First Tigger and Jerry Mahoney, then Pooh, what is this world coming to?

Link to other links about Winchell (voice of Tigger):

http://tinyurl.com/bv46w

One of those is a nice tribute from a blogger who also works as a ventriloquist (The Moderate Voice).

Here's another one I miss (he died a couple of years ago) :

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001181/

Couple of hints before you go there: He suffered an eye injury as kid; He got his first role as an actor, when, as an accountant for a small studio, he offered to to help finance a film if given a part in it; he was absolutely loved by kids, at least in the 60's.

See if you can guess.

I grew up watching the Winchell Mahoney show. My immediate reaction to the obit was

1. How can they list the Tigger voice work as his most important contribution?

2. What would April Winchell (his daughter) say on her web site. She posted that she found out a day after he died from a friend. Apparently, a decision was made not to tell any of the kids. Must have been a rough household to grow up in.

Looks like D.J. Houlton has been forgiven for his ugly relief appearances early in the year. He's leading the dodgers.com poll for best first year Dodger pitcher. Derek Thompson in second, Schmoll and Orsoria in single digits.

John Fiedler, hail and farewell. Mr. Peterson was a wonderful character on one of the all-time great sitcoms. Does anyone remember the Star Trek episode where he did a guest shot? It was from Season 1, one of the good ones.... I know, I could imdb it, but I'm lazy.

The one where Scotty is accused of murder!

I like the original Star Trek. Shatner rules. Everything else is pale in comparison.

Back from the St Louis area, unpacked and ready to get back into my regular routine.

Houlton's over/under for tonights home game against the Padres of San Diego is, 5 2/3 innings pitched. Place your virtual wagers.
vr, Xei

7 - I wondered who was snapping up all those Shatner albums.

8. over.

From the Suns game report:

"Including his time with Vero Beach, Kuo has not allowed a run in 18 innings, striking out 35 in that span."

Wow.

#10: I'll take the over as well. The Padres lineup is almost as weak as the Dodgers (no Loretta, Hernandez, or Nevin).

Have quenched my thirst and ready for Pad blood. Over!

Under. It's time to die with dignity.

Over. He goes seven.

The Suns game is about to start. Hanrahan is pitching tonight for Jacksonville against Eveland for Huntsville.

Over. 6 1/3. Steve is applying logic to a to a heart and soul issue.

I want to be like COMMON PEOPLE! I want to breathe like COMMON PEOPLE!

Ouch. Hanrahan was throwing at 93-94 mph last year, and started this Spring in the low 80s. He's back up to 91-92 mph and still working on his mechanics.

Guzman just made an error allowing a run to score.

The Suns just tied the game on a double off the top of the wall by Russell Martin and a single by Nick Alvarez.

martin missed a homerun by like 2 feet. oh well.

Huntsville just scored another run, making it 2 - 1, on an RBI triple. Loney dove for the shot down the line and knocked it into foul territory.

It's my understanding that John Fiedler created the role of the racist real estate agent in the original production of Raisin in the Sun. So, it was great that when I saw a production starring Esther Rolle in LA in the early 90s, he reprised that role.

There's nothing like a great character actor.

I'll take the over on Dennis Houlton, out of pure wild optimism.

I sense the Dodgers are getting a little bit better. I think we ran into a team on a massive high in Anaheim. They think they clinched the playoffs last week by sweeping Texas. The Padres aren't at that level, and they're sweating. We'll jump 'em.

I'm taking the over because I have tickets and can't make it to the game which means the Dodgers will win.

The Bob Newhart show will always be one of my top 10 comedy shows. Should be easy to stay in the top ten since no one does comedy anymore.

Shatner's "Has Been" was one of my fav discs from last year. As Steve said "Common People" rules.

Guzman hits a long sacrifice fly to the warning track with the bases loaded and one out to tie the game at 2 - 2.

Molokai, does `Has Been' include `Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'? That rocks!

Hanrahan just gave up a HR to Nelson Cruz to make it 3 - 2 Huntsville. Hanrahan has now given up 16 HRs in 67+ innings.

The NL West: The Race to See Who Sucks the Least.

#28: I Live for This!

BTW, is anybody gonna ask Izzy when he's gonna get his next hit, if ever?

# 26 No

Is there anyone in the Jacksonville lineup who is not considered a prospect? If Fox choose to televise their games I'd watch them over the Dodgers right now. I've been unable to get the Jacksonville TV link to work on either Mozilla or Explorer.

I just watched 12 Angry Men a couple of weeks ago on TCM, even though I've seen it several times. In fact, I think I watched it instead of watching the Dodgers getting pasted again by the White Sox.

The best performances in the movie are EG Marshall and Jack Warden, in my terribly unhumble opinion, though everybody is incredible.

there are a couple. the outfielders are not prospects. some of the relief pitchers arent.

also, the tv link doesnt work because they are away and it only works for home games. the radio link works though.

#31: The outfielders are not prospects even though they are hitting well (they're all 27 or 28). Other than that, esentially every slot on the team is filled by a legitimate prospect.

Dear Mr. Izturis,

Have you ever thought about using a lighter bat? Or standing farther away from the plate?

Sincerely,

Hee Seop Choi

#7 Steve, you'll find out if you work for a large law firm, that Shatner's dysfunctional senior partner, Denny Crane on Boston Legal is actually not that far off from the real thing.

I'll be insanely optimistic, and take the over on DJ tonight.

Off topic but...

Anybody know any easy things I can do with chicken breasts/thighs?

#34: Lesson = refresh before post. Four of the relievers are prospects, Jonathan Broxton, Hong-Chih Kuo, Carlos Alvarez, and whoever of Eric Hull / William Juarez gets bumped from the rotation.

Is anyone else having a problem with the Jacksonville audio feed?

#37: Covering them with BBQ sauce and throwing them in the oven is a lazy meal source in my household.

Drew's back in the lineup tonight. The nice thing about Drew is that when he comes back I feel pretty comfortable he's actually ready.

