Baseball Toaster: Dodger Thoughts : Dr. Miguelito Loveless

Jon Weisman's outlet
for dealing psychologically
with the Los Angeles Dodgers
and baseball.

Hot from the Toaster

The Griddle
Weird headline of the month?

Dodger Thoughts
Ad Astra Per Aspera

Cardboard Gods
Ken McMullen

The Juice
Frame This

Bronx Banter
Seattle Mariners III: Audition Edition

Humbug
Sean Rodriguez strikes out on a 4-2 pitch

Bad Altitude
Not Happening

Cub Town
Take It Easy

Catfish Stew
How Green Were My '83 Athletics?

Fairpole
Server Downtime Scheduled

Toaster Sites
Baseball Toaster
Toaster.TV

BlogAds

Archives

2008
09 08 07
06 05 04 03 02 01

2007
12 11 10 09 08 07
06 05 04 03 02 01

2006
12 11 10 09 08 07
06 05 04 03 02 01

2005
12 11 10 09 08 07
06 05 04 03 02 01

2004
12 11 10 09 08 07
06 05 04 03 02 01

2003
12 11 10 09 08 07
06 05 04 03 02 01

2002
09 08 07

About Jon

Write to Jon

Jon's other site:
Screen Jam
TV and more ...

A kind of biography
"The Meaning of the Game"

Support Dodger Thoughts

Dodger Thoughts T-Shirts
On sale through February 16, 2008

Click here to order.

* * *

The Best of Dodger Thoughts
A 325-page book featuring the top selections from this website from 2002-2005.

Click here for more information.

On Sale Now at Lulu.com

* * *

Or, just make a donation to support the site. Many thanks.

"Dodger Thoughts, like TiVo, is one of those things you can completely do without until you start using it."

- Fanerman

Dodger Sites

Dodger Resources

Non-Partisan Baseball Sites

Partisan Baseball Sites

Baseball, Among Other Things

Invaluable Resources

Less Dodgers, More L.A.

All in the Family

Ask Greg (about Gargoyles)
Anatomy of a Shovel

Other Writing by Jon on the Web

SI.com
NL West Preview
Evaluating Defense
Colletti and Depo
World Baseball Classic
Minor League Broadcasters
Slow Starts
Eric Gagne
Groundball Pitchers
Dodger Prospects
Albert Pujols
Humbled Angels
You Be the Manager
Eric Gagne II
Unreliable Relievers
Revived Angels
It's Okay To Sell
Dodger Turnaround
Andre Ethier
Padres-Dodgers Showdown
NL Final Weekend
Mets-Dodgers NLDS
Postseason ratings
NL Wish Lists
Manny vs. J.D.
McGwire Controversy
Dodger Offense
Trainers Matter

Variety
Will Arnett
John C. McGinley
Laura Dern
Imelda Staunton
SAG Awards
Ellen Pompeo
Grey's Anatomy
2004-05 Rookie Dramas
Anthony Hopkins
NATPE
Scrubs
Award Shows
Topher Grace
Ashton Kutcher
Writing on Improv Shows
Rainn Wilson
T.R. Knight
Guest Actors
Animation Guests
Joey Carson and Tennis
Donald Trump and Golf
2006 Emmys Nominees*
*Comedy Series
*Comedy Director
*Comedy Writer
*Comedy Actor
*Comedy Supporting Actor
Blue's Clues
Lizzy Caplan
Ann Donahue
CMT: Giants
CMA Awards
Little Miss Sunshine
Actor-Directors
Freshman Series
Clint Eastwood
Showrunners vs. Censors
Little Children
Breaking and Entering
Tartikoff Legacy Awards
Jackie Earle Haley
Knights of Prosperity
Office Online
2007 Screenplay Noms
Friday Night Lights
Robert Benton
ABC Fridays
Rookie Actors
Global Casting
2007 Pilot Casting
Sublime Slime

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)

More Shameless Self-Promotion

Riverside Press-Enterprise

2008 Season

Dodger home record: 39-30 (.565)
When Jon attended: 5-3 (.625)
When Jon didn't: 34-27 (.557)

1991-2007

Dodgers at home: 745-600 (.554)
Jon attended: 293-233 (.557)*
Jon didn't: 457-374 (.550)
* includes road games attended

