Managerial Carousel Continues in the LMP

THIRD MANAGER FIRED IN 3 DAYS

Chris Woodward New Manager of the Venados

The first 2 managers fired in the Liga Mexicana del Pacifico were not too shocking. Luis Sojo was fired by the Aguilas de Mexicali and replaced by Juan Gabriel Castro. Then the Tomateros de Culiacan fired Lorenzo Bundy and replaced him with Robinson Cancel. Both the Aguilas and the Tomateros had losing records to begin the season.

This latest firing though has me thinking that the ownership of the Venados de Mazatlan have lost their collective mind. Mazatlan today fired manager Jose Alvarez. He has been replaced by Chris Woodward. What strikes me as strange in this transaction is that Alvarez had the Venados in 1st place in the LMP. 3 of the top 5 hitters in the league play for Mazatlan. Konner Wade is tied for the league lead in wins and is tops in ERA.

The only thing I can figure is that Woodward comes with a pedigree. For the last two seasons he was he 3rd base coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers. With the Dodgers so popular in Mexico I guess the name recognition will put "butts in the seats" as the saying goes.

The Venados average about 10,000 fans per game so that can't be it.

Maybe this is a favor for the Dodgers who might want Woodward to get some managerial experience so they can let him manage one of their AAA teams in the States.

But for now, Jose Alvarez is out of a job/ Only time will tell if this was a wise choice for the Venados.

Dodgers Sign Brett Anderson

The LA Dodgers have signed former Colorado LHP Brett Anderson to a 1 year, 10 million Dollar deal sources said.

Read the ESPN story here.

Sporting News Names Kershaw MLB "Player of the Year"

Sporting News has named Clayton Kershaw of the LA Dodgers their Player of the Year for 2014.

What I like about Sporting News' selection is that their panel is made up of 244 major league players. These players vote on what they see day in and day out. The panel is not given a list to choose from, they choose their own candidate.

This year, Kershaw narrowly beat LA Angels outfielder, Mike Trout by three votes, 76-73. Giancarlo Stanton, of the Miami Marlins, finished a distant third with 32 votes.

Jesse Spector of The Sporting News has an article here with the facts about Kershaw's 2014 season. A season where he missed the month of April due to injury.

D'Backs Hire Chip Hale as Manager

The Arizona Diamondbacks have hired Chip Hale to replace fired manager Kirk Gibson for the 2015 season.

Hale was the 3rd base coach of the Oakland Athletics last season. He was the 3rd Base and Infield Coach for the Diamondbacks from 2007-2009. Arizona won the NL West in 2007. He was also the 3rd Base Coach for the NY Mets in 2010.

The Minnesota Twins drafted Hale in the 17th round of the 1987 draft. He made his major league debut with the Twins on August 27th, 1989. He played for the Twins in 1989 and 1990. He was playing for the AAA Portland Beavers on May 27th, 1991 when he hit a deep fly ball to right that became famous when Rodney McCray crashed through the fence while trying to track down the fly ball. Check out the video of that play here.

Hale played for the Twins again from 1993-1996 and played his final major league game with the LA Dodgers on October 2nd 1997. Hale had a career BA of .277 with 7 home runs and 78 RBIs.

Read the ESPN article on the D'Backs hire here.

Beckett to Hang up His Spikes

Josh Beckett has decided to retire from baseball, and the Dodgers, rather than face a long rehab stint.

"I just don't see me going through that rehab and coming back to pitch at this point in my life," Beckett told MLB.com.

Read the ESPN story here.

Dodgers Even Series With Cardinals After 3-2 Win on Saturday

Zack Greinke, for the Dodgers, and Lance Lynn, for the Cards, pitched extremely well in the second game of the NLDS series between the two teams. Greinke gave up 2 hits, both doubles, in his 7 inning stint. Lynn, although giving up 7 hits, held the Dodgers to just 2 runs and kept the Cardinals in the game for 6 innings.

J.P. Howell relieved Greinke to start the top of the 8th. Dodger manager, Don Mattingly, had the game set up the way he wanted it. Howell, a lefty, would face three left handed batters in pinch hitter Oscar Taveras, Matt Carpenter and Jon Jay.

Taveras singled singled on an 0-2 count. Matt Carpenter jumped on the first pitch he saw from Howell and drove it 400' over the right center field wall for a 2 run home run. Zack Greinke had thrown 105 pitches in his 7 inning shutout performance and the Cardinals tied the game on 4 pitches from Howell.

The Dodgers scored their two runs in the bottom of the third. AJ Ellis led off the inning with a double to right center. Greinke followed with a single to right and LA had runners at the corners with no outs.

Dee Gordon hit a slow roller to second. Greinke hesitated just long enough that the Cardinal 2nd baseman, Kolten Wong, in his haste to get the speedy Gordon at first, tagged Greinke with the glove only and threw to first to complete what appeared to be a double play. Ellis would score on the play.

Don Mattingly challenged the play noting that Wong did not have the ball in the glove when he applied the tag. Mattingly won the challenge and Greinke was awarded 2nd base and the double play was just a 4-3 ground out.

Two batters later, Adrian Gonzalez singled to right to score Greinke for the 2-0 Dodger lead.

Carpenter's home run in the top of the 8th, silenced the 54,000+ Dodger fans who had been very loud throughout the game. The crowd wasn't silent too long as Matt Kemp, leading off the bottom of the 8th, sent a 2-1 slider from reliever Pat Neshek into the bleachers in left to regain the lead for the Dodgers.

Kenley Jensen set the Cardinals down in order in the top of the 9th to preserve the win for Brandon League while Neshek took the loss for the Redbirds.

With the series tied at one game apiece, the teams head to St. Louis to continue the NLDS on Monday the 6th of October.

Cards Score 8 in the 8th Beat Dodgers 10-9

The St. Louis Cardinals took a page from the Baltimore Oriole playbook and scored 8 runs against Clayton Kershaw and the LA Dodgers to win game 1 of the best of five NLDS in LA.

"I'm sure everybody in baseball was expecting a one-run game," Carpenter said. "We ended up getting one, but we didn't think it would be 10-9."

Read the ESPN story here

Read theYahoo Sports story here

Read the Sporting News story here