Clearly, adding comments to the site has inflicted irrevocable harm on what little remains of my free time. But it has been a very interesting first week:

1) For all I know, ESPN's Peter Gammons may love Dodger Thoughts, but no, that was not him telling me so in the comments Wednesday. Was I excited when I first saw the comment? You bet. Am I more jaded now? Double down.

Eric Enders writes:

It's probably just the disgruntled Kevin Malone posting from his office at The Master's College.

"He has successfully developed winning teams in baseball and now brings a host of interpersonal and managerial skills to be used in a Christian environment to produce eternal rewards."

2) The results of the Eric Gagne salary arbitration poll at 9:12 p.m. Wednesday: 11 say Gagne will win, 5 say the Dodgers will win.

For more about the consequences on this hearing, I refer you back to this piece.

3) Last year, some of you may recall, I got so little contrary feedback that I worried I was only preaching to the converted. But over the past 24 hours, I've gotten healthy disagreement on two points: the significance of Tim Wallach being hired as batting coach, and the pitfalls of trying to manufacture runs.

Let me just say one thing: If you feel the Dodgers need to bunt more because you're frustrated when they waste a leadoff hit and then lose a game by one run, you are basing your reaction too much on anecdotal evidence. I'm not saying never bunt. But bunting first as a philosophy for offense will be about as effective doubling up on cologne to try to woo the girl next door.

If someone wants to forward a link to one of the studies that helps disprove the merits of snowball, I'd be appreciative.

As for the hit and run, as I've written before, it's a great weapon, but there's no reason to expect players who can't reach base in the first place to execute the hit and run properly.