Matt Kemp left tonight's game at Dodger Stadium after the first inning after re-aggravating his left hamstring while running the bases, and the mood rarely brightened at Chavez Ravine as the Brewers defeated the Dodgers 6-3, giving Los Angeles their first three-game losing streak of the season.

The Dodgers opened the scoring with a two-out rally in the top of the first when Kemp drew a four-pitch walk then came home to score on Andre Ethier's double to left-center field. Two walks loaded the bases, but Yovani Gallardo escaped further damage when A.J. Ellis drove a full-count pitch on a line to center fielder Carlos Gomez for the third out.

However that run came at the cost of Kemp coming out of the game and the Dodgers awaiting his MRI test tomorrow. According to a tweet by Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com, "Kemp says his hammy feels worse than the first time and [he] anticipates another DL stint."

Milwaukee did not let a similar opportunity go uncapitalized in the top of the fourth inning when Gomez grounded a single into left field to plate two runners after Clayton Kershaw, who struggled at various times tonight, loaded the bases with walks to Rickie Weeks (hitting .153/.286/.288 entering play) and noted Kershaw nemesis Cody Ransom (.200/.294/.267) following a one-out double by Aramis Ramirez. Kershaw escaped further damage by retiring Martin Maldonado on a shallow fly and striking out Gallardo with his 32nd pitch of the inning.

The Brewers ended Kershaw's night in the sixth inning after 117 pitches. Weeks led off the inning with a double. After a walk and a force at second on a sacrifice attempt, Maldonado squeezed home a run and Gallardo drove a Kershaw fastball off the bullpen gate in left field for an RBI single. Reliever Javy Guerra allowed the inherited runner to score on a pop fly single to center that appeared to glance off a sliding Tony Gwynn, Jr's glove and a grounder to second base that Norichiki Aoki simply beat out for another RBI single.

Elian Herrera's bases-loaded single off Manny Parra, immediately after Gallarado was chased by three consecutive singles to start the seventh inning, scored two runs to cut the deficit in half. At this point in the game, Don Mattingly was faced with this choice: allow James Loney and Gwynn to bat against the left-handed Parra, or go to right-handed pinch-hitters such as Jerry Hairston, Jr. and Scott Van Slyke, which would likely lead to an already warmed up right-handed reliever coming in. Mattingly went with the status quo only to have Loney strike out on three pitches and Gwynn ground into the inning-ending double play, one of four that the Dodgers would hit into on the night.

Milwaukee added an insurance run in the eighth when it appeared that Aramis Ramirez hit into a routine double play to end the inning, but Herrera could not get a grip on the ball as the middle man to make a throw to first base, allowing the sixth run to score.

Today's Particulars

Home Runs - None

WP - Yovani Gallardo (4-4): 6 IP, 8 hits, 3 runs, 3 walks, 8 strikeouts

LP - Clayton Kershaw (4-3): 5 2/3 IP, 8 hits, 5 runs, 4 walks, 7 strikeouts

S - John Axford (10)

Attendance - 25,509

Matt Kemp, who didn't look to be running full speed as he scored from first base on a first-inning double by Andre Ethier, left the game before the start of the second inning in Dodger Stadium after apparently aggravating his hamstring, and was replaced by Tony Gwynn Jr. in center field.

Kemp, who was in his second game since returning from the disabled list for a left hamstring injury, was captured by television cameras breaking a bat over his leg in apparent anger before disappearing from the dugout into the clubhouse.

UPDATE: The Dodgers announced, via Vin Scully on television and via Twitter, that Kemp did reaggravate his left hamstring and will undergo an MRI test tomorrow.

Game Time: 7:10 P.M.

TV: Prime Ticket

MLB Gameday

Clayton Kershaw takes the mound today looking to end the Los Angeles Dodgers two-game losing streak against the Milwaukee Brewers, who counter with righthander Yovani Gallardo.

Kershaw has provided the Dodgers with a quality start in six of his last seven outings, with game scores of 70 or better in five of those efforts. Given that the Dodgers have scored three runs total in the first two games of this four-game series, he may need another superior effort to garner a victory.

For the season, Kershaw has allowed the opposition to bat .194 / .241 / .318 while he is on the hill.

Gallardo has had two very poor starts this year that have driven his ERA to 4.19, but has provided the Brewers with quality starts in his eight other appearances, and is currently working on a string of five consecutive quality starts since his last blow up, sporting a 2.59 ERA during that run. During that span opposing batters are hitting .193 / .297 / .303 against him.

Injury News:

Per Dylan Hernandez: Manager Don Mattingly injured his calf working out this morning.

Starting Lineups:

Elian Herrera will lead off for the second time in his major league career, the first occasion since doing so in Arizona while playing center field. James Loney bats second, which he has done seventeen times previously in the majors. The lineups are heavily oriented toward the opposing pitcher's throwing hand. Only two Dodgers will face Gallardo right-handed (you don't platoon Matt Kemp!), and only one Brewer will take on Kershaw from the port side.

Game Time: 7:10 P.M.

TV: Prime Ticket

MLB Gameday

Last night at Chavez Ravine the Los Angeles Dodgers honored their famous infield of 1972 to 1981 with a group bobblehead (pictured here), and an appearance by all four members of that quartet: Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Ron Cey. Nod along with your bobblehead if you can remember watching those four playing together for all those years.

Believe it or not, there is no picture of those four from last night in our database, but you can view an AP photo of that appearance here.

That sort of infield and roster stability is not something to which Dodger fans of today are accustomed. In fact, you have to go back a dozen years to the 2000 and 2001 seasons to find the same exact players listed as the starters at each infield position, where a starter is determined by being the player who played the most at that position that season.

Your 2000-2001 Dodger starting infield:

• 1B Eric Karros
• 2B Mark Grudzielanek
• SS Alex Cora
• 3B Adrian Beltre

Curiously, this infield served under two different managers, with Davey Johnson finishing out his Dodger stay and turning the reins over to Jim Tracy.

In 2000, Cora supplanted Grudzielanek at SS, with the erstwhile shortstop moving over to second base to replace the departed Eric Young (Sr.) who had been traded to the Chicago Cubs by Dodgers General Manager Kevin Malone, whom you may have memories of. When 2002 rolled around, Cesar Izturis, acquired by General Manager Dan Evans along with relief pitcher Paul Quantrill, wrested the position from Cora, with the other member of the infield remaining in place. (Coincidentally, minor leaguer Chad Ricketts arrived in the Dodger organization in the Young trade and exited via the Izturis deal.)

With James Loney's future in doubt as he becomes free-agent eligible, Mark Ellis' recovery of unknown length, Dee Gordon's progress perhaps stalled, and Juan Uribe under contract only through next year, it may be awhile before we see another repeat infield here in Los Angeles.

***

Related trivia question: Who was the last Dodger infielder to be a primary starter at two different positions in two different seasons? For example, Grudzielanek was the SS in 1999 and the 2B in 2000, but he was not the most recent example.

The Dodgers have made no official announcement yet, but Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times is reporting that righthander Nathan Eovaldi is being recalled from AA Chattanooga to make his 2012 Los Angeles debut Tuesday night, replacing Ted Lilly in the rotation. Baxter quotes the Lookouts pitching coach Chuck Crim as his source.

