DODGERS : Rookie Piazza Said to Have Won Job as No. 1 Catcher

Manager Tom Lasorda told Mike Piazza this week that he will be the Dodgers’ starting catcher, but Lasorda doesn’t plan to announce the decision until Monday when he makes out the opening-day lineup, a club insider said Wednesday.

Lasorda has said he was leaning toward Piazza, the star of training camp, over Carlos Hernandez. Wednesday, Piazza received an award as the best rookie in Dodgertown for the second consecutive spring. His batting average is .500 in 19 exhibition games, with three home runs, a triple, four doubles and 10 runs batted in.

He hits the ball so hard that even his teammates crowd around the cage to watch him during batting practice.

Moreover, he has improved his throwing accuracy. Bullpen coach Mark Cresse says Piazza has the strongest arm of any Dodger catcher since Steve Yeager.

“I want to keep it all in perspective,” Piazza said. “I know I’m getting a lot of attention, and I also know that you can easily be yesterday’s news, so I’m going to enjoy it and I just want to do the best I can.”

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Sandy Koufax visited the clubhouse before the Dodgers’ 8-2 exhibition victory over the New York Mets.

“He’s a real help,” reliever Jim Gott said of the former Dodger pitcher. “He never comes to you with advice. But like today, we were talking, and I told him I was having some trouble with my balance. Sandy said he had noticed it when he watched me pitch on television. Then he gave me some suggestions on what to do about it. He’ll say casually, ‘Why don’t you try this?’ ”

Koufax, who doesn’t work for the Dodgers anymore, said he is doing well and lives in North Carolina. When asked if he missed baseball, he said: “I miss playing.”

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Darryl Strawberry was a late scratch from the game because of back stiffness, but said it is unrelated to the herniated disk operation he had last September.

“The muscles on the left side of my back are stiff, not the right side, where I had my surgery,” Strawberry said. “I think it’s from running real hard during the game (Tuesday) night, trying to steal a base or something like that. It was the first time this spring I ran that hard.

Strawberry said he would normally experience such stiffness earlier in the spring, but had taken it slowly to rehabilitate his back properly.

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Lasorda said he will go with 10 pitchers on the 25-man roster. The Dodgers left for Los Angeles uncertain about who will get the remaining two bullpen spots because they hope to make a trade or acquire another pitcher.