I find interesting that the Angels insist on calling themselves "Angels" in Spanish. None of the teams are using Spanish equivalents of their nicknames, which I assume is for marketing purposes.

How many 71-91 (or similarly abysmal) teams have ever led the league in attendance? It seems to me Dodgers fans are unfairly derided as being casual and aloof.

I saw a game in St. Louis last August in which Pujols hit two home runs in three at-bats. It wasn't until that second home run that the crowd could even muster an MVP chant. It seems to me that by August of 2004 Beltre heard such chants every at-bat. After hearing for years about how loyal, passionate and knowledgeable Cards fans are, I was very disappointed with the reality.

The 1964 Mets went 53-109 and were second in the NL in attendance behind the Dodgers. They outdrew second place Cincinnati by over 900,000.

After hearing for years about how loyal, passionate and knowledgeable Cards fans are, I was very disappointed with the reality

Cards fans arent really bandwagoners. They expect Pujols to hit home runs. So its nothing out of the norm when he does. Compare that to Dodger fans (whom still play with beach balls), or Cubs fans (whom are only there bc its the 'hip' place to be)...There's a difference.

the Dodgers have increased their Latino audience significantly over the past four years – it has grown from 32 percent in 2001 to more than 42 percent in 2005

Does this mean that 42% of DS attendees are latino? Or does this mean that Dodger fans in general are 42% latino?

Correction: It was actually Sept. 8 against the Mets, 5-0, in which Carpenter notched his 21st win. Tim Hamulack pitched in that game - not well, apparently - but I don't remember him.

Yeah, it wasn't so much that Pujols wasn't getting any love as the fans were never into the game. It was a very quiet crowd. But maybe just bad timing on my part.

I don't think most Dodger fans are remotely apathetic. However, not everyone who attends a game at Dodger Stadium is a Dodger fan, or a passionate Dodger fan. Some do go for beer, boos and beachballs. The four Bs.

That's three B's. The fourth B would be babes.

You're either too literal or not literal enough - I was just having some fun and counting the two Bs in beachballs.

Looks like Drew's surgeries aren't killing his power. He has a triple and home run off Bonderman in his first two at-bats.

Can't help it, it's the way I was raised. Call me retentive, but beachballs being a compound word only counts as one B. Sue me.

Nice to see that JD is not having any trouble mashing the ball. That was my biggest worry is that his shoulder and wrist surgeries would negate his power but I think his spring has answered that question. Nomar must be watching Loney mash and wonder what he's doing there. Really like the announcing team (Ruess and somebody) I'm listening to on MLB compared to Stiener and Monday.

Where I sit I think a conservative estimate is 80% Hispanic.

10.

I take it we are winning? How is Penny doing?

12

I'm really liking this announcing team as well. I think the play-by-play is the guy from the Vegas 51s. Russ Langer or something like that?

12

I'm really liking this announcing team as well. I think the play-by-play is the guy from the Vegas 51s. Russ Langer or something like that?

10, 12 I credit Kenny Lofton. Too bad he's too busy lighting fires under people to, you know, hit.

I see Lofton has already begun lighting a fire under Drew.

The toaster is on the fritz again.

3-2 Dodgers.

It seems to me that regardless of a team like the Dodgers record, in an ever growing metropolitan area, there are bound to be enough father's with young sons (or daughters), families looking for a nice outing, and thugs with nothing to do to continue attendance growth YOY.

As for the Spanish language site, it seems like a pretty smart idea considering Hispanics accounted for 49% of the population growth in the US since 2000, much of that in LA.

As for Dodger fan loyalty I think there are alot of Dodger fans as loyal as fans of Gammons' favorite teams. It's just that while they have a whole winter to whine about their teams, we're at the beach.

16 I'll see if I can come up with an original thought.

20

Why bother?

All of a sudden Werth says he feels a lot better and started working out. I wonder if Cody Ross is the medication that produced the miracle cure?????

15 Isn't it the 51s guy (Langer) and A. Martinez? I can listen to the games live on a station out of Banning (1490 for the IE folks) but of course, you can't hear them on 980.

13
Penny has been unimpressive but we rocked Bonderman so you have to like that. Kemp just made a nice play in CF to hold a runner at 3b. Fun lineup to listen to today while the rain comes down.