In Lilly's last start, he suffered his worst outing of the season, lasting only 3 1/3 innings while yielding eight runs and nine hits. Lilly reportedly has a shoulder injury per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, but the extent of the injury and whether or not surgery will be needed is unknown.

Eovaldi's last scheduled start was Saturday, but rumors began to swirl when his appearance was abbreviated. He struck out the side in his one inning of relief work. When asked if the change in Eovaldi's outing was related to his major league roster, manager Don Mattingly on Sunday said, "I guess it could be," but declined to address anything specific.

The Dodgers currently have eight players on the disabled list.

With yesterday's signing by the Los Angeles Dodgers of Bobby Abreu who was recently released by the Anaheim Angels, I took a brief look at his statistics to see exactly what his recent offensive output has been. After seeing them, I was immediately reminded of another ex-Angel who played one final year in Dodger blue: Garret Anderson, whose cliff dive at the plate of Acapulcoesque proportions resulted in Ned Colletti releasing him on August 10 of his only season in Los Angeles.

As a very rough "analysis", I decided to compare OBP, Slugging percentage and a composite of those statistics, OPS, for the last four seasons for each player onto a graph to see just how similar the declining patterns might actually be. And because Vladimir Guerrero is still unsigned, worked out for the division-rival Arizona Diamondbacks in the Dominican Republic recently and is also an ex-Angel at the tail end of his career, I threw him into the mix also, but only for his last three actual seasons, with this year left blank, since he is unsigned but available. Also note that for Anderson and Abreu, the comparisons are at the same age, while Guerrero is a year younger.

Here's the resulting graph (click on it to view larger in a new tab/window):

Obviously this is a fairly crude way of looking at it, but some clear similarities in the decline rates are evident, especially comparing Anderson and Abreu. It would be unfair to deduce from this simple exercise that BA will flail at the plate a la GA for the rest of the year with an OPS winding up in the low .500s, but it is clear that one should not be surprised if such an outcome occurs.

Adding a fourth player to the graph becomes too cluttered, but if ex-Angel Adam Kennedy was also included, one would seem similar trends in decline, but shifted lower. His OPS graph line [.758, .655, .632, .422] was particularly akin in shape to Anderson's and Abreu's.

Assuming this is Abreu's and/or Kennedy's last major league season, they could join a list that has grown in recent years: players that have had some success and longevity in the majors and finished out their careers with some dismal offensive numbers well below their career averages while toiling only that one year in Dodger blue.

For Loretta, thanks to Game 2 of the 2009 NLDS, all is forgiven. And man, could Boog Powell take a walk.

Stats from baseball-reference.com. Stats are through Thursday's games.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are 9-1 to start the season. Sure, it was compiled against the Padres and Pirates whose lineups come closest in the league to resembling a Pacific Coast League squad. Sure, their Pythagorean record is 7-3. Sure, five of those wins have been by one run. Sure, the relief pitchers have a combined 5.08 BB/9 so far. Sure, the offense is riding on the coattails of the two big guns - the only other batters with an OPS above .660 and at least 10 PAs are A.J. Ellis and Jerry Hairston Jr.

Whatever. The good news is that this game is baseball and even good teams can't expect to beat bad teams more than 2/3 to 3/4 of the time - how hard is it to sweep a series? - so 9-1 is still 9-1 - no matter who was put onto your schedule. Look at it this way, if the Dodgers are a .500 team the rest of the way, they will finish 85-77, which might make the playoffs. We all know baseball can be a cruel game, so when the luck and Dale Scott go your way, just enjoy it while you can.

Kenley Jansen, a native of Willemstad, Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles islands, was originally signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 2004, less than one month after his seventeenth birthday, as a position player. Because switch-hitting catching prospects don't make it to LA Because he wasn't hitting enough to warrant further consideration as a catcher - he peaked at .227/.298/.397/.695 with Great Lakes as a 20-year old hitter - he and the Dodgers decided that his future and his strong arm both belonged on the pitching rubber.

The newest arm in the Dodger minor league system was a fast learner and about one year after his first appeared as a pitcher in July 2009, he made his major league debut.

Jansen is simply a pitcher that demands to be noticed, and not just for his imposing 6' 5", 255 pound presence. His fastball sits in mid 93 mph range, and he can throw it into the mid-to-upper 90s, but it is his ability to miss bats with that fastball that really catches the eye. Not only was his 16.10 strikeouts per nine innings pitched ratio an all-time major league record (50 innings minimum), but his ability to induce swings and misses with it is unparalleled.

Over the past three seasons, no one has come close to Jansen's 38.6% swing and miss rate on fastballs. Tyler Clippard's 33.9% is reasonably impressive, especially compared to the league average of 14.7, but Jansen is close to making batters miss one hack for every 2.5 that they take at his fastball, compared to a league average of almost one in seven.

That should make it no surprise that, over the past two years, Jansen relies on his heater more than all but one other major league pitcher (Matt Thornton), throwing his fastball on 86.8% of his offerings to batters.

Accordingly, one must conclude that National League batters are sitting "dead red" with Jansen on the hill and still swinging and missing at an extraordinary rate. If he ever gets the slider really working, watch out!

Sometime it appears that his own heart is more of a nemesis than opposing hitters. Jansen missed 25 games in 2011 with an irregular heartbeat, then had another mild scare this spring with a thirty-minute episode of rapid heart beating. But if the heart holds up, the young catcher who once represented The Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic could easily be the next dominating Dodger closer.

Three springs ago, this was Kenley Jansen

Trivia

Jansen already has more major-league pitching experience (80 2/3 innings) than minor-league (64 2/3 innings).

Jansen chose number 74 because that is his house address number in Curacao.

Despite his offensive struggles, he has hit minor league home runs at a faster rate (about 1 every 20 games) than he allowed them (2 in 52 games).

He still has a perfect major-league batting line of 1.000 / 1.000 / 1.000 in two plate appearances.

Contract Status

Jansen will earn $491,000 in 2012. He has accrued one year and 73 days of major league service time, so he won't be arbitration eligible until after the 2013 season at the earliest. Two of his three minor-league options have been used.

Previous Dodgers Player Profiles:

2011: A Rudder To Keep The Dodger Bullpen On Course

Stats

2012 Outlook

Given that he only has 80+ innings in the majors, one might think that the league would start catching up with Jansen, but since he is also still growing as a pitcher, the outcome may not be so obvious. Slated to be the set-up man to closer Javy Guerra, Jansen could easily slide into that closer role should Guerra falter, but he could also see many highly leveraged situations as the primary eighth inning reliever. I'll guess that Jansen posts a 2.32 ERA in 68 innings, with a 1.04 WHIP, and 9 saves.

What is your guess for Jansen in 2012? Be sure to give us ERA, Innings Pitched, and WHIP in the comments, plus anything else you wish to guess.

Thanks to baseball-reference.com and fangraphs.com for the statistics.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the sixth organization in the last five years for Adam Kennedy, who has seen his career evolve from Major League starting second baseman to journeyman utility infielder. However, the product of North High School (Riverside) and Cal State Northridge, managed to find his way to playing time anyway, averaging 128 games and 438 plate appearances over the past four seasons.

This spring Kennedy has the security of a guaranteed major league contract, a better position than he found himself in 2009 when he didn't make the Tampa Bay Ray's 25-man roster while on a minor-league contract, but he was eventually traded to the Oakland A's where he found playing time in the Show once again.

