney should have developed enough that the $4.5 million he is projected to earn next year should have seemed closer to a bargain than a burden, but his second-half disappearance hasn’t helped matters.
Incumbent second baseman Ryan Theriot and his sub-.700 OPS will bring home about $3.5 million if the Dodgers hang onto him.

In sum, that’s about $55 million committed to a series of question marks, some small, some large. In addition, Los Angeles owes approximately $17 million of its 2011 budget to (swallow hard) Manny Ramirez, Juan Pierre, Andruw Jones and Jason Schmidt — the price for turning past mistakes into the playoff teams of the previous two years.

Overall, the Dodgers on paper have close to $100 million — a figure that might well be at or above their budget limit — committed before they make a single offseason move.

Now, all is not lost. The Dodgers can and probably will gain roughly $12 million in breathing room if and when they bid farewell to George Sherrill, Octavio Dotel, Scott Podsednik and Brad Ausmus (who has said he will retire). Meanwhile, free agents Jay Gibbons and Rod Barajas should start to help shore up the bench for under $2 million combined. And it should be noted that not all of the above question marks will have negative answers.

Nevertheless, that still leaves the Dodgers at about $90 million in payroll, with John Ely as their No. 3 starter and serious questions about most of their offense. As shaky as their lineup now looks, and however aggressive the Dodgers might want to be with the latest crop of prospects, the Dodgers absolutely have to add at least two more starters, whether through free agency or trade, whether Ted Lilly, Hiroki Kuroda or outsiders.

It’s for this reason that unless the team salary budget goes up, the Dodgers almost certainly will trade or non-tender a 2011 contract to at least one from the group of Broxton, Kemp, Ethier, Loney and Martin. Loney, because he has the lowest salary, might be most likely to stay – he’s finishing the year as a disappointment at first base, but he’s not finishing the year alone as a disappointment. In any case, all of them have something to offer other teams that might be, as hard as it is for some to digest, more willing to spend than the Dodgers are.

An Ethier trade would be a shock, for example, much more than a Kemp trade, but who can say it’s out of the question now?

However this plays out, the Dodgers may well bring back many of the same players next year who boosted them to National League Championship Series appearances in 2008-09 and sunk them in 2010. In one respect, nothing will have changed: You’re always hoping players move forward, like Kershaw and Billingsley, and not backward, like Kemp and Loney and Broxton and Martin and so on. Good does sometimes follow bad, after all. But still, it’s going to be a nervous offseason for a lot of us.

Sure, BP had it tougher. But as cleanup goes, this is as thick a goop as Chavez Ravine has seen in quite some time.

NL West race shapes up as Rockies-Dodgers dogfight

By Jon Weisman

On April 4, 2010

In Other teams, Season preview, Uncategorized

US Presswire
Ubaldo Jimenez, 26, is coming off a banner 2009 season for the Rockies, while Jeff Francis is back on the disabled list after a setback in his attempt to return to game action for the first time since September 12, 2008.

First, here are the 25-man Opening Day rosters (along with a few names of players lurking underneath) for the five National League West teams, followed by some thoughts on the division.

	Arizona	Colorado	Los Angeles	San Diego	San Francisco
SP	Dan Haren	Ubaldo Jimenez	Clayton Kershaw	Chris Young	Tim Lincecum
SP	Edwin Jackson	Aaron Cook	Chad Billingsley	Jon Garland	Matt Cain
SP	Ian Kennedy	Jorge De La Rosa	Hiroki Kuroda	Kevin Correia	Barry Zito
SP	Rodrigo Lopez	Jason Hammel	Vicente Padilla	Clayton Richard	Jonathan Sanchez
SP/RP	Jordan Norberto	Greg Smith	Charlie Haeger	Mat Latos	Todd Wellemeyer
RP	Chad Qualls	Franklin Morales	Jonathan Broxton	Heath Bell	Brian Wilson
RP	Juan Gutierrez	Rafael Betancourt	George Sherrill	Mike Adams	Jeremy Affeldt
RP	Bob Howry	Manuel Corpas	Ramon Troncoso	Luke Gregerson	Sergio Romo
RP	Aaron Heilman	Matt Daley	Jeff Weaver	Edward Mujica	Guillermo Mota
RP	Esmerling Vasquez	Matt Belisle	Carlos Monasterios	Tim Stauffer	Dan Runzler
RP	Leo Rosales	Randy Flores	Ramon Ortiz	Sean Gallagher	Brandon Medders
RP	Blaine Boyer	Esmil Rogers	Russ Ortiz	Cesar Ramos	Waldis Joaquin
Bench	Chris Snyder	Miguel Olivo	Brad Ausmus	Yorvit Torrealba	Eli Whiteside
Bench	Gerardo Parra	Melvin Mora	Jamey Carroll	Jerry Hairston, Jr.	Nate Schierholtz
Bench	Rusty Ryal	Ryan Spilborghs	Ronnie Belliard	Scott Hairston	Andres Torres
Bench	Tony Abreu	Jason Giambi	Garret Anderson	Matt Stairs	Travis Ishikawa
Bench	Augie Ojeda	Seth Smith	Reed Johnson	Oscar Salazar	Eugenio Velez
C	Miguel Montero	Chris Iannetta	Russell Martin	Nick Hundley	Bengie Molina
1B	Adam LaRoche	Todd Helton	James Loney	Adrian Gonzalez	Aubrey Huff
2B	Kelly Johnson	Clint Barmes	Blake DeWitt	David Eckstein	Juan Uribe
SS	Stephen Drew	Troy Tulowitzki	Rafael Furcal	Everth Cabrera	Edgar Renteria
3B	Mark Reynolds	Ian Stewart	Casey Blake	Chase Headley	Pablo Sandoval
LF	Conor Jackson	Carlos Gonzalez	Manny Ramirez	Kyle Blanks	Mark DeRosa
CF	Chris Young	Dexter Fowler	Matt Kemp	Tony Gwynn, Jr.	Aaron Rowand
RF	Justin Upton	Brad Hawpe	Andre Ethier	Will Venable	John Bowker
DL/Minors	Brandon Webb	Huston Street	Hong-Chih Kuo	Joe Thatcher	Freddy Sanchez
DL/Minors	Clay Zavada	Jeff Francis	Ronald Belisario*	Adam Russell	Fred Lewis
DL/Minors	Billy Buckner	Greg Reynolds	James McDonald	Chris Stewart	Emmanuel Burriss
DL/Minors	Ryan Roberts	Taylor Buchholz	Xavier Paul	Wade LeBlanc	Madison Bumgarner
DL/Minors	Zach Kroenke	Eric Young, Jr.	Scott Elbert	Chris Denorfia	Buster Posey

When compelled to do so by ESPN.com, I picked the Dodgers to win the NL West, but not with any conviction. I definitely respect the talent in Colorado – shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, for one, has become an MVP candidate at age 25 – and feel that, at a minimum, the difference between the two teams is small enough at this point that either team makes sense as a favorite.

In my darker moments, I can envision an everything-goes-wrong scenario for the Dodgers that condemns them to a repeat of the 2005 nightmare. (Yes, I can get that dark.) But you could dream up doomsday scenarios for any team.

