As most members of the Dodgers media know all too well, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly loves, absolutely loves keeping them in suspense at every given opportunity. As such, it should come as no surprise to anyone that he has yet to reveal who will make Thursday’s spot start for his first place Dodgers against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park.

Whenever a situation like this pops up, and it seems to be happening more and more these days, the first thing that diligent Dodger fans (and members of the media) do is to start checking who started when at the team’s Triple-A level, followed by how many innings they pitched or if they were suddenly pulled from their start. But while this may seem to offer up the biggest clue as to who might have received the phone call and might soon be boarding a flight to Los Angeles (or in this case, San Francisco), even the Dodgers Triple-A staff has a tendency to keep such information close to the vest, thus keeping everybody guessing and speculating.

Prior to Monday’s exciting near perfect game by recently acquired 33-year-old right-hander Scott Baker, he was the odds-on favorite to get the call for Thursday’s spot start against the Hated Ones. But that speculation fell by the wayside when he… well… pitched a near perfect game on Monday for the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers, thereby taking him out of the running. And while Joe Wieland was another popular name being tossed around, he pitched on Sunday which mathematically puts his next scheduled start on Friday.

With both Baker and Wieland (apparently) out of the mix, the most likely choice (and perhaps the most favored among Dodger fans) is 23-year-old 2010 first-round draft pick Zach Lee, who has been lights out in his first two starts with the OKC Dodgers. Lee is 2-0 with an insane 0.75 ERA through his first two games with OKC. He has allowed only one run on six hits in his 12.0 innings of work thus far. But what really jumps out at you is that the Plano, Texas native has struck out 13 while walking only two this season and it is impossible to believe that the Dodgers brass is not fully aware of this.

After posting a 1-0 record and 2.89 ERA with seven strikeouts and two walks in three spring training appearances, Zach Lee is absolutely on fire at Triple-A Oklahoma City.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Because Lee is already on the Dodgers 40-man roster, a corresponding roster move would not be necessary – that’s the good news. The bad news is that a roster move would be necessary on the Dodgers current 25-man roster. And while there are a number of relief pitchers who still have options (i.e Adam Liberatore, Pedro Baez, Paco Rodriguez and [heaven forbid] Yimi Garcia), the most likely move would be to put Yasiel Puig on the 15-day disabled list – retroactive to April 18. Puig, as you may recall, is nursing what has been called a minor hamstring strain.

Although no one knows for sure exactly when Yasiel Puig inured his hamstring, it most likely occurred when he stumbled out of the box in the first inning of the April 13 game against the Seattle Mariners at Dodger Stadium. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

There is another possibility. The Dodgers could go with what Mattingly affectionately calls a “bullpen game,” but this seem highly unlikely with the Dodgers coming off an off day on Monday and the likelihood that he will need his full bullpen over the next nine days before their next scheduled day off.

So there’s my pick to start on Thursday – Zach Lee – making his MLB debut against the Dodgers most hated rivals, because… well… why should it be any other way?