Monday, September 25, 2006 Not Dead Yet Filed under: Dodger Hill— Hill @ 1:37 pm With the hunters knowing that both their quarries had won yesterday, the Dodgers still managed to keep pace. Had they lost, I do believe that it would have been very hard for the Dodgers to make the playoffs. Instead Kuo threw another fantastic game, allowing only one unearned run while striking out eight and walking two. Since becoming a starter, Kuo has only allowed more than 1 run twice (two runs once, and five once thanks to a grand slam after he left the game). He has struck out 29 batter while walking only one. I am in favor at this point of having him make the Friday start instead of Chad Billingsley. Kuo is as about as hot as you can get and Billingsley was effective in his second start back but hardly lights out. Dodger rookie pitchers combined yesterday to allow one unearned run, five hits, two walks, and thirteen K’s. Nice, very nice. Oh yeah, some guy named Nomar hit a walk off grand slam to win the game. I heard something about it being his second in a week. Jon sort of beat me to it but Brad Penny has had a rough second half. How rough, you may ask. Well, let’s compare. ERA WHIP HR K Walks Penny 5.99 1.59 11 63 24 Lowe 3.15 1.19 5 58 15 Maddux 3.26 1.15 4 29 14 Bills 2.44 1.51 4 44 34 Kuo 2.63 1.13 1 36 9 Hendrickson 4.87 1.56 6 22 41 Sele 7.54 1.73 7 17 10 Penny is only outdone by Sele and would have been by Hendrickson had he not been sent to the pen where he has allowed only one run in eight innings. So what is his major malfunction? Well, it’s not his velocity that’s for sure. Penny was hitting 96-97 on the radar gun in his last start as the D-backs kindly splattered him all over the Ravine. But as Guillermo Mota learned a few years ago a 100 mph fastball over the plate just means that it leaves the park in a hurry. Charlie Stiener and Rick Monday commented the other day that pitches that Penny threw at 92-93 mph had a lot more movement to them. A number of people have suggested that it’s Penny head that is the problem. I think that it’s possible but whatever the reason Rick Honeycutt and Grady Little need to do something to get Penny to pitch like he did in the first half (2.91 ERA , 1.29 WHIP, 7 HR, 82 K). The Dodgers need him to nail his last start against the Rockies. Penny has owned Colorado this year with a 5-0 record and a 1.93 ERA. They need him to do that again on Thursday. Everyday that passes leaves the Dodgers with less wiggle room. Their crappy series against the Cubs and the Pirates dulled any edge that the Dodgers had on the division. Today the Dodgers fate is out of their hands as the Padres and Phillies play while the Dodgers travel. Beginning tomorrow they must take care of their own business and hope that one of two teams stumbles right in front of the finish line. By the way, the Giants are starting Jason Schmidt on the final day of the season. Alright, who’s not dead yet? - Atlantis http://dodgers.mostvaluablenetwork.com/dodger-hill/not-dead-yet/ -- 我的可愛女兒們 http://0rz.net/321AC --

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