The Dodgers’ bullpen has struggled so far this year after being the best in baseball last year, and today a move was made to recall Jon Link from the minors. He’s one of the two players the Dodgers got in exchange for Juan Pierre this winter and so far in Triple-A this season, he has two saves in five games, allowing three runs in 4.1 innings.

Over his minor league career, Link has struck out 300 batters and walked 104 over 297.1 innings and in 2008, he led all minor leaguers in baseball with 35 saves at Double-A, so clearly he’s got a pretty impressive background. He’s never been in the big leagues, but he did take part in the team’s Winter Development program back in January, so hopefully that will help him adjust quickly to the Majors.

Of course, that means someone has to go down and unfortunately, that someone is Russ Ortiz. He’s one of the nicest guys in the game and a local product (Montclair Prep), so I’m glad he got the chance to pitch for his hometown team, even if only for a few weeks. He’d have to clear waivers and then accept a minor league assignment to Albuquerque, so we’ll see what happens.

Elsewhere in the minors, Hong-Chih Kuo will pitch today for the Inland Empire 66ers out in San Bernardino, while this is the crew that will take on the Giants. A win gives the Dodgers a 4-2 homestand, a loss breaks them even at 3-3.

Furcal, SS
Martin, C
Ethier, RF
Kemp, CF
Blake, 3B
Belliard, 1B
Johnson, LF
Carroll, 2B
Kershaw, P