personally, when I think of Schmidt, I think of Dreifort...that is what I think we get from him

If Schmidt is around 87-90MPH I'll be very very happy.

That would awesome to watch a game at the coliseum with my dad who watched Koufax pitch there when the Dodgers first moved here. I am all for that exhibition.

Having Schmidt pitch regardless of his fastball will be way better than watching Tomko and Hendrickson just give away games in the first inning.

The Coliseum is going to be much harder to fit a baseball stadium in now. In 1958, there was room for a track around the stadium, but that's gone now and it's pretty cozy.

The Coliseum's website says that the width of the field is only 304 feet. The stadium is supposed to be 324 feet from north to south.

And 680 feet from east to west.

no team in baseball in 2007 got less value from players signed to free agent contracts (including those signed before the 2006-07 offseason) than the Dodgers

This includes Brad Penny.

I know why you can't just take him out, but if you take him out... they look even worse.

Wow, what are the centerfield dimensions in that pic?

Dead center was 425' and right center was 440' in 1958, but it was moved in the next three years.

It was 250' to left.

Penny was a trade and they extended his contract. Does that make him eligible for the free-agent list?

It's crazy that there's virtually zero foul territory on the 1B side but EXTREME amounts on the 3B side.

9 That is a good question. They keep talking about free agents, but they also peg David Wright as being undervalued by $17 million -- does that figure into the Mets' total? Don't know.

Moonshots

Its Ozzie-mania over at Fire Joe Morgan.

O'Malley was in negotiations with Pasadena to play in the Rose Bowl as well as the Coliseum.

If the Dodgers had played in the Rose Bowl, they would have had to have removed seats from one of the corners to fit a regulation field in the Bowl.

11 They have several calculations. One for pre-arb, one for arbitration, and one for free agents. Your value is relative to how you perform versus the average player at your cost level. (I think the baseline was 200K per WASB for pre-arb, 900K for arb, and four million for a free agent.)

In Wright's case, since he's aribtration eligible, they take his WASB and multiply it by 900K, then subtract his actual salary to come up with his net win shares value.

15 /16 So is L.A. at -$21 million for just the free agents or for the whole team? Do they count, say, Martin?

That picture looks like some sort of unholy combo of the Polo Grounds and Fenway...but in LA! Oh man, if they do that again I'm totally there...but do I have to buy the old school hat to wear to the game?

17 That's just FA's and presumably Penny is in there. They say CHW and HOU were worse in overall net value. So our pre-arb guys push our total into positive territory. Kemp, Martin, Loney, Ethier are probably worth $5-8M each in market value.

I'm a bit puzzled:

"...buried near the bottom of an article by Barry M. Bloom for MLB.com was this rather surprising morsel:

Several games in the annual preseason Freeway Series against the Angels may be staged at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Putting aside the erroneous implication that the Freeway Series is some sort of several-game affair when it has traditionally been no more than three games"

How is it erroneous? Three games is "several games" - it's always been called the "Freeway Series". There's no implication of more-than-three (do you read five? seven?) in that title.

Or was there something more in the original MLB column that you didn't quote? It's all gone now, all that remains is:

"Next year is the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, and they played from 1958-61 at the Coliseum prior to the unveiling of Dodger Stadium."

...and then it goes back to talking about Tokyo. in what's now a very awkward leap. Your email exchange with Camille must have led to a quick edit.

18 Jackets and ties will be required.

6 Maybe you meant Lowe?

With the NFL again rejecting the Coliseum for pro football, maybe this baseball-in-the-Coliseum idea was some politico's brainchild to build some positive buzz around the old stadium.

Peter O'Malley must have not enjoyed reading that Chavez Ravine is on the NFL's list again.

Steven A. Smith (whose interview with Kobe Bryant started that whole thing) is saying that if Joe Girardi is not named manager of the Yankees, he has a fallback position of becoming the Dodger's manager (and replacing Grady Little).

When Buster Olney asked Girardi's agent if this was true, he replied, no comment.

I could not find any articles or published rumors online to substantiate this rumor.

If there are games at the Coliseum, fans will also be requested to buy their own bugles to play "Charge!"

That was the Coliseum's trademark.

Its Ozzie-mania over at Fire Joe Morgan

If you or I said we were gonna do the things Ozzie says he's gonna do, we'd never get hired in the first place.

20 - It's not a big deal, but in my mind, three is the minimum to qualify as several. And since we know a portion of the Freeway Series will be played in Anaheim, that leaves a maximum of two games to be played at the Coliseum. So all in all, it just seems like an obvious error - he's making it seem like more games would happen at the Coliseum than possibly could. In order for several games to be played in the Coliseum, the Freeway Series would have to be longer than it ever was.

