Playoff Pulse: Wild Ride to NLCS for Dodgers

In the Playoff Pulse series, our MLB editor takes on a hot October topic.

These aren't your daddy's Dodgers, you know the franchise that had one playoff win in the last 20 years. Heck, these Dodgers barely resemble the team that was lagging behind the Diamondbacks and below the .500 mark in the NL West three months ago.

The Cubs found that out the hard way in the NLDS, and the Phillies (or Brewers) could be in for a similarly rude awakening in the next round.

Los Angeles won 84 games this season -- the fewest of any postseason team. It's worth noting that the last playoff team to win so few games -- the 83-78 2006 Cardinals -- went on to the World Series. But that team had Jeff Weaver and Anthony Reyes in the rotation and hit an extraordinary hot streak at the right time. This Dodgers team does not need to go on a fluke hot streak to win it all. It is much better than its 84 wins would suggest.

It will be all too easy to point to the Manny Ramirez trade as the key turning point in Los Angeles' season. His impact is undeniable. He hit close to .400 over the final two months of the regular season and he had two home runs in the three-game sweep.

But Ramirez is only part of a radical in-season makeover that has turned the Dodgers from an expensive flop into an NLCS team.

Los Angeles started the season with Andruw Jones in center field and, on many days, Juan Pierre in left. It started the season with Blake DeWitt at third base. It gave 20 starts to Eric Stults, Chan Ho Park, Hong-Chih Kuo, Jason Johnson and Esteban Loaiza and for all intents and purposes lost Brad Penny in June.

It finished the season with Ramirez and two rising stars in Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier playing full-time in the outfield, with the steady Casey Blake at third base, with Rafael Furcal back at shortstop and with Greg Maddux and Clayton Kershaw shoring up a rotation that has been a strength all season long.


This is about much more than Ramirez. At some point, Joe Torre committed to the younger players -- the guys who will get better, not worse as time goes along -- and GM Ned Colletti filled in the blanks.

Everyone at FanHouse has been critical of Colletti over the years. He has deserved much of it. The Ramirez and Blake trades were not gutsy like a Theo Epstein deal or artful like a Billy Beane swap. There's nothing brilliant about being one of the few executives willing to give up top 10 prospects for Blake or being willing to give up young talent and take a risk on the moody Ramirez.

But this is a results business, and what Colletti has done has worked fantastically in the short-term. He may have made the worst collection of free-agent signings in recent memory, but his trades have given the Dodgers a chance they didn't have earlier this year -- a chance to win the World Series. Coupled with Torre's willingness to make use of the players churned out by one of the best farm systems in the game, there's reason to think Los Angeles might actually do it.

Yesterday's Hero: Dave Bush wasn't spectacular, but he did something no other Brewers pitcher has been able to, he shut down the Phillies. Honorable mention to Hiroki Kuroda, James Loney and J.J. Hardy.

Yesterday's Goat: The Phillies' middle of the order hasn't really impressed yet so the dubious distinction goes to Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell. Dishonorable mention to Rich Harden, every Cubs hitter and Jamie Moyer.

Quick Hits: Hopefully Jeff Suppan has a little of that 2006 playoff magic stored away. Milwaukee will need his best -- something he's rarely had since signing with the Brewers -- to push the NLDS to a fifth game. ... Will Matt Garza have enough left in the tank to succeed in October? We'll find out starting tomorrow. ... Josh Beckett is the big x-factor in the playoffs right now. Boston is formidable either way, but if he impresses on Sunday it's going to be awfully tough to dethrone the champions.