I think Jared Leto plays Jeff Weaver. He'll need a dye job, though.

1 - That's a good first notion.

That Kemp gift is pretty insulting when you think about it. Giving a guy who just got called up from the minors a cup of coffee? Why not give Gagne an arm sling while you're at it.

Great news about what ned said about the prospects.
I just wish he had better player evaluation skills when it comes to trades and free agent signings.
Ethier was a good trade.
Nomar was a good signing.
Saito was a good signing.
Furcal was a good signing (altho his performance so far has been poor, and i don't like his contract tho).
All the rest of the ned acquisitions are poor.

Also, the Press-Enterprise headline writer is in severe need of a crash course on coffee terminology.

Not just coffee terminology, but just plain old spelling.

4 I wouldn't say the Sele acquisition was poor. It was a zero-risk move that has had some benefit thus far. Unless you'd rather have DJ Houlton in the rotation.

And the Baez trade, much as I disliked it, still has a chance of turning out well for the Dodgers. Right now it looks like a disaster for both teams although that could always change.

In addition to being metaphorically insulting, it's just a lousy gift in principle. One minute is not enough time to properly steep coffee.

I can barely pour a cup of coffee in 60-seconds much less brew it.

Marty, the refresh function is your friend.

6 - The headline isn't an attempt at a pun? Kemp being on the express train to the bigs?

Just read the article, it sounds like a case of paycheck journalism! Who paid for the (subpar) coffee maker? Is that why Repko did all those post-game interviews last year? For the free coffemakers? Somebody should search his ebay records.

Checkbook journalism, rather.

And I meant Jason Phillips, not Repko. Time to do something else for a whlie.

12 I was assuming it was one of those postgame interviews on KFWB or whatever. Which doesn't come remotely close to my definition of "journalism."

Of course, to my way of thinking, the term "broadcast journalism" itself is an oymoron.

Dodger radio postgame guests each get a (reputedly) nice watch, which I always thought was a bit much for a 90-second interview.

I want two $20 books of Union Oil Auto Scrip donated in my name to a charitable organization.

17 Too late. A donation has been made in your name to The Human Fund.

I'm sure Scott Boros is drilling both Weavers on the appropriate cliches for addressing this icky situation.

I'm all for bringing Jeff back. For $150, it's worth trying to figure out what's wrong with him. It's an unusual set of circumstances that has gotten them into this situation in the first place. Most teams have two or three decent starters. The Angels have five (six if you include Jeff based on his past performance.) They're really dealing from strength here. If Jeff W. hadn't been so unbelievably crappy his last start, he'd be on his way to Boston now, in return for somebody who can hit. But dumping him for nothing is still addition by subtraction.

Jason Romano was a prospect?

20 - Kinda my point.

But dumping him for nothing is still addition by subtraction.

--

So does adding him for nothing constitue subtraction by addition. I am confused. lol

the term "broadcast journalism" itself is an oymoron

Is that the Jewish term for it?

If the Angels don't want to DFA Weaver, I'd trade Odalis for him straight up.

This may just be crazy talk, but I think the Angels the last couple of years have been trying to stick it to the Dodgers by acquiring players like the Weave and Steve Finley. Part of the on-going effort to poach disaffected Dodger fans, along with billboards in LA, Scioscia and Hatcher, etc.

The fact that these acquisitions haven't worked out for them is at least a little bit satisfying. As far as bringing Spicoli back (and yes, that means that Sean Penn should play him), lets just say I'd rather not go the crappy brother route again.

25 I'd be willing to take a chance on him if it were to cost nothing. Heck, even if he were to pitch at last year's level, he would be better than 3/5 of the rotation.

25, 26

Just for the record, Eric and I are not brothers.

Division realignment, courtesy of Mark Whicker.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/sports/columns/article_1198735.php

I don't think you can have leagues of 15 and 15 teams unless you are willing to have interleague play every day. Otherwise, someone is always idle.

27 - I just assumed those were your last names, but you each took the loss today.

28 "You play teams in your division 16 times apiece. You play teams in another division 10 times apiece. You play teams in yet another division eight times apiece.

That's 154 games, which was the traditional number before expansion in the early '60s. This could provide for an extended All-Star Game..."
------

Apparently Mr. Whicker is a big fan of "The Iowa Baseball Confederacy."

29 For years I referred to old friend Kevin Gross as "LP Gross" because that's how his name always showed up in the paper.

