The Los Angeles Dodgers got a nibble after putting oft-injured, high-priced slugger Manny Ramirez on waivers earlier in the week. The Chicago White Sox were rewarded the rights to the mercurial left fielder on Friday. The White Sox and Dodgers have until 1:30 PM ET on Tuesday to work out a trade, pending Ramirez agreeing to waive his no-trade clause to go to Chicago.

If Ramirez were to resist a trade, there has been rumors that the Dodgers will keep Ramirez on the bench all season. That, of course, may hurt the Dodgers more so than Ramirez since the Dodgers are just five games back in the Wild Card and are trying to make a late-season run and the fact that three teams(all of which contenders, mind you) showed interest in Ramirez despite his down year may give Man-Ram enough confidence that he can lock down a contract when he hits free agency at the end of the year. Ramirez has sat out the last three games, but manager Joe Torre denies it has anything to do with L.A. and Chicago working out a trade for their star left fielder.

The Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays also put in claims, but the White Sox inevitably won out. Chicago was rumored to have been asking about Manny during the trading deadline last month and GM Ken Williams has a reputation for being aggressive when it comes to improving his team. Chicago is 4.5 games back of Minnesota in the AL Central and 9 games back in the AL Wild Card. Adding Ramirez, who is still a potent bat even in an off year like this one, makes the White Sox lineup potentially devastating with Manny being sandwiched in between sluggers Carlos Quentin(24 HRs, 80 RBI) and Paul Konerko(.319, 32 HR, 92 RBI).

Ramirez may not be the only Dodger on the next thing smoking out of town. Los Angeles placed recently-acquired pitcher Ted Lilly on waivers on Friday in an effort to save the team from paying any expiring contracts if L.A. does fall deeper out of the race. Teams have until Tuesday to put a claim in on Lilly, who is 8-8 with a 3.27 ERA this season.

Expect the Dodgers to wait until the last minute on both deals, as they are trying to keep their scant hopes at the playoffs alive. It’s unknown what the Dodgers would want back for Ramirez, other than mainly asking Chicago to pay most, if not all, of the $4.3 million left on his contract. So, keep an eye on the Dodgers in the standings these next few days. If they start to close in on the Wild Card by Tuesday, things may start to get interested. If they continue to disappoint like they have all season, let the fire sale begin.

The Los Angeles Dodgers welcomed back slugging left fielder Manny Ramirez yesterday from his third stint on the disabled list of the season. He went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in his return against the Dodgers as the former World Series MVP is still trying to shake off the rust from being out since late July(Ramirez also went 1-for-6 during his rehab stint).

The question being asked now, with Manny back and the Dodgers’ chances of making the playoffs pretty much dead, is how long the team will keep their mercurial left fielder in Dodger blue. Rumors and reports have surfaced for weeks leading up to Saturday’s activation that the Dodgers, like the Cubs did with first baseman Derrek Lee last week in their waiver trade with Atlanta, will waive Ramirez and hope to get something back for a once-dangerous slugger in the middle of his worst season as a pro. Ramirez is hitting .312 with a measly eight homers and 48 RBIs. He hasn’t had a hit since June 29th. Still, when motivated(and you’d like to think playing for a contender in a contract year would be enough motivation for Man-Ram), he’s still a potent bat in the postseason.

 A potential split would work out well for both sides. It would allow the Dodgers to find someone to pick up the tab on the last dollars remaining on the $18.9 million Ramirez was set to make this year, and it allows Manny to make one last run at a pay day by putting on a clinic for a team that’s actually playing for something. The Dodgers are 11 games back in the NL West. They’re done. They’re finished. They also four starter-quality outfielders(Ramirez, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and recently acquired Scott Podsednik). Why not cut their losses and see if they can get a few nibbles for Ramirez? Certainly, an AL team needing some pop at a DH spot could use Ramirez’s bat(cough…cough….Tampa Bay….cough cough), and you’d have to think the Dodgers wouldn’t be too stingy in their asking price at this point in the season. So, time will tell what happens with Manny and the Dodgers. All signs point to him spending September in a different uniform, but it’s hard to make that a guarantee given Ramirez’s reputation and the pathetic season he is currently having.

