06 August 2009

Stay Thirsty, My Dodgers

Schmidt's confrontation against pitcher Braden Looper with two runners on and two outs in the second inning was typical of his first three innings of work. Schmidt got the first two strikes, then nibbled to 3-2, then realizing the horrible folly of perhaps walking the pitcher, he grooved a fat pitch down the middle that Looper ripped to left field, where Pierre barely made a semi-leaping catch. Schmidt looked completely overmatched ( against a pitcher! ) but still more or less got the job done, and that's how it was through three innings. Then in the fourth it all came apart. It was just a matter of time until the Brewers broke through.

Schmidt will get at least one more start, and he may get several more after that, but it's just a matter of time before he is bumped from the rotation as well. To me Stults seems like the obvious candidate, and McDonald and Elbert wouldn't be bad choices either. I'd even give Weaver another shot.

I'm worried about the offense. One 17 run game doesn't impress me. Well, actually, it does impress me a lot. What I mean is that I don't take it as a sign that there is nothing wrong with the offense. It just seems a little too easy for opposing pitchers to have good games against the Dodgers lately. But I want to give this thing another week before hitting a panic button. If the Dodgers can score 5 runs in 3 out of 4 games this weekend against Atlanta then I'll be happy.

Game 108 Unfair Loss Shares ( Dodgers )

Schmidt -- 1
Kemp -- 1
Ethier -- 1

Game 108 Unfair Win Shares ( Brewers )

Braun -- 1
Looper -- 1
Lopez -- 1

1 comment:

Dusto_Magnifico said...

I've believed for a while now that the Dodgers offense was overrated. The huge lack of power just makes us weak to overmatched pitching. We just need one more real bat to replace Loney at first.