But do these jobs come with a full dental plan?

1

As long as "Fightin'" Jeff Kent is on the team, I would hope so ...

I got a Ferrari ad on the new post. I like the job description, but if the Dodgers are going to emulate a car company ... Ferrari? I'd be more inclined to go with Honda -- a sensible strategy, good execution, good resale value, and they never break down.

1 - Stop trying to trigger Simpsons quotes.

4 I was tempted, but I resisted. For you, Jon. For you.

Does anybody know why Pierre's throws are so weak? He's a bigger guy than Ichiro, so I'm guessing it's not a physical limitation.

If the problem is technique, can't he use his fabled work ethic to improve in this area? What am I missing here?

4
That really wasn't my intention, although I realized it after the fact.

In hindsight I should have used 401(k).

I'm confused. Wasn't Springsteen in L.A. last night? And no chatter about it here?

Before folks start freaking out about Will Carroll's post, remember that he pretty such said the same thing back in July and while the Torre move might stem from the top, if they were looking at Girardi, that would have been a Ned move. Perhaps what happened is that they approached Girardi, Girardi wanted to wait and see what happened with the Yankees and then that all played out.

Remember that Kim Ng was with the Yankees with Torre. Frankly, I don't think Tommy has that much influence on the baseball matters with the Dodgers as outsiders seem to think.

Could drastic change happen, sure but it doesn't seem likely.

6 Arm strength doesn't really correlate with body build. Look at Hendrickson. And Pedro.

5 As did I.

Man, I love Hot Stove.

9 - Torre/Ng! That's the winning ticket!

Regarding the owner, what buzzwords did you have in mind, Jon?

13 - Heavy check book.

8 - A ticket fell into my lap for tonight! It then extracted face value from my wallet inside my lap, but still!

15 Excellent. Let us know how it goes.

13 - They're usually found at the bottom of posters with kittens in precarious situations.

The Simpsons is up to the 10th season on DVD now... I stopped at 8.

---

DT is where all the excitement is during the offseason. I wish I was here a year ago. Just to close on Will Carroll's rumor page, it's worthless to speculate on a story without any proof. However, I do it anyway...

Here's a quote some of you will enjoy:

He's not known as a strategic genius, either. Despite playing his career in the National League as a catcher, third baseman and first baseman, he's never been noted for his ability to manufacture runs. If he ever called a squeeze — suicide or safety — during his 12 years with the Yankees, I don't remember it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21545419/

18 Last year was crazy. Somebody made a "joke" about signing a certain CF, and everybody blasted it as crazy.

Two weeks later, they did it.

I feel bad for Grady Little & to be more honest I don't think this reflex well on Frank McCourts image or lack there of. Does Joe Torre even know how to manage young up & coming prospects?? I would of preferred Girardi for the Dodger managing gig if it was gonna come down to this but, oh well.

ps oh, one more thing, it's just a rumor (I keep forgetting that!!)

The Dodgers do indeed call the department that handles personnel "Human Resources."

It's run by VP Joe Walsh.

The less famous Joe Walsh.

He doesn't have a Maserati that does 185.

18 I went up to 9.

Being October 30 and all, perhaps the Torre situation is just a giant hoax perpetuated by the ghost of Orson Welles.

I'll be tuning into the Mercury Radio Theater later to see.

22 - He might still want to lock the doors in case he's attacked, though.

Memo to Dodger Human Resources:

Buy Scott Proctor a new arm for Christmas - he'll need it come July.

Conrgrats on getting Torre

I just updated my post.

I could have gone to see Springsteen. But I decided not to. I was feeling embarrassed by how many of his shows I've seen. I mean, I like him a lot, I have gone through periods of being an absolute fanatic. But there are bands I like better that I've never seen, or only seen once. I got to see the New Pornographers at a club in Hollywood for about $20 a couple of months ago. When you factor in the time I spent talking with a gorgeous barmaid during the opening acts, it is simply not possible for me to have enjoyed the Springsteen show more. Not to mention the LA Philharmonic, which I haven't seen in two years. Hearing that orchestra in the almost unreal acoustics of Disney Hall is an experience you owe to yourself, even if you don't think you like classical music. I have been to the LA Opera a couple of times this year, and I can't even put into words how great that was. A Springsteen ticket would've set me back about the same as an opera ticket. Bruce looks like he's still taking good care of himself, so it's not like it's all over after this tour.

Besides, if the Dodgers get ARod, tickets to the stadium are going up. Even Scott Boras said somewhere that any team getting ARod will have to boost ticket prices about $20. So by not going to see Bruce, I'm making a statement in favor of obscure rock bands, attractive women, classical music and ARod.

29
I just dropped 163 Euros on an opera ticket in Vienna in January. My theory is: I ain't coming back there so there's no point in getting a bad seat.

