Dodgers Get Lots of Advice

Memo to Jim Tracy:

1. You can’t use or warm up the same relief pitchers every day and then lament your bullpen is tired. That’s under your control, though it wouldn’t hurt for pitchers to have an efficient inning instead of those 30-pitch jobs we’ve been seeing.

2. In Philadelphia, Hideo Nomo had retired the last eight batters and hadn’t given up a hit since the third inning. But you removed him after seven and it took the bullpen less than an inning to lose the game.

3. Am I the only one to notice that every time Giovanni Carrara comes in with the game on the line it spells defeat for the Dodgers?

Richard Turner

Fontana

If there were performance clauses in baseball, and not just incentives, Eric Karros and Kevin Brown would owe the Dodgers money.

They should give Karros a fungo and let him hit infield practice. He does it so well for other clubs, he should at least do it for the one he’s employed by.

Karros is about as graceful as the Scarecrow in “The Wizard of Oz” and Vice President Cheney is a picture of perfect health compared to Brown. Brown will be back on the DL the first time he squares around to bunt.

Greg Melton

San Francisco

The Dodgers should learn from previous seasons of unsuccessfully attempting to insert Kevin Brown into the rotation during a late-season wild-card race.

Two alternate solutions: (1) Bring him out of the bullpen for two weeks; (2) Expand to a six-man rotation.

Himanshu Singh

Diamond Bar

Jim Tracy may have to be conked on his thick skull with a baseball bat to make him realize how stupid it is to save Eric Gagne to lock the barn in the ninth if the horses are escaping in the eighth. Sure, Gagne is valuable as a closer, but in an earlier crisis he can be absolutely indispensable.

George W. Feinstein

Altadena

I’ve been a Dodger fan for more than 40 years, and I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of this season. But it’s time for the manager and his veteran staff to be creative with the offense. It’s time for fundamental baseball. Maybe it’s time for the staff to watch a few tapes of the 1963-65 Dodger teams.

Joe Huisenga

Moorpark