Orange County Register

Ned Colletti said that CC Sabathia didn’t tell him directly that he wanted to be a Dodger, but the two did cross paths “for about 60 seconds” Sunday night.

Colletti was with Dodgers farm director DeJon Watson, who was in the Cleveland organization when Sabathia was there. So were two of the Dodger trainers. So, for that matter, was third baseman Casey Blake, whom the Dodgers are hoping to sign soon as they compete with Minnesota.

“All I know is that CC has expressed a desire to play in California and there are a lot of teams in California,” Colletti said.

Well, the Padres aren’t in the running, and probably not Oakland.

When Colletti was with the Giants, he went over to Vallejo High to see Sabathia pitch. “Mostly, to hit,” he said. “He hit one 420 feet one day. But as far as pitching, he was a man against boys.”

So a lot of planets might fall in line here. But one shouldn’t expect Sabathia to sign with anyone soon.

The Dodgers have a long to-do list before it comes to Sabathia. If they don’t sign him or someone like him, their rotation is a little young and sketchy _ Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda, Clayton Kershaw, James McDonald and a mystery guest, maybe Eric Stults or a recovering Jason Schmidt.

“You always want a strong No. 1 starter,” Colletti said. “But we might have one in Billingsley and we have another guy, who’s a babe in the woods (Kershaw), who hast that type of ability. We think Billingsley will be a strong 2 next year, at least.”

Colletti said the chances of re-signing free agent shortstop Rafael Furcal have improved, at least over the chances a couple of weeks ago, which were nil.

“His people told us we would be one of the last ones they talked to before they did anything, so maybe that’s what this is,” Colletti said. “We haven’t changed our position.”

Colletti did say prospect Ivan DeJesus Jr. was not ready yet, but that he would be comfortable with Angel Berroa if he could find enough offense elsewhere.

Which brings us to Manny Ramirez, who is on such a back burner that you can’t even see the flame.

“As far as I know the only team that has made an offer is us,” Colletti said. “And we’ve offered arbitration. So I think the next move should be theirs.”:

Without Ramirez, Juan Pierre moves into the left-field picture again. So where’s the offense coming from?

“We hope that our young guys continue to progress,” Colletti said. “Andre Ethier came on.  James Loney was consistent and I think his power is going to come. Matt Kemp, you have to remind yourself that he’s only played baseball seven years, and even though you get frustrated with him, you see the numbers.

“Russell Martin is a guy who needs to fulfill his potential. We’d like him to take a bigger role in managing the pitching staff. Whatever aspect you need to stop the running game, we need more of that from him. And we’d like to see him catch fewer games. The people in our organization think A.J. Ellis is good enough to catch some games for us.”

So, no, the winter meetings won’t be the end of the Dodgers’ winter housework.

But if it’s true that Sabathia wants to play for a National League team in California, it’s the Dodgers vs. the Giants.

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