I hope to see Saenz in the starting lineup during this series. I hope he's been taking grounders in practice, because I can't remember the last time he's played a position. And to get in the lineup, he'll probably have to play 3B.

Chad is so rad that he's changing his number to 1.01229097

2 After a season in LA, he'll be so tan he'll have to change his number to 1.60033452904105

Some had to pull the trig(ger) on these jokes.

My hunch is you will Olmedo start during the first part of the next road trip where the Dodgers will face 3 lefthanders in the first 7 games.

Its pretty hard to get Olmedo playing time but next to PNC Park, he hits really well in Miller Park. Also, Grady probably believes that Olmedo is the best option to keep on the bench since he has the most experience in that spot.

Some other thoughts on the roster, its been mentioned that Jason Repko will get some playing time today and tomorrow due to LHs starting for the Reds. I see these as probably Jason's last shot at starting for a while, if the Dodgers choose to platoon against LH starters on the next road trip, I think Matt Kemp should and will get the nod over Jason.

Aside from Kemp, Loney and Kuo, its probable that Diaz or another catcher will be added to the roster, LaRoche could come up as an experience move but I don't think he would play much or at all, if Gio cleared waivers, he'll be added, now Houlton and Robles are still on the 40 man roster but as we all remember, Houlton cannot relieve and Robles just doesn't have anywhere to play. Delwyn Young is probably another guy because he has some pop and outfield depth, he also has only one more option year.

Nate and I among others have talked about Meloan since he started putting up those numbers, the rare college pitcher but he looks like to me the closest to the majors righthanded starting pitcher prospect in the system with Orenduff's injury an issue.

6 - I've noticed - just wanted people to see that outsiders are noticing.

"...Dodgers take the reigns off."

They have reigns on when someone has throne badly.

Betemit should not be allowed to face lefthanders at all. And, if he does, he must give up switch hitting. I'd probably just stick Lugo at third though instead of Saenz.

And what is up with Hendrickson being delayed so Penny can start on 4 days rest. Penny got raped his last outing. Shouldn't he be the one getting the extra rest?

10 I would guess its because Hendrickson is a bad pitcher, while Penny is a good pitcher.

I hope you meant that Penny got "raked", because the other word doesn't make much sense.

Penny is a better pitcher than Hendrickson. It makes more sense for the Dodgers to keep Penny on schedule than Hendrickson.

Penny is the 8th best righthander in the National League!

12 It makes sense if he's talking about the umpires, although perhaps in bad taste.

9 That thing has bugged me no end for years. Question: Why do players insist on switch-hitting when they so consistently do poorly from one side or the other? Bigger question: Why do managers and GMs allow them to do it? Why don't they tell Betamitt (and the others) to try hitting against the left handed pitchers left handed, or expect to pick up a lot of splinters. (That in itself is funny. The players bench is probably more comfortable than my recliner. It hasn't been wood for many years, I bet)

15 The Dodgers' current first base coach had the same problem as I recall.

14
If Penny's problems were with the umpires, then why would he need to be held back?

2007 could be a coming out party for him when the Dodgers take the reigns off.

Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Beatrix, and King Juan Carlos all would like to know when their reigns are coming off, too. Or, when did Meloan become a monarch?

I know Penny is a lot better than Hendrickson. I'm just saying that in light of his last outing he may be in need for more rest.

8 - didn't see that. Heh!

Ok, who will the Padres be rooting for in tonight's Dodgers/Reds game? The boys from down south are only 1/2 game behind the crew from Cincy and a full 2 nomars behind the mashers from la-la-land. I would think they would be happy if the Reds and Dodgers beat each other up a little while taking care of their own business.

21 Two Nomars?

When was the last time outside of an NBA draft when a guy 6 foot, 244 (beefy to borrow from the Dan Patrick Show) got described this way.

"I tell you what, that little kid has a live ball. He's just like Matt Cain -- throws hard, got a good curveball. ... He's got a bright future ahead of him."

D-Backs 2B Orlando Hudson on Dodgers RHP Chad Billingsley, who pitched seven strong innings to beat Arizona and improve to 4-0 in his last six starts

18 - Very funny, LOL, of course Mr. Goldstein chose the wrong spelling of the word, "reins" is what he was looking for. He needs to use the Thesaurus tool on his template.
19 - I agree! I just wish I had known on Friday as I would have picked tonight to go instead of Tuesday with my firm's tickets. With the West Coast D-Rays in charge, I might as well chalk tomorrow night up as lost and hope the Blue can win tonight and Wednesday. Maybe I'll get lucky and the Dodgers will just outscore the Reds in a slugfest.

And Orlando went 2-4 off Chad, albeit one hit was a bunt single.

