Oh... you're still angry about that...

Year League Record Finish/Rank Manager
1979 NL West 79-83 (.488) 3 Tommy Lasorda
1978 NL West 95-67 (.586) NL 1 Tommy Lasorda
1977 NL West 98-64 (.605) NL 1 Tommy Lasorda
1976 NL West 92-70 (.568) 2 Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda
1975 NL West 88-74 (.543) 2 Walter Alston
1974 NL West 102-60 (.630) NL 1 Walter Alston
1973 NL West 95-66 (.590) 2 Walter Alston
1972 NL West 85-70 (.548) 2 Walter Alston
1971 NL West 89-73 (.549) 2 Walter Alston
1970 NL West 87-74 (.540) 2 Walter Alston

When ever I see Ricardo I think corinthian leather.

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0566572/filmoseries#tt0077008

Louis Nye is not involved in her story:

http://tinyurl.com/33vg4k

2
Let it go Bob, quit living in the past.

Kahn was on the juice.

-Dukes of Hazzard at 8:00
-Love Boat at 9:00
-Fantasy Island at 10:00 (i'd have to sneak out of my room and watch from the stairs to watch that, along with ba ba blacksheep)

Yes, I have drunk deep of life.

Fantasy Island was on Saturdays from January 1978 to August 1979, Fridays from August 1979-October 1979, Saturdays from October 1979-August 1984.

But Dukes of Hazzard was always Fridays.

But I bet it was great ice cream :)

Now he sits on my shoulder and watches while I make my bowl everynight. I'm not sure if he approves or not.

And I can't do that.

There my anger has been directed somewhere else.

Bring back Jack Pardee and Billy Kilmer!

Hmm. I'm banking on the EST thing. That and the plight of the grizzlies.

12 - you're close. It was, "Is it live or is it Memorex?"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Bkt8Dwzl6Sg

The Maxell guy who had his hair blowing through "Ride of the Valkyries" was way cool, though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DP89iMe0BY

http://artlung.com/smorgasborg/LaughAndBeHappyRandyNewman.shtml

Then I moved to the south bay, and now, I listen to:

- music
- The This American Life podcast
- The Savage Love podcast

The dude can hit okay? Trust me.

Gosh I swear it was all a Friday night lineup but I guess not..!! But hey I was like 6 in '77. And the Ice Cream was great. Me and my sister would stir it and stir it long enought to where it became ice cream soup...Ice Cream (and Pizza) is still my main eating downfall if thats what you want to call it. I can quit most other foods if needed.

I think it's time for him to get his first sextant.

By the way, My So Called Life was a huge hit for my world-weary 13 yr old niece.

Allegedly true story (and if it's not, it should be) about a woman a friend of mine works with occasionally. She was 60-ish (the friend) at the time this story happened, a former prima ballerina who danced in the Royal Company back in the day. She happened to be in a parking garage when some punk tried to rob her. She completely turned the tables on him by simply asserting an air of supreme self-confidence and got him to give up his knife and leave, without her purse. Apparently she's quite the force of nature.

That is hilarious because I do laugh out loud while I am walking. I always wonder if the people in cars think I am weird. Of course, I am the type of person that will laugh out loud while reading a book or while watching a movie alone.

They have a lot of cool gifts. But a sextant would cost me 104 Euros.

I don't love my nephew that much.

81 I disagree, so long as the world-weariness is an affectation and not a sign of serious mental illness. It's an affectation that I would encourage every teenager to go through, because it helps one learn when world-weariness is justified and when it is not. It goes hand-in-hand with being thirteen.

I don't think my alone laughing has forced me to roll on the ground. But I do laugh at myself for laughing while walking on the side walk, and then I enter the endless cycle of laughter (first at Wait, Wait, and then at myself, and then back to Wait, Wait)

Too many memories from my childhood here. I remember that Ron Cey commercial -- even the jingle -- because he was my favorite player.

