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Scott Elbert, Dodgers 2009 minor league pitcher of the year, still out without explanation but starting to throw in Phoenix

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Some mysteries actually remain that way. Explanations that come, if they come at all, are vague. Or they feel partial, or too convenient.

Reliever Ronald Belisario has disappeared without explanation, the Dodgers saying only it’s a personal issue.

But Belisario is hardly the only member of the Dodgers’ organization to leave without the team clarifying why he was suddenly gone.

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Left-hander Scott Elbert, the Dodgers’ 2009 minor league pitcher of the year, left triple-A Albuquerque on June 10 for a personal matter.

The team gave him permission to leave and placed him on the inactive list. The Isotopes haven’t seen him since, and no further explanation of his situation has been offered.

On Thursday, bullpen coach Ken Howell said Elbert is back at the team’s training facility in Phoenix and just starting to throw.

‘He’s coming to the ballpark, playing catch again,’ Howell said. ‘He’s just trying to get back to the swing of things, and he’s going to walk his way through it.’

Whatever ‘it’ is.

Elbert, 24, had a one-day call-up at the end of May, but the left-hander walked three left-handed-hitting Rockies in Colorado. The next day he was sent back to Albuquerque.

He made one more start in Albuquerque before being placed on the inactive list for what the team termed a family matter. Elbert’s second child was born in April.

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So Elbert, who lives near Phoenix, is back playing catch. Explanations still lacking, a timetable for his return still unknown.

-- Steve Dilbeck

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