Casey Blake - Jed Jacobsohn - Getty Images

Ahh, the Dodgers. How I do love thee, especially when you beat the Giants and I drive to work hearing the local talk shows whine and cry about how bad the Giants are. It is a beautiful day, no matter what the weather, one full of hope and joy, and great bragging….

Man I love living up here when the Dodgers beat the Giants. It’s hard to sum it up in words. I listened to the Murph and Mack show today, which I have come to really enjoy because they talk good baseball. Today, they were lamenting the loss last night…lamenting a lot. Got to love Manny being involved and then my boy Casey Blake hitting the homerun. Talk about Giant killers. Those guys just seem to come alive against the Giants.

The talk radio shows had quite the comments today. There was a Dodger fan who pointed out that the Giants just can’t beat a very flawed Dodger team. The Dodgers sat four of their starters and still came away with the win.

There was another fan who pointed out that ever since Renteria came back from the DL, that the Giants haven’t played as well. There is many a Giants fan who feels that Rowand, Renteria and Molina should all sit now and let the young guys get it done. It is too bad to see Molina not doing well. I respect a longtime Dodger killer, but he just doesn’t have it these days.

Also, there is great trepidation regarding Pablo Sandoval. He was the Giant Panda killer last year, but this year, he’s just another meal at Panda Express. People are eating him for lunch and he just seems to have lost his groove.

The best part of last night was the Dodgers bouncing back from the Yankees defeat. The Dodgers are now 19 and 5 against the National League West and seem to thrive against these teams.

We’ll see tonight as Cain may stop them cold, but one up is the way to start.

I’ve decided that when watching the Dodgers/Giants that you might as well wait until the 7th inning to really park yourself and watch the game. It doesn’t matter what day, whose pitching, or even the lineup, the score is usually close or tied until the 7th, and then the game is won. As long as the Dodgers do win it after the 7th (like last night), I don’t have any problems with the strategy. Go Blue.

Ok. So if this was the presidential election, the Giants would be raked over the coals for being Wishy Washy. Talk about a Flip Flop.

The Giants announced the re-signing of Jose Uribe and now Bengie Molina.  Apparently Bengie didn’t get the length or money he wanted from the Mets, so he decided playing for the Giants wouldn’t be that bad.  It is only one year, so he can go seek a longer deal after.  It is good for the Giants as it will give Buster Posey a little more time in the minors, but also because they got their cleanup hitter back….

This news isn’t great for Dodger fans because Jose Uribe and Bengie Molina both had their number last year, so there could be more disappointments this year.

The Giants also recently added Aubrey Huff.  This one made the fans up here kind of scratch their heads.  He will play 1st base (which they have a rookie for), and can hit, but he definitely wasn’t the big bat the fans were hoping for.  

I talked to a Giants fan this week who had an interesting perspective on this year.  Molina and Huff are signed only for one year as well as Jonathan Sanchez.  Aaron Rowand and Edgar Renteria also only have one year left.  This means that in one year 5 of 9 position players (when Sanchez pitches) will be gone.  This signifies that the Giants are really “going for it” this year, or they are just trying to ”get through” this year until next year when they can clear payroll, get some veterans and bring up the rookies.  Given that Aubrey Huff and Mark DeRosa are not star hitters…I lean towards the “get through” approach.  They will have more power, but not that much.

What do you think – Wishy Washy or just frugal?  I’m going to take Wishy Washy and rub it in to Giants fans as long as I can.

Bengie Molina - Frederic Larson - SF Chronicle

It’s never fun to read the annual winners and losers columns from the winter meetings and see the Dodgers in the losing column. John Heyman with Sports Illustrated put them there (Link Here), and I do have to agree with him. This divorce has put a cloud over the Dodgers and they now have even more pitching needs.

After thinking about it more though, the Dodgers didn’t do that bad.  Actually they did quite well from the perspective of the Dodgers/Giants rivalry.  This week it was confirmed that Bengie Molina, Brad Penny and Juan Uribe would not be returning to the Giants.  Although none of them are high all-stars, they were very important to the Giants. 

