Please FEED the Manager

Normally Dodgers managers never have a hard time filling out a uniform but I saw this in the paper yesterday and was HORRIFIED!!!

Joe, are you on the Prince Fielder, Boca Burger diet? I know you're pushing 100 but do you really need to wear the waist of your pants up around your chest? And if you are going to go vegan, can the Dodgers not at least TAILOR your uniform so that it doesn't look like you're wearing Olmedo Saenz's uniform? Come on people!

Juan Pierre Regrets Having a Girl's Throwing Arm

So, Pitchers and Catchers have reported as have some position players! YES!!!!!! Finally! Something other than news from Congress about HGH and Clemens. (By the way Congress, figure out the budget, get a better national healthcare plan, figure out the mortgage crisis and bring the troops home instead of using OUR MONEY TO ASK CLEMENS WHAT HAT HE'S WEARING TO THE HALL OF FAME!!!!! He won't be in there at this pace!)

I digress.

Big Dodgers news this week, Juan Pierre might be open to being traded if he loses his starting OF job to Ethier. Well, ah, ok. Would the phrase "don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out" be appropriate? I honestly was ok with Pierre's signing, except for the money we gave him. He's fast and LA has a lot of room in CF to cover. He steals bases so Furcal and Pierre should be havoc on the basepaths. None of this really came to fruition though. He did steal a lot of bases but that old adage, "you can't steal first" applies well. As a leadoff man he sucked! He never takes a walk and hits FAR TOO MANY fly balls. This guy should be slapping the ball over the INF or laying down bunts and beating out the throw. Alas, he doesn't. AND his arm is worse than the love child of Dave Roberts and Brett Butler. I mean seriously, how can you not even hit the cutoff guy without a hop??? WEAK WEAK WEAKASS ARM! Cost us several runs there alone.

So, if he doesn't get PT, he wants out. FINE! Not sure what we can get for him, especially with that contract but I'd offer him around. Maybe we could get Matt Herges, Brett Tomko or Mark Hendrickson for him. Or at least a case of sunflower seeds and maybe some line chalk. Odds are, Torre sticks him in LF, benches and ruins either Kemp or Ethier and Pierre matches his 07 numbers. Oh well. I'm a Dodger fan, I'm used to it.

DOWN ON THE FARM

Most baseball publications are releasing their "Top Prospect" issues, ranking the kids for each team. The Dodgers future continues to look bright with Clayton Kershaw, Andy LaRoche and Jonathan Meloan on verge of full time duty in LA.

Here is how Baseball America ranks the Dodgers' kids.
1. Kershaw SP, 2. LaRoche 3B, 3. Hu SS, 4. Elbert SP, 5. DeWitt 3B, 6. Withrow SP, 7. McDonald SP, 8. Meloan RP, 9. D.Young OF, and 10. Baez 3B.

Another respected Prospect Guru, John Sickels ranks the Dodgers like this:
1. Kershaw SP, 2. LaRoche 3B, 3. McDonald SP, 4. Hu SS, 5. Meloan RP, 6. D.Young OF, 7. Withrow SP, 8. Elbert SP, 9. DeWitt 3B and 10. Lambo 1B.

So basically, outside of each person's #10 guy, they both agree on the best 9, just in different orders. Clayton Kershaw is widely regarded as the best pitching prospect in baseball. James McDonald was actually LA's Minor League Pitcher of the Year and had a great year. Scott Elbert was the same level as Kershaw before arm troubles cost him all of last season but hopes to rebound this season. Hu played a lot in September and hit several HRs which was unexpected. Young has quite a bat but his glove moved him from 2B to the OF now and he's looking more like a utility type player. Regardless, the system looks to still be fairly stocked and in good hands to allow an infusion of young talent or important trading chips later in the season. GO BLUE!

BLACK FEBRUARY IS HERE

Sure those beautiful words, "Pitchers and Catchers Report" will occur in less than 2 weeks but we are still too far away from any meaningful baseball action in a world now without football (for like 6 months).

To ease this misery, the Dodgers got an early jump on things by putting their spring training game tickets on sale this past weekend. Why is that big news you ask, well for starters this is SADLY the last season in Vero Beach. Home to the Dodgers for 60 years now in some capacity or another (10 years more than LA has been home to the Dodgers), the team is scheduled to move to a shiny new home in Arizona next year. While this makes them closer to those of us in LA and increases the odds that LA fans get out to support the team in March, it is sad to lose such a historical part of the team. Sandy and Don used to walk those same roads and play on those fields. Cey, Garvey, Russell and Lopes learned to play along side of each other here. Mike Piazza got his start as a catcher here and Eric Gagne became GAME OVER on these fields. Yeah Vero is a sleepy town, not conveniently located and all the way across the country but Florida is SPRING TRAINING. Not Arizona. Most spring games in Arizona have box scores of football games, 14-7, 13-10, 10-7, not the pitching and defense duels you get in Florida. Oh well, its just more of Frank McCourt killing team history.

On the plus side, is that on March 29th, the Dodgers will host McCourt's favorite team, the Boston Red Sox (rumor has it they are the defending champs too), at the LA COLISEUM. This is a throwback to the first season in LA when the Dodgers played at the Coliseum and this 2008 version sold out in less than an hour. I'll be there with several of my buddies. I wasn't alive for the first tour in the Coliseum so the chance to see this in person, could not be missed. Proceeds from this game are slated to go to the Jimmy Fund, I mean Think Cure. McCourt's version of the Jimmy Fund (BOS Charity). In all seriousness, it is a good cause, going to support cancer research, it is just funny how he tries to make the Dodgers the Red Sox West. (Of course by hiring Torre, who knows what is going on now....)

In other news, the METS got Johan and it still boggles my mind that LA was not a player. Sure the Mets had to give Johan a 6 year deal, averaging 23 million a year, but come on, drawing 4 million fans, LA could afford that. You cannot tell me that a package of Kershaw (or a lesser P), LaRoche, maybe Ethier or Kemp was not 1000% more attractive than Gomez, Humber, Guerra and Mulvey???? Why did we not at least throw in an offer? Would the greatest pitcher in the game today NOT BE a welcome addition to this team? HELLO! It is still early enough that I do retain some optimism for this season. I like LA to fight for first with the D-Backs and either take the west or win the wild card. COL, SD, and SF do not scare or worry me at all. Until next time.....