Do you think there's anything to the Scully/Steinday theory that Kent is not really in a slump, but is merely having bad luck -- hitting the ball hard right at people?

Seems to me that's generally just a common, knee-jerk excuse when a player is scuffling. But I've only seen about half the games this year.

I know he has hit the ball hard right at people. I also know that he is having some weak at-bats, and I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen him reach the warning track in the last few weeks - not that I've seen every game either.

I guess the question would be whether he's having more "line drive right-at-em" outs than players typically have, or whether we're just noticing them more because he's not hitting well.

See update with Kent's hit chart.

His batting average on balls in play is way down, and his line drive percentage is actually higher. But his groundball percentage is a tick higher also.

I just don't think he's had as much power this year - that is a huge decline that looks like more than bad luck.

But is it a slump, age or health?

Slump, age, or health

A little of column A, a little of column B, a little of column C

Netflix has just informed me that Office Space is on its way. So maybe now I'll get more of the jokes around here.

On the same note, Rafael Furcal's OPS last April was .605.

Unfortunately, he only "rebounded" to a .622 figure in May '05. He got it up to .736 in June, before going on a post-AS terror (.868 after the AS-break last year).

On the bright side, his career OPS in April is .662, by far his lowest month. He's not under .750 in any other month.

[6] knowing approximately how much of each would be useful, though.

Don't ever watch a large load of laundry when the washer is accidentally set on "delicate".

I think those clothes will take about two hours to dry. But I've got all day!

As for Kent, I think age and slump are the biggest factors. But that could be that I've been feeling very "40 years old" recently.

6
A little of column A, a little of column B, a little of column C

Do 3 little portions add up to a full serving?

I think it's more slump, less age, and a little "still recovering from wrist injury" that has contributed to his lack of power. I really do think he'll snap out of it this month.

Speaking of Office Space and NF, you should see the little "bug" I helped create on my own company's site (www.greencine.com, a rival of NF's) - on the home page's upper right. Cheap plug I know but this isn't a plea for membership or purchases as much as just check out the rotating ads with Gary Cole in one of 'em.

Watched laundry never boils.

I'm also killing time by defrosting my freezer.

I believe I own the last freezer that isn't frost-free.

I took a vacation day from work to do this stuff!

From the last thread, sorry but this needs to be answered:

"Um....Bob, didn't the Jays trade some punk 2B prospect to the Mets for Cone in '92? "

I guess Joe Carter insisted the punk be traded because he couldn't relate to black people?

It's even made "Brainy History": http://www.brainyhistory.com/events/1992/april_27_1992_166648.html
Actually, the wikipedia entry is more amusing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Kent

He was then traded to the Indians, who then traded him to the Giants for Matt Williams. Each time Kent was acquired, it seems, fans were unhappy. At first. Giants fans forgot about Williams fairly quickly.

The freezer has been defrosted. In about 2 hours. That was 2 years' worth of frost too.

My father would be proud of me.

Bob & Co. Can we play Earned or Unearned again?

- Kendrick HBP
- Pickoff attempt; throwing error, Kendrick to 2b
- Napoli grounded out to shortstop, Kendrick to third.
- Murphy singled to left center, Kendrick scored.
- Figgins singled to left, Murphy to second.
- Cabrera popped out to second.
- Guerrero grounded into fielder's choice to shortstop, Figgins out at second.

That's not how I remember the DeShields trade.

Earned

18 We used to keep an old Electrolux cylinder vacuum cleaner around to defrost our little playroom fridge. It had just the right footprint for that space.

It depends on whether Kendrick would have been safe even with a good throw, and it was just so wild that he was able to go to second, or whether Kendrick would have been out at first with a good throw. I'd have to see the play.

i'm gonna say unearned. but i still think if the pitcher makes the error it should be earned.

21, 23
When this situation played out in Houston a run was charged to Penny. The theory being the scorekeeper has to play out the inning as if the error didn't occur. So here it's obvious the run scores absent the error. You can't assume a FC on the first groundout. So two straight singles would score Kendrick.

Ruling here: Unearned accd to ESPN and MLB.com

Usually, on a pickoff play to first, you would assume the runner would be safe. As the inning progressed, the error would be inconsequential.

But if for example it was a pickle-type play and they really should have gotten the Kendrick out, then Kendrick's run is a gift from the error.

For you baseball draftniks out there from Kevin at Baseball Prospectus

The Tigers and the Dodgers select six and seventh, respectively, and both teams are heavily scouting a pair of high school arms that have pitched very well in the second half of the season ... The Dodgers have been out in full force to see the quickest riser in recent weeks, Virginia prep righthander Jeremy Jeffress. Two days ago, in front of a horde of scouts, Jeffress delivered 15 pitches that registered as 97 or 98 mph on one scout's radar gun, and showed good command and a solid curveball.

The article also says that from the 21st pick on, expect a lot of high school players picked. He also says that local USC pitcher Ian Kennedy has been less than impressive (just not a good time to be affiliated with that school)

19 That would depend on the scorer's interpretation of the hits. Without the error, the inning looks like this:

- Kendrick HBP.
- Napoli grounded into a fielder's choice, SS to 2B. Napoli on first.
- Murphy singled to left center, Napoli to second.
- Figgins singled to left, Murphy to second, Napoli ???.
- Cabrera popped out to second.
- Guerrero grounded into a fielder's choice to shortstop, Figgins out at second.

I assumed that since Murphy's single was to left center, nobody's going first-to-third on it. So whether the run is earned depends on whether, in the scorer's opinion, Napoli could have scored from second on Figgins' hit.

The run was unearned according to the boxscore.

The scorer basically felt that the Angels just earned three bases in that inning.

Kendrick's HBP
Murphy's single
Figgins's single

Napoli's grounder would have erased Kendrick.

I thought the scorer would have to assume that the Napoli groundout was a 4-3 moving the runner to second.

Not necessarily.

28 Another interpretation would be that Napoli's ground ball advances Kendrick to 2B, and Napoli is out at first. Then Kendrick would easily score on the two singles.

In any case, the earned/unearned run is often wrong on in-game box scores. These issues are usually fixed after the game.

26 This rundown example makes sense to me if the runner was hung out to dry. I guess I always thought these decisions were much more objective. I'm surprised you can assume a FC on the lead runner.

"28 Another interpretation would be that Napoli's ground ball advances Kendrick to 2B, and Napoli is out at first."
------

As with the hits, that would depend on the nature of the ground ball. If it was a routine grounder, you'd assume the force play. (Though you can't assume a DP.) If it was a diving stop and throw by the 2B, then you'd assume it advances the runner.

Basically, what it amounts to is that it's all up to the scorer's discretion and what he thinks would have happened. It's not the kind of thing you can decide on without actually seeing the play(s).

"It's not the kind of thing you can decide on without actually seeing the play(s)."

Exactly. Relying on PBP accounts can definitely be misleading/inconclusive. So just because a pickoff error led to an earned run in one instance doesn't mean it would in another.

Rewound the DVR to watch the inning.

Verlander's PO throw was just a fairly routine toss that bounced away. Kendrick would have gotten back.

Napoli's grounder was an easy bouncer to Guillen at short. If Kendrick had been on first, it would have been a DP. It would have been a force play at worst.

So Bob, in your considered judgment, could Napoli have scored from second on the Figgins single?

I had always thought the scorer's discretion was constrained. Another bubble of my youth burst.

It was Kendrick on second, who is a little faster than Napoli, but the ball was hit sharply to left.

