For Delias Man in the last thread. I actually live in Chicago, and the closest I ever lived to LA was Davis, so I have no clue about any bars in Southern California that would show Argentine Liga games.
The best place to probably ask is on the message boards for BigSoccer.com. That is the place with the highest concentration of American fans of foreign clubs I've ever seen. If you can't get a good recommendation there, there may not be a good place to go.

I think Bob's talk is actualy on April 3.

But let's not tell Bob.

1 - thanks

I wonder if that is the first thing the 15 year old boy thought of when he left the comment on youtube

Reading youtube comments is where I go to lose faith in humanity.

De Jon Watson doesn't mitigate the Pierre signing, but it helps.

0 Re: YouTube.463,101 hits in two days? That's amazing.

the commenters have some good points about all giants being homo's and fruits, very valid, thought provoking, articulate comments.

1 3 Have you guys heard anything about this Setanta Sports? I was just at a bar in Laguna Beach (Mozambique) over the weekend, and they had Setanta Sports on the big screen. I believe it's a European channel because I remember seeing ads in England, but I haven't looked into it yet.

Joe, _please_take the Minotaur with you.

Just posted by Diamond in his blog.

Tommy Lasorda held court as Dodgers manager today, and he went after the pitch count. "You can take a pitch count and you know what to do with it," Lasorda said, noting how he kept Ben Sheets pitching past his limit against the Cubans in the Olympics. "I'm not going to listen to anybody about innings and limits. But I want to do the things Joe wants me to do and carry it through." Derek Lowe and Hong-Chih Kuo are first to pitch today.

The commenting universe for most high-traffic sites is insane. The comments on the Yahoo sports page (which linked the Kershaw video, accounting for that high view number) are every bit as stupid.

Reason #4,769 why I'm grateful for Dodger Thoughts.

10-I saw that. Frightening doesn't even begin to describe it. I'm tempted to fly down to Vero and kidnap Kershaw myself.

10-I saw that. Frightening doesn't even begin to describe it. I'm tempted to fly down to Vero and kidnap Kershaw myself, just for safekeeping.

someone on this blog made rob neyers chat today...

Casey, LA, CA: Is it safe to say now that Clayton Kershaw will have a better career than Sandy Koufax and Johan Santana combined?

Rob Neyer: (12:02 PM ET ) Funny. Somebody just sent me a YouTube of Kershaw striking out Sean Casey with a killer curveball (I'll post tomorrow in the blog, probably). He's impressive, obviously. But he needs to refine his control, and I'm afraid the odds are against him winning 50 games in the majors. But you already know that, don't you?

{covers ears with hands} La la la la! Stop it! He doesn't exist... he doesn't exist... he doesn't exist -- Stop it! La la la la. {uncovers ears}

I just posted a request to Tony Jackson re: Tommy Lasorda, though I doubt he'll take me up on it.

9 I guess it's only available on DirecTV or Dish Network which is highly disappointing. Gol TV and FSC aren't cutting it though, so I may have to jump ship. There is also a venue finder on the website, I suggest checking it out. Long Beach is pretty well represented, and the Auld Dubliner is right down the street from me!

16. I was about to tell you it was a satellite channel. It's been around since at least 2000 with a ton of matches.

14 I'll take the over.

14 -- It is not possible to calculate the odds of Kershaw's winning 50 games in the majors. Too many unknown variables. Yes, Rob, contrary to the TINSTAAP nonsense, there is such a thing as a pitching prospect. It is one thing to say that pitchers are injury risks, which is true, but Kershaw's talent gives him better odds of success than almost anybody who has yet to pitch in the majors.

19 - Doesn't anyone think that Neyer meant to write "500" instead of "50"? After all, the question was, "Is it safe to say now that Clayton Kershaw will have a better career than Sandy Koufax and Johan Santana combined?"

20 I was hoping that's what it was, and not that he was assuming he'd have an injury shortened career, which would be kinda mean.

17 Nice, I was unaware of it's existence over here.

I'm certain he meant 50. He's just being realistic about a 20 year old pitcher who has yet to throw above AA ball.

Re: Youtube comments. I remember a time when the average internet citizen was literate. Oh digital divide, where have you gone?

23 - Do you think that there's a greater than 50-percent chance at this point that Kershaw will implode? It's one thing to say things can still happen, but I would guess that for people with his talent and mechanics, he's past the 50-percent mark.

[18-23} i think his answer was tounge in cheek much like my question.

i think he's referring to 50 wins in a season, which would be close to a total that santana and koufax would put up combined, but i could be wrong.

26 actually i think he maybe saying the odds of him winning 50 in his career are against him, i'd have to disagree with him. it is almost a certainty that billingsley will reach 50+ wins, kershaw will probably be in the rotation at a younger age than billingsley, and probably have better control than billingsley.

24

When was this? Ever since I first logged on back in '94, there has been a large amount of stupidity on the internet.

19, 23-Pretty sure he meant '50' also. It's a pessimistic comment, but a nice counterbalance to the way the question was phrased. Yep, he's an awfully good pitcher. The odds are probably a little better than they are for most he'll win 50 games; but they're probably not as good as we like to think they are he'll be better than Santana.

I cringed to read that comment, though, I admit.

24 28

I do agree with you by and large that is has gotten worse of late. But I'd note that the majority of Youtube commenters could just be hitting puberty.

Casey, LA, CA: You think the odds are against Kershaw and 50 career wins? He'll be in the rotation younger than Billingsley and has better stuff and probably better control at his age, and Billingsley is almost a certainty for 50+ major league wins.

Rob Neyer: (12:43 PM ET ) Casey, I promise you that if you go back 20 years and make a list of every pitcher with Kershaw's credentials, you'll find that most of them didn't win 50. Pitching in the majors is really, really, really hard. Probably the hardest thing there is.

I doubt it's a typo. The chances of any pitcher winning 500 games in a career is astronomically low. People have a hard time getting to 200. 300 is considered amazing.

The chances of a pitcher winning 50 games in a season are even lower. To win 50 games, you have to play in 50 games, which is like 1/3 of the season.

Either of those is a "duh, it's not gonna happen" thing. I think Neyer is referring to the TINSSAAPP argument. But at this stage, it seems more likely he'll have at least a decent career than a not-so-decent career. If he indeed cracks the majors this year, I'd expect Neyer to change those odds.

I read Neyer's comment as cargill did in 26 -- that Neyer was using hyperbole regarding the mythical one winning 50 games a season.

23
Implode is certainly not the word I would use. He has the talent, now he needs the health. Mark Prior is stuck on 42 wins, what were the odds when he had 24 wins at age 22 that he would end up with 50?

31 - Apparently I misread.

31 Or you could just have Neyer clarify.

Take all the top rated pitchers over the last 25 years and find out how many of them have won at least 50 games. 50 games sounds so easy, but is it?
How many of those top rated pitchers were 20 and younger when they were 1st rated, and how many of them reached 50 wins. I have no idea the answer but I expect someone somewhere has already done the research and Rob has access to it.

32 - I wasn't suggesting Kershaw would win 500 games in a career or 50 games in a season. I just thought Neyer was having some fun.

34 - The odds were good. That's my point. That it hasn't happened for Prior doesn't mean the odds at that point weren't good.

I understand TNASDASAAAAAAP. I believe in it. But it doesn't mean that you don't ever arrive.

I may be wrong, but that was my reaction.

what is TINSSAAP and TNASDASAAAAAP?

34-Well, in the meantime, let's hope Prior remains stuck on 42 for the remainder of this season, at least.

38 Oh. I take everything literally so I never get that kind of humor. My bad.

39 There Is no Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect.

I think I had a typo when I typed it. It's not exactly the coolest acronym out there. It refers to pitching prospects being much less predictable than hitting prospects.

Even if the odds are against Kershaw winning 50 games, they're still higher for him than for the vast majority of pitching prospects out there. So why shouldn't we be optimistic?

Wow, Joel Sheehan just called the Mariners a "better run" club than the Dodgers in his BP chat. That stings, though I don't see how it's true. Especially after that Bedard trade.

27 How can you say Kershaw will probably have better control than Bills at this moment in time? And what does Bills have to do with Kershaw getting to the bigs and being successful? Forecasting his career at this point seems a bit ridiculous. As far as I am concerned, resistance to his previously stated non-existence is futile.

Not to beat a dead horse but Edwin Jackson and Greg Miller will not win 50 games combined and they were both 20 and younger and the top rated pitchers in the organization at one time. Anibal Sanchez and Josh Johnson were going to anchor the Marline rotation for the next 5 years. Who? Is Liriano going to win 50 games after looking better then Santana for 1/2 a season? Will Adam Miller even start in the majors after being the best pitcher in single A as a teen ager?
Kershaw's stuff is better then anyone (except Liriano)listed but his stuff is not the question, strictly his health. He has barely scratched the surface of the innings he is going to be pitching. No one here, not even Canuck knows how is arm will hold up when he becomes a regular fixture in a major league rotation.

