My last post in the other thread makes more sense here, so:

It seems as if Loney is no longer on the taxi squad (maybe Hoorelbeke is?). He's batting 3rd on a Monday, which isn't a taxi day. He's hit a homer, so...

Loney- 3 HRs, 20 ABs
Laroche, Kemp, Abreu- 0 HRs, 145 ABs

Maybe next time I should look for a new thread before posting (as the time states this was started before my other post)

1 - No harm done. How often do I post on the AFL, anyway?

I still think football when I see AFL

3 - Not "-CIO"?

4 Gee, I don't. And I'm pro-union.

Go James Loney go.

How's George Blanda doing this year?

If you see the stats trickle in on a daily basis they dont seem all that great, but looking at the total averages and such gives you the impression our boys are doing alright. I guess its unfair to compare them to the Brandon Wood juggernaut.

My hope was that 1 would convince the others to hit a homer or two. It actually worked

Loney- 3 HRs, 21 ABs
Laroche, Kemp, Abreu- 1 HR, 149 ABs

Kemp hit it out.

i think its important to keep AFL performance in context, an unnamed American league east source told me its like spring training

And the final results for the Dodgers involved:

Kemp 2-5, HR
Loney 1-5, HR
Laroche 2-4, BB, 2B, K

Hoorelbeke (W, 1-0) 1 IP, H, K

Not too shabby.

Going to be a slow night in sports. The MNF game doesn't excite me too much other than Michael Vick who leads my fantasy football team. I see that Texas passed USC up in the BS poll. As a programmer, I would love to see the code they use in their computer portion of the rankings and how they interpret strength of schedule. What I don't like is that you can beat a team earlier in the season while that team is ranked, then later in the season that team struggles and it hurts your strength of schedule. I think some consideration should be made of where the team was ranked when you beat them. This killed USC the first year of their back to back Natl titles when they didn't get to play in the BS title game because of teams they had beaten early in the season struggling later on due to injuries. When your shot at the BS title game comes down to who wins the Hawaii vs [Insert WAC Opponent] game the last week of the season, something is ill. I have my own college football playoff system. I will dig it up and post it here later tonight.
vr, Xei

I believe the 'Bows finish the season on December 3 against San Diego State.

Interestingly enough, Hawai'i lost to USC and San Diego State lost to UCLA and USC and UCLA face each other in a potential (but unlikely in my opinion) battle of unbeatens on the same day.

I foresee UCLA losing on The Farm and eating a big plate of crow Saturday.

Actually I think the dish I would be eating Saturday if Stanford beats UCLA would be humble pie and not crow.

13 The fact that Texas passed SC, combined with sitting next to a Texas fan making Pasadena plans on the train this morning, have me reliving last year's nightmare (Cal alum). Xei, you've hit it on the head about how games involving teams you've already played can affect the polls. Whatever else happened with Cal last year, if ASU (which was pretty good most of the year) hadn't tanked at the end of the season against UA, well, I wouldn't have had to sell my Rose Bowl tickets for 50 cents on the dollar.

Insert some sort of baseball related thought here. Um, good game last night . . .

Doesn't humble pie have crow in it?

My grandmother never put crow in our humble pie.

Shouldn't matter in the end if both Texas and USC remain undefeated. No matter who ends up 1st in the BCS poll the Rose Bowl will decide the National Champion. I hope it is Texas and USC. Should make for a great Rose Bowl and I'll get to see Young this time. Everyone I've met from Austin has been a class person. Great city, great people, probably will be my home in a few years.

My friends picked up great Rose Bowl tickets right before the game last year for $15.

Mind you he was annoyed that he didnt wait an extra half an hour so he could have paid $10.

[16] i know that i am going to actively hate the university of texas for the rest of my life.

Since DT has become CFT (college football thoughts), I'd like to express my reservations about my UCLA Bruins who are now #6 in the BCS. While their offense is explosive and gives them a chance to beat anyone, their defense is positively horrible and totally relies on turnovers to keep them effective. On paper they should be undefeated when they play USC, but if for some reason their offense goes in a funk one of these games they could easily be upset.

Oh yeah, and Maurice Drew is damn near as explosive as Reggie Bush, there I said it.

