God bless Bobby Darwin.

The game has started - click the link above.

Tony Abreu has been shut down for a few days, Leung says.

pierre 1-2
ethier 0-1

so that's settled.

Faker.

Kemp strikes out swinging, bat flies into the stands.

Don't get the Bison angry, you wont like the Bison when hes angry.

So today when I was on the subway ride to work, there was this guy with the "L.A." of the L.A. Dodgers logo tattooed on the side of his head. I was in wonderment. I wasn't sure what to think, although I thought to myself, "that guy really loves the Dodgers." I just wanted to share that with someone. Does anybody on here have a tattoo on their head of the Dodgers?

6 Redefines "Bobbelhead".

Yeah, he was all decked out in Dodger Blue too. Jacket and all. What a superfan.

6 Not on my head, my left arm has the Dodger script logo. Got it on my 40th birthday, some years ago. Still looks good.

Orenduff is pitching like a beast!

Jason Repko has hammered the ball in his first two ABs. Watch out A Jones!
Doesn't it seem like Repko has amazing spring trainings every year?

11 - It's his training regimen. Leung notes Repko spends winters training in the home of Known Steroid User Marvin Benard.

11 Yeah, he starts well but then runs into a wall.

"Pierre singles past second" :)

Martin HR the other way...I think he's playing to much, what is Torre thinking?

9 I always say I would only get a tattoo if it really meant something until the day I die. I never really thought about it, but I guess I will always be a Dodger fan.

6 I think those are reserved for hardcore gang members.

17 Yeah, I figured as much when I saw his girlfriend or wife's name tattooed in cursive on his neck.

16 Were you a LA Rams fan?

16 Speaking of dying...Walter Alston's grandaughter is the local undertaker. She's a friend but has not seen the tattoo, yet.

pierre 2-3
ethier 0-2

it's really settled now.

11-I've really had enough of Jason Repko. It's irrational--it dates back to my dislike of him in '05--but I'd like to see him go. Although I suppose so long as Delwyn and LaRoche make the 25-man, I won't care so much.

pierre has a 1.000 ops can he keep it up until october????

Not too bad of a first outing for Guo. He did strike out two batters. A little wildness with the walk and the HBP. Sounds like Jones misplayed an easy fly ball to CF that lead to the run. Baby steps.
vr, Xei

I see LA banking on Kim Ng being a better representative than Tal Smith. Plan B is Martin gets a $100 million contract before being eligible for free agency. Plan C is that one of the worst trades of the last decade is repeated.

22 Because he keeps injuring himself and other players? I don't mind him so much; in fact, I'd rather he (or Delwyn) be our 4th OFer than youknowwho, because I think both of them are much more suited to the role than youwknowwho.

19 Yes, I was a Rams fan. I can't see the Dodgers ever leaving here though. Do you have a Rams tattoo?

"Kemp homers to right-center after McDonald started him off with a nasty curvevball."

Neat.

McDonald's getting hit a bit hard but that's to be expected - nerves and so forth.

20 Interesting career choice for the granddaughter of MLB manager.

I am cool with Repko as long as he doesn't steam roll another valuable player.

Diamond Leung is fast becoming a favorite. What an excellent service to provide on a Tuesday morning in late February.

pierre and ethier now have matching 1.666 ops, what do we do now?????

Ethier homers off the roof in right. Take that, Juan Pierre?

Imagine JP is traded. Besides Young and Repko, who else do the Dodgers have that could realistically contribute as a fourth or fifth outfielder this year?

Imagine JP is traded. Besides Young and Repko, who else do the Dodgers have that could realistically contribute as a fourth or fifth outfielder this year, in case one of them is injured?

35 We'd free up a spot on the 40 man, so we could use John-Ford Griffin or something, but that's a point I've been trying to make for a while, albeit to defend why there's no way we could possibly waive Young.

26 I'll take Repko for that price over Pierre 7 days a week.

33 Yes!

35 John Ford Griffin.

36 Does it also mean there's no way the Dodgers would trade Pierre? I can see the point that it is better to keep Repko as the "6th outfielder" in the minors, in case of an injury to Pierre or Young. Unless someone else can play that role, I don't see trading Pierre unless it is for a AAA minor league outfielder would could play if necessary.

