Yep, that's all I got.*

That's a bit like the AccuWeather-man saying, "Aww, shucks. Go stick your head out the window."

Who starts in left this series?

Just wondering... can't Anderson play 3rd with Ethier in left?

As always, this is excellent. I'm guessing that you will do better on your overall prediction for this series than you did on your pre-season predictions.

I guess I'll just have to use up some sick leave.

i say Anderson. our starting pitching is better then the Mets IMO, all i know is that i'm glad we're in the postseason & that it will be fun.

ps I'm quietly confident by the way.

good thing i work really really early, i won't miss one pitch.

That said, I'm not sure he shouldn't be on the playoff roster. He hasn't looked much worse than Penny does now, and I'm not ready to trust Stults.

As I was spooning out mac 'n cheese to my toddler I thought of Charlie Steiner and Rick Monday and then suddenly missed Ross Porter! Steiner lacks style, or worse, like John Miller, opts for hyperbole as style when understatement would do oh so nicely. Monday seems more interested in his voice inflections than helping poor Charlie keep the game call from unraveling in front of him.

I miss Porter's laid back, work-a-day manner that allowed me to be intrigued by the game and not notice its spokespersons.

Wherever you are Mr Porter, here's one fan who wishes he could have heard your calls this year instead of the style-less dolts who took over your chair.

DODGERS WIN!!!!!!!!!

Anyone see this?
The Red Sox announced that the contracts of hitting coach Ron Jackson and pitching coach Dave Wallace will not be renewed.
Both had been with the team since 2003. Jackson was a favorite of the players, but the rumor is that he was always lacking on the technical side of things. Wallace is likely to be replaced by Al Nipper, who filled in for the first four months of the season after the former required a hip replacement.
-From rotoworld

It would be hard to get rid of Eddie Murray after the way the Dodger hitters produced this season, so I can't see them bringing back Ron Jackson, even though I think he's a superior hitting coach. I'd love to see the Dodgers bring back Wallace in some capacity. I can't see Rick Honeycutt getting the boot either despite doing a very mediocre job with the pitching staff. Grady Little doesn't seem to trust him. Why else would he be making the visits to the mound? He didn't do it nearly as often when he was with Boston.

Mariano Duncan deserves a contract extension…

Yeah, that'll probably be the set-up, though I admit to feeling a little badly for Aaron Sele, given that he contributed more to holding the Dodgers together - granted, mostly earlier in the season - a lot more than Hendrickson did. I feel like he should be rewarded for his efforts, which were more than expected, over Hendrickson's, which were even worse than expected. But Hendy's a lefty, so there you go.

But I'd rather have Bills over either of them because he has better stuff, even if he's a rookie and erratic.

Neyer picked LA in the preseason, so he's sticking to his guns. I saw 4 of 5 ESPN guys picking NY to win this series, so apparently ESPN likes LA's chances of getting to the WS more than they like them to win the Mets series.

They do love the Dodgers over there.

Rule #1 didn't stand a chance.

1. Sandy Alomar, Jr.
June 11, 2006
The Dodgers were not a comeback team until recently but after Russell Martin hit a game tying double against Brian Fuentes in the top of the ninth, Sandy got a pinch single to drive in the winning run.

2. Toby Hall
August 6, 2006
In a day that may live in infamy as far as Florida Manager Joe Giradi's career, the Dodgers trailed 3-1 going into the top of seventh, Toby Hall's double drove in the final two runs in a six run rally that secured their ninth win in a row. Hall, often paired with Hendrickson in his starts, thus did not get many chances to play in winning situations, but he got the job done that day.

3. Dionner Navarro
April 28, 2006
Little did Dionner know that in a week his Dodger career would be over, he went 2 for 2 and drove in the first of only two runs the Dodgers would score in a 2-0 win over the Padres in San Diego.

4. Russell Martin
August 13, 2006
Certainly he had several key hits and moments and he will be forever linked as part of the magical night against the Padres but in the Sunday Night Game of the Week that featured tremendous performances by Jason Schmidt and Greg Maddux, he hit the first of four big walk-off home runs in Dodger Stadium.

Any suggestions are of course welcome, coming up, some guys who played first base for the Dodgers this year.

Hopefully Lugo got all his lousy games out of his system during the regular season and will now show why he will be the top rated available free agent SS when the season ends.

"Guzman didn't hit in the Devil Ray minors, but if he does anything at all in his career, that will have been a steal in the opposite direction – barring a Lugo postseason awakening."

I don't agree with this in any way. We are going to get two number picks for this guy and either or both could end up having more of an impact then Joel Guzman who most prospect analysts will be dumping faster then portfolio's that contained on line gaming stocks.

