Minor movement in the ownership bidding process, as Steve Cohen has been cleared by the MLB vetting committee to move forward, according to the New York Post. Since he had previously been approved to purchase a minor share of the New York Mets (albeit in a less thorough investigation), this news was expected. Besides, if MLB had rejected the bidder who had included the most straight cash of anyone in his bid, you can bet that Frank McCourt would have taken that as reason to send this whole process back to a mediator and delay this mess even further. (That said, there’s still the potential for that, as rejected bidders Leo Hindery and Stanley Gold are each appealing their exclusions.) We’ll find out soon enough whether the other three groups have made it through – expect that they have – and then we move on to McCourt’s final decision, which is due two weeks from tomorrow.

Other news…

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Remember this when Dee Gordon lands on the disabled list with a broken finger at some point this year:

After singling leading off the bottom of the first inning on Friday against the Rangers, the Dodgers’ Dee Gordon attempted to steal second base with a feet-first slide and was called out by umpire Mike Muchlinski.

“I’m not doing that again,” said Gordon. “I’ve been working on not sliding headfirst, so I thought I was going to be safe and figured I would try it. And I was safe. I was like, ‘Really?’ That’s what I get for thinking.

“Feet first? I’m over that. I gotta do what feels natural.”

Increased risk of injury because of a possibly blown call in a spring training game in mid-March? Got it.

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Vin Scully will be calling fewer games this year. Tony Jackson:

Scully, 84, now will call road games within California (San Diego, San Francisco and a June interleague series at Oakland) and at Arizona. The reduction means he no longer will travel to Colorado and won’t call an interleague series at Seattle in June.

Disappointing – in no small part because that’ll subject us to additional games with Steve Lyons – but completely understandable. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Vin decides to scale back even further to only home games if he continues past 2012, but we should really be happy we even have him for one game a year, much less over 100.

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MLB Network continues it’s “30 Clubs in 30 Days” spring training series with the Dodgers, Sunday evening at 10pm PT:

Hosted by Matt Vasgersian with analysts Larry Bowa and Mitch Williams, the one-hour show will feature an in-depth look at the Dodgers’ pitching staff and lineup, whether they compete in the NL West and analysis of the team’s farm system.  The episode includes interviews with Don Mattingly, Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp, Chad Billingsley, Andre Ethier and James Loney.  Javy Guerra also gives a tour of the Dodgers’ facility in Glendale.

Williams is atrocious – possibly the worst analyst on television right now – but the MLB Network crew generally does a pretty solid job with these pieces.

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Lineups for today’s split squad games…

1pm PST at Colorado: Gordon (SS), Mark Ellis (2B), Ethier (RF), Adam Kennedy (1B), Juan Uribe (3B), Tony Gwynn (CF), A.J. Ellis (C), Cory Sullivan (LF), Nathan Eovaldi (SP)

7pm PST vs San Francisco: Justin Sellers (3B), Ivan De Jesus (2B), Kemp (CF), Juan Rivera (LF), Jerry Sands (RF), Loney (1B), Luis Cruz (SS),  Matt Treanor (C), Aaron Harang (SP)

The later game will be seen live on Prime Ticket and MLB Network, and will be Vin’s first call of the spring.