For some reason, I immediately started hearing "Take...these broken wings...and learn to fly again, learn to live so free."

323 321 Yeah, I would imagine it's Troncoso (or maybe Brazoban -- is he hurt?) to come up.

Brazoban is currently on the DL in Las Vegas.

Especially when 10 or 15 games under .500 is about the best this team will do this year regardless of how well park pitches!

I just don't understand why it's so hard to admit it's not going to happen and start building for the future. It always makes the most sense because it most assuredly prevents you from making panic moves. A team with a wealth of young talent is not one that should even be contemplating panic moves. 2008 is simply not that important! The sooner the Dodgers realize this, the better off they will be!

I don't agree with this at all. With today's loss, the club's pythagorean win% is .493. That's 80-82, with just about every possible thing going wrong. Certainly they could regress, but this is still an 80-85 win team with even minimal improvement.

This could be another instance where the Dodgers are forced to make the move they should have earlier, due to injuries - in this case moving Kuo to the rotation. If they need another long reliever they can call up Stults, or even Jason Johnson, who is probably just impersonating Aaron Sele but has been pretty good in Vegas so far. But as Jon says, pitching depth is not the Dodgers' problem, so...

Much to my surprise and delight, the USS Mariner blog post analyzing Bugs Bunny's baseball talents as he played all nine positions simultaneously against the Gorillas in a single game is included in the collection.

If you've forgotten it, here's the link:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/g4u6w

And you still see it as a 80-85 win team? You are a heck of alot more optimistic then I! But if you are correct, it will be because the young players played above expectation! And if that' were to be the case, it's still no reason to use Park if he's injured! The whole purpose of the rest of the season should be to give the young players opportunity. If they happen to win as well? That's just gravy!

That still leaves SS as a huge hole, but that can be solved by (a) Hu coming back in a month or so; (b) Jones coming back healthy and productive, pushing Young to 2B and DeWitt to SS; (c) Nomar somehow finding the fountain of youth and not breaking bones at SS.

8 You! Like! Exclamations! eh?

With a "Happy Father's Day Weekend" tag in the lower right corner.

Agreed. (tempted to use exclamation point here).

That still leaves SS as a huge hole

No more a hole then it will be for 2009. Given Furcal's injury history, they can't bring him back. Might as well address it now. Hu for the remainder of the season makes the most sense. If you are inclined to move DeWitt to short, what's wrong with Young in Left, LaRoche at 2nd, and DeWitt at short? That seems a heck of a lot better then Jones in center or Nomar anywhere near the playing field.

12 You! Like! Exclamations! eh?

A little I guess. More then I realized.

Opposing Hitters
2006: 177/243/262
2007: 151/209/239
2008: 229/293/324

ERA
2006: 2.07
2007: 1.40
2008: 2.28

K/9
2006: 12.29
2007: 10.92
2008: 12.36

K/BB
2006: 4.65 to 1
2007: 6 to 1
2008: 4.75 to 1

His numbers might be slightly down, but he's still a great pitcher.

Both Lowe & Kuroda are on pace for 190-200 IP with a 107 ERA+. Last season, there were only 22 pitchers in the NL with 180 IP & 100 ERA+.
Also, here are their FIP ranks this season:

Lowe - 3.54 FIP (11th in NL)
Kuroda - 4.17 (28th in NL)

I'd say that's plenty special.

But seriously, I agree.

Next your going to tell me that by the end of the year Kershaw might even be the #2.

If that happens, just how special are Lowe and Kuroda? And when did a 4.04 era become special...in a pitchers ballpark no less?

I must really be getting old, because I remember when a 3.00 era was special.

Or maybe even with 71 wins. Ain't sports today just great?

Kinda reminds you of those 5-8 teams in the NFL in week 15 still thinking they have a shot.

It just doesn't get any better then that!

https://r.espn.go.com/espn/contests/lvcva/blog

Is there a good site to translate that into MLEs?

Oh my, if that's the case, then the Dodger offense is REALLY pathetic. Please tell me that you've mis-spoke.

I still don't understand why 3.00 era used to be special, but now 4.0 era is special. When did that happen?

You seem to want Kuroda and/or Lowe to be an "ace". But no team really has so many great pitchers. Being above average over many innings is very valuable, and that is what makes Kuroda/Lowe special.

Also, the lowest cumulative NL ERA since 1994 has been 4.11 in 2002. A 4.00 ERA is above average, and has been for some time.

