Awesome!!! Totally Awesome!!!

So I guess that means Choi can hit lefties? Hmmmm. I wonder how long he's been doing that?

WAY TO GO BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow! Do you think Choi wanted to prove he could hit lefties? :)

It was first-pitch too. Didn't even need to work the count to.

My seven-year-old son, who had special permission to stay up late and watch the game with me because of his good behavior at school all week, jumped up and down like the Dodgers at home plate. It was a proud moment for me. I couldn't have picked a better game for his late bed-time reward.

Wouldn't you know I turned back to FSNW2 in time to see Mulholland come in, then left the room to further pick up dinner dishes. I got back into the kitchen and the game's over.

Rats.

Linkmeister ignored the Terry Mulholland Rule:

If Terry Mulholland comes into the game with the ninth inning and the score tied, best not to leave the room.

I guess I missed that one in class.

If you want to see the Twins fan's side of this, go over to Bat-Girl's site:

http://tinyurl.com/ab2cy

You should read her anyway, if only for the LEGO replays.

The Twins fans are such good people over there on Bat-Girl. And the recaps are a thing of hilarity too. A must read!

HEE SEOP CHOI!
HEE SEOP CHOI!
HEE SEOP CHOI!

OK, I'm done now.

Mulholland is a lefty ... but is he a pitcher?

How often does a guy sacrifice bunt in between home runs?

Saturday's NYT has an op-ed from Roger Kahn. He's reminiscing about O'Malley and the domed stadium he never got in Brooklyn.

http://tinyurl.com/7au2j

(reg. req.)

FJT has a new supporter: Hee Seop Choi.

In Henson's newest LA Times article, Choi bemoans not hitting another home run because he had to sacrifice bunt. No mention about platooning with Saenz...

"He told me he was going to hit three home runs," Penny said. "I asked him why he only hit two and he said it was because he had to lay down that sacrifice bunt."

I know this thread is supposed to be both happy and about Choi, but I have a concern that fits neither condition:

1. Does anybody know if the velocity on Gagne's fastball has been 90-92 early on in spring training the last couple of years?
2. If the above is true, and the lost velocity is not due to his season debut-delaying injury, at which point should we start worrying that the lost mph are lost forever?
3. This is pure speculation, but can Gagne be as great as he has been with a little less juice on his fastball? It's true that he's been pretty darn good so far, but it's also true that he hasn't been as dominating as he has been the last couple of years in terms of number of baserunners allowed. Maybe this is due to the loss of velocity and maybe it isn't...
But I'm starting to worry a little. You've got to think that his changeup and fastball are more effective when he has the latter up at 96 instead of 91.

Linkmeister, thanks for the connect to Bat-Girl's site. Put me in mind of a good friend from my grad school days: A Minneapolis girl who loved the Twins and the Vikes and occasionally worked in concessions at the Metrodome when she was in high school. She told me once that she went to work one day without her corrective lenses (she was very nearsighted) and when it came time to leave for home, she couldn't find her way out of the stadium, rather like Mr. Magoo, I suppose. She wandered around for a while and was panicked to the point of tears when she finally found herself in a room where there seemed to be a lot of guys hanging around. Someone took her aside and, very kindly, escorted her out of the Metrodome by the closest way. When he opened the door, there were a lot of people waiting outside, and she suddenly heard them screaming for Kirby Puckett. She had wandered into the Twins' dressing room and without her contacts, she couldn't even recognize him when he helped her out.

I was at the game.. na,na,na na na.

RE #6: Linkmeister... you must invest in TiVo or some other comparable equipment... I would have gone to bed 15 minutes earlier than I did, but I just kept playing the homerun over-and-over again.

#15:

1. Unknown, but I'm pretty sure Gagne was only throwing 94-95 towards the end of last season.

2. We should worry when he stops striking people out. That's the best measure of his effectiveness.

3. If you ignore his first 1 inning outing, when he didn't seem fully ready to be back, his numbers have been right in line with past seasons.

The good thing that has seemed to come out of his decreased velocity is that he's focusing more on his changeup and curveball, which are both better pitches than his fastball, potentially even at 95 mph.

Henson's article does mention that Choi was only batting because there were no right handers on the bunch.

It was the last paragraph.

Grabowski hits a homerun and we're going to have to live with him until 2011. Choi hits one against a lefthander, and he won't hit against another one for three months.

Re: #6

As the parent of a teenager who can't drive yet, I spent my Friday evening shuttling him from home to party, then party to diner, then pickup later at diner. On the way back home from the diner, I heard Charley and Rick announce the 8th inning, and mention that Gagne was coming in for the 9th. My kid didn't want to leave the car when we got home; he wanted to see if there was even one song he liked on my new Rio Carbon (like an iPod but not overpriced). He found one: "Ashes to Ashes" by David Bowie, but first he had to scroll thru all 1,300 of the songs I've packed onto it, or so it seemed. Finally, after the song's over, I wrestle it away from him, and we go inside. I immediately turn on the TV, and there's Choi at bat, the first pitch already on its way to the plate. "Swing, and it's a high drive..." So I lucked out.

