James Loney loves to hit the ball in October, and for that he should always stick around. Great defense, good-not-great hitting during the regular season, but he’s great in October.

O-Dog’s coming off an all-star, gold glove winning season where he hit .283 and should be in Dodger blue again this year, even though he won’t be.

Furcal wasn’t a great signing. He’s still got that great arm, but everything else seems to have waned a bit.

Pierre is there, and nobody is going to take him unless we foot some of the bill for an AL team. He’s not worth the money, but as far as pinch-hitters, pinch-runners, 4th-outfielders, and great clubhouse guys go he’s pretty top notch.

I think a lot of guys (O-Dog, Kemp, Billingsley, Pierre, Manny) blew their loads a bit early last season and didn’t pace things out. Hopefully that’s something Torre and co can work out as I think the Giants, Rockies, and D-Backs will all be pretty good this year and even San Diego looked better towards the end of last year.

Chad Billingsley will be fine – whether he’s a Dodger or a Blue Jay! He’s 25!

You’re right about Haeger and Elbert. And Broxton.

I think a lot of guys (O-Dog, Kemp, Billingsley, Pierre, Manny) blew their loads a bit early last season and didn’t pace things out. Hopefully that’s something Torre and co can work out as I think the Giants, Rockies, and D-Backs will all be pretty good this year and even San Diego looked better towards the end of last year.

What bothers me the most about the McCourt’s divorce is that it will be used as an excuse for not spending more money. Plaschke is an idiot. Don’t worry about him.

All baseball teams have drunken asshole fans. I can’t keep going, I’m tired.

is there such a thing as a drunk dodger fan behaving themselves ? I never seen it.

And a lot of fun.
The pitching was great last season, the bullpen in particular.
Ned’s got his hands full this off season.
Torre’s gone from the ying to the yang (NY vs. LA) regarding the ability to aquire the players he wants.

this really sums up my thoughts over a fun season with a lot of ups and downs. We’ve got a lot to look forward to, but also some murkiness on the horizon

Celebration: our farm system is better than it has been from the past couple of years.
Frustration: its still going to get decimated because Colletti is going to trade the best ones so the other team picks up an established veteran’s salary.

it was ME in a fanshot who showed Russell Martin’s D blows based on the only catcher defensive metric I’ve ever seen.

awesome post. My frustration/celebration was how odog fell off a cliff offensively after an amazing start. That was alleviated somehwat by belliards pierre-like ability to be on fire for about 20 games, but it would have been great if Hudson could have sustained his first 2 months.

The humor in particular is much appreciated here. “Ned Colletti…Ned Colletti.” LOL Sometimes, I feel like if I don’t laugh, I’l cry.

Getting to the more technical aspects, I really do think that James Loney is going to breakout. It seemed like every game that went by in September, he got closer and closer to becoming the James Loney we expected a couple of years ago. The home runs he hit against Dan Haren was particularly memorable. And I still think that J. Mart can turn it around.

As for the announcers, Dodger fans will ALWAYS be up on Vin Scully, but do you really think Rick Monday was that bad? I think that he and Charlie Steiner make a great team. They’re not perfect, but NOBODY is all the time- including Vin. (oh boy, NOW I’m gonna get it)

Finally, my main frustration BY FAR is with the uncertain direction of what SHOULD be a bright future. While some Dodger fans still have visions of stars like Lackey or H#ll#day, I’m more worried about the guys we have now. When are Kemp and Ethier gonna get those long term deals already?!

Irritation

Then vs. Than: Then = time. Than = comparisons.

Celebration

The content of his posts. Phil writes some of the best and well thought out pieces on this site. Also when everyone is bitching about how the game is going, he seems to be the only cool head around. Fuck this you say? There’s 27 outs in every baseball game! Sometimes less (rain) sometimes more. Remember 4+1? Gurnee didn’t panic. Remember when Loney hit that little flare to (2007) MVP My Ass Matt Holiday? Phil knew that was going to happen. Kirk Gibson? Gurnee said “Just try that backdoor slider and see what happens.”

Thanks for this!

I share many of these.

Now, shouldn’t Furcal’s plus column also include that he did pretty much rake for the last month plus the NLDS? (And then, negative, he again fell off the map in the NLCS)

Belliard will go down as the forgotten hero of Game 2 against St. Louis. Everybody will remember Loretta, but Loretta came up to the plate with the game already tied. That’s because Belliard came to the plate with the Dodgers still down and hit a single to tie the game. Belliard had all the pressure; Loretta was already playing with house money.

Do Carlos Santana and/or Josh Bell count as impact bats provided by Logan White? They would tilt the scales in his favor on offense, IMO, regardless of the fact that the Dodgers didn’t keep them.

Joe Torre “chasing the wheel” WRT pitchers down the stretch and in the playoffs. Starting Wolf game 1, but Wolf struggles so he doesn’t pitch again until game 4 of the NLCS. Kershaw pitches well in NLDS, so Torre starts him game 1 of NLCS only to bury him after a poor start. Thinking Padilla is the ace. Starting Kuroda over Billingsley even though Kuroda was hurt all year and sat out the NLDS with an injury.

Celebrations

Joe Torre “getting it” WRT his hitters. After a year, realizing that Kemp and Ethier are top flight hitters. Not falling for one excellent month from Pierre and rightfully relegating him to the bench once Manny returned.

It was a good season. I sometimes wonder if fans can ever be happy with anything less than a World Series? And even with that, I am sure people would find things to criticize…..Is there a GM, owner, manager, team out there that would be invincible to a fans ire? Who is your perfect team? How is it constructed? Can it ever be perfect? Is there a perfectly constructed team out there in MLB? Is it the Yankees, Angels, Red Sox, Indians, Royals? Do any of these teams have everything you can desire? Not for me.

a look at the origins of the members of the 40-man

http://www.truebluela.com/2009/11/23/1169940/how-dodgers-became-dodgers-where