I'll probably update this a couple of times depending on what the Dodgers do the rest of the day.
First trade of the day for the Dodgers: Wilson Betimet to the New York Yankees for Scott Proctor.
Well, the Dodger's needed bullpen help that was clear. Betimet was an available spare part (since he got off to such a terrible start this year) because long term the Dodgers have much better solutions than him: Andy LaRoche at third and Tony Abreu at second. One or both of those two will be returning from Las Vegas tonight probably. Proctor has demonstrated himself as a quality middle reliever who suffered this year by Joe Torre's notoriously poor handling of the bullpen. He was overworked and often in the wrong situations. Gave up a lot of home runs in left hand hitter friendly Yankee Stadium. In pitcher friendly Dodger stadium and with the better handling that Grady LIttle and Rick Honeycutt will provide, Proctor could be a big help down the stretch.I would say the Dodgers got the best of this trade, although it's fairly close. Betimet may turn into a very good player but if he didn't make it with the Braves or Dodgers (two of the more patient teams in baseball) I'm not sure how he'll manage in New York, or what they really will even use him for.
Well, that's apparently it. Unless there is some secret trade that no one knows about yet the deadline has come and gone. The Dodgers, wisely, refused to part with their key prospects. The next thing to do is: bring up LaRoche and let him play third, bring up Meloan for the pen. If Wolf is ready to go and does well, Hendrickson is designated for assignment. Keep Tomko as long relief. Let Stultz start. You know, if they get in a position where they are short a starter or get stuck with a double header soon, call up Clayton Kershaw for a start and let him get his feet wet. He can't possibly do any worse than Hendrickson or Tomko have.
Tomko is really a mystery to me. He has good stuff. Middle 90's fast ball with movement, generally good breaking pitches. But keeps getting hit because he consistenly has no command, nothing is going where Martin puts his glove. The only thing I can see is purely concentration on his part. But he's got something to work with if somehow they can figure out how to focus him.
They need to make some changes because they have over $10 million in salary tied up in Tomko, Hendrickson, and the (apparently failing) Roberto Hernandez experiment. I think Tomko will be the only one of these three with the team by the end of August.
Some All Time Home Run Considerations
Here are some notes on the all time home run list that I think are worth noting.
To date Barry Bonds has hit 754 Home Runs in 2951 games and 9756 at bats. He hit 117 Home Runs in his first Five years in the majors.
Hank Aaron hit 755 Home Runs in 3298 games and 12,364 at bats. He hit 130 Home Runs in his first five seasons.
Babe Ruth hit 714 Home Runs in 2503 games (about 800 fewer than Aaron and about 400 fewer than Bonds [to date]); and 8398 at bats (or 3966 fewer at bats than Aaron and about 1400 fewer than Bonds to date.
But here is the real difference: Babe Ruth hit only 20 Home Runs in his first five seasons. Mainly because he was probably the best left handed pitcher in baseball at the time. He had records of 18-8, 23-12, 24-14 and 13-7 when he was almost exclusively a pitcher. Oh, he was also 3-0 with an 0.87 ERA in two world series and also pitched a 14 inning complete game for win in the world series. So he holds two all time World Series Pitching records as well as hit hitting later.
Barry Bonds will break the record of Aaron. Bonds, despite all of his flaws personally and the allegations of steroids, is still clearly one of the top 10 players of all time. Aaron is probably in the top 25 all time. However, Babe Ruth, still must rank overall as the greatest baseball player of all time.
It's Friday evening and the trade deadline (well it's sort of a deadline anyway) is next Tuesday. The Dodgers seem to be at the center of every rumor right now, so let's take a look at some.
Now it is clear that the Dodgers will potentially need some pitching help. It appears that neither Lowe nor Penny will miss a start, so that's a good thing. Billlingsley has quietly begun his major league career going 14 and 3 (since he was called up last year) and has pitched a couple of very good games recently. The Dodgers need all three to stay healthy and pitch well. Penny is well on his way to the Cy Young Award and Lowe is usually better in the second half of the season. The key trade factor is how Randy Wolf looks when he comes off the DL. While Tomko has pitched a couple of OK games I'm not convinced (we'll see how he does in Denver tonight). Mark Hendrickson is just too unpredictable. One start he looks like a batting practice pitcher and the next he looks OK. But even when he's OK there is nothing convincing about him.
The problem in terms of trading, there do not appear to be any starters available that are any better than what the Dodgers have, unless the White Sox are going to let John Garland go (which I doubt).