Us:
Izturis
Perez (3B)
Drew (CF)
Kent
Werth (RF)
Choi
Phillips
Edwards (LF)
Houlton

Them:
Jackson (2B)
Sweeney (1B)
Giles (RF)
Klesko (LF)
Fick (C)
Burroughs (3B)
Nady (CF)
Greene (SS)
Stauffer (P)

Similar lineups. Good 3/4 hitters surrounded by a lot of replacement players.

#37: If you have lemons and cracked black pepper, you can do a homemade lemon pepper, which is nicer, but a little more work.

Drew and a hot Werth give us hope we'll score more than 0 runs.

Well, if that means I can be James Spader...never mind.

Kelley is a genius for coming up with the character, and Shatner is genius for playing him as self-parody. If the key is to Be Who You Are Well, that is the ultimate in illustrations.

If you have a pressure cooker you can do wonderful things in less then an hour, but since you asked the question are you related to the Carl Junior Guy?

RBI single for Andy LaRoche ties the game at 3 in the top of the 5th.

Is Boston Public still on the air? I liked it, but it seems they dumped it in favor of that doctor show starring the actress Jon profiled.

Here's what you do with the chicken pieces. Put some rice in a baking pan. Put the amount of water needed to cook the rice in the same pan, or, if you have it, put some chicken broth in--same quantity. Then put your chicken pieces on top. Carrots, celery, squash, frozen peas okay to add, as well as seasonings--salt, pepper, crushed rosemary. Put a little butter or oil on top of the chicken. Now cover it with foil. Put it in the oven at some reasonable temperature like 350. After a while, when the chicken's almost done, remove the foil, so the skin can get a little crisped, and the rice, too. I don't think I got this recipe from Dr. Atkins, but it's good.

loney with the 2 out "clutch" hit.

A two-out single for Loney drives in LaRoche to put the Suns ahead 4 - 3, their first lead of the game.

Hey Nate, is your audio feed scratchy?

yeeeep. it sounds demonic.

Fact of Choi:
This was probably covered by our resident fact of Choi poster but ex big leaguer Leon Lee signed Choi for the Cubs and then Choi was traded to the Marlins for Leon's son, Derrek.
Leon and Leron Lee were brothers? Was that an example of how many names you can come up with if you start the 1st 2 letters with "LE" and end the name with an "N"?

#50: Ok. Same here. It's the Suns' computerized demon announcer.

russ martin is a catcher that statheads and tradionalist dodger fans will both love.

he has loduca's "grit" combined with kendalls OBP in his prime.

I think that the Shatner legal show is still on the air, but was preempted in the believe that the public prefers to see doctors making out, as opposed to attorneys.

Definitely not a fan of Kelly's other lawyer series, but on Boston Legal he does nail all the inter office politics that infect big law firms. I knew of senior partners even more addled than Shatner's character, all of which was kept out of sight from the clients.

#53: Martin is second in the league in OBP at .441. The only problem with him so far is very little pop; his ISO is only .109 (SLG of .422 - AVG of .313).

pimental had one of his best outings of the year.

the 19 yr olds line:
7IP 4H 1ER 0BB 8K
his current era is 3.75

That should be belief, not believe.

Also, hard to believe that Leron Lee actually played (and even started some games) for the Dodgers in the mid 70's.

re 55:

i dont mind, i think the pop will come later on. but if he puts up those exact lines in the majors, i would estatic and bat him 2nd in the lineup with his 850+ OPS from the catcher position.

I like the players but in the lineup, but the order sucks.

Would it be that must of an ego drain on Izturis/Tracy to put this out there:

Perez
Choi
Drew
Kent
Werth
Edwards
Phillips
Izturis
Pitcher

Continuing to bat Choi 6th and Izzy 1st is just stupid, when everyone knows how much of an outmachine Izzy is, and how much better Choi is in the 2nd spot than 6th.

#56: Very nice. He's getting close to the mystical 1.0 K/IP mark (68 K in 72 IP).

#37- Dude, coming from a guy that just finished college, "bread it". Egg, bread crumbs, and fifteen minutes, youre good. You can bread everything and make it taste good, even tofu.

#8- Ill take the over for my sake. Its about to be three in the morning over here and got to leave for the airport at six, so Im hoping Tracy doesn't use his whole bullpen tonight, but Im not optimistic.

pimentals walks are still a bit high, but its understandable since hes only 19 and in A+.

#58: Who do you like better between Navarro and Martin?

59. It seems that Tracy is so stubborn that he wants to make out the lineup that he wants instead of making out the best lineup possible (in batting order where they are most successful). This stubborness will end up costing him his job and poor season for Dodgers. I thought Tracy use computer analysis and always says "PUT PLAYERS IN A POSITION TO SUCCEED" but his actions do not reflect his words.

hanrahan gives up too many homeruns. boooo

i like martin more. but navarros a pretty good catcher as well.

Huntsville retakes the lead, 6 - 4, on a 3-run shot off of Hanrahan.

The Vero Beach club isn't nearly as stacked as Jacksonville. I'm excited about Matt Kemp, because he has tremendous power (ISO of .259), but he needs to dramatically cut down on the strikeouts (58 Ks in 190 ABs), and increase the walks (11 BBs).

Phillips seems like he has reached the wall. He has had really bad at bats recently and his average is really going down. I don't know if he is a starting level catcher or not. Maybe we should bring up Navarro and give him a chance.

67. How come Jacksonville doesn't win more games with all the great prospects. Is the Dodger Farm System overrated.

#66: I have a tough time evaluating the differences. Martin is a year younger and playing at a higher level, but his offensive stats are inflated by the PCL.

37. I'd brown the chicken in some oil, then dump a can of chicken broth, some garlic and 1/2 cup of white wine, in the pot and simmer for 20 minutes. Add mushrooms and onion if you have it and voila, a nice dish.

#70: Should read "Navarro is a year younger..."

70. Isn't Martin playing at Jacksonville.

#69: Jacksonville won their division for the first half. They're only a few games into the second half (2 - 3), and they're currently playing the top team in the Northern half of the division. I'd expect them to continue winning this half.

re 69

jax won the first half division title.

usually, if you have a lot of a prospects on a team, the team isnt going to win a lot because its not filled with older career minor leaguers.

