But winning teams know how to win games I was told....

What? The White Sox might not make the playoffs? Darn, I was hoping to buy and take the Smartball book Ozzie Guillen was going to write on my vacation with me to read. vr, Xei

2006 Pitching market in the deep freeze. Decent article about the 2006 FA pitching market. http://tinyurl.com/czuo2
vr, Xei

The Astros 7-0 loss was their 17th shutout of the season. Most shutouts of any team in major league history to make the postseason was the 1966 Dodgers: 17.

Only two batters on this years team have enough at bats to qualify for the batting title. I know that Tracy likes to mix up the lineup and we have had some injuries, but only Jeff Kent is going to get 500 ABs this year.

5 - Phillips is 3rd...3rd!...on the team in ab's.

Izturis, who seems like he hasn't played in two months, is safely in 2nd.

TJ Simers has the solution for one of our 2006 corner outfielder holes...

5 - Major injuries at LF, CF, RF, SS.

3B was a combo of injuries and ineffectiveness.

C saw Phillips replaced by Navarro.

Only 1B was a result primarily of mixing and matching.

8 - The pitching, as you've pointed out numerous times, is a major failing this year, but this doesn't help:

Dodger AB leaders:
522 Kent - .897 OPS
444 Izturis - .624
387 Phillips - .655
322 Robles - .701
308 Werth - .743

Lots of wasted AB's there.

However, the Dodgers will have 3 ERA qualifiers in Weaver, Lowe and Penny. Lowe is 16th in the NL. Penny is 26th and Weaver is 35th.

There were four last year in Weaver, Perez, Ishii, and Lima.

With their loss last night, the Rockies joined the Pirates among National League teams mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

Next team on the chopping block, the Reds. If they lose to the Cardinals tonight and the Astros win, it will be over.

The Dodgers and Dbacks are eliminated from the wild care race and the Giants could be tonight as well if they lose and Houston wins.

And in the AL: Kansas City, Detroit, Tampa Bay and Seattle are all out of it and the Twins can be eliminated today if they lose to Oakland and Cleveland beats Chicago.

Wow, there is a good chance the Dodgers won't be eliminated til the final week of the season. What an exciting season this was. ;-)

9 - if you look at appearances by the pitchers, you see arguably a lot of "wasted innings" given to Brazoban, Houlton, Schmoll and, of course, Scott Erickson.

Yeah, I think I'd take 1951 over this year. At least we could be smug until late August in that year. At this date in 1951, I would imagine we would be pretty panicked about the Giants. By the end of the season, even with the heartbreak of the "Shot", it would still be better than to have to live through a season like 2005.

8 - I didn't mean to say it was Tracy's fault, though the insane 3 man platoon at first has meant that Choi won't the get 400+ AB he probably deserves. The biggest thing has been that at one time or another every position on the field has been injured, with the exception of 1B.

I wasn't alive in 51, but I'm still upset about it. Cheaters.

In my lifetime, the prototype of the season that was ripped away at the end is 82 (maybe 91 also). The prototype of the plain, simple bad team is 92. I probably got a lot of enjoyment out of the 82 season while it was actually going on, but the pain still lingers. I hate 82 (and 91). 92 actually seems kind of fun to me now, although I don't think I'll recall 05 all that fondly.

17-Is 82 the Terry Forster gopher ball year?
In my lifetime the worst was 62-In those years of light hitting,great pitching years,62 was an anamoly.Tommy Davis drove in 153 runs,hit .340 and won the batting title,Maury Wills stole 104 bases.Frank Howard,Willie Davis and others had good years.The Dodgers blew a huge lead in August and lost the season on a bases loaded walk by Stan Williams in the third game of a best of three tiebreaker with the Giants.That was tough to swallow.
The only consolation was the Yankees beat the Giants in the World series when Bobby Richardson robbed Willie McCovey of a game and series winning hit.
The emergence of Cleveland is validation for rebuilding the right way through developing young talent.

I remember 1962 as well billy cox. That was far more disappointing than any other baseball year that I recall.

I agree with you about Cleveland by the way. I am hoping that DePo/McCourt will go with the kids and let them develop. I would like to see another homegrown group to rival the 60's Dodgers and the Garvey, Lopes, Russell and Cey 70's team. Writing out big checks a la the Yankees and Red Soxs and building a team that way does not interest me at all.

I think from most of the comments here I am in the minority, but if the Dodgers go out and get players becuase they can afford them, it will result in me losing interest in the franchise. I am not much of a basketball fan but I can tell you that the Kobe/Shaq Lakers held no appeal for me.

Stan from Tacoma