So as The Dodgers fall to their new-found rivals this cold, chilly Oct. 21st, 2009, I am reminded by what a storied season this was. For lack of a better word, The Dodgers gave it their all, eventhough their all failed to live up to the hype. They were outslugged, outpitched, outhomered, out everything you could think of. Both teams stagged a frenzy at the Trade Deadline that brought both fixes to an area of weakness.

The Phillies got Cliff Lee, while The Dodgers got George Sherill.

Not exactly the same thing, but was made easily viable with the insistance that the Dodgers part with 4-6 top tier prospects and major league players for Roy Halladay and 3-4 for Cliff Lee.

The Dodgers stood pat as the Phillies bulked up a rotation which already featured an ace in

Phillies

1. Cole Hamels

2. J.A. Happ

3. Pedro Martinez [Later Acquired]

4. Joe Blanton

5. Jamie Moyer

 

Surely that strikes fear into many, but not The Dodgers. Given their recent off-season “acquisitions,” they were able to get

Off-Season SP Brought In-

Randy Wolf

Eric Milton

Shawn Estes

Claudio Vargas

Jeff Weaver

Jason Schmidt[reclamation project]

Rookies- 

Jason McDonald

Scott Elbert

Ramon Troncoso

 

were being named potential 5th starters in a rotation that consisted of

 

Dodgers-

1. Hiroki Kuroda

2. Chad Billingsley

3. Clayton Kershaw

 

Gone from the team that lost to The Phillies the previous year

Dodgers Gone-

Brad Penny

 Greg Maddux, Jason Johnson, Derrek Lowe, etc.