Didn't I read that Perez was hit in the facve by a ball, either a pitch or a line drive?

Perez got hit by a pitch in the face during winter ball.

Washington is famous for helping guys become better fielders. Hopefully he'll help Perez. If he becomes an above average fielder it'll guarantee him a fairly long career in the majors.

I like the new "What will you take home?" Dodger TV ads. They're much better than the lousy bobblehead family from previous seasons.

Is there any doubt that Bradley and Perez are currently worth more than Ethier?

The Diamondbacks just acquired Juan Cruz from the A's for Brad Halsey. I can't really understand this from the A's perspective, as their rotation and bullpen is already pretty full without Halsey. The DBacks get a nice arm, albeit one that can never reach his potential.

6 Maybe it's just two teams exchanging problem children...

Does anyone know if this thing that Little is doing (holding Perez back so the Braves don't get a look at him) is common practice in spring training? Part of me thinks it's a smart move, even if it's only a mind game, especially since Perez seems to have lots of mental issues. But, my skeptical side wonders if the Dodger's braintrust has so little confidence in our team that they think this tiny bit of advantage will be necessary.

6 Hey, any trade in which pitchers that are known to break JD Drew's wrist leave the league are good trades for the Dodgers.

6 It's a common fallacy that Halsey's pitch broke Drew's wrist. In fact, the pitch never could have reached Drew's wrist. Since a pitch thrown toward Drew's wrist first has to cover half the distance, and then half the remainder, and then half the remainder after that, and so on ad infinitum, the result was that though the pitch was always approaching Drew's wrist, it never quite got there, and J.D. Drew's wrist broke because he's "injury-prone."

(With apologies to Tom Stoppard and Zeno.)

An unexpected benefit of UCLA making the Final Four is that we will be spared Bill Plaschke's complaints about the Dodgers and Angels until a week into the season.

11 But, what is one week subtracted from infinite pain?

10

Nice.

Perez may never be a star, but it seems most likely that he'll continue to be a valuable reserve at a minimum

Better than Ramon Martinez?
Better than Jason Repko?
Better than Oscar Robles?
Better than, dare I say, Alex Cora?
Better than, dare I say, Cesar Izturis?

Indeed.

14 Perez was let go because there was only room for 5 middle infielders on the roster.

Isn't George Mason having the home court advantage in Washington D.C., a little like saying that if Cal State Northridge were in the Elite Eight and the game was at Staples Center, the Matadors would have home court advantage.

Or are George Mason alums a little more proud of their school?

Would Plaschke dare complain about the Dodgers now that they've pretty much followed his roadmap for success?

Fire DePodesta -- check
Dump Bradley -- check
Dump Choi -- check
"Chemistry guys" -- Kenny Lofton, check
"Been there" guys -- Alomar, Nomar, check

What'd McCourt and Colletti miss?

Perez was let go because there was only room for 5 middle infielders on the roster

The Dodgers may be the only team in the majors without a natural 1st basemen on the roster.

18

I don't mean this to sound like I'm picking on oldbear, but I've always wondered about using the word "natural" in terms of describing a player's defensive position.

How can any position be natural to anybody? It's not like when humans were in a hunting/gathering stage that some people were good at scooping up low animals off the ground. Or other people knew how to turn the pivot while throwing a piece of deer meat from Og to Alley Oop.

There are positions which certain players are better suited to playing because of their skill set or handedness. But nothing is natural.

Such ends my pet peeve for Sunday. Until I hear an announcer talk about the "differential" between the game clock and shot clock.

but I've always wondered about using the word "natural" in terms of describing a player's defensive position.

A position in which one has at least 2-5yrs of experience playing regularly at, be it in the minors or majors.

So Manny Ramirez is a natural left fielder?

20 So the proper word would be "trained" or "experienced." But the word "natural" is thrown around to mean the same thing in baseball terms.

The word "natural" meaning something other than the pure state of nature is used in the same way as it's used in baseball in other contexts. "Natural law," for example. Even the idea of "nature" is a human construct.

