Whenever a statement can be debated, whenever the observations or assessments are laced with personal interpretations and not based on facts, then we can say that the statement is subjective in nature. Objective means making an unbiased, balanced observation based on facts that can be verified. A statement or assessment is said to be objective when it can be verified and it does not have any interpretations based on the emotions of a person.
If some of you recommended a stock, I would absolutely short it because your opinions are driven by emotion. On any given day, you have wanted to get rid of about every player on the Dodgers, not realizing that baseball is a long, strange, funny season. Instead, I hear this kind of stuff on an everyday basis:
- “Freddie is in decline.“
- “Mookie should go back to RF.”
- “Vesia should be gone.”
- “Ramirez should be DFA’ed.”
- “Grove is just trade bait.“
- “Rojas can’t hit.“
- “The Dodgers signed the wrong Japanese pitcher.“
- “Kike needs to be traded.”
- “Kershaw should not be on the playoff roster.”
- “Roberts can’t manage.“
- “Teoscar should platoon.”
- Yada, Yada, Yada…. as the BS spews out of your keyboards!
Do You Understand Why You are Called Morons on Other Boards?
Objective vs. Subjective:
When you criticize a player or a manager, or even a team president, what you say is generally clouded with emotion, which blinds you to the facts. However, the fact of the matter is that most baseball decisions are subjective. As an example, it took some balls for Dave Roberts to bring in Yohan Ramirez to save the game. Remember him? He’s the guy that someone said should never throw another pitch for the Dodgers after his first outing. Doc had to find out how he would react in such a situation. Pretty damn good, I would say. By the way, I said that I would have left Paxton in the last game to save the bullpen and last night. the Dodgers demonstrated why that is really a thing. They almost ran out of pitchers. Many of you have no clue. Did I hurt your feelings? Sorry, Then take your keyboard and go home or man up and quit acting like a dumbass. Can you just stop the knee-jerk reactions and act like you have a modicum of understanding? This is a long season. Baseball is a funny game. What makes you cry will make you laugh!
Every damn year we go through this, and just about everyone laments how bad the Dodgers are, and they still win 100 games. No, they have not won the World Series every year, and under the new format, no one will. Those days are over, and they are not coming back, and no matter how hard you wish for it, Rob Manfred and MLB will not change the playoffs so that the Dodgers can win easily!
Last year, Marcel Ozuna of the Braves batted .085 in April. This year, in the same month, he batted .327 with a .400 OB% and a 1.036 OPS. He’s the same age as CT3, but right about now, he is playing like an All-Star. Sometimes you have to wait for good things to happen.
Last Night’s Game Was Like a Prizefight
The Dodgers and Yankees pitchers were throwing darts, and the Dodgers prevailed in 11 on a TKO. What does it all mean? It’s one game. The Dodgers did not hit, and neither did the Yankees. The Yankees are off to a great start, but their new pitchers have been “otherworldly,” and that is not sustainable. Their bullpen has four Dodgers castoffs: Santana, Kahnle, Ferguson, and V-Gon. Stanton will go on the IL soon enough. Rizzo’s best days are in the rearview mirror. Grisham is a DFA waiting, and LeMahiru needs to retire. Do you think the Dodgers have a bad bench? Try Trammell, Jones, Grisham, and Smith.
The Dodgers have too much depth on both sides of the ball. AF will make changes that are warranted. Vargas will get a chance, Outman will be back, and I think Lipcius will also get a shot. Patience… and take a dose of objectivity – also try to look at the big picture.
ok mark i am one of the dumdasses you pointed out! I didn’t ever want to see Ramirez wearing blue again!! But as everyone says it’s EARLY!! (he looked filthy last night!). Yamamoto was outstanding!! Of course the yankees fans will scream no Soto!! Well we had no Muncey!!! Little different player but still a major part of the dodgers. Bullpen again was nails! if Barnes is going to catch a game in this series, shouldn’t it be today? Especially since Will caught 11 innings last night. Please Doc, No Taylor today !! It would be nice to get today’s game, but please not taylor and barnes, and kiki all playing together!!! Gavin Stone can tighten his grip on the number 3 spot. in the rotation with a strong performance. He continues to pitch like he has, no way he ever goes back to the bullpen!!
