http://tinyurl.com/35oqf5

Overused:
129 Juan Pierre
120 Russell Martin
111 Luis Gonzalez
99 Nomar Garciaparra
29 Ramon Martinez
12 Shea Hillenbrand
11 Wilson Valdez

Apple's laptops are really solid right now; very well-made and solid, and a great value (especially the MacBook). Plus, with Bootcamp, you can run XP or Vista on 'em. I think anyone considering a new laptop should take a look at them: you get dual-booting choices, so you can keep all your legacy Windows software, if you want -- plus you get all the Mac goodies as well.

My wife's been using XP/OSX on her first-generation MacBook since they first came out, and everything works like a charm.

120 Rafael Furcal
110 Jeff Kent

ps what does he say about Billingsley? (maximum effort delivery, please) I sound grumpy but I'm not, just wanted to point that out. :o)

It can lead to rioting.

I like the customization of a PC. It's a pain at times, but I'm very particular about the way I like to do things. One of these days I need to make the jump to Linux.

I'm sorry it took a series of whimsical commercials for you to come to this realization.

Interestingly, the scanner I have at home only works on my Mac if I operate it through a Microsoft Office product. Despite the fact that the box said "Mac OS X compliant."

I hadn't felt so let down since the GPS on my rental car told me to take a wrong turn on Sunday.

I've yet to hear about that unwritten rule? but I'll ask around.

:)

10 - fanerman, would that be similar to what I call the "FireFox Face" one gets right before you hear, "...you still use what??"?

Old Friend Marlon PHing as the final out here in the 9th...

Betemit is gone for one reason: To unblock a place for Garciaparra. Ned old-schooled the team into third place.

Let me try to rephrase...

1) I hate Mac commercials.
2) I like PC's because I'm anal about customization.
3) I think Macs are good computers for people who either: a) want something that works simply and mostly automatically, or b) are Unix masters. I happen to be neither of the two.

Convenience wins by default, right? Unless you really care about a particular option, you mostly just want the option that's most convenient. I just happen to care about computers. This, in fact, makes me inferior other people who have more important things to care about.

Therefore, I hate Mac commercials because they rub it in my face that I am inferior.

16 Wrong. I don't even have a car =).

*Well, actually, I'm sure most DTers have moved onto to bigger things than me. In that case, disregard this post.

Ned did a radio interview about a month ago were he said the biggest disappointment of the year for him was Betemit (not exact words) I guess he was expecting plenty more from him.

Yes, exactly. But who am us, anyway?

He has four walks and three homers.

(off of Mota no less!)

it sounds like a good plan but I really doubt Jeff Kent will exercise his option, I'm pretty sure he'll be playing 2nd base for us in '08.

Loneys got great hands. I don't know, I think Jon just gave us the link for fun.

And, how can you be in two places at once, when you're not anywhere at all?

(Here's hoping I got your Firesign Theatre ref right).

Nook-love that tag.

Pierre - 25 starts, .353/.383/.431 in 109 PA
Ethier - 19 starts (24g), .278/.333/.528 in 81 PA
Gonzo - 15 starts (20g), .237/.313/.339 in 67 PA
Kemp - 14 starts (21g), .333/.343/.492 in 67 PA

Tonight is Pierre's 72nd straight start, and he has started in 130 of 132 games this season.

Thanks

"BEHIND THE BAG!" is my favorite non-Dodger Scully call of all time, and if I weren't so emotionally attached to October 15, 1988, it might be my favorite call ever. His voice as he shouts "here comes Knight and the Mets win it" captures the drama perfectly and is just superb.

Other great Scully calls that are always in my head:

-"2 and 2 to Harvey Kuenn..."
-"Hershiser looks in to make, what he hopes, will be his last pitch...fastball, got him lookin!"
-"...look who's coming up..."
-"Caught!" (The Dwight Clark game of all things)
-"if you have a sombrero, throw it to the sky"

typo I guess, It's Kent playing 2nd base.

C'mon, Shea!

I was hoping to get a bit more out of that second inning "World's Fair".

Bergmann is all over the place it seems.

