Tuesday, July 03, 2007 |
Pickoff Moves, Lunchtime Edition
Dumb Ideas, Dodger Prospects Edition
I don't cover the Dodgers minors, particularly the lower minors, as thoroughly as I do the Angels, and that's mainly for exhaustion reasons; with that many teams, at some point you just give up, and for various reasons (alphabetical sorting by parent franchise, mainly), you run out of time and energy by the end. For that reason, this comment from regfairfield in yesterday's DT gameday thread is worth thinking about:552. Dodger JackOne of the great problems the Dodgers have right now is that where they have too much depth (i.e., first and the outfield), they have been reluctant to give kids starting jobs, e.g. playing Nomar over James Loney until recently, or burying Matt Kemp in AAA. The flip side of that coin is kids not performing well when asked to contribute in situations where depth is relatively thin, such as in Hong-Chih Kuo, or Chad Billingsley's inconsistent tenure as a reliever.We keep waiting for LaRoche to be healthy and start hitting. Meanwhile, DeWitt went five for five last night for Inland Empire. He is now hitting .306. I still consider LaRoche to be trade bait, along with Ethier and Kuo, among the youngsters. Biggest problem with trading LaRoche is that we still must solve the long-term third base problem. That is where DeWitt comes in.
[...]
560. regfairfield
So LaRoche, who has excelled at every level he's played at, has shown great plate discipline and the ability to mash line drive after line drive isn't viewed as a long term solution at third base, but DeWitt, who has pretty much had two good months the last two seasons (June 2006: .235/.383/.506, and this previous month .390/.435/.650. Even then, this month was pretty much a balls in play related fluke. DeWitt had by far his worst line drive percentage this month, 11.6% yet his BABIP was .427. Now, his batted ball luck was terrible in April and May, so part of this was just regression, but Blake DeWitt has not suddenly saw the light.
In essence, you're willing to throw away the entire track record of performance from LaRoche because of a fluky month from DeWitt. This would be, shall we say, not wise.
Angels DFA Hector Carrasco And Other Roster Notes
- The Angels designated reliever Hector Carrasco for assignment, in a long-overdue move. I made some comments in today's Minor League Scorebook post in response to comments the day before by Andrew about the viability of Chris Resop as a major league reliever. We're about to find out how good he is, as the Angels have called him up from Salt Lake to replace Carrasco on the 25-man roster. Good call, Andrew.
- A's reliever Justin Duchscherer will have season-ending hip surgery. Kiko Calero and Huston Street are also on the mend, and are expected to throw off a mound today.
- The Diamondbacks are shadowing Randy Johnson's start days with those of Yusmiero Petit, in case Johnson needs to be scratched from a start. Update: Johnson has been moved to the DL, and Petit will make his next start.
OT: Beverly Sills, 78, Dies Of Lung Cancer
Ironically enough. I'm not a big opera fan by any stretch, but her approachability in a form known for its divas and arrogant jackasses was unparalleled. Maybe getting snubbed by the Met because of her association with the New York City Opera (which she later managed) had something something to do with that. Helen tells me that she wouldn't shake hands with people, but that was strictly for professional reasons: colds transfer by direct skin contact, and one bad upper respiratory infection could wreck your career.Labels: angels, athletics, diamondbacks, injuries, minors, offtopic
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