Good analysis and a Tap reference, what could be better?

I'm kind of surprised that Kent at second didn't rate "solid to exceptional", but maybe that's just me.

As for our can't-get-no-respect starting pitching, I don't exactly relish the idea of two of the Jackson/Houlton/Broxton/Billingsley group being in the rotation together. I'd like to see Bills get another year in the minors and a September call-up, and for some reason I see Houlton's value in long relief and spot starts. I'd like to see Weaver accept an arbitration year - Chad can replace him in 2007 - or barring that, a veteran like Tomko could be a good-value signing. As for the fifth spot, I want the ball to be in Jackson's hands until he proves he can't (or can!) cut it at the major league level. I think we've got to figure out what we have in this kid since we've got a good number of pitching prospects coming up the pipe.

As for Broxton, I'm OK with him staying in the pen for now...yet I don't relish the idea of Miller stepping into a 2006 relief role in favor of building up his arm strength in the minors for a shot at a starting role down the road. I can't say why I feel differently about these guys...maybe it's a lefty/righty thing.

Local sports talk radio reported this AM that Nomar will most likely make his decision on where he signs ethier today or tomorrow. :) vr, Xei

Great Assessment.

Is Wunsch out as Loogy? What is his status?

I understand that a front office doesn't necessarily go about addressing needs in a logical order, but the fact that, so far this offseason, we've been stockpiling infielders (with an offer still pending to Nomar??) while starting pitching and outfield goes untended is baffling.

2 - You could be right about Kent. I'll mull.

4 - Wunsch is still an option, I think - but if he has a 2006 contract, I missed it.

2, 6 - I just have bad feelings about Kent, who from the moment he signed I figured would be great for 2006 but not so much for 2007. But I'm going to take your hint and accentuate the positive.

Moths come out of cocoons. Butterflies come out of chrysalises.

I don't want the Dodgers to be a moth.

For the most part I agree with your analysis, although I'm less sanguine about Furcal and Mueller's ability to hit doubles and triples in Dodger Stadium. It will be interesting to see if Mr. Ned has the budget to plug the remaining holes in the OF and SP. As for the pen, I think it will be fairly good, but I fear than Gagne will not return to prior glory. The key to 2006 will be injuries. If the club remains healthy, they should do well. However, Ned has signed a number of injury-prone guys. The good news is that it would take some serious bad luck (the McCourt curse?) to repeat last years injury situation, and even if it does, the farm hands are closer to being ready.

Jon,

As per Wunch (above) and Carrara (a question from a comment in recent days):

http://tinyurl.com/buajr

10.
Wun[s]ch, ed.

8 - That is a distinction that does not appear in the books I read my children.

9 - I sort of think about Paul Lo Duca. It's just an isolated example so it only plays into my hunch, but this is a guy who is basically a doubles hitter, and life as a Dodger didn't hurt him.

2001 - 28 doubles
2002 - 38 doubles
2003 - 34 doubles
2004 - 29 doubles (18 with the Dodgers)
2005 - 23 doubles with Florida

I'd be more worried about Mueller's age than the park effects on doubles. But they say Mueller has good work habits ...

Thank you for the great post Jon!

If the rest of the division wasnt so mediocre, the Dodgers are still a pitcher and an OF short of being a contender in the West. I think they will address those needs through trade or free agency and then it will be up to the rest of the division to respond.

8

If they had called the movie "Chyrsalis" nobody would have gone to see it.

Small sample size, but Mueller's career line at Dodger stadium is rather concerning: .157/.219/.169 in 87 AB.

16 - You just did T.J. Simers (without the snide part).

Because it is a small sample size, it is not concerning.

If Mueller's line was .357/.419/.569 in 87 AB, there would be no reason to be elated.

17 Fair enough. How about this. In his career, Mueller's isolated power drops 80 points away from Fenwat.

*Dang it, Fenway.

Jon Garland appears available, as Bob points out in the Griddle. The White Sox are about the only team where Jasons Phillips and Repko serve as upgrades (over Widger and Timo Perez). Maybe they would take them if we included a pitching prospect? Maybe Colletti can convince Williams that Tiffany is a good replacement for Haigwood and Gonzalez. I can dream...

But seriously, would any of you be interested in Garland? More importantly, would Colletti be interested?

9 - "Ned has signed a number of injury-prone guys"

Not sure I would classify Furcal and Mueller as injury proned. Alomar is a back-up/coach so I won't consider him. Furcal has missed significant game time once in his career (2001). Mueller has had some injuries, but not sure I would classify him as injury proned (i.e. Drew who has played more than 135 games once in his career). So far I think Ned has done a good job. I'll wait to give my final assesment until he fills the outfield & SP void.

Not sure how he's going to address the outfield situation. I really don't like Sanders or Lofton. You could take a risk on a player whom I would consider injury proned in Garciaparra, but with an outfield of Garciaparra & Drew we'd be lucky if they played together in 100 games in 06.

As for pitching help...Jon wrote something around Thanksgiving about an innings eater. I like Brett Tomko. With the pitchers available, I would hate to have the Dodgers locked into another overpaid #3 starter. Tomko is cheap, has a solid history at Dodger Stadium, has never had any significant injuries, and will get you 200+ innings per year. I posted analysis around Thanksgiving comparing him to Weaver, and their numbers were very similar...Just an idea as I would hate for the Dodgers to get locked into another $9 million per year contract on the pitchers remaining on the FA market.

Didn't Gagne go 1-2-3 with a few strikeouts the inning AFTER injuring his arm? I'm confident that the guy knows how to pitch well enough to be an outstanding closer even if he comes back at 80-90%.

12 Both Turner Field and Fenway are neutral to positive for doubles and triples, and Dodger Stadium is a big negative. James reports 3 year average indexs (100 being neutral, above favors hitter) of 2B-96 & 3B-104 for Turner, 2B-128 & 3B-86 for Fenway, with 2B-87 & 3B-40 for Dodger Stadium. Like Dodger Stadium, Turner is a balanced field with righties and lefties performing comparably. Green monster and all, Fenway is not very balanced or symetrical. It favors righties in average and HRs, and lefties in average, but it punishes lefties homeruns.

Comparing these park factors and the type of players involved (Furcal-fast, Mueller-not so much), I suspect that Dodger Stadium will hurt Furcal only somewhat, but Mueller more so. In other words, Furcal's doubles may well have more to do with his speed, but Mueller may have really benefited from Fenway.

One more note on handedness. Both Furcal and Mueller are switch hitters. Furcal's splits aren't too far apart , but Mueller has a much better split as a lefty -- even with Fenway's help for righties (3 year average OPS: .884 as LHB and .785 as RHB). Given this and his injury concerns, it might make sense to platoon him. Unfortunately Aybar has similar splits and A. Perez is gone, but that's water under the bridge now. Maybe when Laroche is called up he can platoon with Mueller.

5 I've heard that Nomar, if he came here, would be stationed in the outfield.

Great summary, Jon. But I think everyone here is spitting into the wind if we think that repeated incantations of the stats so clearly recommending a Choi/Saenz platoon will penetrate the skulls of either Mr. Ned, or the bigger-megaphone baseball scribes and radio-talkers. Choi is in their sights, and if Colletti doesn't take him down with one shot, they'll rule this off-season a flop. And Mr. Ned knows it.

Choi needs to hire Sitrick.

24 - I know all that - I'm just suggesting that when it comes down to one player, the reduction of doubles might not be that important.

24
Regarding ballpark symmetry: does anyone else ever stop and think how bizarre it is that baseball fields do not have standardized dimensions? Can you imagine, for example, footballs fields ranging from 50 to 150 yards in length, or basketball rims ranging from 5 to 15 feet in height?

25 - Colletti said Wednesday that first base is a low priority. He might make a move there, but he indicated that the outfield and pitching were bigger issues.

And honestly, I think we're past the point of the status of Choi making or breaking the offseason in the eyes of the press. In their eyes, the Dodgers have solved their GM problem, their Bradley problem, their third base problem, improved at shortstop. They still may not love us, but there's no way they call this a flop.

24 Slack, have you seen any park numbers from last year? I haven't seen any. However, I imagine that Dodger stadium has become much more double and triple friendly since the remodeling.

27 - Not only can I imagine it, it sounds cool.

27 - Hockey rinks have different dimensions (though admittedly the same shape).

22 Your right to question my previous statement that "Ned has signed a number of injury-prone guys". It's probably more acurate to say that given the guys Ned has signed AND RETAINED, injuries are a major concern. If you look at the guys he is rumored to have made offers to, it is only more concerning, but we should wait for those to materialize before passing judgment.

BTW, how do you bold or underline text when commenting? I would have much rather done either than the all caps above.

32 - I agree. Garciaparra, Sanders, and Lofton aren't exactly noted for their "perfect attendance". The only rumored FA who wouldn't fit that bill is Damon.

Suppose Damon signs with the Dodgers, any thoughts on the lineup? Would Damon bat leadoff and Rafi somewhere in the middle? Rafi 1st and Damon 2??

Great writeup Jon. I'm not as afraid of the rotation as most around here. I feel that DJ will build on his season and be a servicable 5th starter while Billingsly hones his craft and takes his job come July. E Jackson should pitch all year in the rotation. OP is going to bounce back.

Hope they put Kuo and Broxton back in the rotation intead of in the bullpen, at least at the beginning of the year in AAA or AA.

Our infield is solid and the best in the West with the best 2nd/SS combo in the NL.

Very worried about the outfield because of the timing. As far as I'm concerned Werth has to be considered a spare part at best because even if he comes back we don't know if his power will come back with him since were dealing with a wrist again. I'm confident that Cruz will give us around an 850 OPS this year. Drew worries me because not only is he rehabbing the shoulder and wrist he is unable to work out so he won't be in peak physical condition by the time he's ready to use his shoulder. His power could suffer and who knows how this will effect his throwing arm. We don't want a popgun in CF. I'd be thrilled if D Young or Guzman could just step in and play LF coming out of ST but I think that is a pipe dream. Sounds like we have offers out to Sanders/Lofton/Nomar and whoever signs 1st will be our starting left fielder. I'd prefer Nomar but he brings his own physical fragility to the table. Sanders looks like he's due for his down year as established by oldbear. Lofton would be serviceble, barely. We might be better off making a deal for an impact outfielder. Or maybe an outfielder that no one realizes is coming off of a solid year like Jay Gibbons and who looks to be able to post an 850 OPS in 2006.

29 Your can find 2005 park factors in James 2006 handbook or on ESPN here: http://tinyurl.com/2eot2.

James takes out interleague games, but I'm not sure if ESPN does (I doubt it). So I think James factors are probably more accurate. The 2005 number aren't all that different from the 3 year average, and it's hard to tell if any differences are a result of changes in the park or just the typical randomness that plagues small sample sizes.

My bet is that the changes at DS make it more hitter friendly overall. So the relative disadvantage of 2B and 3B would remain. Should decrease foulouts, and increase all types of hits, walks and strikeouts.

You know, a lot of people seem to be really happy with the job that Colletti is doing, but I remain fairly ambivalent, he has addressed need at 3rd base, but to me, he hasn't done anything about the two biggest needs, Starting pitching and the outfield. In terms of improving starting pitching I think that he is in the same position as DePodesta last year, sign someone to a ridiculous contract or gut the farm system to get someone and in terms of the outfield the only solution that I liked was Giles, who he tried to get as well. I really don't care for Nomar or Damon as solutions in the outfield (especially given the potential money and or time commitment, I'd almost rather see Sanders or Lofton instead because of that).
To me, what happens to the pitching staff during this offseason will really color my opinion of him.

27
I thought that was part of the allure of baseball.

29
Bill James has the latest park effects and your 1/2 right, for one season DS was more neutral for doubles going from a 3 year average of 78 to 87. For triples it went from a 3 year average of 46 to 31.

Mark my words, if the dodgers have both houlton and jackson in the rotation we will all be wishing ned got one or 2(depending on billingsley) of weaver,millwood,washburn.

Hopefully nomar signs for leftfield, sanders wants to many years and he will have a down year, damon is just flat out not worth it and no power, lofton would be good as a backup or pinch hitter only.

Laroche platooning with choi at 1b mid season is my prediction, either that or laroche platooning with mueller and guzman platooning with choi mid season.

37
I agree with most of what you said, although in Ned's defense, his options with respect to the pitching staff don't seem very attractive. Like you said: either sign someone to a ridiculous contract or gut the farm system. The other option is to rely on the players already on the roster, which doesn't look all that great either.

38
Yeah, I know baseball asymmetry is generally accepted as part of the quirkiness and "allure" of baseball. But it's still pretty weird when you think about it.

37 - You might just wait to see what happens when his offseason is done.

Regarding the outfield, you only offer him one solution and you acknowledge that he tried to get him.

Regarding pitching, like you said, we'll see.

My point is, your ambivalence isn't much different from other people's "being really happy," except that those other people are happy with what he's done so far. I don't know how many people would be really happy with him if he considered his work done.

Of course, there are those who are just happy he hasn't torn up the farm system.

37 I think the big advantage Colletti has over Depo is that the farm arms are much closer to being ready. Houlton will like go from shaky in 2005 to serviceable in 2006. Jackson could well get it together enough to stay on the rotation, and Billingsly could be ready for a mid-season injury call up.

38 If I can entertain the fantasy for a moment that Ned cares what we think . . .

Maybe this is a two-fold pr strategy. Please the mainstream types by the stuff Jon mentioned, jettison Bradley, sign Mueller etc. At the same time, scare the bejesus out of us with rumored Snow, Soriano, Lofton flirtations, prospect deals that don't happen.

That way he gets credit from one group for the things he did do, and from the other group for the things he didn't do.

That'd be nice. Forgive the insanity. I haven't slept much lately.

What OF prospects do we have that would make a 5yr Damon offer seem soo horrible?

Also what would the WSox want for Garland?

Unless it's a coincidence, it certainly appears Mr. Ned has a preference for a certain statistical profile.

