The baseball season’s coming up and Mike Krukow thinks Yasiel Puig is dumb for not pegging the Giants as their biggest rival. In San Luis Obispo, I’d say they are, though the two teams have not met in the playoffs since the Wild Card round started.

I thought it would be fun to, over the next few weeks, go position by position and compare what personnel the two teams have in preparation for the 2015 season. Today’s position: third base.

Second base showcases the Dodgers’ best off-season aquisition against an up-and-comer for the Giants.

Position by Position: Catcher

Position by Position: First Base

Position by Position: Second Base

Apparently, Juan Uribe dyed his beard blonde at one point? This must have been during the McCourt era… . By bridgetds on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons

Juan Uribe

Juan Freaking Uribe.

Over the past five seasons, the range of fan emotions I’ve had about Uribe has spanned from fan-loathing to pure, unadulterated joy.

The first two seasons of Uribe’s career in Los Angeles were the worst. Over those two seasons, Uribe played just 143 games and, according to Fangraphs.com, contrubuted .5 total wins above replacement.

Contextually, the Dodgers were on their way to filing for bankruptcy and simultaneously paying a Giants retread $8 million per season to play as well as a replacement-level third baseman. It’s a chain of events that had me tickled to find this website, where someone could share in my passionate sideways look at the Dodgers’ decision to sign Uribe.

Then Uribe hit the third and final year of his original Dodgers contract, and had a career season. In 2013, Uribe put up 5.0 WAR (Fangraphs) and pretty much redeemed himself.

The moment of redemption, in my eyes, came in a playoff game I attended.

With the Dodgers down a run and yours truly in the loge level, Uribe came through in a big way.

It was as happy a baseball moment I’ve had probably in the last 20 years, and it was thanks to a guy I took a while to come around on. The mini bat-flip. The arms raised. Dodger Stadium was insane that night.

Uribe signed a new deal before last year and played in just 103 games in 2014. To expect him to play more than 120 or so games in any season at his age, with his miles, and with his body type is probably unrealistic. That said, he’s still an above average defender at third base and he’s a decent right-handed bat at the bottom of the order. If he’s one of your top-five hitters, that might be problematic, but Uribe has performed well enough for the last two seasons to expect decent performance in 2015.

Casey McGehee

Casey McGehee is best known for his solid 2010 season with the Brewers. That year, McGehee hit 23 homers and made himself known as someone who could contribute above-average power at third base.

Since then, it’s been a roller coaster. McGehee contributed negative (Fangraphs) WAR numbers in 2011 and 2012, and did not play in 2013. Going into last year, he was once again an unknown.

Playing for Miami in 2014, McGehee seems to have resurrected his career. Last season, he hit just four homers, but managed to drive in 76 runs while posting a .287/.355/.357 split (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage). This offseason, the Giants acquired McGehee for a pair of minor league pitchers.

McGehee is the kind of Aubrey Huff-like player that the Giants pick up for less than they’re worth and somehow get the most out of. ZiPS likes him for a lower WAR number than Uribe this season, but he is three years younger, which means he’ll probably play more games than his 35 year-old counterpart in Los Angeles. If McGehee over-performs a little and stays healthy, he could pass-up Uribe, especially if Uribe hovers around the 100-game mark throughout the year.

The verdict

This has been the hardest yet to call one way or the other. Even though he’s playing in a ballpark where homers go to die, I kind of like McGehee to get back to double-digit homers in 2015. I’m also not sure that Uribe can stay healthy at his age for an entire season.

Uribe has gone from a guy who I was constantly frustrated with as a fan to a reliable clubhouse leader, whether he’s in the game or not. On top of everything, Uribe is in a contract year, and the last time that happened was his career year in 2013. While McGehee hasn’t had two good seasons in a row in the majors ever, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened this year. That said, I’m going with Uribe on this one.

Third Base Advantage: Dodgers

Giants fans, I’m interested to hear how you feel about McGehee. Is he going to give way to Arias on a consistent basis? Is there anyone in your system you’d rather see at the position? Did the Giants adequately fill the hole left by the Pablo Sandoval departure?

Comment below.

