The Pitching Staff

Starters definitely coming back:

Chad Billingsley
Hiroki Kuroda
Clayton Kershaw

at this point, Billingsley can be though of as the ace of the staff, except by Bill Plaschke, who will hold his NLCS performance against him for the next couple years. Kuroda turned out to be a rather pleasant surprise - doesn't strike out a lot of guys, but still has good command of the strike zone and works efficiently. Kershaw showed some potential, and as he develops his changeup and slider/cutter he will climb his way up the rotation.

Potential free agent Dodgers:

Derek Lowe
Brad Penny
Greg Maddux

I would have expected Lowe to have been traded, but instead the Dodgers face the possibility of only getting two draft picks for him. Lowe has been good every year of his contract, getting his groundball outs, having good command of the strike zone, and not being homer prone. If the Dodgers could only score runs when he starts. Lowe will probably be looking for at least 3 years/$40 million, which might be a lot to pay a guy who'll be 36 next year.

Penny's a tougher case. He's got quite the upside, but he's an injury risk. And a really crappy pitcher when injured. It's tough to say if he'll come back healthy, although he's shown that he can (see 2005), and it might be worthwhile. Penny gets paid $2,000,000 if the Dodgers buy out his option, so keeping the opening day starter is a matter of $7.25 million. Not a bad deal, compared to say Randy Wolf.

Maddux is a candidate for retirement, although he still seems to have a little something left. But I do mean a little something - he's shown that he can get hit pretty hard last year, when his homer rate spiked. Still, he could probably be had for around $8 million; I could see the Dodgers offering him arbitration and him accepting, or even going for a lower offer with LA.

Free Agents on the Market:

CC Sabathia
AJ Burnett
Ben Sheets
Jon Garland
Pedro Martinez
Jamie Moyer
Mark Mulder
Oliver Perez

The Dodgers will make an offer to Sabathia, but they will not get him because he will make Kevin Brown look cheap. They will be relieved when he tears his rotator cuff in May while wearing the pinstripes in the Bronx. AJ Burnett is an injury waiting to happen, but is still good when healthy - I wouldn't be surprised if he matches JD Drew's Boston deal. I can't help but think he'd remind Colletti too much of JD Drew, though. Ben Sheets would be a fun pick - he's just as goofy as Manny Ramirez, except that he's just as injury prone as Nomar Garciaparra. I wouldn't give him more than a one year deal, and I don't know if any other GM would either. Garland might be intriguing, especially since Anaheim traded for him last year, but I wouldn't expect anything.

Pedro Martinez would be a nice signing - get him to come back where he began his career, and where Tommy Lasorda said he wouldn't be any good, the dumbass that he is. Maybe the Dodgers trade him at the deadline for a crappy second baseman. Either way, he's probably worth about $8 million or so on the free agent market now. Jamie Moyer is older than dirt and hasn't played for the Dodgers yet. Mark Mulder is intriguing, in a Jason Schmidt kind of way. Finally, Oliver Perez has nice strikeout abilities and isn't that old yet, so he might be a sensible signing, I could see him going for about 4 years $45 million in this market.

In House:

James McDonald
Hong-Chi Kuo
Eric Stults
Scott Elbert

McDonald even got the support of Bill Plaschke to be the #5 starter next year, and he'd be a good pick. Granted, he hasn't pitched much more than 150 innings in a season, but the 5th starter can be skipped, and Kershaw can probably go for up to 200, especially under the watchful eye and quick hook of Joe Torre (who knows that after 100 pitches, pitchers don't last long). McDonald's minor league peripherals suggest that the solid player we saw was no fluke, and as Billingsley showed us, minor league K rates sometimes take time to translate to the bigs. Kuo is an option as a starter, especially if one feels it is necessary for a lefty starter, but he is also a very good bullpen option, good against left and right handed hitters. Stults is that 6th starter guy that's useful but you don't know how long you want to keep him, particularly when he gives up as many homers as he does. I think McDonald will be in the rotation by the end of the season, although I don't know if he'll start in the pen first. Working as a reliever helped Billingsley get into a rhythym as a strikeout guy rather than a lucky RISP guy, but McDonald could be fine with either - guess it depends how many major league innings to subject him to. Scott Elbert isn't quite Greg Miller, but he really needs to stop walking people so much, and might need time in AAA to get that down.

My Rotation:

1) Chad Billingsley (R)
2) Hiroki Kuroda (R)
3) Oliver Perez (L)
4) Clayton Kershaw (L)
5) James McDonald (R)

Relievers

Definitely coming back:

Jonathan Broxton
Hong-Chi Kuo
Ramon Troncoso
Cory Wade
Scott Elbert

Broxton is the closer, who is prone to an occasional misgiving, but generally gets the job done. But let's face it, he's better than Eric Gagne is now. Kuo will likely stay in the pen as quite the fixture for a lefty power pitcher. If he's healthy, he is awesome. If he's not, we might not see him the rest of the year. Wade was lucky and Troncoso unlucky on balls in play, but both exhibited a good K/BB and acceptable HR rate. Wade struck out fewer than Troncoso's batter an inning, but he also walked only 3 more batters than Troncoso in 33 1/3 more innings. And while Troncoso might get luckier next year, it is also worth noting that Wade had the much better career minor league numbers (K/BB over 4!). Wade is 3 months younger. Nonetheless, both are good pitchers. Finally, Scott Elbert didn't have a pretty major league debut, but he's back from injury, and with a bit of work on his control could probably be another good left-handed pitcher. I'd expect him to start in the minors to get his control down.

Uncertain for next year:

Takashi Saito

Saito might retire, because he's old and his injury proneness is catching up with him. On the other hand, he might also want to keep pitching and being a dominant member of the pen. As it is, he might still be the closer next year, because when healthy, he's got a decent fastball with great breaking stuff.

Free Agents:

Joe Beimel
Scott Proctor

See you proctor. Beimel will be missed by Troy from West Virginia, unless the Dodgers decide to keep him for some reason. Still, not a bad run for Beimel, though good riddance for Proctor.