On The DL

Send In the Clowns

2005-01-03T14:51:00.000-08:00

The breakup of the 2004 Dodgers, apparently the worst team ever to win a division title, is nearing completion. The exciting, scrappy, energetic bunch of players that so endeared themselves to us has been scattered to the wind like so many hot dog wrappers at Dodger Stadium.

You can now add Shawn Green to the list of expatriates that includes Adrian Beltre, Steve Finley, Jose Lima, Alex Cora, and Jose Hernandez. It's only a matter of time before Odalis Perez joins the castaways, and those are just the ones that made it to the end of the season. A more inclusive list would also contain Paul LoDuca, Guillermo Mota, and Dave Roberts.

There's no way to sugarcoat this trade. We're not even getting a decent pitcher like Javier Vazquez out of this deal. It's a salary dump, pure and simple -- and not even a very good one, since that it looks like the Dodgers are still going to pay half of the money owed to Green in 2005. The Diamondbacks will pay Green only $8 million next year, while the Dodgers will pay him the same amount to play for a division rival. Eighteen times next season the Dodgers will be helping to pay for one of the players trying to beat the Dodgers. How nauseating is that?

There is no way this trade makes sense. According to the LA Times, the Dodgers will be getting Dioner Navarro and a pitching prospect, while Peter Gammons says the Dodgers will get Navarro and two prospects. Not a major-leaguer in the bunch, although Navarro and his .275 AAA batting average is probably the frontrunner for LA's open catching position now.

As for the argument that dumping Green's salary (or half of it, anyway) frees up money to sign a starting pitcher, all I can say is that the only decent SP left on the market is Derek Lowe, who wasn't even as good as Odalis Perez last year. He's hardly the answer for the Dodgers' rotation problems. Pavano or Clement or Milton would have been better, but they're gone now. And besides, according to Dodger Thoughts, the Dodgers probably could've been able to afford a guy like Lowe and keep Green, without going over the magical (and probably, mythical) $100 million threshold that McCourt promised.

As for Lowe, I take it back. He's not decent, and he wasn't anywhere near as good as Odalis Perez last year, putting up a lousy 5.42 ERA with just 105 strikeouts. But because he's the last of the big-name pitchers left on the market, DePodesta is going to have to overpay for his services, probably to the tune of about $10 million per year.

And remember scrappy, energetic, and exciting? Next year's team is going to be big, lumbering, and slooooow. Izturis, Bradley, and Drew will provide a little bit of speed at the top of the lineup, but after that the Dodgers will be playing station-to-station, wait-for-the-three-run-homer type baseball. It looks like Kent will bat cleanup, followed by Choi, Werth, Valentin, and probably Navarro, each guy slower than the one before him. Valentin, Navarro, and the pitcher's spot will be a black hole of offense at the bottom of the order that will kill rallies and stifle big innings. Looking at their stats, I suppose it's not out of the realm of possibility that Choi will effectively replace Green's production in the lineup, but it's a longshot, especially considering that Green has a recent track record of near-.600 slugging percentage seasons, should be recovered from his shoulder surgery, and is in the walk year of his contract. Choi, meanwhile, is a young player burdened now by high expectations and a slow bat, and I'm still not convinced he can get hits off of anyone except the fifth starters of the league.

On the brighter side, I note that Arte Moreno has gone through with his threat to dump on the loyal fans of Orange County that he professes to care so deeply for. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who missed the three-ring circus I had always associated Angels baseball with. Despite being the home of two of the six division champs, Southern California baseball fans can't be too happy with their teams right now.

Strange Days

2004-12-17T13:38:00.000-08:00

The dismantling of the 2004 NL West division winning Dodgers continues. Normally, a team has to get old and make a few trips to the postseason before a rebuilding phase starts. Paul DePodesta has apparently decided that one playoff win was as good as this team was going to get.

I've already commiserated over the fact that the Dodgers got outbid by the Mariners (God, I never thought I'd put that string of words together) for the services of their homegrown 25-year-old star, Adrian Beltre. As my head was reeling from that unpleasantness, I heard about the possible Green-Vasquez-Unit deal.

That trade is on holdup as of this moment, as Arizona tries to coax Green into accepting a contract extension to play in Phoenix. The Dodgers are reportedly trying to wheedle another player for their suddenly depleted lineup, and even Randy Johnson is rethinking life in the Bronx. However, I'll try and analyze the deal as it is.

The Yankees get rid of their rotation headache and land the Big Unit, which combined with Pavano, Wright, Brown and Mussina gives them the killer rotation they were lacking last year. They also lose their two best prospects, but that's not saying much, considering how barren their farm system is. The Diamondbacks lose Randy, but in return they get a very good starter who's something of a medical question mark, a tremendous young bullpen arm, and Shawn Green, a streaky slugger who can be alternately devastating and whimpering, but who's probably due for a comeback year.

The Dodgers would get Javier Vasquez, who had three and a half very good years before becoming unglued in the 2nd half of 2004. He's still owed $34 million over the next three years, but I figure that the Yankees will be paying a portion of that. He should be better this year, pitching in Dodger Stadium, and he doesn't have the medical uncertainties surrounding Brad Penny. Neither of the two prospects are blue-chips, although Dioner Navarro might be able to compete for the starting catcher job this spring. Losing Brazoban is hard to swallow (and he's not the kind of guy you want to give up if you're starting a youth movement), but he was probably the deal-breaker; Arizona wouldn't make the trade without him.

DePodesta must really want Green and Penny out of here. Yes, Green has a bad contract, but he's only owed $16 million for 2005, and then the Dodgers are done with him. The Dodgers are going to end up owing Vasquez as much as twice that amount, and are on the hook with him until 2007. Unless this trade is a pure salary dump (which it may very well be), the only way this makes sense is if the Dodgers use the money to sign at least two of the top remaining free agents, perhaps Clement and Drew, or maybe Delgado. As is stands right now, the Dodger lineup and rotation is headed for a 100-loss season.

On the surface, this trade indeed looks like a Kansas City Royal-type salary dump. I've been fuming over McCourt and his empty promise to keep a $100 million payroll, but what makes no sense here is the Jeff Kent signing. Why commit that kind of money to an aging player like that if he was looking to cut payroll? By himself, Kent is nearly worthless. Combined with other big hitters in a potent roster, he can be a valuable down-lineup role player. DePodesta has been saying that the Dodgers will field a competitive team with a big payroll next year, and the Kent deal would seem to indicate that. So I've got to believe that the Dodgers are still going to be players in the free-agent market, or what's left of it.

One more note: The LA Times this morning reported that the Dodgers final offer to Beltre was a ridiculously low six years, $60 million. If that was really the case, then I get the feeling the Dodgers never really had any intention of re-signing Beltre. That's a serious lowball offer, only made to give McCourt plausible deniability: "Hey, we tried to re-sign him! We made him an offer! It's not our fault he took the money and ran!" Between that offer and the one he eventually got from the Mariners, I guess I can't really blame Adrian for signing with Seattle - although he and Boras aren't blameless; the Dodgers should have been given the opportunity to match that offer. Other sources are indicating that the Dodger offer was actually six years at $70 million, which is a bit more reasonable. But it seemed to be more important to Boras and Beltre to get the higher annual salary and be able to return to the free-agent market at age 30, when he'll be able to sign yet another lucrative contract.

The past 24 hours have been unnerving, to say the least. It's impossible to tell what direction this team is heading in. It's like being a passenger in a bus that you have no idea what the destination is. You just have to sit back and trust that the driver knows what he is doing, and you'll either be very happy or very upset when you disembark. Until then, you just have to wait.

Welcome to the Neighborhood

2004-12-16T16:47:00.000-08:00

For five and a half years, Dodger fans had to put up with Adrian Beltre and his mediocre production, all while listening to the pie-in-the-sky stories of his seemingly limitless upside and potential. And yet we stood by him loyally, through the two-year appendectomy recovery and season after season of .260 batting averages and 20-odd homeruns, telling all the doubters and naysayers, "Just you wait. He'll be great someday, watch and see."

So, in 2004, he finally got great. He put up one of the greatest seasons for a third baseman in history, in his walk year, of course. And this is what we get for it? Jilted by Scott Boras, who drove Beltre straight to the team offering the fattest bi-weekly paycheck. The Dodgers offered more years and more money, although presumably at a lower annual rate. The loyalty of the fans and the organization who invested in him, was patient with him, and for whom he blossomed into a superstar obviously didn't matter in the least. He's a whore just like the rest of them.

And as we watch Tim Hudson get traded not to the Dodgers, but to the Braves, and see the holes in the roster turn into gaping chasms, we can all sense a more disturbing trend at work here. The Dodgers will no longer be contenders for the premium players in baseball. We will not be able to sign the big-time free-agents, or swing the blockbuster trade that nets us a superstar. The competitive, $100 million+ payroll we were promised by Frank McCourt was apparently a myth. The high-rent district inhabited by the Yankees and Red Sox and (ugh) Angels is now off-limits to us. We are now permanently relegated to the part of town that the A's and Pirates and Brewers live in. This is where the clubs who live off the scraps from other teams reside. Who can't keep their own stars from bolting at the first sign of free-agency. Who live and die on the success of their farm system and the wit and guile of their management. It's a precarious existence in this neighborhood.

We don't need to be like the Yankees, greedily gobbling up the premium players on the market every offseason. And we sure don't want to be like the Mets or Orioles, giving bloated contracts to undeserving or past-their-prime free agents. But we also don't want to be like the A's either, always skating by with a bargain-basement team that wins only if they overachieve. Don't get me wrong, I love a scrappy group of unheralded overacheivers as much as the next guy, but that's not the baseball model the Dodgers should be following. Hiring a Billy Beane protege like Paul DePodesta should have introduced an element of that, but that should not be the overall modus operandi for the tradition-rich, major-market Los Angeles Dodgers.

There is no reason we should have been spurned by our own star free-agent, especially considering the deal he ended up signing for was a lot less outrageous than I personally thought it was going to be. I can't believe the McCourts couldn't at least match the five years, $64 million Beltre got from the Mariners. That's less per year than Shawn Green is making and slightly more than Darren Driefort, both of whom will be off the Dodgers' books by 2006. And at only five years long, it's not as constraining as the six- or seven-year contract that the Dodgers were reportedly offering. For all his talk about the folly of tieing up a lot of money in a single player for a long period of time, DePodesta revealed that his only real constraint in re-signing Beltre was the thinness of Frank McCourt's wallet.

Major League Baseball thought they were going to keep a drag on player salaries by forcing the team in the 2nd-biggest media market in the nation into the hands of a cash-strapped owner. As this winter has seen, other teams like the Angels and Mariners have stepped up and brought back a return of the free-spending days of the late 1990s. And the Dodgers are left behind in the low-rent neighborhood, clipping coupons and shopping at Wal-Mart, while the Mariners and Scott Boras take Adrian Beltre out for dinner at Pastis and a spending spree at Barney's.

I guess I can't blame him. A whore has to look good, too.

Institutional Buffoonery

2004-11-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

Whew, time to take a respite from the offseason hiatus (?) and blow some dust off this joint. School's coming along fine, thanks for asking, but it doesn't leave a whole lot of time left over for blogging. With the end of the World Series, I decided to get my priorities straightened out, vis-a-vis my free time. The blog, unfortunately, found its way down the list (at least until spring training starts). So, some quick takes before I launch into what brought me out of my temporary exile: The Lakers are just about where we thought they'd be. The Clippers are better than we thought they'd be. And I still have a funny feeling that the BCS will figure out a way to fulfill the "Mandatory Pac-10 Screw Job" clause in its charter and concoct a scheme to keep USC out of the Orange Bowl.

One of the stories that I've been following from my cross-country perspective is the efforts by Arte Moreno to rename his team the "Los Angeles Angels." It involves issues of civic pride and regional recognition, and this piece from today's LA Times, captures the essence of the controversy better than any other so far.

Historically, I've never had much regard for the Angels. I don't mean that in a negative way, I just mean that I never really had the team on my radar. While I was growing up as a huge Dodger fan, the Angels were just the somewhat local American League club with endemic institutional buffoonery that played nearby, but not that nearby. I never understood why they shared front-page space with the Dodgers in the LA Times sports section. (There's a part of me that still doesn't understand.) The Los Angeles Dodgers were Los Angeles' team; the California Angels were... somebody else's team. Even when they had their big playoff run in 1986, right after my formative experience with the Dodgers in '85, I just couldn't bring myself to care about them in any significant way. If they had a good year, that was nice. If they didn't, whatever. It's just the Angels. No big deal.

Obviously, a big part of that was the relative history and tradition of the two teams. The Dodgers had a pedigree and a long lineage, with Hall-of-Fame players, World Series championships, and a secure, rightful place in American lore. The Angels had... Bo Belinsky. That the Angels were just inherently inferior to the Dodgers was a given, an immutable fact of baseball in Southern California. Even in the 1990s, while the Dodgers endured a calamitous decade on and off the field, the Angels couldn't capitalize. They had their own on-field disaster in 1995, and seemed forever doomed to be the red-headed stepchild to the Dodgers' golden boy.

Of course, that all changed in 2002. Yeah, I rooted for the Angels that year, in the same way I was rooting for the Red Sox this year. It was the underdog thing; I didn't care much about the team overall, but it was nice to see the perennial whipping boy make good. (The fact that their World Series opponent was the Giants made that somewhat easier.) But that championship shifted the regional dynamics that had always been in place. The Angels could no longer be looked down on in disdain by the Southern California baseball cognoscenti. Orange County's little red-headed stepchild had captivated the region. AK and Ecks and Glaus and Percy and K-Rod had become household names. Angels gear was the hot fashion in the malls and on all the beaches. The LA Times had become Your #1 Source for Angels Coverage! (The Times started regularly listing the baseball standings with the AL always above the NL, meaning that the Angels would always be at the very top of the column, while the Dodgers place in the standings was buried halfway down the page, below the American League probable starters. A minor point, but a subtle, all-too-apparent embodiment of the Dodgers' diminished stature.) For us Dodger fans, at that point enduring a 14th straight year of postseason futility, these were all vaguely disturbing trends.

Then Arte Moreno stepped into the picture. He came in and basically said, "I'm not going to allow 2002 to be some kind of fluke. This team is going to have the payroll to compete with the big boys, and we're going to put a perennial winner on the field. Oh, and by the way, I'm slashing the price of beer at the concession stands." Meanwhile, our beloved team was being written off by the Fox Group, and MLB was fervently pulling the strings so that a financially-constrained owner would succeed to the throne. The fans of Orange County, for too long neglected by the sports gods, were bursting with pride, and for the first time ever, the Dodger faithful were looking wistfully towards the Orange Curtain.

Last offseason's Vladimir Guerrero debacle was emblematic of an Angels franchise that seemingly could do no wrong, while the Dodgers were struggling to do anything right. Moreno started charging hard after the Los Angeles market, with an aggressive advertising campaign that proclaimed the Angels as LA's team, with strapping Anaheimians like Kennedy and Erstad deviously slapping the Angels logo on various LA landmarks. In contrast, the Dodgers' big advertising push in 2004 featured a family of talking bobblehead dolls.

The Dodgers needed a successful 2004 in more ways than one. A reassertion of authority in the suddenly competitive Southern California baseball market was essential for a franchise that had taken its primacy for granted for far too long. The Dodgers indeed had a successful year, re-energizing and reinvigorating a fan base that had been starved for October baseball. But the Angels had a successful year, too, with an exciting playoff run and an MVP season out of Vlad. LA is pumped about its team -- its real team, the Dodgers -- and Orange County is still beaming about its team. The stage, perhaps, has been set for a mutually beneficial golden era of healthy competition between the two clubs, and maybe even a genuinely passionate cross-town (or cross-region) rivalry will develop.

But now Arte Moreno is trying to screw everything up. He has made all the right moves since he became owner of the Angels two years ago, but I think he is making a colossal blunder with his attempts to drop "Anaheim" from the team name. The emergence of the Angels the past few years has given Orange County a boost of civic pride, rare for a region of sprawling suburbs and isolated communities. It's a feeling that, for maybe the first time ever, the region can stand on even footing with Los Angeles. Moreno is undercutting that, badly. He is ruining a lot of the goodwill he built up with an Orange County fan base that wants nothing to do with their smoggy northern neighbor. I remember how the Raiders' civic support dwindled when Al Davis, in an effort to broaden his fan base, removed "Los Angeles" from the team's gear, schedules, logo, and tickets. Moreno has already taken that step, and I could see the same thing happening in Anaheim. The local passion that has been built up for the Angels could dwindle because of the subvert message that the team seems like they don't really want to be here. A team that disregards their loyal fans like that is a team headed for irrelevance. For a case study of this, please look under Expos, Montreal. (Also, remember how well the Los Angeles Rams fared while they played in Anaheim? The examples of why this is a bad idea are too numerous.)

No matter how many 'A' logos get plastered all over town, the Angels are not an LA team. The huge LA-Long Beach-Orange County metro agglomeration may be a single market under TV definitions, but the region is simply too geographically far-flung to reasonably have two teams claiming the same principal city as their respective base. Let's face it, the Angels play in a huge urban setting that is 40 miles removed from Los Angeles proper. They already have their own region, one that's plenty big enough to call home base. The Dodgers and Angels are not the Cubs and White Sox, or the Mets and Yankees, teams that legitimately inhabit single cities. They are, however, much more like the A's and Giants: Regionally similar but geographically distinct rivals that share the same television market.

As usual, money is behind this nonsense. Moreno wants to be able to able to market the team better by attaching the bigger name to it. For a guy who claims to be all about the fans first and foremost, this is a hypocritical slap in the face. So far, Anaheim mayor Curt Pringle has held his ground, and says he is going to hold Moreno up to his contractual obligations to call the team the "Anaheim Angels". But I'm sure the back-scratching payoff is not far behind. Already, a compromise offer has been made, according to the LA Times article: The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

And just like that, the golden era is over, and the Angels are back to being the buffoons of baseball.

Finally, It's Over

2004-10-20T22:16:00.000-07:00

The best line of the night, courtesy of Jim Caple at ESPN.com:

In hindsight, perhaps it was a mistake for the Yankees to raise a "Mission Accomplished" banner above their dugout after Game 3.

New York is on mass suicide alert. Boston has just drowned in spilled beer. Details to come...

If Only They Could Both Lose...

2004-10-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

It's been slim picking around here lately, as my workload has reached the point where it kills most of my blogging time. And with the Dodgers now working on their golf games, I can't make a dedicated effort to stay up-to-date. I'm just not that interested in whether or not Jim Tracy can make the green in three.

Needless to say, New York is in a state of hysteria right now. The radio shows are blathering on about how this is the most important game in the history of the Yankee franchise. I hate to say it, but they might be right. For the New York Yankees to be the first team ever to cough up a 3-0 posteseason lead, and to do it to the Red Sox, of all teams, would be a stain they could never erase.

Now, it's not like the Yanks would become cursed or anything if they lost tonight. With Steinbrenner's endless pocketbook, a curse-buster is only a free-agent signing or two away. But they would never live this down if they lose this game. For the Red Sox, on the other hand... what can you say? They either win tonight, in which case they break the curse (?) and get over on the Yankees for the first time ever, or they lose, in which case New Englanders get to go back to doing what they love to do: moaning about the oh-so-cruel twists of fate they must endure as fans of the most star-crossed team in sports.

I've always said that the Red Sox would lose their identity if they ever won the World Series. They'd turn into the Marlins or Diamondbacks or Angels, just another team that got hot in October and won a title. Don't get me wrong, I'd give anything for my team to get hot in October and win a title, but the only thing special about the Red Sox and their fans is that air of inevitable doom that always follows them around. They just wouldn't be as interesting if they finally won it all, although it would be entertaining to see the city of Boston fall into the Atlantic.

Honestly, I hate both these teams. I hate the Yankees because they're the corporate behemoth of baseball, and I hate the Red Sox because of their insufferable woe-is-us routine. Of course, I'll be watching tonight, but only as an objective baseball observer.

Not that anybody's noticing, but meanwhile, the Cards and Astros have been playing a pretty entertaining series. And I still think either of them can beat the eventual AL champ in the Series. It's been that kind of year.

Requiem for a Heavyweight

2004-10-11T11:34:00.000-07:00

A crushing workload the past week has kept me from updating the site recently, but rest assured, I was still finding time to follow the final lunging, desperate convulsions of the Dodgers' 2004 season.

With the obvious exception of emerging victorious in the World Series, the season came to an end in the best manner possible. The Dodgers fought gamely and valiantly, but lost to a team that was just simply superior. I wouldn't be saying that if the Dodgers had lost to the Braves or Astros, but the Cardinals are a tremendous team, and one that deserves to go all the way. We didn't get upset, or fail to show up, or choke away a sure thing. With all the consternation over Odalis and the weak showing of our starting pitching, the fact remains that the Cards are an offensive monster and our starters just weren't good enough to stop them. True, when we needed him to step up and be the dominant pitcher we all know he can be, Perez just couldn't come through. But Dodger fans' rosy reflections of 1988 might be clouding the judgment of some. That year was an aberration; 99% of the time, the better team wins.

I've got no regrets. This was by far the best Dodger season since '88. The 53 come-from-behind victories made this the most entertaining team I've ever followed. Eric Gagne's save streak made us all proud of our homegrown bullpen ace. Adrian Beltre's emergence gave us our first homerun champion of the LA era. Jose Lima's masterpiece on Saturday electrified a Dodger nation starved for postseason thrills. Steve Finley's grand slam against the Giants on Oct. 2 gave Dodger fans a moment we can treasure for decades. There's no way I can have hard feelings about this season.

