UPDATE: Nomar Garciaparra spared the humiliation of being a ball-shrinker. He has not been named in the Mitchell Report, but sources close to Machochip (i.e. a psychic) confirm that he’ll spend a considerable amount of time on the disabled list next year.

All this talk about the “Mitchell Report” and we’ve forgotten that baseball has some interested transitions underway. Andruw Jones, for example, was just introduced to Angelenos on Wednesday as the Blue-crew’s new pride and joy. The Dodgers are hoping that Jones depleted batting average from last year will rise out of hell and his homeruns will be abundant. Jones name is far from the Mitchell reports list of cheaters, but as of yesterday, Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti totally jinxed it.

So the Dodger pieces are starting to fit the puzzle. For example, Colletti said that having Jones in the middle of the batting order allows him and Manager Joe Torre to take a longer look at the third base situation, to see if Nomar Garciaparra can return to 2006 form or if youngster Andy LaRoche is the answer.

It was hard to tell if Colletti expected lightning to strike home or elsewhere; hard to tell if he knew whether any Dodgers were on the Mitchell list.

“I applaud Selig,” Colletti said. “We have to get it right. The game needs to be played right.”

We’re only three months away from Spring training: Andy, you should probably start lacing up your cleats now.

Jones is ready, but is baseball? [LATimes]
Image [Dodgers.com]