I agree about Weaver. There is no way Weaver signs before the end of the season. I can't see Boras allowing that to happen.

But Good News!
According to
http://riot.ieor.berkeley.edu/~baseball/national_league.html
if the Dodgers win 77 of their next 78 games they will win the NL West!

"Your method of choosing the wild card would be really hard for people to keep track of."

Well, it would just take AP dispatching the leading division news, which figures not to be too difficult and perhaps will be well-established by September.

"There is also the problem of not all the divisions in each league having the same number of teams."

-- currently a problem with division races, but no one seems to mind.

2 - "But I would imagine that would take some of the excitement out of the wild card race, so I don't think MLB would go that route. "

This is probably the bigger problem.

Serves two purpose.
1. Even more pennant race excitement. (Arguably.)
2. It will make it harder for a WC team to win a WS since they will have inverted their pitching rotations in order to win the Wild Card series.

I think it's too easy for a good Wild Card team - usually a team that's added a solid #1 or #2 starter - to defeat the league's best-record team.

You would run the problem of penalizing a good team that's in a division where one of the tailenders throws up the white flag and has a fire sale.

Yeah - that's true. Although if you're fattening up against that team, which was bad enough to want to have a fire sale in the first place, you have that advantage, which is sort of the whole point of the idea.

July 7, 1928

On a sweltering Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field over 35,000 people watched Brooklyn and Chicago split a doubleheader. The Dodgers won the first game, 5-3, thanks in part to a homer from Del Bissonette, but the Cubs took the second, 6-2, in just 100 minutes as the two teams seemed eager to cool off.

The first game was a matchup between Brooklyn's Buzz McWeeny and Chicago's Sheriff Blake. The Cubs had the lead early on a 2-run homer by Hack Wilson in the fourth, his 24th of the season. Brooklyn made it 2-1 in the fifth when Babe Herman singled in Max Carey.

Brooklyn then got three straight singles from McWeeny, Carey, and Harvey Hendrick to tie the game at 2-2. Charlie Root relieved and gave up a sacrifice fly to Herman to make it 3-2 and Bissonette followed with his homer to make it 5-2.

McWeeny was gassed after running the bases and Rube Erhardt relieved, who walked one batter and was taken out by manager Wilbert Robinson in favor of Watty Clark. Clark gave up two singles, the last one to Woody English scoring a run to make it 5-3. Not taking any more chances, Robinson brought in his ace starter, Dazzy Vance, to relieve and he got out of the inning and finished up the game, giving up just one hit over three innings.

In the second game, Brooklyn started rotund Jumbo Elliott (6'3", 235 officially, but he wasn't called Jumbo for nothing) against Art Nehf (who was around 170 lbs). Elliott gave up seven hits and four walks, but had to go the distance as the Brooklyn pitching staff was depleted. Elliott gave up two runs in the first and three in the fifth. Jake Flowers drove in both Brooklyn runs.

With the split, Brooklyn was 39-35 and 7 games behind first place St. Louis and in fifth place. Brooklyn would finish 77-76, 17 ½ games behind the Cardinals and in sixth place.

If there had been a Rookie of the Year award in 1928, Bissonette would have been an easy winner. He batted .320 with 25 home runs and 106 RBI and played in all 155 of the Dodgers games. Bissonette held the Dodger franchise record for home runs by a rookie until Mike Piazza broke it in 1993. Injuries kept Bissonette from ever having a year better than 1928. He played four full seasons and a part of a fifth, before ending his major league career in 1933.

The Dodgers had a strong lineup with Bissonette at first and Herman in right field. Carey, toward the end of a Hall of Fame career, patrolled center fielder. Future Hall of Famer Dave Bancroft was at shortstop, although his best years were behind him also. Pacific Coast League hero Jigger Statz, got his last chance in the majors with the Dodgers, but made it into just 77 games and batted .234 with no home runs. Hall of Fame manager Al Lopez made his big league debut in 1928 for the Dodgers, playing in 3 games at the end of the year at the age of 19.

Vance turned in a superlative year on the mound. He went 22-10 with a 2.09 ERA, lowest in the league. Vance had an ERA+ (ERA adjusted for league average and park effects) of 191, the best in Dodgers franchise history. The NL ERA was 3.99 in 1928. McWeeny went 14-14 with a 3.17 ERA. Brooklyn used just nine pitchers all year.

