Oct 16

LCS, Day Four

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The Tigers look to increase their 2 – 0 advantage over the Yankees tonight at Comerica Park in Detroit at 8:00PM Eastern. With Justin Verlander starting you have to like their chances. The Yankees send out Phil Hughes to try to stop the bleeding, but unless their hitters start to produce it may not matter who they put on the mound. From an AP story:

Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher are a combined 12 for 107 — for a .112 batting average — in the playoffs.

Add catcher Russell Martin, and five regulars are below .200, hitting a combined 17 for 133 with 42 strikeouts — 25 more strikeouts than hits. They have a combined seven RBIs, four of those by Cano.

Dodgers fans can relate. That’s reminiscent of what the Dodgers did for about half of September.

Update: Hoping to jump-start the hitting, Yankees’ manager Girardi has benched A-Rod and Swisher for tonight’s game, replacing them with Brett Gardner in left field and Eric Chavez at third base. Gardner will lead off in place of the injured Jeter, Ichiro moves to right field and hits second, Chavez will hit seventh, and Eduardo Nunez will play short and hit ninth.

Oct 15

Dodger update, mid-postseason

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I think I’m just going to keep this post open for additions for the next week or so as new news (if any) appears. You might want to bookmark it.

Chad Moriyama has an interesting tidbit about the potential signing of a Japanese pitcher named Shohei Otani out of high school, which he thinks if it happens is the first time a Japanese player signed with an MLB team without playing professionally in Japan first. (Yu Darvish is only 26, but he pitched for seven years in Japan before signing with the Rangers.)

Chad also has a video of the young man.

Update: Otani has now decided to make himself eligible for the MLB draft rather than the Japanese league draft. MSTI has some thoughts, as does Moriyama.

Update: In his ongoing grading session, Mark Saxon gives the bullpen an A-minus. He identifies keeping League, Jensen, and Belisario as the most critical (and possibly easiest) jobs for Colletti in the offseason. League, a free agent, indicated he’d like to stay in LA since it’s near his San Diego home, and the other two are pre-arbitration eligible and under contract for next year. Long relief could involve re-signing Jamie Wright; Matt Guerrier is under contract for next year despite pitching only 16 innings in 2012 and arriving on the disabled list earlier in the year. Shawn Tolleson could continue as a middle-innings guy as well.

Update: Roberto at Vin Scully is my Homeboy has collected half-a-dozen Dodger stories, including one I’d not heard and didn’t want to hear: that somebody suggested the Dodgers solve their third-base problem by taking Alex Rodriguez off the Yankees’ hands. Shudder. If any idea should die a-borning, please let it be that one!

Update: Over at ESPN LA Mark Saxon asks whether the Dodgers should consider moving Matt Kemp to a corner outfield spot in order to save his body from itself.

You simply don’t see many center fielders who are 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds. When a body that big collides with a less-than-forgiving wall or flops awkwardly on the ground, the physics aren’t forgiving.

Saxon points out that, sabermetrically, Kemp has been a below-average centerfielder defensively since 2009 and implies that the team’s fielding wouldn’t be hurt if he did move. Of course, then you have to find another centerfielder, and Crawford’s arm may not be recovered enough in 2013 for him to play there. So Saxon suggests this should be something the Dodgers should think about for 2014. What do you think?

Update: Having fired Dave Hansen as hitting coach, who should take his place? Saxon at ESPN LA has some thoughts.

Update: Vin Scully is my Homeboy‘s Roberto Baly has the text of a press release from the Dodgers announcing the hiring of longtime baseball executive Gerry Hunsicker as Senior Advisor, Baseball Operations.

Hunsicker will assist Colletti and President and CEO Stan Kasten with the Dodgers’ big league club while also lending his expertise to international scouting and development, pro scouting and minor league development.

Oct 14

LCS, Day Two

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Tiger at Yankees. Anibal Sanchez for the Tigers and old friend Hiroki Kuroda for the Yankees. I’m happy for Kuroda getting a chance to pitch in the LCS, but I hope he leaves with the game tied and the Yankees blow it after he’s out.

Oh, in case you haven’t heard, the Yankees have some guy named Jeter playing shortstop. He broke his ankle in the twelfth inning of last night’s game and he’s out for the year.

