Maybe I Was Wrong...

... about the Marlins. Their offense doesn't seem to be what I thought it was. They have no big lefty bats and outside of Hanley Ramirez, Uggla, and Cantu, they have no power at all. Their starting pitching anchored by Johnson and Nolasco could be enough to keep them in the Wild Card race, but no better than that.

So, what we've seen from the Dodgers these first four games is likely what we should expect to see throughout the year: Couple of losses, couple of wins, around .500 when the smoke clears. Padilla looked godawful in the opener and poor Clayton Kershaw was a scared kid in his first start, walking the world before the 5th inning ended. He'll be fine... one day. Billingsley was somewhat impressive in his first start but did begin to implode as he usually does in the 5th and 6th innings. He was fortunate in the 4th to get out of a bases loaded jam with the bottom of the Pittsburgh lineup coming up. Still, he had good movement on his fastball and slider. Mixed pitches very well. And what can you say about the emotional, inspirational performance from Hiroki Kuroda last night? Most impressive. His fallen Japanese League comrade was probably smiling in the afterlife. Kuroda will have some good games and some bad ones and you can bet he'll be on the DL at some point.

Are we a little worried about Ethier's turned ankle? Not really. The temperamental Andre will be there, I think. Thank God for Reed Johnson. Great acquisition. Ya also gotta like Ronnie Belliard's performance the other day. Should Blake DeWitt be starting over him? We'll see. DeWitt has looked awful at 2nd base and has actually cost them a game. His at bats, however, are a pleasure to behold. I love his patience and smarts. But look for Jamie Carroll to be a late inning defensive replacement. The guy can hit a little bit too. He's an upgrade from the over the hill Mark Loretta. Are we a little worried that Kemp hasn't gone deep yet? I guess so. I mean, we're only four games in, but based on his projections from the experts, he sort of needs to start putting on a power display for those projections to be met. He still seems to be trying to pull everything. The jury is still out on Manny and the rest of the Blue Crew. The bullpen looks okay, but, like I've been saying, the starting pitching appears to be just way too thin to compete with the pitching rich West. (SEE GIANTS) Wonder if we can deal Casey Blake for an arm and let DeWitt move back to 3rd and let Belliard move to 2nd. Naw. Doubt anyone would offer anything of value for the inconsistent, but strong-chinned Casey.