The Dodgers are somewhere over the Pacific Ocean as I type this blog entry. (I’m in Los Angeles. My skin isn’t Arizona-level dry anymore. It feels nice.) See for yourself: FlightAware.com is tracking the Dodgers’ airplane.

They will have a workout within a few hours of their arrival in Sydney, Australia and roughly another 60 hours before they play their first game against the Australian National Team. All this is by design — specifically, a design to get the players adapted to a time zone 18 hours away. The Dodgers even consulted with NASA, which is a great story for another day.

In the meantime, the club will attend a welcome gala and take a tour of Sydney Harbor. And, ideally, sleep a lot. If any of this makes for good copy it will probably be unplanned. I’m arriving Friday, the morning after the exhibition game. If the Dodgers want to play it boring until then I won’t complain.

Here is the Diamondbacks’ traveling roster. They are bringing 31 players because one, Ryan Rowland-Smith, is an Australian native who will also play for the Australian National Team in its exhibition game Thursday against the Dodgers.

Some bullet points for a St. Patrick’s Day:

• FoxSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal questioned the Dodgers’ decision-making in finding a bench and a second baseman.

• A somewhat contradictory opinion came from this MLB.com evaluation of Joc Pederson and Alex Guerrero. If both players are so major-league ready, should the Dodgers really be worried about their bench?

• Also from MLB.com: Jonathan Mayo talked with some of the Dodgers’ prospects, picked his standout prospect of camp and chose a breakout candidate.

• Dodgers Insider had a nice summary of the spring training storylines.

• The Diamondbacks are treating the trip to Sydney the right way, while the Dodgers “are treating this like a day-night doubleheader of a prostate exam and root canal surgery,” writes USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.

• Today is a big day for Brandon Beachy, Jarrod Parker and Kris Medlen (and Tommy John).

• Daedalus dished about the composition and evolution of his most popular sample to Song Exploder.

• Erik Satie’s Gymnopedies are three of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces of music ever written. Gymnopedies No.1 and No.3 are also among the first songs to be “remixed,” if you will, by Claude Debussy. Here’s the original piano track, No.1 by Satie:

Here’s Debussy’s dreamy orchestral take:

Here’s the Blood, Sweat and Tears version:

And here’s a contemporary (like, last weekend contemporary) take from Elyonbeats: