There is also the implication that if Beltre had stayed, he would be doing better here than he is now in Seattle.

I expect Perez to produce a few more HR's. I like his ability to handle pitches. I've seen some really good AB's where he's fouled off several balls and ended up on base. Good approach.

I'd think that Perez continues to be our 3B only through next year, at which point he slides to 2B after Kent's contract is up. 3B most likely goes to one of our 3 young'ns down below.

http://tinyurl.com/b46mp

And what's Valentin's role assuming Perez stays sufficiently productive? If you platoon, Valentin gets the majority of the starts. I'd rather see that switched (Perez get 2/3 of the starts).

I think it could stunt Perez's growth; similar to that of one H.S. Choi.

Bill Hands in 1968 and the famous Egyptian Healy in 1887.

Hands had three straight starts in 1968 where he gave up home runs to pitchers.

The career record for surrendering homers to pitchers is 15 by Pedro Ramos.

I like the way he "inside-outed" the single left last night. he didn't try to do too much.

---

which was my argument in the offseason as a Choi supporter, was choi any worse last year than Werth? Yet Werth was a strength, and up and commer and Choi was a weakness.

---

I don't even know why I am a Choi supporter. I think it's just cause I am pissed off that he dosen't get as much of a chance and that more people don't support him. He hit the ball hard all 4 times last night.

They also have a nice article on our 3rd round pick Pedroza from Cal State Fullerton on page 8.

Below is a little blurb from Rotowire regarding a Japanese pitcher:
According to the report, Padres director of international scouting Randy Smith and assistant GM Fred Uhlman traveled to Japan to see Matsuzaka last month. The Seibu Lions are expected to let Matsuzaka go through the posting process after this season, but the price may be too high for the Padres; look for the usual suspects (Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, maybe the Mariners) to top the bidding for Matsuzaka if they're interested. Seibu had promised Matsuzaka that they'd let him go after the 2004 season, but reneged on that deal after their team won the Japan Series (much the same way that Fukuoka backed out of a deal that would have allowed Tadahito Iguchi to cross the pond after the 2003 season). Matsuzaka, who'll turn 25 in September, is having a great year so far despite a misleading 4-7 record; he currently owns a 2.13 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP while leading the Pacific League in strikeouts (106), innings pitched (97), and complete games (9).

Then again, it was 1968. Scott Erickson would have had an ERA under 3.

One thing that might help Weaver in reaching this mark would be the return to health of Mike Hampton. Then he has to hope he faces him when the Dodgers make their trip to Atlanta.

Weaver's next two starts will be in AL parks, so he will only get the chance to give up embarrassing home runs to Chris Widger or Julio Gotay.

From Studes at The Hardball Times today, describing his new stat: The Force (LD% times HR/OF) divided by G/F ratio):

"It turns out that this version of The Force is a reasonably good predictor of Isolated Power (with an R squared of .70) ... (of) players most likely to slug better the rest of the season, you will notice sabermetric favorite Hee Seop Choi at the tippy top:

His coaches and managers send him out there to throw lots and lots and lots and lots of innings and lots of pitches.

He should sign with the Cubs. Dusty Baker would just love him!

He joined the Japanese majors straight out of high school. He has been the Lions' ace ever since. What surprises me is his durability. He first made his name by leading his high school to the national championships (in Japan the baseball championships are covered like the NCAA basketball tourney in the US, every game live on national TV).

In each of the 5 rounds in the finals, he pitched a complete game. Those games took place over a 2-week period. (Needless to say, Japanese high schools don't have pitch or inning limit rules.)

Since turning pro, his work load has actually declined. He typically pitches on 5 days rest. At the same time, he has a bunch of 130-and-up pitch counts (as is par for the course in Japan).

So, he may be a Roger Clemens-like overpowering workhouse or he could be a ticking Dr. Jobe patient time bomb.
Or he could be a combination of both. Either way, he is certainly worth taking a serious look at. My gut instinct is that he is a winner, who really knows how to pitch.

In fact, Herb Washington, circa 2005, would be a roster upgrade over Erickson. Better yet, if teams still had the option to only have 24 players, that would be an upgrade.

Beyond those figures, he is putting up pretty overpowering numbers. In 53.1 INN, he's given up 33 hits, 25 BBs, and he has chalked up 73 Ks.

Is he considered a legit prospect?

P H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Dessens 3.0 3 2 2 1 1 1 6.75

Not exactly lights out.

By the way, old friend Jose Flores is hitting .340 for the 51's.

45-What I meant was can dual Grabowski principles (one on each side) offset one another; so that the game may continue in a harmonious manner?

With his K ratio, it seems that he is doing more than finessing his way through games. He must have good stuff. He might be one to watch.

