So the mlb.com beat writer for the Nationals offered this in his mailbag today: "I have to say that Odalis Perez will be the Opening Day starter."

Now, keep in mind that this guy is not a very good baseball writer or analyst.

But there's something a little startling about that as the way to christen the new ballpark on national tv.

I wonder if the fight between Hobo and Larry was over a trashcan.

The dogs should feel lucky their owner isn't Vic Mackey

3. I was thinking that the female dog was lucky that her owner wasn't Gary Barnett.

1 Good lord almighty. Odalis may look back on this someday as his turning point. Nah, probably not.

Let's hope no one on the 25-man roster is in heat.

(Insert $5,500/hour joke here)

From Peter Gammons:
----------

It had been a majority opinion on the staff that Nomar would not have been happy as LaRoche's caddy or as a utilityman, so the loss of LaRoche probably ensures that the Dodgers will not have to make a decision on whether or not to eat his contract.
*
Also in Dodgers camp, Larry Bowa is sold on the future of SS Chin-Lung Hu. "He can really play defense," says Bowa.

(Insert completely unfair Alyssa Milano joke here)

Woof. Woof woof bark! Woof.

Best,
underdog

Jon Heyman at SI has dubbed Ethier "baseball's best backup".

http://tinyurl.com/29qobf (down the page a bit)

"Even my neutered males are interested in this female, so that's what we're dealing with."

Men of all species are very predictable.

The lead photo on ESPN.com's baseball page right now depicts a pitcher with what appears to be the body of a man and the head of a bull.

13

Awesome! I admit though, I think it got more attention because the Red Sox were involved.

Penarol, are you an Atletico Madrid/Forlan fan?

Eekrock, nice victory for Barnsley huh.... My championship team Stoke City is in the Top 2 by like 2 points I'm hoping they can hold tight. Arsenal looked like they had a little Milan hangover which is understandable. Lookin forward to Liverpool/Inter as well, Inter has their work cut out.

And The Minotaur... Wow, he Looks like Randy Johnson with a 12 to 6. I'd like to see him go straight to AAA as Canuck I believe suggested. Lets get that man on the fast track, especially if we have to put up with the mediocre at best Juan Pierre. We're going to need some career years to offset that man's terrible offensive output. This bs that Ned keeps feeding us is really getting frustrating. I'm hoping Torre has the cajones to make a switch mid season which seems highly doubtful since they like and know what they are getting. It seems like a Kemp/Ethier platoon is inevitable which is just sad.

Oh yeah and Lovin Spoonful's version of "Didn't Want To Have To Do It" is probably the best song I've ever heard. I must have listened to that song 200 times this weekend. I was really neglecting them for some time.

15. Like everyone who follows a team that Forlan has played for, I have a love/hate relationship with him. As long as he doesn't have to think about anything and just relax and use his great physical gifts, he's great, but make him use his brain, and its over. I preferred him when he was playing with Riquelme at Villareal, and I still have a soft spot for the "yellow submarines."

I think Kemp is obvious middle of the line-up stuff and I wouldn't worry-he will be the right fielder. Beyond that --start to worry.

I am up to 200,000 points, gotta take a break I am going for it today!

16 Nice, so you're sort of a gypsy. Nothing wrong with following countrymen.

We know Jeff Kent had a Jamie's ear, maybe the bull and the bison were looking for a cougar?

15 good call, my friend. isn't the Stoke City firm called the Naughty 40? i didn't think it was a mee-lawn hangover so much as playing on a rugby pitch that did us in. and how there wasn't a booking for the high boot against Bendtner was beyong me.

i, too, am guilty of overlooking the Lovin' Spoonful. i'll get there, but i've been busy with a gair-idge rock/60's punk box from Western Michigan entitled Scream Loud, the Fenton Records story as of late.

16 how have Atletico looked this year? i know Reyes went in that direction but i don't get to watch many la liga games (no fsc hurts).

