The gray days of me.

I don't know who this man is, but I Googled the word "pathetic" and this Forkush clone came up on the screen. It seemed appropos, what with my lifes situation and all. It's a good life, uh huh.

The statistics of the Dodgers lately are mind numbing. The fact that they remain three and a half games back of the Snakes in a division that may be worse than some of the triple AAA affiliates is a tease. Matter of fact, the Blue have been spinning their wheels at 3 and 1/2 for what seems like a month now. D'Backs win, we win. D'Backs lose, we lose. It's a waltz, know what I mean jelly bean?

Here are some stats the chew your fat over: The Dodgers have scored one run or less in 10 of their last 17 games. They have scored one run or less in TWENTY of their games this season (they have played 65 total games), all of them losses. They are last in the NL in home runs, runs scored and hitting with runners in scoring position. Their pitching has been pretty damn good, not a whole lot of complaints there. But their team hitting is unwatchable.

As a fan and analyst of the game of Baseball itself, of course I attempt to "figure out" the problem. That could be an oxymoron as far as Baseball is concerned, "figuring out" the game and a teams woes. What I came up with today may change tomorrow, but here it is.

The Dodgers have a history of signing veteran players realatively late in their careers. They hardly ever give mad money to veterans in their primes. This means that they tend to be more injury prone, in general (Jeff "Iron Man" Kent notwithstanding). When a veteran player breaks, it is the job of the General Manager to go out and replace him with a veteran player of competency. This will insure that the younger players continue to have a solid veteran presence on the field. If you have this, the chances of playing "consistently" increase. The likelihood that a prolonged team slump will happen is logically less. This creates an atmosphere that the GM supports the team and the residual psychology of winning returns. Teams then can execute fundamental team offense because, and here is the key, THEY HAVE THE CONFIDENCE OF THE ORGANIZATION HAVING THEIR BACK. Hitting with RISP is a psychology of clutch. It is the ultimate in unselfishness offensively. Young players simply cannot be expected to overcome these things alone and without mentoring on the field.

The Dodgers do not care about winning.

PERIOD

The Dodgers history is to replace injured veterans with minor leaguers. They have done this throughout their history and the results are a basic inability to play solid fundamental consistent baseball.

The Angels are the only quality baseball team in Southern California at this time.

They may remain this way for the forseeable future.