That was the funniest post-game interview I've heard in a long time. Boy is Manny enjoying L.A. or what? That was awesome!

Darn, I wish I'd caught the Manny-Berroa interview.

So, where does your charting reflect Broxton's "Want It Mentality"? ;-)

d'oh LAT'd, but still: sweet, debut of Sons of Anarchy.

Steve Lyons implies that Blake DeWitt's a better player now over Jeff Kent.

4 - some of us would have implied that in May.

Congrats to Scott Elbert for his first career hold!

Dodgers magic number is now 25. This weekends series will chop a minimum 4 off of either the Dodgers or DBacks magic number.
vr, Xei

6 What's officially an 'hold' an out that ends an inning?

That was a great game - so many great moments! These Dodgers sure know how to play my heartstrings - one week ago, I was bitter, angry, flabbergasted, and this week, I'm back to believing. I hope someone puts that Manny/Berroa interview up on the internet.

That post-game interview was a hoot. I kept saying "Berroa was rookie of the year a while back, I'm sure he speaks some English." Then he slips.

Funny funny stuff.

Rafael Furcal was paid a visit in Arizona by trainer Stan Conte, who oversaw the shortstop run the bases for the first time. Furcal will return to Southern California over the weekend to be seen by his back surgeon.

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

Presently on Yahoo's scoreboard page for MLB, Oakland and Kansas City are scheduled to play three games tomorrow.

Would've loved to watch that interview with Berroa and Manny. Hilarious!

There are two definitions of a hold, but I believe the one that has become more widely accepted is that a pitcher enters a game in a save situation, records one out, and then is removed before the game ends and is ineligible for the save.

12 Triple header? really?

I watch the game on DVR and miss a new DT member. Halfway through the comments I was expecting deleted posts but it never happened. Needless to say that was quite the moment when it all came together. And I missed instant replay in Tampa!

What a wild and crazy game that was tonight. The stage is set for the D'Backs and Dodgers.

15
Just a coding error.

The Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies have expressed interest in second baseman Tadahito Iguchi, according to his agent, Rocky Hall. Iguchi was released by the San Diego Padres this week.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dodfyi4-2008sep04,0,5439326.story

Backup, or trying to replace DeWitt at 2nd?

18
Platoon maybe.

19 Would he be an offensive upgrade over DeWitt? Can't see Iguchi be an defensive upgrade.

20
I don't think so, but I have no say.

Congrats to Chan Ho Park - a daddy for the second time!

18 - Don't mess with anything right now.

22
Congrats, Chan-Ho and family.

Good for Chan Ho! He pitched in the first Dodger game I ever watched with serious interest, was my favorite pitcher for several years, and gave me and my father many many white hairs. I'll always have a soft spot for him.

Rosters should just be expanded to 40 all year long.

26
So I guess Tony La Russa posts here under a pseudonym.

The friday game vs the D'backs are on ESPN nationally.

28 - Also, it's a weird 7:05 start on a Friday night. Not the normal 7:40 start.

Torre talking about Ethier:

"I think it's easier with him," emphasized Torre. "Once you start talking about it, it's an on-going thing. And your questions are certainly warranted, because a guy with his ability sits on the bench, you want to ask him how he feel about it. He's always said the right thing. And I appreciate it. It does make my job easier."

http://sportsblogs.latimes.com/sports_baseball_dodgers/2008/09/post.html

Manny and Angel interview video:

http://tinyurl.com/69uwzv

Haren vs. Lowe
Webb vs. Billingsley
Johnson vs. Kershaw

This is on Dodgers.com "probable pitchers."

I am pleasantly surprised about Sunday (thought it'd be Maddux).

31 I noticed that more of Manny's hair was covering his uniform. The return of hairgate?

32 Looks you guys and gals had some fun on the game thread. If the Dodgers pitch Kuroda on regular rest, they can keep both Lowe and Maddux away from Coors.

I took "I Love LA's" advice and created my own blog. :)

http://daveslocksoftheweek.blogspot.com

It has nothing to do with baseball, however :\

---

Trolley Dodger, thank you so much for posting that interview so quickly!!

34 Maddux is probably for Monday @ SD.

36 *probable

32 - Interesting. I wonder if that's just a mistake. They've been promoting Johnson/Maddux all night.

