Scott Proctor’s most notable moments on the mound came in pinstripes. The 36 year old announced his retirement from baseball today. (Image Credit: Michael L. Stein-USA TODAY Sports)

Thirty-six year old right-hander Scott Proctor has decided to retire, according to Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News. Proctor had signed a minor league deal with the San Francisco Giants this past offseason, but was traded to the Baltimore Orioles before the end of Spring Training. Baltimore released him towards the end of April after throwing just 7.1 IP.

Taken in the 5th Round of the 1998 Draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Proctor developed into a reliable bulllpen option once he was traded to the New York Yankees at the 2003 July trade deadline (for Robin Ventura). With New York Proctor was a big piece of Joe Torre’s bullpens, appearing in 83 games in back-to-back seasons. He’d spend five years in New York, pitching to a 4.51 ERA  and 1.437 WHIP over 237.1 IP. Proctor would return to the Dodgers in 2007 and have a stint with the Atlanta Braves before calling it a career.

He’d appear in 307 games over seven seasons, posting a 4.78 ERA, 1.469 WHIP, 4.4 BB/9, and 7.6 K/9 in 343.0 IP.

Jonathan Sanchez has agreed to a deal to join the Los Angeles Dodgers, pending a physical. (Image Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)

Pitching depth was supposed to be a strength for the Los Angeles Dodgers heading into the season, but injuries have completely erased such plans leaving the organization to look elsewhere for some added depth with Major League experience. That search for added depth has led the team to free agent Jonathan Sanchez, who the team agreed to sign to a minor league deal according to ESPN’s Pedro Gomez. Sanchez will need to pass a physical before the deal is finalized.

Sanchez had joined the Pittsburgh Pirates on a minor league deal over the winter and surprisingly made the team’s Opening Day roster (thanks to the Pirates own injury woes). Sanchez struggled on the hill, however, posting a troubling 11.85 ERA and 2.415 WHIP in five appearances before the team designated him for assignment and subsequently released him.

Assuming Sanchez passes his physical he’ll likely report to the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Albuquerque. The deal also reportedly contains an opt-out clause, allowing Sanchez to become a free agent if he isn’t promoted to the team’s Major League roster by July 1st.

Before a new injury put him on the disabled list for the second time this season Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Hanley Ramirez was looking pretty sharp in the field.

It seems that not a day passes without hearing about a Major League player being put on the disabled list, usually for 15 days at a stretch, but too often for 60 days. The disabled list means what it says–a player is too hurt to play, or disabled, for the time being. The player is still a member of the team, but not part of the team.

While hurt the player pretty much becomes a civilian, watching games in street clothes or riding an exercise bicycle like the guy living down the block who wants to lose a few pounds. He pretty much is a forgotten man as the schedule moves on without him.

Right now there are about 150 Major League players on the disabled list. Some are short-timers, sentenced there for 15 days, many are long-termers, stuck there for a minimum of 60 days, and others are on the list with the belief that they will stay there for the entire season unless a Saint prays over them and miraculously cures them of their ailments.

Any mention of the disabled list in connection with a player’s name is bad news. It means something has happened to prevent his body from functioning at 100 percent. And the something is more than some little routine nagging muscle ache, blister on a finger, or minor turned ankle. For those types of wounds you sit out a couple of days maybe without playing, but not as long as 15 days.

There are all kinds of reasons for a player to go on the disabled list. They all mean that the player is going to be missing for more than two weeks, that usually a player from the minors is going to be summoned, and that there is enough doubt about the player’s health to acknowledge he can’t be fixed with a band aid and a stitch or two.

For most fans who follow their local team intently and the most famous players generally by watching daily highlights on ESPN, players elsewhere can come and go from the disabled list without being much noticed. Oh yeah, so-and-so’s out, fans might remember when another team comes to town for a series.

But it really is amazing how many players get the dreaded words “disabled list” from a doctor. It makes a big impression when the names are laid end to end, or one team’s woes are highlighted.

Toronto pitcher J.A. Happ has just gone on the disabled list after being hit in the head with a line drive and suffering a skull fracture. That is about the most noticeable way to get hurt and sentenced to the DL.

Usually the New York Yankees are competing for the title of the team with the most players chosen for the All-Star team. This year they may win the disabled list competition for most players incapacitated.

As of this moment the Yankee list of All-Stars and the list of guys on the DL is fairly similar. This is who the Yankees are missing: Alex Rodriguez, Michael Pineda, Mark Teixeira, Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Cesar Cabral, Ivan Nova, Francisco Cervelli, Kevin Youkilis, and Joba Chamberlain. That’s just ridiculous.

