Do you find yourself just staring at the standings?

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Jon Weisman

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=694612054 Kurt Lindgren

Yup that’s me. A special year in the making.
Dave Alden

Honestly, I’ve paid almost no attention to the standings. That can wait for August and September. For now, standing-watching would seem a plebian response to magic.

Anonymous

Vinny brought up the standings numerous times these past few games. My guess is that he wants us to remember it’s still early. He kept saying the giants remain 7 games back, basically don’t discard them yet.

Anonymous

The Gnats, though, have had the benefit of an easy early schedule. They’ve only had to play the Dodgers three times.

Anonymous

See what happens when you banish the Lannister’s (er, McCourts)?
Sam Sokol

Amazing.

Amazing.
Sam Sokol

And not just us. Bos/NY vying for last is pretty impressive as well. Even, dare I say it, the Nationals in 1st and handing out drubbings to the likes of Roy Halladay. Some season.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZAO5BS2RGGI7MHWTMVG37UGN64 Champ Kind

All the time, cause I keep going “wait…waitwaitwaitwait huh?”

And then I think, why isn’t there more amazement over this from the national media? Not that I care too much what they think…

…okay, okay, I sort of do care what they think, honestly I’m a bit jealous and bitter and petty at heart and I want to desperately go nyah nyah na nyah nahhh to all those fools over at the evil 4 letter network for not believing that the Dodgers could do this.

Anonymous

I was thinking the same thing yesterday. Looking at the Power Rankings from the major sports sites, I couldn’t help but think that the Dodgers sweeping the Cardinals (first in run differential in MLB) would have impressed more people.

However, those things don’t matter. I am happy to keep drubbing the West and building our lead without the slightest notice.

Anonymous

I wouldn’t say there’s no national notice. The Dodgers have been first or second in all the various power rankings the past couple of weeks.

http://www.facebook.com/frankenspock Frank Jones

There’s still a lot of amusing hedging going on in the various power rankings, which are generally meant to represent how teams are playing at the moment, and not how you expect them to perform over a 162-game season. Some guys have bumped them down to 2nd or 3rd by saying they can’t possibly have the record they have with the team they have, which is totally true and we are all kind of baffled by it ourselves.

And then there’s Jonah Keri, who I normally enjoy, starting out his rankings in Grantland with a big flourish about how all the best teams are on the east coast, then promptly contradicting himself by placing #1 and #3 in Texas and Los Angeles, respectively. He has the Braves ahead of the Dodgers, apparently because Atlanta has a _tougher upcoming schedule_.

The whole concept of “power rankings” is kind of lame.

Anonymous

Texas is actually first in run diff, by a lot, but point taken.

http://www.facebook.com/frankenspock Frank Jones

It doesn’t fit their narrative. Last year, the Dodgers were hopeless and terrible, despite Kemp and Kershaw. That was the story and they were sticking to it. It’s like they never looked at the standings after July 15 and nobody ever noticed that the team ended up three games over .500. I can’t count how many times I heard them referred to as a “losing franchise.”

This year they’re supposed to be bad because Magic Johnson hasn’t fixed them yet. That’s the story. The “Magic Revives Storied Franchise” storyline isn’t supposed to kick in until next year, at which point everything will be viewed in terms of adhesion to that plot, and judged either as a success or a disappointment accordingly.

But this year: nobody expected this. If they keep it up long enough, however, they will subvert the gnat-like media mind enough that they will become overdogs who can then disappoint everyone in the end by not winning a title no one ever expected them to compete for.

Anonymous

82-79 is referred to as 1 1/2 games over .500, 84-78 is 3 games over .500.

http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

Happy 10th anniversary of the Shawn Green four-homer, 6-for-6 game.

Anonymous

Wow it’s been 10 years! Was it against the NL Brewers or was it an inter-league game?

Anonymous

Milwaukee, I think.

Anonymous

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIL/MIL200205230.shtml
Anonymous

It was against the Brewers. But was it Milwaukee of the NL or Milwaukee of the AL? It doesn’t really matter. Happy anniversary!