Dodgers star outfielder Yasiel Puig is at it again with his questionable antics that causes most of the baseball world — especially grouchy Dodgers fans — a reaction kind of like this.

Puig arrived late for batting practice during the Dodgers home opener against the Giants and was benched from the game. It’s the second time in Puig’s career that he has been benched for arriving late. Add to that his two driving arrests, mistakes running the bases and failure to hit the cutoff man and you can see why some fans are frustrated by his immaturity.

The catch is that he remains one of the most talented players in the baseball. The Dodgers need him and they need his antics to stop to get back to the World Series — a place they haven’t visited since 1988.

Puig needs players like Uribe to show him the way and teach him. By Ron Reiring via Wikimedia Commons

Puig set records in his first month in the big leagues causing people to call for “Puigmania” or “MVPuig”. You couldn’t walk around Los Angeles and not have someone talking about Puig or the Dodgers.

Since his historic first month, though, his numbers have declined slightly and his off field antics have caused much criticism and debate. He just hasn’t made a good impression. The thing is, people forget that he is just 23 years of age now, he hasn’t even been in the majors for even a full season. He came from a country in Cuba with little freedom and now he is a star. I think any 23-year-old kid would lose control sometimes.

Yasiel Puig is a very talented athlete, that isn’t being questioned at all. But his maturity needs to improve if he wants to continue his career as one of the stars in Major League Baseball. It will only get worse for him from here on out if he continues to do these antics. He has a microscope on him and anything he does — on or off the field — will be examined and re-examined over the course of the season.

It may be wishful thinking, but I think or at least hope that Puig finally has learned his lesson from the opening-day benching. For the Dodgers sake he better have.

Hyun-jin Ryu turned out to be a great pickup for the Dodgers last offseason, but the team has more subtle changes to be made this year. By Owen Main

Last offseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers made some huge splashes in the free agent market by signing Zack Greinke and Hyun-jin Ryu to multi year contracts. Both signings panned out for the Dodgers during the 2013 season as both Greinke and Ryu pitched very well in both the regular season and postseason helping to guide the Dodgers to the NL West title. After being eliminated in the NLCS, many people wondered what the next big move for the Dodgers would be during the offseason. Would they make a trade for former Cy Young Award winner David Price? Would they trade away star outfielder Matt Kemp? Neither have happened to this point. Here’s what has happened so far:

The winter meetings have passed and the Dodgers have remained very quiet this offseason. The biggest signing so far is that of Dan Haren to close out the pitching rotation. Since the new ownership of the Dodgers has taken over they have been willing to spend money whenever they want with no price limit, so the lack of movement this offseason has confused some folks. Aside from the Haren signing the team has re-signed some key players from last season including Juan Uribe, Brian Wilson and J.P. Howell. The team’s quiet signing of these players and lack of a big splash so far has been a blessing in disguise for the Dodgers. Sometimes, less is more.

Even with their lack of moves, the Dodgers should still should be the favorites to win the title this season. Re-signing such major players to their team as Uribe, Wilson and Howell was very important for the team and its chemistry. Consistency is a major factor for any team playing any sport and keeping mainly the same players around and having them grow together with the ups and downs wins championships which is the Dodgers ultimate goal. The type of players the Dodgers have in their clubhouse is extremely important. They did lose some utility players and clubhouse presences to free agency and retirement (Skip Schumaker, Mark Ellis, Nick Punto, Jerry Hairston, Jr.), but for the most part the rest of the 2013 team is there.

The Dodgers management should get more credit than they deserve for finally putting a winning product back onto the field in Los Angeles. Both the players and fans of the Dodgers should be excited for the upcoming season regardless if any more moves are made. For the first time in a long time, the Dodgers are looked at as the favorites to win the World Series and end their 26 year title drought. And, with a team this talented, they aren’t just making moves to make moves.

My ears are still recovering from Monday night’s Juan Uribe home run. For those of you who have been in a cave or on the moon, here it was.

I have never heard Dodger Stadium so loud. The crowd reaction was an exultation of all the nervous energy that was built-up at the beginning of the year. Hopefully the mood will be just as loud and not as nervous when the team returns home for Game 3.

