While Birdman Has His Arm Examined In Los Angeles, The Rest Of The Dodgers Battle The Brewers At Maryvale

So as it turns out, Birdman Zack Greinke will miss his scheduled start today at Maryvale park against the Brewers. The Dodgers have decided to send Greinke back to Los Angeles for the day to be examined by physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache in what the Dodgers are calling a precautionary measure. When Greinke will start again will depend upon the results of the examination.

This is a bit disconcerting of course, because Greinke has only made two stars this spring, only pitching a total of five frames. Greinke first reported feeling stiffness in the back of his right elbow on March 3. He had the flu, and had to miss his original scheduled start, and then last Friday he threw what was reportedly a great bullpen session. Oh yes, the bullpen session that was so wonderful. Everyone went on and on about how good he looked, especially manager Don Mattingly.

Zack Greinke will have his right elbow examined then return to Camelback Ranch.-Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Greinke has said before that he has dealt with soreness in his arm in the past, but that it’s never caused him to miss a start before, and that it’s no big deal. That’s all well and good, but the Dodgers just signed Greinke to a six year 147 million dollar contract. Plus Greinke has never been hurt before, except for that Basketball incident a couple of years ago. I would say that there is no reason to star freaking out just yet about this. Until we hear more information, let’s remain calm. It’s definitely concerning. The good thing is we still have a good three weeks left of spring training, which is plenty of time to straighten everything out. We have our little surplus of starting pitching, which puts my mind at ease more.

I was just seeing online that a few teams are trying to use little tricks to con the Dodgers into flipping them Aaron Harang, or Chris Capuano early. That’s not going to happen. The Dodgers can always buyout Harang, and or Capuano’s contracts at any time. They also can keep two of them in the bullpen, and still hold onto the core of their relievers. They can ship all of the other team controlled younger pitchers, like Javy Guerra, Shawn Tolleson and Josh Wall back to the minors because they have options. There’s nothing that other teams can do about it. If other teams want to try and stonewall the Dodgers on potential offers, they can try, but it’s not going to work. The still have three weeks to make a decision.  Besides, It’s not the starting pitching surplus, or Bridman’s arm that is going to decide the season, our two superstars will. The season rides on the shoulders of Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw. Those two must be healthy, in order for the Dodgers to be successful. I have said it before and I will say it again, the Dodgers success is directly correlated to the success of Matt Kemp, and to another extension Kershaw.

With the scratching of Greinke, Hyun–jin Ryu will make the start instead. On another note, the Dodgers need to start giving their regulars more playing time. I know there is another round of cuts coming soon, but I am getting sick of watching guys like Brain Barden, and Omar Luna. It’s time to ship these non-roster bums off to buffalo. They are never going to sniff the big leagues anyways, so what’s the point of giving them so much playing time? I guess with some split squad games coming up, the Dodgers will have to wait until next week to do it. Even though there is three weeks left, we need to start getting the regulars ready here. We’re getting closer and closer to opening day every passing day.

Here is the Dodger’s lineup for this afternoon’s game which will be webcast on the Dodgers.com (Pardon me guys, the game will be on MLB.tv but not webcast on the Dodgers.com site.)

Dodgers Lineup vs. Brewers

Looks like we will have several Puig alerts on twitter this afternoon. Rookie right hander Mike Fiers will counter Ryu for Milwaukee.

The Dodgers have the following players scheduled as reserves for today. Elian Herrera in center field, Alfredo Amezaga at second base, Jeremy Moore in right field, Scott Van Slyke at first base, Tim Federowicz ar catcher, Alex Castellanos in left field, Justin Sellers at shortstop, and good lord help us, Brian Barden at third base.

Speaking of third base, here is the video of something we may never see again. A Juan Uribe home run. And no, I don’t believe that one meaningless spring home run means he’s all of a sudden fixed or something. That is if the Dodgers do the smart thing, and eat the rest of Juan Uribe’s 21 million dollar contract. But I want to remind everyone of the Dodger’s one-Bum clause that has been in place for many years. The Dodgers must have at least one Bum on the roster at all times, or at least it’s seemed that way for a long time now. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Dodgers decided to keep Uribe on the roster for the season. Anyways, his three-run home run yesterday afternoon helped lead the Dodgers to a 6-1 win over Colorado. Of course, Clayton Kershaw’s five dominant frames had something to do with it as well. Catch all of the cactus league action around noon later today. Go Blue.