A few weeks ago, I predicted the 25 man roster.  With the season now a week away, I wanted to update that prediction.  The first 20 players I listed in my first post will make the team, but my guess is that two of them, Nomar and Kent, will begin the year on the DL.  That means there are 18 players right there who will be on the opening day roster.  After those players, it looks like Hong-Chih Kuo and Delwyn Young will be on the team because Joe Torre said that because they are out of options, he doesn’t want to lose them to another team.  So that makes 20.  Tony Abreu will also be on the roster, and probably in the starting lineup for opening day, so that makes 21.  So far, we have 10 pitchers and 11 position players. 

Now the question is whether the Dodgers will carry 11 or 12 pitchers to start the season. My guess is that they will start with 11 because they don’t even need a 5th starter until something like April 8th.  That means they will probably carry another reliever, and that player will probably be Rudy Seanez.  Therefore, Chan Ho Park will probably start the year in AAA, and be the first starter called up if needed.  With Seanez, we have 22 players so far, so that leaves 3 more bench spots.  If Kent is on the DL, one of those spots will for sure go to Chin-Lung Hu.  Next, Ramon Martinez will probably make the team as a backup, so he would make the 24th player on the team.

The last spot I’m really not sure about.  It may go to Blake DeWitt, but because Abreu will start at 3rd, he would only be up there to sit on the bench for a few games, so I’m not sure that makes sense.  I guess it could go to Jason Repko, but he has also be injured this spring, and we don’t need another outfielder.  So I guess we could carry another pitcher, even though I said above that we’ll probably only carry 11, and that would either be Chan Ho, Brian Falkenborg, Greg Jones, or Ramon Troncoso.  So I’ll guess we’ll have to wait and see, but in the mean time we can watch the Red Sox and A’s start the season in Japan!