Whether Andre Ethier comes back will be a big story over the next few days. By Owen Main

Grienke/Kershaw

The Dodgers’ pitching is once again lined-up for this series. Zack Grienke and Clayton Kershaw will start games one and two on the road. This is a best-case scenario for Dodger fans. It’s the reason they signed Grienke. Pitching is a huge deal in the playoffs and the Dodgers have two of the best.

Mark Lemke or Joe Carter?

I am 32 and grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, so “Mark Lemke or Joe Carter” seems like a prescient question to me. When all is said and done, will players like A.J. Ellis, Mark Ellis, John Jay, Daniel Descalso, and Juan Uribe be the heroes? Will any of the bigger stars like Adrian Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez, Yasiel Puig, Matt Holliday, Matt Carpenter, or Yadier Molina be the names we’re talking about?

We are ’bout to find out.

Will Ethier be back?

Andre Ethier’s bat vs. Skip Schumaker’s bat could make a huge difference in a close series.

How important is Game 1?

REALLY important — Especially for the Dodgers. A scenario where the Cardinals win Game One puts huge pressure on Kershaw and the Dodgers for Game Two. Can you imagine a worst-case scenario where the Cardinals win both games and the weight of the world is on Ryu for Game 3? I don’t want to think about it. Instead, Dodger fans would prefer to put the pressure on the Cardinals by forcing them to have to beat Kershaw in order to avoid losing both games in St. Louis.

However you cut it, Game One of a series shapes all the rest of the games. It’s huge.

The truth is, Juan Uribe has redeemed the first two years of his contract all season. In over 900 innings, he’s made five errors defensively at third base. His hitting got progressively better over the course of the season, and on Monday night, he sealed the fate of how his time with the Dodgers will be remembered with this majestic blast, turning a 3-2 deficit into a series-clinching 4-3 victory.

Wooooo!

Until last year, I was one of the biggest Uribe detractors. When Luis Cruz was hitting home runs in Spring Training, I didn’t really see the need for him on the roster, despite his big contract. Through it all, he apparently remained very professional and did what the team asked him to do.

This season, in his contract year, he seemed slimmed down and has been a solid contributor. In the first four playoff games, he’s been nothing short of incredible. So, an apology is due:

Juan, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I called you a fat toad. I’m sorry for getting frustrated and laughing at emojuanuribe.com. I’m sorry for the boos.

On to the NLCS!

Dodger Stadium was beautiful on Monday night. By Owen Main

Garvey almost blows it

Steve Garvey had the honors of saying, “It’s time for Dodger baseball” before the game, but he added a little more. The former Dodger emphatically predicted that this would be the last game of the NLDS moments before the first pitch with the Braves looking on. A few heads in the Braves dugout definitely turned pretty quickly at that moment.

With the Dodgers down 3-2 in the 8th, all I could think about was how the team and its fans looked like they might eat Garvey’s words, especially if the Dodgers couldn’t pull out the series at all.

Oh, but ye (me) of little faith… . Juan Uribe and his home run swing made it all better.

Man, that was awesome. Awesome Awesome Awesome! Bring on the NLCS!

Carl Crawford 2011-2012: .260/.292/.419; Juan Uribe 2011-2012: .199/.262/.289. Tonight: 3 HR, 4 RBI, one trip to NLCS

— Eric Stephen (@truebluela) October 8, 2013

One player the Dodgers won’t bring up to fill gaps is Yasiel Puig. It’s nice to dream of the day they do though… By Owen Main

When it came to the Dodgers of the past few years and even this year’s Lakers teams, my rants about injuries of players on my favorite teams have been pretty steadfast. In a nutshell, here’s my prevailing thought:

If you sign players who have a history of injury and pencil them in to play 90 percent of the games in a season, PLEASE don’t insult my intelligence and act completely surprised and taken off-guard when said players are injured and the season doesn’t go like you would have liked it to. (see Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, and a less recent baseball example: Rafael Furcal).

My point is always that if you have players like this on your roster, have a backup plan.

The Lakers of this past season had a hard time with a back-up plan for Steve Nash and Dwight Howard’s injuries. When Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol also went down, their chances went (in the words of the great Chick Hearn) “from slim to none. And Slim just left the building.”

