The ship is sinking, fingers are being pointed and the manager is being criticized for his lineups. Wow I never thought this is how the season would end, but it has. The clubhouse meeting that was held last night is probably 1-2 weeks late. I equate this to your relationship, when you get the call "we need to talk", you know it was coming and could of and should have been more proactive. These frustrations have been building for the last 2-3 weeks and Grady, Jeff Kent and the veterans should have had the foresight to communicate and to head this off. Losing brings out the worst in everyone. Leadership is daily and ongoing not when it is convenient to blast your teammates.

There has been numerous issues, playing Gonzo everyday, yes he hit 2 home runs in the last week, but i have not seen so many weak groundballs to the pitcher and second baseman. Now that he has his 2500 hits, BENCH him. Who cares if he whines. Play Ethier and Kemp, Laroche, Hu, and Young. Kemp, yes he does lack some baseball instincts, but you cannot teach the explosiveness in his bat and on the bases.

Ned, please get a vision and stay with it. Last year when you brought Lofton and Nomar in for 1 year it made sense. I feel that you panicked with Pierre, I love his heart and desire but 4 more years of weak grond balls and bunts will drive me nuts. Not to mention a single to either to the left or right of him is an automatic double. The other teams salivate when a ball is hit to him. The smarter move would to have sign lofton one more year and wait for Andruw Jones or Torii Hunter. Nine million for Pierre and Loaiza, that is one of those other guys salary.

Speaking of Loaiza, 6 years of era over 5.00…is this a trend or an aberration. I say a trend. An 85-87 fastball. He is not Greg Maddux. Speaking of Maddux, 2 years at 20 mil or Schmidt at 52 mil? This is not hindsight, I felt this way when the Pierre/Schmidt signings happened, I just did not blog then. In my job making these type of crucial signings and decisions and not panning out, my owner would question my ability to make decisions. I would say I would not have a job. A rotation of Penny, Lowe, Billingsley, Loaiza, and Schmidt, Scary. Billingsley I hope becomes our Ace. Penny is solid but his pitch count and the way he falters in the second half year after year is a number 2-3 starter. Lowe is the same. Loiaza I am going on record if he makes 25 starts he will be 6-13 with a 4.75 or worse. Tomko was the same, why do we continue to run these guys out there. I would rather have Stults or Houlton. Young arms that have upside as oppose to vets that have continually shown they cannot do the job. I just hope Elberts and Kershaw develop and are ready by June 2008.

I loved the update on dodgers.com that Broxtons arm was tender and Grady made reference that it happens this time of year. Yes it does when you run a guy out there 10 out of 14 days. Seanez, Broxton and Proctor is that all he knows. Meloan did not pitch in 2 weeks, Stults, Hull, run them out there and let them figure it out everyone once in a while. Broxton ran out of gas and it is Gradys fault. Why have him pitch down by 3 for the third day in a row.

As for next year what do we do at third base. Nomar, if his bat speed does not come back, cannot be run out there everyday, 10 mil or not. Laroche is he the next Paul Konerko. A couple of brief tries and ship him to Cincy for Jeff Shaw. How did that work out Tommy? No I am not bitter. Put Laroche out there and let him play, it worked with the Padres with Kouz. He hit .107 as late as the 1st week of May, but a patient manager never lost faith and he has hit .300 since with power. Kent does he come back, he is old faithful and his passion is unquestioned, but take the young guys and teach them how to play the game.

Where do we find the power bat. Martin will continue to develop 15-20 homers, Loney has shown that he can hit for power. I feel that he will hit 20-25, Kemp if he continues to develop and is allowed to play is 25 plus. I feel the Dodgers may use Ethier as trade bait, but he can hit. He uses the whole field, and will be a .300 hitter 17-22 homers and 80-100 rbi if he plays everyday. It will be interesting to see who is available on the trade market and free agency. Unless the Dodgers move Pierre to left and sign Hunter (chrismas wish) or if they bite the bullet pay most of Pierre’s salary and ship him off (christmas wish), I am at a loss as to where they will improve. It has to be the kids. It worked out well in Arizona.