Don't know if anyone has talked about it since I have been just kind of passively reading today, but have a look at this guy's story about Moneyball.

http://tinyurl.com/3dhg24

He somehow thinks the retiring of a 35th round catcher by the name of Jeremy Brown will hasten the end of the Moneyball era.

I'm kind of ambivalent about the book and would put myself somewhere in the middle of being a traditional counting stats vs. rate guy, but why can't guys like this accept the fact that stats add to the enjoyment of the game for some people like myself. It's almost as if...well I think this whole discussion is a Rule 8.

I just wish that some of the older school guys (and some of the newer ones) were more open-minded.

22 - It's been discussed - it's a satire written by BP's Jim Baker.

22
Actually, the whole article is satirical and the author's name is a pseudonym.

From the link in 11 :
But Ethier may be the best of the backups. "I'd like to see what that guy could do with 500 at-bats,'' one NL coach said.

Ethier qualified for the batting title race last year with his 505 PAs (447 ABs). Isn't that close enough to 500 ABs to get a pretty good idea? Of course Jon already covered this ground:
https://dodgerthoughts.baseballtoaster.com/archives/910052.html

(I wonder if that coach was a Dodger coach?
"... but Juan Pierre has that consecutive games-played streak ..." )

23 , 24
Wow...uh...I feel a bit behind. I think I will just passively read better next time...

22 i think my VORAT, and PETCO ratings were better than his VROOM, SHIRK and PMS ratings.

21 Yep, the Naughty 40. A few of my girl's cousins are in the Naughty 40. Her Mom's side support Liverpool and Stoke City, and her Dad's side are hardcore Gunners fans.

I'll have to check that Scream Loud out, I'm still getting acquainted with the Austin/13th Floor Elevators scene, but I can multi task. Been getting into some Surf lately too, my friend just gave me Jerry Cole and his Spacemen which I'm pretty into, specifically "Deep Surf".

Don't feel bad Cajun, there is an awful lot of reading to do around this place, a tribute to it's popularity. My fervent wish is that if any of our young talent must be traded, it be done with skill at peak value time. It's not like we need to be desperate for anything, and if you had to trade an all round good outfielder who can play anywhere at pennant run time that is worth a yound solid starter. Period.

Almost to 400,000, I don't know if I can make it much longer (mentally)

25 Pierre .242/.250/.219 3 runs
Ethier .406/.500/.269 6 runs

What were the circumstances that 19yo Gooden got in that rotation? I see that he started the 4th game, so he was in the rotation from the start. Was someone hurt, or no good starters? If anyone can give some knowledge on that....

I think it was just that the Mets wanted to win the pennant and Gooden was clearly one of the 5 or 10 best pitchers in the league.

32
I believe the Mets wanted Gooden in the rotation from the outset of the season. The 1983 Mets went 68-94. Also, in the offseason, the Mets had lost Tom Seaver to the White Sox as free agent compensation for Chicago losing Joel Skinner to free agency.

So the Mets needed help and something to get fans in the park FAST.

For some reason, I remember Gooden's debut like it was yesterday. It was in the Dome against the Astros.

In fact, that might be my earliest baseball memory.

28 ah, a family full of Gooners. a beautiful thing. i wish i had a ticket hook up. a friend of mine & i went before i got married and we landed tickets in the North End against Birmingham (believe it was 10.2.05). can't wait to make it to Ashburton Grove.

13th Floor Elevators are a good time. As for surfy stuff, I got a Joe Meek comp not that long ago (Telstar by the Tornadoes is classic Surf)...I'll have to look into this Jerry Cole & his Spacemen.

35
I recall Gooden being very nervous when being interviewed after the game by Tim McCarver. This was back in the Mets WGN days and they were on TV a lot.

In those pre-pitch count days, Gooden had struck out 300 batters and walked 119 in the minors the previous year. God, can you imagine giving an 18-year-old pitcher that kind of workload today?

In retrospect, it's pretty obvious why he broke down and it probably had very little to do with cocaine.

Do we have a running list of who is in camp and who has been cut/optioned from Dodgertown?

I think Bob means WOR.

