As the 2010 baseball season progresses and looms over my head like a Cambodian Mud Monkey ready to steal my soul once again, I look at my Dodgers and wonder ‘will this be the year?’ I took a careful look at our team and while the roster may have several solid, home-grown kids in the lineup such as Silver Slugger & Gold Glove outfielder Matt Kemp, Silver Slugger and MVP candidate Andre Ethier and former Silver Slugger & Gold Glove recipient Russell Martin, I can’t help but wonder what this team could possibly look like had we actually done a better job of drafting players in the past and theoretically kept them in the organization. I went back to the 1994 draft which was a pretty good pick in Paul Konerko and then began the study the following year which shows some lack of foresight. Of course any good Dodgers fan knows that Paul Konerko was eventually traded to the Reds for Jeff Shaw which eventually gave all Dodgers fans indigestion in the 9th inning. Please note that this only reflects the Dodgers 1st round draft picks in the respective years.
In 1995 with the 20th overall pick the Dodgers drafted LHP David Yocum. The following year Baseball America had him listed as the #7 top prospect in the Dodgers farm system. He never made the major leagues. In fact, I can’t find any record that he even played in the minor leagues. That very same year a skinny Puerto Rican was drafted in the 2nd round #49 overall by the name of Carlos Beltran. Carlos didn’t make it to the show full-time until the 1999 campaign when the Royals made him their starting center fielder and leadoff man, meanwhile that year the Dodgers where signing an aging Devon White *shudder* to a 2 year deal worth $6.5 million to be our everyday centerfielder and leadoff man. I’m in no way saying Carlos Beltran would still be a Dodgers but we would have never traded him in 2004 to Houston because we were actually having a good year then and we would have never had to suffer through Devon White, Tom Goodwin, Dave Roberts or Jose Cruz Jr. as our opening day centerfielders .
In 1996 with the 23rd overall pick the Dodgers drafted 3B Damian Rolls. This kid had some promise. The year after his draft Baseball America had him as the #6 top prospect in the Dodgers Farm system. While he never played for the Dodgers he has played in parts of five major league seasons with Tampa Bay and got as high as AAA Columbus in the Yankees system, which means he was good enough to play for Tampa Bay. That same year a skinny kid from Weir Mississippi by the name of Roy Oswalt was taken in the 23rd round. 23rd round! After winning a Gold Medal in the 2000 Olympics, which was of course managed by Dodger Legend Tommy Lasorda, he went on to a 14 win rookie season in 2001, a 19 win season in 2002 and a 20 win season in 2004. In 2001 the Dodgers paid Andy Ashby $6 million to pitch in two games and get hurt. Bet it would have been nice to have been able to call up Roy Oswalt! In 2002 the same Andy Ashby went 9- 13. And finally in 2004, the combination of Hideo Nomo, Wilson Alvarez, Edwin Jackson and Brad Penny (late season acquisition) couldn’t muster up more wins than Oswalt did that year. I bet it would have been nice having a 20 game pitcher in that October series against the Cardinals.
1997 was an interesting year. The Dodgers drafted 1B Glenn Davis 25th overall while there were two pitchers who were drafted after him that would have greatly improved the Dodgers in the future; Tim Hudson and Randy Wolf. I’m going to focus on the latter for these reasons. 1. Randy Wolf was drafted by the Dodgers in 1994 but didn’t sign. 2. He’s from LA and the Dodgers should scout better in their backyard 3. He eventually played for the Dodgers… twice! 4. He won 16 games in 2003. Imagine had the Dodgers drafted Randy Wolf in 1997, we would have had a hometown favorite who could have pitched for us from 1999-2009. I mentioned 2003 because that would have been Roy Oswalts down year where he only won 10 games. Glenn Davis of course never made it passed AA and is now out of baseball. Tim Hudson would have eventually left LA to play for his hometown Braves anyways.
In 1998 the Dodgers drafted Bubba Crosby. Remember him? No? Well, he played nine games for the Dodgers in 2003 and played three seasons with the Yankees in 2004-2006. He hit a total of four career homeruns, all of them with the Yankees. Shawn Green hit four in one game back in 2002! You know who else hits a ton of homeruns? Adam Dunn. The same Adam Dunn who was drafted by the Reds in the 2nd round that same year. The Same Adam Dunn who hit 40 homeruns five consecutive years. The same Adam Dunn who in 2004 hit a homerun in Ohio that didn’t stop travelling until it got to Kentucky off then Dodgers starter Jose Lima; may he rest in peace. Can you imagine that Outfield? I’ll explain later.
