For every season... there is a time for change. A change up, or a curveball, or a slider... Turn turn turn...

i can help the guy out.

chad has 3 breaking pitches. the big curve that comes in at 76-80mph, the sharp slider at 81-85 and then the new pitch that honeycutt made him develop at the bigs, the cut fastball at 87-91 that usually comes in at 89mph. The break isnt as pronounced as his slider, its has more of a late downward angle action of a couple inces to it. That is the pitch he has been throwing more and more lately and it seems that hitters cant sqaure the bat up to it because of that very late movement at the end. Since Chad can't throw a change up (although he does throw a 2 seamer at 86-90mpj), his new cut fastball has been able to neutralize the left handed hitters.

hope that helps.

inces inches, sqaure square

and probably others.

Gagne, I am a big fan. But please, shut up.

My arm is feeling better than it has in two years.

Yeah, like we haven't heard that before.

Totally off-topic, but I'm wondering why the Dodger-Padre game wasn't available last night via FSW (or is that Prime Ticket now?) on Dish Network. It said it was blacked out...bla bla bla...but I couldn't find the game elsewhere. Sorry if this was covered last night...but I can't always contribute. Cheers.

It isn't often that a pitcher starts leaning heavily on a new pitch this far into a season. The only thing I can think of is Honeycutt told him if he wants to have a better chance of holding his spot in the rotation, he needed to mix in more sliders. Maybe Bills thought he was getting ahead of the scouting report (which is more likely) by ditching the curve. Finally, if he starts pulling it instead of getting on top of it, the curve can look more like a slider. So perhaps that's what he was seeing.

Back to the original question, yes, it'd be unusual for someone to do that and I have no examples that pop right into my head.

Well, as regfairfield notes over at True Blue, Penny has been relying much more heavily of late on the Gopher Ball...

I just want to clear up that the slider is not a new pitch. He's had the slider and the curve coming up through the minors. Billingsley's slider was rated #1 in the org by BA in the 2005 handbook only to be overtaken by Broxton and his nasty slider in the 2006 book.

Larry Anderson invented a splitter in Game 5 of the 1993 NLCS!

Nate, this one's for you, although it might be fun to try with everyone's favorite Dodgers (cough, Nomar, cough):

http://thatsonpoint.blogspot.com/2006/08/fear-stache.html

From looking over the national baseball sites, apparently David Ortiz hit a really important home run tonight and the Red Sox won! Combined with the Yankees losing 2/3 in Seattle, why the Sox have gained a whole game on the Bronx Bombers in just three days!

Oh, yeah, and by the way jeredweaverlosthisfirstgameanddidntbreaktheALrecord

I was at the game tonight. It wasn't very remarkable. Weaver looked sharp, Becket had a low pitch count until getting removed in the 7th with his trademark blister. I guess it was a decent pitchers duel, but it was an AL game I had little interest in whatsoever. It is remarkable how the Boston faithful turn out in droves when their team is in town. You would have thought there were more Boston fans in attendance than Angels fans judging by all the noise they generated.

Most Red Sox fans aren't as cute as Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore. The ones I've seen at Angel Stadium are loudmouth creeps who actively interfere with local fans' enjoyment of the game. Especially, God forbid, if you're there with kids.

Count my family as one who used to show up to root for the RedSox when they came to town. All because we spent 3 winters in Beantown in the mid 60's and the brother who I most looked upto would regale me with stories about the Bosox. I root for the Angels unless they are playing Boston, then the old roots come into play and if both teams are fighting for a playoff spot I still root for Boston.

I was actually one of those in attendance during the famous 86 game but I missed Dave Henderson's home run because I was already crying in my beer leaving the parking lot. I've never forgiven myself for missing one of the true great moments in baseball history. I really loved that Angel team and my heart was torn in two over who to root for during the playoffs.

In Rosenthal's latest notes, is he claiming Greg Norton would be a good fit because he is a switch hitter or because he is a Devil Ray?

http://tinyurl.com/gsgey

Checking in from Monaco. 14 Isn't there a guy named Ledee that the Mets just DFA'd?

15

Pass the shoe...

Just a reminder that the Friends of Dodger Thoughts fantasy football league still has four openings. The live draft is in 8 days.

ID: 501880
PW: nomar
http://fantasysports.yahoo.com/

There's also some guy named Loney who'll be back with the team in a week.

Honestly, having a lefty on the bench is nice, but the lack of one isn't what lost the three games in San Diego. Grady doesn't seem to be agitating for it, so I doubt Ned is worrying about it much. When you look at what Rosenthal said:

"The Dodgers' priority is a left-handed hitting reserve. The Devil Rays' Greg Norton, a switch-hitter, would be a good fit, but the teams apparently have not discussed a deal."

it sounds an awful lot like he's just making stuff up.

18 Could be he's chortling with glee as he's writing that, encouraging Ned to take another bite of the apple. If we need help now, I still say send Repko down and call up Loney or Kemp. We could probably get by without Martinez for 10 days and call up both of them.

18 Ken is clearly being paid by the Rays to drum up more business from the Dodgers. I bet he gets a commission, too - 10% of Dioner Navarro's RBI will be credited to Ken Rosenthal.

Baseball Info Solutions tracks throws that result in a base but are not deemed an error (there are 9 such instances, but they only mention one), and they are the subject of this week's Stat of the Week. Guess which team has made the most bad throws.

http://actasports.com/sows.php

21 -- I'm guessing the one with Lofton, Repko, and Furcal on it. Call me crazy.

19 - Resist Ned, Please resist! "Don't go into the light, stay away from the light"!!

