FanHouse Collettisoul

The picture to the right deserves a Pulitzer nomination.

Today, The Dugout continues its month-long series of team previews by visiting the Dodgers' team chat room. Perhaps more importantly, we're resurrecting the personality of everyone's favorite Fauknerian man-child Dugout character. Wait, maybe he's the second favorite. Wait, how many Faulknerian man-children does The Dugout have? I'm guessing at least a hundred, but Manny's up there.

Fresh Prince fans, your Dugout is after the jump.

Yesterday, Fire Joe Morgan announced that it is officially coming to an end. For over three years, the blog tirelessly gave the business to mainstream sports journalism as no one else could. Their sonning of guys in suits was hilarious and legendary, but just as impressive was the collection of running gags -- the tangential digressions into the office politics of the fictional Fremulon Insurance, the perpetual fascination with food metaphors and meaningless buzzwords, the detours into outrageous hyperbole. It really was one of the great treasures of the world of sports blogging. Since they're keeping the archives online, it still is, and I suggest you start with a personal favorite of mine.

This news, though, isn't universally sad. Grinders! Scrappers! Hard-nosed hardscrabblers! Rejoice! Today's Dugout is after the jump.

Poor on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). Your only meaningful purpose is to be calculated as a means to obtain your big brother, adjusted on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS+). You're not a bad stat, OPS. You're actually a very solid indicator of a baseball player's performance. You're just...superfluous. OPS+ has proven to be one of the most concise, accurately reflective statistics in the world of baseball, but you're just an afterthought; a means to an end.

This morning's Dugout is after the jump.