Lots of Dodger fans are blaming Dave Roberts for using Blake Treinen when Blake has not been successful. They genuinely believe that Roberts is a moron for repeatedly running Treinen out there. I want to make one thing perfectly clear: Dave Roberts is the Game Manager, but he is not the ultimate decision-maker—baseball has changed from the days when Leo Durocher, Casey Stengel, Walter Alston, and Sparky Anderson were managers.
Dave Roberts is part of a management team that includes Andrew Friedman, Brandon Gomes, Josh Byrnes, Jeffery Kingston, Alex Slater, David Finley, Galen Carr, Will Rhymes, and others like Ron Roenicke, Chase Utley, Denny Lehman, Bob Geren, Mark Prior, Conner McGinnis, Rob Hill, and Jose Vizcaino… among others. It varies, game-to-game, depending upon who is doing what… scouting or whatever…
Dave Roberts is the on-field extension of the Front Office. He does not make decisions in a vacuum. There is a lot of input, scouting, and brain power involved. It’s easy for us to say after the fact that “Treinen should not have been in the game,” but who should have been there? These types of things are discussed ad nauseum, and we are not privy to those discussions. Dave Roberts has not “gone rogue.” He knows what the consensus is with the front office and their evaluations, as well as sabermetrics analysis.
They chose to put Treinen on the roster, and they even specified where he might be most successful. He is a high-leverage reliever, in theory, but he is not in reality. His 8.31 ERA speaks volumes. Banda has been even worse with a 10.38 ERA. Happily, neither one should pitch tonight, and tonight is a “must-win.” Tonight, Wrobleski, Henriquez, Kershaw, Sheehan, and Sasaki should be the bullpen options. Sasaki should be able to handle the final two innings.
Tonight, a couple of things have to happen:
- Blake Snell needs to pitch the game of his life, and
- The team needs to hit collectively.
In 162 Games, the Dodgers scored just 27 more runs than the Blue Jays. However, they had 53 more home runs. In the postseason, the Jays have played one more game than the Dodgers (15 to 14), but they have outscored the Dodgers by 31 runs! The Jays are averaging 6.26 Runs a Game in the Playoffs, while the Dodgers are averaging 4.5 runs a game. The Dodgers are not going to win this World Series unless they can hit!
In the playoffs, the Dodgers have a 3.04 ERA, and the Jays sit at 4.09, but in the World Series, the Jays have a 3.48 ERA while the Dodgers sit at 4.30. The Dodgers have the stars, but the Jays have the recipe to win. If the Dodgers don’t wake up today, it’s over. The Blue Jays are hitting .285 in the postseason with a .823 OPS, while the All-Star Dodgers are hitting .243 with a .746 OPS.
Andy Pages has had a lot of bad luck – he has only struck out 20% of the time – he is just hitting the ball where they are. I would continue to keep him in CF. This is a team issue, and it’s not all on Pages. Call didn’t look any better. The stars better hit tonight or the fat lady will be singing.
By the way, the First Draft of my book is done. This is just a bad mock-up of the cover:
Mookie has plenty of company in the black hole bat group
In the Series only 3 Dodgers hitting better than .250, Freeman, Teo and Ohtani. LA is batting .214 in the series and the Jays .259. LA has outhomered them 7-5 but have struck out 40 times to the Jays 37. Kike is not having a good series; he has struck out 8 of his 16 at bats. Max has 3 hits and 7 Ks. They have to make better contact. My take is that they take way too many center cut fastballs without even trying to hit them. Then they chase out of the zone. Jays rarely chase. Prime example last night was Call looking at two pitches right in the middle of the plate before striking out.
Bear, You also complained yesterday that they swung at too many first pitches!!
Because they do. The point being that this team built its rep on making pitchers work. But, if you get a first pitch fastball right down Broadway, you should be hacking. They do not get that many first pitch strikes in the middle of the plate. A ton of the first pitch outs have been on borderline pitches.
Looking forward to reading your book, Mark.
Champ shit only.
So I’m not sure what is perfectly clear here….
You say people who blame Roberts for using Treinen are morons.
Is it because Roberts really isn’t making the decision because he’s actually channeling the collective judgment of “Andrew Friedman, Brandon Gomes, Josh Byrnes, Jeffery Kingston, Alex Slater, David Finley, Galen Carr, Will Rhymes, and others like Ron Roenicke, Chase Utley, Denny Lehman, Bob Geren, Mark Prior, Conner McGinnis, Rob Hill, and Jose Vizcaino… among others. It varies, game-to-game, depending upon who is doing what… scouting or whatever.”
