Gutting the new manager has never been easier, thanks to the ax effect!

The Dodgers were swept over their weekend in Atlanta, getting outscored, 16-8. Their bullpen allowed 12 of the runs. And Mattingly’s postgame quotes were the equivalent of bad body language, the thoughts of a manager who doesn’t know how to snap his team out of it.

Watching Sunday’s meltdown on television, I thought, “Mattingly might be gone tomorrow.” And then I got a text from a rival scout, one who has no ...

So that’s what Bonsignore means.

Scioscia has been in Anaheim for 14 years and won a World Series title and five division championships.

But everything has a shelf life, and as he oversees yet another season of Angels underachievement, it’s probably only a matter of time before Moreno decides it’s time to bring in a new manager.

But don’t mistake a change in the dugout with heaping all the blame on one person.

It’s not Scioscia’s fault the Angels drastically downgraded their pitching staff. ...

The Kershaw kerfuffle continues…

I get it that 130-pitch games aren’t commonplace anymore. There were only four last season (two by Justin Verlander, one each by Johan Santana and Edinson Volquez)—- and, no, Santana didn’t fall apart immediately after that game. You probably don’t want to make 130-pitch starts a regular occurrence or stretch out a pitcher in a blowout game.

Kershaw was aware of the situation, saying that after that first inning his main focus was getting his pitch count back ...

The Repko is gone
but he’s not forgotten
This is the story
of a 71 OPS+ (rotten)

Jason Repko lost something in the offseason. He knew it. He felt it.

An outfielder for 14 seasons in professional baseball, including seven seasons spent in the majors, he lost the desire to be on the field every single day.

But he still wanted to feel that way. That’s the thing. He wanted to feel that fire again. So even when no organization offered him an invitation to spring training, he felt like he needed ...

Halotestin, I heard of. Dodgertestin, not so much.

I had never met Mark McGwire before Tuesday night, but I knew of his reputation and the fact he has struck out so far as the Dodgers’ hitting coach.

So given the Dodgers’ lack of power, I asked, “Is it time to introduce the players to steroids?”

McGwire laughed and I wondered why.

“You’re funny,” he said before finally adding, “No. No.”

What a bummer, I told him, I thought you might have the magic potion to get the Dodgers going.

“The ...

Ozzmosis: New L.A. tomorrow?

Guillen is an excellent manager. His teams consistently win more games than their talent level suggests they should (plus-19 in Pythagorean standings over his eight years with the White Sox). It’s easy to picture him getting a bump out of the Dodgers or Angels, should changes be made.

But will he get a chance?

Restoring his reputation will be a huge battle for Guillen. He might not be ready to get back in the dugout if the information I got Friday was correct.

...

11   13-20   5/09   Blue, pan up from lid of ball cap   End of manager

Exactly how much rope does the Dodgers’ skipper have left? Probably not the best choice of words there, because whatever you think of the way Don Mattingly is going about his business, any and all rope is best locked away safe and sound.

Rope, sharp objects, plugged-in radios near bathtubs, adjacent medicine cabinets, tall buildings, you name it. Not for Mattingly, necessarily, but for the inconsolable fan, because ...

“Garvey was a huge run producer nevertheless.” Fixed/Neutered.

In the seven-year stretch from his MVP season of 1974 through 1980, it could be argued that there wasn’t a better hitter in baseball than Garvey. No one had more hits during that period… not Rose, not Rod Carew, and not George Brett. Only Philadelphia Phillies Hall of Fame slugger Mike Schmidt had more RBIs (732 to 730), and as far as first basemen are concerned, only Carew (another Hall of Famer) comes close to Garvey’s ...

Formerly titled Mattingly delusional syndrome.

I am all for positive thinking, but sometimes sports figures divorce themselves from reality.

Sure, now my “Cyril Delevanti and The Mensal Line Nine” fantasy team finds out.

Adrian Gonzalez emerged as one of the finest power hitters in baseball during his final four seasons with the San Diego Padres.

He hit 30 home runs every year — and 40 one year — while playing in cavernous Petco Park.

His days as that kind of power hitter are gone.

That is not a whisper from an anonymous scout. That is the word from Gonzalez himself, who says he has been unable to recover the swing that made ...

Our guess is that legendary Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda isn’t into that whole “Gangnam Style” thing.

Check out the expression on the 85-year-old Lasorda’s face when PSY popped out Tuesday night to entertain the crowd at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles. The hall of fame manager does not seem impressed. The video is here.

All that and a Jerry Buchek Republic mention!

Curt Flood, a career .293 hitter but never known for his power, slugged two home runs against Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax. Both were historic.

