So as you all know by now, Saito is out for six weeks with a strained ligament in his elbow. You knew it was bad when the trainers sprinted out to him on July 12, just before the All-Star break. I watched that game, and it really didn’t look that bad, but he was obviously concerned. I’ve heard rumors that Saito went through at least one significant injury earlier in his career over in Japan.

Ok, so now that we don’t have Saito for a while, the big question is whether or not Broxton is the answer. I love the kid and am all for giving him and his near 100 mph fastball a shot, but that leaves a hole for a quality set-up man…something that should be easier to obtain in a trade than a closer at this late date. As the Yahoo! article indicates, Torre is reportedly considering Beimel and Kuo for Brox’s old job. For now, I like this plan as the Dodgers have plenty of other needs before the trading deadline, most notable a shortstop, some HR power and maybe a front-line starting pitcher.

One thing that I don’t think Ken noticed were the pitchers of record in the May 17th game when the Dodgers beat the Angels.  As our pal Sebastian points out over at Back Alley Media, we can all get along!:

In today’s interleague MLB game, which saw the Dodgers beat the Angels, 6-3, the Korean guy (Chan-Ho Park) started and pitched 4 strong innings, followed up by the Taiwanese guy (Hong-Chih Kuo), who pitched another strong 4 and earned the win, with the Japanese guy (Takashi Saito) closing it out in the 9th. Yes we can, in fact, all get along!  

LA Dodgers IP / H / R / ER / BB / K / HR / Season ERA
C. Park 4.0 / 3 / 2 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 0 / 2.17
H. Kuo (W, 3-1) 4.0 / 3 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 4 / 0 / 2.40
T. Saito 1.0 / 2 / 1 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 2.08