Really, nobody can compete with the Yankees on this, but the Los Angeles Dodgers are giving it the old college try with almost all of the pitching rotation being temporarily wiped out. LA has six pitchers on the disabled list and a few more guys like Hanley Ramirez, Mark Ellis, and Jerry Hairston Jr., making three middle infielders, too. This is the second time this season for Ramirez, who had four-game comeback between stints on the DL.

At least the Yankees and Dodgers make it easy for fans to send get-well cards in bulk.

Hanley Ramirez was forced out of Friday’s game and back onto the DL with a strained hamstring. (Image Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports)

Having already missed the bulk of the season to date, Hanley Ramirez is set to sit out even more time as the Los Angeles Dodgers were forced to place him back on the disabled list late Saturday. The 29 year old strained his hamstring during Friday night’s loss against the division rival San Francisco Giants. It’s unclear just how much more time he will miss.

Ramirez injured his thumb in early March, while playing in the World Baseball Classic, and would need to undergo surgery. Initial reports suggested that he could potentially miss up to two months, but his recovery progressed quicker than expected and he returned to the lineup on Monday. It was a boost the Dodgers organization needed, given the injury woes the roster has been tasked with overcoming all season long. Ramirez would get in just four games, going 5 for 11 with a home run, before hurting himself on Friday while running from first to third base in the sixth inning.

By all accounts Ramirez isn’t thrilled that another trip to the DL was deemed necessary by the organization. Manager Don Mattingly didn’t sound overly optimistic about how soon he’d return, however, in quotes passed along by the Associated Press (through ESPNLA):

Awhile … I hope that puts it in the right category. You never really know when a guy’s ready or not because you can’t ever get to the intensity that you need to get to on the hamstring when you’re going to explode and ask for more of your body. It’s going to be awhile.

Dee Gordon was recalled from Triple-A to take Ramirez’s place on the active roster. He’s been hitting .314/.397/.431 on the year at Albuquerque through 117 PA. He’s also leading the Pacific Coast League in stolen bases, with 14. Gordon has batted .260/.299/.315 over parts of the past two seasons with the Dodgers, showing flashes of talent but failing to produce with consistency. He’ll likely share the at bats moving forward with Justin Sellers, who saw most of the playing time early on with Ramirez out of the lineup but struggled to a .194/.270/.254 line through 74 PA thus far.

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Stephen Fife was supposed to hold the fort while LA starters returned to health, but Saturday he also went on the disabled list with shoulder stiffness. Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

One would hope the coverage plan is solid for the Los Angeles Dodgers because their pitchers need all of the TLC Blue Cross can muster. Saturday it was Stephen Fife going down. The No. 1 thing LA pitchers have in common is not a 90 mph fastball, but a body part breaking down.

Not long ago I scoffed when Dodger manager Don Mattingly got all huffy about the idea of his team being favorites in the National League this season just because management went all out spending zillions of dollars to obtain everything needed in order to win a pennant.

I thought that anyone who had been the beneficiary of such a generous front office should be quiet except for saying thank you with the addition of enough key players to field a super strong lineup. What Mattingly should have said was something on the order of  “We’ve got a solid roster, but anything can happen.”

Well, anything–and everything has happened. As if not enough Dodger pitchers have been injured I was wondering just what the heck Mattingly was thinking a few days ago when I noticed his ace–his healthy ace–Clayton Kershaw in a box score as a pinch-hitter. It’s one thing to be deprived of the designated hitter because you play in the National League, but to go out of your way to insert a pitcher as a hitter? Not to mention, can you imagine the blowback if Kershaw was injured? What kind of conversation would be going on now if Kershaw got hit by a pitch on his throwing hand wrist?

It’s pretty hard to keep up with the Dodgers’ starting pitcher casualty list, but I’ll give it a go. Craig Billingsley is out for the season, destined for Tommy John surgery and a year’s worth of rehab. Zach Greinke, the major free-agent acquisition of the off-season, is on the disabled list for a couple of more months with a broken collar bone suffered in his WWF match with Carlos Quentin of the Padres. Chris Capuano is still out with an injury, too, a calif muscle problem aggravated in the same brawl that shelved Greinke. And now, after Saturday’s play, Stephen Fife has gone on the disabled list with a twinge in his shoulder.

Fife was a back-up supposed to hold his finger in the dike while some of the others got well, so now the Dodgers are calling upon backups to the backups to fill the rotation. In the one piece of good pitching news, southpaw Ted Lilly, who was out all of April until a few days ago, returned and pitched a game.