It appears that the Dodgers expectation is that Kennedy will fill the role held last year by Aaron Miles to be a veteran backup option at second and third base, and in Kennedy's case first base as well. Given that in his 30s Kennedy has batted .261 / .319 / .364, 82 OPS+ in 2559 PAs, and, outside of 2009, in a steady decline, offensive production at Miles' level might be the most that can be expected in 2012 for Kennedy's age-36 season.

Kennedy was originally the 20th overall draft pick in 1997 of the St. Louis Cardinals before being part of a trade with the Anaheim Angels for center-fielder Jim Edmonds. In his third season with the Angels, he won a World Series ring, but the Angels - in 2002 and 2005 - are the only postseason team he's been a member of.

Trivia:

His first major league hit was against Orel Hershiser of the New York Mets.

One of seven players, and the only middle infielder, to hit three home runs in a post-season game, achieving the feat in Game Two of the American League Championship Series for the eventual World Champion Anaheim Angels. The other six men to accomplish this are Babe Ruth, Bob Robertson, Reggie Jackson, George Brett, Adrian Beltre, and Albert Pujols.

Contract Status:

Per the True Blue LA Dodgers Payroll Worksheet (big props to Eric), Kennedy has a one-year contract that guarantees him $800,000, with a possible $150,000 in plate appearance incentives, starting at 325 PA.

Previous Dodgers Player Profiles:

None

Stats:

2012 Outlook:

Kennedy is an aging veteran who has managed a 79 OPS+ each of the last two years and played nearly as much first base as second base last season. I am guessing that he hits .181 / .204 / .271 before his July release.

What is your prediction for Adam Kennedy in 2012? Be sure to guess BA/OBP/SLG, and anything else you wish to guess.

Thanks to baseball-reference.com and fangraphs.com for the statistics.

When the Los Angeles Dodgers needed another pitcher in the wake of staff injuries, they purchased the contract of 22-year old Rubby De La Rosa from Double-A Chattanooga. After a couple scintillating relief appearances while pitching in some high-leverage late inning situations, the Dodger brain trust thrust the Dodgers' 2010 Minor League Pitcher of the Year into the starting pitching rotation on June 7 against the Philadelphia Phillies, a game in which De La Rosa would notch his first career major-league victory.

Unfortunately De La Rosa's debut season came to a crashing close after ten starts when he was diagnosed with a torn ulner collateral ligament and underwent "Tommy John" surgery on August 9.

Only three years ago the young Dominican right-hander was barely a blip on the radars of prospect mavens, but True Blue LA's Brandon Lennox did rank De La Rosa as his 51st best prospect in the Dodgers' system (five spots behind current closer Javy Guerra) based mainly on outstanding stats in the 2008 Dominican Summer League.

The following year De La Rosa recorded only 16 1/3 innings pitched in rookie ball, with other non-game action*, but his season was cut short when he was sent home due to unspecified disciplinary reasons. Nevertheless, Lennox moved De La Rosa up to #35 on his pre-2010 Dodgers prospect list, based on strong scouting reports, including this report from ESPN's Keith Law from 2009 Spring Training, "De la Rosa sat at 91-95 mph with a solid changeup from 84-86 that he turns over hard. His breaking ball was a slow curve in the mid-70s, although the harder he threw it the sharper the break became. He clearly has the arm speed to throw a good breaking ball and the laxity in his wrist to throw a curve, so it might just be a matter of development with better coaches as he moves up."

By 2011, De La Rosa was well-known to every prospect watcher thanks to an outstanding 2010 campaign split between single A Great Lakes and Chattanooga and reports of him touching 100 mph with his fastball, and he ranked among the top-8 Dodger prospects in every major publication, with the TBLA community placing him fourth and Lennox listing him fifth in his review. In his interview with Lennox, Dodgers Assistant GM of Player Development DeJon Watson credited De La Rosa's promotion to more than results, "Rubby’s skill set is what caused the Dodgers to promote him to AA. In particular, his poise, his demeanor, his fastball command, and his ability to make adjustments inning to inning and batter to batter." De La Rosa continued to scintillate with the Dodgers AA franchise in 2011, leading to his early recall last year.

Trivia

According to the Dodgers, De La Rosa did not play organized baseball as a child in the Dominican Republic, but instead played a Domincan version of cricket called La Plaquita.

Contract Status

De La Rosa was first added to the 40-man roster last season and never optioned. The Dodgers still hold three options on him. He did exhaust his rookie eligibility. He has accrued 128 days of major-league service time.

Previous Dodgers Player Profiles:

2011: Rubby De La Rosa, A Real Gem

Stats

2012 Outlook

All reports this spring are that De La Rosa rehabilition is entirely on schedule, which would indicate a return to game action sometime mid-summer. If one allows for thirty days of rehab starts in the minors, his readiness for major-league duty might coincide with the September roster expansion. I predict that De La Rosa sees some last month action coming out of the bullpen for the Dodgers, in one or two inning stints with a few days rest in between: 10 IP, 3.60 ERA, 1.4 WHIP.

What is your guess for De La Rosa in 2012? Be sure to give us ERA, Innings Pitched, and WHIP in the comments, plus anything else you wish to guess.

Thanks to baseball-reference.com and fangraphs.com for the statistics.

*DeJon Watson told Lennox, "he threw way more than the listed 16 innings in 2009…the 16 innings are just what you have listed in your book." I take this to mean that it is common for pitchers in the rookie leagues to get some work outside of official games, such as in simulated games.

Southern California native Justin Sellers (Marina High School of Huntington Beach) made his major league debut last year after the Los Angeles Dodgers purchased his contract from Albuquerque on August 12. Sellers provided the Dodgers with some solid defensive play at shortstop, as well as logging some time at the other infield positions.

After having some initial success at the plate in the majors, Sellers, the son of former major-league pitcher Jeff Sellers, tailed off sharply to finish the season with a .584 OPS.

Sellers knows what kinds of corrections he needs to make at the plate to succeed in the majors, telling True Blue LA's Eric Stephen, "I worked on becoming the player that I'm going to have to be to stick here. I used to get out of my comfort zone to try to lift and hit home runs", and he knows whom he needs to pattern himself after, noting that he, "really came to grasp the type of player I can be, by hitting line drives, getting on base, very similar to Jamey Carroll."

The smooth fielding shortstop also recognizes how playing in the dry altitude of Albuquerque can create unwanted temptations for hitters because, "you see that ball jumping out and it makes you want to get some, and I did. But that's not the type of player I'm going to be at [the major-league] level. I understand what type of player I am, and I've been working on it."

Carroll, the former Dodger utility infielder, mentored his young counterpart while both were on the Dodger roster and Sellers spoke well of the veteran, "He talked to me, helped me out, whether it was on the field or off the field, about situations, defense. There is always something to learn in this game, and a veteran like Jamey helped me a lot."

The Bellflower-born Sellers was originally drafted by the Oakland As in 2005, and was subsequently traded to the Chicago Cubs for Michael Wuertz shortly before spring training opened in 2009. At the end of the spring, the Dodgers promised "future considerations" to the Cubs to acquire Sellers.

Our own Brandon Lennox has never ranked Sellers high on his prospect lists, rating him 75th prior to the 2010 season, 48th one year ago, and 34th one month ago stating, "I don’t think he’ll really ever be more than a backup infielder without much pop. His defense should allow him to stay around the league for a while, but he might be someone who bounces around with quite a few teams before his career is done."

