The Trolley Dodger

With the consistent inconsistency of Hong-Chih Kuo — not to mention Brett “10-run cushion” Tomko — Ned Colletti has talked in interviews about looking to add another starting pitcher. Alongside the elusive power bat, which he’s been trying to get through free agency or trade since the off-season, this will likely be his primary focus for the foreseeable future. (He’s talked about getting another reliever, too, but maybe that will fade if Chin-Hui Tsao stays healthy and Mark Hendrickson stays serviceable.)

While there are potential Plan Bs (well, Plan Cs) lurking in Las Vegas, e.g. Eric Stults and DJ Houlton, it stands to reason that some of the potentially available big leaguers will be attractive.

The biggest name being linked to the Dodgers at the moment is Mark Buehrle, whose midseason negotiations with the White Sox are turning into a brouhaha to match the South Siders’ sorry season. The latest from the Chicago Sun-Times is that the pitcher has turned down a four-year, $56 million extension (due to a denied no-trade clause, reportedly), and thus is back on the block. As much as he’s been on and off the block recently, it’s a wonder he hasn’t pulled something. From the article:

The source also told the Sun-Times that general manager Ken Williams wasted no time taking phone calls from both the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers about a possible trade involving the left-handed starter.

Talks briefly opened up again after the Sox’ 8-1 loss to the Royals on Friday night but quickly died.

It’s anyone’s guess if the two sides will reopen negotiations. Williams had set Friday as the cutoff.

Mark Buehrle is a 28-year-old southpaw from Missouri who is currently sporting a 3.33 ERA and 1.10 WHIP, with 66 Ks and 20 BB over 100 innings. That WHIP would tie him for third in the National League behind only Jake Peavy and Chris Young.

While we’re on the subject, check out who are the current top six NL pitchers in WHIP:

1. Jake Peavy (SD)
2. Chris Young (SD)
3. Rich Hill (CHC)
4. Ted Lilly (CHC)
5. Brad Penny (LAD)
6. Derek Lowe (LAD)

We faced #2 last night and unfortunately lost despite the late heroics. Tonight, #1 and #5 face off. Gotta love the ever-burgeoning Padres vs Dodgers rivalry.

Buerhle has no less than 200 innings pitched per season since 2001. I also like the fact he’s all about the low pitch counts. Oh, and the no hitter he tossed a couple of months ago isn’t too shabby either. (Actually, he was a Sammy Sosa walk away from a perfect game, then picked him off moments later.)

Who would we have to give up to get him? Young guys, I would assume — the White Sox are in meltdown.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE

A poster on Dodger Thoughts (”silverwood” in today’s thread) had this to say about Buehrle:

Buehrle is incredibly overrated. Awful last year, with an embarrassing K/9 rate.

NO THANKS.

So I looked the following up and posted it there. I don’t know, 2007 Buehrle doesn’t seem that embarrassing lined up with our current staff:

Buehrle has a 5.94 K/9 rate so far this year. Brad Penny’s is 5.96. Derek Lowe’s is 6.30.

Penny: K/BB 2.50, K/9 5.96, BB/9 2.38, H/9 7.75, WHIP 1.13

Lowe: K/BB 2.31, K/9 6.30, BB/9 2.72, H/9 7.55, WHIP 1.14

Buehrle: K/BB 3.30, K/9 5.94, BB/9 1.80, H/9 8.10, WHIP 1.10

Not arguing for or against, just sayin’.

For completeness’ sake:

Wolf: K/BB 2.66, K/9 8.40, BB/9 3.16, H/9 9.48, WHIP 1.40

Kuo: K/BB 1.93, K/9 8.01, BB/9 4.15, H/9 10.38, WHIP 1.62

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes, though, a picture doesn’t tell the whole story. Take this one:

At first glance, an idyllic scene showing a crowd watching a baseball game, some years ago. Beyond that, just an interesting photo.

Adding another couple of pieces of the puzzle is that Ansel Adams was the photographer, and it was taken in 1943. You might be able to guess that the mountains in the distance are in California, which they are — the Sierra Nevada).

Seeing those buildings in the background, if you know California or US history during WWII, might enable you to fill in the rest of the story: this was taken at the Manzanar Relocation Center in the Owens Valley, a euphemistic name for the Japanese-American prison camp located there from 1942-1945. As the Wikipedia article on Manzanar says:

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the Secretary of War to designate military commanders to prescribe military areas and to exclude “any and all persons” from such areas. The order also authorized the construction of “relocation centers” to house those who were to be excluded. This order resulted in the forced relocation of over 120,000 Japanese Americans—two-thirds of them were native-born American citizens, the rest were prevented by federal law from becoming citizens. Over 110,000 of those were imprisoned in the ten American concentration camps.

