Kuzul

When the Los Angeles Dodgers secured the lineup of Matt Kemp, Shane Victorino, Adrian Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez and Andre Ethier, it looked like money could buy success.

At least on paper.

Now, after a record of 6-15 since they put this new team together—and with injuries to key players piling up—it looks like success will be much harder to come by.

Kemp has recently been out of action due to a shoulder injury he got when running into a wall in Colorado.  Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw missed a key start against the Giants due to a sore hip.

Both men may return tonight, but it may not matter in the greater scheme of things this season if they keep playing so poorly.

As of now, the Giants have taken a five-game lead in the NL West, and the Dodgers only hope of making the playoffs seems to be to overtake the St. Louis Cardinals for the second wild-card spot.  L.A. trails by one and a half games and will host the Cardinals this weekend.

But to claim that second wild card, the Dodgers have to score more runs.

In Sunday’s game against the Giants, the Dodgers were 1-for-23 (.043) with men in scoring position, a stat that has become the tale of the tape for L.A. in the past few games. 

Gonzalez has been pretty pathetic, batting.249 since the trade and .202 with RISP.  Kemp, probably due to his injury, has three hits in his last 30 at-bats.

After the trade, the Dodgers are averaging 3.03 runs per game.  Before the trade, they averaged four runs per game.

Numbers don’t tell the entire story, though, as the anemic run production has been the result of a variety of factors:  poor managing by Don Mattingly, a lack of chemistry, suspect pitching, injuries and a general lack of hustle.

The lack of hustle was very apparent against the Giants when Juan Rivera hit a ball down the right-field line and watched it as he trotted to first base, eventually making it to second in a leisurely fashion.  Had he taken off fast and not looked at the ball—as he was taught in Little League—he may have had a triple. He eventually got stuck at second.

At shortstop, Ramirez is anything but slick and seems way too nonchalant. We may have been spoiled by the rocket arm of Rafael Furcal, but Ramirez, no matter what the play, just seems to sling the ball over to first base, with the ball, often times, barely beating the runner.

The highly regarded shortstop and one-time NL batting champ came to the Dodgers with a bad rap for being lazy and disinterested.  Is that what the Dodger fans are going to get from him?

Ramirez is batting a meager .254 for the season, and while he has had some timely run-producing hits, he has only two home runs and four RBI in the last 10 games.

In addition to having temporarily lost Kemp and Kershaw, the Dodgers in recent weeks have lost Chad Billingsley, Kenley Jansen and Adam Kennedy for the season. There is no question that Kemp and Kershaw are the spark plugs for the team, and if they should go out again or cannot produce at their normal levels, the team will be in even more dire straits.

The Dodger pitching remains strong (3.48 ERA) thanks to solid recent performances by Josh Beckett, Chris Capuano and Brandon League, who is filling in nicely as the closer.  But is there really a lot of confidence in Joe Blanton, Aaron Harang and the newly assembled bullpen?

The hardest part of putting together a bunch of new players is getting them to gel.  In this case, the Dodgers threw together a bunch of talented individuals who, on paper, should comprise a winning team.

But what about chemistry?  Should we really expect them to unite quickly, give each other high fives and then go out there and beat the competition to death.  They barely know each other, and they barely know each others’ tendencies.

Anyone watching the games knows that Ramirez is a pull hitter and a first-ball swinger. In a recent game, Gonzalez was at third base with a sizable lead, and Ramirez hit the first pitch on a hop to the third baseman.

Gonzalez had no chance of getting back to bag.  What was he doing off it in the first place?  Maybe he just didn’t know Hanley’s tendency to pull the ball. Why didn’t third base coach Tim Wallach have him back at the bag?

The upshot was yet another run was left stranded.

Ultimately, it is up to the manager to manage all of these details, psych up his team, get them to hit and run, run and hit, move quickly on the bases, bring the heat at the right time and the curveball at others. For the most part, Mattingly has met those responsibilities quite well.

But he could do a lot better.

As a former player, Mattingly may have given his new players a bit too much leeway as they were getting acclimated to their new surroundings.

Perhaps there was a bit of a honeymoon period in which he wanted to observe how they worked individually and together as a team.

Well, Don, the honeymoon is over, and it is time to kick this team into gear or this will look like one bad marriage.

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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” 

If Charles Dickens were alive and a sportswriter, he would be telling the tale of Dodger right fielder Andre Either, a classic saga of young man whose pure athletic talents led to fame and fortune yet who was beset by a mercurial blend of greatness and woe.