I wonder if Cody Ross is the medication that produced the miracle cure?????

He's this year's Tyler Houston.

25 Hopefully he's this year's Jason Romano.

23
Whoever he is, he is a very good play by play man and Ruess can do the color job without being to preachy. Wasn't he considered a prankster when he was on the team along with Jay Johnstone.

Loney just made a spectacular play according to them.

By this logic, Matt Kemp cured Cody Ross.

The weather forecasters are predicting snow for my neck of the woods in Altadena. They better come through, they make it sound like this will be the great blizzard of 06.

23

Jerry Reuss is doing color right now on my feed, not A. Ruess is really good.

Loney with a great catch of a foul pop-up to get Penny out of the jam.

You'd think Cody Ross would at least garner the at bats being given to Delwyn Young.

Young is 2-18 with 4k's and 0bb's.

I'm not sure why he hasnt been sent to the minor league camp yet.

30 Ah, A. Martinez was doing the game the other day. I stand corrected.

Gracias, Mr. Wynn.

I think Penny has to shine this year (gee, that was oringinal) if our staff is going to make a difference.

I think A. Martinez looks like he's related to the Cora boys.

Its only spring training and take the stats with a grain of salt.

But Nomar is now 2-19 and swings at everything.

31 - It's March 10, and several players are in the WBC. I don't see any need to rush players to minor league camp.

Plus, you have Lofton and Ethier missing time.

Yech, is Penny still in there?

I'm just surprised because Tydus Meadows got shipped off to the minor league camp already and he has a better bat than Delwyn Young. Now granted he is older, but I'm not quite sure what the Dodgers see in Young.

Ha, Brian Meadows. This could be his Greyhound ticket right here.

31
Having followed D Young from the time he was in low A he has a set pattern of being a very slow starter and a ferocious hitter once he gets going. Noting this history I didn't think he had made of a chance to make the team out of ST but don't write him off because of his slow start. Come June, he will start to tear it up.

Penny went 4 inning, 47 pitches and gave up 2 runs including a home run but Ruess liked what he say so my unimpressive may not have been correct.

2 dingers back to back against Meadows and who should be surprised by that. Tigers lead 4-3. Kuo warming up.

But Nomar is now 2-19 and swings at everything.

Get used to the swinging at everything. I read that Nomar swung at the first pitch in over 50% of his at-bats last season.

Brian Meadows back to his normal self, back-to-back HRs and a single given up to his first three batters.

35 In Nomar's first AB today, one of the announcers said something to the effect of "Watching Nomar in yesterday's game, he's perfectly suited to hit second."

I'm pretty sure I read in some article about yesterday's game that Nomar swung at the first pitch in each of his 3 ABs and hit a routine fly ball each time.

I like Nomar, but second is certainly not where I would put him.

Ah, Brian Meadows. One of my favorites. Seriously...why?

Get used to the swinging at everything. I read that Nomar swung at the first pitch in over 50% of his at-bats last season.

He could never play for Tracy.

7.

I thought it was funny.....

reminds me of a simpsons joke, like something homer would say.

Delwyn Young can hit, but it's too bad he couldn't play 2B well enough to stay there.

I don't think his bat is strong enough to be an everyday OF.

45 - Thanks. That's kind of what I was going for.

Reuss keeps calling Brian Meadows Brian Lawrence.

I wish he was Brian Lawrence.

I wonder what Furcal would think about Nomar hitting behind him?

I'm about to get on a plane for Orlando. If anyone here will be in Vero this weekend, I am 6'8" and will be wearing...well, Dodger stuff. Just holler my name or "choi is the best ever!" and I'll know you're from this site.

49

I wonder what he'll think when Izturis is hitting behind him.

Meadows give up a slam.

Maybe I was to quick to dismiss Martin as not having a chance to make the team. Anyone think he could take Navarro's job if he continues to play this well while Navarro struggles?

Meadows gives up a grand slam. Hopefully this ends his quest for a spot and someone else can face major league hitters.

52 could have said "Meadows, give up a slam," then he would have obeyed my command.

It also could have said "Meadows gives up a slam," which he did.

OK, so if these announcers are that great, flood the Dodger phone lines with requests to have them on the radio all the time.

Someon get Sele into this game so he can ruin his shot at making the team too. Maybe the Tigers are hot today.

