Dodgers Part Ways with Justin Sellers

Steve Dilbeck sums it up nicely:

One year you’re the opening day starting shortstop. The next you’re designated for assignment.

Welcome to the world of Justin Sellers, who was DFA’d on Saturday when the Dodgers officially signed Cuban infielder Erisbel Arruebarrena.

Sellers could field but not hit (.199 in parts of three seasons), and the Dodgers currently have their share of slick-fielding, questionable-hitting infielders, beginning now with Arruebarrena. And they just invested $25 million in him.

Sellers surprised most everyone with his hitting when first called up in the middle of the 2011 season, when he had a .278 average in his first 16 games. Alas, his offensive production had peaked.

Best of luck to Sellblock.

Meanwhile, can we agree to call Arruebarrena "Arrow Borracho"?

Dilbeck: Blame Ned Colletti

Look, it's a thin bench!

Trying to weave the narrative around the Dodgers' imploding 2013 season, Steve Dilbeck of the LA Times cites the thin bench strength as a primary liability:

General Manager Ned Colletti loves those scrappy, versatile types, which would explain a roster that was set up to have Nick Punto, Skip Schumaker, Juan Uribe and Jerry Hairston Jr. as its primary backups.

Except that with injured shortstop Hanley Ramirez missing most of the season so far and Luis Cruz proving worthless offensively, bench guys and players who were supposed to be in the minors are having to start.

Neither Dee Gordon (.167) nor Justin Sellers (.191) have hit a lick trying to replace Ramirez. Gordon is currently in an 0-for-22 slump. If he’s going to hit worse than Sellers (now hitting .314 at triple-A Albuquerque), they might as well send Gordon back down and return to Sellers, who at least has the superior glove.

Mattingly has been forced to play Punto almost every day, and fortunately for him, he’s responded better (.330, .418 on-base percentage) than they had right to hope. After a slow start, Schumaker has hit .357 in his last 12 games.

But when Punto and/or Schumaker are in the game, that leaves Cruz (.096), Uribe (.229) and/or Gordon the bench. There’s nothing there to pick from. And then there’s catcher Ramon Hernandez, who snapped an 0-for-17 skid with two hits Wednesday (including a homer).

Scott Van Slyke now at least gives them a hint of power on the bench, but that’s it. Impressive it ain’t.

Cruz, Gordon and Hernandez shouldn’t be on a team with championship aspirations, but that is your last-place Dodgers bench.

I'd agree, arguing that Gordon, Sellers, Cruz, Uribe, and Hernandez don't have any place on a major league roster, not with the way they've been playing this year. We can be patient for the subset of those that might still be maturing. But that maturing time shouldn't be done on my major-league-priced ticket.

Post-Game 14 Thread: Cap Goes Down Hard

PADRES 9, DODGERS 2

We shouldn't even be in this situation, dependent upon someone who wasn't even planned to be in our starting rotation, to beat the woeful Padres. But there was Chris Capuano, starting his first game of the season in place of the Zack Greinke, whose broken collarbone at the hands of the Padres left us no other option.

Capuano gave up five singles and a walk in the first inning, allowing four runs. And then proceeded to injure his calf fielding a grounder in the second inning. After a four-pitch walk to start the third, he was yanked, the Dodgers already down 4-0.

Down goes Cap.

It's not like it's all his fault. This time, it wasn't squandered opportunities with RISP (0-for-2); we couldn't even get many runners in scoring position to begin with. Matt Kemp was 0-for-3 with 2 Ks and looks completely lost at the plate. Kemp is now batting .185 on the season. Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, and Mark Ellis, the only three players who have hit this season, went a combined 0-for-7.

And don't get me started on the black hole at the left side of the infield: starters Juan Uribe (1-for-2 batting .214) and Justin Sellers (0-for-2, batting .167) were not much better than substitute Luis Cruz (0-for-2, batting .105). Hanley Ramirez may be eyeing a comeback, and he can have his choice of spots; but he can't play two positions at once, unfortunately.

We're not even a tenth of the way through the season, and it already feels like it's slipping away, despite our .500 record (three games back of the division lead). With Ramirez and Greinke out, and reinforcements like Capuano ineffective, we'd better get Guggs and Co. to at least consider adding more payroll, if we want to see the postseason.