Anonymous

2002 was the fifth year in the NL for the Milwaukee Brewers.
Anonymous

They have been in the NL 15 years! My goodness

Anonymous

I like what Eric Stephen wrote: basically sit back and enjoy the ride.
This is unbelievable and a whole lot of fun
Anonymous

As fans, we’ve been kicked around enough over the last few years. I’m just going to enjoy it. Absolutely fun to watch.
http://dxmachina.livejournal.com/ DXMachina

I just keep reminding myself of the immortal words of Han Solo – “Great, kid. Don’t get cocky.”
Anonymous

What does the final column in the table stand for?

Dave Alden

PlayOFFs. Percent chance of being in the playoffs per their algorithm. The more skepticial folks at Baseball Prospectus put the Dodgers’ chances at 40 to 50 percent.

Anonymous

Monday’s AccuScore pegs the Dodgers’ chances of making the playoffs at 95.3 percent, and of winning the division 85.0 percent: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/accuscore–bashing-the-beltway.html

Anonymous

As the last post said, “Can’t explain”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3h–K5928M
Anonymous

Oops…Texas is first in run diff. I meant in the NL…
Anonymous

Some thoughts

The Mccourts departure is really lifting a cloud
Maybe there is something in the experience of these older Minor Leaguers
That goes double for AJ

But I guess in terms of explaining and helping it is best to shut my mouth!
Anonymous

I can’t remember such a stretch of wins in this manner. I know we had a nice run in 2009 when it seemed Ethier got the game winning hit in every game, but maybe 2002 or 2004 was comparable?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZAO5BS2RGGI7MHWTMVG37UGN64 Champ Kind

See, the rest of the so-called “experts” just don’t get it. The Dodgers are still #4 in SI Power Rankings, and it feels like they are really stretching to find arguments that still hold water. How long will this run take before they get respect? Who knows, and I suppose I shouldn’t care, in the meantime these are the “salad days” that we should all take note of.

The Dodgers just completed a sweep of the Cardinals without Matt Kemp, so why are they still ranked behind St. Louis? It’s simple: though they’ve played well, their record is inflated by a 12-6 mark in one-run games, while the Cardinals are just 1-7 in such contests. Winning games by one run is nice, but such victories are often one bounce or call away from going the other direction; they don’t have much predictive value. While the Dodgers are a quality team and a legitimate contender in the NL West, their luck is likely to run out. They aren’t likely to keep winning 67 percent of one-run games.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/baseball/mlb/05/21/power.rankings.week.6/index.html#ixzz1vi7himzs

Anonymous

SI is out of sync with everyone else. As I mentioned above, almost everyone ranks the Dodgers first or second right now. Most of the experts in the national media do indeed recognize the success the team has been having; claiming otherwise is simply not true. See for yourself!
.
Dodgers are #1 in ESPN Power Rankings: http://espn.go.com/mlb/powerrankings/_/season/2012/week/8
.
Dodgers are #1 in CBS Power Rankings: http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/powerrankings
.
Dodgers are #2 (to Texas) in MLB.com Power Rankings: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/power_rankings/index.jsp
.
Dodgers are #2 (to Baltimore) in Fox Power Rankings: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/powerRankings
.
Dodgers are #2 (to Texas) in USA Today Power Rankings: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/story/power-rankings/54331380/1
Anonymous

A losing record in one-run games obviously makes the Cardinals a better team.
http://underdog.typepad.com/ underdog

Those are written by Fangraphs, which is all I need to know in order to lose interest or respect in them.
http://www.facebook.com/frankenspock Frank Jones

Translation: we don’t for a minute believe that the Dodgers are for real, but we can’t actually explain why or why not, either. And we can’t stick them on top and have everybody laugh at us when they regress to mean, so we’re going to make up some nonsense about one-run games. We know it doesn’t make sense just as much as you do, but that’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

It’s pretty easy to explain why the Dodgers might not be for real, and I think some of these folks are justified in doing so. Here are two reasons: The starting pitching is better than you’d expect and isn’t likely to stay at that level. And the bench is also playing above its level.

