http://www.sendspace.com/file/kvjou9

Can't wait for the Maddux-Kershaw matchup. No matter what happens, it'll be kind of fascinating.

Also - will you explain what you meant by that odd 453 tease, before it appeared, in the last thread?

And hey, even if Angel Berroa looks like he's 50, he probably will be an offensive upgrade over Hu-Maza (one would hope) and maybe his defense won't stink. Then Raffy comes back and who cares about Berroa.

And I do think LaRoche will be up soon, too.

Some of the battles this season have been lost but the war is still winnable.

A comment that did not exist at the time unless one of them handy Star Trek wormholes was around.

http://tinyurl.com/4du7eg

A better situation to be in than preseason darlings Detroit, who are 10 games out and looking up at the ChiSox, Twins, and Indians.

Still, like many people here, I'll be opening a bottle of champagne when Furcal is back in the starting line-up.

Interesting quirk I saw yesterday was that the Padres set a major league record for winning four straight games by a 2-1 score. That's quite a Starkian record.

He's clean-shaven now.

Btw, I have next weekend's series vs. Detroit in the Andy LaRoche Call Up Pool. Anyone care to bet?

I also thought about bringing a transistor radio to listen to the Laker game, but:

1) I want to enjoy and focus on Kershaw's first MLB win;
2) I don't own a transistor radio (I have a radio add-on to my iPod but it's only FM).

Silly: GMs don't use computers.

Special Assistants to the Front Office General Manager of Baseball Operations and Sundry Concerns: well, they're another matter.

http://earlpomerantz.blogspot.com/2008/06/saddle-up-part-eight.html

Example 2: Cattle

'Reaching for a lick of sugar, Yancey accidentally rattles the pots. The cattle are spooked and they start to stampede.'

"What a bunch of baloney. 'Somebody rattles the pots?' What do we care? One cow says, 'What was that?', another cow says, 'Pots', and we go back to bedding down for the night.

"I'm telling you from experience. No cattle ever stampeded from pots. If it's guns, you run. We know what happened to the buffalo. But pots? Seeing that on the screen, it's an insult to cattle. 'Look at the cattle. They're afraid of pots.' It's outrageous!"

Keep in mind that no player should actually be replacement level in this system, since it means that you have both replacement level offense and defense. Your average replacement level guy should have a WARP around three.

If the Palm Beach Post wants to do a "catch-up with Kevin Brown" piece, fine. But do it right, and send a real reporter who will ask some real questions.

I was at the game yesterday. Penny wasn't as bad as I expected, but it was a shame they couldn't come through on the couple of batting chances they had. Not completely dreary, but none too satisfying, either. It could be worse than a split series with the Cubs. They should now try to sweep the Pads and Tigers.

Raffy and Andruw come back and perform at reasonable levels, Pierre's playing time drops, LaRoche fills in some of the missing offense around the infield. These are not unthinkable scenarios. There is still hope.

Don't let this happen to you!

And when he's making 40-50 times as much money as they are.

It's a 9 game trip. They also play at Detroit, at Cincy. They dont play another home game till June 20th vs the Angels.

Don't you mean against the Indians?

Matt Kemp has never hit for many home runs in his minor league career. He'd be awesome if he would hit homers, but he doesnt. The other parts of his game are fine for his experience level.

James Loney is a spray hitting 1st basemen. Not a power threat. Maybe what the Dodgers expect out of him is greater than what he is capable of?

Ethier--another solid, yet not spectacular player. How much better is he going to get?

I dont think the problem is "focus". I think its unrealistic expecations from Dodgers MGMT if they were thinking these players were going to become David Wright, Miggy Cabrera, or Ryan Braun.

The whole problem with this team isnt the youngsters in general. Its the 60+mils of wasted money spent on PVL (Schmidt, Pierre, Nomar, Druw) courtesy of Ned.

Werth, Drew, Bradley, Kemp, Ross---> I'd like that OF back.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/sotd/archives/686

Who?