I should add that since it was the Angels, they would have sent Kendrick, but the Angels have never found an out on the basepaths that they can't run into.

39 But for purposes of re-creating the inning, it's Napoli who's hypothetically trying to score from second.

I'm assuming Napoli wouldn't have been able to score, being a catcher and all.

40
Or an extra base they can garner. I rarely belittle success when it is defined by wins and losses.

So when the Angels try for an extra base and they get one, they're scrappy and trying hard, but when the Dodgers try the same, they're idiots who have run themselves out of an inning?

The funny part of this conversation - it may even qualify as irony - is that both teams entered today with glorious 12-16 records.

The Angels also entered today with a .297 team OBP. Of course that's part of their "system" to deemphasize that fad OBP.

The Angels had 18 runners reach base today.

15 hits, 2 walks, 1 HBP

You can see ESPN building Napoli's player page if you look quickly:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=28442

The Angels have been an aggressive running team since Scoscia took over. His success is hard to question but many still do. I expect that he teaches his players how to run the bases correctly and aggressively. You can't just one day tell your players they need to take the extra base and expect success. From watching the Dodgers this year, Furcal and Lofton are excellent base runners and it is no surprise that they came from outside the organization. Whatever Wills teaches our players it seems to fall on deaf ears. Izturis was not only a lousy basestealer he never seemed to be able to utilize his speed like Furcal and Lofton.

I've never equated scrappy with excellent baserunning. There are alot of fast scrappy players that are clueless on the base paths. Milton Bradley wasn't scrappy but he was less then adequate on the base paths.

from 48
"#0 M Napoli | UN"

Apparently he moonlights as a weapons inspector.

49 I'm not sure that tells you much, since just about everybody on the Dodgers comes from outside the organization, including Izturis.

46
The player with the biggest drag on the OB% was sent down today. I doubt if the Angels are very happy with a sub 300 OBP but at least they aren't panicking and dumping Kotchman after a very ruff April. Their patience could pay off big time in the long run. Mathis not only couldn't hit but whenever he caught the pitchers ERA was significantly higher. They probably made a huge mistake in not signing Molina.

Curious how most GM's are to conservative and rarely give young positional players a serious chance on a contending team but in the last 12 months the Angels have given McPherson, Kotchman, and Mathis starting jobs and they have all failed upto this point. I wonder if that will make them reconsider giving Kendrick, Kennedy's job in 2007?

I think you can stop by 6-4-2 and Rob can give you a litany of baserunning mistakes the Angels have made.

Which Dodger position players come from within the organization who are on the major league roster?

There's Jason Repko and ... and .... and ...

Isn't BP or someone measuring baserunning success by now, so we don't have to rely on the anecdotal to evaluate the value of aggressive baserunning?

And I put up a huge plate of crow for me to eat up on the Griddle about the Angels.

Fortunately, people seemed to ignore it.

Jon, in response to your comments from the last thread:
(1) One of the stereotypes against Asian men is that they are not masculine -- which many people associate with being gay. While there is nothing negative about being gay or Asian or male, when you combine the traits into an Asian gay male, it is particularly insidious -- especially if there are hardly any portrayals of Asian men on screen in the first place. Similarly, there is nothing wrong with being frugal or Jewish, but if you rarely see Jews on TV, and one of the few portrayals that is shown is a frugal Jewish person, then it's compounds the stereotype.

(2) It's a bit unfair to brings Jews into the picture because, while one could argue that they should also be represented in medical TV shows like GA, (a) Jews are not underrepresented in media (one funny example, in an episode of "Numbers" -- a show about a detective who uses his math genius brother to find patterns that help him solve cases -- the detective and his brother, who are both Jewish, are watching a Dodger game on TV and the player at bat is Shawn Green -- who is also Jewish!); (2) Jews, like white Hispanics, can easily blend into the mainstream population so oftentimes, white can be synonymous for Jewish and vice-versa. For every overt Jew like Jerry Seinfeld, there are those that change their names and easily pass as "white" -- e.g., Wynona Ryder. On Grey's Anatomy, George or Alex or Sheppard could all be Jewish for all we know.

(3) Finally, I doubt that the race of the characters on the show is incidental. There are three blacks doctors in positions of power in that show (the chief of staff, Burke, and Bailey) and with the number of African-Americans in medicine and living in Seattle, this is a statistical oddity. Rhimes herself has claimed that she is tired of the token black or Latino doctor on medical shows (e.g., ER or Scrubs). Imagine a hypothetical show on, say, old bankers in New York and there's only one Jewish character that is non-recurring and he's a nebbish. That'd be terrible!

GA may not be about race but race is never incidental. Otherwise, there would be no conspiracy theories about how race factored into Hee Seop Choi's lack of playing time!

Anyways, enough about this -- great work with Dodger Thoughts, keep it up!

53 Does that mean drafted by the Dodgers, or just served time in their minor league system?

If the latter, then Navarro, too. (Who is quite the basestealer.) And, uh, pushing it here... Ethier (for his few weeks of minor league service with LA)?

"especially if there are hardly any portrayals of Asian men on screen in the first place"

Maybe 20 yrs but that is not true anymore. Last I heard John Woo is considered to be one of the top asian directors with action stars Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat and Drama stars like Ken Watanabe,Ziyi Zhang and many more I can't recall.

Kent is 38 -- IMO, his statistical decline is inevitable.

55
I read it but if I posted there it would be like a tree falling in a forest.

I was going to start revising everything I said that was wrong in that post, but I've got errands to run!

Re: 58 -- First, there's a difference between Asian and Asian American, sorry if I didn't clarify this. It's like calling Dikembe Mutombo, DeSagana Diop, Manute Bol, and Ike Diogu African Americans.

Second, even with native Asians being portrayed in American media -- they are all portrayed as kungfu masters (like the ones you named) or awkward geeks (Long Duck Dong in Sixteen Candles, the Japanese businessman in Fargo). Even blacks, who in earlier times were predicted only as minstrels or savages, are given the whole smorgasbord of human traits today.

[58] zhang ziyi is a woman.

62- "All portrayed as KungFu masters" Maybe that's because a majority of the Asian actors are acually KungFu Masters? And the majority of releases from the Orient have a kung fu flavor?
Honestly why are you trying to make americans racist?

54
Bill James has a baserunner algorithm in his 2005 handbook but it is specific to each player. Are you asking how many outs are created with aggressive baserunning as oppossed to how many runs are created? Wouldn't an excellent aggressive base runner be worth more then a lousy aggressive base runner? Furcal and Izzy may have the same speed but I'll bet that Furcal scores a much higher% of the time once they both reach base. I think Furcal had one of the highest baserunning scores in the handbook but I don't have it handy at the moment.

Is this ironic? The Angels are known for being an aggressive base running team and many critics lambast them for running into many outs while it is the station to station A's who have possibly cost themselves two trips to the WS with base running gaffes during key moments in the playoffs.

56 - 1) "One of the stereotypes against Asian men is that they are not masculine"

Okay - I guess I'm just not familiar with that stereotype at all. It never occured to me.

2) Obviously, I know Jews are well represented on television. My point was just that the absence of Asian men in lead roles on the show didn't necessarily imply a devaluing of Asian men.