From an objective standpoint our bottom of the lineup is one of the worst hitting in the league. This is a fact not subjective. Will that change? With Taylor trending the wrong way for 2 years, Kiké ave at best, lux no sign right now n platoon guy, Barnes no, Rojas hitting over his head, pages n Vargas who knows. Even if the bottom gets better is the upside enough? Except for pages and Vargas the rest have a track record so we shall c. I think we need another hitter (subjective) because the results are not in.
Any way great to c the Dodgers win last night. Yamamoto was super. Playoff type atmosphere where the Dodgers have pitching this year but the offense absent . Playoff pitching will slow the offense but it shouldn’t be dismal. Looking forward I would target offensive improvement based on the weakness at the bottom based on the stats.
But thank you for explaining what objective and subjective means. I thought u were Bluto for a minute. I just don’t understand why somebody posting a subjective or objective post sends some people into a condescending personal attack. Is there a rubric for posting?
No one who states an opinion should be called a Moron on this site or any site. We are all privileged to that right under the First Amendment. There is no need to belittle someone just to make a counterpoint.
Well said. AVF. Agree 100 percent.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
not sure how the first amendment applies to a Dodger blog, but sure.
The protection of freedom of speech verbally or in writing without being harassed (called a moron).
That’s not what freedom of speech is.
In fact freedom of speech gives people the right to harass others.
There is some law and policy that makes it more questionable when it comes to protected classes, but that’s pretty specific and well beyond most of our paygrades.
Right On AVF!
Are you addressing the author of the Book of Moron? ( I would argue that the First Amendment doesn’t protect anybody from being called a moron–but common courtesy should.)
Mark has always been, will always be, the proverbial kettle that accuses the pot of being black. He seems blind to his own hypocrisy.
He is, remember, the guy who insists he has no favorites–yet has always seen the glorious upside in his beloved Miguel Vargas while finding fault in his peers. There are many examples of this. A favorite was Mark praising Miguelito for “stellar” defense at 2B while no less than Dave Roberts, asked directly about Vargas’s D, paused and said it was “OK.” D amning with faint praise. Now we know that the Dodgers no longer trust Vargas to play infield–and Mark oddly suggests that Miguelito’s long legs and arms are the reason why he is best suited for the outfield.
I could go on…. and on…. and on….
OK, just one more example: When Outman slumped last season, Mark likened Outman to the losing Hare in Aesop’s fable, and Miguelito to the winning Tortoise. By the season’s end, Outman finished 3rd in ROY voting, while –Vargas finished in OKC. (Ironically, Outman is in OKC now–and raking–while Vargas is back in the majors now, but not seeing much action. Why did Chris Taylor start today? Oh, anybody else notice that the Yankees also played Jahmai Jones, who was in the Dodgers spring training in ’23 and might have competed for the 2B job if the brass hadn’t foolishly reserved it for Vargas.)
I appreciate the rare occasion when Mark calls himself on his own faulty judgments. More often, he criticizes others and praises himself when he gets it right.
To his credit, Mark had long been adamant that Lux should not be playing SS. This was not an unusual perspective–Lux didn’t dazzle when he filled in for Seager as a rookie–yet AF and the Dodger brass seemed as stubborn about Lux as Mark is about Vargas. In retrospect, it’s mindboggling that, heading into ’23, the vaunted Dodger brain trust had convinced itself that Lux-Vargas would be a winning keystone duo. Now these same brains figure Lux is a second baseman and Vargas a left fielder.
It really shouldn’t have taken so much trial-and-error to figure this stuff out.
Anyway, another nice win today against the Soto-less Yankees. Teoscar was, again, the big star, but let’s not forget Stone’s gritty outing.
Francys Romero
@francysromeroFR
The Los Angeles Dodgers will sign Taiwanese OF Ko Ching-Hsien (17) for around $700,000 bonus, sources confirm.The official signing will be in the next few days.
Hsien is an athletic and multi-tools outfielder who shined at the last World U-18 with .550 AVG, 1 HR, 4 RBI.
Once the deal becomes official, it is expected that the Dodgers will have $3,152,500 remaining in their international signing bonus pool, which is a sizable amount. This is an important fact to consider with the Dodgers’ interest in Japanese pitcher Rōki Sasaki.
I want Sasaki . His stuff is on par with Skenes. Maybe better.
