So, here the Dodgers sit on a pile of 105 wins. That is the most games they have ever won… well actually they tied the franchise record with the win over the Giants yesterday. It’s simple: they win today and the bar is raised to 106 wins. Win-wise, they are the best Dodger team ever. Some moron on another blog full of them predicted the Dodgers would win less than 80 games this season. He was serious, so serious that his hatred of Friedman and Roberts blinded him of his vision and robbed him of his reason.
The Dodgers are the hottest team in baseball right about now. They have won six in a row (so have the Twins) and if the Twins lose and the Dodgers win today, they will officially be the hottest team going into the playoffs. Some of you were worried about that. Remember what I told you: “Don’t Worry – Be Happy!” It is OK. But, now you have to worry about the playoffs. Hopefully, D-Mountain pitches 3 shutout innings and finishes up another in the bullpen and walks off under his own power. In fact, I’m betting on that – I know Rich Hill.
So, now you can worry about the playoffs where anything can happen. Wild Card teams are very dangerous and can win it all. We all know about that, The Dodgers were the best team in 2017 and the Astros beat them. This year, the Astros are the best team, but they have flaws. Every team does. Here’s why I think it will be different THIS time and here’s what you have to think about:
The Boys in Blue have a chip on their shoulder, the size of LA. They have been to the dance twice and lost both times. When Spring Training started, they all spoke about getting back to the World Series and winning or the season would be a failure – personally, I don’t consider it a full failure (because a lot can happen that you can’t anticipate), but I am glad they feel that way. The fact that they will either be tied for the best record in baseball (with the Astros) or have the second-best record speaks volumes about how they realize they can’t skip steps. Here are the steps, in case you don’t know:
- Win the regular season
- Win the NLDS
- Win the NLCS
… in order to Win the World Series. They have completed Step 1. Next is Step 2. They know they can’t skip steps. The team has better players than last year. The existing players have also improved (for the most part). They have cut down on their strikeouts, they have improved their OB%, they have gotten better in hitting with RISP and they are more of a “team” without certain clubhouse factions and distractions. Many in the media say this is the best lockerroom EVER! Never underestimate the value of solidarity!
Whoever the Dodgers play in the National League will be the underdogs and they will be trying to unseat the Reigning NL Champs. Believe me, there will be some challenges as they throw everything but the kitchen sink at the Dodgers… but they won’t succeed. Why? The Boys in Blue are galvanized, tested-by-fire and have a chip on their shoulder the size of LA. They want it and they will fight to get what is theirs. Not only are they Bluebloods but they are also Junkyard Dogs. They will kick, hit, fight, bite, and battle in the dirt. When it’s over, they will dominate. If someone is injured, it’s “Next Man Up.”
If Justin Turner is hurt for the NLDS, someone else will step-up. That’s what Junkyard Dogs do. I’m not counting JT out – it’s just that there are contingencies in place just in case stuff like this happens. I wish we had Alex Verdugo too, but it seems that he will miss the entire Post-Season. I just hope he can rehab that back over the winter. You never know – that’s why you need multiple prospects and possibilities. He’s awfully young to have these kinds of back issues. It has been bothering him most of the second half of the season and robbed him of his power. He hit .303 before the All-Star Game and .261 after. Now is not the time to worry, but I do have concerns about Alex’s back going forward.
Someone asked a good question yesterday: “Why is Joc Pederson batting leadoff?” I used to not be a fan of him batting leadoff either, but here’s why: OB% and OPS are more important than batting average. Joc is averaging .342 OB% and .894 OPS as a leadoff hitter. In his first AB, he has a .333 OB% and a .945 OPS. He has also hit 9 HR to leadoff the game this season. Not many leadoff hitters have a better OB% and OPS than Joc, so I have no problems with it. I’d rather see Gavin Lux next year – if he can hit .300 – at leadoff, but this is now.
Arizona Fall League
The Dessert (not “Desert” when they lose) Dogs ran into Astros top prospect Forrest Whitley who went 4.2 innings and allowed 2 hits and 1 run while striking out 8 Dogs. The Dogs lost 9-4. Brett de Gaus continued to pitch well (0.00 ERA) as he went 1.1 perfect innings while striking out 2. Devin Mann and Jeren Kendall were the only Dodger hitters to play – Mann played 2B and went 1-4 (.111 BA) while Kendall went 0-2 with 2 K’s. He has struck out almost 60% of the time. YIKES!