Mueller .295/.369/.430
Furcal .284/.348/.429
--------------------
Nomar .283/.320/.452
Damon .316/.366/.439
Lofton .335/.392/.420

43
I think a bigger advantage that ned has vs depo is that the position player prospects are closer to being ready, guzman and laroche could step in this season instead of AAAA guys like repko,edwards,myrow.

Boras' clients respective '05 seasons:

Millwood: K/9 - 6.84, BB/9 - 2.44, VORP - 52.3, IP_GS - 6.4

Washburn: K/9 - 4.77, BB/9 - 2.59, VORP - 48.8, IP_GS - 6.1

Weaver: K/9 - 6.31, BB/9 - 1.73, VORP - 28.4, IP_GS - 6.6

Other "options":

Garland: K/9 - 4.68, BB/9 - 1.91, VORP - 50.1, IP_GS - 6.9

Contreras: K/9 - 6.77, BB/9 - 3.30, VORP - 41.5, IP_GS - 6.4

Houlton: K/9 - 6.28, BB/9 - 3.63, VORP - 1.0, IP_GS - 5.5

[Small Sample Size Warning!]
E. Jackson: K/9 - 4.08, BB/9 - 5.34, VORP - -4.2, IP_GS - 4.4

45
What OF prospects do we have that would make a 5yr Damon offer seem soo horrible?

What has Damon done that makes him attractive? His career OPS is less than Cruz Jr.'s.

46
Ned said soon after being hired that he was moving away from an emphasis on power to an emphasis on speed and athleticism.

39
I'd be more worried if we didn't have Penny/Lowe/OP as the 1st 3 starters. All were trying to do is fill in the 4th and 5th starters until Billingsly is ready. We don't need to spring big money for lackluster free agents. If Weaver wants to sign a one year deal in arbitration then I'm all for it but I wouldn't touch him for a 4/5 year deal. We have to much pitching coming up to be splurging silly money on pitchers for long term deals. Same with Millwood. Washburn blows and I don't understand the interest. His ERA in 2005 was a mirage and he'll never see a sub 4.00 ERA again. Flyball pitchers with a Dominance < then 5.00 are rarely successful. His dominance has fallen from a peak of 6.1 to a low of 4.8 last year.

45 I'm guessing prospects, as they think they're fine at every position. Maybe a reliever or 4th OF (their current 4th OF is Timo Perez)

44 - I do think Colletti is trying to reconcile some PR-conscious moves with some slightly bolder, less mainstream moves. I don't necessarily think that he's flirting with Snow to scare us. My hunch (word of the day) is that Colletti is just low-balling some of these guys to see if they'll bite on a cheap contract. Hence, he has shown interest without being that interested. To this point, I think it's pretty clever.

But again, we're not done yet.

52 - I hope you're right. I agree that Mr. Ned has a clever approach. My biggest concerns when he was chosen was his player analysis, but I think that I was a little paranoid and reactionary at first.

42. My ambivalence stems from the fact that I just don't think that there is much that he can do, that's why I'm neither happy nor unhappy, he hasn't done anything terrible, and outside of avoiding doing terrible things, he hasn't done anything great either.
My whole issue with the pitching is that I don't expect a whole lot because the solutions that I see are limited and of the pick your poison variety, it's the same with the outfield, unless he does something incredibly stupid, I won't think any less of him, but for me to be happy that he is our GM versus an average GM, he'd have to do something astounding to fix either of our holes, which I hope happens, but I won't be disappointed in him if it doesn't.
To me, his biggest accomplishment so far is that he isn't as bad as some posters on here feared he would be.

37/42 - I think your ambivalence has less to do with Colletti specifically than with life as a Dodger fan in December 2005.

That should be 37/42/54 in 55.

Hike.

53 - Honestly, I do not think Ned was hired for his player analysis as much as deal-making capabilities. I think the Dodgers all ready had a strong player anaylsis group. Frank really wanted a more media-schmoozing, deal savvy type for the lead role. My guess is that Ned is a smart guy and takes input from the other "3 Heads" and makes a more informed decision.

But as Jon has pointed out, we'll see...

57 - That's also a compelling theory.

49--This is the sort of argument that loses me somewhat. Yes, Damon is an overrated player (greatly overrated, thanks ESPN) and a 5 year deal would be too long, but he remains better than Cruz--no, really--and would as such constitute an "upgrade." Not the right upgrade necessarily, but one nevertheless. I wouldn't be reflexively horrified if we signed him, but the likelihood of that remains pretty slim anyway.

I'm alright with Colletti, as Jon says, so far.

55. No, I'm just very cautious about forming an opinion about these types of things and ambivalence will reign until he does something to wow me, just like I was ambivalent about DePodesta for a while.

59 - I'm ok with signing Damon... for 3 years.

49
Hey if Ned wants to splurge on Damon without taking any salary away from anywhere else would you really care. If he has to move Kent or Drew to make the deal then it is a no brainer no, but if he was to just add Damon I'd be happy with it. He will probably be effective for at least 3 of the 5 years of the deal. Or maybe Ned will get creative again and offer 3 years for 40 mill.

He was 2nd in baseball with 394 putouts in CF
Bill James gives a range factor of 2.93 which is 4th best in baseball. BP had him as a plus CF until 2005.

His translated historical numbers from BP are
288/355/438

He's had only one bad year in a long career and that was in Oakland which I guess could be the reason for the bias against him since so many DT posters are Oakland fans.

He's does have a popgun for an arm-big negative

His splits are excellent as he one of the few LHH who can actually hit LHP.

He's amassed 600 plus at bats six years in a row.

A lineup of
Damon
Furcal
Drew
Kent
Cruz
Choi
Mueller
Navarro

would be impressive.

59 - That's the silver lining in any potential Damon deal. Grossly overpaid or not, he'd be an asset in the lineup this year.

And, hey, it's not my money.

61 - Because he has a cool beard, that's why.

50 I'm with you. Washburn, Millwood and Garland were #1,7 and 10 in the majors in FIP ERA minus actual ERA, i.e. buyer beware. In the case of Washburn and Garland it's the low K rate. Silva and Marquis are in there for the same reason. Millwood was a run lucky for reasons unknown to me. Of the FA bunch I like Tomko for 2 years.

I think Jose Lima is still available.

Nice sumup Jon. Funny how crummy things looked in November and how reasonable they seem know. Now, I for one (and I realize I'm not just one on this) am still pretty appalled at how DePodesta was treated, and I don't plan on warming to the McCourts (let alone a certain columnischke) anytime too soon after that. But I sure am looking forward to Spring . . .

63--Well, this is the other aspect of it too, right? They're not our pennies to count. And if indeed we're going to retain a young nucleus to build around in the near-term future (and not be the O's or the Mets, throwing money at holes to create new ones,) it's OK to splurge a little. Why the Furcal signing seems a plus not a negative. But five years would make me right nervous.

Too though, anything that suggests McCourt mightn't be all about the payroll squeeze after all (though I think by now there's some evidence the "McCheap" thing is a misnomer) gladdens me besides. It doesn't absolve him of other idiocies, but it suggests we might live through this.

65 - I'm with you as about Tomko. I prefer Tomko over Lima. He's a solid #4 starter. Last year's stats are VERY misleading. Giants bullpen blew a lot of leads for him, he could have easily had a .500 record. I tried to find my analysis where I compared Tomko & Weaver. They were very similar, and Tomko can be had for 2 years at 3 Mil per.

Warning: Random hijacking of the thread

I wonder if folks have any interest in floating/exchanging holiday gift ideas, esp. for spouses/partners/SOs/girlfriends, whatever. My thought was that if people offered up any particular home runs they have hit over the years, then we all might find a way to get some extra credit here. Most of my good gifts tend to be one offs -- tickets to something, or a stay overnight somewhere cool, a childhood photo recovered and framed, so I don't have too much to offer, but I'll start:

I did great a few years ago with the DVD box set of My So Called Life. The show lasted just one season, so you get the whole thing and it's not too expensive, and for a mid to late thirty-something lady, it strikes some pretty good chords. For me it was funny, I never watched the show originally, and I expected to identify with the high schoolers, but ended up identifying -- sort of -- with the parents. Yikes.

Another hit took a little more work: I found a recipe for a dessert she really likes (cheesecake brownies, but any recipe would work). Bought all the ingredients and a quality baking pan, and got matching stupid chefs hats for her and our son, and then gave it to both of them as a thing to do together.

Another hit was nice pajamas from Nordstroms. Hard to go wrong there.

69 - I was joking about Lima. Do I need to say that I was joking about Lima?

Whew, you scarred me Jon!

70
Bought all the ingredients and a quality baking pan, and got matching stupid chefs hats for her and our son, and then gave it to both of them as a thing to do together.

Meanwhile, you were in watching football...I like it...

72
Whew, you scarred me Jon!

Hopefully not for life...

Going back to the post, I'm curious what your definition of solid is. For example, if you look at MLVR amongst first basemen, going by last years numbers, a Choi/Saenz platoon finishes behind the following players who are likely to start at first this year:

Lee, Pujols, Delgado, Clark, Helton, Giambi, Berkman, Teixiera, Howard, Nick Johnson, Sexson, Konerko, Shelton, Casey, Overbay, Dan Johnson.

A couple of players are likely to fall off this list (Clark mainly) but there are also a couple who will come up (Morneau). Cost is a big factor here, but is having the 16th best first baseman really solid?

Please dont mention Tomko reading that name makes my eyes bleed. In fact typing it has made my fingernails recede.

70 Well, riffing off the "old photo" idea, someday I'd like to convert old 8mm film to DVD. We have about 30 reels of old home movies that would be fun to have in DVD format (I still have the projector, but I hesitate to try to make it work). Last I looked it was ~$100 to have it done, so for me it would be a long-term project.

75 - You could argue with me about it, but I was looking at the NL.

Jon- Shouldn't Furcal's $4M signing bonus go against 2006 payroll? I know there are various definitions of payroll, but I'd prefer to look at out-of-pocket cash. That would put us at $90M and climbing.

71
You were clearly joking about Lima. The only thing I was wondering about was if the Lima comment was a snide comeback to suggestions of getting Tomko or just sort of general inanity.

For the record, if Tomko could in fact be had for a year at 3.5 million (or maybe two years at 6), I'd be pretty happy with him as our fourth starter. Seems like a no-brainer.

74 - You scared me too...Damn Jon, wish you had spell check on this thing!

Tomko can be had for less than $3.5 mil per year. Rangers offered him $2.2 per year and he was heavily considering it. I am pretty confident he can be had for $3 mil per year, 2 year deal

78 In the NL, the platoon would be 9th, assuming a major tumble from Clark. I think I'm just arguing semantics about solid.

No matter that we disagree on Choi, you had me ROFL with the Alomar entry! Too good!

these are the current outfielder we have that will probably be on the big league club at some point next year:
jd drew
jose cruz
ricky ledee
jayson werth
jason repko
cody ross
andre ethier
delwyn young
joel guzman

the remaining decent outfielders on the market:
damon
jacque jones
reggie sanders
kenny lofton
nomar
preston wilson
matt lawton
juan encarnacion
jeromy burnitz

both lists arent pretty. Should we try and give some 1 yr deals to guys like wilson, lawton, encarnacion, burnitz, lofton, nomar and sanders and see if we can catch lightening in a bottle?

If your going to settle for Tomko why not just thrown EJ into the 5 spot and put DJ in the 4th? When is Derek Thompson going to be healthy?

79 - It has.

Furcal gets a $5 million signing bonus and $4 million salary for 2006, $13 million in 2007 and 2008, and a deferred payment of $4 million in 2009, according to the Daily News.

http://www.dailynews.com/dodgers/ci_3282106

i hate saying this, but encarnacion may look like the best value outside of nomar on that list.

Here's some food for thought:
How far away were the Dodgers from winning the division last year? Well I count 19 blown saves as a team. Let's say a healthy Gagne is good for 75% of those; call it 14. Yet they only finished 11 out. Is it possible that the Dodgers were literally one player (Gagne) away from winning the division in 2005?

[65] An aside on Washburn: Who in the Angels organization did he tick off? Stoneman, on the radio this week, said all decisions to cut ties to free agents are tough ones, then said really nice things about Paul Byrd, said Washburn will pitch somewhere else (I'm not paraphrasing - that's all he said), and then spent two minutes praising and wishing love to Bengie Molina. Odd.

89 Are these blown saves in the ninth? Or are these saves blown when Carrarra gives up a jack in the 6th?

By the way Jon, I see a little Ken is starting to rub off on you with the ERIC GAGNE thing. Hold on to your hats everybody . . .

91: Dont know, I just looked at the Dodgers stats and subtracted saves from save opps. My point was that the Dodgers weren't as bad in 2005 as it felt.

93 Now that I think about it, it must be all blown saves. Weren't the Dodgers like 70 and 1 when leading after eight innings?

I definately recall Yhency giving up several home runs in tie games, however.

[93] Uh ... not be a contrarian, but, yes, they were as bad as it feld. The division was horrible.

My wife and I never buy presents for each other for anything, we just take the kids out and have them pick out stuff to buy for the other no matter how silly it is. My wife ended up sewing quilts and bags for my mom and sister, but that had more to do with the fact that our youngest racked up over $40,000 in medical bills after insurance.

70

Candlesticks make a nice gift.

Maybe a place-setting or maybe a silverware pattern.

Great write-up Jon. Not to sound like a sycophant, but I agree with everything you wrote. I like Choi and am hoping he shows the Dodgers what he's capable of next year. But I wouldn't mind seeing Loney come of age, too/instead.

We really do need to figure out the OF and the starting rotation and then I'll feel pretty darned good about our chances. The SP could indeed be solved more internally (with the young 'uns) then externally (where the choices are pretty thin and over priced), but those guys, at least one of them, have to show they're ready in Spring. Broxton has a world of talent but I'm not so sure he can be a starting pitcher yet - needs to learn to balance control in a longer game a bit better. (Hey, where does Chuck Tiffany stand in all this? Still another year away? No longer a prospect?)

I also agree with Curtis re: Tomko. Let us not go there, lest we give ourselves severe stomach pains.