In terms of relief pitching, Broxton and Saito are key. Without them pitching well, the Dodgers are not going far in the playoffs or in the division. Saito looked fine yesterday, but people forget that he is 38 years old, and the Dodgers have to be careful of running him out two or three days in a row until the stretch run and playoffs. Beimel is a situational guy, not a real holder for the 6th and 7th innings. Roberto Hernandez was not impressive at Las Vegas and has not been impressive thusfar with the Dodgers. Eric Hull, who was just called up, could be the guy. It was reported that Dodger GM Ned Coletti has been to Las Vegas to watch Jonathon Meloan (who was just promoted from AA Jacksonville where he was having a great season). My guess is that the Dodgers will bring Meloan up any day (Hernandez will be traded, demoted or released). D J Holton and Eric Stulz are starters and so far haven't shown that they are adapting to long relief. I think I'd rather see Stulz start than Mark Hendrickson though.
To the rumors:
Main Rumor: Octavio Dotel from Kansas City. Dotel, age 33 and coming off a stint on the DL, when pitching well is a front line setup guy/closer. He will probably command a 3yr $18million contract. He's a free agent at the end of the year. I don't see KC paying that kind of money for that kind of player right now. They want front line prospects. The rumor is the Dodgers sending AAA shortstop Chin Lung Hu for Dotel. That trade makes sense for both teams. The Dodgers are set at SS with Furcal and have other infield prospects as well. Hu is probably going to be a better major league second baseman, but KC needs just about one of everything in their rebuilding process.
Next: Mark Teixeria from Texas. This one should be about completely dead now. Texas wants too much and the Dodgers have James Loney who I think will be one of the top two or three first basemen in the majors in a couple of years and certainly will be a gold glove winner on a regular basis.
Also: Joe Kennedy from Oakland. Left handed pitchers are handy to have. But he's 3-9, 4.42 ERA and most importantly MORE WALKS THAN STRIKEOUTS! The Dodgers have better minor league options than this. I think Billy Beane just wants revenge for getting taken in the Milton Bradley for Andre Either trade.
Reportedly: The Dodgers have been looking at three relief pitchers from the Pirates. However, Pittsburgh's bullpen is one of the reasons that they are at the bottom of the NL. Like Joe Kennedy, the Dodgers have better and cheaper options in their own system.
Unless a front line starter somehow became available (not a rental to the end of the year), I think the Dodgers should still stand pat. Now, if Wolf is ineffective (or Lowe or Penny are more injured than it appears) that changes things a bit, but again, the starters reportedly available are not all that impressive. They would be better off perhaps rushing Clayton Kershaw a little and seeing what happens than to give up a prospect for one of the Matt Morris' of the world.
Suggestions for the Dodgers down the stretch: Bring up Andy LaRoche and let him play third base, especially if they trade Wilson Betimet. They have to make Russell Martin take a little more time off. He needs to be healthy and rested for the stretch run. Give up on Mark Hendrickson. Trade him, release him, do something. He's not an answer for any of the pitching issues. Here's a suggestion: send Betimet, Hendrickson, Tomko and maybe a AA catching prospect and another prospect to the Yankees for Philip Hughes.
Well, we can dream, can't we?
PS: While I would just as soon have the Yankees in the World Series so the Dodgers could beat them, that doesn't seem likely. So the next best thing might be to beat the Angels. Well, for the Angels to get into the World Series, they would be well advised to win on two of the rumors: Getting Teixeria from Texas so they could get some offensive production from firstbase (and provide some cover for Vlad) and they should really try to get Piazza from Oakland as a DH. That would give them the offense they will need to beat Boston and Detroit.
I was looking at some baseball stat web pages recently and was really surprised and really annoyed by something I saw.
When I was a kid and collected baseball cards the player stats were on the back of the cards and I remember (in the early 1960's) any number of players who would have no stats listed for a given year, but rather would have the line "Active Military Service" where the stats for that year would be.
I was looking because I was trying to refresh my memory about a couple of the people on the all time home run list, mainly Willie Mays and Ted Williams.
For Willie Mays at both www.baseball-reference.com and the player history index at espn.com all of Mays' stats are given year by year. And, at first glance, you would see an uninterupted set of baseball seasons. You have to look closely to see that the year 1953 doesn't exist, it's not listed, the years go from 1952 to 1954 without even an * to note why there are not stats for that year. Well, it's because Mays was in the Army that year. There are some numbers in the 1952 year, but he lost most of that season to military service as well.
For Ted Williams the stats at the same two sites are even more telling. The stats jump from 1942 to 1946. 1943-45 simply don't exist for Williams, again without so much as even an * to tell you why. Well, it was because he was in the Army Air Corps flying a fighter plane in World War II. Of course, since he did play a little in 1952 and 1953 there are some numbers there, even though for the most part during those years he was once again serving in the military again, flying a fighter plane in the Korean War.