2008 Payroll Worksheet

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

The 2008 Dodgers

ESPN BR BP Cube Alvarez
ESPN BR BP Cube Abreu
ESPN BR BP Cube Beimel
ESPN BR BP Cube Bennett
ESPN BR BP Cube Billingsley
ESPN BR BP Cube Brazoban
ESPN BR BP Cube Broxton
ESPN BR BP Cube DeWitt
ESPN BR BP Cube Ethier
ESPN BR BP Cube Furcal
ESPN BR BP Cube Garciaparra
ESPN BR BP Cube Hu
ESPN BR BP Cube Jones
ESPN BR BP Cube Kemp
ESPN BR BP Cube Kent
ESPN BR BP Cube Kuo
ESPN BR BP Cube Kuroda
ESPN BR BP Cube LaRoche
ESPN BR BP Cube Loaiza
ESPN BR BP Cube Loney
ESPN BR BP Cube Lowe
ESPN BR BP Cube Martin
ESPN BR BP Cube May
ESPN BR BP Cube McDonald
ESPN BR BP Cube Meloan
ESPN BR BP Cube Miller
ESPN BR BP Cube Orenduff
ESPN BR BP Cube Park
ESPN BR BP Cube Paul
ESPN BR BP Cube Penny
ESPN BR BP Cube Pierre
ESPN BR BP Cube Proctor
ESPN BR BP Cube Repko
ESPN BR BP Cube Saito
ESPN BR BP Cube Schmidt
ESPN BR BP Cube Stults
ESPN BR BP Cube Sweeney
ESPN BR BP Cube Troncoso
ESPN BR BP Cube Wade
ESPN BR BP Cube Young

Selected Recent Ex-Dodgers

ESPN BR BP Cube Alomar
ESPN BR BP Cube Alvarez
ESPN BR BP Cube Aybar
ESPN BR BP Cube Baez
ESPN BR BP Cube Bako
ESPN BR BP Cube Beltre
ESPN BR BP Cube Bradley
ESPN BR BP Cube Cabrera
ESPN BR BP Cube Carrara
ESPN BR BP Cube Carter
ESPN BR BP Cube Chen
ESPN BR BP Cube Choi
ESPN BR BP Cube Cora
ESPN BR BP Cube Crosby
ESPN BR BP Cube Cruz
ESPN BR BP Cube Dessens
ESPN BR BP Cube Dreifort
ESPN BR BP Cube Drew
ESPN BR BP Cube Encarnacion
ESPN BR BP Cube Edwards
ESPN BR BP Cube Erickson
ESPN BR BP Cube Falkenborg
ESPN BR BP Cube Finley
ESPN BR BP Cube Flores
ESPN BR BP Cube Gagne
ESPN BR BP Cube Grabowski
ESPN BR BP Cube Green
ESPN BR BP Cube Guzman
ESPN BR BP Cube Hanrahan
ESPN BR BP Cube Hernandez
ESPN BR BP Cube Hundley
ESPN BR BP Cube Ishii
ESPN BR BP Cube Izturis
ESPN BR BP Cube Jackson
ESPN BR BP Cube Karros
ESPN BR BP Cube Ketchner
ESPN BR BP Cube Ledee
ESPN BR BP Cube Lima
ESPN BR BP Cube Lo Duca
ESPN BR BP Cube Lofton
ESPN BR BP Cube T. Martin
ESPN BR BP Cube Mayne
ESPN BR BP Cube G. Mota
ESPN BR BP Cube Mueller
ESPN BR BP Cube Myrow
ESPN BR BP Cube Nakamura
ESPN BR BP Cube Navarro
ESPN BR BP Cube Nomo
ESPN BR BP Cube Osoria
ESPN BR BP Cube A. Perez
ESPN BR BP Cube O. Perez
ESPN BR BP Cube Phillips
ESPN BR BP Cube Proctor
ESPN BR BP Cube Roberts
ESPN BR BP Cube Robles
ESPN BR BP Cube Romano
ESPN BR BP Cube C. Ross
ESPN BR BP Cube D. Ross
ESPN BR BP Cube Sanchez
ESPN BR BP Cube Schmoll
ESPN BR BP Cube Sele
ESPN BR BP Cube Seo
ESPN BR BP Cube Shuey
ESPN BR BP Cube Stanley
ESPN BR BP Cube S. Stewart
ESPN BR BP Cube Thompson
ESPN BR BP Cube Thurston
ESPN BR BP Cube Valentin
ESPN BR BP Cube Venafro
ESPN BR BP Cube Ventura
ESPN BR BP Cube Weaver
ESPN BR BP Cube Werth
ESPN BR BP Cube Wilson
ESPN BR BP Cube Wunsch

Dodger Thoughts Land

Plant your flag!

Thank You For Not ...

1) using profanity or any euphemisms for profanity
2) personally attacking other commenters
3) baiting other commenters
4) arguing for the sake of arguing
5) discussing politics
6) using hyperbole when something less will suffice
7) using sarcasm in a way that can be misinterpreted negatively
8) making the same point over and over again
9) typing "no-hitter" or "perfect game" to describe either in progress
10) being annoyed by the existence of this list
11) commenting under the obvious influence
12) claiming your opinion isn't allowed when it's just being disagreed with

Syndication

About the Toaster

Baseball Toaster runs on some experimental software called Fairpole. It's still under development.