Some other Dodger notes:

*The Dodgers acquired catcher Rod Barajas from the New York Metstoday. WithRussell Martin’s corpse on the shelf for the remainder of the season witha bum hip, the Dodgers went to the scrap heap to bring in a 35-year old catcher hitting .225 with 12 home runs. Beyond his potent bat(sarcasm alert), Barajas also brings his keen eye at the plate(he’s drawn just eight walks) and his intimidating knack for freezing potential base-stealers(he’s thrown out four runners out of 27 this season).

*Vicente Padilla is headed to the DL once again with a bulging disk in his neck. Team doctors don’t think the neck injury is too severe and there’s a chance he’ll only miss a start or two. Reliever Travis Schlichting will fill Padilla’s roster spot and Padilla’s spot in the rotation will be manned by Carlos Monasterios.

*One storyline that is expected to pick up some steam(besides, obviously, Manny’s potential departure) will be Dodgers manager Joe Torre’s future. Tonight, the Cubs will bid adieu to manager Lou Pinella, who is retiring early to be with his sick mother. Why is that important to Torre? Well, because Torre has been rumored to be Pinella’s replacement for quite some time now and, while Pinella’sretirement wasn’t a surprise, now that Sweet Lou is out of the picture and the Dodgers’ season is over, all the focus will now turn to whether Joe’s staying in L.A. to try to make a run with the post-Manny Dodgers or taking his talents to the Windy City. Stay tuned.

In a continuous effort to throw mental darts at the board and hoping something sticks and saves what has been a disappointing season thus far, Dodgers manager Joe Torre pulled All-Star closer Jonathan Broxton from the 9th inning role on Friday. Torre says the move is only temporary until Broxton regains the confidence he has seemed to have lost since the All-Star break.

After shutting the door on the American League All-Stars in Anaheim a month ago, Broxton has gone on to blow three of his five save chances, most notably a four-run lead against the Phillies on Thursday night. In the second half, Broxton has allowed 10 runs on nine hits in a little over eight innings with 11 walks in just eight appearances. His ERA in the second half is a putrid 10.13.

The leading candidate to fill in for Broxton is fellow All-Star reliever Hong-Chih Kuo, who locked down the save in a 2-1 win against the Braves last night(his fourth of the season). However, Kuo has a long history of elbow troubles and given Torre’s reputation to abuse relievers like Jamarcus Russell abuses cough syrup, the more likely scenario is a closer-by-committee situation with Kuo, recently-acquired Octavio Dotel and rookie Kenley Jensen each taking turns shutting the door.

While the “Who’s closing tonight?” question is something a team that was hoping to be sitting atop the NL West by this time can ill-afford to ask, Torre is confident that Broxton will win back the closer’s job quick enough to avoid this becoming a detrimental quagmire. “We definitely want him to get [the role] back, ” said Torre. “He was the All-Star closer, and he is the reason the National League will have home-field advantage for the World Series. But the game can beat you up a little bit. You just have to be able to fight back. He is capable of that, and he will do that.”

The Dodgers currently sit nine games out of first in the NL West and 6.5 out of the Wild Card. Certainly, crazier comebacks have happened to give the Dodgers hope that they can still make a run at the postseason but their play since the All-Star break makes that “hope” very bleak. The team will be without its most dangerous bat(Manny Ramirez) for most of this month as well as its top leadoff man and speed demon(Rafael Furcal) for the next couple of weeks. Now, it has to deal with its All-Star closer regaining his mojo and the inevitable questions about their Hall of Fame manager’s future as the team’s postseason hopes become more and more grim.

This isn’t the way Joe Torre would have liked to go out, but then again, this is why you play the games. You never know what may happen.

The Los Angeles Dodgers combined back-to-back wins(actually, it’s back-to-back-to-back wins, but who’s counting?) with back-to-back key injuries. First, there was catcher Russell Martin, who was placed on the 15-day DL on Tuesday with a hip injury. Sources are putting Martin on the shelf for at least three weeks while team doctors determine whether the former All-Star needs surgery. The loss of Martin isn’t particularly crucial, since he was struggling to hit better than .248 all season and has only five homers with 26 RBI.

 Joining Martin on the DL will be a familiar face: Shortstop Rafael Furcal. Furcal was placed on the 15-day DL, retroactive to August 3rd, with a back injury today. Furcal’s bat, and even more so his speed, will be largely missed in the increasingly depleted Dodger lineup. Furcal was hitting .316 with eight homers, 39 RBI and 18 stolen bases despite missing nearly all of May with a hamstring issue. This will be Furcal’s second DL stint this season.

