Series Preview: Tigers at Dodgers

but I’m gonna try and play hooky and catch the wednesday matinee. I still think Kershaw is the real deal. I would have preferred to miss his spot in the rotation. Billingsly has been lit up recently and Lilly’s a bum. 2 out of 3 would make me happy.

One guy to watch is Dee Gordon, the SS they just called up. It’s Tom “Flash” Gordon’s kid and he looks to have some real talent. Quicker than hell and has already made a bunch of highlight plays in the field.

What happened to the Avila at third experiment? Did Leyland give up on that already?

I wouldn’t list Kershaw as one of the struggling pitchers. He got hit a little bit in Cincinatti and Colorado, but still had great peripherals for those games. The reason Kershaw doesn’t have more wins, is because the offense sucks.

Any preview of a Dodgers series should begin with how awful their offense is and how good their starting pitching is. These will all likely be low scoring games, unless the Tigers offense goes off one day (Dodgers likely won’t). The Dodgers just finished a three game series against the lowly Astros in which they only scored four total runs and luckily won the third game 1-0 on a HR from their awful hitting catcher.

The Dodgers big news this year, besides the crappy offense is their injuries and all of the top prospects who have been called up because of it. Not earth shattering prospects, but the top ones in the Dodgers system. Dee Gordon now mans shortstop and leads off. His speed on the basepaths and range at shortstop are fun to watch. Jerry Sands came up earlier when Marcus Thames went out and manned left field for a little while but didn’t hit enough and was sent down when Thames came back. Rubby De la Rosa who you are missing, is pitching in the 5th spot while Jon Garland is out.

You will notice while playing the Dodgers that they have a pretty big black hole in their lineup from the #5 spot through the #9 spot. Andre Ethier can’t hit left handed pitching, so luckily for him the Tigers are throwing three RHPs. Matt Kemp has been a beast and is a leading MVP candidate in the NL. Loney has almost no power for a 1B and has only recently started hitting for an average. Uribe doesn’t hit much. Navarro/Ellis will be a black hole with the bat behind the plate (Barajas to DL recently) and left field will feature all glove and no bat Tony Gwynn Jr, or some bat and no glove Marcus Thames. Like I said, expect low scoring games in LA.

but did anyone happened to get a screenshot of Raburn and his dad and his daughter yesterday? I heard they showed something after the top of the 2nd was over, if that helps anyone in finding it….

Didn’t get tickets for Monday’s game because I had work scheduled and didn’t know when I’d get done. Just as well, as the matchup tonight is Kershaw v Penny.

The Dodgers can score runs at times, but they’re very dependent upon Matt Kemp, and they all seem to have problems hitting a curve ball. I mean, to an extreme degree for a major league team. I watch a lot of Dodger games. They’re my sorta favorite NL club, and I love listening to Vin Scully. I think he’s the best in the business. Avoid Kemp and increase the number of breaking balls and we’ll do much better.

to get to listen to Vin Scully call a tigers game, last great baseball play by play still doing it