In my second installment of Notes from the Couch, here are a couple random thoughts about the past couple of weeks for the Boys in Blue…

Trade Talk
While adding Roy Halladay to the starting rotation would be awesome (and keeping him out of the Phillies’ rotation or some other NL team), the asking price will probably be too high…there’s NO WAY I want the Dodgers to even consider Clayton Kershaw in the deal (the prevailing rumor these days)…what Kershaw has done in his last 7 starts is exactly what us fans like to see – domination! (5-0 record, 0.63 ERA – 3 earned runs in 42.2 innings!, 0.98 WHIP, only 21 hits allowed in 42.2 innings)…I like the fact that the Dodgers have been scouting Cliff Lee (Cleveland)…will he come at a cheaper price?

Manny’s Moment, Juan’s Salute
How awesome was Manny’s grand slam moment on Wednesday?…I was feeling somewhat sorry for the sellout crowd who went to the ballpark to get Manny’s bobblehead and of course, see Manny play…he wasn’t in the starting lineup for good reason – sore left hand from being hit the night before…we all know what happened, so I won’t rehash that Gibson-like moment…what I’d like to point out is yet another professional thing Juan Pierre did – allow the fans to cheer and savor the moment…as the guys pointed out on Dodgers Live after the game, if Juan had gone straight to the plate and stepped into the batter’s box for his at bat, the crowd probably would have cheered a little more and sat down to continue watching the game…instead, Juan stayed in the on deck circle and let the fans cheer like crazy, giving Manny the applause he deserved…

Fantasy Baseball Hell
Those of you who participate in head-to-head Fantasy Baseball leagues know what I’m talking about…you are playing an opponent that week who has a Dodger or two…what do you do when you are cheering for the Dodgers, but at the same time, a great performance by a Dodger puts you behind in the standings?…I ran into this on Wednesday when my opponent had Chad Billingsley pitching…I had Manny Ramirez in my lineup, so when Manny hit the grand slam, it was great for me (homer, 4 RBI’s, 5.000 OPS, etc.) and gave the Dodgers the lead, but also great for my opponent because the grand slam led to Billingsley getting the victory…as it stands now, I trail my opponent in victories and am currently behind 7-5 with 3 days left…oh well, it all comes down to Dodger victories…that’s what we all want…that’s what we all need…

The Lucky Charm?
Last Saturday, my wife pulled out our Dodger flag which has been sitting in a closet waiting to be hung for the first time in front of our house…the reason it was in the closet was because it couldn’t hang on our existing flagpole…she needed to sew it so it could…sure enough, she got to work and had it ready in time for the game against the Houston Astros…we hung it, the Dodgers won…same thing on Sunday…we hung it, the Dodgers won…same thing on Monday…same thing on Tuesday…same thing on Wednesday…5 games in a row!…all I know is I will continue to follow a few “rules” when hanging the flag – can’t hang it out all day…it comes out on game day no more than 1 hour before the first pitch…it comes down within an hour after the final pitch (let’s hope I get out of the stadium quickly on Saturday and Sunday)…more rules will probably follow, but I’ll stick to these to start until the Dodgers lose a game with the flag hanging…

My new favorite card…
I’ll have a scan of this shortly, but I got a card recently that has become one of my favorites…an autographed Clayton Kershaw from the 2009 Topps set…this goes quite nicely with the Chad Billingsley jersey/auto card I have from the 2008 Upper Deck Heroes set…will they someday become the Drysdale/Koufax of the 21st century?…we’ll see…