The best that money can buy…but they surely don’t look nor play like the best.

It’s such a weird vibe around Dodgers baseball, as they come to town to face the Padres tonight.  The biggest payroll in baseball, with a star-studded lineup, but not so in the standings..

It’s a team that just does not seem to fit together.  A manager who always seems to be putting out fires.  And constant questions about ego, chemistry, and agendas.

We’re 75-games into their schedule, and you look at the lineup and wonder how this team could not be (50-25), rather than just a shade over .500.

Of course it was about this time last year that there was a Cuban Missile strike.  Yasiel Puig arrived from Chattanooga, and proceeded to put up numbers like a .600-batting average on the board for nearly a month.  When he wasn’t bombing homers or gunning down runners on the base paths, he was running thru stop signs and missing cutoff men.

But the Dodgers did have a (42-8) run last summer.  This time around, Puig is still hitting, but most everyone else is not.  Adrian Gonzalez seems hurt, isn’t hitting homers and not hitting for average.  Until a week ago, it looked as if all the injuries were collecting tolls on the talent of Matt Kemp.  Carl Crawford is dinged; Andre Eithier seems out of position.

Aside from the kid Dee Gordon, nothing seems right with the everyday lineup.,

Of course they have arms, the no hit phenol Kershaw, the warrior that is Grienke, the super South Korean Ryu and a decent enough bullpen.

Don Mattingly seems to spend more time dealing with crisis, rather than managing the team.  Do they like him in the dugout?  Is he a good game day manager? Do the owners still believe in him.?  Despite all the doubts, Donny Baseball has weathered storm after storm in LA, starting with the McCourt bankruptcy, thru in-house player issues, to his own contract.  He is still there.

But something doesn’t seem right with Dodgers Blue.  Maybe it’s just LA being like New York.  If there’s not something going on, going wrong, then it’s not LA being LA.

Shall be an interesting rest of the summer.  Will the Dodgers explode and become brilliant?  Or will they implode because nothing seems to fit.  A closer look tonight at Petco Park.

You can buy a roster full of talent, and they have, but that does not guarantee you’ll have a good team.  Like the Steinbrenner Yankees, the biggest payroll does not guarantee the best results.

Dodgers baseball, may be good, might be bad, but will always be interesting.

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