Doh!

Her father (Walter's son-in-law) owns the business.

Is Choo Freeman still in the organization?

38 I've always just assumed that Pierre is completely untradeable, but yeah, we probably need him around for this season.

41 No, we replaced him with Nook Logan.

Looking at Griffin's numbers, Nook Logan or Anthony Raglani would probably be better.

Nook Logan can play CF. Excellent, then Pierre is tradeable, because we still have Repko and Logan as backup CFers.

I see LaRoche is clogging up the bases again.

Is Andrew missing the point that the reason they sign long term deals is for protection and security from catastrophic injury? Sure Russ could sit around each year and win in arbitration but if he suffers a catastrophic injury in 2009 ala Ray Fosse or Jason Kendell he would just be a run of the mill catcher, instead of set for life by signing now at a discount to what he would receive in arbitration each year. He is a catcher and is just one collision away from double vision and concussions. Mike Matheny, Cory Koskie, and many other promising players were just toodling along when bamm. Now they are toast.

Nook Logan may be the only CFer in baseball worse than JP. Why is he here? To make JP look good?

Last year, Colletti got a perfectly cromulant reserve outfielder in exchange for Elmer Dessens. Sixth string outfielders should not be so difficult to acquire that fear of losing one influences other transactions.

There are plenty of fish that are bad at baseball in the sea.

48 The Suns needed a center fielder.

47 How many people get career ruining injuries a year? The argument "what if he gets hurt" can be used against doing anything, ever.

Kenny Lofton is still looking for work.

47. That echoes my thoughts too. I think he will sign a long-term deal, he probably just feels the Dodgers are low balling him. Typical negotiating ploys going on.
vr, Xei

Break up Rick Asadoorian!

50. Yeah, chances are he won't suffer a crippling injury or have his skills diminish due to injury or other reason, but nonetheless the risk is there. A bird in the hand...
vr, Xei

50
Not really, 99.9% of the population doesn't have to worry about a broken finger on every pitch, a 250 pound 1st baseman coming home who won't slide, or any number of things a professional baseball catcher has to worry about. The reason they don't have long peaks is because of the wear and tear on the position. Even a simple 1st baseman like Floyd had his career ruined on a simple play at 1st base. No need to take the chance when your still going to get millions. These guys don't sign long term deals for any other reason then the security it provides them.
And any given year multiple players will suffer an injury that will negatively impact their career, not one or two.

What do you make of this quote from Torre in Diamond Leung's story about the 3rd base battle?

"You got a better chance coming off the bench as a veteran player," Torre said. "You can slow the game down. Young players put more pressure on themselves. Nomar's experience certainly plays into this thing."

Veterans "slow the game down." Maybe that's generally true, but has Torre ever seen Nomar play? The most notorious 1st pitch swinger in my lifetime?

LaRoche, by contrast, is very patient. So if this is the reason that Torre starts LaRoche and "Olmedos" Nomar, then it's the wrong reason. Still, I hope he does it.

56. Maybe he was referring to all the batting glove adjustments. :)
vr, Xei

56 Completely uninformed. Ridiculous. Ignorant.

http://tinyurl.com/ywbtn7

I apologize If this video of the '86 Dodgers has already been posted. If it hasn't I REALLY apologize for directing you to it.

LaRoche is a big-time walk machine. He should get around 100 every year in his prime.

Maybe someone posted this before - I'm not here everyday like most of the core crew - but it's pretty hilarious. 1986 Dodgers doing "The Baseball Boogie." http://youtube.com/watch?v=JW7q0JzWaoY

Whoops - just posted by Branch.

58 are you aware you're calling a hall of famer who has been in professional baseball as a manager and player for 45+ years, ridiculous and ignorant? doesn't seem to me torre is the one that is ridiculous and ignorant.

56
Maybe the career 367 batting average on the 1st pitch is what he's referring to. You do what works best for you and Nomar's best average other then 2-0 and 3-0 is on the 1st pitch.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/bsplit.cgi?n1=garcino01

63 and did you ever think maybe he is using that as a less ego damaging reason for nomar to be super utility guy?

