Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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1) using profanity or any euphemisms for profanity
2) personally attacking other commenters
3) baiting other commenters
4) arguing for the sake of arguing
5) discussing politics
6) using hyperbole when something less will suffice
7) using sarcasm in a way that can be misinterpreted negatively
8) making the same point over and over again
9) typing "no-hitter" or "perfect game" to describe either in progress
10) being annoyed by the existence of this list
11) commenting under the obvious influence
12) claiming your opinion isn't allowed when it's just being disagreed with
In the first year of his free agent deal, Jason Schmidt is done for now. Surgery performed on his shoulder found a torn labrum and some other damage, which was repaired. The rest of his career is riding on how well the fix takes hold. The labrum was anchored back to bone, so that's the key point that will need to heal before his rehab starts. There's not much precedent for a return to level, though it's interesting to note that the article I did on labrums for Slate back in 2004 is now almost completely obsolete. This is far more extensive than the surgery that Schmidt had in 2000, so timeframes are a bit tougher to judge here, but a vague yet reasonable one has him returning in time for spring training next year. The same holds true for Yhency Brazoban, who will have his labrum repaired on Friday.
It's hard to say that these injuries were "preventable" - for Schmidt, it was years of pitching, though there has to be some question about the physical done before signing his three-year deal. When it comes to Brazoban, it's all too common to see shoulder injuries post-Tommy John surgery due to subtle alterations in mechanics. The Dodgers have some pitching depth, and for them to keep up in the NL West, guys like Chad Billingsley will have to come through.
- Will Carroll at Baseball Prospectus
And from a live chat today:
It was, from what I understand, an extensive SLAP tear of the labrum, but he came back from a significantly less significant tear once before. (God that's a terrible sentence, but I can't figure out how to say it better.) The real answer is that the Dodgers should have a much better handle on how Schmidt is coming back early in the rehab. The timeframe to "know" is sometime in the season, maybe the early post-season, so there's plenty of time to figure out Plan B or call the insurance company (oops, there's not one.)
Well then, they better get cranking on another song besides "One Thing Leads To Another".
http://tinyurl.com/yvcgdy
Well done sir ....
And ... to bring it back 'round to Will Carroll .... "One Thing Leads to Another" could be the theme song for Will's frequent use of the term "cascade injury"
If the latter, then we know how the "diminished" Schmidt will play out. Unless he can rework his repetoire and become a crafty Maddux or Glavine.
The Marshall thing is tough. His "I'm being blackballed because I'm reinventing pitching" thing is a little too tin-foil-hat for me, but I get what he's talking about (as much as a layman can).
When a few more Marshall guys get into the bigs, it will shed some more light.
Even then, could they get it back? I doubt it.
14 You just wanted to use "obfuscation", didn't you?
"Walking up to the press box to join the television broadcast of the game for an inning, I was excited to see Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw taking the mound. Play-by-play man Jeff Hem handed me an easy one by simply asking for my thoughts on Kershaw, and I got one of those ice embarrassing moments: while I'm calling the him the best left-hander in the minors and projecting him for everything from 20-win seasons in the big leagues to the key for peace in the Middle East, he promptly grooves his fourth pitch of the game to Cedar Rapids (Angels) slugger Matt Sweeney, who goes opposite field with it for the game's only home run. Sweeney is a very real prospect and one of the few sleepers in an Angels system that features a number of high-profile prospects. He's a teenager with good hitting skills and plus-plus raw power, but he needs to refine his approach and find a defensive home; he's been pretty awful at third base so far this year. Luckily, Kershaw made me look good from there on out, sitting at 94-96 mph with his fastball and recording a pair of strikeouts, including one on a curveball that absolutely froze Cedar Rapids outfielder Chris Pettit to end the inning, a pitch that color commentator (and WGN sports anchor) Dave Kaplan nearly ran out of adjectives for. Speaking to a scout later in the game, Kershaw was by far his most impressive arm of the night.
"Nobody can remember the last lefthander in this league with his combination of size and stuff. In pre-game interviews, every player I asked to name the toughest pitcher in the league picked Kershaw, except for one, who listed him second after Manship."
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6372
Did anyone ask if the Dodgers' recouped any money from Brazoban or Werth's deals when they were out?
Its sound like short of doing a scope job of his shoulder prior to signing a contract, there was no way to know exactly what the deal was with his shoulder?
Look, it is an unfortunate and seems like continued risk whenever you sign a free agent, no matter what their past injury history indicates.
The Angels didn't resign Glaus because he had a lot of injuries in the previous few years and they had some guy ready to go (they thought) in his place.
They did sign Vlad Guerrero, though he also had some injury concerns that he has mostly avoided during his stay.
J.D. Drew got the injury-prone label early in his career, his one serious injury was due to being hit by a pitch, not something you can exactly plan for but it was damaging nonetheless.
