Is It Too Soon To Declare A "Dan Haren Curse"?

 Dodgers G.M. (Ha!) Ned Colletti felt good with the Dodgers as a team. He felt no need to make a trade while other teams improved their pitching staffs. Apparently he thought the Dodgers were good enough to ride into the World Series as is. 

Corporate writers and commentators of various sorts fell for this (I suppose) and began telling the tale of the Dodgers being "perfect" as they are presently constituted.  

Well, it seems everybody forgot about the train wreck that is the Dan Haren Express. 

 If you want to know statistically how bad Haren's been this season, check out any of the stat-head blogs for all the relevant numbers.  Believe me, this is one time that numbers spell out "Train Wreck". 

The Dodgers were starting to feel pretty good about themselves. They had just won 6 in a row, swept two teams back to back, and were comfortably settling into First Place. They probably arrived at Chavez Ravine for Saturday night's game with a special swagger and a smile that would naturally appear following a Kershaw complete-game victory.  

Heck, the night's opponents were the lowly Chicago Cubs. It was looking like the Dodgers were going to buzzsaw through this sub .500 team and their rookie, unknown pitcher with no problem at all. 

Nobody has to payola me (but payola gladly accepted here also) to say nice things about the Cubbies or Chi-town, as I absolutely love Chicago Dogs and "The Chicago Way"...

 ...but even Cubbie fans would have to agree it's difficult to find many good things to say about this season.

None of that mattered though, because good ol' Dan Haren can top the Cubs' brand of bad. 

Do you know why the Dodgers had a six-game winning streak, swept two series in a row and captured First Place? It's because Manager Damn Mattingly skipped Haren's turn in the rotation. He wanted Haren nowhere near a baseball with first place on the line. 

Now I'm sure Haren's mom probably feels we're all being a bit harsh on her sonny boy, so let's forget all that past. Let's forget his 9+ ERA too.  

 
That said, Haren still brought some bad, bad mojo to the mound Saturday night. 

He managed to hold the Cubs to not homering until the SECOND inning, and then the wheels fell off and the flames shot skyward for the rest of the night. 

It was ugly out there. In one crazy night the Dodgers...
lost the ability to block wild pitches or tag runners out,
lost the mindset of how a First Place team should crush a last place team,
lost that post-Kershaw splendor and swagger, and
lost three players. Crucial players.

Yasiel Puig, Jaguar Gonzalez and pitcher Paul Maholm (<-- perhaps not so crucial) all had to leave the game with injuries sustained in awkward, freaky plays.

When the smoke cleared, the Dodgers had lost the game, lost momentum, and lost a full game in the standings to the Giants.  

If I'm Ned Colletti, I'm calling up one of those young arms from the farm right about now. The Haren Curse must be stopped.














 

First Place Sure Smells Sweet -or- How Don Mattingly Saved The Dodgers Season

I was originally going to post yesterday when the Dodgers tied the Giants for first place, but I figured the Boys would win today and take it all. I held off for a First Place post.

At the beginning of June they said the Dodgers were done, finished, kaput! 

The Dodgers had the worst defense in the big leagues, the shabbiest bullpen, and the most underachieving bats in the game. Heck, even their own manager said they were playing like shite. 

They said we smelled like rotten fish. Well, nobody really said that - that's called puffery and artist's liberty - but you get my point. 

The pundits annointed the hated Giants to be the magic team of 2014. SF was steamrolling teams right and left and the writers were all hopping into the bandwagon.

The Dodgers were down by 9 1/2 games; they said it was an insurmountable mountain. The Dodgers would need another 42-8 tear like last season, and that wasn't going to happen again. 

At least they got that part right. It didn't happen again, and yet the Dodgers found a way to chug and scrap and bash their way past the Giants and to return to the top of the division. On the last day of the month, after Dodger pitchers retired the final 18 Cleveland batters in a row, first place belongs solely to the Dodgers. 

But the beginning of the month was another story altogether. On June 4th, clearly showing frustration and barely masking anger in his voice, manger Don Mattingly abruptly called off his post game press interview and retired to the Dodgers clubhouse. It was the end of another horrific homestand and the Dodgers had been knocked around yet again.  

The next morning he refused to answer questions about the team's lousy performance, said the Dodgers were not playing as a team, and directed the reporters to ask the players themselves why they weren't getting the job done. 

Bloggers and some writers were proclaiming Mattingly had given up on the team and started gathering nails for the Dodgers' 2014 coffin.  

That day I wrote a post  addressing Mattingly's statements. I took the opposite route and read it as Mattingly's genius/crazy roll of the dice play.  I figured Mattingly was repeating a play he tried last season when he called out the Dodgers for lacking grit. It worked then to turn the team around, and I bet - along with Mattingly - that it would work again and his team would catch fire. 

It was a brilliant strategy. I don't know if it will work every season, but it sure worked now. It worked because Mattingly threw his Hail Mary pass at precisely the right time. There were three crucial factors that created the perfect storm that Mattingly's plan needed to succeed.

1. He uncharacteristically allowed his frustration and pointed words to be exposed following that final homestand loss,which probably shocked a few Dodgers as much as it shocked me. It was the last thing he left with his players that night. Perhaps a few of them went to bed with those words and images on their minds.

2. The next day was on off day, allowing Mattingly's words to permeate and settle into the players as they posed for modeling gigs and worked with their charities away from the stadium lights and its press corps. I'm sure a few Dodgers spent that day opening their eyes to the ugliness that was the 2014 season up to that point.