They just don't make trashy television like they did in the 80s.

74 I did the Westchester to West L.A. run for a while, and I can't remember Sepulveda ever being anything but trouble.

Beat the 405, though.

OK, I didn't really receive Special Permission. I just stopped showing up on time, and everybody is saying, "He has a brand-new kid. Leave him alone."

What a slow newsday...

My friends and I sometimes still singing "Banging on a Trash Can" to annoy one another.

I didn't even know that either person was divorced.

(Is it proper to joke about anothers injury?)

The Fall Guy
SWAT
The ATeam

http://tinyurl.com/2nskpb

I mean it.

Plus, he has neither orange hair nor crutches.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073961/

Cheat Seats and Steve Garvey had a special relationship.

me too it gives me shivers actually its one of the awkwardest things I've ever seen on television.

Oh the days of innocence.

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the moldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the moldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

Gonzalez #1,
Anderson #3,
Cunningham #7,
Carter #8.

So without being scientific about it:

1. Clayton, Kershaw, lhp
3. Chin-Lung Hu, ss
7. James McDonald, rhp
8. Jonathan Meloan, rhp

VALVERDE TO ASTROS

http://tinyurl.com/ysb5s4

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dOVxitMy47c

That looked staged to me (at least from the first watch through)

• Super above-average (4): Brandon Webb
• Above-average (3): Danny Haren
• Average to above-average (4): Doug Davis, Micah Owings
• Mystery (1): Randy Johnson
• Up-and-coming (3): Yusmeiro Petit, Esmerling Vasquez, Max Scherzer
• Below-average (0): Edgar Gonzalez, Dustin Nippert, Enrique Gonzalez

Ferrer's son and Haren were best friends from playing ball at Pepperdine.

That class sounds awesome. Now I feel like my College Education was a waste.

And really, Oklahoma could beat (a healthy) USC on a neutral field?

The college football tournament is hilarious to me. They actually spend quite a bit of air time on something that means so little to reality. It reminds me of the competition they had with different professional athletes. I forget the name of that one, but ESPN is just top quality.

But the chicken gizzards and livers at Dinah's...mmmm.

That may work for women, but as a man I prefer an air of supreme cowardice or feigned seizure. Seriously, this works way better than bravado, which only serves to further antagonize and increase the speed of their fists on my face.

Of course, none of them compare to grandma's cooking.

182 thats a given. But then I went to CSU Chico, so when we would go down to UCSB for soccer or to visit friends it was like taking time off to detox.

Also in Culver (in a very odd location): Hiko Sushi.

Best pastrami on the planet

Why are strike out numbers apparently more important for pitchers but not so much for hitters?

I seem to remember a lot of people dismissing Dunn's high strike out rate, just wondering.

I think Webb and Penny are very close with Webb just ahead of him.

Good FAQ candidate. This comes up a lot.

Should we be happy or sad here?

190 More of a Silvergreens/Deja Vu guy myself

If I were a Dbacks fan, I would be pretty pumped right now. The NL West just got a whole lot better

And why did they have to trade with one of our division rivals! Do they have no feelings?

It all comes down to BABIP.

Pitchers with low K's are at the mercy of their defense and outfield fences to prevent runs scoring. The bottom 10 of pitcher K's are generally BP machines, if not this year then next year. See Carlos Saliva.

Penny: 5.84 K/9, 1.84 K/BB, .39 HR/9
Webb: 7.83 K/9, 2.69 K/BB, .45 HR/9

Webb's also younger, cheaper, under contract for longer, and pitches in a more hitter friendly park.

Why do you think Haren will regress, he's shown improvement every year and still only 26. He's not getting by on one pitch like Zito.

There's a sign in front of a house on my street that says "When Jesus said 'Love your enemies', he probably didn't mean 'Torture them'."

Valverde has been really unreliable historically and probably didn't have much value to most teams. Qualls isn't that much worse, and it netted them a utility player in Chris Burke to replace Callapso, which is much better than being stuck with Augie Ojeda in the playoffs.