Brandon's prediction has merit, but many a good-fielding middle infielder has lasted a long time in the majors if they can OPS around .700. Perhaps Sellers was able to spend some time with Juan Castro also.

Trivia:

Sellers uses the same glove, a shortstop model, whether playing that position, second base, or third base. I hope Joe Morgan never notices that.

Earlier this spring Sellers was part of a group of sons of major-leaguers that hit for a natural cycle in a single inning: Tony Gwynn Jr. singled, Sellers doubled, Ivan DeJesus, Jr. tripled, and then Scott Van Slyke hit a home run.

Contract Status:

Per the True Blue LA Dodgers Payroll Worksheet (big props to Eric), Sellers has accrued 48 days of major league service time and has all three minor-league options remaining. He also barely maintained his rookie eligibility for this season.

Previous Dodgers Player Profiles:

None

Stats:

2012 Outlook:

While Sellers is a candidate to make the 25-man roster for Opening Day, I think he starts the year in AAA Albuquerque as insurance against an injury to shortstop Dee Gordon that would entail a visit to the disabled list, given that Sellers main value is being able to field that position at a major league level. I predict he does gets called up when rosters expand, hitting .235 / .307 / .350 in limited playing time.

What is your prediction for Justin Sellers in 2012? Be sure to guess BA/OBP/SLG, and anything else you wish to guess.

Thanks to baseball-reference.com and fangraphs.com for the statistics.

Ted Lilly pitched four innings of one-hit baseball and James Loney lashed his first home run of the spring as the Los Angeles Dodgers (8-3-2 in the Cactus League) defeated the Texas Rangers 5-2 at Camelback Ranch.

Overall, Dodger pitching allowed only four hits and two walks while striking out seven, with Scott Elbert, Javy Guerra, Wil Ledezma and Scott Rice each hurling one scoreless inning in relief. The only damage Texas did was clubbing two solo home runs while Kenley Jansen was on the mound in the fifth inning.

Loney started the scoring in the second inning, turning on a 2-0 fastball from Texas starter Greg Reynolds and launching a no-doubt shot into the patio umbrellas well beyond the right field wall. Loney's homer came after Andre Ethier led off the inning with a hard double down the left-field line and Juan Rivera earned a walk.

In the following inning a Mark Ellis double and two long fly balls tallied a run, and the Dodgers completed their scoring in the sixth with consecutive singles by Rivera, Loney and Juan Uribe.

Before today's game, manager Don Mattingly talked about Lilly's issues with baserunners last year, when he allowed 35 stole bases at a 95% success rate:

"He made changes last year. Later on in the year he was a little better. He changed his move a little bit....It bothered him to a point. I was trying to [have him] throw over and hold runners and do different stuff, but I said, 'Teddy I can't help you. You're on your own over there. You're going to have to change tempo, throw over. You're going to control the running game. You can do it better than anybody.

"He showed a fairly quick move home, and he'd do a short move over [to first], and he gave enough looks that he slowed the running game down. Second base is tough for him because he's got that turn, and guys got him pretty good going to third.

"It's a defect that you can't defense. All of a sudden they're stealing a run with two outs. If they get a runner, they're going to second. A little walk or an infield single turns into a run with one hit.

"It's a little tough and something we've addressed and talked about...We had Davey [Lopes] talk to the pitchers about what is the toughest thing for basestealers and what can pitchers do to help themselves."

Today Lilly demonstrated another solution to cutting down on steals. The one hit he allowed was a triple to David Murphy, and the only runner in a position to steal was the slow-footed Mike Napoli, who bounced into a fielder's choice immediately following that triple, with Murphy cut down trying to score. No viable base runners, no stolen bases, QED.

Dee Gordon looked to continue the base running excitement from yesterday when he stole second base without a pitch being thrown, but he was ruled out on a dubious call while attempting a conventional steal after grounding a single up the middle in the first inning. Mattingly commented on the dimension Gordon's speed brings to the game:

"Base stealers are kind of like daredevils....I don't think there's going to be anything that stops Dee. If he's getting thrown out all the time doing something silly, then we'll talk about it. But we're going to be aggressive, we're going to keep running, and we're going to keep going. [Gordon] taking a chance like that, it sets the tone for the game.

"Speed is a pain. When Scioscia had all those rabbit over there, it was a pain in the butt.You know they're going first to third. When they get guys on base, they're running. It's just frustrating with teams like that. We've got some guys like that, and were going to take advantage of it."

This was Loney's first game back after taking a couple days off with calf soreness This caused Mattingly to quip, "he knew he needed a couple of days off. He knew exactly what he needed." But even after losing a couple days of training, Loney was showing timing that his manager liked, "what I do see is good timing from James. In the past you'd see all kind of different triggers. He'd step back one day, then would be wide. He would try to sit [in his stance] one day then he'd be tall. His hands would be up, his hands would be down. You'd see a variety of things. But now he looks the same. He looks like he's found his rhythm."

Notes

• Mattingly said today's lineup was essentially his basic starting order for the regular season.
• Ethier's second-inning double was his sixth extra-base hit in eight spring training games.
• Matt Guerrier's back stiffness is improving. He threw yesterday on flat ground and was scheduled to do so today also. Mattingly mentioned that it would be "a few more days" before he throws from a mound, adding, "we don't want to let this thing linger, so we want to try to nip it right now and get him going forward toward the regular season."
• The Dodgers announced that their next two games are Camelback Ranch are sold out. Saturday night features fireworks post-game, and one Sunday is against the Angels who may have added a player of interest.

Up Next

The Dodgers will have split-squads tomorrow, traveling to Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in Scottsdale to face the Colorado Rockies in the 1:05 P.M. game with Nathan Eovaldi making the start, while taking on the San Francisco Giants at Camelback Ranch in the night game at 7:05 P.M facing Aaron Harang.

Also scheduled to pitch for the Dodgers on Saturday afternoon are: Alberto Castillo, Fernando Nieve, Will Savage and Ryan Tucker. The additional pitchers for the night game are Jamey Wright, Ramon Troncoso, Josh Lindblom and Matt Chico.

Today's Particulars

Home Runs: James Loney (1), Brandon Snyder, Alberto Gonzales

WP - Ted Lilly (2-1): 4 IP, 1 hit, 2 strikeouts

LP - Greg Reynolds: 3+ IP, 7 hits, 4 runs, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts

Sv - Scott Rice: 1 hit

Like so many AAAA ballplayers, Trent Oeltjen has traveled a long road to accrue a small amount of major-league playing time, most recently with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but more than most given that he started that journey in Sydney, Australia.

After beginning his minor-league career by signing with the Minnesota Twins as an 18-year old free agent, the left-hand hitting outfielder spent time in the Arizona Diamondbacks and Milwaukee Brewers organizations, including 74 plate appearances in his major-league debut season with the 2009 Arizona club. Technically the Dodgers have signed Oeltjen as a free agent twice, once after his release from the Brewers in 2010, and again this past off-season after non-tendering him.

Last year the Dodgers purchased Oeltjen's contract on June 9th and he managed to finish out the year on the 25-man roster, but only accumulating 91 plate appearances in the process, less than the number of games we was on the roster (96). Not surprising for the man who led the Dodgers in appearances as a pinch-hitter in 2011, however, hit only .167/.286/.208 in that capacity.

