I guess Shoemaker got a promotion or at least a transfer to sunny Arizona.

Outfield/baserunning coordinator – Rodney McCray

http://tinyurl.com/2bugqg

Chattanooga! Now that seems strange. And what is a Lookout? No more Jacksonville Fives.

Such an important guy in American journalism, history, writing...

--

Oh, and put me down as a fan of Kremlin Martinez. Though, shouldn't he be with the Reds?

"Curiosity did not kill this cat."

Whattya Say???

Out Fielders (Left Fielders)
Raul Ibenez
Garret Anderson
Juan Rivera
Ken Griffy Jr.
Bobby Abreu
Milton Bradley
Manny Ramirez
Adam Dunn
Pat Burell

1B
Mark Texeria

2B/3b/SS
Orlando Cabrerra
Joe Crede
Edgar Rentaria
Hank Blalock
Casey Blake
Rafael Furcal
Orlando Hudson

Catcher
Jason Varitek
Ivan Rodriguez
Henry Blanco
Jason LaRue

Pitcher
A J Burnett
Joe Beimel
Derek Lowe
Chan Ho Park
Ryan Dempster
Brian Fuentes
CC Sabathia
Jon Garland
Darrin Oliver
Francisco Rodriguez

So the Dodgers need:
*Two infielders?
*Four bench players?
*A Back up Catcher or a Catcher with Martin as 3B/Back up Catcher?
*Two Starting Pitchers?
*Three Reief Pitchers?

Do you feel that any of the above players could fit some of the Dodgers needs?

Or are there Other Players that I have omitted and should have included?

I am looking for a good entry level SLR that I can upgrade via the lens later on, but it will mostly be used for family events, vacations, sports, etc. Primarily indoors, though.

Los Angeles Dodgers
Garciaparra, Nomar (1B); Johnson, Jason (RP); Sweeney, Mark (1B)

http://tinyurl.com/6fx8q6

Type-A/Type-B FAs are out.

Lowe and Manny are Type-A's

Beimel, Casey Blake, Kent, Maddux, Penny, are type-B's.

in other news, Chase Utley is even more awesome today than he had been. Pix of post-WS mayhem downtown and (eventually once they upload) today's ballpark ceremony here:

http://www.webshots.com/user/das411WS2008

Andruw Jones wants to go back to the Braves. We should let him and ask him to get out of the contract.

About the only thing the Dodgers can do would be to outright release him but they would still have to pay him all of his salary.

I wonder why Furcal isn't listed, and what type he is.

[Jones] said it's been tough adjusting to a new team, and misses the guys from the Braves clubhouse. For now, his goal is to return to Los Angeles healthy and "finish strong."

Its hilarious that Edgar Renteria is a type-A. Who the heck would give up a first rounder for him?!

http://www.insidesocal.com/dodgers/

But he OPS'd 1.012!

I am imagining Scott Boras doing this, and it makes me giggle.

http://www.profootballtalk.com/category/rumor-mill/

D'Backs picked up Raunch's 2010 option.

If I was advising Jones, I would tell him to just go to LA for 2009 and collect your money. I don't think I want to give up my commission because he wants to play in Atlanta.

Boras only seems to upset certain fans, general managers and MLB executives. I think he is just doing his job.

Just off the top of my head, I nominate Sid Fernandez.

Example - Grab onto a fixed object with your arm at the release point. Pull back with the tips of your fingers and feel the muscles that are flexing around the perimiter of the outside of your shoulder.
Isolate the index finger, Middle finger, ring finger and thumb.
When a pitcher is throwing the ball at 92 mph the 5.9 ounce ball has the equivalant weight of about 59 pounds because of the force theat is being created by the speed of the hand attached to the ball. Pushing the ball and generating force is not the issue for Penny - he can still generate 94 mph. The issue is that he is unable to exert enough force with the muscles in the back of his shoulder to fine tune his control around the edges of the strike zone.
This is why I feel the the $7 million "bargain" is more like lighting the money on fire by giving it to Penny.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/deluca/1252416,CST-SPT-deluca31.article

Pierre - enough has been said already.

