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If the Dodgers are about to sign Reed Johnson as their No. 4 outfielder, as Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com says is the case, I think you can firm up what we speculated about earlier this week: Ronnie Belliard will start at second base over Blake DeWitt.
This isn't too much of a surprise because after all, Belliard started ahead of DeWitt (and Orlando Hudson) last fall. But I think some are still thinking that DeWitt has the job to lose, and I just see increasing evidence that this isn't true. I think DeWitt would have to knock Joe Torre's Spring Training socks off, while Belliard knocks the weight scale off, to win the job.
Here's why: With yet another veteran added to the Dodger roster, the five-man bench is currently shaping up like this:
R Brad Ausmus
R Jamey Carroll
R Reed Johnson
R Nick Green or Chin-Lung Hu ...
You see where I'm going with this?
Most pitchers in baseball are right-handed, yet the Dodgers are loading up on a platoon disadvantage on the bench. Johnson is the epitome of this. He's a bit like Mark Loretta last year in that he's getting older and not really getting better. He has a history of hitting lefties hard that you hope holds up, but he's next to useless against righties – which became a problem last year for Loretta, who faced righties twice as much as lefties in 2009 and not surprisingly, was abysmal.
If DeWitt somehow managed to win the starting second-base job, pushing Belliard to the bench most games, that means that either the Green/Hu spot will have to somehow go to a shortstop who can also bat from the left side (um, Argenis Reyes?), or there would be no backup shortstop, or the Dodgers would have an all-righty bench. And on most days, that would be against a right-handed starting pitcher.
None of these scenarios make much sense, based on what we know about the Dodgers. So I don't think the team would sign a right-handed hitting backup outfielder unless they've already decided Belliard is the starting second baseman, at least at the outset of the season.
Of course, all of this is subject to change later in the season, amid the natural fluctuation of the roster. DeWitt could well be the starter by summertime, but it just seems pretty clear to me that the plan now is to have Belliard get the initial look.
Assuming Belliard is the starter, the Dodgers' only current choices for a left-handed bat off the bench are DeWitt (who would most likely head to Albuquerque to gain experience), Xavier Paul and Doug Mientkiewicz. Whoever it is, if he's the only lefty on the bench, he figures to bat in almost every game.
It almost makes you wonder whether the Dodgers are considering signing two free-agent backup outfielders.
Update: Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness was thinking along the same lines, but adds more background on Johnson.
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The Associated Press has a must-read article on the crisis at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
Tony Jackson of ESPN.com/LA has a story on four free-agent candidates to be the Dodgers' fourth outfielder: Garret Anderson, Brian Giles, Gabe Gross and Reed Johnson. None of them really appeal to me a whole lot, not because Xavier Paul is so great, but because the others just don't seem worth the trouble.
On the other hand, it's possible one of them could be a better bat off the bench than Doug Mientkiewicz, who currently doesn't have much competition for a spot as a left-handed pinch-hitter, especially if Blake DeWitt starts the season in AAA. The Dodgers also have backup first basemen on the roster already, but if Paul and Jason Repko both went down to Albuquerque, the team might be without a backup center fielder.
Invite any of the four would-be fourths to Spring Training if you like, but don't guarantee any significant money to them.
The Dodgertown Classic will take place February 28, with UCLA playing USC at 2 p.m., preceded by Vanderbilt vs. Oklahoma State at 10 a.m. These are regular-season games, not exhibitions.
All proceeds from the event will benefit the Dodgers Dream Foundation. Tickets are $5 if purchased in advance, $10 at the gate. (Each ticket covers both games.) Parking will be free.
Years and years ago, the Dodgers used to play an annual exhibition against USC before Spring Training. Nice to see college ball making a return to Dodger Stadium.
Via Walkoff Walk, this news report on how Tommy Lasorda's brother Eddie survived an Internet scam, with the help of the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania sheriff John Durante — but not without some scars along the way.
I was visiting a friend from Bear Pole Ranch (summer camp) whose family had a summer house in Cornish, NH, and one afternoon I was told we were going to their friend Jerry Salinger's house for dinner. So we went to this house that you entered through the garage, and I met Jerry, a nice tall man in his 50s or 60s (I was 15, so everyone seemed old to me) who was long the way people on Mom's side of the family are (long face) and had slight body odor. There was a buffet of barbecue chicken, corn on the cob, etc, and after we all ate and chatted, he screened the musical "Oliver!" on a wall he used as a screen. He had a projector and reels. I hadn't seen the movie all the way through, so it was pretty cool.The next morning I was in the kitchen and saw a copy of "Catcher in the Rye." "This is my all-time favorite book," I said to my friend.
"Who do you think you met last night?" she said.
In other words, I hadn't put it together, which was a good thing because if I'd known, I probably would have been anxious and tongue-tied the whole time.
On Monday, it will have been 365 days since Baseball Toaster closed and Dodger Thoughts moved to the Los Angeles Times. The past year has been an interesting one — in some ways fun and rewarding, in other ways extremely humbling.
I'm announcing that next week, there will be another transition. Sunday will be my last day at The Times, and in all likelihood as soon as Monday, Dodger Thoughts' new home will be at ESPN.com/LA.
It certainly never was my goal, as I prepare for Dodger Thoughts' fifth home in eight years, to emerge as the Tommy Davis of bloggers. Nevertheless, I do think that it will be a positive step for this site and for its readers. For those who come with me, I hope you enjoy the next step of the journey. And for those who don't, thanks for spending the past year with me, and enjoy my successor at The Times.
The people at The Times have been universally pleasant and kind to work with, and I'm very appreciative of that. I don't take that for granted. I want to thank them for their support.
Anyway, I'll be here for a few more days, so for now, carry on. Thanks, everyone.I'm watching "Spectacle: Elvis Costello with Bruce Springsteen" on the Sundance Channel. The pair just did a little Roy Orbison "Pretty Woman." And I got to thinking, "Man, to write something that's played with reverence and love 50 years later ..."
Seems like the musicians (and I suppose the ballplayers) have one on writers. Oh sure, I can quote some Fitzgerald or Updike at you, but it's not like there's some K-EARTH keeping them in heavy rotation. Great writing, you have to find. Great songs, they find you.
That last paragraph is probably completely wrong, but that's just how I was struck in that particular moment. I felt elated by what I was hearing and melancholy at the same time.
Let me get this straight. Belliard has a special admonition to get back not to his Spring Training 2009 weight, but his October 2009 weight? What exactly has Belliard been up to this offseason?... Belliard, 34, will be guaranteed $825,000 this year, but only if he tips the scales at 209 pounds or fewer at some point during spring training, according to multiple sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the clause. ...
The Dodgers want Belliard get down to 209 pounds because that was how much he weighed at the end of last season, when he played a surprisingly significant part in the their run to the National League Championship Series. ...
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