I have seen a lot of comments regarding the quality of mlb.tv. Has it gotten any better? For those of us nowhere near a ML ballpark it has appeal but I don't want to spend the money if it crates more frustration than it's worth.

Hockey is a very good sport for HD.

It will also be the day before Easter.

Extra Innings is the much better deal in my opinion, with the quality about 100 times better for 40 bucks more. The two caveats are that (a) it carries marginally fewer games than MLB.tv does, and (b) the beginning of the Dodger game often gets pre-empted due to an East Coast game on the same station lasting longer than three hours.

Nice round of applause from Arizona crowd for Gonzo.

Hi, I'm underdog and I'll be your translator this evening.

Free Eric Byrnes!

40 Sure, but I have to find the right setting on my babel fish. Hold on....

i also like how pierre is working the count this time and not swinging at everything he sees.

One of my baseball announcer pet peeves just reared its ugly head, by the way: using "plate" as a verb for scoring. "The Dodgers just plated another run." I guess it shouldn't bother me any more since they've been doing it for years, but...

But it's still really nice to see.

I ordered mine about a week ago & can't wait to try it on.

That relay throw from Furcal was incredible. I can't believe they nailed Tracy at home. Looks like Tracy may have just missed home plate.

Wow. Give props to Gonzo who played the carom well, has a weak arm as we know but made a good toss to Furcal.

I love it that Vin is giving LuGo credit for hitting the cutoff man. Furcal was practically standing next to him!

lol.

[Shunning Resumed]

1) He's not allowed to pitch in relief the Sunday prior.
2) He's not allowed to pitch in the All Star Game.

PHOENIX -- In the latest chapter of "The Disappearance of Jason Schmidt's Fastball," the right-hander had his between-starts bullpen session pushed back a day, rarely a good sign.
There still is no official injury being cited for a dramatic drop in velocity of the free-agent signee's pitches, but when other pitchers took part in long-toss in the outfield during batting practice before Monday night's game with the Diamondbacks, Schmidt instead was planted behind the screen in shallow center field collecting retrieved baseballs and definitely not throwing any. When he joined pitchers shagging in the outfield, he returned several balls underhand.

114--Russ Martin--free swinger? You obviously have him pegged. Makes sense. Just dont look at his minor league numbers.

[Resume Shunning]

I mean, really, it was.

Speaking of offspeed stuff, that was not one of Penny's better curveballs.

But we talkin' bout Cabrera.

Another one hit over Gonzo's head.

And leads to a ton of pitches.

Time for Beimel, Billingsley/Broxton, Saito.

he seems to care about his hair... alot.

Penny does seem like a different pitcher this year. A lot of scattered hits and fewer pitches per game.

Nice, Penny.

90 pitches for the big guy through 6, for those keeping track

Ethier clean shaven - now that's a pretty boy.

big fan...BIG FAN.

it was low. although the pitch before it was high.

Booooyrnes.

i would love to have grady as like a grandpa. hes hilarious.

It doesn't make hime not a pretty boy:)

...and the way he goes through them.

The in-game manager interviews are a waste of time too, especially when the mgr is on screen during play.

http://alyssa.mlblogs.com/alyssa/2007/04/my_baseball_and.html

I would pay to listen to Grady read the phonebook.

First runner? Second?
First run?

no outs - first RISP
one out - first runner on third
two outs - first run unless someone bad is up next

I am concerned about our outfield defensively and think Gonzo throws like a girl.

heh.

Or maybe Slaten was just born on the beach.

It's just not taught at the major league level anymore.

I was on the phone for awhile when I saw Penny's slide tackle - for which he wasn't given a yellow card - and had to try hard not to chuckle.

Pac Man?

These posts have provided some un-intentional humor since Jon's strange pseudo ban on the phrase.

Although in D4P's case--maybe its intentional.

They are now one short of the team record for catcher's interference in a year. The 2005 team had it happen three times (Milton Bradley, Olmedo Saenz, Jason Grabowski).