And as much as I want to solve our OF, I hope Damon isn't part of it, at least not long term.

Good lord Penarol, how awful. I hope all is/becomes well for your little one (not to mention your pocketbook).

and uh, maybe you could find out where she's registered and maybe a place-setting or maybe a silverware pattern.

90

Washburn was like Paulie, always had something to say in the newspaper. especially vocal around the almost strike a while back. Plus he is a Boras client and Stoneman is no fan of Boras.

Does anyone know where we can get a live rooster?

damn, too slow again.

99 - Tiffany was in A ball last year, so a little patience needed there.

Hey, where does Chuck Tiffany stand in all this? Still another year away? No longer a prospect?

tiffany will start the year in AA jacksonville. He is a little behind billingsley/broxton/etc.

he needs to learn to stop giving up homeruns and gain more stamina. but he is still very much a prospect.

71. Jon Weisman

I had a hunch that you were kidding.

Hey, I hacked it.

93 You have to sift through box scores because we may have won several of the games with Blown Saves.

85 - I agree w/ Nate. If the Dodgers could get away with a one-year deal to a FA not named Jeromy Burnitz, I would consider that a good short-term fix.

For signing Weaver or possibly even Damon, I wonder if the type contract Depo gave Drew would work? Offer less money than they're asking for 3 or 4 years with an escape clause after the first and/or second year... For instance, offer Damon 5 year/$50 million with the right to opt out after two years. If you want Damon, that is; personally, I'd rather sign Burnitz for 2 years at $6 to $7 mill per; 25 to 30 homers a year, very good defense and can play center if necessary. Burnitz and Nomar, 50 plus homers for 12 to 15 million a year, no long term hassles.

Congrats, Fallout. And by the way, I was going home last night and thinking that it's really cool that you come here, considering how much you challenge what's written. I'm glad you're here to keep me on my toes.

89

I'd say more like two players away: Gagne, and somebody who could throw people out trying to steal second.

Luis E Gonzalez is headed to Seattle along with former Dodger Carvajal for Torrealba. I'm not sure if his chances to stay in Seattle are much better than Colorado

luis gonzalez is not a big lost. carvajal still hurts :(

102. Brendan
Washburn was like Paulie, always had something to say in the newspaper. especially vocal around the almost strike a while back.

That is what soured me on LoDuca. I didn't like him being traded because good catchers are hard to come by. But, I wasn't sad to hear his mouth leave town. I felt the same way about Brett Butler, even more so. What he did to the replacement players wasn't right.

111. Jon Weisman

Wow. Thanks

Jon - A really excellent post today. This is kind of balanced, informed analysis we should expect from our local newspapers' sports sections, but don't seem to get anymore (especially now that Ross Newhan has retired).

Overall, I give Mr. Ned good marks for his moves to date. Sorry to see Milton leave but that definitely was not a decision made on "baseball performance" terms.

I'm still hoping for the best for Hee Seop.

112 It would be interesting to look at the play by play data and see how many of the stolen bases contributed to Dodger losses. There would be quite a bit of work involved but it would be an interesting study.

My initial guess is that it didn't make that big of a difference and the team as a whole would have still sucked.

Not sure if there are any Raider fans in here, but sad news from the NFL.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/5170814

RIP, Darrell Russell

118 It would definitely be interesting. I would guess that it did make a pretty big difference, but that's just from watching games. Like you said, quite a bit of work.

The Twins signed Tony Batista to play 3B...

The value of the stolen base is another thing that people disagree on. The sabermetric crowds thinks that they are no big deal unless you are safe at a high percentage, while others will tell you that they have unseen effects such as "pressuring the defense".

There is some truth to that I think, but how to measure this pressure is beyond me.

Did the White Sox play well last year because they had a fair amount of stolen bases (by today's standards)? Well, who knows?

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/news/031002leehr.html

could this man over take choi as the best positional player to come out from korea!?!

120 I should have clarified my "not a big deal stance" a bit more. It was more a big picture sort of thing.

The 2005 Dodgers were a terrible team. We've rehashed the reasons why the team stunk a million times on here.

I'm sure the inability to prevent stolen bases (I'm blaming the pitchers too) hurt the team. However, I don't think it hurt the team as much as injuries, crappy pitching, and having a lackluster offense.

120 I should have clarified my "not a big deal stance" a bit more. It was more a big picture sort of thing.

The 2005 Dodgers were a terrible team. We've rehashed the reasons why the team stunk a million times on here.

I'm sure the inability to prevent stolen bases (I'm blaming the pitchers too) hurt the team. However, I don't think it hurt the team as much as injuries, crappy pitching, and having a lackluster offense.

Sam, whatever you do, do NOT get her a copy of "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World"

123 Look at the date. The Dodgers actually were interested in him when he became a FA, but he went to Japan instead

100. Thanks, the little guy is fine, just a few problems right after he was born, now he is practically as big as his 2 year old brother. Financially, we'll be fine by the middle of next year. I blame our pediatrician who made us switch insurance to stay with her and that insurance just didn't cover as much.

128
I blame our pediatrician who made us switch insurance to stay with her and that insurance just didn't cover as much.

How nice of her.

I'm glad things are looking upbeat, Penarol. It can be such a nightmare.

Female : "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" :: Dodger Fan : JT Snow

126. Hhhmmm. That's my sister-in-laws all-time favorite movie. She gave it to my wife for Christmas a few years back.

131 And you could almost reverse those and have it still make sense.

(ruining the joke by explaining it: women in the bay area went ga-ga over Snow for years)

133 The women of the OC (and I assume other parts of Southern CA) went ga-ga over Snow while he was an Angel.

119 - Russell is a very sad story. So much potential flushed down the drain.

True. Another reason not to sign him. (Besides what I hope is a limit on # of ex-Giants that can play in LA)

129. Well she has all the market power, she could decide not to take anymore HMO's, who beat doctors up over the price they'll pay you, and work solely with PPO's, which will let the doctors bill what they want, and I don't think she lost many patients.

130. Thanks, I know what you mean, my cousin just had twins and for one of them they are just waiting for her to die, a very sad story. We're debating bringing the 8-year old when we go to visit them on Saturday.

Sam,

If you're really looking for a live rooster, then Brookville Market on Connecticut Avenue in Cleveland Park is as close are you're gonna get. Pam the butcher really gets 'em fresh (there's always Union Meat at Eastern Market). As far as non-edible yet practical gifts go, Rodman's, also on Connecticut but between Tenleytown and Friendship Heights, has a basement full of pots, pans, and other random culinary devices. They've also got quite the international candy selection!

136 - We've got a nice collection of ex-Braves going as well with Drew, Furcal, Odalis Perez, and Grady Little, with Reggie Sanders and Kenny Lofton lingering.

What could be a better christmas present than the knowledge that Frank Robinson is coming back?

136. underdog

The limit is 25.

138 Before you start to worry about me, it was a bull durham thing.

119-
Wasted talent. Any word on Barrett Robbins?

140 Well, I'm sure he and Soriano will get along just swell.

142 See I was thinking it was a Major League thing.

"Cerrano's looking for some extra power for tonight. He's looking to sacrifice a live chicken. Man, we can't have people puking in the locker room before the game!"

140 Damon Buford's father apparently will not be returning as the team's first base coach.

122 While the White Sox portrayed themselves as a "small-ball" team, they relied more on the Home Run than almost everyone else. For the season, 42.8% of their runs came from Home Runs, which put them 4th in MLB, and well above the average of 36.8%. They did steal a lot of bases (or at least Podsednik did), but that isn't what carried their offense.

ESPN has a rumor up behind the insider firewall titled "Damon to Angels?"

148-From what I can see on the ESPN site the Damon to angels is just as much a rumor as Damon to Dodgers. What I did see though while browsing is that according to Steve Phillips the Dodgers are in need of a catcher and Bengie molina would feel that hole. I wasnt aware of the need for another catcher.

You folks have removed the imperative for me to post National themed links on the Griddle when I get home.

How will I be able to carry on my vendetta against Frank Robinson?

Or to quote Sideshow Bob's son, "Vendetta! Vendetta! Vendetta!"

Bob, a key lesson to learn is that not everyone reads the comments. You post and link away.

151
Vendetta! Vendetta! Vendetta!

You have to Bob, because I really can't believe you can stand it when the Griddle drifts down towards the sidebar basement over there . . .

149 - the Damon to angels is just as much a rumor as Damon to Dodgers.

Less so in fact, as at least he's coming out to meet with the Dodgers. The only mention of the Angels is a sentence at the end of the blurb, that Stark is reporting the "Angels may be interested in Damon". Juicy!

There will be a flurry of posts tonight.

Then a dormant period around Christmas. Unless someone can explain to me how I tell a 6-year old who is new to the country what a blog is. The kid probably doesn't even know what baseball is.

I'm thinking about making an offer to Johnny Damon too. I've been traveling a lot for work, and the yard is just a scandal. And sometimes, my wife and I could use someone to watch one kid so we can both take the other kid out for something special. I'm thinking I could go to 5 years, but the average dollar figure is going to drop off some from the reported offers.

156- How sad, you take the good kid out for a fun night of funnery and you force the bad one to many nights of Johnny Damon.

Thats just wrong. You could always tivo the Johnny Damon beard TV commercial put it on loop and leave the little runt in front of the TV.

Is it too late to joke about Molina "feel"ing holes? re: 149

Bob, how long has the 6-year old been with you? I remember you mentioning him a month or two ago.

Does he speak any English? Figured baseball and the Dewey decimal system would have been the first two things he learned.

when thinking of our need for another OFer, I cant help but think of how the Braves started last year with Jordan and Mondesi in the lineup.

157 Well, it's a five-year deal, so somteimes it's the big kid and the beard, sometimes the little one. It all evens out over time.

It's kind of an interesting strategy, at least as far as Furcal went, offering premium money for a limited number of years. Considering that contracts tend to be backloaded, it can ultimately reduce risk, since the total commitment is lower and the years you're paying for are when the player is younger. I wonder if it will be considered a special policy for an organization with talent in development, or if it will catch on.

119-
Sad story and a sad ending. I have a hard time though really saying good things about the guy as he was involved with him and his friends raping a woman. It is sad he was not given a chance to makeup for some of the bad he had done in his life.

159 Except they had Francouer, Johnson, and Langerhans. We have Ethier, Ruggiano, and Delwyn Young.

163 - I get your point, but Francouer is only 21 and hadn't really played above A ball and Johnson is 23 and hadn't played above AA. Only Langerhans appeared to have seasoning in the minors. I just think that Ned should take the same approach as Atlanta to fill the hole. just don't fill the hole with horse*!^#

I wonder what we would have to give up to get Contreras? I would take a season of Contreras at that money. He became a different pitcher part way through the season.

I just think that Ned should take the same approach as Atlanta to fill the hole.

Reggie Sanders/Kenny Lofton = Brian Jordan/Raul Mondesi.

Yes?

166. at least sanders and lofton are coming of productive seasons

163. langerhans had a 267/348/426 line, and Johnson hit 241/334/397, between the two they had about 700 PA. Francoeur hit well, but the other guys werent anything special. I think between that between Young, Guzman, Ethier, and Ruggiano we could get about 750 OPS for ~500 PA. BP's Pecota forcast before the season said Delwyn Young would have a .266 EQA for 2006, and that forcast should improve.

166 - not quite, but close. I thought the Brian and Raul combo was some sort of joke last year. but, what do I know. they won the division again. I am intrigued by the idea of Nomar in LF. it scares me to think that he and Drew would be counted on in the outfield every day, but he has huge upside and we could probably get him for a reasonable contract (both $s and length). Nomar and Mia have a house in Manhattan Beach and plenty of cash, so he may be interested in staying in So Cal.

From MLB.com:

"Mueller was reluctant to disclose details of his conversation with Colletti about Little, whether he communicated with Kent or Lowe before choosing the Dodgers or whether he has lobbied free agent outfielder Johnny Damon to follow him to Los Angeles.

"But it sure would be nice if he came to L.A.," Mueller said of Damon."

Hmm...

http://tinyurl.com/7aknh

So do we have any idea who Little's coaches are? I've been wondering about batting and pitching. Those both left, correct? Lett, went to the Pirates, too, I think, does that mean we can upgrade in Bullpen coaching? Does that change how a potential pitcher would look at coming here?

Damon can not throw the ball 10 feet, that is a problem.

Coaches? We don' need no stinkin' coaches!

Sorry... Yes, that should really be the other order of business these days. I'm curious who he'll want. Was anyone retained (besides Manny Mota)? Did they let Tim Wallach go already? Pitching and hitting coaches will be crucial... hope he decides soon...

There are some reports on Fox the Dodgers are willing to go 5 years on Damon, which may move them to the front of the pack. sheesh That's too long. On the Drew contract, I am not sure I have ever heard a sensible logic to it. The only thing I can figure is that it builds a sort of fake "walk year" into the middle of the contract, which may give the player a little incentive. Supposedly this is what they may offer to Damon. I dunno

Tim Kurkjian on Sportscenter just said he has heard some people say that the Dodgers may be the frontrunners for Nomar just because he is from here.

158
It's my brother's son and he lives in Michigan. It's his fourth kid. I don't have any kids, which is probably a good thing. I think I do much better as an uncle than I ever could as a father.

Bob,

Are you saying that your brother gave you one of his kids because he has 4? :)

174 Supposedly Vic the Brick says he's in LA talking to the McCourts right now. Of course, he has about as much credibility as I do when it comes to rumors

173 - I still don't know why people are looking for a logic beyond, "This is what it took to get Drew signed." People who can't find the logic are only looking at the contract from the team's point of view.

Drew's contract is a compromise between a standard, no-out, five-year contract and no contract at all.

Come on Nomar, you know you want to return home.

176

I think I have to take one back after I visit.

The 6-year old doesn't know much English and just started his first formal schooling ever the Monday after Thanksgiving. But he seems to speak Spanish pretty well. And he was able to convey to his mother that he wanted fried plantains.