31 Speaking of lousy pitchers who think they're painters, isn't it about time for Tomko to throw a no-hitter already?

7

I wouldn't say the Sele acquisition was poor. It was a zero-risk move that has had some benefit thus far.

You're exactly right about sele, i totally forgot about him.
It didn't cost anything to get sele, so if he is at least decent its a plus.

And the Baez trade, much as I disliked it, still has a chance of turning out well for the Dodgers. Right now it looks like a disaster for both teams although that could always change.

I don't like that trade, unless baez becomes as dominant as gagne, which in my opinion aint gonna happen.

In response to item #1 in Jon's post, I think Owen Wilson would be a good fit to play Jeff Weaver. He could pull off a pretty good stoner type character.

This sounds like some sort of Elias project, has there have been an occasion where a team released one brother to bring up another brother to the majors.

I don't know if the Angels can expect much, he is still owed $4 MM this season and a team can wait and see for $150-175K for the rest of the year.

35 Sounds more like a Timmermann project to me. If it was an Elias project, they'd come up with a wildly incorrect answer and then steadfastly deny the error.

I second Owen Wilson. His brother Luke can play Jared.

The Angels will probably get some middling AAA pitcher for Weaver. They could use the help at AA Arkansas, which has just lost and lost this year, mostly thanks to lousy pitching.

25 - good point about the failures of Finley and Weaver in their post-Dodger career. All the more reason to think the Angels are at least somewhat under the gun to get a warm body in trade from some team other than the Dodgers. If he's released outright, I have to believe the Dodgers would be first on his list. Fortunately, he has a couple of weeks before his DFA turns into a release, so he can't start against the Angels this weekend, and Jered Weaver won't be able to pitch against him anyway, as his regular rotation slot would have him start on Monday or Tuesday against Seattle. Bummer. I would have paid for front-row seats for a Weaver vs. Weaver confrontation.

I think Luke is too old to play Jared, but otherwise good casting ideas.

28 - bad idea. And as far as his whining about the DH being an "abomination", the teams have already made their choices apparent at the minor league level: use the DH whenever it can be excused. Does one team have an AL parent? Why, the pitcher doesn't have to hit. It also eliminates one of the stupidest and most frequently screwed up managerial moves in baseball, the double switch.

From the same Press Enterprise article:

"Veterans tell me a rookie's not supposed to pimp home runs," Kemp said.

The Dodgers had both Waner brothers on the team in 1944 and released both of them during the season. Lloyd in June and Paul in September.

39 If this was a few years ago, maybe the Lawrence brothers could play them.

http://cbs4.com/topstories/topstories_story_180174619.html

did you guys see this incredible story?

44 C'mon, everyone's done that before.

28 Interesting. Whicker's proposal seems to eliminate the idea of the American and National Leagues altogether. I don't think it would be my choice for a realignment scheme, but it's worth thinking about.

I don't really see a problem with two 15-team leagues, where there would always be at least one interleague series going. I think interleague games are nice, for one because they allow traditional rivals to play each other without completely changing the landscape of baseball's history (unlike Whicker's proposal, in my opinion). But I don't really get the "it's interleague time" hype. I wonder if it would work, spread across two 15-team leagues, though. Right now we play 5 interleague series, so I assume everybody does. That makes 75 series. Each team is going to play probably either 50 or 52 series, after you account for the occasional 4-gamer, so always having one interleague series, with an occasional weekend with three, would seem to work.

Great! So, it's decided. Two fifteen team leagues it is (glad you all agree). Are we going to send the Brewers back to the American league?

40 "It also eliminates one of the stupidest and most frequently screwed up managerial moves in baseball, the double switch."

Um... OK.

I give up -- how is the double switch stupid?

One of the biggest aspects of my enjoyment of a baseball fan is the "what do you do here" situations for a manager - pinch-hitting, double-switches, etc., I've gotten the sense over time that Rob is not into that stuff.

Odalis for Weaver and we pay $4 mill of Perez's salary next year. Financially it's a wash for us this year but we're out of Perez and save $4 or $5 mill from his salary next year. We can dump Weaver with no strings and no money owed if he doesn't work out.

40 It may be hard to argue that the Giants won the Finley/Alfonzo trade only because the Angels never had a place for Edgar and they ended up releasing him.

Bill Stoneman had made some good FA signings in Vlad, Bartolo, Escobar and Cabrera but he signed them for too many years, Orlando's performance has probably made him a Scioscia favorite that will make him untradeable (see Adam Kennedy). But in the last couple of years, the Finley signing, Jeff Weaver, J.C. Romero have not worked out and even with the release of Jeff, I am still not sure what they can do to improve their lineup.

