Predictions?

Stupid spelling.

Or Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier or whatever You People™ do on July 4?

For a second there, I thought that Andruw Jones and other average outfielders had .700 slugging percentages last year.

And conveys little information.

I'll go back to swearing allegiance to the Queen of England now. I have an exciting croquet game lined up with some fellow Canuckistani expatriates.

15.9 million to 1.3 million.

Sigh.

The Dodgers have placed pinch-hitting specialist Mark Sweeney on the disabled list with a strained right hamstring. Jason Repko has been optioned. Rafael Furcal has been transferred to the 60-day disabled list.

Note to Ned:

1. See cord
2. Cut

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

I'm a nuclear physics specialist!

Yes, it's his specialty. He just happens to suck at it.

SP: Billingsley, Kuroda, Lowe, and Stults
RP: Park, Kuo, Troncoso, Falkenborg, Wade, Beimel, Broxton, and Saito
C: Martin and Ardoin
IF: Loney, Kent, Garciaparra, DeWitt, LaRoche, Maza, and Berroa
OF: Kemp, Jones, Ethier and Young

Probable starters
Martin
Loney
Kent
Garciaparra
DeWitt
Kemp
Jones
Ethier

Bench
LaRoche
Berroa
Maza
Young
Ardoin

My guess:

Kemp
Nomar
Loney
Jones
Kent
Martin
Ethier
DeWitt

Frankly, I'm more surprised Berroa still made the trip to San Francisco.

But why keep him at all? He sucks. For some reason, Ned just can't let go of these guys.

I get the impression that he doesn't want to hurt their feelings or deal with the messy personal stuff associated with DFAing vets like Sweeney, Tomko, etc., so he stalls and delays the inevitable at the expense of the team.

So, you know, make of that what you will.

I'm in Sta Barbara and fortunately not in any fire danger though we did have some smoke issues last night and saw flames from the Gap fire up close on our way down. Scary stuff. It's better today. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, I followed yesterday's game on my cell phone and squeed a few times. Today I am DVR-ing the game and will try to watch it later without being rude to my family. But the Dodgers are better off without me being in SF watching the game in person or probably even watching it live on TV.

If they take 2 outta 3 from the Giants I will be pretty happy. Less than that, not happy. I wish we had Bills pitching in the series but they don't have Lincecum pitching.

As for Sweeney, the DL made me laugh - might as well put it down as "Pulled Ego" or "Broken Swing" but whatever, getting him off the active roster is better than nothing. And I agree, Berroa should be replaced. Since Hu isn't available, Martinez would be okay.

Happy Fourth!

Go Blue!

In fact, LaRoche should start most days now that Sweeney is out, with DeWitt being an additional lefty bat on the bench.

We hold these truths to be self evident:

That we take a moment to look back and thank all the great founding fathers, soldiers who fought for our freedom before, and soldiers who are out and about fighting for freedom today.

That we have the ability to enjoy a truly independent nation that has its own quirks and diversity. For instance, we follow baseball as our national past time, not soccer as much.

That we are able to say and preach what we believe in without having to worry about a beheading, and finally...

That we get to watch our Boys in Blue make a charge for the NL West! Go (Red White and) BLUE!!!!

---

I had my first "It's It" today! I thought they only sold them in San Francisco, but I found them at my local SoCal Albertsons. Man they are so good. Just like Cool a Coos. Do they sell these It's Its at AT&T Park?

Trade Troncoso or Falkenborg for Kershaw, and we'd have our best players available out there. I still don't understand why they sent him down. Or I DO understand why, and don't agree with the reasoning.

That's for sure.

But it'll be good - or at least interesting, and hopefully not "interesting" in that other sense - to have Andruw back.

That said, if Repko could still play SS...

Breaks stories fast, no outward biases. Just solid journalism.

49 Kershaw's "demotion" sounds very temporary. He wouldn't have an opportunity to pitch for too long, with the all-star break coming up. It's better he get the work in and then come back later. Stults has been fine. I don't think it's that big a deal. He'll be back.

Martin
Loney
Kemp
Kent
Jones
Ethier
LaRoche
Nomar

Except for the absence of Furcal, this is pretty much the ideal lineup we had in mind for the Dodgers at the start of the season, and we ought to get something very close to it today.