Nice HR by Kent there, to pass Shooter McGavin on the all-time HR list.

It was a close call, it could have gone both ways, it's good it went our way.

"He's a threat to hit the ball out of the park and he's a threat to get base hits," said Little of Kemp. "He's exciting on the bases, at times you'll see a throw coming to the plate and he'll outrun the ball. He has a world of talent."

Also, as long as they're healthy, Abreu and Laroche will be here in September, although it doesn't sound like they will be here any sooner.

How about that? (obligatory)

Adkins: 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K
Sexton: 5 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K

Abreu already has 2 hits, including a double. Laroche has been hit by a pitch, and Young and Hu each have a single apiece.

thats a tad pessimistic. Most likely he's going to be the starting 3b next year.

sexton has really grabbed my attention. that k/bb ratio is sexy. scouts say he is alot like bronson arroyo right now. He's 6'6 and pretty skinny so if he could add weight, he could out to be something.

Probably both.

An opposite field HR with that batting stance?

What a bad route to the ball.

I was probably snoring & drooling while you guys enjoyed the eclipse, I wanted to stay up though!

I also guess I am for the Pads over the D-backs for now. When do you change? Who knows! Who cares! Will Doc technical help Mark Time?

I'd go with those 3, every game counts now, so yeah I'd go with Beimel (Seanez), Broxton, & Saito

G-U-R-U and we are all bozo's on this Buss
Including Lopez, who doesn't look like a SS tonight.

This is a yellow alert.

.352/.449/.657 in 127 PA.

I haven't seen him all that much but I saw him take a no-no to the 8th & when he has his good fastball watch out, but like I said haven't seen much of him.

Dream large, Jon.

Dream large.

Actually, I've been pretty swamped at work and have been in and out of Dodger Thoughts.

I don't know how the other two guys feel. but everybody else is missing out.

Martin is now 5 short.

Martin is probably more embarrassed than anything else.

Why? WHY?

{tear}

May have gotten a break not facing Young but I remember a game late in the season last year that I prematurely put in the W column because we were facing a just recalled Tim Stauffer.

Cue Greg Brock...

Nats lose again :-(

Chad improves to 2-5 since my jersey purchase, with a 3.73 ERA during that span.

We Win!!!!

Current occupations:
Manny Acta--Manager
Kennedy--Dodgers Spokesmouth

Who cares that much out here to want that on their cable system?

"Mark, it is easier to get pinch-hits now that you are unable to hide you amphetamines in Barry Bonds' locker? I assume it's more difficult. Thoughts?"

Las Vegas
Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Pollok 4.0 8 5 5 2 3 1 5.59
Hoorelbeke 3.0 2 0 0 1 0 0 5.71
Meloan 2.0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1.69
Riley 1.1 2 3 3 2 0 0 6.89
Fussell 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6.06

For those who were a part of "Eclipse Thoughts" last night, here's my attempt at photographing the event.
http://www.ericenders.com/images/Eclipses.small.jpg

It's a fun game. You have to really want to win it. There's no trophy for second best. And you have to take it one game at a time.

I have to say, it must be hard talking baseball every day for hours...a simple game...and trying to come up with new ways to state the obvious.

## LaRoche struggled with the Dodgers when he was called up in early May, but according to Little, if he proves to be healthy, he will be another September callup. ##

%% According to Little, Garciaparra will test his left calf when the team hits the road to play the San Diego Padres, and he could be activated as soon as next week. %%

http://tinyurl.com/yukk52

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/08aug_aurigids.htm

That's the spirit!

If Jeff Kent and Russell Martin can it going, maybe this team has a chance. Nice game by Chad Billingsley, he settled down and threw only 74 pitches in his last 6 innings. More importantly, if Brad can pitch a strong game, the bullpen is set for Wells on Friday.

At this point, I think we just need to worry about ourselves, if we win, we pick up ground on somebody.

Trouble is, I now have 10 shots taken on a 24-shot roll. This always happens to me when I use film.

Spending a night at the ballgame with a fellow DT poster as bright as BHSPORTSGUY is priceless.

But his batting average was too low.

