Cant the Dodgers put Schmidt/LaRoche both on the 60-day DL in order to open up 2 roster spots for NRI's if need be?

Jason on the other hand...

What the hey, I'll try to remember a few.

Greg Brock--discussed a lot, yes, but more because he had 44 homers in Albuquerque and Garvey was on his way out. I don't remember people being as excited about him as they are now about Kershaw.

Fernando--didn't generate excitement until he wore the big uni.

Piazza--see above.

Maybe it's early but that's all I can think of for now.

I also agree with Edwin Jackson. However, I don't recall him getting a ton of press until after he made his debut in the bigs. I think Edwin started getting the pub after the ESPNs of the world saw him in action.

I'm fine with publishers not signing Josh for the selfish reason I get to read him for free. I can say that about a lot of people on the net but with Wilker, his talent is so evident... well, if I were a publisher, I'd call him. Soon.

regfairfield, I tried sending you an email about MLB08, but it bounced. There's more at the TrueBlueLA comments section.

I forwarded it again.

He's like our own Cyclops to go with the Minotaur.

http://tinyurl.com/29a7jx

Had the surgery ten days ago.

I have to say, even though I knew a lot less then about baseball scouting and all that than I do now (whatever that's saying), even then I knew Billy Ashley was overrated. He was a terrible fielder and when I saw him he looked like someone who could club the ball far and deep, or strike out, and not much else. He was like a very poor man's Adam Dunn, and I never quite understood where all the hype came from. Of course, I did think Brock and Stubbs would be great. Having seen him hit and seen Young hit, while there's some imperfections with Young, he is a much better all around hitter.

Guess I'll be missing a bunch of NIT games.

StrikeOuts PlateApp Rate
Ryan Howard
145 559 3.85
151 540 3.57
166 535 3.22
166 544 3.27

Billy Ashley
152 497 3.26
143 517 3.61
116 441 3.80

Ashley by the time he hit AAA at age 23 had improved his K rate and walk rate while Ryan Howard was going in the opposite direction.

I think the Dodgers did Ashley a disservice by bringing him up to the majors at age 21. He had holes in his swing and it is possible if they had let him accumulate at bats like Howard did in the low minors he would have become something. His power for a right handed bat was Frank Howard like.

I would say Marshall and Kershaw are comparable in terms of hype. Would we accept a 117 ERA+ from Kershaw in his first seven full seasons (all above average), or is that not enough? Part of the allure of such a great prospect is that the ceiling is so high, of course, but I'd like to think we could live with at least a Marshall-like beginning to Clayton's career.

http://tinyurl.com/2n3b8x

I'm also betting that he hits .220ish this year.

http://tinyurl.com/2v6gk4

From that link: "The talent Kemp has is undeniable. If he learns the mental aspects of the game instead of relying solely on talent and improves his plate discipline just a little, he can be a top-10 player in this league."

:)

Man that is a ridiculous amount of money for a two game trip. I'll go for 10K to be the bag boy.

I know they make tons of money already, but this highlights the absurdity of salaries for me. I know the owners make a ton, and the players and staff deserve their share, but that is more than a lot of people in America make in one year.

Alex English's performance in that movie narrowly beat Ray Allen ("He Got Game") for 2nd best active NBA acting performance. Kareem's "Roger Murdock" in Airplane is an easy winner here.

Shaq may get a lifetime achievement award for his vast catalog of work.

http://tinyurl.com/2wvtpx

"The players who go also receive a check for $3,000 — in addition to a visit to the Great Wall, a tour of Beijing and some wonderful Chinese food that may look a whole lot different than that Chinese takeout around the corner in the U.S."

Then again, Gary Thorne has lied to us before.

Willie never lived up to the hype but I always liked him and he did have some decent years.

Reminds me of when Latrell Sprewell was demanding a new deal from The Timberwolves because he "had a family to feed." He was making almost 15 million that year.

They may also spell "reminbi" correctly. I can't guarantee that.

http://tinyurl.com/3cvvhh

A lot of takeout?

You have got to believe or it won't be so. Something to think about as the season is about to begin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Tall_Wish

I would also like to point out that several thousand fans - many, if not most of whom paid a lot of money to travel to Florida to see the Sox play - are being screwed out of a major portion of their spring training experience because certain coaches and staff members won't be getting paid an EXTRA FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS to do what they would otherwise normally be doing, except for sitting on a chartered plane a few hours longer than usual.

