Pitchers and catchers report for the Dodgers on Tuesday, February 21, with their first workout one day later. Position players report on Monday, February 27, with the first full squad workout to be held on February 28. Here is a look at the Dodgers spring training roster, which runs 61 deep this year to open big league camp:

Minor league camp opens in full on March 3 when pitchers and catchers report, with the first workout on March 5. All others report on March 9, with a first full minor league workout on March 11. Minor league early camp opens on February 27.

The Dodgers first spring training game is on March 5 at 12:05 p.m. PST against the Chicago White Sox at Camelback Ranch.

After a thorough review of the offseason moves of the other four teams in the National League West, we turn our investigation inward, looking at our very own Los Angeles Dodgers.

In case you missed the rest of the NL West, here are offseason reviews of Arizona, San Francisco, Colorado, and San Diego.

Five Questions

1) Did the season-ending ACL injury to Victor Martinez of the Detroit Tigers cost the Dodgers Prince Fielder?

Yes.

2) If the Dodgers had all this money to sign Prince Fielder, shouldn't they have at least made a formal offer to Hiroki Kuroda, who signed for one year, $10 million with the New York Yankees?

Yes.

3) Will Clayton Kershaw in 2012 become the second Dodgers pitcher ever to win back-to-back Cy Young Awards, joining Sandy Koufax?

Yes.

4) Will Dee Gordon steal at least 60 bases for the Dodgers in 2012?

Yes.

5) Did you mail in this final question and answer session of the week?

Yes.

Eveland was arbitration eligible and not in the plans for the Dodgers' starting rotation in 2012, so he was shipped off to Baltimore for two players ranked by our own Brandon Lennox as the No. 59 and No. 77 prospects in the Dodgers' system.

Matt Kemp signed the largest contract in National League history. That feels good just saying that out loud.

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As we move into the top 50 of my minor league countdown we are going to start seeing some of the best Dodger league prospects. Just like last year, for the final 50 players I'm going to add a short justification to the end of each paragraph to provide a little more insight as to why I ranked each player where I did. Just as a reminder, the age I list for each player is as of 2012 opening day. As always, let me know what you think.

50. Russell Mitchell, 1B/3B (93 games in AAA, 25 games in Majors in 2011)
Drafted by Dodgers 2003, 15th round
5’10”, 210 lbs, 27 years old, bats right handed
.283 average, .875 OPS, 16 HR’s, 69 RBI’s, 1 SB (minor league stats only)
Pre 2011 Rank: 34; Pre 2010 Rank: 52; Pre 2009 Rank: 32

Most people wouldn’t really consider Russ Mitchell a prospect at this point, but heading into 2012 he still qualifies as a rookie and has just 93 big league at bats. He is also just 27 years old despite the fact that he was drafted way back in 2003. Mitchell’s journey as a Dodger has a been a long one as he has played on 9 different minor league teams and has spent time at 6 different positions during his minor league career. The organization even considered trying him out as a catcher at one point, but after a lot of hard work he has established himself as a serviceable 3rd baseman. Russ has spent the majority of the past two seasons in Albuquerque, and has been a September big league call up both years. His stats for the Isotopes have been very strong, and in 2011 he hit 16 homers and posted a .875 OPS while striking out in just 15.8% of his plate appearances. The only drawback to his success is that Mitchell has been much better at home than on the road since joining the Isotopes, which obviously gives the impression that he has been aided by Albuquerque’s hitter friendly park. For 2012 there didn’t look to be any room for Russ in Los Angeles, so he was designated for assignment and removed from the 40 man roster. That will make it difficult for him to make it back up to the big leagues, but you never know so he’ll serve as an insurance policy while spending a 3rd season in Albuquerque.

Why #50: While Mitchell was never going to be a big league regular, give his marginal power and ability to 3rd base I always considered him a cheap option that had the ability to fill in as a bench player for a major league team. The fact that the Dodgers chose to take him off their 40 man roster over guys like Troncoso and Oeltjen isn’t a good sign for his future, however, and the two home runs he hit for Los Angeles in 2011 might be the highlight of his big league career.

