Now that Lucille's alleged utility-ness could actually be of use (by filling him in temporarily at 2B for Kent), all of a sudden the presumably inferior Robles is being called up and given the start over Lucille.

Makes sense to me...

Well, don't know if this was mentioned before, but here's something to lighten the mood. Another feather in the cap of the Dodger medical staff:

"Jayson Werth will be examined Monday by Dr. Noman Zemel, who will attempt to determine why Werth still has extreme pain in the wrist that Zemel surgically repaired in November. One theory to be explored is that scar tissue might have grown into the joint. Werth said swinging a bat is just as painful five months after the surgery as it was before."

Ah, our old friend "scar tissue."

Can't wait to see what happens with Furcal's finger.

Does x-ray vision come with that, or am I confusing this with other superpowers?

Right?

No Whom's on second Who's on first?

But seriously, "whom" is almost always followed by a pronoun, is it not?

That's what I used to teach, anyway.

Wow. This Ross for Robles swap is unbelievable, unless there's a trade in the works (and probably, even then). Colletti really does seem to make the worst choice possible every chance he gets. Most of these decisions have been of minor importance, but they do not bode well for the bigger decisions down the line. Lofton over any decent corner OFer with power, Repko over Ross, Robles over Aybar, Loney (at this stage) over Choi. The evidence is really piling up.

The only theme that I see is that he might be consistently choosing the one he perceives as the better defensive player (and maybe the faster player). Most of us would argue that he's wrong on the Ross/Repko defensive comparison, and maybe even on the Robles/Aybar comparison (and certainly on the Alomar Jr./anyone choice). But by reputation alone, he does seem to have chosen perceived defense over offense every time. Remember, he did say that he would emphasize speed and defense. He apparently meant it.

Still, not good when you have the wrong decision rule, and then can't even apply it correctly.

5 1/3 IP 3h 3bb 8k 2gb 6fb runner on 1st

his era currently stands at 2.35

"Rafael Furcal, who has played with a jammed middle finger on his left hand suffered while stealing a base Opening Day, said he grips a bat at 50 percent strength with that hand and it bothers him mostly batting left-handed. Furcal said the middle knuckle is still painful, but he has not had an X-ray taken."

Hmm...you're paying a guy 9 million and you won't spring for a $75 dollar X-ray, all the while risking who knows what? Seriously, as has been touched on before, this is one more data point in a very distressing trend.

Yep, and that makes me nervous.
It also could be a clue to our position prospects.
Can we conclude that out of our top position prospects guzman and aybar would be the first to go in a trade (if any get traded).

I would think that you'd have beat me, Sam, since you're three hours ahead of me in time.

Ground out a lot.

Whom wins?

I hope those don't count against the nine.

Eh.

if you do, you wont live long enough to know the response.

..
...

....
......
.... im just kidding, ask away.

Ask your question, or else MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WILL DIE!!

Sorry. Just trying to add some excitement to an otherwise dullish sort of game.

I'm on board with that. We don't need Joel Francouer.

The public has spoken!

Randy Winn has singled, doubled, and tripled in his first 3 ABs.

Jon, your dad is a wise, wise man....

Randy Winn

As for cycles
https://griddle.baseballtoaster.com/archives/347737.html

why do you think that is?

He batted 14 times and got 5 hits perhaps?

Because the grittiness of Paul Lo Duca overtakes the librianness of Greg Maddux in the intergalatic war between the two forces which proves that grittiness trumps all in the universe.

or because of a small sample size. But i prefer the first explanation.

104 - Just come out with it, man!

what is Paulies LIFE TIME BATTING AVG. against Braves pitchers?

Marty prefers rum shots.

Among NL teams, Lo Duca's best batting average is against Washington (.349).

It's good he's on the Mets now. They had held him to a .200 batting average.

The reason is Arm Angles™. LoDuca was a savvy-enough hitter to handle different Arm Angles™.

How do you make the little TMs?

LoDuca and Greg?

He has some time on his hands.

The numbers on Yahoo are Was/Mtl

seems pretty typical of this team lately. Idiotic mistakes make you lose....Furcal and Ross are two prime examples of this.

Jerk.