You can certainly take the route of never signing 32+ age free agents due to potential injury risks but that will limit you greatly in terms of adding players to the roster.
If they're on the hook for all of Schmidt's salary, then the payroll is affected. If he's covered, they don't have to pay most of the 15.66 million dollars per year and can spend the money elsewhere.
It's just an interesting topic and so open ended that it makes for good conversation. Plus, we got to see Schmidt pitch twice together, BH. Now, that's like seeing the Loch Ness monster.
It's a relevant issue in Schmidt's case because if insurance picks up any portion of his $15-16m/yr, it gives the Dodgers real money to play with.
They were able to get insurance money on something like 80% of Dreifort's 2005 salary (saved them in the neighborhood of $8.5m). That's significant. Hence the concern.
With Schmidt, it'd be reasonable to be concerned that he had an on-going or chronic issue, and wasn't right, or likely to be right, at the time he signed the deal. He certainly was never sound from day 1 of Spring Training, and his decline in velocity with SF was a known factor.
In other words, there is a certain inherent injury risk with any player, and with older players in particular. Jason Schmidt, I think carried more risk than what's inherent. It was a worthwhile gamble, I think, but a gamble nonetheless. I'd hope that the Dodgers tried to improve their odds, both by getting and using as much information as they could, and by insuring the deal.
Stark, ESPN
Well, that explains that.
My guess on Schmidt is if there is some insurance on him, it will cover a low % of salary - 50% at best, and the cost was likely 10-15% of his salary to begin with. Just guesses on my part. Obviously we'd like to see McCourt recoup the most $$, but not sure if McCourt puts that into the "payroll" bucket, or if it just sort of ends up in other places.
There's about 23 million (not counting Wolf and Kent or Hendy) that will come off the books with the amounts owed to players no longer or here or retired (Mueller) plus removing Tomko from the roster.
While Schmidt's contract if he never pitches a ball again will certainly be a disappointment, they could probably work around it like they did last year with Gagne's deal.
It will make for an interesting off-season if Wolf gets his automatic renewal (180 IP), Kuo and Billingsley pitch well and Lowe and Penny continue to be very good.
This does mean that all those calls to trade Penny or Lowe for offense goes away for this year and with Elbert out and no other high ceiling starter on the horizon for at least another couple of years, any offensive upgrade will come by either dealing our own high ceiling offenseive prospects or wait until the off-season.
I am betting on the latter.
I can't think of the last player who had his contract invalidated unless it was because a team signed the player illegally.
He's like that Minoan thing. The Minotaur.
Goldstein and everyone else needs to stop building up Kershaw. TINSTAPP with dodger pitchers is too real to get too excited.
My only question is that if Kershaw doesn't exist, won't that hurt the BA Dodger prospect ratings next season? :)
I wash born here, an I wash raished here, and dad gum it, I am gonna die here, an no sidewindin bushwackin, hornswaglin, cracker croaker is gonna ruin me bishen cutter.
How about that Spike Lundberg eh? He's gonna be the next big thing!
What's that? There really is a Spike Lundberg? Well, I stand by my comment.
Can we all stipulate to the theoretical existence of Kershaw? There is indeed a pitcher named Kershaw and he has a potential value of X.
Obviously, you can't power your TV on potential energy, but that doesn't mean the energy is not there.
Furcal, SS
Pierre, CF
Nomar, 1B
Kent, 2B
Gonzo, LF
Martin, C
Anderson, DH
Ethier, RF
Abreu, 3B
Billingsley, P
Furcal, SS
Pierre, CF
Nomar, 1B
Kent, 2B
Gonzo, LF
Martin, C
Anderson, DH
Ethier, RF
Abreu, 3B
Billingsley, P
Still no start for Kemp
Bob is a non-fiction reader.
"Clayton Kershaw will be playing in the Futures Game, it was announced today. That takes place the Sunday before the All-Star Game up in SF. "
I say skip the Futures Game. For my well being. Just skip it. Please.
Not used to people agreeing with me, now I'm beginning to think I'm making a mistake and that maybe I should glory in his greatness even if it is for just a short time. If he is going to be Steve Avery maybe we should enjoy the ride and not worry about things we can't control. Wishy Washy Charlie Brown.
I read a novel a couple years ago I think.
42/43: Hey, at least Billingsley's starting! Finally. Let's at least look on the hopeful side.
I assume you don't need a ticket to the All-Star game to go the Futures game? If you do, then never mind.
These look like good seats.
http://tinyurl.com/2cebob
I feel sorry for Milton Bradley. Let's bring him back!
I have been trying to get tickets to the All-Star game through my mom's work. So far I have been unsuccessful.
whats your point? his numbers this year are more in line with his stellar minor league record.
Arm angle
no, he was trying to say how this year is an aberration and we should be worried because last year proved he isn't good.
The sheriff is a TINSTAAP!
Not trying to speak for D4P here (ok, I am), but I highly doubt he thinks that way.
