If the Los Angeles Dodgers thought the pressure was on when they spent all winter trying to deal with Greed Master General Scott Boras, then they need only wait until the season begins to find a whole new boulder thrust upon them smashing a few vital organs.

To recap, the Dodgers, along with every other team in the National League West, could not put together a decent offense in 2008 if the players had a tee in front of them. Somehow the Dodgers ended up in a race for the division and decided go to the extreme and bring in Manny Ramirez.

Ramirez responded by giving the team a great high. He batted .396, hit 17 home runs, and drove in 53 in just 53 games. The Dodgers barely managed to hold off the Arizona Diamondbacks to get into the playoffs. Then the Dodgers go and sweep the Chicago Cubs before losing to the World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Then the dreaded low hit in the passing months when owner Frank McCourt realized the half season was enough to get addicted to the one player that is the personification of crack. The pains were terrible, fans and team executives could not sleep, but the team was trying to avoid getting the bank account bled dry by the dealer.

While the Dodgers did well enough not to give in to the demands for a four-year, $100 million contract, the team did sign Manny to a two-year, $45 million contract. Now they go into the 2009 season with incredible expectations.

Los Angeles has to win the NL West and go very far into the playoffs (think at least Game 7 in the NLCS). Considering the player movement this winter, the division should not be a problem, but otherwise there are a number of potential pitfalls.

The Dodgers have a decent pitching staff with Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda being an excellent 1-2 start to the rotation. Clayton Kershaw, Randy Wolf, and Jason Schmidt are questionable starters though. None of them is an obvious replacement for Derek Lowe. The bullpen has two very good setup men, Hong-Chih Kuo and Cory Wade, but is thin until Jonathan Broxton comes in to save the game.

Ramirez better have the same effect he did last season when he transformed the rest of this team’s young hitters into a sometimes-scary unit. The return of a healthy Rafael Furcal at shortstop will help and so will Casey Blake at third, but this team is going to need Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, James Loney, and Russell Martin to hit like they are on meth and become indestructible.

Remember, last season the Dodgers pretty much got a first round bye by drawing the beleaguered Chicago Cubs in the first round. This team may not be lucky enough to get a team distracted by a century of ineptitude in the first round again.

Dodger fans will demand that all the time they spent trying to bring Manny back does not result in a shattered season. Crack, though, has a habit of ruining people’s lives. The Dodgers could very well leave the fans and the organization feeling the ill effects of an ill-advised signing come October if Manny starts brooding because he did not get all four years he wanted or the money.

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