http://tinyurl.com/2hmczh

Not much to say about today's spring training game except that Lowe looked excellent and the offense looked meager at best (especially Pierre on a couple weak pop-ups and one crappy bunt).

I don't remember LaRoche misplaying anything, but he did have a penchant for throwing behind the runners and generally looked like an infielder out there. He seemed to be fine after the HBP by simpling jogging right to 1B. Even when they took him out mid-inning and the trainer looked at him, he still seemed okay and just walked back to the clubhouse.

For the last inning I sat behind the radar guys and Beimel was sitting at 85-86 with his fastball and cranked it up to 89 to get a strikeout. His change-up sat at 79 and had some pretty good movement. Overall his location and movement were very good.

I asked a radar guy about Tomko and he said he was hitting between 90 and 93 with his fastball. He also looked good although some of the outs were pretty well-hit balls.

Got LaRoche and Abreu's autographs today along with Coletti and Ng after the game. Again Loney was the last one at the park signing autographs and I'm really rooting for him now. Kemp also stayed after the game and goofed around with some kids behind the backstop. Even Kent signed some balls before the game.

Gonna try to get to the game much earlier tomorrow to have a better chance at some signatures as well as being able to watch the team take batting practice.

Is there a shirt with the VORP formula on it?

http://tinyurl.com/2tmzls

However, I did bid on (and lost) a Hollywood Bowl box to see Gladys Knight & the Pips.

Who did the shipping on Ghame Over? Was it Vishal?

He picked 5 of the first 6 games right and still has both his teams alive for the final. If Oregon and Washington State win tomorrow, he's got $5 in high quality Amazon.com e-card!

Anyone here planning to drive across the country in the next year and like to sublet part of your truck?

In the last three years, Tony Abreu, the 22-year-old second baseman has gone from 160 pounds to 187 to his current weight of 200.

Asked how he has gained 40 pounds in the last two years, he said: "Eating good and working hard."

I think Abreu and Dewitt could be the middle infield in 2009 and both very visible in 2008.

Loney seems like a great kid, thats nice to see in todays game.

ss Furcal
rf Kemp
cf Alex Rios
3b Nomar
1b Loney
2b Kent
lf Ethier
c Martin

who did we trade for Rios?

http://tinyurl.com/2qg9cn

(1) - How a list of the best "walking" cities leaves off NYC is beyond me.

www.movingscam.com

It's an incredible resource (and a repository for frightening tales of moving mishaps). Personally, if I ever move again I'd use either of these two places:

Delancey Street Movers http://tinyurl.com/2m992c

Moovers, Inc.
http://www.mooversinc.com

They're both based in the Bay Area. Delancey has an office in L.A. and the both do runs from L.A. to basically anywhere. I had Moovers, Inc. move me from Alabama to SF. One guy cleared out the entire contents of my one bedroom apartment (including a queen mattress, chest of drawers, TV, etc.) in about three hours, routinely denying my offers of assistance. Never seen a man work that hard, and absolutely nothing was damaged.

[39,40] I watched Abrue play short in the AZ Fall League and he played well there. He was also an exciting player to watch on the bases. I don't know about his arm strength.

Hu does have arm strength and is an awesome defensive shortstop. He is smacking the ball in Vero batting practice so if he can make contact he will be more than a spray hitter. Hu, Dewitt, Abreu provide solid middle infield replacements for Furcal and Kent in my intuitive guesstimate.

Okay back to Dodger baseball.

Loney 3-3, I think he is hitting almost .500 now.

No. My understanding is he was signed to play center in Las Vegas.

Scott Elbert gives up a homer to his first batter, Hunter hits it out.

Interestingly, Chad is only a year older but that one year makes a candidate for a starting role on the Dodgers while Elbert still has to polish up some stuff in the minors. Elbert shows he can dominate A/AA hitters, now he has to stop the walks.

My bad, forgive me DTers

I guess my only fear is that Colletti and Little take their impressions of Elbert now too seriously and Colletti starts thinking of Elbert as expendable when other GM's talk trades with him.

I got a check for $4.50 from Nestle for the bad focaccia mix box I got. I don't think it cost me $4.50.

But justice is mine!