20 - By the way, thanks for noticing that edit from Bloom's story.

27 - Oh, wait - it's still there. You just must have skipped over it.

A few random thoughts:

1. I'd love the freeway series to be played at the Coliseum if I don't have to buy those tickets with my season tickets. I personally would rather skip exhibition games when meaningful games are around the corner.

2. When are the Dodgers going to pony up some funds for the fire victims? The Lakers have already. Maybe the freeways series funds can be used as donations?

3. We are all just guessing what Schmidt will be if he's able to pitch. Some guys have better success when they aren't throwing as hard, the key is deception, control, and changing speeds. Too soon to guess any of that with Jason and his rebuilt shoulder. Just because his shoulder heals, doesn't mean he will stay injury free either.

4. If someone told me last October that JD Drew would hit a grand slam in the 6th game of the LCS and that Gagne would pitch a 1-2-3 ninth, and then they both performed well again in the first game of the WS, I'd have been jumping with joy. The reality is that I am just mildly entertained.

22 In the article, they specifically cite Penny.

Accoding to the Boston Globe The Dodgers might be interested in going after Joe Torre. That would be good. How nice would he look in Dodger Blue.

Girardi eh...hmmm...

Considering Manager is one of the least of my worries, I like Girardi though.

Giradi did a nice job with the young Marlin team in 2006. Have zero interest in Torre. The Yankee's should be happy he turned down their offer.

23 ESPN.com is now reporting it.

http://tinyurl.com/yv8ch4

In the article, Dodgers say they have a manager.

I'm really not sure how much of the Marlins success we can attribute to Giradi, he seems like a terrible tactical manager (love that bunt) and he probably ruined Josh Johnson. Maybe he's a good motivator but I don't put all that much value there.

We have a manager. We need pitching.

Grady Little is indeed our manager. We don't need "will Grady be back" turmoil this offseason. That is why McCourt announced Ned and Grady are back for another season a few weeks ago.

We could use a power bat and some pitching. Torre will be around if need to make a change for 09. Let's hope we don't need or want to.

34 And that's all they say. "Ken Noe has a sprained ankle," but he won't next week.

33 Giradi would be better than Torre for sure--success with Fish kids as you say and I think he take could take Kent. The guy got a raw deal in Miami.

Finally, would love to see a game in the Coliseum.

34 - I don't think there's a lot of substance to that, but I'm not surprised.

35
I probably put more value in motivation and communication then I do in tactical managing.

I don't see any reason to replace Grady with Giradi but if they did it wouldn't bother me as much if they brought in Torre to replace Grady.

37
To many seemed to have forgotten October 2005. McCourt has very quick mood swings.

My friend and I were discussing the Coliseum story just before Jon posted it. We both agreed that nothing would keep us from watching a game at the Coliseum.

How many of you get to work with a smart die-hard Dodger fan? It sure makes work a lot more fun.

We also need, if he is available, the best player in baseball.

And as long as I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony.

Two years ago, more would have been made of the fact that, if I understand correctly, the Dodger coaches have not yet been rehired. So that's the only thing that's curious. Otherwise, I wouldn't believe for a moment that Little wasn't coming back. And I'd still be surprised if he doesn't.

It probably has something mroe to do with a front office job or coaching position within the Dodgers for Girardi if he doesn't work for the Yankees.

*more

37 If I recall correctly, Joe Girardi was available before Joe Torre was fired, and despite that McCourt said Grady would be back. So I don't see how Joe Torre's firing would lead McCourt to reconsider replacing Little, not with Torre, but with someone who has been available for a year. It's illogical.

If Penny's on the list of free agents then I'm not sure how much credibility to give the story. Penny has never been a free agent, not even by a loose definition of the term. He's been traded twice, and his existing contract with Florida got extended after he joined the Dodgers. So I wonder what other non-free agent free agents are in his calculations?

Girardi would be such a fantastic hire. I know for a fact that he LOVES Billingsley's stuff and said is a soon-to-be ace.

If the Dodgers play at the Coliseum, Vin has to be on the radio doing the play by play.

Stan from Tacoma

35,40 - Qualities I look for in a manager, in order of importance

1) Don't ruin your pitchers
2) Know when to use your pitchers
3) Know which players to play
4) Don't make you players do stupid stuff
5) Handle the media
6) Give a good pep talk

I doubt that motivation is really something managers need to do - in this era of free agency, that is what money is for. Little seems to do well with 1, he's iffy with 2, a bit cowardly with 3, pretty good with 4, all right with 5, and ok with 6.

