No need to panic, but I'm still a Dodger fan #baseball

After tonights heartbreaker I'm sure there are many worried Dodger fans out there.  Settle down True Blue Believers, the team will be be fine.  The offense is in the dog days summer for sure, but slumps don't last forever.  I'd rather have the offense slump now than going in to October, no?

On the other hand I am worried about Broxton.  Is the toe still bothering him?  I understand blown saves happen and sometimes hitters just get the pitchers pitch and drive it, but that is not what happened tonight. Against Holliday when Ox needed a "finish him" pitch he threw a 94 mph shoulder high fastball.  Normally he would throw that thing 100-101 but it got the job done.  With Ludwick an 86 mph hanging slider resulted in a basehit to right-center. Finally with Rasmus I didn't see a pitch over 91 mph, and the fastball the rookie broke his bat on and tied the game with was 90 mph.  Stan Conti needs to get together with Broxton and figure out what is going on.  If he's still hurt we need to shut him down now so he's available in the playoffs.

Overall I think tonights game just reinforces the need of bullpen arms and not a starter.  Kershaw was brilliant tonight.

So lets get those bats going for Thursdays game and salvage one from St. Louis. This team has shown that even an 8 game losing streak isn't enough to keep them out of the playoffs, but how about we don't let it get that far?

Oh and maybe batting gloves aren't a bad idea Turtle, 0-7 with 2 Ks ouch. I still love you behind the plate. 

Are they for real now? #Dodgers

As I write this the Dodgers are playing their 89th game of the year.  Over half the season has been played and folks are still saying the Dodgers aren't for real.  The same sentiment is still being echoed, "It's just the National League West." or "That record doesn't matter, they play in the NL Worst (add misc. lols and rofls)."

We'll get started right there.  As play began today this is what the National League West looked like.

Team      W   L    GB
Dodgers 56  32    -
Giants    49  39    7.0
Rockies  47  41    9.0
Dbacks   38  51  18.5
Padres   36  52   20.0

The Giants are 7 games behind the Dodgers but would be leading or tied for the lead in ever division in baseball, save for the AL East.  The Rockies at the same time are only 2 games behind the Giants.  Yeah the Dbacks and Padres are showing how bad teams play baseball but what division has a good team in fourth and fifth place?

Lets look at a few of the stats. 

     Stat           MLB  NL
BA     0.275    3rd  1st
OBP   0.354   2nd  1st
SLG   0.413  15th  4th
OPS   0.776   9th   2nd
OPS+ 103      5th  2nd

What does this tell us?  The Dodgers can hit, they can take walks but they could use a little more power.  What a perfect time for Manny to come back and Matt Kemp to move up the batting order wouldn't you say?

Lets look at pitching next.

    Stat         MLB  NL
ERA    3.51   2nd  2nd
ERA+  117    2nd  2nd
WHIP 1.274  1st   1st

The pitching of this team has outperformed what many thought it would.  Chad Billingsley is showing the whole league what an Ace he can be.  At the same time Clayton Kershaw is trying to take that mantle from him.  Kershaw started out pretty rocky but his last few starts have been amazing.  When he gets his control working right the Billingsley/Kershaw 1-2 punch can match up with just about any rotation in the league. 

Right now the Dodgers have winning records against the NL West (30-12), NL East (12-6) and have broken even with the NL Central (5-5).  They posted a 9-9 record against the AL in interleague play this year and are looking to take a winning record to the NL Central as they start a four game series with the Houston Astros.  After playing 29 series' the Dodgers are 19-6-4.

So here's to hoping the Dodgers go another 24 games over .500 for the second half and cruise in to the playoffs.