92 Congrats!

A show like that today would not go on the air (no regular cast, dark subject matter, etc.) but it was something that a young kid in LA loved to watch on Channel 5.

vr, Xei

And congrats, Lex! She may be a girl but hopefully you'll adorn her room with Dodger blue. None of this pink stuff. ;-)

vr, Xei

92 Congrats! Get that kid a glove.

Oh yeah, and George Steinbrenner proved he's not just an ass in baseball.

106 Hey Marty, I took the pregnant Lady to Bill's chicken the other day, it was pretty good....I wanted to check out that place on Fair Oaks you told me about, but forgot what it was called, and the cross street....fill me in!

After that, you might not see me in public for quite some time.

vr, Xei

I've stayed in some mighty small rooms. But not the capsule hotels. Those are for drunken businessmen who missed the last train.

I read somewhere before the Dodgers left for China that each player would receive $40,000.00 for the trip so I suspect the $3,000.00 is just per diem to cover them while they were there. I'm going to search the archives to see if I can find where that $40,000.00 was mentioned.

Renminbi. Pretty hard on the western tongue.

Thanks for the love everyone, now I'm off to bust us outta this hospital....

i meant to say myspace.com page.

Kathy Ireland (45); Holly Hunter (50); Spike Lee (51); William Hurt (57); Bobby Orr (60); Pat Riley (63)

I LOLed.

http://tinyurl.com/2ubed9

122 Good luck!!

Mike (NYC): I drafted Andy LaRoche late in an NL only league only to find out his hand is in a caste. What kind of season can we expect of him?

Will Carroll: Not much. The Dodgers won't have him back until late May at best and by then, they'll likely have someone new blocking him. I don't understand this organization, other than the concept that we can't get a solid read on who the real decision maker is on any given decision.

My opinion is that this year more than ever, the lines of responsibility are this, Ned and his staff have gathered the 30 or so guys left in camp (not counting the NRI catchers and pitchers, who are there just to conserve the regular players) and Joe and his staff will now whittle that down to his active roster.

After that, playing time and pitching staff usage will rest with Joe.

Ned has shown, perhaps reluctantly, but in the end, if someone is not being used, he will be gotten rid of.

Will Carroll expresses an opinion not dissimilar to many from the outside, if playing for now, why not trade prospects for guys like Miggy and Santana, if they are playing the kids, why bring in vets on their downside to hamper their development. Its this strange hybrid that they can't get a handle on.

At first I thought "misspelling." And then I realized that no, it actually applies, and not just to his hand.

People popped out of offices to take a look at him I was told.

http://insidethedodgers.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/2008/03/practice_were_t.html

But then who would be the judge?

Jim Callis: (2:47 PM ET ) I was thinking more Gandhi.

9:25 AM - Portland State versus Kansas

11:30 AM - Kentucky versus Marquette

4:10 PM - Kansas State versus USC

6:40 PM - Mississippi Valley State versus UCLA

Friday

9:25 AM - Gonzaga versus Davidson

11:45 AM - University of San Diego versus Connecticut

4:25 PM - Oregon versus Mississippi State

6:30 PM - Arkansas versus Indiana

Stanford has a 54 percent chance of making the Sweet 16, but only a 27 percent chance of making it past the Longhorns, and a 1.46 percent chance to win the championship.

Mississippi Valley State has a 1 in 600 trillion chance to win it all.

http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=257

I've got K-State over SC. Who's with me?

However, USC has not done well generally if Mayo goes off on his own, the key will be for others to get involved, it comes down to a Beasley vs. Mayo game, watch out.

The part I found interesting is - what did she mean or imply by "I didn't know..."? Why should she know? Did she mean that someone (who looks) like you couldn't be expected to have good-looking friends, because you're not glamorous yourself and all such people tend to stick together? Someone like you wouldn't have good-looking friends because normally they wouldn't want to know you?

Yeah, I realize it's probably just a menaningless conversational gambit to get into saying she found him good-looking, but still...

Tenn. vs Wisconsin

UCLA vs. Texas

Well THAT had my attention. Too bad I can't read it.

"I remember when the librarian was a much older woman: Kindly, discreet, unattractive. We didn't know anything about her private life. We didn't want to know anything about her private life. She didn't have a private life."