The Dodgers have needed a reliable player at SS since the day Furcal went out of the line up. Counting on him to stay healthy for an entire season just doesn't add up any longer when considering his service time on the field during the life of his last contract with the Dodgers. I would only consider him as a part time player at second base. He creates a lot of tourqe with his swing and his lower back couldn't handle the deceleration last year. This isn't something that just "happened". This is the result of years of swings.
Just my opinion.

If the player has regrets, it really isn't Boras' fault.

Of course, Mike was phlegmatic out of his own frustration with the scripts. So maybe Mr. Phillips should fire Sherwood Schwartz.

Example: The Clippers and Elton Brand. It was disgusting what David Falk said and did to move Brand to the 76'ers just to prove that he was still relevant. A player trusts his agents to give him the best information available, but they don't have any safeguards if the the person they trust has their own ideas what should happen.

The best minor leaguer in Dodger history, going strictly by minor league performance, might be some Quadruple-A guy we've barely heard of. Actually, Tommy Lasorda wouldn't be a half-bad pick. Lifetime record of 107-57 with Montreal.

In theory, you'd be right. In practice, Boras seems always to do what's best for the Scott Boras Corporation, even if that is at odds with what's best for the client in quesiton. Once you hire Boras, you basically have to do whatever he tells you. And if you dump him as your agent, he'll sue you. (see: Sheffield, Gary; Hochevar, Luke.) So in the specific case of Boras, the player actually has somewhat limited options and is by no means the "boss."

Or Drew Rosenhaus?

I feel that Boras does what he does sometimes is not to help his current client, but to set the landscape for future clients.

The Pedro Alverez case was to me, basically telling teams and future clients that he is not a man to be messed with. Even as his client would have been served to get into camp as fast as possible since the Pirates gave every indication that they were going to fast track Alverez and start his major league clock. Whats the difference between a few hundred thousand in a bonus that Alverez could make in his first year of arbitration? Now, he's set back and might not be called until the end of 2009, esthetically under Priates control for at least one more year than he had to be, and one more year away from free agency, where he can make his real money.

Sure, if by "just doing his job" you mean "misrepresenting the capabilities of his clients".

Bingo.

So in response to Steve Henson's piece this week about Phillies fans, he prints some emails he received in kind. Some of which basically prove his point. And Dodger fans are also mentioned here as a defense of Phillies fans, which is the main reason I bring it up.

http://tinyurl.com/6ns5r4

And now I'm sugar-crashing from candy overdose, so I'm off to slumberland.

4) UCLA
15) ASU
18) USC (I am surprised they are this high)
35) Washington
41) WSU
44) Arizona
52) Stanford

No votes for Cal or the Oregon schools.

And hey, I just found out that Oregon finally started a baseball team for this coming season. Were they the last holdout in the Pac-10?

Wait, there was more than one??

You do the math.

http://tinyurl.com/6s9tg5

Oregon used to have a baseball team, but cut it (sometime in the early 90s, I believe).

http://tinyurl.com/673ud2

Actually, it was all the way back in 1982.

Type A (2 each)
Lowe, Manny

Type B (sandwich pick each)
Beimel, Blake

I don't think the Dodgers will offer arbitration to Kent or Maddux*, for fear they would accept, and if they are going to offer arbitration to Penny they would just pick up his option.

*I think if Maddux comes back, the two sides will work on a deal for something less than the $10m Maddux received in 2008 (since he would probably receive somewhere near that in arbitration). For Maddux, it's either SD or LA, and the Padres don't look to be adding costly players right now.

Elias Scores
Tex 98.889
CC 98.110
Manny 93.438

If the Yankees sign all three players, the Dodgers would receive a sandwich pick (between rounds 1 & 2) plus the Yankees' 3rd round pick (instead of 1st).

As the only memeber of my family that doesn't wear make-up or do my hair, I hope I survive.

Oh, how was the cooking final?

63
I have no idea if what you are saying is true but it was an interesting read.

BTW, anyone know of a decent apartment for rent? (just thought I'd take shot here)

Why in signage space alone on the bulk that is Andruw Jones he could make serious jack.