Hope JD can continue to give up 6 good innings tonight. We really need to get some runs early so we can relax and play with some confidence instead of each player trying to do too much by himself. Hope we can score without relying only on homeruns.

76. I meant DJ not JD.

I heard A Martinez talking about Bradley suffering a setback. He can't swing right-handed, something he could do a couple days ago. Surgery was mentioned, though I don't think it's imminent.

Switching over to the big leagues.. no more Jacksonville updates for tonight.

78. Bradly hitting only left handed is improvement over Grab/Edwards combo.

#75: Great point. The 27/28 year-old career minor-leaguers tend to perform very well in AA. For a prime example, take a look at Jacksonville's outfield.

At least Cody Ross isn't starting. I guess that misjudged fly ball got him a seat on the bench. I was wondering why he was getting so many starts after being brought up. Maybe he will be like Robles and sit for a while.

Should we promote more Jacksonville players to LV or are they not ready yet.

Not a good start if it is a Homerun.

At this rate, this game wont be over for hours.

It sounds like we should start thinking about giving up on Las Vegas altogether, put all our career minor leaguers there, and bring the prospects up from Jacksonville. Why subject those pitchers to multiple months in Las Vegas? Like Coors is so good for pitchers.

86. Makes perfect sense. I don't see any reason why we have to have the AAA team play in LV since it's hard to evaluate talent that plays at the park.

Figures, Izzy K's again. How much longer does his BA have to go down before Tracy moves him out of leadoff spot. How about .260?

JD should have done that yesterday when we really needed him.

Cue the Stauffer-bonus story. Again.

I love Vin, but I don't need to hear about Neifi Perez's surgeon brothers and sisters, Steve Finley's ranch, or that Matt Herger married Todd Hollandsworth's sister for the 8th time.

That's probably one of my biggest beefs with the unbalanced schedule - the repetition of player bios.

I guess one extra day of rest made a big difference in JD's knees.

Kent did a little Beltre shuffle on the first pitch. Did Wallach used to do that?

Two out rally. Can we get a hit with RISP?

90 - Not 8 marriages, but 8 recounts of the story. Whoops.

80. No, that means he can't swing from either side. He could be out a lot more.

You have to hand it to Izzy. If you were batting 6 for 250, would you want to talk to people about it? And when I say people, sportswriters don't count.

Damian Jackson has more home runs than doubles.

"Surgery may not be necessary" = 60 Day DL

I guess that was asking for too much. Start of another frustrating evening? Wonder how we will do with RISP tonight. I can settle for .280 with RISP (about 2 of 7).

If Izzy didn't start out so hot, he would really be struggling to keep his average above .260 now. Also, he doesn't walk enough to be a good leadoff hitter either. His RISP BA is below .220 also.

Izturis continues to bat leadoff for the same reason Kent hits for Choi yesterday with one out instead of Phillips or Edwards with two outs.

Garret Anderson is clutch. He would never strike out with RISP.

101 -- Because bokonon has damned me to hell, and this is it.

Is Nady clutch, even though bases were empty? Or is that scrappy? Wait, which one is better?

#104: Clutch = good hitter. Scrappy = bad hitter who tries really hard.

Stouffer is clutch. Way clutch.

Tonight does not look like Houlton's night.

#106: Indeed, they make very good stuffing.

How many consecutive 2-out hits is that? 3?

103- Don't blame the messenger. For some, I bring good tidings of Great Choi. For others, it's, you know, damnation.

Speak of the devil.

Giving up a HR to Damian Jackson plus an RBI-double to Stauffer... Cody Repko Principle anyone?

It sucks, but the Dodgers can probably flash that "GAME OVER" right about now.

I'm not concerned at all. Tim Brown is working out a deal for Preston Wilson as we speak.

#113: Now that would be funny. Start playing the "GAME OVER" with the creepy Gagne heads.

Phew.. Scott Erickson is warming up to save us. I hope he comes in and horribly explodes (again).

the leadoff home run to jackson: if the fan didn't touch it, does it hit the foul pole and bounce back onto the field of play? and if so, does that make it a fair ball in play, a home run, or a foul ball?

I never thought it would happen, but when Vin said, "And down in the bullpen, Scott Erickson begins to warm up," I laughed. That's the fifth stage of greif, right?

I guess we'll see Erickson if this keeps up.

#116: Foul pole above the wall is a HR.

116- If nobody'd touched it, it would have gone in to the stands. The fan reached out past the pole; there was no doubt it would have been a home run.

Does this mean that Depo is looking for a pitcher again?

#119: Though if the fan didn't touch it, it might not have even hit the foul pole. He leaned pretty far into fair territory.

#121: I think DePodesta is looking for a therapist.

ah, thanks for the ground rule clarification.

How many games back do we have to be for DePodesta to consider the team "out of it"?

As for me, I know my redeemer hits.

Nice hit Choi!

BBTN just had a list of teams that were slowing down. Apparently, the Dodgers are losing because their starting pitching has struggled. Did they make that decision based on tonight's game?

I hate ESPN. That didn't even come out of Kruk's piehole.

125 -- I think that Depo already considers this team "out of it." Why else would Erickson still be on the roster?

#128: On BBTN Sunday, Kruk was blathering about how he didn't like the Cardinals chances because of their pitching. I laughed.

ESPN is always about three weeks behind the curve.

that was really scrappy.

We're certainly not out of it. But for the first time in my life, I think we might need to consider getting rid of Tracy. I mean, I've always liked the guy, but lately, he's been acting as if he was trying to get fired. I don't know who to replace him with though.

Goofy looking slide by our Savior.

I want the Dodgers to turn it around just to hear Kruk say that he always thought the Dodgers were going to win the West.

Good things about being "out of it":

1) We can play Choi daily to see if he is our future 1B, or just a platoon player.
2) We can trade Saenz, Weaver, and Phillips for useful parts.
3) We may be able to get out from Tracy's reign of terror after the season.
4) We won't waste prospects on Robin Ventura or Tyler Houston.