Which brings me to this year’s Dodgers roster. One of the reasons why I bought into the “Whole New Blue” mantra was because these guys seemed to have a plan. Players were treated conservatively in the preseason and there seemed to be a solid, quality backup everywhere you turned.

Matt Kemp seemed to be getting healthier by the day. Carl Crawford was developing back into the Carl Crawford fans in Tampa Bay knew so well. Hanley Ramirez was on-track to get back from a World Baseball Classic injury that forced him to be out until April 29. The team had EIGHT starting pitchers to help account for any potential injuries. Yasiel Puig, Dee Gordon, Tony Gwynn Jr., Scott Van Slyke, Elian Herrera, and Justin Sellars are all players who have spent time in the minor leagues this season and, with the exception of Puig and Van Slyke, have significant major league experience.

The team had insurance policies on insurance policies, or so it seemed.

It started with the rotation.

First, Aaron Harang was traded. Who needs eight starting pitchers? Seven is more than enough. Then Zach Grienke went down (Carlos Quentin has been playing for weeks…). Then Chad Billingsley needed Tommy John surgery. And then there were five.

Chris Capuano was rushed into duty and looked all right, but then he got hurt, too. Ted Lilly came off the Disabled List and quickly returned to the trainer’s office after only a few starts. The mantra that you can never have enough pitching has proven true for the boys in blue, but that’s only been half the battle when it comes to injuries.

After only 12 plate appearances, Hanley Ramirez went back on the disabled list. Luis Cruz may as well have been injured for as much production as he’s given the Dodgers. Adrian Gonzalez injured his neck and Mark Ellis is now on the disabled list too.

Yes, the Dodgers still have Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Carl Crawford, sometimes Gonzalez, and Clayton Kershaw healthy and they don’t really have an excuse to be as bad as they’ve been.

At this point, when the team is forced to start a number of reliable utility players throughout the infield, this fan is willing to give them something of a pass.

They had quality back-ups, but having to play them all at once wasn’t in the plan. In the midst of getting swept by the Giants, the Dodgers started Juan Uribe, Nick Punto, Gordon, and Cruz in the infield. Cruz was probably the weakest option of the bunch and he’s the only one who was penciled in as a starter at the beginning of the year.

With a lineup like that, all Dodgers fans can do is wait and hope that time doesn’t run out on guys getting healthy. In this case, the injury bug really has been more like a plague.

At some point, Uribe, his .207 batting average and 5 home runs since he joined the Dodgers needs to make like Andruw Jones and get the hell off my team.

I laughed when I saw emojuanuribe.com, but this is no longer a laughing matter.

The Dodgers just finished a series during which they did not score a run in 3 games and looked as inept as you can. If this is how it’s going to be, I’d rather have Scott VanSlyke or really anyone else (save for James Loney) getting regular at-bats in lieu of Uribe.

Since Uribe came off the disabled list and re-claimed his regular position at third-base, the Dodgers, who were 39-22 at the time, have gone 4-11. Before he came back, it seemed like they were getting contributions from everyone.In the 15 games since he came off the disabled list, the Dodgers are reeling offensively, scoring only 2.26 runs per game.

A team that is hot and getting what seem like random contributions can withstand one crappy corner infielder in the lineup. But with the combination of Loney and Uribe, the Dodgers have started to regress to the team they probably actually are. The decline of both of these players was not hard to predict, so the Dodgers should not act surprised. But they should act. Based on this quote of Don Mattingly in Yahoo Sports today, it looks like they are laying the ground work to do just that:

“I’ve got to find production and it’s not happening. You’ve got to produce. This is the big leagues, not instructional league or coming through the minors.”

Amen.

1) Safety. It’s pretty simple: when a guy gets beat to the edge of his life on opening day and when the stadium already has a history of parking lot shootings, people are wary for their own personal safety.

Even if they aren’t worried about getting beaten or shot, there are increasing amounts of vulgarity and belligerent behavior that I know I wouldn’t want my wife or kids to see (if I had kids).

Can you spot the troublemakers?

