Author Archives: J.P. Hoornstra

About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.

Stan Kasten: Outdoor hockey game at Dodger Stadium came together in two months.

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Dodger Stadium

Dodger groundskeepers prepare the outfield at Dodger Stadium. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News)

Dodger Stadium has already made way for motocross racing, rock concerts and Papal masses. Why not a little hockey game?

Adding to today’s announcement that the Kings and Ducks will play each other at Dodger Stadium on Jan. 25 next year, Dodgers president Stan Kasten added his voice to the chorus of excitement Monday.

“I didn’t know they [the NHL] were going to get off New Year’s,” he said, referring to the traditional date for the annual Winter Classic outdoor game. “Now that they’re doing it, what a great thing to have Yankee Stadium and Dodger Stadium. Those are the places you want to have games.”

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Daily Distractions: Outdoor hockey invades Dodger Stadium.

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Stadium Series

Say hello to the “Stadium Series.”

That’s what the NHL is calling the first outdoor NHL game in Los Angeles, which today was formally announced and scheduled for Jan. 25, 2014 at Dodger Stadium (and reported here last month). What will you call it?

According to the league, it will be the first outdoor regular-season NHL game played in the U.S. west of the Mississippi River, the southern-most outdoor NHL game ever and the first ever in California.

Tickets aren’t available yet but it’s believed that Kings and Ducks season ticket holders will get first dibs, with details to be announced soon.

Onto the bullet points:
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Angels’ Tommy Hanson talks about his first start after returning from bereavement.

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Angels pitcher Tommy Hanson can’t relate exactly to what Clayton Kershaw is going through right now, but their situations are similar.

Kershaw will attempt to start tomorrow against the San Francisco Giants, five days after leaving the Dodgers to mourn the death of his father. He’s been on the bereavement list in the meantime.

Hanson was activated from the bereavement list Monday, seven days after leaving the team following the death of his stepbrother in Georgia. Similar to Kershaw, Hanson started a road game in the Bay Area against a division rival, the Oakland A’s. He pitched well, too, allowing five hits, two runs, one walk and striking out six batters in six innings.

Although he didn’t factor into the decision, Hanson turned in one of his best starts of the year. It wasn’t easy.
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Daily Distractions: Dodgers face an important roster decision.

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Mark Ellis, Juan Uribe, Justin Sellers

One of these men might not be on the active roster by game time tomorrow. (Associated Press photo)

Expect the Dodgers to shed an infielder for this weekend’s series against the San Francisco Giants.

Before we assume that Mark Ellis will be placed on the 15-day disabled list to make room for Clayton Kershaw, who must be activated from the bereavement list before he starts Friday, consider Ellis’ career numbers against the San Francisco Giants’ scheduled starters.

He’s never had much success against Friday’s starter, Barry Zito (.217/.280/.304 in 23 at-bats). Yet Ellis has had no problems with Saturday’s starter, Ryan Vogelsong (.313/.313/.375 in 16 ABs) or Sunday’s starter, Matt Cain (.333/.385/.417 in 24 ABs).

So if Ellis’ right quadriceps is healthy tomorrow — he wasn’t far off Wednesday — it’s entirely possible that the Dodgers would use him Saturday and Sunday and keep him on the bench as a late-innings option Friday.

If that’s the case, look for the Dodgers to option Justin Sellers to Triple-A Albuquerque. Sellers is hitting .200/.278/.262. His slugging percentage is the fifth-lowest in the National League, just ahead of Juan Pierre (.253). The Dodgers don’t need a slugger at every position, but they’ve got an extra infielder if Ellis and Hanley Ramirez are both healthy. Sellers’ numbers could leave him the odd man out.

A less likely move, if the Dodgers are so inclined, would be to designate Luis Cruz for assignment. Cruz hasn’t hit all season (.088/.117/.088), allowing Juan Uribe to surpass him on the depth chart at third base. While Sellers still has an option year to burn, Cruz does not, so this would be the most convenient means for removing Cruz from the active roster.

It’s a rash move, sure. By designating Cruz for assignment, the Dodgers would risk losing him altogether when they could just as easily keep Sellers or Ellis in the organization. But it’s an option, and something to keep an eye on in the next 24 hours.

Some bullet points for a Thursday morning:

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Postgame thoughts: Colorado Rockies 7, Dodgers 3.

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This conference on the mound in the fourth inning didn’t help Josh Beckett (third from right). It merely delayed the inevitable in the Dodgers’ 7-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies, a game that lasted 3 hours, 54 minutes. (John McCoy/Staff Photographer)

You got the sense that Josh Beckett could live with the smaller strike zone imposed by home plate umpire Larry Vanover tonight. Beckett could even live with the three runs he allowed in the first inning, maybe because he didn’t want to throw his shortstop, Hanley Ramirez, under the bus for committing an error that left him pitching out of the stretch one batter into the game.

No, there were other things happened tonight specifically, and this season in general, that Beckett has not made peace with.

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Chris Capuano throws 76 pitches, allows two runs in rehab start.

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Chris CapuanoChris Capuano‘s first — and likely last — rehabilitation start is over.