#135: Something like "Even with tremendous odds mounted against him, Tracy was able to pull the team together and win in-spite of all the turmoil created by DePodesta". That would be after DePodesta adds a premiere bat and starting pitcher.

If the Giants don't trade Schmidt so he can stick around for Bonds's last season, wouldn't Weaver and Burnett be the best pitchers available. Someone will surely overpay for starting pitching like the Mets did last year at the deadline.

137 -- Joe Morgan could call it Scrappyball.

#138: I have a tough time differentiating between Aaron Harang, Kip Wells, Jeff Weaver, et. al. Clearly, Burnett is the top of the class, but after that it's a bunch of ???s.

Joel Guzman with an RBI double to plate LaRoche making it 7 - 5 Huntsville in the bottom of the 9th. Martin is the last hope.

Poor pitching. Bad defense. What else is new. Any OFFENSE tonight. I guess we'll find a new way to lose unless we score lot of runs.

In profile, D.J. Houlton's nose makes him look kind of like the old Bud Light dog.

Yeah, but a lot of teams have said that their pitchers are not available. Of course, that is possibly only being said to drive up the asking price.

#140: I'm sure we can find some team out there that thinks Weaver is the 2nd best pitcher available, or 1st best if Burnett is not available.

140. I think Kip Wells is best of the available. His K ratio is 6.4 (higher than most other starting Dodger pitchers) and he makes about 1/3 of Weaver. His career ERA is about 4.2.

143. Good observation. I was wondering if anyone else noticed it.

The Fire Jim Tracy Mob slowly grows. In a couple of weeks, we might be able to fit into a whole Denny's.

I agree that Kip Wells is better than Weaver. The Orioles are struggling and probably getting desperate for some starting pitching, so Depo might be able to steal someone solid if he strikes quickly.

hey, it's a game now!

at least for a couple more innings.

Russell Martin strikeouts on a foul-tip to end the game. Jacksonville loses 7 - 5. Poor starting pitching performance, but a good job by the bullpen.

Hanrahan: 4.1 IP; 7 H; 6 R/ER; 2 BB; 4 K; 2 HR
Olson: 1.2 IP; 0 H; 0 R/ER; 0 BB; 2 K; 0 HR
Broxton: 1.0 IP; 2 H; 1 R/ER; 0 BB; 0 K; 0 HR
Gonzalez: 1.0 IP; 0 H; 0 R/ER; 0 BB; 2 K; 0 HR

#150: Thankfully, Kent made it interesting right as the Jacksonville game ended.

I would trade Weaver for Kip Wells in a minute. We would save 6M and Wells has had 6 dominant starts this year (7 or more innings with 2 or less runs) while Weaver has only 3.

Alex Cora Fans, RIP

Even if we were able to get rid of Weaver, which I still don't think we would be able to do, we will have to eat his contract. Yum.

FJT

Run, Ja(y)son, Run!

I think the Orioles or Phillies are the best bet to give us something good for Weaver without us having to eat Weaver's contract.

Pitching is such a crap-shoot. Wells and Weaver might as well be the same person.

Kip Wells is not really a 1 or 2 but I think Kip Wells can be a very good 3 or 4. He strikes out enough so that he doesn't have to always rely on his fielders. I think you have to get the pitchers that match your defense. Since our infield defense is not very good, we should get any more groundball pitchers like Lowe, Penny, Perez.

Ed Wade?

Yeah, he might be the only one dumb enough to give us anything for Weaver. I'll retract as far as the Phillies are concerned.

160. Typo. We should NOT get any more groundball pitchers like Lowe, Penny, Perez.

Weaver could turn into the next Randy Johnson for all we know. He's only 29 and seems like he's in good shape. He might figure out what he's doing and become an amazing pitcher (he has the potential) or he may continue to be mediocre and find himself without a job in five years. I hate how many unknowns there are with pitchers.

Weaver for Floyd would be nice...but I don't think that even Ed Wade is that stupid.

Weaver could win five Cy Youngs in a row...or not. It would cost us about 8 mil/year to find out.

Jeff Weaver is 29 and will be a free agent. Kip Wells is 28, with a year of arbitration left. Here is their stat comparison:

J.W. 2004: 4.01 ERA; 220.0 IP; 6.26 K/9; .78 HR/9; 2.74 BB/9; 8.96 H/9
K.W. 2004: 4.55 ERA; 138.1 IP; 7.55 K/9; .91 HR/9; 4.30 BB/9; 9.44 H/9
J.W. 2005: 4.75 ERA; 100.1 IP; 6.03 K/9; 1.44 HR/9; 1.97 BB/9; 9.33 H/9
K.W. 2005: 4.36 ERA; 97.0 IP; 6.40 K/9; 1.39 HR/9; 4.55 BB/9; 8.72 H/9

Other than the extra year of eligibility, they're prety similar. If it's just for the rest of the year, I'd say Weaver has at least a 50% chance of outperforming Wells. The fact that Wells walks a guy every other inning is pretty scary considering he gives up just as many HRs as Weaver.

That 8 mil should probably be a factor.

I know Bob isn't here so this may be tough to figure out, but I am willing to bet that Phillips takes less pitches per AB than anyone. The only time he takes three pitches is when he strikes out.

166. Can you get info on what pct of outs based on K/Ground Out/Flied Out for the Dodger starters. It seems that we have so many similar groundball pitchers with low K ratio (relying a lot on defense). I think we need at least 1 high K/fly ball pitcher so the other team will get different looks.

#163: Weaver will not turn into Randy Johnson. People who strike out a lot of hitters and then find their control become great. Weaver isn't that dominant and already has good control. His only real upside is to drop his HR-rate again, which I expect he'll do. He may get lucky for a year and get a really low BABIP, which would make him appear great, but he'll likely never actually be great.

It's funny (sadly)...the Dodgers get a leadoff double, but I only give them about a 30 percent chance to score.