Who is sitting at AAA who is going to be better?

Who?

What team is going to trade the Dodgers anyone better than Richie Sexson?

I was able to trade for the Minotaur for my fantasy team "Dem Bums" traded Polanco for him. I also got a Dem Bums t-shirt at the Top of the Park store on Saturday. Good day.
Yesterday - Flush it! Stopped watching the Laker game the moment they called the 2nd foul on Kobe-the ticky tack offensive foul that even the announcers on ABC thought was bogus. 38-10 free throws with a scrub getting 13 charity throws-Give me a Break!!
The late Earl Strom had said in his book "You have to use common sense, these are big men, incidental contact is going to happen, as long as one player is not gaining an obvious unfair advantage, keep the flow of the game going, don't call the foul."

Was Ray Allen placed in an obvious unfair advantage on either of the first two fouls? No! The only thing the refs did was disrupt the flow of the game that the Lakers had going in the first 4-5 minutes up 15-8. It became Unwatchable!!!!!!

They have also scored just one run in those two games.

And it was unearned and scored on an RBI groundout.

Did anyone else see that Jake Peavy wanted to keep his streak of pitching whenever the Padres play the Dodgers so he will probably pitch on Thursday against Kuroda.

Is that low for you...?

That will likely be the M.O. for the 2008 season.

And 2009.

I have also had the pleasure of seeing games with LAT, ToyCannon, Greg Brock, Marty, and Daniel (okay he was in the park but I missed out seeing him that day). The Dodgers won all of those games.

But I have seen games with both Bob and Eric last year and the Dodgers won so perhaps it is just a coincidence and bad clutch hitting so far this year.

It's been rumored that Jason Repko knows "the right way to play the game". Looking at his stats in Vegas, it is clear he doesn't selfishly pad his stats with "hits" and "production". He only cares about winning.

What's up with that?

Was that one of our regular posters that called in?

UCLA's Ben Howland teaches a physical style of defense and his belief is that the refs are not going to call every foul and hopefully they will just adjust and call less fouls.

There are at least two problems with this analogy.

1. The Dodgers are not so bad that a gunshot wound is an accurate description of their condition.

2. Berroa will hurt the team, whereas a bandaid would presumably be no worse than neutral.

Even if those games won't be easy, it'll be fun for them to use a DH for a change. They need all the offensive help they can get. Hopefully we won't see much Sweeney-as-DH or that'll just be...offensive.

I think Kemp is still learning, and I'll wager that's who she's talking about. With maturity I'm expect he'll improve. I think Loney is what he is, although I also think he's a second-half guy. Hu's minor league numbers suggest that he's going to play better than he has so far this season after he's gotten more AAA experience. LaRoche is the mystery piece. Does he have the power his minor league numbers suggest? If so, he'll be like the rug in The Dude's apartment. So we need to see him in LA, and I'd be willing to bench or demote Loney to open a spot for him.

But, as I said, I'm eager to read Molly's thoughts, which are based on much closer observation than what I can make.

By the way, great to have Candy and the No-no-no-no-no Guy in the booth. No nonesense coverage and a nice interview with Mariano praising the kids.

I just wonder if something needs to happen to shake things up. Not saying anyone in particular should be shipped out, but maybe something needs to happen to light a fire under certain underachieving tushes.

Here's a YouTube version of the call juxtaposed with a non baseball event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E22QICdbKxA

But what does that really mean? It seems to suggest that there is a gap between players' current performance and what their performance "should" be, and that what is needed to close the gap is some kind of shock to their system.

But why does that even make sense, in theory? Why would there be players who aren't running/throwing/hitting the way they should, and why would the solution be something other than having a coach show them how to run/throw/hit properly?

"To say the free throw disparity wasn't the key to the Celtics bizarre 108-102 win Sunday night would either be the perspective of someone in steep denial or somebody else who didn't watch the game."

BTW, has anyone looked at how some the AZ kids are doing since their hot start.

