Just How Good Has Kenley Jansen Been?

photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

He was off to a horrible start this season,  one so bad, that it looked like he wouldn’t be able to recover enough to make his stat line respectable.  All that caused by two or three rough outings in April and May that caused a demotion to the minor leagues.  However, his rebound to effectiveness has been remarkable.  Since June, Kenley Jansen is arguably the most successful relief pitcher in the game.

In his last 22 appearances dating back to June 18th Jansen has posted an ERA of 0.36.   His strikeouts per nine innings pitched is 15.32.  He has allowed only 6 hits and 10 walks during that same time span.  It could easily be argued that Jansen should be the closer, but Javy Guerra has been stellar in that department too.

Kenley Jansen's arm strength caught everyone's attention after he threw out numerous Dominican Republic base stealers in the 2009 World Baseball Classic for the Netherlands.  By 2010 he was converted to a pitcher.

The tandem of Jansen-Guerra could be amongst the best in the game and certainly is a welcome sight to Dodger fans that lost both potential closers (Broxton and Padilla) early in the year to injury.  With reports that Guerra is nursing a split fingernail that doesn’t appear to be healing, sliding Jansen into the closer’s role does not appear to be a major concern to the team.

Jansen’s irregular heartbeat problem back in July seems to have been corrected.  Let’s hope that he remains healthy for years to come because Kenley will be a vital piece to the Dodger’s future success.

And speaking of the future, with potential departures to several key players this year, as we look towards 2012, there could be some major roster changes that the blue crew will face next year.   Aaron Miles, Jamey Carroll, Tony Gwynn, Jon Garland, Vicente Padilla, Jonathan Broxton, Rod Barajas, Hiroki Kuroda and Casey Blake are not signed through next year.  Loney is up in the air with regards to being tendered a contract.

I tend to think that Miles returns, based on what I overheard him telling his Antioch, CA neighbors along the first base line prior to Friday night’s game.  (“Mattingly likes me, and the organization is happy with the year I’ve had,” he said).  Gwynn also will probably be offered a deal in the low 6 figure range.  But I see Carroll getting a deal elsewhere, Kuroda returning home to Japan and the others mentioned above are as good as gone.

With the pursestrings tied up due to the ownership fiasco, there isn’t a prayer of the Dodgers signing Albert Pujols to a worthy deal that would make him the highest paid player in the game and as much as I think Prince Fielder is a perfect fit, the money isn’t there with this ownership.  Making payroll in 2012 will again be on McCourt’s mind.

As long as Frank McCourt continues to hold the reigns of ownership, the Dodgers will field a team as if they are a small market club.  The boycott has shown McCourt that the fans won’t put up with the shenanigans, but it hasn’t done the trick in ousting the ownership.  I fear 2012 will be another sub par year.  But we should get to see the kids play unless Colletti goes out and signs the likes of Aaron Roward, Justin Miller, William Van Landingham and Shawon Dunstin.

Come to think of it, if Ned is still in charge, we probably won’t see some of the kids play.

Brief Thoughts from Last Nights Victory, On to .500!

It's a grainy photo.  I took it on my I-phone last night from my seats thirteen rows up from the field down the third base line.  However, the way I see it, the picture tells the story of last night's game.

Kemp takes off as Lincecum delivers a pitch to Juan Rivera.  The Bison is safe at second for his 38th stolen base on the year and shortly afterwords, he's singled home by Juan Rivera to tie the game.

Yesterday lived up to it's billing.  Kershaw and Lincecum were magnificent.  I thought Mattingly made the right moves in the last two innings to outmanage Bochy.  And that was the difference in the ballgame.  He played "small ball" having runners stealing bases,  laying down the sacrifice bunts, running on contact from third base with the infield in. Squeezing out two runs in the final two innings against a formidable Lincecum and Casilla.

**********************************

It doesn't matter that he's 22 now.  Taking in the game with my son is always special.  This year marks the 20th year that we have gone out together to see the Dodgers.  Precious moments that will always mean a lot to me.  A tradition that my dad shared with me.  Nice to enjoy a win together.