Thanks to the New York Times, BaseballReference.com and Retrosheet

And I don't like thinking of Grand Funk Railroad...

Of course, under this scenario the Dodgers would have to out-perform more teams from this point forward in order to get the 3rd or 4th spot...

The wild, shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner...the bone-crushing bass of Mel Schacher...the competent drum work of Don Brewer...

No disrespect to the Dodgers meant.

#17,
HWSNBN will preach against that with a passion.

The NL East would have to really go south for any NL West team to get into the wild card spot. Only Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati have losing records against the NL West.

That is all.

Grand Funk "Closer to Home" was one of my early favorite albums but I must admit my recollections were a bit colored by certain mind altering substances. Years later I've replayed the CD and only the song "I'm your Captain" still strikes a strong chord.

The Brewers have outscored their opponents by 20 runs! And they have the exact same record as the Dodgers.

We all came out to Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile - We didn't have much time
Frank Zappa & the Mothers were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground

Smoke on the water - A fire in the sky
Smoke on the water

They burned down the gambling house - It died with an awful sound
Funky & Claude was running in and out, pulling kids out of the ground
When it all was over, we had to find another place
Swiss time was running out - It seemed that we would lose the race

Smoke on the water - A fire in the sky
Smoke on the water

We ended up at the Grand Hotel - It was empty, cold and bare
But with the Rolling Truck Stones Thing just outside making our music there
With a few red lights an' a few old beds, we made a place to sweat
No matter what we get out of this, I know... I know we'll never forget

Smoke on the water - A fire in the sky
Smoke on the water

There are only 5 teams in the NL that have outscored their opponents? The rest of the league hovers in mediocrity.

Are nearly all of the teams still within their Pythagorean projections?

So I'm watching "The Shining" that I had recorded last night. Scatman Crothers character is coming back to the hotel and there is creepy music.

Then I notice that a lamp I had turned out has just started to go on without me turning the switch.

Turns out that my cat had peed on the switch and got it stuck in the "on" position. It was a floor switch.

I'm buying a new switch today.

GFR loses points for "Locomotion".

uhh uhh anhhh/ uh uh ah-ahhn/uhh uhh anhhh/anh uh uhhhhh...

The Dodgers are +1

Baseball is not like hockey or basketball, where the best team usually comes out of a 7 game series.

Also, has anyone been watching the A's lately? They had injury problems early in the year and were forced to play youngsters, but they're getting people back and are incredibly hot now. We get bradley, Kent, and izturis back and we might be able to go on a streak of our own. To only be 4.5 back right now is a miracle.

Part of the problem with decreasing value of games within your own division is that most of September's games are within your own division. Thus, the games that are devalued are the games that are usually coming at the most interesting time of the year.

Good news on Ledee and Bradley. Maybe help is on the way.

I don't know, but we fans can always use a new person to say mean things about.

They really didn't have a suitable backup for Renteria. They used Ramon Vazquez earlier in the year and he looked really bad in the field.

#52,
I would think Jay Payton is better than the 4-headed monster of Ross, Repko, Grabowski, and Edwards.

My favorite thing about Montreux: its beauty.

My second favorite thing about Montreux: Chateau de Chillon.

My third favorite thing about Montreux: the statue of Freddy Mercury.

He had a good 2003 in Colorado (.866 OPS), and a lousy 2004 in SD (.693 OPS). I wonder what explains that?

Hope Lowe starts pitching better (at least worth his contract) since we're really going to need great pitching rest of the season if we want to stay in the race.

Billy Wagner is replacing Pedro Martinez. Pedro isn't hurt, but he is starting Sunday and didn't feel he should go if he couldn't pitch.

Jimmy Rollins is taking Cesar Izturis's place.

The Baseball Cube says he weighs 215 lbs.

I'm going with the latter.

Didn't they play day games after night games in the past.

How did all those old timers play all those games without resting on the day games following night games.

Tracy still seems comfortable batting Repko second against lefties, but no longer against righties. All the talk about it being unfair to bat a rookie in the No. 8 slot has faded, though.

