The Narnia 3 Blog

The Dodgers as April Ends

The month of April ends tomorrow and the Dodgers are right where they need to be for my mental well-being (well, not really), first place in the Western Division. The west is probably the best and most competative division in the National League with a good chance to send the second place team to the playoffs as the wild card.

The Dodgers, until the recent sweep by the Giants, were vying with the Red Sox for the best record in baseball, but they righted things taking two of three from the Padres. The Dodgers have a very deep team and a very deep minor league system, I just wish they would use it more.

The Dodgers have been in first place most of the year despite a few things:

• They are getting NO production from the Third Base position
• Furcal is off to a slow start (again) and doing almost nothing at the plate, batting about .200
• Jason Schmidt is on the DL and really should not be counted on for much the rest of this year. Any time a pitcher has a velocity decrease in the 7-10mph range that's usually a bad sign.
• The Dodgers have two tremendious liabilities in the outfield, Gonzales in left and Pierre in center.

Now, for what it's worth, there are some things they can do immediately to fix this.

The first problem is the biggest and can't be allowed to continue much longer. Wilson Betemit needs something to shake him up. It's too soon to simply give up on him and let him go, he's got the talent and the tools, but the team needs production. The obvious solution is bring James Loney up. It is worthless to have him in Triple A, he led the PCL in hitting last year, had a great year with the Dodgers when they were forced to bring him up and is the best fielding firstbaseman in the National League (if he were playing). The other part is move Garciaparra to third base. He's played there before and he's no more prone to get hurt there than at first. Since we all know he will go on the DL sometime this year, let him do it from third. While he plays an OK first base, he's not a gold glove there like Loney would be. Send Betemit down to figure out his hitting and perhaps learn how to play second base (since LaRoche is the third baseman of the future and Kent probably will retire in another year or so).

Now, with Furcal, he's going to be fine. The same thing happened last year and by about the middle of May he was playing All-Star baseball the rest of the year. When he's not hitting he obviously presses in the field and makes some bad throws (which I think Loney would have saved a couple). Just keep letting him play every day and he'll play out of it.

With Jason Schmidt, the Dodgers are fortunate that they are deep in starting pitching. Hendrickson has filled in nicely (although I would rather see Billingsley starting, I don't think he is being helped in his development pitching set up or long relief) but I don't see him as a season long solution. They also have other minor league options they can use. As I said a loss of velocity is never a good sign. He needs to have a fastball at least in the 90-91 range to be effective. The 80-83 fastballs he was throwing are not going to get anyone out. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see Schmidt helping this team much this year, and I won't be surprised if we hear the word "shoulder surgery" next to Schmidt's name in the next few weeks. It will also help if Brett Tomko would concentrate a bit more.

Now, the hard part. The Dodgers, for reasons that are beyond me, signed Juan Pierre to a large contract for four years. OK, Pierre comes close to leading the league in hits, steals a lot of bases, doesn't strike out much, and so on. But, on a power challenged team he adds zero. If he hits a single home run this year I'd be shocked. But here is the biggest problem, he is probably the single worse defensive center fielder in the National League. He runs routes to balls that make you wonder if he can actually see them and has an D- arm; simply put he is a horrible defensive player. His defense and the fact that teams run on him all the time, taking extra bases, is costing the Dodgers runs and making the pitching staff work too much and be too careful (I think young Billingsley is effected by this, he's trying to make perfect pitches). Well, since he can't be traded (no one would take his contract), he should be sitting when Kemp returns and be replaced for defense when he does start.

This brings us to Luis Gonzales. Now, I like Gonzales, he's a quality guy, good veteran presence, still brings a bat to the game, will probably be in the Hall of Fame some day. But he has the only throwing arm that is worse than Pierre (because of surgery a few years ago). Between the two of them cut off men are having to get 20-30 feet deeper in the outfield to make relays (that effects other aspects of the defense). Like Pierre, teams run on him without even thinking. Hits that would be singles with Either in left are turned into doubles. Virtually anything hit to his right is a sure double. Runners score from first or second that someone with a better arm would hold. He just gives up way too many bases. Now, to his credit, he does give the Dodgers a little power and he fields his position OK with somewhat limited range. He also is enough of a team guy not to pout when they replace him for defense in the late innings (something Pierre apparently hasn't learned).