The return of Colorado pitcher Jeff Francis to the disabled list this weekend was yet another reminder that McCourts or not, just because the Dodgers have problems doesn’t mean other teams won’t have them too. Colorado begins the coming season without its top reliever (Huston Street) and someone who was formerly their top starter. The Rockies obviously aren’t dependent on Francis, whose last good year was 2007 and who sat out in 2009 when Colorado won 92 games. But his absence is another sign that the Rockies won’t be immune to depth issues. Both the Dodgers and Rockies have the talent to win the NL West, but both need things to go right.

By comparison, however, Arizona, San Diego and San Francisco need many more things to go right.

A year ago at this time, it was easy to find predictions that the Giants would finish in last place because of their poor hitting, but I didn’t see such a dire result happening with the strong pitching they had. Now, San Francisco is, for those who don’t believe in Colorado, a trendy pick to win the division. Considering the Giants have hardly improved their offense in the past 12 months, I’m not seeing this happening either. The Giants surely have the ability to stay in almost any game they play – although the strength of a rotation that has the once-great Barry Zito and the inconsistent Jonathan Sanchez has probably been overrated by those who judge entire pitching staffs by their aces – but San Francisco still lacks a lineup that makes me think they can score sufficiently. I might even rather suffer through the indignity of Vicente Padilla as an Opening Day starter than get worked up over the John Bowker vs. Nate Schierholz Spring Training battle to start in right field for San Francisco. You have to love Pablo Sandoval and pay a healthy respect to some of the others (including minor-league catcher Buster Posey), but this still looks like a third-place team on paper.

Ed Andrieski/AP
Edwin Jackson had a 5.45 ERA in the final two months of 2009.

The Diamondbacks are led by the one player who might make Matt Kemp fans jealous – 22-year-old rightfielder Justin Upton – but the state of Arizona’s starting pitching should make Dodger supporters feel more secure about theirs. After Dan Haren, Arizona has Edwin Jackson (a sentimental favorite of mine whose 2009 second-half resembled Chad Billingsley’s), Ian Kennedy (6.03 career ERA in 59 2/3 career innings) and Rodrigo Lopez (5.49 ERA in 298 1/3 innings since 2006) – before they even get to figuring out who will fill out their rotation. A first-rate second-half comeback from Brandon Webb could turbo-boost the Diamondbacks, but it’s hardly anything to feel certain about. Though there are some great players in Arizona, I see a team as likely to return to last place as it is to ascend to first.

San Diego is a fairly universal choice for last place, and though it’s not set in stone, I don’t see enough in the organization right now to be the one to make the case otherwise. I’ll just expect that no matter where they are in the standings, they’ll give the Dodgers problems.

Anything can happen in 2010, but if Fate doesn’t get crazy, there’s a two-team race in the NL West between the Dodgers and Rockies. Neither team should feel insecure or overconfident; both should gear up for a wall-to-wall battle.

Schedule-makers again keep Dodgers out of Southern California in April

By Jon Weisman

On April 3, 2010

In Season preview

Last season, the Dodgers played 16 of their first 23 games on the road. This year, the Dodgers’ April travel schedule is even rougher.

Of their first 21 games in 2009, 15 are on the road – 12 of them in the Eastern time zone.

Trivia: The Dodgers’ first Monday game at home this season isn’t until May 17.

Looking back on 2010: The Dodger Thoughts reader predictions thread

By Jon Weisman

On March 29, 2010

In Season preview

For the fifth year in a row, I’m asking Dodger Thoughts readers to summarize the upcoming season before it happens.

The Dodgers went xx-xx in 2010 because ______________.

(And, yes, if you need an extra x, take it.)

Last year, we had a dead-on prediction from the second person offering one. Here’s Dodger Thoughts reader KG16 on March 30: “Always the optimist when it comes to sports, I’ll say the Dodgers have a breakout season and finish 95-67, and good enough for home field through the NL playoffs.”

The rest of his comment was not quite as accurate – “I’ll also predict that the NL gets home field in the World Series because of All Star game home runs by Manny and Russ, along with three shutout innings to start the game by Billingsley and a perfect seventh by Kershaw.” – but forgivable under the circumstances.

Also picking a 95-67 record was commenter Unlazy4sports.

Several people picked a breakout season for Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw, but no one had “50-game suspension for Manny Ramirez” in the pool. More than a few talked about midseason acquisition Roy Halladay …

2010 Dodger Opening Day Roster Locks

By Jon Weisman

On February 16, 2010

In Season preview

Gary A. Vasquez/US Presswire
Clayton Kershaw pitches in the first inning of the NL West clincher against Colorado.

Before we go any further, Josh Wilker’s Cardboard Gods piece on Burt Hooton is better than anything you’ll see in this post.

And with that introduction …

* * *

Now that we’ve spent some time chewing on the gristle, let’s take a look at the meat. Here are the 19 folks who, short of an injury or a trade, will be on the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster.

I’m finding the more I look at the starting rotation, the higher I am on Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley, and the lower I am on Hiroki Kuroda and Vicente Padilla. I’m also feeling pretty sanguine about the seven locked-in spots of the lineup, despite the aging players at shortstop, third base and left field. (Well, they’re aging at every position, but you know what I mean.)

Starting Pitchers (4)

Clayton Kershaw, LHP: The injury to Kershaw’s non-throwing shoulder last summer might have been a blessing, reducing the wear on his arm in his first full season in the majors. Turning a wizened 22 on March 19, Kershaw will try to build upon what was quietly a remarkable year, one in which he led National League starting pitchers in fewest hits allowed per nine innings. The quiet part had to do with his poor run support; he faced 289 batters after the All-Star Break and allowed only two home runs, recorded a 2.27 ERA, yet was credited with one win. In his final six quality starts of the season, Kershaw was winless. The four times he struck out 10 or more in a game, Kershaw was winless. Much will be expected of Kershaw in 2010, especially if he can reduce his wildness, but Torre will have to be careful not to fall so deeply in love with Kershaw that he overworks him.

Chad Billingsley, RHP: Goodness, I’ve written volumes on Billingsley the past year. Just a sampling: His overall credentials. How Joe Torre has used him. Comparing him with Justin Verlander. Comparing him to Brandon Webb and Dan Haren. The fact that he actually had a good August. The fact that he has performed well the overwhelming majority of the time, including pressure situations. It all adds up to the same total: a very good pitcher who had some struggles, none of which should permanently halt the 25-year-old’s upward trajectory. I can’t wait to see him back on the mound again.

Hiroki Kuroda, RHP: Kuroda made only start before June 1, then came back with two fine efforts against Arizona and Philadelphia – the latter featuring six innings of shutout ball that lowered his ERA to 1.62. But it got pretty rocky after that, as only one of his next eight starts was above par. Abruptly, Kuroda turned it around and was in the process of making his fifth consecutive quality start when Rusty Ryal’s line drive got him, cranium-style. The quality of the opponent doesn’t really seem to matter much – Kuroda has been inconsistent in both his Dodger seasons. By the end of the year, the numbers have added up to above-average performance, but he turned 35 last Wednesday and is still an injury concern, so it’s fair to wonder how long that equation will last.

Vicente Padilla, RHP: I’m trying to find reasons why Padilla’s super performance with the Dodgers wasn’t a fluke, and I’m coming up kind of empty. For his career, including the NL portion from 1999-2005, he has struck out 6.2 batters per nine innings. With the Dodgers, it’s 8.2. I’ll grant that Padilla might be adequate this year, but I’m struggling to buy into a full Renaissance. I mean, Carlos Perez had a nice September once upon a time.

