LAT'ed by the smallest of margins. Ah well, probably fitting.

1 - Very sorry about your dog, Dave.

1
Sorry about your dog.

2 Thanks. I am at peace with that; it was the right decision at the appropriate time. But it is never easy.

1 I'm sorry about your dog. My dog had to be euthanized a few months ago and it was painful.

Well, make 4 for 3 too.

Some of you guys need to relax. Pierre over Kemp??? Are you kidding me? The biggest issue with the Dodgers right now is Furcal. He NEEDS to get on base. If he doesn't, we won't score a lot of runs. We are fine. The Phillies have Moyer, Blanton and then Hamels going against Bills in Game 5 @ DS. I can ASSURE you Bills will not pitch like this again. And I can assure you we are going to put some runs on the board against Moyer and Blanton. One game at a time though. WE GOT THIS!!!

7 - I don't think you need to repeat a comment that was 20 minutes old :)

On the other hand, maybe it's worth repeating...

Yes Jon I know lol but I want people to read it. We got this. No worries. Believe!

I'm sorry to hear about your dog too, El Lay Dave. A friend of mine has a girlfriend who's cat of 20 years had to euthanized a few week ago. She was crushed. Just hearing my buddy recap the details was heart breaking.

Fortunately, your dog is in a better place now.

---

More Dodgers talk. A moment ago, as we were getting the new post, someone brought up how thin the team will be next year. I had a feeling about this back in August myself. The Dodgers will just have to make the most of 2008, because I don't have a good feeling about 2009. Lots of things can happen, but I still worry about it.

If the Dodgers don't win another game, this will still be an extremely successful season. The Dodgers brought credibility, excitement, and interest back to their team, and I see more fans catching on coast to coast. How cool is that?

And 5. Because he was a pretty big dog, about 70 pounds, I always thought we'd be lucky if he made it to 13 years old or so, but he got over 2.5 years bonus time - a good, long life, so that helps for me, I think.

It's funny, last night I think I mentioned that the Phillies were too reliant on the home run in the post season. And then they go and put up 8 runs without hitting a single one out of the park.

Lovely.

So, I'll say it now, the Dodgers haven't had enough home runs this season. That should be good for about 12 runs on 4 homers, right?

A friend of mine has a girlfriend who's cat of 20 years had to euthanized a few week ago.

should read

"A friend of mine has a girlfriend whose cat of 20 years had to be euthanized a few weeks ago."

Sorry about that, guys.

11
I think our pitching will be fine and very young, which means it should hopefully only get better.

It is our hitting that I am worried about. I expect Manny to be in New York (AL or NL). Then third we re-sign Blake, which would be an issue for me or go sign someone like Beltre. I assume we would also go after another outfielder since we can't count on Jones or Pierre. That all basically means that we are going to need Kemp, Loney, and DeWitt to make some nice strides.

11 - I don't get the concern for the roster next year. Kemp, Loney, Martin, Ethier are all coming back. DeWitt should improve. Billingsly, Kuroda, Kershaw, Broxton, McDonald, Kuo (assuming his arm is still attached), will all be back. There's a pretty good chance that Manny and/or Blake are back. The only guy that might not be back is Furcal. This post-season experience is going to help the Bums, it's extra games, it's a reminder of what they play for (besides the money). The Dodgers will be better in 2009. Of course, the D'Backs and Rockies should also be better, and with their pitching, who knows what the Giants will do, but still, the Dodgers are going to be in it down to the wire.

On the brighter side, I do have tickets for game 4 Monday, which will be the first playoff game I've ever attended. Should be exciting, no matter what.

For game 3, against Moyer how many RH bats will Torre try to squeeze into the lineup? He might be tempted by Nomar's career numbers against Moyer, although all but 3 PAs are prior to 2004:
37 PAs, 15 H, 6 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 1 BB, 1 K .417/.432/.722/1.154

11 Why do you have a bad feeling for next year? It's just a feeling so I don't want to be too harsh on you. But I'm excited for next year.

It's hard to believe, but this is Kemp's and Loney's first year in the majors. With this year under their belts, either of them could take a major step forward next year. Billingsley is already the ace -- next year could be the year that he steps forward to be a Cy Young candidate. Ethier was amazing in September -- can he do that for an entire year? What will Kershaw do next year?

I'm not giving up on this year yet (even if I am striving for a Zen attitude about the games that are lost and in the books) and hope that we haven't seen the last of the 2008 edition, but if these are the last games we get this year, that's not so bad. Sure, there are a lot of question marks for next year -- we've discussed them all. But next year also has so much exciting going for it. All you can ask of a team is to give you interesting baseball, and I see lots of reasons why the 2009 Dodgers will give us that.