49 - that doesn't work for the Angels because of Jered Weaver, who will presumably be a stud for at least the rest of the season.

47, 48 - it's stupid because it gives the manager a rope by which to hang himself. Ask Cubs fans about Dusty Baker's double switches. Heck, Jim Tracy's pulled some boneheaded ones, too. It's just one more thing to screw up; AL lineups are generally more idiot-proof than NL ones.

34 37 Did you guys not know that Owen Wilson is Derek Lowe? We went through this last year. We even dubbed him (Lowe, that is) the "Butterscotch Possum" or something like that.

39 Actually, just checking their ages, a combination of Matthew, Joey and Andy Lawrence could play the Weavers (Andy being used in flashbacks).

47 All too often it gets a good hitter on the bench so the new pitcher gets to hit in his spot and the incoming player, already adjudged a second or third line player not good enough to start, gets to hit in the pitcher's spot. Which is probably where he deserves to hit anyway. Remember, he is not a very good player. Think Ricky Ledey, Mike Edwards, Grabowski, etc...

50 - the big problem with Angels FA signings of late have been the trickle of lousy relievers (Yan, Carrasco) that have taken the place of the guys they should have gotten at least a couple major league seasons from (Bobby Jenks, Derrick Turnbow), who have failed to do the job at all and ended up polluting the bullpen. If I thought Jeff Weaver had even a ghost of a chance to be an effective reliever, I'd lobby for them to drop Romero and leave Weaver on the 25-man, but he hasn't been particularly good in that role, either.

51 - But isn't that the equivalent of saying, "strikeouts are one more way for batters to get out, so let's put the ball on a tee?" I mean, yes, it does take a little bit of thought, a little bit of anticipation - why is that a bad thing?

51 The best double switch I saw this year was in the Braves/Dodgers game where the Dodgers got a big lead and Cox double switched and took A. Jones out in the 2nd inning as I recall, that was the game where Penny couldn't last 5 innings.

(Best meaning funniest or strangest depending on your point of view).

A common mistake managers make in double-switching is they have a relief pitcher due up last in the ensuing inning. That's really only useful if the reliever is going to pitch for at least two innings, and the later you go in the game, the more rare that is. They don't account for the fact that your reliever might only last one inning, and therefore you might as well have his spot in the order come up.

Jon, no comment on the Lawrences, I promise no Blossom talk today.

57 I thought that switch was just a case of "we're going to lose this game anyway, so I'll give Andruw a day off."

For therapeutic reasons I'd have Jeff Weaver play Jered and Jered play Jeff. I think the neo-realist approach and Freudian confusion would make for a truly uncomfortable and riveting film-going experience.

55 But they had to protect Josh Paul on the 40 man (wouldn't it been great if someone had taken Napoli when he was available)

56 - principally because I don't enjoy watching the pitcher come up to the plate with the bases loaded in the seventh inning of a tied game and two outs, and automatically get a whiff. Earl Weaver said the great thing about baseball is you have to give the other fellow his chance, but what kind of a chance is it if he only sees pitching one fifth as often (or less!) as his teammates?

62 - you are an evil man. And I'm laughing as I write that.

59 - I liked Joseph "Don't Call Me Joey Anymore" on American Dreams. That's the best part he's ever had, as far as I can tell.

I think he's too short to play a Weaver, though.

Michael Stoyanov )Anthony Russo) was a writer on a show I was on (that never aired).

63 - I get your point, though I disagree with it.

Anyway, in baseball today, how often does the pitcher bat in the seventh inning of a tie game with the bases loaded.

66 See the guy manning the Buccos.

the ultimate would be to deal odalis for weaver and pay 4 mill of his salary.

not going to happen.

I have no problem taking a flyer on weaver if it isn't going to cost us anything. Really, what do we have to lose?

Is anyone following that A-Rod/David Justice story, conspriracy theorists say that Yankee management instructed their broadcasters to be critical of A-Rod on the air. (I guess to light his fire)

Of the two local broadcast teams, I could not see that happening, in the Angels' case, Fizz and Huddy would probably have to be brainwashed to ever say anything remotely critical.