I don’t begrudge people skepticism about the Dodgers. They are the best team in the NL right now, as far as I’m concerned, but I’m not sure they’re the best in MLB right now, and there are teams I expect are more likely to be better than the Dodgers by season’s end. So present and future, it’s pretty easy to argue that they might not be No. 1.

No shame in being ranked second or third or fourth at this stage.

http://www.facebook.com/frankenspock Frank Jones

You can do better than one-run games, though. Maybe “2/3rds of their roster is fresh off the bus from Albuquerque.” I would have accepted that.

Anonymous

I was a bit surprised to realize that the Padres have escaped the cellar, by percentage points over the Rocks.

Anonymous

I was not so surprised to see that the Cubs are the worst team in baseball.

Anonymous

The cubs are the worst team in baseball but they are closer to first place than either AZ, SD, or CO.

http://www.facebook.com/frankenspock Frank Jones

The Rox have lost 10 of 12 and 15 of their last 18. They are the Bizarro Dodgers.

They’ve already used 20 pitchers this year. Before the end of May.

Pablo Rangel

Watching the standings in amazement.

Loving the ride.

Enjoying it in the moment.
Anonymous

The Red Sox have promoted Scott Podsednik to the major league roster.

Anonymous

A desperation move by a last-place team.

Anonymous

Oh, and lest anyone gloat about that, his career OPS is better than…
.
Scott Podsednik .721
Juan Uribe .720
Adam Kennedy .710
Aaron Miles .672
Dee Gordon .616
Justin Sellers .607
Ivan DeJesus Jr. .512

Anonymous

The Red Sox outfielders have been dropping like flies. Even the backups are getting hurt. And they’re playing Adrian Gonzalez in right field.

http://underdog.typepad.com/ underdog

Can I interest them in an Oeltjen?

Anonymous

We might fetch more for Rivera, if and when he recovers.

http://underdog.typepad.com/ underdog

they’re welcome to him, too, but given his injury prognosis, sounds like he’ll be out for awhile, which wouldn’t help BoSox. Oeltjen wouldn’t really fetch anything in trade but would be good opp for him.
Anonymous

Would you trade Sands for Youkilis?
Anonymous

Isn’t JD Drew available?
Anonymous

For a healthy Youkilis that’s intriguing, but the Dodgers are relatively thin in position player prospects. If Ned could get them to take Uribe as well, it’s worth consideration.

http://underdog.typepad.com/ underdog

Speaking of SI, if the Dodgers do start losing, god forbid, at least we will have a scapegoat to blame it all on: https://p.twimg.com/Atl7jzBCIAAhGhl.png
(I’ll be buying it anyway, though.)

Anonymous

Interesting that this is Kemp’s team from a players standpoint. As opposed to (primarily, I suppose) Kershaw.
Anyway, maybe it is good that Kemp is on the cover. He is already injured so perhaps he can act as a lightning rod for the SI jinx.

http://www.linkmeister.com/wordpress/ Linkmeister

As a 30+ year subscriber to SI, the jinx was my first thought when seeing that. Yikes!

Anonymous

wait, what? Kemp is a transgender athlete?

http://underdog.typepad.com/ underdog

I believe you may be misreading what is a teaser for another article.

Anonymous

Yeah, just very unfortunate teaser placement. I’m guessing Kemp didn’t get final approval on the cover

Anonymous

Looking at the american league standings, No team has more than a 1 game winning or losing streak! Red Sox are the only team to win more than 6 games in the last 10
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=713935344 Jason Ungar

I would never have imagined the Kings going to two Stanley Cup finals before the Dodgers go to another World Series..Go Kings Go. And as for standings ya I just can’t do it yet. Though looking at them it is impressive. I admit as a baseball guy I am super pessimistic, more so than other sports..It’s way to early to celebrate anything yet (I’m not suggesting that anyone is)
Anonymous

The Giants behind Barry Zito have given up 6 runs so far in the first.

