If everything goes as well for the Dodgers during the 2008 season as it did in their 5-0 Opening Day win over the Giants Monday afternoon at the Ravine, then strap in people, because you're in for a bang up year.  (Not just because if you project today's result over a full season, the Dodgers would go 162-0 and outscore the opposition 810-0.  I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I'm pretty sure that would be a record.)  Everything, from the pregame ceremonies featuring a host of Dodger legends from the days of yore- Don Newcombe, Sandy Koufax, Duke Snider, Carl Erskine, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Fernando, and Jerry Reuss among others- to the performance of Brad Penny (6.2, four hits, two walks, three strikeouts) went according to plan.  Even parking was a breeze!*

Sure, there's less age on this season than a bottle of Mad Dog 20-20, but they've only been at it for a few hours, and the Dodgers are already in first place!  That Joe Torre signing is already paying off. 

Click below for the breakdown and audio.

As we wonder how cool it would be if Blake DeWitt managed to hit 1.000 his entire career (At 1-1, he's off to a good start. UPDATE: Forget it.  He just flew out to right in the bottom of the fourth.  The dream is over...) it's probably a good time to kick back and take in the smooth, melodic tones of Joe Torre.  All the audio from his long pregame confab with the media is below. 

Once the game starts, it becomes almost impossible to transcribe, but I can give you a rundown of topics discussed: Opening Day stuff- how weird it is starting here rather than New York, how comfortable he feels with the club after Spring Training, etc.  The 3B situation, and opening the season with a very untested player at an important position.  How ready he is for the season to start and for some of the Joe Torre related hoopla to die down.  Nomar's injury, and if he'll require a rehab stint when the time comes (yes, he very likely will).  And, of course, the OF situation with Pierre and Ethier (at the end of the second clip, into the third one).

Download joe_torre_1_opening_day.mp3
Download joe_torre_2_opening_day.mp3
Download joe_torre_3_opening_day.mp3

Opening Day rolls along swimmingly, as the Dodgers are up 4-0 in the top of the fifth.

BK

Okay, maybe not.  But it might be the only time he makes a headline on the site, so why not capitalize on an opportunity?

More to come (in this very post), including about a half hour of Joe-dio and a nice interview with Don Newcombe, but before the game starts, I wanted to get the lineups posted.  The lineups say everyone's batting .000, but I'm an optimist, and prefer to think of all the guys as batting 1.000.  That's just how I roll. 

GIANTS:

Dave Roberts (LF)
Rich Aurilia (1B)
Randy Winn (RF)
Bengie Molina (C)
Ray Durham (2B)
Aaron Rowand (CF)
Jose Castillo (3B)
Brian Bocock (SS, and one who was probably mocked a lot in grade school.  You figure out why.)
Barry Zito (P)

DODGERS:  Perhaps you heard Andre Ethier won the left field gig?  Well, he slides into the lineup behind leadoff man Rafael Furcal.  Looking at it, I think the Blue will put out what is the second best lineup in the division, and assuming Ethier, James Loney, and Matt Kemp are "as advertised," and they get a .270 season from Andruw Jones (as opposed to .228 or whatever), they should be able to put up enough runs. 
Furcal (SS)
Ethier (LF)
Kemp (RF)
Jeff Kent (2B)
Andruw Jones (CF)
Russell Martin (C)
James Loney (1B)
Blake DeWitt (3B)
Brad Penny (P)

By the way, I hope you get a chance to watch some of the pregame activities, where they're bringing out different players, in uniform, from across the 50 year history of Dodgers baseball in Los Angeles. Very, very cool, and the players are all getting standing ovations from the crowd.  Talking to Mr. Newcombe (he asked me to call him Don... but really, Don Newcombe has earned a Mr. Newcombe from an idiot like me) before the game, it was clear that being back in a Dodgers uniform, even if for a day, and for ceremonial purposes, was quite a treat. 

BK

Opening Day!  Finally, a chance to start talking about games that matter instead of hoping to draw lessons from ones (or at least the final scores of ones) that don't.  And ultimately, it all comes down to one big question: After a fairly productive offseason in which they added Hiroki Kuroda and Andruw Jones, made space for their young, talented players, and found some dude from New York to manage the team, will the Dodgers have enough to win the NL West? 

I spent last week previewing the division, and I'll be honest, even after breaking down each team, I still don't feel like I have a good handle on where each team will finish, aside from the Giants in last.  I gave Arizona 87 wins, San Diego 85, and the Rockies 89... and while I like the basic order, feel like I might have undershot each by a win or two.  Such is life in a division with four good but flawed teams.  When it's all said and done, I think the Blue have more than enough to compete for a division title.   

The big news from Sunday was the news that Andre Ethier will start the season as the everyday left fielder, it wasn't the only roster news:

• Chan Ho Park will start the year in AAA, but seems like a prime candidate for a promotion when the infield situation clears up and the Blue no longer need an extra glove. 
• Tony Abreu will join Nomar, Andy LaRoche, and Jason Schmidt on the DL, to make room for Blake DeWitt and Angel Chavez, who will be that spare infielder for the time being.
• Jason Repko won't make the team out of camp.  He was sent to AAA Vegas.  Delwyn Young, out of options, will stick. 

As for Sunday's game, it was a great final tune up for Hiroki Kuroda, who struck out six in four innings of scoreless work, and for Clayton Kershaw, who retired ten in a row at one point during his four scoreless frames.

Monday the real games begin... finally!

