• Adam Luther

    Great to know that the Cool-a-Coo’s deserve priority over cell phone coverage in the Ravine.  

    • Anonymous

      Im going tonight. Hopefully I can afford one of those.

  • Anonymous

    no kidding – the new playoff system is kind of funky, as a fan i dig it, but i’m wondering how management feels about it… 

  • Anonymous

    I think it’s a little easier to sell Cool-a-Coos than to get the major cellular service providers to put extra towers near the stadium.

  • Anonymous

    Ken Arneson wrote a thought provoking piece at his blog, i love how he connects the simplicity of one issue (his phone or lack of it) with the the newspaper business & MLB’s potential problems in the future.

  • Anonymous

    Saturday’s game will be interesting. Jaime Garcia (with a 4.67 ERA on the road and a 2.06 ERA at home) against Joe Blanton. Buy seats in the pavilions for all the souvenirs.

    • Anonymous

      i’ve always wanted to take a stroll down all-you-can eat lane.

    • Anonymous

      Setting it up for 2-1 at best aren’t you?

  • Tycho

    The way the team is playing and loosing, it’s death by a thousand cuts.  The old system at least let me mourn the season and move on with life.  With this new system even the once dead Philly’s still have an outside chance – Zombie teams into the playoffs don’t seem worthy.  Perhaps Jim Caple’s (
    http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8369293/a-proposal-expand-mlb-two-teams-eliminate-wild-cards ) idea of MLB expansion rather than Wild Card addition is the way to go. I’m not sure, but I’m more frustrated than hopeful at this point of the season, which I don’t think MLB wants.

    I’m treating this season as an off season the new ownership didn’t get, at least that’s what I told myself at the beggining of the season.  Now it feels like a wasted season if the boys don’t get into the playoffs.   

    • Anonymous

      baseball just loves playing with our emotions anyway, we’re masochist & don’t even know it, but seriously, i think a few more years of this idea we’ll see if it works or not.   

    • Anonymous

      Like the idea of a team in BK in Montreal…

      Hate the idea of net expansion when we have so many zombie teams already that can barely put a quarter of the butts in seats in an average season. 

  • Anonymous

    No word on Ned Colletti’s extension yet, been surfing the web for the latest & nothing. 

    • Anonymous

      I think management has acquired as good players as they could, under the circumstances. Whether or not Colletti deserves credit for that is a different question. With an unlimited checkbook, it’s easy to buy nice things. Whether or not he is deserving may not matter. It may become expeditious to fire the manager and/or general manager for a poorly performing team simply because that’s the way it’s done in baseball…

      • Anonymous

        i think Ned’s done an o.k. job (some moves i haven’t agreed on like most folks) adapting old school scouting with new world advance analytics is something Ned hasn’t shut the door on & works to his favour. 

        • Tycho

          I’d like a GM who favors youth over journeymen.    I know Ned’s been hamstrung by the former administration, but the farm system is what it is because of Ned – good and bad. Ned seems to hold the responsibility as it’s in his job description.  If Ned is let go I’m not going to cry.  If that comes to pass I’d like a younger GM over a retread, but that just a gut opinion – Kim Ng?

          • Anonymous

            >I’d like a GM who favors youth

            when you have a young player develop thru the organization he intuitively adapts to the philosophy of that organization, PVL’s come with the baggage of 3 or 4 teams already.

          • foul tip

             A great farm system takes money–competitive money–and being in markets outside the US that the Dodgers once dominated or were strong in.  That fell off during the McTort reign of error. That it did can’t be blamed on Ned.

            Logan White is generally regarded as one of the best at scouting.  But the team couldn’t do everything he wanted with limited McTort money. Yes, scouting is an oversight responsibility for Ned.  But he’s not in the trenches.  Again, not Ned’s fault.  On an organizational chart, maybe.  Real world as in the last few years, not.

            The farm system now largely is a reflection of what could be done then while “hamstrung.”

            Every time I say something like this I think I need to point out that I’m not wild about Ned.  I do think he has grown in the job and is much better at it than at first.

            But he, White, and others in charge of putting the team together now should be free from prior restrictions.  Any shortcomings areas now can be judged more fairly.

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

    Vin Scully interview on CBS Sunday Morning 9/16

  • Anonymous

    When are you officially the wild card winner: when you win one of the two slots or when you win the one game playoff?

    • Anonymous

       In football, both are “wild card” entries to the postseason.  They play each other, then go vs. the #1 seed.

    • Anonymous

      It’s not like unlike the time when the NFL had five teams from each conference make the playoffs with a wild card playoff game the week before the “first round.”

