Yardbarker: Jeff Kent

Dodgers Sign Pablo Ozuna And Send Down Luis Maza

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:57:59 -0500

Dodgers announced that they have signed Pablo Ozuna, formerly of the Chicago White Sox. "They signed utility man Pablo Ozuna, who was released by the Chicago White Sox three days earlier. He'll replace rookie utility man Luis Maza, who

Don Mattingly Is A Miracle Worker But The Kids Still Suck

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 09:55:48 -0500

Last night, the Dodgers' hitters were so inspired by Don Mattingly's mere presense that they decided to stop sucking. God only knows what he said to all of them before the game, but he should do it before every game. I would imagine his speech to the guys was something along the lines of, "STOP BEING A BUNCH OF SINGLE HITTING PRISSES AND HIT THE BALL OVER THE FENCE, JESUS". Obviously motivated by the sheer aura of Donnie Baseball, Nomar managed to do something he hadn't done in 6 years...take a dump without assistance. But seriously, he actually...

All-Overrated Team - NL

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:24:00 -0500

Here are the NL culprits. 1B - Carlos Delgado, NYM - As was the case with the AL, there aren't actually that many candidates because most 1B are pretty good in the NL, but Delgado brings a .246 average to the plate and only Adam LaRoche has a worse OPS among 1B that qualify. 2B - Jeff Kent, LAD - His overrated-ness mostly comes from the fact that he bats in the middle of the order for the Dodgers. He has a decent OPS, but 39 RBIs aren't enough, and his .254 average is OK at best. Maybe this is why the Dodgers are struggling offensively (other than Andruw Jones). SS - Jimmy Rollins, PHI - I love Jimmy Rollins, but he is the reigning MVP, so his low HR and RBI total plus a .270 average get him on this list. 3B - None - I know, it seems indefensible, but of my two best candidates, one also plays CF (Bill Hall) and the other has 13 HRs and a .814 OPS (Troy Glaus). There are a lot of good third basemen in the NL. OF - Kosuke Fukudome, CHC - It seems that he made the All-Star team because he's popular. It can't be because he deserved it because the likes of Aaron Rowand and Jason Bay have more HRs, RBIs, and a higher BA. OF - Adam Dunn, CIN - I know he's really strong, but he has 96 strikeouts and a .225 average. Yet everyone thinks he would be a great addition to their club. OF - Ken Griffey Jr., CIN - It's really tough to pick on a guy who hit his 600th HR this year and did it the right way, but there were people calling for him to make the All-Star team. With a .235 BA and 13 HRs? Don't think so. C - Benji Molina, SF - Did you know there are only 6 catchers that qualify in the NL? Benji, who I thought was pretty good, has the second-worst average among them. SP - Aaron Harang, CIN - Wasn't he their ace last year? Well now he's something like 3-11 and has an ERA over 4. (Note: it would be too easy to put Barry Zito here) RP - Trevor Hoffman, SD - I know, I know, I'm hating on the best closer of all time. But his ERA is over 5. That means that in more than half of the innings he pitches, he'll give up a run. For a closer, that's terrible.

TOP 11 THINGS YOU CAN INFER FROM MILTON BRADLEY'S NEW YORK TIMES ALL-STAR BLOG

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:32:40 -0500

by DMtShooter, Five Tool Tool

See it for yourself here...

11. Milton's got a surprisingly effective and discrete ghost writer

10. Now that he's been to the All-Star Game, the umpires are not going to annoy him ever again

9. Since he's playing in the game and Billy Beane isn't, that means he wins

8. Like Jackie Robinson, he is also black, a target of hatred, and a carbon based form of life

7. His Mom is important to him, and in all likelihood, better than yours. Dad, not so much

6. He's down with Jebus, who clearly wanted him to be with his seventh organization at age 30

5. Once again, the nay sayers have taken it on the chin. Oh, you nay sayers. Will you ever learn?

4. His posts will be, shall we say, very lightly edited

3. He's looked and looked, but still hasn't seen Jeff Kent

2. The Ryan Lefebvre incident from just four weeks ago, and the dozens of similar experiences before that, are all bygones, baby

1. The NY Times is hoping, big-time, that there will be An Incident that makes their sports secion relevant

Public Knowledge

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:21:04 -0500

Milton Bradley, Jeff Kent, the Yankees. All this and more in Public Knowledge!

