Dodgers’ Run Needs to Start NOW

This season started with a line-up that was filled with IFs.  IF James Loney could return to his .300 form and find his power…  IF Andre Ethier could stay healthy and remain productive throughout the year… IF Matt Kemp could repeat his performance from last year… IF Juan Uribe could find his 2010 swing… IF Dee Gordon could step up and have a breakout year.  After all these IFs, the Dodgers were finally blessed with some certainty in the new ownership led by the face of the operation and long-time LA legend Magic Johnson.  The new ownership has a very blatant “win now” approach and the line-up no longer has any IFs, ANDs, or BUTs about it.  They’re stacked.  So what’s the cause of this offensive drought?  I blame the order.  Don’t get me wrong, I have the upmost confidence in Don Mattingly as a manager of the club, but when thrown so many new pieces in such a short amount of time it can be difficult to find a combination that fits, especially when trying to handle as much talent that is in the line-up right now.  Don Mattingly’s latest lineup looks like this (give or take here and there depending on certain match-ups, but for the most part):

  1. Mark Ellis
  2. Shane Victorino
  3. Adrian Gonzalez
  4. Matt Kemp
  5. Hanley Ramirez
  6. Andre Ethier
  7. Luis Cruz
  8. AJ Ellis
  9. Pitcher’s Spot

There’s immediately a few things I see wrong with this line-up.  First, Andre Ethier is in the 6-spot.  Really?  One of the Dodgers’ main RBI-men and one of the more clutch hitters on the team is going to be getting less at-bats that far down in the line-up and will ultimately hurt the team.  Second, we don’t have a true lead-off hitter.  And before you try to correct me and say we have Victorino, he ain’t Shane Victorino of the Phillies, he’s very obviously declining and his OBP is barely over .300 (which is why Don has put Ellis in front of him).  But with that said, you can remedy both of these issues by dropping Victorino down to the 8-spot.  Too many times, the bottom of our order will manage to start a rally and turn over the line-up, only for the top of the order to squander the opportunity.  Mark Ellis will give you a quality at-bat, sure, but to have him in a position where he’s going to be driving in runs on a regular basis is too much to ask of him.  We need to move the core of our line-up to the top of the order to give them more at-bats, and to have them up to bat when there are men on base to drive-in.  I don’t think anyone will complain if the person that is expected to be up with men on base are getting their chances.  Here is my proposed lineup:

  1. Mark Ellis
  2. Hanley Ramirez
  3. Andre Ethier
  4. Matt Kemp
  5. Adrian Gonzalez
  6. Luis Cruz
  7. AJ Ellis
  8. Shane Victorino
  9. Pitcher’s Spot

Why I like this line-up:  Mark Ellis has been doing all right at the top of the line-up in the absence of a true leadoff man.  If he does get on base, Hanley Ramirez has the power to advance him along as well as the speed to stay out of a double play.  If Ellis fails to get on base, Hanley Ramirez can start a rally of his own with an extra base hit, or turning a single into a double via a steal.  At this point, Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp are poised to be up with men on base just as we hoped for.  If the bottom of the line up is able to start something and the order turns over you have Mark Ellis at the top to give a quality at bat to move runners over and then you jump right into the core of the line up to drive them in.  Or if you want to get even more radical:

  1. Hanley Ramirez
  2. Andre Ethier
  3. Matt Kemp
  4. Adrian Gonzalez
  5. Mark Ellis
  6. Luis Cruz
  7. AJ Ellis
  8. Shane Victorino
  9. Pitcher’s Spot

Thoughts?

  • 13 years ago
I have no evidence to prove that it is or isn't happening, but even if it isn't I would say that 3 out of 4 ain't bad.