Juston Upton has struck out 46 times since May 1st. Again, the only consistent offensive player is Orlando Hudson and now Conor Jackson. The one big difference is that those guys will hit home runs but they are really struggling to make contact at times.

I think the reason you don't hear about their struggles is that they are in Arizona and they don't have Joe Torre managing them.

If anyone has a facebook account, ad me as a friend.

But had the Giants, Padres and Rockies showed some life in April, the NL West could easily be a division with no team over .500

If there's one thing we've learned from the last 2-3 years in LA, it's that winning is the great cure to anything that ails ya.

Hannibal - Russell Martin
B.A. Baracus - Jeff Kent (I tried to stray from the obvious Matt Kemp choice here)
Face - Brad Penny
Murdock - Joe Beimel

I think the A-Team / Dodgers parallel works because for all the gunfire on that show, nobody ever really got shot. I think the Dodgers offense has had a similar success rate recently.

I guess the Nomar van would have to be the club's transportation.

Ooh, that sounds good. Any report or indication whether this will need the next new expensive version of the iPhone (hardware) or whether it will also work with the current version? (Usually everything at WWDC relates to versions yet to come.)

I do find that the iPhone has transformed my relation to DT when watching games live on TV. I always found it too cumbersome, and hot, to hold a full-blown laptop computer on my lap while watching TV, so I'd just give up DT until the end of games. With the iPhone, it's a cinch. The one hang-up is the temporary freeze that happens - usually about 30-60 seconds - every time I update DT. I think it may be that schmap sidebar thing trying to load. It's a big nuisance.

(BTW, has anyone tried connecting to Blue Heaven recently, on a regular fast computer? It freezes permanently every time, always with the bottom bar trying to "Read schmap" - I think they must have it too.)

Very clever move....

http://tinyurl.com/4dejmc

Yellow alert.

http://www.hollywoodchamber.net/icons/upcoming_ceremonies.asp

This was a player that was going to a minor league free agent next year.

Lauren Graham?

The inexperienced group is holding their own and the older group is not.

They have a new Manager and new Coaches.

Half of the team went to China and when they all got together it was in Arizona and not their spring home at Vero Beach.

They have a new hitting coach.

Their #1 and #2 pitchers (Penny and Lowe) have started poorly.

Torre screwed up Billingsley's first start in a rain delayed game and that caused him more than anything else to waste three starts getting into a groove.

Torre continues to consistently bat Pierre leadoff although he has never otherwise had a set lineup.

The hitting coach has to be causing problems for at least Loney and Hu and maybe Kemp as well.

The Dodgers main pinch hitter can't hit but continues to be used.

Saito has not been Saito more than he has been Saito. Broxton has not been Broxton more than he has been Broxton.

Kuo was never stretched out before he was added to the rotation and dropped from the rotation at about the time he was getting stretched out.

Loiaza was in the rotation to start the season and lingered in the rotation.

There is now not that much difference between a loss and a win--either a late inning pitching collapse or a late inning missing key hit the difference between a win or a loss.

Players are now thinking too much and not having enough fun.

Much could be gained with a lineup of:

C Martin
CF Kemp
1B Loney
2B LaRoche
RF Ethier
LF Young
3B DeWitt
SS Hu

Less is more and therefore trading Pierre and Kent would improve the team.

I just think the notion that this team would be better off with an all young team is wrong. It has never worked and it won't work.

That show went through Colonels like the Dodgers have gone through GMs.

And no one will take Pierre or Kent.

If he can't hit major league pitching, I think you will have to re-examine the usefulness of minor league statistics.

Actually the only over-the-hill guy is Kent and even last year he was among the top second baseman in the league.

Has the GM missed so far, yes he has and I will gladly join that chorus but I can't ignore the fact that the guys we want to play are playing nearly everyday so they should share in their burden of why this team is struggling.

Now they should not get more of the blame but they should not get overshadowed because there are players on this team that some don't want here.