So…. who is really responsible?
The answer, I think, is Roberts. I certainly hope it’s Roberts. Of course he receives input from the front office and scouts…. but doesn’t the buck stop with Roberts?
I’ll just muse about how maybe AF didn’t provide Roberts with all the weapons the team might need. Just imagine the state of this bullpen without the resurrection of Sasaki! But when AF shopped for some bullpen help, he settled for Brock Stewart, now injured. (Fortunately so, perhaps. He might have kept Will Klein off the roster.) The Blue Jays got a better guy from the Twins: Louis Varland.
Yes, a lot of fans are wary of Treinen–and why shouldn’t they be? Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, the other FA signings from last winter, are not on the roster. Roberts’ faith in Treinen seems a bit misguided–but Sheehan, Henriquez and Klein had put in a lot of work the night before.
So while Sasaki has moved into the closer role, there is still uncertainty about the set-up men.
Yes, the Dodgers now seem to need a big game from Snell and for the offense to come to like.
The series may be 2-2, but no matter what the series will be heading back to Toronto.
Advantage Blue Jays.
Seems like Roberts…. or is it the front office? the brain trust?…. is considering benching Pages.
Edman would play CF and Rojas 2B.
Or perhaps Kike could shift to CF and Call could play LF.
A terrible time, of course, for Pages to be slumping.
Almost makes me wish that Conforto made the roster….
Almost.
The veteran Snell versus the rookie Yesavage. Should be interesting.
No sole factors Duke. Lots of people in the decision making process, but the final call is Roberts’
I for one am definitely not blaming Doc on the loss on the fact that the Dodgers players are not producing. Mookie, Max and Pages are not hitting the ball hard, mainly just pop ups.
The players are the factor here!
So unless they start taking better at-bats and producing the Jays will win.
That said, I do think Doc has given as many chances as the team can afford now to see if Treinan can perform – 6-hits in 9-batters is enough for any eye test. That doesn’t even take in account the past 6-weeks of failures.
The Dodger lose last night no matter Treinan’s performance, however, he did make it harder to even have a chance.
watching the game last night was painful. the lineup was pretty much a wet dish cloth. The bullpen was pretty much the same as we feared. ( not like mondays performance). Series ain’t over just yet! ohtani pitched absolutely well enough to get a win. Especially considering he was looking exhausted. Banda tried to impersonate Vesia, but he’s just not the same pitcher pitcher vesia is. i’m not going to criticize trienan or doc for his performance, no need to. one run ain’t going to beat the jays! A win tonight and we have Yamamoto for game 6, so it’s far from over. As Mr. Bluto said earlier, baseball is a hard game. The Jays made it look easier last night. Give Bieber credit. He was ok last night, not great, but ok. The dodgers lineup made him look better than he really was. ohtani was good. he hung a breaking ball to vlad. and got burned. But that wasn’t what beat the dodgers. the lack of offense was the culprit. Going forward, is this what they will look like next year and beyond? Scoring runs in bunches and then going silent for periods. They have been pretty much silent since the playoffs started. i’m not criticizing anyone, just pointing out facts. Mookie hit the ball hard a couple of times last night, so maybe he’s ready to break out. it’s not over by any means! but a win is crucial today! Let’s hope the bats wake up today!
Blake Treinen should not have even been on the WS Roster based on his on-field performance in almost every game he has appeared since September. 2 games in a row he was sent out there and blew the place up. Tanner Scott looks like Steve Carlton compared to Blake. What the hell happened to Casparius?
Time for some hitters to choke up and poke the other way. Too much pull and too much lift. It’s not the Dodgers way, but in this situation, guys like Pages, Kiki and hell maybe even Mookie should give it a try. It is desperation time with the sticks.
Amen! Time to ride Snell and Yamamoto, best 2 out of 3.
I know that in the analytics era data is king and that the front office has info it sends to Roberts but he has consistently said that he makes the decisions about things like bullpen useage. It might be a shared decision but you know that Roberts is the one who decides when to pull a pitcher and who to bring in, and how long they stay once they are in.
He trusts Treinen even though the data says he shouldn’t. He has his “trust tree” and Blake is still near the top. It’s likely based on years of experience and not as much on the more recent past.
