The Los Angeles Dodgers have not had a lot of success this season vs. the baseball odds and the biggest reason is poor pitching. The Dodgers have not gotten much starting pitching and overall their staff is weak. Los Angeles still has a lot of talent though but they must improve their pitching if they are to win consistently vs. the baseball lines. Baseball odds still favor the Dodgers a lot of the time even though Los Angeles has a losing record. The Dodgers have a starting rotation that has some holes and manager Joe Torre pretty much admitted as much. “My expectations haven’t changed, but you have to be realistic about it,” Torre said, “For us to win games and win without a consistent pitching staff is lucky.” The Dodgers have Clayton Kershaw who has been the best of their starters.
Chad Billingsley is capable of being a good starter vs. the baseball lines as is Hiroki Kuroda. Vicente Padilla is a questionable starter and he is on the DL right now and after that the Dodgers don’t have much. “For me, Billingsley is certainly capable,” Torre said, “I think we all have seen enough from him to know that he has the makings of a special pitcher. Kuroda struggled [Friday] night, but he still gets you there. Padilla, we got a small sample size with him last year, but he showed us enough that he was our Opening Day starter because he can dominate a game… And Kershaw, again, I continue to say it would be unfair to lean on him. But at some point, he will be very, very special.”
Torre would prefer to have a team that has a good pitching staff and a questionable offense rather than a team that can hit but can’t pitch. “Definitely, because you can try to create something,” Torre said, “You can try to play for one run. If you get pitching and defense, sometimes one run is enough. But when you don’t have a lot of pitching, you don’t know how many runs you’re going to need.”
The Dodgers may have to make some moves if they are to contend vs. the baseball odds. Torre didn’t know where the help was going to come from. The good news for the Dodgers is that Manny is healthy again and that Kershaw looks like the ace he is supposed to be.