1996 DODGERS HAPPY CAMPERS\Vero abounds with good pitchers.

Byline: Tim Brown Daily News Staff Writer

In a real spring training, to be followed by a real season, to be followed by a World Series - annual once again - the Dodgers on Thursday set out to defend their championship of the National League West. Their first steps were taken beneath overcast skies, on a warm-again, cool-again afternoon on the Dodgertown campus.

Though there was little to suggest that this didn't happen exactly the same way last year, when spring training didn't get out of minor-league camp until an 11th-hour decision allowed it to, there was some sense of closure, even without a collective-bargaining agreement, the absence of which once threatened the future of the game.

"We have the benefit of a full spring training," said Tom Lasorda, as Dodgers manager in his 20th spring, full or otherwise. "We have a lot of happy guys in here.

"We won't ever have to do that again."

This time around, Lasorda knows who's coming, knows when they're coming. Pitchers, catchers and the odd position player reported Wednesday and worked out Thursday. The rest arrive Tuesday or shortly thereafter.

Lasorda, along with executive vice president Fred Claire, will spend the next six weeks finding out why. Consensus favorite in the Western Division, this Dodgers team is mostly sturdy, occasionally brilliant and thick with pitching.

And that is why it is good to be back, whole again.

"As far as being here and getting started, it feels very normal again," said Claire, entering his 10th season in charge of player personnel. "Last year, it was the opposite of that. It's normal."

Normal, for now, means finding a fifth starter - or re-anointing one, a left fielder, and a handful of relievers. It means retooling for two more rounds in the playoffs, or beyond the sweep laid on them by the Cincinnati Reds four months ago.

It's the sophomore season for Hideo Nomo. It's catcher Mike Piazza and first baseman Eric Karros playing in the final years of their contracts. It's the possible return to the major leagues for Korean right-hander Chan Ho Park, once a curiosity himself. Alas, it also is the presence of four former replacement players, three of which - pitchers David Pyc and Jody Treadwell and catcher Ron Maurer - already are in camp. First baseman Mike Busch will arrive next week. So, there are reminders.

Claire, who engineered Busch's call up late last August and then rearranged the fallout, predicted a clubhouse without division, regardless of past feelings.

"I think we've kind of been through those stages," he said. "We've experienced that. Our players have experienced that. Mike made a contribution to this team. Players spoke to that point, and we went on to win the division.

"My hope would be that all that happened in the spring of 1995 simply go where it belongs, and that's the history book. I am interested in the spring of '96."

It will bring familiarity for the Dodgers, and probably much more. Four of their five All-Stars - closer Todd Worrell, right fielder Raul Mondesi, Nomo and Piazza - return. The fifth doesn't, and because of it Dodgers pitchers once again may throw low in the strike zone and not fear for their won-loss records. Shortstop Jose Offerman was traded to Kansas City and replaced by Greg Gagne, who will stick his small-town big toe into the L.A. waters and then decide whether to stay longer than a year.

The familiarity is four career Dodgers - Billy Ashley, Todd Hollandsworth, Roger Cedeno and Karim Garcia - bucking to start in left field beside center fielder Brett Butler.

"Those are four of the most talented players in our organization," Claire said. "They all played winter ball. If we didn't have that question, we would have had four frustrated young players, and I wouldn't have blamed them one bit."

The Dodgers have a pitching staff to fill out, perhaps with its first left-handed starter since 1992, though as likely with Pedro Astacio as its fifth right-hander for the first time since last June 20. Joey Eischen, who started six games in the Dominican Republic this winter after two years as a reliever, is the lefty in question.

"I'm going to try to make their decision a bitch," said Eischen, a starter in his first five seasons in the organization. "It would really upset me if I made this decision easy."

The sentimental entry to compliment Ramon Martinez, Tom Candiotti, Ismael Valdes and Nomo is Darren Dreifort, who in 1994, his rookie season, pitched 27 times between April 7 and June 23, made eight minor-league starts thereafter, and hasn't pitched since. The Dodgers' first pick in the June 1993 draft, Dreifort had surgery on his right elbow last spring and hasn't seen the inside of a baseball game since. He said he would prefer to start, preferably in the big leagues.

"As good as (the elbow) feels, I don't think there's anything I won't be able to do," he said. "It's been a long year sitting and watching everybody play. I think it made me more hungry."

Notes: The Dodgers on Thursday signed six players to one-year contracts, including Ashley ($195,000) and Hollandsworth ($136,000). They also signed Garcia, infielders Garey Ingram and Busch and pitcher Jesus Martinez . . . New contracts for Piazza and Karros will not be negotiated during the season, according to Claire. Claire said that the Dodgers have had casual conversations with Jeff Moorad, Karros' agent, but not with Dennis Gilbert regarding Piazza. "We have not negotiated contracts during the course of the season," he said. "So, for the most part, our philosophy is to do those things . . . at the end of the season." . . . Dodgers hitting instructor Reggie Smith was spring's first casualty. He twisted his right knee in the season's first drills and was taken off the field by cart. He returned later in the day. . . . Former Dodgers trainer Bill Buhler, who retired in October after 44 years, was honored in a Thursday-morning ceremony. The training room at Dodgertown was named on his behalf.

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(1--color) Hideo Nomo warms up at Vero Beach on the first day of spring training. (2--color) Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza sets up behind pitchers' target strings. Associated Press