I hated Deja Vu with a passion. Worst philly cheesesteak I have ever had and my friend ordered garlic bread and it was a hot dog bun with some butter and garlic on it.

For a pitcher, there is no such correlation. Walks allowed and home runs allowed are not correlated with strikeouts with pitchers because their approach doesn't adjust the same way a hitter's does. Rather, a strikeout means the baseball was not put in play. If a pitcher does this, this is very good, because the pitcher's job is to get outs, and if he can do that by himself, that's good. Also, a strikeout means that the pitcher definitely got an out. A ball in play for a pitcher just means that it's up to his defense to get to it.

So 36 VORP is what, 3.5 wins? So they're a pythagorish 82 win team with Eric Byrnes as their best hitter. I'm not cowering in fear unless Upton hits like Ryan Braun.

I would seem that it would be better for a hitter to put the ball in play than to strike out. So more strikeouts would be a bad thing in my mind. I'm not saying a high strikeout rate undoes everything else a hitter does, but it should be something that is taken into consideration, a K-rate like BA/OBP/SLG would be something I'd take into consideration.

While Arizona is stronger for the moment, we have to wait until this Kuroda situation sort out.

Yah I was just happy to make it out of Chico. I'll never forget when the older fellas picked me up for my very first soccer practice we had to stop to drop off the Keg shell.

222 That's what I'm thinking too. It's just more thinking of the humor of firing back on the Haren acquisition by doing an "oh yeah, but we got Kuroda.

Not only do I not think he can repeat the first half he had last season, I don't think he can come close to sustaining those type of number over 32+ starts. Also, he is 27, not 26 (though I don't think that will have anything to do with his numbers.)

I've laughed out loud at least 6 times while reading this thread.

Kuroda update

It's like poker, I know that with an open ended straight flush draw on the flop, I've got about a 60% chance of making at least a straight or a flush, but on that particular hand, the stats don't matter. It is completely independent of the aggregate.

Wasnt the 2007 Dodgers a perfect example of that--> They had lots of SBs, very few K's, and still couldnt score runs.

The GMs still looking at K's, batting average, SBs, and "productive outs" are going to miss the important stuff everytime.

Dan Haren lives in Walnut Creek, Randy Johnson was born here, and Doug Davis went to my high school.

Too bad I have to hate them.

Aramis Ramirez .310/.366/.549   66 K, 43 BB
Miguel Cabrera   .320/.401/.565   127 K, 79 BB

It's an ideological question, I suppose. I prefer a team that has more line drive hitters, high BA/OBP, because I think that is the best way to score consistently.

Survey (fangraphs) Says:
Cabrera: 20.7% LD%
Ramirez: 17.5% LD%

Just as a counterpoint to all the negative press going around, I wanted to share a positive story about MLB. My wife works at their headquarters here in New York and I was fortunate enough to attend their Holiday party last night. It's not all that glamorous really. The celebrity citings usually amount to Bob Dupay, and Bud (this is my/her 4th yr).

Usually these parties are good for the free food and ice skating at Rockefeller center and not much else.

But last night I got to meet Darrell Miller - older brother of Reggie and Cheryl...and to my surprise, the backup catcher with the Angels from 84'-88'. He's heading up a nice little program out of Compton, the MLB Youth Academy...

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/community/urban_youth.jsp

It a program which helps underprivileged youth with education, scholarships, and baseball instruction - and in doing so is also is keeping the game popular among kids in the inner city. And lets face it, the game is losing out on the talent pool to basketball, football, and x-games.

I guess I have the stereotype that most ex-big leaguers have big egos and big attitudes. But Darrell was not only working toward a good cause (IMO), but was also just a really nice guy.

It's good to know that all is not lost when it comes to professional baseball.

Happy Holiday and GO Dodgers!!!
(would Kuroda sign already?!)