Frankly, this is where a great owner would step in and say one of two things to his general manager:

1. "Ned, I signed off on that ridiculous contract so I'm not going to hold it against you. Forget about the $44 million. That's gone. Just make the right baseball decision."

or

2. "You're fired."

184 yeah, me too

Pierre is a sunk cost. The money's gone already, so the team should just make the correct baseball decision regarding whom should start in the Dodger OF.

My Final Four: Tenn vs. GTown, Memphis vs. UCLA

I may switch out Georgetown with Kansas, and if I have had any stones whatsoever, I'd take Memphis over UCLA. But I will homer up and pick the Bruins to beat Tennessee for the title.

I'm disheartened that Pomeroy has K-State with a 56.41% chance to win round 1. This game serves as a sort of payback to arguments with my uncles (from Kansas) who dismiss the entire Pete Carroll era by noting that he's 0-2 against Kansas St!

If I had time, I could try and pull out everytime Ned has said that he thinks the best players should play but that wouldn't prove much.

This is now Joe Torre's decison, if he decides to sit Pierre, that will force Ned to decide on what to do with him. The front office is not going to easily get rid of Pierre unless they are convinced of two things, that Ethier, Jones and Kemp are the best threesome (seems like that is the leaning sentiment) and that if something happens to one of those guys, Young and/or Repko are better alternatives than keeping Pierre around.

I really, really like that version, and Thunder Road is my favorite Bruce song.

Hi Everybody!

2. My ringtone is Booker T. and the MG's. "Green Onions." I am the only one I know with this ringtone.

Who here thinks Kemp, Ethier, Jones, Repko and Young will all avoid injuries this season?

I do think Pomeroy's numbers overrate K-State for two reasons--
1) He treats all games equally, and most of K-State's strong games happened a very long time ago, and
2) The computer can't properly adjust for the truly schizophrenic nature of K-State's home and road records.

Well, I suppose Kershaw could play the OF 4 out of every 5 days. :)

I very much like the version of "Born to Run" on that recording.

OT: Is this some type of plot to cover up cursing with the sounds of tropical birds?

http://tinyurl.com/243vbs

Since I have picked at least 11 brackets by now for various contests, I have no idea what my final four is. It depends on the bracket.

210 - Don't you have some cars to service? Beep beep!

Speaking of Oregon, where is D4P?

But as it stands, barring a trade, my guess is we're going to see a rotation of outfielders in general - rather than a platoon at one spot, Kemp, Ethier and Pierre (who will also probably spot Andruw once in awhile) will probably all rotate in and out to make everyone happy -- except the fans of course. (But the argument would be it's better than sitting Kemp or Ethier in general.)

I'd expect Pierre to be thrilled he has a job and a multimillionaire for doing very little, but I guess I'm just picturing something different.

Oregon has green jerseys as well, they wore them against Wazzu in the pac-10 tourney.

Lorenzo Charles catching an air ball and making the game winning basket is why I'm a huge March Madness fan today. I was blase during all the years that UCLA won, but that Wolfpack team woke something up and now it is my favorite time of year. Youtube brings back the magic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rgxXgaV9M0

But I am reminded of Walter J Myers Jr yelling at the kids in the focus group about what they want in "Itchy and Scratchy."

In the bracket based on the last 12 games, I've got a final four of NC-Davidson-Cornell-Belmont, with Davidson winning it all, thanks to their 12-0 record and 10 seed. That also leads to a history-making 16 vs. 1 upset of Portland St. over Kansas.

My other brackets are more sane.

235 Contact customer service.

237 And that's when Poochie was born.

165 Useful for gauging the competition. (Mozilla doesn't like the 'u' in gauging, but I'm going with it; is the 'u' no longer preferred?)

I'm having trouble imagining Suffering Bruin whispering in a library.

And congrats to Lexinthedena's new bundle. Good luck to Mr. and Mrs. Jon.

My ringtone at the moment is "Dirty Work" by Steely Dan.

http://tinyurl.com/2srbbx

Was the tinyurl a confirmation of what I said about Hibbert or is that not a t-shirt? I admit, I can be blind sometimes.

Speaking of that, I got into my car at lunch and was greeted with the Stephen A. Smith show on ESPN radio. He then announced his guests for the next hour would be Dick Vitale and Steve Phillips.

I would like to thank ESPN Radio for consolidating things I dislike into one easy to avoid medium for once.