Which leads me to the 1999 1st round draft pick…. Nobody. We gave up our 1st round pick when we signed Kevin Brown to that ridiculous deal and later traded him to the Yankees for Jeff Weaver.
The 2000 draft is still making me pull my hair out. Probably why I buzz cut these days, easier to avoid baldness and gray hairs from stressed induced by the Dodgers. Ben Diggins was drafted 17th overall. Grady Sizemore drafted 75th overall by the Expos! Gahh! Ben Diggins was traded to Milwaukee in 2002 where he had an 0-4 record and was never heard from again. On the other hand, Grady Sizemore became the Cleveland Indians full-time center fielder in 2005 where he has been an All-Star, gold glover, silver slugger and a 30-30 man. Sound familiar? I swear I’ll get to it in the end.
Almost done. Swear.
In 2001, we also had to forfeit our first round draft pick because of Andy Ashby this time. You all know how I feel about Andy Ashby so I won’t go into it any further.
Now, from 2002 and beyond I won’t really say much other than who we’ve drafted mainly because they’re on the current roster and are making strong contributions to the ball club.
2002: James Loney
2003: Chad Billingsley
2004: Scot Elbert and Blake DeWitt
2005: No pick (Derek Lowe)
2006: Clayton Kershaw
Interestingly enough, in 2003, Andre Ethier was drafted by Oakland after Chad Billingsley and in 2006 2-time Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum was drafted after Clayton Kershaw.
Okay… Now just think that had the Dodgers drafted the way I just detailed could have been possible, they would have had Carlos Beltran patrolling centerfield from 1999-2004 eliminating the need for Devon White, Tom Goodwin, Dave Roberts and even Juan Encarnation. The Dodgers would have been able to afford to let him go after that year because they had a stud centerfielder in the minors by the name of Grady Sizemore who would still be in center today. Can you imagine replacing a 30-30 centerfielder with another 30-30 centerfielder? So what about Matt Kemp? He would be playing left field because there would have been no need to trade for Manny in the first place. Randy Wolf would have joined the rotation in 1999 with Roy Oswalt joining in 2001 Adam Dunn joins the club in 2002 replacing an aging Eric Karros at 1B eliminating the need to sign the Crime Dog Fred Mcgriff and you’re looking at a 2004 Dodgers team with an outfield of Milton Bradley, Carlos Beltran and Shawn Green, and an infield of Beltre, Izturis, Cora and Dunn, a rotation with Oswalt, Wolf, Lima, Weaver and Ishii. This team could easily have won 100 games which is 7 more than they already won, payroll would have been relatively small because of the young players on the team and we quite possibly win a world series that year instead of still waiting for one today and I would have never had had to deal with Andy Ashby.
So I finally bit the bullet and booked my passage to Washington DC. I wish I could say this was a pleasurable vacation trip but most likely I’ll be working my butt off advocating for a new park in Hollywood. A park so special that my dream is for Hollywood residents to call it “The Park”.
This park will be 44 acres of never before used land. Never before because until we build it, there is no land. What? Yeah. The plan is to build over the 101 freeway between Santa Monica Blvd in East Hollywood where the freeway runs below city grade and extend it roughly one mile to Bronson Ave in Central Hollywood. Essentially making that part of the 101 a tunnel. I’m crazy you say? I’d have to agree with you except this isn’t the first time something like this has been built. There are ‘cap’ parks in San Diego, Seattle, Chicago and Boston. Right now the only major hurdles we have are economic. What else is new in this town. Thats what this trip is for. Asking the Federal Government to fund this project much like they funded our High-Speed Rail to San Francisco last month.
How can you help? You can write a letter of support. You can email them to me at Alfredo@LAnative.net or get them to me in person. I leave Saturday March 13th so get those in to me before then. Thanks. For more details on what this project is please visit: http://hollywoodfreewaycentralpark.org/
Seeing as this is my first ever trip to DC I plan on visiting a few museums and monuments and maybe some friends.
So I guess this really will be a pleasurable trip after all.
Today I tried to catch up on emails and work on the Slam. I had over 400 unread emails sitting in my inbox. While most were informational that required no response or were newsletters containing articles that I already knew their content based on tweets, it still tool a very long time to sift through everything. I also have three months of the Slam booked. I can’t wait till we start.
