Crazy Summer Weekend

It has been a whirlwind type of Summer this year for Dodger fans.  The team has looked awful at times, key players and scrubs have been injured as well.  The team has looked dominant at times as well.  The Dodgers have played better on the road than at home recently.  The Dodgers had a 7-3 road trip and then only won 2  games this past week at home.

Oh yeah, this Summer has also seen the new Dodger ownership group throw big money all around and acquire some big name talent.  The team has committed themselves to hundreds of millions of dollars work of contracts since the new owners took over this season.

Seeing Adrian Gonzalez batting in the clean up spot for the Dodgers is going to be fun to watch for the next several seasons.  I am so pumped to see a hitter of his caliber batting for the Dodgers.

The Dodgers are only 2 games back of the Giants for the NL West division title.  Should be a fun finish to the season and I am thankful that I get to root on such a beast line-up.

 
Hey!  Look it is Zach Lee!  He is a Dodger pitching prospect that is still in the Dodger system.  So, he must be good because the Dodgers only trade away bad prospects like Carlos Santana and James Macdonald.

Oh, wait......I hope Rubby De La Rosa doesn't come back to haunt us.

The Dodgers have traded away some "top flight" prospects before that turned out to be bums like Andy LaRoche and Joel Guzman.

Maybe Rubby De La Rosa won't come back to haunt us.

Besides watching baseball, I have also been making some trades in the blog world.  These cards were sent to me by Josh at the blog Royals and Randoms.

Josh sent me a good amount of Hideo Nomo cards.  This is my favorite Nomo card of the lot that he sent my way.  One of the reasons that Nomo is a cardboard superstar is that most of his cards came out in the 90s.  Nomo was a big league star and a cultural icon during the era of a bunch of card companies making tons of cards.  The 90s has the best looking sets.  Nomo had a funky wind-up that photographed well combined with the artistic creativity of the 90s was the perfect storm for a cardboard superstar.

Josh also included several of these circular cards.  I didn't have many of these before this package arrived but, now I am better off due to this trade.

Cesar Izturis was a Dodger fielding whiz that played shortstop for the team in the early to mid 2000s.  I enjoyed watching him play because he fielded everything so smoothly and I never got worried if a ball was hit to his side of the diamond.

Kaz Ishii on the other hand made me worry every time he took to the mound.  He always had high pitch counts because he lacked control of the strike zone.  Kaz was my whipping boy on the team while he played in LA between 2002-2004.  Even though, he helped the Dodgers lose some games, I enjoy having at least one stiff on the team that gets the opportunity to screw up.  The crummy player on the team that sticks around for some years and plays poorly but, still plays in a lot of games.  That gives me more innings out of a season to crack Ishii jokes.

Thinking of Ishii reminds me of James Loney.  So frustrating to watch and just waiting for him to turn into something he is not.

So long James Loney.

Thank you for the trade, Josh.