I did not do well.

http://tinyurl.com/ytoa78

I need to give away more stuff.

Inflation! Those were the days.

They expect me to read EVERY word in the headline. I'm a busy man. I have to wait around to be thanked and excused for a second day!

Is it because the Toaster has such stringent requirements for registration?

Six sentences later, he whines: "If one of the teams playing is UCLA, it makes it easier on the refs because the Bruins get all the calls."

http://www.sitemeter.com/a=stats&s=s23truebluela

It's that sitemeter link on the bottom of the page. I can proudly say we're not the least read NL West related blog.

How many copies of MLB08: The Show did you have for review? I sent an e-mail yesterday but I don't know if you got it or not.

No problem, just wondering. Thanks anyway.

Playing their song after first downs...that was hilarious.

Sorry, Jon

During the Pac-10 tournament at Staples, there is a pretty lame scoreboard feature called "Fight song karaoke."

For Stanford, they showed one guy who went:
"Duh, duh duh, duh duh, duh duh, duh, duh, duh .... All right now, baby it's all right now."

It was less than awe-inspriring.

A lot of reviews have been saying to go with MLB08:The Show rather than MLB2K8. I'm just waiting/hoping for a good deal on MLB08 to show up before I purchase it.

Yea it does. Especially when some writers says you had "injuries" as if you were faking it.

Via FJM

299 Bizzare, what's wrong?

Adam Jones for Ethier swap. He shot my Mike Cameron for Ethier proposal down. Pretty deep 14 team ROTO R,HR,RBI,SB,AVG

This is killing me.

"Fight on" after a first down.
"Tribute to Troy" after a defensive stop.
USC also plays "All Right Now."

I said, "Hey, what's your name?
Maybe we can see things the same.
"Now don't you wait, or hesitate.
Let's move before they raise the parking rate."

http://tinyurl.com/3xb29m

317 I read on Rotowire Nix is in the lead, but all three (!) could split time.

It appears I'll have to accept that for the time being. :-) I went back to Dodgers.com to find the $40,000.00 reference and couldn't locate it. It was as if someone had removed it to keep Curt Schilling from seeing it. :-) But I know I read in though because I remember thinking what a great deal this must be for guys such as Kevin Howard and John Lindsey who probably have never seen a $40,000.00 check before. In fact, I now recall that article saying the players would also get a percentage of the gate which was expected to add another $3,000.00 or so to there total.

"I think somebody's trying to rake the coals over a fire that's not burning," said Blake, comparing Hill's situation to his own acting career, which never materialized after he played a dead body in the 1945 war movie "They Were Expendable." "We all have disappointments."

http://www.insidesocal.com/dodgers/archives/2008/03/nomar_has_an_mr.html

Oh my! I've been bitten by the old there for their bug. :-)

Jim, What's your thoughts on Alixei Ramirez? Keith Law recently compared him to a younger more raw version of Alfonso Soriano, because of his wiry body, his strong wrists and hands and his lack of plate discipline. What's your thoughts? Thanks and keep up the good work.

SportsNation Jim Callis: I don't think he's going to be the big power threat that Soriano is, but they do have the same build and swing-at-everything approach. Ramirez will help the White Sox and he's versatile. I think he'll be their second baseman this year and perhaps their center fielder in the future.

Oh boy! Trouble in River City.

"Eric Stults and Greg Miller were optioned to minor-league camp today, leaving the overall roster at 42."

http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/43780

And, no Blake Dewitt is not the answer right now.

German is an option I really like.

So now we are looking at Hu at 3rd, Furcal at SS, and hoping for one of Kent or Abreu to be available at 2B each game. I suppose Delwyn could be in the mix as well if absolutely necessary.

Right now, I put both on track to not see any regular season action until May.

I wouldn't mind putting Hu or Delwyn at 3rd, but if Nomar's gonna be out for a bit, I expect we'll import some PVL guy, hopefully it's just a stopgap type.

Does anyone remember watching him play 3B? He and Willie Keeler are the only lefties to play as many as 10 career games at 3B since 1901.

"Nomar Garciaparra" + "wrist" + "microfracture" = no April baseball (at least).

No, he wouldn't have.

http://tinyurl.com/2ogd8g

i have loaiza 19-8 with a 2.87 era right now. but ask me in 10 days, it will change.