RHP
Furcal
Lofton
JD Drew
Kent
Nomar
Cruz
Mueller
Navarro

LHP
Furcal
Mueller
Drew
Kent
Nomar
Cruz
Repko
Navarro

57 Careful, Lofton is day to day. We won't see him until mid-June.

If anyone here will be in Vero this weekend, I am 6'8" and will be wearing...well, Dodger stuff.

6'8"? Bob Timmermann gets moved to power forward on the DT basketball squad.

I'm still a 5'10" 2-guard coming off the bench for soild perimeter D and occasional hot streaks from 3-point distance.

Altadena -- a light dusting of snow possible in the higher foothills. Huh, what do you know. Never got to see snow all the years I lived in LA, but we had an officially-classified "blizzard" yesterday, dropped four inches in a few hours, and life went on, except for those not used to driving in it.

What's the point of the brian meadows of the world, just let the guys that truely have a chance to make the roster play.

What's the chances we can package the guys who are out of options like cody ross with choi(since he's out of luck) in a trade to get a good prospect.

That is not my lineup just the lineup I expect Griddle to put out there.

I'm the 5'10" guard who usually never gets off the bench but is considered scrappy whenever he does.

If it actually snows in Altadena there will be people wandering around the streets aimlessly wondering when the "end" will come.

62

I think his nickname is supposed to be "Grittle," not to be confused with The Griddle, Bob's virtual home.

Brian Meadows exists as a source of noise in the system. Other teams think they did great because they scored 10 runs -- hey we might be good this year! "We just pulled a Meadows" is code for we're giving you unrealistic expectations.

59 - LOL, we're competing for minutes.

When I was a kid playing basketball, my ambitions were to be as good a player as Don Chaney - offensively and defensively. Then, Michael Cooper.

That might only mean something to people my age or older, I realize.

And Icaros is making plans for breaking into Bob's virtual home...

63 Looks like I'm fighting for a roster spot. How old are you?

When I was a kid playing basketball, my ambitions were to be as good a player as Lon Chaney

Add Jon to the 2-guard competition. I know I'm a few years younger than him, but since he owns the team I probably lose out.

68 I lurk there when I have nothing to say.

63 38, so I'm nearly retired. Been playing volleyball recently instead, so my ambition is to be a decent setter.

I always wanted to be Magic Johnson.

To me there wasn't or isnt't a better player.

cr

I'm a 5'10" 2-guard, and I own the building.

I'd be the point guard but my game was all about speed and quickness and at 47 I have neither.
During 1971 I was the whole Laker team and was even able to simulate Wilt because I played on an 8 foot basket with a volleyball. Good times.

Check out this item on ex-Dodger Mike Venafro:

http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/013405.php

Volleyball is probably my worst sport. I keep wanting to catch the ball.

74

Wouldn't you rather sit in your luxury box with a pack of 20-something bikini models?

76 That's hilarious. How could he not notice that?

I'll be the aging assistant coach who's never gonna get a shot at a head coaching job but who nods knowingly and says things like "you shoulda seen West and Baylor play. Now there were Lakers!"

78 Don't worry, I won't steal your roster spot. I just thought it would 74 would be a funny thing to say. Although, I wonder if saying "I own the ball" would have been funnier. Or maybe my brain is stupid and none of this is funny. In any event, I'm retired from basketball. Or actually, my knees and back have retired from basketball. My brain still thinks I can play, but again, my brain is stupid.

If we're playing Nerf Hoops, though, that's another story. I'm still an all-star on the Nerf hoop.

I'm still an all-star on the Nerf hoop.

Didn't Jon recently convert his living room to a Nerf court?

Kuo did a fine job to stop the bleeding and keep the Tigers under double digits for the time being.

Ruess was one of my old Dodger favorites. What a great trade that was even though I was a big fan of watching Rhoden pitch and hit.

82 - Yes, there, I'm Magic Johnson.

YeeHa, my BP 2006 just arrived. I'll be busy for the next few hours as I see if they can still be arrogant and funny and continue to bring excellent baseball analysis to the masses.

76 I probably should be crying for poor Mike after all those years of suffering, but me being me, I'm laughing my head off.

Man, you've got to feel bad for Venafro... well, unless it was him who put it on incorrectly, and not one of his doctors.

