... ah, honey, honey ...
(sorry about that)

I predict a much unhealthier remake of this movie, "High Fructose Corn Syrup", will perform improbably well at the box office, much to the detriment of society as a whole.

... in the morning.
vr, Xei

Speaking of tornadoes from the previous thread, there was one where I work today. Luckily, it was a few hours after I went home for the day.
vr, Xei

2
The best version of this film will be seen in Mexico.

Has Michael Cage been doing the Fox/UCLA post game show for long? Am I the only one who didn't know that? I loved him during his Clipper days. Work horse kind of player. Nice gerry curl too.

I believe Reggie Miller just said "21th".

I saw "Sugar" at Sundance on Tuesday and, in spite of a bloated running time, quite liked it (far, far more than I liked "Half Nelson"). It takes an interesting approach to its subject matter, and while it's inaccurate, in many ways, to classify it as a "baseball movie," I think it'll have special resonance for thoughtful baseball fans.

6
Michael Cage! That takes me back. That guy played in the NBA almost the entire time I was in grade school.

LAT, read your post a few threads back, great stuff.

Trainwreck shouldn't be allowed to say "that takes me back" for at least ten more years.

You can't say "that takes me back" unless you remember both Ross Porter and Bryant Gumbel doing the local sports report for Channel 4.

The only source of glee I can take from these yutes is that they have never been able to properly celebrate a Dodger World Championship. Crapping in your diapers doesn't count.

I agree we should try to keep the "that takes me back" for a piviledged few. Unfortunately I'm not local enough to pass Bob's test so could we include those who saw Sandy pitch.

And Pat Sajak doing the weather.

sorry, to keep bringing my discussions with my friends on this board. if this isn't the place let me know and i'll stop, but i want to try to get an unbias point of view. just based on talent alone the next 2 years, no contract amount factored in, Chris Young (black) or Andruw Jones

I realize I have lost a lot of my innocent optimism about prospects since the time when it looked like the two Joses would give us a middle infield for the next 10 years. Its hard to grasp just how hard Offerman was hyped before he came up.
But I have always liked Viscaino

More good stuff on that film, "Sugar," here:
http://daily.greencine.com/archives/005362.html

Really want to see that one.

Why does it seem like there are so many more interesting films at Sundance this year than there were last year, when I was actually there? Sigh.

14 Or seen the Dodgers play in the Coliseum.

18 And why can't I get a week off from teaching every year so I can go see them?

16 Chris Young. I'm expecting big things from him this year. His track record suggests that he'll start walking more and I think he vastly improves that .237 average.

12 15

Parallel Universe.

21

His OBP is also horrible:

2006 - 308
2007 - 295

He also K's a ton. CF goes to the Dodgers, by far!

For the next two years I'll take Andruw Jones, from 2010 on it should be Chris Young in a cakewalk. What should be interesting is to see if he stays a CF or if Justin Upton takes over. Either way the Kemp/Jones or Upton/Young combo will be one of the best in the NL in 2009.

18 - Could be an illusion. The articles I've read make it sound like Sundance needs to regroup.

23 Look at his minor league track record. It strongly suggests he'll start walking more, and he showed good enough strike zone control in the minors that he should hit way better this year.

Striking out once every 4.42 at bats doesn't really count as a ton either.

Oh wait, that was once every 4.42 plate appearances. Yeah, I guess that does count as a ton.

Still, he should improve on that this year.

23
Don't be so sure. His walk rate in the minors was solid and last year was his 1st year. He already showed excellent power during his 1st year, if he regains the patience he showed in the minors he could make a huge leap.
Still he's going against a future HOF who is just past peak so it is a tough comparison.

I'm sure he'll walk more but that long swing is catered for K's not that that's all bad, specially because he slugged 32 dingers in '07.

25 According to Kenneth Turan on NPR, it's been a great year, particularly for documentaries.

Every year it feels absolutely strange to have Hollywood invade Utah. It's like LA has finally been destroyed by an earthquake and characters from my past life have moved inland.

last years A. Jones OPS+ 88 chris young 89, you're comparing a career worst season and a season you don't know for sure chris young can improve on. i doubt A jones skills dimished that dramatically over the course of 6 months from the end of the '06 season to the beggining of the '07 season. You have to chalk '07 up to either just a very prolonged slump which happens in baseball or injury. you have to assume that jones will be at his usual .260, 30, and 100 he's only 30. that would be tough for Chris Young to match, we don't even know if he can do what he did last year consistantly in the bigs. Jones is a much safer bet the next 2 years

12
I remember Stu Nahan when he was Sexy!

Non exhaustive list of players who Got On Base An Awful Lot More than Short Chris Young in 2007:

Juan Pierre

That being said, I'd still take him over Andruw.

