well, our starting pitcher ERA is distributed kind of strangely. we had several very good starts from the likes of weaver(1), dessens(!), lowe(eh, 1.5), and perez(2), and a couple of absolutely ATROCIOUS starts by weaver and erickson to skew the average upward.

but still, to have such subpar production from so many positions and still have the best record in the majors through 8 is still pretty darned impressive. thank goodness for kent, valentin, and izturis!

I was watching last night's game on Giants TV network (Krukow and Kaiper). They remembered back to when Kent was traded to the Giants...all they heard about was how horrible Kent would be defensively. Their conclusion was that they have never seen horrible defense from Kent and think he is excellent at 2nd base, as well as being a sure thing to make the Hall of Fame. They were also perplexed by the LA Times negative coverage of the Dodgers in general.

They did make an interesting comment I have not heard before. They said that the renovations at Dodger Stadium are just the beginning of what is to come. Evidently future plans including tearing down both bleachers and replacing it with new seating/arcade (much like Turner Field). The new design will allow fans to enter through the main outfield entrance and to be able to walk all around the stadium from the inside.

A few thoughts:
1. Bradley has 1 walk in 32 ABs; last year he walked once every 7.3 ABs.
2. The OPS posted by Dodger RFs will improve. Right, J.D.?
3. Tracy platoons at first, third and left field. Rankings of 8th, 4th and 8th. Not bad.
4. Kent won't keep that up, but it sure looks good now.
5. Check out the ERAs posted by Florida's entire staff. Yowza.
6. Cesar with an OPS of 991? Really?

Evidently future plans including tearing down both bleachers and replacing it with new seating/arcade (much like Turner Field). The new design will allow fans to enter through the main outfield entrance and to be able to walk all around the stadium from the inside.
This redesign makes sense, although it would be a shame to lose the vista of the hills beyond the parking lot.
I'll say it: I've always thought the pavillions looked rinky-dink, and never wanted to sit there.

You gotta figure that the OPS for Milton and JD will go up.

On an unrelated note, the Dodgers are ranked third is ESPN's latest power poll. Atlanta, with a 5-4 record, is first. Second place? The 4-5 Phillies. Are you kidding me? How can a team with a losing record be second in any poll? Bring me the heads of Steve Philips and Buster Olney.

#2,

I'm currently in Berkeley and I've been stuk watching/listening to Krukow and Kaiper, and I must say, even though they're giants fans, they are FAR better than joe morgan. Even when telecasting against the Dodgers, they were surprisingly fair. Of course it may just be that I'm comparing them to joe morgan, but I'd listen to them over joe morgan any day.

Some comments on several comments:

I think Tracy, like any decent magager should (maybe even Felipe), is going to keep changing things around a bit and seeing what happens. So far I like what I see.

I hate to see Dodger Stadium change so much and lose itself, but everything changes all the time. I like the pavillions. I like that no other ballpark is like it. Of course, I miss Bill Meyer Stadium
(http://www.digitalballparks.com/SouthernIndex.html)

I really almost cried looking at the photos on the website. I saw a lot of good games and people there, lot of memories. Carlos Delgado was really impressive (Michael Jordan was not)

Did Duaner look like he had a little extra pop, last night, or was it just me?

Joe Morgan just seems more like a pompous old dufus. I think Eric might have been humbled and embarassed at the same time.

I'm interested to see how we fare against SD and some better pitching.

Can I be Frasier's Dad?

4th in the league at third base; 14th at right field. How 'bout that?

I'll be at the Nationals' home opener tonight. Hopefully, they'll take down the D-backs and do some good by the Blue. If the game is on where you are, I'll be about 15 rows up, all the way down the left field baseline wearing, uh, blue.

Also, for anyone deeply interested in the SABR-has-robbed-the-game-of-its soul culture wars, we were treated here in DC to a slightly startling profile of legend Frank Robinson, manager of the (first place) Nats. Typical quote: ""Numbers don't win you ballgames, I don't care what they say," Robinson said." I don't really begrudge Robinson his hard-earned take, must these issues consistently be put in such all or nothing terms?

www.tinyurl.com/50ljq

"but" must these issues . . .

