Brewers @ Dodgers July 12, 2015: Finally, a break

Here we are, finally at the All-Star break (basically). The Dodgers are 50-39 with a 4 1/2-game lead on the Giants in the NL West heading into this game. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think this team was 10 games under .500 and looking to sell at the trade deadline.

	Brewers			Dodgers
	1:10 p.m.			Los Angeles
LF	Davis		SS	Rollins
C	Lucroy		2B	Kendrick
RF	Braun		1B	Gonzalez
CF	Gomez		3B	Turner
1B	Lind		CF	Pederson
3B	Ramirez		RF	Puig
SS	Segura		C	Ellis
2B	Perez		LF	Hernandez
P	Lohse (R)		P	Anderson (L)

Fact is, if they lose today, they’re still on a 90-win pace (92 if they win). Not bad considering the massive amount of injuries — especially to the starting rotation. While they haven’t been as good recently as they were to start the season, they’ll still a Top 5 team in baseball and Top 2-3 in the National League. That will surely change before July 31, as they’re expected to trade for a starting pitcher of some import before then. That’s at the minimum. I could see them adding a reliever (hi, Aroldis Chapman) and maybe a bench piece before then. If not a bench piece from outside the organization, Hector Olivera‘s arrival will suffice (and it’s coming sometime in the next month, I’d suspect).

And for us, your beloved writers of Dodgers Digest, we get a break. We appreciate all the clicks, comments and fun (but click MOAR ADS), but even we need a little break from time-to-time. Daniel is currently in China, Mike and his wife are a couple months from having little Yasiel Petriello, Chad is doing things on the weirdest schedule in existence in Hawaii and I’m just here in Stockton plugging away.

The first half has been up-and-down, and the second half should be fun. Baseball is dumb and awesome at the same time. Here’s to a great rest of the summer (and hopefully fall).

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Some things of note:

While the players and managers got it wrong initially, Clayton Kershaw was added to the NL All-Star team. He’s replacing Max Scherzer, who pitched on Sunday for the Nationals. Yeah, it would have been nice for Kershaw to get some extra rest over the break, but it’s his own damn fault for being so incredibly good at pitching baseballs.

Cryptic Donnie is cryptic.

Don Mattingly said he "has a pretty good idea" whether Zack Greinke starts the All-Star Game or not but will let Bruce Bochy announce it.

— J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) July 12, 2015

With Scherzer starting today for Washington, I’d say it’s almost a lock. He could be the first Dodger to start an All-Star Game since Brad Penny (!) in 2006. That’s right, the best pitcher in the world has yet to start an All-Star Game in his career. Fun.

Also fun is this: Joc Pederson is hitting fifth today. It’s the six spot in the lineup in which he has started. The only three left are Nos. 3, 4 and 9. Jon Weisman predicted Pederson would hit in eight different spots in the lineup prior to the season. I could see it happening. I’d rather he just get hot and stay in the leadoff spot. ‘Tevs.

For you fans of prospects, the Futures Game starts at noon Pacific time. It’s a collection of the best minor-league talent (for the most part) in baseball. Unfortunately, the Dodgers are represented by a fringy prospect in Kyle Farmer and a non-prospect in Juan Gonzalez. With all the minor-league promotions this year, the talent pool isn’t as deep as in previous years.

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