Mets doctors caught the problem, so what does that say for the Dodgers, Devil Rays, A's, and Rangers medical staff who never did quite figure it out?

No-hitter in the WBC!

9 - 0 US in the top of the second.

Can we also officially call the Joe Beimel experiment over? Tomorrow's transactions column, today: "Los Angeles Dodgers: Reassigned Brian Meadows and Joe Beimel to Minor League Camp/or/Waived Brian Meadows and Joe Beimel"

Or, "Traded Meadows and Beimel for Mike Venafro's elevator foot pad and some magic beans."

89 As long as Al Leiter doesn't come in, we should be in good shape.

Is anyone else listening to the US/South Africa WBC game on XM Radio? None other than Barry Bonds is sitting in the booth with the play-by-play guys, and they're talking about everything and anything other than steroids. It's like interviewing Charles Manson about his early career as a songwriter.

I'm surprised that there's room enough in that booth for the announcers, Bonds, and that big elephant.

Obviously good spring training stats cant really be taken in much confidence.

Should poor spring training stats be disregarded as well, or are they a precursor of things to come?

you cant really hold a double standard. if you dont take good ST stats seriously, you shouldnt take bad ST stats seriously.

the reason D young is still here is that hes on the 40 man roster. thats why hes at the big league camp and not the minor league camp.

92 You're not allowed to call the pot black.

92 To me, the bigger problem with ST "stats" is not the small sample size, but the fact that players and teams are playing with different goals than in the regular season. In ST, they might care about winning, but mostly, they care about preparing, and testing. If a guy decides to throw only fastballs to work on that, and the other team knows it or figures it out, then it's not a true test of his pitching or of the opponents' hitting. Throw in the much greater variation in player talent, with all the minor leaguers around, and ST stats are not just inefficient estimators of regular season stats - they're biased in ways that are too complicated to figure out. Known bias is easy to correct for. Unknown bias is impossible.

ST is really for scouts, I think. And in that sense, probably not all that helpful in terms of player evaluation. If I were running a team, I'd pay very little attention to ST performance, and only use it for getting guys I already know will make the team (based on actual stats from actually competitive games) in shape and re-focused. If not for the monetary implications, I'd use that anti-trust exemption to keep the media far far away.

Edwin Jackson pitched three scoreless innings today, making a total of five scoreless innings so far. A Devil Rays fan who says he has watched all the Devil Rays' pitchers this spring says that Jackson has yet to give up a hard-hit ball, and has been the most impressive pitcher on the team, which presumably means more impressive than Scott Kazmir.

On another happy note, Colletti said in a radio interview today he wants to make more trades and when other teams come calling they will want our young players. You go, Ned. Developing talent to make OTHER teams better is a fine Dodger tradition. It is better to give than to receive, my mother always told me.

Well I'm just thinking about Nomar.

Last spring with the Cubs, Nomar had 60AB's. He walked exactly 1 time. Of course he OPS'ed like 1200 also.

This spring Nomar is 2-20,0bbs and is again swinging at the 1st pitch most every time.

Is this his way of getting in tune for the season? Or is he truely this bad of free swinger that will have a hard fall playing in Dodger Stadium? Its one thing to be agressive (i.e taking big rips on hitters counts).. Its another thing to 1st ball hack 50% of the time.

I cant say Nomar was a juicer but its definitely an issue about what sort of talent he has left.

Edwin Jackson pitched three scoreless innings today, making a total of five scoreless innings so far

Maybe we should have traded Greg Miller instead. He gave up a 2run HR to some banjo hitter in his 1 inning. At least it would have been a middle reliever for a middle reliever.

62,65

Yes, the correct moniker is "Grittle."

your the one that liked the trade old bear.

I was ambivalent. I dont think Miller or EJ are very good.

My post was a sarcastic jab at CDF in response to his continous pimping of the Dodger farm hands, both current and former.

98 -- Miller is coming back from an arm injury and NOBODY thinks he is even close to being ready for the majors. It is the spring training difficulties of guys like that that we truly shouldn't care about.

Jackson should have been pencilled in to be our #5 starter. Instead, Colletti thought he needed Seo to be our #5, so he traded away Sanchez. Colletti then saw that he had created a need for a set-up man, so he got Baez, trading away Jackson and Tiffany to fill a hole that would not have existed in the first place had he just kept Sanchez and let Jackson be the #5 starter. There is a domino effect to bad decision-making.

