Can we please, please, pretty please get a hitting coach who doesn't have issues? I mean, I'm all for controversy and a colorful past and present--I like the storyline, I have a weakness for gossip when it comes to sports but, holy moly on a popsicle stick... Jack Clark, Eddie Murray, Bill Mueller (highest paid coach ever?)... I guess it started with Clark.

I was looking forward to Mattingly in the dugout. I hope Easler is very effective and doesn't miss too much time.

I do like that Easler was a jumping off point for one of Wilker's entries. That's a job well done, Mr. Easler. Well done.

Can you tell I'm trying to avoid grading papers? I can't tell...

1 If lack of anger management control counts as "issues" you're going to love Larry Bowa

I was just going to say why can't Larry Bowa spend more time with his family.

4

I think most of us rather have Larry Bowa than Rich Donnelly.

I just don't even know where to begin with the razzing I got at the end of the last thread.

But if writers didn't sometimes extend words in creative but understandable and meaningful ways, we would have a very dull language.

Next thing you'll be telling me that a geek can only mean a carny that bites the heads off chickens.

Pfoeey!

From the New York Times, November 9, 2004:

"Mattingly had been out of baseball for eight years, after his retirement in 1995, when the principal owner George Steinbrenner offered him the job of hitting coach after the 2003 season. Mattingly accepted with the blessing of his family, signing a one-year deal to see how he enjoyed a job that took him away from his home in Evansville, Ind.

Family concerns prompted Mattingly to reconsider a return next season, but he told The Daily News that his family approved of his staying with the Yankees."

Beyond that, there are multiple articles from 2000 on about Mattingly thinking about taking a job with the Yankees, but not being sure if he wants to leave his farm and family. I think this is an issue that Mattingly has struggled with for years. Frankly, I would be surprised if he comes back to the Dodgers full time next year, and would be even more surprised if he ever winds up as the team's manager.

Somebody razzin' Marty? Don't be razzin' Marty! I will pull out the predicate-nominative on y'all, aight?

Seriously, I have students who talk like that. They mix in the smart with the jive. It's like listening to jazz.

Did Kempzilla drop the trashcan on Mattingly during his recent appearance at Dodger Stadium?

9
We were razzing Sam. It's an entirely different thing.

However Sam has subpoena power, so we should be careful.

So ESPN.com finally has one of those chat debates that includes a Dodger, in this case Russ Martin v Joe Mauer, and it ends up being "Insider" only....Corporate America is a parasite of Anocondian proportions...

8 Frankly, I would be surprised if he comes back to the Dodgers full time next year, and would be even more surprised if he ever winds up as the team's manager.

Makes you wonder how this would have played out had he been chosen as the Yankees' manager?

Wow, Suffering Bruin just added to the "Way to go, Sean!" legend.

6 Bowa is not only capable of getting runners thrown out at the plate with the same alarming frequency as Donnelly, but adds the dimension of being able to tell the beat reporters that back in his day when ballplayers hustled, Greg Luzinski would have scored standing up on the play.

Sorry if this is a dumb question but what is Friday Night Lights?
vr, Xei

"Dodgers GM Ned Colletti built this team, and is reluctant to trade his young players like Takashi Saito, but it may be that if Los Angeles springs leaks, he may need to trade some veterans like Mario Alvarez (despite being as rough as ever) or Tony Abreu."

- Score Bard's random Gammons generator

16 -- A TV show.

16 It's a book and a movie and a TV show, in that order. In this instance Jon is talking about the TV show. Except he said the University of Texas where I suspect he really meant Texas Tech.

my wifes favorite show.

Also a book and and movie!

About Texas high school football.

18,19. Thanks. I'm gonna have to start watching more TV to keep up with you all. :) vr, Xei

19 - Since it's fictional anyway, does it matter? I assumed it was UT. Does Smash really dream of going to Texas Tech?

22
Would any human in their right mind dream of going to Texas Tech?

19,22 -- I think "T.M.U." is meant to be a cross between the University of Texas and "S.M.U." -- Southern Methodist University, which is in Dallas, Texas.

A Giants blogger speaks: "This offseason has been like watching a loop of The English Patient on the plane ride to Hell. Boredom upon boredom before the eternal torment: Our lot has been cast. This is really what we have to talk about a month before pitchers and catchers report? A question asking if we prefer Durham's carcass to Feliz's carcass? Yeesh."

http://tinyurl.com/34jg8y

As for Ned's comments about 2009, I'm guessing that if the Dodgers miss the post season Ned will need not concern himslef with whether Donny Baseball or anyone else is here in 2009.

