Dodgers Diaries

I’ve made few secrets about my low expectations for this Dodger club. If you had told me at the beginning of the season that Hiroki Kuroda wouldn’t pitch after Opening Day, I’d have had even lower hopes.

But when a team starts getting victories out of Eric Milton, a guy who hasn’t won a big league game in three years, you have to start wondering just what is going on. This was no eked-out victory in pitcher-friendly Dodger Stadium either. It was a smothering performance in Coors Field, the hitter-friendliest park in baseball.

Chad Billingsley has been the ace everyone has waited to see. Clayton Kershaw is about where we all assumed he would be, around .500 with an ERA in the 4s. Randy Wolf has been better than advertised, with 50 Ks in 62 innings. But the Dodgers have gotten 10 victories, 119 innings and 86 strikeouts from Milton, Eric Stults, Ronald Belisario, Will Ohman, Brent Leach and Jeff Weaver. None of these guys was expected to make the opening day roster, save maybe Ohman, who was acquired late in spring training. Nobody had ever heard of Belisario. But he’s made everyone forget the trials of Hong-Chih Kuo in a hurry.

The Dodgers are also getting .394 hitting out of Juan Pierre, even better than what they expected from Manny Ramirez, and Juan Castro is hitting 160 points higher than Rafael Furcal. Brad Ausmus and Mark Loretta are both hitting over .333, bringing the team average to a gaudy .291.

What does it all mean? Can we expect wins from Jason Schmidt at this point? An Eric Gagne signing?

Do the Dodgers just have unbelievably great scouting, or does this herald an impending return to the norm for guys playing above their heads right now? Perhaps a little of both. Whatever it is, it’s almost embarrassingly good right now. --- John Rosenthal.