Every year it feels absolutely strange to have Hollywood invade Utah. It's like LA has finally been destroyed by an earthquake and characters from my past life have moved inland.

See `Panic in the Year Zero' starring Ray Milland.

Speaking of Upton, his HR during the Futures Game (vs. De Los Santos, now with Oakland) is amazing stuff. Such a short, powerful swing. He will be a 40 HR guy in his prime.

Jones and Young have similar abilities to hit home runs. Jones does everything else much much better. Jones in a landslide.

31 I think it's more likely that Andruw Jones never improves than Chris Young. Young is just starting his career, and his track record is pretty much impecable. His minor league numbers scream can't miss major leaguer.

Jones is in the decline phase of his career and the last few years have seen him become more immobile and develop a swing for the fences every time attitude. When his power dropped last year, swinging for the fences every time made him hit .220. He also had games where he looked completely lost, striking out three or four times in just one game. I'm not saying that Jones will repeat 2007, I'm expecting a bit of a bounce back too, but it's just more likely that a 31 year old coming of a year where his skills obviously declined is more likely to never improve than a 24 year old star prospect.

36 Aside from defense, what else does Jones do better?

37 i think a. jones in a contract year maybe put too much pressure on himself, that's my point exactley. I know Jones is unlikely to improve, we know what he is .260, 30, 110. I'm just saying that will be really tough for Chris Young to match. Also, consider Jones had a higher OBP in career worse year. I'm just saying if you look at Avg., HR, RBI, OBP, OPS, and OPS+, as a category for '08 and '09 i'd take Jones to win at least 3 of those categories each of the next 2 years

35
I was there. Even only 19 he stood out like a sore thumb. It will be fun watching him play in our Division during his non FA years. Would not surprise me in the least to see an Upton win an MVP in both leagues during the same year sometime in the future.

25 30 I think both things are true. Sundance needs to restructure a bit, but this year's crop is undeniably strong, from what I've been reading from friends who are there. Clearly a stronger group from last year's. Just my luck. (I did get to see The Savages first there, though.) Poor Daniel. Maybe you could call in sick for a week.

Welp, I think I just saw Noah's Ark float by, but I have to go swim to work now. Later.

34 Not quite as eerie as that! :-)

39 I wouldn't bring up RBI too much; that stat is dependent on your team more than anything else.

i guess it just comes down to the fact i'm more of a guy who likes proven guys, over guys who've yet to do it for more than 1 season. i've always been more of a homer towards vets

16

I'll take it black ... with sugar

44 That line of thinking sends Loney to the minors for two months even though it's obvious that he's ready.

Paul LoDuca goes down. http://tinyurl.com/2lttbn

I am curious as to what would have happened if we don't resign Nomar, give Loney the job out of Spring Training, and he hit .220/.270/.310 or whatever his MLE was for the first two months.

College baseball preseason polls. Accept them at your own risk.

This is USA Today's.
http://tinyurl.com/284bga

Arizona State is the preseason #1.

CSTV's preseason #1 UCLA is #17 in this poll.

46 - what were you supposed to do with a re-signed nomar coming off a .303 20 hr season? i would've loved to see Loney start in '07 but once Drew left colletti felt obligated to sign Nomar leaving no where for Loney to play.

50 - they had no option but to send loney down

50 Nomar was horrible during the second half of '06 (.229/.286/.408), which should've been a red-flag that he was in decline. I wouldn't have re-signed him.

College baseball preseason polls: the only thing less interesting than college baseball postseason polls.

48
Tex would now be playing 1st base for the Dodgers.

52

He's always been a first half player to begin with Silverwidow, & like Cargill06 says, Ned had no option but to re-sign Nomar. For the record I didn't want Nomar for another year either but Drew opting out forced us to take the Nomar pill for 2 more years.

My thoughts were that Loney and Nomar were pretty much the same player, so why sign Nomar to a two year deal with a no trade clause?

Also, .303 20 home run seasons aren't that special for a first baseman. Nomar had the 14th highest VORP amongst first basemen that year, and was slightly more valuable than Wes Helms.

