Now Pitching, Rudy Chaos

Broxton is out. Belisario is out. Wade is out. Elbert and Vargas are in. Mota is way in. What is the story here? Who makes the rules? Who reads the sky? Take your angle and frame it. Torre overuses bullpen; injury and disaster follow. Write it down and then cross it out. Torre overuses bullpen; injury and disaster follow. Do you know that? Do you think you know that? There is already too much hubris in this world. It's hard to know what's really happened. Be careful. It's hard to know what will happen. Really, be careful. To all of us: Torre, and me, and you. Have care with conclusions and relievers both.

You just never know with these guys. Every year it's different, which means every year it's the same. Chaotic sameness. Change is everywhere. There are new faces. Surprises. Injuries. Meltdowns. They come out of nowhere. Return back into nowhere. Dance into and out of nowhere like a virtual particle pair at the event horizon of the black hole. The bullpen is the black hole.

Remember Rudy Seanez? No? Barely? Kind of? Which Rudy do you remember? He was good in '94. Then terrible in '95. And then he was gone. Beyond the Dodger Blue event horizon. And then 12 years later he was back, in ought-seven, the year of the great collapse down the stretch. He was okay that year. In between, he played for six different teams, including twice for the Padres and Red Sox. He was out of major league baseball in '96 and '97. He also played with the Padres before his first Dodger stint. That's chaos. That's relief pitching.

You just never know with these guys. I'll say it a third time if I have to. Every month it's different. Look at this, look at what I said back in April and May about one of the Dodger bullpen constants of June and July:

April 23 --- Signing him was just an awful move by Colletti, in the same category as the Pierre signing because the upside just wasn't there. It was wasted money the moment the contract was signed.

April 29 --- Colletti made that mistake, and it is done. I think it's time to start looking for a replacement for Mota. Every other reliever has some promise, and shouldn't be given up on yet. But Mota is awful and what reason is there to think he'll improve?

May 27 --- And yet even there none of them save for Mota are truly hopeless.

May 28 --- At the very least I don't expect to see Mota last the year with the team.

Look at those conclusions I made. I believed it. Of course I did. I was sure. I was as sure as Broxton was sure up until he wasn't sure anymore. Things change so fast.

How bad is it now? How much do we fear the 'pen now? I take it an inning at a time. Most of these guys pitch just an inning. Most of them will pitch a scoreless inning more often than not. Really, even the bad ones, with an ERA of 5. I just hope for outs, and then get the next guy in there. Things aren't so bad now, even with all the injuries and uncertainty. It could be worse. We could have Carter and Hamulack and Baez in the 'pen.