This Team is Better Than This!

Posted By on October 15, 2024

Let me be very clear about this: It was one game, and we should not be surprised that on this team, everyone hits or no one hits. Yesterday, the bottom of the lineup, led by Tommy Edman, got all five Dodger hits (and drove in three runs), while the vaunted top of the order took a collar! Just so that we are very clear, Shohei Ohtani, Mookies, Betts, Teoscar Hernandez, Freddie Freeman, and Will Smith were a combined ZERO for 19! All five of those players have been All-Stars, and three have been MVP’s. They couldn’t have played in a girl’s slow-pitch softball game yesterday!

You can spin it any way you want, but they all signed contracts worth a combined 1.5 Billion, and all we get from them is 0 for 19. I am disgusted! It’s only one game, but play with some urgency EVERY DAMN GAME!

The top five hitters in this lineup are the best in baseball, but they do not show up. Yeah, Landon Knack was bad… but give him another chance. He will re-deems himself. However, the Five Superstars at the top of the Dodger lineup were chumps yesterday. They had better get mad about it and come out breathing fire, or the Mets might clean their clocks. It’s one thing to lose. It’s another thing to get embarrassed! Frankly, I am ashamed of Ohtani, Betts, Teoscar, Freddie, and Will! Maybe Freddie gets a pass because he is playing on one leg, but the others are playing soft! There are no excuses! Get it done, or go home… you are the chumps who failed the past three years!

What I consider great news is that Clayton Kershaw says he wants to pitch next season. I assume that will be with the Dodgers. The rotation could look very different next season as they go with a six-man rotation:

  1. Yamamoto
  2. Glasnow
  3. Ohtani
  4. Kershaw
  5. May
  6. Gonsolin
  7. Miller
  8. Sheehan (2nd half)
  9. Knack
  10. Wrobleski
  11. Buehler (Maybe)
  12. Flaherty (we will see)

That’s a lot of starters for six spots, and BTW, the Dodgers will begin to revamp their pitching development process. I’ll write about this after the World Series.

Brent Honeywell doesn’t have a lot of swing-and-miss, but man-o-man, he has been effective!

I have heard some morons say that they expect Tyler Glasnow to have TJ Surgery. If the Dodgers thought there was a chance of that, they would do it now rather than wait. I am sure that they have checked his arms out six weeks to Sunday. It would really be dumb otherwise. At any rate, I think the Dodgers will officially adopt a six-man rotation next year and also eliminate bullpen games to take the stress off the pen.

Now, they have a NLCS to win!

X-CITES

This article has 22 Comments

  2. Mark, I’ll buy you a beer if May starts another game for us.

    I thought we made an unforced error with the Knack bulk game. Need to get it back tomorrow with a clean focused attack like we had in G4.

    Happy that Kershaw will be back. We need to sign 2-3 one-year SPs on modest contracts for depth. It’s time for youth to he served.

  3. Best of 5 now. Lets go!!!!
    I read on the other site where some were critical of not putting our best guys in after Knack. As if DOC gave up. HUH! Seems to me they did great. One run last 6 innings

      1. And also what a ‘blunder’ by Doc going with Knack. Hey if he goes 3 innings without a run, Doc is a genius. It was also a mistake to go with Yamamoto. blah, blah blah. Kike didn’t miss by much. He was on the first pitch, but it was foul. He smoked that double play ball . If it was a dribbler we score another run.
        OK. move on

      2. Sounds like a baseball writer. I love the fact that they made us underdogs.
        Did you know an atom has 4 parts?
        Proton
        Electron
        Neutron
        Moron
        Book em

  5. There was a reason that in a short series, Roberts only let Knack pitch 1 inning in mop up duty. A dirty little secret is that Knack hasn’t pitched well all year with teams that are .500 or better. Against sub-.500 teams, he has a 3.64 ERA, a BAA of .182, an OPS against of .579, and has given up 5 HR in 156 batters faced.