Speaking of frequent DL inhabitants, the team is still waiting for the return of  slugging left fielder Manny Ramirez. Ramirez is nursing a calf injury since July 21st and the team was hopeful he’d be back by early August. Depending on how his workouts go over the next week in Arizona, Man-Ram will either be returning to the lineup sometime in the middle of the month or, more likely, the end of August.

The absence of Ramirez, Furcal and Martin haven’t kept the Dodgers from winning three straight. After taking two of three from the Nationals, the Dodgers went into “The City of Brotherly Love” and handed the Phillies a 15-9 shellacking last night. Tonight is the second game of the three-game series and the pitching matchup calls for Chad Billingsley vs. recently-acquired Phils hurler Roy Oswalt. Oswalt is still searching for his first win in a Phillies uniform after coming over in a four-player trade on July 31st. He’s 6-13 with a 3.50 ERA. Billingsley, on the other hand, is 9-6 with a 3.82 ERA but is coming off a start last week against the Padres where he gave up three in seven innings in a 5-0 loss to division-leading San Diego. In tomorrow’s finale, the Dodgers will trot out ace Clayton Kershaw against Joe Blanton.

After the Dodgers finish up in Philly, they travel to the A-T-L for a four-game series with the NL East-leading Braves. The Dodgers could use a good showing after dropping the ball against San Diego and San Francisco last week. They currently sit seven games out of the first-place Padres in the NL West, yet only 4.5 back in the NL Wild Card, which has three teams tied for the lead as well as the slumping Phils a game ahead of L.A.

With 2010′s “Big Six” free agents(LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Joe Johnson, Carlos Boozer) off the market and disgruntled Hornets point guard Chris Paul staying in New Orleans for the time being, there isn’t much left for teams looking to make a push to the playoffs. Your top three free agents as it stands are Shaquille O’Neal, Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson…..which would be great, if it was 2002.

However, there is a big name that can be had if a team is desperate enough to roll the dice. It is the name that has been at the forefront of trade rumors since New Year’s.

That name is Gilbert Arenas, the troubled guard of the Washington Wizards. There are plenty of reasons to avoid “Agent Zero” like Albert Haynesworth avoids the treadmill. For one, there’s the four years remaining on the six-year, $111 million contract he signed in 2008. There’s his troublesome knees that caused to play in only 15 games in two seasons from 2007-2009. Then, there’s the biggest Arenas red flag, which is the fact that he’ll be re-entering the NBA after a 50-game suspension for bringing guns into an NBA locker room. Understandably, a guy with that kind of black cloud hanging over him is a tough sell for teams trying to sell tickets. After all, a recent poll voted Arenas one of the most disliked people in all of sports. Needless to say, that kind of standing doesn’t put butts in seats.

Still, there’s no denying Arenas’ value ON the court. In 32 games last season(the most he’d played in nearly three years), Arenas was averaging 22.6 points per game as well as 7.2 assists per game. He was shooting 41% from the field and 34% from three. Less than a month before his suspension, Arenas went on a hot streak where he dropped a triple double on Indiana and then scored 45 points on Golden State a few days later. Does he have the tendency to be careless with the ball? Sure, but if you’re a team with a need at point guard, who are you going to find that doesn’t have that stigma attached to them.

On top of that, the Wizards’ asking price isn’t expected to be too high(or, at least, it shouldn’t be, since it would be wishful thinking on the part of GM Ernie Grunfeld to think he can get a king’s ransom for a shoot-first point guard who has played 47 games in three years and hasn’t played a full season since 2002 with Golden State). Scouring the league, I came up with the three best teams for the Wizards to consider opening Arenas trade talks with:

1. New York Knicks: They built up the expectations of their fans for two years with the hopes that the summer of 2010 was going to be their coming out party. Instead, they went one-for-six in their pursuit of the “Big Six”, locking down a former pupil of coach Mike D’Antoni in center Amar’e Stoudemire. All of the good from that move was nullified by trading All-Star forward David Lee for promising forward Anthony Randolph and a couple expiring contracts. Now, the Knicks are trying to sell fans on the possibility of forming their own “Big Three” by bringing in Nuggets small forward Carmelo Anthony(a free agent next year) and either Spurs point guard Tony Parker(also a free agent next year) or by stealing Paul from the Hornets.

