I haven't heard a peep.

Jon - I would think that this site would be the most logical place for him to break his silence...Any chance of getting him?

And spending time on alt.lit.aynrand

3- I don't remember where the article was, but one of the Bay Area papers ran a long article on Milton Bradley that included the tidbit that The Fountainhead was his favorite book. Which, if it wasn't self-evident, just goes to show that it's a bad idea to get attached to Ayn Rand fans.

Great news on Perez. He definitely has the most ability of any pitcher on the staff. If he's healthy, I expect him to have a great year.

Hopefully Billingsley can continue to pitch well. If he has a great Spring Training, will he make the team? That will make both the Brett Tomko signing and Jae Seo trade look really bad.

Color man Dan Bonner politely declined to make fun of him

In any event, as far as April is concerned, a great Spring Training by Chad shouldn't be taken much more seriously than a great Spring Training by Aaron Sele. Certainly, Chad has a nice future, but retiring the No. 89s of various teams is no assurance that he's ready for the Dodger starting rotation.

At some point, though, I do start to wonder whether people are getting hysterical about pitching in Vegas. I'm not singling you out, Miltie - nor am I denying that it's acutely difficult. But is there any proof to the notion that it's damaging, or are we just depressed about Edwin?

DePo and Tracy had good chemistry, it appears -- and it hurt both their careers, because (I'm assuming) it led to DePo's biggest blunder, the maintenance of Tracy as manager for '05 even though both men knew their philosophies were incompatible.

So, how nice they got along. My grandmother and George H.W. Bush would be impressed by DePo sending Tracy a nice card. But the baseball outcome suffered and as fans that's the only thing that matters.

(P.S. There is yet another Brokeback Mountain parody waiting to be made from clips of Tracy and DePodesta. Wish I knew how to edit video on a PC. I wish I knew how to quit you, Paulie!)

If Vegas merely challenges pitchers, if it teaches them how to pitch without their best stuff, than that's not a problem. If it forces pitchers to change mechanics or just flat out not learn how to pitch major league ball, then the Dodgers should have been out of there yesterday.

a couple months in vegas for billingsley probably wont hurt him. who knows, he might even succeed there.

ERA 1.52 IP 23.2 HR 2 BB 8 K 31 K9 11.79 WHIP 0.97 K/BB 3.875

Last year Osoria had a 2.62 ERA there in 55 IP, very impressive. Derek Thompson has a 3.43 ERA, but in only 21 IP. Odalis, in a rehab, was at 4.30 in 14.2 IP. Schmoll, in 26 IP, had a 4.78 ERA. Calyle was at 4.88 in 48 IP. Mahomes led the 100+ IP group (which was him, Eckert, Totten, and Nall) with a 5.35 ERA. Of the 10 pitchers with 50+ IP, only Osoria and Gonzalez were under 5.00

There's a legitimate argument that the guys that pitched most of the season there just suck, although many of them were very impressive for Jacksonville in 2003 or 2004, or wherever else they pitched

Last year Osoria had a 2.62 ERA there in 55 IP, very impressive. Derek Thompson has a 3.43 ERA, but in only 21 IP. Odalis, in a rehab, was at 4.30 in 14.2 IP. Schmoll, in 26 IP, had a 4.78 ERA. Calyle was at 4.88 in 48 IP. Mahomes led the 100+ IP group (which was him, Eckert, Totten, and Nall) with a 5.35 ERA. Of the 10 pitchers with 50+ IP, only Osoria and Gonzalez were under 5.00

There's a legitimate argument that the guys that pitched most of the season there just suck, although many of them were very impressive for Jacksonville in 2003 or 2004, or wherever else they pitched

Greg Miller got 1ip for the Dodgers today.

Other than that, pretty boring day in baseball.

No it won't. If you want to take 2 innings in ST that seriously, Tomko pitched 2 perfect innings the other day.

You cannot count on young pitchers, so it was a good move to set the rotation, in case Chad was not ready.

Also, it would still not make the Seo move look bad, maybe for Tomko it would, but I think the Seo move will prove a steal for us this year.

Besides, if Chad is really lights out @ AAA, maybe we can use Tomko in the bullpen. And I think Chad has a better chance at being successful at AAA, because he has more poise than guys like Jackson, and Hanrahan.

After all, remember Jackson had only been pitching for a few years, while Chad has been a pitcher for more of his life.