On to .500 with tongiht's game!  

A Rare Double-Dip Today, Looking Back - We Always Were Playing the Reds

Today’s doubleheader against the Nationals got me to thinking about the old days and the scheduled double headers that were so common up until the end of the 1970s.  There was nothing like sitting in the sun baked stands knowing that the Dodgers were going to give you two games for the price of one.  In the 70’s the Cincinnati Reds seemed to always have a home double header scheduled against the Dodgers each year.   And it always seemed to be played in that cookie cutter generic ballpark of theirs with the plastic grass and dirt cut outs around the bases.  I hated the look of Riverfront Stadium and that recording they'd constantly be playing of the trumpet out of the "F-Troop" episode.

They were always facing the Dodgers in double headers.  Cincinnati Reds threesome of Rose, Bench and Morgan

Those were tense contests as the rivalry against the Big Red Machine was quite heated.  There was a memorable 1973 double-dip in Cincinnati that was really the beginning of the end for the Dodgers that season.  It was July 1st and the Dodgers, with their new infield of Garvey, Lopes, Russell and Cey intact, held a 9 game lead over the Reds for the division lead.  Heading into the 9th inning, Los Angeles held a 3-1 lead.  Hal King hit a pinch hit three run homer off of Don Sutton to win game one with two outs in the ninth.  In game two, the Reds won in the bottom of the 10th as Joe Morgan scored on  a base hit by Tony Perez off of reliever Charlie Hough.   By September the Reds caught and passed that young Dodger team to win the diviison by 3.5 games. 

Hal King's pinch homer off of Don Sutton on July 1, 1973 defeated the Dodgers in game 1 of a classic double-header between the Dodgers and the Reds

The Dodgers played a doubleheader in Cincinnati in 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978 and 1980.  The Reds played a double header in Los Angeles in 1970, 1972, and 1973.  In a 11 season span (1970-80), 25% of the double headers that the Dodgers participated in were against Cincinnati. 

Blowing up Riverfront Stadium (named "Cinergy Field" by then).

Amazingly, schedule makers had no mercy on teams back then.  Pitching staffs were taxed and in the dog days of summer.  Let me give you an example.

In 1974, the first place Dodgers were scheduled to go on a road trip that started on June 28th and ended on July 10th.  It was a road trip swing starting in San Francisco and continued on to Cincinnati, Montreal and ended in Philadelphia. A thirteen day trip in cities dealing with the sweltering summer heat.  13 days, 15 games.  There was a scheduled double header in Cincinnati on July 3rd and then two days later, another double dip at Montreal, for a total of 5 games in three days.

How did they do?  The Dodgers split both double headers and won the game in between.  How did Walt Alston juggle his pitching staff?  He inserted two spot starters that had been working for the most part that season in long relief.  Al Downing and Geoff Zahn.

A quick glance at baseball-reference.com box scores shows that the Dodgers played the following number of double headers each year between 1970 and 1987):

1970 - 7 (3 at home)

1971 - 6 (3 at home)

1972 - 7 (2 at home)

1973 - 4 (1 at home)

1974 - 4 (1 at home)

1975 - 2 (1 at home)

1976 - 5 (2 at home)

1977 - 3 (2 at home)

1978 - 4 (1 at home)

1979 - 0

1980 - 3 (1 at home)

1981 - 0

1982 - 2 (1 at home)

1983 - 4 (0 at home)

1984 - 0

1985 - 3 (0 at home)

1986 - 2 (1 at home)

1987 - 3 (1 at home)

I didn’t continue on due to time constraints, but you get the gist of things.  Major League baseball began to taper off the amount of scheduled double headers by the early 80’s.  Those double headers from 1982 to 87 are primarily caused by rainouts.

So today’s two games take me back to a time when it was clearly understood that the baseball season was a true marathon.  Splits would be viewed as a disappointment.  Sweeps with euforia.  Losing two was a colossal failure.  Here’s to sweeping up the Nation’s capital.