15 Have you seen any minor league splits indicating Betemit can't hit righthanded? He's only had 150 ML ab's righthanded between this year and last. That said I wouldn't mind seeing him face some lefties from the left side.

24 No D-rays this weekend, I am thinking there could be an Aaron Sele sighting.

21 I think Dodger Hate in SD And SF far exceeds standings success. If the Dodgers were representing the world in a game against Mars or whomever, with the loser's whole world being destroyed, they'd still chant,"Beat LA!"

Jon, so...why have you all of a sudden deceided to bring up Hee-Seop Choi again on the dodgers message board?

http://www.forums.mlb.com/ml-dodgers

under the fantasy baseball section, there's a post in your name.

29 - Wow, I didn't write that. That's horrible that someone would do that.

28 - More so in SF. I still believe there is enough migratory Dodger fans in SD that makes SD not quite as hostile as SF. Of course as far as SF, the feelings mutual (except the end of the world hypothetical if the Giants were chosen to reprresent the world) but I would root for the AL Evil Empire (Yankees) if they faced the NL Evil Empire Giants in a WS. So, I would not root for the Giants against any earthly team but would root for them if they faced the Sith or the Borgs or any hostile alien forces.

29 - If I were going to revisit something I wrote on Dodger Thoughts, wouldn't I do it on Dodger Thoughts?

If the Dodgers were representing the world in a game against Mars or whomever, with the loser's whole world being destroyed...

Sounds like a great Bugs Bunny episode, also starring Marvin the Martian.

There's a couple posts over there with Jon's name on it. It looks like someone is just posting pieces Jon wrote on this blog.

29 Gee, I wonder who that could have been.

So this is how it's going to be for me now. Great.

If that's really our old friend, I'm sure he'll get over it eventually.

I hope.

36 - at least he hasn't stolen your credit cards.

34.

there are also some posts there by "joeyp" which I doubt are really by Joey.

what's going on?

There's been an increase of things like this over at True Blue L.A., though those were only directed at joeyp.

28 - This brings up an interesting hypothetical. If we could bring up any team to face an alien force in a one baseball game or series struggle for survival, which WS champ would you pick?

The Ruth Gehrig Yankees of the 1920's, The Gashouse Cardinals of the 30's and 40's, The Yankees of Mantle, Whitey & Berra from the late 40's to the early 60's, the Dodgers of 55 or 1963 or 65? Oriole teams from 1966-71, The A's of 72-74, The Big Red Machine 75-76?
Many dynasties to choose from including the Yankees 1996-2001 and the 2004 Red Sox.
If our planet's survival hinged on it, The Yankees dynasties in the 20's or 50's would be a good bet along with the 70's A's. For 1 game, the Big Red Machine of 1975 or the Boys of Summer in 1955 or the 1998 Yankees or 04 Red Sox would be good choices. Discuss...

I should also include the 1960's Dodgers with Koufax on the hill for 1 game for the planet would be a solid choice!!

41 Clearly it would have to be a team from the integration era, so that eliminates a lot of your choices.

The '50s Dodgers never won the big one. The '50s Yankees played in a vastly inferior league. The '70s A's weren't really that good, they just got lucky in the playoffs. The '04 Sox were not a historically great team by any stretch of the imagination.

Which leaves us with the Frank Robinson Orioles, the Big Red Machine, and the 1998 Yankees. Since I do think the talent level in baseball has gradually increased over time, I'd pick the '98 Yankees.

42

yeah you can't go wrong with Koufax.

41 Assuming the game will take place on a neutral world, my choice of team would depend on the locale (i.e. is it a hitter's planet or a pitcher's planet?)

Just looking at the standings and noticing that the Padres would have to go 19-11 if the Dodgers keep on pace. If we split the remaining series against them (a longshot given our recent outcomes against them), that goes up to 17-9, a .654 winning percentage. Of course, if we don't go 17-13 they may not have to go 19-11...

Oh and Jon, I would probably just ignore what people say on the forums of dodgers.com, everyone else does. Plus, mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery.

45 It would have to be played on Saturn so the winner could take home the rings!

Ok, I'm off for the rest of the morning.

46 - Oh and only 10 of our 30 games are against teams above .500, not surprising since only 4 teams in the NL are above .500, and one of them is us (the Phillie's are .500 exactly).

43

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_World_Series

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_World_Series

Today was the first time I'd ever read any of the message boards at Dodgers.com.

It may also be the last. I fear for the future of our team with fans like those.

