LUGOforMVP

I love this thread.

Lebron plays in the weak Eastern Conference. Kobe puts up his points and has his team leading the much tougher West. LBJ will get plenty of MVPs before it's all said and done. This is Kobe's year, hands down. Kobe FTW.

Easler was the hitting coach the past few seasons in AAA Las Vegas. He coached almost half of the Dodgers lineup there and knows them well. (Kemp, Loney, Martin, Ethier, Hu, LaRoche, Young, Abreu). I suspect that's why he was brought on board. It's a gamble worth taking. Mattingly has been with the team throughout Spring Training. I think he'll be back next year.

Billy Crystal has done a lot for that organization. He's actually a pretty good ball player. Good for him. It's a dream of mine to play one series for my favorite team.

Kind of ironic for a Red Sox fan to bring up player salaries. If they have the money to spend, then you spend it to keep the contract length to a minimum. It's a better deal than the 5/60 that SF gave to Rowand.

T'was the Night Before Mitchell T’was the night before Mitchell, when all through the league Not a player was sleeping; the world would soon see The names were all waiting, those tested and not And come early morning, some names would be caught The owners all fretted, played cool, but were stressed When visions of empty seats would mean rain outs at best The fans would now realize that under the cap Was a God’s honest cheater, a hero now trapped When out of the courtroom, once Barry the batter Did spring from the bench and receive such a clatter But now in each city, no fan could remain Convinced that their team had played clean in the game The names on the list of the new-written doc Gave the sorrow of winter to a summertime flop When what to his wondering ears should arrive But a bevy of names Selig wished he could hide Then a little old man who Bud once had hired Presented the outcome that should get him fired More cutting than Peavy’s, as heavy as Webb’s The names were all shouted, Bud wished he was dead “Now Barry! Now Raffy! Now Big Mac and Sosa! “Your names will not be held alone any longer!” “Come Clemens? Come Gagne? Big Papi and Wagner? “The gasp of your fans will drown out all the laughter!” As loose change in sofas compiles through the year The scornful remarks Barry’s haters held dear Were high as the sky, but suddenly silent As he now had friends in the “cheater” department And then with a chuckle, the laughter re-grew They pointed at Selig, “We’re laughing at YOU!” He wondered aloud how they could be scoffing “Because you’re as shifty as loose rabbit droppings!” He was dressed all in red-face, but he knew the truth For he had a hand in the falling of Ruth And Aaron’s miraculous, jaw-slacking record Was now in the shadow of steroids forever His eyes, how they widened! His brow, what a furrow! His cheeks were as red as a drunk John Turturro His tense little mouth in a frown just as always A look on his face like he’d pinched one off…sideways The truth had come out, he had known all along He’d known of the steroids, he’d seen them grow strong Now Mitchell, the hired man, brought forth all the knowledge Of wood bats whose stats were once reserved for college (ping!) The press was all there…yes they, too, were witness To players whose bodies defied normal fitness Though Mitchell did not seek to slander their name Reporters were part of the mess all the same He spoke many words, that Mitchell did he Erasing the fans’ Barry-Bonds-scapegoat-glee The problem was bigger, much bigger it seemed Than most of the hypocrite fans once believed He sprang from his pulpit, no podium here He’d spoken the truth of a game once revered The heard him exclaim of the glove, bat, and ball “These used to be sacred, now shame on you all!”

Giants got ROWNED. What happened to their youth movement in the outfield?

It was on the radio out here. I read it on this blog, but it seems to be backtracking a little. http://www.insidesocal.com/dodgers/ It appears that he will be a Dodger, but it's not set in stone yet.

Good point. The Dodgers have done alright with overseas pitchers. Nomo, Saito, and Ishii were pretty damn good in L.A. For a #4 or 5 pitcher, he should be fine. Not expecting him to be an ace. He should be better than Loaiza.

Not a bad rotation: Penny Billingsley Lowe Kuroda Schmidt

I don't see the Twins trading Santana to the Red Sox or Yankees. They will want to trade him to the NL, IMHO. Yes, I'm a Dodger fan, but I do believe that they can beat any offer that the Red Sox can make. Matt Kemp can play that CF spot, and if they need a pitcher, LA has several (Billingsley and Kershaw come to mind). If Santana is available, the Dodgers will probably be favorites to get him.

He looks like Soda Popinski now. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dc/Soda_Popinski.png

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071114&content_id=2300590&vkey=news_la&fext=.jsp&c_id=la&partnered=rss_la Chould be interesting to see the game at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. Moon Shots, anyone?

The Dodgers want to unload Pierre. Pierre is still highly regarded in Florida from his World Series days, and has close ties there (Dontrelle, etc.) I don't think the Dodgers would trade more than one of Kemp, Loney, Martin, Kershaw, or Broxton in the deal. If they want a CF, they can have Pierre back, and LA will probably give them cash for Pierre and Clayton Kershaw. I think that's a good deal for them. Florida gets a CFer and the best pitching prospect in baseball.

Torre said in the press conference today that he does indeed have a good relationship with A-Rod.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Schilling was signed as a FA, right?

"You cannot give people the freedom, the right to alter history. You can't do it." Haha. Irony at it's finest. Bonds was free to alter history - he just had to cheat to accomplish it.

Yes. Mets did that this year with Mota gone for 50 games.

When Griffey is starting and Holliday doesn't even make the team, you know there's something wrong with the ASG.

Wow. You really believe it's only lucky when an NL team wins.

So take out the two money vacuums in NY and Boston and the AL East has ZERO titles since 1997. Yanks and Sox skew all AL vs NL stats.

Until recently every park in the NL west was fairly hitter friendly. Then Colorado got the humidor and SD got that s***** park.