Wow.....it took til the 3rd post to get to Juan Pierre sucks!

So Jason Schmidt made his spring debut today vs. the Rangers. Could have gone better but I wasn’t overly concerned. He gave up a 3 run homer to Taylor Teagarden (which is either the best baseball name or the worst) but from what I can gather Teagarden can hit for power. I really don’t know what to think on this one because I wouldn’t be terribly excited if Schmidt had totally dominated either. Spring training is just that training…..although I hope for Kevin Millwood’s sake he was tinkering with some kind of pitch and that’s why he got absolutely shelled. Good to see that teammates Andruw Jones and Kevin Millwood seem to be taking the same path in their post-Braves career.

More important is who is our 5^th starter going to be? As one always should do, I looked ahead at the schedule to see if the Dodgers need a 5^th starter when they break camp. They need someone to start April 10 vs. Arizona, but after that they can go until April 18^th vs. Colorado before they need another one and then need a consistent 5^th starter. Thus far I am not particularly excited by any of the names being thrown around: Schmidt has injury problems, Vargas is a journeyman, Shawn Estes has been shelled, and Eric Milton has shown a habit of pitching in and out of trouble. I’m not really considering McDonald or Troncoso at this point because I feel they should start the season in the bullpen, and Jeff Weaver has only been talked about in a relief context at this point. My personal preference is a healthy Schmidt, I think this first start is a lot of rust coming off but he needs to start performing soon to win the 5^th spot. After Schmidt I’d take Weaver or Vargas.

Personally I believe whoever does win the 5^th spot will end up being replaced by McDonald in roughly June or so which is the right way to go. I’d rather have McDonald build confidence in the bigs in a relief role than have to go out and feel the pressure to perform immediately. It also helps keeping his innings down, always critical with a young pitcher.

Past the starting pitching there were two other bright points today. First Kuo pitched without pain in a B game, which is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately I think the Dodgers will always have to deal with some kind of injury issue with Kuo, not through his own fault, but because he seems to be one of these guys fated to always have injury issues. Maybe there’s something wrong with him mechanically but tinkering with an effective pitchers mechanics is a dangerous game.

Second, Xavier Paul continues to rake in spring training. To be honest I feel Paul has essentially forced the Dodgers hand as to his career future. If they envision him as a starter, then he needs to start looking for apartments in New Mexico. If however they feel he can be a bench player, well now is the time really. I don’t see him cracking the Dodgers spectacular outfield this year or for that matter next, so I’m inclined to put him in the 4^th outfielder role. The roster spot he’d take would almost assuredly be Delwyn “Vincent Chase of Utility Players” Young or Jason “DL by Tax Day” Repko, but in all honesty it should be Juan Pierre’s. Paul seems to be a more complete player than Pierre, which is of course like saying The Dark Knight seems like a more complete movie than the trailer for The Happening. I could live with him taking Young or Repko’s place, but if the Dodgers are going to end up releasing Pierre, why not now instead of later?