I am so glad to be gone from there!

I think thats the point of many statisticians running regression analysis. They've found that there are really only a couple of factors heavily correlated to scoring runs.

The other stuff is really inconsequential.

Similarly, there are exceptions to the statistical rules in baseball. The goal is not to be perfect, since no one can be. You can sign A-Rod, and he could flop. But your chances are better with A-Rod than Nomar of success.

The question is, does striking out less increase your chances of success? Statistically, no, at least not in a meaningful way. In some individual situations, yes. But still, statistically you call and lose some of the time, but win more often than not.

I remember being in the 8th grade and our class going to UCLA for some kind of trip. One of the girls got Reggie Miller's autograph. I just remember thinking, "Wow, big deal, no one will know who this guy is in a year..."

I've seen it, those guys can be a riot some times, really good show.

I wouldn't mind at all. I'm gonna go out on the limb (if he does in fact still throw mid 90's heat with CONTROL) I think he'll be a pleasant surprise for us specially in the 1st half. If we do get him it's gonna be fun putting on our scouting hats on (for me at least) Ink 'em Ned!!

our middle relief is pretty rock solid with more pitchers waiting in the wings (& Ned has been perfect SO FAR) I really don't think your scenerio will happen, of course it's Ned were talking about so it's still a coin toss I guess.

But I'm going to let it go.

Yeah, let's weaken our offense to improve a pitching staff that's really good as is.

Will he break his usual pattern or stick to his newly minted principles?

This could be the deciding point for the success or failure of the 2008 season.

Stay tuned.

Sure, if you go to extremes you'd rather have a guy who gets a hit 2 out of 4 times and doesn't strike out over a guy who hits 1 double in 4 at bats and strikes out 3 times. But I think the comparison is that those guys who don't strike out much are also not doing much when they do hit the ball. Just extra singles here and there along with many easy outs.

Just to compare:

typical non-K hitter's double header:
3-10, 3 singles, 1 K.

typical power hitter's double header:
2-8, 2 walks, 1 double or HR, 3 Ks.

the value of those walks, doubles, and homeruns outweight the advantage of the extra single and groundball/flyball here and there.

this division is absolutely stacked with top tier arms.

255
you are exactly right. a K does nothing ever. at least making contact gives the oppurtunity for an error.
a non strikeout guy has some value over a high strikeout guy. to argue the fact is naive. it is impossible however to judge how much worth it has over other stats, which is what the people arguing with you seem to want you to do.

Also, good underseen sports movie that just came on DVD to recommend: The Rocket (story of Maurice Richard). Helps to like hockey, but not required. Nice movie.

id take the 2 singles and give my teamates 2 chances to knock me in.

but pierre and dunn are horrible examples to use in this debate

And for another, it really is unbelievably good pastrami. I've eaten a lot of pastrami in New York over the years, but I can't say the best of it is any better than Langers.

(Joe Petrecelli's, assuming its still there, is a pretty fun place too in its own cheesy way. Kind of place you just expect Telly Savalas to walk in any minute.)

271 I find it really hard to believe he did that when he had 32 extra base hits all year.

Player: Total bases + BB + HBP + SB - CS - DP

Dunn (2007): 289 + 101 + 5 + 9 - 2 - 12 = 398 in 632 plate appearances

Pierre (2007): 236 + 33 + 6 + 64 - 15 - 10 = 314 in 729 plate appearances

No amount of groundouts, sacrifices or sacrifice flies is going to make up that difference.

:o)

Here is a nice review of the diner. [ http://tinyurl.com/2zadld ]

as i said in 270 pierre and dunn are bad examples to use.

striking out should be a stat used between players close in stats. not 2 totally different types of players.

With that combination it's the Sandy Koufax of Delis. Not only does Langer's have the best fastball, but it has the best curveball too.