Dodgers Get No-Hit And Still Win

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:41:52 -0500

If there ever were a game that could sum up the season thus far, this would have to be a strong candidate. The Dodgers offense consisted of 3 walks, 0 hits (yes, you read that correctly), and Matt Kemp reaching on an error by the pitcher Jered Weaver. Seriously, that's it. I'm not even completely sure if what I watched was real or not. But if we're looking for the silver lining in this statistical anomaly, it's that

Top Ten Reasons Why It's Better to Be an Angels Fan than a Dodgers Fan

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:12:53 -0500

For many years Angels fans felt like the red-headed stepchild of Southern California baseball. However, times have changed and it's the Halos time to shine. While the Dodgers still do well at the box office, they just aren't the same franchise they used to be. The years of tradition they had were flushed down the toilet by FOX and Frank McCourt. Without further adieu I give you many reasons why there is room on the Angels bandwagon if you want to get off the sinking ship that is Dodgers baseball.

MLB Free Agent Specialty - Week 13

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:29:51 -0500

Not quite like Waiver Wire, this piece examines potentially available players that focus on a specific category. If you need some power, we have a suggestion. If you need some speed, we have a suggestion. If you need some K's, we have a suggestion. Unfortunately, these players will not help your fantasy team (most of the time) outside of the category they are listed.

Passan's All-overpaid and All-underpaid Teams

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:24:33 -0500

By Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports Take a bow, Carl Pavano. Just don't hurt your back. You, sir, are the kind of baseball player that makes the annual All-Overpaid team possible. Since you signed with the New York Yankees four years ago for $39.95 million – remember, you fired your agent because he didn't get you $40 million! – you have made 19 starts, won five games and earned $359,282.51 for every inning you pitched. The Yankees expect you back in August. Yeah, just like they expect $1 gas. Sadly, your contract expires this offseason, which means another lucky soul can be recognized for being grossly overpaid, even by baseball standards. In the interest of fairness, we'll take another shot at the All-Underpaid team, too. The same caveat applies this year as did last: no players who have yet to hit arbitration. Baseball rules artificially depress their salary, and the credit due to teams for signing them doesn't apply. So that means no Josh Hamilton, even though, at $396,830, he is probably baseball's biggest bargain. No Carlos Quentin ($400,000), Ryan Ludwick ($411,000), Nate McLouth ($425,000), Edinson Volquez ($382,000) or Tim Lincecum ($405,000), either.

Andre Ethier Starts A Blog!

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:32:17 -0500

And it's not about baseball either. Rather, Andre will be giving us his personal reviews of restaurants around Los Angeles. You can find his blog here... There's also other links to stories around the web.

It's Two Months Into The Season, So Let's Play A Little Over/Under

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:12:09 -0500

It's the dawn of a new section here at Fire Ned Colletti Now, and I hope i'll actually remember to do this every once in a while in the future. Anyway, I figure it'll be fun to document some of my "educated" predictions and see how they work out in the end. 20 Home Runs For Matt Kemp Everybody and their mother predicted Kemp's power would emerge this season, and the general feeling was that he'd easily hit between 20-30 home runs. He's currently on pace for 12, but with his frame he always seems like a threat to go on a homer binge like he did in 2005 when he hit 7 homers in his first 100 major league at bats. The problem, however, is that Kemp hits a lot of a ground balls (44.5% this year, 45.4% last year). And even though his line drive percentage (26.7%) bodes very well for his batting average, it also means that he doesn't hit many fly balls (28.8%). When also considering that 23.8% of his at bats end in strikeouts, and only 8.8% of his fly balls end up over the fence, Matt simply doesn't give himself enough of an opportunity to hit home runs. All in all, it would be a stretch to assume Kemp can reach the 20 home run plateau unless something drastic happens with his percentages. Prediction-Under Plus other stuff similar. 10 Starts This Year For Clayton Kershaw .800 OPS For Jeff Kent .300 Average For Russell Martin 15 Wins For Anybody On The Dodgers Pitching Staff 1 All-Star For The Dodgers

Dodgers Have An Offensive Explosion

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:13:48 -0500

I knew the Dodgers were going to have a big day the moment Jeff Kent launched his homer in the first inning. You gotta figure that if Kent can hit a homer, the pitcher has to be pretty terrible. Fortunately, my assumption was correct, and the Dodgers scored as many runs today as they did over their past 3 games...or approximately the amount of runs Josh Hamilton drives in by the 5th inning of every Rangers game. In other game news, Matt Kemp continues to show that he has "no clue" at the plate by going 3 for 4 with 2 doubles and homer. Professional run fairy Scott Proctor also made an appearance and, well, gave up a run. Again.