2) Carlos Santana, Russell Martin, Trayvon Robinson, et al. These are players the Dodgers have traded or allowed to walk away who are all-stars or future stars in the league, and they aren’t the only players the Dodgers have made personnel mistakes with. While the Phillies (who the Dodgers faced in the 2008 NLCS)  have made every move imaginable over the past 3 years to make their team better, the Dodgers have struggled to stay even mediocre.

If you want to see everything the Dodgers should have been doing with their roster, look at the Phillies. If you want to see pretty much everything the Dodgers should not be doing, from a roster standpoint, look at, well, the Dodgers.

Who would Dodgers fans rather have right now: Casey Blake or Carlos Santana? Would you give up the playoff run in 2008 if you could have Santana at catcher or first base even? Russell Martin was probably a move the Dodgers had to make, but it’s still frustrating to see him doing so well with a well-run organization.

And what about Robinson? He was touted as one of the gems in the farm system and initial reaction to his being traded (by people who know a lot more than me, like mikesciosciastragicillness.com) is that the Dodgers got fleeced.

3. Cost/Value: During the McCourt regime, the price of a Dodgers ticket has become more and more expensive without the relative value of the team on the field changing at a commensurate level. In other words, fans are paying more for the same mediocre roster. Instead of old ex-Giants Jeff Kent and Jason Schmidt, we have Juan Uribe… and what would I do to have a Jeff Kent-level player, even during his time with the Dodgers, on the roster right now…?

The team seems like something Donald Sterling might put together if he was a baseball owner. What a sad day when I’m comparing the owner of the Dodgers to Donald Sterling.

The team has some stars, but the overall entertainment value has become a hollow shell of what it used to be. The experience is certainly different, but it’s grown far worse and this fact has never been acknowledged by Frank or any of his people.

4.  Blue Land – The Dodgers spend $14-15 million per year on, get this, rent. Apparently McCourt has broken up the Dodgers’ holdings into separate entities. One of these is called “Blue Land” and the Dodgers pay it huge bucks for rent — far more than other teams pay for rent throughout the league.

On top of that fact, the ambiance of the place has been lost. Ushers seem more like ill-trained automatons than the baseball-knowledgable, straw-hat-wearing ushers of the past. Fans aren’t able to move into unoccupied seats, even late into the game.

The scoreboard is filled with obscure stats, for example that James Loney was the 11th best hitter in late game situations when Vin Scully had chicken for dinner between June 27, 2007 and May 3, 2010. I’m only exaggerating a little here.

To top off the point about “Blue Land,” I’ll describe something that happened to my family during the last game I attended. In the 8th inning, on a 95 degree day, the Loge Level concession stand ran out of water. The water at the stadium already costs $6.50 and on a day this hot, they SOLD OUT OF BOTTLED WATER. It seems like someone could have made a Costco run when they realized that there is an announced crowd of over 35,000 people and they clearly didn’t have enough water for a hot day. The funny thing is, there were probably only 15,000 people there. If there were more, I can’t imagine what they would have done. They would have run out by the 4th inning. It’s no wonder that nobody wants to go to the games anymore. But it is sad. And it needs to change.

In the words of the protesters in front of Dodger Stadium on Saturday, “the sooner the better.”

The stadium sold out of water on a day that looked like this 15 minutes before game time...

Really? Who saw this one coming. Who could have ever known that an infield that includes 37 year-old Casey Blake, 33 year-old and oft-injured) Rafael Furcal, and 32 year-old (and out of shape) Juan Uribe wouldn’t be together for 162 games? By the time the season is over, the Doders would privately be happy with even 80 games together for the group.

For the last few years, owner Frank McCourt has not made any big free agent acquisitions with the exception of the dumpster fire that was Manny Ramirez’ contract. Instead, the Dodgers have openly touted a group of young players as the direction the team was headed. That included Russell Martin, Jonathan Broxton, Chad Billingsley, Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp, James Loney, Hong Chi Kuo, and Andre Ethier.

Knowing what we know now, the motivation for the focus on youth couldn’t possibly have been related to the fact that young players are cheap right? The Dodgers aren’t a cheap organization, are they? Not Frank McCourt…

While Kemp, Ethier, and Kershaw have turned themselves into very good players, the Dodgers have been patient — even to their detriment with players like Loney. While it was clear after a few seasons that Loney was not

Despite the purported Dodgers youth, they have the fifth-highest average age in the majors. Usually, teams that have high average ages are serious contenders. Teams at the top of the list tend to bear this out. The Red Sox, Yankees, and even the World Champion Giants are at or near the top of the list.

