Gravity Strikes Bums

The essential truism of the Law of Gravity is that what goes up, must come down. But for some baseball teams it happens more quickly than for others.

Exhibit A is the Los Angeles Dodgers, referred to rather presciently by this observer earlier this season as The Trolley Wreck. Of course that moniker didn't look so appropriate when they were the hottest team in baseball, getting out of the blocks to a 12-2 start. But as the season has progressed it's taken on the ring of truth. It's now clear that they were doing it with mirrors through the efforts of legends like Derek Lowe and Jose Valentin. Spring has now given way to summer and as Lowe's star as dimmed, Valentin finds himself joined by Milton Bradley and Eric Gagne (again) on the DL and Vin Scully is singing the praises of household names like Erickson (Scott. You know, the guy who came up in 1990? Who has 125 K's in five years?), Choi, Repko, Werth, Grabowski and Saenz. Since the 12-2 start, the Dogs are 21-34 and after last night's loss to the Padres, losers of seven straight. Even more troubling is that as division-leading San Diego has followed May's unconsciousness by listing to a 6-12 start to June, they have actually gained a half game on LA.

To be fair, the Dogs are only 5 games off the pace in a mediocre division and they've had injury problems. Save-machine and goofy-looking Gagne hasn't been healthy all season and depending upon the outcome of some testing may be lost for the year. Odalis Perez hasn't pitched in a month and the progress shown by Milton Bradley has been tempered by his injury issues. Those are tough losses to overcome.

But the larger question is who is the star on this team that's going to help turn the tide and carry it? Brad Penny has pitched well and was very good last night, but hasn't emerged into a dominant starter and his career has been plagued by injuries. Jeff Kent has had an outstanding season and goes through streaks where he gets ridiculously hot, but follows them just as surely with nuclear winter streaks. J.D. Drew is a perpetual enigma. The possibility of no Gagne raises serious questions about the bullpen, which is populated with talented but inexperienced arms. While some deadline dealing may prove an elixir for LA's woes, the truth of the matter is that they don't have much ammo and there are simply too many holes to fill. Moreover, the upper levels of the farm system are barren, thus providing little prospect for immediate help via promotion or fodder for race-altering trades. For example, former top pitching prospect Edwin Jackson has regressed and was recently demoted.

So for the moment, Trolley Wreck it is. While a healthy Bradley and Perez will definitely elevate the level of play, I don't see much hope for LA this season.