Seven very important members of the Dodgers are going through varying degrees of slumps currently. Some aren't too bad, but some are horrible.
Let's take a look.
Let's start with the slumpmaster himself, Russell Martin.
Entering Thursday's game with the A's, Martin had four hits in the month of June and was just 1 for his last 22. He got a gift base hit that should have been ruled an error, but still, in the month he is 5-for-45, which is good for a .111 average.
The guy is literally having problems getting the ball out of the infield. He grounds out weakly almost every time up. He is so fooled by breaking stuff that pitchers don't have to throw good breaking balls, but just get-me-over off-speed stuff. When he gets good wood on the ball, I am shocked. It is rarely happening.
I know some of you guys love Juan Pierre and what he has done in the absence of Manny, but I knew he was going to do this. He played great for a couple of weeks and has fooled people into believing he deserves more playing time.
Pierre's batting average was at a season-high .419 on May 17. Since then, over the stretch of one month, it has dropped 91 points. Sure, he's still hitting .328, but right now he stinks. Over the last three weeks, it has dropped 79 points and he is just 16 of his last 77, which is just over .200.
Rafael Furcal has been in a season-long slump that he is showing no signs of breaking out of. He has been a model of consistency this year, hitting .250 in April, .240 in May and .240 so far in June. He hasn't really got going. He looks like he's trying to pull everything and hit it a ton instead of staying on the pitch and driving it.
He is swinging too hard and striking out way too much.
Andre Ethier is just so hot and cold these days. His struggles right after Manny were well documented, when he batted just over .100 for nearly a month. He seemed to be coming out of it, but has started to really cool down again.
Before going 2-for-4 on Wednesday, he had just one hit in his last 14 at-bats. He's still just 4 for his last 22, which is a .182 average.
Now, Orlando Hudson isn't really slumping, he's just cooled off. We all knew he couldn't hit .350 all year, and I expected him to hover around .310, which is where he is and where he should stay.
It did take him getting a little chilly to get there. He's hitting just .220 in June and his average has dropped 40 points since rising to .349 on May 26. He is 14 for his last 69, which is just a smidge above .200.
He'll be fine and he'll stay right around .310. I have nothing but love for Orlando.
A couple of starting pitchers have been slumping, Hiroki Kuroda and Randy Wolf.
Kuroda made two pretty good starts after coming off the DL, but has given up nine earned in his last two starts, spanning just 11 1/3 innings.
Wolf pitched five shutout in Texas, but even with that three of his previous four starts saw him give up four or more earned runs. Against the A's on Thursday, he didn't throw strikes and couldn't go deep enough in the game to prevent Cory Wade from blowing his win.
Wolf has been a great pickup, it's just that right now he doesn't seem to be going to well. Again, I am very happy with what we've got out of him.
I am going to stop there and leave the bullpen alone for now. Other than Ramon Troncoso having a rough outing on Tuesday (which he was overdue for) it's been pretty good.
martin is a total bum right now...furcal just doesn't seem right...
Bullpen over the last month has been suprisingly good, Troncoso gets a free pass but Wade doesnt. Hope Wolf is healthy cause he looked tired yesterday, hopefully Kuroda is still working out the kinks from spring.
If we werent expecting ODawg to hit .340 all year then were we really expecting Pierre to hit .419-.328? He has cooled off, but we need a couple hits from him from now to July 3rd and he has done his job above and beyond the call of duty and can be dealt or used as speed off the bench for the rest of the year.
Furcal and J.Martin are the ones that I'm concerned about and not in that order. They hit like shit with Manny in the lineup unlike Ethier, so I hope they can get it going...I'm not willing to bench Furcal cause of the different things he can do and Castro isnt good enough to play fulltime, but J.Martin can be replaced by Ausmus and do the same job if he doesnt get it going...JMartin has till the all star break to get his head out of his ass before its ride the pine time...or dare I say deal him?
The problem with trading Martin, is you won't get good value for him right now. His value is depraciating every single day. That guy has been bad.
Hopefully this stretch is good enough to trade Pierre, but I am doubting it.
Juan Pierre and JMartin would be a good start to talks about Oswalt though, throw in one of our minor league pitching prospects and a couple others.
Not completely for trading J.Martin as I still hold hope that he can snap out of this...but juicing questions are still about when discussing his power drop. But for a true ace to compliment Bills we would be tough to beat in a five or seven game series
Did my eyes decieve me or was that a homerun by Loney last night?? Its not like J.Martin where the power disappeared like Kaiser Sosay, if you watch James take batting practice he smacks several over the fence each round. Loney has the potential to be a 20 hr guy with 15 in 07 and 13 in 08, but what makes him more attractive is the RBI's that he racks up. He is currently on pace for 107 RBIs and seven homeruns, J.Martin is on pace for 0 homeruns and 46 RBIs.
I also thought it was funny that dodgers.com wrote a blip about J.Martin swinging the bat better yet all I could recall was his bounce back to the pitcher...was that just to boost J.Martin's confidence? Stick him in a room with Tommy Lasorda for one of his classic "motivational" talks...the old foot to ass method.
Nice Kaiser Sosay reference. Can't ever get enough of them.
Loney really drives in runs. He's very good at it and if he drives in 100-plus, the power is not a big deal.
As far as Russell Martin goes, that mlb.com story is bullshit. He's not swinging the bat better. He hit one ball hard.
The Lasorda foot to ass recommendation is a good one.