I better type fast. Before I’m done, the Dodgers might make another trade.

Here’s what we know — For almost two months leading the Dodgers’ front office, Andrew Freidman and company made very few public moves. Then, yesterday, the dam broke. Perhaps it just started to break.

At any rate, the Dodgers went from a shortstop-less team with a few big holes to what looks now like a team that is a lot more efficient.

Is this the New York Stock Exchange or the Dodgers’ front office over the past 24 hours. By Ryan Lawler (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Instead of a question mark at catcher, it looks like they’ll roll with Yasmani Grandal. (Perhaps Grandal is a question mark unto himself. But he will be a question mark with a high upside).

Instead of four outfielders and a bloated payroll, the Dodgers have made room for a young player

They’ve also made themselves better defensively up the middle. Replacing Matt Kemp, Hanley Ramirez, and Dee Gordon with Joc Pederson, Jimmy Rollins, and Howie Kendrick will result in a completely re-tooled and unquestionably better middle of the field defense. Giving Andre Ethier and Carl Crawford defined roles could do wonders, especially for Ethier who Scott Van Slyke starts to fit-in as a potential platoon player with. Without Kemp, the combinations start to fit better together — though trading Ethier or Crawford could still be in the cards. Joc Pederson is almost surely going to get a chance to play every day in center field and Yasiel Puig will man right field. That leaves one position for Etheir, Crawford, and Scott Van Slyke to somehow split. OK, there is still some inefficiency with outfielders, but not like before… .

For an organization who looked to the “nerds” to take the next step, Andrew Friedman and his geek squad might be bringing balance to the force.

Of all the players who they’ve acquired, I’m most excited about replacing Gordon with Kendrick. Quietly, the 31 year-old Kendrick has been a force for the Angels in recent years. Remember, the Angels team he was on last season had the best record in baseball. Gordon was a fan favorite — a young, fast, energetic player who I always loved to see on the base paths.

But Gordon’s peripheral numbers aren’t great and Friedman must have seen him as having had something like a career year last season. So he sold high and got a lot in return from Miami.

Kemp seems to have also been sold high. The Dodgers didn’t get as much back for him, though Yasmani Grandal might be due for a breakout year. Getting rid of Kemp is a possible roll of the dice, but they also get rid of about $70 of the money he is owed over the next few years, which brings us to the really fun part of this equation — the Dodgers, despite their bloated payroll — are starting to make themselves a lot more financially flexible without completely ruining the major-league product on the field. In fact, along with being cheaper, they might be even better already.

The final chip probably has yet to fall. A trade for Cole Hamels is heating up the rumor mill. So are free agents James Shields and Max Scherzer. If the reported trades all go through, the Dodgers have positioned themselves with prospects and freed-up cash to make a run at any of these three.

I haven’t even mentioned Brandon McCarthy, whose deal helps with depth at the back end of the rotation. That was an issue last season for the team.

Assuming Kemp, Rollins, McCarthy deals become official, #Dodgers will have made 6 transactions involving 19 players in less than 24 hours

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) December 11, 2014

Lots of Dodgers fans are excited. Many are nervous about losing fan-favorites Kemp and Gordon.

Here are links to a few articles (below) that have put me at ease recently. Remember Dodger fans — don’t get too worked up quite yet. There are probably other moves to be made and, by the time you finish reading this, it will be incomplete at-best and possibly inaccurate. Because this Dodgers front office is making moves.

Marlins Pay Steep Price to not get Better – From Fangraphs

The older and better Dodgers Middle Infield – From Fangraphs

Dodgers, McCarthy reportedly near 4-year deal – From Dodgers.com

What are the Dodgers even doing? – From Deadspin

Maybe the thing I’ll regret most this year is missing so many of Dee Gordon’s stolen bases. By bridgetds on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons

The majesty of Matt Kemp‘s beard and sweet haircut. Vin Scully telling a story about Aramis Ramirez‘ involvement in cock-fighting in the Domincan Republic. Miguel Rojas picking a few nice grounders.

Tonight, these are things I’m seeing for the first time this season, all while traveling out of state for work. These are all fun things to see, but they aren’t even the most entertaining parts of watching the first inning.