41
I'm still tired from being the morning DJ on WOLD.

40 As far as I know, the only late additions have been Kershaw and Dewitt and the only cuts have been Martin, Alvarez, Orenduff, McDonald, and Meloan.

484,081 that is the best I could do. They just kept coming, and they're so impatient

43 - There was an earlier round of cuts.

3/5/08 Reassigned RHP Rick Asadoorian, RHP Fernando De La Cruz, C A.J. Ellis, C Gabriel Gutierrez, LHP Brian Shackelford and RHP Alfredo Simon to Minor League camp.

http://tinyurl.com/2usskp

40 The basic information is from the Dodger site/Transactions area but I added some further clarification:

3/10/08 Released LHP Tom Martin and reassigned (and optioned) RHP Mario Alvarez, RHP James McDonald, RHP Jon Meloan and RHP Justin Orenduff to Minor League camp.

3/5/08 Reassigned RHP Rick Asadoorian, RHP Fernando De La Cruz, C A.J. Ellis, C Gabriel Gutierrez, LHP Brian Shackelford and RHP Alfredo Simon to Minor League camp.

WOR it is. AT least it can't be WGN. And I probably missed my only chance to correct the great one by a few minutes (Eating dinner)

ESPN's Joe Lunardi currently has 7 Pac-10 teams in the NCAA tournament.

UCLA - #1 seed (West)
Stanford - #4 (South)
USC - #7 (West)
WSU - #7 (Midwest)
Arizona - #11 (East)
Oregon - #12 (East)
ASU - #13 (Midwest)

Oregon & Arizona State are among the "last four in", so any upsets this week (like USD over Gonzaga tonight, for instance) will hurt them.

During the AZ/Oregon broadcast yesterday, the announcers mentioned there were only something like 13 or 14 teams with .500 conference records or worse that have ever made the NCAA tourney. None of those have been from the Pac-10. Getting two 9-9 teams (ASU, Oregon) and an 8-10 team (Arizona) in would be unprecedented for the conference.

For our faithful friends up North. Baseball Prospectus book signing and talk.
I have no idea where Alameda is located, I assume its near Oakland (hence Oakland Alameda) but otherwise I am clueless. Perhaps someone could give me a comparsion, Downtown LA to Long Beach, etc.

Bay Area, CA Monday, March 10th
7:30 pm
Talk & Signing Books Inc.
1344 Park Street
Alameda, CA 94501 Kevin Goldstein, Christina Kahrl

ToyCannon, did you notice that Raffy was playing a lot of second base in Winter League ball? Just saying, Larry Bowa likes Hu at SS.

49
Alameda is an island just south of Oakland.

49 That's about 8 miles from my work, which is sort of on the northern edge of Oakland.

43 40 As far as I know, the only late additions have been Kershaw and Dewitt and the only cuts have been Martin, Alvarez, Orenduff, McDonald, and Meloan.

They also just added Kevin Howard:

Nomar, Sweeney to miss China trip

>> Minor League infielder Kevin Howard was named as a replacement, meaning Andruw Jones will be the only true veteran making the trip. <<

http://tinyurl.com/yo4ku8

48
that should read "...have ever made the NCAA tourney as an at-large bid."

50
Yes, it was brought up a few times. One of the coaches in the DL said that when Furcal played 2nd base the 1st baseman were afraid of his howitzer. I think he only played 2nd because he joined the team late, and they already had a SS. Given his seniority status I can't imagine them moving him to 2nd and playing Hu at SS instead of the other way around no matter how much Bowa likes him.

The Gammons quote about eating Nomar's contract was interesting. Does anyone really think that if LaRoche had won the job the Dodgers would have eaten Nomar's contract?

Also I expect that Dodger management was pulling for Nomar to have the injury that LaRoche ended up. Not meaning to say they were hoping Nomar got hurt but if someone was to get hurt, I'd bet they wanted it to be Nomar not LaRoche.

54 This year, I think the Pac 10 and Big 12 will both break the curse of having never gotten a .500 team in. It's a combination of the not-quite-major conferences, as a group, being lousy, and those two conferences are also better than usual.

