A Core Without a Corps

These guys all play on the same team, in a home stadium that had a messy divorce with offense long ago:

Left fielder .301/.368/.496, six steals 
Catcher .271/.381/.395, as many walks as strikeouts
First baseman .343/.398/.500
Utility infielder .361/.451/.475, plays more than half-time
Second baseman .343/.363/.452

Many believe they have the best pitching staff in the league. First place right?

Well, they're the $230 million L. A. Dodgers, 13-20 and last in the NL West. They've surrendered the third most runs in the NL. Their offense is even worse.

With that lineup? How?

You can't blame Carl Crawford, AJ Ellis, Adrian Gonzalez, Nick Punto and Mark Ellis (the lines above, respectively). The trade with Boston is paying off.

But that's the whole shooting match. Superstar center-fielder Matt Kemp has one home run. His pasture-mate, Andre Ethier, is hitting an empty .243. Shortstop Hanley Ramirez is on the shelf and his backup, Justin Sellers, is hitting .191 with two extra base hits.

And those players are All-World compared to third baseman Luis Cruz. .090/.114/.090 with one walk and 12 strikeouts. His backup is Juan Uribe, .220/.371/.340. Uribe is getting on base -- 12 walks in 62 plate appearances, but he has no speed and can't carry Cruz's glove.

The result: The second fewest runs in the NL. The Dodgers are hitting .213 with runners in scoring position. AJ Ellis has been on base 43 times this year and scored five runs. The Dodgers don't leave the yard much, except to drive home after a loss.

With Zack Greinke nursing his WWE injury and Chad Billingsley joining the New Elbow Tendon Club, nine hurlers have earned a start from manager Don Mattingly. Five of them have failed to hold opponents to under five runs-a-game. Closer Brandon League is getting lit up. The bullpen has blown five of 14 save opportunities.

And Josh Beckett; -- 0-4, 5.14 -- appears to be as fried as the chicken he loves. 

Los Angeles can certainly blame the injury bug -- Greinke, Billingsley, Ramirez, Ted Lilly and others have been hurt. Kemp is recovering from off-season shoulder surgery. But they'll have injuries all season, as will everyone, and without a bench, they won't survive.

Magic Johnson and Dodger management threw around the greenbacks to build this team, but they forgot to invest in a bench. Other than Punto and maybe Skip Schumaker, they really don't have the supporting cast to fill in for extended stretches while regulars inevitably hobble off the field. Money can be a powerful weapon if used strategically, but if all it does is overpay a small coterie of players, this is the unsurprising result.

The stars and scrubs approach has never fared well over 162 games.

There's still plenty of time in the eminently winnable NL West to capture the magic and make a run. But someone besides those guys at the top is going to have to step up. Mark Ellis isn't going to hit .343 all year.