As for Easler's lawsuit I have to give him credit for having the stones to sue the Cards but in the big picture it makes me question his judgment. Filing a defamation suit against your emplyer is no small matter, even if it the Cardinals)

25. Sam, that same article extended a word in a creative but understandable and meaningful way. "Neifastasizes." As in "He'll be 36, though, and it isn't as if 36-year-old second basemen need to give a written warning before their offensive performance neifastasizes."

26 Actually, you have to credit whomever decided the wisest thing was to pull the lawsuit back. Easler is a baseball lifer, didn't make enough during his playing career to live off of for the rest of his life, and either was going to have to work again in baseball, or, less likely, get enough damages from the lawsuit to substitute for the future lost earnings.

On the other hand, Mattingly as the reigning Yankee superstar of the 80's probably made over $3 mil/year for a long time + endorsements, and may not have the financial need to be in baseball, as opposed to his need to address his family issues.

SB, thanks for having my back. I'll count on it in the future when I make some asinine statement. Which should be in about 12 hours.

Or now.

About ten years ago or so I shared a Tacoma Triple A season ticket with a mental health professional who worked for the local mental health agency in Tacoma. I spotted a kid who was wearing a LA Dodger cap and a Yankee t-shirt in the crowd at Cheney Stadium and I told my friend the MHP that he should detain the young fellow for mental health treatment on the spot. My friend laughed and said that for sure the kid was confused.

I really think that kid in a way is Frank McCourt. It seems to me McCourt is a fellow who wears a Dodger cap and at times a Red Sox shirt (Bill Mueller and Nomar) a Yankee shirt (Torre, Mattingly et al) and even a Giants shirt (Ned and his collection of San Francisco treats--- Ramon Martinez, Tomko, Sweeney et al)

As a lifelong Dodger fan about the only thing I can say is that it is tough to have any allegiance to the Foxes and McCourts because I don't think they have any real allegiance to the Dodgers.

Stan from Tacoma

This is the theme for the day: It just occurred to Mark Hendrickson that he could get his eyes checked. It just occurred to Don Mattingly that he would have to be away from him his family a lot and travel a lot during the season as a coach. Ah well, hindsight is 20-20, or for Big Bird it's 20-200.

Hey, anyone know a good place to get a Russell Martin jersey and not spend 100 bucks? Ebay?

Peter Gammons has Dodger Thoughts bookmarked.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/01/gammons-digs-bl.html

vr, Xei

Rain is getting heavy here in the VTC. Headed your way LA. (SFW, weather related)
http://tinyurl.com/r9fl4
vr, Xei

From the new Diamond Leung blog post, Joe Beimel looks like a skinnier Anton Chigurh. If he goes to arbitration, he will have no representation, only a fully loaded oxygen tank.

I forgot to link in 34 :

http://tinyurl.com/34llnb

32 Dear Peter: We love you. We're happy your health has returned. Please tell McCourt that JP needs to be benched or traded. He'll listen to you; you're from Boston. Deepest respect, Ken

Colletti: Pierre and Furcal could get 100 stolen bases between them. Kemp and Ethier could get 20 homeruns between them.

I guess our hopes rest with Torre to make the right lineup decisions as Colletti seems to be locked in with Pierre.

This post hits so close to home its almost scary. On one hand, I'm considering a job change that would cost me a not inconsiderable amount of time with my kids. In the meantime my current gig is saddling me with assignments that make my average workday intolerable.

You'd think this would be comforting, but actually, the last thing I want to find out is that baseball is made up of real people with problems like the rest of us. Guess I'll meander over to Cardboard Gods.

19. I always thought that TMU was a comination of UT and TAMU, because like Bob said, have you ever heard of a kid whose dream it was to go to Texas Tech? Also, the way TMU is referred to and the facilities it appears to have mean that it could only be one of the two big boys of the state.

So, I guess Don Mattingly got married when he was 18?

http://tinyurl.com/2tnfex

15 While Bowa was with the Yanks I only remember him making one mistake sending a runner when he shouldn't have, and it wasn't because he was being conservative.

34/35 Have to give Joe credit for a sense of humor. And frightningly he does look like Anton Chigurh.

38
Can't your current employer create a position for you that allows you to stay home with your kids but still get paid?

40
"Mattingly and his wife, who were high school sweethearts, have been married since Sept. 8, 1979."

Mattingly was born 4/20/1961.