As for the LA Philharmonic, I have two tickets I'm not using for December 8, a Saturday. If anybody wants them, you can send me an email.

24
Dear Ned,

I notice that as the Dodger news becomes more loopy, the comments on Dodter Thoughts, especially from Mr. Cannon and Mr. Timmerman, do too.

That, Ned, is what I like to call a "correlation". Please look up this word and apply it correctly in the future.

Next season, please change phrases like "...the guy gets on base an awful lot..." to "...the guy hits an awful lot of singles...".

Thank you kindly.

Your BFF,

Cajun

28 I was also at that New Pornographers show, and I agree that it rocked. The last concert I paid more than $30* to attend was Tom Petty at the Forum, and while he was okay, it also let me know that I was done with that for a good long while.

Instead of chatting the beautiful barmaid, I listened to the second opening act, and it was one of the most unusual acts I've seen in a while. What they lacked in musical ability, they made up in a very strange charisma -- everything they did was heartfelt.

*I should note an exception: the Hollywood Bowl. I attended the Jazz Festival and Rufus Wainwright's Judy Garland show. I sat in good seats both times. Both times, the tickets were gifts, so I don't know what the tickets cost, but they were likely over the $30 ceiling I stated above.

Hi everybody,
As sub-point to your Manager Requirements #5, Jon, is the vital prerequiste that the interested candidate possess a lot of class. Walter Alston had class.
From what I've heard and seen these last 2 weeks, Joe Torre has a lot of class.
I wish I could say the same for the Dodgers' current g.m and owner.

29 I was on a budget when I was in Vienna. I stood in line for an hour to get a standing room spot at the back of the orchestra section for Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Price of admission: three euro. Three!

The experience blew my mind and my knees, but not my budget.

32 I'm not sure I would say Ned Colletti lacks class.... in fact I'm sure I wouldn't say it.

I just haven't necessarily agreed with all his moves.

29 I'm intrigued, Bob, but I think I'd best not take advantage of your ticket generosity anymore.

If I did, the Philharmonic would doubtless go into an inexplicable, season destroying tailspin, briefly interrupted by a win over Cal.

I know, it's silly to bemoan ethics in sports and contracts, but sheesh, if we hire Torre, how bad does Coletti look? Remember JD Drew saying he intended to not exercise his opt-out option, and then he does, and Coletti basically makes him and Boras out to be these diabolical characters? Isn't exercising Little's 08 option, saying all along that Little's the manager and is in no danger, and then firing Little and hiring Torre even worse? At least Drew had an option to exercise; Little's just being fired! I'm not saying all this because I'm a huge fan of Grady, but I think Coletti looks really unprofessional.

I really enjoyed Joe Torre as a color commentator for the Angels before he got the Yankees gig. Perhaps, they could hire him for broadcasts, if not as manager, or maybe Fox could replace Kevin Kennedy with Joe.
vr, Xei

28 - I know what you mean.

I really wish I had seen Bruce at Dodger Stadium. Having missed that, I wasn't intending to see him this time. But then it happened.

I'm not as interested in new music as the rest of you, though, so it makes more sense.

36 I don't think this is a Colletti move. This slapdash attempt at instant credibility has all the makings of an ownership decision.

Especially this owner.

36. Plaschke's column today touches a little bit on that. vr, Xei

34 The silent treatment they've supposedly given Grady Little this the past week is not classy. This is why I included both the g.m. and the owner in my original post.

WFAN is reporting that it's a done deal with Torre (per another board).

37 - Right on.

36 - I guess GMs always have an option to fire managers :)

I know nothing about contracts, so I'll ask this question, which will undoubtedly seem very stupid.

Wouldn't there be a built-in buyout amount in Little's contract? So, if there are buyout negotiations, doesn't that mean that they are negotiating the amount of money it would take to keep Grady Little from saying/doing something?

Humma,

I saw the last couple of songs from the second opening act -- Lavender Something. A strange sort of charisma indeed. I wasn't sure if the singer was on acid or if I was. Did she really say "hooray for the Earth?" But you're right -- that band did have something going for them.

That's what I used to love about going to see music in LA clubs. You never knew what you'd get. Three acts, the first two completely unknown and often like nothing else you'd ever heard. One night I went to a club to see the John Doe/Exene/Dave Alvin side project, "The Knitters." The opening act was this guy I knew nothing about -- Dwight Yoakum. The first time I saw Springsteen (1974) he was an opening act, although in his case, he's the reason I went.

42. Yeah, and I just saw this... vr, Xei

http://www.pinstripealley.com/story/2007/10/30/01020/385

By the way, I'm about to see the perhaps appropriately titled "No Country for Old Men."

So, how long til Torre gets fired/replaced?

