Okay, not all the rookies are rocking in Sept. Sellers is doing his best impression of Juan Castro, Elbert is not building off the brilliant August, Javy is showing why Jansen should be the closer in 2012, Nathan is no more a stud relief pitcher then he is a starter.

Still,  the important rookies are delivering and are a big part of the reason why this team is as hot in Sept as any team in baseball. 

Kenley Jansen by the way is simply sick. 21 k's against his last 31 hitters. With only one walk. Marmol may have the all time K/9 rate but his walk rate was through the roof when he did it. It is premature to say Jansen is better then what we got from Gagne / Broxton / Saito / Kuo but right now, Jansen can stand tall among those redwoods.

The hottest team is housed in our nations capitol. The Nationals are 9 - 1over their last ten games and have evened their season record at 37 - 37. Their three best offensive players could not be guessed by 99% of baseball fans.  Michael Morse (145), Laynce Nix  (126 OPS+) and Danny Espinosa  (116 OPS+).  Ryan Zimmerman only has 73 plate appearances so I did not include him. Overall the Nationals have six players with over 100 plate appearances with an OPS+ over 100. Ryan Zimmerman will soon make it eight.  Michael Morse might be the best kept secret in baseball. Some TBLA members campaigned for him to become a Dodger and solve our LF problem this past winter. If only that had come to pass.

The Brewers put a move on the Cardinals even before Pujols got hurt. With the big three of Zack Greinke, Yovani Gallardo, and Shaun Marcum doing good work, they are a team to be reckoned with. Some may look at Greinke's 4.77 ERA and think he is struggling but his xFIP of 1.84 along with a 11.93 K/Rate supplemented by a 1.34 BB/rate tell us the real story. Grienke is dealing and the Brewers are surging. Prince Fielder has the second best wRC in June at .266 trailing only Paul Konerko who has an unreal .305.

Best hitting SS in baseball in June is JJ Hardy who has slugged seven home runs to augment his .730 slug%.

Phillies continue to dominate pitching. Doc is the overall best pitcher in baseball so far this year, but his teammates Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee have been the 1st / 3rd best pitchers in June.

Michael Pineda and Alexi Ogando continue to fight for ROY pitching honors, with Zach Britton tagging along in case they struggle.

The Giants have FOUR starting pitchers in the top 11 of WAR. That is even after Bumgarner gave up eight earned runs in one inning this week.

Jered Weaver is number one in WAR in the AL. Kershaw is number three in the NL. They meet this Sunday. Might want to bet the under.

As a man of small stature - all 5' 7" of me - I've always had an affinity for the small man playing amongst the big boys of major league baseball, even if they weren't toiling for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Whether it was Little Joe Morgan (5' 7") flapping his left elbow on his way to MVP awards, Jimmy "The Toy Cannon" Wynn (5' 10") improbably launching home runs, or Freddie "The Flea" Patek (5' 4") stealing bases and gobbling up grounders at short, I just had to root for the little guys who got themselves to the major leagues.

The Dodgers have had their share of short-statured players over their years in Los Angeles. Here we present the best of the shortest. While this team would never have been an offensive juggernaut - only two players were/are above league average batters for their career - they just might have been a lot of fun to watch.

To qualify for this team, players had to be 5' 9" or less in height, as listed at baseball-reference.com and had to have played at least 25 games at that position for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Los Angeles Dodgers All-Short-Stuff Team