The Hee Seop Choi example ... at the risk of seeming like my head's in the sand, I don't think race was an issue with his playing time - certainly not the dominant one. I think it was very much about the type of player he was on the field - percieved incorrectly as plodding, passive, clumsy and ineffectual, in any color. I think language is definitely an issue with regard to how players are treated in the media, but I don't think race affected Choi's struggles to get in the lineup to stay any more than it's affecting, say, Repko's current attempts. Just because there's a conspiracy theory doesn't mean there's a relevant or viable conspiracy theory.

3) It's a statistical oddity, but consider the sample size. Does every group of six doctors have to have one Asian male? I have no doubt the show can benefit from a stronger Asian male presence (frankly, I think the show could benefit from many changes), but I don't think Rhimes necessarily needs to defend her choice. It's not like blacks have been overrepresented in the past.

Again, I'm not really trying to disagree with most of what you're saying. I'll add that I passed on your comments to my editor at Variety and he thought you made an excellent point.

64 - "Honestly why are you trying to make americans racist?"

That's not what he's doing or saying, so please dial it down before this conversation goes bad. He's pointing out examples of racism over time.

I think the "they are all portrayed" is a generalization that risks being taken literally. If we're going to have this conversation here - and maybe this isn't the place for it - we need to be very careful about our language.

66 I disagree about Choi. I think race did have something to do with him having trouble making it to the lineup. I vividly recall Tracy putting his arm around Werth's shoulder, and coaching him in an animated manner. Right after that, Werth went out an hit a home run. Tracy NEVER did that with Choi.

I'm not trying to single out Tracy necessarily. Human being have affinities toward people who are like them. I'm sure if the manager were Korean, Choi would have enjoyed special attention. That's how things are.

I've been arguing with an Angel Kool-Aid drinker for a week so I'll throw this out for discussion.

1) As I understand it, the Scioscia M.O. is not to lead the league in OBP but to make the most of the baserunners they get via small ball and clutch hitting.

2) OBP correlates extremely well with Runs.

Hypothesis: If the system works, the Angels should rank higher in runs than their OBP would indicate.

AL Rank OBP  Runs
2000:   6th  7th
2001:   9th  12th
2002:   4th  4th
2003:   8th  11th
2004:   6th  7th
2005:   9th  7th

Last year was the only year that fits the hypothesis- a year where they hit .296 w/RISP to lead the league (50 pts above their overall BA).

62
Ike Diogu is African American. Born in Buffalo, raised in the Dallas area, college at ASU. His parents are from Nigeria.

67- Sorry, rough morning.

68 - "Tracy NEVER did that with Choi."

You have absolutely no way of knowing that. Is there any evidence that Tracy never offered Choi a word of encouragement? It simply doesn't stand to reason.

Tracy loved Nomo - was Tracy that caught up in the rivalry between Japan and Korea that he was sympathetic to Japanese players but not Koreans?

72 I'm not saying he never offered Choi words of encouragement. I saw the high fives he gave to Choi after a sac fly or a home run. I'm saying the level of attention given were different. Unless Tracy suddenly lavished attention to Choi, out of sight of the camera, to make up for the fact that he does not in front of the camera. I can only speak to what I saw. The way he interacted with his buddy-buddy players was noticeably different, from those outside of his circle.

I have no idea about Tracy's opinion on the Japan-Korea rivalry. I have met caucasian Japan-philes who take on the prejudices of the Japanese. Whether he is one of those people, I have no way of knowing.

I think alot of MLB official scorers when sitting on the fence on a tough decision tend to score the play in favor of the home teams statistics. An unearned run in this case doesn't hurt the home team's pitchers ERA. You set it most on the hit/error score. Often the home team gets a hit and the visiting team reaches base on an error.
Of course I have no proof of this other than from what I've observed over the years. I also think the NBA fixes games.
vr, Xei

To suggest that Choi's play time was related to his race is not fair to Tracy's integrity. I am not a Tracy fan, but I thought he was fair to all Dodgers players. His job security was linked to winning, and if he felt player A would increase the chance of winning in a given situation, he would not go with player B. Not playing Choi merely meant Tracy felt another player increased the odds of winning, nothing more and nothing less.

73 - But his level of attention to Choi is not necessarily racial. No evidence of it at all. For example, two of the players Tracy got along with least were Karros and Gruzielanek. Was it because they had ethnic names?

68 Kayaker7
Tracy NEVER did that with Choi.

And just how many people have you seen Tracy put his arm around? Since you probably haven't seen him do it with his mon and dad I guess that we can deduce that he doesn't like them as much as he should.

64 -- "Maybe that's because a majority of the Asian actors are acually KungFu Masters? And the majority of releases from the Orient have a kung fu flavor?" This is EXACTLY the problem caused by stereotypes -- most Asian actors are NOT trained in martial arts, it's just that most Asian actors that you see in the U.S. (for various reasons) are martial artists. If you watch Asian cinema (say Hong Kong or South Korea), most Asians are regular folks. Similarly, most releases from Asia DON'T have a kungfu flavor, but most releases from Asia that gain popularity in the U.S. do.

66 -- You're right. Having taken some research methods classes, I'm usually pretty good about saying, "tends to" rather than generalizing as "always" or "all." Just laziness on my part.

Also, I didn't mean to suggest that race played a large factor in Choi's playing time -- just a potentially minor factor (and I've seen this argument raised before on this board) -- which lends itself to wild conspiracy theories.

Finally, I didn't mean to take the Kent thread on a crazy tangent. Enough about GA. I agree with you about Rhimes, again like I said in my first post, she is the producer and there are some perqs that come with that position.

78 - I didn't mind the tangent.

Excellent research by Jon showing Kent's woeful start -- but it's also been a brilliant early 2006 for Jeff Kent.

He showed what a shrewd politician he is when he got Ned to guarantee him $11.5 million -- the same Ned that he helped get the GM job.

You would think that if a ballclub is willing to extend a contract of an old 2B who is coming off surgery, there would be some reciprocity in the deal.

But Kent made it seem like he was doing the LAD a favor and extracted a nice raise. I really hope he reaches all of those PA incentives so that he can get even more money from Frank and Ned and Jamie. Only when stupidity is fully punished can it ever change. Of course, when it comes to the LAD contract negotiations, that theory doesn't hold up.

Of course, now that Kent is locked up through 2007, his lameduck status won't be a "distraction" in the clubhouse.

The asian movies that you tend to see in western countries are often marketed towards western audiences, thus the kung-fu and violence in the movies. From what I observed in my two weeks in China and other studies of their pop culture, language and people, I think that America enjoys violence on TV and movies more than they do. There are many great Chinese movies that have no kung-fu fighting in them. Many of them are available at your local Blockbuster in the foriegn movie section. Well worth renting as opposed to the Hollywierd "shoot em up, blow em up" mindless movies imho.
vr, Xei

I'm just making a statement about human nature. I'm just as guilty as the next person in this "birds of a feather" tendency. I don't live in an idealized world that one wishes it to be, but rather in one that is. I wish it weren't so, and I try not to be, but I see that it persists everywhere.

I think everyone would acknowledge that people who have the same alma mater tend to have a connection that two people who attended different colleges do not. When even such a minor connection such as the choice of college plays a major role in important decisions like whether a job candidate gets hired or not, I don't believe that a connection that has many more meaningful attributes like culture and language has absolutely zero effect.

81. Xeifrank

Agree. Probably in some parts of the world they think that Americans are cowboys...

My favorite Chinese (Taiwan) movie in the last few years is Yi Yi. Very engaging story of a large family dealing with everyday issues. Sounds boring, but I loved it.

Well, that's because most American actors ARE cowboys.

