I feel very strongly about this point, I hope Jon doesn't mind me re-posting it up here.

Bottom 6th: - K. Matsui singled to second, W. Taveras to second

I don't remember this play though. I remember one ball that hit the mound and bounced past a diving Wilson into CF. I don't think he could have been expected to field it.

Good cover? Or is that the spirit of the moment taking me?

They hit a bullet to him & he triad back handing it but couldn't handle it.

Groovitational pull is hilarious x 10.

Although I hope they don't.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Dodgers will host a steroid awareness clinic on Aug. 2 before they play Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants.

No, it's not for the players.

About 100 kids from area Little League teams are expected for a two-hour steroid awareness clinic to be held on the field during the afternoon. Dodger outfielder Juan Pierre, hitting coach Bill Mueller and former Dodger Lou Johnson are to participate in the clinic. The kids will receive a Dodger goodie bag.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/07/27/bonds.dodgers.steroids.ap/index.html

- J. Valverde relieved B. Lyon
- T. Clark at first
- K. Johnson grounded out to second
- J. Franco grounded out to shortstop
- Y. Escobar hit for P. Moylan
- Y. Escobar walked
- Y. Escobar stole second
- W. Harris singled to center, Y. Escobar scored

tying the game at 7-7.

And wondering if Taylor Tankersley is going to go down in history...?

Krukie after Durham was picked off second base with Bonds up: "Yikes".

Barry, if you have an ouce of decency left, retire tonight. Please.

Vintage-2002 Bonds tonight - a homer in the first and then 4 walks.

1) The players association doesn't like teams playing games for more than 20 days in a row. I'm not sure if they need to approve such a move or not, but a makeup on July 30 would mean 31 straight game days for Colorado and 24 straight for LA.

2) It's easier to sell tickets 2 months in advance than with 2 days in advance.

Now you only appear when it's time to brag about your beloved D-backs.

Braves-DBacks: watch Chip Caray on TBS or Mark Grace on EI? (I chose Caray; at least I got to hear the life drained from his soul on the Clark walkoff!)

Marlins-Giants: Krukow & Kuiper (who are great) on EI, or put up with Steve Phillips on ESPN, but in HD? (I chose HD, but at least got Dan Shulman and Orel too)

(and who else noticed that 44 year old starter who threw a complete game shutout tonight? Last pitcher to do that, anyone..?)

(a) Bowies in Space on FotC;
(b) Bowie himself singing "Little Fat Man" on Extras

It's neck and neck for me.

Same time tomorrow for 755 Thoughts, everybody?

Oh wait- Bowies in Space- the end! way hot.

I don't like to reveal my sources...but yes.

Glad to come home to see the game was rained out. Definitely a good break for the beleaguered Dodgers pitching staff. A doubleheader this weekend might have been kind of fun, but not at this time.

So the Padres signed Shea Hillenbrand to a minor league contract, in hopes he can come up and help the team soon. Milton Bradley, Michael Barrett, Shea Hillenbrand. That'll be a fun chemistry experiment.

Snell, Billz, Kershaw, and whatever would be a lot of nice.

It makes me think of a definite Rule 1 violation that involves circles.

Seriously, J-School must be easier than a Masters from the University of Phoenix. Many of these people write for actual newspapers and media outlets!

Do you think Brad reads Harry Potter?

Little said Saenz is starting tomorrow because he needs the ABs. Maybe this spot start can refresh the old man's bat.

There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium,
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium,
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium,
Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium,
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium,
And gold and protactinium and indium and gallium,

And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.

There's yttrium, ytterbium, actinium, rubidium,
And boron, gadolinium, niobium, iridium,
And strontium and silicon and silver and samarium,
And bismuth, bromine, lithium, beryllium, and barium.

There's holmium and helium and hafnium and erbium,
And phosphorus and francium and fluorine and terbium,
And manganese and mercury, molybdenum, magnesium,
Dysprosium and scandium and cerium and cesium.
And lead, praseodymium, and platinum, plutonium,
Palladium, promethium, potassium, polonium,
And tantalum, technetium, titanium, tellurium,

And cadmium and calcium and chromium and curium.

There's sulfur, californium, and fermium, berkelium,
And also mendelevium, einsteinium, nobelium,
And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc, and rhodium,
And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper, tungsten, tin, and sodium.

These are the only ones of which the news has come to Ha'vard,
And there may be many others, but they haven't been discovered.

http://tinyurl.com/28mpve

Classic.

Johnny Nucleo
DT Resident Chemist

I think I'm finally getting used to things around here and hopefully by my next trip I'll have it down pat. I was glad to see that yesterday's game was rained out, it always pains me when I have to miss a game.

I can't help noticing that every year(at least 3) at about this time Andy LaRoche is in a mode where it seems like he hits a homer every other day. He surely isn't permanently damaged. He may be a second half guy who can experiment with his training etc. Of course there is nothing wrong with a guy who comes chugging on when a few other players are wearing down.
When you add to this his penchant for getting on base, and his arm, I think there should be a lot of tolerance for giving him time to get comfortable in the field, and a reluctance to trade him.

So this 4th outfielder plays at the expense of Kemp or Ethier? At best this creates another Betemit situation. The fact is we need an outfielder or first baseman at this point like we need a sixth toe.

.219/.287/.394 Willy Mo Pena?

Yeah, let's throw Broxton in to seal the deal.

