MLB: Jon Garland and Casey Blake both had their 2012 options declined. No analysis needed to tell you that these were no-brainer decisions. Also of note, Eugenio Velez was sent to AAA, which is unfortunate, because I would have preferred he be sent to the wood chipper.

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ESPN: Don Mattingly says Andre Ethier needs to focus and stop acting like a douche.

“It’s getting frustrated to the point that you’re not concentrating,” Mattingly said. “Dre gets frustrated to the point that he loses focus. Now, all of a sudden, you’re chasing bad balls, maybe swinging at pitches early in the count that you don’t want to swing at, and your focus gets off your plan.”

Amazing.

Is it just me, or do these problems only emerge after the player in question has a down season? It’s not like Ethier suddenly became an angry asshole or something, he has always been the same, so I’m not sure where this is coming from besides the fact that he sorta sucked in 2011.

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Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness: Mike Petriello steals one of my article ideas about dissecting Jim Bowden’s plan for the Dodgers in the 2012 off-season. He did it well, so go read it.

True Blue LA: The Arizona Fall League preview I was too lazy to do.

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The Book: I’ve always wondered about defensive indifference with less than two outs, mainly because I figured that losing the force play was important to defenses, and I think Tom Tango explores it well here.

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ESPN: Check out naked athletes on ESPN, it’s cool.