But not the Dodgers. Anyone who says they are serious contenders right now is crazy. Los Angeles is the second-oldest team under .500 in the majors and I don’t think that’s a place any team wants to be.

Talking about injuries to Casey Blake and Jay Gibbons, Bolch quotes Ned Colletti, Dodgers GM, as saying, “Those are unluck of the draw, I guess.”

Right, Ned. Who could have thought that guys in their mid to late 30’s could get injured during the season.

At a time when the Dodgers should be locking up players like Kemp, Loney, and Kershaw with long-term contracts, the Dodgers could see their best young stars become free agents and sign with other clubs during the next few years. If they lose some of those good “young” players, the Dodgers’ front office may talk about other factors they couldn’t control. Another team overspending is always a favorite excuse.

The point is that there are things the Dodgers could and should be doing now — and with a sense of urgency that is sorely lacking. Their roster is built to win now, but they’re not winning now. As currently constructed, their roster wasn’t going to get them to a World Series. So I guess I’ll take it as a blessing-in-disguise that injuries are allowing Dodgers fans to get a glimpse of Russ Mitchell, Jerry Sands, Javy Guerra, Kenley Jansen, and Rubby De La Rosa. If they’re going to be bad, at least these guys are getting a chance to show whether they can play every day at this level.

Already old, injured and not a very good team, things might have to get a whole lot worse at Chavez Ravine before they get better. The turnaround could take several years. And that’s just on the field…

On Sunday afternoon, the Dodgers pitching again held up their end. Chad Billingsley didn’t allow any runs through eight innings. Unfortunately, the scene was all-too familiar. Including the game in Colorado, I had seen the Dodgers score exactly zero runs through the first 17 innings I watched live this year.

I saw Juan Uribe swing at pitches I quit swinging at when I was 11 years old. I saw Matt Kemp thrown out trying to steal on Yadier Molina. I watched horrible at-bats from Rafael Furcal, Tony Gwynn, and even Andre Ethier. A few guys got to third base. Rod Barajas’ 400 foot foul ball in Colorado was the highlight through almost two games.

In the top of the ninth inning on Sunday, Jonathan Broxton brought my Dodgers happiness to rock-bottom. I hadn’t been high on them (in case you haven’t noticed), but I was about to reach a new low in watching them get shut out 3-0 and 1-0 in consecutive games I’d seen in-person.

Then Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp brought me back from the brink. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Ethier led off with a double. Not trying to do too much with the ball, Ethier drove it into the right field corner and hustled to second base. After a pitching change, Kemp continued his patient approach. After working the count in his favor, Kemp drove a pitch over the left-center field wall. All my frustration with the Dodgers, momentarily at least, vanished. I jumped around in circles in the aisles at Dodger Stadium and screamed like a girl. One swing. And all was well again.

And it was as hot as it looks...

It was as hot as it looks....

As Kemp came to the plate, the thought did cross my mind to take out my Droid and start videotaping the at-bat. I have done that in the past with no positive effect on what happened in the game. Instead of doing so, I put myself in the moment. Too often I’ve tried to record things only to have them come out worse than expected. And then I’m left with a compromised fan experience.

So I watched as Kemp hit his home run. And I wasn’t any less excited that I couldn’t show it to my readers- sorry folks. I’m sure you can see the highlight on MLB.com if you really want to. It was pretty awesome.

___________________

But enough about the Dodgers. We are in my FAVORITE sports time of the year. March through the beginning of June. March Madness, the start of baseball season (with the promise of Spring), 40 games in 40 nights, the Kentucky Derby, the Indianapolis 500, the Masters, the NHL Playoffs, the beginning of MLS, and so many other great sporting events dominate evenings and weekend days.

Especially when you’re on the Central Coast, the option is always there to stay outside all day in the sun and then spend the evening relaxing with a cold beverage and enjoying some of the best sports times of the year. And I’m loving every minute of it. I’ll say it again- what a great time to be a sports fan.