Hate?

I didn't gather up predictions from the rest of the Toaster writers like I did last year mainly because Jon really hates doing it.

Jon, haven't we talked to you about intimidating the other Toaster writers?

Jon didn't intimidate me. It was more like a kid not wanting to eat the pea soup at Andersen's.

1 - Not strong enough a word?

The format where you just have to name the teams you picked, without being to explain your reservations about your pick, just doesn't work for me.

3 - Actually, you're the first!

I hate to be a party-pooper, so when people ask me to make predictions, I usually get on board. But I really like to be able to convey my intense sense of doubt.

But what if all the other kids really like pea soup and want to order some?

5 - I can see why you wouldn't want to do it. No one has a clue what rosters will look like in even a month, but you have to guess what a whole season has in store and then people reference back to it when it is all said and done to point out that you were wrong. I love reading them though.

What about Penny? I liked his last outing against the Angels and I think he´ll have a good game today and a good season.I still think that Grady is insecure about Penny and that´s why Chad didn´t pitch on Wednesday against the Brewers.

By the way, if anyone wants to see pictures from my trip to Dodgertown, here they are...

http://tinyurl.com/2oxk33

When I was trying to write my previews this year, I wanted to fully explain my thinking on all of my teams. After I wrote one, which covered all that I wanted to about a team, it came out to four pages after I added charts and things, that's 120 pages total. There's too many variables to adequately explain your views, so just putting them in a list with no explanation is the only real option.

Re the chat, I'm not sure I agree with Geoff Young that the Padres will possibly have the best rotation in the league. The first three should be very good, but I'm not sure the two fortysomethings can be counted on to have great seasons, and I don't think the Padres have much in the way of a starting pitching backup plan.

5
Four letter words are strong enough so you are OK there. Predicting without hedge comments would seem like what a witness has to endure when an attorney shuts them up by saying yes or no, or a weatherman saying it is not going to rain, unless it does.

[9] you were apparently there on st. patrick's day, as was i and don burns.

[5] but nobody's ever certain about their predictions. it's not like anyone has a crystal ball. it's baseball; anything can happen, and i think everybody knows that. the predictions are just for fun. has anybody really ever seriously taken you to task for a prediction that you've gotten wrong?

"i think everybody knows that the predictions are just for fun"

No.

"has anybody really ever seriously taken you to task for a prediction that you've gotten wrong?"

Yes.

It seemed like Geoff had his Street-and-Smith synopsis for each team at the ready, and Jon was more natural and off-the-cuff.

I really don't like the Padres.

15 - I would like to hear an example of this, it has got to test well on the unintentional comedy meter.

Anytime I think I know anything before the start of the year, I think back to 2004. Pre-season the Cubs were picked to run away with their division on the strenght of their amazing pitching, but instead the Cards won by 13 games, and the Cubbies were in third, a distant 16 games back. I had to eat a lot of crow from my STL friends and I vowed never to make predictions again. Of course I bragged to the same people again before the playoffs last year and we all know how that turned out.

[15] hehe, well then.. that's their mistake, not yours.

There was a particularly annoying DBacks fan who called out Eric about every single day during the 2005 season at BTF.

19 Sheesh, I'm still trying to forget about that. I said the Dodgers would finish 20 games better than the DBacks in 2005. Instead, they finished six games worse.

The real problem is that Bob won his own contest last year. Now none of the other kids want to play with him.

20
I really don't mean to single you out Eric. It's just that I stopped visiting BTF for a while because every thread had that guy posting that comment in it.

Even if it had nothing to do with the Dodgers or DBacks.

20 - I am trying to forget about 2005 altogether. A truly miserable time in Dodger history. Though at least there was the light at the end of the tunnel in Jacksonville.

"It's just that I stopped visiting BTF for a while because every thread had that guy posting that comment in it."

Yeah, me too -- him and others like him are why I don't go there anymore. The wolves have long since taken over that place anyway.

Eric, do you have a blog? I thought you did, but I couldn't find it earlier. Half the people posting here seem to write somewhere else, but I can't really find out where. A link (if such a magical place exists) would be appreciated.

The Bobby Jenks/Jonathan Broxton comparison was weird. They're both big, and throw hard, but that's about it.

You could compare dozens of players if that was the only criteria.

9 I think we should sign that Everglades Gator dude. He looks like he's got serious power.

25 No, I don't. Not sure I'd have time to keep up with one. (Even if I did, it would probably be a blog about UTEP basketball. The brilliance of Jon and others has really rendered further Dodger blogs unnecessary.)

