The Trolley Dodger

In response to a question over on Reddit, “Where would you rank Clayton Kershaw among today’s elite starting pitchers and who’s ahead of him, if anyone?”

Bringing some stats in,

WHIP (NL)

Hamels, C (PHI) 0.99
Kershaw, C (LAD) 1.02
Harstens, J (PIT) 1.04
Halladay, R (PHI) 1.05
Hanson, T (ATL) 1.06
Lee, C (PHI) 1.07

Freakin’ Phillies. ;)

Other Kershaw NL stats:

OBA .209 (4th)
SO 167 (1st)
ERA 2.72 (5th)
Wins 11 (tied for 2nd with four other guys)

By the way, those five guys in the top 6 in WHIP? Here’s another stat for you:

Hamels 28
Kershaw 23
Harstens 28
Halladay 34
Hanson 24
Lee 32

That’s how old they are. And Hanson will be 25 in a month.

I don’t know if “it’s time for head games,” but somebody needs their head examined:

Asked whether the composition of the team is a reflection of the organization’s economic troubles, McCourt replied, “No.”

So, even if everything were OK, this is the kind of team you would field?

“Yeah, I think we have a very, very good team,” said McCourt, who took out a personal loan to meet last month’s payroll obligation.

[...]

McCourt said he is “very pleased” with how the Dodgers are performing on the field.

Comparison articles are usually rife this time of year, wherein the harried sportswriter “compares” special new players to older ones. It’s one item in their bag of tricks — like writing a “Top 5 Reasons Yadda Yadda” article — used to fill up the insane amount of words they have to write. (Really, I don’t blame them.)

The last few years, the comparison has been Clayton Kershaw and Sandy Koufax. Of course, as a Dodger fan it’s hard not to wish for Kid K to rise to the lofty heights of famous Dodger lefties of the past. (Not many Fernando comparisons for some reason.)

A new comparison, and an intriguing one, is this from Ken Gurnick today, “Jansen’s fastball cut from same cloth as idol”, in which we find out Kenley Jansen has the makings of a crazy cutter.

So the closer of the future — sooner or later — is Kenley Jansen, who is already drawing comparisons to his idol and the best closer ever, the 11-time All-Star [Mariano] Rivera, because of something that can’t be taught, explained or intentionally duplicated.

“My ball naturally cuts,” Jansen said of the darting sideways movement of his fastball that makes it difficult for hitters to square the bat barrel on the ball. “It just has life on it. I throw a four-seam fastball, and when I want to throw a cutter, I spin the ball around and spread the fingers just a little and press with my middle finger and I know it’s going to cut.[...]“

That would be interesting enough, but he has been picking the brains of catchers Dioner Navarro and Mike Borzello, both of whom have caught Rivera.

“The similarities start and stop with what his ball does naturally,” said Borzello. “Kenley throws a four-seamer and tries to throw it straight and it has late cutting action that you just don’t see often. I don’t think he even realizes what it does, he’s so new to pitching.

“Mariano can pinpoint that pitch now, but not at the beginning. Kenley’s pitch has the same action. Where he goes from here will be fun to see. He asks me about Mariano. I told him everything — how he prepares, his routine during a game, his demeanor. I gave him a video of Mariano that he’s watched a lot. I’ll say this — there isn’t a better person to mold himself after.”

With that cutter, a “loopy” slider, and a burning desire to keep improving, the catcher-turned-reliever might have Dodgers fans loopy very soon. “Sooner versus later” if Jonathan Broxton’s season starts out like his second half last year. And if not, we have two devastatingly talented relievers to shut down the end of games.

Navarro said he’ll get Rivera’s cell number and set up a conversation between the 11-time All-Star and the closer-in-training that idolizes him.

“I hope to meet him one day,” said Jansen. “I’d just sit with him and talk and pick his brain.”

Yes, I know. Yes, I understand this is completely not going to happen. Yes, I know the innumerable reasons why this could never take place. Yes, I realize it would require creating a rift in the space-time continuum (or at least doing some horse-trading in the MLB 2011 video game). I get all that.

But a man can dream.

2011 Dodgers (daydream edition)

Starting lineup

• SS Furcal (S)
• CF Kemp (R)
• RF Ethier (L)
• 1B Konerko (R)
• LF Werth (R)
• 3B Beltre (R)
• C Martin* (R)
• 2B Theriot (R)

* or C Santana (S) if Martin is done.

Bench

• C Barajas (R)
• IF Casey Blake (R)
• IF Jamey Carroll (R)
• OF Gibbons (L)
• OF Podsednik (L)

Starting Rotation

1. Cliff Lee (L)
2. Kershaw (L)
3. Billingsley (R)
4. Padilla (R)
5. Lilly (L)

Relief

• Closer: Broxton (R)
• Setup: Kuo (L)
• RP Jansen (R)
• RP Troncoso (R)
• Long Reliever (R)
• Reliever (L)
• Reliever (R)

“She might have been glad to confide all these things to someone. But how to speak about so elusive a malaise, one that keeps changing its shape like the clouds and its direction like the wind? She could find no words; and hence neither occasion nor courage came to hand.” — Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary.

Jon Weisman celebrates the 9th birthday of Dodger Thoughts with a thorough and thought-provoking post this morning, Trade Deadline Inception, covering some of the possibilities and pitfalls of the impending July 31st deadline. Jon isn’t alone, either, with various media and bloggy outlets speculating on the potentiality of disassembling one of the lineups with the best potential in the majors.

Whatever the whys and wherefores of their lackluster 2010 season, the Dodgers are currently six games back of the NL West-leading Padres. Coincidentally, they just (surreally) lost their sixth game in a row.

Trolley Dodger has been pretty silent so far this season, relative to previous years. Most of that had to do with “real-life” events and the all-powerful to-do list (not to mention a month-long World Cup distraction; more on this later), but it is also wrapped up in the malaise of 2010.

From the ill-timed divorce announcement on the eve of the NLCS last October, and subsequent series loss, it has been a struggle to keep up the enthusiasm. And while I have watched a number of games, I haven’t gone to any this year (except for the Kershaw game at Angel Stadium: oof), including missing the recent Blogger Night.

Again, real life has been a big culprit, but it has been a tough sell for my fragmented attention to invest in the Dodger labors. When an activity that is normally an escape from the depressing parts of existence becomes itself depressing…well, what is there to write about? Especially if you’re not one to tear down your favorite team for the sake of talking about something. There’s a surfeit of commenters online, not to mention talk show hosts and callers, who like nothing more than to kvetch 24/7 about the smallest Dodger problems, never mind the major issues — they don’t need any help from me.

So, going outside for a walk has been a great coping mechanism I’ve latched onto this year, and despite the crazy heat here in Inland SoCal I’m trying to keep it up. And oxygen+endorphins certainly help your day more than worrying about a bunch of sports stuff every waking moment. Besides, the old baseball attitude of “don’t get too high, and don’t get too low” certainly applies to fandom as well.

That said, I’m looking forward to what happens between now and the deadline, as well as seeing if the Dodgers can stage an improbable comeback in 2010.

History is merely a list of surprises. … It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again. Please write that down. — Kurt Vonnegut, Slapstick.