As of about a year and a half ago, there were essentially two problems with the CafePress shirts--

1) The areas of the transfer that are supposed to be "clear" are not. So if you're printing on, say, white shirts, the area within the transfer that is supposed to be white will not quite be white -- it'll be a slightly different shade from the shirt color itself. Or if the shirt is gray, the clear areas will be a different shade of gray from the shirt. I'm not explaining this very well, but basically you will end up with a subtle rectangular border around your design whether the design itself is rectangular shaped or not.

2) The printing appears to be somewhat imprecise and incapable of rendering intricate detail. Lines and borders are fuzzy rather than hard.

"Chelsea to visit Galaxy, may be Beckham's first game"

Wow, I guess the MLS is really expanding!

My excuse is I picked Stanford to go all the way.

But seriously folks, that'll be a cool exhibition game. I guess Bekham should be healthy by then.

---

Meanwhile, do any Bay Area DT readers wanna have a Dodgers-Giants game gathering this season? Probably too late to organize for the first series in April, but maybe for the second?

I could take the Metro, but it's almost, but not quite, as inconvenient as possible. The big problem is that when I walk from the Red Line station at 7th and Fig, the City of L.A. keeps closing the sidewalks. And they do it on opposite sides of the streets so it's a real pain.

I don't mind walking a few blocks. But I would like to come back to an intact car.

??

On Flower, the sidewalk ends in one section nowhere near a crosswalk.

This would explain why I am still sitting around in a t-shirt and sweats and haven't shaved in two days.

And why is that when some guys don't shave for two days, they look "rugged" and if I don't shave for two days, people give me spare change and suggestions on where to find a homeless shelter?

Plus fifty cents to ride the bus!

83 - Alternatives? One thought is we could the printing outlet you used two years ago, have a DTer handle the shipping again, and make sure their time and effort and expense were built into the price of the shirt.

"LaRoche said he had trouble developing a closer's mentality, though. If the school had offered to play theme music whenever he entered a game — a la Guns N' Rose's "Welcome to the Jungle," which accompanied Eric Gagne's appearances at Dodger Stadium — LaRoche said he probably would have chosen "'Why Can't We Be Friends' or something like that.""

If you had lots of time and wanted to grab some dinner beforehand and if you can make the Dash connections, I would park in Little Tokyo (Highest price is $4.00 after 4:00 p.m.) have a nice early meal and take the Dash down 1st to Figueroa down to Staples.

Of course this doesn't help you getting back to your car after tonight's game.

i think it happened possibly in the 80's. i believe orel hershiser was pitching and a left hander came up to bat. the dodgers brought in a lefty to pitch against the hitter but put orel or whoever the pitcher was was put in left field for the at bat.

then after the at bat they moved orel back to pitcher.

when was the last time something like that happened? did it actually happen? i was a preteen during those times so i might've just made it up in my head.

From the Westside I exit the 10 on Grand and take first left on Olive. Take a left at 11th and park at the corner of Grand and 11th (Northeast corner). It was $5 last night for the Pac-10 tourney, and then it is a straight shot back to the freeway down Grand and easy to exit after the game when the couple blocks right around Staples are packed. It is less than a 5 minute walk to Staples down 11th from here.

I was actually planning on going to the first series between the Dodgers and the hated ones at the phone booth. Not sure which day yet, but I'd be up for meeting that weekend.

Wikipedia also reports that the Smash Mouth version was played in a "Lizzie McGuire" episode and in BASEketball's soundtrack.

There's gotta be some company out there that will both print a nice shirt and ship it to individual purchasers. Maybe one that caters to indie bands and such?

Now if Grady would just start letting Nomar shag some balls at third sooner than later.

I also posted in previous threads, my posts were left to flutter in the wind, that one of my longshot predictions would have Meloan being the closer if not at the start of the season then by May 1.

Did anybody's thoughts change about Abreu playing short after Furcal's contract expires based on how he played today?

If Nomar winds up playing third in 2007 and 08 I can see LaRoche playing right espceially if Kemp can learn to play CF in 08.

But enough about Bob's parking, who in the bay area wants to join me for a game up there this year?

Meloan may not make the team to start barring a trade or two, but I do expect him to be on the team and in the pen within 3-4 months.

Another option would be to set up an eBay store to sell the shirts and then use an eBay dropoff store like this one to handle the shipping.
http://www.auctiondepotla.com

Meloan will be a closer in Vegas, again dependent on what happens with the glut of the starters on MLB roster.