I'm around 210 now and I've been around 230 before.

I think went from 170 to about 225 in about three months after grad school whne I moved in with my parents and rediscovered the concept of unlimited food.

Just for fun, here are this year's Defensive Rates for our starting lineup:

C: Mike Rose (50 Rate2 in 7 games)
1B: Olmedo Saenz (80 Rate2 in 32 games)
2B: Antonio Perez (84 Rate2 in 9 games)
SS: Oscar Robles (100 Rate2 in 11 games)
3B: Mike Edwards (83 Rate2 in 23 games)
LF: Jayson Werth (100 Rate2 in 26 games)
CF: Jason Repko (113 Rate2 in 13 games)
RF: Cody Ross (121 Rate2 in 7 games)
P: Derek Lowe (122 Rate2 in 18 games)

It looks like our outfield is actually pretty good, which should really benefit Derek Lowe... sigh.

I'm 5-10 160, and I've always been a walking pipecleaner.

Don Brewer was an exceptional drummer. After Bob Seger fired the original Silver Bullet Band (he waited till they made some big bucks, then replaced them with more versatile instrumentalists), Brewer becamehis drummer. No idea if he still played the snare drum with his head during solos.

Molokai and Nagman are correcton the GFR's high and lowpoints, IMO.

Bob, Jack Torrance appearing in the photograph at the end just meant he had joined the `permanent' staff of the hotel. Remember Grady the bartender (also a previous caretaker, and father of the two little girls who he murdered) said to Torrance "...you've always been here" ?

Also, a good idea to avoid the remake, which King himself produced. The kid who plays Danny in that is horribly annoying...

I endorse Costas' proposal in "Fair Ball": Ditch the Wildcard, and give the team in each league with the best season records a first-round bye (into their respective LCSs). This'd be a truly valuable reward for an excellent regular season. The current reward (home field advantage in the LCS) is pretty weak.

And down with Interleague Play! It ruins the novelty of the All Star Game and the Fall Classic!

But I go on.

My only exposure to "The Shining" before was watching "The Simpsons" version. Grady was the old caretaker. The old bartender was Lloyd and he was played by Joe Turkel who was also in "Paths of Glory".

The shots of the little kid riding around on his tricycle through the hotel were a lot like the shots going through the trenches at the start of "Paths of Glory".

I've long since recovered.

We can still hop back into the Weaver lottery this winter.

I know it's a stupid idea, but I figure "sell high", right?

Totally agree about Saenz.

Think, we were interested in getting Kennedy. Good thing, common sense intervened.

I know why. Though our VORP may be in the negatives, our Scrap Over Replacement Player is at an all-time high.

That's some mighty bad pitching.

Alma mater of former great major leaguers like Vic Darensbourg.

Westchester does a lot better in sports that involve larger leather covered spheres.

Not to jumping on the Scrappy Bandwagon, but if and when our regulars get healthy, we are suddenly going to have a very deep bench. That which doesn't kill you, and all that.

25 pitches total so far, 20 for strikes.

He's not as sanctimonious as Plaschke.

I thought I did a fine job interviewing him too. I do miss me.

Pall Malls were his vice.

What a terrible call. Bad umpires finally give us one at second. With Lowe pitching too.

What happened to the Cora-Izturis combo of yesterday? Now they're fielding like Offerman and Reed.

Hope Lowe has enough composure to get out of this inning without too much damage.

very distinctive personalities covers up my random posts.

I'm taking credit for Robles resurgence. I posted that I never wanted to see him in a starting lineup again, and he goes on a tear.

Repko's 4-4?

For more information on Grand Funk, consult your local school library!"

But look in the 780s somewhere. That's music.

The local announcers said Helton put in the third deck... I saw MB do it last year from right behind home plate and I had to pick my jaw up off the ground.

In my dreams, Jon replaces Plascke at the Times & Ross replaces Jim Tracy, but is always mic'd for TV/Radio comments ;)

From July 25 to July 28, Year of our Choi 2005, the Dodgers will be
playing host to the Cincinnatti Reds. I propose that we make one of those
nights a "Dodger Thoughts Adam Dunn Scouting Excursion." Actually, Icaros
proposed this but I'm stealing his idea.