Today’s Mandatory Listening
I can’t remember if I posted this before…
I’m not caught up on my tropes and colloquialisms, but can someone be both a “blue-blood” and a “junkyard dog”?
Are there fans of the Professional Wrestling who can answer that?
You can be a Blue Blood and you can be a Junkyard Dog. I was always a Junkyard Dog… never a Blue Blood. The Dodgers have a few “Blue Bloods.” Clayton, Cody, Walker, and Corey are what I consider Blue Bloods. The rest are Junkyard Dogs, but Cody, Corey, Striker, and Clayton are hybrids: Blue Bloods and Junkyard Dogs all in one. Alex Verdugo is also a Blue Blood. Blue Bloods have amazing talent. Junkyard Dogs just don’t quit. JT, D-Mountain, Beaty, Pollock, Smith, and others are JYD’s!
Chase Utley was a blue blood and a junkyard dog. He was a top prospect, a perennial All-Star, but few have played the game tougher. He was a magnet for contact, up at the plate with a HBP, on the bases with high impact slides, and on the field, hanging in there to turn 2.
I don’t care about Junkyard Dogs, how many wins the Dodgers have for the season, or even how they finish. I’m sure every team has it’s share of Junkyatd Dogs, and no matter how many total wins or how they finish, it’s all going to come down to which team is playing best during the post season. Go back and look at the 2007 Rockies who were practically unbeatable down the stretch and swept through the NLDS and NLCS, only to be swept aside in the WS.
All I care about is that the Dodgers get hot as hell in the post-season, and have Lady Luck on their side.
Go Dodgers. I’ll watch the game with my 85 years old father. Dodgers fan since he was a kid. Costa Rica is for the Boys in Blue.
Let’s make it 106.
Good post.
Who’s gonna step up in October and deliver? Can’t wait to find out! Sure would be fun to win today and a WS title and get to say we saw the greatest Dodger team ever! And I fretted the entire way through. Thx to Mark and all for calming me down! I still have another month of fretting in me tho!
Actually the Nats are the hottest team with 8 straight wins.
Actually, it’s 7. I missed them. Hopefully, they lose today.
I want them to win today, cuz they gotta lose sometime. Might was well be the Wild Card game or Game 1 of the NLDS.
Wow, today is game 162 and the last of the marathon of the season. Time to sprint through the finish line! I predicted 105 wins before the season and I’m rooting them on for 106! What a magical year. Should have been 110+ This team is that great.
Of the 100 win teams in the postseason, we have the most wins against >500 teams. Battle tested!
Worries about the starting staff and bullpen have been quelled over the last week or so. Talk about flipping the switch.
Sorry Mark, but the Nats have won 7 in a row, so they would be the hottest team.
I guess Turner can fall out of bed and hit, so they’ll rest his back. No cause for concern, Justin knows how to hit.
My guess is that Verdugo’s back is related to the oblique injury. He’ll be fine next year, but still won’t hit 20 bombs as they will certainly un-juice the ball over the off-season. I’m “writing it down” with a pencil for now on, so I can use the eraser.
It’s really hard to gauge the NL vs AL. The NL has 1 100 win team, but they also have 1 100 loss team. The AL has 3 100 win teams, but they also have 3 100 loss teams. What does it mean? DH vs No DH. I like the differences in the leagues. It makes for more speculation.
We will have HFA against every team except the Astros. I hate to admit this here, but the Astros are my favorite American League team. Part of me wants to root against them, but part of me wants sweet, sweet revenge.
This is the first year where MLB scheduled all the games on the last day at the same time. Perfect timing with all games this year being meaningless except to determine who wins the NL Central with both teams riding losing streaks like neither wants to win the division.
they’ve done the “everybody plays at 12pm PST” for a couple years now. But yes it’s a great idea. In fact, I wish they’d do it on the last Sat and Sun of the year.
59 – You’re rolling on your last two posts….Stellar…
Un-Juice the ball he says?!?!… I thought the power surge was due to our launch angle gurus!??! RGB- RST – BTS or something like that…
Go Rich Hill…
Well, I guess you’ll have to wait until next year if you didn’t happen to read about the juiced ball all year. The Athletic covered it extensively. AL and NL teams set records for HR in a season and the total home runs throughout baseball was also a record. Or, it’s probably a conspiracy theory.
Here’s hoping the Brewers somehow handle Scherzer on Tuesday and we play them in the DS. Would much rather face them than the Nats.
Yelich is out and Cain and Braun are not 100%, and of course the Brewer starters don’t measure up to the juggernaut that is Scherzer/Strasburg/Corbin.