170. I agree. Weaver has had enough time. This is 7th full season. I don't think he is worth 8 to 9M. Maybe, between 6 to 7M but Boros will want much more.

Nice AB DJ. I can't see anything but the red and green dots on gameday, but that seemed like a nice job of battling out a BB.

Is it possible to get my 250 all star votes back that I gave to Izzy?

It's a sad state when Izturis is the top vote getter for all-star SS's.

hah, stauffer pitched around the mighty houlton to face izturis instead. and it paid off.

#170: Yeah, hyperbole rarely stands up against fact and reason. One thing for sure, inflation aside, he will likely never be worth 8 million a year.

173 - Just once, I'd like to see those dots in the shape of something interesting, like a happy face, anarchy symbol, or visage of the Virgin Mary.

Instead, all we get is a random pattern. Or in the case of Choi, a random pattern on the inside corner.

Can there be an online poll to bench Izzy for a couple of games? Wallach needs to be watching tape around to clock to figure out what is wrong with little Cesar because he hasn't looked this bad since 2003.

#168: At 3.68 pitches / plate appearance, Phillips would place about 45th out of 82 NL batting qualifiers, assuming he qualified. The bottom feeders are Christian Guzman (3.01), Yadier Molina (3.18), Jimmy Rollins (3.27), Jose Guillen (3.33), and Mosies Alou (3.34).

I really liked Izzy but he is really having tough time. Tracy should move him down in the lineup. Even his defense this year hasn't been as good. He already has 8 errors (he had 10 all of last year). I'm not sure if he deserves to be the starting SS for AllStar game. The way he is going he could end up batting .250 by AllStar break.

Fearing Blue, where did you find those stats?

180 - Thanks, I meant worst on the team, though clearly that isn't what I said. I guess of all Phillips 3 and 4 pitch Ks made up for his first pitch grounders and popups.

#172: Baseball Prospectus projects him at a 2.8 WARP for 2006. At the market rate of about $2.11 million / WARP, that would make him worth about $6 million next year. He is clearly going to look for more than that in free agency.

Next time Plaschke acts up, maybe we should just all send him one-word e-mails saying:

Izturis!

It wouldn't shut him up, but it would be an excellent reminder of his eye for talent.

#182: ESPN allows you to sort batting statistics by P/PA:

http://tinyurl.com/bpfej

I think my TV is broken, it says the Dodgers have come back from a 4-0 deficit to tie the game.

The only Dodger having decent to good season (better than career average) is Kent. Even Kent's defense has fallen off lately although he was very good early in the season. We really miss Beltre and Cora's defense. Choi is also very unreliable at first. We have one good defensive player in our infield (guess who?) and most of our starting pitcher rely on groundball outs. At least DJ gets lot of flyballs even if some of them are homeruns. If Bradly comes back, we have great outfield defense with Werth, Bradley, and Drew so we should get some high K and flyball out starting pitchers.

Kent looked mad that he only hit a single. He must have really liked that pitch.

#188 - dj has only allowed like 3 or 4 homers all season, 2 of which have been tonight.

184. Are any Dodger starting pitchers performing at their salary.

Did you see that Julio Franco hit a grand slam today? Isn't he 47?

191. houlton :)

and MAYBE penny

Having Drew in the lineup seemed to have helped a little.

189- Could be he wanted to repay Sauffer's nearly hitting him. He took Greene down pretty hard when he probably didn't need to.

At least the offense has waken up tonight. Hope we get enough to win. The pitching looks shakey. We need to get out pitching and offense on sync so that we don't waste our unexpected offense.

#180: I was mistaken. Phillips is at 3.39, which is indeed lowest on the team for players with at least 100 PAs. It also puts him at 9th worst in the NL. I'm not sure where I got the 3.68 from.

http://tinyurl.com/bpfej

#186: Thanks. It is interesting to see that P/PA doesn't seem to have much to do with a players success. Biggio, Piazza and Casey are all widely considered good hitters and are right there with Phillips.

We're going to see someone other than Erickson right?

191 - Compared to other, crappier pitchers, I'd argue that Lowe is performing to his salary.

Fearing Blue, can you project the salaries for Penny, Lowe, and Perez based on their WARP. I don't think any of them are pitching as well as they should for the salaries they are pulling down.

John Walton, son of Wal-Mart founder; Sam, died today. You can't take it with you. If memory serves he had something like 20 billion dollars in the bank.

Which is all to say, 8 million to Weaver is not that much relatively speaking. Though I guess it is a huge amount compared to my summer job waiting tables.

Sam had like five children each of whom is among the top-ten wealthiest people in the world. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

DePodesta's not trading Jeff Weaver. To move him, we'd have to eat most of his contract. If we have to do that, we might as well keep him. Trading Weaver for Wells, but still paying Weaver's salary makes zero sense.

I think that if there are any trades to be made, they will be the reverse of the pattern suggested by a Weaver for Wells trade. We will let go of players of promise and low salary (either a AA prospect, or Izzy, Werth, Perez, Phillips, Houlton, or Thompson) in return for an impact player or two of high salary. If we want Todd Helton, we can probably have him. Or Bernie Williams, or Mike Sweeney, or Mike Piazza, maybe even Lyle Overbay.

If DePo "gives up" on 2005, we'll know that because he'll do nothing. The only veteran on the Dodgers who would draw interest is Jeff Kent, and I think DePo thinks we'll need him next year.

erickson is still warming. i can't imagine we'd see him in the game though. hopefully he's just using this as a bullpen side session or something, since he was already up and warming.

#191: On the pitching staff, of players with at least 3 years of service time, I believe it's only Penny and Lowe. Penny has a 2.2 WARP so far and is making $5.10 million for the season, which is $1.07 million / WARP. Lowe has a 2.0 WARP so far and is making $9 million for the season, which is about $2.08 million / WARP. Odalis Perez has obviously been a bust so far, and at $2.85 million / WARP, Weaver is also being overpaid.

The worst thing about resigned Weaver would be having four pitchers under contract through 2007. Hopefully, our prospects will have shown themselves in LA by then. If they are ready by then, four expensive pitchers would be blocking their arrival.

