BASEBALL ’95 : Orel and Brett Are Gone, but the Dodgers Are Back : Baseball: Accent is on youth as they play the Marlins tonight at Miami in first game since Aug. 11.

The last time the Dodgers got together for a regular-season game, they had players named Orel Hershiser and Brett Butler, the Rams still played in Anaheim, UCLA fans were critical of Jim Harrick and Orange County seemed to be financially solvent.

“It feels like we’ve been in the Twilight Zone,” Dodger pitcher Tom Candiotti said. “It still feels strange coming into the clubhouse and not seeing Orel here.

“I can’t explain it. I mean, I know we played last year, I know we were in first place, but it all seems like a dream now.”

The wake-up call comes at 4:35 p.m. (PDT) today.

For the first time since Aug. 11, major league baseball will be played again, with the Dodgers and Florida Marlins inaugurating the 1995 season at Joe Robbie Stadium.

Of course, there still is no commissioner or basic agreement, and baseball is stuck with replacement umpires, but Don Fehr and Bud Selig no longer are on our TV screens each night. The strike stopped at 234 days, and there’s even hope that once again there will be a World Series.

“It seems like we’ve waited forever for this day,” Dodger All-Star catcher Mike Piazza said. “For a while there, you wondered if it would ever come. It’s almost like everyone forgot about baseball.

“Finally, it’s back again.

“And man, you talk about a great feeling.”

The only trouble, of course, is that the Dodgers must start over. Their first-place finish in the National League West last year meant nothing--as if the season never existed.

“I think we would have done something in the playoffs too,” second baseman Delino DeShields said. “Things were starting to come together for us, but now, we’ll never know.”

The Dodgers instead reconvened three weeks ago, wondering where everyone had gone. Butler and Hershiser were not invited back. Kevin Gross, Jim Gott and Roger McDowell were shown the door. Their starting shortstop after the All-Star break, Rafael Bournigal, is unemployed.

“It’s like somebody dropped a bomb in here,” first baseman Eric Karros said, “and wiped out all of the veterans.”

The Dodgers are opening the season with six rookies, plus eight players with less than a half-year of big league experience, and a bullpen that, with the exception of Todd Worrell, has never saved a major league game.

“I know this, I’ve never had a younger team,” said Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, beginning his 19th season. “I don’t think all of our guys even shave yet, do they?”

Little wonder that Fred Claire, Dodger executive vice president, looked around the clubhouse the other day and realized that a policy change was needed.

In years past, Claire and Lasorda needed to summon only those who were being released or sent to the minors on cutdown day. Now, for the first time in Claire’s tenure, he actually had to inform those who made the team. “It was a strange feeling,” he said. “Normally, you don’t go around telling guys they made the team, but with all of the young guys we have here, we had no choice.”

It was only four seasons ago that the Dodgers (93-69) were eliminated by Atlanta on Oct. 5, 1991, with L.A. using a lineup that did not include a player developed within the organization.

Now, after finishing a combined 34 games below .500 the last three years, they will be fielding a team that has all but DeShields from their farm system.

Of course, the 144-game question is whether that is good.

While the Dodger front office proudly proclaims that their team should win the NL West, several players are wondering if management is watching the same games.

The Dodgers might have the worst defensive team in the National League, scouts say, and the players aren’t arguing. The only everyday players considered above average defensively are center fielder Raul Mondesi and DeShields.

“I think they’re making a huge mistake by moving Mondesi to center,” one club executive said. “What they’ve done is weaken themselves at two positions. There’s going to be a whole lot of balls dropping in that outfield.”

The Dodgers had no choice but to move Mondesi from right to center once they decided to let Butler walk way. Of course, they also had the right to keep him, and now will have to live with that decision.

The move created openings for Henry Rodriguez in right field and Billy Ashley in left. Yet, Rodriguez is considered only an adequate fielder, and Ashley has been atrocious.

“I won’t say we’re going to be a great defensive club,” Claire said, “but there’s no reason we can’t improve. The entire infield is back, so there’s no reason that won’t improve.”

Yet, he acknowledged, the Dodgers likely will have to use a late-inning defensive replacement for Ashley. In fact, no player in the lineup may be watched more closely. If Ashley, who batted .355 but struck out 14 times in 31 at-bats this spring, struggles early, the Dodgers won’t hesitate to platoon him with left-handed hitting rookie Todd Hollandsworth.

“Billy has had some rough moments in the field,” Claire said. “We can’t get in a situation where we let games get away from us because of his defense.”

The Dodgers also have other concerns. Third baseman Tim Wallach, who has bulging disks in his back, will be closely watched all season and won’t play until at least this weekend. Ismael Valdes and Hideo Nomo, the No. 4 and No. 5 starters, have combined for one major league start. And who knows who will show up at shortstop--the Jose Offerman of this spring or the one who had been a bitter disappointment.

“This team is taking on a personality of its own,” Candiotti said. “I think our success depends on how (we) act when we have failure. When this team slips, it will be interesting to see how we pull ourselves out of it.”

* STRAWBERRY: Judge sentences him to six months of home confinement, rather than three months in prison. C6