Now is the time to panic.

WOW.

This Odalis situation is going to end badly.

How can a second baseman misplay a ball so badly that the batter makes it to third?

it was a pop up to short right. He dove for it and it went off his glove. Cabrera made it all the way to third. There's NO way that should have been an error.

Thank you.

Astros... 4-12-0
Dodgers.. 3-12-0
12 innings. Go Dodgers!
vr, Xei

Well, I'm glad Robles is gone, I'm not particularly glad to see OP and I hate the idea of Gio on any Dodger team.

yeah that was bizzare. That error is a ridiculous call though. I have a feeling that if the ball didn't bounce so far off his glove and Cabrera was held to a single it wouldn't have been an error. But he basically had to dive for it...should have been a triple all the way...

Reminds me of something else...in the infamous words of Rowdy Roddy Piper: "Just when you think you have all the answers I change the questions!"

And I'm off to collect those warm fuzzy Dodger fleece blankets. The best giveaway the Dodgers do all year.

I think I am going to be ill.

Grits almost has the right lineup. Take Kent out and it's fine.

Why not send down Lucille instead of Robles? Oscar has given the team some quality at bats while he's been up here, he's a better defender than Lucille and he's left handed.

nate- I'm growing a beard (minus the mustache)

pretty sure lucille doesn't have options left.

Just suicide.

If they want to have any chance of dealing perez they should probably hope for a couple good starts to up his value a bit...even if it isn't all that much.

Pedroza has a similar problem. He hit his 8th homer today, good for a tie for second in the SAL. His 26 walks rank 1st in the league. the 25 yr old Ryan Russ is begging for Pedroza to take his OF spot, but the Dodgers don't seem to be in a hurry

agreed. I guess, in a way, this is a good problem to have. I just honestly don't see Sele getting through too many more starts without getting shelled...but who knows, maybe he can be decent until Bills is ready.

The whole Perez situation has more drama than an episode of 90210

http://tinyurl.com/rhgr3

"No, I really don't think I have anger management issues," he said. "I'm competitive. I just let the emotions get a little better than me sometimes. I've got to control that."

PS: My first tinyurl try - did it work?
So, translated: I don't have anger management issues. I just have to control my anger.

Oh, OK, when you put it that way....

his BA is up to .353

when does he go to sin city?

Because that's what it looks like on Gameday.

I have a feeling we should use this fill in the blank moving forward with Ned and Grady.

If Huston Street can close it out.

Beats me. Maybe he's sick. Or maybe he had theater tickets.

So you're cancelling the Red Alert?

Injury delay--please be Kent!

4 runs in the first to one of the worst offenses in the PCL. and still only 1 out.

The 1953 Yankees won the World Series and had 13 different starting pitchers.

Meanwhile, about me, I'm pretty psyched to have fallen into tickets to see Justin Verlander pitch at Camden Yards tomorrow night.

1.1IP 6H 6ER 3bb 3k

his era has ballooned up 3.44

at the start of the game he was at 2.04

Dude! That's a great at bat by Ersty! He helped out the team!

83 - I hate the "lede" spelling. I'm a conscientious objector to it.

"got your binoculars?
check.
got your scorecard?
check.
got your pencil?
check.
got your beachball?

i just don't leave home without my beachball."

good stuff.

Nomar run scoring play!

There is no more powerful force in baseball than Fear of Change. In fact I believe Joe Morgan has a motto to that effect tattooed on his ass.

seriously, though. between nomar and drew, what's the over-under for games played between the both of them? just seems like a perfect setup for heartbreak to rest your hopes on these guys' medical charts.

He's still better than Neifi (check the stats, they're ugly).

Who would have thought that Seo Seo would be worse than Tomko?

Doesn't rhyme that well, does it?

How is Houlton doing in AAA? He's a much better option than Seo and at lesat he has a little bit of potential.

hes doing terrible, he has 5.46 era

Well, it's far from over. But I'll try to help things by turning it off for awhile.

Which sentence does not fit?

(Leinart was on the telecast, for those not watching.)

Absurd when you think about it. It would be the equivalent of Bonds breaking Ruth's mark, then going on to hit 575 more.

im saying that all the "navarro sucks" comments were way too premature just like all the seo sucks comments might be too premature as well.