Trivia:

Oeltjen won a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics as a member of the Australian baseball team. However that wasn't his first Olympic experience: in the 2000 Sydney Summery Olympics he was a batboy, including working for the U.S. team managed by Tommy Lasorda in the gold-medal game against Cuba.

The lefty hit an inside-the-park home run last season in Colorado.

He is the fourth Australian native to play for the Dodgers, following in the footsteps of Craig Shipley, Luke Prokopec, and Jeff Williams.

Contract Status:

Per the True Blue LA Dodgers Payroll Worksheet (big props to Eric), Oeltjen will make around the major-league minimum if he is on the 25-man roster as he is currently on a minor league deal. He is out of options.

Previous Dodgers Player Profiles:

2011: Although we wrote 49 profiles last year and Oeltjen was in camp, his wasn't one of them.

Stats:

2012 Outlook:

Although he is out of options, Oeltjen is still a longshot to make the opening-day roster for a team that has four outfielders definitely ahead of him on the depth chart - Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Juan Rivera, Tony Gwynn Jr., - and another competent, experienced outfielder in utilityman Jerry Hairston Jr. on the bench. My prediction is that Oeltjen doesn't make the opening-day roster, accepts an assignment to Albuquerque, hits reasonably well there, then has his contract purchased by the Dodgers on August 1 after a deadline deal sends Andre Ethier to Boston.

What is your prediction for Trent Oeltjen in 2012? Be sure to guess BA/OBP/SLG, and anything else you wish to guess.

Thanks to baseball-reference.com and fangraphs.com for the statistics.

Nathan Eovaldi lasted until the 11th round of the 2008 Major League Baseball amateur draft, partly due to his already having had Tommy John surgery as a high school junior, and partly because of signability concerns arising from his scholarship offer to Texas A&M, a strong lure for the native of Alvin, TX. Nonetheless, Logan White and the Los Angeles Dodgers prevailed by offering the young right-hander $250,000 to sign on the dotted line.

The Dodgers continued to be aggressive with Eovaldi when it came to his development. After less than 11 innings in rookie ball after signing that year, the Dodgers placed him with their A-ball club in Great Lakes as a 19-year old the following year. While injuries curtailed some of his 2010 season, spent mostly with Inland Empire, after 19 starts last year with AA Chattanooga, Eovaldi made his major-league debut in the Dodgers rotation, replacing a fellow phenom felled with ulnar collateral ligament damage, Rubby De La Rosa.

Eovaldi picked up a win in that first start while striking out seven batters in the eventual NL West championship Arizona Diamondbacks lineup, and continued to intrigue Dodger fans by working in three quality starts and a five-inning, one-run outing against the soon to be World Champion St. Louis Cardinals among his six total starts.

The hurler finished out the season in the Dodgers bullpen, in a move designed to limit his usage. The 137+ innings Eovaldi amassed in the majors and minors combined was roughly 40% more than he accrued in either of the previous two seasons of minor league play, so tapering off his pitching activity was perhaps prudent.

You can see what our resident prospect hound Brandon Lennox had to say about the hard-throwing right-hander when he named Eovaldi the Dodgers #6 prospect going into this spring training, compared to the TBLA crowd-sourcing tapping him for #3 on their list. Both Lennox and occasional TBLA contributor Chad Moriyama, who also rated the young Texan #3 on his Dodgers prospect list, caution that Eovaldi's career may be made as a relief pitcher, with Moriyama putting it this way (emphasis mine):

...although there’s more risk to Webster, I think there’s more upside as well. Eovaldi can improve his breaking pitches, but not enough to be more than a #3 starter, and I think ending up as a reliever is a definite possibility.

On paper, Eovaldi profiles as a pitcher who is a bit too wild (see the walk rates in the stats box below), without a high enough strikeout rate to offset that, although there are flashes of dominance. But something Eovaldi does seems to have adverse effects on hitters, because he has held down the hit rates (6.6 H/9 in AA, 7.3 in the NL last year) and appears to suppress home runs, having allowed only 8 round-trippers in his entire minor-league career of 308 IP, a nearly microscopic rate of 0.2 HR/9. Admittedly his major league numbers are a small sample size, but for those 34.2 innings he yielded only two dingers, to a couple reasonably powerful batsmen: Lance Berkman and Dan Uggla. As a whole, major-leaguers hit .230/.347/.320 against the 21-year old in 2011.

Trivia

Only one other Dodgers (LA or Brooklyn) pitcher made exactly six starts in his debut season and he also looked like a hard-throwing, somewhat wild righty that gave hitters a tough time at the plate:

If Eovaldi has a career anywhere near as good as Ramon Martinez did after debuting in 1988, I think we can consider the 11th round of 2008 a complete success.

The odds that Eovaldi will be the best pitcher ever from his alma mater, Alvin High School are about 0.000000000000001%. Approximately.

Contract Status

Eovaldi was first added to the 40-man roster last season and never optioned. The Dodgers still hold three options on him. He also still has rookie status.

Previous Dodgers Player Profiles:

None.

Stats

2012 Outlook

With a relatively lackluster group of starting pitchers in the non-roster invitee group for spring training, Eovaldi, having already gotten his feet wet in the majors, may be considered by Dodger brass as the sixth starter, the man to call up if and when the first rotation opening crops up. And with their injury history, Aaron Harang and Chris Capuano are no locks to each make all 32 of their scheduled starts. I'll guess that Eovaldi starts the year in the minors, but is recalled to fill a rotation void in July, and posts 66 IP, with a 4.25 ERA and a 1.42 WHIP.

What is your guess for Eovaldi in 2012? Be sure to give us ERA, Innings Pitched, and WHIP in the comments, plus anything else you wish to guess.

Thanks to baseball-reference.com and fangraphs.com for the statistics.

If he can stay healthy, Chris Capuano may be a stable presence as the fifth starter in the Dodgers 2012 pitching rotation. Of course for Capuano staying healthy has always been the challenge.

The left-handed starting pitcher was an Arizona Diamondbacks farmhand and former second-round draft pick the first time he had his ulnar collateral ligament replaced via Tommy John surgery. After being included in a trade package for Richie Sexson, Capuano struggled down the stretch for the Milwaukee Breweres in 2007. Apparently he was less than 100% as he had surgery for a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder that off-season, only to tear his UCL again the following spring, consequently missing two full major league seasons (2008-2009). In 2010 he made seven minor league starts before returning to a major-league roster in June.

However, Capuano feels ready to attack the 2012 season head on. Speaking to reporters yesterday after pitching in the Dodgers intersquad game, he remarked,

"The last two offseasons have been normal in terms of being able to train as much as I want to with no restrictions. Really the last two offseasons from the throwing, the lifting, and working out standpoint, have been great, with no issues."

and he feels that he is in a better frame of mind now, having had those injury experiences,

"After what I went through, missing 2008 and 2009, I had to come to a certain sense of peace to say whatever happens I'm okay with it. Now, I just enjoy every day I'm out here. When you're injured, you can't imagine what it's like to be better, but when you're feeling good you don't ever thing about getting hurt."

Being able to complete a full season last year with the New York Mets helped provide Capuano with both a new two-year contract, and some reinforcement from baseball management:

"It's one thing for me to say at 33 I feel as good and as strong as I did at 25, but it's another thing for a team to look at what you've done the past couple years and think that to by the way you look. It's good validation for a lot of hard work."