Meanwhile, the Garden will be packed with fans who will be forced to watch the point guard pu-pu platter of Raymond Felton and Toney Douglas. Why not make the move now for Arenas? He’s the type of scoring point guard with a slight bit of passing flair that could excel in D’Antoni’s offense, and the Wizards would probably only want Eddy Curry’s expiring contract(since the main priority for Washington is saving money) and versatile forward Wilson Chandler(who is a restricted free agent next year and has been on the trade block all summer). Why continue to con fans with false hopes and dreams? New Yorkers love big names and Arenas still is one.

2. Cleveland Cavaliers: At this point, who is bringing Cavs fans to the Q now that LeBron is gone? Mo Williams? Anderson Varajao? Antawn Jamison? Perhaps Williams and Arenas wouldn’t be a good fit in the same backcourt since their both shoot-first combo guards who operate best with the ball in their hands, but Williams can opt out at the end of the year and he’d be a fool to stay on a sinking ship in Cleveland. With LeBron, Shaq, Big Z and now Delonte West gone, the Cavs can accommodate the $80 million left on Arenas’ deal, plus he could be insurance for if and when Mo skips town. The Cavs can’t really offer much beyond Anthony Parker’s expiring contract and maybe a couple of the picks Cleveland got from Miami in the LeBron “trade”, but the Wizards should just be elated to get rid of Arenas and the Cavs should roll the dice on being able to bring in a 3-time All-Star on the cheap.

3. Indiana Pacers: They’ve been looking for a point guard for years and even auctioned the 10th pick in this past June’s NBA Draft in an attempt to secure one. They have the expiring contracts of Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Troy Murphy to play with(though I can’t see the Pacers offering BOTH of them for Arenas). Plus, an Arenas-Granger-Hansbrough-Hibbert wouldn’t be too bad of nucleus, would it? For the Wizards, taking back Murphy will give them a solid rebounding forward that can stretch the floor with his ability to shoot. In Dunleavy, they get a seasoned shooter who can fill it up when he’s healthy(which has been Dunleavy’s issue for a while now). As for Arenas, you’d have to be a real knucklehead to get into trouble in Indiana. Granted, Stephen Jackson, Jamal Tinsley and Jermaine O’Neal managed to do it, but I would think that would be more a cautionary tale for Arenas than a reason to steer clear of Hoosierland.

No matter how this thing shakes out, the Wizards have the luxury of having a prized trading chip. With stars wanting to align in big markets nowadays, there may be a team that might want to make Arenas as a part of a tandem. Yes, Arenas is a bit of a knucklehead and his quirks aren’t for every body, but people crazier than Arenas have been given numerous chances(looking at you, Stephon Marbury!), so why not roll the dice on a 28-year old scoring machine looking for a fresh start?

The MLB trading deadline has officially passed and the Los Angeles Dodgers, much to the surprise of no one, were aggressive in adding a few more pieces to a team that is poised to make another late run(as soon as they stop going on losing streaks to division rivals).

After acquiring speedy outfielder Scott Podsednik earlier in the week, the Dodgers made two more moves today. First, they received inconsistent strikeout machine Ted Lilly as well as second baseman Ryan Theriot from the Cubs in exchange for infielder Blake DeWitt and pitching prospects Brett Wallach and Kyle Smit. Lilly is 3-8 so far this season but people in the “Glass Half Full” department attribute that to Lilly getting the second-worst run support of any starting pitcher in the majors(3.77 runs per nine innings, second only to former Astro/current Phillie Roy Oswalt). As for Theriot, he’s hitting .281, which is better than DeWitt’s .270 but trails DeWitt in on-base percentage(.352 to .320) and slugging percentage(.371 to .327). Theroit isn’t much of a power hitter nor much of a speedster, so his role on the team will be to avoid being the quintessential “easy out” in this Dodgers lineup. Lilly more than likely will take over the fifth spot, that was manned last night by reliever Carlos Monasterios. Monasterios gave up four runs on seven hits in five innings in L.A.’s 6-5 loss to Tim Lincecum and the Giants last night. The loss was the Dodgers’ third straight.

The other move of note saw the Dodgers make a move to improve their troubled bullpen by acquiring Pirates closer Octavio Dotel from Pittsburgh for pitcher James McDonald and minor league outfielder Andrew Lambo. Dotel was 2-2 with 21 saves, 48 K’s and a 4.28 ERA as the ninth inning man for the lowly Pirates. When healthy, he’s one of the better set-up men in the game and he is sure to be the next in line to be overused by manager Joe Torre. Lambo was once considered Los Angeles’ top hitting prospect but was suspended for 50 games this year for his second drug of abuse violation in his short career. Lambo is still only 22 and, on a team going nowhere anytime soon like the Pirates, he may turn out to be intriguing players for the Bucs down the road. The same can be said for McDonald, who was never good enough to make the rotation but was impressive in the minors. He has a solid mid-90′s fastball that he mixes in with a decent curve and changeup. Again, on a team like the Pirates, a 25-year old prospect like McDonald has a better chance of emerging than he would on a contender like L.A.

