Watches the newspaper spin

Maybe Pausch got his idea from that book?

My cousin just revealed to me that I have made it, I am rated on ratemyprofessors.com:

http://ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=895198

I think this means that I am a real boy now. The one from March is the only honest rating.

3 Hotness Total: 0

You have obviously not doing your job to bring in the co-eds.

This one has got to be on the short list of worst games in Jeff Kent's career, right?

1st inning: With a runner on second, grounds out to short.

3rd inning: Kills a potential rally by loafing and turning a should-be double into a single. Next batter hits into GIDP.

5th inning: With a runner on third and one out, strikes out.

7th inning: With the bases loaded and one out, strikes out.

7th inning: Falls asleep on defense, letting a runner score from second on a routine groundout.

9th inning: With runners on first and second and no outs, hits a double play ball. (Which the defense drops, getting only one out, but still.)

Tonight's game should make us go back to the days of Milt Gaston.
http://griddle.baseballtoaster.com/archives/710522.html

http://griddle.baseballtoaster.com/archives/360686.html

Talk about a perspective check. (That story is, Jon.) Baseball, schmaseball.

7 Exactly.

Iguchi & Edmonds have to be among the worst signings that Kevin Towers has ever made.

I <3 Jody Gerut.

Jody Gerut is my favorite player in the history of baseball.

And I, for the moment, no longer hate the Padres!

4 At some point one must accept that he is not hot and focus his efforts on bragging about knowing Latin, and rambling on and on about his softball team.

Dbax have now lost a staggering 13 games in which they either led or were tied in the 8th inning and later.

My love Jody Gerut has a better OPS+ than any Dodger not named Furcal or Manny.

Wow, Mad Men was really good. (Just watched last night's.) Mrs. Barrett is turning into a great character; I didn't expect her to add much depth other than being a plot device or along those lines, but... Great episode.

Go Padres. (Sheesh.)

Wow! Padres pull it off. Sweet!

I'm gonna enjoy it now, but it won't be the same when Jody Gerut does the same thing against Broxton next month :0)

We have the worst four game series in recent memory and lose only one game in the standings. Arizona may be three up but that's room for a tiny bit of optimism considering Washington is our next series.

The one from March is the only honest rating.
That's hilarious.

One time, I saw one of my former professors in a bar and had a beer with him.

meh... I think I'm more concerned because our road record against division leaders is:

0-4 vs Philly, this after sweeping them at home.
3-0 vs Florida
1-3 vs NYM
1-2 vs Stl
0-3 vs ChC
2-4 vs AZ

for a grand total of...

6-16 against all division leaders on the road. Is there a silver lining to this?

18 I served one of my former professors a beer in a bar.

Forgot to add the Brewers in there:

2-1 vs Mil on the road

so that makes it 8-17... I guess its reasonable.

---

I can only imagine how much better the team would be if they had Furcal healthy and swinging a good bat. Like Jon said, this is it. The Dodgers won't be playing any more above .500 teams this year except Arizona. I'm shocked that Az couldn't gain more ground, but I will take it!

One of my teachers went bowling with us and got drunk and ripped on his wife and the other teachers in the department. He was leaving to NYU after the semester.

He also tried the Yoda for first time.

re: Freeman

What a sad, yet perfect case of irony: the very man who wrote about things to do before death dying way too young.

Do you suppose he managed to complete many of the 100 things he wrote about?

22

LOL

"Inebriated I am! Gutter I have hit... mmm?"

22
His wife was a TA in the department so we all knew her.

19 , 21 - Silver lining - most of those games were without our new and improved lineup (+manny+blake-pierre).

The Dodgers losing is worrisome, and it is frustrating leaving bases loaded with no outs and one outs, but remember, it's a good thing to get into these situations. And the Dodgers have been doing that pretty consistently. Their hits are just out of sync. They will sync up and we will be fine. The healing needs to start at WAS. 2 of 3 there and 2 of 3 at ARI would leave me very happy.

17 Thanks..that is a great way of looking at things.

Andrew Lambo had an RBI single in his Jacksonville debut today.

25- I know someone who has done a certain substance with one of their TA's ;)

15
Mad Men was really good. The linking of Peggy & Don is definitely something that can be explored further.

Oh yeah, and Pete Campbell is one of the jerkiest jerks that ever, well, you know.

30 Yeah, I have trouble even watching scenes involving Pete's marriage. They're well done, but just squirmy. He's hard to take in that realm.

I'll gladly give you a Hamburger tomorrow for an Eddie Guardado today.

28 Lambo's in double A already? Are we seeing another player skipping Triple A because he's just too good for the minors?

