DODGERS: The Spring Training Thread

Discussion in 'Los Angeles DODGERS' started by irish, Feb 20, 2012.

  1. bestlakersfan

    bestlakersfan DSP Legend

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    I could give a fuck if Dee walks much, as long as his average is .320+ with 50+ steals.
     
  2. irish

    irish DSP Staff Member Administrator

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    :yawn:
     
  3. GoatMilk

    GoatMilk DSP Regular

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  4. Bluezoo

    Bluezoo Among the Pantheon

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  5. BlueMouse

    BlueMouse 2020 World Champions

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  6. irish

    irish DSP Staff Member Administrator

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    meh
    cautiously optimistic
    not convinced the issue is physical
    there's something else
    i just can't quite put my finger on it...

    [​IMG]
     
  7. GoatMilk

    GoatMilk DSP Regular

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    ^ i know what you mean Irish, but his velo has certainly dipped. he threw a lot of flat pitches in 2011

    really hope this is his year. he's too good to be mediocre
     
  8. irish

    irish DSP Staff Member Administrator

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    agreed goat
    flat and, unfortunately, fat pitches
     
  9. THINKBLUE

    THINKBLUE DSP Gigolo

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    Nice clean Dodger white jerseys.
    Looks like the stadium patch is on there

    [​IMG]
     
  10. Blue Thunder

    Blue Thunder DSP Regular

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    Chad Billingsley could have been every good as Clayton Kershaw is. He was talented. He just doesn't have IT. All he is now is a starting pitcher who you fill out your starting rotation with. Somebody who we have no idea if the Dodgers will win the day Billinglsey pitches. He could have been the ace of the staff but pitched himself into being a 3, 4 or 5.
     
    IBleedBlue15 and Irish like this.
  11. GoatMilk

    GoatMilk DSP Regular

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    i swear we have the whitest jerseys
     
  12. TuborgP

    TuborgP DSP Legend

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    http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-0228-dodgers-kemp-20120228,0,6092424.story


     
  13. irish

    irish DSP Staff Member Administrator

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    st opener in 5 days...

    [​IMG]
     
  14. IBleedBlue15

    IBleedBlue15 DSP Stud

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    Hasn't Billingsley been "tinkering" with his mechanics since '09?
     
  15. Bluezoo

    Bluezoo Among the Pantheon

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    Reading this thread, and several others today...ownership, percentage of viewer falloff, attendance, etc., I think all that is left is a Jim Jones kinda thing. Maybe poison- laced Dodger Dogs. If you guys decide to end it all to escape the relentless misery and despondency, send me one.
    Woe is us...the Dodger fan.
    I'm just as guilty as anyone else, even moreso maybe, but man, we can fuckin' wallow, man...wallow.
    Wallowin' mofos.
     
  16. bestlakersfan

    bestlakersfan DSP Legend

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    Dee Gordon is the shit.
     
  17. irish

    irish DSP Staff Member Administrator

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    [​IMG]
     
  18. irish

    irish DSP Staff Member Administrator

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    Club pursued veteran right-hander multiple times in past
    By Ken Gurnick / MLB.com | 02/27/12 5:54 PM EST​

    GLENDALE, Ariz. -- In their third year of trying, the Dodgers finally landed starting pitcher Aaron Harang, who is expected to help plug an innings hole created by the departure of Hiroki Kuroda.​

    [​IMG]
    Aarong Harang, not the most handsome motherfucker in the world

    The Dodgers made a run at Harang at the 2009 Trade Deadline, again that offseason and yet again in the spring of 2010 before finally signing the free agent in December for two years and $12 million.​

    "It made it more enticing, knowing it wasn't something just spontaneous, like, 'Let's just go after this guy,'" Harang said. "It's been in the back of my mind that they've wanted me a while. That made it an easier decision, knowing people want you and have been working at something for multiple years."​

    Harang, 33, is coming off a rebound season, going 14-7 with a 3.64 ERA for San Diego. The veteran right-hander has had a few of those rebound opportunities, having been sidelined in recent years by an appendectomy, a bad back and a stress reaction in his right foot that shelved him for a month last year.​

    So a check of his career stats will find what Wall Street technicians would call "volatility."​

    Drafted and signed by Texas, Harang was traded a year later to the A's, who traded him in his second Major League season to Cincinnati. He won 16 games in 2006 (led the league in wins, strikeouts and shutouts) and 2007 (fourth in National League Cy Young Award voting) and parlayed that into a four-year, $36.5 million contract. But he then lost 17 games in 2008 (led the league) and went three consecutive seasons with single-digit wins until last year.​

    "In '08, I had an elbow strain and tried pitching through it and got to the point where I couldn't do it," Harang said. "In '09, I had an appendectomy and missed six weeks. In 2010 my SI [sacroiliac] locked up [he missed two months]. It's been nagging stuff, but fortunately not my arm."​

    Dealing with the injuries, however, led Harang to develop some bad mechanical habits that Padres pitching coach Darren Balsley helped break last year.​

    "Darren Balsley looked at some video of my 2006 and 2007 seasons, and compared them with 2010," Harang said. "There was such a difference. He got me to go back to my old mechanics. I think I changed because when you're battling nagging stuff, you compensate so you can repeat your arm slot, but you then run the risk of hurting something else. I was constantly tinkering.​

    "His big thing was, as tall as I am, I have a pretty short stride when I'm pitching correctly. He noticed that I was over-striding for what's best for me, and when I did that it changed my arm slot. I was losing my downward angle and the deception and my ball was flattening out. Balsley saw something. He noticed it in Spring Training, that I didn't look the same. Teammates that had hit against me said they were seeing the ball better off me, that I had lost my deceptiveness. I could feel it. Between that change and pitching at Petco Park, I was able to get my game back."​

    The stress reaction in his foot, Harang said, was caused by pitching on a mound that had a hole in front of the rubber carved out by the opposing pitcher.​

    This past offseason, Harang accepted a mutual option to remain with San Diego for a $5 million salary. But the Padres, in the midst of a front-office overhaul, passed and bought him out for $500,000. His Dodgers contract includes an option for 2014 that is mutual at $8 million, can vest at $7 million if he's healthy or be bought out for $2 million.​

    The Dodgers are hopeful Harang repeats his 2011 season, even if pitcher-friendly Dodger Stadium isn't quite as spacious as Petco. Harang, a San Diego native, said one of the attractions of signing with the Dodgers was the proximity to home.​

    But he also said, from the view of the Padres' clubhouse last year, the Dodgers' second-half turnaround was no mirage. He's convinced the Dodgers will contend this season.​

    "Last year, we saw that this team got off to a slow start, but they got all cylinders firing in the second half and did a complete flip," he said. "We talked in our meetings that you have to watch out for these guys. You could tell they were spotty, choppy, but in the second half everybody seemed to mesh."​

    "I'm excited about the opportunity I have here. This is a really good ballclub here. We definitely have a shot to be there at the end."​

    Ken Gurnick is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
     
  19. doyerfan

    doyerfan MODERATOR Staff Member Moderator

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    Harang is so ugly though
     
  20. irish

    irish DSP Staff Member Administrator

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    hence the photo description

    [​IMG]
    Aarong Harang, not the most handsome motherfucker in the world
     

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