Last year the LA Dodgers looked like a team that was just a few pieces away from being a World Series contender. Right now, the Dodgers look like their missing the entire puzzle. The Dodgers currently sit in last place of one of the more relatively weak divisions in baseball. Dodger betting fans are feeling the blues as the Dodgers have only won three of their last ten games and have lost two straight.
The reasons for the Dodgers slow start are evident. It isn’t like the team is suffering from a power outage. While the team’s batting average is tops in the show at .280 and the Dodgers are middle of the pack in homeruns. Injuries to Manny Ramirez certainly hurt the power surge but other players need to step up, namely, Garret Anderson. Garret Anderson seems to be battling Father Time at age 38, and up until last their last game, he was mired in a 0 for 17 hitting slump with a batting average of just .159. At this stage in his career, he’s a slow starter, he started out slow with Atlanta last year only to finish up strong, the Dodger are certainly hoping the same will hold true this season. The rest of the Dodger sluggers including James Loney, Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, and Casey Blake who have already been carrying the lion’s share of the scoring load will have to find a way to be even more productive and Russel Martin’s bat needs to wake up.
It’s the Dodgers pitching that has hurt them the most. If you’re betting on the Dodgers you can be sure that the other team is going to put up a lot of runs when Billingsley or Haeger are on the hill. Between those two starting pitchers, opponents are generating an earned run average of almost twelve runs. With the exception of Kuroda, the other Dodger starters haven’t faired much better. Kershaw might as well be pitching for the other teams, he’s walked 24 batters in three starts, that’s an average of 8 base runners per start, and that’s just not going to get the job done.
Like I said before, the National League West isn’t the strongest division and with the roster the Dodgers put out there every night, you have to expect things to turn around for that team sooner or later. Joe Torre does have his work cut out for him, but he’s a proven winner and he should be able to get this team firing on all cylinders as the season progresses. I know I’ll watching and waiting for signs of a Dodger turn around because if this team can get hot, and get the starting pitching on track, with the bats they have in the lineup, the matchups in their division make them great to bet on.