The NedCo DODGERS thread

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/87/fullj.91a7779546f8522e709b5a2a1ba44f12/91a7779546f8522e709b5a2a1ba44f12-getty-85124868jg003_philadelphia_.jpg

Ned had a pretty good off season this year, but Im starting to get even more pissed that we traded this guy:

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Carlos%20Santana&pos=C&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=467793

For a 2 month rental of Casey Blake and a cool $1m in salary relief. Especially since Russ Martin hasn't hit a home run all season.

21 games over .500. Also note the Giants and Rockies position in the NL wildcard before you douse my party with NL West hate.

casey blake has turned out aight

NL run differentials.

LA +90
Col +27
StL +22
Phi +12
Mil +9
Chicago +7
SF +7

Not a bad showing by the Rockies. LA and Col. play a short series next week. Should be interesting.

Ethier!

Goddamn how did I miss this

Matt Kemp: Likes His ESPYs Drunk, Dates Topless

Despite appearing upright on the red carpet for an interview with KSPN-AM’s Mason & Ireland before the festivities, Kemp’s night apparently soon went downhill from there.

I’ve heard differing accounts on the exact details of what happened, but the central theme was that Kemp was so drunk at the ESPYs that at one point during the evening, he stumbled and fell.

Even worse, in the process of falling, he grabbed a woman’s (who appeared to be his date) dress and completely pulled down her top. When those on the scene first attended to the prone Kemp, the woman shrieked, “What about me?!”

True/False: Plaschke wants to rid the world of Dodger Stadium

LA could use some sportswriters who dont hate all of the teams therein.

Congrats to Jason Schmidt, who got the win last night.

they are just giving away games when schmidt pitches. his fastball has been in between 81 and 83 today w/ no movement. literally batting practice.

also orlando hudson's at bat song is young jeezy's "my president" <3<3

Ill bet management gives him one more chance to hang himself just because thats how they do things. Hopefully he'll get released after that. Just glad hes not pitching in the Cards series.

btw jeff weaver is an asshole

Left-handed hitters against Randy Wolf: .097/.167/.140 (102 PA).

I hate playing in St. Louis so much.

He would eventually take the loss, but...

J Weaver relieved G Mota.
M DeRosa flied out to right.
A Pujols struck out swinging.
M Holliday struck out looking.

Objectively it was a pretty awesome game.

Jason Schmidt with another solid outing...

Seemed like he was up around 88 with his FB for alot of the game but I have no idea how hes doing it.

M Ramirez doubled to shortstop, M Loretta and R Furcal scored, A Ethier to third.

I think Prince Fielder owes Guillermo Mota some money. Dont get that HBP. But if anyone on the team is gonna get crusty and throw at some dude its Mota.

Prince Fielder apparently wanted to deliver a message of his own late Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium in the wake of the Dodgers' 17-4 thrashing of the Milwaukee Brewers.

With a number of his teammates in pursuit, the Brewers' first baseman stormed into a tunnel leading to the Dodgers' clubhouse following the final out of a ninth inning in which he had been hit on the right thigh by a pitch from reliever Guillermo Mota.

Fielder was apparently incensed because he felt the pitch was in retaliation for reliever Chris Smith hitting Manny Ramirez with a pitch in the seventh inning after the Dodgers' slugger had homered and driven in three runs.

Fielder was stopped outside the Dodgers' main clubhouse entrance by security guards, who forced him to retreat to the Brewers' clubhouse.

"He was trying to throw a cutter and it just missed," Fielder said sarcastically of Mota's pitch that left a large welt and led to the reliever's ejection.

Mota did not immediately appear at his locker after the game, leaving catcher Russell Martin to speak for him.

"It's protection," Martin said of the pitch. "It's just about keeping the team unified and pulling the wagons together."

Kemp is surely on the top 10 MVP ballot, along with Manny.

Russell Nathan Roscoe P Coltrane Jeanson Martin could pull a few wagons together by raising his slugging percentage over Prince's weight.

The next sentence in the article mentions the Dodgers being too afraid to retaliate against the Phillies in the playoffs last year and trying to send a message now. Wouldnt it better to send said message in APRIL as apposed to AUGUST?

fuck the dodgers

ethier is so frustrating

Dude has 5 walkoff hits this season including 3 HRs. Fuckin love this dude.

Dodgers need to start buying out arb years on Kemp and Ethier soon. Theyre also lucky they didnt sign Russ to a big extension 2 off seasons ago because his stock is dropping precipitously.

fuck the braves =\

lol you guys are goin to the playoffs anyway, what the fuck do you care

team has been playing some mediocre .500 ball recently. but we have a tough schedule against SD, AZ, WASH and PITT in September. =(

be interesting to look at team record w/ and w/o Manny

^that kinda logic led to the famous Shannon Stewart MVP candidacy. SS = Jayson Stark

haha, shannon stewart coached me as a kid

lol, can of whoopass here.