I'm sure someone will overpay for Weaver (hope it's not Depo) even though he only deserves about 6M. That tells you how bad the starting pitching has become in the ML when a career 70 wins and 83 losses pitcher with 4.50 ERA can make over 6M a year.

#205: We will need him next year. Trading Jeff Kent would be a horrible mistake, unless the deal included us getting Chase Utley in return.

204- Yeah I think he had 4 kids and a wife and they are spots 6-11 (or something like that) on the Forbes list. If Sam was alive today he would be more than twice as wealthy as Bill Gates.

If we don't trade Weaver, there is no way that Depo even offers arbitration. When Maddux was a free agent a few years ago, Boras tricked the Braves into thinking that some team had made Maddux an offer. The Braves offered arbitration and ended up paying Maddux something like $15 million.

Depo should not sign Weaver this year. Let him test the market and if he gets more than 6M/yr then good for him. Maybe Depo can offer 18M/3 years.

Steve -- I hadn't realized that you go by Gary when riled up; I also don't naturally think of anywhere in Utah as "(Midwestern City)," but what can you do.

(See The Juice Blog.)

mmm...Chase Utley

Fearing Blue gets another bow for touting DJ Houlton when the rest of us wanted to send him to Guam.

If DePo gets Helton, I'll be in his office, the day after, torch and pitchfork in hand to explain why that's stupid. 16.6 million a year till 2011? For less than Choi numbers? IN COORS?!

I really like the way DJ has come back from the 1st 2 innings and put 0's the last 4 innings. Tracy should not push his luck and pinch hit for DJ.

which means he probably will.

Ok.. here's our starting pitching staff:

Brad Penny: 2.2 WARP; worth $10.0 million / year
Derek Lowe: 2.0 WARP; worth $9.1 million / year
Jeff Weaver: 1.5 WARP; worth $6.8 million / year
Odalis Perez: .8 WARP; worth $3.6 million / year

Caveats:
1) This is all based on last year's free agent pitching market.
2) This is based on the performance of last year's free pitching to-date.
3) It doesn't factor in injury risk / time, so clearly Odalis is worth more than $3.6 million.

Not quite less than Choi; I just looked it up. But still. Why not go get Giambi, too?

#215: DePodesta should get the bow. It was a very smart Rule-5 pickup. Almost, but not quite, makes up for Erickson still being on the roster.

214 -- It's my style. But I married my ex-girlfriend. :)

216 -- what would you do if we traded for Preston Wilson. Let's buy pitchfork sharpeners.

To play Latin grammar nazi for a moment: "Caveat" really shouldn't be used as a noun. It is a verb in the third person present subjunctive. It means "he/she/it should beware."

Thank you Fearing Blue.

#223: So should I say "To caveat:"?

21 -- That's what Perez is getting paid this year because of his wacky contract. It's the next two years where he makes seven or eight million.

#224: No problem. This kind of stuff has been keeping my busy while I ignore our games, which has been a really good thing of late. How did we take the lead?

Carrera or Sanchez in 8th. I would still take Sanchez by slim margin.

223- I think my favorite thing about DT is that people play "Latin grammar nazi" but nobody will tell Steve Saxs Sweaty Jockstrap that he needs an apostrophe.

The Kid Stays In The Picture. Nice job, DJ.

Perez (single), Drew (double), Kent (single) in the 5th to take the lead.

Wunsch!

#225: I would say "Cavete" which means, "You all beware." Or you could say "caveat lector" which is "The reader should beware." Thanks for showing interest, people usually just make fun of me.

#226: I was just putting what they are worth in the free-agent market based on their contributions to-date. The actual salaries I used to analyze are:

Penny: $5.1 million
Lowe: $9 million
Weaver: $9.25 million
Perez: $8 million

I took the yearly average when doing the free agent analysis, so teams like the Dodgers don't get to look good by back-loading contracts.

I posted all the 2004-2005 free agent analysis in the previous thread if anyone wants to take a look.

Kent is unbelievable with RISP. I think he must be hitting close to .400. JD must be close to .200 until tonight.

235. he's actually over .400, according to vinny.

caveat may be a verb in latin, but it's also a noun in english

#230: He really turned it around quite nicely. He and Penny seem to be the only pitchers on our staff who can deal with adversity. His final line looks pretty good, other than the HRs:

7 IP; 5H; 4 R; 3 ER; 1 BB; 5 K; 2 HR

Six baserunners in seven innings is fine by me.

233 -- this is not the first Latin lesson there has been around here. Latin, English, grammar, spelling...all are fair game on this most literary of baseball websites.

Re:Preston Wilson

I think you might be wrong about this one, Steve. He has 41 RBIs! Think about that; couldn't the Dodger's use 41 extra runs? He's an RBI machine. I wouldn't give up more than, say, four of our top prospects for him, but really, how could an RBI machine like Wilson go wrong?

#233: Well, now that I listened, I think I'm going to go back to using it incorrectly. "Cavete" and "caveat lector" look funny :).

Izzy is in freefall. I don't think I can remember a bat this cold before. What is interesting is that in this month he has had far more hits than Choi had for the Dodgers last year, but not a peep from the LA media about moving him out of the leadoff spot. Right now, Izzy leading off means you start the game with 26 outs and a 90% chance at losing 3 more.

Houlton has 1 Ground out and 15 Fly outs. That must be close to a record. Has anyone pitched at least 7 innings with all fly outs.

#240: Dictionary.com approves of me spitting on your Latin rules:

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=caveat

Woohoo!

239

Mr. Mountjoy, what have you done with bokonon42!

#239: Bread and Butter.

#236: Yeah, that really hacks me off. It became a noun when people started shortening the phrase "caveat emptor" or "the buyer should beware." It became a noun through improper usage.

RBI machine... that compels me to check and see that a certain juan encarnacion has 40 of them so far this year, and he plays in a pitcher's park! sounds good to me!!

244- I didn't finish. That Wilson/four prospect offer is contingent on the Rockies handing over Byung-Hyun Kim, too. He's a real impact player.

