Recently I received a note from someone who had never heard me speak in person, but had read something I had written and told me that could "hear" me speaking while they read the note, even could even see my facial expression. It was something of a compliment (I guess) that I could covey that kind of imagery with my writing.
Well, I have the privilege next week to be involved in a ministry where you'll be able to hear my real voice (although it may turn out that the imaginary version sounds better). Next Friday (July 6th) I am scheduled to be a guest on the "Iron Sharpens Iron" radio program, hosted by Chris Arnzen. The program airs from 3pm to 4pm Eastern time (or 12 noon to 1pm on the West coast) on WNYG, 1440AM. The program also broadcasts on the Internet at www.wnygspiritofny.com.
Friday is "The Pastor's Roundtable" where the format allows for listeners to call in with their questions. The call in number is 1-631-321-9694. You can listen in and see if my voice matches the picture on this blog page. Better yet, call in and participate in the show.
Well, the Dodgers have finally begun to make some needed changes to their lineup. James Loney will become the regular first baseman and Nomar Garciaparra will move to third base. While we suggested this move about two months ago we can hardly claim much credit since it was such a patently obvious move to make. The three main guys they have tried at third are hitting a combined .220 and six home runs (all by Wilson Betemit). Tony Abreu has hit OK and fielded well, but he's the second baseman of the future (and notice he's getting a lot of playing time there over Jeff Kent). Andy LaRoche just wasn't ready, but everyone knows he's the third baseman of the future. Loney can hit and hit with power and he's probably going to be a perpetual gold glove at first base. Garciaparra, if he wasn't such a good guy and good team mate, would probably need to have his bags sitting by the front door come trade deadline day. He can play third well enough and perhaps he can start hitting. His current .275 average is deceiving, he has only 13 extra base hits (1 homer, 12 doubles). He's hitting well with RISP but he's only hitting singles.
We get to see Billingsley again tonight and he should remain in the rotation the rest of the year. The only other change really left for the Dodgers is to put Kemp in every day in center and put Pierre on the bench.
The trade deadline is coming so all the speculation can begin as to who may go where. In this situation some teams are (1) Sellers (they aren't going anywhere and they either need to rebuild, or want to get some value from a apotential free agent whom they are not going to sign); (2) Buyers (they perhaps need one or two pieces to help them get into or go deeper into the playoffs), or (3) Holders (their team is in place, they have all they need or they type of player they need isn't available for a price they are willing to pay).
For the Dodgers, they are probably somewhere in between all of those. We could envision a trade that sends Kent, Hendickson or Tomko away to a buyer. Maybe Betemit, but I wouldn't just give him away. We could only hope that someone would want Juan Pierre and Ned Colletti could get a mulligan on that signing. Maybe someone will ask about Garciaparra, but he's little more than a utility player now, probably not a final piece in anyone's puzzle. I don't think they tamper with their young upcoming talent, and probably should hold.
The National League sellers are:
The San Francisco Giants: (it does my heart good to see them doing so badly). The Giants should be the biggest sellers because they have to blow up that team and start over. Given the state of their farm system they are going to only get worse before they get better. Their GM Nick Sabaen probably should not order new office furniture any time soon.
The other NL West team, the Colorado Rockies, probably should stay put unless they can get value for Todd Helton. They aren't going to win the division, but they do seem to be on the upswing with some young players, so no big changes seems to be the order of the day.
The National League Central sans Milwaukee: None of these teams are going anywhere. Pittsburgh may be on the upswing with some young players, but they are a couple of years away from serious play off contenders. It is remarkable how bad Cincinnati has been this year. They obviously need to rethink what they are doing, something is clearly wrong (some people picked them to win their division this year). Ken Griffy has value and perhaps he would waive a no-trade clause to go to a contender, who would want to keep him beyond this year. Adam Dunn may go as well, although his value is limited because of his below average fielding and rally killing strikeout totals.
The Cubs are a basket case at several levels. Bottom line is that this underachiving team is managed by dinosaur Lou Pinella who should be gone at the end of this year. His style of managing and his massive ego (read here the trade of Michael Barrett who apparently tried to tell Pinella the truth about what the team thought of him) will drive this team deeper in the hole than they already are. When the Tribunne sale is final I wonder how long it will take the new owner to sell the Cubs?
Washington, Florida and Atlanta: The Braves best players are past their prime and so they need to rebuild. It is almost impossible to rebuild and stay contenders at the same time. They've had a pretty remarkable run of about 15yrs but they are not going to be contenders for a few years. If Florida actually has a plan for the future I'm not sure what it is (Another really odd owner, with the talent they've assembled in the past, they should be almost a dynasty right now). Probably they and Tampa Bay will never be settled until they get a stadium built or move out of a state that simply does not care about regular season baseball. Washington is five plus years away from contending, so they might as well get as much value for some established players as they can.
In the American League Texas and the White Sox are probably obvious sellers (Eric Gagne will be pitching in the post season for someone). With the White Sox, I think their problem is the same as the Cubs, their manager. Ozzie Guillen is one of those "Billy Martin" type high energy "us against the world" sort of managers. They do well, they win championships, but their schtick wears players out and after about 4yrs you've got to replace them to bring some sanity back to your organization.
