Twins!
Very exciting news today, as Grady has passed along word to the media that Nomar Garciaparra’s wife, Mia, had twins girls this morning and both are healthy. And, apparently Brady Clark is also expecting sometime soon, so we’re looking forward to all the new additions to the Dodger family.
As for another Dodger in the hospital, Jason Repko is set to have his surgery today at 11 a.m. PT, so we all wish him a full and speedy recovery. From my experience, you’d be hard pressed to find a nicer guy in baseball or in life.
UPDATE: Jason’s surgery went as expected and we wish him the best.
In response to some of the comments from yesterday, I have to say that Camille is actually really, really good at her job and the fact that T.J. likes to make fun of her (as he does with everyone) shouldn’t actually have much bearing on how you view her here. T.J. would probably be the first to admit that part of his schtick is to take comments out of context for the sake of humor, which is what he did yesterday. If anything, I think most fans can look at the stability that the organization is starting to experience in the last year and a half and realize that it coincides with her arrival on the team (as well as Ned, Grady and many others). That’s just my two cents worth.
As for the handicapped parking comment, my apologies for not responding. Yes, it all stays the same as last year, no changes in where you’ll park, how you’ll get there, etc. Thanks for reminding me to address it.
Inside the Dodgers 
Nice work Nomar- here’s to a good year!
… and Mia… 😉
Congrats to Nomar and Brady. The Dodgers should release Brady Clark so he has more time to spend with his new baby and less time clogging up the bench in LA.
The Dodgers will finish 84-78. The record will rest mainly on the steady pitching of Derek Lowe, steady out making of Juan Pierre, and overall mediocrity of Luis Gonzales and Jeff Kent (whom both seemingly had a Steve Finley-esque nosedive to their careers).
By the time the season was over with, Dodger fans were left pondering whether it was indeed 2007, or actually 1997. An era of bloated payroll, prospect trading, and general malaise had returned home to Dodger Blue.
The 1990’s werent all bad, werent all good, just kinda average. For the 2007 Dodgers, it was a return to the good ole’ days..er average ole’ days.
BRING BACK DEPO!!
Quit trolling joeyp.
Aren’t you the same retard who compared the Bradley trade to the Martinez trade?
Nobody cares about your opinions. Everyone knows you hate the Dodgers. Get over yourself.
You’re not a very good prognosticator. Give it up already. Your schtick is getting tiring.
Wow 84-78? Did you forget the division their playing in joey? Who else is gonna contend in the division…Arizona? I don’t think so, our experienced pitching staff will school those kids all year long. I expect to see anywhere from 15-17 wins from each Schmidt, Lowe, and Penny (barring injury), Wolf is a question mark but I think its safe to say he’ll get about 12-15 pitching as a 4, and between Tomko (soon to be Billingsley)I see about another 10-12 wins on the conservative side. Our bullpen is above average with several good pitchers and they’ll saddle up their air share of W’s as well. That being said, I don’t care if we don’t have a power hitter we’ll still score plenty of runs with the balance in our line-up (look at last year). I think it’s safe to say our squad is coming out of the ’07 season with 90+ wins which is easily good enough to run away with the weak NL West.
2 more for the iggy bin….
don’t feed the animals
I can’t believe that James Loney is more than likely headed back to AAA! For what? What else does this guy have to prove? I remember watching the playoffs last year and hearing both Joe Buck and Tim McCarver proclaim to the national audience that James Loney is indeed ready for the bigs. This came during Loney’s three for three performance in game three against the Mets. After singling to left for his third hit of the game, McCarver said flatly, “He’s Ready” which Buck then stamped his approval as well. Why is it the rest of the baseball world can see this kid’s talent, yet after continuing to tear the cover off the baseball, is headed back to AAA… alegedley? I just don’t get it. Brady Clark? Please.
NL West prediction:
1st Dodgers (the most balanced team)
2nd Arizona (the kids in the line-up and decent pitching make them the best of the rest)
3rd San Diego (Good rotation but an offense that wouldn’t even scare a t-ball team)
4th San Francisco (Barry, Barry and who???)
5th Colorado (Pitching rotation comparable to a t-ball team’s)
Charris,
Check out my site at http://www.dodgerthoughts.com
Today my minions are making sarcastic posts about how good the Dodgers will be.
Join us. It’s fun to bash the Dodgers now that Depo’s gone.
Haha, “steady out making of Juan Pierre” totally cracked me up! And then I cried like a schoolgirl for 20 minutes when I remembered we’re stuck with him for the next FIVE YEARS. On the bright side, he never gets hurt and always plays 162 games a year…so he’s overdue for a long stint on the DL. And then with Nomar’s annual breakdown, Kemp and Loney will be back in no time!
