Very disappointing. I've been trying to put my finger on the problem with the team since the second week of the season. Is it no heart? Is it poor managing by Donnie? Is it the injury bug? Refusal of the front office to utilize minor league talents? Is it team chemistry?
If you ask me its a culmination of all the above, but the team's statistics don't lie. We are almost, if not dead last in batting average with runners on base. There's no "clutch" if you will, with the exception of Adrian González. Now, how do you remedy this problem? Since the front office refuses to call-up fresh faces from our farm system, Donnie is forced to throw out these questionable lineups in which we have our back-up catcher as the DH (designated hitter)..... that's not okay. I know last night he hit a homerun, but we all know that performance and production is nowhere near sustainable. To add to Mattingly's "power outage" problem is the short staffed starting rotation. Assuming Greinke continues to build on his recent outings and he returns to vintage Greinke form, we have 3 capable starters, which would be good enough for most teams in most divisions, but not for the NL West where pitching is the dominant/driving force. We need one more reliable arm that we can depend on to earn more wins than losses and keep us in games. A guy that at minimum will go out and give us a quality start (which is defined by 6 complete innings of work, giving up 3 earned runs or fewer). Don't even get me started on our bullpen; to put it bluntly, its a train wreck of a mess right now. I will say though, if we are still in contention by the All-Star break, the pen can be revamped through trades and the waiver wire.
There are just too many negatives at this point for our beloved Dodgers to just all of the sudden turn it around. Its not like we are having a streak of bad luck, frankly, our guys are just playing below expectations and its been going on for a while. If they want to turn it around, they need a new form of motivation, a fresh outlook on the season, and most of all that cut-throat attitude where winning is valued above all else. There's no room for egos when your team is in the cellar, and if they can't check that elitist attitude before they step onto the diamond, I'm afraid its going to be a very long season.
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