We all hope for the best but expectations should be tempered by reality. Dr Jobe and company do a bang up business and they don't go looking for clients, the clients come to them. To many for my taste.

I'm' not trying to rain on any parade. I'm as excited about Kershaw as anyone, but I don't think what Neyer said was wrong. Plenty do arrive, but just as many never get the chance.

Lasorda benches Kemp! Lasorda benches Kemp! :)

http://insidethedodgers.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/2008/03/todays_lineup_1.html

44 - Okay, I accept what you're saying.

43 I think the non-existence campaign is officially a complete failure, thanks to that curve ball and Vin's call.

43 i said at the age of 19 he probably has better comman than c bill, and i just wanted a clarification on what he told me on my first question.

42
Why should that surprise you. Joe Sheehan despises Ned Colletti and has taken shots at him in every column and every chat.
I don't know who wrote the Dodger portion of BP2008 but the shots to the body continue. Some are legitimate, some are horse manure. You'd think Rafy and Maddux never existed in their world and that all the kids traded are playing in all-star games instead of having a tough time making 25 man rosters.

Neyer is notoriously pessimistic about young, hyped pitching. It's not because he's a "hater" though, it's just a numbers game backed up over and over again by history. To win that amount you have to be healthy and relatively successful, two very difficult hurdles to clear for a 19 year old.

45
Wouldn't it be hard for Kemp to both play and get ready to fly to China?

51 - Oh, I guess. I was just having some fun :)

The Kershaw video is now No. 1.

http://www.youtube.com/members?t=t&p=1&s=mv&g=0

24 , 28 My first time internetin' was in 1994 also. Back then it was bulletin boards, mailing lists, and Usenet groups. The majority of users were college comp-sci guys and techies, and yeah, it was a fairly literate place. There were stupid people, sure, but at least they were stupid people who could write and construct a well-thought out observation.

And then AOL started up and everything went straight to hell.

48 Well, there are other ways to go about that. You don't have to make your point by proclaiming that Kershaw will be in the bigs sooner than Bills with better control. You act as if Bills is Brett Tomko. This will be Bills first full season in the bigs, so lets stop making outlandish claims about a young pitcher his age. Many believe Bills has the makings of being the staff ace this year.

54 AOL was my first ISP =/.

I think we should just make up what's happening in today's game here, since it's not on radio or TV and the box score is usually extremely slow to update.

49 I agree with Joe Sheehan. I read Wlad Balientien is getting a legit shot to unseat Ibanez. That couldn't be said about Andre Ethier.

57 "Kershaw on the mound, ready to begin his 10th inning of work here in this 0-0 tie. He's thrown 167 pitches so far, but Lasorda is showing remarkable faith in the young phenom, letting Kershaw know that this is his game to win or lose..."

It seems like KABC is broadcasting far fewer of the spring games than the old station (KSFB?) used to.

57 1st inning: "Juan Pierre is mysteriously out of the starting line-up. More updates as we receive them."
3rd inning: "And we've just received word that Juan Pierre has been traded. Back to the game, Andre Ethier at the plate looking extremely happy. Here's the pitch, and he belts it. High fly ball to deep right field... home run! And Andre's rounding the bases looking like he just won the lotto."

58-We don't actually know that to be true, however. Whether Ethier has a "legitimate" shot to unseat Pierre or not will be decided in the months ahead, and not by Tony Jackson. At the same time, Colletti did not make the sort of idiot trade the M's did to acquire Bedard. It's hard to argue our franchise is "well run" at this point--hardly--but there are worse.

59 If we're making stuff up, might as well be optimistic about it.

57 "After a scoreless 10th, in which Kershaw loaded the bases with walks and then K'd the side, the young pitcher walks off the mound dejectedly. Larry Bowa waits for him at the third base line and gives the teenager an earful. And now a message from Farmer John."

58
Funny, because Bill has been has been bad. Ned may have signed some rotten eggs and traded some kids but Bill has a much longer and lousier history. Ned has a long long way to go before he enters Bill Bavasi territory. He has made several of the worse trades in the 21st century starting with his very first one.
January 8, 2004: Carlos Guillen-Traded by the Seattle Mariners to the Detroit Tigers for Ramon Santiago and Juan Gonzalez (minors).
Or This
Traded Freddy Garcia and Ben Davis to the Chicago White Sox. Received Jeremy Reed, Miguel Olivo, and Mike Morse.
Or this
Signed Richie Sexson as a free agent.
Or This
Traded Randy Winn to the San Francisco Giants. Received Yorvit Torrealba and Jesse Foppert(Speaking of broken prospects).
Or This
Signed Scott Spezio
Or This
Traded Asdrubal Cabrera to the Cleveland Indians. Received Eduardo Perez.(Evidently Billy doesn't like infielders like Guillen and Cabrera who are actually good)
Or This
Traded Rafael Soriano to the Atlanta Braves. Received Horacio Ramirez.
Or This
Traded Emiliano Fruto and Chris Snelling to the Washington Nationals. Received Jose Vidro and cash.

Koufax may be unique, but IIRC he hit the bigs at age 19 and never spent a day in the minors.

This is a different time. Since Koufax struggled with control for a good while, these days he'd probably be in the minors working on it.

Wouldn't be surprising if Kershaw and maybe others have better control at 19 than Koufax.

57 64 "Fans, it's been a heckuva day in Vero Breach. Lowe went the distance for the win despite that Repko-Pierre two car accident in left center that careened into the stands. I guess you can truly say now that Jeff Kent has Frank McCourt's ear, although he's about to hand it to the paramedics."

65 That Rafael Soriano for Horacio Ramirez trade was instantly--and correctly--judged as one-sided in Atlanta's favor. It's a prime example of trading to fill a need [left-handed starter] by giving up a better player.

Speaking of Koufax and Kershaw===

http://tinyurl.com/2r337d

55 what the hell are you talking about? i said billingsley is almost a certainty to get 50 wins and that kershaw is further along than bills was at the age of 19, i never once gave any negative inclination about billingsley.

65--Somehow I believe you are intentionally leaving out signing Adrian Beltre.

68 - I can see the point of a trade like that: middle reliever for starter (think Duaner Sanchez for Jae Seo), but it's usually not wise when it's lights-out reliever for waiver-fodder starter.

16 17 - Setanta seems to be picking up the pieces that FSC, GolTV & ESPN leave behind (which seems to be the important ones, ie Champions League, big team match ups, etc.).

Only problem is it's a pay-for channel, not in a package. so $13 a month for the one channel kind of hurts the budget.

As for places to see a game in the LB neighborhood, I strongly recommend checking out the Brit Dominion in Garden Grove. Although I do love the Bangers & Champ at the Auld Dubliner...

69 - Sandy Koufax: The Minotaur Whisperer.

42 65 Who are they rating as the top GM's or best run club by GM?

65 - My personal favorite: selecting Brandon Morrow over hometown hero Tim Lincecum, Clayton Kershaw, and Andrew Miller. Then compounding that decision by almost instantaneously making him a short reliever.

72 That's exactly the trade I thought of too. I remember the rather simplistic logic behind the trade was: starters are more valuable than relievers; therefore Seo is more valuable than Duaner. Oh, Jae Seo, whither have you wandered?

Wow, I just typed "jae seo traded for duaner sanchez" into Google and the first hit was Dodger Thoughts! The internet is cool.

https://dodgerthoughts.baseballtoaster.com/archives/309911.html

71
Your right I did not add it on purpose, the move has worked out. All the metrics support his current salary.

I'm enjoying your faux reports more than the "real" game, though the fact that LA is really up 3-1 and Ethier drove in one of those runs is nice, too.

I wonder if Lowe will indeed pitch a CG.

28 Ever since I first logged on back in '94, there has been a large amount of stupidity on the internet.

I sure hope you can explain that statement. :-)

65 I realize he is a horrible GM, maybe the worst, but Ned is just as bad. Juan Pierre for 5 years is as bad as it gets. He got lucky with Saito, he overpaid for Furcal, he traded Betemit (whom he said could only play 3rd base) for a middle reliever who burns things after bad outings. He let Brett Tomko go 2-11, and still kept feeding us excuses. He sent Loney back to Vegas after he showed there was nothing left to prove. Signed Jason Schmidt to a pretty big contract after his old club showed absolutely zero interest. What a coincidence that two of the worst GM's in the game were competing against each other for his services.