Maybe with all the new draft choices coming in, he will move up to AA. He seems to be ready.

I wouldn't ever say I was a Grabowski fan, but I do think he's got too much grief here. When he got regular playing time last year, he hit very well. His defense in LF is really, really bad, but perhaps that can improve. I seemed to remember a lot of his miscues coming on ill-considered dives for fly-balls, which is something that can be corrected with better coaching, and perhaps more experience. The problem is that he seems to have real problems with adjusting to pinch-hitting, which has been his primary role with the Dodgers, and which I think explains much of his poor performance early this season, and his dubious numbers from last year. However, with Ledee and Milton out, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if he has an impressive offensive stretch in the near future, since he may now get regular playing time. The "Grabowski principle" may disappear in a week or so.

In sum, I don't see Grabowski as any worse than Repko, and perhaps even somewhat more valuable. Repko's great advantage, of course, is that he does play a great OF. If Grabowski ever figures out how to be a more effective pinch-hitter, which may come with time, he'd be a very useful piece as a 5th OF who swings a power left-handed bat off the bench. His personality doesn't seem especially winsome, but he does IMO hustle in the OF. The ill-considered dives last year were ill-considered, but not due to a lack of effort, and I still remember him once running into the LF scoreboard at full speed while trying to chase down a flyball.

He may end up being most valuable to the organization as a piece in a trade to an AL team that can give him regular playing time as a DH.

WWSH

Since I'm a UConn grad, I've been pulling for Grabowski. My Huskies don't have too many players in MLB, and have been pretty amazed at the grief he gets here too.

I think he's been OK. Certainly not great, but I don't see him costing us games (by either his play or the spot he occupies on the bench).

Just my 2 pennies...

I still remember the amusing interview where Rome had Gagne on, and spent much of his time eating crow for his notorious comment on Gagne during his early starter days.

That being said, I do actually think Rome can be very clever at times, but I just find him intolerable in large doses.

WWSH

WWSH

The Dodgers should stike some kind of an agreement where they can send some of their top prospects to Japan on a loan basis.

It is generally accepted that the Japanese leagues are somewhere between AAA and the majors, so the experience would be a pretty telling trial exam. Of course, pitchers would have to put on some sort of a pitch count limit.

It would be a lot like what top English Premiereship clubs do with their young players, loaning them out to lower division teams in England or to teams in lesser international leagues.

It would be a win-win-win situation too:

* Young players would make a lot more money in Japan than in AAA, and they would get a taste of a major league equivelant environment.

* The Dodgers would have a better gauge of a player's mettle after a year in Japan.

* The Buffs would get a player motivated to impress.

While everybody is always getting on his case for his lack of offence, I think his batting can always improve. The way he plays the outfield, however, leads me to think that he will never field well.

Indeed, the best thing that could happen to him is to be traded to an American League team.

It appears that the GP, as currently constituted, does not apply to interleague games, or even American League games. We'll have to ask Rob if this was an intentional formulation based on observation and history.

I was shocked that as life time So Cal resident I had never heard of Cole's. I even used to work about 4 blocks away from the place. Of course I've been to Philippes countless times on the way to Dodger games, but with an upcoming trip home, I am intrigued by Cole's.

I need some enlightening here. I am not so concerned about the history. My taste buds don't care about which place actually invented the sandwich. I want to know if anyone here has been to Cole's. If so, how do their French Dips compare to old friend Philippes?

Perhaps you are allowed one GP violation from innings 1-3 ... or two in innings 1-3, one in innings 4-6, none in innings 7+ ... something like that.

In the first Dodger game I ever went to (it was last year, I'm still pretty new to LA), Grabowski dove for a ball and ended up missing it by several feet. If I remember correctly, this ended up costing the Dodgers the game.

I was sitting in the left field pavillion and it seemed to me like he horribly misjudged the ball. Anecdotal evidence of course, but I haven't really seen anything since that would lead me to change my first impression.

I guess that explains why Tommy Lasorda is so popular in Japan. It probably also explains why Dr. Jobe's gallery of ex patients on his office's wall has so many pictures of Japanese pitchers.

Scott Erickson has lost his spot in the starting rotation, he's lost any command he had in the bullpen, but he hasn't lost his stiff upper lip.

Asked about the two rookies in the Dodgers starting rotation, Erickson sounded almost defiant.

"There's no doubt I should be starting," said the veteran who had started all but five of his 361 games before this season...

...if Erickson continues to struggle in a relief role, his Dodger days might be numbered.

http://www.dailybreeze.com/sports/articles/1615371.html

I admit he might have meant things as arrogantly and defiantly as the writer suggests, but it was a little ambiguous to me.

I've been to Coles about a million times, having worked 1 block away for a couple of years. I was originally sent there by the guy that does my alterations in the garment district.

