Dodgers Diaries

It’s not as if the final result of the Dodgers’ 2009 season wasn’t predictable. For as much as Dodger fans hoped this team could win it all, the truth was there from the start. The same team that lost in five games to the Phils in 2008 never got any better in 2009.

Sure, the record was better. The 2009 version won 11 more games than the previous year. But the finish was the same, and the first-round playoff result was the same: A 3-0 sweep over the highly favored Central Division champs (Chicago in 2008, St. Louis in 2009). When we look back on 2008, however, we see a team that peaked in late August and continued an unlikely run through the NLDS before falling back to earth.

When we look back on 2009, we will see a team that peaked in late April, played .500 the rest of the way, and stole three from the Cardinals before reverting to the putrid form that defined them in the last month of the season, when they couldn’t beat the Nationals, Padres or Pirates to clinch the division. That team was the one that showed up against the Phils.

When the 2008 season ended, the decisions to let go of Derek Lowe, Takashi Saito, Chan Ho Park, Joe Beimel and Brad Penny meant the team was going to have to find a way to get another 500 innings of sub 4.00 pitching. Yet one free agent pitcher after the next signed — elsewhere. The Dodgers began the season without an ace, convinced that Chad Billingsley was ready to shoulder that responsibility even though he had been terrible in two starts against Philadelphia and broke his leg in the offseason. Hmm.

The lack of a No. 1 starter plagued this team all year. The Opening Day starter, Hiroki Kuroda, made three trips to the disabled list. Billingsley faltered so hard down the stretch that Joe Torre didn’t even name him a starter in either playoff series. Randy Wolf became the de facto No. 1 based on a strong September, then failed to get through five innings in his Game 1 start in the NLDS. Clayton Kershaw fared even worse in Game 1 of the NLCS.

Even as the season went along, they refused to bid on Pedro Martinez, a free agent. Failed to land Roy Halladay. Failed to trade for Cliff Lee. As they go into 2010, Billingsley has to be considered a question mark, and the Dodgers are fools if they want to slap the No. 1 tag on Kershaw as early in his career as they did with Bills. Now, as then, they have no No. 1. No guy who goes deep into ballgames and saves the bullpen. No guy who stops losing streaks every five days.

Bullpens are great, but for them to work, everybody has to be on his game. They’re only as strong as the weakest link. If Troncoso or Sherrill or Kuo is off his game, it can ruin a great night by everyone who preceded him. Or it can turn a game one out away from evening the NLCS into another Broxton nightmare.

--- JOHN ROSENTHAL