disarcina

If you miss Rex, you can tune into the KC broadcasts.......he's on TV and Phyz is on the radio there.......Phyz might get some TV time there as well, not sure. Rex still over the top........small doses of Rex might be tolerable........game in, game out.......not so much.

up against it --- Kings are used to being in this situation......... this will be the fifth possible elimination game in these playoffs for the Kings...... don't recommend it for the heath of the fans, though........

adding some minor league depth as we add Matt Shoemaker to the rotation on at least an interim basis. and for this guy from the KC organization -- it's a win for him -- he wasn't going anywhere with the Royals except out of baseball.......this gives him a second chance with a new organization. and if it doesn't work out that well.........well not much lost, and a another shot at the bigs was gained........ all around win. BTW, Nice outing by Shoemaker tonight.

amazing -- well, you all are familiar with the saying -- the only thing wrong with youth sports is the parents....... and things seemed to have gotten worse.........you'd think a guy like Williams would know better. bad calls happen -- umps are often volunteers (probably not at the Cal Ripken tournament level), great opportunity to explain to the kids, hey, bad breaks happen (in little league games and in life), have to buckle down and move on.

rookie goalie makes NHL debut in MUST WIN Stanley Cup playoff game situation and shuts out the Kings --- get outta here!! I didn't see the game (was out and about elsewhere Saturday evening) and read about in this morning's paper. Gibson's career is over -- how does he top that debut? All downhill from here.......LOL!!!

something's gotta give when Hamilton comes back (soon) -- may be Stewart -- particularly because Grant Green is so versatile -- can play OF, 3B, 2B, some SS even some 1B if need be. might be Stewart odd man out instead of the 41 year old DH ???

not a big fan of gauging relievers by their ERA...... Kohn pitched well of late. Hope he keeps it up. still has a ways to go (for me) to have a great deal of confidence in him. good news overall is that Skaggs and Richards each are really coming around as rotation guys. so right now, it's the 'Santiago' rotation spot (now the 5th spot) that needs some shoring up....perhaps we'll get some interim help (Shoemaker) from SLC and perhaps longer term help from a deadline deal....... Kohn pitched well good news. I really liked Sosh's comments about 'mixing it up' in the closer role with Smith and Fieri (spelled wrong, again) depending upon the situation/ match ups....about time for this approach.

why wouldn't you pull Weaver here.......what's this surprise stuff? 7 to 1 lead in Sunday road game in Canada..........?

was out and about last night and did not see game. see in papers this morning that ROOKIE goal tender makes NHL debut for Ducks in a Stanley Cup Second Round Playoff game against the arch rivals in a MUST WIN game and the kid comes through with a SHUTOUT.......get outta here........ this should fire up the Ducks....... Game Five just HUGE..........I was sure KIngs would come out of Game Four with a 3 to 1 lead in series.......... Kings now need a 'road' win in Anaheim to cool off the Ducks and stop their momentum.........

If Doc RIvers says NO..........Byron Scott should be hired the next day as Lakers coach.

If I were the Lakers I would not interview anyone until the Doc Rivers situation is squared away. with the Sterling (either one of them) issue in flux -- I don't think Doc Rivers will be coaching the Clippers next season. If LA lets this guy get away, it's a huge loss for the region.......... my list for new Lakers coach, starts and ends with Doc Rivers.......if he says NO, then the Lakers need to drop down and pick a guy who's more like number 9 on the list because Doc Rivers is choice numbers 1 through 8..........there is no runner up or even second runner up as far as I am concerned.

well, YES, Oakland does play in a ballpark that was significantly re-designed (not for the better in terms of being a baseball venue) by a guy who's motto was "JUST WIN, BABY!" and they are. hats off (AGAIN) to Billy Beane who builds a team designed to win with what appear to most to be a rag-tag bunch. but then, as Billy Beane himself has stated numerous time, it's a team built to contend by mid-season, then some key guy roster additions at deadline time for the second half and pennant stretch and then , apparently, everything falls apart in the playoffs as the team is not built for the playoffs........ oh well.........shades of a few years back (might have been more than a few -- perhaps 2002) when the A's and Angels had just a torrid August/ September -- both just kept winning and despite the Angels playing something like .650 ball or better over that stretch -- they could not gain any ground on the A's. This weekend's beat up of Toronto is a good sign for the Halos.......need to beat (at least win the series) consistently against these teams to contend............now if we can keep up THIS YEAR's pace against Houston as well as opposed to the relatively poor record we had against them last season........

Good Game three, nice win for the Ducks -- Kings need to go up 3 to 1 tonight. If this series goes SEVEN, Ducks probably win it. KINGS need to wrap this series up in SIX.........

don't we have a special thread for this??? oh well -- GO KINGS GO!!! no matter who is on the ice for the Ducks tonight, the Kings goal is to score goals, beat the Ducks and go up 3 to 1 in the series heading to Game 5 at Honda Center.

don't think so -- he does have a lot of K's however..........\ nice SI cover story this week......

