Probably means despite not hitting well in Vegas, Marlon Anderson will be activitated assuming Loney is put on the DL.

Does this remind anyone of Bobby Valentine?

i hope this does not hamper james career in anyway.

Tiger has made some fantastic par putts today. Unfortunately, he can't make any birdie putts.

We need to get, "Here be dragons," scrawled across the warning track.

We need to get, "Here be dragons," scrawled across the warning track.

Isn't the "warning" in "warning track" a sufficient warning?

You would think that if it was such a hazzard, some other outfielders would have gotten hurt by now too.

Injuries happen, almost always on a fluke play.

Any truth to the rumor that this offseason's improvements to Dodger Stadium will include a tripwire strung across the infield at knee level, sponsored by Carl's Jr.?

6 Can't ever have too many warnings. How about: Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here?

Buzzer shot Jimmy Roberts story...!

There are warnings on shirts suggesting that you not swallow your own buttons. "Warning" just doesn't do it for Gen Y types. But everybody's still afraid of dragons.

Loney: You'd Be the right field wall out at Dodger Stadium...Killer of Women and Kemps.

Right Field Wall: That's right. I've killed women and Kemps. I've killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another. And I'm here to kill you, James Loney.

JAISFS

I know the players hated the rubberized warning track that was there for several years, I seem to recall lots of slips, slides and hesitant steps out there during the time is was in Dodger Stadium.

Also Tony Jackson thinks the Dodgers will put Schmidt back on the DL.

14 - "I know the players hated the rubberized warning track that was there for several years, I seem to recall lots of slips, slides and hesitant steps out there during the time is was in Dodger Stadium."

Yep.

Or the Dodgers outfielders could just be afraid of the walls from now on and they will all play right field like Bobby Abreu.

14 The Dodgers obviously don't need 12 pitchers these days, given the infrequency with which they are using Bombko and Lurch. Maybe tomorrow D. Young and Anderson will be on the team? It would be weird to call up two guys who play exactly the same two positions as each other, though. There aren't really any Vegas pitchers who are obvious callup candidates. Hull? Maybe Meloan?

15 And yet it seemed to take forever before they decided to replace it.

That warning track, like the scoreboard, was a financial decision; the rubberized ones are cheaper and require less manpower to maintain.

18 - In theory it was supposed to help with drainage, but I think that turned out to be something of a crock.

19 You know, for all those rainouts they have at Dodger Stadium.

Tiger needs to birdie 18 to get into a playoff with Cabrera.

20 - Well, it's not as if there's no reason to improve drainage if they can. It does rain.

The official story was that the rocks from the warning track clogged up the irrigation pipes.

I think a less rocky form of warning track was developed. But there were definitely complaints about players slipping on the rubberized warning track.

14. It also turned balls that hit the track into fast-moving projectiles as they bounced out of play. I remember, once, attending a game where they had it, and a sinking line drive bounced off of it and nailed a small kid in the face. Luckily the kid was fine, I think.

17 I don't think it serves any purpose for Meloan to go to AAA, he's now struck out 70+ in 45 IP in his combined AA seasons at Jacksonville.

9 - how about, "You must be at least this tall to play baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers"? That way, they could have eliminated Pedro Martinez right away instead of having their hearts broken after he was traded.

2 No, that one still hurts just thinking about it. But it does take the guesswork out of figuring out why Bobby Abreu and right field act like two north ends of a magnet...

I like a callup for Delwyn Young. He's got a quick bat and drives in runs. Could be just what the doctor ordered. Hope Loney only has a bruise . Terrible thing when your best first baseman gets hurt shagging flies so the past can still have its day.

Vin reports Loney's preliminary diagnosis as a "bruised right knee." Which really could mean anything.

29 - Concussion?

Nomar...!

The "James Loney in the Outfield" experiment is OVER. This is not a debate.

Next up, Russell Martin takes the bump as a setup man.

Loney's played a lot of games in the outfield over the last couple of years. He didn't get hurt because he's an inexperienced outfielder.

30 - not unless Kotchman's injury is transitive.

It was a financial decision by Dodgers management to install a solid HARD wall in RF in lieu of the standard protective padding.