23 - Leave the Reggie Bush statement off of the end and we can talk... nobody can touch El Presidente.

"answering the question, among others, 'What happened to Reggie Abercrombie?'"
---------

I would submit that those stats pose that question rather than answer it.

24
Heisman = Vince Young

26 - Vince Young = Over-rated QB

continued 27 - Sorry but I am unwilling to accept anybody else as the heisman besides my big duo. Leinart/Bush

Orel's interview will take place tomorrow after the first of the organizational meetings has concluded. There was some speculation that he may not be interviewed until after the meetings conclude on Thursday. Henson has a largely uninformative article in tomorrow's Times about it

Guess who has a higher passer rating than Matt Leinart though? Drew Olson of course, gotta love a 21/3 TD/INT ratio.

Looking at the stats Bush is definitely a better runner as evidenced by his YPC, but that doesn't change my original assertation that Drew is as explosive as Bush, especially given Drew's punt returning skills which are for some reason not listed on espn.com's stats.

29
That largely uniformative article refers to Lasorda as "Tom". Don't see that very often.

I promised to post this earlier. My solution to the BCS mess. No system is perfect, but here is my solution for determing the college football champion. I am still open to improvements on it, but here is what I have so far. First off, we will have an 8 team playoff and will keep the BCS poll for seeding matters and for at large entries (wild-card). I am also open to the thought of expanding from 8 teams to either 12 or 16 too. I would probably then add a few more automatic bids to the list.

5 Automatic bids go to the winners of the following 5 conferences:

Atlantic Coast
Big 10
Big 12
Pac 10
SouthEast

3 at large bids, to the 3 highest remaining BCS ranked teams (not from the above 5).

Then use the BCS rankings to seed these 8 teams.

If the season were to end today, the playoff seeding would look like the following. I know there are some conference ties for first, but take the currently highest BCS ranked team as the champ for now.

#8 Penn State (Big 10 Champ)
vs
#1 Texas (Big 12 Champ)

#5 Alabama (WC1)
vs
#4 Georgia (SEC Champ)

#6 UCLA (WC2)
vs
#3 Virgina Tech (ACC Champ)

#7 Miami Fla. (WC3)
vs
#2 USC (Pac-10 Champ)

You could start the playoff games on Jan 1st, and play them in the four major bowl sites, with the top four seeded teams getting to choose which of the four sites they wanted to play in. #1 seeded team getting first choice. Then play the semis and finals in a rotating bowl site.

vr, Xei

Am I the only one who things it should be illegal to play college football after Jan. 1?

I dunno about Jan. 1, but I definitely think it should be illegal to play any kind of football before the baseball season ends.

So, football, you can have that two-month window between Oct. 31 and Dec. 31.

Even without the BCS, the Rose Bowl wasn't going to be played on Jan. 1 because it's a Sunday.

OK I just wanted to beat a dead horse. I know that Hershiser is interviewing today. So it is sort of appropriate.

I want to speculate about the Dodger front office. My guess is that DePo and Lasorda are vying for control over what direction this franchise takes. DePo as the GM officially makes the decisions. However, recent moves and controversies make sense if Lasorda (who traded away Pedro Martinez, John Wettleland and Paul Konerko), special advisor to Frank McCourt, is attempting to get Frank to spin the Dodgers back into some fictional "Dodger Ball". Such a scenario would explain the two headed direction the team might be taking.

One could only pray a candidate would come along that would satisfy Lasorda and DePo. And Hershiser is probably it.

My prediction: Orel Hershiser is the next manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

I hope what I wrote about Lasorda and DePo is not true, but given Lasorda's popularity combined with McCourt's insecurity (financially and emotionally) my guess it is.

The Dictator

BTW, is there such a thing as Dodger ball?

To the best of my knowledge it was it Branch Rickey who really invented the "Moneyball" approach. And it was "moneyball" thinking that picked Jackie Robinson to be the one to break the color barrier in the Majors.

It seems if there is a "Dodger Ball" it would be a forward thinking approach. Not some conservative longing for the past.

The Dictator

"Move horse! Move!"

(violently whipping a dead horse)

36 - I'm pretty sure Fred Claire has taken responsibility for trading Pedro.