Anyone with tips on frying plantains correctly can feel free to contact me and I'll pass them along.

177 - If I had the authority, I would impose a "5 minute no posting penalty" on you for using Vic the Brick as a source :)

173 - If Drew opts out, he'll have to beat the 3/$33M left on his contract with LA.

Giles signed for 3/$34M, which includes the hometown discount, but he's 3 years older than JD.

Giles had a .325 eqA last year, an OPS of over .900, and a rate2 over 100 (for LF).

Drew had a .322 eqA last year, an OPS of over .900, and a rate2 of 105 (for CF).

Of course, Giles has played in 150 games or more in 5 out of the last 6 years. IF JD stays healthy (135 games+), it could be awfully tempting for him to opt out. Quite a risk on his part, but LA would be rewarded with an MVP-caliber season if Drew is even considering it a year from now.

Why do we want Nomar? We should be tradingfor a better outfielder. Dunn sounds good to me.

Pop quiz: So the Dodgers are rumored frontrunners for ___.

A) Nomar
B) Johnny Damon
C) Carl Yastremski
D) Ted Williams' frozen head
E) A & B

I give up. Wake me when the OF renovation project is complete.

All I know about plantains is that however much they look like a green banana - no matter how long you wait for them to "ripen" you stll can't eat them raw 1st hand knowledge!)

180 - I know how he feels. I'm in Lima, Peru for the month of December and have very limited Spanish skills. Luckily my 8yr old and 6 yr old daughters can interpret for me when necessary.

If we get Nomar then we are just settling.

187-it's "Nomah"

183-
Because it would take too much to get Dunn as the Reds have no need to trade him after trading Casey, plus he is not the type of player that will age well.

187 - "Settling" for the best available player on the market willing to sign for less than 4 years.

I would rather sign Sanders or Jeremy B. over Nomar.

180 First, pick your plantains. Then, there are three pages worth of fried plantain recipes at this site:

http://tinyurl.com/blb4u

I'd pass on Johnny Damon too. Especially because next year, Andruw Jones is a free agent. I'd rather have all available funds to go after him.

If the Dodgers are that desperate for an impact CF'er, I'd try to talk the Cards into trading Jim Edmonds. Edmonds is older, on the downside of his career. It might not cost as much as Damon.

191 Why Burnitz? So we can relive the misery of trading Victor Diaz for him?

One of the many frustrations of my life is not retaining the fluency I gained in Spanish while living in Puerto Rico while attending pre-school and kindergarten there.

I believe we should trade Guzman for a corner outfielder. Guzman will just be "another" prospect when he moves to the outfield. We should trade him when his value is high. He is going to be the next Billy Ashley.

193 That Jones myth is false, he's not a FA until after 2007. And he has Boras for an agent

179 Nomaaaaah: I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters.

194- If we sign Burnitz maybe would could trade him at the trade deadline to the Mets for Diaz. That sounds sweet.

193- I thought Drew was going to play CF.

197. Is there a site out there that shows all the players contract information? I need to bookmark it.

With the Cardinals opening a new stadium and Edmonds a fan favorite, I doubt he'd be available. But he's one player I think that could make the Dodgers a pennant contender. Strengthens the Dodgers and weakens the Cards.

198 - Arn Tellem talking to Mr. Ned: "You want this, don't you?"

198 - Arn Tellem talking to Mr. Ned: "You want this, don't you?"

We should just let repko start in LF.

We could get OF help from an unexpected source--Santa Claus

"I asked Santa Claus for another pitcher and another outfielder, and he told me he was going to help me out," said Colletti with a big smile on his face. "Coming here for all the years I did with visiting clubs, I always got the sense that the L.A. Dodgers had a great heart for the community."

Guzman is a potential 30-40 home run hitter, he is not just another corner outfielder. Frankly he resembles Adam Dunn right now, yet he has time to improve his discipline at the plate.

Great post Jon.

Gosh, I really don't like any of our options at OF. I suppose I would offer a bunch of them a 1-year deal and see who bites (sounds like what Ned had done?) I sure don't want any of these wounded on anything more than a 1-year deal. Are there any non-tender possibilities on December 20? We may have to make a deal with Texas.

194, Yeah, Victor Diaz sounds pretty good right now.

201 - www.hardballdollars.com rules!

Santa is even older than Julio Franco, but he does solve this beard fetish people have.

201 I use http://www.mlb4u.com/pcontracts.html

204 Why?

195
From what I know of linguistics and child development, it's nearly impossible to hold on to a second language acquired at a young age unless you are forced to use it everyday. Young kids are like sponges with languages because they're not learning them like we did in high school and reciting sentences. They're just trying to talk to someone and somehow all the grammar rules fall into place.

I always find that amazing. I have a lot of respect for anyone who has learned English as a second language because, face it, it's not an easy language to pick up. The words are pronounced strangely (through, plough, dough, cough), the spelling is weird and the use of prepositions doesn't correspond well to other languages.

210 - a. that's an odd site; it provides a lot of detail on the contracts but doesn't look very credible.

b. read through last night's thread and you'll get a glimpse.

nomah is wicked awesome!!!

211 Yeah, we moved to New London, CT after that. Not much use for Spanish there. Now, from there we went to Monterey and then Long Beach, so if I could have held onto it...

I think we should get Lofton. I'm fond of former U of Arizona point guards.

Read this really interesting article in Rolling Stone about Notorious BIG's murder and it gives one another good reason to not get the LA Times.

201 Here is another site for MLB contracts:

http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/

Nice article on Mueller, Click on the "Billy Ballgame" link under the pix. (Sorry, don't know how to do the tinyurl deal, yet).

http://www.bostondirtdogs.com/

211
Bob T, as always you are correct on early language development and acquisition. As a child I lived in Latin America, and I was as fluent as a seven-year-old can be in a second language. We moved back to the States when I was eight, settling in white-bread Kansas City, MO of all places, where my Spanish went completely unused and was lost for all time in very short order. Strangely, I still have dreams filled with Spanish conversations that make perfect sense to my unconscious mind.

Been enjoying this site for months; this is my first post! Very odd.

By the way, the Las Vegas 51s will be revamping their web site - the new look debuts on the 19th (Monday). The address is still www.lv51.com.

Perhaps to coincide with what will surely be a revamped, and much improved, lineup next year?

196-Balco,buddy you need to lay off the clear and the cream.It's affecting your ability to judge talent,Joel Guzman is about as much like Billy Ashley as Koy Detmer is like Johnnie Unitas.No comparison.Guzman is a major talent waiting to happen.

204 If we start Repko in left field, we are just settling...

219 -

I don't suppose the 51's games can be found on the internet, something similar to the Suns. How are we going to keep up with the gang in Vegas next season?

222 - Roadtrips, roadtrips, roadtrips.

214
Steve Kerr played baseball in high school. He's rested up.

184 underdog

Ted Williams' frozen head didn't pass the physical. It was dropped and had a hairline fracture.

223 -

My son is already trying to convince me to go to Fresno to see them

225 Fallout

They don't think that it will heal in time for the season.

The Orix Buffaloes have made an offer to Norihiro Nakamura, so I guess he won't get the honor of backing up Laroche or playing SS for the 51s

The Cards have signed Braden Looper to a 3 year deal

The Buffaloes will have both Nakamura AND Grabowski!

I don't think Softbank or Lotte are going to be losing any sleep.

225 D'oh! How many years did we sign it for?

222 Don't know for sure but am hopeful the new site will have a place for listening online. They are currently covered by 1460 in LV: http://foxsportsradio1460.com/home.php
But as a fox affiliate I doubt they let people listen online for free... check the 51s web site next week tho.

And, in a strange coincidence, Ted Williams' Frozen Head has the same glazed-over stare as Jason Grabowski.

229 Any chance the Buffaloes are interested in Erickson?

205 With that quote I'm finally forced to admit that Mr. Ned is better at PR than Depo.

233 - It's been several days, but reading/hearing, "Mr. Ned" has not receded in humor at all.

234 Have you seen that show Mr. Ed much? He sounds just like Johnny Cash. In fact, my brother thinks all Johnny Cash records were secretly sung by Mr. Ed.

235

As a fan of the Man in Black, I respectfully disagree with that assertion about Mr. Ed.

229--

I don't know, I have a sinking feeling that Grabowski is going to be a superstar in Japan, like Randy Bass. Stranger things have happened. Of course, I can't think of any right now.

235- Don't think you can't be tracked down and hanged for saying things like that, just because you post under a pseudonym. You can.

Wait, I keep forgetting, is making threats of physical violence against other users kosher, here? Even in the face of such fighting words? Withdraw 238. But, slackfarmer? You're on my list.

can balco please stop before he really infuriates me.

240
Why would someone whose goal is to infuriate people stop before s/he infuriates people?

re 241

kinda always like your goal the last 2 years?

PS: I think Balco is probably DLRF.

242
No. My goal is to have fun. I like people to play along, not get upset.

societasportiva=DLRF?

240- When I was a fifteen and the internet was new and exciting (I had a unix shell account, so my surfing was text only; and we LIKED IT that way!), I used to spend hours on end trolling the ESPN soccer message board. It gets boring after awhile, though. After a week, I'd bet.

Also-- I'm glad to see you on the Encarnacion bandwagon. There's still room for plenty more!

236, 238 & 239 You-all must not have seen the show. Mr. Ed was an amazing talent.

I was lucky enough to see Johnny in concert once -- at the House of Blues in Chicago. It was one of the best concerts I've ever been to. Simply amazing. Truth be told . . . I didn't see Mr. Ed anywhere.

it was either get on the carni bandwagon, or face death in the form of an hour long video on repeat of jason phillips rounding the bases.

i value my life!

246
(I had a unix shell account, so my surfing was text only; and we LIKED IT that way!)

Slams fist onto desktop...

For the record, the show was "Mister Ed" and Mister Ed was voice by Allan "Rocky" Lane.

Is Baseball Toaster compatible with the Lynx browser?

Nomah- 6 mil
lofton-2mil
tomko- 4.5 mil

=12.5 mil

basically, its either damon, or those 3. with all the holes we need filled, id rather choose those three and hope we catch lightening in a bottle.

if you add 12.5 mil to the current payroll, its about 95-100 mil. End of offseason, get ready for spring training.

252. how are you going to get tomko for only $4.5 mil?

wow i just read a LA daily news article that lakers, specifically jackson, really want artest and have strong interest to trade for him.

but the article goes on and states that lakers dont want to give up odom or bynum for artest.

kwame for artest! do it mitch!

how are you going to get tomko for only $4.5 mil?

because like mueller, he loves mr. ned and wants to play for him again.

or we can just threaten him.

254
wow i just read a LA daily news article that lakers, specifically jackson, really want artest and have strong interest to trade for him.

I knew Phil would be interested.

255. i hope youre right

256. he has to fill the void in the la sports world left by milton bradley

258
LA still has Jeff Kent...

Brown and George for Artest. Would Indiana do that? They might, if they're in the same kind of weak bargaining position that Mr. Ned was in with Milton.

i love artest's game. hes an absolute defensive beast. he would give LA some toughness.

Heard a third team has to be involved as Pacers do not like the Lakers' offer alone. Heard the Warriors might be the frontrunners. The main peace they are offering is Mike Dunleavy.

Apparently Flanders wants Nomar to play first, so I am no longer as excited about getting Nomar. Put him in left Flanders come on!.

from the gurnick article

But Colletti believes his biggest current hole is not a position in the field, but one in the batting order. Specifically, the five slot behind cleanup hitter Jeff Kent. The top of the tentative lineup would have Furcal, Miller, J.D. Drew and Kent. A healthy Garciaparra would be the best available candidate to bat fifth.

mr. ned's a smart man. a top 5 of furcal, mueller, drew, kent and nomar would be pretty swell.

i think all the nomar to first talk is just flanders keeping the LA media at bay.

260
Yep. Artest is exactly the kind of player the Lakers need. And like I said the other day, I really think Phil would be excited about the challenge of reforming Artest into a well-behaved person.

13 million for Braden Looper? And this passes without comment? We've gone soft.

262
So much for Choi hitting 2nd. Oh well, I guess 7th (in a platoon with Tomato) is better than nothing.

wait... braden looper got 13mil over 3 yrs?

you have to be kidding me.

259
kent isnt that exciting, there isnt much chance of fight or on-field incident, unless we can get Bonds involved.

Braden Looper = 2007's Danny Graves.

268
I can see Kent getting upset with Choi. Hee's happy-go-lucky nature could be mistaken for indifference and giving less than 100%.

265 - from the cards, too. who do they think they are, the yankees?

who signed looper, please tell me it was the Mets

270. ya, and Choi is Milton's boy, he'd have to rough Kent up if that s* went down.

273
I hope Choi still has some friends on the roster. Like you said, Milton seemed to be his best pal.

penny and choi are friends.

272 Cards

251- I'm out of practice, but after five minutes of messing with it, I'm ready to certify Dodger Thoughts Lynx compatible. I thought about handicapping my modem to a max speed of 14.4 kb/s, to really capture the nostalgia, but that semed like more bother than it would be worth. All in all, this sentimental dabble should last me another ten years.

Re: Artest
The one thing that you cannot do is to give up one of your best pieces for a head case.

Mueller's terms have been unveiled. $4.25 this year, $4.5 next year, $750K in 2008, and a 5 team no-trade clause

253 & 255 - how are you going to get tomko for only $4.5 mil?

I know Tomko would take a 2 year contract at around $3 - $3.5 mil per year. I know Tomko's agent, they would accept a 2 year deal worth around $6-7 mil.

-----
I found this in the DT archives. This was something I posted during Jon's "Innings Eater" post. It's more or less a comparison between Weaver & Tomko. Read into it as you wish. IMO, they are pretty similar.

Tomko will probably command around $3-4 million a year for the next contract, he made $2.6 in 05. His stats aren't all that bad, especially at his home park or at Dodger Stadium. Adjust them a bit for pitcher friendly Dodger Stadium and he looks even better at a great price. His record last year is very deceiving as the SF bullpen blew a lot of his leads, he could have easily had 12 wins in 05. We are full of #3 pitchers and I don't think Weaver is an ace of any staff. I think the Dodgers would be better off pursuing a guy like Brett Tomko, cheap and he'll do the job.