C - Dioner Navarro, 5' 9", in his first go-round with the Dodgers, he hit at a 94 OPS+ clip. Let's hope for that or better in 2011.
1B - Paul Lo Duca, 5' 9", Lo Duca posted a 105 OPS+ until he was part of the trade that brought Brad Penny and company to Los Angeles. The only Dodger 1B to qualify for this list, he appeared there 76 times. Maybe something made him feel more than 69 inches tall.
2B - Eric Young, 5' 9", EY played 309 games in two stints with the Dodgers and stole 112 bases at a 75% rate of success. He was the 11th overall pick in the expansion draft that stocked the Rockies and Diamondbacks, and was traded back to LA for Pedro Astacio a few years later.
3B - Don Zimmer, 5' 9", there are only three qualifiers at this position - Tony Abreu and Cesar Izturis being the others - and all appeared between 26 and 28 times there. It's simply more fun to have "Popeye" on the list, and he did outhit Izturis, slightly.
SS - Rafael Furcal, 5' 8", the incumbent is the best short shortstop in Los Angeles Dodger history. (Note: "Pee Wee" Reese doesn't qualify because he was listed at 5' 10"!)
OF - Davey Lopes, 5' 9", part of the famed Dodger infield of 1974-1981, Lopes stole 418 bases at an 83% success rate with LA, a total second only to Maury Wills in Dodger history. He played 50 games in the outfield for LA, including 35 starts in center.
OF - Trenidad (born Trent!) Hubbard, 5' 8", Hubbard had a 112 OPS+ as a Dodger utility man for the 1998 and 1999 seasons and appeared at every position except pitcher, 1B (too short!) and SS. Also the only player to make this team and the All-Spelling-Bee team.
OF - Chad Fonville, 5' 6", the only other qualifier in the outfield other than Lo Duca, and the shortest Los Angeles Dodger ever, Little Chad hit .245 / .302 / .272, 59 OPS+ as a Dodger, but provided plenty of excitement on the 1995 playoff team playing, well, small ball.
PH - Vic Davalillo, 5' 7", Davalillo made 95 pinch-hitting appearances over four seasons for the Dodgers, all after turning 41 years old, and after spending three-plus seasons in Mexico. He also ignited one of the great Dodger playoff comebacks, by starting a two-out, bases-empty, ninth-inning rally with a beautiful bunt single. His older brother, Pompeyo "Yo-Yo" Davalillo, was a 5' 3" shortstop for the 1952 Washington Senators who is tied for the shortest player ever not named Eddie Gaedel.
P - Fred Norman, 5' 8", made only 30 appearances in a Dodgers uniform, all in relief in 1970. Went on to be an effective starter (106 ERA+) for the Big Red Machine of all teams. (Only four pitchers 5' 9" or less have ever taken the mound for the Dodgers, the shortest of whom was Jackie Collum at 5' 7".)

The only other 5' 7" LA Dodgers ever were Jim Barbieri and 1955 World Series hero Sandy Amoros.

While many baseball names can be spelled without giving it a second thought, there has been the occasional Dodger whose name causes consternation at the keyboard. Here is a team of Dodgers that gave writer and editors pause, and would give the clubhouse manager fits if they had all been on the same team:

Position Players

C - Mike Scioscia, four vowels and only two syllables.
1B - Doug Mientkiewicz, he wasn't nicknamed "Eye Chart" for nothing.
2B - Jim Lefebvre, before there was Brett Favre, there was this Dodger 1965 ROY. He pronounced his name luh-FEE-ver, but a player called up by the Yankees in 1980 pronounced that same spelling, luh-FAY.
3B - Billy Grabarkewitz, Grabby turned 65 two weeks ago.
SS - Mark Grudzielanek, came to LA in the trade that sent farmhand Ted Lilly away.
OF - Trent Oeltjen, one of only five major leaguers whose family name begins "Oe".
OF - Scott Podsednik, some have trouble remembering both "d"s, some have trouble fathoming him as a Dodger.
OF - Jayson Werth, yes, there is a "y" in there; yes, Werth with an "e".
Honorable Mention - Chris Cannizzaro, Hee-Seop Choi, Jamie Hoffmann (two double letters, as in Timmermann), Trenidad (born Trent!) Hubbard, Garey Ingram, Chad Kreuter, Andy LaRoche (not LaRouche or LaRoach), Len Matuszek, Tom Paciorek, Gary Thomasson, Dick Tracewski, Zoilo Versalles