Coles relative lack of noteriety is due to the neighborhood being somewhat unsavory (no man's land between the garment district and skid row.) That could change because it's also right in the middle of the fledgling loft revival.

Anyway, Coles is in fact the oldest continuously operating restaurant in LA. The dip is quite tasty, they have a full bar with some interesting imports on tap, and its got a great, if somewhat creepy, atmosphere.

As to whether it tops Phillipes, I'm not the one to say. I tend to order different things - turkey dip at Coles, lamb and blue cheese at Phillipe. Lets just say that with as with the following other great debates, I like them both:

NY pizza vs. chicago
Astair vs. Kelly
sauce vs. dry rub

I once also saw no reason to choose between Kobe and Shaq. "I like the both," I said. Now, I guess, I dislike them both.

The Grabowski Principle, by definition, can't be limited to which inning the event occurs in. The practical reason for this is that it saves you another five innings of getting beat around like a pinata to find out that your pitcher sucks.

I'm not sure what to make of it. But I'm also not sure what to make of Weaver throwing a good game. I'm a little stunned today, in a "Thank God he did that, but how did he do it?" sort of way.

Did anyone catch the fact that the Dodger minor league pitcher of the month award was split between two pitchers that have never been discussed as prospects.

And actually, there has been a backlash from the fans in the past few years. Ratings have gone way down. Part of it is from so many top players leaving Japan, but a big part of it is the lethargic nature of the games.

Things have begun to improve this year; they implemented interleague play for the first time, game times have decreased, bunting is down. The fact that two of the 12 managers are American may have somthing to do with the changes.

actually, blake johnson is a prospect. he was our 2nd round pick out of HS last yr and he is only 19.

I agree, orenduff should be moved up. I hope they are more agressive with hochevar next year when he dominates the FSL. If orenduff can, someone like hochevar who has a superior fastball, superior slider, superior change, superior command and comparable poise and makeup will probably as well and deserves to be put on the fast track.

It therefore stands to reason that giving up a HR to any pitcher (not just NL ones like the example suggests) can be an infraction.

The key phrase is "hopelessly bad in a situation he should easily handle," which in no way invalidates infractions that occur by giving up dingers to AL pitchers in an interleague game. (Unless such pitcher is the 2nd coming of the Babe)

Latin. exempli gratia (for example)

no google is like a frontal lobotomy

Ergo (eg.)
"Therefore" — used to show a logical conclusion. 'Therefore, Hence' See Cogito ergo sum.

Exempli gratia (e.g.)
Literally "for the sake of example", usually rendered in English as "for example." (An alternative interpretation of this abbreviation: "example given".)

So much for talkin baseball today.

1) Nothing in baseball should be considered immutable. This was Plaschkean hubris on my part.

2) I am more comfortable with legal analogy than scientific analogy.

Stay tuned.

My old cat has cancer of the sweat glands? Anyone here an expert on that type of cancer in cats? I doubt it, since the vet said that he rarely ever sees it.

Perhaps I need to send her to the Meow Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Lima time, indeed.

Alex Cora!
.217/.263/.313

Jose Lima!
8.39, 17HR, 27BB, 28K, 59 innings

Kaz Ishii!
5.14, 4 HR, 23BB, 20K, 42 innings

Guillermo (or Guerrmo, according to one 'website') Mota!
5.51, 1 HR, 8BB, 12K

Cora's line got me wondering about how bad the others were doing, so I couldn't resist checking. I can't claim DePodesta knows how to predict someone will play well, but he sure seems to know who's going to totally collapse.

"One NL GM says Jose Lima 'can be effective given the right circumstances.' That's true, if you define those circumstances as (1) in a great pitchers' park (2) in front of a great defense (3) into a 40-mph headwind."

4-4, bottom 6 in SF

Bob, there's a cat only vet. on Walnut in Pasadena. Maybe you should check with them.

#75 Coles- IIRC when Coles was built, it was in the middle of the then thriving Spring St. Financial district, and on the ground floor of the Pacific Electric building, home of the Red Cars. That it survived all of that, and what became the worst neighborhood in LA is amazing. Taix, near Dodger Stadium, has also claimed to be the oldest restaurant in LA as well.

Fledgling LA urban archaelogists should take care, based on the terrible accident that happened to two explorers trying to recover Brew 102 beer cans in downtown LA.

#71 Erickson should have been gone two weeks ago after his last start. He should consider his last couple of paychecks as the Dodgers' belated wedding gift to him and Lisa.

I think I will take my cat to a dermatologist next. The oncologist says her coat is bothering more than any cancer.

There are remarkably few veterinary dermatologists. But in the short-term, my cat is OK. Short-term as in "the next couple of months"

He seems to have the perpetual "deer-in-headlights/glazed look about him. He wasn't a very good interview.