Great financial decision! It cost the team the services of Kemp for over a month and an unknown period of time for Loney. I find it hard to believe it was worth the extra loot. What is more important the safety of the players or a few extra dollars in Frank's pocket.

The warning track is not the problem the lack of padding is the problem.

33 I understand. He's still not an outfielder. We have those.

He's the guy who is supposed to be playing first base instead of the relic.

33 Agreed. He got hurt because he was running full speed and couldn't slow up in time to turn his shoulder into the wall.

35 - Just because we were talking about the warning track doesn't mean we weren't thinking the outfield wall should have padding.

#2: I too remember Valentine in the field. He was fantastic before his fracture. As an aside, I remember Vin refering to him upon his call-up as one of the first players born in the fifties to make it to the majors. Valentine has never griped about what could have been.

I'm assuming they try to get the swelling down and do an MRI on the knee tomorrow.

So, long night of collective breath-holding

35
The Dodger Stadium fence is padded except in the areas where the scoreboards are. Then there is a plexiglass cover over those.

Too bad the Cubs are too cheap to pay for padding on their outfield fence.

The Dodger Stadium fence never had any padding until 1991 when Darryl Strawberry hurt his shoulder hitting the wall.

I'm looking at Rosenblatt Stadium now and the fence there is padded until a foot or so before the ground.

I don't see CWS players dropping like flies.

41: That's true but it always appeared, when fielders collided with it, that it gave as if it were a sail in the wind.

41 "The Dodger Stadium fence is padded except in the areas where the scoreboards are. Then there is a plexiglass cover over those."

Even the parts of the wall that have padding, though, don't have padding at the height where Loney hit his knee. If you look at the replay, Loney hit his face on the scoreboard, but hit his knee on the exposed concrete below the scoreboard. All the way around the outfield the padding starts about a foot and a half up the wall, and below that is concrete.

http://insidethedodgers.mlblogs.com/photos/uncategorized/photo_1.jpg

41 Bob:

We want to blame Frank and his team for everything. Don't try to bring up facts that could dissuade us in doing so.

At most ballparks, the outfield padding goes down at least to ankle height, specifically to prevent knee injuries like Loney's:

http://tinyurl.com/2nhunj
http://coorseffect.mlblogs.com/photos/uncategorized/kansascityroyalsarticle.jpg

Bill Plaschke, LA Times, May 17, 1991:

Afterward, a couple of Dodger outfielders wondered why the Dodger Stadium walls were not padded, as are most others in the league.

"I don't know if this is the only outfield wall in the league that is not padded, but it is one of the few," Stan Javier said. "We talk about it, and we wonder. We have no idea why they do not pad it."

Strawberry was not openly critical, but said: "I know that most of the other stadiums have padding, and I think this is why they have padding, because of shoulder injuries."

Peter O'Malley, Dodger owner, said the walls were examined and approved Thursday afternoon.

"The walls have the same amount of give in them as they had in 1962," O'Malley said. "We have a spring in the wood, and that causes the give.

"We have continually examined and reviewed the walls, and they are no different now than they ever were."

When asked if a padded wall would be preferable, O'Malley said, "I don't know what kind of padding you mean, how thick you are talking about. I do know that we just do not have hard walls. They have much resiliency."

46 That last quote by O'Malley is McCourtesque in its nonsensicalness.

The left field fence is identically built.

So what's the casualty count over there?

Well, theoretically you would need a left fielder fast enough to reach the fence before the ball does.

Y'can't design structures, especially retroactively, for every contingency in an intricate, full-speed activity like baseball.
Having said that, the folks responsible for the accidents waiting to happen in that ballpark (and a few other ML stadia) should have their credentials reviewed.
I suspect somewhere in the mix of blame you'll have folks making key decisions about structural issues who never played and rarely watched what happens on an actual field (somewhat akin to the stat-happy among us).
I like the one about bubbles, Bob T!

I am late to the parade today, so if this was mentioned, my apologies: Including today, Hendrickson has now given up 26 earned runs in his last 30.2 innings pitched for an ERA of 7.63 in that span.

I seem to remember reading this year that the RF wall at DS was recently changed(?) to the plexiglas covered scoreboard. How long has the plexiglas covered scoreboard been in the RF wall? If it has been there for a while it is a systemic problem not a management problem.