The other factor is the left-to-right idea I've seen on this site. If I recall correctly, first base is all the way to the right (or is it left), implying that of all nine positions on the field, it's the easiest (which is why I usually played it). So, by definition, if someone is good enough to be on a major league baseball team, they could probably play first base.

Rick Monday said that houlton has developed a changeup which led to his good outing today.

Did anyone watch the game today, if it was even on t.v. in the L.A. area, and if so, did anyone noitice a difference in houlton.

Also Rick Monday said there were scouts at the game today.

17 You assume that Plaschke lives in a world where logical coherance is important.

The defensive spectrum as developed by Bill James was presented with SS on the left and 1B on the right.

Catcher is not on it.

During baseball's early days, first base was the position for one of the best fielders. Since you weren't using gloves, it was good to have someone with good hands to catch throws at first base. Even in the Deadball Era, first basemen were still being considered for their gloves more than their bat.

The state of nature is nasty, brutish and full of shortstops.

Just judging from the box score Houlton pitched well. 3ip 1r 0bb's 5k's. Only bad thing was a solo HR by Adam LaRoche.

16
Seems obvious to me that GMU has home field advantage. You don't think that Northridge would have 20,000 fans rooting for it if the game was at Staples even if only 200 people at the game actually attended the school?

Add to 23

Actually i just looked at the box score
3 innings 2 hits 1 hr 0 walks 5 k's

Alot of k's, but a mistake(1 hr)

I only listened to the last inning, i slept in today.

I turned the game on, and heard Vin say that Sele was pitching, so I couldn't stand to watch any more.

DJ looked good today but it wasn't exactly the A lineup for Atlanta. The Jones boys stayed home. Gagne looked terrible.
1st batter - rocket down the line that Nomar made a sweet play on for the out.
2nd batter - rocket to left field that Cruz misplayed into a double but it was smoked
3rd batter - line drive up the middle
4th batter - line drive to Cruz
5th batter - struck out the pitcher

30

Thanks for the info.

What's up with the scouts at the game, rick monday said there were scouts there.

27

Aside from UCLA, the only other Southern California teams to make it to the Elite Eight in recent years have been:
Cal State Long Beach (and they had to play UCLA both times)
Cal State Fullerton (they were playing in Albuquerque, lost to Arkansas)
USC (they were playing on the East Coast, and lost to Duke)
Loyola Marymount (lost to UNLV in Oakland)

I wouldn't mind seeing what 20,000 people rooting for CSUN or UCI or Pepperdine would sound like.

George Mason can't have that many alums. The school didn't open until 1972. CSUN opened in 1958.

"Recent" being defined as "I remember it".

From dodgers.com

Up next: Brett Tomko starts for the Dodgers against the Mets on Monday -- followed by Lance Carter, Yhency Brazoban, Tim Hamulack and Kelly Wunsch

Looks like the dodgers are trying to figure out which lefty specialist will make the team.
I think that's about the only spot up for grabs right now.
I think robles is temporary untill seo goes back to the rotation, then osoria gets called up sending robles down.

Bullpen
gagne
baez
brazoban
kuo
carter
wunsch or hamulack
seo temporary then osoria expanding from 11 pitchers to 12

23.

Houlton was very impressive. He just set the hitters down, they couldn't catch up to his fastball.

29 Vin is so good, I can't tell from your sentence whether you turned on the TV, radio, or Internet. When Vin announces on the radio I still feel like I am "watching" the game.

34.

Tell you what, I'd rather see Osoria than Kuo, and make Kuo a starter at AAA. I just think Kuo can be an ace pitcher if he can stay healthy.

37

That's a good point.

Good starting pitching is a hot comodity, its extremely hard to get an "ace" starting pitcher.

His health is the only issue.

The state of nature is nasty, brutish and full of shortstops

Is that the Roy Hobbs postulate?

There's going to be a bunch of commercials in the George Mason-UConn game. They missed one TV timeout so they will have them at the next two dead balls.

