Bad news.

Timmy Lupus' father is one of the best high school drama teachers in the city, if not the state.

Did you study with him?

The bloggers start before the game is over and hope they're not jinxing it.

If 39 means "I can't run fast," I get it.

If 39 means "I can't throw very far," I get it.

But if 39 means "I can't catch the ball," he should retire. Or switch to the American League. Or accept a role on the bench shaking Matt Kemp's hand after another home run.

In other words, "Don't blame me for accepting a $7 million contract at the age of 39, when I'm clearly way past my prime: blame the moron GM that gave me the contract in the first place."

Gonzo looks like he can consistently make good contact but with the approach he is taking with his swing there is little chance for a home run.

the reason AZ didnt offer him a contract was because they had a bunch of high ceiling prospects ready for the majors that should not be blocked.

the dodgers on the other hand.....

/sigh.

It's also fair to note that Gonzalez bobbled the ball not one, not two, but three times in left field tonight. I mean, c'mon. Enough already.

FWIW, Russ Martin is my player of the game.

Also, I think Kemp should be getting a little more credit for his inventive dodge of a tag at home plate, on a run that ended up being the difference in the game. The Dodgers were lucky to score that run, you bet, but without that little move the luck wouldn't have mattered anyway.

I thought Roberts was safe on the force out at second. But I can't do a slo-mo replay on this MLB.tv thing. What did you guys think?

I hope you won't be disappointed: I haven't updated it in a few days. Busy. Plus, you know, the season's started, so I'm hanging out here more.

22 - I agree, Martin shut down their running game & made the key block of home plate.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074174/maindetails

Just awesome. While I didn't think Feliz made a good slide at all, the quickness Martin displayed to get his leg in the way was still impressive, and it was a bang-bang play.

http://www.draysbay.com/story/2007/4/6/1528/55792

I wonder how long it'll take for Colleti/Little.

http://tinyurl.com/2lyk44

Karma wise---once he did a brain dead thing like that, you knew it was the Dodgers nite.

Its also interesting that the team isnt platooning Betemit against LHP. They are giving him a chance this year to be an everyday player How long will it last? He's hitting .090 so far overall.

The Dodgers are two season ending injuries of Pierre/Gonzo away from having a good chance at winning the NL West.

With them in the lineup tho, it really looks like the 2003 offense that won 85 games. Fitting that Dave Roberts made the last out tonite.

Considering he is 25, isnt it a good thing the dodgers are giving him a chance to play every day?

Speaking of Saenz...I thought Felipe Alou must have still been asleep on the Giants bench tonite. Leaving the lefty in to face Saenz, with the bases juiced?

Between that and the Vizquel steal attempt--one of the more poorly managed games I've ever seen out of Bochy.

Dodgers deserved to win this game for sure. Tomorrow should be a win also against Ortiz as long as they dont hack.

If they start him both of the next two games, then I will officially declare that they've blown a gasket in their brains. But I'm confident that won't be the case.

And they took on Mike Hampton's contract too.

Agree.
Too bad they cant use the 15 mils spent on Pierre/Gonzo this year, and get just 1 useful player out of those funds.

Ethier/Loney must be upset that they are getting benched bc of mediocre vets. Ethier really hasnt played regularly since last August. Maybe Ned's given up on him?

After seeing the replay, I think Roberts was out by a hair. But he may have been called safe four or five times out of ten.

http://tinyurl.com/37ds2v

So I take it Penny was good but not great? Seven innings of one-run ball sounds pretty darned nice. Much better, to be honest, than what I expected.

62- Penny did a good job, but usually 10 hits and 1 K does not equal 7 scoreless (he gave up the run in the 8th, after he was out of the game). I would have liked to see more swings and misses, the defense really bailed him out (3 DP, 2 CS and an out at home, effectively wiping 6 players off the bases). Still, not a lot of hard hit balls and generally a good job.

Who's to say he wouldn't have...?

Yes, I see Bob Timmermann in the back, raising his hand. Would you like to say something, Bob?

45 - The obvious choice from looking at the boxscore was Penny. You had to be actually paying attention to note Martin and Martinez's contributions.

And the greatest indictment of Colletti's philosophy was signing Luis Gonzales. It had no rational, no benefit, at best you could say "at least it only hurts us this year."

Neither did signing Juan Pierre...

Oh, I don't know about that. Just look what happens when Ned gets in a bidding war with the Giants. :)

As for Gonzalez, he's just got to get better. Doesn't he? Guys? Anybody?

I also think Luis Gonzalez can't be as bad of a fielder as he has shown the first four games. He just can't. In Strato terms, he's been a "6 e20 +6"

Defensively, I don't know. Obviously he's not going to drop easy fly balls all season, but his range and arm have both been abominable thus far. And these are things he can't improve.

Although his weak arm helped contribute to an out, I don't think they would have tested any other outfielder on that Randy Winn double.

I'm thinking the Giants get Pierre and cash for his fifth year salary and the Dodgers get comparable talent with a mazimum of two years left on their contract.

Here's a little Hemingway that seemed appropriate:

"Yes," I said. "Isn't it pretty to think so?"

But like Jackson said in his blog, arm strength will not get better for those two as the summer heats up.

Platoon now and trade Valdez and Anderson to open spots for Furcal and Loney.

http://tinyurl.com/2nmvlh

The only teams with a need in that position are Pittsburgh, Houston, Chicago White Sox, Florida and maybe St. Louis if Edmonds is laid up for a while.

Eliminate Pittsburgh and Florida on costs, Houston is experimenting with Burke right now and the White Sox has Erstad out there.

But even if the White Sox could use him, they have a similar offensive player in Podsenick in their lineup and Anderson is probably their next option in CF.

I think that in upgrade in the OF is only going to made at the corners and while Luis certainly has his work cut out for him to retain his starting status, Juan Pierre will continue to play CF for the Dodgers for at least this season if not more.

I did not see the whole game but it certainly seemed like Penny kept his velocity up for the whole game.

At what point do you think a switch could be made and Broxton and Saito switch roles?

Of course, Saito did not pitch a lot in Spring Training so it may take him a while to get into the swing of things.

I really believe that the decision on who plays and when is Grady's and if there comes a time when Grady loses confidence in that player's ability (see Hamulack, Carter, Baez, Odalis Perez and Seo) he just won't use him and leave it up to Ned to make the roster moves to get him another player.

The last time I recall hearing Vin be so critical of a player or team's defensive efforts was during the 2004 season when the Dodgers played the D-Backs towards the end of the year, they just could not make the basic plays and Vin was remarking that the D-Backs just did not have enough MLB level players out on the field. I believe that by that time, Luis was on the DL, getting surgery.

Which reminds me: Regarding James Loney's 0-for-8... I know it's too early to start talking like this, but is anyone fearing a relapse of Joel Guzman Syndrome?

There's a part of me that thinks Colletti is almost hoping Loney pulls a Guzman and tanks this season at AAA, so he can have a trading chip at the deadline and be vindicated for how "correct" he was in his evaluation of a flawed prospect. Guzman and Loney are two entirely different players, but that's the scenario that played out last year, and I'm seeing alarming similarities.

Or maybe my tinfoil hat just needs to be readjusted.

For all of Joel's upside, it is certainly arguable that both Kemp and LaRoche have shown greater consistency at each level (while Joel did very well at Vero Beach, he was a good prospect in AA, only his potential power hitting ability and playing SS elevated him to higher ceiling player), had Guzman been shifted to a corner OF or 1B where he now projects to play, he would not be the high prospect that everyone labeled him as when he was coming up.

On Loney, here's where I actually agree with Kevin Kennedy, the kid needs to shut up and play ball. Does he have a right to be upset, sure but he does need to have his agent or himself talk about being traded right now, that's just ridiculous.

He has the first ticket to LA when either an outfielder or Nomar takes a tumble or needs replacing, that is going to happen sooner rather than later so I hope that he just focuses on the job at hand and he will soon see the lights of LA before he knows it.

92 - Andruw Jones is not someone I want to trade for. I would love to have him on the team, but the price will be exorbitant, Pierre is blocking him in CF (and moving Pierre to LF only makes him worse) and he is a free agent. In order to make that trade I would want a contract extension (not going to happen), a trade of Pierre (unlikely) and probably still would balk at the price.

Miguel Cabrerra on the other hand... I would offer Laroche/Betemit, Billingsley and Ethier without blinking. He is a top 5 hitter in the league, and still has three more years of arbitration (if I counted right). If they Marlins decide to trade him (foolish) then the price will be astronomical.

They are completely different.

Pierre, CF
Valdez, SS
Nomar, 1B
Kent, 2B
Gonzalez, LF
Lieberthal, C (first Dodger start - his dad used to be a Giants' scout!)
Ethier, RF
Betemit, 3B
Lowe, P

So Gonzo starts again; not a huge surprise - Little probably isn't ready to sit him and have Gonzo deal with the inevitable questions - but if he starts tomorrow vs. Zito THEN I'm gonna blow a gasket. Seriously. At least we have an Ethier sighting today.