I have always wanted the National League to adopt the DH. It is sickening to see pitchers go up to the plate and not even make an attempt to get a hit. Equally sad is to see a pitcher who has pitched (and is still pitching well) a great game to be removed for a lame pinch hitter who makes an out 75% of the time anyway. How much worse could the pitcher himself have done? Having the DH has always made sense and it would furnish a position for good hitting but older or defensively challenged players to stay in the game. I call to your attention Olmedo Saenz as an excellent examole. We should also give some thought to expanding the 25 man roster to maybe 27 or even 28. It could save injuries to pitching staffs and allow managers more flexibility in using position players. Tradition don't mean boogledy.

Will the American Jeff Weaver be any better than the Korean?

71 But we no longer have the Korean Jeff Weaver, that is why we need to fill that vacumn.

just seeing "expresso" makes me shudder.

69 - you got that right. There are some steamed Angels fans watching them crash and burn every night to the tune of "He's due!" and other platitudes coming from paid homer Rex Hudler.

[3] he wasn't given a cup! he was given a whole machine! infinite cups! he's here to stay forever! :)

72 How did Seo morph into the Korean Jeff Weaver? Seo pitched 2 scoreless innings for Tampa Bay!

On a random note, I played a little basketball at 24 Hour Fitness last night, and ended up twisting my ankle... perhaps I should limit my sports activities to pitching and slow-pitch softball...

Off to Kaiser I go!

70 - Not all pitchers are bad at the plate, and there is no law that says they have to be.

The logic that allows for a designated hitter is a Pandora's box. I don't like it when my catcher can't throw anyone out or when my third baseman hits .200 - does that mean we should have designated hitters/designated fielders for them too?

77 Actually, doesn't the DH rule allow you to use the DH for any position? The fact that its used for the pitcher is just by convention and logic. I could have that completely wrong.

74 You mean Vladitudes, don't you.

Wait, isn't this a Dodger forum?

Maybe 6-4-2 needs to add up all the money that Arte has paid out to Stoneman's follies starting with releasing Appier to the assumed released of Weaver.

Just a thought, I love the site, I smiled when I saw it was Petey Guerrero's birthday and the Bill James quote about him.

78 Some of those sixties Dodger teams may have DHed for a player when Drysdale pitched.

78 - No, it has to be for the pitcher, at least in MLB.

I remember Drysdale pinch-hitting on occasion.

Please please please, no DH in the National League.

Maybe we can trade Ethier for Travis Lee to DH for Hendrickson tomorrow.

44 - Ah, Eddie, way to do your alma mater (and mine) proud.

No DH!

82 - the memories of all the good-hitting pitchers in the world won't deliver runs today.

76 - ouch. Good luck with that, then.

[28] i REALLY like the idea of divisional realignment. that whole article makes sense. i don't think the wild card is an abomination per se, but getting rid of it is fine. i've always intrinsically disliked the DH.

and i don't mind maximizing the opportunity for stupid moves. if someone their manager is stupid, a team will lose more. otherwise, what's the point of having a manager? the game shouldn't be made "idiot-proof", it should reward smart moves (or non-moves).

New post up top. Sad news for Nate?

87 about gave me a heart attack for a few seconds. I was fearing Flanders had traded Elbert for Tim Birtsas or somebody.

48 Like Babe Ruth said, "Baseball is the only real game." I always took that to mean, it's not just a sport. Basketball, football, golf -- they're all sports. It's all about athletic superiority. Baseball is a game, like Parcheesi. In a game you have to make choices. The DH reduces the choices the manager has to make. The DH was invented by men who were mixed up about baseball, and thought it had to be more like football to succeed.

In football, it would be absurd that you'd have to go into a first-and-goal situation with your punter being forced to play halfback. In baseball, part of the strategy of the game is to deal with those kinds of possibilities.

Since Babe Ruth said baseball was the only real game, it's safe to say he thought Parcheesi didn't qualify either.

89 "your punter being forced to play halfback"

See Hornung, Paul.

77 I'm flexible. We'll increase rosters to 35 players and have a defensive team and a hitting team. Can you imagine the hitting lineup Steinbrenner would throw out there? 300 homers a year, at least.

If Jeff starts hurling blocks of ice down the chute, watch out!

I'm very pleased to see the spirit of my suggested "separated at birth" thread from yesterday was picked up here, albeit under the guise of casting suggestions. :-) I think Derek Lowe played by Owen Wilson is pretty spot on. Sean Penn is probably too old now to play Jeff Weaver, but his Spicoli era take is a good bet.

As for signing him, I'm in the "If it costs LA next to nothing, why not?" If it costs any more than that, nah.

I'd rather promote someone early than give up anything for Weaver's erraticness again, but, yeah, he's certainly capable and better than Perez at any rate.