As someone who has lost both parents to the Big C, I wish Lopes all the best in his treatment and recovery.

Best wishes, Davey.

Sportscenter: Red Sox Nation or Yankees Country?

I can't wait for that debate.

I apologize if this was discussed last week or over the weekend, but there is further proof that the Ryan Howard Precedent® will tilt the 0-6 contract scales. Over the last few days, Cole Hamels, Prince Fielder, and Jonathan Papelbon have all expressed disappointment in their contract renewals (all are 0-3 players, pre arbitration) and have mentioned Ryan Howard's contract(s) as precedent.

Hamels - http://tinyurl.com/3x4jdx

Fielder - http://tinyurl.com/2qgoq9

Papelbon - http://tinyurl.com/2tr5jl

I still think the Dodgers would be wise to sign Martin (at least) through his arb years ASAP to save money over that term.

Also, ToyCannon, I've been meaning to respond to your list of catchers that peaked at age 26 or sooner, but I haven't had time. Hopefully by tonight I will craft my retort.

4 Thank you for stealing the exact post I'm in the process of writing.

My main issue with Toy's list was that there's a really big difference between age 24 and age 26. A list of catchers who peaked at age 24 or sooner would be more illuminating, IMO.

That's too bad that the Dodger squad heading to China is going to lose a sightseeing day. The Great Wall (I assume they are going to BaDaLing portion of the wall) is a must see, and you really haven't been to China unless you've climbed the Great Wall, but there are just so many other places to see. Maybe it will give some of the players incentive to go back on their own time during the offseason. October is a good time to go, but hopefully they are still playing.

vr, Xei

I just read that Jason Johnson is being considered for the 5th spot. This has got to be a joke, right? Unless Loaiza gets DFA'd (unlikely), it makes NO sense.

Having only seen China in pictures, I must ask:
1) They actually let people climb the Great Wall? and
2) If it's climbable, I guess it must not have served its purpose too well.

8 I actually like Johnson over Loaiza. Why does that make no sense, given Schmidt won't be ready for awhile..? And yes, I think Kuo should be given first crack at it, if healthy (if that's what you're thinking). But don't see any reason not to give Johnson a look.

10 The 40-man is full and I don't want a 4A pitcher taking up a valuable spot.

I swear at first I thought that headline was "Lopes to be Traded for Cancer".

Levity aside, best wishes to Davey.

4.23 K/9, 1.54 K/BB, 6.10 ERA are all very valid reasons to put Jason Johnson below Chan Ho on the depth chart.

My worst misread of the day was Bob saying that once he turned 40, he became well-acquainted with stains.

My father is dying of cancer. Its something that I've hesitated to bring up here, where I don't "know" people, per se, but this post and a few other things, notably Toy Cannon's piece at True Blue last week, seem fated to pull it out of me.

Like most people, the fact that I love or even like baseball is directly attributable to my dad. He played catch with me, took me to my first game, etc etc. I know he regrets not coaching my teams, but being a Rabbi, he tended to work Saturdays. He did get to coach one season of tee-ball when I was 8 and he was on sabbatical.

I noticed with some surprise that Davey Lopes is 62. I thought he would have been younger. Sounds like he's got a number of years left ahead of him, and I sure hope that's the case. My dad is 65. His original diagnosis was 9 years ago. Though we never were told at the time, apparently a reasonable prognosis would have been 5 years. That being the case, I should probably feel at least prepared, at best like we've been playing with house money. Not the case. I feel like I can't understand how this happened so quickly. Since late 1999, we've gotten a bunch more ball games, countless rounds of golf, good meals, good talks, and not to be downplayed, my dad getting to know my wife and two daughters. If we had nine more years, I could do a lot better.

I'm supposed to make my first and obviously last trip to Vero Beach to see the Dodgers next week. My mom insists she wants me to go. Frankly, I want to go, too. But I'm not going to indulge in any of that "dad would have wanted . . ." stuff. I've always felt, with due respect, that people say that to justify whatever it is that they themselves want to do. Baseball was an important part of our relationship, but it doesn't proxy for it. And besides, my dad is not a Dodger fan. So I'm going to go. If I need to come back, I need to come back.

In closing, I don't wish this on anyone, including Davey Lopes who I loved watching play when I was a kid. That, and don't forget to hug your kids, and your parents, and tell people you care about how you feel about them.

9. haha, good one! They let you climb along the top of the wall. There are a series of narrow and treachorous steps, sometimes very steep climbing up and down the ridge of the mountains. You can actually drive a car and walk under the wall and they have stairs that you climb that get you on top of the wall. Of course these were recent additions to the wall made for tourists and not Mongols to use. The wall is very steep in some places, it will be a good work out for them. If Tommy went he could ride the gondola(sp?) up. :)
vr, Xei

Instinct seems to be telling me Kuo would be the best starter until Scmidt is ready. but if Johnson has a few more good outings, there could be a reason to play him before Loiaza. Contracts and everything else aside-he might win! Actually I hope Loiaza shows some good stuff this spring, but I am not optimistic. Of course if pitching depth dissolves as usual, we may regret dumping Houlton. I hope a year or two down the road, we have enough good young pitchers in the org. to back us up. And a few years down the road if we keep our talent, we will definitely have a winning 9.

