Major League Baseball

Dodgers' Billingsley focused, ignores expectations

Published Feb. 26, 2011 12:46 a.m. ET

foxsports

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Chad Billingsley doesn't talk much about expectations. But the soft-spoken right-hander has faced them since 2008, when he went 16-10 with 201 strikeouts.

Those numbers added up to the expectation that Billingsley would get better.

It hasn't worked out that way. Billingsley went 12-11 in each of the last two seasons, with 179 strikeouts in 2009 and 171 last year. He is seeking better stats in 2011, but that's not an accurate measure of everything he hopes to accomplish.

''A good benchmark is 15 wins, but really, that's true for anybody,'' Billingsley said Friday as the Dodgers prepared to open their spring schedule Saturday with split-squad games against the San Francisco Giants in Scottsdale and the Los Angeles Angels in Tempe.

''Anytime I step out there, I try to win the ballgame. I don't necessarily have to get the 'W' as long as the team gets it.''

Billingsley, a 2009 National League All-Star, talks as if he has moved beyond optimistic expectations, such as 20 victories and a 2.50 ERA. He is projected as the No. 2 or No. 3 starter on a staff led by Clayton Kershaw, whom first-year manager Don Mattingly says will be his opening day starter.

Asked about his spot in the rotation, Billingsley said: ''I don't know and I don't care. So far, so good. My arm feels good.''

Questions about the Dodgers pitching have been raised in the wake of surgery that Vicente Padilla underwent Thursday in Los Angeles. It's unknown when Padilla, a projected reliever, will be able to work.

His rehabilitation to relieve pressure on a nerve in his forearm is expected to last three to four weeks before he can resume throwing.

Billingsley has battled groin and hamstring problems during his five major league seasons. But injuries have never kept him off the mound for long. During the winter of 2008, he slipped on ice and fractured his left leg. But he still reported for spring training.

The only thing injury has done is force him out of his favorite sport, football. As a 15-year-old quarterback in high school in Defiance, Ohio, Billingsley was knocked down and landed on a football. He wound up in the emergency room.

''Ruptured spleen, bruised kidney,'' said Billingsley, who says he would have pursued football if not for those injuries. ''I suffered severe internal injuries. I was in a hospital bed for a week and not able to go anywhere, even school, for about a month.''

But the right arm was healthy, solid and reliable. It still is.

NOTES: Mattingly plans to manage the squad that faces the Giants on Saturday in Scottsdale. ''I don't know what to expect,'' he said. ''We just want to get things going, get the thinking cap on.'' ... Right-hander Tim Redding is still scheduled to start against the Giants, though he wasn't feeling good Friday morning. ''He was a little under the weather,'' Mattingly said. ''Funky is the word.'' ... The Dodgers announced they would wear Brooklyn blue, the satin uniform from the 1940s, for six day games this season. Fans cast nearly 50,000 votes in an online promotion. The old Brooklyn uniform was the favorite, edging a 1911 road uniform by fewer than 2,000 votes.