Just like his presidential idol!

Off-topic, I have to recommend the latest posting on Cardboard Gods on one of my favorite books, Pat Jordan's A False Spring.

What do you mean that's his fastball?

Regarding the thread below I'll take the C Lee line. KC is in the depths of a huge offensive meltdown, and the Met's have David Wright.

http://tinyurl.com/6dndgt

http://images.truebluela.com/images/admin/Trade_Tree.gif

You can add Proctor and Brady Clark on there if you want to make it up to date.

Dan (Bourne, MA): Jim Callis yesterday said Kershaw>Hamels. Is this true?

SportsNation Keith Law: I agree with that opinion.

---

Okay, Molly, we're waiting! {tapping foot}

Just a sad situation.

I guess she ordered the large cappuccino...

28 Yikes. Was that from the Pujols line drive incident? I truly hope he heals up... makes baseball (and my hatred of the Padres) seem very trivial.

http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/VAnw

Of the 12 ahead of him, how did they fare in start number two?

1) Pedro Astacio - 87 game score in debut / 45 in start #2
2) Nick Willhite - 82/63
3) Doug Rau - 77/56
4) Eric Gagne - 75/41
5) Kaz Ishii - 72/70
6) Hiroki Kuroda - 71/41
7t) Hideo Nomo - 68/23
7t) Ramon Martinez - 68/68
9t) Shawn Hillegas - 65/59
9t) Rick Sutcliffe - not counting - debuted in 1976 and didn't start again for 3 years
11) Edwin Jackson - 65/61
12) Doyle Alexander - 63/58

The collective ERA of these debut starts was 0.89, with a WHIP of 0.78. The pitchers were 7-0, and the Dodgers went 9-2 in these starts (losing the Gagne & Nomo debuts). Average game score was 72.

In start number two, the ERA dipped to a still respectable 3.45 with a WHIP of 1.35. The pitchers in start two were 3-6 with a team record of 5-6. Average game score was 53.

2006- .254/.332./406 vs. LHP
.268/.335/.461 vs. RHP
2007- .290/.357/.454 vs. LHP
.269/.337/.423 vs. RHP
2008- .278/.354/.437 vs. LHP
.247/.327/.384 vs. RHP

seems to me they hit LHP better.

From Baseball Prospectus:

"Cody Ross had one of the worst Aprils you can imagine, hitting .146, 7-for-48, with just two walks and no homers. Ross has followed that dismal performance with an oddly great May. So far, Ross has hit nine home runs in the month, but has just three other hits, all singles. From May 10 to May 25, Ross went 5-for-24, with each of those five hits landing in the seats. Ross followed that stretch up by hitting three homers in two games against the Mets, becoming the first player to amass eight home runs in a span of nine hits since Adam Dunn did it in May of 2003. For the month, Ross has an Isolated Power figure of .587; for contrast, the higest ISO figure over the course of a full season is the .535 mark of Bonds in '01. Finally, since the start of 2007--when Ross hit .335 with 12 homers and a .653 SLG in 197 plate appearances--Ross has a .319 ISO, which is the highest for any player in that period with at least 300 plate appearances."

The Mets are 36-22 in games started by LHP in 2007-2008.

They are 78-78 in games started by RHP.

Nate/Poblano has been the most accurate predictor of the primary race outcomes this election season, and he doesn't take a single poll--he bases his analysis on census data.

His game score total in his first two (and only) starts in 1954 was 188. That has to be the highest for the first two starts of one's career, and I would venture to guess it's one of the highest two-start stretches for anyone in history.

The highest two-start stretch I could find for Koufax was 181. Pedro had a 188 stretch in 1999.

On another "sorry if this is old news," have folks seen the blogger mock draft put together by Future Redbirds. http://mlbloggermockdraft.wordpress.com/

Pretty interesting, though not the most readable presentation.

Dodgers are on the clock now -- Jason Churchill of Prospect Insider has the pick.

Here is the Nat's guy discussing who he thought the Nationals would pick. http://tinyurl.com/6lbl54

The concept is to predict what you think each time will do in the real world, not what you think it ought to do.

Kim Ng

"When he came, they had 22 championships and when he left they had 26," Morgan said.*

When Bob Lemon started as manager of the Yankees, they had 21 championships and then they had 22 when he left (the first time).

When Ralph Houk started, the Yankees had 18 championships and then they had 20 when he left (for the first time).

Dear Mr. Morgan:
How many titles did the Mets, Braves and Cardinals have before/after Torre left?

(not dissing Torre's managerial ability, but the '96-'01 Yanks DID have some awesome talent)

They weren't pretty.

How many baseball teams have won 3 or more World Series in a row? Two franchises.

The New York Yankees (Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengal and Joe Torre managing)
The Oakland A's (Dick Williams and Alvin Dark)

In the NBA, John Kundla, Red Auerbach and Phil Jackson have coached teams that have accomplished that feat.

Because that Russell guy and that Cousy guy and (insert name of Hall of Famer here) guy were bums!

Rosenthal trying his best to make me stop following baseball altogether.

Before a Dodgers game earlier this season, Joe Torre asked outfielder Andre Ethier to state the most important thing he wished to accomplish that night.