The biggest trade news involving the Dodgers may be the one they didn’t make. Reports circulated all through the last couple of days that the Dodgers were receiving calls about struggling, high-priced outfielder Manny Ramirez. The most “serious” of offers(and I use that term loosely) came from the Chicago White Sox, who reportedly offered to take Ramirez off of the Dodgers’ hands if L.A. was willing to take nobody in return and pay all but $1 million of the $6.7 million left on Man-Ram’s contract. The Dodgers wisely said no but countered with a proposal to send Manny to Chi-town in exchange for promising Cuban third baseman Dayan Viciedo, which the White Sox turned down. The Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Angels and even the New York Yankees(who perhaps made the biggest splashes by acquiring slugging first baseman Lance Berkman from Houston and outfielder Austin Kearns from Cleveland in the last 24 hours) also reportedly inquired about Ramirez but balked at the Dodgers’ asking price.

With the deadline over, the question remains: Did the Dodgers do enough. The addition of Dotel to the bottom of a bullpen that already has All-Stars Hong-Chih Kuo and Jonathan Broxton strengthens a problem area and Lilly gives the team a more proven hurler at the back end of the rotation, but look at the moves made by some of the other teams in the National League. The Padres swung a deal for former MVP Miguel Tejada from Baltimore as well as slugging outfielder Ryan Ludwick. The Giants came thisclose  to acquiring MLB home run leader Jose Bautista(word is, that deal may still get done through a waiver trade, which would be HUGE for San Francisco). The Cardinals, a team that could stand in L.A.’s way of the Wild Card if they can’t topple the Reds in the Central, got a solid fourth starter to add to their already great rotation in the Indians’ Jake Westbrook. The Braves, arguably the best team in the NL and a team the Dodgers would no doubt have to go through if they make it to the postseason, brought back fire-balling reliever Kyle Farnsworth as well as oft-injured by hard-hitting outfielder Rick Ankiel. The Dodgers’ moves were subtle and they filled needs for a team that didn’t have too many, but with so many of the teams ahead of the Dodgers making much bigger splashes in the last few days and the Dodgers already in a pretty deep hole as it is, you have to wonder if all this moving and shaking by L.A. was for naught.

We all knew the Dodgers were going to pull the trigger on a trade sometime this week before Saturday’s deadline. It just seemed like that it would be a pitcher heading to L.A. given the team’s struggles in the rotation and the bullpen.

Instead, the Dodgers traded two prospects to Kansas City for speedy outfielder Scott Podsednik. The 34-year old was hitting .309 with 5 home runs, 44 RBI and 31 stolen bases in 96 games with the Royals this season. In ’09, Podsednik hit .304 with 7 homers, 48 RBIs and 30 stolen bases as a member of the Chicago White Sox. Podsednik will obviously tons of playing time with outfielders Manny Ramirez and Reed Johnson on the DL. He brings a speed element that had been missing in the Dodger lineup, aside from oft-injured shortstop Rafael Furcal. The Dodgers will pick up the $650,000 left on the contract for Podsednik, who got the start in center tonight in place of Matt Kemp.

Heading to Kansas City is top catching prospect Lucas May as well as Class A pitcher Elisaul Pimental. The 25-year old May was hitting .296 with 11 home runs and 45 RBIs for Triple-A Albequerque so far this season. The fact that the Dodgers parted with May for a journeyman rent-a-player like Podsednik is somewhat surprising, given the fact that current catcher Russell Martin is a shell of the player that was last seen in the All-Star Game in 2008. Martin is due $5.05 million next season, but seems to be a long shot to stick with the team given the erosion of his numbers over the last couple of seasons.

As for Pimentel, he was 9-3 with a 3.49 ERA in 17 appearances(16 of them starts) this season with low Class A Great Lakes. Pimentel is only 22 and, on a team that isn’t exactly set on starting pitching, could have been a decent middle-of-the-rotation starter down the road. However, Colletti has made it clear this is a win-now season for the Dodgers and L.A. could ill-afford to wait for Pimentel to be ready for the big leagues. “We were somewhat high on him, but he was still in A-ball.” Colletti said.

