What’s at the kiosk? I must know. (via)

It’s been just over four months since the Dodgers last took the field, and while they managed to add Zack Greinke, Hyun-jin Ryu, J.P. Howell, Skip Schumaker, and a ton of non-roster hopefuls in that time, it’s actually been a quieter offseason than we thought it might be. When all you can do is speculate due to the lack of any new data coming in, you can only talk about huge questions marks like Carl Crawford, Chad Billingsley, & Luis Cruz so much — at some point, the story has to actually get written.

Today, we’re finally making our first small steps towards that goal and away from the long, cold, interminable winter, thanks to the four most glorious words in the English language: “Pitchers and catchers report.” 28 pitchers — from Juan Abreu to Chris Withrow — will join A.J. Ellis and five catchers who are not A.J. Ellis in Camelback ranch today, with the first official workout being tomorrow. (Several have been in Arizona for some time already, of course.)

Position players report on Friday, and the first game of the spring is a week from Saturday, when the Dodgers face their Camelback partners Chicago on February 23. Sadly, we may not get our first glimpse of the team on television until well into March, though that may change as we start to get the broadcast schedules of other teams in the Cactus League who may be televising games of their own here and there.

We’re not quite there yet, but we’re getting closer. In the next few days and weeks, players will get hurt, they’ll get cut, and they’ll potentially get traded. Who am I kidding, though? I’m away on vacation until Thursday — yes, I wrote this post three days ago — and judging by past history, Aaron Harang will somehow have been traded for Michael Bourn while I’m away.