And I thought Mattingly was just whining. Maybe he knew he knew more than we knew because he had one of those free, one-question tarot card readings with Miss Cleo asking: “How does my pitching shape up?”

Miss Cleo probably saw the future and shook her head. The worse news for Mattingly is if those arms don’t get healthy fast his new, free-spending owners might not be too patient with him, and this domino-like calamity might take general manager Ned Colletti down, too.

My question for Miss Cleo: “Will the Dodgers recover and make the playoffs?”

Chad Billingsley will undergo Tommy John Surgery later today. Given the year long recovery period, it’s possible the team might have been better off having him undergo the procedure last July when his elbow troubles first started. (Image Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports)

The injury woes keep coming for the Los Angeles Dodgers, as the team announced Tuesday that right-hander Chad Billingsley will undergo Tommy John Surgery. The procedure will take place sometime today and he’ll likely need at least twelve months to fully recover.

Billingsley’s elbow troubles first appeared last July. The team hoped that some extra rest and rehab would be enough to prevent the need for a serious medical procedure. He’d receive a platelet-rich plasma injection in both August and September, but Billingsley would fail to make a start after late August. Concerns lingered into the offseason regarding the elbow but ultimately Billingsley came to the team’s Spring Training camp ready to go. He made just two starts before the pain resurfaced.

One year remains on Billingsley’s current contract, valued at $14 Million for the 2014 season. The team holds an option for 2015 (again valued at $14 Million) but it appears more likely that they’ll choose to pay a $3 Million buyout, allowing him to become a free agent instead.

Los Angeles entered the season with more starting pitching depth than most teams, considering the team was forced to push Chris Capuano and Aaron Harang into bullpen roles. Now, with Billingsley lost for the remainder of the year, Zack Greinke on the shelf with a broken collarbone, Capuano dealing with a strained calf, and Harang pitching for the Seattle Mariners the team’s depth is truly being tested. Clayton Kershaw, Josh Beckett, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Stephen Fife, and Ted Lilly will make up the team’s rotation moving forward. Another injury may necessitate an outside acquisition of some kind.

San Diego Padres left fielder Carlos Quentin (left) charged the mound after being hit by a pitch from Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Zack Greinke (21) to start a bench-clearing brawl Thursday night. Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

My first impression of the Los Angeles Dodgers-San Diego Padres brawl Thursday night at PETCO Park was that a hockey game broke out in the middle of the baseball game. But really, the scene more resembled one of those everybody-into-the-ring pro wrestling extravaganzas.

Another thing that was fairly apparent was that right-handed throwing Greinke did adhere to the No. 1 rule for pitchers getting into fights and led with the left side of his body as Padres outfielder Carlos Quention sprinted at him full-blast as if he was covering a kickoff on special teams.

While some might argue that the smartest thing Greinke could have done would have been to run away in the face of this charging bull, he would have been ridiculed from here to Timbuktu with the video on a loop forevermore, if he had done so. Instead he met Quentin head on, or shoulder on, and broke his left collarbone, which is supposed to knock him out of the Dodgers’ rotation for up to a few months.

No doubt LA general manager Ned Colletti, who signed Greinke to a six-year, $147 million contract to pitch, not punch, was cringing in more pain than the thrower the morning after. Quirky developments like these are the things that decide pennant races. Still, Greinke did protect his pitching shoulder in favor of his punching shoulder.

The precipitating incident in this (and here comes that popular baseball phrase) bench-clearing brawl, occurred in the sixth inning. Greinke was pitching to Quentin and hit him on the left, outside shoulder. Hit by pitch, take your base, would have been the routine move. Only Quentin decided he would rather take the mound.

He barely mulled the matter for a second or two and then engaged in an NFL combine start, going from 0 to 60 in a flash. Greinke met him head-on, throwing an impressive block, and they hit the deck. That was the signal for everybody to dash onto the field, coaches, players, managers, bullpen personnel, cousins of players, acquaintances of coaches.

Nobody was madder than LA outfielder Matt Kemp, who injected himself into the middle of the sprawling mess in the infield. Earlier in the game a pitch had sailed over his Kemp’s head and that was the theory on what Kemp was holding a grudge over–but he was ranting more than anyone.

Kemp later chased down Quentin to jaw some more, LA manager Don Mattingly called Quentin “stupid” for charging the mound, Greinke said he didn’t hit Quentin on purpose, and the Dodgers won the game, 3-2, but lost Greinke for a while.

