Pierre's impending return ... and what it means for Andruw
Torre says if Pierre's rehab goes well, he will rejoin the big club either Saturday or Sunday. Joe was very non-committal on how the outfield will shake out at that point. What was interesting was that while Joe did say on the one hand that he isn't ready to sit Andruw Jones --
``It's still (too) early for me. Both Donnie (Mattingly) and (Jeff) Pentland are here working on specific things with him. It's one thing to practice, but it's a second thing to go out there and play games and try to put that into practice. I don't think he has had enough time for that yet.''
-- on the other hand, Torre didn't rule out the possibility that Andruw could find himself sitting if this keeps up much longer.
``I have seen Andre (Ethier) and Matty (Kemp) make great strides, Andre with the consistency of his at-bats and Matt seems to be getting a better feel for it right now. The thing that is great about this game is that you reserve the right to change your mind.''
Joe also was non-committal on who his fifth starter will be now that Stults has been sent out. Dodgers won't need one until Tuesday. Could be Jason Johnson. Could be a trade between now and then. But he said it won't be Park because he likes Chan Ho in the pen., and he also said Penny won't be ready by then.
Here's tonight's lineup
RF Kemp
LF Ethier
C Martin
2B Kent
1B Loney
SS Garciaparra
CF Jones
3B LaRoche
LH Kershaw
How about James McDonald? He has been dominant at Double-A this year. He's on the roster and deserves a cup of coffee at least.
James McDonald has posted solid numbers at AA, striking out about a batter an inning while holding on to a 3.01 ERA. He is making his living principally with the strikeout and in the air (0.69 G/F ratio) in a pitcher's league, which wouldn't translate terribly in Dodger Stadium, but it's hard to imagine he wouldn't get shelled after not too long. Let him first contend with AAA and the pitcher's hell that is the PCL first.
PLEASE dump Andruw!
Today's Fun Fact:
Here's a list of the Top-6 Strikeout victims in the major leagues...
Ryan Howard
377 ABs - 132 K's - 87 RBI
Jack Cust
303 ABs - 123 K's - 47 RBI
Mark Reynolds
323 ABs - 117 K's - 60 RBI
Matt Kemp
359 ABs - 107 K's - 54 RBI
Adam Dunn
304 AB's - 102 K's - 63 RBI
Dan Uggla
316 AB's - 101 K's - 61 RBI
If Andruw Jones were to play every game the rest of the way, at his current pace:
368 ABs - 135 K's - 23 RBI.
How 'bout we get Sabean drunk and then trade 'Dru for Vizquel and SF picks up all of Mrs. Jones' contract?
Let's see - Ethier leads the team in HR and he and Kemp rank #2 and #3 behind James Loney for the team lead in OPS. If Torre benches either of these guys for the doughboy, he should be canned.