To make room for Podsednik, the team will either option outfielder Xavier Paul or finally cut ties with ancient backup outfielder Garrett Anderson. The Dodgers aren’t finished making moves though. With the rotation still in disarray and having missed out on top aces Roy Oswalt and Cliff Lee, the Dodgers reportedly have set their sights on a couple of other mid-tier starters, most notably the Cubs’ Ted Lilly. Lilly is 3-8 with a 3.69 ERA and 89 strikeouts so far with Chicago, but could be a decent on a team not quite as downtrodden as the Cubs. Another name that has come up as a potential Dodger target is Pittsburgh’s Paul Maholm(6-9, 4.52 ERA, 62 K’s).

The Podsednik trade the others that may follow aren’t the big splash that the Manny Ramirez deal was a couple years ago, but with the Dodgers not really willing to both add payroll or deal any big names from their plentiful farm system(as well as the dearth in legit midseason talent beyond Oswalt and Lee), it might turn out to be one of the savviest moves of the season. Podsednik may not rake like L.A.’s Big Three in the outfield, but he’s a career .280 hitter who knows how to steal a bag or two.

The Dodgers are still six games back in the West after last night’s loss to San Diego, but sit just three games back in the Wild Card. While the West can still be won with a hot streak over the next couple of weeks, all is not lost for L.A. if they can’t topple the Pods for the division. If Andre Ethier ever gets back to his early-May form prior to the hand injury and Ramirez can stay off the disabled list, the Dodgers become a very dangerous Wild Card team if they can steal that spot away from Philadelphia and San Francisco.

The Los Angeles Dodgers managed to outlast the New York Mets tonight in a 13-inning battle to take two of the first three of a four-game series. That’s the good news.

Here’s the bad news. The Dodgers needed every member of their beleaguered bullpen to keep New York at bat and still only won after a James Loney walk-off homer in the games final stanza. Even worse, tonight’s victory was only the team’s third win since coming back from the All-Star break. The Dodgers sit third in the NL West, three games behind San Francisco and six games behind San Diego.

Here’s where things get interesting. After tomorrow’s series finale that will see struggling ace Clayton Kershaw square off with red-hot journeyman R.A. Dickey, the Dodgers go on a 10-game run that will have them face the Pods seven times(three at Petco after the Mets series and four at home to close out the two-week divisional stretch) and the Giants three times(at Pac Bell, sandwiched in between the two Padres series and part of a seven-game road trip). If the Dodgers are going to make a second-half run at the division, this is their chance to do it. According to the projected pitching matchups, the Dodgers would avoid top Padres hurler Mat Latos(who is 11-4 after making his return from the DL tonight with a dominating performance against the Pirates) in the first clash with San Diego, but would have to face two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum in the opener against the Giants. The Giants have won both meetings with “The Freak” on the mound, and the fact that the Dodgers would, theoretically, be trotting out reliever Carlos Monasterios to oppose the Giants All-Star pitcher makes a third win more probable for San Francisco.

On top of that, the Dodgers will have to endure the 10-game slate without slugging left fielder Manny Ramirez. Ramirez was placed on the disabled list for the third time this season, this time for an injury to his calf. The injury is expected to keep Man-Ram out of the lineup for three weeks. Also occurring during this stretch will be the much-ballyhooed trading deadline. While an infusion of healthy bats would certianly help L.A., the Dodgers’ main concern has to be shoring up the bullpen. Despite notching the W tonight, reliever George Sherrill continues to be an abomination(as seen by him blowing a win last Sunday against the Giants, after the controversial upheaval of closer Jonathan Broxton). The Dodgers don’t have much relief beyond Broxton and fellow All-Star Hong Chih-Kuo. Injuries have forced Monasterios, who is more suited for a relief role, into the rotation and the team hasn’t gotten much from former starting pitcher Russ Ortiz or guys like Ramon Troncoso and Charlie Haegar.

From all the reports that have surfaced, the poor performance has not gone unnoticed by GM Ned Colletti. However, finding midseason relief is troublesome for almost any team, not just the Dodgers, as quality late-inning guys are pretty scarce and, thus, teams are a bit reluctant to part with them. Regardless, Colletti needs to move swiftly in shoring up the bullpen. If the Dodgers can pull their late-season magic over these next few weeks like they have so many times in past seasons, it will get them out of the hole they put themselves in after losing six straight to start the second half. After this rough stretch, the Dodgers get to feast on the feisty-yet-still-inferior Washington Nationals.

