Potentially, This Lineup Shouldn’t Have a Problem

Kenny Lofton became the latest Dodger on Tuesday, and whether you think he has a few more stolen bases in him or you think he’s too old at 38, the point is you’ve seen him play long enough to form a solid opinion.

You’ve seen Nomar Garciaparra, Bill Mueller and Rafael Furcal before too. You’ve seen these guys in playoff series and All-Star games. No guesswork here.

The last thing this town needed was more unknowns trying to get their big break.

Los Angeles isn’t a place to peddle generic items or knockoffs. We want the real deal. Known entities.

The Dodgers weren’t merely bad last season, they lacked a player who compelled you to watch them. A team can’t have an identity without players fans can identify.

Besides, with closer Eric Gagne injured for most of last season, how many Dodger players were really Dodgers? You get the sense they had to show their driver’s licenses every time they pulled into the Dodger Stadium parking lot.

With Garciaparra you even recognize his wife, former soccer star Mia Hamm.

Yes, now that Nomar and Mueller have joined former Bostonians Derek Lowe and Manager Grady Little, it’s looking like the Dodger Blue Sox. And it might be hard for sworn enemies of that orange-and-black team to the north to accept that the current projected opening-day lineup has played almost five times as many games in a San Francisco Giant uniform (1,551) than in a Dodger uniform (318).

But who has won more playoff games in this millennium, the Dodgers or the Giants and Red Sox?

That’s why I like the approach of Ned Colletti, the eager new general manager who says, “My personality doesn’t allow me to sit around and wait. My personality doesn’t allow me to see how things will work out.”

He doesn’t just throw money at people the way Kevin Malone did, and he doesn’t try to think outside the boxscore the way Paul DePodesta did.

“What I see Ned doing is putting together winning guys who have been in winning situations,” said Eric Davis, who played in six postseason series in his 17-year career and won the World Series with the Cincinnati Reds in 1990. “That’s what you have to have, guys who know what it takes in August and September as well as April and May.

“For the first time in a long time, I see the Dodgers putting pieces to the puzzle. In order to win you have to have a complete lineup. You just can’t have stars.

“You put those pieces together, that shows that somebody’s making decisions who knows what he’s doing.”

The danger for Garciaparra is that he could fall into the same pothole that greeted other local products when they came home.

Consider the drop-off from the previous season’s stats for some high-profile returnees in their first seasons as Dodgers, something I believe involves more than just moving to a pitcher-friendly park.

Darryl Strawberry: from a .277 batting average, 37 home runs and 108 runs batted in to .265, 28 and 99.

Davis: from .235, 11 and 33 to .228, five and 32 (in 76 games).

Eddie Murray: from .284, 28 and 84 to .247, 20 and 88.

Shawn Green: from .309, 42 and 123 to .269, 24 and 99.

When you’re back home, the friends and family come running from every corner of the city. There’s a need to fill every interview request, make every charity and promotional appearance.

Davis believes he had it easier because he was traded here.

“It was more anticipation for Darryl because Darryl chose to come here,” Davis said. “It was a real big deal.

“Darryl looked at it way more than I did. He looked at himself as the face of the Dodgers. I was just coming to play. He added way more pressure to the situation than it should have been.”

Without question it was an emotion-based decision for Garciaparra. He kept reliving his youthful days at Dodger Stadium, and he had so much regard for that cap with the interlocking L.A. that he wouldn’t even put one on until he was officially introduced as a Dodger on Monday.

Hamm described the decision process the morning after Garciaparra made his decision, but before it was finalized.

“Do you still want to be a Dodger?” she asked.

“I think I need to be here,” he replied.

Although the numbers say Hee-Seop Choi was better than Garciaparra the last two seasons, I’ll take what Garciaparra has proven over what Choi is capable of.

As Davis said. “I don’t utilize potential, I utilize ability. You don’t have the potential to do something you’ve never done. You have the ability to do what you’ve done before.”

Garciaparra won’t hit .372 again. Lofton won’t steal 75 bases, Mueller won’t bat .326 with 85 RBIs.

But somewhere inside them is the muscle memory of those accomplishments. They’re the same people. And there’s a feeling that the Dodgers are now about names more than numbers.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.