Blake DeWitt was chosen to be the Opening Day starter at second on Thursday. He'll be backed up by Ronnie Belliard and Jamey Carroll.
DeWitt has already had quite the interesting career with the Dodgers, and he's only entering his third season. The hope is that knowing he'll be the everyday starter will make him relax and return to the form he found at the start of the 2008 season.
For those of you that have forgotten, DeWitt was the default third baseman to start the '08 season, mostly because of injuries to Nomar Garciaparra, Andy LaRoche, and Tony Abreu. It turned out to be a blessing, because he ended up hitting .303 through May.
He cooled off soon after that, however, and was then sent back down once Casey Blake came aboard. He did get to start at second for an ailing Jeff Kent in that year's playoffs, but hit .167 with six strikeouts in eight games.
Last year he spent only 31 games in the bigs, going back and forth between the minors and majors. It was pretty much a lost year for him because he never could get comfortable.
I came into this spring thinking Belliard would be the starter, but I can see Torre's thinking on this one. DeWitt is much younger, and the Dodgers are trying to think long-term here. We've seen the best and worst of him already, so like I said before, hopefully he can play well knowing that he's the main man.
I'm sure Belliard and Carroll will still see some starts and opportunities late in games, and they're both good options to have in those situations.
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