Congratulations to Nomar, Mia, and the Garciaparra and Hamm families.
Josh… please make it go away.
From charris: “I expect to see anywhere from 15-17 wins from each Schmidt, Lowe, and Penny…Wolf is a question mark but I think its safe to say he’ll get about 12-15 pitching as a 4, and between Tomko (soon to be Billingsley)I see about another 10-12 wins on the conservative side”
You were going after joeyp’s prediction of 84 wins as if it were crazy talk but your win predictions come across as much nuttier. You’ve got all 5 Dodger starters in double figures with the top four pitchers getting at least 12 wins and more probable, 15+ wins each. Do you realize how unusual that is? The last two years the Dodgers had exactly two pitchers in double figure wins. The only time in the past twenty years the Dodgers had even three pitchers with 15 wins was 1996 (Nomo, 16 Martinez and Valdes 15).
I really don’t understand why anyone would call a guy who predicts 84 wins for a club with this many question marks a “Dodger hater”. That’s just wrong. It’s only 4 wins less than last year.
Josh, I certainly understand you sticking up for Camille and I am sure she is great at the portion of her job that requires a spin artist. However, there is simply no comparison to the work that was done by Derrick Hall when he was in a similar position. Although the amount of public missteps by the McCourts has slowed under Camille’s watch, we still get occasional reminders (like her not mentioning the 50% parking cost increase in the announcement) that don’t allow us to forget how unaware ownership and some of upper management remains of their surroundings.
Just read the Simmers article.
We brought up the increase in parking before. Its funny, when i was talking about it, I mentioned that the Front OFfice talks about all the new great things about the Dodgers and the stadium, but fail to mention the parking price increase. Its not a coincidence that they “forgot”. When we brought it up, Josh never addressed it. And it was apparently left out the team’s new release as well… and to say that you forgot to put it in there is just absolutely absurd. Josh, you tell us how you guys in the front office (and p.r. dept) work hard in the offseason to get those releases together.. but fail to put in something big like that. To me, leaving things out on purpose and trying to pull a fast one on 2-3 million fans, is just as bad as lying. Im really really disappointed.
And simmers has 1 point that I agree with thats going to be a HUGE problem. When people come to a gate, and find out the lots are closed, they have to wrap around and go to another gate. Thats going to be **** and cause even more traffic and delays before the start of the stadium. The problems with parking is never really in the stadium, its all about the situation when you LEAVE the stadium (surrounding the stadium). This plan doesnt aleviate that by any means.
Josh, you always read these blogs and the posts. So when the parking thing was brought up a few days ago and you didnt address it… shows me you chose to ignore it, just like Ms. Johnson “forgot” to include it in the news release.
dont get me wrong, you do a great job, but I cant help but lose some respect along with some credibility.
go blue.
Livinlegend, just to clear the air I never called joey a Dodger hater.
As for my predictions, when has our rotation ever been this deep with talent? Lowe has averaged 16 wins over the past 5 years, Schmidt has averaged 14.5 wins over the past 4 years (on a few pretty lousy Giants teams I might add), pre-injury Wolf won 10+ games as a #2 starter on BAD Philly teams, and last year between Billingsley and Tomko they combined to go 15-11. So why again were my predictions nutty? This is possibly the best rotation we’ve had in 20+ years, our rotation is unusually good, my predictions aren’t unusual.
Brad Penny went 16-9 last year and had a career high of 34 games started hence my (barring injury) remark.
and btw, the Dodgers will abandon this new parking plan and never bring down the price of parking. What a clever strategy (to raise prices under helpful pretenses)… Im really learning a lot from this team.
Is this some kool aid blog?
Dodgers are old, overpriced, and full of mediocre veterans.
Who wants to bet that Greg Maddux has a better year in Petco, than Jason Schmidt does?
Schmidt is done. Gonzo is done. Roids have been outlawed..Havent you guys found out this already?
I’m thankful the Dodgers have a Giants mole in their front office now. He helped take that team into the crapper, and is doing the same with the Dodgers.
Padres–back-back-back Titles in 2007…Write it down ladies.
Really imposing line-up you have in san diego there how will our team deal with the padres murderers row…oh wait a second Khalil will break his finger, B. Giles will hit .270 with 18 bombs, mike cameron .250 15 bombs, Adrian has some talent but who’s gonna protect him, Tremmel Sledge? HA! How much do you wanna bet Giles year will look earily similar to Gonzo’s? Oh wait I forgot again at least you have a up and comer in Barfield…oops you traded him to Cleveland to make room for ha ha Marcus Giles, great move Towers us Dodger fans are scared
charris: “This is possibly the best rotation we’ve had in 20+ years, our rotation is unusually good, my predictions aren’t unusual.”
