Oops, I did it again.

For 4 straight times, Hong-Chih Kuo has shut down the opposition in the 9th, earning the closers role, did that matter to Joe Torre? No.

Did it matter to him that Broxton has lost his mettle since the All-Star Game and can’t seem to close a game? No.

Did it matter that we are in a chase for both the Wild Card and National League West Crown? Apparently not, because Joe Torre has once again Bungled his way into a loss with his poor management of the bullpen, it’s September, we’ve got less than 30 games to go and you decide to see if your former closer can close it out and you bring in Octavio Dotel, why? Both have shown that they don’t have it anymore, I know you want to show your players that you have trust in them but sometimes, as a manager you have to say “They do not perform well in these situations, so I won’t use them.” Just because Huff came up to bat, doesn’t mean you have to bring in a left handed pitcher, if you want a leftie in there, use Sherrill, Huff is in a huge slump and wasn’t a threat to well, anyone.

So Dodgers fan, is it officially over? Not really, they can do it, San Diego just lost another game so now it’s 9 straight and we are still 8 games back, but could’ve been 7 with a win today but, I just don’t see it, not with this manager, not with this GM, not with this owner. Speaking of owner, I’ll have more on that later, it’s nice to find out the guy who owns your favorite team is a crook, well not really.

Hola, I’m Back!

The player who was just as important as Manny Ramirez is back in the line up today.

The Los Angeles Dodgers score 4.5 runs per game (342 Runs in 76 Games) when Furcal is in the line up and 4.03 Runs per game when he’s not in the line up (235 in 58 games). Miraculously, even with that run deferential, the Dodgers are 35-23 with him in the line up, helped by a 9 game winning streak in May, and 33-33 with him in the line up.

Despite that, his return is a significant boost to the Dodgers, he has more range and a better arm at SS than Jamey Carroll, has more power and a better bat than Scott Podsednik and is a leader in the Dodgers club house. We may even see Furcal batting 3rd when Podsednik is in the line up, as he has a .366 batting average when runners are on base and hits .324 with runners in scoring position but has a .273 batting average when leading off an inning and .291 with no runners on base.

It’s difficult to put into words how important this series is to the Dodgers this season. We are now 5 and a half games back with the Rockies dead in front of us. If we lose this series, we go 2 back of the rockies and a possible 7-8 games back of the Wild Card lead and don’t even think about the division, that will be a foregone conclusion.

To emphasize how important the brass deems this series, let’s look at who they put on waivers. Manny Ramirez, arguably our best hitter, Hiroki Kuroda, our most consistent starter, Scott Podsednik, uh our starting left fielder and Jay Gibbons, another player who would play left field and has been a stellar pinch hitter since he’s been called up and Casey Blake, the guy who we traded Carlos Santana for and who would have made the possibility of letting Martin hit the free agent market this off season a lot easier but now we have no chance at anyone else except Barajas and do we really want to keep him.

Next, we have the 3 pitchers who the Dodgers have worked to start these three games. Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsly and Ted Lilly, three pithers who have been pitching the best for the Dodgers since the All Star Break.

The Rockies also know how big this series is throwing out Jimenez for the first game against Kershaw, this is going to be a knock out drag down fight and I’m going to try to catch all 3 games. Go Dodgers!

So, the Los Angeles Dodgers win today, 7-1, all thanks to our bullpen Carlos Monasterios battled through 4 and a third innings striking out 3, giving up 2 hits a walk and his only earned run was a homerun by Prince Fielder. After that, Joe Torre worked his masterpiece, bringing in Ronald Belisario and George Sherrill to end the 5th inning. Jansen goes two scoreless innings and has a bit of excitement when he got his first time to hit in the majors, drew a walk and proceeded to score on a single to center by Ryan “The Riot” Theriot.

Can this team make the playoffs? As a Dodger fan I hope so. Do we need Manny Ramirez for that? Or even Hiroki Kuroda? I have no idea but both are now on waivers, Manny is sure to be claimed by the White Sox but it doesn’t necessarily mean he will be traded because he’s asking for a one year extension with whatever club decides to pick him up, and he wants it in place before the waiver trade is done, so there’s a very good chance he will remain in Dodger blue. Kuroda on the other hand, could garner a lot of interest but I’d like to keep him if we’re serious about a run, we’re playing  very well and just one 3 straight on the road, sweeping the Brewers. Last time the Dodgers swept a team was back in June, the 28th through 30th, when they swept the San Francisco Giants in San Francisco.

The next series is against the Rockies, the team that is directly ahead of us not only in the National League West but also in the Wild Card race, so this is a supremely huge series that the Dodgers must take at least 2 of 3 but would be a lot better if they sweep. If they do that, they will be ahead of the Rockies, if they only win 2 they’ll be tied. I’m going to rest a lot of my faith in this team on this next series, I want to see how much fight they’ve got left. Torre has already shown that he won’t quit, Colletti is still making calls trying to see what he can get to help the team and Ethier has definitely shown us that he won’t quit.

So, Manny has finally hit the waiver wire but will Kuroda join him there? Courtesy of ESPN LA

It makes sense, Kuroda is in the last year of his contract, has always been highly consistent and could help bolster a team’s rotation fighting for the playoffs, I just wonder what the Dodgers will be asking for, the last young player we got back in a trade was John Ely other than that, Colletti’s usually been giving up young talent, so I guess we have to wait and see.

Both him and Manny showcased their stuff today against the Brewers, Manny went 2 for 2 with 2 walks and an RBI, while Kuroda went 7 innings, surrendered 4 runs, and struck out 6, more than enough to get a win with most of this years playoffs teams.