81

My early years on the internet were spent on AOL Chat Rooms and an occasional AOL Message board. I was also 12.

83

I had fond memories of those years, even though its kind of embarrassing to think about it now :-)

79
How is that determined? It does not seem like his production vs. salary value are out of whack for last year, but do the metrics take into account the whole salary and years?

As a for instance: Vlad Guerrero's value has exceeded his salary for the life of the contract. I would say that Jeff Kent is in the same boat. As far as someone like Shawn Green who more than earned his paycheck for his first couple of years but then was grossly overpaid in the final years of his deal, is there a metric that evaluates the whole contract as opposed to a single year?

80 Lowe has thrown 4 innings so far.

A scouting report on the Dodgers from FoxSports.com/Lindy's:

http://tinyurl.com/2t7wnq

Compare the scouting reports and grades of Pierre and Ethier.

Hmm, as long as we're talking about Colletti...

http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/42754

The latest on a possible Inge trade

...in Scott Proctor, a 31-year-old right-hander, they have an established setup reliever they could deal.

It's still lousy, but at least we're dealing in the right direction. It could have helped to just keep Betemit in the first place :-\

82 I'm not in love with Ned, but you need to give him credit for the good moves, not just list what you believe are the bad ones.

Without Maddux and Anderson, for example, the Dodgers probably don't win in '06.

88 definitely supports 82 .

Wow, that is hilarious.

Kuo gets two Ks in the fifth, for those keeping score.

84 Yeah, I figured that. :-) I just couldn't resist having some fun with you over the fact that statement could be interpreted more than one way. :-)

85
Andrew ran the numbers on Beltre and I think he used WARP3 from BP because alot of Beltre's worth comes from his defense which VORP does not take into account. OMG-I feel like a Trekkie

Joe P has a great article on statistics
http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/03/09/statheads-and-true-wins/
My favorite is the part about how they came up with batting average in an on base world.

Not to belablor a much over-belabored point, but there was talk a thread or so back that Ned should have re-signed Lofton instead of the Albatross. No doubt another year of Lofton would have been far better--which no one could know at that time.

But during Lofton's year as a Dodger, there was a lot of DT chatter about his misadventures chasing down balls, taking wrong routes, making bad throws (!!!!), getting older, and the like. Tho offensively he was fairly decent, IIRC most DT sentiment was that the team shouldn't re-sign him.

Be careful what you wish for dept., example 4,200,679.38. Meanwhile, Lofton still seemed pretty productive last year.

88 I wouldn't take rumors there too seriously of course, but I agree that in general trading middle relief for a good hitter is the right direction. But I'd rather have Proctor than Inge. At least Proctor comes fairly close to earning his salary and is useful; I'm not sure what Inge gives us given his cost unless the Tigers wanted Juan Pierre, too. ;-)

82
In Colletti's defense on the Schmidt signing, Walt Jocketty was also hot on his trail and he is a pretty fair GM. As far as old teams not interested in previous players, that has happened with quite a few guys and quite a few teams.

I think Colletti has been pretty good at trades. He has not given away a single player other than maybe Dioner Navarro who has seen even a modicum of success in the majors.

Knocks against: The Pierre dabacle, not signing some of their picks to above slot money (though this seems to be an organizational sickness not confined to Ned), and being slow to play the youngsters.

For: He lets White do his thing without getting in the way, he has not traded away a single prospect of note, his Maddux trade and the Furcal signing are widely seen as good to great deals.

I don't think he is in the Epstein/Shapiro stratosphere, but he is good to average in my opinion. Aggravating sometimes, but tolerable. At least he isn't Malone, Dombrowski, Sabean, or Wade.

89 Very true, but he has hurt more than he has helped. I understand he made a few nice moves in 2006, but they didn't take us very far. And I think it's fair to say the NL West is a lot tougher than it was in 2006.

88 That sounds like nothing new than whatever happened a couple weeks ago, except with more speculation now that Andy is out.

Ned hasn't traded the farm. There has to be credit given for the moves he didn't make, right

89 Yeah, I agree. There's no way you can compare Bavasi's moves through his tenure vs Colletti and say they're evenly bad. If you hate Colletti, fine, but let's be fair here. NO ONE has made as many stupid moves as Bavasi. And as twerp says, at least Ned's made some good moves too - and more importantly to me, maybe has learned a few things, like how stupid some of his moves have been. ;-) Don't see much evidence that Bavasi has learned anything. So one is mediocre and occasionally stupid, the other is in a different ballpark of stupidity, imho.

100 of course, few people would be given enough time to make that many stupid moves.

96 I will give you Maddux as a great trade. Too bad we didn't offer arbitration.

I think Colletti's competitive advantage (high payroll + loaded system) makes the bar higher for him than other GMs. He clearly hasn't turned us into Boston yet, but we should at least be ahead of Arizona & Colorado.

I'd rate him below average. (And Bavasi's in his own category!)

i don't think schmidt you can blame ned, you can look at many of schmidt's highlights in the middle to end of 06 and he was still throwing 93-97, and schmidt fit perfect with the 2-4 year deals ned has been handing out. the other option would've been zito, thank god we didn't go in that direction.

94 Forget the fact that Lofton and some spare parts would have been more productive in CF than Pierre last season. If we had re-signed Lofton to a 1-year deal in 2007, we wouldn't find ourselves currently embroiled in the Great Outfield Crisis of 2008.

87 Reading that made my shake my head and sigh to myself.

91 Great outing for Kuo. He faced three and retired them all. This has to be considered a positive step in his case to make the bullpen. I wonder how many pitches he threw.

93 That is a great article.

102
I definitely think this is the watershed year with Ned. If the Dodgers don't make the playoffs and do some damage, then Ned may be out.

In my mind, I could see people hating Colletti, but now he has a manager that he has some confidence in to truly manage outside of the game. With a strong and involved owner above him and a strong and sharp manager below him, I think Ned will be better.

See, the glass is half full.

92 81

LOL!!!! I just got the joke!

I hope once Young makes the team out of Spring Training, he will relax and hit a little better.

I think his offense has to be given a pass since they have him playing OF one day, 2B another while coming in early to take ground balls at 3B.

Great job Guo, you just may make Bob eat his words afterall. vr, Xei

82 - I've got to agree with Twerp a bit here, not that I'm a Ned Colletti lover, but this offseason doesn't strike me as one that the worst gm in the league would've had.

Also, not that I'm glossing over any of the below-tolerable signings, at the end of the day he didn't trade Kemp/Ethier/Kershaw/Bills/Broxton. He could be doing a lot worse!

Furcal has another triple today, and is 3-3. He's starting to heat up.

And before panic sets in, for guys like Derek Lowe, ST is about getting ready for March 31st. Lowe is probably set for April 1st start, he could have 3 more starts plus a tune up before that game, if he can go 5+ during that time, he'll be ready to go.

And only one inning for Kuo today. Tommy, I misunderestimated you!

I'll throw out in often used argument here, but I am not sure you can use the not trading prospects as a good trait for Ned. It probably meant two things, one, teams just asked too much for their players and two, ownership has spoken about for a while of keeping their kids.

But I do think that this Spring Training has opened the eyes to a lot of folks who did not follow Kershaw's first start in the Gulf Coast League, the Jacksonville 5 promotions up through from Rookie Ball and agonized and debated Logan's drafts for the past several years.

The secret is out, the kids are pretty good.

70 I think you would be best served ignoring him. It seems to me he looks to take pretty much everything you say and twist it. His response seemed a bit out of left field to me as well.

Two quickies:

"Penny, ph" in today's boxscore...?? Tommy's probably just been itching to do that.

And Koufax seems to be spending quite a bit of time with Proctor. Couldn't hurt. Maybe osmosis can work.

117 you're probably right.

Just reading the reactions of media and other commentators makes is clear to me that being Dodgers GM is one of the more difficult jobs in MLB. The Dodgers have made playoff runs 2 of the last 4 years, and played decently for most of the season last year. I am glad that at my job, when I was first hired I was allowed to make some "stupid" mistakes and not just thrown to the wolves.

So I'm looking at the box score and I see that JP is 0 for 3, 3 LOB, down to .200 BA, but he's scored two runs. He reached once on an HBP. How did he get on the other time? Error I assume? Do the Marlins have it in for Ethier?

Bullpen looks solid by the way...good for Kuo.

112 But what good does Ethier do with Pierre blocking him?

117 It seems you insist on making this something it's not. Because I don't agree with this I should be ignored?

it is almost a certainty that billingsley will reach 50+ wins, kershaw will probably be in the rotation at a younger age than billingsley, and probably have better control than billingsley.

Declaring anything a certainty at this point is ridiculous. Try bringing something to the conversation next time before lambasting my views on our YOUNG pitching.

