Los Angeles Dodgers

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.

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.

After five seasons behind the dish for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Russell Martin signed a lucrative one-year contract to suit up as the catcher for the New York Yankees.

Martin became the face of the franchise over the past few seasons for the Dodgers. Though injuries plagued him in 2010, Martin still established himself as one of the top backstops in the game.

Here are 10 reasons why the Dodgers will miss Martin in 2011.

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It's that time of the year when baseball publications and blogs far and wide weigh in with their opinions as to which players deserve mentioning on their respective teams' Top 10 prospects lists, and for the Los Angeles Dodgers, those number of listings are seemingly endless.

Periodicals such as Baseball America, Fangraphs, The Hardball Times, and a number of blogs from SB Nation are among only a few who have published prospect lists in the past week alone.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are planning to start Jay Gibbons and Marcus Thames in left field to open the 2011 season. 

No, that’s not a typo. 

It is the same Jay Gibbons who was out of the league in 2008 and 2009 only to resurface in Los Angeles in 2010 and hit .280 with five HR in 75 AB.  It is the same Marcus Thames who has never had more than 348 AB in a season and is a career .248 hitter.

Bryan: 15-1. 4-7. Those are Ubaldo Jimenez‘s first- and second-half records last season. He went from unbelievable to unbelievably pedestrian, so which Jimenez is the real Jimenez? Any time you ask that question, the real answer is, “Somewhere in the middle, of course!” and the same holds true here.

Some might say it's baseball blasphemy for a die-hard San Francisco Giants fanatic to give opinions about our hated enemies to the south, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In fact, I know quite a few who will say that.

But bear with me for a second.

The blood rivalry—that is unfortunately a literal term when it comes to this particular pairing—between the Gents and Bums is an example of major-league contempt in its purest form.

With their most recent acquisition of outfielder Marcus Thames, the Los Angeles Dodgers not only achieved an addition of power to the roster, but they also balanced the bats in the process. Thames will join a solid corps of outfielders who individually feature power, speed, and reliable defense.

Back on December 22nd, I wrote a post wondering who’s going to be in left field for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2011.

Here is how I ended the post:

There used to be a day when race stood in the way of athletes playing a game they were great at.

Athletes breaking down racial barriers were a huge part of the Civil Rights movement, but even after that there was still great discrimination in American sports until recent decades. 

Now there is a day in baseball where many of the league's players honor Jackie Robinson by wearing his No. 42.