For two evenings now, electricity has been cut off for virtually all of Santa Barbara and Goleta. (I live close to downtown SB.) Wednesday for 4+ hours, last night for 2+. It must get overloaded when people turn on the lights or something. Aside from not being able to see anything if you haven't got a flashlight and candles (my situation Wednesday, rectified yesterday), your Tivo/DVR can't record anything. Today's game is a day game so you're OK. Also make sure to charge up your cell phone during the day, and keep a battery radio handy.

So you just have to worry about Ryan Sweeney.

We're off to Summerland for the day where the air's better. :-)

Heck, Troy Glaus played shortstop at UCLA.

Caseres said the Dodgers wanted to take him in the sixth round of the draft last Thursday but decided not to when he told them he was sticking to his signing bonus demand of $300,000. The New York Yankees also tried to get him to sign for less than his asking price in the fifth round, offering $158,000.

Then, between the draft's first and second days, Caseres dropped his price to $250,000, and the Dodgers scooped him up in the ninth round.

Days later, they offered $258,000, even though it was higher than slot money, and Caseres said little negotiation was required.

How was Disneyland?

Q: Is Player X the reason why the Dodgers are under .500?

Disneyland was nice, it seems that with so many people buying annual passes, when you go on days requiring the one that let's you go everyday of the year, less people show up. Add that it was still a work day for a lot of people, it was actually not bad getting on the rides and such.

All that said, only went on a few rides and saw a parade. Will probably go back in a month or so.

I suspect even bhsportsguy doesn't ultimately agree with such a practice, despite apparent evidence to the contrary.

Herbert Spencer and bhsportsguy would not get along very well.

Are there any conditions under which you support cutting ties with a player?

I'm starting to get the impression that there aren't...

Okay, outta here for reals. Enjoy the game. More later!

This isnt logical at all.
Every player contributes something to the Dodgers, and either contributes positively or negatively. Mark Sweeney has contributed negatively, would you agree?

Sure, a pinch hitter isnt going to matter as much as a starting player. However, any incremental improvements to the team should be made if possible. By not DFA'ing a guy that definitely deserves it, the GM isnt being fair to someone else in the organization that deserves to be on the 40 man roster.

If you want to move Furcal to the 60-day DL, thats fine. But dont do it in order to keep Mark Sweeney. DFA Sweeney also, and add another more deserving player to the 40-man.

The raise in pay for a minor leaguer to be added to the 40-man roster is quite substantial. Instead of doing the fair thing, Ned is just keeping his old PVL buddies around through a phantom DL.

Its just bad management.

At least he does the "little things."

Or perhaps he just does a few things.

Once you sign with a team, a team can continually control your rights for a period of no less than 10 years (minors and majors) or maybe 11 or 12 depending on your age when you sign and a couple of other things.

So when teams decide to promote a player to the 40-man roster, it is done for 2 reasons, need or because they have to in order to retain their rights.

It's that simple. Did Justin Orenduff deserve to be on the 40-man roster? Blake DeWitt, NL Rookie of the Month for May, wouldn't be on the 40-man at all had not all of those injuries occurred.

Players may not like that reality but it is what they signed into when they decided to play baseball for money.

it isn't a bad plan, actually. i wish the dodgers (ie uncle ned) would use it as a precursor to signing players... and, in repko's case, "vanquished" includes an annual salary of $487,500 (per our favorite dodgers site)... anyway, my guess is even if repko doesn't have a mlb career he's gonna be okay in life. he seems like a decent guy and his effort (at least on the field) cannnot be denied. i'm saving my sadness for the truly wretched... like, say, whoever has to clean up after the hot dog eating contest...

The man is so fundamentally terrible at hitting a baseball. When you start with that, I don't see whatever anything else has to do with anything else. It's like discussing the merits of Battlefield Earth a cockroach sandwich or something.

I'm off to do a little birdwatching at the beach. Have a great Fourth of July, everybody.

Which player(s) is/are responsible for the Dodgers being under .500?

Alright, I'm out.

I say it was both, but Jefferson definitely laid out his reasons for why the colonies needed to bail on the King in a formal manner.

Kemp, RF
Ethier, LF
Martin, C
Kent, 2B
Jones, CF
Garciaparra, SS
Loney, 1B
LaRoche, 3B
Lowe, P

Kemp
Ethier
Martin
Kent
Jones
Nomar
Loney
LaRoche

There are still local fans without cable? :-)