      • Anonymous

        Baseball becoming like football :(
        What’s next instant replay?

      • Anonymous

         NBA/NHL are far worse.  IIRC, the hawks took the celts to the maximum games in a series coming in with losing record recently.

  • Anonymous

    the new Siri has player stats response, i can already see my sabermetrics IQ jump 2 fold. 

  • lex Steppling

    All this recent misery, which has been real, also feels weird given how totally in contention this team is.

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

      Yeah, when you’ve lost six of the last seven games it really feels like you shouldn’t even be in the hunt any longer.

  • Anonymous

    Call it the “mild card,” rewarding mediocrity.

  • Anonymous

    A lot of anger that we are in the playoff hunt.  We will all feel differently I think if we do some winning in the next week or so, and if we don’t we will really be out of the playoff hunt anyway.

  • Gustavo Mungaray

    i think we need a little shakeup so may i suggest a new line up for tonight with  just a few tweaks here and there for the remainder of the season. i think we started like this the first month and we started pretty hot.

    gordon ss
    ellis 2b
    kemp cf
    andre rf
    ramirez 3b
    gonzo 1b
    ellis c
    shane rf

    • Anonymous

      Put Gordon in left and Cruz at either short or third and we might agree on at least the players that should be playing.

      Cruz 3B
      Ethier RF
      Kemp CF
      Gonzalez 1B
      Ramirez S
      A. Ellis C
      Ellis 2B
      Gordon LF

  • Anonymous

    The funny thing is that we’re almost a playoff lock if we sweep this series.

     

    • Anonymous

      With the small matter of still having to play one series each against the three likely division champs in the NL.

      • Anonymous

        All of whom are enough of a lock to be more concerned about injuries and rested pens than wins, including the truly bizarre SS icing.

        • Anonymous

          What is this bizarre incident?

          • Anonymous

             Shutting down Strassburg. (sp?)

          • Anonymous

            Thanks I thought a SS had a bucket of ice dumped on him and he was now hurt.

  • Anonymous

    At least we can agree on one thing – after witnessing a shift from Kershaw vs Zito to Kershaw vs Kennedy, it is pretty clear that the ‘B’ in “Donnie B.” doesn’t stand for “Brains”. 

    • Anonymous

      I’m confused.  That wasn’t Donnie’s decision was it?  Kershaw was hurt and would’ve only been able to go 60-70 pitches even if we sent him out there and the medical staff said don’t let him pitch.  The B definitely would not have stood for Brains if he sent Kershaw out there and he made his injury worse.

      • Anonymous

         Stassburgitis /n./ – the condition where incompetent sawbones medical staff and front offices conspire to make healthy pitchers barely old enough to legally drink into Jamie Moyer a week after a major car wreck

      • Anonymous

        The “War of Kershaw Starting Sunday” war was fought between Sunday and Tuesday and it’s over now.

        • Anonymous

          Can the war over the starting pitcher in game 163 1980 be laid to rest? Can the war over pitching to the other teams power hitter with first base open and two outs 1985 be put to rest? I guess but never forgotten!

          • Anonymous

             Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

          • Anonymous

            Good point Bluto :)

    • Anonymous

      The Dodgers need to spend more money on hitters, score more runs, and not worry when Kershaw pitches.

  • Anonymous

    I think he’s referring to Stephen Strasburg instead of either a shortstop or a member of the Schutzstaffel.

    • Anonymous

      Ausgezeichnet!

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

    Tonight’s lineup:

    M Ellis 2B
    Ethier RF
    Kemp CF
    Gonzalez 1B
    Ramirez SS
    Victorino LF
    Cruz 3B
    AJ Ellis C
    Beckett P

    • Anonymous

      Pretty early spot for Dre.  I think a faithful DT reader suggested something similar recently.

      Does Donnie read DT?  He can read, right?

      • Anonymous

        Redacted

        • Anonymous

           That’s a shame, that was actually one of the funnier comments this place has seen in a while…

    • http://farinella.com/ David Farinella

      Wouldn’t you like to see Cruz in the 2 hole and Victorino in the 8 spot? (i’d actually like to see Victorino in a Royals uniform, but that’s something else altogether.)

      • Anonymous

        Amen on that last part, bro.

        Any chance we can bring back the Islanders and give him a dignified final few years of baseball?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=713935344 Jason Ungar

    This team still has the makings of a story. If they can get in and win and make it to the World Series there is still a chance we can piss lots of baseball fans off. : )

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

    NPUT