Next years rotation could be the best ever from top to bottom: Glasnow.Yoshi.Ohtani.Sasaki.Miller. With Stone/Kershaw/Sheehan providing depth and competion.
I do not see Buehler returning.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin
The comparison between Ozuna and CT3 is not a good one. CT3 is slumping for over 1.5 years now, Ozuna had a bad month a year ago.
And it is also a fact that we have a lot of weak bats on the roster who are collectively not hitting: Barnes, CT3, Kike, Lux. That is four guys out of 13 . The jury still out on Pages and Vargas with heyward just returning from the IL.
That is a lot of question marks. Objectively viewed.
Yamamoto was fantastic last night. True ace performance with ace stuff. I will call him Yoshi from now on.:-)
Ramirez has filthy stuff when he is on. IMHO that was among Docs best managerial moves when he hugged him in Cincy on the mound. LOoks like that turned Ramirez season around. Maybe his career. Got to give credit when credit is due.
I hate that they mic up players. That error on Kike was the final straw for me. And what was all that cable hanging off of Kike ? From Apple? Apple? Got to be kidding me.
Bobby Miller looked fine yesterday, not very good but fine. Velo is almost fully back. I can see the Dodgers go with a 6th men rotation when he comes back.
dePaula and Joendry Vargas have not played in a couple days with their teams. Anything wrong with them or just rest?
Absolutely right about Roberts handling of Ramirez. Would love to know what he told him. How many managers would have done that vs just pull him from the game. Roberts gets a lot of grief from fans related to his handling of the bullpen, some justified. But on that day and his handling of the game last night was spot on.
We’re duelin’
oh by the way Mark, a few weeks ago i said Luis Arraez would be hitting over .300 by the all star break. you wanted to bet me he wouldn’t!! He’s around .330 with 89 hits. no. power and not great defensively, but wouldn’t he look good batting 8th in dodgers lineup?? Even dumbasses are right. every blue moon!! lol
I am not always right, but I play the long game and know results are not linear. I also don’t think CT3 will recover… but I have been wrong before.
Even smart people make moronic decisions based upon emotion and not logic.
I know Mark it just couldn’t be better. Everything is so rosy. Roberts is the greatest manager ever. Freidmen is a genius and how dare anyone second guess the brilliant way dodgers do things. I can’t comprehend how we haven’t won ten titles in a row other than them other teams must be getting really lucky
English is not your main language is it?
Or is it just a lack of comprehension?
Or both?
I said nothing of the sort and when you come back with what you just wrote, you really look stupid!
Free country you can question all you want. And any of us that want to question why you who subjectively makes statements because he doesn’t have all the information thinks he’s got something up on those who are making objective decisions
based on having 10 times the
amount of information to go by then you do are also free to question. So there’s that.
You’re pretty close 90% of the time!!
And right on the other 30%
Great performance by Yamamoto and big win by the Dodgers!
Yamamoto lived up to his reputation and was fantastic!
I questioned paying Yoshi more than any pitcher in MLB history, and I still question the money paid to him. If he can pitch like last night for the next 12 years, then I will be proven wrong. It won’t be the first time one of my opinions is wrong, but baseball blogs are about sharing thoughts and opinions.
The game last night was a classic baseball game between two of the best teams in baseball. Regular season baseball does not get much better than a tense 2-1 game over 11 innings. Every pitch and every play were meaningful until the last out. Yamamoto was the star for the Dodgers, but the bullpen was also fantastic.
After an epic ball game, Mark decided to write an arrogant column with an air of superiority. He spends a lot of time and money to run the blog and has every right to call us morons because our opinions differ from his. Mark has made some bad predictions in his time just like the rest of us. The 11 comments cited by Mark as BS may turn out to be wrong, but none of them were extremely crazy or moronic in my view. In fact, I made a few of them myself. My summary of the column is: your comment is objective if you agree with Mark, and it is subjective and moronic if you disagree with Mark.
If anyone is displaying arrogance, it is you, Little Boy!
I did not call anyone a moron, but I will change my stance and anoint you the head moron!
Isn’t that supposed to to be written “headmoron”?
Very nice competitive win last night.
Love over pitching and what we have on the IR coming back over the next few months.
After this series it’s time to clean up the bench.
Try a couple of the hardworking, overachievers eager to prove they are not just good AAAA players.
