The Trolley Dodger

Earlier today, I happened upon the website for the South Bend Silver Hawks, rivals of the Dodgers-affiliated Great Lakes Loons. In fact, they are opening the season against each other on April 5th.

The Silver Hawk site has a Flash intro animation. Now, Flash intros as a general rule…what’s the word I’m looking for…ah yes: suck. This one, however, is even more pernicious. Below is a screenshot, but it does not begin to cover the malevolence of the original.

It’s impossible to do it justice with words — go check it out. I feel compelled to support the Loons now, if they’re fighting off menacing demons from Indiana.

Our thoughts go out to Charley Steiner, who lost his mother Gertrude yesterday. According to the Dodgers game day notes today, the family would appreciate donations to the Dodgers Dream Foundation in lieu of flowers. Gertrude was 95 years old.

A new Ken Gurnick article on MLB.com, Addition by subtraction works in LA, gives not much new if you’ve been following along this off-season, but is the usual sort of Opening Weekend piece. A couple of paragraphs are impressive, however, as they show, first, who is no longer on the team since Colletti took over, then who he’s added. A lot of names.

Subtracted from the roster since Colletti arrived: Milton Bradley, Antonio Perez, Jason Phillips, Duaner Sanchez, Steve Schmoll, Jose Valentin, Derek Thompson, Jeff Weaver, Paul Bako, Hee-Seop Choi, Cody Ross, Jae Seo, Edwin Jackson, Dioner Navarro, Sandy Alomar Jr., Odalis Perez, Danny Baez, Willy Aybar, Cesar Izturis, Joel Guzman, Jose Cruz Jr., Ricky Ledee, Kenny Lofton, Greg Maddux, Julio Lugo, Aaron Sele, J.D. Drew, Jason Werth, Oscar Robles, Lance Carter, Giovanni Carrara, Elmer Dessens (twice), Mike Edwards, Jason Grabowski, Eric Gagne, Franquelis Osoria and Kelly Wunsch. [...]

Here are the players Colletti’s added, in all caps if still on the roster: RAFAEL FURCAL, Sandy Alomar Jr., Kenny Lofton, Bill Mueller, ANDRE ETHIER, NOMAR GARCIAPARRA, BRETT TOMKO, RAMON MARTINEZ, JOE BEIMEL, Aaron Sele, Jae Seo, TIM HAMULACK, Danny Baez, TAKASHI SAITO, WILSON VALDEZ, MARK HENDRICKSON, Toby Hall, Elmer Dessens, WILSON BETEMIT, Greg Maddux, Julio Lugo, MARLON ANDERSON, Einar Diaz, RANDY WOLF, JUAN PIERRE, MIKE LIEBERTHAL, JASON SCHMIDT, LUIS GONZALEZ, CHIN-HUI TSAO and BRADY CLARK.

Congratulations to Nomar and Mia, who are now the proud parents of newborn twin girls! We can expect to see them on the women’s national soccer team in, say, 2025. ;D

Also available for PC. I’m downloading it now, but if it’s along the lines of 2006 it’ll be a lot of fun for wannabe GMs and statheads. The MLB teams and players aren’t licensed, but it’s pretty easy following some forum pointers to get real life data in.

Out of the Park Baseball 2007 1.0

About Out of the Park Baseball 2007 Lets you do almost anything a real life general manager can do to guide a team to glory. Create your own fictional baseball universe. Use real-world historical teams and players. Replay the entire history of baseball. Compete with other human players in an online league. Import leagues from OOTP 2006, 6.5, or 6.12. Set your line-ups. Replace that aging veteran with a rookie from your minor leagues. Put your injured starter on the disabled list and scour the waiver wire for someone to fill that roster spot. Put that disgruntled star heading for free agency on the trade block, and see what shakes out. Send your scouts to comb the upcoming amateur draft pool, or get a closer look at that free agent pitcher from Japan.

(Via Mac OS X Downloads - Home.)

MLB Trade Rumors pointed to some idle speculation in Potential Trade Partner for the Phils, regarding possible trades for Dodger reliever Rudy Seanez. From the Philadelphia Daily News:

Veteran righthander Rudy Seanez might be an option if the Dodgers make him available. The Dodgers are planning to keep only 11 pitchers on their roster, and Seanez, despite his 1.93 ERA in 9 1/3 innings this spring, might be the odd man out.