On 2 hits. Neither of them home runs.

Anonymous

Sounds like he’s doing his best Lincecum impression. The Brewers, though, apparently lost their starter to a base-running injury as he doubled in two off Zito.
http://www.facebook.com/frankenspock Frank Jones

Oh no. Zito being good was one of the magnetic poles that was holding everything in place for the Upside-Down Season Experiment. We’ll know for sure if Lincecum can get past six innings in his next start. And then get ready for a long Dodgers losing streak.

http://twitter.com/matthewcourt Matthew Court

To answer the question posed in the headline: YES! Every day. I think I stare at them for a good 2 or 3 minutes. The standings continue to amaze me.
KT

When I personally look at the standings I like to make sure it the overall standings…currently we are 2.5 games ahead of the next major leaugue team…I love it

Anonymous

By the way thanks for the info you gave me in changing back to ASW the other day – tried it but got “username already exists” – tried A.S.W. – nope, can only use alphanumeric characters – so AaSsWw it is. No more DaveyLopes – but that’s ok – he might not have agreed with my opinions…

KT

No problem…I like the new handle better
Anonymous

You know that the 2nd through 4th letters spell a word, right?

Anonymous

Ah man, didn’t even think about that.Tried asw but it wouldn’t let me - guess I coulda used AaSW or AaSWw….. or ASWw….. or ASW1…. or……

Michael Morris

LOL Sitting with a client today I was distracted by thinking about checking (again!) the standings! Unreal and a great time to be a Dodger fan. Maybe someone already posted this, but I’m curious – what is the best-ever start for a Dodger team?

Anonymous

1952 35-11; 1955 36-11 are probably the 2 best. 1955 the best end

Anonymous

I tack the standings up on the ‘fridge in the morning – wife rolls her eyes, 10-year-old son loves it.
Anonymous

Ha! found my way around the madness!
http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

WIth their starting pitcher out and their first reliever getting hit, that 8-0 lead for the Brewers is not looking safe.
http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

Cliff Lee, who leads the NL in WHIP, is winless in 2012.

KT

wow…How many games has he been in

Anonymous

I think the rule of thumb is one inning for each game played by your team, so must have pitched at least 44 innings (just looked it up, he has started six games). Seems to be a combination of not walking many, a high hits/run ratio (five dingers so far this year), and the fact that the filles only score 2.2 rpg for him.

KT

Thanks Bob…I had no idea how WHIP was figured. All I knew was it stood for Walks, hits per innings pitched

http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

Elian Herrera has two walks in the majors. Both have come to start game-winning ninth innings for the Dodgers.

KT

I really like what I see in this young man…He seem to have a more mature attitide with his plate appearances
Anonymous

That can’t have happened too many times…

KT

No but I was going to write about his overall presence before but left it off..

This includes his fielding. Including backing up plays in areas where he’s not involved. Case in point the other night when he was playing second he backed up a throw coming in from LF to the 3rd baseman not relying on the pitcher and catcher since the catchers duties were home plate and the pitcher is usually not one of the better fielders on the field

Anonymous

Sounds like this year’s Dioner Navarro.

KT

I hope not. I never liked Navarro and I think Herrera has a higher ceiling than Navarro ever had. Herrera reminds me of a Jamie Carroll type player

Anonymous

Can’t define “selective” any better than THAT.
http://underdog.typepad.com/ underdog

NL All Star Catchers this year: A stronger crop than usual. Lucroy is killing it vs Giants.
Lucroy. AJ Ellis (VOTE AJ!). Yadier Molina. Plus Carlos Ruiz. Posey. McCann. Montero. Very strong group now.So how many do you think will get in the all star game?

Anonymous

Last year each team had three catchers.

Anonymous

By the by (or is it bye the bye?)… Scott P. hit a home run for the Red Sox today and is 2 for 3.

Anonymous

Wow!