Everytime I hear Lasorda talking about the state of the Dodgers he always seems pretty upbeat and excited, and seems to always add supportive words about DePo.

I'm somewhat surprised DePodesta hasn't been blamed for the BCS situation. After all, it's an evil computer.

40 Now that's funny.

In Simers' USC column today he refers to commenters on internet message boards as "DePodestas".

Obviously Simers is exempt from this because he's down in the Times print shop setting type.

Snowing in State College

It's not computers. It's just laptops.

Anyone read Orel's comments in the LA Times today? Very bright stuff, very thoughtful. Can any of the other candidates say they've learned first hand from the likes of Sandy Koufax or Roy Campanella?

The prospect of Orel steering the ship makes me giddy. Let's hope he and Depo hit it off tonight!

45- My thoughts exactly, I hope he gets the job the same way I had hoped he could go 1 more inning in 88.

Would anyone else be surprised if Orel wasn't on the Dodgers' payroll next season?

47 - Are you inferring that Orel will jump ship in Texas for something other than Dodger manager? Pitching coach? A particular front office position?

Is there any chance the Dodgers don't hire Hershiser for manager but hire him for pitching coach? Or is thaht too tricky and awkward? I could really see him being their pitching coach under somebody more experienced if they got along, but not sure that alone would be enough for him to leave Texas... just wonderin' aloud.

Paul D.

Take him to the Water Grill tonight. That'll impress him.

He probably hasn't seen Disney Hall yet, either. That Frank Gehry architecture and the incredible acoustics will blow him away. It's symphony season; I'm sure Jamie McCourt can score you guys a couple tix. The Opera company is quite groundbreaking, too.

I'm sure Bob Timmerman would be only too happy to give Hershiser a tour of all the wonderful new features at LA Central Library.

The Home Depot center is quite interesting as well. Viva Futbol!

48 - I think so. Judging from the way he talks about the prospective opening (and judging from what I would personally do), why wouldn't he take a coaching job under a more experienced manager?

Would pitching coach in Texas to pitching or bench coach in LA be anything other than a good career move? I guess one could argue that the Dodgers might be less stable.

39 - Thanks for the clarification. But wasn't Lasorda the acting GM at the time?

Niceites in public means little. I like both DePo and Lasorda. Its hard to figure out what is actually going on in LA while living in the midwest.

I still think Orel will be the manager.

Seriously, can someone explain what is meant by "Dodger Ball"?

52 - It's always meant homegrown pitching and defense. That's, at least, "Los Angeles Dodger Ball." Brooklyn, admittedly, was pretty similar, just add a couple mashers!

"52 - It's always meant homegrown pitching and defense."
-----------

That's exactly what it's widely believed to mean -- but why the defense part? If anything, the L.A. Dodgers have a tradition of being a poor defensive team.

You have your 1960s Dodgers, who weren't bad -- but their only perennial Gold Glove winner was at the least important defensive position. Roseboro was good, Willie Davis was good, Wills wasn't bad -- all in all, a good defensive team, but hardly one whose stock in trade was defense.

Then you have your 1970s Dodgers. These guys had Steve Garvey, who didn't make errors but threw like a girl, an overrated defensive player. Lopes, Russell, Cey, Smith -- none of these guys were anything special in the field. An average defensive team at best.

Then you have your 1980s Dodgers -- you know, the ones that featured third baseman Pedro Guerrero and second baseman Steve Sax. Need I say more?

Then you have your 1990s Dodgers, with Mike Piazza behind the plate and Jose Offerman "playing" shortstop.

So, I ask: Where does this myth of the great Dodger defensive teams come from? 2003 and 2004?

54 Alex Cora! Paul LoDuca sliding into the dugout to catch a foul pop! Jason Repko! Not to mention the Wizard of Iz!

54 I think a popular misconception is that a team with excellent pitching has a good defense. Someone looks at the number of runs allowed and goes "hmm, they didn't give up much, their defense must have played a part in that." Especially when the said pitching is that with a lot of strikeouts like those given by Koufax, Drysdale, etc.

56 - Sure, I agree with that. A great pitching team is assumed to be good defensively. But the "homegrown" part, the part people seem to be overlooking, is one of the integral parts of that "dodger way"