The left-hander allowed two runs in 5 ⅓ innings for the Albuquerque Isotopes on Wednesday, walking one and striking out four. Capuano also grounded out to the shorstop and pitcher and had no apparent issues with his strained left calf.

Capuano hadn’t experienced any pain in his calf recently, though he had to miss three starts after aggravating the injury on April 16.

His next start could come Tuesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium, or on Monday if Dodgers manager Don Mattingly chooses to give Josh Beckett an extra day of rest.

Capuano is 0-1 with a 9.61 earned-run average (five runs in 4 ⅔ innings) with the Dodgers this season.

Javy Guerra adds length to Dodgers’ bullpen.

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Javy Guerra

It came as little surprise when the Dodgers recalled pitcher Javy Guerra from Triple-A Albuquerque on Tuesday.

Guerra was sent down late in spring training to pitch as a starter at Albuquerque. By his fourth start, he got stretched out to five innings and 75 pitches. The Dodgers needed a reliever who could pitch more than one inning after seeing Josh Wall — Albuquerque’s closer to begin the season — struggle in the long reliever role Monday.

Wall and Guerra swapped places Tuesday, and Guerra returned to a familiar building.

Well, mostly familiar. Once you walk down the tunnel leading into the home clubhouse area, things look a little different inside Dodger Stadium than they did last year.

“I got lost like three or four times,” Guerra said. “They told me ‘go to the weight room.’ It took me 10 minutes.”
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Dodger pitchers are finding their stroke.

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Hyun-Jin Ryu

Despite not batting between high school and this season, Hyun-Jin Ryu is batting .333 (4 for 12) with the Dodgers. (Associated Press photo)

Without prompt, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly did something Wednesday he rarely does: He criticized himself publicly.

Dodger pitchers have a .484 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) this year, third in the National League. That’s quite a bit higher than the .273 (13th) and .354 (9th) OPS that Dodger pitchers posted in 2012 and 2011, respectively. It’s not by chance, either.

“We’ve really tried to push our pitchers to work on it more,” Mattingly said. “I’ve been at fault, I think, in my first couple years for not putting emphasis on the pitchers and you start giving those at-bats away. The guy that can handle the bat really helps himself out. For the most part, he’s got to be able to bunt. A guy that can handle the bat and put it in play, you’re able to do some things.”

Are they doing more work in the cage, or different work?

“We started differently in the spring, working off the tee and putting them with Mac (hitting coach Mark McGwire) a bit,” Mattingly said. “Putting them in a situation that we’re actually giving them some drills on things that we do.”

Hyun-Jin Ryu is batting .333/.333/.417. Clayton Kershaw is tied for sixth on the team in home runs (OK, he’s only hit one, but still.) Zack Greinke is 1 for 4 with a walk.

Daily Distractions: Caving to the #whiff, like the rest of MLB

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There’s an episode of The Simpsons in which Krusty the Clown agreed to give away a free Krusty Burger if the United States won gold at certain events in the 1984 Olympics. When the Soviet Union boycotted the Games, Krusty stood to lose $44 million.

For some reason I was reminded of this episode when this came through my Twitter feed this morning:

CJ Wilson ad

Angels pitcher C.J. Wilson is a pitchman for Head & Shoulders’ hashtag-friendly “Season of the Whiff”.

You see, Procter & Gamble is donating $1 to the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) campaign every time a Major League Baseball player strikes out this season. To raise awareness of its Head & Shoulders shampoo brand, P&G is encouraging fans to tweet the hashtag #whiff along with the hashtag of your favorite team.

According to AdAge.com, Head & Shoulders spent $60 million in measured media last year, so MLB’s record strikeout rate probably won’t leave the company’s executives pulling their hair out like Krusty. Which is good, since bald shampoo executives can’t exactly offer a ringing endorsement of their product.

I’ll be here all week.
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Injury updates: Chris Capuano, Zack Greinke, Mark Ellis.

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Chris Capuano continued to throw Monday at Dodger Stadium and is expected to start for the Albuquerque Isotopes on Wednesday. It’s the only rehab start Capuano is expected to make before he is activated from the disabled list. The left-hander strained his left calf covering first base on April 16.

Zack Greinke threw off flat ground from approximately 90-100 feet Monday as he continued his rehab from a fractured left clavicle. The right-hander said he’s still “just a little bit” sore 16 days after undergoing surgery to have a stabilizing metal plate inserted in the area of the clavicle: “I’m a little achy here and there.”

Greinke hasn’t swung a bat yet, saying “it’s not worth the risk,” and even cracked a joke about his swing. “It was already bad.”

Second baseman Mark Ellis is no closer to playing in a game, or being placed on the disabled list, since straining his right quadriceps on Friday. Ellis jogged a little bit Monday, said Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, who’s willing to play short-handed for now.

“We’ve played short before,” Mattingly said. “You can do it. Sometimes you may get 10 games. We just need to be creative and be careful with players early in the game. You can’t burn guys.”

Reinstating Hanley Ramirez from the 15-day disabled list Monday gave the Dodgers an extra infielder off the bench for Monday night’s game against the Colorado Rockies.

With Ellis, Mattingly said, “it’s more of a medical decision than a baseball decision right now.”