I have spent the last couple of weeks fighting a cold which has been harder than usual because I have been quite busy with rehearsals, neighborhood council, and have been forced to go outside in the cold at night. It has slowed my recovery time but I feel like I may be over the hump soon.
I had a dream the other night that i found interesting. Usually fever dreams tend to be pretty intense but this one was just strange. I went to sleep very early that night because I had a debilitating head ache but when I woke up early the next morning all I could do was chuckle at my dream. I was sitting on my front porch when two snakes slithered by having a conversation with each other. They were speaking in English in the truest form of the definition; British accents and all. I asked the snakes if they were really British when they turned to me and said, crooked fangs and all, “And we know Harry Potter.” At this point my cat Anakin, having seen the snakes from afar, decided he wanted to pounce on the snakes except his claws became red lightsaber claws and he mauled the snakes to hell. No word yet on how Harry Potter feels about the death of snake friends of his.
I promised myself I would write every day in here, while I’m not sure what I will be writing about I figure it will be just about anything I can think of which means I may be getting creative which might be a little painful to read at times.
I suppose I should start with an update of the last six months. Most importantly, I was laid off December 1st from my job at theLos Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust. Its no secret that non-profits all over are struggling to survive in this down economy and especially in Los Angeles with thebudget crisis what it is. I feel I am fortunate enough to have a strong background and have a wealth of knowledge in both the day-to-day operations of parks and the creation of parks from the, no pun intended, grass roots on up. Okay maybe a little pun. Its this knowledge and experience that makes me an attractive option to consult in parks and particularly community based organizations. We shall see what comes of it. For the time being I will be dedicating my time and energy to other projects that I have, perhaps, not focused as much attention as I owe them. Such as…
I have agreed to stage manage a play at the USVAA Theater which I am currently a board member of. I also produce a monthly improv show there called “Nation of Improv presents the Culver City Slam“. A mouthful I know and I wish I could say the name wasn’t my idea but it was. The play is called “Bug” which was written by Tracy Letts. Its about a possible AWOL Gulf War Veteran who holes up with a cocktail waitress in some motel in Oklahoma and is a little funny in the head. The dude not the chick. I highly recommend everybody go see it and I’m sure I’ll be writing and tweeting about rehearsals and stuff along the way. It opens February 26th and will run for four weeks which means…
I’ll have to miss a few shows because I’ll be in Washington DC for a week in March to advocate for the creation of a 44 acre park in the heart of Hollywood. A project many of you know is very near and dear to my heart. This trip is a chance to get the required money to build which will be far less than the $2.25 million the Federal Government granted California to build a high speed rail system from Los Angeles to Anaheim and Los Angeles to San Francisco. This trip will be my very first to our nations capital and while I know I’ll be busy going from meeting to meeting which includes the Capitol, White House and other offices I would also like to visit historical monuments and such. Exciting for me and you can be sure I’ll have my…
I recently got very serious about my photography inspired by my friends Dana Arak, Alex Thompson and a few other online community friends. I began to bulk up my camera bag with better, more appropriate lenses for work and pleasure. For example, I will be taking promo shots for the above mentioned “Bug” which I won’t be getting paid for but could lead to work if somebody sees and likes what I take. I plan on using my “brand new” minolta 58mm f1.2 lens for this occasion. (look it up. Its legendary.) I say “brand new” because while I haven’t used it more than a couple times to test it, the lens is actually older than I am and of course Minolta no longer makes camera lenses. I’ll also try and leave you with samples of my photography at the beginning of every post.
Now, while I’ve only just touched on what I’ve been doing I didn’t have a proper lead to another project I’m working on so its just going to have to wait until tomorrow or another day to update on other stuff. But, for now, I think I have fulfilled my self imposed quota of writing for February 1st even though we are now well into February 2nd.
Here are a few things this weekend that can and should keep you busy and entertained.
First off is the City of Glendale’s Summer Night in the Plaza Friday July 31st from 6-9pm. Not exactly LA but LA County nonetheless. This 6th Annual festive gathering features an impressive food and dessert “taster” from many of Glendale’s best restaurants and bakeries, live entertainment and an eclectic array of silent auction items. I attend this event every year and have an absolute blast.
