Native Baseball Fans Are Definitely Restless

It’s heartwarming to hear that this year’s Dodger squad loves and respects one another so much, but it’s also mighty hard to picture them making the postseason without some serious upgrades to the bench and the bullpen. Jeff Reboulet, Chad Kreuter, Dave Hansen and Hiram Bocachica are not exactly names that strike fear in opposing pitchers, and opposing batters practically high-five one another with glee whenever Jim Tracy calls Terry Mulholland, Paul Quantrill or Guillermo Mota to the mound.

Sure, it’s too early to count them out entirely, but if the Dodgers can win it all without Dan Evans making another major trade, I’ll eat my cleats.

Dan Epstein

Los Angeles

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One big difference between the quality baseball organizations and the also-rans is that the good teams never think they have enough talent, while the also-rans always think they have a surplus.

Thus, the Yankees add Jeff Weaver and the A’s add Ted Lilly to their starting staffs, which many thought didn’t need any help. The Angels, on the other hand, are three arms short in the bullpen and respond by declaring the solution right under their noses--Scott Schoeneweis.

Giving the ball to Schoeneweis in a crunch hardly qualifies as the type of decisive move that can turn a pennant race in your favor. The guy’s credentials are anything but breathtaking: recently dropped from the rotation for cause; ERA around 5.50, right where it has been every year; and, most recently, the surrender of five runs--and a ballgame--in a two-inning stint at Minnesota on a night when he says, “I threw the ball as well as I can throw.”

Maybe, just maybe, the Angels need pitching help as much as the good teams.

Richard A. Fond

Los Angeles

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Our local baseball team at Chavez Ravine is following a popular trend on Wall Street--once high flying without any logical justification, and now plummeting toward a full collapse.

How about we rename the team the Los Angeles Dowjones?

Ronald J. Peters

Thousand Oaks

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If a baseball strike is the only way to keep Terry Mulholland from taking the mound again this season, then suddenly I am a big Bud Selig fan.

Jim Patton

Hermosa Beach