Abreau has primarily played 2B (with Hu by his side for most of the last 2 years and destined to be together this season in Vegas). I think that its good to be able to play multiple positions but Hu is the guy who is AAA because of his glove at shortstop and Abreau is still penciled in at 2B. If they break them up and have them each playing shortstop this year at AA/AAA, then I might think that they believe Abreau can play shortstop defensively in Los Angeles.

Frenchy Bordagaray, who is also entered in the all time cool names division, makes an appearance.

Another beautiful day at the ballgame, at the ballgame today. Got there pretty early today to watch batting practice on the practice fields. The hitters were a bit boring so I ventured over to the hitters' batting practice which was much more entertaining. They seemed to be playing a game where balls in play were classified as hits or outs and they played simulated innings. This brought out lots of heckling, specifically from Lowe and Beimel, as well as plenty of competitive banter which was quite hilarious. My favorite comment was when Travis Smith was up and Lowe shouted out "come on, Eckstein!" The true surprise was Broxton's raw power (he hit one out) and Tsao's all-around skills (he stroked the ball and made some great plays in the OF).

As for the game, I decided to get radar readings on all the pitchers and here's what I got:

Wolf - fastball 87-88, change-up 78, curveball 66-67, cutter?/slider? 85-86
Billingsley - fastball 89-92 (mostly 91), cutter/slider 87, curveball 73
Elbert - fastball 88-92 (mostly 91), slider/curve 82-85
Hull - fastball 85-89 (mostly 87), slider 81-83, curve/change? 78-79
White - fastball 88-90, curveball 75, slider 83-84
Meloan - fastball 91-93 (mostly 92), cutter 87-88, knuckle-curve 78-81

I stood right behind Meloan while he was warming up before the game and he threw four pitches: fastball, cutter, change-up, and knuckle-curve. I didn't see any change-ups during the game, but his knuckle-curve was a plus pitch and had really tight movement. It looks like he could be a quality setup man right now.

Elbert had a lot of movement on all his pitches (too much?) and got in trouble with his fastball by leaving it up in the zone (all homers were off fastballs). It doesn't look like he trusts his secondary pitches when he gets behind in the count, which could account for a high HR total until he does.

Billingsley looked good except a lot of the contact off him was pretty solid. He didn't throw enough off-speed stuff and his placement on his fastball was average.

Wolf looked pretty solid by having pretty good location, but his fastball could use some more oomph for him to get some strikeouts.

The young hitters looked good once again with Loney and Ethier getting 3 hits apiece and Martin pitching in 2. LaRoche had an ugly error late in the game where he "ole"d a grounder that let a runner score.

Got a good amount of autographs today including Lowe, Gonzo, Kemp, Ethier, Billingsley, Elbert, Repko, and Meloan. As for ToyCannon's comment, I'm not an autograph hound usually, but I see all these signatures as memories of this certain trip since I not only get a signature but also a feel for the player's personality.

Game 4 will commence tomorrow with Schmidt on the mound I'm assuming, stay tuned!

I agree with Canuck--he's going to have to throw strikes and keep the ball in the yard before being thought of as a close to the majors prospect.

I stopped collecting as an adult, although I do have five autographed baseballs that I got from people whom I particularly admire and happened to meet and converse with in the course of my work. It's just kind of a memento to trigger memories of the occasion, like a snapshot. You might as well ask why people take pictures on vacation.

(FWIW, the five people alluded to above are John Sayles, Spike Lee, Teresa Wright, Rachel Robinson, and Larry Doby.)

A sports article on Wednesday about Princeton's struggling men's basketball team misattributed a quotation by a player who supports Coach Joe Scott. It was Justin Conway — not his teammate Luke Owings — who said during a postgame news conference on Tuesday: "I respect Coach Scott a lot. He is the most passionate guy I have ever met, and his passion is directed toward making Princeton basketball as great as it possibly can be. I want to be with a guy who is doing everything he can and is pouring everything into what his goal is. Coach Scott definitely does that." Although both players spoke during the news conference, Owings made no comments about the coaching.

The article also referred incorrectly to a former player, Scott Greenman, who was the team's leading scorer as a senior in the 2005-6 season. He missed 4 of the team's 27 games with a back injury, according to N.C.A.A. statistics — not "much" of that season. Because of an editing error, the article also referred incorrectly in some copies to the time of Greenman's injury. It was last season, not this season. (He graduated last year.)