As for Billingsley, more good than bad if he starts the season in the minors. Let him sharpen his accuracy and improve his changeup. As Broxton and EJ found out, just throwing hard doesn't cut it in the majors. Build up Billingsley slowly, whether it's Vegas or Jacksonville doesn't matter much.

If he does come up during the season, you want him fresh and confident in his accuracy and changeup.

And delaying Billingsley's arb. clock is another plus.

I saw some of him pitching last night. Didn't look like his command was on, he got Ichiro, and the next batter out his first inning, but struggled, and didn't get anyone out the second inning.

That would give you a choice between watching the game from the left side of the mound or the right.

If everyone is healthy I don't want to see Chad in a Dodger uniform in April. Seo will be one of the best number 5 pitchers in baseball this year and Tomko can be Tomko as long as our big 3 are healthy.

Abreu is batting average dependent but if you can hit 325, that has value. Not sure why anyone see's him as Izzy since Izzy was no stroker in the minors and was all defense while Abreu is a hitter with speed and gap power. When I watched him at the AFL he showed plenty of gap power during batting practice. The players with speed who have zero power are the ones I could care less about, but a speed player with gap power makes the defense play you honest and increases the chances of those line drives finding holes. Plus he is a GG 2nd baseman and can play SS without much fall off. JMO

sheldon williams is sam cassell's big brother.

which doesnt make sense if you look at their ages.. but you know what i mean.

I don't know if Houlton would be better than Chad. IMO, if one of our starters go down in the second half, and Chad has been dominating, I'd call him up.

line for the season:
22IP 14H 6er 2bb 27K 2.45era

now, i was never really a bard fan. hes always had a effortless fluid delivery and a good fb, but his control and secondary stuff was absolutely terrible last year. he did well in the cape over the summer but scouts said his slider was really inconsistent and he was helped by the amatuers adjusting to using wooden bats. either way, he has really silenced his critics so far and will rise up the draft boards drastically if he continues it.

andrew miller pitches tomorrow.

i think hes an alberto callaspo clone. and callaspo only garnered a AAAA power bullpen arm.

Agree on Abreu.

Interesting comp on Callaspo/Abreu. Maybe Abreu will develop a little more pop than Callaspo has shown?

Byrnes did well there, by the way. There's a buzz that the Angels could've gotten a bit more for Callaspo. AZ has pitching issues, but Byrnes seems to have a clue.

they still need pitching- particularly top of the rotation pitching. maybe when the marlins put up dontrelle willis for auction the dbacks could land him with a package of some of their elite positional players.

"I just try to put my two cents in to help the cause," he says.

It will be baseball poetry if the Dodgers are winning.

It will be obnoxious noise if they aren't.

Hmmm...did Plaschke just say that chemistry is determined by winning and losing?

reddick is a good college player, but i dont think he will amount to much in the nba. this years nba draft class is pretty weak though so jj might sneak into the lottery.

i am really high on carlos gonzales and i think drew will hit but is he going to be like his brother injury wise?

i dont really question hu's power. i think he will have enough power to be a good mlb shortstop. pecota has him hitting how many homers in his prime? 12? or something like that.

He will definitely go in the top 10 though. This draft is weak. Gay is the only guy with superstar potential who also pretty polished. Aldridge might be an all star. Morrison should be solid. Rodney Carney has great potential, but he's still a little bit raw. Teams will think that Redick will be an impact player when he enters the league. What some of them won't realize is that he's going to have a harder time getting his shot off in the pros because he's only 6'4. He's not great at creating his own shot and he's too weak to drive to the basket in the pros. He's also a below average defender and hogs the ball like Kobe Bryant even though he doesn't have an ounce of his talent.

Dick, just admit that Redick isn't the player you thought he was.

Agree that Arizona's oung positional talent is exciting. But as a franchise, Arizona's upside over the next 5-6 years is no greater than that of the LAD.

I agree that it's a reach by Plaschke to connect Lofton/Drew as he did. I do, however, buy the buzz out of STL and ATL that Drew's fire can wane at inopportune times.

But I don't think that fire will require fanning this year. Remember, Drew is in something of a walk year. With Boras clients, I tend to think that's a good thing.

Go back to Pudge's big year in 2003 that led Florida to a World Series title. Or Beltre in 2004. Or Drew in 2004. Or Beltran in 2004 (last year, Beltran appeared two gears slower, even after the sore hammy).
I think Boras breeds a certain amount of career management into his veteran clients.

One other thing about Drew: He has chronic patellar tendinitis. The best thin