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Hot corner a concern for the Dodgers

Third base has turned into an area of concern for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team has already lost 3 of them during the course of spring training. Where does that leave them? With minor leaguer Blake DeWitt as their Opening Day third baseman, barring a last minute trade. I’m sure Dodgers fans are even going who the hell is DeWitt?

DeWitt played at AA - Jacksonville last season but only logged 168 plate appearances there, with a .281 avg 6 hr and 20 rbis. No doubt, the guy put up some decent numbers but with so little experience there the plan was to start him off there and let him to continue progress. General Manager Ned Colletti has conceded he won’t be an offensive threat at all but should play good enough defense to warrant him being at third till players start to return from injury. The Dodgers wounded include Nomar Garciaparra, Andy LaRoche and Tony Abreu.

Due to the injuries the team has been exploring trade options. They’ve tried to contact the Houston Astros but were told Mark Loretta was unavailable. They’ve also contacted the Kansas City Royals regarding Esteban German. The Dodgers were willing to move pitchers Jonathan Meloan and Miguel Pinango for German, but the Royals held out and demanded Chin-Lung Hu. Thats a price the Dodgers weren’t willing to spend for a stop-gap third baseman. Especially, with German being more of a second baseman and Hu being a valuable back-up for the shortstop position.

This doesn’t look good for the Dodgers who have high hopes this season. The first one expected back is LaRoche but thats not till early May as he recovers from surgery on his right thumb. DeWitt did flash some power Saturday night homering off Jonathan Papelbon at the Colisseum, but don’t expect much of that yet from the 22-year old.

MLB drug suspensions delayed

Kansas City Royals Jose Guillen and Baltimore Orioles Jay Gibbons both had their suspensions pushed back. As the commissioner’s office and player’s union get closer to a deal it was decided that these suspensions would be pushed back 10 days. If the negotiations reach a stand still within those times, you can look for both players to have to serve 15 games. If a deal is reached on a new drug agreement, OR talks are still progressing then these suspensions will most likely be voided.

For the Orioles, they can’t be to pleased as Jay Gibbons doesn’t have much to offer the team anymore. Without the suspension, Gibbons will occupy the last spot on the Orioles roster. Doing so will keep Tike Redman and Scott Moore off the team, players that both are better options. Gibbons is almost untradeable as well, as he’ll be making $11.9 million over the next 2 years. Should be interesting to see if he’ll be on the trade market, or even just cut all together.

MLB and Union closer to new drug rules

Major League Baseball and the players union are getting closer to stricter drug policies. There’s not much yet released on what this could include other then making the testing tougher and strengthen the authority of the independent program administrator. A new agreement thou could make thing easier on supposed offenders in the pre-tougher rule days. This would mean reduced or completely eliminated suspensions for Kansas City Royals Jose Guillen and Baltimore Orioles Jay Gibbons.

The new deal would most likely eliminate those suspensions. The reason being is the two never actually failed a drug test, they’ve only been linked to drug suppliers. This would be great news for the Royals as Guillen is one of their key acquisitions and this team could definitely use his pop.

MLB Injury Update, 3/26

Here’s today injury update from around Major League Baseball. Today we’ve got updates on the Yankees, Royals, Cubs, Rangers, Twins, Padres, Giants, Mets, Brewers and Angels. Like usual its a long read.