I'm sure I will tire of it somewhere around the 2,357th viewing, like most FSN commercials.

He's certainly excited by the sight of Broxton. "The biggest man in the world!"

Yeah, I get a kick out of Grace. These guys are homer-ish but they're good at crediting the other team a lot.

Are the Dodgers sure Pierre can?

---

I did TurboTax again to efile this year and even though it costs money it's so easy and more convenient.

I also get to crack up at some of the more oddball IRS deductions - those of the "this is not common" variety.

I remember the blowout game in which he pitched and gave up a home run to David Ross (I think?, his first, I think...)

Of course, I don't like the enlightenment. Oh well. It's Vin, Nietzsche, and me against the world.

And I almost misspelled "count" in the previous paragraph. Thank God for spell check. I probably would have violated many rules, Curb-style.

"So why did you wait until the last minute to do your taxes"

"Because I'm an idiot. There, are you happy?"

I was listening to Rick and Charlie on the way home the other night and they helped me come up with a nickname for Juan. I'm partial to calling him Two-Hopper Pierre until further notice.

Didn't Mark Grace strike somebody out too?

Oh good, it's C-Bills. So Grace doesn't have as much of a man-crush on him, thankfully.

The Owings-Tomko matchup tomorrow is a little hard to predict, so I'm glad they got this one.

Now go finish your taxes! Lest you end up like Homer Simpson, doing them at the 11th hour, making up stuff, tossing a bunch of receipts in the envelope, taping it into a ball with masking tape, and then throwing it into the post office at the last minute (after stopping for a hot dog). Or, something like that.

Tom Candiotti on the Dbacks radio post game show

The bigger problem relates to the false martyrdom some people have brought from time to time to this site. It basically goes like this:

Commenter A: I believe X (which happens to be a minority viewpoint).

Commenter B: I disagree.

Commenter A: This site doesn't allow minority viewpoints to be heard.

It really bothers me when disagreement is misinterpreted as suppression.

I just want people to say what they think. How many people agree with them is not relevant. It doesn't make their opinion more or less valid.

"Is it just me" contributes nothing to the discussion and occasionally detracts. That's why I don't like it.

But seriously, got to do some work now. Night all.

...did I really see only one comment on the new unis for Arizona? C'mon people, not everybody can watch the game here, do they really look just like the Astros/Angels/Reds/etc?

and finally....Paul Bako sighting!

http://www.royalsreview.com/story/2007/4/12/0309/48001

And, yes, it was special.

But he could have been the Dodgers' Triple-A manager this year.

"I interviewed, but they never offered me the job, and while I was waiting, Bob Melvin called and I took this job, which I love," said Gibson. "But if the Dodgers had offered the Vegas job, I would have taken it."

I don't recall this. Um, does anyone else...?

*3 parts grain alcohol, 1 part crystal meth, a spoonfull of sugar and 2 drops of blue food coloring, to make my tongue turn Dodger blue.

But I still think the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act are in effect.

Don't think such technology is impossible. Please see:

http://www.internetmammogram.net/

Warning. NSFW.

Kuo's about ready to start pitching rehab games. Maybe he could make a nice transition into Schmidt's spot if the need arises.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/a38ddeb2-ec73-11db-a12e-000b5df10621.html

"I understand why they are doing what they are doing," he said [referring to the D'Backs' youth movement]. "I can't say why publicly, but I understand why. I was here a long time. I know a lot of things other people don't know.

"They have good young players, but I'm not saying they have a chance to win. We have a chance to win."

Discuss.