BTW - Off topic but my wife and I were wondering Why in the world does the LA taxpayer have to retain custody and provide the jail facilities for the Karr character. What does he have to do with SoCal? The Ramsey case is in Colorado and the alleged child porn charges were up in Northern California? As if we don't have enough nutjobs down here to hold trials for!
I mean, he's still here, he waived the extradiction and agreed to go to Colorado, so get his butt on the plane and out of here!!

Looks like San Diego couldn't resist:

Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The San Diego Padres acquired infielder/outfielder Russell Branyan from the Tampa Bay Devil
Rays for minor-league right-hander Evan Meek.

San Diego, which is one game behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League's Western Division, said
in a press release that it will also send a player to be named or cash considerations to the Devil Rays.

The 30-year-old Branyan is hitting .201 with 12 home runs and 27 runs batted in over 64 games with Tampa Bay this season, his eighth in Major League Baseball. He's played first and third base and left and right field this season.

BTW - Off topic but my wife and I were wondering Why in the world does the LA taxpayer have to retain custody and provide the jail facilities for the Karr character. What does he have to do with SoCal?

Because the lawyers make the laws and lawyers don't care about the taxpayers. Always has been that way and it always will be that why.

24 - The winner takes it all
The Griddle has to fall
It's simple and it's plain
Why should I complain

Uh I think the Karr thing is a Federal matter involving extradition. See, California is part of this country called the United States of America... =)

It warmed my heart to see Mr. Karr on that plane drinking fine wine. God bless that man and the wonderful folks that will defend him. LOL...

California is part of this country called the United States of America... =)

All parts of California or most parts of Califronia?

San Francisco......I dunno.

I hate to respond to this, but sometimes you have to.

Karr was not under arrest when he arrived in the U.S. Thailand deported him. Like a lot of people who get deported from far away lands, the deporting government gives you a plane ticket and tells you "So long, don't come back."

Karr was not arrested until he got to the U.S. and then it's as 27 refers to.

I always thought L.A. was a part of Mexico.

27,30 - Okay that answers part of it but SF has a Federal Court jurisdiction too and SF is closer to Petaluma than LA is, he could have least boarded a plane to SF from LA then had the extradiction hearing up in battery chucker land!! I mean they also did that hearing on Tuesday and Wednesday and he's still here!!! Why does LA have to foot his whole bill and stay here a whole week when his hearing is completed and he agreed, so get him out of town!!
I've had it up to here with cases that we had to deal with because they were our problems, i.e. (O.J. "Mr. Baretta", Night Stalker, ect.), Mr. Karr is not LA's problem, lack of jurisdiction comes to mind!!

Okay, let's not make a federal case out of this ... oh, wait.

Welcome to bureaucracy.

I'm mildly disturbed by the fact I was living in Petaluma when Carr was there. Petaluma: where crazy pedophiles attack!

(I kid, it's actually a great place to live)

His plane landed in LA. At that point, they either arrest him or let him go. They arrested him, held the hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday, and he flew to Colorado on Thursday. He is currently in Colorado.

Should Mr. Karr be..........

A) sent to prison for life
B) Put to sleep like an aging house pet, then incinerated
C) Rehabilitated

37 Maybe we should have a trial first to determine his guilt or innocence and then decide on the penalty phase.

Seriously, time for a new topic. I'll swamped at work but I'll work up a new post to push it along.

I guess I just get mad with the perception of LA as where only fruits, nuts and flakes live, Hollywood stars run amuck and get privileges, ect... There are a lot of people that have everyday, non-glamorous jobs, don't seek headlines and are as working class as any east coast or midwestern family. However, we always get slammed in the national media, anytime a Robert Blake, OJ, Paris Hilton acts up, like they are the model for every man, women and child here, PPPlease!!! Why do you think almost every city has a Beat LA chant, what about Beat NY? or Beat Philly?
or beat Frisco? or better yet Crisco Frisco!! Our city seems to be the focal point for the nation's angst, jealousy and anger!! I've lived here all my life and I'm tired of being the nation's whipping boy!!

37 Why don't we wait to find out if he's actually guilty first before meting out punishment.

Guilty or not, the guy is pedophile. Don't waste my money on this sicko, please.

Or, what 38 said.

(Late, as usual.)

So, how 'bout them bums?

So, how 'bout them bums?

They disgust me. When I'm in a stinky mood, I cuss at 'em. What infuriates me more than anything is when I see people giving them money or when I see them smoking a cigarette.

44 goes beyond the pale. Please keep those types of opinions to yourself in the future.

41-As long as the trial is not in LA, we don't need another media circus and a dog and pony show with a judge becoming a sudden celebrity again!!

I have heard it said that Troy Percival introduced a circle change during the World Series and never used it again.

37, 38, etc. - maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't his ex-wife say he had the useful excuse of being in Indiana at the time the murder was supposed to have taken place? That is to say, Karr is an attention-seeking nutcase who maybe needs a solid dose of Thorazine, but it's unlikely he's JonBenet's murderer.

Apropos of nothing: It's not exactly that there's a problem with rules, or posting them, it's just that they're not sufficient. Anybody who is committed to polluting the site will strain to find ways of doing it that don't break the letter of the laws. The fake drunk thing was ingenious. The lawyer bashing is a rerun, but the garbage about the homeless I've not seen before. Nobody mentioned it, over here, but the, Andre Ethier looks like he's got some oriental in him, thing bugged me, and I'd be shocked if it was only me. None of this is technically against the rules (at least, not to my eyes; I could be wrong), but all of it deeply irritating, and indicative of more garbage to come. And there doesn't seem to be any mitigation at all.

Ah. Should have read the second thread before commenting. Sorry.

48 -

It was Alabama, not Indiana. Which is probably even farther away...