Tomorrow's notebook tonight
Tomko is sailing along without incident, even though he has walked a couple of batters. He pitched around a potentially disastrous two-base error by Kemp in the first inning, and Kemp redeemed himself in the bottom of the first with a first-pithc homer to straightaway center, his seventh of the season. ... Dodgers 1, Astros 0, top 4
By Tony Jackson
Staff Writer
Dodgers third baseman Nomar Garciaparra went onto the 15-day disabled list Tuesday when it became clear the strained left calf he had tried to play through for more than a week wasn't going to get any better without rest.
Shea Hillenbrand, whose contract the Dodgers had purchased from Triple-A Las Vegas on Monday, will get most of the playing time at third base in Garciaparra's absence. Reliever Eric Hull was recalled from Las Vegas to take Garciaparra's roster spot, giving the Dodgers a 12-man pitching staff.
The injury is believed to have happened in the fifth inning on Aug. 4, when Garciaparra ran first to third on a long fly ball by Ramon Martinez that was dropped by Arizona right fielder Justin Upton. Garciaparra hesitated to make sure the ball wasn't caught, and that was when he felt something in the calf.
``It was kind of in an isolated spot and wasn't that bad,'' Garciaparra said. ``I continued to feel it on certain movements, but it wasn't consistent. But it just kept getting worse, and this past weekend, I could feel it on more of a consistent basis. I took a day off on Sunday, hoping that would calm it down. But I still felt it (Monday) night at the end of the game.''
Pitching plans: Little all but announced that lefty Eric Stults will be recalled from Las Vegas to take the rotation spot that used to belong to Mark Hendrickson on Friday night against Colorado. When someone asked if there were other options besides Stults, Little simply said, ``Not many.'' Although Little didn't say it, Hull likely will go back down to clear a roster spot for Stults.
Lineup (re)shuffle: Less than a week after Juan Pierre was dropped to seventh in the order, he was moved back to second. Catcher Russell Martin, who entered the game with two hits in his past 16 at-bats, was dropped from second to sixth.
In five games since the change -- including one in which he batted second because Martin didn't play -- Pierre was 7 for 17. He went 3 for 4 in Monday night's loss to Houston, when the Dodgers had a total of six hits.
``We have to find some combination where we can start driving in a few more runs than our current pace,'' Little said.
Little said he also plans to find more playing time in the coming days for outfielder Matt Kemp, who entered the day hitting .311.
Also: Negotiations with fifth-round draft pick Kyle Blair, a right-hander who has signed a letter of intent to pitch for the University of San Diego, are expected to last well into the day. The deadline for signing 2007 draft choices is 9 p.m. tonight. Blair is believed to be seeking a bonus of $1.1 million. ...
Pierre hung an old photo on the front of his locker on Tuesday of himself and Bill Robinson, wearing Florida Marlins road uniform pants and champagne-soaked championship T-shirts, immediately after the Marlins won the 2003 World Series. Robinson, then the Marlins hitting coach, died two weeks ago of an apparent heart attack during a stop in Las Vegas as the Dodgers' minor-league hitting coordinator.
Tony Jackson is in his fourth season covering the Dodgers for the 
Comments
If all he wants is 1.1 million whats the hold up? WHo cares if he was drafted in the 5th round. With all the wasted money this year Blair seems like a wise investment.
Posted by: The_Great_Arcade_Fire | August 14, 2007 8:35 PM
5-1 Astros, and it just keeps going and going and going. The bleeding simply will not stop.
While this certainly isn't all Grady's fault, he's the captain of a sinking ship, and I'm starting to think the end is coming for Mr. Little.
The season has turned into a complete disaster. Is there anyone out there who has any hope left?
Posted by: BaseballSavvy.com
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August 14, 2007 8:53 PM
holy sheesh...last year when LA lost 13 straight, or whatever it was, I emailed my buddies saying the LA season is over....and I am about to send one out tomorrow....this is absolutely ridiculous.
