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Dodgers hope for more scenes like this. AP Photo/Matt York
The Dodgers first half was, as Project Runway 4 winner Christian Siriano puts it, “A hot tranny mess.”
But what has been very haunting during this All Star Break was a piece in the LA Times by the incomparable Ross Newhan examining the demise of the Dodger organization.
While most people will point to the sale of the team to Fox as the turning point, Newhan takes it back further to that infamous night right before the season started in 1987. It was on Nightline when Dodgers GM Al Campanis made his infamous remarks about why the lack of black GMs and managers.
In one fell swoop, Campanis was ousted and Fred Claire was promoted. Even though the Dodgers would make their improbable run the next year, the remaining years showed that Claire was trying to get his handle on the job. Who can forget 1993 when he made a straight up trade with the Montreal Expos for Delino DeShields? Of course the player the Claire gave away went on to have a pretty good career: Pedro Martinez.
Fast forward to today, the Dodgers are in the bottom in most offensive categories, yet their excellent pitching has carried them to the top of the NL West aka the Loser’s Division.
Bottom line: the Dodgers need to get consistent hitting. Having a player or two getting hot for a while is not going to work. Not with an offense that has more power shortages than California in a heatwave.
It could be said that Ned Colletti should make a trade before the deadline on July 31 to bring in some power, but that thought is absolutely terrifying given his track record. The Dodgers cannot afford to bring in another goat like Andruw Jones.
As it stands now, the Dodgers lineup isn’t bad. If Nomar can stay healthy and be as productive as he has been as of late and Juan Pierre stays on the disabled list so that Joe Torre won’t think about putting him in the leadoff spot, then the Dodgers have a good chance of winning the division. The Diamondbacks have come down to earth after their hot April and the rest of the division looks even worse than the Dodgers.
So now, let me readjust my playoff predictions from the end of March. Back then I predicted the Diamondbacks, NY Mets, Chicago Cubs to win their divisions with the Atlanta Braves winning the NL Wild Card. Here are my updated predictions:
NL East: NY Mets
NL Central: Chicago Cubs
NL West: LA Dodgers
NL Wild Card: St. Louis Cardinals
There you have it. Let the roller coaster ride begin!
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Back when the pre-season deals were made I knew this was a continuing disaster. All these signings, from Pierre to Schmidt to Jones to Torre, were desperate measures. You can't plug a leak with hope; you need fresh, young, eager talent who want to work. This team has too many aging losers on it's list. We took too many chances on bad deals.