I personally dont have a preference of either martin or navarro right now.

Really, if we replace Houlton with Seo, we'd end up with a Penny, Lowe, Tomko, Houlton, Sele rotation. Once Tomko gets his inevitable bombing, what do we do then? Billingsly as the number three? As bad as Seo seems now, we really don't have a better option.

Seo has more of a track record then navarro. Do you think Seo was trying to throw his fb right down the middle? I personally do not and he just didnt have his location today. We all know Seo lives and dies with his ability to locate his pitches.

All i am saying is, baseball is a long season, to jump to conclusions off of one month of play is shortsighted.

Hey, no "Scrubs" spoilers! We don't want to miss out on any narrative surprises!

Oh wait, never mind.

So now having good command is luck? I really dont understand that. Pitchers improve their command as they get older so I dont find seo improving his command a fluke. Seo's minor league average bb/9ip is 1.96. So i dont know how you can say a pitcher having a improvement in command in his late 20s, is a fluke and not a normal progression.

To be fair to Houlton, he's only had 1 bad start down there. He gave up 9runs at Colorado Springs. That outlier is messing up his ERA.

dont you think 30 innings might equal "small sample size"?

The Astros are lucky to have 3 proven 100 rbi guys. Maybe we can trade for Jeromy Burnitz.

666

ahhhhh

you could say that, but i didnt. I said his 2005 season was not what you should expect out of seo, but a sign that he has progressed. His 2003 year was pretty good as well.

No one has called Seo a great pitcher, not even colletti who traded him to be the #5 starter. He has the ability to be a solid pitcher, he has shown that already and 30 or so innings this year is too small of a sample size for me to make me think he is doomed.

Bill Mueller $5 million total salary (I think)- $4 million for Veteran Leadership™
K Loft- about $4 million with all but $25,000 for Veteran Leadership™ (the $25,000 goes to K Loft's charity of choice which happens to be AARP)

again why are you looking at such a small sample size and ignoring his whole minor league record? His numbers in AAA last yr were average because when he was sent down, he was working on two pitches, a split finger and another pitch i forget which right now. I think if you go back and log each of his AAA outings from last year, you would probably see a significant improvement from his earlier outings to his later ones.

And he gets aboard safely?

Parallel universe, take me away!

Anyone know how Choi's doing. I hope he gets a chance with Boston. He's way better than J.T. Snow.

You get the HORNS!

in today's outing, he touched 96. It looks like he is sacrificing velocity for more control.

I mean we could have gone with billingsley over tomko, anyone over lofton, aybar over mueller, robles or if we kept guzman at ss over furcal, anyone over nomar since 1b is the easiest position to play plus kept choi, and whoever over baez we have plenty of relievers kuo is in the minors right now.

I mean 2 quality starting pitchers with penny, lowe, billingsley, with seo and perez in the pen.
Heck if we need nomar then fine subtract 6 m from 34.7 m and it equals 28.7 m which is enough for 2 quality starting pitchers.

BTW , whats going an with Laroche-I thought he's be coming around by now.

looks like bad luck. his BABIP is .257 and the average is around .330 or so. his k: bb ratio is 18:22 in 119ABs so he is controlling the strike zone extremely well.

Then there's Kemp whose been way consistent in Vero, ari, and Jax. He's ahead of schedule and now people are saying he can play center.

You can get to Long Beach from Dodger Stadium under optimal conditions.

Google Earth says you can go from Dodger Stadium to Downtown Long Beach in 27 minutes.

The Dodgers were going with some short term solutions for flexibility with the knowledge that Billingsley (and maybe Sele) could help, too. Meanwhile, Seo's awful not withstanding, I'm in the "wait a couple more months before casting final judgement" camp.

you forgot columbus as well. Kemp has improved every year he has played and there are still some skeptics because of his low walk rate. Well this year he is showing he can take a walk and control the strike zone. For a power hitter, its amazing that he is only striking out 15-16% of the time.

218 - Tell it to the Danbury Mint.

Oh, Kenny.

30 minutes from Oxnard to Northridge!

I will make sure that I don't ride in a car with you.

The two places are about 45 miles apart. So you would have to drive 90 mph to get there in 30 minutes.

Saenz!

I have an affinity for any ballplayer who looks even worse in a uniform than I would.