Honestly, looking at what the Diamondbacks gave the A's, I can't say I covet ANY of the six players. Gonzalez looks to me like Joel Guzman (in the bad way). Anderson is a little interesting, in the way that Blake DeWitt is a little interesting (to me, if not Greg Brock), and who wouldn't give up DeWitt in a trade for Haren? Carter is like Josh Bell, and I wouldn't cling to Bell either. Smith is like Stults, for crying out loud.

I looked up diner & deli on dictionary dot com because I thought/think I made a boo-boo but I'm still confused...

Player, K/AB, K:BB (approximate)

Manny Ramirez: .219; 4:3
Miguel Cabrerra: .220; 2:1
A-Rod: .207; 5:3
Mike Piazza: .161; 3:2
Adam Dunn: .326; 3:2
Willie Mays: .140; 1:1 (less than 100 more Ks than BB)
Joe DiMaggio: .054; 1:2
Ted Williams: .092; 1:3
Lou Gehrig: .099; 1:2
Babe Ruth: .158; 2:3

Those are all guys that would hit in the 3-4-5 spot in a line up, I would think, so the comparisons are fair. My point, I suppose, is that you can be a power hitter and not be a high strike out guy at the same time.

If Ned traded for Bedard he would have to include one of the current #1-#4 in the trade (Lowe?) to make room on the roster.

Is Bedard that much better than Lowe to justify giving up Kemp & Kershaw?

True we only have Lowe for one more year, but by the time he leaves McDonald/Ebert/Kershaw might be ready to take his place.

I wish Larry Linville were still alive...

LaRoche is a better talent then Carlos Gonzalez not only at the plate but the fact he's a decent 3rd baseman. Everyone of those players could flop and the upside is only high with Carlos. I had hoped that if Haren went to Arizona that Billy would have done a better job of raping them.

Billy Beane did a nice job picking the Cardinals clean of Haren who already was a major league pitcher but he did a poor job of picking the Braves pocket for Hudson. I think the Diamondbacks just made a great great trade. We better hope that Drew is really the 2007 version and not the 2006 version or they are going to be a handful. They are going to be a handful anyway.

Signing Kuroda should be enough, I would hope, to placate him. Hopefully it is announced before Plaschke's next column is due.

What's funny is that the no one in the NL West has really done a lot. Everyone seems to have come to the conclusion that they'll be pretty good for a while (with the exception of the Giants) and that there are few places to improve. I doubt that Plaschke will get that, he seems to be one of those guys that believes in doing something for the sake of doing something.

I think getting one of the top 6 pitchers in baseball without giving up any big league pieces is doing a lot.

Camille Johnston, the Dodgers' senior vice president of communications the past two years, resigned on Friday.

This seems like rather horrible timing.

He's gunna be 38 and he's coming off an 88 OPS+ season.

I'm not that petrified.

I can't wait to see something like this [ http://tinyurl.com/yt8rnl ] Edmonds glove Versus Jones glove.

The Dodgers could agree to terms with free agent Hiroki Kuroda as soon as today after making what general manager Ned Colletti called "significant progress" in negotiations with the right-hander from Japan on Friday.

"We had a couple of phone conversations," Colletti said. "Hopefully, we're closing in."

He reminds me of the bonfire he had in the bullpen a while back.

But the market for these pitchers under contract seems underwhelming...Haren with good contract...not so much...Santana...he could still be had by someone...Ellsbury or Lester as centerpiece? And sign an extension before waiving a no trade clause...this is a deal I would do even if Schmidt and Loaiza have to relieve...We start the deal with one of Mcdonald/Elbert...throw in the CF Beetlejuice...and just enough prospects to make it the best deal on the table...is Santana deadset on east coast and AL?

I like Corn beef more than Pastrami for whatever reason. Just Mustard and on Rye of course.

