this from Diamond Leung at the Press Enterprise:

Rafael Furcal will need until July to return from a back injury since on doctor's orders he will not be ready to play for another two weeks and need another week of rehabilitation assignment games. No setback occurred, but it's a significant blow that has Furcal out indefinitely. And due to this latest bit of news, Nomar Garciaparra will see time at shortstop when he begins a rehabilitation assignment possibly next week, returning him to his original position.

not good news at all. LA has had major issues scoring runs since he went on the DL. If the run scoring drought continues, I could see LA playing Laroche more in LF possibly.

Here's an update on Laroche:

Andy LaRoche was officially recalled today and is scheduled to start tomorrow either at first base or third base while facing left-hander Randy Wolf. Torre said his plan is to get LaRoche plenty of at-bats, and he'll use LaRoche to spell left-handed hitters Blake DeWitt and James Loney depending on who's struggling more. For a first base glove, LaRoche is using a Jason Giambi glove borrowed from bullpen catcher Mike Borzello. "I was hoping it would happen any day," LaRoche said of being recalled. "I wasn't expecting anything. When you expect anything, it gets frustrating."

Laroche to get plenty of ABs per Torre. I read a stat today that Dewitt's OPS in the last 21 games is .614. Sounds more like a 2bman than a 3bman to me.

What's even more telling is this stat from Jon Weisman at DodgerThoughts:

Now, there's no doubt that the Dodgers have suffered without Rafael Furcal. Dodger shortstops have 263 plate appearances this season, and Chin-Lung Hu, Luis Maza and Angel Berroa have 109 of them. Their on-base percentage is .152, and their slugging percentage is .168, for an OPS of .320. By comparison, Dodger pitchers this year have a .325 OPS.

Horrific prodcution from the SS position in LA.

And this on the Jones/Pierre OF combo which Colletti spent $28mm on this year:

Together, Jones and Pierre have:

373 plate appearances
.317 on-base percentage
.301 slugging percentage
.618 OPS with 23 steals in 29 attempts.

And with all that LA is only 4 games out of 1st place thanks to their pitching staff. I was thinking today, who would be the LA rep at the All Star game this year....only Martin probably deserves it with Furcal injured.