The Duke alumnus may be a thinking man's pitcher, having been the valedictorian in his class and graduating with a degree in economics. However, when questioned by reporters about his smarts, he downplayed it with a laugh:

"I've been accused of being book smart but not street smart."

Capuano's fastball averages under 88 mph, so he mixes in sliders and changeups for over 40% of his pitches. While he has been able to manage his pitch repertoire to outthink batters to a career 7.5 K/9 rate, he has also been susceptible to the longball with a HR/9 rate of 1.3. On another aspect of mind games, the lefty has a reputation for holding runners on base well, leading the majors in 2005 with 12 pickoffs of base runners.

While he has a justified reputation as a fly-ball pitcher, Fangraph's Dave Cameron did note that Capuano has an unusual split, where he is very much a fly-ball pitcher against right-handed batters (37% prior to 2011), but transforms into a ground-ball pitchers versus his fellow southpaws (54%).

Trivia

Capuano is married to the former Sarah Clifford, who was a heptathlete at Duke. The rumors that Logan White already wants to draft their children are unconfirmed.

Along with other Brewers teammates, Capuano appeared in an episode of the CBS daytime serial The Young and the Restless on June 20, 2007. He arrives a bit late to participate in the Dodger ownership soap opera, but perhaps the Hollywood proximity was an additional draw for him.

Contract Status

Per the True Blue LA Salary page, Capuano receives $3 million in 2012, with an $6 million salary greeting him in 2013. There are also several incentives clauses. For 2014 there is a mutual option with a buyout of $1 million. Given that Capuano has had Tommy John surgery in 2002 and 2008, 2014 might be the year to miss.

Previous Dodgers Player Profiles:

None.

Stats

2012 Outlook

The Dodgers hope that Capuano can stay healthy and hold down a spot in the back of the rotation, not just for 2012, but the following season as well. The Bill James projection system thinks he can, at least this coming season, while the other expect to see some time lost. I think the 33-year old can manage to stay healthy for at least this next season, record a 4.31 ERA in 185 IP, with a 1.35 WHIP.

What is your guess for Capuano in 2012? Be sure to give us ERA, Innings Pitched, and WHIP in the comments, plus anything else you wish to guess.

Thanks to baseball-reference.com and fangraphs.com for the statistics.

Eric Stephen contributed significantly to this report.

When Tony Gwynn Jr. was acquired by the Dodgers last off-season, we knew about his excellent reputation as as defensive outfielder, and it didn't take long to see it pay off. On April 29, after entering the contest as a late-inning defensive replacement, Gwynn saved a shaky Jonathan Broxton's considerable bacon with a game-ending diving catch in left field of a Nick Hundley liner that looked poised to drive home the tying and go-ahead runs for his former team, the San Diego Padres.

The son of Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn has the fielding metrics to back up the eyeball judgment that rate him an elite fielder, at least with the leather. His career UZR/150 in CF is a sparkling 17.2 and as on overall OF, 21.1. To my eye, Gwynn displays just enough arm to keep base runners reasonably honest and gather a few assists here and there, though I rarely expect to gun down players at the plate.

The other above-average skill Gwynn possesses is for base running. The speedy nephew of ex-Dodger Chris Gwynn notched a career-high 22 steals in 2012, at a more than acceptable 78.6% success rate.

It is at the plate where Gwynn does not excel. His 84 OPS+ in the last campaign, buoyed by a career-high slugging percentage, raised his career mark to 77, which is in the currently unemployed Aaron Miles' neighborhood, for example.

It may not be enough of a sample size to be significant, but prior to last season, Gwynn boasted a generally increasing walk rate that peaked at 12.1% in 2010 (that would have been 4th on the Dodgers that year), but in the last campaign that plunged down to 6.8%.

All told, that still makes Gwynn a useful player on a major-league bench, especially one that expects to employ Juan Rivera in left-field a significant amount of the time.

The younger Gwynn had some recent off-season distractions as his famous father endured a successful 14-hour surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his cheek.

Trivia:

Gwynn is one of two Dodgers in camp that have been involved in trades including Jody Gerut. The other is Josh Bard, in different deals.

His sister is hip-hopper Anisha Nicole whose song "No Means No" reached number three on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart in 2003.

Contract Status:

Per the True Blue LA Dodgers Payroll Worksheet (big props to Eric), Gwynn signed a two-year deal that will pay him $850,000 this year and $1.15 million for 2013 and covers his remaining arbitration-eligible years. He has no options remaining.

Previous Dodgers Player Profiles:

2011: Tony Gwynn, Jr., Have Glove, Will Travel

Stats:

2012 Outlook:

Gwynn is what he is, a 4th/5th OF who will see playing time as a defensive replacement, in spot starts and some pinch-hitting and pinch-running duty. I imagine him batting .249/.320/.325 in 2012, in 225 PA.

What is your prediction for Tony Gwynn, Jr. in 2012? Be sure to guess BA/OBP/SLG, and anything else you wish to guess.

Thanks to baseball-reference.com and fangraphs.com for the statistics.

Josh Bard was originally a third-round draft pick of the Colorado Rockies in the 1999 draft. Twelve and one-half years and five organizations (Cleveland, Boston, San Diego, Washington, Seattle) later, the switch-hitting catcher finds himself with a minor league contract at age 34 (almost, his birthday is March 30) with the Los Angeles Dodgers, vying for a major-league job, but behind A.J. Ellis and Matt Treanor on the backstop depth chart.

As a batter, Bard's career breaks into two neat categories, his 20s and his 30s:

Age? The pitchers found his weakness and he never adjusted? Injuries (in his age-30 season he missed 67 games with ankle and tricep problems)? Whatever the cause, his offensive production has tailed off precipitously over the last four seasons.

Being a switch-hitter may have enhanced his career opportunities a bit, but Bard's splits unfortunately show him to be a better right-handed batter:

Too bad, reverse those splits, and he becomes a more interesting backup complement to a right-hand hitting starting catcher like Ellis.

Last season was a challenge for Bard. During the offseason he was involved (as a passenger) in a fatal automobile accident that claimed the life of his "long-time friend". (His own injuries were minor.) Then he didn't make the Seattle Mariners roster out of Spring Training and began the year with their AAA affiliate. He only made it back to the majors after Seattle suffered injuries to three catchers, including two in one game in May.

As a catcher, the general reports on Bard is that he is a good receiver of pitchers, but not particularly adept at dealing with base runners.

Trivia:

Bard had one of the best views of the famous "4+1 game" where the Dodgers hit four consecutive home runs leading off the ninth inning to tie the game, and a two-run home run in the tenth inning to win, because he was the Padre backstop from the seventh inning on that night in Dodger Stadium. He also drove in the Padres go-ahead run in the tenth, with a single off Aaron Sele.

Last season Bard had a foul tip become lodged in his face mask (video). In case you were wondering, had there been two strikes on the batter, I believe that would not be ruled a strikeout, but merely a foul ball.

Contract Status:

Bard signed a minor-league contract with the Dodgers in December, with an invitation to Spring Training. Bard will earn a reported $750,000 if he makes the team, per Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.