301/302 is a great Korean movie. There's no way to put a sufficient disclaimer on it, though, without ruining the story. It's a very, very dark, dark comedy.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0112257/

changing the topic back to the dodgers...

I dunno if i am fond of jeremy jeffress. Hes not a sexy name like drabek or kershaw or willems.

82 - I'm not saying that people don't play favorites, and that race doesn't play into that. But I'm not going to intentionally hire a dumb Stanford guy over a smart Cal guy. And so if I did hire a Stanford guy because I believed (rightly or wrongly) that he was more talented - and often these things are very close to call - I'd really resent the baseless implication that that was because of negative bias.

I firmly believe racism exists to this day in insidious ways, but just because racism exists doesn't mean it's naive to think racism didn't play a part in a specific event.

You can insert your own Stanford jokes here now, if you like.

Yi Yi was a great movie, you're right. Beautifully done. It was quite long if I recall but it didn't matter.

I hope the Dodgers start a winning streak for once so we can all talk specifically about the games again (not that I mind tangents, because I love the ones on this site, but at least for me, I feel a certain level of aversion to talking about painful subjects.) Here's to less pain... soon!

[88] it's not that you would intentionally choose in the face of objective knowledge; it's more that you would be (and this isn't a convenient example because ) more likely to presume that the stanford guy would be smart and that the cal guy would be dumb, and that because you start with that mindset, you'd have a hard time getting past it, and it would take a lot more evidence to convince you to the contrary.

(and feel free to mentally subtract that extraneous "because")

I vividly recall Tracy putting his arm around Werth's shoulder, and coaching him in an animated manner. Right after that, Werth went out an hit a home run. Tracy NEVER did that with Choi.

Maybe Tracy couldn't reach Choi's shoulder? :)

Since he's a huge, rippling hunk of Asian masculinity, that is.

from BA:

"The Devil Rays placed lefthander Chuck Tiffany on the seven-day DL with shoulder soreness. Tiffany was 0-2, 6.89 with 14 walks in 15 innings at Double-A Montgomery . . ."

I would recommend the following asian flicks.
Ju Dou (starring Gong Li)
To Live (also starring Gong Li)
Raise The Red Lantern
Eat, Drink, Man, Woman (Taiwanese)
there are many others too. The artistic qualities and the hidden and often times not so hidden story lines can easily capture an audience without big explosions, gun fights, and general destruction. If only more Americans craved interesting movies (sigh). vr, Xei

90 - I understand, but what is the evidence that Jim Tracy is more likely to make that presumption other than the fact that other white men in history have made that presumption. To me, that's not enough to make the accusations people are making.

There is no pattern of anti-Korean bias in Tracy at all. Choi was just one guy.

88 Yeah, but you'd hire a Stanford guy if they were almost the same ability. ;-) I think we agree more than you realize... I just think that a guy who was guilty of blaming everyone else for the team's problems and never taking responsibility, also had other self-awareness problems. How much did Choi's race figure into not getting in Tracy's lineup? 0%? 100%? Well, I tend to believe it was somewhere in the range of 5%. I don't believe it was 0%.

The basic consensus among Koreans is that Choi had to be really good, to force Tracy's hand. But, he was just mediocre, or slightly better than the other options that the Dodgers had. A lot of Korean Americans feel really disappointed in him (unfairly, in my opinion), that he is not a superstar. That is how most Korean Americans feel about living in America. We have to be head and shoulders better than the next guy, to get a head. Just being average just does not cut it. We have to go for the KO and not leave it up to the judges.

BTW, I have no idea what a Stanford joke would be like. GW is my alma mater. Growing up in Texas, Aggie jokes were the norm.

94 I watched a dubbed version of "Eat Drink, Man, Woman." The dubbing simply ruined the movie. Horrible. "Ju Dou" was tragic, as was "Raise the Red Lantern."

96 - I realize that we agree for the most part - I just get nervous at what I thought were casual accusations of racism.

My favorite Asian movie is one of my favorite movies of all time, period: Kurosawa's "Heaven and Hell" (mistranslated into "High and Low" for U.S. audiences).

More recently, I really liked "The Twilight Samurai" and "House of Flying Daggers."

97. Alot of great Chinese movies are tragic due to the extremely rough times China has gone through in the past 100 or so years. Also, many of the foriegn movie festivals like the one in Cannes eat up these type of movies, so more are made. And unfortunately, quite a few of these movies (like Ju Dou) get banned by the Chinese government. The Chinese govt really sucks, my wife can back me up on that as she was in the Tiananmen Square doo-hingy... and on top of that they blocked DodgerThoughts while I was online there. Of course it could've been that I spelled the URL wrong or it was one of those evenings where we had over 1000 posts and the site was bogged down. But I like to think that the Chinese govt feels threatened by DT's large group of followers.
vr, Xei

If you want dark, try "Audition." And brace yourself.

98 I know what you mean. My statement was merely about human nature, and I'm including JT as a member of the human race, vulnerable to this foible. Not doing a Milton Bradley and directing it at JT at the exclusion of others.

"I'm including JT as a member of the human race"
-

Which is more than some people here were willing to do last year...

An IMDB search for "Audition" gets you the following titles, among many others:

Ôdishon (1999)
aka "Audition" - (English title)
Audition (2004/I)
Audition (2004/III)
Audition (2004/IV)
Audition (2004/II)
Audition, L' (2005)
The Audition (2000)
The Audition (2003)
The Audition (2002)
The Audition (2004/I)
The Audition (2004/II)

[103] jim tracy is all too human, i'd say.

104--It'd be the first one, I think.

"Audition" is one of the most disturbing movies I've ever seen. It's really, really scary.

If you want to talk Kurasawa, then Yojimbo is on my top 10 list. Just a great re-telling of a great Hammett book. Throne of Blood, Kurasawa's version of Macbeth is also great.

My favorite Asian movie is "Ran." Amazing cinematography.

Most Kurosawa I don't really get into. I fail to see what's so special about, for example, Rashomon or Throne of Blood. But Heaven and Hell just blew me away.

Part of the problem is that Toshiro Mifune's hamming generally grates on me.

96. Is that the same GW whose students decided to crash the Georgetown-Pitt basketball game this year dressed with GW painted on their faces, only some of them because they painted their own faces looking in a mirror actually painted "WG" on their faces? That GW?

109 An odd aside that I never figured out why Kurosawa decided to do this. If you actually read the short story anthology "Rashomon," you'll see that the story, "Yabu no Naka," ("In the Grove") was taken for the storyline of the movie. The actually story "Rashomon," was about a samurai's aide who refrains from killing a old woman who was making a living by stealing hair from corpses to be sold to make wigs.

96 I don't know about that incident. I've pretty much lost touch with goings on about GW. I pretty much ignore calls from the 202 area code, knowing it's alumni assoc. asking for money.

mota has walked the bases loaded. hes thrown like 2 strikes to 3 batters.

lol, he walks kotsay.

no one warming up.

lol mota is getting rocked.

Looks like I may be going to my first game Sunday with the Brewers in town. I get Stadium Club admission too. Last year, the good beer in the club was actually 50 cents cheaper than the same beer in the grandstands.

114 But according to Jayson Stark and an anonymous NL executive, the Marlins still got the better end of THE TRADE.

115 Check this out:

http://www.funideas.com/binocularflask.html

104 This one:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0235198/

94 I've actually seen all of those!

Also, I think, you might be surprised at what people want to watch. I'm in Tennessee, and as much as I love the state and its people, I sometimes fall victim to the prejudice that most of its citizens are narrow-minded fundamentalist-xenophobes. But I work with people from all socio-income-education-etc levels, and I've been surprised at the movies that people have liked and recommended to me.