39

The Dodgers are going to suit up a leviathan at first base.

40
This tournament must be setting all-time records for timeouts and commercials. I'm not even watching anymore: it's too annoying.

There will be another TV timeout after the next dead ball too. The timeout at 2:51 was the 8 minute timeout.

Also in the NCAA tournament, the first timeout called in each half by a team becomes TV timeout length even if it's called a 30-second timeout.

what makes anyone think that kuo has the physical ability to be a starting pitcher?

the guys had 2 TJ surgeries, his elbow can die at any moment. Better to get as much possible innings out of him right now as we can because that elbow will probably blow soon.

i slept in too, so i didnt see the game.

Selfishly, I want George Mason to hold on because I think that would make the UCLA-LSU game the second one Saturday and I would be able to see most of it instead of being stuck at work.

46
Because, of course, you never watch sports while at work...

I don't have a TV at work!

Following on the internet for basketball is a less than satisfactory substitute.

Baseball is the only sport that lends itself well to play-by-play descriptions in text format.

Wow.

UConn will not lose again this season.

Like I said the other day: I feel like it has been ordained that I win my pool. Every game is working out in my favor, against all odds.

UConn is the luckiest team in America. So many games they should have lost. One more free throw is all it took.

A Big East team has never beaten a CAA team in the NCAA tournament. The CAA is 3-0 in all previous matchups.

But they haven't met since 1995 when Old Dominion beat Villanova.

Is George Mason considered a commuter school?

Answering my own question, George Mason is not a commuter school. It has dorms.

[55] uci has dorms too, what's your point?

I thought George Mason was strictly commuter.

It has about 4000 students who are residential and 25,000 who commute.

So I guess it would be considered a "commuter school".

The GMU guy in the backcourt didn't need to call timeout. There's no five-second, closely guarded rule there. There were fewer than 10 seconds. You can just curl up in the fetal position.

#11: Plaschke does not complain about or criticize the Angels. He has been ensconced in their bandwagon since late 2002. He even claimed that Angel Stadium might be a better venue than Dodger Stadium. Unbelievable.

aha, uconn loses!

Producing "George Mason Final Four" caps must have been a risky maneuver. I doubt they made many.

When was the last #11 to go to the final four?

LSU was a #11 seed in 1987.

[61] 1986

Now if Villanova loses the Big East will be done, even with 8 teams in the tourney. How satisfying.

Actually that was in 1986 when LSU was a #11 that made it to the Final Four. It was a slightly smaller tournament.

LSU beat Purdue, Memphis State, Georgia Tech, and Kentucky to get to the Final Four. They lost to Louisville in the semis.

And then I goofed again. 1986 was a 64-team tournament. That started in 1985.

On a related note, do wives ask their husbands which of their female friends they find the most attractive? That Old Spice commercial is really annoying.

66 Only after watching that add.

45.

Well, he can still bring it after 2 TJ operations, so maybe he does have some strength.

It would defenitely be a risk, but he is so good, I would be willing to risk it, if Kuo wants to.

its not that he doesnt have arm strength, its the fraility of his elbow ligament.

i just think hes too much of an injury risk to try to pitch 170 innings a year. hes doing well right now in his current role, why mess with something that is working and working very well.

I hope AAA and vegas doesn't mess up billingsley.
With good starting pitching hard to get, billingsley is gonna be huge for the dodgers.
I guess i could look at it this way, if billingsley has a great season in AAA, it tells you something about billingsley (the real deal).

jason larue for brad penny? this guy thinks so...

http://www.redreporter.com/story/2006/3/24/164446/545

32
My brother graduated in 73. He was given the option of his diploma saying University of Virginia or George Mason. He said George Mason started out as a night school extension of the University of Virginia but by 69 when he started it was called George Mason. Starting in 74 all diplomas said George Mason. Needless to say he is one giddy alum. Do you still think George Mason did not have home field advantage or were those 20,000 fans rooting for them a mirage?

After watching the terrible UCLA/Memphis game this one was a delight.

