good luck matt.

And, Jon, Ethier is 24-years-old so that is one guy in the age range that you said is not represented in today's line-up.

Jose Diaz is another random person on the 40-man, down in Jax. I'd hope Carter would go before this guy would.

I know! And I promised some friends I'd TIVO it and wait until they get her around 3:00. Moral quandry...

I'd rather they have recalled Delwyn Young, who although he has a much lower ceiling, also has a much longer history of plate discipline than Kemp does. Young, it seems to me, would be far less likely to be picked apart by major league pitchers. Then again, an outfield of, say, Young-Cruz-Ethier wouldn't exactly win any fielding awards.

Permanently.

Then we can go back and excise them from all previous posts about the Dodgers going back to 1999.

Then I will use my fancy, brain disruption device on everybody that will make it impossible to refer to those words in the same phrase ever again.

Also, I don't think Carter is out of options - they sent him down once before, they can send him down again, no? It's a good move, going with one less pitcher.

If Gagne does return on Thursday, Jon's wish should be answered, Hamulack will be optioned to Vegas.

I'm getting out the brain disruption device right now.

When a team initially signs a player (draft or free agent) they maintain their rights for 3 years if they are 19 at the time of signing or 4 years if they are 16-18 years old at the time of signing.

At the end of that period, the MLB club must place that player on their 40 man roster or risk exposing him to the Rule 5 draft.

Once a player has been placed on the 40 man roster, the MLB team has 3 option years for that period. This means that if anytime during the year, that player is recalled onto the 25 man roster, that counts as an option year. Now that player can be sent up and down all year and it still counts as just one option year.

Once a player is out of options (see Antonio Perez), the team must either keep the player on their 25 man roster or put him on waivers before they can send him back down to the minors.

"Options" are counted on an annual basis. If you have an "option" left on your contract, you can be sent up and down to the minors multiple times in that season.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/la-sp-adande28may28,1,2523968.column?coll=la-headlines-sports-majorbaseb

Nomo whacked a double to the wall over the drawn-in outfielders. The sheer improbability of it made me laugh. And that's what makes baseball great. Things that shouldn't happen can happen.

So, a GM should build a team based on improbabilities? Find the worst possible players, and wait for those unexpected and infrequent moments when they actually do something positive?

Probably has happened about 1,000 times in big league history.

Homer
Single
Single
Double
Single

O/T: Orlando is a lot like hell, but with more outlet shopping.

I just woke up, turn on my computer to the dodger game and i see matt fricken kemp standing in the batters box.

I seriously thought i was still drunk and had turned on the jacksonville live webfeed or something.

60
Exactly, yet that is usually what happens. I've yet to encounter an anti-stats type who was truly opposed to all stats (e.g. BA, ERA, RBIs, etc.).

Plus, far more importantly, he starts.

I e-mailed a response to J.A. this morning.

Use small words.

And now Odalis is warming up to show Seo how it's really done.

i think its "had" now.

I'm rather see Kemp strike out on 3 pitches in his 1st ab then hit a home run. It was the kiss of death for Jose Offerman and countless other 1st timers.

97 -- Your logic is impeccable, as always. Plus Jae Seo is now officially Korean for "Jeff Weaver."

Here's a question that's always been bothering me: when you get a guy like Izturis who you know will be gone for a year, why don't you immedaitely put him on the 60 day DL?

Saenz should be out: 2U.

uncle miltie blames kent

Quite a bit of SWAGGER today.

I was never a big Houlton fan, but I doubt he'd be doing much worse on the big league squad than Seo's 5.36. Houlton was at 5.16 last year.

But I hear that the manufacturing sector of the economy is struggling.

I believe that a black hole has formed on the North Side of Chicago. The Cubs are perilously close to the event horizon.

Like Gary Ingram?

This has come 50 years to the day after Dale Long homered in his 8th straight game for the Pirates, a major league record. The RGC on the Griddle happens to be about that game.

For Kemp, the timing of this promotion wasn't ideal. In the past few weeks, he was striking out quite a bit in Double-A.

Can we trade him to the Yankees for somebody useless? Aaron Small, maybe? Kelly Stinnett? Scott Erickson?

I was thinking of calling Lance Carter "Dido."

Dusty Baker is patting himself on the back right now.

Jae Kyu Ryu of the Cubs has given up three home runs in two innings to the Braves.

he took the very first pitch thrown to him for a ball... then proceeded to swing at every pitch he's seen.

As well as a double by Smoltz and two singles.

He didn't last as long as Jae Seo.

Has anyone ever started his major league career with 4 straight Ks"

If he just crawled into a hole and disappeared, his fame would be the same.

Certainly not a good sign dropping 2 of 3 to a bad team like that Nationals. If Drew/Kent are gone for awhile it may be a tough go considering the upcoming opponents.

I'm not sure but I bet Jeff Francoeur had at least a few 3-4 strikeout games for the Braves. He came up swinging at everything too.

The White Sox were playing the Angels.

Anyone want to hazard a guess as to who was pitching that day for the Halos?

The Braves were batting him leadoff too.

Bales was 1 for 16 in 1966.
In 1967, he was 3 for 27.

Only 6 players have had struck out four times in their first game.

Frank Robinson was the greatest player to play for both the Red's and the Orioles. Just trying to offer up some balance to Bob's hatred to a decent man. He must have the same feelings for Robbie that I have for Cito Gaston.