56 I think by "slows the game down" he means the typical veteran cliche that they are accustomed to playing at the major league level, so the game comes "more slowly" to them. They are not anxious or pressing, they are calmly playing a game they've excelled at for many years.

I don't necessarily agree with the reasoning this way either, I just don't think he meant "slows down" as in takes a lot of pitches.

56, 58 - I think you guys are misreading that quote. It seems to be all about being used to pressure, not approach to taking pitches.

59, 61 - That video has been posted about a half-dozen times now :)

67 That's why I wish the conversations here were laid out in searchable topic threads rather than in comment threads. I still love this place, but it's impossible to know what's going on unless you spend all of your time here. Have you given any thought to having a message board here rather than just the blog comments? Not sure if that would be hugely resource (or time) intensive for you or not.

66
Why do you not agree? Most of you would agree that whatever profession your in, that as you gather experience things that used to cause anxiety at work or life is replaced by the calm knowledge that you'e seen it all before and that solutions are at hand.

I would not be surprised at all to find that pinchhitters less then 25 do not perform nearly as well as those who are greater then 25. A kid < 25 is always trying to impress because they are still searching for playing time. A veteran like a Dave Hansen knows his chance for a full time gig came and went so he can just concentrate on doing the job.

67. Sorry, kinda figured. But what if you went your entire life and didn't see that? Couldn't risk it.

Ethier, 25, recalled how when he was one of three outfielders sharing the two corner outfield positions last season, a bad week could consist of not getting a hit in a couple of games. Failure could not be made up immediately.

You wonder if they like you," Ethier said.

Abreu, 23, also spent a significant portion of last season on the bench.

"Psychologically, it's difficult because you've been playing every day for so many years," Abreu said. "When you're in the dugout for so long, you feel uncomfortable."

http://tinyurl.com/2bdx85

It's not just old coaches who think this way.

68 - I have, and ultimately, 1) it's not my decision to make, and 2) I personally find threaded message boards pretty unwieldy and unattractive.

As for search, you can try the search box on the sidebar, since that picks up a lot of the comments. Also, you can just use control-F or command-F.

Also, look at when the link you're passing along was posted and how prominently it was posted. For example, if you got it from Tony Jackson's blog, that means it's been up for more than 24 hours at a place a lot of DT readers go. (Putting aside the fact that Sons of Steve Garvey posted it months ago.)

Just some tips to help ... ultimately, no harm done ... The only thing that tends to bug me is when people post links to things I've already mentioned in my main post.

69 I said I didn't necessarily agree. I love being equivocal. :-) I like your reasoning, but there are also cases where the kid < 25 is simply a better hitter than the veteran option, or where a kid does have the maturity or approach to handle pinch-hitting situations. I think what Torre said is what any manager would say, but I also think any manager will take it on a case-by-case basis.

Yao Ming done for year. Bummer for China.

64 However, first pitch batting averages are going to be high for a lot of good hitters (unless you are Todd Zeille).

Derek Jeter, for one, is hitting .372 in more at bats than Nomar.

72 I actually like this format because message boards seem somewhat mysterious and when it is a long one, it is hard to follow along.

Just as the Rockets were heating up...

72
I dislike threaded message boards.

76 - I just think the overall conversation tends to be more lively this way - I like the different topics mixing together.

I don't think there are enough comments for a threaded message board. It really only works well (at least I only like it) when there are literally hundreds of commenters online at any given time of day and there are dozens of topics to go through. If there's only a few topics, I find the topic-less format to be better. I also think it helps facilitate, as Kurt Helin at Forum Blue and Gold describes, "..the free-flowing, wide ranging discussions you see someplace like Dodger Thoughts."

47
Mike Matheny, Cory Koskie, and many other promising players were just toodling along when bamm. Now they are toast

I don't know if Koskie & Matheny are the best examples. Corey Koskie got hurt in his age 32 season, but he already signed a contract taking him through his first two FA years. He made $26.3m in his career (per Baseball-Reference.com)

Mike Matheny felt the effects of his concussions in his age 35 season, and made $18.7m in his career through 2006 (not sure how the final $4.25m of his contract with the Giants was handled.

For Martin, he really only needs to worry about 2008. His 2009 contract, even if it's a one-year deal, is likely enough to set him for life (who couldn't parlay a $5m+ salary into a retirement fund?). Security would be nice, to be sure, but he can make quite a bit more going year to year.

