FanHouse JoeTorre

As Eric Milton eyes his return to the Dodgers' starting rotation, general manager Ned Colletti has been out watching some of their minor-league affiliates recently. It's no secret the Dodgers would like to upgrade starting pitching before the trade deadline, and reportedly Colletti is checking out which minor leaguers in the Dodgers' system can be used in a trade to acquire left-hander Jarrod Washburn from Seattle.

The Mariners are still hanging around in the AL West, though, so it's not exactly a sure thing they'd be willing to part with Washburn. He does make quite the hefty salary, but his contract is up at the conclusion of this season, so moving him wouldn't really save the Mariners much money.

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That Joe Torre can manage a little bit. Torre, who for a great part of his managing career was known as a loser, got his 2,195th managerial win Thursday night to pass Sparky Anderson and move into fifth on the all-time list.

Incredibly, Torre has taken his team to the postseason in 13 consecutive seasons, and given the Dodgers' ever-expanding lead in the NL West, he's likely to make it 14 in 2009. Even with the loss of Manny Ramirez, Los Angeles is 13-4-5 in 22 series this season, including taking two out of three from Oakland this week.

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ARLINGTON, Texas -- At the start of this three-game series, there was a thought this would have been a good test for the up and coming Rangers, who lead the AL West.

It turned out to be a nice test -- and confirmation -- for the Dodgers, who own the best record in the game.

After three humid days and nights at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Los Angeles took two of three games here and will head back to Southern California happy.

The most inane drug-related rule in my sportswriting life? Back in the old, wacky Continental Basketball Association, naturally. Upon walking through a hallway of weed fumes at the Holiday Inn in Bangor, Maine, where I was doing a feature on a traveling minor-league team obviously participating in cannabis exploration, I checked out my trusty CBA handbook. It confirmed that players were forbidden to use recreational drugs, all right.

On the "day of a game."

Otherwise, smoke and snort away.

Now, years later, I've found a more absurd rule. According to baseball's drug agreement, "A player shall be deemed to have been eligible to play in the All-Star Game if he was elected or selected to play; the commissioner's office shall not exclude a player from eligibility for election or selection because he is suspended under the program." Meaning, Manny Ramirez -- villain of the Scammywood steroids suspension that continues to rock the sport -- is eligible to play in the All-Star Game next month if enough fans vote for his inclusion in the National League starting lineup.

What, did somebody die? There are too many grave problems in this world for Manny Ramirez to sequester his dreadlocked soul in solitary confinement. He prefers to hide this week, a full seven days after word surfaced of his self-inflicted steroid shame, rather than apologize in person to his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates as the club's mortified owner has demanded.

"He's really beaten up over this. He's embarrassed," manager Joe Torre said. "I think it's going to take him time to clear his head. We want to see him as a team. The players are here, and they're supporting him. But right now, he's not ready for it."

One, two, three: Awwwwwwww.

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers were enjoying a magical start to the season. Best record in baseball. Longest season-opening home winning streak of the modern era.

And then "it was like somebody punched a hole in the balloon," manager Joe Torre said.

In the hours between Wednesday night's victory and Thursday morning, word got around the Dodger organization that Manny Ramirez, who had defined the franchise since he was acquired last July, had been suspended for 50 games for violating baseball's drug policy.

Hundreds of media members converged on Dodger Stadium on Thursday, caring little about the team's hot start or its winning streak. They were there to see how the Dodgers were handling the stunning loss of Ramirez.

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know...
That the Cubs put an ugly finish to an ugly 2-4 road trip, losing 10-0 to the Diamondbacks. It's early, and they are 10-10, but so far the Cubs have not looked like the runaway best team in the National League that they were supposed to be. Manager Lou Piniella knows something is wrong.

"We're beginning to find out those other teams want to kick our butts. You're not going to win without playing with intensity every day, and the quicker that sinks in, the better."

Besides simply playing poorly, the Cubs have had to deal with Milton Bradley's issues and injuries, and now a problem that might land Aramis Ramirez on the DL. This weekend the Cubs will play the schizophrenic Marlins, so we'll see which team shows up, on both sides of the field.

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NEW YORK -- This wasn't Carl Pavano's fault. Pavano was rightfully blamed for most every bizarre happening that occurred when he was a New York Yankee, but he returned to the Stadium Sunday and pitched exactly like he was expected to pitch when the Yankees were paying him gazillions of dollars, and still he failed to leave with the W.

"Stuff happens," Pavano said with a shrug, the scars of the Yankees' controversial 7-3 win over the Cleveland Indians still fresh. "Nothing I can do about it."

For once, Pavano's blasé attitude made perfect sense. For once, he didn't deserve to be affiliated with a messy aftermath shaped by controversy. Pavano had pitched a perfectly fine six innings for the Indians, allowing just one run while extricating himself nicely from the sort of jams that used to confound him when he wore the pinstripes.

LOS ANGELES -- Manny Ramirez came bouncing down the stairs, baggy uniform and dreads flapping, and Dodger Stadium erupted.

They had been waiting all winter, through months of contract negotiations that ended precisely where they began, to see this sight. The love affair between Ramirez and Los Angeles has picked up right where it left off.

LOS ANGELES -- You knew Manny Ramirez was a bit goofy, so you couldn't have been surprised to see him say on the eve of the Dodgers' home opener that he would like to finish his career in Cleveland.

So you also won't be surprised to hear his reaction to everyone else's reaction to that.

"[Jim Thome and I] were just joking," Ramirez said Monday as he bolted toward an elevator at Dodger Stadium, with reporters chasing him.