"I think Eric might have been humbled and embarassed at the same time."
-----

I often am, believe me. ;)

I just wanted to point out two things here: First, clearly DePo's offseason stretegy was flawed in that he didn't pursue enough pitchers who can hit. 14th in the NL? Pathetic.

Second, and this one is entirely serious, I haven't yet noticed anyone mention that Karros has an extreme ax to grind with regard to Choi. He is, after all, talking about the man who beat him out for the job of first baseman on the 2003 Cubs (until he got hurt). So I am not surprised at all that Karros is trashing him publicly, although unfortunately it makes me think a little less of Karros.

After reading that Robinson article, it sounds like he would be the perfect manager for a certain local columnist...

14th at RF. How can two other teams in the NL have RFs worse than JD so far? Yeah, I really think we'll be in the top 5 in RF rankings before the season is over... maybe even top 3 depending on when Berkman comes back.

I wonder where Krukow and Kuiper got their info about future renovations since I've never read those anywhere else. But it could make some sense.

To me, Dodger Stadium's main flaw (not that it's a bad stadium by any means) is that you pretty much have to enter the stadium on one level and then you are stuck there more or less for the whole game. It's hard to go between levels. You can either wait for the world's slowest elevator or climb up and down stairs

You also don't have a good place to meet people before the game.
"Yeah, I'll be by the entrance to the blue level on the third base side." The ambience there isn't great.

An entrance behind the paviliions would allow the Dodgers to put in a big concessions and food area which I think would be a good draw.

#10
"I often am, believe me. ;)"
-------------

Ha! Yeah, in case that wasn't clear I meant Karros. He did seem forced at times. I missed the Choi stuff, but that sucks. I'm glad Choi got it going because I was thinking after Repko and Sainz doing so well, that Choi was destined to see the door. I can't even imagine how stupid I would seem on TV. :-) If I were able to be like Frasier's Dad, though, I could handle it.

I hate off days. Especially with a good series coming up. Just feel impatient.

I do appreciate the new parks, too. Turner Field is pretty swanky. Of course, my three year old was watching one of the games at SBC with me and goes "look Daddy! The coke place" remembering Turner Field or someother place he's seen on TV. I'd hate to see Dodger Stadium "homogenized" with all the other places.

"This redesign makes sense, although it would be a shame to lose the vista of the hills beyond the parking lot."

Agreed. A designer worth his/her salt should be able to somehow incorporate the vista into their design. How? I don't know. I'm not a designer.

What guys like Robinson and Morgan have against "statistics" I don't understand. They had pretty good ones. I'm not sure how we are supposed to tell them from anyone else otherwise.

Now, Cristian Guzman. He must hate statistics.

No, he just thinks salary should be based on triples totals. ;)

I think those guys (Robinson, Morgan, etc.) are just rigid individuals who don't want a new generation telling them the ins and outs of the game. They do know the Earth is round, right?

I'm going to be optimistic and say that any redesign of the outfield seats won't diminish or obstruct the view of the hills. That view is our version of McCovey Cove -- it's what makes the stadium a unique, attractive place to be.

On a completely unrelated note, I was very happy to read this morning that Penny threw consistently in the 90s and even got up to 96 in his rehab start. Hopefully he can come back and Drew can start hitting right around when Izturis and Valentin come back to Earth.

There was an article (I think it was in the Daily News or maybe the Pasadena Star) that mentioned that McCourt's next planned improvement was to construct a grand entrance and connect the pavilions to the rest of the stadium. The entrance seemed like it would incorporate food and entertainment options (i.e. games for the kids and booze for the adults).

The article didn't make it seem like the Pavilions would actually be demolished-- just altered to connect to the rest of the stadium.

Not to say that Izzy is going to hit .400 or anything close, but isn't it amazing how well he has started hitting since the beginning of last season? I remember when he used to hit after Alex Cora, who was Babe Ruth compared to Izzy.

"I think those guys (Robinson, Morgan, etc.) are just rigid individuals who don't want a new generation telling them the ins and outs of the game."
--------

Exactly. Look at it this way: Does your Dad accept sabermetrics as gospel? That's what I thought; mine doesn't either. It's simply a case of older people being uncomfortable with the way younger people are re-writing the rules of the world they live in. And that uncomfortableness is a perfectly common and natural reaction, in baseball and every other walk of life.

