A Few More Spring Training Tidbits

I'm usually one who tries to stay on top of things when it comes to the Dodgers, especially during the season (Spring Training included). For whatever reason, I've been slacking, and throwing a bunch of posts into one big post, such as this one. In any case, a few notes from the past few days to get caught up.

First, it appears more and more likely that Blake DeWitt will be given the everyday second base gig to start the season. Defensively, he could still use some more seasoning, but his offense is probably what's already getting him the nod over Ronnie Belliard. As for Jamey Carroll, I doubt the team ever considered him a serious candidate for the everyday job, although he'll likely get some starts against lefties periodically. Carroll was brought in to be the super-utility guy anyway. Either way, good news for DeWitt fans. This also probably means Belliard is a longshot to make the team.

Meanwhile, still no word on beardless Casey Blake, who was pulled early from Monday's game because of a strain in the ribcage area. He opted against an MRI, so it appears as if the strain is nothing serious, though he was given the last two games off. My guess is if this had been the regular season, he would probably be back in the lineup by now.

It also appears that the Dodgers are doing whatever they can to keep Garrett Anderson over Brian Giles and Doug Meintkiewicz. Anderson has been working out the past few days at first base, and given that he's probably the healthiest of the three, he probably has the best chance of the three to make the team. On the flip side, Anderson has never played first base in his 16 years in the Majors, so we'll see how this all turns out as we get closer to Opening Day. Anderson still has not appeared in a Spring Training game.

About half of the team is currently en route to Taiwan for a weekend exhibition "goodwill" series with a Taiwanese All-Star team. Among those making the trip are Taiwan-born Hong-Chih Kuo and Chin-Lung Hu, as well as Manny, and manager Joe Torre. As for Kuo, he will get the starting nod in the series finale after Charlie Haeger was scratched from the split-squad to Taiwan due to some sort of hip injury.

Meanwhile, with Torre on his way to Taiwan to manage that split-squad, hitting coach Don Mattingly was left behind to manage the split-squad in Arizona for five games. And there might be more to it than we think.

When Joe Torre was hired to manage the Dodgers before the 2008 season, he brought along a couple of his buddies with him from New York. Mattingly was one of them. It was said in New York that when Torre hired Mattingly to be the hitting coach there, it was done with the idea of grooming Mattingly to eventually be the heir apparent when Torre retired. But Torre never got that chance in New York, and he was eventually not offered a new contract after the 2007 season, thus making him a "free agent." The Yankees eventually hired Joe Girardi as their manager even after interviewing Mattingly.

In all actuality, nothing really changed when Torre was hired by the Dodgers and he brought Mattingly along with him. The same speculation has been made for the past two-plus years with the Dodgers. This past off-season, Mattingly interviewed for the vacant manager's job in Cleveland, but eventually withdrew himself as a candidate and then opted against interviewing for the same vacant job in Washington. And the reasons are pretty obvious.

Today, Mattingly finally confirmed that the Dodgers have made "overtures" to him about being the heir apparent to Torre whenever he steps down as the Dodger manager. Torre has one year left on his contract with the Dodgers but he's stated that he wants to manage beyond this season, and the Dodgers say they want him to manage the team until he decides to retire. So whenever that happens, I think we can expect that Mattingly will in fact be the next Dodger manager.

As for today's game, an interesting rarity involving Andre Ethier took place against the D-backs. Here's what happened, as explained by MLB.com's Doug Miller.

And finally, a sad day yesterday in Dodgertown and the baseball world as former Dodger outfield great Willie Davis passed away. Davis was an integral part of the Dodgers success during the 1960s as he manned centerfield for the Dodgers for 13 seasons beginning in 1961. In 1969, he hit in a Dodger record 31 straight games, and finished his career with a .279 average and 2,561 hits. Davis also had short stays in Montreal, St. Louis, Texas and San Diego before calling it quits after playing for the Angels in 1979. Davis was 69 years old.