It's a good night - Dodgers get a comeback win, the kid is in bed before 9pm, I finished paying the bills and still have some reserves in my checkbook, and I'm steadily working towards those 22 gallons.

I never saw Jackie play in person in a Major League game but I watched him play many times on television (unfortunately, it was in black and white :-) ). Primarily during the '49 World Series, the '51 playoffs and the '52, '53, '55 and '56 World Series. Also, unless my mind is playing tricks on me, there was a "Game of the Week" on Saturdays during the '50s. I remember Dizzy Dean explaining how a player had just "slud" into 3rd base. :-) But I didn't attend my first Major League game until 1962 when Dodgers Stadium opened.

I caught a glimpse of it when they were high fiving at the end of the game and it appeared to me he was wearing #57.

http://tinyurl.com/6mtukt

Lo Duca further explains his Dodgers past

http://tinyurl.com/39s5sz

No matter what, don't forget that you are Luke Walton.

That said, if my life came down to choosing Walton or Radmanovic at SF, I'm going with Luke.

Feh.

Who will be tonight's Michael Cooper?

Show me Jordan Farmar!

[X]

That was one terrible flop attempt by Okur, when Pau then had an easy dunk attempt. Not the greatest effort there, Mr. O.

Next game is gonna be a war. Whoo boy.

Still not a fan...But bully for him! In your face, me!

On being named in the Mitchell Report: "a lot of people don't realize I got into a bad collision and got run over at home plate one year, in '95 in Double-A. And I got it prescribed to me by a doctor. A lot of guys did it. There's a lot of guys in front of me that did it. Like I said, I'm not making excuses."

That word "excuse," I don't think it means what you think it means.

-Ken Noe, post 324 of last thread.

That's so funny. Great way to tie in the previous thread. I always look for the top post of the game day thread. Could be long, could be one liner..I never know. That's my nominee...

DeWitt is a possible rookie of the year candidate. I hope Nomar is used as a pinch hitter and spot starter only when he comes back. And boy does Kent look old out there.

He did not.

Good for Paul LoDuca and his fourteen year old girlfriend. Bravery.

He has stone hands.

{ducks}

Among the gems they've offered during this series:

- Ethier has grabbed a hold of the left field job and not let go.

- It's nearly impossible to hit home runs at Dodger Stadium.

- Juan Pierre is "a prototypical defensive center fielder."

- Most egregiously, they spent most of the second inning tonight discussing the new six-year contract that Russell Martin signed. They even went into some detail about it, noting how the Dodgers were quick to lock Martin up once the price on good young catchers had been established by Brian McCann's contract, etc. etc. I mean, it was really surreal. How do you get something like that so wrong?

I heard a few people mentioning they were listening to the brewer announcers, and i was just wondering why

any suggestions?

Then I could get bruins, dodgers, lakers, even kings all for the price of one

Everything I have read indicates that DeWitt at second is not a great option, but what about LaRoche in Left Field??

He played one game there last year and could learn it, and his power bat will be needed especially later this year and next year. What I would do for the moment keep DeWitt has the prime 3rd baseman until he falls off the cliff, he might not, tell Nomar he is the super utility guy off the bench, if he doesn't like it then get the best prospect we can for him, by the time he is ready to play he will be down to half of his contract, even if the Dodgers have to eat it.

Secondly it gets complicated but with 5 outfielders, I now count Delwyn as a pinch hitter and back-up second base, I shop JP for the best power prospect or second base candidate I can find, accept that the Dodgers will have to eat a portion of the JP contract, but if this happens the outfield becomes: Jones in CF, but his playing time is subject to performance, Kemp is in right and is the CF sub, Ethier plays pretty much every day and LaRoche becomes the 4th outfielder and can also sub at 3rd. It is not perfect, but it makes the team far better this year and clears part of the long jam for next year. But next year is Jones last year, and conceivably could be flipped at the break next year. Giving us the outfield that is best for the team: Kemp in CF, Ethier RF and LaRoche LF.

This is not perfect and highly unlikely to happen, but I only watched part of the game before I went out to play tennis and Charlie Steiner bless his heart made sure he let everyone know each time he came to bat what a slump JP was in. It sucks what they are doing to Ethier and now because Furcal is out, we have to have JP always start. I am glad he got the double tonight and he is an adequet 4th outfielder, but in so many ways having LaRoche has a 4th outfielder would be far better and actually give Torre more roster flexibility. I can only hope!

