Your First Chance To See Zach Lee At Dodger Stadium

I like Stephen Fife just fine. I do. Really! He’s turned himself into quite a useful depth starter to have around, the kind of guy you feel fine with throwing six or eight times a year, the kind of guy you never want to rely on, but know you’ll need. But… we know what he can do. We know what he is. And so when I heard that he’d be unable to start tonight due to illness, and that Zach Lee would go instead, I can’t say I was alllll that disappointed.

Lee is still one of the team’s top prospects, and he hasn’t yet made his MLB debut yet. He hasn’t even pitched in a game at Dodger Stadium tonight, making tonight interesting. Or at least it would be, if anyone cared about the Freeway Series, and wasn’t dying for the season to get started already. (Lee, at least, gets to avoid Mike Trout. Can’t complain about that.)

Lee is backed by what is very clearly the Opening Day lineup, and the fact Dee Gordon is hitting eighth is a very good sign. It’s almost as good a sign as Adrian Gonzalez being back in there, showing that last night’s hit by pitch is nothing to worry about, and to continue the flow of good news, Clayton Kershaw played a game of catch that was termed as “a step forward,” leading to speculation that he’ll start Friday’s home opener, though Don Mattingly wouldn’t comment on that.

Again, the game is on both SNLA and FSW, and again, it’s meaningless spring training baseball. Tomorrow night, this series adjourns south to Anaheim for even more meaningless baseball, before the season finally gets rolling on Sunday night, when the Dodgers and Padres will have the baseball schedule to themselves.