I drive faster the more runs middling reliever gives up.

Nice slide by Martin.

It's okay, we're among friends here.

Anyone see this in the notes? Sorry if it has already been posted:

"He [Gio] signed and will join Triple-A Las Vegas, but he is likely to be the first promotion if the big-league club needs a middle reliever"

The 43-year-old lefty from Uniontown, who is in his first season with the Arizona Diamondbacks, easily recognizes a winner.

The Pirates, he said -- his hometown team as a youngster in Fayette County and a team he pitched for in 2001 -- are getting closer.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_452301.html

Absolutely. Prior to his retirement, Wilson Alvarez was a charter member of the All-Buffet team.

Don't worry, if need be he'll turn it into a save situation. Sometimes he even likes to turn them into win situations.

On the other hand, he might be building up his trade value. His OPS just skyrocketed to over .600!

If this isn't "Gaem Over" I don't know what is. {gulp}

And that goes double for Baez

Kent isn't. He hit his home off of a AAAA pitcher with a career ERA of 6+. And the game was out of reach. The kid came in trying to throw strikes and threw a fat pitch down the middle to Kent.

lol. uncle miltie keeps pumping those 95mph fastballs right at kents chin.

??

unclue miltie: "What a show off, hes just padding his "good defensive plays" highlight reel so he can get into the Hall as a decent defensive second basemen."

Jae Seo surrendered six runs and three homers in 3 1/3 innings Tuesday against the Astros.
Seo has a 6.00 ERA and still hasn't pitched more than six innings in any of his seven starts. He's not going to lose his rotation spot right now, but since Odalis Perez isn't likely to remain in the pen for more than two or three weeks, Seo is going to need to outpitch Aaron Sele from this point on.

This is huge, he's not even eating innings. A bullpen is bad as is, but when tired it's like batting practice for the other team.

My bet is that, by the end of the season: Duaner + Sele < Hamulack (Osoria, Beimel, whoever) + Seo

Seo has stunk this year. He'll come around. Kent has stunk this year, but he'll come around. Duaner's been great this year, he'll revert.

No one has an answer except that by being taking out of their routines, not having their coaches and trainers around, pitching in high pressure situations before they were ready, all of those are being examined but with such a large sample of very diverse subjects, it may be a long time before MLB teams let their pitchers do this again.

Orenduff left last game after one inning with sore elbow. Billingsly gets crushed for the 1st time and why am I now worried that it may have something to do with his arm/shoulder/elbow. I always get these spiderman tingles when an ace prospect gets lit up as bad as Billingsly did.

This small sample size update has been brought to you by the "Ned may not be such an idiot after all" election campaign and is not endorsed by anyone associated with DT.

Wait.. no, Taylor. Sorry.

1. Repko - useless player who deserved no spot on any roster and a silly name was even created to remove him from the roster.

Seems that he is doing just fine as a 4th outfielder and I'd have to say the majority was wrong on DT.

2. Tomko - useless pitcher who will post a plus 5.00 ERA. Only BlueTahoe and ThinkBlue supported Tomko and made assertions that he could post a 3.90-4.50 ERA. They were ridiculed.

As of now the majority was wrong on DT. Time might be on the side of the prevailing DT posters but you can't ignore what he's done so far. Maybe tonight he gets toasted since I probably just jinxed him.

3. Nomar - would be a health issue and has lost his power. Some even suggested he would post a sub 800 OPS. I figure they did this based on last year's numbers, which would have been a fatal mistake because of the huge number of at bats missing from his most productive months during his career due to the early season injury.

The health issue is still up in the air. Has played every game but one since coming back and his power is not MIA. His skills at 1st base just based on a subjective opinion from those who have seats close to 1st have been excellent.

4. Choi - still centered on the fact that he could post a 250/390/475 line if give the chance.

In 102 AAA at bats has a 278/437/418 line. The OB is very promising but the lack of power is disappointing. This one is still up in the air but it is doubtful he will ever get the chance to prove DT posters right. Much like Roberto Petagine he may never get a 3rd chance.

5. Sandy Alomar - useless carcass

When able to play he has hit better then any other backup catcher. He gave Martin 100 at bats to percolate in AAA, which may or may not have meant anything. Seems to me he wasn't a useless carcass but more like a goat waiting for the T Rex called Russell Martin to turn him into a meal and end his solid career.