Hopefully, by then, they will be looking down on the Padres and Giants, instead of trying to climb back up in the division.

The second half hasn’t been very friendly to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Following last night’s loss to San Francisco, the Dodgers haven’t won one game since the All-Star break and are on a five-game losing streak. The downward spiral started in St. Louis, where the Cardinals took the Dodgers to the woodshed for four straight games, the most heartbreaking being yet another Sunday night meltdown by closer Jonathan Broxton leading to a 9th inning rally for Tony LaRussa’s boys.

More damaging than the continued brain farts by their closer or even the losing streak is that the Dodgers, who have spent the entire season riddled with injuries, saw left fielder Manny Ramirez go down yet again as well as first baseman James Loney. Loney returned to the lineup last night after missing a couple games with a tender hamstring. Ramirez, meanwhile, looks destined for his third trip to the disabled list this season following an injury to his calf. Ramirez will undergo a second MRI today to determine the severity of his latest boo-boo. For those scoring at home, the Dodgers are paying $18.6 million to a man who has played in 61 of a possible 93 games and who is batting .317 with just eight homers and 49 RBI. By comparison, Giants rookie catcher Buster Posey has went yard eight times as well and has 29 RBIs and he’s only played in 43 games this season since being called up in late May.

Ramirez has been the poster child for this team’s disappointing 2010 campaign thus far. A team that, at times, looked like a World Series dark horse is now in fourth place in the NL West and six games back of first-place San Diego. Desperate times may call for desperate measures. Obviously, nobody is crazy enough to take the final year of Ramirez’s contract in a trade given his lack of production and his girlish unwillingness to play through pain. However, there may be other assets. GM Ned Colletti may be able to talk someone into taking Russell Martin’s corpse off his hands. Another big name who the Dodgers should consider dealing? Centerfielder Matt Kemp. Kemp has been a bit of a disappointment this year but, unlike guys like Ramirez and Andre Ethier, he can’t place the blame on an injury. With the July 31 deadline steadily approaching and the Dodgers looking more and more like a team that will spend October on the outside looking in at the playoffs, the time might be now to cash in on its assets. The theory of going for a guy like Roy Oswalt and loading up for a second-half stretch run now seems far-fetched. This team is every bit as lackluster as their horrid April suggest. The pitching, once solid from May-July, is now average at best. Broxton is no longer a lock in the 9th inning and a lineup that seemed built to light up scoreboards now can’t manufacture runs.

It might be time for reality to set in for Colletti and manager Joe Torre. Tonight, we will be treated to a pitcher’s duel between two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum and Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw is coming off getting completely outperformed by another former Cy Young winner, Chris Carpenter, on Thursday. Lincecum has been pitching better lately after having control issues early on. That doesn’t bode well for Los Angeles. A loss here and it would take a drastic change in the team’s current motivation to stand a chance at the playoffs. The lineup has been battered and disappointing, led by Ramirez, who has been harder to watch than “The T.O. Show” in his contract year. Right now, Shaq is a better bet to be in L.A. next season than Manny Ramirez.

These next two weeks will be telling of this Dodgers team. If the skid continues, expect them to be sellers at the deadline. If things start to heat up, don’t put it behind Colletti(who raised eyebrows by dealing for Ramirez a couple years ago) to start getting aggressive with trying to win this year. Right now, the key is health and only time will tell where this Dodgers team is headed.

Last night was the start of the second half for Major League Baseball. Here’s an assessment of how the Dodgers fared before the All-Star Break.