But your bigger point is correct: let's see what happens Sunday first.

18 should read Kemp's and Loney's first FULL year in the majors.

I keep hearing beltres name come up but I hope everyone is aware he had thumb and shoulder surgery with a 5 month recovery time. Will he really change teams before he has even recovered?

and forgot to add that he has one year left on his deal

20
Options at third are not very good.

The Pirates have two young third baseman maybe we should try to get one of them. : )

21
I would assume the new Mariners GM would trade away anyone with value to start rebuilding the team.

Anyone with value that is not in their long-term plans.

Someone in the last thread mentioned the importance of getting Furcal on. What about Kemp in the leadoff spot and dropping Furcal down to 8th? Kemp had a .360 OBP batting leadoff in a 185 AB.

Dodgers Bullpen Changing Plan
Clayton Kershaw Joe Beimel
Greg Maddux Takashi Saito
(Useless Player: Joe Beimel,Chan Ho Park)

Travis Denker claimed off waivers by SD.

27
The balance of power in the NL West shifts.

Tough game all around and im a little concerned about this ESPN article reporting on post game. Bills apparently addressing that he feels some of the issue was pitch selection. Just curious what others make of this?

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2008/news/story?id=3637274

Here's a far more important question. What do I wear to Game 4?

a. Dodger Thoughts T-Shirt (blue)
b. 1988 Dodgers World Champions T-Shirt (also blue)

28 I was thinking what a tragedy that the Giants ultimately got nothing for Sweeney.

29 Since the pitcher can shake off signs, I claim that pitch selection responsibility ultimately resides with the pitcher.

29
I think it is no big deal and everyone likes to make a big deal about the attitude of our young players.

31 Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.

My cats and I send you condolences about your pup, Dave. It sounds like it was his time but it's always a sad time. Best wishes.

And best wishes to Travis Denker, too. I have to sort of chuckle in remembering the handwringing and teeth gnashing in worry that Travis Denker was a big fish we let get away. Sweeney was worthless this year but he pitched in last year and I never thought that much about Denker. But maybe he can make it with the Pads.

Off to put away laundry and then get my mind off baseball for awhile by watching a Werner Herzog doc. (Not the bears one, the Antarctica one.)

33. well im not sure this has to do with attitude, i thought it had more to do with Bills actually stating that he felt pitch selection was an issue. Just hope this doesn't cause some rift between the two but i think ultimately Martin is too mature to take this personally.

36
Jason Varitek will solve all these problems!

Bills has veto power over pitch selection.

15 -18

The main reason I get worried about 2009 is because I feel like Ned is going to blow it all up. For instance, at 3rd, he could sign Pedro Feliz. Or in the outfield, if we don't re-sign Manny, Ned will either go it with Jones/Pierre or sign another placeholder despite Delwyn Young waiting in the wings.

As for the rotation, I'm pretty sure Lowe will end up on another team, which is cool because he's getting old, but it leaves a significant hole. I could almost smell a Kyle Lohse signing, oof.

I also feel like the Plaschkes of the world will pressure Ned into trading a lot of the youngsters after seeing how they struggled in this series. That sounds really ridiculous, but I wouldn't put it past him.

I'm also concerned about whether our beloved youngsters have peaked. I don't think they have, since our corner OFs didn't play full time until two months ago.

Then there's Furcal who I figure will move on. All told, it adds up to post 11 . Basically if we make the right moves, the team will be solid for 2009. But I can't count on that from the incumbent management.

39
I would never expect Delwyn Young to be more than a backup.

29 After my own reading of the Amy Nelson article, I've got to say it's a pile of garbage. Billingsley is not a very good interview to begin with. So what if he keeps mentioning pitch selection? He never says that he blamed Martin, yet all throughout the article Nelson writes it as if Billingsley specifically throws Martin not just under the bus, but onto the freeway during rush hour. Somebody's digging extra hard for a controversy. I can't wait to hear Joe Buck's spin on this.

Couple of thoughts after being at the game:
1) it didn't end up mattering, but the Dodgers caught another bad break on Loney's double in the 2nd - the ball bounced softly off a weird spot on the wall; if that ball hits hard, with Werth going for the jumping catch, it could be a run-scoring triple.
2) Myers stumbled significantly "sprinting" to third in the 2nd inning; he rarely hit 90 MPH with his fastball afterwards. Very hittable, and it made me wonder if he had any problems with his legs. For the rest of the game, I don't remember him throwing a fastball in an important situation.
3) McDonald's got me excited; if Sabbathia will give us an LA discount, I'm seeing a rotation in two years (giving time for development) of Sabbathia, Billingsley, Kershaw, McDonald, Kuroda - seems like potentially three #1s, a #2, and a #3.

41 - I got the same feeling from reading it.

I definitely felt that pitch selection was huge in this game. Billingsley's slider was unhittable. I think all of the big hits given up off Chad in the 2nd and 3rd were on fastballs. I really couldn't understand why with a 2-2 count or a 1-2 count on Ruiz and Werth they couldn't call a slider in the dirt for them to chase.

I noticed Russell looking into the dugout before pitches, so is it him or is it Torre/Honeycutt who calls the pitches?

44. I must agree. With an 0-2 count, you shouldn´t pitch a fastball up.

"I noticed Russell looking into the dugout before pitches, so is it him or is it Torre/Honeycutt who calls the pitches?"

Maybe they were giving the signals to Russ set the defense. And if someone calls the pitches, this someone should be Greg Maddux.

"Bad News Bears" was just on HBO right now (pretty neat) I guess in spirit of the playoffs or something...

30
El Lay Dave, I think you need to rock the 1988 champs t-shirt. That would be awesome.

29 Wow, what a terrible article. The author even twisted a statement explicitly undermining the thesis of the article:

"When you're not throwing the ball like you want to, it's easy to second-guess yourself," Martin said in a very mature, politically correct response. "If it works, it works; if it doesn't, it doesn't. We're going to have to make adjustments."

Here Martin is saying that Billinsley's concern with pitch selection was an instance of self-criticism. I don't know how Martin's comment can be interpreted otherwise.

45 - What if Greg Maddux was calling pitches?

Torre touches his nose and his cheek, Martin puts down his fingers and Billz nods or shakes his head.

Looking at the Dobbs infield single, I could have seen that called as an error. Furcal had his glove on it, but couldn't make the play; that he ranged as far as he did probably prevented it from being an error, though.

35 Totally off topic, but Grizzly Man! What a case study in insanity, every interview in that doc is so off the wall. One of my favorites.

49- Fire him! lol

J-Mac has really impressed me, his fastball hit 94 on the gun and his changeup was great. It was really nice to watch him and Kershaw today.

El Lay Dave, you lost a dog? I'm so sorry. That is my worst nightmare.

I think McDonald got himself into the 2009 rotation with today's awesome performance.

His curveball has major bite and he combines it with a much better fastball than advertised.

Terrific prospect.

This article warrants rule 1 violations. Where is FJM?

39 - The Cardinals already signed Lohse for 4 years, $41 million.

Frankly, I don't think Feliz would be a terrible signing at 3rd - he'd be relatively cheap and short term (assuming Colletti doesn't give him a Pierre contract), and we don't currently have a good internal option (DeWitt might stick there eventually, but he's not going to hit enough to justify a corner position next year). Regardless, without Furcal it does make for a pretty weak-hitting infield.

39 Pedro Feliz signed a two year deal with the Phillies and is signed through 2009 with a team option for 2010.

58

Whew! Lohse and Feliz are out. That still leaves Joe Crede (oof) and Ben Sheets. I doubt Sheets would come to LA, anyhow, but I'm concerned about how injury prone he is lately.

...or rather, Sheets' injury "potential"

To further show what garbage the Amy K. Nelson article is, here is how the exchange was portrayed in the Times:

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

"I didn't make great pitch selections today," [Billingsley] said.

Martin, who called the game, smiled and shrugged when relayed Billingsley's comments.

"When you're not throwing the ball like you want to, it's easy to second-guess yourself," Martin said.

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

That's just bad reporting by Nelson. Ha ha.

Molly is going to have to layeth the smackdown on her.

And I like Amy Nelson too. What have we done to deserve this, Amy?

62
She's dead to me now.

Amy, not Molly, of course.

This loss was depressing for about a minute, then I chalked it to baseball being baseball. Its encouraging that even with a huge for the Phillies, the Dodgers tried their best to chip away at it.

Kuroda's going to win game 3, and then Lowe and Billingsley are going to redeem themselves in game 4 and 5. And we'll knock Bret Myers in his smug face in game 6 to win it. Knock on wood.

We have verrry favorable match-ups in games 3 and 4. Kuroda v Moyer and Lowe v Blanton. We should be able to win those. If we do, it'll restore some swagger to this team (which we have lost, as evidenced by Ethier and Loney losing their cool during different ABs), and hopefully will put us in a good position for Billingsly v Hamels.

