The final countdown begins | Blue Notes - A Dodgers Blog

Five games and counting, to be exact. Last night's 9-7 loss to the Rockies took what was already a minuscule shot of making the postseason and did a slamdance all over it. The Blue actually managed to put together some runs to help their cause, six of them coming courtesy of home runs by James Loney, Chin Lung-Hu and Delwyn Young. Unfortunately, from starter Brad Penny to final contestant Roberto Hernandez, the hurlers didn't hold up their end of the deal. A disappointing finish (and box score) to a season falling short of April expectations. Whether you think (as Grady Little does) that the key hurdle was Raffy Furcal's spring training ankle injury or (as Russell Martin) one wicked bad July skid, similar to last night's game, there's no doubt that the air's been let out of some rather lofty sails.

So where to go from here? Aside from the obvious (play out the season for some freakin' pride, people!), there will be decisions to address. Who stays? Who goes? Mike Lieberthal, who was debating retirement a little while back, has not only changed his mind but is perfectly happy to keep playing (and we use the term loosely) with the Dodgers in his present role. Along those lines, free agent Mark Sweeney would love to return and swing bats if needed in a ... wait for it ... pinch. Matt Kemp is likely to be in a Blue-ni, although Bill Plaschke thinks Ned Colletti is hinting the kid might be viewed as more expendable after being the reported subject of Jeff Kent's ire. (For what it's worth, the K Brothers think the GM's words sound nearly identical to thoughts expressed last January.) Interestingly enough, Kent himself may have ticked off a vet or two back in the day. For those interested, here's a recent history of Dodger clubhouse fighting.

Will the Dodgers learn from 2007's pitfalls? Tune in during 2008 and see.

Tony Abreu is still on the mend.

Tonight's shot at screwing the Rockies back pits Derek Lowe against Josh Fogg. Sir Sinkerball is trying to hit the .500 clip on the season. By doing so, he might prevent his club from finishing out in similar fashion.

Comments

Interesting find about Kent's past. It just shows he hasn't changed at all. I'm beginning to think that (dare I say it?) Milton Bradley may have had a point about him. Of course, Kent had a point about Bradley, too. It's amazing how these type of guys find each other, isn't it?

Posted by: Eric B. | September 26, 2007 at 11:40 AM

One player like Furcal should not affect a whole season. The two biggest problems this year was the pitching - injuries, the inability of the starters to go more that five or six innings so often, and the middle relief - and the great "No hit Drought" that seemed to set the tone for the last third of the season.
Hitting will always be up and down for most teams during a season, it's a hard thing to do, lol.
They must shore up the pitching next year to be successful.

Posted by: Andy B | September 26, 2007 at 12:42 PM

Interested to read about the trade rumors (last thread). It's surely a difficult call. My thoughts are this:

It's hard to know for sure which current Dodger players are going to be great (e.g. A-Rod or Cabera or Santana great) and which merely good, and that's why it's tough. In principle I'm not against trading one or two prospects for proven players who will be around long enough (no more 1-2 year deals or opt-outs please, though Drew going was a blessing). But it's getting to the point, maybe not there but getting there, where some of these players are beyond 'prospect status'. Surely Loney, Bills and Martin are beyond that now, and a good argument might be made for Brox too. Ethier, Kemp, LaRoche, Kershaw, Young it might be bearable to see them go.

BUT

I really worry about the touted trade of Kemp and Kershaw for Santana. Colletti appears to favor pitching, and this was the idea behind signing Schmidt-Wolf last offseason. It went wrong because of injuries, perhaps forseeable, but if we go there again and Santana goes down (and/or any of Schmidt, Penny Lowe or Wolf, if resigned) we'll be where we were again this season, and possibly watching Kemp develop the maturity and poise he's lacking playing for the Twins.

The potential deal for a bat like Cabrera worries me less, because it takes the emphasis off needing to get runs by so-called 'production', the lack of which, along with pitching injuries contributed the most part to the failure this season, in my view.

Unless Conte has discovered cloning and not told anyone in medical science, we can't trade Kemp in both deals. So that puts more prospects on the line. I'd be interested to hear how many (and who), in general, people here are willing to see go?

For my part I'd be reluctant to part with more than one or two top 'prospects' and see a big name come in and then fail, which would put the future on the line as well as the next year or two.

Posted by: CleoMG | September 26, 2007 at 01:50 PM