28 - Yeah, UTEP basketball probably needs a good blog.

I don't even read a large segment of the Dodger blogs online because there is just too much content. I wonder about other people's daily blog reading, because mine is reaching the point of interfering with my normal lifestyle. There is just so many good things out there.

23 2005 wasn't so horrible for me, Dodger-wise. The season went badly of course, and Jim Tracy made me crazy, but the reason for the disaster was obvious and just bad luck (injuries), and even if Tracy managed to make it even worse than it had to be, I finished the season with hope about the prospects. Tracy's firing was the apex of that hope, and since then, it's been mostly downhill. Not as quickly downhill as some of us feared (the top kids are still around) but downhill nonetheless.

Boston gets shut out by the Robinson Tejeda, Ortiz goes 0-4, Drew 1-4, Manny gets a single and a walk in 4 PAs. That Sox lineup hasn't been firing on all-cylinders so far. I still think they are going to win the East.

30 - Depo's firing at the end of the '05 season was one of the most disappointing moments I've had as a Dodger fan. Not good times.

31 - Only 1 K for Tejada in 7 innings, which means it was just "one of those days" I think.

32 - That was the darkest. I felt like the team had been hijacked by a megalomaniac who cared more about appearances than reality. As mediocre as Ned is, at least there are some highs. BTW, Tommy Lasorda is a terrible person and I wish he had nothing to do with the Dodgers at this point.

34 - One bright side to Ned vs. Depo, I do like Grady Little much more than I was preparing to like Terry Collins. That "fire-and-brimstone" act of his gets a little old.

Totally OT..but of all the people I would never have guessed are pals with our friend Sal:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=pearlman/070406&sportCat=mlb

And Jon, what did you think of the Andre Either-as-Garret Anderson comparison from this chat?

Damn. Apparently if I'd gone to see Blades of Glory at the brand new theater down the street from where I work in downtown SF, yesterday, I would have seen some Dodgers in the audience.

"Hey Hendrickson, slump down! You're blockin' my view of Will Ferrell's double axle!"

And here I was waiting to see that one on DVD, silly me.

Jon: "The sole value [of predictions] seems to be to allow readers to point out how wrong you were..."

Do people really do this? I wouldn't think they'd care enough to remember. You shouldn't care either. The self isn't important. Go on and make predictions. They're fun. Nothing more.

Anyone else in SF going to the games this weekend? I may go tomorrow, but will otherwise just tape it and watch it later. Was thinking of going tonight but am fighting a cold and dunno if I want to sit in freezing AT&T Park for 3 hours. Still, would be fun.

37
How do you keep bumping into Dodgers?

38 Heck, forget about being wrong--people get all over your case even if you make a prediction that turns out to be right.

Last April, I got called all sorts of names on all sorts of web sites for having the audacity to pick the Tigers to win the AL Central. They didn't win it, but I wasn't quite so stupid as people said I was. The year before, I said the Mariners would have a lousy OBP and finish last, and I got called an idiot on some Mariners web sites, and then the Mariners went on to have a lousy OBP and finished last.

So if you're an idiot when you're right, imagine what people think of you when you're wrong.

40 Ah, the point is I keep almost bumping into Dodgers, but not. The movie theater thing just came to me by way of the Dodger blog, and Josh over there. I was literally in that mall yesterday after work. Then my coworker saw Tomko. It's really not that exciting, but would be cool to see some of your favorite players in the movie theater... (But maybe y'all down in LA have a better shot of that happening than I do.) I guess I could bump into them if I actually went to one of the games this weekend. ;-)

Can someone please answer a few questions for me? (honestly) I live in Dayton OH and I don't get much by way of Dodger commentary.

Why is Brady Clark on the roster? Why trade for this guy if you are going to keep Kemp on the roster?

If James Loney never had a chance to make the team, then why set him up for failure and heartbreak?

Was the Nomar signing a result of Colletti's lack of anger management after the Drew departure? Did he simply have a panic attack before thinking his decisions through?

Why is Marlon Anderson on this team anyway? What value does a backup lefthanded outfielder on a team that starts three lefthanders?

Can the Dodger outfield defense really be as bad as I have been reading about?

Just some thoughts and questions.

42
I saw Dan Haren near Westfield Mall. That is about it for my athlete interaction.

BTW, Tommy Lasorda is a terrible person and I wish he had nothing to do with the Dodgers at this point.

