If Hanley Ramirez wanted to turn the winter worries about his glove into idle speculation, he’s not off to a good start.
Playing his first game at shortstop in more than four months, Ramirez committed an error in the eighth inning that cost his team two runs in an eventual 6-4 loss to Puerto Rico at the Caribbean Series today.
Eight Dodgers will participate in the World Baseball Classic, according to preliminary rosters announced today.
Mexico: 1B Adrian Gonzalez, 3B Luis Cruz, SS Alfredo Amezaga.
Venezuela: RP Ronald Belisario
Dominican Republic: SS Hanley Ramirez
Spain: RP Paco Rodriguez
Australia: RP Peter Moylan
Italy: INF Nick Punto
Moylan and Amezaga signed minor-league deals with an invitation to spring training. The other six players are currently on the 40-man roster.
Dodgers Spanish-language color commentator Fernando Valenzuela will be the pitching coach for Team Mexico, a Dodgers spokesperson confirmed, even though he isn’t listed on Mexico’s roster online.
Former Dodgers outfielder Karim Garcia is listed on Mexico’s roster. Former Dodger Andruw Jones, a native of Curaçao, is playing for The Netherlands. Adrian Gonzalez’s brother, who finished last season in Japan, is also playing for Team Mexico.
Rosters must be finalized on Feb. 20.
How’s this for a rumor: The Dodgers are kicking the tires on a soon-to-be 38-year-old third baseman who might be retired by the time spring training rolls around.
Scott Rolen is a free agent and a better defensive third baseman — at least historically — than Hanley Ramirez and Luis Cruz. So there’s the basis for a rumor. But …
The Dodgers’ 40-man roster is full, so you’d have to make room for Rolen somewhere (looking at you, 10 infielders) unless he is willing to sign a minor-league contract with a spring training invite. Given the opportunity to rule out retirement, Rolen hasn’t ruled out retirement. The Cincinnati Enquirer (click on the last link) reports that there isn’t much room for Rolen on the Reds’ roster either.
Rolen is represented by the same agency as A.J. Ellis, Brandon League and Aaron Harang, but the Dodgers reportedly haven’t approached agents Seth and Sam Levinson about Rolen.
The 1997 National League Rookie of the Year, Rolen batted .245/.318/.398 in 92 games last season. He missed nearly a month with a strained left shoulder last season, and only played 65 games in 2011 due to shoulder and back problems.
Luis Cruz doesn’t plan on playing third base the when he suits up for the Culiacan Tomateros of the Mexican Winter League. “Probably,” he said Monday at Dodger Stadium, “second base, outfield.”
Is this a sign that Dodgers are trying to turn their emerging everyday third baseman into a utility player? Hardly.
“I try to play the position I didn’t play in the States,” Cruz said. “It’s better for me so I can play more positions. … In winter ball I like to play one game at third, one game at second base, then if they ask me to go play the outfield in the middle of the game, I go to the outfield.”
It’s a nice plan if it works in Cruz’s favor, which it did last year. The Dodgers used him mostly in the outfield in spring training, Cruz did well, and when he got off to a hot start for Triple-A Albuquerque, he got called up and became a fixture at third — the Dodgers’ greatest position of need, not Cruz’s primary position in Albuquerque.
This season, it’s a different story. Continue reading
Bobby Abreu‘s first career pinch-hit home run provided the final two runs of the Dodgers’ 8-0 win over the Colorado Rockies. After the game, manager Don Mattingly was asked if he’d do more to get Abreu into the lineup.
With Shane Victorino, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier all healthy? No.
But there’s something to be said for the fourth act of Abreu’s season. Let’s call Act 1 “Anaheim,” Act 2 “Starter for the Dodgers,” Act 3 “Albuquerque” and Act 4 “Pinch hitter.” All 19 of Abreu’s plate appearances in September have come as a pinch-hitter. Add in his last four at-bats in July before the Dodgers designated him for assignment, and Abreu has made 23 straight plate appearances as a pinch hitter.
You can put a price tag on a feel-good story.
The Dodgers announced today that Luis Cruz replica jerseys ($110) will be on sale in the Left Field Tent at Dodger Stadium, and that Cruz t-shirts ($28) will be arriving by mid-week for sale as well.
The significance of this bit of news, of course, is that these perks usually aren’t extended to players who began the season as spring-training invitees on minor-league contracts.
Just to recap Cruz’s recent journey to the merchandise racks:
It’s been true for some time that the Dodgers are in the market for a starting pitcher, a left-handed reliever, and a corner infielder. Scratch Carlos Lee’s name off the list of available players, though general manager Ned Colletti doesn’t necessarily believe that Lee’s trade to the Miami Marlins last week is a sure sign the market is heating up.
