Chalk up another one boys.

We are officially a Triple A club now.
This is just sad now.

http://tinyurl.com/dyjfs

http://imdb.com/title/tt0099422/

Is he the last Dodger standing?

What was the source for this morning's Kent news? It's not online yet.

BTW... is there a way to get my commenting name changed without making a new account? Though I suppose that's not a problem.

It's like a reality show. Survivor: Los Angeles Dodgers Edition. Each contestant suffers through a season where they try to avoid "freak" (though really planned by the Executive Producers of the show, DePo and Tracy) injuries. The last surviving key player (non-AAA) wins a date with Mrs. Scott Erickson, or so they're led to believe. It's really like the "Who Wants To Marry A Millionaire" thing, where the guy isn't really a millionaire. They don't date Mrs. Scott Erickson, but rather Mr. Scott Erickson. The final twist in the season finale.

I'm personally rooting for Philips. Philips and Erickson? Yum.

I guess "overpowering young personality" trumps top-notch offensive production every time.

Maybe because Abreu is loved by so-called moneyballers and GA isn't, Abreu gets run out of his town while GA is loved by all. Or maybe it's just Philadelphia.

Tracy just found himself a new reason to play Repko every night.

Garret Anderson just looks like he's not trying all that hard, but he definitely produces. Although he is not exactly a walk machine. And he doesn't get hit by pitches much. I think he had one of the longest stretches of not getting hit by a pitch of any player ever.

Or slightly more realistically, Jason Repko.

The Angels have had more days spent on the DL than the Dodgers this year.

Bottom line is the Angels are getting it done with their prospects, and we are not.

Something needs to change.

Philadelphia gets -- Alex Cora, Yhenzy Brazoban

LA gets -- Bobby Abreu

Where's the downside! :)

# 27
The Angel's have prospects from AAA down to A so they were more ready to handle DL problems. Plus the bench that Stoneman created was much better then ours. Having a player like Figgins who can play 2nd/ss/3b/of and play them all well is a tremendous asset.

An injury of significance that takes Kent out of the lineup for more than 15 days, changes the whole equation for the Dodgers, and would make them sellers, not buyers.

Major League LD% leaders (BABIP)

Brian Roberts 29.0% (.378)
David Wright 28.6% (.343)
Hee Seop Choi 28.4%(.241)
Derrek Lee 26.8% (.406)

Choi's predicted OPS based on his LD% etc is .932 vs. .787 actual. The 19% shortfall would make him the unluckiest hitter in the majors given the 2004 list. The 2005 list isn't updated. This fact is as astonishing to me as the Drew/Izturis/Kent DL trifecta in a week.

molokai,
What's the roto site?

Don't a lot of the Angel DL days include Tim Salmon?

Just who are the Angels prospects helping them out this yeaer?

Just the Dodgers!

As for Tracy ... Choi plays one position. Tracy thinks someone else plays that position better. Whether you like it or not, he can make that case.

And for that matter, unlike some of us armchair GMs, Tracy has every reason to manage like he's still in a pennant race.

32 - that's valid, but the real value in adding Abreu would be his presence on the 2006-2007 team. That would be a heck of an outfield.

You are correct about the Angels prospects being in a better position to contribute as their best prospects are currently in AAA.

Can we please get some prospects up that can produce at the major league level?

When Vin Scully retires, I imagine that phrase will permanently disappear from the lexicon.

Also, I looked up the Angels' and Dodgers' injuries. If the Angels have lost more days to the DL, it's because of:

Salmon (60-day)
Hensley (60-day)
Merloni (60-day)
Prinz (60-day)

But I really don't want to turn this into a "Who's Hurt More" competition.

What would happen if the Dodgers followed the Lakers example and hired a 26 yr. old play by play guy? Would he reminisce about the good old days seeing the The New Kids on the Block in concert?

Are you actually rooting for Sanez to get hurt just so Choi can play? We're getting a little irrational in our desire to see Choi play.

Scully's cachet is such that the franchise will have to work very hard to maintain its status.

To think about this, consider this weekend's series in Houston, when the Los Angeles 51s take on the Astros with Charlie Steiner and Steve Lyons calling the action. It's going to be very depressing.

Suffice to say that even when Vinnie retires the phrase will probably remain.

This etymological comment brought to you by the number 7 (currently on the DL with a broken wrist).

Saenz is also one of our more tradable commodities (if we turn into sellers), especially to AL teams. His "breaking" probably wouldn't help us much.

But with a roster full of AAA players, what do we expect? Somehow they hold the fort until Kent, Bradley, Izturis (well, not so much him) come back? I'm as hopeless on the season now as I've been on a Dodger season in a long time. Granted, I'm not in a good mood all around.

