Joe Torre believes the Dodgers will find pitching help before trading deadline

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Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying
planning and dreaming each night of his charms
that won’t get you his arm …

That’s right Dodgers, Dusty Springfield is singing to you.

There are only 24 days remaining until the July 31 nonwaiver trading deadline.

Do you know where your new pitching stud is?

The Dodgers need an arm or two, ideally an ace and reliable reliever. Obtaining either, particularly an ace, figures to be daunting.

Despite those denials that the pending divorce of Frank and Jamie McCourt is not impeding any front office maneuvers, all evidence to this point is to the contrary. Certainly everyone in baseball is operating under the assumption that the Dodgers are not about to spend serious dollars.

Now if Frank McCourt really wanted to prove otherwise, then General Manager Ned Colletti would be operating with something approximating an open checkbook.

Instead of a payroll that’s gone from one of the top three in baseball to 11th this season ($95 million).

Manager Joe Torre, however, remains confident that Colletti will find him some pitching help. History says he will too.

‘I know Ned has been exploring,’ Torre said. ‘We’ve done it the last couple of years, and my guess is we’ll get some help.

‘I’m not really concerned about it at this point, because that’s his job. We’ve talked enough that he knows exactly what we feel will make us better. So hopefully it will work for us.’’

The big fish, of course, are Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt. The Dodgers are scouting both, though the assumption is they don’t have the prospects to nab Lee and don’t have the money go trade for Oswalt.

‘Unless somebody knocks your socks off with something that makes sense, pitching is really where we -- starting, relieving -- whatever can strengthen and tighten up what we have now,’’ Torre said.

There is clearly no dominant team in the National League, not even a particular favorite.

If the Dodgers could nab Lee, Oswalt or even Dan Haren, they would become the immediate team to beat.

It takes, however, more than wishing and hoping.

-- Steve Dilbeck