Okay, calm down, folks.

87 - I'm obviously feeling the effects of discovery work right now. Because I read the first line of that and said, "well, not exactly. The Dodgers won 3 more games in '88 following Gibson's home run." But the larger point still stands.

118 - Koufax is also spending some time with a certain mythical creature who does not exist... though has been reportedly seen in Vero Beach and Chavez Ravine in the last 8 months.

122 - Ethier is going to have to break down the metaphorical door. To carry the metaphor a bit further than it should go... my guess is Ned will be going to Home Depot some time around June 15; though I don't know what he'll be coming back with.

122 yes, most certainly ignore. What would be the point of responding to that post. It does seem to me that whenever you do respond to his posts it is with a degree of attitude and venom. Largely unprovoked from what I can tell and really most of the time you seem to completely miss what is actually being said. It doesn't make for an enjoyable blog reading experience.

Bullpen looks solid by the way.
way to jinx it

just messin with you i don't believe in sutff like that.

I'm a believer in the power of positive thinking. I suggest we create t-shirts with Colletti's picture on them and various slogans such as:

Ned Colletti: He keeps the kids
Ned Colletti: Logan White's biggest fan
Ned Colletti: A guy's allowed one mistake
Ned Colletti: Smart, short-term contracts. Unless you're A-Rod.
Ned Colletti: I believe in OBP.

121 My apologies to Brazoban.

Not a good inning for Brazoban, 4 hits, a walk, 4 earned runs. Tommy let him fact all 7 batters and he only retired 2 of them, it appears that strong-armed Juan Pierre threw out Josh Willingham trying to go to third, probably to end the 7th.

127 I thought you would be busy frying up burgers and getting that guy a new set of racing tires.

127 You forgot one:

Ned Colletti: Sweetest stache west of the Mississippi.

Declaring anything a certainty at this point is ridiculous.

honest truth my goal isn't to antognize, but what stand are you taking? i make a positive point about billingsley is almost a certainty to reach 50+ career wins (only 1 thing can stop him) and you claim i'm being negative about maybe the best pitcher, now you're saying i'm being ridicolus by that same comment about a 23 year old pitcher with 19 career wins and a 3.49 career ERA and will probably get better. make up your mind.

Sometimes I come across something on wikipedia and I can't quite decide if its the greatest thing ever or the most boring thing ever.

Like this: http://tinyurl.com/hmpyz

133 What are you doing browsing wikipedia for breakfast cereals when you could be playing that hot wheels game?

127 Kind of like that Zen experiment where they put positive labels on the water bottles? I am all about that kind of stuff, haha.

132 and i never lambasted your views on young pitching, i praised bills and kershaw. you took that as negative and you said bills maybe the staff ace, i actually agree with you. so i, and a matter of fact no one here has disagreed with any of your views on young pitching.

Guys, please heed 123 . Are you getting something out of this at this point? The rest of us aren't.

It'll be a quiet dinner tonight in the Willingham household -- "I was thrown out by... Juan Pierre..."

137 true.

137 Noodle arm? Juan Pierre begs to differ!

137

That has to be pretty embarrassing in the dugout.

125 So, not wanting to jump to the conclusions that cargill jumped to in post 31 is considered venomous? Yes, I said something really stupid in the past that was out of line, and apologized.

He'll be in the rotation younger than Billingsley and has better stuff and probably better control at his age, and Billingsley is almost a certainty for 50+ major league wins.

I can't disagree with that without being called venomous and out of left field?

137 Tommy's pitch hitting for him. Muscle strain? Or keeping him above .200?

130
Are you going to Staples tomorrow night? And if so do we have to stay until the end of the Oregon State game?

and that is why underdog is my favorite :)

111
I would be very happy to eat my words about Mr. Guo.

If you cook up my words just right, they taste just like chicken.

125, 132, 141 - How about ... it was just a misunderstanding, everyone meant well, and we move on.

146 happy to and wish I never got involved. lesson learned.

146 And that is why Jon Weisman, and madmac, are my favorites. :-D

7-6 Marlins now. Blake DeWitt has homered and doubled. Better get well soon, Andy!

129
Usually an inning like that is followed by ______ will be visiting Dr Andrews after experiencing pain in his pitching shoulder.

149 I hope that really isn't the case. not that I'm counting on him for the dodgers, but I would like to see him turn it around.

At least Broxton pitched well - 3 up, 3 down, 2 Ks.

Looks like the game's over. Dodgers lose. Bummer.

Back to the 50 wins thing... Rob was being hyperbolic, but he does have a point. It must be said, however, that the flameouts people are citing are largely irrelevant because none of them are truly comparable pitchers to Kershaw. Most of them were older than Kershaw is now when they started displaying dominant pitching. And yet, many of them (Edwin Jackson, Anibal Sanchez, Liriano, etc.) still have a fair chance of winning 50 games.

Perhaps the best comp is Greg Miller, but Kershaw dominated A and AA at an age a year younger than Miller did. Miller, at the age where Kershaw is now, was considered far less of a sure thing.

In fact, BP has said in the past that it's tough for them to generate PECOTA projections for Kershaw because there has been no player in baseball history who is comparable enough to generate a projection. That uniqueness itself should tell us something.

We're entering uncharted territory here, folks.

This may be old news, but Deadspin is reporting Friday Night Lights was renewed.

152 Not even Doc Gooden?

153 - That rumor is old news, but it's not on the record and NBC has yet to confirm.

153 That's so old that Xei Frank knows about it. (I keed, I keed...)

152 Well, true. I mean, one of the reasons we call him a mythical beast is the fear of jinxing the whole thing, fear of disappointment, knowing how many great pitchers flame out due to injuries or whatever. He could also get eaten by a bear next month. So who knows indeed. Still, IF he stays healthy, IF, then he projects to win more than 50 games, Rob.

154 Well, it's hard to call a guy with a world series ring, a Cy Young award, a no-hitter, and 194 career wins a flameout.

But actually, Gooden's a non-comparable in the other direction: Going by the stats, at least, he was a far better prospect than Kershaw is. His final season in the minors was in Class A at age 18 -- a year younger than Kershaw was there -- and yet he pitched far better than Kershaw, with 19 wins and 300 strikeouts on the season.

Gooden was probably the best pitching prospect in the history of baseball. Even with his extraordinary mishandling by the Mets, he was still able to win nearly 200 games.

Xavier Paul is on his way to China:

Garciaparra to miss out on China trip

>> First baseman Mark Sweeney also dropped off the travel roster on Monday with a sore left knee. He and Garciaparra were replaced by Minor Leaguers Kevin Howard and Xavier Paul <<

http://tinyurl.com/22wet8

146 no problem

Paul Oberjuerge - a class act all the way. A great great read. Thanks for passing that on.

152 i don't think he was being hyporbolic, i think he meant if he had to bet over/under on 50 career wins for clayton he'd take the under. and another commenter quickly referred to todd van poppel, which is apples and oranges i believe as they are 2 completely different pitchers.

[152}
How is it uncharted? Since 1947 38 pitchers age 20 or younger have pitched in the major leagues and pitched at least 100 innings with an ERA+ > 100. It is unusual but I don't see how it is uncharted.
Of those 38 pitchers even though a good many of them suffered arm problems only 6 did not record at least 50 wins. On the other hand Don Drysdale is the only HOF.

That is just the guys who pitched in the big leagues at age 20 and were successful. It does not count the number who pitched and weren't and the number of guys who were great like Kershaw at age 19 in AA but didn't hit the major leagues until at least 21. I don't understand the whole uncharted thing.

Wow...Dwayne Jarrett. When will rich athletes learn how to take a cab? I'm for the most part pretty broke, but I can still afford a taxi when I'm drinking.

24 note to self...

IF I win the lottery this year, then I expect to be a millionaire. But there is a much less than 50% chance I will become a millionaire this year. Conditional probabilities are just a step along the way. In the end, people are interested in unconditional probabilities.

The probability distribution of Kershaw's lifetime win total is probably as suggested.
Something like:
0-50 50%
50-100 25%
100-200 20%
200-400 5%

Lots of stuff can happen to a person over a 20 year time frame. That should kind of go without saying.

But really, who cares about 20 years from now? We care about the next few years, where there is great reason to expect big things.

http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/NPSM

Okay, so let's look at some of Kershaw's PECOTA comps. Although the PECOTA cards generally list 20 comparable players, Kershaw's lists only 15 because they could only find 15 pitchers who were remotely comparable. (And even most of these have low similarity scores.)

