Roy Campanella and Russell Martin. There, I did it.

Slow news day as New York gets prepped for the All-Star game tonight at 5 p.m. PST.

Martin has been given some lofty comparisons by this butthole (Lyle Spencer) over at Dodgers.com:

Since Roy Campanella, coming right behind Jackie Robinson in Brooklyn, integrated his position in 1948, the Dodgers have had a succession of brilliant receivers: John Roseboro, Steve Yeager, Mike Scioscia, Mike Piazza and now Martin, the pride of East York, Ontario, and Montreal.

A little unfair to a) leave Paul Lo Duca off that list, considering he put Scioscia on it and b) to already be comparing Martin to the great Dodger catchers.  Yeah, I think we all feel that way, but Martin’s been in the majors for almost two years.  Can’t we have this discussion when his career is over?  Maybe after he’s put up 10 or so years of these kinds of numbers?  Can’t we be a little patient before bestowing the catching crown upon his head?

Martin, being the wonderful man he is, said this:

There are some names there that have done a lot, had great careers.  I feel like I have a long way to go before I can be compared to all those names. Maybe, when it’s all said and done. … [About being compared to Roy Campanella]  You can’t put my name and his name in the same sentence.  What he did was unbelievable. It’s something I can look up to. It’s a good objective, to try to follow someone like that. But as far as achieving what he achieved, that’s tough.

Martin’s always had a great respect for history.  This is probably why we all love him so much (plus, he’s a great player) and some day, a young catcher may see Martin as his objective; to follow someone like that.

Spencer then wrote this sentence:

Martin said his focus is on helping the Dodgers make a second-half charge and claim a postseason assignment in the Mild, Mild West.

Uuuuuggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Kemp out with “eye infection”

So, if you were like me yesterday yelling at Joe Torre through your computer/TV screen for starting Jason Repko and batting him first in the line up, you can at least feel relief for that first part.

Matt Kemp was out yesterday with an eye infection.  No word if he’ll be in today’s line up, but jesus, you have to hope he’ll be back ASAP, because Repko almost got a platinum sombrero. 

Sources say Kemp might have been high, those sources being someone on the internet. 

Frankly, I’d be more surprised if Kemp actually had an eye infection than if he came in high.

Dodgers beat Angels twice

Gotta say that the Dodgers were impressive this weekend.  An offensive burst in the first game, followed by two games of virtually no runs scored.  Bills pitched amazingly on Saturday and Broxton and Saito helped him out.  Lowe was pretty good as well on Sunday, though his one blemish ended up costing him.

The pitching is performing again.  Since Brad Penny’s DL stint, the Dodgers are 7-7.  Not amazing, but .500 ball is nothing to scoff at when your team is six games below. 

They’ve allowed 48 runs in the 14 games (3.4 RA) and racked up 50 (3.6 RF), so the record is reasonable.

But more to the point, the Dodgers have allowed 3 runs in the last 5 games, with three shutouts and scored 11.  Those opponents were the White Sox and Angels, both AL teams with some decent to mid-range line ups, so this is hopefully the upswing that we’ve all been hoping for.  Granted, small sample size, but still impressive.

Now, if they could just score some runs.

Two wins in three games? Wow!

The DL stint for Brad Penny is helping the team.  Eric Stults has pitched wonderfully (he’s so dreamy!) and now the team is going with a six-man rotation.

Park pitched well last night and has certainly stepped it up since becoming a starter again.  There’s no doubting that even if he fails for the rest of the year, he’s been a phenomenal off-season signing.  17 VORP and a sub-3 ERA.  Can you really ask anymore of a guy you signed to the team for a near-minimum contract?  A guy who almost retired at the start of the year to return to Korea?  Jesus; remarkable.  I never thought I’d say this after the 2001 season, but thank you so much, Chan Ho Park.

He also made 85 or so pitches in six innings–it may have seemed premature, but, as my father pointed out, it was wise, since he’s spent most of the year as a reliever and hasn’t pitched that many pitches in a row.  Guess he’ll make 90 in the next start or something.

Seeing two Dodgers homer in one game was absolutely shocking.  Martin’s was astronomical, and he ended up 2-for-3 on the night.  Ethier’s was gone as soon as he touched it.