Are there other concrete based walls? Does anybody keep numbers on these things? Concrete, intuitively, seems like a pretty bad choice for something that you might expect somebody to run into. I know that if I had to run into something, I'd rather it wasn't concrete.

Notes: Schmidt's status 'on hold'

>>> On Saturday, after another underwhelming start by Schmidt, manager Grady Little said he would continue to "run him out there."

But before Sunday's game, Little said he wasn't sure if Schmidt would make his scheduled start on Thursday in Toronto and hinted the right-hander might not make the team flight on Monday, perhaps a precursor to placing Schmidt on the disabled list for more rehabilitation or for corrective surgery.

"Right now, we're evaluating," said Little. "We're on hold right now." <<<

http://tinyurl.com/yvurqv

Here's a closer view of the wall in LF from last year.

http://tinyurl.com/2m6usq

When I was in the RF pavilion last year, the back of the fence appeared to be metal.

According to your earlier post, Bob, it was wood as recently as 1991. I wonder when it changed.

56
I would assume that when the scoreboards were built into the fences, which was around 2003 or 2004, they likely needed a sturdier backing to hold the scoreboard equipment.

Notes: Schmidt's status 'on hold'

>>> The likely candidates to replace Schmidt in the rotation are long relievers Brett Tomko and Mark Hendrickson, the latter a former Blue Jay who is 7-7 with a 5.62 ERA in Rogers Centre. Another option is Chad Billingsley, who is 3-0 with a 1.11 ERA since April 29. <<<

http://tinyurl.com/yvurqv

Ironically, the Dodgers in 1948 became the first team in MLB to put padding on the outfield walls:
http://tinyurl.com/2xcjpo

I'm going to be very disappointed if I see Tomko or Hendrickson in the rotation again.

Tony Jackson sez...

"Loney told reporters after the game that he thinks he'll be ready to go on Tuesday night. Apparently (I wasn't there), he also said something about the wall needing more padding."

Loney did have some experience in the outfield. But that didn't help Kemp! I think we could afford a bit of padding in right field, these players who don't have million buck contracts try to play too hard and might get hurt.

Maybe we can just put Nomar in right field and wait for the inevitable.

Ebbets Field had concrete walls starting in 1931. A Google site search of ballparks.com returns 204 instances of concrete. It'll take a while to go through.

It'll take a while to go through

Let us know what you find.

Being only 5 OPS points ahead of Pierre apparently lit a fire under Nomar today, as he quintupled his lead.

Goodbye my Coney Island Baby.

So, remind me again - why did I record this game? Glad I took a nice bikeride instead of staying to watch it live, at least.

Everyone here's already said everything, really. This would have been a laughably bad game if it weren't for Loney getting hurt, but it sounds like it isn't too serious, so that's good news. Otherwise, it was pretty much everything that could potentially be bad about the Dodgers was bad today. With the exception of seeing Furcal show some power, and Nomar driving in runs, everything else was putrid. Wolf was unbearably bad, the bullpen was bad (of course, it was the bad part of the bullpen), the hitting overall was bad, Betemit looked horrible today, the outfield wall is probably going to steal someone's soul next unless they fix it, and overall, I'm glad I could at least fast forward through most of that disaster.

Especially since then I didn't have to listen to as much Steve Gushy-yuck and Yechhs Hudler that way.

Looking on the bright side of life...

So, two strikes and the outfield wall should be out? What will it take for them to pad the lower part of that thing? Can they use the money from the sale of Mitch Jones to pay for it, if money's an issue? I mean, this is ridiculous.

65- Mostly what I found is that the method is flawed, given that Dodger Stadium isn't among the "concrete" hits. Yankee Stadium and Fenway are, though.

I washed out of engineering school a little before applying to any, so, I haven't got any expert insight here. Just a gut feeling that concrete isn't the sort of thing anyone would much want to run into. It does seem like you wouldn't want the wall to be padded in part, with fiberglass inset to protect the scoreboard, since, if you were going to run into something, you'd want as much of your body running into it at the same time, to dissipate the energy transfer. And it seems like you'd want the thing you were running into to have a little more give than concrete.

Also: why does the scoreboard have to be built into the wall? Couldn't it be independently rigged to sit behind the wall? They're not lacking for space behind the wall, so it seems like whatever suspension system would be necessary would be feasible.