Maybe do a promotion like Taco Bell did in the World Series. Every time Andruw swings and wiffs, Neutrasystem gives everyone one free John Kruk approved food item.

Woah. Didn't realize it was that long ago.

Its akin of planning to get married to your fiance for the last 5 years, buy a house in the neighborhood you love, and a child on the way. And then you suddenly bolt to Panama with a skanky girl you met five minutes ago because you suddenly panicked, and is having a huge midlife crisis.

You putting much to much blame on Falk for this transgression. Elton is a grown man with large business properties who made his own decision to save his neck at the expense of his current and future teammates. Falk took the fall but Elton knew what was going on the whole time. Money talked, winning talked, blaming Falk for Elton's greed at wanting a better contract and a chance to win in an easier league seems misplaced. The Clippers had the opportunity to give him the best contract offer and they failed to do so because they felt he was in the bag. When another suitor showed up they made a last minute effort to match the salary and did so but by then it was to late. Ego in a professional athlete should never be underestimated.

His take on Manny was also not that revealing, but he did stress the reports that Manny seems to want along term deal. Wonder if we the Dodgers could offer Manny three years at 25mil each and two more option years at 15million each year but with an option to be bought out for about 5 million each year once the third year is completed?

Current Daily News beat writer Tony Jackson has moved to Arizona, right across the new Dodgers Spring Training facilities. Will stay as Dodgers beat writer for the Daily News.

http://6-4-2.blogspot.com/2007/08/ot-collapse-at-countrywide.html

They are not Evan Longoria good though.

Stanford has found that playing Washington State is just what the doctor ordered after the loss at UCLA.

Remember those moments when you were a kid where your Dad was ready to leave on time but your Mom and sisters were late and his frustration grew by the minute. My 99 was the product of that.

BH, I had to forego the last session of the cooking final. Instead of proceeding with the house construction in this economy we wound up buying a new place and putting ours on the market. Between open houses, showings, escrow and bat mitzvah, something had to give.

Note: The $100,000 donated to ThinkCure was mandated by Kuroda's contract. Not that he wouldn't do it if asked, but mandating donations to charities in a contract I find odd.

http://www.dailynews.com/dodgers/ci_10869302

Course, Harry called every player the wrong name at least once.

http://tinyurl.com/5hb44k

There are other big-money cricket tournaments also being planned worldwide. (An unofficial one started up in India, but there are also official involvements of several countries' national cricket organizations, like England's in this match, participating.) It's this new "Twenty20" version - slam-bang cricket that takes only a couple of hours to play. There are some - including I think Stanford - who believe that properly introduced, with an investment of a billion dollars or something like that - it could be a hit in the USA. Hmmmm. I think the world broadcst rights to one of these tournaments were sold to a combined Sky (Murdoch) and ESPN for $1 billion. Watch this space over the next few years.

Watson is a Dodgers executive who helps oversee the club's farm system. When asked about Michael Watt, a Dodgers minor leaguer pitcher the Padres acquired at season's end, Watson winced in discomfort before a Dodgers playoff game last month.

"He's a good one," said Watson, the club's assistant general manager, player development. "We certainly thought a lot of him."

Watson said Watt, a 19-year-old left-hander, has two "swing-and-miss pitches" and athleticism that give him a chance to become a solid starter in the major leagues.

____

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20081102/news_1s2padnotes.html

Meanwhile, I've never seen so many sixes (like a home run) as this West Indies captain is getting. Pretty amazing.

If the Saints were a stock, I would liken them to Apple. Hard hit by circumstance in recent weeks, but with solid fundamentals and exciting products (Shockey, Vilma, Colston, Henderson, Brees, and Bush), it is definitely time to buy low.

Warning: I made this same argument in my head in '92 when we won 12 games in 1992.

Interesting. Anyone else with a pitch for their team?

Texas fell to #7 in the coaches' poll, behind USC, Florida, and Oklahoma. Now let's take half a second to look at this.

SC and Texas both have one loss. Texas's loss is the best possible loss you can have: on the road, to an undefeated team, on a touchdown with one second left in the game. USC's loss was to Oregon Freaking State, a team the coaches rank 31st in their own poll. Texas's best wins (#1 Oklahoma, #6 Oklahoma State, #11 Missouri) are far better than USC's best wins (#5 Ohio St., #23 Oregon).

In short, there's no conceivable justification for any voter, let alone the majority of them, to put USC ahead of Texas on their ballot.

The same applies to the Texas-Oklahoma comparison. Both teams have one loss, and it's a very good loss. (Texas lost to an undefeated #7 on the road; Oklahoma lost to an undefeated #5 at a neutral site.) Texas has three victories over top 11 teams; Oklahoma hasn't beaten anyone ranked higher than 16th. Texas won head to head on a neutral site. Again, there's no defensible justification for voting Oklahoma over Texas.

The polls are voted on by people who either (a) have an ax to grind, (b) have their heads firmly enclosed in their posteriors, or, most likely, (c) both. They wouldn't be worth complaining about if the system didn't rely on them to such a large degree. People complain about the computers, but frankly, the computers do a far, far better job of ranking the teams than the human beings do.

1. Texas Tech
2. Alabama
3. Texas
4. Penn State

... which seems just about right, except I guess you could argue for flipping Tech and Alabama.

Say #15 plays #20.

According to the rankings, #15 is better than #20, and thus #15 should win. We should think no better of #15 if they win, and no less of #20 if they lose (especially if the game is reasonably close).

Say #15 wins, in a reasonably close game.

What happens? Does #15 stay at #15 and #20 at #20, as they should?

NO! All of a sudden, we think #15 is better than we used to think (i.e. #15 moves up), and we think #20 is worse than we used to think (i.e. #20 moves down).

It's not that I hate the good people of Lubbock.

But it's just weird. It's weirder than Tampa Bay playing in the World Series.

Trust me, you would if you knew them.

How do the mayors and governors ship all that stuff when the bets are paid off anyway? Do they pack everything in dry ice, or what?

Luc Richard is playing right now as the Bucks are beating the Knicks in the 4th.

11 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals so far.

The Knicks have 71 points with a 8:44 left in the game.

*Sign Varitek and have him catch 100 games.

*Martin plays 62 games at catcher.
*Martin plays 80 games at 3B
*Martin plays 2 games at 1b
*Martin gets 18 games off.

*Sign Furcal
*Furcal plays 82 games at 3B
*Furcal plays 38 games in LF
*Furcal gets 40 games off

*Young plays 124 games in LF
*Young plays 14 games in RF
*Young gets 24 games off

*Kemp plays 155 games in CF
*Kemp gets 7 games off

*Ethier plays 148 games in RF
*Ethier plays 7 games in CF
*Ethier gets 7 games off

*Loney plays 160 games at 1B
*Loney gets 2 games off

*Resign Berroa
*Berroa plays 82 games at SS
*Berroa plays 10 games at 2B
*Berroa gets 70 games off

*Bring up De Jesus
*DeJesus plays 80 games at SS
*DeJesus plays 10 games at 2B
*DeJesus gets 72 games off

*DeWitt plays 142 games at 2B
*DeWitt gets 20 games off

*Bating Order
1 Furcal - S
2 Ethier - L
3 Kemp - R
4 Loney - L
5 Martin - R
6 DeWitt - L
7 Varitek - S
8 DeJesus/Berroa - R
P Sabathia

*Follow this plan until the All-Star break and then make any necessary changes.

Jason Varitek
Juan Pierre

Not that I'm advocating either one of them. Talk about fixing something that ain't broke...

Not like Varitek has been working with scrubs.

Would it be fair to say that Martin has been working with a staff of pitchers that are similar in thier level of talent and ability to that of the Red Sox staff?

