Dodgers Diaries

What does Blake DeWitt have to do to win a roster spot with the Dodgers? Fill in admirably at third base when both Nomar and LaRoche go down with injuries in 2008? Check.

Fill in admirably at second base when Jeff Kent goes down with an injury? Check.

Shuttle back and forth between Albuquerque and L.A. without a word of dissent throughout 2009? Check.

Hit the tar out of the ball in spring training 2010? Check.

So when Joe Torre says the fact that the team is only going to carry 11 pitchers at the beginning of the year is what allows them to keep DeWitt on the big league roster, it’s quite a backhanded compliment. The unspoken assumption, therefore, is that as soon as Hong-Chih Kuo or Ronald Belisario is ready to return to the team, Dewitt could be optioned back to AAA.

I’m not sure I see how this helps a young player’s development, something the Dodgers are going to be doing a lot of as the team scrimps and saves in the wake of the McCourts’ divorce.

DeWitt is the victim of a numbers game. Unlike pitchers Charlie Haeger or Carlos Monasterios, he can be returned to the minors without penalty. Unlike Ronnie Belliard or Jamey Carroll, he does not have a guaranteed major league contract. He may be better than either of these two utility infielders, but he has the least amount of leverage to contest a roster move. Why the Dodgers signed two utility infielders, neither of whom can play shortstop, is beyond me.

If it were up to me, I’d throw DeWitt into the starting job at 2B and let the other chips fall where they may. If that means cutting Ronnie Belliard and eating his $800,000 salary, so be it. With his weight issues, I wouldn’t be surprised if Belly ate some of it himself. If it means keeping 11 pitchers instead of 12 or 13, that’s fine too. I’ve always thought Torre overuses his bullpen. If you can’t win a pennant with a six-man bullpen, you’re doing it wrong.

If it means the team has to cut Nick Green and go without a true backup shortstop, then Rafael Furcal will have to man up a bit more and play all nine innings. He’s only 32. If he gets injured to the point where he has to go on the DL, Chin-Lung Hu is a phone call away. The harder call will be if Furcal has to miss 5-7 games -- too short a time to open up a roster spot.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

Being a travel writer, I have to name Brian Barton as my new favorite Dodger. Being well-traveled isn’t exactly a feather in one’s cap in baseball terms. And indeed, the 28-year-old outfielder has seen his share of minor and major league towns since being drafted.

If he never sticks with a big league club, Barton has a promising career ahead of him as an aerospace engineer. I’m rooting that he gets to go out and play for a while before he settles into a desk job.

For a complete interview with Barton see the following story from the Riverfront Times.

Barton is among the 33 players who will make the Dodgers’ trip to Taiwan next week. Of course he is. With experience visiting more than a dozen countries, he’s better traveled than the rest of the roster put together. What’s interesting to me is how little international travel experience the rest of the roster has. From the Dodgers’ PR staff:

SEEING THE WORLD – A survey of the Dodgers’ Taiwan roster reveals that there are several international travelers in the group. Among the more unique places that Dodger players and coaches have traveled are Spain and Morocco (Jon Link), England (Josh Towers), Holland and Cuba (Chin-lung Hu), Brazil and Japan (Manny Ramirez), Belgium (J.D. Closser), Colombia and Panama (Ronnie Belliard), Germany and Italy (Lucas May), Argentina and China (Xavier Paul) and Saudi Arabia (John Shoemaker). Brian Barton is the most seasoned traveler, having visited more than a dozen countries, including Ethiopia and Peru.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL

Included on the list of players who will accompany the Dodgers on their March 10 trip to Taiwan is Ronnie Belliard. Yes, the same Ronnie Belliard who showed up to camp a couple of pounds over the 209 his contract requires. It’s a pretty lenient contract, however. All he has to do is be 209 or under at any point during spring training. A long flight across the Pacific might be enough to dehydrate the last two pounds out of him.

Others on the Taiwan excursion include James Loney, Manny Ramirez (the optimist says it’s so the Dodgers can keep an eye on him; the pessimist says it’s so he can restock his supply of performance-enhancing herbs), Eric Stults, Xavier Paul, Lucas May, and of course Taiwan natives Chin Lung Hu and Hong Chih Kuo.

On a separate note, Dodger Stadium looked a little bedraggled on Sunday for the college tournament. The signs on the outfield wall looked like they hadn’t been changed since October; there was still a “Postseason on TBS” banner in centerfield.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL