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Dodgers Web Musings: How would you grade the first half for the Boys in Blue?

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It’s midseason awards time!

Are you just so excited? Grades for this, grades for that. Best this, worst that. Sort of an All-Star break mini-tradition.

And how exactly would you review the Dodgers’ first half? If you try, there are certainly bright moments available, but on the whole it’s hard not to fight the image of the Titanic with its stern exposed high above the water line.

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With half the season remaining.

Plenty of media outlets are passing out letter grades, but The Times’ charitable award of an overall ‘C’ for the Dodgers is a tad mystifying, or, in the eyes of T.J. Simers, ‘the most ridiculous, outrageous, off-base pile of rubbish lacking even a scintilla of sense that I have ever read in this newspaper.’

Fortunately, he meant only the print edition.

Simers gave them a ‘D-minus,’ saying they avoided an ‘F’ only by managing to climb out of the cellar with their final weekend sweep of the Padres.

Over at ESPN, Jim Bowden gave them a ‘C minus’ (available as a video at this link). I know, where were these teachers handing out grades when you were in school?

Also on the Web:

-- The Times’ Bill Shaikin has Commissioner Bud Selig alluding to a Dodgers’ future without Frank McCourt.

-- Shaikin also looks at the latest documents filed by McCourt in his bankruptcy hearing, noting he has already exhausted the $35 million owed the team this season by Fox.

-- Ned Colletti tells The Times’ Dylan Hernandez that acquiring Juan Rivera may not be a sign of a last push, but it did improve the club.

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-- The Wall Street Journal reports that Major League Baseball claims the hedge fund McCourt is using to keep the team financially afloat has accepted a $5.25-million fee he tried to withhold from the court.

-- That boycott may be extending to watching games on television. The Sports Business Journal reports the Dodgers have the third-lowest rating of any MLB team and are down 27% from last season.

-- The San Francisco Chronicle’s Scott Ostler said Selig can’t avoid his role in approving the McCourt ownership bid and that it’s time for Selig to step aside.

-- Kirk Gibson told MLB.com he fulfilled his late father’s wish by accepting a bid to coach the National League All-Star team. Gibson, the Diamondbacks manager, twice turned down invitations as a player (including with the Dodgers in ’88) because he was uncomfortable with individual, midseason awards.

Wonder how he feels about midseason grades?

-- Steve Dilbeck

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