Update: (2/29) 4:44pm (EST) - According to rotoworld.com, Schmidt was unhappy with his bullpen session on Tuesday. He is not sure when he’ll throw again. “It could be tomorrow”, Schmidt said. That seems unlikely, as the Dodgers might slow him down a bit in his rehab.

Feb 27 - The L.A. Times is reporting today that Dodgers pitcher Jason Schmidt is already feeling fatigue in his pitching arm this season, and we’ve only just begun Spring Training.  Schmidt apparently made new manager Joe Torre aware of the situation but it doesn’t appear to be too serious.  Torre remarked that the right-hander wasn’t feeling pain but “doesn’t have the life he had in his arm earlier.”  Then again, many Yankee fans would tell you that Torre doesn’t have much credibility when it comes to preserving pitcher’s arms.  (See Scott Proctor).

Still, this is cause for concerns for Dodgers fans who had hoped that Schmidt - who made just 6 starts for the Dodgers in 2007 - would return to form and bolster a rotation that also includes Brad Penny, Derek Lowe, Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda.  Schmidt signed a 3 year, $47 million deal with L.A. last winter and was expected to become the ace of the Dodger staff as he had been with San Francisco for 5 years.  (He has a career mark of 128-94 with a 3.94 ERA and 1,750 K’s in 1,979 innings).  But instead, he fleeced the Dodgers in year one - big time…..like, to the tune of $2.5 million per start.  Will this fleece continue into 2008?  A second straight lost year would make this deal a total disaster for L.A.

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