I think at this point we need to agree that we have differing views of what "special" is. And that's fine.

I guess what it comes down to is that you probably feel alot more confident when Lowe or Kuroda are on the mound then I do. And again, that's fine. Like I said, to me they are nothing special.

Had Billy Wagner and the Mets been able to hold some leads this week, the NL West might have had a leader under .500

Let's not forget that both Furcal and Penny are in contract years (Lowe is too). Many thought the Dodgers exercising Penny's option at I think $9M for 2009 was an automatic call but if he is put on the shelf, who knows.

I can't say I had the best view of Vlad Guerrero tonight and I could be just imagining it but it looks like his swing is not as violent as it used to be.

If a starter gives up 3 runs in 7 innings, that's a 3.85 ERA but that would win a lot of games today.

So really if a starter is averaging over 6 plus innings and has an ERA around 4, he is doing the job.

I also am not in favor of basing your team off of how effective or ineffective the other teams in your division or league are.

The goal should be to construct a team so that the other teams have very little meaning. You do your job, and it shouldn't matter what the others do.

This whole "at least the D-backs have lost 7 of 8 so things aren't so bad" stuff is what ruins sports. For me anyway.

Now, if the team is a work in progress with almost all young players, then yeah for fun it would be okay to root the team on to a possible 80 wins and a playoff spot. But not when they spend over $100 million.

Agreed. But doing the job and being "special" are two different things. At least to some of us.

I mean, Edwin Jackson has a 4.0 era. Please don't tell me he's special to now.

please go ahead and edit that hah

dzzrtRatt, I read your post and it had close to everything I could think of that would be my worst fears in life. It's very brave that you can write about it and honestly, thank you for sharing. Death scares me an awful lot... less mine and more about the people I love so much. What you went through took so much bravery and it is inspiring and painful just thinking about it. Congratulations for your sons and their wonderful recent achievements and be proud of yourself.

Oh never mind. I'll just go to bed.

I think a lot of the back-and-forth here is due less to differing opinions on "special" (though they may exist) but rather to differing opinions on "nothing special". You seem to use the terms complementarily - a player must be either "special" or "nothing special".

To me, and I suspect to others reading your comments, "nothing special" is a fairly dismissive term, and there's a pretty big gulf between the low end of "special" and the high end of "nothing special", including (for me) "really good", "pretty good", "better than average", and "average" (not strict categories, of course, but terms I'd use to describe abilities). All of which come before "nothing special", which is almost on par with "cut him and bring up a warm body from Vegas".

I think it's pretty clear (looking at, for instance, the FIP numbers in 20 ) that Lowe and Kuroda are safely better than average. I wouldn't call them "special" myself, but their performances aren't anything to be dismissed, either, and I think that interpretation is the sticking point here.

Freebasing grit and hustle doesn't obscure the 700+ PA's of 75 OPS+ production Pierre brings. He's a black David Eckstein. Bill Plaschke's unsavory fetish notwithstanding, Juan Pierre is probably the worst regular in baseball.

Btw, I'm sure you read it but it's interesting to reread that section in Moneyball that has a bit on basestealing and "speed" and Beane's disinterest in it. With Ray Durham and Ron Washington both saying, "It's different here..." (Meaning, the A's didn't encourage basestealing) Which also calls out Joe Morgan. Fun stuff.

Maza > LaRoche, I guess.

Why do both DeWitt and Maza get to play vs. lefties over LaRoche?

- Confused in North Carolina

"LaRoche got hit in the face by a bad-hop grounder during BP and had a severe nosebleed, but he's fine."

First off...I wasn't happy about Torre, and his staff to begin with. They should have hired Kirk Gibson to manage, and to bring in a different pitching coach (Orel maybe) because Honeycutt is not the answer.

Has anyone taken a real look at Pierres numbers since he became the lead off man? With him at leadoff preceaded by the ptichers spot and the Need to use Borroa now you have an entire inning of outs bunched together. And when Toore makes the matter worse by putting in Maza to replace Kent...we get what get don't we. Should I bring up Sweeny not only getting at bats, but in the starting line up...Come On!

Replace the batting coach for starters.
Bench Pierre, and Maza, live with Borroa.
Play LaRoche, DeWitt, Young, Andre, Kemp, Loney

I also think McCourt has had it with Colletti blowing big money on over-the-hill free agents and has told him he can't trade any of the young players.

In a way, I'm looking forward to next season, and not caring so much now about this one.