Minnesota is treading water and I don't think they have the talent to pass either Cleveland and Detroit, so they might sell (they are also dominated by one of the worst owners in baseball). Kansas City may get value from a couple of players since they are also 5+ yrs away from contending.
In the American League East, no one except Boston is going to be in the post season. The Yankees won't be sellers because the cap means nothing to them. Tampa Bay is pretty hopeless until they move to a new city that actually wants a baseball team. Maybe Baltimore is finally going to develop a coherent plan for their organization (although with their owner I doubt it will last).
Well, that's all for now. We'll check on the rumors in the next couple of weeks.
Well, as we suspected almost from the beginning, Jason Schmidt of the Dodgers had "major shoulder surgery" yesterday. Of course the question will arise, how could his shoulder be so bad (torn labrum, frayed biceps tendon, inflamed bursa) and (1) he was still able to even throw; and (2) the doctors and MRI didn't see this weeks ago.
Well, shoulders are funny things. I remember a former Dodger pitcher, Doug Rau, who had only one win in 1979, after five very successful years. The win was nearly a no-hitter against the Houston Astros. He pitched a one hit shut out. Not long after that he had major shoulder surgery and his career was over (he did attempt a comeback in 1981 with the Angels, but only won one game). He nearly pitched a no hitter with a shoulder that was in shambles. In Schmidt's first game against the Padres after being on the DL, he took a no hitter into the fifth and ended with six scoreless innings and only allowed one hit.
My own experience with shoulders was a couple of years ago. I always knew there was something wrong with my left shoulder (since I crashed it into a fence making a catch in the outfield when I was a senior in high school) but finally it started to really bother me when I was building a room addition onto my house. I went to a shoulder specialist, he looked at it, we did an MRI and everything else. He finally decided to scope my shoulder, but told me he would have to cut it open if there proved to be some significant damage, but he wouldn't know until he could see it. Well, six hours of surgery later he (and another doctor they had to call in during the operation) repaired what was left of my left shoulder (torn rotator cuff, three torn tendons, one tendon in the wrong place, frayed and damaged bursas, and a few other odds and ends). He told me later it was the worst shoulder he had ever seen in 25yrs of practice. But until that point I had been pretty functional, spent 15 yrs on the LAPD, played on the department baseball and fast pitch teams, played golf, and built two room additions. Shoulders are funny things.
There is just no way to know how bad a shoulder might be damaged without actually looking inside. This makes me wonder about Curt Shilling of the Red Sox. He nearly pitched a no-hitter a couple of weeks ago and then his velocity dropped and he pretty much got shelled two straight games. He's on the DL now despite the fact that the MRI found nothing (which for shoulders I think is fairly meaningless).
The only good news for Schmidt is that the surgery and rehab procedures are a lot better now, but it is probably still not realistic to expect him pitching in regular games until after the All-Star break next year.
The Dodgers have fallen out of first place in the West and perhaps that has woken up Ned Colleti to make some changes in the team and Grady Little to make some changes in the line up.
We're watching the Sunday game against the Toronto Blue Jays and any ray of hope we had about Jason Schmidt after pitching well against San Diego earlier in the week is now just about gone. Against San Diego, in his first start in about seven weeks, Schmidt was constantly throwing his fast ball in the 89-92mph range, had good command and only have up one hit. It may be he was simply well-rested. Today he's getting hit fairly hard and the top speed on ( two badly thrown high fastballs) has been 87mph. Mostly he's been about 79-83mph with everything and poor placement. He gave up the second and third career hits to Roy Halladay both on 81mph fastballs.
Schmidt was also hurt by horrible defense in the outfield in the person of Juan Pierre. Pierre had one error on a throw that he bounced to the cutoff, even though Furcall was probably 40 feet into the outfield to relay the throw. Another easy fly ball landed for a double when Pierre didn't call off Gonzales and then pulled up when Gonzales was about 20 feet from him.
The Dodgers have just not been hitting and playing some sloppy defense (mainly Pierre, who continues to give up extra bases and runs by his poor throwing).
Coletti has begun to make some moves. Matt Kemp was recalled and played yesterday, except that he played right and Ethier sat, instead of both of them playing with Kemp in center. But there is hope. Little just made a double switch to get Schmidt out of the game and put Kemp into center and pulled Pierre (who has been batting 8th the last couple of games). Unfortunately, the pitcher coming in was Mark Hendrickson who has proceeded to give up four rmore runs.
Tony Abreau has been up and playing and hitting extrememly well. And finally today, James Loney was recalled and started at first (and Brady Clark was designated for assignment). Now I doubt that Garciaparra is on his way to the bench, however, Nomar has not been the same hitter as last year. He's hitting about .270 and about .400 with RISP, but only 1 home run. He's been mostly a singles hitter this year.
On the good side for the Dodgers, they are only 2 games out of first place and unlike all of the other teams in the west, they have yet to really go on a long winning streak and with their starting pitching it isn't likely that they will go into a prolonged losing streak. It's also early in the year and so things are not out of control. Hopefully they will begin to field a team that includes Kemp in center and Pierre on the bench.