Packed with all-new features from third base coaches that actually coach to real-time pitching and batting analysis, The Show is easily the most realistic, high-definition, smell-the-pine-tar baseball simulator ever created. See for yourself at mlb08theshow.com.
Wow, those new features sort of sound like the Dodgers' new features in 2008! (That is, if Larry Bowa can get cracking...)
From ESPN's spring trining blog, some thoughts on Larry Bowa taking the mantle over at third base, rather than the poorly-calculating Rich Donnelly, who would send Dodgers to their dooms:
"We damn sure needed it last year. Fourth place," Penny said. "You need somebody to push you. You know Bowa's doing it for your benefit. I loved watching him in Philly."
Penny is fond of former manager Grady Little, but believes L.A. would have been better off had Little or someone on his coaching staff come down harder on the players when mental mistakes were made.
"If we make stupid mistakes, something will be said," said Bowa, 62. "I don't hold grudges, but I get stuff off my chest. I didn't come over here to finish third. I came over here to play in October."Dodgers ace Brad Penny is eager to see new third base coach Larry Bowa get in somebody's face, even if it's his own.
I don't know if the reason Brad didn't feel pushed by Little was due to Little's lackadaisical, stoic managing style, or due to the fact that Penny would bite Grady's head off when he came to the mound. In any event, I'm glad that Penny is psyched for Bowa; Penny ain't that bad of a hitter, and with his girth one better make sure he makes it home cleanly (for the Dodgers', and the catcher's, sakes).
Ken Gurnick delicately slaloms his way through this week's Dodgers mailbag. But the last two questions of the mailbag demonstrate that Gurnick is clearly rapping the flags with his pole as he passes:
Dan Fox of Baseball Prospectus recently wrote a column about a fielding computation system that ranked outfielders based on all-around defensive play, not just throwing arm, but also factoring in range, extra bases taken by runners, stadium variations and the like. Fox had Pierre ranked 21st and last among qualifying Major League center fielders. Andruw Jones was 10th, Aaron Rowand was 15th and Coco Crisp first. Andre Ethier was 11th among right fielders.Some fans have been condemning Ned Colletti for signing Juan Pierre last year, placing a lot of blame on his throwing. Is there a stat to track how many runners actually did advance because of this throwing inability? --Pete L., Temecula, Calif.
So what Gurnick is saying is, "yes, there is a statistic to measure defensive abilities, and yes, Pierre is dead last in the MLB at his position. Suck that, Neddie!"
Donnelly, the Dodgers' third-base coach the last two years, has been hired by the Pittsburgh Pirates to serve as a Minor League supervisor.Has Rich Donnelly landed anywhere? --Charles V., Las Vegas
"Even the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates wouldn't dare put Donnelly in the third base coach's box."
No, it's not (necessarily) Alex Rodriguez. Check out the tidbit buried in this morning's update on the ongoing saga, "Dodgers inching closer to Torre", from dodgers.com:
A Dodgers official said that no press conference has been scheduled, although there were indications that an announcement could come as soon as late Wednesday, with an introductory press conference on Thursday. According to reports, the Dodgers and Torre have in place a three-year deal, with estimates of the package ranging from $12 million to $14.5 million.
In addition, a source told MLB.com that the club and Torre are also discussing Torre having a say in player pesonnel, which he did not have in his final years with the Yankees.
[...]
Still to be determined is the makeup of Torre's coaching staff, although there are indications that Don Mattingly will follow Torre as bench coach, and Larry Bowa also might come from the Yankees as third-base coach. Little's coaching staff was signed through the end of the 2007 season.LOS ANGELES -- Club officials say there still is no deal to announce, but all signs are pointing toward the imminent hiring of Joe Torre as manager of the Dodgers.
An end to watching Dodgers get thrown out at the plate on a regular basis, by replacing Rich Donnelly as the third-base coach? Sign Torre up, that's worth $12M alone!
Olney today recapped a fateful decision from Mariners' third base coach Carlos Garcia, which caused Adrian Beltre to get nailed at the plate for a third out in a game the Yankees went on to win:
Kenji Johjima laced a single into left field, and Garcia waved Adrian Beltre around third base. But Hideki Matsui rushed the ball and made a perfect throw to the plate, and catcher Jorge Posada picked the ball nicely on a short-hop and dropped a quick tag on Beltre: bang-bang. A cardinal rule had been broken: You should not get the first out of an inning with a player getting thrown out at third or home. "I shouldn't have sent the runner," Garcia told Baker. "It's my fault that he was thrown out. I take the blame."