Under the O'Malley ownership, the Dodgers were far and wide recognized as one of the classiest organizations in baseball. That reputation is in tatters after the neglect of the Fox era, and management's current string-jerking of Ross Porter and Nancy Bea Hefley isn't doing anything to repair it; however, Jim Tracy's gracious move of having the team come onto the field and shake hands with the Cardinals was one of the finest displays of class and sportsmanship I've seen on a baseball field. In my clinical cynicism, I'm waiting for the morons to jump up and down on the Dodgers for shaking hands and congratulating the team that just eliminated them (too bad I can't listen to LA talk radio today, although maybe that's a good thing). Plaschke, of all people, nailed it today:

Strange, indeed, for a Los Angeles professional sports team with a history of championships to behave this way.

Stranger still that it makes sense.

If these were the Lakers, and they lost in the first round of the playoffs, then congratulated their opponents, then appreciated their fans, then hugged each other, we would question their fire.

But on this unlikeliest of Dodger teams, that fire has long since been confirmed, on the wick of 53 comeback victories, in the torch of a West Division championship won by a team whose heart had been gutted two months earlier.

Of course, this is Plaschke we're talking about, so anything intelligent has to be immediately followed by something moronic:

But, appropriately Sunday, it came down to the two issues that have clouded this special season like a mist rolling in over the right-field pavilion.

The starting pitching, and The Trade...

"To me, this totally shows how our general manager does not deserve the criticism for trading for a starting pitcher, because he knew that element would be necessary," Tracy said.

To me, Sunday totally revealed just the opposite.

The Trade bit the Dodgers for the final time after Perez went down and was replaced by Wilson Alvarez.

So Plaschke himself says that starting pitching was one of the Dodgers' fatal flaws, provides a Tracy quote backing up that assertion, then continues to excoriate the general manager who pulled off the deal made specifically to bolster the starting pitching.

Yes, I too thought that Brazoban should've been brought in to face Pujols. But the lack of Mota in the bullpen had nothing to do with that move, or non-move, as it were. Without the trade, we might never have seen Brazoban until September, too late for him to make the postseason roster. (Besides, Mota was worn down, posting a 5+ ERA for the Marlins in September.) Also, without the Trade, we never would've been able to acquire Finley, and without Fins, the Giants almost certainly would have ran down the Dodgers in the stretch. Plaschke is determined to hold DePodesta's feet to the fire, even if logic, reason, and an unexpected division championship all need to be summarily dismissed for him to make his case.

Over 200,000 fans attended sporting events in Los Angeles on Saturday, and they saw USC, UCLA, and the Dodgers all win. This was one of the times I've truly been sad to not be in LA anymore. I wish I could have been around to experience some of that atmosphere. My busy schedule will likely keep me away from blogging for awhile longer, but college football, the Lakers, and the hot stove league will be commanding my attention soon enough. Hopefully, I won't overdose on Yankees-Sawx blather over the next week or so.

Thanks again, Dodgers. It was a great season, and I'll expect more of the same in 2005. How about a World Series appearance this time?

The Exorcists

2004-10-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

My God.

No one who's reading this needs to be told how amazing yesterday's win was. You saw it. You know it.

I will say, all hyperbole aside, that it was the greatest moment in Dodger history since Kirk Gibson's homerun. The pain of 1991 and 1992, the unfulfilled promise of the Piazza years, the Trade, the dark years of the Davey Johnson/Kevin Malone era, were all swept aside in one magnificent half-hour.

No matter what happens in the playoffs, you get the feeling now that the organization has finally turned the corner.

It was absolution for the Dodger fans who've been questioning their faith in recent years, and vindication for those whose faith never wavered. It's been tough to be a Dodger fan lately. We're witnessing the longest stretch without a pennant or a playoff berth in L.A. history. We've endured seven humiliating seasons behind the Giants in the standings. We've watched that misbegotten Orange County team suddenly challenge our boys for So-Cal supremacy. We needed this.

A routine win, where they led the game from the beginning and let Gagne close it down at the end, would've done the job nicely yesterday. But it just wouldn't have been worthy of this team to clinch the division in such a de riguer fashion. This is a team that has 53 come-from-behind wins, and has led a game from start-to-finish only once in the last five weeks. They don't do anything the easy way. You just knew that for them to win the division, they were going to do it in cardiac style. And besides, there were 16 years of demons living in that ballpark. Dodger Stadium needed an exorcism.

Anyway, now it's on to St. Louis, where the Dodgers will be an enormous underdog to the best team in the National League. A sweep at the hands of the Cardinals is not an unlikely scenario, but I'm not even going to let that ruin what has been the most pleasurable Dodger season since the magic year of 1988. No matter how it ends, I'll consider 2004 a success.

But a playoff win would be nice.

The Spirit of '96

2004-09-30T13:38:00.000-07:00

I'm going to get off a post on how the final weekend of 2004 is eerily shaping up to be very similar to the final weekend of 1996, although I see that Dodger Thoughts already beat me to it. Both years the Dodgers had the lead going into the final four games of the season, and were playing the final series at home against the very team challenging them for the division title.

In 1996, the result was a catastrophe. Via Jon:

9/25/96: Dodgers lead NL West by 2 1/2 games
9/26/96: Giants 6, Dodgers 1 - Dodgers lead by 2 games
9/27/96: Padres 5, Dodgers 2 (10) - Dodgers lead by 1 game
9/28/96: Padres 4, Dodgers 2 - Dodgers and Padres tied
9/29/96: Padres 2, Dodgers 0 (11) - Padres win NL West by 1 game

The thing was, nobody on the Dodgers seemed to regard at is much of a catastrophe. Both teams clinched playoff berths on Saturday, so even though they were playing heads-up for the division title on Sunday, the game was a snoozer with starters pulled out of the game and no sense of urgency at all. What should have been a hair-raising pennant race climax became an exhibition warm-up for the playoffs. Even worse, I remember some speculation going around that the wild-card might be more advantageous, because it possibly offered a better first-round matchup. (This was, and remains, the absolute low point of the wild-card era.) The Dodgers shrugged off the sweep/collapse and ended up with the wild-card, where the Braves gave them an object lesson in what happens to teams who blithely back into the playoffs.

There will be no backing into the playoffs this year. If the Dodgers don't win again this season, they are going home for the winter. I'm probably worrying too much, but there are already some troubling signs, not the least of which is Eric Gagne's suddenly sore shoulder. I don't like the fact that in our first game without Bradley, the Dodger offense couldn't get more than three hits off of four crappy Rockies pitchers. I don't like the fact that just when we needed him to step up and be K-Rod c. 2002, Yhency Brazoban is suddenly struggling. I don't like that Lima and his broken finger are starting tonight, and I don't like the way the pitching matchups against the Giants on Saturday and Sunday are shaping up. Of course, it just wouldn't be the Dodgers if there weren't controversies and question marks and distractions swirling around the team. We should all be used to it by now.

Hideo Nomo and Darren Dreifort are the only Dodgers left from the 1996 team, hard as it is to believe. However, Nomo is busy practicing his tree-stump impressions, and I don't think Dreifort's wheelchair, full-body cast, iron lung, and inflatable protective bubble can fit down the runway to the dugout, so hopefully Steve Finley, a Padre in '96, can remind the team of past lessons learned and keep them focused on the prize.

In a Year That's Been So Improbable...

2004-09-29T08:38:00.000-07:00

Words fail to describe it, really. In a game where the Dodgers looked absolutely flat, dead, and buried, they pull off their first 4-run 9th inning comeback since 1962. That now makes 51 come-from-behind wins this year, one shy of the franchise record. Amazing what a shaky starting rotation, an opportunistic offense, and a never-say-die attitude can do for a team.

God bless the Rockies. Giant fans are apoplectic over this team's inability to hold a lead against the Dodgers, and they certainly have a right to be steamed. Since last weekend, Colorado has twice coughed up 5-run leads in Denver, a 2-run lead in the 8th on Monday, and worst of all, a 4-run lead in the ninth last night. For the Giants, those four games are the difference between a 3-game deficit in the division and 1-game lead. The Rockies have not been living up to their roles as spoilers. Not that I have a problem with that.

Of course, Colorado still has two opportunites to spoil things for the Dodgers, so I won't join the Rockies fan club just yet. And if Giant fans are irritated with the Rocks, then Dodger fans have a right to be pissed at the Padres. After mauling us for five wins in seven September games, San Diego has lost three of four so far to the Giants. So turnabout is fair play, at least when talking about crappy divisional rivals.

Obviously, there's no way to discuss last night's game without talking about Milton Bradley. Honestly, I don't care too much about Milton's behavior. We all know he has a temper, and we all know he's capable of losing it in spectacular fashion in the middle of a game. It's part of the Milton Bradley package. Leaving five runners on base, then making a costly error on a fly ball lost in the lights had Milton primed for an explosion. And then some moron threw a bottle at him...

And that is the worst part of the whole incident. What the hell is going on when Dodger fans, who used to be among the classiest fans in baseball, are throwing bottles at our own players? That's the kind of behavior I always associated with cold, empty nights at Candlestick Park in the 1980s. That's not supposed to happen at Dodger Stadium.

The only thing I can figure is that when fans are used to excellence, they behave excellently. When they become frustrated by the team's constant ineptitude, they start to behave poorly. Giant fans in the 1980s were the most wretched in baseball, but there's been a marked improvement up there, coinciding with this little "golden era" they've been enjoying in recent years (the opening of SBC Park, Barry's steroid regimen, etc.) By contrast, Dodger fans have endured frustration on top of frustration for more than a decade now, and it shows in the collective behavior at the Stadium. The Bradley incident was ugly, but last year, a Dodger fan killed a Giant fan in the parking lot after a game. Simply adding more and more security isn't the answer. (Nobody wants to feel like they're watching a game at a prison yard.) The problem is more systemic than that. When a team is first-class, it shows, from the top ranks of management on down to the fans. The Dodgers used to be like that in the O'Malley era. They got away from that in the wilderness years since, and it's up to the McCourts to restore it.

All this detracts from one of the Dodgers' most sensational games, in a year that's been filled with them. The division lead remains three, with five games to play. I hope Milton's suspension is light, and I hope the fan who threw that bottle is prosecuted, and barred from ever again setting foot in Dodger Stadium.

Glad to See I Wasn't the Only One

2004-09-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

Eric Neel, who is quickly becoming my favorite online columnist, has a diary up of the 3-game series in San Francisco. Neel is a diehard Dodger fan, and the piece is terrific.

This is what the Dodgers and Giants do. This ain't no one-sided, David-and-Goliath, Sox-and-Yanks sort of thing. This is Akroyd and Curtain going blow-for-blow. This is Beatrice and Benedict going, "I know you of old." This is real rivalry.

The two teams have finished 1-2 seven times. They've played dead even head-to-head in the last seven years.

It's like Capone and Ness. They Bobby Thomson us, we 12-1 them as a no-soup-for-you capper to their pretty (as in pretty meaningless) 103-win season in '93. That's just how it is. That's just how it's always been.

Like I said, terrific.

Where Does Tracy Keep His Whiskey?

2004-09-26T16:50:00.000-07:00

Jesus, what a weekend. It would be nice for USC to actually show up in the first half of a game one of these days. I see they're still tops in the most recent polls, but they are not the best team in the country right now. Cal and Arizona State must be salivating at the thought of knocking off the Trojans, as beatable a #1 team I've seen since Ohio State a couple of years ago. If it wasn't for Reggie Bush and LenDale White, they'd probably already have two defeats.

As for the Dodgers, those were three of the most exciting, pulse-pounding games I've ever had the privilege of listening to from the other side of the country. As mournful as I was after the first two games of the San Diego series, I didn't think the Dodgers had it in them to stem the Giant tidal wave. But Friday's game featured an absolutely masterful performance from Odalis Perez. It was the kind of game where a player basically says to his teammates, "Lean on me today, I'll take you home." Perez' eight exceptional innings was just what the battered pitching staff needed, and the key win over the surging Giants was just what the team as a whole needed. It assured the Dodgers of at least leaving the Bay Area in first place, and gave everybody a badly-needed booster shot of confidence.

Saturday's game had the makings of a classic. With the semi-healed Lima going, I wasn't holding out much hope for a win, but the Dodgers did their best to tease me, twice jumping out to 2-run leads. Then after falling behind 5-4, they came back to tie it again. I figured if the game was turning into a battle of bullpens, the Dodgers had to feel pretty good about their chances. So just as my spirits lifted, Yhency Brazoban decided to groove a 97-mph fastball to Pedro Feliz with the bases loaded, lofting Feliz into Giant lore, right next to the exalted Brian Johnson. (If you want become a little dumber than you are now, go read Plaschke's latest column, wherein he blames the Mota trade for yesterday's loss, conveniently ignoring Brazoban's immense contribution to the team since August. I lost about 8 or 9 IQ points reading it, myself.)

I wasn't expecting to win that game beforehand, but it was frustrating because it ended up being a game that the Dodger could very easily have won. So today's game was much more satisfying. Brett Tomko, who hadn't lost in nearly two months, was on the mound for the Giants facing the star-crossed Jeff Weaver. The Giants were probably the favorites in this game too, but the Dodgers struck early against Tomko (thank you, Alex Cora) and kept scratching away for runs even after the Giants had taken the lead. The No-Cals kept putting men on base in practically every inning, but the Dodgers held on and stunningly, took two of the three games. Sometimes I'm amazed that Jim Tracy doesn't conduct post-game interviews while swimming in a bottle of bourbon. The Dodgers this year could drive the pope to drink.

Tracy, however, ran Gagne out for another two-inning save tonight. I shouldn't be upset at that, considering how nervous I was when he went to Sanchez, Venafro and Carrara in the 7th inning. But it would've been a boost to young Yhency if he had been allowed to start the 8th inning the very night after Feliz' grand slam. If Brazoban gets through the inning, great. If he puts a man or two on, then you go to Gagne. I have a feeling that these long 30+ pitch outings are sapping some of Eric's strength, and there's still another tough week remaining in this season. We need him sharp for all seven games ahead.

After seeing their lead whittled down from 6 games to half a game in less than two weeks, the Dodgers reduced their magic number from 11 to 5 in just the past four days. They reasserted command of the NL West race and control their own destiny. No matter how badly the Padres roll over for the Giants (and rest assured, they will), the Dodgers can clinch a tie for the division by sweeping Colorado. Of course, I have about as much faith in a Dodger sweep of the Rockies as I do in a Padre sweep of the Giants, so I hope everyone's prepared for another gut-wrenching series next weekend. The Dodgers and Giants will slug it out in the final three games of the season with the division title and a playoff berth on the line.

Would you have it any other way?

L'Chaim

2004-09-24T16:00:00.000-07:00

Shawn Green has always been one of my favorite Dodgers, even as he was slowly transformed from a slugging superstar into Eric Karros. He's not a flashy primadonna, he's just a down-to-earth guy with a good head on his shoulders. That was never more evident than when he came to the
difficult decision regarding the two games to be played on Yom Kippur. People who say he shouldn't be skipping any games at all need to get their priorities straightened out. People who say he should skip both games need to get a realistic view of what he means to the team.

Shawn made the right decision. I'm proud of him.

Slasher Flick

2004-09-24T07:28:00.000-07:00

The Dodgers starting rotation has now officially fallen apart. Penny and Nomo are done for the year, Lima and Alvarez are hurt, Ishii has been demoted and promoted so many times he must be dizzy by now, and Edwin Jackson is an untested rookie who's had a spotty year at best. Only Perez and Weaver have provided any semblance of normalcy, and both of them have had their own problems this month. Has any division-leading team in September had this degree of pitching problems before?

And despite a starting rotation that's being held together with spit and glue, the Dodgers still have a chance to make the playoffs. That chance doesn't look quite as good as it did a week and a half ago, but you just knew the Giants weren't going to go away quietly. Their entire team is hitting the ball right now, and all of a sudden their pitching staff decided to throw the ball with authority. (What the hell has got into Brett Tomko anyway?) Like a bad horror movie with a plot so predictable you can anticipate in advance everything that happens, the Giants started winning and winning, and the Dodgers, faithfully sticking to the script, started losing and losing.

The Giants had won 9 of their last 10 and the Dodgers had lost 7 of their last 10 going into last night's game, evaporating that impressive six game lead they had in the division. The Astros, who Dodger fans were counting on to slow the Giant juggernaut, had rolled over in their first two games against S.F. The Padres, who had done a lot of smack-talking about the Dodgers in the press, promptly went out and backed it up, beating the Dodgers for the fifth time in their last six tries. It was a very bleak state of affairs that unfolded on Thursday.

But whoever's directing this awful picture decided to throw one little plot twist into the mix before the final act of the movie. The Dodgers finally jumped out to an early lead and held on to it for the entire game, something they haven't done in more than a month. And the Giants dropped a heartbreaker, blowing a 3-run lead and losing in the ninth inning. The ship is righted, but only slightly.

And now we entire the weekend that might possibly determine the fate of Western civilization. Or at least the fate of the Western division. The battered Dodgers, boosted by a morale-inflating win over the Padres, taking on the surging Giants, slowed a bit by a crushing loss to the Astros. We'll try and forget the fact that the Dodgers just went 2-5 against the Padres the past week and a half and focus on what's in front of us.

Odalis Perez will make the biggest start of his career tonight against Kirk Rueter. The Dodgers need someone who can boost the confidence in the shell-shocked starting rotation, and dare I say, Perez is just the man to do it. Mr. No-Decision will need some help from the offense though. If they can just get an early lead off of Rueter and allow Perez to fall into a rhythm... ahhh, who am I kidding? The offense will make Rueter look like Juan Marichal, Perez will have one shaky inning, and every run the Dodgers fall behind by will seem like 10. (I can't help it. The past ten days have conditioned me to expect the worst.)

Lima apparently feels healthy enough to start on Saturday, which really doesn't make me feel any better, and Weaver will try and recover from his last shaky outing against the amazing Mr. Tomko on Sunday. I'm not exactly thrilled that Jim Tracy ran Brazoban and Gagne out for two inning apiece yesterday, wearing them out a bit right on the eve of the San Francisco series, but there it is. Winning just one of the three games this weekend would allow the Dodgers to return to L.A. still in first place, while the Giants hit the road for the final week. I can't wait until this movie is over, one way or the other.

Counting Down

2004-09-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

The boys at ESPN.com whipped up a nice little roundtable discussion on the state of baseball in the final two weeks of the season. Obviously discussed is the NL West race, and the question of whether or not the how-can-anyone-dispute-he's-the-MVP God-among-mortals that is Barry Bonds can lead his scrappy band of overachievers to another amazing victory over the floundering Dodgers. Eric Neel, Page 2's resident Dodger flag-bearer, sums it all up nicely:

Eric: You can never say with these two. Even if you have, like I do right now, a sick, creeping feeling that the Dodgers are going to tank, you just can't say. These teams will be in each other's business right up until the last.

I think it's possible the Dodgers will hold on, and I'm not just thinking with my heart. I mean, of course I'm just thinking with my heart, but my heart says if Brad Penny returns, and they get some quality innings out of Edwin Jackson, and the Yhancy Brazoban-Giovanni Carrara-Eric Gagne trio keeps getting the ball with a lead, which I think is a good bet in head-to-head matchups with Giants' pitching (after Schmidt), then they could hold on.

And you're right about the rivalry: The great thing about the coming two weeks is that one of them, as you say, is going to screw the other, which is going to add a layer of pathos and bliss to the race, a mix of anguish and joy, you know? If Houston knocks out Chicago, what's the big deal? if the Dodgers hold off the Giants and Bonds misses the playoffs, it echoes across the country and across generations.

I guess I'm not the only one with a pit in my stomach. I don't like the fact the Giants miss Roger Clemens this week, or that a stiff like Brett Tomko is suddenly pitching like Clemens, or that Brad Penny will miss the Giants, or that a raw rookie like Edwin Jackson will likely be starting a crucial game of blood-curdling intensity. I need some Pepto now.

David Schoenfeld also notes how the Dodgers are carrying the torch for the new school of statistically-oriented baseball management:

David: Well, I'll give you that one. Anyway, here's why the Dodgers will hold off the Giants: The future of baseball is at stake. Since everyone ripped Dodgers GM Paul DePodesta's trade of "chemistry" guy Paul LoDuca and setup ace Guillermo Mota, we need the Dodgers to win, just so we don't have to endure four months of offseason yakking about what a stupid trade that was.

If the Dodgers fold, then DePodesta gets fired for screwing with the chemistry, all the young, "Moneyball"-type GMs will no longer get jobs and we'll see nothing but a future of Bill Bavasi-type GMs who keep guys like Willie Bloomquist around because they're scrappy. (Yes, I'm a bitter Mariners fan.)

I doubt the Dodgers will fire DePodesta if the Dodgers end up not making the playoffs, but he's right: everyone will point to the trades as the reason why. The trades were solid on merit, despite the glaring hole that's opened up at the bottom of the order. It's not DePodesta's fault that Penny got injured in his 2nd start.

It goes without saying that my two favorite teams are the Dodgers and whoever's playing the Giants. Right now, I'm the biggest 'Stros fan in the country.

The Morphine Drip is Next

2004-09-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

Today is a much-deserved day of rest for the Dodgers after that sensational weekend in Denver. I'll try and remind myself that anything can happen at Coors Canaveral, but to see the Dodgers pull out not one, but two games in which they trailed by five strikes me as something else entirely. The fact that every win they've had this month has been come-from-behind-or-tied leads makes me to shake my head and wonder, how much more of this can we be expected to take?

The only people madder than Rockies fans at the Colorado bullpen are Giants fans. San Francisco still trails the Dodgers by three games in the loss column, and it's becoming increasingly clear, even for those who haven't realized it by now, that this division race is going to come down to the six games between the two teams this weekend and next. However, the Giants are facing a strong Houston team before that, while the Dodgers wrestle with the Padres. I have a feeling that if the Dodgers can win just two of the three games in each of the next two series, they'll have effectively put the division title in the bag.