38 : "You'd think this would be comforting, but actually, the last thing I want to find out is that baseball is made up of real people with problems like the rest of us. Guess I'll meander over to Cardboard Gods."

Where the door's always open and the idea that baseball players are actual guys is always avoided. They are gods and that's it! Flimsy gods, of course, but gods.

As for Easler, he certainly had his disciples when he was hitting coach for the Bosox. I think Mo Vaughn continued to seek his council even after Easler was no longer employed by the team.

43
In the real world companies bend over all the time for their employee's. It all depends on the company. When mine moved from Santa Monica to Irvine I stopped going into the office 5 days a week and started working from home.
When my best friend needed to move to Kansas for family reasons his Culver City firm decided to let him continue his employment and now he works from home.
I've seen countless example of parents getting flex time to better handle the stress of parenting.
Obviously Jon's employee's know he writes Dodger Thoughts but they give him leeway as long as he does the job he's paid to do.
Corporate America is not based in the 60's anymore and if your a valued employee they will do what it takes to keep your services. At least the good ones will because lets face it, good workers are hard to find.

43 I was sympathetic to your point in that debate yesterday. I guess the parallel in my case would be the potential new employer making huge concessions to keep me in the fold.

45 Thanks! Be seein' you.

43. My large corporate bank employer has done that for at least six women in my division alone. For one, it wasn't even to stay home with the kids, it was because her husband is a pastor and he took over a Church in Iowa, so now she comes back to Chicago for two days a month for work while spending the rest of her time in Iowa.

47
But America needs more dentists!

49 No, what America needs is more dental consultants!

Is Jacob L leaving planning, or accepting another planning-related position?

james shields 5 yrs 35 million, great deal for Tampa espically with how the pitching market is, and he has shown that he is capable of pitching in the AL East

50 Actually, if "dental consultants" is the same thing as "hygienists," America really does need more dental consultants.

America needs more dental consultants like this:

http://tinyurl.com/2ws4wh

The Tulo deal will be announced today. Although the full details aren't out yet, it is believed to be 6/$30m. The 6th year is $10m (1st year of FA) with a $15m option for year 7 (2nd year of FA).

52
The deal looks like 4/$12 (through first 2 years of arbitration), with 3 option years that could bring the total package to 7/$40.

If all 3 options are exercised, they cover Shields' first 2 FA years.

http://tinyurl.com/2spt7o

55
I know that we have a lot of payroll space after this year (about $50 million by my count with Lowe, Kent, Nomar, Loaiza, and Furcal all gone). I just hope that we can avoid the ugliness that is going on now between the Phillies and Ryan Howard.

Sign the deal Russ!

31

Under,

I picked up my Ethier jersey on ebay through a store that sews the name and number on the back of authentic Dodger jerseys. It doesn't look quite as good as the $250 ones in the store, but I only paid $55 for it.

51 Its premature to say, but I've good lead on the next gig, and it would be the latter. After 10 years, what the heck else would I do?

59
The world of the public library will always welcome you.

From the Nate Silver chat (he says PECOTAs should be out within a week), going down right now--

raygu1 (nj): Nate-thanks for the chat. Will Andruw Jones power return in LA this year? I remember reading a quote from Colletti stating that alot of his long outs in ATL would have been out of Dodger Stadium.

Nate Silver: Colletti is right that Dodger Stadium has in fact turned into a pretty decenet home run park, and we're forecasting a bit of a bounceback season for Andruw, but nothing too out of line with expectations. We're probably looking at 25-27 home runs, but the batting average to remain subpar.

Then there's this. Too bad he'll be a part time player--

nickojohnson (Los Angeles): Care to give us a quick preview of Matt Kemp's PECOTA? I'm curious as to how it views his BABIP-assisted numbers from last year

Nate Silver: PECOTA: Matt Kemp :: ObamaGirl : Barack Obama. We have him at .297/.349/.505 next year, so the batting average does indeed look like a bit of a fluke, but the isolated power should be right where it ended up last year.

but the isolated power should be right where it ended up last year

Kemp's IsoP

2007: 179
2008 (projected): 208

208 doesn't really seem "right where" 179 is

Jones's HR total gets revised upwards a few answers later to 29 (with a .486 SLG), with the stated expectation that he'll be spending some time injured. It'd be around 35 if he played 160 games.

The Padres signed Jody Gerut to a minor league deal. He will make $700k if he makes the club, plus some performance incentives.

