minor-league

Valdez went to camp last spring with Kansas City, signing there as a minor-league free agent because, he says, Royals officials told him he would make the club.

Former Montana congressman Pat Williams called the possibility of professional baseball on a summer's night in Missoula "pure poetry" and signed on as a founding member of Play Ball Missoula--the group that courted minor-league baseball and promised to provide a suitable stadium.

Indeed, minor-league baseball continues its decade-long resurgence.

The Rule 5 draft also includes two minor-league phases.

will visit the Dodgers' various minor-league affiliates throughout the season.

The Dodgers acquired Julio Lugo, above, from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for minor-league prospects Joel Guzman and Sergio Pedroza.

Travel squad: Little said he will fill out the rosters for Tuesday's intrasquad game at Jacksonville with a combination of players from major- and minor-league camps and that a handful of position players and several pitchers from big-league camp will stay behind.

At least a couple of the remaining seven spots will be filled from the handful of minor-league invitees currently in spring training, each of whom already has agreed on a major-league salary if he makes the club.

He's a strike thrower who can fill a lot of roles,'' said Roy Smith, the Dodgers vice president for scouting and player development who has spearheaded most of the club's minor-league contract negotiations this winter.

In a less noticeable but more noteworthy development, the Dodgers also signed free-agent pitcher Joe Beimel to a minor-league deal.

Romero from the Minnesota Twins in a trade for minor-league infielder Alexi Casilla.

The other three candidates who were brought in for formal interviews - Triple-A Las Vegas manager Jerry Royster, San Francisco bench coach Ron Wotus and Cleveland minor-league manager Torey Lovullo - all have been told they no longer are under consideration, a Dodgers spokesman said Friday night.

Gould said past minor-league proposals in the city have struck out.

That, and our minor-league coaches do a great job of developing these guys.

CHICAGO - The Dodgers don't figure to make more than a handful of minor-league call-ups for this year's September roster expansion, a concession that they don't want to crowd the clubhouse with players who won't play significant roles and the fact several current players are due off the disabled list in the near future.