If anyone is bad with 1, he can sit in the broadcasting booth. For the Angels.

47 - I don't trust that to not mean "I'd love to see how many strikeouts he could rack up if he went 110 pitches per start."

Unless the Dodgers change their managment structure to be more like the Red Sox/A's, I doubt a change in manager will affect things much.

Unless there's a Manny Acta on the market (and Joe Girardi is no Acta), I dont think changing managers would do much. It might appease the casual fans, and Ned/McCourt are image-driven...but little else IMO.

Unless the Dodgers change their managment structure to be more like the Red Sox/A's, I doubt a change in manager will affect things much.

You mean where the manager is a just a puppet for the front office?

Personally I'm better with Grady than Ned, although as I said, better Girardi than Torre. Still I wonder about the following:

1. As Jon said, no coaches hired (and all told they can leave if they want)
2. The team's terse, present tense statement.
3. Colletti's apparent ties to Girardi (not to mention a reason to find a scapegoat for '07)
4. McCourt's track record this time of the year.

Like I said this morning, I expect bad news every morning.

46 I think that means "eligibile for free agency", i.e. any player with more than six years of service time.

What specific good quality can anyone point to in Giradi? "The Marlins exceeded expectations when he was the manager" isn't specific enough.

With Oakland, the manager and front office don't have to be on the same page, it's just that the manager is given a book that has just one page. And the book is paperback.

I'll be off for a while torturing more metaphors. It's allowed under U.S. law.

I might not mind a Joe Girardi hiring — to replace Steve Lyons.

Or a Torre hiring to replace Rick Monday.

The sourcing for the Olney story on Girardi and the Dodgers is terrible. "Officials familiar with Girardi's job prospects said Thursday ... Girardi could have a developing opportunity with the Los Angeles Dodgers."

Someone anonymously says someone else might have a possibility of something. That's not a story.

54 Girardi allowed Hanley Ramirez to play through a 13-113 (.126) stretch in May/June with 1 HR and 23 K's. He only sat out once. Of course the alternative was Alfredo Amezaga. Also, Miguel Cabrera did not lay down a sac bunt in 2006.

I feel bad for Grady Little....

He deserves credit for developing Russell Martin, Jonathan Broxton, Chad Billingsley and James Loney.

I'm guessing a planted story by Girardi's "people" to prod the Yankees.

58 I only post what I hear or read, I can't vouch for the reporting.

I hope we stick with Grady. There is value to continuity. I don't think he has been the problem. If another manager has the influence to play whoever he thinks is best without regard to contracts AND he is a better judge of talent than Ned then I say hire him. Otherwise let's stick with Grady.

A game or two at the Coliseum might be fun but I'm sure glad we don't play there anymore. I don't think anybody hated it more than Drysdale who gave up a lot of 250 foot home runs. Left field might be a great place to hide a weak throwing arm though.

Or a ManRam

61 that's my read on the situation.

if we are interested, however, i'd have no problem seeing him in blue. maybe grady could become assistant gm #4!

wait a second, what exactly is a "developing opportunity"? and how do i know if i'm in the middle of one?

61---

That was exactly how it struck me. As a planted story. Not sure why the Yankees would care, though.

54 That's really stretching the definition of "free agent" with service time as the only criteria. By that definition, Derek Jeter and Todd Helton are free agents. So it sounds more like a study of "which team got the most out of its veteran players." If the Dodgers came out low on that scale, I wouldn't be at all surprised. But calling all veteran players "free agents" is like calling anyone over 72* "dead" even if they're, technically, alive.

(*or whatever the average lifespan is now.)

Bill Shaikin does his version of the Coliseum story:

http://tinyurl.com/2a2rkc

68 Wouldn't the Dodgers do even worse if it just counted free agent signings? Wouldn't Lowe and Kent be the only positives at that point?

Punk Rock Baseball Cards:

http://www.glyphjockey.com/punkbb.htm

Though, some of them aren't punk rockers.

70 Anecdotally (since I'm surrounded by scientists), yes. I might add a little bit 'o' Seanez and LuGo. LuGo was more an irritant than a bad ballplayer, and unlike Nomar and Pierre, he's already gone.

>The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt!

71 I like the Jagger card.

I wonder if Girardi is a punk rock kinda guy or a Billy Joel type.

