(OK, that's really Nobody, but close enough.)

What's it doing there? Er, here?

Meanwhile, Papelbon has just given up a two-run HR to Travis Buck, blowing the save and letting Oakland tie it up. Bronx Banter must be getting cheerier today.

"The Dodgers are getting desperate at third base. Wilson Betemit is struggling mightily, and the team has even mulled over giving Mike Lieberthal some time at the hot corner. Prospect Andy LaRoche isn't really hitting down at AAA-Las Vegas, so there's no easy solution."

Has anyone else heard or read anything about Lieberthal to 3rd? In what world would that make more sense than moving Nomar to 3rd?

I read about it here, in our forum

Doesn't seem likely. Grady doesn't seem like the kind of manager to play both his catchers at the same time.

http://tinyurl.com/2g27vz

Texas manager Ron Washington said he put Diaz into Sosa's cleanup role so other players could remain in their accustomed spots in the batting order.

Is this a trend?

Re Papelbon and the Sox, who cares, I mean, it's not like he's my fantasy closer and my fantasy hold guy, Okajima, gets the hold anyway. Hideki rocks!

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=270501115&page=plays

(scroll about halfway down)

Because he just seems that he should be a leadoff hitter.

Of course, Frank Francisco is pitching, so he might throw them back.

My God, the man was insane back in 1978!

gah, that should've been an out and instead it's a base hit.

Pierre should stay put with those #'s.

::runs and hides::

Don't judge a fastball until you know the pFX

122- Drew.

It's even more expensive here.

Benicio Del Toro is a poor mans John Stamos

I can only assume that you're joking.

Penny should do shampoo commercials. He's very skilled at running his fingers through his hair.

How else do you get Alyssa Milano?

Valdez BA OBP SLG
Season .262 .295 .357
Career .219 .258 .295

Valdez BA OBP SLG
Season .262 .295 .357
Career .219 .258 .295

The DBacks left 16 runners on last night. And scored 9 runs.

See "Saenz, Olmedo" or "Coomer, Ron" or "Harris, Lenny."

Ty Cobb.

Miller's line from LV tonight.

3.0 IP 1H 6BB 4K

120 --Charles Barkley is in rare form tonight. He just said, "The Bay Area is a dumping ground for people that are too poor to live in LA"--

Did he really say that? Hah, he's such a dodo sometimes. Has he looked at the median income of the Bay Area recently? Just wondering...

one interesting thing about Tyrus Raymond Cobb is that he didn't hold the bat like a traditional batter holds a bat, He use too separate his hands about 3 inches apart when he swang a bat. it's true.

170 Ditto, me too. Although mine's like a decent-sized bird duplex.

("There's nothing like hot cockles." -- Woody Allen.)

C'mon Luis, earn that contract right here.

On the other hand, it did look like they had a case for interference on Kent there, so maybe that's justice? Still, that was a waste of an opportunity.

Green had a stronger arm (and the love of LAT's daughter).

Here's a picture of how he use to hold his bat:http://blog.sportscolumn.com/images/storyimages/SH-tycobb.jpg

I was fascinated by the man in my early youth so i read his Bio by Al Stump.

Neither was Baron Davis.

Not saying Baron wasn't good, but his star-player potential was in some question coming out of college, I thought. He didn't always have such a good outside shot then, did he?

Horrible call on the bunt there, I don't think Wilson has done it much in his career.

they have one thing in common they were both nuts. ;o)

Come on Juan, time to...

How many pitches to Pierre?

Y'know, the Dodgers still lead this game....

The Dodgers left 16 on through nine and left the bases loaded in each of the extra innings. The game ended on a bases-loaded single by Mike Sharperson.

The obscure, yet memorable, Ray Searage got the win.

You're putting them in the Finals already?

So will Houston. You might not want them to make it if you lived up here. Bay Area fans are the least humble on the planet, no matter the circumstances.

Wow, this is a great basketball game.

I feel like I'm on media multitasking overload here. All I need is to start text messaging my friends and to turn on my iPod to put me over the top.

You're starting to glow.

Actually, I meant to put on my glasses about 3 innings ago. The Dodgers are playing the Astros right?

Geez, I took off your Netflix queue? Did you keep putting it back on?

Rats, the Warriors really blew this one.

I've been trying to get rid of it for years, but the "blow countless chances then lose at the end" game always ends up back in my mailbox.

Weird, Marlon Anderson looks an awful lot like Nomar... {putting on glasses slowly}

Golden State got pretty unlucky. Richardson was fouled on that three point attempt.

Are we walking Clark to get to Quentin?

Look how long they kept guys like Rueter and Tomko in the rotation.

He got touched up by the Giants a little.

Brad Penny

K/9
2006: 7.05
2007: 3.06

G/F
2006: 1.31
2007: 2.35

Hr/9

2007: 0

Didn't say anything about a trend. Said his dominance has waned of late. He also gave up a hit in 1/3 of an inning in that Giants series.