Anyway, the 15 pitchers listed are:
Sam McDowell
Bert Blyleven
Curt Simmons
Wally Bunker
Jim Palmer
Don Gullett
Ray Sadecki
Gary Nolan
Jose Rijo
Felix Hernandez
David Clyde
Milt Pappas
Larry Dierker
Mike McCormick
Catfish Hunter

About half of those pitchers ended up in the ballpark of 200 wins or more. Every one of them won 50 games except for Felix Hernandez (who will certainly get there) and the infamous David Clyde.

163
Because most drunks won't admit their drunk.

Andy Katz is driving the USC bus on ESPNews. He said he thinks they're going to win the Pac 10 tournament.

hopefully dewitt can put to bed any evil thoughts entering ned's mind about brandon inge.

Did anybody see the Real Sports story on Mike Marshall(p) last night? Interesting stuff.

169
I would not be surprised if USC won the Pac-10 tournament.

Another great indicator is recovery time from start to start & (common sense) from every thing I've read KErshaw has ALL the engridients (sp) to be special

Job opening for a women's basketball coach at UCLA.

Kathy Olivier will not get to match Gary Adams record for "longest period of underachievement by a UCLA coach."

Ken Pomeroy's computer on the chances of each team winning the Pac 10 tournament:

1 UCLA 53.7%
3 Washington St. 17.3
2 Stanford 11.2
4 USC 7.7
7 Arizona 5.8
6 Oregon 1.8
5 Arizona St. 1.6
8 Washington 0.5
9 California 0.4
10 Oregon St. 0.00004

(That's a one-in-2.4-million chance for the Beavs.)

175 um, they only take 8 teams don't they?

No, they take everybody and hold play-in games.

176
Everybody gets to play now! Wednesday is the night for the 7-10 and 8-9 games!

They are basketball at its finest!

if anyone gives you 2,400,000-1 you take it.

And now a crime even bigger than Elliot Spitzer's:

Dawn Wells was busted for possession of pot in Idaho.

174 Now, I wonder who will be next, those cross-country coaches better check their backs.

177 , 178 wow, make the regular season even more meaningless. i'm not a big college basketball fan, i hear coaches of expanding the tourny i say cut it down. i would like to see 32, making the regular season even more meaningful however i understand how it leaves a lot of mid-majors out in the cold. a 48 team tourny would be a compromise, 16 teams with a 1st round bye and the other 32 play 16 "play-in" games. just a thought, but usually when i say my idea's to people that know the sport it doesn't get very positive reviews.

peavy got lit again today pushing his spring era to 10.29 :-) :-) :-), 2006 jake peavy please.

182
I believe the Pac-10 expanded the field because it was afraid that USC or UCLA would have a bad year and miss the tournament. And that would have been bad for attendance. As it was, UCLA twice made it in as a #8 team. And once even won a game as the #8 team. That was Steve Lavin's last hurrah.

The really big conferences (Big East and A-10) drop the bottom feeders. If they didn't too many good teams would have to play an extra game.

Pretty sweet curve GMs get graded on. I'd have been Phi Beta Kappa if all it required was not being as dumb as Bavasi.

180
I bet the cops that busted her were debating Ginger or Mary Ann before they spotted her. One of them probably uttered the words, "You'd have to be high to choose Mary Ann!"

At least that's how I would write the scene.

The 64-team NCAA tournament is essentially the perfectly-conceived spirting event, and all those well-meaning people with theories on how to change it should take their theories somewhere they're actually needed, like college football. This includes whoever came up with the stupid idea of a play-in game between the 64th and 65th teams.

186 Kudos to the AP, by the way, for picking up on this so soon. The arrest occurred on Oct. 18.

187 college football's regular season has too much meaning which i don't like, but it seems like college basketball's regular season has almost no signifgance, wouldn't meeting half way make it more entertaining?

RIP Jamiel Shaw

187
I'll add that no self-respecting office pool in the country includes the play-in game as part of the scoring.

190 sad sad story.

Just some interesting notes from the LA Times after today's game.

Bowa has been working with the young Dodgers on baserunning all spring, and that appeared to pay off in the fifth inning today when James Loney, in a heads-up move, advanced from second to third on a foul pop behind the plate when Marlin third baseman Jose Castillo and shortstop Ramirez left the base uncovered.

"That's something you have to do on your own," Loney said. "But that's one of the things they've been stressing: Be aware of the situation."

---

Nomar Garciaparra tested his sore right wrist by hitting off a tee with a fungo bat and said he had little unexpected discomfort. It was the first time Garciaparra swung a bat since being hit by a pitch Friday.... Rookie infielder Tony Abreu, limited to one spring training appearance by complications stemming from off-season abdominal surgery, remains day to day. And frustration is building within the organization over his continued unavailability.

"I'm feeling better," said Abreu, who added that he was still unsure when he would be able to play again.

I believe I read over the weekend that Joe Torre told Tony to just get well first so I think Abreu is adhering to his manager's request.

Also, I think the frustration reference is okay, I mean I am sure all concerned are frustrated, that does not mean that Tony will be traded or anything like that.

189
I don't see a huge problem with the current college football system. The only thing I'd add is maybe a "plus one" game after the bowls with the top two.

Identify the top four going into the bowls, have them play (1 vs 4, 2 vs 3) in two designated bowls on New Year's Day. Then have the two winners play one week later for the championship. That still keeps the bowls relevant. Plus, it's hard to argue you are deserving of a national title if you can't finish in the top 4 (pre Bowl).

Oh yeah, and no polls at all until mid-October at the earliest.

191 ah, office pools. my goal is by 2013 to get rid of office pools entirely. a bracket draft is much more entertaining, we get a group of 16 guys together and hold a 4 round draft where you just select teams. it so much easier to follow, you know what 4 teams you have and just keep track of them. i dont like pools because unless you're running it you don't know which games are of signigence and which teams to be rooting for.

184 "The really big conferences (Big East and A-10) drop the bottom feeders. If they didn't too many good teams would have to play an extra game."

I think it's a travesty that some teams get left out of their conference tournament. It really defeats the whole purpose of having a conference tournament in the first place, which is to give every team a glimmer of hope, and a reason to not quit playing in January. Not to mention the beautiful symmetry of having every team's season end with a loss except the NCAA and NIT (and, sigh, CBI) champions. You get to keep playing until you lose. It's a beautiful thing.

If you don't want the good teams to play extra games, you could set it up like this, say, for the Big East:

ROUND 1
#16 vs. #9
#15 vs. #10
#14 vs. #11
#13 vs. #12

ROUND 2
16/9 winner vs. 13/12 winner
15/10 winner vs. 14/11 winner

ROUND 3
9/12/13/16 winner vs. #8
10/11/14/15 winner vs. #7

Then hold your basic 8-team tourney.

195
That is a wonderful idea! I might try to institute that this year.

Lakers go fancy
Per LA Daily News

Running in place: The Lakers' athletic training staff leased a fancy new treadmill that simulates low gravity conditions to aid Trevor Ariza, Andrew Bynum and Chris Mihm in their recoveries from foot, kneecap and heel injuries, respectively.

The players can run without the pounding they would normally experience on a regular treadmill or on the court, which gives their legs a break.

Frank Tanana was even more advanced then Clayton. Somehow he threw 349 innings before the age of 19 in the minor leagues. At age 19 he was already pitching for the big club after hitting AA and AAA. By age 20 he was throwing 268 innings in the major leagues.

If anyone, Kershaw reminds me of Frank who was the best left handed young pitcher I've ever seen. My memory says he had a fastball much like Clayton's and a curve ball to match. If Clayton can emulate Frank and keep his arm intact with the 5 man rotation I'll be a happy camper.

Based on the comps provided by Eric and the baseball reference list which had many of the same comp's, I think I'll revisit my stance. While injuries were commonplace for many of those pitchers, they took place after they had excellent initial success.

194 i agree with you that no polls til mid-october, but pre-bowls this year you could've easiley seen ohio state, lsu, vt, usc, oklahoma, georgia, winning it all if some type of play-off where in place.

"it seems like college basketball's regular season has almost no signifgance"

I don't really agree with that. For teams in the vicinity of the bubble, the regular season has all the meaning in the world. Same for the upper-echelon teams, who, if they win high seeds, gain the tremendous advantages of playing near-home games, and the better their seed, the worse the opponent gets.

The only teams for which the regular season has no meaning are those in the bottom 10 conferences, where even if they go 27-2 or something they'd still need to win their conference tourney.

Just got back to my hotel from the game. Great game, and met Kershaw after his pregame workout. He's tall and lanky, and i expect him to fill out a little.