6-7 weeks before the trade deadline is just about enough time to get these guys enough at-bats to prove they belong or demonstrate enough to add value to a trade, or are just AAAA pieces.
Free up 2-4 (40 man) roster spots depending who you would like to bring up.
Lipcius/ Gauthier/ Owings/ Hoese or Feduccia (on 40)
Outman (another shot)
Barnes’s (IR) finger nail is acting up per an undisclosed report from Ladodgertalk .
Send down Lux and good by to Taylor and Kike
You can also easily replace (on 40 man)
Gus Varland and maybe J.P. Feyereisen if needed
I would keep AAA relief picture Ricky Vanasco if he can gain some control, I like his stuff.
Go Dodgers!!
Feyereisen is getting lit up at AAA. His ERA there is close to 9. I don’t think he will be of much help soon. Hurt on the other hand, when healthy, could be a useful addition to the pen. But the pen has had the top ERA in the league over the last two months. Offense not being consistent is the big problem.
Oh no. Mark or Bluto thinks I’m a moron. I don’t think I can ever post again! Oh well. My point with Teoscar is that we need to get more AB’s for Vargas and see what we have with him. If it’s at the expense of Heyward or Hernandez right now, then so be it. We could win the West if I batted ninth. I have no idea what the Dodgers are doing with Vargas. They profess that he’s an elite hitter, then let him prove it. One out of three games isn’t giving him a shot. At least make the OF a four man rotation and play him regularly for a couple of months. Then you know by the deadline what you have and what you need.
Right or wrong it seems he’s platooning with Heyward.
Many times the Dodgers hierarchy contradicts what they say they believe with what they actually do.
What they’ve been doing with Vargas exemplifies one of those times.
Nobody has pushed Vrgas more than I have, but if the Dodgers are slow-walking him, it might be for a reason. I just can’t figure it out.
Sure, we can speculate on “if’s” and “might’s”..but the certainties of what’s been said and done are presently clear.
This is not correct. When Vargas came up, it was spoken about completely different than when pages did. Pages was going to be playing every day and Roberts was clear about this. When Vargas came up, it was clear that he would not play every day and that he would only be used sparingly.
I concede to your point, but nevertheless, it’s now clear what the Dodgers really think of Vargas with the “sparing” way they’ve played him.
For the most part, I try (and this I’m successful) to only call statements moronic.
Never people.
The more baseball i watch the more i want to turn the sound down and watch it muted!! Does every single play require the announcer to scream? It’s become unwatchable!! trying to watch college baseball and it’s just as bad!! Just recently lost MLB. network on my cable provider. At first i was pissed, but it had gotten so silly it was like ESPN! Anybody got any suggestions on cable replacement? Paying out the a** and nothing worth watching!!
Why don’t you just stream MLB? I mean most games are going to have the Sportsnet LA dodgers announcers nothing you can do about that. You will miss the ESPN games and Apple TV. For Apple TV. I’ve decided to get a bunch of free email accounts. I’d already use mine so I use my wifes last night and it worked just fine.
But I wanna be head moron please can I
You have to apply for the position.
That is a very worthy watch!
Casey says the rumor is that the White Sox want Rushing, DePaula, and Knack for Robert, Jr.
For the record, I would do that.
I’d roll the dice on it too. I’m not as concerned about Robert’s injury history as long as AF gets “word” that Luis would comport himself differently playing for the Dodgers rather than playing for the nightmare called the WS. Is Luis’ heart and mind willing to adjust to this night ‘n day difference? If so, then Robert would be a star for the Dodgers.
Me too, but I’d try to get them off DePaula if possible.
DePaula is 4 years away and he could be a star or a bust.
He has to be in it.
Hmm, I am torn. Robert jun. is a injury trainwreck which has to be considered and dePaula has superstar talent though 2-3 years away.
Tough decision.
Rushing, Knack and Outman for Robert jun. is what I would counter with. If they want more put in another lower level pitcher with upside. We have a lot of them.
In the end it will depend on how desperate the Dodgers are for an upgrade in their lineup come the trade deadline. In a perfect Dodgers world our problem childs start to hit and lessen the need for outside help.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Speaking of morons, who were the announcers in that hideous Apple game? Very annoying from what I’ve heard on the highlights. Pisses me off to have the game blacked out when I’m paying for the mlb.com pass. On the other hand, my brother-in-law, a Yankee fan, was still able to watch it from CT on the YES network on his cable. Crazy.
