A comparison to warm the hearts of the Dodgers faithful

Spring days can quickly turn to a crawl of non-events until the exhibition season starts, which doesn’t mean there aren’t tidbits out there.

The Dodgers’ first preseason game is Friday against the White Sox, but here’s a look at some stories available across the Web:

-- This is good: Pitching coach Rick Honeycutt sees similarities between Hyun-Jin Ryu and Fernando Valenzuela in both build and demeanor, writes The Times’ Dylan Hernandez.

-- Yahoo Sports’ Tim Brown writes of how the right-handed Ryu was already getting some pitching tips from Sandy Koufax.

-- Hall of Fame baseball writer Ross Newhan compares the mega-payroll Dodgers to those teams former General Manager Fred Claire operated for Peter O’Malley.

-- Another Mike Piazza autobiography oddity: The sensitive one criticizes ex-Mets teammate Tom Glavine for what he perceived as a slight in Glavine’s “Home of the Brave.” But SB Nation’s Rob Neyer says such a book was never published.

-- Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal looks at the National League West, and still likes the Giants to repeat.

-- The Orange County Register’s Mark Wicker looks at the strange professional journey of reliever Peter Moylan.

-- It’s the little guy’s plate: Former Dodger Pedro Martinez says that of the batters he hit with a pitch, 90% were intentional.

-- Eight into five: Chad Billingsley tells Hernandez his elbow is healthy and he plans to start. Aaron Harang tells the L.A. Daily News’ J.P. Hoornstra he’s planning on starting. Think that’s all eight candidates declaring they expect to be on the five-man rotation, at least somewhere.

-- They have yet to pitch together, but ESPN’s Paul Swydan has already declared Clayton Kershaw-Zack Greinke as baseball’s best pitching duo.

-- Mike Petriello tries to explain to Kevin Gregg why he is a non-roster invitee.

-- This is from a view days ago, but in case you’re wondering what a new billionaire does with all his money, Kevin Roderick at L.A. Observed notes that Frank McCourt has given $50,000 to the L.A. mayoral campaign of Wendy Greuel.

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