3. The Dodgers then left on a road trip, leaving behind the Dodger Stadium press as well as their "Woe is me" recliners and "I'm the only guy working hard on this team" whirlpools in the clubhouse. They were far from the comforts and enablers of home and only had each other to rely on. 

They had one choice. They were either going to all pull together on the rope or lose it all.  

Slowly but surely Brandon League started improving, Matt Kemp accepted his new reality as a left fielder and began hitting again, Justin Turner stepped in for injured Juan Uribe and more than held his own, and the bullpen stopped blowing leads. All the while the starting pitchers were keeping their rhythms and getting stronger. Beckett threw a no-hitter, the Dodgers started scoring runs in bunches and then Kershaw threw a no-hitter.  

 You know how crazy good the Dodgers are right now? Yes, "No-Hitter" Kershaw is great, and Grienke and Ryu and No-Hitter Becket, but there's more. Dan "First Inning Dinger" Haren pitched tonight without giving up multiple home runs. In fact, he pitched shutout ball. 

Even the wounded Hanley Ramirez played a role in tonight's first place win.  He couldn't start, but Mattingly used him as a late inning pinch hitter in a 0-0 game. Cleveland blinked and walked the dangerous Ramirez, to get to our latest rookie call up, Clint Robinson.  The kid got his first major league hit - and RBI - knocking in Andre Ethier (after his triple) to give us the only run we needed to win.  Yup - it's now 24 straight scorelss innings for the Dodgers.

Tommy Lasorda must be proud- the Dodgers are all on the same side of the rope now, and all pulling together.

I'm not a stats guru, but it sure feels like the Dodgers have won every series since Mattingly's roll of the dice. All of this paired with a very welcome meltdown by the Giants has led us to where we are today - 

Planting the Dodgers flag on top of the mountain, all alone in

 FIRST PLACE. 

Rediscovered Vintage - The Last Of The Cardboard Gold

We've made it to the final installment of my rediscovered vintage - cards that I found in a long forgotten shoebox.  

Thanks to those of you who read along with this series and especially to those of you who commented on the coolness of what I found. I was just as excited to reexamine and reread each card as you were to see and read about it here. It was great bounty, indeed. 

 Let's see what other cardboard surprises await.

One of the best things about these cards is the number of iconic players on classic cardboard images I found. 

I saved Brooks Robinson's 1969 Topps issue for today's installment because it should stand on its own, away from the other cards of the decade.  

The circle of the name balloon mimics the rounded old time batting helmet, which matches the cartoon Oriole's logo. And how about Brooks' mother-lovin' smile? 

For some reason the contents of the shoebox completely skipped the '70's (all of the Dodger cards skipped the 70's as well), but they pick up again in the 80's with a couple of doozies...

 How about a Rickey Henderson Rookie Card for a doozie? 

Talk about a card that defines the hobby.  Young Rickey silhouetted at the plate, full of promise and potential, coiled and ready to strike at the entire league.  

But one RC doesn't make a great shoebox, how about one more...

I'm not a big fan of Damn Mattingly, the manager, but I'm certainly a fan of Donnie Baseball.  No, this one doesn't have the highest "book value" of his three RC's (Fleer, Donruss, Topps), the big money card is the Donruss release, but this one is my favorite. 

This card has everything for a lover of the 80's on cardboard. We get a portrait in the insert and a full image of Mattingly at the ready, on the bag. Old time stirrups and flip-down shades complete the look.  

Finally, a couple of inserts from the 90's. I recall back in the day these Topps Finest refractors were the shite. And you couldn't do much better than refractor reprints of these next two guys.
 

 When I first got into collecting, Mickey Mantle was the king of cardboard. 

Conversations went like this - 
 Collector A: "I got a Big Hurt Lumberjacks insert!"
Collector B: "Yeah, that's cool and all, but I got Mickey Mantle!!"
All other collectors (in unison): "WOOOOOOOOOW!!" 
And the Mick hadn't touched a baseball diamond in more than 25 years. However, I don't think he has as much juice with this generation of collectors. 

Batting cleanup for the box of rediscovered cardboard...

Bat barrel - Check!
Roberto, not "Bob" - Check!
Old timey stadium tiers - Check! 
One of the greatest to ever play the game - Double Check! 

That closes out the old shoebox.  Thanks for readin', gang!

Damn Mattingly Takes Off The Gloves

Wow, did I really see what I saw on last night's post-game interview?  Did I really read what I read all over today's sports pages and blogs?  I've been a Dodger fan a mighty long time, and I don't EVER remember hearing or reading the Dodger's manager saying...and I quote, 

"We're just not that good." 

That's quite a statement - out loud - to the press - in L.A.!! But it hadda be said.

USATSI

Regular readers here know I'm not a big Mattingly backer, not in the least, but I'm giving credit to the skipper on this one. 

 Mattingly is what they call a "players" coach. I get it, he's empathetic because he was a player too.  Some don't like his easy going attitude, and fault him for not showing more aggression.  Oh, it's there alright, but not like a Billy Martin aggression. Mattingly is apparently a passive aggressive manager.

Although he's clearly frustrated (as are all in the Dodger Nation) with the state of the ballclub, yesterdays's press conferences were not irrational, purging-of-emotions tirades.  They were a calculated move - albeit, a desperate Hail Mary  - to light a fire under the Dodgers' collective rear ends before the season slips away. He just called his players out publicly, and it's a tactic he's used before.