Cardinals at Giants. Madison Bumgarner for the Giants and Lance Lynn for the Cardinals. The teams split their six games during the regular season.

Update: David Pinto at Baseball Musings has excellent previews of these two series. Here’s the one for the Cardinals – Giants, and here’s the one for the Tigers – Yankees.

Oct 13

LCS, Day One

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Only one game today, Tigers v. Yankees at Yankee Stadium at 8:00PM Eastern. It’s Doug Fister for the Tigers and Andy Pettitte for the Yankees. Pettitte’s next win in the postseason will be his 20th, which is astonishing, but is also symbolic of the inflation in the number of postseason games since 1995 when the Division Series was added as a result of splitting the leagues into three divisions each. The leader before the new playoff series were adopted was Whitey Ford with 10 wins (the League Championship Series started in 1969).

The Tigers have Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera; the Yankees have the Rodriguez soap opera plus Jeter and Granderson and Swisher and Texeira and Cano.

Oct 13

Dodger’s grades, cont.

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In an ongoing series, Mark Saxon grades the Dodgers’ outfield this past season and looks ahead to what it might be next season, with a healthy Kemp, a recovered Crawford and a steady Ethier.

After that he does the same thing for the pitching rotation. Beyond Kershaw, forecasting who makes it up is the interesting question there, since we don’t yet know whether Billingsley will have Tommy John surgery. The latest news about that is from October 3, when Trainer Sue Falsone said “Billingsley can avoid Tommy John surgery if he stays pain-free, but ‘if he hits any road bumps he’s probably going to have to have surgery.'” A week ago he was playing catch two of every three days and reporting no pain, but that could change.

Then there’s Lilly. We won’t know till spring training whether his shoulder has fully recovered. Harang and Capuano are under contract, as is Beckett. Blanton is a free agent and will likely test the waters, but he didn’t perform all that well as a Dodger anyway.

A press release from ESPN LA says that Dave Hansen is out as hitting coach; he’s been offered another position within the organization. “Pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, third-base coach Tim Wallach, first-base coach Davey Lopes, bench coach Trey Hillman and bullpen coach Ken Howell will return in 2013.”

Oct 12

Division Series Day Seven

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Jayson Werth :: Rob Carr/Getty Images

After yesterday’s heroics, we’ll see who has what left in the tank.

The first game today is Game Five between the Orioles and Yankees at 5:00PM Eastern on TBS. It’s a rematch between Game One starters Jason Hammel of the Os and C.C. Sabathia of the Yankees. However, Alex Rodriguez has been benched and Eric Chavez will start at third, so expect minutes of airtime to be wasted discussing that. It’s pretty clear that A-Rod hasn’t been hitting; he’s got nine strikeouts in sixteen at-bats. If it weren’t for the fact that he’s A-Rod with his $29M-per-season salary this would be of no news value at all.

The second game is Game Five between the Nationals and the Cardinals. The Game One starters are back for this game as well: Gio Gonzalez for the Nats and Adam Wainright for the Cards. The game starts at 8:30PM Eastern on TBS.

Oct 11

Division Series Day Six

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First up today at 1:00PM Eastern, Giants – Reds in Game 5. Matt Cain for the Giants and Mat Latos for the Reds. Winner-take-all, do-or-die, lose-and-go-home: pick your cliché. The Giants’ bats have seemingly finally awakened (12 hits in the series’ first three games, 11 in Game 4). If that holds up the Reds may be in trouble. At least they’re in Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

Update: Being at home did the Reds no good as Mat Latos surrendered six runs in the fifth inning, four on a grand slam by Buster Posey, and they couldn’t come back. The Giants win 6 – 4.

Game two today is in Washington at 4:00PM Eastern, Cardinals – Nationals, Game Four of their series with the Nationals down two games to one. It’s a must-win for the DC team, and they have to get production from more players than Ryan Zimmerman and Ian Desmond. Today’s pitchers: Kyle Lohse for the Cards and Ross Detwiler for the Nats.

Update: Ex-Dodger Jayson Werth hits a walkoff solo home run in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Nats force a Game Five tomorrow, winning 2 – 1.