Also, about JP vs. Andre Ethier. For all you hear about JP's work ethic, Ethier works just as hard. After each ST game we've been to, Ethier's has gone to the batting cages, often the only guy on the big league squad to do so to take extra hitting. He was in there today with Don Mattingly, Mike Easler, and Manny Mota. Plus he's just as nice and polite as Pierre, signing autographs for fans at every game and talking it up with everyone (so you can at least equalize that "Pierre is a nice guy" factor.

Also, DeWitt made some great heads-up plays at 3rd.

195. Bracket auctions are much better than bracket drafts. You bid on each team, so every favorite is subject to intense bidding and that drives their price up, all of the money goes into the pool.

194. The big problem with college football is that you don't have enough meaningful non-conference games to help you determine which teams from different conferences are actually better. If you could have more of those, I would find it much easier to accept the outcomes of the BCS system.

Also, Kershaw is wearing #54 now.

Maybe Joe hung around just to make sure Kershaw didn't pitch today.

http://tinyurl.com/2779uw

206 Opps wrong link, I was going to title that one, "Dance Fever"

Don't get me started on the college football playoff or non-playoff system.

Xeifrank::BCS
Bob T::Peaches

vr, Xei

"You want these guys to brain-swing. You want them to think-swipe. You don't want your 3-6-hole hitters to engage in torque ignorance. You want them to cognitive-swivel."

I missed the FJM earlier. That's some really funny stuff. Unfortunately my manager walked by while I was howling.

I name the PECOTA comparables, you name the current young Dodger:

(note that in many cases these aren't representative, as I often cherry-picked the comparables with the best careers.)

Lance Berkman, Willie Horton, Ron Santo:
Oscar Robles, Jose Vidro, David Bell:
Andre Dawson, Sammy Sosa, Vladimir Guerrero:
Ervin Santana, Ugueth Urbina, Javier Vazquez:
Tony Fernandez, Roberto Alomar, Rod Carew, Howie Kendrick:
Dmitri Young, Dave Nilsson, Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill:
Cole Hamels, Chan Ho Park, Arthur Lee Rhodes:
Brent Gates, Kelly Johnson, Josh Barfield:
Eric Plunk, Scott Radinsky, Stan Williams:
Ryan Langerhans, Kelly Johnson, Curtis Granderson:
Steve Schmoll, Chad Bradford, Tall Chris Young:
Julio Lugo, Melvin Mora, Brandon Phillips:
Xavier Paul, Mike Darr, Nick Johnson:
Carl Yastrzemski, Kent Hrbek, George Brett:
Todd Zeile, Sal Bando, Craig Biggio:
Fernando Tatis, Orlando Hudson, Brent Gates:
Matt Diaz, Marty Cordova, Karim Garcia:
Wilson Alvarez, Tom Seaver, John Smoltz:
Tom Niedenfuer, Dennys Reyes, Charlie Kerfeld, Huston Street:
Kenny Rogers, Ken Howell, B.J. Ryan:
Ed Whitson, Gregg Olson, Carl Erskine:
Mike Coolbaugh, Brandon Inge, Eli Marrero:
Dustin McGowan, Shawn Chacon, John Lackey:
Matt Cain, Joel Hanrahan, Scott Elarton:
Scott Hatteberg, Jason Grabowski, Jeremy Giambi, Jason Giambi:

no cheating please

210
I'm pretty sure Xavier Paul is on his own comp list.

Xavier Paul is somebody's comp?

210 are there repeats?

4. james mcdonald?

3. matt kemp
6. dre ethier

I loved Joe Pos's recent post on his favorite stats. I know I have asked something similar to this before, but what would be a good book to read to get a better idea on the new stats out there? People keep telling me Moneyball is a little dated...is there something published recently that would be worth the read?

Wilson Alvarez, Tom Seaver, John Smoltz:

One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong...

12. hu

yaz, hrbek, and brett, loney?

robles, vidro, bell
abreu

213 No, no repeats.

alverez, seaver, smoltz
billingsley.

ziele, bando, biggio

delwyn young..

ok i'm done taking up the board as i'm sure everyone else is putting all their guesses in one post. good luck.

I'm trying to guess which one is Pierre....

It's only the young players, so no Slappy.

I sort of guessed, and was sort of joking... I need to go get some rocket fuel, that's more productive than my slappy obsession. :-)

210 The Mike Coolbaugh, Brandon Inge, and Eli Marrero is pretty creepy, I wanna know that one.

Cargill has 5 of 7 correct.

174
I can't believe they finally got rid of her. They have tons of talent, now they just need someone to coach them up.

ok lied i can't resist..

rogers,howell, ryan
meloan
diaz, cardova, garcia
xaiver paul
hatteburg, giambi's, grabowski
john lindsay (is he considered young player?)

does defensive ability of the comparable players factor in?

0-for-3 on that go-round.

John Lindsey is not included.

231 I don't think it does. Position factors in, but not actual ability at the position.

robles, vidro bell
de jesus
coolbough, inge
dewitt
hamels park rhodes
meloan

is repko included?

232 What a travesty of a game.

Unforturnately, the Dodgers are not paying him $18 million a year. Or why will Andruw Jones get a pass but this guy won't.

Per Tony Jackson's blog.

Dodgers blew a 5-3 lead in a four-run Marlins seventh in which a key play was an infield single by Hanley Ramirez. The ball was a little tapper to the right of the mound, but when the ever-expanding Yhency Brazoban went to get it, he couldn't bend over to pick it up, and it trickled past him.

Honeycutt said after the game that Brazo is working hard to get his weight down, doing a lot of cardio and stuff like that. But it's conceivable that an inability to field his position could cost him a spot on the team

216. You might want to try "Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game is Wrong"

209 This has got to be the funniest thing I've read in a while:

Manny Acta is actually M.A.N. eACTA, the black-ops code-name for the Mechanized Algorithmic Numerical (internet-ready) Actionable Computation Techno-Automaton. When his "contract" runs out with the Nats he is going to be launched into space. We are weaponizing space. Deal with it, China.

236
I don't really care if relief pitchers are not good fielders.

BP actually didn't run any PECOTA comparables for Lindsey. They did for Josh Bell and Jaime Pedroza and George Lombard, but not Lindsey.

239 Didn't Jim Leyland say that before the 2006 World Series?

240 You're off the hook, but BP is on notice ... if I had an on notice list.

239 Yeah, and maybe Tony is exagerating a bit, but if Yhency can't bend over, that is a problem.

I do think he has one option so perhaps the heat of Vegas will do in some good.

"Dodgers manager Joe Torre stuck around to watch Kuo pitch, before leaving for this weekend's exhibition series against the Padres in China."

http://tinyurl.com/2nsjql

209 Yeah pretty funny. I liked the Van Morrison and Scotch bit.

"It doesn't matter to me if a guy gets on base if he can't run. If he can't run he's just clogging up the bases. Also, in an unrelated matter, it's a marvelous night for a moondance." (does a shot of Lagavulin 21)

244. They are both going, right?
vr, Xei

Correct so far:

Lance Berkman, Willie Horton, Ron Santo:
Oscar Robles, Jose Vidro, David Bell: Ivan DeJesus
Andre Dawson, Sammy Sosa, Vladimir Guerrero: Matt Kemp
Ervin Santana, Ugueth Urbina, Javier Vazquez: James McDonald
Tony Fernandez, Roberto Alomar, Rod Carew, Howie Kendrick:
Dmitri Young, Dave Nilsson, Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill: Andre Ethier
Cole Hamels, Chan Ho Park, Arthur Lee Rhodes:
Brent Gates, Kelly Johnson, Josh Barfield:
Eric Plunk, Scott Radinsky, Stan Williams:
Ryan Langerhans, Kelly Johnson, Curtis Granderson:
Steve Schmoll, Chad Bradford, Tall Chris Young:
Julio Lugo, Melvin Mora, Brandon Phillips: Chin-Lung Hu
Xavier Paul, Mike Darr, Nick Johnson: Andrew Lambo
Carl Yastrzemski, Kent Hrbek, George Brett: James Loney
Todd Zeile, Sal Bando, Craig Biggio: Russell Martin
Fernando Tatis, Orlando Hudson, Brent Gates:
Matt Diaz, Marty Cordova, Karim Garcia:
Wilson Alvarez, Tom Seaver, John Smoltz: Chad Billingsley
Tom Niedenfuer, Dennys Reyes, Charlie Kerfeld, Huston Street:
Kenny Rogers, Ken Howell, B.J. Ryan:
Ed Whitson, Gregg Olson, Carl Erskine:
Mike Coolbaugh, Brandon Inge, Eli Marrero:
Dustin McGowan, Shawn Chacon, John Lackey:
Matt Cain, Joel Hanrahan, Scott Elarton:
Scott Hatteberg, Jason Grabowski, Jeremy Giambi, Jason Giambi:

I know FJM said they will write on Plaschke soon, but I just can't wait much longer.

fernandez alomar carew kendric
delwyn young
zeile bando, biggio
martin
rogers, howell ryan
broxton

oh and paul, darr, johnson
lambo

wow enough said
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFZevw1AHZs

Ah, damn, Forgot to delete Lambo.