49. Noel Cuevas, OF (23 games in HiA, 60 games in Pioneer Rookie Lg in 2011)
Drafted by Dodgers 2010, 21st round
6’2”, 187 lbs, 20.5 years old, bats right handed
.267 average, .740 OPS, 8 HR’s, 43 RBI’s, 15 SB’s
Pre 2011 Rank: 52; Pre 2010 Rank: N/A; Pre 2009 Rank: N/A

The Dodgers selected Noel Cuevas in the 21st round of the 2010 draft, and after a lengthy holdout he finally inked a deal with the club for $100K. The outfielder from Puerto Rico was just 18 years old when he signed, and according to Baseball America he had “intriguing raw power”. Even though Cuevas only had 3 professional games under his belt heading into 2012, the Dodgers sent Noel to the California League in May. Cuevas was mostly overmatched against the advanced competition, however, and after hitting .220 the month long experiment was over as he was sent back down to the Pioneer League. Noel fared much better in Ogden as he saw his OPS rise from .538 with the Quakes to .814 with the Raptors, and he ranked 3rd on the team with 29 extra base hits. He also made decent contact as he struck out in 19.9% of plate appearances for the season, and even stole 15 bases. Here he is getting a hit during the Raptors’ playoff run. Defensively Cuevas was pegged as a left fielder when he was drafted, but he held his own in center field during James Baldwin's absence. Left field is probably still his best position, but it’s still encouraging to know that he's athletic enough to handing playing in the middle of the field. In 2012 I’m guessing that Cuevas will get another shot with the Quakes, although it’s just as likely that he’ll spend the season in the Midwest League. He’s got an interesting set of tools and is still quite young so he’ll definitely be someone worth following next season.

Why #49: Cuevas’ power potential makes him deserving of a spot in my top 50, although he’s still quite raw and has a long ways to go before reaching Los Angeles. I’m guessing that his defense limitations will be more apparent as he moves up through the system, although I was encouraged by his stolen base numbers and his ability to handle center this past season. Overall Noel’s ceiling appears to be that of big league outfielder with 25 homer potential, but he obviously has a long ways to go before we can even think about him reaching that level.

Follow the jump for #'s 48 - 41

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Our final road stop on the National League West offseason review tour brings us to the San Diego Padres. Here is a look at the offseason for the rivals down south, where the Dodgers will open their regular season on April 5.

Five Questions

1) Who 'won' the Mat Latos trade?

At first glance, it seems like the Padres got the better end of the deal just by sheer volume, as they got catcher Yasmani Grandal, first baseman Yonder Alonso, starting pitcher Edinson Volquez, and right-handed pitcher Brad Boxberger from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for their ace.

The Padres picked up three of the Reds' top 10 prospects (per Baseball America) and two top-100 guys in Alonso and Grandal. Restocking the farm system with deals like these helped Keith Law of ESPN rank the Padres' farm system as the best in MLB.

But what San Diego gave up is a pitcher who just turned 24 with 31 starts in each of the last two seasons and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of better than three-to-one. Latos isn't even eligible for salary arbitration until next season.

It seems both teams got what they wanted out of the transaction, as Cincinnati got a cost-controlled front-of-the-rotation starter during their current window of contention in the National League Central, while San Diego added to the foundation of a team that could be pretty good in a year or two.

2) Will Carlos Quentin be healthy enough to matter for the Padres?

The outfielder was one of the favorites for the American League MVP while with the Chicago White Sox in 2008 before missing the final month of the season. In the three years since, Quentin has been a productive hitter, hitting .245/.336/.479 for Chicago, but he has averaged just 116 games per season during the last three campaigns, never playing in more than 131 games in a season during his career.

But the Padres gave up only a pair of lightly regarded pitchers to nab Quentin from the White Sox, so there is minimal risk for San Diego, outside his $7 million salary. San Diego is banking on Quentin hitting well enough and staying healthy enough to either help them somehow contend or to increase his trade value come June or July.

