Spinning their Little Wheels

The more we see of this year’s Dodger squad, the more we are reminded that this is the same collection of stiffs that won a whopping 72 games last season. So far, the season has gotten off to a rather predictable start, a couple of two game winning streaks peppered amongst three to four game losing streaks. The team has looked listless at times and have had Cy Young caliber pitching performances thrown against them by such pitching virtuosos as Brad Hennessy, Wandy Rodriguez, and Claudio Vargas. Sans the complete shutdown by the Wizard Greg Maddox earlier this season, the Dodgers have managed to make marginal major league pitching look like All-Star performances.

The problems facing this club are too expansive to cover in one post. It would be next to impossible to point out every flaw that the club has and try to dissect the true cause of such bad baseball. I however have found a few things that mechanically are leading the Dodgers down the path of bad teams.

In Sunday’s loss to the Padres, where the Dodgers blew a 5 run lead in the ninth inning and went on to lose in extra innings, Grady Little used Franquelis Osario for two innings after Derek Lowe turned in a solid six innings of shut out ball. Osario was effective as well, and for the first time in a long time, he looked like the legitimate long man in the bullpen. Then Grady, always the gambler, decided to play bullpen roulette by bringing in Lance Carter to finish the job. Needless to say, Grady lost that wager faster then David Scatino dropping “20 boxes of ziti” at the Soprano executive game. In any case, Grady Little overreached in his attempt to “right the ship” with regards to Lance Carter and paid for it with a humiliating and devastating loss, the effects still being felt during the current three game losing streak.

A day late a dollar short has been the M.O. for Grady. Story of his life. He did leave Pedro Martinez in too long against the Yankees in the 2003 American League Championship series and was burned by the late inning heroics of all-time Yankee great Aaron F’n Boone. That earned Grady a one way ticket to “palookaville” and the Red Sox brought in Terry Francona to win the whole show in 2004. Regardless, Grady is still questioned about his decision to keep Pedro in the game and let the series get away from him.

This then is starting to play itself out at the Ravine, as we are watching the same series of unfortunate events that lead to the demise of Grady in Boston. He is leaving pitchers in too long, much as he did last night after Chad Tracy took the barely breathing Odalis Perez deep for a grand slam in the 5th inning. At that point he could have taken Perez out of the game and put him back into his sleeping tube, however Grady being Grady decided to leave Perez in the game and watched the hard earned 6 runs in the first five innings slip away to the “Chase Field Bombers,” yes that is supposed to be tongue in cheek.

Good teams don’t let 6 run leads slip away in one inning. That’s just a fact. If they do, then they are quickly approaching the Milwaukee Brewer and Kansas City Royals level and not the Yankee/White Sox level. The Dodgers are closer to the former at this point and we can blame the majority of that on the fact that they have atrocious leadership at all levels. From the owner to the manager on the field, the Dodgers are cutting corners and saving that extra buck because the LA suckers will always come out in force to the tune of 3.5 million a year to watch last place ball.

Jae Seo takes the mound tonight and without being too fatalistic about the season, this is a must win. I know that championships are not won in May, however last season the Padres rolled off a 22-6 record in May to surpass the rest of the contenders in the division and, despite stumbling down the stretch, was able to win the west because of the gap they were able to create in May. The Dodgers thus far as 0-2 in this month, and will need to turn things around in a hurry if they have any hopes of breaking .500, let alone win the division. For that to happen, Grady better realize that the major leagues is not the place for a Lance Carter to work out his problems and not the place for rookies to learn their jobs. This is also a call out to Ned Colleti who needs to realize that the dead arms in the bull pen are not the answer and he needs to go out and get himself a legitimate stopper in the bullpen.