And since it was the prospect analysts who hyped Guzman a year ago, I don't see why their dumping of him now should have any greater meaning.

Starting Pitching
Glavine/Lowe - Dodgers
El Duque/Kuo - Dodgers
Traschel/Maddux- Dodgers
Maine / Penny - wash

Relief Pitching
Wash

Starting pitching wins it for us in 4. This team can be overpowered but the Glavines of the world are not going to keep us from a Southern California NL championship matchup with the boys from the south.

http://www.deadspin.com/sports/baseball/where-my-team-stands-los-angeles-dodgers-204476.php

Now, the year has passed, and they're calling him worthless, questioning his desire as if the couple of petulant moments he had this season were the be-all and end-all. Everyone's so sure that 2006 represents his true level. Meanwhile, he's still only 21/22 years old. There's every possibility he can come back in 2007 and mash the ball at AAA, and move on from there.

To me, in both years, many people are guilty of not seeing the big picture with Guzman.

Guzman won't be the next A-Rod, and he might be the next Reggie Abercrombie, but my guess is that he ends up in the middle somewhere. I certainly think there's more than a little possibility he'll carve out a better career than the two Dodger draft picks TBD.

i'm still trying to figure out if Lowe, Kuo & Maddux are the starting 3. :o)

It may depend on whether LA is up or down 2-1 in the series.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/count

My prediction is similar to Jon's: One blowout win for each team, and three games of nail-biting insanity. It will serve in stark contrast to the Twins' defeat of the A's in four, the Yankees' demolition of the Tigers, and the Padres' sweep of the Cardinals. The Dodgers-Mets will be the marquee series of the first round.

http://tinyurl.com/f2arp

No real surprises there.

You'll see!

So the non-Lowe game 4 or 5 would go to the injured Penny or the rookie Billingsley. And which game do you pitch Lowe in - 4 or 5???

Little's got some tough decisions to make.

Tim McCarver alert! ; )

Grady had some tough desicions to make with the Red Sox i'm sure he's learned from his mistakes, in any case let's just injoy the ride & root for our Dodgers.

Actually, that'd be a good thing. Jersey's in foul territory. :)

Penny should not start. He has no confidence and no strikeout pitch.

http://tinyurl.com/n5ear

Saito, Broxton, Beimel, Billingsley, Tomko?

Pretty close...

You need to look at who El Dookie and Glavine pitched against before saying they pitched well.

Here are El Dookie last 5 starts:

Atlanta - W
Washington - L
Pittsburgh - L
Dodgers - W
Houston - L

Other than the Dodgers there is not a single good offensive team in that bunch. Saying he has pitched well, when only one game really stands out as even good is misleading, plus he still has a losing records, despite a nice 2.01 ERA. I am not overly impressed.

Glavine over his last 6 has faced en even lesser set of offensive opponents, and despite a number of wins, has performed rather ordinary relative to competition imo.

His opponents were:

Was - W
Was - L
Fla - W
Fla - ND
LAD - W
Hou - ND

During which time he posted a 2.89.

So these two can beat up on the little sisters of the poor and admittedly had wins over the blue during the time period as well. But neither has looked like a world beater when you factor in that they were playing some of the worst teams MLB has to offer.

NCISD banned "Draw Me a Star" by Eric Carle and "Absolute Power" by David Baldacci, but it has not received a book challenge in three years, Cindee Reynolds, NCISD superintendent/community relations executive assistant, stated in an e-mail to The Courier.

"Eric Carle?" said I. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle?"

The one and the same. The book in question (the following text from amazon):

During his youth, this gifted authorartist explains in his newest book's afterword, his German grandmother would often draw him a star while chanting a nonsense rhyme. Taking that symbol as his foundation, Carle here creates a world pulsating with life and color-a world that bursts forth from a good star sketched by a young artist. This kaleidoseopic pentagram requests a sun from the artist's pen; the sun asks for a tree, and so on until a man and woman are living happily among Carle's characteristic collages-flora and fauna of all shapes, sizes and vivid hues. Meanwhile the artist, now a bearded old man, continues to draw and create. This unusual, practically plotless work seems to embody a personal scenario close to the artist's heart. His unadorned language, pulsing with a hypnotic rhythm, adroitly complements the familiar naive artwork. Though some may be disturbed by similarities between Carle's evolving world and the biblical creation story (the unclothed male and female figures, for example), this tale of imagination and creativity pays homage to the artist within all of us-and may well fire youngsters' imaginations.

Ah, Texas, where the brains turn to mush in the summer heat.

The Mets probably need only 5-6 innings of good starting pitching to get to their pen so the Dodgers will have to try and get a faster start than usual.

*I apologize for this slight against the great state of New Jersey which, outside of the rather nasty urban/industrial areas, is quite lovely. It lives up to it's nickname as New Jersey has a higher percentage of land set aside as state parks than any state other than Alaska.

