Dodgers Need the Monotony

No one needed that All-Star break more than the Dodgers. Three precious days without trades or firings or innuendo.

Break’s over. Back to the season. And with the Dodgers, that means back to the soap opera.

When we last saw them, Paul Konerko--yet another Dodger no one would have imagined being traded before the season started--had been sent to Cincinnati along with Dennis Reyes for closer Jeff Shaw. That prompted the new former closer, Antonio Osuna, to request a trade to someplace he could be the main guy in the bullpen.

As the curtain went up for Act II, Osuna was seeking assurances that he wouldn’t be traded, which went along nicely with General Manager Tom Lasorda’s proclamation that Osuna wasn’t going anywhere.

Meanwhile that old subplot from Act I--the Randy Johnson trade rumor--has resurfaced and it’s becoming evident that it will be a recurring theme, like those two guys who keep promising to buy insurance from Jim Carrey in “The Truman Show.”

Johnson’s value hasn’t exactly shot up since the last time the Dodgers went through this trade parade at the end of May and is coming off an eight-run pounding by the Texas Rangers. But he’s still much better than anyone else the Dodgers could send out as their fifth starter.

And his becoming a free agent next year means less and less because the Dodgers have made it more and more clear that they’re about winning right now. Trading the 22-year-old Konerko for the 32-year-old Shaw brought that home.

The Mariners desperately need bullpen help if they hope to gain ground on the Angels in the American League West and Shaw’s presence makes Osuna expendable. It’s the best trade the Mariners could make.

Which means there’s a nagging feeling that we haven’t heard the last of this, despite what was said Thursday afternoon.

Before the game against the Padres, Osuna said he was reassured that he would still get chances to save games, even if he wasn’t the No. 1 closer. And if that was the case, he wanted to know he wasn’t on the trading block.

“Tommy called me in and said I wasn’t going anywhere,” Osuna said through an interpreter. “I am going to stay here for a long time.”

In one of those impromptu press gatherings that have occurred with almost scheduled regularity since Lasorda took over the general manager’s duties, Lasorda said there was “no way” Osuna would be traded.

“Don’t even put in [the paper] that he’s going to be traded, because he’s not,” Lasorda said.

Well, he should be. Except now it’s more complicated than it should be because there are additional factors in the mix. Like credibility.

Lasorda and the Dodgers had just been through this, saying Konerko wasn’t on the trading block, then shipping him off to Cincinnati a short while later. Osuna said he mentioned that to Lasorda, and that Lasorda told him, “I’m speaking to you from my heart. I’m honest to you. I’m not going to trade you.”

Business may call, and if it does, Lasorda wouldn’t be the first person in history to come back and say, “I was wrong.”

But instead of gaining confidence that the organization is doing things to make the team better, will the players become increasingly fearful that they’ll be the next ones to go?

Unless the Dodgers make up some serious ground, that might be the only suspense left in the second half of the season. The Dodgers have no shortage of another element of a good story, irony. How about Gary Sheffield’s first-inning home run in Thursday’s 12-3 shellacking of the Padres coming thanks to a tip from Mike Piazza?

No fooling. The Dodger and ex-Dodger, centerpieces in that mega-trade, were talking about their power strokes at the All-Star game in Denver, and Piazza reminded Sheffield to keep his weight on his back foot longer to generate more bat speed through the hitting zone.

The Dodgers’ other home run was hit by a guy, Trenidad Hubbard, who would have been in Albuquerque if Konerko hadn’t been sent to Cincinnati.

And the Dodgers had no need for Shaw, meaning he still has pitched in their uniform only during the All-Star game.

But the Dodgers won’t mind having the man they traded Konerko for sit idly if they keep coming up with 14-hit games and solid starts like Chan Ho Park’s six innings of three-hit ball.

“It’s a good first sentence in the story,” Hubbard said. “Let’s see if the meat of the story holds up.”

Sounds like he has the makings of a screenwriter, which is the last thing this town needs.

It certainly doesn’t need any more drama from the Dodgers. One game into Act II and they have more victories than news conferences, and that qualifies as a step in the right direction.