I guess I would use them as a guide, but would not have the same level of expectations others have from the get go

1) He's the most temperamental player on the team
2) He still provides the power / heavy lifting (leading the club in HR) or is at least placed in that role

It would be much easier if Kent wore a lot of jewelry or had a mohawk.

BTW, I don't think your view of LaRoche is that different than a lot of people. I just think he is the one prospect who has hit for power and good OPS at every level so to not use that as a reason to believe he can hit here would just seem to make all irrevelant.

Martin, he had good plate discipline but no one knew if he could hit more than .275-.280.

Ethier is probably right along his projection.

And Loney might be slighly below but he is more of streaky hitter it appears.

Ethier - every good team has a couple of consistent players like him

Loney - I think someone has been tinkering with his swing and is messing him up

Kemp - yes, he looks like a star

Martin - he is a star

Kemp's numbers with RISP this season:

.317 .411 .483

Does anyone think that the Solution is beginning to press?

Bases empty: .241/.313/.263/.576
Runners on: .356/.415/.424/.839
RISP: .385/.455/.462/.917

And even then. Wasn't Angel Berroa "rookie of the year?"* What better indication of projectible potential could you get than a player who performs in his first major league season better than anyone else? And yet, he obviously is a marginal player at best. He can't argue that an injury caused his decline. He just wasn't as good as he appeared to be.

*soon to be renamed the Todd Hollandsworth Award

Honestly, in some ways I think we're over- analyzing here. The team needs Rafael Furcal back. It could also use Andruw Jones coming back next month and being a different hitter than he was to start the year, but the odds are not good for that one. And it needs everyone collectively to stop pressing and consistently have better at bats. They need some more confidence boosting, which isn't easy when you're also facing a lot of good pitching.

Rafael Furcal is like beer to Homer Simpson: the cause of and solution to all our problems.

WHooo!!!

The point is that you have to decide which players from the minors to promote, and their minor league performance should be one of the primary bases for the decision.

Very patient hitter, good defense, not much power thanks to injuries.

I think you need to give him a legit chance before this kind of judgment.

They are very much part of the reason of why the team is struggling but the difference between winning and losing is a thin line for this team and if there were three good players in their primes hitting 3, 4, and 5 in the lineup, the core of young players the Dodgers have would be playing on a team with a much better win/loss record.

Kemp and Loney would more often be coming up in the late innings with runners on base but the game would not be on the line because the Dodgers would already have the lead and the pressure instead would be on the pitching staff to preserve the win.

Now two struggling teams will face each other at Shea.

our vets were supposed to be two of the 3-4-5 guys...Kent, Jones...

you assume alot, that Jones translates to leading in the late innings...Kent is still here...

then you'd be dumping on Broxton who has been as erratic as they come lately...lights out one day, but the other....

Diamond Leung just blogged the following:

Shortstop Chin-lung Hu has been optioned to Class AAA Las Vegas. A corresponding roster move won't be made until tomorrow, but Andy LaRoche could very well be the guy.

Hi Catalyst!!

He also said he thought Kemp's stance was too wide and the resulting lack of stride is robbing him of some power.

They played Hu pretty much everyday until it got so bad they had to bring up a guy who had never played SS in Maza to split some time and then had to get a player who the Royals gave away just to free up a 40-man roster spot.

179 ,183
And barring further injury, I don't think Hu will be back until September callups. He needs to play everyday and get his stroke back.

But I believe, to take his name (translated) literally and as one that may fit him, that I would like to see Andy LaRoche called "The Rock."

Are there other guys I'm forgetting about that could get the call or did they max out with Maza, Tiffee and Berroa? All three of which were wonderful choices over Andy...

If Furcal was going to be out longer than a week or so more, I'd like to see Maza be the one to get dropped down and have Hu be at the very least a defensive replacement (his "development" at AAA can be put on hold temporarily). At least Hu brings something to the table. I'm struggling to see what Maza or Berroa do that is so desirable in a everyday shortstop.

Gotta call him J'Mison.

Stand down.

I was at lunch.