May 3, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Luis Cruz (47) returns to the dugout after striking out against the San Francisco Giants during the sixth inning at AT

As discussed over and over on our site, the Dodgers baserunning has been putrid so far this season. That trend continued tonight in two key situations, and ended up with Ramirez being a casualty by trying to go from first to third on a hard hit ball to right field, and injuring his hamstring as a result. It wasn’t clear if Hanley decided to go to third on his own or if Third Base Coach Tim Wallach waved him to third. Regardless the poor decision was compounded by Ramirez injuring his hamstring on the play and more than likely heading to the DL, possibly for the rest of the month. Mistake number one occurred earlier in the game when AJ Ellis failed to score from second on a base hit to Centerfield that was also misplayed by Angel Pagan. Just what Ellis was doing by standing at second and watching the ball drop in centerfield rather than scoring on the play is not clear. What is clear is his misjudgement cost the Dodgers what should have been a crucial and potential game winning run.

If AJ scores on that hit, like he should have, Brandon League pitches the 9th instead of Ronald Belisario, who gave up the game winning Home Run to Buster Posey. League may have blown the save, he may also have closed out the game and given Clayton Kershaw a much deserved win after he pitched his guts out over 7 solid innings in what was surely a difficult start for him after the untimely death of his father. So let’s recap, Adrian Gonzalez missed the game with a sore neck, Carl Crawford‘s sore hamstring limited him to a pinch hitting role, and of course he was forced to leg out a ball hit up the middle, but fortunately he was safe and did not appear to re-injure his hamstring. Finally, Luis Cruz actually raised his pitiful batting average to .098 with a single, but he also struck out twice in crucial situations stranding 4 baserunners in the process.

Cruz’s continued poor play raises an important question, why is he still on the Major League Roster? He has managed 6 singles in 61 at-bats so far this season. He made a stellar defensive play at third base, then committed an error on a routine grounder. Cruz was a great feel good story in 2012, however, his 2013 performance has reinforced the fact that he is simply a career minor leaguer. There was a reason why he had over 1,200 at-bats in the minors from 2001 to 2012. He sported a career .268 batting average with a paltry .298 on base percentage. He also struck out in 25% of his at-bats and committed over 250 errors. In the second half of 2012 he finally got a chance to play everyday and hit .296 in 78 games and 282 at-bats. He became a fan favorite because of the long road he had traveled to make it to the majors.

Unfortunately, all of his success has come to a crashing halt in 2013. He is what he is, a career minor leaguer, who is a decent defender and has little to no plate discipline. Dodgers fans fondness for Cruz has clouded their judgement and caused them and perhaps the front office to overlook the fact that Cruz needs to be replaced on the roster, and his replacement has to be the talented promising youngster Dee Gordon. There is one main hurdle in preventing the Dodgers from replacing Cruz on the roster with Gordon. Cruz has no options left, meaning the Dodgers risk losing Cruz to another team if they designate him for assignment. But really should that stop them from making the move, a move which could improve the Dodgers stagnant offense by adding much needed speed to the lineup, and does anyone expect another team to claim someone hitting .098? It’s just my opinion but if you were an MLB GM would you claim him off of waivers? I wouldn’t.

However, Hanley’s untimely injury may have bought Cruz more time with the Dodgers. Hanley is most certainly headed to the DL which would open up a spot for Gordon who is hitting over .300 in AAA, has significantly improved his strikeout to walk ratio (17 K’s to 14 BB’s)  and despite having 8 errors in 25 games, he’s getting on base nearly 40% of the time and doing what he does best stealing bases (14) and scoring runs (19). Right now the Dodgers need some kind of spark and Dee Gordon would provide that. Tonight’s difficult loss highlighted the Dodgers lack of speed in their lineup, especially with Carl Crawford out. Stick Gordon in the 8 hole forcing teams to pitch to him rather than walk him to get to the pitcher, let him get everyday at-bats and in doing so the Dodgers would virtually have 2 leadoff men with Dee and CC. The bottom of the Dodgers order has provided little to no offense. How could putting Dee in the lineup possibly not improve the offense, it’s not like Cruz or Sellers are hitting at all or getting on base. Even if Dee performs as poorly as he did last year he’s still better offensively than what Cruz and Sellers are providing.

