Dodger Blue: Color? Mood? Both.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are in trouble.

The Dodgers have been admittedly one of the more prolific offensive teams in baseball through the first few weeks. As offensive as their bats have been, their pitching has been even more so. 

The troubles started in the bullpen, where the once-sturdy bridge between their starters and Broxton in the closing role has collapsed as if built on sand.  The normally reliable Cory Wade and Hong-Chih Kuo have been inconsistent and, in the case of Wade, hurt. 

Kuo was lights out in the long-to-middle relief roles last year, and even gave them a couple of quality starts.  This year, his velocity looks down, the control is absent, and it all combines to make you wonder if the arm troubles are rearing their ugly heads again for this young man? 

Before going down, Wade was the change-of-pace guy—the guy who came in and consistently threw strikes, and made you hit the ball to beat him.  But, where last year everything was down for him, this year his pitches were catching too much of the sweet zone, and he was getting hit...hard.

Then, the problems moved into the rotation.  While it was widely acknowledged before the season started that many pieces would have to fall into place for their rotation to be a major asset this year, such as Billingsley overcoming his playoff meltdown; Kershaw continuing his development he showed at the end of last year; McDonald maturing quickly; one of the journeymen stepping up, be it Stults or Wolf, it has been even worse than feared.  While Billingsley has continued his ascent into the staff ace role, none of the other scenarios have played out as yet.

Kershaw started out on fire.  While getting no wins, he was aggressive in the strike zone, and exhibited a mentality reminiscent of a former "bulldog" many compare him to, Orel Hersheiser.  His last few starts, however, have been an exercise in futility, with poor control, fat pitches and lack of composure.

James McDonald has been atrocious, to put it simply.  His inability to, or lack of desire to, attack the strike zone has led to an unacceptable 1:1 BB/IP ratio, and an equally abysmal 2.3:1 BB/K ratio.  He is incapable, at least at this point, of performing at a major league level.

Eric Stults and Randy Wolf have both had their moments this year, but for the most part are rising (or sinking) to their normal levels.  Again, most of this staff's weaknesses, aside from Chad Billingsley, has been their inability to attack hitters in the zone.  You cannot, unless your name is Greg Maddux, live on the edges and survive in the major leagues.  You must attack hitters, and not issue free passes.

At last check, seven of the Dodger pitchers have an ERA of 4.30 or better; of the remaining hurlers with ERAs below that, one is Broxton, who hasn't received a lot of work recently; Will Ohman, the left handed specialist, and Billingsley.  The other two are Troncoso and Bellisario, who have been worked to death lately because of the starter's inability to go into the seventh and eighth innings.  So, I fully expect to see their numbers dramatically decrease as well.

A franchise that has prided itself on pitching throughout its illustrious history has been caught with their pants down this season, at least into week four.  They desperately miss Hiroki Kuroda, Derek Lowe, and even Brad Penny. For those anxiously awaiting news of a possible Jason Schmidt return, he is not the answer. 

It is going to take digging into that deep farm system and giving something up to acquire some reliable help for Billingsley and Broxton.