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.

Tags: Barry Zito, Bengie Molina, Brad Penny, Juan Uribe, Randy Winn, Randy Wolf

Dodger games on TV are a premium up here, so I was pretty excited about today’s exhibition game between the Dodgers and Giants.  It’s funny though, I forgot that it was the day before Opening Day, therefore most of the regulars are on the bench…including Manny.

It’s an interesting game though because you got to see the depth or lack of depth of the Dodgers lineup this year.  Juan Pierre, Mark Loretta, Brad Ausmus, Blake DeWitt – all decent players but all the bench guys for this coming year.

What caught my attention though were the starters who were in there – James McDonald, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and James Loney.  Obviously, there isn’t a back up for every spot, so you have to keep some regulars.

Here’s where my thoughts turned to concern.  Let’s think worst case scenario this year.  If Manny, Kemp or Eithier go down, Pierre is the everyday.  If two go down, it becomes a different question.

If Blake, Furcal, or Hudson go down, then you have Blake DeWitt or Mark Loretta.  Similarly, Martin goes down, then Ausmus.

Here’s the one that I couldn’t answer though.  What happens if Loney goes down?  I’m convinced the guy will win the batting title some day and he doesn’t seem prone to injury, but you never know what will happen.  I guess Casey Blake could go over there, but who else?  Mientkiewicz is an easy answer if he makes the team, but that hasn’t been decided yet.

I’m sure the Dodgers top brass have thought through this scenario, but it isn’t really obvious. 

Well, back to the game.  McDonald looks a little shaky.  Pierre is running like always.  Ethier doesn’t seem quite right yet, but Loney looks solid.  Bengie Molina and Randy Winn continue to be Dodger killers.

Let the Season begin!

Tags: Andre Ethier, Bengie Molina, Blake DeWitt, Brad Ausmus, Casey Blake, Doug Mientkiewicz, James Loney, James McDonald, Juan Pierre, Manny Ramirez, Mark Loretta, Matt Kemp, Orlando Hudson, Rafael Furcal, Randy Winn, Russell Martin