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He's an outfielder from the Baltimore Orioles, a speed guy with good defensive ability. More importantly, perhaps, is the fact he has two minor league options left, meaning he has no shot at making a club that already is kneedeep in outfielders.

Matt Angle made his major league debut for the Orioles last year, batting .177 in 30 games with 11 steals in 12 attempts. He is 26 and has been in the Orioles organization since they drafted him in the seventh round in 2007. He has a career minor league average of .285 with a solid .372 OBP and a stolen-base percentage of 82.4 (169 for 205).

``I don't think we're really considering him for a spot right now,'' Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. ``But this will give us a good chance to look at him and see what his tool set looks like and go from there, get to know him a little bit.''

To clear a 40-man roster spot, the Dodgers moved pitcher Rubby De La Rosa to the 60-day disabled list. He is recovering from Tommy John surgery late last season.

Spring training workouts tend to be mundane, and that includes the first one, which for Dodgers pitchers and catchers took place on Wednesday. Half the pitchers threw bullpens, with the other half scheduled to do the same tomorrow (except Ted Lilly, who will arrive late because his wife gave birth Tuesday). No one’s arm fell off. That’s pretty much all you need to know.

Mostly, then, for those of us who weren’t actually participating, that first workout was a chance to renew acquaintances after the long winter and, while standing on the sideline, engage in a few conversations. For me, this year, it also was a time to field comment after comment about the length of my hair.

The day began with the usual standing around the clubhouse, for which the daily beat crew was joined by a couple of national writers I hadn’t seen since the winter meetings. We met with Ronald Belisario, and he admitted he had tested positive for cocaine, which was why he couldn’t get a visa to come to the U.S. last year and join the Dodgers.

Then they closed the clubhouse for a meeting, so we returned to the media workroom to write the Belisario story. I filed just in time to make manager Don Mattingly’s morning media briefing. While waiting for Mattingly to emerge, I spent a couple of minutes chatting with assistant general managers, Logan White and DeJon Watson.

Then it was out to the back fields, where a couple of us cornered general manager Ned Colletti for a couple of quick questions and wound up having a casual conversation that lasted about 45 minutes. That’s fairly common with Colletti, a former sportswriter who has an easy, relaxed way about him and likes to spin a good yarn.

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Matt Kemp, who lost the MVP race to Ryan Braun last season, explains why he does not want the award if Braun loses it.

... Is that Rubby De La Rosa, who figures to be a fixture in the Dodgers' starting rotation for years to come, is doing well on his rehab from Tommy John surgery. He said Wednesday morning he hasn't suffered any setbacks and is hoping to begin throwing off a mound sometime in April, putting him on track to possibly begin a rehabilitation assignment after the All-Star break.

Now, these things tend to be unpredictable, and the fact he hasn't had a setback so far doesn't mean he won't have one at some point. That's why it takes a year to a year and a half to return from TJ surgery. But so far, so good, and he said he feels like he could throw off a mound now -- but he also said he is adhering strictly to his prescribed program because he wants to get back as soon as he can.

On another note, he will be doing all his interviews this year in English, a language De La Rosa still struggles with. Because the Dodgers lost Hiroki Kuroda to free agency this winter, they also lost his interpreter, Kenji Nimura, who served in that role for both Japanese- and Spanish-speaking players. Asked whom he will miss the most between Kuroda and Nimura, DLR laughed and said, "probably Kenji."

We knew before today that Blake Hawksworth had surgery on Jan. 12 to remove scar tissue and a bone spur from his right elbow. What we didn't know, until we met with manager Don Mattingly this morning, was that Hawksworth had a second procedure about 10 days later to clear up an infection resulting from the first procedure. This has put him about two weeks behind schedule, meaning that when he is ready to begin throwing, he won't have enough time to get ready for the season.

That means he will begin the season on the 15-day disabled list, which in turn means that a bullpen that didn't appear to have an opening now has one -- although it likely would be a temporary opening, because Hawksworth is out of minor league options and thus virtually guaranteed a spot when he is ready to go.

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With Jonathan Broxton and Hong-Chih Kuo basically forgotten now, free agency having taken them to Kansas City and Seattle respectively, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said today that he plans on opening the season with the same back-end bullpen alignment he used most of the second half of last year. That means Matt Guerrier in the seventh, Kenley Jansen (he of the 16.1 strikeouts per nine innings last year) in the eighth and Javy Guerra in the ninth (he of the 21 saves in 23 chances).

Jansen said he would like to be a closer one day, but that he isn't worried about it right now. Guerra said he's just trying to make the team. Pretty much what you would expect a couple of young pitchers to say on the first day of spring training, and they naturally added that whatever they did last year is now irrelevant.