Live & learn :o)

Also while Maddux does have a lot of sacrifices, you can't say he's the greatest bunter. He has a lot of sacrifices because he's been in the NL his whole career. The most sacrifices he's had in one season is 13.

I need a drink.

On a Mac, you can hit Option + 2 to get ™

For Windows, consult "Character Map"

My Mac and I thank you.

Except he'll call it with Saenz on first and Navarro batting.

Ive already had a drink and I'm still baffled as to what's going on. How a team with a 100 mill payroll could have absolutely zero power hitting outside of Drew and Kent...it's pretty astonishing actually.

who said this kind of baseball is better, this sucks

Funny, if a little late. Did you like my rum shots?

And Maddux hitting a run in against Tomko is just cruel.

relatively early hour.

138 - What about his tons and tons of Gold Gloves (^TM), Bob?

But the suspense is awful.

What's the secret of Comed... TIMING!

oh, I know. But the fact that I'm STILL baffled by all this shows how absurd it really is.

Deep down, that's everybody's motto.

Speaking of UFC, did anyone see the entry at the Dodgers' house blog about Brad Penny's UFC buddy; apparently, he threw out the first pitch at Saturday's game. Rudy Saenz got a lot of press recently for his UFC training regimen, I believe.

I'm borrowing from the Homeland Security System.

For example, if Brett Tomko pitches a shutout, buy duct tape for your doors and windows.

One of the strenghts of the Cubs is their bullpen. Ryan Dempster, Scott Eyre, Bob Howry, and Scott Williamson have been doing really good so far. Ryan Dempster has become a completely differnt pitcher now that he's become a closer.

161 - Didn't they say that aboot the Mets and Yankees once?

Fair enough.

A lot of stadium scoreboards have LOB as a stat. I think BBs would be more useful.

After virtually giving Milton Bradley away...

And he got the runs...

Tomko ate 6 innings tonight.

I've allways wondered what an innings eater is.
Aren't ace starting pitchers innings eaters?
How can a mediocre starting pitcher be an innings eater?

Ace's put away innings in that they rarely give up more than 3.

I wasn't going to go there, but that's what I typed first. Oh look, another K for Maddux.

*Innings eaters eat up innings while not giving up more than 5 runs.

Ace's put away innings in that they rarely give up more than 3.*

Is that seriously the definition of an innings eater?
If so, every starting pitcher is an innings eater, except the extremely horrible ones.

I believe a pitcher could qualify as an innings eater with a 7.50 ERA. Five runs in six innings.

That gives you a hint of how useful the term is.

http://tinyurl.com/hlmzk

: )

Noted. It's just that rimshots to rum shots worked a lot better stylistically.

I only just recently got back into whiskey sours. I used to drink them all the time, and then I went to Scotland and had a lot of straight whiskey. Took me a while to adjust to whiskey sours again after that.

http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/milb/multimedia/video.jsp

http://tinyurl.com/zmldo

Sweet, they are playing the Rivercats.

223 - Who would've thought Dave Aardsma would pass Hammerin' Hank in the record books before The Barry?

A Boy and His Dog.

I'd make a lousy GM.

But Eric Milton has thrown a no-hitter!

(Not that I blame him tonight for talking about something other than the game, but in general...)

I might as well have taken an at bat against Maddux tonight, rest the real players, for all it matters.

Btw, I am now officially looking forward to Nomar's return. I wasn't caring the first week but now... I kind of think he can help them.

What about "Return to Macon County"?

One of the many reasons I dislike him.

Avoiding those is what has made him one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history.

Only if he coaches in the NFC.

Nice outing for Osoria, hopefully he can continue to pitch like that

Two passed balls (or should have been called that way) vs. the Giants. Lots of called third strikes. No runners thrown out. oh, well I'm probably being too hard on him...

Randy Winn was taken out as part of a double switch.

and, this ump sucks. his strike zone is like 8 inches off the plate.

Did anybody end up winning the Brewers/Astros version of an American League pitchers' duel?

Are you sure about that? I think Gameday is telling me that he moved over to RF...

Winn just switched positions. He didn't leave.

