I feel good about this game today. I'd much prefer to have Nomar sit than Russ, and as much as I'd prefer to see Ethier over Gonzalez, it's not as if Ethier's hitting terribly well right now.

Im not saying yesterday he was. he did face a very good pitcher. but he looked a little tired.

Im not saying yesterday he was. he did face a very good pitcher. but he looked a little tired.

Ethier in April: .250/.282/.458
Ethier in May: .303/.353/.355

Not great, but not bad compared to

Nomar in April: .307/.351/.416
Nomar in May: .253/.311/.277

Ethier just needs to hit the ball kinda hard like he did in April, and combine that with his getting on base thing from May. Nomar needs to do what he did in April, but start hitting the ball hard.

Thats 21 games--divided amongst 4 OF'ers.

Kemp could still get 4-5 games a week.

Rats! I hate when that happens. Then I was able to get a salad at Burger King and make it work on time.

Whereupon, I knocked over half the salad under my desk and then proceeded to bump my head on two different pointy edges of it as I cleaned up in an unintentional homage to Homer Simspon.

You have to stay on your toes.

I must look Roseboro did after he got into argument with Marichal over hogging all the chickpeas at the salad bar.

I kinda like Martin/Kent/Saenz in the 3/4/5 against a left hander.

Then you only have to deal with wet pants for an hour. Which could be...awkward.

The pants I will just live with.

Somebody doublechecked my head to make sure that I don't have brain matter seeping out of my combover spot.

I don't.

/s disgruntled Cardinals fan

I could live with the occasional fielding mishap. Dude mashes.

No Pancake House this time though.

Smart move, Frodo.

Objection your honor, leading the witness.

Solid Gold Glove.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUNJjIwlHk8

I've always liked this clip of Jimmy Stewart on the Tonight Show reading his poem about his dog. It's sad but comforting.

Anyway let's just talk about the game and why Kemp isn't part of a 4 man rotation. I am seriously crossing my fingers that Kuo is impressive enough in his next minor league start to get his shot at the rotation and to stick once he gets the shot.
Or does well enough to be included in a trade package for a hitter so that Billingsley gets his shot.

Oh, you mean the seats. Yeah, that too.

Wolf should be able to get Theriot.

Peavy is having a great season.

2-2 3b, hr bb today so far.

SF-1
COL-1 (5th)

MIL-0
SD-1 (5th)

its nice to see all the loons young players start to hit. Van Slyke has been impressing me alot as well. When he fills out his frame, I think the power will definately come.

not very good.

Good job, Wolf.

120
Sigh.

Not his fault the offense hasn't showed up.

And Odom and Brown are coming off of surgery. So, they can't get value for them. Only Bynum.

No light at then end of that tunnel.

When he's fielding, but not when batting.

I hope we don't get Seanez'ed this inning. Only one more out to go. {say a few prayers}

Um, okay.

SF-1
COL-4 (6th)

MIL-0
SD-3 (7th)

It's a tough call, but I think I give it to LoDuca, on style points.

Hull and White give up 4 runs in the top of 9th to blow the lead.

gracias amigo.

Dangerous.

If Milwaukee loses today, they will have gone 4-12 since their 24-10 start. They led by 8 games back then.

But the most any of their opponents gained is 3 games.

@dfa.com

The Dodger boo birds are out again, too.

But this one is on Grady.

I always think Pierre's arm's gonna come off with the ball when he throws as hard as he can back to the infield.

Not saying I agree with leaving the man in, but booing should have some reason to it.

http://www.dfa.com/

Sure, I'd be glad to serve as a reference for Rudy.

Brady Clark had a nice defensive inning.

He didn't...And it worked...Barely.

Seanez got shelled in a couple of early outings and has been great ever since. Any team would be happy to get those numbers from their garbage time guy.

-1 for the moran.

Grady has lost it. Does he wear a helmet when he rides that motorcycle?

Nice pinch hit

Don't blow a vein Lou!!!

Why is Ethier PHing for LaRoche?Grady has lost it.
Because Grits is a genius.

let's go, Meat!

Florida was the last team with two pinch-hit homers in the same inning. The Marlins did it last year against Baltimore with Joe Borchard and Wes Helms doing the honors.

Interesting.