15 - my dad and two of his brothers contracted prostate cancer. My dad and one uncle made it out unscathed; the third got a clean bill of health and 2-3 years later it came back with a vengeance all over his body. The end was slow in coming.

And yes, I know what this means for me. I lost a lot of weight and drink a lot of green tea.

11/12 - I guess I just really don't like Esteban Loiaza, is the moral of that story. I am rooting for Chan Ho if we have to be stuck with an NRI in the 5th slot to start. But yes, re: the 40 man, and for other reasons, Kuo should be first choice there if he obliges by pitching decent and staying healthy.

15 Best wishes to your dad, Jacob. Nobody in my family has died of cancer yet, but there have been a lot of close calls. My mom is a two-time survivor.

15 One of those times that I don't what to say but I agree with everything you said.

All the best to your father and your family.

9 We went to the Great Wall on a field trip. I'm not sure where along that massive wall we visited, but it sure was grueling to get to the top.

15 I'm sorry, Jacob. Hope your father's okay.

I study prostate cancer (cell signaling, specifically). I have to focus on so much minutiae (in the grand scheme of things) that it's sometimes easy to forget how this disease affects people.

15 As others have said, my heart goes out to you and your family. Went through something similar with my beloved stepmom a few years back - similar and of course entirely different, as every situation is its own uniquely awful process - but I can relate to the whole horribleness of it all. I think through baseball maybe there can be some spiritual peace given its connection to him, just as it sort of was with movies and my stepmom. Bittersweet but a part of the healing process.

18
Does green tea have some specific antioxidants that help prevent prostate cancer?

16 kondola.

19 I guess I just really don't like Esteban Loiaza, is the moral of that story.

I agree completely. But in his place should be a good internal candidate, not some scrub that has experience.

23
That reminds me about why my mother gave up her job as a medical lab technician. This was back in the 1950s and she got a blood sample from a man and she could tell that the man had leukemia. She had never seen a real slide with it before and at first, she was very excited, then she realized that, at the time, she was essentially giving someone a death sentence.

She gave up the job soon after.

16
My friend is going going back home to Taiwan this month and he is traveling all over Asia. He apparently is going to walk the entire Great Wall. He says he will have to basically just fend for himself in the wilderness in some parts of it.

moss 3 yr 27 million deal with the pats.

27 "not some scrub that has experience."

So we shouldn't sign Zach Braff? ;-)

brad evans of yahoo.com has saito as the 17th best closer this year for fantasy what a yahoo, and what a tool.

29 I once walked the length of the strand at Hermosa. That's like the same thing, right?

32 Never mind that - why the heck is Chad Billingsley on that list of relief pitchers for 2008??
http://tinyurl.com/yres9o

Thanks everyone for the thoughts.

23 , 28 I've certainly noticed that medical professionals that deal with the seriously ill have their own coping mechanisms. Some of them are bizarrely cold and clinical. Some are even hostile. But I imagine you just have to block the personal stuff out if its your job.

15 Jacob L abides.

15 Good luck with your trip and with your family. Thank you (and ToyCannon for the spark) for the reminder that we all can make use of. I still have my parents in relatively good health, but age marches on and I should not take anything for granted. I really should be making the efforts that you have displayed.

"... and not to be downplayed, my dad getting to know my wife and two daughters ..." This is something truly to be thankful for. My mother-in-law passed away when my daughter was only six and that is a bit of a void that cannot really be filled. I am thankful that my daughter has memories of her grandmother, but it could have been so much more.

33 Do they rollerblade in bikinis on the Great Wall?

34 In Fantasy Leagues you qualify for a position based on what you played the year before. Since Billingsley pitched half of 2007 in the pen, he's eligible to be used in a relief slot on 2008 fantasy rosters.

It's early but I have not been impressed with Torre's managing thus far. He's done nothing to separate himself from Grady in terms of lineups for one. I don't know how that will translate once the season gets going.

39 Ah, okay, thanks. It's been a few years since I did Fantasy Baseball so I'd forgotten the rules. Gives people more flexibility I suppose.

Now as for that 17th place ranking of Saito by Evans... at least the other three guys weren't quite so blind about him.

29. wow, good luck with that. The wall is fractured and in ruins in many areas (I am sure there is a good Wrigley Field joke in there somewhere), so I am not sure how he is going to do this or how many months he has to do it in. That's a little bit too much Great Wall for my tastes.
vr, Xei

35 ToyCannon had a good post on caregivers and coping:
http://tinyurl.com/yuk4rl

There are probably as many coping mechanisms as there are people in the profession.