I bet.

But ITD has Kemp in RF.

Or by a comma when the feeling isn't as strong.

So when you're happy, or sad, or frightened, or mad, or excited, or glad, an interjection starts the sentence right.

Aw! You threw the wrong way!
Darn! You just lost the game!
Hurray! I'm for the other team!

That last guy was always my favorite.

Jon has occasionally defended Josh's PR flakness by saying he's just doing his job. But putting exclamation points where they are not deserved is metaphorically the central part of a PR guy's job description. So I can't blame Josh for that one too much. Now if he had used three of them...

"!!!"

I thought maybe they'd converted to Bushman, but, hey, it did get their reaction across.

Did you mean mean "flakiness" or "flakness?" Because I could read the sentence either way and it would make sense.

I contend that it means that there have been 35 factorial SABR conventions.

In the interest of full disclosure, I once published a feature in the Daily News on Westlake girls basketball player Melissa Gische in which the first paragraph was:

"!"

Example A- LuGo*!*

Example B- Kemp*!*

One is good the other is very very bad, can you spot the positive*!*?

Example A- LuGo !

Example B- Kemp !

One is good the other is very very bad, can you spot the positive ! ?

The person writing the website used 13 exclamation points on the first page alone.

I will now be writing the website.

Fox National. Which means, I assume, Steve Lyons, too, but at least not Scooter.

Btw, it's so foggy/misty here today that it's basically raining. But very light - I'm assuming it's slightly better at the ballpark and it won't affect the game start. But it might affect conditions and play a little. (Another reason not to have Gonzo in the OF, but I digress.)

{interjection}

The Giants were also also pretty bad in 1956, so it wasn't like Robinson was going to propel them into the first division.

Snider ended up with the Giants after being traded to the Mets first. Marichal was just about done when the Dodgers tried to salvage him.

The trades between the Dodgers and Giants since moving to L.A. have never involved players of any importance. Unless you really think Ron Hunt, Nate Oliver, Tom Haller, Alex Trevino, and Candy Maldonado were big stars. Maldonado and Haller each had some positive contributions after they switched teams.

In the Brooklyn/New York days, the Dodgers and Giants traded more frequently although that was a factor of geography I think. And the fact that at different times, one of the two teams was doing a lot better financially (usually the Giants) and they could take some of the Dodgers pricier players off their hands.

Jackie Robinson did not retire because he refused to play for the Giants. Robinson had alredy decided to retire before the trade was made. He had already sold the exclusive story announcing his retirement to a magazine for (I believe) $5,000. The trade to the Giants had absolutely nothing to do with Robinson's retirement. Nothing.

In fact, there was little love lost at the time between Robinson and the Dodgers. He and O'Malley hated each other, and Robinson still resented the fact that O'Malley had forced Branch Rickey out a few years earlier.

[/soapbox] There, I feel better now.

Karros... sigh...

The last 25 years did not include the Dodgers having a GM with Giant roots. And, if Jackie Robinson can be traded to the Giants, Marichal become a Dodger, and Duke Snider indirectly becoming a Giant, there are indicators the 25 year trade dought between the Dodgers and Giants will not extend to 26 years.

Actually, they increase the annoyance by a factorial. So !!! is 6 times as annoying.

When the Padres were run by Buzzie Bavasi, the Dodgers and Padres had one trade with each other and that was during the first week of the 1969 season. Then O'Malley and Bavasi decided to keep things separate. The Dodgers and Padres have had only one trade since then.

If the Dodgers make a trade with their instate division rivals, I can envision a bench player changing sides, but not a starter.

In 1957, Jackie Robinson likely would NOT HAVE started for the Dodgers. By 1957, the Dodgers decided to give newcomers Charlie Neal and Don Zimmer tryouts at short and Pee Wee Reese was being shifted over to third. Robinson didn't have a regular position in 1956, although most of his action was at third.

The Giants didn't want to renew Schmidt. Schmidt said he expected that as the team tended to do that with veterans not named Bonds.

The A's couldn't afford Zito so once he left, they didn't really care where he ended up.

The Dodgers thought that Schmidt could help their rotation and he didn't want a lot of years.

The Giants signed Zito at the end of the free agent season (such as it is). Some of that was to placate its fans who were upset over the money spent on Bonds.

I don't see a three-way conspiracy.