6. Dany's Baez - this seemed to split 1/2 and 1/2 between those that thought the trade would help upgrade our bullpen and those that thought you don't trade prospects no matter how dim the light for bullpen help.

Other then Steve I don't think to many would argue that with the Gagne injury having Baez to step into the closer has been a good thing.

7. Lance Carter - included in above trade and we all knew he had little skills.

He has proven DT posters 100% correct in that he had little skills.

8. Bill Mueller - another split. 1/2 seemed to think he was a good signing and the other 1/2 felt Aybar could do the job just as well for less money. The ones that didn't like Mueller felt his doubles would disappear in DS like a Saber Tooth Tiger in the tar pits.

I don't think Aybar could play the defense that Mueller does and Mueller doesn't seem to have much trouble still hitting doubles. I like the idea of Abyar playing everyday in AAA and tearing it up but I also think both sides could win this argument.

9. Antonio Perez - many DT posters hated the Milton trade and lamented losing A Perez based on his small sample size of last year when he tore it up in the beginning while totally discounting how he did in Aug/Sept and the fact his h% when he was tearing it up was over 40% and that no one on the Dodger staff had any confidence in his defense. During Spring Training, they pointed to comments by Ron Washington about what a great defender he was as further proof of the idiocy of the deal.

Reality is that A Perez is barely hanging onto a position as the 25th man in Oakland. He has yet to get a hit but that is due mainly to the fact he rarely plays. He has started 3 games to my knowledge and has been replaced for defensive purposes in each game. The utility Marco Scutaro is the player who gets his at bats. I think it is time we can stop lamenting the loss of A Perez. He is nothing special and even the utility Ramon Martinez is probably a better option as he can play 2nd, 3rd, and SS without the manager cringing.

10-Milton Bradley is heads and tails better then Kenny Lofton.

I've yet to see any proof of that. You would think that a power hitting CF coming into a combination of his peak year and walk year would be putting up the best numbers of his career. I'm still waiting for it to happen. As a RF he leaves much to be desired. It is very possible that Ethier could outhit Milton this year. Ethier projects to 275/350/425 with about 15-20 home runs. Isn't that close to Milton's career numbers?

I did not support the Tomko signing but I thought he was capable of posting a 4.5 ERA. I think most here thought he would be mediocre, not awful.

Sandy Alomar - useless carcass
Nothing has changed here

Nomar - would be a health issue and has lost his power.
Still is a health risk. Has never really been much of a power hitter, but I'm thrilled with the way he has performed so far. I thought his OPS would be in the mid .800's

Bill Mueller - another split. 1/2 seemed to think he was a good signing and the other 1/2 felt Aybar could do the job just as well for less money. The ones that didn't like Mueller felt his doubles would disappear in DS like a Saber Tooth Tiger in the tar pits.
Mueller is really slowing down. Why doesn't Grits bench him like he benched Cruz? Because of his Veteran Leadership and the fact that he's a former Red Sox.

Antonio Perez
He's getting maybe 1-2 at bats a week, at most. I don't see how a guy can produce when he rarely plays. Ken Macha prefers Marco Scutaro.

Milton Bradley is heads and tails better then Kenny Lofton.
It's still early. We've seen what Lofton is capable of defensively (not much). Both have almost the same number of at bats this year.

As for Ethier, he's an average defensive corner outfielder. I would hope that he could better than an excellent defensive center fielder. I don't think he'll be a better hitter than Bradley. If the A's can find a taker for Kotsay, Bradley will be moved back to CF. The most important thing is that if he were still playing for the Dodgers, he would be playing CF.

sub 2- Balderdash. The prediction was 4.00-4.10. That someone could claim precision within a tenth of a an ERA point based on, Tomko's having nearly done it once before (that was the state reason, if you'll recall) is a worthy of ridicule, on its face. It was, in part, bad spirited, which is regretable. But it was a clean kill.

sub 6- I argue against Baez's value with or without Gagne. When Gagne tries to come back to fast from his current injury and has to have his right arm amputated, it'll still have been a bad trade. Newly resigned Gio would have been about as good. Maybe better, maybe worse. Because that's how small sample sizes work.

completely agree. I remember that conversation well...it's impossible to predict someone's ERA with that little wiggle room.