Maybe to stay healthy, Quentin could stop getting hit by so many pitches. Over the last four seasons, Quentin has been plunked 78 times, second most in MLB (behind Chase Utley's 83) and 26 more than the third-most HBP during that span.

Trivial Padres Fact:
Other than four career games at designated hitter, Orlando Hudson has never played any other position but second base in his 10 years in the big leagues.

3) How will Mike Adams continue to help the Padres, even though he's in Texas?

The Padres picked up Adams nine days before his 28th birthday in 2006, for pitcher Brian Sikorski. In 2008 Adams became a fixture in the San Diego bullpen, and for three and a half years was awesome, with a 1.66 ERA, 241 strikeouts and 59 walks in 217 innings.

But the Padres sent Adams to the Texas Rangers at the trade deadline last year, picking up left-handed pitcher Robbie Erlin and right-hander Joseph Weiland. Erlin put up a 3.50 ERA with a strikeout per inning in 17 games at Double A last year at age 20, while Weiland had a 1.80 ERA in 12 Double A starts with 54 strikeouts in 70 innings, at age 21.

Both pitchers will be in the San Diego starting rotation sooner rather than later, and Corey Brock of MLB.com speculated that at least Weiland, if not both, will end 2012 starting games at Petco Park.

4) How much will it cost to go see the Dodgers play at Petco Park?

That could depend on several factors.

The Padres have partnered up with Texas software company Qcue to offer dynamic ticket pricing this season for single-game tickets. "By using advanced computer programming, dynamic pricing will give the team the ability to adjust ticket costs higher or lower based on market demand and such factors as pitching matchups, the team's performance, weather and potential milestones," wrote Corey Brock of MLB.com.

Dynamic ticket pricing is also being implemented in St. Louis, San Francisco, Oakland, Minnesota, Seattle, and Pittsburgh in MLB this season.

5) What about Micah Owings?

I'm glad you asked. The Padres signed the former Diamondbacks pitcher/hitter to a $1 million contract, and Owings is expected to compete for a spot in the starting rotation. He will also get a chance to improve on his standing as the 27th-highest active slugging percentage (.507) among all major leaguers with at least 200 career plate appearances.

Offseason Moves

In addition to the $500,000 sent to San Diego in the trade for Street, Colorado is on the hook for the $500,000 buyout should the Padres decide to decline the closer's $9 million club option for 2013.

The Padres had a whopping 12 players eligible for salary arbitration, and got them all signed by the end of January. San Diego also signed pitcher Jeff Suppan and outfielder Jeremy Hermida, among others, to minor-league contracts.

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Our next stop in our tour of the National League West brings us to the Colorado Rockies. Here is a look at the offseason for the Dodgers' mile high foes, who were extremely busy during the winter.

Five Questions

1) When will Jorge De La Rosa be back?

Likely some time in early June.

The southpaw who was a key cog for the 92-win playoff team in 2009, with 193 strikeouts and 16 wins in 32 starts, has made just 30 combined starts in the last two seasons. He underwent Tommy John surgery last season and is on a strict rehab program that has him throwing only bullpen sessions now.

The Rockies are trying to harness the competitiveness in De La Rosa that caused him to downplay an arm injury for a whopping eight starts before he was finally shut down in late May.

"It was real cold that day in Pittsburgh, and I felt something in my arm," De La Rosa told Thomas Harding of MLB.com last week. "I said it was a blister and they took me out of the game. I told them I would be OK. But I was not. It was weakness. The next day, I felt pain when I woke up."

Harding reported that the Rockies don't expect De La Rosa to throw a pitch for the major league team until late May or early June, which is about two months earlier than the Dodgers are expected to get their De La Rosa back from Tommy John surgery, knock on wood.

2) Was Marco Scutaro the steal of the offseason?

As much as a 36-year old making $6 million can be, sure. Scutaro is a shortstop by trade, but the Boston Red Sox felt the need to shed salary (not a phrase heard often in the last decade or so) and the Rockies were more than happy to oblige. To complete the trade Colorado sent fungible pitcher Clayton Mortensen to Boston, leaving Clayton Kershaw one player away from ridding the National League West of his namesakes.

