Mitch Jones clears waivers, Dodgers sign more draftees, more

Few notes to pass along before Hiroki Kuroda and Oliver Perez — making his first start since May 2 — face off in New York.

31-year-old outfielder Mitch Jones, who spent 16 days with the big club and was designated for assignment last Thursday, cleared waivers and has been sent down to Triple-A Albuquerque.

Two more picks from the June draft have signed with the Dodgers in the last week: lanky high-school righthander Brandon Martinez and Oklahoma catcher Jeremy Wise. The Dodgers took Wise in the fifth round at 157th overall; Martinez — who’s yet to turn 18 — was a seventh-round selection.

Lastly, our Clay Fowler has a nice feature on Matt “The Bison” Kemp, who’s currently in fourth place out of five candidates in the MLB Final Vote campaign. Find out how to vote here.

4:10 p.m. PST first pitch tonight.

6/23: Dodgers at White Sox

Meanwhile, with all of this Manny stuff going on in Albuquerque, the Dodgers have a game to play in Chicago. Hiroki Kuroda and John Danks tonight. Kuroda hasn’t been sharp since returning from a strained oblique injury: he hasn’t gone more than six innings and has recorded only one quality start out of four possible.

John Danks has been very up and down this season, recording a 2.74 ERA during April but struggling in May, raising it to 4.80 by the end of the month. His last two starts have been solid, however, as he’s gone at least seven innings in both and allowed three runs in all.

Mitch Jones making his second career start at DH. Keep an eye on White Sox No. 9 hitter Gordon Beckham — who, after being selected 8th overall in the 2008 draft, has struggled to a .196 average in 51 at-bats. He was called up on June 5 when former Dodger Wilson Betemit was DFA’d.

Dodgers
Pierre, LF
Furcal, SS
Hudson, 2B
Blake, 3B
Ethier, RF
Martin, C
Kemp, CF
Loney, 1B
Jones, DH

White Sox
Podsednik, LF
A. Ramirez, SS
Dye, RF
Thome, DH
Konerko, 1B
Pierzynski, C
Anderson, CF
Getz, 2B
Beckham, 3B