Let me start by saying that I like the trade for Scott Posednik. The Dodgers needed depth in the outfield with a guy who could be a catalyst, and Scott fills that role. I tend not to focus as much on who is given away, as much as who is coming. I agree not to give up your top minor league talent, but too many times minor leaguers don’t develop into major league studs, so going with established major leaguers is a good policy. Picking up Scott Posednik is a classic Ned Colletti move as he is an established veteran who has previously won the World Series.

All right – now let’s get to the point. The Dodgers are now really missing Juan Pierre. I respect that Ned Colletti made a promise to Juan to try to trade him and John Ely has been a decent pickup. Having said that, everyone wondered this off-season who would come off the bench if Manny got injured. No we know the answer. No one.

Just for kicks, here is a comparison of Juan and Scott’s stats this year, Juan with the White Sox, and Scott with the Royals.

If you look at Games, At Bats and runs, they are really similar.  Thankfully though, it looks like Ned Colletti went for an upgrade in the other categories.  I definitely like the average, RBI’s.  I also like that he can occasionally hit a home run….something Juan Pierre really couldn’t do.

bottom line though…the Dodgers needed help and now had to give up two minor leaguers, plus pay Juan’s salary, rather than just keep paying Juan his salary….Such is modern baseball.

I had a friend who is a Royal’s fan thank me for taking Scott off their hands at his highest value and helping fill their farm system.  He also feels that there is no chance the Dodgers will re-sign him at the end of the season.  (Many thanks for rubbing it in Ryan…by the way, how does it feel to be 21.5 games out every year?)

I do have to give Ned Colletti credit as he is a great fans general manager.  He is always active at this time of year and you know the Dodgers are trying.  Not all his trades work, but he’s got a pretty good average at this point, and he definitely keeps the fans interested.  They didn’t get Oswalt (Phillies win again…and may in the NLCS again), but I like that he is obviously trying to improve the team.

Stay tuned for my next post, a pre-view to the Dodgers/Giants this weekend.  By the way, I’m betting Ted Lilly is a Dodger by the end of the day.

Well, my hope came true. The Dodgers silenced the Giants last night and proved that Tuesday night’s game was just something random.

I like what I saw from the Dodger pitchers of late. Padilla, Kershaw and Billingsley strung together some good outings. My boy Casey Blake couldn’t get it done on Monday, but he sure did it last night. He just does his job quietly, but he was a huge lift to the Dodgers last night.

It was funny today because the talk of Giant fans was still the umpire call from Tuesday night. I didn’t realize it, but there was even some debate in major league baseball as to what should happen. It really seems like Jonathan Broxton should have at least gotten to finish the one batter.  Either that, or Don Mattingly should have been tossed.  Either way, I’m confident that Don Mattingly won’t ever make that mistake again.

The Dodgers now face New York before coming back up here next weekend.  If you’re going to the game on Aug 1, drop me a line at scott@sfdodgerfan.com.  I”ll be there with a whole troop from my company.  They changed the game to 5:05pm so ESPN could pick up the game.  The Dodgers will dominate the weekend as they are on Fox on Saturday and ESPN on Sunday.  They need to come out strong from here as the Padres and Rookies don’t seem to be losing much.

Go Blue.

Nothing like shame, defeat and embarrassment coming from your most hated enemy. Last night is one I hope the Dodgers just chalk up as a weird loss and move on.

I hope this happens because the Giants fans were sure pumped up this morning. I didn’t get a lot of comments at work (I was expecting them), but the talk shows this morning were all about how this was Bruce Bochy’s best game and how this win may change the rest of the season. Wishful thinking can be a horrible thing…

Not sure where to start on this one. My predictions still ring true that the Giants would win the first two…but I wasn’t very accurate on how it came about.

Timmy Lincecum got beat up. Andre Ethier is hot and everything seemed fine. Then, there were some beanings and suddenly Clayton Kershaw and Joe Torre are heading home early.  The talk shows thought Joe Torre was stupid to have Clayton Kershaw bean him, rather than some reliever who wouldn’t matter being tossed.  Could be true, but it does say something that Kershaw stood up for the team.