I'm fairly sure that no "big stars" in baseball have lost any significant playing time due to military service since the early 1960's. In the case of Mays he lost an entire year (the year before he would be the league MVP and hit 41 home runs) and the bulk of another year. Williams is probably the most significant in terms of the impact military service had on his career. He lost three complete seasons in World War II when he was clearly at the top of his abilities (he conservatively lost 100 home runs that he would have hit during that time). Even in 1952-53 Williams was one of the top hitters in the game.
The point is not that either Williams or Mays would have passed Babe Ruth had they not lost time to military service; Williams certainly would not have, although it is reasonable to assume that Mays would have been pretty close (he ended his career with 660 homes runs, only 54 short of Ruth).
The point is that even though those years don't mean anything to the baseball records, they still mean something; even in relation to baseball as an American institution. People should be allowed to see and then remember that at one time famous baseball players, and not so famous ones, had to give something up for the greater good of the country.
UPDATE: Rob Neyer at ESPN.com was kind enough to mention this blog on his blog.
Well, the trade deadline is now 13 days away and the trade rumors (read here also "wishful thinking") are beginning to pile up.
Honestly, I don't think the Dodgers should make any big trades at the moment. The Dodgers need perhaps two things: one more relief pitcher and one more starter. The problem here is that so does just about every other contender and there is not much stock on the shelves so to speak in either category at the moment.
The first rumor for the Dodgers has been relief pitch Octavio Dotel of Kansas City to the Dodgers. Now, first of all the Royals reportedly want either Matt Kemp or James Loney. Well, that pushes "wishful thinking" into the realm of delusional thinking. That kind of trade is not going to happen. Beyond that Dotel has been injured this year and is a free agent at the end of the year.
The Dodgers have a built in probable solution that costs them nothing. In Jacksonville (AA team), Jonathan Meloan has been really, really good. He's currently 5-2, 18 saves, 2.06 era, 65-18 strike out to walk ratio and about 20 more innings pitched than hits allowed. In a hitters league like that, these are impressive numbers. So, bring him up and let him learn the ropes setting up Broxton and Saito. A trade at this point does not seem in the Dodgers best interest.
Another rumor that surfaced today is Troy Glaus coming to the Dodgers from Toronto. Yes, the Dodgers have gotten little production at Third Base, so it depends on what Toronto wants. Since almost every inquiry to the Dodgers starts with Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw (probably one of the best minor league pitching prospects in all baseball), the answer should be no if they want either of these two. Loney and Either should also be off-limits.
This is really the only true position need that exists. Nomar, unless he's really injured and just not telling anyone, seems to have declined rapidly since mid-season last year and may be at the end of his productive career (and I don't see him staying around as a bench player or utility guy). The most perplexing things about Nomar is his lack of power and extra base hits. He's become essentially a singles hitter and I'm not really sure why. He's making good contact, but the ball isn't going anywhere. He's also not catching up with fastballs as in the past, pitchers are throwing 92-93 mph fastballs by him; but he's not really striking out at an alarming rate. He seems to play hard, seems to be in good shape, his fielding is OK; but for whatever reason he simply cannot hit anything but singles. It's too bad because he seems to a really good guy who really wants to help the team.
I'm not giving up on Wilson Betimet yet. He's probably going to be the regular third baseman pretty soon (if he isn't already). But...
The other rumor is that the Yankees are desperately trying to acquire Betimet from the Dodgers. Now of course as a Dodger fan I don't really want to help the Yankees too much (just enough so they get in the World Series so the Dodgers can beat them). The rumor is that they are offering Scott Proctor. Personally, I don't think that's a good enough deal for the Dodgers. Beimet has a lot of potential and is too young to give up on yet. Proctor is a 30 year old "organization player" below average stats and no particular upside. The Dodgers could bring one of several up from Las Vegas who would be comparable.
Finally, the play of James Loney has made the Mark Tiexeria rumors completely moot. I doubt the Dodgers were ever even serious about considering him.
I did read Keith Law's chat today and he suggested that the Dodgers could trade Mark Hendrickson to the Philadelphia 76er's. He and Brett Tomko could easily be traded but I'm not sure the Dodger's could get plane fare for either of them right now. They are both boat anchors and taking up roster spaces that the Dodgers should consider giving to someone else.
Well, we will see what new "rumors" turn up the rest of the week. I really wonder sometimes how many of these "rumors" are just stuff made up by baseball beat writers who need something to generate interest.
There have been some interesting baseball news in the last weeks or so that I thought were worth noting.
