Man vs. machine (or at least the connections they require)
The Dodgers may have widened and improved the lower concourses, but the wireless setup in the press box is still awfully wonky. Sometimes it's on, sometimes it's not, so I'm going to have to squeeze this bad boy in between the next outage. No surprise that the pregame talk centered around Andruw Jones, as it likely will until he's hitting somewhere north of, say, his current BA of .100. "You signed him and you signed him for a reason," Joe Torre said. "I still believe that he's got to be the center fielder, and we've got to keep working at, trying to help him find what he hasn't found yet." And in that respect, Torre is exactly right. Bad as Jones has been, 12 games into the year it's far too early to declare him a failure and sit him down. It's a long year, and the Dodgers need a productive Jones in the heart of the order, and he's not going to get fixed sitting for games at a time.
Unfortunately, I don't have much time to dissect more of what Torre said in his pregame media confab, but it'll all be in the audio.
Notes:
- Matt Kemp is back in the lineup, and Torre indicated that his presence there will be the norm. Not literally every day, but more often than not, to paraphrase.
- Great scene in the clubhouse with Rafael Furcal wearing Jonathan Broxton's pants. You could have fit about six Furcals in there.
- Not to jinx it, but the Dodgers are 38-13 over their last 51 games against the Pirates, spanning the last seven seasons.
- Andy LaRoche will make the trip, and could be sent to extended spring training (or somewhere) to start baseball work as he comes back from his thumb injury.
Lineups:
PIRATES:
Nate McLouth- CF
Freddy Sanchez- 2B
Jason Bay- LF
Ryan Doumit- C
Xavier Nady- RF
Doug Mientkiewicz- 1B
Jose Bautista- 3B
Luis Rivas- SS
Zach Duke- P
DODGERS:
Rafael Furcal- SS
Andre Ethier- LF
Matt Kemp- RF
Jeff Kent- 2B
James Loney- 1B
Russell Martin- C
Andruw Jones- CF
Blake DeWitt- 3B
Hiroki Kuroda- P
Audio to come ASAP! (Update: Here it is ...)
All Joe Torre:
- Download joe_torre_4.14 prePIT.mp3
- Download joe_torre_ii_4.14 prePIT.mp3
- Download joe_torre_iii_4.14 prePIT.mp3
BK
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maybe Jones needs a road trip.... can they make him walk there?
Posted by: benzojones | April 14, 2008 at 07:55 PM
BK,
When Torre said, "You signed him," did you get the impression that he would have voted against signing if he had a say in it?
Also, if someone told me that Andruw Jones hit a ball off the wall tonight and was going for three, I would have guessed that he was thrown out by a mile. Anyhow, I'm glad to see him contributing tonight.
Posted by: AKtheFan | April 14, 2008 at 08:40 PM
AKtheFan-
No, I think he meant it in the context of "there's a reason you sign a guy like him," and that he needs to play. He has a track record of success, and it's important to let him try to get back to a place where he can be successful. That's how I read it. Hope that clears it up.
BK
Posted by: Brian Kamenetzky | April 14, 2008 at 08:49 PM
if you hit enough triples, eventually you'll lose some weight running the bases. Brilliant strategy Jones!
Posted by: benzojones | April 14, 2008 at 09:07 PM
Is it just me or is there something very disconcerting about the voice of the Carmax guy on the radio? Not the "no-haggle" one, which has a lot of problems of its own, but the other one describing Carmax. I mean, yeesh.
Posted by: cjms | April 14, 2008 at 09:34 PM
I really think the dodgers made several huge mistake this off-season, first Andruw Jones, nuf said, second they didnt, have a backup plan for Saito. Broxton has shown time after time that he cannot handle the closer role, and Saito is old and really came out of nowere anyway and also spent most of spring training hurt and unable to pitch. I really am afraid that both of these things are going to hurt their chances of doing anything this year besides maybe come in ahead of the Giants. I realize it's early but it does'nt look good.
Posted by: Berol | April 14, 2008 at 10:07 PM