Rod Barajas, c, Philadelphia
Jorge Cantu, 2b, Tampa Bay (sent to minors)
Eric Chavez, 3b, Oakland
Matt Chico, p, Washington
Chad Cordero, rp, Washington
Johnny Estrada, c, Milwaukee
Andre Ethier, of, LA Dodgers
Randy Flores, p, St. Louis
Brian Fuentes, rp, Colorado
Nomar Garciaparra, 1b, LA Dodgers
Matt Garza, p, Minnesota (sent to minors)
Chris Gomez, inf., Baltimore
Adrian Gonzalez, 1b, San Diego
Mike Gonzalez, p, Atlanta
Eddie Guardado, rp, Cincinnati
Adam LaRoche, 1b, Pittsburgh
Andy LaRoche, 3B, LA Dodgers (sent to minors)
Sergio Mitre, p, Florida
Freddy Sanchez, 2b-3b, Pittsburgh
Russ Ortiz, p, San Francisco
Carlos Quentin, of, Arizona
Omar Quintanilla, 2b-ss, Colorado (sent to minors)
Horacio Ramirez, p, Atlanta
Anthony Reyes, p, St. Louis
Rudy Seanez, rp, LA Dodgers
Michael Young, ss, Texas
Joel Zumaya, rp, Detroit

The LaRoches originally had the family name of Garcia.

"The end of his early-season slump coincided with switching back to the heavier bat he used last season when he hit a team-leading .308. He went from a 31-ounce bat to a 32 and rapped out five hits in a row beginning Sunday."

http://tinyurl.com/22ofu3

I waited for a long time to get a namesake in the majors, but unfortunately Erubiel didn't quite follow through on the promise that he once showed.

After 130 years of major league baseball, I finally got a namesake in the majors. Unfortunately, he sucked.

"Can't you just see these guys being traded in 2007 for a middle reliever?"

Well, it was 2006, and Tiffany was only part of the trade, but we did get crappy relievers in return.

319 Which generation does the Great American Melting Pot simply make an American born person merely an American?

I don't consider myself to be English-American. That tag belonged to my great, great, great, great, great, great, somebody and who knows how many countries are represented in my gene pool?

http://tinyurl.com/2jjhh2

"It was no one-hit wonder that Russell Martin had three hits, stole a base, scored three runs, knocked in two and threw out a baserunner on Jackie Robinson Night. Martin is, without doubt, the Dodgers' best player, not only because he is arguably the best defensive (and certainly the most athletic) catcher in the National League or because he finished that night hitting .366.

But because Martin plays like Robinson, sixty years later."

Yet, only three of these are likely to strike out batters at that rate (Broxton, Saito and Saenez, career K/9 of 9.5). This would seem to point towards some regression on the horizon (though Schmidt and Saenez have ERAs over 5 anyway).

336 As an American-born, partially-melted-American (I'm mixed between two immigrant ethnicities), my answer is that you lose the hyphens when people stop asking "what are you" or "where do you come from" or "what is your background" at parties, social events, and job interviews, when what they really want to know is "why are you brown?"

When you can answer the question "Where are you from?" and say "California" or something similar, then congratulations, you've become assimilated! You can pick up your bonus check on the way out.

Unfortunately, in my experience, that response inevitably invites follow-up questions like:

"But what's your ethnic background"
"I mean, where are your parents from" or
"You know what I mean."

And, for the record, I don't mind being asked these questions, as long as they're not among the first questions asked. If someone first takes the time to get to know me as a person, asking about my ethnic background is perfectly acceptable.

http://www.sacbee.com/502/story/45127.html

(subscription required - but free)

U. S. A.!!!

Newton Crosby : Where are you from, anyway?
Ben Jabituya : Bakersfield, originally.
Newton Crosby : No, I mean your ancestors.
Ben Jabituya : Oh, them. Pittsburgh.

On the one hand, media purists presumably believe it's their "duty" to report the news. More cynically, these stories are obviously good for ratings and for selling papers and magazines.

On the other hand, though, I have to think that the attention the shooters get makes shooting much more attractive to potential shooters than it might otherwise be. If you're a "loner" and want attention or want to "be somebody" or want to "go down in a blaze of glory" or whatever, it seems to me that the more media coverage these events receive, the more appealing they are to people who would actually consider recreating them.

There are certain "bad events" that make sense for the media to widely communicate and cover, such as the spinach ecoli thing or the poisoned pet food thing. Those are important for us to hear about because we can actually alter our behavior in ways that make us safer. But in the case of a school or workplace shooting, for example, what can we really do about it other than not go to school or work anymore, which isn't really feasible?

