Los Angeles Dodgers photo

Chattanooga Lookouts starting pitcher Scott Elbert made 10 appearances last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers , including this September game against Arizona.

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By David Paschall

dpaschall@timesfreepress.com

Left-handed pitcher Scott Elbert is penciled to start Friday night for the Chattanooga Lookouts in Birmingham.

The rest of his season is pretty much in pencil, too.

Elbert could be the first Lookouts player shipped to Los Angeles, where he made 10 appearances last season as a reliever. Then again, he might have a slow start or not be needed by the Dodgers any time soon, thus remaining with the Lookouts and acclimating to life back in a rotation.

Add the continuing adjustment of a family addition, which occurred in December with the birth of daughter Madilyn, and Elbert could be in for quite an adventure.

"It could change for me, or I could be here all year," Elbert said. "It doesn't matter. I still have to approach the game right and do everything I can to get ready. If I get called, I get called. If not, I'm still going to be here having fun."

The Lookouts open their season tonight in Birmingham and play their first game at AT&T Field next Tuesday against Montgomery.

Elbert, a first-round pick of the Dodgers in 2004, is rated by Baseball America as the No. 5 organizational prospect. The 6-foot-1, 210-pounder from Surprise, Ariz., also is credited for having the organization's best curveball.

"He calls it a curveball, but it's a slider, and he throws the thing a ton," Lookouts pitching coach Glenn Dishman said. "He throws it as hard as he can throw it, and it's devastating. It's a swing-and-a-miss breaking pitch, and it goes off his fastball. It comes out the same speed and all of a sudden buries in a right-hander's back foot.

"Left-handers don't stand a chance. It's a great pitch."

After undergoing shoulder surgery in June 2007, Elbert began last season in extended spring and didn't arrive at Double-A Jacksonville until June. He had a 4-1 record and a 2.40 earned run average in 25 appearances with the Suns, recording 46 strikeouts in 41 1/3 innings and limiting opponents to a .157 batting average.

Elbert was called up to Los Angeles on Aug. 29 and played in Arizona that night. His first five major league outs occurred via strikeouts, one shy of the Dodgers and big-league record set by Pete Richert in 1962.

He could not maintain the torrid start, however, and went 0-1 with a 12.00 ERA in his 10 games.

"Scotty did real well when he first got there, but then some of his tendencies reverted back to where he starts to overthrow and gets a little too amped up about the game," Dishman said. "We're going to smooth out his delivery and pound the zone, and before you know it, he'll be back in the big leagues. I think he's a guy who knows he's 23 years old and knows he's ahead of the curve, so I don't think he's going to put any pressure on himself."

Said Elbert: "It's not a downgrade to come back here. I want to get some extra innings in and try and do as well as I did last year and hopefully have the same consequences."

Elbert's favorite highlight from last season was the promotion -- "The first thing you do is get on the phone and tell everybody about it," he said -- and admits another one this year would be just as thrilling.

"It's a totally different atmosphere," he said. "Yes, we're still playing ball down here, but whenever you get to the big leagues, you've got 50,000 or 60,000 people there, and it's very overwhelming."