Dodgers Diaries

How to interpret the Dodgers’ perfect 11-0 home start. Are they the team to beat in the National League? Are the kids finally coming together the way so many of us thought they were, now that underperforming veterans like Luis Gonzalez, Jeff Kent and Juan Pierre have been pushed to the periphery?

Or are they beating up on the soft underbelly of the National League, feasting on San Diegos and Colorados, with sides of Arizona and San Francisco for dessert? Will they get a rude awakening once they start playing games out of the weak NL West?

In my opinion, it’s still too early to tell. The Dodgers have been getting good pitching performances from unlikely candidates like Eric Stults, Ramon Troncoso, and Ronald Belisario. They’ve yet to have a horrendous outing from Randy Wolf, a guy they assumed would be a serviceable No. 3 or No. 4 starter, but not the reliable pitcher he has been so far. They’ve compiled a record 11 games over .500 without their slotted No. 2 starter, Hiroki Kuroda, who has been on the DL since opening day.

It’s tempting to slot the Dodgers into the playoffs already given their fast start. But let’s hold the champagne for a moment. The last team to start the season 11-0 at home were the 2003 Kansas City Royals. I don’t need to do any research to recall whether the Royals made the playoffs that year.

This Dodger team has little in common with that Kansas City team other than and the color of their uniforms (I admit it that sometimes I see highlights from a Kansas City game and think they’re the Dodgers before doing a double-take). These Dodgers feature six regulars in their prime production years: Martin, Loney, Hudson, Furcal, Kemp, and Ethier, and a bonafide Hall of Famer in Manny Ramirez.

Still, they will go as far as their pitching takes them. Even if the Dodgers complete this current homestand 17-0, we won’t know what they’re made of until a swing through Philadelphia and Florida in mid-May. Then again, we won’t know what Philadelphia and Florida are made of until then either.

It’s not too early to enjoy the heady atmosphere at the Ravine, however. On Cinco de Mayo, the party will have started long before game time. --- John Rosenthal.