DODGERS : Strawberry, Lasorda Meet Team Plane

Darryl Strawberry went with Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda to meet the team plane when it arrived from Los Angeles on Thursday. Strawberry has been working out at Dodgertown since Monday and Lasorda has also been in camp a few days.

Strawberry says he is feeling fine.

“I never had a bad season before,” said Strawberry, who hit .237 with five homers and 37 runs batted in last season. “This year I have got to play some baseball.”

Among those who arrived with the pitchers, catchers and injured players was Ramon Martinez, who spent the winter resting his arm and working on his mechanics.

“Ramon is in the best shape ever, both physically and mentally,” said Ralph Avila, vice president of Campo Las Palmas, the Dodgers’ baseball academy in the Dominican Republic. “He has a more compact delivery now. I have had him throwing at only about three-quarters of his capacity and I clocked his fastball at 88-89 m.p.h.”

Martinez missed the last month of the season with what was diagnosed as tennis elbow, but Avila said Martinez’s inconsistency was caused more by poor mechanics and the pitcher’s state of mind.

“It was a chain reaction, one affected the other,” Avila said. “Ramon is very happy now. He got married in January and is the happiest I have ever seen him.”

The Dodgers will hold their first workout today. The position players who are uninjured are scheduled to report Wednesday.