Previous Dodgers Player Profiles:

N/A

Stats:

2012 Outlook:

If either Ellis or Treanor flail in the first couple months of the season, it is possible that Bard would be the first player promoted from the minors to try his hand at catching in LA. That probably depends on the development of Tim Fedorowicz, who is likely to be sharing backstop duties in Albuquerque with Bard to begin 2012. Also, if a minor injury were to fell one of the first two Dodger catchers, it is possible that management would prefer Bard in a short-term major-league assignment rather than have Fed-Ex ride the pine in the Show. Either scenario would require finding room for Bard on the 40-man roster, of which he is not currently a member.

I'll guess that Bard makes a short appearance at Chavez Ravine-on-Avon (obligatory Shakespearen reference) and collects 2 singles and no walks in 11 plate appearances. (That's .182/.182/.182).

What is your prediction for Josh Bard in 2012? Be sure to guess BA/OBP/SLG, and anything else you wish to guess.

Thanks to baseball-reference.com and fangraphs.com for the statistics.

When Matt Guerrier was inked by the Los Angeles Dodgers to a three-year deal for $12 million prior to last season, the general feeling was that that seemed like a pretty long commitment to a middle reliever on the high side of 30. According to Aaron Gleeman, Guerrier seemed Boston-bound that offseason, but then Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein balked at the notion of a three-year deal for such a moundsman.

But what Dodgers GM Ned Colletti valued from Guerrier was his ability to stay healthy and continue to take the ball throughout the season. In fact, Guerrier is one of only five relievers to accumulate 500 or more innings over the last seven seasons.

Colletti was right about Guerrier's availability. The right-hander chalked up another 66 1/3 innings in 2011 for Los Angeles, with his only time off the roster due to his taking paternity leave at the beginning of September for the birth of his son Jack. Three-quarters of those frames were accrued by his appearing in the seventh or eighth innings of games.

The one-time White Sox draftee has endured a career path not unlike so many middle relievers - toiling in the minors full-time through age-25, traded for Damaso Marte, waived by Pittsburgh, claimed by Minnesota - but that changed when his endurance finally paid off with the multi-year, eight-digit contract Guerrier signed in December 2010 with the Dodgers.

One thing that has changed for the Cleveland native is his pitch selection over the two most recent campaigns. Guerrier has increased the usage of his slider about 20% in each of the last two seasons, with most the offsetting decrease coming from hurling the fastball less. Adjustments? Increasing craftiness? Concession to age? You'll have to be the judge of that.

It's also somewhat interesting to note that Guerrier is one of those pitchers that seems to manage to outperform his peripherals time and time again. His ERA has been lower than his FIP in all but two of his full-time major-league seasons (2008 and last year), and in only 2008 did his ERA exceed his xFIP.

Trivia

Guerrier is the only pitcher with exactly one save in each of the last six seasons.

Guerrier is one of the PECOTA comparables for newly acquired relief hurler Todd Coffey.

With a name that is the French word for "warrior", he makes nice pairing with bullpen-mate Javy Guerra, whose family name is Spanish for "war".

Contract Status

Per the True Blue LA Salary page, Guerrier will be paid $4.75 million in 2012. His contract expires after the 2013 season, but his payments continue on into the following season.

Previous Dodgers Player Profiles:

2011: Matt Guerrier, Ready For A New Frontier

Stats

2012 Outlook

The projections all seem to think Guerrier will have an ever-so-slight reduction in innings pitched, and with results in the neighborhood of his Guerrier-averages. Curiously ZiPS projects the best peripherals, but with the worst results. One might think the righty is due for a decline, but I think he will continue to give a workman-like performance out of the bullpen and tally 68 innings pitched with a 3.49 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP, with most of his appearance coming in the sixth and seventh innings this year.

What is your guess for Guerrier in 2012? Be sure to give us ERA, Innings Pitched, and WHIP in the comments, plus anything else you wish to guess.

Thanks to baseball-reference.com and fangraphs.com for the statistics.

Recently I noticed that True Blue LA has had a number of visitors via a search of the phrase "Why is [was] Jackie Robinson important?" in various internet search engines. Presumably these visitors are mostly young students researching an assignment for a school project relating to February being African-American History Month. After they took a wide-eyed gander at the frivolity we engage in here, I hope our visitors found the information they were seeking, as well as visiting the website for the Jackie Robinson Foundation, initiated by his widow, Rachel Robinson, a tremendous woman in her own right, and an embodiment of the Jackie Robinson quote in the headline above.

I am far from qualified to discuss the historical impact of Jackie Robinson, African-American history, and the state of race relations in the United States in 1947. (Nor is this an invitation to get political in the comments section. It is not.) To state it simply, 65 years ago, when baseball was segregated (as was significant portions of this country), yet truly the National Pastime, as popular then as the NFL is today, it must have taken tremendous amounts of courage to be the man to break the "color line" in major league baseball.

This year will mark the 65th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut in the Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers. On April 15, 2012, the Los Angeles Dodgers will host the San Diego Padres in a Sunday day game, during which I assume major league baseball will, for the fourth consecutive year, continue the new tradition of having all the players wear the number 42, otherwise retired from all of Major League Baseball*. The Dodgers, as is their tradition, will honor Robinson before the game as well.

Consider coming out to Dodger Stadium for that game on what will hopefully be a beautiful spring afternoon in Los Angeles. Then, as well as now, are fine times to reflect on what life must have been like in those times for the men and women who faced formidable obstacles that might be difficult, for some, to imagine today, yet persevered in the face of those challenges with grace and dignity, like the Robinson family did.

As an aside, I'd like to note that in 1946, the NFL reintegrated after a period of unofficial, but de facto segregation, as a condition for the relocated Cleveland Rams to play their home games in the Coliseum. The first African-American player to sign (with the Los Angeles Rams) and reintegrate the NFL that year was Kenny Washington, the All-American backfield teammate of Robinson on the UCLA football team of the early 1940s, and a graduate of Los Angeles's Lincoln High School as well.

The field decoration at Dodger Stadium for Jackie Robinson Day five years ago.

*except for the grandfathered, and grandfather-aged, Mariano Rivera, the last active major-league wearing #42.

The long awaited photos from the Dodger Blogger Softball Tournament are here! Much thanks to mleadman for taking the photos with my camera that was unfamiliar to him*. Click on the photos below to see them larger on flickr in a new tab/window, and from there click again to see even larger. Or simply view the entire set on flickr in set view in a new tab/window and click through as you like. Or view in my overall flickr photostream in a new tab/window.

In case you haven't seen them, here are some posts from other blogs about the tournament, all with photos.

Dodger Thoughts - link is to his last post, but check out all his posts dated February 11th.

Opinion of Kingman's Performance

Joo SooHoo's Dodger Photog Blog

Crzblue - Emma played for OoKP.

The LFP - our organizer

Austin Passy - played on an LFP team.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Sons of Steve Garvey - they had many posts, but they also had these curious comments in their game thread:

karina said...

*clapclapclapclap*

2/11/2012 10:35 AM Steve Sax said...

*chlamydiachlamydiachlamydiachlamydia*

2/11/2012 10:36 AM Dusty Baker said...

STIs all around!

But enough about the TBLA wives.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Let the record show we trounced those assorted bastards 22 - 5.

Thanks again to Mike Brown of the Left Field Pavilion blog for coming up with the idea and organizing the tournament. The event was a fundraiser for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Click here to read about them and donate.

