Dodgers notes: Freddie Freeman, Fernando Valenzuela, Joe Pignatano

In case you missed it yesterday, Fernando Valenzuela talked with Hector Diaz about his career, both pitching and broadcasting, and the influences Valenzuela has had along with the way.

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Freddie Freeman’s varied skillset was profiled by Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, in which Dave Roberts said of his first baseman, “He’s a very opportunistic, smart baserunner.”

Joe Pignatano, a Brooklyn native who was a Dodgers backup catcher in Brooklyn and Los Angeles for four seasons, died on Monday morning at age 92. Here is his obituary from Ben Walker at the Associated Press. Pignatano will be the subject of a Dodgers rewind on an upcoming True Blue LA podcast episode.

ESPN writers picked “the most watchable teams and players” in MLB this season. The Dodgers were one of six teams listed.

The Premier League approved the sale of Chelsea to a group led by Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly, leaving the British government as the final hurdle before the sale becomes official. The Associated Press has more.

Kelsey Whitmore is a two-way player for Staten Island and the first woman ever to play in the Atlantic League. Jake Seiner’s AP profile of Whitmore describes what she says is a knuckleball/changeup as “The Thing, a pitch originating out of conversations with knuckleballers R.A. Dickey and Phil Niekro that morphed into a divebombing beast with the help of high-speed cameras and radar technology.”