71.

Yea right. One of our better pitchers for another catcher? Why?

Nate, since Kuo can get both righties and lefties out I would also rather see him in the rotation. Having two TJ surgeries does not relegate him to relief. Which is harder on the arm, getting up constantly on short notice, throwing a bunch of pitches in the bullpen then sitting down if you don't get in the game and then doing the same thing the next inning and the next game or being on a set schedule where you warm up two hours before game time every 5 days. I'm sure he would throw just as many pitches in a week being a setup man as he would starting once every 5 days. If he stays on the team he better be used for one or two innings at a time much like Santana was used in 2003 before they stuck him in the rotation.

69.

Because Kuo can be a dominant starter. If the dodgers don't think Kuo has arm strenght, he won't be a starter.

The last two schools that made the Final Four that weren't in a BCS conference were Marquette and Louisville and they've both been added to the Big East.

Utah made it from the WAC in 1998.
Cincinnati made it from the Great Midwest in 1992.
And UNLV made it from the Big West in 1990 and 1991.

UNLV is the last school from outside the current BCS to win it all.

If he stays on the team he better be used for one or two innings at a time much like Santana was used in 2003 before they stuck him in the rotation.

if kuos future goes something like that, then thats fine.

im just want to build his his innings gradually. last year was when he threw the most innings of his career and to automatically throw him into starting would be really hard on his arm IMO. if we can use him in the bullpen this whole year pitching around 85 innings or so, in long relief and spot starting and his arm holds up, let him compete for a rotation spot in 2007.

or, with the eventual departure of gagne and baez, he might be more valuable to us in the pen.

74 While it doesn't mean that it's true, I think it's believed in baseball circles that there is more wear and tear on a starter's arm. Hence the discussion last year in regards to moving Kerry Wood to the bullpen.

re 75

im not a big fan of the "if the organization thinks its right, it has to be right" argument.

this organization has shown time and time again that their judgement has not always been the best choice.

79 How can you possibly doubt the Dodger's braintrust?

79.

By the same token, they know more then we do.

Does anyone know what the hell Plaschke is trying to say about UCLA in his column?

I think I need a translator.

82

Basically, Plaschke likes the UCLA team because it plays hard, although is not very exciting.

When I attended a couple of classes at George Mason back in 1967 it was entirely a commuter school, but I sure don't remember it being any kind of adjunct to UVa.

At the time it had about two parking lots and four buildings, at least three of which were probably under construction. I rode my Italian-made Harley Davidson-nameplated 50cc bike from Annandale to Fairfax to take a couple of poli-sci courses during the summer between my junior and senior years of HS. I guess I can't really get away with calling myself an alum.

If we consider George Mason a commuter school, it would be the first one of that type in the Final Four since St. John's in 1985.

Unless UNLV and Seton Hall are considered commuter schools.

83 Or, does he like them because they are winning? The same reason he hated the Dodgers last year?

But, I just want to know why he typed, "Are you ready for some football?" in a column about the final four.

86

That was Plaschke's attempt at saying the basketball Bruins play a physical brand of basketball that is close to football.

Except the UCLA football team isn't that physical nor does it ever play that hard.

The AP has spoken:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- George Mason is no longer the cute little underdog. The Patriots, by golly, are going to the Final Four.

The suburban commuter school from Fairfax, Va., beat top-seeded Connecticut 86-84 in overtime Sunday in the Washington Regional final, ending the stranglehold that big-time programs have enjoyed for 27 years in college basketball's biggest showcase.

Right, because saying, "the basketball Bruins play a physical brand of basketball that is close to football," is too long a sentence for Plaschke. I think I get it.

In its current issue Jon's part-time employer took some shots at Billy Packer and Jim Nantz over their comments on Selection Sunday. I was at Les Murakami Stadium watching UH play Western Illinois baseball, so I didn't see it, but apparently both those guys were pretty harsh on the committee's selection of Missouri Valley and CAA schools. In this Florida-Nova game I have yet to hear either of them say they think they were wrong, despite Bradley's, Wichita State's and especially GMU's success.