98 -- Miller is coming back from an arm injury and NOBODY thinks he is even close to being ready for the majors. It is the spring training difficulties of guys like that that we truly shouldn't care about.

Jackson should have been pencilled in to be our #5 starter. Instead, Colletti thought he needed Seo to be our #5, so he traded away Sanchez. Colletti then saw that he had created a need for a set-up man, so he got Baez, trading away Jackson and Tiffany to fill a hole that would not have existed in the first place had he just kept Sanchez and let Jackson be the #5 starter. There is a domino effect to bad decision-making.

so you dont think miller is not very good because of his surgeries and injuries or miller was not very good to begin with?

I just learned that the no-hit pitcher today is ... a Giant. He's only 18, and will be in A ball this year.

91 - Truly, if you're not going to ask Bonds about being Bonds, so to speak, you shouldn't interview him.

I think in order to win(world series) you gotta do 1 of 2 things.
1) spend, and i mean more towards yankee type payroll than dodger type payroll.
2) you gotta build a team of prospects with some very talented veterans.

Teams that consist of loftons muellers tomkos carters (mediocre guys) are teams that may make it to the playoffs but get knocked out in the first round.

I'm waiting for the dodgers to build around billingsley broxton guzman laroche martin navarro maybe loney orenduff elbert with TOP veterans to fill the rest of the roster, none of those tomkos loftons muellers carters.

I'm getting so tired of the dodgers fooling around with izturis repko lofton tomko carter carrara mcgriff jordan henderson venafro ECT.

That's why if ned decides to trade away our top prospects i'm gonna be very dissappointed.

It doesn't help when ned trades jackson and tiffany for 2 middle relievers, 1 posing as a set up man who is going to be a free agent after 1 year.

104 -- OldBear, on the Dodgers.com board, used to spend a lot of time railing against Jackson and Miller even when they were at the height of their fame in 2003, because they were high school pitchers, not college pitchers, and because Dan Evans liked them, so to OldBear that meant they had to be garbage. But it was Baseball Prospectus, not Baseball America, that likened Miller to Sandy Koufax after 2003, so obviously not all saber-types were so closed-minded.

oldbear use to rally against every prospect. i remember it vividly. i remembered in 2004 he was putting billingsley is almost every trade scenario that popped in his mind.

109 -- Yes, OldBear always wanted the farm gutted for anything we could get, but after Evans traded Victor Diaz for Jeromy Burnitz, OldBear thought Diaz was the best thing since sliced bread. If Evans traded him away, Diaz HAD to be good. LOL

I don't mind trading prospects that are not going to ops in the upper 800s and 900s.
If ned was smart he'd trade guys like hu abreu aybar ect. for something better, trade a few of them for a guzman type or billingsley type.

107
i, for one, was happy that the dodgers paid rickey.

i do agree, however, that it would be great to see our prospects pan out and stick together for a while.

112 I think that move is what really made me think "you know, Dan Evans has no clue what he's doing." (I didn't appreciate what he had done with the minors back then.)

Speaking of keeping young players together, the Indians just signed Jhonny Peralta to a five year, 13 million dollar deal.

Speaking of the indians, i'd like the dodgers to get their hands on travis hafner, he ops'd 1003 last season and is turning 29 in june and has career stats of 293 388 556 944.

Forget loney, get hafner.

115

Wouldn't you think that eventually Cleveland might want to keep Travis Hafner around?

Or are we falling into the trap that every good prospect will end up with the Dodgers? Yankees fans always assume that every good prospect will end up on their team.

115 -- Didn't realize that the National League adoted the designated hitter rule while I wasn't looking.

117 I will gladly bench Choi for Hafner.

Andrew S,

In the Guzman thread, you listed some interesting statistics that gave age splits on Double-A ball. I would love to dig up more age-specific info; is there a site with sortables? Am also interested in getting things like, the average OPS for a certain minor league, which was also mentioned in the discussion.

119- I was hand pulling year by year stats from each team in each (Southern, Eastern, Texas) AA league, because I couldn't find a free, sortable source. Baseball Cube offers their database (for one year, I took it) for $75. That was way too much for me. If you find a better way, I'd love to know about it.