I'm not so much arguing that these events shouldn't be covered at all, but I nevertheless can't rule out the possibility that the coverage does more harm than good.

Any thoughts? I know there are some media folks around here, and I thought it might be interesting to hear your perspectives.

https://dodgerthoughts.baseballtoaster.com/archives/166055.html

Regardless, someone who is going to shoot up a school, fly a plane into a skyscraper, or otherwise terrorize innocent civilians isn't going to stop being an antisocial psychopath just because the media ignores him. Terrorists don't just kill people for attention. I think they do it mainly because they are seriously disturbed.

Grady said a few days ago that the next person into the rotation, if needed, would be Hendrickson.

That is startling to me, and I'd hope that they jump to trading one of these two quickly.

Interestingly as the news was coming in yesterday I was following CNN and Dodgerthoughts. On one level it seemed kind of stupid to be reading about baseball during such a tragedy while friends were trying to find out if their kids were OK but it was kind of theraputic to me.

Sports can fill a void in our lives though I can't explain why.

That's enough rambling from me for now.

The problem is that Colletti is precisely the kind of GM who would trade (and has traded) for this type of player. He's the kind of GM who is likely to believe that their current performance is somehow indicative of their true performance, and that they've suddenly "figured it out". He's not the kind of GM who recognizes that you should trade these players when they're overachieving and their value is high. Rather, he's the GM on the other end who wants to acquire them.

Does that count for anything? I'm just saying I wouldn't assume, especially since he has Grady's ear and Grady has to deal with these guys more directly, that he wouldn't at some point turn around and trade away one of the older players if a deal presented itself.

I was hopeful that the reason Tomko made the rotation was to be showcased and sold after he made a few good starts. Fingers crossed!

Colletti doesn't seem to mind packaging underperforming veterans as add-ons or throwaways in deals. see: Baez

Yeah, I don't know - short of packing a position player like Betemit with a pitcher for another 3bmen or OF-er, they'd otherwise trade for prospects (which wouldn't be a bad thing if they were good prospects), but I'm all for more pitching depth at this point.

Combine Hendrickson with (who I personally think will be traded) Ethier, and that could fetch some good, young, live arms.

Cesar Izturis is 5'7 190, that makes me feel discouraged. :o)

I think the issue for Dodger fans is twofold, if healthy, the Dodgers have two young pitchers who are projected to be much better than the 5th spot profile in Chad and Hong-Chih and they are cheaper, 800K, compared to 7 million for Tomko and Hendrickson.

That being said, given Schmidt's condition, I think the team will wait and see for time being but I don't put off a deal with those two in the future. And actually, if Hendrickson as put something together, he is the better option for teams, he would still be under their control and he would be pretty cheap as a 4th - 5th starter.

I wonder how he'd look in pinstripes.

There are plenty...

2 pounds of muscle weighs more than 1 pound of fat

Hmmm, depends. Are we talking trans, saturated, unsaturated, or what...?

Antonio Perez's futility continues at Sacramento...

.121/.143/152/.294

Ethier's recent hot bat has gotten his OPS to .748. That's .005 points higher than Milton Bradley's current .743 OPS.

Also, we already have some good young live arms - their names are Billingsley, Kuo, Tsao, Elbert, and so on. (And So On plays for the Great Lakes Loons, I believe.) I'd rather the team trade for more offense prospects, if anything.

AAA: Greg Miller, Tsao, Stults, Houlton, Hamulack.
AA: Elbert, Orenduff, Meloan, Hammes, Megrew
Low A: Kershaw, S. Johnson

DL: Kuo, Brazoban

I think our pitching depth is not too bad, Lowe and Penny are signed through 2008, Schmidt is through 2009, Wolf has an option for 2008 (guaranteed if hits 180 IP), Saito is signed through 2008 (and he is under Dodger control after that though arbitration eligible), Broxton, Billingsley and Kuo are all under the Dodger's control for a while.