Whatever the case, there ought to be a lecture on how to play that wall. Even if it isn't inherently more dangerous than other walls, given that it's different, there must be some best possible way of hitting it. It seems like a bad idea to have each rightfielder making it up as he goes along.

Or they could move the scoreboards to sit on top of the part of the fence that's in front of the bullpens. It shouldn't spoil anybody's view, and it wouldn't greatly affect the park effects. And, even if it did, if it were taking away homeruns, it'd be more likely to take them away from teams capable of hitting them.

On the plus side the Dodgers did remove the palm trees in the Vero Beach outfield after Richie Allen ran into one. I think it was Richie.

Was the scoreboard the problem or was it the concrete base lining the wall underneath it? I thought Loney slid into the latter, though maybe did it partially because he was trying to avoid the scoreboard. Or I guess both were the culprit, he got knocked out on the scoreboard and hurt his knee on the lower part...? Either way, something's gotta change.

My theory on Betemit is that he is a natural backup player that stuggles when given a position to lose. Just when I thought Abreu would return to AAA when Anderson was ready to return to MLB, Betemit says to wait just a minute, I might not be ready to be the everyday third baseman.

If the new hitting hitting coach can get Abreu to stopo swinging at pitches he has no chance of hitting he will wind up being the everyday thirdbaseman unless a trade is made.

73- His knee hit against the concrete, his face hit the fiberglass. But, if as Bob seemed to indicate, the concrete was put in as a way of supporting the weight of the scoreboards, it's all about the scoreboards, if indirectly.

Maybe Abreu is back as the third baseman in that he played third and Betemit played Right field today.

To be specific, his knee hit the concrete first, making his spine a catapult for his face, which got planted into the fiberglass..

Somewhere there is middle ground between a rookie's exuberance and an older veterans nonchalance. May the Dodgers find it quickly.

There is an ASTM standard (F2440-04) that deals with padding for walls used in athletics, but upon closer examination, it is only for indoor facilities.

Indoor padding in gymnasiums are supposed to start no higher than four inches from the floor and then extend for at least six feet.

There does not appear to be a safety standard for outdoor facilities. I doubt that baseball fields have as many injuries with participants hitting walls as there are in basketball and volleyball players hitting walls or other fixed objects (such as bleachers).

This link should take you to a gallery of photos that a company called Mancino Mats put together of the padding they used at Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles.

http://www.mancinomats.com/_fla/linc.html

Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium had a cyclone fence in the outfield. IIRC, Dale Murphy cut his arm on it and there were worries his consecutive game streak might end. It didn't.

Hey, Kuo goes up against Halladay on Wednesday.

Even Osnos, the Chicago Tribune's Beijing Bureau Chief is on Q&A with Brian Lamb, right now. I turned it off, the first time through, but, giving it a second shot, it's not so bad.

If the Dodgers want to win with pitching and defense and some timely singles I would prefer Abreu at second and Loney at first. Kent's home is in Texas and the Rangers do want a second baseman.

Nomar just has to play third base and Loney just has to have good luck with his knee so he can catch Nomar's one hoppers from third.

The Coliseum had a chain link fence in right field when the Dodgers played there.

I was amazed to see that we have a day off, after having so relaxed a schedule a week ago.

Still, I can't believe how our manager concedes a game about five time a year that now flabergasts me. I had convinced myself that this was a good practice. More than five times a year, when we got behind by 3 or 4 runs, the manager would make some moves or non-moves, that said to me: this game is gone, waste no more energy. Initially I actually believed,"wow, this guy knows better than I when to give it up and fight another day. However:
I began to see how much 5 games could mean in a division, and eventually how much 2.5 games( a fairly fair tally of what we might gain by not giving up!) might mean in our division. Bad.

Today might not be a good example, we were well behind. But we put in three pitchers almost guaranteed to lose and we have done this often before. In this division, two games can make a difference, so I can't understand this at all. What the heck goes on here?
I guess no pro sports writers monitor this regularly, but this is incredably bizarre IMO!!!

Jeter on SportsCenter: "I used to hate Roger Clemens. He used to hit me all the time."

Number of times, in his career, Clemens hit Jeter: 1.

Who says Jeter meant getting hit by a pitch?

