Don’t know if you caught the late edition of your local paper, but there’s a big story brewing in LA. Toby Hall, that master competitor, is unhappy with his role with the Dodgers. The 30-year-old Hall, who’s making $2.5 million this year - the final year of his contract - wants to start. In other news, Bobby Keppel wants to transmogrify into Brandon Webb.

Yes, of course Hall wants to start. He is, after all, hitting .238/8/26 in 231 ABs this year. Why wouldn’t he start? Surely it has nothing to do with the fact that his career season came in ‘04 when he went .255/8/60. He’s a starter! I don’t know why the Dodgers muffed this one so badly. Russell Martin, their starting catcher - also, a rookie - is .289/4/35 in 54 games since his call-up with a 28:19 K:BB. He’s only 23, but Hall should be playing - at least, according to Hall.

Toby’s quoted as saying, “I don’t want to play like that, to sit there and wait,” Hall said. “That’s not the type of player I am. How are they going to trade me to a team when they already have a catcher? I’m not going over there as an insurance policy.”

Forget, for a second, that none of what he said makes any sense. He doesn’t want to play a role on a winning team, he just wants to play. I guess that means he’d really be happy in, say, Pittsburgh? They could use a catcher. Kansas City already has John Buck, so Hall’d be backing up there. How about Minnesota? No, they’ve already got Joe Mauer.

The truth is Toby could start for a lot of teams. Not because he’s particularly good, but because he’s just as average as about 10 other NL catchers. That said, career .263 hitters with sub-.300 OBP numbers shouldn’t be demanding trades. More importantly, the Dodgers - at 46-42 - are second in the NL West. Now you tell me a team that’d be clamoring to pick up a guy who wants so badly to be dealt from a team that’s 2 games back in its division?