Here's how they compare:

Tomko W L IP SO ERA
2002 10 10 204.1 126 4.49
2003 13 9 203.2 114 5.29
2004 11 7 194 108 4.04
2005 8 15 191.2 114 4.48

Weaver W L IP SO ERA
2002 11 11 200.2 132 3.52
2003 7 9 159.1 93 5.99
2004 13 13 220 153 4.01
2005 14 11 224 157 4.22

IMO, they look pretty even with the exception of 05. I blame a lot of what happened in 05 on him playing for the Giants. That team sucked the first half of the season, no run support, horrible defense, and a bullpen that loved to give up runs.

Here's Tomko's stats at Dodger Stadium (DS) and his Home Stats from 2002-2005.

Tomko GS W L ER ERA
05 DS 3 0 1 8 4.08
05 SBC 14 6 5 3.58
04 DS 3 1 0 5 2.01
04 SBC 13 6 4 5.31
03 DS 1 0 0 5 8.44
03 Busch15 4 4 2.88
02 DS 2 2 0 1 0.6
02 QC 18 6 5 4.13

DS Stats 02to05- 9GS-3W-1L-19ER-2.88ERA
Home Stats 02to05- 60GS-22W-18L-170ER-3.92ERA

His stats at home are solid, as are his stats at Dodger Stadium.

I see no way he comes to the Lakers, we have nothing to give up! Odom is not being offered (contracts do not match anyways) and neither is Bynum. Lakers' roster is not full of a lot of talent that other teams want, simply do not have the talent to offer for Artest.

I would have liked to see what Jim Colburn would have done for Tomko. He throws 97 all day long but often times gets hit like a pitching machine.

281. thats why we're hoping that no one but Phil is willing to coach him and the Pacers are forced to sell low, like Ned did with Milton. Its only fair.

280. if Loaiza is worth 3 years at $7 per, Tomko will be asking upwards of that amount. if you know him or his agent, id like to speak to Brett, i could get him a lot more than $2-3 mil.

282. he throws 97 all day long? surely you jest.

wait.. why are we paying mueller 750k in 2008....

Isn't giving players money after their contract is over the new big thing? The Yankees are still paying Clemens.

Evidently the 2007 budget can not afford the extra 750k.

maybe he can bench coach or something.

We're paying Furcal $4 million in 2009, so $750K is nothing

284. sanchez101

Maybe 96 all day long and 97 for 1/2 a day.

Really. He does throw that very hard. But, it is straight.

285, 286-

Aren't we still paying Tom Goodwin?

Really. He does throw that very hard. But, it is straight.

maybe somene should teach him a 2 seamer and have him throw it at 93 with more movement...

292.290. as long as hes willing to sign to a reasonable amount and pitches 200 innings with a league average ERA or better i'll be happy.

according to Jayson Stark, ESPN.com:

There have been indications over the last 24 hours, however, that the Yankees and Indians have grown less optimistic about their chances of signing Garciaparra. The Indians are believed to be concerned that Garciaparra won't prefer a job as an every-day right fielder. And the Yankees apparently believe that Garciaparra would prefer to play first base in Los Angeles over a job as a first baseman-DH in New York, in part because he owns two homes in southern California.

the 4th team involved was supposedly the Astro's. this seems to say that Nomar would play first, i like Nomar but not if he's playing 1B fulltime. I like him a lot better as a 3B/LF/choi-platoon-mate. So if we get Nomar, the dodgers are just a bunch of Braves, Giants, and Red Sox. Im ok with that.

greg anthony just predicted the Lakers to make the conference finals, im a laker fan, but thats just insane.

That apprarently is one of his problems. He won't listen. I heard a story about him on a SF broadcast that went something like this: A mgr in the minors was trying to get Tomko to change his pitching style told him not to throw two fastballs in a row. That next inning he threw six in a row and gave up three homers. He was removed...

294
Interestingly enough, Nomah's splits are better vs. righties than lefties, which wouldn't make for a very good fit in a Choi/Nomah platoon.

Anybody have any ideas or stats with regard to injury possibilties, first vs outfield? My guess is that more injuries occur while playing the outfield and that might very well mean that Nomar will go wherever someone offers him a first baseman's mit. If that happens to be Ned, we wave good-bye to Choi.

If Nomar plays 1B against LHP and LF against RHP, and makes Saenz the super-sub, that would be a very, very, very good thing. If he's just going to play first, then you haven't improved the team at all, and you may have made it worse. Nomah has his upside from last year, but he's not the Nomah of old.

291 cracked me up.

I can't believe we got Bill Mueller for 9 million, and the Cards just paid a replacement level pitcher 13 million.

Apparently some person at E! knows the whole end story of Nip/Tuck for some reason. She gave a clue about a book called She Comes Undone. So I went and read the summary of this book and the main character sounds like a female version of Matt.

296. can you blame him, Tomko spent a lot of time bullpen in Cincinnati despite them having major rotation issues, then earned a spot in Piniella's bench when he refused to throw at a batter in a spring-training game. As a result of Piniella's idiocy, Tomko opened the season at AAA.

i think sometimes, you have to blame the coach for these type of situations. Do you think Edwin Jackson will be listening to any pitching coaches after taking Colburn's advice back in spring training 2004?

296 - Do we have a pitching coach? That would probably help.

Derek Lowe is his own pitching coach.

298. willhite

My guess is that Choi will eventually be in a trade for a pitcher.

299. looper's VORP last season was 5.3. hes worth about half a win in the standings, I thought the cards were a smart organization, but oh, im sure the fans will just love him anyway.

302 -

I wonder how many people we interview for each coaching position.

Manager = 25
Coach = 12? or does it depend on which coach?

Pitching coach = 19 interviews
Bullpen coach = 3 interviews

I'm beginning to think that Gurnick is the guy driving the anti-Choi train.

He's now suggesting that Garciaparra is going to be signed to play first for the Dodgers.

Or is this coming "off the record" from someone like Colletti?

304. I dont agree, we dont need relief pitching and I cant see Choi being traded for a starter. But you never know.

304 -

Choi has very little trade value right now. Beane might have been interested but he has first basemen and DHs coming out of his ears.

Signing Garciaparra is ultimately a Loney play. I'm optimistically skeptical about that.

308. sanchez101

Why not? I can see Choi and a prospect for a starter. And now it's a rumor.

I would think that LA would have to add another significant left handed bat if they were to trade Choi. Drew and Ledee are the only strictly lefty hitters on the team.

Looper is going to get $166,667.67 a strikeout. Good work if you can get it.

312 -

Can we get Grabowski back from Japan?

Pulp Fiction dance contest coming on . . .

311. oh, well if you include a prospect that changes things.

if Dodgers sign Garciappara, get ready for Choi to virtually dissapear from the discussion, if he hasnt already. but this is the media, "journalists" (i prefer to call them idiots) talking. But Colletti has talked more about filling holes in the outfield than 1B. Im building my trust with Colletti, i think he knows whats up.

Aren't Mueller, Furcal, Navarro, and Cruz all switch hitters? We have plenty of guys that can hit left handed.

314 willhite

Problem solved.

If Colletti manages to sign Furcal,
Mueller, and Garciaparra, then this
establishes that players will now sign
with the Dodgers, despite the past mess
and continuing McCourt ownership. Kudos
to Colletti. Now we just need some pitching.

--- this post made with Lynx, just to prove
to Mr. Timmerman that it was possible --

307 - Gurnick is the guy driving the anti-Choi train.

Don't forget the anti-Olmedo train too.

317 - And who's going to win the season HR contest from that group? Power from the left side is a good thing.

and when gurnick naps, tony jackson takes over the anti choi train.

321. cruz hit 15 home runs in 290 AB's as a left handed batter in 2005

Tony Jackson : Bill Plaschke :: Kim Jong Il : Stalin

324. wow, but dont underestimate Jackson, at least he's getting a chance to learn from the master.

319- Show-off.

323 - Point taken, but I guess I'm just not sure why'd they put Nomar at 1st rather than left, effectively choosing Lofton or Ledee over Choi/Saenz.

He is a powerful like a Stalin.

Could not resist:)

319 - 2 N's, Daniel, 2 N's!

wow MGL is trying to convince everyone at primer that signing looper wasnt that bad.

He is a powerful like a Stalin.

borat lives!

330 -- shark jump.

does he know that Tomko's run average was 4.70?

I think we should bring back Kirk Gibson to play LF. He is better then the rest of the FA's left.

329 Oh come on, you can't fool me. I know it's not spelled lynnx.

Tomko would be a good deal. He would a good 4th or 5th starter.

This isn't super informative, but it mentions the Dodgers

http://cbs4boston.com/local/local_story_349224857.html

I'm glad I've got everyone back thinking in terms of Lynx.

I need to go work on my gopher.

Who would you get for the outfield?

Nice write-up, Jon.

A little off subject but someone finally appears to be giving Frank and Jamie the proper PR advise: "Get out of the way." They seem to be taking a much lower profile since Ned came on board. Of course they are not really out of the way they are just in the background but its an improvement.

I wonder if Ken Arneson is following this thread. He's going to scratch his head the next time he looks at the browser share numbers. "Is Lynx making a comeback? Really? Why?"

If you're out there, have you ever thought about making the registration process a little less expeditious? There's a five day wait before you can buy a handgun in this country (right? I forget), but anybody can post here within ten minutes of the fancy striking him? Could make the threads that come when the Dodgers make a big move less, um, you know.

As long as I don't have to go back to the days when I could type faster than my 2400 baud terminal could keep up with me.

341 -- They even let Keisser in to commit a CUI

336. Even though I didn't agree with him, I thought some of you were hard on Balco the last day or two but 336 is beyond the pale. Even if he was the last major leauge pitcher on the planet I wouldn't want Tomko. To even suggest we should consider Tomko is heresy.

Lynx isn't one of the browsers that the stats count as far as I can tell. I think it just goes under "others".

I'm done with finals! Now I concentrate on some of the more important things in life like Dodger baseball, playing basketball, and other stuff...

Which team would win the game?
Dodgers
C Navarro
1B Choi
2B Kent
SS Furcal
3B Mueller
OF Werth
OF Cruz
OF Drew
SP Houlton

51s
C Martin
1B Loney
2B Young
SS Aybar (no one else to put here)
3B LaRoche
OF Rico Washington (minor league free agent)
OF Ernie Young (minor league free agent- good veteran leadership)
OF Tydus Meadows (did we resign him?)
SP Billingsley

346. where is guzman? ethier?

Tomko was awesome in the second half of 2004. Maybe Eric G. could teach him how to throw that change-up.

you are foretting andre ethier and justin ruggianno for the 51s!

and lucky you miltie. i have two more finals tomorrow, my most difficults ones. acct 200 and philosophy of science.

Guzman will be a bust. Trade him when his value is high. Is numbers are not that impressive. He also has a terrible sense of the strike zone.

350
is= his

oh yea, and guzman. lol

las vegas 51s are absurd:
C martin
1b loney
2b young
ss guzman
3b laroche
lf meadows
cf ruggianno
rf ethier

how many runs per game? 10?

Bleah, I'm still grading finals.

350-
Weren't you saying to trade for Adam Dunn earlier? Talk about bad strike zone judgement.

I believe we can go far next year. We need to trade some of our prospects because we will not have enough room on our 40 man roster to hold on to all of them(Rule 5 draft 2006)

343- Who's to say he wasn't sober?

354- Dunn walks more then god himself.

355-
We already fit the minor leaguers we have to on the 40 man roster. Next year will not be a problem either as those minor leaguers will actually start playing for us.

353. maybe i shouldnt mention that i finished finals a week ago

Dunn will put up 40 home run seasons for the next 6-8 years. He will also walk 100 times a year. That guy is a stud. I doubt Guzman will every put numbers like that. Guzman hasn't in the minor, so why would he in the pro's.

He also strikes out almost 200 times a year. Guzman has time to develop, so he can learn to take more walks.

346

I was just about to type the same thing, so I know how you feel. Just handed in the last of my finals. 4 of which were painfully long papers. Feels good to finally finish. It's been a long week.

358- we our still going to lose a few good ones. So why not trade them for major league talent.

357. what does that make Bonds?

http://tinyurl.com/8naco

those are park factors for major league and minor league stadiums.

I dont know how to read those. I assume 1 is the average and everything else is deviated from one. can someone explain it more thoroughly for me.

Using my Sim program, last years Dodger team is beating this years team (with players signed so far) 53.4% of the time with over 500 head to head games simulated so far. The Sim program is just a fun excercise and proves nothing. vr, Xei

nate I can't believe I forgot those guys, especially Guzman and Ethier!

My last final was economics, so...

If the Johnny Damon costs $13 million and Bill Mueller, Nomar Garciaparra, Brett Tomko, and Rudy Seanez also cost $13 million, what is the opportunity cost of Johnny Damon?
A. $13 million
B. Nomar Garciaparra, Brett Tomko, and the leftover cash
C. Bill Mueller, Nomar Garciaparra, Brett Tomko, and Rudy Seanez
D. $13 million and Bill Mueller, Nomar Garciaparra, Brett Tomko, and Rudy Seanez

361- He will be a HOFer. Reggie Jackson struck out alot, BUT HE ALSO HIT A TONS OF HR"S.

if dunn is so much better than Dunn, which he is, why would the Reds trade him?

Who's to say...indeed...

363-
There is no problem with that, it just depends on who are trading for and what we have to give up.

366 -- But who's managing last year's team on your program? Are you handicapping them correctly?

*we are trading for...

357- Bonds is the GREAStest BASEBALL HITTER EVER tO live.

366. i think that speaks the true talent level of the 2005 team, i still think that a reasonably healthy team wouldve won 90+ games.

373- DUNN or ABREU. I would rather have DUNN. He is younger and a future HOFer.

369- Because we could overwhem them with a offer. The REDS need pitching.