15
My Dad was diagnosed 3 weeks ago and today he has his meeting to decide his treatment. He's 80 so surgery is not an option and my oldest brother is there to make sure he understands the options. The grandkids are now grown, he's had a good life, and he's tired of being old and not mattering anymore. I have a feeling he is not going to choose any treatment at all for reasons best not gone over here and is anxious to see if living the perfect Catholic life has the post-life rewards that he bought into.

28 - a friend of ours is an oncology researcher, I believe with the University of Arkansas. She has a PhD in pharmacology, and is in charge of clinical trials of drugs that are, essentially, last-resorts for people who are otherwise terminal. To say it changed her is to engage in extreme understatement; the psychic toll of seeing so many patients die caused her to go from being a very big, outgoing person to physically becoming a wraith (she went from unhealthily overweight to unhealthily underweight), and began to lash out at my sister-in-law's children while they were still little.

Incidentally, I believe one of the trials she worked on was using one of the isomers of thalidomide; there is a left-handed one and a right-handed one; the right-handed one is beneficial, while the left-handed one causes birth defects:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide#Possible_indications

Interestingly enough, and germane to this dicussion, one of the cancers they're looking at treating with thalidomide is prostate cancer.

44 I'm sorry. Talk about a tough choice, but I can imagine, at that age, preferring the disease to the drugs. The drugs are no picnic.

44 My thoughts to you and your family. My dad went through prostrate cancer treatment several years back and made it through, but he turned 74 earlier this year and maybe I should be worried that the "old and not mattering" stage is not far away. He does get to play doting grandpa for awhile though, as my youngest brothers kids are only 6 and 2, and my mom does keep him busy.

Per Rotowire:
Peavy received a very rude and painful reception in his return to the mound when he took a painful comebacker off his groin area on Sunday, reports the North County Times. First of all Peavy owners, you can relax. It looked worse than it actually was, Peavy was unharmed and essentially unaffected by the freak play. The most humorous part of this article was this little quote from Peavy himself, "I don't wear a cup," Peavy said. "They're not comfortable. My teammates think I'm crazy. ... The funny thing is my next pitch was probably my best of the day." Maybe Peavy owners should be holding their breath after all?

Pitchers can pitch without cups and we wasted time talking about helmets for base coaches.

I'm so sorry Jacob L, Toy, and many reading who I am sure face similar challenges.

You spend a lot of time and do, in meaningful ways, "know" folks here, so the impulse to share makes a lot of sense.

When my dad passed, lung cancer a couple of years ago, it was a help to rail against it all with my friends here.

It coincided with the firing of Paul DePodesta which didn't help matters.

47
Doting Grandfather is the best medicine.

I have spent some time in bookstores this week noticing how some of the fantasy baseball magazines are downright comical in their total lack of consistancy or accuracy in their 2008 player projections.
But I was shocked peaking into Baseball Prospective 2008, because of some of the horrible inconsistancies. I admit I checked more Dodger players, but I looked at many opposing players in our division, and the players in the local(to me) Yanks-Sox rivalry. I generally regard the guys at the BP site as gods of knowledge.
But this book is a horror show. Typos ,bizarre projections, and contradictions.
Look at Brad Penny. The 2008 projection predicts about the worst collapse in baseball this year.
Directly under this, a paragraph seems to imply that Penny will do fine as the Dodger ace this year.
But there were many other places I coudn't figure out their intent.

"I don't wear a cup," Peavy said.

(Mariano Duncan, are you taking notes?)

51 I assume that the book with all the awful typos was Baseball Prospectus, not "Baseball Prospective."

Anyway, their stat projections are done by a computer. The text is written by actual human beings. The human beings are not required to always be in agreement with the computer. There's nothing necessarily contradictory about it.

51
Different writers make up BP2008. The same person who wrote the Dodger section probably did not write the section about the the projected collapse or it was simply based on Pecota an algorithm showing that Penny was likely to collapse based on his peripherals.

Or what he said.

Best to you Jacob. It's never an easy thing to deal with. I've lost a father, mother and brother to different forms of cancer. If nothing else, I've learned how to keep going through it all.

Has it already been noted that Ken Levine is doing Dodger Talk this year?

The AP has gotten on board the Brandon Inge trade rumor train.

http://tinyurl.com/2qwbkc

Thanks again, everyone, for all your thoughts, especially those of you that have shared similar experiences. There are several things that people have said that really resonate, and I could go on and on, but I don't want to bum out anybody that wants to talk baseball.

I'm more excited about baseball season than I've been in a while. I expect big things from our Dodgers, even in a very tough division. I'm liable, however, to shift at least some of my rooting interest to the Cubs. My dad would appreciate that, plus this is year 100.

58 I would support Inge being on our team. Picnic is really good. So is Bus Stop. Besides, even if he doesn't have announcing experience, his way with words probably makes him better than Steiner.

What? What's that?

BRANDON Inge?

Oh, that's completely different.

Never mind.

[/litella]

60 Hah hah!
"I gotta get somewhere in this world. I just gotta." - Brandon Inge*

(*er, William Holden's Hal Carter)

For discussion purposes only.