But seriously, Vazquez!

:D

XD

*pisses in tommy lasorda's eyes*

hey Dr. Metsuckius, ef you dude.

I'm not saying that he's the least valuable player, just sayin that the team seemed to perform better while he was serving his suspension for taking steroids.

when did the W-L record become irrelevant?

The team did well with Manny out but it coincided with Juan Pierre putting up the best month in his entire career. Doubt that happens again.

But ever since getting hit on the hand before the pinch hit grand slam Manny has been a liability. He had one good game in between then but then Torre inexplicably pulled him out of the lineup the next day.

http://l.yimg.com/g/images/spaceball.gif

yeah Shasta, the performance during Manny's absence might have something to do with who's filling the other fucking 24 roster spots, and how their seasons are playing out.

http://www.codeodor.com/images/orly.jpg

FMLOL

hey Dr. Metsuckius

I knew you could come up with a good nickname if you spent a few hours on it.

I would've sworn up and down Hwy 101 that Dr. Metsuckius was a cankles neologism.

TIMMEH. OUR LONG HAIR BEAT YOUR LONG HAIR.

Nothing caps off an epic battle like Guillermo Mota giving up a walkoff HR to Juan Uribe.

What was once a 9 game lead in the west is now 3 games. Facing Lincecum, Haren, Carptenter and Wainright in the span of 7 days will do that to you, but damn. Nobody on this team looks good except Ethier and the rotation is in shambles. September callups cant come soon enough.

They won't take the West but they may take the WC.

you're forgetting one thing: vicente padilla

And face the Cardinals or the Phillies in the first round and get eliminated 3-1.

Cards look really tough tho. I dont know what they did after 06 because they looked pretty ragged for awhile. Yet they keep comin'.

http://thesportshernia.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b84f69e2011570b9fb1b970b-550wi

Padilolla. At least he only costs $100k, unlike Loiaza which set us back like 8 million.

This game is fun. A swarm of bees! Kemp loses a ball in the sun! Torre brought in Broxton in the eighth because the heart of the order was up! Charlie Haeger! Nice catches by Sam Fuld!

<3 u Randy Wolf. Best signing of the off-season or what? Looking forward to the Padilla era starting tomorrow at noon.

The rest of the schedule looks very cushy.

It helps to not have seen the Pirates once all season until mid-September.

The most valuable player in the National League this season hasn't been wearing red and white and manning first base. He's wearing blue and white and manning right field.

There. I said it.

Maybe Albert Pujols has been the "best" player in the National League.

Heck, he may even be the "best" player in both leagues.

But we're not talking about the "best". We're talking about "most valuable."

There's a difference, you know.

Let's define "value", shall we?

Value is coming through time and again in the clutch, in the moments where you're needed most, in the late innings, where the pressure is high and the game is on the line.

Value is becoming the deadliest bat on a team of deadly bats, on a team where it's supposed "superstar" betrayed an entire city's trust with a positive drug test and a 50 game suspension just as the season was getting going.

Value is being consistent, playing the game the right way, being that All-American hero the Los Angeles Dodgers have sorely lacked since the memorable days of Paul Lo Duca.

Value is spelled A-N-D-R-E. As in Ethier.

You think I'm kidding?

Thirty home runs from a player who was expected to hit half that many.

98 RBIs from a player who had been dangled as trade bait in the past or, worse yet, considered to be no better than a fourth outfielder.

A robust .531 slugging percentage from a player who many thought had peaked at .510.

A crisp .283 batting average (.330 since the All-Star break, a break where this future MVP was playing golf and not playing in the Midsummer Classic as he should have been.)

And the cherry on top? 6 stolen bases, tying his career high. And the season's not even over with.

We knew what Albert Pujols could do. This season is another in a long line of predictably terrific years.

But he had Matt Holliday.

Andre Ethier had Manny Ramirez.

You do the math. It should add up to a first place MVP finish when it's all said and done.

http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/columnist/2008-12/260175-19091427.jpg http://www.soulstrut.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/oj.gif

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3452/3925918877_b18511ce2c_o.jpg

is that real or fake i cant tell anymore

30 HRs and 40 doubles is pretty sweet. Not MVP in any respect but hes been the best power producer the Dodgers have had in a long time.

Speaking of schedules, the Dodgers have a crazy one for 2010. Interleague games against Tigers, Yankees, Red Sox and Angels.

oh i thought they were supposed to play at yankee stadium too. guess not.

http://mikesciosciastragicillness.com/2009/09/16/andre-ethier-a-retrospective.html

my favorite comment from this:

Posted by Noah, September 16, 2009 9:06 AM

I didn't realize that all of Ethier's walk-off's came at home. He is absolutely blowing my mind this year.