Here's how this is going to work.

1) Starting today, we're going to have a vote on which of the four games
to attend. You can vote via-email at claytonl@ucla.edu. Please enter
"Dodgers vs. Reds vote" in the subject field and in the message, enter
the game you think we should all attend. Jon Weisman's vote, should he
choose to attend, will carry a lot of weight. Voting ends midnight Friday
(tomorrow).

2) Saturday morning, all who responded will get a mass e-mail from me
announcing the winning date with instructions on what you should do next.
Those instructions will read like this:

"Hi. It's me, Suffering Bruin, and by vote we've decided to make the
Dodger Thoughts Adam Dunn Scouting Excursion for (winning date). If
you want to attend this game, you must respond to this e-mail by 12pm
Sunday. That's tomorrow so don't delay! I plan on purchasing Reserved
Level seats for the game on Sunday afternoon; you can reimburse me at the
gate. You'll be responsible for getting to the game though I'll be
borrowing a mini-van and I'm happy to arrange a carpool. Thanks for your
support of the Dodger Thoughts Adam Dunn Scouting Excursion."

3) Those who decide to attend will get a confirmation e-mail from yours
truly that I have purchased a Reserved Level seat for the game.

Icaros and I will most certainly be attending but more are invited. Let
me know folks. Our team needs not just any Dodger fan but the people who
spend way, way, WAY too much time thinking about them. As if we'd have it
any other way, right?

I'll look forward to your e-mails.

Best,

Suffering Bruin

"Our father, who art in Choi, hallowed be thy name. Forgive us our
thoughts about Tracy, as we forgive Tracy who trespasses against us..."

I mean, wtf...

Too bad Derek Thompson isn't out there...

Quite the buzzkill.

It is. it also relases me from thinking they still have a chance this year. thank you, Fate. I've been such a fool.

Sanchez? Brazoban? Erickson?

Well, that might be in our book, right next to the paragraph about the plan to get out of Derek Lowe's last three contract years.

I hope many of you can attend the Scouting Excursion.

i want to go to the adam dunn droolfest! he better not get traded to another team before then.

FYI, Wunsch appears in the box score on gameday.

For those keeping score at home.

Mmmm.

Because Dessens should be our 7th inning guy. He's our best reliever.

Any questions why he wasnt brought in instead of Gio Carrara or Osoria?

355 - Certainly, they have a phone or some such.

This was just one of those things.

That is pretty funny that the bullpen coach was waving his arms about not pulling him...

Ehhh... At this point you just laugh about the season, and keep hope alive that were 5 games back by the time we get back our team.

This might be the final straw, at least in my eyes...should have won this one...

and now Wunsch is hurt?

if somehow we manage to win this division, weak as it is, we will all say in unison "There is a Choi"

Translation: When the team sucks, always look for the human interest stories.

I was hoping for a human interest story more along these lines:

"Vin Scully so eloquently describing the MLB debut of LHP Ryan Ketchner, before a sell out crowd of 55,000 that he can see, feel, but not hear"

Maybe next year?

LAT, do you think they'll let me bring a sketchbook?

388 - I'm planning on playing the part of a mysterious, grizzled, American expatriate.

393 I assumed Bob's 8 LOB figure was based on innings not batter. Which way is it typically calculated? By innings or batter? Does Yahoo do it wrong? (Fearing Blue would be all over this if he were here.)

Really, throughout Dodger history, the team's been pretty bad more than it has been pretty good. The 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s were anomalies. Since '88, it's been all regression toward the mean.

So we can be the lovable losers for awhile. Ask the wealthy ex-owners of the Red Sox and Cubs. It's great for merchandising and practially guarantees sellouts.

We need a background myth. It all started the day the Dodgers...

The LOB next to the batters name are the ones that each batter left on after an AB. The different sites compute them differently. Normally the batter will be credited with runners LOB if he makes an out (except for a sacrifice or sacrifice fly) and there are runners left on or if one of them gets erased in a DP.

Houlton vs. Clemens tomorrow night.

Yeeha!