Pitchers

P - Esteban Loaiza, that's a lot of vowels used to spell "suck".
P - Ismael Valdes/Valdez, first we couldn't remember if it ends in "s" or "z", then he changes the last letter from "s" to "z"??
P - Hong-Chih Kuo, sure we know how to spell it now, but the second "h" in "Chih" got dropped a lot, as did the hyphen. I can't remember if there was ever any controversy about his family name "Kuo" though.
P - Danys Baez, fortunately we didn't have to remember "a" and "y" for all that long.
P - Yhency Brazoban, we got used to it quickly enough ("Ghame Over!"), but "Yh"?
P - Ed Vande Berg, the space goes where?
P - Dennis Lewallyn, maybe it's just me, but I always want to spell it "Llewellyn".
P - Eric Stults, I wouldn't have thought so, but I've seen enough "z" endings and confusion with actor Eric Stoltz to have to list him here.
P - Ray Searage, if it's a monosyllabic last name, why is there a second "a"?
Honorable Mention - Ronald Belisario (only because of TV producer Donald Bellisario), Giovanni Carrara (all "a"s), Bob Giallombardo, Greg Heydeman, Jon Meloan, Tom Niedenfuer, Gregg Olson, Franquelis Osoria, Luke Prokopec, Lance Rautzhan, Dennys Reyes, Travis Schlichting, Tanyon Sturtze, Ricky Trlicek, Pat Zachry

Special Award - Larry's Brother Division:

Derrell Griffith
Daryle Ward
Daryl Spencer
Darryl Strawberry
Derrel Thomas

John Sickels of Minor League Ball posed an interesting question on Wednesday. "If you could have Matt Wieters or Stephen Strasburg for your favorite major league team right now, who would you pick and why?"

Matt Wieters is an uber-prospect for the Baltimore Orioles. He is a 22 year-old switch hitting catcher whose 6'5" and 230 lb. He was ranked the number 1 overall minor league prospect by Baseball America and Sickels says of Wieters, "(He's the) best prospect in baseball. Mutant cross between Mauer and Piazza." In 2008 WIeters split his year between High-A and Double-A and hit a cool .355/.454/.600. He's also considered a great defensive catcher. He only had 3 passed balls all of last year and threw out 40% of potential base stealers. He should be in the majors sometime in the next few weeks and figures to stay around for a long time.

Stephen Strasburg is considered the consenus #1 prospect in this year's amateur draft. Strasburg is a 20 year-old right-handed pitcher at San Diego State University. He is 6'4", 220 lb., can touch 100 MPH with movement, throws a good mid 80's curveball and a changeup, and has pinpoint control. In 2008 he had a 1.57 ERA with a 133/16 K/BB ratio in 97 innings. In 2009 he had a 1.54 ERA with a 135/13 K/BB ratio in 70.1 innings. He also only allowed 4 home runs in his three year college career. Strasburg was the only college player on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Baseball team. Some people think he could be the best prospect ever and he may be in some lucky team's rotation as soon as this year. Here's a bio by Sickels.

So, which one of these young studs would you rather have on the Dodgers and why? Wieters actually has professional experience and doesn't come with the health risks that pitchers have, but we already have Russell Martin and Strasburg is considered by some to be an even brighter star. Do you grab Wieters and move one of the young catchers to 1st/3rd base? Does Martin become trade bait? Do you take Strasburg and fill a huge need by immediately slotting him into the #5 spot in our rotation, forming a deadly Billingsley/Kershaw/Strasburg trio for the next five years? The choice is yours.

Name the only pitcher to win 50 games for both the Dodgers and the Giants.  Try to do it without looking it up.

Since I was late with this question, you get two questions:

1) Who was the first Los Angeles Dodger position player to pitch in a game?

2) Which two players both hold the Dodger record for home runs in a single minor league season?

Answers to come Wednesday afternoon.

Who was the last Dodger to hit for the cycle?  What is the largest margin of victory by the Los Angeles Dodgers over the San Francisco Giants?

Answer to come Wednesday afternoon if it isn't answered by then.