For the year:

.308/.398/.587 with a 32:27 BB:K ratio

and his July has been off-the-charts good:

.405/.489/.946 with a 13:10 BB:K ratio

I don't care who you are or where you play, OPSing 1.435 for a month is incredible.

There are also the last two bullet pointed items:

"Tampa Bay is looking to move Elijah Dukes. Aaron Schatz is working the phones to see if the Cincinnati Bengals offer of Frostee Rucker and Chris Henry will get it done.

"The Red Sox are close to a deal. Don't ask me who they might be acquiring or what the terms of the deal might be. But my sources tell me something's imminent, and I would be remiss if I did not come on here and let you readers know that."

Today from Carroll:

The Dodgers have refocused their energy on getting a pitcher, but once again there's some internal strife regarding which prospects could be traded and which belong to the Dodgers' future. That's going to make getting a deal done a bit tougher, unless they set their sights a bit lower.

The Rangers gave the Angels a list of four names to choose from Friday. On that list were infielder Brandon Wood, the organization's top position-playing prospect, double-A right-hander Nick Adenhart, the organization's top pitching prospect, starting second baseman Howie Kendrick, who is on the disabled list because of a broken finger, and recently demoted right-hander Ervin Santana.

The Angels' response: No way.

2b Abreu
1b Loney
cf Kemp
c Martin
lf Ethier
3b ?
rf ?
ss Hu

Bills, Kershaw, Miller, Elbert, ?
Meloan, Broxton

If they win a World Series before that team plays together fine, but I can wait.

Greinke, 23, has excelled as a reliever this season, and some teams still like him as a starter. The Royals, though, control him through 2010.

"They can't trade Greinke right now, they can't do it," one rival executive says. "They'd be crazy if they did."

"Despite losing 19 of their past 30 games, the Diamondbacks are only 2 ½ games out of the wild-card lead and 3 ½ games out of first place -- with lots of room for potential improvement from their younger position players. Perhaps the growing pains were worse than Arizona hoped for, but unless the starting rotation collapses like Johnson's aging body, don't count Arizona out. "

TINSTATMP--There is no such thing as too much pitching. The 2007 Dodger version, increasingly accurate, as injuries pile up.

And why would Tomko, who has struggled mightily, mothball an apparently effective cutter? Why would it take so long for him to try it again?

TISATABLTNIH--Tomko's contribution: There is such a thing as better late than never, I hope.

So do the Dodgers.

ANY LINEUP

>>> Riley started this season at Double-A Jacksonville, where he had a 1.47 ERA in 18 1/3 innings. He was promoted to Las Vegas on May 8 and is 4-1 with a 6.82 ERA in 33 innings for the 51s. <<<

http://www.beloblog.com/Pe_Blogs/baseball/dodgers/

http://www.lvrj.com/sports/8781567.html

Please do not trade LaRoche.

>>> Randy Johnson will have season-ending back surgery and intends to be back for the Arizona Diamondbacks at spring training next year.

"I have no intention at this time of retiring," he said at a news conference Friday. "I'll cross the bridge of surgery and be willing to go through the process of rehabilitation again because I know I can still pitch. And I love pitching. It's what I've been doing since I was 7 years old." <<<

http://www.dailybreeze.com/sports/articles/8781207.html

I don't even think they were in it.

http://tinyurl.com/2exm8o

Somewheeere, over the rainbow. There's another rainbow.

but its the reds. phew.

the only reason i can think of is he's Mexican & was pretty darn good last year, but he ain't coming here so what ever.

Because I still think Ned *could* be insane.

Of all the players in the game of baseball, I'd probably put Cantu at 2,351st on the list of probable trade targets for us.

132 Woo hoo! They should play a tripleheader tomorrow! Then Lieberthal might appear in one of the games. ;-)

i'm glad i live in L.A. 131 Cantu had injury issues in '06 if i remember correctly, but still we have no need for him.

After years of struggle and plenty of dumb and wrong moves, it's understandable, especially given widely accepted beliefs here that team decision-makers are strictly Old School, favor only veterans, and don't consider modern stats.

But this is a first-place team. I don't think Ned will make desperation moves (please!). A little tinkering, maybe.

So, if Lowe's out, we're looking at a rotation right now of Penny, Bills, Tomko, Hendrickson, and Houlton/Stultz. Arrrghhhhhh....

It still might be as good as some teams have. But will it be good enough to win? File that under "Dodger Hopes."

Earlier pitching carried the team. Now that it's faltering, the offense has picked up. Could the team pitch well and hit at the same time and maybe get several games ahead? Will Ned make only smart trades, if any? These go under "Dodgers: In Your Dreams."

On that note, on to the bars! Maybe I'll even have trouble sleeping and get to track some of the game before I head back to the states tomorrow!

Worse Nightmare - Gagne pitching for the Padres or D'backs

Okay, last rain-out IN LOS ANGELES?

I sat through two thunderstorms last night in St. Louis! They're fun!

Now then, back to rumors - if Chad Cordero is indeed available, and LA does want to acquire more relief rather than starting, would the Dodgers go after him and what would it take?

Okay, I'm off like a bad prom dress. Will check back in later to see if the game's on or not.

Ned has 2b options beyond Kent in 2009 of Betemit, Abreu, Dewitt, Denker....making someone available in a trade. Any insight into how Ned and Logan feel about those four...especially Betimit or Abreu?