Bleeding Dodger Blue

Hang tight Ms. Winehouse, we're close to curing the T-Virus

I'm back from the dead like a (expletive) Zombie (see above). I've been busy with many things not pertaining to blogging baseball (one of the things has been fantasy baseball though so I've been in the neighborhood).

The Dodgers still can't seem to play right. Even though we're not completely through the first month of the season and it's way way too premature to write them off, the Dodgers are floundering around somewhere near the bottom of the NL West, in fact they've won the same amount of games as the Giants and have lost one game less than the Giants. Any team that sees themselves close to the Giants should know they're in trouble (I realize that there are a few teams off to slow starts and are underperforming, but I just feel it necessary to pick on the Giants).

I do not believe in Brad Penny at all. Dodgers fans think he's a legit ace and someone to structure a rotation around. Delusion. History has taught us by now that Brad Penny is a beast for half a season. In fact, he's not even off to such a great start this year. His ERA is pretty but his WHIP is 1.42, his BAA (Batting Average Against) is .297 and he's gotten 17k's in 30 innings. He could prove me wrong and I hope he does but I'm not sold on him being a legit ace (I'd try to trade him for Oswalt, Verlander or Sabathia right now if I had him). A lot of people are high on the Dodgers and I too thought they were going to be a solid team this year but a few weeks in and I'm having my doubts. Billingsly is too young and unrefined and will probably be better next year. Hiroki Kuroda has been off to a strong start and it will be interesting to see how batters handle him once he's been through the league a bit. Esteban Loaiza isn't anything to brag about and Derek Lowe is a baller. I like him (though for fantasy no so much). Maybe next year the Dodgers will have Lowe, Penny, Billingsly and Clayton Kershaw (who's a beast) and they'll be ready to compete in the NL West.

Their offense is somewhat sloppy. James Loney and Russell Martin are still developing and will encounter a few bumps. Also, Loney never displayed much power in the minors but the fact that he's a big guy and is young leads some to believe he'll develop it as time goes on. Also their 3b spot is just a mess. They have Nomar and Andy LaRoche who's currently injured. Bummer.
Their biggest problem is their carousel outfield. In terms of hitting, Andruw Jones is still acting like he's closer to Bobby Jones instead of Chipper Jones on the Jones hitting spectrum. Fortunately he's better than both in terms of defense. The rest of their OF is Juan Pierre, Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp. Kemp needs to improve his walks but is looking like an all-star. Maybe because of the uncertainty in the outfield, all 4 players are off to sluggish starts.

Joe Torre has his work cut out for him especially since right now the Diamondbacks have a "We're going to go undefeated for the rest of the season" swagger.

PS - Jason Schmidt, baseball misses you and the Dodgers need you. Get well soon.