The first was a leadoff shot that sparked a rare feat. The second was significant because it was the last home run hit against Koufax.

On April 26, 2013, Matt Carpenter and Carlos Beltran, the first two batters in the Cardinals’ order, hit consecutive home runs in the first inning against the Pirates’ ...

So this happened this week…

A couple of weeks before her ex-husband agreed to sell the Los Angeles Dodgers, Jamie McCourt reached a divorce settlement that gave her $131 million tax-free and several luxurious homes.

Now she says her decision was a huge mistake.

The team’s former CEO is seeking to have the agreement thrown out, saying she was misled about the value of the Dodgers that was later sold for $2 billion. A judge will hear closing arguments Wednesday in a bench trial that could ...

Dodgers prospect Yasiel Puig was arrested by police in Chattanooga, Tenn., early Sunday and charged with speeding, reckless driving and driving without proof of insurance.

A spokesman for the Hamilton County jail confirmed that Puig was booked Sunday morning and released a short time later. He has a hearing scheduled for the afternoon of May 14 in Hamilton County court.

Puig, a 22-year-old Cuban defector, signed a seven-year, $42-million contract with the Dodgers last June.

...”We’re ...

Please, go to L. A. to play forever…

Carl Crawford admits he began to have doubts – about ever hitting .300 again, ever smiling again, maybe even playing baseball much longer.

“I don’t think I smiled in two years,” the Dodgers outfielder tells USA TODAY Sports of his time on a troubled team in Boston.

“I was just frowning, I started growing grey hairs on my face from the stress and everything for two years straight,” he says, stroking the stubble on his chin and grinning—as much about how ...

Zack doesn’t even like Wapner!

Padres CEO and Team President Tom Garfinkel spoke with season ticket holders last Friday, less than 48 hours after the Zack Greinke/ Carlos Quentin incident that resulted in Greinke breaking his collarbone. Yahoo Sports obtained audio of Garfinkel’s talk. Garfinkel was of the belief that Greinke was throwing at Quentin intentionally, and explained-away it being a 2-1 game and a 3-2 count by comparing Zack Greinke to Raymond Babbitt.

“Zack Greinke is a ...

This video has been on YouTube for almost two years, but we’ve only just discovered it. And we are very glad that we did, because this may be the best way we’ve ever seen a baseball player handle a heckler.

Thanks to Paul Dylan for transcribing “this beautiful moment in Vin’s call”...

“We often talk about Chad Billingsley, saying that he pitches ‘with the Sword of Damocles over his head.’ That’s an old Greek legend.

The ruler was Dionysus, and he had a guy in the courtier - in the court – who would always talk about how great the ruler had it.

So finally, the ruler said, ‘Ok. I’ll tell you how great it is.’ - the pitch is high, ball two - and he had a big dinner for Damocles ...

Read the whole thing.

Robinson’s story has resonated with me for almost as long as I’ve been watching baseball. I first learned about him during the 1978 World Series, when I was eight years old. My father asked me if I knew who the first black player in the majors was. I thought for a moment and took a wild guess, figuring the answer might be in front of me: “Dusty Baker?” I was already color-blind when it came to my baseball heroes; Davey Lopes was my first favorite Dodger, and I ...

From Roger Angell.

Box score from Jackie Robinson’s first game.

Baseball America has the story of the second player the Dodgers signed from the Negro Leagues:

Within weeks of Robinson becoming the first African-American player in modern baseball history to sign in Organized Baseball in the fall of 1945, lanky New Orleans native John Wright became the second. A righthander with a solid array of pitches who had a decade of success in the Negro Leagues, Wright also signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers, with both Robinson and Wright set to report to Dodgers spring ...

When Seinfeld and real life merge.

“It sounds kind of small-minded, but I would think they probably have the legal right to do that, especially if they let people know in advance that that’s the rule,” said Paul Bender, a professor of law at Arizona State.

“I hate to say that. I don’t like them doing that. And it’s conceivable if it’s treated as a city, state or county stadium that the rule would be different. But with what kind of clothes people wear, usually people who run the ...

Roger Angell remembers a moment of rage:

(Jackie) Robinson, a Dodger base runner, had reached third and was standing on the bag, not far from me, when he suddenly came apart. I don’t know what happened, what brought it on, but it must have been something ugly and far too familiar to him, another racial taunt—I didn’t hear it—that reached him from the stands and this time struck home.

Word to Carlos Quentin: Assuming you aren’t suspended, the pitch headed towards you in next week’s series with the Dodgers is probably going to be intentional.