I suppose, other than that, most of the story was right on target.

121 All I can say is that in your world, anyone on the wrong side of 30 better watch out. But you are consistent. Good for you.

As an adult I think we do it when we see a player we are awed by or was part of our childhood. A couple of years ago I was elated at getting Koufax's autograph.

3.0 IP, 0 runs, 0 walks, 1 strikeout. Guess who?

mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2007_03_09_oakmlb_sfnmlb_1

Not that he hasn't played 3B before, he has, but it would 2 years since he played or probably even practiced much on that side of the field.

Again, I think I get this a lot when it comes to Juan Pierre debate, I am not one to venture into what I would like to see, I am more this is how it is going to be in terms of the Dodgers we will see out there on April 2nd.

So all I can go on is what I am seeing, reading and hearing from Vero Beach and I am not seeing anything short of one story that said a possiblility could be Nomar playing 3B due to Betemit's and La Roche's struggles so far. But since then, Betemit continues to play 3B (except for some time at SS when they brought fewer players on a roadtrip) and La Roche is the one who is getting some innings in a different position.

The Dodgers are three weeks away from opening day, so far 28 pitchers have thrown at least one inning and 25 batters have taken a time at bat. Grady says they will start cutting down over the weekend (generally minor leaguers will head over to the minor league camp, non-roster guys may have certain things required in their contracts about their releases).

Now that starters are streching out to 3-4 innings, and at some point these guys will be put into position to start the season (For instance, Randy Wolf could get the start at the exhibition game against the Angels on the 29th since it lines up with his start in Milwaukee the following Tuesday, I see the 5th starter competition having to get some clarity in the next 10 days or so.

My bet for the last Non roster guys to be cut will be Larry Bigbie and Rudy Seanez, depending on whatever deals they made when they signed up to come to Vero Beach.

I was gonna say "I'll eat my glove" but I think that would set up some sort of punchline about Ortiz's former bulk.

What is it with me? I think I didn't eat enough for lunch today.

so brutal and tough. awesome.

You sounded the Ortiz Alarm. You're only supposed to use that for civil emergencies.

Reasonable for the Dodgers: LaRoche/Betemit, Penny, and Elbert for A-Rod?

Reasonable for the Yanks: Billingsley, Kershaw, LaRoche and Kemp for A-Rod?

Your thoughts?

I'm going to see Zodiac tonight. Hopefully it'll be good, but if I get bored I'll play Spot the San Francisco continuity/anachronism.

http://wjz.com/local/local_story_314145111.html

I believe I came in at 28th among DT posters and 37th overall. Dang, I didn't realize we dominated the Toaster community so much.

wheres that link?

https://fairpole.baseballtoaster.com/archives/600621.html

we rule.

Cano would move to third or Kent would play first for the Yanks.

The Dodger rotation would look something like this with Lowe and Penny gone: Wolf, Schmidt, Bills, Kuo, Tomko/Miller. To keep this kinda wierd Furcal could play second, Arod short and Nomar third. Loney plays first for obvious reasons, obvious to some not named Ned Grady.

Whoa.

I will also be making a weekend trip back down south in July to avenge the Adam Dunn Scouting Trip, where Ryan Freel stole five bases off of Jason Phillips.

I'm sure everyone remembers what happened the day after that.

You're on there as Joey P, aren't you?

"Who are you?"

"I'm him"

"Okkk..."

That was an awesome movie...anyone remember it?

That sounds familiar, but I can't place it.

179

My thoughts on Ted Lilly are that the Dodgers shouldn't have traded him for Carlos Perez.

I do love Oregon and The Carolinas, but I also love Kurt Vonnegut.

I'm torn.

Comb the SweeTarts out of your beard and you're on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXu08xgINew&

(Content Warning: it was safe for network television, but my description was accurate, so, use your own judgment.)

That was disappointing.

That settles it...Even if I have to substitute teach until I get a job, I'm moving back to the South Bay this summer. Life is just to good for you guys out here!

Did I kill a guy or something?

Here's more hints:

"This is Farmer Fred."
"Ted."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Farmer Ted."
"I'm not really a farmer. I'm a freshman."

