I seriously doubt this.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?ce742978

Is there a story behind that?

Aug. 13, 1951: The Dodgers held "Music Depreciation Night" at Ebbets Field. Every fan with a musical instrument was admitted free. Nearly 2,000 fans took advantage of the opportunity, including one who came with a piano

http://tinyurl.com/6z6p5v

The Dodgers' apparent passivity on Furcal and Sabathia is sure looking like a clue that Frank ain't got the scratch. Seems like he wants a $70 million team this year and is feeling hamstrung by the Jones/Schmidt/Pierre costs. The only FA he seems to really want is Manny because of his box-office appeal. And even there, he seems pretty meh about it. He's hoping the other owners are feeling as broke as he is, so he'll take Manny if he can be a last resort for him.

Thus, I think Dodger fans' focus perhaps should be on organizational depth and the potential for the Jacksonville gang to blossom in 2009. There won't be any deus ex machina.

...Towers now thinks the Braves' unwillingness to change Peavy's contract to extend his no-trade provision beyond 2010 would have scuttled the deal, anyway.

Towers hasn't talked to the Braves in two weeks. And he hasn't talked lately to the third team said to be in the mix, the Dodgers, either...

"I'm not opposed to trading within the division,'' Towers said. But he speculated that that the Dodgers had too much going on right now to conceive of putting it all aside to make a monster trade like this. The Dodgers have two infield openings, they have the Manny free agent situation, they have the CC Sabathia question, and now they have two possible openings in the rotation after top young starter Chad Billlingsley broke his leg on a patch of ice in Pennsylvania.

Towers could see restarting talks with the Dodgers. Not now, but much later.

http://tinyurl.com/5johvr

Nice bit of backtracking and damage control by the Padres GM.

Also, the presidents of the USA! I always miss one!

Can you name all the players in the 30/30 club.

http://www.sporcle.com/games/30_30players.php

Stan from Tacoma

The CC deal is in limbo since no one is going to top the Yankees, so I think teams will wait and see if he takes it.

The whole of the "Hot Stove" seems pretty cold right now. What's the big splash other than the Yanks with CC?

Aren't there some big MLB meetings scheduled to take place soon where the GM's all get together and trades happen?

Does it appear that Boras' tactics have become too predictable? So many former "chasers" are instead now watching and waiting.

What's happening to the National and Global economies is unprecedented in my lifetime - circa 1952

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_NBA_Draft

Bogut is a center and he has good skills for the position, so those types of players always get drafted high. Plus, the Bucks had TJ Ford back then.

32 , but wasn't there a minor recession the year after AROD signed his first huge contract also?

And T.J. Ford shouldn't block anybody, much less Chris Paul.

1. Chris Paul
2. Deron Williams
3. Andrew Bynum

I am scared to look at any more beyond the Simpsons quiz.

Shields wants to be the Angels closer if/when K-Rod leaves.

1 piece: 25 total
4 piece: 10 total
9 piece: 6 total
16 piece: 3 total
25 piece: 1 total

45 total. Where are the other three?

Mike Dunleavy makes a horrible GM.

Kenny Lofton cf
Omar Vizquel ss
Carlos Baerga 2b
Albert Belle lf
Eddie Murray dh
JIM Thome 3b
Manny Ramirez rf
Paul Sorrento 1b
Sandy Alomar c

so that lineup has one current Hall of Famer, two pretty much guaranteed locks, three more with very very strong cases...how did they ever lose any games??

Thanks for the link, Jon.

So, um, are we gonna sign CC? No? Okay.

What was the reason for Albert Belle retiring so early in his career? There's an argument to be made that he was the best hitter of the 90s.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8843860?MSNHPHMA

RATS!!

Was bummed that I did not get all the 500 winners and 3000 strikeout pitchers. BTW, the NBA team question is not current (that is my hint).

PS - I can's spell Yaz's name if my life depended on it.

