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Hot Potato Corner

Barring injury, it looks like Casey Blake will be starting at third base for the Dodgers on opening day April 6 in San Diego.  Blake will be the sixth different 3B to start on opening day in the last six years:

2004:  Adrian Beltre

2005:  Jose Valentin

2006:  Bill Mueller

2007:  Wilson Betemit

2008:  Blake DeWitt

2009:  Casey Blake

Believe it or not, this is not the longest such streak of hot corner instability in Dodger history.  After the franchise's first championship in 1955, the club embarked on an 11-year odyssey with a different third-sacker each year:

1956:  Jackie Robinson

1957:  Randy Jackson (dog!)

1958:  Dick Gray

1959:  Jim Baxes

1960:  Junior Gilliam

1961:  Tommy Davis

1962:  Daryl Spencer

1963:  Ken McMullen

1964:  Johnny Werhas

1965:  John Kennedy

1966:  Jim Lefebvre

Overall, Blake will be the 33rd different third baseman in the last 54 years.  He'll get to join the ranks of such Dodger greats as German Rivera (1984) and Mike Blowers (1996). 

You want something more obscure?  More LA Dodger opening day 3B have reached on an error (4) than have homered (3).

What does this all mean?  Well, nothing, other than the fact that I'm bored and waiting for pitchers and catchers to report.