344- I think it's a volume thing as much as a content one. I hardly every say anything worth paying attention to (except my Encarnacion rumor mongering which is catching fire) but since I mostly don't say it every thirty seconds, it's tolerated.

352 et al.-- It should be a great season at Cashman. Also, for fans wanting an excuse to see the Dodgers in Vegas...

Dodgers v. Beltre...and the Mariners on Thursday, March 30 at 7:05 p.m. Cubbies and Fathers follow for 2 games.

See http://www.lv51.com/news/?id=787 for more.

The Reds were apparently asking for the moon for Dunn and I am not willing to trade Billingsley and others for Dunn.

372. A laptop. Scientists would have a hard time writing a simulation of Jim Tracy. Perhaps a random number generator would best simulate Mr T. vr, Xei

I believe Loney(no power) and Guzman(hyped) will be avg. major leaguers. I think we should trade them.

359. alas, maybe i shouldnt mention that i finished finals a 17 years ago. Enjoy it while you can. School beats working any day.

someone who is knowledgable of park factors and the weights used and how i could translate park adjusted numbers for each player... explain those numbers in that link for me please!

I think we can get him without trading Chad Bill or LaR. I would trade any of our other prospects for him. He is that good. Our OFFENSE will score 100 more runs with DUNN in the lineup.

#352: Nate, re: your question yesterday about Ethier. My uneducated guess is that the scouts are right. His projection seems to be an average starter as a corner outfielder. The fact that he'll be 24 at the start of Spring Training means he doesn't have a whole lot of projection left. On the plus side, he seems very likely to meet his expecations, and could provide valuable outfield depth even this season. My belief is that players like Ethier tend to be undervalued, because if you can fill a few lineup slots with average production for league minimum, it gives you a lot more flexibility to sign "stars" to fill the other slots.

Do you think they'll keep Guzman at SS in order to get more bats into the AAA lineup? With the way our ML outfield situation is shaping up, I would start him in RF. Of course, there's also a chance that Young could start in LF giving us a prospect-laden outfield in AAA:

LF Young
CF Ethier
RF Guzman

Ruggianno seems like he could start the year back at Jacksonville. Even though he OPS'ed very well (.950 OPS), his terrible strikeout rate (56Ks in 161ABs) demonstrates that he needs some more adjustment time.

Jon Weber was also re-signed to a minor league contract, thus he may fit into the AAA outfield situation. He's not as solid offensively as Meadows, but he's much stronger defensively and can do a passable impersonation of a Center-Fielder.

Bought my daughter a couple of packs of baseball cards tonight. She got an auto Jason Repko card. I expected the corners to be frayed. The card wasn't very scrappy. I didn't have the heart to tell her it wasn't worth very much.

catching fire

But only in the self-immolation sense

DUNN and Drew will be onbase all the time. The only time they won't be is when they hit a HR.

Ethier reminds me of Mark Kostay.

388- Encarnacion is the GREAStest BASEBALL HITTER EVER tO live.

The kid from The Sandlot is a lawyer on Boston Legal. I am, um, somewhat surprised.

387- she could sell that card for $1000.

I should be more specific. The big catcher kid.

which kid from sandlot?

391- That was fuNNy.

383. I guess it depends on what kind of job, and what your college experience was like. Personally, I have enjoyed working over college by a long shot. I was so stressed out in College that I had (what I would call) nightmares about college for probably the next 10 years after I graduated. A common dream would be not attending a class for the whole quarter and then having to take the final exam. I just had way too much stress in college, some very difficult classes, some terrible battles with academia beauracracies(sp?Bob?), and bad teachers. After I finished my final quarter of college and moved out and back home to begin looking for a job, I got my report card in the mail and had an 'F' waiting for me in one of my classes. After driving 350+ miles back to school, expecting to possibly have to enroll for another quarter to make up this bad grade. I spoke to the instructor, turns out he accidentally gave me an 'F' instead of a 'B'. He had lost my midterm exam, due to being clinically blind. He had this big magnifying glass he had to use to view anything with. He straightened it out right away, but it added another 5 years of nightmares... :( vr, Xei

392-
Is it Squints, the red headed, freckled catcher?

Trade rumor
Od. Perez for Ron Artest.

393,
if you are offering, on her behalf, i accept

That guy will never look like he went through puberty.

no one can answer my econ question?

402. A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y.
vr, Xei

[367] A and B are both valid answers, assuming that damon precludes any other signing, and that nomar and tomko are the only other guys you are looking at.

#363: There may be some truth to what Balco says (for once). While I've always felt like we could make it through Rule 5 2005 relatively unscathed, Rule 5 2006 is scary. Here is the back-of-the-envelope list of new players we'll have to protect next offseason:

Chad Billingsley
Scott Elbert
Matt Kemp
Chin-Lung Hu
Tony Abreu
Chuck Tiffany
Justin Orenduff
Travis Denker
Blake Johnson
Julio Pimentel
Justin Ruggiano

I haven't been able to come up with a way to protect all of them and none of them are players I'd really like to expose.

349 - Philosophy of science was always my favorite + very applicable to baseball or any empirical discipline.

I finished my finals today. Unfortunately, 4 of the 5 were of the high school variety, so I'd assume they're easier than what many of you are facing (they're all AP if that counts for anything). I did take a college course, but I'm not sure a junior college final is nearly as tough as a university final

C is the answer....!!!

My winter break is almost 6 weeks long too!

i'm spending the night at JFK. i have a paper due tomorrow and another on monday.

How about this lineup
Furcal(.290/350/410)
Mueller(290/360/415)
Kent (280/385/500)
Dunn (250/410/530)
Drew (280/405/540)
Big Korean (270/370/450)
werth/cruz (250/345/440)
Narr.(260/350/420)

What do you think. (Projected Number comments of yours truly).

407-
Junior college is easier than high school.

[408] C can't be the answer. we've already got bill mueller.

408- DING DING! Nate took econ.

are you a business major too?

Xei, Can't say I blame you after that. I enjoyed college in Burlington Vermont where they have the highest ratio of bars to people. Work is okay, rewarding on occasion, but if I didn't have to do it for the $, I wouldn't. I would have gone to school whether I had to or not.

409-
Wow, mine started last wednesday and lasts a month and two days.

why do elbert, blake johnson and ruggianno need to be protected?

405- Everything I say is the truth or will be the truth.

412 Even when the final is for calculus II? I wouldn't know as my high school doesn't offer the class

Now isn't that lineup great. (411)

yea, im a premarketing major.

i took economic perspective last semester, i got an A in it although to this day, i dont know how. next semester i have to take another stupid econ course. along with managerial acct.

[414] how can bill mueller be in the opportunity cost of signing johnny damon, when we've already signed bill mueller?

405- I don't think you're trying hard enough. I can cut 11 guys (including Kent, since his contract will be up and Izzy, since he doesn't have a position, anymore) from the current 40 man.

Diaz (pitcher; who?)
Alomar
Phillips
Izzy
Kent
Myrow
Edwards
Grabowski
Repko
Ledee
Ross

419-
I did not want to do Calculus so I took Stat, which was an AP class I already took in high school so it was easy.

hey Hobos, you are probably taking harder classes then me. Well, i guess it depends on the person. I never took a math class beyond calc 1. This semester, im taking business math! or math you learn to do in excel. lol.

417 Ruggiano was 21 or 22 when he was drafted, and next year would be his 3rd year. Not sure about Elbert or Johnson

how can bill mueller be in the opportunity cost of signing johnny damon, when we've already signed bill mueller?

its a what if scenario!!!

Grabowski's already gone. You need a faster Lynx connection.

Projected HR's/RBI's
Furcal-12/60
Mueller-13/67
Kent- 25/over100
Drew- 33/90-100
Dunn 40/ over100
bIG kOREAN-25/ 75
CRUZ 18/70
nAV. 10/50-60

421- how are you going to be the Dodgers minor league cordinator with a marketing degree?

MV=PQ For once I understand the stats around here.

Elbert wad 18 and we drafted him last year (2004), I think Johnson is the same, but I am not positive.

425 I'm just good at math. I doubt my schedule is harder than yours, or anyone here.

Philosophy of science was always my favorite

the course isnt bad at all. in fact, its probably my most interesting class. BUT, since its an elective, its not high on my learning and studying list. I just wrote a 10 page paper on Latakos's research programs and how they relate or explain the events in the edible knowledge paradigm.... or something wierd like that.

#384: Nate, generally park factors for specific events are calculated by taking the number of those events at home divided by the number of those events on the road for the park's home team.

That is, if the 51s played a 5-1 game at home and then a 3-2 game on the road, Las Vegas's park factor for runs would be (5+1) / (3+2) = 1.2. You calculate it the same way for all the other counting stats.

As far as the weights, he just used a weighted average of the park factors for the past three years with weights of 8 for the previous season, 5 for two seasons ago, and 3 for three seasons ago. That is, (8 PF1 + 5 PF2 + 3 * PF3) / 16.

If you wanted to translate a players numbers to "park neutral" based on this system, you would divide the player's home counting stats by the park factor (or for simplicity you could just adjust half).

*was

428- Yeah, but he's still on the official 40 man roster, at least at dodgers.com. That's just an excuse, I really like cutting him. It's fun; you should try it.

dAMON WOULD BE A HUGE WATSE OF MONEY.

[427] well in that case the question is flawed. :P i have an economics degree, for what it's worth.

Does any one agree with my line up.

thanks fearing blue. that helps a little bit.

Since Jason Grabowski isn't productive, therefore he is an inefficient use of resources. Where would he be on the production possibilities curve?
A. outside
B. inside
c. near the top of the curve
d. near the bottom of the curve

Our pitch staff could be
LOWe
PEnny
Perez
CBILL
Jaskson

If cbillz or jackson struggle we could alway get another starter at the trade deadline. This is going to be Jacksons breakout year because he is train with Eric G.

Our pitch staff could be
LOWe
PEnny
Perez
CBILL
Jaskson

If cbillz or jackson struggle we could alway get another starter at the trade deadline. This is going to be Jacksons breakout year because he is training with Eric G.

that one's for you Vishal- Mr. Econ Degree!

Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello

re 442

its not outside... im going to say B, inside.

439. I have an econ degree as well. Could it be we have more econs here than attorneys. Hard to believe.

balco, are you like 14?

442-
D?
Wild guess

BALCO-

I would love Dunn, but not at the cost. If he were a FA, for example, I would exert full court press to get him. I would give him Konerko $ and perhaps Green $. No one here is saying that they would not LOVE Dunn is Dodger Blue - but we are not comfortable giving up what it appears the reds want.

I am not going to go away if you ignore me.

451 what do you think the REDS want?

#417:

Scott Elbert born May 15, 1985 (age 19 on June 5, 2004)

Justin Ruggiano born April 12, 1982 (age 22 on June 5, 2004)

Blake Johnson born June 14, 1985 (age 18 on June 5, 2004)

So, after looking more closely, Johnson would not be exposed (by 9 days... phew), but Elbert and Ruggiano would be since they were 19 in the year they were signed. That is, each of them only gets three years of unprotected minor league service time (2004, 2005, and 2006).

437 -- As you know, there came a point last year when it was not clear whether we could settle for simply cutting him.

449- no 26.

Oops, the dodgers.com 40 man has 41 men on it. So I need one more. Too bad I can't cut Grabowski, again.

423 I can't believe Jumbo Diaz would be cut unless AA somehow destroys him. He's a little big, but supposedly has great stuff. Maybe trade bait.

something tells me Balco is a poster having some fun.

I think Balco is actually Icaros. Or Jon. Jon and Balco never post at the same time. hmmmm

The fire ken macha A's blog is comedy on Milton Bradley. Worth a laugh if you're surfing the site...http://firemacha.blogspot.com/2005/12/milton-bradley-game.html

Boston Legal really misses Betty White.

What is Elbert doing being 19 in his senior year of high school haha?

#423: True, it is mathematically feasible. But, I just don't see any general manager having 25 slots on the 40-man roster taken up by players with 2-years or less of service time.

Here is how I project our top position prospects

Loney (Casey at best)
LaR (David Wright or Mike S)
Guzman(Billy Asley)

458- Was he one of the rule 5 guys? I only included him because I didn't recognize the name.

465 -- He's Jumbo Ozaki's cousin.

B, near the origin :)

LaRoche is going to be as good as Mike Schmidt? Don't sell him short there...

462- He failed PreSchool

ok, nate I think you've had enough...lol

here's one for the people with econ degrees (my last question)

ok..I can't think of one off the top of my head, so this one isn't as creative and I'm pretty much just copying it off of one of my homeworks

Q: If a perfectly competitive firm (the Dodgers) discovers that the marginal revenue earned from selling one addition unit is significantly more than the marginal cost of producing that unit, it can likely increase its profit by:
A. Decreasing the sales price (of Jason Repko jerseys)
B. Increasing the sales price (of Alex Cora special collectors mugs)
C. Decreasing the output level by at least one unit (downgrading from Hee Seop Choi to J.T. Snow)
D. Increasing the output level by at least one unit (upgrading from Jayson Werth/Ricky Ledee to Reggie Sanders)

NATE- DO NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION

B, near the origin :)

fine, i have to look over my acct flashcards anyways!

468- OK I went a little overboard.

467-
I guess D, because I figured bottom of the curve meant near the origin. Oh well not like I have any clue about any of this stuff.

oh, that last one was a double-post, sorry.

[470] - D

We lost a couple of good pitchers in the Rule 5. Only if we could have traded them and got something in return.

470-
Is it D?

I guessed the same as Vishal that must be a good sign haha.

#465: Jose Jumbo Diaz is an overpowering right-handed reliever who was recovering from some serious injury last year (TJ?). He can get the giddy-up to about 99 so the Dodgers protected him in the Rule 5. Other teams tend to take a chance on arms like that.