52
So based on that logic his 2007 2nd half was
301 .351 .463 .814
Is that a green flag that he isn't in decline?

54 good point

55
That is simply not true. Career splits
1st Half 894 OPS
2nd Half 884 OPS

it's so ridicoulus when people compare halves of a season and come to conclusions off of it. baseball is such a mental game and if you get into a slump, espacially a power slump it's so hard to get out of it...

reference bull durham the difference between a .250 and .300 hitter "Crash Davis" speech

Colletti not only had to sign LuGo and Pierre, but Nomar too, because Drew opted out? That butterfly effect is a hell of a thing.

There has been a lot of hand-wringing regarding Nomar, but he may very well turn out to be a valuable part of the team this season. If he is dispatched as a super-utility player then I could foresee a pretty productive season from him consisting of 300-350 healthy ABs. That would benefit the team greatly. If he puts together some good numbers in that capacity, I could see us extending him, at a lesser rate of course.

60
One year splits don't make much sense but a career does. Would you bet on Beltre having OPS > 800 in the 1st or 2nd half?

like nomar in '06, first half was awesome but all of the sudden he woke up one day in mid-july and now his skills are completely gone. baseball is a game of averages and everything eventually balances out... don't know why i'm saying that i'm sure im preaching to the chior

I thought the Crown Prince signed Nomar before Drew opted out.

Cool! Tornado hits Dockweiler.

I only wish it would have got far enough inland to take out the LAX Relocation Dept.

62 that role sounds great for him, LaRoche every day 3B, like you say gets 300 healthy AB's starts a few games at 3B, 2B (can't be worse than Kent defensively), 1B, and be a great late inning PH, in that role i could easily see him getting us a 10-15 HR season and a .800+ OPS

65 no it was after, he said when drew opted out and the thin FA power hitter market he had to sign Nomar

64
Given the juice component it is very possible his skills will be reduced. We run the same risk with A Jones. Baseball in 2008 will be very interesting for anyone who showed unusual skills pre testing that disappeared in 2007

69 true

67 Seeing as Nomar missed more plays in half a season at first base than Kent did in an entire season at second, it's entirely possible that Nomar would be worse.

ah slumps,

Last softball season I changed my swing to hit for more power. I went from hitting about .800 and batting third to hitting .250 and batting seventh. But hey, I hit a lot of really hard line drives that were caught.

Do I stick with the new swing this season or go back to the old faithful placement swing of singles and doubles?

72 That depends. Do chicks dig the high-average guys? Or just the long ball?

72 i know your bringing humor to the discussion, but it happens to players all the time, and many times it makes it worse. than they go back to their original swing and go back their normal selves

it's so ridicoulus when people compare halves of a season and come to conclusions off of it.

Not really. Nomar's pedestrian numbers from the last half of '06 were indicative of more than simply a "slump." His power disappeared in 2007 and his swing at the first pitch approach was awful and led to his mediocre OBP. Dismissing those numbers is what's really ridiculous.

75 The hell of it is that Nomar hit a legit .360 in the first half in 2006, he was just a line drive machine. His line drive percentage went from like 24 to 14 from the first half to the second half.

I am part of the group that has been anxiously waiting for all our young prospects to finally get a fair chance to compete for a starting spot, and I know we may have done better last year if Loney and Kemp and bills were starting from April 1. But, I think we should at least acknowledge that they may have had such success because Colleti and Co. brought them up at the perfect time, when they had fully 'matured.' We have five players (Broxton, Kemp, Loney, Martin, Billingsley) that have been pretty awesome right from the get go. Many other top prospects (alex gordon, homer bailey, andy marte, kouzmanouf) have not enjoyed the same success, maybe they just weren't brought up at the "perfect" time.

Ned should be called the "Clown Prince".

69 - but they still don't test for HGH. I'm not convinced everyone will now be "clean", just more sophisticated: i.e. not using personal checks to pay for one's illegal drugs (how's that knee working for ya, Paul?)

74
Kevin is being serious. He likes to keep us up to date on his softball antics.

75
We disagree. It was a known fact that Nomar was playing with injuries in the 2nd half of 2006 to the detriment of the team. I would not have signed Nomar because we did have Loney but I would not have bet any money that Nomar would not have been productive in 2007 based on his 2nd half slide in 2006.

79
HGH does nothing for performance enhancement so it is a moot point.

81
From watching Larry King while jet lagged in Germany in the wee hours of the morning, I learned that Suzanne Somers takes HGH every day.

So there's an endorsement!

60 "it's so ridicoulus when people compare halves of a season and come to conclusions off of it."

Actually, it's not. If you believe Bill James, second-half stats are far more predictive of future performance than first-half stats. So a bad second half could very well mean an aging player like Nomar has fallen off the cliff.