Some 11,000 were held at Manzanar. The photo above doesn’t say anything about the weather in the Owens Valley, which varied between scorching summers and deadly-cold winters, nor much about the internees’ lives which, suffice to say, weren’t as idyllic as the photo.

Thanks to the Shorpy photoblog, which posted “At Bat: 1943″ today.

You know, I love San Francisco — heck, I was born just north of there — so I wish no ill will on that great city.

But if it’s not too much to ask, an extremely localized earthquake right now would be really cool, causing the entire AT&T Park to slide into McCovey Cove.

Why right this second?

Mostly, the doubly concentrated evil of Yankees at Giants.

I haven’t seen a mention about this in the Dodger news, but the Tampa Tribune lets us know that the Saturday Dodgers/Devil Rays game will feature both teams in retro uniforms.

The Rays will take on the look of the old St. Petersburg Saints on Turn Back the Clock Night at Tropicana Field. The visiting Los Angeles Dodgers will pay homage to their roots by wearing blue and gray throwbacks to the Brooklyn era.

Their roots and mine.

The reporter, Bob Bellone, grew up in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn (”corner of Church and Nostrand avenues”). That wouldn’t have been too far away from Ebbets. And in fact, as Bellone reminisces:

We heard the most joyful noises while sitting on the roof on summer days and nights - those of fellow Dodgers fans cheering on our flanneled heroes up Bedford Avenue at Ebbets Field. The rest of us religiously followed the action through the radio calls of young broadcaster Vin Scully.

Bob shares other memories, some bittersweet, about the Boys in Blue — from the article, if I’m reading it correctly, his family moved to Long Island (and the Dodgers moved to LA) before he could see them play in person.

Like many brokenhearted Dodger fans in New York, he adopted the Mets when they appeared. Some former Brooklyn players eventually wound up with the Mets…

…but all I could do was imagine being among the adoring crowds who witnessed [the Dodgers'] glory years.

My father helped by sharing tales of his peering through knot holes and other openings in the wooden fences of Ebbets Field when he didn’t have the nickel required to join Hilda Chester - the cowbell-ringing First Lady of Flatbush - in the bleachers.

Tonight at 7:10, more than a half-century late, I’ll finally see players wearing Brooklyn in blue script across their chests.

And that, no matter what your favorite team, is a special thing.

Today’s lineup:

1. Furcal, SS
2. Pierre, CF
3. Martin, C (Age: 24)
4. Kent, 2B
5. Gonzo, DH
6. Loney, 1B (Age: 23)
7. Kemp, RF (Age: 22)
8. Ethier, LF (Age: 25)
9. Abreu, 3B (Age: 22)

“Papa’s Diary Project” is a fascinating look back in history as its subtitle suggests: “The 1924 diary of Harry Scheurman, transcribed and annotated by his grandson, Matt Unger.” Today’s entry, “Monday June 16″ includes a mention of Scheurman having gone to a game at Ebbets Field that day. Matt points out:

Not a bad day to be at Ebbet’s Field, where the Robins (a.k.a. Dodgers) beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-2.

There are a couple of cool old photos of the diary page and a crowd outside Ebbets. Unger also includes a link to the archived NY Times story of the game: “ROBINS BEAT RIXEY AND THE REDS, 5-2; Brooklyn Batters Rout Western Invaders With Four-Run Rally in the Eighth.”.

The 1924 Brooklyn Robins came up short that season, second behind the Giants for the NL pennant by 1.5 games.

There are a few other entries that mention the Robins/Dodgers, starting with a spring exhibition versus the Yankees on “Saturday Apr 12″, which Unger has researched to get details on the teams, the game, and who played that game — including a certain Yankee home-run king in right field. Scheurman also went to the next day’s on “Sunday Apr 13″. Finally, he might have been at either Giants-Robins or Red Sox-Yankees on “Saturday Apr 26″.

While the entries themselves are rather short (this is a quotidian diary, after all), Matt Unger’s research brings them into focus and places them in time and space.

One wonders if a future generation will put their grandparents’ blog posts into proper historical perspective.

Cormac over at the Baseball in Ireland blog posted “Understated Dodger Legends” earlier this week, in which he both explains why the Dodgers have been his “second team” (he’s an unabashed Red Sox fan) and shares more about the story of the O’Malleys and baseball in his country. Not to mention a message he’s just received from Peter O’Malley.