I think Tracy will discount Choi's success against a left-hander considering that this particular left-hander belongs in a beer league. Didn't the Dodgers dump Mulholland five years ago, and wasn't he already old then?

Re #21: Yup... it just goes to show that DePo is really letting JT make all the tactical decisions without his (DePo's) interfering. It is admirable and DePo should be commended. OTOH, I'm not a big fan of JT's constant lineup changes... my guess is that DePo finds it tolerable. I believe that Choi would be the everyday guy if not for the fact that Olmedo is so darn good. It's hard not to justify Saenz in the lineup as well.

As for Grabs... well, it's just a big mystery to me how he holds on.

The Dodgers traded Terry Mulholland to Cleveland on 7/28/2002 with Ricardo Rodriguez and Francisco Crueta to get Paul Shuey.

Mulholland's 2002 salary is listed on BBRef.org as $3.25 million.
In 2003, it was $500,000.

Mulholland needs to pitch for an AL East team to complete his tour of all the divisions.

The Dodgers gave up Mike Fetters to get Mulholland from Pittsburgh in 2001.

All I can say is that I'm very glad that tracy had already used Edwards and Saenz, so he had to let Choi bat.

Man, you gotta feel good for Choi, too. The expression on his face and the rest of the team when he came to home plate was priceless. It's great that he seems well liked in the clubhouse, and that now the fans are getting behind him as well. Awesome stuff.

As much as we hate to see Choi bunt, his teammates probably respect him for not complaining about it as much as we do.

I can imagine how Gary Sheffield would have reacted to being asked to sacrifice. He would have (rightly) gone and ripped off the manager's head (he had four of them while with the Dodgers).

Sheffield hasn't had a sacrifice since 1991, which might be the second longest current streak in the majors. Frank Thomas has never sacrificed since he came up in 1990.

The good news is that last night was our 3 1/2 week old infant's first Dodger game. The bad news is, it was more an experiment in leaving the house than an actual trip to the game. We arrived well after Choi's first homer, and left well before his second. I actually yelled at some guy as we were leaving who said "typical Dodger fans."

And now the seniors in the back. "We Like Roy!"

Bob, I understand your point, and agree that it looked unusual that Hee Seop was asked to sacrifice. However, as much as I detest Sheffield with the fire of a thousand suns, any comparison between Choi and Sheffield is apples and oranges. Choi still has to prove he can produce consistently, and tonight went a long way toward doing so, and I for one want to see him get the everyday job just to see what he can do. But Choi isn't yet in the same ballpark as a Sheffield or Big Hurt, so I have no problem with him being asked to sacrifice if it puts us in a spot to get a big run.

But we were already in a spot to get a big run. The bunt was superfluous.

Three shots to get a runner in from second are better than two shots at getting a runner in from third. Better to get one run, better to get more than one run, especially with your 2-3-4 hitters up.

Jon,
Don't tell Mike Scioscia or Ozzie Guillen that.

I should send copies of some of the scorecards I kept when I was in Japan in 2003 to Steve. He can send them back covered in blood after he repeatedly gouges his eyes out.

When I saw a manager in Japan order his #3 hitter to sacrifice a runner over from first with ONE OUT, I almost came out of my seat.

The run eventually came home on an error.

I'm a little nervous about my meeting with Bob Timmermann tonight. I hope he likes me.

Maybe Jon could pay Chuck Woolery to moderate our post-date encounter on DT next week.

If you don't bring a beach ball or hit a beach ball or scream really, really loudly, you'll be OK.

I will warn you ahead of time that the seats aren't good. Not that the view is bad. The seats literally aren't good. I think nearly every seat in the blue section has seen better days. The seats shake and rattle and you feel like your going to end up sitting on the concrete after a while.

Some years ago a team in the California League was run by a Japanese interest. It was an all Japanese team. I think it was an experiment in using an American minor league to train Japanese players. I saw them play against the High Desert Mavericks. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Even after they were down 10 runs they kept bunting for base hits and sacrificing. Eventually they might have caught up but the game would have had to go twenty innings. I don't think the experiment lasted long. I'll say this, though, they were the best fielding team I've ever seen in Single A.

But Bob, If I don't don't scream loudly, how will the players hear what I want them to do?

If you start cheering for Kevin and Bean to come in to play then I'm tossing you over the railing on to the people in the loge.

I think I'll be okay if you do that. If the fans mistake me for a beach ball, I should have a soft landing.

I'm not at all round, though, nor am I multi-colored.

I don't care about Kevin and Bean, but do you know if Urkel is supposed to play?

I don't recall Urkel being on the list. He's a basketball guy anyway.

When he was at UCLA as a student, he got picked for one of the halftime shooting contests. He didn't do very well.

I was hoping to see him lose control of the bat and knock Tony Danza out cold, then say: "Did I do that?"

Paul DePodesta on AM 570 right now.

What did he say?
I only caught the end of it when he was talking about the teams draft philosophy and it basically seemed like they pick the best value, be it college or highschool.

He didn't say anything new. Gubicza isn't a tough interview.

The puzzler is why was the lights out kid Crain pitching earlier in the game and a stiff like Mulholland pitching in the ninth.The bad side of Mulholland coming in was it reminded me of the last time I disliked a pitcher as much as I do Erickson.