I tried using the "Write to Jon" link but it didn't work.

Could you send me an e-mail at johno@gohrs.com?

389 why is Ethier on his way out? outfield is the one area where the Dodgers don't have a lot of young talent

http://www.laobserved.com/echopark/2007/04/dodgers_traffic_hungry_for_sco.php

http://tinyurl.com/yr53sc

All I will say is that last year, Russell Martin and Brad Penny were roommates so I think he may have some insight already and no this is not going to be like that story about Luke Walton and Britney Spears.

You can add those annoying speed bumps but that's about it.

I did hear Ms. Johnstone on the radio yesterday and she basically sounded as if she read Jon's piece last week too (Maybe Josh R. forwarded it) she said that they (the Dodgers) understood that the parking situation has not been solved yet, they studied the flows and patterns over the first week and are making adjustments (some gates get more preferred (inner circle) parking passes, etc.

But while not ever saying sorry, she tried to shed that we are going to make these changes and we are not listening to you image. So I thought it was interesting to hear and certainly to hold them accountable since she guaranteed things will be noticeably better this weekend.

Though ideally Nomar could move to 3B with Loney playing everyday at his natural position, since Ethier is IMO a better player than Betemit now. And by the time Nomar's contract is up LaRoche could move from 2B (having taken over for Kent) to 3B.

need I mention the Jones' (Andruw and Torii) hitting the FA market in '08 yet tying up another CF in '07 to a 5 year contract because of what I would call "post opt-out clause" panic

Cla Meredith pitched 2.1 innings for Boston in 2005.
Cla Meredith pitched 50.2 innings for SD in 2006.

Cla Meredith gave up more runs in 2005 (7) than he did in 2006 (6).

My mind is BLOWN AWAY right now.

I'm in there, I'm the one with the baseball uni.(Pureros)

I get confused, all I do is try to eat healthy & work out 5 times a week. Plus professional athletes have nutritionist & all that.

Baseball Daily Digest is looking to add a few additional writers. While the positions are non-paying, they do offer some nice perks. You often get the chance to attend professional baseball games as "working media," interview players and executives, receive team press releases and free review copies of books and media guides, and get even closer to the game we all love.
If you are seriously interested in writing for BDD (about 2 articles per week), please email info@baseballdigestdaily.com. I will be reviewing the candidates and contacting individuals directly with further information. Preference will be given to those who have some writing experience (on other baseball sites, blogs, etc.)
Thanks!
Joe

Baseball Digest Daily, 124 Bishop Lane, Holbrook, NY 11741, USA

living in LA and moving to Placentia was quite a culture shock, but not quite enough to drive me to commit such montrosity, but very sad indeed and to a very slight degree "felt"(not undertand, but felt)

"f..the world, me against the world"
- I don't think the "antisocial psychopath" would be the appropriate term for someone who felt compelled to pre-meditate and carry out such horrible acts. "antisocial psychopath" would be best describing someone who puts up a front socially and plans out murder with the utmost evil intent. somehow i feel like evil intent wasnt his sole motive. I feel for his parents first and foremost because all the victims already has the condolences of everybody in the world, including my most sincere condolences.

I'm I total out of touch in stating the above?

I don't want to tell you what to do or how to feel but it's probably bad for your mental health to put yourself in his shoes just because you share his background. I'll stop psychoanalyzing you now.

We have the best record in baseball but only the third best run differential (by a huge margin though) so we are due for some regression anyway. Still, we look very good so far.

Wolf has pitched well enough to go 6 innings in each start (which is pretty big considering the lack of innings we got last year) and Lowe and Penny are doing well but one could have projected that.

Saito, Broxton and Beimel are again doing what they did last year.

While they are not hitting as well with RISP, I saw that for the time being, they lead the league hitting with runners on (.309), which is pretty good considering the plights of Betemit and Pierre.