Bullpen (5)

Jonathan Broxton, RHP: One of 14 relievers to blow a save or take a loss in the 2009 postseason (along with Joba Chamberlain, Ryan Franklin, Brian Fuentes, Brad Lidge, Joe Nathan, Jonathan Papelbon and Huston Street, among others), Broxton is, in my view, the best closer in the NL. The 2008 and 2009 losses to Philadelphia were painful, but if you’re using them against him in evaluating Broxton, I hope you’re doing the equivalent for all the others.

George Sherrill, LHP: For all the grief that Broxton got at the end of the playoffs, Sherrill had the rockier postseason, allowing four runs on seven baserunners in 4 1/3 innings. Before that, Sherrill’s numbers were ridiculously good with the Dodgers, allowing two runs in two months in the regular season (plus three inherited runners). His overall 2009 ERA was more than three runs lower than his 2008 ERA.

Ronald Belisario, RHP: A year ago, Belisario was a 26-year-old water-treader who was a Spring Training afterthought – or nonthought. Now, he’s the Dodgers’ top righty set-up man after striking out nearly a batter an inning with a 2.04 ERA in 69 games. You have to look real hard to see a dropoff in Belisario’s numbers after his midsummer stint on the disabled list: 2.42 ERA, 8.6 K/9, .575 OPS allowed before; 1.21 ERA, 7.3 K/9, .589 OPS allowed after.

Ramon Troncoso, RHP: Much of my musing time on Troncoso is spent wondering if he’ll repeat Cory Wade’s 2009 downfall. The reason might not be justified; it’s tied to the decline in Troncoso’s strikeout rate to 6.0 per nine innings. On the bright side, Troncoso’s groundball rate is still much better than Wade’s ever was. Troncoso has allowed five home runs in 120 1/3 career innings, and his career slugging percentage allowed is .348. That helped Troncoso strand 27 of 32 inherited baserunners in 2009.

Hong-Chih Kuo, LHP: Kuo pitched 30 innings in 2007, 80 innings in 2008, 30 innings in 2009. So of course I envision big things for 2010. … In his last 110 innings, Kuo has 128 strikeouts against 120 baserunners, a 2.37 ERA and a .575 OPS allowed, and he has stranded 26 of 30 baserunners. He’s 28 years old; fate needs to give this guy a little more time in the sun.

Russell Martin

Catchers (2)

Russell Martin, C: It really is a stunning drop: Martin’s slugging percentage in 2009 was 30 percent lower than his 2007 mark (.329 vs. .469). Having turned 27 Monday, Martin should be entering the prime of his career, but instead the questions are whether he will ever recover from his slide. Your (all-)star has certainly fallen when people begin suggesting you should be replaced by career minor-leaguer A.J. Ellis. That solution doesn’t really make sense: Ellis’ only offensive skill is the one Martin has retained: on-base percentage. In any case, no one’s really interested any more in Spring Training stories about Martin’s off-field habits, good or bad. It’s all about what happens on the field and whether the ball will jump off his bat ever again.

Brad Ausmus, C: You’d think that Martin’s disappointing 2009 would have shot down all the “Brad Ausmus is a great mentor” talk, but apparently not. Fun fact: Ausmus reached base twice in each of the four games he played in July. The Dodgers went 4-0 in those games. Then they lost in his first five August appearances.

Infielders (4):

James Loney, 1B: Others have noted that in 2008 and 2009 Loney had the same number of plate appearances (651), home runs (13), RBI (90) and stolen bases (seven). But as Mike Petriello wrote in the Maple Street Press 2010 Dodgers Annual, there’s reason to believe Loney hasn’t stagnated, noting among other things his improved strike zone discipline. We’re still trying to understand how Loney could OPS .640 at home in 2009 and .862 on the road.

Rafael Furcal, SS: If you look at Fangraphs’ Wins Above Replacement rankings for shortstops in 2009, Furcal was fourth in the NL and eighth in the majors. Not bad for a season that was mostly a bummer. Credit his high ranking to being tops in the NL defensively, if you buy into their system. Furcal’s OPS by month in 2009: .663, .566, .658, .895, .563, .891.

Casey Blake, 3B: You could make the case that 2009 was the best or second-best year of Blake’s career, at age 36. And while so many were busy crowning Juan Pierre team MVP because of his performance during Manny Ramirez’s suspension, Blake quietly had a .901 OPS, slugging .530 and reaching base in all but five of the games he started during that time. If he’s going to have a dropoff in 2010, at least Dodger fans can console themselves that he’s dropping from a higher plateau.

Jamey Carroll, 2B-3B: The most on-base happy part-timers for the Dodgers in the 2000s include Willy Aybar (2005) .445, Chad Kreuter (2000) .416, Dave Hansen (2000) .415, Jose Cruz, Jr. (2005) .391, Alex Cora (2002) .371, Jose Hernandez (2002) .370, Jeff Reboulet (2001) .367, Andy LaRoche (2007) .365, Olmedo Saenz (2006) .363 and Antonio Perez (2005) .360. With Cleveland each of the past two seasons, Carroll has been at .355, and will be hoping a return to the NL gives him a boost after he turns 36 Friday.

Outfielders (4):

Manny Ramirez, LF: Not much more to say about Ramirez this week after this. But not to leave you completely dry: Ramirez’s OPS+ of 155 in 2009 was the 25th best in MLB history among players 37 and older (minimum 400 plate appearances) and the best in Dodger history.

Matt Kemp, CF: Kemp was on track for an even more spectacular season than the one he had in 2009, but he OPSed .586 after September 1 (despite a 13-game hitting streak mid-month). He went 4 for 31 with one walk and no extra-base hits or stolen bases in the final nine games of the season. He put all that behind him to hit a huge home run in his first playoff at-bat. Kemp is still going to have downs with his ups, but the notion that he can’t counter-adjust to big league pitching seems to be out the window.

Andre Ethier, RF: Los Angeles Dodgers who have had consecutive seasons with an adjusted OPS of more than 130: Tommy Davis (1962-63), Willie Crawford (1973-74), Steve Garvey (1974-76, 78-79), Jimmy Wynn (1974-75), Ron Cey (1975-76, 78-79), Reggie Smith (1977-78), Dusty Baker (1980-82), Pedro Guerrero (1981-85), Mike Piazza (1993-97), Gary Sheffield (2000-01), Shawn Green (2001-02), Andre Ethier (2008-09). Davis, Crawford, Garvey, Guerrero and Piazza were the only ones to do it before turning 28 (Ethier’s age in April).

Reed Johnson, OF: Johnson historically has hit lefties well, so you might see him spot-start for Ethier against southpaws (if only on the road?). Against righties, Johnson ain’t so hot (.707 career OPS, .628 in 2009) – so on the days Ramirez gets a breather against a right-handed pitcher, the Dodger lineup will take a beating unless (or even if) Blake DeWitt, Xavier Paul or Brian Giles makes the team.

The Dodger Thoughts 2010 Spring Training Primer

By Jon Weisman

On February 13, 2010

In Farm system, Season preview

Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US Presswire
Ronald Belisario

This post really is what the title says: a preview of March baseball for the Dodgers, because many of the names below won’t see the light of the Chavez Ravine day in 2010. Last year, I shone a spotlight on such fellas as Travis Chick, Brian Mazone and Jacobo Meque. Anyone remember when Erick Threets was knockin’ on the door? Stephen Randolph?

