He Approves Of Himself

Some thoughts: I still have NOT been paid by the large, wealthy entertainment corporation I’m working for. Found an old piece of steak in the freezer and a can of soup in the cupboard last night. A little freezer burn never hurt anyone. Tonight, it's the dog's food. At least she gets the best stuff.

Nice win for the Dodgers last night. Still a game out of first because the Snakes shut out the Dads. What’s wrong with the Dads? Outside of Peavy, Hoffman and the Gonzalez bros, they stink just a tad, don't they?

Can’t help noticing newcomer Casey Blake seems to either get a hit or strike out.

The main problem with the Dodgers is a strength with the Angels. Not only do the Dodgers constantly overrate their young players, they also seem to have great difficulty recognizing when a player they bring up is simply not going to play up to the potential they envisioned while the Angles seem to come to a much quicker resolution regarding their farm hands. Take Adrien Beltre, for instance. The Dodgers stuck with him from '98 to the end of '04, saying every year, “He’s still young, he’s still young." Beltre has had one great year in the Bigs. 2004. That's it. Then the Dodgers lose him to free agency and Beltre goes back to stinking. His years with Seattle have been very similar to his first years with the Dodgers, only worse. Raul Mondesi is another example. A few decent years, but he never became the impact player they envisioned. Mike Marshall (the right fielder, not the reliever) Todd Hollandsworth, even Eric Karros. Sorry, Eric, but when Kotchman's career is over, his numbers will be just as good, if not better, than yours. The Angels, however, could see oft injuured Dallas McPherson was not going to fit into their plans. They realized Reggie Willits, at least for a while, would be no more than a 5th or 6th outfielder. They understood Quinlan was no more than a sub. Same goes for Shawn Wooten. They understand the roles of Aybar and Izturis. They don't try to bill them as the next big stars. Hence, the brilliant gamble with Kotchman. They decided Kotchman, a very solid player, was worth dealing for a possible championship and a shot at signing Mark Texiera, who's a free agent at the end of the season, to a long term deal. Of course, it could seem like a dumb trade if they can’t win the World Series or if they can’t sign Texiera, but at least they took a gamble. At least they went for it. The Dodgers play it too safe and they're too scared to part with their youth, some of whom will only be slightly above average for their whole careers.

Purely and simply, the Angels owner and brass actually care about winning championships and the Dodgers owner and brass do not. Ned Colletti should be fired outright for his remark in today’s LA Times in TJ Simer’s column. “As for what we’re doing I’d do it all over again.” So, in other words, he’d sign Jason Schmidt and Andruw Jones all over again? He’s basically telling owner Frank McCourt and the fans, “I’ve been incompetent, I like being incompetent and I plan to continue being incompetent.”

I have nothing else to say today because TJ stole my thunder. He said it all in his column today better than I could have said it. Go to latimes.com and read it. All I can say, for probably not the last time is, the Angels have proven that you have to give up quality to get quality.