Saturday morning, Mayor Villaraigosa’s Million Tree Initiative will be handing out free 15 gallon citrus trees at Home Depot in West Hills to LA City residents beginning at 9am. Only 100 trees will be available so get there on time.
Also Saturday is the Historic Filipinotown Festival and 5k Run on Temple and Alvarado. Cool event with a lot of local LA history and resources. Check it out!
Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon the Shakespeare International Renaissance Festival LA (SIRFLA) in conjunction with the US Veterans Artists Alliance (USVAA) and the Veterans Center for the Performing Arts are producing Midsummer Nights Dream at the West LA Civic Center Bandshell. The atmosphere is excellent for this play which stars several US Veterans in key roles. I must say that I have seen this play several times already and highly recommend this production. LA Weekly even gave it a “GO”. Check it out! Saturdays at 6pm and Sundays at 4:30pm after the WLA Farmers Market.
Today I’m going to start a new segment in the blog called WITHIT (What in the Hell is That?) Basically its things I see and manage to photograph and then ask you fine people what you think.
I have no problems with the Church of Scientology. I learned to be tolerant of other religions a long time ago. I believe in a persons freedom to have faith in whatever they see fit so long as they don’t try to shove their faith down my throat but when I saw this the other day I was a bit startled. We all know how big of a presence Scientology has in Hollywood what with all the buildings they own and on Sunset, Hollywood and Franklin and they have signs making their presence felt but this sign felt a little too big, bright and out of place.
What are they trying to prove with this sign? Is it meant for identification or recruitment? Is the sign up to city codes? What do the neighbors think? What do you think?
Both pictures taken from the corner of Santa Monica & Heliotrope in East Hollywood one late and eerie night.
Los Angeles State Historic Park, formerly known as The Cornfields, offers 32 acres of green open space right next to Chinatown with Downtown Los Angeles as a great backdrop for a quiet picnic with family or a couple of friends, but recently it has been taken over by demons, clowns and villains.
Sunday night, a friend of mine and I made our way down to The Cornfields to catch the circus that is in town. Except this isn’t your typical circus. You wont find any elephants balancing themselves on giant red balls or a couple dozen clowns squeezing into a Gremlin or even a rabbit being pulled out of a top hat. Quite the opposite. You might find a top hat being pulled out of a rabbit instead. Basically its like walking into hell with a visitor pass while the devil is having a tea party.
Cirque Berzerkis a netherworld filled with phantasmagoric visions that will grope at your senses and oddities that are bound to scorch the very tips of your soul. Everything from a stilt-walking fire-breathing demonic clown to a contortionist and harrowing high flying acts that will leave you breathless and begging for more.
So gentlemen, dust off that top hat and ladies, stretch out those corsets and head on down to Cirque Berzerk and have a little Villain with your Vaud.
Due to popular demand, Cirque Berzerk has been extended through July 26th so don’t miss out!
*I encourage you to take the metro. The Chinatown Station on the Gold Line is just a short and pleasant walk through the park. Just walk towards the Big Top and the fires.
Downtown LA will have several street closures tomorrow (7-7-09) due to the massive crowds expected to turn out for Michael Jacksons Memorial at the Staples Center. Please plan accordingly.
One thing that I would like to say however is I do not like double standards. A couple of weeks ago the City was outraged at the thought, possibility and eventual reality of having to front the cost of police and security for a Lakers Victory Parade. Today, I hardly hear anybody complain about having to front the cost of police and security for Michael Jacksons Memorial. Maybe the Staples Center needs to help front the cost of this event and not have Councilwoman Jan Perry hustle on the phone trying to get donations.
Yesterday a couple friends and I drove down to San Diego to watch Manny Ramirez make his return to the Dodgers after serving a 50 game suspension for violating the leagues drug policy.
Droves of Dodgers fans made the trip to support Manny. Legions of Dodgers fans marched the streets of San Diego chanting “Lets go Dodgers!” Padres faithful were….. nowhere to be seen. I stood in front of the ticket gate on 7th and K Street behind the Western Metal Supply Company building and marveled at the inundation of Dodger Blue waiting their turn to pass through the turnstiles and said “Dodgers Home Game!”
