I bet they are really mad about it too. :-)

I can't worry about Loaiza right now. I am concerned that Wells is overdue for a bad game (but hopefully I'm wrong). Maybe he will be the 2007 Marlon Anderson but on the mound.

I guess from here I just want to see a good fight. If the Dodgers play well to close the season, I'm satisfied even if they don't make the playoffs. What do you guys think?

I have the same feeling LAT specially him pitching in Colorado, hopefully he'll pool another rabbit from his bag 'o tricks.

I love it. Twelve games to play, and Colletti's sitting at his desk screaming into the phone, "We've got to give him more time!"

Has anybody done the math to see how many games were wasted this season by giving starts to Tomko, Hendrickson, Loiaza, and others in the Colletti Character Corps?

At least that bodes well for next season, because they can't get this lucky twice, can they?

Just more proof that the NL West is improved. I can't fathom the Dodgers running away with the division even if they make all the right moves in 2008.

Imagine how many fewer extra bases teams would take on us with an outfield of Young-Kemp-Ethier.

Philly has a cake schedule and the Pads don't have as tough of one as we do.

We at least get the Snakes three more times, but we also need to make up ground when we aren't playing them.

We need no less than three in Colorado and a sweep in AZ. Or a total collapse of AZ and a .500 two weeks from SD. The division is more realistic to me than to catch the Phils with six against Florida and six against Washington. Maybe Anthony Reyes will give me something to be happy about tonight. A team that has lost 10 out of 11 with a Tomko-like starter? I'm not counting on it.

We might even be able to run the table and not get in. Still, it's been a fun season and I'm not packing it in yet.

Most likely it will be "Cardinals Staff" vs "Phillies Staff" although Kendrick is the Phillies nominal "good" pitcher.

Those fly balls against SD would have been out of sight in many parks, especially Colorado and AZ. We can't have him pitch like that and get away with it for any stretch.

He should be on a short leash tomorrow. Three days rest in AZ? Grady might only be saying that. It all depends on tomorrow. If he only goes three innings, then yeah, he can come back this weekend. If not, we do have other options.

We got Loaiza for next year as much as this year.

10-3 likely wouldn't do it, unless the Padres help us out.

Wells
Tomko
Hendu
Schmidt
Wolf
Loaiza

Pavano
Clemens
Mussina
Igawa

The answer is 4, 3 of the teams are playoff bound, one is not.

Can you name them?

Hint: None of the teams play west of Central Timezone.

Looking at the fivesome in 26 , I was OK with Schmidt and Wolf. The others had "meh" written on them (not literally, like Minotaur's Electric Arm) from the get-go.

But to halfheartedly attempt to sort-of answer your question, if the minor leaguers are as good or almost as good as the guys you're paying multi-millions, why not play the minor leaguers? It's just more evidence that the guy McCourt considers his best hire just really isn't very competent.

The other one might be Toronto.

Okay, another hint, the remaining teams play in National League.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6722

repko's still around, which makes him an early favorite for one spot, but the other appears to be wide open. while it's unlikely the [veteran-minded] management would give a bench job to an inexperienced player like young, he's certainly in the mix. in fact, i'd like to see him on the team in '08.

all that being said: he'll never start for us, his value is relatively high (though still not enough to bring back much in trade), and there are 29 other teams out there. i predict he'll be traded or stowed in AAA before he's handed a roster spot.

That's an insult to Stults and Houlton. I'd say at worst they're just as good. It's very, very hard to be a worse major league pitcher than Tomko, Hendrickson, and Loaiza have been for the Dodgers.

I actually agree with the way the Dodgers handled Billingsley this year; while it hurt the team in the short run I have little doubt that it will help Chad in the long run. I do think they waited a few weeks too long to move him into the rotation, however.

So here's how you could have better managed the rotation:

1) Kuo was wasted for five starts in AAA before getting hurt. Turn those into big league starts.

2) James McDonald, by August, had pretty much proven himself to be a better option than Tomdrickson. The Dodgers cited a tired arm as an excuse not to call him up, but that turned out to be total BS since they kept starting him in the minors anyway. Even if you're going to shut McDonald down on September 1, you could have gotten five starts or so out of him in August.

So you give, say, 4 extra starts to Billingsley, 5 starts to Kuo, 5 to McDonald, split the other 16 between Stults and Houlton, and you could have easily and painlessly replaced the 30 starts wasted on Hendrickson and Tomko.

Pedroza still has one more year before the Rays have to make a similar decision on.

I doubt the Giants have anything to worry about though if Denker does do anything next year, they may have to figure something out but Denker is now finishing his 5th year in pro-ball and has not sniffed AA yet.

42 I agree with you on Kuo, but I'd still be cautious with a guy like McDonald so early into his pitching career. Yeah, he still did start after he had arm trouble, but what happens if he comes up and succeeds? Do you risk throwing him out there, are do you face the outcry when you shut him down in a pennant race? Plus there were reports his velocity was down at that point, so it's questionable how effective he could be in the bigs throwing 88.

I think you have a higher opinion of Stults and Houlton than I do. Yeah, they're nice emergency options, but I don't think of them as much more. Stults got pounded at Vegas this year, and while Houlton improved, his numbers still aren't exciting. I would have used them instead of Tomdrickson, but I'm not confident they would do any better.

Loaiza is a much better pitcher than he's shown so far, though I did fear he would start handing out bombs like candy at Dodger Stadium

All 4 teams have been mentioned as a response to this question.

I'm not sure what this means but I do think that for this year's Dodger team, they needed this type of durability and success from their starters because of the questions on the offensive side of the team.

I think the team could have survived losing Schmidt or Wolf but both proved too detrimental because that brought both Hendrickson and Tomko back in the rotation.

what it means is that Grady Little is a lousy manager...just had to throw that in, has nothing to do with your thread...

Hope they eventually find their stride in a PG format.

http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/FERX

Randy Johnson: 76/61
John Maine: 70/62
Jason Hirsh: 67/62
Tony Armas: 69/65
Shawn Hill: 70/65

What former Dodger did the Indians trade to get Travis Hafner when he was a prospect?

Worst deadline trade ever?

I'd go with Lee Mazilli for David Cone and Ron Darling.

Last year Boston wanted Kemp for Wells.

I heard about the Kemp for Wells trade, & from what I remember Dodger management LOL'ed at it.

Sounds like now they've got a Big Nasty clone talkin' smack.

http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=6141&IssueNum=223

"The LAist's own "Links" section is tucked away in a drop-down box at the bottom of the left column; follow the bread crumbs to the long-running Dodger Thoughts (Dodgerthoughts.baseballtoaster.com), only one of the innumerable sports blogs around town. Dodger Thoughts is run by the insightful Jacob Weisman, who's written for Sports Illustrated and Variety, and it doubles as a message board of sorts for Dodger fanatics, with hundreds of user comments per day. "

In Josh's world, the media is the conduit for getting answers and then letting the public make their decisions base upon what they find out.

Look down south, normally one of the Angel's broadcasters does the post game show and he tends to be more of house organ but that is understandable since he works for them. But he also is there everyday so at least is has that going for him.

The only post game show host that really critiqued the Dodgers and their players was Al Downing.

No, seriously, it's a nice blurb.

"blank" In Peace.

98 - Is Elaine Joyce eligible?

and i only say that because i had to look it up, haha.