Or someone with an even better reputation!

The pieces are finally falling into place for our boys in blue. By the end of the month we should be in 1st place. By the end of June we should have a comfortable stranglehold on the division.

Gagne's on his way back. Baez is reverting back to his dominance he displayed last season and early this season. Saito's making a run at the rookie of the year as could fellow bullpen mate Johnny Brox. Beimel may be establishing himself as one of the best left handed set up men in the NL. Sele's been on fire since his 1st pitch in triple A. Lowe's pitched with some bad luck but he's been solid. Tomko and Penny are fighting neck and neck to see who gets the honor of making the 1st pitch in the mid summers classic in Pittsburgh.

I hardly touched on the offense. Navarro/Martin have been good and they will only get better. Nomar's looking to win 2 of 3 triple crown categories and take home an MVP trophy. Like I said, Kent's gettin it in gear as will Raffy. Aybar can hit and should hold the fort down to Mueller returns. Ethier will only improve. The centerfield combo of Repko/Lofton are constantly on base and creating havoc when they get there. Drew is healthy and being the player we need. Seanz continues to be AWESOME.

I LOVE THIS TEAM!!!

Does that mean Ned will Trade Furcal for the next Pedro and what will Grady do with another Pedro on his hands?

2-
Could I hire you to do my resume?

In the last 3 years the numbers are .774 pre and .782 post.

That said, I think Colletti's painted himself into a ridiculous corner with the logjam on the left side of the infield. He can't trade who he should trade, Izturis, unless he plays him and demonstrates to other teams that he's still Izturis (or better than that.) But if Izturis does well, given Furcal's slow start, what then? Moving Furcal to third base might be one solution, but then what do we do with Mueller? I suppose he's fairly tradeable, if healthy. Or does he trade Aybar, who unlike Mueller and Izturis is inexpensive and we control him? And none of the above has any power -- under all these scenarios, we'll have a third baseman who doesn't provide corner infield power numbers.

If Nomar punches his weight at first base, that will ameliorate it, partly. But the Dodger season right now hangs on a large number of variables in which the odds are not in favor of success. We are underpowered and have an unreliable bullpen. Good starting pitching and lots of singles and doubles won't be able to overcome these shortcomings.

If the Blue Fairy gives us back the Gagne of old, then good. If the Blue Fairy keeps giving us home runs from Nomar, Kent and Drew, and maybe allocates a few to Martin and Repko, then very good. Then we can worry whether Tomko, Lowe and Sele are really the kinds of pitchers they've pretended to be this season.

How? He's already 23 behind Albert Pujols. He's in 25th place.

So if Nomar wins 2 of the 3 Triple Crown categories, I'm assuming RBI would have to be one of them, unless somebody thinks he can overtake Pujols in HRs. He trails there by 14.

And just who leads the NL in batting average now?

Why of course? It's Brian McCann at .354!

Or maybe you are thinking of Orlando Cabrera?

Or Daniel?

http://tinyurl.com/ne89g

It's an eminently unattractive package that just gets more unattractive with each additional name. So in that sense, yeah, it's plenty.

BTW, pending today's AL results, the Freeway Series this weekend could be a "Battle of Last Place Teams" (tm)

If we trade Aybar so Izturis and Furcal can get more at-bats, Ned Coletti would have made one of the worst trades of the year.

Unless he trades him for something comparable, which does not mean "proven middle relief".

Done! Done! Done! Done! Done! Done! Done!

you're getting a little ahead of yourself here. Just about every team in the division is playing well right now...highly doubt there's any stranglehold come July.

Gagne's on his way back. Baez is reverting back to his dominance he displayed last season and early this season. Saito's making a run at the rookie of the year as could fellow bullpen mate Johnny Brox. Beimel may be establishing himself as one of the best left handed set up men in the NL.

we have NO idea what we're going to get, if anything from Gagne. Baez has never been dominant...he's serviceable. And Beimel being one of the best set up men? Please.

Nomar's looking to win 2 of 3 triple crown categories and take home an MVP trophy.

And what two cats are those? No way in you know where he wins either HR or RBI.

Drew is healthy and being the player we need.

This is my favorite comment. You've railed on Drew since the moment he got here and now he finally gets props, but he's just being "the player we need." Drew is probably the MVP of this team right now and the most important player we have, yet he's just being the player we need while Saenz is "AWESOME". Weird.

