James McDonald will be coming out of ther bullpen to start the year, mirroring the development plan for Chad Billingsley in 2007.  The move gives Joe Torre a big arm capable of working a lot of innings and definitely reduces the pressure on the Dodgers’ 2008 Minor League Pitcher of the Year.  It’s also interesting to note [...]

Ramona Shelburne has a nice article on Clayton Kershaw in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.  It’s a nice look at the story of the man behind the uniform and his life away from baseball.  Here’s a quick excerpt about Kershaw’s high school career that I hadn’t heard before: In his senior year he went 12-0 and [...]

Sorry, couldn’t resist an ’80′s Duran Duran reference.  So it looks like Ned is zeroing in on lefty Randy Wolf.  As MLB.com reports, last year Wolf had 33 starts, going 12-12 with a 4.30 ERA.  When Randy pitched for the Dodgers in 2007 he started 18 games and was 9-6 with a 4.73 ERA.  My take [...]

Mota’s back, baby!  Guillermo (and Ned) must be hoping they can recapture lightning in the bottle.  As Ken Gurnick notes, when Mota was in LA he was sporting a 2.60 ERA and since that time he’s ballooned up to a 4.79 ERA.  All that said, I think coming home will be good for the kid (ok, good for [...]

Looks like Brad Penny is going to have some company over in Bean Town. The Red Sox are further compensating for their lack of ability to “close” Mark Teixeira by signing releiver Takashi Saito to a one year deal reportedly guaranteed for at least $1.5 million with incentives that could make it worth more than [...]