118 Thanks. Just added it to the queue.

118 That's one dark and creepy movie. It wasn't as great as some of the horror freaks made it out to be (in my opinion).

Oh yeah, the creepiest movie I've ever seen was the original "the Vanioshing" Spoorloos.
I don't recommend seeing it by yourself.

Ack.

Spoorloos, aka "the Vansishing".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096163/

Interesting lineup the Angels won with today. Kennedy batted 5th then was followed by quite a bit of youth... Kotchman, Kendrick, Napoli and Murphy. Probably will be seeing something similiar for the Dodgers next season or a little later. Tonight's Padre/Dodger sim will be ran shortly. Looks like it could be a slugfest given the pitching matchups. The Padres can only hit on the road this year. I understand "park factors", but this is a little too odd.
vr, Xei

122 It was far better than the crappy American remake. I can't believe that the same dude directed both.

For those into such things, there's a free webcast going on now of a Pearl Jam show from the Letterman studio.

http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/live_on_letterman/

bob wickman is fat.

127. Nope. He's just dietarily impaired.
vr, Xei

or is metabolically challenged, perhaps? maybe he's big-boned? :)

Cool blog, first time poster. I'm glad Kent has been moved down and Nomar up. Drew is hot so let him clean up. Ethier is going to be an all-star so let him play.

http://www.aaronwaymire.blogspot.com

The original "The Vanishing" is one of the creepier, more unsettling movies I've seen (really the ending more than anything else). (I haven't seen "Audition" mainly because I haven't felt like watching the truly dark aspects of the human mind splashed up on screen.)

For another Miike film, though, check out "Zatoichi". It's a remake/sequel to a long-running series about a blind swordsman -- loosely remade in the 1980s as "Blind Fury", starring Rutger Hauer(!) -- but the American knockoff is far weaker than Miike's version, which contains a ton of extremely elegant violence (CG blood spraying in artistic arterial patterns through the air as swords whip about), as well as odd musical moments (concluding with a feudal hoe-down that has to be seen to be believed).

130 - Thanks for saying hi, Aaron. Just checked out your blog - you'll be happy to know that I proposed to my wife at around midnight one rainy summer night at the Binghamton airport.

132 I think you're showing favoritism to Aaron because of his Jewish first name.

...just kidding.

The difference between the two versions of "The Vanishing" illustrate what's wrong with Hollywood, IMHO. The ending for the foreign version was perfection; the Hollywood version was obviously changed to satisfy a test-screening audience, and they just ruined it.

134 What's also interesting is that the remake follows the original pretty closely, up to one specific point. After that, it's a complete meltdown.

Exactly. And wasn't the remake done by the same director of the original? I wonder what the point was, except to get Americans who don't watch subtitled films into theaters to watch an Americanized version. Unfortunately they commercialized the third act.

102 -- Geez, we're getting soft around here.

137 Sniff...you've hurt me...

Tonight's game sim just completed. The sim has correctly picked the right team to win 4 out of 5 times, which basically means it's perfect and nobody is allowed to disagree with it. :) The game, billed as a potential slugfest, which by Padre/Dodger standards could be defined as a 2-1 game did feature alot of hitting. The Padres struck first with a single run in the top of the 1st inning. The Dodgers countered with two in the bottom of the 1st when Lofton singled, scored on a triple by Furcal who later scored on a single by Drew. The Dodgers knocked Hensley out of the game in the bottom of the 5th inning and Tomko departed after 5-1/3. The Padres scored one in the top of the 6th to tie the game, only to see the Dodgers score three in the bottom of the 6th on a 3-run double by D.Navarro. The Padres quickly tied the score back up, teeing off on the Dodger bullpen with a 2-run double by Giles and an RBI single by Piazza. That's when the Padres got Kentrified. Mr Kent blasted a two out 3-Run HR off of relief pitcher Brian Sweeney to take an 8-5 lead. Hamulack and Baez shutdown the Padres in the last two innings and the Dodgers won.
WP-T.Hamulack
LP-B.Sweeney
SV-D.Baez
HRs: Mueller, Kent, Piazza

139 Does the simulator predict how many anecdotes Rick Monday will grace us in the middle of each home run call?

Our old friend Guillermo Mota had a bad day today vs. the A's, bunch of walks, 3 runs, even though only 1 hit...

140. My computer doesn't have enough RAM to simulate Rick Monday. vr, Xei

This will be the game chat thread.

This will be the game chat thread

Hey batter batter-swing.

(I'm now band.)

i had to turn off the mets-pirates game; the mets announcers were talking about jim tracy and what a great guy he is and how he got sooo screwed over by the dodger management and that they set him up to fail and boo hoo hoo. i was eating and had to shut the game off before i got completely nauseated.

144. I suppose the Pirates set him up to fail too? vr, Xei

The Mets announcers may not be human either.

Swisher for Gagne!

144 Giving JT a scrappy lineup is setting him up to fail.

no, the pirates are a "perfect fit" for him. the players are just young and will go through some growing pains. they were compared to the late 80s/early 90s braves.

this, according to the mets telecast.

And to think that Ron Darling went to Yale.

And I don't think the Pirates are going to be bad because of Jim Tracy. They are going to be bad because the players aren't good.

Well, the Nationals are down 10-2 (and I better type fast before it become more) and seem about to be two-game-swept by lowly Florida. The Nationals only two RBI came off the bat of pitcher Livan Hernandez (doesn't really make up for his 7ER or 4 BB).

Rumours that Hernandez is finished as a pitcher and considering requesting a trade to an AL team where he can DH are, well, being started right here and now.

151 Aye, but the rub is that JT believes that they are good.

11-2 now.

Sergio ISOpedroza is living up to his name.

this season's ISO numbers:
ISOd: 172
ISOp: 272

The Lerners are considering flipping the team to Jeff Smulyan for $451 million.

153- Does he? If they are losing, in his eyes it is certainly because the players aren't performing well. He would never think that was his fault (And, as Bob writes, it's not all his fault.)

The Pirates did load the bases against Glavine with 2 outs and Craig Wilson up.

Glavine went 3-0 on him and then got two strikes and Wilson flied out to right to end the inning.

Tracy is what he was in 2005 and probably will be for the rest of his career -- an arrogant teflon cipher. Any criticism in the face of a Dave Littlefield-created team wholly stems from his Kevin Malone-like declaration that Tracyball would save the day; it has not, and at that point, it really doesn't matter why.

Ron Darling thinks the Pirates will be greatly improved in August because of their starting pitchers.

But they still can't hit well.

[153] but he believes that the ones who are not good are good (j. wilson, duffy, paulino), and the ones who are good, are not (c. wilson, doumit, eldred, sanchez).

157 Let me rephrase. JT believe that he can win with talentless players by practicing the fundamentals of productive outs, hit and run plays, and stealing bases.

159 - Arrogant Teflon Cipher. Sounds like a challenging villain for the Ambiguously Gay Duo.

162

Tracy has never been a big fan of the sacrifice (despite what we perceived about him) or even hitting behind the runner all that much.

He has talked about the Pirates trying to work the counts more and he seems to really like defense.

One more Nationals note -- Miguel Cabrera is 3-3 with a walk and 5 RBI.

Rumors that Stan Kasten is now offering to pay comcast to continue not showing Nationals games are also most likely untrue.

