Another Solid W in the Books

Wow, two solid days of ball by the Dodgers, and now I have a lot to get caught up on.

I guess first we should start with the top of the lineup and Dee Gordon. Going into this spring there were many questions about Dee's ability to take a walk, and how that would reflect on his OBP. We were terrified when Dee stated "In reality, I can hit. So it helps me to be ready to swing and not look for a walk. I could always hit the ball", and yet he has already walked 3 times in less than a dozen plate appearences. It seems that the slight shortstop can't wait to watch analyst put their foot in their mouth as he sets himself up with a solid OBP through hitting and taking walks.

The next starter in the lineup who is showing his swag would be Matt Kemp. After seeing the first few games I started biting my nails, worrying about each at bat as Kemp took long hacks at his Kryptonite, the low and away slider. In his first three games, and nine at bats, Kemp struck out 5 times, almost all of these on sliders low and away. Today though, things were different. Today he had a single, sac fly, and one of his sky high rainbow home runs that just never comes down. Not only that, in his at bats today, the slider that was the thorn in his side before seemed to not be a problem as he laid off them today. My hope is that the first few days Kemp was just testing out which pitches he could hit, and which he couldn't and for the rest of the year he'll lay off the slider low and away.

Andre Either also continued his torrid hitting, grabbing himself a single and a triple. If there were any worries about him not coming back heathy from knee surgury, his base running has put those to rest. And even though we joke about the defense Either puts up in right, with two healthy legs this year, we may even see the tempermental lefty put up a better UZR this year.

The last starter I want to address is AJ Ellis who has also been laughing in the face of his critics. So far this spring AJ has had eight plate appearences with two hits and two walks. For those who were worried that his lack of power would keep him from getting walks, his two hits were both doubles including the one today that flew over the head of Josh Hamilton in center.

Overall four of the eight starters have impressed me so far this spring, and I have to give kudo's to Dave Hanson and his coaching as the Dodger bats look patient and lively so far this spring.
Now onto the guys who aren't going to make the team, but are still being impressive.

The first guy I want to talk about is Justin Sellers, and what a great grinder and ball player he looks to be. When I first saw him play at Dodger Stadium last year I imediately loved his glove, and figured he would be Juan Castro 2.0. But so far he has exceeded my expectations shown real growth as a ball player. All week when he has been playing, people have commented on the fact that a guy with such a small frame swing the bat with his hands at the end of the handle. But they have also noticed that much like Jamey Carrol (who we can't deny was a OBP machine), Sellers will with two strikes will choke up on the bat to improve bat control. Right now in 11 plate appearences, Sellers has 4 hits and 2 walks. With his glove I'd be tempted to give Sellers the everyday 2B position right now, because his glove is just as good as Mark Ellis' and his OBP looks like it could project to be similar to Jamey Carrol's .360, an upgrade from Ellis' career .330 OBP mark.

Also impressing this spring is Josh Fields having 5 hits in 7 at bats including a triple and two doubles. Right now he is showing a swing that made him a first round pick for the White Sox in 04' and helped him hit .365 in 50 games in the Pacific Coast League last year. though he hasn't walked much it seems like he is not getting fooled, and is making solid contact.

Last on this list is Alex Castellanos, whose new nick name seems to be Castle. The former Cardinal who was drafted to play the infield, moved to the outfield, and has now come back to the infield has been on fire this spring. Right now in 7 at bats he has 4 hits including 2 home runs. The most impressive thing so far about his swing is his bat speed, which sends the bat head flying through the air, making his hits laser beams. If he can work on his patience at the plate to draw more walks and strike out less he could be a very potent hitter, especially if he stays at 2B.

A last quick note on hitters, Griff Erikson has 3 at bats and 2 hits, with a double. It looks like his offense may not be an illusion.

At this point, I'm actually more excited about the Dodgers AAA team then the Major league team. Right now with FedEx, and JD Closser catching, Sands at 1B, Castellanos at 2B, Sellers at SS, Josh Fields at 3B, and an outfield of Scott Van Slyke, Matt Angle, and Cory Sullivan, they are practically a Quad A team, and could most likely beat some major league teams, like the Astro's or Mariners. If I were in charge I'd take a long look at some of these guys to enhance the Dodger offense (if Colletti had not blocked them with multi year deals), and for things to be done sooner rather than later, as many of them are getting a little to old to still be prospects (Fields is 29, Sellers is 26, Van Slyke and Castellanos are both 25)

Also quick note on the pitching: starters seem ok, the bullpen looks to be awesome. I'd look for Scott Rice to possibly be picked up as a second lefty reliever after the spring he's been putting up.