Which doesn't mean those people should be given the platform they have; but that's another issue entirely. (Wow, I can't believe I just defended Joe Morgan!)

The nice thing about Vinny is that among old guys, he seems to be a very rare exception to this rule. He commonly talks about on-base percentage, and I've even heard him mention OPS several times without snickering.

What does everyone predict Drew's final numbers will look like? I say .295/.390/.515 with 27 HRs and 101 RBIs.

I think Eric has it. PCs drove my mother into retirement. Some people embrace change as they get older but not many.

Come work in a public library where you can be 39 and be considered the "new guy" despite having 10 years in that location and 17 overall.

Regards to Joe Morgan, there are people who are rigid and there are people who are absolutely set on not opening their minds. Morgan is an example of a guy who grew up without a computer, but now the place he works at, everyone uses a computer, however he thinks that the computer is not a useful tool, and he'd rather work using a paper and pencil. I hope that makes sense... he will not use or even consider that there is are new tools that make GMs' and scouts' jobs of evaluating people different than than what they were 20 years ago.

Sounds like somebody is tired of fetching coffee for everyone else. ;)

Pretend 29 followed 27.

This story is related somehow, but not really...

My Grandmother lives in a very small town. She's lived there her whole life. Recently, she was in Denver and went to see "Ray". She was telling me about it and said "They serve popcorn in the movies now!"

I finally got to go to Opening Day again because I'm no longer working in the same department as the older guy who had priority for asking for that day off.

Interestingly, it's my boss who makes coffee for my department. I usually go out out and buy it. There are six Starbucks and two Coffee Beans within three blocks of where I work.

Alex Cora IS Babe Ruth, regardless of who hits behind him.

Alex Cora wouldn't be a HOF hitter if he wasn't batting in front of the pitcher's spot. Or David Ross. Think of all the protection he gets.

I think someone needs Jon needs to start a David Ross Hit Counter on the site. From the Pittsburgh Tribune Review:

David Ross was back behind the plate for Wednesday's afternoon game, even though he caught nine innings the night before. Ross had two doubles and a homer Tuesday. "It's kind of hard to take him out of the lineup," McClendon said.

Ross has struck out ONCE in 16 pa's.

"It's kind of hard to take him out of the lineup," McClendon said. "You should see those pictures of me he has..."

of course he is!!

"It's kind of hard to take him out of the lineup," McClendon said. "You should see those pictures of me he has..."

LOL

McClendon: David, do you remember what I did lastnight?
Ross: Of course I do.
McClendon: Ok. Suit up.

Now, I'm sure you're all remembering back to this incisive comment on the day of the Ross-sale: "I wish Ross well. I secretly believed he would have a much better year this year."

Krukow must have been having a good day. Living in the Bay Area for the last 13 years with lousy TV and radio reception, Gnats broadcasts are all I can generally get (I'd rarely pass up a chance to see or hear Bonds play anyway). Krukow is your typical bad commentary guy. He's constantly filling the dead space unnecessary drivel (this is especially tough having grown up with Vin and Ross), and he usually sounds like he's making everything up a split second before he says it. It's rare that I agree with any of his observations (at least he's not an asshole about it, like Morgan), and it often amazes me that the stuff he says comes from an ex-player. More often than not, if the TV broadcast team is Jon Miller and Krukow, I just shut the sound off.

Kuiper, however, I like. He does a good job, and doesn't get in the way.

And, when I can hear them, the A's broadcast team (Bill King, Ken Korach and Ray Fosse) is a joy to listen to. They're not Vin and Ross, but I'll take 'em over the Gnat's broadcasters any day.

And another former, never Dodger, Frank Brooks got picked up on waivers by Atlanta. Atlanta might be in the market for a new lefty reliever if Tom Martin keeps up his stinkiness.

I believe the word for that is "Martinness."