Just 1 run in 25IP so far this weekend.

I would disagree with the contention that Frank Robinson is the greatest Reds player ever. I would think that either Johnny Bench or Joe Morgan would have title to that.

As for Robinson, it's all Frank Lane's fault.

1997 ATL: .244/.376/.280
2002 SF: .322/.416/.425
2003 CHI: .326/.398/.500
2005 PHI: .429/.481/.543

So, Lofton is a thug in September in the NL. Lyons never did make that qualifier, however. Speaking of which, Lyons is making his home runs kill the rally argument again.

And Joe Morgan the greatest Red? --Ridic.

Managerial error?

Brandon Lyon is pitching now.

I do agree they should move him back to starting. Even if he only has the stamina to go 6ip, thats still better than being used as a middle reliever.

Javier Valentin hit a 2-r dinger off Valverde.

Sac fly ties it up, Berkman coming in to pinch-hit with the winning run on second.

The alltime record is 10.

Two other random gripes/comments:
Paid att. of a shade over 30,000? On an 80 degree Sunday? Over memorial day weekend? Good luck to the new ownership.

Scalpers. I hate them. We missed the first inning because we were in a ticket line behind these two scalpers buying up all the pairs of tickets on the lower deck, 3B side. They had no shame, pulling out a roll of what looked like nearly $1000 to pay. They line clapped when they left (tailed bya an MPDC).

At least because of gripe #1, the jerks in gripe #2 probably took a bath on their purchases.

Aybar continues to get on base. The real question I have is how did his defense look at 2B? Baseball America says that Aybar "doesn't have the range or agility to handle second base". I don't know about the range, but they might be right about the agility, especially considering how much he has bulked up in the past year. On the other hand, Jeff Kent is able to play 2B (poorly).

It's time to move Odalis back to rotation. Calling him Seo Seo is an understatement. The guy stinks. He's the right handed Jamie Moyer without the great changeup and impeccable command.

So I'm guessing Kemp didn't look good, 1-4 3 Ks and an error. I was not in favor of bringing him because this was the first year he had shown some plate discipline. He is not ready. Ethier is 24 years old and was killing the ball in AAA, Aybar had shown that he had a great approach at the plate in brief stint with the Dodgers last season and tore it up at Vegas, and many scouts thought that Martin was the most polished player out of all of our hitting prospects and he also has the best plate discipline out of anyone on the farm. Kemp is still a raw free swinger who needs time to develop. He has superstar potential, but he needs more time in the minors.

http://tinyurl.com/hpr6b

He also nearly threw out a runner on a sac fly to medium deep center, but the throw was up the line a tad. He's no Repko, but he does have an arm.

He did make a nifty save on Martin's overthrow of second base.

They're for the Flaming Lips concert on July 23. I had no idea who they were except I found out that people really liked them.

Ahh, capitalism.

http://www.flaminglips.com/main.php

Boy, did that game stink. I gave up listening after Seo left, figuring that then was as good a time as any to mow the lawn.

They're in a box at the Hollywood Bowl.

18-5-8-6

Of course they will, because they play the Tigers and White Sox, who are sure to be in the pennant race.

All the Padres got last year was ridicule, but the 1973 Mets were just a "crazy team in a crazy year."

Fie!

I say again!

Fie!

Ya gotta believe!

Bucs Dugout:

"Not only do I think Tracy is a bad manager, I'm beginning to think he's a bad person, too."

Where's Van Slyke:

I know Jim Tracy is "old school" and "old school" managers like Jim and Dusty Baker don't put much stock into pitch counts, but Ollie hasn't thrown more than 112 pitches in any start before today, and he only topped 100 in 4 of his 9 starts before today. 121 pitches is too many to let him start another inning unless he's throwing a no-hitter or something. That's it, end of story."

Romo Phone Home:

"In the absence of competitive baseball, Tracy's butchery of the English language continues to be one of the only sources of entertainment this summer, at least for me."

Honest Wagner:

"We would like it if Tracy would come clean and admit a whole [redacted] of mistakes he's made. Surely he has made a whole [redacted] of them."

"Is Craig Wilson going to get at-bats? Sure, he's going to get some at-bats," Tracy said. "Is he going to play? Sure, he's going to play. One of those things that we had that was pretty good early in the season is that we were doing some good things off our bench in the latter part of games. Unfortunately, that got taken away from us because we had a couple players hurt and had to place other people in the lineup."

# of Dodgers games vs Worst teams (Cubs, Nationals, Pirates, Angel) outside of division= 13

I dont think its a stretch to say the schedule has been favorable over the first two months.

Of the 4 teams with losing records, the Dodgers have played 3 of them.

As for interleague games, the Dodgers have 12 games left and none are against a team with a winning record (Seattle, Minnesota, Oakland, Angels).

Sometimes the schedule is fair. Sometimes it isn't.

You could also argue that the Mets have a good record because they haven't played the NL West much. They are 4-3 against the NL West.

The Reds are 3-5 against the NL West and the Cardinals are 7-5.

The NL East has two teams that are a combined 36-63.

The NL Central has two teams that are a combined 34-65.

The bottom two teams in the NL West are (three are tied acutally) would be 52-48.

http://tinyurl.com/ohx94