Saw Williams pitching mop up in some Houston game on TV the other day..........Houston not a great ballpark for pitchers. Houston team not a great line up behind the pitcher either. Shoemaker may get a chance to make some starts before Halos made a pre-deadline/ deadline deal.

Alvarez was pretty good last year for the Tigers.........am sure he could do a bit better than Hector Santiago has done so far..........even with Alvarez's higher BB numbers this year at SLC.

lot going on. Cinco de Mayo Kings-Ducks at Honda Center oh, and it's a Monday night.

Was at the game Saturday night. Grant Green's catch in LF was most impressive........really gives him a versatility factor that makes him very valuable. CJ Cron hit the ball like a veteran......... Both of these guys can help the Halos NOW....but the familiar question remains -- are they better off providing bench depth at the big league level or playing every day at AAA. I think now that the Halos are over the hump of April -- and actually finished April with an above .500 record for the first time in three years -- some changes may be in order. Ibanez roster spot in jeopardy as is McDonald's -- based on contribution to date (and as I posted earlier) I'd be inclined to keep McDonald and do something else with Freese, who is poor on defense at 3B and is extremely slow footed on the base-paths -- and now his offense has not been that much to write home about -- but things don't work that way in MLB after a 'big trade' so McDonald's probably odd man out -- and Green's versatility sort of makes it even tougher for McDonald to keep his spot. Ian Stewart may have looked bad today against Dravish -- but so do a lot of hitters........to date, Stewart's performance has earned him a near platoon spot at 3B and he's able to fill in at 1B as well as 2B if necessary.......he could play some SS in a pinch but I wouldn't recommend it. I guess the question for McDonald's spot -- is how good is Green at SS and do we really need a late inning defensive guy for SS with Aybar there? (I realize we also have Jimenez up but I assume he's heading back to SLC as soon as Freese gets back). Green and Stewart can handle the late inning defense issues at 3B for Freese which I have become convinced need to be about the 6th inning of almost every game. Freese is a DH playing 3B.

Lack of steals?? I think that can partially be attributed to the fact our line up is better than last year's line up..........could be one explanation..........and he's hitting doubles.......no need to get thrown out at third when you've got some pretty good folks coming up...........

Was at the Angels game Saturday night with some pretty good seats -- Club Level up behind the plate -- but had the Kings radio broadcast on of Game One and was listening to that in my ear.....folks next to me were a family split between Ducks and Kings loyalty (a lot of that going on I'm sure).......about spilled my drink when the Kings tied it with SEVEN seconds left........and then did spill my drink when the KIngs scored the game winner in OT..........gal next to me (Ducks fan) was a good spirit. Huge win for the Kings -- Kings seemed to be pretty successful on the penalty kill.......unlike baseball, I am not used to listening to hockey on radio and very seldom do so -- the 1150 AM signal was lousy inside the Big A so it was tough to hear at times -- and then, oh yes, there was a ballgame going on..........so it's sort of tough to get a read (on a hockey radio broadcast) of which team is really pushing the plays and dominating the ice......just seemed to me that Kings were on the penalty kill a lot and that Quick was blocking a lot of shots and had a large number of stops. Radio broadcast and press reports say it was pretty much a Duck crowd by about a 4 to 1 margin which is to be expected.......I guess there was some effort to have Kings fans sort of take over the Honda Center and that certainly didn't happen........ Win in Game ONE, Huge for the LA Kings......feeling better about their chances in this series.

ESPN board as Rally Mo's post above describes. I don't recall specifically ESPN screwing things up but I do remember the troll situation got out of hand and some other stuff and then one day Chuck posts -- ''hey, we're starting this new site, any of you who want to come over and check it out, please do so......." Many of us did just that and have not been back to ESPN since. I did check out the ESPN site once or twice since then just to see what was going on -- the last time could have been five years ago -- I can't remember -- anyway, it was either a ghost town or a shell of its former self -- perhaps both........I used to check out the other ESPN team websites when back on ESPN and some were pretty good, others just awful.......(and this dates back 10 plus years ago) but back then ESPN had its share of baseball related social media traffic -- not sure -- because I haven't been over there in so long -- but I get the feeling that ESPN sites are pretty much irrelevant anymore.......... what was pretty amazing ten years ago was how quickly the transformation happened from ESPN to Angelswin.com.........I would guess that within two weeks (or less) after Chuck's initial post inviting everyone over -- most everyone had moved over without a glance into the rear view mirror..........

He is certainly piling up the strike outs......perhaps the comparisons to Mickey Mantle are accurate !!

Game One win critical for both teams....... for some reason I think it is more important for the LA Kings to win Game One than for the Ducks - which is sort of counter-intuitive given the Kings 4 straight wins after being down 0-3 to San Jose in Round One........but I think the Ducks have pretty much dominated in the Kings-Ducks regular season games this year so it is real important for the LA Kings to get that Game One win 'on the road' (is either team really 'on the road' in this series?)

I am wearing my LA Kings cap to the ANGELS game on Saturday night - will bring along my pocket radio to listen to the hockey game while watching the Halos game. I should be able to see the Honda Center from my seats........