34 Thanks Again for the Game and Company. Was a pretty great W, and I'll remember the Angel shot for a while.

Another Win for the internet scorecard. Hoping for the book by the end of this week or early next week, and to wear it in the next homestand or at spring training.

BH has now posted more from my iPhone than me. His double post takes over the one time I was able to post without crashing it. The Toaster's Session Management acts as a fork for the phone, for some reason.

I emailed Tony Jackson to see if he can confirm Sunday's starter.

Does Broxton have any pitches besides a fastball?

Surely when he faces the top hitters in the league he can't expect to just blow the ball by them.

Michael (LA): Is Andrew Lambo a top 50 prospect?

Kevin Goldstein: Absolutely not.

Please send all your hate mail to Kevin Goldstein at http://www.baseballprospectus.com/chat/chat.php?chatId=514

L.A Times:

Until next week, the Dodgers won't have to glance up at the scoreboard or scream at the clubhouse television, as they did Wednesday while watching the Diamondbacks' come-from-behind victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

"No!" Russell Martin shouted as Stephen Drew drove a ball to center field to lead off the bottom of the ninth with the Diamondbacks trailing, 3-2.

"Get him!" Berroa called as Drew slid into third base safely.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dodgers4-2008sep04,0,7918240.story

Does Broxton have any pitches besides a fastball?

Yes, slider.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080903&content_id=3413648&vkey=news_pit&fext=.jsp&c_id=pit&partnerId=rss_pit

Frank Coonelly chats. He says that Pedro Alverez is going to be a Pirate no matter what.

WieterLess: Was Andy LaRoche's jogging incident addressed? Is that acceptable behavior from a guy who just came over?

Coonelly: Yes, LaRoche's inability to run out the ball the other day was addressed immediately. That behavior is completely unacceptable and he was embarrassed by it. We are convinced that it will not happen again.

Ran a quick sim of the upcoming three games vs Arizona. Preliminary output looks like Dodgers are slight faves in all three.

Lowe: 52.3%
Billingsley: 54.6%
Kershaw: 53.2%

Should be an exciting series.
vr, Xei

I saw this on the Ducksnorts blog, and thought it would be an interesting thing to try here (although there is great potential for rule violations).

1. What one thing would you do this off-season to improve the club?
2. Why would you do this? How will it help?
3. What are arguments in favor of your proposal?
4. What are arguments against it?
5. Is it realistic to think that the Dodgers might actually do something like this?
6. If not, are there alternatives that could achieve similar effect?

http://ducksnorts.com/blog/2008/09/one-actionable-item.html

31
That was hilarious. Thanks for the link, as I had switched over to watch the US Open.

About the upcoming series:

"They're coming in our house and nobody comes in our house and tells us what to do" - Russell Martin

48 1. Make a decision on Ned Colletti, either fire him or extend him.
2. A lameduck GM would be faced with questions about his future and any moves he makes would be viewed within that prism. If you fire him, you allow the next person a honeymoon period plus you look at things from a fresh perspective. If you extend him, that removes the uncertainity and everyone can focus on the team.
3. As I stated above, the last thing the Dodgers need is constant attention on the front office, they need to move the focus onto the field and the players.
4. Certainly, firing your second GM within 5 years of owning the club does not speak well for your patience and any idea of stability but extending a GM that is certainly not considered among the best in the business may set you back even more.
5. If what we read from press reports since the trade deadline is true, McCourt is unhappy but may not want to pay two GMs since he just finished paying Depodesta too. But McCourt wants to win so he may take the opportunity to grab the other half of the Yankees successful team of Cashman and Torre.
6. I can't think of any alternatives.

42 Well, Goldstein's right that Lambo's absolutely not a top 50 prospect right now. With his hot finish he's probably put himself within striking distance of the top 100, though.

Actually, for the first time in a while, I don't think the Dodgers have anyone who's guaranteed to make BA's top 100. The only one who was a sure thing was Santana. Elbert, McDonald, DeJesus, and possibly Lambo could make it, but I could also see any of them being left off.

Would a division title for the Dodgers this year essentially guarantee that Ned keeps his job...?

53. With the way Manny's been playing, I think it would. Why do you ask...?

54
51 brought the question to my mind.

