Monday, April 5, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 a.m. Pacific
 

AL West AL Central AL East NL West 1. San Diego Padres 2. Arizona Diamondbacks 3. Los Angeles Dodgers 4. San Francisco Giants 5. Colorado Rockies NL Central NL East Baseball '04 main

3. Los Angeles Dodgers
 
He's here: RHP Jeff Weaver, INF Jose Hernandez, OF Juan Encarnacion.

He's outta here: RHP Kevin Brown (Yankees), OF Brian Jordan (Texas), RHP Paul Quantrill (Yankees), OF Jeromy Burnitz (Colorado), RHP Andy Ashby (San Diego), INF Ron Coomer, OF Rickey Henderson.

Ranking the rotation: 1st in the division, 12th overall. Solid with Hideo Nomo and Odalis Perez at top of rotation, but Jeff Weaver, who flamed out with Yankees, and Kazuhisa Ishii, who was hammered this spring, are question marks. Rookie Edwin Jackson has star potential, but he is a rookie. If any of them don't work out, Wilson Alvarez and Jose Lima are waiting for their chances.

Written in Stone: If they don't watch out — and the trend might already be irreversible — the Dodgers are going to find themselves an afterthought to the Angels in Southern California. Last year they had brilliant pitching and no offense. This year, after trading Kevin Brown to the Yankees for Weaver, they have less-brilliant pitching and no offense. Worse yet, the franchise was paralyzed much of the winter until the sale to Frank McCourt went through. And now McCourt is even less popular than the Fox fellows he bought out. New GM Paul DePodesta needs to start weaving some of that "Moneyball" magic, and pray that Eric Gagne stays healthy.

Lineup card

P Hitters Avg. HR RBI CF Dave Roberts .250 2 16 SS Cesar Izturis .251 1 40 3B Adrian Beltre .240 23 80 RF Shawn Green .280 19 85 C Paul Lo Duca .273 7 52 LF Juan Encarnacion .270 19 94 1B Robin Ventura .242 14 55 2B Alex Cora .249 4 34

TH Starters W-L ERA SO RH Hideo Nomo 16-13 3.09 177 LH Odalis Perez 12-12 4.52 141 RH Jeff Weaver 7-9 5.99 93 LH Kazuhisa Ishii 9-7 3.86 140 RH Edwin Jackson* 7-7 3.70 157   TH Closer W-L ERA SV RH Eric Gagne 2-3 1.20 55

*Minor-league stats