The Dodgers management has stressed all year that they want the best possible defensive team on the field and “want to catch the ball” as best as they can. But how long can they continue to do this and watch the offense struggle and waste quality pitching like they got from Kershaw tonight? The other question is how long will they wait to put Mark Ellis on the DL and essentially field a 24 man roster while their opponents play with 25? It’s been nearly a week since Ellis injured his quad, and while he has participated in some baseball activities he hasn’t run, it’s obvious he’s not ready physically to play in a game, so why are the Dodgers not putting him on the DL.

The club is in complete disarray right now with numerous key players on the DL or dinged up and not in the lineup and in Mark Ellis‘s case simply wasting a roster spot. The club desperately needs to make some changes, it’s obvious by watching their offensive struggles that the club as assembled right now is not cutting it. What do they possibly have to lose by making a move, any kind of move that will add some life to the listless offense. There is simply no reason to stand pat any longer. Players who are not performing need to be replaced by more talented younger players who will play their backsides off because they don’t want to get sent back down to the minors.

Just look around MLB right now and look at how many clubs have turned to young talent to see if they can improve their squads. Jean Segura of Milwaukee seemed to help the Brewers when they just played the Dodgers. The Rockies weren’t shy in giving Nolan Arenado playing time and how did that work out for them against the Dodgers? Dodgers management and ownership has preached the importance of adding talent to the roster and not being shy in spending money to do so. Yet with all of those changes here we are watching Luis Cruz and Justin Sellers flounder offensively, while the club overall continues to struggle to score runs while falling further below .500.

If the object is to put the best talent on the field and the goal is to score more runs than your opponent, then it’s time for Dodgers to make changes to their current roster, who clearly isn’t getting the job done. It starts with putting Dee Gordon at SS and playing Uribe and Hairston at 3rd, and it doesn’t stop there. Chris Withrow is a potential power arm that a struggling bullpen could benefit from. Zach Lee could add another talented arm to the rotation joining fellow rookie Matt Magill if Chris Capuano struggles when he comes off the DL. I don’t want to even mention Yasiel Puig but the Dodgers do have some interleague games coming up in AL parks in which they could use a DH. Again you can have all of the stellar pitching you want, but if you can’t score runs you won’t win games.

No offense but the status quo simply isn’t getting the job done and unless the Dodgers are willing to make some obvious changes to a floundering offense, like other successful Major League teams are doing, then they are going to continue to struggle. A maddening beginning to the 2013 season took an ugly and frustrating turn for the worse Friday night. Dodgers fans can only hope that the decision makers will seize this unfortunate opportunity to make some much needed changes to a roster that has been decimated by injuries. The Dodgers left 13 runners on base against the Giants Friday night, they’ve been doing this all season, it’s time for changes to the roster, if changes aren’t made then the Dodgers are going to fall further behind the leaders in the NL West.

The front office has done a fantastic job of adding young talent to the Dodgers minor league system, it’s time to utilize some of that young talent. One youngster who might be on his way is Onelki Garcia, check out this great article on him from Jim Shonerd at Baseball America.

Apr 30, 2013; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu (left) presents recording artist Psy with a jersey after the game against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

Dodgers fans who thought they had experienced an injury plagued 2012 and figured 2013 couldn’t possibly come close to providing the same bizarre scenarios were sorely mistaken. Considering that virtually everything that could go wrong for the Dodgers has & Dodgers fans should be grateful that their squad is 13 & 13. After all, it could be worse, you could be a fan of the California Angels of Anaheim in Orange County near Los Angeles, who sport a 10 & 17 record. BTW everyone is all over the Dodgers for their spending, but at least they aren’t in year 2 of a 10 year contract with Albert Pujols & won’t be paying a 40 yr old $25 million dollars like the Angels will be with Pujols.

But back to the ONLY Baseball team that actually resides in Los Angeles, the Dodgers; let’s have a look at the roller coaster ride that was April. Hanley Ramirez missed nearly the entire month, but his 1 start was memorable as he homered, on his Bobblehead night no less to end the month on a high note. Clayton Kershaw’s opening day heroics seemed to get the season started on a magical note but then everything started going to pieces.  All of that starting pitching depth, which was supposed to be a challenge in terms of how to utilize them all has been completely thrown out the window, mix in a 6 game losing streak, 6 pitchers (5 Starters) placed on the DL, and the Offense being 7^th in OBP yet 28^th in Runs and all of a sudden 13 and 13 doesn’t look so bad.

