Does the crowd give Joe a hard time about his incompetent lineups or does the average fan not realize he's so bad?

I would say the average Dodger fan does not even know who is in the lineup.

3 Maybe regress is the wrong word; return to expectation? Fall more under his BABIP expectations? Land back on earth?

"Matt Kemp was out of the lineup because he woke up with irritation in his right eye and was unable to immediately put a contact lens in it. Due to the irritation, he's likely unavailable tonight.

Leung at Press-Enterprise."

Oh well! Will the people who jumped off the cliff due to the line-up now kindly return to your seats? The main feature is about to start.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN200806250.shtml

Wow! He must have just added that info....it wasn't there 5 minutes ago.

Maybe it was Kemp, but I guess we'll never know. I am sure Kemp won't be losing starts to Repko though. That's not to say AE won't lose starts to him, but Kemp almost certainly won't.

Which J.D. Drew are we talking about? The 2004-07 Drew or the 2008 Drew?

Jason Repko stepping into the spotlight and playing really well would be a nice feel good story.
Repko has been hampered by injuries. He was all set to emerge as the starting center fielder until he got hurt the last time. That he gets called up and immediately starts in center tonight, it's pretty neat.

I'd like to see LaRoche get a lot more at bats, but I'd be splitting hairs considering who we do have. It's not that big a deal to me personally.

And an open question for DT: Has there ever been a Dodger manager that you felt put the best players on the field or did things the right way? I can't think of one ideal manager in our 35 year recent history.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Pierre has never been on the DL in his career and is one of those players who is never in the training room, preferring to play through his bumps and bruises instead of getting treatment."

" "For him to come out of the ball game, it's more than just a bruise, you would think," Manager Joe Torre said. "... Knowing Juan Pierre, he wants nothing to do with trainers. ... this was something very tough for him to give into." "

I can't either. Frankly, for whatever Torre's issues, he still looks better to me than Little, Tracy or pretty much anyone else. Yes, this is like saying Delwyn Young looks better than Pierre, I suppose... But even Tommy Lasorda, who won 2 world series, was often idiotic in many ways as a day to day manager, as you know. So, no, I don't think the Dodgers have had a manager I felt was perfect or ideal in any way, in my entire lifetime basically (although I was just a toddler for Walter Alston so I don't count him).

Of course, in that era, my main complaint in life was being forced to shower every day.

I will second that. The last thread got me down

I get the impression that his two predecessors, Alston and Dressen, were obsessed with small ball. Having Duke Snider and Roy Campanella bunt all the time likely would have irritated me if I had, um, been alive.

I expect to be complaining on my death bed. Or better yet, maybe I'll be complaining and that will be the death of me.

One thing I've noticed over the years is that managers are almost always enamored with the aspects of the game that they themselves couldn't do as players. Torre and Scioscia, the two slowest guys you ever met, love base stealing and taking the extra base. Frank Robinson, as a manager, was obsessed with bunting. (As is Dusty Baker.) Earl Weaver, a tiny middle infielder, wanted nothing but three-run homers.

Witness Michael Bourn.

While I believe that I (along with most observers) could take minor issues with every manager in baseball, I personal found that while Dan Evan's was GM Jim Tracy pretty much did what he could given the cards he was dealt. Now granted he was given a fool proof bullpen (yes I remember that AZ game) and I did feel that he gave Karros too much respect (possibly feared losing the locker room to him) same for Green (but no one benches the big dollar talent). One Depo took over I think Tracy sort of refused to give Depo any respect.

I still remember being upset that Alston had Drysdale warming up in the bullpen during the 1962 playoffs and chose not to bring him in. :-)

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Stros Record

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Cito Gaston is the modern era king of just writing down 9 names and letting the guys go at it.

I believe Chris had a stat on which managers preferred older players and Al Lopez was the king there. Surprisingly, Lopez also was ranked as the best manager in the second half of a season.

Ha!

Rats, I'm gonna have to go check it out now...

I really hate the fact that it insists on giving an introduction first.

Reminds me of a story. I was once sitting in the expensive seats behind the Dodger dugout, when an opposing pitcher lost his lens. This, of course, resulted in the always priceless spectacle of several multi-million dollar athletes crawling around in the dirt on their hands and knees. Anyway, the lens was found and play resumed. Orel Hershiser, who I believe was the Dodgers on-deck hitter, turned toward the dugout, gestured and yelled, "It was in his eye!"

1-1

Pass.

Minute Maid is even deeper to center than Tiger Stadium. I bring that up to further crush Icaros' dreams.

Both have flag poles in fair territory.

71
I'm not a big Jim Leyland guy, but something about wearing cleats during games irrationally gets high praise from me. Bobby Cox does that as well.

it was a hangin slider (coming in) from what I saw.

I don't remember whether he actually warmed up. I do remember he was sent down to the bullpen in case he was needed (I was watching the game on TV). Instead, I believe we got Stan Williams.

He's the lone PVL.

What group of business people saw this plan and said, "yep, a hill in centerfield is exactly what we are looking for"

I didn't say I didn't like it.