Don Mattingly confirmed this morning what just about anyone with a pulse could have already figured out, that reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw will get the ball for the April 5 opener at San Diego. With the home opener set for April 10 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Kershaw is pretty certain start that one, too, although Mattingly said he hasn't told Kershaw that yet.

By the way, Kershaw said he still isn't completely comfortable with the changeup he has been working on, basically, forever. Said he threw it last year about as often as he did the previous year.

"It has been hard for me,'' he said. "Some things come quicker than others, and the changeup is definitely one of those things. I'll continue to work on it and not get frustrated with it."

Kershaw effectively won the pitching Triple Crown last year, tying for the N.L. lead with 21 wins and leading the league with a 2.28 ERA and 248 Ks. Over the past two years, he is 34-15 with a 2.57 ERA. And to all that, he is hoping to add a changeup that is more than serviceable. I'm sure that is a comforting thought to hitters around the league.

This post won't be well received. That much, I feel safe in predicting.

But here's the deal: I want to say a few nice words about Frank McCourt.

I know, I know. I have piled on as much as anybody over the past couple of years. And no, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can save McCourt's legacy as owner of the Dodgers at this point. No amount of spin, from inside or outside the McCourt camp, can change the fact that the past eight years will be remembered as one of the darkest periods in the franchise's otherwise proud history, the four playoff appearances notwithstanding.

But the widely held assumption going into the winter -- including the assumption here -- was that the cupboard would be left totally bare, that McCourt would gut the team in preparation for the sale, leaving it in such bare-bones shape that it might take the new owner a couple of years to build it back to a competitive level.

Well, that hasn't happened.

The Dodgers signed nine free agents this winter to a total of $45.35 million worth of contracts. And yes, all but $18.85 million of that won't be paid out until 2013, long after McCourt is gone, but general manager Ned Colletti was able to fill the holes he had to fill. The Dodgers also avoided going to any arbitration hearings by signing their five eligible players to a total of $198.325 million in contracts -- including that monstrous eight-year, $160 million deal given to Matt Kemp -- although admittedly, only $35.175 million of that will be paid out this year.

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BBTN's Karl Ravech and Tim Kurkjian discuss how the Dodgers ownership search is affecting the players.

My intention when I sat down was to write one a typical spring-training preview, with the five questions. But then, I quickly realized that in this most unusual of springs for the Dodgers, there simply aren't five questions.

Fact is, in all my years of covering Major League Baseball, I can't recall a spring training that began with a team's Opening Day roster as close to being set as the Dodgers' is this spring -- that is, until the inevitable spring-training injury occurs, and I also can't remember a spring that didn't feature at least one of those.

Because the Dodgers are in bankruptcy and up for sale, and because the player payroll is being slashed to $90 million as a result, and because general manager Ned Colletti had so many holes to fill, Colletti filled as many of them as he could as quickly as he could, essentially rendering the team set before the holidays. Oh, there was one opening in the bullpen, but that was siphoned off a couple of weeks ago when Colletti added a late free-agent signing in veteran Todd Coffey.

But the usual five questions can be reduced in the case of the 2012 Dodgers to one question: Who will get the final roster spot?

Simple logic would suggest it will be an outfielder, with second-year big leaguer Jerry Sands the clear favorite. But there are a lot of factors that could lead to Sands beginning the season in the minors, and there also are a few factors that could lead to that final spot going to an additional infielder, most likely second-year big leaguer Justin Sellers.

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April 29, 2009.

That was the last day I blogged as a Dodgers beat reporter. It's a little like riding a bike, this baseball-blogging thing, but then, it isn't. My editors and I agreed the best way to launch this one was with an introductory post, but I also remember that the best posts are the spontaneous ones, and you'll be reading a lot of those, too, as we move forward.

This blog is, in effect, a continuation of the Dodgers blog that appeared on this web site for the past two years, the one that was manned so capably by my friend and colleague Jon Weisman, who has been doing a remarkable job blogging about the Dodgers since before I even knew what a blog was. Jon is a baseball-blogging legend in this town, and I know better than to try to copy what he did.

What you will get here is a steady dose of my voice, my thoughts and my observations. That, I have come to believe, is one of the most important elements of a blog like this, right up there with content: developing a relationship with the audience, and while that will take time, especially with those of you who weren't regular visitors to my previous blog, it will happen with your help.

I want this blog to be as interactive as possible. I welcome your comments. I welcome your questions and will try to answer the majority of them. Mostly, I welcome your participation. You will get to know me, and I hope to get to know you as well.

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