The winner of the Most Unlikely to Succeed Award in 2009 was Ronald Belisario, who I placed at the very bottom of my “Check Back in a Year or Two” category. On that note, Tony Jackson on Friday wrote up a long list of Dodger non-roster and minor-league surprises from the past decade, led by Takashi Saito. The thing about several of the names on that list is that they didn’t necessarily win playing time with great exhibition seasons – which in a way is comforting, because exhibition performance is just such a dicey measuring stick to begin with.

Anyway, let’s see what we’re looking at …

Locks (19)

Only the disabled list or a trade can stop these guys from making the Opening Day roster. (We’ll discuss them more in an upcoming post.)

Starting Pitchers (4): Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda, Clayton Kershaw, Vicente Padilla

Bullpen (5): Jonathan Broxton, George Sherrill, Ronald Belisario, Ramon Troncoso, Hong-Chih Kuo

Catchers (2): Russell Martin, Brad Ausmus

Infielders (4): James Loney, Rafael Furcal, Casey Blake, Jamey Carroll

Outfielders (4): Matt Kemp, Manny Ramirez, Andre Ethier, Reed Johnson

Most Likely to Succeed (6)

Ronnie Belliard, IF: Belliard is the incumbent at second base – if he isn’t victimized by what I’m calling his Andruw Jones Clauwse: 209 or bust. Belliard had 19 hits and seven walks in 51 games before the All-Star Break last season with Washington; he matched those totals in his first 20 games with the Dodgers in September. Get ready for the Dodger second-base position to look like the No. 5 starter slot – there could be five or six different people starting there this year.

Mark J. Rebilas/US Presswire
James McDonald

James McDonald, P: Last year’s original No. 5 starter, the 25-year-old McDonald might not make it into the rotation in April – or at all in 2010 – but he’s quite likely to find a spot on the pitching staff somewhere. In his regular-season career as a reliever, the Dodgers’ two-time minor-league pitcher of the year has a 2.43 ERA and 50 strikeouts in 55 2/3 innings against 74 baserunners.

Eric Stults, P: I ran down my logic earlier this month for Stults being the season’s initial No. 5 starter. Basically, because he’s out of minor-league options, it’s use-him-or-lose-him time. However, his shutout against the Giants was his only quality start in 10 tries for Joe Torre in 2009, and he allowed 14 baserunners per nine innings. He has to pitch with some authority in Spring Training, however, or it’ll just be lose-him time.

Brian Giles, OF: Giles had a 137 OPS+ as recently as 2008; last year was the first time in his 15-year career he wasn’t above average at the plate. If he can recover enough from his knee problems to put 2009’s 55 OPS+ (.548 OPS) behind him, he could be the lefty bat off the bench – dare I say, Matt Stairs-like – Dodger fans are looking for.

Nick Green, IF: It’s a tossup among Chin-Lung Hu and various non-roster candidates, including Green, for the backup shortstop/pinch-hitter of second-to-last resort slot. There’s no reason Hu can’t do the job – and with his chances of becoming a starter fading, not much reason not to get him started in the next phase of his career. But I’m going to hazard that if he has recovered from offseason back surgery to remedy a herniated disk, his American League pedigree and his .783 OPS last April-May, he’ll get first crack at the job. That said, he is a 31-year-old who fell into a Red Sox roster spot last April after injuries to Julio Lugo and Jed Lowrie, so he’s hardly a heavy favorite.

Carlos Monasterios, P: Last year, we were all caught off guard by Ronald Belisario making the big-league squad and excelling despite having virtually no resume to speak of. There’s nothing to Monasterios’ stat line that suggests he can be a big-leaguer in 2010 – he wasn’t even that great in winter ball – but I’m suspecting that the Dodgers didn’t acquire him (and Armando Zerpa) on Rule 5 day without a good reason. As with Stults, the Dodgers can’t send Monasterios to the minors. So I can see them stashing him in the back of the bullpen and testing him out before discarding him.

Next in Line (7)

Blake DeWitt, 2B: As I wrote in January, if DeWitt is the starting second baseman, then the Dodger bench would be 80 percent right-handed bats with a right-handed starter typically facing them. And there’s almost no chance DeWitt will be kept as a reserve, even if it meant him at least pinch-hitting almost every game. So short of Belliard munching one Almond Roca too many, DeWitt is headed to Albuquerque by Opening Day. I’m sure the Dodgers wouldn’t mind him showing some real dominance in AAA this time around before they give him a starting job. Keep in mind that while DeWitt’s career got ahead of itself with his rushed promotion in 2008, it’s no longer too soon for the 24-year-old with six professional seasons to be major-league ready.

Scott Elbert, P: Elbert’s career major-league ERA is 6.66, but with more than 10 strikeouts per nine innings for his career in the majors and minors, the 24-year-old lefty (one week older than DeWitt) is not to be dismissed. We’ll see early in Spring Training if he’s going to get stretched out as a starter, but in any case, he’ll not only be pushing Stults, McDonald and Monasterios, he’s arguably the stealth man to beat altogether.

Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US Presswire
Charlie Haeger

Charlie Haeger, P: Haeger was on a quicker hook than Stults, which is saying something. The guy went seven innings in his Dodger debut against St. Louis and seven more against the Cubs five days later, allowing no runs in the second start. But one rugged outing in Cincinnati, and he was done as a starter. Before his next turn came, Jon Garland was in a Dodger uniform. (One wonders, if Haeger had managed to hold a 4-0 lead against the Reds, whether Tony Abreu might still be in a Dodger uniform.) The knuckleballer with a 5.26 career ERA might not be taken seriously as a rotation candidate when Spring Training begins, but he remains an intriguing possibility. He’d have to clear waivers if the Dodgers try to send him back to the minors, however.

Doug Mientkiewicz, IF: Due to the Dodgers’ dearth of deft lefties at the dish, Mientkiewicz really has just a couple of men to beat to make the roster. One, Xavier Paul, has minor-league options remaining. The other, Giles, is 3 1/2 years older than the 35-year-old Mientkiewicz, who missed most of last year because of an ill-advised slide in April. Mientkiewicz never had Giles’ peak as a hitter, but it’s conceivable he matches the gimpy ex-Padre at the plate now, plus he brings superior defensive value to the team.

Chin-Lung Hu, IF: Signed nearly seven years ago by the Dodgers, Hu’s prospect status has risen and fallen, relating in some part it seems to vision problems that he has had. At 26, he’s still young enough to step it up and become a fixture on a major-league roster, even if only as a backup. But he only had a .725 OPS with Albuquerque last season, so the Dodgers aren’t going to simply hand him the job.

Josh Lindblom, P: The 22-year-old from Purdue wowed the Dodgers in Spring Training last year, and despite an unsensational stint in AA, had a 2.54 ERA and 36 strikeouts against 49 baserunners (three homers) in 39 innings for Albuquerque, mostly in relief. The guess here – much more than a guess if McDonald makes his way back into the rotation – is that Lindblom starts his major-league career the same way several other young Dodgers have, in the bullpen.

Armando Zerpa, P: Listed here for the same reasons Monasterios is listed above, Zerpa had a mixed bag of a 2009 in the Red Sox farm system.