  Last year at this time the Dodgers were in the same whirlpool of suckiness they're swirling in today.  He used this same tactic to call out the team generally and Andre Ethier particularly for not playing with enough "GRIT".  

I'm not saying that tactic caused the team's miracle turnaround from the cellar to the penthouse, as it took a perfect storm of circumstances to arise in order for that to happen.  I'm just not discounting it outright as a factor. If anything, it planted the seeds for his calling bullshite on the team's lack of heart and poor play so far this season.

Mattingly held closed clubhouse meetings, personal meetings, team-wide meetings and did pretty much everything he can do to inspire the team - all to no avail.  

Prima dona Matt Kemp has done his share to let everyone know it's all about him and the Gap.  Other players are feeling uncomfortable. Team leaders haven't fixed things. Rookies are posting notes about togetherness on clubhouse walls and open air arguments are taking place in the dugout as the midway point of the season is fast approaching. It was definitely time for a Hail Mary play by somebody. 

So Mattingly showed his frustration-furrowed face, called out the troops for not being good enough, and pointed the press in the direction of his players. "Go ask them why we suck."  He's using a backdoor to challenge them to prove themselves as athletes and men.

It was a brilliantly calculated move because today is an off day for the team.  Mattingly dropped his bomb in a way that everyone would feel shock in the clubhouse last night, and then feel the awe when away from the ballpark and alone with themselves today.

The second prong of Mattingly's play involves the Dodgers starting a road trip away from the prying eyes, microphones and tweets of a good chunk of the L.A. press. They'll be away from the comforts of home and in enemy territory.  What better time for a group to come together?

Heck, Mattingly even pulled the Tommy Lasorda card and used Tommy's analogy about the strength of a team all pulling together on the same side of the rope. 

I gotta admit, just for that, Mattingly scored some points with me. But I'm not really the one that matters here.  The question is, how will the Dodgers react?  

The Day The Blue Dam Broke

(Hunter Martin / Getty Images)

 We may very well look back on Josh "No Hitter" Beckett's masterpiece of a game today as being the spark that lit the fire for the 2014 Dodgers.

By throwing today's no-hitter Beckett has tossed the last chain off of his recovered shoulders and declared he is all the way back. 

 When the 2014 season began Beckett hadn't won a game since early 2012!  Although he pitched pretty well from the get go this year, the mediocre Dodgers didn't give him much run support.  

He only recently recorded his first win in two years and he continued to show improvement with his brilliant performance today.  Beckett's is the first Dodger no-no since Hideo Nomo's in 1996. 

 Beckett's personal breakthrough was partly due to a ripple effect now being felt amongst the Dodgers.  Manager Damn Mattingly first cracked the dam when he (finally!) made the wise decision to move Matt Kemp out of the lineup.  Mattingly admitted Kemp's liabilities and sat him down, leading to firestorms and blizzards in the blogs, twittersphere, and corporate media.

His defensive shortcomings notwithstanding, and with the exception of a few highlight shots, Matt Kemp has mostly had a bat made of wet spaghetti this season. The WAR, WIP and WACK stat heads point to + or - numbers and insist Kemp has done well at the plate so far.  Those cold stats however, tell very little about Kemp's numerous strike outs and double plays with RISP. Kemp needed to sit, or at least compete for a position as I called for  two weeks ago.

That movement of Kemp broke through the oft-mentioned logjam of outfielders and allowed the Dodger Nation a fresh breath now that the elephant - read Bison - in the room has been put into a new place, improving both the offense and defense, and the team seems to be responding positively.

Want more breakthroughs to feel optimistic about? 

A couple of other question marks in the Dodger batting order are starting to assert themselves.  When Juan Uribe went on the DL, most Dodger fans bemoaned the loss of his bat.  His replacement, Justin Turner has uncorked some power and given us a pair of key home runs. 

The Dodger's latest Cuban player, Erisbel Arruebarruena was tagged as being great with the glove, but sorely lacking a bat.  Now filling in for an injured Hanley Ramirez, he's quickly adjusting to major league pitching and is knocking out hits.

El Jaguar, Adrian Gonzalez is heating up at the plate again.

Even the Dodgers broadcasting booth is blowing up!
Radio broadcaster Rick Monday, whom I normally would place into the "snoozer" category of radio announcers, matched Beckett today pitch for pitch in his play-by-play. I tuned in during the fourth inning and Monday and Nomar Garciaparra called a great game on the radio.  They both had excellent insight, and let the drama unfold like we were sitting there in Philadelphia with them.  

Kudos also to the radio team for not uttering the jinx words.  Yes, I believe in the "no-hitter" jinx. 

 It seems the Philadelphia announcers also believe in it as they couldn't utter the phrase enough.  During the ninth inning it was almost comical the way they were straining to find new ways to insert the phrase "No hitter" into every sentence.

 Returning to my premise; today Josh Beckett broke on through the Phillies announcer's voodoo. In doing so he released quite a bit of pent up steam that had been building up and down the Dodgers over the past couple of weeks.  

The dam is now open.  Let the Blue Wave begin! 

The State Of The Dodgers - It Aint Purty!

 Ever since their glorious win in Australia on Opening Day, the Dodgers have been stuck in the mud, spinning their wheels, and sinking deeper into the muck. 

I'm of the belief that idiotic early-start in Australia ruined Spring Training and injured pitchers for both the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks.  

However, Australia is the past. It's not early in the season anymore, and we are beyond what can be laid at the feet of Bud Selig's horrible international marketing plan which forced both teams to open the season Down Under a full week before everyone else.  

