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Many moons

So it's been awhile since I posted anything on my site.  I decided to change that and ended up doing a redesign instead.  Up at the top you will notice a couple new options.  I've made it a little easier to subscribe to the RSS feed as well as adding a couple other options. See is where I will be posting some of my favorite shots going forward and respond is a quick link to email me if you like.

I just got my first DSLR and hope to be taking a lot of pictures in the future.  If you have any tips or tricks you'd like to share I am open to all suggestions.

See you around...

Been waiting for days

So the squarespace iPhone app is finally out. Maybe I'll actually post more often, or maybe not.

To early to talk magic numbers? #baseball

Today the Rockies are taking on the Giants for the last game of the four game set.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but go Giants.  If the Giants can pull of the series split that will mean the Dodgers magic number is 34.

Think about that for a second.  34 more wins, 34 Rockie losses or any combination of the two and we are playoff bound.  The only problem with this is that the magic number should be somewhere around 15-20 but the last month has just been horrendous to this team. 

The Dodgers are dragging and I think a little time up in the Rockies might do them some good.  Lets take the first two and then let Padilla show what a waste that signing was.

 

Magic number = 35

It's the end of the world and we know it...

After today's loss the Dodgers are now 1.5 games behind the Yankees for the best record in the majors.  Despite the title of this post I do not think the season is over now.  The Dodgers still hold the best record in the National League, despite what all the east coast biased Phillies lovers would have you believe. j

What needs to happen is to go up to San Fransisco and make a statement.  If we can take at least 2 out of 3 that will go a long way to silencing the critics.  Right now the Giants have possibly the best pitching staff in the National League, if not all of baseball.  The Dodger bats need to wake up and pound the Giants while showing the league what they can really do on the diamond. 

Kuroda is pitching Monday and we can only hope the "Cy Young Kuroda" not the "Brett Tomko Kuroda".  Lets just hope that happens again and that he actually gets some support to go along with it.

No need to panic, but I'm still a Dodger fan #baseball

After tonights heartbreaker I'm sure there are many worried Dodger fans out there.  Settle down True Blue Believers, the team will be be fine.  The offense is in the dog days summer for sure, but slumps don't last forever.  I'd rather have the offense slump now than going in to October, no?

On the other hand I am worried about Broxton.  Is the toe still bothering him?  I understand blown saves happen and sometimes hitters just get the pitchers pitch and drive it, but that is not what happened tonight. Against Holliday when Ox needed a "finish him" pitch he threw a 94 mph shoulder high fastball.  Normally he would throw that thing 100-101 but it got the job done.  With Ludwick an 86 mph hanging slider resulted in a basehit to right-center. Finally with Rasmus I didn't see a pitch over 91 mph, and the fastball the rookie broke his bat on and tied the game with was 90 mph.  Stan Conti needs to get together with Broxton and figure out what is going on.  If he's still hurt we need to shut him down now so he's available in the playoffs.

Overall I think tonights game just reinforces the need of bullpen arms and not a starter.  Kershaw was brilliant tonight.

So lets get those bats going for Thursdays game and salvage one from St. Louis. This team has shown that even an 8 game losing streak isn't enough to keep them out of the playoffs, but how about we don't let it get that far?

Oh and maybe batting gloves aren't a bad idea Turtle, 0-7 with 2 Ks ouch. I still love you behind the plate. 

Are they for real now? #Dodgers

As I write this the Dodgers are playing their 89th game of the year.  Over half the season has been played and folks are still saying the Dodgers aren't for real.  The same sentiment is still being echoed, "It's just the National League West." or "That record doesn't matter, they play in the NL Worst (add misc. lols and rofls)."

We'll get started right there.  As play began today this is what the National League West looked like.

Team      W   L    GB
Dodgers 56  32    -
Giants    49  39    7.0
Rockies  47  41    9.0
Dbacks   38  51  18.5
Padres   36  52   20.0

The Giants are 7 games behind the Dodgers but would be leading or tied for the lead in ever division in baseball, save for the AL East.  The Rockies at the same time are only 2 games behind the Giants.  Yeah the Dbacks and Padres are showing how bad teams play baseball but what division has a good team in fourth and fifth place?

Lets look at a few of the stats. 

     Stat           MLB  NL
BA     0.275    3rd  1st
OBP   0.354   2nd  1st
SLG   0.413  15th  4th
OPS   0.776   9th   2nd
OPS+ 103      5th  2nd

What does this tell us?  The Dodgers can hit, they can take walks but they could use a little more power.  What a perfect time for Manny to come back and Matt Kemp to move up the batting order wouldn't you say?

Lets look at pitching next.