************************************************

Here is a record that will never be broken:

Yogi Berra holds the major league record for catching both ends of a double header 117 times.  Even in the 70’s, it was common to give the starting catcher one of the two games off when the twin-bills came around.  Yogi accomplished quite a feat.  There probably hasn’t even been 117 double headers played in the last 15 years by all teams combined.

Dodger Relief Core - Quite a Feat Tonight

For a good laugh, check out the Big Blue Wrecking Crew Board game thread of tonight’s Dodger win in Washington.  They did it in Jim Tracy rhetorical question language.  Did I find it entertaining? Most definitely.  Was Jim Tracy the greatest quote machine to ever sit in the Dodger managerial seat?  Well, at least since Tommy Lasorda.

Clik here to read it

It was a good thing for the Blue Crew that Strasburg was on a strict pitch count.  The man had awesome stuff and probably could have gone the distance.  56 pitches through 5 innings is not a big work load, but with that valuable arm, you can hardly blame the Nats for playing it safe and removing him after five.  I’m hoipeful that the Dodgers see some more of that Nationals relief core before this series ends.

Dodger closer Javy Guerra

What almost went unnoticed was the 17 strikeouts served up by 6 Dodger pitchers tonight.  That included the first six outs recorded by Guerrier, Kuo and Jansen.  They were all punch outs.  The Dodger relief core has really been doing its job during the past two weeks. Jansen is looking particularly good.  Guerra is turning into Don Stanhouse from 1979, but getting the job done.  Then there is Hong-Chih Kuo.  

To give you a feel of how poor Kuo’s season started, the lefty has actually lowered his ERA to 9.14.  He would need to pitch 28 and 1/3 consecutive innings in order to get his ERA under 4.00.  Such is life for a relief pitcher that only goes one inning at a time.  One bad outing skews the stats horribly, a few bad outings can make things impossible for him.  If we look at Kuo’s recent outings, we’ll find that he has gone four consecutive outings without giving up a run.

Looking Forward to Friday

I have tickets to Friday nights Dodgers-Giants matchup at AT&T Park.  If all goes as planned, it’ll be Kershaw vs. Lincecum.  That is a matchup that is something we may be talking about years from now as we do about when  Koufax and Marichal faced each other. (Which happened only three times in the 60’s).  I equate the K & L matchup in a similar vein.  We'll be talking about them 30 years from now, when the two Cy Young Award winners went against each other head to head.  Here's hoping that the boys feel motivated to oust the Giants from second place in the division.

Well, It Was Nice While it Lasted

We knew it couldn’t last forever right?  Things looked splendid as late as Sunday in Atlanta in the 7th inning.  A Dodger 3-0 lead, Kershaw on the mound, 11 out of 12 games won, and then, the wheels fell off the rally train.

Hiroki Kuroda took the loss today against Washington

The Dodgers, with two consecutive losses will face Steven Strasburg on Tuesday night in a game that the entire nation will probably be watching.  Here’s hoping the they are able to break out of their mini slump and right the ship.

So with the season essentially done,  it is my hope that the Dodgers can key in on reaching some goals.  

1st, finishing over .500.  In order for them to do that, the Dodgers need to finish with a record of 13-9 or better.  This is completely doable if they don’t let this little losing skid affect them in a big way.

2nd, finishing ahead of the San Francisco Giants for second place in the division.  This will require the Dodgers to take the head to head series’ against the defending champs, who have performed horribly in the stretch.

3rd, get Clayton Kershaw his 20 wins this year.  Kershaw has 4 starts left and will need to win three of them to reach that win total.

4th, set the table for Matt Kemp in helping him bolster all of his offensive stats.  Batters before Kemp are going to need to get on base.  A lot comes into play to assist Kemp in this quest, but I’m hopeful that they can work some magic in these final three weeks.  Kemp certainly deserves the award in my opinion.  The claim that he shouldn’t win it because of the Dodgers record is ridiculous.  Can you imagine that their record would be if he wasn’t in the lineup?