Dodger Thoughts is continuing its quest to soothe the anxieties and worries of nerve-wracked Dodger fans who are not used to being in the unusual position of first-place this late in the season. I've been self-medicating there almost every morning. Jon may be looking at the bright side, but his glasses aren't totally rose-colored:

We all want to know that everything’s going to be okay, so we look for predictive signs everywhere. And the Dodgers falling behind, game after game, that’s not a good sign. Starting pitchers that can’t make it into the sixth inning, that’s not a good sign. Runners left on base, that’s not a good sign. The Giants winning games, that’s not a good sign.

That's all been discussed ad nauseum, here and elsewhere. It would be nice if these problems could get corrected in the next week or so, wouldn't it?

People have called me an optimist this month, which has surprised me. I don’t consider myself an optimist. Like everyone else, I see the negative signs. But for some reason, with this first-place team, very few people seem to see the positive ones too.

With their bench and bullpen, the Dodgers are a strong late-inning team. They are winning games late for a reason.

Yes they are. That's probably been the strongest dimension to this team, their ability to constantly come-from-behind. However, that ability will be neutralized somewhat in the playoffs when they start facing other teams with strong benches and bullpens. But for now, we can rely on it to give us hope in any game, no matter how much the Dodgers fall behind. And the Giants have a bullpen that can definitely be scored on.

The Dodgers have played .615 ball in their past 13 games, with “red-hot” San Francisco making up one game - one - on Los Angeles in that stretch.

Yeah, but the Dodgers have only played .375 ball in their last eight games, and the Giants have made up 3.5 games in that stretch. With a streaky team like the Dodgers, you can pick any date to show how relatively hot or cold a team is. L.A. is only two games over .500 since August 5, but is 14 games over .500 since the All-Star break, for example.

The fact is, between the two teams contending for the NL West title this year, one is playing very well right now, and the other is plodding along inconsistently.

An off day comes to day to rest the weary pitching staff, just in time to go to San Diego. (The Padres, by the way, began their last series with the Dodgers with their left side of the infield, Sean Burroughs and Khalil Greene, intact. Both are now out for the season.)

As irritated as Giants fans are with the Rockies, that's how I feel about the Padres. After taking three out of four from the Dodgers, they looked like they were ready to go on a tear. Instead they went up to S.F. and blew two of the three games there.

We need to win this next series with the Pads.

Brad Penny looks ready to go.

The savior Dodger fans have been waiting for. The problem is, how effective will he be coming off the injury and five weeks of inactivity? And even if he is effective, can he alone be the answer to all the Dodger rotation's ailments?

The offense is capable of huge hits. Not every time, but hey, sometimes.

That's for sure. Green's homerun yesterday was just the latest season-saving hit in a year that's been full of them. Win or lose, this has been one of the most exciting Dodger seasons I can remember, and I've got no regrets so far. We'll see if I'm still singing the same tune by the end of the month.

I'm going to be an absolute wreck for the next two weeks. I hope Jon considers upping the meds. We're going to need it.

And Now, The End is Near...

2004-09-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

Jon Weisman's morning sedatives notwithstanding, this has been a tough week for Dodger fans. That mighty 6-game lead in the standings that already had us plotting the playoff rotation has shrunk to a measly 2.5 games, and the performance of the starting pitchers has been heartburn-inducing. I'm finding it's not worth staying up until 1 am to deal with this kind of aggravation.

Earlier this week, I was going to post something about how even if the Dodgers played .500 ball the rest of the season (and right now, they don't look much better than a .500 team), the Giants would have to put up a record of something like 14-5 in their final 19 games to catch them. That bit of info is comforting on the surface, but I decided against posting for two reasons. One, lots of people have written similar stuff, and two, it's not really that comforting when you look at it more closely. The Giants are perfectly capable of playing .700 ball from here on out, and the Dodgers could very easily go under .500 the rest of the way. And whaddaya know, the Giants have won six in a row and 10 of their last 12, while the Dodgers just coughed up three out of four to the Padres. I guess I should've been more specific with the last sentence of my post directly below.

The Dodgers have been struggling since August to find some kind of rhythm and consistency on all fronts. If it's not the offense, it's the bullpen. If it's not the bullpen, it's the rotation, etc., etc. Ross Porter mentioned on the radio last night that the Dodgers have not led a game from start-to-finish since a 7-4 win over the Braves on August 21. The up-and-down performance of the starters have been the primary culprit for this, I feel. Wilson Alvarez, Kaz Ishii, and Hideo Nomo do not deserve to be starting games anymore, although Alvarez will get at least one more turn on the mound. Odalis Perez' recent troubles are coming at a most inopportune time, and now Jose Lima will miss a start thanks to a fractured finger. It makes you wonder how much good Brad Penny can really do when he finally returns, as it looks he will probably do next week. He can't just alternate starts with Weaver every other game.

I've also been mentioning that the schedule in September was not advantageous to the Dodgers, who had to face the Cardinals and tough division foes, while the Giants got a relative breather. We've been seeing that in action recently, with the Dodgers going 2-4 on successive weekends against the Cardinals and then dropping that home series with the Padres, while the Giants have been mopping up against the Diamondbacks and Brewers. Regardless of the patsies they've been facing, the Giants have been playing very well lately. We knew they had the run-scoring offense, but their pitching has not allowed more than three runs in a game in more than a week. The schedule normalizes a bit this week, as the Giants follow the San Diego series with a tough set against the Astros, setting up next weekend's big showdown. (Congratulations, of course, are in order for BALCO Labs, on the occasion of their 700th chemically-assisted homerun last night.)

The Dodgers really needed to pull that game out last night. They've had a couple of painful games recently (9/5 at St. Louis, 8/23 at Montreal) where they staged big comebacks only to fall short in the end. After falling behind by five last night, and with the knowledge that the Giants were winning, they managed to pull out a huge win in extra innings and salvage a Nomo start. That was an amazing performance by the bullpen, six relievers throwing 8 2/3 innings of shutout ball. Too bad the relief staff had to be so extensively used in the first game of a Coors Field series, but we needed that win.

A word on Hideo Nomo. Last night was more than likely his last appearance on the field in a Dodger uniform, and quite possibly his last appearance in major league baseball altogether. (Fitting, indeed, that it came on the 8-year anniversary of his career peak: his no-hitter in the very same ballpark.) I gave Hideo his due props back in June, so all I can say is, again, merushi Nomo-san.

And a final word on this blog. Well, no, not a final word, exactly. I'd just like to echo the sentiments of Kurt over at Arrive in the Third, Leave After Seven. I find lately I've been firing up blogger not because I want to post something, but because I feel I have to in order to keep this blog from falling into neglect and decay. However, the events and circumstances of my life have picked up warp speed in the past few weeks, and it shows no signs of slowing down. As happy as I am with what I've produced on this blog, I cannot be a slave to it. If that means that a week or more goes by without a new post, then that's the way it's got to be.

I appreciate every hit I get here, more than 4,000 since I started On the DL back in April, and I thank everyone who's taken the time to read my little contribution to the online literary world. Posting won't stop around here. The pennant race is too exciting, and football season is just getting interesting, so I'll definitely be back to ramble on some more. But the daily and even semi-daily updates that I was getting off over the summer have come to an end.

I'd love to blog every day, if I could. Damn this intrusion of real-life.

Deck the Cards

2004-09-13T07:29:00.000-07:00

What a tremendous series that was this weekend. Disappointing as it was to lose that last game, I think the Dodgers made a major statement against the best team in baseball this season, even if that team was without one of its league MVP candidates. The Dodgers came from behind in all three games, winning two of them (although the Cardinals tried their hardest to let LA win on Saturday, dropping balls and hitting batters and missing bases.)

The Giants are still six back in the loss column, but the Braves moved one game ahead. On top of that, the Dodgers are finally getting some good news on the Brad Penny front. We might see some action out of our designated playoff stopper before the end of the season after all.

The wild-card battling Padres are next up. Is three out of four to much to ask?

Premature Playoff Talk

2004-09-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

Overlooked a bit amongst the various storylines in baseball right now is the battle for 2nd-best record in the National League, which as of this morning, was a dead heat between Los Angeles and Atlanta. Now, I know that's not the kind of race that will keep anyone's pulse pounding as September grows old, but with 6 of the 8 playoff teams all but decided already, it's as good as any to look at. Particularly seeing as how it involves the Dodgers and their potential course through the playoffs.

As I understand it, the rules for playoff seeding are as follows: The wild-card plays the team with the best record in the league, unless that team comes from the same division as the wild-card. Then, the WC would play the team with the second-best record. The team with the better record gets home-field advantage in the DS and LCS, and the wild-card team can never have home-field advantage. (The AL gets HFA in the World Series this year, thank you Roger Clemens.)

Let's assume the division races finish the way they stand now. With the Cardinals on pace for well over 100 wins, they'll end up in a first-round battle with either the Giants, Padres, or Marlins, should any of those teams take the wild-card (I'm not going to say "win" the wild-card. When you're a second-place team, you haven't won anything.) The Dodgers and Braves will square off in the other Division Series, with HFA TBD.

It gets a little more complicated if a Central team wi- er, takes the wild-card. If either the Astros or the Cubs ends up as the WC, they'll get to face either the Braves or Dodgers. If the Braves win the battle for 2nd-best record, and the wild-card comes out of the Central, the Dodgers will get the Cards in the best-of-5 first-round series, and will likely not get home-field advantage in any playoff round (the only way would be if the wild-card team ends up beating Atlanta.) The best plausible scenario seems to be for the Dodgers to capture the 2nd-best record and face a Central division wild-card team in the first-round, while letting the Braves and Cards slug it out in the other Division Series. The Astros and Cubs (and Braves) pose their own specific matchup problems, but any one of them seems preferable to St. Louis at this point.

All of this begs the question: would you rather face the Cards in a short series, or in a longer best-of-7 series? Their pitching staff doesn't strike fear into anyone the way their offense does, so that might lead you to conclude that a longer series would be better. That way you don't necessarily get crippled if a starter gets roughed up by Pujols & Co. On the other hand, if you can get a couple of hot starts and steal some games from them in a short series...

I guess the reasoning becomes circular at this point. The real bottom line is that the road to the World Series will more than likely go through St. Louis. The Dodgers didn't handle their first trip to Busch so well last weekend. That makes a strong showing this weekend somewhat vital, on a number of levels. Yes, we all know they can throttle a AAA team like the Diamondbacks, but they haven't really shown yet that they can play with the big boys. With streaky bats and inconsistent starting pitching, the Dodgers are still playing like a team begging to get swept out of the playoffs. A series win against the Cards would make a major statement about the team's readiness to handle the pressure of October. Combined with the race with Atlanta for 2nd-best record and the usual task of keeping the Giants at bay, that makes this weekend matchup a true gut-check.

My MLB.tv account is ready and waiting for me to get my high-speed connection up and running. Come on Verizon, ring the damn doorbell already...

Reports of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

2004-09-09T11:41:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a slow month of September around here, but moving to a new city without all of the little perks and amenities I've become accustomed to at home is no small chore. The installation of dsl at my apartment has also been delayed, and along with it, my ability to watch the Dodgers on MLB.tv. So suffice to say, blogging is taking a backseat to other things for me these days.

Which is not to say I'm totally out of the loop. Last night's win was an uneasy one, but yet again, the Dodgers showed their resiliency and came back twice to beat a team that they can't afford to lose to. It's an old cliche, but it's on the money: You gotta beat the teams you're supposed to beat. That takes on all the more importance with the Cardinals looming again this weekend.

It was nice to see Steve Finley get off the schneid, but I hadn't even realized that he was 0 for his last 19 before his single in the 7th inning. (This lack of connectivity is definitely irritating.) After that impossibly hot start he had in a Dodger uniform, I guess it was inevitable that he would cool down after a while.

Hopefully things will settle down a bit, but posting will continue to be spotty for the foreseeable future.

A Question of Guts

2004-09-06T07:32:00.000-07:00

With the possible exception of Kobe Bryant, it wasn't a particularly enjoyable weekend for any of the principals discussed on this blog. For UCLA, a sound beating at the hands of an Oklahoma State team that's not really very good. For the Dodgers, a sound beating courtesy of a St. Louis Cardinals team that is very good indeed. For me and my gastrointestinal tract, a sound beating thanks to some overly potent Indian food. It was a tough weekend all around.

The Bruins are in for a looooong season. I didn't get to see the game (I'm gonna have to get used to that), but already in Year 2, Karl Dorrell still seems to be in over his head. I have the feeling it's going to take a big midseason turnaround (and a huge upset of USC) to save Dorrell's job, but I actually think the Bruins have the talent to do it. It's just a question of Dorrell finally lighting a fire under them. However, it's impossible to predict something like that based on the way the team looked on Saturday. As it stands now, I can't figure UCLA for more than four wins this season.

The Dodgers, on the other hand, are in a bit more trouble. The sweep by the Cards dropped them to just 6-7 on the road trip, despite starting the trip playing against three of the weakest teams in the league. LA has just 14 wins in its last 30 games, but is still 3.5 games up in the division, same as they were before the deadline trades. That's hardly the mark of a team charging into the September pennant drive with a full head of steam, however. The good news is that the Dodgers can recover a bit against their favorite punching bags, the Arizona Diamondbacks (and miss Randy Johnson, to boot). The bad news is that they follow that with another series against the Cardinals, then dive into intra-divisional play for the rest of the season. The really bad news is that it's looking more and more likely that Brad Penny is finished for 2004. The Dodgers are going to have to sack up and take care of business this week, or else they'll face a neck-and-neck division race while shorthanded against a Giants team that's charging.

Win or lose, I have a feeling that the final four weeks of the baseball season are going to have the same effect on my constitution as that misbegotten meal of lamb vindaloo.

Checking In

2004-09-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the scarcity of posts this week, but I had a long farewell-to-LA post on Sunday that Blogger sent off into the ether, and I've still just been getting settled here in NY. Between school starting up, moving into my apartment, and dodging anti-Bush protesters in the streets, it's been a busy week.

Unfortunately, I won't have my dsl set up at home for another week at the earliest. Right now I'm posting from Union Square, where the city has kindly set up a free wireless service so the homeless who live in the park can have free internet access. As soon as I get my life normalized a bit, I'll fire this blog back up.

Now, if only I can find a decent place to catch the Dodgers-Cards series this weekend...

Great Timing

2004-08-26T10:59:00.000-07:00

I guess every facet of the Dodgers' gameplay is going to go through a slump at some point or another. The offense took off most of the month of May, but has recovered nicely. The bullpen has been a shambles of late, but they seem to be getting incrementally better. I seem to remember even the defense went through a bit of a rough patch right after the All-Star break, although obviously nothing too serious.

Now, apparently, it's the starting pitchers' turn to falter. In three of the last four games, Wilson Alvarez, Odalis Perez, and now Jose Lima have all been roughed up. All three have been solid all season long, so I guess they were overdue for a bad outing, but did they all have to have it the same week? Only Kazuhisa Ishii (gulp) has been able to put together a quality start. We need a big game tonight from Jeff Weaver to right the ship. The way the schedule works out, these are starting to be must-win games. The Expos are one of those teams they need to be beating up on and rebuilding their shrunken division lead. It gets a lot tougher starting next weekend.

And there's no good news on the injury front. Brad Penny remains a medical curiosity. Edwin Jackson got pounded in a rehab start. And Hideo Nomo is almost ready to rejoin the staff. Definitely no good news at all there.

Posting will be light throughout next week. Back to normal soon, hopefully.

At Least We Got Extra Jalapenos

2004-08-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

Time for my last game report of 2004, unless by some miracle I get tickets to a Dodger playoff game the same weekend I'm planning on making a return visit to L.A. When the highlight of the day is your Dodger Dog and nachos, you know it's going to be a brutal afternoon. As if to say, "Thanks for leaving us, pal, we'll give you a real stinker to remember us by," the Dodgers put forth one of their worst games of the year. Wilson Alvarez was throwing batting practice, Elmer Dessens threw a gopher ball, Mike Venafro and Duaner Sanchez allegedly provided relief pitching, and when the dust finally settled, the Braves had 10 runs on 19 hits and handed the Dodgers a true and sincere ass-whuppin'. Thanks for the memories, guys.

Alvarez has been so solid for a long time, I guess he was overdue for a bad game, and Dessens actually pitched nicely after giving up the homerun to Chipper Jones, so I'm not going to ring the panic bell just yet. But it was tough sitting there and watching the Braves run the bases like a merry-go-round in the second inning. Every ball was hit well and found the holes in the defense. Brad Penny can't get healthy soon enough.

A few weeks ago, after the series with Pittsburgh to start the month of August, I briefly noted how the Dodgers had been beating up on some weakling teams, and the stretch they were about to embark on against some real contenders would show what kind of mettle they were made of. Sixteen games later, with Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Chicago, Florida, and Atlanta now in the rear-view mirror, I think the Dodgers can look back on their 8-8 record during that span and call it a success.

Now, a .500 record against some supposedly good teams might not seem like a success for a club with its goals set on a World Series appearance, but it was in this case, considering the injury problems and bullpen malfeasance the team has endured. Eric Gagne was responsible for three of the eight losses, Darren Dreifort for two others, and I dare say Alvarez' performance today was somewhat out of the norm. These are not trends that are likely to continue.

Listening to talk radio, a lot of people seem to be concerned about the Dodgers' play of late and the upcoming "road trip from hell," 13 games in 14 days, finishing with a stop in St. Louis to face the mighty Cardinals. Those callers might be overlooking the fact that while the Dodgers have indeed lost some ground in the NL West race, the Giants were pounding on the same weaklings (Expos, Mets) that the Dodgers now get to face. L.A. also gets a couple of series with the Diamondbacks, the worst team in baseball this year and one they've absolutely dominated, bracketing their home-and-home with the Cards.

Of course, all is not peachy. Sure, the Giants get to deal with the Marlins and Braves this week, but after that, their schedule lightens up considerably. While the Dodgers are wrestling with the Cardinals, the BALCO Bombers will be facing the Brewers and Astros in their Central division matchup. L.A. also has seven games left with Colorado, a team that's given them some difficulty this year. Beyond the schedule, the Dodgers also have some very real problems in the bullpen and on the disabled list, and they need to get a remedy for the offensive black holes that are the catcher's spot and Hee Seop Choi. (Notice how Robin Ventura got the start at first today with a right-hander on the mound?)

I'd love to see the Dodgers with a 7-3 record on the road trip going into that series in St. Louis two weekends from now. Now is the time to regain some of that form that lifted them to a 7.5-game lead in the division, and get some cushion for the September stretch run. This might be the last clear opportunity they have for that this year.

The Gun of August

2004-08-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

Eric Gagne has looked incredibly mortal the last two nights, with lots of pitches out of the strike zone and well-struck hits on the ones that are in. He is indeed human, and he is indeed going to have stretches where he is less than dominant. We're just not used to it because he's been so superhuman for the last two years. This shouldn't be cause for panic, as all closers will go through their rough patches. (Even Joe Nathan, one of the best closers in the A.L., got pounded last night.) It just seems like Gagne is cramming all the bad outings he should have had in 2003 and 2004 into one single month.

His stretch of mortality, or at least inconsistency, began, I think, with the three-inning, 39-pitch outing against the Padres on Aug. 1. His appearances since then:

Aug. 3 - Two hits, walk, two runs, turns 3-0 game into a 3-2 game, but still gets his 31st save.

Aug. 4 - Strikes out two in a perfect inning vs. Pirates.

Aug. 6 - Gets hammered for four runs on four hits and a walk in an inning and two-thirds against the Phillies. The four runs are all unearned thanks to an error by Cesar Izturis, but Gagne is so ineffective that he has to be relieved in the 10th by Duaner Sanchez.

Aug. 7 - Uses three pitches to get final out and bails Dreifort out of a jam, earning his 33rd save.

Aug. 10 - Perfect inning vs. Reds, although no strikeouts.

Aug. 15 - Two perfect innings vs. Cubs. Throws 23 pitches and strikes out three in dual role as setup man and closer, as Jim Tracy suddenly goes gun-shy with his middle relievers despite a 3-run lead.

Aug. 18 - Gets hammered again for four runs - this time all earned - and blows his second save of the season against the Marlins.

Aug. 19 - A passed ball was the crucial factor here, but Gagne still gave up three hits and got tagged for his third loss of the month.

In eight appearances since the first of the month, he's had five saves and three losses, and one of the saves can charitably be described as "shaky". Two of the losses (last night and Aug. 6) came after the Dodgers had valiantly rallied from behind, making them all the more dispiriting. He's had a few solid outings, but the consistently dominating Eric Gagne we're accustomed to has just not been present thus far in August. This untimely stretch of inconsistency out of their Cy Young closer is just adding to the woes of the Dodger bullpen, which had previously been one of the unbreachable strengths of the club. Now depleted by injuries and trades, it's one of the team's biggest headaches.

I don't thing Gagne has been "solved" by opposing teams. He's just making bad pitches, for whatever reason. Too many pitches out of the strike zone, too many breaking balls left hanging, too many change-ups that aren't changing up enough. When Eric is on his game, he is unhittable, no matter how many times an opposing batter has faced him. He'll work through this. We can only hope sooner rather than later.

Bound

2004-08-19T16:33:00.000-07:00

I don't have much to say about last night's debacle, except to note that losses like this are bound to happen sooner or later. The Dodgers had won their previous 152 games when leading after 8 innings. That's insane. It was bound to happen, and it's going to happen again with Gagne continuing to get the call in the 8th inning more often.