We're a month in, and patterns are establishing themselves.  However, I'll indulge those who insist it's still early.  Fine.  We still can't afford to be losing this many games.  Somebody wiser than me once said something to the effect that pennants are not won, but they can certainly be lost early in the season.

Speaking of patterns, it seems these days every game is a 3-2 or 2-1 loss in 9 innings, or it'll be extra innings with an eventual loss.  Intellectually I know the boys aren't losing EVERY game - you can check the statscentric blogs for the exact numbers - but all I know is it FEELS like every game is like that.  Perception can quickly become reality.

So what's the problem? Is it the pitching or the hitting?  Not to ignore the defense, which is producing an average of an error every game, but I believe good hitting or pitching should be able to neutralize that.  

When Clayton Kershaw went on the DL immediately after the Australia series, most observers thought the Dodgers would really suffer.  Although the Dodgers are losing too often (it's the fans who are suffering), the remaining starting pitchers - and even some emergency AAA call ups -  have been very effective and have kept us competitive in most of the games.  

We've gotten to the 6th and 7th innings very often with the opposition scoring two runs or less.  The problem is, concurrently the Dodger bats have usually scored only one run or less. The pitching staff (as a whole) cannot realistically be expected to win 80 - 90% of the games by scores of 1- 0 or 2-1.  

When a team scores three runs, it's going to win most games. While Dodger relievers cannot be excused for issuing the second-highest walks (69) in baseball, they have no business being involved in extra inning marathons we would have won had we scored three runs.

The Dodgers have scored just two runs in their last 27 innings. Somebody should tell them we can't win by a score of 0 to -1.  No, the pitchers are not to blame.  It's those cold, cold Dodger bats.

www.zimbio.com

 Adrian Gonzalez was red hot a couple of weeks ago and Yasiel Puig's bat is pretty hot right now.  The Dodgers are very good at getting a lead off single or double and then not scoring the runner.  And that pretty much sums up the Dodger offensive attack in 2014. 

What are the Dodgers' chances of turning that around? 
There's almost zero offense coming from the three Dodger catchers we've tried.  Juan Uribe, with the second-highest RBI's is one bad cough away from the DL, and there is no real replacement for him on the bench or in the minors. Mattingly is forced to play lousy utility guys or broken down ex-Angels. Thanks, Ned Colletti!

What about the "good" problem of too many outfielders? 
Mattingly has taken a step forward in deciding what to do with that surplus, and in true Mattingly fashion, he's making the wrong decisions. His choice of Puig as the everyday right fielder is a no-brainer, but after that, Mattingly is simply showing no brain.  

He's made the Dodgers' Strikeout King, Matt Kemp (36 K's), the everyday center fielder. Mattingly has Andre Ethier and Carl Crawford battling for the remaining outfield spot. 

Ethier has16 RBI's  and he's fourth on the team behind Gonzalez, Puig and Uribe.  He's fourth while sitting out about one third of the season, while Gonzalez and Uribe have played just about every inning of every game. Kemp and Crawford are tied with 9 RBI's each.  Kemp has single-digit RBI's and leads the team in strike outs, but he's been gifted center field. 

Here's a thought - today's Giants pitcher is Matt Cain. Ethier is hitting .400 with 30 hits against the guy.  Would you play him?  Mattingly won't.  He's got Ethier sitting on the bench while Crawford, who has stunk at the plate all season except for last week, is out in the field.  Genius managing.  

The Giants come to town sitting in first place and they have pretty much owned the Dodgers up to this point.  This four game series could well set the tone for at least the next few weeks of the season, and perhaps all of it.

 The Dodgers just need a fire lit under them, right?   Damn Mattingly held a closed-door team meeting before the first game and did what he could.  The Dodgers went out and lost.

Last night Puig launched a massive home run against the Giants. He then had some loud and gruff words with the Giants pitcher and catcher when he came around third.  Both managers came on the field and tensions rose.  

www.timesunion.com

Everyone calmed down and the next batter came up. Mattingly was almost immediately ejected by the plate umpire.  Ejected from the dugout!  He went on the field and gave that minor league (yes, minor league) ump just about every curse word you would ever hear on a ballfield - or not.  Did all of those fireworks light up the Dodgers? Nope. 

Brandon League later came in for the Dodgers and got out of a bases loaded and no out jam to keep the game within one run.  Did that finally fire up the Dodgers? Nope. We lost again, 3-1.  There's that three run principle. 

Does any of this sound familiar? It should to Dodger fans.  This is pretty much the way last season started.  During the first half of the season the Dodgers absolutely stunk up the ballpark.  Sure we ended up almost in the World Series - but that was only after a historic, epic, never seen before, winning run that stunned everyone.  

At this point in the season, it looks like we're gonna need another one of those.

Dodgers Bullpen Flawed? Try Looking Inside The Dugout

 I've said it before and I'm gonna say it again, a smart manager will win 5 to 10 games for a team every season, while a bonehead manager will lose 5 to 10 games.  Last night the Dodgers lost to the Diamondbacks precisely because of Damn Mattingly's dopey handling of the Dodgers in the final innings of a tough, tied game.

Granted, the Dodgers had no business being in that situation in the first place, as their batting lineup looks like gangbusters on paper.  However, they just can't seem to hit their way out of a wet paper bag these days.

I keep reading bloggers and the L.A. Times sportswriters running headlines that declare "Dodgers Bullpen Fails Again".  Is every night supposed to be a shutout?  The bullpen is being blamed when we lose 2-1 and 3-2?  Really?