Huh? What happened? Just a general statement or did he feed you cat bad catfood?

I'll be going to the 51s game tonight up in Salt Lake. Does anyone have any messages they want me to deliver to Loney?

45 - By all accounts, he bent the ear of F. McCourt and convinced him that Depodesta was to blame for the terrible 2005. After sticking the knife in, Tommy was pretty smug about the whole thing, though his victory was short lived as McCourt did not go with his choice for Manager or G.M. (Oral H. and Pat Gillick, respectively). Besides which, I just don't like Tommy very much.

43 I'll do my best.

-Clark was acquired because he can play good defense at all three outfield positions, take a walk, and can be stashed on the bench. Hopefully the Dodgers plan isn't to have Kemp on the bench all season. Even if it was thoughtless, we didn't lose anything worthwhile to begin with.

-No clue.

-You'd have to ask Colletti. At the very least it was a good P.R. move since Nomar is beloved down here.

-Anderson added a left handed bat off the bench when the Dodgers needed one last season, and he was under contract for this season. The .800 slug he had for the Dodgers means you can't just cut him.

-In terms of catching the ball, they're probably below average, but it is very terrible collection of arms they have out there.

47. I find it very hard to believe that McCourt listens closely to Tommy about his assessment of anything other than Italian Food. Tommy's time of being more than an ambassador has long passed.

49 As someone who has watched this team from the Tommy was the 3rd base coach through his managing career, short-lived GM post and now resident Dodger Blue advisor to the Chairman, Tommy like Vinny is a connection to all things Dodger.

Most of my knowledge of Tommy's influence on the moves that were made at the end of 2005 is based on just intuition since DePodesta was not a favorite of Tommy but I do think that the hiring of Ned was based more on Ned's interaction with Frank than any influence by Tommy.

I don't hate Tommy because of what a character he's been for all these years and hey, the team did win two WS under his watch (whether it was because of or more despite him is up for debate). But I'll always resent all his stupid moves as a GM, some of which still pi... irk me.

15, 38, 41--

I think you have to have written about sports professionally, or at least publicly, to know how this can be.

Some people think that if you write sports and make predictions and those predictions turn out wrong, then you don't know what you're doing. "He--, I could do as well as he does. He doesn't know any more about this than I do, maybe less. Why did they hire him? How does he keep his job?"

Knowledge of sports and a job writing about them don't mean your predictions will be dead on. Too many variables. You may know more than most people, but your predictions won't be infallible. But too many people will expect them to be and won't be exactly forgiving when they're not. Some will seek you out and try to give you grief about it.

Not enough people read predictions for fun, muse over whether they agree and why, then move on, probably not even remember what was predicted after a few days. Or, if they do remember, realize that this isn't exactly life or death, and that predicting sports is just going to be inexact. That's probably about the process most DT readers would follow.

But not enough folks are like DT readers/commenters, most of whom are several cuts above the average sports fan.

{hops off soapbox, takes chill pill}

quick question, what radio station will be broadcasting the game tonight, if any? Ill be driving down the 5 during gametime.

Being a Dodgers fan and hating Tommy Lasorda is like being a vegetarian and still eating a porterhouse every Thursday night. It just doesn't work. Tommy Lasorda was responsible (directly or indirectly) for sooooooooo much that was right with the Dodgers organization for all those winning years. Yeah he's in the twilight of his life now and may not be as sharp as he once was, but I just don't understand how you can bleed blue and not love Tommy. If for no other reason he gave us two of the greatest, most played radio clips in the history of baseball. Even non baseball/sports fans know who Kurt Bevacqua and Dave Kingman are because of Lasorda.......it doesn't get any better than that IMO.

53 980.

53 Assuming that you don't have XM Radio, here are your options drving down the 5.

Station On Dial City
KFWB 980 Los Angeles
KNZR 1560 Bakersfield
KMET 1490 Banning
KBOV 1230 Bishop
KROP 1300 Brawley/El Centro
KCBL 1340 Fresno
KAVL 610 Lancaster/Palmdale
KSFN 1140 Las Vegas
KPSI 920 Palm Springs
KXTY 99.7 San Luis Obispo
KHTS 1230 Santa Clarita
KVEN 1450 Ventura/Oxnard
KEZL 1400 Visalia

Long-time Dodger fan, first time poster. Have always had a hard time loving Lasorda, and still pine for the quiet dignity of Walter Alston.

