Tough Choices Loom for Torre, Dodgers

WASHINGTON -- The Cardinals know Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright will start Games 1 and 2 of the National League Division Series. Ditto for the Phillies with Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels. Heck, even the Yankees with all of their rotation issues know they'll turn to CC Sabathia in Game 1 of their Division Series.

The Dodgers? They've got the best record in the National League and a whole bunch of question marks as they begin to assemble their playoff rotation.

And manager Joe Torre has his work cut out for him.

"That's why [Joe] gets paid the big bucks and has all the experience," Dodgers starting pitcher Randy Wolf told FanHouse.

Maybe Mr. T deserves an extra bonus this year. Soak in some of the tough choices he's facing when it comes to his starting pitching this October:

• First, he's carrying six starting pitchers right now. Torre isn't even sure what his rotation is for the next week and a half of the regular season, nevermind the first round of the playoffs. As they have weathered the second-half struggles of Chad Billingsley and injuries, first to Hiroki Kuroda and more recently to Clayton Kershaw, the additions of Jon Garland, via trade, and Vicente Padilla, after he was released by Texas, have looked more and more shrewd and more and more vital to the team's success.

Now, though, Torre may be faced with a situation where he has six viable starting pitchers all of relatively equal merits in the short-term because of a variety of factors (that last bit being key). At this point Wolf and probably Kuroda look like the only sure bets to be in his NLDS rotation.

• The situation is further complicated by the risk/reward plays Torre can make. Kershaw has pitched a lone inning of scoreless relief (the ninth inning of a 14-2 blowout of the Nationals Tuesday night) since Sept. 4 as he's made his way back from an injury to his right (non-throwing) shoulder. He'll start either Sunday or Monday against the Pirates, but it's fair to wonder if he'll be stretched out to start in the Division Series.

Billingsley, once the club's Opening Day starter and an All-Star, entered his start Wednesday with a 5.49 ERA since the All-Star break. He carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning against Washington, then watched it all melt away -- the no-no, the shutout, the win -- on "just one bad pitch" to Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who deposited a three-run homer into the Dodgers bullpen. He still struck out nine, still seemed to have something to build on after his first quality start since a string of three in mid-August and he still seemed sullen and frustrated when talking with reporters after the no decision.

Kershaw and Billingsley are the type of pitchers who can take over in the postseason, where pure stuff often plays the strongest. But neither seems to have the full trust of Torre at this point -- something that could change over the final 11 days of the regular season. As we've learned over the years, that's everything to Torre.

"I feel very good about [the starting pitching]," Torre said Tuesday. "The only one that we need to get going again is Billingsley. Right now, it just hasn't happened. ... He really hasn't had that feel over the last few starts.

"As far as Padilla and Garland, they know how to pitch. You find that out when you watch them and they get in trouble and then they wiggle off the hook. ... They don't have a bad inning, then a bad inning, then another bad inning. They minimize the damage."

Torre hardly sounded like a man ready to hand the ball to Billingsley for a postseason start, but then, there is downside -- and plenty of it -- to playing it safe. Do the Dodgers really want to pin their playoff hopes on a couple of veterans who can "minimize damage" but probably can't throw eight shutout innings? Would they rather gamble big on a young guy who is capable of a dominating performance but could also implode?

That's the complexity of Torre's looming decision.

For the pitchers involved, things are relatively simple.

"I don't care when I pitch as long as I get to," Kershaw said bluntly, speaking of his mop-up relief appearance.

"I think within the next few weeks, things will kind of smooth themselves out," Wolf, right, said. "We stay on track and get in the playoffs and win our division, things'll be figured out. We'll have a good idea of what's going to happen, who's starting and what the roles are. The good thing is if we keep rolling and we win in the first round, we can make adjustments in the second round.

"We can't really worry about the question marks."

And those uncertainties may be starting to crystallize already. Billingsley, despite not getting the result he wanted on Wednesday night, certainly seems to be righting the ship in the nick of time, "one bad to pitch" to Zimmerman aside.

"I haven't felt that way in awhile," Billingsley said. "I'm happy [with my performance]. ... I've always been sure of myself."

"There were a lot of positives," Torre said. "[Chad] had a hell of a thing going. It looked like he was in a good tempo and just seemed very much in charge.

"We've gotta make sure that we concentrate on the positives that come out of today as opposed to the last inning he pitched. We still have some more work to do."

More to the point, Torre does. Ironically, a resurgent Billingsley will give him one more option -- one more choice -- in the coming weeks. But you'll be hard-pressed to find a manager anywhere in the majors who will complain about having too much starting pitching.


"I think when Joe has tough decisions to make as far as who are you going to leave off and who are you gonna put on ... to have that cushion ... that's a comforting feeling, probably moreso for Joe than it is for us," Wolf said.

And as the veteran left-hander points out, it wouldn't be postseason baseball without a little mystery.

The Phillies and Angels have bullpen concerns, the Tigers have trouble scoring runs, the Twins are banged up, the Yankees and Red Sox could be shaky at the back-end of their rotations and so on.

"Playoffs are one big question mark," Wolf said. "That's why wild-card teams have such good success in the playoffs.

"Anything that you think is a sure thing going into the playoffs doesn't mean anything once you get there."