43 - Are you forgetting 1955 Brooklyn and 1959 Los Angeles Dodgers - 2 WS titles in 5 years? Uou can say frequently they didn't win the big one, but never is erroneous as to the 50's decade in Dodger history. I do agree with you that integration would be beneficial to compete with another planet so probably the 60's(when most of baseball was finally integrated) and going toward the present would be the more logical choices.

49 Those were not the best of the '50s teams, though. The '59 team, let's be honest, was a joke of a champion and the '55 team was full of old guys on their last legs.

The 1953 Dodgers were easily the best team in franchise history, followed probably by '52 or '41 or '42, but those teams will always bear the black mark of October failure.

So if you didn't have a time machine, and had to pick a current team for this intergalactic battle, who would it be?

I'd go for the Twins, and make them play in the Metrodome.

But the Padres are ahead of the Dodgers in the all-important ESPN Power Rankings!

Although I think they are a few days old. Especially with the Twins ranked above the White Sox, although that's never stopped the guy who puts those together from coming up with odd ideas.

On switch-hitters with large platoon splits:

It sometimes happens that guys stop switching. JT Snow comes to mind, but there've been others. It's confounded of course, with managerial decisions to platoon two players - so that a guy stops hitting from one side of the plate, but also never faces same-hand pitchers.

It seems to me that it's not obvious that having someone like, say, Betemit hit strictly lefty would help him. If he's always switched, then he's never seen a LHP while batting left-handed. In that case, there's no reason to expect that he'd be better off hitting lefty. It depends on what they think the problem is. Is it just too few ABs? Is there something mechanically wrong with his RH swing? My guess is that it'd be the former for Betemit, but probably the latter for Jose Cruz Jr. (who got many more ABs lefty, but was better righty).

Did any of that make sense?

I don't think giving up on a 24-year-old's right-handed swing is a very bright idea. Once it becomes extremely clear that he will never learn to hit from that side, I'd encourage him to give up switch hitting. But we are a long, long, long way from that point.

150 ABs tells you nothin' about nothin.'

I think given the already fantastic qualities of the question, it should be allowable to pick either an All-Earth team, or even an All-Time team.

Also, do we assume the aliens (or whoever are trying to destroy Earth) are playing? If not, what about making their lineup from the best-of-fictional (literature or movie) baseball players come to life?

Hey all -- back from the wilds of Oconomowoc. Vacation is good. My five year old, who can hardly swim, now likes kayaking more than virtually everything else except baseball.

Stood on the spot in Milwaukee where someone shot Teddy Roosevelt, but a thick copy of his speech stopped the bullet. Hanguns apparently were not then what they are now. Or maybe the speeches have changed. I learned what a cow magnet is. And a cow trainer too. Other than the Brewers game I mentioned before -- where Tomo Okha decided to try batting lefty and went two for two w/four RBIs plus a bases loaded catcher's interference -- had no baseball awareness the entire time. We did have a Dr. Seuss tape with us, with the stories read by one Marvin Miller.

I know you've missed your Nats notes, so let me catch you up: The Nationals remain a bad, bad team that lost most of its games over the past 10 days.

Hope spirits have been high around here. Dodgers still in first place, after all.

Bill James is fond of saying that the 1941 Dodgers are the only team in baseball history that was above average at every position. However, looking at the 1953 Dodgers, it's pretty clear that they were not only above average at every position but well above average. (Counting J Robinson as the left fielder of course.)

The weakest link in the lineup was a Gold Glove third baseman with a .291 average.

Isn't it odd how Sam DC is never aroud when Superman shows up? Hmmm....

er, "around"

Not "aroused" huh?

Hey LAT -- do I recall you had plans to see the Lerners again or some such?

60. I haven't heard such a ground breaking theory since it was suggested that "Lost" is a prequel to "Fantasy Island."

Hey, it's strictly "don't ask, don't tell" with me. Not that there'd be anything wrong with that.

No one's seen LAT either. We think maybe he's gone to New York to steal another Shawn Green jersey for his daughter.

busy week..haven't been around here much.

Nice to see a couple wins in a row...but, is anyone else just a wee bit nervous looking at those NYM games on the schedule?

57 Speaking of baseball movies, has anyone ever played the IMDB keyword game? As the name implies, you have to guess the film's title based on the IMDB keywords.

For example, this one should be pretty easy:

Gay Slur
Obscene Finger Gesture
Baseball
Summer
Alcoholism
Female Athlete
Los Angeles California
Underdog
Ethnic Slur
Racial Slur
Kids And Family
Child
Coach
Farce
Little League
Pool Cleaner
Beer
California

67

That's obviously "The Natural"

Naked Gun?

Please please please can Vin Scully announce another World Series sometime soon?

I was always disappointed that the film Eric alludes to in 67 did not show Walter Matthau using a churn.

Bad News Bears?

