@dodgerpatch Tucker was THE BIGGEST PROBLEM for the entire season!
He got paid $60 million--and delivered mediocrity.
It's hilarious that anyone would think Tucker's 8-game postseason--talk about a small sample!--redeemed his massively disappointing season. I keep reading here about the decline of Freddie, Mookie and Max--and those old guys all out-performed Tucker for 162 games. Tucker, I think, was supposed to compensate for expected age-related decline--but he was barely above league average on a $60million per season salary! (Again, I blame management for Tucker's contract, which I fear will block guys like Sirota, Tibbs and Quintero for the next 3 seasons.)
Before the postseason, I wrote something like, "If Tucker comes to life and leads the Dodgers to a three-peat as the WS MVP, all will be forgiven."
But I'll say it again: Tucker's OPS was nice, but run production was scant. Pages knocked 4 runs to Tucker's 2, even though Roberts unwisely removed Pages IN THE 6TH INNING of one game to insert Max as a pinch-hitter. Think about that: Taking out your most dangerous right-handed batter and best outfielder IN THE 6TH INNING of a close game. Oh, if Max homered, it would have looked brilliant. But the odds of that happening were very slim.
It was a team-wide collapse. The mighty Dodgers got swept 4-0, and there is plenty of blame to go around. You see Tucker's OPS as a silver-lining? I noticed that had a big chance with Will Smith on 3rd base--and popped up. (Will Smith had awful post-season stats--but in that key moment, he delivered.)
I'm not sure if it's fortunate or unfortunate that we have another three seasons to judge whether Kyle Tucker was really worth the Dodgers' $240 million investment.
But so far, not so good.