Post-Game 8 Thread: Bills, Bills, Bills

DODGERS 4, PADRES 3

Chad Billingsley made his 2013 Dodgers debut tonight and though he wasn't perfect (retired the side only in the second inning; had a lot of trouble locating his curve (Vin Scully said only two curves fell for strikes)), he was good enough. Six innings, five hits, 1 ER, 3 Ks and 3 BB. Welcome back, Chadley!

It helped that Bills got run production early. Carl Crawford hit the second pitch of the game into the left field stands for a leadoff HR; Luis Cruz got his first hit of the year in the second inning and AJ Ellis knocked him home with another HR to left. The Dodgers added a fourth run in the fifth inning, when Crawford hit a one-out triple and Mark Ellis singled him home.

The Padres' starter, former Dodger Eric Stults, was even shakier than Billingsley: 101 pitches over five innings, giving up eight hits with 4 Ks. Even Matt Kemp (batting .167) and Justin Sellers (batting .190) got singles off of Stults. The Dodgers had a season-high 13 hits tonight. That said, the Dodgers wasted a ton of opportunities to seal the deal: 1-for-8 with RISP, and an absurd 12 LOB. Ugh.

You know who else was shaky? Brandon League, who gave up three hits in the bottom of the ninth, and then struck out Chris Denorfia...but AJ Ellis allowed a passed ball, scoring the Padres' third run and giving the home team a fourth out. Yonder Alonso went all the way to a full count, before flying out to left fielder Skip Schumacher to end the game. Whew!

Rubber match tomorrow night, Zack Greinke vs. Jason Marquis. A Marquis matchup, if you will!

Post-Game 6 Thread: Ryu Gets The Sweep As Dodgers Explode For Six Runs

This joke brought to you by SoSG Nomo

DODGERS 6, PIRATES 2

Hyun-Jin Ryu followed up his shaky debut with a solid start to earn the sweep of the Pirates: 101 pitches over 6.1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER (off a two-run HR to Andrew McCutchen; no shame there, even though it was Pittsburgh's first HR this year), 6 Ks and 2 BB. Ronald Bellisario got the hold with 1.2 IP, closed out by Matt Guerrier and Ken Howell in the ninth.

But the story today was the Dodgers offense, which finally showed up in the sixth game of the season. Adrian Gonzalez led the way with a 3-for-4, 4 RBI day; Carl Crawford went 2-for-4 with 2 runs, and Nick Punto went 2-for-2 with 2 runs himself. Matt Kemp doubled in the first inning and had a sacrifice fly in the third to give the Dodgers the lead.

Even Justin Sellers got his first hit, a HR to left center. Heck, even Juan Uribe almost went yard (fly to the deep left corner). It was that kind of day, the third sellout of the year.

Dodgers get a day off tomorrow and then greet the Padres for their home opener Tuesday. Sax, on the other hand, gets to relish his newly acquired Matt Kemp youth jersey. Thanks, Dodgers (and Dreyer's Ice Cream)!

Dodgers Outscore Giants...In Scrabble

MLB's licensing department jumps the shark

This ESPN article is so absurd, I had to link to it. Diane Firstman ranks the MLB lineups by Scrabble rosters:

When I'm not watching baseball, you can probably find me playing Scrabble. I combine my love of these two seemingly disparate interests by tracking down those players whose names are also valid words in Scrabble. I present to you now the Scrabble-acceptability of the names on the Opening Day 40-man roster for each team.

If the player's first or last name can be found in the "bible" of organized Scrabble, the Official Tournament and Club Word List, it will be listed in CAPS here (thus, no Rzepczynski). The number after the player's name is the total Scrabble score, excluding the possibility of double and triple-letter and double and triple-word squares. The score for each player is based upon the tile distribution in a standard English Scrabble set. If the player's name is seven letters or more and a valid Scrabble word, the score increases by 50 (otherwise known as a "bingo"). If the name cannot be formed without the use of a blank (such as "BOBBY"), the score represents the actual tally (in the BOBBY example, that would be 11, not 14). The numbers next to the team name gives the team's tally of qualifying names and total points. [...]