(Will) Leitch is the best internet sports scribe not named Jon Weisman

Glavine said the Dodgers would "pose a tough challenge" because they have a balanced lineup featuring patient hitters. Rafael Furcal is the catalyst while Jeff Kent, J. D. Drew and Nomar Garciaparra are seasoned hitters for a team that led the league in batting average and on-base percentage. The Dodgers depend on speed, not power, as they were second in the N.L. in steals and second to last in homers.

Since the Dodgers did not clinch a postseason spot until Saturday, Cliff Floyd said the Mets, who had at least a 10-game lead since June, had to be sure to "match their enthusiasm and intensity." Floyd warned that "a team that barely gets in can win the whole thing."

i hope the typewriter on his website is a collectors item & not the one he uses.

Nice bit of research there.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6023074

http://www.goldenpicklejuice.com/

Better than gatorade, I'm sure.

J D DREW!?

PIC-KLE JUICE!!!

For Sept. Hendrickson's ERA was 3.29 over 13.2 IP, 11H, 4BB, 15K. His 4IP/8K game--albeit in a blowout--shows he's capable, at least at times.

Got to do it with some sort of consistency, tho, and when it matters. The HOF probably is safe, but Hendy may have upside.

FWIW, he finished the year with a Dodger ERA of 4.64, comparable to Tomko's 4.73. His D Ray ERA this year was 3.81.

And you never know when he might crash and burn on the mound, causing the Mets to go into hysterics and lose all focus on baseball. The Dodgers would be immune to this, having seen it before. A secret weapon, he is..??

Worth another look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev3m2O4XmFM

how does it taste though?, i'll go with Vitamin water or Gatorade.

Gold gloves galore, excellent fielding and bunting technique, stealing bases on unconscious opposing pitchers at age 40. Not to mention 300+ wins, umpteen years of at least 15 wins, etc.

http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/fantasy/bracket_challenge/

But they have tiebreakers set up:

1. Total number of runs scored during the final game of the World Series;
2. Total number of hits recorded during the final game of the World Series;
3. Total number of runs scored during the entire World Series;
4. Total number of hits recorded during the entire World Series;
5. Correct selection of the winning MLB team and number of games in the World Series (only in cases where tied participants had less than seven correct predictions);
6. Correct selection of both the winning MLB teams and number of games in each of the ALCS and NLCS (only in cases where tied participants had less than seven correct predictions); and
7. MLBAM will administer a timed baseball trivia quiz, testing the tied participants' knowledge of Major League Baseball, until the tie is broken.

It's better than the WBC.

Has anybody else set up their vcr/Tivo to record the Maddux/Glavine matchup yet?

"His [objection] was that it should've happened sooner and I understand that," he added. "He was ready for this. The feeling of the last two ball clubs don't fall in his lap. In every way he was a victim of the circumstances. He was very relieved that he was going home. He had a very good four years here except for the last two."

i've seen it & the guy seemed very cocky at the end of the show, good stuff though don't get me wrong.

"Think about this," said one AL executive a few days ago. "They're going to win close to 100 games, and they lost Matsui and [Gary] Sheffield for almost the whole year. If most teams lost 250 RBIs, they wouldn't even contend."

Wow, if the Yankees had had Matsui and Sheffield, they would have scored 250 more runs this year. I guess...

The preceding message brought to you by Greg Brock's House of Sarcasm.

I never realized how little interest I could have in MNF.

There's nothing to watch on TV until 9:15 when it's DVR safe to start watching "Heroes".

Yeah, I'm one of those guys.

Those puppies are worth at least ten games right there.

Hits allowed.

The Dodgers pitchers gave up 1524, 86 more than they gave up in 1999.

Stan from Tacoma

Or you can listen to Gary Thorne, Joe Morgan, and Steve Phillips on ESPN.

Hmm.....

Well, it doesn't matter either way for me since the games will be on during work hours.

I'll get Joe Morgan on the Batphone immediately.

Loney? Kemp? Kuo?

What are maximum inning/abs for rookie status?

Kemp would not be a rookie next year. Nor would Kuo. I think Loney was just on the roster for 36 days before September 1.

That leaves him 9 days and 28 at bats a rookie. Now, do playoff at bats and roster days count toward rookie status?

For James' sake, I hope not. He has to be an early contender for next year's ROY if he ends up getting the starting nod.

Thoughts? Answers?

Thanks Bob!

As for the lineup, the Dodgers are 3-0 with Saenz batting third in the lineup. They are again, 11-3 when Lugo bats third.

Then again, they were throwing this thing together in a marathon session in the middle of the night. I'm not surprised there's a few typos and other errors.