You got the Golden God right.

Whitson, Olson, Erskine: Hong-Chih Kuo?

Berkman, Horton, Santo: LaRoche?

252 you forgot to delete the golden god too.

McGowan, Chacon, Lackey: Bills?

Fernandez, Alomar, Carew, Kendrick: Abreu?
Langerhans, Johnson, Granderson: Young?

fernandez, alomar, karew
abreu?

251

It's cool, but I would love to see them do one two times in a row. You could shoot a million takes and get lucky once.

259 did you watch the whole thing?? i don't care how many shots you take to complete all of those, they are amazing shots.

Zeus, Thor, Batman: Kershaw?

261 Heh.

Is this one:
Tom Niedenfuer, Dennys Reyes, Charlie Kerfeld, Huston Street: -- Broxton?

Updated through 262

Lance Berkman, Willie Horton, Ron Santo: Andy LaRoche
Oscar Robles, Jose Vidro, David Bell: Ivan DeJesus
Andre Dawson, Sammy Sosa, Vladimir Guerrero: Matt Kemp
Ervin Santana, Ugueth Urbina, Javier Vazquez: James McDonald
Tony Fernandez, Roberto Alomar, Rod Carew, Howie Kendrick: Tony Abreu
Dmitri Young, Dave Nilsson, Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill: Andre Ethier
Cole Hamels, Chan Ho Park, Arthur Lee Rhodes:
Brent Gates, Kelly Johnson, Josh Barfield:
Eric Plunk, Scott Radinsky, Stan Williams:
Ryan Langerhans, Kelly Johnson, Curtis Granderson:
Steve Schmoll, Chad Bradford, Tall Chris Young:
Julio Lugo, Melvin Mora, Brandon Phillips: Chin-Lung Hu
Xavier Paul, Mike Darr, Nick Johnson: Andrew Lambo
Carl Yastrzemski, Kent Hrbek, George Brett: James Loney
Todd Zeile, Sal Bando, Craig Biggio: Russell Martin
Fernando Tatis, Orlando Hudson, Brent Gates:
Matt Diaz, Marty Cordova, Karim Garcia:
Wilson Alvarez, Tom Seaver, John Smoltz: Chad Billingsley
Tom Niedenfuer, Dennys Reyes, Charlie Kerfeld, Huston Street: Jonathan Broxton
Kenny Rogers, Ken Howell, B.J. Ryan:
Ed Whitson, Gregg Olson, Carl Erskine:
Mike Coolbaugh, Brandon Inge, Eli Marrero:
Dustin McGowan, Shawn Chacon, John Lackey:
Matt Cain, Joel Hanrahan, Scott Elarton:
Scott Hatteberg, Jason Grabowski, Jeremy Giambi, Jason Giambi:

260

They are cool shots, but I think most people could do them with the right amount of time invested into the process. I am not taking anything away from how awesome the shots are...but I don't think they are impossible or amazing

A review of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117936464.html

Jon, at the season's end of Breaking Bad, do you now think the quality held up in the episodes after the pilot?

So, awesome but not amazing?

Anyway, I thought the one at 2:10 was particularly cool.

264

That's exactly how I felt when I watched them. The skate board rolling & the dude making the shot was the coolest for me.

266 - I'm two episodes behind.

Matt Cain, Joel Hanrahan, Scott Elarton

Minotaur?

-- didn't get to check if that was guessed already.

I gave away all 15 of the Minotaur's comps earlier in the thread, so he's not one of the unknowns.

Matt Cain, Joel Hanrahan, Scott Elarton: Maybe McDonald? Although the Cain comparison would seem off... either that or Scott Elbert.

Nope.

263
I was just thinking today how Ethier reminded me of Bernie Williams in terms of upside...

263
Schmoll, Bradford, Chris Young...Biemel?

267

I know. I laughed at myself the second I hit submit. How about impressive but not amazing? I am still impressed and give them props for the time it must have taken them. Kind of like the person who reached 125 million on the Hot Wheels Game

251
Best beer pong teammate ever!

Lord, do I loathe Tom Lasorda.

Cole Hamels, Chan Ho Park, Arthur Lee Rhodes

Greg Miller

275 279 Nyet.

266
I thought all the episodes were good. Even the low key scenes have found a way to capture my attention. Bryan Cranston is great, and even when he's quiet on screen there seems to be an underlying drama.

I was surprised to find out that this week's episode was the season finale. Was that only 6 episodes? What is this, England?

Dustin McGowan, Shawn Chacon, John Lackey: James McDonald?

Matt Cain, Joel Hanrahan, Scott Elarton: Chris Withrow?

Fernando Tatis, Orlando Hudson, Brent Gates: Blake DeWitt?

Ryan Langerhans, Kelly Johnson, Curtis Granderson: Xavier Paul?

Mike Coolbaugh, Brandon Inge, Eli Marrero: Lucas May?

Scott Hatteberg, Jason Grabowski, Jeremy Giambi, Jason Giambi: Pedro Baez?

282 , 283 3-for-6

Lance Berkman, Willie Horton, Ron Santo: Andy LaRoche
Oscar Robles, Jose Vidro, David Bell: Ivan DeJesus
Andre Dawson, Sammy Sosa, Vladimir Guerrero: Matt Kemp
Ervin Santana, Ugueth Urbina, Javier Vazquez: James McDonald
Tony Fernandez, Roberto Alomar, Rod Carew, Howie Kendrick: Tony Abreu
Dmitri Young, Dave Nilsson, Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill: Andre Ethier
Cole Hamels, Chan Ho Park, Arthur Lee Rhodes:
Brent Gates, Kelly Johnson, Josh Barfield:
Eric Plunk, Scott Radinsky, Stan Williams:
Ryan Langerhans, Kelly Johnson, Curtis Granderson: Xavier Paul
Steve Schmoll, Chad Bradford, Tall Chris Young:
Julio Lugo, Melvin Mora, Brandon Phillips: Chin-Lung Hu
Xavier Paul, Mike Darr, Nick Johnson: Andrew Lambo
Carl Yastrzemski, Kent Hrbek, George Brett: James Loney
Todd Zeile, Sal Bando, Craig Biggio: Russell Martin
Fernando Tatis, Orlando Hudson, Brent Gates:
Matt Diaz, Marty Cordova, Karim Garcia:
Wilson Alvarez, Tom Seaver, John Smoltz: Chad Billingsley
Tom Niedenfuer, Dennys Reyes, Charlie Kerfeld, Huston Street: Jonathan Broxton
Kenny Rogers, Ken Howell, B.J. Ryan:
Ed Whitson, Gregg Olson, Carl Erskine:
Mike Coolbaugh, Brandon Inge, Eli Marrero: Lucas May
Dustin McGowan, Shawn Chacon, John Lackey:
Matt Cain, Joel Hanrahan, Scott Elarton: Chris Withrow
Scott Hatteberg, Jason Grabowski, Jeremy Giambi, Jason Giambi:

Two bullpen questions==

If Kuo and Myers turn out to be the 2 lefties Torre wants in the pen, could Beimel be optioned to Vegas?

Also, can't seem to find much on the pitcher De La Cruz who was (I think) sent to minor league camp. Seems like in one of the Dodger ESPN games he was clocked at 96. Think they said he's 38. Did he come out of another organization, have some upside, was seen as maybe another Seanez, what?

Thx.

281 Yep, only six. Doesn't seem fair, does it.

That would have to make:

Brent Gates, Kelly Johnson, Josh Barfield = Blake DeWitt

Re-try:
Dustin McGowan, Shawn Chacon, John Lackey = Justin Orenduff?

285
Beimel technically has an option year left, but with 5+ years of service time, he has the right to refuse said option and become a free agent.

281 - There was a thing called a writers strike ...

287 Yes, no.

There were seven episodes of "Breaking Bad."

289
D'oh! I conveniently forgot about the strike in regards to Breaking Bad.

291
I must have only liked 6 of them! :)

For all of you educators who'd like to get paid what you think you are worth.
http://www.tepcharter.org/

by the way TC thanks for the tix, a couple of work friends found out I had tickets for the game & could not believe the price I got them for, I told them "I knew people" :)

For all of you educators who [live in the Bronx and would] like to get paid what you think you are worth.

Andre Dawson, Sammy Sosa, Vladimir Guerrero

Um, wow.