Anonymous

If the preseason consensus (that I read someplace, maybe here) that 90 wins will claim the NL West title still holds, then the Dodgers need to go 60-59 (.504) the rest of the way. That seems pretty do-able to me, although June will be mostly road games and who knows what obstacles remain?

Or if we want to take a flyer at an upper boundary, 100 wins would require a 70-49 record (.588). Obviously getting there would be tougher, but it’s still below .600 ball.

If I weren’t so lazy, I’d look at home vs. road and +/- .500 opponents remaining to refine some projections. But I’ll be happy to entertain opinions from colleagues here in lieu of actual exertion.

Anonymous

I didn’t look up their whole season, but I did notice that their interleague schedule suddenly looks a lot cushier with the Angels being so terrible. And the one AL West team we don’t have to face: Texas. Combine that with the NL West looking like the weakest of divisions and I would say the schedule winds may indeed be favorable.
Anonymous

>> If the preseason consensus (that I read someplace, maybe here) that 90 wins will claim the NL West title still holds
.
I don’t think it does. That worked in the old structure with one wild card team. But in the new structure, 90 wins may get you to the postseason, but you really really REALLY don’t want to be a wild card team (and have to win an extra playoff round), and you also have a huge advantage if you are the top seed (because you play the LDS against a tired wild-card team that probably burned its best pitcher in the previous round while you were resting). In both cases – winning the division, and winning the top seed - it’s no longer a matter of having a certain number of wins, but rather, of having more wins than anybody else. There’s no magic number that will do that, because it depends on whether or not there’s another team with more than X wins.
.
At this point, being 7 games ahead of the division means that any other team has to win at least 7 more games than the Dodgers the rest of the way to win the division. Being 4 games ahead of the rest of the league means that any other team has to win at least 4 more games than the Dodgers the rest of the way to win the top seed.

http://www.mythphile.com/ Blue-eyed Gal (Ellen)

I haven’t been staring at the standings because it’s too early, I’m just bemused and dazed that our callups are holding the blistering pace better than the regulars they’re playing against.

I wanted to rephrase a statement I made a couple threads back which nsxtasy rightly called me on. I noted that our pitching wasn’t that great beyond Kershaw, and posited that Loney’s glove might be part of the reason for success. That was a collapsed and rather incoherent line of thought. Obviously, it’s wrong: our pitching is one of the team’s strengths. But what I’m trying clumsily to ask is: how much are Capuano’s and Lily’s successes due to their pitching above their typical level this year (less HRs given up by Ted), and how much is above-average defense behind them shaving runs off their ERAs? I feel like we’ve been treated to an awful lot of web gems in the early going (the image of Gwyn’s flying catch from two Sundays ago is still seared into my retinas).

Adam Luther

Well I’ll add this…last season Lilly, who’s move to first for a lefty is sub-par, led the league in stolen bases against (35!) with only two caught stealing. This year, 6 SB’s against, and two caught stealing. That’s nearly cutting down the SB’s against by half. He’s probably worked on his move, and A.J.’s defense has been stellar. http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/fielding/_/position/c/sort/catcherCaughtStealingPct

http://www.mythphile.com/ Blue-eyed Gal (Ellen)

So we can add the heroic glove of AJ to the “defense is helping adequate pitchers be great” theme, but really, I should just shake my head and give everybody credit for playing above expectations.

Well, almost everybody. But the ones that aren’t weren’t expected to be great, and so far they’re not costing us many games.

A small sadness in all this: I really want Dee Gordon to succeed.

peter drysdale

Speaking of Gwynn, I didn’t really know much about him before this season. Never knew he was so good defensively. And you’re right, we’ve had some great web gems this season.

http://www.linkmeister.com/wordpress/ Linkmeister

The thing I didn’t know about Gwynn was the strength of his arm. That off-balance throw the other day and the other one he made to first base a day or two later showed me a lot more than I thought he was capable of doing.