Bengie Molina was their second big bat with Pablo Sandoval.  Brad Penny gave them a late surge of pitching and Juan Uribe won the hearts of the fans by having numerous late game heroics.  Losing Bengie will hurt them the most.  He was solid behind the plate and always clutch with the bat.  The fans felt he was too slow, the but the real issue is that he was expected to be the #4 hitter on a team when he should have been the #7 hitter.  He also didn’t like it when they started using a different catcher with Barry Zito, and wanted a long term contract, so I guess he didn’t feel truly wanted back.

Bottom line though, those three guys were Dodger Killers and losing them will definitely help the Dodgers.  Bengie didn’t have a great average against the Dodgers, but he had clutch RBI’s to beat them multiple times.  Juan Uribe hit  .340 against the Dodgers last year, so he definitely had their number.  Brad Penny got beat up by the Dodgers in a key game down the stretch last year, but otherwise he pitched pretty good against them and definitely had the motiviation to beat them.

Now, on the flip side Randy Wolf was a stud against the Giants last year with a 1.35 ERA, so that will definitely hurt the Dodgers.  He ate up a lot of innings, so the Dodgers definitely have a big hole to fill.

Now if only the Giants get rid of Randy Winn, then the Dodgers will really be in good shape.    All in all, not a great week, but against the Giants it wasn’t that bad.

By the way, special welcome to all of you who have visited the site through Twitter.  You can catch out my tweets through this site, or by looking up SFDodgerfan.  Go Blue.

Bengie Molina - Fox Sports.com

Well, so much for predictions. Vincente Padilla just didn’t have it tonight, and the Dodgers couldn’t get it done. I thought Ethier could do his MVP thing in the 7th…but apparently his magic only works when the game is truly on the line. The Giants looked strong and they just looked like they wanted it more.

Tonight was funny though because there were two things in the game that I’ve never seen before. Ironically they both had to do with Bengie Molina.

First, he hit in a double play which wouldn’t have been special except that it was the slowest double play I’ve ever seen. The ball went to third, Blake sent it to second where Hudson had to step away to dodge the sliding runner. You figured the Dodgers would just get one. Then, it was like time slowed down. Hudson stepped out of the way, twirled, and then realized Bengie was still way down the line and then “decided” to throw down to first.  There was seriously a 2-3 second delay.  It was like there was a time warp and then he realized he could still get the second out. Ironically he threw it to first and still beat Bengie by at least 3 or 4 steps. Cool play that will soon be forgotten, but was something I’d never seen.

The second play was not very long after. There was a pitch by the Giants and for whatever reason Bengie was having problems with the pad strap on his catching gear. You figured he would fix it, but it seemed to be taking too long. Then all of a sudden, you saw a bat boy bringing a whole second set of equipment out to Bengie. First off, who knew catchers had a whole second set of equipment ready at all times? Second, why not just change the leg protectors, instead of everything? It was pretty random, but again something I’d never seen before.

Well, not quite what I expected and the Giants gained a game since the Rockies lost. Here’s hoping tomorrow shines a little more blue.

Bengie Molina - Fox Sports

The Giants have been a tale of feast or famine this week. They got swept by the Angels, but then they swept the Rangers. I have to admit that I love the fact that my second favorite team, the Angels swept the Giants!

The Giants are still right in this, and even Barry Zito, their very overpaid pitcher took a no-hitter into the seventh today. I’m still waiting on rumors of who they may of after to make a playoff push.

I did hear a rumor yesterday that the Dodgers may go after Jarod Washburn of Seattle before the All-Star break. I’m both ways on him. He wasn’t bad with the Angels, but he’s been pretty middle of the road of late. I am confident that Ned Coletti will pick up someone though. He always does.

The big thing the Giants are pushing this week is their Vote for Bengie campaign. He’s their main All-Star potential other than Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, but he is often overlooked as a catcher. Actually he had slightly better numbers than Russell Martin last year, but didn’t get to go. This year, he is having a great year. He is under .300 now, but his 10 homeruns and 40 RBI’s truly carry this team. He’s definitely clutch for them in everyway and deserves to go to the All-Star game.

By the way, here’s a great article looking into why Russell Martin is sliding so bad this year. It’s from Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness (click here).  Thankfully Russell finally hit a homerun this weekend, so hopefully he is on his way back.

Until next week – Go Blue.