I don't think this 1 or 2 batter thing is working out well for Wunsch. He's giving up a lot of walks (that's his 14th in 21.2 IP).

hahah, impact player. you're talking about the impact of the bat hitting the ball when he pitches, right?

202 - John Boy died? A paid vacation day for everyone!

Boy, that'd make him squirm in his grave.

249. Wunsch has always walked way too many batters, but maybe that's him MO. One year he walked 25 and gave up 17 hits. He usually needs someone else to come to his rescue.

Dodger Bullpen if I got my way:

Closer: Erickson
Set-up: BH Kim
Short: Gio Carrara
Middle: Duaner
Long: Yhency

And he's nine million cheaper! Why didn't Tim Brown think of that?

#248: In all seriousness, I'd take a chance on Kim, especially if we're out of it. It's hard to remember that he's only 26 years old, and he's been doing reasonably well as a starter considering he pitches half his games at Coors.

#253: I like how you put Yhency as the long man. Nice touch :).

First six batters for the Padres tonight:

R
L
L
L
L
L

Wow.

We've been letting lot of quality starts go to waste lately. Just when we turn the pitching around our offense is almost nonexistent. Finally, we get more than 3 runs. Hope we can win this one.

#252: Yikes. I didn't check that. His 96 BBs in 174.2 IP is certainly not good.

How deep did Burroughs hit that fly ball?

One more inning. It sure is hard to get a win these days. Please Yhency give us 1 scoreless inning.

Yhency is all that stands between us and losing. Is too early to pine for Gagne?

2 hits for Choi. How long has it been since he got 2 hits in 1 game. Maybe we can score extra run to give Yhency a little breathing room in the 9th (Nady, Greene, PH). Nady and Greene have power so Yhency will have to be careful. Hope he doesn't walk them though.

an insurance run would be awfully nice.

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

I shall not fear

For I know my Choi is with me

Thusly

What was funny about that Choi single was the way the Padres were positioned. Jackson was way over toward 1B and Greene was way over toward 3B, leaving a huge hole up the middle, which was strange since Choi seems to hit the ball to center quite a bit.

So, on gameday it looks like Greene ran out to about 10 feet shy of the warning track to make that catch.

IF we can sweep SD, we will be right back in it. DJ got us off to good start. Let's not blow all the good pitching and hitting. Is 1 good inning too much to ask.

256- I was going to suggest making Yhency the LOOGy, but I thought that might be over the top.

See, Repko knew I was very very tired and cooperated by blowing through that at bat to get the ball to Ghame Over.

When is Alvarez coming back. He has been out for quite a while. At least we will have 2nd LH in the bullpen.

#267: Shades of Cora

Where's Erickson!

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

Being a little harsh on Provo canyon, aren't you, Steve?

This will be a very important win if we can hold on since Stauffer is probably their least effective starter.

#271: Not for a while. He just started throwing off of flat ground recently. I'd have to guess at least 3 weeks, probably 4 or 5, since he'll definitely need a rehab assignment. Besides, with Erickson in the pen, Alvarez will have the luxury of taking his time :).

Whew, we finally got the leadoff man out in the late inning. Yhency please throw strikes.

No, for I know my Choi is with me

Thusly

Yhency makes these games much too interesting.

#275: The Padres been throwing Darrell May out there while Eaton is on the DL. He's not very good. Their other option is Tim Redding, who is potentially worse than Erickson.

Yeah, he loves to spot the hitters 2 or 3 balls before going after them. At least so far he hasn't spotted them two or three baserunners before going after them.

276. When Perez comes back this week Depo better DFA Erickson but he might just send Osoria down to minors. If Depo keeps Erickson then we really know that there is something going on between Depo and Erickson.

The ever dangerous Damian Jackson standing between us and the win.

What happened? Suddenly Greene is on first?

Tonight was Thompson's first start in AAA. He didn't do too well, but considering it's the PCL, it wasn't too bad:

Thompson: 5 IP; 7 H; 3 R/ER; 2 BB; 5 K; 0 HR

The 51s are leading 8 - 3 in the 9th.

So far tonight Vin has called him Damian Jackson, Damon Jackson and Damian Johnson.

Um, my gameday seems to have gone nuts. Apparently Greene was both safe and out -- came to rest on out -- then there was a coaching visit ?? and now it's long frozen with Blum at the plate. Can someone please pass along some good news so I can go to my everlovin' bed.

i'll take it.

HEY! Now it changed back and Greene is safe. This is unjust in the extreme.

Meaning game over Vishal?

287. we won

Blum isn't batting well against RHP, but he likes to hit it at the 1b. Lets hope Choi's fielding holds up if tested.

What happened?

I really think if the Padres hadn't swung at anything this inning, they would have had a better shot at coming back. Stupid Hubris.

#276: Unfortunately, Perez won't be back until July 5th at the earliest. Since he didn't do so well in his last one, he's going to have another rehab start Thursday.

Well, gameday had it right, if prematurely, Sam. Greene was forced at second to end the game.

Gameday lost its mind, could anyone just copy and paste a rundown or something?

291 Thanks. Still wouldn't know it from gameday. G'night.

Bob isn't here, so I'll glady point out:

GHAME OVER!

Nevermind. My gameday was screwy as well. Go Dodgers. I like this winning thing.

What a good win tonight. Really needed this one. Maybe we can go on a 10 game winning streak. I can't remember a winning streak over 3 games since beginning of the season.

Hooray!

Vivat Choi!
Vivat Kent!
Vivat Houlton!

Ex nihilo, Victoria!

Gameday has it right now:

Nady grounds out.
Greene singles.
Blum pops out.
Jackson grounds into fielder's choice at second.

Thanks for all the info, Fearing Blue. I don't know where you get these info but I really enjoy the info during the games. It's much more enjoyable than listening to Steiner/Monday.

#302: bene fecit!

Good night on the farm as well, with Las Vegas, Vero Beach, and Columbus all winning. Jacksonville was the only loser tonight in the Dodgers system.