First of all the Dodgers may be starting their first really long winning run of the season. They swept the Giants over the weekend and one their first game of the homestand tonight against the Phillies. The Giant series wasn't even really close. Take away the fluke Grand Slam in the Saturday game by Randy Winn and the Dodgers have had four "laughers" in a row. They have had a total of 32 runs and 57 hits in the last four games. A couple of observations:
Elsewhere the Cubs (who may win the central division despite their manager Lou Pinella) are benefiting from the Brewers poor pitching (and now their best pitcher, Ben Sheets on the DL). But their trading for Jason Kendall, always a terrible defensive catcher who now doesn't hit well (about .220 with only 2 home runs) is really strange. How exactly the Cubs think they are a better team with him is beyond me. Oakland probably would have been happy to trade Piazza, who at least would bring a big bat to hitter friendly Wrigley. By the way, Mark Cuban would make a great owner for the Cubs. The little baseball "owner's club" probably will not allow it because he would make too many of them look bad; but surely Chicago deserves an owner who will at least care about the fans and having a winning team; if nothing else to compensate for "Dollar Bill" Wirtz, owner of the Blackhawks hockey team, maybe the worst owner in all of professional sports.
The New York Mets hired Ricky Henderson first as a hitting coach, but now as the first base coach. The Mets are taking all the proper steps to not win their division. Henderson, a great player in his day, is a complete head case. Players are not going to this guy after they figure out he's not quite all there. There are some real issues in the management of the Mets and perhaps people are going to begin to see that their GM, Omar Minaya, is part of the problem.
Gary Sheffield accused Yankee manager Joe Torre essentially of being a managerial racist the other day; treating black players "differently" than whites. Sheffield seems to always have bad things to say about every team that either lets him go or trades him. How he can continually get a free pass to say whatever nutty thing that comes into his head is beyond me. Racial comments always seem to get traction and now Joe Torre has to defend himself for absolutely no reason.
San Diego helped themselves tremendously getting two players, Michael Barrett from the Cubs and Milton Bradley from the A's for practically nothing. Bradley has issues, but I've always thought he was basically a good guy who lets his emotions get out of control sometimes.
Watching Barry Bonds play this last weekend against the Dodgers was painful. Like him or not, Bonds is probably one of the 10 greatest players of all time. Personally, whether he used steroids or not, I think the biggest assist he's had in hitting is the body armor he's been allowed to wear on his right arm. Take that away and I doubt he would be chasing the all-time home run record.
Brian Sabean, the GM of the Giants was given a contract extension, so he could be part of the "rebuilding" process for the Giants. However, isn't he the guy who crafted this team, which may end up having the worse record in baseball this year (right now only the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have fewer wins). The Giants are just an awful team and I doubt Sabean is the guy to lead them back to a front line team.
Well, two more weeks to the trade deadline. I'm not sure what the bubble teams are going to find available. Although Eric Gagne will be going to one of the front line teams pretty soon I think (my guess: the Cleveland Indians). Should be a fun two weeks.
As great a baseball fan as I am, I can't possibly watch every game that is played every day. But in the span of the last week I've watched about five games an in every game there was a broken bat incident that was nearly disastrous.
Over the last few years the number of bats being broken in a game has become laughable. Players have been allowed to move away from the previously standard hickory wood bats to the lighter ash wood, or recently, maple. The average bat now weighs less than 36 ounces. As a comparision, despite the obviously better trained athletes of this era; Babe Ruth typically used a bat that weighed over 40 ounces, for some time used a 52 ounce bat, and even used a 60 ounce bat! He, and players in that era, often went through a whole season and never broke a single bat (it would be interesting to see Barry Bonds swing a 52 ounce bat in a game).
The problem is that the ball being struck with the higher bat speed of the lighter bats are causing bats to shatter, that is splinter into pieces. What happens often is that the barrel is exploding off the handle with a very pointed and very sharp tip. While broken bats have always been a part of the game, the epidemic of shattering bats is a problem that needs immediate addressing.
In the recent games I watched, a couple of pitchers were nearly impaled by the flying projectiles. Pitchers and Third basemen are going to be the likely victims (although many years ago the first real victim was Dodger catcher Steve Yeager, who was struck in the neck by a broken bat and absent quick acting and thinking trainers, might very well have died). Pitchers are often not in a great position to make quick movements after a pitch and dodging a flying piece of wood traveling at 40+mph is someday going to deal a severe injury. A third basemen charging on what he thinks might be a bunt; but instead a player taking a full swing and shattering the bat, would leave the fielder essentially defenseless.
Obviously metal bats (as used in college and high school) are not the answer. Balls hit with those by professional players would probably result in a pitcher or fielders death in the first season.
Major League Baseball, an organization whose responses and actions are often measured in geologic ages, needs to act on this issue. While players would likely complain about being forced back into heavier bats (that don't break or shatter as easily), the Player's Association (also not often the most enlightened group in sports) needs to insist on some action quickly for the safety of the players.