Rotation: The Dodgers started out this season still waiting for progress from their two young studs at the front of the rotation, Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley. All through April, veteran Hiroki Kuroda was the team’s best pitcher. Then, gopher ball expert Vicente Padilla went on the DL and the rotation started to get into the swing of things. Padilla’s absence opened the door for rookie John Ely, who was stellar in his first few starts but has hit the wall as of late. Meanwhile, Kershaw has been lights out. Kershaw currently sits at 9-5 with 129 strikeouts(tied for fourth best in the majors) and a 3.16 ERA. Billingsley has been on and off. He struggled early on but hit his stride up until going on the DL last month with a groin injury. He’s 7-4 with 89 K’s and a 4.14 ERA. Ely, Kuroda and Padilla have been decent over the last couple of weeks. Padilla flirted with a no-no on the final day of the season’s first half, which shows he may be fully back after sitting most of the first half on the shelf. Still, three of the team’s starting five have ERAs above four and Kuroda is nearing that mark at 3.89. Both Kuroda and Ely have seven losses. The team ranks 16th in the majors in ERA(although they are 2nd in strikeouts). This isn’t the type of rotation you expect from a team led by Joe Torre, who had such great pitching when he was with the Yankees. Don’t think Torre and GM Ned Colletti don’t know that. With Cliff Lee off the market after his trade to Texas, the Dodgers have to switch their focus to Astros hurler Roy Oswalt(who has been on the block for weeks). Oswalt doesn’t make the Dodgers exponentially better, but he gives them a proven arm and allows them to either move Ely to the bullpen or send him down to the minors for more seasoning(assuming he isn’t involved in an Oswalt trade).

Grade: C+

Lineup: The Dodgers, collectively, are hitting .267. They are 23rd in the majors in home runs with 70. This isn’t the type of production that should be expected from a lineup that has slugging outfielders Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp and Manny Ramirez in the middle of it and speedster Rafael Furcal at the top. Now, most of L.A.’s lack of production can be blamed on injuries. Furcal spent a few weeks on the D.L. with a hammy issue. Manny has been on the DL twice. Ethier broke his pinkie finger and hasn’t been right since he came off the DL. Catcher Russell Martin started the season on the shelf and has been a corpse since he came back. Then, there’s Matt Kemp. Kemp hasn’t spent any time on the DL, but at times, he looks like he’s spending time in La La Land. Kemp was an MVP dark horse in spring training, coming off his solid ’09 season(.297, 26 HR, 101 RBI, 94 R, 34 SB). Instead, Kemp is hitting .258 with a team-leading 16 HR and 51 RBI. He also had his heart openly questioned by Colletti back in May. For a guy looking for a new contract, Kemp sure isn’t playing like someone who is trying to get paid. The team’s unsung hero in the lineup has been first baseman James Loney. Loney’s hitting .306 with 6 homers and a team-leading 63 RBI. It seems unlikely the Dodgers will add another bat before the deadline since the source of their issues has been getting their guys either motivated or keeping them healthy. Still, a lineup with this much talent on paper should be putting bat to ball a lot more often than the numbers suggest.

Grade: C

Bullpen: Like the rest of his Dodger teammates, closer Jonathan Broxton had a shaky April. He finished the season’s opening month with just one save. Then, May came along and Broxton went into door-slamming mode, notching 12 saves and striking out 21 in 14.2 innings of work. June was a bit slow for Broxton, as he only shut the door three times(the same amount he currently has midway into July). Still, his 2.11 ERA, 19 saves and 51 K’s were good enough to get him to the All-Star Game. Joining him in St. Louis was last-minute injury replacement Hong-Chih Kuo. Kuo has a sick 0.99 ERA as the Dodgers’ chief set-up man, a WHIP of 0.77 and has struck out 36 hitters in 27.1 innings. The only real blemish in what has been a stellar bullpen has been former O’s closer George Sherrill. Sherrill is 0-1 with a 7.08 ERA so far and has spent some time, like many Dodgers, on the DL. Fellow relievers Charlie Haegar and Ramon Troncoso have been terrible as well. All in all, however, the bullpen has been solid.

Grade: B+

Second Half Outlook: The Dodgers are 49-40 so far after last night’s drubbing at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals. They sit in 3rd place in the NL West but are just 2.5 games back of the first place San Diego Padres. History has told us that young teams like the Pods hit the wall in the second half and that the Dodgers, who have been champions of the second half the last few years, will inevitably swoop in and take the division. In all starts with health, though. With Manny officially back, the lineup is finally at full strength. Ethier needs to go back to his April/May form when he was the NL’s top hitter. Kemp needs to shake off the doldrums and Manny needs to be more Manny on the field than off it. As for pitching, there’s no down side for the team going hard after Roy Oswalt. A 1-2-3 of Oswalt-Kershaw-Billingsley would be more than enough to take this division and Oswalt would give the Dodgers an innings eater who could go deep into games and give the stellar bullpen a rest. July thru September have always been the Dodgers time to shine. I expect this team to come out guns blazing and have the division in their possession by early August. If not, this team will end the season as the biggest disappointment in all of baseball.