Linky-dinky doo …

  • Though everyone knows the Dodgers need to add bats to their farm system, this year’s draft might not offer many immediate solutions: “For us, there isn’t a hitter at 16 that we can insert into left field or the lineup,” Dodger assistant general manager Logan White told Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. “This draft is thin at catcher and thin up the middle infield, two areas I’d like to put in the organization.”
  • San Francisco general manager Brian Sabean says the Giants will “have a long memory” about the way Scott Cousins took at Buster Posey at home plate last month, saying that “if I never hear from Cousins again or he never plays another game in the big leagues, I think we’ll all be happy,” according to Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News. But Larry Granillo of Baseball Prospectus suggests Sabean has a short memory about similar incidents at home caused by members of his own team.

    Meanwhile, who remembers the details of a collision at San Francisco in 2009 between Eugenio Velez and Russell Martin? I was at the game:

    … And so we went scoreless into the bottom of the fifth inning, when the first of six Dodger relievers, James McDonald, surrendered a double off the glove of Andre Ethier and then a run-scoring single. Coming around to score, Eugenio Velez undressed Dodger catcher Russell Martin like he was a line drive at Charlie Brown. It took Martin a couple of minutes to get himself together. The next batter, Pablo Sandoval, handed Martin his catcher’s mask, and I thought, “Oh, what a nice guy.”

    That didn’t last long. McDonald’s next pitch was a bit inside and from our sideways vantage point appeared to hit Sandoval. Nonetheless, it wasn’t much of a brushback and it certainly didn’t seem intentional, given how tight the game was. But Sandoval immediately reacted angrily, walking out toward the mound, and suddenly a donnybrook was dawning. I couldn’t believe it. That being said, almost everyone else in the ballpark seemed to be itching for a Giants-Dodgers fight, including Martin, and it took some time to restore order. The fans around me actually thought Martin and McDonald should have been ejected, as if they started it – though to my mind they were wearing orange-colored sunglasses. …

    Joe Torre plans to have a talk with Sabean.

  • Jim McLennan of AZ Snakepit offers this look at the state of the National League West.
  • The World Baseball Classic is expanding to 28 teams for its 2013 edition, with 16 of them playing in a fall 2012 qualifying round.
  • In a guest piece for Baseball Prospectus, Sam Miller of the Orange County Register takes a long look at myths and realities with Mike Scioscia.
  • Ernest Reyes of Blue Heaven posts a collection of 1981 Vero Beach Dodgers cards. R.J. Reynolds!
  • Vin Scully’s Hollywood star has been liberated, reports Tom Hoffarth of the Daily News.

Update: Granillo found the Velez-Martin play: That’s the first time I’ve seen the replay. Velez slid, which makes it more harmless than I remembered. Martin was definitely vulnerable, and I think Velez could have avoided upending him, but it wasn’t something to get in an uproar about.