I've said this one before too - if a team scores three runs per game, they are going to win far more games than they'll lose.  Particularly if that team has a pitching staff as good as the Dodgers. If those anemic Dodger bats had scored three, we never would have been in a position of having to rely on Mattingly's "strategy".  But this game did come down to how Mattingly (mis)handles a batting order.

Cue the bottom of the eighth, and we're tied 1-1 with the Snakes. Yasiel Puig started off the inning with a walk. Everything looked good. With Puig at first, the Dodgers could have went with a sac bunt or play for a base hit because Puig's got the wheels to go to third on a single or steal at any time during the at bat.  That probably was a good time for a smart manager to make a smart move. But our manager is Damn Mattingly.

Justin Turner (BA .185) was due up.  Turner had started in place of Dee Gordon and had already struck out twice.  Gordon waited on the bench.  The same Dee Gordon of the .365 batting average, who can bunt and has the speed to possibly be safe giving us two rabbits on base, who has shown he can hit legitimate singles, has shown surprising power, AND can remain in the game at second base when he pinch hits for Justin Turner.  But Flash Gordon Jr. remained on the bench.  Result: Turner struck out for the third time.

Hanley advanced Puig to second, but was the second out on a close play. We needed an RBI and now had one sitting on second base, waiting to be driven home.  Next up was Matt Kemp.  I know most Dodger fans love Kemp unconditionally, and I'm not anti-Kemp by any means, but the Snake's pitcher at the time, Brad Zeigler, absolutely owns Kemp. 

We also had the guy who has the second most RBI's on the team, one of the Dodger's best situational hitters this season, and can replace Kemp in CF, sitting on the bench.  It would have set up a lefty hitter against a RH pitcher.  Andre Ethier sat, Kemp stayed in.  Result: Kemp hits into a puny force out.  Momentum gone, ownage continued.

Sure, Mattingly would have been crucified if he PH Ethier for Kemp and Ethier didn't succeed, but it was the kind of gutsy (and percentage) move that I believe the situation called for.

The Dodgers gifted a run to the Snakes in the top of the ninth, so they went ahead 2-1. 

Bottom of the ninth and the Dodgers needed a run just to tie and stay alive.  Scott Van Slyke had already smashed one home run in the game and maybe can catch lightning in the bottle again.....but wait....Mattingly Von Stengel decided to make a move.  A bonehead move. 

Van Slyke, the guy who just gets better with more at bats, the guy with the awesome momentum-producing Led Zeppelin walk up music, the guy who's bat still smells like the burnt wood of an earlier home run, is benched.  Mattingly replaces him with Carl "I forgot how to hit" Crawford.  *sigh*   Result: Lazy fly out.

Juan Uribe followed Crawford with a heroic home run blast to tie the game.  Who knows what the significance of Uribe's homer would have been if hot hitter Van Slyke had been allowed to bat?

Instead the game was only tied, we eventually lost in 12, and everyone wants to blame the bullpen.

Did Damn Mattingly Just Deliver My First Christmas Present?

THIS doesn't look comfortable.                               Nick Ut / Associated Press 

So today everything got aired out.

The Dodgers said: "You'll take a one-year contract and be happy."

Damn Mattingly said: "I say screw your one-year deal, and raise it to a multi-year."

Which should bring forth an interesting week in Dodgerdom.  Now we'll see who's bluffing, who's bullying, and who's folding.  I'm glad it only took 72 hours for the knives to come out. 

Regular ATBATT readers know I'm no fan of Mattingly Baseball.  No way indeed.  To recap - the guy can't manage a batting order or a bullpen, and he sure as heck can't manage bases loaded with nobody out!  I'm not saying he'll never learn these skills, but I'll always say I don't want him learning his craft on my team.

He summed everything up himself at today's press conference.  Mattingly said something to the effect that he's been managing for three years and ownership knows what he's got by now.  What more do they need to see?

Well, the man is right.  He's managed three years and sat under Joe Torre's terrific tutalage as he ran the Dodgers for another three.  If the guy hasn't figured out N.L. baseball tactics by now, he may never.

This is ownership's big chance to drop Mattingly like his managing prowess dropped back-to-back pitching masterpieces by Kershaw and Greinke to start off the NLCS.  Heck, they can even lay it at Mattingly's plate as he essentially called them out and dared them to do SOMETHING.

Good luck, skipper.


In other news, Dodgers Trainer Sue Falsone won't be back.  This is a good move.  As much as I disagree with the sexists who say this proves a woman can't do the job, I sure don't believe this one can do the job.  She may not have caused that original avalanche of injuries, but I would have liked to see a lot more prevention of the second and third injury waves. 

Mattingly is also demanding the return of all of his coaches.  Please, oh please, Magic...do what you can to make sure Cheater Mcgwire doesn't bring us yet another year of "The Dead Bat Era".  If you're gonna keep him, then hire some bad-ass Asst. Batting Coaches.

Ultimately, I won't complain if the Dodgers give Mattingly his multi-year Christmas present.  At least, not until Spring Training.  However, if we do open 2014 with a new skipper, I have one more request for Magic:

     Please DO NOT replace Damn Mattingly with The Jinx!!!!

RYU = YAAAA-HOOOOO!!!!

 

Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Well, THAT was exactly what the doctor ordered:

A packed house at Dodger Stadium.  Not bad for everyone trying to get to Chavez Ravine at the height of LA rush hour.  C'mon, TV...how about a 6 or 6:30 p.m. start?