My hand is splintery now.

Just hold serve now. No biggie. Seriously. We could have won both games.

Reading Molly's blog, sounds like she's had a better 24 hours.

We'll work hard to send it back to Philly, Molly.

67
That usher fits Philly so perfectly.

Hey all. I haven't posted at DT in months (between business and general laziness), but I have to say I still think we have a good shot at this.

We could have won both games, its not like we're out of our league, the bounces jusi haven't gone our way. There have been at least 3 instances (Manny's double, Loney's double, Casey's out) where a couple of feet kept the Dodgers from scoring runs. And multiple weak hits that could have been outs lead to Phillies rallies. I really don't think Billz was that awful. Sometimes he made good pitches but the Phils just hit them anyway. And like someone else said, he won't have an .800 BABIP often.

We get to go home next game and Kuroda is better than Moyer (especially since we hit lefties well), and then Lowe is much better than Blanton. If we could win those two than we're right back even, and Billz gives us a great shot at game 5. We need 4 out of 5, which is tough, but hey, we beat the Phillies 4 times in a row earlier this year.

I definitely don't see this as our only shot at a title either. We have Billz, Kershaw, McDonald for years to come. Add in Kuroda and Kuo (okay, no idea if he's being considered but I would make him a starter) and we have 5 guys already who could be above average starters, with 2-3 potential ace types. Thats not even considering if we sign CC (although with all those arms I think it would be wiser to add a hitter) and other FA's or Schmidt (okay maybe thats too far). But we have the potential for a dominant rotation. In the bullpen we have Broxton/Wade/Elbert/Troncoso for the next 5 years, with Saito/Kuo/Proctor/Beimel/CHP all options as well. Frankly, I don't see how our pitching won't be really good for quite some time.

For the position players things aren't quite as rock solid, but they still look quite good. How many teams have a young core as good as Martin/Kemp/Ethier/Loney/Dewitt with other guys like Hu/Delwyn/Dejesus/Abreu/Lambo being in there soon too? You could probably count them on one hand! And hitting isn't even our strength! Next year Kemp, Loney, Dewitt, and Martin will probably all be better and if Ethier can play as well as this year we could have 5 out of the 8 spots locked up with good players for years. You figure one of the aforementioned other guys will eventually shine too and we will have the money to sign at least a couple bats (especially if Manny re-signs) and there's no reason we can't have a strong offense as well.

Bottom line is this: With our great core of young talent and the money to keep it and (supposedly) supplement it with some free agent signings, the Dodgers should be contenders for a long time IMHO, unless some idiot stops them. Colletti will try his best but really I can't even see him ruining this. Also, remember that if our minor league system seems a little thin now, we have Lowe/Manny/Beimel as potential type A free agents, and Blake/Maddux/Penny as potential Type B's, so we'll get a plethora of picks to stock the farm this year unless we sign a ton of FA's.

Finally, I don't really see the point in bashing the guys on our team at this point. We're in the NLCS, we should be enjoying this. We are in the final four of 30 teams, thats pretty darn good. Even if we get swept out of this series, I'll still feel extremely proud of what this team accomplished this season, how far these guys came. Its been an unbelievable journey following this team at DT; from Raffy's injuries and the hopelessness of Andruw Jones, to the Minotaur's debut and Billz' development, to getting Manny, to passing the D-Backs and winning the West, to shocking the world by sweeping the Cubs, and to whatever our fate may be; I'll never forget this year. I know I love this team, win or lose, I love all these guys, and I hope every season can be as fun and crazy as this one has been. As a fan thats all you can really ask for.

With that I think I've said enough, apologies for the length. Just making up for lost time I guess! ;-)

GO DODGERS!

I was quite surprised to see Kemp accused of "lack of effort" on that play. I could be wrong but I remember thinking just the opposite at the time. Kemp had 18 outfield assists during the regular season (tied for the league lead) and I felt he was thinking if he could scoop that ball up on the run he might have a play at 3rd base. I guess this is a perfect example of two people observing the same play and seeing something entirely different.

Hello from beautiful Lijiang China in Yunnan province. I hope the Dodgers can hold serve at home and the Rays can even things up. Will check in, in a few days!
vr, Xei

69 - Pretty sure they're no longer considering Kuo as a starter because of the 4 elbow surgeries.

60-63 etc.

I cannot comment because it's the Internet. DT picnic '09? You bet your buttons.

I knew when Furcal made that error that we were going to lose both games. The crowd in game 1 had been disturbingly silent until that point, and then it came alive. It was pretty much checkmate.

