| Joe Gutierrez. 4th September, 2005 - 4:51 pm
 As the 2005-2006 Los Angeles Dodgers season began, General Manager Paul DePodesta envisioned a team that would be built to contend throughout the year. So far that vision has not come to life. The Dodgers recently wrapped up a busy August by winning two out of three from the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs. To say that this season is over, is like saying the NL West is the toughest division. As of this moment the Blue Crew are not only battling the Padres and D-Backs, but surprisingly the SF Giants have joined the mix.
The club will play 26 of their remaining 29 games within the National League West. Without a doubt these games become crucial to them making it to the playoffs. Their starting pitching has made vast improvements. Jeff Weaver is starting to give the Dodger bullpen a rest by going deeper into ballgames. Derek Lowe is coming off a solid outing from Chicago where he pitched one hit baseball. D.J. Houlton is starting to show what he can give to this rotation for him to earn a spot with the club next year. Edwin Jackson needs some confidence thrown his way after being called up to join the rotation when Odalis Perez went down. The superb start he made in ?03, where we saw him defeat Randy Johnson and the D-Backs, showed what he could contribute to being a member of a major league roster.
It seems that LA has had more downs this year than ups. Very few times during the season could we actually assume that they would be making a move, as far as a major jump in the standings. Ultimately, it all came down to playing catch-up baseball this year. No doubt it has been a disappointing season, but you have to expect the worst when major players hit the disabled list.
To make matters even worse in the already struggling clubhouse, there is now bickering going on between players. The Jeff Kent, Milton Bradley fiasco basically threw the entire team off-course while they were trying to concentrate on getting wins across the board. Incidents such as these can drastically hurt a team in a playoff hunt. As the manager of a team like this, Jim Tracy has the most difficult of job by maintaining some stability within the team. As a result, players begin are at a loss concerning whom to look to for some leadership when it needs to be given. This team is in desperate need of a team leader. But if your two stars are fighting, who can you look up to?
September brings a new month of opportunities for the Dodgers who are looking forward to unleashing their well known ?comebacks?. Bradley was just transferred to the 60-day disabled list, so yet again they must find ways to make up for lost bats in the lineup. This means more playing time for players like Mike Edwards and Jason Repko who will try and bring some power to an ailing team searching for offense. Edwards already has a pair of homeruns in the past two games which means he is starting to heat up just in time. Jose Cruz Jr. is batting .300 with seven RBI and nine walks in 50 at-bats for the Dodgers. He will most likely be playing everyday as long as he continues this pattern.
Tracy should begin using Hee-Seop Choi regularly in the batting order especially considering all the injuries have taken place. Each Choi is benched, it begins to show me that he does not think too highly of him. This gets to be bothersome because Choi can provide some pop whether it is at the bottom, middle, or top of the batting order. This team can use all the power it can get going into the last month of the regular season. Trailing San Diego by 6 games with the Giants and Diamondbacks breathing down their necks, making the playoffs seems like an insurmountable task awaiting this team. |