Thanks to those unnamed sources (Rosenthal's vendors?) Heyman speculates that Ned will be back in 2009 win or lose, but not because McCourt is in any way happy with him. I assume it would be because of McCourt's money-flow worries, not wanting to pay two GMs. That means bh's worst-case scenario, and Ned on a tight leash as we saw most of this year. He'd be allowed to resign Manny I'm sure, maybe Blake, but that leads to young and cheap otherwise. Frank won't allow another Jones deal. I do think that JP is being pushed into approving (if not demanding) a trade, although I can't imagine LA would get much in return other than bench space and a bit of salary savings. I guess Ned on a leash is better than Ned unchained, but it doesn't solve the lame duck-ness bh rightly points to.

I still think Colletti is done, no matter how the team finishes the year. Unless that hard salary cap that became obvious at the trade deadline was something they'd agreed to in advance (which could be the case, I guess), I don't see how you take away his checkbook in July, and give it back to him in November.

Colletti's last salary dump didn't go spectacularly well. He agreed to pay all of Odalis Perez's salary, threw in two low level prospects, and got back Elmer Dessens. There are ways to lose a Pierre trade.

He agreed to pay all of Odalis Perez's salary, threw in two low level prospects, and got back Elmer Dessens

...and then failed to offer Elmer arbitration.

57 I certainly hope you're right, he should be done and would be most anywhere else. I wanted to fire him after I first saw Gary Bennett throw, and have been confident of his exit. But Heyman's piece sadly makes sense to me given the context of all we've read this year. It would not involve giving him the checkbook back.

McCourt should do what's best for the Dodgers, and that is to replace Ned with a baseball man (or woman).One who knows how to evaluate talent and hold the PR cliches.

How confident are we that Ned's successor would be any better? I think much of the organizational dysfunction stems from the top, and I don't have faith that McCourt will pick a great GM. Plus, given the lack of a commitment to a plan (and the treatment of Depo), how many really smart GM candidates would want to work for him?

I don't mean to imply that Ned shouldn't be fired, but I just lack confidence in the organization to replace him with anyone better.

How confident are we that Ned's successor would be any better?

Not very. There are at least two separate questions involved here.

1. Should Ned be replaced with a better GM?
2. Does Ned deserve to be fired because of his performance?

IMO, Ned deserves to be fired, but not because he'll necessarily be replaced by a better GM.

If I hire a plumber to fix my pipes, and instead he floods the house, he has to go. I'll ask around and hope that the next guy is better, but I'm still firing the failure. That said, I would assume that the short list would be Ng, White, and maybe Cashman, none of whom would be worse.

Weren't Ng and White the plumber's assitants?

I gotta believe that Ng or White (most likely White) would get the next crack at the GM job. I'd be delighted with either.

65 They used to work for better plumbers at least, plus White was the one telling Ned to keep the good young fixtures.

The Dodgers have decided to start Clayton Kershaw instead of Greg Maddux in the series finale on Sunday. Kershaw, who will be pitching on regular rest due to Thursday's off-day, threw six shutout innings against the D-backs on Aug. 1, when he also faced Randy Johnson in a game Arizona won, 2-1. Maddux sports a 9.75 ERA against the D-backs in two starts this season and a 5.37 ERA for his career, more than two runs higher than his career ERA and the highest against any club he's faced more than six times. Maddux will next throw against his former club, the Padres, on Monday after he threw 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball against them this past Monday.

That's from the Dodgers.com postgame notes.

I certainly hope Ng or White will do better, but I just wonder how invloved they were with some of Ned's bad decisions.

I'll stop with the analogy after this, but was White okay with giving away nice fixtures to Tampa Bay and Cleveland?

70 Certainly White went along with moving more LaRoche recently, which raised the ire of many here. Ng I confess has always been a mystery to me on these issues.

51

is Cashman better at evaluating talent then Colletti?

62

from what we've seen of Frank McCourt he likes going for a big name [Torre] or some body with great communication skills [Colletti] that has been his trend the last few years, McCourt isn't a baseball man so I won't be surprised if we fall back on the same problem WE'VE HAD SINCE he took over.

So I guess what i'm saying is that maybe he's the problem, that isn't to say he ain't learning though...

59 - I see that Elmer just signed a contract with the Braves, after leading the Diablos to the Mexican League championship over the Sultanes last week.

So Saturday is Chad and Sunday is Clayton. The future is here.

I understand the naysayers about the Manny trade but Dodger Stadium has never been so fun and for most fans that is the bottom line. The crowd lives and dies with every at bat. Now I know how the Giant fans felt when their guy had the bat taken out of his hands. Sucks the life right out of the crowd.