The bullpen situation, however, is worrisome. No Mota and no Dreifort, and with Gagne being overworked a bit, he is going to be prone to the occasional calamity. Sanchez and Brazoban are rookies, and Duaner hasn't looked as sharp in the second half of the season as he did in the first half. Can Carrara keep up his impressive performance for the rest of the season? AAA castoffs Mike Venafro and Scott Stewart hardly inspire the type of confidence the Dodgers have become used to from the bullpen. With Brad Penny expected to miss at least two more starts, Hee Seop Choi doing his best 1998 Charles Johnson impression, and Brent Mayne and David Ross continuing to suck wind, the July 30 trade is starting to hurt more and more. Thank goodness for Steve Finley, but how long until he cools off? This is as good a time as any to point out that the Giants have won seven of their last eight, are only five games back, and with a few exceptions, largely play a cupcake schedule from here on out.

Side note: Anyone who's reading this has probably already read Jon's terrific interview with Ross Porter. If you haven't yet, it's required reading.

The Fickle Finger of Fate

2004-08-17T22:59:00.000-07:00

It makes sense now when you look back at it. Darren Dreifort had pitched 13 consecutive scoreless innings heading into August, then gets shoved into the primary setup role and sputters through eight appearances with three losses and a 12.15 ERA. What happened? He was the 7th-inning man prior to the July 30-31 trades; was the 8th inning really that much harder? Was he really that unprepared to handle his new role? Is he just a tremendous choker?

Well, it's possible all that is true, but now we know that at least there's a physical reason. Dreifort, who's already had four major surgeries, apparently needs another. I heard this news just as I was getting ready to fire off a post accusing Dreifort of stealing the Dodgers' money and berating Jim Tracy for continuing to run him out there in close games after it had become obvious he wasn't up to the job, a la Nomo. Of course, it's easy for me to do that here sitting comfortably behind my keyboard, where I'm not even wearing shoes, much less walking a mile in someone else's.

I do feel terrible for Dreifort. I can only imagine how badly it must SUCK to endure five operations and all the rehab that goes along with that. Darren had all the potential in the world when he first turned pro, and he showed sporadic flashes of brilliance during his career. That was all it took to get one of the most outrageous contracts in sports history, and unfortunately we'll never get to know how good he really could have been.

In 1992, the Dodgers suffered through one of the worst seasons in their history, finishing with 99 losses and in last place for the first time in almost 90 years. That should've entitled them to the #1 pick in the amateur draft the following year, but thanks to an odd baseball rule, the leagues alternate the top pick every year. It was the American League's turn to pick first in 1993, so Seattle, with a record slightly better than L.A.'s, took the top spot. And that's how the Dodgers missed out on the chance to draft Alex Rodriguez.

(Incidentally, that draft occurred the same week as the Marty McSorley illegal-stick incident in the Kings-Canadiens Stanley Cup Finals, as well as my high-school graduation. Truly a notorious period in L.A. sports history.)

Fate is a weird thing. The Dodgers took the highly-heralded Dreifort with the second pick that year, and you have to wonder how differently the last decade would have turned out for the Dodgers (and for the baseball world) if MLB didn't have that rule about alternating the top pick. It's possible A-Rod could have been earning his Hall of Fame credentials in Dodger Blue for the past nine seasons, and almost certainly he would've helped get the team into the playoffs multiple times during that span. These kind of what-if scenarios are possible with virtually every team and every player in every draft over the last 40 years, but it's particularly galling in this case. So many players who get drafted turn out to be busts, never even reaching the major-league level. It might've been easier to shrug off the cruel twist of the 1993 draft if Dreifort had turned out to be a minor-league bomb, rather than the frustrating, almost-good-but-paid-as-if-he-was-great man of glass he is today.

It's all irrelevant now. Giovanni Carrara and Yhency Brazoban will likely share 8th-inning duties for the rest of the season, and that right there should make the Dodgers better. Steve Finley continues to amaze, Hee Seop Choi continues to flounder, and the way Wilson Alvarez pitched tonight, I have no interest in seeing Hideo Nomo back on the mound anytime soon.

This is the last homestand before I leave for NY. I better make it out to a few of these games while I still have the chance.

Individual Box-Packing, Lifting & Shifting Medley

2004-08-16T20:09:00.000-07:00

They say moving is one of the most stressful things a person can do, and after sorting out and boxing five years worth of possessions the past few days, I can testify that I am physically exhausted and psychologically drained beyond belief. And it's only half over, since in two weeks, I'm boxing up again and moving to New York. The fun never ends.

I was able to watch NBC's terrible coverage of the Olympics over the weekend. I can't believe in this age of instant communication that coverage of one of the world's biggest sporting events is televised on a tape-delay of over 12 hours. By the time the events come on TV in prime-time, I've known the results for so long it seems like I'm watching an extended highlight reel. My quick Olympic takes: Michael Phelps never should've gone for the eight gold medals. He should've concentrated on fewer events instead of overextending himself chasing the gold medal record. (He'll still win a bunch of medals.) It's kind of sad to see all the empty seats and small crowds at the venues, but that's what happens when the Olympics turn into such a bloated spectacle. The security factor and uneasy political climate in the world right now can't be helping much, either. And the performance of each team has made me root for Iraq (soccer) and against the US (basketball). Talk about uneasy.

Don't EVER Move

2004-08-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

That's my advice to anyone considering relocating. That would also be my advice to Jim Tracy, if he should ever in the future get the impulse to call Darren Dreifort into a game with anything less than a 4-run lead.

I'm up to my neck in boxes, papers, magazines, dust, clothes, papers, dishes, kitchenware, papers, computer equipment, furnishings, papers, and other assorted crap that I should probably just throw away, but am instead going through the trouble of moving across town.

Light posting will continue for awhile. I'll be back soon.

Being Milton Bradley

2004-08-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

There's a great Q & A with Milton Bradley up at ESPN.com, and any Dodger fan wanting to know more about our mercurial outfielder needs to read it. I mentioned before that with LoDuca gone, it would probably fall to Bradley to be the new clubhouse leader - the "heart and soul of the team", as it were. Here he says he wants the job, and he's bristling with the confidence (arrogance?) to do it:

Lo Duca was kind of a leader here. (Guillermo) Mota was one of the main guys out of our bullpen. Juan (Encarnacion) did whatever he could. I think people at the time were asking, "Who's gonna be the leader? Who's gonna step up and do something?" Me, I'm not a big vocal guy. But I like to let my play speak. I'm flashy, cocky, whatever. That's all part of my game -- go out there with a swagger. Some of that started rubbing off on other people.

There's some talk about how the new, more mature Bradley came out of the dugout to restrain Jayson Werth in an argument with an umpire last week. Of course that contrasts sharply with the ball-flinging fit Bradley had back in June, but Milton is intractable:

But I let him have it -- I gave him a reason to kick me out of the game. He took my at-bat away. So I left my bat, helmet, batting gloves, everything right there at the plate, and start walking away to go to the clubhouse. But before I get there I see the ballbag sitting there on the second step. So I said, "You know what? For my sign of protest, and just so that he won't forget what he's done, I'm gonna throw these balls right here." Sometimes there's only like three or four balls in that bag. But that night it happened to be half full. And I emptied every one of them out. Some people say it's dumb, you should never do that. It was something memorable. But I don't have an opinion either way. I don't wish I didn't do it. I don't regret that I did. I wouldn't change it.

Yeah, ok, he's a hothead. But he's our hothead. And he's playing hard for us, something he couldn't be accused of when he was in Cleveland. Lest anyone doubt Milton's blue bona fides:

I remember Fernando pitching the no-hitter. I remember '88, the team exceeding expectations and beating the highly favored Athletics. Kirk Gibson's home run. I was watching on TV in my living room. Jumped up and pumped my fist. I knew at that moment I wanted to be a Dodger. Orel Hershiser's 59 consecutive scoreless innings. Eddie Murray hitting homers from both sides of the plate. My mom had the Dodgervision package on the cable. Vin Scully -- when they were in Vero Beach, playing 10 o'clock in the morning games, I was into all of it.

I'm glad Milton Bradley is a Dodger, and I'm not just talking about the fine stats he brings to the field. He's hungry and passionate, and unlike so many of today's bland athletes, he wears his heart on his sleeve and speaks what's on his mind. He's a character, and he's interesting. I'm sure he'll have his blow-ups again, and I'm sure he'll get kicked out of games again, but he's maturing, and the Dodgers will be a better team as he continues to grow up.

Moving Day

2004-08-06T15:51:00.000-07:00

Today is my last day at my current job, and as such, it also is my last day with regular internet access for awhile. Posting will be sporadic for the rest of the month, as I move out of my apartment and prepare to depart for colder climes. Since quitting the internet cold turkey might be even more painful than quitting cigarettes, I know I'll find a way to get my online fix somehow.

On The DL has been a fun and rewarding way to kill downtime at work, yet retain the illusion of productivity. I may not have much downtime to kill any more, but I'll keep it going.

Rearranging. Deck Chairs. Titanic.

2004-08-06T15:42:00.000-07:00

My opinion on today's Laker trade.

Equivocation Time

2004-08-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

Barely an hour after I hit "publish" on the post below bemoaning the Dodgers' lack of offense in the past couple of games, Werth, Bradley, and Beltre hit back-to-back-to-back dongers in the first inning. Now that's what I call timing.

This was a big win for the pre-trade Dodgers. Nary a Finley or Mayne to be found, and Choi just had a useless pinch-hit appearance. Bradley hit two homers today, just like he did on Friday. Today he was playing centerfield, just like he was on Friday. As I noted below, Bradley was 2-for-15 in the four games in between, all in left and rightfield. There's probably nothing to read into that, just an observation. Other nice things to see: Jeff Weaver's continued run support, Yhency Brazoban's big-league debut, and David Ross finally getting a hit!

The Dodgers have gone 22-3 so far this year against three teams: Pittsburgh, Houston, and Arizona. They're 42-40 against the rest of major-league baseball, and the next two weeks get tough: the Phillies at home this weekend, then a road trip to Cincinnati and Chicago, followed by a homestand against the Marlins and Braves. The Dodgers have a nice cushion now in the NL West, but it's not an insurmountable lead by any stretch. This is the part of the year where my nerve endings begin to fray slightly. By September they'll be a tangled mess, and by October I'll need shock therapy. I can't wait.

Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma'am

2004-08-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

I got to Dodger Stadium last night anticipating a good game between the still-hot Dodgers and always-dangerous Pirates; Lima Time was on the mound, the Dodgers were starting their "A" lineup, it was gonna be a fine evening. Thanks to the Wednesday night Family Four-Pack, we all settled in with our free hot dogs and sodas, and some garlic fries to boot. Unfortunately, after the first inning, I had to use the restroom. So I went upstairs, went into the men's room and did my business, and by the time I got back to my seat, the Dodgers had beaten the Pirates 2-1.

At least that's the way it seemed. It was a game reminiscent of the 2003 Dodgers, with good starting pitching, a dominant bullpen performance, and just enough offense to eke out a win, all wrapped up in an eye-blinking two hours and four minutes. The Dodgers led 1-0, then it was tied 1-1, then Cora hit a solo homerun, then Lima gave way to Dreifort, who gave way to Gagne, and game over. There wasn't even time to do the "Guess the Attendance" bit. If it wasn't for the free food, drink, and parking, I don't know if I'd have got my money's worth.

In fact, the past few games have reminded me of 2003 quite a bit. Since Friday night's 12-3 pasting of the Padres, the Dodger bats seem to have gone back into sleep mode, and yet, they've won three of those four games. The reconstituted offense scored only one run in San Diego on Saturday (I'm not counting Ishii's fluke homer), two runs in 13 innings on Sunday (one of which was a pinch-hit homer, another fluke, kind of), three runs on Tuesday, and two last night, despite numerous scoring opportunities. Finley and Choi seem to be doing just fine, although Hee Seop is apparently just a platoon player who may not see a left-handed pitcher the rest of the season. Bradley seems to be pressing a bit, just two for his last 15 at-bats since Friday night's explosion. Lima and Dreifort looked solid, Gagne returned to his old dominant form. I am still cautiously optimistic.

Numbers Game

2004-08-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, a friend and I went to Timmy Nolan's in Toluca Lake to watch the Dodgers play their first game with all the new players acquired in the deadline trades. We knew Penny wouldn't be pitching, but we figured that Choi would be in the starting lineup, and hopefully Finley and Mayne would make an appearance. We weren't alone. The bar was full of fans eager to catch their first glimpse of the newly-reconstituted Dodgers.

Now, one of the things that I've always loved about sports, and baseball in particular, is the weird mythology of uniform numbers, and the proper protocol that goes along with it. Numbers are retired and semi-retired, bought and bartered. Some players couldn't care less what number they wear, others are too superstitious to part with their identifiable digits. Sometimes the fans get passionate about it, too. Remember the Laker fans protesting when Karl Malone showed up at his first L.A. press conference with jersey #32? Even though Magic Johnson had relented to the un-retirement of his number, Malone did the wise thing and took another number. And with all this influx of new players and departure of popular players, it figured that the Dodgers were going to have some numerology problems.

I don't know what number Hee Seop Choi wore in Florida, but he showed up on Saturday wearing #5, which instantly made me think of Mike Marshall. Halfway through the game, Steve Finley and Brent Mayne wandered into the dugout, making their first appearances in Dodger uniforms. Finley was sporting #16, which made some of the sports bar denizens howl "He's wearing LoDuca's number! Can you believe the balls on that guy?!" Then a few seconds later, they showed Mayne with his #6 jersey, causing someone to shout excitedly, "That's Steve Garvey's number!" Baseball's tradition of uniform number protocol may be dead in the Dodger clubhouse, but it's alive and well at Timmy Nolan's.

Of course, Jolbert Cabrera was wearing #6 all last season, but I believe he was the first Dodger to wear that number since the Garv, so it had a good 20 years of semi-retirement, and now appears to be back in the regular rotation. (Another semi-retired number is Fernando Valenzuela's #34, which I'm pretty sure no Dodger has worn since he left the club.) Hideo Nomo originally wore #16 during his first stint with the Dodgers, but had to switch to #10 (vacated by Gary Sheffield) when he rejoined the team in 2002, since LoDuca had staked a claim to his old number. Paul's star was brighter than Hideo's at the time, and that's the way the numerical pecking order goes. Brad Penny wore #31 with the Marlins, which first-base coach John Shelby has here in L.A. (Apparently, Mike Piazza's old number doesn't merit even a semi-retirement.) You'd think that a newly-acquired star player would be able to wheedle a lowly coach for his uniform number, but last night Shelby was in his familiar #31, and Penny was in Dave Roberts' old #30. Who knows, maybe Shelby offered to give it to him, maybe Penny didn't care enough to ask him for it.

Which brings us to Steve Finley and Jim Tracy. Steve has worn #12 for his entire career, but that number was taken here in L.A., not by a lowly coach, but by the manager of the team. I remember when Brett Butler first came to the Dodgers, Tommy Lasorda offered to give up #2, which Brett had worn previously. Like Karl Malone, Butler knew better than to take the jersey number of an L.A. icon, so he politely declined and ended up with #22. Now, Jim Tracy is no icon like Lasorda, so I guess Finley didn't have any qualms about taking #12 when Tracy offered it to him. And as a nice gesture to the dearly departed Paul LoDuca, Tracy has taken #16 for himself.

I'll have numbers on the brain when I go see Lima pitch tonight. I'll try not to think of the fact that it could've been Randy Johnson taking the mound for the Dodgers, and I'll just content myself by thinking of Brad Penny's amazing two-hit performance last night. But every time I applaud one of Jim Tracy's bullpen moves, I have to find fault with another. Why wasn't Penny allowed to finish his shutout? Because a three-run lead is a save opportunity, and Tracy needs to stay on Gagne's good side and run up Eric's stats, I guess. Having Gagne pitch three innings on Sunday was a brilliant move that allowed the Dodgers to hold the Padres down until the offense could break through, but Gagne probably needed two days off after such an extensive outing. He looked very shaky in the ninth inning last night, and almost blew Penny's masterpiece.

Dodgers are 3-1 since the trades, very nearly 4-0. Keep on keepin' on.

Baptism by Fire

2004-08-02T10:26:00.000-07:00

Stunning as it may seem to say, but Peter Gammons has a must-read article up at ESPN.com dealing with the effects and aftermaths of the trades pulled off by wunderkind GMs Paul DePodesta and Theo Epstein. If you haven't heard enough of DePo defending his deals in the booth with Vin Scully over the weekend, you can read him here:

Dodgers GM Paul DePodesta and Red Sox GM Theo Epstein are faced with the shrapnel from friendly fire in two of the game's four most significant and traditional fan bases. "To say I'm getting killed is an understatement," says DePodesta, "but we did what we did to try not just to make the postseason, but to go deep. In this job, you have to do what you believe is right."...

DePodesta made a far more daring trade. "I am trying to make the Dodgers a team that can go deep into the playoffs," DePodesta says. "What this team has done is remarkable, but in my judgement we needed another front-of-the-rotation starter and more offense. To do that, we had to make some difficult choices."

Critics say the Dodgers, a team notorious for bad chemistry, was a magical club. They were 20-6 in July at the time of the trade. They had the best bullpen in baseball. But DePodesta weighed regular-season success against what it takes to win in October, and made his decision. "We think we upgraded our rotation with (Brad) Penny, who is 26 and someone who proved last season what he can do in October," DePodesta said. "We needed that." (You noticed? Jose Lima, Wilson Alvarez just weren't the answer.)

"We needed to upgrade the offense, and I look at it this way: Finley is an upgrade (over) Lo Duca, Choi is an upgrade from Encarnacion and Brent Mayne and Dave Roberts are somewhat of a standoff."

The honeymoon is definitely over for these guys. Instead of playing it safe, they made the bold moves, proving that they have the balls to go along with the brains. Time will tell if they work out.

(Still working on the sidebar problem, by the way. I hope to have that fixed shortly.)

UPDATE: Apparently, Blogger doesn't like it when you end posts in blockquote. But the problem was corrected, and the sidebar is fixed, and also updated to include Dodger Dugout and Dodger Hill's new location.

Extreme Makeover

2004-07-31T15:19:00.000-07:00

The reports are still filtering in, but the wholesale remodeling of the 2004 Dodgers continues. Steve Finley, Brent Mayne and a couple of minor leaguers are in, Dave Roberts, Tom Martin, and minor leaguers Koyie Hill, Reggie Abercrombie, and Bill Murphy are out. This recap at the Dodger homepage has all the gory details.

Paul DePodesta has approached this trade deadline as if he were commandeering a team that was 5 games back, not 3.5 games up. That's a good thing in the sense that he wasn't lulled into a false sense of security by the Dodgers' lofty position in the standings, but it's a bad thing in the sense that he took a winning formula and basically dynamited it. All the talking heads on ESPN think the Dodgers got hosed and shouldn't have messed with what was working. The Dodger blogosphere is on fire today with trade analysis and reaction, and 6-4-2, Dodger Thoughts, and Arrive in the Third, Leave After Seven are at the head of the pack.

To be fair, the Dodgers three days ago were a team that was probably in a good position to win the NL West, or at the very least, the wild card. But they were also team that was just asking to get run over in a short playoff series. No stopper at the top of the rotation, and a lineup that's offensively streaky is a prescription for a quick exit in October. DePodesta addressed these issues, although whether or not Brad Penny is a true #1 starter remains to be seen. The first two starters in a playoff series would be Penny and Odalis Perez, and I can live with that.

The Dodgers lineup now would seem to be:

SS Izturis
2B Cora
LF Bradley
3B Beltre
CF Finley
1B Choi
RF Green
C Ross/Mayne

I could see Choi and his .388 OBP batting second, with Green moving to sixth and Cora seventh, although that would make the bottom of the order quite weak. This lineup has a lot more power than before, but notice that now there isn't even a platoon option for Jayson Werth, and I'm not convinced Izturis has the chops to bat leadoff.

This is going to be a defining moment, I think, for Milton Bradley. He is definitely going to be pissed about moving to left field, although this is now his opportunity to take over the leadership role on the team vacated by LoDuca. He has the fire and temperament to be a Kirk Gibson-type clubhouse leader, and his reaction to the move and presence in the clubhouse and on the field in the next few weeks will set the tone for the rest of the season.

The rotation and the lineup do seem to be improved, leaving just the bullpen and the all-important clubhouse chemistry as obviously weakened. There's nothing to say, really, about the chemistry issue. If the team wins, it will take care of itself, and I expect these professional ballplayers not to pout about losing their teammates. The bullpen, however, is another story. There may be a lot of pouting going on when the Dodgers start coughing up leads and tie games in the 7th and 8th innings. (Although Mota was doing plenty of that in recent weeks.) One of the strengths of this Dodger pitching staff has been the ability to deliver Gagne a lead in the ninth inning, and that's not going to be as automatic as it was before. And Alvarez is going to have to adjust from being a long reliever/starter to being the sole left-handed relief specialist. He's our designated Bonds stopper now.

Last note: I got all mushy about the departure of Paul LoDuca in the previous post, but let me just say that I have many of the same feelings about losing Dave Roberts. I've been critical of his performance in the past, but the Dodgers gave him a chance two years ago and he indeed produced. He was exciting as hell to watch when he got on base, turning walks into doubles and giving pitchers ulcers. He took to the Dodgers tradition and history, proclaiming that he wanted to be the natural heir to Maury Wills, and he worked hard on his bunting and baserunning to make that happen. Like LoDuca, Roberts was a real Dodger, and I'm sorry to see him go.

Requiem for a Catcher

2004-07-31T13:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, the trading deadline has now passed, and it looks like Randy Johnson, the man for whom Paul DePodesta overturned his entire roster to acquire, will be staying in Arizona.

