Russell Martin to DH today

Wear sunscreen ...

• Russell Martin is scheduled to be today's Dodger designated hitter, according to the team press notes.
• Jonathan Broxton made the long journey to be present for his son's birth just under the wire, writes Dylan Hernandez of The Times.
• The Irony Committee has approved the news that Saturday's Dodger game, independent of the 101-minute power delay, was the team's shortest of the season at 2:28.
• Joe Torre will be on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" on Monday.
• There may be free parking coming for the Dodgers' upcoming home series against the A's, but in general, "discounting is a bad word," Dodger President and Chief Operating Officer Dennis Mannion told the American Chronicle.

  Mannion compared the setting of ticket prices to "a golf swing that you've got grooved, and when you start to hook, you overadjust, and then you've got a slice. You don't want to overadjust" just because money is tight.

• A new Cooperstown-based game, the Hall of Fame Classic, will take place a week from today, with Jeff Kent, Steve Finley and Steve Lyons among the participants.
• The other night, Lyons talked openly about the end of his playing career, notes Sons of Steve Garvey.
• Journeyman reliever Stephen Randolph, 35, has been moved into the Albuquerque starting rotation and pitched six innings of one-hit, three-walk, shutout ball Saturday. His rather interesting stats as a starter: 18 innings, four hits, 10 walks, 17 strikeouts, 1.00 ERA.
• Korean reliever Hyang-Nam Choi, 38, struck out four in two innings, raising his total with the Isotopes to 25 in 16 2/3 innings against 13 baserunners. Right-handed batters are hitting .098 against him with two walks and 21 strikeouts.
• Jose Lima? Still kicking, if not screaming.
• Happy 83rd birthday, Don Newcombe!

Comments

[Doug Minnick]

Thanks for all the good wishes in the last thread on our new arrival.

We're looking at getting her out to the park about the time Manny gets back,

[silverwidow]

I am Choi's biggest fan. He deserves a shot at the 6th inning job.

[Marty Leadman (LAT)]

A belated congrats Doug.

[pdotmac1]

"I think what we did, to be honest with you, is we shelved him," said backup catcher Brad Ausmus. "We knew he wasn't going to be with us, so we made a conscious decision that there's no reason to dwell on it. When he comes back, he'll have no problem sliding back into the lineup on this team. He's easygoing and, sure, there'll be a few days of media hype over his return, but after that, we've added one of the best hitters in the game to our lineup. So it's all positive."

PVL that can be appreciated.

[Phenomenal Smith]

Old friend Von Joshua has been named hitting coach for the Cubs. Gerald Perry was fired.

[regfairfield]

Sign that Manny's partying days are over: his birthday party last night was at some wine bar in Pasadena instead of a club on Sunset.

Sadly, it was my friend that got to chill with Manny, not me.

[bhsportsguy]

Pierre, LF
Furcal, SS
Hudson, 2B
Blake, 3B
Ethier, RF
Kemp, CF
Loney, 1B
Martin, DH
Ausmus, C

[berkowit28]

A sensible batting order, for once. It would be great if, some inning, most of them batted. It will happen some day, could be today, if this pitcher's previous record turns out to be predictive.

[dodger56]

Kemp batting 6th? Why isn't he hitting 9th? : )

[Eric Stephen]

Torre meant to have Kemp hitting 6th yesterday, but his notes were upside down.

[Phenomenal Smith]

Everyone's complaints about the batting order reminds me once of some football executive staying that every ticketholder wanted a seat on the 50-yard line. He said that every stadium should be constructed with just one long column of seats along the 50.

The day the Dodgers batting order satisfies everybody is the day I go outside looking for four horsemen in the sky.

[underdog]

Oh stop, 56! {whap!} ;-)

Choi is really intriguing, I wouldn't be surprised to see him up with the big club soon. Either in place of an injured reliever or in place of someone like Schlichting.

[underdog]

Interesting. That stadium would look more like an up and down escalator, Smith.

Make it happen, HOK Sport!