A calmed down and most excellent outing from our third ace, Hyun-Jin Ryu. He pitched a masterpiece that I'm sure everyone back in Seoul enjoyed.

Richard Mackson - USA Today

Adrian Gonzalez getting his batting groove back. Cardinal Adam Wainright was irritated by El Jaguar's hand explosions after he knocked in Mark Ellis with a double.  Haha!

Hanley Ramirez back in the line up and doing what he does best.  Manley busted two hits and knocked in a big run, all with a fractured rib. 

Puig chilling out the plate and bashing the ball again.  He missed a home run by a foot or two.  He might have snatched an inside-the-park home run if he had been off and running on contact - instead of vogueing at the plate.

The Beard and bad-ass Kenley Jansen punching out the Cards in the final two innings.  Boo-yah and Good Night little birds.  Sweet.

Finally, a note to the TBS execs who chose the boring announcing crew for the TV broadcast - It should tell you something about your choice for announcers when your own post-game show uses Vin Scully's voice for the highlights of the game. Doncha think?

Have You Ever Been In A Dogfight?

I mean, have you ever been in a knock down, drag out, fight to the finish?  That was Game One of the National League Championship Series tonight between the Dodgers and the Dang Cardinals.  

When you have two teams evenly matched, in a game that is evenly matched, the manager will make the difference.  Unfortunately for the Dodgers, Damn Mattingly is the resident skipper.

This was anyone's game.  It lasted 4 hours plus, and the teams were tied at 2-2 for almost every agonizing minute.  Sure, the Dodgers had their chances.  They were 0 for I-can't -believe-how-many with RISP, and that included not hitting with bases loaded - yet again. 

Once again it came down to the battle of the managers and ours lost it for us. From what I've read in the first postgame posts, Mattingly critics out there are pointing to his removal of Adrian Gonzalez after his single in the eight inning for pinch runner Dee Gordan.  It wasn't a genius move by far, but the move wasn't without potential merits.

At the time the game was tied 2-2, it was the eighth inning, we had a runner on, and Mattingly was playing for the win. Not a terrible move to replace the slow running Gonzalez with Gordon the rabbit.  If it pans out and Gordon scores, we go up 3-2.  Kenley dominates the bottom of the ninth and Mattingly looks like a genius.  The plan didn't work out, but that aint my gripe.

Mattingly blew the game when he couldn't recognize - which he has never been able to recognize, even on his own team - the hot player with the red hot bat.   Damn Mattingly is blind to the hot bat. Which is astounding to me because he spent most of his career being that guy - the guy who will win the game for you, or conversely, the guy who will beat you.

Tonight that guy was the Cardinals' Carlos Beltran.  Beltran knocked in all three Cardinal runs, and he threw out Mark Ellis in a play at the plate in what turned out to be the final chance for the Dodgers to score. 

When we got to the bottom of the 13th ( still tied 2-2), Beltran came up with the winning run on base.  Up to that point he had already knocked in both of St. Louis' runs, and he had that great throw out at the plate.  He came up with the chance to win the game and Mattinlgy chose to pitch to him.  Mattinlgy has a long, regrettable history of pitching to guys that can beat you, and then being being beat by them.  He just doesn't learn this one.

Know what the Cardinals' manager did all night when our guy who could beat you - Hanley Ramirez - came up to bat?  He didn't pitch to Hanley. He took the bat right out of Hanley's hands and therefore he couldn't win the game for us. 

Mattingly refused to take a pass on Beltran in the 13th.  In the previous series he walked weak-hitting Reed Johnson for the bases loaded percentage scenario, but tonight he refused to walk game-dominator Beltran and the Dodger Nation payed for it.  Beltran, the guy who had been beating us all night, capped his evening off with a game winning hit and Zack Greinke's masterful eight innings were wasted.

From here on in it's painfully clear that the Dodger bats are going to have to step it up and overcompensate for Mattingly Baseball, because if this series becomes a chess match between managers, our guy will be the one who keeps asking, "How does the horse move?"

 Can't wait for game two.   

NEVER, EVER Ask The Mighty Casey To Bunt!

Once again the Dodgers win in spite of Damn Mattingly's complete misunderstanding of when and how to use bunts.

In the 8th inning tonight, down 2-1, rookie sensation Yasiel Puig bashed a lead off double and stood triumphant on second base with both arms raised high, energizing his teammates in the Dodgers dugout and the entire Dodger Nation.

Mattingly tried to take all of the air out of the Dodgers rally by asking one of the Dodgers' hungriest and clutch home run batters to....bunt.

Juan Uribe is not a bunter, and he never will be.  He fouled off his first two bunt attempts and quickly found himself in an 0 and 2 count.  Third base coach Tim Wallach called Uribe over and whispered something in his ear.  I like to think Wallach said, "Later for that bunt crap.  Slam the shite out of it."

And that's exactly what Uribe did!  BLAMMO!!!!    A massive shot into the Dodgers bullpen and the Boys went up 4-2.  Dodger Stadium (and my living room) went absolutely bonkers!!!!

Kenley Jasnsen came in to strike out the side in the 9th, and the Dodgers will now move on to the next round of the playoffs.

What a game, what a series, WHAT A TEAM!!!!

See you all in the next round! 

"How To Lose In The Playoffs" By Damn Mattingly

If I only had a sawbuck for every time Damn Mattingly made a dopey baseball decision.