86 I think if you look at bullpen usage in all MLB, you'll find that on winning ballclubs, their best pitchers only pitch in which they have the lead or tied.

Sometimes this goes hand in hand with how well the starters do, in the Dodgers best case scenario, only Broxton and Saito would pitch out of the pen, the others would be used dependent on how far the starter goes and the score.

This is why most teams overwhelmingly win when they are ahead after six and for the most part lose if their down by 3 or more runs after 5 innings.

Even if a bullpen's ERA is over 4, if they have a lead of 3 or more, they are going to hold it.

Managers really don't care at this point if they lose by 3 or by 10, their main concern is not blowing up the bullpen for the games following this one.

86. I see what you're saying, but really, your guesstimate of 2.5 games forgone by "giving up" is probably way too high, especially with this offense. I'd wager it'd be closer to 0.5, or less.

And that doesn't count the benefit of resting the top relievers and offensive starters.

So, I don't like throwing in the towel either, but if there's one thing that I'm sure a manager knows better than I, it's when individual players will benefit from a few innings off.

So in addition to being a lousy day for the major league Dodgers, it was a lousy day for the minor league affiliates as well. Jacksonville came into today with a chance to tie for the Southern League first half title, one game behind with one game to go. The Suns won 5-4, but alas, so did the Mississippi Braves (of Phil Wellman fame). The Suns finished the first half in second place, one game out. Chin-Lung Hu went 3-for-4 with his 25th double, Jon Meloan pitched a scoreless ninth for his 12th save, and Juan Gonzalez (no, not that one) had three hits including the game-winning homer in the eighth.

Inland Empire came into today already having clinched a tie for the first half title, needing a win over second place Lancaster to clinch outright. Lancaster, unfortunately, trounced the 66ers 10-1 as DT favorite Alberto Bastardo was shelled. Now the title will be determined by a tiebreaker game followed by fireworks on the Fourth of July. (Under Cal League rules, whoever wins the first second-half meeting between the two teams is the first half champion.) Travis Denker had two hits to raise his average to .342 in what was otherwise a forgettable game for Inland Empire.

82. Hopefully, Guo's not tasked with ending another Dodger losing streak. If he is, I'm fully confident that he will outpitch Halladay. But like always, the key with Guo is control. vr, Xei

Why not have inflateable walls or walls filled with water. That way you could turn the outfield wall into an aquarium. Just make sure it isn't easy to puncture. I remember back in the old days when I played baseball, we didn't have outfield fences. The ball just rolled and rolled and rolled, and we use to walk bare foot to Dodger stadium and actually got out of the stadium parking lot quicker than the people using cars. vr, Xei

93
And the walk was uphill in both directions wasn't it?

89 I can't sleep. You are onto something right, but it seems so crass. I can't wait for Braz and that Taiwan/Rockies guy to get healthy. Its got to be bye-bye Tomko and bigfoot.

I agree with 89 and 90 and the other thing is it's not Little's fault that Hendrickson, Tomko and Seanez are on the roster. He has to use them sometime, and can't use Saito, Broxton Beimel and Billingsley every time. Now Seaenz has been better than many of us expected for the first part of the season, but seems less and less effective every time he goes out - I'm just waiting for him to completely melt down. Hendrickson has gotten increasingly worse as the season's started and Tomko is Tomko - good stuff, will get some outs and Ks and also make mistakes, get hammered. Anyway, I am sure Little would like an upgrade at those three spots, too, but what can he do? You have to bring them in sometimes when you're losing and other guys have been pitching a lot. I share your frustration at having to watch them, too, but wouldn't pin their suckitude or their usage on Little.

I do hope 1-2 of them are gone within a month, though. But if Billingsley ends up starting for Schmidt, that leaves the pen even thinner. I hope we see Meloan, even Hull, over a couple of those leaky vets, sometime this summer. Dunno where else the help would come from...

(Oh, and yes, Tsao and/or Brazoban, whichever one of them gets healthy and can come back - then that's another option, too. I don't trust the odds of both of them coming back, healthy and effective, but at least one would be nice.)

I think we might get DJ Houlton starting in Toronto or Tampa. Not sure if Tsao is ready, but he threw without pain the other day. Yhency is still hurting.