162 - I would phrase it as, "Tracy believes that he can win by maximixing the production of talented players more than the average bear by practicing the fundamentals of productive outs, hit and run plays, and stealing bases."

Sam, my father tells me Teddy and his family are sitting in the owners box tonight for the first time. Well, I guess he should learn the truth about his team early on.

I would phrase it as, "Tracy believes that he can win by pretending to have created a brand new theory of baseball so cool it could only be named after himself."

167 Would love to be a fly on that wall. Of course RFK is probably so quite, folks sitting 3 sections away can hear them anyhow . . .

168 LOL...to be fair, the Pittsburgh media came up with "Tracyball."

I've been flacking the book on The Griddle but Peter Morris's book "Game of Inches" is a great read. When you go look at Steve's statement in 168, you can likely find a section where Morris explains about how some particular facet of baseball is extraordinarily old.

Steve would be interested in 1904 that the NL wanted to outlaw bunting. And when President Taft was interviewed at a game in 1909, he said he hated bunting and liked watching players hit the ball as far as they could.

I'm beginning to think that one of the few truly new baseball strategies ever devised in our lifetimes is the way relief pitchers are used.

And I'm not sure that's a good thing.

170

The Pittsburgh media said that people in L.A. called it "Tracyball".

A meme never dispelled by He Who Shall Not Be Named, and conveniently discarded by the Poodles of the Pittsburgh Press Box when the team started 2 and 15, or whatever they are.

[172} Yeah, I know. But since Angelenos did not, Pittsburgh media invented it, though they give credit/blame elsewhere. ;-)

As fun as it is to mock the Pirates, we have only won four more games than them.

LAT -- did you see Tom Boswell's highly flattering profile of Ted Lerner. A good read, actually, with some nice lines: "His foursquare features don't evoke 'rich,' but rather 'ex-middleweight.' His fortune came from his gazillion buildings and malls. Who knew he would look like he'd hammered them together himself?"

Mostly focuses on Lerner's sports background, how he saw Babe Ruth play and how he was working as an usher when the Redskins lost 73-0 at Griffiths field. He was also there during an All-Star game when Dizzy Dean broke his foot.

http://tinyurl.com/hz8p6

175 -- If we mock us, then there is no conflict.

kents not in today's lineup:
ofton, CF

Furcal, SS

Garciaparra, 1B

Drew, RF

Mueller, 3B

Ethier, LF

Robles, 2B

Navarro, C

Tomko, P

Once again, Robles (who started the season at AAA) gets the start over Lucille II (who started the season on the big league squad).

I demand some Aybar!

177
At the very least, we should mock Jeff Kent.

if kent has a DL stint i think aybar will be called up to play.

in his 2nd AB, matt kemp hits a rocket to Right center, one hops the wall for a double.

then laroche follows up with a pop up to 2b. He needs to get going.

Well, down 11-3 with 2 out in the ninth, the Nationals finally find some offense and load the bases (only need to do that twice more, guys . . .)

which they did not do.

How does Grits expect us to win with this lineup? Not playing Kent, takes away 100 Veteran Leadership (tm) OPS points from tonight's lineup. There's only so much K Loft can do. You would think that Grits would have at least played Alomar to make up for Kent's absence.

I cannot bring myself to cheer for Tomko.

chris bootcheck of the angels is on the DL:

"Bootcheck was placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to May 3, with a strained left hamstring. He suffered the injury while running from the bullpen to the mound during the melee with the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday."

i wonder how stupid he must feel.

I used to have Tomko on my list, but I took him off. I've very loyal to laundry.

Do the Padres lead the league in guys named Clay (or some varation of said name)?

Anyone else find it funny to hear Vin say buffed up.

It looks like the once in every 10 starts Tomko is pitching tonight. You know, the one who tricks GMs into giving him multi-million dollar contracts.

I see we have a power upgrade at second tonight.

Clay Hensley is the only Clay on the Padres 25-man roster. Cla Meredith is on the 40-man.

Clay Condrey is on the Phillies.

too bad i have to sleep soon, but i can't say how nice it is to hear the dulcet tones of vin's smooth voice, even for an inning or two.

Nomar's parents are Mexican right?

If so, we should start calling him the Mexican God of Walks.

Mueller is now 3 for his last 26.

Does that mean he gets banished to the bench like Jose Cruz?

Nomar's father is Mexican and is most likely a typical mix of ethnicities that Mexicans are.

Nomar's mom is part Egyptian.

i'll say it again: choi would've gotten that :)

[198] nothing against mexicans, but "egyptian god of walks" has a much better ring to it, seeing as how they, like the greeks, have a famous polytheistic cultural heritage.

Mexican + Egyptian sounds like magician.

But, Nomar is no Magic.

He got nailed right on the wrist.

Sorry Mueller isn't really coming through for you tonight Bob.

But, Nomar is no Magic.

what are you talking about, he disappeared from 100 games last year!

DP, good job Tomko.

203

Some stories don't come out the way you want.

Ouch, that's gotta hurt Clay.

Andre the Assassin.

[200] ooh, how 'bout we call him Nomar "Walk-Like-An-Egyptian" Garciaparra?

i know it's a little clunky, but it more than makes up for that in cultural cachet.

When Vin says "cheeks", it is not a euphemism.

Watch me make pull 100 rbi's out of my hat.

gosh, what a painful game this is turning out to be.

Clay Hensley's Gameday photo gives me the impression that he was pretty excited to be having his photo taken.

This is sort of like the two-parter "House" with people getting their heads cut open.

i bet hensley's never been literally knocked out of a game before.

what happened on the field? says injury delay.

Ethier's bat shattered and the end of it hit Hensley in the head.

Ethier's bat broke and hit Hensley in the back of the head, because he was turned around watching the play.

And the Suns are not missing again!! Ughhhhh

Any chance the Padres bring in Dewon Brazelton?

suns forgot how to miss shots.

Send Brian Cook out there and tell him to just break hands.

Why are we just wasting a pinch hitter?

Navarro out.

222
It takes Sandy Alomar a long time to put on a chest protector I guess.

Navarro out? Why?

225- He was hit in the right arm with a foul ball during the top of the inning.

Navarro took a ball off the wrist because he kept his right hand out in the open for some reason.

He could have broken it. Know what that means...

Oh, Canadaaaa

And Mueller is out too. Sorry Dad.

[227] his hand was behind his glove. the ball hit his forearm.

why's mueller out?

I think it hit his wrist, but a catcher should keep their uncovered hand on the side our behind their back.

Now we'll probably win the game thanks to Alomar's Veteran Leadership (tm)

230

He's had I can't hit or make a good throw syndrome lately, he needs rest.

230- Because the double switch is one of the Sacraments of Grittle. I guess it was really important that Alomar's bat be as high as possible in the order?

228.

Las Vegas will look like it did last year in no time pretty soon at this rate.

Wait, so Mueller isn't hurt?

Grady, when I said that Mueller should be banished for going 3 for 26, I was joking.

We can't banish him for Ramon Martinez!

Pretty soon, this will be our line up:

Lofton
Furcal
Nomar
Drew
Kent
Ethier
Aybar
Martin.

I guess Furcal's .539 OPS isn't hurting the team quite as much in the #2 spot as it was in the #1 spot.

Tomko loves this ballpark, the ball just doesn't carry.

That would be true if it weren't blatantly false, especially compared to San Fransico.

holy cow kobe!!!