Both Maddon and Hurdle fired today and the games aren’t even over yet. There may be more manager and front office movement this winter than player trades. Should be interesting.
Wouldn’t it be something if Madden went to SF and Bochy went to the Cubs?
For those who haven’t had a chance to watch or listen to the game today, Bochy sent Madbum up to pinch hit against Kershaw (threw an inning of relief today) in the 5th inning.
The count went to 3-2 after Madbum took a couple of massive swings and he finally lined out to third. Great drama considering how many times those two have gone up against each other and this is probably Bumgarner’s last game as a Giant.
As Madbum was going back to the dugout, CK tipped his cap to him. Great gesture. Just reminded me that this is what makes baseball the great game it is.
Actually, I think CK tipped his hat to Bochy not Madbum when he exited, although CK did show plenty of class when he called out Smith to vacate home plate to allow Madbum to get his moment when he pinch hit. Plus he threw him all fastballs which was very cool. Good blood, badblood, whatever, players still show respect for one another when it’s deserved.
Also, they won’t unjuice the baseball in the off season. MLB likes it this way. They could leave a ball in play longer however, to help the pitchers a little.
Phil – I too watched that exchange with great pride on behalf of CK, who showed nothing but class.
However, if you watch Madbum leaving the field, he is in his usual Stare Down mode, looking for someone to get in it with, much as he always did with Puig.
There was no acknowledgement to CK on his part – very much a one way show of respect.
Hope Kelly was ok, as he only pitched to 2 Hitters? Pitched well though.
Gotta hope that JT is ok, and Hill did enough to cement his Post Season position.
Feeling confident.
Clayton threw him nothing but fastballs to give him a chance to get a knock.
I agree with 59– The ball is juiced this year and MLB will make a significant adjustment next year. HR will go down closer to what is usual. Actually I have enjoyed the power surge this year and wish they would leave it alone.
Smith has played in 54 games and has 15 HR…. Project that out over a year and what do you get??? Babe Ruth
I’m equally impressed with how he handles himself behind the plate. It seems like there’s never a wild pitch or passed ball when he’s in there.
The last 9 games the bullpen has actually done its job and the Dodgers record in the last 9 games is 8-1 all be it against 3 crappy teams. But the fact of the matter is how good the Dodgers can be if the bullpen actually does its job. Keep that in mind in the off season because 3 starters that have been in the bullpen during this stretch will most likely be in the starting rotation next year. So the bullpen you are seeing now will not be the bullpen you see next year. All you nay sayers that don’t want the Dodgers to get 1, 2, 3 good proven relievers in the off season because relievers are “fickle or add your word” just remember how good the Dodgers have been when the bullpen actually done its job.
I agree with you BB, that you need to have many bullpen studs. Free agency looks pretty thin this year and they have some interesting arms in the farm. But, why obsess over next year’s bullpen when the playoffs start next week?
Good year. I had predicted 96 wins — they blew through that.
Now for 11 more!
Nice finish Dodgers – 106 wins, great season! Go Blue!
On to the Playoffs. So happy for the Blue Crew. Hope the make and win the WS. But if they do not, proud of them for the great year they had. DBM.
Who predicted less than 80 wins?
Great regular season! A lot went right for us this year: Bellinger took the next step; Ryu put together a full season; Kershaw reinvented himself; Verdugo proved he belongs; Smith replaced Grandal’s offensive production; and Corey Seager found his stroke in the nick of time.
A lot went as expected: the aging vets couldn’t avoid injury; the bullpen was an issue at times; Kenley gives up a lot of long balls. And some things didn’t go our way: Kike didn’t take the next step; the free agents weren’t a flop but they didn’t top out either; even the younger guys couldn’t avoid injuries.
If we were told in April, our prognosis would play out like this, I think we’d take it 10 times out of 10. On the whole, it couldn’t have gone much better this regular season. Now it’s time for sweaty palms. I think this is our best team from the recent era, but I’m more worried heading into this post season than any other. The NL is loaded and they’re all playing well. We’ve been reminded over and over, it’s not necessarily the best team, but the hottest that wins in October. Here’s to hopefully being the hottest.
I don’t understand why some fans think the MLB will un-juice the balls. They have to think that this season was one of the most successful ever plus the fans love the HR. Is it only cranky ol’ bastards or purists ( whatever that could mean) that want thing to remain static? Everyone has the same opportunity to knock one out. It’s not one league against another as in the DH. Same ball every game, AL & NL. I have no problem with it.
I’ll buy in.