Also, it's a bit of revisionist history to say that the Dodgers had "no choice" but to send Loney down for Opening Day '07. First of all, he could gotten a fair amount of playing time backing up the most injury-prone player in baseball. Secondly, he was also an outfielder then, and could/would have gotten a fair amount of playing time there too.

I agree with those who think that re-signing Nomar was a really bad move. I thought so at the time, and hindsight makes it obvious. In no way was Colletti "forced" to re-sign Nomar after Drew opted out. The idea that fans would abandon the team is ludicrous. The Dodgers will draw 3.2 Million if they lose 100 games. It seemed obvious that Loney could more than replicate Nomar's production, and the Nomar money could have gone elsewhere.

The only way that Colletti gets a pass for re-signing Nomar (and for 2 years!) is if McCourt made him do it. It'd still be a dumb move, but the blame will have been shifted.

I was a huge Nomar fan during his Boston days. I didn't like the idea of him at 1b, and despite his hot start in 2006, I still thought it was a bad idea (I'd have given the job to Choi). Once Loney showed his stuff, Nomar became completely redundant.

I also think the idea that Nomar will accept AND thrive in a super-utility role is a fantasy. If he accepts it, I'll be very impressed. If he thrives, despite his huge defensive decline and his ill-suitedness to pinch-hitting (swing at everything), I'll be shocked if Torre doesn't find an excuse to ease his way back into starting.

Mostly, I expect he'll "win" the 3b job, and not give it up until about 2 months after it's obvious that he should. At that point, he'll either be traded (hard) or he'll mope on the bench (not good).

Of course, as in most seasons, this debate probably will be rendered moot by injuries. The guys who play will be the the guys who are healthy (or best able to pretend they're healthy).

82 It must be good for the thighs.

62 You had me until the last sentence. The last sentence caused me to commence banging my head against the wall.

The last sentence caused me to commence banging my head against the wall.

An ineffective gambit in Germany if you wish to get better customer service.

75 like regfairfield said 1st haft .358 we all know he's not that good, 2nd half .229, we all know he wasn't as good as the .360 number but not as bad as the .229 number. it is very reasonable to expect somewhere in the middle of those two numbers in '07.

I don't normally put much stock into what the talking heads say but to my surprise I'm getting the distinct feeling that LaRoche has the job headed into spring training. He could lose it with a lousy spring training but that they expect Nomar to be a super sub this year.

81 if it does nothing to enhance performance why are people risking thier careers and reputation to take nothing that helps them?

anyone see rob neyers blog yesterday? he had andy laroche #9 in 3B of the future

Also, it should be pointed out that during Nomar's supposedly fantastic comeback season, even if you take the season as a whole, he wasn't that great. He had an sOPS+ of 106, meaning he was just barely better than the average MLB first baseman.

Okay, so what's more important to us: The LaRoche Must Play battle, or the Pierre Must Sit battle? If we can only win one, which one would we rather it be?

I don't think it matters. In the end performance will dictate playing time. HA HA HA

93. If I could get it just by asking, I'd say sit Pierre. That's partly because I think LaRoche will get in there eventually anyway, and I don't need to waste a wish on it. Leaving it up to Torre and Colletti to figure out might waste a half-season, a la Loney, but they'll figure it out at some point, maybe after Nomar breaks down and LaRoche Pips him.

Pierre just seems to be a blind spot. And he never gets hurt.

93 It's not even close. Pierre must sit.

Regardless of whether Nomar plays in 2008, he is gone in 2009. Contrast that with Pierre, who could be in the outfield for many more years to come.

The first problem to address is the biggest long-term problem facing the team.

89 All I need is him to start on 3/31.

i think the laroche must play battle, like i've said in the past if you stick Pierre in the 8 hole he doesn't hurt you. last year pierre waas .293/.331/.353 and the avg. #8 hitter got 11 IBB walks last year, let's assume pierre gets 8 IBB batting 8th next year, that pushes him up to .293/.342/.353 compared to the average #8 hitter at .255/.325/.379, i know his OPS would be below avg. (.697 compared to .704) but when you factor in the the avg. #8 hitter scored 65 runs and 5 SB last year, you could reasonably expect Pierre to score 80-85 runs in the 8 hole (the name of the game is to score runs) which would be about 30% better than the league avg and have 40-50 SB's i think that proves he would be well above average #8 hitter. With that being said it's easy too see LaRoche and Ethier should start every day, but I don't think Pierre hurts us at all in the 8 hole ( i know torre would probably bat him 1st or 2nd however.)