Rich Lederer and Bryan Smith of Baseball Analysts invited me and Geoff Young of the San Diego Padre blog Ducksnorts to discuss the coming season in the National League West. In the end, despite my reservations, I couldn't find any team I felt had a better shot of winning the thing than the Dodgers - but the consensus was that it would be another mediocre year for all five teams.

(Previously: NL West preview at SI.com)

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Meanwhile, the Register, Daily News, Times and Press-Enterprise all conduct an unintentional roundtable of their own regarding the one-inning limit (four outs tops) that Grady Little has announced for Dodger closer Eric Gagne. Aside from my usual disappointment in consigning the team's best reliever to pitch only in that specific inning instead of the inning he might be most needed, I have to wonder why the Dodgers would measure Gagne's workload by innings instead of pitches.

Are you telling me that if Gagne comes into the ninth inning of a tie game at Dodger Stadium (when a save opportunity no longer becomes available) and rips through the opposition in five pitches, you would take him out if the game goes to the 10th? I want Little to be as flexible about bullpen usage as he has appeared to be toward considering different people for the roster.

Anyway, Bill Plunkett of the Register offers this.

Little said he could see himself using Gagne for more than an inning "later in the year" after Gagne has had time to regain arm strength.

Ugueth Urbina had 40 saves for the 2002 Red Sox. That season, Little used Urbina for more than an inning three times in 61 appearances, on consecutive days 16 times and three consecutive days three times.

(Previously: "No Proof That Mota Trade Hurt Gagne", where we learned that despite the common belief, Gagne's workload did not increase after Guillermo Mota was traded in 2004. Remember, Gagne's problems in 2005 apparently grew out of him altering his mechanics to compensate for a fluke knee injury.)

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Little had this funny comment about Joel Guzman in Tony Jackson's Daily News article:

"I'm a little disappointed in (Joel) Guzman. When we put him in to pinch hit in the eighth or ninth inning and he's the tying run, we're not looking for a base hit to right. I thought he was going to hit one up on that (clubhouse) roof (in left). I just had a vision in my head."

- Dodgers manager Grady Little speaking tongue-in-cheek about the 6-foot-6, 252-pound Guzman, who has monstrous power but poked a harmless single into right field with a runner on and the Dodgers down by two in the eighth inning