Wishful Thinking

Could this wonderful partnership/friendship be coming to an end?

 In recent news there is a long shot chance (extremely long shot, so let's not get too excited) that the Cubs may be interested in our very own Ned Colletti to fill their opening for general manager.  Because of our admiration of his work and our desire to see him succeed, we here at Proven Veteran Leaders have decided to be grown-ups about this and submit the following letter of recommendation.

Dear Tom Ricketts,

We are writing on behalf of Ned Colletti, who we believe is an ideal fit to be the general manager of your fine franchise.  He got his start in your organization and we feel that a reunion would be good for you and good for baseball.  You see, Ned’s an old-school type, a real “baseball guy.”  He’s not one of those nerds who tend to rely on things like statistics and “facts” in their evaluations of baseball players.  He relies on his own damn peepers, and looks for players with guts and a knowledge of how to win.  You might be saying to yourself: “Those sound like intangible things with no real way to measure or quantify them.”  Well first of all, that sounds like Communist talk to us.  Second of all, and this really is the greatest thing about Ned Colletti.  There is a way to quantify intangibles, and Ned Colletti is the only one who can do it!  That’s right, he has figured out a way to measure the immeasurable, calculate the incalculable, tangabilize  the intangible. 

                It’s because of this we feel Ned Colletti would be a great leader for your organization.  In addition, he likes the same gritty white players the Cubs seem to enjoy.  We’ve employed both Ryan Theriot and Aaron Miles in the past two seasons.  Of course, you know all about Ryan Theriot as you traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Blake Dewitt.  What’s that you’re saying?  Blake Dewitt is not nearly scrappy enough, or white enough, for you?  Well, then rest easy.  Ned Colletti will trade him for the most valuable asset in the game of baseball.  That’s right, middle relief. 

                Now you might be wondering why we’d be so eager to rid ourselves of such a great leader.  Well, the thing is, as you may have heard the Los Angeles Dodgers are in a built of a pickle with their ownership.  See, with Frank McCourt at the helm, the Dodgers won’t be able to afford to go after the top tier free agents, or middle-tier for that matter, so we feel Ned’s gifts of overpaying for marginal talent would best be put to use where there might be money for him to waste, pardon, invest.  What the Dodgers will do, is just give a young guy like Logan White a chance to build a cheap team.  Dodger fans everywhere are willing to make this sacrifice for you.  Plus, Ned Colletti already has an awesome Chicago ‘stache.  Hell, if Saturday Night Live ever brings back the “Da Bears” sketch, he could fill the late Chris Farley’s role no problem.  That kind of ‘stache just can’t be bought. 

Sincerely,

Proven Veteran Leaders

And in other news, Kenley Jansen has been activated with Josh Lindblom sent back down to aaa to make room.  Don't worry, Lindblom fans.  He should be up as soon as rosters expand on September 1st.  Also, it looks like Dee Gordon should be back by Saturday.  Let's just hope this means that Eugenio Velez can continue his pursuit of a hitless season in another uniform rather than Justin Sellers getting sent down.  

Depressed Dodgers taking frustrations out on themselves

We apologize for the lack of posts lately, but we're still stinging from Wednesday's loss.  Not only did the Dodgers blow a six run lead and ended up losing 9-8, but they lost Dee Gordon to the disabled list.  Nothing seems to be going right for the Dodgers this season.  I think we can all agree that Ned Colletti is a terrible GM and Frank McCourt is the incarnate of Lucifer himself but, believe it or  not, there are more reasons then just those two why the Dodgers find themselves just one game out of last place in the National League West.
One of those things is luck.  I believe the last time I checked the Dodgers, at one time or another in the season, have placed 974 players on the disabled list.  But that's just an estimate on my part, really.  Some of these guys we knew would spend some time on the DL, like Blake and Furcal, and some guys were pretty likely, such as Uribe (because he's old and fat).  But then there's the young guys too.  Broxton, Kuo, Hawksworth, Jansen, De La Rosa, and now, Dee Gordon.  This is just getting ridiculous.  The Dodgers infield now consists of Loney at first (owner of the worst OPS in baseball since the all-star break),  the hitless wonder Eugenio Velez at second, solid-but-bug-eyed Jamey Carroll at short, and Aaron Miles, on loan from a Tolkien novel, at third.  Other than Loney, none of those guys were expected to be regular contributors, or, in Miles and Velez's case, probably not even on the 25 man roster.  This team is clearly snake-bitten with injuries, and though we wrote this season off long ago, it's still a bummer to have the one joy left taken from us, and that is watching a guy like Dee Gordon get a chance to show he can handle the Major Leagues. 

