Don Mattingly

The Los Angeles Dodgers lost to the San Francisco Giants on Friday night, courtesy of a Buster Posey walk-off home run. But more importantly, they may have lost their starting shortstop for a significant period of time.

With spring training now at its peak and Cactus League play in full gear, the Los Angeles Dodgers find themselves in the national spotlight of the sports media in regards to a number of popular storylines.

Team ownership is obviously at the forefront, as Frank McCourt was anticipating a $200 million cash advance from Fox until the transaction was blocked by MLB commissioner Bud Selig late last week. It's unclear exactly where the overall finances of the club lie, but the fact that McCourt was involved in plotting such a deal doesn't sound encouraging.

With Spring Training rapidly approaching, the 2011 Los Angeles Dodgers' roster is nearly finalized. First-year manager, Don Mattingly, hopes to improve the team from the 2010 edition that was two games under .500.

Don Mattingly's major league career with the New York Yankees started in 1982 and ended after the 1995 season. Mattingly's first full season as a regular was 1984.

From 1984-89 Mattingly batted .327, had an on base average of .372 and slugged .530. He averaged 27 home runs, 114 RBIs, 49 walks and only 34 strikeouts.

The way the Los Angeles Dodgers finished the 2010 season, you would think that there's no right for someone to be thinking about a World Series Championship this year. 

The team looked like a complete mess during the second half of the season.  Manny Ramirez was given away, Jonathon Broxton was giving games away, and then there's the lingering threat that the McCourts may have to give the whole team away.

On Wednesday afternoon, Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame class for 2011 was announced and, as anticipated, Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar amassed the number of votes necessary for their enshrinement in Cooperstown this summer. A Hall of Fame candidate must receive 75 percent of the vote from eligible Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) members to garner induction.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Baseball Hall of Fame announced the induction of Bert Blyleven (among others) after a 14-year wait.  Blyleven's election comes on the heels of the elections of Jim Rice (class of '09) and Andre "Hawk" Dawson ('10) after comparably long waits.  With these three men all in, we can now turn our sights to other players who have spent many years (five or more for the sake of this article) on the ballot and are still waiting for the all-important call from Cooperstown.  I took each player who will be

On Wednesday, the Baseball Writers Association of America will announce the National Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2011. There's no telling how the results will shake out, but after seeing how the voters have gone the last few years, one thing's for sure: they'll get it wrong.

On January 5, Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame class for 2011 will be announced on a live MLB Network simulcast at MLB.com. Among the distinguished list of candidates are two former New York Yankee first basemen who will always occupy a special place in the hearts of Bronx Bomber fans.

Piece by piece, the 2011 Los Angeles Dodgers coaching staff is slowly coming together, and within the next few weeks, general manager Ned Colletti is expected to confirm all reports and make an official announcement about who will be working under new skipper Don Mattingly next season.

Ken Davidoff, a national baseball writer for Newsday, reported on Tuesday that pitching coach Rick Honeycutt has agreed to return to Los Angeles for a fifth season.