You ask most any Dodger fan, and they will say one of the bigger disappointments of the 2023 playoff series against the D-Backs was the performance, or lack thereof, of Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
Part of the Dodgers’ futility in their last three playoff appearances has been the lack of production by star players. In 21, they were further burdened by the loss of Kershaw, Muncy, Joe Kelly, and Shcerzer, who was unable to answer the bell for his start in the NLCS against the Braves.
But 2021 also saw Justin Turner go 4-34 in the three playoff series. His only RBI in the playoffs tied the Cardinals in the wild-card game.
Betts, who hit .450 against the Giants in the NLDS, was held to a .174 average by the Braves in the Championship series. AJ Pollock, CT-3, and Bellinger were the offensive stars of the series. Turner, Betts, Trea Turner, and Smith all hit under .240 for the series.
In 22 the entire team came into the Padre series flat and uninspired it seemed to us fans. After scoring 5 and winning game one, the offense went in the tank the last three games. They lost game 2, 5-3, game 3, 2-1 and blew the lead in game 4 to lose 5-3. Frustrating to fans to be sure.
But let us go back to 1952, a time when the only postseason action was the World Series. Your only chance to bring back the title. The Dodgers were in their third World Series in 6 years.
They were the Boys of Summer, Snider, Reese, Robinson, Campanella, Furillo, Cox, Erskine, Roe, Black. Don Newcombe was not available because he was in the service. During the 7 game series, they would use only six pitchers, Black, Loes, Roe, Erskine, Lehman and Rutherford. Black started 3 games, going 1-2, Erskine started 2.1-1, Roe and Loes one each.
On the offensive side, only Snider, Reese, and Cox had good offensive series. Snider and Reese both hit .345. Snider had four homers and eight driven in. He would hit four again in 55. Cox hit .296.
Campy, .214, Robinson, .174, Furillo, .174. All had bad series. But the most futile of all was Gil Hodges. The Dodgers first baseman, who had a stellar season with 32 homers and 102 driven in, was 0-21. The first player to ever play a seven game series and end up with no hits.
Gil did manage to walk 5 times. But those were his only times on base. And it seemed like all series he would come up in critical situations.
With all of those vital players not contributing, it was little wonder they lost to the Yankees in seven games again. The Yankees hit .216 as a team in the series, and the Dodgers, .215. But the Yanks outhomered them 10-6. They outscored them 26-20.
It was by far the worst postseason performance Hodges would ever have. The problem lingered into the 1953 season. At one point manager Charlie Dressen benched Hodges.
On a hot Sunday afternoon, one of the Priests in Hodges district declared, it is too hot for a sermon today, so go home, and pray for Gil Hodges. The prayer must have worked, because Hodges got hot and finished 1953 with a .302/31/122 line.
The game can humble anyone. Hodges is a prime example of that.
Yamamota will sign with the Mets because Steve Cohen,the owner will offer whatever money he wants and because of his relationship with the other Japanese Met pitcher Kodai Senga. Bet it!
Nice article Bear. The boys better step up and win a World Series in 2024, nothing less. Whatever it takes,the excuses are over with. Put your big boy pants on and do it.
Bear
Interested in your opinion on what the boys should do with muncy taylor and barnes are they tradeable ?
I will try to make this simple as I can. Muncy just signed a team friendly two-year extension. Although he might not be the best third baseman in the league, he is not the worst either and he actually got better as the season progressed. The Dodgers feel they can live with his strikeouts because of his ability to get on base and his power and RBI prowess. Taylor has 30 million left on his contract. Two years, and he is making more than Muncy. Although his ability to play multiple positions is attractive, that contract for a guy who is basically a utility player, is not appealing to trade partners. If the Dodgers ate some of the money, then maybe. Now we come to Austin Barnes. Pitchers love Barnes. He is good at framing and his game calling skills are excellent. He does not throw out runners at a high percentage, but defensively, he is very good. As for his bat, the Dodgers must believe he can occasionally deliver a clutch hit out of the 9 hole and their offense is good enough to cover one weak bat. But Barnes has had some moments. Most memorably his base hit in game 6 of the 2020 series that sent Snell to the bench. The Dodgers won two games last season 1-0. Austin Barnes drove in the run in both. One was an 8th inning homer at Dodger Stadium. One final note on Muncy. Except for BA and WAR, he was across the board better than Matt Chapman who so many would like to see. He had twice the home runs, 51 more RBI’s and a higher OPS, SLG and OPS+. Chapman only made 4 errors less than Muncy.
