Jason Schmidt came off the dl to throw 6 innings of 1-hit ball for the Dodgers last night, albeit in a 1-0 loss. The night before, Derek Lowe took a no-hitter into the 7th at Pittsburgh. Add that to Brad Penny and Randy Wolf and the Dodgers may have the best rotation in baseball right now. Bullpen isn't bad, either. Top that, mang.
Pedro, Glavine, El Duque, John Maine, Oliver Perez; and BIlly Wagner with 31 consecutive saves in the bullpen.
Saito is up to something like 24 in a row for the Dodgers. He did a hamstring or something the other night, we have Jonathan Broxton closing until he gets back. Broxton is a fireballer, like 22 years old. He'll be a closer one day, probably soon.
Peavy and Young would be scary in a 5 game series but Maddux and Wells are finished IMO. They've both been garbage on the road this year. If Schmidt is back and pitching well you'd have to give their rotation the edge.
Schmidt is the wildcard here, if he can come back and be the Schmidt of old then they have a scary good rotation. And for the record the Dodgers scare me more than any team in the national league. Actually they are the only team that scares me even a little, including the Braves..
One game is one game, but it's encouraging for Schmidt. After he got the big contract and went out after three starts, that was looking like a disaster signing. But they played it smart, got him rest and his rehab starts went well. Then again, Gagne's rehabs always went well too, then he'd come back and get hurt in his first game again.
Interestingly enough Schmidt has been more mediocre then anything over the course of his career. He had the one great year in 03 followed up by a very good year in 04 but other then that he's only really been barely above league average. Not sure where it came from but I had the impression that this guy had a much longer history of past success then he actually does.
I'd say the Dodgers have a good rotation but unfortunately for them they have San Diego and Arizona in thier division and lets be honest the Rockies are playing well too. The Dodgers also have my boy Hung Chi-Khou
Got his ass lit up last night at Toronto, 8 ER in 1-2/3 innings. Stellar. And Schmidt is having season-ending surgery to repair a detached labrum. Makes the Darren Dreifort signing from a few years back look like a bargain. At least we have Lowe and Penny still rolling along, Wolf has been pretty good too, and Broxton/Saito are giving us the 1-2 punch we need in the pen. So all is not lost.