The Manager Wants a Big Bat

Don Mattingly stated to Dylan Hernandez that the Dodgers will need a big bat for next years lineup.  I’m hoping that he knows something we all don’t.  There are two first basemen that will be on the market next season that would look great in Dodger blue, Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder.  Both will demand salaries outside of the Dodger budget, but one can dream, right?  Perhaps the friendship of Kemp and Fielder will play a role in such a dream becoming reality.

Dee Gordon - No "Flash" in the Pan

If Usain Bolt wore baseball spikes, he'd look like him.  He is what Herb Washington was supposed to be as a baseball player.  You'd expect his name to surface every 4 years in cities like Athens, Sydney and Beijing.  He is the type of athlete that Phil Knight would name a wing of a building after in Niketown, Oregon.  He's the fastest man in baseball, and very few know it.  But they will soon and they definitely know it now in Atlanta.

Dee Gordon is certainly the Gordon that should be named "Flash."  I think he could outrun his dad's fastball.  He probably could sprint to first after fielding grounders and arrive faster than his throw would.  He turns singles into doubles and doubles into triples.   He is exciting and flashy.  His enthusiasm is contagious.  He's a 23 year old 145 lb. shortstop that is proving that he belongs in the Majors.

He's a tweeting fiend and as fun a player to watch as there is in the major leagues.  Here's to a prosperous MLB career Dee, and to an off season where you can bulk up a bit more to make you less injury prone.

This final video of tonight's winning run is something I watched with awe.  It was a shallow fly ball and a relatively good throw from Michael Bourn, and the play wasn't even close.  Dee Gordon is the fastest man alive!

  

  

Playing With Enthusiasm, Sellers and Gordon Bring Something Special to the Dodgers

Justin Sellers and Dee Gordon celebrate as they score following James Loney's 3-run double

It’s a different team. A team with energy.  A team that’s playing aggressive and having fun.  It’s a team that is unified and on the same page.  They’re winning, and with style.  Dee Gordon and Justin Sellers bring an enthusiasm that hasn’t been seen with the Dodgers for a long time.  Javy Guerra struts out there in the ninth inning with the confidence of a savvy veteran.  James Loney is hitting like the player we all hoped he'd develop into.  Matt Kemp is playing with an MVP swagger.  Heck, even Hong Chih-Kuo went out tonight and pitched like the left handed stopper of years past.

James Loney is locked in

As the Dodgers won their 10th game in 11 attempts, they now have moved within 3 games of the break-even .500 mark.  It was almost as if they had to give up on the season to start playing with confidence.  Whatever it took, the change is remarkable.

Justin Sellers, as intense as they come

On a night where Chad Billingsley didn’t have much command of anything, that 5-0 deficit was something that these gritty Dodgers saw as no obstacle.  They chipped away little by little and slowly came back.

There was nothing this season more exciting than the 7th inning of tonight's game.  The Dodgers rallied to score 5 runs and overtake the lead, with solid contributions by the kids, Sellers and Gordon.  Then in the bottom of the inning, that same rookie tandem teamed up for a spectacular double play with a little bit of charity from second base umpire, Tony Randazzo.

Dodger dugout celebrates after Sellers and Gordon turn two to end the inning, note the sheepish grin of Jamey Carroll.  These guys are having fun.

So I sit here in front of my plasma TV watching the 8th inning of the Giants-Diamondbacks game as the defending champs lead 5-2.  I have mixed feelings.  Deep down inside, I know we’re out of it, but my heart still believes that the Dodgers can continue this run and pull off a miracle.  Then my brain tells me, “You fool, root for Arizona, the division is out of reach, but we can take the Gnats for second place.”

Second place is the first loser though.  I have never been happy with second place and never will be.  So until the Dodgers are mathematically eliminated, I’ll hope that the top team gets knocked off.  Yes, I’m rooting for those ugly orange uniforms.  And MAN! They are ugly!