Arizona Diamondbacks 87.5
Los Angeles Dodgers 86.5
San Diego Padres 84.5
Colorado Rockies 83
San Francisco Giants 73

Chicago Cubs 87
Milwaukee Brewers 84.5
Cincinnati Reds 77.5
St Louis Cardinals 76
Houston Astros 75

New York Mets 93.5
Philadelphia Phillies 87.5
Atlanta Braves 85
Washington Nationals 72.5
Pittsburgh Pirates 70
Florida Marlins 69

Los Angeles Angels 92
Seattle Mariners 85
Texas Rangers 76
Oakland Athletics 73.5

Detroit Tigers 93.5
Cleveland Indians 90
Chicago White Sox 79.5
Minnesota Twins 75
Kansas City Royals 73.5

Boston Red Sox 94
New York Yankees 93.5
Toronto Blue Jays 85.5
Tampa Bay Rays 75
Baltimore Orioles 64.5

Definition of "reportedly":

adverb
according to reports or other information

it also defined as being according to rumor or unconfirmed reports.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch website has popups.

But they just bring up a window of what you are already looking at.

It's both annoying AND ineffective.

I think there will be at least one team that loses 100 games next year.

You have put your finger on something fun, though: which team will win the Battle of the Bay Area? The A's are stripped down, but not historically awful, if I recall correctly... but they play in the American League. The Giants have a historically awful offense, but their pitching should be OK, and they play in the somewhat weaker National League.

Couldn't the LA Times just quoted from "When Harry Met Sally"?

http://tinyurl.com/28c8x9

Gurnick does not bash LaRoche in this week's mailbag. Miracle.

http://tinyurl.com/2ezg5g

65 I vote for the A's to win the battle of the Bay. Despite having stripped down the team of many of its most recognizable players, never count out Billy Beane, and they at least have a lot of talent on the farm. Plus even if the AL is stronger than the NL, the AL West appears a little down this year, while the NL West promises to be very tough. The Giants aren't terrible, at least pitching-wise, but their lineup will be meek at best. Therefore, I wouldn't bet on either team to make the playoffs, but will bet on the A's to have a better record than SF.

I'm liking Milwaukee to win it all at 30-1.

18

I sincerely admire you Rob, I saw you 2 years ago at the DT get together & saw you this year & you did lose plenty of weight, says a lot about your determination & love of life. Not that you didn't look good 2 years ago BUT if there's family history of cancer you had to do something about it.

68 I think I agree, generally.

Oh, and if the A's are reading this, they may feel free to use the advertising slogan "Not Historically Awful!" -- provided that each use includes, in small letters, (c) 2008 Humma Kavula.

62 - Interesting numbers, I think the Angels will win a few more than that, probably enough to have home field (due in large part to the ALW being weak). The NLW numbers are surprising, I would pick the Rockies to finish ahead of the Padres. In fact, I figure it'll be a three team race from the first pitch on opening day to the last pitch on the last day of the season in the NLW. The only other quibble would be the Cards and Reds being reversed, but who cares about the NLC?

62 While there doesn't appear to be a slam-dunk bet there anywhere, I think the under on the Mariners and Astros would be pretty promising.

38

I'd like to stroll over there & sport my BlueTooth™

Don't know if this ran in the paper version, but what a great photo.

http://tinyurl.com/3xskz2

67 "Gurnick does not bash LaRoche in this week's mailbag."

He sort of does, though indirectly. "...Andy LaRoche, who is 24 and awfully young to be written off." Gurnick is probably the only person in the world to whom the idea of writing off LaRoche has even occurred. Even his doubters have conceded that he could at least be traded for something really valuable.

"Look at some stats: Inge hit 14 homers and .236 last year in a hitter-friendly ballpark -- and LaRoche can probably do that."

I think that's as close to an honest compliment of LaRoche as Gurnick is willing to give.

I was about to make fun of Gurnick for being so wrong about Comerica Park, and then I noticed that last year, for the first time ever, it was indeed a very slight hitters' park. How the heck did that happen?

My best go out to Davey and anyone affected by cancer. That is unfortunately a whole lot of people. I gather there has been quite a bit of success in treating prostate cancer if it has not spread. I do hope the best for him.

Stan from Tacoma

76 I clicked [X] on my window right when Gurnick couldn't help but slip in "six-time All-Star" when describing Nomar. The best you can ever get out of him is to call a certain move by the team "puzzling."

I just wanted to add my thoughts for Jason and his family. My mother died of ovarian cancer and a dear friend of mine is now dying of cancer, so I do have some idea of what he is going through.

And my sympathies go out to Davey Lopes, although ... I can't resist this ... when I went to my first Dodger game when I was nine, he turned me down for an autograph. I swore vengeance, but booing is all I had in mind. I hope he's well soon.

Davey Lopes was--is--my all-time favorite Dodger. Best of luck to him.