Is it bad that I'm starting Tomko in my fantasy league tonight? Is it an even worse sign that he's on my team in the first place? ugh.

GO BLUE!! KEEP THE STREAK ALIVE!!

That said, I'm very pleasantly surprised by his productivity thus far. I STILL think that Choi/Saenz would have been just as productive at a fraction of the cost (ditto Aybar vs. Mueller), but if cost is no factor for McCourt this year, then I'm very satisfied with Nomar (and Mueller) so far.

But it's a long season. We'll see.

362
Your right about A Perez and his at bats. The point is that Oakland has as little faith in him as the Dodgers which is why he's getting so few at bats. So that is two teams with diverse people at the management level that don't seem to have faith in him.

Very hard for Milton to play CF for the Dodgers while on the DL. A place he is very acquainted with.

370
Why is that a good thing? To trade OP now would be trading him at his lowest value ever. The best you would get is a bag of balls that wouldn't include Victor Diaz attached to them.

quoting from: http://tinyurl.com/o56tq

--
176. thinkingblue
175.

Tomko should not have an ERA over 4.10. . .
--
179. blue22
176 - Tomko should not have an ERA over 4.10

Save that for posterity. And I expect Tomko to do good things for this team, but a sub-4 era is on the very high end of my expectations. He did have a 4.50 era in SF last year. Why would he (significantly) improve on that?
--
196. thinkingblue
179.

I didn't say under 4, I'm expecting it to be 4-4.10.
--
197. thinkingblue
180.

He did it 2 years ago, in 04. And he's moving to dodger stadium, where he will give up [fewer] home runs.
--
201. thinkingblue
199-200.

. . .I'm not saying he will have a sub 4 ERA, but I don't think it'll be higher 4.10. I just think being a fly ball pitcher in dodger stadium will help.

376
Baez has a decent historical size of data that shows what he can do at the major league level. I don't need 17 innings to make any appraisel of him. If Gio pitched 17 solid innings I would go to Vegas and bet your house that he wouldn't duplicate it over the next 17 innings.

FYI- Aaron Sele has pitched 81 innings in the month of May over the last 3 years and has an ERA of 4.22 which is by far his best month. We can't let him be in the rotation come June and if he's still there in July even I will be off the Ned bandwagon. His Bollinger Band will blow come July.

I'm thinking he gets there this year.

Part 1- I agree that it isn't outside the realm of possibility. I'm saying it's outside the realm of likelihood. And that it was based on nothing so much as wishful thinking. And that, as such, it was worthy of ridicule. Obviously, I'm wrong on even that point, since ridicule isn't acceptable, here, so my point is moot. Except that it wasn't dismissed because of reactionary stat-geek conceitedness, it was dismissed on the merits.

Anti-Repkoites don't like it when his stats are predicted by wishful thinking. Pro-Repkoites don't like it when his stats are predicted by the other sort of wishful thinking. Nobody likes it when it's being done in the opposite direction of predictions they've invested any thought in. And it makes for dull reading, "Well, I think Derek Lowe is a serious contender for a Cy Young this year because of the heart he showed in the World Series a couple of years ago," and, "Well, I think he'll be Scott Erickson bad because he'll never get over the shame of leaving his wife, etc." To be absolutely clear, I'm not accusing you of doing this, at all. I'm sure it irritates you as much as anybody, at least I am if I've been reading some of your posts as closely as I think I have, the last few months.

Part 2- Again, we agree. Baez is better than Gio; I have absolutely no trouble saying so. But if you're going to say that Baez's 17.3 IP (which may be a mistake on my part; it's just how I interpretted the tone of your list) this year demonstrate that acquiring him worked out (because of Gagne), then I'm going to say that washed-up, never great Gio could have done what Baez has, to this point, without costing two prospects, or bringing Lance Carter along for the ride. So long as Flanders doesn't extend him, I'm content that he's here (now that there's nothing to be done abot it), and look forward to the draft picks he'll be worth. But he's not pitched well, this year. We can agree on that, right?

This is not an accurate summary of any of the stated issues. That said, I'm glad that Toycannon and I were right about Nomar, and that the Bear Caucus has some 'splainin' to do, Lucy. :)