Swuppted
Swuppted: Defined by Blue Notes dictionary as the hybrid of "swept" and "whupped."
And rather appropriate to bust out on this particular Friday, as last night's 11-2 loss to the Nationals represented the words' origins for the Dodgers. The defeat represented a brooming at the hands of baseball's worst squad (to say nothing of it being the second consecutive brooming on this current roadie). And as the score makes perfectly clear, a whupping took place. The burial's dirt was ultimately shoveled during a first inning where young Clayton Kershaw experienced some big league lumps. Five runs allowed, all earned, including a three run jack by Elijah Dukes. The lefty's disastrous work negated any advantage gained from a two run opening frame for the Blue, not to mention laid the foundation for Christian Guzman to enter the Nationals history books by hitting the cycle. After all, when you've only hit six homers all year, getting one out of the way in the first makes such a mission considerably more realistic. Thankfully, the lousy box score (along
with the ones before) haven't done nearly the damage they could, since
Arizona also seems uninterested in securing the NL West crown.
On the heels of the shelling, Kershaw finds himself back in Triple-A, but that would have likely happened upon a no-hitter.
Room is needed for Scott Elbert to enter the mix and hopefully bolster
the pen. For now, the plan is for Kershaw to return upon Sept. 1
call ups and make his scheduled Tuesday start.
Juan Pierre is a September kinda player, which may not mean anything for this particular Dodger squad.
As T.J. Simers rightly notes, nudging fans at this particular moment to secure their '09 season tix is a joke.
Tanyon Sturtze thought he was getting designated for assignment on Wednesday, only to find out he was sticking around. On Thursday, the DFA was for real. Welcome back Cory Wade.
This weekend kicks off a crucial three-game against Arizona, with tonight's match the must-est of "must win" games for the Dodgers. After all, it's a lot easier to count on a victory against Doug Davis than Dan Haren or Brandon Webb (both in the wings)
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Lifelong Dodger fan... long time reader of this blog (AK and BK, you do damned fine work. I wish we could say that about the team.)... and first time poster here.
That being said, this team has sucked the life out of me and, at this point, I can't even get enthused about the games. The team has the talent to put together a run that could quite possibly get them deep into the playoffs. But said "run" feels pretty much like a pipe dream now. Injuries, youth, veterans, fatigue... all play a part in this but ultimately I don't see a whole lot of life or urgency from them. And that disgusts me.
Ok... venting done for now.
Posted by: Mitch Norris | August 29, 2008 at 10:35 AM
I remember when Joe Torre managed the Braves back in the '70s and his promising team lost 19 out of 21. All the poo-bahs were on his case, but Torre said words to the effect of "the only way to make it right is to win it anyway." And they did.
Posted by: Dan | August 29, 2008 at 10:37 AM
It's over johnny...It's over!!
Posted by: Bluelou | August 29, 2008 at 10:47 AM
Ticket prices go up while wins go down get a clue McCourt, funny stuff from Simers
btw I'll be making the 350 mile drive for saturdays game, any chance of letting me run the live blog?
3-10 last 13 and I was at the 2 wins if that helps any
Posted by: CA | August 29, 2008 at 11:04 AM
Torre is delusional. We need a win to feel better? One win is not going to fix this team.
It is pretty obvious this team is not built to go a full season. This happened last year as well when the team tanked going down the stretch.
How about getting some guys who can play a full season with out getting "tired".
Posted by: Andy B | August 29, 2008 at 11:31 AM
Everyone,
My bad. I didn't pay close enough attention to Mike's post. You're right. We have established a "no politics" tone. We want to keep it that way.
Mike T.,
I don't care if you want to leave your site address to direct people to an appropriate forum for a political discussion, but please leave your own out of the posts. I hope that's a fair compromise.
AK
Posted by: Andrew Kamenetzky | August 29, 2008 at 11:33 AM
Mitch,
I don't watch the whole game anymore either... can't get excited... I just check in and see them losing again.. I'm starting to get used to it... losing so much, it's becoming accepted here... watching the game just gives me stress and disbelief at how badly and how PATHETIC the team looks... I'll say it again, it sucks being a Dodger fan right now.
CA,
Love the T.J. Simers article today in the Times. I haven't really agreed with his articles lately but today's is SPOT ON!!! The McCourts have to hate that guy, Simers! haha...
Posted by: Rob | August 29, 2008 at 11:34 AM
I absolutely love the article about Pierre! What in-depth, investigative reporting. If I want house shills, I'll read Dodgers.com. I expect my hometown reporter(Shaikin) to do better than that.
When the Kings fired Marc Crawford, suddenly out came the stories of how bad he was with young players and what a poor fit he was, in general. Never once, during his seasons here, was that mentioned. Fired, then come the revelations.
Once the season has ended for the Dodgers (I mean 162 games, not the reality of now) will we be privy to what has really gone wrong? This looks suspiciously like last year, results-wise, only there is no Forrest Gump to blame.
I agree with those who have written about the lack of players in their prime having big years to serve as leaders. However, no one, young, old or in-between is even remotely close to a career year.
Housecleaning time, from Ned, to Kent, to Nomar, to Penny to Fatso to the entire bench. What are there, maybe 10 guys out of 25 worth keeping?
Posted by: Chunkdog | August 29, 2008 at 11:41 AM
AK:
Thanks for that. If we mount a presidential campaign to write in Juan Pierre and Jason Schmidt, and it succeeds in electing them both, can the Dodgers get out of their contracts? Jones isn't a citizen, and therefore not eligible, otherwise I'd nominate him for Secretary of Whiffing.
Posted by: SaMo | August 29, 2008 at 11:43 AM
SaMo - Pierre could never be secretary of Defense.
Do you know what my favorite part of this season has been?
Well,
Posted by: Benzo Jones | August 29, 2008 at 12:06 PM
The list of worst owners in Baseball has to be wrong, the McCourts ranked only fifth. No body in the history of sports could be worse than this piece of crap. He will iron down first place by giving contract extensions to Coletti, Jason Schmidt, tearing up A. Jones contract and rewarding him with a raise. Then Coletti can go out and get another broken down, or even another over the hill FUTURE HALL OF FAME pitcher. I live in AZ. and bought the direct tv baseball package just to see these bums.AS Poe said in the Raven nevermore. Pleas Frank and Jamie do your civic duty and sell the team to somebody who cares about Los Angeles, if not some wino from the union rescue mission! Whoever will and has to be better than you!
Posted by: Jim McVeigh | August 30, 2008 at 11:28 AM