Today was a gritty game for the Dodgers. The teams and the game were evenly matched, and that's the circumstance where a manager can make a difference and steal or lose a game.  The guy managing the Braves isn't exactly the second coming of Connie Mack, but today he was smarter than Mattingly. 

Dodger Ace Number 2, Zack Greinke pitched well enough.  He left after six, losing, but only behind 2-1.  This was still anyone's ballgame.  Enter the Decisions of Don.

The game was close and tense for both sides, but Mattingly suddenly made himself a huge factor in the game.  He brought in Chris Withrow to replace Zack Greinke.  Withrow, in his first postseason appearance, withered, immediately giving up a single and a walk.  Not on Don.  The kid just didn't get the job done.

In comes Paco Rodriguez and the madness that is Mattingly baseball took full effect.  He had Paco intentionally walk Reed Johnson.  Yup, Don took out one pitcher, and brought in another pitcher and asked him to throw four wide ones to his first batter.  In order to load the bases for Jason Heyward.  

It's one thing to ask a pitcher midgame to walk a guy, but it's absolutely ridiculous to bring in a pitcher, straight from warm ups, and head psyching himself into game mode, to immediately chill out and toss an easy four balls.  And then, to immediately return to game face for the next guy.  

After Reed was walked, Jason Heyward stepped in.  Paco did his best, but of course his first two pitches to Heyward missed the strike zone. (High and wide. Hmmm...)   Paco, in his first-ever playoff appearance, must have felt compelled to force a pitch into the strike zone.  He sure didn't want to go 3-0 to the batter, with two Braves standing on bases behind him.   Heyward was sitting on that hitter's count and nailed a two-run single right up the middle.

A 2-1 score was now 4-1 and the game shifted permanently in Atlanta's favor. The Dodgers didn't go quietly, however.  Hanley Ramirez was money all day, and he hit a 2-run home run in the 8th to get us to within one.  The Dodgers even got a couple of runners on in the ninth - albeit, not both at the same time - but all of that wasn't enough to overcome Mattingly baseball.  Not tonight. 

One Down, Two To Go!

RIIIIIIIP goes the little foam tomahawk.

Game One was great.  Simply fantastic. I loved it.

For a minute there, I was a bit worried, as many Dodger fans were, about how the Dodgers were going to perform in this first round of the playoffs.

Although they played like gangbusters in the second half of the season and crushed all opponents like a steamroller running over play-doh animals, they finished September looking very much like that non-hitting, injury-prone team from the first half .

And darn it if they didn't start out like the latter, with the first Dodger batters opening the game with three quick and sickly looking strike outs.  I'm sure the Atlanta fans were going crazy with their annoying tomahawk chop chant, but I had the TV sound turned down so I could listen to Vin Scully on the radio.  Maybe the chant was audible on the radio, but who can hear that static when Vinny's voice is up front?

Things didn't start out too well for the Boys in Blue (and visiting greys).  But then came the one.  Our ace.  Kid K. Clayton Kershaw was having none of that and he proceeded to stop the chop with two strike outs of his own, and it was on!  Actually, I should say, it was OVER!

Daniel Shirey - USA Today Sports

  
KUDOS:

Yasiel Puig.  Congratulations to Puig for knocking out the first Dodger hit of the 2013 postseason.
Double kudos for scoring the first Dodger run as well.

El Jaguar. Congratulations to Adrian Gonzalez for blasting the first Dodger home run of the playoffs!

A.J. Ellis. Two doubles.  Ellis found his batting groove right as the season was ending and it's carrying forward.  Sweet!

Of course, Kershaw.  He once again entered the Koufax zone by gritting out 12 strike outs - the most in a Dodger postseason since Koufax struck out 15 in 1963.  At one point Kersh struck out six in a row!  Awesomeness personified.

I can't really wrap my head around the fact Kershaw pitched 7 innings, struck out 12, allowed only one run, and yet we're viewing it as an outing where he "struggled" at times.  As one of the talking heads on one of the highlight shows I later watched said, those are the kind of struggles and troubles he would take any day back when he was pitching.

Vin Scully.  As Dodger fans know, Vinny doesn't travel west of the Rockies, so we never get to hear him call games from faraway stadiums any more.  Furthermore, as Dodger fans know, one of the best things about the Dodgers playing in October is having our beloved broadcaster in the room with us, calling the game.  This time Vinny went to Atlanta and I got to enjoy that golden voice just as Dodger baseball in October should be.  Now that's home cookin'. 

HONORABLE MENTION KUDOS:

Andre Ethier.  He pinch hit tonight and grounded out, but the positive note is, (apparently) nothing happened to cause him to re-aggravate his ankle injury.  WHEW!


BAH!: 

Those silly Atlanta fans.  Two reasons.  The first is that inane "chop chant".  The marketing folks at Turner Field gave everyone foam tomahawks so the fans can use them with their chanting.  It was wonderful to see the Dodgers make them all sit down and put away their tomahawks for another day.

Those tomahawks bring me to my second reason.  Marketing must be stuck with thousands of leftover foam toys because Atlanta fans don't even support their team enough to sell out their stadium for a playoff game.  I guess they figured Kershaw was pitching, so why waste money on a ticket for a losing game?  I wonder if they know who's pitching for the Dodgers in Game Two?

