PITCHERS AND CATCHERS ARE THERE!!!

Oh, hell yes.

Baseball season officially begins today as pitchers and catchers start reporting. It's the time of year where optimism and hope spring eternal and everyone's team is undefeated. I can almost smell the fresh cut grass at Dodger Stadium already. It's a beautiful day, baseball fans.

The news already is spilling from Vero Beach as the Dodgers prepare for their final spring training Dodgertown. I have mixed feelings on that as Dodgertown is flat out awesome. The one season I got to go is filled with great memories and I was just a little kid. On the other hand, they're going to be in Arizona now and a yearly weekend trip to check out spring training is no longer out of the question.

The Dodgers are in for an interesting camp. There's not a lot of new players to work into the mix but there are a lot of questions to answer. Here's my Top 5 questions for Dodgers Spring Training.

1. Who will be the fifth starter?
Esteban Loaiza and Jason Schmidt are the likely two choices barring a trade or a shocking spring from someone on the fringe [Stults or Kuo most likely.] Loiaza and Schmidt were both at camp early and already hard at work. Loaiza says that he's ready to complete for the fifth starter spot. He says he's healthy and that we didn't see the real him last year. Let's hope not. Jason Schmidt is "on schedule" in his rehab but they're already anticipating he won't be ready for the start of the season. He sounds less than optimistic in his interviews too for a full recovery. He's working hard and making progress but it's not all sunshine and roses like I'd hope to hear on the first day of spring training. If he doesn't recover, Loaiza will have a huge spotlight on his every pitch.

2. Who's on third?
Andy LaRoche has been the Dodgers assumed third-baseman-of-the-future for a long, long time but somewhere along the way, he seemed to fall out of favor with the brass. There was a lot of talk about trading for a third baseman in the winter but nothing ever developed. Nomar Garciaparra had a horrible 2007 and is very lucky he signed a two-year deal after his Comeback Of The Year season. Nomar is probably the presumed Opening Day Starter until LaRoche can steal it away from him.

3. Will the odd spring training affect the team?
The Dodgers will have spring training in four places this year. They're starting in Florida... then half the team is going to China for an exhibition game while the other half moves to Arizona. When returning from China, they've got more exhibition games scheduled for Los Angeles. It's a tough schedule and I'm really hoping they don't show up in April worse for wear.

4. How do we resolve the outfield problem?
In the winter of 2007, Ned Coletti panicked and signed Juan Pierre to a ridiculous deal. While I really enjoy the speed he brings to the team as I think the stolen base is becoming an antique in the current game, his defense and weak throwing arm proved to be an annoyance to fans and a subject of constant criticism for the team. When confronted with the need to upgrade the offense, Coletti went for another CF in Andruw Jones with the idea that he'd push Pierre to a corner OF spot. The problem there is that most teams get a large part of their production from the corner OF spots and don't use them for a slap-hitting, speed demon. Especially when you already have two slugging corner OFers in place in Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp. Dodger fans rioted at the news, stunned that they would actually bench Ethier or Kemp in favor of Pierre. Many wonder if new manager Joe Torre will go along with the plan or if Pierre is about to become a very expensive pinch runner. Lots of trade rumors involving Ethier as well. Something's gotta give!

5. What effect will Joe Torre have?
The million dollar question. A lot of the blame in last year's total collapse fell on Grady Little. Well, that's no excuse now. Torre's got the tough job of patching the clubhouse back together, developing young players, keeping old players productive, solving at least two position player situations, keeping the pitching staff strong [including avoiding the Torre rep of abusing his relievers], and getting this team through a tough NL West and into the playoffs where the Dodgers have won _one_ game in twenty years. It's time for the Dodgers to get back in business... and much of that falls on Joe Torre's shoulders.

Lots of questions and I can't wait to get the answers.

Game f'n on!