DODGERS NOTEBOOK: PENNY THROWS SURPRISE AT CAMP.

Byline: Tony Jackson  Staff Writer

VERO BEACH, Fla. - To the surprise of everyone - especially manager Jim Tracy, who had said only a couple of hours earlier that it wouldn't happen for another day or two - Dodgers pitcher Brad Penny threw off a mound at the club's spring training complex Monday.

It marked the first time he has done so since suffering a relapse of the nerve injury in his right arm while pitching at San Diego on Sept. 22.

It was well short of a full-fledged side session. Penny decided on a whim to do it and got permission from pitching coach Jim Colborn to throw a maximum of 15 pitches.

Penny more or less lobbed the ball, with no more than 50 percent of his normal game intensity.

``It probably wasn't even that much,'' Penny said. ``I hadn't been on a mound for so long, and I just told them I wanted to throw 10 or 15 pitches. Right now, everything feels good.''

Penny was scheduled to take the mound two weeks ago in Los Angeles, but that was postponed when he came down with the flu. He hopes to throw again Wednesday.

``We could add a few more pitches to it, or we could add a little more intensity to it,'' said Colborn, who downplayed the importance of Penny's abbreviated Monday session. ``You're asking me to judge a rainstorm by one drop. I won't be able to tell much until he throws 70 or 80 pitches in a more competitive game, and that won't happen until the middle to latter part of March. Right now, it's like a fingerprint on a window of a skyscraper.''

That might be true, but it's the first fingerprint to appear there in almost five months.

``If everything goes according to plan and we don't see any physical setbacks, there is no reason to think he won't be ready to pitch by the first week of the season,'' Tracy said.

--Quick study: In his first spring in the National League, seven-year American League veteran Derek Lowe already has shown promise with the bat during three days of bunting drills with special instructor Maury Wills.

``You can tell he's a good athlete, and that helps a lot when you're trying to bunt,'' Wills said. ``He's a good bunter. The thing that really impresses me is that he has an open mind and is willing to learn.

``I remember when Wilson Alvarez came over from the American League (in 2003), about the third day he said, `Maury, I don't think I can do this.' But when he realized there were going to be times when he would have to sacrifice, he worked at it and turned out to be one of the best bunters on our team.''

--No comment: General manager Paul DePodesta declined to respond to published comments by former Dodgers center fielder Steve Finley on Monday that seemed to call DePodesta's integrity into question.

Finley, who signed a two-year, $14 million contract with the Angels, said he was told upon being traded to the Dodgers from Arizona last July 31 that he wasn't just a two-month rental player and that the Dodgers would want to keep him if he performed well for them.

But they ultimately let him walk after what Finley claims were only two phone calls between him and the club, and the Dodgers instead signed free-agent J.D. Drew to a five-year, $55 million deal.

``I don't feel it's proper to talk about other teams' players,'' DePodesta said Monday.

It is worth noting, though, that the Dodgers traded three prospects (left-hander Bill Murphy, catcher Koyie Hill and outfielder Reggie Abercrombie) for Finley and catcher Brent Mayne, and thus had little to gain by keeping Finley for such a short time.

Tony Jackson,[phone]

tony.jackson(at)dailynews.com

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Brad Penny threw off a mound Monday for the first time since he was injured Sept. 22.

Rick Silva/Associated Press