Houston 2006
Final result: Missed playoffs

Boston 2006
Final result: Missed playoffs

Chicago White Sox 2005
Final result: Won World Series

Houston 2004
Final result: Wild card

Minnesota 2004
Final result: Won A.L. Central

Florida 2004
Final result: Missed playoffs

L.A. Dodgers 2004
Final result: Won N.L. West

yes, you're absolutely right! I agree it's natural to feel for a second and even easier to forget and move on...thanks!

How do you guys feel about just going ALL speed and "nomar" power via trades?

trading...

prospects for someone like a crawford.
pitching for someone like a, a, a speedy utility player to play 3rd base? (figgins come to mind)

ex.

loney, kuo, ethier for crawford?
hendrickson/tomko, betemit, B-level prosp. for figgins?

good contact, great speed, adequate power from 3 and 4 slots. + schimdt regaining velocity = world series in 2007!!

Which is exactly why these early season records are so worthless as predictors. The team that finished 20 games below .500 in 2005 was not the same team that started 12-2. Same uniforms, but vastly different (and inferior) personnel, due to the historic number and severity of injuries.

I'm not telling you anything you didn't know. Just emphasizing the point. I think you have it just about right in 439.

I don't even look at the standings until June or July. Right now, I just look at the performance. W-L records will more or less (in Pythagorean terms) work themselves out by the end of the season. The questions now are about individual underperformance or overperformance, and how much of that is luck and how much is real (and likely lasting) decline or improvement.

Does anyone know what happened with Brazoban? I checked the 66ers site and they still have Sunday's game up (he was supposed to pitch Monday).

To me, the wild cards are Nomar, Pierre, Schmidt, and Wolf. I worry about whether we'll get career-average years out of them.

"April 16, 2007 - San Bernardino, CA - Hard throwing right-handed pitcher Yhency Brazoban joined the 66ers Saturday as he continues to battle back from a season ending injury in 2006, which resulted in Tommy John Surgery.
...
Brazoban could be in a 66er uniform as early as this Tuesday when the 66ers open a three game series with the High Desert Mavericks."

457. Double yes. I think Martin is better than last year, but I also worry that he'll have nothing left by the dog days. Lieberthal needs to get a regular start every week, and maybe 3 every 2 weeks.

All of that is arrayed as noise against the basic insight that good teams should beat bad teams, no matter when they play each other, and therefore that teams that start well probably are better than teams that start poorly.

But I'm also willing to bet that if you were to keep running that correlation after each game, it should get stronger and stronger.
It would be weird if it weren't almost monotonic (such that, e.g., the records after 30 games, were worse predictors than the records after 13 games).

By the end of the year, of course, it will be perfect (by definition).

The Dodgers are currently playing 10 games in 10 days - let's assume with some assurance that Lieberthal will start at least one of those games. With the off day on April 23, Martin will have played in 17 games in 22 days. Again, for April, not that bad.

I understand what happened last fall, but I think it's stil too early to worry about Martin burning out.

I was too. I think I'll go look at different points in the season to see how the magnitude and significance of the correlation changes.

Mel Kiper, Jr.!

After roughly 41 games: .626
After roughly 81 games: .789
After roughly 121 games: .919

All are significant at the .01 level.

DePodesta didn't have the depth to really make a choice there, so Tracy had to make his decisions based on the roster he had. Still, as we know, Tracy managed to make the worst decisions available a lot of the time (Jasons Jaysons everywhere).

Colletti has the depth, both in terms of AAA, and in terms of an expanded budget to waste on the Neifi Perezes of the world. Time will tell.

Just kidding!

What can I say, you spoiled us.

May be true. But as damaging could be the move that is not made (i.e., bringing folks up from AAA).

I'm still kicking myself for deleting my DVR recording of the first 30 minutes or so on Sunday's ESPN broadcast, only because I got chills during Vin's intro and the ovation. After 58 years, he has to know he has a special place in Dodger fans' hearts, and yet he still seemed genuinely embarrassed by the thought of 56,000 cheering him so loudly. "Please, thank you" is classic Vin.

Saying the most while saying the least.

http://tinyurl.com/37uhb8