Nantz has already admitted that he was wrong. Packer sort of did, but he doesn't really care if people like him or hate him.

If Billy Packer were a baseball writer, he would be Hal Bodley.

81- That could count as a token, but not the same one.

Packer's one redeeming virtue as a basketball sportscaster is that he's not Dick Vitale.

I didn't know that Nantz had said that. Thanks.

http://dodgers.scout.com/2/513462.html

This person seems to think that brazoban has an option left.

Does brazoban have an option left, anyone know?

Late to this party, but I think the aforementioned Ron Washington is future manager material in the near future.
He has been a loyal and productive coach with the A's.

92 update (by way of The Dictionary of Cliches)- 'By the same token,' appears in Troilus and Cressida.

CRESSIDA: Adieu, uncle.
PANDARUS: I'll be with you, niece, by and by.
CRESSIDA: To bring, uncle?
PANDARUS: Ay, a token from Troilus.
CRESSIDA: By the same token, you are a bawd.

This is one of the half dozen I've not read. Knowing that a niece has some reason to call her uncle a bawd piques my interest, though.

Brazoban has options left. He's not even arb. eligible, yet.

UCLA-LSU will be the late game Saturday.

God bless George Mason!

So anybody who writes for the AP signs a waiver that says anyone can plagiarize their work? This happens all the time with the AP, and here's another example. From the AP story by Joseph White:

The suburban commuter school from Fairfax, Va., beat top-seeded Connecticut ...

They lacked in size, athleticism and history relative to their opponent, but the 11th-seeded Patriots made up for it with tenacity.

From CNN's front page, with no attribution:

What the suburban commuter school team from Fairfax, Virginia, lacked in size, athleticism and history relative to their opponent, the 11th-seeded Patriots made up for it with tenacity.

71 More intrigue to this rumor... I say we pull the trigger before they retract the offer.

"Jason LaRue will have surgery Monday to repair torn cartilage in his right knee and figures to miss two or three weeks." - Rotoworld

The last time when there was a Final Four without a team from the ACC, Big East or Big Ten was 1975:
UCLA
Kentucky
Louisville
Syracuse

The Big East didn't exist in 1975 and Syracuse was an independent. Louisville was in the Missouri Valley Conference then.

I'm running a pool with 170 entries. 1 sheet had LSU as champ, 1 sheet had Florida and 13 have UCLA.

The top 2 guys in the national ESPN contest had all four teams in the Final Four correct.

Both have Florida winning, so the guy who is in second place (by 10 points) can't win the big prize.

I would hate to be that guy in second place.

I really want to see both Kuo and Osoria make the team. Osoria kind of reminds me of Paul Quantrill. He seems to have a rubber arm. He has great command, a pretty good sinker, and an above average changeup. I really hope that there is 0 chance that Sele makes the team. Who is going to fill the spot starter role? Houlton looks like he's improving, but he has options left.

If both kuo and osoria make the team, add them to gagne and baez and you have 4 very good relievers.
But its a numbers game, carter is probably a lock and a lefty specialist is probably a lock.
But again, does anyone else know if brazoban has an option left?
If so then brazoban should be sent to the minors allowing both kuo and osoria to make the team.

105 That will make both my Team Depo AND my Ghame Over t-shirts obsolete.

does gurnick think hes funny?

Tomko is the only one who came to the Dodgers directly from the San Francisco Giants, as did Colletti, who needed no scouting reports or video clips or Bill James Handbooks (oops, wrong regime) before signing the right-handed pitcher to a two-year, $8.7 million free-agent contract.

107- I saw that. Who's worse, Gurnick or Tony Jackson? I think they're doing it to suck up to McCourt. I never remember them making fun of Dan Evans' pink shirts.

105-

teams overdo the "lefty specialist" thing. I figure Hamaluck makes the team but I don't want them to drop Kuo because they "already have the lefty specialist".