And I finally reached .500 for the season at 12-12.

226 Baseball is the antithesis of a meritocracy. He won't get the job because, well, he hasn't proven himself.

While I think (and you may call me crazy) Kim Ng would be a bigger loss to the club and I think she should be on that short list because her skill set is much more closer to what clubs need in a GM than Logan White, who may have a great eye for unrefined talent and potential, has not had a position to demonstrate some of the other skills that Jon had in an earlier thread.

Logan White as a GM is not going to be scouting amateur players or going to the Dominican to see some 16 year old shortstop, he is going to have figure out if the Astros need to trade Oswalt and Berkman to build up their farm system, find a buyer for Carlos Lee and stop signing free agents. But he will also now be wearing the hat of having to produce today (its unavoidable) and not have the same luxury of time like his draft picks do to develop and grow into the job.

That all said, I think they go with guy in Florida.

Logan: Have you completely taken leave of your senses, good man? This is the Houston Astros we're talking about here. The same Houston Astros who, under dictates from ownership, spent only $536,000 on the draft this year -- the only team to spend less than $1.3 million. A team which has willfully and deliberately dismantled its farm system. A franchise for which "player development" means hiring as many of Craig Biggio's pals as can fit into a uniform.

This is also Houston we're talking about. Houston leads the nation in two important things. It's been officially named America's fattest city, and it's officially been named America's sweatiest city. And I will personally vouch for the fact that it's America's ugliest city.

This is a city where the entrance to the ballpark is decorated with -- and I'm being completely serious here -- a pewter engraving of Dick Cheney's face. This is a city where zoning laws do not exist; a city where your kid's school will be bordered by a pawn shop on one side and a theater showing "The Devil Wears Nada" on the other. You do not want to move to Houston, my friend. You do not want to think about it. You do not want to even visit.

"I want to be set the record straight and be completely clear on this, because there's been some erroneous reporting," Tal Smith said. "Randy is not a candidate. [Astros chairman] Drayton [McLane] and I talked about it and we agreed that it wouldn't be appropriate."

But really, out side of Smith, who has proven himself incompetent as a GM, any of those other 3 guys should prove to be a good GM.

But I don't think she'll ever get a GM job. She's a trailblazer, but not a pioneer. Like Shirley Chisholm...without the lisp. Or the awesome hair.

If he is gone, I will be worried.

Good crowd tonight. Although not that big everyone seemed pretty into the game.

Sam, I will send you an email tomorrow but in a nutshell: (1) they love Manny; (2) naming rights are unresolved; (3) City won't allow more parking, ownership wants more; (4) Bud is unhappy with the Nats for exceeding the slot bounus for some kid going to Stanford; and (5) they are thrilled to have Greg Brock as their No. 1 Fan.

I just glanced at Kim Ng's resume, someone convince that she is not a better candidate than Logan White for an open GM position.

They didn't just exceed slot bonus on that pick, they blew it out like the Dodgers did for Andy LaRoche. ToyCannon and I were discussing that deal but we couldn't remember if the plan was for him not to pitch professionally for a few years and just let him go to class.

Chad Billingsley
Matt Kemp
Russ Martin

Make it stop! Make it stop!

It's not what she has...It's what she doesn't have. You know, in that region. Down there.

Sorry to have missed you and BH tonight. Good game, thought we should have put up more runs with all the baserunners we had. Bills was giving me stomache aches in the first inning and he got hit hard in the seventh. Shea saved the game and Felipe Lopez gave us a chance to win it without going into extras. I am glad that Pierre made a fine catch to get us out of the seventh and that Shea made sure Bautista's homer was a solo shot.

I had a weird exit with my lunch boxes in tow. Security stopped me and my buddies and demanded to see our drivers licenses and tickets. They didn't know it was a Blue Crew night and didn't know why we had lunch boxes. They were quite rude and when I told them they couldn't write down my identification information, a group of six rent-a-cops arrived and were itching to have a confrontation. I showed them our Blue Crew cards and explained what the fan club was to employees who had no idea there was one and they sort of understood but followed us to the exit. I left rather than escalate it, but it amazes me that they never bothered to radio someone smarter and find out there was a giveaway for the Blue Crew, they instantly thought we stole lunch boxes. I might call guest relations, they attempted to be intimidating but they were such a sad bunch of knuckleheads without real jobs I couldn't be more than just annoyed.