Someone on the post-game radio said this could be the turnaround in the offense.  It could be, yes.  I hope it is.  I would love to see that.  I think we all would love to.

The Dodgers are only 2.5 games back behind the Diamondbacks.

Holy moly

Been an absolutely awful week. On top of all the things that happened this week, I just suddenly lost my mojo today and can’t put together any coherent thoughts for more than 200 words. I had to write about 1,500 words today for the paper, I think about 10 of them made sense.

This isn’t a livejournal, so I’ll just leave it at that, but my brain is struggling and I didn’t feel it necessary to make you suffer.

Anyway, here’s something fun to read while my brain goes on sabbatical. I should be back tomorrow, come back soon.

Dodgers are beating the White Sox right now, 2-0 in the second inning.  Stults is pitching–he doesn’t look sharp, but he looks like he’ll be good enough to get the win.  we’ll see

Kershaw.

Kershaw is pitching against the Indians tonight.

It’s early, but 21 pitches, six outs.

Base hit by Casey Blake.
Home run by Shoppach.

Hmm. Perhaps I jinxed it.

More thoughts on this game after the game.

Consequences of Penny/Kuroda on the DL

I actually thought about this for a little bit. Factoring out Penny’s -4.5 VORP and Kuroda’s 8.5 (so that’s a combined 4 VORP for those who can’t add/subtract) and throwing in Kershaw’s 4.5 VORP back into the rotation and whatever Stultz throws up (hopefully positive), plus whatever extra innings Kuo’s 17.8 VORP is going to receive from the subtracted innings you lose per start from Penny/Kuroda, the team should do better.

I didn’t get a chance to see Stults, but from his line, looks like he pitched well.  6 IP, 3 R, 1 ER.  Dude isn’t all that talented, but he did well with what he had.

Like I said, whatever Stults isn’t throwing should be made up by Kuo.  Kuo has been absolutely dominant, and to use him in long relief situations when the game isn’t close is counterintuitive.  If he spells Kershaw after five innings, that could be a lot of fun to watch.

******

About the Reds, this is absolutely ridiculous. Every time in the past few weeks, the Dodgers lose two or three games a week by scores of 5-1 or 3-1.  Only against the Reds is that switched, where a third or two-thirds of the games are the Dodgers with multiple runs and the Reds are limited to one.

We’re now 6-1 against the Reds this year and we’ve shut them down.  Runs scored: 41.  Runs allowed: 24.   Take out that one loss, It’s 40-16.  Ridiculous.

Not only that, but the pitching looked awesome.  In a huge hitters park, no less.  I don’t know why that is, but holy heck, please, let’s play them more often.

******

As sort of an off-the-cuff thing, if any of you watch the This American Life series on Showtime, I hope you caught this past week’s episode.  They chronicled the lives of seven different people named John Smith, each at a different stage of life.  A baby, a child, an early-20s, a mid-30s, a late-40s, and two geriatrics, one of whom is still working and functioning and one of whom is in a nursing home with what looks like advanced stages of dimentia.

And g*ddamn it, it was beautiful. Each story was connected, it was like watching a story of one man’s life, through the years.  It was funny, cute, imaginative, tearful, sad and ultimately deeply fascinating, as the show tends to be.

My favorite was eight-year-old John.  He talked to goats like they were people and dressed up as the Empire state building with a King Kong plush toy attached to his shoulder.  He also wrote stories and read them to his mother, just like me.

If you get the opportunity, watch this immediately.

Surprise surprise: Furcal out ’til all-star break

Furcal’s likely out until the all-star break, over/under is end of July, do I have any takers?  Any takers? Anybody at all?

Dodgers 3, Reds 1; Dodgers still beating Reds somehow

Seems like every time I turn on the TV, the Dodgers are beating the Reds.

Dodgers are now 4-1 against the Reds though the Dodgers have a few more losses than the Reds.  Not important by a great deal, but it does seem like the Dodgers play better against the Reds.

I’ll try to write more about that tomorrow … deadlines and everything … tough day.

Good to see a win, though.  Winning is better than losing.

Ruh-Roh: Penny on 15-day, Kuroda in LA

Penny just went on the 15-day DL earlier today.

Kuroda flew back to LA to get his shoulder examined.

Eric Stultz was called up and will start …

Things are not good.