--INF Doug Mientkiewicz signed a minor league contract with the Dodgers and was invited to major league camp. He presumably will compete with Tony Abreu, Juan Castro and Chin-lung Hu for the final spot on the roster. If Mientkiewicz makes the club, the Dodgers would be his seventh team in the past six seasons.
--RHP Jason Schmidt had mixed results in his first two outings of the spring. Trying to pitch in the majors for the first time since shoulder surgery in June 2007, Schmidt retired three of the four batters he faced in an intrasquad game on Feb. 23, throwing 11 pitches, nine of which were strikes. But in a "B" game against the White Sox on Feb. 27, Schmidt missed the strike zone with 11 of his 21 pitches, walked two batters and failed to record three outs. --3B Casey Blake suffered a groin injury while running in the outfield after leaving the Feb. 25 Cactus League opener against the Cubs. The injury isn't believed to be serious, but Blake still felt discomfort as of the morning of Feb. 27. Manager Joe Torre said Blake would avoid all physical activity until the discomfort subsided.
--INF Tony Abreu suffered a groin injury making a lunging defensive play on Feb. 27 against Seattle. Abreu finished the inning but then left the game. He was expected to miss at least three or four days.
--LHP Shawn Estes, who is in camp as a non-roster player and has said he would retire if he doesn't make the club, had a rocky Cactus League debut. Estes was torched for seven runs (five earned) on six hits over 1 1/3 innings on Feb. 27 against the team that originally drafted him in the first round in 1991, the Mariners. Estes, 36, underwent Tommy John surgery almost three years ago and basically has been trying to re-establish himself in the majors ever since.
BY THE NUMBERS: $1.45 million -- Money in potential interest-free deferments included in the one-year, $3.38 million contract signed by new Dodgers 2B Orlando Hudson. Those deferments, which are payable in 2010 and 2011, include all of Hudson's $380,000 signing bonus. The deal also includes $4.62 million in incentives, and if Hudson maxes out on those, bringing his salary to $8 million, another $1.07 million of those bonuses will be deferred.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I was in the double-digit B's by then." -- Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti, referring to the famously egalitarian boarding procedure used by Southwest Airlines and his last-minute booking of a flight to Los Angeles on Wednesday for a hastily arranged meeting with agent Scott Boras and owner Frank McCourt as the team continued its push to re-sign free agent LF Manny Ramirez.
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