This morning I was delighted to find a really interesting looking book on the history of the Dodgers in my mail, sent on by Peter O’Malley via Brent Shyer of the Walter O’Malley website. No longer do I have to use Brad Penny or Nomar as my excuse for enjoying watching the Dodgers play. I am going to delve into the book and get up to speed on the rich history of the Dodgers.

Inside was a short, friendly letter from Peter himself. Just an amiable hello, which ended with a typically modest, understated line that reads as such;

‘I am glad the fields are being used’.

I actually laughed to myself a little, and I thought, ‘Really, Peter, if only you knew.’ The fields have certainly been in use. They have been the scene of the majority of Irish league baseball games since their opening in 1998. Merely saying ‘the fields are in use’ though is like saying ‘The Red Sox winning the World series in 2004 was a reasonably big deal to the people of Boston’.

Continued…

The San Bernardino Sun has an article on the Eddie Murray firing that I think hints at a possible reason for the timing of things.

“Dodgers notes: Transition to Mueller begins” first of all has this quote, a classic Gradyism:

“We didn’t fire a Hall of Fame hitter,” Dodgers manager Grady Little said. “We fired a hitting coach.”

Matt Kemp seemed to have an okay time with Murray, saying he “had an open door with him.” But other players found help elsewhere:

Recently, Wilson Betemit and Rafael Furcal credited coach Manny Mota with helping them at the plate. Furcal went from a slump to a hot streak in which he tied a Dodger record with four hits in each of three consecutive games.

So Mota steps up to help, but then there’s this:

[Bill Mueller] was working in the front office and wrestled with the idea of getting back on the field before accepting the job. He said he had never thought about coaching before this opportunity.

“I had to think long and hard about it, no doubt about it,” Mueller said. “Whatever I do, I do 100 percent. It was a decision that wasn’t made quickly.”

I have to wonder if Mueller wasn’t asked if he would take the job a while ago, and only just now said yes, which would explain the odd timing to the announcement. Since both Grady and Ned have said their decision took time as well, I also wonder if they’ve been thinking about firing Murray as far back as the beginning of the season.

The quote in the title is from an unnamed Dodgers vet about Eddie Murray, who was fired today as the team’s hitting coach.

This from Tim Brown at Yahoo.com, in “Five and Fly: Murray less than a hit”.

A few weeks ago, asked about Eddie Murray’s touch with Los Angeles Dodgers hitters who ranged from the greenest of rookies to the grayest of veterans, one of those veterans sighed and shook his head.

He liked Murray. He valued Murray’s Hall-of-Fame credentials. He assumed Murray could probably teach hitting to someone.

The problem, he said, was Murray could be difficult to approach, particularly for a young player. And Murray, he said, didn’t do enough of approaching of his own.

“He’s trying, I think,” the veteran said. “He’s better this year than he was last year.”

As Brown puts it, the Dodgers installed as interim hitting coach Bill Mueller, “the anti-Murray.”

Should be interesting to see what happens from this change.

Finally got back out to see another 66ers game — I had intended on seeing more by now, but hopefully will see a few the rest of the season.

Brandon Durden (LHP) vs Marlon Arias (LHP). Arias only made it two innings, giving up 5 hits, 5 runs (all earned), 2 walks, and a homer — which always seem few and far between at this park, at least the times I’ve come here. Things were pretty sedate until the bottom of the 5th with a nice rally by the 66ers. It all came down to the bottom of the 8th.

It was an afternoon game, beautiful, with a few light breezes and sun shining (a little too much, and I forgot to put on sunscreen, ouch). The 66ers had beat up on the Nuts the night before, winning 10-3. We were in the front row, right behind the home on-deck circle.

Here’s shortstop Ivan DeJesus.

DeJesus at bat.

OF Adam Godwin, who went 1-2 with an RBI. I noticed he was always the first to congratulate his teammates at the top of the steps, always up yelling and celebrating. Seemed like a cool guy.

3B Blake Dewitt, 1-4 with a double, 2 RBI, and 2 strikeouts.

Steve Yeager on his way back from coaching 1st base.

Celebrating the 5-run rally in the 5th inning.

Thanks to some way high-inside pitching by RP Pedro Strop in the 8th, an argument ensued with the 66ers first baseman, Russell Mitchell, with Mitchell standing in front of the home plate pointing and yelling at the pitcher.

Quickly, both benches and the bullpens emptied. A few minutes of jawing later, though, things were back to normal and the game continued.

Bernie did a good job of entertaining and keeping the crowd lively.

And on the way home, somebody was taking the right to bear arms a bit too seriously. ;) Actually, from the license plate on the RV towing the trailer, these were part of a Civil War reenactment group.