Also, the White Sox have said for sure that they will pick up Manny on waivers, it’s too bad really, we have just won three straight and it could be that Manny has ignited this offense, and now we’re going to trade him off? I dunno, we’ll see. I still don’t want to give up hope but if we can get us some good young talent to help us out for the future, I’m all for it.

The Dodgers could use a heavy (no pun intended) hitter to go inbetween Kemp and Either. Now, they thought they had that with Manny, and sure- Manny does fine when he’s actually playing…since he doesn’t actually play…well…yeah. The Milwaukee Brewers are going to have a heck of a time trying to resign the big man- which tells me…they’ll have to at least contemplate trading him. I believe they’ll be 6 big market teams in on Prince this off season and into next year, are the Dodgers one of them? Definitely.

Every team will offer their best prospects. The Dodgers can do better. Chad Billingsley. Now a few days ago I wrote an article about Billingsley. Trade him? Keep him? I stand by the fact the Dodgers should look into trading him for all the reasons I stated in that article. I feel good about that. He does have the upside of a power ace…but he also has the downfall of getting paid a TON of money to sit on the DL. The risk isn’t worth it to me which is where Prince comes in. The Brewers would want mlb ready guys for Prince. Well how are they going to turn down Chad and James Loney? Two guys already in the bigs- with success. Well I know what your thinking. If they can’t afford Prince- how can they afford Chad? Simple- Prince is going to want 150 million or so. Chad you could sign for roughly 60-75. A chance they can take if they want to win. They need a guy behind Gallardo, and Billingsley could be the match.

So what are the Dodgers going to do without Chad in the rotation? Simple- they’ll have to go out and make a sign. Everything relies on how much money this organization will have. I mean- how can a big market like Los Angeles not have the money to do this? I don’t know the 100% true facts behind the ownership’s finanical plans and I don’t try too….but come on. It’s LA! The Dodgers are too proud a franchise to continue to go down hill…and the only way to get back into the race next year is to make a drastic move or 2. I mean imagine if Billingsley tears up his shoulder for Milwaukee last year. Great move! Now imagine Prince hitting between Ethier and Kemp? Yummmmy.

Like I said- this is nothing more than some logic. Who knows if this will happen, will be talked about happening etc. All I know is…the Dodgers need to take a shot on the big man from Milwaukee.

Another upsetting loss, as this team has seemingly packed it in. They have no energy, they look like they don’t care if they’re playing baseball in a pennant race, or at the salon getting a pedicure. Either way- It has to be upsetting to Dodgers’ fans who should be able to see a team have some sort of fire to play every day. What can you do? I don’t know- bench guys…yell at guys…but what does that solve? There is some talent on this team- but there’s a ton missing at the same time. Who do you trade? Who do you keep? We’ll continue to evaluate that as we go on into the winter.

Tonight’s game- tough. You take a 3-1 lead in the 9th with a supposed to be real good closer in Broxton. Well he’s been anything but good lately and maybe Joe is sending a message, by flipping him and Kuo. Well- that would be great except Kuo and Dotel gave up 3 runs to lose. You CANNOT walk people in the 9th inning. Period. It kills you more often than not and it’s just…BAH. It’s frustrating to watch. All you can do is hope some of these guys can be moved before 9/1- or in the off season and a new dynamic can be brought to Dodger baseball. As we see it now- I don’t think anything will be changing this year.

Well- I mean what can you say? Sure it was nice to see the Doders swing the bats last night. We didn’t pitch all that well- but that’s gonna happen from time to time. Losing Furcal is going to hurt becasue now the Dodgers don’t have a true lead off guy. If anyone says Ryan Theriot- I might scream. Ryan Theriot is as far away from a GOOD lead off hitter as you get if you look at the stat that means the most in that spot. On base percentage. Ryan Theriot sports an OBP of under .330 and that’s…well…a joke. I’m a firm believer in waving the white flag when you need too because this is a team that has a bad farm system, and not taking complete advantage of restocking it is tough to watch. I want to win as much as the next guy- but sometimes you just have to say…it’s not my year.

I’m happy to see Andre Ethier go 4-4 last night. He’s one of the most under rated bats in all of baseball. How do you pitch to him? He can beat you going to every field- with power. Then to make matters worse for pitchers- he can solidly connect with pitchers’ pitches. Whew- He’s one guy I’m excited to see the Dodgers build the team around. Him and Matt Kemp are going to be fun to watch.

Think about it- who is the ace of this Dodgers staff? Yes- Clayton Kershaw. What kind of money is he going to get? Scary to think about isn’t it? Chad Billingsley is a number 2 who pitches like a 1…or pitches like a 4. Why would you want to pay him the kind of money I suspect he’ll get, when you could take that money and go after some offense, or TWO pitchers who could really hold the fort down for some of the young talent to emerge.  Everyone is on the lookout for pitching, and I think you’ll get someone to bite on this guy for quite a bit. I also have some worry with his mechanics. After breaking down some of his tape, I believe he’s got a little bit of a timing issue, which puts excess pressure on the shoulder mainly- based on his whip action. Now what this means to me is, when he plants, his arm isn’t ready to come through (at times) meaning the arm has to rush to the throwing position instead of naturally getting there on time. We’ve seen many pitchers go down with shoulder and arm injuries and some never return. This to me is a HUGE risk, and when we’re attaching 65-80 million to him- it’s not a risk I would be willing to take. Free up that money, and start restocking the farm system- that’s how I’d attack this organization

Will this happen? Who knows? Should it be talked about internally? Absolutely.