Dodgers (17, 226): Justin SELLERS 57, JOSH WALL 21, MATT KEMP 18, NICK PUNTO 17, JERRY Hairston 15, JOSH Beckett 14, SHAWN Tolleson 11, CHAD Billingsley 10, Stephen FIFE 10, MARK Ellis 10, SKIP Schumaker 10, Brandon LEAGUE 7, MATT Guerrier 6, MATT Magill 6, CARL Crawford 6, TED Lilly 4, DEE Gordon 4

Giants (17, 217): JAKE DUNNING 74, HUNTER PENCE 18, ANGEL PAGAN 14, MATT CAIN 12, HECTOR Sanchez 11, JEAN Machi 11, CHAD Gaudin 10, NICK Noonan 10, SANDY Rosario 9, BUSTER Posey 8, TONY Abreu 7, ANGEL Villalona 6, ROGER Kieschnick 6, Brandon BELT 6, Brett PILL 6, Joaquin ARIAS 5, DAN Runzler 4

Nice to see Justin Sellers contributing some points on the board.... Anyway, the NL West's Rockies win the tournament, with an astounding 523 eligible Scrabble points.

Post-Game 5 Thread: Kershaw Shows Up Yet Again; Dodger Bats Still Missing

"Wow, this home plate is so shiny and untouched! It's like new!"

DODGERS 1, PIRATES 0

Clayton Kershaw went seven scoreless innings and struck out nine. Which should have been all you needed to know...except AJ Burnett also struck out nine (over 5.1 IP), making this a tougher one that it really should have been.

Burnett's only miss was giving up a base hit to Mark Ellis that scored Carl Crawford, who singled and took second on a SB (Crawford had two SB in the game, and is the brightest offensive star in the Dodgers' lineup with his .438 BA in the leadoff spot). Dodgers scored one in the third inning...and that was all the offense we saw all game. Eight scattered hits for the Dodgers, and only one run to show for it. 2-for 14 with RISP, and 10 team LOB: not the marks of an offensive engine. (Only Pittsburgh has scored fewer runs than us in the NL.)

I suppose we should be thankful that Mark Ellis is batting .375, and A-Gon (2-for-3) is batting .313. But Matt Kemp went 0-for-4 with 3 Ks and 4 LOB; he's batting .056 on the year. Luis Cruz (0-for-4, 6 LOB) and Justin Sellers (0-for-4, 5 LOB) each had two Ks, and neither has one hit ALL YEAR. Geez.

Brandon League had a 15-pitch, four-batter ninth inning, but retired Andrew McCutchen on one pitch, with a man on first, to end the game.

photo: Victor Decolongon/Getty Images

Boy to Man

From "Yasiel Puig, Eddie Oropesa: In Dodgers camp they're perfect match" by Bill Plaschke at the LA Times:

Puig, 22, needed a baby sitter. Oropesa, 41, needed a final triumph in a game that once broke his heart. It was a match made in the imagination of Watson and scouting director Logan White, who arranged for the pairing late last summer when they realized that Puig's rough edges could risk not only the Dodgers' huge investment, but their foreign-market credibility.

"It's about cultural assimilation," says Watson. "We needed someone to help Puig grow."

When Puig was signed in June, he was so unaware of American baseball, he didn't know the Dodgers' colors were blue and white. He had not played in the Cuban league in more than a year as punishment for an earlier attempt to defect. Despite an oversized contract that the Dodgers handed him as a statement for all Latin American prospects, he remained, by most accounts, lonely and confused.

Oropesa knew the feelings. As a 22-year-old Cuban pitcher, he defected in full uniform by leaping a fence behind home plate before a game in Buffalo, N.Y. His wife and family were punished, prevented from leaving Cuba for three years. His potential star career began with a distracted start from which it only scarcely recovered, as he ended it with an 8-4 record over four major league seasons.

"What Puig is going through now, the same thing happened to me 20 years ago," Oropesa says. "I want him to learn from me."

Glad to see the Dodgers are protecting their investment. Now, does Justin Sellers get an accountablity partner too?

Post-Game 42 Thread: Dodgers Explode on Snakes

DODGERS 6, DIAMONDBACKS 1

Tonight was kind of an odd night:

• Prime Ticket had a technical issue that prevented them from broadcasting commercials for much of the game. (It was wonderful.)
  
• Sportscaster (and good son) Patrick O'Neal apologized to us on Twitter. (Unnecessarily, as he's a prince just for plugging the the #AJ2KC bandwagon.)
  
• The Kempless Dodgers hit three home runs: Matt Treanor had a two-run homer in the second, Andre Ethier had a solo shot in the seventh and James Loney had a two-run homer in the eighth. (Justin Sellers also contributed with an RBI-triple.)

Chris Capuano wasn't dominant but he was effective, getting his sixth win by allowing four hits and one run over six innings. He helped his own cause by spearing a nasty Jason Kubel line drive to end the fourth, just as the Snakes were getting ready to explode from their tin can.