The MVC, A10, WAC, CUSA, and Mountain West, all of which are often good for two or more bids, are probably all going to be one-bid leagues unless New Mexico, UNLV or UAB finds the right side of the bubble.

50 Does anyone really think that if LaRoche had won the job the Dodgers would have eaten Nomar's contract?

Not with the way Ned values depth.

I find the " ...Nomar would not have been happy ... " part interesting. Given Gammon's Red Sox familiarity and his willingness to run with that, am I wrong to give it a little more credibility than I might otherwise (unhappy to the point that contract-eating is palatable)?. Or is just the normal columnist poppycock?

Alameda is the Baseball Toaster World Headquarters.

58 It seems right then that they host an event there.

49 I will be there tonight. BP decides to hold an event near my home, how can I not go?

Oh, Ken, they didn't tell you? It's actually AT your home.

61 Oh, good, maybe I can ask Kevin Goldstein to get rid of that gopher that's currently digging a big hole in my front lawn

The gopher is a three-star prospect at best. I think the only gophers who ever amounted to anything are Dave Winfield and Paul Molitor.

Amusing typo in Yahoo sports version of today's boxscore:

"R Martin 2b 1 0 0 0"

http://tinyurl.com/3ykkcv

No, he's not going the Biggio route.

The letters "ez" make all the difference in the world...

64 - "2b" is text message speak for "to bat." Kids today also don't like to use decimal points. Expressed more formally, what you have is:

"Russell Martin to bat 1.000."

66 As befits a Golden God.

Andrew Bogut was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year.

Dodgers Mailbag: Hot corner a hot topic

http://tinyurl.com/2dfvqx

69 You're just trying to antagonize us with more of that loose Crede/Inge talk. ;)

Good news on Saito.
http://tinyurl.com/22g9ga
Saito cleared a key hurdle in his recovery from a strained calf muscle Monday, throwing 23 pain-free pitches in a Dodgertown bullpen session.

He is cautious though:
"Obviously, that is a big concern, to get ready [for Opening Day]," he said. "That said, I have to take time to heal and not rush and be held back even longer. I have to concentrate on healing my calf."

From Diamond Leung's blog:
Because I keep track of these things, this [Minotaur] video from Jon Weisman was viewed in one day nearly three times more than The Legend of Joe Beimel was viewed in more than three months.
Well, of course. It's not everyday that one sees video of a mythological creature in the flesh.

Argh! Our parents are not supposed to be on Facebook! Man...

Sorry for off topic rant. As you were.

73
If I found my parents on Facebook, I'd be even more freaked out.

Yes--our parents our not supposed to be on facebook, and if they are thats a dark secret, but no darker than the fact that we would much rather be on the bus with Troy from WVa. than most Dodger columnists or broadcasters.(excepting Vin, of course)

73
I'm not even on Facebook.

Troy from WVa? Is that you Gen3?

76
Nor are you my father or mother.

Looks like the 7th team from the Pac-10 in the NCAA tournament will the San Diego Toreros.

77 Fraid so. But its late over here.

Ouch, a Pac 10 Killer. How could they lose to SD?

Clearly, San Diego prayed better.

79
May that be the final meaningful victory for the city of San Diego in 2008.

81
San Diego was playing at home, so that helped.

Another bid was lost when South Alabama, the best team of the Sun Belt, lost in the conference semifinals. South Alabama will still likely get an at-large bid (25-6, #24 RPI).

This could have already been talked about, but Ned Colletti answered some pretty tough questions from fans over at ITD. Some of his answers were a little lame with a hint of arrogance, but all in all kudos to Ned for stepping up to the plate.

85
I have to pull a Billy Packer and say that a team out of the Pac-10 deserves a spot in the tournament more than a lot of these mid-majors.

Or just take less teams from the SEC and other big conferences that had down years.