Thus completes one of the most harrowing 24 hours Dodger fans have endured since Mike Piazza was traded in 1998. I simply cannot fathom how DePodesta could make that trade with the Marlins - if it really was all about acquiring Johnson - without first getting at least an oral commitment from the Diamondbacks and the Big Unit himself on the back end of the deal. I was speculating last night that the Dodgers surely must have had a trade in place with Arizona, but were holding off until today on an announcement because Randy was pitching in Colorado.

So, either one of two things happened: 1) They did have a deal in place, but the Diamondbacks (or, concievably, the Dodgers) started changing the terms of the deal after the Florida trade went down, or 2) DePodesta never had the back end of the deal in place when he made the trade with the Marlins, and was essentially flying by the seat of his pants the whole time.

Scenario #1 doesn't seem too likely, although I wouldn't discard it arbitrarily. Some of the scattered reports last night said that Johnson had finally agreed to come to L.A., and that the teams had struck a tentative deal. But of course, we all know how much oral contracts are worth, etc., especially when the stakes are this high.

That leaves scenario #2 as the most plausible explanation, and when you look at it closely, it makes sense. The Florida trade still works even without Randy Johnson, despite the upheaval in the Dodgers' close-knit clubhouse. Brad Penny is no Unit, but he's a tremendous young pitcher who can pitch at the top of the rotation, has playoff experience, and can anchor the staff for the next several years. Hee Seop Choi is a classic Moneyball player, a first baseman who can hit for power and get on-base, although he strikes out way too much. I don't know too much about Bill Murphy, other than he was originally drafted by Oakland - and Paul DePodesta.

On paper, the Dodgers are improved. But there's more to it than that, and I'm not talking about clubhouse chemistry. (Side note on chemistry: the depressed and dispirited Dodgers were so broken up about losing their most popular teammates that they pounded the Padres - and noted Dodger-killer Adam Eaton - by nine runs last night.) For the first time in many years, I felt like this group of Dodgers were really true Dodgers. Unlike mercenaries like Gary Sheffield, this was a group of guys who seemed proud to wear the uniform. Even newcomers like Milton Bradley just seemed like they belonged here. Excuse me if I get a bit treacly here, but these guys really seemed like they were restoring the Dodger Way. Paul LoDuca was a big part of that. The "heart and soul of the team" has become the most overused cliche about LoDuca in the last 24 hours, but it really was true. Along with Gagne, Paulie was the face of the team, the most likable Dodger in years. It's heartbreaking to think of the Dodgers finally winning some postseason games this year, and it won't be LoDuca coming out of the crouch to congratulate the pitcher on the mound. Any success we have this year is going to be muted by the fact that it'll have been achieved in large part not by true Dodgers, but by rental players.

Remember how sweet the 1981 championship was? The group of guys who had been together for so long, all blue-blooded Dodgers to the core, had finally overcome all the disappointments and setbacks and tasted the champagne. As ecstatic as I would be with a World Series title this year, it just wouldn't feel the same if it was Randy Johnson throwing the final pitch to Charles Johnson. These guys aren't true Dodgers. Both of them had to be bribed, cajoled, and dragged kicking and screaming to come play here. I'd rather lose with real Dodgers than win with mercenaries.

I might be getting too sentimental here. We could all come to love Penny and Choi and accept them as our guys. Despite what all the baseball pundits and sports talk-radio callers seem to think, I figure this was a decent trade. The Dodgers got a top starting pitcher who can anchor us in a short playoff series, and a first baseman who's not bad and who can allow Green to go back to right field, and they did it all without shredding the farm system. The bullpen is a little thinner now, and there seems to be a gaping hole at catcher (I can't find a final word on the Charles Johnson deal), but all-in-all, we seem to be okay.

But I will still miss Paul LoDuca terribly. No matter who comes out of the crouch to congratulate the pitcher after the final pitch of a playoff win, I'll be thinking of Paulie. It just won't be as sweet.

2004 Dodgers: Check Out Our Johnsons

2004-07-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

The dominoes are falling. The Dodgers are making their run at Randy Johnson, and are remaking half their roster in the process. The first blockbuster before the deadline appears to send LoDuca, Encarnacion, and Mota to the Marlins for Brad Penny, Hee Seop Choi, and someone named Billy Murphy. The goal is to package Penny and Murphy off to the D-Backs for the Big Unit. More details to come...

By the way, I have no idea what's wrong with the sidebar. I'll check in that this weekend.

UPDATE: ESPN is reporting that the Dodgers have now re-acquired Charles Johnson from Colorado, although they don't say for who.

Unit to L.A.: Drop Dead

2004-07-29T10:58:00.000-07:00

What is with these players demanding to go to the Yankees, and only the Yankees? It's not like Randy Johnson wants to go to the team where he feels he has the best shot at finally winning his long-awaited championship, a la Karl Malone. Randy got his ring just three years ago. Is the allure of playing for Steinbrenner that great that he would reject a deal to a division leader and pennant contender simply because they don't play in the Bronx?

I hope the Diamondbacks tell Johnson to go screw himself. The Yankees don't have any prospects left worth trading, and Joe Garagiola Jr. has said that he won't make a deal if he doesn't get the proper value in return. Proper value in the Dodgers case appeared to be Mota and Werth, which I could've lived with, along with prospects Chad Billingsley and Chuck Tiffany, which would've been tougher to swallow. Both are recent top draft picks who are still in the very low minors, but have already dazzled in their limited professional careers. I'd have felt better about that deal if it had just included one of them, not both. There was also a rumor of Mota and LoDuca going for Johnson, but that wasn't happening unless the D-Backs also threw in a catcher.

Of course, it's all a moot point. Arizona will not trade Johnson to L.A. now, but they might deal Steve Finley. I'm not sure why the Dodgers, who already have four outfielders, would want to get another one, but Finley would provide some nice stability in the middle of the order sandwiched between Beltre and Green. The D-Backs would probably still ask for Mota and maybe Werth or Roberts, but the Dodgers should be able to hang on to their better prospects.

Mota, incidentally, gave up the go-ahead runs in a tie game for the third time since the All-Star break last night. There's nothing wrong with him, he's just in a slump. Anybody can load the bases and give up a run after getting the first two outs in the 8th inning of a tie game at Coors Field. It's just a slump.

UPDATE: Eric Neel expresses the same sentiments I have about Randy Johnson, only better:

He says NO to the Dodgers, NO to the Angels, NO to anyone but the Bombers.

That's weak. That's just a whorish glory grab. Why not go to work for Microsoft while you're at it? Why not jump in with Goliath and teach little David a lesson? Why not join the armada for a storm of the Falklands?

Don't talk to me about the ring. He's got one. Don't talk to me about the trophy. He's got something more valuable.

He's got a rep. He's a Yankee-killer.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

No Eastern Bias Here

2004-07-27T12:37:00.000-07:00

Tom Verducci weighs in on who the best announcers in baseball are. Quick, what do Ernie Harwell, Red Barber, Harry Caray, Bob Costas, and Curt Gowdy have in common?

Yes, they all work or worked in the part of the country to the east of the Mississippi River. Unlike a certain red-headed announcer who's been calling Dodger games for 55 freaking years now.

Frank Deford has another piece that just pays Vinny some mild lip service, but at least they put his photo up.

Creative Accounting

2004-07-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

I have yet another game report, although somewhat belated. After complaining that I wasn't getting out to enough games this season, I scored some last-minute field level tickets to Friday night's game against the Padres. It was pretty much the perfect game experience: terrific seats, great pitching and defensive plays, clutch hitting, a Gagne appearance, a comeback, and a game-winning walkoff HR in the bottom of the ninth. I was trying to get an "M-V-P!" chant going for Beltre at the end of the game, but it didn't take. There were some reports of the "M-V-P!" chant being heard after Belly hit the grand slam on Saturday, but I'm not going to take credit for it.

A quick note on the Dodgers' attendance figures: I am now convinced that McCourt's jesters are cooking the numbers. Supposedly, Friday night's game was attended by me and 55,310 of my closest friends, the biggest regular season crowd ever at Dodger Stadium. Even down in the field level, there were plenty of unoccupied seats all around me, and clusters of empty seats were readily visible in every section of the park. Saturday's game was also a 52,000+ sellout, despite the fact that the right-field pavilion was less than half-filled. Earlier series' against the Yankees and Giants were some of the highest-attended games in the history of the stadium.

I know the Dodgers don't count attendance just by using the "tickets sold" metric, otherwise the number would be the same for each sellout. (Remember the Lakers' stock figure for a capacity crowd when they played at the Forum? If it was a sellout, it was 17,505, like clockwork.) So that means they must be counting actual turnstile spins, or "butts in the seats". I'm wondering if they're counting each cheek separately.

Jamie McCourt said at the beginning of the season that the Dodgers had no excuse for not drawing 4 million fans a year (although it's not like the team was having attendance problems under the previous ownership regimes.) Her solution, apparently, was to hire Enron's former number-crunchers to do the head counts.

No Worries

2004-07-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

The posting's been light around here lately, but that's not entirely my fault. Blogger's new interface and/or crappy servers have sent a couple of posts down the drain, and after spending a half-hour or so composing them, I couldn't find the energy to repeat myself. Hopefully this one will make it up.

Time for a game report: All year I've worked within a five minute drive of Dodger Stadium, and yet last night was only the third time this season that I've made it out to a game. This is a shameful record for me, especially considering the fact that my days in L.A. are numbered, and I need to take advantage of the bliss that Chavez Ravine offers me before I spend my days surrounded by Mets and Yankees fans. (I haven't read Dante's Inferno in a while, but I'm pretty sure that's a punishment in one of the inner circles of hell.)

Anyway, it was a great game, despite the result. The Dodgers very nearly dug themselves out of a 6-run hole last night, leaving the tying run on 2nd base when the game ended. I was at Ishii's complete game shutout against the Giants earlier this year, and I couldn't believe that it was the same pitcher I was watching get rolled by the Rockies. He almost didn't deserve to be bailed out of this one. They weren't able to come back last night, but they did it today, making it seven come-from-behind wins in their last eight games. I'm starting to wonder if there's something special about this team that hopefully can last into September and beyond...

By the way, is anyone else concerned with Guillermo Mota's performance the past couple of games? He's given up 4 runs on 6 hits in his last 3 2/3 innings, and has looked even shakier than those numbers would indicate. Twice he's given up go-ahead runs in tie games, including today.

Probably just going through a bad stretch. Pitchers can slump, too. Nothing to be worried about.

CLEAR!!!

2004-07-20T23:25:00.000-07:00

At the end of June, the Dodgers had lost six games in a row and had dropped to just two games over .500. But the team's been on a tear since, winning 17 of their last 20 games, which is an amazing enough feat by itself. However, what really stuns me is the fact that 12 of the 17 wins have been come-from-behind jobs, including each of the six wins since the All-Star break. I don't think they had 12 come-from-behind wins all last year.

6/27: Dodgers fall behind 2-0 against Anaheim, but blow game open with 7-run fifth inning.

6/29: Dodgers trail 1-0 against the Giants, score one in the 5th and another in the 8th to win 2-1.

7/1: Giants score single runs in the top of the third and fourth innings, and two runs in the top of the seventh, but Dodgers match them each time in the bottom half of all three innings Then they move ahead in the 8th and win, 5-4.

7/5: Arizona leads 3-0 in the third, Dodgers fight back to take 5-3 lead going into the ninth. That unreliable gascan closer of ours blows the save, but Dodgers win in 10 innings anyway.

7/6: D-Backs lead 1-0 in the third, Dodgers end up winning 4-1.

7/8: Astros lead 2-0 in the third, Dodgers score runs in each of the next five innings and win 7-2.

7/15: Dodgers trail 3-0 going into the 8th, Green hits grand slam to win the game 4-3.

7/16: Arizona scores the first two runs, Dodgers score the next six.

7/17: Arizona leads 4-2 in the third, Dodgers come back to tie it in the 8th. Then they fall behind by two again, only to score three in the ninth to win 7-6.

7/18: Dodgers win going away, 10-3. But they trailed 1-0 after one inning.

7/19: Astros lead 3-1 after the 2nd, Dodgers take the lead in the top of the sixth, Astros again take the lead 6-5, Dodgers again come back to win 7-6.

7/20: Dodgers trail 3-0 and 4-1, then score six runs in the 7th and 8th innings to win 7-5.

I don't know if I should be happy about the Dodgers' sudden clutch hitting and never-quit attitude, or concerned about the fact that the starting pitchers are constantly digging themselves into holes. But at least the games are exciting as hell. Dodger games last year were good cures for insomnia. If they fell behind by two or more runs early, they were done. This year's group has turned into a defibrillator machine.

Green's Day

2004-07-16T10:03:00.000-07:00

A week ago, I was nursing a beer in the sports book of the Mirage, watching Shawn Green step to the plate with the bases loaded in the ninth inning of a game in which the Astros were leading 3-2. A simple sacrifice fly would've tied the game and sent Dodger Stadium into a tizzy. Emblematic of the type of season he's been having, Green instead hit into a game-ending double play, sending Houston bettors into a tizzy.

So, yesterday the D-Backs basically give Beltre an intentional walk because they'd rather face Green with the bases loaded. Instead of another moment of disappointing heartbreak, Green achieved some sweet vindication. That game-winning grand slam was his biggest hit of 2004, and it couldn't have come at a better time for the Dodgers' beleaguered star.

Too bad I wasn't back at the Mirage sports book last night.

Jerk Off

2004-07-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

There's truckloads of internet bandwidth being wasted on Kobe blather today, but I can't resist pointing this one out. It pretty much sums up my feelings on the issue. Kobe was never seriously considering the Clippers, or the Knicks, or the Nuggets, or any other team. He was jerking us all off:

There was never any question of where Kobe would end up — not in his own mind, anyway. He wanted us to think he could go just about anywhere, and his preposterous Denver dalliance is Exhibit A in the case against him.

Ever since sexual assault charges were filed against Bryant in Eagle, Colo., last year, Bryant has been the most reviled athlete in Colorado — except among Avalanche fans, for whom that role is played by Todd Bertuzzi. To pretend that he was interested in playing for the Nuggets, where he could be serenaded with chants of “Ra-Pist!” every night only showed that Kobe has no conscience.

He talked to the Knicks during his brief but self-aggrandizing dip in the free-agent pool. And, fools that we are, some in my business seriously speculated that, even though the Knicks are farther over budget than the Pentagon, he might come to New York because his endorsements would be worth more there.

Then there was the shameless flirtation with the Clippers. Kobe dared to suggest that he would go from one of the most celebrated franchises in sports to one that defines incompetence. He had enormous fun jerking Clippers fans around, making them believe that he might actually come to their sorry team.

Except for Coach K, what Kobe wants, Kobe gets. He got his team, built to his specifications, just the way he wanted it. Now it's on him to prove he really can be "The Man" and bring home the hardware without Shaq or Phil. It'll be his ass if he doesn't.

Crying Over Spilled Milk

2004-07-15T13:21:00.000-07:00

No baseball season can pass without an obligatory "Can you believe how overpaid that guy is?" story by all the major news outlets. To celebrate the All-Star break, I guess, ESPN.com weighs in with its list of the most overpaid slugs in the sport. I'm sure to the surprise of no one, the Dodgers were all over it, with four players sharing the top spot.

1. Four Dodgers ($44,070,000)
Darren Dreifort ($11,400,000)
Hideo Nomo ($9,000,000)
Shawn Green ($16,666,667)
Todd Hundley ($7,000,000)

The legacy of Kevin Malone -- the worst GM in baseball history? -- continues to sting the Dodgers, as reflected in their four highest-paid players.

Far be it for me to defend Kevin Malone, but that's a little unfair to the Sheriff. Hideo Nomo was one of the best pitchers in baseball as recently as last season, but his arm was ruined by injury this year, and Todd Hundley was acquired by Dan Evans in a salary swap, so lay that turd at his doorstep. But there's no defending the other two. Shawn Green is, or was, a fine player when healthy, but he has always been overpaid for what he produced. And the Dreifort contract may very well be the worst in baseball history.

It's amazing to think what the Dodgers could be doing without all these albatross contracts. Imagine using that $44 million for players who actually performed. Vlad Guerrero, a real first baseman, a dependable starter or two...

Told You So

2004-07-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I qualified my comments a little bit, but I knew there was no way the best player in the NBA would sign a huge contract with the worst owner of the worst franchise in sports history.

Now, all the Lakers need for a decent 2004-05 season is a center and a not-guilty verdict. I'm putting the odds at 30% for the former and about 70% for the latter.

He'll Go for 50 and 20 in the first Lakers-Heat Game Next Year

2004-07-14T13:22:00.000-07:00

Breaking news: the Big Oaf is officially headed to Miami. In return, as everybody who's reading this already knows, the Lakers get Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, Caron Butler, and a first-round draft pick.

Those are three nice players, and Odom might very well be on the verge of stardom, but the Lakers are crippled now, with all those big frontcourts in the Western Conference. Vlade Divac is not the answer, either. Erick Dampier would work, but I can't imagine Golden State making a deal to help the Lakers recover from losing Shaq. The Lakers have been at the top of the pyramid for so long now, everyone's lining up to take their shots while they're down. Still, this is a team I can get behind. These are hustle players, and even though the Lakers are not title contenders as constituted now, I'm ok with that. They should still be a playoff team, and besides, it'll be nice to root for a hard-working underdog for a change.

Of course, Kobe is not a lock to return yet, either. (Without him, the Lakers are in the lottery next year.) The Clippers have been clearing cap room for Kobe, but I can not imagine a plausible scenario in which he joins the Donald Sterling Tax Write-Offs. This is Donald's sole big offseason play since he's owned the team, and I assure you, there will not be another one. If Kobe actually strokes out and signs with the Clips, Sterling will ensure that his already profitable team will be even more so, thanks to increases in merchandising, attendance, and television fees, but they still won't be a title contender, and you know the Donald will not make further moves to improve the team.

And Kobe? Can you imagine what a pariah he would be in L.A. if he were to leave the Lakers, the team that publicly stood by him during all his recent troubles and axed their coach and best player in order to accomodate him? He would be viewed as an ungrateful traitor by the Laker faithful, and he would still have to play half his games in Los Angeles. I can't believe Kobe would join the Clippers, but Kobe has made it very clear that he marches to the beat of his own personal symphony, so you never know.

Yes, I Bet the Under on Saturday's Red Sox-Rangers Game

2004-07-13T17:36:00.000-07:00

My third Vegas trip of 2004 is in the books, and I'm all the poorer for it, yet I feel somehow quite enriched. The only two lessons I've learned is that just because I follow baseball passionately doesn't mean I'm good at betting on it, and drinking two bottles of water just before you crash into bed after a long night of partying goes a looooooong way to soothing the trauma that awaits when you wake up in the morning.

Besides my lightened wallet and pounding head, I'm paying for my Vegas shenanigans with a backload of work, so all opinions on the All-Star game, the Dodgers' nice finish to the first half, and the Lakers' detonation will have to wait a day or so.

You Never Know What You Gonna Git

2004-07-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

In the very near future, I will be unemployed, putting all of my possessions into storage, and moving across the country into a future full of doubt and debt, uncertainty and opportunity. With all this weighing heavily on my mind, there's only one thing I can say...

"Fuck it, I'm going to Vegas."

The Dodgers' vault into first place has me thinking of betting heavy on them against the Astros this weekend. After all, they have a five-game winning streak and just pounded the hell out of the Diamondbacks... although, they did miss Randy Johnson, and the Astros definitely have the pitching to make this team go back into an offensive funk, so maybe I should rethink my betting strategy. I'll be a happy man if we can get into the All-Star break in first place. Winning three of four this weekend should do the trick.

Ten of the 11 Dodger hits last night came from the 5-6-7-8 hitters in the lineup, including three hits from Green and an awesome night for the Ja(y)sons. It's nice to see Milton Bradley and Dave Roberts get a little kick-in-the-ass competition for their spots in the outfield, and personally, I don't care if Encarnacion ever gets back. Along with Saenz and Hernandez, I could not be happier with the contribution we've gotten this year out of the bench.

As for Ishii, I was irritated at the same time I was marveled by his performance. A one-hitter, even against Arizona, is incredible, but why can't we get this kind of consistency from him on a regular basis? I'm not asking or a one-hit shutout every time out, but in his last start he gave up seven runs in three innings, for crying out loud. Every time this guy takes the mound, it's like sampling from Forrest Gump's box of chocolates.

For the next three days, I'll be escaping my real-world dilemmas and taking up semi-permanent residency at the Mirage pool, sports book, and poker tables. I'll be back Monday.

Maybe.

How About Quality-Blog Post Percentage?

2004-07-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

How fitting is it that on the same night that Eric Gagne begins a new save streak, the Giants bullpen coughs up a five-run lead in the 8th inning and loses to the Rockies. Yeah, the five runs were all unearned, but Matt Herges gave up two walks and three hits, including a game-tying homerun while blowing his sixth save of the season. You think Jason Schmidt can't wait for Robb Nen to get back, or what?

Anyway, here's another fun fact-filled bit of kitsch regarding Eric's streak. I was always one of those who thought that too many of Gagne's saves were cheapos, like tonight, where he came in with a three-run lead and barely broke a sweat. That's why this part of the article was an eye-opener:

Well, of Gagne's 84 saves, he entered the game with a one-run lead 38 times, a two-run lead 17 times and a lead of three or more 29 times. So that tells us something. But we need to know more.

So the Elias Sports Bureau has devised a formula for something called a "Quality Save." To earn a Quality Save, a pitcher needs to:

--Earn a save in a game in which the tying run was in scoring position when he entered.

--(And/or) save a game in which he protected a one-run lead for at least one inning.

And if you use that definition, it's clear Gagne didn't just earn the most saves in baseball during his streak. He also earned the toughest.