See You by September? (12)

Xavier Paul, OF: Paul is quite astonishingly the only left-handed bench candidate under the age of 35 – that’s a pretty big chit to have. Turning 25 later this month, he’d make a nice defensive backup for Ramirez and Ethier. He homered as a pinch-hitter in his fifth major-league at-bat in a year he slugged .500 in AAA. Freak health problems prevented the Dodgers from getting a longer look at him last year, but that might change in 2010. Like Hu, minor-league options might send Paul back to AAA in April; but he might have more plate time by the end of the year.

Jeff Weaver, P: Weaver officially rejoined the Dodger major-league squad in late April and remained through the National League Division Series, striking out 64 in 79 innings with a 3.65 ERA. He made seven starts and didn’t average five innings, but as a swingman he was more than adequate. Weaver is still only 33.

Brian Barton, OF: A lot of people like Barton, 28 in April, as a darkhorse to make the team. He OPSed .746 with Atlanta in 2008 (179 plate appearances), though he followed that with a .715 OPS in the minors last year. He gave a fun interview to Baseball Prospectus in March.

Alfredo Amezaga, IF-OF: Coming off microfracture surgery on his knee and without much of a bat, I have trouble seeing Amezaga making a contribution to the 2010 Dodgers, even with his defensive utility.

Angel Berroa, SS: The Dodgers’ starting shortstop as recently as 2008 (that’s right, with as many shortstop starts as Furcal and Nomar Garciaparra combined), the 32-year-old former Rookie of the Year spent 2009 with both New York franchises, going a combined 7 for 49 with three walks and two extra-base hits on the major-league level. His recent major-league service and name recognition might earn him some service time, but he really should have to pay to get into Dodger Stadium just like the rest of us.

A.J. Ellis, C: It’s another painful wait for Ellis, who at least got his first major-league hit last September. Ellis has no power, but he does have a career .398 on-base percentage in the minors and .437 the past two seasons in AAA. Those figures have gotten a few people carried away in thinking he might challenge Martin for a starting job; that ain’t happening. But if Martin or Ausmus ever has to go to the disabled list, the Dodgers probably wouldn’t hesitate to give Ellis the promotion.

Justin Miller, P: You don’t hear much talk this winter about Miller since he inked his deal with the Dodgers, perhaps because of his arthroscopic surgery or his declining strikeout rate, but he had a 137 ERA+ for the Giants last season, his third straight above-average season in the majors.

Cory Wade, P: The cautionary tale for any reliever who enjoyed sudden success without the strikeouts to back it up. Or, the cautionary tale for any reliever who enjoyed sudden success and then became Torre’s pet. A 2.27 ERA in 2008 made Wade a Dodger bullpen mainstay … all the way through April 12, when he went on the disabled list. Although it might seem like Wade never made it back, he actually did and stayed with the major-league club into July. But he never put together more than three consecutive games without allowing a run or inherited run to score. It seems extreme, after an offseason of rest, to entirely dismiss Wade’s chances of making the team – the 26-year-old could easily have a remaining up to follow his down, just like a Troncoso could have a down to follow his up.

Joel Auerbach/US Presswire
Brent Leach

Brent Leach, P: In that window when the Dodgers had neither Kuo nor Sherrill at their disposal, Leach had a nice 22-game stretch in which his ERA was 1.35 and opponents OPSed only .347 against him while striking out 10 times. From May 29 through July 11, Torre used Leach in 23 of the Dodgers’ 38 games. But then the roof caved in a bit for Leach, and he was back in the minors to stay before August. Last year’s rookie is this year’s 27-year-old – he stands to get another callup in the not-so-unlikely event that Kuo returns to the disabled list.

Travis Schlichting, P: A 25-year-old former infielder, Schlichting made his major-league debut with the Dodgers last year June 7 – eight days after the Dodgers called him up. He walked five of the 15 batters he faced in two games. He spent much of the year on the minor-league disabled list, but when he wasn’t in rehab, he did deliver a 0.92 ERA in 29 1/3 minor-league innings, striking out 23.

Ivan DeJesus, Jr., IF: Profiled Friday by Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, DeJesus is coming back from a broken leg that DeJesus said “looked like a chicken bone, broken in half, all jagged” on X-ray. Primarily a shortstop in the minors, DeJesus might have been contending for a starting job at second base this spring if not for the injury. He had an outstanding 2008 with Jacksonville (.419 on-base percentage, 16 steals in 18 attempts), and if he can recover that form, he could have a significant impact on the team by summer.

Jason Repko, OF: He seems like the nicest guy in the world, but he just gets pushed further and further down. In his profile with Mitch Jones in the 2010 Maple Street Press Dodger Annual, you can really get an idea of how much his injuries derailed his career even before he reached the majors. Now 29 years old, drafted in 1999, Repko hit a career-high 16 homers for the Isotopes last year but with only a .329 on-base percentage. He still does well against lefty pitchers, so an outfield injury to anyone but Ethier would make him a logical callup.

Check Back in a Year or Two (6)

Lucas May, C: May bounced back from a disappointing 2008 with Jacksonville to OPS .858 with Chattanooga, albeit in only 68 games. People still recall his 2007 season, when he hit 25 homers in 507 at-bats for Inland Empire in the California League (much-admired catching prospect Carlos Santana hit 14 in 350 at-bats there a year later before being traded). Besides Paul LoDuca and Russell Martin, Dave Ross (343) is the only home-grown Dodger catcher to have more than 100 plate appearances with the team since 2000.

Javy Guerra, P: Guerra, 24, typically has good strikeout numbers but struggled in 28 1/3 innings at Chattanooga last season, allowing 32 hits and 16 walks. He’s got a chance to make the majors, but a lot of righty relievers in the system to pass.

Kenley Jansen, P: Converted from catcher last year, the 22-year-old struck out a whopping 19 batters in 11 2/3 innings in A ball but also allowed 25 baserunners. So his target date is 2011 at the earliest.

Jon Link, P: Acquired in the Juan Pierre trade, Link is another righty down below who can rack up the strikeouts but also the baserunners. Walking nearly a batter every two innings each of the past two years, Link (26 in March) will have to display better control before he sees Dodger Stadium.

Trayvon Robinson, OF: The 22-year-old Crenshaw High grad has some excitement about him: .875 OPS and 43 steals with Inland Empire last year. We’ll see how he adjusts to the Southern League this year.

Russ Mitchell, IF: Averaging 16.8 homers (and 16 errors) the past five seasons, Mitchell moved backward last year, struggling to a .703 OPS with Chattanooga. After six years in the minors, it’s still very much an uphill battle.

Fodder (8)

Josh Towers, P: When your upside is 2009 Eric Milton, I guess that puts things in perspective. Towers pitched 208 2/3 innings for Toronto in 2005 with a 3.71 ERA, but in 174 1/3 innings since, he’s 7-20 with a 6.40 ERA. His comeback attempt saw him post a 2.74 ERA in 18 starts with the Yankees’ AAA team, which no doubt piqued the Dodgers’ interest, but it was with 4.9 strikeouts per nine innings.

Luis Ayala, P: The 32-year-old righty had a career 2.82 ERA in four seasons through 2007 but has struggled since. He has never been much of a strikeout guy for a guy coming out of the pen.

Francisco Felix, P: Felix was a Dodger farmhand last year and had a 3.05 ERA and 78 strikeouts in 76 2/3 combined innings between AA and AAA. So if it were only up to those numbers, he might be in line for a midseason callup.

