L.A.  Times: Bill Shaikin: Dodgers could use someone like Edwin Jackson

The Dodgers could use a guy like Edwin Jackson, who averages seven innings per start and has not given up more than four runs since May 4. Jackson ranks third in the American League with a 2.96 earned-run average, trailing Cy Young Award favorites Zack Greinke and Felix Hernandez.

The Dodgers had Jackson, of course. He made his major league debut six years ago, on his 20th birthday. He beat Randy Johnson, and the Dodgers and their fans envisioned the very success he is enjoying now.

Didn’t happen here. Couldn’t have happened here.

It is a tribute to Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw that each fit right into the major leagues. Yet it is not uncommon for a young pitcher to need a season of adjustment, or two, and the Dodgers simply do not hold a spot in their rotation for such pitchers.

James McDonald could tell you that. The last time the Dodgers awarded 20 starts to a pitcher with an ERA above 5.00: Carlos Perez, in 2000, in the middle of a seven-year playoff drought.

Fans can bemoan that Ned Colletti should have gotten more than two journeyman relievers when he traded Jackson to Tampa Bay, but Jackson was coming off a season in which he had a 6.28 ERA in L.A.—and an 8.62 ERA in triple-A.