Current Padres' OF on the 40-Man
Brian Giles (age 37 in 2008)
Jim Edmonds (38)
Scott Hairston (28)
Drew Macias (25)
Paul McAnulty (27)
Chase Headley* (24; expected to move from 3B)

57 Howard is absolutely insane if he thinks he'll get, or deserves, 11 million in his first year in arbitration. If he has demands like that, they probably wouldn't have been able to deal with him anyway.

66
That's similar to Gagne losing his arbitration case in 2004, after he won the Cy Young, because his figure ($8m) was too high in comparison with similar service time contracts.

Gagne wanted more money than Mariano Rivera was making at the time. The Dodgers had a very persuasive case to show that he did not have as long of a track record of success as Rivera and that other players with similar service time were way below what he was asking for.

nickojohnson (Los Angeles): What do you think of Ned Colletti's offseason? At least it's been better than I expected. Can the Dodgers compete with Arizona in the west next year?

Nate Silver: The Dodgers can certainly compete. In fact, I don't think they're giving up much to anyone in the National League right now. Of course, they'd probably gain 3-4 wins on that projection if Juan Pierre found his way into the Springfield Mystery Spot tomorrow morning.

Perhaps Howard's thinking is that he'd be in his second year of arbitration (or beyond) by now had the Phillies actually called him up when he was ready. I don't blame him for trying to stick it to them.

The Howard situation is interesting. From the Phillies point of view, Howard was paid a record for less than 2 years service time last year ($900k), and the Phillies arbitration offer matches the highest ever club arbitration offer for a first time arb eligible (Pujols 2004 -- and Pujols had 3 full years service time, unlike Howard).

But, Howard has a case that he was held down in the minors for far too long (became full time as a 25-year old in 2005), and that's why his service time is so low.

I think Howard loses his arbitration case if it goes to hearing (the offers are $7m & $10m). The only way Howard wins is if he gets extra credit for also serving as corporate manager for Dunder Mifflin.

Following up on that, Howard is something of a unique player because he was called up at such a late age that he'll already be an old fat guy by the time he hits free agency for the first time. He'll never have the same opportunity for free agent cash in his career that most players of his caliber do. (Of course, someone'll still give him a lot of money, but he'll never get a Beltran-type deal.)

"The only way Howard wins is if he gets extra credit for also serving as corporate manager for Dunder Mifflin."

By the way, how cool is it that baseball Ryan Howard, exactly like the fictional one, also spent two years in Scranton before moving up to the big leagues?

Also, I am really bummed this year because if we're going to have a crappy backup catcher, I'd at least like to have one who stars in the opening credits to The Office. (Dwight Schrute keeps a Lieberthal bobblehead on his desk.)

73 how cool is it that baseball Ryan Howard, exactly like the fictional one, also spent two years in Scranton before moving up to the big leagues?

Ha!! I didn't realize that connection before. That's awesome.

72
If he stays healthy, he will get crazy money even in his age 32 FA season. With the way revenue streams are pouring in over the next few years, a $200 million contract in 2012 will look like a $100 million contract did in 2002.

In this world where guys like Torii Hunter get $18 million per in the long term and where Tomko gets $3 million to serve up homeruns to Hafner and Miggy, Howard will get paid plenty when he finally becomes a FA.

I think he will end up losing this round, but the Phillies are playing with fire by not locking him up in today's dollars, even if it is more than they want to pay.

75 Maybe, I can see Howard being close to done by the time he's 32. He's the one we should be comparing to Mo Vaughn.

76
I could also see him being a David Ortiz-type under the right circumstances. However, I think there have been a lot more guys like Vaughn whose weight and injuries ended careers.

NBC is always picking up MLB folk. Heroes has Hiro Nakamura. The Office also has Kevin Malone.

Although Nakamura prefers to use "Nori" as his nickname.

"Heroes" the TV series is pretty much like Nakamura's Dodgers career. It had a very hot promising beginning and then quickly devolved into nothingness.

78 If you ever looked at the names written on the big board in "Homicide," a third or maybe even half of them were major league players.

OMG the Clippers are a bloody mess. Can I fire the owner, GM, and coach?

The fact that Tomko was not an NRI and got 3 million boggles even my mind which I thought was boggleless after all these years.

81- No. But I'm pretty sure one of the contributers to "bhsportsguy" could. So you might try getting on his good side.

I guess we're not inviting any Minotaurs to spring training. They would've announced something by now.

84 The announcement of NRIs from the system hasn't happened yet, but I find it difficult to believe that the mythical creature won't get into a game or two. Actually, I'm operating under the assumption that all the players at the mini-camp last week will get a spring training invite.

Just finished listening to Easler interview on XMs, The Show. On my phon