Great start to this offseason! Hopefully a few more key moves to come and our Dodgers will be right where we want them to be. Challenging for the World Series Victory hopefully over the Yankees!
muncy ain’t going nowhere. nobody wants barnes! taylors contract will prevent anyone from trading for him! heard yesterday the orioles and braves were in big for Cease. if not the dodgers, please be Baltimore!
Actually, the Dodgers want Barnes. They value the fact that when they rest Smith, they have a backup who is defensively sound. And he occasionally gets a big hit. They value Muncy enough to have extended him. Having Taylor is not a bad thing. He has more power than Hernandez, is a very skilled defender at multiple positions. Yes, he strikes out too much, but he also comes through in the clutch a lot. Fans have short memories. The Dodgers do not even get to the NLDS in 21 without Taylors 9th inning walk of, and he kept them alive with his 3-homer performance in game 5 of the NLCS.
The Sox keep waffling on Cease. One minute they are trading him, the next they are backing away. Make up your minds.
Quick question about Ohtani. How much does his agent make on a contract like that? And is he paid up front or does he have some deferred money as well? Thx Bear
Not sure how that is handled. Agents, depending on their rates can get anywhere from 10 percent on up. Col Tom Parker screwed Elvis royally with their handshake 50 percent deal. Then when Elvis wanted to fire him, he presented him with a bill for a lot of money.
I read somewhere that the agency will earn 5% of the total dollars so $35M and that they get paid when Ohtani does meaning the agency will need to wait several years to earn the bulk of the money. I think it was an article on LinkedIn but I can’t find it.
Thanks.
Agents get paid only when their clients do. In this case, the agent’s kids or estate will be the benefactor from many of the payments.
Wonder if his agent is in on any of his endorsement deals? Lot of money there.
Couldn’t speak to that. Although CAA has a great brand wing, and they usually book endorsements with film talent.
I have to imagine that the sponsorships that Ohtani “brought” with him from Japan are outside of this scope.
Whether they get Yamamoto or not the Dodgers are set up nicely for 2025. They get Ohtani, May, & Gonsolin back to go with Glasnow, Buehler, Miller, Sheehan, Stone, Grove, and the rest (minus any trades). Deep and young.
I don’t think Buehler will be back in 2025. He a FA and will want to get paid if he pitches effectively. Ohtani pitching, Glasnow under contract, Bobby Miller hopefully turning into an ace, and Dustin May coming back make him expendable. I even think that was part of the calculation in signing Ohtani.
I would tend to agree that Buehler might walk. But depending on how this season goes for him, he might be willing to sign a one-year contract to establish that he is healthy.
He might. Even if he does, there’s still a little bit of a traffic jam in the rotation if you have
Ohtani
Glasnow
Miller
May
Gonsolin
Sheehan/Stone/Frasso/Nastrini/Knack
I guess it depends a little on how Miller plays this year. If he turns into the stud his peripherals suggest he could be, then there’s your three studs you need in the playoffs.
I totally agree with that. I think if May can stay healthy, he is another stud pitcher.
Yes. Before he got hurt in 2021, he was showing Glasnow/Cole level stuff.
https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&type=36&month=0&ind=0&startdate=&enddate=&season1=2021&season=2021&qual=20&sortcol=8&sortdir=default&pagenum=1
Blind Joe, he just didn’t let them walk. Turner got 2 years from Boston at more than the Dodgers were willing to pay. Seager got a massive deal from Texas. To match what he got in Texas the Dodgers would have had to pay him 400 million. As for Belli, he was coming off of three really bad seasons in a row. Rather than paying him the QO they let him walk. Made perfect sense even though we fans did not like it. Trea Turner wanted to play on the East coast. He was never going to re-sign with the Dodgers.
So, Blind Joe (the moniker is apropos), you’re offended that I mentioned “Glassy” in the same sentence as Gerrit Cole, and then in the next sentence you confidently predict that a guy who is coming off his second Tommy John surgery will be right up there with Cole as one of baseball’s best starting pitchers?
