Bundy Out (At Third Base); Roenicke In

Ron Roenicke, the deposed Brewers manager, is our new Dodgers 3B coach:

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers have hired former Milwaukee Brewers manager Ron Roenicke for the remainder of the season as third-base coach to replace Lorenzo Bundy, who will remain on staff in charge of outfield defense.

Roenicke, who played for the Dodgers from 1981-83 and was on their big league coaching staff in 1992-93, was dismissed as manager of the Brewers earlier this season. He also managed five seasons in the Dodgers' Minor League system.

Roenicke had managed the Brewers since 2011 and had his '16 option exercised by the Brewers this spring, but he was dismissed after they started the season 7-18. In his first season in Milwaukee, he finished second to another former Dodger, Kirk Gibson, for the National League Manager of the Year Award.

Roenicke, 59, spent six years as third-base coach of the Angels under manager Mike Scioscia, his former Dodgers teammate, and became Scioscia's bench coach when Joe Madden left to manage Tampa Bay for current Dodgers president Andrew Friedman.

Of course, the question everyone is asking is, why now?:

The Dodgers said Roenicke has been hired for the rest of the season, so that makes him something of a rental. A coach for seven weeks.

Now clearly there were moments when Bundy left you shaking your head over runners waived on or held up. But that’s going to be true with any third base coach. And certainly you could argue he had more than his share, but not so much that it screamed this was the change that had to be made if the Dodgers want to advance to the World Series.

And the first-place Dodgers were not so unhappy with him that they gave him the complete coaching boot.

So it’s really about wanting Roenicke? Someone who’s been around since May when he was fired as the Brewers manager? And they make the move on Aug. 17?

Conspiracy lovers will immediately suspect the Dodgers have brought on Roenicke to replace Manager Don Mattingly should the powers that be decide he is not the answer. Possible, of course, but Roenicke has no obvious connection to President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman or General Manager Farhan Zaidi. I can offer no personal knowledge to Roenicke’s IT skills.

Hmm. Sad times for Bundy, but perhaps we'll see fewer moments of the slow-moving Alex Guerrero getting thrown out at home?

Post-Game 132 Thread: Overpowering Colon

METS 11, DODGERS 3

Two short days after LOLMets, it was LOLDodgers. Down 7-2 in the sixth inning, the Dodgers had just scored a run (Dee Gordon) off a leadoff single, Yasiel Puig walk (Puig had lost track of the count in that AB, btw; more on Puig's spaciness later), and Adrian Gonzalez RBI single. We were poised for a comeback: David Wright had already left the game due to neck spasms*; Mets starter Bartolo Colon had been effective through five but was laboring at the end of his audition for other teams; and Dodgers reliever Carlos Frias (who had entered the game relieving the ineffective Kevin Correia: 7 R in 3.0 IP, with 1 K and 3 HR) had just retired nine Mets in a row.

And then the bottom fell out (not that there was much bottom left in a 7-2 deficit, but hang with me). Matt Kemp hit into a 5-4-3 double play, which then became a TRIPLE play when Puig ran right through Dodgers third base coach Lorenzo Bundy's stop sign, and was thrown out at home by about 25 miles. The Dodgers should make Puig drink all the liquid in the dugout bubble machine, because that was a piece of shit baserunning exhibition by Puigster. If Bundy needs to wield a Jeff Gillooly crowbar at third base when Puig is rounding third (to be fair, Kemp ran through a stop sign recently but made it home safely; what happened to respect for authority here?!), then so be it. Inexcusable.

Frias then came out the next inning and melted down, allowing three more runs, and the Dodgers were pummeled 11-3 (Dee Gordon added a run in the eighth on an RBI triple). In good news, Gonzalez went 3-for-3 with and a run scored; Andre Ethier, with a rare start in the six-hole, went 2-for-4. In bad news, the reactivated Hanley Ramirez, along with Justin Turner and offensive abyss A.J. Ellis, all 0-fered. And then there's that Correia guy, who falls to 2-1 as a Dodger.

But this wasn't the only pummeling in the National League today: the Giants lost 14-6 to the Nationals, who scored 12 unanswered runs in their last three frames to take the lead and squish the Giants. All five Giants pitchers ceded at least one ER today. So there's that.

On the other hand, we host Washington in a week's time, and face Gio Gonzalez, Doug Fister, and Jordan Zimmerman. Hoo, boy.

Note: (*) Quote of the GT from Fred's Brim: "Wright is out for some reason. I am out because we are playing like assholes today"

Dodgers 2014 Coaching Staff Announced

Lorenzo Bundy moves from AAA to 3B coach, Wallach as had been previously reported moves to the bench. Still horrible to remember what Bundy's brother Ted did to all those people.*

The #Dodgers 2014 Coaching Staff: pic.twitter.com/iC0b4lQSFX
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) November 11, 2013

* We can also go with King Kong Bundy and/or McGeorge Bundy jokes if we get desperate.