68 In the article, he divides players into three categories:
1) Arbitration Non-eligible (i.e., first 2 yrs)
2) Arbitration Eligible
3) Free Agents
The reason for this is that this is how salaries break down. Group 1 is the cheapest, Group 2 is next, and Group 3 is the most expensive. Whether they are "true" free agents like Schmidt or extended players like Jeter or Penny is not really relevant, because they are on the same pay structure.

72 I just noticed that the actual numbers are on the site so I can actually compute the values.

Gonzalez: $-1,706,557
Seanez: $4,643,433

There is value in knowing what a team is able to do with all of its resources. How does a team determine which players to promote from the minors, which arbitration-eligible players to work with or sign to long-term deals, which free agents to sign -- and how do we judge how they did in each of these areas?

Speaking only from a financial point of view, it makes sense to focus on the players with over six years of service, because these are the players who will take up not only AB/IP, but also cash. In a sense, it doesn't matter what James Loney does, because if he had come up and stunk, the team could replace him next year without losing any investment... and the fact that he hit doesn't excuse the management from signing Pierre or Garciaparra.

Maybe I'm not expressing the idea in my head well. Let's see.

76 Whoops, apparently I didn't quite get it.

Gonzalez: -$608,613
Seanez: $2,559,370

73 That is amazing.

might appease the casual fans, and Ned/McCourt are image-driven...but little else IMO.

When the McCourts first arrived in L.A. they were total & utter slaves to there image/& or how they were prescieved (sp) by idiots like Plaschke & the L.A. papers. (sp?) Has it changed? I don't know.

73

That's so cool!!

The calculations for our veterans

Penny: $10,734,341
Kent: $410,932
Lowe: $531,205
Furcal: -$3,866,877
Wolf: -$1,864,230
Nomar: -$1,994,520
Pierre: -$4,640,523
Tomko: -$4,901,114
Schmidt: -$7,146,205

Joe Girardi holds a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering from Northwestern University. Done. Hire him.

While I'm at it:

Martin: $9,546,353
Kemp: $3,372,353
Loney: $6,900,353
Bills: $6,900,353
Broxton: $3,372,353

The formula breaks down for a guy like Saito who is paid like an arbitration level player but is technically pre arb. It's almost impossible to have any value if you make anything beyond the league minimum as a pre-arb.

73 Reading methodology classes have tons of those in textbooks, to highlight the different between sight-reading (recognizing words) and decoding (taking the letters, and forming language from the rules of pronunciation).

Adults don't decode, they sight read.

This would be a problem for Ned and Frank, as Girardi was canned for not toeing the line with upper management and ownership during his year in Florida. He also had an affinity for Alfredo Amezaga, which isn't good. He's also only managed one year, so he's still somewhat of an unknown entity.

If anything, it'd make things interesting.

I hope we stick with Grady. There is value to continuity.

I agree with that quote, to a degree.

86 Hey, don't diss Alfredo Amezaga, he's all underrated team. Watch the man play center and be amazed. Now, if only he could hit.

Jon,

I know it is pretty much a non story, but do you think Girardi would be a better fit for the team then Graddy? and yeah i am guessing a posting is coming soon. Sorry for jumping the gun.

89

I hope I don't get tagged with the label of racist towards my elders, But I think a young energetic Girardi would be a perfect fit in L.A. Don't get me wrong I don't mind Graddy Little but somebody like Girardi would be great.

Not only is the ESPN report about Girardi hugely speculative and poorly sourced, it doesn't really even say the alleged job opportunity is a manager's job.

If there is anything brewing with the Dodgers, it could be something in the front office. It need not mean Little is on the way out.

50 - I see no reason why 110 shouldn't be the cut off point for an ace rather than 100... granted, I'm in the no-preset-pitch-count-particularly-for-your-"ace" camp. There are certain pitchers, and always have been, that can throw a monster number of pitches without their arm falling off (Ryan, Sutton, Fernando, Drysdale never even bothered with pitch counts). Maybe Billz is one of those guys, maybe not... but if he can be a guy that strikes out 250-300 a season, then a high pitch count isn't a bad thing. But I'm going to be rather annoyed if he keeps getting yanked in the 6th inning when he's averaging 8 strikeouts over the first 5.2 of a game just because he's hit 100 pitches.

91 Umpire relations, maybe?

Or maybe he could be like the guy in "Local Hero" whose only job is to abuse the owner. Oh, wait, Jamie's still there.

I'll be honest, I don't even like the idea of a story popping up that the Dodgers are maybe, possibly, questionably looking for a new manager. Not because I'm a mark for Little, but because of what it says about the ownership. It's weather va