You might surmise from the surname, and you’d be correct, that today is a special day for yours truly. As fellow Irishman Vin Scully said prior to this morning’s first televised Dodger spring training game, “Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all, especially if it applies.” :)

The Dodgers are wearing their traditional green uniforms and caps to commemorate the day, and have added green bases as well. There’s a long history of celebrating March 17th at Dodgertown, which you can read about on Walter O’Malley’s official website, in the feature “St. Patrick’s Day Parties A Legend At Dodgertown”

I have a Guinness waiting in the fridge for later. This should be an especially tasty treat — it’ll be a celebratory drink, of course, but I also haven’t had a beer since before the bike accident, not wanting to get too interactive with the Vicodin. A beer and the first Dodger game on TV for the year — Brilliant! :)

There was an interesting story over on Slashfood a couple of days ago about how drinking habits in Ireland are changing to incorporate more wines and other fermentations, with a corresponding decline in Guinness sales. “Wine, instead of Guinness, for St. Patrick’s in Ireland”

Guinness sales are booming elsewhere in the world, so nothing to worry about for next St. Patrick’s Day. :)

Looking back over the past year of Dodger- and baseball-related posts here on Celsius1414 or, heck, the last couple of weeks, it should be pretty obvious that the subject has become pretty popular ‘round these parts. A glance at the tag cloud page confirms it.

I’ve been thinking of splitting off baseball content into its own website for some time now, and with the Hot Stove League in full swing, this seems as good a time as any to debut trolleydodger.com.

The Trolley Dodger website is a standalone blog dedicated to the Dodgers, affiliated teams, and baseball in general. There are a few posts there already, and while I won’t be transferring any existing stories here on Celsius1414 to the new site, I am really looking forward to covering one of my favorite topics in great verbosity over the coming months. Given the events of the off-season so far, there should be a lot to write about.

Celsius1414 will continue on as always, minus the new baseball stuff.

Thanks for reading!

I’m hoping they do a dual news conference for Jason Schmidt and Luis Gonzalez like they did for Juan Pierre and Randy Wolf, because I would love the over-the-top surreality of seeing two former foes donning Dodger Blue simultaneously. With their names on the back.

Schmidt, while not the over-powering monster he once was, can still bring it — witness his striking out 16 Marlins in this complete game last season. From what I’ve read, he is bolstering the not-as-high heat with crazy changeups, so keep an eye out there. (Of course that was 6/6/06, so perhaps the Devil was involved that day. ;)

The 39-year-old Gonzalez is a long ways away from his own salad days, but he will likely still be able to contribute with doubles (52 in 2006) instead of homers. He isn’t the powerful corner outfielder with the big bat we need and were hoping for, but that particular item might still be in the works.

So far this off-season, the Dodgers are being touted as the big winners, at least in the National League. Even the newspapers in rival NL West cities seem to like the moves so far.

San Diego Union Tribune — “Dodgers early leaders in I-5 road rally”

Ned Colletti is only in his second year as general manager of the Dodgers, or any club, but to this point he’s the one burning up the NL West. Whether paying above market value or not – and $44 million to Juan Pierre is above and beyond – he’s putting together a club that would be favored to win the West if the season began Dec. 11.

San Francisco Chronicle — “Dodgers are close to a winner”

While the Giants pin their hopes on a man who turns 43 in July and will face a season’s worth of innuendo about Human Growth Hormone or post-steroid breakdown, depending on how his body holds up, it’s important to notice what’s happening in the rest of the division. The Dodgers, for example, are one strong move away from clinching it right now.

The Arizona Republic — “Dodgers emerge as big winners”

Hard to imagine a team signing future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux and having only the second-best success in its division at baseball’s annual winter meetings.

But that’s pretty much what happened in the National League West this week.

The Dodgers outdid everyone.

The Denver Post — withholding comment so far. ;)

An exciting time, even if it is still December. Much like how hard it is for kids anticipating Christmas this time of year, waiting months until Spring Training is going to be tough.

What’s the name of that Cory Doctorow book? Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. Well, it looks as if the departing Greg Maddux will be replaced by a certain free-agent pitcher who was last with a certain Northern California team.