    Stat         MLB  NL
ERA    3.51   2nd  2nd
ERA+  117    2nd  2nd
WHIP 1.274  1st   1st

The pitching of this team has outperformed what many thought it would.  Chad Billingsley is showing the whole league what an Ace he can be.  At the same time Clayton Kershaw is trying to take that mantle from him.  Kershaw started out pretty rocky but his last few starts have been amazing.  When he gets his control working right the Billingsley/Kershaw 1-2 punch can match up with just about any rotation in the league. 

Right now the Dodgers have winning records against the NL West (30-12), NL East (12-6) and have broken even with the NL Central (5-5).  They posted a 9-9 record against the AL in interleague play this year and are looking to take a winning record to the NL Central as they start a four game series with the Houston Astros.  After playing 29 series' the Dodgers are 19-6-4.

So here's to hoping the Dodgers go another 24 games over .500 for the second half and cruise in to the playoffs.

Coming soon...

new post is coming soon, just doing some research and such then it will be up. I know everyone is waiting with baited breath.

Got to love that homecooking...

Back to back walkoffs result in the Dodgers doing something they have done since 1946, going 9-0 at home to start the season.  Of course they lost the pennant in a 3 game playoff with the St. Louis Cardinals so lets not do that again.

Friday's game was a great pitchers duel with Turtle getting the job done anyway he could.  Then Saturday's game with the bases loaded again it looked like Dre was gonna do the same thing.  Two balls to start the at bat, takes a strike on the outside corner and then just crushes a pitch to right field.  A few more feet and he's got a walkoff slam.

The Dodgers are not without their problems this year.  The starting pitching has looked good most of the time, but the staff is still really young.  Bills is showing what an ace is supposed to look like.  The Kid is having his flashes of brilliance (hello, 13 Ks?) with control problems sometimes.  Of course Sandy had his control problems at first too, but when he figured it out did he ever.  The Billingsley/Kershaw 1-2 punch is going to be potent for years to come.  Randy Wolf has been pretty good for a middle of the rotation pitcher.  He's not guaranteeing a win, but you know you have a shot to win with him on the mound.

Right now I think the Dodgers biggest problem is middle relief/setup man.  With Cory Wade back from the DL I'm hoping those problems go away.  As long as we can get the ball to Broxton with the lead and, this is important, ONLY 3 OUTS TO GET we should be doing pretty well.  I'm just nervous Torre is going to latch on to a few pitchers and over use them ala Proctor.  Speaking of that, why do the Dodgers need 13 pitchers?  Torre is only going to use 4 releivers at max so why bother even having the rest there? Can we call up Xavier Paul yet please?

All in all I think this season is starting out great (obviously) but there are pitfalls that need to be shored up before they come back to bite us in the ass.

Goodbye DY, sad to see you go...

... because there's no way you're going to clear waivers.

I can't believe the Dodgers didn't trade you.  Maybe they're just praying you'll clear waivers and end up in ABQ, I know I do. 

Either way I wish you the best of luck where ever you may end up.  You've got a great career ahead of you, just wish the Dodgers could have hung on to you.

 

/wave

Apple announces new iPhone... SDK

With the iPhone 3.0 event today we got to hear about all the new features of this new SDK.  Some of the updates everyone has been asking, or questioning, since the first iPhone. 

(All information is from gizmodo and gdgt live)

Copy & Paste: Finally, I will be using it sparingly I'm sure but it's nice that it's finally an option.

MMS: Again finally, no more stupid codes in AT&Ts website.  I can't tell you how many times I've heard "That phone is really awesome. Wait, you can't get MMS?"

Turn-by-Turn Nav: Apple is going to be giving some core API support it seems.  This is good news IMO. 

Spotlight Search: Adding search to your home screen which lets you search all apps on your device at once.  Maybe I don't have as many apps installed as most but this doesn't seem all that amazing.

Some other notable features; Landscape keyboard in every app, Device to device file sharing, Push notification for apps, 3g tethering (well the apple end is done, nothing announced from the provider side), improved stocks app (oh how have we lived this far?), oh and Stereo Bluetooth. 

They also talked a lot about in app purchases.  This looks to be mostly used with games, but could be used in other apps as well.  I'm not a fan of this kind of stuff.  It seems to make developers handicap their games just so they can sell levels or whatever later on.  I'm fine with buying levels after a full game, we'll see how this goes.

On that same note they also discussed subscription apps.  The best example I saw was for a magazine for instance.

I think that was most of what was announced. What did you think?

-thanks to giz and gdgt for the coverage

testing

is this thing on?

Well Hallelujah

Dodgers, Manny agree to two-year deal

It's about time this deal got done.  I like how far the deal came in all these months... 2 years $45 million.  I could have sworn that was the deal like 9 months ago.  Oh well, it got done at least.  Wonder what next off-seasons going to be like.