Good think Pool Cleaner is in there.

72 yes

And I typed that before seeing Bob's comment in 71

Can fans who buy Who tickets at this link after viewing this picture sue for false advertising or Unfair Business Practices or some such?

http://tinyurl.com/le8p7

Per Baseball America: A look at the prospects in the Arizona Fall League.

MESA SOLAR SOX
TOP PROSPECT: SCOTT ELBERT, lhp, Dodgers
The first high school lefthander drafted in 2004--going 17th overall--Elbert certainly doesn't lack athleticism. As a running back at Seneca (Mo.) High, Elbert put up 2,449 rushing yards and scored 36 touchdowns as a junior before focusing solely on baseball during his senior season. After allowing 47 hits in 50 innings in his debut at Rookie-level Ogden, Elbert bounced back to rank as the No. 1 prospect in the low Class A South Atlantic League in 2005--putting up 8-5, 2.66 numbers in 115 innings at Columbus. The 21-year-old lefty has lively stuff, including an 88-93 fastball, slurvy breaking ball and average changeup. This season, Elbert jumped from high Class A Vero Beach to Double-A Jacksonville, where he was 10-9, 2.87 with 167 strikeouts in 135 innings. Dodgers officials believe Elbert will have an impact on the big league club as early as next season.

57 Perhaps the alien team should be made up of humans who have been abducted by aliens.

Here's a possible lineup:

2B Samantha Mulder
SS Michael Jackson
CF Tupac Shakur
1B Elvis Presley
3B Han Solo
RF Princess Leia
C Eric Cartman
LF Jodie Foster
P Odalis Perez (who clearly was abducted by aliens at some point and replaced with an inferior model)

Mouth To Mouth Resuscitation
Chased By Dog
Campout
Steak
Fence
Homerun
Candle
Junkyard
Doghouse
Chewing Tobacco
Vomit Scene
Carnival
Diving
Chase Scene
Black Eye
Baseball Glove
Blind Man
Cake
Twins
Baseball Fan
Treehouse
Babe Ruth
1960s
Narrative
Summer
Childhood
Baseball
Coming Of Age
Dog
Family
Friendship
Boy
Kids And Family
Vacuum Cleaner
Swimming Pool
Utah
Good Times
Title Spoken By Character
Children

The Jet Steals Home! The Jet Steals Home!

79 Heck, you only need the first two for that one.

This just in- no DNA match on Karr and charges will not be filed by the Boulder DA.

80 Actually, I think it's "stole home".

Thanks to someone here who recommended Alan Furst's books during an earlier discussion. I really enjoyed Night Soldiers (actually only 3/4 of the way through) on my trip.

82 Didn't he confess?

Stand by me?

82 I am not surprised. He might be sick, but a confession sadly doesn't mean he did it.

87. Sandlot

76 That reminded me of the line in "Major League."
"Some of these guys are dead..."

Jon, I'm very glad you pointed out the Ethier issue. I am not sure if that had been covered on this blog before, but his BB/K ratio is bad and getting worse by the day.
His batting line: .334/.375/.535 looks good now. But let's say you knock his BA down to .284, which might be generous considering how much he whiffs (65 times in 329 AB). Then you have a 284/325/485 left fielder who runs okay but not great. That makes Ethier look more like Jayson Werth circa 2004 than a budding star.

The Dodgers have enjoyed the Ethier ride, but I think that his average is a major fluke. He only hit .30? last year in AA, I believe. Of course he is still a very useful guy to have around, but I am fearful that he is about to use up a lot of outs in September.

Woops 87 was supposed to refer to 85,79. And yeah, you only really need the first two

I think Earth is the only planet in our solar system where baseball could be played easily. If the all-Earth team had to travel to a distant galaxy to play the aliens ; the players would be too old to compete when they arrived. If the game is played on our planet... we win big time !!

84 I believe in high profile cases, the police from time to time get confessions, which is why they often keep certain evidence out of the public eye to verify the confession, I think between the alibi given by his ex-wife and now the lack of a DNA match (which I am guessing is any DNA found in the household as a whole) were the factors that determined the no filing of charges.

Also and not to make this board into a discussion of criminal actions, my hunch is Colorado is still smarting from the Kobe Bryant matter which some, not all, believe was a hastily filed case that certainly had some problems, in this type of case, you want to make sure the easily understood evidence is foolproof to overcome the heavy scrutiny that the media will give this potential trial, so when the DNA didn't match plus an alibi by someone who perhaps may not be so inclined to provide one probably made it less appealing to the local DA's office.

84 Apparently he's just another lunatic enjoying some free pub.

For D4P -- A truish tale of the Statisticians who Won the