48. Pitchers can pitch without cups and we wasted time talking about helmets for base coaches.

And what test would an umpire use at the mound to determine whether a pitcher is wearing a cup? :-)

83 It appears there would be three options. Actually, they sound like Seinfeld episode titles:

The Fondle
The Drop-Your-Pants
The Kick in the Crotch

Lowe and behold

>> The last time Derek Lowe entered the final year of a contract, things didn't exactly turn out the way he wanted.

Sure, Lowe helped the Boston Red Sox to the world championship in 2004 and pitched the clinching game in the World Series. But almost everything else was a disappointment.

The 34-year-old is convinced he won't make the same mistakes this time around with Los Angeles. <<

http://tinyurl.com/2jrhjj

The cup-check is a time honored tradition. bat handle, meet region.

Funny. The good news is that, if you'd given me your money for my magical protection, instead of giving it to Airborne, I wouldn't give it back.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4380374&page=1

15 - Sorry to hear about your father, Jacob, I lost my mom and dad to cancer within 3 years of each other fairly recently.

While it is all very hard, of course, there is something to be said for having the chance to say goodbye, as opposed to a sudden, unexpected departure. We had very special times in their last months. Just something to think about. Enjoy the time you have left.

Maybe I'll see you in Vero - I'm leaving on Saturday.

18 - the Japanese smoke like chimneys and yet lung cancer is next to unheard of there. One of the proffered reasons is all that green tea they guzzle.

70 - more diabetes than cancer, the former becoming a real and proximate threat. Having watched my mother need to shoot up daily with insulin, and having an absolute detestation for needles -- well, that settled it. My doctor had been steadily doubling my blood sugar control medicine dose every six months or so, and the handwriting was on the wall. (The medical jockeys are monkeying around with insulin these days -- apparently most of it is now synthesized rather than coming from pig pancreases, as it used to, so there are fewer side effects, but when they do occur, they are rather worse. Or maybe that's just Mom.)

My wife and I both ran in a 5k two weekends ago, and we're training to start running 10k's. Dunno if we'll ever get up to marathon length, but I doubt it.

78 - there is a theory that with Petco moving into the division, Dodger Stadium no longer looks so much like a pitcher's park as it used to. While the AL Central has no such equivalent (none of the Twins, Chisox, Royals, or Indians have made substantial changes to their parks or added new ones), I wonder that something like that isn't in play.

84 - I personally think pitchers should wear codpieces.

Sorry for that rant in 51. But you have to admit the text vs. the computer is rather schizophrenic.

And 53 was an excellent slap-down of which I was the butt. really funny.

91 And all the soft tossers should wear a merkin.

Although there can be many factors involved in turning a pitchers park into a hitters, I think for Dodger Stadium the most change came from the seating that reduced the huge amount of foul territory mostly behind the catcher.

Dodgers' Garciaparra could play at short

>> But if Young does become an option at second and third, the Dodgers still will need a backup shortstop - and that is where Garciaparra could come in. If Furcal were to suffer an injury, the club probably would bring up Chin-lung Hu, who also made a couple of jaw-dropping plays against the Mets. But Garciaparra could give Torre a viable option for a late-inning double switch. <<

http://www.dailybreeze.com/sports/ci_8423400

94 - Sure! A great 'merkin from the past, like Abraham Lincoln or George Washington! It sure would slow down the running game ...

Its the "merkin dream", but perhaps we are getting to political on this primary eve.

too darn it.

51 As a regular lurker here I was hoping the very intelligent DT community could humor me and answer the following question?

The Seattle Mariners play in what kind of stadium?

I realize Seattle (where I currently reside) might as well be in Alaska but Will Carrol could not answer that question correctly.

And if I don't make my annual B Prospectus purcase which is the best paper version for this kind of preview. THT?

Safeco Field is one of the most reliable pitchers parks in the majors. Deep power allies and cold damp air much of the year.

89 scareduck, you are my role model. I just got diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes a month ago. I was stunned, but I shouldn't have been. A doctor in the hospital where I was taken -- in Richmond, VA, where I had just landed the night before for a business meeting -- did a Ned Beatty in Network kind of routine on me, about how my life, as I knew it, is over and everything must change if I hoped to avoid torments, infirmities and early death. It had a hypnotic effect on me. Since then, I haven't had a candy bar, a cookie or an alcoholic beverage. I'm off pasta, white bread, potatoes and many other things that push your blood sugar numbers up. All this has caused me to drop about 15 pounds, but I have a long way to go. But I've promised a colleague I will run in a half-marathon her newspaper is sponsoring in Phoenix next January. Or walk in it anyway.

This diagnosis is one reason I haven't posted here much lately. As I always feared would happen if I seriously changed my diet, I have become extremely boring. I'm constantly thinking about making the right choices food-wise, and wondering about how an intelligent person can live in denial for so long about what my habits were doing to me. I don't miss all the crap; I just find it hard to believe I ever wanted it.

I assume eventually, this new regime will become second nature, and the Dodgers will retake their customary place at or near the center of my life.

P.S. Brandon Inge? Are you kidding? This is Detroit management trying to create momentum out of nothing. Nobody wants to pay a guy like that for three years to hit .240. Not even Ned.