Prentice Redman, OF: The 30-year-old has reached .900 or more in OPS each of the past two years in AAA.

John Lindsey, IF-OF: At age 33, Lindsey will give it another go with the Dodgers. He hit 56 homers in two years as a Dodger minor-leaguer from 2007-08, then 19 last year with Florida’s AAA team in New Orleans in what for him was a down year. With Mitch Jones gone and Larry Barnes a distant memory, Lindsey will resume the role of slugger on the outside looking in. The Dodgers could do him a solid by getting him into the majors for the first time, as they did with Jones a year ago, but I’m not holding out much hope.

Scott Dohmann, P: A very inconsistent righty, Dohmann had a nice 2004 season (as a Rockies rookie) and then again three years later (with Tampa Bay). The intervening years, you don’t really want to know about. But if he’s good every third season, that times out nicely for 2010.

Michael Restovich, OF: After a promising enough career launch (.837 OPS in 78 appearances through age 24 with Minnesota), Restovich, now 31, began to slip. Out of the majors since 2007, he has 1,291 career hits in the minors and Japan.

Argenis Reyes, IF: His best OPS was .771 in Low A ball in 2005. He’s a backup’s backup’s backup. For what it’s worth, he has not made an error in 114 major-league chances at second base.

Fodder’s Fodder (6)

Ramon Ortiz, P: He hasn’t been in the majors since 2007 and hasn’t had an ERA below 5.00 since his final season with the Angels in 2004. So despite a 3.05 ERA in the minors last year, I’m not buying what Ortiz, 37 in March, is selling.

Russ Ortiz, P: He hasn’t been in the majors since 2009 and hasn’t had an ERA below 5.00 since his final season with the Braves in 2004. So despite a 4.06 ERA in the minors last year, I’m not buying what Ortiz, 36 in June, is selling.

Juan Perez, P: Perez is 31 with 10 minor-league seasons and 15 2/3 major-league innings. He had a 3.47 ERA with Atlanta’s AAA team in Gwinnett in 2009 but walked 36 in 57 innings.

J.D. Closser, C: Having followed in the Colorado-to-Los Angeles footsteps of Danny Ardoin (which led to Ardoin’s 54 plate appearances with the Dodgers in 2008), the 30-year-old Closser will try to make it back to the majors for the first time since 2006. Closser OPSed .723 in the Dodger system last season, splitting time with Ellis, Ardoin and May, among others.

Gabriel Gutierrez, C: Gutierrez has seven homers in 975 career minor-league at-bats through age 26, never having played more than 75 games in a season.

Justin Knoedler, C: Other than having twice as many major-league hits as Ellis, there isn’t much to recommend the 29-year-old Knoedler, who last saw the show in 2006.

Tracing the citizen rebellion in Mannywood

By Jon Weisman

On February 11, 2010

In Season preview

On the morning of July 24, Manny Ramirez’s popularity in Los Angeles was so high that his biggest critic this side of Boston, Bill Plaschke of the Times, said he “got chills” after Ramirez hit his pinch-hit grand slam home run while nursing a sore hand. The Dodgers quickly rushed out a commemorative poster and a second Manny Bobblehead Night onto their calendar, and the fan base ate it all up.

Let me emphasize how recent this was. It was barely six months ago. It was with only 67 games left in the regular season. It was also more than two months after Ramirez had been suspended for violating baseball’s drug policy and more than two weeks after he returned. The violation was in the past, and though some didn’t want to forgive him and others never liked Ramirez in the first place, the overwhelming majority of Dodger fans basked in his presence.

After returning from his suspension, Ramirez had a .347 batting average, .439 on-base percentage and .755 slugging percentage with five homers and 17 RBI in his first 57 plate appearances. Anyone who tries to tell you that Ramirez wasn’t on his game when he began his comeback is rewriting history. Ramirez was punishing the ball, and Dodger fans knew it. They felt it. They saw it.

And what was more exhilarating on the morning of July 24 was that it seemed not even age, not even an injury, could keep him down.

Flash forward, if you will, and now you can hardly walk anywhere Mannywood without finding a Ramirez skeptic, if not more and more fans who have completely turned against him.

It’s not clear exactly when the shift happened. Ramirez did struggle some in the games following the Bobbleslam, but he didn’t disappear. From July 24 through the end of the regular season, he failed to reach base in only nine starts. His on-base percentage was a healthy .378, and his batting average remained above .300 until September 23.

The fault lay more with his power. He had 12 doubles, eight homers and a .439 slugging percentage post-Bobbleslam, which is mortal by his standards, but not necessarily so far down that you’d expect many fans to notice.

However, the real turning point might not have been at the plate at all. On August 23, Ramirez overran a shot to the corner by Chicago’s Aramis Ramirez and then was extremely sluggish in recovering, allowing Aramis to get a triple in what would be a 3-1 Cubs victory on a hot Sunday at Dodger Stadium. Boos rained down on Manny, who also went 0 for 4, and numerous observers wondered if Bad Manny had finally arrived.

Subsequently, the team’s near-slide in the pennant race got people even more uptight, and as much grief as guys like Chad Billingsley received, it was Ramirez who in some ways became the biggest villain on the offensive end — especially from those who credited Juan Pierre with everything from the Dodgers’ first-half surge to the polio vaccine.

After the Dodgers blew a potential division-clinching game in the ninth inning September 27 in Pittsburgh, Ramirez didn’t start the next game, then went 0 for 10 (with two walks) as the Dodgers lost twice to San Diego and once to fast-charging Colorado, the team scoring four runs in the three games. By this point, the “Manny has lost it” mantra was in full swing — with few caring to remember that he began losing it following the hand injury, weeks after his return from the suspension.

Ramirez’s slump extended to 0 for 13 before he singled in the fifth run of the Dodgers’ 5-0 National League West clincher Oct. 3. But he was definitely on watchlists by this time. At times, he was chasing pitches and looked more desperate than dominant.

In the NL Division Series, Ramirez had a double and a walk in the Dodgers’ wild Game 1 victory, then barely escaped goat horns with his 0-for-4 in the Game 2 miracle. But in St. Louis for Game 3, Ramirez went 3 for 5 with two doubles as the Dodgers advanced to the Championship Series. Not exactly a disappearing act.

If that last performance bought him any goodwill, it wasn’t much. Even in the Dodgers’ disappointing NLCS defeat, Ramirez hit in all but one of the five games, homering in Game 1. In the final three games in Philly, he was 4 for 10 with a walk.

But if Ramirez’s job was to carry the Dodgers to the World Series, I guess enough people felt he didn’t do his job. That has translated into a lot of people thinking that Ramirez won’t be able to do his job in 2010, which could make for a vexing final season in Los Angeles.

I’m honestly not sure what to expect. It’s silly not to foresee some decline from a player who turns 38 on May 30. On the other hand, I think the biggest fulminators are overreacting to what happened toward the end of 2009 — especially those who ignore what Ramirez did before he was hit by that pitch July 21.

In my mind, when the Dodgers re-signed Ramirez for two years, the plan was that by the second year, he wouldn’t have to carry the team by itself. And with the flowering of Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, that plan seems to be on target. Yes, Ramirez is earning an eight-figure salary, and with that comes certain responsibility. And more than anything, Ramirez is unpredictable. But finished? I’m not so sure.