I’m from CT. and the YES broadcast last night with Michael Kay, Paul O’Neil and David Cone was insightful and very entertaining.
Muncy (oblique) has begun taking dry swings and doing plyo-ball workouts, Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register reports.
This is a step forward for Muncy, as he had previously been unable to swing a bat at all after continuing to experience soreness in his oblique. However, manager Dave Roberts said last week that the third baseman is on a “slow program,” so Muncy doesn’t appear to be particularly close to a return. He hasn’t played in a game since May 15 and will likely need to go on a rehab assignment before rejoining the big-league club.
I look for him in August.
Mark, I’ll be posting the lineup a little later today,but it will get done before game time.
Could we use Robert Jr in CF? Right now our CF’s hitting .539 OPS, second worse in MLB, with a -6 DRS! Ouch! I have no problem overpaying for him. We have a deep enough farm system. AF could easily put the best package together for him if he so wanted. Do it AF!
I worry about his injury history, but everything is a risk.
I worry more about our CF lack of production. If he was in his 30’s, I’d be more concerned, but he’s 26. Get him with the Dodger’s physio department and reap the rewards
Make it happen Andrew Friedman!!! Take a chance on Robert’s health history.
Here’s an easy way to see who has the weakest 6-9 Hitters:
Add their OPS together.
Tonight’s Dodger lineup (which AVF will post) and includes CT3 is 2369.
The Yankees is 2125… and they are allegedly the best team in baseball.
We’ll see about that!
Oh Mark,
Never take the easy way.
You realize that in this analysis that Miguel Rojas at a .790 OPS would have the 2nd highest OPS on the starting Yankees lineup tonight, only behind Judge.
The Dodgers should beat the Yankees by 2 touchdowns tonight
Go Dodgers !!
Winning by a touchdown and a two-point conversion is still pretty darn good
Soto not in the lineup which would take Grisham out who is hitting .190
But, I agree without Soto the Yankees have more outs in their lineup as do we without Muncy. But across the league we are very low in the 7,8 9. The stats are out there. The Yankees have some holes but judge and Soto have been great so far. Lemahiau just got back so he has very few plate appearances but he will probably be better than anybody we got down in the bottom. If u can neutralize judge and soto then volpe , stanton, rizzo, and lemay(short don’t know the spelling) are next who can do damage. The Yankees have gotten where they are with great starting pitching and judge and Soto being great. Their lineup is similar to ours but after the trade deadline we shall c. Also where the Dodgers fall short is hitting with runners in scoring position.
On another note Kiké was paid $10,000 to mic up. I don’t know if the team has any say in whether they do it or not. I did not like his attitude when asked if he would do it again after committing an error. He said yes I like money. I don’t think it should be allowed in the infield for sure. If he is serious about the money as a teammate that would burn me. I am not against anybody making money but that is ridiculous. In the playoffs it’s 15,000$. Trade him.
BTW, I never called anyone a moron until the moronic comments.
Well I’m not the one who said Verdugo would be a batting champ
He still might be.
Subjective and therefore …….
….:or Andy Laroche was a can’t miss prospect.
I own that one.
I was totally wrong.
You don’t just have the First Amendment right to call people morons, but also the rude propensity to do so.
You are, of course, the author of the Book of Moron, a man who poses as the Great Sage of Baseball (“patience, Grasshoppers”) yet lacks the self-awareness of a true sage. You’d think that a philosopher king would recognize that it’s not cool for the proverbial kettle to accuse the pot of being black.
Opinions are fun. Subjectivity is OK. I don’t recall to old master in Kung Fu ever insulting anybody for their opinions.
Anyway, another nice win today over the Soto-lessYankees. Stone was gritty and Teoscar was clutch–again. But why did Chris Taylor get the start instead of Miguel Vargas?
Something’s gotta give….
My apologies for my redundancy.
I thought a previous post had been lost somehow, so I wanted to put my two cents in.
Did not mean to put in four.
7:35 PM ET
Dodgers (40-25)
Yankees (45-20)
SP Gavin Stone R
6-2 2.90 ERA
SP Nestor Cortes L
3-4 3.46 ERA
Confirmed Lineup
SS Mookie Betts R
DH S. Ohtani L
1B F. Freeman L
C Will Smith R
RF T. Hernandez R
CF Andy Pages R
2B Miguel Rojas R
3B E. Hernandez R
LF Chris Taylor R
77° Wind 10 mph Out
NO Vargas against a Left handed pitcher
So much for that theory.