Oh, right. It's MLB.

Oh, and after crowing the other day that I'd never experienced the trouble with the archives that everyone else seemed to have? You got it. Archives. Toast.

Trading Pierre and Nomar for pennies on the dollar would constitute a major admission of error on Ned's part, and he has so far shown himself unwilling to make such admissions. Not to mention which, I think a good portion of your average fans still view Nomar and Pierre as good baseball players. And view LaRoche as a rookie who's a .220 hitter and who would be playing out of position to boot.

Hanging on to Nomar and Pierre is the safest move for Colletti to make as far as his job security is concerned. That way, you can just say you signed famous star players and they didn't work out as expected. Get rid of them, and (1) you get criticized for wasting money and then having to eat it, (2) you get criticized for jettisoning scrappy veterans who know how to win, and (3) you stake your job on a rookie third baseman's ability to play left field and hit lots of home runs.

I tend to think the Dodgers should just wait out DeWitt's hot streak. If he keeps hitting like gangbusters all year, then great, we've got a new young star on our hands. If he fades as expected, then put LaRoche in as soon as that happens. Either way, you come out ahead.

Of course, this being the Dodgers, they will almost certainly go with one of the two options that make less sense, namely: (1) Letting DeWitt flail away even if he hits .190 for two months, or (2) Giving the job back to Nomar.

From the Milwaukee J-S:
-----------

Bad things began to happen to Mota before he threw his first pitch. After he threw five warm-up pitches, third base umpire Joe West asked for the baseball and threw it to second base, as if he were a catcher throwing down before the start of an inning.

West, renown for finding his way into interesting situations, drew the ire of Yost for that antic. The Brewers' skipper came out, yelled "What's the problem?" and proceeded to give "Cowboy Joe" a piece of his mind.

Yost brushed off the incident afterward, leaving Mota to explain what happened.

"Joe West asked me for the ball and threw it to second base," said Mota. "I only threw five pitches. I said, 'I get eight.' He said I threw extra pitches in the bullpen."

No Eric there is actually someone else out here, or I may now be the lonely voice, so I appreciate your feedback. You are correct that my phrase of "highly unlikely" is an understatement.

But given Nomar's willingness to take ground balls at short, and given the objective facts that even if we started LaRoche Dodger homers this year will still be very low: Kent is declining, Furcal may have an increase over last year, but based on a seasonal average of 12, he hit 6 last year and is at 5 now but is injured. Even if he hits 6 more the total is not huge, with Ethier losing time to JP and Jones, his power numbers might actually go down and he didn't even hit 20 last year. If Kent and Martin maintain and Loney increase by 10, and Kemp increases by 15, the net gain over last years pathetic home run total will probably be very small. And besides we didn't have much power to begin with.

I guess I just think that using your farm system and finding out what LaRoche could do and using JP has a good trading chip to a team that wants and needs speed, would in the long run help the ball club and help the bottom line...I just wonder if anyone ever brings this up when management gets together. Power at the major league level will be hard and expensive to get this year, finding a minor leaguer for 2 years down the road would make a lot more sense, how you convince Coletti, I am not sure.

Being on the EC I have not seen a Dodger game in person since '06 (will see 1 or 2 in August this year) so I have not seen Pierre play. I was watching some highlights on ESPN recently and was appalled by some weak looking throws from LF.

Is there a relevant stat to measure an outfielders arm? Perhaps "What % of runners score from 2B on singles to left" or "What % of runners score from 3B on fly outs to LF"? Can that be translated into a run differential (and win differential) of having JP vs Ethier in LF?

I was getting ready to say, "He is really old" and then realized we are the same age. Bummer.

Ned, by the way, has admitted so-called mistakes. He got rid of Baez, Carter, Betemit, Tomko, etc. Pierre has a bigger contract so it's a harder pill to swallow, but Ned's pride in and of itself is not the issue. And certainly, if Ned found a good deal on Pierre, he wouldn't have too much pride to turn it down.
My post this morning is going to be on Kent, so I may be scooping myself, but I just felt the LF idea should be nipped in the bud :)

I thought Jones was a center fielder...

They need to find some way to do this with LaRoche, and they they also should to do the same with a young pitcher in the 5 spot.