After six years with the Dodgers, Ethier finally got the extended, extensive contract he had deserved, $85 million over five years. Then he went into a slump batting just .218 in June.

If that isn’t Ethier in a nutshell, nothing is.

Sure, his stats, when looked at over the life of his career, seem pretty consistent. He has batted .272 once and .308 once, otherwise hovering around the career mark of .291. He holds the record for doubles among Dodger players, but his power numbers are relatively meager for someone of his stature.

He averages 20 home runs a year, but had only 11 in 2011 and has 16 this year. Except for 2009 when he had 106 RBI, he averages closer to 75 per season.

He has shown absolute brilliance at times. In 2010, he was leading the National League in home runs, RBI and batting average then broke his finger and was put on the DL. Even though he was selected to start on the NL All-Star Team with more than 2.7 million votes, he slumped down the stretch, finishing with a .292 batting average, 23 home runs and 82 RBI in 139 games.

He then began the next season on fire setting a new MLB record for April with a 23-game hitting streak, breaking the old record set by Joe Torre. He eventually hit in 30 straight. Later in the season, a bothersome knee reduced his output and muddied his reputation a bit when he said he was being forced to play while injured.

This year has been up and down as seen by his .218 average against lefties. Yet, in late August he had hits in 10 consecutive at bats, two shy of a major league record. Down and up and down and up.

But, there is something about Andre that the fans love. It could be his sweet swing or his low-key demeanor or even his dependability in right where he won a Gold Glove last year.

So, there he was last night, batting in the ninth inning against the Padres in a game the Dodgers sorely need to win. But, they were down 3-2 and it didn’t look good. Ethier, who at one point in the season led the MLB in RBIs, had a chance for some late game glory. 

As if scripted by Dickens himself, the hero of our tale produced, knocking a game-tying home run that kept the Dodgers alive, only to win the game in extra innings in which Ethier scored the winning run.

Ethier can do wonderful things and he seemed long overdue especially with the “Great Expectations” for the revamped Dodger team. 

Ethier now bats behind Hanley Ramirez, Matt Kemp and Adrian Gonzalez in arguably the best lineup in baseball so one would expect a few dramatic homers here and there. He might even win a few games down the stretch for a Dodger team that is playing catch-up.

Now, that would be a wonderful story.

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When the Los Angeles Dodgers signed star outfielder Andre Ethier to an $85 million, five-year deal through 2017, it placed the seven-year veteran into the top 20 in annual salary among major league outfielders.

Over the next few years, the graduated increases could lift him into the top 10.

But are the guys who are ahead of him on the list like Jayson Werth, Jason Bay, Alfonso Soriano and Vernon Wells, whose salary tops the list at $24.1 million per year, worth more than Ethier?

Where does this somewhat unassuming right fielder really stand among today’s stars?  Is he, in fact, a star, or just a solid, everyday player?  Where would you rate him?

For those who have watched him play second fiddle to superstar center fielder Matt Kemp, Ethier’s monetary success is long overdue.

An overachieving college player whose coach at Arizona State University said he didn’t have what it took to be a Division I player, Ethier has shown time and again that he is worthy of his elite status in the majors, far exceeding the negative valuation placed on him in his early years.

This year in particular has been a coming-out party for the sweet-swinging lefty who bats in the middle of the Dodgers’ order. Currently batting .314, he has alternated with Rockies star outfielder Carlos Gonzalez as the National League’s RBI leader.

Before Kemp went on the DL with a hamstring injury, their one-two punch led the Dodgers to the best win-loss percentage in the majors, and the two of them were at the top of the list in RBI production.

While he will never replace Kemp’s five-tool superstar play, Ethier provides a stalwart offensive presence in the Dodger lineup, and one can see why his teammates once nicknamed him “Captain Clutch.”

Over his career, Ethier has shown flashes of brilliance, some of them even history-making. After three consecutive years of batting .284, .305 and .292, and averaging over 25 home runs per year, he broke into the 2011 season with a 23-game hitting streak, setting a major league record for the month of April.

At that point, he seemed to have also broken the barrier leading to stardom. But that was also a year of controversy when he played with an injured knee, and after playing in the All-Star game, he finished the year on a down note.

Entering this year, there were questions about his ability, his desire and his importance to the team.  There was even trade talk.

But 2012 has shown that Ethier is one of the best outfielders, if not players, in the game. Even the ever-growing achievements of Kemp have not been able to overshadow his success.