Anonymous

He had a dWar of 2.1 in 2010 and 7 assists with the Pads. I recall when we picked him up that his defense was such that there was at least some discussion of him occupying CF and moving the other guys round. Instead, they went with that Thames/Gibbons things and later Rivera.

Adam Luther

Four home losses. Four. June and up to the break will be very telling of this ball club, and if the injury bug is to bite then now is the time rather than July.
Anonymous

The Gnats have lost, so the Dodgers can extend their lead to eight games tonight.
Anonymous

From Tim Brown on Yahoo!

The top five payrolls in the league – Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Red Sox, Angels and Tigers – are a combined nine games under .500, and on May 21 none had a winning record. Of the top 10 salaried players in the league, all of which are making at least $21 million, only three – CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee and, due to extenuating circumstances, Johan Santana – are producing at expected levels

http://tinyurl.com/6pupcz2
Anonymous

For anyone with access to FSN and who might be so inclined, Angels and A’s are tied 1-1 after 7 in Oakland.
Anonymous

While I do indeed find myself just staring at the standings, I don’t expect the Dodgers to continue winning 70 percent of their games. OTOH I think it’s quite possible that from here on out, the Dodgers will win as high a percentage of their games as any other team in the division, and if they do, that 7-game lead won’t shrink.
.
If they do hang on and win the division, they will have as good a chance to win in the postseason as any other playoff team. Nothing is certain in the playoffs, other than that it’s well near impossible to predict who’s going to win it all.

http://www.facebook.com/frankenspock Frank Jones

I like the idea that .500 ball from here out puts us right in the mix. It’s comforting. I don’t think any Dodger fan thought that .500 (or a little better) wasn’t a realistic goal for this team. Now they just have to live up to previously low expectations the rest of the way.

Anonymous

I don’t think the team is shooting for .500, and I think the team is better than that. If they go .600 from here on out, that means over 100 wins (101.4, to be exact). I think that would be great.

Anonymous

As good a chance….even with Uribe on the playoff roster?

Anonymous

Yes. Not that I expect much from him – but (a) I think we can expect as much as we can from Kennedy, Herrera, Sellers, and yes, Gordon, and (b) if he turns out to be worse than they are the rest of the way, he could get left off the playoff roster.

Anonymous

Talk of the postseason at this point in the season makes me cringe – everyone knows it’s not how you start – it’s how you finish that gets you into the playoffs. Sure a great start is welcomed and a MUCH better alternative than a bad start, but playoffs!!??, Don’t talk to me about playoffs!! Playoffs!!??

Anonymous

Me too. 2010 says hello. On June 16 we were in first by half a game and 11 games over .500. We finshed 12 back and 80-82.

Anonymous

That was the first season to cross my mind too.

Anonymous

Nothing guarantees a playoff appearance until it’s clinched. But it’s better to be 7 games ahead, than not. And while it doesn’t guarantee a playoff appearance, it sure provides an advantage.

Jack Dawkins

The thing that amazes me, is that it feels like we have given away more games late then we have stolen late as well.

Anonymous

The numbers show that ahead at the start of the 9th our record is 26-3, tied 3-2 and behind 1-8. We are 3-3 in xtras. Even with last night’s game, we are only 2-8 in games were we are behind at the start of the 5th.

Anonymous

And you thought last night’s lineup was strange…
Dodgers
CFHerrera
LFSands
RFAbreu
1BVan Slyke
CEllis
2BDeJesus
SSGordon
3BSellers
PLilly

Anonymous

Hmmm - has a pushing-the-envelope feel to it.
foul tip

Can’t say Mattingly isn’t willing to try something different….
Anonymous

Well, it’s clear he’s playing the righties and benching the lefties. I like it! It gives some of those guys a chance to show what they can do. And I LOVE THE FACT THAT HE’S PUTTING AJ FIFTH!!!

overkill94

If they can pull off a win with that line-up tonight, I’ll know for sure that Mattingly (or Magic or Colletti or…someone) sold his soul to the devil

foul tip

Quite a few DTers in the past were pretty well convinced Colletti WAS the devil.
KT

^_^
Anonymous

You really think Colletti has a soul? I’m betting on cloven hooves and a tail, like Mr. Applegate…

Anonymous

I assume Ethier is just getting some rest? Nothing to report like injury or anything correct?