Check this out: Now that the Dodgers are platooning Valentin/Saenz/Nakamura at 3B and Choi/Saenz/Nakamura at 1B you wonder if their production can equal Green/Beltre of last season. Platooning good LHP hitters (Saenz, Nakamura) with good RHP hitters (Choi, Valentin) gives us these combined numbers for this season:

-Saenz/Nakamura/Valentin/Choi-
55 AB, .350, 4 HR, 16 RBI, 11 Runs, 1 SB

-Beltre/Green-
63 AB, .290, 3 HR, 15 RBI, 16 Runs

So what are the monetary differences for the same/better production so far?

Beltre/Green - 33 million
Saenz/Valentin/Choi/Nakamura - 4.5 million

Maybe DePodesta knew what he was doing after all!

#42... be nice, you're going to make paul shuey cry

SOB Beltre SOB

LOL, I meant to be funny by putting an astersik as if I am sobbing over the loss of Beltre. Sorry, I did not mean to refer to him as a SOB.

Speaking of the "Gnats", is anyone else disturbed by the use of the shortened version of the "Nats" for the new DC team. I can't believe that these talking heads have coopted our derogatory slur!! Everytime I hear it on ESPN or elsewhere, I do a double take and end up asking myself if the announcers just called the Giants the "Gnats". I think we need to start a petition forcing all announcers to use the full "Nationals" name; if we don't act soon the insulting power of "Gnats" will be permanently and irrevocably diminished.

By the way, can we lobby for our own role on Cheers. I want to play the recurring (but infrequent) role of Harry the con-man (the judge from Night Court). He would come into the bar once in awhile and swindle Coach or Woody out of a beer and 20 bucks. Classic stuff.

The Nats thing doesn't bother me, because my derogatory name for S.F. has always been "Jints" (pronounced with long "i")

It's lame, but there's not much you can do with the name "Giants."

Danny Kaye:

J! I! N! T! S! Giants!

There's always a lot to say about Joe Morgan, though I don't find him to be quite the homer that some people do. My comments on the Karros/Morgan/what's his name team:

1) Their discussion of the LoDuca et al trade was indefensibly one-sided.
2) I sort of liked Karros, though I'm biased as a long-time fan. (Though the bloom has come off the rose a bit over the years following some of his troubles with Perez, Tracy, Choi, etc.) Aside from the aforementioned ignorant comments, I was impressed with EK's preparation.
3) I could just hear Morgan's teeth grinding when they showed that list of all-time homeruns by a second baseman, with Kent on top. Ha!
4) One of Morgan's more bizarre trends is his Pedro Feliz fetish. He makes it sound as though this guy is a star in the making. Yeah, the Feliz who's had over a 1100 ABs over four seasons (including almost a full season last year) and OPSed .736. Oh, and he's 30 at the end of this month. The guy has got some pop, but he's probably marginally above-average at best.

I prefer opposites: Midgets.

Of course, I like the San Diego Dads, too.
The AZ Greenbacks... Uh, I'll have to come up with something for the Rockies.

Heh. Not very elegant, but how about the Oysters? (As in, Rocky Mountain ...)

did anyone see what Beltre did to his back in the Mariners-KC game today? Looks like he left in the 4th (with Seattle up 8-2)

This from the wire service:

Seattle Mariners third baseman Adrian Beltre left Thursday's game against the Kansas City Royals with an injured back.

He left in the fourth inning and Scott Spiezio entered the game in his place. It is unclear how serious the injury is.

Sam DC - I'll be at the Nationals home opener as well. I'll wear an LA cap, in the hopes that the Diamondbacks are imtimidated and their bullpen cursed.

Jon, you need to bring back that favorite sidebar of mine, the futures bet of Adrian Beltre walks vs. Paul LoDuca ks. However, this time around it needs to be a much larger number. Hee Seop Choi ks vs. Jeff Kent RBIs.

Vin talked a lot about Feliz and how good he is and he mentioned that he thinks Feliz is going to have a big year this season.

Being the fourth outfielder for the Giants this year will keep you busy. Although I can't imagine that Feliz could fill in for Grissom.

Yeah, I found Vin's Feliz comment very interesting because:

A) Feliz isn't really any good, and
B) I don't recall him ever before making a prediction on what kind of year a player is going to have. He must feel very strongly about it.