Then the 9th.  Welcome to management Don Mattingly.  A lot of managers start 0-1, so hopefully you can rebound from this one.  If you didn’t see it Mattingly accidentally stepped on the mound twice while out between the lines, and therefore Jonathan Broxton had to leave.

He had to leave for George Sherrill.  That was Mattingly’s second mistake.  I just wrote yesterday that hopefully it wouldn’t come down to Mr. Sherrill.  He just doesn’t have it right now and definitely shouldn’t be the guy with the game on the line, no matter if the batter is right or left handed.

Sherrill gives up the hit and the Giants walk away with a come from behind victory that they can build on. 

This is one game, but the Dodgers better snap out of this.  Regardless of tonight, they aren’t looking good.  The bullpen is weak and they can’t beat the teams they need to.  I hate to say it, but I don’t see this team (the way they are currently playing right now) making the playoffs.  They may beat out the Giants, but the Padres and Rockies should claim the top two spots.  I”m sure Mad Colletti is working on stuff because he knows the train needs some maintenance.

Tonight Billingsley.  Time to show that last night can be quickly forgotten.  Here’s hoping.

The best part of a sweep in San Francisco is that all your friends down in L.A. start to call you to say congratulations. We are all part of the same club, I’m just a remote ambassador. It’s fun when everyone is united and they know it was a big deal to sweep the Giants in their own park.

The great thing about yesterday was that it was the Giants fans who kept telling me the score. They knew they had lost the series, and as the score kept going up, they felt inclined to see if I knew about it. It was like they were trying to soften the blow of me coming to them and bragging about the score. Either way it was fun.

Bring out the brooms. Good stuff.

I’m going to have to call out Matt Kemp in these posts more often.  He tore it up yesterday.  Here’s hoping that can continue.

Go Blue!

Just like last year, there are few things better than doing some “silent bragging” via the use of a whiteboard at work. I started with the “Go Dodgers” before the series, but today added the brooms. The best part is the reactions.

Yesterday, the Giant fans were in arms that I even had the audacity to root for the Dodgers rather than the Giants. Today, ahh today, they just lower their head and walk on.

It’s such a funny thing it cracks me up. I knew it was coming too. There’s been a few times now that the Dodgers have taken the first two games of the series. The Giants fans know they are beaten, they lost the series, and now they just hope they don’t have to take too much crow from us Dodger Fans. I on the other hand take great joy coming to work and talking with anyone I can about how “good” the game was last night and how “bad” the Giants are.

The talk shows were all abuzz again this morning, some feeling that the Giants will never turn it around (fine with me), and those who feel it is just a long season and this will pass.  The thing interesting this morning is that there really is a feeling now that the Giants are free falling.  They have lost 4 series in a row, aren’t getting the production out of their veterans, and don’t trust their General Manager to help them at the trade deadline.  It’s looking bad with no real hope of change.  Again, that’s fine with me.  Get the Dodgers the sweep, and then Giant fans can continue to wallow in self pity.

On another note, I need to talk about Matt Kemp.  I haven’t touched on him a lot this year, but I now believe he is the key to the end of the Dodgers season.  Manny Ramirez went down yesterday which I don’t think will be that bad, but Kemp has been benched the last few games.  He fell apart after Ned Colletti called him out earlier this season, and now Joe Torre had a closed door meeting with him.  The expectation is that he will put it all together at some point, but he certainly doesn’t seem to be doing it after his new 10 million salary this last off season.  On one hand I consider putting him on my fantasy team because now he should figure this out.  On the other hand, if Joe Torre is benching him, there are fundamental work ethic questions involved.  Here’s hoping this can all be resolved as the Dodgers need him and he can bring great offense.  If the Dodgers have truly soured on him, I wonder if he could be trade bait.  We’ll see.

Go Blue and bring on the brooms!