The story is that, when the woman who got hit by the foul went to the hospital for a precautionary exam, they diagnosed her ovarian cancer.

http://tinyurl.com/ft7ye

I know this comment is inane, but it allows me to think of anything but the fact that this team is now 6-8 to opponents with a combined W-L record of 30-34, but removing the Cubs game makes them 6-7 to opponents with a combined W-L of 22-30 (in case you're wondering, that's bad).

Sure, the LAD started 12-2 last year before spiraling into the depths, but just because the team started well last year and then vanished doesn't mean a bad start this year will automatically be erased (it doesn't mean it can't be, but I'd rather be 12-2 than 6-8, thank you very much).

I'm just surprised the Dodgers management thought that they'd be able to win games with so little power. The only way to do that is to have dominant pitching, which the Dodgers dont have.

oh yay broxtons in!

I'm also thrilled that tonight he is batting leadoff. That's the spot most conducive to preparing him for the majors. Mini rant: In spring training, Aybar's best game came in the No. 1 spot, but from there Grittle pretty much ignored him. I understand that Grittle had to prepare the 25-man roster. But a smarter franchise would've alternated Willy in the No. 1 spot. The Dodgers and Mr. Pirate, Roy Smith, really don't appreciate or teach Aybar's kind of patient approach that the No. 1 spot accentuates, even develops. As an aside, the Rockies are batting SS prospect Tulowitzki leadoff to improve his plate discipline. Smart!

Back to topic: Aybar is better defensively at 3B, iffy at 2B. I know many people look at his stats and say put him at 2B, because his offensive game fits better there. But the stats don't show his defensive actions, and those actions put Willy at 3B.

Keep Willy at 3B unless Mueller gets hurt. And keep him at leadoff. Robles is a better fit to spell Kent a few games

The game was so fast that when I watched "24" and fast forwarded through the commercials, it was 10:01 when I was done.

.256/.420/.308

I'd swear Laroche is a leadoff prospect with that line, surely not a power hitter. He has the same number of walks as he does hits

There were tons of Cubs fans there and many of them were drunk and obnoxious. Every time a Cubs player hit a flyball, the Cubs fans would stand up and cheer, thinking it was a homerun. Scrappy dog got one of the loudest ovations when he came in to pinch hit for Tomko. Osoria looked great. Hopefully, Grits will now trust him in more important situations. This will probably be one of Tomko's best outings of the year.

I had more fun at the LA public library and eating at Philippes, than I did watching the Dodgers hitters get completely dominated by Greg Maddux's 82 MPH fastball.

His ISOd has always been good. Its good to see him progressing in that department this year. Gives me hope that he will make it as a major leaguer. THe lack of power is sort of concerning to me right now simply because in the AFL, he didnt hit for any power either and if you swung the bat blindfolded, you could hit for power in the AFL.

as for guzman, I think he is showcasing the "you cant walk your way out of Vegas" philosophy.

it also might help guzman if he stood closer to the plate. In ST of 2005, he was really far off the plate, the farthest you could be. During the AA jax season, from the webcast i saw, he was alot closer to the plate and his plate discipline and ISOd was respectable.

This year, he is back to standing at the very back end of the batters box and his plate discipline has been horrid.

is there a correlation here?

You assume he has good power with all the dingers he hit the year at Vero, but Vero Beach is very homer friendly.

He seems sort of up and down. Certainly I dont see him as a 'cant miss' type.

In terms of closest to the MLB's to produce: I'd put Aybar, Guzman, Martin, Ruggiano, Ethier,LaRoche, Loney in that order in terms of position players. The first 4 I think could play right now at the MLB level and at least be average. Ethier, LaRoche, and Loney I'm not as confident in.

laroche didnt start his career out slow at all.

at Low A, in his first full season, he hit 283/.375/.525 with 13hr and 29k:30bb . A 20 yr old in Low A with that line projects to have a very high cieling.

In his callup midseason to high A, he struggled but he was still walking and hitting for power with ISOd of 58 and ISOp of 197.