No way do they change list
Arizona
San Diego
Dodgers
Colorado
San Francisco
Chicago
Milwaukee
St. Louis
New York
Philadelphia
Atlanta
Washington
Angels
Seattle
Oakland
Cleveland
Detroit
Minnesota
Chicago
Kansas City
New York
Boston
Toronto
Baltimore
Tampa Bay

Possible but unlikely
Cincy
Pittsburgh
Florida
Texas

Done
Houston

Even my possibles are probably very unlikely so I don't see any real oppurtunities outside of this job for prospective GMs.

Baseball to him is like cartoons. Except without all the advertisements for Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

But he's toolsy. He's failed to grasp handedness, so I can make him into a bat left/throw right guy. When he grabs the bat right handed, I simply hit him in the head with a fly-swatter. He's caught on quite quickly.

At this point, I'm really worried about his clubhouse presence...He's mainly focused on eating M&M's and watching Peter Pan...and that's not good for morale.

He may turn out to be a clubhouse cancer.

And then claims he fell off the slide in an awkward manner.

I hope he gets well.

Or, I guess neither.

But if they change any aspect of the plot, I quit. It's Watchmen. It's the best graphic novel of all time. It's brilliant.

Change the plot to sell T-shirts and I'm irate.

I honestly didn't know that graphic novels could be so good until I read Watchmen. And I'm a Rorschach guy.

From my perspective, we've had two pretty good close games, the Dodgers are closer to the playoffs, the Nationals are closer to the top of the draft pick heap. It's all good.

http://tinyurl.com/7gjwz

http://tinyurl.com/22jfpf

LAT, thanks for the extra ticket. The advantage of having the cushion is that you don't have to look like a dork bringing a cushion to the game. Is that worth $4?

Clay Davenport: Three 23-yos, a 22, and a 19?

Me and the peak eqas see them like this

Upton, .314 peak eqa, cf skills

Kemp .305 peak, can play cf but better in corner

markakis .295 good rightfield

Young .284, ok cf

Hermida .299 but bad corner defense, lots of injuries have really slowed him up; he's looking like an old-player skill/short career guy to me.

--------------------------------------
Have to say I was a bit shocked to see Matt Kemp over Chris Young by such a large margin.

I always have poor cellular service at Dodger Stadium.

If the time machines go, how we will Reese get back in time to save Sarah Connor?

Young's hit 28 HRs (17 on the road---so its not just playing at the BOB), and if he starts walking even a bit more he's going to be one of the best CF'ers in the game.

Washington @ Los Angeles 12:10 PDT
Next game - Friday evening - Washington hosts San Francisco, Los Angeles at San Diego.

Toronto @ Oakland 12:35 PDT
Next game - Friday evening - Toronto hosting Seattle, Oakland hosting Detroit

Colorado @ San Francisco 12:35 PDT
Next game - Friday evening - Colorado at Arizono, San Francisco at Washington

Los Angeles Angels @ Seattle 1:35 PDT
Next game - Friday evening - Angels host Texas, Thursday evening - Seattle at Cleveland (make up snow game)

If not for the makeup game for Seattle, all 8 teams are off tommorrow, there is another game featuring two teams that would have been off tomorrow, Minnesota @ Cleveland but they play tonight.

Maybe I just sympathize with the two of them having to work for such incompetent supervisors.

Plus, summer camps are over. Kids needs something to do before being sentenced to school and the dastardly teachers therein. (You know who you are, dastardly teachers.)

Today on Colin Cowherd's show, he basically mirrored the viewpoint of the casual fan. Apparently the Dbacks are drawing only 44% of capacity at home games with them leading the division. His point is most fans go in to watch the big star players. Meanwhile, the mediocre Cubs and Dodgers have attendance in the top ten.

