Another HUGE Mistake

I want to publicly thank Bill Plaschke for his article in today's LA Times, in which he states that now that venerable ex-Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley has come out against the evil Frank McCourt and has said they need to go, that, regardless of the outcome of the trial, the Dodgers are no longer his to keep. Plaschke should be fitted for spandex tights and a cape. If he's out of shape in any way, and the superhero garb doesn't flatter him, I'll train him at Golds Venice for free. Bravo, Bill! And Bravo, Peter!

The Dodgers are so bad that the offensive ineptitude perpetrated by their so-called core of Kemp, Ethier and Loney has spread to guys who can actually hit a little, like Gibbons, Theriot and Furcal. Matt Kemp should be sat down the rest of the year. Why play him? He's shown what he can do. Not much. He's arrogant and lazy. He must go. Loney, too, must go. Ethier needs to learn to hit lefties and stop pouting. Rumor is his knee is bugging him. Not sure I believe it. You see, folks, Major League Baseball teams have networks of advanced scouts that attend various games and whose jobs are to find players' weaknesses and exploit them. So, maybe Kemp, Ethier and Loney were solid players for a while, but the league has adjusted to them. The mark of a truly good player is his ability to adjust to the adjustments made against him. If you're truly a great ballplayer, you'll figure out a way to always be one step ahead of the scouts or your game/approach will be diverse and/or simple enough to minimize your exploitable weaknesses and overcome any adjustments that opposing pitchers will make against you. However, when a player and his coaching staff fail to come up with an approach to counteract those adjustments, that player's career tends to go south. Matt Kemp's career is already on a downward slide for that very reason. He has too many exploitable flaws. Loney, who's hitting the weakest .276 I've seen in many moons, is also one of those players without a plan. And, lefty pitchers have certainly found the answer for Andre Eithier, who will soon become a platoon player if he doesn't figure it out. Russell Martin? Career over as far as I'm concerned. So, when asked the question, "why were they so good the last couple of years and now they suck?" The answer is, the league made adjustments to them and they were not good enough to overcome those adjustments. The great ones always do. The not-so-great ones don't, and that's how we find out who's great and who's not. With no Manny in the middle to protect them from pitcher's exploiting their weaknesses, Kemp, Loney, Ethier? Not so great, as it turns out.

Now, let's talk Don Mattingly. Thankfully, the great Joe Torre is stepping down, it's just been announced, and none too soon as far as this blogger is concerned. The obvious choice for his replacement has been sitting in the Dodger dugout. Don Mattingly? No fkn' way. Tim Wallach. Tim managed their Triple A team in Albuquerque and he is the clear choice to come in and succeed Joe Torre. We need to get rid of the entire Torre regime, (except we should hang on to Larry Bowa.) Wallach reminds us of a Mike Scioscia. We already blew the opportunity to hang on to Scioscia. Are the Dodgers going to make the same mistake twice? Don Mattingly has proven he's certainly not much of a hitting coach. He's never managed at any level except one game where Torre got tossed and he actually blew the game by inadvertently making 2 trips to the mound on one trip. Tim Wallach has proven himself, the players love him and he may have the ability to turn this thing around, especially if there's new and vital ownership. He's evidently not too easy on the players like Torre is, he's sharp when it comes to in-game situations and he apparently knows how to handle a pitching staff. Mattingly, meanwhile, isn't even on my short list. Here, by the way, is my short list:
1) Wallach
2) Bobby Valentine
3) Larry Bowa
4) Jim Riggleman
5) Lou Pinella
6) Fredi Gonzalez

What an awful, awful year for Dodger fans. And we have Mattingly and company to look forward to for next year. It's bleak. When will there once again be good news about our once beloved Blue?