According to Yahoo! GameChannel, the Dodgers in the field are:

- Furcal at third
- JD Drew at shortstop
- Mueller at second
- Robles at first

Nomar is catching and we've decided to only have 2 outfielders: Ethier in center and Lofton in right.

shades of portland 2004!!!

240.

Giles' blast didn't go, neither did Hensleys.

And please, with the thick air in LA, it is pretty tough to hit a home run in DS.

The ball seemed to carry pretty well last night.

If the pitcher hangs a curve, even Geoff Blum can hit a tape measure shot.

242- that was a great shot by Kobe

Steinday seems surprised that Castilla (and Bichette) were much better hitters in Colorado than anywhere else.

Isn't Tomko's wife a playmate from the 80-90s? Link please?

248.

In colorado, he is a superstar. Everywhere else, he is an average 3B.

It's going to be interesting to see Coors's park factors for this year. Unless I'm completely wrong, it looks like their humidor is having the desired effect. Much like improving your interplanetary funksmanship.

I cannot wait till Brian Cook is off the team.

Tomko's ERA is below 4. It helps that he has faced a collection of the league's worst offenses (e.g. Pittsburgh, Chicago, San Diego 2X, etc.).

We continue to get good starting pitching.
What a start for Tomko. And he's the only one who can hit!

If Tomko wants a chance, he better go nine innings!

Buell Miller has a "sore right knee."

and they fall like flies...

If Ned had gone after Brandon Phillips like I had suggested, we could have had this lineup.
1. Furcal SS
2. Aybar 3B
3. Drew RF
4. Nomar 1B
5. Ethier LF
6. Phillips 2B
7. Repko CF
8. Navarro C

That was not a strike.

If Ned had gone after Brandon Phillips like I had suggested

He never listens to you.

Steinday's interviews are painful.

I missed Tomko's earlier win over the Padres, but he's part of an "elite" group of pitchers who have beaten the Dodgers as a Padre and the Padres as a Dodger.

The others are Alan Foster, Kevin Brown and Matt Herges.

Thank heavens for that thick L.A. air.

Players seem to be faking the steal a lot more than I can remember. We certainly haven't done anything to warrant such prudence.

So why would anyone walk Furcal?

You should not steal bases if Mike Piazza throws you out.

LOL. Piazza's got a gun.

265
It happens all the time. I just don't get it.

how does piazza throw out furcal?

Fortunately Hensley's tended to fall apart after 60 or 70 pitches this year.

How the hell did Piazza throw out Furcal? Was Furcal limping, was he hopping on 1 leg, or was he doing a crab walk to 2nd base?

265, 268-Because it's just not as easy as throwing the ball wherever you want.

272
Yeah, but just lob it down the middle. Furcal's not gonna hit it very far.

Piazza's throw was on a bounce and I think it just went right to Barfield who was in perfect position.

Things like this happen. During all of Piazza's career, I've always been surprised when he's thrown someone out.

Rumors Hamels may get called up.

Lakers shot 65% in the 1st half.
And are losing.

I cant remember the last time that has happened.

272-Even then it's not that easy. And if they did, he could still bunt, chop the ball into the ground, etc. Plus, he drove a couple balls in Arizona. His hand isn't so bad that he can't do a thing.

276
The Suns have only 8 rebounds. That probably hasn't happened in a while either.

Not like they have many of their own misses to get.

Looks like the Lakers-Suns game need 50ccs of Ben Howland style coaching! Stat!

I miss Howland Ball already.

Tomko threw 124 pitches in 7ip.
Hensley threw 77 in 6ip.

Tomko struck out 9 batters. Sometimes, strikeouts aren't always a good thing. Hensley has probably gotten some quick outs. When you have guys like Lucille, Alomar, and Nomar in the lineup, don't expect a very high pitch count from the opposing pitcher.

Is Ethier caucasian?

He might be the only caucasian named "Andre" that I've ever heard of.

284- Andre Agassi
Andre the Giant

284- I have a friend named Andre and he's white

I forgot about Agassi. Is his first name really Andre?

287-Beats me. D4P is the tennis officiando.

Officianado too.

Has anybody sat there watching a game and thought, "I wonder what the game looks like from the grass's perspective"?

Quit it already Fox. It's annoying.

Saito looks like a Sammy in his gameday photo.

291
I'm pretty sure Takashi is Japanese for "Sammy".

Reality is starting to creep in on the Lakers.

Reality is starting to creep in on Takashi Saito.

lol. great team!

Tomko took his thick air with him. Lousy selfish bastard.

Saito is showing his true self. This is what I expected from him when he was signed. He's a mop up man at best. Does Ned have any moves to brag about now that Saito and Mueller have gone in the tank?

Scouting reports must travel fast. Maybe the league has a read on how Saito pitches now.

Khalil Greene taking him deep has to be almost a Grabowski Principle, no?

What's the deal with Dodger pitchers not going after hitters?

Greene has five home runs, so it wasn't Duane Kuiper taking Saito deep there.

I'm a Lakers fan but I almost wouldnt mind the Suns beating the Lakers in Game 6, just because you know in Game 7 Kobe Bryant would try to do it all, like put on a historic type of game.

I kinda want to see that. See him tell PJ the heck with the gameplan and just go score 60 and beat the Suns himself.

The point of the Grabowski Principle was to be an alert to potential damage. If the damage has already been done, it's kind of moot to invoke the GP.

31
They would still lose. If they do not win this game I think the Suns are going to have too much momentum, especially at home.

Walking Ramon Martinez could be a Grabowski Principle indicator.

The sensing tools are a little off.

301

That's some high quality rationalizing there.

*301

301 - I learned in the 1982 NL West race that I'd much rather have my team win unpoetically than lose epically.

D george!

Jeff Kent is now 3 for 28 in his career as a pinch hitter.

If you look at Kent's Hot/Cold zones on sportsline. He's cold all over the strike zone except for one spot: right down the middle and up. The one spot pitcher avoid like the plague.

I almost wouldnt mind the Suns beating the Lakers in Game 6, just because you know in Game 7 Kobe Bryant would try to do it all, like put on a historic type of game.
I'm hoping for the same. I want the Lakers tired when they play the Clippers :)

305. I like entertainment. Game 7's are fun. I figured the Lakers would be lucky to win 2 games before the series started, so in a sense they've already fufilled my expectations.

312

Winning can be quite entertaining.

312
Yeah, I did not expect them to win either, but now that they are so close they need to win!

Regression to the mean is a harsh mistress.

309: Didn't Kent come in on a double switch and play defense first? I don't think that qualifies as a pinch hit appearance.

316 - No, Kent was hitting for Tomko.

Jeff Kent is 3 for 27 as a pinch hitter.

It was a double switch.

Grady Little with a double-double tonight!

According to Gameday, Kent played defense in the top of the 8th.

I just got home and I see its deja vu all over again.

Also, I don't understand Little's logic. If you want to give Kent the day off, give him the day off. Bringing him in to play the 8th and 9th with 1 AB is what you do with your reserve players. Little could have pinch-hit with Repko or Saenz.

The only logic I can see is that Little wanted Saito to go more than one inning and felt a double-switch was his only option, but that seems strange to me in a 0-0 game.

Really? Sorry - I totally missed that.

Project GRITLE is not off to a good start.

You were not alone.

That Martinez for Mueller thing was weird. Is Mueller hurt or was that just Grady being Grady?

The boos for Piazza, believe it or not, get louder for every at-bat.

I will evoke Lawler's Law for tonight's game.