Impressive night for Steve Schmoll for Las Vegas. He pitched 2 perfect innings and struck out 4 to close out the win.

We won one for the Fiedler. He goes to meet his Choi.

RIP.

#304: I'm glad I was able to answer some questions instead of just posting random useless information. Keep firing away.

Stay-at-home dad = lots of free time.

Somebody needs to find some forks for Buddy Carlyle, Ryan Rupe, and Pat Mahomes. Buddy has given up 6 HRs in 29.0 IP. Ryan has given up 10 HRs in 49.2 IP. Pat has given up 17 HRs in 88 IP. Together, they are averaging a whopping 1.79 HR/9!

Went to the Suns game tonight.Here's my observations;
James Loney on his RBI single fought off some tough pitches from a hard throwing lefty.In the 9th he got great loft in his swing and just missed a tying homerun before striking out.This kid will be the Dodger first baseman for years
Laroche hits everything hard .He scares pitchers(How many Dodgers have done that lately?)
Delwyn Young is a decent second baseman and also hits the ball with authority.
Guzman looks good at the plate in this series going with pitches.He hit a hard sac fly ,a couple singles and an rbi double.
Not one for hype,but I could see these guys coming up together like Garvey,Lopes,Russell and Cey.They're that good.
Luis Gonzalez looked good in relief.Hanrahan I think is having location problems on his fastball.The homeruns he gave up were crushed.

Do you think that Depo has moved everyone to Jacksonville so they can all play together before they get their shots next year? I can see them playing out the year in Jacksonville and a number of them making the team out of Spring Training next year. Some of the pitchers might even make it this year if the Dodgers make a run for the pennant.

Another Suns note.I want to separate.My youngest son ,a fledgling Dodger fan lost his Little League allstar game,but his night turned around as he got a ball in the stands and nearly all the Suns signed it.Laroche and Loney were very personable as were others.
My old dude Dodger night was made as I chatted with Steve Yeager for a few minutes and Ken Howell .Yeager is a crusty old baseball guy.It was fun.I'm going to the series finale tomorrow.

Thanks for the Suns updates Bill--great stuff.

On the Dodgers' official webpage, somebody named Sarah Morris is parroting the Google-boy characterization of DePo.

http://tinyurl.com/a8t9s

Is this a don't-throw-me-in-the-briar-patch thing? Convincing the witch-burning moneyball-fearers, "Really, can skin DePo; go ahead, give it a try"? I've never seen a critical MLB.com article; have I just not been paying attention?

Watched some of the game tonight when I had a chance, but wasn't available to post during the game. A few comments about the game.

1. Houlton pitched well after his shaky start, easily beating the 5 2/3 over/under line.

2. Umpire seemed to be giving alot of high strikes. Must've been three or four batters who turned around to talk to the umpire after some of the high strike calls. Atleast the home plate ump was consistently bad.

3. Always nice to win the first game against a team you are chasing in the standings. With two games left in the series, the series can end with the Dodgers either 7.5, 5.5 or 3.5 games out of first place.

4. What a big difference having Drew and Kent in the lineup made tonight. I'm sure Vic "The D$ck" Jacobs is furious that Drew could play tonight but wasn't able to atleast pinch hit during the freeway series.

5. NBA draft along with having a softball game tomorrow night, so might have my attention elsewhere besides the Dodger game.

vr, Xei

You don't know about Sarah, Bokonon? She's a longtime Dodger fan who writes about the Dodgers at Sarah's Place.

Bill Plascke did a long interview about her several years ago regarding her Dodger Fandom and her battle with MS.

314. Thanks for the article link. I fired off an email to Sarah asking her to define team chemistry and how it translates to wins on the ball field. Hope I get a response.
vr, Xei

316- Had no idea who she is. Just found her website. Anybody whose hero is Roy Campanella can't be all bad. . .

Please be nice. Sarah isn't just another blogger-type. It's worth is to pay a visit to her site.

hey bill cox, how about guzmans defense? do you think he can stay at SS when he reaches the majors and be at least as good as jeter lol?

The reference to the Plascke article wasn't meant as a jibe, OZ...I mentioned it because that was how I first heard of her.

She does not like her her site referred to as a blog, BTW.

Oops, guess you were referring to Bokonon's first post...

It was dumb to assume she was an MLB staff writer, since it says she isn't right at the bottom of the article. Like I said, I don't remember ever seeing a critical MLB.com piece.

Conspiracy theory revoked. I'm reading through her opinion articles right now.

All I can say is, I picked the right two weeks to spend out in the middle of nowhere.

They'll start winning again as soon as I get home and start watching games, I hope...

It's a standing gig, though. She writes a weekly article during the season, and a monthly one, during the offseason, for the website. The Plaschke article JH cited was a major professional break for her.

http://www.dodgerplace.com/biography.htm

IIRC, she contacted him and told him he was an idiot for wanting to re-sign Charles Johnson.

Indeed.

I guess I picked the right day to be stuck on an airplane for over 12 1/2 hours.

It's Tuesday evening here.

Ugh.

326- Just so. And she had to type with her cheek, using a special set-up. That's devotion. How much effort has anybody here expended in calling Plaschke names?

Well, I don't know, Bob just logged in from over 9,000 miles away so that he could call Plaschke names. That's pretty devoted.

So. I guess that wasn't Bob arrested at the security checkpoint for wearing mismatched socks after all...

I stayed up in the hopes the Dodgers would hold on to this one... I was not disappointed.

I am wearing my "Ghame Over" shirt today.

Nate,
Guzman's defense is very good.He has very good range.He got to one hard hit ball up the middle that I thought was a hit.He made a throwing error I missed because I got there late.He's not Izzy,but if he hits .300 with 30 homeruns we can live without Izzy's D.
I love Loney's play at first .He gets to everything,knocks down alot of shots down the line.Compared to twinkle toes Choi he would be a joy to watch.
I asked Guzman if he was going to stay at short.His reply was "We'll see"
Broxton pitched last night and gave up a run,but he's something to watch.His lower body is huge which ought to project to being an overpowering power pitcher.