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Also ...
A Season in Savannah (Stanford Magazine)
Five Questions: Los Angeles Dodgers (2005) (Hardball Times)
Rick Monday (Baseball Analysts)
Baseball's Odd Couple (Baseball Prospectus)
Five Questions: Los Angeles Dodgers (2006) (Hardball Times)
Five Questions: Los Angeles Dodgers (2007) (Hardball Times)
Dodger home record: 50-35 (.588)
When Jon attended: 9-5 (.643)
When Jon didn't: 41-30 (.577)
Dodgers at home: 795-635 (.556)
Jon attended: 302-238 (.559)*
Jon didn't: 498-404 (.552)
* includes road games attended
Current Roster with Estimated 2009 Salaries
(updated November 14)
Most figures are estimates (some are wild estimates) but will be updated as information comes in. Corrections welcome.
More contract details here.
Starting Pitchers (5)
$10,000,000 Hiroki Kuroda
*$475,000 Chad Billingsley
*$415,000 Clayton Kershaw
*$405,000 Eric Stults
*$400,000 James McDonald
*Total: $11,695,000
Bullpen (7)
*$2,500,000 Takashi Saito
*$1,300,000 Scott Proctor
*$1,500,000 Jonathan Broxton
*$425,000 Hong-Chih Kuo
*$420,000 Cory Wade
*$410,000 Ramon Troncoso
*$400,000 Scott Elbert
Total: $6,955,000
Also on 40-man roster
Mario Alvarez
Yhency Brazoban
Greg Miller
Justin Orenduff
Starting Lineup (8)
$17,100,000 Andruw Jones
*$3,000,000 Russell Martin
*$2,500,000 Andre Ethier
*$600,000 Matt Kemp
*$600,000 James Loney
*$500,000 Angel Berroa
*$410,000 Blake DeWitt
*$400,000 Tony Abreu
Total: $25,110,000
Bench (5)
$10,000,000 Juan Pierre
*$600,000 Jason Repko
*$410,000 Delwyn Young
*$400,000 Danny Ardoin
*$400,000 Chin-Lung Hu
Total: $11,810,000
Note: Team can buy out Ozuna's 2009 option for $200,000
Also on 40-man roster
A.J. Ellis
Lucas May
Xavier Paul
Disabled List
$12,000,000 Jason Schmidt
Also Paying ...
$2,000,000 Brad Penny (buyout of $9,000,000 option)
$50,000 Gary Bennett (buyout of $900,000 option)
Note: Kansas City is responsible for $500,000 buyout of Angel Berroa's $5,500,000 option for 2009.
Working total: *$68,020,000
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From Diamong (sic) Leung of the Press-Enterprise:
Shortstop Rafael Furcal has been diagnosed with a bulging disk and has been limited to conditioning exercises, leading Dodgers manager Joe Torre to realize he might not have his leadoff hitter back in three weeks, as he'd been told. ...
(Angel) Berroa, however, is hitting .133 and isn't the best defender either. In the first inning Friday, he botched a rundown play, allowing Detroit's Carlos Guillen to elude a tag by sliding underneath it and returning safely to third base.
Torre said he would give Blake DeWitt a look at shortstop before thinking about turning to All-Star catcher Russell Martin, who has said shortstop is his dream position to play.
But on a night when Andy LaRoche started for the first time at third base, Torre called DeWitt his starter there.
"I'm more apt to move LaRoche around," Torre said. ...
Was it a simple Bison drop in the line-up? Any other winners?
Is that because he thinks LaRoche is more versatile, or because DeWitt has somehow earned the right to stay at 3B?
I don't consider Pierre one because one, he's 30 and two, he's only in his 8th year.
At this point you are only talking about Kent.
It was "fresh off parole, Matt 'The Bison' Kemp".
Beimel also added:
Andre "Neck Beard" Ethier
Jeff "Only Man in MLB Who Should Wear a 'Stache" Kent
Juan "The Only Man in Baseball That Can Wear This [mini] Hat" Pierre
Pierre is clearly thought of in baseball circles as a "veteran", "leader", etc.
DeWitt now OPSing less than Loney, Kemp, and Ethier, though Management no doubt thinks he's hitting the best of the bunch.