Ned you have to produce and now.

I am writing this blog today in honor of Juan Bustabad, minor league coach for the Dodgers. I have gotten to know Busty over the past 3 years at Dodgers Fantasy camp. Yes we pay alot of money to live a dream of a lifetime, to put on a Dodger uniform that we all dreamed about as kids. Busty has been at all 3 camps that I been to and he is first of all a class human being and secondly a **** of a coach/instructor. I have had the opportunity to observe him coach his Gulf Coast League team and he works the **** out of these kids. He enforces fundamentals and is like a surrogate father to these 18-21 year kids, especially the latin ballplayers. The Dodgers are lucky to have him in their organization. I just hope he gets the accolades that he deserves.

Busty was selected twice in the first round, first by the Oakland in 1979 5th overall and then again in 1980 by the Red Sox. Unfortunately the closest Busty got to the bigs was Triple A. He retired in 1989 and began coaching in the Dodgers organization and left to go to the Marlins organization 94-99. All Busty has done is win at every level that he has managed. At the Rookie level and class A level he has won at least 5 division titles, including the last 2 GCL Division titles. To be able to do this consistently at this level is unbelivable. He is taking 18-21 year olds who have never met one another and with different cultures and getting them to perform as a team is remarkable.

On September 18, 2007, Busty got his call to the Show. Hats off to you Busty, you get to spend the next 2 weeks with the major league team. Enjoy, you deserve itand make sure you bring pictures to Fantasy camp with you. No one is more deserving and hopefully one day you will get the opportunity to stay full time. By the way you looked 5 years younger on TV.

Jonsie

I know it is easy to sit here today and say what could have been, but I do not understand why managers do not bunt more often. Case in point, I believe it was the 5th inning yesterday and the Dodgers have 2 on no out and Lieberthal up and he swings away…Well we know the outcome, dp and momentum over. It was never to be regained. I wish managers would bunt him over and hopefully we get one maybe 2 runs and we are tied. Oh well that is the breaks.

Can Grady quit running Broxton out to the mound when we are down by 3…the poor kid is going to be ruined at this pace. Give one of the young guys the opportunity to pitch…Stults, Meloan, we may need these kids his week with the double header and they have not pitched in 10 plus days.

Loaiza is Loaiza, he throws bp and if he is not hitting his spots he is in trouble…8 million just does not go very far any more.

The Giants absolutely laid down this weekend after Fridays game. I hate them even more now. Go Pirates, how can the Padres be playing the Pirates at crunch time. The schedule maker *****!!!! Maybe Tracy will rally his troops and help the Dodgers out. We need the Giants to man up and take the Diamondsbacks down.

Lets go Big Blue sweep the Rockies!!!!!

I dispise the Giants and now they are toying with my emotions. First of all they take 2 dramatic wins from the Dodgers last weekend and now they blow a 2 run lead in the bottom of the ninth against the Friars. Come on Giants grag your kahaunas and man up and beat the Padres.

Now on last nights game. Penny battled and gave the Dodgers 5 innings but he needs to be more efficient. Great job getting out that painful first inning but 35 or so pitches makes it  a long night for the bullpen. An ace has to go 6 to 7 innings at crunch time. Rudy Seanez, this guy just will not die. Grady keeps putting him out there and he does the job. Thanks Rudy it seems like you have been around the majors since the beginning. James loney, I love you man, keep hitting the ball hard and prove all the naysayers wrong. Lack of power, how does 53 rbi in 81 games played and 500 plus slugging percentage look. I just wish we could have seen him from day one but maybe going down was his motivation to make sure when he did come back that it would be for good.

Nomar what did you take over the last 3 days, he looked completely different last night. He swung with authority and he looked fresh. Hopefully the Nomar of old is back with us.

As for todays game, Mr Lowe please pitch deep and keep the ball down. We need this game (I know we need them all) this is what we signed you for, to pitch in the big games. I have said it before but watching the young guys Loney, Martin, Kemp, and Ethier it is exciting. If the Dodgers came keep them together we are in for another run like the 70′s and 80′s.