My counterpoint to that, if there is one, is that for Chicago and LA, ppl go for the stadium experience. Heck in 2005, the Dodgers still drew 3 million!

Second counterpoint, just came up with it, is you have to start from scratch eventually to get stars of your own, instead of borrowing other people's used up all stars. We have them: Martin, Bills, Kemp, Ethier, etc.

Delmon Young
Age 20 OPS+106-small sample size
Age 21 OPS+90-full time RF

Delmon Young is two years younger then Chris Young. How many 21 year olds are even playing in the major leagues?

Two years from now when Delmon Young is the same age as Chris, he will make Chris Young's 23 age year, look pedestrian.

Side note: Beltre had his breakout year when he was 25

Top 5 Leaders in attendance based pct. of capcity.

1. Boston 36,675 101.4%
2. Chicago Cubs 40,072 97.5%
3. San Francisco 40,278 97.0%
4. Detroit 37,962 94.6%
5. St. Louis 43,853 93.6%

The Angels are next at 93.3%, followed by the Yankees and Houston at 91.3%, the Yankees are the only team in that group with a capacity over 50,000. The Dodgers ranked 10th at 84.8%.

Of the top ten leaders, eight are part of the original 16 teams and the Angels and Astros have been playing for over 45 years. The Dodgers and Giants have been playing in their second homes for almost 50 years.

That is not to say that being a longtime franchise guarantees anything, see Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Cleveland, but having tradition matters as much if not more in baseball because of the day to day existence of the game.

Occasionally, a Barry Bonds comes on the scene, and he has certainly influenced attendence in San Francisco but the Giants may have now built up so much good will in AT&T as much as the team that you might not expect a huge drop off when Bonds does his last home run trot for the Giants.

Arizona may just be a lousy place for professional sports or needs more than 2/3 of season to believe in anything.

But the year-round schools are going the way of the dodo.

Man (x2), I hope we don't lose White, or Ng for that matter, to the stupid Astros. They deserve someone sucky, and definitely don't deserve either of them. And... and... well, it can't happen! {tantrum}

Hey, does anyone have any suggestions for ways to get tickets for a group of us for that upcoming series in SF?

This is as good as it gets? Isn't this pretty good if translated over 600 at bats?

Long live outperforming your run differential!

ps: Penny always pitches badly at Shea... can't figure out why.

Pierre, CF

Kemp, RF

Kent, 2B

Gonzo, LF

Martin, C

Loney, 1B

Hillenbrand, 3B

Penny, P

Good thing Gonzo threw his temper tantrum and Ethier's back on the bench.

Since I coached at the same high school that Delwyn Young went to, I've followed him closely and I know for sure that he started two games for us this year, the only two starts of his budding career so far. The list has him with one start which is incorrect.

I'm just glad Kent is playing and not Ramon. I'd prefer Andre today also, but I can live with that over Kent sitting with tomorrow being an off day.

I still don't understand how Pierre never gets a day off.

First of all, this question seems to assume that Management doesn't think Pierre should be in the lineup every day, but keeps him in there anyway. I'm not sure that's true.

Setting that aside, he's also in the lineup everyday because the roster doesn't contain another player that Management considers to be a suitable centerfielder.

He helped us win one when we couldn't win for two weeks. Then he got sent down to make room for Shea.

Besides what kind of achievement is that?

Few days ago, there was a debate over which team "owns" LA -- the Lakers, the Trojans or the Dodgers. To me, the huge crowd for last night's game settles that question. The Dodgers are mediocre, and they're playing a lousy team, it's a Tuesday night, they repeatedly disappoint in similar situations over the past 15 years, and yet -- there they are, 45,000 fans, most of them locked into the moment.

With the Lakers or the Trojans, those who run those franchises know it's "Win or else." With the Dodgers, the loyalty and love of the game runs deeper.

Who knows what will happen when Repko returns... if he returns.

But wasn't durability one of the features that made him attractive to Ned in the first place...?

Here are PECOTA's predictions for the next few years of Kemp's career. Note that these were derived after he hit .255 in the majors last year and will probably be revised upward somewhat due to the excellent year he's had in 2007.