And Pierre needs to get out of that leadoff spot.
Torre's as bad as Grady.
8 pitch 1st?
LF-Young
CF-Kemp
RF-Ethier
3B-LaRoche
SS-DeWitt
2B-Kent
1B-Loney
C -Martin
That line-up could score some runs.
Yeah, that's how I read it too.
Infield single up the middle. Kemp beat the throw from Renteria.
No U.S. Open for you this weekend, Shimmin?
Tigers got a steal in the 5th round when they drafted him.
He's going to be a good one.
Cabrera flied out to shallow shortstop.
Can someone please explain what shallow shortstop is?
And yet, you wear pleated pants and leather belts and tucked in shirts and shoes and socks everyday. I don't get it.
No Masters or Wimbledon either? I follow golf and tennis pretty much 4 weeks only a year at most, but they're pretty much mainstays for me (except the Australian Open I guess).
But other sports have pretty numbers too...
That should be engraved on something.
1916 - lost to Red Sox in 5
1920 - lost to Indians in 7 (best of 9 series)
1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1977, 1978 - lost to Yankees
1955, 1963, 1981 - beat Yankees
1959 - beat White Sox
1966 - lost to Orioles
1974 - lost to A's, avenged loss in 1988
He's got to score on Pierre.
And 1965 - beat Minnesota (Washington)
Yeah, Thames somehow fell for Pierre's deke and froze between 2nd and 3rd. Dodge(re)d a bullet there.
Martin popped out to short on the first pitch.
Chapter 1: How to Exit Gracefully as a Player
D'oh! My mistake lead to the HR. Clearly.
Club holds an option on Penny for 2009.
The option is for either $8.75m or $9.25m, depending on whom you believe (Cot's Baseball Contracts or MLB4u.com), with a $2m buyout.
Squeezing, and playing the infield in in the 2nd inning with one out of a scoreless tie.
Great try by Ethier.
I know you love Scott Proctor, but he's done.
Ken
PS: So's Sweeney.
Unless Torre knew last July he would be in LA, I doubt he had much to do with the Proctor acquisition.
Kent's DP ball becomes two on base, one out.
Frankly, I'm flabbergasted by our record. How are we only 5 games under .500? It's amazing.
I'm still hoping that if we start playing better we can win, because I can't imagine so many things going wrong all season. Eventually the ship will turn, right? We just need to tread water until we find our power stroke.
Oh thats right. We are the only team in baseball that can manage to spend more then 90% of the other teams, and forget to buy a single power hitter.
Tell me again why the Dodger's don't find it prudent to invest in a weight room?
Sorry about the vent guys. Me very angry.
But even more importantly, why is Penny so consistently terrible this season?
So I checked the box score on my phone earlier and saw the Dodgers go up 4-1 then, and said "Yes! There is a God!" and then came home and saw that Penny isn't even worth a penny and suddenly it was - what the?? = 4-7.
Sheesh.
I reeally wouldn't give up on this game yet though, guys.
Part of the humor of Torre coming to LA was that Torre had "abused" Proctor while with NY, so when Proctor finally escaped Torre's perceived wrath, here comes Joe back to LA, haunting Proctor (in theory).
double
double
double play
According to the Fox press release, Ken Rosenthal was supposed to be at this game, but I haven't seen him yet. He's probably making suggestions to Colletti as we speak.
"Reported to Bengals training camp and participated."
Wha...huh!?
That was the breaking news? I thought he'd been traded or someone broke something.
Sheesh.
I also noticed in one early April game there were shots of Penny in the dugout taking puffs off of an inhaler, by chance is Penny asthmatic? In that early April game Penny seemed to me to be winded quite a bit, could an increase in weight and breathing problems be root causes of his lousy performance?
I'm leaving Scott in, no matter what.
Joe
PS: I'll get Sweeney in today too.
Although my cat did just make a statement of sorts about what he thinks, and it's not pretty.
Be right back.
At least Joe took the time to respond.
Also, most of Berroa's throws tend to sink or tail at the end.
As opposed to EMHCK.
It's really hard to tell when Steiner and Monday are explaining things to you.
Maybe we can trade Berroa and Proctor and Penny for some cows and magic beans.
That last one sounded like Martin's fault though.