"Hit a home run?" Ethier asked.

No, Andre.

"Get two hits?"

No again.

"How about to trying to win a game?" third base coach Larry Bowa interjected, with an expletive thrown in for good measure.

Welcome to the evolution of the Dodgers under Torre, the former Yankees manager who is making his return to New York this weekend against the Mets (MLB on Fox, Saturday, 3:55 p.m.).

"They all think, 'You put up good numbers, you get paid," Bowa says. "Joe's trying to convince these guys, 'If you win, you're going to get your money.'"

CARTMAN
So what are you gonna do with all these underpants that you steal?

GNOME
Collecting underpants is just phase 1. Phase 1: collect underpants.

KYLE
Sooo, what's phase 2?

GNOME
Hey, what's phase 2?

GNOME 2
Phase 1: we collect underpants.

GNOME
Yeah yeah yeah, but. What about phase 2?

GNOME 2
Well, phase 3 is profit. Get it?

STAN
I don't get it.

GNOME 2
You see,
Phase 1: collect underpants.
Phase 2: ...
Phase 3: Profit.

CARTMAN
Oh, I get it.

STAN
No you don't, fatass!

KYLE
Do you guys know anything about corporations?

GNOME
You bet we do!

GNOME 2
Us gnomes are geniuses at corporations.

Time to add more fuel to the fire. On ESPN Radio today, Peter Pasquerelli attributed the Dodger hitting woes to lack of production from the young hitters. "The young hitters need to start playing better."

Ok let's just see how much you're paying attention:

Last two weeks:

Ethier: .327 / .375 / .462
Martin: .320 / .370 / .360
Kemp: .293 / .408 / .341

Loney: .276 / .329 / .427
DeWitt: .227 / .292 / .386

I see Loney and DeWitt struggling, and the slg is awful for everybody, but that was still a pretty ignorant statement for Peter to make. I thought it had more to do with having three automatic outs in the lineup.

Heck, not even Loney.

For new stats thinkers, winning is simply the result of scoring more runs than the opposition. Players are supposed to do things that help score runs for their team and prevent runs from being scored by the other team.

For traditionalists, winning is a thing in itself that transcends runs scored/prevented. Players can be winners in a sense that has little/nothing to do with runs. Players can either know how to win or not, independent of their runs-related performance. In fact, some kinds of run-supporting activities might even be thought to be harmful (or at least neutral) with respect to winning. Players aren't supposed to do things like hit HRs, strike opposing hitters out, etc.: players are supposed to "win".

Five of the top 7 players with the most plate appearances have less than 2 years experience. Juan Pierre is pretty much Juan Pierre. Jeff Kent has had a bad May.

I know that the media has not done anything to stop this kids vs. veteran storyline but I think the point of the story is to say that you if you are Blake DeWitt or James Loney and a fly ball could give you the tying run. you have to approach the at bat that way. And I'm not saying they are not.

But it would not surprise me if this storyline continues on the two nationally televised games this weekend.

But is it too much to ask that they check one lousy time? I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that every time some quote has come out the past few years about how the kids are primarily responsible for the Dodgers' struggles, I've been able to spend 1-2 minutes looking at the stats only to find that the kids were performing no worse (and usually better) overall than the veterans.

Why can't "professional" writers do the same thing, at least some of the time?

And...what has happened to Bryan Morris? He has vanished!

There's this team called the Lakers that's having a good year...

Andre Ethier
Andruw Jones
Blake DeWitt
Chin-lung Hu
Delwyn Young
Gary Bennett
James Loney
Jeff Kent
Juan Pierre
Luis Maza
Mark Sweeney
Matt Kemp
Nomar Garciaparra
Rafael Furcal
Russell Martin

I found a significant negative correlation between Age and BA, and Age and OBP. (Age is also negatively correlated with SLG and OPS, but neither correlation is significant. However, it's worth noting that the correlations are reasonably strong, and the sample size of 15 is really small).

In other words, up to this point, a Dodger's batting average goes down as his age goes up, and his on base percentage goes down as his age goes up.

Simers has focused almost all of his faux-wrath on Jones. Plaschke complained about Jones' weight in spring training.

So what you're saying is that a players hitting skills deteriorate (!!!gasp!!) as they get older?

Gee Joe, you probably shouldn't let Bowa and Kent stick it to them with a reporter either, if trust is what you want.

I'm not too bent out of shape because I don't necessarily think the organization (outside of maybe Bowa) believes this tripe. This seems like Rosenthal had a story to tell, and used his relatively benign quotes to frame his piece how he wanted.

I do enjoy the comic potential of a 4-for-42 Mark Sweeney exclaiming, "we wish it would happen a little quicker." (and I realize I'm parsing his quote and possibly using it out of context)

However, the power outage is a systemwide flaw, and is hardly the kids' fault exclusively.

"When two variables are correlated, that necessarily means that one of the variables caused the other. Determining which variable caused the other requires the researcher to decide which explanation best suits his/her pre-conceived agenda and objectives at the time. If, at a later juncture, the researcher finds it expedient to change his/her mind, s/he is free to do so."