During Gagne's streak, just 30 percent of all saves qualified as "Quality Saves." But almost half of Gagne's saves were Quality Saves.

I'm not going to debate the merits of a "Quality Save", but that's still a pretty nice stat. The next six highest guys on the Quality-Save percentage list (including, uh, Matt Herges) blew a total of 36 saves. And come to think of it, it is pretty impressive that Gagne can so often finish off a team without breaking a sweat.

The Dodgers' four-game winning streak is coinciding nicely with the Giants' four-game losing streak. Now if only the damn Padres would get out of the way...

Eric the Great

2004-07-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

I don't have much to add about the end of Eric Gagne's save streak. The ninth inning of Dodger victories were turning into real nail-biters, not because I was concerned about them losing, but because I was concerned about whether or not Eric would be able to extend his streak. It was exciting, but I wonder if it wasn't a distraction.

In any case, I already wondered how Gagne's streak matches up against the other great streaks in baseball history. Of course, only time will tell with something like this, but now with the benefit of one day's hindsight, I can say that it probably will be a long time before we see a streak of pure dominance like that again. This is true especially in light of how easily the streak came to an end last night: two base-hits and one seeing-eye grounder that the first baseman should have let go, but didn't. (Cora would've fielded the ball cleanly if Saenz hadn't deflected it.) You wonder how that something like that didn't happen at all in the past two years, and the magnitude of the streak becomes clear.

It was an amazing accomplishment, and we're all lucky to have witnessed our guy achieve it.

Coach K to LA: F U

2004-07-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

There's no way Coach K was gonna take the job. With Kobe essentially calling the shots for the Lakers now, Krzyzewski would have to have known that his entire tenure with the team would've been subject to his continuing good relations with Bryant. If Kobe could get a 9-time championship coach and one of the biggest stars in L.A. history run out of town at the same time, I'm sure he'd have no problems doing the same to Coach K as soon as they hit a bumpy stretch.

After 24 seasons at Duke, where he was the Lord of all he surveys, Krzyzewski was never going to take a job where he would play a subordinate role to a player. Now for the Lakers, it's back to guys like Rudy T., who wants the job so badly that he's volunteering to bring his own kneepads.

Mitch Kupchak needs to assert some authority here. Kobe is being wooed by the Clippers, for God's sake.

Dodgers Get Impaled by Vlad

2004-07-03T16:26:00.000-07:00

Ugly story in today's L.A. Times that pretty much confirms what we already knew: McCourt's drawn-out purchase of the Dodgers cost us Vladimir Guerrero.

They believed they were so close to signing him, in fact, that top club executives were exchanging high-fives in their offices. The celebration was premature, however, because concerns that the lucrative agreement might complicate the sale of the team scuttled the deal...

The Dodgers were very close to bringing Guerrero to Chavez Ravine, according to numerous baseball sources, including current and former Dodger officials.

"We made a deal with Guerrero," former chairman Bob Daly said in the June 28 editions of New York Newsday. "It was done, everything but the signature."

The article goes on to say that the Dodgers asked Guerrero to wait until after the sale had been finalized to sign, in order to satisfy McCourt's payroll demands and baseball's debt-equity rule, but by then he had become tired of waiting and signed with Anaheim, where he is a contender - if not the frontrunner - for the AL MVP award this year.

As Shawn Green continues to wilt under the pressure of carrying the Dodger offense, as the team continues to leave runner after runner on base, and as the Angels slowly but surely overtake the Dodgers for primacy in the southern California baseball market, we're going to get blistering reminders of it every time Guerrero powers the O.C. Bombers to another win.

Oh yes, they call him The Streak, fastest thing on two feet...

2004-07-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

Blogger's been pretty spotty today, but it doesn't matter. I'm not in the mood to commiserate over Nomo's performance last night. I've already said repeatedly that he should be removed from not just the starting rotation, but the team. However, it's obvious Jim Tracy is just not listening to me. So I'm not going to bother anymore.

Instead, I'll point out this Tim Kurkjian article about where Eric Gagne's save streak compares to the other great streaks in history: Joe DiMaggio, Cal Ripken, Orel Hershiser, and Ray Stevens.

I'd have to say Gagne ranks behind all of them except Ray Stevens.

So, how does his streak compare to other great streaks in baseball history, those of Joe DiMaggio, Cal Ripken and Orel Hershiser? They are difficult comparisons given the differences in the streaks, or as the great Steve Hirdt of the Elias Sports Bureau put it, "it's like determining in which order you would hit Ruth, Williams and Barry Bonds in a mythical All-Star game against Mars." The four streaks are incomparable and perhaps unbreakable.

That's some heady praise for Mr. Gagne. An unbreakable record? It's hard to call a record "unbreakable" when Gagne himself goes out there and basically breaks his own record every time he converts a save. If he can do it, then surely it can be done.

(Aside: I like the Mars reference. See the post directly below.)

Gagne's streak is not the greatest streak in Dodger history. In 1988, Orel Hershiser threw a major-league record 59 consecutive scoreless innings, a feat that still doesn't receive its proper due. That's six shutouts in a row, then add four more innings. The last pitcher to throw six shutouts in a season was Tim Belcher in 1989. Many teams don't throw six shutouts in a season. Even though Don Drysdale and Bob Gibson have streaks that nearly match Hershiser's, to not have a bad inning in nearly seven games is incredible.

I sometimes forget how amazing Hershiser's streak was. In a month that saw the Dodgers scrambling for a playoff spot, he completely shut down all opponents that faced him during the Dodgers' pennant drive in 1988, posting five straight shutouts and a 10-inning goose egg-fest against the Padres a night or two after the division was clinched. The official record may be 59 consecutive scoreless innings, but it really should be 67, since that's what he stretched it to before allowing the Mets to score in the ninth inning of Game 1 of the NLCS. I don't mean to kick anyone while they're down, but thanks to the zeros he put up in the 2nd and 4th innings last night, Hideo Nomo now has 42 total scoreless innings so far in 2004.

Gagne's streak is starting to reach the point of trepidation. Every time he takes the mound now, you wonder, Is this the night he gets beat? It's special now no matter what happens, but this is a streak that will need to stand for a while before we can start measuring it against Joe, Cal, and Orel.

He's definitely got Ray Stevens beat, though.

Baseball on Mars?

2004-06-30T16:54:00.000-07:00

The Dodgers could make real strides to get back into the NL West race with a sweep of the BALCO bombers at home this week. Unfortunately, Hideo Nomo pitches for us tonight and Jason Schmidt pitches for them tomorrow, so I won't be holding my breath.

A while back I was moaning about how the Dodgers got screwed in the interleague matchups this year, getting six games against the mighty Red Sox and Yankees, and thanks to the all-important "cross-town rivalry matchup", another six with the powerful Angels. I also noted that the other teams in the division would get a chance to pound on miserable Tampa Bay, but not LA.

Well, thankfully baseball isn't run by the BCS. The miserable Devil Rays ended up going 11-1 against their NL West foes, while the Dodgers managed a split against Boston and New York. SI's Tom Verducci makes that point, but you have to wade through a half-page of obligatory Red Sox-Yankees blather first, because as we all know, anything in baseball happening outside the Boston-New York axis might as well be happening on Mars.

Ezekiel 25:17

2004-06-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of June, which means that 2004 is now half over. With the end of the half-year, I celebrate my last days of peace and normalcy before my life enters a period of major flux. My job - which has afforded me the free time to work on this blog - is coming to an end, I have to move out of my apartment at the end of July, and then I depart for New York City in mid-August.

To paraphrase Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction, normally hearing those words meant this blog's ass was dead, but I happened to pull this shit when I'm in a transitional period. So I don't want to kill the blog, I want it to live.

To say I'm in a transitional period is actually a major understatement. I will keep this blog going as much as I can, but posting is going to be spotty, especially as we get deeper into July. Believe me, I want to keep harping on the ineptitude of the Dodgers and the implosion of the Lakers, and I haven't even started in yet on how USC is going to turn the rest of the Pac-10 into a Division II conference this year, but my internet time is going to take a hit.

I am soooo dreading moving it's not even funny, and I have the added nightmare of hauling my ass across country. This summer is going to suck.

Hell Week

2004-06-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

It's weird how when the Dodgers are in the midst of an ugly losing streak, I can't summon any energy or interest in blogging about them. I feel like the Dodgers are a waste of my time, and I'm better off doing something more productive with my life than bitching and moaning about an underperforming bunch of overpaid whiners. I have felt that way about the Dodgers a lot in the past decade or so.

But then they put together a nice win, and I feel better again. The fourth inning yesterday was amazing. A sustained rally! Actual hits with men in scoring position! Homeruns that came after players were already on base! Shawn Green not grounding into an inning-killing double play! Yeah, Sunday was nice. The previous six days I'd rather not talk about.

No, the Dodgers are not in first place anymore, the Giants finally doing what the Padres should've done a month ago. They stayed in the penthouse longer than their play in the past 6 weeks entitled them to, so I guess it was only a matter of time before the overrated overachievers from No-Cal finally evicted the overrated underachievers from So-Cal. And the Dodgers are only halfway done with their fortnight of hell against the Giants and Angels; there's still six more games against their tormentors from San Francisco and Anaheim.

Boy, just writing that last sentence gave me dry heaves. What the hell has happened to this team?

Zinger!

2004-06-24T16:44:00.000-07:00

From DodgerKid:

And those rubber chickens Giants' fans have are soooo funny. I think McCourt should sell giant rubber syringes next time Barry comes up to bat at home games.

That's funny to the point that I'm irritated I didn't think it up first.

Big Shocker

2004-06-24T11:46:00.001-07:00

Yes, it's hearsay. Yes, all the evidence so far is circumstantial. But is there really still anyone out there who doesn't believe Barry Bonds is/was using steroids?

Montgomery also gave secondhand testimony implicating Bonds, the San Francisco Giants’ slugger who has hit the third most homers in baseball history. According to the Chronicle, prosecutor Jeff Nedrow asked Montgomery about Conte’s dealings with Bonds.

“Did he say he gave any steroids, Winstrol or any of the other ones to Mr. Bonds?” Nedrow asked.

“Yes, he did,” Montgomery replied.

“Did he say specifically which ones?”

“Winstrol,” Montgomery said.

Winstrol is the same steroid Ben Johnson used before being disqualified in the 1988 Olympics. Montgomery testified that Conte told him Bonds switched to an undetectable steroid in 2003 when baseball introduced its drug policy.

It will be a dark day in baseball history when this cheater finally eclipses Hank Aaron's homerun record. Start loading up on asterisks.

So Much for Mighty Mo'

2004-06-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

Well, that was a downer. Right after the super-charged series with the Yankees, when the Dodgers should've been amped up and ready to cement their foothold atop the NL West against the overrated Giants, they go tearing into SBComglomco Park and cough up three games in a row (soon to be four, as Nomo is pitching tonight.) The Giants keep stringing together clutch hits and sustaining rallies, and the Dodgers keep flailing away with runners on base.

And the story is the same as it's been for the last three years. As goes Shawn Green, so go the Dodgers. When he hit his first major skid of the season in May and saw his batting average tumble below .220, the Dodgers went into the tank as well, dropping 12 of 14 in one particularly gruesome stretch. Green rebounded some in June, bringing his BA up over .250, and the Dodgers stabilized as well. Now he's slumping again, and the Dodgers are losing again.

After stranding nine runners and going 0-8 in the first two games of the SF series, Green was benched last night by Jim Tracy. Shawn was reportedly none too happy about it, but he needs it. (It should be pointed out that Beltre went 4-4 in the cleanup spot in Green's absence.) Benchings have lit a fire under Green in the past, hopefully it'll do the trick again this time. Maybe it already has: he appeared as a PH in the 9th inning last night and singled.

Some players, like Shaquille O'Neal, play better when they're angry or feel slighted. I think Shawn Green falls in that category, too. He's a passive guy by nature. We need him to get mad.

Up His Dosage

2004-06-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

What the hell? Paul DePodesta turned down a trade that would have sent us Carlos Beltran in exchange for Guillermo Mota?

I think Peter Gammons has gone off his meds again. He has also has the Dodgers trading half their farm system for Freddy Garcia a little further down the page.

King Kobe's Palace Coup

2004-06-21T14:49:00.000-07:00

I've avoided writing about the Lakers' post-Finals meltdown because the subject is being beaten to death so mercilessly, that my puny little contribution to the discourse would get lost in the static. There's nothing I can say that hasn't already been said by someone somewhere else. So with that qualification, I hereby announce my membership in the very small and exclusive club of Laker fans who is actually happy to see this dynasty disintegrate.

This has been the most unendearing team I've ever been a fan of. If it wasn't for my 20+ years of loyalty to my hometown team, I'd be a vociferous Laker-hater. Has there ever been a more spoiled or selfish star than Kobe Bryant? A more smug and superior coach than Phil Jackson? A lazier franchise player than Shaquille O'Neal? I only cheered for them because they wore the right uniforms. To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, I was really rooting for the laundry.

Do you remember how they used to be? I loved the 2000 team. A dominating 67-win regular season, followed by an electrifying run through the playoffs to the title. Kobe had become the most spectacular player in the game, and Shaq had reached the zenith of his dominance. In the classic seven-game series with Portland, they showed the hunger and determination of a team that knew it was on the cusp of something special. The 2001 season saw the first fractures in the Kobe-Phil-Shaq triangle, as Kobe tried to legitimize his status as the next Jordan. But by season's end they had pulled it all together. Their tremendous 15-1 playoff run that year was awe-inspiring. The demolition of the Spurs in the WC Finals that year was one of the most unbelievable displays of sheer power I've ever seen on a basketball court.

Unfortunately, that playoff run also gave rise to the whole "flip the switch" mentality, which soon became the mantra of the team and simultaneously its most loathsome trait. Sub-par and listless regular season performance were casually dismissed, as if the fans who paid to see the team play in the meaningless months of November or December or January should've known better. After talking the talk, they walked the walk in 2002, winning another championship after an epic defeat of a Sacramento team that believed their time had come. But the endearing doggedness of the 2000 team and the jaw-dropping confidence of the 2001 team had devolved into arrogance and a sense of entitlement. I remember not savoring the third title as much as I had the first two.

That summer saw Shaq's pre-training camp surgery and his infamous "I got injured on company time, I'll rehab on company time" quote. Has any beloved star ever sneered at his own fans with such contempt like that? My own attitude towards the team started to change from gushing pride to mere tolerance to embarassed disgust. Lots more "we'll flip the switch"-type quotes followed, but the bench was thinner, Shaq and for the first time, Kobe, were battling nagging injuries, and a retooled Spurs team put them in their place in 2003. This past season they added a couple of mercenaries, but Kobe's legal problems and Shaq's unwillingness to work on his defense and his free throws sandbagged the team from the start. Various injuries robbed Kobe of his above-the-rim explosiveness, and Shaq started putting up only one dominant performance a week. They almost did flip the switch this past year, but they peaked too soon. After stunning the Spurs, they almost got caught napping against a younger, hungrier Minnesota team, and finally were overmatched and outclassed by Detroit.

Kobe's late season tank job against the Kings was the tantrum of a petulant whiner, and his bricking performance against the Pistons exposed him as vulnerable to double-teams. Why was he double-teamed? Because Shaq was exposed as flat-footed and only deserving of single coverage by a true hustle player, Ben Wallace. And there was nothing Phil Jackson could do. I can't think of a Laker team I detested more, from Kobe's dumbass presence in that Colorado hotel room, to the public feuding through the press that started the season, to Payton's bitching about the triangle, to Shaq's condescending comments about Mitch Kupchak and his inability, after all these years, to develop a consistent free-throw stroke and play killer interior defense.

So now we've entered the summer of our discontent. Jerry Buss is determined to keep Bryant a Laker, even if that means ousting Jackson and alienating O'Neal. Is that the right move? Mark Heisler of the LA Times thinks so, but Michael Ventre of NBC thinks not. In the end, who cares? We got three championships out of this team, which is pretty good by today's standards. If only they were all lovey-dovey on the court, like those sickeningly sugary Spurs, then maybe they could've stayed together for the rest of the decade and almost assuredly would've hung a few more banners up on the wall. But it wasn't meant to be.

I am still a Laker fan, which means I don't want to see the team turn into the Chicago Bulls next year, which in turn means I am glad one of the stars is going to be back... maybe. Kobe still has a ton of question marks hanging over him, and let's not forget, he hasn't re-signed yet (although now, with his antagonists gone or going, he has no reason not to.) How will the fans treat Kobe if and when he comes back next year? Exonerated of his criminal charges (hopefully) but guilty of driving away a legendary coach and one of the most beloved athletes in Los Angeles history, Kobe's burden will become heavier and heavier. It's Kobe's team now, and if the Lakers don't win a championship under his stewardship, he and he alone will reap the scorn.

So what's next? It's hard to see any team giving the Lakers enough good players in exchange for Shaq that would allow LA to vault back into the Finals next season. With King Kobe's new contract, they'll be in salary cap hell for the foreseeable future, always making the playoffs as a bottom seed, never able to rebuild through the draft. But you never know. Hopefully, they'll get younger and hungrier, and they'll remind us, or at least me, of the way they were in 2000, when we weren't yet sure that the team was destined for greatness, but they knew it, and they wanted it. And they endeared us to them by making us want it, too.

Bring On the Rubber Chickens

2004-06-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

There's lots of great stuff on last night's Dodger-Yankee game for the intrepid Dodger fan to wade through. All-Baseball.com sponsored a Rashomon project, in which they had all the bloggers associated with them watch and critique the game, and post their differing impressions. Given the fact that last night was one of the best games of the year for Dodger fans, all of it is worthwhile reading.

The boys in blue took two of three from the Yankees in one of the most intense atmospheres seen at Dodger Stadium in a month not ending in -ber. Of course, they lost the one game of the series I attended, but I'm not complaining. Next up is four games in San Francisco, and we don't even have to face Jason Schmidt. Time for mighty Mo' to get rolling.

Let's Go DODG-ers!

2004-06-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

Time for another Game Report. Sad to say, this was only the 2nd game of the year I've attended, which is not a good record for me. I wasn't really sure of what to expect yesterday. Hideo Nomo was pitching, so I figured the Yankees were good for at least 6 or 7 runs. But New York was starting an emergency callup from AAA, and knowing what I know about the Dodgers' somewhat resurgent bats and the Yankees' thin farm system, I figured LA was good for about 6 or 7 runs, too.

Just last Tuesday I floated the idea that it might be time to release Nomo. Truth be told, Hideo looked very good for six of the seven innings he pitched, although I saw way too many sub-80 mph fastballs. Unfortunately, the Yankees, as they so often do, picked up four runs in the first inning that they didn't really seem to deserve. After Jeter was clumsily thrown out stealing for the 2nd out, it looked as if Nomo might have an easy 1-2-3 inning. But he walked A-Rod after getting two strikes on him, then walked Giambi after a long at-bat. Sheffield then rapped a single to score one run, and Matsui followed with one of the sorriest homeruns I've ever seen: a little inside-out poke that barely cleared both the foul pole and the 330-ft. sign along the right-field line. And just like that, it was 4-0 before I even finished my Dodger Dog.

Nomo cowboyed up and shut down the Yankees for the next six innings, but the offense was unable to get anything going against Brad Halsey. I guess the Yankees' farm system isn't as barren as I thought... or maybe it was just the Dodgers lapsing into their usual ineptness in run-scoring situations. With runners in scoring position, LA went 0-7 yesterday; the Yankees went 3-6. And everyone in the park knew it was only a matter of time before New York's All-Star lineup was going to get off the mat and bust the game open, which they finally did in the 8th inning. Halsey was followed by Paul Quantrill, Tom Gordon, and Mariano Rivera, and that was that.

I was sitting in the loge level a ways down the left-field line. The game had a playoff atmosphere to it, and the crowd was passionate about what was happening on the field, which can often be a rarity in Los Angeles. (The crowd didn't even do the wave.) I was concerned that Dodger Stadium was going to be overtaken by the Yankee partisans who were scooping up overpriced tickets on eBay all week, but my fellow bluebloods did not let me down. There was a sizable contigent of front-runners, bandwagonners, and NY expatriates in attendance, but every time the nauseating "Let's go YANK-ees!" chant was started up, it was quickly drowned out by "YANKEES SUCK!" or some other derivative. It was nothing like what happens in Anaheim, which turns into the West Bronx whenever the Yanks are in town. And even though I was bombarded with beach balls throughout the game, there was even a nice twist on that tired schtick: around the 6th inning or so, an inflatable doll wearing a Yankees tank-top was batted around the left-field pavilion. Yes, it was juvenile and crass, but it was inspired, and it was funny as hell.

Lima and Contreras and a brand new 3-game attendance record tonight in the rubber game.

The Moneyball Method Starting to Pay Off

2004-06-18T09:19:00.000-07:00

While watching one of the Ja(y)sons hit a clutch homerun last night for the second game in a row, I was reflecting on how much better our bench over last season. The utilitymen have provided a lift to the offense this year, and are helping to pick up some of the slack caused by the diminishment of the Dodgers' starting rotation. A quick look at the top three guys off the bench for LA the past two seasons:

2004 AVG OBP SLG OPS
Grabowski .258 .313 .472 .784
Hernandez .325 .411 .518 .929
Werth .227 .320 .636 .956

2003
Kinkade .216 .335 .352 .687
Coomer .240 .299 .368 .667
Ward .183 .211 .193 .403

Of course, Werth missed the first two months of this season, but Olmedo Saenz was and is doing a fine job (his line in 2004: .275 .340 .525 .865). It really is staggering how Daryle Ward managed to stay in the big leagues long enough to acquire 109 at-bats last year. No major-leaguer can put up numbers like that and still have a job, which makes his resurgence in Pittsburgh this season all the more aggravating for Dodger fans.