Are Blu2 and blue22 related?

The Nationals have scored!

This is not a drill.

First, I'm shut out of the "Best of..." book, comments section. Now this.

Jon, what have I done to deserve such harsh treatment? ;-)

don't worry, it'll pass.

.342 on-base percentage
.406 slugging percentage
.748 OPS
10 stolen bases in 0 attempts
38 year old

Will at UTK is reporting that Gagne may be back soon (like in a week), pending his live session tomorrow?

Great news, and hopefully it ends the Hamulack era. Baez can also continue to improve his confidence in the 7th and 8th innings now.

Lofton's The Second Coming of Cool Papa Bell!

Also, I think Mueller has been fine, he's just hurt.

48 - Chad Moeller took him deep. Chad Moeller!

Grabowski Prinicple in effect one batter after that, pulling Hamels after he walked Gabe Gross.

Hamels' control is surprisingly bad so far.

Every position player except for Freddy Sanchez and Ronny Paulino have the letter "J" as the first letter of their first name. Jim Tracy is prejudiced against non-"J" players. Once Joe Randa returns, Freddy's gone. If you think this is the dumbest way to put together a lineup, try explaining the lineup some other way.

I haven't had too much trouble with Little's use of the pen, it's just that they can't pitch.

Lima gave up an unearned run when he dropped a throw from Carlos Delgado at first base.

In case you want to grab him for your fantasy team.

Isnt VORP a counting stat? Considering Mueller played alot more games than Aybar has so far, thats impressive.

Scott Erickson is pitching?

Sounds about right.

65 - Hey Steve, the Phila Inquirer was thinking of you:

>>
MILWAUKEE - Jimmy Rollins sidled up to Bobby Abreu on Tuesday at Miller Park and offered this observation:

"Imagine how good we're going to be when you and I start hitting."

Abreu smiled.

Rollins and Abreu have been mired in prolonged slumps. Entering last night's game, Rollins was hitting just .191 (22 for 115) since April 13. Abreu was hitting just .139 (5 for 36) since April 29, although he had a .404 on-base percentage in that stretch. Manager Charlie Manuel said he has thought about dropping Rollins in the lineup to help him straighten out, but so far that has not happened.
<<

Ugh, I don't even want to think about what he's going to do in an AL park this weekend. Common sense dictates Doumit will DH, he looked fine last night taking Burnitz sized cuts at the plate, but Tracyball dictates that Hernandez will start at first three days in a row and Craig Wilson will DH. I just threw up in my mouth after I typed that sentence.

Putting everything else about Beltre aside, he's one of those guys who doesn't want to come out of the lineup - for better or worse. I did some reading today and it appears he's had hamstring issues for a couple weeks or so.

Why, in the name of Bubba Crosby, do they think they can pull things off our scrap heap and make something of them?

We talked a lot about the supernatural powers of one Mr Erickson last year, but if he can pull his voodoo on Tanyon Sturtze, he's more powerful than I thought.

He's very nice. The things he does are very good. That Scott.

Meanwhile, I just looked at the SF Chronicle sports section at lunch and noticed they had the Dodgers in last beneath the Giants in the standings (they have all the teams listed by city, except "Giants"- thus do they win the alphabetical order battle). Does the LA Times do the reverse at least? Then we can say homerism is in effect and it's a wash. Not that I care about such things, but just thought it was amusing.

https://griddle.baseballtoaster.com/archives/375000.html

It kind of makes me laugh to look at The Pittsburgh Tracys box score and see under pitching "J. Grabow"... just looks like it's missing a -ski.

Dodgers after 14 games: 2005 12-2; 2006 6-8
Dodgers after 41 games: 2005 22-19; 2006 21-20

Is this progress? LA is one game worse this year after 41 games, but five games better when comparing games 15-41. With a win tomorrow, the Dodgers record last year and this will be an identical 22-20 after 42 games.

For what it's worth, game 41 last year was a 9-0 loss to the Angels (W: Washburn; L: Erickson). The Dodgers last time at .500 in 2005 was 33-33. They were in the midst of an eight-game losing streak (Royals, White Sox, Padres) at the time.

What's the over/under on wins this year after 66 games?