Ronald Belisario, Javy Guerra and Jamey Wright provided relief as the 29-13 Dodgers continue their MLB-leading ways. Join us for another 6:30PM start tomorrow!

Post-Game 35 Thread: Dodgers Eke One Out Without Kemp

DODGERS 3, DIAMONDBACKS 1

On a night that saw Matt Kemp's league-leading consecutive games streak end at 399 (just a hair short of Cal Ripken's record), the Dodgers kept their own win streak alive at five, gutting out a victory behind the arm of Clayton Kershaw. The Minotaur went seven innings and allowed four hits with six strikeouts and no earned runs (the Snakes got a run off a solo HR by Aaron Hill off of Josh Lindblom). Kenley Jansen picked up his fourth save thanks in no small part by great defensive plays from James Loney and Justin Sellers, both of which caused radio broadcaster Charley Steiner to pop some buttons on his shirt collar.

Dee Gordon scored in the first inning by singling and drawing an errant pickoff throw off of the Diamondbacks' Ian Kennedy, who then allowed Mark Ellis to ground to second for the sacrifice. Andre Ethier added a solo HR, and A.J. Ellis, Loney, and Adam Kennedy combined to score a third run. Tony Gwynn Jr. also had a sweet putout nailing A.J. "NotEllis" Pollock at the plate in the third.

More importantly, the Sons stretch our streak to 11-0. We put it on the line again tomorrow, at Orel Hershiser Bobblehead Night.

Rookie Hazing, Part Four

Lonnie Murray is Director of Marketing for Dave Stewart's company, Sports Management Partners. She posted these pictures at @SMPLonnie:

Rookie Hazing, Part Three

?, Kenley Jansen, Dee Gordon, Tim Federowicz, Javy Guerra, Jerry Sands, Russ Mitchell, Justin Sellers, Trent Oeltjen, Josh Lindblom.

Some additions on the right. Let us know if you know who they are!

Jansen.

Gordon & Sellers.

Federowicz, Gordon, Sands.

Guerra, with Lindblom and ? in the background.

Gumby doing the Gumby?

1, 3, 5 & 7: @Dodgers; 2 & 8: @TheRealMattKemp; 4: @dodgerscribe; 6: PONealFSWest

Rookie Hazing, Part Two

Photos by John Pinga, via VSIMH:

Justin Sellers.

Clayton Kershaw and Josh Lindblom.

Javy Guerra.

Things More or Less Star Wars Than Dodgers Star Wars Night

One of these things is not like the other.

"What do you mean, there are no black stormtroopers in Star Wars?"

"Lord Vader, what's a 'rampart'?"

"Batting sixth sixth sixth, Boba Boba Boba Fett Fett Fett."

Not Star Wars Night, but Star Wars-related: Trey Hillman instructs Han Solo on the finer points of "business in the front, party in the back."

"That's right, Indiana Jones wears an earring."

"Tommy, what's your opinion of Yakface's performance?"

Fly, Ackbar, fly!

Creatures deleted from the cantina scene: Chococat, Aaron Miles, Hello Kitty, Keroppi, Justin Sellers, My Melody.

Earlier at SoSG: Things More Star Wars Than Dodgers Star Wars Night

1: Jill Weisleder/Dodgers; 2-4: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images; 5-6: Juan Ocampo/Dodgers; 7-8: AP; 9: Ocampo/Dodgers

Post-Game 149 Thread: Ready Steady Gone

PIRATES 6, DODGERS 2

It was a matter of time before Dana Eveland's impressive late-season callup run was going to come to an end. But it was a bit of a starry-eyed surprise to have the end come at the hands of Pirates starting pitcher Paul Oakenfold Ross Ohlendorf, who had not had a HR in his five-year MLB career (3.5 years of which were in the NL). But Ohlendorf's three-run shot in the second inning capped a shaky nine-batter inning for Eveland, who ended up lasting only five innings and seeing his ERA balloon to (a still respectable) 2.25.

Russ Mitchell had a solo HR in the fifth. Matt Kemp went 0-for-3 but reached on a HBP (he was CS). Dee Gordon went 2-for-4 and scored a run off a Justin Sellers double in the first. But other than that, the bats were deathly quiet; Gordon was the only Dodger with multiple hits, and the 4-5-6 Minor Misdemeanor Offenders' Row of Juan Rivera, James Loney, and Jerry Sands went a combined 1-for-12 (a meaningless ninth-inning two-out single for Sands). (And no, I didn't fall for the whole tying-run-at-the-plate thing, when the hail mary needed was an Aaron Miles GS to tie.)