Despite the awful losses, the Philly fans (and ushers) who need to get a life, and the smelly bus ride home, I had a blast.

Random stats of the day: Jonathan Papelbon's G/F ratio

2005: 0.84
2006: 0.78
2007: 0.53
2008: 1.61

69 - Great thoughts, bablue, thanks for sharing. 70 - I sort of had the same feeling. Kemp was intent on gunning down Myers and seemed to have him in his sights, but Myers little stutter step seemed to fix the Bison's gaze on the runner when he should have been concentrating on the ball. I do think that Rollins going for second caught him by surprise, however.

Philly 8-10 BABIP yesterday off Billingsley. You gotta be kidding me, Chad couldn't do that again if he tried.

Well, I guess as long as we get back to Philly we still have a realistic chance, even down 3-2.

Game 6- Kuroda vs. Myers
Game 7- Lowe vs. Moyer/Blanton

There were a lot of reasons for yesterdays loss, but I blame Torre. Joe is treating these games like regular season games. After Bills gave up 4 runs he should have pulled him. It was obvious he didn't have his best stuff and it could only get worse. Also how in the world did Nomar ever win a batting title , not by swinging at pitches that weren't close to the strike zone like yesterday.

From Simmers today

A couple of weeks ago, the Philadelphia police bomb squad was called to the ballpark to detonate three suspicious packages. Turns out the packages were leftover hot dogs, wrapped in white packing paper and duct tape, and ordinarily shot from a launcher into the crowd by the team mascot, the Phillie Phanatic.

Watching the game yesterday at home with no distractions, pressure, or having to stand inches from something flying past me that if it were to hit me could break a bone, fracture my skull, or merely make me look absolutely stupid I noticed that Myers started soft stuff after Manuel's visit to the mound.

I wanted Kemp to look for something soft on the first pitch and he didn't. And once Myers got the 0-1 count, I wanted Kemp to know he was going to see balls in the dirt.

Then I wanted Ethier to realize he was going to see only pitches in the dirt and he swung as if he thought he was going to get something to hit.

Finally, I thought Nomar would use his experience to know he wasn't going to get a pitch to hit until a strike had to be thrown and he swung as if he thought he would get a pitch to hit. I even thought Nomar might swing at an attempted pickoff throw to first by the time the third pitch came.

I thought Billingsley had great stuff and then got pitches up and over the plate. He didn't do a Burt Hooton, but he did learn from today and will use the experience for the rest of his career.

I thought Loney had an excellent game.

I tried to bet buttons, once. The mob has no sense of humor.

I've done it!

After growing out my hair for a few weeks, I've shorn it off at Supercuts. My apologies to the hair growers and non bathers (I can already hear Disabled List shouting "I thought we were in this together!"). :)

The rally hair stopped working, so I've excised it... now let's get some W's!!

not to open old wounds here but Torre's decision to let McDonald bat was a bad one, and he clearly left Bills in too long. And I'm not second guessing...it was very obvious at the time, and not just to me. In front of a travel day, you don't lose a game because you're afraid to go to your bullpen. You don't stake your chances on a ninth inning rally against Lidge. Torre gets as much blame as any of the players. The Dodgers have enough vulnerable areas without a manager who is afraid to change pitchers. That wasn't being laid back, it was a choke. Pure and simple.

83 Lowe's out of nowhere 5th inning implosion the day before and Chad's uncharacteristically bad outing are more to blame than anything. Torre had to blow through more of his bullpen in the 1st game and way too early in the 2nd than anyone would have expected or hoped. I like the faith he showed in McDonald and McDonald was pitching so well. The Dodgers had plenty of chances to get runs across since the 'pen pitched well after Bills, plenty, and they couldn't do it. As he told the Fox crew when asked about that between innings, besides all those reasons, if you blow through your few good pinch hitters that early you're left with no one late in the game. I really feel his hands were tied there. No, blame Chad's bad outing for digging a big hole for the team early, more than anything. Now they need to make up some ground in LA.

And I appreciate your post, too, bablue, that's a great attitude to have. Doesn't make it less frustrating or disappointing if they lose this series, initially, but ultimately I think you're right.

Oh, and glad you survived Molly.

The only problem I had with the game at the time was when we didn't just walk Ruiz to pitch to Myers with 2 outs in the 2nd with a RISP. I would do that every time in the playoffs with a RISP and first base open. You can tell me all about how bad of a hitter Ruiz is and that there is always a chance the pitcher will get a hit (or 3), I get it but would still do it every time.