Also brutal platoon splits with Marcum.
That's not what I meant at all. I remember people being worried last year about how Chad wasn't striking anyone out. This year, he's striking a lot of people out, but I didn't remember seeing anyone mention that.
But Marty is uncanny. Never fails
Then again, maybe he's not.
have you not been here the last 2-3 years? D4P is easily the most cynical poster in this community. Maybe its an act he puts on to impress andrew, greg and now the ghost of steve, but i will not let his curses be casted upon Chad Billingsley!
That's including Kemp's shot into the loge level.
I miss The Ninja.
OL...?
Me too. Hopefully we won't have to wait until 2008 for:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0453538/
Now there's this thing, floating, out there.
Prior to this week, it seemed to me that Grady had as much of a Bison crush as anybody, so this is indeed puzzling.
Maybe its failing to make contact and looking terrible at the plate in the last few games... I don't know... I wish he was in there too, he needs more ABs... but I think Grady looks at platoon splits a lot. Its as though "if were going to be a weak hitting club, lets do it from the best side"
I was mainly thinking about Beltre's call-up.
Meloan may not be mythical because I think he's coming up to the big club pretty soon. The Minotaur, however, is still a ways away.
This is one screwy lineup. I am growing more disenchanted with Little each passing day.
In Kemp's last four starts, he went:
2 for 3 with a homer June 12
3 for 4 with three runs June 13
1 for 3 June 15
1 for 3 June 17
He hasn't started since.
It's really easy. Just install fifteen more doors. It's like that tourist house up North that the crazy lady just kept building upon. You know, the one with the rooms and doors.
I can't think of the name. Somebody help me out here.
Who
The Dodgers are the Winchester House.
Not sure what "gatling's" wife did when confronted with the same problem.
If Kemp and Saenz don't start on Saturday against the lefty, then we'll really know something's gone horribly wrong.
Book seen on Grady's desk:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n15/n79591.jpg
We are going to have so much fun if he makes it.
Hu boy.
Wow. Marlon's parents must have been out taking a leak when God was handing out middle names. That's terrible.
The quorum is three to have an official meeting.
Pierre is the recording secretary and archivist.
Gonzalez is the president.
Anderson is the treasurer and also the head of the Reunion Committee.
Zebrie Sanders randomly visited UCLA and USC this weekend and came away very impressed with Dorrell. (Insert joke here)
Kemp has played, just not started recently, worried more about Loney since I would think they would have been a little more anxious to give Nomar time off on the turf.
Baldrick says, "I guess it's Sodoff."
"Pardon?"
"Well, when I was a kid and wanted to play with the other kids, they'd say, 'Go on, Sodoff Baldrick.'"
(I'm paraphrasing.)
On the British version of Dodgerthoughts this post might be banned. Maybe it is here, too.
Meanwhile, I'm just gonna be excited about Chad pitching today and try not to get too anxious about the wacky lineup.
I would assume that the soccer-playing Garciaparra is at home with the babies however.
130 - "Wow, UCLA may steal a good DT out of Ohio!!"
I didn't even know there was another Dodger Thoughts in Ohio.
They tend to focus on David Ross too much.
3-1 Orioles now on an Alberto Castillo homer.
Darn those Rockies... as if we didn't have anything else to worry about, now we have to worry about them nipping at our heels.
Sounds like a BTF nick.
I'm guessing that a vendor in the upper deck of PETCO lost his grip on a wad of cash and it floated down on to the field.
I doubt there was much more than $20 lost. But the vendor could be pretty upset since that would come out of his pay.
But I don't know for certain where the money came from. Sort of reminded me of the Jim Hutton classic "Who's Minding the Mint?"
I remember the Dodgers winning a game at Phone Company Park against Schmidt when they scored three runs, all of them by Dave Roberts and all of them on Milton Bradley groundouts.
money just dropped on the field there's no other way to put it, it was pretty comical watching the ball players tipping there hats for dollar bills. I'm sure ESPN will provide some highlights
That was game 1 of a 3-game Dodger sweep in SF. All 1-run victories. All saved by Gagne.
Not only did they beat Schmidt in the game above, but they beat Tomko (I know, shocker!) Sunday.
Actually, the problem with "Who's Minding the Mint?" was that involves a U.S. Mint employee reprinting bills.
Except the U.S. Mint doesn't print bills. It just mints coins.
But "Who's Minding the Bureau of Engraving And Printing?" would have been a title that appealed to no one except me. And since I was only one year old when the film came out, I think it was a good marketing decision to stick with the shorter title.
Boy, Barrett's just having quite the game so far. Now 3 whiffs in 3 ABs.
If I remember correct though.. it was during, or right after the month or two of Tomko being very very good that year . .
One of more fascinating matchups I've seen: I'll throw heat, you know it's coming, and we'll see who wins.
Barry won.
or maybe worse.... having to pay Schmidt and Tomko
...or not!!! Double!
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