Sorry, I meant Baseball America loves Dodger rookies.  I'm always mixing up my Dodger Blue with my Wall Street insider trading code-speak.

Anyway, just got an email from the Dodgers Media Relations department.  Baseball America ranked Russell Martin (10th), Takashi Saito (15th) and Andre Ethier (17th) in their top 20 among 2006's MLB rookies.  Below are some write ups listing their achievements.  Kudos to the trio.

AK

Steve Lyons, fired by Fox for his on-air comments during the Tigers-A's series, will keep his gig with the Dodgers, undergo sensitivity training, and generally be placed on double-not-so-secret probation. I believe Lyons when he says he didn't mean any offense to anyone, so I'm happy to see he wasn't totally left out in the cold. Maybe I missed something in the exchange, but it seemed to me like he was trying to give Piniella a hard time, not imply that Hispanics will steal your wallet. I think intent is important, especially in situations where what is said isn't necessarily egregious (like using a racial slur, or going on a Mel Gibsonesque tirade).

Not that this has anything to do with Lyons, but Ken Gurnick of MLB.com is answering mail again.

—BK

Just thinking out loud...

One of the great blessings of the Dodger squad this season was the incredible depth they had around the diamond. Every time someone went down, it seemed like there were two or three guys ready to plug the gaps, either because guys were already there (Jeff Kent goes down? Plug in Cesar Izturis. Or Ramon Martinez. Or, eventually, Julio Lugo. Or Willy Aybar. Or....) or Ned Colletti brought them in — Marlon Anderson, for example. Or brought them up — Andre Ethier and Russell Martin. Even among the starting pitchers, the hardest place to patch things up in today's MLB, the Blue found solutions that ranged from effective stopgaps (Aaron Sele) to seriously productive glimpses of the not-so-distant-future (Chad Billingsley, Hong-Chih Kuo).

Interesting story here about a playoff ticket sale mishap, and a young boy who never had a chance to see Game 3. Given what transpired, the lad was better off in the parking lot.

—BK

AK and I received an angry letter from a Dodger fan a couple days back, complaining about the traffic at the Ravine during Game 3. It took two hours for her to park, and by the time she hit her seats, the Blue were already down. I'm there early and leave late, so I never have to fight the traffic, but from past experience I know it sucks. I also know the lines for food are horrible. As are the Dodger Dogs, but that's another debate. So here's today's question/opportunity to sound off:

What annoys you most about your Dodger Stadium experience? If you could have them change anything, what would it be?

Vent away, and maybe we'll pass your suggestions along to the brass. Try to keep it clean.

—BK

At times during the '06 campaign, the Dodgers clubhouse looked like the baseball equivalent of a day care center. There were so many kids running around, you half expected to see the Grady Little reading Dr. Seuss in story circle before mats were put down in the training room for nap time. Good thing there were a bunch of crusty vets around to take care of them (or, as it often played out on the field, be taken care of). It's rare to see a team win when there are five prominent rookies — Jonathan Broxton, Andre Ethier, Russell Martin, Takashi Saito, and Chad Billingsley — playing day-to-day roles, and others — James Loney, Matt Kemp, Hong-Chih Kuo and even the since-departed Joel Guzman, making solid contributions. But the Dodgers managed to make it happen... at least in the regular season.

While a veritable cornucopia of ex-Dodgers (and Angels) continue to make their way through the playoffs, the Blue are going through a little front office restructuring. Former player development director Terry Collins has already left to manage in Japan (as if you needed another reason to cheer for the Orix Buffaloes), and now Roy Smith, brought in under Paul DePodesta, has resigned. No word yet on who, if anyone, will replace Smith. Colletti is waiting to hire a replacement for Collins before making that decision.

—BK

The MVP Award is always a big deal in baseball. But while Bud Selig feels the need to keep fans in captive suspense, Blue Notes isn't waiting around to hand out its own big kahuna hardware: the Blue MVP. The cat in a Dodger uni best adept at putting whatever needed happening into motion. The one guy they could have lived least without this season.

To clarify, I'm only talking regular season, not the playoffs. Why? To begin, that's how the actual MVP voting works, so I'm apeing the gold standard. Plus, the entire playoffs amounted to three games, so it's not a whole lot to go on. And to be blunt, just about nobody showed up (at least nobody I consider a legit MVP candidate), so it's a moot point, anyway. Any way you slice it, I should be judging off those 162 games. Even if the playoffs are baseball's bread and butter, without the regular season, you ain't arriving at the supermarket to purchase those sandwich items.

As you might suspect, daily headlines for the Blue are slowing down (NOTE: Don't stop checking on the blog, since we'll be posting steadily for the time being. There's still a lot to talk about.), but today's brings up one of L.A.'s more pressing offseason issues. We've discussed it on the blog back in June when Nomar was killing the ball, talked about it some more in the second half when he wasn't, and we'll probably discuss it some more this winter. But as long as Bill Plaschke is bringing it up today, there's no time like the present to get the ball rolling, right? Should L.A. bring Nomar back next year?

I reread my post from June, and basically think it still holds up. As I wrote then, in terms of signing him this offseason — or at the very least considering the wisdom of such a move — the Blue would benefit from a late-season Nominjury, and I think in this context they did. Watching the guy move around the field like the dudes in "Cocoon" (before they swam in the magic alien water, of course) was nearly as painful as watching, say, "Cocoon: The Return." Yeah, he came up with some massive hits that will forever be a part of Dodger lore, but had the Dodgers put names on the jerseys this year, his would have read "Cautionary Tale" instead of Garciaparra. Had Nomar gone through 145 games free of injury, the results on the field for L.A. would have been better, but it would have masked the serious risks of signing him to a longer-term deal.

Well, the Dodgers are officially cooked, but one True Blue is still dominating the airwaves. Tommy Lasorda's commercials for MLB have generally been a staple of game broadcasts throughout the playoffs. No word yet if he's cut another one to encourage Dodger fans to continue watching the playoffs. The fantasy info in this link was posted yesterday, but there's a little nugget of pride for the Dodgers' pitching staff buried inside.

Meanwhile, it's already hot stove time for the Dodgers. The question of primary importance? Nomar. And the Dodgers would be smart to bring him back, writes Kevin Modesti. Julio Lugo, on the other hand, seems to have a foot out the door, though his L.A. stats probably won't headline his otherwise decent resume.

Your final playoff stats, hitting and pitching. Very few IPs from the starters on a playoff staff with only 10 relievers makes for ugly baseball. Not that the hitting stats wow you either. Try not to stare too long.

If you haven't seen it, here's a wrap of the series by Jon Weisman of SI.com and Dodger Thoughts.