Anonymous

He’s starting all the righties, and sitting the lefties who don’t do as well against southpaw pitching, including Ethier and Loney.

Anonymous

Seriously Donnie, now you are just ‘messing with us’. Isnt tomorrow a day off?? Get your best guys in there for crying out loud.

If they win today………

overkill94

I thought it might’ve been a case of Ethier having crappy career numbers versus a lefty, but he’s hitting .435/.435/.565 in 23 career at-bats against Saunders! Come on Donnie!

Anonymous

Regarding the “SI cover jinx,” many years ago a teacher in a graduate class in statistics that I was taking pointed out that people are put on its cover because they are generally at their apex at the time and have no place to go but down. That was as good an explanation of the “jinx” as I have ever heard.

Anonymous

Financial journalists and bloggers sometimes use Time or Newsweek covers as contrarian indicators for the same reason. Once the conventional wisdom has reached that point, it’s usually time to short whatever’s being celebrated.

Anonymous

Exactly. As I am not involved in the world of high finances, by the time I heard a good “tip,” it was generally too late to buy.

Anonymous

Along the lines of Jon’s previous post, the dream like way the Dodgers are playing has been enhanced by my lack of sleep the past couple of weeks or so. This is the 10th day in a row I’ve worked (averaging 10+ hours a day). I should be going to bed early since I get out of bed before 5am, but I’ve found myself staying up late to watch the Dodgers play sometimes even a little later than when the game ended since I’m often watching games that I recorded on my DVR. Its all been good since its my favorite time of the work “season” and because watching the Dodgers has been a lot of fun this year.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Hitchcock/1676059435 Jim Hitchcock

Being able to fast forward through commercials and certain sections of game (particularly when I’m forced to listen to Mark Grace yammer on), is the thing I love best about my DVR.

KT

Like last night but since I was watching live while recording I eventually had to Mute Mr. Grace

Anonymous

What, a 6.6% chance of not making the playoffs
Anonymous

Maybe Mattingly is simply picking the lineups out of a hat. If that’s working, why change?
Anonymous

Uh oh. Sellers has a back problem, so Kennedy’s at 3B batting 7th while Gordon slides to 8th.

Anonymous

Jerry Hairston, where are you?

http://underdog.typepad.com/ underdog

He says, “leading off for the Isotopes tonight!”
Anonymous

Jerry is expected back the next game after tonight.
.
If Sellers’s back problem is significant, he could be put on the DL to make the spot available for Hairston.

http://underdog.typepad.com/ underdog

I for one, freaking love this house money lineup tonight. Other than the late addition of Kennedy, of course. I mean, why not? It’s a AAA lineup but some true prospects in there and we get to watch the kids while still owning best record in baseball. If Dodgers lose, so what?

KT

UD….Would you rather have the snakes back 12.5 or 10.5, that’s the ultimate question
Anonymous

I like it too. It gives the prospects a chance to show what they’ve got, against opposite-handed pitching.

http://www.dodgerthoughts.com/ Jon Weisman

NPUT
foul tip

Cliff Corcoran asks if 5 players off to hot starts can maintain them, or close.

#3 is Lilly, #4 Capuano.

Answer for the two is he seems to think Capuano has more staying power. Probably in line with what most DTers would think.

“In other words, a correction is coming. Ted Lilly didn’t suddenly solve the league at age 36.”

“He (Cap) should settle in as a solid mid-rotation lefty and continue to give the Dodgers quality starts all season.”
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/cliff_corcoran/05/23/hot.starts/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_bf3_a2
Anonymous

Yes. Its like seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time, every day.

Dodger Thoughts

Jon Weisman's outlet for dealing psychologically with the Los Angeles Dodgers and baseball.

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