It was just 57 days ago that I posted my iOS 6 Wishlist and it seems as if my wishes might be coming true.  It has been nearly confirmed that there will be a new mapping service with iOS 6 and that Apple will be ditching Google Maps.  While I’m sad to see Google Maps take a hike, I have confidence that Apple’s offering is going to be a significant and worthy opponent to Google’s mapping service.  And in order to do this, Apple will need to offer turn-by-turn navigation, another item on my wishlist, just to have the same functionality as Google Maps for Android.  What else was on my list?  Better Siri.  If you didn’t catch Tim Cook’s interview at the D10 conference, he mentioned that there is a lot that Siri can do, that they’ve got some great ideas for Siri, and that there are great things coming in the next coming months.

The only other item that was on my list is a better Mail app.  I have no evidence to prove that it is or isn’t happening, but even if it isn’t I would say that 3 out of 4 ain’t bad.  Let’s see if these materialize!


  • 14 years ago
It's been about a month and a half with the new device and I am even writing this post using it. While I am fully content and satisfied with y decision, there are a few items I have on my wish list for the next generation of iOS

After my post about my iPhone 5 wish list, I made the plunge. Traded my GSM Galaxy Nexus for a shiny white iPhone 4S. It’s been about a month and a half with the new device and I am even writing this post using it. While I am fully content and satisfied with y decision, there are a few items I have on my wish list for the next generation of iOS:

1. Updated Mail client
It’s no secret that the Gmail app for Android is leaps and bounds ahead of iOS’ Mail offering. The Mail app just can’t keep up with a power gmail user and the downgrade has been difficult. A new revamped Mail app with deep integration of now only Gmail but many popular email services along with an updates UI would put the Mail app where it needs to be moving forward.

2. New Maps
It has been rumored that Apple may be ditching Google Maps in iOS when open street maps were found in their new iPhoto iOS app. If this is the case I am not necessarily happy about it because I feel Google Maps is one of, of not the, best mapping services. But the Google Maps app for iOS is severely outdated maybe even more so than Mail. A new mapping service would surely bring a new Maps app and I am all for that.

3. Turn by Turn Navigation
In the same vein as a new Maps app would be adding the functionality to have turn by turn navigation integrated into the OS. Couple that with Siri and we could be seeing some very nice features.

4. Better Siri
On the heels of a class action lawsuit for false advertising, Siri doesn’t exactly perform as good as Apple has made her out to be. It doesn’t seem to make sense to have Siri need to connect to Apple servers for actions that can be completely localized (i.e. “call mom”). I can’t imagine Apple wouldn’t have a significant performance boost for their favorite assistant with their newest release.

That’s all I’ve got for now, but as more needs arise I will be sure to add them to the list.


  • 14 years ago
Now that I have had ample time to get to know Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, I have to say that while it is huge steps in the right direction for Android, it lacks the polish and refinement of its main competitor and I have been considering making the switch, given certain criterion are met with Apple's upcoming iPhone release.

I have been an avid Android user ever since the Nexus One came out in January of 2010.  When Google released the Nexus S in December of that same year I was waiting in line on the 16th at Best Buy.  And over the holidays of 2011 I was able to pick up a GSM unlocked Galaxy Nexus putting me 3 iterations of pure Google into the Android ecosystem.  I have to say that for me the justification that I give for using Android over an iPhone is the fact that I use Google services for the majority of my digital life: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Music, Reader, etc.  Now that I have had ample time to get to know Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, I have to say that while it is huge steps in the right direction for Android, it lacks the polish and refinement of its main competitor and I have been considering making the switch, given certain criterion are met with Apple’s upcoming iPhone release.

Call me old-fashioned but I am a user who still relies on a local music library.  I have not made the switch to a streaming online service for a few reasons.  The main reason being that I am a freelance music engineer and adding projects that I am working on to my library is essential and something that I can’t get from a streaming service.  Sure, I could use Spotify for my music library and local media for my projects, but the whole point is efficiency and productivity and to me they should all be in the same place.  When Google Music became available I jumped right into it and immediately began uploading my 15,000+ song library to the cloud.  The process took about 2 – 3 weeks to complete, but when it was done I had my entire library in the cloud, worry-free, or so I thought.  Just like with Google’s mobile operating system, Google Music still lacks refinement and polish and small bugs that plague the service have me second-guessing.  What would ultimately do it for me would be an iPhone 5 with 128GB of storage.  The iPod Touch has had a maximum storage capacity of 64GB since September 9th, 2009.  I would hope that almost 3 years later Apple could move on to increasing that maximum size.  While iTunes Match does offer some functionality that is appealing, the fact is that it is a paid service.  On top of that, aside from music, storage of media content on a portable device can fill up quickly if you are carrying HD video, music, and many photos.  It’s time to up the ante on the local storage for the iPhone 5.