Would be nice to have Bigbie, Clark, or even Jones to call up if Loney gets DL'd. Perhaps Ramon Martinez is ready to come back, but that doesn't thrill me.

I am hopeful that Delwyn Young gets a shot simply because I know his family. I don't think he'll get the nod this time around but I hope I'm wrong. Grady let him get all of five ab's last September. I can't see him getting any playing time right now.

I hope Bills gets the start but he's been so good out of the pen, I think Grady keeps him there for now. It seems like a no brainer to me that Schmidt should shut it down until he's totally ready. Surgery? Not sure what on other than the shoulder in general, but he ain't right and he ain't helping us by getting hit hard.

I think we ought to consider getting together a fund like the feds have to pay farmers not to grow crops. We could all chip in to pay Slappy, Bomko, and Big Bird to go sit on a beach somewhere.

Bill Shaikin writes in Monday L.A. Times that Chad thinks he can throw 70 pitches if called upon to start and build up from there.

Chad added that he knew that he was giving hitters too much credit last year and that he has been working on his other pitches.

Relievers tend to streamline their repertoire, eliminating their third and fourth pitches. As a starter-in-waiting, Billingsley has not.

"I could go out there and just throw fastballs and curves, because they're my best pitches," he said. "If I don't go out there and throw my changeup at all, I'm not going to have it."

93. Or we could just lay a white rope marking the boundary of play and give an automatic 4 runs if it goes beyond, 6 without bouncing...

Padding is preferable to a breakaway material because there are so many variables that go into when and where the material gives, how it breaks apart and any dangerous particles that result not to mention the stands of crowds just beyond. The only reason I can fathom for the separation from where the padding begins to the ground is for water drainage. The covers will be water resistant, but they would need replacing every year if left to sit in water over the winter.

A financial decision, yes, but despite my feelings that they should spare no expense when it comes to safety, I cannot fault them for this especially when you look around the league and see so many blatantly irresponsible designs that directly endanger players in the general course of the game, I'm looking at you SF and SD with bullpens on the field.

It was a million to one shot and Loney came up snake eyes on his first roll. His youthful exuberance to catch up to a ball down by 5, a stumble on the track, and the approaching scoreboard all added up to James trip to the DL. Even now I cannot get too down as I had feared for the worst when I saw his head smack into the acrylic glass. The replays were unbearable until it was revealed that his knee took the brunt of the damage and he suffered no head or neck trauma.

That is probably why I find myself more concerned with the scoreboards as they are not padded and the acrylic glass is there for the screen's protection, not the player's. Slamming into the glass would feel like running into a closed door with very little give. Being recessed from the padding only makes it more dangerous in my eyes as it could easily trap a players arm, leg or shoulder as they extend to make a play. From a fan's pov, they are nice and informative, but they are little more than a hazard to the players on the field.

Slamming into the wall and thoughts of missing his sweet swing from the line up recalled memories of Griffey Jr. and his continuous losing battle with the outfield walls. So for the love of Ch-i keep this kid on first and away from the fences. Here's to a speedy recovery for James.

Frankly, I'm amazed at all the "Wall talk" today. Yup, walls are hard...and bad. We hate walls. The split Germany and created handball. Boo walls.

Loney shouldn't be out there. Accidents happen and it was "just one of those plays" and bad luck and all that jazz. The kid is a first baseman, and the finest fielding first baseman in the National League, right now, as a young pup. He shouldn't be out there. Period.

Should Loney play first ahead of Nomar? Maybe. But given that Nomar is playing first, should an agile fielder and superb athlete be prevented from trying another position? It doesn't make sense. Loney isn't a crystal doll.

100 It wouldn't take a genius to make the walls and scoreboard safer. Without changing their present composition, they could be mounted on springs or gimbals that will give when a certain amount of force is directed against them. And it would cost less to install than they're paying some stiffs on their roster.

102 You can tell who the fathers are. They're up at this hour posting very quickly from home while the kids are getting ready. :)

Check out Shaikin, people! A call to replace Schmidt with Bills and he indirectly cites WHIP as a reason. Bill Shaikin seems to be backing up his conclusion with (gasp!) evidence! I hope he realizes he'll never make the big money as a sports pundit if he keeps this up.

Indeed, SB.

New post up top.