ridiculous on Repko, plus at this point I’d rather see Elbert pitching in the AAA playoffs then sitting in the bullpen and never ever seeing the mound unless we are up or down by five runs.

barring an upset of either the Rockies or Giants losing the wild card.

Since the Dodgers and Cards are battling for first place in the NL, while the Phillies are 3 games behind in the win column behind the Dodgers.

In which case, I’m happy, as the Phillies might do something dumb and start J.A. Happ 2nd, as while his ERA is 2.63, his K/9 is only at 6.1, and his FIP is 4.27, and his x-FIP is at 5.14. Dude’s just waiting to blow up in somebody’s face. Might as well be the Dodgers.

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/blog_article/grudgingly-giving-dodgers-gm-ned-coletti-credit-for-belliard-thome-garland/

With all these moves, Colletti has shown an ability to acquire quality players without compromising their payroll structure. This is especially crucial in this economy. It is also how Colletti made his living last year, acquiring Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake at zero cost other than prospects. Just over a year later, it’s looking like Coletti blundered badly by coughing up catcher Carlos Santana for Blake (assuming Santana pans out as expected). That said, Blake has proven extremely productive in his role as a third baseman and Russell Martin certainly has the catcher position locked up for years to come. The cost for Manny Ramirez was Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris, which isn’t costing Ned any sleep at night.

  0.274/0.302/0.453

I don’t think we’d be happy if he did that on a full time basis as a Dodger.

The Dodgers’ pickup of Jim Thome might be partly due to GM Ned Colletti’s known fetish for grizzled veterans, but Thome does have value to L.A. as an option off the bench. His bat speed has slowed and he’s futile against left-handed pitchers, but he hits right-handers reasonably well and can crush a mistake from any pitcher, as his raw power is still present because of his size and strength. Although first baseman James Loney is suffering through his second straight disappointing year, Thome hasn’t played first base in more than 24 months, and is so slow afoot that he’d likely be the worst defensive first baseman in the majors if the Dodgers asked him to try it, so that doesn’t appear to be an option.

The Dodgers don’t have to carry Thome on their postseason roster, but if they do, it should be at the expense of a 12th pitcher, as today’s overstuffed bullpens mean you have to get as much value and flexibility as possible from your limited number of bench spots. The White Sox could use the open DH spot to give catching prospect Tyler Flowers a few big league at-bats; he’s rough behind the plate, but still playable there, and a cup of coffee in which Flowers gets to face major league pitching without the extra wear and tear of catching is a great opportunity.

Garland

Los Angeles’ acquisition of Jon Garland makes a little more sense. Garland is chronically overrated and somehow acquired the “ground-ball pitcher” tag despite never actually being a ground-ball pitcher, but he does do two things well: throw strikes and take the ball every fifth day. The back of the Dodgers’ rotation has been an open sore all year, and Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda have both missed time with injuries, so adding Garland also gives the Dodgers the opportunity to back off on the workloads of those two starters if at some point they have six healthy starters on the roster (including Randy Wolf, Vicente Padilla and their de facto ace, Clayton Kershaw). Garland wouldn’t make the Dodgers’ postseason rotation barring an injury, but again, there’s sufficient chance that either Billingsley or Kuroda won’t be able to pitch in October, and having a better backup option than the erratic Padilla is good planning.

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4437849&name=law_keith

My guess: Ohman and Eyechart DO NOT get activated tonight.

Garland and Thome = Haeger & Hoffmann DFA

There, I said it.

and not one of us expected Repko to get the call up. Not sure what the plan is for him but it just seemed odd that no one had him coming up.