Hopefully Grady puts in the best pitcher for the situation, not the infamous Jim Tracy obsessed with matchups pen moves...

99 Are you sure that CNN isn't just serving the AP story? It's not uncommon to use AP stories as placeholders until in-house writers file their pieces.

does anyone know how hard gagne was throwing when he pitched today?

gurnick says 91

110 They are using the AP story after the click on the front page, but do they get to re-write the AP story for their own intro? That to me is plagiarism. I'm guessing that AP has a very liberal use policy.

who does kwame brown think he is?

against the kings, he scores 21,
against the bucks, he scores 16,

tonight, its not even half time, and hes 5-5 with 12 pts. could he actually be coming around?

Speaking of the Ghame Over shirts, did anyone notice that they got a nice shout-out in BP2006 (print version)?

For entertainment purposes only:
LSU -1.5 vs UCLA
George Mason +5 vs Florida

115

Where's my royalty check?

110
Media outlets can and do rewrite AP copy to suit their purposes. It happens on a daily basis at newspapers all over the country, and has been that way for at least 60 years.

Obviously 118 was in response to 113, not 110.

107.

Ok, I'll admit, that joke had no punch, or timing. But we can only hope Tomko can have a good season.

118 OK, but I still don't like it.

It's applicable to both.

121. But thats one of the main purposes of the AP existing.

121
It's usually done fairly innocuously, like adding local flavor to an otherwise national story. For example, my hometown paper would probably change this:

"Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement from the Supreme Court on Tuesday, effective upon the confirmation of her successor. O'Connor became the court's first female justice in 1980 when she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan."

to this:

"Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement from the Supreme Court on Tuesday, effective upon the confirmation of her successor. O'Connor, a former El Pasoan and graduate of Radford High School, became the court's first female justice in 1980 when she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan."

I just think attribution is really important. If they have a liberal license that allows re-writing, that's fine, but at least credit the original author.

Attribution can be bought from wire services if you write them a very large check ahead of time.

I was checking the Washington Post's website to see if the person who had the George Mason beat lucked out in to a trip to the Final Four.

The Washington Post didn't cover George Mason for the most part until the postseason.

This is sort of like Cal State Long Beach making the Final Four (which they almost did once).

[120]

does it matter whether the joke was funny or not? should the official dodgers.com reporter be making cracks about the old GM? that seems like awfully poor taste. i know he has a bit of leeway with what he does, and when he does the mailbag he gives his opinions, but even when he's reporting he does an awful lot of editorializing, and quite frankly i don't really care about what he thinks. unfortunately he's often times got the inside scoop because he's so close to the team.

Is anyone else not having their comments appear over at "Just a bit outside"? My attempt to rip on Mike Jacobs are being foiled!

125. A lot of times they will by putting a note at the like, "Wire service reports were used in this story".

You want to see writers whose copy gets stolen? Try City News Service. I worked there for a couple of years in the early 80s. AP stole from us, as did everyone else. It was fun to drive home at 6 a.m. after a night on the editing desk, and hear all my copy repeated as every radio station's news briefs. But they paid for the privilege; they were subscribers. Occasionally we were credited in print this way: "Staff and wire reports contributed to this story." Yeah, we contributed all right. Only the Daily Journal would give us bylines.

124 The best example of that kind of local customizing was the old National Lampoon local newspaper parody. The town was the mythical Dacron, Ohio. The paper's big headline: AREA MAN KILLED IN BLAST. The subhead: Japan Destroyed.

City News Service! I just had to deal with a service interruption from them last week.

I didn't think Gurnick's Tomko joke was funny, but of course I'm biased against it. I don't think there was anything particularly wrong with it - it was a little gratutitous at worst. His overall point wasn't an anti-DePo point anyway - it was simply that Colletti had already seen everything he needed to see of Tomko in person.

What's more interesting, and this isn't just about Gurnick by any stretch, is what happens when you approach an article determined to give the benefit of the doubt to the player being featured. The same effort to explain Tomko's shortcomings (the look-beyond-the-15-losses approach) could have been applied to many Dodgers whose departures have gone unlamented by some in the meida.

