Kensai's 2010 Plan

"I spoke at a luncheon hosted by the LA Times today, and by doing so I did more for the Times than Plaschke has all year." - Tommy Lasorda

Now those questions seem to have vanished. Bell, 23, has slimmed down considerably from his listed 6-foot-3, 235 pounds and become a more reliable defender at third base, even winning the Best Defensive Third Baseman honor from Double-A Southern League managers in Baseball America’s Best Tools survey. He’s always had an above-average arm, but those who have followed Bell this season say his actions look cleaner and his improved conditioning has helped his range.

A celebrity divorce has rocked the Dodgers, writes Billy Witz.

The great concern among the higher-ups in some corners of Major League Baseball about all this is (A) it's going to become a sideshow, and (B) the team's ownership is going to be locked down by legal issues. One lawyer explained to me this week one of the great overriding questions regarding the split of the team's ownership: On one hand, Frank McCourt has documents that indicate he is the owner of the Dodgers, but on the other hand, the purchase of the team was based on money borrowed against real estate in the names of both Frank and Jamie McCourt.

The worst part of the public, salacious nature of the McCourt divorce (yes, there is a dodgerdivorce.com) is that there are four children involved, and there remain friends and neighbors from their previous home in Brookline, Mass., that have strong feelings for those boys.

Everyone realized that what held up the Manny Ramirez trade was that the Dodgers didn't want to take on money, and to get Casey Blake they had to give the Indians Carlos Santana so that Cleveland would pay the remainder of Blake's contact. Now, Jon Weisman's Dodger Thoughts points out that the $8.5M spent in signing bonuses the past two years is the smallest amount of any major league team, and that their international investments are virtually nil.

Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times ran a shocking story on the Dodgers' squeezing legendary scout George Genovese, informing him his salary would be clipped from $18,000 to $8,000 and his expenses from $5,000 to $2,000, in contrast to last weekend's story about the need for nearly a half-million dollars a month in alimony. The McCourt house in Cotuit, Mass., is on the market for $50M, the club had to get rid of its best prospect (Santana) because it couldn't afford Casey Blake, and the kids have to endure the public humiliation that has their real friends 3,000 miles away sickened.

Jonathan Figueroa, once a highly regarded pitcher in the Dodgers organization, passed away earlier this month at age 26. He had been diagnosed with Lupus, according to reports.

BP2010 Dodger player comment tidbit: Kershaw from the point of introducing slider in June: 2.04 ERA, 10.2 K/9, 2.3 K/BB, 0.16 HR/9. #wow

Dodgers' 2009 team stats updated on B-Ref