Scutaro, who has accumulated between 12.7 (FanGraphs) and 13.3 (Baseball-Reference) wins above replacement over the last four seasons, will play second base for the Rockies. He hit .299/.358/.423 in 113 games for the Red Sox last season, and has a .350 on-base percentage since turning 30, averaging 54 walks per season for the last six campaigns.

Depressing Rockies Stat:
Jason Giambi had more home runs (13) in 2011 than James Loney (12) and Andre Ethier (11), in about a quarter of the plate appearances.

3) Will Kevin Slowey put a framed Colorado Rockies jersey in his game room?

I can still remember being flabbergasted when learning that Reggie Jackson played a single season for the Baltimore Orioles, and envision a similar fate for someone 20 years from now when they ask, "Wait, Kevin Slowey was a Rockie?"

Slowey's time with the organization was just 45 days, but a cursory glance at his Baseball-Reference page will be confusing as he never threw a pitch for the Rockies. Colorado traded pitcher Daniel Turpen to Minnesota on December 6 for the arbitration-eligible Slowey, who was a candidate to be non-tendered by the Twins. Then on January 20, perhaps after wondering how badly a homer-prone fly ball pitcher might fare at Coors Field, the Rockies pounced on Cleveland's need to replace the former Fausto Carmona and dealt Slowey and $1.25 million to the Indians for Zach Putnam, a 24-year old reliever with nearly a strikeout per inning in his minor league career.

4) Am I rooting for Jamie Moyer to make the Rockies in spring training?

Absolutely!

There are few things in baseball that would please me more than a 50-year old pitcher, and Moyer's chances of pitching at 50, in 2013, would be greatly enhanced by him pitching and pitching well in 2012 at age 49. I was in attendance at Petco Park in April 2006 when 47-year old Julio Franco broke a nearly 76-year old record to become the oldest player in MLB history to hit a home run, and I was wondering why people in my section didn't know who Jack Quinn was. Moyer won't be setting any records, but the milestone is still cool enough to strive for.

Moyer, who began his career when Tommy John was still an active major league pitcher, hasn't pitched in a big league game since June 2010 after having Tommy John surgery himself nearly two years ago.

I simply want to continue to watch a pitcher who had Davey Lopes and Ron Cey as his starting third basemen in his first and second big league games, respectively.

5) Will the Rockies need to wear name tags during spring training?

General manager Dan O'Dowd was a busy man this offseason, making 10 trades involving at least one major league player since the season ended. As noted yesterday by Andrew T. Fisher at Purple Row, a whopping 15 of the 25 players (60%) on the Rockies' 2011 opening day roster are already gone, including four-fifths of the starting rotation (well, until they get De La Rosa back at least) and eight of 12 pitchers.

In case you were wondering, 11 of the opening-day 25 for the 2011 Dodgers are no longer with the team.

Offseason Moves

Scutaro was a salary dump by Boston that Colorado was more than happy to pounce upon, but that was just won of a slew of trades by Colorado during the offseason...so far.

Colorado also signed pitcher Jamie Moyer and infielder Brandon Wood, among others, to minor-league contracts.

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Joe Beimel remains the last Dodger to have a salary arbitration hearing. Clayton Kershaw avoided his next two hearings today, signing a two-year deal worth $19 million.

Kershaw will receive a $500,000 signing bonus, $7.5 million in 2012, and $11 million in 2013, per Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times. Kershaw submitted a salary of $10 million in arbitration while the Dodgers countered at $6.5 million. The $8 million Kershaw receives this year is slightly less than the midpoint, but also the second highest salary ever for a pitcher in his first year of arbitration eligibility, trailing only Tim Lincecum.

UPDATE: Tony Jackson of ESPN LA reports that $2 million of Kershaw's 2012 salary is deferred to January 2013.

Kershaw follows a similar path to that of Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, both of whom signed a two-year deal during arbitration that left them with one year left before free agency once the contract expires.

In a quick and dirty estimate of what it would take to get Kershaw to sign a long-term contract, I was thinking something like $7m/$12m/$17m for the three arb-eligible seasons. Since this contract matches the total for those first two years, this seems like a win for the Dodgers at first glance, with the caveat that signing Kershaw to a long-term deal is still of the highest priority at Chavez Ravine.