$147 million dollar man Zack Greinke managed all of 2 starts before Carlos Quentin lost his mind and the Dodgers lost Greinke for 2 months. Chad Billingsley, who should be 9 months into his recovery from Tommy John surgery tried instead to pitch through it via Plasma Rich Injections, and is now most likely out until 2015. It’s not like ALL of us saw that coming, I guess all of us not including Chad and the Dodgers medical staff. Ted Lilly also made all of 2 starts recovering from off-season surgery and after being shelled in his last start looks to be headed back to the DL with back & neck & being old issues. This may actually be a blessing in disguise as young Matt Magill who was very impressive in his MLB debut deserves to be in the rotation and very well may be. Josh Beckett has been up and down as has most everyone in the bullpen not named Kenley Jansen.

Hyun Jin-Ryu, fresh off of a 12 strikeout performance, has been very impressive and is one of the top starters in K’s per 9 IP.  The Dodgers don’t look as foolish as everyone claimed they were for investing so much in the 25 year old lefty, unless you value the opinion of ESPN’s Keith Law who saw Ryu pitch early in Spring Training and came away unimpressed.  Despite Ryu’s early season success Law remains adamant that based on watching him pitch 3 innings this Spring that Ryu is “A Fringy Fourth Starter” and in a Tweet to our @LasordasLair account he claimed “Nothing has changed” with Ryu since he saw him in March. Seriously, it is absurd for a so called scouting expert to base his analysis of any pitcher on what he saw in 3 Spring Training innings and discount what he’s done in his 6 starts. I guess 5 quality starts, 3 wins, and a 46 to 10 K to BB ratio don’t count as much as one spring training appearance. Regardless, Dodgers fans are thrilled with Ryu’s performance so who really cares what Keith Law thinks.

What a difference a year makes for Matt Kemp. Last April he was unstoppable, considering his struggles early this season, combined with Andre Ethier’s awful start, and again 13 & 13 isn’t so bad. I’d like to personally thank Red Sox fans for driving Carl Crawford out of Boston, he looks like the All-Star he was just a couple of years ago. He and Adrian Gonzalez and Mark Ellis have really carried the offense, However, Ellis seems destined for the DL with a quad injury & Crawford has missed 2 straight games with a tight hamstring. Just what the Dodgers needed, the top 2 hitters who have been getting on base seemingly every game getting injured. With Hanley back the Dodgers lineup balances out in terms of lefty/righty hitters, which prevents teams from sending up lefty after lefty to attack the likes of Crawford, Gonzo, Ethier late in games.

One positive is the impact of Mark McGwire’s philosophy as hitting coach, which has resulted in the Dodgers significantly improving their on base percentage. However, the number of runners on base has yet to translate into an explosive offense. The team has struggled taking the extra base and is at the bottom of the league hitting with runners in scoring position. But over the course of a full season you have to think that the numbers will even out and the team will have to start scoring more runs.

Luis Cruz appears to have been a 1 year wonder, but the rest of the bench has been decent. Jerry Hairston Jr. may play every position on the field before the season is over, and Juan Uribe has dropped a few LBS and despite a .218 average has an OBP over .400 and looks like he’s playing for one more contract. Nick Punto has been terrific, thanks again Boston, but Skip Schumaker is hitting just, 139. The big question is what is going to happen long-term at third base. Uribe, Punto & Cruz certainly aren’t every day solutions. The answer could be just down the road in San Diego where Chase Headley is supposedly on the trading block, but I have a hard time seeing the Padres trading him within the division, however third base is a concern that Ned Colletti is going to have to address.

All in all April has been a wild ride with injuries and inconsistent play continuing to perplex the franchise and its fans. If April is any indication then Dodgers fans are in for a crazy year. They can only hope that good health will finally happen and talented players like Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier will start to perform to their potential. If they do, and if the third base question is answered, the Dodgers should be in a position to be playing come October.