Yesterday I ushered in my first hours of summer with some non-stop videogame playing. Stacie and I had a good long discussion a few weeks back, which led to the purchasing of a shiny new PS3. I never quite met my target goal, but it’s gotten it’s worth that’s for sure.

I played MLB ’07: The Show online for about 6 hours when I got home from work yesterday around lunch time. I played several games, winning and losing some. The best game was my last though. Early on I went down 6-0 against someone using the Yankees. I hit a solo shot and made it 6-1, but I was having a hard time breaking through. Eventually I had a big inning and made it 6-5, followed shortly by a two run inning putting me in the lead 7-6. This entire time my pitching was super sharp. In the top of the 9th I gave up 1 run, tying the game at 7-7. But in the bottom of the ninth with Russell Martin at the dish, he knocked a solo home run over the fence and gave the Dodgers the walk off win! It was awesome.

Aside from playing this great baseball game, I hope to fill my hours writing, trying to workout a bit, and doing a little travelling with the wife.

But for now I will start with watering the grass.

With spring training finally getting started and daily posts to dodgers.com returning, I thought I’d take some time to talk about a team who’s farm system was just ranked #1 in baseball.

The Dodgers have a lot of good prospects in their system…enough that you could put together half a team with them.

C – Russell Martin
3B – Andy LaRouche
2B – Delwyn Young
1B – James Loney
SS – Joel Guzman
OF – Andre Ethier
SP – Chad Billingsley
SP – Greg Miller
RP – Hong-Chih Kuo
RP – Johnathan Broxton

Which of these guys will turn out to be the real deal, I don’t know, but there sure is a lot to pick from. It should also be interesting to see where people finally land if they make it to the big show. Guzman and Young are both at positions that may not be free for several years and there is talk about moving them to the outfield. I think with Furcal, and hopefully a strong return by Izturis, some outfield work for these guys would be good. Especially considering Ethier is our only big prospect in the OF, unless I’m missing one.

While I’m looking forward to this year, I can’t wait to see how things shape up over the course of several years. As young guys start to make an impact, the Dodgers can turn around and spend some money on a REAL big bat (ie not JD Drew). Young players that are making less free you up to spend more on single positions. That is why the Yankees pay out the ear…they have no farm system and want a star at every position.

It’s always exciting to watch a homegrown talent come into their own. Here’s to a ROY in the next couple seasons!