87
You need to sound a little bit more self-important to pull off a Billy Packer impersonation.

87
Let's look at the teams in question from tonight's action:

South Alabama
26-6, Sun Belt Conference
RPI Rank: 24
Record against top 50 RPI: 3-2
Key wins: Miss St (38 RPI), W. Kentucky twice (46)
Bad losses: North Texas (140), Middle Tennessee St twice (136)

Gonzaga
25-7, West Coast Conference
RPI Rank: 30
Record against top 50 RPI: 3-5
Key wins: UConn (14), St. Mary's (39), W. Kentucky (46)
Bad losses: San Diego (97) tonight

St. Mary's
24-6, West Coast Conference
RPI Rank: 39
Record against top 50 RPI: 2-3
Key wins: Drake (12), Gonzaga (30)
Bad losses: San Diego twice (97)

RPI Rank of Pac-10 teams on the bubble:
Arizona - 31
Oregon - 54
ASU - 74

The mid-majors deserve every conceivable benefit of the doubt over the middle-of-the-pack teams from major conferences. It's excruciatingly hard for them to get high RPIs, because the big boys are never willing to travel to play road games at the mid-majors, which means the mid-majors have to play road-heavy schedules to get high RPIs -- and thus lose whatever attendance revenue they're using to fund their programs. They're basically screwed either way. Anytime a mid-major manages to put together an RPI like the ones listed in 90 , they deserve to go to the NCAA with no questions asked.

I'm in favor of putting as many Pac 10 teams in the tournament as possible, but some of the other "major" conferences having down years are still going to have weak teams make it in. There's no way an Ohio State or a Florida deserves it more than St. Mary's or South Alabama. Florida and Syracuse are two schools who went out of their way to make sure they didn't have any good teams on their nonconference schedules, mid-major or otherwise. Now's the time for them to pay the piper for that decision.

Wait, Gen3Blue is Joe Beimel's biggest fan?

Wait, Jon wants to neuter Juan Pierre?

Wait, I missed Hockey Thoughts????

49 - Isn't Alameda where they keep the nuclear wessels?

With the Dodgers ready to jet off to China, it's interesting to see that the world record holder of the mens marathon is pulling out of the Olympic marathon race due to air pollution concerns. This was something that popped into my head 5 minutes after I walked out of the Beijing airport the first time I visited. The air pollution is awful, you have to see it to believe it, and yes you can really see it and taste it. After two days you will be hacking, just like the taxi drivers. This is my main concern for Dodger players, even more so than the jet lag that they will battle on their return trip back. Perhaps the short stay will help alleviate both the air pollution sickness and the jetlag. This is what one commenter on the story had to say, and I couldn't agree more.
I hope the Dodger players travelling to Beijing have been properly prepared by Dodgers medical staff. vr, Xei
-----------------
I just returned from Changsha, Hunan Province, China. The pollution was unbearable. The only time I saw blue sky was after our flight reached cruising altitude.

The pollution made my eyes tear, lungs burn, and sinuses run. It was absolutely miserable! The city buildings, roads, and plants were all covered with a fine layer of settled particulates. This layer muted colors and gave the city a very drab, depressing appearance.

If you must go to China, drink lots of bottled water and take detoxification supplements to combat the pollution.

94. I think they closed the shipyard/navy base at Alameda during one of the previous BRACs. But yes, many of the ships stationed there were nuclear powered.
vr, Xei

Dodgers sixth in MLB in heart :)

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=792

Kershaw goes international (SFW)

http://tinyurl.com/2csqwj

You've made 11,037 people mildly curious.

You know what my most viewed post this month is? The one about bike parking.

No. 3 is recommending Andy LaRoche visit hotwheels.com.

That's only because you haven't posted anything about Jarrod Saltalamacchia's wife.

101
Since you didn't type her first name, Jon won't get the extra hits.

I tried facebooking underdog, but I ran across several Bay Area people with the same name. I guess he'll have to facebook me.

