That's when I almost rumbled with the Cardinal fans sitting behind me.

Cooler heads prevailed.

6th Wedding Anniversary
Traditional Gifts: Candy or Iron
Modern Gifts: Wood

Hmmm .... Candy Maldonado?

At what point did Russ Martin become a below average defensive catcher?

I checked his Stolen Bases/CS'ing percentage, and his numbers are really bad.

49 SBs
13 CS's.

Its in the bottom half of the league average percentage wise, and only Brian McCann has given up more straight SBs (though his CS'ing percentage is higher).

Jason Kendall (who's actually caught more innings than Russ shockingly) is probably the favorite for the Gold Glove: He's thrown out 47% of base stealers. 28 SBs, 25 CS'ings.

Is this all on the Dodger pitchers?

Or is Russ overrated defensively?

I'm really wanting his bat at 2nd base, especially if Carlos Santana keeps up his pace. If the Dodgers want to keep Russ behind the plate bc of his bat, then thats fine. But his defense seems to have gotten worse since he's been in the big leagues.

D Wright Strikeout Swinging
C Delgado Strikeout Swinging
R Castro Groundout: SS-1B (Weak SS)
M Anderson Bunt Popfly: P (Front of Home)
L Milledge Strikeout Swinging

your site has revived my interest in the Dodgers and baseball

And I think we can all agree: At least it's not 2005.

Yeah. Now we've got a real GM.

In our league you're allowed to have 75 pick-up's/ drop's for a season. One player in our leage ran out of moves so he can only make trades. Even since Saito went down I wanted to get another closer to replace him, I spoke with the guy who's out of moves about Hoffman. After a week of being unable to work out a trade he finally says, if I pick up Zimmerman he'd trade me Hoffman for Zimmerman. This is completely leagel per our league rules, however, it has ruffled some feathers with people in the leauge. I don't see it as a big deal, do you consider this unethical?

Looks like a fine 3B to me. It needs to happen.

Top of the 8th inning, Giants Batting, Behind 3-4, Giovanni Carrara facing 4-5-6
R Sanders Home Run (CF-RF)
R Aurilia Strikeout Looking
B Santiago Popfly: SS
R Martinez Popfly: 2B
Giants 4, Dodgers 4.

Top of the 9th, Giants Batting, Tied 4-4, Giovanni Carrara facing 8-9-1
Mike Kinkade replaces Hiram Bocachica playing 1B batting 4th
T Shinjo Groundout: 1B unassisted
J.T. Snow pinch hits for Russ Ortiz batting 9th
J Snow Walk
Kirk Rueter pinch runs for J.T. Snow batting 9th
T Goodwin Home Run; Rueter Scores
D Bell Lineout: RF
J Kent Groundout: 1B unassisted
Giants 6, Dodgers 4

Oh Gio Carrara, how I don't miss thee.

IIRC the team had the best record in the majors at one point...but I don't think anyone would seriously claim the Dodgers ever were the best team.

A GM only says that if/when his/her team collapses.

Oh, and I am glad I still have my Ethier jersey.

Oh that was a day of misery.

Happy Anniversary.

Good point. I think my knee jerk is to always look at his playing with skeptical eyes.

That would be my guess.

But it wouldn't cost LaRoche to make that move.

Andy Laroche, Cause Celebre.

That line is going to be tough to top today.

July 21 2007 I had bronchitis and my server was down.
July 21 2006 I flew from LA to Boston to see my then-boyfriend and broke my toe on his exercise equipment. Then we broke up.
July 21 2005 I wrote: "Today I am so broken I could swallow a quarter and not even light up. I wish my forehead could vomit."

So, yah! July 21st!

In 2006
1) there was a Random Game Callback to 1994 (Yankees 11, Angels 7)
2) the Orioles recalled Fernando Tatis from the minors
3) Bill Mueller's knee was declared shot
4) I made my first Wandy Rodriguez joke and those are like gold, Jerry. Gold!

I didn't write for the Griddle until late in 2005.

July 21 2008: Traded Matt Kemp and Andy LaRoche for David Eckstein and AJ Burnett.

I hope Jon deletes that comment. Uncool, Molly.

You're right though, given the stunning incompetence on offense out of the shortstop position, I'd be surprised to acquire another .160-hitting shortstop.

And they took a LOT of time.

The price would probably be low, plus getting him would mean high draft picks.

"I thought the best decision I could have made was to play for the Dodgers," Ozuna said, with Kenji Nimura translating. "Any ballplayer wants to be part of a winning team, and obviously, this team has a great chance to play in the playoffs."

So do Kenji Nimura and Dylan Hernandez have conversations in three different languages?

But then again, maybe Ned & Joe arent quite on the same page.

I say this, because Joe's comments about the Dodgers having no pinch hitters (even when Berroa was on the bench), was quite scathing.

It really is remarkable how madly and deeply Torre has fallen in love with DeWitt. The Banterers warned us this would happen, but I just figured he'd resume his fling with Proctor.

67 - Send him down.

Yeah. Trade LaRoche and ship DeWitt back to the minors. That sounds likely.

I have to think that if the Dodgers make any trade, then all 3 will be discussing it, with Ned lowest on the decision making totem pole.

http://www.azsnakepit.com/2008/7/21/575543/diamondbacks-5-dodgers-6-t

There was a brief window when that could have changed in April when DeWitt was sent down for Nomar but that only lasted a day. By the time Andy was ready, DeWitt was in a midst of his hot streak and really the team was probably more concerned with SS and Penny's spot than 3B.

47-50? My goodness, I thought that 2006 team was pretty good, and their record on this date was worse than our record today.

Personally I might argue that this year's team is just as good and possibly better, at least in pitching. Its a younger team this time around.

Happy 6th Anniversary Jon! Dodger baseball is enhanced with this site's presence.

Because most managers should be able to formulate opinions on guys careers, not based on 9 games in spring training. Isnt that what scouting/stats are for--->to make up for not being able to see a player in person? If Torre is only making decisions based on what his eyes see, and not what players have done their entire careers--thats a problem.

But I really dont think he's doing that. If he was, then Andruw would have been benched a long time ago.

I just think he does have an irrational love for Dewitt. Why? Who knows?

I mean, its hard for me to say, Joe, send him back down to the minors and give another rookie a shot because to me, it means Andy has to get off to hot start or else the team gets to move on again and I can't then say, well give Andy at least 200 PA to see what he can do. That just isn't going to happen at this part of the season when you have 60 odd games left and you are tied for first.

(Plus, his age casts at least some degree of doubt on whether he can still hit, but not so much doubt that good hitting from him is a complete surprise).

But what do the Dodgers have to lose?

Is LaRoche really going to put up a worse OPS than DeWitt's .680 or so? Dewitt already is doing horribly, why not go with the guy that might not suck?