The Spring Training Thread

Honestly, even though they are the reinging champs, I just don't think they can do what they did last year. I can understand him choosing them, but they no longer have Melky who was a big part of the Giants early success. Lincecum is a huge question mark, and outside of Cain I don't expect any of their pitchers to be great. Good, but not great. Although, that's often all it takes.

And if Marco Scutaro is still hitting like he did last season, then that's gonna raise a huge question mark (hell, it did here last year). He's hit mostly .260-.270, has come close to and hit .300 twice, and then all of a sudden goes on a warpath hitting .360 for them.

I can see them competing, but I wouldn't pick them to be the team to beat if the on field product these Dodgers are expected to show pans out. Like bcransom said, our question marks are way over exaggerated. If the team can play with consistency, I have full faith we'll be back in the playoffs this year.

 

Consistency kills. We don't have to mash every night. We just need to play at a high level consistently, to the point where the team has full faith in themselves that they can beat anyone, and we can certainly do some damage in the playoffs.

 

Yeah that and the bullpen one is pretty bad.

 

Schumaker ready for new beginning in L.A.
Drafted by St. Louis in 2001, 33-year-old will give Dodgers depth at multiple positions
By Tyler Emerick| MLB.com
February 20, 2013 | 3:48 PM ET


GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Drafted in 2001 by the Cardinals, Dodgers utility man Skip Schumaker spent more than a decade in the St. Louis organization, building relationships with players, coaches and, most important to him, the community.

So when the club that was all he'd ever known traded him to Los Angeles in December, it left the 33-year-old a bit shaken.

It wasn't that the move caught him off-guard. Schumaker knew the time was coming when he'd have to change teams. Plus, the Dodgers were the team he grew up rooting for in Southern California. What troubled him about saying goodbye to St. Louis was what he and his family had to leave behind.

"It was bittersweet [because] I spent my whole career there," he said. "I made a lot friends, my wife made a lot friends, kids made a lot friends, and we had a nice little network. We were part of the community. A lot of great things happened there. We had a good relationship, and there are no hard feelings. But it was tough at first."

The thoughts that helped Schumaker feel better about the move all dealt with the situation he landed in with the Dodgers.

"I got pretty lucky, to say the least. They could've shipped me to a lot of different places who aren't looking to win right now," he said. "So I just moved from one organization who wanted to win now to another. And being in a veteran clubhouse with guys I've played against for a number of years, it's been pretty easy."

Schumaker has a few familiar faces surrounding him. Nick Punto played for the Cardinals in 2011, and new batting coach Mark McGwire has been around Schumaker the majority of his career.

"I've been fortunate enough to work with Mark since 2005, he's a really good guy," Schumaker said. "He knows a lot about baseball, the hitting, the techniques, the mental side. There is so much he brings to the table and I am very fortunate to be a part of it. I'm always learning, but 90 percent of what I know is from him."

That consistency of having the same batting coach for so many years is what Schumaker credits for much of his success.

"I've had the same set of eyes on me for a number of years so he knows what works and what doesn't," the career .288 hitter said. "I think I can get out of those prolonged slumps because he knows right away what's wrong. He's very good at identifying what's going on with your swing, whether you're Albert Pujols or just a guy like me."

With the Dodgers, Schumaker's role will primarily consist of backing up Matt Kemp in center field and Mark Ellis at second base, although he can play both corner outfield spots as well.

"We've seen Skip from the past, we know he can play all over," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "He comes in good shape, he's got a light body, he's got some toughness and he's got some experience. He gives us a lot of versatility."

The flexibility that made Schumaker a valuable piece for the Dodgers to add began in 2009 when the Cardinals taught the lifetime outfielder to play infield.

"The team released Adam Kennedy, so Tony LaRussa called me and asked me about it," Schumaker said about transitioning to the infield. "We had a really good outfield, we had guys like Ryan Ludwick, Chris Duncan, Cody Rasmus and Rick Ankiel. So we had some guys who could play, and I was coming off a pretty good season so they wanted to get more bats in the lineup and try me out.

"It was a very uncomfortable Spring Training for me, but Tony gave me a long leash and I was very fortunate that he did. It ended up working out pretty well."

Since then, Schumaker has played in 401 games at second base with a fielding percentage of .980. He still feels more comfortable in the outfield but admits he has come a long way at his adoptive position.

"I played outfield my entire career, so I feel like I still need more reps in the infield," he said. "It was a mental grind at first because you don't want to be the guy making mistakes, messing up a Chris Carpenter groundball. I took it very serious. It's still a work in progress because the outfield comes more natural to me, but I'm fortunate to go back and forth."

Still, Schumaker is thankful to his old team for taking the time to build him as an infielder. He knows it has helped extend his career and will lead him to more opportunities in the future with his new club.

"It's helped me get more at-bats because, if guys need days off, I can play four different spots," he said. "I'm very grateful for that."