5 - if you believe in WPA, this game isn't even his worst this year:

http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?gameid=280825122

His April 11 game against the Padres takes that title:

http://www.fangraphs.com/wins.aspx?date=2008-04-11&team=Dodgers&dh=0&season=2008

He only stranded four baserunners, but one of them was on third with one out and three in the bottom of the ninth trailing the Padres by two.

34 http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN200804110.shtml

33 Yep, he was promoted this week, skipped over the Cal league. I would assume he'd start next season in Jax, too, this was just a taste. And then would also assume he'd then go to AAA after that, not skip straight to the bigs unless he not only rakes but there are a series of unforeseen events (as with DeWitt this year). Otherwise, I'd assume AA and AAA for him next year. Cool that he's being noticed quickly though.

4 white supremacists arrested in plot to assasinate Obama on Thursday.

http://tinyurl.com/5q5tpk

37 This might violate rule 5

Not really politics. Someone plotting to kill a well known figure for non-political reasons.

36 Do you know anything about Lambo's defense, or are they just going to stash him at Left Field?

40
I just remember there was talk that he probably would not stick at third and would be moved to outfield or first.

greetings from Dallas, I unfortuanly suffored through three horrid games on national television here in the lonestar state.
Lets hope we stick it to the nationals and that B Webb some how has an off night tomorrow..

Three months removed from being drafted in the second round by the Dodgers, Lindblom earned the promotion after notching 33 strikeouts against only four walks in 29 innings with a 1.86 ERA. The 21-year-old right-hander out of Purdue pitched five no-hit innings in his last start.

How good is Lindblom?

http://www.pe.com/sports/baseball/dodgers/stories/PE_Sports_Local_S_dodgers_notes_26.496b103.html

43 It's kind of what was projected. He was seen as a guy that could help the bullpen as early as late next year. His upside isn't huge, but he could be a decent setup guy in the near future.

Actually (not joking either), I found that Freeman article to be comforting. Then again, I also found Murakami's 'Norwegian Wood' optimistic in the end.

But changing gears, the really good, cathartic laugh I needed after this Philly series came from a quote at the end of tonight's LAT game recap:

"I'm not a wizard,"

Interesting that despite this "we're all to blame" theme, Bowa is really blaming Kent, Torre is looking at Kent and Blake, and the Times is blaming those two and Nomar. I'm so used to seeing the young guys blamed for everything that this is really rather surprising.

R.I.P. Kevin Duckworth

Casey Blake had one of those games (series) that I can understand, Kent from what I read in the comments could have made a play but didn't so I guess the times has a legit reason to blame him.

Why are they blaming Nomar?

I blame Gary Bennett.

48 On Monday, they were one for 17 with runners in scoring position, including Jeff Kent's going 0 for 4 in that situation and striking out twice when even a fly ball would have driven in a run.

Nomar Garciaparra, 35, did not start after starting 11 of 12 games since the Dodgers activated him from the disabled list. He is batting .163 since then, with no extra-base hits.

Blake, 35, has started every game since the Dodgers acquired him July 26. He is batting .218 this month and has not driven in a run in nine games.

Odds of the Dodgers making the playoffs:

July 31, 2008: 31%
August 26, 2008: 30%

51
BP really ought to say "Playoff Probabilities" instead of "Playoff Odds".

BTW: Is there any Manny Ramirez "buzz" these days, or is it all dead?

52 For me, the buzz went bye bye when the D Backs got Dunn.

Seems to me the veterans are doing exactly what their PVL-ness is supposed to help them do. Their post-game comments indicate that, despite the Times' best efforts, they're not going to panic over a four-game slump when there's a month left to play and they trail a flawed team by just three games.

Of course, there's no indication that the young players are cracking open one another's skulls and feasting on the goo inside, but...

50
Nomar's walk off home run doesn't count as an extra base hit? Did the Times fire all their editors?

48 , 50 . The media, again, shows how stupid they are. The print media just has so little quality in sports reporting. Small Sample Size is their bread an butter. It really is stunning.

It is one thing to report on the happenings of a game. That is a needed function of the sports reporter - to poetically and interestingly tell the story of a game that passed. I remember a post by Jon a few weeks ago that was a paragraph or two long that said something like "it's all about the outfield." I remember reading it and thinking "that was a really great introduction to that game. I bet if I go read Tony Jackson in my paper (local Pasadena paper), he'll be ranting (or raving - I forget whether the Dodgers won or lost that game) about how some specific fact in the shows the new trend or shows how the Dodgers are still [something]. I was, of course, correct.