100 Outdoor, but with retractable roof. ;)

101 B-R agrees.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/SEA/2007.shtml

Davey Lopes will always be one of my favorite Dodgers. That infield of Garvey, Lopes, Russell & Cey is something we all should be proud of. My prayers go out to him and I hope he is all right.

102 - I don't miss all the crap; I just find it hard to believe I ever wanted it.

Good for you. I do mention that I was at one time on phentermine, which is helpful when you're trying to lose the weight; the main thing it assists you in doing is to gauge when you really are hungry. I think of it as retraining your stomach to be full on less food. I went off the drug a number of months ago, and while I've gained back a little of the weight I had lost (I got down to 171 from 230, but I'm hovering around 177-179 these days), it's still pretty much sticking nearer the bottom end of that scale.

In the Cortez-burning-his-ships-to-motivate-his-crew department, I gave away all my old wardrobe to Goodwill, including some intermediate clothes I bought along the way. Another motivation: I hate shopping, especially clothes shopping.

Notes: Pierre shows off speed
Manager likes what he sees so far from leadoff spot candidate
"I took notice of him for the first time when he helped beat me in the '03 World Series," said Dodgers manager Joe Torre
http://tinyurl.com/2ygd6y

If JP still had his 2003 game (.361 OBP, 55 BB), that would be one thing, but he doesn't.

So is Safeco the only stadium with a roof rather then a climate controlled retractable enclosure?

Will Carrol was convinced Safeco was climate controlled because of the consistent temperatures in August. As someone who experiences windchill night games in April at Safeco I could only wish for climate control.

87 That's where you miscalculated! I haven't been to the store yet. So when I do buy AirBorne, they WON'T give me my money back.

hahahahahahah!

75 I saw that picture too. If you use your imagination, Kobe looks like he's doing an imitation of Apollo Anton Ohno. Speed skating crossed with basketball. Could be the next Olympic sport!

Hilarious comment after hilarious comment by Detroit fans. Inge needs some reality sprinkled on his cereal.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080303/SPORTS02/803030363/1050

110 Anyone want to register for that site to tell them "Thanks but no thanks" from Dodger fans everywhere? Of course, that's fans talking to fans, rather than GM talking to GM, but, you know, burst their bubble. No, we don't want to trade you Lucas May for Brandon Inge. Not unless a) they also take Pierre, b) Inge can play backup catcher without whining. So, thanks but no thanks.

Dodgers' Torre thinking pitching first

>> Pitching is crucial to the Dodgers in their division. The Dodgers were above .500 last season but finished fourth in the NL West. The five NL West teams all finished in the top half of the league in pitching. But Dodgers starting pitchers were 58-61, the only one of the four above-.500 NL West teams whose starters had a losing record. <<

http://tinyurl.com/2fw2jy

112 Also:
Torre admits he's intrigued by hard-throwing lefty Hong-Chih Kuo, who's had four elbow operations. "That's pretty impressive the stuff he brings to the plate," Torre said of Kuo's 95-mph fastball and sharp slider.

K/Guo is such a tease, I REFUSE TO BITE THIS TIME!

112 Addition by subtraction (not that W-L is a definitive measure):
Tomko/Hendrickson: 7-17 in 30 starts
Injury impacted Schmidt, K/Guo, Loaiza: 3-12 in 17 starts
Others: 48-36

108
5 stars!!! A great e-bayer!!!

Wait... Isn't this the feedback page?

89 ,102
This seems to be the right thread to divulge this. I'm down about 50 lbs from a little more than a year ago. I'm trying to drop another 45 by the end of June (I'm best man in a wedding) to get below 300. It seems daunting, but if I stick to eating right (frantically counting calories, fat & sugar) and going to the gym (4+ times per week), I should be able to drop the extra weight.

I have also experienced the epiphany of "how did I ever eat this stuff" -- outside the occasional craving for pizza. All it takes is a little effort to plan out the meals -- the laziness of poor planning leads to the laziness of fast food -- to keep ahead of the game.

I was scheduled to walk/jog a 5k last Sunday, but I couldn't make it since I was out of town, so I did the 5k at the gym instead. I'm also scheduled to jog the Carlsbad 5k in April.

117 Good luck, man :-) and all of you who are keeping at it. To paraphrase Leslie Nielsen in Airplane!, I just want to tell you good luck. We're all counting on you.

I lost a few pounds over the winter by going to a high protein low carb diet, plus more exercise, and ironically, right after that my poor cat was diagnosed with diabetes (which, alas, was more my fault than his), and was told the best way out of it, besides insulin shots, is to put him on a, yes, high protein, low carb diet. Or as someone has dubbed it, the "Catkins Diet." We're in solidarity! Now I'm just trying to train him to go on walks with me so we can both exercise together. Yeah, that'll happen.

Kuo makes an excellent starter. If the D's really expect Schmidt to return, what could be better than a marvelous pitcher who won't last all season?

As if there was any doubt...

