Reinforcements due on next homestand
With apparently none of the Dodgers' minor-league affiliates looking like they'll be playoff bound, the team's September callups should start arriving on Sept. 2, the second day of the upcoming homestand. It looks like A.J. Ellis will be coming up from Vegas to be the third catcher. He is hitting .309 this year, so he'll edge out Lucas May, who is hitting .228 at Jacksonville, even though May is on the 40-man roster and Ellis isn't. Although I have long been under the impression that James McDonald was a lock for a callup, that apparently is still being discussed and is far from assured. But it looks like Ellis will be the only guy not presently on the roster who will be called up. Dodgers don't have a lot of flexibility. The 40-man is full, and there aren't a lot of guys on it whom you can look at and say, ``He's expendable.'' ... I love these late-Saturday games for Fox, just a beautiful time of day. It's a perfect, sunny day here in Philly, and the shadows had started to creep across the field before the game even started. Kershaw had a rough first inning, but he appears to have settled in now, and Russell Martin just got the boys back into the game with a two-run homer, a possible slump buster. 3-2 Phils, bottom 3. ... Went for 1 a.m. cheesesteaks at Jim's last night (this morning) with Diamond Leung from the RIVERSIDE Press-Enterprise and Takashi Yamakawa from the Kyodo News. Even at that hour, there was still a long line. But those sandwiches were well worth the wait. ... Kershaw just walked the leadoff man in the third. Perhaps I spoke too soon.
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About Inside the Dodgers
Tony Jackson has covered the Dodgers for
the Daily News since 2004 and has covered Major League Baseball on a
regular basis since 1995. He previously covered the Colorado Rockies
and Cincinnati Reds. He is a native of Springdale, Ark., and a graduate
of the University of Arkansas.
You jinxed the boys =/
When did you say next years schedule will be out? ;-)
There aren't A LOT of expendable guys, but there ARE some -- Mark Sweeney, Tanyon Sturtze, Pablo Ozuna to name a few. None of them will be Dodgers in 2009 and can all be DFA'd easily.
bob, I didn't say because I don't know. Marcel, I was mostly looking at guys who aren't presently on the 25-man. I guess it's possible they could get rid of somebody on the active roster to make room for a September callup, but I can't remember that ever happening in all the years I have covered ball.