Dodger's Minor Victory

Hooray! Today was the first day of spring ball, and despite all the worries about offense, the Dodgers won the game with a 5 run 6th inning. Unfortunately that offense was put together by the minor league players and not the Dodger regulars. As for pitching, the first two innings saw a good outing from Billingsley, as only Alexi Ramirez was able to get a hit off of him with a line drive that dropped in front of Juan Rivera in left. The other six batters looked slow to recognize pitch location as they tried to shake off their winter rust. For as "flat" as the Chicago offense looked, the Dodger's regulars for the most part looked the same. Mark Ellis, AJ Ellis, and Matt Kemp all put up some decently long at bats, which the announcers called "professional". Andre gave me some hope that he would have a good season when he hit a fly ball to right during his first at bat and showed decent speed legging to hit out to a double. AJ Ellis also hit a nice double the other way to right field with Loney on, unfortunately Loney tried to score from first, and was cut down by a great relay from Fukudome to Beckham to the plate. Overall not a bad performance by the regulars for the first spring training game, but also nothing to be excited about either.
Onto the Minor league players. After a great first inning in relief, where he struck out two, Eovaldi showed some control problems in his second inning. Eovaldi walked two in a row, (they were Konerko and Dunn in his defense) but it led to him becoming a little unraveled. Eovaldi has great stuff, but I'm starting to think that one more season in the minors, to grasp some better control and poise on the mound may not be a bad thing for him. Now for the real exciting part; to open up the sixth inning Gywnn hit a solid single right up the middle. He then took advantage of a rookie mistake by the pitcher (he took way to long to the plate) and stole 2nd by a wide margin. Gwynn even had enough time to do a foot first slide instead of head first. Then Justin Sellers in his first at bat of the spring, showed poise and baseball knowledge. with a runner on second he slapped the ball the other way and hit the ball into the corner, scoring Gwynn. Sellers had the chance to stretch the play into a triple, but with no outs, and remembering how Loney was thrown out at home by Fukudome an inning earlier, he played things smart, and showed patience holding at second. Then Ivan Dejesus with a runner on second, showed solid baseball knowledge slapping another hit into the right field corner to score Sellers. Then I'm going to give Sellers another kudos as he could be seen moving from 3rd to home, waving Dejesus on to third. It's great that Sellers, was not only worried about himself, but kept an eye out for his teammate, giving another pair of eyes on the field to let the runner know where the ball is. After a strike out by Trent Oeltjen, prospect Scott Van Slyke was up. At 6'5" Van Slyke is a big man in the box, and he almost looks uncomfortable standing very tall at the plate. But despite his awkward stance, his swing looks smooth as silk. On a letter high fastball Scott uncoiled and blasted a 400+ line-drive past the left field wall. As soon as the laser beam came off his bat, the only question in spectators minds was how far away would the ball land. So for all the worries about Van Slyke's age, his power looks to be real. Assuming he can show poise and control at the plate, the Van Slyke's may be soon become a two generation major league family.
In summary, the regulars looked just about that, regular. The minor leaguers had some interesting at bats, but, unfortunately there are no spots to play for on the major league roster, we can hope maybe some injuries will open up some chances, but it's unlikely. It's sad to see a franchise, once praised for it's great minor league system, stifle it's homegrown talent so completely.