Thursday, May 30, 2013

Here, Puiggy Puiggy?

The 4-3 loss to the Angels wasn't the worst part of last night's game. Rather, it was Matt Kemp pulling himself out of the game late due to a strained hamstring:

The Dodgers held their breath Wednesday night. They weren’t sure what else to do.

All they knew for certain was, Matt Kemp injured his right hamstring. Kemp and hamstring equaled nothing but bad news last year.

And although this is the other leg, and they won’t know the severity of his injury until after an MRI scheduled for Thursday, they knew it was bad news. They just weren’t certain how bad.

Dodgers vice president of medical services, Stan Conte, told Mattingly it was a mild strain. Still…

“I guess I shouldn’t say it, but anytime you hear the dreaded hamstring word, usually it lasts a little bit,” Mattingly said. “But Stan was saying it was mild. Hopefully Matt caught himself before he got it good.”

That was hopefully the good news for the Dodgers. Kemp injured the hamstring in the seventh inning Wednesday night chasing a Mike Trout double into the right-field cap.

So if Kemp is out for a while, who might play left field? Hmmm...

If Kemp was only going to be out a few days, they could try to get by with Skip Schumaker for a while, or even Andre Ethier.

“We wouldn’t try to play Shoe out there every day,” said Manager Don Mattingly. “If it’s a couple-day thing, then we can get through.”

But if Kemp lands on the DL, the Dodgers need someone who can play center field every day, and he’s not on the 25-man roster. And probably not the 40-man.

At triple-A Albuquerque, the center field choices are not exactly appealing: Matt Angle (.298 batting, .440 slugging), Tony Gwynn Jr. (.288, .360) and Elian Herrera (.304, .403). And none are on the 40-man roster.

At double-A Chattanooga, there is the heralded Yasiel Puig and Joc Pederson.

Puig has all the intrigue, the Cuban man-child who tore it up this spring (.517 batting, .828, 22, slugging) and became a camp sensation. But Puig has played only two games in center for Chattanooga, and the Dodgers are concerned about his maturity.

Lets get through the MRI first (join the Sue Falsone club, Matt!). Then we'll see if we start calling "suey".

11 comments:

Hideo Nomo said...

Left field?

Steve Sax said...

I'm listening to a Muzak version of train's Hey Soul Sister. Which just followed one of Katy Perry's Firework.

I may have to go on the SoSG DL with bleeding ears

MR.F said...

When will we get results of MRI?

Paul said...

Not sure why they just don't call Gwynn up. He can play center and while he doesn't hit much it isn't like Matt was hitting anything anyways.

Paul said...

I know Spanky wishes we still had Jerry Sands.

MR.F said...

More on the gif/jif thing:

https://twitter.com/ppppolls/status/340149276577501184

Dusty Baker's Toothpick said...

@Paul is right. We just need someone to catch the ball in CF. Replacing Kemp's 2013 offensive production won't take a whole lot.

Steve Sax said...

@Mr F: so is it "Puig", or "Puij"?

Hideo Nomo said...

Sax, good idea for a Twitter joke. (swipes)

Dusty Baker said...

You dissing Katy Perry, Sax?

Steve Sax said...

@DB: not necessarily dissing either band. More the Muzak treatment.

In fact, I can think of a couple impressive Katy Perry pieces.