Most surprisingly is how Ethier has not wilted during Kemp’s absence. Despite a week or so of terrible hitting (he had two hits in 26 at-bats at the beginning of June), he continues to come up big in clutch situations. One of the those hits was a grand slam home run.

Ethier will never be a loud, flashy, here-I-am-look-at-me type of player despite his obvious talent, his Hollywood address and good looks. But his financial upgrade matches his ability and should the Dodgers actually continue their ride atop the NL West, he should get a lot of credit for the team’s success.

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As a die-hard Dodgers fan, it is hard to say the words “The Giants are World Series champs.”

Yet, not only were they champs, they made the rest of the MLB, and especially the Dodgers, into chumps.

They showed what a real team is all about.  It is not about how much money you have to spend, and not about free-agent mercenaries like Manny and the like, and not about individual performance or dictatorial managers and selfish rich-guy management.

It is soley and purely about teamwork.  It is about what we are supposed to teach our kids every day when they head out to play teeball and Little League.

As we hopefully leave the steroid era behind, we can perhaps gain a glimmer of hope from San Francisco’s new champs.  First, you gotta hand it to their general manager. We Dodger fans can only squrim at the idea of an ownership who will go out and get the players necessary to fill voids in the lineup and on the field.

You have to marvel at and applaud the Giants ability to scout and then sign such players as Buster Posey and Tim Lincecum (who the Dodgers passed on, by the way).  These guys came out of their system, an almost passé way to view team-building.  The Giants proved that this old-school way of building a team is a great way to build a foundation.

A lot of teams pooh-poohed Lincecum, the slight pitcher with the huge stride who is on his way to the Hall of Fame.  As for Posey, well, he truly is “The Natural,” and bravo to the Giants for finding him and signing him…then bringing him up this year.  Without Buster, the Giants would be…a bust!

You cannot say enough about the entire Giants pitching staff, from outstanding starters to strike-throwing middlemen to tough and obviously eccentric closers…the best staff in the bigs. 

You gotta love the makeshift yet somehow glued-together nature of the Giants team. It may start from the top with Bruce Bochy, who made swift moves (benching Sandoval for instance) to shore up his infield, or maneuvering and empowering his fantastic pitching staff.

He knew that he didn’t need a lot of runs per game with a staff whose ERA was record-breakingly low, but somehow he got the key hits and the runs to edge the Padres, beat the dynastic Phillies, and then crush the wannabe Rangers with the impressive line-up.

Huff, Uribe, Renteria, Rowan, Burrell, Ross, Sanchez…are you kidding me?  Then again, why not? Each has a pedigree of his own.  Each has shown in the past that he can hit. Sanchez has won batting titles.  Renteria has been with World Series Champs before.  Huff has always been a solid hitter, and so has Burrell and Rowan and Ross.  Put them together and you have Giant Goulash…a stew that comes together in a delectably winning fashion. 

These “misfits” roughed up Halladay AND Lee…take that!

Some have said it is the worst lineup to ever win a World Series.  Better to say it is the best “team” to have won it in a very long time.  They gelled like no other team has done in quite a while, and they were a juggernaut that few saw coming.

Now, when you think of the word Champion, you can think of this year’s Giants team.

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The Dodgers need pitching, hitting, a great closer, a first baseman who can hit for power and the same at third, and probably a new center fielder and what do they end up with? 

A new manager who has never managed before.

I love Don Mattingly as a player. With that steady career batting average of .307, nine gold gloves, an MVP Award and some batting titles – but can he transpose his personal winning attitude and baseball acumen to his team?

It is kind of scary if you are a Dodger fan.  Just this week he said he had no idea why the Dodgers were hitting so poorly. This from the Dodgers hitting coach.

In his one stint as manager a month or so ago when Torre was tossed from the game, he made a really stupid mistake when he went to the mound twice in the same trip.  Donnie Baseball either forgot or didn’t know the rule.  Either way, I am glad he’s gotten that one out of the way.

Listen, Mattingly may have learned a lot while working at the feet of one of the great managers of our time but it appears like a shot in the dark.  I know Joe Torre and you are no Joe Torre.

The Dodgers are a mess as everyone knows what with the owners’ divorce proceedings which led to a slashed budget which led to no buying power in the off-season which led to a weakened squad that included a 5th starter with zero big league experience which led to no true back-ups for the weary and the wounded which led to an almost last place finish. 

They need a miracle worker not a newbie manager who will be learning on the job.

I wish him well and hope he can pull this one out as easily as he could snare an errant throw in the dirt.

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