Gotta wonder who we could get from them for Rudy (and others?). I’d be willing to take Ryan Howard off their hands. You know, as a favor. ;)

Inside the Dodgers has the news that Brett Tomko has landed the 5th starter’s spot. This is not a bad thing, despite what has turned into a pick from the “least bad” pool. It’s okay for three reasons:

1. Because who knows, maybe he’ll step it up and kick butt for long enough to be helpful.
2. He’s not Mark Hendrickson.
3. This is for the 5th starter spot.

This is where we’re at for the 2007 starting pitchers:

1. Jason Schmidt
2. Derek Lowe
3. Brad Penny
4. Randy Wolf
5. Brett Tomko

Contrast this with 2006 opening day:

1. Derek Lowe
2. Brad Penny
3. Odalis Perez
4. Brett Tomko
5. Jae Seo

Yeah, I think things have improved. Just a smidgen. Next, the bullpen.

By the way, Hendrickson had a 0.84 ERA (10.2 innings pitched) during his relief appearances in 2006. Small sample size, granted, but nothing to sneeze at.

Well, either the Dodgers are moving Spring Training to Arizona, or the Grapefruit League is planning on forming a western division.

Gary Warner, travel editor with the Orange County Register and blogger on their website, posted an amusing story on Thursday — “Dodgers: Going, going….gone?” — showing a rather peculiar and kind of schizophrenic T-shirt he bought at Holman Stadium.

What’s so special? Well, you know how when you are moving, you’re outta there mentally long before you are physically? This official Dodger T-shirt may say Grapefruit League, the group of teams that train in Florida. But look closely. The image behind the ballplayer is Arizona, where the Dodgers hope to shift spring operations in 2009. A bit of Cactus League wishful thinking?

Whatever the case, whether accidental or purposeful, you gotta admit the design is a little wonky. It looks like one of those second-semester design assignments where you’re given a list of vaguely related items that you have to arrange in some semblance of an aesthetic way. More than anything, it looks like a knock-off, with the only “official” looking bit being the interlocked LA; everything else is stock illustrations or random fonts.

Still, no matter what its faults, the shirt presents the whole bittersweet affair in one place — the excitement of being able to more readily see the boys for Spring Training in a couple of years, mixed with the sadness of this history buff knowing what’s being lost. I can only hope we can get out to Vero Beach next season for the final hurrah. Weird T-shirts or no.

To distract us from the drubbing the Dodgers took from the Cardinals last night, let’s drop in on an old friend and see what he’s up to. Losing his mind apparently.

Now that he is in the American League, [Eric] Gagne said he will miss his encounters with [Barry] Bonds. Gagne also hopes Bonds breaks the all-time home-run record.

“Of course, definitely,” Gagne said. “He’s been so good for the game. There’s a Wayne Gretzky, there’s a Michael Jordan, there’s a Barry.”

Yeah, you know, maybe it’s just me but the lack of a pall of suspicion and evidence of drug use with those other two guys kinda sets the Amazing Inflatable Man apart. And what goodness has Bonds imparted to the game exactly? Becoming a lightning rod of criticism and hate that keeps the attention away from other people is the only plausible good I can think of.

Gagne pitched against the Giants yesterday and gave up a homer to Kevin Frandsen. At least the latter still has his head screwed on straight:

Frandsen grew up a Giants fan and said yes when asked if he was happy to homer off Gagne. “I’m a Dodger-hater,” Frandsen said, “and he’s still out there in blue, long hair and a goatee.”

This was in the context of an article saying that the Giants “displayed interest” in Gagne during the off-season. Pretty much everybody expressed interest in him, though, but what do you expect from an SF Chronicle story? ;)

Ken Rosenthal over at FOX Sports has a rumor article up today that includes this interesting tidbit:

The Rockies are trying to upgrade the back of their rotation even as they’re shopping right-hander Byung-Hyun Kim. The Marlins and Dodgers are interested in Kim as a reliever while the A’s are pursuing him as a starter. The Rockies like Dodgers lefty Mark Hendrickson, and they’re in a flexible position with righty Josh Fogg; they could release Fogg in spring training and pay one-fourth of his salary ($906,000).

Byung-Hyun Kim is a 28-year-old righty that Dodger fans will recognize immediately for his side and under-arm pitching. He would be an intriguing addition to the already crowded bullpen, but he for sure isn’t a solution for getting left-handed batters out. Maybe a middle-relief spot would better suit him rather than starting.

Hard to say if the Rockies would want to deal with their NL West fellows, but I guess it depends on how bad they want Hendrickson. Assuming the rumor is true.