Tagged: Rod Barajas

Outfielders aplenty

We’ve just announced two more signings today, with Marcus Thames coming in on a one-year deal and Gabe Kapler joining the team on a minor league contract with an invite to Spring Training.

For those who haven’t followed Thames career, he’s a power-hitting corner outfielder who has averaged a homer every 15 at-bats or so over the last five seasons, which is the fourth-best mark in the AL during that span. He will presumably be in the mix along with Jay Gibbons, Tony Gwynn, Xavier Paul and others this spring for playing time in 2011 alongside Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier.

Meanwhile, joining that group is another local boy, Kapler. This one is pretty cool for me, personally, because I went to school with Gabe growing up and have always hoped that he’d find a way to play for his hometown Dodgers.

He joins other local products Jon Garland (Kennedy High in Granada Hills), Trayvon Robinson (Crenshaw High in Los Angeles), Gibbons (Mayfair High in Lakewood) and Rod Barajas (Santa Fe Spring High) in Dodger camp which is the most local boys I can remember in quite some time heading into Spring Training.

Welcome to the Dodger family, Marcus and Gabe…

A new thread…

As it turned out, I wasn’t on the last road trip and today has been a rather busy day, as you can imagine, so it’s been a while since we had a new post. Sincere apologies. Hopefully we’ll be more regular now that the team is back in town.

Congrats to Rod Barajas on going deep in his first game as a Dodger and first home game as a Dodger. I caught up with him earlier this afternoon in the clubhouse and the guy seemed downright giddy to be wearing this uniform.

There’s honestly been so much to talk about, I wouldn’t even know where to start. But frankly, I think you’re much better served hearing from the actual newsmakers on the Manny front and the trial, so I’ll leave you all to read those stories at the various media outlets and weigh in with your thoughts. But at the very least, I thought everyone needed a new thread…

Hot Rod

Quite a debut for Mr. Barajas last night…I know that we expected him to provide a boost to the offense from the behind the plate, but hard to imagine he would have done what he did yesterday that helped lead to a win. And the fact that he grew up loving Vin Scully makes it even more cool for him to have a debut like that.

And, it’s actually nice that A.J. Ellis got to make the trip to Milwaukee, where he makes his offseason home, and spend a few days there with his wife and kids before reporting back to Triple-A. For those who hadn’t read about it when it happened, he actually watched the birth of his son via webcam earlier this year because he is that dedicated to this organization. Now, he’s getting a little time with the little guy and you’d be hard pressed to find a nicer person in baseball than A.J.

Also, congrats are in order to Eric Collins, who was named one of the Big 10 Network’s lead football broadcasters today.

And finally, for those still interested in the Inside the Dodgers Tour, please see below for more details. Right now, I believe we only have about nine people, which I think makes it clear that this doesn’t really need to be an annual event. But, I’m happy to host those nine people and anyone else interested should email bretts@ladodgers.com