The solution, this isn't an easy one. There is a lot of money tied up in these two guys, but ultimately Matt Kemp has to play center. He's on rehab in Triple A and hitting about .360. He's also the one guy who can bring a big power threat to the plate. The answer is NOT putting Andre Either back on the bench (I wonder how much Either and Loney's confidence have been hit by the way the year started). Either is a plus fielder with a A- arm. Lest we forget last year, he could have been the Rookie of the Year had he not worn down in September. But even with that, the Dodgers probably would not have made the playoffs without him. Either stays in right field, Kemp starts playing center with some regularity, Gonzales gets the bulk of the duty in left with Pierre as a pinch runner, hitter and sub. That's a bitter pill to swallow if you've made the mistake of signing him for a lot of money, but the bottom line is that he's not scoring as many runs as he is giving up because of his defense. Their lack of defensive skill is effecting the pitching and the pitch calling. Kemp and Either playing and Pierre as a back up makes the Dodgers a better all around team.

The Dodgers should win the west and win the NL pennant with what they have. To borrow a phrase from Jim Collins, they have all the people they need on the bus, they just need to get them in the right seats.

Well, will check in again at the end of May.

The Real Life of a Marine in Iraq

My nephew just returned from a tour with the Marines in Iraq. He wrote some of his thoughts from his experiences and passed them along. He writes about the reality of what is actually happening in Iraq; things that the media, in the main, ignores. My Experience in Iraq By Cpl. Jonathan Farr First, let me say that I have grown from my experiences in Iraq. I believe there is an job to do and we are not finished yet, There are a lot of good things that have been accomplished in Iraq, such as: Schools built, towns repaired, and protection offered to the people. The problems are complex but simple. The people are very poor. It is hard for us to understand how poor until you see it first hand. When we would enter a village, children would crowd around us - they would just appear, almost out of nowhere. We would hand out crayons, pencils, candy and water. Once when we were on patrol, a young boy jumped out in front of my Humvee holding two chickens. He wanted to trade one for a bottle of water. We didn’t know what we would do with a chicken, so we gave him the water and he kept the chicken. That is a big problem in the area we were in. Because the people are so poor, the insurgents come in and offer money to anyone who would dig a hole and put an I.E.D. (Improvised Explosives Device ) in. They do it because they need the money to feed their families. However, if they don’t do what they insurgents want, they are threatened with violence. Their family will be hurt, children killed, women raped. It is very difficult for the people and that’s where we come in. If we hear about that kind of activity, we go in and protect the people. The Media - The insurgents watch the same programs on TV that we do. When the news shows our missions, they don’t help us. When they show some new device that we have to help us find insurgents or that protects us, the insurgents use that information against us. They only want to show the bad news and it is turning our own country against us and the job we have to do. We need the support of our country so that we can get the job done as soon as possible (ASAP). When the insurgents see the harm they cause us, in the field, they are encouraged to do the same thing again and again. Iraqi Help - The attitude of the people is changing. When we go into a village, we talk to the Elders and they have been giving out information to help us protect them. There was one time that I was on patrol with my group and we talked to the Elders and they told us about some activity in one of the fields. We went down the road single file. I was driving the Humvee with the .50 Cal., to provide security. As we traveled up this road, we noticed something strange about the field. Red flags went up and we were on edge. All of us were looking for signs. We noticed the field was burned in a pattern: the grass was burned for 50 yards and it repeated about every 300 yards - this would be used to time our speed. Then we noticed women and children watching us from the roof tops in the village. Just then we heard the interpreter yelling. “I.E.D., I.E.D.!” We immediately dropped back to a safe distance and called E.O.D. (Explosives Ordnance Disposal ) They came out and set it off. It left a six foot by six foot hole in the road. Our interpreter is 18 years old and he has been helping us since he was 16 years old. He told us the reason is because Saddam had his family tortured. He was a great guy and he saved our lives that day, me and the 15 others that were in our group. I am honored to have done my job over there and when called to go again, I will go and do my job to the best of my abilities. These people need us, right now, and to leave them to fend for themselves is like opening the gate to the sheep and letting the wolves come in. I’m not going to try and get political. All I know is what I saw and what I did. As a Marine, I’m trained to do a job when America calls. All I ask is for support and the tools to do the best job I can. If we get that, we can get the job done and come home. Thank you for your prayers and letters. Cpl. Jonathan Farr, USMC