Ramirez probably won’t regain all the goodwill that slipped away from him after Bobbleslam Night, but I don’t think there’s nearly enough evidence to write Ramirez off as a productive player. If people somehow ratcheted down their expectations to those merited by a 38-year-old slugger, I’d say there’s a very good chance they wouldn’t be disappointed.

Of course, I’m not holding my breath that people will recalibrate their expectations. And I get the sense that there is more than one person out there quite eager to see Ramirez fail, no matter what it means for the Dodgers.

New Dodger annual headed to print

By Jon Weisman

On February 4, 2010

In History, Season preview

I’m pleased to announce that the first Maple Street Press Dodgers Annual, edited by yours truly and featuring many writers familiar to Dodger Thoughts readers, will be shipping this month and is available for pre-order.

The annual, which will also be available on local newsstands at the start of March, offers 128 ad-free pages devoted to the Dodgers, including a review of the 2009 season, a thorough series of player profiles and articles previewing the coming year, a 25-page section on the farm system and another 25 pages of historical features.

Here are some of the highlights:

Amid Turmoil, Hope (2010 season preview), by Chad Moriyama of Memories of Kevin Malone
So Close, Again (2009 season in review), by Eric Stephen of True Blue L.A.
Manny Be Good? (What to expect from Ramirez in 2010), by Jay Jaffe of Baseball Prospectus
Disorder In McCourt (an analysis of the impact of the McCourts’ divorce) by Joshua Fisher of Dodger Divorce
State Of The Stadium, by Eric Stephen of True Blue L.A.
One Out Away (Jonathan Broxton looks to recover from another disappointing finish), by Mike Petriello of Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness
Critical Campaigns (James Loney and Russell Martin), by Mike Petriello of Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness
The Collected Colletti (a Q&A), by Josh Suchon of KABC AM 790
Aces Are Wild Cards (The last word on No. 1 starters), by Eric Enders, baseball historian
Prospect Park (Top 20 prospects in the Dodger farm system), by Dodger prospect expert Richard Bostan
Individually Packaged (how the Dodgers develop young arms), by Josh Suchon of KABC AM 790
No Minor Hopes (life in AAA), by Albuquerque Isotopes play-by-play announcer Robert Portnoy
One In A Trillion (a Vin Scully retrospective), by Dodger team historian Mark Langill
Unsung Heroes (key contributions from unexpected sources), by Bob Timmermann of The Griddle and One Through Forty-Two or Forty-Three
Sweep And Low (the end of the 1980 season), by Dodger Thoughts commenter BHSportsGuy
The Great Dividers (the 20 most controversial Dodgers of the 2000s), by Jon Weisman

Petriello also wrote the bulk of the player profiles, along with BHSportsGuy and another Dodger Thoughts commenter, CraigUnderdog.

If you enjoy this site (and maybe even if you don’t), you won’t want to be without this annual.

* * *

A great wrapup of the Dodgers’ caravan stop at my go-to fried chicken place, Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, can be found at Vin Scully Is My Homeboy.

Dodgers will pick a No. 5 starter – and another, and another …

By Jon Weisman

On February 2, 2010

In Pitching, Season preview

It’s risky to place too much importance on who will be the Dodgers’ No. 5 starter when the season begins, just because that role fluctuates so much. So instead of trying to predict the winner, I’m going to pursue this from another angle: truth-based fiction.

March: Josh Lindblom has a sensational spring, but the Dodgers decide there’s no way he can handle a starter’s innings from April on, without being eased into the role via the minors. Scott Elbert also shows flashes of brilliance, but the team prefers he also wet his feet in Albuquerque, where John Ely (the new one, not the old one, though both will end up with stops in Chattanooga) is slated to spend most of the year. James McDonald is penciled in early for the bullpen. Charlie Haeger is denied meaningful innings. Russ Ortiz has one good start that generates a day’s worth of comeback stories, then implodes and is a non-factor. The longshot bids of Rule 5 Day acquisitions Carlos Monasterios and Armando Zerpa devolve into a slightly less longshot bid to become the seventh reliever.

That leaves Eric Stults. Despite his annual shutouts, the Dodgers don’t have any long-term faith in him, but with Stults out of minor-league options, they decide to give him first crack rather than throw a less experienced pitcher into the mix. The memory of McDonald’s April from last year still stings. Monasterios gets the (way) back-of-the-bullpen role, Zerpa is sent back on the Rule 5 highway, Ortiz goes to Albuquerque to find Shawn Estes’ old locker, and Haeger is released but doesn’t clear waivers.

April: Thanks to some rest-infused early season scheduling, the Dodgers don’t use a fifth starter until April 24 at Washington, an outing that finds Stults rusty but reasonably effective. He makes it through the capital city and his next start at home against Pittsburgh.

May: Before the month is out, Stults turns in the mediocre outing that confirms his limitations in the Dodgers’ eyes, and he is designated for assignment. Elbert, off to a strong start in Albuquerque, gets the callup.

June: Wear and tear on the staff — I’ll say Padilla, but it could be anyone — forces the Dodgers to bring up Lindblom to work alongside Elbert. McDonald wonders if he’ll ever be stretched out, but he becomes too valuable in the bullpen for the Dodgers to envision changing his role.

July: A four-game series in St. Louis right after the All-Star Break trashes the Dodger staff, though McDonald turns in a sterling four-inning relief stint that stops the bleeding in one game and rekindles thoughts of putting him back in the rotation. With the trade deadline approaching and the McCourt divorce case having been decided, there’s much talk about a deal. In the meantime, Ely is called upon to make a spot start, and Elbert gets a second wind after a poor stretch.

By the time the July 31 trading deadline comes, the Dodgers have a much better idea of what their starting pitching needs are. And that’s where I’m going to pause this speculation.

While few of the above plot twists might actually come true — the lack of need for a fifth starter for most of April could be enough to derail Stults’ chances of sticking, for example — the overall points are safe ones. No matter what happens in March:

1) Odds are, the Dodgers will run through several No. 5 starters.

2) Odds are, their collective performance will be good enough to allow the Dodgers to post a decent record in their outings, which is all you can really ask in a baseball world where virtually no team has a reliable No. 5 starter.

There are enough candidates for the fifth starter position that the Dodgers will have a low tolerance for failure. Unless none of them can do the job — and there’s no real reason to think all of them will fail to manage even a short hot streak — this part of the rotation will be less of a concern than some people think.

The Dodgers’ fortunes depend greatly on how their front four performs. If they can be relatively stable, the Dodger rotation will be fine — better than fine. If Chad Billingsley, Clayton Kershaw, Hiroki Kuroda or Vicente Padilla develop a serious, prolonged problem, then the Dodgers could be in trouble.

Update: Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports tweets that Jeff Weaver has agreed to a minor-league deal with the Dodgers.

Correction: I misread the schedule somehow. The Dodgers will need a fifth starter April 11 at Florida and April 17 against San Francisco. Chalk up a couple of confidence-building victories for Stults?

The year after 2009

By Jon Weisman

On February 1, 2010

In History, Season preview

The year after Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Ron Cey first made the playoffs in 1974, the Dodgers finished 20 games out of first place.

The year after the Dodgers lost two consecutive World Series in 1977-78, they were in last place at the All-Star break.