The best of the first comes when Dee Gordon steps to the plate to lead-off the bottom of the inning. The young All-Star second baseman hits a swinging-bunt single down the first base line. It doesn’t take long for Gordon to steal second base (his 55th stolen base of the season), advance to third on an overthrow by Jonathan Lucroy, and score on a Yasiel Puig single. Two batters, one stolen base, two hits, and about everything you could ever expect from Dee Gordon.

Apparently, Gordon has been doing this pretty much all season. What have I been missing? The answer is a ton, and then again not very much. Via advanced stats, like his Baseball-Reference.com page, Gordon has only managed a 2.4 WAR, probably due mostly to his 80/30 walk/strikeout ratio from the leadoff spot in the order. Gordon’s league-leading 55 steals in 68 attempts leads the league.

Gordon may not be as valuable as he is exciting. I’ve always been intrigued by speed in baseball, especially when I haven’t seen very much baseball this year. After Juan Uribe strikes out with runners on second and third and two outs, maybe a little part of me is glad I haven’t seen more.

After making it to the NLCS a season ago and going on their historic 42-8 run to make it there, the Dodgers seemed primed to be legitimate World Series contenders in 2014. Yet the start of the 2014 season seems oddly familiar to the 2013. The likelihood of them going on a run like they did last year, though, is very far-fetched. So the question remains what is wrong with them right now?

Currently the Dodgers hold a record of 19-18 and are sitting in the third place position in the NL West. They started out winning four of their first five games and were looking good. Recently though, they have dropped six of their last eight games. They are a pathetic 2-6 head-to-head against the Giants who are clearly the best team in the NL West right now. They have had some injuries including Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu and A.J. Ellis but that shouldn’t be an excuse for a team with such a high payroll and as much talent as they have.

It’s been said before but if the Dodgers don’t start winning soon, Don Mattingly may be looking for a new job. By http://www.flickr.com/photos/pvsbond/, via Wikimedia Commons

Aside from their obvious struggles, the Dodgers have had some bright spots this season, including the play of Dee Gordon, Dan Haren, Zach Greinke and Adrian Gonzalez.

Gordon, who  is leading the team with a .328 batting average, has also  stolen 21 bases already which is the best in baseball, nine more than the next guy behind him.

Free agent acquisition, Dan Haren, has shown why the Dodgers signed him with his 4-1 record and his 2.68 ERA. With all the injuries to the pitching staff, Haren has stepped up and played a huge role in keeping this team afloat.

Zach Greinke started out 5-0 only to finally lose a game where the Dodgers just couldn’t score any runs. His 2.35 ERA and 47 strikeouts lead the team and have carried the Dodgers while Kershaw was hurt.

Adrian Gonzalez, in my opinion is an early contender for National League Most Valuable Player. He is hitting .265 with 9 HR and 26 RBI. He also has an .861 OPS, putting him just below the range of his best three seasons. Gonzalez has carried the load offensively thus far while the rest of the team figures themselves out.

How to fix whatever is wrong?

Other than the injuries to the team the only two real problems with this team are the inconsistency of the bullpen and the lack of hitting in some games, both of which can be easily fixed. As for the bullpen, manager Don Mattingly needs to read the situations during games better and figure out when to plug certain pitchers in rather than go with a set bullpen rotation. With the kind of depth that the Dodgers have, its the only way to manage all those bodies.

Dodgers win and Mattingly only made three mistakes. I'll take it.

— Howard Cole (@Howard_Cole) May 10, 2014

The hitting will come around, I’m sure of that. The Dodgers have too much depth and talent on their roster for it not to. It’s still very early in the season and the Dodgers just need regroup and get things together. Although it was over a month ago, the unorthodox trip to Australia could still be affecting them, since it cut their spring training and usual time to prepare for the long grinding season short. The Dodgers will get it together and I expect to see them being the team we all expect them to be come the second half of the season.

What do you think? Will the Dodgers turn it around or will they stay at .500 and be a disappointment all season?

Chris Jackson likes baseball and beer. He even talked about the microbrew scene in Albuquerque, which is apparently substantial.

Albuquerque. It’s the title of one of my favorite Weird Al Yankovic songs and, more importantly, the location of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ AAA team, the Albuquerque Isotopes.