Hah. I shall try that now, F-Man. Only if you promise not to make your parents my Facebook friends, too. ;-)

Sounds like Andy LaRoche had successful surgery today - this was just posted on MLB.com:
>>Dodgers rookie third baseman Andy LaRoche underwent surgery on Monday to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb. He will be sidelined from eight to 10 weeks.

LaRoche, 24, had two pins inserted to reattach the ligament in a procedure performed by Dr. Steve Shin in Los Angeles. The pins will be removed after three weeks, after which he will begin a rehab program expected to last another five weeks.<<

That was fast.

Everyone talks about how hot Salty's wife is, but how do all these people know what she looks like?

"In Treatment" ends this week with a cliffhanger!

My On Demand service is useless for In Treatment now. It only releases the episodes after the week is over.

Maybe somebody posted this already, but Yahoo has an interesting article up on Royals pitcher (and math geek) Brian Bannister.
http://tinyurl.com/22h3p6
----------------

Last year, Bannister's BABIP was .264, among the [lowest] in the game.

"It's tough because I'm a student of it, and all last year I was well aware I was among the league leaders in it," Bannister said. "But what do you do? Just because you're continuing to get outs, do you say, 'Oh, this shouldn't be happening'?

"I realize very well that I could regress to the mean."

(Bob won't like this part....)
"I find Pitch f/x to be more useful than video," Bannister said, "because you're actually seeing what the pitches are doing late in the zone, and that's what it's all about."

94 Yes, that's why I live in Alameda, because my dad used to work on the nuclear wessels.

Checks for possible LAT opportunities... ok here we go.

On the internet, I found a little highlight audio reel of Chick Hearn's calls from the 1999-2000 season.

The last part of the reel is priceless! Oh how I miss Chick.

Here you go: http://www.estnyboer.com/chick/

109
I hated that piece so much that I posted it over the weekend!

95 That's funny. I just listened to a report on NPR last week that said: (a) the air quality right then in Beijing was not that bad because of some good weather, (b) the air quality has been improving around Beijing because the government shut down coal-powered plants in the surrounding area. The reporter seemed optimistic that the air quality would be OK for the Olympics. Maybe not! I too hope the Dodgers return healthy.

111
Just awesome. Thanks for the link.

Two great Chick quotes at the end:

"Pippen lays on his back, where he belongs!"

"Portland can put the champagne away, and get out the bottled water, because that's all they're gonna drink on their way home!" (right after the Kobe...to Shaq! alley oop)

I'm sure you already know this, but if you don't, Jon, your Kershaw curveball video is on the Yahoo front page.

The secret's out.

I see a video of competitive pizza tossing on Yahoo's front page.

Actually.. it's first in my.yahoo.com

But third on the sports tab on the Yahoo's front page.

115 - not seeing it. What page? Yahoo has a lot of 'em.

116

Click on the sports tab on the front page. It's the third tab on the page. You should see "19-year-old pitcher's curveball gets nickname"

Ohhh. Cool.

first step: inform the world about Clayton Kershaw

second step: Try to convince the world he doesn't exist.

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was...

Well, anyway, speaking of tricks, the Yankees just signed a ringer. A temp ringer, that is.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080311/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bba_yankees_crystal

That man wields a mighty schtick.

Yes. The nuclear wessels. In Alameda. I think it's across the bay, in Alameda.

Nerds.

And stop ruining my drive to work every day.

http://tinyurl.com/2yluq7

119 - must be something only you can see, or maybe I didn't see it before it disappeared. Rotation is a curious thing.

here is the link to the story: http://tiny.cc/MubJ5

I also like how the only negative comments about Minotaur are from Yankee fans

19. I'm not really a gypsy so much as my club teams are not in Europe, they are (of course) Penarol and Rosario Central, so I primarily watch the Argentine League and Copa Libertadores.

19. I'm not really a gypsy so much as my club teams are not in Europe, they are (of course) Penarol and Rosario Central, so I primarily watch the Argentine League and Copa Libertadores.

127 I also mostly watch la primera and libertadores. Boca fan here. Do you know of any bars/restaurants here in LA where it is on satellite? FSC/FSE does not give me enough.

NPUT