As for all the Grady bashers and Ned bashers, we may not like all their moves, but this team has hung in there and for the most part Grady has been patient with the youngsters. I know keep Gonzo on the bench and play Ethier everyday but with the injuries this team could ahve tanked and except for a 3 week period they have not. Go Grady and Ned!!! Skin the Dianmondbacks. Good day.

It was  great to get 2 of 3 from the friars…James loney is a stud and will be a batting champ one day…imagine that a Dodger winning a battle title, they have been few and far between.  what can you say about David Wells, after I heard about this signing I was wondering how much he could have left, but he has been a god send. Look at his career and compare with Loaiza, he has never been a hard thrower, but he knows how to pitch and he has been successful.I hope he can keep it up.

Grady is going to wear Broxton and Proctor out (although Torre did a pretty good job on proctor). This Dodger team has been scrappy all year and they had that bad 3 week stretch that may come back to haunt them, but watching these kids and just imagining the future has me dreaming of big things to come. I have to admit I like the lineup alot better without Nomar, I still respect him but he just does not drive the ball and it like having 2 pitchers in the lineup. Keep putting the kids in there.

Speaking of kids I got to see the 4th round pick Andrew Lambo. He looks like a natural hitter and he seems to have a great attitude. He is a big kid with a projectible body. Also on that gcl dodgers team Alfredo Silverio all he did was hit about .370 and it seems everything he hits is a line drive.  They also have  kid Franklin Jacobs, 6-5 260 plus and in batting practice he put on a faboulous display of power. Out of 8 swings 7 were monster shots over the left field fence at Dodgertown. According to the manager the kid have some of the best power skills he has ever seen. According to some reports when Jacobs went to Dodger Stadium with the other draftees he hit a ball completely out of the stadium. The question is will he be the next Sam Horn or will he develop into Frank Thomas. We can only hope the latter.

That is all for now, lets take it to the Diamondbacks. Penny needs to pitch like the ace he is suppose to be and hopefully Lowe will be ok.

The dodgers have to win tonight…i feel pretty confident with Billingsley going.  I just hope he is efficient. As I say this Giles rips a liner to left center, but it is an easy out.

I have had the chance to blog all year but never got around to it. It has been a fun year watching all the young kids play and develop. It has also been frustrating, Nomar’s bat speed and how quickly it has disappeared was surprising. He does not even hit the ball hard. I hope and do not understand why they just do not put Laroche or Abreu in and let them play. Look at kouzmanoff with the Padres he hit something like .105 for April and they stuck with him and he seems to be ok. I am just thankful Ned did not sell off the young guys and rent a player for a couple of months.

As for the Loaiza pickup, I was not excited and after last night I am afraid we are in for a lot of that over the next 14 months. Look at his career 5 yrs with an era under 4.50 and 6 years over 5.00. I hope Ned does not continue and pick up these journeymen like Loiaza and Hendrickson who soft toss. I would rather take a chance with Stults who would not cost us 8 million next year.

Kemp has been a pleasant surprise as to how quickly he has adapted to the off speed pitches and continues to amaze. Yes he is an adventure on the bases, but I love the agression and the excitement he brings. Loney, what a beautiful swing. I have been a Dodger fan for 43 years and it always amazed me that the Dodgers never seemed to develop hitters and lo and behold look at Loney. All the skeptics said he would not hit for power. Well so far so good. All the kid does is make contact and it seems to always be hit hard. He will be a great hitter for a long time.

Billingsley is so nasty, I just hope he realizes to trust his stuff and not nibble and learns to pitch to contact. He can and will become special. I cannot wait for Clayton Kershaw, I had the opportunity to observe this kid last year at Vero Beach and he truly loves the game. He has such a great attitude and works hard and he is nasty. He may even make to the big club sometime next year. I do not know what the next 18 games will bring, all i hope is that they play hard and let the young guys feel the heat of the pennant race. I appreciate the professionalism of Gonzalez but lets be honest he just does not get it done. let Ethier play everyday and develop.

That is all for tonight, I need to concentrate on the game and will them to a win.