The Angels are getting it done with prospects? On their roster, they have the following players below the age of 26:

Francisco Rodriguez (9.7 VORP)
Macier Izturis (6.5 VORP)
Dallas McPherson (5.1 VORP)
Jake Woods (1.7 VORP)
Ervin Santana (negative 1.1 VORP)
Casey Kotchman (negative 2.5 VORP)

For the Dodgers:

Antonio Perez (10.2 VORP)
Cesar Izturis (DL) (6.6 VORP)
Duaner Sanchez (6.1 VORP)
Derek Thompson (minors) (4.6 VORP)
Yhency Brazoban (2.5 VORP)
Franquelis Osoria (2.0 VORP)
Steve Schmoll (minors) (negative 0.5 VORP)
Cody Ross (negative 2.4 VORP)
Jason Repko (negative 2.9 VORP)
D.J. Houlton (negative 3.8 VORP)

The Dodgers are better if you go one deep, two deep, three deep, four deep, five deep and six deep.

The following Logan White prospects are getting their first shot at Jacksonville this year:

Russell Martin
Delwyn Young
Andy LaRoche
Jonathan Broxton
Justin Orenduff
Carlos Alvarez

The following Logan White prospects spent half a season in Jacksonville last year:

James Loney
Chad Billingsley
Eric Hull

Other than perhaps James Loney, it seems incorrect to suggest any of the others have stalled.

He usually uses the phrase to describe an imaginary ad hoc fan club.

Thanks for the info guys. I'll be trying to incorporate that into my regular but not-so-daily language.

How about check to see the last time 7 of 9 were disabled at the same time before the allstar break. And dont forget Gagne.

Release them all!

Edwards, Phillips and Saenz on the bench.

Eric Stults (AAA)
Steve Schmoll (AAA)

Ugh.

Among regulars (100+ PAs), Saenz (38.1%), Ledee (40.4%), Kent (42.4%), and Repko (47.3%) all get a higher percentage of flyballs on balls in play.

-- The Ursula Andress Marching and Chowder Society
-- The Charlie Watts Marching and Chowder Society
-- The Ron Swoboda Marching and Chowder Society
-- The Preston Sturges Marching and Chowder Society
-- The William Faulkner Marching and Chowder Society
-- The Louis Armstrong Marching and Chowder Society

I also understand when they named Grateful Dead followers "Deadheads" that "The Grateful Dead Marching and Chowder Society" came in a close second.

I'd be happy to see "marching and chowder society" make a comeback if we could forever banish the use of "yo!" and "bling-bling" which are much lamer.

I was a junior in high school and didn't understand allegory very well.

Or something like that.

           G/F BABIP
Teixeira     0.9 .289
Saenz      0.88 .331
Tracy      0.85 .330
Konerko   0.85 .247
Choi       0.84 .241
Giambi      .78 .336
Ortiz       0.66 .333

Every day he spends in AAA he's losing value.
Face it, the guy didn't live up to the hype.

Get rid of him now.

I'm not opposed to trading for Dunn, but the point of that trade would be to invest long-term in a young outfielder, since our minor league system is a little short in that department, but overstocked with infielders and pitchers. This is not a trade likely to influence the outcome of 2005. No combination of trades makes the Dodgers a contender in '05. There is little doubt in my mind that this team will finish fourth or fifth this season. I'm not sure .500 is a realistic goal, much less the pennant. 2004 was a long time ago.

We should be playing Choi and trading Saenz before he gets hurt, while his value to a contender is still perceived as high. If Ledee recovers, he's trade bait, too; Carrara too. To me, the only veteran untouchables are Kent, Drew, Penny, Lowe, and Gagne, because we clearly need them next year. I also would keep Brazoban and Bradley, optimally, and probably hang onto Phillips as insurance in case no one else is ready to play catcher by next year. We could rent out Weaver and resign him after the season if we thought he was still worth it.

How forward thinking of Frank.

A good new book that, like "As I Lay Dying" uses multiple narrators: Nick Hornby's "A Long Way Down." Hornby's the author of the book "Fever Pitch" which was sorta kinda the basis of the recent Jimmy Fallon movie of the same name (except the book is about British soccer fans, while the film is about Boston baseball fans).

"A Long Way Down" sounds interesting, at least from the interview Hornby did with Terry Gross on "Fresh Air." Multiple narrators with suicidal tendencies on a high-rise? That's one of those "why on earth did he think of that?" stories.

Assuming Kent gets DLed, the payroll of the Dodgers roster will be $34,745,500, good for last in baseball.

(The insurance salesman who landed the Dodger account is probably so fired by now.)

That's written and performed by Randy Newman.

However, back in 1984, Nike started using the song to associate its products with the Olympics, and the mayor's office also embraced it as a theme for the big tourist infusion. The lyrics were ignored and/or bowdlerized. By now, I think most people assume it's a city booster song like "Chicago," "New York, New York," or "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." One more example of how tweaked it is to live in this town.