With 5 weeks to go, it appears my winning a t-shirt from Eric Stephen comes down to this, if two out of these three things happen, USC will not be in the BCS Championship, one, Texas Tech, Oklahoma or Texas win the Big 12 championship with just one loss, two, an undefeated Alabama plays a one loss Florida team in the SEC championship team, and three, Penn State finishes undefeated.

http://tinyurl.com/5sv8ba

205
Furcal is off of short in order to take some stress off of his body. The same is true for the time off.

This also provides flexibility at SS if things don't work out with DeJesus.

208
In no way is Martin hurting the staff - quite the contrary.
This way he still gets 62 games behind the plate. His bat may improve with a move like this. We saw how his bat speed increased after the few days off before the playoffs.

207
This is a band aid for two years until the Dodgers can re-stock and either develop another catcher or follow a course of action as suugested in 209

Penn St @ Iowa, 12:30pm
Auburn @ LSU, 12:30pm
Baylor @ Texas, TBA
Oklahoma St @ Texas Tech, TBA
Florida @ Vanderbilt, TBA
Oklahoma @ Texas A&M, TBA
Cal @ USC, 5pm

Who knew that when we had Tatis in the spring of 2007 in Vegas that he would have been our best option for 3rd base in 2008. Or was that 2006? It looks like he never played in our minor leagues but I sure remember him being in camp for us not to long ago.

It would be kind of irritating if we throw away Tiffee and then he goes on, to outhit our 2009 3rd base options. Not that I expect it, but then I didn't expect Tatis to do what he did in NY.

Crazy game

1) I finally got Food Network HD, which is surprisingly greater than I expected (and I watch a good amount of regular Food Network)

2) Playing the harmonica is fun but hard, especially if one has no musical talent whatsoever

Martin's value is behind the plate, not at 3rd.

Varitek?! I'm done with signing for big $$ other team's over the hill players that they know enough not to sign.

Mannn, Penn St @ Iowa better not be bumped off ABC for the Stanford vs Oregon game. At least I hope ESPN can mirror the Penn State game.

Apologies to Jon in advance.

Here's the direct link: http://daveslocksoftheweek.blogspot.com/2008/11/temporary-bcs-standings.html

Included in this post is a quick scenario that shows how USC can get into the BCS Championship game. It is a stretch, but surprisingly more reasonable than I thought.

The more you know. . .

You are basically right; USC still needs some help to get in. There's really 3 "spots" ahead of them in my view, in no particular order:

1) Penn State (if undefeated)
2) SEC Champ (with 1 or 0 losses)
3) Big XII Champ (if from South)

If Penn State loses a game, USC will be ahead of them (I'm assuming for rooting and planning purposes that USC wins out).

The SEC right now is set up so that Alabama will play Florida for the SEC championship. My hope is for one of these two things to happen:

a) LSU beats Alabama, followed eventually by Alabama losing to Auburn (for the 7th straight year). This puts 2-loss LSU in the title game against 1-loss Florida. If LSU wins that game, USC will finish ahead of them
b) Alabama loses to either LSU or Auburn. Florida State beats Florida. If 2-loss Florida then beats Alabama, USC finishes ahead of them.

The Big XII is a little tricky. No matter what, I'm rooting for Missouri (or Kansas) to win the Dr. Pepper Big XII Championship. If Texas and either Oklahoma or Oklahoma State win out, there will be a 3-way tie in the Big XII South between Tech, Texas, and one of the Oklahoma schools. The only way USC benefits here is if the human voters decide not to reward a team that couldn't reach the title game of it's own conference. If Texas Tech is undefeated before losing in the Big XII title game, it could still end up in the BCS title game (following the path of Oklahoma and Nebraska in other years). Realistically, I need a little more chaos in the Big XII to help USC out.

Bottom line, there are lot more losses to be had.

ESPN usually updates their coverage maps on Tuesday or Wednesday, so you can see which game(s) will be on in your area.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?page=coveragemaps2008

Iverson to the Pistons for Billups & McDyess.

http://tinyurl.com/6zy77s
http://tinyurl.com/65phug

Then again baseball is also set up so people call in radio programs after a game suggesting that their team bunt more often which is somewhat akin to saying that a basketball team should utilize the two-handed set shot more often.

