Dodgers Blue Heaven: Blog Kiosk: 6/5/2015 - Dodger Links

The toast of the town, Joc Pederson, is captured in the photo above signing autographs for adoring fans prior to the start of yesterdays game. Pic above via Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2015. Go here to check out more photos taken by Jon from Thursday's game.

Below are some more links to check out:

My fantasy team could really use a healthy Puig right now. Via George Alfano at MLB.com, "Puig gets two hits, hopes to return this weekend."

"I thought he looked great, and the hamstring looks good," Rancho Cucamonga manager Bill Haselman said. "He ran great. With a pulled muscle, the body eventually heals itself."

"I'm not 100 percent now, but it felt comfortable," said Puig, who is in his third season with the Dodgers and has a career batting average of .304. "I did my job, did my rehab in Arizona and I'll come back here [to Lancaster] tomorrow night."

Via Eric Stephen at True Blue LA, "Grant Holmes, J.D. Underwood, Michael Ahmed named Midwest League All-Stars."
Via Steve Adams at MLB Trade Rumors, "David Aardsma Opts Out Of Dodgers Contract." This is too bad, he could've been a nice piece out of the pen.

The 33-year-old Aardsma has pitched quite well for L.A.’s Triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City, working to an excellent 2.41 ERA with 11.1 K/9, 3.4 BB/9 and 15 saves in 18 2/3 innings. Aardsma recently explained to The Oklahoman’s Jacob Unruh that his offseason work in a strengthening program called Top Velocity helped him add a couple of ticks back to his fastball, which is now regularly sitting in the 91-93 mph range.

Here's great news. Via Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider, "Kenley Jansen cleared to pitch tonight (Thursday)." Via Ken Gurnick at MLB.com, "Altitude triggers high blood pressure in Jansen."
Here's some not so great news, via Eric Stephen on twitter:

Zach Lee is in Los Angeles getting examined. Experiencing tingling in fingers of throwing hand
— Eric Stephen (@truebluela) June 4, 2015

Now... Back to some awesome news! Top prospect Julio Urias appears to be recovering well from his recent surgery to his eye, per a tweet by him from yesterday. He tells us that he'll be back on the field in one weeks time:

1 semana mas y estamos de regreso⚾️.. #Thanksgod! pic.twitter.com/oYUhhGx286
— Julio Urias (@theteenager7) June 4, 2015

I would like to extend a hearty congratulations to LA Kings broadcaster Nick Nickson for being selected as the Hockey Hall of Fame 2015 Foster Hewitt Memorial Award winner. This award celebrates "members of the radio and television industry who made outstanding contributions to their profession and the game during their career in hockey broadcasting." This is the highest honor a hockey broadcaster can receive - like winning the Ford Frick Award for Baseball broadcasters. Jon Rosen at LA Kings Insider shares a recent interview with him here.

“I don’t know if it’s going to sink in anytime soon,” Nickson said on Thursday. “I just talked to Pat Foley – he called like 10 minutes ago, literally – who won it last year in Chicago. He was telling me it’s been a year since he won it and he still kind of walks around and goes ‘Did this really happen?’ I guess it’s nice to know that your work is appreciated and the work that you do put in gets rewarded in some way.”