Bob Nightengale

USA TODAY Sports

The irony in the Los Angeles Dodgers' daily soap opera is that this $235 million team was built for TV.

Now, not only is the team hard on the eyes, but you can't find it on the TV network in Los Angeles.

Fitting, isn't it?

The Dodgers are a dead team walking.

Oh, sure, they still very well could find themselves claiming one of the two wild-card spots.

But win the National League West?

No chance.

It's over.

The San Francisco Giants don't have the talent the Dodgers have, but they have the kind of team the Dodgers crave.

The Giants are the definition of a true team.

The Dodgers are the true definition of a sabermetric nightmare.

The Dodgers may look good on paper, and there are high-paid stars everywhere you look, but when they step on the field together, they are a TV reality show: "Dysfunction Junction.''

They may out-talent everybody in the league, but they will never outhustle anybody.

How can the Dodgers (32-30) see that they actually have a worse record than the Miami Marlins and not be totally disgusted?

No wonder manager Don Mattingly called them out the other night, using a profanity about the way they looked, telling reporters that he's disgusted with the players' attitude, and reporters should go talk to them.

"I'm tired of answering the questions, honestly,'' Mattingly said. "It's the thing we talk about when guys start throwing all the numbers out, all these things. The one thing you can't measure with numbers and that's the power you talk about with a group. We haven't felt that as a team, and I think it's the one area that we're missing.

"To be absolutely honest with you, I think that's the one thing we're missing at this point, a collective group fighting and pulling in one direction trying to win a game, without any concept of this guy or that guy or this guy."

The tongue-lashing raised eyebrows throughout the organization, leaving one player to wonder why Mattingly was suddenly distancing himself from this mess.

Hey, aren't they all supposed to be in this together, and isn't the leader ultimately responsible for a team's success and failure?

There is one guy, of course, who happens to be the only guy worth watching these days: Yasiel Puig. And while Puig has certainly matured this year, the Dodgers have conveniently looked the other way when it comes to discipline.

It was just this past week -- the same day that shortstop Hanley Ramirez and closer Kenley Jansen argued on the field before the game and Matt Kemp and Puig argued during the game, and a few days after outfielder Andre Ethier and Mattingly yelled at each other -- that Puig stepped onto the field wearing a T-shirt, shorts and sandals, getting ready for a TV interview.

The rest of his teammates were actually on the field getting ready to stretch, and hitting coach Mark McGwire tapped at his wristwatch, reminding Puig that he was late.

Completely unfazed, Puig still stood in front of the cameras, did his interview, headed back to the clubhouse, changed, and missed stretching. He took his batting practice, didn't bother shagging balls with the rest of the outfielders, and still was in the lineup.

How's that for discipline?

The Dodgers are a mess, and everyone in the game knows it.

Here they are, with the most expensive team in baseball history, and a starting rotation that's the finest in the game, and they are squandering their riches.

They are a Maserati with a Ford Pinto engine.

Let's see, your starting shortstop, Ramirez, is considered the worst defensive shortstop in baseball by any defensive stat you choose.

Your starting catcher these days is Drew Butera, a career .186 hitter who has hit seven home runs in parts of five seasons.

Your starting center fielder is Andre Ethier some days, and, uh, Scott Van Slyke on others.

"We're just not that good,'' Mattingly said the other night.

Says Ramirez: "We're not doing nothing right now. Everybody should be angry the way we're playing right now.''

Does anyone care?

The team is filthy rich, raking in $330 million a year alone in local TV revenue, not to mention selling in excess of 3.5 million tickets.

The players are rich. They have four players earning more than $20 million this year, eight players more than $15 million and nearly half the team earning more than $10 million.

The only poor ones are those stuck watching this mess night after night, wondering if this will be remembered perhaps as the most disappointing season since the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958.

A year ago, they were saved by the miracle 42-8 run, when Puig was called up and Ramirez came off the disabled list.

So now, who comes to the rescue?

They could bring up 22-year-old center fielder Joc Pederson, who's the finest center fielder in the organization.

Yet, you bring him up, and now you've got two disgruntled high-paid outfielders sitting on the bench venting their misery to everyone who'll listen.

And come on, as much as the Dodgers would love to trade Kemp or Carl Crawford, who's going to take on their massive contracts, each owed in excess of $100 million.

The Dodgers are stuck with each other.

Now, they have to learn to live with each other, showing the sabermetrics folks that numbers may be cool -- they did lead the Nationalk League in runs and total bases last month -- you're not going to win a darn thing unless you get along.

It's called team chemistry.

It is why the Boston Red Sox are the defending World Series champions.

It's why the Giants have won two World Series since 2010 and may be headed to a third in five years.