This is not Grady's fault...Schmidt, Wolf, and Lowe's injuries are not his fault. Neither is Furcal's injury, or Gonzo and Kent aging 5 years in 6 months.
I say play the young guys...Kemp, Ethier, Martin, Laroche, Hu, Loney, Meloan, Young....and see what we have for next year, as Colletti will be busy replacing Tomko, Hendrickson and Schmidt to accompany Billz and Penny.
Crap....Matt Albers is pitvhing tonight!!! Can it get any worse?
Posted by: rayg | August 14, 2007 9:00 PM
Grady absolutely deserves some of the blame. Yes he does.
As for Wolf and Schmidt, Grady is a part of the bad decision making about those two important and fragile arms. He's the guy who threw them out there, with some degree of knowledge of how messed up they were. He absolutely is responsible. Not solely, but's part of it. It's his job to have an idea of the health of his players, instead of just hoping for the best.
On top of that, he's had no answers for anything recently. It's almost as if he's guessing, and guessing badly.
He's the manager. He has to have some answers for something. And he doesn't.
Posted by: BaseballSavvy.com
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August 14, 2007 9:21 PM
Grady's decisions to go round in circles with Hendrickson especially, and Tomko have just been bizarre. Billingsley should have 20 more starts of experience than he does now, and perhaps Houlton would have made a difference as a starter. We'll never know.
Posted by: BaseballSavvy.com
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August 14, 2007 9:23 PM
BTW, this is considerably worse than last year. We're coming up on twice the period of time.
Posted by: BaseballSavvy.com
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August 14, 2007 9:24 PM
Answers? Aren't the answers obvious? He has tried all kinds of lineups, and NO ONE is hitting....Furcal is playing hurt, Pierre is Pierre, Loney slumped, Kent is old, Gonzo is older, Kemp slumped, Martin slumped.....seriously, KemP and Loney weren't going to hit .380 all year. Totally disagree...
Ane more importantly, there has been a Tony Abreu siting...he is hitting 2nd tonight, going 1 for 3 with 2 runs scored.
One last point, Stan Conte is the trainer, not Grady....you cannot fault Grady for Schmidt....he wasn't pitching well in ST....and he was saying he was healthy all along...an d you want to blame Grady for Schmidt lying to the team like Gagne did?
Posted by: rayg | August 14, 2007 9:28 PM
Sure, I can blame Grady. I blame Conte more, and Honeycutt to a degree, but it's the manager's responsibility. Are you kidding me? Six weeks of Spring Training 85 mph fastballs should have been more than enough for Grady to demand to know what was going on. He didn't.
And he's throwing Derek Lowe out there now. Same thing. He's absolutely totally, totally responsible. In fact, he has no greater responsibility than the health of his players. None, zip, nada.
And the overplaying of Russell Martin is all Grady. Martin is not in a slump. He's overworked. That's all on Grady. All on Grady. All on Grady.
Posted by: BaseballSavvy.com
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August 14, 2007 9:53 PM
Show Blair the money! He's a first-round talent who lasted until later because of signability issues. Fifth round was a bit high to take the gamble - you could still draft a decent prospect there - so don't let him get away over a couple hundred thousand or less. SIGN BLAIR NOW!
Posted by: El Lay Dave | August 14, 2007 9:55 PM
The wife just asked if Grady is better than the last guy, which put things in perspective.
I said, yes, Grady is A LOT better than Jim Tracy. And suddenly I'm not quite as depressed and disgusted. I'm still depressed and disgusted, but not as depressed and disgusted.
Please everyone, excuse my pissyfit.
Out of the mouths of babes.
Posted by: BaseballSavvy.com
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August 14, 2007 10:00 PM
OK, now that Mark Sweeney thing, that one I can't blame Grady on.
Stick a form in me. I'm done.
Posted by: BaseballSavvy.com
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August 14, 2007 10:17 PM
any word on kyle blair?
Posted by: The_Great_Arcade_Fire | August 14, 2007 10:20 PM