Give It Up for Chan Ho Park
June 27, 2008 | 10:24
pm
Every year it seems, I'm dead wrong about someone. Rudy Seanez, Takashi Saito ... the list goes back as far as Dodger Thoughts. This year, it's Chan Ho Park. Don't know what will happen from here on out, but you've got to hand it to him - he's been simply superb so far (2.52 ERA). And he's starting to do it with authority. In two starts, June 21 and tonight, Park has gone 11 innings and allowed one run on seven hits and two walks while striking out 16.
Dodger pitchers struck out 14 tonight, including the final six (by Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito).
1. Being finally fully healthy certainly helps too I think.
Either way, hopefully he can keep it up.
BTW, when did Brian the Falken Cyborg start throwing 96mph gas?....HUH?!?!?
Posted by: natepurcell | June 27, 2008 at 10:30 PM
2. Park has actually made three starts this year. He had a 4IP 2R (1ER) start against the Angels earlier as well.
Posted by: Gagne55 | June 27, 2008 at 10:31 PM
3. 1 hr recap of '88 game 1 on ESPN Classic tomorrow morning at 9:00 PDT
Posted by: tjdub | June 27, 2008 at 10:31 PM
4. They even gave him some love and a shout out on SportsCenter! No highlights of him pitching of course (they showed Martin and Ethier's homers) but at least there was recognition. BBTN probably would've showed one highlight and then blathered on about how the Dodgers need pitching.
Posted by: underdog | June 27, 2008 at 10:33 PM
5. 4 Knowing baseballtonight, they'd show several of his strike threes.
Posted by: Gagne55 | June 27, 2008 at 10:37 PM
6. Did Vin say before the game began that Park had not beaten the Angels in four previous attempts?
It is so gratifying to see a man come back and perform at the highest level when just about everyone has counted him out. Chan Ho!
Posted by: 68elcamino427 | June 27, 2008 at 10:37 PM
7. Seriously though...when did Falkenborg start throwing gas?
Posted by: natepurcell | June 27, 2008 at 10:43 PM
8. 6
Chan Ho Park has one of the best winning % at Dodger Stadium in HISTORY That kind of jumps out at you, when Vinnie mentioned it. I can't wait till tomorrow at 9am to watch the recap of the '88 series.
Posted by: Bluebleeder87 | June 27, 2008 at 10:44 PM
9. This was the most dominating combined pitching effort of the season.
Park was great, Falkenborg looks FAR better than Proctor, Broxton was an absolute beast (even hit 100 MPH), and Saito looked like his old self.
Posted by: silverwidow | June 27, 2008 at 10:44 PM
10. Ethier hitting the home run was also a good remeasuring thing to watch, we're gonna need all of our team to perform to be competitive.
Posted by: Bluebleeder87 | June 27, 2008 at 10:46 PM
11. NedCo is talking to the FSN Dudes now...
Posted by: Bluebleeder87 | June 27, 2008 at 10:47 PM
12. 6
Vin mentioned it a number of times in the broadcast. Mentioned earlier, but have always wondered if CHP had been able to stay with the Dodgers and accept, don't remember the number a fairly healthy contract, how good he would have been. Great thing about tonight's performance was his velocity, TV gun was showing 96 on a number of pitches-great control...If Park and Stultz can continue this way, a trade I would try at the deadline would be to offer Lowe back to the Sox or to the Yanks for some good prospects or 1 good pinch hitter and 1 mid-level power prospect.
Posted by: Louis in SF | June 27, 2008 at 10:47 PM
13. Colleti is on Dodgers Live right now, for some reason, I expected him to have more of a squeaky voice. He also just admitted that Jones might not get his starting spot when he comes back.
Posted by: KG16 | June 27, 2008 at 10:49 PM
14. Hooray for Chan Ho Park! Hooray!
Posted by: skybluestoday | June 27, 2008 at 10:52 PM
15. Hinted that Kershaw could be sent down.
Posted by: silverwidow | June 27, 2008 at 10:52 PM
16. in the back of my mind I'm thinking is A-Jones a burn out at 30 years old? I hope not & I hope he proves him self that he is not, man, how sad would that be, so much talent.