Well, they are, especially considering the current Dodgers offense. Wins are a product of offensive support and this offense is not the kind that is going to give its starters the 72 wins you think are conservatively in reach.
Look at the 1979 Dodgers. This was a staff thats hould have carried the team to a third straight division crown without a second though. You had Sutton, a future Hall of Famer, Hooten (19+ wins in 3 of the previous 5 seasons), Rick Sutcliffe (rookie of the year), Andy Messersmiyh (the Wolf pitcher in this mix – coming off an injury but prior to that, winner of 19 or more three times in a five year span), Jerry Ruess (win totals of 16,16,18,14,10 prior to coming to LA) and even Doug Rau (averaged 15 wins a year prior to 79). On paper that rotation puts the current one to shame.
However, in 1979 only Sutcliffe won more than 12. Messermith and Rau were done for, much sooner than expected. Sutton had a terrible year. Hooten and Ruess got little or no run support and that’s a lineup with Garvey, Cey, Lopes, Baker, Smith, Russell, and others in their prime.
Lots of things can happen and DO happen and that’s why it’s extremely unusual to see so many starting pitchers come through with big win totals.
Livinlegend,
Good points but once again my predictions were followed by (barring injury) if and when injuries occur we still have Bills, Kuo and Hendrickson waiting in the wings. I don’t understand why everybody thinks this line-up is so anemic, when we were what second or third in runs scored in the NL last year. You do not need a 40+ HR guy to score enough runs to win, especially with our arms. Lets just hope that 2 of our 5 aren’t “done for” like the 79 squad (if you look at recent Tommy John cases, most have come back with the same or more velocity than their pre-surgery arms).
I hate to say it but I think the Padres guy is right. The only way we win big is if Schmidt and Penny pitch as well as we know they can, and LuGo is OUT of the lineup ASAP and replaced by Loney or Kemp. LuGo is completely done, its obvious, not to mention his numbers from last year are half from playing in a hitters park. Another thing, if the Dodgers hadn’t decided to sign TWO left handed outfielders, there would obviously be no problem getting Loney into the lineup fairly regularly. Nevermind the fact that both people they signed also have atrocious throwing arms. Pitching and defense, right? None of this makes me a Dodger hater, Im just a realist.
Mah! I would have been more impressed if it would have been 2 boys, :o) J/K congrants to the GarciaParra family!
Thank you guys for your honest feedback. You are certainly welcome to your opinions and I hope that you’ll continue to share them, but I can honestly say that I hadn’t remembered to address the parking on the blog prior to yesterday and seeing T.J.’s column is what reminded me to do so.
When we first put out the release, I had planned to wait until after Frank McCourt’s live web chat to let him speak directly to you guys first and after we did that, it slipped my mind. As you can imagine, hosting this blog is just one small part of my daily job here in Florida and we’ve been unbelievably busy over the last few days. If I had planned to ignore it, I certainly could have done so and not posted anything yesterday, either. But we’re all human and we all make mistakes.
Ultimately, we take pride in the fact that we’re one of only two teams in baseball that have a forum like this for fans to interact with the front office and share their thoughts and hope that you’ll continue to do so throughout the season.
Oldbear/JoeyP just posted as Padresin2007.
And this guy is a Dodger fan?
Hey Joey, let’s hear about how you wanted Giles for 4 years at 10 million per.
Is that you’re idea of a stud?
Remind ’em about your lineup that features Antonio Perez, Hee Seop Choi, and Joel Guzman ya fruitcake.
Keep your Dodger hate away from herre you troll.
Dodgers keep rolling.
Trolls keep trolling.
Mr. Ned took the Dodgers from 71 wins to 88 wins.
Chew on that Dodgerthoughts cowards.
Hey Guys; I need your Help .??
Does anyone know how to delete
a post , on this Blog ??? I would love to be able, to wipe out, Joey’s posts. Poor
soul. He seems so unschooled
re; not only the Dodgers, but
Baseball, in general. I feel
very sorry for him….
I’ve said this a few times before, but it needs repeating.
The person posting as JoeyP/Old Bear/Jon Weisman/Greg Brock is in reality not any of those people, but someone who likes to play with this site.
thanks josh for all you do, nobody’s perfect, come back gary…Dodger haters…hahahahahahahaha…go back to your crappy teams, we’ll stay with our Dodgers and suffer or shine but at least they’re “THE DODGERS”
When I worry about 2007 I always go look at the SD projected line-up. Then I feel a lot better.
You guys see Jenny McCarthy on the pictures? smoken!.