A good friend went to Dodger Fantasy Camp regularly in the early '90s. He reported that the campers tolerated Lasorda, but loved Perranoski.

32 30 - Depo's firing at the end of the '05 season was one of the most disappointing moments I've had as a Dodger fan. Not good times.

Same here. That's why I said that Tracy's firing was the peak of hope. I was very disappointed when DePodesta was fired (well, furious at the time, disappointed in retrospect), but hope didn't die immediately. It remained to be seen who his successor would be, and what he would do. That was even in enough doubt after a few months (several months?) that Jon could write that piece arguing (quite reasonably) that, to that point, the differences between DePodesta and Colletti had been overblown.

But the more we learn, the less I like, and the less hope I retain.

56.
Wow! talk about your thorough answers. Very nice.

I don't think it's intuition - all reports indicated the PR-challenged McCourt did seek Lasorda for counsel after 2005.

Lasorda, to say the least, is a complicated guy. He is responsible for a great many good things, but to say his public side isn't a full capture of the man is an understatement. I find it quite easy to be a Dodger fan and at best ambivalent about him.

When DePo was fired a lot of saber-types blamed Lasorda, but I think the idea that Lasorda was manipulating McCourt lost a lot of credibility when Tommy's GM candidate, Bowden, couldn't even get an interview with the Dodgers. I think McCourt reached his own conclusions after a lot of things went wrong in 2005 (not just the mere 71 wins, but the Milton Bradley soap opera, the failure to either work with or fire Jim Tracy in a timely fashion, forcing Logan White to draft Luke Hochevar and then Hochevar not signing, choosing Terry Collins -- a guy players hate -- to be the new manager). Also, it seems to be established that as a very out-going guy McCourt was frustrated by DePo's shyness and social awkwardness, and he saw those personal characteristics have real consequences for how DePo worked with the people who work under him (when one or two people can't get along with the boss, it is probably their problem, but when everybody can't get along with the boss, it is the boss's problem).

Not that we really need more debate on this, but here's Tot Holmes chiming in on the Dodgers' OF situation:
http://dodgers.scout.com/2/633351.html

It's tough to read anything much about his son and not come away with the impression that Tommy isn't much of a human being.

46 Nice, Jerry. Say to him that even in other countries there are people that want him wearing Dodger blue.

Sorry if this was mentioned.. Here's an ambidextrous college pitcher (with video):

http://tinyurl.com/238ddd

52 - Well said.

61 - I took almost all my cues on Lasorda-McCourt from the anti-Depo media.

"Hate" is a bit strong, but I am not much of a Lasorda fan and if I am not a Dodger fan than I gotta figure out a better way to waste my time. I don't know whether or not Lasorda actually threw Depodesta under the bus, but Tommy seemed to relish the impression that he had something to do with it. Considering what a terrible GM Tommy was, it is beyond me that anyone would take his advice in that arena, but whatever.

I definitely have my blind-spots when it comes to Depodesta, because I have quaffed long and hard from the stathead Koolaid, but in truth he obviously wasn't perfect. He made some mistakes and obviously wasn't great at selling his vision. However, he got fired before we had a chance to even figure out his plan. What's the sense of changing horses in midstream? Then I guess I wouldn't be terribly upset if Ned got fired this winter, so I guess I am a hypocrite on top of everything else.

66 -- But too much was read into what the media reported. DePo was fired after the media made a big deal out of McCourt and Lasorda having dinner with Hershiser (a dinner that DePo was not invited to), and when Depo got the axe, it was just assumed that Lasorda had been whispering in McCourt's ear. Just because you go to dinner with someone doesn't mean you defer to their judgment. Lasorda likes to be treated with respect and he blows kisses at the McCourts for treating him well, but his role is still as cermonial under McCourt as it was in the years following his short stint as GM.

65

He's a teammate of my future brother-in-law.
That Nebraska game incident that they mention in the article was quite the circus.

That was mentioned in that Tot Holmes piece about Dodgers OFers, too, I believe.
---

Sigh, speaking of which, I wish we had Nick Markakis. Give us one Markakis and we win a pennant. Imagine an OF of Markakis, Kemp and Ethier? Sigh.

---

Oh man, is anyone watching the game in Cleveland? It's snowing like mad, they've had several delays and are just trying to make it an official game. You can barely see anything right now so they're delaying it again. Indians are up on the Mariners, in fact they have a (very empty) no hitter going. Mariners have 3 errors. Crazy.

