Converged Infrastructure

Pittsburgh, Ariz. -- Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez could have handed for the happiest guy that is known last summer.

'I think anyone loved him,' team mate Hanley Ramirez said.

Indeed.

The Dodgers were reborn throughout 2013 in all sorts of techniques. They won the National Little league West for the first time since The year just gone. They did it with one of the maximum runs any team provides ever had, going 42-8 between Summer 21 and August Teen. In that time, they proceeded to go from last place to initial, from 9 1/2 games into 8 1/2 games up.

Those 60 games changed the Dodgers, providing on the promise the franchise's fresh ownership had made a yr earlier.

Additionally, something almost marvelous happened inside the clubhouse. Avid gamers who'd been acquired from this point, there and everywhere had been a strong, cohesive group.

Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti called it the best clubhouse environment with which he'd ever been affiliated. There was Yasiel Puig's youth and fireplace, Clayton Kershaw's brilliance and Ramirez proving His has still one of the best offensive gamers on the planet.

'If you play the sport the right way and you play challenging and go out there finally, enjoy yourself, you'll come together,' Gonzalez said.

Amid it all, there was Gonzalez, the peaceful, steady one, the 10-year seasoned, rock solid as always. Only issue is, this Adrian Gonzalez seemed different. To say it turned out any kind of rebirth would be absurd.

In his eight full conditions with three teams, Gonzalez has been numbingly consistent, averaging 159 games, 38 doubles, 28 residence runs and 71 guides. It would be impossible to find a individual bad season in any of people eight. His finished in the superior 20 in MVP Honor balloting six times and made four All-Star teams.

In fact, it's that consistency, that grind-it-out-every-day attitude, of which Dodgers manager Don Mattingly points to whenever asked about Gonzalez's leadership.

'Adrian's not a chatty, loud-type leader,' Mattingly said. 'He's His who shows up every day, does indeed his work and proceeds the field. His quietly, little by little gets his hits, hard drives in his runs, plays safeguard. I think his role had been himself, honestly.'

And maybe that may be one of the things that helped make the actual Dodgers special. A bunch of guys received big years, but Mattingly furthermore created an environment in which gamers accepted and supported one other.

'I think that's the beauty of your clubhouse is that everybody's them selves,' Mattingly said. 'Hopefully, that just kind of continues to evolve. Some of our older guys, just being themselves is all we're asking.'

What modified last season was that will Gonzalez, once so reserved, granted his emotions to show. His or she clowned with Puig in the dugout, mimicked Mickey Mouse ears on the bases following big hits and may get set a personal record regarding smiling.

Gonzalez clearly fed away from those 50,000 followers at Dodger Stadium, and they totally loved him. That trade from the Red Sox to the Dodgers this year turned out all right.

'The crowds have there been when we were losing,In His said, 'and that made it additional special to go out there in addition to win some games on their behalf and get in the playoffs. You understand, you always hear about the throngs when they're winning, but when these are out there when we're losing, that shows a lot as to what kind of fan base we have.'

Gonzalez raised on off Puig, too, and the succeeding and off the whole experience with helping one of hockey's crown jewel franchises get back to the postseason.

'I consider it goes more with the list of guys we have,' His stated. 'We have guys that are enjoyment to be around. You know, we have enjoyable with each other. So I think it has more to do with our clubhouse.'

Yes, winning helps in team building. But experience and maturity and having folks who've been through almost everything is important, too.

'If you play the sport the right way and you play challenging and go out there and enjoy yourself, you'll come together,' Gonzalez claimed. 'I was having a lot of entertaining. When you win, everything's fun. I think any season any time I've been on a winning group has been fun.'

The Dodgers begin the 2014 season with high hopes. To acquire as far as Game 6 of the NL Championship Series as they do in '13 has set this bar in a high position for this one. Cue the magic.

'Oh sure,' Gonzalez said. 'We've got a a valuable thing.'

Pittsburgh -- An MRI exam performed Friday revealed Evan Gattis has a bulging thoracic disk that will land him about the 15-day disabled list. The Braves can certainly make a corresponding move previous to Tuesday's game.

Gattis, who will receive an epidural, acquired hoped to avoid a disabled-list stint after missing the past a number of games with back pain, which was diagnosed as a proper rhomboid spasm. His does not anticipate surgery while doctors told him approximately 90-95 percent of issues with huge thoracic disks eventually 'resolve themselves.'

'I'm not sure what the timetable [for a potential return] is actually, but I don't think it'll be very long term,' Gattis said. 'Obviously frustrating, but I'm just wanting to get back as soon as I can.'

Gattis may be sidelined since back discomfort pushed him from Friday's game throughout Philadelphia during the first inning. There seemed to be uncertainty regarding the injury in the beginning, so the MRI brought Gattis some much-needed lucidity.

'I didn't really know. Kind of believed like a pinch, so the very first day, initially, I believed like it was kind of towards the spine or something like that, but I didn't know if it was that or perhaps intercostal or what,' Gattis claimed. 'Initially, it just kind of hurt to be able to breathe and stuff like that, so Brand-new some kind of relief knowing I have an answer.'

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez added: 'You have no idea of until you get the MRI. The MRI is reasonably a telltale sign of every little thing, and I guess it was even worse than what we thought. We thought it was muscular, but I guess it was a bulging drive. He's going to sit out for a short time and get that straightened out.'

Christian Bethancourt, your organization's second-ranked prospect, was named up from Triple-A Gwinnett on Saturday to provide depth at catcher. His / her presence helps backup Gerald Laird, which caught five of the final seven games of Pittsburgh's not long ago concluded road trip.

'If he's the following, you know how I am; get them off the plane and put him or her in the lineup,' Gonzalez mentioned of giving Bethancourt his second start in three games with Monday. 'I don't want to run Laird in the ground.'

The corresponding roster proceed could be the activation of right-handed circuit breaker David Carpenter. Carpenter, who has been on the disabled list considering that June 17 with a right arms strain, has fanned four hitters in two perfect innings on a treatment assignment with Gwinnett that began on June 28.

Carpenter minted out the side on Thirteen pitches in a perfect inning about Monday and will be re-evaluated by group doctors before determining whether or not His will activated.

'The way His or she felt before His remaining [for his rehab assignment], His experienced great,' Gonzalez said. 'I find any reason why, when His has eligible, we couldn't trigger him.'

As far as Gattis is concerned, there is no rehab assignment around the corner. In fact, once His obtains an epidural, the next step is rest.

'I'm receiving the epidural, and after that, I'm not sure,' Gattis stated. 'I know I'm not doing excessive activity for the next three to five days and nights, for sure, and then after that, I reckon that we'll just play it by simply ear, but I don't truly know yet.'