KOBE: What's The Deal? (Breshanan)

Sports section includes:

It's Time To Trade Bryant (Plaschke)

and a ripping from T.J. Simers:

'Bryant's Whine Is More Like Sour Grapes'

I am shocked.

Ha. Dude is a joke.

The Ox looked like his old self in that previous half inning.

point taken.

Betemit should not be bunting.

Why did Barrett throw behind him?

I miss Phil Hartman.

Ummmm, okay.

The Brooklyn Bullet Dodgers

Please hit another flyball, Juan.

Yep. Magic.

Dodgers have won games in some really strange fashion.

Cubs are 2-12 in 1-run games this year, and 0-6 on the road.

Yep. Magic

Or, it shows how many ways a bad team can lose.

72AB 319/410/639 5hr 11bb 18k

the strikeouts are still a little high but they are down alot from last year. The plus power is definately showing and hes learning to work walks as well.

Ball didn't seem to be carrying very well, but guys like Pierre shouldn't be swinging for the fences anyway. Broxton's heat was hitting 97 on the stadium gun which is usually pretty accurate, so it's nice to see that Friday was an anomaly.

they also kept yelling at me about jason schmidt. Im like what about wood and prior?
calm down.

...just a thought... seems if the AL wasnt better there should be something wrong ..

Yes it is true Bal and Sea arnt even good top ten teams ( BTW wow Sea has roughly the payroll of LA) and give credit to Cle and Min . . but the Al still does have more $ in their rosters and of the best teams like Bos and LAOA only Cle is especially low in payroll with Det having ( if I remember) 95 mil +

i want participation!

Seriously though, I have no idea how good these kids are (most of us probably don't), so go with your gut whenever possible.

However, as they enter their second third of their season, the charade of Tomdrekson starting 2/5 of the games is beginning to show itself.

Certainly Tomko had to go, he started 4 games and he had given up 20 ER in 19 IP in his 4 starts during the month. Hendrickson, though not as bad as the team did go 2-3 in his 5 starts, still was not pitching effectively, with a 5.14 ERA and giving up 6 HR in 28 IP.

In fact, Tomko and Hendrickson have given up 10 of the 13 HR that the staff has given up in May.

And while the staff ERA for May is 3.83, with out Tomko and Hendrickson's starts, it goes down to 2.78.

I suppose if there is silver lining to Chad starting the season in the bullpen, his control has improved (17k/4 BB in 13.1 IP in May) and for the season, he has 33K in 27 IP and batters are hitting .250 BAA, with righthanders hitting .190 against him.

Also, despite going back to back, he has only pitched 27 innings this year and with about 22-23 starts left this year for each starter, he should be able to go for the rest of the year without facing any fatigue issues.

So it should be interesting to see when they make the changes to the rotation, one is down, that being Tomko but will we have to wait for another 2-3 weeks for Schmidt before Mark returns to bullpen.

Have you seen his delivery yet? just curious..

http://tinyurl.com/2f3gl9

my first reaction when watching his scouting video..."good God that is scary."

and then it kept growing on me...im to the point where i dont mind it now and look past it and focus on all his positives.

But no matter, just happy to see those guys in there.

Again, the fact that they are tied for first and playing .580 ball without Schmidt is a good sign for the rest of the season.

I wonder who ToyCannon will pick.

my money is on dominguez!

Burt Convy was the host on the Match Game pilot;

Radar O'Reily substituted whenever Charles Nelson Reilly couldn't be there.

Sorry. I had a prior engagement before the game ended. Had to get that in.

In a rare occurence, the Dodgers will face 5 lefties in their next 7 games. I would expect to see the Olmedo Saenz play some games at PNC Park, with 30 plate appearances, he has 5 HR, driven in 18 with a mammoth OPS of 1.719.

My hunch is that Tony Abreu's visit will include a nice trip to DC but he will be returning to Vegas prior to Pittsburgh. Andy should get some time in the lineup with all the lefties as I think Grady likes the lefthanded power off the bench that Betemit possesses.

Nothing but class. Thanks.

I remain hopeful that June 1 brings changes that allow Kemp, Billingsley, and Loney to start with the Dodgers.

369 I know very little about scouting, but that sure looks like a max effort delivery-- what are the negatives of that? Are we worried about injuries? He looks from that video like he has some control issues.

http://tinyurl.com/25bo5j

If not for Pearl Harbor, this might be Oriole Thoughts. Or not.