Screen size.  Yeah I said it, but let’s take a look at what Apple will do from a practical standpoint.  When they made the jump to the Retina Display, it was a simple move.  Double the resolution, no screen-size change and have developers create double-sized assets for applications.  The simple 2x calculation for the CPU made things easy, but if Apple wants to increase the screen size on the next iPhone, they are going to lose their precious pixel density that makes the Retina Display so beautiful.  Let’s say that Apple wanted to increase the iPhone’s screen to just .25″ larger at 3.75″ and maintain the same resolution.  That would leave the pixel density at 307ppi and below Steve Job’s magical number of 326.  If they increase the screen size by a half inch and bump it to 4″ the resulting pixel density drops even further to 288.  So what would be a logical move to increase the screen size, but still maintain Retina-like pixel density without creating a new resolution fork for developers?

If recent rumors are true, the next iPad is alleged to bump its resolution by 2x up to 2048×1536, again a simple doubling.  Let’s also take a look at this:  Apple has recently made a change to the iTunes App Store submission policy, now making it a requirement that developers submit Retina Display size (640×960) screenshots.  To me, this is a sign that they will be beginning to cut to the cord for non-Retina Display devices (iPhone 3GS and older).  If Apple uses the original iPad resolution 1024×768 on the next iPhone that would allow for them to bump the screen size up to a full 4″ and keep a pixel density of 320ppi.  Developers would still have a resolution that most have already provided assets for, and legacy applications would become slightly blurred (although less blurred than legacy apps on the current Retina Display).  Aside from doubling the Retina Display resolution again to 1280×1920, this seems like the most logical path for Apple to take.

Last on my must-have list is turn-by-turn navigation.  Remember that whole iPhone GPS tracking scandal that Apple went through a little while back?  Apple’s response was that they were working on a new mapping feature and one of the major items that Android has on Apple is the built-in turn-by-turn navigation baked into the Maps application.  I would be truly shocked if Apple didn’t include this in their next smartphone, especially since the it could be very well integrated with Siri.

I’ll leave my wish list at that for now, but expect more updates soon as I figure them out.


  • 14 years ago
As someone who is fully aware of the complexities and amount of effort necessary to create these applications and dead-simple user experiences, why would you not want everything to be as simple and easy as that?

There’s a lot of talk these days of how we are going to be, or already have entered the “Post-PC” era.  A world where smartphones and tablets are supreme and the days of desktops and laptops are behind us.  Of course there is always going to be a place for the power-house desktop and laptop machines, but for the most part it is true, but with Apple’s introduction of it’s latest operating system OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, the “Post-PC” operating system is travelling into the PC.  This is, of course, nothing new as well with Windows 8’s metro style present on desktop, smartphone, and tablet alike.

Now, I know a lot of users who also consider themselves techies, nerds, geeks, or what-have-you, and these users are flat out not fans of this transition, but to them I ask, why?  It is undeniable that apps and mobile websites feature highly-focused and no-clutter user experiences that allow for users to get exactly what they need without the noise and distractions that often plague desktop alternatives.  As someone who is fully aware of the complexities and amount of effort necessary to create these applications and dead-simple user experiences, why would you not want everything to be as simple and easy as that?  It is extremely cliche and potentially even Apple-fanboy of me (which anyone who knows me knows that I am not), but computers, and smartphones, need to “just work”.


  • 14 years ago