For more information, please visit the Fairpole blog, or read the FAQ.

Dr. Miguelito Loveless

2003-09-12 11:21

by Jon Weisman

Bob Timmermann, known to many as Bob T. of Baseball Primer, forwarded me his great, 4,600-word article from the Grandstand Baseball Annual 2002 describing the history of the Dodger-San Diego Padre rivalry.

After reading it, and eyeing a series against the Padres beginning tonight that once again looks hopeful on paper but hopeless psychologically, it struck me that the Padres have become the evil Dr. Loveless to the Dodgers' James T. West and Artemus Gordon in The Wild, Wild (National League) West.

Here are some highlights from Timmermann's comprehensive article:

The rivalry is real but has yet to find its defining moment. Daily News columnist Kevin Modesti once asked San Diego manager Bruce Bochy for one, and Bochy replied, "To be honest with you. I canÕt remember any."
The starting pitcher for the Padres in their first-ever game with the Dodgers was 1955 Dodger hero Johnny Podres, who came out of retirement to pitch for San Diego. Podres gave up six runs in the fifth inning and the Padres lost, 14-0.
"Although the Padres could only muster a 52-110 record in their initial season, they did manage to derail the DodgersÕ pennant hopes in 1969. The 1969 NL West was actually a very competitive race as every team but the Padres was close in the month of September. On September 4, 1969 the Dodgers traveled to San Diego Stadium to play a four game series against the Padres. The Dodgers were in second place just one game behind division leader San Francisco. Much to the Dodgers' complete shock, the Padres swept the series."
Sixteen of the Dodgers' Los Angeles-best 102 victories in 1974 came against San Diego. Dan Spillner got the only two Padre victories, both in late September.
More recently, many of you will recall that what should have been "been one of the most dramatic games in the history of the NL," a 1996 season-ending showdown between the Dodgers and Padres, tied in their first pennant race with each other, was subverted because the losing team was guaranteed the wild card.

Dodger manager Bill Russell, who had replaced Tommy Lasorda earlier in the year after a heart attack sent Lasorda to the front office and out of the dugout, and Bruce Bochy were conflicted about how to manage the game. Would they manage it like it was a game for all the marbles? Obviously, it wasn't. Both teams would have to play again in two days. Bochy opted to replace his scheduled starter, Joey Hamilton, with Bob Tewksbury. Russell stayed with Ramon Martinez, but removed him after just one inning.

Much to both managers' dismay, the game went to extra innings scoreless. In the 11th inning, Chris Gwynn, a former Dodger, better known in L.A. as "The Gwynn Who Didn't Hit Much" came off the bench to double in (Steve) Finley and his brother Tony for a 2-0 lead. Trevor Hoffman pitched a perfect 11th inning to give the Padres their second NL West title.
This could have been the rivalry's defining moment. Instead ... it's a footnote.

Whatever heat may be lacking, there's no doubt tonight that the Padres are ready to resume their role as spoiler. It's disconcerting, but as far as spoiling goes, let's say this: at mealtime, I'd rather be the meat on the counter than the bacteria.

* * *

Jay Jaffe at The Futility Infielder has apparently been doing some housecleaning. You might enjoy walking through the treasures he found from his 1989 trip to see four spring training games at Vero Beach. (Scroll down to "Buried Treasure (Part II).")

I myself have my own picture of Manny Mota on his bike from my 1993 trip to the Grapefruit League - it's really a great sight.

* * *

Update: Dodger postseason chances, from Baseball Prospectus
Today: 3.8 percent
September 11: 7.1 percent
September 10: 9.7 percent
September 9: 9.4 percent
September 8: 5.4 percent
September 7: 5.3 percent
September 6: 4.8 percent
September 5: 3.5 percent
September 4: 4.3 percent
September 3: 7.9 percent
September 2: 4.8 percent
September 1: 7.9 percent
August 31: 6.9 percent
August 30: 5.5 percent
August 29: 4.8 percent
August 28: 2.6 percent
August 26: 3.6 percent
August 25: 3.1 percent
August 24: 4.4 percent
August 23: 6.5 percent
August 22: 5.8 percent
August 21: 4.2 percent
August 20: 2.3 percent

Projected NL Wild-Card Standings as of September 12
Wins ... Team ... Chance of winning wild card
90 ... Philadelphia (55.1 percent)
89 ... Florida (38.6 percent)
87 ... Houston (1.1 percent)
86 ... Los Angeles (3.8 percent)
84 ... St. Louis (0.2 percent)
83 ... Arizona (0.1 percent)
82 ... Montreal (0.0 percent)

(Division leaders account for the remaining wild card possibilities.)

Advertisement

Comment status: comments have been closed.