"For people to tell me that clubhouse chemistry and personality doesn't matter,'' Red Sox pitcher Jake Peavy told USA TODAY Sports last season, "is an absolute joke. I'll fight you with every last dying breath on that.''

The Dodgers, who showed fight last year with their brawls against the Arizona Diamondbacks, now are only fighting one another, trickling even down to the minors, where Miguel Olivo chewed off half of second baseman Alex Guerrero's ear.

The Dodgers indeed are made for TV, but unless you're a big fan of the Atlanta Housewives or Duck Dynasty, this is nothing more than a dreadful reality show destined to be a Hollywood flop.

Around the basepaths

*The San Diego Padres are a mess.

They haven't been relevant since 2006, and are headed for their fourth consecutive losing season.

The Padres' new ownership is openly frustrated, and whispers are leaking out that they are considering massive changes.

While they are discussing all kinds of possibilities, and no decisions have been made, one idea is fascinating.

If GM Kevin Towers gets fired by the Diamondbacks, why not invite him back to the Padres, where he led the organization to four division titles and a pennant?

He was fired by the Padres in 2009 by CEO Jeff Moorad, who got run out of town himself in 2012.

Now, with new Padres ownership, why not bring back the man who led them to their most success?

*While everyone was up in arms over Houston Astros first baseman Jon Singleton's $10 million contract before he played a single day in the major leagues, let's turn to Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.

He signed a five-year, $32.5 million contract last March that includes a $14.5 million option in 2018.

Goldschmidt, who finished third in the NL MVP voting last year and has emerged as one of the elite power hitters in the game, might have cost himself in excess of $100 million with the deal.

But you know what?

The only one not concerned about it is Goldschmidt.

"I knew what I was doing,'' he told USA TODAY Sports. "I knew the risks involved. But I'm happy with my decision. It gave me peace and mind.''

So unless Singleton is disturbed by his decision later in his career, maybe we shouldn't care, either.

*You've got to love Seattle Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon's brutal honesty after sending struggling infielder Nick Franklin back to the minors.

"This is not a country club,'' he said. "You have to have positive results here. That's just the way it is. Some people think we are tough or we are (expletive) or we don't like players. For me all that stuff goes right out the window.

"There's only two people that get a win or a loss -- that's the pitchers and the manager. I'd be a fool if I didn't put the best people out there who I think help me win games. Like or dislike has nothing to do with it. If you can help me win, I like you. It's just that simple. That's just the way it is.

"That's the message I sent in spring training," McClendon said. "I will continue to send that message. I'll love them. I'll protect them. I'll fight for them. But I love my family and I love my job. And I want to keep it."

Oh, and please, McClendon has no tolerance for those who want to bring up the Mariners' struggles before his arrival.

"I don't know what happened in the past," he said. "I really don't care. I'm done apologizing for the past. I'm just moving forward and I want to win baseball games and I'm going to take those players along with me that will help me win those games.''

Love it.

*Excuse me, anyone seen the Cardinals?

The Cardinals' offense has been woeful, and today, the team is sitting at .500, five games behind the Milwaukee Brewers.

"If you just bring in somebody from the outside and have them sit through this (criticism),'' Cardinals manager Mike Matheny says, "you'd think that we're in absolute last place in all of baseball.''

Well, the problem is that the Cardinals, who won two of the last three NL pennants, were supposed to win at least 95 games this year and stroll to the NL Central title.

"I get it," Matheny said. "Because with great expectations, that's where we are. But I'll go back to what we talked about in spring training -- we have higher expectations on ourselves."

The biggest culprit in the Cardinals' woeful attack has been No. 3 hitter Matt Holliday. He has one homer since April 28, and since May 1, has a .319 slugging percentage.

While the Cardinals can't hit, they do lead MLB in one category:

Rain.

They have had eight postponed games and nine rain delays this season, totaling 11 hours and 22 minutes. Michael Wacha has had his starts interrupted for six hours and 30 minutes of rain alone.

*Stats guru Bill Chuck's nuggets of the week: How good is Oakland A's third baseman Josh Donaldson? Forty-four percent of his hits have gone for extra bases. ... Since 2010, Philadelphia Phillies ace Cliff Lee leads all pitchers with 27 games of 10+ strikeouts; Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers has 23, and Felix Hernandez of the Mariners has 22. ... Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, each being inducted in the Hall of Fame this year, were selected in the second round of the 1984 MLB Draft. The first overall pick that year was outfielder Shawn Abner of the New York Mets. No, he was not a home run. ... The Padres infield is hitting .202, the worst in baseball. ... Cleveland Indians starters have a 9.15 strikeout rate per nine innings, the best in baseball. ... The last time the New York Yankees had a losing record at home was in 1991. They are 13-16 in their first 29 games in the Bronx.

Follow Nightengale on Twitter: @Bnightengale