I can't wait to see what Dre's OBP is gonna be, playing a whole year in front of ManRam.

Now lets get down to work and start this season right.

 

Genius agent or money-grubbing idiot?

From the Dodger Blog

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers today received a letter from Scott Boras, the agent for Manny Ramirez, rejecting the offer that the club made yesterday. This rejection is the fourth by the agent in the club's attempts to sign Manny.

"We love Manny Ramirez," said Dodgers Owner Frank McCourt, "And we want Manny back, but we feel we are negotiating against ourselves. When his agent finds those 'serious offers' from other clubs, we'll be happy to re-start the negotiations.

"Even with an economy that has substantially eroded since last November, out of respect for Manny and his talents, we actually improved our offer."

Who does Boras think he's fooling?  Does he really want Manny to start the season a free agent?

GAS IS DOWN AND SO ARE YOU!!!

Get over yourself and sign a contract you greedy bastard.  Sign with the fucking Giants for all I care at this point.  Just get it over with and stop messing around.  Manny is one of the best right-hand hitters in the history of baseball, but I don't think anyone is worth putting up with Boras for though.

Manny, you're not getting A-Rod money.  At this point you'll be lucky to get Jeter money.  Sign your one year deal and try again next year.  Then again you could just sit out the first half of the year.  Then when the Yankees take a slide they'll drop a 5 year $225 million deal on you.

Good day sir

get the deal done

So it looks like the Dodgers have offered Manny $45 million for two year, the last year being a player option.  $25 million for the first year and $20 million for the second if ManRam decides to stay or if he is injured the first year the second is guaranteed. 

This looks like an awesome deal, for both sides really.  If Manny comes in to 2009 looking at a contract year he could be absolutely destroying the ball.  Imagine last fall but all year long?  I'm really hoping this deal gets done.  Those 5 run blow ups by Kuroda can be saved by one decent inning with MannRam in the middle of the lineup.

Everything I've read came from Inside the Dodgers.  Tony Jackson does some good stuff over there.  That's one of my daily reads for sure.

Who doesn't love Stewie?

decisions, decisions

Trying to decide what my next tech purchase is going to be and I can't decide.  

Should I go with the Kindle, or one of these new Mimo monitors?

Email me or hit me up in the comments with your pick!

The O-Dawg!

Orlando "O-Dawg" Hudson signs one-year $3.38 million contract with $4.6 million in incetives. 

I can't wait to hear Vin saying "Here is the O-Dawg" all year long.  I've always like Hudson, I'm just hoping this doesn't affect Blake Dewitt's development.  Dewitt is naturally a third baseman anyway so he could be moved back over and send Blake to left field.  Like everyone else, I would rather see Manny in left.  If I have to choose between Pierre or Blake in the outfield I'll take Blake every time. 

Or maybe we'll sign Manny and then platoon Blake and Dewitt at third.  Either way I think the Hudson signing is going to work out pretty well.

I'm assuming the lineup will look something like this with the current lineup;

1. Furcal (SS)


2. Hudson (2B)


3. Martin (C)


4. Ethier (RF)


5. Kemp (CF)


6. Loney (1B)


7. Dewitt (3B)


8. Blake (LF)

How awesome would this lineup be though?

1. Furcal (SS)


2. Kemp (CF)


3. Ethier (RF)


4. Manny (LF)


5. Martin (C)


6. Hudson (2B)


7. Loney (1B)


8. Blake/Dewitt (3B)

That's a lineup that can do some damage.  Here's to hoping.

 

Dre signs for $3.1 million plus incentives

Dodgers sign Andre Ethier for $3.1 million for 1 year plus AB incentives.  We all knew it was going to happen, but it's good to see this is finally get done.  Lets get to work on locking him down long term now.  Dre is easily one of my favorite Dodgers and this point and I hope he is around for awhile. 

From Ken Gurick, MLB.com -  Dodgers.com

 

wonderful world of email

Hopefully this will publish from the email. We'll see how it goes.

here we go again

Pitchers and catchers have reported, the sod has been laid at Dodger Stadium and Jason Schmidt is ready to make his way back to the DL.  That's right folks,  spring training is almost here.

Uncle Ned seems to be still working his deal with the devil (re: Mr. Boras).  I'm just hoping we don't end up with Manny in L.A. till 2015.  I think no more than 3 years, maybe 4 at the max.  Knowing the way Colletti works he's probably going to give him $30mil a year for 12 years.

I'm really looking forward to which pitchers decide to show up at spring training this year.  Jeff Weaver going to explode back on the scene? Probably not, but we'll see.

something new

So I decided to start my own blog.  I'll be posting about technology, baseball and whatever random things come to mind or are found on these interwebs.