I still like him, just wish he was perfect since our offense is so horrible.

And, yes, yes I do have him on my fantasy team.

2006
Pre-All Star: .358/.426/.578/1.004
Post-All Star: .229/.286/.408/.694

2007
Pre-tonight: .307/.357/.416/.773

Last year was a Golden Year for LOB for the Dodgers.

And it was a balk.

But all the one-innings appearances accompanied with double-switches still makes no sense to me. 9th is Furcal, Pierre, Valdez - although Olmedo lurks.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=2855114

But I think Jeff Kent likes playing more than he lets on. He most likely loves competing and that's what he would miss the most.

I've been feeling like Nomar is nothing more than a free-swinging singles hitter these days. That evidence is more damning than I suspected.

Well, gameday seems to think he did.

No, he leaped at the wall and his head fell off. Then Furcal was attacked at short by a wild tiger.

i think the Snakes traded him to another organization i'm not sure though.

http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2007/04/get_the_best_ed.html

Valdez really earned his league minimum salary on that one.

Not very good ones, but he saw them!

i will now go to bed satisfied. good night, gentlemen.

"you.... complete, me."

Dodgers win on a walk-off single from Olmedo.

Well done.

http://tinyurl.com/ytmlnc

Well, she used to work at NASA. There was some unpleasantness.

Caution: dumping NASA woman might be hazardous to one's health.

I'm glad we won, but I'd like us to be playing stronger.

What does Broxton giving up a run have to do with Penny, you ask? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

QUALITY START!

WIN! HE WON THAT GAME! SINGLE-HANDED! SPECIFICALLY, HIS RIGHT HAND! AND ARM!

Yeah, Penny deserved a win, but it would've been nice if he'd thrown less pitches, and these kind of games happen. I do hope to see more clutch hitting soon, but I'll take the win.

A long day turns into a long night.

I went to the game tonight with some very fine company and noticed the following:

1) Eric Neel, Rich Lederer, GoBears and our host... you can't ask for better company. Juan Pierre goes after the ball like an ice skater trying to catch a bumblebee.

2) Livan Hernandez can throw the ball backwards, I think.

3) Penny be powerful good tonight.

4) Jeff Kent can hit the ball hard to the outfield on a pretty consistent basis. You can't say that about any other Dodger.

5) Juan Pierre goes after the ball like an ice skater trying to catch a bumblebee.

6) Jeff Weaver has a new nickname thanks to GoBears: time share. Figure it out and you'll laugh as hard as we did.

7) Betemit is getting close to deadimit. Yeah, I'm groaning, too.

8) You throw a fastball to Olmedo Saenz, you get what you deserve.

9) Juan Pierre would go back on a bunted ball.

10) Ninth inning game winning hits are a blast. That was my first seen live.

Good night.

I don't want to harp on Pierre. That said: he's worse, defensively, right now than he used to be, right? Thinking about it, I'm sure I'd seen him play something like eighty times before this year. I don't at all remember his being anything like this spazzy. I expect he'll be better, over the whole year, than he has so far offensively. Not tons better, but significantly better. But I don't know what to make of his defense. The buggeration quotient is very high.

413. I think you're right about Pierre. The arm was always horrible, and the routes less than picturesque. But I don't think he was ever so skittish and indecisive on fly balls.

Jon might have been right when he said tonight that JP might be entering (or well ensconced in) Steve Sax territory. It in his head. His wee head.

Pierre doesn't seem to be seeing the ball well off the bat. He looks a lot like Lofton out there. I remember Bradley having problems like this when he was playing center for LA as well. Perhaps it's just a Dodger Stadium thing... but I don't see opposing CFers having the same problems. Hopefully he'll adjust and start making plays, but if he doesn't, the Dodgers aren't going anywhere.

I am, however, satisfied with the way Pierre has been performing offensively. He's been getting on base consistently enough ever since breaking out of his season-opening slump. In his past ten games coming into tonight, his OBP was .354. His stolen base rate for the season is at 80%. Pierre seems to be coming up a lot with two outs and the bases loaded and coming up short, but so has the entire team. And today he would have come through in the clutch but for a spectacular defensive play by Byrnes.

I think the Dodgers had a successful first month of 2007. Part of their success is owed to Pierre; the failures they encountered can also partly be blamed on Pierre. There is no player on the team that did not play poorly at one time or another in April. Even Russell Martin has had his bad days.

As I'm sure is true for most of the people at Dodger Thoughts, I live and die with the Dodgers. With the stakes so high, it infuriates me to watch a crucial, two-out flyball glance off of Pierre's glove for an RBI double (for example). But then after another excruciating hour the game is over, and I look at the box score and check out who's pitching tomorrow and examine the standings, and I gain some perspective. After all, it's May 1st, the Dodgers are in first place, and as Nancy Bea Hefley would remind us, the sun'll come out tomorrow.

NL West .522
AL Central .516
NL East .500
AL West .500
AL East .484
NL Central .480