Pitchers are such fragile creatures that getting into mini-wars like this is extremely risky. Old-timers that faced a regular diet of flamethrowers such as Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale, who aimed at their heads to keep them loose in the batter’s box, always ridicule these confrontations and what they consider to be over-reactions by hitters. Quentin really did over-react.

Team executives hate it when one of their high-priced pitchers gets embroiled in a smackdown like this and this is one of those Exhibit A examples as to why.  Greinke upheld his honor, but is paying a price. What the Dodgers don’t need is a Greinke injury dragging the whole team down and jeopardizing playoff chances with a lengthy slump.

Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder Carl Crawford is off to a great start in the National League after two problem-filled seasons in Boston. Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

There was a reason why the Boston Red Sox opened the vault a couple of years ago (seems like 10 years now) to make outfielder Carl Crawford a rich man. He was a superb and dangerous leadoff hitter, the type of player that could disrupt another team on the basepaths, and also patrol left field well.

Crawford (bats left, throws left, runs as fast as a Corvette), was only 20 when he broke into the majors with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2002 and he was a four-time All-Star by 2010. The Red Sox swooped down and made him an offer he could not refuse starting with the 2011 season and at the time it seemed as if it was a great acquisition for Boston.

As a great leadoff man surrounded by big bats there seemed every possibility that Crawford could score a million runs, or at least 150. The Red Sox had witnessed some adventurous fielding in front of the Green Monster in left with Manny Ramirez manning the station, but Crawford owned one of the best fielding percentages in the game. How great an adjustment could it be? The Sox and Rays even played in the same American League East Division.

Yet somehow things never meshed. Crawford started out horribly in 2011, hitting well below his 215-pound weight. Pretty soon he became a dead weight in the batting order. And given that his contract was for $142 million spread over seven years, an expensive dead weight at that.

Somewhere around the middle of the season Crawford began to hit again and he ended the season at .255. Not one of Carl’s finest years.

Then things got worse. It was not a very Happy New Year for Crawford in 2012. First he injured his wrist and needed surgery. Then he tweaked his elbow. Crawford was just part of the disaster movie filming in Fenway Park that represented the last-place 2012 season. Before the end of August the usually free-spending Red Sox made a blockbuster trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers that mostly represented getting rid of Crawford, pitcher Josh Beckett, and first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.

The move was so unlike the Red Sox that fans were shocked and although there were plenty of Boston newspaper stories hinting that Beckett was poison in the clubhouse some also wondered if the Sox might not regret the hasty exile of Gonzalez or Crawford. All three are playing regular roles for the Dodgers now, one of the teams looking at the shortest odds of winning the National League pennant this summer.

This includes a now-healthy Crawford (finally), who not long ago publicly expressed remorse for ever signing with Boston. He made it sound as if he wished the British had kept the town after the Boston Tea Party. After his tribulations of the last couple of seasons, which were not Boston’s fault, but his own body’s, Crawford was ready to go for the Dodgers on opening day.

You can understand Crawford’s sour feelings about Boston to a point because they represent the worst portion of his career. But it’s hard to be too sympathetic when he moans about how everything started to go bad for him when then-Boston manager Terry Francona moved him to seventh in the batting order because he was off to an 0-for-7 start. C’mon, that’s just whining and shows a complete lack of mental toughness. Of course if Crawford had then started to hit nobody would even remember that occasion–even him.

Instead, Crawford went into a long-term tailspin, got hurt and hurt again. Now he seems to be healthy and back doing what he always did. After six games with the Dodgers Crawford was batting .450.

Let’s just say good for him and hope Carl Crawford is back to being what he was–an All-Star caliber player.

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

According to the Dodgers MLB.com blog, Lilly will make his next rehab start tomorrow, but he will get a move on up to Triple-A Albuquerque. Lilly is currently on the disabled list retroactive to the 29th of March, so he is eligible to return on the 13th of this month. He also had a flu in Spring Training and has needed to build up strength coming off of shoulder labrum surgery. It’s been a rough past couple of months for Lilly, and it might not get any easier.

Why? Even after Lilly comes off of the disabled list, he won’t be getting any work in the Dodgers rotation. Their starting five is filled to the brim, so there’s no room for Lilly. If there was any possibility of Lilly getting in some relief work, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly squashed all hopes of Lilly working out of the bullpen by saying Lilly wouldn’t be fit to pitch in relief.