There was some cause for rubberneckin' in the bottom of the fifth inning, however, when the car wreck known as Eugenio Velez PH for Eveland...and struck out on four pitches, bringing his resume to 0-for-32 on the year (and according to Josh S., 0-for-41 going back to last year; Velez hasn't had a hit since May 18, 2010).

(Most of Oakenfold's videos are all non-embeddable, but if you wanted to look at a couple I would recommend "Faster Kill Pussycat" (starring Brittany Murphy), and then this guy's "hack job" Bourne Identity-spliced video to "Ready Steady Go", which is better than the original video.)

SoSG As Dodgers Media: The Experience, In Photos (Part 1)

Back on August 29, I was lucky enough to occupy the Blog Spot covering the Dodgers-Padres game as Dodgers media (the Dodgers won, 4-1). In the news of Josh Rawitch's departure to the Diamondbacks at season's end, the opportunity to cover a game from the Vin Scully Press box has become all that more cherished; I'm not sure if future PR administrations will continue to invest in blogger relations like Rawitch did.

But before I forget all the memories, here are some of the photos of the experience:

The media entrance, up on the top deck. They make the journalists park in the hinterlands, which is probably why so many journalists are in such great shape.

Batting practice, in the early afternoon stages.

Nancy Bea Hefley and her organ sit at the far end of the press box, up the first base line. Here's the legendary organist's spot before she arrived.

Dodgers doing calisthenics up the third base line.

The obligatory Sons of Steve Garvey from the "Vin Scully Press Box" shot. At this stage, someone else was occupying my blog spot, but I didn't have the heart to kick that guy out. Just yet, that is.

The next thing I did was get down into the dugout, as Mattingly had started his pre-game media session already. Amy Summers of the Dodgers' PR was kind enough to escort me down into the clubhouse through the tunnels.

Walking down into the dugout, the walls are adorned with inspiring shots of the Dodgers' heritage.

Here's Mattingly, with Josh Suchon on his left (looking a bit like a nightclub bodyguard, I might add), and that's Dylan Hernandez on his right.

Not that this is the Ken Levine Fan Club or anything, but that's Levine in front in the striped shirt. KEN LEVINE!

Levine turns away (cries).

There were a couple of groups and parties down on the field pre-game; sponsors, and people who had won contests, and stuff. Here's Justin Sellers, interfacing with a young kid.

All of these field-access VIPs were taking pictures from outside the dugout. But I was IN THE DUGOUT! Yeeeeeaaaaaaah!

This was ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne, chatting up Justin Sellers' father, Jeff (also a big-league player). I didn't want to interrupt Shelburne but I did get a wonderful conversation with Jeff Sellers later; he was really nice.

J.A. Adande was hosting a USC Journalism School group and he got Tony Gwynn Jr. to come over and shoot the bull.

More Gwynn and Adande.

The Owners' Box, empty. How fitting.

Steve Lyons brought his father along to the game. Here he is thanking Amy Summers for helping set him up with seats.

"Thanks, Amy!"

I saw Ken Gurnick (in red) walk over and talk to these sartorially excessive dudes. Turns out they were from CAA, and I think one of the guys might have been Andre Ethier's agent and/or James Loney's agent (plus some well-dressed CAA underlings), since both Ethier and Loney came over to talk with the Zegna-shirted crew. I didn't hear much of the conversation but I imagine they were discussing the merits of french cuffs and brass collar stays.

"I don't know, man," said Loney, "french-cuffed shirts are hard to pack in a Ghurka carryon."

0-for-30 smells something like this.

Loads of empty seats! Just kidding, this was before the game. Actually, I thought it was funny how all of the stadium staff was just hanging out pre-game in the shade.

Ethier comes over to debate two- or three-button suits.

"I think I need at least three opinions on my knee, don't you?"

The Padres' Glenn Hoffman, infamous holder-of-Dodgers-runners-at-third0base (while a Dodgers 3B coach, under Jim Tracy), talks with Jeff Sellers. SEND HIM, HOFFY!

Dave Roberts (standing with mlb.com's Ken Gurnick), always a great guy to see. I know his career highlights were with the Red Sox, but I always liked him and rooted for him while he was a Dodger. I got the chance to meet him for a second and he was very polite.

"Dave, let me show you my C-3PO impression."

I'm not going to clog up more of your RAM, so I'll publish Part 2 with more photos from the August 29, 2011 game later.