Sharing space at the top
Heading into the ninth inning of Sunday afternoon's contest against the Diamondbacks, it appeared the gap between the Dodgers and the NL West's current crown would stretch out another game. After all, three runs may not be impossible to overcome in just a frame, but it's nonetheless not a given that a 4-1 deficit will eventually be converted into a 6-5 win before a third visiting out is recorded. But a surge attempt began swimmingly enough with Nomar Garciaparra's double to deep center, good fortune that quickly became Mr. Mia Hamm on third when James Loney followed up with a single. Then came a big time break for the Dodgers. Andruw Jones hit one to Stephen Drew that should have resulted in a double play, but J.D.'s sib muffed the grounder and left himself with just a play at first.
One run scores, and the window of opportunity is considerably more ajar (especially considering Blake DeWitt's ensuing ground out, which could have been a game ender). A respective double, triple and single in back-to-back-to-back dish appearances from Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and Russell Martin eventually put the Dodgers up by a pair, enough of a cushion for Jon Broxton to take the hill, allow a score and still save a NL West tying, come from behind box score for the Dodgers.
Two of three in Arizona. Not a bad way to come out of the break.
AK
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Santa Rosa,
I wouldn't mind getting Beltre, but not for the package you're suggesting. Elbert is having a nice year at Jacksonville, and appears to be on the way back. He could be an important addition to the staff next year. I wouldn't be in a hurry to give away too much talent to a team trying to relieve itself of a large financial commitment.
Posted by: Brooklyn Dodger | July 21, 2008 at 07:40 AM
as trading deadline nears, it seems a cinch that both laroche and hu will be packaged somewhere in hopes of an upgrade.......dodgers have already assigned hu's uniform number (#14) to newest dodger ozuna.......seems to me a sure-sign that hu no longer fits any long-term plan
Posted by: WheelerDealer | July 21, 2008 at 09:31 AM
Yeah Lagata, you are the only one that thinks that.
Posted by: dalegribel | July 21, 2008 at 10:13 AM
This was great game. What's up with Schmidt?.....free loading bum!!!! Anyone noticed AJ didn't strike out last night?............and he hit the ball!!
Posted by: espie | July 21, 2008 at 11:50 AM
Lagata,
While my subjective opinion naturally aligns with the knee-jerk reactions of my fellow fans above (dale and K T), I am curious about this take of yours. Can you present some statistical facts to back this up? I know that cold, hard research on fielding is notoriously hard to find and misleading (fielding % is a fairly meaningless stat when you think about it: errors are subjective, and you have to be in the right place to make an error in the first place, whereas bad defenders are often out of position, etc....), but in grading a defensive catcher I would think that three things would be most important:
1) % of runners caught stealing
2) % of passed balls
3) Average put-outs per year
That last one could still be potentially misleading, but may yet shine some light on the comparisons you made.
The only other way to grade a catcher on non-hitting stats would be his effect on the pitchers he catches, but I have yet to see any objective measure of that. I'm not even sure the most brilliant sabermetricians could come up with a valid stat for that.
Anyhow, by all means, lagata, please prove my subjective opinion wrong. I, like most fans and seemingly all sportswriters who vote for gold gloves, am incorrectly influenced by his prowess with the bat. I would love to see some objective measures of Martin's defense.
Posted by: VA Blueblood | July 21, 2008 at 01:11 PM