He can’t catch a routine fly ball. That has to be the reason he is not in there. Subjectively, I would say they are working with him tirelessly to get him ready while picking their spots.
maybe Taylor plays tonight since ole Barnsie probably catching tomorrow ! still makes no sense at all!
Time to see if Gavin Stone is ready for the big moment
I guess the decision makers are going to keep putting Freddie and Ohtani back to back vs lefty starting pitching. Freddie’s hitting .230 while smith is over .400 or even teo who mashes lefties. But forget tonight it has been going on all year. Just doesn’t make sense. Late inning relievers, openers, all lefty and freeman can’t touch them. Ohtani not much better but he is holding his own.
Kike goes to short porch!!
1. The only reason I can think of for not playing Vargas against left handers is they don’t trust his defense and prefer Taylor’s glove to Vargas’ bat. I don’t agree if that is the call but they have far more information than I do. If this is the case then bring up Lipcius to play third and let Kike play left in a platoon. It is really hard to justify playing Taylor at this point given his performance the last 220 games.
2. I would probably be classified as hoarding prospects if I were a GM but I would not trade Rushing, DePaula, and Knack for Robert. He has averaged 92 games a year in four years prior to this and only 11 games this year. The injury history is a flashing red light. Rushing and Kackor better yet, look for a cheaper alternative.
3. Nice to see Ohtani shorten up and go the other way. That is a great approach compared to his approach these last fifteen games.
4. The Roberts mound trip to console Ramirez and boost his confidence is why the criticism of Roberts is tedious at times. I am pretty certain that is the tip of the iceberg in terms of how he relates to players and how he manages different egos and personalities.
5. Yamamoto’s outing last night should give Dodger fans hope that we have two really good starters to pitch games 1 and 2 in postseason series. Two of Buehler, Stone, Miller, and Kershaw (fingers crossed but not counting on it) look to be the most obvious candidates for games 3 and 4. He was everything he was cracked up to be.
In the past the Yankees have had a no facial hair policy.
I have not noticed any Yankee players with beards and only a couple with pussy bumpers.
Verdugo looks a lot better.
Huge! Vesia rescues Stone! Very nice performance by the young man. Kept his composure with a lot of soft contact hits.
Say what you want about some of docs decisions, but he has pulled all the right levers so far with the bullpen this series, vesia was a brass ball decision with the bases loaded and yankee stadium rocking. Proof that all Roberts can do is put these guys in situations he believes they can handle, totally up to the player to execute. About 50/50 sometimes with the bullpen. Box of chocolates.
Platoon that guy!!!!!!!!
Salami off a righty? Oh my.
Second that!!
Just amazing, all the hater trolls on the spectrum LA sites are crickets. Not a sound, 8-2 has a nice ring to it. They refuse to give Roberts any props when he puts a lineup out there that kicks ass in a crucial series or plugs in the pitching to shut down the Yankee threats. Fing pathetic. And I’m watching some of you keyboard cowboys on this site as well. Watch what you say when you throw out your haterade when things are going south for a bad stretch or two. Got a big ass bottle of ketchup for you to eat your crow with. Same doomsday crap was being vented about a month ago when the Braves came to town, and we all know how that turned out. Trust this team and the long game. And hey, Taylor got a hit!!
Yes
Still want Robert Jr
Prideful chest-thumping nonsense, Roberts alone doesn’t make the line-up.