This may be an example of the mysterious delayed double-post as my first one seems to have been lost in the ether.

ill humor you balco

loney= lyle overbay
laorche= right handed eric chavez
guzman= a better, more consistent version of reggie sanders

476- way to put your degree to good use ;)

Yes, you are correct

Posted by LAT
Jumbo Diaz. Never heard of him but a great name. Would have been better name for Broxton than The Bull. Can't you hear Vin now "Jumbo, as his friends like to call him, just hit triple digits on the gun."

There is a strip club somewhere in LA called "Jumbo's Clown Room." Great name but who would call their strip club "Jumbo's Clown Room"?

We lost a couple of good pitchers in the Rule 5. Only if we could have traded them and got something in return.

megrew is coming off of TJ surgery and luis gonzalez isnt anything special.

491-
I did not need no fancy degree to get one of the two correct lol.

actually i think richie sexson could be a better offensive comp for guzman.

490- don't believe the hype.

ill humor you balco

Gary Sheffield's autobiography

reggie sanders age 27 yr was pretty darn good.
306/.397/.579

#482: Neither Luis Gonzalez or Mike Megrew had any real trade value. Gonzalez was extremely lucky last year. He posted a K/BB of 1.35 and a K/9 of 6.79, yet managed an ERA of 2.21 in AA. I saw him pitch twice and he didn't seem like anything special. Megrew has potential to be a 4th or 5th starter, but is more likely going to be relegated to the bullpen due to durability / injury history. He hasn't pitched much since having TJ 18 months ago and seems unlikely to last with the Marlins.

Did Jumbo come in the Antonio Perez deal? Looks like he's bounced around between organizations.

497. that might be the funniest comment ive ever seen at this site.

495. i like the guzman comparison with richie sexon, i think Derrek Lee also works. Both guys are tall athletic righthanders with big power and lots of strikeouts.

i still dont understand how you think laroche is vastly superior to guzman when guzman out hit laroche in AA, on the same team, in the same league, while being a year younger.

if guzman walks more next year, then a derek lee comp would be best fit.

501 -- Nope. That's a 600-way tie between all the people who said that Jim Tracy puts his players in a position to succeed.

[474] bottom of the curve is still ON the curve though, and being on the curve means that you are at the very limit of possible production.

wow wierd, derrek lee slugged 570 in his AA season at the age of 20 in the southern league, but next year in the PCL he only slugged .477 in 472 ABs.

thats really wierd.

Steve, Only one guy said that and he works for the Times.

[491] these are fun. baseball would make a good instructional device for teaching econ 1

#495: I also think we should trade Guzman if there are teams that would value him as a shortstop. He has the highest potential of our offensive prospects but also the highest risk of flameout as demonstrated by the 128 Ks in 442 ABs last year.

Loney in some sense is the opposite of Guzman. That is, I think his upside is fairly limited (fringe-average 1B), but he's a much safer bet to reach it.

504. ya, part of me is going to miss tracy ... and then i remember how he managed the Dodgers

507 -- That is not true, but I concede that the 600-way tie is an exaggeration.

505-
I get it.

[507] i could swear i saw the phrase "position to succeed" associated with jim tracy in at LEAST 3 different sources.

513-
Maybe I should take an econ class in my life, seems interesting.

There is a strip club somewhere in LA called "Jumbo's Clown Room."

Why do I get the feeling you know exactly where it is located, LAT?

#502: Guzman out OPS'ed LaRoche, but LaRoche had much better peripherals (Ks and BBs / AB). In some ways I like those better as indicators of whether a player is overmatched.

I would take LaRoche over Guzman.

Russ Martin=Pudge Rodriguez
James Loney=David Justice
Delwyn Young=Ray Lankford (minus the speed)
Joel Guzman=Dale Murphy
Andy LaRoche=Scott Rolen
Andre Ethier=Larry Walker
Justin Ruggiano=Mike Cameron

Can someone over 30 (who saw him play) give me some info on Howard Johnson? Who would you compare him to today? etc..

and what do yo know... derrek lees PCL home park was las vegas... thats ironic.

lets see if guzman can out hit Dlees AAA numbers next year.

324/400/477
29 doubles 13hr

k/pa= .22
bb/pa= .11

506. and he played in Vegas. Im not sure that extreme environments like Las Vegas affect all players the same. I think that at the time Lee felt he should be playing 1B for the Padres after his monster season in AA, but they instead sent him to AAA for the season, and he didnt take it well.

even though guzman Ked 128x in 442 ABs, derrek lee Ked 170x in 502ABs

517-
Wow, maybe even I underestimate how people here view our prospects.

[514] i took it mostly for fun; i'm certainly not going to be a professional economist. but i find the topic pretty fascinating. i think the idea of trying to objectively model human behavior and decisionmaking is brilliant.

517

Johnson was like Bagwell, without the weight lifting.

508- occasionally, one teacher at my school teaches a class called sports econ, unfortunately, it's not being taught this semester

514- high school econ is great and very fun...college not so much, but that just might be my teacher...

513. ya, Jim Tracy said it himself dozens of times every spring training. Like, "do i think Choi can play first? the answer i think is yes he can, but you have to put him in a position to succeed, a positions to be successful? Does that mean hell be playing behind Phillips? I think that the answer is that really I think that Phillips' versitility is intriguing." Im gonna miss the poor guy.

I did my stats project in college on the Hall of Fame. Lost it though.

524-
Yeah we have a sports econ class. There were a few sports management classes and other courses like that I wanted to take next semester but they conflicted with a class I had to take.

517. Those projections are higher than Cheech on 4/20.

andre ethier= jay gibbons?

Andre Ethier=James Loney

523, 517 Going from memory without the stats in front of me to back me up...

I'm not sure that is the best comparison. Bags in his prime was a GREAT hitter who not only hit for average but was truly feared as a long-ball threat. HoJo was good but he was not great (certainly not for any number of years). Also he was not the feared HR hitter on his team (that would be Strawberry when they played together). Perhaps an Aramis Ramirez comparison, depending on how good you think he is [Remember to discount the numbers for inflation in late 90s and 2000s]

523- without the steriods you mean.

can't wait to get back to la, it's in the low 30s here

Guzmans seems over matched alot of the time. He is a guess hitter.

Where are you Miltie? Did you say MI?

533 where art thou?

533-
Holy crap... and I find Santa Barbara cold.

im in tucson and its soooo colddddd here. and im serious, im freezing.

531

I threw out bagwell because they were both 5'10 white guys playing third. That's the depth of my knowledge. I thought I covered myself with the "without weight lifting" but apparently you didn't fall for that. Good on you.

536- near where your company is located

*was

Well, I am in NYC, it actually got warmer tonight as evidenced by the fact that it is raining outside now and not snowing. That means the temperature actually rose from 30 degrees this afternoon to about 43 degrees now! Go figure.

i think these these are more realistic comparable players for some of our top prospects:

Martin=Varitek minus 20homeruns
Loney=Sean Casey
Young=Carlos Baerga
Guzman=Richie Sexson
LaRoche=Aramis Ramirez
Ethier=Ricky Ledee
Ruggiano=Jayson Werth (hopefully more durable)

i have a really hard time comming up with what Martin can be, he's a plus defensive catcher with good contact ability, draws lots of walks, but with questionable power. Maybe Paul LoDuca with more walks?

I do not remmember Bags playing 3rd??

its past midnight and i have two finals tomorrow,and i need to clean my house before i board my plane. yay all nighter!

its okay, last one of the year. i can do it.

Miltie come in and try our new protein bars. Bonds loves them.

543- my real projection for Martin is Jason Kendall with better defense

537. it has been cold recently, really cold like in the 50's

547. duh

I think Martin will put up 15 JACKS a year.

Sanchez you live in SB?

martin and LaR are sure HITS.

i think martin could eventually put up 15 jacks a year... in his 27-30yrs

511. Maybe I'm confused cause Plaschke said it 600 times.

515. Brenden, actually its more embarassing than that. I have been there and have no idea where it is. Its in a strip mall (no pun intended) and it was bad all the way around. That is about all I can recall.

Hey Sanchez are you related to a relief pitcher who lives in LA. If so get me some tickets.

551. have since i was born

Nate we agree for once.

According to MLB.com Clemens will choose between Red Sox, Yankees, Astros, and Rangers if he comes back.
I really thought we had a good chance of getting him I guess we will have to come up with a new plan.;)

533. i agree, didnt he hit 15 last year in vero, im too lazy to look it up.

Are you still going to school or just stayed here after college?

Nate who would you get for LF and Starting Pitching?

560. im at UCSB, third year

sign nomar and tomko i guess.

562-
Sweet, what major?

I think Greg miller can have an impact on this years team.

Friend of mine's daughter is a frosh this year. Apparently UCSB is not the party school it used to be. She is a good student and says it is hard.

i hope they keep miller in AA, in the rotation and bring him along slowly

564. history, but i may change. are you at the UC?

Nate, Train,Sanchez which prospects are untouchables to you?

563- that is settling. I want more.

554

That is the perfect answer LAT. That has happened to me once or twice(at least)

346 - Woah, I am just catching up from most of the night but...an Ernie Young sighting?!? The last I heard from that dude was on the 2000 Olympic team with Ben Sheets and...yeah.

And the time before that was when I went to Baltimore in summer 1997 to see the Bash Brothers and got a foul ball from him instead. Is anybody up for a "Random Ernie Young Game Callback"? :)

I have to finish the food in my fridge since I'm leaving tomorrow...I guess I'll be eating a lot of chicken nuggets, string cheeses, and ice cream sandwiches tonight!

even though ucsb isnt the party school it use to be, about 1 in 4 students have an STD...

or some incredibly high figure like that.

Correct, bagwell played 1st and he is 6'0 not 5'10. You win.

564-
Yeah, Senior. I took CA History that was a pretty easy class.
566-
UCSB has always been a challenging academic school, even when it was a huge party school. It is funny, because the party atmosphere has dwindled a lot since they put a police station in IV, but UCSB has risen in party school rankings.

574- I hope your not one of them.

re 573

Ha, i am doing the same. i dont really have that much stuff in my fridge. i am eating cookie dough ice cream right now. maybe make a PB and J later. i also have some baby carrot packages left. my fridge is pretty empty. my roommate and I dont buy a lot of food.

even all the beer is gone :(

569-
I do not believe in untouchable because there is always someone out there I would want to trade for, but Billingsley and Elbert are the closest to untouchables in my opinion.

569. few prospects are untouchable, and im not sure that the dodgers have one of those. By untouchable i mean, like when ARod, Griffey, or Beltre were prospects. Like Delmon Young now. Otherwise, pretty much any prospect is tradable at the right price. For guys like LaRoche, Guzman and Billinsgley though, that price is pretty high, but if, for example the Cubs came willing to trade Derrek Lee for Joel Guzman or Johan Santana for Billingsley, id take it.

575-
1 and 5 people have herpes or something crazy like that in the whole world. So UCSB having a high concentration does not surprise me, though it does scare me now.

From what I gather, getting into college and staying there is much harder than it used to be. Everything is more competitive and there a far fewer spots. The old days of being sure you would get in somewhere and then blowing off class once you were in seem to be gone. I am finding its even true in the middle school application process. Very competitive. Of course, there are 400 universities in the US but only 6 or 7 middle schools in West LA. (And my daughters will not be blowing off class once they get in. Or at least not as far as I will know.)

Some of the most important words in parenting: "Do as I say, not as I do/did." It a license to be a hypocrite.

579- the beer was gone a week ago, so none was left during finals :((to the 2nd power)

my cafeteria food is horrible. i'm moving into a new room with a full kitchen. i'm going to buy tons of canned food, spaghetti, rice, etc

392 - He wasn't much of a lawyer though.

Where is Thomas Nac when we need him to randomly walk past and say "...Denny Crane."?

...ok, enough random responses to 200+ posts ago.

577. ya, those rankings must be crap. I remember when i was in grade school and hearing about the parting in IV, it was much crazier than now. At least the partying was more destructive then.

i just looked in my fridge again.. good news people, theres a carton of eggs. Ill make a scrambled egg sandwich at around 3am.

i wont starve tonight, yay.

583. its still possible to "blowing off class once you were in". you just have to be in the right major, like History.

one of my roommates left some frozen mini corndogs and frozen vegetables. unfortunately, i don't know how to make frozen vegetables with only a microwave

i actually dont mind the food at my student union. its a big school so i assume the food choices are better then most. we have panda express, mcdonalds, chik fill-A, papa johns, some hoagie place, some italian place, some sit down mexican place.

of course, i live like 10 mins from campus so i dont get to enjoy the plethora of food choices.

590- you don't live on campus? are you a junior?

some frozen vegetables i get from the store are those brocolli with cheese, or cauliflower with cheese, or basicaly anything with cheese. those are easy to make. put them in the mircowave for 5 mins and you're good to go!

586-
(DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DO NOT LIKE TERRIBLY MESSED UP STORIES)
Apparently the crime that put the nail in the coffin for UCSB was this frat made all these guys drink till they passed out. Common frat garbage. Anyways, one guy they kept feeding booze to and he passed out and they left him outside. Then members of the frat took turns raping the guy. Then they shoved a bottle or something up his butt and just left him outside for a few days as he was passed out basically in a coma. The cops found him almost dead. The people in the frat all got arrested and it was decided to build a police station in IV and to try to curb some of the partying ways.

Miltie, it should say on the package. generally, you make a small hole/slit in the bag cook for approx 2min, flip and cook for another 2 mins. But I would go with the corndogs first too.

589-
I eat all my vegetables raw.

im a sophmore. I lived in my dorms last year, disliked it immensely, so this year i moved into a house with one my friends.

20x better.

holy crap trainwreck, thats absolutely disturbing. the greek scene here is HUGE, my roommate is in a frat, hes pretty active in it. I hope he didnt have to go through an initiation process like that....

595. trainwreck, please tell me you mean that "trainwreck" ;)

Seems obvious to me that Martin = Kendall
and Loney = JT Snow with a higher BA. If Martin doesn't break his ankle in a grotesque manner he could have quite a career.

598-
I literally meant I buy fresh vegetables and just eat them raw, because my housemmates leave every pot and pan so dirty I am unable to use them to cook anything.

