Dodgers: We're better! Us: We're not buying it!

"There's nothing wrong with these guys," he says. "You keep having to defend these guys like they're no good. Jeff Kent is possibly a Hall of Famer. You can't compare apples to oranges. This is our team. It is enormously talented."

The flip side of the defensive questions, of course, is that Kent represents a significant offensive upgrade at second base over Cora. So we're back to the old if-he-knocks-in-more-runs-than-he-lets-in equation.

"It's all give and take," Gagne says. "Look, Jeff Kent is a great hitter. Defensively, I've never seen him not catch a ball. I don't know. People say he's not good defensively. But I've never seen him not catch a ball.

"I know our offense is well-balanced. It's give and take."

Spring is all about optimism, especially if your club's payroll is in the $100 million range, so what the heck. Maybe we're all surprised and DePodesta will spin gold from his lump of Play-Doh. Maybe Valentin actually both starts and finishes the year at third, Drew and Kent stay off of the disabled list, Hee Seop Choi hits and David Ross becomes a force behind the plate;

Hard to believe, but then again, why not point to the sun instead of the clouds over the Dodgers' spring camp, especially after their stormy winter?

Tracy is correct in that Kent and Lowe have both playoff and World Series experience. Drew knows what the playoffs are all about, too.

Then again, so did Gary Sheffield and Kevin Brown when they were here.

Tracy describes the murky plan the Dodgers are in the midst of executing as a plan of "playing the game correctly," but isn't that what they've spent the better part of the past few seasons doing under Tracy -- particularly in the infield, defensively, in 2004?

And, now, probably the most rewarding aspect of last year's division title club is long gone following DePodesta's dynamiting of the infield?

"I wouldn't go that far," Tracy says. "Because in the outfield, right now, from (last July's) trading deadline on, we've had three dependable center fielders in the outfield. And if healthy, we'll go into 2005 in similar fashion (with Werth, Drew and Bradley)."

Still, there is no getting around one thing ...

"I really believe our ability to take care of the baseball in the infield will go a long way in determining what kind of ballclub we'll have," Tracy says.

Yeah, we were just saying.