Maybe we can blame former Mayor Richard Riordan. When Riordan demanded that Peter O'Malley to back off his idea of putting an NFL stadium in Chavez Ravine, that led O'Malley to sell the team. Without access to NFL revenues, O'Malley didn't see how he could afford to keep the Dodgers competitive. O'Malley led to Fox, which led to trading Piazza, which led to Kevin Malone, which led to...

http://6-4-2.blogspot.com/2005/04/are-cubs-fans-fed-up-with-dusty.html

Las Vegas 51s (AAA):
The 51s beat Fresno 8 - 3.

Las Vegas hit 4 homeruns en route to their third win in the four game series. Left fielder Henri Stanley went 2 for 5 with 2 solo homeruns. First baseman Brian Myrow went 2 for 4 with a double, a homerun, 2 runs scored, and 3 RBIs. Right fielder Tony Schrager went 2 for 4 with a homerun and 3 RBIs. Stanley and Myrow are two of the best hitters on the Suns, with .288/.361/.527 and .289/.404/.534 batting lines respectively. The other top hitter on the team is third baseman Norihiro Nakamura. Nakamura went 0 for 3 with a walk and a run scored in the game. On the season, Nakamura is batting .277/.343/.554. If the decimation of the major league roster continues, any of them could be called on to contribute. Second baseman Willy Aybar went 1 for 4 with a run scored. Dioner Navarro did not play.

Starting pitcher Ryan Rupe got a no-decision after allowing 3 runs (all earned) in 4.1 innings. Thomas Nall, a 24-year old right-hander, recorded the win with 4.2 innings of scoreless relief. Nall allowed 3 baserunners (2 hits and a walk) and struck out 3.

Jacksonville Suns (AA):
In the conclusion of July 5th's suspended game, Jacksonville beat Mobile 6 - 5.

The Suns added 2 runs immediately after the game resumed in the 6th inning. Catcher Russel Martin drove in the second run with a double. Through the final three innings, the Suns were held scoreless on 1 hit, but the pitchers made the lead stick.

Joel Hanrahan started the resumed game and pitched 3 innings, allowing 1 run (earned) on 3 hits and a walk, while striking out 3. Closer Jonathan Broxton pitched a scoreless 9th for the save. Broxton allowed 1 hit while striking out 2.

In the second game, Jacksonville beat Mobile 5 - 1.

The bats warmed up in the second game of the night, leading to 13 hits overall with 5 doubles. Center fielder Jon Weber set the table, going 3 for 5 with 2 doubles and 2 runs scored. Weber, a 27-year old left-handed outfielder, will be the starting center fielder for the Southern League All-Star game. At 27 years old, Weber is one of the better hitters on the team with a .322/.379/.513 batting line. With the recent promotion of right-fielder Justin Ruggiano, Weber and left-fielder Tydus Meadows are now only two non-prospects in the Suns regular fielding lineup. Meadows is also crushing the ball, leading team regulars with a .942 OPS. Third baseman Andy LaRoche has a 1.068 OPS, but he's only had 70 ABs with the Suns. LaRoche went 3 for 4 with a run scored in the game. Second baseman Delwyn Young and first baseman James Loney each went 2 for 4 with a double and 2 RBIs. Shortstop Joel Guzman went 1 for 4 with a double and 2 strikeouts. Guzman has been struggling at the plate this week after coming off a hot stretch the past couple weeks. Overall, Guzman is doing fine with a .284/.352/.500 batting line in 292 ABs. Somewhat surprisingly, catcher Russell Martin has a better OPS than Guzman (.879 vs. .852), though in the game, Martin went 0 for 4 with a strikeout. In his first game with the Suns, right fielder Justin Ruggiano went 2 for 4 with a solo homerun. Though Ruggiano is a little old for AA at 23, his pace through the minors has been impressive. Ruggiano was drafted in the 25th round of the 2004 draft out of Texas A&M University and has subsequently gone through Rookie Ball, High-A, and now into AA in just over a year.