Tyler Emerick is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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Ellis eager to catch Dodgers' high-priced pitchers
By Greg Beacham | The Associated Press
9 hours ago


GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- The catcher in charge of the Los Angeles Dodgers' vaunted pitching staff spent part of his offseason learning how to squat.

Don't worry, Dodgers fans. A.J. Ellis still remembers how to play ball after his first full big-league season.

But after a slow, winding path through the minors led him to one of the majors' highest-profile catching jobs this spring, Ellis always wants to improve. So he worked on the mechanics of squatting, standing and even sitting in a chair back home in Milwaukee during his recovery from offseason knee surgery, determined to reduce wear and tear with help from a therapist who used video to demonstrate his mistakes.

''Just trying to make these legs last as long as I can,'' Ellis said after the Dodgers worked out indoors on a rainy Wednesday at their spring training complex.

''Basically, every time I went down before, I was putting stress on my meniscus,'' he said. ''I didn't even know about it, so now I'm just letting my knees stay in line with my toes at all times. Once the games start, I'll take it out of my brain, but I try to be conscious of it.''

Ellis has built an unlikely career on detailed work and perseverance, outlasting bigger names and hotter prospects over the past decade to become Los Angeles' starting catcher. Although his $2 million salary is less than 1 percent of the Dodgers' lavish payroll, he should have the ball in his hands more than anybody on the roster as the receiver for the high-priced rotation headlined by Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Josh Beckett.

''I don't want to make it about me, as far as hard work paying off,'' Ellis said. ''There was a plan for me, and the timing for me was to be here for this. I wanted to rush it. I wanted to be up here years ago, and the organization thought differently. I'm thankful that they had a plan for me as well. This is it. I was supposed to be here now with this team, with this pitching staff.''

Until last year, Ellis was always a depth catcher - a safety net, or a backup plan. Now, the Dodgers are so confident in Ellis that they haven't chosen a clear backup for him.

Ellis, who turns 32 shortly after opening day, knows he could be considered a surprising heir to the job once occupied by the likes of Mike Piazza, Roy Campanella, Johnny Roseboro, Mike Scioscia and Steve Yeager. He was an 18th-round pick who never figured among the Dodgers' top prospects at any point in his rise.

''You don't sell guys like A.J. short,'' Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. ''Guys that are willing to work and work and slowly, continually get better, you don't want to sell that guy short, because we don't know where the ceiling is. A.J. showed us that he was willing to go to great lengths to be a big-league catcher.''

After spending four seasons going between Triple-A and the big league club, Ellis finally broke through last year. Even after a late-season swoon possibly related to his injury, he batted .270 with 13 homers, 52 RBIs and a team-best 65 walks to go with stellar defense, throwing out 38 percent of attempted base-stealers.

''Offensively, he didn't show a lot through the minor leagues,'' Mattingly said. ''There wasn't a lot of power there. He was always a good on-base guy, but his forte was the pitchers. He was good with them. Good blocking, calling the game, all that type of thing. So he hasn't gotten away from that, but all along he's just kept working, and he's all of a sudden now a little bit better offensive player.''

Ellis' improved offense finally made him a keeper for the Dodgers, but Mattingly remembers the catcher's disappointment over a 2011 demotion as a sign of his resilience.

''He was like, 'You're making a bad decision,''' Mattingly said.

Ellis realizes his job requires him to be worried about more than his own hitting and defense. He's among the veteran leaders working on building team chemistry for the Dodgers, whose high-priced new arrivals must blend in with the veterans amid enormous expectations.

The Dodgers don't need to look far to see what not to do, either: Ellis cited the Los Angeles Lakers and Southern California's football team as downtown examples of star-studded teams that couldn't mesh.

''It's a good case study for us to know it's going to be a collective effort,'' Ellis said. ''It's not going to be the individual greatness of the players, because we do have that. If we're all just sitting back and all we're thinking about is our individual seasons and how great we can play this year, we're going to end up in the exact same position we were last year.''

Ellis' squatting has improved, but he didn't just spend the offseason working on his knee mechanics, either: His wife, Cindy, delivered their third child in the passenger seat of their car on a freeway en route to the hospital in Milwaukee. With his family doing fine, Ellis is staying on course for another solid season.

''To stay healthy is my No. 1 goal, and to hopefully anchor, as a catcher, the best pitching staff in baseball,'' Ellis said.

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what an idiot

 

i think he's getting "bamboozled" and "bukkake" confused:bukkake:

 

what happened is basically that since the 2011 Red Sox and 2012 Lakers sucked, everyone has this stupid notion that every team that becomes good on paper with money is going to suck. It's stupid ass generalizations and then the thought that if the 2013 Dodgers aren't as good as they could possibly be, that they'll fucking suck. People honestly think it'll either be a 97+ win team or an 80 win team based on absolutely nothing and they go with the 80 win team just cause.

Man I wanna fucking win this division

 

Anyways, read this excerpt from truebluela article on Ethier (btw, truebluela.com is a must read for Spring Training... Does great articles):

(This is in regards to Ethier platooning vs. lefties):