Indeed it was just that, a Dodgers home game in our southern most suburb known as San Diego. My friends and I took our assigned seats in the “Left Field Pavilion” and noticed the ratio of Dodgers to Padres fans was easily 10 to 1. After a careful survey of the rest of “The Litter Box” aka Petco Park, the attendance was easily two thirds Dodgers friendly. Some called it Dodgertown South others were confused to see so many Padres fans then realized they were actually in San Diego while others complained about the lack of Dodger Dogs at the concessions stands. Either way, the home crowd vibe made for a fun night.
Of course the star on everybody’s mind was Manny but I was sure he wouldn’t be his typical Manny-being-Manny self. What I wasn’t ready for was the 5 run offensive outburst in the 1st inning as the Dodgers batted around. Manny’s first at-bat was greeted by the few and lonely Padres fans making what noise they could being almost completely drowned out by “Manny” chants.
The rest of the game was pretty quite offensively for the Dodgers but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t find something to have fun with. After all this was a home game right?
Chase Headley. A career .252 hitter in 173 career games was my target. I figured if Harry the Heckler was going to give my guys a tough time, I was going to make sure whenever he opened his mouth nothing but “lets go Dodgers” chants would be heard and when his player, in this case Chase Headley was playing left field, I would give him a taste of LA.
It started with a very sincere ‘Hey Chase! Welcome to LA!” heckle. No reaction. Then after a couple of doubles, that any decent LF would have caught, got passed him I said “You do a great job shagging our batting practice, Chase!.” and so on.
A few of my favorite heckles of the night include:
“I came to see you Chase! I’m very disappointed! I’m hurt!”
“Why do you wear #7? Is it for luck? Its not working for you Chase!”
“Chase! Can I have a souvenir? I promise to be nice!”
“Look at me when I heckle you Chase!”
“CHAY-ACE! CHAY-ACE!”
Chase Headley eventually started to turn around and look at us. I always waved at him making sure he knew who it was. I plan on getting LF Pavilion seats next time the Padres are in town and waiting for Chase with a very emphatic “Remember me Chase!?” I have a few more heckles I didn’t get a chance to try out on him.
A few other notable chants during the night:
“Mannys on deck! Mannys on deck!”
“Rus-sell Mar-tin! Rus-sell Mar-tin!”
“Juan P-air! Juan P-air!”
What can I say, I’m way too much fun to go to baseball games with.
One thing that fueled my heckling was that for Saturdays game they would be giving away free Beach Towels. As Joe said “You can always use another towel.” but a towel that says “Beat LA” on it? All I have to say is, that’s the true sign of a classy organization. Way to fail Padres. Way to fail.
I lost my voice last night. I think Chase Headley stole it.
This is why Dr. Frank Jobe should be in the Hall of Fame. (ouch)
In baseball “50 up and 50 down” would normally mean you are a mediocre team but in this sense its ironic. Ironic that after serving a 50 game suspension for violating MLB’s drug policy, Manny Ramirez, arguably one of the greatest right handed hitters in history, returns to a team that has won 50 games and holds the best record in baseball. 50 games ago I suggested that the Dodgers might be able to pull off a .500 record (25W – 25L) in that span and maintain a 6.5 game lead on the Giants. I was close but underestimated the team a little. Instead the Dodgers went 29-21 in that span maintaining the same 6.5 game lead over the Giants (depending on Thursdays Giants vs Cardinals game) and continue to have the best record in baseball as I already mentioned.
One of two things will happen now; The Dodgers will go on a tear of epic proportions and finish the season with 120 wins which would establish a Major League record, or they could struggle to reaquaint themselves with Manny Ramirez cause a rift in the club house due to his lack of presence during the suspension and the displacement of Juan Pierre who filled in amazingly during the suspension and the Dodgers implode. I’m guessing the former.
The Dodgers were 21-8 with Ramirez in the lineup. If they play at that same pace for the remaining 83 games (wishful thinking) they will be 60-23 (or in that neighborhood) leaving them with a 110-52 record. I think its definitely possible for me to be wrong and they add another 6 – 10 wins to that considering they won 4 more than I had expected during the suspension. By the way, 116 wins is the major league record for wins in a season established by the Chicago Cubs of 1906 who played a 154 game season and had two rain outs that were never rescheduled or played and the 2001 Seattle Mariners who also won 116 games but played a 162 game season. Coincidentally the 1962 Mets lost 120 games establishing a dubious record. (That ones for you Scoot)
Manny Ramirez will play his first game back from suspension July 3rd in San Diego. I will be driving there with a few friends to support the often misunderstood left fielder and to cheer him on.
