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In advance of going out to the stadium tonight, I decided to look at how Eric Gagne has done in the week since the Dodgers traded his bullpen setup man, Guillermo Mota. Looks to me like the fears expressed after the trade — that Gagne might become overworked and lose his dominance — are worth some attention. It's still early, but there are signs.
In the past 2½ seasons, Gagne only faced as many as 10 batters in a game once. This week he has done it twice. In a week without Mota he has faced 30 batters and let 11 get on base (6 scored). He only struck out 7 of the 30. In July, for contrast, he struck out half the 54 batters he faced, and let only eight get on base all month. Doesn't mean he's tanked, just that the Dodgers need to be careful with him. Alas, last night's loss, his first in a year, also means that I probably won't be seeing him tonight. Blogger 6-4-2 is more worried: "This is the penalty for tossing out Mota. Gagné under little rest is going to get worse..."
Back to non-sports programming...
* Not so fast: Jim Tracy used Gagne again, to better effect: 2 batters 1 batter, 3 pitches, save number 33. Dodgers win 6-3 playing Moneyball (11 walks), move 6½ ahead. Amusing aside: ESPN must be outsourcing game play-by-play to Bangalore; Gagne's first out is credited to "fielder's indifference." Note to self—pay more attention: As a commenter notes, Gagne faced just one batter, got him out. During the at-bat, a Phillie stole second without a throw, hence "fielder's indifference" was the right call. Sunday's game was weird: the Dodgers' new starter Brad Penny strained his arm on his 14th pitch and came out in the first inning, and in the third the Phillies' David Bell hit a grounder and never got out of the batter's box because of back spasms. Dodgers lose 4-1, hold at a 6½-game lead.
I'll be at the game myself tonight personally hoping that we don't have to see the Game Over graphics and Eric can get a night off.
Posted by: Jason at August 7, 2004 03:54 PMWhat a treat Finley has been. But I guess we acquired him for October only.
Posted by: Anonymouse at August 7, 2004 05:46 PMWell, I think that we need to take into consideration the opponents this past week. In the case of the three inning game, Gagne went up against San Diego, the second-place team. Last night, he faced Philadelphia, an NL East powerhouse. Both were very critical games and series, and Tracy probably wanted to use him as much as possible because he's, well, the best reliever in the league. One wonders whether Mota would have provided him that much more relief, given the context. He probably would have provided some, to be sure, but Gagne would have still been out there more than he was in July games, when the Dodgers were -- it's worth pointing out -- destroying the opposition in a less pressurized setting.
Posted by: Robert Tagorda at August 7, 2004 07:46 PMYou had me confused for a second there... Gagne only faced one batter, not two. The fielder's indifference remark refers not to a fielder's choice but to Byrd's stolen base.
Gagne came in with 2 out, 1 on, and the Dodgers up 3. The runner on base meant nothing, so when he stole no one cared. The middle infielders didn't even go to the bag. Though I've never heard it put that way, fielder's indifference isn't that far off the mark for what really happened.
e;
Posted by: e; at August 8, 2004 09:17 PMThanks, I was confused too. Should be fixed now.
Posted by: Kevin Roderick at August 8, 2004 10:29 PMWhat the hell is going on? Did your boss need to see the corrections before he would accept the changes?
Posted by: joseph at August 8, 2004 11:56 PMFinley is out. Penny is out. Good to see LoDuca is hitting .500 with 2 homeruns. 1 week into the DePodesta supertrade and I'm not impressed. We'll check in again in Sept.
Posted by: Anonymouse at August 9, 2004 02:26 AMFinley will be back playing this week. Penny will miss one start.
Lo Duca is injured in Florida now also.
Posted by: Bob Timmermann at August 9, 2004 07:29 PM
of LA Observed
LoDuca's a missing part of the equation, too.
Posted by: nick at August 7, 2004 01:33 PM