31 that second act you saw was called lavender diamond, who I think are awful and overhyped, plus that chick sings flat a lot. So that was why I was stuck in traffic for so long the other night? The Boss was in town?

Any guesses as to Jon's blog entry headline for the Joe Torre hiring (if it is indeed true). Mine would be "... Chicken Catch a Torre".
vr, Xei

46 What on earth would the Dodgers do with Posada? Something terrible, I imagine. Something really terrible.

38 Actually, seeing Bruce at Dodger Stadium -- this was at the end of the Rising tour -- was not particularly enjoyable compared to seeing him on the same tour at the Forum six months earlier. The show seemed unfocused, like he was just too far away. I'm sure tonight will be a lot better.

One thing I really gotta hand to Bruce. He prefers these old barns like the Sports Arena and the Forum to the Staples Center, and aesthetically I think he's right on.

50 "Torre Here"?

51 Play him in center instead of Juan Pierre?

51
Probably play him in CF...

54
DANG IT!!

1. We don't know what they have told Grady since no one is talking.
2. I think Grady did play the best players, in his opinion. He couldn't play Loney if Loney wasn't here, he wouldn't have had Tomko or Hendrickson start if they were not the only options he had to start. Now, his handling of the outfield situation left no one happy, except perhaps Juan Pierre but other than that and the revolving door at 3B (which again, can be subjective on who think should have played), I don't think he did that bad a job.
3. I thought Keith Law broke down the duties of a GM quite well a few months ago and unfortunately, those duties seem to take it up just a fraction (a large one but still a fraction) of what the job entails.
4. McCourt was actually doing a good job letting Ned and Grady take the forefront for the last couple of years but if they make this move, then all bets are off.

55 22 seconds. Booya!

the positive spin on hiring Torre and buying out Little, is that with that amount spent, they won't ante up for Rodriguez

I have read on other sites that the Dodgers have their eye on A Jones???

I saw Bruce at the Coliseum way back before many of you were aware of the Boss or the Dodgers. Great show.

59
This is just becoming laughable at this point.

58
@#$*&

44 The public details of his contract mention nothing about a buyout.

41
True.

49 Indeed, Lavender Diamond. And she does sing flat. And their songs resemble dirges - uninteresting dirges at that. And they aren't really good musicians.

But she did also say, "Hooray for the Earth" and told a story about encouraging a 13-year-old kid she met in Echo Park to go back to Juvie.

For me, an act is an act. Hopefully, it's about the music, but if not, maybe you have something else.

62 So MLB contracts don't always include a buyout? I always assumed they did. Interesting.

57
Someone help me come up with a good hybrid of Peter Angelos and Frank McCourt

Angecourt? McClangelos?

57. Ned is/was more of a problem than Little imo, but like my boss tells me, "[Rule 1] rolls downhill."
vr, Xei

65 I meant managerial contracts, but I suppose the idea that they would all have buyouts would be stupid.

So, then, what is Little's motivation for taking any buyout that's not the full amount of the contract?

Angelos' Ashes?

65
I think that the executive contracts are different and are not governed by any sort of collective bargaining agreement since there is no union representing MLB management/administration.

68 Couldn't tell you.

64 yeah I guess I can't be too critical of a nice girl who seems so positive. What's a dirge?

68
A lot of times, buyouts can negotiated to be less because it will allow them to get a job in baseball sooner. Otherwise, he would not be able to work for another organization until his contract is complete.

This negotiation is similar to what Billy Donovan had to do when he reneged on his Orlando Magic contract.

72 From Wikipedia:

A dirge is a somber song expressing mourning or grief, such as would be appropriate for performance at a funeral.

Just remembered that Don Mattingly's son Preston was drafted by the Dodgers last June. I'm sure everyone else already drew the irony from today's possible hiring, but it just hit me. vr, Xei

73 Very interesting. Thank you.

A side note. Today one of my advisers said to me: "I like how you're disingenuous even when you're dishonest." Hm.

So now the rumors are that the Dodgers are going to sign guys like Petitte, Rivera and A-Rod because of Torres presence. I honestly never thought the Dodgers might become the West Coast Yankees. McCourt is such a wannabe....Grow a personality of your own dude. At least Lasorda and all those guys were unique in their shortcomings....

53

reading a couple of things on the internet it looks like a done deal almost. if anything Joe Torre will be a Grady Little clone except, New York style...

74 damn, I do learn something new every day. I like that word, "dirge."