Posted by: Bluebleeder87 | June 27, 2008 at 10:53 PM
17. 13
Riiight!
There's 36 million reasons that he'll be back out there.
It's ok, just put Kemp in left and Ethier in right:)
Posted by: 68elcamino427 | June 27, 2008 at 10:53 PM
18. 8 Speaking of '88, they have the '88 season recap, "The Eyes of a Winner," in the Dodgers section of Time-Warner's "On-Demand" feature. As a person who doesn't remember that season (I was only 3) it's interesting to see the little moments that made that season exciting. For instance, I didn't know Tim Leary had a Dreifort-esque moment when he knocked in the winning-run with the bases-loaded.
Posted by: nofatmike | June 27, 2008 at 10:54 PM
19. So when can the Dodgers sign Russell Martin to multiple years? I just hope Ned Colletti didn't drop the ball earlier in the year.
Posted by: Bluebleeder87 | June 27, 2008 at 10:55 PM
20. I use to have Time Warner know I don't.
Posted by: Bluebleeder87 | June 27, 2008 at 10:57 PM
21. I'm not againts sending Kershaw down if Penny and Kuroda return 100%, and Stults shows that he's no fluke (which he's not).
Posted by: Lexinthedena | June 27, 2008 at 10:59 PM
22. 18
I was at that game I think... if the hit went thru the middle of Short & 3rd (LF) then that's the game I was at.
Lasorda use to use him a lot from what I remember.
Posted by: Bluebleeder87 | June 27, 2008 at 10:59 PM
23. 22
The game was against San Francisco.
Posted by: Icaros | June 27, 2008 at 11:00 PM
24. Leary's hit was a line drive up the middle. I was listening to it on the car radio, but I saw the replay enough times later on. 11th or 12th inning, something like that. 12th, probably.
Speaking of pitchers pinch hitting, it was kid of weird how Vin barely acknowledged the strange event of Stults pinch hitting when there were position players still left on the bench. I thought it was cool that Torre did that; too bad he struck out.
Posted by: Eric Enders | June 27, 2008 at 11:14 PM
25. That "Through the Eyes of a Winner" film is great, by the way. I watch it probably once a year on average.
Posted by: Eric Enders | June 27, 2008 at 11:17 PM
26. 24 - I was there.
2 - I hadn't forgotten that start. I was noting that with the most recent two starts, he was dominating.
Posted by: Jon Weisman | June 27, 2008 at 11:25 PM
27. 25 The one thing I like about it is that has a more serious tone. They had recaps of '81, '82, '83, '85, and '87 up last year and those ones seemed a little too goofy to me, almost like they didn't put a whole lot of time and effort.
Posted by: nofatmike | June 27, 2008 at 11:29 PM
28. 18 And also, for a guy that didn't seem to hit too many HR's that year, Franklin Stubbs seemed like he had some timely ones.
Posted by: nofatmike | June 27, 2008 at 11:31 PM
29. Neither Dylan Hernandez's nor Diamond Leung's game stories say whether the bunt was LaRoche's call or Torre's. I really can't see any way Torre would have called for that, though.
One thing we do learn from the stories is that Dylan Hernandez doesn't know the definition of suicide squeeze.
Posted by: Eric Enders | June 27, 2008 at 11:47 PM
30. 29
In Diamond Leung's blog he says the bunt was La Roche's call.
I only have the MLB package not Fox, what did Ned say of note?
Posted by: Louis in SF | June 27, 2008 at 11:52 PM
31. Just a guess...
Nomar return = Sweeney DFA
Furcal return = Maza optioned
A DFA is necessary to activate Nomar.
Posted by: silverwidow | June 28, 2008 at 12:16 AM
32. The 40-man roster's pretty short on DFA candidates. The only real possibilities are Bennett, Sweeney, Falkenborg, Maza, Repko, and Mario Alvarez.
Posted by: Eric Enders | June 28, 2008 at 12:22 AM
33. 0
I was also a non-believer, and didn't see the game tonight, but I'm not sure Chan-Ho has been throwing mid(upper?)-90's the last few years.... so maybe it's real. Amazing command with the curveball also lately.
