Tommy Lasorda will throw the ceremonial first pitch prior to Game 1 of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium on Friday. The special advisor to the chairman turned 87 on Sept. 22. Singer/actress/author Wynonna Judd will perform the National Anthem.
One more frivolity: The Dodgers will be serving something called a “Playoff Dog”: An all-beef hot dog on a Pretzel Roll topped with Pastrami, pickle spears and Oktoberfest mustard.
Tommy Lasorda is going to be a guest instructor at the Dodgers’ annual adult baseball camp in November. (Getty Images)
Former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda and former National League umpire Bruce Froemming have been added as instructors at the 53rd Los Angeles Dodgers Adult Baseball Camp at Historic Dodgertown – Vero Beach, Florida, from Nov. 9-15.
Instructors scheduled to attend include: Ron Cey, Tommy Davis, Steve Garvey, Mickey Hatcher, Rick Monday, Steve Sax, Don Sutton, Maury Wills and Steve Yeager. Of those nine former Dodgers, all have played in at least one World Series for the Dodgers.
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MLB announced the representatives for all 30 teams at the upcoming amateur draft, June 5 in Seacaucus, New Jersey. Tommy Lasorda will reprise his role representing the Dodgers along with longtime coach and former pither Charlie Hough.
The first day of the draft includes the first round, Competitive Balance Round A, the second round and Competitive Balance Round B. The second day of the draft — sans television, sans many celebrity baseball representatives — will include rounds three through 10, conducted on a conference call through MLB headquarters in Manhattan. Rounds 11 through 40 will be held June 7.
Infielder Erisbel Arruebarrena is batting .136 for the Dodgers’ Double-A affiliate.
Erisbel Arruebarrena provided a nice distraction during spring training. Reporters covering the Dodgers spent countless minutes rolling our “R”s, trying to pronounce Arruebarrena, figuring out how many “U”s were in the name, and mostly waiting for the 24-year-old shortstop to arrive in the U.S.
When he finally did get his visa and arrive in spring training on March 13, the Cuban shortstop was shuffled to the Dodgers’ minor-league camp. Then the major-leaguers left for Australia. Hardly anyone got to see the kid play baseball.
Nearly two months later there he is, taking up a space on the 40-man roster and $25 million of the Dodgers’ payroll over the next five years. Ever since Arruebarrena reported to Double-A Chattanooga, he’s proceeded to bat .136/.188/.220, which hardly seems to justify a $25 million contract. Was this signing a mistake? Was rolling my “R”s one big time-killerrrrrr?
A pro scout who recently watched Arruebarrena in the Southern League chimed in with this report.
I’d say Erisbel’s current offensive numbers are an accurate representation of his abilities – he has a long/loopy swing, almost like a golf swing that struggles to make contact with any type of pitch. He has serious recognition problems vs. AA-effective secondary stuff, turning his back early & often vs. almost all curveballs/sliders. Those things combined lead to rare contact on mistake fastballs only, or if a pitcher makes a bad decision to throw him the same loopy curveball three times in a row.
That said, him at SS is sometimes awesome to watch; way above instincts, really easy/super-quick receive-and-throw actions deep in the hole or going up the middle with a really good feel to complete very tough plays. He did flash a couple mental errors, like dropping a popup or ball bouncing off his glove with the infield in. Even with the bat how it is now I’d like to have him in my organization, because his floor is first-division middle infield-utility. As he gets comfortable over the next couple seasons in the US I think his feel/baseball IQ will improve a bit/less mental errors on both sides. I see him as a mid-.500s OPS guy but with major league top-5 shortstop defense.
Make of that what you will. It’s the most up-to-date scouting report we have on a player we know little about, perhaps the least known member of the Dodgers’ 40-man roster.
Some bullet points for a Europe Day:
Continue reading “Daily Distractions: A scout’s take on Erisbel Arruebarrena.” »
Dodgers special advisor Tommy Lasorda has a strong take on the saga of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
In an interview with WPBF in West Palm Beach, Florida, the former manager weighed in on the comments that led Sterling to be banned for life by NBA commissioner Adam Silver. Sterling was tape-recorded telling his mistress, V. Stiviano, that “it bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people.”
From WPBF.com:
“I’ve been a friend of that guy’s for 30 years,” he said. “It doesn’t surprise me that he said those things. And he shouldn’t have said it. He just hurt himself by talking too much and doing things he shouldn’t be doing.”
Lasorda also shared an unsolicited opinion on Sterling’s silly rabbit, V. Stiviano.
“And I don’t wish that girl any bad luck but I hope she gets hit with a car,” he said.