Decisions, Decisions...Dodgers Must Make Some Decisions

The L.A. Times reports here that the Dodgers haven't decided who will replace Brett Tomko in their starting rotation. Hong-Chi Kuo didn't do himself any favors by giving up 5 in 4 2/3. Little also mentions D.J. Houlton, the former rule 5 pick, as a candidate. Boo! This may be unfair since I am not familiar with the '07 D.J. edition, but I saw the '06 D.J. more times than I'd have liked to in action at Cashman Field and he didn't look good at all. Imagine Eric Stults type stuff but getting hit all over the place. Little goes on to call Billingsley as an, "innings-eater". Well, Grady, I've known some innings eaters in my day. Jeff Weaver was an innings eater. Heck, Tomko fits that description quite well also. But Billingsley is not an innings eater. The mention of Weaver reminds me to mention a great article by LAWeekly about Scott Boras. If you dislike him, read the article. If you like him, read the article. If you've never heard of him, definitely read the article. I think the author was remiss in notifying his audience that Jeff Weaver is performing so badly after his jackpot one year deal that he may get the Sidney Ponson treatment soon. It is a long, but great read.

Fan to L.A. organization: Stop toying with the kid and ride him out as your starter for a season. He is going to be inconsistent, but what can you do? If you keep jerking him around he may never reach his talent ceiling as a frontline starter. You have to take the bad with the good in terms of a young player's development and sometimes that means some losses on the big club because Chad had to learn something the hard way that day.

My suggestions for the starting pitching and bullpen? Glad you asked. Billingsley would take the 4'th rotation spot. Kuo would take the 5'th starting slot. When/if Schmidt comes back Billingsley becomes the 5'th starter and Kuo goes back to Vegas. So this is how the rotation would look:

Penny
Lowe
Wolf
Billingsley
Kuo

Hendrickson becomes my "innings-eater" in long relief. Tomko I'd leave stretched out to pitch 2-3 innings or so at a time, but he'd be used in garbage time primarily. This applies even more so to Seanez. I would only put him into a game where the blue is way behind with no signs of a comeback. Brazoban would only be used in low pressure situations as well until his command improves. Beimel stays a situational lefty that occasionally pitches an inning in a close game. Broxton and Saito remain the setup and closer guys respectively. So the bullpen looks like this

Hendrickson LRP
Tomko LRP/MRP
Beimel LOOGY/MRP
Seanez MRP
Broxton SU
Saito CL

But the Dodgers need another arm until Tsao comes off the DL because these guys are showing wear. What sucks is nobody on the 40 man roster really fits the bill for a one inning reliever that aren't themselves already on the DL. My non-40 man roster pick would be Jonathan Meloan. He has stood out since late last season and is also doing o.k. this year. To make room I'd ditch Eric Hull off the 40-man roster, let him clear waivers and then re-assign him to Vegas. In the Alternative I'd call up Hull himself and hope for the best against MLB hitters, allowing Meloan to stay off the 40-man roster and saving an option, then sending down Hull as soon as Tsao is ready to be activated. I don't imagine the Hull experiment working but ya never know.

Geesh! This wouldn't be so complicated if the offense could score 10 runs every night like yesterday! Not much to comment on that game except to say easy win and we need more of those. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Moving up to a game ahead of the Padres is always a good thing. Not so good is that Arizona seems to have woken up and they are nipping at the Dodgers heels at a 1/2 game back. Thank goodness we're playing D.C.! Even better, we get the Pirates next!

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