Well I've been mulling it over the last few days and when I turned on my TV and there was no baseball on last night, I had to give in and get MLB.TV again to fill the void. I'll probably write a more complete review of it after a few weeks of using it, but at least for one night I got the pleasure of watching this Dodgers-Padres game with the play by play of the incomprable Vin Scully. Honestly, this guy has been doing this for over fifty years and he doesn't even have a color guy, its just him and the mic, incredible, what an amazing broadcaster. I digress, I watched most of this game last night that ended in a Padres win I couldn't help but feel even more strongly that my initial thoughts on the Dodgers, that they don't have enough pitching, were indeed quite real as I saw this character, Randy Wolf step on the mound as LA's second starter.
I don't mean to deride Wolf as a starter, he's a lefty with decent stuff who has proven to be effective from time to time, but if the Dodgers seriously think they can depend on him to be their second or third starter they're in for a rude awakening. Indeed, if you look at his numbers one of the most troubling is the fact he hasn't pitched 200 innings in six years! Okay he pitched 190 last year but that was the first since 2003 that he even had 150 innings, that's not a good track record, perticularly when you consider he's taking Derek Lowe's spot in the rotation, one of the most durable pitchers in baseball who's tossed at least 200 innings the last five years. What's even more troubling though is that even when he's in there he's really not that impressive. If we use ERA+, a more accurate indication of a pitcher's effectiveness that includes park effects Wolf has actually been below replacement level player in performance posting ERA+ of 100, 84, 97, and 93 the last four years (100 is considered the league average). Compare that with Lowe's 114, 124, 118, and 131 ERA+ I really question the Dodgers' ability to pitch effectively all season long when they depend of the epitome of mediocrity that is Randy Wolf.
Not suprisingly at all, Wolf gave a decidedly mediocre performance against a truly awful offensive team, lasting 5 1/3 innings and giving up 4 earned runs on six hits, walking and striking out three. I mean this team is really awful up and down the lineup and Wolf just looked listless, his stuff underwhelming and his performance likewise. Now of course you can accuse me of having a double standard here, as I sort of dismissed CC's atrocious outing while I'm indicting Wolf after one similarly shitty start, but the comparison does not really hold. Indeed, unlike Wolf, CC has a track record of starting slow, but has shown the ability to overcome those early troubles and end the season as one of the league's best. Randy Wolf in comparison has a track record of being kind of shitty, and this performance is right in step with his whole career, so dodgers fans can expect a whole lot more of this.
What's more, you combine this significantly inferior pitching staff with a still medicore offense (sorry manny is still only one guy) who not surprisingly only mustered 2 runs against Chris Young's 86MPH fastball, I still don't see a championship team here. It's only one game, and the night before their offense looked real good against Jake Peavy, but on paper this team doesn't have the stuff of champioins. Too many question marks in the rotation after Kiroda, not enough of a track record of performance at the plate from most of the lineup signals to me a team that just isn't going to cut it.
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