If we’re going to continue to bat Alfredo 8th. Why not just move him down to 9th to become the unofficial lead-off man?

Craig, I’m going to have spotty access to a computer for the upcoming homestand, here are my standing picks:

Dodgers:
13,500
HanRam
Fish: No errors

Padres:
20,100
Hammer
Hanley at least 1 R, 1 SB, 1 H, 1 RBI, 1 BB

Brewers:
12,800
Helms
Bullpen: W

Just a Dodgers fan dropping by to give you a quick update on our team. The Dodgers have been under .500 for most of the season and currently sit one game under the .500 level, even after sweeping the Rockies three in a row at home this weekend. The Dodgers main problem has been scoring runs. They’ve had a few big outbursts, like saturday’s game vs the Rockies where the Dodgers scored 10 runs in the bottom of the first inning. But for the most part they’ve had trouble scoring runs. The main culprits of the sleepy offense have been Andruw Jones who has a .522 OPS in over 80 at bats. Juan Pierre and Nomar Garciappara have also combined for an OPS in the low .600s in over 80 at bats. Shortstop and leadoff hitter Rafael Furcal has been the hottest Dodger hitter by far with an OPS of 1.042 in 102 at bats. LF-Andre Ethier and C-Russell Martin have held their own but niether has been spectacular.

The Dodgers will be throwing out Derek Lowe, Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda against the Marlins. Lowe who is a ground ball pitcher has been his solid self and sports a FIP of 3.34. Lowe will get a few strikeouts, won’t walk too many batters, nor give up too many homeruns, but oh those ground balls. Billingsley has been dominating but has had problems with his control in the early season, often building his pitch count to levels that get him pulled a little earlier from games than most Dodger fans would like. With Billingsley, you have to look beyond his current W/L record of 0-4. Billingsley has a K/9 of 13.94 which is off the charts for a starter. It clearly won’t be sustainable, but it’s impressive nonetheless. Billingsley’s bad luck comes from a BABIP against of .456 with a LD% of only 18.5%. Basically, Billingsley is seeing a lot of ground balls and fly balls find holes. Eventually, his BABIP will regress closer to the .300 level and Billingsley’s name will once again become synonomous with “Ace”. You can think of Kuroda as a Derek Lowe-lite. He will be around the plate a lot, as he tends to pitch to contact and has a deceptive windup. Kuroda also relies upon the ground ball out and keeping the ball in the park. When he can do those things he does well. If Kuroda gets a lot of ground ball outs and doesn’t walk many, he will be tough to beat as well.

Amazingly, the Dodgers have had a different starting lineup every game. Atleast this was the case heading into the Rockies weekend series. The Dodgers had some infield injury issues that have persisted since spring training. The Dodgers lost 3B-Andy LaRoche, 3B-Nomar Garciappara and 2B/3B-Tony Abreu during spring training. Nomar came back briefly before getting sent back to the DL. In their place rookie Blake DeWitt has played a decent 3B and held his own at the plate. The Dodgers outfield has been a game of musical chairs up to this point. Ethier, Jones, Kemp and Pierre are all seeing time in the outfield. Pierre, who started in CF and has an albatross of a contract has been demoted to part-time LFer. Ethier is the main LFer and sees time in RF when Kemp sits. Kemp sees some time in CF when the slumping Jones sits. Dodger fans are happy that Pierre is out of CF, where his rubber arm have seen runner after runner advance an extra base or score because of it’s weakness. Jones, Kemp and Ethier all have very strong arms in the outfield. When Pierre does get a start in LF, he is usually batting 8th instead of leadoff or in the #2 hole that he sucked dry last year. Matt Kemp has had some struggles at the plate. He has Andruw Jones-disease, where he often goes fishing for breaking stuff out of the zone and can look real bad on some at bats. But if you make a mistake with Kemp, watch out he can hit the ball as hard and run the bases as fast as any in the major leagues. Dodger fans have nicknamed him the “Bison” because of this.

At my Dodger Sims site, I run my simulator a couple thousand times for each NL West game to come up with a win probability, so you will be seeing a win probability for each of the next three games.
Good luck.
vr, Xeifrank

Obviously, if the Marlins continue their winning ways, they will need to address their starting pitching through possible trades and available free agents. The Herald made a side comment in yesterdays paper about Roy Oswalt. I was wondering if anyone knew his current situtation with the Astros and if they are/arn’t trying to deal him. I know he’s struggled of late. I wonder who the Marlins would even have to offer.

12900
Jacobs
Miller – quality start
Quality Start

12654

jacobs

jacobs: 3+ H, 1+ RBI