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Also ...
A Season in Savannah (Stanford Magazine)
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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: 40-30 (.571)
When Jon attended: 6-3 (.667)
When Jon didn't: 34-27 (.557)
Dodgers at home: 745-600 (.554)
Jon attended: 293-233 (.557)*
Jon didn't: 457-374 (.550)
* includes road games attended
Current Roster with Estimated 2008 Salaries
(updated March 28)
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)
$12,300,000 Hiroki Kuroda
$10,000,000 Derek Lowe
$9,500,000 Brad Penny
$7,000,000 Esteban Loaiza
*$500,000 Chad Billingsley
Total: $39,300,000
Bullpen (6)
$2,000,000 Takashi Saito
$1,925,000 Joe Beimel
$1,125,000 Scott Proctor
*$500,000 Jonathan Broxton
$500,000 Chan Ho Park
*$400,000 Hong-Chih Kuo
Total: $6,450,000
Starting Lineup (8)
$14,100,000 Andruw Jones
$13,000,000 Rafael Furcal
$9,000,000 Jeff Kent
$8,500,000 Nomar Garciaparra
$8,000,000 Juan Pierre
$500,000 Russell Martin
*$400,000 James Loney
*$400,000 Matt Kemp
Total: $53,900,000
Bench (6)
$875,000 Gary Bennett
$600,000 Mark Sweeney
$424,500 Andre Ethier
$391,000 Delwyn Young
$390,000 Chin-Lung Hu
$390,000 Blake DeWitt
Total: $3,071,000
Disabled List
$12,000,000 Jason Schmidt
*$400,000 Tony Abreu
*$390,000 Andy LaRoche
Total: $12,790,000
Also Paying ...
$1,000,000 Brett Tomko
$750,000 Odalis Perez
$540,000 Yhency Brazoban
$500,000 Randy Wolf
$487,500 Jason Repko
$135,225 Rudy Seanez
$100,000 Mike Lieberthal
$50,000 Ramon Martinez
Total: $3,562,725
Working total: *$113,268,725
*Rough salary estimate
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Since Wednesday:
Opponents ... 000 000 000 011 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 - 2 Dodgers ..... 200 300 00x 000 000 000 100 020 30x 000 010 00x - 12
Look out below, though. Today's opposing starter, John Lackey, has allowed 13 runs in eight starts this year (1.65 ERA).
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Chad Billingsley, age 23, has these career numbers as a starter: 292 innings, 7.98 strikeouts per nine innings, 3.36 ERA.
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"I never make excuses, but the situations I have been in haven't been ideal for pinch-hitting ..."
- Mark Sweeney, as told to Tony Jackson of the Daily News
Struggling hitters say the dardnest things.
Sweeney should not be at the top of any list of reasons the Dodgers have struggled, and you can argue that he's hit in tough luck. In 60 at-bats, he has put the ball in play 41 times, yet gotten only six hits. But yeah, the time has come - whether or not other Dodgers are ready to come off the disabled list. It doesn't matter whether or not you feel that Sweeney has deservedly been a .100 hitter. The question is what you think he will provide going forward, relative to other players. It's time for someone else to have a chance at that roster spot, even if it doesn't make or break the season.
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Best wishes to Dodger pitching coach Ken Howell, who has been hospitalized with a foot infection.
--
I wrote a sort of Sweeney-ish character into my baseball script, a character I managed to muster up some empathy for. But the real Sweeney I think should step aside soon.
Okay, off to play soccer, then watch Euro soccer on TV, then the Dodgers. An action-packed day!
Juan Rivera makes no sense unless the Dodgers find an outlet for the other Juan.
In 6 starts against the Dodgers, Lackey has a Peavy-esque 1.46 ERA. He has allowed 0 runs in 3 of those starts, and allowed 1 run in two others. The last time he allowed more than one run to LA was June 2003.
if it was the Red Sox or the Yankees, ESPN would be all over it, and MLB would recognize it...that's just the way things are these days
ESPN was all over the game as soon as it was over on BBTN and then a few minutes later on Sportscenter. Between the end of the game and midnight or so, I saw the highlights about 5-6 times while I was feeding my son. It was also the lead story on the Sunday morning Sportscenter, too.
I don't watch ESPN that much these days, but our two-week old son demands that we keep odd hours.
Berroa hits more hard foul balls for such a lousy hitter then anyone else I can remember.
Juan Rivera may not be a fit for the Dodgers but why some team hasn't pried him away from the Angels is beyond me. It might be because even though the Angels have a lot of excess outfielders, none of them are any good.
Berroa has a knack for hitting line drives into either dugout, doesn't he?
3 I couldn't tell how close Loney's hit down the line called foul was to being fair.
Again, for a team being no-hit, they did do a good job driving up Weaver's pitch count, most of the game they were averaging about 5 pitches a batter and only on 2-3 occasions did they even swing at the first pitch (Vlad swung at the first pitch every time, I think)
Lackey has been one of the top 5 pitchers in the AL for a while now but even in LA he doesn't get the recognition he deserves.
They didn't ruin him, they got him a silly contract. I don't think you understand this is a lousy ballplayer who doesn't have the skills to be ruined.
But I'm sure he's hiding an injury. It's the hip new thing that all the vets are doing and Sweeney just wants to look cool for the kids. Set a good example as a PVL and all.
Lackey is one of the very few rookies to start -- and win -- a Game 7 of the World Series.
vr, Xei
Would you believe two to negative two? :)
I'm just trying to think of ways Kuo can pitch. The most likely option is not palatable to me -- if Lowe exits early.
2006-2008 ERA+
Webb 151
Lackey 146
Santana 143
Kazmir 140
Sabathia 134
Career ERA+
Lackey 119
Sabathia 115
Lackey won't be a free agent until after 2009, but I wonder if he will be as coveted as Sabathia. He should be. Although maybe C.C.'s hitting prowess puts him over the top. :)
Facing Scott "Al Czervik -- ooh, my arm" Proctor would be an ideal situation for a pinch hitter, so maybe that's what Sweeney was complaining about.
See, that last sentence was in response to a growing theme, that Torre can't get through to the youngsters because them youngsters be pig-headed and stubborn. Heck, you can just say it and it's true! No evidence needed.
Right, TJ?
Which young player at their age is doing less then what could realistically be expected of them? Are any of them grossly underachieving?
Writers will just point to the W/L record. Well so what. That is not the young players fault. Again, it's about what can be realisticaly expected from them. Expecting a good W/L record at their ages is simply unrealistic expectations.
Actually, the Angels are going to have an issue with Kendry Morales at some point soon, he has to be out of options this year and what do you with him?
Pierre, LF
Ethier, RF
Martin, C
Kent, 2B
Loney, 1B
Kemp, CF
DeWitt, 3B
Berroa, SS
Lowe, RHP
If all the players in every organization went back into a pool to be re-drafted every season then yes your point has merit.
Is 2008 more important then keeping all these players around until they reach their prime? I sure hope not.
New post up top.
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