Today’s third game is at Yankee Stadium, Orioles – Yankees at 7:30PM Eastern. The Orioles call on Joe Saunders to help them get past that stunning loss in twelve innings yesterday, while the Yankees pitch Phil Hughes. The Yankees lead the series two games to one, so the Os have to win to push the series to five games.

Update: Holy cow, as Harry Caray would say. The Orioles won 2 – 1 in 13 innings on a double by Machado and a subsequent double by J.J. Hardy. That forces a Game Five Friday evening at 5:00PM Eastern in the Bronx.

The final game of the day is Game Five in Oakland, Tigers – Athletics. If you use experience as a guide you’d have to go with the Tigers in this one, since they’re putting Game One starter Verlander out there again. Can the As Jarrod Parker possibly repeat his performance in Game One, when he gave up three runs in 6 1/3 innings? But, as Jim Leyland said last night after that improbable comeback by the As, “Yeah, well, it’s baseball,” Leyland said. “I mean, that’s why this is the greatest game of all. It looked like we were going to get it. We didn’t do it. We didn’t quite get the 27 outs. That’s part of the game.”

Amen to that.

Update: Verlander was just too good for the As. He shut them out 6 – 0 and the Tigers go on to the ALCS to face either the Orioles or the Yankees.

Oct 10

Dodgers news, mid-playoff edition

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At ESPN LA, Daniel Braunstein has written a combined look back/look forward post about the just-completed season.

Also at ESPN LA there’s an unsigned (but probably Mark Saxon-written) post putting a letter-grade on the infield’s performance for the season. Hint: you’d probably not be promoted to the next grade if you got the one he assigned.

Roberto Baly has a lot of links at Vin Scully is my Homeboy, including a podcast of Vin Scully on AM570 radio.

Via Roberto comes this link to a Ken Gurnick story which informs us that Yasiel Puig had a staph infection in his elbow requiring surgery. It’ll take three to five weeks to rehab and it means he’ll miss the Arizona Fall League.

Oct 10

Division Series Day Five

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Four games today, and the Washington – St. Louis one will be special if you care about the broadcasters. It’s on the MLB Network at 1:00PM Eastern, and Bob Costas and Jim Kaat will be in the booth. It’s been a long time since Costas last did a playoff game (for NBC in 1999), and the multiple Emmy-winning sportscaster has since moved to the MLB Network. This will be the first post-season game he’s done since that ’99 one. Kaat’s an Emmy-winning broadcaster in his own right. Oh, and if that’s not enough history, it’s the first postseason game in Washington since 1933.

The pitchers will be ex-Dodger, ex-Ray, ex-Tiger, ex-Diamondback, ex-White Sox, ex-Cardinal Edwin Jackson for the Nationals (10-11, 4.03 ERA) against Chris Carpenter (0-2, 3.71 ERA). Carpenter’s comeback from thoracic outlet syndrome is quite a story all of itself. He had surgery to repair it on July 19, yet here he is three months later pitching in the big leagues. The series is tied 1-1.

The second game of the day also starts at 4:00PM Eastern at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. It’s Game Four of the Giants – Reds series, and the Reds lead two games to one. The Giants will start Barry Zito with the entire bullpen in reserve for this must-win game. The Reds haven’t yet announced a starter. Game One starter Johnny Cueto is still injured, and it appears their options consist of Mat Latos on short rest or Mike Leake. Neither one is ideal. Latos pitched four innings in relief in Game One, and Leake was 8-9 with a 4.58 ERA for the season and would have to replace Cueto on the roster, meaning Cueto would be ineligible for the NLCS if the Reds get that far.

The third game of the day is Game Three between the Yankees and Orioles at Yankee Stadium, starting at 7:30PM Eastern. The starting pitchers are old friend Hiroki Kuroda (16-11, 3.32 ERA) for the Yankees and Miguel Gonzalez (9-4, 3.25 ERA). The two teams have played 20 times this season and each has won ten games.

The last game of the day is in Oakland at 9:30PM Eastern, where the Athletics play the Tigers in a do-or-die game. The Tigers lead the series two games to one. The As will trot out yet another rookie pitcher, A.J. Griffin (7-1, 3.06 ERA), while the Tigers counter with Max Scherzer (16-7, 3.74 ERA).