Thanks to all the players for participating, and thanks to bhsportsguy, mleadman and iiidown for coming out to cheer us on.

* Jon SooHoo and Fenway photos by me.

Two years ago the Dodgers signed a good fielding, right-hand hitting utility infielder with a career 83 OPS+ to a guaranteed two-year contract for his age 36 and 37 seasons, for what many observers, including this one, considered a bit too much money and a year more than necessary. But Jamey Carroll silenced his critics by being a league average hitter while accruing far more playing time for the Dodgers than most imagined.

Carroll has moved on to Minnesota, so enter Jerry Hairston, Jr., who begins his Dodgers career with similar baseball skill credentials (86 OPS+, not quite as good an infielder, but a better outfielder, right-handed), with an equal-length, but richer contract (two years, $6M), and while also viewing his age-35 season in the rear-view mirror.

Carrying a lot of gloves in one's baseball bag, and being able to wield them decently can be a profitable exercise, as Hairston has parlayed those skills - he has appeared at every position except pitcher and catcher, and at least 436 innings at all of those spots except first base - into a 14-year career encompassing nearly 4500 plate appearances, and about $15 million in career major-league earnings.

As an offensive player, Hairston's career breaks up into three segments:

Perhaps wisdom of age allowed him to figure something out about his swing and turn him into a league-average hitter, but one might think that betting on that continuing at age 36, and for two seasons, may not be the wisest course of action.

Trivia:

Hairston hails from a multi-generational baseball family. His brother Scott Hairston will open his ninth MLB season this spring in his second year with the New York Mets. They are the sons of Jerry Hairston, longtime White Sox pinch-hitter / outfielder, and nephews of John Hairston, a cup of coffee Chicago Cub of the ill-fated 1969 season. Going back another generation, the father of the elder Jerry Hairston, Sam Hairston, finished his major league career with a whopping .400 / .571 / .600 batting line!

Because Jerry debuted before his brother Scott, he became the first third-generation African-American major-league baseball player.

The Dodgers are Hairston's eighth team. The journeyman has called every division of the major home except for the AL Central.

Ring in a box: he's got one. Hairston was a deadline day acquisition of the 2009 New York Yankees, and has appeared in more playoff series than Matt Kemp despite 2009 being his first post-season appearance, having returned to playoff action last season with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Contract Status:

(Sponsored by Ripley's Believe It Or Not) For his age 36 and 37 seasons, Hairston will earn $6 million guaranteed, or about $1.9 million more than any two-year span in his career. $2.25 million of that backloaded deal is due in 2012.

Previous Dodgers Player Profiles:

2011: Jamey Carroll, Gritty Grinding Gamer

2010: Jamey Carroll, the Multi-Year Man

Stats:

2012 Outlook:

Hairston would appear to be cast in the bench/utility player role for the Dodgers. If he accrues a large number of at-bats in 2012, that would probably indicate that things went south for one of more of Juan Uribe, Mark Ellis, or Dee Gordon. (It is unclear to me if the Dodgers would be willing to go with Hairston as an everyday SS, but the other choices would seem to be Uribe or Justin Sellers, so take your pick.)

If Pecota's playing time projection for Hairston is right, especially with a TSL like that, the soft flesh of my wrists will look mighty tempting to my kitchen knives. Of course they list his "comparables" as "Art Howe, Mike Lowell, (four-time batting champion) Bill Madlock", so take that for what it is worth.

Other than that, the projections generally are in line with my expectations, so I will guess that Hairston bats .251 / .329 / .368 while scrapping up 288 plate appearances.

What is your guess for Hairston in 2012? Be sure to guess BA/OBP/SLG, and anything else you wish to guess.

Thanks to baseball-reference.com and fangraphs.com for the statistics.

While we are on the threshold of starting spring training, apparently the NFL has something going on today in which Madonna is involved.

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Will the True Blue LA team look something like this?

The Dodger blog The Left Field Pavilion (The LFP) is coordinating a Dodger Blog Softball Tournament (this links to their tournament info page) to be held on Saturday, February 11, 2012 at Big League Dreams in West Covina. (Check out the replica ballparks at their link!)

Some of you have already signed up, which is awesoke. The LFP has to put a reservation deposit on the field on December 1, so they'd like to have a rough idea of how many teams to plan for. And signing up is separate from paying the nominal $35 playing fee for the guarantee of at least three games, so you can do them at different times.

Don't forget to select True Blue LA as your primary team!

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Latest Update:

Here is the roster so far:

Here are the top twenty Dodger prospects as voted by you, the True Blue LA community.

The list is also displayed on the left side bar. Note that MLB's rookie eligibility status was used as the cut off for prospects, thus players like Javy Guerra and Josh Lindblom were not eligible.

Copious props to Brandon Lennox for conducting the voting and for his tireless work here on the Dodgers prospects.

CanuckDodger is a respected prospect maven, longtime friend of True Blue LA and Dodger Thoughts, and his Dodger prospect review for the 2010 season was published in the Maple Street Press Dodgers Annual 2010. Each offseason he shares his current Dodgers top-30 prospects list. The rest of the words that follow are his.

***

Later than usual with my rankings this year, but here they are. Guerra and Lindblom are ranked because I follow Baseball America in ignoring MLB service time and just count MLB innings and AB’s. And I really have to note something that strikes me as significant: In all the years I have been doing these lists, there has never been a year when so many players have appeared to me so debatable in their merits to the point of their rankings resembling something close to random. Of course the rankings you see reflect my considered opinion and best judgment, but looking over the list once I was finished, I had the sense that I almost could have come up with something similar if I had just drawn the names out of a hat for each slot. Ours, right now, is not a farm system with "sex appeal," and I expect the likes of BA and BP to be very unimpressed, but I see a lot of depth, promise, and possibility if little — or maybe nothing — that will get people’s pulses racing.

(01). Nathan Eovaldi, RHP
(02). Allen Webster, RHP
(03). Zach Lee, RHP
(04). Garrett Gould, RHP
(05). Joc Pederson, OF
(06). Javy Guerra, RHP
(07). Tim Federowicz, C
(08). Josh Lindblom, RHP
(09). Angel Sanchez, RHP
(10). Scott Van Slyke, OF/1B
(11). Alfredo Silverio, OF
(12). Angelo Songco, 1B
(13). Shawn Tolleson, RHP
(14). Griff Erickson, C
(15). Chris Withrow, RHP
(16). Chris Reed, LHP
(17). Steve Ames, RHP
(18). Aaron Miller, LHP
(19). Jonathan Garcia, OF
(20). Ethan Martin, RHP
(21). James Baldwin III, OF
(22).Josh Wall, RHP
(23). Cole St. Clair, LHP
(24). Jake Lemmerman, SS
(25). Noel Cuevas, OF
(26). Alex Castellanos, OF
(27). O’Koyea Dickson, 1B
(28). Blake Smith, OF
(29). Matt Magill, RHP
(30). Ivan DeJesus, Jr., 2B

Is there anything else that could frighten you as much as that thing that was pictured in the FanShot that linked you here? Well, maybe there are, maybe there aren't. I have a few other potential options listed, but feel free to come up with your own from your fertile, furtive, and festering imagination. I'm sure there are a number of ghoulish possibilities I've neglected to name. Vote here, vote now, vote often, vote imaginatively.