[Hugh]

First time post. L-o-n-g time DT follower and fan.
(and I hope this works!)
I thought you all might enjoy some AAA observations--I just moved to Austin TX from NYC and availed myself of the opportunity to catch the last two nights of Isotopes baseball at the Round Rocks Express stadium, Dell Diamond. $12 tickets right behind the Topes' on-deck circle. A great place to watch some baseball.
So, briefly...
Saw knuckleballer Charlie Haeger toss 7 innings of four hit ball. He throws that pitch maybe 90-95% of the time. Altho he did strike out one RRX with an 85 mph fastball. Claudio Vargas (!) finished Friday's game off with one inning of relief. 1-2-3. Fastball sitting between 90-92 mph. Saturday's game was "interesting' all the way into the 6th inning. Lefty Stephen Randolph befuddled the RRX batting order with hitless ball by throwing a consistent 91 mph fastball maybe 80% of the time. He mixed in some kind of little offspeed pitch at about 80 mph. His no-hitter was spoiled by a ground ball that j-u-s-t eluded Hu's glove. His high pitch count meant that he never would've made it thru the 9th anyway. Choi pitched two hitless innings. Not overpowering stuff at all, but pinpoint location. Did you know that Scott Strickland is the Topes closer?!? He got his 9th save Saturday night by throwing what appeared to be very hittable 89 mph fastballs and (maybe) a decent slider. Finally, Mitch Jones crushed a homer and pulled down a sure thing homer to preserve Randolph's effort. When Jones squares up on a fastball, he can put a hurtin' on it. But, he flails away at the breaking stuff. I hope this actually posts and that you all enjoy the observations. OK, here goes...hitting the POST button.

[Phenomenal Smith]

Welcome Hugh!

[underdog]

Awesome Hugh, thanks for the report!

I wonder if another team might be interested in acquiring one of those AAA (or AAAA) guys pitching for the Dodgers, teams desperate for an arm before the trade deadline. Not that the Dodgers would get much for them, mind you, but would give them an opportunity.

It's hard not to root for Charlie Haeger. Though on the other hand, I wouldn't have much confidence in him if he was pitching much for the Dodgers.

Hu will probably get a call-up in September unless someone got hurt.

Anyway, thanks again.

[underdog]

Oh, and seriously Rangers? 2pm local time start? (As Smith pointed out in previous thread -- great time choice for maximum furnace-like effect. Should be fun for the whole family.)

[Phenomenal Smith]

Happy birthday, Greg Brock.

The real one.

[Phenomenal Smith]

"The next Steve Garvey" is 52 today.

[Alex41592]

Jones!

He's in there DHing and stuff. Batting 4th today.

[dodger56]

Underdo & Hugh,

I thought Choi sounded "intriguing" too when I read Jon's post. He sounds even more intriguing when I hear “pinpoint” control. Hopefuly he will be gien a shot at some point. Given the ups and downs of middle relief and injuries it seems likely that he will get a chance at some point.

On the subject of roster moves, when is Stults coming back? I assume he will have to make a start the next time they need the 5th starter. If he does, who leaves? DeWitt? Schlichting?

[OhioVic]

Hey, it's "only" 95 degrees in Dallas today - bet Martin is glad to be DH today :)

Dodgers are still averaging 5 runs/game for the season, but have now slipped to 3rd highest in the NL (Colorado has passed them along with Philly).

Still leading the league in ERA, narrowly over the Giants.

[Tripon]

.244 /.353/.289

Martin needs a slump buster. A huge one.

[underdog]

No fastballs to Jones today please, Chad.

I would imagine Schlichting would be first guy to go no matter who is coming up.

Oh Greg Brock... what I thought you'd be.
And 52, hard to believe.

Speaking of old friends, it was also fun to see Dave Anderson in the 3rd base box this series.

[underdog]

A sign my g/f is very tired this morning: She's watching the College World Series (I'd left the tv on ESPN). And not changing the channel.

[dodger56]

Jones!

He's in there DHing and stuff. Batting 4th today.

Posted by: Alex41592 | June 14, 2009 at 11:09 AM

Maybe Bills will "put one in his ear." Unlike Wolf, Bills may actually have a beef with Jones. I think an honest assessment of Jones' tour with the Dodgers is that he was not emotionally and physically prepared to compete at a MLB level - regardless of his salary.

[Craig88USC]

The 6-8 game leadin' Dodgers after today -

Only 9 more home games

Only 6 more road games (of which 3 are Anaheim car trips)

Until we get Manny back to batting 3rd. : )

Time (or Matt Kemp) flies when you're havin fun!

[OhioVic]

P Smith - your mentioning Greg Brock takes me back to '83 again (the year that feels like this one in certain ways so far). I think he hit 9 home runs before Memorial day that year and I thought he was going to hit 40 and be great, but he just never turned out to be a very good hitter. Had some power, but had a batting average below .230 most of the time, I think.

[Jon Weisman]

New post up top.

[Gen3Blue]

I'm stuck with the Texas announcers today, but they are heaping praise on the Dodgers org. and saying the current players are a bunch of good guys. I'm impressed.