Clayton Kershaw won the pitching version of the triple crown.

Matt Kemp has been on a tear at the end of the season, chasing the traditional hitters’ version of the triple crown during the final week of games.

As a team, they’ve been really good also — 15 games over .500 (38-23) in the 61 games they’ve played since July 22nd.

For those of us who had generally stopped paying attention, the Dodgers’ performance comes as a huge surprise. James Loney managed to raise his average to over .280 and is in double digits in home runs once again. During the first few months of the season, nobody  would have thought either of those things had a foul ball’s chance of hitting someone at an afternoon game at a mostly-empty Dodger Stadium.

Javy Guerra and Kenley Jansen bounced back and made up for the virtual “no-shows” of Hong Chi Kuo and Jonathan Broxton out of the bullpen.

Ted Lilly and Hiroki Kuroda finished the year with more respectable numbers than I thought and while Kershaw and Kemp have put up all-time great Dodgers seasons.

For a team that was out of the race so early, the numbers will actually look more kindly on the Dodgers than the reality of the situation.

Despite being a Dodgers fan who has rebuked the current ownership, I would be remiss if I didn’t congratulate the players. The players are not the ones that made the Dodgers a joke throughout the league. The players didn’t lead a cornerstone franchise in the second largest media market into inexplicable bankruptcy. The players kept fighting. In the end, this year’s team, the players on the field, should be remembered for doing the best they could.

Despite Ned Colletti’s “logic,” who really expected aging infielders Casey Blake, Juan Uribe, or even Rafael Furcal to have impact seasons necessary for a real playoff run? Did anyone think that a team that planned on a Marcus Thames/Jay Gibbons platoon in left field would be a playoff team? Let’s not go and blame them for getting hurt and not living up to Ned’s sometimes-skewed logic.

The fans took a stand this year against the owner of a team that was more than 10 games back in the division for all but one day since June 28. In a city where getting anyone to care about anything can be a challenge, thousands of people lodged their protests against owner Frank McCourt by not going to games.

But the fans’ protest wasn’t of Kemp, Kershaw, and the players. I hope the players understand that. If not — if Kemp, Kershaw, and other young impactful Dodgers see the fans’ non-support as traitorous and use it as a reason not to be with the team long-term — things could get a whole lot worse before they get any better.

So congratulations Mr. Kershaw and Mr. Kemp for spectacular seasons. The players on the team have turned a completely embarrassing year into one that shows a glimmer of hope for the future with new ownership.

And for that, I say thanks.

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 In our final of four articles this week, and with the season winding down, we examine where the Dodgers might go from here. 

For the last two years, I’ve been saying, “anyone but Frank,” with visions of the Dodgers being owned by Oscar De La Hoya, Magic Johnson, and Mark Cuban dancing in my head.

With Oscar in rehab and Magic and Cuban everything but vocal recently, a group led by Bill Burke that includes Chinese investors and unidentified U.S. investors has made an offer to buy the team for probably more than it’s worth.

I am more certain than ever that Frank McCourt must be stopped, but I think Dodgers fans may be exhibiting a little more patience after the most recent offer. As Mike Petriello mused, Dodgers fans need to root for “the right sale,” and not just have an “anyone but McCourt” mentality.

Fans don’t know much about Burke, aside from the fact that he’s been involved with McCourt dealings in the past. To me, that doesn’t exactly bode well for him. With all of Frank’s sins throughout the years, fans shouldn’t want anything to do with anyone who has been anywhere near the embattled Dodgers owner (thanks MSTI! You rock!).

On the field, the Dodgers still have some young parts that could lead to success in the very near future. An article in today’s LA Times made a good argument for Matt Kemp as the MVP and Clayton Kershaw as a serious contender for the Cy Young Award. And the Dodgers HAVE won 9 of their last 10 games and are closer to .500 than they have been since June.

So things might be looking up with McCourt getting an offer and the team playing well. But where do they go from here?

On the field

With the exception of Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, the Dodgers’ everyday lineup is filled with mostly mediocre or unproven talent. Without an infusion of energy or money (see: change in leadership) this off-season, that probably won’t change. Dee Gordon has the potential to be an exciting player, but there isn’t much else to get excited about. Aside from Matt Kemp’s 31 home runs, only two other Dodgers are in double-figures.

That doesn’t sound like a real contender to me…

The team is in the bottom third in baseball in home runs and runs. Beyond Kemp, nobody in their lineup strikes fear into the hearts of opponents. This makes Kemp’s achievements all the more special this year, but if Kemp is out of the lineup, the bottom of the inning might be a good time for fans to go wait in the long Dodger Stadium concession lines.

Footnote: I was excited about a possible outfield of Trayvon Robinson, Matt Kemp, and Andre Ethier next year, but the Dodgers decided that Robinson wasn’t necessary and traded him for nearly nothing. Like most people who know a lot more about these things than I do, I think this is a move I think will haunt Dodgers’ General Manager Ned Colletti for the rest of his time with the team.

Pitching has always been the Dodgers’ focus. From Drysdale and Koufax to Sutton to Valenzuela, Hersheiser, Martinez, etc… pitching has always been the mainstay of the Dodgers organization. The Dodgers’ rotation has a bonified ace in Clayton Kershaw and a few serviceable mid-rotation guys in Chad Billingsley and Ted Lilly. Again, depth is an issue though and going into the off-season, the team will probably have to make a choice between shoring up the pitching OR the lineup.

Off the field

In a Dodgers’ organization run like it is supposed to be run, this choice between one or the other should not have to be made. A team in the Los Angeles market should not have to make a choice between pitching and hitting. If Yankees and Phillies aren’t subjected to having to make a choice, neither should Dodgers fans. For an organization whose fans made them a Top-5 team in attendance for over a decade in the second largest media market in the country, having to make the choice is unacceptable.

The cross-town Angels have made free-agent acquisitions in which they’ve had to pay real money to real professionals. Torii Hunter turned out to be a much better acquisition (despite the money the Angels had to pay) than Manny Ramirez ever was. Recently, Jared Weaver signed an extension with the Angels and even gave them a home-town discount because he knows the Angels are committed to spending money and making the product on the field good.

Do you think Clayton Kershaw will give the Dodgers the same discount? What about Matt Kemp? The decisions Colletti, McCourt, Selig, and Jamie McCourt make will all contribute to whether the Dodgers get better or worse next season.

The end of the 2011 season is a crossroads in the history of the Dodgers. What management does or does not do this off-season will be closely scrutinized and, if it’s like past off-seasons, people who love the Dodgers in Los Angeles will not be much happier.

In the stands

If McCourt remains the owner, I believe the fans will stay away. The fans have spoken loud and clear with their absence this season. When McCourt sells the team, though, this fan will be sorely disappointed if fans do not sell-out the stadium during the following home games.

Let’s hope that home game is at a Dodger Stadium that Frank doesn’t still own…

If not, we could be permanently in a mental state about baseball similar to this young lady:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaDj6eT8hB0

I’m hoping against that.