• San Francisco Giants - Kevin Frandsen - Ruptured Achilles tendon. This is an unfortunate injury that will cost Frandsen the entire baseball season. Surgery is needed but has not been scheduled yet. He’s expected to be on crutches for around two months after he does have the surgery. Eugneio Velez should take over his backup role
• Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - Scot Shields - Inflamed forearm. An MRI revealed no ligament damage which is a good thing. He’s still expected to start the season on the disabled list. He pretty much just needs to stay behind in extended spring training to get some more action in before facing major leaguers. “He’ll need to pitch and to work out some things, and he can do that better in camp games,” Scioscia said. “If we back-date a DL stint, he’d only miss the first six or seven games. It’s worth the price to pay short term, rather than risk a month or two of the season because he’s doing something he’s not ready for.”
• Kansas City Royals - Hideo Nomo - pulled groin. Nomo pulled his groin in a start Tuesday against the San Diego Padres. He’s now expected to start the season in the minors as he won’t be ready to pitch come opening day. He was already a long shot to make the roster thou.
• Chicago Cubs - Mark DeRosa - sinusitis. This guy has had one rough spring. First an irregular heartbeat, then the flu, now he’s missing game due to sinusitis. The good news for him thou is that the team has finally decided to break off negotiations with the Baltimore Orioles’ about Brian Roberts. His job as the starting second baseman is safe.
• San Diego Padres - Jim Edmonds - strained right calf. Edmonds feels his strained right calf is finally healed enough to at least attempt game action. He’s been running and working out on the side. He will test the calf out this upcoming week in minor league games. He’s still expected to start the season on the DL, just to get in his at-bats.
• Milwaukee Brewers - Yovani Gallardo - knee surgery. Gallardo made his second minor league start today in his recovery from arhroscopic knee surgery. He went three innings giving up one hit and a walk, but no runs. He’s expected to re-join the team in mid-April after a brief DL stint as he is working on strengthening that knee.
• Texas Rangers - Luis Mendoza - finger blister. Mendoza will start the season on the DL because of the blister. This injury really doesn’t affect the rotation thou as he’s the fifth starter and won’t be needed till April 12th. This is more just to get an extra reliever on the Rangers roster during that time. Mendoza will start on the 12th when needed
• Minnesota Twins - Carlos Gomez - left hamstring cramping. The injury isn’t as severe as originally thought. During today’s game, Gomez came up lame after going to the left-center field gap to make a play. The way it looked, it seemed like a strained or pull but luckily it was just cramping. He’ll be considered day-to-day as the team will take it easy with their starting center fielder since this is the hamstring that caused him to miss a few games last season.
• New York Mets - Moises Alou - hernia surgery. Alou showed up at training camp today for the first time since having hernia surgery on March 6th. The recovery time is 4 to 6 weeks, and Alou is hopping to be cleared to at least start jogging shortly. He’s definitely starting the season on the DL with an estimated return of late April, early May.
• Mets - Ramon Castro - strained hamstring. Castro hasn’t played in a game since March 16th and may need to start the season on the DL now. He recently suffered a setback in his recovery efforts.
• New York Yankees - Sean Henn - shoulder tendinitis. Unfortunately for Henn, he’s a victim of the numbers games. Henn is out of options and recently lost his left-handed specialist job to Billy Traber. Due to that, he’ll start the season on the disabled list with shoulder tendinitis. It’s been a while since he’s pitched in a major league spring training game so the Yankees were at least able to back date this and he could return April 5th. Henn pitched in a minor league game this afternoon and experienced no problems.
• New York Yankees - Brett Gardner - split lip. Gardner suffered a split lip today after foul ball bounced back up and hit him in his mouth. He went to see a dentist after the game, this is clearly a day-to-day injury. Gardner may open the season with the big boys if Melky Cabrera serves out his suspension to start the season.
• New York Yankees - Johnny Damon - flu. Damon was scratched from today’s game due to the flu, he’ll most likely miss another day or two with it. Maybe its a good thing, it will leave him well rested for Opening Day in the Bronx.
• New York Yankees - Andy Pettitte - back spasms. And now the daily Pettitte update. Pettitte had a 10-minute bullpen session today throwing 36 pitches and is now fully on target to pitch in the 4th or 5th game of the season. “It makes me feel good that I got through that and I felt good,” Pettitte said. “I could just tell that I felt a whole lot better this morning when I woke up. It loosened up nice for me.”

That is tonights update. It’s still relatively early in the evening almost 9pm. If there’s enough updates then I’ll send out a Part 2 around midnight.

Royals not interested in Sosa.

There were reports from ESPNdeportes.com that the Kansas City Royals are getting renewed interest in Sammy Sosa. Now earlier in the off-season the Royals were definitely considering Sosa but didn’t like the demand for guaranteed regular playing time. Slammin’ Sammy is also good friends with outfielder Jose Guillen who has been pushing for the team to sign him. Guillen believes Sosa can provide the veteran leadership this young team sorely needs.

But what are the Royals plans. “We’re very comfortable with the current group of players we have in camp competing for spots on our 25-man roster,” general manager Dayton Moore said Friday before the Royals spring training road trip. He also says there is no need for them to sign anyone at the moment, that they are happy with how their team is currently set up.

I agree the Royals shouldn’t go after Sammy. This is a good young team, who dare I say has a chance to be exciting and fairly competitive. Not close to playoff caliber, but won’t be the pushovers they have been the last decade.

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