still boring

Baseball's been pretty boring recently. I'm just not anal retentive enough to want to post about all the Non roster invitee signings. I'll be happy next off season when I may be able to see a spring training game in AZ .

There isn't much more to say until spring training starts and we can see stuff like:

• Can Jason Schmidt can actually pitch effectively and be in the starting rotation?
• Will Nomar be last year's Nomar or comeback player of the year Nomar?
  
• Will Jeff Kent be less of a jerk?
• Will this Kuroda guy be able to adjust to America and get American hitters out?
• Will Furcal be better and not play anyways if he isn't?
• Will Andruw Jones have his MVP'ish form back from an off year?
  

As far as where the dodgers will go from here I think that backup catcher isn't necessarily Bennett's job. I think Colletti just locked someone down and is waiting for the crazy catching market to simmer down and pick over any leftovers who may be an appreciable upgrade to Bennett. Besides that they are set. There's going to be a battle over the third base job that seems like LaRoche will win. There will be a battle over who's going to be the starting left fielder and I think Ethier wins that job and it's up to Pierre to happily adjust to being a fourth outfielder or force Colletti's hand to trade him a la Jay Payton (threw that in their for you, bro). The fifth rotation spot depends on Schmidt's health and whether one of the kids pitches outstandingly (I'm rooting for James McDonald) or God forbid a pitcher goes down due to injury (Loaiza is pretty fragile too).

Oh yeah, there's that Joe Beimel situation. Looks like the lefty will have to go through arbitration hearings again. Meanwhile the dodgers are inviting the likes of Tom Martin and some other situational lefty guy that hasn't played in the majors for a few years just in case. I hope Beimel wins this year because he's been pretty steady for whatever reason and makes a lot of appearances. He's more than just a situational lefty. He can go multiple innings in tads and he can get righties out. I don't think the dodgers believe that a Tom Martin or Matt White can do the job he's done over the last two years. He'll probably be even more effective now that the dodgers have Proctor.

I am pretty content as spring training nears. They got Andruw Jones (which silenced my calls to trade for Ellsbury). They got the best bet as far as a pitcher in the free agent market in the import, Kuroda.

I only wished that Kent would have retired and that Pierre be traded. My wish for Kent is a goner and my belief based on no evidence but cryptic GM-speak is that they are quietly still trying to get rid of Pierre so he'll have a starting job elsewhere and won't be a potential disruption as a bench player.