Wang subsequently got a double-play grounder to end the inning, and would go on to regain his command and pitch eight innings, in a one-sided defeat. "The game could have been different if I made a different decision there," Garcia told John Hickey. "Now I've got to live with it."
Twenty-six more days in the pennant races. Twenty-six more days for teams to wonder what might have been, if not one for one throw, one catch, one swing, one decision by a third base coach. Third base coach Carlos Garcia knows that a decision he made was pivotal in the Mariners' loss to the Yankees, as he told Geoff Baker. To review: Seattle had runners at first and second and nobody out in the top of the fifth inning, while trailing, 1-0. Chien-Ming Wang had started to have a fit of control problems, as he is prone to do, and had begun elevating the ball a bit, and Seattle, it seemed, had a great chance for a big inning.
Donnelly just got Russell Martin rung up at home for the third out of an inning in Tuesday's Dodgers-Cubs game. How many more will Donnelly kill in the Dodgers' final 22 games?
Russell Martin is our All-Star catcher and some have argued "the face of the Dodger Franchise" (I would vote for Vin Scully, but that's another story). So we don't mean to bag on him even when his overuse, at the non-nimble hands of Grady Little when filling out lineup cards exactly the same every single frickin' game, has caused Martin's numbers to decline down the stretch.
But today's LA Times article not only reflects poorly on Martin (in the wake of the Dodgers' impotent loss last night to the Mets, 5-2), it also impugns the entire educational system of his home country, Canada:
All told, the Dodgers left 12 men on base and went one for nine with runners in scoring position while being held to fewer than four runs for the first time in 10 games. If they had built any offensive momentum during a recent streak that saw them score 54 runs in winning six of nine games, Mets starter Oliver Perez robbed them of it Friday.
Or maybe it never existed in the first place.
"I don't believe in momentum," catcher Russell Martin said. "What's momentum? It's one game at a time. In baseball, you can win or lose any given day no matter who's on the mound."The Dodgers got runners on in every inning except the fifth, but couldn't get any of them home until there were two outs in the eighth. They left the bases loaded in the first, stranded two runners in scoring position in the eighth and had the tying run at the plate in the ninth when Andre Ethier struck out looking to end the game.
Ah, Russell? You should probably start believing in momentum, seeing how it's a fundamental part of classic Newtonian mechanics. I don't know if they taught this up in Canada, but momentum (p) is the product of mass (m) and velocity (v) such that p = mv. It's pretty elementary to any high-school physics class.
To be fair, though, it is understandable that Martin is a little fuzzy on this equation given that Dodger third-base coach Rich Donnelly also lacks an understanding of this fundamental construct. It was here, in the Dodgers' own house of horrors known as Shea Stadium, where Donnelly sent home Jeff Kent (6' 2", 210 lbs) and J.D. Drew (6' 1", 200 lbs) to home on the same play. Both Kent and Drew were coming home to meet their opponent, Paul Lo Duca (5' 10", 205 lbs). Yet despite both Kent and Drew having velocity (albeit less velocity, in Kent's case), and Lo Duca basically motionless (v = 0) at the plate, Donnelly had neither Kent nor Drew pound into Lo Duca to dislodge the ball and/or railroad the catcher. Everyone knows the result of this disaster--yet only now is it becoming clear that a lack of physics knowledge on the Dodgers is at the root of the problem.
Donnelly, for the record, had better learn this equation soon now that we've got Matt Kemp in the lineup more often. Kemp is 6' 2", 230 lbs, and runs like a freight train. If he ever wimps his way into home during a play at the plate, I will probably throw something at my television set.
Getting back to the Dodgers, though--momentum is real, and it's important, and if we are going to have any chance at making the playoffs, it means keeping momentum when you've got it. It means crashing into the catcher at home plate. It means knocking runners in when you've got them on base. It means winning strings of consecutive games to buoy the spirits of your team as well as deflate the spirits of our competitors being chased in the standings. I know that you're tired, Russell, and I don't expect you to be Albert Einstein with the physics. But the Dodgers need momentum in the worst way, and everyone had better be on the same page (of the physics textbook).