Regarding the top 100 from what I've heard I'm certain that McDonald and DeJesus will be in it. Since the scouts all agree that Elbert has the higher ceiling I'd be surprised if he is not in it. I'd be very comfortable saying that at least two Dodgers will be in the top 100 with as many as 4.

Goldstein may be the last non-believer in Lambo. He was also quite certain that Dejesus was only going to be a punch and judy hitter.

Just a shame about Carlos Santana. A crying spilled milk kind of shame.

59 Didn't we trade him for Brady Clark? Or was that Elmer Dessens tour of duty one.

76 I had a lot of emotion invested in LaRoche fandom, but I's also quite certain that down the line, the Santana trade is the one Ned trade we'll most lament.

Whoever winds up as GM for the Dodgers will be working for a more educated owner. McCourt's education cost him about $130,000,000 and delayed Dodgers progress.

White needs to go (or be put back in charge of drafting). Ng would be a decent choice if she learned more from her previous 2 GMs under which she served than she did from her last one.

Dessens was let go after '05. He came back from the Royals for Perez in '06. He went to Milwaukee for Clark in '07.

Just finished reading last nights thread. I'm still laughing. I can just imagine the look on everyone's faces when he calls out Jon for telling him to settle down.
It so totally reminded me of some kid barking back at a random adult who told him to behave only to find the adult was his teacher for the year.

I should add that if McCourt re-signs Nomar and Kent, he hasn't learned enough yet.

LaRoche put up similar (a bit worse) numbers to Santana at age 22 splitting time between AA and AAA.

83 - I see zero reason to believe those two will be back next year.

I could see Nomar coming back if he was willing to play for nothing and we need a cheap solution to a third baseman.

80

White needs to go

No, he doesn't.

84
As a healthy 3rd baseman. Did you see what Carlos did after he left the Cal League? Remember all that talk about his power being doubles power because of the Cal league. Is anyone talking about that anymore?

You respect Law's opinion, don't you?

I'm still waiting for Santana to hit AA pitching.

88 Of course. I'm pretty high on Santana, but if you think LaRoche is a flame out, you have to consider that the same thing could happen to Santana.

And I was just looking at his Cal League stats when I said that.

Paul Scott - Logan White
Regfairfield - Anyone named Blake
JoeyP - James Loney
D4P - Just about everyone
Dodger Thoughts - Juan Pierre

Lets not talk about Carlos Santana...I don't feel like crying in the office today.

80 Logan White definitely does not need to go, but I'd be perfectly happy if he continues on in his role as one of the best scouting directors in the business. Kim Ng would make a great GM, actually, in my opinion. I'm also not convinced that anyone will be a perfect GM. But we can certainly do better than current head honcho.

93 Women like that in a man. Just sayin'.

88
I don't consider LaRoche a flame out. At the moment he is a disappointment, it will be a few years before I write him off. Once healthy he could be exactly the player you expected him to be. But I'd still trade him for two months of Manny even if he does reach that potential.

It took Navarro awhile to blossom in St. Pete--it's way too early to give up on LaRoche. But that said, he's not a catcher.

95 That wasn't directed at you.

96 Plus he's younger than LaRoche if you can believe it.

Right now I'm just hoping Andy pulls a Carlos Quentin.

Without getting into which players would give the Dodgers the best chance to make and do well in the playoffs--I enjoy watching DeWitt play much more than I enjoy watching Kent play. Also, while I am enjoying Berroa more as the result of him having fun with Manny, I would enjoy watching Hu more than Nomar and Berroa if Hu were to start hitting again.

98 You and me both, I told my buddy (Red Sox fan) in March that LaRoche would have a better offensive career than Pedroia.

92 Don't forget Tripon-Andy LaRoche. I was hoping I'd make the list for Jeff Kent, but everyone (besides gpellamjr) hates Jeff Kent.

I don't hate Blake DeWitt, I just think there's irrational exuberance around him.

Casey Blake is totally fair though.

102
Those were not examples of posters who hate players, more of an overrated feeling.

One thing I don't understand: why is Santana considered a prospect, but Sergio Pedroza was not? They had very similar stats at similar ages.

What are the odds that Carlos Santana is a higher rated prospect than Matt LaPorta this year?

9