It really takes a certain discipline to approach analysis with a clean slate. I could certainly work on it myself - being careful to not try to prove an opinion going in.

AP exists to have their copy appropriated. You know the deal when you go in. It's not usually a job for those who expect recognition.

The AP members pay a lot of money to be able to use their copy. Plus, they are usually obligated to contribute stories to AP. The Times has to put most of their local stories on the wire as part of the contract.

133 He did seem to be really reaching on Tomko though. His case was basically "Jeff Weaver stunk when he came to the Dodgers, but he turned it around. So could Tomko."

Even with the low expectations I have for Gurnick, that was a pretty big reach.

127 -- C'mon, Gurnick was hardly making a "crack" at DePodesta's expense, unless you think implying that DePodesta takes the published work of Bill James seriously when making decisions about players is inherently insulting. That the previous GM was guided by sabermetrics, while the new one is not, is completely uncontroversial. It just seems to bother some people around here, and I think some DT posters hate being reminded of it.

136 That's the great thing about "who's-to-say"bermetrics. You can predict anything, just based on what you think should happen. Who's to say Tomko won't turn out to be better than Weaver? While we're at it, he might be better than Randy Johnson! It really feels like this is his year. Who's to say it isn't?

My gut is telling me that Tomko won't be better than Weaver. Then again, my gut is also very hungry...

That's right. My gut is telling me to get a carne asada burrito. I trust my gut on that one.

I picked 5 brackets and on one of them I have 1 final four team correct (UCLA). All the others are 0 for 4. This is easily the worst I have ever done. Amazingly, three DT readers are worse than my worst bracket.

Meanwhile, we have a new leader: R. Wenkart. Watch out for H. Fox, who is in 14th place but can get 400 remaining points to win going away, if UCLA beats Florida in the final game.

does jon's blog get the most actvity out of any team specific baseball blog on the net?

I believe that if UCLA beats Florida in the final, H. Fox (whom I believe is longtime commenter Howard Fox, in whose kitchen I have not been) will win the pool. Actually, a Florida-UCLA final will be good enough for him.
If UCLA beats George Mason in the final, then C. Minami (bhsportsguy) wins.

As far as I can tell, no one in the Dodger Thoughts contest picked a team other than UCLA among the Final Four to win it all.

142 Maybe. Perhaps the Red Sex-devoted SOSH site is more famous and has a bigger visitorship? I dunno. Either way, I've yet to find a team-related website as totally-awesome-in-every-way as DT.

I would guess SOSH certainly has a larger readership. Also one with a much bigger chip on its shoulder... DT seems a much more pleasant place to be.

Athletics Nation and USSMariner are both pretty big, and probably rival DT in size. I'm basing that off the number of comments, I have no idea how many unique visitors each has

128 Your comments are there now.

144 - That's "Red Sox"...right?

145 , 146 - Ah, but who holds the all-time single thread comment record?

147 - Thanks again Ken!

143 - Go George Mason.

And after watching today's game, they have a shot.

hahaha phil jackson on why the lakers played good defense in the second half of todays game

"I think it was my halftime talk to them," Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. "I told them that in their white uniforms, they looked like a bunch of elves and fairies out there just playing basketball. Instead of being tough and tenacious defensively, they were just sieves."

in crappy news, henson reports lucille II wins the Utility infielder battle.

i really dont understand how that is possible.

131 - If that was the best example, perhaps the second best occurred on the morning of September 10, 1965, when one Chicago newspaper headlined, "Hendley Throws 1-Hitter." The subhead: "Koufax Pitches Perfect Game."

151- just saw. I'm hoping that Oscar pulls a Tanya Harding on him

151- You didn't give us Henson's punchline:

"Martinez, who played for the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies last season, is more versatile than Robles because he can play first base and serve as an emergency catcher."

Ramon Martinez wins the 2006 Grabowski Fellowship.