Spring Training Wishful Thinking

Well here it is the first official day of spring training, as pitchers and catchers are reporting to camp. Despite how the roster looks, as Tony Jackson stated in his new Dodger blog at ESPN, there's always hope, and things could look worse.
For the good news from Mattingly today,
1. Dee Gordon will bat leadoff. While many are worried about his ability to take walks, I believe that his patience will grow as he sees more major league pitching (remember Dee is still fairly new to playing baseball), plus his plus plus speed makes even routine grounders possible infield hits. If he can learn to add bunting to his batting approach expect him to have a great season.
2. Matt Kemp will bat third. This is also good news as Matt Kemp (hard to believe with the season he had) actually preformed better hitting in the three hole, using Either for protection. At 3 Kemp hit 331/418/647 (BA/OBP/SLG), vs 322/394/569 in the 4 hole. While he hits great in both places, the protection of Ethier helps Kemp recieve a more steady diet of fastballs and pitches in the zone. Also with Ethier behind Kemp, it leaves more room for Kemp to run wild on the bases. (With Ethier healthy expect this to be billed like the Braun and Fielder duo of last season.
3. Blake Hawksworth will be starting the season on the DL. It seems weird to take this as good news, but Hawksworth while being satisfactory, he was far from being excellent out of the pen. According to Baseball Reference the Hawk appeared in a high leverage situation in 17 games. In those games batters hit 375 with an OPS of 932. For comparison Jansen appeared in 20 games and held batters to a 116 batting average. In fact by the end of the season he had been relagated mostly to cleanup duty. So the silver lining of this is that depsite Ned's best efforts to block any changes Mattingly may want to make to the roster, Donnie Baseball will get the chance to go fishing in his large, but shallow pool of pitching talent invited to camp. (My bet is on Jamey Wright)
So team positives going into 2012, despite a lack of a proven #2 starter, the starting rotation is deep and decent as all five are established starters. The bullpen looks to be solid with Jansen, Guerra, Elbert, Coffey, and good backup arms in the minors with Eovaldi and Lindblom. Matt Kemp will be coming back, and Andre should be healthy. And Kemp's work ethic from last season seems to have paid off, as a number of Dodger's decided to show up early to camp (Kemp, Gordon, Ellis, Kershaw, Sellers)

Now even though the Dodger infield should be very slick with a glove, we can all agree that their offensive production is going to be equivilent to the amount of wind produced by a butterfly flapping it's wings. Plus with Ned "head up my a**" Colletti at the helm there has only been one spot left on the roster for a non roster invitee, or a minor league player to make the squad. Essentialy there is one spot and fifteen players trying out for it.
So barring injury who gets the spot. Seems to me, despite Sands massive numbers when coming back up for his second drink of coffee with the big team (342 BA and 908 OPS) Dodger management thinks he doesn't have enough seasoning. Since Sands projects to be an everyday, he will most likly start the season in AAA so he doesn't have to sit on a bench. Also with Ned's signings, there is a clear lack of a backup SS in case Dee goes down with an injury. As none of the NRI's strike me as a good backup infielder, my guess is that Sellers will find himself on the major league roster leaving camp.
Now for the wishful thinking aspect. With Kennedy's nearly minimal 800k contract we could all hope that he preforms pitifully enough that they DFA him before camp is over. That opens up one more roster spot. Currently I'm torn between NRI's Jeff Baisley and Josh Fields. Both men are over the hill in prospect terms at 29 (in fact Fields is just 4 days older than Baisley), however, at under 30 and playing the hot corners, both could add value for the Dodgers. Baisley has spent the last 8 years in the A's farm system. He hits for good average and hits for decent power as he hit 20 HR's in the minors last year, but has only played 14 games at the major league level. Baisley also has a good glove at first and third as well. Fields, does not have good fielding (despite his last name), but has shown great power, as he was onced ranked a top 50 prospect in 2007, and hit 23 HR's in the majors the same year. He has an OBP problem, but could have melowed out in his last couple of years floating back and forth between the majors and minors. If there were ever a Quad A player it might be Fields as he enjoyed a 350+ BA his last two seasons in the minors, but has yet to fully translate that in the majors. He could be a very interesting risk, and truthfully, could he be worse than Uribe was last year...?
The rest of my wishes depend on players getting injured in Spring training so that some prospects can play, and since it involves people getting hurt, I'm not gonna say it out loud. In conclusion I will leave you with a slight positive note about Colletti. Despite his major league signing's being aweful this year (minus the Kemp extension), at least he's getting some interesting NRI to camp.