The disappointing 1975 and 1979 seasons came with nary a cloud over Chavez Ravine to match the jejune gloom that fans today feel over Dodger ownership in the wake of Frank and Jamie McCourt’s divorce. Back in the 1970s, the leadership baton was successfully passed from Walter O’Malley to son Peter, with the widespread approval of the Dodger community – assuming that community even noticed the change, amid the stable ticket prices and cheap Double-Bagger peanuts.

Don Sutton turned 30 five days before Opening Day 1975. Garvey, Lopes, Russell, Cey, Steve Yeager, Bill Buckner, Andy Messersmith, and Doug Rau all were younger. The team was in its prime, but the Cincinnati Reds, whose biggest offseason acquisition was John Vuckovich (and his eight 1975 hits), fired up the Big Red Machine and annihilated rest of the National League West.

There would be a big lesson here about the dangers of standing pat – if the Reds hadn’t stood pat themselves. In other words, 1975 is a bad omen for the 2010 Dodgers – unless the 2009 Dodgers are the 1974 Reds.

Before you think me completely crazy, understand that I realize Russell Martin isn’t Johnny Bench, James Loney isn’t Tony Perez, Casey Blake isn’t Pete Rose and no combination of Blake DeWitt, Ronnie Belliard and Jamey Carroll could ever flap Joe Morgan’s elbow. But the point is that the coming Dodger season could go well or poorly – and whichever way it goes, it will probably have much less to do with Divorce Court than people believe.

Relative to the rest of the current NL, the Dodgers have considerable strengths in other areas, most notably the outfield and the bullpen. They’re a 95-win team that has retained about 75 percent of its talent, and the three principal losses – Randy Wolf, Orlando Hudson and Juan Pierre – figure to decline this year anyway, while a good portion of the team’s core has a chance to improve and Manny Ramirez has a good chance to avoid a 50-game suspension.

And contrary to what seems to be popular opinion in Los Angeles, the other NL contenders haven’t blown past the Dodgers, divorce or not. The league champion Phillies got Roy Halladay, though they gave up Cliff Lee to get him. They get to be the favorites, though not by any wide margin. No other team in the NL had an offseason that should make any Dodger fan nervous. Arizona might get a bounce-back season from Brandon Webb and added several players (at a cost), but has a 25-game gap to make up on Los Angeles. Milwaukee picked up Wolf and Doug Davis, but saw several players depart. And so on …

NL Team	2009 W-L	Notable 2010 arrivals	Notable 2010 departures
Dodgers	95-67	Jamey Carroll, Nick Green, Justin Miller	Randy Wolf, Orlando Hudson, Juan Pierre
Philadelphia	93-69	Roy Halladay, Placido Polanco	Cliff Lee, Pedro Feliz, Pedro Martinez
Colorado	92-70	Miguel Olivo, Tim Redding	Yorvit Torrealba, Jason Marquis
St. Louis	91-71	Brad Penny, Ruben Gotay	Joel Pineiro, Rick Ankiel, Khalil Greene
San Francisco	88-74	Aubrey Huff, Mark DeRosa	Ryan Garko, Bobby Howry, Justin Miller
Florida	87-75	Jose Veras, Derrick Turnbow	Nick Johnson, Ross Gload, Jeremy Hermida
Atlanta	86-76	Melky Cabrera, Troy Glaus, Billy Wagner	Javier Vazquez, Adam LaRoche, Rafael Soriano
Chicago	83-78	Marlon Byrd, Xavier Nady	Milton Bradley, Rich Harden
Milwaukee	80-82	Randy Wolf, Doug Davis	Mike Cameron, Felipe Lopez, J.J. Hardy
Cincinnati	78-84	Orlando Cabrera, Aroldis Chapman	Kip Wells, Willy Taveras
San Diego	75-87	Jon Garland, Scott Hairston, Jerry Hairston, Jr.	Kevin Kouzmanoff, Edgar Gonzalez, Henry Blanco
Houston	74-88	Brett Myers, Pedro Feliz	Miguel Tejada, Jose Valverde
New York	70-92	Jason Bay, Kelvim Escobar	Carlos Delgado, Gary Sheffield
Arizona	70-92	Edwin Jackson, Bobby Howry, Adam LaRoche	Max Scherzer, Chad Tracy
Pittsburgh	62-99	Akinori Iwamura, Ryan Church, D.J. Carrasco	Matt Capps, Jesse Chavez
Washington	59-103	Jason Marquis, Ivan Rodriguez, Brian Bruney	Livan Hernandez, Josh Bard

The 2010 season could go either way. The Dodgers have the talent to contend for a chance to upset the American League champion in the World Series (we’ll get to the team’s inferiority to the Yankees and Red Sox another day). They are also, like every other team including the Phillies, vulnerable to key injuries or prolonged slumps that could send them tumbling.

The 1979 Dodgers, who seemed to have everything going for them entering the season except the departure of Tommy John, lost 31 of 41 games leading into the All-Star Game, digging themselves a hole so deep that not even a league-leading 43 victories after the break could save them. And younger fans will certainly remember what happened to the Dodgers from 2004 to 2005.

On the other hand, the Dodgers rose from a heartbreaking season’s end in 1980 to a World Series title in 1981 not because of any outside acquisitions, but on the precociousness of Fernando Valenuzela and Pedro Guerrero. And though the Dodgers benefited from Kirk Gibson falling into their laps in 1988, they also had to overcome the loss of a key starting pitcher, Bob Welch.

If the Dodgers falter, it will undoubtedly be seen through the prism of the McCourts’ divorce, with everyone pointing out how the Dodgers didn’t get the reinforcements they needed. But not getting enough reinforcements is a historical pattern for the Dodgers. No Dodger team, in Brooklyn or Los Angeles, has ever made the postseason three years in a row. None. The 2010 Dodgers have a chance to be the first (not to mention a chance to be the first to win a World Series in 22 years). Their season will ride a thin line between ecstasy and disappointment.

There probably aren’t any Dodger followers, including myself, that don’t wish the team had more talent entering the 2010 season, that don’t wonder if an opportunity to get over the top is being squandered. You always want your odds to be the best they can be. But they never are.

Dodger Thoughts

Jon Weisman's outlet for dealing psychologically with the Los Angeles Dodgers, baseball and life

Category: Season preview (Page 2 of 2)

The 2011 National League West: A first look

Not much room at the inn

Amid the flurry on the mound, quiet times in left field (for now)

The Big Blue Wrecked Crew: 2010-11 Dodger offseason primer

2010-11 Dodger Offseason
Payroll Worksheet

NL West race shapes up as Rockies-Dodgers dogfight

Schedule-makers again keep Dodgers out of Southern California in April

Looking back on 2010: The Dodger Thoughts reader predictions thread

2010 Dodger Opening Day Roster Locks

The Dodger Thoughts 2010 Spring Training Primer

Tracing the citizen rebellion in Mannywood

New Dodger annual headed to print

Dodgers will pick a No. 5 starter – and another, and another …

The year after 2009

Buy ‘The Catch: A novel’

Buy ‘Brothers in Arms’

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Jon Weisman's outlet for dealing psychologically with the Los Angeles Dodgers, baseball and life

Category: Season preview (Page 2 of 2)

2010-11 Dodger OffseasonPayroll Worksheet

Buy ‘The Catch: A novel’

Buy ‘Brothers in Arms’

‘Brothers in Arms’ coverage

Instagram

Twitter

Recent posts

Other writing by Jon

Archives

Commenting guidelines

Attendance

2010-11 Dodger Offseason
Payroll Worksheet