Welcome to my blog! With the 2010 season approaching, I thought I would put together some thoughts on various topics around baseball. Being the avid Dodgers fan that I am, I figured I'd begin with a look at this year's team and its offseason.
Fortunately, Ned Colletti was able to avoid arbitration with the young core of the team, locking up Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, and Jonathon Broxton for another two years. As a result, the Dodgers are basically bringing back the same team they had last year, with a couple of minor additions.
You could look at the lack of activity during this offseason in a few different ways. You might argue that it's not such a bad thing, because last year's team made it all the way to the NLCS before bowing out to the Phillies; therefore, the team should compete in the playoffs again this year. Or you might argue that the 2010 Dodgers will be awful because they failed to upgrade anywhere and other teams will have figured them out come April. I happen to argue that it's a combination of both mindsets that captures my feelings on the subject. Certainly, the Dodgers will not be in the cellar of the NL West this year - they have too much talent and are too balanced for that to be the case. In fact, they are probably the favorites to win the division, and I foresee another playoff run in 2010.
Still, there are a couple problems I have with the team Colletti is bringing to the table this season. To begin with, why release Randy Wolf? This had to be the worst move the Dodgers made during the offseason. Wolf was the Dodgers' most consistent starter last year, and played a big role during the playoffs. With the starting pitching market being so thin this offseason, you had to figure the Dodgers would hang on to Wolf to stabilize their rotation. Instead, they are promoting a battle royale of sorts, a free-for-all during spring training for the fifth spot in the rotation. To me, this was unnecessary when bringing Wolf back for a reasonable cost would have been the prudent alternative.
Staying with the subject of starting pitching, the Dodgers failed to upgrade their rotation at all in hopes that Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw will compete with the best of the NL. The problem with that is, the best of the NL got better. Just within the division: Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain for the Giants, Jeff Francis and Ubaldo Jimenez for the Rockies, and of course, Brandon Webb and Dan Haren for the Diamondbacks. And then outside the division, the Phillies, the Dodgers' nemesis for the last two seasons, acquired Roy Halladay to go along with Cole Hamels, while the Cardinals maintained their one-two punch of Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright. Can Billingsley and Kershaw compete with those tandems? I'll believe it when I see it. A big name starter, a true ace, has been the only missing piece preventing the Dodgers from getting to the World Series the past two seasons, and it will plague them once again this year. Neither Billingsley nor Kershaw is there yet.
Barring a major acquisition between now and April, the Dodgers will likely escape with the division in 2010. The Giants will be their primary competition, but I don't see any of the other NL West teams having all that much success. The best division in the National League last year will suffer a little bit this year, given the unwillingness of their GM's to make any killer moves. It's like there's a chess game going on, and no one is comfortable initiating the attack. If the Dodgers wish to put themselves over the top, they will fulfill this role. A failure to do so will cast the 2010 campaign into further uncertainty.
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