^
^
l
o
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HI I'M JIM TH

$13M pinch hitter hitting $1.42

NL leaders in WARP3:

Pujols 13.2
Haren 12.2
A. Gonzalez 9.8
Kemp 9.7

Nothing like sleepwalking into the playoffs with series losses versus Washington, Pittsburgh and San Diego.

i seemed to recall a ws champion doing that not long ago...

yes, end-of-season performance don't mean shit, stop listening to Baseball/MLB Tonight.

Sleepwalking is a good term - I was trying to think of something worse than limping, but not quite dead

Looks like the Doyers will be a NedCo team for awhile if that alleged extension goes through. Colletti could be worse I guess but I'm not entirely sure. Dude spent something like 80$ million in shit contracts on Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones when they had Matt Kemp on the roster the whole time.

assuming the current standings hold, all of the playoff teams will have appeared in the world series at least once in the '00s except for the dodgers

whoa, that Gibson HR was almost 21 years ago...

see, "sleepwalking in" no matter!

Frank and Jamie McCourt separate.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-mccourts15-2009oct15,0,213794.story

"They've already 'lawyered' up," the source said. "They're trashing each other terribly. It's going to be World War III."

At stake: The future of the Dodgers, a team valued at $722 million by Forbes magazine. Forbes calculates the value of a team based on its current stadium deal without deduction for debt.

---

Well it was fun guys. Ill just wait until 2013 or whenever it is we get our tv money back from those fuckers at fox.

LA Times announce Colletti is back (until the team is sold because of the divorce and the new owner brings in his own people)

The Dodgers and General Manager Ned Colletti have reached agreement on a long-term contract extension. An announcement is expected later today.

IT BEGINS

Dodgers owner Frank McCourt has fired his wife Jamie as CEO of the team in what promises to be bitter fight over the storied baseball team, SI.com has learned.

i read that as "steroid baseball team" at first!

Rob (Alaska): Today is the perfect day for Russell Martin Disgust. Cue rant....

Eric Seidman: I shall gladly oblige. Two years ago he was a superstar, 19 HR/21 SB for a catcher with seemingly solid defense and great OBP/SLG numbers. The last two years he looks like he is playing without interest. All throughout the 2008 post-season he whined about call after call and made easy plays look difficult. His offense deteriorated even further this season and he simply cannot block balls in the dirt, opting to try and back-hand or glove the ball without moving his body. And he STILL whines about every call. I am at a loss for what has happened but if I'm Ned Colletti I have a very short leash. Sure, good catchers are scarce, but right now he is not a good catcher.

This Russ Martin rant is why alot of dodger fans are sore about trading Carlos Santana (http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=C&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=467793) for two months of Casey Blake and $2 mil.

The McCourts separated on my birthday. How tragic.

Jamie McCourt files divorce papers
Court petition asks that Dodgers owner Frank McCourt reinstate his wife as chief executive and pay at least $320,000 a month in spousal support.

By Bill Shaikin

October 28, 2009

Jamie McCourt filed for divorce this afternoon, in a petition that asks the court to order her reinstatement as the Dodgers' chief executive officer.

The petition, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, cites irreconcilable differences.

The McCourts announced their separation two weeks ago, after which Frank McCourt asserted he is the sole owner of the Dodgers and Jamie McCourt claimed she had an ownership stake. He fired her as the Dodgers' chief executive officer last week.

"Frank has no right to purport to terminate me," she claims. "We are co-owners of the Dodgers."

In the court papers, Jamie McCourt charges Frank McCourt with launching "a systematic campaign designed to intimidate me and drive me out of the Dodgers franchise."

The filing cites the couple's net worth at $1.2 billion and estimates the value of the Dodgers, including the stadium and surrounding real estate, at $800 million. According to the filing, the couple separated on July 6, four months shy of what would have been their 30th anniversary.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2009/10/highlights-from-the-jamie-mccourt-divorce-papers.html

wow.

WONT SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF BILL PLASCHKE

I was on the Dodger Stadium loge level, waiting in a 15-minute line for a hunk of a pizza.

On the mound, the Dodgers were starting the series with a not-yet-ace named named Clayton Kershaw.

Down the concourse, two heavily tattooed guys were engaged in a loud and profane argument.

Then, once I reached the front of this pizza line, I was assisted by a typically slow and surly Levy Restaurant worker.

Clearly, what had stabilized as recently as last winter had suddenly gone very wrong.

Tough year for Vicente. Swine flu, rejection from Rangers, gunshot wound...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dodgerthoughts/2009/11/vicente-padilla.html

A hospital spokeswoman ... told reporters that the Nicaraguan pitcher in 32 years, this year also played with the Texas Rangers, was hospitalized for 40 minutes and already left the medical center, without gravity.

does that mean he floated out?

Maybe the writer meant gravitas.

Or the spokeswoman, that is.