I hope you weren't bucking to become a member of the school's Saddle Tramps.

...the franchise's results with multiyear contracts in the past decade is worse than abysmal.

That seemed kind of harsh, but let's look at this decade to see what we are dealing with:

2000
1) Extended Eric Karros (3/$24). Karros put up a cumulative 94 OPS+ over the next 3 years (only Travis Lee and Kevin Young were worse NL 1B offensively)
2) Signed newly acquired Shawn Green (6/$84) one year before his FA eligibility. Had 3 great seasons in his first 4 years in LA, before a shoulder injury hampered his power. Overall, Green had a 130 OPS+ before being traded. I'd still call his signing a success.

2001
3) Signed Darren Dreifort (5/$55). Ended up pitching only 210.2 pain-filled innings in 5 years, racking up an 87 ERA+. One of the worst FA deals in MLB history

2002
4) Signed Hideo Nomo (2/$12.25). Two really good 16-win seasons (112 & 130 ERA+), but fell off a cliff in the 3rd (option) year (4-11, 50 ERA+) in 2004. I'd rate this signing as a sizable net positive for the club
5) Signed Kaz Ishii (4/$12.2). Very wild pitcher (5.8 BB/9 with LA), but up a 92 ERA+ in 3 seasons before being dealt to the Mets for 1B/C Jason Phillips. Bad signing.

2005
6) Signed Jeff Kent (2/$17). Initial two years were outstanding (133 & 119 OPS+, before total rigor mortis set in defensively). 2/$20 extension was questionable given the cliff dive of 2008, but I'd rate it as a net positive.
7) Signed J.D. Drew (5/$55 with an opt out). A broken hand halved his first season in LA, but he put up a 133 OPS+ in his 1.5-season Dodger career before opting out. I'd rate the signing as a positive.
8) Signed Derek Lowe (4/$36). I remember being outraged at this signing at the time, but Lowe was an absolute bargain, putting up a 122 ERA+ over 4 solid seasons. An unqualified successful signing

2006
9) Signed Rafael Furcal (3/$39). When healthy, he was one of the best SS in the league. However, ailments limited him to about two seasons worth of games over three years, only half of which were played while fully healthy. Still produced a 99 OPS+ over the contract with plus defense. Because of the cost, I'd rate this as a slight negative.
10) Signed Brett Tomko (2/$8.7m). Ugh. 10-18 with an 86 ERA+ over most of two seasons before being foisted upon the Padres.
11) Signed Bill Mueller (2/$9.5m). Played 32 games before getting hurt and becoming the highest-paid scout in MLB history. Ugh, again.

2007
12) Extended Nomar Garciaparra (2/$18.5). Rode his amazing first half of 2006 to an extension. Blocked Loney for a while in 2007. Immensely popular, but his 85 OPS+ over 2007-2008 makes this deal a bust.
13) Signed Juan Pierre (5/$44m). Of the 66 players with 1000 or more PA in 2007-2008, nobody has been worse offensively than Pierre (73 OPS+): (http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/JkN6). Pierre is an excellent baserunner though.
14) Signed Jason Schmidt (3/$47m). Schmidt and his 25.2 Dodger innings is trying to make Dreifort's contract look like a bargain.

2008
15) Signed Hiroki Kuroda (3/$35.3). Hard to judge only one year in, but thus far has been a success (119 ERA+, plus two exciting home playoff wins).
16) signed Andruw Jones (2/$36.2). Unmitigated disaster thus far (34 OPS+, 5 singles in 58 AB with RISP). Dodgers hope to weight and see if Andruw will contribute at all in 2009.

So of the 16 signings (I might be missing a couple) this "decade" (2000-present), I would classify them like this:

Great (1): Lowe
Good (6): Green, Nomo, Kent, Drew, Furcal, Kuroda
Poor (5): Karros, Ishii, Nomar, Tomko, Mueller
Disaster (4): Dreifort, Pierre, Schmidt, Andruw

Certainly not a stellar record, but there have been enough positives to avoid the "worse than abysmal" moniker ascribed by Gurnick.