The people who can't (or won't?) synch up the radio broadcast with TV.  I love listening to Vinny, but it was slightly annoying that for innings 1-3 the radio was 5 seconds ahead of the TV.  Hence, I knew balls, strikes and outs before the pitcher on TV even began his wind up.  However, it was kind of sweet to know A-Gon's home run was a home run ahead of time.  Just for laughs, innings 7-9 switched it up and had the radio lag behind TV for five seconds.  That was slightly less annoying.

Damn Mattingly.  Speaking of inane. The Dodgers were up 4-0 in the 5th inning and had Atlanta reeling.  We had two men on, and Juan Uribe at the plate.  Uribe could have broken that game wide open if allowed to swing, but Mattingly had him bunt!!!  Stop already with these ridiculous bunts in ridiculous situations.  Sheesh!  Other than that, Mattingly was a genius.


I can't wait for Game Two. 



 

Damn Mattingly - A Big Blue Liability

Right before the 2013 All-Star game, lots of folks wanted to throw manager Damn Mattingly under the Dodger bus.  They were right then and they continue to be right still. 

No, we can't lay that crazy, first half of the season, epidemic of injuries at the feet of  the manager.  Having half of our team on the DL for half of the season certainly accounted for many of the losses that led the Dodgers to last place.   I don't blame him for things outside of his control - like those injuries - but Mattingly's gotta take the heat for the things he can control.

                                    Can't manage a bullpen.                       Associated Press

There are those out there who argue that a manager just doesn't matter that much, and I've stated my opposite opinions on that in the past.  While it's often true that a historically long losing streak can't be blamed solely on a manager, a historically long winning streak shouldn't automatically go to his credit either.

When the Dodgers got healthy and turned their season around  with a winning rampage, a number of sports writers and bloggers were quick to anoint Mattingly as a good manager who simply needed his full line up in order for all of us to appreciate his superior baseball management skills for what they really are.  Hogwash!

His limitations as a manger were evident in 2012, and they continue to rear their ugly heads regularly now.

                                         Can't manage a big league batting line up.                      Getty Images

If we can't blame a manager for all those losses any more than give him supreme credit for all those wins, doesn't that mean a manger doesn't make that much of a difference?  On the surface it might look like that, but let's revisit some of Mattingly's decisions over this recent losing run the Dodgers are currently mired in.

Over the recent 4-game series against the Giants, Hunter Pence absolutely ran roughshod over Dodger pitching.  He crushed homers in every game, including a grand slam and two - TWO fricken' homers on Sunday.

There are things a manger can control; that's why he's called THE MANAGER.   By the time we got to Sunday's game, one would think Mattingly would order his pitchers to just not give anything close to a strike to Pence.  Especially in a game that was as close as Sunday's.  I'm going out on a limb and say Mattingly gave no such orders.  Pence notched two more homers in the final game and his bat beat us for the fourth game in a row.

Exit Giants, enter the Diamondbacks.  First game, first inning.  Hyun-Jin Ryu had just walked lead off man A.J. Pollack on four pitches, and Paul Goldschmidt was next up to the plate.  Anyone who follows the Dodgers and the Snakes knows that Goldschmidt is a career Dodger killer.  Anybody who knows baseball knows that after walking the first batter on four pitches, Ryu was going to immediately try to get back into the strike zone.  But Mattingly never should have let Ryu do that. How about giving the guy an unintentional, intentional walk?  You don't have to give him four wide ones, just stay off the plate and see if he chases because he's anxious.  Nope.  Let's pitch to him and see what happens.  Strikes + Dodger killer = 2-run HR.  Anybody else have visions of Jack Clark?

The Dodgers have been losing a lot more than I like recently, but most have been close games, and the results were always hanging in the balance, which is often the place where a savvy manager makes a difference.

My final case in point tonight...

                                             Can't manage a 9th inning rally.                                   Getty Images

Despite the injuries plaguing us yet again, and a scrappy second-tier lineup, the Dodgers manged to keep the game close and get the tying and go ahead runs on base in the 9th.  We had Hope!  Things looked pretty darn good as Juan Uribe, he of massive home run power and one of our hottest bats right now, stepped up to the plate.

Are you ready for this?  Damn Mattingly had him bunt - BUNT !!!!!!!!!!!!   Something the guy has only done successfully 4 times over the past 4 years.  Uribe recently had a 3-home run game and Mattingly took the bat out of his hands by having him bunt.  It must have been because last week's farm leaguer, Chili Buss was on deck. ARGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!  Of course this uber-genius strategy of having the Mighty Casey bunt didn't work and the Dodgers eventually lost.  And don't even get me started on his decision to bat Uribe seventh in the line up.  *Sigh*

I'm going to estimate managers make enough crucial game decisions in enough close games over the course of a season to win or lose 10 to 15 games with those decisions.  And that's a conservative estimate in my opinion.  Smart managers will help their teams pick up 10 wins, while dopey decisions will lose 10.  Anybody else have visions of Brandon League?  

Mattingly didn't cause the first lousy half of the season, and he didn't mastermind the brilliant second half.  But man oh man, he had his hand in controlling enough other factors to make a difference.

Think about that, where would the Dodgers be right now with  8-10 extra wins in their pocket?   

Say What?

So it's been going around the blogs, tweetosphere and other assorted sportswriter and fan's habitats that Brandon League, the broken - but far from broke - $22.5m, former Dodger closer, won't be pitching in any more "stressful" innings;  this according to manager Damn Mattingly.

I've got news for you, skipper.

Victor Decolongon / Getty Images

EVERY fricken' inning this guy pitches is stressful!




There.  Now go out and prove me wrong, League.  Please.