I'm watching the Nats/Diamondbacks game on the Extra Innings free preview. I guess its Micah Owings' first start and he's looking rugged. Good control, nice breaking pitches, has 4 k's through 2 innings. Not news I like to hear. Washington's pitcher doesnt look half bad either. Naturally, I have no idea who he is.

Jerome Williams is throwing for the Nats. I remember him with the Giants.

Ronnie Belliard just had a senior moment. Or else he's been nipping at Bowden's hooch.

54 "Being a Dodgers fan and hating Tommy Lasorda is like being a vegetarian and still eating a porterhouse every Thursday night."

"Hate" is a strong word (the title of this post not withstanding), but I bleed Dodger blue as much as Lasorda does and still have a rather strong dislike for the man. It has not always been this way, but the more I've found out about him over the years, the less easy he is to like. Interacting with him personally has not changed my negative opinion.

He's really a snake -- more than any other person I know of, he acts one way when there's a camera on him and diametrically opposite when there isn't one. He can be a condescending, two-faced, out of touch, backstabbing, arrogant jerk when not in the public eye. The way he treated his son is shameful, unforgivable even. All the rah-rah stuff becomes a joke after a while. And it didn't help that he was a master of running talented young pitchers into the ground, slogging Fernando and Orel and Ramon until their arms fell off -- not to mention running Pedro Martinez out of town. The hooker thing didn't change my opinion of him at all; I'd written him off long before that.

And Jon cracks the whip on 70 in 3,2,1...

Hey, I don't agree with it either, but a rule's a rule.

Doesn't look like Schneider ever got the tag down.

Yeah, with the last replay, he clearly didn't. Oops.

This will make Oregon fans happy...

Apparently Oguchi is going to transfer.

78 Did you hear the latest UCLA b-ball recruiting rumour, let's just say it involves a team with a coach who got fired. And it's a big 10 school.

68 - My point is, why are you pinning that reading on "saber types"?

I would have missed the violation in 70 if Eric hadn't pointed it out.

What'd I do in 70? Whatever it was, I apologize! {sob)

I mean, {sob) - I can't even bracket properly today. I should go home and watch the game by myself in piece. Er, peace.

79
Basically, we get Legion if AA leaves. So either way, we win.

Well, in better news I should finish revising my screenplay tonight. You wouldn't know it from my "Me fail English/That's unpossible" typing here today, but...

That is if the Dodgers game doesn't get too much in the way tonight.

84
Interesting. Willing to divulge any information about it?

53 56 You say you're coming down the 5, but if you end up on the 101, note that 1450 is not only Ventura/Oxnard but also Santa Barbara, and reaches at the least the whole southern half of the county loud and clear.

Looks like Abreu is at SS tonight for Vegas.

Um, WWII set, but with a twist (yeah, that's what they all say.) About racism, and POWs and there's an alligator in it. That's all I can say right now. And there's a director reading it, but I can't say who, and I've written 15 drafts and it's painful, and the ending in this one finally doesn't suck. How's that?

Maybe I'll edit with the sound down on the game, so I can a) concentrate better and b) not have to listen to the Giants announcers for too long.

88
Alligators and war...

You have my attention.

89 Cool. Do you have a spare 10 million lying around? ;-) Actually, maybe I should do a draft for the Sci-Fi Channel that features many more alligators, and robot Nazis.

--
In minor league news, Philip Hughes first game was snowed out, and whoever's pitching for Durham today is struggling. Oh, I see that Peguero's line score is
0.2 6 8 8 2 0 1 108.00
in that one.

Game thread is open.

80 -- Jon, by my mentioning "saber types" maybe I was inviting some defensiveness, but really, I was just recollecting the "blame game" as it played out in the wake of DePo's firing. I just seem to remember a lot of people whom I associate with sabermetric views laying the whole affair at Lasorda's feet. Lasorda became a kind of symbol for "old school backlash." And as I imply in my original post, whatever believability that theory may have had INITIALLY, it was destroyed by how impotent Lasorda looked when he publicly lobbied for a GM to be hired that the Dodgers unmistakably snubbed by not giving him an interview at a time when the Dodgers seemed to be begging for other experienced GM's to interview. Heck, McCourt was even interested in Theo Epstein, so that should have proven that McCourt's problems with DePodesta were NOT about sabermetrics. I don't think McCourt cares about anything as abstract as baseball philosphy.