Now, I should add that since Dee Gordon is hurt, it's a good thing that he's going to the disabled list.  That doesn't sound terribly insightful, but too often we see players trying to keep injuries secret and play through them, hurting themselves and the team (I'm looking at you Jonathan Broxton).  With the Dodgers as bad as they are, there is no reason to risk Dee Gordon's long term health by trotting him out there.  This was a good call by the Dodgers, even though they are calling it mostly precautionary.  The hope is that Dee will take the 15 days, get healthy, and then come back and play every day for the rest of the season.  This should still give the team plenty of time to properly evaluate whether or not he's ready to handle the starting job next season. 

In other news, the Dodgers agreed to terms with their first round draft pick, Chris Reed,  and he will be introduced at Dodger Stadium tonight.  He signed for what appears to be a 1.589 signing bonus, which is slightly above slot.  I gotta say, it's nice to see the Dodgers going over slot to get talent.  Last year they did it to get Zach Lee, this year for Reed.  I sort of wonder if McCourt authorized it just to piss Bud Selig off, but either way we'll take it.

Update:  It appears the Dodgers called up shortstop Justin Sellers from Albuquerque to take Gordon's place on the roster.  Sellers doesn't exactly quality as a prospect, as he's 25 years old with a career .746 OPS in the minors, but at least there's some upside there.  Here's hoping he'll get more playing time than Eugenio Velez.

Things We Learned from Today's Game (8/7/11)

Overview:  Ransom costs Dodgers/Kershaw win.  Diamondbacks 4 Dodgers 3

Pros:  Clayton Kershaw's overall numbers might not look all that great, pitching 6 and 1/3 innings and surrendering four runs while walking three.  This only tells half the story though.  Kershaw struggled out of the gate, walking Ryan Roberts on four pitches then giving up a two run blast to Kelly Johnson on a 3-2 pitch.  Kershaw would go on to walk another in the first, throwing 31 pitches in the inning.  After that, though, he cruised for the next five innings, allowing only two hits.  He looked virtually unbeatable until the seventh when he gave up another two run homer to Cody Ransom, of all people.  Those four runs he gave up were insurmountable for the Dodgers, but Kershaw, for the most part, pitched much better than his line suggests.  He did strike out 7, raising his season total to 184 in 167 and 2/3 innings, and continues to lead the league in that category. 
Other positives that came from today was James Loney homering in the fifth (fun note: I was complaining during his at-bat that he never turned on balls anymore and always seems to pop the ball up to the left side, then immediately after he drove the ball over the right field fence).
Lindblom also looked good, pitching a scoreless inning and 2/3 to finish the game and lower his season ERA to 1.80.
Finally, Aaron Miles scoring from first on a double by Ethier was one of the funniest images I've seen in a long time.  He is a small, hobbit-like man.  

Cons:  As mentioned earlier, Kershaw gave up a homerun to Cody Ransom.  And it was no cheap shot either.  It was gone the second it touched his bat.  Ransom hadn't hit a homerun all year, and in parts of 9seasons in the majors, he has hit a total of 9.  So, of course he hit a homerun against the Dodgers best pitcher.  Why wouldn't he?
Meanwhile, Navarro went hitless, dropping his season average back below .200, while Eugenio Velez, who is not very good, continues to look for his first hit of the season.   Look, I know Gordon is hurting, Furcal's been traded and their aren't a lot of great middle infield options for the Dodgers right now, but can't Ivan DeJesus Jr or Justin Sellers at least get a look?  At least there's some upside in those two.  Eugenio Velez, who is not very good, has zero upside and contributes nothing to this team  now, or the future.  Did I mention he's not very good?  I do hear he's fast, but I have trouble verifying that because I've never seen him on the basepaths before. 
It's not often that we mention negatives about Matt Kemp (much less about Kershaw and Kemp) but I'm not sure what he could've been thinking trying to bunt for a hit.  A guy having an MVP caliber season like he is should pretty much under no circumstances be laying down a bunt.  Even if he had beat it out, it would've been a bad idea.  The Dodgers need his power more than his ability to show off his awesome bunting ability.  By the way, that was sarcasm, because it was a horrible bunt.  We love you, Matt.  We just disagree with this particular decision of yours.  (We don't want to anger him too much, because we'd really like him to sign with the Dodgers long term).

What we learned:  That trotting out an infield of Aaron Miles, Jamey Carroll (nothing against him, he's been very good for this team for two years now, but he still should be a utility player on a better team), Eugenio Velez and James Loney (yes, I remember he homered today, but remember it's just  his fifth of the season), with Dioner Navarro catching, is not going to win many games.  I know some of us were getting excited about the Dodgers playing well of late, but a team that trots those guys out on a regular basis is not a playoff team.  We here at Proven Veteran Leaders don't want to be complete downers, we're just frightened of Ned Colletti getting excited about the "playoff hunt" and trading prospects not on the 40 man roster for, well, Proven Veteran Leaders.