It is the rare reporter that is not some combination of lazy and stupid. It is even more rare to find a lack of those attributes in sports reporting. I think it is hard work to be a good baseball reporter. Almost every day for seven months you have to describe what happened in a game. Since the game ends late at night, the reporter probably has less than an hour or two to get a draft in to the editor. Being creative and poetic and insightful about the game is just a lot harder than ranting or raving about some Small Sample Size analysis. Almost everyone chooses the later approach. I wish I knew why - I guess that the economics of hiring someone with real talent just don't work out. /shrug.

"striking out when even a fly ball would have driven in a run." - using two! samples. How can they conclude anything with two data points? I mean all three of those quotes are stupid. But that one in particular irritated me, especially in light of the greater context of Kent's August performance. Kent is hitting .386/.413/.477. The reporter managed to parse his 91 PA's down to two in order to complain and lay some blame. Outrageous.

51
Amazing

46

I am not surprised by the shift of blame, but it is really weird to read.

When guys like Kent play like they did last night I expect he is hurting. It would be nice to see Manny get another hit with someone on base before Sept comes.

Andrew has a True Blue line up about our history making debacle last night.

0 I am also 47 years old. I imagine I've done close to none, if not exactly none, of the 100 things. We are doing some renovations, so the slip and fall danger is at least yellow alert. Hmmmmm.

9
Iguchi & Edmonds have to be among the worst signings that Kevin Towers has ever made.

Since Towers traded for Edmonds, he is hitting .231/.341/.462, good enough for a 110 OPS+ for a CF. That's not a bad investment for ~$5.7m (the amount the Padres are paying). However, you could argue he's actually not been that good since he has been the worst (34th) CF in MLB, with an off the charts -20 plus/minus rating.

The mistake, of course, was cutting bait on Edmonds at what looks to be far too soon.

56

Fantastic

Can we get Joe Pos to come to the times?

56
It was a game summary-small data points always apply.

22 My favorite story of my father's college days at Rutgers, c. 1954 is about one of his professors for one of his courses in History of Mexico or similar - he was kind of a Latin American studies minor before the term was in vogue - and the prof took the student to a local town tavern to teach them the proper methods and techniques for drinking tequila.

He never quite tells me all the details, but to this day he claims than tequila "does not agree" with him.

Of all the things Jeff Kent has said over the years, I think this is my favorite. From today's Times:

--------------

Kent said he had to monitor Werth breaking from second, another runner coming from first, the batter and the batted ball.

"I'm not a wizard," Kent said.

---------------

That quote cracks me up for some reason.

63 No they do not. SSS of course applies to describing the events that took place. That is all well and good. SSS has, however, no place in analysis. The distinction is not hard.

If you are drawing conclusions about why the Dodgers lost a particular game, fine. If you are drawing larger conclusions about "how the Dodgers are playing" generally, not fine.

56 Small Sample Size is their bread an butter.

This was Kent's exact complaint to Simers the other day, which would have been a better discussion than the eventual "is he disrespecting Scully?" rhubarb.

Yah, I have to say that despite Kent's bad game yesterday, and legit worries about his defense, he's scarcely been the Dodgers problem the past two weeks. Whether it's Manny influence or no, he's been red hot up til then. But I do like seeing blame spread to the PVL in general for once, as Nomar has contributed nothing after a small burst of hope when he first came back and Blake is slumping. And now even Manny is slumping (although in fairness he's also hit some balls hard that were either windblown back or at someone). Martin was slumping horribly too, until the last couple of games (which hopefully is a good sign). At any rate, slumps happen, and most of these guys are capable of coming right back out of it again, too. They looked like a team that had suddenly hit a wall in the Phills series, and need to get a second wind starting now. They also look like a team that could use reinforcements.

65 It was funny. It was also exceptionally polite given the things Bowa was saying about Kent - and the team in general.

65 Maybe it's because it makes you picture Kent wearing a tall pointy hat with stars on it and a long wand which he points at 2nd base, saying a few spells he learned at Hogwarts?

Joe with another great read.
http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/08/25/exhaustion-and-bruce/

68
The reinforcements were Manny, Blake, Maddux, and Nomar. They need to step up and do the job.

I have a feeling that Manny is not feeling this is a vacation anymore.

55 I think they're saying in his last 12 games no extra base hits. I thought the same thing you thought initally, it was very poorly written.

72 True, and except for Nomar, I have faith those other guys will still step it up, they definitely all need to. But I was also thinking of young reinforcements after Sept 1, plus the return of Cory Wade. Someone like Hu should help the defense, too, if he's actually allowed to play. But those vets need to step it up this week, it's true.