2007 age 22 .297/.345/.509, 24 HR, 23 SB, .286 EQA, 37.2 VORP
2008 age 23 .295/.349/.524, 27 HR, 21 SB, .291 EQA, 34.2 VORP
2009 age 24 .300/.35/.528, 27 HR, 19 SB, .293 EQA, 36.0 VORP
2010 age 25 .296/.349/.511, 25 HR, 17 SB, .292 EQA, 32.5 VORP
2011 age 26 .295/.354/.524, 25 HR, 19 SB, .293 EQA, 32.1 VORP

So basically they expect him to get gradually worse year by year after having his peak season at age 22. I don't see how that's realistic. However, this year may change all those expectations, as Kemp is hitting his 75 percentile projection and BP will probably have to revise their numbers upward.

So Kemp, as good a prospect as he already was coming into this season, has, with his performance this year, significantly improved the expectations for his career potential.

I don't think any of us can say whether or not Ng is a good GM.... because she hasn't been given the opportunity yet.

Ng: When you're in the baseball operations department, you're watching games every single night, and you get a pretty good feel for what players are capable of and what they're not. Sometimes people think stats don't always tell the truth, and that's true. There are some players where stats don't do them justice. You'll see a player who has great instincts, who does the little things that don't show up in box scores like taking the extra base. I think it is important for people doing arbitration to have a feel for what players can do.*

...

*BP: Let's try this another way. Why do you think you'd be a good candidate for a GM job?

Ng: A lot of it depends on who the owners are and what they're looking for. For me to tell you I have a scout's background in player evaluation, that's wrong. I wouldn't try to say that. More and more general managers out there don't have that extensive background, but have been successful in other areas and have proven themselves over time. Two of those are people I've worked for, Brian Cashman and Dan Evans. With Bill Bavasi getting the Mariners job, it's the same thing, and he would also admit that. Sandy Alderson, years ago, was the same way, and he was able to put together a world championship club.

One of my strongest skills is the decent relationships I have with many agents, players, and other club executives. Someone put it in a really good way: As a GM, you're the conductor of the orchestra--that doesn't mean you need to know how to play every single instrument. But being a good leader, having good communication skills, that's going to take you a long way.*

from BP interview 11/18/03 http://tinyurl.com/ao8ql

Also, PECOTA had a similar outlook for him coming into the season. He would have a good EQA this year (.286) but then only improve to .295 in the next four years thanks to his lack of plate discipline.

I really dislike Ned Colletti. And so, presumably, does Eric Stults.

I always thought bolstered meant "strengthened"...

Do most rookies arrive in the majors with nothing more to learn? From what I've seen, the holes in his swing are not there every day. And he's actually a terrific baserunner.

Kemp's rawness sometimes stands out against the smoother play of veterans who don't have his upside. But I love watching the guy play.

Look at the pool of potential free agent pitchers for this upcoming offseason.

Maybe now we only have to dip our toes in the pool rather than a head-first dive.

I hope to be pleasantly surprised, let's put it that way.

Kemp might be the best player on the team, holes or no. I don't see how bringing him up was a bad move at all.

This move is as much about 2008 as 2007, I suspect.

Of course...the same money could have bought eight Kyle Blairs! So that's a downside.

That was very nice, thanks for the quotes (I've been enlightened) 327 If it meant a more polished player why not? I'm patient by nature though.

No dissing just opinion, there's no question IF he puts it all together the guy will be something special, I'm a Dodger fan believe me I want him to succeed.

I don't know how he's throwing this year.

I swear to you, this Loaiza deal makes my "Livan Hernandez as 3rd Starter" prediction more of a no brainer.

I think the point people are trying to make is that he already IS something special, whether he ends up putting it all together or not. Even if he never improves one bit, the player he is now will be a solid major leaguer for years to come.

I'm not necessarily talking about Bluebleeder here, but people keep mentioning Kemp's potential and capacity for improvement in the context of why he's not playing more. Screw potential, forget about the future -- RIGHT NOW he is our best hitter.

Minus the best hitter in the game.

Minus A-Rod?