Fire Donnie Dum Dum

[HammerDown]

In total agreement with Silas. It's past time for Kemp to be a professional and start producing, not yelling at the manager and trying to "up his street cred" with the homies. Produce or sit, Kemp!

 

[BigDDude]

The Dodgers have stumbled along lately, but their first baseman is finding his groove.
Adrian Gonzalez went 4 for 4 with two doubles and four RBI in the Dodgers win over the Angels last night. Over his last three games, he’s gone 9 for 11 with three walks, two homers, three doubles, seven RBI and six runs scored. On the season he’s up to .337/.395/.515 with six homers.
Probably worth noting that Carl Crawford is hitting .308/.369/.467 as well. And heck, Nick Punto is hitting .327/.413/.404 and has been a godsend given all of the Dodgers’ infield injuries.
So while a lot of people want to talk about the Dodgers’ struggles being a function of “high priced talent not gelling” or one not being able to “throw a bunch of All-Stars together” or however I’ve heard that concept put on multiple occasions recently, two of the three big pieces from that trade with the Red Sox last year, and the one little piece, are doing quite nicely, thank you. It’s almost as if the Dodgers’ problems are mostly a function of the complementary pieces and the guys who were there before.

 

[HammerDown]

^This is all lies. None of it's true. Gonzalez, Crawford and Punto are all done! Shoktart told us all about it.

 

[shoktart]

I never said Gonzalez & Punto were "done"

I said Crawford was done. I think I said stick a fork in his fat roided-up ass!!

I simply said that Gonzalez was looking old. Of course that was before his recent 3-day explosion. Regardless, Gonzalez has been one of the bright spots on this team. I just said he isn't as productive as he used to be.

And I've never said anything bad about Punto. Quite the opposite. I wish every Dodger played with his effort.

That Red Sox trade was worth the Beckett baggage simply to get Gonzalez. And if I'm wrong about Crawford than that will just be a bonus.

The biggest problem with the Dodgers is Kemp & Ethier. I wish we could find a sucker to take them just like the Red Sox found in us for Beckett.

 

[Silas]

Maybe we should make another trade with Boston!!

 

[BUDSFAULT]

I want to know how much patience Stan Kasten has because my is on 'E'.


Still in the basement.

Nothing has changed. The only air Donnie cleared was out of his ass every time he cries or uses someone else and their mistakes for the team's failure because he's doing such a great job.

He was hoping The Pig was the key to motivating the team and turning things around because he has no clue how to do it as a manager.

 

[BigDDude]

Here is Rob Neyer's latest take on the situation.

Remember when Yasiel Puig was going to save the Dodgers, and perhaps Don Mattingly's job? That was before they lost three straight, and Monday night's game in Los Angeles was the toughest. The Dodgers carried a 3-1 lead over the first-place Diamondbacks into the ninth inning, only to have Brandon League give up four runs. A Big Blue comeback in the bottom of the ninth fell short, leaving the Dodgers 8½ games out of first place in a division they were supposed to win. Which of course left Mattingly to answer some really fun questions after the game:

"If he gets his outs, they're cheering for him," Mattingly said. "If he doesn't get his outs, it's a bad decision. That's the way it is. I understand it.
"I'm trying to put people in the best position to get the job done. Brandon did the job in the past. If he gets his outs, it goes forward and nobody says anything.
"As soon as he didn't get his outs, it's my fault he didn't get his outs."
--snip--
It would be easy to say the fan discontent with Mattingly revolves around his insistence that League is his closer. Except that, after the game, Mattingly said he had not even committed to using League in the ninth inning Monday.
Mattingly used Kenley Jansen in the eighth inning, against the heart of the Arizona lineup. If the Diamondbacks' best hitters had been due up in the ninth inning, Mattingly said he would have used League in the eighth and Jansen in the ninth.
The Dodgers' bullpen has 15 losses, tied with the Houston Astros for most in the major leagues. League has converted 13 of 17 save opportunities, but his earned-run average is 6.00.
​

Hey, that's great! Mattingly figured Jansen's his best reliever and used him against the Diamondbacks' best hitters! Bravo!
But wouldn't it still make sense to use a good pitcher in the ninth?
Before last night's game, League had pitched 23⅓ innings, issued six walks, and given up four homers. The walks are acceptable, the homers somewhat accidental. But he's also struck out only a dozen hitters, which is terribly few for an ace reliever who's not a ground-ball pitcher (and so few of them are, these days). League's been incredibly inconsistent for some years now, so we might just look at his career numbers for a good barometer of his skills ... and his career numbers suggest a pitcher who's good enough to pitch in the majors, but not good enough to protect one-run leads in the ninth.
In Mattingly's defense, he doesn't have a lot of great candidates in the bullpen. Once you get past Kenley Jansen and His Incredible Strikeout Rate, you're looking at a bunch of decent relievers and a lot of mix-and-match. And Mattingly, to some degree anyway, seems to recognize that. Finally. But you read something like this ...

Mattingly defended his use of League in the ninth inning by citing matchups. The first three Arizona batters in the ninth were 0 for 5 against League, five for 10 against Jansen.
"Solid decision," Mattingly said. "The fact a solid decision doesn't work, it's a bad decision."
​

... and you really have to wonder about your manager's marbles, since 0 for 5 and five for 10 are utterly meaningless in this context. If tiny batter-versus-pitcher samples are your rationale for bullpen decisions, you're doing it wrong.
But then again, when you're bullpen's got 15 losses, you're probably doing something wrong. Or you're making a lot of solid decisions that just didn't work. That's possible, I guess.

 

[HammerDown]

Mattingly looks really bad right now. I like him but I'm just shocked he's still the manager of this team. It would have been a perfect opportunity to fire him after Monday night's game.

 

[bluepigpen]

He batted Ramirez instead of Puig in a critical situation, Ramirez grounded into a double play as he limped down first base. That is just another one in a long string of bonehead decisions by Donny Softballs.

 

[BUDSFAULT]

Still haven't won more than three straight all season.