Dodgers 1/8th Season Update

How good is this Dodger team?  As long as they’re playing the NL West, we’ll probably never know.  Their record inside the division is a sparkly 17-6 but outside of it they boast an ambiguous 1-2 mark (they dropped a few in Houston, in case you’d already forgotten).  Over the weekend I threw a worst-case scenario of the 2009 Dodgers being the 2008 Angels to both G Snide and The Golf Executive and both poo-pooed the idea for a variety of reasons but my point was that the Angels were probably the worst 100-win ballclub of all time and if the Dodgers run away and hide in the NL West they might end up in a similar situation—glossy regular season record buoyed by playing in a crappy division that masked some flaws and then a quick fade in the playoffs.  Granted it’s barely May and way too early to be looking at the playoffs but if any year was going to be the year for forward thought, this would be it.  Why is that, you ask?  It’s the economy, stupid.  In years past a team that was on the verge of maybe-sorta being a contender might hold onto their assets in the (usually) misguided attempt at a playoff push.  This year?  I think teams are going to make up their minds earlier than before if they’re going to be buyers or sellers and a savvy (we hope) team in contention like the Dodgers might be able to make a move for the arm that could make them October favorites.

The downside, of course, is that Los Angeles has a pretty depleted farm system and you know they’re not going to part with any of the outfielders, Russ Mart, Hudson or any pitchers so what’s left to deal exactly?  I like James Loney as much as the rest of us but is there really a market for a first baseman with no power?  Nobody’s going to want Juan Pierre or Casey Blake you know.  Anyway, it’s still way to early to get serious about this but you know the front offices are thinking about it so we might as well too.