The Dodgers are still trying to shop Lilly since there is no space for him, so hopefully the veteran finds greener pastures soon. It’s taken quite some time, and the Dodgers still haven’t been able to find the right trade partner. However, they recently dished Aaron Harang (similar situation as Lilly’s, minus the shoulder issue and the dreaded flu) to the Colorado Rockies, and it is always easier to find trade partners during the season. Here’s to hoping the best to Lilly in his recovery, rehab start tomorrow, and future opportunities with a new ballclub (since it will likely come to that). Lilly, by the way, is expected to have a couple of more rehab starts after this next one.

Los Angeles Dodger Clayton Kershaw has become one of the best pitchers in baseball over the last few years and the question is if he can lead his team to a championship. Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Seems as if I’ve twice heard Don Mattingly trying to tamp down expectations for his Los Angeles Dodgers this season, which seeing as how management has spent a gazillion dollars to upgrade the team talent that’s not only hard to do, but foolish to do. Managers frequently say they play the cards they are dealt and it looks to those of us gazing upon LA from a distance that Mattingly has a full house.

Yes, we get it that the San Francisco Giants are the defending World Series champions and have won two titles in three years and that they play in the same National League West Division as the Dodgers, but it’s terribly difficult to repeat and the Dodgers are loaded. It’s not as if Mattingly is blending his freshman class into the frontcourt, the Dodgers are built to win now. It’s not mandatory that they win the division crown during the regular season, but they had better make the playoffs or Mattingly will be fired. They’d also better do some winning in the playoffs or Magic Johnson will stop smiling.

The Dodgers have the goods for success, including the bankrolls of an ownership group including Magic. Clayton Kershaw is the ace of the pitching staff and Matt Kemp would be the ace of anyone’s outfield. Recent additions Adrian Gonzalez, Zach Greinke, Hanley Ramirez, Josh Beckett, and Carl Crawford can add star power and just power to the Dodgers’ lineup. The only problem is they are not all healthy. Greinke just came up with some kind of elbow twinge which could impinge on his early-season pitching. Ramirez is out for weeks following torn thumb-ligament surgery and Crawford spent his entire employment with the Boston Red Sox injured.

While the Dodgers will become the darlings of the Hollywood set and get all kinds of publicity as player fortunes ebb and flow, the Giants will keep up their steady work. No team remains static and San Francisco seemed to get all of the breaks it needed last year in the post-season, too, but overlook them at your peril.

Examining the Giants’ lineup piece by piece it seems the the sum of the whole is more impressive than the individual components. Outside of catcher Buster Posey, who is one of the gems in the sport, the remainder of the lineup doesn’t blow anybody away. Yet guys like Pablo Sandoval, Hunter Pence and Marco Scutaro come through in the clutch. The starting pitching, anchored by Matt Cain, is exceptional. One would think a team that lost its closer, Brian Wilson, would flail around in the bullpen, but manager Bruce Bochy pushed all the right buttons and Wilson wasn’t even missed.

The biggest question for San Francisco is what the deal is with righty Tim Lincecum. Can he regain his Cy Young form? Will he become a spot starter, middle reliever, or just how will he be used?

Whatever I say about the Arizona Diamondbacks will be wrong. Whenever I think they might challenge for the division lead they plummet into mediocrity. Whenever I think they might threaten to finish last, they challenge for the title. This year I am going to predict mediocrity and that’s because I don’t see much hitting to count on in the day-to-day lineup. How much will Adam Eaton help? After a 22-game cameo last year he was supposed to be the next big thing, but he has an elbow problem that is supposed to bench him for weeks. What kind of year will Justin Upton have? Who is Paul Goldschmidt. The Diamondbacks’ pitching should be better than their hitting, but that doesn’t says much.

The main thing the San Diego Padres have going for them besides sunshine is that the Colorado Rockies are in the same division. I think it’s finally too late to re-activate Tony Gwynn so when I look at the projective starting lineup I mostly see a hitting wasteland. Third baseman Chase Headley is the best regular, but he has a broken thumb. Other than that several of San Diego’s regulars may be guys who showed flashes with other teams, but were shipped out of town.  The Padres’ opening-day starter is scheduled to be Edinson Valquez who was the odd man out in the Cincinnati Reds’ rotation.

Then there are the Rockies. It should be a rocky summer for the Rockies. I’d like to see a healthy Todd Helton have one more excellent season before he calls it quits. Troy Tulowitzki anchors shortstop. Carlos Gonzalez is the future of the franchise, but it’s hard to say that about anyone in the pitching rotation. Colorado had the busiest bullpen in the universe in 2012.

This is how things look in the National League West Division for 2013: 1) San Francisco Giants; 2) Los Angeles Dodgers; 3) Arizona Diamondbacks; 4) San Diego Padres; 5) Colorado Rockies.