Third basemen go to Seattle, and then they suck. It's just a fact of life.

The rationale is basically this: A wild pitch is part of the act of pitching. An error is not.

You're welcome to argue that ERA is a flawed stat, but it's not because of this. It's because of the whole concept of errors being factored in but obvious non-error misplays not.

7- kershaw
26- kasey kiker
31- travis snider/chris parmelee

If kershaw gets past the tigers, hes ours. Dodgers area scout has met with kiker numerous times, even taking him to a catfish game on may 15th, the scout has told one of Kasey's coaches they plan on taking him at 26. the only thing that could get in the way of that is the rangers at 12 really like him.

Dodgers also like colton willems, White has seen him live.

Unless that error occurs with two outs, correct?

Give me a moment to meditate...

Sorry, I'm getting woozy from too much work...

So if you're Matt Young or Tommy John and throw everything away, that's too bad. If you're Greg Maddux, good for you!

http://tinyurl.com/fcm3z

Pitcher errors are such a small part of the big picture. Pitchers are on the hook for so many things that aren't their fault - bloopers and grounders that are easy plays but are ruled hits - I just have never understood the campaign to make the kind of adjustment you want.

It was originally defined as "Earned runs are charged to a pitcher when a player scores by means of safe hits, sacrifice hits, bases on balls, hit batters, wild pitches, and balks."

It wasn't until 1917 that stolen bases were added to the list of things that made runs "earned".

There have been times when pitchers got errors when batters reached on dropped third strikes (or the catcher would get an error if need be, that was the case with Mickey Owen in the 1941 World Series.)

Do you want to get on board for my campaign to get rid of the double error on one play?

http://actasports.com/sows.php

Maybe that's been where he's been hiding out all this time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erd%C5%91s-Bacon_number

If you are willing to count writing credits, my Bacon number is 2.

Where I learned that "cheesecutter" is a term for double bladed ice skates, among other things.

I think I would also get killed on Jeopardy!

i bet you'd do pretty well. it's fun just to go down there and take the test.

Now my brain's power is wasted on trying to remember which character is which on "The Sopranos."

The Dodgers wanted to unload Green's $16 million salary, but the trade looks like a steal for Arizona.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Au1jHlnk0R.qRH4WLl4RbLkRvLYF?slug=ap-diamondbacks-green&prov=ap&type=lgns

sexy numbers.

I suppose a rainout would necessitate a make up day-night doubleheader played in two cities a la the Yankees and Mets? Go to Dodger Stadium at noon and then when the game is over, truck on down the Santa Ana Freeway to Anaheim for Game 2.

The only sporting event scheduled for Anaheim Sunday right now is Game 2 of the Ducks-Oilers series at the Arrowhead Pond.

Anaheim has not won a game in Edmonton in seven years.

Outfield assists: Kemp (Saltalamacchia at 1st base)

1b? interesting.

Sunday is my daughter's first birthday party. Supposed to be outside. How in the heck can it rain in mid/late May?

Didn't bother me much. I had the recipe.

Sadly, that isn't a joke.

How sexy are we talking here?

Olmedo Saenz sexy?

Also, our "city" rivals, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim from the Greater Southern California area and Hell Let's Say They Represent All of California, were shut out last night. Their offense aside from Vlad is terrible, I'm thinking we should be able to take the series from them. But then again, we have Brett Tomko.

Anyway, 2 out of 3 would make me happy.

Definitely a good thing. Get what you can out of him...so far we've been lucky and gotten some real good starts. As long as Sele at least keeps us in the game I'm happy.

I can't believe I'm defending Sele.

1. Giving up 0 hits in 9 innings
2. Giving up 0 walks in 9 innings

Suns vs. Mississippi Braves
Thursday, May 18, 7:05pm
Thursday Night Throwdown! Enjoy Buds for a buck, compliments of Budweiser and Planet Radio 107.3FM, plus Elvis Himselv is is back for another night!

In any event, it made someone I know very happy.

Stand strong, America. Just make it through tonight.

Also too bad that "Ned and Stacy" turned into "Will and Grace."

http://articles.news.aol.com/sports/article.adp?id=20060503204609990001

Hope it works. Article really good IMO.

Will and Grace is 120 minutes. That's 119 minutes than I can take.