Saenz, Grabowski, and Werth are all Paul DePodesta acquisitions. (I'm not sure about Hernandez.) Their numbers are good enough to merit discussion about getting full-time play. Time will tell on how well DePo handles things like the draft, midseason acquisitions and offseason signings, but so far, his first moves as GM can be termed successful.

Distinguished Company

2004-06-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

The Titanic, the Spanish Inquisition, Pearl Harbor, the Hindenburg, new Coke, The Chevy Chase Show, the Khmer Rouge, Prohibition, the Cultural Revolution, the Dresden fire-bombing, the Exxon Valdez, biblical plagues, the designated runner, the Ford Pinto, colonoscopies, the Pedro Martinez-for-Delino DeShields trade, the San Francisco Earthquake, the Death March of Bataan, Russian gulags, the Cleveland Browns, "Bennifer", Cop Rock, clear colas, leisure suits, the Donner Party, the sack of Rome, the Trojan Horse, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Hudson Hawk, the XFL, Poochy, Andrew Dice Clay, Joan Rivers, Michael Dukakis, Hurricane Camille, the Dred Scott decision, the Black Death, the Chicago Fire, and Garfield: The Movie.

To this notable list of calamities, miseries and misfortunes, I'd like to add... the 2004 NBA Finals.

Odds and Ends

2004-06-15T17:02:00.000-07:00

Assorted notes:

Ralph Wiley died, only a few weeks after I gave him a bashing on this blog. Damn, that's weird.

Kevin Brown's on the disabled list. Try not to gloat.

I actually like the Lakers' chances if they win tonight. If they can solve the Pistons D, they'll get the momentum and the next two games at home. Big if, of course.

I love the fact that three majors will be played on links courses this year. What's a links course? Read here.

Probably the only person who wasn't happy to see Ken Griffey Jr. go on his recent tear was me, since my fantasy league opponent had him starting against me last week.

Here's another reminder that Division I college football has no officially sanctioned championship. The BCS is a travesty and a joke. Actually, it's a travesty of a joke, and the "plus one" idea they've come up with is just another bad punch line.

Merushi, Nomo-san

2004-06-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

In 11 starts this year, Hideo Nomo has an ERA of 7.56, a BAA of .312, and has registered only 26 K's in 50 innings pitched. His fastball can barely reach the upper 80's, and his out pitch - the splitter - doesn't even come near that. He's coming off surgery. He's approaching his 36th birthday.

Hideo has been a warrior for his entire 10-year big-league career. He has been a tremendous Dodger, wearing the uniform proudly and with distinction. His debut in 1995 was a shining moment for the organization, his no-hitter in Coors Field was unforgettable, and his late-career resurgence was inspiring.

Which is why it pains me to say, Hideo Nomo has reached the end of the line. Jon Weisman has advocated putting Nomo in the bullpen until he can work out his problems, but I fear a more drastic step is necessary. I am not confident he can regain the form that made him a 16-game winner the past two seasons, and I am now doubtful he can even regain the stuff the would make him an effective starting pitcher. Besides, the Dodgers already have a damaged former starter (Dreifort) in the bullpen doing mop-up duty, they don't need another.

Branch Rickey said that it's better to get rid of a player a year too soon than a year too late. Cutting Nomo loose may seem harsh, but the Dodgers have traditionally never been sentimental about letting go of players, even beloved ones, who are in the descent phase of their career trajectory. (Fernando Valenzuela, Davey Lopes, and Steve Garvey come to mind.) It has become truly painful to see this proud pitcher, who was so recently great, struggle so badly every time he takes the mound. Edwin Jackson may not be impressing anybody with his 5+ ERA at Las Vegas, but he could hardly do worse in LA's starting rotation than Nomo. The Dodgers have very real hopes of winning the division this year, and Nomo has become a liability. It's time to give Hideo our thanks and due praise, and do what's best for all parties involved.

Piling On

2004-06-15T10:53:00.000-07:00

The only thing more depressing for Laker fans than the current humiliation we're experiencing at the hands of the Pistons is the possibility (probability?) that Kobe will be playing for a different team next year. Everybody who has watched this team for the past few years knows that the Lakers will not win any more titles without Bryant around to complement an aging, increasingly out-of-shape Shaq.

Everybody, that is, except for this clown.

The Lakers are better off without him. Let him go, use the money to hire someone with more backbone and character, someone like Allen Iverson. He may not affect the squeaky clean image Kobe worked on for so long, but Iverson at least comes to play every night. Iverson at least gets inside and gets dirty. Iverson, for all the shots he hoists up, wouldn’t forget to feed the big guy in crunch time.

GMAFB. For all the problems Shaq has had sharing the ball with Kobe, Iverson is twice the ball-hog Bryant is. And besides, I'd rather have Kobe (or Iverson, for that matter) getting the ball in crunch time, not Clank-Diesel.

Maybe the Lakers can recover from losing Bryant by acquiring Iverson, or a guy like Tracy McGrady. But not having Kobe would be devastating, and it's a scenario that looks more and more likely with each passing day.

June Gloom

2004-06-14T11:34:00.000-07:00

Due to prior commitments, I was only able to watch bits and pieces of yesterday's calamity in Auburn Hills. I saw more than I needed to. Thanks to Malone's injury and Payton's ineffectiveness, I saw Luke Walton and Slava Medvedenko and Kareem Rush getting quality minutes in a do-or-die playoff game. It reminded me of how thin the Lakers looked in last year's playoff loss to the Spurs. I was half expecting to see Jannero Pargo check in to the game at some point.

Needless to say, the obituaries are already being written, and the mediots are giddily celebrating the demise of the dynasty. The past few years have seen old-timers like Dave Andreychuk and Ray Bourque and Mitch Richmond get their long-awaited titles. It would've been nice to see Karl Malone get his.

Frank McCourt's Wet Dream

2004-06-11T11:42:00.000-07:00

I've been neglecting the Dodgers this week, what with all my consternation over the Lakers (and in re-reading my last three posts, I realize I kind of sound like a chump - although it's emblematic of the kind of emotional roller coaster us Laker fans have been on lately.) Today's game is the first of the three games Frank McCourt has been waiting all year for. The reason he bought the Dodgers was so he could return this weekend in triumph and rub it in the faces of all the Boston society-types who laughed at his own failed bid to buy the Red Sox by mortgaging his parking lot.

I figure the Blue actually has a good chance to win two of the three games, although given my track record with the Lakers, you should take this series prediction with a grain of salt. The pitching matchups favor us in the first two games, with Odalis Perez going against Derek Lowe tonight, and Jeff Weaver up against Tim Wakefield tomorrow. Sunday night, however, might be the biggest mismatch of the baseball season so far: Hideo Nomo vs. Pedro Martinez.

Watch and see the Dodgers lose the first two, only to have Nomo shut out the BoSox. That's the way baseball works sometimes. That's also the way my predictions have been going lately.

Pride Goeth Before the Fall

2004-06-11T10:23:00.000-07:00

We are standing on the precipice, staring down into a ravine that no fan of an NBA team has ever had the misfortune to explore. Has there ever been a true David vs. Goliath-type upset in the NBA Finals? There have been plenty of championship-round upsets in baseball and football, but I can't think of one in basketball. They've had a few in the early rounds of the playoffs (Denver vs. Seattle, 1994), but never in the Finals. Maybe 1995, when the sixth-seeded Rockets won, but they beat an Orlando team that hardly anyone would characterize as "Goliath" (although they did have Shaq.)

Lots of people were talking sweep when this series started. And if not for Kobe's heroics Tuesday night, we might indeed be looking at a sweep - the other way. My first reaction to the Pistons and their 40% shooting percentage was to expect an easy 5-game victory. After some more consideration, I settled in on a Lakers-in-6 pick. I was, like all Laker fans, supremely confident.

Now, after three games in which Detroit has more or less outplayed the Lakers in every facet of the game, I am fearing the worst. Ben Wallace is clowning Shaq on the boards and giving the Pistons plenty of 2nd and 3rd chances, Rasheed is having his way with Medvedenko and the injured Karl Malone, and with the way they've been exploiting the Laker defense and finding open shots, Prince, Billups, and Hamilton look like Tony Parker in triplicate. Right now, I feel like a fan of the 1988 A's. Or the 1990 A's, the 2001 Rams, the 1968 Colts, the 1969 Orioles...

Break Out the Defibrillator

2004-06-09T11:46:00.000-07:00

I really can't take much more of the Lakers. They're going to give me a stroke or a coronary or an aneurysm, and I'm still a young man. Last night had a little bit of everything: lacksadaisical play, an inspiration off the bench, a big lead frittered away, towering star performances, an amazing comeback, and a clutch miracle shot to deflate the opponent.

Some are saying the Lakers are now back on track. Maybe. The Pistons must be crushed about blowing a six-point lead with 40 seconds left and a chance to go up 2-0 in the series, but Larry Brown will have that team ready to harass and hound the Lakers for the next three games in Detroit. Winning two games in Auburn Hills may be a tough assignment for this team now, so we might be looking at a full seven-game series. I'm sure it'll be exciting and great, but I'm not gonna know. I won't be watching. I can't. I have my health to think about.

But It's Not Like I Was Rooting For the Pistons

2004-06-08T14:24:00.000-07:00

I might be the only Laker fan in the country who was actually happy to see them lose on Sunday. Well, maybe not happy, exactly, but I was surprisingly content. Throughout this entire postseason, the Lakers have not given their full attention to opponents until they've gotten that bucket of cold water in the face. Well, they got drenched on Sunday; now they'll make the adjustments and come back ready to kill. The really crappy part about losing Game 1 is that it makes Game 2 a must-win. Dropping the first two games at home would be calamitous.

At first I thought this series would break along the same lines as the Indiana series in 2000, with the Lakers dominating the first two games at home, losing Game 3 on the road, winning Game 4 to take a 3-1 lead, then mailing in a loss in Game 5 in order to clinch at home in Game 6. Now, I'm thinking the Philadelphia series in 2001: a surprising loss in Game 1, followed by consistent strong performances to win the series. I don't, however, think the Lakers will sweep the next four games, like the did with the Sixers. Detroit's D is too good, and the Lakers are too inconsistent. I'm still banking on LA to win 4 of the next 5 games to win this series in six.

Show Me the Moneyball

2004-06-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

It looks like Paul DePodesta isn't the hardened ideologue some of us thought he was. Logan White picked up two high schoolers from Missouri in the first round: Scott Elbert, a lefthanded pitcher, and Blake DeWitt, a middle infielder. The interesting story of the draft so far is the roller-coaster ride of the Scott Boras stable. Boras's threat of an eight-figure signing bonus made Jered Weaver drop all the way to #12, where Arte Steinbreno and the Angels grabbed him. Stephen Drew fell to #15 and was picked by the Diamondbacks.

The Dodgers have had a lot of luck with high-schoolers in the past couple of drafts - although, it's worth noting that none of them are major-leaguers yet; Miller, Loney, Tiffany and the rest of them are all still just nice prospects, with all the uncertainty that goes with that. LA still has a "sandwich" pick coming up; it'll be interesting to see if they finally go with a collegian, or if they make their first supposed "Moneyball" draft a first-round sweep for the prep players.

UPDATE: Baseball America has posted their analysis of the first round. The pertinent bits for Dodger fans:

17. Dodgers: Scott Elbert, lhp, Seneca (Mo.) HS

The consensus top high school lefthander in the nation entering the season, Elbert struck out 17 in his first start and never looked back. His fastball has sat at 90-93 mph all spring and features plenty of sink, as does his changeup. He has scrapped his curveball in favor of a slider, which has reached the mid-80s. He's polished for a prep pitcher and has an athletic frame at 6-foot-2 and 180 pounds.

28. Dodgers: Blake DeWitt, 3b, Sikeston HS (Missouri)

Though scouts say he has been a little anxious this spring, DeWitt still has batted .544 with 11 homers and is one of the safest bets to hit among the draft's high school prospects. He's a sound, strong lefthanded hitter whose power still shows when he uses wood in batting practice. DeWitt has arm strength and athleticism, but he's not a true shortstop.

You can't really read much into two paragraphs worth of information, but Elbert sounds like an old-school Logan White pick, with all the right "tools" and a high upside, while DeWitt sounds like DePodesta's ideal high-schooler: a proven statistical record and ability to hit - with wood bats - even though he might be playing out of position.

It's Draft Day

2004-06-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

The 2004 Amateur Draft is today, and if you're a draftnik, BaseballAmerica has the best coverage for you, with a continuously updated blog that will follow all the action. Best of all, it's free, although if you're a subscriber, there's even more stuff: mock drafts and expert analyses, etc. Man, to be a fly on the wall of the Dodgers' war room today... LA has its own pick at #17, then the 28th pick from the Yankees as compensation for Paul Quantrill, and a bonus Quantrill pick at #33. Not too shabby for a middle reliever.

Gammons has a nice piece on draft history and the unpredictability inherent in it. Jered Weaver and Stephen Drew were the consensus best players in the amateur world (and they probably still are), but there's already been a lot of speculation that they might tumble down - or possibly even out - of the first round due to their extreme signing demands. (Both are represented by Scott Boras.)

This will, of course, fall on deaf ears, but I renew my call for MLB and ESPN to televise the draft. Baseball America's blog will have to suffice; I was able to follow the final table of the WSOP on an updated blog, and I enjoyed it enough. But it's just no substitute.

It's Nice to See Where Their Priorities Are

2004-06-06T10:23:00.000-07:00

Before I start in on the Dodgers, I'd just like to say that this was a damn dumb idea. A freaking mascot??? Someone should show Frank McCourt a chart of this season's attendance figures corresponding with the Dodgers won-loss record in April. That's how you get fans into the stadium, not by putting some idiot in a giant suit and letting him prance around on top of the dugout. Gimmicks like this used to be just for low-rent organizations like the Padres and Phillies. The Dodgers are, or were, too good for these kind of brain-dead stunts. And while we're at it, less canned music and more Nancy Bea on the organ, please.

Ok. The Dodgers have won six of seven games since their 2-12 skid. This resurgence has coincided with Dave Roberts' return to the lineup, although I'm not sure why his absence caused the rest of the team to stop hitting while he was out. I've been a tough critic of Roberts in the past, never thinking he was quite as good a leadoff man as everyone seemed to say he was. But as long as he keeps his OBP north of .380 and his OPS over .800, I'm more than happy with him. 18 SB and 1 CS ain't too shabby, either.

Green has been putting the bat on the ball a little better lately. We're used to big explosions from Shawn when he busts out of a slump, but maybe this is a slow-and-steady recovery for him. And Paul Lo Duca has absolutely been on fire this past week. I don't know how he's only third in the All-Star balloting right now. I can understand him being behind Piazza, but Brad Ausmus? Come on, people, let's get our boy the respect he deserves. Vote early, vote often.

Are they back on course? The stretch between now and the All-Star break may be the defining month for the Dodgers. First up is a stretch against the AL East, and we don't even get to face the Devil Rays. Toronto is pretty lousy this year, and Baltimore is around .500, but then it's the Red Sox and Yankees (those games might as well be NY home games - check out how much displaced Yankee fans are paying for tickets on eBay.) Following that is thirteen consecutive games against the Giants and Angels, then the D-Backs and Astros leading into the break. If the Dodgers can get through all that and still be in first place, or at least within fighting distance of first, then I think Dodger fans can start expecting a positive finish to this season.

Smarty and the Pistons: Good, but Not Good Enough

2004-06-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

I'm really starting to wonder if I'll ever see a Triple Crown in my lifetime. (Affirmed and Seattle Slew don't count, on account of me still being in diapers when they won) I knew it didn't look good when Stewart Elliott pushed Smarty Jones right to the front of the pack early, and settled in with the pacesetter for the first 3/4 mile. He got wore out early, and was caught by a horse who stayed back and had enough in the tank for a stretch run, which is what a closer like Smarty Jones should've done. Blame the jockey on that one. At the end of the race, Belmont Park sounded just like the SBC Center did after Derek Fisher's miracle shot. What a downer.

Speaking of Fisher, Game 1 of the Lakers' pre-coronation ceremony is tonight. There will be three, maybe four or five, more of these exhibitions leading up to the parade through Downtown LA, tentatively scheduled for sometime next week. The Detroit Pistons have gamely volunteered their time to helping the Lakers celebrate their fourth title in five years. I understand the Washington Generals were busy.

Ha ha ha. Marty Burns at SI.com has one of the better breakdowns of the upcoming series. He likes the Lakers at center and shooting guard (duh) and the Pistons at point guard and small forward, and calls the power forward matchup between Malone and Rasheed a push.

The Lakers and Pistons both play great defense. But Detroit's offense is shaky, and it could struggle even more with Bryant defending Hamilton and Shaq protecting the rim.

That's pretty much the sum of it. Detroit can't score consistently even when Rasheed and Rip don't have killer defenders in their face. On the flip side, the Pistons are also a hell of a defensive team, and I worry - a little - about the Shaq vs. Ben Wallace matchup. If you're going to put any player up against Shaquille O'Neal, it might as well be the two-time defensive player of the year. He can snatch rebounds away from Shaq, and hassle the Daddy enough to keep him out of position and get him into foul trouble. Larry Brown also has Elden Campbell and Mehmet Okur on the bench, and has already said that he has no qualms about using the Hack-a-Shaq. I expect these to be low-scoring games.

David Aldridge's series breakdown at ESPN.com has the matchups a little different, but they both pick the Lakers to win in six games. The thing is, I know the Lakers could, and should, win this series in four straight. They just have too much for Detroit to handle. But this team has had a problem with motivation all postseason long, not clamping down until they absolutely, positively need to, so I figure this series will get extended some.

My double-pronged prediction: I expect the Lakers will win the first two games at home, then snore through Game 3 on the road. They'll get the wake-up call and flip the switch before Game 4, snore again through Game 5, then take care of business back in LA in Game 6. (Just like the Indiana series in 2000.) If Detroit puts up tougher opposition than expected, they might steal one of the first two games at Staples, in which case the Lakers will come back and take Game 3, alternate wins and losses in Games 4 and 5, and clinch in Game 6.

While at ESPN.com, check out this nice article on how the Lakers have supplanted the Celtics as the premier franchise in the NBA. And it's true; the Lakers have had consistent title-contending teams in every decade of the NBA's existence. The Celtics haven't been heard from in 15 years. As if Laker fans needed more excuses to beat their chest this week.

At Least I Got to See Gary Sheffield

2004-06-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

Light blogging for me this week, which is a shame. Lots of stuff I wanted to pitch my two cents at, including the Dodgers' mini-resurgence, Edwin Jackson's call-up, Milton Bradley's meltdown, the conclusion of the World Series of Poker, Smarty Jones' run at the Triple Crown, and of course, the Lakers' impending title. But my trip to New York kept me away (mostly) from this newfangled internet thing since last Friday, and the backlog of work was unrelenting today and will probably continue to be so tomorrow.

Hopefully I'll get some time this weekend to do some blogwork, including a recap of my anthropological expedition in the Yankee Stadium bleachers. Until then, keep reading the usual suspects in the sidebar, and bet heavy on Smarty Jones on Saturday.

To the 5 Boroughs

2004-06-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

Greetings from NYC, where I've been spending the past couple of days visiting relatives and scouting schools. The weather was beautiful on Saturday and Sunday, but was so terrible yesterday that I already became homesick. Thanks to the plethora of decent sports bars in SoHo and the Village, I've been able to keep up with the important happenings back home.

First up, of course, is the Lakers. They dispatched the Wolves in six games, just like I thought they would. They almost got pounded by a desperate Minnesota team in Game 5, like I thought they would, but managed to make a late run and only lost by two points. I watched that game at a bar full of bitter east coast Laker-haters, so I had to swallow some crow and take pride in the fact that the Lakers never gave in, fouling the Wolves continually in the final minute, even when it become apparent to everyone that the game had become a lost cause. Even though they lost by two, I felt terrific about their chances for Game 6. And last night, even though they let Minnesota stay in the game thanks to all the foul trouble, the Lakers clearly proved they were the superior team. The Wolves had a fantastic squad this year; Kevin Garnett is a true MVP, and their deep run in the playoffs was sweet vindication for him, but this wasn't his year. Now, all we have to do is win four games against one of two teams that can't shoot more than 40%, or score more than 75 points per game. I can't foresee the NBA Finals stretching past five games.

As for the Dodgers... boy, did we miss Dave Roberts or what? As soon as he gets back in the lineup, the Blue pulls out a 3-game winning streak to steady themselves in a division race that has suddenly become as tight as stretched rubber. The Padres just keep on keepin' on, and the Giants are suddenly on a tear, although they'll cool off. I see Jason Schmidt threw another 492-pitch game the other night, so I think he's gonna tire out eventually. It's tough to follow west coast baseball here, but I was able to see Sunday's game thanks to ESPN2's national coverage and Off the Wagon, a really cool pub on MacDougal St. near Washington Square. At one point in the game, the Dodgers had the bases loaded and nobody out (I think... it was kind of noisy and distracting there) and failed to score, so I don't think we've fully turned the corner yet, but two shutouts against the D-Backs and a come-from-behind win (reminiscent of the team in April) against the Brewers were very nice to see. I'm gonna try and get out to the Bronx tonight to catch my first ever game at The House That Ruth Built. There's no way I'd ever root for the Yankees, but I couldn't give much of a crap about the Orioles, either. I guess I'll just sit there and watch the game impassively, soaking up the whole Yankee Stadium experience. Maybe I'll even throw something at a Red Sox fan, if I see one.

How About Another Perfect Game?

2004-05-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

I didn't even realize Randy Johnson would be pitching tonight against the Dodgers. They get home from a disastrous 2-9 road trip, and this is what's waiting for them? A game against Mr. Perfect? Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. I wonder what the betting line is on Johnson throwing another no-hitter tonight. I'm thinking even money.