Is Jeff Kent's new nickname the "non-wizard"

74 The game-ending HR by Nomar was ten games ago. The .163 BA is definitely since returning from the DL (12 games ago). Just an incorrect sentence, because "since then" can only refer to "since being activated from the DL".

76 Is that a "muggle"?

59 I think I speculated last night that Kent may be hurting, perhaps has been, on-and-off, all season.

2004 4th round pick and Huntington Beach native Collin Balester pitches for the Nats tonight. So far the 22-year old has been homeriffic, giving up 8 in 48.2 IP, including 5 HR in 22 home innings.

41 Lambo was drafted as a 1B and I recall scouting reports being favorable about his defense there. He's left-handed all the way so 3B was not a consideration, although he did manage to appear there once in rookie ball - must have been a sight! He's primarily played corner OF in the minors; I imagine that being partly because of the Dodgers lack of OF prospects, partly because 1B is (may be?) blocked by Loney for some time to come.

79 ... therefore, ToyCannon, I agree with you.

For those in the Westwood area and love basketball this story is about the pickup games going on at UCLA everyday.
http://tinyurl.com/6zq32n

Even though the story was written on 7/30 the games are still going on. This thread talks about the players that have been seen. It is mostly Clipper talk but some UCLA players get plenty of play.
http://tinyurl.com/5n3km5

81
Ortiz can only play 1st base while Lambo can play the outfield, so Lambo got the outfield call. Since he was considered a solid defensive 1st baseman it will be curious where he plays for the Suns since Russ Mitchel is not exactly someone who should be blocking him from playing 1st base.
I really hope this is just a temp promotion and that he doesn't skip High A ball next year. After having to hit in the offensively challenged Midwest league, I wanted to see what he would do in the Cal League.

70 I really want Plaschke to bust into the clubhouse and tell Jeff in his most Hagrid like voice "you're a wizard, Jeff". And then they would ride off on that sweet flying Harley. It would be Jeff's childhood wish come true.

78
Kent is very much a muggle.

Kent's not a muggle. He's a Halfling.

That left Chad Billingsley so distraught with even a seven-innings, three-run quality start that after being pulled he apologized to Torre, who meant to congratulate him.

http://www.beloblog.com/Pe_Blogs/prosports/mlb/dodgers/

I don't know how much locker room material really helps players get motivated (after all, I thought USC would be motivated to beat Stanford bases on some of Jim Harbaugh's pregame comments last year), but Rick Neuheisel is already fanning the flames of the USC/UCLA rivalry with a full page ad in the LA Times:

http://tinyurl.com/6883yk

.282 /.329 /.421 /.750

Having to keep that or insisting on keeping that in the middle of our order all year is what has cost us. And this is with the recent surge.

Bryan Morris, the Class A pitching prospect acquired in the Jason Bay trade, was shut down for the final week of Hickory's season because of pain in the biceps just below the right shoulder.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08239/906938-63.stm

89 should have added "maybe next year" to the ad. They may only win 2 games this year.

91
the Jason Bay trade

What is this "Jason Bay trade" of which you speak? :)

85

Oh man, I played that out in my head, and it was awesome.

Jeff "muggle" Kent

To go along with 90 with RISP
.244 .326 .366 .692

#79: Kent is 40 years old, playing second base almost every night. There's no doubt that he's pretty much in some sort of pain all the time.

http://tinyurl.com/comebacksooncory

Cory Wade (right shoulder inflammation) gave up one hit in one scoreless inning Monday in a Minor League rehab start for Class A Great Lakes. He could return to the Majors as early as Wednesday.

First pitch for the Dodgers' Sept. 5 game (Friday) against the D-backs has been moved from 7:40 p.m. PT to 7:08 p.m. to accommodate an ESPN telecast.

From Simers' latest:

"That's something about discipline," Torre joked after getting Ramirez to snip an inch off his dreadlocks. "You sacrifice wins, the season and everything else to have it."

Discipline is not that important, Joe.

The standard line in the days that followed the signing had been that Alvarez and his agent, Scott Boras, were having travel complications. But it became clear yesterday that this has much more to do with Boras' fairly regular practice of keeping his client away from the team an extra week or so, basically for no reason beyond drawing a line in the sand.

I don't get Boras. Is he trying to hold out Alvarez just to get a couple of more million from the Pirates? The Pirates want to fast track Alerez, he'd be more served getting his arbitration clock ticking and eventual FA.

99
The contract was already verbally agreed to, so there's no real way to squeeze more money out of the club. The only reason I can think that Alvarez has not yet shown up