Gotta question Mark, you ever notice on this site when the Dodgers win there are hardly any positive comments aside from good game and such. But when they lose the arm chair managers come out in force , first thing is fire Roberts, which as long as Freidman is in power, ain’t gonna happen, and also offer amazing hitting and lineup advice, even though nobody has even sniffed the big leagues. Trust the damn process! There is something about Doc, and a few guys on this site have pointed it out , that the players respect and love about him, ever notice you never notice anything toxic coming out of the clubhouse, and that s been for years! Yeah, he ain’t perfect , but he is a great fit for this team. And I’ve already noticed some of our so called ‘fans ‘ are saying the Yankees aren’t at full strength with Soto out, and I call BullShit. Nobody really talks about it, but Roggin and Rodney on AM 570 sportsnet LA had a great point the other day. Not having Muncy in the lineup has really impacted the offense. Yeah, his average isn’t the greatest, but he provided protection for Will Smith and also made the lineup way more dangerous, plus the dude is edgy, which is what we need . Always a threat to go yard, and he will be back . . So once again, back off everyone, we are still not even close to full strength yet, not even counting Kersh, Kelly, Miller, Graturol,
Nice win, 11 runs at Yankee Stadium and there was a truly post-season buzz in the stands. The game was on Fox, so we got Joe Davis and Smoltz. Pre-game crew featured two former Yankees, Jeter and Rodriguez, and Mookie’s old teammate, David Ortiz. I love Big Papi, but he is really hard to understand sometimes. But his short interview with Mookie was cool. As far as the Dodgers are concerned, all of the players in the starting lineup got hits. 5-9 drove in 8 of the 11 runs, but 1-4 scored 7 of them. So, this was a total team effort. Stone did a great job navigating the Yankee lineup. His only real mistake was Judge’s home run. He pitched out of a couple of jams and then was victimized by a couple of soft hits in the sixth. But Vesia got him out of that mess. Teoscar is now tied with Ohtani for the team lead in homers and is all alone at the top of the RBI list with 47. When asked about the lineup with Taylor in left, Roberts said he wanted his best defensive lineup out there. People call people names on the internet because they are invisible. There are no reprisals. You aren’t going to get punched in the mouth because you are not facing the person you are antagonizing. Most of my life, I have had a short fuse. Overcoming my bad temper was something I had to really work on. Now, I realize all that arguing is a total waste of energy. And I also realize from when I was writing for this site, you have a lot of people who are going to disagree with what you say. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Others are allowed to disagree with that opinion. What is moronic to some, makes perfect sense to someone else. Maybe they just could not express it in a way the other person understands. I am not always right, and I have no more information than any other fan. I never played beyond high school, or when I played ball all the time in the service. I love the games history, and I read an awful lot. What I can discern is trends by watching, and then going back and researching the history of what a certain GM< player or manager does. Freidman has made a ton of trades. He has pulled off a few blockbusters at the deadline. Most notably, the trades for Darvish, Machado, Scherzer and Turner. There was also the three-team trade that brought Latos, Morse, Avilan, Arroyo, Johnson, Peraza and Wood to LA in 2015. I understand why many want Robert Jr. He is a talented player. But his MO says that AF rarely trades for an impact bat at the deadline. Very rarely. Turner came to the Dodgers simply because LA was not going to send both Ruiz and Gray to the Nats for Scherzer. To get the deal done, they added Turner, and the Dodgers added two other minor leaguers. Machado would have never been a Dodger had there not been a need for a SS. But Seager was injured, and the Dodgers wanted a better option than Taylor and Kike who played 103 games there. Machado played 51 games there, and 16 at third. That is why I feel he won't trade for an impact bat, but someone who is more complementary and who is a more consistent contact hitter. Will it happen? Only AF knows what his strategy and approach to the deadline will be. And don't say, hey he traded for Betts. That was a winter deal.
My theory is that the Dodger brass have already decided that Vargas is no longer part of their long-term plans. If they still believed in Vargas that strongly, he’d be getting the starts that Taylor is getting.
Just a theory… but why isn’t Vargas playing? Why is Taylor, slumping so badly, getting more chances to get on track?
One reason is Taylor’s contract. Another is that Taylor is so much more versatile than Vargas.
It wouldn’t surprise me if both Vargas and Taylor both get dealt this summer. The Dodgers would have to eat most of Taylor’s contract to do so, but they might. Vargas should be much easier to deal.
The Dodgers have a commanding 8.5 game lead in the division, but they point to Vargas’ bad defense as to the reason they must instead play a guy at his position who sports a negative OPS+, and whose ship set sail eons ago.
That’s all one needs to know about what the Dodgers REALLY think of Vargas.
The Dodgers will attempt to move both Taylor and Vargas this summer.
If losses have NO negative connotations and don’t really matter because it’s “just June”…
then why project anything positive to “just-June wins?” Makes no sense.
So crowing about June wins (Roger askew), or despairing about June losses really makes no sense.
Kudos to Vesia for turning his fortunes around! He’s pitching even better than last year.