“For the sellers, there’s never a sense of urgency until you get to the 31st,” Colletti said, referring to the August 31 trade deadline. “The seller’s risk is injury. They can wait it out right until the bell.”
Injuries? The Dodgers have plenty of those.
Continue reading
Tempers flared in a loss to the Brewers in Glendale, and the Dodgers rapped out 11 hits to beat the Cubs in Mesa, in the team’s final day of split-squad action in spring training.
Both benches were warned in the sixth inning of a 9-4 loss to Milwaukee after Dodgers starter Chris Capuano threw a pitch behind Ryan Braun. That followed a series of hit batters –one (Norichika Aoki) by Capuano and two (Jerry Hairston Jr. and Juan Rivera) by Milwaukee pitchers earlier in the game.
That was the end of the drama, however, and the Brewers scored eight runs over the final three innings to erase a 4-2 deficit.
Capuano allowed two hits, one (earned) run on a solo shot by Braun, walked one and struck out seven in six innings. His Cactus League ERA stands at 2.75. Matt Guerrier relieved him in the seventh inning and gave up a 3-run home run to the first batter he faced, Brooks Conrad, in his first game since March 11.
Guerrier was actually pitching his third game in five days, including minor-league games, and afterward declared himself free of any back pain and healthy to start the season.
“As far as I am concerned, (the injury) was over a week ago,” he said.
The Brewers’ Carlos Gomez hit a three-run home run off losing pitcher Jamey Wright in the seventh inning. Todd Coffey gave up three hits and four runs — none earned, thanks to a Jake Lemmerman error –in two-thirds of an inning. His spring ERA ballooned to 7.71.
Andre Ethier doubled and homered in four at-bats, giving him 15 extra-base hits among his 18 this spring.
Continue reading
The Dodgers exercised an option on Jerry Sands today and assigned him to their minor-league camp, reducing the major-league camp roster to 39.
Sands had been hitting .158, his sixth hit in 38 at-bats serving as the game-winning RBI single in yesterday’s 4-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
“More than anything, we’ve got to let Jerry in our minds, let him settle down and get his swing back together, let him get to work and just get ready to play,” manager Don Mattingly said.
After Monday’s game, Sands admitted he’s been a bit off while trying to make adjustments to his swing during camp. Visibly, his swing didn’t look the same as it did last season with the Dodgers, when he hit .253 (50-for-198) with four home runs and 26 RBIs.
“Small things can throw big things off,” he said. “Going up to the plate worried about things going on with my swing and not worried about picking up pitches – it’s tougher than it looks up there. I’ve just kind of been out of it so far. I’ve got to get back to seeing some pitches.”
Now he’ll get that chance. Mattingly said that Sands is still the team’s “best option” in the long run to come off the bench and spell Andre Ethier or James Loney against left-handed pitchers.
“We just need to simplify things, get him back to work, get him out of the thought of this team right now,” Mattingly said. “Get him back to where he puts himself back together, and have a shot to be able to help us when he comes back.”
With Sands out, several players are still in the running for the final position player spot on opening day. Mattingly specifically mentioned infielders Justin Sellers, Luis Cruz and Josh Fields. Sellers is on the 40-man roster; Cruz and Fields would need to be added.
“We don’t know who it’s going to be,” Mattingly said.
Additionally, the Dodgers placed Blake Hawksworth on the 60-day disabled list, and officially announced the signing of Jamey Wright and added him to the 40-man roster.
Continue reading
The Dodgers salvaged a point in the standings before an announced crowd of 13,655 — a Cactus League record — at Camelback Ranch. [box score]
Dodgers right-hander Aaron Harang pitched four interesting innings; the stage was set when a whipping wind blowing out to left field picked up prior to the game. Brandon Belt benefited when his fly ball to left turned into a two-run homer that gave the Giants a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning.
But those were the only runs Harang allowed, thanks in part to a first-inning double play started by Justin Sellers at third base. Harang walked none, struck out four, and allowed seven hits in his third appearance of the spring.
The Dodgers got a run back in the bottom of the first. Sellers led off with a double and came around to score on a single by Juan Rivera. That was the only run the Dodgers’ lineup — counting only Rivera, Matt Kemp, James Loney among the projected opening-day starters — could produce against journeyman left-hander Brian Burres in three innings.
Kemp singled in Tim Federowicz in the fifth inning and Luis Cruz homered (to left field, naturally) in the sixth to put the Dodgers ahead 3-2.
In the eighth inning, Gregor Blanco doubled off minor-league pitcher Shawn Tolleson and scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly by Belt.
That accounted for all the scoring which, naturally, barely accounted for the story in the Dodgers’ third tie game of the Cactus League (8-4-3).