That’s where Chris Jackson comes in. No, basketball fans, I’m not talking about the mid-90’s sharpshooter who changed his name to Mahmoud Abdul Rauf. I’m talking about the Albuquerque-based baseball writer of the same name. Jackson grew up in Albuquerque, worked in Los Angeles, and is now the baseball reporter for the Albuquerque Examiner. Jackson spent his formative years as a fan of the Albuquerque Dukes (the Dodgers’ former AAA affiliate) and told us the story of how Albuquerque lost and then regained their minor league franchise and why they aren’t called the Dukes anymore.

He also regaled me with stories about some of his favorite Dukes and Isotopes of the past, the significance of Billy Ashley and the last Albuquerque team to win a PCL title, and the mentality of sports fans in the city of Albuquerque.Do you know why Zach Lee and other top-level minor league pitchers aren’t often sent to the Isotopes? You will after you listen. Most interestingly for me, Jackson makes connections between current Dodger prospects like Dee Gordon and Yasiel Puig.

You can follow Chris Jackson @topeswriter on twitter.

Hope you enjoy. Leave any comments you have below.

One player the Dodgers won’t bring up to fill gaps is Yasiel Puig. It’s nice to dream of the day they do though… By Owen Main

When it came to the Dodgers of the past few years and even this year’s Lakers teams, my rants about injuries of players on my favorite teams have been pretty steadfast. In a nutshell, here’s my prevailing thought:

If you sign players who have a history of injury and pencil them in to play 90 percent of the games in a season, PLEASE don’t insult my intelligence and act completely surprised and taken off-guard when said players are injured and the season doesn’t go like you would have liked it to. (see Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, and a less recent baseball example: Rafael Furcal).

My point is always that if you have players like this on your roster, have a backup plan.

The Lakers of this past season had a hard time with a back-up plan for Steve Nash and Dwight Howard’s injuries. When Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol also went down, their chances went (in the words of the great Chick Hearn) “from slim to none. And Slim just left the building.”

Which brings me to this year’s Dodgers roster. One of the reasons why I bought into the “Whole New Blue” mantra was because these guys seemed to have a plan. Players were treated conservatively in the preseason and there seemed to be a solid, quality backup everywhere you turned.

Matt Kemp seemed to be getting healthier by the day. Carl Crawford was developing back into the Carl Crawford fans in Tampa Bay knew so well. Hanley Ramirez was on-track to get back from a World Baseball Classic injury that forced him to be out until April 29. The team had EIGHT starting pitchers to help account for any potential injuries. Yasiel Puig, Dee Gordon, Tony Gwynn Jr., Scott Van Slyke, Elian Herrera, and Justin Sellars are all players who have spent time in the minor leagues this season and, with the exception of Puig and Van Slyke, have significant major league experience.

The team had insurance policies on insurance policies, or so it seemed.

It started with the rotation.

First, Aaron Harang was traded. Who needs eight starting pitchers? Seven is more than enough. Then Zach Grienke went down (Carlos Quentin has been playing for weeks…). Then Chad Billingsley needed Tommy John surgery. And then there were five.

Chris Capuano was rushed into duty and looked all right, but then he got hurt, too. Ted Lilly came off the Disabled List and quickly returned to the trainer’s office after only a few starts. The mantra that you can never have enough pitching has proven true for the boys in blue, but that’s only been half the battle when it comes to injuries.

After only 12 plate appearances, Hanley Ramirez went back on the disabled list. Luis Cruz may as well have been injured for as much production as he’s given the Dodgers. Adrian Gonzalez injured his neck and Mark Ellis is now on the disabled list too.

Yes, the Dodgers still have Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Carl Crawford, sometimes Gonzalez, and Clayton Kershaw healthy and they don’t really have an excuse to be as bad as they’ve been.

At this point, when the team is forced to start a number of reliable utility players throughout the infield, this fan is willing to give them something of a pass.

They had quality back-ups, but having to play them all at once wasn’t in the plan. In the midst of getting swept by the Giants, the Dodgers started Juan Uribe, Nick Punto, Gordon, and Cruz in the infield. Cruz was probably the weakest option of the bunch and he’s the only one who was penciled in as a starter at the beginning of the year.

With a lineup like that, all Dodgers fans can do is wait and hope that time doesn’t run out on guys getting healthy. In this case, the injury bug really has been more like a plague.