I had great seats - the loge level above home base, just a few feet on 3rd base side - and the feeling was terrific, real theater. Nothing like TV. I'm hooked. I have to come all the way in from Santa Barbara, so I don't know how ofen I can repeat it, but I'll try to do so as often as I can. I came this time with a friend who's a Cubbie, and his son.

Martin's amazing save head-under-heels was right below me and a bit left. Ethier's home run was so far away I couldn't see whether he'd made it or not - I had to depend on the roar of the crowd. Juan Pierre was as ridiculous as ever at bat.

It's so perfectly obvious Pierre's never, ever going to hit a home run that it's ludicrous that he keeps swinging to hit it high. Why in the world does he do it? Since it's clear that his continuous-game streak matters to him, why doesn't Little just tell him that if he hits the ball up in the air once more he's going to sit him down the next game? That should do it. Even better, since he won't be able to stop himself, he'd have to sit down the next game(s).

The umpire never indicated the hit-batter end to the game, and I couldn't see what exactly had happened from where I was above home base. Nor did anything appear on the scoreboard or other boards. They just all left the field. I had to wait until I got back to Santa Barbara and watch the DVR recording to be sure, though logically that appeared to be the case. What a strange end to the game.

My Cubbie friend had seen the Cubs lose in every other way, but never that one. He seemed used to swallowing yet another loss, though.

As a Dodger fan, it was great to see the home run even up the score right away, and to see all the great pitching, especially Broxton's form after his last appearance. Billingsley looked good too after his 3 innings yesterday.

Leaving the parking lot wasn't too bad, but the parking attendants weren't doing their job. Several different lanes had to merge, including our right turn from Parking Lot 1 merging into the stream of cars from other lots just before the exit from the park. Instead of holding up one stream of traffic to let the other in, and then switching to the other like any proper traffic cops would (and in fact as the cops were doing just outside the park), all of them were just waving all cars to advance! They might as well have not been there at all - a messy free-for-all. Dumb. We managed to get out within about 10 minutes anyway, but we were closest to the park exit.

A great day at the ballpark.

The tumble he took into the stands Sunday making that catch is the kind of video highlight that sticks with people...aka all-star voters, maybe even LaRussa.

"In contradistinction, four of the five teams in the NL West are above .500, with the Dodgers enjoying a scant 1/2-game lead over the Padres."

Happy Memorial Day!

"In fact, Tomko and Hendrickson have given up 10 of the 13 HR that the staff has given up in May.

"And while the staff ERA for May is 3.83, without Tomko and Hendrickson's starts, it goes down to 2.78."

Actual facts like this are 100 times better than the "I hate whoever, whatever" stuff some folks occasionally post, with few to no facts to back up what they say. Good work bh; good, relevant info which if considered by Dodger brass might help them make the right moves.

Of the two, I think lefty Hendrickson may be better suited for the pen. Hitters talk about how tough it is to face guys that tall. The ball seems to get on them quicker, harder to pick up release point, unusual in other ways. Without dominant stuff, the more hitters see him, the better they may do--true of any pitcher, but Lurch types might be even more vulnerable 2nd and 3rd time thru a lineup.

Since he doesn't have overpowering stuff, seems like he'd be best used right before a power reliever, or maybe sandwiched between two to give batters even more trouble adjusting.

Gets relatively high SO totals for no better stuff than he has. Maybe could be a LOOGY or LOOGY plus another few batters some key situations, or lefty long man as he's been before. (Lefty long man=LLM?)

Started his run of improved pitching out of the pen late last year. In one appearance then he struck out 8 in 4 innings. His much improved mental game probably would serve him well facing the pressure of relieving.

I think Tomko might be of greatest value to the Dodgers somewhere else. As part of a package or whatever, he might bring back more--given his "stuff"-- than he would be able to contribute pitching. Hard to see him in any pen role except long relief, and the Dodgers have plenty of RH power guys.

But trade-value wise, Hendrickson might bring more since he's a lefty who can start or relieve.

With Colletti in attendance, McDonald took a no-hitter into the seventh before tiring and the 66ers survived yet another adventure by their bullpen for a 3-2 win over the Quakes on Sunday at Arrowhead Credit Union Park.

http://www.sbsun.com/sports/ci_6003931

nice.

401 - The sidebar is only accurate through April 10. Sorry about that.

New post up top.