Dodgers notes: PitchCom, Jason Heyward, cold weather

Some Dodgers news and notes heading into the weekend.

To help speed things up with the pitch timer now in place, PitchCom is now available for pitchers to call their own pitchers with signals to the catcher, in addition to the usual other way around. But thus far, pitching coach Mark Prior told Bill Plunkett at the Orange County Register that no Dodgers pitchers have expressed interest in calling their own pitches with the device. Reaction from Clayton Kershaw, Noah Syndergaard, plus catchers Will Smith and Austin Barnes within.

Jason Heyward’s quest to make the Dodgers as a non-roster invitee was chronicled by Rowan Kavner at Fox Sports. Included in Heyward’s journey this year has been a swing change after two down years in Chicago. “I think that’s become a little bit more commonplace when you’re at the end of your career and you don’t want it to end,” hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc told Kavner. “Why not try?”

Bill Shaikin at the Los Angeles Times takes aim at the myth that baseball is dying. “If the killjoy owners can stay out of the way, baseball could be in position to prosper,” he wrote.

Andy McCullough at The Athletic wrote about the relative coldness of this spring in Arizona. Says Max Muncy: “We’re starting to really get into the swing of spring training, but it still doesn’t really feel like spring training ... We’ve got guys wearing beanies and hoodies and jackets. Everybody’s trying to stay warm.”

If you happen to re-watch the sixth inning of Game 2 of the 2020 National League Division Series between the Dodgers and Padres, as one does, be on the lookout for, well, this ...