Report from Vero Beach

Just spent a beautiful day in Vero Beach watching Skip Schumaker hit two home runs. So much going on so I will only leave a few thoughts about what I saw.

Looper: Looked like he kept everything down. Only two well hit balls to the outfield. Almost all of the hits were on the ground. Sawed off a couple of bats. He had two nice defensive plays in the field. Overall, he looked good. We will not know if experiment will work out until he has to face a set of good hitters three times in a game to see if he has the arsenal to be a starter.

Ankiel: He was robbed by Nomar for what could have been an extra base hit, but honestly the balll wasn't hit all that hard to begin with. When he swings and misses (he struck out once) he looked BAD. When he (what I thought to be) guesses correctly he tags the ball.

Franklin and Narverson: They both had troubles throwing strikes. Neither came in to start an inning, but there wasn't anyone on base in Franklin's case and I can't remember if anyone was on when Narv came in. I was too sunburned and tired (bad travel experience) late in the game to remember anyone pitching after the 7th.

I saw much talk about Tagg Bozied on the Board. If you haven't seen him in person he is just a right handed hitting version of Chris Duncan. Their builds are eerily similar. He had two nice defensive plays early in the game. Unrelated: Gonzalez's shot was an absolute bomb.

The kids: It looked like I might get a good chance to see Ryan, Hansen, and Rasmus play, but they only got one at-bat each and a few innings in the field. Nothing worth writing about, but I just did.

Dodger note: James Loney is a hitting fool. He was beyond awful in right field. Allowed a very easy ball drop in front of him for a Rolen single (although in his defense the sun was in his eyes). Any lineup where Grady Little doesn't have his bat in the lineup is one that does not deserve to win. Nomar will probably be at 3rd base by the end of April. I think he never should have been resigned.

Brad penny looked lost. Couldn't get anything over for a strike. Everything that was hit was up the middle. I just saw that he used the "got my work in" excuse for his performance. Anyone who had any thoughts of trading for him needs to take a few breaths.

Dodgertown: It is a shame that the Dodgers are moving to AZ next season. Vero is just such a nice location. Most interesting is that there are no dugouts. The players are exposed to the sun just as much as the fans are (supposedly Branch Rickey's idea). There was someone behind me today who said he had been coming to Vero for 40 years. It was asked if he was ther when they were in Brooklyn. Answer: No, they have been in LA for almost 50 years now.

Tommy L: I can't see how he can get any bigger. He just sits at the corner of the pseudo-dugout. At one point he fell asleep and some fans started chanting his name. He woke up, and simultanously a Cardinal grounded out and he received an ovation for finishing his nap. Not knowing what was going on, he started clapping too. He should just rent himself out for birthday parties.

I'll be in Jupiter on Monday. If the feedback isn't too negative i'll give another update.