With Adrian Gonzalez and Hanley Ramirez the latest victims to be bitten by the injury bug and with Mark Ellis’ and Carl Crawford’s status still in limbo, you can bet that there were a few Dodger minor leaguers aboard a red eye flight from Albuquerque or perhaps even Chattanooga into SFO late last night or early this morning.

You have to wonder who took a red eye flight into SFO early this morning.

Although it is all pure speculation, there is a strong likelihood that Dee Gordon and perhaps even Scott Van Slyke were among those weary travelers.

As most Dodger fans know, Gordon and SVS have been absolutely tearing it up in Albuquerque with the Triple-A Isotopes, especially Van Slyke.

Scott Van Slyke could fill in for Adrian Gonzalez at first base or for Carl Crawford in left field. He would also provide a much-needed big bat off the bench.
(Photo courtesy of the Albuquerque Isotopes)

Through 28 game, Scott is 40 for 99 for an insane .404 batting average. He leads the Isotopes with 8 home runs and 26 RBIs, and has an OBP of .483 and a SLG of .747 for a Puig-like OPS of 1.231.

As for Gordon, he is hitting .314 (32 for 102) through 25 games with the Isotopes with an OBP of .397. This it the type of on base percentage that the Dodgers hoped he would put up when he was with the Big club last season but instead ended the 2012 season with a dismal OBP of .280 – not exactly leadoff hitter material. Unfortunately, Gordon’s weakness was (and still is) his frequent throwing errors. While with the Dodgers in 2012, Gordon made 18 errors for a well below average FPCT of .946. In his 25 games with the ‘Topes, he has already made 8 errors for an even weaker .938 FPCT. The trade off, of course, is his speed. Gordon already has 14 stolen bases, tops in the Pacific Coast League, while being caught only twice.

Dee Gordon is getting on base and stealing a lot of bases for the Isotopes but his excessive throwing errors are still a major problem. (Photo credit – James Martin)

As of this morning, Gordon is currently on the Dodgers 40-man roster whereas SVS is not. Now this is not to say that Van Slyke can’t be added to the 40-man with the stroke of a pen, he most certainly could. All it would take would be for the Dodgers to move Chad Billingsley (or even Ted Lilly for that matter) over to the 60-day DL. And while Lilly might eventually make it back into the Dodger rotation this season (although I doubt he will), Billingsley is on the shelf at least until opening day 2014 and probably longer. As teams frequently do, the Dodgers have held off moving Bills over to the 60-day because they like to “save” a roster spot in the event of an unforeseen signing.

It is worth noting that even though superstar Dodger prospect Yasiel Puig is already on the Dodgers 40-man roster, it is unlikely that he would be called up from Double-A Chattanooga unless Crawford, Kemp or Ethier should (Lord forbid) land on the DL for any extended period of time. There is also a possibility that the Dodgers could recall Elian Herrera back up from Triple-A to replace the injured Ramirez, but Herrera is only hitting .240 with the Isotopes, which is only marginally better than what Justin Sellers is hitting with the Dodgers – with Sellers having a better glove.

I’m sure there are other possible scenarios that I am missing with the Dodgers current M.A.S.H. unit, but these are the ones that stand out the most.

Regardless of who it is, look for an entirely different lineup tonight when the Dodgers take the field at AT&T Park against the Hated Ones.