So remember last year, at the end of the 2006 season, when the Dodgers were in the playoffs against the Mets? (If you don't remember, it's probably because you either blinked and you missed it due to another three-and-out performance, or it's because you've consciously blocked it from your memory banks due to Rich Donnelly's ridiculous decision to send home Jeff Kent and JD Drew on the same play only to get them both tagged out at the plate by former Dodger Paul Lo Duca. But I digress.)
Thinking myself clever, in advance of the series, I entered the lottery for NLDS playoff tickets through the Mets' website, for Games 3 and 4 (to be played in Los Angeles). The thinking at the time was that fewer Mets fans would desire this out-of-town game, and I might pick up a pair of seats on the fly.
Needless to say, I did not win the lottery. And then, six months later, insult was added to injury when I received this bit of personally-addressed snail mail from the Mets:
Thank you for your support of the Mets. We believe our emergence last year as Division Champions marked the start of a special era for our franchise and our fans. As the mets captured the National league East title with an MLB-best 97 victories, Shea Stadium again became the place to be, with a record 3.5 million fans joining in the excitement and celebration.
With an All-Star lineup featuring Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Carlos Delgado, Paul Lo Duca, and Moises Alou, we look forward to more great thrills, excitement and celebrations at Shea in 2007. make sure you are part of the action!...
On behalf of the entire Mets organization -- Ownership, General Manager Omar Minaya, Manager Willie Randolph, our players and staff -- thank you for being part of our team. We look forward to seeing you at Shea in 2007!
Sincerely,
Wililam Ianniciello
Dear Mets Fan:
Vice President, Ticket Sales and Services
No, I do not know why "Fan" in "Mets Fan" is capitalized, nor do I know why "Ownership" is capitalized as well. I do know, however, that the memory of the Mets' sweep over the Dodgers still stings. The letter also came wtih a fine Mets 2007 wallet schedule. Thanks for the salt in the wound, William!
I'll be ready come June 11-13. Let's hope Rich Donnelly is ready this time, too.
UPDATE 1.34p: First person to email to SoSG (our email address on sidebar) gets the Mets wallet schedule. Offer available in the US only. Leave me your snail mail address and I'll even spot you the postage.
I can't believe I missed this from the New York Times last weekend. Murray Chass wrote about how there are no more 20-game winners (2006 was the only full-length season in baseball's history without one), and led off his article with this quote:
"As kids we had apple fights," said Donnelly, the Los Angeles Dodgers' third-base coach. "I'll bet you there's no one in here who ever had an apple fight."The question was about 20-game winners, and Rich Donnelly wanted to talk about apple fights.
You know, I'll bet you there's no one in here who ever sent two guys home on the same play only to see them both tagged out at the plate during a post-season playoff game, either.
"You'd try to hit somebody, smash them in the head with a green apple," he related one day in spring training in Fort Myers, Fla. Because today's pitchers never had apple fights, he added, "their accuracy is awful."Growing up in Steubenville, Ohio, Donnelly had apple fights.
Donnelly's accuracy on that, or many other close plays at home last year, wasn't all that sharp, either.
Methinks Donnelly may have gotten hit in the head at least once or twice.
From "The wild and wacky from 2006" by Jayson Stark at ESPN.com:
STRANGE BUT TRUE FEAT OF THE YEAR, CENTURY AND MILLENNIUM: Finally, if you needed convincing that literally anything is possible in baseball, we refer you to the astounding finish of the Dodgers' Sept. 18 game with San Diego. They entered the bottom of the ninth trailing by four runs. And then...
The same team that was last in the league in home runs (the Dodgers) hit four ninth-inning home runs in a row to tie the game.
And did it in a span of seven pitches.
And hit them off two pitchers (Jon Adkins and Trevor Hoffman) who had given up three homers all season to the previous 432 hitters they'd faced, in a combined 108 appearances.
And then, after falling behind in the top of the 10th, the same team hit another homer in the 10th to turn a loss into a win.
If Hollywood slapped that on the big screen, you'd laugh. But this happened in actual life, in the greatest sport on earth.
"It might be the most amazing thing that ever happened in sports," Dodgers coach Rich Donnelly told our Strange But True bureau. "It's like the Stanford band thing -- without the trombones."