67 Nomar doesn't really fit a pinch hitting role well, making it even more out of the blue. So far Torre has made some ridiculous generalizations. The guy is a first pitch fastball hitter who played most of games in Fenway Park. I think it's a mistake to assume Nomar will be more successful/suited to be some super utility/pinch hitter. Working counts isn't really part of his game and never has been.

81 If Russell Martin is really a golden god and is made out of gold, shouldn't he need more than $5M to, I don't know, sustain himself?

83
If he plays his cards right, he can secure half of Alyssa Milano's empire! :)

I don't know if Torre articulated his reasoning in the best manner, but I agree with him overall - I'd rather have a veteran pinch hitter because they'll both press less in pressure situations and in general (LaRoche might be fine as a pinch hitter, but in general) be better about jumping right into the action after sitting around all game, and then have someone like LaRoche getting the playing time as a starter. Seems logical to me. At any rate, even if his reasoning was off, if it gets Nomar to be utility bench guy and LaRoche the starter, I'm all for it.

85 Can we also use that reasoning to make Pierre the outfield utility bench guy and Ethier the starter?

82 - Why does a pinch-hitter have to take more pitches than a non-pinch hitter?

In any case, we shouldn't get carried away by looking at this question backward. The point is not to find the best pinch-hitter. The point is to find the best third baseman. I think LaRoche would be a better third baseman than Nomar and a better pinch-hitter than Nomar - but LaRoche can only be one.

Jon, why did you have to give extra motivation to the Rockies by picking them 3rd in the NL West? ;)

85 While Nomar is a veteran, he doesn't really have the makings of an ideal pinch hitter. Andy does but we need him to start, so it's sort of backwards. Don't tell that to Nomar though, he's won batting titles.

81
You think concussions only happen to older players?

86 If Pierre had one year left on his deal, there's no way he'd start.

I think the advantage of having a veteran pinch hitter is that in a late game situation, a guy like Nomar may have faced the other teams top relievers and knows what kind of pitch sequences to expect along with the fact that he may feel more relaxed. Basically a Trevor Hoffman may feel very confident facing a young player rather than Nomar who he has faced many times before.

47--I agree. Plus, it'd not be a wise move to invest so much money into such a physically demanding position (catcher), that will likely have diminishing results. If you want to tie up a young RF'er--great. But not with a catcher. Too much accumulated wear and tear.

Plus, dont arbitrators look at what other players (of the same position) get? I dont think Ryan Howard getting 10 mils is that big of deal. Howard's a 1st basemen. These arbitrators arent looking at VORP, they are sitll looking at the traditional baseball stats to assess value across position. Plus years of service with regards to what other players (at the same position) were awarded.

Its not a big deal not L-terming Martin.

88 - If there was a way for me to avoid giving extra motivation to some teams, let me know.

You often hear guys postgame say things like, "so and so usually starts me off with a breaking ball away, so I was waiting on the fastball," or some such thing. A guy like Nomar has seen a lot pitchers and knows certain tendencies that you can only gain from years of playing.

All right, here is something that bugs me. Why do people shorten already short words? Not to pick on JoeyP, he's just the last one to do it. Why would you shorten long-term to L-term? It just seems weird to me.

I particularly hate it when Astros is shortened to 'Stros. You've saved one letter.

/rant

90
No, they just happen. But:

(a) I don't think concussions & long-term injuries are such an epidemic that every young star should sign a long term deal ASAP

(b) It's not like we are looking at Matheny & Koskie -- who made a combined $40m+ in their careers -- as some tragic "what could have been" tale.

93 When's the next time a player with comparable talent to Martin's will become avialable? The only catchers that are anywhere near him now are McCann, Mauer and Martinez and the soonest any of those guys will be available is 2011, which guarantees that Martin will be our man until then. If he isn't, we lose a ton of production, especially since there's about a four player gap between the elite and guys that are just terrible.

There isn't going to be a substitute Russell Martin that comes along for a long time, so why not lock him up? It's not like I'm saying hold on to him until age 35, just keep him up until age 29 or 30.

96
M'rty is 100% correct.