75 That gets mentioned a lot by folks talking about him coming to the Dodgers but as those who followed him this season, it will be a long time before Preston can be coached by his dad at the MLB level.

did anyone else hear the Lasorda interview with Dan Patrick this morning...quite funny, actually

I guess we've seen the last of The Windmill™

80 although Lasorda didn't say anything about anything, he did say that Preston Mattingly would need to be converted from shortstop...that was about all he would say

83 That already happened.

27

But aren't memos supposed to be terse and unemotional? ;)

77

I just don't get the supposed Torre-ARod connection. Does ARod really like Torre, especially after Torre batted him 8th last year? I kind of think hiring Torre would make it less likely the Dodgers get ARod.

so, in effect, Lasorda talks like he is privy to inside information when actually he knows nothing...sounds about right

47 Jon, you are a lucky man. Seeing "No Country For Old Men" is on my "Things I would miss most if I died today" list.

The Coens do Cormac McCarthy.

The best director/producer team currently directing/producing and the greatest writer of all time.

Enjoy.

87-Boy, I refuse to be argumentative here, and am as curious to see No Country... as the next guy, but neither half of that statement ("The best...") is remotely close to true.

Ah, well. I appreciate the enthusiasm, however hyperbolically expressed.

77 Yes, and Lasorda at least had the experience twice of seeing a crop of kids mature into championship-level major leaguers. If the 1968-1988 patterns were able to repeat, most of us would be happy. Lasorda was part of that. He gets the rap for being a PVL-ite because of his disasterous trade of Paul Konerko for Jeff Shaw. But even though that was a bad trade, the Dodgers did need a closer, and Shaw was a good one, even though he was a comically unpleasant personality.

I think it's a caricature of Lasorda to assume he's hot to trade the kids. Frankly, I don't think anybody wants to trade the kids. The "faction" in the front office that was ready to trade the kids last summer was proven wrong by the kids' performance. They all came through. If they hadn't, the Giants might've passed the Dodgers. It's another caricature to assume the GM or the owners didn't notice the impact of second-half falloffs from several veterans like Lowe and LuGo, the performance impact of Furcal's injury and the complete loss of Wolf and Schmidt which created "opportunities" for bad pitchers.

The way I look at things, if you factor out bad luck, you're still left with a manager who couldn't make up his mind about who to play, who enabled Pierre's Cal Ripken fantasies at the expense of the team, who kept handing the ball to starting pitchers he shouldn't have trusted, and who let clubhouse morale go south in a particularly nasty and painful way. Objectively, Little deserves to be fired. I don't think he deserves all the blame for the Dodgers' failure to make the playoffs, but he was not a good manager.

Colletti didn't distinguish himself either, but he doesn't make the lineups or interact with the players every day, and that's where Little fell way short. IMO.

85. I was trying to figure that out too. Does the Torre hiring make it more or less likely that ARod comes to the Dodgers. I could live with Rivera and Pettitte. I wonder if Rivera would live with playing 3rd fiddle to Saito/Broxton? Pettitte would add some depth in case Schmidt/Loaiza/Guo et al, don't pan out. vr, Xei

89 you are right on

90 Except that Rivera wouldn't be third fiddle, would he? Broxton would share 7th inning duties with EDSP, Saito takes the 8th, and Rivera takes the 9th -- until somebody fails, right? Would the Dodgers, especially the Dodgers under Torre, really sign Rivera and then not use him as the closer?

Of course, I think it's likely that Rivera will be a Yankee next year, but I thought that about A-Rod, too. I guess we'll see what happens now that Hank and Hal Steinbrenner's push is coming to shove.

If you are on the East Coast, head out now, otherwise you have some time to get ready. Thank MLB, Fox and participating outlets in the USA.

http://tinyurl.com/yuqgpf

By the way, Tim Marchman pointed out yesterday, rightly, that the Steinbrenners oddly both use diminuitives of the same name.

If Spawn of Kavula had been a boy, we were strongly considering the name Henry and the nickname Hal. Somebody asked if Hal was really a nickname for Henry. I said, "If it's good enough for Shakespeare, it's good enough for me."

Instead, Spawn of Kavula is of the female persuasion. She shall be named Naomi.

My solipsism is showing. In my opinion (which is informed by my very limited experience) McCarthy's work is the most evocative and affecting canon I have read/seen/felt.

93. What's in your link? Is it SFW??
vr, Xei

I thought Hal was short for Harold, and Hank was short for Henry

96 It's SFW. Click away.

90-- If getting Joe Torre in any way helps A-Rod become a Dodger, then this is a good move. At worst, it doesnt hurt the Dodgers.

If it helps land Rivera too, all the better.

Andy Pettite--no thanks.

92 But Saito has been the better closer. Rivera is staying in New York.

I can tell you that giving Torre 5-7 million a year makes it a lot less viable financially for the Dodgers to sign A-Rod.

McCourt has never had anything approaching a 125 million dollar payroll at the start of the year (I think we were at 111 to start 2007). It will be even worse if we use that money we lost to get a rapidly declining Pettitte and Rive