LA Daily News: PR executive Johnston will be leaving Dodgers
http://www.dailynews.com/ci_7727448?IADID

"Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti had multiple phone conversations with Kuroda's agent, Steve Hilliard, and their discussions left the club increasingly optimistic about their chances of landing the 32-year-old right-hander"

http://tinyurl.com/377t5q

I always assumed Camille was there b/c McCourt was going to need a politically savvy PR adviser in order to make some move for which some level of government approval was needed. Now I don't know what it was about.

One of the dangers of this report is that most everyone will form an opinion based on what other people say about it. I downloaded the entire 409 pages and read it last night. My recommendation to everyone is to do the same. There is more to the report than naming names.

Most of the players used human growth hormone, not steroids.

Many studies say that HGH is not effective for trained athletes.

The report doesn't take on what may be a more widespread issue: amphetamines.

All of the usage described is illegal and dangerous on many levels. The least thing to worry about is how it affects the record book. The jackrabbit ball put into play in the late '90s had more to do with home run records than steroids ever did. My exhibit A for that argument is Luis Gonzalez (57 homers) and Shawn Green (49). They're not in this report.

Don't bother arguing with me. Read it for yourself.

Eric Monson

Temecula

This point of view exonerates no one who engaged in illegal activity. However, it does suggest there is no need to discount all the performance achievements of the "steroid era." Some, but not all.

Perhaps in some cases, HGH acted like a placebo. With respect to athletes, there was a recent study indicating the placebo effect is powerful. Track athletes with injuries were told they were being given morphine, and it measurably improved their performance.

http://tinyurl.com/yqtdy7

But that just begs the question: which achievement do we discount, and which do we count? Seems to me we have two choices:

1. Discount everything
2. Count everything

neither one have anything on Griffey though...dont even try to say different...no amount of stats will change my mind. :)

Red Sox - Benaiah
Yankees - TheBigGrabowski

Tigers - TheBigGrabowski
Indians - MCSafety
Twins - TheBigGrabowski

Angels - Scareduck
Mariners - TheBigGrabowski
Athletics - TheBigGrabowski

Any volunteers for the remaining six?

Devil Rays -
Blue Jays -
Orioles -
White Sox -
Royals -
Rangers -

If you're willing, please put your results with the others in this thread:

https://dodgerthoughts.baseballtoaster.com/archives/881690.html

Now that's weird.

Super above-average (4): Brandon Webb
Above-average (3): Dan Haren
Average to above-average (4): Doug Davis, Micah Owings
Mystery (1): Randy Johnson
Up-and-coming (3): Yusmeiro Petit, Esmerling Vasquez, Max Scherzer
Below-average (0): Edgar Gonzalez, Dustin Nippert, Enrique Gonzalez

Of course, the Dodgers were already at 13, and Kuroda has got to be at least a 1 if not a 2, putting the Dodgers at least even with the top rotations in the league if they do indeed sign Kuroda.

Here are the ZiPS projections for the Dodgers starters in 2008, courtesy of BTF (D-Backs aren't up yet):

(first number is IP, second is ERA+)

Penny: 200, 118
Lowe: 210, 113
Billingsley: 180, 113
Kuroda: 180, 115
Schmidt: 119, 110
Loaiza: 127, 92
Stults: 147, 88
Houlton: 138, 88

There have only been eight LA Dodger teams with 4 pitchers with at least 20 starts & a 110 ERA+:

1996 (90-72, wild card): Astacio / Valdez / Nomo / Martinez
1985 (95-67, 1st): Hershiser / Valenzuela / Reuss / Welch
1984 (79-83, 4th): Hershiser / Valenzuela / Honeycutt / Pena
1977 (98-64, NL champs): Sutton / Rau / Hooton / John
1976 (92-70, 2nd): Sutton / Rau / John / Rhoden
1975 (88-74, 2nd): Messersmith / Rau / Sutton / Hooton
1972 (85-70, 2nd): Osteen / Sutton / Downing / John
1961 (89-65, 2nd in NL): Koufax / Williams / Drysdale / Podres

I definitely feel Arizona had a weaker rotation than the Dodgers before Friday.