Hey -- that Hanrahan comp for Withrow is looking better: http://tinyurl.com/37lell

(via Chris who comments here -- http://tinyurl.com/37socd)

297 I think Eric Enders listed those as like... his peak. But that's a pretty nice peak.

Kershaw video - Over 589,000 views as of 7:00 p.m. PDT.

300

That just boggles my mind.

If ESPN or Fox was smart, they would pick up his first MLB star and televise it nationally.

Russell Martin not about to slow down

http://tinyurl.com/2hw6yt

300 Yeah, but how many of those are Nate?

Couldn't Jon have put some image of a cat doing something cute in the video to get even more hits?

304 Or a teenager who does something to hurt himself.

A kid with a light saber always works.

306 yeah, I got a ton of hits with that gig.

Tommy is still Tommy, isn't he?

Yes. And that's not a compliment.

300 There are jealous Yankee fans all over the story on yahoo. Nauseating.

Looks like YouTube has pulled Jon's video from the most popular list. Huh.

Cole Hamels, Chan Ho Park, Arthur Lee Rhodes: Kershaw

Scott Hatteberg, Jason Grabowski, Jeremy Giambi, Jason Giambi: Josh Bell

309 - people keep talking about this, but where's the link?

309 Check a few posts down.

The video is not loading for me right now on its YouTube page. Perhaps they're in the process of removing it due to copyright violation. It was bound to happen eventually. All MLB clips that are loaded onto YouTube eventually end up getting removed with a message saying "this video removed due to a copyright claim by MLB Advanced Media."

Of course, while they're correct that they own the copyright, it's downright silly of them to do those things. Instead of something becoming a YouTube sensation and making its way around the internet like wildfire, and thereby bringing all kinds of publicity to MLB, they do their best to make sure nobody ever sees any clips. It's downright insane, and yet another example of MLB going for the short-end dollar grab instead of trying to build the long-term health of the game.

That was directed at 312, not 309.

313 - Inevitable.

Loads for me, though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2M0c6DxCMY

That's lame. The NBA encourages fans to post clips on YouTube.

So were my answers right?

318 No. I included neither Josh Bell nor Kershaw. Kershaw because I'd already given away all his comps earlier in this thread, and Bell because almost all 20 of his comparables are people nobody ever heard of.

Cole Hamels, Chan Ho Park, Arthur Lee Rhodes:
Elbert?

There you go.

Matt Diaz, Marty Cordova, Karim Garcia: Preston Mattingly

Steve Schmoll, Chad Bradford, Tall Chris Young: Meloan

Nope. Mattingly isn't included for the same reason as Bell.

Good Eats with Altonn Brown.

The best cooking show on tv?

Or the best nonfiction show on tv period?

Dustin McGowan, Shawn Chacon, John Lackey: Greg Miller

Scott Hatteberg, Jason Grabowski, Jeremy Giambi, Jason Giambi: Josh Wall

Eric Plunk, Scott Radinsky, Stan Williams: Delwyn Young

Without looking ... guess Kershaw's W-L record in the minors last year.

Nope.

I wasn't refusing to guess there... I'll say 7-6.

W-10, L-3

326

10-3?

329

Great minds think alike.

Matt Diaz, Marty Cordova, Karim Garcia: Delwyn Young

Dustin McGowan, Shawn Chacon, John Lackey: Kuo?

Kenny Rogers, Ken Howell, B.J. Ryan: James Adkins

Thanks to Daniel for the Hotwheels hints.
I got to 300,000 today with 100% customer satisfaction, but stopped because I needed to go back to work.

331 I can only hope to walk in the shadow of your greatness.
I remembered the 10 from looking at his stats before.
We'll see what others come up with. I'll bet that some people here have his numbers memorized.
I'm not tired of looking at that clip yet, I've watched that thing at least forty times. "Hey ya buddy".

324
Even though Keith Law aggravates me, just because he likes that show I give him a pass.

Low-key Jones lets his play do the talking

http://www.presstelegram.com/sports/ci_8527907

Trust me, Beimel will make the team.(And if you don't trust me, ask Troy or Ned)

324
I stumbled across Good Eats a little over a year ago, and I love it. Have there been any new episodes made, or is the series done?

I also liked Alton Brown's mini-series, "Feasting on Asphalt" as well.

Wash Post has been running a "Lost Madness" bracket; second round voting runs through tomorrow I believe.

Four divisions: Oceanic 815 Survivors, Deceased Oceanic Survivors and Rescuers, The Others/Dharma, Other Crucial Players

http://tinyurl.com/2uxazr

Lasorda back in charge, still bleeding blue

http://www.presstelegram.com/sports/ci_8527909

324 - Good Eats is good stuff. I've been watching for years. It's one of the only decent shows left on the Food Network. I miss the days of Two Hot Tamales, Two Fat Ladies, East Meets West and especially Molto Mario. Molto Mario was the best show ever on the Food Network.

Matt Diaz, Marty Cordova, Karim Garcia: Delwyn Young

Correct.

Is one of D. Young's comps George Lombard?

I did not know that De Jon is the son of Johnny "Guitar" Watson, the original Gangster of Love.

345

"Johnny "Guitar" Watson, the original Gangster of Love."

He was also one of Frank Zappa's main influences.

Baseball has a major-league stake in China success

>> For the players who did go, there is a $40,000 check and a percentage of the gate that could add another $5,000. <<

http://tinyurl.com/2wvtpx

Scott Hatteberg, Jason Grabowski, Jeremy Giambi, Jason Giambi: I'm just dying to know who this is. Is it Austin Gallagher?

How to (theoretically) get around MLB or NBA copyright restrictions: obey fair use. For example, it should be legal to produce a 'review' of a pitcher where you show clips of different pitches to compare arm angles or to show before/after surgery. The tricky part would be to convince YouTube to leave it up, but, though they are being eroded, we still do have fair use rights, despite what a copyright holder may tell you.

342 Those were all good shows but I must say Nigella and Giada are alot easier on the eyes than Mario Batali.

I love Guy Fieri especially Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives

347 Matt Kemp is donating his check for some new trash cans.

Ed Whitson, Gregg Olson, Carl Erskine: Ramon Troncoso
Eric Plunk, Scott Radinsky, Stan Williams: Jon Meloan

or vice-versa.

312 I can't find the Kershaw/Yahoo page either. Anyone?

When I called Kinko's today to ask if they had equipment to copy an oversized map I needed for my presentation at work, the woman on the phone told me that the map was copyrighted.

I said it wasn't. It was a 50-year old map made by the government. And the government doesn't hold copyrights. And it was a public record to boot, part of some election materials.

My argument carried the day. And being willing to pay for the copies.

353 Kershaw/Yahoo page:

http://tinyurl.com/2y2wjv

350
I'm lukewarm on Guy, but I really like Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

354
Not enough people use the phrase "carry the day". Kudos to you Bob. One of these days I'll make it up to the LAPL to see a Timmermann Talk™; do you ever have those on a weekend?

355 Thanks - I was confused into thinking it was something different that the Big League Stew page.

349 - the Fair Use Doctrine is a fun little piece of law. YouTube is an interesting development for fair use - you can argue that the copyrighted works are not published for commercial purposes (unless you count YouTube's advertising revenue), a short clip like one pitch is quite small when you consider the "whole" work (an entire game), and is there a market for pre-season baseball games after the initial run? The only question would come under the second prong - the nature of the copyrighted work.

But Copyright law is just an interest, not a specialty.

Lakers have two days off to hopefully improve their play before embarking on a tough four-game road trip:

Fri @ New Orleans
Sun @ Houston (bye bye streak!)
3/18 @ Dallas
3/20 @ Utah

Luckily there are no back to backs there. Still, it's a tough trip. The best part is once they get home, the Lakers finish their division-winning season with 10 of 14 at home.

I love "Good Eats". Mr Brown is a tv persona that I would love to hang out with one day. I need to get a copy of the asphalt show...I have heard nothing but good things. I know Giata is easier on the eyes, but I can't stand her voice. Of course, it is better than Paula, who accidentally drops everything in butter.

Two new posts up top.

Prediction: The Lakers will get their butts kicked at New Orleans on Friday.

I certainly hope they can win, but their defense of late has been very bad. I think the common theme is speedy guards who are good outside shooters. Kevin Martin, TJ Ford, and soon, Chris Paul have had their way with the Laker defense this week.

aaaarrgh!! LAT'd again

356. Agreed. He gets on my nerves. I'm not much of a fan of that show. How many diners and greasy spoons can you watch him eat some discusting meal in and listen to him quell about how great it is.

I really enjoy Alton Brown's shows but I bought his cookbook and it was not for me. Its more science textbook than cookbook. For good easy cooking I still like Ina best of all. I know she's passe but her recipes are easy and hold up really well.