Maybe if he had more of a scrap factor TM (similar to range factor but measures overall scrap-worthiness), we'd take better to him.

Woo hoo! LaTroy Hawkins time in San Francisco!

Hawkins is my favorite Giant. Heh heh.

It would be like looking at the Dodger bullpen and all you would see were six different Scott Ericksons.

At least Eric Byrnes has also looked horrible, so my fantasy trade isn't so bad.

Nuts, the Giants may just take this one.

Actually, Nunez has done pretty well for a 21 year old. He seems Duaner-like in that he'll pitch well for several games and then collapse. Today was a collapse day.

Ellison proceeds to immediately get thrown out stealing. Merryment was had.

I purchased it through mlb.com last winter for $3.95 when I had some free time from freaking out over the Dodgers off-season dealings. I haven't actually had a chance to watch it until tonight (my wife is out of town at a prep school reunion in Andover, MA).

I was in my senior year of high school at the time and remember getting home (EST) for about the last half of the game. I paced around my room while I watched the game with butterflies in my stomach and fear in my heart, except that I almost always felt that Sandy would come through.

The way you will see it in "black and white" is the same way I saw it at the time.
It's a piece of Dodger history and one of the bravest performances I had the pleasure to see. Remember, Koufax was already suffering from severe elbow pain and was pitching on two days rest.

Enjoy!

In all fairness, two Olympics ago it was due to a vault bar that had been set too low. But then the announcers jinxed Elise Ray and Svetlana Khorkina during their next routines by talking about how they'd find out after they finished those that they were back in medal contention because they were going to be able to vault again. Naturally, Khorkina missed a bar hold, on her signature event, and fell on her face; Ray stepped out of bounds.

I was always annoyed with NBC for cutting to commercial just as the Olympic peeps reached Khorkina to explain the vault thing to her after she'd blown the bars routine. "The news reaches Khorkina..." intoned the announcer. (cut to commercial) She was known as "The Mad Stork" for very good reasons. Who cares if she would've been screaming in Russian--diva tantrums rock.

Back to baseball, Alou just pulled my buddy Hawkins. Damn.

Hearing Vin's voice is always comforting and it amazes me that he is still with us in 2005.

I don't really remember Ray Scott, except a guy who used to annouce professional wrestling. I'm not sure it's the same person.

The production values were crappy, but to one who had never seen "color TV" in 1965 it was all we had. My first TV was "Howdy Doody" in 1952 or so.

The Gillette razor ads were big at the time in all sports, especially boxing. The Gillette "safety razor" was the "state of the art" and what I used to slash my face with from about ages 12-15.

My father had a 1963 Plymouth "Valiant" which I wrecked the first night I had my driver's license in September "65.

Bob, hang in there with the cat...it's lucky to have such a good friend.

He originally said he slipped carrying groceries but he has amended his story to slipped while carrying "deer meat."

apparently, he was trolling for deer with Todd Helton on an off day and slipped when he carried the deer meat to his residence.

I am sure the fact that he was on an atv all day had nothing to do with the injury. Sounds like Kent's, "I was washing my truck story a few years back."

And working by himself on TV, he just didn't add much when doing baseball.

But on football, if you hear him intoning, "First and 10 Packers, Starr calling the signals, hand off to Taylor, he gains five." It had sort of a "Voice of God" tone to it.

I'm moving along to Florida-Seattle.
The Mar..... are ahead.

The NL West teams and the 'unearned' portion of their total runs scored this season -

---UR-TRs-PCT
SD 23 282 8.1%
LA 21 286 7.7%
AZ 21 266 7.9%
SF 15 242 6.2%
CO 17 273 6.2%

I did something like this late last year when the Giants were closing the gap, because it seemed to me that they were getting really lucky. They actually weren't, scoring an unremarkable 8.1% of their runs on their opponents' errors. However, it was the Padres that were super-lucky, finishing the entire season scoring 77 unearned runs, or exactly 10% of their season total. 7% is about average.

Stults is getting hit, but has been able to get out of some jams.

The Dodgers are -2.

can someone give a recap if they heard the full interview?

.334 BAA, but his 3.41 ERA at Arlington is pretty good for that park, no?

Guzman, physically, looks like a cross between Adrian Beltre and Daryl Strawberry.

also a reminder. luke hochevar will be pitching on ESPN 2 tomorrow at 1PM PT for the college regionals. hopefully u guys can tune in.

maybe jon can put a reminder up tomorrow morning. :)

Ryan@ifallelsefails.net

Perez has 9 walks in 80 PAs; Beltre has 8 in 235.

http://baseballcrank.com/archives2/2005/06/baseball_perhap_1.php

http://tinyurl.com/7mfk4