The Bradley [OBP] and Drew [you name it] numbers are painful, especially when you consider the kind of hot streak they'll each need to get their numbers up. Bradley's defense (especially in AZ) makes up for his lack of hitting this early in the season, but Drew's contract is for hitting, not so much for fielding.

Vin does seem to have a man-crush on Feliz, doesn't he?

You could say he's Feliz-happy, I guess.

"Drew's contract is for hitting, not so much for fielding"

Actually Drew has been rated a superb fielder, potentially gold glove.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/scouting?statsId=6117

And he did gun down JT Snow in SF at second base, let's not forget that, so he has been contributing.

I would argue that both Bradley and Drew are here mostly for their hitting. The nice defense is just a plus.

You don't see DePo going to get Darin Erstad or some other good-fielding OF who can't hit.

After the Giants' performance in the field this week, I wouldn't say good defense is "JUST a plus" :)

But your point is made.

BTW, I thought it was an extremely cool move on Alou's part to start Ellison yesterday. I feel kinda bad that it backfired on him. Ellison's only reason for being on the roster in the first place is as a defensive replacement.

"Barry Bonds' Legs," I guess we could call him.

"I thought it was an extremely cool move on Alou's part to start Ellison yesterday"

WHY DON'T YOU JUST MARRY HIM!!!!!

Sorry, that was what my girlfriend says anytime I compliment another woman (IE, the enemy-much like the Giants are the enemy).

Sometimes (most of the time) she was just playing.
Sometimes I slept on the couch.

""Numbers don't win you ballgames, I don't care what they say," Robinson said."

Uh, I'm pretty sure that the rules of baseball dictate that the team scoring the most number of runs wins the ballgame.

No... Team "Chemistry" and players with "Heart" and "Soul" win ball games. Numbers are evil and have no place in baseball.

"It's simply a case of older people being uncomfortable with the way younger people are re-writing the rules of the world they live in. And that uncomfortableness is a perfectly common and natural reaction, in baseball and every other walk of life."

The flip side of that is that youth doesn't think there is any other way to see the world than the way they do. I am in my forties. I am a bartender. I serve a lot of people in their twenties. Many of them are great people. They realize that we are all, regardless of age, a work in progress. But young people seem to not see that more than others. When they come up to me and want to bump fists it doesn't even occur to them that that might be outside my realm of experience. When I politely decline and offer to shake their hand they look at me like I'm from Mars. And I am amused. It's like going to a foriegn country. You can go assuming they do everything the same way you do or you can assume you know nothing and try to learn something. If you want to know what I mean just try hitching a ride in the Middle East by sticking out your thumb. So, when a kid comes up to me and brashly says he wants a martini I make him what a martini really is, three parts gin and one part dry vermouth. And he chokes on it because he's never tasted gin before and I charge him six bucks for the lesson. Honestly, most of the time I explain his martini options to him but I do laugh to myself when someone wants to mix good cognac with coke.

For instance, Jose Guillen had a lot of "chemistry" and "heart and soul" yesterday.

Age is all relative anyway;

I just worked on a lawsuit where one of the other attorneys was 82.

He kept calling all the other attorneys on the case "young man", even though a couple were in their 60's. BTW, he was quite proficient on the computer, and remarked how much his great grandkids enjoyed the songs of "that Usher fellow."

I can see why guys in their sixties like Robinson, or Morgan would be resistant to change; what's Plaschke's excuse?

re #24:

I actually got my dad to read Moneyball. I don't think he accepts it as gospel, but he at least understands it.

When he complains about stuff like the LoDuca trade (I think I hammered it into his head that it was a good deal), I ask him

"Hey Dad, did you ever think that Dodgers fans would go ape(expletive) when the team won one stinking playoff game?"

I usually use that question to point out that something different has to be done, even at the expense of our favorite players.

I loaned it to my dad and he's only read a few pages of it. But then, he's the guy whose Bill James Historical Abstract I borrowed as a kid.

He's convinced of the value of OBP, but not much of the rest of it. He still mocks the Lo Duca trade and Choi. He's very set in his ways on things like batter strikeouts being considered a cardinal sin.

Plaschke's excuse is either ignorance or stupidity.

Ignorance is not an acceptable excuse though, cause at least you can change it.