Time to trade CC?

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:41:01 -0500

The Plain Dealer's Terry Pluto makes an argument today that it may be getting to be time for the Tribe to make CC Sabathia a take-it-or-leave it offer and then ship him off if he doesn't sign. Pluto borrows some numbers reported by Jayson Stark to support Pluto's argument that if the Tribe continues to flounder on this current 11-game trip it could be time to get something for Sabathia if he is not ready to re-up with the Tribe. Here are numbers Pluto borrowed from Stark: "Stark wrote that in the wild-card era, only 13 of 104 teams that had losing records at the end of May went on to make the playoffs. ... But the real statistic is that only the 2005 Houston Astros came back from more than six games out to be a playoff team. So if the Indians come home on June 10 more than six games out, it's time to face reality and start trading off some veterans who will be free agents (Sabathia, Paul Byrd) and others not in the future plans. " --Terry Pluto While it's hard to give up on the year, it's also hard to argue with the logic. But there is way for the Tribe and their fans to have their cake and eat it too. What if, instead of trading Aaron Laffey or Jeremy Sowers and/or some other integral piece of the future, the Tribe trades Sabathia - a stud free-agent pitching in waiting for an equally studly free-agent hitter in waiting. Even with Sabathia gone, the Tribe's rotation would stack up well with the rest of the division (at least once Fausto Carmona returns) and they could get a bat they sorely need. At the end of the year, and assuming this big bat heads off for greener pastures, the Tribe would be no worse off than if Sabathia leaves them at the altar. I'm not saying I'm sold on this, but I am intrigued by the idea. And who might this stud hitter be? How about this rumor reported on the Braves Blast Web site Friday night? "There are a couple rumors here - one mentioned by the announcers during today's game involved the highest profile free agent on the team. Reportedly the Braves would send Mark Teixeira to the Cleveland Indians for starting pitcher C.C. Sabathia." While the Tribe has about six or seven guys on the roster now who could play 1B none of them offer a compelling reason not to trade for Teixeira - even though help at third or at a corner outfield position would be better. Whether the Tribe makes a pitch for Teixeira long-term is a question for later. For right now we'd be trading a big arm that is likely to leave at the end of the season and could conceivably be replaced from within for a big bat that is sorely needed now and is likely to leave at the end of the year. Given the current state of the offense, it makes sense to at least think about a trade something like this if not this exact trade, although Teixeira seems to be the most tempting name to fit this scenario. Here are some others from the full list of players who will be free agents at the end of the year and my comments on each one. There are plenty of other free-agents-to-be to pick from but they are not on teams looking for a rent-a-pitcher. * Joe Crede: not enough of a difference-maker with the bat; why hand Sox the division? * Jim Thome: do we want to go there?; why hand the Sox the division? * Bobby Abreu: Maybe if they "throw in" Robbie Cano * Manny: won't happen * Jeff Kent: no thanks!

Injury Updates & Fantasy Impact - Week 9

Wed, 28 May 2008 12:56:10 -0500

It seemed like many big name or hot players all went down on Tuesday with one injury or another. We look down the list to see where most of these players are at and what that could mean for them.

Dodgers Still Suffering From Power Outage

Thu, 22 May 2008 16:44:21 -0500

Part of the off-season plan for the Dodgers was to add some additional pop to the lineup with hopes that it would help our offensive woes. Unfortunately, the guy who was supposed to make the biggest impact (Andruw Jones) is obviously still part of the problem. Yes, we all know that Andruw's struggles are troubling, but the scary part is that nobody else is really helping the situation either. While the Dodgers are currently sitting 5th in the majors in batting average, and 9th in runs scored, they are still 17th in slugging percentage. It's good for a paltry .124 ISO, 24th in the majors. What this shows is something that everybody who watches the Dodgers already knows: It's a team full of singles hitters. And even though their BABIP (.310) isn't outrageously above the league average (.294), any normalization could lead to a significant downturn in run production. I mean really, you can only rely on 3 consecutive groundball singles for so long. Continued...