Bold strategy, Cotton! Let’s see if it pays off.
I remember commenting here a couple of years ago when he shut down the Braves in that NLCS game that my fear when watching Buehler pitch was that he would blow out his arm again. It seemed like he threw more than he pitched. When he could heave a 98 MPH fastball, he could get away with it, but I don’t know that he can rely on throwing balls past people anymore, at least as a long term pitching strategy.
So … yes, I’m putting Glassy in the same sentence as Cole, because his stuff or his ceiling is right up there with Cole. In fact, I’ll go one better. I think, long term, Glassy is a better bet than Cole simply because Glassy doesn’t have all the innings on his arm. Cole routinely pitches 200+ innings every year, and has for some time. The arm has a finite number of maximum effort pitches before it just wears out. Look at Bumgarner. He’s not that old, and never spent serious time on the injured list, but he’s out of baseball. He just put too much mileage on that arm early in his career. Cole is a workhorse, but it won’t last forever.
Stuff+ is my new favorite pitching stat. Look at how Glassy compares to De Grom. Glassy’s curve is off the charts good.
https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&type=36&month=0&ind=0&startdate=&enddate=&season1=2021&season=2021&qual=20&sortcol=12&sortdir=default&pagenum=1&pageitems=30
comment in jail again.
Bailed out.
I agree with Blind Joe on his earlier comment. Buehler has been a much better pitcher than Glasnow including leading the Dodgers to a WS title. And Buehler is a year younger. Yet Dodgers pay Buehler only $8 million this year and instead give Glasnow an extension worth $136 million. Both pitchers have a year left until free agency yet they pay Glasnow and not Buehler. Walker pitched 207 innings in 2021 and another 18 innings in the playoffs including pitching on 3 days rest when he likely injured his arm for the team. Glasnow has a career high of 120 innings pitched.
Also I agree with Blind Joe’s assessment that the Dodgers let Seager, Turner, and Bellinger walk. Others keep repeating that the Dodgers needed to pay Seager $400 million to equate to the Rangers offer of $325 million. This is faulty math. The CA top tax rate is 13.3% and only applies to games in CA. A better approximation is $350 million not $400 million. (By taking $325 and dividing by 93.35%). And that is if the player cares about taxes paid and doesn’t have a creative tax accountant. Friedman should have extended Seager early like the Mariners did for his brother. But instead as Seager approached free agency, the Dodgers paid Betts $360 million, then paid Bauer a record $42.5 million a year and traded for Trea Turner and paid him $21 million a year. While Corey was earning the World Series mvp and getting paid $7 million in 2020. Friedman chose to pay external players huge sums instead of paying his own players.
At least when Gil was 0-21 some others stepped up and series went 7 games. So this time Mookie/Freddie matched Gil, but sadly no one else was able to step up.
Snider and Reese carried the team in that series. They were up 3-2 when the series went back to Ebbets Field. But they lost game 6, 3-2, and then game 7, 4-2. Game 7 featured the mad dash by Billy Martin to catch an infield pop up that saved a run. Bob Kuzva got the save.
Gil grounded into two rally killing double plays.
Good to see a new Bear post.
Thanks Buff, I will do a lot more when I get back home on my desk top. The print is small on the laptop, so research and typing for these fading eyes and fat fingers is challenging. Went to see Napoleon on Sunday. Interesting movie.
Not to make excuses but in 21 last four weeks of regular season we’re like playoff games trying to win division then intense one game wildcard playoff,,drag out wipe out five game series. By the time got to LCS to face eventual WS winner could tell they were a little spent by then. Unlike 22 and 23 nothing to be ashamed about. Actually I was proud of how hard they fought in 21
Same here, but we were playing without Muncy, who hit 35 bombs that year and he owns the Giants, Kersh went down in September. Kelly during the playoffs and Scherzer after the NLDS.
Holy fuck is this hard to read.
What is hard to read Bluto??
Michael’s post, the first sentence especially.
Okay. Just wondered.
Hodges was one of the greats. Great player–and then he managed the Miracle Mets to the championship.
Yes, the Mets had great pitching. But how many position players could crack the Dodgers’ roster today?
Hodges was a difference maker.
