Projected starting line up, taken from mlb.com

1. LF Juan Pierre
2. SS Rafael Furcal
3. C Russell Martin
4. 2B Jeff Kent
5. CF Andruw Jones
6. 1B James Loney
7. 3B Nomar Garciaparra
8. RF Matt Kemp

WTF is this grimness? Anyway here is what I guess it will look like on opening day, with Nomar, Kent, Laroche, and Abreu now all injured.

1. LF Juan Pierre
2. SS Rafael Furcal
3. C Russell Martin
4. CF Andruw Jones
5. 1B James Loney
6. RF Matt Kemp
7. 3B Blake DeWitt
8. 2B Chin-Lung Ha

It's also possible that 7 and 8 flip flop and that our old friend Ramon Martinez get's put at 3rd or 2nd.

He gave Womack 320 at bats with an OPS+ of 50. Of course this suckiness couldn't be predicted since his previous three years his OPS+ were 91, 40, and 71.

He also DH'd Woe-mack four times. That alone should keep Torre out of the hall of fame.

The funniest thing I heard last year is that Kirk Gibson is now a coach with the DBacks and his primary responsibility is coaching base stealing.

But then the DBacks finished 2nd in lowest percentage caught stealing.

Considering the hard on Steinbrenner had for Womack keeping the AB's south of 400 was yeoman work.

The DH thing reminds me of when Dusty DH'd Tyoshi Shingo in the world series and left Lofton to misjudge flyballs in center. He also pinch hit Tom Goodwin for Shinjo, LOL Dusty!

Gibson is probably a roving coach in their farm-system, right? I mean, he wasn't in the dug-out at the D-Backs games I don't think.
So the D-Backs base-stealing percentage in the big leagues really doesn't reflect on his abilities to coach that stuff to the minor-leaguers.

He's in the dugout, he's a bench coach.

http://mlb.mlb.com/content/printer_f...2/c2263526.jsp

So happy

That is good news that Eithier is starting ahead of Pierre. Now if we could get rid of Nomar that would be great.

LOL Zitoments

What do you guys think about this batting order? I'm suprised Kemp and Eithier are so high, and Loney and Martin so low.

1 - R. Furcal, SS
2 - A. Ethier, LF
3 - M. Kemp, RF
4 - J. Kent, 2B
5 - A. Jones, CF
6 - R. Martin, C
7 - J. Loney, 1B
8 - B. Dewitt, 3B
9 - B. Penny, P

Thank goodness for Torre. Ned Colletti is an idiot.

Can you imagine the conversation where Torre had to inform Colletti that Pierre sucked balls? Must've been priceless.

Man Zito sucks in season openers, 0-5 now.

FYP

FYP

how do you guys feel about the yankee fans (myself included) who will be following dodgers closely and hoping they do well because of torre

a. its all love
b. no, yankee fans are evil

I'm down with A.

The lineup order surprised me.. I prefer
Furcal
Martin
Loney
Kent
Jones
Kemp
Ethier
Dewitt

but really, the absence of Pierre makes any nitpicking completely irrelevant.

5th Slot in the rotation is grim, but nothing can be worse than Tomko. At least his replacement won't get shelled and have a big grin on his face as he's walking off.

I used to root for Joe Torre in NY because I liked him as an announcer for the Angels.

It's California, so it's all love!

Game 2

Okay so Matt Cain has never beat the Dodgers. Pierre is in the line-up, but I wasn't expecting Kemp to be the one to sit. Anyone know how Kemp has done against Cain in the past?

1 - Rafael Furcal SS
2 - Russell Martin C
3 - Andre Ethier RF
4 - Jeff Kent 2B
5 - Andruw Jones CF
6 - James Loney 1B
7 - Juan Pierre LF
8 - Blake DeWitt 3B
9 - Derek Lowe - P

Furcal came up huge tonight.

Any word on Lowe's ankle yet? I can't find anything.

Good start on going undefeated for the second straight month!

I know everyone loves Furcal, but there is no reason that Chin-Lung Hu shouldn't be playing everyday at SS.

I think Furcal might be a better hitter . . .

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/playe...-lung-hu.shtml

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/playe...l-Furcal.shtml

I don't think that is a given. Hu is probably better defensively, despite all the praise Furcal gets (and he does have a rocket attached to his arm). Personally, I really like Furcal as a player, but objectively Hu is prime-time ready to be playing at the MLB level until he proves he can't. Hu made huge strides with the bat last year in the minors, which is the only thing he needed to work on.

Chin-Lung Hu is basically the ching-chong version of Asdrubal Cabrera.

You are probably correct.

Let me preface this by saying that I am a casual fan: Up until a few years ago, I could keep up with the hotstove stuff and each of the teams' hot prospects, but rather than jump into the new era of baseball (PECOTA and such) I moved away from that. ... anyhow

This season and last, I was reading through SI baseball preview, and I was fascinated by the "A modest proposal." I kept thinking over and over "hey! (get that Harry Caray voice outta your head) that would work!" Or, "they really should try that, what do they have to lose?" But, most of those proposals never came to fruition.

Your statement here falls right into the same group. It is probably the correct move. So, I guess this brings up the general question, "Why aren't these moves being made?"

Here, I can guess that:
1) Furcal is a fan favorite;
2) He does have a big contract (and these days, with Pierre and Schmidt, we gotta play at least one of those big contracts, right?);
3) He is a veteran at an important position while the team has a lot of young starters and will be getting rid of its other veterans, soon;
4) Furcal is still productive.

These are all good reasons to play Chin-Lung Hu, actually. Since you have Furcal signed to a contract, they should play Hu until he proves he sucks, at which point you option him to the minors to work on his hitting and reinstate Furcal. If you wait until Hu is the only option at SS, what happens when he sucks at the plate and needs instruction?

Just because Furcal and Pierre cost money doesn't mean you have to play them. They are what economists would call "sunk costs."