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
From Al Balderas of the Register:
Most of the players who received their September promotions are spending more time trying to find ways to keep themselves busy, fresh, in shape and ready. ...
Pitchers Eric Hull and Jonathan Meloan have their own ideas about how to stay ready. Hull plays catch every day and throws regular bullpen sessions. Meloan goes out to the bullpen hours before each game and works on his windup and delivery, without throwing the ball.
"It's just something I do every day," Meloan said. "I like to get on the mound and do some reps so that if I do get the call, I feel like I can get ready faster.
"If I've already got a feel for it, I just have to get my arm loose. I'll throw a few pitches and I'm ready to go. I feel like if I don't do that, I've got to stay on the mound and find it (the feel). I don't want to be doing that when it's game time. Also I'm not pitching a lot right now so I'm just trying to stay fresh and know how it feels to throw from the mound."
Hull added, "You do need to face hitters to stay completely fresh and to get better, but you can work on stuff without hitters in there too."
The Dodgers bullpen and dugout might be at standing-room-only levels this time of year, but Little can be sure his seldom-used players will be ready to answer the call whenever it might come.
Btw, if you ever have really bad insomnia, I highly recommend listening to a recording of a Cardinals' TV broadcast.
Dry and not stinky?
[rimshot]
13-11 Phils, final!!
Well, the Monday night game stinks again, so I'm going to do some actual work for awhile. See y'all for some day-night blogging tomorrow.
http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/c87G
Mario Mendoza would have hit .300 playing in Baker Bowl.
The 2004 version of David Ross would have hit .400 in Baker Bowl.
I actually think Little did as well as he could this year. In a way, he serves at the pleasure of the GM. He had to juggle a mixture of ready-to-play young players like Kemp and Loney, with a large group of old vets.
I blame our likely failure to even make the playoffs on Colletti, and I find it hard to imagine we'll be much better next season - unless Nomar, Kent and Pierre all get hurt.
We could bring back Milton Bradley?
Jeff Kent's salary is $11.5 million this year. The option that will vest shortly is $9 million. (Apparently there are some other ways for Kent to garner income: "additional $2.35M in performance bonuses & escalators, 2007-08")
My question is: does Kent have to accept the option, with the only alternative? Can he decline the option anyway and become a free agent if the Dodgers don't exercise the option? Would he garner more on the open market, mayber from an AL team for DH and part-time defense? For example, Piazza signed for $8.5 million for this season and Kent is showing less decline at the plate, plus Kent can still play some defense (though that should be at 1st, not 2nd).
Who in the AL would want Kent at second or first that could afford him?
We can be better without bringing in a single free agent, just based on:
1) full season of Kemp
2) full season of Loney
3) full season of Billingsley in the rotation
4) healthy season from Furcal
5) better than .251/.328/.388 from whomever is playing 3B (even a mixture of Nomar/Abreu/LaRoche)
6) a better bench, with the Martinez & Saenz roles filled by Abreu & either Sweeney or D.Young
7) dare I say, better than .290/.328/.349 from Pierre
If he somehow doesn't get the PAs, his option is only $7m, with a $500k buyout. It is a team option, meaning Kent's only "out" (if the Dodgers picked up the option) would be to retire.
If Ned can somehow dump Nomar's contract and sign A-Rod (major speculation, I know) we would have to be one of the favorites in the NL. Even if we can dump Nomar and let LaRoche take over I think our offense would be improved.
You can also access articles from the NY Times from 1851-1922 and 1987-present for free. The old set are pdfs. The new ones are HTML.
What if Pierre changes his name to McCraig and gets operated on by Dr. Nick Riviera?
They still will charge for articles that are under copyright and in pdf format. The old ones are public domain.
Well he has already lost a step by most accounts, so I am just assuming it will get worse over time. Since he is so dependent on speed his numbers would be uber-bad and I think Ned would eventually just eat the contact if he could not get rid of him.
I would imagine that it would be the same, although I suppose you could go and set up a bunch of different registrations.
Have you traveled forward in time? The game in Arizona is just in the 8th.
Oh, I do not mean now. I think over the next four years we have Pierre he is going to be bad enough for us to get rid of him. I have no idea when.
Perhaps the Giants will come back.
Walk, HBP, K, HR, 2B, HR.
Do we play the Giants--I hope not.
Skeeter
Whitey
Ducky
Orator
Debs Gams (that's a Brockian name if I ever saw one)
Patsy
If you include some of his other most similar lists, you also get:
Duff (who also went by Sir Richard)
Chicken Wolf
Deerfoot
George Burns
Ginger
Hub
Those are some great baseball names.
IF the D-backs lose tonight, and IF the Dodgers win their two games in hand, and IF the Dodgers sweep the D-Backs this weekend, then they'd be tied going into the last week of the season.
However, they could change seedings before the season is over.
We prefer to use "Ch-i" to avoid stirring up a ruckus.
Is the difference that negligible?
I would imagine Martin has caught something like 45-50 of Billingsley's 76 minor league starts. They were teammates in:
2004 - A ball in Vero Beach (for 18 starts until Chad got called up to Jacksonville)
2005 - teammates all year for the Southern League Champs - 26 Chad starts
2006 - teammates in Vegas in April before Martin got called up
Debs Garms goes down in my book as Debs Gams though!
Yep, Debs.
I wonder if his parents were big union people and named him after Eugene Debs. But he was born in Texas, which makes it seem unlikely.
Age 20
Kemp: A+, .306/.349/.559
LaRoche: A/A+, .259/.326/.479
Age 21
Kemp: AA/AAA, .346/.414./.543 (+ .253/.289/.448 in LA)
LaRoche: A+/AA, .305/.374/.553
Age 22
Kemp: AAA, .329/.374/.540 (+ .337/.374/.528 in LA)
LaRoche: AA/AAA. .315/.410/.514
It's a sign of how weak the labor movement's gotten that the labor leaders' names I can think of are all from mid-20th century.
Well, there's Andy Stern, but it might be a little early for parents to name their kids after him.
Billingsley - 15 starts, 92 IP, 2.74 ERA, 7-4
Penny - 14 starts, 84.1 IP, 4.06 ERA, 6-3
Lowe - 13 starts, 72.2 IP, 4.83 ERA, 4-5
Tomko - 7 starts, 37 IP, 5.11 ERA, 1-4
Hendrickson - 7 starts, 33.1 IP, 7.83 ERA, 1-4
Wells - 4 starts, 23 IP, 3.91 ERA, 3-0
Stults - 4 starts, 21.1 IP, 4.22 ERA, 1-2
Loaiza - 3 starts, 15 IP, 7.20 ERA, 1-2
Wolf - 1 start, 3 IP, 18.00 ERA, 0-0
Totals - 68 starts, 5.61 IP/start, 4.55 ERA, 24-24 (team is 34-34)
Martin - .284/.384/.456 (started 61 of 68 gms)
Loney - .307/.362/.473 (started 61 of 68 gms)
Kent - .343/.399/.572
Nomar - .293/.358/.436 in 148 PA
Martinez - .227/.267/.258 in 76 PA
Shea - .246/.260/.348 in 73 PA
Furcal - .273/.331/.365 (started 67 of 68 gms)
Pierre - .307/.351/.379 in 306 PA (started all 68 gms)
Ethier - .306/.368/.495 in 209 PA
Kemp - .319/.357/.546 in 199 PA
Gonzo - .254/.320/.356 in 197 PA
Team Totals - .283/.340/.418, 4.74 runs/gm
I suspect matchups play a role. The Rockies are starting 15-game winner Jeff Francis in the first game. I think Grady would rather have Wells face 1-4 Mark Redman.
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