The Dodgers have 18 players under contract for 2012 for a total of $85,975,000.

Here is the next part of my Dodger minor league player countdown, and we are now just outside my top 50 prospects. This is definitely a good group and only includes two players who have seen their ranking decrease since last year. Also, if you missed any of previous parts of this series, simply click here as it will take you to the "Prospect" section of True Blue LA. As always let me know your feedback on where I ranked everyone.

60. Justin Boudreaux, SS (32 games in Pioneer Rookie Lg, 12 games in Arz Rookie Lg in 2011)
Drafted by Dodgers 2011, 14th round
6’1", 190 lbs, 22.5 years old, bats right handed
.253 average, .793 OPS, 3 HR’s, 25 RBI’s, 17 SB’s
Pre 2011 Rank: N/A; Pre 2010 Rank: N/A; Pre 2009 Rank: N/A

Justin Bourdreaux was selected by the Dodgers out of Southeastern Louisiana University in the 14th round of the 2011 draft. He was coming off a junior season where he hit .333 with 8 homers, and in his 3 year college career he had a .307 average, 25 HR’s, and 37 stolen bases for the Lions. In their pre-draft analysis, Baseball America had a surprisingly detailed report on Bourdreaux and predicted he’d be drafted in the 6th – 10th round range. BA also said that Justin has good power and speed, and that on defense he is a solid shortstop (although some scouts think he’s better suited for 2nd or 3rd base). Upon signing with the Dodgers, Bourdreaux was sent to Arizona where he got off to a rough start. Nevertheless he was promoted to the Pioneer League at the beginning of August and he finished the year as the Raptors starting shortstop. Despite his .265 average with the Raptors Justin was a pretty exciting player as he posted a .842 OPS and stole 16 bases without getting caught. His fielding percentage was a little ugly, but his plate disciple and his overall offensive ability lived up to the expectations of his glowing pre-draft scouting report. Looking to the future, if Bourdreaux can stick at shortstop then he has the chance to be a solid Dodger prospect. He’ll probably play with the Loons in 2012, and it will be interesting to see how he performs in his first full season as a professional.

59. Jarret Martin, LHP (110.2 IP in LoA in 2011)
Obtained in a trade for Dana Eveland
6’3", 230 lbs, 22.5 years old
5-12, 4.96 ERA, 4.50 FIP, 7.9 K/9
Pre 2011 Rank: N/A; Pre 2010 Rank: N/A; Pre 2009 Rank: N/A

The Baltimore Orioles selected Jarret Martin in the 19th round of the 2008 draft, but he declined to sign and instead spent a year at Bakersfield Junior College. The Orioles tried again in 2009 by picking Martin one round earlier, and this time they got their man for a $200,000 signing bonus. Jarret didn’t see any game action in 2009, but his professional debut in the Appalachian League in 2010 was very successful as he posted a 4.07 ERA and struck out 68 batters in 59.2 innings. He did have an issue with his control, however, which is a problem that continued to plague him in 2011 when he was promoted to the South Atlantic League. Strangely enough, Martin also struggled against left handed batters in 2011 as his ERA vs lefties was 6.00 compared to 4.67 vs righties. In addition, Martin’s K rate decreased against the more advanced competition. This past winter he was traded to the Dodgers in the Dana Eveland trade, and despite his mediocre season in 2011 he seems to be a solid pickup for the organization. According to scouting reports he throws in the low 90’s and has decent movement on his fastball, and also has a solid curveball and changeup. He also has a good pitching frame at 6’3", and is still just 22 years old. As I already mentioned his lack of control is his biggest flaw, although I’m also not a big fan of his pitching motion. In 2012 Martin will almost certainly return to class A ball, although I’m not sure whether the Dodgers will send him to the Midwest League of the California League. He’s a guy who could move up significantly in my rankings next year with a good season, and that’s really going to depend on his ability to throw strikes.

Follow the jump for #'s 58 - 51

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