    Against .500 or better, the numbers are 4.14 ERA, .265 BAA, .853 OPS against, and 9 HR in 130 batters faced.

    He just isn’t good against better teams/hitters.

    In a short series, the Dodgers couldn’t afford to let him go. In a longer series, they didn’t have a choice because the bullpen would be exhausted otherwise and they needed innings.

    The plan didn’t work, but Honeywell, who has been surprisingly good all season long. saved the day for the Dodgers.

    The Dodgers will take 2 of 3 from the Mets in NY. They should have Buehler, Yamamoto, and Flaherty going.

    Game 6 will be another bullpen game, but I would like to see Honeywell get the bulk innings this time instead of Knack. Game 7 will be Buehler (yikes!)

    1. Just gotta hit. We hit we win, simple for me.

      Mets pen looks very shaky to me and their defense is just plain awful.

      We are the better team, the better team doesnt always win; but ill take the better team 10 times out of 10.

  6. Again back to the same topic about Kershaw. No more, no more Kershaw, you should not depend on him anymore, if you want to bring him back, fine, but don’t consider him as a starter because he is not the same anymore. And in fact he has never been a major factor or a decisive factor in the playoffs. Maybe a game or two, like any other pitcher of any other team in any other season, but nothing more, and it is definitely not necessary to win in the regular season. Enough Clayton, enough is enough, retire and enjoy your family, and let the front office focus on finding a pitcher who can help more, in season and most importantly, in playoffs!

    You were the best, let us remember you as the greatest pitcher of all time, don’t expose yourself to another playoff failure.

    2. I totally agree Kershaw has been elite over his career. However, at this stage of his career he is not very effective any more. Gives up to many HR’S and has no velo. Can’t pitch a half season any more why continue to pay such a high salary for no production?

      1. Kershaw has been injured for the past two years. He is signed for $5Mil next season, and with performance incentives, he could make $20 Mil. I hope he makes $20 Mil. I am going to say that whoever doesn’t think he can do it is out of their rabbit ass mind!

  7. maybe will smith is tired. he misses a lot of good pitches to hit. Give him rest day ?

    1. He’s getting a rest day…………………………today.

      Ironically Barnes had a higher batting average and OBP this year than did Smith.
      Slugging is a different story, of course, with Will showing far more power.
      Where Smith has almost even splits this year, Barnes is hitting lefties much better.
      Maybe he’ll get a start in one of the three NY games, depending upon the starting pitchers.

      1. I have great hope for Hope. While De Paula is considered the best young hitting prospect, it’s not clear where he should play and may be best suited to play DH. But Hope can play anywhere in the OF. He seems to have surpassed first-round pick Kendall George (who I also like) on the path to Chavez Ravine.
        Hope is a top-tier athlete and former two-way player who the Dodgers coveted in the draft. Power, speed, a great arm…. Even though he and Ferris aren’t really close to the majors, getting that pair for Michael Busch already seems like a great win-win deal.

        It was nice to hear that Kershaw will be back for ’25, and maybe the six-man rotation will help keep him healthy. Unlike his peers Verlander and Scherzer, Kershaw has not tried to milk the MLB system for every dollar. I don’t fault those guys for their mercenary ways, but we Dodgers fans can be grateful that Kershaw, whatever his reasons, has a different approach.

        I think we can add another name to the ’25 rotation contenders: Nick Frasso. He should be back from injury, right? Or maybe he’ll be delayed like Sheehan.
        If Flaherty proves to be an October hero, the Dodgers will surely bring the LA boy back long-term, right? I’m rooting for Buehler to be a hero too, of course… but maybe he’d merit a one-year “prove it” deal.
        And then there the other free agents to consider, like Sasaki, Burnes and Flaherty’s high school teammate Max Fried.
        Worth noting: Burnes has been a remarkably durable ace-quality pitcher throughout his career. There are no guarantees, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a pitcher who can’t be described as “injury-prone”?

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