Anyway, I'll be in New York until next Wednesday, mixing a little business with a little pleasure. If I can, I'll fire off a post on the view of things from back east. If not, see you next week!

Well, It Was a Hell of an At-Bat

2004-05-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting much about the Dodgers lately, simply because the team's been too depressing to think about for more than a few minutes at a time. I guess their inevitable ouster from first place is a good time to finally face the music.

There isn't really much to say. The Dodgers of spring training finally showed up. Lousy pitching and an impotent offense translates into plenty of losses, and there isn't a cure in sight. No help is available at AAA, where even our touted ace-of-the-future Edwin Jackson has been having a bumpy season. And those pie-in-the-sky dreams about acquiring Delgado or Beltran will probably remain dreams. I can't see too many scenarios in which DePodesta would empty the farm system for a $20 million player who's not hitting, or a young star on the cusp of free agency.

The team's problems have been discussed at length, here and elsewhere. Lots of people are trying to deflect the blame from Shawn Green, saying that no one else on the team is hitting either. True, but the Dodgers of April and early May showed that all they need is one or two hot hitters in the lineup to score runs. Once Beltre and LoDuca cooled off, the Dodger offense shut down. Of course those two aren't the only ones who've cooled off considerably, as Dodgerkid shows, but I maintain that if Green could suddenly find his normal stroke, the bleeding could stop.

Green has never been comfortable as the big masher in the lineup. He's always seemed more suited to being the number 2 slugger, deferring to guys like Delgado and Sheffield. It's a shame, because he's not a malcontent or a headcase, and he's never struck me as being a spoiled primadonna. He's the kind of guy who could be a beloved athlete in this town, not with the charismatic star wattage of a Magic Johnson, but with THE respected excellence and grace of a Sandy Koufax. You hate to see a good guy like him go through a stretch like he's going through now.

The rest of the offense? It'll be nice if Roberts can get back to 100%, and I agree with the chorus of voices saying Grabowski should at least platoon with Encarnacion in right field when Roberts gets back. Milton Bradley is a nice hitter, but he obviously wasn't the answer. Beltre does not want to go into free-agency on the rehab circuit, but that ankle of his is begging for surgery. It's been interesting to note that as cold as the regular players have been during this stretch, the bench remains solid. Grabowski, Saenz, and Hernandez have been solid contributors throughout; I wonder if those three don't deserve a couple of games in the starting lineup together.

The pitching is more of a problem. There truly are no answers for what ills this team. Nomo was not pitching at a major-league level even before his broken fingernail put him out of commission. His offseason surgery and age may mean that his career is over. I love Jose Lima, but he's a gas can, and Weaver, Ishii, and Alvarez are too inconsistent to expect the kind of dominant starts that an offensively-challenged team like this needs in order to win. And Jackson and Joel Hanrahan haven't produced enough at Las Vegas to merit a call-up.

Alex Cora's 18-pitch at-bat against Matt Clement on May 12 may have marked the high point of the season. After beating the Cubs that night, the Dodgers stood at 22-10. The next day the eight-game losing streak began, and last night the team was finally evicted from the penthouse of the NL West. We burned up an awful lot of karma for that one at-bat.

Warning: Take Advil Before Reading

2004-05-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

Page 2 is on the vanguard of sports journalism. They're so far out on the cutting edge, they must feel the need to do away with with editors. I can't think of any other reason for Ralph Wiley's thesis-length article on why the Lakers are overrated:

This seems as good a time as any to examine the Laker Myth -- the premise that this is one the great basketball teams in recorded American history (if not the greatest team in history) because it is perhaps (and perhaps not) about to win its fourth NBA title in five years

Actually, Ralph, most people got over the whole "greatest team ever" meme back in January, when the team went 6-9 and was plodding along six games behind the Kings. But Ralph has a straw man to tear down, so let's not get in his way.

The timing of the story is pretty good, with the Lakers having already dispatched the consensus "best team" in basketball, sitting in a commanding position in the West finals, and already being fitted for championship rings by the mediots who were writing them off for dead midway through the San Antonio series. It's time for a good contrarian take; I don't necessarily have a problem with that, if Wiley had the balls to pick Minnesota or Detroit over the Lakers outright. But of course, he qualifies it:

In fact, if either the Minnesota Timberwolves or the Detroit Pistons were at their full-strength rosters, and sound of mind as well as body, each of them, it can be argued, could win the NBA title; and one of them should win the NBA title this year.

Yeah, well, that's why they play the games. Either of those teams - and the Pacers, too - are certainly strong title contenders, and an upset is never beyond the realm of possibility. But instead of extolling the virtues of the various squads gunning for the "greatest team ever", Ralph offers up a hatchet job on the Lakers, starting with Malone, based largely on Game 2's cheap shot against Martin:

Now look at Mailman; he's turned into a chippy, classless, churlish boor who can't take losing. I don't know why. He should be used to it by now. We all should. It's part of the package. You learn this, unless you become part of the Laker Myth. When he was clocking Isiah Thomas with an elbow or absolutely KO-ing the Admiral David Robinson with another, he was equally charming. But now he's HD-enhanced old as well. Ugly to watch.

I have no idea what this paragraph means. Malone's had the most dangerous elbows in the NBA for nearly two decades now. The Darrick Martin chop was a cheap shot, sure, but he was charming back when he was elbowing Isiah Thomas in the face? He's chippy now because he doesn't like losing? Malone's always been a churlish boor. That's part of his charm.

It will be interesting to see how Mailman tries to bully his way by Rasheed Wallace. He cannot hope to outplay Wallace at the point; nor, perhaps, ever.

Oh, please. Malone just put in a solid defensive job on Tim Duncan, and he's been doing fine thus far against Kevin Garnett. Those guys, Rasheed Wallace ain't. Wallace will get his stats and will certainly be a factor in a Detroit-LA series, but if Duncan and KG can't scorch Malone, 'Sheed won't either.

Payton and Fisher are next on the hit list:

GP's perpetual and inexplicable facial tics, that death's-head scowl of his, used to be like the warning on an iodine bottle; and you could make believe it was somehow fitting and proper when he was making All-Star teams and All-Defensive teams and running his yap like an aggressive breed of small canine.

But now ... it's just pathetic. That's what I thought when GP got in Wally World's face after World just set a simple back pick on Derek Fisher, who is one of the great floppers of all time -- and sometimes flops and then takes umbrage at you because he flopped.

First, I think he's got Fisher confused with Vlade Divac. As for GP, yes, he's lost a step. But the first quarter of Game 3 showed Gary can still show some offensive spark, and even though the Glove's not the killer one-on-one defender he used to be, he still has some defensive chops when he gets a little help from his teammates. Tony Parker can attest to this.

Wiley goes on to a rambling dissertation of why he considered himself the "Larry Bird of Sports Illustrated" while he was a writer there, takes a few stale shots at Kobe for his non-heroic transits between the courthouse and the basketball court, then swings from Ben Wallace's sack for some seemingly interminable paragraphs. If you feel that all that's needed to make your day complete is a good migraine, then this article (and perhaps, a job as an ESPN Page 2 editor) is for you.

"Writing Is on the Wall, and It Says 'Done Deal'"

2004-05-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's the players that talk big about how easily they're going to beat some overmatched opponent, other times it's the coaches. Such quotes often become the source of inspiration that fuels said overmatched opponent to pull off a stunning upset.

At least when the players and coaches provide bulletin-board material for the opponent, they have no one to blame but themselves. But what can you do when the hometown newspaper provides a headline like this, in an easily quotable and clippable format? Mr. Adande, newspaper clippings are great for bulletin boards.

Minnesota can still win this series easily. More defensive lapses and offensive funks like we saw in Game 2, and the Lakers are going to be in for a rude awakening. The last thing they need is for the Wolves to be invigorated and inspired any more than they already are.

There's Smoke Blowing This Way

2004-05-26T17:28:00.000-07:00

By 2008, I'll be an old man of 32, we'll be enduring another presidential campaign, the Olympics will be in China, pigs will have evolved into airborne mammals, and LA will have an NFL team.

Doesn't anyone realize that the NFL does not want a team in Los Angeles? The league has ratings, a passionate national following, and a TV deal that any other sports league would kill for - all without a team in the nation's 2nd-biggest city. Moreover, by keeping the LA vacancy open, the owners have an easy chip to play when one of them wants to hold his city hostage for a new stadium: Build it for me, or I'm going Hollywood. The Seahawks, Bears, Cardinals, Colts, and Saints have all exploited this.

The journalists and letter-writers to the LA Times continue to espouse the view that the NFL needs LA more than LA needs the NFL. They're half-right.

Baseless and Unfounded, Cont.

2004-05-26T13:01:00.000-07:00

I ran across this note by Ken Rosenthal in the Sporting News, also available on FoxSports.com:

The Red Sox, like the Yankees, aren't deep in upper-level prospects, but they appear poised to make a run at Beltran.

One way to do it, if Garciaparra makes a successful return, would be to trade Garciaparra to the Dodgers for Triple-A right-hander Edwin Jackson and other prospects, then ship that group to the Royals for Beltran.

My first reaction was, why not cut out the middle-man? I'd rather have Beltran than the injury-prone and expensive Garciaparra anyway.

Whoa, Don't Go Out On a Limb or Anything...

2004-05-25T17:11:00.000-07:00

Mike Williams has been playing the whole NFL-NCAA tug-of-war very well, first piggybacking on Maurice Clarett's lawsuit to be allowed into the draft, then waiting to see if he can get in on a supplemental draft. Both of these options appear dead, so Williams is going to attempt to return to USC this fall. (Although exactly how Williams plans to get the NCAA to allow this to happen is beyond me. The NCAA is a rock-ribbed ballbuster of an organization that wouldn't allow a student athlete to seek corporate sponsorship that would have allowed him to compete in the Olympics. And I was always under the impression that once a player signed with an agent, his college eligibility was forfeited.) Williams' agent, however, is getting ready to get off of Clarett's back and file his own last-ditch lawsuit against the NFL, so this might not be done yet.

I'm as divided as a blue state and a red state over allowing underclassmen in the NFL draft. The blue state part of me says that no arbitrary rule should prevent a person from using his gifts and talents to earn a living in this country, regardless of his age. The red state part of me doesn't want to see college football turn into college basketball, where the quality of the game has been decimated by high-schoolers and underclassmen turning pro too soon.

I'm just gonna say that I hope the people in charge of this mess come to the right decision for everybody. How's that for taking a weenie stand?

I'd Make That Trade in a Second

2004-05-25T12:10:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like internet fan sites to spread unfounded rumors. Sports sites are especially to prone to the breathless "I heard we're gonna get Player X for Player Y and Z!"-type rumor-mongering. Baseless speculation and wishful thinking is what we're here for. It's all part of the fun.

Jon at Dodger Thoughts shoots down a rumor - apparently reported on ESPN radio - that the Dodgers were about to acquire Carlos Delgado for Juan Encarnacion and a minor-leaguer named Brian Foster. Just on the surface, that sure sounds like DePodesta would be fleecing J.P. Ricciardi. It gets even better, though, as Jon goes on to report that Brian Foster apparently doesn't even exist.

Talk about a steal. Although considering the Dodgers' recent record with trading prospects, Foster would probably go on to post standout numbers in the Blue Jays' farm system and be an early frontrunner for 2005 AL Rookie of the Year.

The Big One

2004-05-25T11:13:00.000-07:00

If you're a poker fan like me, you undoubtedly know that the 2004 World Series of Poker is underway this week, at Binion's Horseshoe for the 35th and final time. As a staggering testament to the booming popularity of poker, almost 2600 players entered the championship event this year, more than three times last year's record number. The Gutshot Poker Collective has the best free coverage I've seen so far, but it requires registration. The message boards at PokerPages are another good place to follow along.

Day 3 of the No-Limit Hold 'Em Championship starts today at noon (actually it's the fourth day of the tournament, since the first "day" had to be split up across Saturday and Sunday, on account of the huge number of players.) The field has already been whittled down to 278 players, and unfortunately, most of the big names of competitive poker are already out. However, Doyle Brunson, one of the true legends and elder statesmen of the game, is making a run at his third bracelet, and his first since the 1970s. He is currently in 58th place, although with the nature of no-limit poker such as it is, it's always possible to get busted out on a single hand. Good stuff, if you're interested in this sort of thing. Check it out.

Ma, the Septic Tank's Backed Up Again...

2004-05-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

Despite a wretched stretch in which the Dodgers have lost eight games in a row and nine of their last 10, LA still has not surrendered first place. Jon has the best line about that:

San Diego [is] fighting off first place like they didn’t want to have to pay the higher taxes

Yes, the only reason the Dodgers are still on top of the heap is because they play in the bubbling, fetid pool of effluvium that is the National League West. This is the Dodger team we all feared would show up after the team broke spring camp, and make no mistake about it, without a re-injection of energy and purpose, they will eventually sink to the bottom of the division like last night's used meatloaf.

The hitting is only marginally improved from last year, but most fans expected this. Encarnacion and Bradley have not been the answers, Roberts is injured, and Green's troubles are worth an entire post of their own. Lo Duca and Beltre can't carry the team, and I can't tell who's in more pain: Beltre, or the fans watching Beltre play on that bad ankle. (I get the feeling that if he wasn't in his walk year, he'd already have hung it up and had surgery by now.)

It's the pitching, specifically the starting rotation, that's been the biggest disaster, and it's been this way since the start of the season. I again quote Jon:

With consecutive poor starts by Wilson Alvarez, the starting pitching has reached a crisis, becoming truly unreliable in four of five slots. Alvarez and Jeff Weaver qualify as inconsistent, Kazuhisa Ishii has a good outing once a month, and the Hideo Nomo/Jose Lima slot offers crepe-paper arms. Only Odalis Perez engenders any expectation of strength.

This isn't some 10-game aberration that we can expect to get past. The team's ERA is a full run worse than last year, and there isn't really any reason to expect improvement. We can hope that Nomo returns to 2003 form, we can hope Weaver suddenly turns it around, we can hope Ishii finds some consistency, we can hope Alvarez' late-career resurgence as a quality starter doesn't eventually run off the tracks, but we can't reasonably expect any of these things. This is all the more aggravating when you consider how utterly winnable the division is this year. A halfway decent team can take it.

The Kevin Brown trade really has turned into a boondoggle, especially considering Nomo's inability thus far to come back from shoulder surgery. The Dodgers lost their two best pitchers this offseason, so I guess the team's pitching struggles really shouldn't be a surprise.

Maybe He Wants to be Manager

2004-05-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

As if the news hasn't been depressing enough for Dodger fans these days, the Bench Coach has officially announced his retirement. Truly one of the better baseball blogs out there for the short time it was up, it was one of the inspirations for me to get this dog-and-pony show up and running. Dodger fans, and the blogosphere in general, are definitely poorer now for it, but we all hope Terry finds happiness with whatever's next for him. So long, Coach.

No Time for Blog, Dr. Jones

2004-05-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

I've been busy as hell today, so I don't have time for an in-depth breakdown and prediction of the Lakers-Wolves series. Suffice to say, I don't think Minnesota has the weapons needed to beat the Lakers when they play motivated defense, but the Wolves are extremely dangerous, and can easily win the series if the Lakers don't play consistently. If everybody slacks off again, like in the first two games against the Spurs, gunners like Sprewell, Sczerbiak, Hoiberg, and Cassell (if he's healthy) will make the Lakers pay. And that's without even mentioning the MVP. Malone will need to do another huge job on Garnett if the Lakers are to win this series.

The Lakers are well-rested and playing their best ball of the season. The Wolves are dog-tired and playing their best ball of the season. The Lakers' concentration on defense will lapse at least once or twice, but it'll hold long enough to carry them into the Finals. LA in six games.

You Gotta Believe

2004-05-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

Nice write-up on the Dodgers by Eric Neel on Page 2. He encapsulates here the kind of sinking feeling I've had about the team so far:

It's a smoke-and-mirrors job.

Kaz Ishii isn't as good as he looks. Jeff Weaver is probably worse than he looks. And Hideo Nomo might be done.

Adrian Beltre will cool off. Paul Lo Duca will tire. And the ball-slapping space alien inhabiting Cesar Izturis' body will eventually get called back to the mother ship.

As a clear-eyed scribe in pursuit of the hard truth, I have to say it's a house of cards.

Yeah, he's probably right about all that. But they're my team, dammit, and they're still in first place, and I don't care if they've lost seven in a row and their rotation sucks and our best player is hitting .220 and our best pitcher's ERA is around 7 and our hottest hitter is limping like Willis Reed and the leadoff hitter has a chronic hamstring problem and the manager has a chronic cranial-rectal inversion problem, I still think we're gonna win the division.

Or at least finish ahead of the Giants.

If Randy Can Do It...

2004-05-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

A follow-up note on the Dodger farm system: Chuck Tiffany, LA's 2nd-round pick in last year's draft, tossed a perfect game tonight for A-level Columbus. Seven innings**, no runs, no hits, no walks, no errors, 12 strikeouts. If he keeps developing, along with 1st-round pick Chad Billingsley, maybe we won't miss Andrew Brown as much as we think. Thanks to a poster on A.S.B.LA-D for the link.

** -- I guess they only play 7-inning games in the Sally League, kinda like high school.

Bring Back the Draft! (On TV, I Mean...)

2004-05-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

When Paul DePodesta was first hired, many of the more insightful baseball observers wondered how the guru of the Moneyball philosophy would mesh with Logan White, the Dodgers incumbent director of scouting. DePodesta made his name in Oakland by drafting college players with proven statistical records, while White had just aced the last couple of drafts by taking riskier high-school players with high ceilings. Some predicted fistfights in LA's draft-day war room.

The Dodgers' first draft of the Moneyball era is only a few weeks away. For all the consternation, it seems like White and DePodesta are on the same page. In this MLB.com interview, Paul says all the right things with regards to the team's draft philosophy:

...it would be foolish to come in and say we're doing something completely different. I want to build on it and make it even better, despite the fact that it's been at a very high level. [White's] strategy has been a lot of high school players at the top, mixed in with a handful of college players. A blending of the two is probably realistic.

Anyone who read Moneyball - and if you haven't, you should - comes away with a sense that Billy Beane would rather have drafted sumo wrestlers, if their OBP was high enough, than high-schoolers. DePo hints that that isn't an entirely accurate depiction, suggesting that with the big-market Dodgers, he has the luxury of burning a few picks on prep players with high upsides:

With the limited resources, we couldn't take the risk. We couldn't sign Major League free agents to fill holes. We needed quantity. Oakland was not averse to taking high school players. We had a handful in our sights that were taken ahead of our time to pick. The reputation is largely based on circumstantial evidence.

The Dodgers have three high picks this year; White and DePodesta can keep the farm system stocked for the rest of the decade with a killer draft. Now I wish MLB and ESPN would do the right thing and televise the damn thing.

At Least There's a Game 7 On Tonight...

2004-05-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it was too much to heap on the shoulders of Wilson Alvarez. We shouldn't have been expecting him to be the savior of the starting rotation, although those first two starts and his sub-2.00 ERA had many people (myself included) thinking he could step in and fill the Kevin Brown-role we've been missing this year. At this point in his career, Alvarez is suited to be a middle/back-of-the-rotation innings-eater, not a front-line stopper. We need to be content with the fact that the strength of this rotation is not dominance at the top, but rather depth front-to-back (and even that's been debatable so far.)

Still, it's disappointing that Alvarez wasn't able to hold a four-run lead yesterday in a game the Dodgers needed to win. I think I'm still spoiled by last year's dominating pitching staff, but I just don't expect to lose games in which we have a 6-2 lead. And for this team to score seven runs in a losing effort makes it even more painful. Damn, I hate losing streaks.

Philadelphia's offense has been crushing the ball. Citizens Bank Park is a lauching pad. The Dodgers have lost five in a row. Hideo Nomo is taking the mound.

Duck and cover.

They Didn't Want Troy Brohawn?

2004-05-19T10:09:00.000-07:00

Jon at Dodger Thoughts reports that Andrew Brown will be the PTBNL in the Milton Bradley trade, and if that's the case, we overpaid. Losing a blue-chip prospect like Franklin Gutierrez was probably worth it, considering all of Bradley's upside. But Brown had been very impressive at Jacksonville this season, striking out 58 batters in 40 innings, and was developing into an upper-tier prospect. Losing both of those players stings a bit.

Greg Miller, Edwin Jackson, and James Loney were probably untouchables in this deal, but Joel Hanrahan might've been available. He's older and at AAA, but has been a better prospect for a longer period of time. If it was between Hanrahan and Brown, then it was a real tough call to make.

Big Johnson

2004-05-18T22:41:00.000-07:00

I love it when one of the players on my fantasy baseball team has a legendary game. Last year, I had Kevin Millwood, when he no-hit the Giants, and I also had Carlos Delgado, when he had his 4-HR game.

It's been a bit of a bumpy year for Randy Johnson (and the rest of my pitching staff, natch), but man, he came through for me in spades tonight. I don't know what's more amazing, a 40-year-old throwing a perfect game, or the fact that he went 14 years in between no-hitters. And speaking of 40-year-olds, isn't a no-hitter just about the only thing missing from Roger Clemens' resume? The way he's throwing for the Astros, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he got one before this season's out. I hopehopehope when Houston and Arizona meet, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the rotations are aligned just the right way so the two best pitchers of this generation can face off against each other one last time.

(It wasn't an entirely great night for my fantasy team, as I also have Johnny Estrada, Rafael Furcal, and Marcus Giles. The Braves are a mess. They just had Ben Sheets clown them for 18 K's on Sunday, and now they get brutalized by Randy. They're probably looking forward to facing the Dodgers this weekend.)