Dodgers are perfecting the art of raking in cash

http://tinyurl.com/6bqsum

Just looking at talent produced by their system from 1994-2001, Thome, Ramirez, Belle, Baerga, Giles, Sandy Alomar, Vizquel, Colon and Sabathia, is as impressive a run as you will ever find in the last 25-30 years. Thome, Manny and CC came on pretty young, the others hit their stride a little later. They would acquire Lofton, Juan Gonzalez, Matt Williams and Roberto Alomar to compliment their home grown talent.

Those Indian teams had two things going against them, the Yankees and not quite enough starting pitching. But just looking at the offensive talent, no question, the Indians were about as good a collection of players that I have seen in the last 30 years.

>> Whether or not Furcal signs elsewhere, the Dodgers' top in-house candidate to replace him could be Angel Berroa, a capable fielder who batted only .230.

Berroa, who was acquired in a trade with the Kansas City Royals and started for most of the time when Furcal was out, had his $5.5-million option for next season declined. Because Berroa hasn't accrued enough major league service time to become a free agent, he remains under the Dodgers' control. The last day to tender contracts to such players is Dec. 12, and if the Dodgers don't re-sign him by then, they'll probably let him go because the collective bargaining agreement forbids clubs to re-sign or tender contracts to players that would cut their salaries from the previous season by more than 20%. Berroa earned $4.75 million in 2008, meaning the Dodgers would be forced to pay him at least $3.8 million if they tender him a contract. <<

## Colletti added that there has been "no real movement" in the Dodgers' pursuit of CC Sabathia, the prize of the free-agent market. ##

http://tinyurl.com/5mx5l6

Once the smoke cleared and the other teams knew what the compensation was going to be, they began to deal.

So I would not expect much until after 9:00 p.m. (PST) next Monday night. And then really it might take until Sunday December 7th, (where have I heard that combination of words before), which is the last day for players to accept arbitration before anything begins to get done.

Sounds like I'm not the only one in need of some time off. - Simers

Nice to see that somebody at the Times realize the inane comment Plaschke made.

Couldn't disagree more. No one is doing anything on the Hot Stove right now. Just wait a while, there will be big signings for the Dodgers. Stupid signings, maybe, but they're gonna spend some serious coin.

Suggesting that a team with the third highest attendance in the MLB in the second biggest market and who was 3 wins away from the World Series is going to let a historically great FA class just walk by and enter the season with a 70M dollar payroll is absurd. Only 11 teams spent less than 70M last year. Even the Padres spent more than 70M.

>> The Angels, unwilling to meet Mark Teixeira's desire for a 10-year contract, are in discussions with CC Sabathia and could offer him a contract that approaches the $140-million bid extended to him by the New York Yankees. <<

## Scott Boras, the agent for Teixeira, represented Carlos Beltran four years ago and set the same asking price: 10 years for $200 million. Beltran did not sign with the Mets until January, for seven years and $119 million. By then, other top free agents had signed elsewhere. ##

http://tinyurl.com/6lrrdt

Rosenthal believes Trevor Hoffman to the Dodgers "makes sense."

And with that, I'm officially taking a break from hot-stoving. Jon was right.

I actually found this the most amazing part of the story: The Dodgers would like for Furcal to be their shortstop but are reluctant to even match the three-year, $39-million contract he completed this year. The club thought it overpaid for Furcal when it signed him three years ago -- and that was before he was injured. Isn't Neddy the guy who "overpaid?" More evidence that McCourt has taken the checkbook away?

Or its evidence that Ned has learned from his mistakes. What can I say, I'm an optimist.

Though it's anyone's guess who the shortstop will be next year, I don't think they feel so desperate now to make a statement with Furcal.

"Special assistant Paul DePodesta, the former Los Angeles Dodgers GM, reports not to Towers but directly to CEO Sandy Alderson and must sign off on player moves"

http://tinyurl.com/5vzr28

Whatever that means.

83 Remember Furcal was expected to sign with the Cubs and we kind of swooped in at the last minute and gave him more money but less years. It almost worked out. I still think it was a great contract. Ned has his faults but other then Pierre he has had the right plan with his more per year less number of years plan.

