Movement -- or lack thereof -- proves NL West in no rush to win

The Dodgers signed utilityman Jamey Carroll on Dec. 17, owner Frank McCourt made the most preposterous statement of the offseason a month later, telling the Los Angeles Times that "my divorce has no bearing on the club whatsoever", and here the Dodgers are a week before spring camp opens, still slumming for another starter.

Chien-Ming Wang? Pass.

Mark DeRosa, who hit .250 in '09, is the Giants' biggest offseason acquisition. (Getty Images)

The divorce isn't going to squeeze the Dodgers financially, so that means Carroll ranked higher on the priority list than, say, a much-needed starting pitcher, right?

If it's February and spring camp is rushing closer, it must be time for my yearly slapping around of the NL West, annually voted (by me, and unanimously) as baseball's Division Most Likely to Develop Sleep Apnea.

One big move could have catapulted the Dodgers ... or the Giants ... into favored-nation status.

Instead, zzzzz.

The Dodgers didn't get the ace pitcher they need (all due respect, Vicente Padilla). The Giants didn't get the big bat they need (all due respect, Mark DeRosa and Aubrey Huff).

Two of the game's largest markets.

Two clubs that, between them, can count their World Series appearances over the past 28 years on three fingers.

The Dodgers in 1988, a win.

The Giants in 1989 and 2002, both losses.

"I think the division is up for grabs," an NL executive was saying during our conversation the other day. "The Dodgers have good players but they don't have the pitching. The Giants have the pitching but their outfield is a huge question to me. Aaron Rowand was so bad last year. ..."

As usual, as far as rivalries go, Dodgers-Giants is Yankees-Red Sox on training wheels. And don't let anybody tell you differently.

In the East, winning is a passion.

In the West, at the ownership levels, it's treated with all the urgency of bingo night in the church hall.

The Dodgers ascended from 84 wins in 2008 to 95 last year but, in the end, that improvement was tempered by status quo in the playoffs: Their appearance in last year's NLCS was a Groundhog Day moment, the Dodgers getting thumped by Philadelphia in the same tidy five games as they did in '08.

From that perspective, you can argue that the Dodgers, who still haven't played in a World Series since '88, are losing ground in the NL. The Phillies since have acquired ace Roy Halladay and signed Placido Polanco, who plays at a different level than Carroll.

The Dodgers? They non-tendered Randy Wolf, who led them in both starts and innings pitched last summer and traded outfielder Juan Pierre, who arguably became their most valuable player last summer. Wolf signed a three-year, $29.75 million deal with Milwaukee; Pierre was dealt to the White Sox. (Though the Dodgers will miss him, it was a class move by general manager Ned Colletti to send Pierre to a place where he can play every day).

Everyone knows it's a matter of time before the soon-to-be-divorced McCourt will be forced to sell the Dodgers. For now, though, in the Dodgers' defense, an overwhelming number of baseball people with whom I spoke this winter insisted that there was no way they were going to be able to retain all of their arbitration-eligible players. Yet after the non-tender to Wolf, they did sign Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Russell Martin, James Loney, Chad Billingsley and Jonathan Broxton.

The back-end of their rotation, though, currently is the kind you hide in the closet and hope nobody notices. Current candidates for the fifth slot include retreads Jeff Weaver, Russ Ortiz, Ramon Ortiz and prospect James McDonald.

Meanwhile, the Giants await Friday's arbitration hearing with two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum, and they're out of their minds for more reasons than adding only DeRosa and Huff to a club that ranked 15th in the NL in runs scored in '09. (Only the Padres scored fewer runs -- 637 -- than the Giants -- 640 -- and, under Moores, the Padres quit trying two years ago.)

The Giants are offering $8 million while Lincecum is asking for $13 million, and if the Giants don't figure out a way to induce their ace to meet somewhere in the middle, they've got about as much of a chance to win this hearing as Conan O'Brien would have at the plate against Lincecum.

Offensively, DeRosa and Huff will help, but neither one is Matt Holliday or Jason Bay. Just as a year ago, the Giants could have tilted the division San Francisco's way had they snaked then-free agent Manny Ramirez from the Dodgers, they could have become the team to beat in 2010 by adding a jumbo-sized bat like Holliday's.

Freddy Sanchez did find the time to re-sign between injuries, the latest being a shoulder surgery that will keep him questionable right up until opening day. Shoulder, knee ... it's always something with the uber-fragile Freddy.

"San Francisco will be OK, they'll just have to pitch their ass off again," the executive said.

As long as Lincecum and Matt Cain remain healthy, the Giants can do that. But, as usual, they'll be working the high-wire with little margin for error.

"I don't think either team is as good as the Rockies," said the executive. "And the Rockies get their left-hander [Jeff Francis] back this year."

So, too, Arizona with right-hander Brandon Webb. Which will move the Diamondbacks from NL West afterthought to interesting possibility.

Meanwhile, the only two teams in the division that existed before 1969, the two teams who once produced one of the game's greatest rivalries, casually listen as the numbers are called out.

Bingo?