Things I wanted to write about in a depth-free environment:

Guruvy: Pitchers sign with the Dodgers even though they have no chance for making the team, just to work with pitching coach Jim Colburn. Coaches matter. I firmly believe hitting gurus are out there. The Dodgers will give Tim Wallach the chance to prove he is one, but they can't accept mediocrity.

Hi, I'm Duaner Sanchez, and I'm Expendable: "Rookie Edwin Jackson, slated for the fifth spot in the rotation, was scheduled to follow (Kazuhisa) Ishii," writes Tony Jackson in the Daily News. "But Tracy went with reliever Duaner Sanchez instead because he didn't want to risk injury to Jackson in the wet conditions."

In Garcia Da Vida: I'm not ready to buy into the Luis Garcia hype yet; it's gonna take me well past Spring Training to believe he's more than this year's Larry Barnes. And in one sense, he's less - Garcia is another right-handed hitter on a team catastrophically desperate for lefties.

Dodger Blue Cross: With Guillermo Mota sidelined for more than a week, how many Dodger pitchers have some sort of injury question mark next to their names? At least five: Mota, Hideo Nomo, Tom Martin, Paul Shuey, Greg Miller. Odalis Perez had better keep the blisters of 2003 away.

Playing With My Head: We know it's a shame that with all the sports radio stations around, the Dodgers are broadcast on a news station that has mismatched priorities. By the way, is anyone else discombobulated that you no longer can expect sports reports on KFWB and KNX at 15 and 45 past the hour?