LATimes

For Los Angeles Dodgers fans, the realization that their club hasn’t played a meaningful game in the last month of the season remains tough to swallow.

Los Angeles is headed for a sub-.500 record and an offseason of turnover, a 500-foot home run from the last two seasons that saw the Dodgers advance to the National League Championship Series. 

Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti has already announced that his club intends on making a number of personnel changes in the offseason, but many folks around Dodgertown are curious to see if the current coaching staff will remain intact to compliment newly hired manager Don Mattingly.

What a difference a year makes.

After two consecutive trips to the NLCS in 2008 and 2009, Dodgers fans had even higher hopes for the 2010 season.

Folks in Dodgertown knew that the divorce between Frank and Jamie McCourt would have some type of effect on the organization, but nobody guessed the 2010 campaign would turn into a struggle on the field.

Although September 1 marks the day that all MLB teams may expand their rosters up to 40 players, the Los Angeles Dodgers are passing on the opportunity—at least temporarily.

At the beginning of the 2010 season, hopes and dreams in Dodgertown were filled with very high expectations.

Not only did the Los Angeles Dodgers expect to return to the playoffs, but many thought that this could also be the year that the Blue Crew would return to the World Series for the first time in over 20 years.

However, with just over one-quarter of the season remaining, Los Angeles has been on a turbulent roller coaster ride and finds itself in an almost impossible position to even make a run at the wild card spot in the playoffs.

The Los Angeles Dodgers head into next week's trade deadline looking to add a piece that will vault them back into serious contention in the National League West.

Entering Thursday's action, the Dodgers find themselves six games back of the first place San Diego Padres having lost seven of their last 10 games.

That is a bad recipe for a team that entered the season with loftier expectations. However, the Dodgers are also in a tricky situation.

A heated divorce between owner Frank McCourt and his wife has left the team very much cash strapped without the ability to add a big money player.

With the official halfway point of the season having already passed on July 4, the Los Angeles Dodgers find themselves amidst another tight race in the always competitive NL West division.

At the 81-game mark, the Dodgers were sitting in second place, trailing the surprising San Diego Padres by 3.5 games; however, the journey thus far hasn't been easy.

The entire Los Angeles squad has been plagued by injuries during the first half of the season, and the pitching staff has been hit especially hard.

The Dodgers marched a total of 19 different pitchers to the mound before the halfway mark&mdas

It's almost impossible to explain the true essence of the authentic Los Angeles Dodgers fan. The average baseball follower around the league has a stereotypical opinion about a genuine Dodger supporter, but that average follower doesn't understand at all. True Dodger fans get hooked; there's a clean-cut, majestic wholesomeness about them. They Think Blue, Bleed Blue, and they'll talk until they're Blue in the face.

All that being said, that same Dodger enthusiast is impatient. Successful performance is a must.

The Los Angeles Dodgers signed veteran right-handed pitcher Kiko Calero to a minor league contracton Friday, but his call-up to the Major League roster can be expected, possibly in the next week.

Following being swept for the first time at Chavez Ravine by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, concerns are once again rising regarding Dodgers pitching. In the three games this weekend, the Dodgers' pitching staff surrendered 20 runs while the offense could only produce eight runs.

Just under 50 games in to the 2010 season, the first word of potential trade brewings has surfaced for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

According to the Dodgers' website, the team has inquired about pitchers Roy Oswalt of the Houston Astros and Cliff Lee of the Seattle Mariners. Although both teams responded with a "No, for now" it doesn't necessarily mean the door can't be opened later.

But which pitcher would make a better fit in Tinsel Town? Perhaps the pitcher with the ability to eat up innings or simply keep the Dodgers in the game long enough for the offense to solidify a victory.