Contrary to a published report, the Dodgers don't appear to be interested in Brandon Inge of the Detroit Tigers, in part because of the $19.1 million he is owed over the next three seasons.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/dodgers/la-sp-dodrep4mar04,1,736179.story

Jacob, best wishes to you and your family and if its any consolation your post has spurred me to schedule my annual physical.

Eric S, extremley impressive. Keep up the good work. You are so right that the key to a good diet is planning and, at least in the begining, writing down everything you eat. Have you done it on your own, followed a plan or worked with a trainer? Curious how you've done it.

120 What about William Inge?

Actually, I have a new prediction. Not trying to start unfounded rumors, but just a feeling: The Giants will be next linked to Inge. That is, if they don't trade for Joe Crede first. They're desperate for a third baseman. They have some young pitchers they could move. They'd be stupid to do it because they have no shot at competing in the West this year, but that hasn't stopped Sabean before. And Inge or Crede would be an upgrade over what they have now, but that isn't saying much. Just sayin'.

Comment 61 , twice as fresh as 122 and way ahead of the game.

Ann Veal is now on In Treatment. She looks much different from her Ann Veal days.

I wonder if there is a short left-field foul line in the Beijing ballpark and a high screen if it will be called the "American Wall."

120 yeah.

123 Reportedly, the San Francisco Giants are trying to solve their 3B situation with either Joe Crede or Brandon Inge.

C'mon Sabean, trade Lincecum for Inge!

121
I first started with a trainer, a year ago at 24 Hour Fitness. I had 10 hours that came with my membership, and I used those hours to get me pointed in the right direction. I have no desire to spend $50/hr+ to continue.

I started tracking the food just recently myself, using an Excel file I created (and calorie-counter.com).

124 I was there for the birth of 61 , just reliving the memories because I enjoyed it so much the first time.

Okay, so I was watching TV Land because one of my favorite (very) old episodes of MASH is on - the "Ah, Bach! Radar is fixed up" one - when an ad for that truly atrocious-looking new reality series, "High School Reunion," popped on. I didn't realize it wasn't just an ad but an epic sneak preview. I finally recovered my senses long enough to mute it, but not before getting this icky feeling that makes me want to take a shower and read Thomas Pynchon. All I can say is, ick. Shame on you TVLand!

But I did see the next to last episode of The Wire finally, and now I'm caught up with both Bob and my dad and we all have to wait 'til next Sunday. Hah!

Er, the birth of 60 , really, since Humma should get all the credit or blame for the initial "Picnic" reference.

I'm just glad we're not being linked with any Joe Crede rumors; I can only imagine the puns associated with that depressing thought.

Btw, "Paul giving Torre something to ponder":

http://www.presstelegram.com/sports/ci_8443778

ToyCannon, I looked at the 40 catchers you mentioned about a week ago (the ones with early peaks):

https://dodgerthoughts.baseballtoaster.com/archives/913313.html#170

I averaged out the OPS+ for each season (I didn't use Mauer & McCann, since they're still young themselves) by age. This is just a quick and dirty look (with the caveat that some catchers didn't play until age 24, 25, or 26).

Age 23 - 94 OPS+ average
Age 24 - 100 OPS+
Age 25 - 104 OPS+
Age 26 - 106 OPS+
Age 27 - 96 OPS+
Age 28 - 96 OPS+
Age 29 - 94 OPS+

The average number of games played from age 30 onward is 477 (excluding Pierzynski, who turned 30 last year). Only one player (Mark Bailey) was done by age 28. One more (Garagiola) was done by 29. Seven more played fewer than 100 games in their 30s.

Martin's pre FA years will take him through his age 29 season. He has already achieved a 101 & 113 OPS+, ahead of the average (by about 10%) for his age in this group. I don't think his risk is high enough to want to sign a long-term deal now. The cliff he might fall off is still a long way off.

I certainly, certainly hope Lopes gets through treatment ok. I'd hate for any of the former greats to go through such strife.

---

On another, non-baseball, board I spent a paragraph defending USS Mariner as I addressed a casual M's fan who perceived their attitude as "negative."

USS Mariner isn't being "negative" so much as they are being honest. The M's haven't made the best long term decisions lately.

Later I made this comment about DT to add perspective. Do you guys agree with most of this?

One might consider the Dodgers board, Dodger Thoughts, similarly negative, but when good moves are made, we all commend them. In fact, right now, the board at large is more optimistic than its ever been, and its because many of our pieces are in place, and there's probably less dead weight in the lineup this year.

134 -- USS Mariner has a lot to be negative about. Whether it is "negative" or "positive" is irrelevent, just as long as the attitude accurately reflects the reality, and being positive about your team when it is uncalled for is just being a Pollyanna.

Plaschke just released a stupid column that lobbies to trade for a lefty starter.

Ned denying interest in Tiger's erstwhile 3B: Head Wig and the Angry Inge.

136 "Since the Dodgers last won a playoff series in 1988, the 19 World Series championship teams have averaged 48 starts by left-handers.

