Items from the Ranch

The inevitable has arrived. We now have an idea who that primary left-handed bat off the bench will be in 2010. His name is Garrett Anderson.

This all became more clearer after the Dodgers informed Doug Meintkiewicz on Friday that he would not make the Opening Day roster. Meintkiewicz, who still wants to play in the Majors, then left camp after talking with Ned Colletti to weigh his options.

Both players were hitting the ball well this Spring, but the Dodgers have apparently opted to go with Anderson, who was signed a Minor League deal two weeks into Spring Training.

Also getting a roster spot on Opening Day will be Ronnie Belliard, who finally got his weight down to 208. That essentially guaranteed his $850K contract for the 2010 season.

Depending on who starts the season at second base, and even that's still up in the air despite Blake DeWitt's offensive prowess this Spring, the bench will probably consist of two of the three among Belliard, DeWitt and Jamey Carroll, with one of them getting the Opening Day nod, Anderson, Reed Johnson and either Brad Ausmus or A.J. Ellis, depending on Russell Martin's status.

The Blue are also set to move forward without Ronald Belisario, who still has not reported to camp due to visa issues in his native Venezuela. And with Hong-Chih Kuo all but expected to start the season on the DL with elbow issues, the bullpen and fifth rotation spot are still uncertain.

We know the front four rotation guys are Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda and Vicente Padilla, who just named the Opening Day starter for April 5th in Pittsburgh (which means Kershw will get the home opener the following week), and the back end of the bullpen is Jonathan Broxton, George Sherrill and Ramon Troncoso. Beyond those seven guys, the pitching staff is still undetermined.

The Two Ortizes, Russ and Ramon, Carlos Monasterios, Jeff Weaver, Josh Lindblom, Eric Stults and Charlie Haeger are still options to sort out the final five spots on the pitching staff. And there's also still a possibility the Dodgers might go out of the organization and sign just-released Chad Gaudin, who was last seen on the Yankees. Ramon Ortiz appears, at the very least, to be the in-house front-runner at the moment.

So obviously, there's still a lot at stake here, and with only about a week left before the season opener, Colletti, Joe Torre and the rest of the coaching staff have a lot of decisions to make.