“Schmidt says he’s joining Dodgers”

The Dodgers apparently are on the verge of acquiring the power pitcher they’ve coveted, as free-agent right-hander Jason Schmidt on Wednesday told former Giants teammates he accepted a three-year, $47 million offer to pitch in Los Angeles.

In acquiring Schmidt, Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti would succeed in a key step of his offseason Plan B — accumulating surplus starting pitching that not only improves his starting rotation, but could lead to the culmination of Plan A, a power hitter.

We could, for example, turn around and trade Brad Penny in a package for a corner outfielder with plus power. Or we could go into the season with this crazy-good rotation:

1. Jason Schmidt
2. Derek Lowe
3. Brad Penny
4. Randy Wolf
5. Hong-Chih Kuo/Chad Billingsley

And that doesn’t count Mark Hendrickson, Brett Tomko, or Elmer Dessens.

Of course, sports news outlets and blogs all over the country were falling over themselves making “Schmidt” puns. A sampling:

• “Schmidt Will Happen In L.A.”
• “Schmidt happens: Dodgers land free-agent pitcher” (They also couldn’t resist “A piece of Piazza: A’s reach agreement with catcher”.)
• “Dodgers Get Their Schmidt Together”
• “Oh Schmidt! Jason leaves Giants for hated Dodgers”
• “Schmidt-less in St. Louis”

There are plenty more out there. I hope the LA media can show some restraint in the years to come. ;)

Meanwhile, the Mike Lieberthal signing is officially official, so we now have our backup catcher locked up for the season. The ticking just got louder on the Toby Hall countdown timer.

“Mike is a veteran catcher who can help our club in a lot of different ways,” said Colletti. “As a former Gold Glove Award winner, he has a lot to offer Russell Martin and he’ll be able to provide valuable leadership in the clubhouse. He’s another local player who knows what it means to be a Dodger.”

Late today, a report emerged that the rumored signing of Luis Gonzalez was in fact, fact.

The deal is expected to be officially announced Thursday, the final day of the Winter Meetings. The club has targeted Gonzalez, who spent the last eight seasons with Arizona, for outfield help since J.D. Drew’s departure and beat out the Orioles and Cardinals for the veteran’s services.

So, a relatively better news day than yesterday, although there are still questions to be answered.

Apart from the welcome signing of Takashi Saito, this has not been a great day for Dodgers news.

First up, the Red Sox are apparently creating the east-coast equivalent of our last year’s Blue Sox strategy by signing both J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo. Can’t say I’m really sad to see either of them go, but I am concerned about where we will make up Drew’s production such as it was.

Meanwhile, back in the NL West, Greg Maddux is reported to have signed a deal with the San Diego Padres, leaving the Dodgers after a partial season. The one-year deal has now been reported as final on ESPN and elsewhere, although it has not shown up as an official release yet (see my Hot Stove League rules in the previous post) on the Padres homepage, instead being listed as “Padres awaiting Maddux’s decision”. There’s also an article on the Dodgers site from earlier this evening that said:

Boras said rumors that Maddux had agreed to a contract with the San Diego Padres weren’t true, saying only “we’re moving positively in a couple directions.” Maddux wants to remain in Southern California. The Padres are believed to be ready to guarantee a second year, while the Dodgers are not.

Take that for whatever it’s worth. Again, see rule in previous post about Boras. ;)

That article, by the way, is one with the sad title “Dodgers likely parting ways with Gagne”.

Eric Gagne isn’t completely gone yet and neither is Greg Maddux, but agent Scott Boras has them on the verge of becoming ex-Dodgers.

One day after general manager Ned Colletti indicated the Dodgers wouldn’t guarantee significant dollars to Gagne without assurances that he’s healthy, agent Scott Boras virtually cut ties on his client’s behalf, saying it was “very likely” that Gagne would be signed during the Winter Meetings, which close on Thursday.

Both of these could well be Boras trying to play Colletti against himself. No one knows for sure what’s true. Only time will tell.

A couple of other tidbits from that article: the Rangers have asked about Jason Repko (perhaps to bring back some relievers?), and the news about Mike Lieberthal’s signing is being delayed to see if they can trade Toby Hall.

So again, apart from Saito, this has been rather a sobering day for Dodger news. Things are really uncertain right now. Watching ESPNews, it almost feels like an exodus is beginning, even though it isn’t at all what’s going on. I’m looking forward to some more positive news.