Assuming that if the Dodgers have policies on their other players and assuming that the policies are similar, I'd say only the ~7M of the DL'd salary is covered by insurance.

http://tinyurl.com/82bwn

Yeah, that's a real head-scratcher.

The only downside is that writers and Cable TV pundits will say you're an idiot if the first pitcher ever allows any runs. The logic will be "he's not used to pitching in the 1st inning. That's not his environment."

They will also say/write this if the first PH fails to reach base.

http://tinyurl.com/crc6j

LoDuca's OPS is sub-Ecksteinian. Of course, so is Piazza's.

And it's July...just wait until the September swoon. Yikes.

but it involves others as well. i could share it with you guys. but it has to be a secret.

it also involves trading our lord and plenty of positional depth :(

100 - The A's tried this several years ago when they were so far out of the pennant race they couldn't even hear it rattle. LaRussa was still there and they tried using the starters three innings at a time, rotating who gets the first three innings. The idea was the starters would pitch more effectively in short bursts and they would pitch more often.

They tried it but it didn't work. The pitchers didn't like it and LaRussa junked it. I read about in one of Bill James' books.

Statistically, there is no reason Choi should not be a regular player. He has a proven ability to get on base and to hit the ball hard.

Intangibly, if that's even a word, Choi should play. Every one who has ever dealt with him says the same thing--nice guy, hard worker, wants to succeed.

But he sits. There's something else going on.

I think the coaches and the players have accepted it as fact that Choi is not ready for prime time. This will sound strange but I think the idea has taken hold that Choi is not yet a ballplayer like, say, Jeff Kent. Kent is known as a guy who makes plays, knows the game. Choi is known for many things but not that.

You think this is a frivolous reason? I agree. But I'm not in that clubhouse. There are a dozen reasons that players and coaches count on player A more than player B that have nothing to do with stats. Something like that is at work here and so, our hero rides the pine. It's sad but that's also the game.

Now it's 5-3 Twins. I'm guessing that I dozed off. Or else I went into a hypnotic state and committed a series of crimes as the work of an evil genius.

I'm betting on falling asleep.

Short people is pretty bad. Just about anything on Sail Away is great. The title song, Lonely at the Top. You can leave your hat on.

I prefer the Joe Cocker version but then again, I was listening to that with company (ahem).

I also may be reading way too much into it.

Then there's this from his bio:

As a teenager, Randy Newman was invited by a girl to a country club Cotillion, and then subsequently asked not to come by the girl's father, who told him this was because no Jews were allowed. After hanging up the phone, Newman then had to go and ask his father what a Jew was.

Gotta love the guy...

No one likes us
I don't know why.
We may not be perfect
But heaven knows we try.
But all around even our old friends put us down.
Let's drop the big one and see what happens.

We give them money
But are they grateful?
No they're spiteful
And they're hateful.
They don't respect us so let's surprise them;
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them.

Anyway, just go do whatever it is you would do if you weren't watching the Dodgers.

Thank God for Cal Ripken's sake that he never played in a Dodgers uniform.

Does the team think Choi is a Gold Glove at first? Obviously not. But they've watched him hit some important home runs and draw some key walks, and he's very rarely the one who kills a rally by getting the third out. Offensive power makes up for defensive mistakes in many people's eyes. Given that the team does know their biggest problem has been scoring, and that Choi is one of the very few power bats left, and that it's perfectly possible to start Choi AND Saenz AND Perez without having to bench anyone who's more proven than Choi, I find it hard to believe that many on the team think that it's really a good idea to have Choi benched, especially now.

Anyway, I tend to think that #121 - the intangibles element - is a big part of it. And didn't I see something posted here (or maybe in the Times?) with a veiled reference to teammates preferring that Kent play first base over Choi?

It's not his best song, but about "The Great Nations of Europe," he said, "This is the only song I ever wrote that has no lies in it." I liked that line.

But that isn't the case here. It really isn't an issue of Kent vs. Choi, or even Saenz vs. Choi or Perez vs. Choi. It's perfectly possible to start all of those guys in the same line-up. We're talking about the guys like Edwards or Robles or the Jasons vs. Choi, on a team that's hitting poorly and has key bats Drew and Bradley on the DL, and Choi being second in HRs.

Hungary is not named after hunger.

He couldn't get to Hitler? What, he's running for office now?

Moneyball and Smallball advocates don't like runners making stupid plays either way. But the Angels won 7-6.

I think he went to college after he retired from baseball.

"Rednecks" might be a little too 'on the money,' but the album it's from, "Good Old Boys," is my favorite. "Marie," "Louisiana 1927," "Guilty" and "Rollin'" are all beautiful, rich ballads. "Sail Away" and "12 Songs" were also great albums.

As he got older and richer, he started picking on more obvious targets and he started to sound like a West LA snot. Now he writes too many Disney movie theme songs; he seemed for awhile to have a permanent role in the Oscars singing some bad song about an animal or a toy.