Kuroda has worked out so far. It is easy to keep pointing to the mistakes but unless you were calling those deals mistakes at the time it seems disingenuous to take Ned to task for signing Schmidt and Jones. D4P, Scareduck, and only a few others can stand on that pedestal. Juan Pierre is a different story entirely but how bad a report card is that based on when the contracts were signed not on how they have played out?

Trades are a different story and I don't think he's made a good trade since his 1st one. He lucked into Magic Marlon, no one expected that to happen. Releasing players with value also seems to be a problem.

You'd think that would have made a bad impression on Dodger Management.

4+1 comes to mind. What a game! And each one off Hoffman was on the first pitch

That is what made it so sweet. We gave up the 3 runs in the 8th, so Hoffman didn't start the inning. When they did bring Hoffman in, I thought we were done, since he usually owns us. To see Martin crank it on the first pitch was the amping up for the most exciting sports moment I have seen in person.

I would be okay with Hoffman closing for us, if the price was reasonable.

Hoffman implicitly scoffed at $4 million/year.

Ergo, it seems safe to conclude that the price won't be reasonable.

Then problem solved!

Why can't Frank come out and be a player for the top class guys in the press like Arte?

(And please don't bring up the Trinity of Worthlessness, because those guys aren't close to top class players)

108 But the contract length might well be, could be one year.

Maybe so, but if we'd rather give away prospects than pay $2 million, I would assume that Management will think the $8 million or whatever it would cost to sign Hoffman would be better spent elsewise (or not at all).

Rodgers, who leads the Pac-10 Conference in rushing, injured his shoulder on Oregon State's second possession last Saturday against Arizona.

Dan Evans is moving up in the world! So does being an agent for mid-level talent pay more than a GM would?

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/

This all assumes Saito is gone too.

I believe it would fall to best record against the next-highest team in the conference (currently Cal). Cal beat Oregon, but lost to the other two, which would leave OSU and USC in a 2-team tie. OSU would win that.

If they tie only with Oregon State, Oregon gets 2nd place.

If they tie with Oregon State and USC, Oregon gets 3rd place.

They'll actually be better off if one team has a better record than them than if no teams have a better record. That's kinda messed up.

You would end up with
OSU, USC, and Oregon at 7-2 and Cal and UA at 5-4.

OSU, USC, and Oregon would be 1-1 against each other.

So you would then go down to the record against Cal and Arizona combined.

USC would be 2-0, OSU would be 2-0, and Oregon would be 1-1.

Oregon is out and then OSU wins the head-to-head tiebreaker against USC.

I think Cal losing to Washington would be a bigger upset than USC losing to UCLA.

Rodgers getting knocked out is devastating. It hurts their chances at winning, and I think he had a shot at Pac 10 POY. Now that'll go to Sanchez, who although he's been Pac 10 POW like 4 times, totally doesn't deserve it IMO.

http://tinyurl.com/5usycf

Just like in 1966.

Assuming "chalk" wins this weekend, we'd have a 3-way tie. All 3 teams beat the next-highest team (Oklahoma St), and they also each beat the 2 teams tied for 5th (Baylor & A&M).

It would fall to the same criteria they are currently using, highest ranking in the BCS.

It wasn't until the 1980s when conferences finally started scheduling all the teams in its conference with the same number of games.

Oregon State's Fiesta Bowl performance was classic. They racked up one personal foul and penalty after another, and still crushed ND. Reminded me of that Miami / Texas game from the early 90's where Miami had like 10 personal fouls and over 200 yards in penalties, and won 50-3.

"A big part of (Oregon State's) turnaround is they have a lot of transfers from junior colleges and other Division I programs. Sometimes when you go that route, you're going to get players with troubled pasts.

"You're going to get players who might not be great students, and sometimes you accept that stuff at the cost of improving your football program."

I heard that Chad Johnson never attended class, not once. He showed up from SMCC, played the season, and that was it.

114

"Trinity of Worthlessness" (ToW)

That is awesome!

Ray Durham + Omar Vizquel + Rich Aurilia + Livan Hernandez + Shawn Estes + Sidney Ponson + Julian Tavarez = championship