BTW - USC beat 2 teams that they were 1-3 against prior to the tournament, against Oregon, they are 2-0.

If Oregon wins, they might move up to a 4 seed, USC wins, maybe a 6th seed.

I'm moving back to the South Bay this Summer, no matter what. I'd rather substitute teach and wait for a teaching job than live where I'm miserable and make more money. I just wish the attrition rate was higher for Social Science teachers...Science and Math teachers quit all the time. History, Government, and Econ teachers never quit in high school...

Bummer.

I hate that movie.

But I'm not a big fan of John Hughes to say the least.

Comments on these film please:

Curly Sue (1991)
Uncle Buck (1989)
She's Having a Baby (1988)
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Weird Science (1985)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Sixteen Candles (1984)

Of these, I can still watch Ferris Bueller and Planes, Trains & Automobiles.

Scareduck does keep 6-4-2.

It was hard to understand because, DePodesta For President was such a good blog, and D4P is such a, well, you know. I couldn't figure out why, if he were capable of the cogent, literate analysis he displayed at his site, he'd want to trot out thirty-one flavors of tripe over here. But then I figured it out, and everything made sense, again.

Now that's a man.

If that's right, sorry to hear it.

And I know quite how you feel as I'm flailing about for new work too.

Speaking of John Hughes, I just watched Uncle Buck for about the 15th time the other night. It's still funny.

Brock, during your hiatus, I realized that UCLA in fact played and won a road game against Chaminade. I hope you caught my apology to you and all UCLA fans.

I know it's not cost-efficient, but we have to take a stand.

You should never doubt Tim McCarver.

Never.

Every day, I say a prayer of thanks that I live in a world with Tim McCarver.

My wife and I were sitting outside WholeFoods this morning. A blue Cadillac pulled up right in front. The driver had a difficult time with the relatively easy task of parking. I got the impression he was probably somewhat elderly. When he finally got out of the car, he looked exactly like James Earl Jones. He walked slowly into the store. When he came out, he still looked exactly like James Earl Jones. Another person outside apparently thought the same thing, and said to him, "Mr. Jones!" The James Earl Jones look-alike responded in such a way (e.g. "Yes, hello") as to indicate that he was, in fact, James Earl Jones. He got back into his blue Cadillac and proceeded to exit the parking lot on the left side of the exit (even worse, because he was turning right), causing someone who was pulling in to have to veer around him onto the right (i.e. the wrong) side.

http://tinyurl.com/2oemo2

Talk about a racket, they're reselling items they already sold at a higher price!

And sportswriters should avoid, like the plague, lapsing into cliché.

I blame Marty.

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

http://tinyurl.com/y9gzxk

It wasn't optional.

For those of you wishing to donate, it's A positive.

Only Lucy might be able to tell Frank why he needed to spend those millions of $$$$$$$.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fztf4T_eXEM

(Repeatedly slaps own thigh, says to self "Stupid")

http://tinyurl.com/3a7rmj

It was his second straight CG and fourth straight game with double digit strikeouts. The 6'5" junior lefty now has 304 career Ks with a single game record of 17.

If he became a Dodger, at least the team should be favored to win a MLB basketball tournament--if 6'9" power forward Hendrickson and 6'6" former basketball all-star Lowe were still around. Price owns 12 records at his high school, mostly for scoring, 3-point shooting, and rebounding.

About the home runs, Lowe gave up a ridiculously large number of home runs for a groundball pitcher in 2005, yet he still had an ERA in the mid-3.00 area, which perhaps illustrates the flip side of the coin I have in mind when I say here that an offense can be effective WITHOUT a lot of HR power.

As for Beimel as a reliever, if he has a great 2007, wonderful, but right now I don't see why one wouldn't expect him to be as inconsistent as virtually every other relief pitcher in baseball.

Any thinking person could say "well, why doesn't Tom Petty double his ticket prices?" But not a Times reporter, because Times reporters don't think.

I was happy with Beimel's ENTIRE regular season performance in 2006, while Penny post-All Star break did his job very poorly. That gives me more confidence that Beimel will be effective in 2007 than I can muster for Penny in the season ahead. Obviously, I hope Penny proves my fears about him wrong.

But you allude to the original question, which was about who our 11 best pitchers are, and as you might infer from what I have said, I think it is foolish to treat the 11 named pitchers like they do the same job.