It's especially important in the West, where opposing left-handed hitters include San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez and Jim Edmonds, Colorado's Todd Helton and Brad Hawpe, and Arizona's Chad Tracy."

The 2004 World Champion Red Sox had exactly one start by a LHP, Abe Alvarez. The 2006 Cardinals had 19 (Mulder (who was awful) 17, Narvenson, Rincon).

Edmonds who's been in serious decline the last two seasons? Chad Tracy with the bum knee? Doesn't every division have four to five decent LH hitters? How about that AL Central?

Plaschke's a complete joke, particularly when it comes to the Dodgers. El Lay Dave correctly pointed out the silliest aspect of that article... I thought it was also funny that he couldn't resist bashing Billingsley and Kuroda to prop up his column's weak premise.

McCourt and the Times have a terrible relationship - according to a friend, Frank told the sports section staff something like "I'll be around longer than any of you will" as their disastrous first meeting began to go sour.

I think that's a big reason behind the morose hand-wringing that permeates every Plaschke Dodger column.

134 135 I think the difference between DT & USSM is Jon. When I go there to read about the latest doings of the M's (I moved to the Puget Sound area 8 years ago and I am married to an M's fan, so I've adopted them as my AL team) the vibe I get when I read the comments there is that if you don't agree w/ the alphabet soup of VORP, OPS and other SABR centric thoughts and postings of Dave & Derek (among others) then you are either made to feel like an idiot or implied that you are.

That is completely different on DT ...when people post here about the Dodgers and they have differing opinions about baseball talent evaluation and how its done, it stays civil (95% of the time) and you are not made to feel like you are being belittled and I think that comes from the respect everyone who frequents DT has for Jon.

I also think that it helps that Ned hasn't traded 1/2 the farm like everyone was worried about and that we actually have a farm system that is so valued and productive.

First, nice going everyone who is doing something about their health, hope you are all around much longer to ponder the ongoings about Dodgers.

136 Okay, here are the platoon breakdowns for the players mentioned above.
Adrian Gonzalez - .796 OPS LHP/.873 OPS RHP
Jim Edmonds - .632/.755
Brad Hawpe - .680/1.003
Todd Helton - .744/1.005
Chad Tracy - .413/.891

Here are the platoon breakdowns for the top 3 Dodger starters:
Chad Billingsley - .748 LHB/.660 RHB
Derek Lowe - .722/.663
Brad Penny - .605/.753 (Only 1 HR to LH)

And here are the platoon differences for the 3 LH players figuring to get the most plate appearances for the Dodgers.
Juan Pierre - .620/.710
Andre Ethier - .715/.830
James Loney - .866/.939

What about the Dodgers' RH batters:
Andruw Jones - .784/.694
Rafael Furcal - .744/.666
Jeff Kent - .950/.856
Matt Kemp - 1.002/.835
Russell Martin - 1.063/.773

Overall team batting splits (NL average .772 LH/.750RH):
Colorado - .772/.822
San Diego .769/.718
Los Angeles .751/.739
Arizona .722/.738
San Francisco .701/.711

So to me, despite Colorado's splits, that given the choice of 5 good righthanded starters and 4 good righthanders and one mediocre lefty, I'll take the 5 good righties. But I would have 1 or 2 lefties in the pen for a key situation.

2 interesting notes:
(1) A's have at least inquired about Juan Pierre.
(2) Inge not coming to town. LaRoche can breath a bit easier, as can we! ha

http://mlbfleecefactor.com/

I'm getting screwed by the Nats ticket purchasing site. I got the purchase screen and then it kicked me back into the virtual waiting room.

142 I wish. Unless LA picked up most of the tab, Beane signing JP be a complete repudiation of Moneyball. My sense from the Jackson DN article quoting Jon is that JP instead will be the starter despite those crazy fans on the internets.

And they could have had Pierre! http://tinyurl.com/yqgbbm

And Stolenmonkey -- many many Nats fans are finding that. Opening Day sold out in about 15 minutes. Much blamed heaped upon the brokers (without any real evidence, but it does seem reasonable). Just read that upper deck seats are on stub hub for $135.

(sheepishly acknowledges that I have an OD ticket through a ST holding friend.)

Here's the original SF Chronicle blurb on JP, via that same trustworthy "major league source." Probably just Beane taunting Ned for sport.

http://tinyurl.com/34s8rh

Since Moneyball is about pursuing undervalued skills, we all need to push really hard on speed being undervalued right now.

145 - figured as much. I might wait until May when I can walk up to the ticket office and buy seats for the Hank Hill special.

How far-fetched is Pierre to Oakland really? Yes, he is the exact opposite of what Moneyball values. However, it seems like a move that Beane would do as it would be highly unexpected. If he could get him at a discount with a prospect I think he would do it. It is entirely possible that Pierre's skills would play better in the more spacious ballpark in Oakland. Obviously wishful thinking.

NPUT

I don't see the NPUT.
vr, Xei

15 Belatedly, thanks for writing. My prayers are with you and your family.