I think the Suns are feeling the pressure of the 4th quarter.

326 - The decline in class of Dodger fans is so depressing.

Mueller was banged up - perhaps on the diving stop he made.

327
That may comeback to bite the Lakers in the you know where.

327

You think the Padres are going to score 97 runs in the 9th?

Maybe, they boo Piazza for his ridiculous press conference and his stupid commercials.

The decline in class of Dodger fans is so depressing.

It's all Al Gore's fault. The classy fans like ourselves now stay home and chat on blogs and message boards instead of going to the games.

331 - Was it Cumberland U. that first proved Lawler's Law?

Can someone tell me why A. Gonzalez was not bunting there? I'm only asking as I have Barfield on my fantasy team and need that run.

Otherwise, I'm totally rooting for the Dodgers, I swear. I used to live on 23rd between Hoover and Fig in 1992. That's gotta count for something.

I assume Adrian Gonzalez isn't a good bunter.

Or maybe Bochy doesn't feel that he needs to get one run. He's up by 3. The Padres would be better off trying to go up by 6 than by 4.

I've never seen two teams get just completely blown away by two more mediocre fastballs. The Padres looked like they were playing Nate Colbert, Garry Templeton and Tim Flannery. The Dodgers just look hopeless.

Help, I need somebody,
Help, not just anybody,
Help, you know I need someone, help.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me.

And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze.
But every now and then I feel so insecure,
I know that I just need you like I've never done before.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now these daya are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors.

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me, help me, help me, oh.

This song applies to Kent, Mueller, Lofton, Alomar, and the dodger's bullpen.

I don't think Broxton's fastball would be considered mediocre--unless you are talking about location.

Could be refering to Tomko.

Broxton will be the Dodgers setup man in a few weeks

341
Do the Dodgers really need a setup man...?

333

Only Al Gore can save the Dodgers from being totally devestated by Manbearpig.

Tomko was the only bright spot tonight.

Lawler's Law (but that only works when the Clippers are involved)

I was referring to Tomko's. Poor Mike Cameron and Vinny Castilla look like they were turned to stone by the White Witch. Piazza, great as he was, does not look much better. In the meantime, I am going to call Furcal Fur-kel until he pulls his OPS up to at least an Izturisian .625.

Lawler better be right this time!

And poor Giles and Drew -- they just get to take their bases and watch, because no one will pitch to them.

Stupid shot by Kobe.

Is there some other game going on?

350
Uh, I think the Dodgers were also playing, or something.

Kobe>Jeff Kent

And I'm a Clippers fan

Another stupid shot by Kobe (that went in)

353 - If he hadn't shot that, it would have been a 24 second violation.

When is the last time the dodgers hit a double?

The Dodgers lead by the Nats by 3 games in the conference standings.

353
Yeah, but he should have passed it long before that.

The Dodgers had 3 doubles Tuesday.

How are the Jazz playing? Stockton-to-Malone keeps humming along after all these years. They'll never retire.

What a shot by Tim Thomas. Kobe will probably win it here.

359
But Mark Eaton appears to be on his last (pasty white) legs.

I think one of these years the Jazz might win it. Malone certainly deserves one. I only hope they don't run out of time.

I think Malone should sign with the Lakers to get that one shot at a ring. I think all the pieces are in place. I see it as "win-win".

Maybe Malone needs to go to another team that has a really good chance of winning a championship.

Looks like Kobe won't be passing the ball for the remainder of the game.

If they could just get a solid center and maybe make a decent draft pick. I think Hornacek makes them better though.

363- you're joking right?

I think Hornacek makes them better though.

His free-throw shooting cheek rub belongs on The List.

365 - With Kwame dropping bounce passes to him in the lane, I don't see why Kobe would pass....

I don't see why Kobe shouldn't shoot? Would you rather have Luke Walton shooting?

Series over!

After going to tonight's game I'm feelin' a sort of late-90s vibe.

No Battle of LA and I blame Rob Lawler!

372

All I think the Dodgers need to do now is bring back Tom Candiotti and Eric Karros and it's 1992 all over again.

Ralph Lawler.

Watching UFC and I accidentally say an ex-UFC fighter. I blame Ralph Lawler!

We even have Fur-kel and Mary Kent Olson

Goodness, I sense resignation in the air. No rending of garments here tonight?

Sometimes I think it's a good thing I turn the game off while making dinner; saves my digestion.

This marks two nights in a row I'm glad I ended up watching TiVOed shows rather than baseball. I'm not worried about the long-term, but short-term this is all very frustrating.

379. I'm not worried either as long as our starters go 9 every night.

Game 7 should at least be very entertaining.

From Dodgers.com:
Kent is not suffering from any injuries, Little made clear, he just felt it was a good time to give Kent a break.

Unless this is like keeping Shawn Green's injury a secret, at least we know its not the wrist surgery.

D'Back reliever Casey Daigle and his wife, former Olympic softball star Jennie Finch, welcomed their first child into the world Thursday afternoon.

With both his parents being pitchers, he was given the name, "Ace."

I guess its better than Surey Cruise.

The only cool Ace ever was Ace Ventura.

384 - Quick! Everybody throw down some Ace Ventura quotes!!

Park Ranger: "Ventura, I'd get down from there if I were you..."
Ace: "Well if you were me then I'd be you! And I'd use your body to get to the top. You can't stop me no matter WHO you are!!!"

"Why?" "So you can beat him, fatty!"

"Why don't you cry about it, saddlebags!"

What I like is the vesatility, the flexibility, the . . . the . . . je ne sais que of it all. You can lose because your starting pitcher gives up too many runs. You can lose because your relief pitcher gives up too many runs. You can lose because your top of the order guys go o-fer. You can lose because you get nothing from slots 5-9. You can lose majestically by giving up a bucketload of runs in the bottom of the ninth. You can lose meekly by getting just 2 hits against some guy named Clay. The other guy's superstars can kill you, or it can be the no names who've never killed anyone before.

Ah the glory of baseball.

Actually, reading that over (written with our Dodgers in mind), it occurs to me that you might think I'm talking about the Nationals!

pretty sad, really.

So, with the Pirates arrving in town for a weekend series (a team that actually has a worse record than the Nationals, for now), things are getting pretty ugly in DC after last night's grim loss. Think the new owners like this quote (esp. the last two lines) from Frank Robinson after last night's game: "I'm very surprised [the fans] are not throwing things at us. We deserve whatever they might do or say. I'm amazed that they're still coming out here. I wouldn't pay to see us." Meanwhile, Bowden essentially points the finger at Robinson with a tirade of "we've got more talent than the results we're getting."

Happily, Robinson has found a solution -- WILL: "'I guarantee you,' he said. 'Starting tomorrow, we will play better, and I will manage better.'"

I had seats near the visiting dugout for Saturday night's game, but my wife appropriated them (as well she should).

And oh, Jim Bowden has another reason for his presence on the last. As of last night, he's caught at least one more foul ball than Bob Timmmermann (app. it flew into his box, bounced around, he picked up, and tossed to the crowd).

Rob reports at 6-4-2 that the Mets have called up Jose Lima.

"That's why I know this organization is headed in the right direction. That's why I know success is imminent. That's why I know that we will be dancing in the streets of Los Angeles this October!"

That's a quote from Lasorda's blog. I wonder what league he's living in. I was hoping for .500 and that's looking like an increasingly difficult goal.

392 I think excessive optimism is part of the ghost-blog-writing marketing intern's job description.