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POWER RANKINGS
Power Rankings
Date
Ranking
Previous
07/07/2009
2
2
I've been sounding this alarm for weeks (to be fair, so too has everybody who watches the Dodgers on a regular basis and most responsible exercise physiologists), but Joe Torre is riding his bullpen horses into the ground. On Sunday, Jonathan Broxton looked like a truck coasting to a halt immediately after blowing an engine ... Gotta love Chad Billingsley's passable Pete Rose imitation as he lowered a shoulder and plowed into Padres catcher Eliezer Alfonzo. I feared for the life of an ace until the tale of the tape was told: Billingsley checks in at 6'1" and 245 pounds, while Alfonzo is a mere 5'11"/218.
06/30/2009
2
1
They just wrapped a rare logy week, with the team losing back-to-back series for the first time this season. With the Rockies in town, this'd be a fine time for the Dodgers to reassert their divisional dominance. Monday's 13-inning win, which concluded with an Andre Ethier walk-off dinger, was of the nail-biting variety ... We're about to waste several zillion barrels of ink, or whatever it is that the Internet is printed with, opining about the impact that Manny Ramirez's return will have on the Dodgers' lineup. I'm going to go way out on a limb here and say "positive."
06/23/2009
1
1
The Dodgers' 26-10 mark against their foes in the suddenly kinda-OK NL West is irrelevant, given the team ran up that record before the Giants and Rockies regained consciousness ... "What A Great Story!" alert: Mitch Jones finally made the majors last week after toiling in the minors for years and never getting a break and donating kidneys to several members of his church group and playing in Japan where he totally missed his dad. Isn't that a GREAT story? Perseverance in the face of great odds makes feature writers all hot and tingly downstairs.
06/16/2009
1
1
I'm split on Sunday's bunt-a-thon. The argument for it is that they had Chad Billingsley on the hill, meaning that a small lead would likely hold up. The argument against it is that outs are a team's most precious commodity, kind of the baseball equivalent of prison backrubs ... More so than Manny Ramirez's imminent return and the moralizing that will accompany it, the best sign for the Dodgers about now is that Rafael Furcal is back in aggressive-pest mode offensively ... Meanwhile, did I hear this wrong? Are the Dodgers really encouraging fans to make the trip to San Diego for Manny's first game back? There's surgical travel and adventure travel, but this is the first I've heard of chemical travel, at least since spring break.
06/09/2009
1
1
How a title-caliber, major-market team helmed by a media magnet like Joe Torre can be this boring, I'll never know. ... Perhaps Glavine would represent a nice upgrade on fellow five-innings-and-bust candidate Eric Milton? ... It's been pointed out that the Dodgers haven't played appreciably worse without Manny than they did with him, which has led the think-about-the-children! contingent to suggest that the Dodgers should tell the slugger to take a flying leap into his cherry-HGH-flavored pool. I'd counter by suggesting that such people should be stripped of their constitutional right to freedom of expression and beaten with an umbrella. The Dodgers have been a very good team without Manny; they'll be an elite one with him.
06/02/2009
1
1
According to my calculations, the Dodgers' magic number to clinch the NL West is 12. Yet even with a 37-game cushion, Joe Torre still won't be able to resist the temptation to use Ramon Troncoso in five straight games this summer. Somebody oughta give the bullpen coach veto power over Torre's late-game shenanigans. ... Hiroki Kuroda looked decent enough in his return on Monday night. Assuming the Dodgers are thinking big-picture at this point, they ought to limit his innings for the next few starts. Clayton Kershaw's, too.
05/26/2009
1
2
After Monday's rote pasting of the Rockies, the Dodgers are a bountiful plus-80 in run differential. It's not too early to start yammering about stats like this, at least not when they prove my point ... On Saturday night, the Dodgers won a game on a bases-loaded walk to Juan Pierre. Please remember that the next time somebody tells you that the sun isn't a mammal or that fish can't juggle. Clearly, nothing is impossible.
05/19/2009
2
4
There's much less to write about now that Manny's on vacation. In no particular order, I miss his smile, his do-rag and his carefully worded post-suspension statements. ... In the span of a week, they've successfully recast themselves as a bunch of scrappers. Still, they're going to need a crowbar to remove Juan Pierre from the leadoff spot when he reverts to his usual form. ... When Clayton Kershaw can throw his changeup anywhere near the strike zone, as he did during his near no-no on Sunday, he's untouchable. I beseech you: Check him out on Saturday against the Angels. If not for you, then for your children.
05/12/2009
4
1
Given how they hazed Barry Bonds -- who, it should be noted for the 374,636,453rd time, never tested positive for performance-enhancing substances -- it should be interesting to see how Dodgers fans receive Manny when he returns in July ... During the first game without Manny, the Dodgers blew a 6-0 lead to the Nationals. Maybe they'd have done so even if he'd been in the lineup, but that can't be a good omen ... I read roughly 348 items suggesting that Matt Kemp would have to "step up" in the slugger's absence. What if he merely "steps"? Will the lack of vertical ascent -- and a mere approximation of his .275/.353/.490 with-Manny line -- doom the Dodgers to offensive mediocrity?
05/05/2009
1
2
There's nothing that the Dodgers aren't doing well nowadays, even if they're mostly fattening up on the cream-filled cupcakes of the NL West ... Manny Ramirez has been quiet, but his numbers (.349/.495/.619) are where we'd expect them to be. You watch -- to remind us of his singular flakiness, he'll soon do something like order a pizza and have it delivered to him mid-inning ... Good point from a reader, who notes how in our zeal to giggle and squeal about Clayton Kershaw, we haven't given the positively acey Chad Billingsley his due props. Consider those props duly extended and this horrible injustice remedied.
Preseason Power Rankings
Date
Ranking
Previous
02/16/2009
11
-
This ranking assumes common sense will prevail and Manny will return to the fold. If he doesn't, bump them down five spots and put L.A. Times columnist/Dodgers co-GM Bill Plaschke on suicide watch. ... Have there ever been two people on this planet more meant to be together than Joe Torre and Brad Ausmus? This is baseball's very own version of Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. ... All the Manny stuff has obscured the real concern here, which is the starting pitching. Chad Billingsley is inked in as the ace, but he has been worked hard and is coming off a broken leg. The over/under on "injury-free starts by Randy Wolf and Jason Schmidt" has been set at 29.5; bet the under. Clayton Kershaw can't be pushed past 160 innings at age 22 without risking his golden thunderbolt of an arm.
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