For the first half of the season, the Dodgers were more mediocre than good.

2004 Dodger Record
First 27 Games: 17-10
Next 27 Games: 13-14
Next 27 Games: 13-13
Next 27 Games: 21-6
After two-thirds of the season: 64-43

Now the team is good - smack in the territory between mediocre and great.

Catchers (3)
PA OBP SLG OPS EQA E
377 .351 .444 .795 .276 3 Paul Lo Duca
113 .259 .307 .566 .203 0 Dave Ross
4 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 Brent Mayne

Lo Duca is OPSing 1.490 in five games with Florida, meaning that it'll be about a week before it's mathematically possible for him to swoon. Ross has struck out 39 times with three home runs to show for it. With Mayne, the Dodgers have their weakest offense at catcher since perhaps the Steve Yeager era.

Infielders (10)
PA OBP SLG OPS EQA E
467 .346 .390 .737 .263 7 Cesar Izturis
450 .343 .429 .772 .273 5 Shawn Green
422 .371 .610 .981 .323 7 Adrian Beltre
305 .392 .430 .822 .291 4 Alex Cora
169 .396 .538 .935 .318 3 Jose Hernandez
113 .319 .323 .642 .234 0 Robin Ventura
92 .319 .432 .751 .265 2 Olmedo Saenz
10 .300 .444 .744 .257 0 Hee Seop Choi
9 .300 .667 .967 .321 0 Joe Thurston
7 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 Chin-Feng Chen

Compared to 2003, Izturis is showing a nearly 25-percent improvement in OPS. Doesn't the lineup slot controversy for Green seem like ancient history now? Beltre has a 1.044 OPS as the cleanup hitter. Cora and Hernandez lead the team in on-base percentage and have 16 home runs between them. Despite over-the-hill numbers, Ventura has positioned himself for some minutes on any 2004 Dodger highlight video with three memorable game-winning hits. Saenz may sneak in there too, while Thurston and Chen have been written out of the script. Expect good things from Choi, who quietly begins his Dodger career with two doubles.

Outfielders (6)
PA OBP SLG OPS EQA E
400 .377 .462 .839 .293 4 Milton Bradley
349 .289 .417 .705 .244 4 Juan Encarnacion
265 .340 .356 .696 .277 3 Dave Roberts
145 .310 .432 .742 .258 1 Jason Grabowski
153 .351 .562 .913 .307 2 Jayson Werth
11 .636 .889 1.525 .508 0 Steve Finley

Boy, has Bradley come on. While Beltre channels Kirk Gibson's gimpy MVP-hood, Bradley channels the fire - and is OPSing .954 since the All-Star break. Encarnacion snuck in 251 outs in his brief Dodger career. Roberts leaves a Dodger folk hero, 2 1/2 years after entering Spring Training as the No. 4 candidate to play center field. Grabowski leads the Dodgers with 10 pinch hits and four pinch walks. Werth is the same age as Beltre and almost as good a hitter. Dare to dream of the possibilities if Werth could catch as well as say, Mike Piazza. Finley starts out with fire in his bat and his hamstring. Where is the weak spot in an outfield-first base rotation of Finley, Bradley, Werth, Choi and Green? Is it Green? Doesn't matter - it's a rich group. A year ago, the Dodgers were throwing out Jeromy Burnitz, Jolbert Cabrera, Wilkin Ruan, Ron Coomer, Daryle Ward, Mike Kinkade, Larry Barnes ...

Starting Pitchers (6)
ERA K/9 Inn.
0.00 4.5 8.0 Brad Penny
3.08 6.2 128.2 Odalis Perez
3.86 4.6 11.2 Edwin Jackson
3.93 6.6 146.2 Jeff Weaver
4.76 4.5 123.0 Kazuhisa Ishii
8.06 5.0 67.0 Hideo Nomo

Penny won't pitch shutout ball all year, but at least showed the Los Angeles media that he existed. Colorado has scored 10 of the 44 earned runs Perez has allowed. After all the Spring Training pressure, Jackson is free to heal and blow away hitters in September. Weaver (25.5 VORP) has simply been more valuable on his own than Kevin Brown (23.9) this season. The style of Ishii dictates his inconsistency, and it's a question whether he would be on a playoff roster. The fact that Nomo was allowed to pitch hurt for so long remains one of the biggest mysteries of this Dodger season.

Swingmen (2)
ERA K/9 Inn.
3.30 7.5 87.1 Wilson Alvarez
4.01 4.7 112.1 Jose Lima

Alvarez is showing his setup man potential. I've been skeptical of Lima all year - not out of any malice, I can assure you - but what can you say, he has delivered.

Relievers (9)
ERA K/9 Inn.
0.00 4.5 2.0 Yhency Brazoban
0.00 4.5 2.0 Rodney Myers
1.40 9.8 19.1 Giovanni Carrara
1.65 13.0 54.2 Eric Gagne
2.14 7.4 63.0 Guillermo Mota
3.38 11.4 48.0 Darren Dreifort
3.51 4.9 51.1 Duaner Sanchez
4.13 5.7 28.1 Tom Martin
7.53 6.9 14.1 Brian Falkenborg

Y-Braz? Brazoban may get a chance to be an October hero against the team that traded him, the Yankees. It'll be interesting to see if he leapfrogs Sanchez, among others. Myers continues to show improvement over his 2003 season. In his Grover Cleveland-esque second term in Los Angeles, Carrara has been better than ever. The strikeout numbers of Gagne and Dreifort really dwarf those of Mota. Dreifort is almost like a Nuke La Loosh character when you factor in his nearly six walks per nine innings. Coincidence that Paul Shuey's Dodger career ends (with surgery) just days before Martin is shown the door? Falkenborg probably will not make the highlight video.

Looking Back
33 1/3: Dodgers at the One-Third Point, June 7

Even if Nomo doesn't make a recovery this season, the Dodgers probably have the pitching depth to cover for him. But if Green and Encarnacion remain the two poorest hitters in the starting lineup come July, what do they do? As much as any other question for any team in the division, Tracy and general manager Paul DePodesta's need and/or ability to answer this will determine whether the Dodgers, now on pace to win 90 games, can conquer the mild, mild National League West.

The Think Blue All-Star Summertime Variety Revue Power Hour, July 11

The Dodgers have three emerging problems ... The first is Beltre's health. If he doesn't play, every single day, the offense goes Amish, with everyone turning back hopelessly to Green to raise the barn.

The second is that conventional wisdom will tell them to place "proven RBI man" Encarnacion back in the lineup when he comes off the disabled list - at the expense of Werth.

The third is that because of a dearth of impact talent available on the trade market, it is unclear what moves Paul DePodesta should make - in a race in which he has little margin for error. And the internal (let alone external) grief he might take for standing pat could be, well, implosive (let alone explosive).

One after another, the Dodger problems have been solved. While by no means a flawless team, while the regular season remains very much in doubt, a team that many thought might be eliminated from its race before Dennis Kucinich is instead contemplating a World Series candidacy.

Entering the season's final third, the biggest issues for the Dodgers are as simple and tantalizing as this: integrate the new personnel, heal some of the old, and try to keep everyone playing as well as they have been playing. And hope like hell that Adrian Beltre's extremities hold up.

There aren't five players with better MVP platforms than Adrian Beltre. And there aren't five teams with better World Series platforms than the Dodgers.