Answering my own question, it looks like Jumbo Diaz was signed as a minor league FA about two weeks before DePo got dumped. He was part of the Victor Diaz for Burnitz deal. Went to TB as a FA, in 2005, got waived, and was picked up by the Indians. Untill the end of the year. I stand by my not minding if he ended up getting rule 5'd next year.

599. ya, im suprised i didnt think of Kendall because i was really stumped coming up with a player that basically meets Kendall's description to a tee.

*housemates

andrew, there are two jumbo diaz'.

599- you just jinxed Martin's career

on the vegetables-
i found a container that had been filled with water for 3 months (the water smell bad), so i cleaned it out, threw the vegetables in the container, put a little water in it, and placed it in the microwave for 5 minutes.

if i ever get married, my wife is going to have to cook (and cook well)

598-
Was that what you were getting at lol? I was not totally sure.

Our Jumbo Diaz doesn't appear on thebaseballcube.com for whatever reason. But ya, that guy in 501 is different. Jumbo pitched for Vero this year, no runs allowed in 15 innings, but walked 12 while striking out 18

my housemate's girlfriend cooks for us. its lovely. she also cleans! for free!

our own personal molly maid. i told him he needs to hold on to her.

One last Balco-esque random comment: today's high here was 30 degrees, low 14, and there is roughly 6 inches of snow + hail on the ground.

Would a decent comp for HoJo be a switch-hitting Aubrey Huff?

OK, out for real, goodnight all.

608-
You are so lucky! I wish we had a girl roommate just so my friends would not be so messy.

who is hojo?

608- i'm the only one who cleans at my place, i've done it twice...(though my roommate helped me scrape the mold out of the shower a couple weeks ago)
we're so lazy that we were thinking of hiring someone or paying a couple girls to clean the place

610- maybe i should go for a coed dorm next year...

mold isnt a good sign....

earlier this semester, our garbage disposal was broken for about a month and a half. And, the mold in there was quite disgusting. i didnt feel safe breathing the air in my house.

607- Oh, alright. So the right one is the other Jose Diaz, the one who threw 16 total innings last year. And 37 the year before. 21 is kind of old for single A, right? Anyway, I guess it's good that I'm not in charge. I can't tell Jose Diaz from Jose Diaz and I'd dump them both, just for that reason.

For those of you who go to minorleagueball.com, which player did you vote for best young pitcher? I voted for Harden.

one of my roommates friends always come over high. they like to play darts. we have real darts (not the magnetic kind). they usually don't get them on the board.

from tim brown's article:
________________

Colletti has contacted teams with a surplus of starting pitchers, including the Chicago White Sox (Jon Garland, Jose Contreras), Boston (Wells), Yankees (Carl Pavano) and New York Mets (Kris Benson).

Garland, Contreras and Wells will become free agents after the season and Pavano sat out the second half last season because of a sore pitching shoulder.

613 Expirences with living in an apartment with four guys and two girls.

The good - Things will be clean.

The bad - If you have the natural guy action of not caring about mess until sentient beings grow out of it, it will come back to haunt you. How depends exactly on who you are living with, but it will happen.

those vegetables were good...

ice cream sandwiches or string cheese?

611-
You kids. I think HoJo refers to Howard Johnson who played for the Mets in the 1980's. He and Strawberry were like the NYM Bash Bros. I thought he played 3rd base, though.

611 - See 539 and go back from there. I think he is actually coaching somewhere in the DRays system this year...all part of the master plan to turn the 2006 Devil Rays into the 1983 Mets.

611

howard johnson = hojo

the minorleagueball.com poll was a tough choice.

i didnt choose harden because of injury concerns, the same reason why i didnt choose peavy or beckett.

it was a choice between willis and zambrano for me. and I went with Big Z because hes huge as an Ox and i love his mean streak.

613-
I would...

of course, dusty baker could ruin it for zambrano.

i was in a coed dorm last year.

it was uhh.... interesting. i dont thin you want to be living with 15 girls on your floor, too much drama. wayyyy too much drama.

i'd live in a house, it would be 4 girls, 4 guys

Atleast it makes it more interesting then a bunch of guys. Just try to ignore all the stupid stuff. Then again this is from my perspective going to school in california, where the whole floor would probably be filled with guys who are "bro-d-out".

4 girls can still cause a lot of drama.

i just noticed this but, why does tony jackson leave his phone number at the bottom of his articles?

But 4 girls also provides you ample female friends to meet.

Terrible News:
Free-agent outfielder Jacque Jones, a former USC All-American, also is close to falling off the Dodgers' radar.

631- The newspaper gig is just part time. He's also a bail bondsman.

632- plus if you're in the same class, they have better study habits

620. Ice cream sandwiches, of course! The only questiosn is how many do you have to eat to finish off the box.

632-
That is totally true, but it is a double edged sword because you have to care about studying.

Anyone a Louis CK fan? He has a nice bit about double edged swords.

1 bag of veggies gone, 1 to go
chicken nuggets- gone
corn dogs- 5 left
ice cream sandwiches- 2 left
string cheese- about 15-20 (it was a huge pack from Costco)

Wow you have some variety to your diet. I eat the same thing every day. I have a bowl of Kashi or Total, a sweet onion chicken teriyaki subway sandwich, a cup of low fat yoplait strawberries and banana yougrt, and some albertsons turkey slices. Sometimes I will also eat some raw baby greens, brocolli, and tomatoes.

current playlist- at the drive in- in casino out

640- not all my food. my roommates left it, so it's either in my tummy or in the trash.

Right now I am listening to Deftones rarities and B-sides along with some various Mike Patton bands and old Deftones.

i cant listen to mike patton stuff this late at night. I will start freaking out and think there are goblins outside or some wierd evil thing wanting to kill me.

i was listening to AFI the Art of Drowning, but people are either studying or sleeping, so I decided to turn it off. if i didn't, i'd probably get written up.

art of drowning's a good pretty album. I still like black sails the best though.

anyone else an at the drive in fan?

lol, for me there is no wrong time for patton. I would even do karaoke for a Mike Patton song if I was buzzed, which is meaningful as I can not sing for a damn and would be horribly embarassed.

My friend is a huge fan of them. I can not stand that tpe of singing. I hate Sparta with a passion and I am not totally into Mars Volta (some songs are ok and they are cool live), but I respect them.

I'd go with the corndogs and the ice cream. If you eat all that string cheese you won't s*#t for a week.

With that, I'm cashing it in. Good night all.

i dont like sparta either. mars volta is a band i enjoy extremely. when ATDI broke up, all the creativity and goodness went to mars volta and sparta was just blah.

ill probably put in some Smiths later.

mars volta is really interesting to me because they are a band that is totally opposite from the mainstream, yet here at least at SB almost every college person LOVES them, even if they are yuppy preppies. So they are a band against the mainstream that has become the mainstream. They are like the new style of college rock I guess.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5169460

next years free agents.

#1 player i want is derrek lee.

I am surprised Cubs have not gotten him extended yet, probably will try real hard this season. If not, I say forget Loney!

if the cubs dont extend Dlee and he hits the market, then loney can be traded for roy oswalt or something.

Is there some good outfield free agents? I want a third person to add to Zito and Lee to make the holy trinity of free agents we must sign.

*Are

milton bradley!

carlos lee, cliff floyd, jose gullien.

I have heard of him. He seems to be from this area so I think he could flourish here and become the player is he capable of.

Oh yeah I forgot about Lee. We need a masher, (I like Guillen but Flanders would never approve of him) so Lee becomes the third piece of the holy trinity. LEE/ZITO/LEE, it works even at a marketing level.

if kent retires and drew opts out after this year, then we would need derek Lee very badly.

LZL will replace DKP

Forgive me if this has already been mentioned - I just got a chance to sit down, and will read through the comments next, but:

On the FSN late night show, Michael Eaves, Gubicza, and Kennedy were Hot Stove-ing the Dodgers, and said stuff I'm happy to hear the MSM say. Not because it provides information, but because it actually seems right.

They said that the only priorities left are OF and SP. They went through the possibilities, admitted that Damon, Sanders, Lofton, and Nomar are all old and declining, but that short contracts laden with incentives might be a good idea. Kennedy said that they don't need and shouldn't pay for Damon. "He brings 2 things to the table: leadoff hitter and CF. The Dodgers don't need either." He wants Nomar.

As for pitching, they recognized that there aren't a lot of good options. Might have to overpay for Millwood or Weaver. That was about it.

No mention of 1b.

I secretly hope Kent still wants out or we deal him at the deadline for Milledge.

well Kennedy and Gubicza are more knowledgable then your average MSM person when it comes to the dodgers. they are on the right track.

although overpaying for a SP isnt something i want to do.

I secretly hope Kent still wants out or we deal him at the deadline for Milledge.

that would make me happy.

2007-
1b-Lee
2nd-Young
3rd-Laroche
ss-Furcal
C-Martin
Lf-Lee
Cf-Milledge
Rf-Guzman

SP-Zito
SP-Penny
SP-Lowe
SP-Jackson
SP-Billingsley

We trade Navarro, Loney, and Izturis for uhh I really would not care at this point.

navarro, loney, izturis AND tiffany for roy oswalt!

the only thing that bugs me about the 2007 lineup is no left handed pop at all.

Ok we get Oswalt and trade Lowe to the Phillies for some low prospects to keep the sytem deep.

669-
Yeah pretty much LaRoche. DeWitt will be on is way eventually and I think he will develop some good pop for a second baseman.

laroche actually bats right handed.

we would need a big lefty bopper in there. if drew doesnt opt out, he would be it.

Wow I did not remember that. We could keep Drew. I am just sad because the LZL sounds so good.

dunn would be in the last year of his contract.. we could always trade for him!

True, but not as cool as the LZL in 07 campaign.

So we keep Drew, what do we do with Guzman?

Maybe Guzman can change his name to Lee.

guzman= LF
milledge= CF
drew= RF

It's now the LZ in 07 campaign.

1.Furcal
2.Milledge
3.Drew
4.Lee
5.Laroche
6.Guzman
7.Martin
8.Young
9.Oswalt

This lineup is potentially insane.

i would build a shrine to mr. ned if that was our 07 lineup.

okay.
http://www.baseballwebtv.com/

that, is freakin awesome. I am definately getting a subscription. Ill scout our potential 2006 draftees! i do have some players in mind i would like logan white to get.

Wow that is pretty cool. I hope we go with a pitcher with the seventh pick just because it is so much easier to acquire quality hitters, imo. I am going to sleep and hopefully dream about that lineup. So insane! Late.

LZ for 07

Hmm. For anyone entertaining the idea of trading for Jason Michaels as a 3rd OFer, I don't think it's likely. Not so soon after Bradley was jettisoned:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2260532

667 Will Delwyn Young's glove stick at 2B? I thought the Dodgers had him working in LF in the winter league (I think Venezuela).

651 I saw Mars Volta live once. I got bored. ATDI was better.

FWIW, the NYT this morning suggested LA may have the inside track on Nomar because he and Mia have a home here. The article said he might play 1B/LF.

From MLB.com:

"But it was a merry day for the Royals. Santa already has delivered a big portion of Baird's wish list."

Does one laugh at or cry for the Royals fan when reading something like this?

That Christmas-come-early bounty? Scott Elarton, Doug Mientkiewicz, Mark Grudzielanek, and Paul Bako. I'll take the lump of coal, please.

688 A lot of z's and k's to feast the eyes on, however.

686 Whats not to like about 45 minute long guitar solos? Hmm?? Hehe.

690 Yes, there's something wrong when you play 5 songs in a 1 hour set.

In Buster Olney's blog today he mentions an article by Ray Ratto from SF http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/16/SPGLDG943J1.DTL (sorry cant install tiny url at work) The article basicly says all this nonsense about how Colletti is rebuilding the Dodgers with Ex Giants and goes on to offer suggestions to older players to instead of retiring join the Dodgers. I think this piece is mind bendingly ludicrous. Once again I really dislike SF, at least up here in Humboldt our hippie journalist try to use facts.

If the Mets are refusing to include Milledge for Zito (as is the rumor), then why would they trade him for Kent? You guys really need to let go of that dream

And the fact that all 4 of those Royals signings serve as upgrades shows the sorry condition of the Royals

693
You guys really need to let go of that dream.

Yes, let it go. If it loves you, it will come back to you.

Wow, does anybody else see THREE Bob T. posts up on the top sidebar?

Almost a Balco-esque level of production there....hey, wait a minute...

Reading over the comments, I felt like last night was spent in a big dorm room. Of course, in my college days, most people didn't even have TVs in their room, and no one had cable.

New post up top.

692-

I read that "article" and I totally agree with you. It's totally agenda driven without any notion of the facts and the truth of the matter.
Mueller was a Giant, sure, but M. Alou, F. Alou, and J. Fassero were all Expos, should we say tha the Giants are a retread of that franchise merely bc they have 2 players and a manager that spent time, ney, came up through the Expos system!
Furthermore, he fails to realize the difference between offering a K and signing a player. Lofton and Sanders have been offered K, but as one esteemed blogger has suggested its entirely possible that those offers are windo-PR-dressing. BTW there is no way the Dodgers sign BOTH those ex-Giants anyway.

More importantly, those 2 players are hardly "Giants". So they spent some time there--thats like saying anyone who signs Burnitz is a Dodger raider or Mark Grudzielanek for that matter.

Its one thing for a local writer to knock team policy, its entirely something else to have a foreign writer lambast your team, especially one from SF.

697 - I read the article and wondered if he missed the fact that Jose Cruz actually was on the Dodgers.

698- I think he was talking about Cruz SR.

699 - Except Sr. has no affiliation with the Giants. Too bad Ratto missed Cruz, since it would've made his point slightly less flimsy and a teensy bit more relevant.

699 - I'm not sure about that, but if that is the case, what an off-target callback to someone who is emphatically remembered as an Astro.

700,701- I thought the same thing about Cruz Jr. then tried to raionalize that it must be the Sr. I promise I will never try to make sense of nonsense again. How does one go about getting a job in journalism with a spit column like that?