You Don t Always Play to Win the Game

So, if you listen to the Herm Edwards, you would always play to win the game. Well, that might be true in a 16 game football season, but I am going to suggest that while you don’t ever play to lose, in a baseball season that is 10 times longer than a football season, there are reasons you don’t always play to win the game.

“Sometimes we need to lose the small battles in order to win the war.” — Sun Tzu, The Art of War

There are several reasons you may not always play to win the game:

1. You are saving some players to fight another day. As an example, I am sure that Justin Turner and David Freese could have played last night, but the Dodgers want them to be as healthy as possible for the playoffs. Freese is the biggest issue as I suspect his knee is a lot worse than we know. That’s why he will rest 2 or 3 days between starts. I suspect that come playoff time, he will get an injection and play through the pain, but playing him now is just felony stupid. Let him stay sharp – the Dodgers need him for the playoffs. As fans, we don’t have access to injury issues: the Dodger won’t disclose them (and shouldn’t) and we simply have no clue, so when you continually question why certain players are not playing or why the Dodgers even have certain players (Gyorko, Negron) you brand yourself as a rank novice. You might as well tattoo it on your forehead.
2. You deliberately want to mislead the competition. This is an area that really can’t be quantified, but I suspect that in 2019, the Dodgers will engage in it more than any other team. No one will talk about such a thing, but I believe that certain pitching patterns, substitution patterns and even hitting patterns will deliberately be changed for the playoffs. When you want to win the war, you can afford to lose some battles. Let’s pick a pitcher, any pitcher: Clayton Kershaw. I think that in these upcoming playoff games, you will see him vary certain patterns of pitching. Advance scouting may say that on a 3-2 count to a lefthander he always throws a fastball, but in the playoffs that could be a backdoor slider or a curve. I am not talking about huge changes, but rather, subtle changes that can have big effects. I’m not suggesting that other teams won’t do the same – I just think the Dodgers brass is all in on some deception, right about now.
3. You want to help certain players get their mojo back. The classic examples of this are Chris Tayor, Corey Seager, Joc Pederson, and Kike Hernandez. To win a championship, all four need to be clicking on all cylinders. All three of these players are “rhythm” players, meaning that they need to play a lot to get the “feel” for their game. This is especially true with the “excitable” Kike Hernandez – you have to play him enough so that he doesn’t try and hit 8-run homers. Add in the fact that he is excellent defensively anywhere he plays and you understand why Doc keeps rolling him out. This is also true with the pitchers. Many of you wanted to dump Caleb Ferguson and Yimi Garcia, but both have an excellent chance of being on the playoff roster.
4. You want to see how certain players perform in certain spots. This includes letting Joc hit against some LHP and having Dustin May pitch in relief. Again, many Dodger fans were eager to dump May after he got bombed a few days ago, but he has shown he can be a viable option out of the pen. Dave Roberts will be doing a lot of this in the weeks ahead.

It’s more important to have the team ready than to have the best record, but of course, it would be nice to have both. Now that Dave Roberts has become the first and only manager to win a division Championship in all of his 4 years of managing to give him a large degree of credibility that very few managers have. I’m glad Dave Roberts is managing this team.

Injury News

• Rich Hill – I think the best-case scenario is that he can pitch an inning of relief here and there. Worst case is that his season was over. It’s too bad because his stuff was filthy early in the game. His fastball was hitting 93 MPH and his curve was devastating until his knee would not allow him to throw properly. Never count him out, however!
• Justin Turner – He had an MRI and it showed just a sprain. He might pinch-hit a little but he’s likely to sit for a few days.
• Max Muncy – He’s due back today and that will be a big boost. The team is excited to have Mad Max back.
• Scott Alexander – He was already out for the year, but had surgery to relieve nerve pain in his left arm. I still look for him to fulfill the promise I saw in him when he was acquired. Maybe next year…
• Alex Verdugo – He may go back to baseball activities this weekend, but his lower back has been the issue. He may need to pull a Clayton and Corey and go off dairy and rehab it this winter.

Next, it is three with the Mets and two off-days next week. The team can use it. Kershaw and Thor tonight…