Posted by: Doctor | June 28, 2008 at 12:27 AM
34. 32 Geez Eric, DFAing Bennett when he is on the 60-day DL, how low can you go, especially when it wouldn't solve the problem anyway. :)
My hunch is that its probably Sweeney, though you could see DeWitt or LaRoche being sent back too unless you plan to carry 3 thirdbaseman.
Posted by: bhsportsguy | June 28, 2008 at 12:29 AM
35. Park's awful BB/K ratio early in the season was a huge warning signal that he wasn't for real, but now his BB/K is starting to come more in line with his ERA. And yeah, the fact that he's throwing 93 mph (you always have to subtract 2 for the overzealous Dodger Stadium gun) is encouraging.
Posted by: Eric Enders | June 28, 2008 at 12:32 AM
36. 34 Heh. OK, so Bennett's not a candidate. But sending half of DeRoche down doesn't solve the problem either unless you're going to DFA them also.
Posted by: Eric Enders | June 28, 2008 at 12:35 AM
37. Diamond Leung, from his blog:
- - - -
Torre spent pre-game going over one play the previous day when James Loney made a diving stop at first base to record an out, but didn't need to do so since a shift was on and three infielders were overloaded on the right side of the infield.
"It's James," Torre sighed.
- - - -
That's been Loney's main defensive problem all year -- ranging too far to his right on balls he should let the second baseman get, leaving nobody to cover first. But I guess he learned his lesson because the exact situation came up tonight (on Kent's diving play) and Loney ran straight to the bag. Ordinarily he would have gone after that ball, which would have resulted in the play getting screwed up.
Posted by: Eric Enders | June 28, 2008 at 12:41 AM
38. Go Chan Ho! Fighting!
In 1994, when I was in 9th grade and I was beginning my JV baseball career, that's when Chan Ho began his career with the Dodgers. And since then, I've been following his career pretty closely.
Since he's probably eating Korean food every day, he's probably added a good 2-3 mph on his fastball. Good for you, Chan Ho....
Posted by: coachjpark | June 28, 2008 at 01:37 AM
39. Great game by Park. I thought the Dodgers were crazy to sign him , but he's proved me wrong. I guess it shows what happens when he's finally healthy and happy to be back in LA again. Also the fact that there were no expectations put on him helped. Either way keep up the good work Chan Ho!
Posted by: Dodger Dawg | June 28, 2008 at 07:36 AM
40. That was a fantastic game last night, despite our usual problems hitting with runners in scoring position. The Dodgers pitching has been excellent, across the board, since Penny and Proctor went on the DL. I will give the balance of my checking account to anyone who guessed, at the beginning of the season, that Park, Stults, and Kuroda would have been on the winning end of shutouts in the same month.
Posted by: Neal Pollack | June 28, 2008 at 08:43 AM
41. Park, Stults and Kuroda opened for Canned Heat back in '69, I believe.
Good show.
Posted by: Greg Brock | June 28, 2008 at 08:47 AM
42. 40 - I totally guessed. Totally.
But here's somewhere else to give the balance of your checking account, if you're so inclined:
NPUT
Posted by: Jon Weisman | June 28, 2008 at 08:53 AM
43. I went to the Tigers-Rockies game at Comerica Park last night. Beautiful stadium, very shiny and comfortable. It's nice to see a blighted city like Detroit have a real jewel of a place that the locals can be proud of. Overall, I've been impressed with Detroit. It's kinda cool, in a bombed-out sort of way.
I took some pictures of Tiger Stadium. It's still there, just rusting away. Along with old Boston Garden, it's one of the two venues I wish I could've seen a game at before it closed. I'm told that it's finally going to be demolished later this year, which is a shame. It would've been nice if they had kept the stadium operating for exhibitions and things like that.
Posted by: Disabled List | June 28, 2008 at 09:00 AM
44. Successfully convinced my dad (a die hard Halos fan)that we have our ace going tonight in Billingsley..I mean, he is leading the team in wins, K's, and ERA..averages about 6 innings per start, and has a WHIP of 1.382 (slightly larger than last year). I guess my pops has me worried about how much we're going to have to spend on him considering he is only 23 and is on the upswing of what should be a great career.
Posted by: DaDoughboy | June 28, 2008 at 09:39 AM