As reported by Ken Gurnick of MLB.com.  Needless to say, it's a decision supported here at Blue Notes.  Again, it's not that Pierre is terrible- he isn't.  Just that Ethier is a better all-around option.  And while Spring Training stats are generally meaningless, if you want to say they were in a competition for the job, Ethier certainly outplayed JP. 

What happens from here, it's hard to predict.  But in the short term at least, the Dodgers put on-field performance ahead of cost considerations, and it was the right decision.

BK

The season starts tomorrow, and there are still a few issues for Joe Torre and Co. to work out (over the next few minutes before Opening Day rosters are set).  The biggest is in the OF, where it's not a question of roster spots, but playing time, where the chances of Juan Pierre losing a lot of it are increasing, something he doesn't seem particularly happy about.  Thus far, he's not really saying anything you wouldn't expect, but it'll be interesting to see how it plays out, and Pierre doesn't sound optimistic (though he's sort of an Eeyore on the best day).  Third base seems settled, as Blake DeWitt will start tomorrow in place of the injured Nomandtony LaRociapreu (it gets harder to add a third player to that mix, I admit).  Nothing like being the last man standing, but hey, guys will take a ticket to the bigs however they come. 

In the pen, Ramon Troncoso could sneak in ahead of Chan Ho Park, depending on how the Dodgers decide to flesh out the different roles there.  Here's one dude's guess as to how it'll play out.

BK 

There was plenty of history on hand Saturday night at the Coliseum for the big game between the Red Sox and Dodgers (not that anyone really cared, but the Sox won 7-4), and fans and players alike were able to experience baseball with old timey configurational oddities- how about a 201 foot left field line,
or the centerfielder covering second like a beer league softball game?- but mostly people were able to take in a memorable baseball experience with 115,300 of their closest friends, a new world record.  It was a novelty game, yes, writes Jim Alexander of the PE, but it was a really, really cool novelty, and as the LAT's Kurt Streeter points out, one dripping with highly entertaining nostalgia. 

Everyone, from players to fans (possibly excluding the managers, who have important decisions to make) had fun.  Especially Roger Owens.   

Were you there?  Share your experiences at Blue Notes, or at kambrothers@yahoo.com, or here, or here. 

Young lefty Clayton Kershaw been enjoying himself a prosperous spring training coming into this afternoon's final tuneup matinee against the Saux.  Ten innings tossed.  A scant three walks and an even scant-er one run surrendered.  A baker's dozen's worth of K's.  A certain curve ball that managed to blow the mind of one Vin Scully, a fella who's see his share of baseball.  Kershaw's definitely got the stuff and potential, but whether's he's got a roster spot come 24 hours from now remains up in the air.  I tend to err on the side of allowing him to get some more minor league seasoning unless absolutely necessary, at least to kick off the season.  The success he's enjoyed thus far could easily reverse once hitters become more familiar with his stuff.  Plus, there's always a danger involved with rushing prospects.  But regardless of Joe Torre's impending decision, you'll be seeing plenty of him with the big club at a point looking more "sooner" than "later."  Here's what he had to say. 

Andrew Kamenetzky: Can you what this experience has been like for you, in terms of being up with the big club for all of spring training?

Clayton Kershaw: Yeah, you know.  It's been awesome for me, just to be up here, be a part of all this.  I'm gonna soak it in for as long they'll let me be up here.  I'm having a great time.  It's been fun.

For the record, the final score was 7-4 Red Sox, though I'm not entirely sure most of the 115,300 in the crowd could tell you that, and not just because a whole bunch of them were sauced.  It was more a big baseball party, with people hanging out around the stadium and having a good time.  There's no question being in a place with this many people to watch a game is an impressive sight.  Some highlights:

• Early in the game, when Dustin Pedroia was thrown out stealing, Russell Martin to Andrew Jones.  That's 2-8 for those scoring at home.  Most of the night the Blue had an OF playing short center, like a company softball game. That left the big ticket FA to cover second on steal attempts.  That isn't a line that appears in a box very often.
• The Dodgers doing the wave on the bench with everyone else in the crowd.
• Being heckled with a "Hey, Moby!" while walking the concourses in search of food, then again on my way into the tunnel for postgame interviews.
• The $5 bacon wrapped hot dog I managed to find.  If you're gonna go dog, go dog wrapped in bacon.
• After Blake DeWitt's homer in the ninth, the throng of fans hanging out beyond the right field fence apparently started fighting over the ball to the point that about twenty yellow jacked security folk had to storm in and break things up.  It's like the Raiders were back!
• Tommy at the postgame buffet.  Not that I necessarily needed to find him, but I was dead on as to where to look if I did. 
• Interesting choice to play Sweet Caroline in the eighth.  Nice gesture to the BoSox fans, but hey, people, this is LA!
• I asked James Loney where his seventh inning solo shot over the screen in left would have landed on a regular field. "In the stands, exactly where it went," he said with a smile.
• It was mentioned after the game that while tonight represented the biggest crowd in history to watch a baseball game (soon to be Guinness certified!), by definition, the Dodgers are basically guaranteed to set a record for biggest drop in game to game attendance, no matter how many people show up to the Ravine on Sunday.  You win some, you lose some.

Lowlights:

• I spoke briefly to Ned Colletti before the game about any pending roster moves, and not surprisingly, he wasn't giving anything away.  But they have until Sunday at noon to figure it out.  He was, however, willing to confirm that I would not be among the 25 who make the cut.  I'm not gonna lie, it was a tough pill to swallow. 

AUDIO:

• Andruw Jones: Download andruw_jones_3.29 postBSX.mp3
• Russell Martin: Download russell_martin_3.29 postBSX.mp3

BK

More with Andre Ethier below.