Kuo gets Torre’s blessings

6-29-2010 @ 3:15 Andy Charles

As voting for the All-Star Game reaches the frenzy point, it appears that Dodgers manager Joe Torre is hoping that reliever Hong-Chih Kuo gets a call to play in the match, being played just down the road in Anaheim.

MLB Tips experts have the left-hander down as one of the stories of the 2010 season at Dodger Stadium, making his comeback from a fourth operation on his elbow and performing to an extremely high level.

Kuo and Jonathan Broxton have been formindable in late innings work so far this season, although the Dodgers closer did finally blow up on Sunday night when the Yankees made a huge comeback to claim an extra innings victory.

Broxton has every chance of being voted in, but Kuo’s impressive numbers might mean that boss Joe Torre has to plead for his inclusion by speaking to Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel, who will pick the final players on the National League roster for the game July 13.

As it stands only one Dodger bat will be voted on to the team, outfielder Andre Ethier who has slowed a little since coming back from injury, but remains in the top three in the outfielder voting behind Ryan Braun and the injured Jason Heyward.

But Kuo’s season has to be one of the most spectacular in recent Dodgers memory with no MLB Predictions backing him things to turn out as they have. It would be a travesty if he were to miss out on playing in Anaheim, even if Cincinnati's Arthur Rhodes might have something to say about being the premier lefty reliever in the National League.

He has given up just nine hits all season, for an opponents’ batting average of .114, and become one of Torre’s most trusted troops as the battle continues to get somewhere near the Padres at the top of the Western Division.

"If I'm asked - I can't say I've never done it if I've felt somebody should get some consideration - I may make a call on his behalf," Torre said after the defeat by the Yankees on Sunday.

"I'm not sure if it might be frowned on because there's very little that's left up to the manager any more I have to keep reminding myself we have to make sure we stay the course with him. I pitched him in two innings on Saturday but we have not repeated him. What he's gone through with the surgeries, he's certainly a great soldier."

Dodgers look to add pitching

6-1-2010 @ 2:15 Andy Charles

The nine-game win streak is more than a week past in history now, but even with a slightly more inconsistent run of form, the Dodgers enter the month of June fairly healthy and only a couple of games back of the NL West-leading Padres.

Although neither offense nor pitching has been consistent enough to put together a run better than nine games, and that’s not a bad run at all, it is good to look at the standings and MLB Tips to see that 16-5 (as of Tuesday) record against other teams on this side of the country.

Andre Ethier rejoined the lineup this week after his 15-day spell on the sidelines with a fractured little finger, taking some of the pressure off the rest of the bats in the order, which have been going from red-hot to ice-cold on back-to-back days over the last week or so.

When Ethier, who still leads the team in home runs and RBI despite his layoff, comes back in place of Garret Anderson, it is safe to assume that the team Joe Torre anticipated having will be in place for the first time since April.

Rafael Furcal boosted his confidence with three hits in Saturday’s game with Colorado, and although the Dodgers eventually went down 11-3, that was more about some less than pretty pitching from Hiroki Kuroda.

Kuroda has been something of a disappointment despite his 5-3 record, and he has been the main beneficiary of the good days the offense has had, unlike John Ely, who continues to cement his role in the rotation and was one of the hardest luck losers of the season in his last start, the 1-0 loss to the Cubs last week when he gave up only four hits but got nothing in the way of offensive help.

Ely, Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw have been excellent over the last month, as has Kuroda at times, but that fifth starter role is still the biggest worry on the team. That might be where the club has to make a trade, unless Carlos Monasterios proves he can go deeper than five innings sooner rather than later.

It is that worry that has had the blogosphere, along with the traditional media, talking about the likes of Roy Oswalt and Cliff Lee coming to Los Angeles, pitchers that could well turn this team into serious title contenders.

Nothing seems set to happen soon, but by the time the trade deadline comes later in the season, MLB Betting experts expect some movement to have happened, with the only movement needed something to strengthen. No point now playing for next season because this is definitely a Dodgers team that can contend for something special.