None. Mets 69 starting lineup. 1B, Ed Kranepool, 2B, Ken Boswell, 3B, Wayne Garrett, SS, Bud Harrelson, LF, Cleon Jones, CF, Tommy Agee, RF, Ron Swoboda, C, Jerry Grote. Jones and Agee in their prime might crack the outfield, they both had OPS over .800 that season. As for their pitching, only Seaver and Koosman were outstanding. Gentry, Cardwell and McAndrew were pretty pedestrian. But they had a solid bullpen which included a very young Nolan Ryan. The pen was responsible for 31 of their in season wins.
Ahh, the magic question. The stunt men, Hatch et al did their jobs. They filled in admirably. Hatcher did his best Kirk Gibson impression and hit ,368 for the series with two bombs. He would have been the MVP if not for Hershiser. Hatch had hit one homer all year.
That is true Joe. In his only World Series, the great Ted Williams hit .200. Barry Bonds hit only .245 in 48 games. But no one ever had as bad a series as Gil with that many at bats. In 1966 the Dodgers won the pennant by 1.5 games over the Giants with the Pirates finishing 3 back. Baltimore won 97 games and won the AL pennant by 9 games over the Twins who won in 65. Statistically, the Orioles barely outhit the Dodgers during the season with their team average of .258 to the Dodgers .256. But power wise, the Orioles had better power hitters. The Orioles kid pitchers held the Dodgers to just 2 runs in the series shutting them out the last 3 games. Bu the Dodgers actually chased Dave McNally in the third inning of game 1. Jim Lefebvre hit a two-run homer off of him in the second. Moe Drabowski, who was 6-0 during the season, pitched 6.2 innings of scoreless relief to get the win. Drabowski was famous for his wackiness. He once ordered Chinese food from Hong Kong from the bullpen phone. The next game, Koufax got beat 6-0, and Willie Davis made three errors in the same inning. In games 3 and 4, they were shut out by identical 1-0 scores. The offense totally went dead.
Things will be kinda quiet until Yamamoto signs.
McCutcheon and Pirates agree to a one-year deal per MLBTR. Yankees claimed Jeter Downs off of waivers.
Bear, wasn’t insinuating taylor wasn’t valuable, he’s a great utility guy. he does strike out too much. and on Max you’re drad on. he ain’t going nowhere. Barnes, oh hell one more year and maybe he’s gone. yeah , big hit against snell, and issw both games last year he won . i’m no expert but i don’t see his value as you do. not saying im right and you’re wrong, just me. love what you write and hope you have a mery christmas and great health in the nnew year! Lebron just signed with. the dodgers. he’s taking the deferred moneyfrom ohtani. he’s going to pinch run all season. he’ll just knock every position player off the bags! some things never change!!
Muncy is a bargain although his fielding at 3B has been cringe worthy. Hopefully, he will improve.
Taylor was lucky to get his big contract. The Dodgers let Hernandez walk because they thought he and Taylor were the same player and they were high on McKinstry who they thought would also be a good utility player. McKinstry started off hot, then faded after an injury. When Taylor’s contract expired he was coming off 2 good years and the Dodgers needed him. That’s why he got the huge overpay. Unfortunately, he has had 2 down years. Maybe his injuries have had something to do with his poor performance.
Barnes has had his moments but I suspect if this year is anything like last year it will be his last year.
I have to agree with you on Barnes. He has value as a backup simply because of his defense. Anything you get with his bat is a plus. One of the injury’s Taylor had affected his neck. As someone who has had neck problems, I can understand how hard it would be to perform at a high level when you cannot turn your neck correctly. Even with the injury’s, he has had some good moments and games. He never lets up in the field.
The Dodgers are considering presenting an offer in the $250-300MM range to Yoshinobu Yamamoto, reports Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/12/dodgers-considering-250mm-offer-to-yamamoto.html
They know that more than one team will probably go over $300MM so maybe they plan to do something like $250MM over 6 years which would enable him to hit free agency again at 31, while at the same time far surpassing any AAV previously given to a pitcher (except Shohei). Then they have to try to convince him to defer some of that salary.
Or maybe that’s just their opening salvo.
Or maybe they know they aren’t going to be high bidder and are hoping that money isn’t going to be the deciding factor. I can’t imagine that the Mets and Giants won’t both go over $300MM.