I dont know how you can put guzman and ruggiano at the upper part of that list. The biggest indication that a prospect is close to producing, or at least holding his own at the big league level is his K:bb ratio and his K/PA rate. You are putting alot of stock in ruggiano's season last year but two things jump out to me when looking further into his numbers:
1-beating up high A as a 23 yr old should have been expected if he was any sort of prospect, not praised or looked upon as future stardom.
2- The 35% k/ab rate probably tells us his high BA at jax was a bit of a fluke due to a high BABIP and doesnt really paint a great picture of his MLB readiness or ceiling.

in terms of being ready, i would probably project them like this:
Aybar, Martin, ethier, young, laroche, ruggiano, guzman.

Tomko on the other hand, has an uncanny ability to throw exactly the wrong pitch at exactly the wrong time. Whatever idea he or Navarro or Grittle or whoever should be fired for that pitch to Maddux had, it should have been returned to the Bad Idea Store without being opened.

Tomko is a guy that throws hard and has a very good slider and throws strikes. The reason he gets shelled is because he lacks any smarts on the mound. Regulate him to the bullpen, he can come in the game in 1-2 inning spurts where he doesnt have to think, just rear back and throw. Who knows, his 91-94 mph fastball might turn into a 94-97 mph fastball when he can just give it his all for one inning.

But then again, we have to justify paying a middle reliever 4 mil.

That's exactly what i want.

But then again, we have to justify paying a middle reliever 4 mil.

Who cares he's under contract anyways and we can't move him.

Hey what about bringing up ethier for our outfield, because lofton and repko both (fill in the blank).

if ethier can get his ISOp up to 175+ by june or whatever, then i will be all for calling ethier up. Lofton will probably be on the DL for his 4th pulled hamstring.

LOL!

Lofton is such a joke, i can't believe ned signed him.

I still don't understand why martinez is on the team over aybar.
Same goes for take your pick over broxton.

But in Gurnick's mailbag, he implies that the dodgers view aybar as nothing more then a utility player. So who knows.

That's what i want.
I also want broxton up and hamulack optioned down, then i'd be satisfied with the pen, except that gagne is out.
gagne
baez
kuo
tomko
broxton
last spot or 2 saito/osoria

Osoria did look pretty good, although everyone was kind of just playing out the string the last three innings. The line drive he caught was stunning -- I think he thought he was dead before he realized that he had caught it. Derek Lee just stood there at home plate for several seconds -- I think Lee thought he was dead too.

But then again should we kinda give up on this season and let the prospects have their time in the minors.
A question to ponder.

The only way this could be good news for the Brewers is if it means that Dan Kolb has no elbow.

Wasn't there speculation back in 2004 when DePo was first hired that a Maddux signing and Odalis-Magglio deal was in the works?

Isn't it ironic (Tracy's definition) that Maddux comes in to shut down the Dodgers 2 years and 2 months later????

I thought Maddux was going to be a librarian when he retired.

Understandable, but still give him more than 1 inning at a time to get him ready ASAP.
I guess i'm nitpicking.

i dont think ethier is "almost nothing". He will most likely end up as a solid player- #6 type hitter.

Even if you leave out the "instead of Willy Aybar" I didn't understand the callup. What's Martinez, chopped liver? Why couldn't he have filled in for Kent? Ross would then still be on the roster and available for pinch-hitting duties.

Billy Beane did buy Bradley below value due to his injury concerns and attitude, But Ethier is still a solid prospect and isnt nothing. When I think of nothing I think of Lance Carter, Tony Womack, Mike Edwards.

1. We are acknowledging that Ramon Martinez is useless.
2. We can't go three days without Jason Repko.

If Ethier turns into the next Ricky Ledee (a very solid 4th outfielder), it would still be a terrible trade.

Just one of a dozen great moments from the piece: "'[Wade] Boggs, 22 years old when the game started and 23 when it ended, was Pawtucket's third baseman and top hitting prospect. His Rochester counterpart was Cal Ripken Jr., a 20-year-old phenom who some in the Orioles organization believed might eventually be moved to shortstop. Neither would have impressed anyone seeing them play for the first time that day, particularly Ripken, who went 2 for 13. 'A lot of us," Ripken joked, "had a bad week that day.'"

Anyhow, do take the time to read the whole thing; it's a great great piece.

http://tinyurl.com/mwukq (or find it at Washingtonpost.com)