The Dodgers’ offense has been hit and miss all postseason. It’s not just Pages. Roberts can’t just play different guys or roll out a different batting order. Mookie has to hit like Mookie – same with Freddie, Max, etc. The Dodgers can win with great starting pitching, but need their stars to play like stars. So much for flipping the switch. (And where has October Kike gone?)
Dodgers had better start thinking small because thinking big ain’t adjusting to the situation at face. Just put the damn ball in play and maybe avoid empty bases when hitters come to bat with 2 outs. The team didn’t look like the World Series is at stake and trying for too much is too expensive. We do have hitters but where’s the RBI’s? The weather sin’t allowing HR’s Their pitchers ain’t giving walks…………aw shit, I don’t have the answer, I’m just not happy losing or even facing that threat. Please Dodgers don’t let it slip through your fingers……. Okay, I feel a little better now.
Back in the day we were taught that on the first pitch “one spot and one speed.” If those two things were in sync we were to swing. Same with 2-1 and 3-1 pitches. A few of us that practiced this was given the green light on 3-0. When coaching something that would upset me is when the hitter checked his swing on any of the above counts. You can’t let the pitcher get ahead of you in the count by throwing cookies. We talk about situational hitting, in reality, it’s all situational hitting but sometimes it’s not hitting behind a runner or something it that nature. Just my two cents.
Yeah, that’s not Major League Baseball, John.
I was coached by professional player. He never made to the MLB but it wasn’t because he couldn’t hit.
But baseball is different now. Get him on, get him over and get him in, is gone. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing but the theory of hitting has changed.
That was point
No blame necessary. We are playing the best team besides the Dodgers
Their pitching is very good and their offense is powerful. Their defense is superior to ours
We just have to play better.
Hitters got to step up.
All we need is 2 more wins.
8:00 PM ET FOX
Blue Jays (94-68) WS (2-2)
Dodgers (93-69) WS (2-2)
SP Trey Yesavage R
1-0 3.21 ERA
SP Blake Snell L
5-4 2.35 ERA
Confirmed Lineup
DH S. Ohtani L
C Will Smith R
SS Mookie Betts R
1B F. Freeman L
RF T. Hernandez R
2B Tommy Edman S
3B Max Muncy L
CF E. Hernandez R
LF Alex Call R
86° Wind 7 mph L-R
NO Andy Pages
From The Mountainmover:
“No Mountains can be moved…
Until you…
Know Mountains can be moved!”
I don’t think we have to move mountains. Just need players to perform.
Just need 2 more wins
Blake Treinen is broken whether is be physically or mentally he’s broken. Ray Charles could see it. I tend to think it’s physically. He looks like a guy pitching injured and is trying to tough it out.
… and they owe him $12 Mil next year!
I wouldn’t be shocked if we find out immediately after the season that he needs surgery
Second-guessers are experts, and I don’t like to blame Roberts, but in yesterday’s game I would have used Kershaw, and I would have played the entire bench to give the starters a rest after such a long game and to give Othani, Smith, and the rest of the veteran players a break. Yesterday they looked tired, dead, lacking enthusiasm, energy, and urgency. But in the end, it’s just my opinion, which doesn’t matter, but I think it was a mistake, and in today’s game they look the same. The bats aren’t working, the defense isn’t working, and Snell doesn’t seem as dominant. They should have used Snell and Yamamoto in Toronto.
https://x.com/ChadMoriyama/status/1983706388292628760
I haven’t said this in a long time, but the game is over.
It seems they ran out of steam just before crossing the finish line; they’re back to being the same mediocre team they were two months ago.
hitters cant hit and relievers provide no relief
I would have liked to see Clayton pitch the last two innings.
Toronto is giving the Dodgers a masterclass in baseball
the blue jays just refuse to co-operate.
our bats went cold at the wrong time.
the bull-pen went back to being what they’ve been…a blown lead waiting to happen.
i hate it.
but there’s 2 games left and moto is back on the mound for game 6.
we need some dodger magic.
That’s exactly it.
THIS GAME WAS LOST 3 PITCHES INTO THE GAME! At least we now have road field advantage from here on. I like our chances
Looking forward to game 7 for all the marbles
Stuff for later.
If the Doyers let Teo sniff right field next year they are effing crazy.
Can we use 2 DHs?
Team looks old and tired!
1 day to rest. I wouldn’t expect a 3 peat for Yamo. So hitters got to figure it out.
Yall can quit on this team. I WONT.
Yama tomorrow and game 7 anything can happen.
Heart of a Champion!