Chad Billingsley had another impressive start, tossing 5 scoreless innings. Billingsley allowed 5 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 9. The defense wasn't much help as Guzman made 2 errors on the night (1 fielding and 1 throwing). Though Billingsley was often in trouble, he was able to reach back for a little extra on his fastball when he needed it. Carlos Alvarez pitched one perfect inning of relief, striking out 2. In hist first 5.1 innings of relief with the Suns, Alvarez has struck out 9 and walked just 1. Alvarez, an over-powering left-handed reliever, was signed as an amateur free agent in 2003 and is just 20 years old. Luis Gonzalez finished the game with 2 innings of relief for the save, allowing 1 hit and striking out 3. Gonzalez is a 22-year old left-handed reliever who has taken a more leisurely route through the system after being signed in the 11th round of the 2001 draft. Even with Kuo out, the Suns bullpen is very impressive with the back-end combination of Carlos Alvarez, Luis Gonzalez, and Jonathan Broxton.

Vero Beach Dodgers (High-A):
The Dodgers lost 5 - 4 to Sarasota.

The Dodgers scattered 12 singles over the course of the night with no walks or extra-base hits, leaving 7 men on base. Shortstop Chin-lung Hu was responsible for 1/3rd of the hits, going 4 for 5 with a run scored and an RBI. Second baseman Tony Abreu, right fielder Anthony Raglani, center fielder Matt Kemp, and first baseman Cory Dunlap each contributed a hit as well.

Starter Brian Pilkington took the loss, allowing 5 runs (2 earned) on 7 hits and 2 walks in 5.1 innings, while striking out 4. Pilkington, a 2nd round draft pick in 2001, is not overpowering but has good control, striking out 33 and allowing 7 walks in 50.2 innings on the season. Within the Vero Beach rotation, Charles Tiffany and Julio Pimentel are both better prospects. Matt Merricks pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless relief, allowing 1 hit while striking out 4. Prior to this season, Merricks, a 22-year old lefty, was primarily used as a starter. Since rejoining the Dodgers from Colorado, Merricks has been used solely as a reliever, pitching 7.2 innings in 4 games, striking out 11, walking 2, and allowing 2 homeruns.

Columbus Catfish (Low-A):
The Catfish game against Hickory was cancelled due to rain.

Ogden Raptors (Rookie):
The Raptors beat Idaho Falls 7 - 4.

Right fielder Sergio Pedroza and catcher Juan Apodaca did most of the damage, driving in 5 of the 7 runs for the Raptors. Pedroza went 1 for 3 with a double, a run scored, and 3 RBIs. Apodaca went 1 for 3 with a walk and a 2 run homerun. Shorstop Jesus Soto and left fielder Andrew Locke added solo homeruns to account for the Raptors other two runs. Perhaps more impressive, Soto also drew a walk, just his 3rd on the season. Soto was signed as an amateur free agent in 2003, and is repeating the Rookie league after playing last year for the GCL Dodgers. Locke was the Dodgers 19th round draft pick this year out of Boston College. In 13 ABs with the Raptors, Locke is hitting .231/.231/.462.

Starting pitcher Cody White got the win, allowing 4 runs (2 earned) in 5 innings pitched. Jonathan Meloan got the save, pitching a scoreless 9th inning, walking 1 and striking out 2. In 4 innings of relief with the Raptors Meloan has struck out 8 and given up 2 walks.

GCL Dodgers (Rookie):
The Dodgers beat the Marlins 5 - 2.

Left fielder Carlos Santana went 1 for 3 with 2 walks and 3 runs scored (.444/.500/.611). Third baseman Eduardo Perez went 2 for 4 with a double, an RBI, and 2 runs scored (.375/.487/.531). First baseman, Adolfo Gonzalez went 4 for 4 with a double and 4 RBIs (.412/.429/.559). Through 9 games, switch-hitting Gonzalez's slugging and on-base percentage have been propped up by his batting average, which likely won't be maintained. Fourth round pick, designated-hitter Josh Bell, went 0 for 2, but drew 2 walks (.297/.333/.324). Second round pick, shortstop Ivan DeJesus continued to struggle at the plate, going 0 for 5 (.222/.263/.250).

Starting pitcher, Ramon Paredes, pitched a solid 5 innings, allowing 2 runs (both earned) on 7 hits and no walks, while striking out 7. Gary Paris and Miguel Ramirez pitched 4 scoreless innings to hold onto the win. Neither Paris or Ramirez pitched very well, allowing a combined 7 baserunners.